Let us turn to God's Word in
that portion of Holy Scripture we read in the book of the Prophet
Ezekiel. In chapter 20, and I want to
direct you to the words that we find here at verse 37. Ezekiel 20, verse 37. God says, I will cause you to
pass under the rod and I will bring you into the bond of the
covenant. Ezekiel 20 verse 37, And I will
cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the
bond of the covenant. I want to say something in particular
of that bond of the covenant. We have statements that are really
parallels in this verse. The passing onto the rod is equivalent
to the bond of the covenants. And what is the covenant that
is being spoken of? It is that covenant of grace.
It is that covenant that concerns the Lord Jesus Christ and that
great work. that He came to accomplish the
salvation of sinners. Remember the language that we
have elsewhere. For example, in the 110th Psalm,
the Lord shall send a rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thy
people. Isn't this the Lord ruling in
the midst of His people, in the midst of Zion that we're reading
of in this particular chapter of the prophecy of Ezekiel. We
think also of the language of another of the prophets, the
words that we find in the book of Isaiah, and there in chapter
11, Isaiah 11 verse 1, there shall come forth
a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of
his roots. And then later, verse 4, with
righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity
for the meek of the earth and he shall smite the earth with
the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall
he slay the wicked. Or we read then of a rod out
of Jesse's stem Jesse, the father of David, and the Lord Jesus,
of course, coming out of that line of David, David's greatest
son. And this is that branch, the
branch that grows out of the roots of Jesse, out of the roots
of David. And again there, in that fourth
verse, we read of the rod of his mouth. by comparing one scripture
with another scripture. We can interpret the Word of
God and that is the best interpretation. Let the Word of God interpret
itself as we turn from one passage to another to throw light upon
those things that we're seeking to consider. Taking up then this
subject of the bond of the covenant in these words, I will cause
you to pass under the rod and I will bring you into the bond
of the covenant. Now, what is the significance of the
imagery that we have in this verse? Well, in Israel when counting
the sheep, and when tithing the sheep, the shepherd would strike
and mark them. So, the shepherd would know which
were his own, and which were the Lord's. And there at the
end of the book of Leviticus, Leviticus 27, 32, we read, concerning
the tithe of the herd or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth
under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. how they have to pass under the
rod. The shepherd has to strike, has
to mark the sheep so he knows which ones are to be given over
to the Lord as his portion, his tithe, his tenth, and that that
is the possession of the shepherd himself. Well, that is the imagery. But here, of course, it is being
applied to God himself. This is how God deals with his
people. has not God marked His people?
We read in Revelation 7.4 of the number of them which were
sealed and there were 144,000. It's a great multitude without
number and yet it's a specific number and it's 12 times 12,000. and the significance of course
of the number 12 when we think of scripture when we think of
the Old Testament and the 12 patriarchs, the 12 tribes of
Israel when we think of the New Testament and the 12 apostles
of the Lord Jesus Christ the 144,000 it is that number that
is the election of grace and God knows each and every one
of them personally, individually, He has chosen them before the
foundation of the world whom He did foreknow, the ones whom
He set His sovereign love upon, them He also predestinated to
be conformed to the image of His Son. And here we see that
God is that One who does indeed separate His people, He separates
is sheep. Look at the context. Verse 33,
As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and
with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, will I
rule over you, and I will bring you out from the people, and
will gather you out of the countries wherein you are scattered, with
a mighty hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out. Verse 38, I will purge out from
among you the rebels and them that transgress against me. I
will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn
and they shall not enter into the land of Israel and ye shall
know that I am the Lord. Is it not God himself who is
the one who separates his sheep. Or we see it later in the language
that we find in chapter 34. There we have the Lord reproving
the shepherds of Israel. Those under-shepherds, as it
were, they were those three offices. They were to be priests and prophets
and kings. But they were not faithful shepherds,
they were not faithful pastors. And what does the Lord God say
there in that 34th chapter full of so many reproofs to those
who were false shepherds? Verse 11, Thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek
them out, As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that
he has among his sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out
my sheep and will deliver them out of all places where they
have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. Verse 16, I will
seek that which was lost and bring again that which was driven
away. and will bind up that which was
broken, will strengthen that which was sick, and I will destroy
the fat and the strong. I will feed them with judgment.
And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I
judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the heathens."
Read that chapter and see how it is God who brings His sheep
as it were under the rods and brings them into the bond of
his covenant. Remember here in the context
of Ezekiel of course he's speaking about that remnant that had been
taken away into exile. Previously in the chapter we
have the account of God's dealings with their fathers when he brought
them out of Egypt, the judgments that came upon them and the great
deliverance that God eventually granted to them. But now it was
a different day and they were taken into exile. They were there
languishing in captivity in Babylon. But God again would bring out
His remnant. There would be a restoration. Now in all of this we know that
these people, the children of Israel, are atypical people.
They are a type of God's true Israel, God's spiritual Israel. And do not these prophets at
times speak of that day, the day of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and they speak of that better covenant that God would grant
in Christ's day? This morning we made some reference
to the words that we have there in Jeremiah 31, at verse 31 following,
as a God determines that he's not going
to write his law upon tables of stone, but in the new covenant
he will write upon fleshy tables of the heart. And in In Hebrews
chapter 8 it is made quite clear that what these prophets, be
it Jeremiah, be it Ezekiel, and they speak of that new covenant,
it's quite clear there in the 8th chapter of Hebrews, that
it all has its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ and his
coming, and that better covenant that has now been established. And look at the language in the
former part of that 8th chapter, Paul quotes the words from Jeremiah
31 and then he says this at the end of the chapter in that he
set a new covenant. He has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes
old is ready to vanish away. They are a typical people. But
they are pointing us to that people who are the true people
of God, that spiritual people, that spiritual Israel, whom the
Lord Jesus Christ has come to save. And He is that Good Shepherd. I am the Good Shepherd. He says
the Good Shepherd giveth His life for His sheep. He calleth His own sheep by name. and leadeth them out. My sheep,
He says, hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and
I give unto them everlasting life. They shall never perish.
No man shall pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave
them Me is greater than all. No man can pluck them out of
My Father's hand." Well, these are the ones, I say, the sheep
that are being spoken of here in our text. I will cause you
to pass under the rock and I will bring you into the bond of the
Covenant. Considering then what it is to
be those who are brought into the bond of the Covenant and
I want in seeking to speak of that experience having an experience
of the Covenant set before us here in Holy Scripture, but when
it's brought into our souls, the entrance of God's Word, give
us light, remember we were considering this morning, it must have an
entrance, not enough to have it before us, we want to know
it in our souls, we want it to be meat and drink to us. Well, considering this bond of
the Covenant 3 headings this evening, first of all to say
something of the divine sovereignty that we witness in this covenant. God's sovereignty. And secondly,
the deliverance that we find in the covenant. And then lastly,
the third place, the discipline that we experience in the covenant. First of all then, divine sovereignty. What is the bond of the covenant. I will bring you, it says, into
the bond of the covenant. What is it? Well, first of all,
what it is not. What it is not. What some suggest
it might be, and yet we say it is not that. Back in Genesis
chapter 17 we have mention of that right of circumcision that
God gave to Abraham and it's spoken of as a token of the covenant. Circumcision. There in Genesis
17, a token of the covenant that God's made with Abraham. But I say tonight that the bond
of the covenant is not circumcision. and as it is not circumcision
in the Old Testament so we have to recognize also that it is
not baptism or the Lord's Supper in the New Testament but then
also neither is that bond faith And repentance, some might say,
well, it's none of those rites, Old Testament or New Testament
rites that we're familiar with. Is it therefore to be understood
in terms of the grace of faith, the grace of repentance? It is
not. It's none of these things. The bond is to be recognized
as something in God. And I say that it is in fact
God's will and God's work, God's will and God's work that is that
bond of the covenant. Look at what he said in the previous
verses. Verse 33, As I live, saith the
Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and with a stretched out
arm and with fury poured out will I rule over you. and I will
bring you out from the people and will gather you out of the
countries wherein you are scattered with a mighty hand and with a
stretched out arm and with fury poured out and I will bring you
into the wilderness of the people and there will I plead with you
face to face like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness
of the land of Egypt so will I plead with you saith the Lord
God and I will cause you to pass under the rod and I will bring
you into the bond of the covenant." Notice how God speaks here. I
will rule over you, He says. I will bring you out from the
people. I will bring you into the wilderness. There will I plead with you. It's all God's wills. And then
when we come to the words of the text, I will cause you to
pass under the rod and I will bring you into the bond of the
covenant. It's this will of God. This will
of God that speaks of that that is so sure and so certain and
so definite. This is the bond of the covenant,
what God is and what God is determined to do. All remember David, when
he comes to the end of his days, and we have him there, the last
sayings of David, that man of God, that sweet psalmist of Israel,
in 2nd Samuel 23, although my house be not so with God. Yet
He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things
and sure. This is all my salvation and
all my desire, although He make it not to grow. So much that
fills Him with sadness, makes Him so despondent when He considers
the situation in His own famine. Where does He find comfort in
the covenant? The covenant ordered in all things
and sure. We think of the language then
of Isaiah 55, I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
even the sure mercies of David. Eve is the bond, it's in God,
it's God's will, it's God's purpose in the covenant. And we see it
at the end of that long 16th chapter. What does God say, verse
62, in chapter 16? I will establish my covenant
with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. I will, says God. Thou shalt. I will, thou shalt. There's the
bond. It's God. It's the purpose of
God. Having predestinated us according to the good pleasure
of His will, says Paul. Oh, it's the will of God. It's
the sovereignty of God in the covenant. And as it is God's will, so it
is also God's work. It is what God has accomplished.
Who is that one who is the mediator of the covenant? Well, we'll
come to that presently. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And when
we consider Christ, as that One who has come, He is the Covenant
Head of His Body, the Church and how He has come to do all
the will and all the work of the Father He has come to fulfill
all that that He undertook to accomplish in the Eternal Covenant
of Christ and so when He comes to the end, remember how He pries
there in in John 17, his high priestly prayer, I have glorified
thee on the earth, he says to the father I have finished the
work that thou gavest me to do. Oh, he has accomplished it. All this covenant it stands,
this is the bond of the covenant that God says he will bring his
people into. And as that work has been accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ, how that work also is then applied. How that salvation that Christ accomplished
has to be brought home into the soul of the sinner. It's not
enough, is it, that we see it before us and we read of it here
in Holy Scripture. We want to know that we have
an interest in these things. And who are those who have an
interest in these things? They are those that the Lord
has separated unto himself. They are those who are the spiritual
Israel of God. He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward. In the
flesh is poor, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision
is that of the heart. in the spirit, not in the letter,
whose prize is not of men, but of God. How God circumcises the
hearts of his people. How he brings them into that
experience of his grace. He convinces them of their sins.
He brings them to that place, the end of themselves, their
wit's end. no trust, no confidence in self,
no, they have to look to another, they have to trust in Him who
is the Great Covenant Head, even the Lord Jesus Christ. They experience
that spiritual circumcision in which the sovereignty of God
that we see here is what God has determined, I will, He says,
I will. I will cause you to pass under
the rods and I will bring you into the bonds of the covenant. And as we see here divine sovereignty,
so here we also see that in this covenant there is a blessed deliverance. There's salvation here. In fact,
you might observe in the margin of your Bible, certainly the
case here in the pulpit Bible, that we have an alternative reading
for Barnabas. The margin says, I will bring
you into the delivering of the covenant. I will bring you into
the delivering of the covenant. Now how is that? How is that
deliverance accomplished? Again, it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the deliverer. He is the mediator. He is the
covenant head of his people. The covenant is an inter-trinitarian
covenant. It's a covenant made between
the persons in the Godhead. It's a covenant in which the
Eternal Son of God who is equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit
therein so readily and so willingly becomes the servant of God you
know the language behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom
my soul delighted I have put my spirit upon him the anointed
one the Messiah he is that one who was willingly then submitted
himself to all the will of the father and he has done it on
behalf of his people He is that one who is God's first elect,
mine elect says God. Mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. And all who are chosen are chosen
in Him before the foundation of the world. These are things
that we, that I trust we're familiar with. These are the precious
truths so clearly set before us here in Holy Scripture. Christ
is that one who worked a great deliverance for his people. They shall come out of Zion,
we're told, the Deliverer. Oh, he comes out of Zion, he
comes for Zion, and he turns away ungodliness from Jacob. That's the language that we have
there in Romans 11, 26. And he's referring of course
to truths that we have in the Old Testament. There shall come
out of Zion the Deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from
Jacob. So Lord Jesus coming to stand
in that low place of His Jacob, His Israel. And standing there in that law
place, he acts as the surety of his people, he answers for
them before all the demands of God's holy, righteous and just
laws. Oh, he's made of a woman, he's
made under the law. He honors the law, he magnifies
the law by all that obedience of a sinless life. And then that
same law honored in his living is honored in his dying. when
he takes to himself all that sin of his people, and there
dies as their substitute, bearing that punishment that was their
just desert, dying the just for the unjust to bring sinners to
God. Oh, this is the Lord Jesus Christ.
What does God say? Here in the text, I will cause
you to pass under the rod. Isn't there a sense in which
the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the rod that we have to come
under? There shall come forth a rod,
remember, out of the stem of Jesse. A rod out of the stem
of Jesse there in Isaiah 11 is one of the names of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now we have to come under the
Lord Jesus Christ. How do we come under the Lord
Jesus Christ? It's His words. It's His words. It goes on, does
it not? There in that 11th chapter we
refer to it earlier in verse 4 of Isaiah 11, He shall smite
the earth with the rod of His mouth. All the rod of His mouth. What is the rod of the mouth
of the Lord Jesus? Is He not the same as that sword
that proceedeth out of His mouth in the book of the Revelation?
And the reference is to that Word of God. And we have to come
under that Word, how He is that One who smites the wicked. That
One who brings conviction into the souls of sinners. That ministry of the Lord Jesus
Christ that is such a cutting ministry at times, that sharp
two-edged sword that pierces to the abiding asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and marrows a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart. All that word in the mouth of
the Lord Jesus. How His ministry is such a separating
ministry. He brings conviction. into the
soul of the sinner, he makes the sinner sad but that's not
the end of his ministry or the end of his ministry of course
is to bring that sinner to the end of himself that that sinner
might come to that place where he sees that there is salvation
in none of them but only to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ
I will cause you to pass under the rod, I will bring you into
the bond of the covenant. This is the promise of God here
in our text. It's that Word, that Word that is the Word of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Again, in the Revelation there,
in Revelation 11, John speaks of being given a reed like onto
a rod, with which he is to measure the temple of the Lord. And again,
the idea you see is the word of Christ, how it measures the
temple. What is the temple? Isn't the
temple his church? Doesn't the Lord constantly measure
us? And he measures us by his word. Everything that we do is
to be brought constantly to this Touchstone. We have to come to
the Word of God. It's constant to the Lord, to
the Testament. Testing, trying everything by
the Word of God. This is what it means to be those
then who are caused to pass under the rod. We're brought to that
place of subjection, to bow before the authority of Holy Scripture. there is in that deliverance
and that deliverance is found in the Lord Jesus Christ who
comes to us in His Word and comes by His Spirit in His Word and
comes to convince of sin but not only
to convince of sin but also to comfort those poor guilt-laden
sinners when they're brought to see that their deliverer is
that one that comes has come in the fullness of the time he
came, but he comes now in the soul's experience or this is
what we want, it's not just a question of his his literal coming, his
physical coming in the fullness of the time it's when Christ
comes to us in the gospel and reveals himself to us as
that one, the only one who is the savior of sinners. There's
divine sovereignty here then, there's deliverance here, and
then in the third place, there is discipline. The discipline
of the covenant. The language again that we have
here, I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. Now, interestingly,
Dr. Gill speaks here of this bond
in terms of the discipline, the discipline of the covenant. And
that interpretation, of course, is based really on the fact that
what we have in the text are these parallel statements. To pass under the rod is to be
brought into the bond. So the bond is associated with
the rod and the rod is associated with discipline. That's how Dr. Gill understands the text and
interprets the text. And there's truth there. There
is truth in that. There is a discipline here. Or
think of the language that we have in Jeremiah's lamentation. He says, I am the man that has
seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. Speaks of the rod of God's wrath. And what has he seen as a result of God's dealings with the rod? He has seen and felt affliction.
I am the man that has seen affliction. How has he seen that affliction?
By the rod of his wrath. And what is that rod? Why, the
law worketh wrath, we're told. The law worketh wrath. Or there
is a work of conviction that must be accomplished in the soul
of the sinner. That's how God brings his people
to salvation. There's that discipline. He shows
us something of what we are. in the light of that holy law
by the law is the knowledge of sin all that law which is holy
that commandment which is holy and just and good and when we
are brought to it and measured by it why are we say that we
are those who are the transgressors Even should we keep the whole
law, if we offend in one point, James says we're guilty of all.
It's administration of condemnation. It's administration of death. And the wonderful thing is that
that Lord of God is constantly to serve the Gospel, the Gospel
as the priority. The Gospel has the priority over
the Law. The Gospel is first. Although,
of course, historically when we come to Scriptures we have
the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, and then we have the New Testament,
the New Covenant. But the Gospel has the priority,
and that's made quite plain when Paul writes to the Galatians.
There in Galatians 3.17, this, I say, that the covenant that
was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was 430
years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise
of none effect. For if the inheritance be of
the Lord, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by
promise. that promise that God gave to
Abraham 430 years before the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. It has the priority. What then
of the Law? The Law was our schoolmaster,
he says, to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by
faith. Oh, there is that discipline
wherein the Lord God brings the sinner under the rod of the law to show
him what he is, to convince him of his sins that he might see
the great need now of salvation and that salvation only in the
Lord Jesus Christ but besides that discipline in the way of
the conviction of the sinner there is also that discipline
in the way of correction there is to be correction for sins
God says it time and again Psalm 89 verse 32 then will I visit
their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes
he says and when we think of the whole chapter that we read
earlier here is he not speaking of God's dealings with the children
of Israel when they were in Egypt, when he brought them into the
wilderness how God is constantly having to discipline them and
correct them because of their sins, how they persist in their
wicked ways, their wicked practices and God has to deal with them,
God has to correct them and we are reminded of that of course
in the hymn that we sang Just previous to the sermon, those
lines of dear William Gadsby, and you see him on chastisement. What does he say? The point, the purpose of the
chastenings, teach them what and where they are draw forth
patience, faith and prayer, make them closer, cling to Christ,
and in Him alone rejoice. Or there is discipline. And there's
discipline in that covenant that we're reading of in the words
of our text, I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I
will bring you into the bond of the covenant. And how does
God do it? How does God do it? Well again,
look at the context. Verse 35, I will bring you, He
says, into the wilderness of the people. And there will I
plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers
in the wilderness of the land of Egypt. So will I plead with
you, saith the Lord God. All this pleading, it has to
do with condemnation, conviction. how God will teach them how God
will, as it were, bring them to their senses to make them
see the error of their ways, the folly of their ways and often he takes his people
into the wilderness remember again what he says through Jeremiah
concerning that wilderness I remember thee, he says, the kindness of
thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest
after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown, Israel
was holiness unto the Lord. When God deals with us, you see,
in that wilderness, why? Again he says to another prophet
through Hosea, Behold, I will allure her and bring her into
the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. Oh yes, He deals with
us in the way of discipline, in the way of chastenings, but
oh, that is profitable. Oh, no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. And God for the
neverthelesses, nevertheless afterward, He yieldeth the peaceable
fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby. The Himwriter says afflictions
make us see what else would escape our sight. How very foul and
dim are we. And God, how pure and bright,
causes us to see something of the goodness of God, and the
grace of our God. Nor thou art with me, says the
language of Psalm 23. Thou art with me. Thy rod and
thy staff, they comfort me." That's the language of David,
the man after God's own heart. How the Lord then, in this covenant,
will at times discipline his people. He'll convince them.
That's such an important part of their experience of the grace
of God. The Lord Jesus has come not to call the righteous but
sinners. We have to have a sense of what it is to be a sinner.
We have to be convinced of our sinnership. We have to be convinced,
not only of our sinnership, but convinced of our sins in particular. And then the Lord time and again
has to come with His correcting rod. And He has to lay stripes
upon us, because We are such foolish sinners, bent so often
on our backslidings, but what a mercy! Whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. What does he say here in our
text? I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring
you into the bonds of the covenant. or that we might know by experience
then the reality of these things to find comfort in that covenant,
the covenant of the grace of God which centers in the person
and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator of the covenant. Oh the Lord then be pleased to
bless these words to us tonight Amen.