Promise of Arrival

Jeremiah 33:14-16

Transcript

I can't count how many promises I've made in my life, but I can tell you I haven't kept most of them. When I was younger, I'd often make a lot of promises and used promises as a bargaining chip to get what I desired. When I got my license, for example, I'd always promised to my mom, if you would just give me 30 extra minutes in my curfew, then tomorrow I will take out the trash, I will do the dishes, I will give you anything in the world that you want to give, that you want. And I made those promises often, many times, just to the next day. When it came time for me to fulfill my promise, something else came up and I didn't have to fulfill it.
I might have had basketball practice or something else, but I wasn't always faithful in my promises. I didn't have an appreciation or a strong ethic regarding keeping my promises. They could be kept or broken, seemingly without little consequence. It wasn't until I trusted a promise given to me in my darkest hour that I learned to value a promise made. Growing up, I was a good kid.
I was too shy and too timid to break the rules. I was a terrible liar and often told on myself when my guilt overcame me. I remember this one time that as my sister and I were putting away clothes in our parents closet, I discovered all the glorious Christmas gifts that my parents had stowed away in their closet. And we were excited to see that. We got a Nintendo and all the laser tag equipment that I had ever hoped and could ever imagine.
And my sister and I were so excited. And my sister said, okay, Bruce, we cannot tell mom and dad that we found these. You need to act surprised on Christmas Day when we see these again for the second time. And I was like, yeah, sure. And so I reached over, I picked up the phone and I called my mom and said, mom, I found our Christmas presents.
And my sister just boggled. And saying, Bruce, what are you doing? Because of the guilt, I felt I had to tell my mom. And she said those dreadful words, wait till your dad hears about it. And no man, no child wants to hear that.
But despite being good, despite all those nights that I would refer to the Ten Commandments to make sure that I kept them that day, I didn't realize what was lying deep in my heart. That sin was always there. And my heart was corrupt until I became a man. Until out of the shadows, that sin leached out of my heart and into my life. And it was in that dying moment when I discovered when My sin had come to fruition out of my heart that I learned about this promise given to me in the darkness.
You see, I was a probation officer and I abused my power and had broken the law. My actions led to the mistrust of a community, the heartbreak of a family, and the loss of my dignity. I was publicly humiliated, overwhelmed with shame, and sentenced to serve time in jail. A place where I put a lot of people. Before my incarceration, I hit rock bottom.
I was living in my parents home and I felt my life was over. I had no hope. My relationships were shattered, my reputation was destroyed. My future seemed hopeless. Consumed with guilt and shame, I couldn't see any path forward.
So that night, upstairs in my room in my parents house, I slid off my bed. I knelt now between the window of my bed and I reached up on the nightstand and I grabbed the pocket knife that my grandfather had given me. And as I grabbed that pocket knife, I opened it and realizing that I had no hope. The only logical, most reasonable thing I could ever do with a life without hope is to end the life. My life is forfeit.
And so, as tears welled up in my eyes and as I looked down blurrily at my wrist, I began to make the blade dance on my wrists. And all I can hear in that moment is, your life is ruined. You have ruined it. You, there's no coming back from this. You might as well end it.
And I never have been a courageous person. I've always been a cowardly person. And so I began to do a cowardly thing. But then there was a pause. And as I gripped the knife tighter, I cried out to God one last time.
I said, God, is there any hope left for me? And I prayed. And this is what was said. It wasn't anything audible. It wasn't anything that was in a dramatic vision.
It wasn't where you just take your Bible and you open it and let the pages fall randomly by chance. But it was something that came from something I had once heard. Joel, chapter 2, verse 25. This is what surfaced in my heart. I will restore the years the locusts have taken.
I knew what that verse meant. I knew what God spoke to me in my bedroom that night. It was a promise of new life. I hope for a future. One that could not be seen, but could only be hoped to come true.
Though I could not trust in myself or others, I came to trust God's promise that he would restore the years the locusts had taken. Taken. And that he did. I stand before you as one who Is a promise fulfilled. There was nothing special about me or my life except that God had promised it to me.
It was this promise in the dark that I realized that God is a promise keeper. And this is exactly what is taking place in our Old Testament reading. In the book of Jeremiah, in the darkest hour of the nation of Israel, when Babylon was coming and approaching their doors to enslave them, to exile them, to strip them from their land because of their sin, because they have built altars in high places and chased and fell after other gods besides God himself, because they have exchanged God's righteous ways for the ways of the world and the nations that surround them. The enemy was crouching. God removed his protection from them.
And he sent Jeremiah to speak to all the nation of Israel to say, you are going to go to your ruin. You are going to suffer the consequences of your sin and your breach of contract with me. Your enemy will overcome you. They will take you from the promised land that I gifted to you, and you will be utterly ashamed. But in the midst of that, in the midst of that ruin, in the midst of all of that that Jeremiah was speaking to the nation of Israel, God also delivered a promise that they would suffer and that they would commit their lives to exile for some 70 years.
But he told Jeremiah, he says, jeremiah, I want you to go to your cousin. I want you to buy a plot of land in Israel, and I want you to sign it and seal the deed and place it in an earthen vessel. And this is going to be a sign of a promise that one day you will return and claim this land again, that the Israel will be returning home once again. I will make this happen. He says, jeremiah, I will do this by raising a son of David to be seated at the throne.
And he will be doing three things. He will save them so that their sins will not ruin their lives anymore. And he will cause them to dwell safely in their land without any threat or violence or enemies. And I will give them a new identity that is not based on their righteousness, but based on my righteousness. And we've read it this morning.
We've read this promise of arrival in Jeremiah 33. Let me read it again. Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah in those days. And at that time I will cause a righteous branch of David to spring forth, and he shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell in safety.
And this is the name that she will be called, Called the Lord is our righteousness. See, God's promises are not like those of an immature boy who uses promises as bargaining chips. God's promises are His Word. His Word creates. His Word is true.
His Word is always there. This promise ultimately is Jesus. See, Jesus came the first time to fulfill that promise of salvation for all who would believe. He also promised to return, allowing those who are saved to dwell in safety. We live in a time and experience both a promise that has been kept and one that has been made.
The promise kept is found in Jesus. The salvation he provides through the cross is real and available to all who trust him and confess him as Lord. While your salvation may not remove all obstacles or trials in your life, you are given another promise to hope in. The same Jesus you trust for your salvation can be trusted for your safety when he returns and brings in and ushers in the new heaven and the new earth and make all things glorified where there'll be no more threats of death, destruction, devastation, defilement or darkness. He has given us a sign of this promise that we will dwell in safety and experience this new identity.
We are given a sign of this promise of his second coming where he will restore and glorify all things. And it's that seal of the Holy Spirit, much like Jeremiah who signed and sealed that deed of the promise that they would return to the land. So it is that Jesus has given us His Holy Spirit, signed, sealed and delivered into us that a future we do have in Christ Jesus, Ephesians chapter 1, 13 and 14 claims this in Him. You also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory. But not only that.
Not only is the Holy Spirit in these earthen vessels a deed signed and sealed for our future deliverance and inheritance that we will receive, but it's also the power by which we can currently live out the promise of our salvation. Second Corinthians 4, 7, 10 says this. We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifest in our body. We have this promise of arrival, one that as we experience the Advent, which means the coming, we celebrate the first coming of Jesus as a baby who bears our sin on the cross and saves fallen man.
And yet we still live, waiting for another promise to be fulfilled of Jesus coming and restoring and glorifying everything so that we can dwell in safety without any threat to ever come into our lives. A lot of people call this the already and the not yet. We have already received the promise of salvation which is working in us and through us to prepare the way for the second promise of a full and complete life lived in safety. We experience the joys of our salvation now, but we have yet to see its fullness. In moments when our heart overflows with love for God, we experience the reality of the already yet.
There will be times when you struggle in your walk with God, feeling the weight of the not yet. However, when your weakness rears its ugly head, you can hope in the promise that your weakness will be put to rest and the strength of the Lord will be yours forevermore. This tension of the already not yet teaches us to hope, knowing that the promises of God he has spoken. Will be seen to completion. This first Sunday of Advent, we light the hope candle.
We remember and reflect on the promises made and the promises kept. The promise of arrival when God sent His son to redeem us and a new hope that he will send his son once more to fulfill all that we could ever hope or imagine. Today we have gathered to declare that God is a promise keeper and the promise that is still out there waiting to be fulfilled will be fulfilled. And while we wait, we wait in faith. Tis the season to be merry.
God has given us both something to possess salvation and something to hope for. To dwell in safety and experience a new identity as we have encountered hope by reflecting on the promise of arrival. I pray that you will continue this journey throughout this Advent season with us as we look next week to how we prepare to receive this promise of arrival. But before I close, I would like to encourage you to endure and hope this Advent season with this reflection.
My journey began in a dark and scary place. In jail, on a bed, with tears on my face. Who am I that your thoughts would consider me a sinner, a rebel, one whose sins make him a slavery? How is it that a sinner can succeed? How can a slave to sin be freed?
For I do not deserve what you have freely given. Forgiveness, life and resurrection. Yet here I am, God's servant nonetheless, amazed at how you turned my ruin into your success. I pray your holiness in me will be brought to completion. Until it does, this is what I will be preaching.
When you think in your life that all is forsaken, pray to God to restore the years the locusts have taken, for God's promise of salvation has been fulfilled. It is trust in what the Gospel reveals. And yet we wait for another promise still, for Jesus to return and in safety to dwell. So endure with hope in God's faithful promises and live your life in Jesus righteousness. This promise of arrival will come to fruition.
It's what we celebrate this Advent season. So as we come together as friends and family, may we share this hope and endure to the end. Happy Advent. Peace be with you. Let's pray.
Jesus, we thank you so much. You are our hope. You are our salvation. You are our identity. We are not called by the sins that we have committed, but we are now your people and called by the righteousness that you lived for.
We will be called the Lord's righteousness. And we thank you for this. We thank you for the promises in the dark. We thank you for the promises of arrival that you will restore all things and restore to us the years the locusts have taken. I pray that each and every person here will fill your hope in your son, Jesus Christ.
And may we leave this place cheering this season on and speaking hope into the world. For only we are the ones who bear.