Let us turn to God's Word and
turn into that portion of Scripture that we read in Hebrews. Our text is found in chapter
13 and verses 20 and 21. Hebrews chapter 13 and
verses 20 and 21. May the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working
in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Familiar words. It's a benediction
that we sometimes use at the conclusion of the service. There are other benedictions
that we find in Holy Scripture. We have that great Aaronic Blessing
at the end of Numbers chapter 6, which we use on occasions. The
Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. Thus were the priests to pronounce
God's name upon the children of Israel. But the benediction
that we are most of all familiar with of course is that great
Trinitarian blessing that we have at the end of the second
epistle to the Corinthians the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you
all. Says the Apostle. There are others
that we probably don't hear used very frequently at all. There's
those words at the end of Jude. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy the only wise God
our Savior. be glory and majesty, dominion
and power both now and ever. Amen. And then one other that
we could use I suppose is that we have at the end of the epistle
to the Romans, there in verse 25 of chapter 16, now to him
that is a power to establish you according to my gospel and
the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of
the mystery which was kept secret since the world began but now
is made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets according to
the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations
for the obedience of faith to God only wise be glory through
Jesus Christ for ever. Amen. These tremendous benedictions
that we so often find here at the end of the New Testament
epistles. As I said it's this new covenant
blessing, this great benediction that we find in Hebrews 13 that
I want us to consider for a little while today. Now the God of peace
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd
of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working
in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. The New Covenant benediction
or the New Covenant blessing. And first of all, to say something
with regards to the Covenant itself. The Covenant, of course,
is a pact an arrangement, an agreement, a contract we might
say I suppose the most striking example of a covenant
is that that we associate with marriage, a marriage contract
marriage that is so much under assault in our nation how we
have departed so much from the word of God if you marry often
times today it's worse than that it's not that people just don't
trouble to marry but we now have so-called same-sex marriage complete
mockery of what's said before us in scripture and yet we go
back to the Old Testament there in the book of the prophet Malachi
as God is rebuking the children of Israel because they were forsaking
their wives. We have that word in chapter
2 and verse 14. Yet is she thy companion, and
the wife of thy covenant. The wife of thy covenant. Covenant is that contract. And in a proper marriage, of
course, a couple, as they come together, they make vows. They
exchange promises. and they do so in the sight of
God as well as in the sight of a congregation. This is what
a covenant is, and here we have that covenant that God has been
pleased to make for the good of sinners amongst men." Spoken
of as the everlasting covenant, or the word that's used here
could have easily been rendered as eternal. It's the eternal
covenant. An agreement to cancel that was
made before ever time had been created. We have that promise
back in Isaiah chapter 55, I will make an everlasting covenant
with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given
him for a witness to the people, a leader and a commander to the
people. Who is this David that is being
spoken of? This one who is promised as the
witness, the leader, the commander of the people. Isaiah ministering
those many years after the death of King David, he is referring,
of course, to him who is the true David, the beloved of the
Lord, even God's only begotten and well-beloved son, the Lord
Jesus. And we know that that covenant
has been made between each of them. The language, again, of
the Prophet, this time in the book of the Prophet Zechariah. And there in chapter 6 we read
of him as the Branch. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,
saying, Behold the man whose name is the Branch. He shall grow up out of his place,
and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Even he shall build
the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall
sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon
his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both."
That man who is the branch It's the Lord Jesus Christ and the
Council of Peace is between Him and the Father. It is that eternal
covenant of grace wherein God says, Behold my servant whom
I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I have put
my spirit upon him. He is that one then who is promised,
who so willingly in that covenant undertakes to serve the will
of his father, though in the Godhead he is equal to the
father. There is no inferiority or superiority
with regards to those three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are co-equal, they are co-eternal,
but in terms of the covenants, how the Son so willingly undertakes
to become God's servant. and how it is in the fullness
of the time that he comes to do the will of the one who was
sent him. The Lord Jesus Christ is he then
who is the mediator of the New Covenant. As Paul says previously
here in chapter 9 and verse 15, he is the mediator of the New
Testament. The word testament is really
the same word as is rendered as covenant in our text it can
be rendered either way testament or covenant but he is the mediator
of that new testament that by means of death for the redemption
of the transgressions that were under the first testament they
which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance
and we read from the end of the 12th chapter
because I wanted to read those verses there that draw out the
difference where the contrast is made between the two covenants
that covenant that God gave in the Old Testament, that covenant
that was made at Mount Sinai in the giving of the Ten Commandments
and this new covenant, this covenant of grace No striking the language
of the Apostle is. He tells these Hebrews. They were those, of course, of
Israel who were under that Old Testament covenant. He says, for they could not endure that
which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
a mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. But ye are come unto Mount Zion,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly
and Church of the Firstborn which are written in heaven, and to
God, the Judge of all, and to the Spirit of just men made perfect,
and to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. All the Law was given by Moses,
That's what we read of here of course. That terrible law when
God descended upon the mountain spoke those 10 words. That law
that is the ministration of condemnation and the ministration of death
to those who are the transgressors of the law. The Law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now, the Law was given some 400
years previously. Or rather, the promise of the
Gospel was given some 400 years previously to that promulgation
of the Law when God entered into His covenant with Abraham. But the fullness of the revelation
of the gospel doesn't come until the fullness of the time when
the Lord Jesus Christ is that One who appears. Although it's spoken therefore
as the New Covenant because the fullness of the revelation is
so many years after the giving of the Law, yet, though the New
Covenant, it is really God's everlasting Covenant. It is that
great eternal purpose of God, wherein He has decreed the salvation
of sinners. How He has made choice of them
before all time and He has chosen them in the person of His Son. And remember how it all unfolded
to us really in that great opening chapter of Paul's epistle to the Ephesians.
We see how that all of the persons in the Godhead, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit are involved in this great covenant of salvation. There is that election wherein
we see the great work of God the Father who writes, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. And as we've said so many times
before, how interesting is the punctuation in our Authorized
Version, because those verses 3 through to 6 form one single
sentence. with various sub-clauses and
so forth, but a long sentence running from 3 to 6 and speaking
clearly there of the great purpose of the Father who made choice
of the people and predestinated them. And then what follows in
verse 7 right through to verse 12 is another single sentence
in an authorized version. Again, it's a long, involved
sentence, but the subject matter here is that great work of redemption
that was accomplished by God the Son when He came to do all
the will of His Father and to redeem those people that the
Father had given to Him in the covenant. Then The shortest sentence
here in verses 13 and 14 in which we have the blessed work of Him
who is the Holy Spirit of promise. The One who comes and seals the
great work that was purposed by God the Father and that was
procured by God the Son. How the father then is the one
who sends his son when the fullness of the time was come. God sent
forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. The outworking of the covenant
and then how having fulfilled his covenant engagement it is
the son who gives the Holy Spirit As he says there in John 16,
7, If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if
I depart, I will send him unto you. He sends the Son. As Peter
says on the day of Pentecost, Being by the right hand of God,
exalted, having received of the Father the promise of the Holy
Spirit, He, that is Christ, hath shed forth this which ye now
see, and here. Oh, it is in the covenant that
we have the eternal purpose of God unfolded and accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's this that we read of
in the text, the God of peace that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. It is in the covenant we see
the eternal purpose of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So here also what we witness
is God's promise, the promise of salvation. It is God's covenant
and it is God's covenanting with Himself It's the three persons
of the Godhead who are the parties of the covenant. When a couple
come together and marry, there is an exchange between the couple,
between the groom and his bride. Each make promise one to the
other. But here is the covenant of grace. It's one-sided, it's
God's covenant, in which he embraces his sinner. And Christ is the
one who stands there as the mediator. He is the one who is promised
of course right at the beginning even in that very chapter that
recalls the solemnity of man's fall into sin in Genesis chapter
3 when the Lord God speaks to the serpent who was the instrument
of Satan in tempting the woman. Remember the promise that we
have as it is expressed in Genesis 3.15, I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. For there is the promise, you
see, of the seed of the woman, And so when Christ comes, he
comes as that one who is made of a woman. He has no human father. He is conceived by the Holy Ghost
in the womb of a virgin. His human nature is derived from
his mother. He is the seed of the woman and
then it goes on of course subsequently to speak of that seed as coming
from Abraham. He is the seed of Abraham. And
when Paul writes to the Galatians he points out quite clearly the
significance of that promise that was given to Abraham who
is the father of all them that believe. In Galatians 3.16, now
to Abraham and his seed Where the promise is made, he says
not unto seeds as of many, but as of one unto thy seed, which
is Christ. Why the promise is to that seed,
the promise is to the Lord Jesus Christ. What a promise it is,
who is to see of the travail of his soul, and he shall be
satisfied. He is not to suffer in vain when
he makes that great sacrifice for sin. What a contrast between
these covenants when we think of the promises attached to the
covenant of grace and those promises that were attached to the Lord
of God. There were promises that God
gave to Israel in the Old Testament, in terms of the law, but what
were the promises to Israel? They were those that concerned
temporal and physical things. Look at the language that he
used in that 28th chapter of Deuteronomy that speaks of the
promises. We have in Deuteronomy, the promises
that will come where there's obedience, and the curses that
will follow where there is disobedience. And there at the beginning of
Deuteronomy 28, it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken
diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe
and to do all his commandments, which I commanded this day, that
the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of
the earth. And all these blessings shall
come on thee and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the
voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the
city, blessed shalt thou be in the field, blessed shall be the
fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit
of thy cattle, the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy
sheep, and so on and so forth. Blessings upon blessings. and all the blessings are spelt
out there in the opening verses, but then at verse 15 following
we see the curses where there's disobedience. But thinking principally
of the blessings, they are material blessings. And this is the difference
you see, the blessings that are associated with the new covenant,
with the covenant of grace, why these are the great promises
of the Gospel. And they're better blessings
than those of the Lord. They're spiritual blessings that
are really being spoken of. Look at the language previously
then as Paul speaks of these things in chapter 8. Here in
chapter 8, We read, verse 6, Now hath he
obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator
of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had
been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second. But finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the day
is come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant, with
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when
I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt
because they continue not in my covenant and I regarded them
not saith the Lord for this is the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will
put my law in their mind and write them in their hearts and
I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people, and
they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his
brother, saying, Know the Lord. For all shall know me from the
least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins, and their iniquities will I remember
no more, in that He hath set a new covenant, and He hath made
the first of all. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready
to vanish away. All the blessings. It's God's
work of grace. It's what He does in the hearts
of His people. He will write His law in their
hearts. He will work effectually in their
souls. In fact, the promise is that
He will take away the stony heart out of their flesh and He will
give them a heart of flesh. and all these promises center
in Him who has come to be the mediator of the covenant, the
great messenger of the covenant. All the promises of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ are yea, and in Him there are men to the glory
of God by us. And so Paul says thanks be unto
God for His unspeakable gift, the gift of Him who is the Mediator,
the One who is spoken of in the text, the God of peace and brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Having said something then with
regards to this covenant, this new covenant, this covenant of
grace, in contrast to that old covenant, the covenant of works,
the covenant of law. I want to say something in the
second place concerning Him who is the mediator, the mediator
of this covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is spoken
of here as the Great Shepherd of the sheep. Remember how back
in chapter 9, as we've seen, There at verse 15 we read of
him as the mediator. For this cause he is the mediator
of the New Testament, that by means of death and so forth. And here of course we have mention
of his death, his resurrection from the dead, We have mention
of the manner of his dying, the shedding of his precious blood.
He is the one who has mediated this covenant, who has brought
these things to pass. But thinking of Christ as the
mediator, in the first place, I want to say something with
regards to him as that one who is spoken of in the text as the
shepherd of the sheep. The great shepherd of the sheep,
it says, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. And
who are these sheep? Who are these sheep that are
being spoken of? Well, the Lord Jesus, in John
chapter 10, as you're aware, I'm sure, speaks of himself there
as the good shepherd. the one who gives his life for
the sheep, and as he speaks of the shepherd, so he speaks also
of the sheep, and he tells us something concerning the marks
of the sheep. My sheep hear my voice, he says. That's the mark
of the sheep, they hear his voice. I know them, he says. They follow me. I give unto them
everlasting life, and they shall never perish. No man is able
to pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them to
Me is greater than all. No man can pluck them out of
My Father's hand." These are the sheep. They're the ones that the Father
has given to Him in the Eternal Covenant. They're the ones that
He comes and seeks out and saves. and he has power, he has authority
to execute this work. How he makes mention of that
blessed truth in his prayer, his high priestly prayer in John
chapter 17, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, he
says, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. He has authority, and he has
authority to give life to all those that the Father has given
to him in the eternal covenant. He prays for them. I pray for
them, He says in that prayer. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are mine. These
are the sheep. These are the sheep of the Lord
Jesus. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth His
life for the sheep. He dies for them as their substitute
in their room and in their state, how God has visited upon him,
visited upon his blessed person, all that punishment that was
due to the sins of those who are the sheep. He says, Awake,
O sword against my shepherd, and against the man that is my
fellow. What a word is that in Zechariah
chapter 13 and verse 7. Here is Him who is the shepherd
of the sheep, the mediator of the covenant. And God commands
His sword, the sword of justice to awake, to be unsheathed and
to fall upon Him who is going to bear that punishment, who
is going to die as the substitute of His sheep. But now he goes
on there to speak of Him as my fellow against the man who is
my fellow. He is equal. He is equal to the
Father. When we think in terms of the
blessed Godhead, the great doctrine of God, the doctrine of the Trinity,
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, He is
the Father's fellow. And yet, oh in that covenant,
He is God's servant. He comes to be the one who is
the shepherd of His sheep. He comes to execute that work
that was given to Him in the covenant. And He will save all
those that the Father has given to Him. They are not only referred
to as His sheep, As you know they are also spoken of as his
sons, as his children in the language again that we have here
in this epistle in chapter 2 and verse 13 he takes up the words
of the prophet Isaiah and says, Behold I and the children which
God hath given me. All these are the ones you see
that he comes to redeem and he comes in the fullness of the time to
execute all that great work. He is the shepherd and the bishop
of Saul, who will redeem his people. And he is that one who
is clearly seen to be the faithful shepherd. how a distinction is
made between him who is the true shepherd and those who are the
false shepherds the Lord Jesus we read of that great shepherd
of the sheep and remember how the prophet Ezekiel rebukes at
God's command those who were the false shepherds God teaches us many lessons in the
Old Testament. We see the offices of the Lord
Jesus in the way in which God was pleased to deal with the
children of Israel and those who were to hold office amongst
them. They were the Aaronic priests
and besides the priesthood There were also those who were raised
up to be seers and prophets to speak the word of God. And besides
that, there were also those who were raised as the princes, the
kings. There was a sort of three-fold
government in Israel whereby God ruled over them by means
of prophets and priests and kings and all of this, of course, is
foreshadowing the Lord Jesus who has that blessed threefold
office and in Ezekiel 34 we have that chapter which contains the
reproof of those wicked men who failed in their offices in Israel
in the Old Testament look at the language there Verse 11 of Ezekiel 34, Thus
saith the Lord God, Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep
and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his
flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered,
so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of
all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark
day. Why so? Because these men had
not fulfilled their offices. They rebuked previously there,
verse 2, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves!
Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, ye
clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed, but ye
feed not the flock. This is the context in which
we have this promise concerning Him who is to come as the Great
Shepherd. it is God himself and then he says again at verse 16 I will
seek that which was lost and bring again that which was driven
away and will bind up that which was broken and will strengthen
that which was sick but I will destroy the fat and the strong
I will feed them with judgment how is God going to fulfill this
word of promise it's all fulfilled in Christ who is spoken of later
as David Verse 22 he says, Therefore will
I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey, and I will
judge between cattle and cattle, and I will set up one shepherd
over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David,
he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd, and I the
Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among
them. I the Lord have spoken it. What a word it is! the exposure
of those who were the false shepherds who failed so miserably. But
what a distinction is made when we see Him who is the Great Shepherd
of the sheep, even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Messenger of the Covenant,
the Mediator of the Covenant, who comes to reconcile the sinner
unto God, the God of peace that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. He is the Shepherd as well as
the Mediator and as He is the Shepherd, so he is that one who
is also spoken of as the surety of his people, and the substitute
of his people. All these things are unfolded,
are they not, when we consider aright the person and the work
of the Lord Jesus. But as we think of him as the
mediator in particular, not only are we to consider him here spoken
of in terms as one who is the shepherd but also we see him
in our text as that one who seals the covenant, he is the sealer
of the covenant the great, that great shepherd
of the sheep it says through the blood of the everlasting
covenant or the everlasting testament if we read with the with the
margin. How has he sealed the covenant? He has sealed it by his death,
he is the one who is the testator and again we see that so clearly
in that 9th chapter there in chapter 9 verse 15 He is the mediator of the New
Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the First Testament, that is the law. Or by that law
is the knowledge of sin. That law is that that condemns
the sinner, but Christ has answered all the demands of the law. He
is made of a woman, He is made under the law. So we have the redemption of
the transgressions that were under the first testament that
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. And then he says for where a
testament is there must also of necessity be the death of
the testator. For a testament is a force after
men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the
testator liveth. When a person makes their last
will and testament, it is to be executed upon the death of
the testator. And then those who have an interest,
they receive their appointed inheritance. The testator must
die. And this is the Lord Jesus. He
comes to fulfill the covenant and He is obedient. Being found
in fashion as a man, He is obedient. We are told unto death, even
the death of the cross. He seals the testament. He seals
the covenant with His precious blood. Oh, what a revelation! of the goodness and the grace
of God we see then in terms of this this testament, this new
testament this new covenant, not only the sealing but in it
of course we see God's purpose we began by speaking of God's
eternal purpose in the covenant, we have the purpose of God we
have the promise of God we thought of that promise of salvation
that was given back in Genesis chapter 3 the seed of the woman
and the seed of Abraham and to that seed of Abraham which
is Christ all the promises were made but not only God's promise we
also have God's oath when we consider the language that Paul
uses previously here in chapter 6 He reminds us that when God
made promise to Abram because he could swear by no greater,
he swore by himself. Why? He magnified his word above
all his name. Saying, surely blessing I will
bless, in multiplying I will multiply them. And then Paul
goes on to speak of those two immutable things, those two unchanging
things. God's promise, God's oath, in
which it was impossible for God to know. We might have strong
consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lie hold upon the
hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within
the vial. Oh, there's the oath of God.
We sang in the Metrical Psalm and I did want to sing those
verses that speak of the covenant the covenant with Abraham the oath to Isaac, the law that
was given to Jacob, that word that's firm and sure which covenant
he firmly made with faithful Abraham And unto Isaac by his
oath he did renew the same, and unto Jacob for a law he made
it firm and sure, a covenant to Israel, whichever should endure."
This is what is being spoken of then, here in this benediction
that we find at the end of Hebrews. It's the
great blessing of the eternal covenant. and it's all sealed
with the blood of the Lord Jesus but as Christ is the one who
is spoken of as sealing it by his death so we also have his
resurrection the God of peace that brought it down from the
dead it says our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of the sheep why? He is declared to be the Son
of God with power according to the spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead Here is that covenant then of
which Christ is the mediator, which Christ himself has executed
in all its parts. And as he has sealed the covenant
with his blood, so this covenant of course must come and be sealed
in the hearts of the elect. It must be sealed in the hearts
of the elect. So what do we read in verse 21?
Here is Paul's prayer, you see, make you perfect in every good
work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing
in His sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. All God's work is perfect. He can write to those Philippians
and speak of His confidence, being confident of this very
thing that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it. until the day of Jesus Christ. After God begins, God finishes. He says, shall I bring to the
birth and not cause to bring forth? Shall I cause to bring
forth and shut up the womb? Well, that's not the way of God.
His works are perfect. Where does He work? Well, look
at it here. Working in you, it says. Working in you, that which
is well-pleasing in His sight. God must work in our heart. And
Paul, and I do believe that the Apostle is the human author of
this epistle, Paul knew what he was talking about. Paul had
known these things. He pleased God. He says to the
Galatians, who separated me from my mother's womb, to call me
by His grace and to reveal His Son in me. How these things must
come must be revealed in us. It must be that work accomplished
in our hearts that great work of God that faith that comes
by the operation of God whereby we are brought to look to Christ
and to trust in Christ that precious gift by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of
works lest any man should boast for we says Paul are his workmanship
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them or to be
those who do indeed know this ceiling in our hearts these things
not just set before us on the page of Scripture, not just assented
to with our minds, we can delight in these great truths concerning
the everlasting covenant. There is a certain attraction,
mental attraction with these things, a great scheme of salvation.
But it's not enough to give a mental assent or that the Lord would
come and seal His word. and write his law upon our hearts. That's the promise, is it not,
that he has given in that new covenant as we saw there in that
8th chapter. I will put my laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts, he says. And I will be
to them a God. And they shall be to me a people,
and they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man
his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me.
from the least to the greatest. Oh God, be pleased then to fulfill
His covenant in you and in me and to bless to us His Word.
Amen. We sing as though concluding
hymn, at least, of this part of the service. Hymn number 87,
the first part, and the tune is Millennium, 551. With David's Lord and ours a
covenant once was made, whose bonds are firm and sure, whose
glories ne'er shall fade. Signed by the sacred three in
one, in mutual love, airtime began. Hymn number 87, part one.