I love contemplating and I love
preaching on the terms of the eternal covenant of grace. I
love the fact that, as this verse here before us indicates, is
that God does and God says, I will and they shall. He says, I have
known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me. Salvation
is knowing God in His true character as revealed in the scriptures
and particularly as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. I love how this covenant holds
all of the scriptures together. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the covenant. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
8 for a minute and I'll just read you these glorious verses
to set our minds as to who is the one that causes us to know
We know that it's a righteous act of God to reveal and it's
a righteous act of God to hide. And there will come a day when
every mouth will be stopped and all the world held guilty before
God and our God will be seen to be perfectly righteous and
perfectly just in everything that he does. But Hebrews 8 verse
10 says, for this is the covenant that I will make with the House
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws
into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be
to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. And there's a reason, isn't it?
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins
and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he sayeth a
new covenant, he hath made the first old, now that which decayeth
and waxes old is ready to vanish away. This is the covenant, isn't
it, that they will know God? And there's a reason. I will
be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. And I want us to be reminded
again and again that in John chapter 17, within maybe half
an hour of these words being said, the Lord Jesus Christ will
be bowed down in Gethsemane's garden and great drops of blood
from his broken heart will burst through his veins as he looks
into that cup and bears the crushing weight of having all of the sins
of all of his bride laid on him. And he says, I'll be merciful
to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will
I remember no more, because they're gone. They're gone altogether. That's what it is to be justified. That's what it is for him to
say in this verse before us, a righteous father. So here is
the great contrast, yet again laid out in scriptures for us,
isn't it? The great contrast between the
elect and the reprobate. And it's the difference, the
difference is always a difference that the Lord makes. And the
difference is a difference of grace and a difference of mercy. But also it's a difference that's
in righteousness. No matter what we think about
those things, may the Lord write on our hearts that God is righteous
in all The world was in ignorance, and
their willful ignorance and rebellion against God Almighty was 100%
their responsibility and their fault. And God, in sovereign
grace and mercy, in covenant love, comes to his own, and he
reveals himself to them. These have known that thou hast
sent me, your righteous in your sending, you're righteous in
your revealing. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the one that reveals the character of God. If you want to find out
what God is like, you look to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you
want to find out all of the glories of the character of God, the
name of God, you go to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you particularly
go to the Cross of Calvary. And there you'll see, in stark
display before all worlds, according to the Scriptures, the very attributes
of God on display, His glorious holiness, His absolute sovereignty
over all people, His grace, His mercy, His extraordinary wisdom
that God would find a way to magnify all of His character
in the saving of sinners like us. But it's interesting here,
isn't it, at the end of this prayer in John 17, that the Lord
would say, these have known that thou hast sent me. And 40-something times throughout
the Gospels, the Lord Jesus Christ describes himself as the one
who is sent. And in this particular prayer,
the Lord speaks in John 17.3, he says, this is life eternal
that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent. Verse 8, I have given them the
words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and
known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed
that thou didst send me. Verse 18, as thou hast sent me
into the world, even so I send them into the world. Verse 21,
that they all may be one, Father, as thou art in me and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me. I in them and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. O
righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known,
and these have known, that thou hast sent me. All this focus on Him being the
sent one. The first thing we need to remember,
of course, isn't it, is that the Lord Jesus Christ comes in
perfect obedience to His Father. And in perfect obedience and
in perfect submission to His Father's will, He loses none
of His deity and none of His glory. In fact, He enhances it. But the other thing that I think
is so important is that he wants us, as he does these apostles,
to remember again and again that the eternal covenant engagements
that cause descending are vital to our comfort and vital We look back in time and as Jeremiah
6.16 says, we stand in the paths and you have many paths around
you and you look, I'll read the verse for you so I get it right,
but I just love it. It's just a lovely picture because
he's saying to his people who have many paths set before them,
he says, stand ye, verse 16 of Jeremiah 6, Stand ye in the ways,
so there are many ways around us, and see. Take notice of what's
going on and ask. And he says, ask for the old
path. The old path is that path that
is so old that it vanishes into eternity past. That's the path
that you ask for, the old path. Listen to what he says, where
is the good way and walk therein and you shall find rest for your
souls. Isn't that a beautiful verse?
You stand in the ways. We stand in this world and we
have many ways before us, many ways in things that we can do,
many ways in things that we can think, many ways in religion.
It's all around, isn't it? It's complicated and confusing
except when God speaks and God reveals himself. When you stand
in all of those ways and you say, I'm going to ask, I'm going
to be humbled by God and I'm going to ask, which is the old
way? The old way is the way of the eternal covenant of grace,
the eternal covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
eternal covenant that reminds us again and again that he was
the sent one, he was sent with a purpose from God Almighty.
You'll call his name Jesus because he shall save his people from
their sins. Our God doesn't try. Our God
doesn't attempt anything at all. Our God doesn't make offers of
salvation. Our God does. Just as when he created this
universe, he just says, Light be, and light was. And when he comes in saving grace
into the hearts of his people, he just shines a light, and the
light is the Lord Jesus Christ and that light shines in us and
shines on us and we see the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his glory. We are to remember by the grace
of God that to know God is to know Him in this covenant character. That's what took Him to the cross,
that's what the blood is all about, that's what the sacrifice
on the cross is all about, because in that covenant there is a union,
such a close union between the Lord Jesus Christ and His bride
that He is the head and we are the body, He is the vine and
we are the branches, He is the shepherd and we are the sheep.
We are one with Him, such that in the scriptures The union is
so close when God the Father made him to be sin for us. He who knew no sin, did no sin
and could never sin was made sin on the cross of Calvary and
he was made sin for a particular people because God's actions
are always righteous, God's actions are always holy, God's actions
are always just. There was a perfect, perfect
justice in the punishment of the Lord Jesus Christ and all
the sins of all those people. That's why In that covenant that
we read about in Hebrews chapter 8, he says, I remember them no
more. They're gone altogether. That's
what it is to be justified. That's what it is to be in the
presence of a righteous God. So he reminds us again and again,
these have known that you have sent me. You're righteous in
sending. You're righteous in everything
that happened. You're righteous in what happened
on the cross at Calvary. You're righteous in what happened
when I was placed in a tomb, dead. You're righteous when I
was raised from the dead. Raised victorious on that resurrection
Sunday, you're righteous in everything you do all the time. You're righteous
in coming and revealing yourself and revealing me to your people.
You're righteous. God is righteous. This is eternal
life. that we know the righteous God,
we know the holy God, we know the only true God, we know the
God who made an eternal covenant in the grace and in the blood
of his dear and precious son. And he, because of that, he's
the first cause of all things. We know him because he reveals
himself to us. We love him because he first
loved us. These have known. I have known
and these have known. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
3. It's just an amazing passage of scripture, Philippians 3. Because if this saving knowledge
of this sent Saviour by a righteous Father has been granted to you,
you'd never get over it. Paul didn't get over it. Paul
is a pattern, isn't he, of all those who hereafter would believe. He says, verse 3, we are the
circumcision which worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ
Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might
also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that
he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. I've got
more reason to boast about all my religious credentials than
any other man on this earth. I was circumcised on the eighth
day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew
of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee. I knew every
one of those 613 laws, and I kept them." Listen to what he goes
on to say. concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness
which is in the law, blameless. What an extraordinary statement
to make. He could go to the law of God
and say, I've kept it. But what things were gained to
me, those I counted loss for Christ? Yea, doubtless, I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. I do
count them but done, that I may win Christ. and be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith, that I may know him. If you know Him, your desire
is to know Him. Simple, isn't it? He puts a desire
in our hearts that we will just know Him as He is, and everything
about Him we love, don't we? There's not a single attribute
of God that the child of God finds offensive. That I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings
being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might
attain to the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had
already attained, neither were already perfect, but I follow
after that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. He was taken captive as a prisoner.
You're apprehended by the law, aren't you? He was apprehended
by the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're taken captive by him,
You want to know him. You just keep wanting to know
him. I want to know him. I want to know him and I want
to know him more. I want to be more in his presence. I want
us to rejoice in who he is. He's the sent one to make God
known in all of his glory and all of his attributes. He hides
us like he hid Moses in the cleft of the rock. He says, I will
proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. Someone wrote that
his name is the collection of his attributes. And one of the
things that marks out the preacher's scent of God is that they're
always going back again and again and again and talking about the
character of God. There's not much to talk about
when it comes to the character of man, but there's an awful
lot to talk about when it comes to the character of God. We can
never plumb the depths of it. We love to think of how wise
he is. We love to think of how sovereign
he is. We love to think of how holy
he is. is. We love to think that he
sent his son into this world on a purpose. This is why he
came. He tells us again and again and
again in John's Gospel why he came. This is the will of him
that sent me. John chapter 6. Turn there for
a second. This is the will of him that
sent me. Verse 39, and this is the Father's
will which has sent me, that of all which he has given me,
I should lose nothing. but raise it up again at the
last day. This is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. We know him because he reveals himself to his people. He comes
to them just like he came to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus
road. He comes to his people in the
preaching of the gospel. He comes to them and reveals
Himself. And don't you love that He's
the One that does everything. He's the One that entered into
that covenant. He's the One that said, I will
and they shall. I will come and reveal and they
shall know Me. And they shall come and they
shall rejoice. Listen to what He goes on to
say in verse 44 of John 6. No man can come to me except the
Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up
at the last day. As it is written in the Prophets,
they shall all be taught of God. God will do the teaching. I rejoice
to think that God does the teaching of his people. I just have to
say what he says. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that any
man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God. He hath seen the Father. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath life everlasting. He comes and he reveals himself. He comes and reveals himself
as the sent one. He is the one who reveals God
Almighty. He illuminates his church. Don't you love that in heaven's
glory, what will there be? There's no light of the moon,
no light of the sun, but the Lord God. The city has no need
of the sun, neither of the moon to shine on it, for the glory
of God did lighten it. And the lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which
are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth
to bring their glory into it. And the gates of it shall not
be shut by day, for there shall be no night there, and they shall
bring the glory and honour of the nations into it, and there
shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. He's the sent one from
the beginning. He comes as the light of everlasting
life. He is the light of this world. He's the bright and morning star.
He's the sun of everlasting righteousness. He's the light of all grace.
He's the light of all glory. He's the day spring from on high. He illuminates God. I have known
thee and these have known that thou has sent me. He's the Great Sent One, our
Great and Sovereign Saviour. He wants us, I shouldn't say
want, God doesn't have any wants, but throughout the scriptures
we are reminded again and again of this eternal covenant in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know I've read it lots
of times, but I'd like to close by reading from Hebrews 13, 20,
because this covenant, like all of God's covenant, is not something
that just sits there, it's active, it's active. And it works in
the hearts of God's people. Our knowledge of Him is linked
to love for Him and it's linked to His work in the hearts of
His people to cause us to come again and again and again in
simple childlike faith. We look to our Father and adore
Him for who He is. We look to our Saviour and we
just adore Him for who He is. Verse 20 of Hebrews 13. Now the
God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Listen to what he goes on to
say. Make you perfect in every Son, believe on His Son, to do
His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His
sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and
ever. O righteous Father, The world
has not known thee. You're righteous in hiding yourself. But I have known thee. You're
righteous in sending me. And these have now and you're
righteous in giving them knowledge of who I am and why I was sent
into this world and what I did as the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world and what I did in my perfect obedience and what
I did in my perfect death and what I'm doing right now in the
hearts of all of my people. And these have known, they have
known, that thou hast sent me. God gets all the glory, his people
get all the joy and peace of believing. May the Lord bless
his word to our hearts. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the revelation of who you are. We thank you
for your precious word, Heavenly Father. We have read words that
were penned so long ago. They were written and sealed
with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Blessed Holy Spirit
has promised to take those things that we have read that you have
written and reveal them unto us, to reveal the Lord Jesus
Christ unto us in all of his glory. We thank you, Heavenly
Father, that our salvation is an eternal salvation, that we
have an everlasting gospel to proclaim, that your Son was sent
and he achieved absolutely everything that he was sent to do. And we
just praise you, Heavenly Father, that we can rest all of the hopes
of all of our eternity in His faithfulness, in His righteousness,
in His work, in Him revealing you to us. And Heavenly Father,
we pray that you give us a heart that just desires to know Him
and continue to know Him, to believe and to have the childlike
faith of the babes that you reveal yourself to. Make us like those
babes, our Father. May his blood and his broken
body be precious to us. May we rejoice, our Father, in
salvation finished and sure and secure in your dear and precious
Son. Bless your word, bless your people
wherever they are, bless those that aren't well, Heavenly Father,
and bless the preaching.