Okay, this evening we want to
bring our study from Nehemiah chapter 10. We'll use most of
the verses from verse 28 down through verse 39 of Nehemiah
10. But I'm actually taking the title for the message from Nehemiah
chapter 9 verse 38 where it says, and because of all this, Because
of all this, this burden, this heartache, this trial, our sin,
we make a sure covenant and we write it and our princes and
Levites and priests, we seal it, we seal it unto the Lord. Or as a marginal reference has,
sealing or sealing it unto the Lord our God. So I'm taking the title for the
message from that verse and the title will be a sure covenant,
a sure covenant. Now don't you enjoy things that
are sure I enjoy things that are certain and sure. We read in the word of God in
Isaiah 28, the Lord said, behold, I lay in Zion for foundation,
a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. That sure foundation is none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in 2 Timothy 2, the
Lord said, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this
seal, the Lord knoweth those that are his. And then we studied
in 2 Peter 1, where Peter talks about, we have a more sure word
of prophecy. Remember, I enjoy the promises
of God, that are recorded in the word of the Lord, that are
certain and sure, are they not? I rejoice in the things that
are certain and sure. I rejoice in the things that
do not change. Our God does not change. Everything
He has promised is certain and sure. You remember the last words
of David in 2 Samuel 23? And he says, although it be not
so with my house, God had made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and this is sure, the covenant of God
is sure. And then we read just a moment
ago from Isaiah 55, verse three, incline your ear, Come unto me
and hear, and your soul shall live, and I'll make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Salvation is certain and sure
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is called the Son of David, but
he's also the greater David. He is God our Savior. Our God
is a covenant God. All of his covenant engagements,
all of his covenant promises shall be honored and fulfilled
through the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember our Lord said, I
didn't come to destroy the law. I came to honor the law of God. I came to fulfill the law of
God. All that God had promised, he's
able to perform. Of all that he has spoken, not
one word has failed. He cannot fail because He's God.
The covenant of the law of Moses, the covenant of the law given
to Moses was but a type and figure of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and salvation
accomplished by Him. In all that law of Moses, what
was the central part of that law of Moses about how sin is
put away and how sin is made an atonement for? It was a blood
sacrifice, was it not? Everything revolved around the
sacrificial substitute, the blood of an animal, blood sacrifices,
and especially the blood upon the mercy seat on the day of
atonement. All of that is a picture of Christ,
is it not? The coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Listen to this scripture, John 5, 39. The Lord said, search
the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life?
There they which testify of me. And then he said later on, for
had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote
of me. but you believe not his writings,
how shall you then believe my words? All the scriptures concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke 24, you remember these
words, the Lord spoke, he said, while I was yet with you, all
things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses.
All these things that we're reading about in the Law of Moses, all
things written in the Law of Moses and in the prophets and
in the Psalms and the Lord said they were all concerning Him. They're all about Him. All it
describes, all those burnt offerings, the peace offerings, the meal
offerings, all those different offerings and those different
washing and all those different ordinances, all preach to us
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that
is of the Lord. Now, as we read through Nehemiah
chapter 10, all of these men that are mentioned in verse one,
down through verse 28, Now I think it's quite amazing that the Lord
takes particular minute detail to name every name signed on
that document. I think about the Declaration
of Independence of this nation and how those men took great
care in signing their name. They owned it by signing their
name. You remember the name of that
one man? who signed his name in real big letters so everyone
would know and make no mistake he was not ashamed of that covenant,
that document that he signed. Of all these men that signed
this covenant, there were 84 men. 84 men signed this covenant. There was one governor, his name
was Nehemiah. There were 22 priests. There
were 61 Levites that they all signed their name. And the Lord
took notice of it. The Lord took notice of it. Now,
isn't that amazing? The Lord knows his sheep by name. He knows them by name. But you
know what I noticed as I read through these list of names,
and I read it several times, I thought maybe I'd missed it.
As I read through this list of names, 84 names, There was someone
missing. There was a prominent name that
was missing. Nehemiah is there. He's on the
top of the list. But you know whose name is not
given? Ezra. Ezra is the priest of God. And
I thought, well, I've missed it. His name is not there. And as
I read the other commentators, the other commentators that I
read after, Matthew Poole, Matthew Henry, John Gill, and others,
Robert Hawker, they also noticed the same thing. And some of them
speculated, well, maybe he was sick, or maybe he was out of
town, or maybe, we don't know why. We don't know why his name
is not mentioned here, except to say it seemed good to the
Lord that Ezra that day was not there. Ezra that day was not
there. We read of him over in, not that
he had passed away or that he was gone, in Nehemiah chapter
12 verse 36 it says, that Ezra the scribe was before
them. So it's not that he's gone and
not that he's vanished. He's there in the dedication
of the wall in chapter 10 or chapter 12 rather, but he's not
here in this list. Don't have a clue why other than
the fact that it pleased the Lord to do so. The other thing
that I mentioned here, as I pointed out in the reading, in verse
28, verse 29, verse 34, verse 36, how many times it's mentioned
the law of the Lord of our God, as it is written, as it is written. Notice the last part of verse
34, "...to burn upon the altar of the Lord our God as it is
written." And the reference is marginal, you can see the marginal
reference, Leviticus 6, 12. Leviticus 6, 12. Now these men
all came together, signed this covenant, and agreed to follow
the word of the Lord as it is written. Now it's always good
and right to hear the word of the Lord, but not to be a hearer
only, but to be a doer of the word, to be obedient to the word. We studied that in the book of
James. But notice also, in verse 39, the last verse of chapter
10, the last part of verse 39, when it all came down to the
end the bottom line was this, and we will not forsake the house
of our God. Now their fathers had Their forefathers
had. That's why they were in such
trouble and why they spent 70 years in Babylonian captivity,
because they did forsake the word of the Lord. We saw that
plainly, didn't we? All the way through 1 and 2 Kings,
1 and 2 Chronicles, how many times the Lord would send them
a good king like Hezekiah. And during the reign of Hezekiah
and other good kings, there were few of them, but as soon as that
king was removed, the people were right back. in the mess
of following after Baal in idolatry. We will not forsake the house
of our God. We will not forsake the worship
of our God as their fathers had done so repeatedly in the past. Sadly, what they performed, sadly
rather, what they promised, they were not able or willing to perform
what they said. They made a promise and they
kept it for a while, but eventually they got lazy and lax and reverted
right back to unbelief. When Nehemiah comes back to Jerusalem
in chapter 13, he finds them doing what they said they would
not do. If you want to look over there
in chapter 13, We'll look at this one other time. In chapter
13 of Nehemiah, the last chapter, verse 10, And I perceived that
the portion of the Levites had not been given them. For the
Levites and the singers that did the work were fled everyone
to his field. Instead of doing the work of
the Lord, they were out in the field trying to find something
to eat. Then I contended with the rulers
and said, why is the house of our God, the house of God, forsaken? And I will gather them together
and set them in their place. What happened? They made a promise. They were not able, or at least
they were not willing to keep the promise. They did forsake
the worship of our God. Now we are told in the book of
Hebrews, in Hebrews 10, 25, not forsaking of the assembling of
ourselves together as a matter of some is, but exhorting one
another so much the more as you see the day approaching. One
preacher of the past rightly said, the first step toward apostasy
is forsaking the worship of the Lord, assembling together with
the saints of God. Matthew Henry said, those that
forsake the worship of God forsake God altogether. I believe he's so. What I want
us to see in this chapter is how the law of God that was typical
of Christ in the gospel, and how the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
the holy law of God for us. They did forsake the house of
the Lord, but we can be assured of this, the Lord will never
forsake us. Robert Hawker also said this,
the whole covenant of law from beginning to end prefigures the
gospel of Christ and the accomplishment of it by Him. Now that's our
hope. Now, the law of God has to be
honored. God's just not going to shove that law aside. His
law has to be satisfied, justice has to be honored. We can't do
it, no one can do it, not individually or collectively, but the Lord
Jesus Christ representatively did that for His covenant people,
and that's our hope, is it not? I love Isaiah 42, 21. The Lord
is well pleased for His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law
and make it honorable. And He did that for us. One man's
disobedience, by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. So by
the obedience of another shall many be made righteous. We read
many times in Romans 10 where it said that these were ignorant
of the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. They would not
submit themselves unto the righteousness of God in Christ. And then we
read that the Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. The Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law. Aren't you thankful? Oh, I'm
so thankful He's redeemed us from the curse of the law, because
the law says, Cursed is everyone who continues with not an all
thing which is written in the book of the law to do them. Verse
29 says, The people took an oath. The people took an oath to themselves.
Look at verse 29. They claimed to their brethren,
their nobles, and entered into a curse. They entered into a
curse. and into an oath to walk in God's
law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe
and do all the commandments of the Lord, our Lord, and His judgment
and His statute. They entered in and took an oath
upon themselves and the curse of judgment to do all the law
of God." Boy, they took a lot on themselves, didn't they? They
said, we're going to do this or we're going to be damned. You know, this is what the law
of God demands though, isn't it? The law of God demands perfect
obedience or condemnation. Now, I know this, by the deeds
of the law, our doing of the law, shall no flesh be justified. We'll see that in just a minute.
Deuteronomy 27, 26, the Lord said this, Cursed be he that
confirmeth not all the words of the law, of this law to do
them, And all the people shall say, Amen. We agree to this. The law has
to be honored. Now, one thing we know for certain,
no sinner has ever completely and personally kept or honored
the law of God. None. Some people think they
have. Just ask them. It's all of Tartus. Did you keep the law? Oh, it's
concerning law. I was blameless. What about that young rich ruler
who came to the Lord, and he said, Lord, all these things
have I observed from my youth. Now a lot of people think they
have kept the law, think they have honored the law, but certainly
that's not so, is it? If righteousness come by the
law, then Christ is dead in vain. No sinner has ever been, now
listen, no sinner has ever been justified by the deeds of the
law. None. None. We studied that in Romans
3, didn't we? By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. All the law God says to us, stop
your mouth, you're guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified. The saints of the Old Testament
were justified exactly the same way we are justified by believing
God. The just Four times in the Word
of the Lord. The just shall live by faith. True then, true now. For example,
God said of Abraham that he was justified 430 years before the
law was given. God even said he was justified
15 years before the law of circumcision was given. God pronounced him
justified before the law and before he was circumcised. Abraham
believed God, you remember Romans 4? And it was counted to him
for righteousness. Now, when you read through Nehemiah
10 and all of Nehemiah and Ezra, It never says any of these sinners
were justified by their personal obedience to the law of God.
If you can find it, show it to me. I've not seen it, I've not
read it. Not Ezra, not Nehemiah, none
of them. But many of them believed God
and were justified as the law of God was honored by the Lord
Jesus Christ. You remember Paul's first sermon
over here in Acts 13? Can you find that over here in
Acts 13? If you want to find that with me, we'll read it together.
When Paul preached his first sermon, Acts 13, 38, "'Be it
known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this
man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him
all that believe are justified from all things, from which you
could not be justified by the law of Moses." How are we justified? By faith in Christ. By faith in Christ. How are they
justified? By faith in Christ. You remember our Lord said of
Abraham, Abraham saw my day, was glad, and he rejoiced in
my day. He rejoiced in the salvation
that is of the Lord. Now several things here I want
us to notice carefully in Nehemiah chapter 10 verse 28 says that The rest of the people, the priests,
the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethemans, and all
they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands
under the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters,
and everyone have acknowledged and understanding. They separated
themselves from the idolaters, from the heathen in the land. There was a separation from those
idolaters They didn't separate themselves to be justified, but
rather to prevent further idolatry among the people. There was a
separation. There was a separation. But keep
in mind, keep in mind, They weren't separated to justify
themselves, but rather to prevent idolatry. Rather to keep the
way of justification through the blood sacrifice of Christ,
pointing them to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. They didn't want
to mix Baal worship with true worship as they did in their
past history. And we know this, the Lord has
made a separation among his people today. who has made you to differ
from another, what do you have that you did not receive? The
Lord has made a great separation among the people of this world,
has he not? By his choice in electing grace
and by predestinating love. to predestinated people to be
conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has made
a separation among us. God hath from the beginning chosen
a people unto salvation. Why do you do that? says in Matthew 11, he said these
things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes,
even so father for so it seems good in his sight. And we have to leave it there.
God said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Now look
down at verse 31. And if the people of the land
bring ware or vessels on the Sabbath day to sell, that we
would not buy it of them on the Sabbath, or on the holy day that
we would leave the seventh year, we would leave the seventh year,
we would not farm the land or we would not exact the debt. They were, they made a pledge
to honor the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the commandment of
the Lord says. Now, that Sabbath day speaks
of a rest, a Sabbath rest that we have in Christ. We're to do
no work at all and to rest in Him. Salvation is by the grace
of God alone. Now it's amazing, and I listened
as I was trying to find a sermon on Nehemiah chapter 10, I listened
to a preacher. He was a Presbyterian preacher. I've listened to some of his
sermon before and they were okay. But he took this verse here and
he tried to put his people back under that Sabbath law. He tried
to take that Sabbath law and told the people that they had
to observe the Sabbath day, and he made that day somehow, he
made that Sunday. Don't buy, don't eat, keep Sunday
the Sabbath day. Try to put people back under
the law. Now my friend, Christ is our
Sabbath day, Christ is our Sabbath rest. We rest in Him. We don't observe a day. We observe
and believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But see how
sneaky this thing of works is? They want to put people back
under the law. Why do they want to do that?
They want to control people and manipulate people. Preachers
are terrible about that. They are. Especially false preachers
who try to manipulate people. and try to control people. The
thing of the Sabbath day is this, the Sabbath day has been honored
in Christ. He is our Sabbath rest. We're
to do no work at all, that is, salvation is all by grace. Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace. Next time someone
asks you, do you observe the Sabbath day? Say, yes, in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is my Sabbath rest. Remember
from our study of the book of Hebrews, where it says, let us
labor to enter into that rest. Boy, it's a hard thing to rest
in Christ. Apart from His grace, you'll never do it. Let us labor
to enter into that rest. Christ is our Sabbath rest. Now,
our Lord said that in Matthew 11. He said, come unto me all
you who are laboring and heavy laden. Come unto me and I'll
give you rest. Rest for your soul. Someone said
this. And I wrote it down, with conviction
of sin comes comfort in Christ and rest from our labors. That's
good, isn't it? That's good, isn't it? With conviction
of sin comes comfort in Christ. The Holy Spirit conviction leads
us to Christ, our comfort. And rest from our labors. I'm
not working to be justified or to be saved or to be sanctified. We're sanctified and justified
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now from verse 32 down through
verse 34, they took great care in things concerning the maintenance
of worship service around the blood atonement, even so much
they took great detail and even sending out people to chop firewood
for the burnt offering upon the brazen altar." Notice verse 32,
33, and 34. Also, we made ordinances for
us to charge ourselves yearly with a third part of a shekel
for the service of the house of our God, for the shewbread
Remember them 12 loaves. For a continual meat offering,
remember there's a burnt offering in the morning, a burnt offering
in the evening, and for the continual burnt offering of the Sabbaths,
of the new moon, for the set feast, for the holy things, for
the sin offerings, to make an atonement for Israel, for all
the work, of the house of our God, and we cast lots among the
priests, the Levite, and the people for the wood offering,
to bring it unto the house of our God, after the houses of
our Father, that time appointed year by year, to burn upon the
altar the Lord our God, as it is written in the word of the
Lord." Well, they took great details, and they cited everything
that was given in the law of God. Now verse 33, all those
sacrifices in feast days, the Feast of Tabernacle, the Passover
Feast, all the different feast days, the Day of Atonement, all
those sacrifices in feast days pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ,
did they not? And His great sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ being our
great High Priest did not bring the typical animal sacrifice,
did He? He sacrificed His own blood for
us. And doing so, He obtained eternal
redemption for us with His own blood. You see, the Lord Jesus
Christ, He is our atonement for sin. But notice verse 33, there
it mentions the showbread. The showbread. Now, the showbread
was to be put fresh upon that certain table there. within the
holy place, remember, before the veil? And that speaks of
Christ who is the bread of life, right? All that is typical of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Twelve loaves upon the table,
fresh bread, never stale, always fresh. And the Lord Jesus Christ
being the bread of life, He is never stale, is He? He's always
fresh. I love to eat fresh bread, baked
bread. I love to smell it. When it's
hot, take it out of the oven and put butter on it and eat
it. I eat more bread than I should,
but I love it. How much more do God's people enjoy the fresh,
hot, baked bread of the word of the Lord? Because it's Christ
our bread. We feed upon him and his bread
never stale. It's always hot and fresh and
buttery. And the Scripture said, Oh, taste
and see that the Lord is gracious. You remember in 1 Peter 2, 2,
A newborn babe desired the sincere milk of the Word that you might
grow thereby. He is our milk and He is our
bread. Now notice carefully in verse
33, the last part, To make an atonement, this sin offering
and the continual burn offering was to make an atonement. Now an atonement is a covering
for sin. There was a day called the day
of atonement when that priest, once a year, went in under the
veil and he took that blood of a substitute, sacrificial animal,
and sprinkled it on that blood. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. And we know that Christ is our
atonement. Christ is our mercy seat. But notice carefully, To make
an atonement, the Lord made full and complete atonement for somebody. It says here, for Israel. Now
they believed in definite atonement, didn't they? They believed in
particular redemption, and we know that the New Testament teaches
a particular definite atonement to the Lord Jesus Christ made
for His covenant people. Call His name Jesus, He shall
save His people from their sin. Now, I can't stand the idea of
this thing of universal attemptment. The Lord Jesus Christ made an
attempt to put away all the sins of all men, yet some men perish
anyway because they didn't take advantage of it. That puts salvation
in the sinner's hand, not in Christ's hand. The truth of the
matter is the Lord Jesus Christ made complete, full, and eternal
atonement for His covenant people, and they cannot perish because
He paid their debt. He laid down His life for the
sheep. He put away their sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. Now, limited atonement. Look at verse 34. And we cast
lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people for the wood offering
to bring it to the house of our God, after the house of our Father
that at times appointed year by year to burn upon the altar
of the Lord our God as it is written, as it is written. Now
the burning of this altar, the fire upon this altar was to never
go out. You remember that brazen altar.
where the sacrifices were laid out and burnt unto the Lord,
it was to never go out. And this is typical of the ever-living
Lord who ever lived to intercede for us. Now that scripture that's
given there in Leviticus 6, let me just read it to you. The fire
upon the altar shall be burning in it, it shall not be put out. The priest shall burn wood on
it every morning and lay burnt offerings in order upon it. He
shall burn the fat thereof and the peace offering, but the fire
was to never go out. And the fire of the gospel and
the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is an everlasting
gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
only our sacrifice, but he's our altar, right? He is our burnt
altar. Christ is the altar of the Lord
of our God. It says that, to burn upon the
altar of the Lord our God. It's His altar. It's His altar. Christ is our altar. You remember
I've told you in the past, the Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed
His humanity upon the altar of His deity. You see, the altar
set the sacrifice apart as unto the Lord. The altar set the sacrifice
apart unto the Lord our God. What sets the sacrifice of Christ
apart? Who He is. He sacrificed His
humanity upon the altar of His deity. That's what sets His sacrifice
apart. And Christ is our continual burnt
offering unto God. Hebrews 9, He appeared in heaven
itself now to appear in the presence of God for us? Right now, He
ever lived to intercede for us? Now, in verse 35 down to verse
39, and my time is gone, we see that the Lord graciously provided
for the priest to perform the work of the Lord around the temple. Every minute detail was taken
care of. Remember, all the other tribes
were given a parcel of land. the twelve tribes when they came
into the land of Canaan, but none was given to the tribe of
Levi. The other eleven tribes were
to take care of them because their main business was in the
service of the house of the Lord, in the temple of the Lord, doing
that priestly work. But notice how the Lord provides
all things for them in such a meticulous way. And we see in this a picture
and type of the Lord Jesus Christ providing all things for us,
how He has made us kings and priests unto our God, and how
He has provided all things for us. All things provided for these
priests under the law. and being made priests and kings,
kings and priests unto our God, the Lord hath provided all things
for us. Our God shall supply all your
need according to His riches in glory through the Lord Jesus
Christ." And verse 35 and verse 36, "...the firstfruits of the
ground, And if the trees are mentioned, they belong to the
Lord. They were given unto the Lord.
And we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is the firstfruits from
the ground, is He not? He's the firstfruits of the resurrection
from the dead. And the firstfruits guarantee
the whole harvest will come through. Christ is the first fruit. And
then verse 36, it mentions the firstborn among the sons and
among the cattle belonged to the Lord. They were to be dedicated
unto the Lord. And we know the Lord Jesus Christ
is called the only begotten Son. of God. God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. He's the firstborn Son, the only
begotten Son that was given for us. Verse 37 mentions the first
fruit of the dough. the fruit of the trees, of wine,
of oil, the tenth part of the harvest, was all given to support
the work of the Lord in the house of the Lord and the priest of
God. Verse 38 says, The sons of Aaron,
the Levites, were to take up the tithes among the people to
support the work of the Lord. Now, stay with me. In Malachi
3.10, it says, Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that
there may be meat, in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith
the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven,
and pour out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough
to receive it." Under the law, they were to give a tenth to
support the ministry, the Levite, in the work of the Lord. But
now, the Lord Jesus Christ, He didn't give a tenth part, did
He? In providing for us, who are
the priest of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest,
didn't give a tenth part to support us. He gave everything. Everything. You remember 2 Corinthians
8-9? He said, For you know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your
sake he became poor, that you through his poverty might be
made rich. Verse 39, I'll wind this up. For the children of Israel and
the children of Levi shall bring the offering of corn, of new
wine, of oil into the chambers where are the vessels of the
sanctuary and the priests that minister and the porters and
the singers and we will not... Boy, that's strong, isn't it?
We will not forsake the house of our God. Bring everything
into the chambers and the sanctuary and to the house of our God to
support the priests, the porters, the singers. 84 men made a public
commitment to serve the Lord as prescribed in the law of the
Lord. Don't know how many years this
went on. We read through chapter 12 where
it says that they were still honoring the Lord in chapter
12 verse 47 in chapter 12, and all Israel
in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave
portions of the singers and the porters every day his portion,
and they sanctified holy things unto the Levites, and the Levites
sanctified them to the children of Aaron. So there was a number
of years, I don't know how many, they went on. But somewhere along
the line, they began to forget what they had said that they
would do. And when Nehemiah chapter 13,
when he went back to the king there in Babylon, and he was
gone for some time, when he came back, he stood them to the face. Look
at verse 11. Nehemiah 13, then I contended
with the rulers and said, why is the house of God forsaken? I tell you, we're weak. We're
frail. I mean, these 84 men, boy, they
stood up or counted and said, we will not forsake the house
of the Lord. And yet we find that they did. Nehemiah's strong rebuke for
their failure. But we know this, in the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, He will never forsake us. He will always remain faithful
to His covenant, faithful to His promise, faithful to His
people. He said, Lo, I am with you always. The Lord Jesus Christ cannot
forsake us. You know why? He was forsaken of God there
on Calvary's tree. He cried, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? He was forsaken for us, being
made sin for us, we shall never be forsaken by Him. Thank God for the sure covenant
of mercies, for the sure covenant of grace, ordered in all things
and is sure. He said, He's the same. He said, I am the same yesterday,
today, and forever. The sure mercies of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We can count on Him. We can count
on Him. He's faithful to His Word. Faithful
to His promise. Faithful to His gospel covenant.
Faithful to that eternal covenant of grace.