I want to talk to you this morning
from the 32nd chapter of the book
of Jeremiah. Verse 40. Chapter 32 and verse 40. It says here in this fortieth verse, And I, that's God the Father,
I will make an everlasting covenant with them. that I will not turn
away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their
hearts, and they shall not depart from me." The subject is really one word,
which is the covenant. I will give them one heart and one way, and they may fear me forever
for the good of them and of their children after them, and I will
make an everlasting covenant with them." A covenant is a binding
agreement. It is made by two or more individuals. It's a covenant, a binding agreement,
a binding contract to do or to keep from doing a specified thing. Here in this particular verse
of Scripture, It has to do with promises made by God to men. And it is an everlasting covenant. I will make an everlasting covenant
with them in the world. They are men and
women towards whom God stands in covenant relationship. Now, mixed, these that God stands with covenant relationship
with are mixed up. with numbers, untold numbers
of God-forgetting people, even God-defying people. But there is a number among those that are referred
to as covenant who think of God, who know of
God, who trust God, who believe in God, and even are in league with God. God has made with them a covenant. Now, it is a great wonder and
mercy that he did so, but he has done so. He has made a covenant
with the people. God has pledged himself to this
covenant people, and they have in return pledged themselves
unto him. They are called throughout the
Old Testament and in some places in the New Testament as a covenant
people. They are joined together by an
eternal binding bond or an agreement. And these people that are mixed
up with these God-defying and God-despising and God-hating
people are known by certain marks of identity. Certain evidences
are seen in them. They are a people, according
to this verse that I have read to you from Jeremiah chapter
32, they are a people to whom God is doing good. Let me read that again. And I
will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn
away from them to do them good. They are a people then, according
to this verse, that he is doing good to them. And there arises from that a
question that I must ask you this morning. Do you perceive
that he is doing you good? That is a question that you must
answer. Do you perceive that God is doing
you good? Has he dealt graciously with
you? Has he appeared to you in the Lord Jesus Christ and said,
I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore in loving kindness
have I grown you? Do all things work good for you? that is spiritual good, that
is lasting good. Has he given the Lord Jesus Christ
to you? Has he made you to hate evil
and love good? Now, these people are known by
having a fear of God in their hearts. It says here in this
39th verse that they may fear me forever
for the good of them and their children after them, and I will
make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn
away from them, to do them good, but I will put my fear in their
hearts, and they shall not depart from me." Now, these people are
known by having a fear of God in their hearts. This is a covenant
promise that they have the fear of God in their hearts. Now,
the question I ask, do you reverence the name of God, reverence the
name of Jehovah God? Do you reverence the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you reverence the name of
God's Holy Spirit? desire above everything else
to please God in Jesus Christ? Do you desire to be like the
Lord Jesus Christ? Do you find in yourself to some small measure a humility,
a humbleness about you that is the effect of him making himself known to you
in Christ as your everlasting righteousness, your law keeper,
your sin bearer? Do you feel like at times that
you have fallen so short of expectation of being conformed to him as
you ought to be conformed to him? Does it bother you? Does it cause your heart to be
sad and make you wonder where you stand with Him? Do you desire
to know Him in the fullness? Do you desire to some measure
to be like God? Now, these are things, I think,
somehow are evidences of these people that are a covenant people
that are mixed up in this world with these God-despising and
God-hating people. God has made a covenant with
these people. Do you hunger and thirst after
after the righteousness of God which is in Christ? Is the presence
of God in your soul, does it relate to you as heaven in a
measure will relate to you in the end time? Is this love and
fear of God in your heart Do you take that to be a seal of
this covenant that God has made before time ever was? Well, if so, if there is some semblance of
these evidences and marks in you, then I want to tell you
this morning, toward you, God has thoughts of love which can
never change. Because this is, he said, an
everlasting covenant. This covenant is unchangeable. There is no breaking of this
covenant. This covenant is eternal. This covenant is lasting. And He has good thoughts towards you all the time. And we'll be that
way throughout time. and throughout
eternity. I will make an everlasting covenant
with him. It seems to me like in chapter
31 of Jeremiah, he refers to this covenant as a new covenant. in verse 31 of chapter 31. He said, Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judea. I will make a new covenant. Now, the covenant here is called
a new covenant That is, it's new in contrast to the former
covenant that the Lord made with the nation Israel. This covenant
that he made with the nation Israel, the old covenant, was
of a very short time or duration. It didn't last very long. But
this covenant, this new covenant that he's talking about, is an
everlasting covenant. It means lasting forever. It means that it will never come
to an end. And the reason why that this
new covenant is everlasting and will never come to an end is
that it was made with us in Christ Jesus. Now, over in the book
of Ephesians it says that we were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Now, this covenant that I am
talking about is an everlasting covenant because it was made
with Him who is the surety of the covenant, the representative
of the people that God makes the covenant with, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, the covenant of works or
the old covenant was made with the race of the first Adam. Now, the first Adam was faulty
and the first Adam failed. He could not bear the stress
and the responsibility and the covenant was broken. But the
surety of the new covenant is the Lord Jesus Christ and he
is not faulty and he won't fail because he is perfect. He has
No sin. He was perfect in every respect,
so He shall not fail. And He's the federal head of
those that were chosen in Him before the world ever was. And
so He stood for them. He's their head. He's their representative. He's their substitute. He's their
mouthpiece. He speaks for them. He is their
representative. And the Lord entered into covenant
with God, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ entered into this binding
agreement, this unalterable agreement, on behalf of those that God chose
in Christ before the world ever was. He entered into covenant
with God on behalf of his people, and because he cannot fail in
the fulfilling of the stipulations of this covenant, it is an everlasting
covenant. The Bible says that he abideth
forever, the Lord Jesus, and he abideth forever in his Melchizedek
priesthood and in the power of an endless life. So he represents
us and the covenant then is an eternal, everlasting agreement
binding by God and the surety who represents us, even the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, it cannot fail. because the human side of that
covenant has been fulfilled. Now, many feel like that the
human side of the covenant is the weakest part of the covenant. Well, it would be if it was you
and I that was to be the representative of the covenant. But if we have
the Lord Jesus Christ, the man Christ Jesus, If we have Him
who is God and man in one person, if we have Him who is all God
and all man in one person, as much God as if He was never man
and as much man as if He was never God, if we have Him to
be our representative, then all is sure and all is certain. But if it was left up to us,
if we had to stand, then all would be sure and certain to
fail and we'd be doomed for destruction. We'd be destroyed. But we have
Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's standing for us. He's acting
in our behalf. He's establishing a righteousness,
bringing in an everlasting righteousness. He's fulfilling all the stipulations
of this binding contract on our behalf. So he cannot fail. Lord Jesus. To me, that makes
my heart rejoice. He cannot fail. He has fulfilled
every jot and every tittle, every condition that can be supposed
in that covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled
in every respect, every stipulation. He's the sheriff. He's magnified
the law in our behalf. He's honored the law. He's fulfilled
the law, made it honorable by his obedience to the law. He's met the demands that all
that the moral government could demand. He's met the demands
of that. He's made amends to the holiness
of God for our offenses. We've offended God, we've sinned
against God, and He's made amends. He's satisfied God. I read just
recently where the fellow said that, talking about the atonement,
he said, The word atonement has only been used in recent days,
that is, in the last six, seven hundred years has the emphasis
been placed upon atonement. But he said in days gone by,
instead of talking about the atonement, they felt like the
atonement didn't cover enough But they used the word satisfaction,
and I like that word satisfaction. God in Christ made satisfaction. He satisfied all the claims and
stipulations of the covenant. He satisfied them in our behalf,
and there is nothing unsatisfied relating to the covenant as it
pertains to me. He has satisfied all the claims. He has fulfilled righteousness
and established a perfect righteousness for his people. And as I said
before, everything that can be supposed to be a condition in
the covenant is provided by the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that
it's necessary, if a man's going to be saved, to repent and to
believe, to repent and to have faith in the living God. That's necessary. But it says
also that the Lord Jesus Christ, our surety, our representative,
our substitute, who stands in our place, in our stead, It says
that he was exalted on high to give repentance and faith and
the remissions of sins and provide for us an everlasting
righteousness. We must have what God demands
and what God demands is a perfection and we must have it. And so the
surety of the covenant, the first Adam failed, but the second Adam,
who is God and man in one person, he takes up our cause and represents
us. And he cannot fail. And he satisfied
all the claims of holy justice, all the claims of the holy law. He satisfied all that was involved
against us. He cannot fail. And he has, at
this minute, at this hour, here this morning, fulfilled to the
letter all that the law has demanded of us. He's fulfilled it to the
letter. And the Bible makes it very clear
when it talks about He's kept every jot and every tittle of
the law for us as our representatives in our place. in our stead. Bless the name of the Lord Jesus. Oh, what would we do this morning
if we had not Him? What would we do this morning
if we had not Him to stand for us? He entered into a covenant
with us. God did. And the surety of the covenant
for us is the Lord Jesus. And even before time ever was, back in the eternity of the eternities,
he began to bless us, even with all of our sins. All of our sin was before His
mind, open. Nothing new that happens now
can ever change or alter this covenant that God made in Christ
in eternity past. gross sin. There is no scarlet
sin which has been omitted. He said, Come, now let us reason
together. Though your sin be as scarlet,
it shall be as white as snow. Nothing can be omitted from this. I want us to remember this morning
that we are, at this time, this day, looked upon, viewed in the same
light as ever when he first saw us. under sin, fallen, depraved,
condemned, yet He promised in the covenant that He would do
us good. Someone said, He saw me ruined
by the fall, yet He loved me. notwithstanding all, if today
I am sinful, if today I groan because of my depraved, evil,
sinful nature, yet I am where I was when he first chose me
and called me and redeemed me by his blood. and blessed me
with the imputation of his righteousness freely given to me. It says when
we were without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. We are seen in that light, but
you need to also remember we are seen now also in Christ Jesus,
our surety. God puts his people in the hands
of his dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He puts us in Christ's
body. He sees us in Christ, to have
died in Christ. to have been buried in Him, to
have risen from the grave in Him. And as the Lord Jesus Christ,
our surety, who undertook on our behalf to satisfy all the
conditions and stipulations of the covenant, and He did as He
said He would do, Our Lord said, This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. And as the Lord Jesus Christ
is well pleasing to the Father, so in him, in the Lord Jesus,
we will be pleasing to the Father. Our being in him, identifies
us with him. If then our acceptance with God
stands on the footing of the acceptance of the Lord Jesus
Christ with God, if that is the case, which it is, then our acceptance
stands solid, it stands firmly, It stands surely and it stands
certain. Now, if we stood before God in
our own individual, personal righteousness, our destruction
would be sure and certain. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
our surest, our substitute, our whole salvation, but in him our
life is hid beyond all danger. Our life is hid in Christ, in
God, and it is beyond all danger until the Father, rejects the
Lord Jesus Christ, he cannot then reject his people. We are in him once and we're
in him forever. And this is the promise. He said, I will do them good. He does us good. I will make
an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away
from them." Not only does he say, I will not turn away from
them, but he also says, to do them good. Has he done you good? Does all things work together
for your good? Certainly it does. Certainly
it does. I will put my fear in their hearts,
and they shall not depart from me. They may wander, but they
will not depart from me. This is an everlasting covenant
that God made with His people in Jesus Christ. And He's that
surety of the covenant. He's the guarantee of our salvation. No wonder that the apostle, when
he came to the church of Corinth, said he was determined not to
know anything among them save Christ and Him crucified. I feel
the same way, don't you? He's my Lord. He's my Savior. He's my Lawkeeper. Oh, my Righteousness. He's all
that I need is the Lord Jesus. Thank God that He sent Him and that He fulfilled every condition
if there was such a thing. Every stipulation of that covenant,
He fulfilled them on behalf of those that He represented. Thank
God. I don't have to stand alone,
but I stand in Him. One with Him. We're one with
Him. He ever lives for us. make intercession
for us. He will not fail! He cannot fail. All hail the power of Jesus'
name. Let angels prostrate fall, crowning
the royal diadem. Oh, my soul, thank God for His
great salvation in Jesus Christ. We'll meet again.