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Praise the Lord, and thank you very much for the wonderful worship. Thank you, Dr. Dockery, for the privilege to preach the word. May the Lord be glorified through the preaching of the word this morning. Please open your Bibles if you have your Bibles, even though we read the text. Please open your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 31. Today’s passage is from Jeremiah chapter 31. What some people call the apex of biblical theology, the mountain peak Old Testament passage. Let’s open our Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor, or and each his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Amen. Amen. Let’s pray. Thank you, Lord, again for this word, for this passage. Please again open our eyes, help us to see wonderful things from your word. And again, Lord, please edify your church and glorify your name and edify this congregation. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen, amen. Praise the Lord for this beautiful morning and for this beautiful passage. About 20 years ago, Jacob Needleman, I’m not sure if you heard about him, an American Jewish philosopher, published a book. It was titled “Why Can’t We Be Good.” If you think about it, you don’t have to read the book to realize that the book is simply saying there is something wrong with us, and we cannot be good, right? In fact, if you look on the cover of the book, it says the following about the book, as individuals, we know what is good, yet we remain mysteriously helpless to live by the ethical, moral, and religious ideas that we know. This is a wonderful insight from a secular philosopher. He’s a secular Jew, and it’s surprising, as you know, it’s very countercultural, because our culture usually says, “No, we know what to do. We are good. We just have to teach you what to do.” Of course, you know this this problem that Jacob Needleman saw about 20 years ago. It’s something that has been in the Bible for many, many years. In fact, many times when I read some of these books with the latest studies, I find a little bit funny, but at the same time a little bit tragic, because many times these people are people who sure know the Bible. This is a Jewish person, because the Bible many many years ago, you can go at the very beginning of the Bible is telling us that there is something wrong with us. In fact, you know sometimes when you have a debate with some Jewish people, they might say, “Well, we don’t believe in original sin like you Christians do.” Don’t believe that. In the book of Genesis, if you look at the very beginning of Genesis six, and there’s this concept in Jewish thinking about the yetzer rah, about this evil inclination. It’s right there in Genesis six, and it continues throughout the whole scripture. It’s found under different names. Moses, about 1000 years before Jeremiah, said that there’s something wrong with the heart that needs to be circumcised. He said your hearts are circumcised, and anywhere you go in the Bible, from Genesis, from Moses to Jeremiah, we find the same insight that exists there for 1000s of years. The book of Jeremiah especially talks about the stubbornness of the heart. There’s this expression about the stubbornness of the heart that appears once in Deuteronomy and about 10 times in the Bible. Eight times it’s in the book of Jeremiah.
In fact, much of the book of Jeremiah is telling us there is a problem with the heart. We could say it like in modern terms: the heart of the problem is the heart, and this is exactly what this passage is addressing. This is what the passage is addressing: the stubbornness of the heart. If you want to hear it in a in a different way, maybe in a more poetic way, turn with me to Jeremiah 13. This famous passage: Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard he spots? And of course, the answer is no. They can’t, right? It says, it says follow. Then it says, then also you can do good. Can you do good who are accustomed to do evil? Right. The heart is the problem of the heart. The heart of the problem is the heart. Now, this passage, which as I mentioned, is called the apex of biblical theology, a mountain peak Old Testament passage. Somebody said the climax of Jeremiah’s teachings, one of the deepest insights in the Old Testament, is addressing exactly this issue, and that’s why we want to look at this passage. But before we look at the passage, let me give you a little bit of a background about Jeremiah, his times, and the context of the passage, because Jeremiah, the person, is very much intimately bound with his message, and we all know many of these things. But let me just remind you: Jeremiah was called by God when he was very young, and his call is very important. If you turn with me just a few verses to at the beginning of the book, probably most of you remember his commission, right? This young man is possible that he was under 20, and is given a mission. And notice what it says in verse 10. It says six verbs that define the ministry of Jeremiah. It says here in verse 10, “I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. That was the kind of CV. Imagine applying for ministry today, and I put you on your CV. I came here to pluck and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, but I will also build and plant later, right? You can imagine that Jeremiah, this man of God, is proud of for God, was not very popular. In fact, if you read the book, most of the book, indeed, the first 25 chapters are chapters, and he really tears down everything that is sacred for the people of Israel. He tears down the temple, he tears down the covenant, he tears down the land, everything. He tears down the kingship, but he doesn’t tear them down because they are bad. He tears them down. That because they have become bad and they have become false safeties for these people, he loves the people, he loves the nation, he loves the temple. But the problem is with the corruption that exists in that particular society. We are in about 625. before Christ, it’s a major period of of change. The Syrian Empire is about to fade away. The Babylonians are about to rise. The Egyptians also are about to fade away, and most importantly, the temple is going to be destroyed soon. These are major problems, and in this context, God called Jeremiah, a young man who said that he cannot speak, and He tells him, “I want you to tear down, I want you to break down, I want you to pull out.” And again, of course, this is not very, very easy to do for anybody, but he’s somebody who listened to the voice of God. And notice what happens. What happens at one point after this happens, because, as you can imagine, he encountered very, very much opposition. So turn with me. Turn with me to to chapter. Turn me to chapter to chapter five, to chapter 12 actually to chapter 12, where this is something that really inspires me about Jeremiah, because Jeremiah for me is a is a beautiful example of a person who shows courage, who shows grit when God calls him. So one point after so much opposition, Jeremiah is complaining to God, and this chapter 12 is about complaining. But notice how God answers him.
So if you look with me in verse four, how long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither for the evil of those who dwell in it, and then notice how God answers in verse five. If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan. This is a very interesting, an interesting reply by God. Here Jeremiah, and he’s wearied by his ministry and what is happening. And God basically kind of tells him, “Hey, you know, you should man up.” We would say today, right? If you cannot run with horses. If you cannot run with men, how are you going to compete with horses? Don’t do that if your pastor comes to you because you’re not God. God knows Jeremiah. Many of these people who come this courage have to be encouraged, but God knows that Jeremiah. Jeremiah doesn’t answer in this passage, but I think Eugene Peterson is correct when he says the rest of the book shows us that Jeremiah decided to compete with horses. The rest of the book shows us that Jeremiah didn’t give up. The rest of the book shows us that Jeremiah decided not to live just in the places where there’s peace, but he decided to go into the thickets of Jordan to go into the jungles of Jordan, where, where the ministry was extremely difficult, right? Imagine that you are in the ministry and you pray to God, and God answers to you this way. But this is Jeremiah, and this is Jeremiah as a man with a lot of opposition, but is a lot a man who decides to compete with horses? Now, if we go a little bit further, we notice that things are getting even more difficult, and and some of you probably remember that famous chapter 20, which reminds us about Jeremiah as the weeping prophet, and he’s a weeping prophet not because he’s weak; he’s weeping because he loves, and many times his tears are mingled with the tears of God. But here again, it gets into a situation where he once he feels that God deceived him, and he’s the person who, in verse 14, curses the day on which he was born. There’s only one other person who cursed the day that he was born again? It’s Job, and we know the situation of Job. What kind of ministry could this person have? Could this prophet have if he had to? If he felt like cursing the day of his birth, and notice what it says at one point, he says he says at one point that he is full really of shame in verse verse 18? Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow and spend my days in shame? This is this is Jeremiah, Jeremiah, a man who is constantly opposed by his family, constantly opposed by priests, constantly opposed by the people around him, he curses the day of his birth, but he cannot stop preaching the message of God. Notice what it says in verse nine: If I say I will not mention him or speak any more in his name, there is in my heart, as it were, a burning fire shot up in my bones, and I’m weary with holding it, and I cannot. Some sometimes, if you want to define Jeremiah, you you may use various words, but at the most basic level, Jeremiah was simply a prophet of God. He was simply the mouth of God. He had no choice. He felt like he had no choice, and he was speaking. And and again, if we go a little bit further, because this is the most shocking one of the most shocking episodes in the book. Just to see again his opposition that he’s encountering in chapter 26, Jeremiah goes and speaks the word of God there, and what happens is very very surprising. And again, I want to show how much opposition. It’s not just the people in his village, and not just a few people. But notice what it says in in chapter 26, in verse eight.
It says, “And all the people, the people, all the people, the priests and the prophets, and all the people laid hold of him and saying, ‘You shall die,’ or probably the better translation is, ‘You must die. So imagine that you bring the message of the Lord, and the people and the priests and the prophets come to you and says, “You must die.” But again, this shows us in Jeremiah a man, a man, who somebody said his whole life was one wrong martyrdom, in shame, in opposition, but he keeps preaching the word of God. Jeremiah, I would say, is God grit, and and Jeremiah is somebody who loves his people so much, is so obedient to God, that no matter what, he keeps preaching the word that he was given. But now, if we look a little bit at the context, we notice that in this context, most of Jeremiah, in fact, the first 25 chapters are chapters indeed. They have to do with tearing down, with pulling out. Most of the chapters, the first 25 chapters, are chapters about judgment. It’s judgment because the people have rebelled against the Lord, because their heart, as we saw, was very stubborn, and more importantly, as we shall see a little bit further, because they broke the covenant with their God. However, something amazing happens in chapters 30 to 33, and this is where we’re going to be focusing on. After you read these first 25 chapters, in which there’s a lot of tear down, there’s very little hope, there’s a lot of judgment, there’s a lot of punishment that which is necessary because of the way the people lived. All of a sudden, in chapter 30 and 33, we got what is called the book of comfort, of the book of consolation, because this passage is going to teach us that despite the sins of the people, despite their rebellion, the God of the Bible and the God of Israel is a God of grace. One scholar puts it like this: “There is grace in the end.” And indeed, if you if you if you turn on me to chapter 30, you notice that from the very beginning in chapter 30, we notice that that something something beautiful happens here, even though even though the problem of Israel is a terminal condition. Again, in chapter 30 it says in verse 13, “Thus says the Lord, your hurt is incurable.” We would call that a terminal condition. Verse 15: Why do you cry over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. But despite the fact that the pain is incurable, what happens here is like a great reversal. Chapter 30 presents us with a great reversal. In fact, this even in the original, you find very much this word “shushavut” is repeated numerous times here. I’m going to reverse things, and I’m going to make things completely different. Notice in verse 18, in verse 17, and chapter 30, I will restore health to you. Here is Israel in an incurable situation; it’s an incurable wound, and nobody cares. But in this context, something amazing happens. There is somebody who cares, and the one who cares is the only one who has power. And it says, “I will restore health to you.” Verse 18: “I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob.” And this brings us to chapter 31, and in 31 something really amazing happens, because in chapter 31 there’s a series of of switching. Like if you look again, it’s a switching from masculine to feminine, from masculine to feminine, because Israel is addressed sometimes in the feminine, sometimes in the masculine. Sometimes Israel is addressed as a son, and sometimes Israel Israel is addressed like the wife of the Lord. And there is this switch in this passage to show us something amazing against that happens here. A great reversal. Israel, who has become a harlot, Israel, who has been committed idolatry and has broken the covenant and has left the Lord, now is called in this text Betula Israel. It’s translated in your Bible Maiden Israel, or you know Virgin Israel.
This woman, this nation, who has polluted herself throughout the book, and you can see that in the first part of the book with all kinds of sin and immorality and idolatry and injustice, in this passage in chapter 31, she’s called a major, and the rebellious son is called the beloved son, and God becomes the shepherd. This is the context in which we are. This is the context. This is something amazing that is happening here. It’s a book of comfort, and in this book of comfort, this book of comfort about which which comes from Jeremiah, most likely when he’s actually shut up in the court of the guard, so he’s in a difficult situation. But he has this beautiful message that he gives us. Jeremiah comes and tells us this beautiful passage. He says this: “Behold, the days are coming. Behold, the days are coming.” In other words, you know, and and the translation could be improved a little bit. It’s actually, behold, days are coming. It’s not the days, but days are coming. This is an expression that Jeremiah uses a few times. If you look actually at the bottom of at the bottom of of the page in 38, behold, days are coming. It’s an expression that Jeremiah uses and refers to a indefinite time in the future. We don’t know when these days are going to come, but they are going to come because notice what happens next. It says here, “Declares the Lord.” This is very very important. Here is Jeremiah, and almost every time he speaks the words of God, he says, declares the Lord, or thus says the Lord to remind us, this is the word of God. And here, what what is really sad about this? In fact, if you look at this passage, three times this expression is repeated, declares the Lord. What is sad about this, and here I think it’s always useful to read prophets against each other. It’s useful to read prophets against each other because Jeremiah is the prophet, the prophetic book, which is the longest among all the prophets. In fact, it’s the longest book in the Bible, and numerous times he says, “Declares the Lord, declares the Lord, declares the Lord.” In fact, 167 times he uses this expression more than anybody else, because he’s trying to get at the cross. This is not my word; it’s the word of God that you should obey. But but we know the story. We know the story. Here’s here is Jeremiah, the prophet, which has the most words in the Old Testament, and almost nobody listens to him. Some scholars say he was in in the eyes of the world he was abysmal failure. And and the reason I’m saying you should read this book against other prophetic books and and some of us probably remembered the prophet Jonah. Now, if you take the prophet Jonah, and our church recently preached about that. If you look at the prophet Jonah, how long is his message? Right, it’s very very short. I counted this morning in English, and Hebrew is shorter. And English is eight words. He speaks eight words. Jeremiah has 10s of 1000s of words. I think about 60,000 words, over 60,000 words. Somebody can Google, but but has 10s of 1000s of words and nobody ceases to listen to him. And Jonah goes to a pagan country and has less than eight words in Hebrew, and everybody repents. This is the context in which we are. This is the situation in which Jeremiah is preaching his word, and he’s telling us, “It’s not my word; it’s the word of God.” And again, if you read the book, you know what happens further. What happens further? Jehoiakim is the king on the throne, and he listens to the word of Jeremiah, and he takes the word and he cuts it, and he throws it into the fire, sealing the the fate of his own faith and the fate of the people through his rebellion against the word of God. Here is the king of Nineveh. Read that story in light of this story. Here is the king of Nineveh and the whole city which repaints at the preaching of Jonah just a sentence. We all can memorize his sermon.
And here is Jeremiah for 40 years preaching the word of God, and the king takes the word, cuts it, and throws it into the fire. Right. This is the context in which we are stubborn hearts. And what is the solution? The solution is here in the new covenant. Behold, these are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. The solution, according to Jeremiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, because this, as you know, is the longest text from the Old Testament cited in the New Testament. The New Testament in Hebrews eight cites this text twice, once in its entirety, and refers to this New Covenant. But this is the only time, only place in the Bible in which this term appears: the New Covenant. This is what it tells us. It says the solution I have. God says I will make a new covenant. And the question is, why is He making a new covenant? And Hebrews tells us, we already know. But Hebrews tells us is there was nothing wrong with the covenant. What was wrong was wrong with the people. Right? Read the interpretation of the apostles in Hebrews. He says there’s nothing wrong with the covenant. What was wrong? It was wrong with the people. It was wrong with the heart of the people. Now, now this term appears only here one time, but there’s a similar term that appears in the Old Testament. Some of you know it’s also the term that is everlasting covenant that appears about five times. We also have the term a covenant of peace used by by the other prophets, especially especially Ezekiel and Isaiah. Ezekiel three times also uses this expression that I will change the heart, I will change the spirit, I will give him a new heart and a new spirit. So even though it’s even though this is unique, the idea appears elsewhere. But this is the solution that God came with. There’s a radical change that He wants to make. He wants to make a new covenant, and it’s telling us now negatively: it’s not going to be like the covenant that I made with their fathers. So this is going to be different. This, of course, is referring to the covenant with Moses at Sinai with the people of Israel. It’s not going to be like that covenant when I took him by the hand and I brought him out. So again, the image is the image of a of a husband who takes his wife, because notice how it continues further, and it says, “My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband,” declares the Lord. So the image is an image of a of a husband who saves his wife from a difficult situation, from death, from perishing, takes her by the hand, but then she breaks the covenant, and the question is, when when when did Israel break the covenant? And you know, the whole history of Israel actually it’s a history of breaking of covenant. In fact, the people haven’t left Sinai well yet, and you know what happened? They they sinned with the golden calf, right? They say that the rabbis, when they talk about the situation, they talk about it’s kind of like cheating on somebody on your on your honeymoon, right? We all know people who have been not been faithful in their marriage, but I don’t think anybody here knows somebody who hasn’t been faithful during the honeymoon, but this is what the people of Israel did already on their honeymoon. The ink was not still was not dry on the book of the covenant, and the people sinned. Well, we don’t know what happened. God forgave. God forbid is great in His goodness, he forgave, and this covenant was basically was basically renewed. But the reason it was renewed, we know from the text, is because there was a mediator, and the mediator was Moses. But here we’re in a difficult situation because there’s no mediator here. Moses is not here, and Jeremiah is not allowed to mediate this covenant. God told them, “Do not pray anymore for this people.” This is the situation in which we are. So it makes us wonder: How is this covenant going to be made? How is it going to be made?
Because, but what is clear from this passage and from the history of Israel that the people broke this covenant over and over again. Just open real quickly with me at Jeremiah 11 to see it right there. Notice here in Jeremiah 11 what it says here. It talks especially about about the broken covenant and verse eight and verse 10 that they have turned back to the iniquities of their fathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. Idolatry, adultery, in another in infigurative language, the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers, this is that theme that is repeated over and over again through this book. They broke the covenant. There is no doubt that that happened. So it’s not like this covenant that they broke. It says, “Even though I was a husband, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. So this is really the heart of the covenant. I will put my law within them, and I will write it in their hearts. And of course, the question is, what exactly does that mean? Right? I mean, most of us rightly apply the new covenant to Christians. But if I was to to do like a surgery to any of you here, I don’t think you have the law written on the heart, right? Of course, you can say, well, well, well, Chris, this is figurative language, but okay, figurative language. But what what exactly does it mean, right? And I think again, scriptures interprets itself with scripture. If if you turn me to chapter 17, verse one, we find that something else was on their was written on their hearts. Something else was written on their hearts in 17 one. It says here, your sin, it says your sin, is written on your heart. Notice you what it says in 17 one. The sin of Judah is written with the pen of iron, with the point of diamond that is engraved on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of their altars. What does it mean that the sin of their sin was written on their heart? Again, if you did a surgery, you you would not find anything written on their heart, what it means is that the inclination of their heart was towards sin, and what God is telling us here is what I call God wants to do a divine calligraphy. I call it calligraphy because writing is too easy because it’s something beautiful. God said, “You know what I want to do here? I want to rewrite the script basically as I was meditating on this because different prophets use different language. Ezekiel says much more plainly for us, at least. I’m going to give them a heart of flesh. I’m going to give them a new heart, and I’m going to give them a new spirit. But here, Jeremiah maybe is more computer science inclined. It’s kind of like, and I was thinking, I need to give them a new script. I need to to to give them a new software. They have the software, which which is not working, which is inclining them towards sin. I’m gonna put in their heart something something new, and that that that is exactly what I think God is promising here. I want to make some change that their heart, which is inclined to evil and to a rebelliousness, now is going to incline to be good and to obey the law, and then it continues further. That’s the immediate thing that is going to happen. But then it’s going to happen. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And this, of course, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s, it’s a, it’s a statement about relationship. Some people will say, “Well, there’s nothing new about this,” because the people of Israel were also the people of God, and it’s partly true. But we know that in the New Testament, this is manipulated. Now our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now we are partakers of the divine nature.
Now this is again part of our preaching that we should preach all the time, because this is so much needed in today’s world. People lack true and genuine fellowship. There’s no greater fellowship than the fellowship that is among the believers and the fellowship that exists with the Father and with the Son, and this is the amazing thing about this covenant that we’re going to have a new fellowship. God is going to be the Lord is going to be our God, and we are going to be His people. And then it continues further, and it says that no longer shall they teach each other His neighbors saying, “Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the great, I declare the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” If you look at the if you look at the the context, we notice that this is also something very beautiful and very very hard to believe. So how is it possible for them to know the Lord? And again, Scripture interprets itself with Scripture. I think, at the most basic level, it means that they will live a life that shows that they know the Lord, and that is again that is interpreted in the previous verses when when God says to them, it says, “You show that you know me when you treat the poor and when you treat the weak with justice.” Right? This is shown actually through the way that they are supposed to live, and some of us, and for example, some Baptist theologians, and I think they are partly correct. They say that in the new covenant, everybody will know the Lord, in the sense that for us Baptists, you cannot be part of the new covenant unless you’re baptized as a believer. Like in the past, you became part of the community just because you were circumcised as a child. Some were believers, some were not believers. So I think that is at least partially true in the new covenant. Everybody who’s part of the people of God, they know the Lord. But at the same time, we have to understand that some of these promises, some of these promises, are not just just for the for what we call the horizon of the New Testament. But it seems like some of these promises reach a little bit further, and I think this is also referring to a time when there’s going to take us into the new creation, because of course we cannot say that there’s no teacher right here. We are at a seminary, and most of us go to church. We have teachers, we have pastors. So while there’s true at one level that we know the Lord better and we have a much more intimate relationship, I think the vision is a vision when everybody will know the Lord. When there’s not going to be any more evangelization, when there’s not going to be any more seminaries, when there’s not going to be any more churches, because everybody will know the Lord and will behave in in such a way to show that they are imitating God, but at the basis of all of this, as you can see, at the basis of all of this is the last part, which says, “For I will forgive the iniquity, and I will remember the sin no more.” And this, of course, is what surprises me and surprises all of us, right? If you look at here. I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Again, how is how is this possible? Right. In a way, in a way, sounds good. Well, the sins will be forgiven. But anybody who reads this text carefully, as especially maybe a little bit with Hebrew eyes, is wondering how is this possible for God to forgive their sins. God is a good judge. Abraham says, “Will the judge of the whole earth not do what is right? And what is right is to punish. What is right is not to forgive. How is this possible again? And of course, the New Testament gives answer to this question and also the passage that That Professor Chris Osburn preached from last last week, right? But but but actually, the seed is actually in this text. And again, just like Dr.
Williams, I want to encourage you to to read your text in Hebrew. So again, if we read this text carefully three times as mentioned, then I will make a new covenant. But in Hebrew, as you know, the word is actually karat, and karat means to cut. And actually, any Jewish person would have read this; he would have read like this: “I will cut the covenant. I will cut the covenant.” And in his mind, he would have been thinking, just like in the covenant with Moses, “Where is the blood for the covenant? Where is the cut? What is being cut for this covenant to really take effect and to come into fruition? And of course, again, we know from the New Testament that sometimes we have to go to the New Testament. Sometimes we have to go to other books. In the Old Testament, Isaiah tells us that we were forgiven because he bore our iniquity and our transgressions, and the New Testament, and every time when we go to church and we take the Lord’s Supper, the Lord Jesus Christ five times is mentioned this new covenant in the New Testament, and it’s associated with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was shed for your sins and for my sins. Praise be to God, praise be to God. A few a few years ago, Rebecca Piper wrote wrote a book about about hope. It’s called Hope as Its Reasons, and in that book, she gives an illustration about a class that she was she was auditing at Harvard University. She was auditing this class on psychology, in which the the psychologist was trying to explain certain things about how to deal with people who have offended you. And she explained this particular situation, and then there was a little bit of a Q and A. And one of the questions that was asked is, but how can we help this person forgive, forgive the person who wronged her. And after a back and forth between between Rebecca and the students and the professor, this professor of psychology at Harvard University said this: “If you are looking for a change heart,” he said, “you’re in the wrong department. If you’re looking for a change heart, you’re in the wrong department. Whether you’re an American philosopher or an American psychologist, the good news of the new covenant is that God changes hearts. God changes hearts, and the good news of this is that this covenant that tells us Hebrews is based on better promises because it has a better mediator, it has a better sacrifice, which doesn’t have to be repeated, and it has a change of the heart, which brings us in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and of the whole Trinity. Praise be to God. Praise be to God for this new covenant. Bye bye, old covenant. Amen.
