Well, let us turn again to the
Word of God and the psalm that we were reading, Psalm 25, and
a familiar verse really. I know we've looked at it on
a previous occasion. It's the 14th verse of this psalm
that I want to direct you to. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him. and He will show them His covenant. Psalm 25, 14, The secret of the
Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. We have looked, as I said on
previous occasions certainly, on the theme of that secret,
God's secret that is with the people that fear Him. But I was thinking more particularly
of the covenant that is being spoken in this text. I was thinking
I might take it on Thursday evening in the event of course we had
no prayer meeting that evening. It was the day of course when
little Boaz Rowan was born and I had a phone call from Cliff
just previous to preparing to leave and to come across, well
he'd phoned me earlier and I had a missed call and I saw it and
phoned him back at about 6.30 and he said I'd had such a roller
coaster of a day and the little one was still living and they
thought they wanted to continue there with Phoebe and Finn and
Finn's parents and his grandmother were also there and I said I
think it's probably best Cliff if we if we just cancel the prayer
meeting and pray in our own homes. Well, of course, it was only
a few hours later that that little one did pass away. But I thought, well, I'll have
to take that text on the Lord's Day. It seemed so appropriate. And then I was so confirmed in
that determination when I spoke to Jim North. I think it was
on Friday I spoke with him, Friday evening. I was to choose some
hymns and I wondered what his theme might be and I wanted to
inform him of the situation with regards to the Rowans and he said to me that he was thinking
that he might preach from 2 Samuel 23 the last words of David and
I thought well really that's a similar theme to my own but
I felt well maybe that's the confirmation we need to be reminded
of this covenant, it was ever a source of great comfort to
David. Remember the words there in 2
Samuel 23 5, Although my house be not so with God. As Nathan the prophet had said
to him, the sword would never depart from his house, he had
sinned so grievously David. In the matter of Bathsheba, and
the murder of her husband Uriah, the wickedness of his ways, trying
to cover his sin. And so, although God forgave
him, he took vengeance on his inventions. And we have the sad
history, don't we, subsequently of Tamar and Amnon. They were
half-brother, half-sister, and yet how Amnon so lusted after
her, and forced himself upon her, and then despised her. And
Absalom was her brother. He had to take his vengeance
upon Amnon and kill him. And then he flees. And then he
rebels as Absalom against his own father. And David has to
flee from Jerusalem. Although my house be not so with
God, says David, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and sure. or what a comfort that covenant
was to him. And how here in this psalm, it's
the psalm of David as we're told in the title of the psalm, and
how we find him even pleading the covenant, makes mention of
it of course, here at the end of the 14th verse, he will show
them his covenant he says, And then, how he prays, mine eyes
are ever toward the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of
the net, turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me, for I am
desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are
enlarged. Oh, bring thou me out of my distresses,
he says. Look upon my affliction and my
pain, and forgive all my sins. What is he doing? He's pleading
a covenant that is truly ordered. in all things unsure. And how we have to learn to plead
that covenant. Again, in another psalm, Psalm
74, have respect unto the covenant, for the dark places of the earth
are full of the habitations of cruelty, says the psalmist. Oh,
that God would have respect unto that covenant then. And so, I
thought tonight we might say something with regards to the
comforts of the covenant as we have it set before us in this
part of the psalm. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him and he will show them his covenant. What
is the covenant? What is the covenant being spoken
of here? Surely it is that better testament. It's the covenant of grace Surely
we see that in the way in which it's spoken of. Of course, what
we have in this verse is that parallelism that is a peculiarity
really of Hebrew poetry. You have the same truth in each
clause, the two clauses of the verse. They complement one another.
And so, the covenant really answers to that that is spoken of at
the beginning as the secret. The secret of the Lord. is that
Covenant which he shows to his people and when we think of it
as a secret we see that it is so evidently that Covenant of
Grace or sometimes referred to as the Covenant of Redemption
it's a secret the secret things belong on to the Lords the things
that are revealed belong on to us and to our children we read
in Deuteronomy 29.29 The secret is that God purposed
in himself. The covenant then is that inter-trinitarian
covenant. As I say, sometimes spoken of
as a covenant of redemption. It's eternal, it's before time.
It's God's great purpose. And it is known only unto God
himself. in eternity he made choice of
a people that he would save them and the Lord knoweth them that
are his says the Apostle when he writes to young Timothy and
we're all familiar with the language of Romans 8 and that golden chain
and where does it begin? well it begins with God's knowledge
of his people whom he did foreknow That doesn't mean we're to understand
it in terms of God foreknowing or foreseeing a thing and then
on the basis of what he foresees making choice of a people. No,
the foreknowledge being spoken of there is how God has known
a people in an intimate fashion. He has set his love upon them.
It's the love of God that's being spoken of. Whom he did foreknow,
he did predestinate. to be conformed to the image
of his son and to whom he did predestinate them he also called
and to whom he called them he also justified and to whom he
justified them he also glorified and it reaches from eternity
to eternity a people foreknown love before the foundation of
the world doesn't he say as much to the prophet Jeremiah I have
loved thee with an everlasting love or that people foreknown
of God. Ultimately it reaches from eternity
to eternity for they are the ones who are to be glorified
and to be with Him for a never-ending eternity. This is the covenant. It's the covenant of God's grace. It's what God's purpose from
eternity. Remember, O Lord, thy tender
mercies and thy loving-kindnesses, for they have been ever of old. And what words are these? The
tender mercies, the loving-kindnesses of God. These are words that
are so much associated with that covenant, the grace of God. His
goodness, His kindness, His compassion, He is that God who is good and
He does good. And so we see what God purposed
in eternity and then of course it is all promised in the Old
Testament. I will make an everlasting covenant
with you even the sure mercies of David. We read those words
there in Isaiah 55 didn't we? Behold I have given him as a witness,
leader and commander to the people. Who is the David being spoken
of there? It's David's greatest son, it's
another David. It's that one who is truly the
beloved. David, of course, simply means
the beloved. But Christ is the beloved of
the Father. The Son of the Father in truth
and in love. It's all promised in the Old
Testament and then of course we see that what God purposed
in eternity and what God promises in the Old Testament He performs
and He performs it all in the fullness of the time when the
fullness of the time was come God sent forth His Son made of
a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law that they might receive the adoption of son it's unfolded to us in here in
Holy Scripture and it all culminates in the Lord Jesus Christ this
is the covenant then that is being spoken of God says doesn't
he in the end of that great 16th that long 16th chapter in the
prophecy of Ezekiel I will establish my covenant with thee and thou
shalt know that I am the Lord I will says God and thou shalt."
Oh, that's the language of the covenant. When God gives the
promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he
swore by himself. He has magnified that word of
promise above all his name. This is the covenant then that's
being spoken of. That great covenant of which
the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the mediator. but two things
really with regards to this covenant as we have it set before us here
there's the experience of the grace of God and then there's
the evidence of the grace of God and those are the two things
that I really want us to think about for a while it's the covenant
of grace and it's an eternal covenant but it's that that we
can experience in this present time, in this present world.
Look at the alternative reading that we have in the Margin. If
you have a Marginal Bible it might have the alternative reading
there at the end of verse 14. The text says he will show them
his covenant. But of course there's such a
richness in the Hebrew that it could have been rendered somewhat
differently and the Margin suggests an alternative. His covenants
to make them know it. His covenants to make them know
it. He makes His people to know it.
He shows His covenants to them. And this is what we have, of
course, in the preaching and the proclamation of the Gospel.
When the Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth And
remember how he speaks in those opening two chapters of his ministry,
his determination to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That was his great determination,
he would preach Christ. And he says this, in 1 Corinthians
2.7, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. The hidden wisdom
which God's ordained before the world. This is the secret, you
see, it's the covenant. And it all centers in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God's ordained before the
world. This is the secret. And it's
Christ, the wisdom of God, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. and if any man
lacks wisdom he is to ask of God who giveth to all men liberally
and that wisdom centers in the person of Christ the wisdom from
above which is first pure and peaceable and gentle and easy
to be entreated and full of mercy and good fruits and without partiality
and without hypocrisy that's Christ he is the wisdom of God
and what a mystery more without controversy great is the The
mystery of godliness, God, was manifest in the flesh. We know
that little gospel gem that we have there in 1 Timothy 3.16
concerning the mystery of godliness, the mystery of real religion.
And it's Christ, God, manifest in the flesh, justified in the
Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles. believed on
in the world, received up into glory. And what does Paul desire
time and again as he writes to those various churches of which
he had been so instrumental in planting and establishing, we
have the record in the act of his journeys as the great apostle
to the Gentiles, his preaching of the word and how the Spirit
was there and sinners were converted and churches were established
and he writes to them and he desires that they pray for him
when he writes to the Ephesians and makes mention of the armour
that is provided for the Christian that gospel armour each piece
put on with prayer says the hymn writer concerning that armour
but Paul also there in Ephesians 6 desires prayer for himself
He wants prayer, he says, for me that utterance may be given
unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery
of the gospel. That that is hid, that that is
secret in God and yet something to be made known is covenants,
to make men and women know that covenant. And what he says to
the Ephesians, his desire that they pray that he might open
his mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, when
he's writing to the Colossians, he asks much the same of them,
Colossians 4.3, the daughter of utterance, he says, to speak
the mystery of Christ. The mystery of the gospel is
the mystery of Christ. And we know how that is all,
it's all mystery, isn't it? When we think of Christ, the
person of the Lord Jesus, who He is. He is God, He's the eternal
Son of God, and yet He's a real man. As each one of us was born into
this world, so as a man he was born into this world. Yes, his
conception was miraculous, conceived by the Holy Ghost, He was born
of a virgin, but he had a birth. He lived a life, he died a death,
he was a real man. And in all his human life he
was never anything less than God. It's a mystery. We'll never, never really grasp
the wonder of that. I often think that that little
babe so dependent upon his mother as any baby is, and yet He never
ceased to be God. That little babe was true almighty
God. How can that be? That's the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And this is what Peter, well,
Peter as well as Paul, all the apostles would preach that same
gospel. They preached Christ. And as I desire the prayers,
the prayers of the people, And we need to pray over God's words. Even as we read God's word, or
we preach God's word, we need to pray over it. The Lord would
grant that gracious miniature of the Spirit, the one who first
gave the word, to help us to interpret it to us, to apply
it to us. The preaching then, you see,
has to be made effectual. It's made effectual how? By the
ministry of the Holy Spirit. It's not just preaching, it's
the way that preaching comes. You know, it came to the Thessalonians. Paul reminds them, doesn't he?
Our gospel came not unto you in word only, he says. It wasn't
just a matter of the words, the letter of the word. It came not
to you in word only, but in power, he says. and in the Holy Ghost
and in much assurance. And now they turn from idols
to serve the living and true God. All this work of the Spirit,
the Spirit must come and there can be no efficacious work in
the soul of any sinner hearing the Gospel except the Spirit
is doing that work. God hath revealed them unto us
by his Spirit, says the Apostle. For what things knoweth the man
save the Spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things
of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we need the
Spirit, his covenants, to make them know it. If we're going
to know it, we can know about it. But all to know it, to experience
the wonder of it, and not just the apostle but the Lord Jesus
Christ himself in the course of his own ministry remember
how he prays to his father at the end of Matthew chapter 11
I thank thee he says I thank thee oh father Lord of heaven
and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise but
revealed them unto babes even so father for so it seemed good
in thy sight all things he says I delivered unto me of my Father,
and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither knoweth any
man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him." It is all revelation. These things have to be revealed
to us. It's covenant to make them know
it. It was Paul's experience, wasn't
it? He tells us he pleads God, he says, to reveal his Son in
me. Or the Kingdom of God is within
you. There's something known, something
felt in the soul of the sinner. There's an experience of the
grace of God. The secret then is revealed.
And the sinner is brought to see the wonder of the person
and work of Christ and the fullness of salvation that is there. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him. He will show them his covenants. The wise man tells us in the
book of Proverbs that his secret is with the righteous. God's
secret is with the righteous. Now who are the righteous? Well,
there is non-righteous. No, not one. What are imagined
righteousnesses? They're all filthy rags. And
yet, we have that word there in Proverbs 21, or rather Proverbs
2 and verse 17. No, let me get it right, it's
Proverbs. Proverbs 3 and verse 32. His secret is with the righteous.
Now the righteous there surely must be that justified sinner. They are the only righteous ones,
those who are clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We know there is an eternal justification
in the purpose of God. But what God has purpose from
eternity must be known and experienced by faith. It's by faith that we come to
experience these things. That faith that comes by the
operation of God. That faith that is the gift of
God. And what a promise it is that God gives to those who are
the overcomers. To him that overcometh he says
will I give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white
stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth
saving he that receiveth it that's the promise of God he does something
the secret of the Lord he makes it known to his people it becomes
a reality in their lives and they have to then begin to
live that life or that strange life that mysterious life isn't
that the life of faith? we walk by faith and not by sight
says the apostle that's how we live our lives in this world
as seeing him who is the invisible God how can we see the invisible
God we don't see God with our natural eye we see him with the
eye of faith what a life it is I am crucified with Christ Paul
says nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me
And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Can we say that? That Christ
is all our life. David says of the covenant, it's
all my salvation, it's all my desire. Oh, there's an experience
surely of this grace of God as he is pleased to make it known
in the covenant. He will show them his covenant. All His covenants, He will make
them to know it, the truth of it. You know, there's a wonderful
doxology at the end of the epistle to the Romans. We don't use it
normally at the conclusion of a service of worship. We often
use that simple apostolic benediction at the end of 2nd Corinthians,
don't we? The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. and the love of
God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all and
so Paul concludes that epistle and we often use it as a doxology
but there are other doxologies and there's one there at the
end of Romans 16 verse 25 through 27 now to him says Paul now to
him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and
the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of
the mystery which was kept secret since the world began but now
is made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets according to
the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations
for the obedience of faith to God only wise be glory through
Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Now he speaks of it here,
you see. What is it he's speaking of?
It's the Gospel. It's the preaching of Jesus Christ. It's the revelation
of the mystery. It's that which was a secret
but is now made manifest. Or it's the covenant. Or that
we might be those who love that covenant and delight in it. The
covenant of God's grace. The experience of that covenant. But what here in the text is
the evidence? The evidence that we have any
interest, true interest in that covenant, that it's ours, in
Christ. Well, one thing is mentioned,
isn't it? The secret of the Lord is with
whom? It's with them that fear him. That's the evidence of the grace
of God here. What is this fear that's being
spoken of? Well, it's not tormenting fear. It's not the fear of the devils. We know there's a fear of the
devils. We see it when Christ is performing miracles in the
synagogue. What do the demons say? I know
thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. They come to destroy
us. Now the demons fear Him. There's
a fear, surely, that belongs to the hypocrites. There's a
fear that belongs to the recruit. Those fears that are so tormenting. But God says, doesn't he, to
his people, fear not. Many fear not there in Isaiah's
book. Fear not thou worm Jacob and
ye men of Israel as the margin says ye few men of Israel fear
not God tells us we're not to have those tormenting fears the
Lord Jesus in the course of his own ministry there in in Luke
12 32 fear not little flock it is your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom What comforting words the Lord speaks,
you see, He addresses His people, they're a little flock, they're
just a handful. Or they're worms, worm Jacob.
The few men of Israel. Often times we're afraid, we're
fearful, where will it all end? This fear that's being spoken
of then is not that fear that God dismisses from His people. What is it? It's what we call
filial fear. It's that that is the mark of
the godly. There is no fear in love, says
John. John has much to say, doesn't
he, concerning love and love to God and love to the brethren.
He is the beloved apostle who was there leaning upon the Lord's
bosom at the institution of the holy ordinance of the Lord's
Supper there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out
fear because fear hath torment says John and again Paul Paul says something
quite similar you have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear he says but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby
we cry Abba Father oh that's the fear you see that's
being spoken of here it's filial fear it's the fear of a son for
his loving father so wasn't it there would be a
great man would have a great respect for his father He loves his father, his father
loves him, but there's a relationship there. One is the father, the
other is the son. And that's what Paul is speaking
of. Not the spirit of bondage to
fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby we can come before God
and address him and say, Abba, Father. It's that feeling of
fear then that's being spoken of. And it's really the great
blessing of the Covenant. It's the mark of the Covenant.
The Covenant of Grace. Look at Jeremiah. Jeremiah 32
and verse 4, I will make an everlasting covenant with thee, that I will
not turn away from them, or turn away from thee, to do them good. But I will put my fear in their
hearts, that they shall not depart from me. There it is, the blessing
of the covenant. I will put my fear in their hearts. The secret of the Lord. The covenant
that He makes known to them. Who are they? They are those
who have that fear put into their hearts. What a favour, what a blessing
is that. it's that fear that is the beginning
of wisdom the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom to be
made wise unto salvation wise unto salvation which is in the
Lord Jesus it's that fear of the Lord that is the beginning
of knowledge all that knowledge to know they're the only true
God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent what a favour if we have that
fear in our hearts our true reverence for God we are told behold the
eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him his eye is upon
his people God is watching over his people he watches over their
prayers he takes account of their poor sighs and cries He hears
and He answers when they come before Him with their groanings.
Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him. He answers their cry. He will
fulfill the desire of them that fear Him. He also will hear their
cry and will save them. The words of the 145th Psalm
and verse 19 Oh God, you see, those people
who have that true fear in their hearts, how God sees them and
takes account of them and answers their prayers. But that fear
is also an unctuous light to all that's right and a bar to
all that's wrong. By the fear of the Lord men depart
from evil. we're told in Proverbs 16 and
verse 6 by the fear of the Lord well what do we know of that
fear? it's awe standing in awe before God having such a view
of who God is and the greatness of God and the glory of God the
majesty the holiness all that he is in his glorious attributes
to have such a view, a big view of God Oh, He is a great God
and we should stand in awe before Him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye His
saints, says the psalmist, for there is no one to them that
fear Him. What do we know then of the fear
of the Lord? There are other evidences of
grace, of course there are, but we're concentrating on the words
of the text and that's what's so prominent here in the verse,
the secret of the Lord. Who is it with? with them that
fear Him. And what does God do with such?
Why, He shows them His covenant, He comes and He reveals Himself
to them. Oh, are we those who desire that
we might know those fresh discoveries, that God might come to us again
and again. There's so much more to learn
of God and the ways of God. But all to have the the great
mysteries of the gospel shown to us you can study the word of God
it's good to do that of course it is to read it, to meditate
in it but there we need to recognize ultimately we need that blessed
work of the spirit of God himself to reveal these things, to show
us these things and to bless the word to us Will we not, like
David, desire to plead, to plead all that God is? He's the covenant
God of Israel, the covenant God of His people. All the secret
of the Lord is with them that fear Him. And He will show them
His covenant. The Lord be pleasing to come
and and show Himself to us and grant those gracious revealings
of all His grace and that we might be enabled to plead all
that He is in that covenant that is ordered in all things and
sure. May the Lord bless His word to
us tonight. We're going to conclude our worship
today as we sing the hymn 832, the tune Dennis, number 26, The men that fear the Lord in
every state are blessed. The Lord will grant whatever
they want, their soul shall dwell at rest. His secrets they shall
share, His covenant shall learn. Guided by grace shall walk His
ways, and heavenly truths discern. Hymn 832, tune number 26.