It's good for brethren to dwell
together in unity, isn't it? You don't have to turn here in
your Bibles. I just want to read two verses from Isaiah chapter
41 when the poor. And the needy. Seek water. And there is none. And their
tongue faileth for thirst. I the Lord will hear them. I,
the God of Israel. Will not forsake them. I will
open rivers in high places. and fountains in the midst of
the valley, I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land
springs of water." That's God's promise to his people. We live
in a dry and thirsty land. We've all sought to satisfy and
quench our thirst in this world, only to find it to be a broken
cistern. Now the Lord promises to send rivers of living water
from his throne. Pray that he'll do that. Quench
our thirst for real this morning. Let's stand together. Brother
Bert's going to come lead us in the hymn on the back of your
bulletin. Once more we go before our God,
once more His blessing ask. O may not duty seem a load, nor
worship prove a task. May we receive the word we hear
each in an honest heart. Hoard up the precious treasure
there and never let it part. ? To see thee all our hearts
dispose ? ? To each thy blessings suit ? ? And let the seed thy
servants sow ? ? Produce a heavenly fruit ? Revive the parched with
heavenly showers, the cold with warm divine. And as the benefit it is ours,
be all the glory thine. Maybe sing that. Good morning. Let us go for our
scripture reading. It's found in John chapter 5. John chapter 5. We're going to
read verses 31 through the end of the chapter. John 5, the Gospel
of John 5.31. The context is, of course, that
the Lord Jesus Christ At a hill, a man told him to get up and
take thy bed and walk. And the Pharisees, instead of
worshiping or looking for who this was, they were concerned
of who broke the salve, instead of being thankful for the God,
for the miracle. Verse 31 says, if I bear witness
of myself, myself is not true. There is another that bears witness
of me. And I know that the witness which he witnesses is true. You
sent John to John, and he bore witness of the truth. This is
the first witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's referring
to John. But I received not testimony
from man, but these things I say that you might be saved. He's
saying this for their benefit, for their salvation. He was a
burning and shining light, and you were willing for a season
to rejoice in his light. So for a season only, they were
willing to rejoice in the preaching of John the Baptist. But I have
greater witness that of John. The works which the Father has
given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness
of me that the Father has sent me. That's the second witness,
his works, his miracles and his ministry. Remember when John
was in the jail, he doubted and he sent his disciples to ask.
And Jesus' answer was, he told them what he was doing. So that
was a witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the father himself,
which he sent, bore witness of me. You have neither heard his
voice, at a time, at any time. So he's saying the third witness
is the father himself. Well, he's telling the Pharisees,
and you have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his
shape. So they have not heard the Father's
voice nor his shape. The Colossians says that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the shape of the Father. He's the image,
perfect image of the Father. So they have not seen Jesus.
And you have not his word abiding in you. For whom he has sent
him you do not believe. You do not believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he says, search the scriptures,
for in them you think that you have eternal life. And they are
they which testify of me. He's telling them, you know the
Old Testament. You search them. And they search them in such
a way, thinking that that's the end of themselves. But the Old
Testament, all of it, the end is just a means to the Lord Jesus
Christ. They point to the Lord Jesus
Christ. They are all about the Lord Jesus Christ. And they trust
in the scriptures, thinking that And then they find eternal life.
And this is also what happens today as well. And you will not
come to me that you may not have life. I receive not honor from
man, but I know you that you have not the love of God in you. You see, those who have the love
of God in them is because God has, by grace, given them life. And they did not have the love
of God in them. If I have come in my father's name and you receive
me not, if another shall come in his own name, him you will
receive, yes. If you do not receive, you do
not have the love for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll
receive anybody else, anybody else except the Lord Jesus Christ.
He, how can you believe which receive honor from one another
And seek not the honor that comes from God only. This is part of
what we heard this morning, isn't it? We are sinful beings and we want
honor from other people. And this is what the religious
want, they want recognition and honor from everybody else, except
from God. Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There's one that accuses you,
even Moses, in whom you trust. Anyone who trusts in the law
and they are what they believe to be their law following The
law obedience will be accused by that same law God will judge
and God will use the law and the wrath of God will come using
the law For you believe Moses If you believe Moses, like if
you really have understood Moses, you would have believed me for
he wrote of me and Right? This is new to anyone who does
not know the Lord Jesus Christ, because you read Moses and you
see the law, the Ten Commandments, and all you think is that you've
seen about the law, but no, he wrote it, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the message. That is the message of the Old
Testament. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you
believe my words? So if you do not believe, understand
that God does not open the ears, On an understanding, uh, how
can they believe in Lord Jesus Christ? And this is, this is
so true. And what was preached this morning
regarding if God doesn't give you the ears to hear, you will
not hear, you know, these, these Pharisees knew the Old Testament
and some of them even memorize the five books of the Pentateuch. Amazing, but if god does not
give us ears to hear we will not hear the lord jesus christ.
Let us go to the father Father god, we come before you the only
way the only way that we dare to come to you is By the lord
jesus christ by his merits by his death on the cross We look
to him for your our access to you. We give you thanks for your
wonderful mercies, for your wonderful grace, all the blessings that
we have in Christ, we give you thanks for that. We give you
thanks for this service, we give you thanks for your word, Father.
We come humbly before you in need of your spirit. We desperately
need your spirit to teach us, Father, about Christ, for us
to see more and more the glory of Christ in him alone, Father.
May this be true this morning. May you fill us with the Holy
Spirit, both the speaker and all us hearers. May you do the
same to all the gospel preaching ministries and churches that
preach the gospel, Father God. We're in great need of you. In
Jesus' name we pray, amen. Number 185 in the blue handbook,
and you can remain seated, number 185. Glorious things of Thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God, Thee whose word cannot be broken. ? Form thee for his own abode
? On the rock of ages founded ? What can shake thy sure repose
? With salvation's walls surrounded ? Thou mayest smile at all thy
foes. See the streams of living water
springing from eternal love. Well supply thy sons and daughters
and all fear of one removed, who can faint? Such a river ever flows, their
thirst to swage, grace which, like the Lord, the giver, never
fails from age to age. ? Round each habitation hovering
? ? See the cloud and fire appear ? ? For a glory and a covering
? ? Showing that the Lord is near ? ? Glorious things of thee
are spoken ? If the world only knew That the only thing that was
holding back. The fiery wrath of God's judgment
was the presence of Zion, the Holy City. Just like. The Lord would not
rain fire on Sodom until lot came out. So it is with this
world. The Lord is going to take away
his church. And then there'll be no more need. Zion, city of
our God. What a blessing it is to be here. Let's open our Bibles together
to Malachi chapter 2 again. Malachi chapter 2. I've titled this message, My
Covenant with Levi. My Covenant with Levi. Now we know that the entire Bible,
all of scripture, from the beginning to the end is a revelation of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an autobiography that he
has written about himself. And many different types and
shadows are used to illustrate Christ in his different facets
and ministries and glories. We know that David, a man after
God's own heart, we don't study the life of David in order to
learn things about David. We look, as the Lord said, in
that passage you read, you go, you search the scriptures because
you think in them you have eternal life, and men do that. They study
the Bible because they think that they can just understand
more of the Bible, more of its history, more of its characters,
more of its doctrine, more of its theology, then they can secure
for themselves eternal life. And what'd the Lord say? You've
missed it altogether? For these are they which testify
of me." All of scripture in the volume of the book, it is written
of me. It's all about Christ. He's the one that we need to
learn. All ye that labor and are heavy laden, come unto me
and learn of me. My yoke is easy, my burden is
light. We've got to learn of Christ. He must make himself
known to our hearts in order for us to lay him to heart as
we saw in the previous hour. Lest dung be smeared on our faces
and our blessings become a curse to us. So when we look at a man
like Levi, we're not looking at Levi. We're looking at Christ. When I title this message, My
Covenant with Levi, that's the type that's given to us by Malachi
in Malachi chapter 2. Levi is being talked about. Now
who was Levi? You remember Rachel and Leah? the two wives of Jacob and the
jealousy that existed between them. And the Lord, the scripture
says, opened Leah's womb and she gave Jacob children and Rachel
didn't have any children. And there was a great jealousy
between them. And Levi was the third of Leah's
children, the third one. Now, Jacob loved Rachel. And he just kind of took Leah
because he had to. But he loved Rachel. And Rachel wanted to earn her
husband's favor. And so she named her third son
Levi, which translated means joined. And she said, now my
husband's heart will be joined to me for I've given him three
sons. Well it never was. Never was. And the things that are said
about Levi in this passage could never relate to Levi. Remember
Levi and Simeon were brothers and Levi and Simeon had a sister
named Dinah who was taken advantage of by Shechem and his father
Hamor and Levi and Simeon put together a plot for restoring
their sister's honor. And they said to Shechem, we'll
allow your city to be part of our city if you'll all be circumcised. And so all the men circumcised
themselves. And the scripture says, while
they were recovering, Simeon and Levi went in and killed every
man in the city. to avenge the honor of their
sister. And Jacob, as a result of that,
Jacob said, look you've made my name an aspersion to the land
and Jacob had to move. He had to leave the area because
everybody was hating Jacob and his sons now because of what
Levi did. Now that all happened before
Before Jacob went down to Egypt, 400 years later, Moses and Aaron
are described in the scriptures as from the tribe of Levi. They
were Levites. And after the exodus, when they
got into the wilderness, the Lord made Aaron the high priest
and told Aaron that his sons, the Levites, would become the
priests. They would become the ones who
would minister the gospel among the people of Israel. They would
be the ones who would make the offerings to God. They would
be the ones that would offer up prayers. they would be the
ones that received from God the message of the gospel, and they
would be the priests. The priestly tribe was the tribe
of the Levites. So, the Lord Jesus Christ, the
scripture makes clear in Hebrews chapter 7, and in Hebrews chapter
8, and Hebrews chapter 9, is our High Priest. He just as David and Joseph and Moses and Levi are all types
of the Lord, Levi is a type of Christ. So when the scripture
says in our text, look at me to Malachi chapter 2, after the
Lord said, if you will not lay it to heart, if you will not
hear, verse 4, and you shall know that I have sent this commandment
unto you that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord
of hosts." Now, what do God's people want to hear, thus saith
the Lord? This is what God says, I'm going
to do this in order for you to know that my covenant, my league,
my agreements, my promises are with Levi. my priest. Turn to me to Hebrews chapter
7. Hebrews chapter 7. This passage of scripture is
not about Levi. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ
with whom God made a covenant, an eternal covenant, an everlasting
covenant. an alliance, a promise, an agreement,
a pledge. This covenant was made before
the foundation of the world where God the Father made a pledge
with his son to give to him a bride. And God elected a particular
people as the church or the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord Jesus Christ entered into this covenant as our Levi, as
our priest. He entered into the covenant
with his father and agreed to do everything necessary for the
redemption of God's elect. I'm doing this in order that
you might know that my covenant is with Levi. My covenants with
Levi, that covenant cannot be broken. Hebrews chapter 7, look at verse
21. For these priests, speaking of
the Old Testament priests, were made without an oath. In other
words, they were born into the priestly family. If you were
a descendant of Levi, you were automatically part of the priestly
family. by virtue of your birth. There was no oath taken. And
so the Lord says, those priests were made without an oath. But
this priest, this one, the Lord Jesus Christ, with an oath, by
him that swear unto him, the Lord swear and will not repent,
thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now
that's from Psalm 110. God is speaking of his son, And
he's saying, I'm making an oath with you. Now the message here
is the covenant of Levi. It's the covenant of grace. It's
the eternal covenant of redemption that God, the father made with
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the hope of our salvation.
It's not a covenant that we've made with God. Isaiah chapter
28 says, you've made a covenant with death, and with hell you're
in agreement. You've made your promises, you've
made your leagues, you've made your pledges, and then the Lord
says, but I'm going to disannul your covenant. You're not going
to be saved by any promises that you've made. You're not going
to be saved by anything that you've done. The means of salvation
is the covenant that I've made with my son, my high priest. Those priests in the Old Testament,
they were just types. Levi was just a type. But so
much, look at verse 22, but so much was, by so much was Jesus
made a surety of a better covenant. Now a surety is a person who
provides everything necessary on behalf of another. And that's
exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He provides his righteousness
on behalf of those who have none. He provides his blood on behalf
of those who cannot pay for their sins. So he's made a surety of
a better covenant. And they truly were many priests,
look at verse 23, because they were not suffered to continue
by reason of death. In other words, there was a lot
of them. It was a lot of the children of Levi. There were
a lot of men that served as priests throughout those years between
the Exodus and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1,400
years, a lot of priests. But this man, look at verse 24,
but this man, now we're getting to the man that Levi represents. But this man, because he continueth
forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. You see, the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he ascended into glory. He resumed
his rightful place at the right hand of God. He ever lives as
our high priest to make intercession for us. That's who this covenant's
about that Malachi speaks of. Wherefore, he is able to save
to the uttermost all them that come to God by him. Nothing lacking
in his ability is saved. And someone says, well, you just
don't know how bad my sin is. You don't know how bad your sin
is. It's a whole lot worse than you
think it is. And in that question, or in that
statement, you don't know how bad my sin is, a lot of self-righteousness. Because what's being implied
by that is that if you hadn't done some certain things, you
might be more of a candidate for salvation. You might be more
acceptable to God had you not done certain things. That's contrary to everything
that the gospel is. But this man, because he continueth
forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
that he ever lives to make intercession for them. Levi's dead. His bones
are in the ground. He's gone, as were all his descendants. Aaron's dead. Moses is dead.
They were types and figures. for such a high priest speaking
of Christ became us this is the covenant who himself unlike those
other priests is holy and harmless and undefiled and separate from
sinners and higher than the heavens you see the Lord Jesus Christ
is not like those Old Testament priests they were just shadows
So when Malachi speaks of the covenant of Levi, he's not talking
about Levi. This goes back to our ability
to hear, doesn't it? The self-professed theologians
will delve deeply into the historical events of the life of Levi and
miss altogether You search the scriptures, you think in them
you have eternal. These are they which testify of me. They miss
Christ. Look at chapter 8 verse 1. Now
of the things which we have spoken, this is the summary. This is
the summation of all the things that have been said in Hebrews
chapter 7 about Christ being our High Priest. We have present
tense, we have such a high priest who is set. You know, all that work that
was done by all those priests in the Old Testament, there was
one piece of furniture that was conspicuously missing in the
Old Testament tabernacle. It wasn't a chair to be found.
Why? Because the work was never finished.
And what is the one piece of furniture that is most conspicuous
in heaven? It's a throne, isn't it? We have
a high priest who is sat down. Why is he sat down? Because his
work is finished. It's finished. When he bowed
his head on Calvary's cross and said it is finished, it's finished.
He's the surety of a better covenant. Everything necessary for the
salvation of sinners was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. We
now have a high priest who has entered into heaven. And he's
taken his rightful place and he is sat down at the right hand
of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of
the sanctuary. What were the Levites to do?
They were to minister for the people to God. We have a high
priest who is ministering right now, right now, he's ministering
on behalf of his people. Seated at the right hand of God,
a minister of the sanctuary, the true tabernacle which the
Lord pitched and not man. Which the Lord pitched and not
man. Peter, whom do you say that I
am? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Blessed
art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
the Son to you. My Father, which is in heaven, has made it known
unto you who I am. And upon this rock I will build
my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
The Lord Jesus Christ is a successful Savior. He's not going to lose
any of his sheep. He's going to build. We've got a high priest.
We have a priest. Now that's what this whole, that's
all by way of introduction. I want to go through these verses
very quickly. I wanted you to see who Levi was and how the
Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Levi. And that the covenant
was a promise that God made with God. and it cannot be broken. If the hope of my salvation is
determined by promises that I've made to God, or prayers that
I prayed, or commitments that I've made, we just sang a hymn that said
something about honest men. You know honest people don't
go to hell. Honest about who God is, honest
about who they are. It's the liars. that deny His
glory and deny their own unrighteousness, who pretend to have something
that they can offer God outside of Christ. See, when God gives
you ears to hear, you just become honest, don't you? Lord, you've
done all the work, and I'm completely dependent upon you. This new covenant, Go back with me to Hebrews 9. You've got to see this. What
was the purpose of the Old Covenant? Hebrews 9, look at verse 9. The Old Covenant, which was a
figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not take him that did the service
perfect as pertaining to the conscience. So none of these
Old Testament sacrifices or priests were able to make one perfect. And that's what God requires. God requires absolute perfection. He'll not settle for anything
else. Anybody up for the task? Christ is, he is, he's holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and higher than
the heavens. He's able to save to the uttermost, which stood
only. in meats and drinks and divers
washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time
of reformation. Now that's the only place in
this book where that word's used, reformation. And it means to
reform. And what men mistakenly refer
to in the 16th century as a Protestant Reformation was not a reformation. Nothing, you don't reform error. You reform that which was a shadow
and a type into its fulfillment. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ came to do. They were held by these things,
they were imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ, verse 11, being come
a high priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, Not made with hands, that is to say, of
this building, neither by the blood of bulls and goats, but
by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption. When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended
back into glory and took his rightful place at the right hand
of the majesty on high, everything necessary for the preparation
of our salvation was accomplished. He said, I go and prepare a place
for you. I go and prepare a place for you. And that's what he did
in sitting down on his throne, prepared, prepared. We have a priest. Malachi chapter two. And you shall know verse four. That I have sent this commandment
unto you. that my covenant might be with
Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. My covenant is with my son. My
covenant is with my, your priest, your high priest, your intercessor,
your sin bearer, your substitute, your savior. That's who my covenant's
with. It's not with you. I didn't come
to make an offer for you to secure the covenant. That's what Isaiah
28 is all about. Go back and read it sometime.
The Lord said, I'll disannul your covenant. And here's the
covenants that we hear about in religion. I will believe and
God will save me. And God says, I'm going to disannul
that covenant. Because the truth is just the opposite. I will
save you. And you will believe. What a difference. Now, which
covenant do you want to trust your soul for? Which covenant? Are you that confident in your
ability to believe for God to reward your faith with salvation?
Or do you want a covenant, a league, a promise, that God made to God. That's what the Lord is saying
here. Any other covenant is a false religion. It's a works gospel. It's going to leave nothing but
dung on your face. Your religious services are going
to end up being a curse to you. But I want you to know that my
covenant is with Levi. That's who my covenant is with.
Look to him. Look to the sacrifice that he's
made. Worship him and give up on thinking that there's anything
you can do to add to or take it away or take away from what
he's done. Now there's about four or five
things real quickly here. We'll just go over verse five. My covenant was with him of life. Every single one of us came into
this world spiritually dead and at enmity with God. Descendants
of our father Adam. We were born sinners. My covenant
with Levi is for life and for peace. In him. Was life. And the life. was the light of
men. There's no life outside of Christ.
No man can come to the Father except by me. For I am the way,
the truth, and the life. Apart from Christ, we are like
Lazarus in the tomb. You remember the Lord said, take
away the stone. God says to us, take away the
stone, you'll see he's not there. Why do you seek the living among
the dead? Isn't that what the angels said when they came looking
for Jesus in the tomb? Why do you seek the living among
the dead? He's not here, take away the stone. Lord, he's been
dead four days, he stinketh. Yeah, that's what, we're like
Lazarus. And because the Lord Jesus Christ
conquered the grave and because he rolled away the stone and
came out victorious, he is our life. This covenant is a covenant
of life. Outside of Christ, we have no
life. And it's a covenant of peace. One thing we know about
the future is there's never gonna be world peace. OK, Lords revealed
a few things about the future and you know we ought to seek
to be at peace with all men whenever possible. Want to be kind and
considerate and and don't don't stir up trouble with people.
And when is it not possible to be at peace with all men? When
it comes to compromising the gospel, we've got to draw the
line. Say this is where I must stand. I cannot move. You don't
hate me for it, that's fine, but this is the truth. This is
the truth. So when the Lord says this covenant
of Levi is for life, it's for eternal life, it's for the, I
am the resurrection and the life. Now what he said to Martha, he
that believeth in me, though he live yet, though he were dead, yet shall
he live. For whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? And what
Martha say, I believe that thou art the Christ, the son of God. The covenant that God made with
Levi, our Levi, our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ is a covenant
of life and it's a covenant of peace. You see, the truth is
most folks are a whole lot more concerned with peace in their
own hearts and peace in their own homes and peace in the world,
then they are concerned with peace with God. And the only thing that's going
to matter. When we draw our last breath is whether or not we have
peace with God. You heard someone say, have you
made your peace with God? Well, you can't make peace with
God. But the Lord Jesus Christ can, and he has, and he said,
my peace I leave you. The glorious truth is that when
we have peace with God, we have peace with men, we have peace
with ourselves, we have peace in our homes. You know, the peace
of God is the cause of those things, isn't it? covenant of life and peace. Outside
of Christ there is no life and outside of Christ there is no
peace. Look at verse 5. My covenant
was with him of life and peace and I gave them to him for the
fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name. The fear wherewith he feared
me. Ever heard someone refer to a
God-fearing man? You want to trust your salvation
on how much you fear God? God's people do fear Him. They
reverence Him. They bow before Him. Oh, but
their fear is so shot full of holes, isn't it? I mean, there
are times when they don't fear Him. The Scripture says the fear
of God is the beginning of wisdom. And the Scripture also says that
God has made Him to be our wisdom. So what is it? What is it that
God's people say that they all in agreement you want to worry?
Figure out what the fear of God is. Do I fear God? I fear standing in the presence
of the Holy God without the Lord Jesus Christ as my righteousness,
my advocate. My sacrifice and my sin bearer. To stand in God's presence without
Christ. is a fearful thing and is the
fear of God that leadeth to Christ. It's the fear of God that leadeth
to wisdom. But you know what I know what the fear of God is?
Christ. I'm gonna make this covenant
with Levi because he feared me. Just look at what the Lord Jesus
Christ says about his father and there you have the perfection
of the fear of God. I don't want to stand in the
presence of God based on how much I fear him, but I have no
fear of God, cringing fear, fear of judgment
with the Lord Jesus Christ standing by my side. Look at verse six. The law of truth was in his mouth. Oh, men don't want to know the
truth. They just want information that's going to reaffirm what
they already believe. People don't really want to know
the truth. I think Fleetwood Mac got it right when they said,
tell me lies, tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies, you know.
People don't want to know the truth about anything. They just
want their opinions to be reaffirmed. And you listen to all the opinions
of the world and you think, what is the truth? How glorious and
how comforting it is to not have to read between the lines, not
have to way the influence, the inflections, you just, yes, truth
Lord. We have the word of God. In his
mouth was truth. There were no lies. He just, the law of truth. was in his mouth and the law
of truth is still in his mouth. You want to know the truth? Know
Christ. Know Christ. Lay him to heart. Believe on him. Because that's
why God made a covenant with him. My covenant was with him
of life and peace. I gave them to him for the fear
where with he feared me, God gave to Christ life and peace
because Christ feared God. And he was afraid before my name.
The law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in
his lips. He walked with me in peace and
equity. You want to risk the hope of
your salvation by the way you walk? By how much you fear? The Lord Jesus Christ walked
with God in peace and equity. Equity. Now, equity comes from the word
equal. And what God's telling us here
is that the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one that walked in such
a way as to measure up to the standards of my righteousness,
he was equal. And therefore, I made a covenant
with him. Nothing but truth came out of
his mouth. He feared me with all of his heart. He walked in equity and did turn
many away from inequity. The scripture speaks of sin in
three ways. It speaks of transgression. That's a violation of the law
of God. It speaks of equity or inequity. Inequity, that's what men do
in order to try to satisfy the demands of God's law. In other
words, transgression is their bad deeds and inequity is their
good deeds. And then the scripture describes
sin. Transgression, inequity, and
sin. Sin is what we are. And the Lord says he's turned
many away from inequity. When God saves a sinner, I trust
that he will have an effect on their behavior. I know he will. I know he will. And there are
things that men do that the Lord will correct when he saves them. But he turns every one of his
children away from inequity. They cannot look anymore to anything
that they do to earn them merit or favor with God. They've been
made to be believers and they look on the Lord Jesus Christ
as the author and finisher of faith. He turns many away from
iniquity. That's why God made a covenant
with him. My covenant with Levi shall stand. It's a covenant
of grace. It's a hope. It's the covenant
of salvation, and it's our only hope. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for the revelation that you've given us of thy dear son in your
word, and we pray now for your spirit to strive with us. To. Continue to open our ears
and enable us to hear your voice. And to believe. We ask it in
Christ name, Amen. number 39. Let's stand together. Wretched, lost, condemned, and
dying. Guilty, I deserve God's wrath. Long I fought against my master. Heaven bent, I was courting death. But the blood of Christ had bought
me, He refused to let me die. This poor sinner, loved by Jesus,
Must be conquered by and by. At the time which was predestined
In the covenant of God's grace God in mercy sent His Spirit
Blessed time of love and grace to reveal his son's great merit
as the sinner's substitute. I saw Jesus bleeding, dying, suffering
as my substitute. Precious blood for sin's atonement,
justice could not ask for more. I heard Christ cry, it is finished,
and I could resist no more. Thanks to God for intervening. Grace that broke my stubborn
will. Grace that would not let me perish. Grace that rescued me from hell. Sovereign grace, I will proclaim
it, Irresistible and free, Grace that chose me and redeemed me. God, by grace alone, save me. Sinner, now you've heard my story. Now I bid you trust my God. Christ, my all-sufficient Savior,
saves poor sinners by His blood. Okay.