We're in Psalm 89 tonight. I'd like to remind you that I see in this psalm three different voices. I see the voice of the psalmist in the first two verses as being corresponding to the Lord Jesus Christ. As the prophet speaks, he speaks of Christ. And in those first two verses, The Lord Jesus says, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall be built up forever. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.

As the Lord Jesus Christ, our mediator, he speaks of his Father's mercies and faithfulness. And that's what the next few verses from verse 3 of the Psalm to verse 37 speak of is the Lord, the Lord our God, God our Father, and all of his greatness. And it talks about what he did in appointing the Lord Jesus as our covenant. He says in verse 3, I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn to David, my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever. and build up thy throne to all generations, Selah."

Now if we understand that as God the Father speaking of Christ, a covenant He made with Him, I have made a covenant with my Chosen, then we can see that the next verses from verse 3 through verse 37 are spoken as from the Lord Himself and speaking about His greatness.

And then, of course, from verse 38, there's a radical change in this psalm, and it goes through verse 45. And I understand those being the amazement that the church had in the days of Christ on earth when they saw his sufferings and all that he went through as our Savior to become our King, to rule over us and to conquer sin and death and all of our enemies.

And then in the last few verses from verse 46 to the end of the psalm, I see the pleadings of the Lord Jesus himself in the days of his flesh, praying for himself, but not for himself alone, but for his people with him as he intercedes for us as our surety and also as our salvation that the Lord would save him and thus save his people with him.

So that's just a very brief sketch overview of the psalm. The entire psalm is meant to direct us to God's mercies and his faithfulness, as verse one says. He says, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever with my mouth, while I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. And then verse two, I have said, mercy shall be built up forever. By faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.

So you can see that it's because of Christ that God's mercies towards his people are forever, faithfully forever. God has made that happen. But verse three says, I have made a covenant with my chosen. And so tonight what I'd like to do is I'd like to look at the covenant that God made with Christ from this psalm. I've always looked at this psalm as a psalm that declares to us this amazing truth that God made a covenant with his son.

And so when we read verse three and four again, it says, I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn to David, my servant, thy seed will I establish forever and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah. Now, of course, David was king. And as I said last time, he was king over Israel, the nation. But Christ is king over the spiritual Israel, which includes God's elect out of both the nation of the Jews and of the Gentiles. So Christ is a much greater king in that sense. David was a king over a physical people. Christ is a king over spiritual people. David's kingdom came to an end on earth. Christ's kingdom is forever. And this is what this is speaking about, the promise God made to David concerning Christ, that he would establish his kingdom forever. And we looked at this last time, but in Psalm 132, just to build on this, while we're talking about God's promise to David that he would build up Christ's kingdom forever, he says in Psalm 132, verse 11, the Lord has sworn in truth to David, he will not turn from it, of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.

Okay, so this is clearly speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's quoted in Acts chapter two and explained by the Spirit of God through Peter that this was speaking of Christ. So we know that verse three in Psalm 89 and verse four is speaking about him. It says, verse four, thy seed, this is Psalm 89 verse four, thy seed will I establish forever and build up thy throne to all generations, Selah.

All right. Here we see God has made a covenant with David. But his covenant with David, it's interesting, this is something we're gonna get into more later. Notice the covenant he made with David. It's a covenant of a particular kind. And this kind of a covenant is a covenant of promise. a covenant of promise.

Now, what conditions did David have to meet in order for this covenant to be fulfilled? Well, it turns out, none. There were no promises, I mean, no conditions David had to meet. God said in the covenant he made with David that if his children were to sin against God, that he would bring chastisement upon them. and yet he would establish Christ on his throne forever.

So even though God anticipates the sin of David and others who were involved in this covenant, the covenant promises stand unconditionally based entirely only upon God. And so in that sense, I wanna point out that this kind of a covenant is a covenant God made He made it with who? Well, usually a covenant has got at least two parties to it, doesn't it? A covenant is something that's an agreement made between two parties, and it has certain conditions and certain promises.

Well, this covenant was made with two parties, but none of those parties are are David or David's physical children or even those on whose behalf the covenant was made. The only two parties involved in this covenant are God the Father and God the Son in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, what we see here is this kind of a covenant is a covenant of promise It's a covenant of one in the sense that it's one God, and yet it is a covenant between the two in the Godhead, God the Father and God the Son in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at verse 28 of Psalm 89. He says in verse 28, my mercy will I keep for him, forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. And then verse 29, his seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

Okay, so that's a promise God's making to the Lord Jesus Christ. And also notice in that same verse that we read there, he not only makes it with Christ, but his mercy for him forever, but also he says that his seed, God would make his seed endure forever, and that has to do with the Lord's people. That has to do with the church. The people of Christ are called his seed. his seed. And I did mention this last time, but I'm saying it again because it's so significant to me. Because as I was talking with Denise a couple weeks ago, I was saying, you know, it's interesting how in the time that we've been here in this place as a congregation together, I've learned a lot of things about the gospel I didn't know before. And this is one of them. And this is one that I just recently came to realize, at least in my memory, I don't think I knew it before, but Christ's seed. are his people.

It speaks about that. In Hebrews 2, verse 13, he says, Behold, I and the children which God hath given me. And that's talking about Christ speaking to the church. And he's saying, I and the children which God hath given me. Isaiah 9. In Isaiah 9, and this is a common verse we read this time of the year, but in Isaiah 9, verse 6, this is the promise God made. He says, Let's see. I'm sorry, 9 verse 6. He says, For unto us a child is born, speaking about Christ. Unto us a son is given. So Christ as man was born as a child. But as a son he was given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. In other words, he's going to be the governor of all of God's people. And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God. So the one who's born is God. the everlasting Father.

And so you see here that not only is Christ one with the Father, but He's referred to as the everlasting Father because He is the Father that Adam prefigured. Adam was a type of Christ. Adam was a father to all his children. Adam acted in a covenant relationship to them as the head. What Adam did in his obedience and in his first transgression affected them. So the Lord Jesus Christ is an everlasting father to his people. His relation to them as his children never ends. His relation to them as his seed never ends. His relation to them as the one who does all in fulfillment of the covenant never ends. So His obedience to His Father, to His God and Father, is our obedience to our God and Father. So He has made us children of God by His own relation to us as our covenant head. And that's what this is speaking about here.

Now it helps us a lot because when we read about that in scripture, then it turns on all the lights when we come to the New Testament. What Christ did, he did for his people. Matthew 121, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. That's a certainty. It's not a potential. It's a certainty. He shall save his people from their sins. All right, so what we see in Psalm 89 is that God has made a covenant with Christ. And as God, it's a covenant in the Godhead. It's not a covenant made with men, except as Christ, the anointed of God for his people, he makes it with him on behalf of God's elect. And this is what we will see more and more as we go through this. And so I want to look at this covenant, first of all, by beginning with the covenants God made in scripture. the different kinds of covenants we see in scripture.

First one is you'll see, and it's not called a covenant per se in Genesis chapter 2, but this is what God told Adam in Genesis 2. He said, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Okay, so why do I call that a covenant? Well, because God commanded Adam. It was a law. And in that law, there was joined to that law a punishment for breaking it. As long as he ate of every tree of the garden, but didn't eat of the tree of knowledge and good and evil, he lived. And so did Eve, as long as she, like Adam, didn't eat of that one tree. But as soon as they ate of that tree, God promised, you will surely die in that day, which of course they did. And the New Testament reveals that that transgression of Adam was passed on to all of his children, and that's why we all die. That's why death entered into the world, was because Adam sinned. And so this is what Romans 5 teaches.

But this was the first covenant because God had connected to that commandment a curse, and that curse was death. And that was not just a death of body, but a death of his spirit. He became only flesh at that point. Jesus told Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. What's born of Adam is only flesh, it can't be spiritual. Because Adam was no longer spiritual in that day, he died spiritually. And all his children died in him.

And I don't know how to make a comparison of that relation that we have to Adam with any other relation that we know, except we know that in scripture God says that Levi was in the loins of Abraham when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. And in that same relationship, Levi, who was the head of the priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood in the Old Testament, he represented in paying tithes. I'm sorry, when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, he represented Levi also. And Levi, therefore, and all of his children were subservient to the priesthood of Melchizedek. That's the argument Hebrews chapter seven makes.

So there's another example of that same relationship. And we know that from physical experience, as a father, if you don't fulfill your fatherly role in a way that does harm to your children, your children will suffer. And we can see that in so many ways. But in the case of Adam, it was magnified immensely because all of humanity suffered by that one transgression. So that's the first covenant. And that covenant was a two-party covenant, wasn't it? God made that with Adam, and he made it with all of his children that would be born to him. And it was fulfilled if Adam didn't eat of that fruit, but it was broken when Adam did eat of that fruit. And when Adam ate of that fruit, then no longer was he the covenant head of the children, because that covenant was broken. And so God brought death upon him and all of his children, his seed.

But in the same way, of course, the argument is given in Romans 5, that all of Christ's seed were in him when he obeyed, and therefore they are righteous. In fact, the righteousness of God is imputed to them because they're in Christ. So we have this covenant of Adam, and the reason it's so significant, not only for everything that I've said to this point, but because 1 Corinthians 15, verse 22 says this, as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. So this is very significant in Christ and in Adam, two covenant heads. And in the first, the first Adam, all die because of his transgression. In the second Adam, the last Adam, all live. See, all in Christ live.

And we know that all who are in Christ shall be raised from death to life, not only spiritually, but in their bodies, because it goes on in 1 Corinthians 15 to argue that the resurrection of the dead will be when Christ, the second Adam, the last Adam, overcomes death, the man. Christ Jesus overcomes death, because as death came by the man, so life, resurrection from the dead, comes by Christ, the second and last Adam. So there's that comparison there as well. And we know therefore because we have the spirit of Christ that we shall be raised in body. And we have the spirit of Christ because Christ gives his spirit to all of his redeemed ones. We'll see that also in a minute.

So the first covenant was a two-party covenant between God and Adam and all of Adam's seed. But the other covenants in scripture are, hang on, let me just, I gotta do something that I failed to do a minute ago. This is my fault.

Okay, the other covenants in scripture are different in some ways. So the second covenant God made was made with Noah, and Noah, It says in Genesis 6, let me just read that with you. This is where it's mentioned in Genesis 6. I don't want to spend too much time on this, but I just want to give you these so that you'll know these are real. He says in Genesis 6, God said, but with thee, with Noah, will I establish my covenant and thou shalt come into the ark thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee. and of every living thing of all flesh, and so on. So, two by two.

So, God made a covenant with Noah, and that covenant was that in the ark, Noah and his sons, and their wives, and Noah's wife, and all these animals that God listed here, they would all be preserved in the ark. So this covenant also was made with Noah, And what was the requirement of it? He had to be in the ark. He had to be in the ark. And that, of course, that ark was pitched. And that pitch in scripture means atonement. And so we see that the atoning work of Christ was foreshadowed by the ark, Christ himself, in whom all believers are. was foreshadowed by the ark in which Noah and all of his family were put and that was a covenant. It foreshadowed the covenant God made with Christ because God made this with Noah and his children, his sons and their wives.

Okay, the third covenant was made with Abraham. And this covenant was made with Abraham. It's also in Genesis. It's amazing how much happens in Genesis. But in Genesis chapter 12, and you don't realize that this is a covenant when it's first spoken of in Genesis 12, but it's expanded in Galatians. So I'll read it to you. It says, He says in Genesis chapter 12, the Lord had said to Abraham, get out of thy country from thy kindred, from thy father's house to a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing, and verse three is the verse, and I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee, and here it is, in thee, in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

All right, that was a covenant. He says in Genesis 22, furthermore, with Abraham at the occasion of him offering up his son Isaac, by myself have I sworn. And so God confirmed that covenant with an oath he swore by himself. And in Galatians chapter three, this covenant is talked about, and in verse six, I'm gonna pick it up, Galatians three, He says, even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

So, who are the children? Who are the seed that would be blessed? The children of Abraham. And he says, those are those who believe. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And what was counted to Abraham was righteousness. And the righteousness that was counted to Abraham, we know from Romans 4, and this place also, was the obedience of Christ. So we see here that just as Abraham was counted righteous for Christ's sake, God did this. God justified Abraham in the righteousness of his son, Christ. And the faith that God gave to Abraham was faith in Christ. And all who have this faith also are justified by the righteousness of Christ.

And I have to say at this point, I've said it a lot, not because of faith, but faith as the evidence You see, this is very significant. And just this week I was listening to the Bible reading and I came across this again. Look at Galatians 3 verse 26. He says, you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Now, does faith make us children? Does faith, our subjective faith in Christ, make us children of God? The answer is no.

But, God gives us His Spirit and births us, creating us in Christ, raising us spiritually from our death in sins, and that life is Christ in us, and Christ's life in us breathes and heartbeats and thinks faith in Christ. So how do you know someone's alive nowadays? Well, they usually attach some kind of monitor to them to see their brainwaves, or to listen to their heartbeat, or perhaps listen to their breath. And all those things are indications of life. What is the indication of life for the children of God? He says here, you're all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

God gives all. We don't come up with faith. This is a mistake of a false religion. The message of false religion is God has done all this and now it's up to you to believe to make it work. But the gospel is God has done all of this. And in believing Christ, you know it. You're persuaded of it. You see it. You embrace it because God has given you this gift, this grace of faith. And the reason this is done is because Christ died for you, because God gave you to him. Christ died for us. He redeemed us. And so in Galatians 3, he's talking about this. Those who are the true children of Abraham are those who believe on Christ, just like he did.

I want to read on first in chapter 3 of Galatians. He says in verse 7, Know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham, and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith." Here is the explanation of that Old Testament scripture in Genesis 12.3. God's giving his interpretation. He says, the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel to Abraham, saying, quote, in thee shall all nations be blessed.

Now, did that mean that everybody in the world would be blessed by Abraham? No. No, it did not mean that. Are all Gentiles saved? No. Are all Jews saved? No. Okay, well then, when God said all nations, he didn't mean everybody without exception. What did he mean? He meant all who are given faith. You see, faith is that gift of God to his people that enables them to receive the truth that in Christ, they're redeemed from sin and from the curse of the law. Faith enables that. Without faith, we couldn't see it. We wouldn't know it. And that faith is, as I said before, it's the fruit. It's produced by Christ in you. The Spirit of God is given to us. Nicodemus was befuddled by all this. The Lord said, you must be born of the water and the wind, of the Word and the Spirit, in John 3, verse 5. And so the Spirit blows where He pleases, where He listeth, as it says in the King James Version. You can't tell where the wind is blowing. You don't know where it came from. You don't know where it's going. You can't help it. You can't stop it. This is a sovereign act of God the Holy Spirit.

Okay, so you don't contribute to it. And nowhere in John chapter 3 does it ask the sinner to do anything. He says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, faith ascribes, it looks to and sees all in Christ, and that gift is from God, to see it all in Christ, and to lay hold upon Him. This is my all, this is Christ, Christ for me, and coming to God through Him. This is the way that this gift from God does.

And God is saying here in Galatians 3, that this is the covenant God made with Abraham. He goes on in Galatians 3, He says, In verse 8, the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached the gospel to Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

For as many as are of the works of the law, now he's contrasting, he's contrasting what God did with Abraham with the law. That's what he's about to do here. No one is justified by the law. And he's gonna contrast the law with this. So now this, and I haven't got to it yet, but he's going to show us that this covenant that God made with Abraham was a two-party covenant, just like the covenant God made with Christ in Psalm 89. In fact, it's the same one. It's a two-party covenant between God the Father and God the Son in the Lord Jesus Christ, But because it is a two-party covenant in the Godhead, therefore, for us, it's a testament. It's a one-party covenant where Christ is the testator. And that's what he's going on to show here. He's going to contrast this with the law.

Now, the law is a two-party covenant. The parties involved in the law covenant are God and man. And because man is involved in it as a two-party covenant, guess what? That covenant fails miserably. It cannot give life. In fact, it can only minister death and condemnation. And it's written in letters. It's not written in the heart. It's a law covenant. It depends on us. Romans 4 says what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.

So the law covenant is two-party but because man is one of the parties in that covenant, It fails. Men break that covenant. That's what it says in Romans 3, 23. All have sinned. All have broken that covenant. Sometimes people say, well, it was really unfair of God to make Adam alone in that first covenant and with us so that we fell in Adam. I mean, that wasn't fair. I mean, if I was there, I might have done things differently. Shouldn't I have stood by myself? Oh, you get the chance to stand by yourself. Keep the law. You'll fail. You've already failed. Just thinking the thought is already failure because you can't do it. You're already a sinner.

But he goes on in Galatians 3, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continue with not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. So if you fail any of them, You're cursed, but that no man is justified. Verse 11, Galatians 3, verse 11. But that no man is justified by the law and the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. In other words, God has already said in the Old Testament, Habakkuk 2, verse 4, that it's not by the law but by faith. And these two things are different because he says, and the law is not of faith. In other words, faith doesn't allow for failure. Faith doesn't allow for our works. Faith doesn't allow for boasting. Faith allows only for God to do all in our salvation.

The law is done of faith, but the man that doeth them in the law shall live, which is a quotation from Leviticus. And then he goes on, verse 13. Here's what faith says. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us as it is written. For it is written, curse it is everyone that hangs on a tree. Okay, so Christ redeemed us from that curse, that curse of that covenant which we failed to keep. and which Adam also failed to keep, and we failed in him. Christ redeemed us from that curse.

He goes on in verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that blessing being justification. and because of justification, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The faith that God gives to us, to look to Christ only, is the same faith that is the result of His Spirit, and all of this comes to us because of Christ's redeeming work. So it all works together. Faith looks to Christ, who did all in order for God to be merciful to us in faithfulness in this covenant.

And so I'm going to go on and read in verse 15, "'Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant.'" He's drawing a comparison between the covenant men make between each other. Yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. And if you were a lawyer, you'd say, look, we've got a written document here. This covenant, this agreement was made by people. The courts are going to honor it. You can't just break it. You can't stop. You can't do that. This covenant is set down in the legal document.

He goes in verse 16. Now, to Abraham and his seed, singular, were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, plural, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. So here, he's making it clear that the covenant that God made on behalf of his people, he made only with Christ, and them with Christ as the head of this covenant.

Verse 17, and this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect. So he's trying to prove here that the covenant that God made with Christ preceded the law, because the Galatians were being tempted to trust in the law in order for them to become perfect. He says, no, no, Abraham was under this covenant, and Abraham was the father of all them that believe. Those who are of faith are the true children of Abraham. Abraham was not justified by the law. That came 430 years later. Abraham was counted righteous in the righteousness of Christ.

And Abraham's faith in what God said concerning Christ, the gospel that was preached to Abraham when he said, in thee, meaning in Christ, shall all nations be blessed. that God would justify the heathen, and him also, because of Christ. And in believing that, they would be looking to Christ in whom they were justified. And so the evidence of their justification in him would become apparent, and they would know it then. But the realization of that justification in Christ was not the legal grounds for it. That was Christ in his blood, in his obedience. Faith is just the gift of God that allows us to realize this and receive it to ourselves as being the truth from heaven. So he goes on, he says in verse 17 again, this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of law, it is no more of promise."

Okay, here we have another distinction between these covenants. The covenant God made with Christ is a covenant between one in the Godhead, and so it's a testament, but it's called a covenant because between the Father and the Son, on our behalf, it becomes a covenant of promise. He says, for if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise. The law is not like this. It wasn't a covenant of promise. It was a covenant of works. Those are different.

So what we're seeing here, first of all, is that there are two kinds of covenants, a covenant of works, which involves man as one of the parties, and a covenant of promise, which does not involve man as one of the parties who fulfill the conditions of it. But in the covenant of promise, Christ fulfills all of the conditions. And God fulfills His word of promise because Christ fulfilled the conditions.

What was the conditions? What was the covenant? Look at Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11, I want you to see this. What was this covenant that God made with Christ on our behalf? What was it? Well, he says in Romans 11 verse 27, this is my covenant to them, when I shall take away their sins. Oh my goodness. This is God's covenant with his people. When I shall take away their sins, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Do you see the seed of Christ in all these things? His children named here, those in this covenant were named of God. They were the elect of God. They were called the remnant.

according, look at Romans chapter 11 and verses 5, it says, even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace if by grace it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise work is no more work what then, notice, Israel Not everybody. Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for. But who has? The election hath obtained it. You see? You see the specificity here? This covenant? It has to do with a remnant. An election according to the... I mean, a remnant according to the election of grace. Not of works, of grace. The whole point of election is to take away all grounds for our boasting.

But back to Galatians chapter 3 and verse 19 now, he says, wherefore then serveth the law. Okay, well if God made this covenant with Abraham and promises were made in it, and it made sure, it made justification sure to all of the chosen seed, which were the children of promise, God promised they would be His children in this covenant, and they would be His children by Jesus Christ, and Christ would fulfill this covenant by being made a curse for them and saving them from their sins. That's the content of this covenant. He would take away their sins. That was what He promised in it. And how would that be? Well, only if Christ shed His blood. So in verse 19, He said, why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come, till Christ. To whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. The one to whom the promises was made was Christ. The promise God made to Abraham that he would justify the heathen through faith was made to Christ.

Now a mediator, he says in verse 20, is not a mediator of one. You can't have a mediator between one person. It's always between two parties. But God is one. It's showing that the covenant was between the Father and the Son in Christ, and on our behalf. God did this, and for us this is a testament.

Is the law then against the promises of God? No, God forbid, for if there had been a law which could have given life, verily, righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Okay, so we see now, the promise is given to them that believe. It's given, when God gives them faith, they realize God made this promise in Christ. Christ performed the conditions to fulfill every contingency in this covenant, and because of his shed blood, our sins are removed according to what God promised us in this covenant. And this is all made in Christ. God did this. It's a certain covenant.

So we see that the nature of the two kinds of covenants in Scripture are a covenant that depends on man and a covenant that depends only on Christ. And the first is a covenant of works. And everyone under a covenant of works dies. They're under the curse. They're under the bondage of that covenant. They cannot be delivered from it unless Christ delivers them.

And the way God delivers his people in Christ is he first made a covenant with Christ that predated, predated all other covenants. It's called an everlasting covenant. And that's why he says in scripture that Christ is the head of this covenant because he was from everlasting and to everlasting. He's the everlasting father in this covenant.

And now I want to take you to a few more scriptures concerning this so you can see this. Look at just a few here. Look at Hebrews chapter 13. And this is probably the easiest one to see, and that's why I'm gonna go there, so in case I run out of time, we'll get to the important ones.

In Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 20, notice this. This is the end of the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews was showing Christ fulfilled all of the old covenant, and the old covenant is done away in Christ. And now we have the new covenant. It's not new because it came after the law. but because it's newly fulfilled. Christ was newly slaughtered, newly offered, and fulfilled it in that when Christ came, He's the one to whom the promises were made, and His death put this covenant into force, even though it was really already in pledge and God's decree, it was in force from before the foundations of the world.

But here, notice this. Hebrews 13, verse 20. Now the God of peace, because he established 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.

So God is showing here that this covenant, that's an everlasting covenant, has blood that put it into force. The blood of the everlasting covenant. Jesus said this when he took that cup and gave it to his disciples. He said, this cup is the New Testament. Testament. The one-sided will. The testator is going to die. This cup is the New Testament in my blood. Christ's blood had to be shed in order for the promises a new covenant to be given to his people. He was the one with whom God made this covenant on behalf of his people to take away their sins. To do that, he had to shed his blood. He had to bear their sins and endure the curse for their sins. And that was on his part, the obedience that is the righteousness of God imputed to us.

He was made sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. All right, so now we see that this covenant, not only did Christ shed His blood and put it into force, and that was the taking away of our sins as promised, but He says, 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. So that in this covenant, everything that God does is done on behalf of Christ for his people and in his people. Faith, love, all the fruits of the Spirit are given to us out of the meritorious work of Christ on the cross. And that's why so much is said about this. Because of righteousness, we live. Christ is the resurrection. Everything that God says about Christ for his people is contained in this covenant.

And so in scripture, when God made a covenant with Abraham, and God made a covenant with David, and God made this covenant with David and with Abraham, and even the one with Noah, all prefigured this covenant. The gospel was preached to Abraham, and that gospel told of a covenant God made with Christ, fulfilled in Christ's blood. The benefits, the promises made in that covenant are given to the elect. So we read, In Ephesians chapter 1, for example. I'm just going to turn to a couple of scriptures here. So you see the theme is throughout scripture. He says in Ephesians 1 and verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with what? All, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So that includes the promises that God made to Abraham. Everything is in Christ.

So then we understand that when God spoke in 1 Corinthians 15, 22, all in Adam die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. He's saying in Adam is one covenant. In Christ is another covenant.

The one in Christ is a covenant of promise. a covenant of grace, a covenant of righteousness, a covenant of eternal life, a covenant in which the recipients of the blessings are made the children of God, the Spirit of God is given to them in their hearts, they're given faith in Christ, everything flows to them because of this covenant made by Christ's precious blood.

And so he goes on in Ephesians 1, He says, not only did He give us all spiritual blessings, but according to that, all spiritual blessings, He chose us in Him, in Christ, 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.

All the work is God's. He initiated it, He promised it, He made this covenant, He appointed Christ to it, He anointed Him for it, He sent Christ into the world, He enabled Him by His Spirit to fulfill all of His law and lay down His life, laying our sins upon Him, and then raising Him again by His almighty power and with Him, us, and giving us His righteousness, justifying Him and justifying us in that resurrection, giving us His Spirit to know this faith by the life of Christ in us.

He goes on in Ephesians 1, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, that's Christ, in whom we have redemption through His blood, forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, and that was according to what? The covenant.

This is the covenant that I will make with them when I will take away their sins. All right, you see this? I hope that you do. When you read Psalm 89 then, and you read of all these promises that God makes to the Lord Jesus Christ, read them as promises God made to him on behalf of his people, and they were made sure because Christ was made the surety, and the surety shed his blood. He answered God in everything with himself for his people, and he And he did so as the surety and he said, let them go. Take me instead of them. And he gave himself for our sins.

Amazing grace. What a covenant. What a covenant. Everything in this world is ordered according to this covenant. In 2 Samuel 23 verse 5, David said that all of his salvation, all of his desire was this covenant that God made with him in Christ. And that's true of every believer. Both David and Abraham believed Christ and were justified by Christ exactly in the same way every child of God is justified. They were given the Spirit of God to be their God and Father, birthed by God, also by the same Spirit, just as we are.

It's no wonder that Jesus asked Nicodemus, you're a master in Israel and you don't know these things? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we pray that you would enlighten our hearts to understand the truth of your word and see your greatness and your glories in all that you've done for us, a sinful people, because by your grace you chose to lay down your life, you delight in mercy, and now you sing this great song to us of all that you've accomplished in singing and declaring to us the name of your Father and our God and how by your own blood you've made us children of God and given us your spirit to know these things and to believe on you, to trust you in all things and to ascribe all glory and all credit to you for our life and our eternal inheritance.

What a Savior. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.