Chapter 23, King David, not long before he
died, said these words, although, verse
5, 2 Samuel 23 verse 5, Although my house be not so with God,
yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things
and sure. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow." That is,
even though I don't see all things now before my eyes as the Lord
says they are, they are. I'd like for us to consider today
for just a very few minutes some thoughts on this everlasting
covenant. I read an article that Charles
Spurgeon wrote on this Mr. Spurgeon brought out some very,
very wonderful, helpful thoughts from me and I wrote this message,
wrote this message out from some thoughts that he set forth in
there and I'd like to share them with you. Now, when we speak
of the everlasting covenant. Now David said, now this is all
my salvation, this is the totality of my salvation. Now you think
about what he's saying here. He made with me an everlasting
covenant. It was ordered in all things
and it was sure. The Lord made a covenant. Now, this covenant was made from
before the foundation of the world. How do you know? Well,
it says it was an everlasting covenant. Before there was anything
else, there was God. Before the mountains, before
anything, God. That was it. An almighty
God did not enter into this covenant with man present. Man was not
yet created. But I will tell you this, that
man's everlasting surety, the surety of the sheep, the surety
of the covenant, the surety of the bride, The Lord Jesus Christ
was there and stood as the representative of His bride. Christ was there. Almighty God has eternally had
an elect. Now you know that. Scripture
says in Ephesians 1-4, He hath chosen us in Him. When? from before the foundation of
the world. That's what Scripture says. We're bound to give thanks
to God for you, beloved of the Lord, because God hath, from
the beginning, chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit belief of the truth. Now, Almighty God is set forth
as having established an everlasting covenant Now before anything
else, God, Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit. And God is one God. He's set forth in three persons. Father, Son, and Spirit. One
God. Three persons. Explain that. I can't explain
it. Because I can't think like that. But I can tell you this,
there's one God. There's not three gods. There's
set forth in three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. And you know
what believers do? They believe it. They believe
that. They just believe it. That's the way it is. At the
baptism of our Lord, there was a voice heard out of heaven.
And the Father said, this is my beloved Son, whom I'm well
pleased. And John the Baptist said, and
I saw the Spirit descend in the form of a dove on God. And here's what the Scripture
says according to this Scripture right here. Although my house
be not so with God, yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant. Now listen to these next words.
Ordered in all things and sure. Now what did the Spirit of God
just say? He said that according to this
everlasting covenant between the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, that Almighty God, who according to Ephesians 1-4
chose His people in Christ before the foundation of the world,
that God Almighty decreed, determined, ordered, in predestinating grace,
the salvation of His people. And what that means is that Almighty
God, who is never to be spoken of as the author of sin, but
according to His absolute wisdom, Arranged? When I'm saying ordered,
I'm trying to explain. He ordered in all things, and
sure. He purposed, arranged, now listen,
everything that would ever happen in this world according to His
perfect will. From the fall of man, Adam did
exactly what Adam wanted to do. You say, well God, God Almighty
allowed Adam to do exactly what Adam did. Why? For the salvation
of his people, for the glory of Christ, for the exhibition
of the mercy of Almighty God. How are you going to see mercy
without a sinner? Why would God allow that? His
Son is going to be honored and glorified and praised in all
things. He's going to be shown to be
the Redeemer. He's going to be shown to be
the one to please God. And Almighty God allowed Adam
to do just exactly what Adam did. And God Almighty in absolute
wisdom allowed Adam to do what he did for God's glory and for
the good of God's people in redemption. God Almighty. from the fall of
Adam until the second coming of Christ, ordered all things,
he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Is that
not right? He orders all things. The steps
of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and everybody else's
are too, allowing men to do what they want, And at no point can
they blame God and say, well, it was your fault. My friend,
be careful. Be real careful. Because God's
not the author of sin, but if He allows a man or woman to do
what they want to do in rebellion against Him, whose fault is it?
It's mine. It's yours. If Almighty God is
pleased to save a sinner in Christ who gets all the honor and all
the glory and all the praise for that, Almighty God does.
Now you just remember this, the problem is man. The problem is
man. Don't question God and say, well,
why wouldn't God do that? Why wouldn't God do that? Again,
we're the problem. We are the problem. It's easy for me to look around
and to forget I look around and see chaos everywhere. Isn't God
ruling and reigning in this mess? According to the words of the
Holy Spirit, through Nebuchadnezzar He is. He doeth as He will in
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
And nobody stays His hand. Nobody has the right to question
Him and say, what are you doing? Nobody has a right to do that.
But I'm telling you, everything that's going on today, that went
on yesterday, and if God remains this earth until tomorrow, anything
that's going to happen, I'm going to tell you this was ordered
with the foundation of the world. God Almighty has ordered all
things in that everlasting covenant of grace. Predestinating grace. God determined what would be. and allowed men to do what they
want to do and will turn the wrath of man to God's glory and
will judge man for doing what he did. Who is like unto thee? Who is
like unto the Lord? Now listen, in absolute reverence
and respect unto the God of all grace, I want us to look this
morning at this everlasting covenant of redemption In the Father pledging
Himself to the Son, the Son to the Father, and to the Spirit,
and the Spirit to the Father. Psalm 33 11 says, The counsel
of the Lord standeth forever. The thoughts of His heart to
all generation, and everything that Almighty God has everlastingly
purposed. You know, it gives me great comfort
knowing this, that God's in control. I'd look around right now and
say, I'm telling you, I have never seen such a mess in all
my life. This whole world's a mess. But I'll tell you what, you're
right. This whole world's a mess. But God's in control. And God
Almighty is going to bring all of this to the end, and Christ
is going to be honored, and all God's sheep are going to be saved.
I can tell you that right now. This is what's going to happen.
This is what's going to happen. Now here in God's eternal covenant
of grace, Almighty God the Son, when He came into this world
because God orders all things, the Lord in absolute truth said
this, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. How do you know? Because Almighty
God has already ordered all things. And He's going to bring all of
them to pass. He's going to raise up this nation. He's going to
put down this nation. He's going to kill this one.
He's going to make this one alive. He's going to do whatever he's
pleased to do. Now concerning the stipulations or the terms
of this covenant, here's what Scripture has to say. Almighty
God beheld, He knew, He foresaw before man's creation that man
would fall in the garden. Do you think Adam's rebellion
fooled God? Do you think Adam's rebellion
caught God off guard and said, oh no, that didn't work? You say, that's foolishness.
That's exactly right. That's foolishness. God Almighty,
before He ever created man, saw the fault of man. He knew that
Adam, in his responsibility to obey God, would fail. He knew
that. Almighty God had told Adam, He
said, you get all the fruits in this garden except one. In
the day that you eat, in the day that you do eat, and you
will, you're going to die. And Adam, in absolute rebellion,
did eat of that forbidden fruit, and in so doing, he died spiritually,
and he willingly alienated himself from the Lord, and now, man in
spiritual death. What does that mean? Well, if
a man's dead, what can he do? Nothing. A man that's spiritually
dead, what can he do in reconciling himself back to God? Nothing!
Nothing! Men hear that, you know, in the
day that you eat, you're going to die. Men say, well, I know,
but I still believe that man can know. How can he if he's
dead? How can a man that has no life,
Adam rebelled against God and sin entered into the world and
death by sin. And by that one transgression,
the whole human race, spiritually, died. Everybody that was in the
loins of Adam, which was everybody. All of us can trace our lineage.
Brother Gene did me a lineage thing, traced my lineage back,
and I thought, man, he's got some stuff that went back, I
mean, down in Louisiana, it went back to, you know, and then Spain
and England and stuff like this, I mean, it went back to the 1400's. Well, I tell you this, we can
go back farther than that. All of us are tied to Adam. Adam. And when Adam died, all of us
who were in the loins of Adam died too. Adam was our federal
head and we died. And now shame and guilt and fear
filled the mind of Adam and there was no heart now for fellowship
with God. Adam didn't want to be around
God. How do you know? He hid. He hid. He hid from God. What was the next thing that
a spiritually dead man will do? He'll make himself a covering.
I'm naked. I've got to make my own spirit.
I've got to make me a covering. I'll get me some fig leaves. I'll turn over a new leaf. I'll
walk down the aisle. I'll straighten up and fly right. I'll be baptized again. I'll
start reading my Bible more. Why does a man do that? Because
he's dead. He's dead. He cannot. A man starts to question these
things that he's done. He starts to question God. He
starts to question God's authority. And what happens is the law cries. Every time a man questions the
law, he cries, guilty! Guilty! Yeah, but I felt guilty. Yeah, but don't you feel guilty?
You know what a man will say when God saves him? I'm guilty. I'm guilty. It's me. I'm the problem. I don't doubt
for one second that Satan fought and his cunning and his diabolical
hatred of Almighty God that he had somehow destroyed any hope
of God's purpose to have any kind of mankind, any kind of
semblance of order. He was able to thwart God's purpose. Everybody that's ever going to
be born in this world, Satan thought, I've defeated Him. But
listen, here's what happened. Almighty God saw the fall of
man and everybody in Adam died. Everybody died. Everybody died. All became guilty before God. They came forth from their mother's
womb. First thing they did, they started lying on God. But the
Scripture reveals that the Father, in that everlasting covenant
of grace, had purposed that all mankind would not suffer the
just due of his rebellion. Now, man's the problem. Man has
sinned. All died in Adam. Adam's fault. Adam's fault. Not God's. Adam's
fault. But God Almighty who is just,
a just God and a Savior, had chosen out of the mass of humanity
Out of every nation, and kindred, and tribe, and tongue, He had
chosen a people. Now that's what the Scripture
sets forth. Out of every nation, that's Revelation
5, verses 9 through 12. You read it. Every nation, kindred,
tribe, and tongue, Thou has redeemed us. Out of every little nook
and cranny, and here and there, and everywhere, God had chosen
a people, and He had given them unto the Son. And the commission
that was given to the Son for the entire number of God's elect
was that Christ Himself would be the representative before
God. This is what Almighty God the
Father did. He chose a people out of the
mass of humanity and entrusted them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this was God's demand to
the Son, to the surety they were to be washed from their sins,
they were to be preserved and kept from falling away, and would
be presented to the Father before His throne without spot and without
wrinkle or without any such things. It's what Ephesians 5, 25-27,
husbands. Love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word,
that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blemish." All men died in Christ, but God Almighty,
according to this everlasting covenant that David spoke of,
God had chosen a people. And Almighty God said, These
shall not perish. I'm going to show mercy to them.
I'm going to. But God is just. God's just. The Father chose. These objects
of His mercy must be saved. And to these and these alone,
the Father covenanted, I'm going to forgive your debt. Only you. Only you. Only you. I'm going to choose a people
and I'm not going to charge them with iniquity. I'm not going
to do it. But I'm going to do it in absolute
justice. Somebody's going to pay. Somebody's
going to pay. But He says it's not going to
be them. It's not going to be them. I'm going to have mercy
on whom I'm going to have mercy. You're not going to die. Why
did He choose who He chose? Scripture says, according to
the good pleasure of His will. There was nothing in anybody
that Almighty God looked upon and saw anything good in them.
God looked and saw that every man's imagination was evil. Evil. But the Scripture said,
God said, I will have mercy. This is the will of the Father.
You listen to the words of our Lord. John 6, 38-39, the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking, and He said this. He said, I came down, for I came
down from heaven not to do mine own will. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, I'm here at the will of my Father. According to that
everlasting covenant of grace, he said, I have a work to do.
I have a work that He's given me. I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, that is, apart from His, the Lord's will
too, but not apart from His, but the will of Him that sent
me. This is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all
which He has given me, I should lose nothing. but should raise
it up again at the last day. This is the Father's will. God
said, I'm going to have mercy. According to that everlasting
covenant of grace, Almighty God said, these that I've chosen,
they're going to be holy in my Son before me. They will without
fail be given a perfect righteousness the imputed righteousness of
my dear Son, because I've adopted Him. I've adopted Him. These are my sons and my daughters
in Christ, and they're going to reign with Him eternally.
And it's going to be done in absolute righteousness. Secondly, as to the engagement
of the Son in this everlasting covenant of grace, The Son declared,
I will, in absolute oneness with the Father and Spirit, I'm going
to become man. I'm going to take upon myself
the form of sinful flesh. And I'm going to walk in the
accomplishment of His will, the righteousness that the elect
lost in Adam's fall, I, as their federal head, will walk before
God Almighty in absolute obedience, establishing righteousness as
the man, Christ Jesus, their representative. I will walk before
God and I will finish the work, my meat, My desire, my hunger
is to do the will of Him that sent me and finish it. I will work out a spotless righteousness
that shall be imputed to everyone that the Father has given me.
And in the fullness of time, I shall willingly and obediently
lay down my life for them John 10, 15, I lay down my life for
the sheep. I'm going to die for the sheep.
I'm going to put away the guilt of the sheep. He didn't die for
everybody. He didn't pray for everybody.
That's what he said. That's what the Lord said. I
lay down my life for the sheep. I'm going to be made sin. I'm
going to submit myself to the Father who shall make me sin. And I before God Almighty shall
suffer the chastisement of their peace. And Father, I shall give
myself willingly into your hand and die under your judgment in
their stead. I promise to be obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. I'm going to magnify the
law. In its justice, the law says
the soul that sinneth is going to die. But the Lord said, I'm
going to obey. I'm going to obey. Execute judgment
upon me in their stead. I'm going to die as their representative. And being the God-man mediator,
I'm going to give myself into your hand to be forsaken of you. that they never... What does
sin deserve? Alienation from God. The Lord
said, forsake Me. Forsake Me. Father, I covenant
to do for them Your will. Father, You chose them. You gave
them to Me. I covenant. I shall bring them
to You without spot and without blemish. And then thirdly, the
Holy Spirit covenanted that all those given to the Son by the
Father and all those redeemed by the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ would, in due time, be quickened by Him. Listen to John. I'll read this
for you. John 6.63 as I close. John 6.63. The Scripture says, it is the
Spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they're Spirit, they're life. A Holy Spirit covenant. Those
that the Father chose and the Son has agreed to die for, to
live for, to produce, to provide. Righteousness, holiness before
God. I'm going to call them out of
darkness. I know who they are. I know who they are. Spirit of
God who was there at that everlasting covenant. How are they going
to come? Here's the way they're going
to come. According to that everlasting covenant, it's going to be done
through the means of the preaching of the gospel. The gospel of
God's grace. That's what I quoted a while
ago. We're bound to give thanks to God always for you. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He calls you
by our gospel to the obtaining of glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Spirit of God covenanted, I'll
give them faith. I'll give them faith. That's
what it says. through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. How are they going to believe?
I'm going to give them faith. I'll give them faith. Those that the
Father chose and the Son redeemed, I'm going to teach them. I'll
seal them. I'll keep them. The Spirit of
God, the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, according to that
everlasting covenant of grace, chose, redeemed, quickens whomsoever
he will. Almighty God is the author and
the finisher of our faith. Salvation is of the Lord. David
said, this is all my salvation. This
is it. He made with me. An everlasting covenant. It was
ordered in all things. And it's sure. This is all my
hope. That's all my desire. That's
all I want. Although He make it not to grow,
Almighty God's going to save His people. He's going to save
them on purpose. He's going to save them by grace.
But He's going to save them in absolute justice. and show mercy
for Christ's sake.