I'll wait in my room. Good evening. It's good to be
here. Let's open up tonight's service
in the hardback hymnal. We're going to sing our hymn
number 442, 442. Praise him, praise him. Would you please stand?
442. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing o'er His wonderful love
proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to His
holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard
his children. In his arms he carries them all
day long. Praise him, praise him, tell
of his excellent greatness. Praise him, praise him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus who
bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful, deep,
and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, just
as our blessed Redeemer. Heav'nly portals loud with hosannas
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, prophet
and priest and king. Christ is coming over the world
victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord
belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. May be seated. Yes, you're right, Bert. It is
good to be here. We're going to be reading from
Hebrews chapter 10 for our call to worship, if you'd like to
turn with me there in your Bibles. Donnie and Jeanette Briggs have
just moved here from Grenada. How long ago were you all here?
You came a couple, a few years ago. Thirteen. Okay, it's been, time
flies when you're getting old, doesn't it? They've been watching online
for many years now and wanted to be here, to be a part of this
fellowship. So we're very, very thankful
for you all, Donnie and Jeanette. And the surprise, Eric. And Michelle
Lutter are here and just found out that Eric's father
passed away on Monday, who lived in Melbourne. And Marianne, Eric's
mother, who I met in Pennsylvania a couple years ago, is here with
us. And her and her husband were
married 56 years. Mary Ann, our condolences and
prayers are for you. They're going to have a funeral
service tomorrow. Is that right? Alright, you have your Bibles
open to Hebrews chapter 10. We're going to be looking for
our text at Psalm 89 and I've titled the message the everlasting
covenant. The scriptures speak of two covenants,
the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. And here in
Hebrews chapter 10, for the law, having a shadow of good things
to come and not the very image of the things can never with
those sacrifices, which they offered year by year, continually
make the comers there unto perfect. If we're gonna come into the
presence of God, we've got to be found perfect. And the law
could not make anyone perfect. For then, would they not have
ceased to be offered because that the worshipers once purged
should have no more conscience of sin? But in those sacrifices, there
is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not
possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.
Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice
and offerings thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared
me. In burnt offerings and sacrifice
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me to do thy will. Oh God. Above, when he said sacrifice
and offering and burn offerings and offerings for sin, thou wouldest
not neither hats pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.
Then said he low, I come to do thy will. Oh God, he taketh away
the first that he may establish the second. By the witch will,
we are sanctified, made holy, perfect through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. How are we going to
come into the presence of a holy God? How are we going to be found
perfect to be found in him? Not having our own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness, which is by the
faith and faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's go before the Lord in prayer
and ask his blessings. Our heavenly father, perish the thought of attempting
to enter into thy presence on our own merit. Or outside? Of that one whom
you count to be perfect. Thy dear son. The one whom you
said I am well pleased. The one of whom it is said. I
came to do thy will, Oh God. Our Heavenly Father, we pray
that you would enable us this hour. To believe. on thy dear son, to rest our
hope in him, to look to him, and to have the guilt and consciousness
of sin to be taken away by the sacrifice of thy son once for
all. Father, we pray for Mary Ann
and we ask Lord that that you would. Comfort her and we pray
that you would speak truth to her heart. About. About what you've done. To. To
save centers and Lord that you would comfort her. In thy gospel. Pray for Eric as he conducts
the services that you would. Give him that peace of God that
passes understanding. Enable him Lord to speak truth
about about Christ. We ask it in his name. Amen. We're going to sing now to him
from the spiral notebooks. You can remain seated number
8 number 8. Lord, our hearts and souls aspire.
Number eight. ? O Lord our heart and souls aspire
? To lift up from this earthly mire ? O may we think of heavenly
things ? And know the joy thy presence brings Lord, let us
see the Savior's face, And let us taste of Thy sweet grace. May open ears Thy glory hear,
And may we smell Thy fragrance near. Be pleased to open heaven's
store, And on our heads thy blessings pour. All wretched, poor, and
needy we, Where can we go if not to thee? Oh may this day be blessed the
most that Jesus Christ becomes the host to feed our souls with
living bread and with our souls in joy to wed. Turn with me, please, in your
Bibles to Psalm 89. Psalm 89. The everlasting covenant of grace.
A covenant is an agreement between two people whereby each agree
to certain terms in that covenant. Marriage is a covenant where
a man and a woman come together and they promise their fidelity
to one another and to love and provide and care for one another.
Business arrangement is a covenant. You promise to pay back a certain
amount on a monthly basis based on whatever you received. Those are covenants, they're
promises between two people. The scripture speaks of two covenants,
two covenants. And we'll see what those two
covenants are in just a moment. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 89, Psalm 89. Verse 28, my mercy will I keep
for him forevermore and my covenant shall stand fast with him. And we know who the Lord speaking
of, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, our David, our King,
our shepherd and our provider. And God is saying, I will keep
forever the covenant that I have made with him. His seed, now that's his church,
that's me and you. His seed also will I make to
endure forever and his throne as the days of heaven. How long
is heaven going to be? Well, forever, isn't it? The
Lord's making a promise to his people. He's saying, his covenant,
the covenant that I made with him is going to stand fast. And
his seed, they're going to remain. Now, if his seed, verse 20, verse
30, if his children forsake my law and walk not in my statutes,
in my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments,
Then will I visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity
with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness
will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. My covenant, my covenant will
I not break nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips.
Once I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed, his seed shall endure
forever and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established
forever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven. But thou has
cast off, abhorred. Thou has been wroth with thine
anointed. Thou has made void the covenant
of thy servant. Thou has profaned his crown.
by casting it to the ground. Now those last two verses describe
what the natural man does with the covenant of God. According
to Isaiah chapter 28, man by nature makes his own covenant
with God. That's the false gospel. They
cast down the covenant of grace, the covenant that God made they're
not interested in. They're interested in a covenant
that they make. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
28. We'll begin reading at verse
9. Whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall he make to understand
doctrine or the gospel? Them that are weaned from milk
and drawn from the breast. Babes, that's who he makes to
understand. Father, I thank thee that thou
hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed
them unto babes, lest you become as a little child, be shunned
of the kingdom of heaven. Suffer the little children to come unto
me, for such are the kingdom of God. Humble, dependent babes. That's who he teaches the gospel
to. But men in their pride refuse to be humble. They refuse to
be babes. They refuse to be dependent.
And so the Lord says, for precept must be upon precept, precept
upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little,
there a little. That's the way the Lord grows us in his grace
and in the knowledge of Christ, little by little, line by line,
precept by precept. He teaches children. He teaches
his children the gospel and reveals Christ to them more and more
and more. For with stammering lips and
another tongue will he speak to this people, to whom he said,
this is the rest wherewith he may cause the weary to rest,
and this is the refreshing. Yet they would not hear. They
cast his crown down to the ground. They weren't interested in the
covenant of grace. They weren't interested in that
promise that God the Father made to God the Son in agreement with
God the Holy Spirit before time ever began. They wanted to be
a part of that covenant. But the word of the Lord was
unto them, and the idea here in verse 13 is that it was nothing
more than precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little,
there a little. And that's what the Lord said of the Pharisees.
He said, you search the scriptures, you're very diligent to be good
Bible students because you think that if you memorize scripture
and if you learn the precepts of scriptures that that's going
to qualify you for the covenant. And so he says to them, the word
of the Lord was unto them, precept upon precept, line upon precept
upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little,
there a little, that they may go and fall backwards and be
broken and snared and taken. God has written his word in such
a way as to give the unbeliever enough rope to hang himself.
That's what the Lord's saying here. The unbeliever's not looking
for Christ. They're looking for a work that
they can perform. They're looking for some knowledge
that they can acquire. They're looking for some contribution
that they can make in a covenant relationship between them and
God. That's what they're doing. And so he goes on to say, wherefore
hear the word of the Lord you scornful men that rule this people
which is in Jerusalem. You see the false prophets are
just encouraging that covenant of works. They're encouraging
men to try to find something in the Bible that they can do
to establish a covenant relationship with God. Now I want to have
a covenant relationship with God. What the Lord is saying
here is that is that my word was written in order to reveal
the covenant of grace and you've turned it into a covenant of
works. Because, look at verse 15, because you have said we
have made a covenant with death and with hell we are in agreement.
In another place in the Psalms, David says there's no bans in
their death. How many religious people have
you talked to who were on their deathbed who had no fear of death? I thought, yeah, I'm good. I've
lived a good life. I've been a good person. I'm
okay. That's what he said. I've made a covenant with death.
I've accepted Jesus. I've entered into a covenant
relationship with God. I fulfilled some of those requirements
that God's given me in the precept upon precept, line upon line.
I'm ready to meet God. I've made a covenant with death.
With hell I'm in agreement, I'm not going to hell. Certainly
a person as good as me isn't worthy of hell. And how do we
know if we're under a covenant of works or a covenant of grace?
One way you know, if you're under the covenant of grace, you know
that you deserve hell. If God gave you what you deserved,
you'd go straight to hell. With hell, we're in agreement.
We have no problem with hell. When the overflowing scourge
will pass through, it shall not come upon us. When death comes
and the judgment of God comes, we're not worried about it. We
can stand and hold our ground before God. For we have made
lies our refuge and under falsehoods we have hid ourselves. We've
rested the scriptures, we've twisted the word of God, we've
taken the revelation of the gospel of God's free grace in the covenant,
the eternal covenant of grace, the promise that God made with
God, and we've turned it into a covenant of works. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste." And we know who that is, that tried
stone, tried by the Father and purified by the fire of God's
wrath. He's the foundation stone, he's
the stone that the builders rejected and he's become the head of the
corner for the church. Judgment also where I lay to
the line. Now the Lord's got a plumb line
now. He said, I'm going to judge everything
by that line. That plumb line is perfectly
straight. and righteousness to the plummet, and hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and water shall overflow their hiding
place, and your covenant, your covenant, your promises, your
participation, that covenant of works that you've entered
into shall be disannulled. be taken away, and your agreement
of hell shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall
pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it." Now that's
the crown that was cast away. That's the covenant of works
that proud men who refuse to be babes and refuse to bow in
submission and rest all the hope of their salvation on the Lord
Jesus Christ and his finished work. Those men who want to have
some contribution to their salvation, that's what the Lord says about
the covenant of works. Adam was put under the covenant
of works. Adam was. And he was given one law, one
rule, and he couldn't keep it. What's the purpose of the covenant
of works? What's the purpose of it? It's to show us our need
for the covenant of grace. Paul said concerning the law,
I was blameless. I kept that covenant of works.
You know, I was of the tribe of Judah, the Benjamin. I was
circumcised the eighth day, a Hebrew of Hebrews. And concerning the
law before men, I was blameless. And then later he said, but when
the law came, sin revived and I died. What is the purpose of
the covenant of works? To shut men's mouth and make
the whole world guilty before God. That's the purpose of it,
to make sin utterly sinful. That's what the scripture says.
Lord, I can't keep the covenant of works. Adam couldn't keep
one law. Lord, I've never been able to
keep any of your laws. I've never been able to satisfy
the demands of the covenant of works. The Lord Jesus Christ,
when the scripture says that he's a tried stone, he was tried
by the covenant of works. And he kept it. In Adam, all
died. Even so, in Christ, the last
Adam shall all be made alive. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
the requirements of the covenant, satisfying the demands of God's
holy law and putting away the sins of his people by the sacrifice
of himself. Now that's a covenant I'm interested
in, a covenant that I've got nothing to do with. I'm nothing
to do with it. It's all on God. I can, I can
rest there. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
three. I will make a new covenant with
my people. Galatians chapter 4. Galatians
chapter 4. You know, of all the churches,
you compare the church at Corinth to the church at Galatia. And
the church at Corinth had some horrible things going on in it
that grieved God and grieved the Apostle and needed to be
addressed. And they were. They were. But no place in either
one of the two letters to the church at Corinth does Paul call
into question the salvation of the people there. And yet when
he addresses the church at Galatia, he says in verse 20, our desire
to be present with you now and to change my voice for I stand
in doubt of you. I stand in doubt of you. Why
did he stand in doubt of them? Was it because of some horrible
sin that was being tolerated in the church at Corinth? No. It was because they were flirting
with the covenant of works as the hope of their salvation.
They allowed the Judaizers to come in and say, yes, you're
saved by Jesus, the Messiah, but you've got to do your part
now. You've got to make your contribution in order to secure
this covenant. Tell me, verse 21, you the desire
to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? Don't
you understand what the law says? If you're gonna be saved by the
law, you gotta keep every bit of it. Every jot and tittle. And not just in your outward
behavior before men, but in your heart towards God. Who can do
that? Do you not hear what the law
says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one
by a bondmaid and the other by a free woman. But he who was
of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free
woman was by promise." Now we know who those, remember God
promised Abraham, he'd give him a promise, a covenant promise.
I'm going to give you seed. I'm going to multiply your seed."
And Abraham waited and nothing came and he thought, well, Sarah,
we're going to have to help God out. We're going to have to help
him out in this covenant. He's not able to keep it by himself.
We've got to do our part. We've got to make our contribution.
The world's been suffering over that ever since, isn't it? All
that mess going on in the Middle East right now is the result
of Hagar and Ishmael. and Isaac and the conflict, look
at verse 29, but as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted
him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now, even so it
is now. But look, go back with me now
to verse 24, which things are an allegory, Hagar and Ishmael,
And Sarah and Isaac stand as an allegory. In preparation for
this message, I spent a little bit of time reading some comments
by men as to what covenant theology was. And I want you to know,
I mean, I got so confused. I got confused. It's so convoluted. There's so many different opinions,
and Dr. So-and-so says this, and Professor
So-and-so says that, and this dead theologian says that, and
I couldn't understand it. If you can't understand something,
it's not true. It's just not true. There's two covenants. The Lord makes it clear right
here. This is an allegory. There's two covenants. Two covenants
only. There's the covenant of works,
illustrated by the bondwoman, Hagar, and her child, Ishmael. And there's the covenant of grace,
illustrated by the promise that God made to Abraham and Sarah,
fulfilled in the birth of Isaac, who's a type of Christ. One,
by works, the other by grace. There's not six different covenants
and all this kind of convoluted stuff. It's two covenants. You're
either under one covenant or you're under the other. That's
it. There's no mixing of the two. If it's of works, it can no longer
be of grace. Otherwise, grace is not grace.
You can't mix works and grace. It's one way or the other. You
can't have a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It's
either all of grace or it's all of works. Which things are an allegory
for these are the two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai which
gendereth to bondage which is Hagar. The law is bondage. That's why he goes on in chapter
five to say, stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ has
made you free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Don't go back to Egypt. Don't go back to Sinai. We're
not at Sinai. We're at Mount Calvary. We're
at Zion. There's bondage in the law. Why
is there such bondage in the law? Why is it? Because you,
an honest person has to admit that they don't know if they've
done enough. They don't know if they've done enough. You see,
it's the dishonest, hypocritical religionist who takes comfort
in their covenant of works, thinking that I've kept the law. I've
done, I've done my part. I'm good with God. I made a covenant
with death in hell. I'm an agreement. I'm not worried
about God. This is not only my covenant.
For Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which
now is and is in bondage with her children." He's not speaking
of that heavenly Jerusalem now, the new Jerusalem which come
down from heaven. Now, oftentimes, Jerusalem is
used to refer to the church. Here, he's speaking of that Jewish
nation who are under the law. And they're in bondage with their
children. But Jerusalem, which is above is free, free, which
is the mother of us all. Oh, where the spirit of God is,
there's liberty. When Christ makes you free, you're
free, free indeed. Free from what? The covenant
of works. We're under the covenant of grace. Let's go back to our text in
Psalm 89. Oh, this is such liberty, brethren.
This is such hope. This is such comfort to be able
to rest in Christ. Paul said, I count all things
but loss now lost for for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus, my Lord. That's he's my he's the hope
of my salvation. Verse 28, Psalm 89, my mercy
will I keep for him forevermore. Now the word mercy here, often
we think of the word mercy as God withholding from us what
we deserve. And we need that kind of mercy,
don't we? But the word mercy here means
loving kindness. It means goodness. It means favor. It means faithfulness. And God,
speaking of his son, who's not in need of mercy in the sense
that we're in need of mercy, but God say, and I'm, I'm going
to be faithful to him. I love him. I'm going to, I'm going to show
him my goodness. I'm going to provide for him
in every way. My mercy. Well, I keep for him
forever. This is why it's called the everlasting
covenant. We think of something that's
everlasting as having a beginning point and lasting forever. But
in fact, the word everlasting means it never had a beginning,
never had an end. You see, the covenant of works
was established with Adam, and we call it the Old Covenant,
the Old Testament. Testament, by the way, is the
same word as covenant. But in fact, the new covenant is infinitely
older than the old covenant. The new covenant is everlasting. It's the covenant of grace. It's
that promise that God made, God the Father made to his son before
time ever began to provide, to give him a bride. It's the, remember
a covenant is an agreement between two parties. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
as our surety, struck hands with his father and said, Father,
I'll enter into that covenant with you, and I will provide
everything necessary to redeem them, to perfect them, to sanctify
them, to satisfy your holy law, and to put away their sin by
the sacrifice of myself. And God the Holy Spirit entered
into that covenant. And he said, I'll, I'll make
them willing. I'll go. And in the day of my
power, they'll have their eyes open. Their hearts will be changed
and they will believe on Christ. They will believe my mercy. Will I keep for him
forevermore? And my covenant shall stand fast
with him. It's not going to move. God says
my covenant is going to stand fast. It's going to stand fast.
A covenant that we make, it's about as dependent as we are,
isn't it? Pretty fickle people, aren't
we? Pretty undependable, pretty unfaithful. God says, my covenant,
my covenant is only two covenants. Covenant of works, that's what
everybody believes. And a covenant of grace. He's gonna stand fast. His seed
also will I make to endure forever in his throne as the days of
heaven. This is exactly what David said and saw in second
Samuel chapter 23, when the scripture says, and these be the last words
of David. Now I've thought if I'm on my
death bed and I have to summarize one thing to express my hope
to my loved ones, what am I going to say? We only got a moment
left to make one final statement of truth. What am I going to
say? Words have to be weighed heavily then, don't they? David knew what to say. David,
inspired by the Spirit of God, said, although my house be not
so with God. Can't look to my life. Can't
look to the tabernacle of this flesh. I certainly can't look
to the children that I raised and the family that I've got.
It's a mess. Although my house be not so with
God. And that's total depravity. Yet he has made with me an everlasting
covenant. That's unconditional election. He made with me. I will and they
shall. An everlasting covenant unconditioned
by anything that I had to contribute to it. He made the covenant.
Ordered in all things and sure that's atonement. That's particular
redemption. That's limited atonement. That's,
that's the work of the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling all the requirements
of this covenant. He ordered it in all things,
and he made it sure. My covenant is going to stand
fast. It's going to be sure. Your covenant is not sure, is
it? How many promises have you made in your, well, in the last
day, in your heart to God that you've kept? You know, we can't,
we just, I need a covenant like David had. where he says it's
ordered in all things. Everything God required for that
covenant to be ratified, for it to be fulfilled, was ordered
and made sure. Made sure. This is all my salvation and
all my desire. That's irresistible grace, isn't
it? That's the Lord saying to us,
Lord, I've got no place else to go. You've shut me up to your
gospel. You've shut me up to Christ.
I've got no place else to go. This is all my salvation and
all my desire. I don't desire anything else
other than that covenant that's been made sure and have been
made ordered in all things. The covenant that you made, the
covenant of grace. And what's the last statement
in that, though he make it not to grow. You know the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ is not grown by one person from before
time ever started. God wrote in the last book of
life all the names of his elect before he ever even made Adam. And not one name can be taken
out of it, not one name can be added to it. He'd make it not
to grow, that's the church. The big thing in religion today
is church growth. You know, how to reach the world
for Christ and make it bigger. You know, I want people to hear
the gospel. I do. I want God to make me a faithful
witness. I want him to make me a faithful
preacher of the gospel. But he adds to the church such
as should believe. He adds to the church. That's
not our place. The other thing that that last
statement in that phrase that David made, although he'd make
it not to grow, God grows his people in grace and in love. But when they look at themselves,
they don't see it. They don't see it. Child of God, you're not looking
at yourself right now and saying, boy, I'm so much more mature
and so much further down the road, and I'm so much more like
Christ today than I used to be. That's what men do in the Covenant
of Works. God's people believe themselves to be more sinful
now than they were yesterday. They go, Lord, I'm more dependent
upon your grace now than I've ever been. I've been given more
light and remained as worldly and unbelieving and unfaithful. Lord, save me. They make it not
to grow, doesn't he? Isn't that your experience? And that's perseverance. All
five points of the gospel are in that one statement that David
made on his deathbed, in his dying breath. He'd make it not
to grow. Now, some will hear a message
like this and say, well, what are you, you just, all you're
going to do is encourage people to sin. You talk like that. Well, let's read the rest of
our passage here. We've already read it once. His seed also will
I make to endure forever in his throne as the days of heaven.
If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments,
if they sin, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments,
then I will visit their transgressions with a rod and their iniquity
with stripes. Nevertheless, nevertheless, my loving kindness, I will not
forsake them of. Child of God, you know your heavenly
father knows how to discipline you, don't you? Turn to me to Hebrews chapter
12. I've been thinking a lot about this. Because sin has within itself certain
consequences. And unbelievers who are unrestrained
in their bad behavior suffer more than the people of God when
it comes to the consequences of their sin. They do. So what's the difference? What's
the difference? The difference is the difference
between a loving parent sitting down with their children and
chastising them. The word chastise in Hebrews
chapter 12, and you know that you're a child of God because
your father chastises you. The word chastise doesn't mean
that he beat you. The word chastise, it's the word that describes the entire learning
experience of a child. It's the instruction, it's the
discipline, it's the explanation, it's the approval and disapproval
that a loving parent gives to a child. And therein is the difference. It's the difference between being
disciplined and chastised by a loving parent and having the
hammer of the law fall on you and being put in prison for your
bad behavior. It's a work of grace in the heart. It's not just the consequences
of sin. Everybody suffers that. Unbelievers suffer the consequences
of sin. And I would argue that they suffer probably more. If
you look at the world, you see the consequences of sin in people's
lives. And I would argue that they suffer
more than we do because of their unrestrained sinful behavior. But believers, if my children,
if his seed transgress the commandments, I will chastise them. Now look at Hebrews chapter 12 at
verse 5. And you have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not
thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him. You see, When an unbeliever suffers
the consequences of sin, they generally think of it as
punitive. You know, somehow I'm atoning
for that that I did. You know, what goes around comes
around, and I'm going to have to go through this because of
what I did, and that's my atonement. And they're not being corrected
as children, They're justifying themselves or they're angry at
God for having allowed these bad things to happen in their
lives. God's children are instructed through these things. And they're
instructed by more than just the consequences of their sin.
They're instructed by the Word of God and the Spirit of God
in their hearts. Here's the way the Lord, this
is the way, you see, what the Lord's saying is, I don't have
to put my children under the covenant of grace to keep them
faithful. I mean, the covenant of works.
I don't have to put my children under a covenant of works under
the law in order to keep them acting right. I know how to discipline
my children. I know how to correct them. For whom the Lord loveth, verse
six, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
And if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with
sons. For what son is whom the father
chasteneth not? But if you'd be without chastisement.
if you just suffer the consequences of sin like everybody else, and
you somehow are able to salve your conscience and believe that
you've atoned for your sin because you've suffered the consequences,
or you've shaken your fist at God for what you've had to go
through, that's no chastisement, where for all our partakers,
And if you're not chastised, now this word chastisement, a
pedagogy is a person who teaches children and that's the word
here. It's the entire instruction given to a child to shape them
and to mold them into the person that they need to be. It's not
the hammer of the law. It's not just the painful consequences
of sin that God uses to correct his children. He teaches them
by his spirit in their hearts. They're in a covenant of grace
with him. And it's much more instructive
than the law. It's much more effective. The
law may curb a person's outward behavior, but this kind of chastisement
changes the heart. It corrects the heart. And that's
where our problem is. Problems not just in our outward
behavior, problems with our heart. That's where it needs to be addressed.
Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected
us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the father of spirits and live? For they barely
for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, according
to what they thought was right. What parent ever raised children
and think, you know, I corrected my children properly every time?
just in the right measure, just at the right time, just with
the right instructions. No, no parent feels that way.
We failed in so many ways. Our Heavenly Father knows exactly
what we need, when we need it, how much of it we need. He knows
how to sit his children down, how to love them and teach them
and instruct them and change their hearts. That's this. That's
what he said. If my children over there in
Psalm 89, I've made a covenant with them and with David, and
if they violate my laws, I'm going to visit them. I'm going
to visit them. Now, no chastening for the present
seemed to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterwards, it
yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness onto them, which
are exercised, thereby exercised. What a gracious father we have. He knows how to exercise their
children, his children. Look at Psalm 99, Psalm 99, verse eight. Thou answereth them,
O Lord our God, thou wast a God that forgave us them, though thou tookest vengeance
of their inventions. I love that word. The Lord chastises
our inventions. When we come up with something
different than what he's clearly stated and done, it's just an
invention, isn't it? Thou forgave us them, though
thou visited them, but they're inventions. You see, this covenant
of grace, doesn't lead to licentious, irresponsible living. It leads
to Christ. It leads to a heavenly father
who knows how to chastise his children. He knows how to correct
them. And he will never, ever, ever
break his covenant. Our Heavenly Father. We thank
you for your word. Lord, we pray that you would
keep us as little children at thy feet. Being taught. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. For the bird number 21, let's
stand together. Yeah. God the Father and the Son And
the Spirit, three in one In eternal ages past Made a covenant sure
and fast God my Father chose His own in the person of His
Son, and ordain that I should be one with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law. ? And retrieve me from the fall
? Christ in love so willingly ? Stood as my great surety ?
For my price he offered blood ? A piece, the wrath of God God
the Spirit heavily does promise to come down in love. Bringing life and peace and grace
to the chosen, purchased race. He seeks the law, heals the lame,
and he brings us to the Lamb. By his mighty sovereign call,
God's elect are gathered all. This forsaker is secure, for
God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. Blessed, holy, covenant God,
I am yours by tithes of blood. Ties of grace and ties of love
hold me to my God above.