All right, you take your Bibles
and turn me again to Jeremiah, chapter 31. You're looking at
verse 31 through verse 34. The title of the message is The Covenant
Will of God. The Covenant Will of God. What is the will of God? When God says, I will, what is
He saying? Well, the will of God is not
like our will. God's will is not a wish. It's not even a determination. It is rather a decree as a king,
a sovereign, a despot, someone who has absolute power, absolute
authority to accomplish whatever he has determined and said, I
will do, God's will will be done. It is a decree. And we often
use the words, I will. I use them quite often. We use, I will, and this tells
others that we have determined to do something. It implies action
on our part, or determined action. It's not something that we've
done. It's something that we are going to do. I will do this,
or I will do that. It implies an action on our part
to accomplish something that we have set our hearts and minds
to do or even not to do. So it could be a positive or
a negative. We have determined to do something
and have positive action. But how many times have we said,
I will not. And that is a negative action.
We say that we won't do something. We see someone in need. And we
say, I'll help that person. I will help that person. I've
had compassion on them, but we've all experienced this no matter
how sincere our will is, no matter how determined we are. We know
this by experience that we have not done everything we have willed
to do. So whether negative or positive,
we've said, I will or I will not. But how many times were
we hindered from doing what we had willed to do? How many times
have our plans, though good and seem right and reasonable and
wise and well thought out. Now, I don't have well thought
out plans. I can just admit that automatically when I have a plan
to do something, it's wishy-washy from the get-go. So when I tell
you I'm willing to do something, know this, that it's in that
direction I determined to go somewhere, but not specifically
any certain things. But some people have good plans.
I mean, they've got detailed plans to do things. Some people really have that
gift think it out in their mind, to reason it out, to weigh out
options and see this, and see the variables of things, and
then they say, yeah, I'm going to do this because now that all
the planets are aligned, everything is just right and perfect to
accomplish my plan. How many of those have failed? Failed plans. Either because
the person changed his mind, Or because something beyond his
control, or he didn't factor into it, changed or hindered
him from doing what he wanted to do. These plans of ours, they're
changed by things beyond our control, even when it comes to
the service of God. You believers in Christ, I know
you determine to worship. It's my determination. I will
worship this morning. That's my determination. But
I say this, I will worship the Lord willing this morning. If
the Lord is willing. Because I know this, that I have
determined to worship. I have set my heart. Every motion
seemed to be going in the right direction. And sure enough, it
failed. My will was not accomplished. Why is this? Because your will
and my will are not sovereign. We have a will, but our will
is easily hindered. The will of man is enslaved. The will of man is enslaved and
cannot do what he wills to do. The will of man is not bound
or limited by determination. Nobody's saying your will is
limited by your determination. I've seen men determine some
really stupid things. So, I mean, the limitations of
what you're willing to do is limitless. I mean, there's people
who have been willing to jump off a building and willing to
fly. And that is a dumb determination. That is really just idiotic to
jump off a building. But he did it. So, you know,
he didn't get the results he wanted, but he did it. So the
limitation of that is boundless. Yet the determination to do anything
that we desire to do is limited in that we are not able to do. the things that we determine
to do. Our will is bound and limited by other things. The will of man is, first of
all, bound by his nature. He's bound by his nature. You
know, you can't do anything. You can't be willing to do anything
or accomplish anything that is contrary to your nature. What is your nature? Your nature
is dead. So therefore, you can do nothing
but what a dead man would do. Now, you put a dead man in a
stream, and what is he going to do? He's going to flow with
the stream. Why? It's his nature. He's dead. He can do nothing else but flow.
That's it. Friends, by nature we can do
nothing else but sin. Now you can determine all you
want to not to sin. How is that working out for you?
Mine failed. Every time I determined not to
sin, usually it's worse than what I determined not to do. Those who would distort the Scriptures
and misrepresent God's preachers say that to deny free will is
to deny will. Now, we who preach the gospel,
and you have heard the gospel, none of us have ever denied that
man has a will. I deny that it's free. I deny
your will is free. We know that man is made up of
three things. He is made up of a heart, which
is the affections, the emotions, the desires. Then we have the
mind. The mind are the thoughts or
the intents of a man. And then we have the will of
a man. These three things make up a
whole man. His heart, his mind and his will. The heart and mind of man bind
the will of man. Bind the will of man. And the heart of man being his
affections are bound by his nature to love darkness rather than
light. Man does not have a will problem, he has a heart problem. Man is willing to be religious.
Man is willing to be religious. There are no ends and no bounds
to which a man will go to be religious. Look at the man that
dresses up in gowns and robes. I mean, what man would dress
up in a dress? I mean, there are no bounds.
There'd be no bounds. They're running around with incense
and smoke and all kinds of things. Crosses and idols and different
things and different altars. I didn't know this about the
Catholic Church until Andrea told me about it, what her grandfather
learned. There was two altars. I didn't
know that. There was one for the common
person, and then there was one for the hierarchy. And the hierarchy
one, they were always forgiven. Common person, they weren't always
necessarily forgiven. And so Walter said, well, why
don't everybody just go the other way? There's no extreme to what man
will do in religious, but men love darkness. rather than light. Their heart is dark. Jesus said,
then this is the condemnation. He said, I didn't come to condemn
the world. The world is already condemned. How do I know the
world is condemned? This is the condemnation. That
light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil. Why do criminals run from the
law? Because they do not want the
light to shine on their criminal behavior. This is the same spiritually. Men love to hide in religion. They love to hide in different
things so that their sin is not exposed. Like cockroaches, men by nature
run to the darkness. The heart of man loves evil.
hates holiness, and therefore his deeds will be evil. You cannot not sin. There is nothing that you can
do that is not sin. Nothing. loves evil and he will do evil. Men love sin and all they are
willing to do is sin. Now, second of all, the mind,
the will of man is bound to the mind of man. The mind of man
has to do with the thoughts, the wisdom or the reasoning of
a man. The minds of men are bound to
think evil thoughts Thoughts that are opposed to grace. There are five or six churches
on this very street that this church was built on. I dare say there are more churches
in this place. in this city and yet this city
is still vile and wicked and evil. Why is that? I believe Moose said where he
is on Tortola that there are more churches per square mile
than any other place in all the world and the murder rate is
the highest there than anywhere else per capita. Why is that? Well, it's not for effort. For
lack of effort, is it? They've got so many churches
built there. Not lack of effort for being religious. The problem
is the mind of man is set to do evil. Set. He's opposed to anything. that deals with grace. Now works,
they love it. That's why they have so many
buildings. These works religion, that's why they can grow so fast,
is that people come in and they feel better about themselves.
They come in and say, oh, you just need to do this and do that
and then you'll feel better. And then they leave out, they
feel better about themselves and go kill somebody. So they
come back next week and get forgiven. Why not? That's the wisdom of
man, isn't it? The natural man always reasons
that he can have some part, something to do with his salvation, that
God in some way must be obligated to him because God created him. It's God's fault, obviously,
that I am who I am. So therefore, God owes me. That's
the natural thought of man. The natural man thinks that by
some work or action of religion, that God will or should and must
accept His best efforts. You came this morning, and you
may have come with the most sincere heart and mind to obey God. You may have come, you know,
with all these thoughts of saying, well, you know, I'm going to
do good now. I'm turning over. I'm going to
get better. You can have mine to do that
all you want to, but your mind is wicked and it won't last long
and you'll be back where you were. The carnal mind, the scripture
says, is hatred against God. You say, I don't hate God. First
of all, you're a liar. And second of all, you argue
that with God because God said it, I didn't. By nature, our
minds are set at hatred and variance and enmity against God, and we
are not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. Your mind cannot be subject to
the law of God. Bound by sin. And man cannot
do any good, man cannot be religious, righteous, he cannot seek after
God, he cannot understand or know God. So all that men will
do is bound by their hearts and minds, which is full of sin." Turn over to Genesis. Genesis
chapter 7, I believe it is. 6. Genesis 6. Why did God send the
flood to destroy all men? God sent a flood to destroy the
whole earth. Here it is. Here's why. Look at this. In
verse 5 it says, And God saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts
of men of his heart was only evil continually. This is not
his actions. This is his thoughts, his mind,
his imagination. The thoughts of his imagination.
were evil. How? Was there sporadic goodness? No. It was continually evil. Well, God destroyed the whole
world, left eight souls alive, and look what happens. Go over
to chapter 8 and verse 21. After all this was done, the
people were dead. There were only eight people
left on the face of the earth. And Noah offered a sacrifice
unto God, which pictures Christ. And the Lord smelled a sweet
savor. Verse 21, chapter 8. And the Lord said in his heart,
I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. For the
imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Now, what
changed? What changed? Nothing. The flood. did not change one
thing concerning the natural man. I can hold you up, I can
torture you, you can put you in stocks and chains, and you
can whip you and beat you and make you do right, but that's
not going to change your mind. It's not going to change your
mind. Your thoughts are evil continually. You don't even have
a hiccup of righteous thoughts. Not even by accident. Not even
by accident. Man's thoughts are evil continually. And therefore, the will of man
is bound by that nature. He cannot do anything opposed
to his nature. Our will is not free. And it's not only bound by our
nature, but think about it, it's bound by circumstance. Outside
of ourselves, how often does our will have to change? Somebody illustrated like this.
You walk into a room and there are seven chairs and four of
them are taken. Well, now you've got a choice. You've got a choice. But your
choice is limited to only two. The rest are taken. And if somebody
comes in and sits down, that choice is limited. Now you've
only got one choice. Either you can stand up or you can just
sit down. You see, your choice would be controlled by the circumstance. It's not free. Never is. Anyone who thinks their will
is free is a fool. A fool. The best illustration of the
will of man the crucifixion of Christ. We are not only bound
by circumstances, but we are mostly bound by the will of God.
The will of man is always bound by the will of God. The scripture
says that the wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder
of wrath he shall restrain. In other words, God allows men
to be as wicked as He wants them to be to accomplish His will.
And when He doesn't want them to be as wicked as they can be,
He stops them. Their will is crushed. It's hindered by God. Think of
the cross. For three years, these men have
wanted to kill the Lord Jesus Christ. Three years they've wanted,
they've planned, Oh, they just wanted to stone Him and kill
Him. For three years. And for three years, nothing
happened. Why? He said, Mine hour is not
yet come. They couldn't have touched Him.
Matter of fact, Jesus said, Pilate, you have no power over Me, except
it were given you. Your will has nothing to do with
this. It is the will of God that constrains
you or gives you any power at all to do anything. The will
of God restrains the will of man. Man's will is bound by the
will of God. You are here today not because
you willed it so, but because God Almighty told you to be here. He demanded it and you are here
because He said so. Now, you might think you had
a lot to do with it, but you had nothing to do with it. Not
one thing. God willed you to be here. Otherwise,
you wouldn't have been here. Your will is bound. Bound by
the almighty will of God and Jesus Christ. The Scripture says
you by wicked hands have crucified and slain the Lord according
to the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. That's
the only way that they could have ever crucified the Son of
God had it not been God's will for them to crucify and he never
would have been. but it was God's will. And therefore, they were
willing! They were willing. They did exactly
what they wanted to, but in time, they were doing exactly, at the
same time, they were doing exactly what God willed them to do. The Jews' heart and mind and
will were set against Christ to crucify Him, and they could
only crucify Him at the appointed time that God willed it to be
so. How long has God willed for Christ to be crucified? The Scripture
says that He was as a lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. Think of all the things that
these men did. They did it exactly according
to Scripture. I've said this before, but the
Roman soldiers had no idea what the Old Testament said. And so
when they took that robe off of the Lord Jesus Christ and
they gambled, they cast lots for it, they didn't know what
they were doing. They were doing what they wanted
to do. But all the while, they were doing exactly what God had
determined for them to do. The Scripture tells us that they
would do that. The whole thing. It's better
than a script. As if they were reading, ok,
now then, what do we do next? Well, let's turn over here to
Psalms and see what we've got to do. No. They didn't have to
do that. God willed it. And it happened. For heathen who think that they
have a free will, are controlled by the determinate
will of God. And so, when evil things happen
to God's people, when something wrong is going on with you, when
you are sick or struggling, the laws say, where now is your
God? If you're to be honest, sometimes we say that. Where'd you go? Where are you? The psalmist said, but our God
is in the heavens and he hath done whatsoever he had pleased. Whatever is taking place is the
will of God. And man's will is subject to
the will of God. The Lord is our help. and our shield. The Lord will
bless his people, both small and great. Therefore, we put
no confidence in our will or our determination, but we trust
and believe the will of God as he has declared it in his word. This is the difference between
someone who has been given life and someone who is dead. The
dead man will continue to trust in his determination. But God's
people who are made alive understand this, that God's will is preeminent
over all things. Thy will be done. You know, when
I ask that prayer, I know I have what I ask. God's will shall
be done. What then is the will of God?
If God's will is over everything, if our will is determined and
bound by His will, What, then, is the will of God? Most people
ask that, and they're asking, well, what does God want me to
do ten minutes from now? So they grab a little eight ball,
and they, you know, I was a kid, I got the eight ball, it'll tell
you what to do. Shake it, and it gives you a little answer.
That's what they think the will of God is. It's something just
to tell them what's going to happen. No, the will of God is
what's revealed. You're responsible for what's
revealed. You're not responsible for what happens ten minutes
from now. You're responsible for what you know according to
the Word of God. This is the will of God. This
is the will of God. I'm so glad that God reveals
his will. I don't have to guess at what
God wills. I'm not guessing. This morning when I tell you
the will of God, I'm not guessing. I'm telling you what God says
He has willed to do. Look at your text. Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, that I will. I will make a new covenant. From the beginning, God has declared
Himself to be a covenant God. What is a covenant? A covenant
is an agreement. A contract. Now, we make covenants
all the time. We make covenants with each other. We say, OK, I'm going to sign
on this and I'm going to give you money and then you are going
to pay that money back to me. That is a covenant agreement. But this covenant is not like
ours because this covenant is not one that was based in time,
but from eternity. God had willed to make a new
covenant, and He says it's new only in order and process of
time and revelation. In the beginning, God revealed
Himself a covenant God with Adam and said, Don't eat this. If
you eat this, you'll die. Now, then there was a covenant
that He made. God made a covenant with Adam. It was a works covenant. As long as Adam didn't eat, he
would have lived without sin. Moses. He made a covenant with
Moses and the people of Israel. And he said, here's my law. Do
this and you shall live. That is a covenant of works. What's wrong with the covenant
of works? We are what's wrong with the
covenant of works. The law was good. There was nothing
wrong with God providing that tree for Himself and telling
Adam not to eat. It was His tree. He made it.
He had a right to tell Adam not to eat of it. And yet, in both
instances, in all instances of works covenant, we failed. Just
like He said, He said, I'll make a new covenant, not according
to the covenants I made with their fathers when I took them
out of Egypt. Which covenant they break. They broke the covenant. The
covenant of works has always been proven to fail because we
are the weakest link in that chain. We cannot keep God's covenants. If God makes a covenant and we
have a part in it, we will break it. Galatians 3.10 says, For as many
as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is
written, Cursed is everyone that continueeth not in all things
written in the book of the law to do them. You know what? Anybody
want to obey the Ten Commandments and think that's good? Anybody
want to use that as a guide of your life? Well, see, you can't
just take one section of the law and disregard the whole other
section. If you're going to be under a
covenant of works, you better be under all of it. God says
you need to take a lamb every morning and every evening, and
you need to sacrifice it on an altar that He had given specific
measurements. And that altar has to be in a
specific place in Jerusalem. And you have to offer that blood
in a specific room, which now is covered by a mosque. So how are you going to do that?
You can't. You can't. The law was never meant to save
anyone, it was meant to show you your sin. But here's the
good news, is that God says I'm going to make a covenant not
like that. I'm going to make a new covenant that's not according
to works, but according to grace. There is no hope for sinners
under the covenant of the law, but there is hope for sinners
under a covenant of grace. Behold the grace of God to reveal
His sovereign will of a new covenant, not of works, but of grace. The
difference between works and grace is that the covenant of
grace has nothing to do with you or me. This is the wonder. This is the amazement. No, I
just spent a few minutes here telling you that your will is
so bound and captive it can't do anything good. It can't obey
God's law. And God says, I'm going to make
a covenant that has nothing to do with your will. But it is a covenant according
to my own will. This covenant was decreed by
God, with God in eternity. Where were you at before the
world began? We were nowhere to be found but
in the mind and purpose of God. God, therefore, in eternity made
a covenant with Himself. The Father said, I will save
a sinful, vile race and love them and bring them before Me
holy." The Son said, I agree that I will be their surety and
I will redeem them from their sins. And the Holy Spirit said,
I will agree to give them life and faith and keep them until
the time that all of them are brought together into heaven
to worship You. This was a covenant that God
made for us with Himself. For a man who knows his sin and
his inability, I desire to know this new covenant. Do I have
a part? Do I have a place? Not a part
to do, but do I have a place in this covenant? Was this covenant
made by God for me? I who was born in sin did not
have any idea what this covenant was or how it would come to pass. I didn't want it. But one day God put it in my
heart. That's the only way this covenant
comes. It doesn't come by your determination. It comes by God's
will. If God is willing to put this covenant into your heart,
He'll do it. And there's nothing you can do
about it. And you know what? If He decides to pass by you,
there's nothing you can do about it. That's how helpless you are. You are helpless and have nothing
to do with this covenant. This covenant is of God alone. God said, I will. make a new
covenant. Not because we deserve one, but
because He would. What is the effect of this covenant?
I will, verse 33, I will make with them the house of Israel
after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward
parts and write it on their hearts and will be their God and they
shall be My people. Is there any contingencies in
that? Are there any special clauses
that deal with us? Does God say, I will write my
law in their inward parts if they'll do their best? Nope. God just says, I will write it
in their hearts. I will. Does God ask them to be His people? Nope. He said, I will be their
God and they shall be my people. This is not a law of works written
on tables of stone, but it is a law written on the heart of
man. It is not the Ten Commandments
on the outside of a building, nor is it the law that's written
on the conscience of every man. It is a law of faith. It is a
law of love toward Jesus Christ, His Son. That's what it is. He writes on our hearts a new
nature. He gives us a new principle,
a new nature of life that is set to worship Christ. I was a theologian by the time
I was 16. But I wasn't saved until much later. I wasn't saved
until God says, I will and you shall. And you know what? I was saved. I was saved. And that's the way it happens
for everyone in the New Covenant. And they shall teach no man,
every man, his neighbor or his brother, saying, Know the Lord,
for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest.
You don't have to tell me to know the Lord. You don't have
to even try to What are they doing now? Apologetics. Apologetics. They're trying to convince men
that God created the heavens and the earth. I don't care if
you believe that or not. If I convince you that God made
the heavens and the earth, big deal. That has nothing to do
with your salvation. Any idiot can see that God created
the heavens and the earth. You're a fool if you think this
thing just happened. I'm not trying to convince you
of God's existence. I'm just telling you of somebody
I know. I don't have to guess at this.
I know who he is. I'm not being arrogant. I just
know who he is. Because he revealed himself to
me. And you who believe, you know who he is. And when I speak
of him, I'm not trying to tell you who He is. You just testify
that this is the One. Yes, that's Him. I know Him.
Yes, I know who you're talking about. Because He revealed Himself
to me the same way. By grace. We don't teach each other to
know the Lord, but we know Him because He revealed Himself to
us by His own sovereign will. And notice this. For I will forgive
their iniquity. And I will remember their sin. Is there anything sweeter than
that? Can you think of anything else
you want above this? I don't want anything but this. I don't want God to forgive me
based on anything I can do for Him. I want my sins to be forgiven
only because God was willing to do it. And God was willing to do it
by way of a sacrifice. Not our sacrifice. but the sacrifice of His Son. And when Jesus Christ died, when
He came into this world and obeyed the law of God in righteousness,
He fulfilled the will of God, He fulfilled the law of God,
because I couldn't. He died in my place, bearing
my sin in His own body on the tree. Therefore, God can say
justly, I will remember your sins no more. This is the faith that God gives
everyone who is in this covenant of grace. Now, I'll tell you,
I can't see how in the world can God not remember my sins. I can't forget them. But what I can't forget, God
can't remember. Because He said, I will remember
your sins. Have you believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ? If you have, that is a covenant
of grace. That's a merciful covenant that
has nothing to do with works. but has everything to do with
the sovereign, free will of God. I'm saved because God willed
it so. I believe on Christ because God willed it so. And if I continue
to believe on Christ because God willed it so, where then
do I glory in myself? Is there any room for me to boast?
To brag? I only boast in God because of
his great and wonderful covenant. I'm so thankful he won't remember
my sins anymore. I pray that God would bless this
to your hearts, reveal himself to you. This stand will be dismissed
in prayer.