Bibles to Hebrews chapter 13,
Hebrews chapter 13. And I've chosen to go to Hebrews
tonight instead of Psalms because we're starting a new series titled
The Characteristics of God's Grace. And I want you to see
in the Lord's Word where he talks about the everlasting covenant
because our first part of tonight's, our first part of our study of
our series is gonna be on the covenant of grace. In Hebrews
13 verse 20, we read these words, now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. 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 whom be glory. forever and
ever. Amen. Tonight I want to, as our
prayer time, I want to bring before you first, uh, our sister,
Nancy Wells, those of you who know, know Norman, Nancy Wells
up in Oregon. Nancy was notified this afternoon
that her sister, uh, I believe in Mississippi, uh, passed away
unexpectedly this morning. So pray for Nancy, if you would,
this is something that we're not expecting. Pray for her as
she. She's going to be leaving Portland
tomorrow morning. They're going down to Portland to fly to Mississippi
tomorrow morning. So pray for her if you would.
Let's remember Pastor Gene and Judy. Pastor Gene says hello
to everybody. Let's keep Mike and Shirley here
in our prayers as they continue, Lord willing, for hopefully no
more than another week, preparing and getting through the move
from their home up here down to the valley. Uh, Sonny and
Karen are with us. I don't know if they've gotten
through and can hear us yet, but I spoke with, uh, Sonny called
me today as a matter of fact, and we were talking as some,
you know, Karen is fighting cancer, um, again. And they were thinking
about a week ago that they may have to be, they may have to
start making her, her funeral arrangements. Uh, she got so
sick. Um, We've been praying for Karen, and if it's the Lord's
will to take her home, fine, but it seems that it's not. The
Lord has given her a great recovery. She's gaining strength quite
a bit. In fact, it encourages Sonny
enough to where he hopes that the two of them can join us in
a couple of weeks when we have our conference, in three weeks,
actually. So continue if you would to pray
for Sonny and Karen. Jamie and her special needs son
Jim, you know their situation. Ed and Donna Anderson as Donna
takes care of her husband as he continues to digress in cancer. Sean, James' friend who is going
through a medication change. He has mental problems that changing
his medication makes it very difficult for him to deal with
the anxiety of that. We want to pray for Sean. Let's
remember Craig Roberts in Kansas, Ron Halsey in Arkansas, We pray
often for Brian Skiffington and his brother, Matt, and their
sister, Lisa. And not to mention Lisa's daughter
over in Tahoe, Bren, and Mike, and Zeke, and Ryan. We want to continue to remember
them. Remember Shirley's friend, Kate, who has been diagnosed
with a staph infection. Shirley, do you have an update
on her? Yeah, she has surgery scheduled to have that knee,
that replacement knee taken out. And that'll be on July 17. And
as it stands, I'm going to go out there and be her caretaker
while she recovers from that. Where is that again? Minnesota. Okay, going back to Minnesota.
Well, at least you'll be there during the summertime. Yeah,
get away from Tucson. Let's continue to pray for Kate,
then, as she prepares to have that knee removed and deals with
the staph infection she has. Remember Roger's son-in-law,
Jim, was diagnosed with cancer. And is he still in the hospital,
Roger? No, they didn't keep him. They
sent him back home. They sent him home. He's still got the fluids
coming back again, though. We want to continue to pray for
him as he fights that. Pray for our loved ones who still
walk in darkness. Our Sunday services this Sunday,
special meetings in the Dalles. Two weeks from tonight, our conference,
which starts three weeks from tonight. And also, if you would
remember our work day, the 17th, will keep us all safe as we come
together. clean the place up for the conference. Anything
anybody would like to add before we go to the throne of grace?
Our heavenly Father, we do praise you and thank you for all of
your blessings. You've heard our petitions this evening, Father,
and you know all the ones that were not spoken. You know all
things, Lord, and we trust that you will bless your people, your
chosen children, because of your son, the Lord Jesus. All of our
blessings flow through him. Father, we ask that you would
be with us tonight as we go into your word. Keep our minds and
our eyes focused on the beautiful story that we're gonna look at
tonight, the story of the covenant grace, covenant between God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and being gracious
to a people. We ask this in our Savior's name,
Christ Jesus, amen. All righty, we have our handouts
with us this evening. And I've got most everything
put in there. We will be looking into our Bibles this evening,
John chapter 17. So if you want to turn to John
17 and just leave your Bibles on the side for a moment, it'll
be a few minutes before we get there. I have all the rest of
the scripture in our handout. So if you want to turn to John
17 and just set your Bibles aside. Now, man's greatest enemy is
our own pride, our own pride that says there is no God, our
own pride that says I have a righteousness of my own. God must break the
prideful heart and give a contrite heart to one whose heart is dead.
In our handout, top of the page one, I read, as a sinner, I love
to hear and speak on the Lord's wonderful grace, his grace to
me. The words to amazing grace are
the closest I believe we in our small human way can come to describing
the beauty of God's word, the word of grace. And that's what
the whole Bible is all about. It's about God's grace to a people. And grace, as you know, is it
means unmerited favor. It's something that we don't
deserve. We are sinners before thrice holy God. Second paragraph
of our handout tonight. We begin a series of studies
on God's amazing grace, a study that I pray will delight the
very hearts our Lord has been and will be gracious to. I say this up front, we cannot
exhaust the depth of his grace. We cannot even number it. But
for the sake of our studies, I believe we can look at least
a few of the different sides to this diamond. Some characteristics
of His grace will overlap with others. Some will mingle together
side by side. But it is my intent in this series
to grab a hold of each one and magnify it for the glory of my
Savior to the best of my ability. Now we must begin back before
a star ever twinkled in the sky. Before the foundation of the
world, before time itself, before anything else was, there was
the eternal one. There was God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One holy God, yet three distinct
persons. I was asked earlier today, how
can you express that? How can you, I mean, The Indians
had several gods, but they were compared, you know, the spirit
to the animal spirits. How can you make, how can you
choose, how can you express the difference between those? The
animal spirits didn't create the worlds, I can tell you that.
And I can tell you, according to God's Word, anything outside
of God, according to the scriptures, is a false God. And I believe
that. And this is what it really comes
down to. What is the difference between God's people and the
rest of the religious world? We believe God. It says in John
3.16, whosoever believeth. How many times have we read in
this last study in the book of Mark where the Lord speaks about
whosoever believeth? How many of us who believe the
word of God can turn back and say, I remember a time when I
didn't believe any of that. I remember a time when none of
that mattered to me. Now, after hearing the gospel of Christ
who saves sinners from their sins, I believe God. Why? Because God has given us
the gift of belief. Three distinct persons, yet one
God. Genesis 1, verse 26, look at
this with me in the handout. Genesis 1, 26, and God said,
let us make man in our image after our likeness. Three times in this verse, the
Almighty Creator refers to himself in plural form. Did you see that? Let us make man in our image
after our likeness, three times. And then in the very next verse,
in verse 27, God does, he inspired Moses to write this. So God created
man In his image, did you see that? Singular. So in the previous
verse, he refers to himself three times plurally. And then in this
verse, he's singular in his image. In the image of God created he,
him, he, singular again, male and female, created he, singular
again, them. Again, three times. Yet now he
refers to himself singular. I find that quite interesting.
In two verses, our Lord declares himself plural. We know that
there's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
And then he declares himself in the very next verse, singular,
three times. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. I don't know, that intrigued
me. The word of God, Elohim, used in verse 26 is the plural
form. So what we saw back there in
verse 26, it says, and God said, that word God right there, Elohim,
is used in a plural form. It's a plural form of Eloi, Eloi,
which means deity or almighty. We read in Malachi 2.10, have
we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Again, in that conversation I
had, we were talking about one God. We believe in one deity. You know, the world believes
in God, the devils believe in a God, but God was not gracious
to the devils. The world, the whole world has
had one creator written on their hearts. We all come into this
world knowing that there's one creator. Those who say we don't
believe in any God, that's nonsense. You put them in a foxhole and
I've seen it. I've seen them. They'll believe in God as soon
as it makes sense for them to do so. Exodus 20, verse 3, on
page 2, we read these words, thou shalt have no other gods
before me. In Exodus 34, 14, for thou shalt
worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous,
is a jealous God. Folks, that's what we do. That's
what we do in our nature. We worship gods of our own imagination. If we're not worshiping some
God in the form of a religious form at some church somewhere,
we're worshiping ourselves. When we say it's our decision
to come to God, then we're calling him a liar. We're putting ourselves
above God. the Creator, making ourselves
our own gods. And our jealous God will not have that. He will
either give us a broken and contrite heart and bring us to his Son,
or he'll leave us to ourselves and we'll perish in damnation.
God the Father, God the Son, back in our handout again, third
paragraph, page two, God the Father, God the Son, God the
Spirit, a great mystery, yet true nonetheless. God was manifest
in the flesh. That's what we read in 1st Timothy
3.16, and without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, and believed on in the world, received up into glory. In John chapter one, verses one
through three, we read these words, in the beginning was the
word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not
anything made. And then I forgot to put this
in there, but verse 14 says, and the Word was made flesh.
That's our Lord Jesus. Now, folks, the Son of God has
always been the Son of God. He is the eternal God, just as
God the Father is, and just as God the Spirit is. But he wasn't
a man. He wasn't flesh. He had to be
made flesh. He had to be born of a virgin,
the Virgin Mary. We all know that story. He had
to come into this world, and there's a reason for all that,
which we will get to in another day. But today, look at John
14, verse 9, and Jesus saith unto them, have I been, back
in our handout, have I been so long a time with you, speaking
to Philip, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that
hath seen me hath seen the Father. So again, we see where in the
New Testament, Christ declares himself to be one with the Father.
Not only did he do it here, but where he said, my sheep hear
my voice, he says, my father and I are one. In 1 John, chapter
5, verses 5 through 8, we read these words. Who is he that overcometh
the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water
and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water
and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth
witness Because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
And these three are one. That's the Father, the Word,
we just read a moment ago in John 1-3, the Word being the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
And there are three that bear witness in the earth. the spirit,
and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one.
Last paragraph, page two. I know these are some familiar
verses to most of you, but with these verses, we establish this
truth. God is three persons, yet one
God. With that truth in mind, we may
have an understanding, or a small glimpse, you might say, of the
meaning of the phrase covenant grace. The great three-in-one
made a promise, a pact, between each other to be gracious to
a particular people. That's what covenant means. In
fact, on top of page three, we read the word covenant is a word
that means pact, an agreement between two or more parties,
a promise of one to another. Covenant, the original word,
word is berith, a compact, made by passing between pieces of
flesh, according, and that's according to the electronic King
James dictionary. I counted 27 times this word
is used in the book of Genesis alone. According to the King
James coordinates, it's used 254 times in the Old Testament.
Now here I put next some verses in regards to Noah that gives
us reference of how that word is used, the word covenant. First
we see in Genesis 6, verse 18, but with thee, God is speaking
to Noah, with thee, I will establish my covenant, my pact, my agreement,
my promise. And thou shalt come into the
ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with
thee. Isn't that exactly what happened? Isn't that what happened
as we go along and read the continued story of Noah? That's exactly
what happened. They were the only ones who came
into that ark. No other human beings came in
there, except for the animals, with the Lord of the Lord assigned
into the ark. In Genesis chapter 9, 9, speaking
again, and I behold, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with
you and with your seed after you. And then Genesis 9, 11 through
13, and I will establish my covenant with you. Neither shall all flesh
be cut off anymore by the waters of the flood. Neither shall there
be any more flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this
is the token of the covenant, the pact, the agreement. which
I make between me and you and every living creature that is
with you. For perpetual generations, I
do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of covenant
between me and the earth." Now that's speaking about the Lord
declaring, I'm not going to flood the earth anymore. He's made
a pact with that. And it hasn't, it's only flooded
once. Folks, I'm telling you, you know how many times God could
have flooded this earth for the same reason he did the first
time? He could look down upon this earth today and say, there
is none, there are none that seeketh after me. And I will,
verses, again, chapter nine, verses 15 through 17, and I will
remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every
living creature of all flesh, and the water shall no more become
a flood to destroy all flesh, and the bow shall be in the cloud,
and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting
covenant." Now, that's important. Remember, we just read back in
Hebrews. What was the, let me go back to that again real quick
here. Hebrews 13. I want to make sure
I quote it properly. What did our Lord said? Make
you perfect in every good work. No, that's not it. No, no, no,
no, no. The great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of
the everlasting covenant. That's a covenant that was made.
Everlasting is a word that doesn't, there's no start to it. In other
words, it wasn't, it didn't start right here and then go on through
eternity. Everlasting is a word that means
before time ever was. It's a covenant that was made
before time began, before God called anything time, a covenant
between God and every living creature and the flesh that was
upon the earth. And God said to Noah, this is
a token. This is the token of the covenant,
which I have established between me and all flesh upon the earth. Now that token, that covenant
was a covenant of not to return with a flood. So don't take,
we don't want to take it any more than that. Now page four,
top of page four, we read these words. The Holy Almighty God
is a God of promise, a covenant God. God the Father gave a people
to God the Son, and we're going to see that in scripture tonight,
to be saved. And God the Son accomplished
the means of saving this people. and God the Spirit moves in this
people, drawing them and revealing to them the Son of God. And all
this was agreed upon before a star ever lit up the sky, even before
the foundation of the world. We read in Zechariah 12, one,
the burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord,
which stretches forth the heavens and lay at the foundation of
the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. There's the
God of creation, the very one who put, the one who formed our
spirit within us when we were born. Matthew 25, 34, then shall
the king say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of
my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. for a star ever twinkled. This one who forms the spirit
of man is the potter. As clay vessels we are formed
for his purpose, his purpose of being gracious to a people. of people that he has loved from
before the world was. That's what we read here in Romans
9, 15, 24. For he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, Well, I'll tell you,
that's the free will religions right there. It's my decision. I decided to follow Christ at
such and such date. No, it says not. This is God's
word, folks. I'm not making these words up.
If we don't believe this, then we call God a liar. It is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up. God raised
Pharaoh up to be the man of strength that he was in the world that
was at that time for this purpose, that I might show my power in
thee. Are you telling me God doesn't
love everybody? I'm telling you, God hates. perfectly
and he loves perfectly. He hates sin perfectly. It must be punished. It must
face judgment. that I might show my power, he
raised up Pharaoh, and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Thou wilt
say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted
his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say unto
him that formed it, Why hast thou made us thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay? See, that's the difference between
the religious Christians and God's people. We believe God
is sovereign over everything. He's the potter over every molecule. He didn't just set stuff out
into being and say, okay, let's see what happens. Our God rules
everything. He makes sun bluffs. He had the
potter over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor. What if God willing to show his
wrath to make his power known endured with much long suffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? What if God was
to endure all of those that were fitted for destruction so that
he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy, which he had afore. That goes all the way back. That's
that eternal. That's an eternal word right there, aforeprepared
under glory. Even us whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Page 5. Folks,
this is where the multifaceted, the multi-sided diamond of grace
pops with brilliant light. You see, we could be just one
of those vessels of wrath. We walked as one, we talked as
one, we lived as one. We lived in unbelief, in denial
of who God was, yet today, by his grace, he's called us out
of that darkness, given us the light of his son in our heart
to believe on his word. That's what this grace that was
established before the world was is all about. It's about
calling his people. Ephesians 1, 3-7, we read this,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places
in Christ. Now, before we go any further
with that, I must say this, everything we have of anything comes from
Him. There's nothing in me that's
worthy of anything. There's nothing in any man, woman,
or child that walked this earth other than Christ Himself, who
is worthy of God's blessings. But we receive blessings in heavenly
places from Him, in Him. According, continuing on, as
he hath chosen us in him, God had chosen us in his son before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him. Brother Mike, you're holy right
now. I know, I know you don't feel like it. You've expressed
it, but you are. God sees you just as holy as
his son. He looks at you, he looks at
the doorpost of that heart of yours, and he sees the blood,
the righteous blood of his son. Nothing of you from before the
foundation of the world. In love, having predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to what? According to me, according to
my decision, according to the riches of his grace. I love grace. I love grace, especially
when he's applying that grace to me. The people of God are
saved by his grace. It was nothing we did or could
do. Our doings are full of sin, full
of unrighteousness. Only in God's grace and perfect
righteousness are we saved. grace in sending His perfect
righteous Son to substitute Himself in the judgment we deserve, the
judgment that we have earned, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for He hath
made Him, God the Father hath made Him, God the Son. Now, here's
that mystery again. Here's another mystery. Just
as great as God being manifest in the flesh, God the Father
made his son to be sin for us, who knew no sin. Christ didn't
do any sin. He never sinned. He didn't even
know anything. He knew no sin. He was perfect
and righteous in every way, yet God the Father made his son our
sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. The covenant of old is the covenant
of grace, the covenant of love. That's what the three in one
made a covenant between each other in the days before the
world was. A covenant of love for a people,
a particular people chosen by God before the foundation of
the world, as we read in Ephesians 1 just a moment ago. Jeremiah
31, 3, this is the Lord speaking to you and I, folks. The Lord
hath appeared unto me, of old unto me, saying, yea, I have
loved thee with an ever, there's that eternal word again, everlasting
love, a love that has always been and a love that will always
be. Therefore, he says, with loving
kindness. have I drawn thee. As a child of God who knows I
would have never come to God, I am so thankful that he has
drawn me. Are you? Amen. Look with me at
John chapter 17. Are your Bibles open to the 17th
chapter of John? And I want you to take note of
the language that is used in our Lord's priestly prayer. That's
what this is. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
himself gone up to the mountain to pray to the Father for you
and I, In verse one of John chapter 17, we read these words. These
words speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
may also may glorify thee. As thou has given him, speaking
of the son power, over all flesh that he should give eternal life. that He should give. Here's that
grace. Here's that grace. This is the grace that God the
Father and God the Son had agreed upon before the world was given
eternal life to as many as. As many as. That means there's
a limited amount, doesn't there? So that can't mean that God loves
the whole world, can it? This is the word of God. This
isn't some man's interpretation. This is what God inspired a man
to write. As many as thou hast given him,
verse three, and this is life eternal, that they might know
thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. He
says, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the
work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were, and thou gavest me, and they have kept thy word. Now
they have known that all things whichever thou has given me are
of thee for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest
me and they have received them and have known surely that I
came out of thee and they have believed that thou didst send
me. I pray for them I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am
glorified in them. Now I am no more in the world, but these
are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father. Keep through
thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may
be one as we are one. Back in our handout, bottom of
page 5, the language is clear. The language is very clear. We
just read, in the covenant of grace, God the Father gave a
people to God the Son. That's who He was praying for
there, those that the Father had given Him. Yet all men of
Adam have sinned. That's what we read in Romans
5, 12. Wherefore, as by one man's sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned. The Holy God cannot look upon
sin, so something must be done. Justice must be met. So the Son's
agreement to this covenant from before the foundation of the
world was to provide everything this sinful people need to be
redeemed to God, and that's exactly what he did. Listen to Hebrews
chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. And God, who at sunry times and
in diverse manners spake in times past, unto the fathers by the
prophets." That's the Old Testament. That's where the Lord spoke to
the prophets of the Old Testament, sent them to the people. And
sometimes it would be as in Judges, the leaders of the nation of
Israel, but through the prophets. But now, have in these last times
spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the worlds, and we've seen that
was the Lord Jesus himself, the Word of God, that's the Lord,
who was made manifest in the flesh, who being the brightness
of his glory, the express image of his person and upholding all
things." This is talking about Christ. He's being the brightness
of God's glory. He's the express image of God's
person. He's upholding all things by
the power of his word. When he had by himself purged,
purged our sins. He sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high. We're talking about the Lord
Jesus and how he fulfilled everything. According to the covenant, according
to the agreement, he became flesh. He was manifest in the flesh.
Why? Because God can't die, but a
man can. The Lord Jesus Christ was 100%
God, yet he was still 100% man. He hungered. He thirsted, he sang, he cried. He knows everything that you
and I have been tempted by in our lives. He's been tempted
by the same things, yet without sin, he laid down his life and
died as a man. Yet Jesus Christ never died.
You know what he said to that thief on the cross that day?
He said, today you will be with me in paradise. Where is that?
That's in heaven. Today you will be with me in
paradise. What a wonderful, word, full
of grace, purged, katharismos, that means a washing off, or
that is ceremonially, abulation, morally, expiate, Yeah, expiation. I know, you know, that's what
you get from a guy who never graduated high school. You know,
sorry. It means cleansing. It means
purification. That which was unclean is now
purged, redeemed unto God. Good news to a poor sinner. Are
there any sinners here tonight? Are there any sinners looking
into God's word with us tonight? Good news to a poor sinner. Christ,
purged our sins. Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. 1 Peter
1 verses 18 through 20, for as much as ye know that ye were
not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained." There's
another one of those eternal words. for ordained before the
foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times
for you, verse page seven. And last but not least, we consider
the spirit of God's part in this covenant between the great three
and one before the foundation of the world. We're talking about
the covenant of grace. a covenant, a pact between the
great three and one to be gracious to a people. Just as we read
in Genesis 1, 2, which states this, and the earth was without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The Holy
Spirit agreed to move upon the people of God. giving life and
revealing the person and works of Christ Jesus the Lord to those
that the Father hath given the Son. And we've already looked
and seen where over and over the Lord was given a people.
The order I just gave is right. Life must come first, and that's
from the Spirit. Listen to here, John chapter
six, verse 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
that means made alive. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
that made alive. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. We're talking about the part
that the Holy Spirit has in the covenant of grace. Here we see
that it is the spirit that gives life. John chapter 3 verses 5
through 8, Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except
a man be born of water, he's speaking to Nicodemus, born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit, A moment ago, he had told Nicodemus that
you must be born again. And Nicodemus says, how can I
do that? How can I be in my mother's womb again? And the Lord says,
marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. Catch
this closely, folks. The wind bloweth where it listeth. Here's the part of the Holy Spirit.
And thou hearest the sound thereof that can't not tell whence it
cometh and whether it goeth. So is Everyone that is born of
the Spirit. We don't know. We don't, how
often have I told you folks about the CDs that go out in Arkansas? Our brother, Ron Halsey, he's
so faithful in that he'll listen to a CD and he'll take it down
to the post office, put it on the post office bulletin board,
come back a few days later and it's gone. He never knew where
they were gone to. One day I got a phone call from
a lady who had been taking them. And she goes, hey, I'm missing
number eight. I said, well, I don't know what
to tell you. She goes, can you make another copy and send it
to me? I said, that's the one that the copy machine didn't
work. It's the one time we did, that was one that we recorded
and we thought we were recording and got over and was like, oh,
what happened? What went wrong? She's like,
Well, can you just take your notes and do it over again? She
drove around the state of Arkansas. She told me, she goes, I've worn
all your other CDs out. We don't know where the Lord
is going to take Mike Lovelace's Free Willard and post it somewhere. And somebody is going to read
it and say, what's this about? What's this about the grace of
God that he's talking about with Free Willard? Mike doesn't see
where it goes. I don't see where it goes. We
don't know where the wind blow us. We don't know which way it
comes, but we know the spirit of God takes his word and it
does not come back void. Second to the last paragraph
on page seven. And as is the case with Lazarus, life must
begin before we can respond. Lazarus had to have life before
he got up out of that tomb and came forth. And if you recall,
he was wrapped in his burial clothes, which is like this.
and it's all the way down to his feet. The only thing left
up is your head, and usually a napkin is put over that. He
came forth to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord said, loose
him of his bindings. Loose him of his burial clothes. Once we have been quickened,
made alive, the Spirit of God reveals why we have life. Here's why John has life. Here's
why John has eternal life. Jesus Christ, my Lord, period. Salvation is of the Lord. Once
we have been quickened, made alive, the spirit reveals why
we have life, not because of himself, but because of Jesus
Christ. In Christ, we have life. In John
chapter 16, verses 12 through 15, we read these words. I have
yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now,
How be it when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide
you. Here's what the Holy Spirit agreed
in that pact, in that promise to do. He will guide you into
all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself,
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will
show you the things to come. "'He shall glorify me,' saith
the Lord, "'for he shall receive of mine "'and shall show it unto
you. "'All things that the Father
hath are mine. "'Therefore, saith I, that he
shall take of mine "'and shall show it unto you.'" Page eight.
Read with me these words of the works. of the Spirit of God. Ephesians chapter one, verses
15 through 19. Wherefore I also, after I had
heard of your faith, writes Paul, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in
love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers. And here's what he's talking
about. This is the basis of his prayers. That the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
Spirit of wisdom. Folks, the Spirit of God doesn't
talk about Himself, He talks about the Lord Jesus. Who is
the Lord Jesus? He is our wisdom. Isn't that
what it says in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30? God has made unto
us, He has made Jesus Christ unto you and I wisdom. May the
Spirit of wisdom and revelation in what? In the knowledge of
Him. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened. that ye may know what is the
hope of his calling. What is the hope of Christ's
calling? My name is Jesus, I shall save my people. That's the hope of his calling.
He shall lose none for he is God. And what are the riches
of his glory, of his inheritance in the saints? And what is the
exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to
the working of his mighty power? In 1 Corinthians 2 verses 9 to
14, we read these words, but as it is written, I have not
seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God had prepared for them that love him. But God
has revealed them unto us. by His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things,
yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things
of the man, say the Spirit of man which is in him. Even so
the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now
we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words
which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost, that's
the Spirit, teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual
things. And to emphasize this covenant,
being of grace. This covenant, and we've seen
now what God the Father's purpose was in giving that promise. We've
seen what God the Son's purpose was, work was, in making that
covenant with the other two. And now we've seen what the Spirit
has. But listen to this. This emphasizes that covenant
being of grace. Not of what man would do. God
didn't look down through time and said, okay, James is going
to make his decision for me on such and such day. I'll save
him. No, he came to James when James was dead in trespasses
and sin and gave him life just like Lazarus. To emphasize that
it's a covenant of grace, the Holy Spirit moved upon the Apostle
Paul to continue what we just read with these next words. But
the natural man, the natural man, our nature, receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him. The things of God were foolish.
to you and I at one time. How often do we, have we heard
one of the ministers of God say, I was sitting there one day and
I was listening to the preaching of God's word, preaching of the
gospel by a minister of God himself. And I heard something that made
more sense to me than I've ever heard of anything else in my
whole life. That's God revealing his word. That was God revealing
his word to me. I heard something that day that
I'd never heard And I said, man, that's truth. That's truth. their
foolishness unto the natural man, neither can he, speaking
of the natural man, know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. Folks, we come into this world
spiritually dead. Oh, you can pinch my arm, my
back could hurt, I could fall off my bike, I could say, wait
a minute, I feel like I'm alive, but folks, we were dead in trespasses
and sin, dead spiritually. When Adam sinned, all men died
spiritually. We were spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is
judge of no man. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of
Christ. The salvation of a particular
people chosen out of the world of man was determined. and a covenant of grace. That's
why we started here tonight. You have to start at the beginning.
As we go through what I've made a list of characteristics of
God's grace, our next one I think will probably be predestinating
grace. Sanctifying grace is there. Redeeming
grace is there. There's several different ones.
I don't have the whole list right here in front of me now. But
as we go through all of those, we had to start here first. We
had to start where it starts, and that's with God, the three
in one. These are men that were chosen
out of the world, determined in a covenant grace, made in
eternity between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit.