THE BROKEN COVENANT

Text:  Jeremiah 11:10

Proposition:  How was the covenant broken?

Introduction

Covenant

COVENANT, n. [L, to come; a coming together; a meeting or agreement of minds.]

1. A mutual consent or agreement of two or more persons, to do or to forbear some act or thing; a contract; stipulation. A covenant is created by deed in writing, sealed and executed; or it may be implied in the contract.

2. A writing containing the terms of agreement or contract between parties; or the clause of agreement in a deed containing the covenant.

3. In theology, the covenant of works, is that implied in the commands, prohibitions, and promises of God; the promise of God to man, that mans perfect obedience should entitle him to happiness. This do, and live; that do, and die.

Israel had agreed to follow the laws of God in the beginning of their nation.  They told Joshua they would serve the Lord.

Joshua 24:15-18

God had told them the blessings if they kept the covenant and he told them the curses if they broke the covenant in Deuteronomy 28-31. 

They didn’t keep the covenant and God cursed them according to the covenant that he made with them.

I. They didn’t listen

II. They did vile deeds

III. They conspired against the Lord and Jeremiah

I. They didn’t obey (How didn’t they obey?)

A. They didn’t listen

1. Jeremiah 11:3-4

2. When Israel left Egypt God told them to listen to his voice.

3. Exodus 15:22-26

4. God tested them at the waters of Marah.  God wanted to see if they would trust in him or if they would grumble and complain.

5. God warned them that if they listened to his voice the diseases that he sent on Egypt would not come upon them.

6. They didn’t listen to his voice.  They complained against him.  They complained when they didn’t have food.  They complained when they had too much of the same food.

7. There is no reason for us to complain.

8. Philippians 2:14

9. When God gives a command do it and don’t complain.

10. God is angry when we don’t listen and he will punish us for not listening.

11. When your child does not listen to you, you get angry

12. When your dog is stubborn and does not listen to you, you get angry. 

13. It is no different with God.  When you don’t listen to him he is angry and he will discipline.

B. They were stubborn

1. Jeremiah 11:8

2. They refused to listen to God.  God sent Jeremiah to tell them to repent of their sin and surrender to the Chaldeans.  They plotted to kill Jeremiah.  They put him in miry pit.  They beat him and put him in stocks.  They locked Jeremiah up in prison.  Jeremiah didn’t stop.  He continued to speak what the Lord told him too.  God had made Jeremiah like a fortified city.

3. Jeremiah 1:18

4. Jeremiah could withstand all their stubborn attacks against him and God.

5. We are not to be stubborn people.

6. Romans 2:4-6, be willing to listen God.  Don’t continue in your sin.  When your sin is made know to you repent and sin no more.  If we continue in our sin there is no longer a sacrifice for sin.

7. Hebrews 10:25-30

8. Jeremiah 11:14, God said, “Don’t pray for this people any more.”  There was no sacrifice for their sin.  God’s wrath was coming and it couldn’t be stopped.

9. Repent of sin before it is to late.

10. Proverbs 29:1

C. They thought sacrifice would take away disaster (vs. 14-15)

1. The people of Judah continued to offer sacrifices to God, but they were disobedient.  God desired obedience from them more than he desired sacrifices.  There sacrifices would not take away disaster.

2. Jeremiah 11:11

3. Jeremiah 7:22-24

4. God wants us to listen and obey more than he wants our tithe and offering.

5. He wants a living sacrifice.  He wants you and your loyalty

6. Hosea 6:6

7. Romans 12:1-2

8. Judah offered sacrifices and vile deeds and God was not pleased with them.

II. They did vile deeds (What vile deeds did they do?)

A. They  went back to the iniquities of their ancestors

1. Jeremiah 11:10

2. Josiah was a contemporary of Jeremiah.  He restored the temple and the book of the law was found.  The people got rid of their idols and served the Lord while Josiah was king.

3. II Chronicles 34:30-33

4. After Josiah died there were no more good kings.  The people went back to worshipping idols.  Just like their ancestors.

5. When Moses was on Mt. Sinai they worshipped the golden calf.

6. Exodus 32:1-10

B. They worshipped idols

1. Jeremiah 11:12-13

2. Idolatry is many times compared to adultery

3. Jeremiah 3:6-10

4. God was their husband and they chased after other gods.  Many times in the worship to other gods they had sexual relations with a temple prostitute. 

5. Genesis 38:21-22

6. They sacrificed their chastity to the goddess Ashtoreth (Also know as Aphrodite, Ishtar, and Venus)

7. Many today sacrifice their chastity.  They don’t think of it as worship to a god, but they are sacrificing what God has given them to the god of sexual pleasure.  God made sex to be pure and holy.  To be shared between a husband and wife.  Not to be sacrificed to the demon of lust.

8. Matthew 5:27-32

9. Their gods would be no help to them.

a. Jeremiah 11:12

b. God had told them this when he made the covenant with them

c. Deuteronomy 32:37-38, God had Moses write this in the song that he had given them.

C. They conspired against the Lord and Jeremiah

1. Jeremiah 11:9

2. Everything they did was against the Lord.  They were trying to get rid of him.  They had as many gods as they had cities.  They had as many altars to false gods as they had streets in Jerusalem.

3. Sometimes I think there is a conspiracy in the United States to get rid of God.  We teach evolution as the origin of man in our schools.  We can have “In God we Trust” on our money and say “One Nation Under God” in our pledge, but we aren’t supposed to tell anyone about God in a government funded place.

4. Many churches are ignorant of his laws.  They say nothing about people living together who are not married.  They allow homosexuals to be married. Some churches worship the Virgin Mary and many other saints.

5. They also conspired against Jeremiah. 

a. Jeremiah 11:18-23

b. Jeremiah was in his home town of Anathoth.  Just 3 miles north of Jerusalem.

c. Jeremiah had no idea they were planning to kill him until the Lord told him.  Jesus was killed by his own people.  The people in his home town tried to kill him.

d. Luke 4:16-30

e. Men do not like to hear about their own sin.  They like to hear about everybody else’s.

f. If men conspire against us and we are speaking the truth then put our trust in him.  He can take care of those who conspire against us.

g. All the men who conspired against Jeremiah were destroyed when Nebuchadnezzar invaded.

h. There were only 128 who returned from captivity.

i. Ezra 2:23

Conclusion

Even though they had broken his covenant, God was merciful to them.  There were some who still feared God and did what was right.  God took care of them.  Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were a few of them.  God even promised Jeremiah that Anathoth, Jeremiah’s hometown, would have houses and fields and vineyards bought again.

Jeremiah 32:6-15

Jeremiah’s prayer – Jeremiah 32:17-20

Closing song

Ah Lord God