Well, it's good to be here. Good
to see you all again. It's good to have my friend Erica
here. It's one of the remarkable things
about the providence of the Lord. The hinges of history are microscopic,
says our friend Mr Spurgeon. As Romans 8.38 says, He works
all things for the good. That means absolutely everything
in all of creation is worked by our great God. So it's lovely
to have you here and we trust that the Lord will cause you
to be a blessing to us and us to you. Welcome. Let's turn in
our scriptures to Acts chapter 3. We've come to the conclusion
of these two sermons where Peter, empowered by the Holy Spirit,
He's fulfilling the promise that the Lord Jesus made as he was
taken up to heaven, that you will receive power after the
Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto
me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and under
the uttermost parts of the earth. And there is a great promise.
There's a great promise in this gospel, isn't there, in the declaration
of this. And it shall come to pass, Acts
2.21, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved. To call on the name of the Lord
is to obviously call to Him, but it's actually to come to
Him as He is, and it's to call on the name of the Lord is to
come to Him as He's revealed in the Scriptures. And the character
of God is the comfort of God's people. We just love hearing
about the character of our God. And Peter has gone in this sermon,
if you go back and look through those two sermons, you'll see
that he's just declared, this is the character of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is the character of God. If you want to know God,
this is who God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he declares
Him to be a sovereign, successful Saviour. turn and begin with that sermon.
There is, of course, in the context, there is this man who's healed.
Forty years he'd been there at the temple gates, and now he's
healed and standing there. In verse 13, Peter, we'll go
back to verse 13. Peter begins his sermon, he says,
don't you look at us. Don't look at this man. There
is something that's happening this way beyond the things that
you see with your eyes. Acts 3, 13. The God of Abraham
and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified
his son Jesus, whom you delivered up. and denied him in the presence
of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied
the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer be granted
unto you, and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised
from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And His name, through
faith in His name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see
and know. Yea, the faith which is by Him
hath given Him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And
now, brethren, I know that through ignorance ye did it, as did also
your rulers. But those things which God before
had shown by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should
suffer, He hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted,
that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send
Jesus Christ, which was before preached unto you. whom heaven
must receive until the times of restitution of all things,
which God hath spoken by the mouth of all of his holy prophets
since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the
fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you
of your brethren, like unto me. Him shall ye hear in all things
whatsoever he shall say unto you, and it shall come to pass
that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed
from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from
Samuel to those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have
likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children of the prophets,
and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying
unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the
earth be blessed. Unto you first, God, having raised
up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, interning every one
of you from his iniquities." It's remarkable to think, isn't
it, 2,000 people were converted that day hearing that particular
message. It's remarkable. It's remarkable. So we just wanted to, if the
Lord will allow us, to look at those last two verses. We saw
last week that Moses, rather than being declared a law giver,
which no doubt he was, Moses is actually declared to be a
prophet. And all of the prophets, all of the prophets are saying
exactly the same things, aren't they? All of the prophets are
talking about the glory, the sufferings of the Lord Jesus
and the glory that should follow. And if you can't find that when
you're reading the Old Testament, you need to go and ask God and
look and search because that's what it's about. That's what
every story in the Old Testament is about. It has just one message,
isn't it? This book has one message. Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. That's the message of the book,
isn't it? All of the prophets, all of the
prophets, from Samuel to those that follow after, as many as
have spoken have likewise foretold of these days. Moses is one of
the prophets. The law, as we saw last week,
prophesied. All of what the law was pointing
to was Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Moses is a great picture, isn't
it? I love, we spoke about it last week, but I love the picture
that Moses, that little boat, that little boat that his mother
made, that little boat, what was it covered by? What kept
that little boat afloat? It was called pitch or tar, but
the word means propitiation. At the beginning of his life
there was Moses in a little boat of propitiation, floating above
the waters, floating away from the wrath of Pharaoh, floating
into the arms of Pharaoh's daughter to be given back to his mother,
protected and preserved. The children of God are protected
and preserved from way before they know anything about it.
And how did Moses finish his days? He says, underneath are
everlasting arms. The wonderful thing about everlasting
arms being underneath us is that that's as far as you can fall,
brothers and sisters, isn't it? That's as far as you can fall.
You can only fall into everlasting arms. That's how Moses finished
his days. He didn't go into the promised
land because the law takes no one into the promised land. The
law works wrath. And Peter then reminds these
people that they are the children of the prophets. They are the
descendants of all of these prophets. All of that testimony of God
that had gone on for those thousands of years was in the hands of
these people. They had the very oracles of
God, the people of Israel. They had the witness of the testimony
of God. They are the children of the
prophets. and all of the prophets foretold
of these days." Then he goes on to say, "...of the children
of the prophets and of the covenant God made with our fathers, saying
unto Abraham, in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth
be blessed." So today we wanted to look at what this covenant
is. What's the covenant of Abraham? The covenant actually, the words
behind it means to fetter or to bind. It's a covenant. A covenant is a binding legal
agreement. It's a promise to do something. It's a promise to perform. The
first time it's mentioned in the scriptures is in Genesis
chapter Chapter 6, God, you might remember God made a covenant
with Noah. I don't know if you saw it on the way into town during
the week, there was the most amazing rainbow. Some of you
people saw it. I had to pull over and take a
picture of it. The rainbow was the green grass. The rainbow
was settled actually between Colin Merrim's house and Graham
and June's house. How wonderful it was. I can show
you the pictures. It was so pretty. It was just
so spectacular. I had to take a picture of it.
But that rainbow, of course, isn't it? It's a picture of God's
promise, promise to Noah. Noah was no different from the
rest of that generation, was he? What happened to Noah? Why
was Noah saved? What happened to Noah? He found
grace. He found grace in the eyes of the Lord, our Noah. He
found grace. And what kept that boat afloat? What kept that boat afloat? pitch,
tar, propitiation. That boat suffered all of the
wrath of Almighty God on that creation and those people were
in the ark, in that boat. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ being crucified. In the Lord Jesus Christ being
crucified the wrath of God is fully absorbed and the people
of God are perfectly safe and protected in their Redeemer.
It's glorious, isn't it? There are just two covenants.
We will look at them in a minute out of Galatians. But there are
just two covenants, aren't there? There's a covenant of works and
a covenant of grace. The covenant of grace has many
names in the Scriptures. It's a covenant of salvation. It's a covenant of mercy. It's
a covenant of love. It's a covenant of peace. It's
a holy covenant, as Simon just read to us a little while. It's
a better covenant. It's a covenant in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ and most often it's declared in scriptures
to be an everlasting covenant, an everlasting covenant. You
have a look there in our verse, it says it's the covenant which
God made. It's the covenant that God made
with our fathers. This is a covenant between God
the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It's a covenant,
an eternal covenant, isn't it? It's a covenant in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a covenant in which, as
you can see in so many parts of the scriptures at the beginning
of almost all the letters, the terms of the covenant are laid
out. You just go back to Ephesians, those remarkable verses. It's
blessed be the God. Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace. wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will,
according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself. that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both of which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in him, in whom we also have obtained an inheritance,
being predestined according to the purpose of him who works
all things after the counsel of his will. and the purpose
of it. Verse 12, that we should be to
the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Who first
trusted in Christ? God the Father first trusted
in Christ, brothers and sisters. He trusted Him with everything,
didn't He? He trusted Him with His name,
His reputation. He entrusted into the hands of
Christ all of His people. He gave them into the hands of
the Lord Jesus Christ and they struck hands in that eternal
covenant before the foundation of the world and the Lord Jesus
Christ was the surety of that covenant. And at that moment,
before the foundation of the world, He took absolute responsibility
for all of God's elect children. He took absolute responsibility
for all of their sins. And in the scriptures he says
their sins are his own. He says it in Psalm 69 and Psalm
40 and Psalm 28 and in many places in the scriptures. He declares
their sins to be his own. Our Lord Jesus Christ never did
sin. Please don't ever let us think that he sinned. He could
not be a perfect sacrifice if he sinned, if he had sinned at
all. But He, in His own body, He bore
our sins. God lay on Him the iniquity of
us all. And the Blessed Holy Spirit will
come and do as He's promised, won't He? He'll take the things
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love that verse in John 16.
The things of the Lord Jesus Christ. What are the things of
the Lord Jesus Christ? His perfect deity. His perfect
humanity, His perfect work, His perfect obedience before the
law, His perfect love for His people, His perfect fellowship
with His Father. He takes all of the things. You
just add to that list as much as your mind will allow. He takes
all of those things and He reveals to us. He makes them explained
to us. And that's His work, isn't it?
The Holy Spirit has now come in power and He's taken the things
of the Lord Jesus. He's taken that bloodshed and
now that bloodshed is blood applied according to the terms of this
eternal covenant. It's a covenant that God made
with our fathers. It's a covenant that God made
with Abraham. We go back to Genesis and have
a quick look at some of the verses that relate to this covenant. was an Iraqi idolater. That's
what Abraham was. The best you can say about Abraham,
an Iraqi idolater. And the Lord, verse Genesis 12,
now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and
from thy kindred and thy father's house into a land that I will
show thee. And listen to the promises. The
eternal covenant, the covenant of Abraham, always is in these
terms, isn't it? I will, I will. Just listen to
them. I will make thee of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and
thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curses thee. And in thee shall all of
the families of the earth You know the story well, don't
you? You have all those promises. But you know the story well.
Abraham, if we go over to Genesis 15, there is a cutting of this
covenant. The cutting was the sealing of the covenant. And the promise came before this
sealing of the covenant. In verse 5, Abraham's complaining
that he doesn't have an heir. His name means father. Abraham means father. And when
God changed his name to Abraham, Abraham means father of many. Here was this man, 75 years old,
and his name had mocked him. for most of his life. How many
children do you have, Abraham? Your name means father. How many
children do you have? None. And he complains in the beginning
of chapter 15, and the Lord brought him out. He said, That one won't
be your heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels
shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad
and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be
able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall
thy seed be. What did Abraham do? Abraham,
this old man, he believed in the Lord and it was counted to
him for righteousness. And there is this cutting ceremony.
When the covenant is cut, this eternal covenant, the covenant
that the Holy Spirit has led Peter to talk about, there is
a cutting of the covenant and they cut the animals in half
and they laid them out. And in the normal cutting of
the covenant, the two parties walk between the slain animals,
effectively saying, if I break the covenant, this is what I
deserve. Abraham pictures the church.
There is just one thing that Abraham has to do. He has to
keep the fowls off the sacrifice. The sacrifice must be kept pure. And the fowls came down. Abraham drove the fowls away
in verse 11. And as the sun was going down,
what was Abraham's activity during the cutting of the covenant ceremony? Where was Abraham? Verse 12,
a deep sleep fell on Abraham, just for us to make sure that
the covenant's nothing to do with Abraham's works whatsoever
at all. The covenant's a covenant between
God. and God, and our God, who cannot
lie. And the smoking furnace and the
burning lamp passed between those people. In that same day the
Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, Unto thy seed have I
given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates."
He's given him that land and he's given him the promise. And
that covenant is renewed again and again throughout Genesis. It's renewed to Abraham, it's
renewed to Isaac, it's renewed to Jacob. And this is what Peter
is talking about, isn't it? The covenant which God made with
our fathers. He's talking about this Abrahamic
covenant. And of course, Abraham pictures what it is. for man
to think that somehow he must do something to enable God's
promises to be fulfilled. God made Abraham wait for a long
time, and it must have been a frustrating long time. His name had been
changed. And Sarah, what was Sarah's suggestion? It's just so typical of us, isn't
it? God has made a promise. God has made a promise that Abraham
and Sarah are going to have a baby. And what do we do? We do exactly what Abraham and
Sarah did. The promise is a long time coming. We better get busy. Sarah's suggestion
was one that we know well, don't we? Here's Hagar, Abraham. You go into Hagar and you will
be able to produce this. You will be able to do by your
works what God has promised to do. We can help God out. That's
what Sarah was saying, wasn't she? We can give him a little
hand along. He's made a promise and it's not working, but we
can do a little bit ourselves. Brothers and sisters, don't we
do it all the time? Don't we do it all the time? We look away
from the promises and we look to what we have to do. And of
course, there was the son born, and Ishmael is the son that was
born. Galatians makes it very clear
that there is a promised child that's coming. How does the child
come? How does Abraham's child come?
God waits until Abraham is 99 years old and Sarah is so long
past childbearing. How does the promise come? How
does the fruit come to the child of God? It comes when there is
no ability in them at all, whatsoever. And it comes by a sovereign hand
of God fulfilling a promise in people who were dead. Abraham
and Sarah were dead people effectively, weren't they, in terms of producing
babies. They had no hope whatsoever. I love how Romans characterises
the wonder of what happened. In Romans 4 we have that great
description of Abraham We see what man's work does, don't we?
Always we see what man's work does. Man's work produces Ishmael's
all the time. Always produces Ishmael's. That's all it ever has done,
all it ever will do. God's sovereign promise produces
children of the promise. Let's look at Romans 4. It's
just so beautiful. Romans 4 has some of these amazing
verses. says, for the promise that he
should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to be received
through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For
if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void
in the promise of none effect. Because what does the law do?
What does works do? What does Ishmael do? The law
worketh wroth, for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Just look closely at this next verse, I just love it. Therefore
it is of faith. Faith. Abraham believed God. He just believed God. that it
might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure
to all the seed." It's the seed that's being spoken of in these
verses we're looking at in Acts. I love that, don't you? It's
by faith that it might be by grace, completely undeserved
and unmerited, something given to someone who is demerited by
their activities and by who they are. to the end of the promise
might be sure." I love the fact that the promises of God are
sure, aren't they? They're yes and amen in the Lord
Jesus Christ. When we get to the promises of
God in the scriptures, brothers and sisters, we need to stop
and think and thank God for them. Every time he says, I will and
I shall, what happens? He wills and he shalls. The end of the promise might
be sure to all the seed, not only to that which is of the
Lord, but that which is of the faith of Abraham. It is the father
of us all. All the faith children of God
are Abraham's children. That's what Galatians tells us.
As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations
before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the
dead and calleth those things which are not as though they
are, who against hope He had no earthly reason for hope, believed
in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according
to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being
not weak in faith, He considered not his own body now dead when
he was about a hundred years old, neither the deadness of
Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God." I love this next verse. "...being fully persuaded that
what he had promised He was able also to perform. Are you fully
persuaded, brothers and sisters? I want to be fully persuaded.
I want to come to the promises of God in the scriptures and
be fully persuaded. As Paul said, isn't he, I know
whom I have believed and I am persuaded. that he is able to
keep that which I've entrusted unto him." This was imputed to
Abraham for righteousness. So two children were born. There's
the children, the child of promise, and the child of works, the works
of man. I need to turn over to Galatians. It's a great battle, isn't it? The great battle that was about
to enfold the Church. And the battles that enfold the
Church in the New Testament are the battles that enfold and harass
the children of God always, aren't they? So the Church is a picture
in a way of the individuals of the Church and the battles that
the Church has. And the great battle always is
a battle between grace and works, isn't it? A battle between what
we do and what God has promised to do. And the most extraordinary thing,
we have finished Galatians some little time ago and I am still
stunned that if you go to the great statements of faith of
the denominations around the world and you go to the Bible
colleges of this land, universally from my experience, every single
one of them tells people to put people back under the law. It's
extraordinary how clear it is, isn't it? It's extraordinary how strong the words of God are.
If you go to Galatians 3, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched
you that you should not abrade the truth? before whose eyes
Jesus Christ hath evidently set forth crucified among you." And
that's exactly what Peter had done. He had evidently set forth
the Lord Jesus crucified among them, just preached the Gospel
of Him and Him crucified. And this only will I learn of
you. Receive ye the Spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Are you so foolish,
having begun in the Spirit, you are now made perfect by the flesh?
And that's exactly what we're doing all the time, isn't it?
We really think that we have to do something. We have to do
something to be made perfect by the flesh. Have you suffered
so many things in vain, if it yet be in vain? There he therefore
that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you.
Does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of
faith? Even Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to
him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. This is talking about this work
of this Abrahamic covenant, isn't it? It's the seed. In thy seed,
the Lord Jesus Christ, shall all the nations of the earth,
kindreds of the earth be blessed. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the
scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathens through
faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham. So when Abraham,
this covenant that God made with Abraham, he was preaching the
gospel to him. Abraham had the gospel, brothers
and sisters. They had the Gospel in the Old
Testament. The Gospel in the Old Testament
is the same as the Gospel in the New Testament. It's a Gospel
about the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's a Gospel
that declares the activities of God in the Eternal Covenant. Abraham had the Gospel. So then, they which are of faith, That word of there means origin. Those which trace the origin
of their faith, of their activities and their relationship with God
to just a faith that He has produced and worked in them. They which
are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many
as are of the works of the law, if you trace anything in your
salvation to something that you have done, I pray that God would
rid you of it as soon as possible. And if it's a painful process
to rid you of it, then so be it. For as many as are of the
works of the law are under a curse. Cursed is everyone that continueth
in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. No man is justified by the law inside of God for it
is evident that just shall live by faith. So what was Abraham
to do? Abraham was to cast out the bondwoman
and cast out the bondwoman with her son. There's a covenant that
was made with Abraham. The covenant that was made is
not the same as the covenant that was made with Moses. The
covenant that was made with Abraham is a covenant that was based
on a promise. that Abraham was going to be heir of the world,
that Abraham could look out to that starry night and look up
there and see the faith dependent children of God, those children
that God had given to the Lord Jesus Christ in that eternal
covenant. Those children that God the Son had taken full responsibility
for, those children that the blessed Holy Spirit said He would
come and He would take the blood of the Lord Jesus and He would
apply it to the consciences and hearts of people. That's the
issue, isn't it? So often when you're talking
to people and if they are serious, serious about things, they're
concerned about where their hearts are at. How do you purify your
heart? How do you purify your heart,
brothers and sisters? So in Acts chapter 15, we'll
come to it later on, that was the big issue, wasn't it? The
first big conference that the church had to have was about
law and grace, about faith and works, about man adding to the
works of God. And they had that first conference.
And that was about exactly the same things that harass the children
of God in their hearts now. And these people said that they
wanted these Gentile believers to be circumcised and then to
continue doing works. They wanted to begin with something
they did and then continue doing things. We'll show you how to
be more holy. We'll show you how to live the
Christian life. We'll show you how you can polish
yourself and make yourselves more fit for heaven." And Peter rose up and he says,
God knows the hearts. He bears them witness, Acts 15.8,
giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us. put no difference
between us and them, purifying their hearts by what, brothers
and sisters? Purifying their hearts by faith. That's how we have
pure hearts, isn't We look away from ourselves and we look to
Him. We trust Him to have borne all
of our sins in His own body on the tree. That's why this covenant, this
covenant that was made, is a covenant of grace, isn't it? Because we
need grace, brothers and sisters. It's a covenant of mercy because
it brings mercy from God. It's a holy covenant because
it declares God holy and declares God to be just and it declares
all of God's children to be holy and just in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a covenant of salvation. It's a covenant of love. It reveals
that everlasting love of God for all his children. I love
quoting Jeremiah 31 verse 3. It's so sweet, isn't it? I have
loved you, I have loved you, he says, with an everlasting love. But
His love is not ineffectual, brothers and sisters, is it?
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. His love is powerful and effectual. In this covenant, it's a covenant
that reveals His love. There is a love of God for His
people. The love of God is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Don't make it a common thing.
When it becomes a common thing, it's a useless thing. A love
that cannot get people to heaven, a love that leaves people in
hell, is not the love of God that's in the scriptures, brothers
and sisters. A love that took the Lord Jesus Christ to the
calvary's tree and caused him to bear the eternal and infinite
wrath of God for all of his people. and to then turn around, as modern
religion says, that he loved them and he failed. This is an
everlasting love. It had no beginning, brothers
and sisters. It has no end. It has no bottom
to it. It is just everlasting He loved
thee with an everlasting love, therefore loving kindness have
I drawn thee." The terms of the covenant are just so sweet, aren't
they, to think about the fact that before the foundation of
the world, God set his love upon a particular people. We think, we think so often,
don't we, that God gives His blessings begrudgingly, don't
we? We think that somehow He's like
an angry schoolmaster and we have to sort of somehow coerce
Him to smile upon us. Brothers and sisters, He smiles
upon His people all the time. He has never seen anything other
than perfect and holy and spotless in the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy
1.9 is one of those remarkable verses of scripture, isn't it?
He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. was given there before the world
began. When were people saved? They were saved in the Lord Jesus
Christ and before the foundation of the world. But what happens
when the preaching of the Gospel comes, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who has abolished
death, abolished death, and has brought life and immortality
to light through the Gospel. That's why God's servants, and
it's a good test for people in churches, isn't it, is to ask
them what they know of the terms and the conditions and the parties
to the eternal covenant. Because God's servants, in 2
Corinthians 3 verse 6, he says he makes his ministers servants. He made us able ministers of
the New Testament, the eternal covenant. Not of the letter,
but of the Spirit, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth
life. That's why I spoke about Melchizedek
earlier. He came out, didn't he? He came
out to Abraham and he brought to Abraham the bread and the
wine. To be a minister An able minister
is to be a table waiter. That's what it means that I hand
around bread and wine. God's servants, if they're made
of God, will be talking about the Eternal Covenant all the
time because God made them to be ministers of it. We serve
it all the time. We serve it to you. We serve
it on a platter of scripture to you that you see in the scriptures
from Genesis 1 through to Revelation. We see that our God reigns in
all things. The Lord Jesus Christ is declared
to be, in Hebrews 7.22, is declared to be the surety of that covenant. And that word surety is first
used in Genesis 42. You might know the story well. Joseph had gone down to Egypt,
and there was a famine in the land, and the children of Jacob
went down, the ten children that remained, and Benjamin was left
behind. And they met Joseph down there to get their food, and
Joseph knew who they were, but they didn't know who he was.
And Joseph questioned them. He questioned them about their
father, and he questioned them about their brother. And he said
to them, after their second trip, he said, unless you bring Benjamin
down, you will not get any more bread. You must bring Benjamin
down." And Jacob was horrified at the thought that he'd lost
that precious son of his to what he thought were wild animals,
and now he had one precious one left from his union with Rebecca. And Reuben comes along, and Reuben
offers to be surety for him. And Reuben is extraordinarily
bold. He says, if I don't bring him
back, I'll take him down. If I don't bring him back, you
can kill my two sons. Look what I'll do. Look how zealous
I will be. And Joseph and Jacob knew Reuben. Unstable as water, he declared
him to be. But there was one. There was
one son. Judah came. Judah said to Israel,
his father, send the lad with me and we will arise and go,
Genesis 43.8, that we may live and not die, both we and thou
and also our little ones. Judah said, Jesus Christ, the
Lord Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, brothers and
sisters. This is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. I will be surety
for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever. That's the promise, isn't it?
That's the promise of our surety. That's the promise our surety
made to his father. If I bring him not back to thee,
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. Judah was concerned about the
reputation of God. Reuben was concerned about his
works. The Lord Jesus Christ has made a promise, hasn't he?
The promise of the scriptures is that he will take this people,
he will take this people, and he will present them before his
Father. He will present them in Heaven.
He represents them in Heaven right now. He's always represented
them and presented them in Heaven. And He will take them and what
will He do? What will they be like when they're presented? To present you, Colossians 1.22.
To present you, holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. Imagine standing in the presence
of God who is a consuming fire and you are holy, unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. Is that a work that man can do?
Is that a work that I can put these filthy hands and this filthy
mind to and try and do anything? But it's His promise to do that.
In this world we'll find ourselves never thinking that we're holy,
never thinking that we're unblameable, never thinking that we're unapprovable
in His sight. But there is a place where we
are right now, brothers and sisters, in the courts of heaven. We read
about it early, didn't we, in Hebrews. In the courts of heaven
I am now holy, perfectly holy. because of the work of my purity.
Perfectly unapprovable. Unblameable. The world can blame
me. Dear I do, you don't have to
spend any more than a few seconds with me and you'll be blaming
me for all sorts of things and you won't blame me as much as
I deserve to be blamed and I'll blame myself at the drop of a
hat. There's a place where I'm unblameable. Unblameable. Why? All my sins are gone, brothers
and sisters. They've gone. God remembers them
no more and God's not playing let's pretend with my sin. He's not playing let's pretend.
He's playing for real. What he sees is reality and they're
gone. He laid them on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He laid them on the Lord Jesus
Christ. and they were born and born away. So they can't be in two places
at once. My sin can't be in two places
at once. It was on Him and He bore it
and He bore it away and it's gone forever. And I'm as righteous
as God is righteous in my Saviour. That's what a surety does, isn't
he? He brings them back. It brings them back to be with
Him forever. That's the wonderful work, isn't
it? That's the wonderful message of the Gospel. I love what David
said in 2 Samuel 7.25. He'd been given these remarkable
promises about having an eternal kingdom and he'd been given these
remarkable, amazing promises about what would happen with
his house. And he says to God, he says, Do as thou hast said. Isn't that a lovely prayer? Now
Lord, do as you have promised. Let me see your promises being
fulfilled. We do love quoting that verse
and I need to just mention it briefly. In 2 Samuel 23, David
died and he looked around at his house. He looked around at
the house, maybe the house of his own life. He certainly looked
at his own house in terms of his family. Probably, maybe one
believing child. Absalom had gone to hell and
David knew it. He looked around at his house,
he might have looked at Nation Israel and saw saw nothing in
what he could see that would cause him to think anything other
than that God needed to be merciful to them all. Although my house
be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and sure, sure, ordered in all things,
Every little detail of the lives of God's children is ordered
and sure in all things. We would like to think that we
want to be in the will of God and in the centre of the will
of God. God's children are in the centre of His will all the
time, brothers and sisters. You cannot get out of it, because
He is the one who orders it. He is the one who is sovereign,
ordered in all things and sure. And what does David say? For
this, God's eternal covenant, God's ordering of all things,
this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make
it not to grow. It's an everlasting covenant. It doesn't need to grow and change,
brothers and sisters. When God has said it, that's
sufficient, isn't it? It doesn't need to grow. That's
how David died. Moses died contemplating the
Eternal Covenant underneath our everlasting arms. David died
contemplating the Eternal Covenant. God's servants declare the Eternal
Covenant. I'd just like to briefly go back
through those two sermons in action. We'll see how this Eternal
Covenant played out. this covenant that was spoken
to Abraham and his seed, this covenant that brings the blessing. And the seed of course out of
Galatians 4, the seed is the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no
question in the scriptures, the seed is singular. It's a reference
of course to the Lord Jesus and all who are united with Him and
one with Him. This eternal covenant was played
out, wasn't it, in the Determinant Council in Acts 2.23, the Determinant
Council and full knowledge of God. The Lord Jesus Christ was
put to death. by the hands of wicked men, that
he was put to death according to the determinate counsel and
full knowledge of God. It was no accident, the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the great transaction, the great
transaction at the cross is the transaction between God the Father
and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And unless we understand
that transaction, the cross has no meaning. It was God, the Father,
who was pleased to crush him and put him to death according
to his determinate counsel and foreknowledge. Why? Why would
a holy and just God kill a holy and just son? There's only one reason, brothers
and sisters. He found sin on him. He found our sin on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ earned it in that
eternal covenant, and He declared it to be His. And when God the
Father found sin on His Son, and He was lifted up on that
cursed tree, God the Father poured out all of the infinite wrath
of God. He unsheathed His sword, Zechariah
7.13 says, awake a sword against my equal, and slay the shepherd."
God had determined to do it. The Lord Jesus had agreed to
do it from before the foundation of the world, and he set his
face like flint to go to Calvary's tree. The Scriptures keep declaring
in Acts 3.18 that Christ should suffer. He has so fulfilled.
It's a fulfilling. And they did, when they came
to pray in Acts 4, 28, for to do so ever what thy hand and
thy counsel determined before to be done. The Prince of Life
died, and the people had denied him, denied the Holy One, and
Justin asked for a murderer. It was God who put him to death. It was God the Father who put
him to death, brothers and sisters. A holy God. to try and turn around
and say that somehow that was something that God was trying
to do, that he would do that to his son, and that becomes
something common. is an extraordinary denial of
every revealed character of our God. He is wholly just. He's a just God and a saviour.
His resurrection was an act of this eternal covenant, wasn't
it? It was an intra-Trinitarian activity all through the scriptures,
isn't it? So he was delivered over by the determined counsel
and full knowledge of God. His resurrection, Acts 2.24,
God raised him up. Why would God raise him up? God
raised him up because he had no sin on him any longer. He
quoted Psalm 110, Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou see thy Holy One to see corruption. What's
the cause of corruption? Sin is the cause of corruption.
When the Lord Jesus Christ was placed in that grave, in that
tomb, all the sins were gone. That's why his body didn't corrupt,
brothers and sisters. There was nothing in him then
to bring corruption. God has raised him up, whom God
raised from the dead. And where is he now? Having done
this great work, in Acts 2.30 it says that he would raise up,
God the Father would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. 2.33, therefore being at the
right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this which
you now see and hear. The Lord said to my Lord, Sit
thou at my right hand, so I might make thine enemies a footstool. God has made this same Jesus
whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. in the second
sermon in 321, whom heaven must receive until the restitution
of all things. But this was done, of course.
It was done in this eternal covenant that there might be a seed, that
all the kindreds of the earth shall be blessed. blessed by
God. We go through these activities. In 239, the people of God are
called as many as the Lord our God shall call. He'll call them
by name. He'll call them with a voice
from heaven. They'll hear the shepherd's voice
and he'll speak powerfully, individually and effectively to his people. As many as the Lord our God shall
call. In 247, they were praising God,
these people, these ones that were added to the church such
as should be saved. Why should they be saved? We
just read it in 2nd Timothy. They are saved from the foundation
of the world. They belong to God. They belong to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He bore their sins in Psalm 110,
which is quoted in the 1st Sermon, Acts 2. In Psalm 110, verse 3,
it says, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Willing to do what? confess that their hands are
wicked hands, willing to confess that in their sin they have crucified
the Lord of Glory, that they are willing to gladly receive
a word that declares them to be the chief of sinners. They'll
be willing to repent. They'll be willing to believe.
They'll be made willing by God to be joined with His Church.
They'll gladly receive Thou gladly receive, in the beauties of holiness,
from the womb of the morning, thou hast the jewel of thy youth.
The Lord Jesus has the jewel of his youth. He clothes them
with the beauties of his holiness. Acts 13.48 declares that as many
ordain to eternal life believed, As I read earlier, there is that
great promise, isn't it? That it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. To
call on the name of the Lord is to call on a God who is a
covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. These people were wounded
in the heart, Acts 2.37. They were pricked in the heart. They were the people who were
promised to be the ones in Jerusalem who would look on Him who they
are pierced and they shall mourn for Him. They are the ones that
repent and be baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
in Acts 2.38. They are the ones that receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost. They are the ones that gladly receive His Word.
They are the ones in 2.43 that fear came upon them. and the ones in 242, who continued
steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, breaking
bread and prayers, and they continued daily in the temple. They continue daily with one
accord. You see, they were drawn together.
When God lifts up His Son and He draws His people to Him, they
become closer and closer and closer, and they rub up next
to each other, and they find the fellowship of God's people
when they're drawn together to be delightful. They find it refreshing
being drawn together. We've spoken about it in the
past. They're the kindreds of the earth that are going to be
blessed in the Lord Jesus Christ, in union with Him, in union in
that eternal covenant that was made with Abraham and revealed. And He sent Him to bless you
in turning every one of you from his sins. It's remarkable, isn't
it? That's the blessing of God to
turn everyone of you from his sins. The reality is that God's
people see their sins, don't they? They're the only people
in the world that know what sin is, are those who have no sin
before God. Everyone else thinks that somehow
mixed with their sin is some righteousness. and somehow you
can purge out the wicked bit and polish the good bit. But
the reality is that God's children know that there's nothing but
sin in them. Sin just lives there with everything they do, every
thought, every activity. Everything is stained by sin. So how do you turn from it? Only
God's people know that it's there. Where do you turn from it? How
do you turn from your sins? Obviously there's no encouragement
anywhere in the scriptures ever and throughout the rest of the
New Testament for people to indulge in sin and think that it's a
minor thing. If you do, you don't know. You need to repent of it. But the great sin, isn't it,
the great turning from sin is to actually turn from looking
at your sins to looking at the sin bearer. You look to Him. That's what they did in the desert,
didn't they? There they were being harassed by those poisonous
fiery serpents in numbers, weren't they? And that's what people
do today, don't they? They say, well, look at all the
sins. You can dance around all day and you can beat the snakes
to death, but you can never lie down. How did you get saved? You looked away from all of your
sins and you looked to Him. You looked to Him who bore your
sins in His own body on the tree and bore them away. We've dealt
with all of the sins of all of God's people in that one great
transaction. To turn every one of you away
from your sins, what's the great sin? The great sin, the mother
of all sins, is unbelief, isn't it? Unbelief. To turn you from
unbelief. Turn you just to simply trusting
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And God's children are encouraged
by God to think about themselves the way God thinks about them.
Romans 6.11 says, likewise, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For sin, verse 14, shall not
have dominion over you. Why? For you are not under law. You're not under law of any works,
but under grace. We turn from our sins, brothers
and sisters, by looking to the sin bearer. We might close in
Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 is speaking
about the perfect sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. And all
of the activities of men and all of the activities of the
law just remind people of sin. And the Lord Jesus came and said,
Lo, I come in the volume of the book. What's the book? The book
is the volume of the book of the eternal covenant, that book
that he took from the hand of God because he had the right
to take it in Revelation 4. I come in the volume of the book
that is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when
he said, Sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings and offering
for sin thou wouldst not, neither hath their pleasure therein which
are offered by the Lord. Then he said, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, He
taketh away that old covenant of works, that He may establish
the second, by the which will we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest there is daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified, whereof the Holy Ghost is also a witness
unto us. For after that he said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, the law
of faith and the law of love, the law of just believing God,
and in their minds I will write, and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. There's no more offering
for sin. You cannot offer anything to
God for your sin. It's all been done by the Lord
Jesus Christ. We don't have time to look at
it closely, but let's finish by looking at Hebrews 13.20. This is where our peace is, brothers
and sisters, isn't it? I like to have peace. This world
is a messy place, and I'm responsible for a big part of the mess of
what goes on around. Peace is lovely, isn't it? Now
the God of peace, Hebrews 13.20, that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, So the blood of the everlasting
covenant does something in us and it does something for us
and it causes God to do something with us. Verse 21, make you perfect. Isn't that remarkable? If God
hadn't written it, you just couldn't believe it at all. Make you perfect
in every good work to do His will, working in you that which
is well-pleasing in His sight. through Jesus Christ, to Him
be glory for ever and ever. Amen.