The Lord Is Our Righteousness

THE LORD IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Outline)

November 28, 2010 -

Advent 1 -

JEREMIAH 33:14-18

INTRO: Advent means coming. During this season of Advent believers prepare for the coming celebration of the birth of the Savior. We also prepare for the coming of Christ the King on Judgment Day. Through the living and active word of God the Lord Jesus Christ also comes to live in our hearts. The importance of our Savior, the Savior of mankind, is discovered in the very name of Jesus. "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth" (PHILIPPIANS 2:9-10). In Jeremiah another name for our Savior Jesus is “Our Righteousness”.

THE LORD IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. I

. God fulfills his promises. II. Jesus is our kingly priest.

I. GOD FULFILLS HIS PROMISES.

A. Jeremiah was called by God to proclaim God’s truth to God’s wicked and rebellious people.

1. Israel was suffering through a period of very wicked kings. God’s message was judgment.

2. Jeremiah was not well received because of God’s message of judgment against sinfulness.

B. Verse 14. Here is a gospel gem in the midst of a message of doom and gloom.

1. The Lord makes his promises and the days are coming when every promise will be fulfilled.

2. The Lord’s fulfillment includes a “gracious promise”. God will provide grace and mercy.

C. Verse 15. “In those days and at that time” will happen almost a century later.

1. The “righteous Branch” will be Jesus. Jesus would come and do what is “just and right”.

2. Verse 16. The Roman government provided peace during the lifetime of Jesus on earth.

3. God’s wicked and rebellious people were given divine promises. God fulfilled every one.

D. Our gracious God loves his creation with an everlasting love. Adam and Eve lived in the perfect world that God had created. They listened to Satan and sinned against God. The perfect creation of God was destroyed with sin. Imperfection entered the world. God did not destroy Adam and Eve. The very first thing God did for the disobedience of man was to promise a Savior! "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (GENESIS 3:15). There would now be distrust (enmity) between Satan and mankind. The off-spring of woman would not have such a cozy relationship with Satan. Jesus would live, die, and rise again in order to “crush” the very head of Satan. Satan would only “strike” Jesus’ heel (nail prints).

E. Some would to point at Adam and Eve and blame them alone. It is true that the world was changed forever by their willful, sinful disobedience. Others would try to blame Satan for everything evil. This is true. BUT each one of us is also responsible for every one of our sinful thoughts or words or actions. We dare not deny the responsibility of our sinful nature. On this side of heaven we are unable to escape the effects of sin living in us. "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away" (ISAIAH 64:6). All our “righteous acts” are unclean. Sin is alive and well, even in the lives of believers.

F. Thankfully the Lord God does not leave us to fend for ourselves. On our own we would be lost and condemned creatures – forever. This is not what God desires for mankind. Rather our gracious God desires salvation for all mankind. This is why the Lord promised a Savior immediately after the first sin. God is patient. God’s promises are made. God’s promises are fulfilled. It would take thousands of years before the promise made to Adam and Eve was finally fulfilled. "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons" (GALATIANS 4:4,5). God’s Son Jesus paid the price for us to become God’s children.

THE LORD IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Our gracious God fulfills all his promises.

II. JESUS IS OUR KINGLY PRIEST.

A. A time of safety was promised for Israel and Judah. It did not happen during Jeremiah’s time.

1. Verse 16. “The LORD Our Righteousness” would be the descendant of David for peace.

2.T he Lord Jesus Christ would bring and become the righteousness for the sins of the world.

B. Verse 17. The Lord had promised to Solomon that a descendant would always sit on the throne.