Well, it's good to come here,
and it's sad to leave, but I've got things to do at home. I have
150 kids that can't do without me tomorrow, so I need to get
back. But we've enjoyed our visit.
We've enjoyed all of you all. As always, you treat us better
than we deserve to be treated, but we'll be back, Lord willing. Have you had a good day? Have
you had a good week? We're all surrounded by trials,
you know. No matter how good we have it, there's trials out
there, there's afflictions. Yes, we even have fears and doubts. Can you say this day you haven't
had some fear or you haven't had some doubt? And we're here
tonight to worship, and I hope and pray that I have some comforting
words. They're not my words. the words
out of this book we have with us, and I hope and pray that
by the power of God's Spirit that I can leave you with some
comforting words tonight. Listen to what Isaiah said about
God's word, or listen to what God's word says about comfort. It says, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. In other words, be secure, be
happy. Don't fret, don't worry. Speak
comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, these fears and doubts and trials and afflictions
we have. It's been accomplished, they've
been overcome. That her iniquity is pardoned,
our sins are forgiven, for she hath received of the Lord's hand
double of all her sins. And you just imagine, just think
of that. We today are not experiencing
anything that God's people that we read about in Scripture have
not experienced. They've experienced the same
things we have, and we're going through the same things they
have. You just look at—Terry was reading about David. David, a man after God's own
heart. Just imagine how much he knew
and what he was blessed with, but yet imagine how much and
what he went through. So it was good that Terry read
the opening words of David. I cannot think of any place else
in the Scripture where the first time David speaks. Well, tonight
I want to talk about the last words of David, those comforting
words. As David lay dying, he looked
into his heart and he could find no comfort there. Have you ever
looked into your heart? Ever try to find comfort and
peace in your heart? There's nothing in this body
of ours, in this fleshly body of ours, that can give us comfort.
For David knew what his heart was, and the scriptures tell
us what our hearts are like. Jeremiah 17, 9 says that our
hearts are deceitful, they're desperately wicked, above all
things. No matter how much we think we
know ourselves, there's still something about us that we don't
know. You ever said, I would never
do that. And then you turn around a little while later and you
find yourself doing that. Have you ever said, I could never
think of something like that. And you find yourself thinking
of something like that. Well, I don't know who said it,
but we probably ain't seen nothing yet. We're we're except for the
hand of God's mercy and grace on us. If he leaves us alone,
he left me alone. I'd go out here and I'd probably
the biggest killer. And you all out there would probably
following right along with me. So we ain't really seen anything
how wicked and deceitful we are. David found no comfort in his
family. When David came back from bringing the ark of the
Lord back, he rejoiced and he danced in the streets in public. Well, his wife mocked and ridiculed
him for that. David's sons were rebels and
traitors who attempted to overthrow him and take over his kingdom.
He found himself running from old Saul there and hiding in
caves, even though he had been anointed, was God's anointed
over Israel. David had to find comfort and
safety in caves and running from these people. He found no comfort
in his kingdom, no comfort in his power, no comfort in his
riches. And here he is, if you'll turn there in 2 Samuel 23, here
he is, lying there on his deathbed, getting ready to leave this world,
closing his eyes in death, and he found no comfort inside him
or anything around him or any comfort of the people there with
him, but he could find some comfort in God's Word. And David says,
and you've probably heard message after message on this particular
passage, where you're going to hear it again tonight, because
there's a purpose for this. As I said this morning, it's
safe and it's necessary. And so David says there in 2
Samuel 23, verse 5, he says, "...although my house be not
so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things insure, for this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow." For David's
comfort, he looked to nothing but the covenant. the promise
made between the persons of the Holy Trinity on his behalf before
the world was. Before anything existed here,
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit made
a covenant, a contract, a promise with each other. Where David
looked, we should look. We don't need to look into ourselves. It doesn't matter. I know, Jenny,
you and Rick, with your little daughters there in the middle
of the night, when they're crying or afraid of the night, you can
go in and put your arms around them and they get quiet. But
we can't look to each other for that. We can comfort each other
in trials. What some of you all have gone
through, and I haven't yet, if ever I go through that, you could
probably give me some comfort. You could tell me that it will
be okay. But when it comes right down
to it, that's just temporary. You're not going to be around
me all the time to keep comforting me. When we lose a loved one,
we can go to each other. When I lost my mother, I could
tell my wife what it was going to be like when she lost her
mother, and I could explain it to her, but I could not comfort
her with the comfort that we can find right here in God's
Word. And so where David looked, we
should look. Where David found rest, we can find that same rest
in that same place. And what comforted David is what
should comfort us. So for a few minutes tonight,
not long, I want to look at these last words of David. And as he
took them to his heart, we should take them to our heart. Not that
old fleshly heart, but that new heart God has put in us. Not
that heart that's deceitful and wicked above all things, but
that new spiritual heart, that new man. We need to have them
put into him. So David says here, first of
all, he says, although my house be not so with God. Now, it does
not matter whether we take the words, my house, to mean earthly
possessions, whether we think it means the house we have, the
car we drive. It doesn't matter where we take
those to mean our family or this life. There's still some lessons
we can learn when David says, although my house be not so with
God. What are some of the lessons that David learned and that this
is put in here in this book for our learning? We're always learning.
We always need to continue to come here and to be taught. God
has given you a faithful pastor who spends many, many hours.
You men, Terry, you've preached up here. Rick, you've been up
here before. You all know what it's like to study a faithful
pastor, to study in these words. Time for him to do that that
some of us can't do. So there's some lessons that
we can learn by looking at these things. And the first thing to
learn is as long as we inhabit this body, this fleshly body
of ours in this world, things are never altogether right with
God's saints. It seems like there's always
something to keep you upset, to keep you uptight, to keep
you thinking and worrying, and our desire is not with this world.
We live in this world, but we're just passing through. Christian
and I visited, we went through a town one time, and somebody
recommended, I won't tell you what town, some of you have probably
been there. But I'll tell you, it's not here.
But we went through a town one time, and somebody recommended
a motel for us to stay in. And we thought, well, OK, we'll
stay there. Well, we got in there, and the windows were cracked.
There were spiders up there and cobwebs over there. There were
cigarette holes in the sheets and on the mattress. And I thought to myself, we can't
stay here. But yeah, we were just passing
through. We could stay there one night. show you how bad it
was at midnight that night. We got out and we started looking
for another place to stay. But we stayed one night, and
we're just pilgrims. We were just passing through.
I wasn't going to stay in that place the rest of my life, and
that's how it is in this world. Our desire is not of this world.
We're just passing through. We're here And for an instance,
while we are here, it's like that mist out there on a nice
fall morning or spring morning. You wake up and there it's there,
but give the sun a few minutes on that mist and it's gone. Or
your breath on a cold winter's morning when you go out, it's
there and then it's gone. So our desire is not with this
world, but it's with the world to come. It's with that other
world, not of this world. In this world, sin and temptation
are all around us. You could probably say you've
been tempted. Even today. And it's not all around us. It's
not just out there on television, the movies, the books, or where
the job where you work. I'll tell you where it is also.
It's in us. It's in us. David says that his sins were
ever before him. And it's the same with you and
I. Sins around us. It's in us. Your job situation
may not be satisfying. Jeanette and I were talking last
night. There's days when I just can't wait to get up and go to
work. But boy, then there's days. Well, when that clock goes off,
you just want to punch it and roll over and go back to sleep.
And I'm just telling you the truth. I'm not telling you up
here anything that you haven't experienced. I told Jeanette
there's a class or two that I just love. I have five or six classes
I just love. But then there's that one that
if it could just not show up would be all right sometime.
But our job situation is not always the same. We may have
financial questions. Financial doubts, financial worries
and fears. Where's that next money going
to come from to pay this bill? We're surrounded by these things.
And if you're parents, oh my, now I can't enter into this.
But if you are parents, you may have great burden over the souls
of your children. You bring them here faithfully.
They hear this word proclaimed from this pulpit by many different
people, the same message over and over again. And then they
go out there and you can only go so far with them. They're
going off to some colleges sometime. Oh, I've been there. I know what
could happen at college and what's tempted. And all you can do is
pray to God that his spirit will watch over your children as they're
out there. I've seen them different places. They're raised in the
church, and I've seen them. And sometimes you don't see them
anymore. They get out there. So you parents have burdens that
I can't even enter into. And the least little event sometimes,
can that upset you? I mean, it doesn't have to be
much. You can wake up in the happiest moods, and you go off
someplace, and something happened, and you come home, and your wife
might say nothing. I mean, it's really nothing.
And boy, that just didn't hit you right. And she didn't know
what she said. And if you're like me, you go
off pouting. You get very quiet. She knows.
You're very quiet, very sullen. I can't fool her. She knows when
something's not right. And then it can keep you awake
at night or wake you up in the middle. I'll wake up sometimes
at 430 in the morning thinking about what's coming up, and that's
it. I might as well get up and go on to school because it's
on my mind. Just little things, little things.
So as long as we inhabit this fleshly body, that's going to
be with us until the very last breath we take. It's going to
be with us. Secondly, what else can we learn
from this? Grace does not run in our blood. You know that. It runs, sin runs in us. We're
born with the blood type of our father. I know when I go give
blood, there's a lady at church one time who was going to have
an operation, and you read, especially you, Jenny, you know about the
danger of getting transfusions nowadays. Well, she went around
church to find out what blood type we all had. Well, I happen
to have her blood type. And so she asked me if I'd go
to Huntington. I think that's where the operation is going
to take place. She asked me if I'd go to Huntington to give blood,
because we had the same blood type. Well, I've got the same
blood type you all have. I don't know what your blood
type is, but I have it. I forgot what mine is. I think it's O
positive or AB something or other, but I also have SIN negative,
just like you all do. SIN negative, that's my blood
type, and it runs in my veins. And you parents who have children,
you've handed that down to your children, too. They have your
blood type. And we have that blood type because that's the
blood type our father Adam had. And it's in us, and it's in him,
and it's in our children. Thirdly, what else can we learn?
The afflictions of God's people are fruits of God's covenant
grace. You know, these things that come our way, God sends
them on purpose. Turn with me to Psalm 89. Let
me show you that. Psalm 89. Anything that happens
to us is according to God's will and purpose. He's teaching us
something. But look at Psalm number 89, beginning with verse
30, talking about God's care for
his church, God's care for his children, his people. Psalm 89, beginning with verse
30, it says, If his children forsake my law and walk not in
my judgments, If they break my statutes and keep not my commandments,
then here's what God's going to do. Then will I visit their
transgressions with the rod. I thank every one of us. My mother
used to get after me pretty good sometimes. And I look back and
think about some of the things I said and did. She got after
me one time when I must have been about nine or ten, and she
took a little stick and broke it over me quickly. And to show
you how awful mean I was, I turned around and I laughed at her.
I look back at that and I think, oh, I wish I hadn't done that.
But that's just that sin, negative blood in me, running through
me. And I'm not proud of it. I'm not proud of it. But God,
he will visit us also, our transgressions with the rod and their iniquity
with stripes. God sends affliction to his people.
Nevertheless, look what he says there. But he has a purpose for
it. You parents, when you punish your children, I know you don't
do it because you get a thrill out of it. You do it because
they need it. It's love. It's love to them. They've done something. You know
that it's wrong and you're trying to correct them because you've
been there and you know what it is. But in one of these days,
they'll learn because they'll be out there doing the exact
same thing for the exact same reason. We all have to learn. I've been teaching 30 years,
Kenny. I've tried to tell you the same thing. I've tried to
tell these people and they still have to go out and learn the
hard way. Listen, and that's the same thing with God. God
tells us to listen to his word and obey it, and what do we do?
We're just like wayward children. And what does he do? He will
visit transgression with the rod and our iniquity with his
stripes. Look at verse 33. Nevertheless,
my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer
my faithfulness to fail. So he sends these things for
our correction and for our benefit. He never takes his love from
us. He never takes his hand of mercy and grace from us. He says
in verse thirty-four, My covenant will I not break. Oh, how many
times do we break God's law, but he never breaks his promise. Nor, he says in verse thirty-four,
nor will I alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once
have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. And David knew this. These were,
these were David's comforts. He knew that all these afflictions
had a purpose, and it was going to be for the glory of God, and
it was going to be for David's good. And so these afflictions
that come our way, if we could just learn to be patient, just
learn to wait, be content. You know, Paul, Paul said, I
have learned to be content in whatever state I am. Paul wasn't
born content in whatever state. God had teach him to be content.
When God gave him that thorn in the flesh and Paul three times
prayed to have it removed, what did God tell him? My grace is
sufficient. God knows what's best for his
people, and if he's going to have to continue to teach me
to be content, to be satisfied and to wait upon him. The fourth
thing that we can learn, the sins of a faithful man's family
are not an indication of the evil in him or a barrier to his
entrance into God's kingdom. Does that make sense? The sins of a faithful man's
family are not an indication of evil in him or a barrier to
his entrance into God's kingdom. Someone asked our Lord one time,
well, why is this man the way he is? Whose sin? His mother
or himself? Our Lord says, neither. He says,
what's going on with this man is for my glory and I'll show
you. And so whether or not it's no indication of evil in him
or a barrier to our entrance into God's kingdom. That's comforting. And David knew that. He says,
although my house be not so with God, he says, secondly, yet the
Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant, and that covenant and
that promise has been ordered in all things, and it's sure. I can tell you all something.
I may tell you that I'll see you next month. I may have the
best intentions in the world of coming back here next month,
but there's no guarantee I will be. You may say, yeah, and you
may say, well, yeah, you could stay with me and we walk into
town and there's a note on the door out of town. See you later.
There's no guarantee that happened to Christian at one time. We
went someplace and these people were supposed to keep us and
we got there. Nobody was home. They what they
forgot or something, they forgot we were coming in a certain time.
They were off at the mall somewhere. So we took off and came back
and they were embarrassed. And what our promises are may
not be, but God says everything that I say will take place. Now,
what are the characteristics of this covenant that David's
talking about here? Well, let me tell you what this
thing is not. I'll pull a John Gill on you. You all have read
John Gill. I'll tell you what it's not first. This is not the
covenant of works. This covenant I'm going to talk
to you about is not the covenant of works God made with Adam.
That ain't made with Adam in Genesis 2. that Adam broke in
Genesis 3. It's not that covenant works.
Nor is this the Jewish covenant of circumcision that God made
with Abraham in Genesis 17 and was abolished in Galatians 5.
This is not what that covenant is. God's commandments and laws
have not been abolished. None of them. They still are
there. They've always been there. God's laws are good. God's laws
are holy. God's laws are perfect. What's
the problem? right here, the problem is in
me. I'm not good, I'm not holy, and
I'm not perfect in this flesh. But as I told you this morning,
as he is, so am I. That's spiritually speaking right
now. But in this flesh, I don't have it in me to keep these laws
and regulations of God. But the curse of them, the curse
of these laws, the curse of God's covenant, it's been abolished
on God's elect. Look with me at Romans 10. Romans 10, verse 4. God's laws
are still there, but you know those laws have been obeyed.
Those laws have been kept. They've been kept perfectly.
And they've been kept on our behalf. And they've been kept
just as if I've kept them. And the curse of those laws,
though, have been abolished. For it says in Romans 10, 4,
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. There's nothing else to do. We cannot. obey God's laws and
for salvation. It's been done for us. Christ
did it on our behalf. I'll show you in a little while,
way even before anything was ever put upon this earth. So
the covenant in which David found his comfort is the covenant of
grace. It's a covenant of grace and
mercy that was made with him and his spiritual kin, that's
We're spiritual kin. David was a man after God's own
heart, and so are we. As David is a man after God's
own heart, so are we. We're David's spiritual kin,
and that covenant of grace made with him and his spiritual kin
was in the person and work of Christ. That's where David found
his comfort, and Christ is the covenant surety before the world
began. We can't grasp that because we
have just a limited concept of what time is. But one of my classes
the other day, we were talking that this is I have carried coffee
in class this year, and that's a pretty sharp class. And one
of them the other day, they start talking about the religion of
the 1880s. And they someone then brought up Darwin. And then they
started. I mean, it didn't take much to get them going. Somebody
was trying to explain this and somebody was trying to explain
that. And they start talking about creation and time and everything. And they just got all confused.
And I couldn't sit there, and I couldn't explain this to them.
There's many a time when I want to preach in that classroom of
mine, but I can't do it. I cannot do it. But this covenant
was made before the world began. And those people were starting
to talk that day, and they said, well, when all of this was there,
all this matter, and I looked at one young man, and they mentioned
the Big Bang Theory. And I looked at him, and I said,
I have a question. And I looked at him, and I said,
Who lit the fuse? And that was it. They couldn't
answer, but they didn't stop him. They still went on. They
still went on. Well, what is a covenant, then?
I told you what it isn't. What is a covenant? A covenant
means to create, to choose, or to dispose of. The New Testament,
in the New Testament, the word may be testament. So in the New
Testament, when you see the word testament, that's that's the
covenant we're talking about. It's the word we use when speaking
of a person's will. Well, I should have a will. And
that's that's that's what we're doing. It's a promise. I went
to an attorney one day and in our will, I made out a certain
thing that anything happens to me, everything goes to her. If
anything happens to her, everything goes to me. If anything happens
to both of us, it goes someplace else. And that's a covenant.
That's a testament. And it's the disposition of one's
estate. When something happens to us,
there's someone at 13th Street who has a copy of our will that
knows exactly what to do. I have given this individual
an exact instructions as to how to conduct our funeral, who we
want to preach it. If Henry's not around, I'll put
in there who I want to preach our funeral. I'll put where I
want it to be. I've given instructions of how
I want it to be. And he can't carry that out.
This person can't carry that out. Why? We're not dead. We're still here. But when that
covenant, when that testament, when something happens to us,
then that testament will be carried out. And this covenant is a promise
or a contract between two or more persons. That's the covenant
we're talking about here in Scripture. It's a contract between God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit in relationship to
his people. And what do we have to do with
it? Not a thing. As you children had nothing to
do with your eye color, your sex, your intelligence, we had
nothing to do with this covenant. It's all according to the mercy
and grace of God the Father through Christ the Son as applied by
the Holy Spirit. Now in this sense, in this sense,
it's a covenant of grace giving us what we don't deserve. The
three beings of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit, voluntarily and solemnly bound themselves
to fulfill this covenant. It is a covenant made in eternity.
Back there, wherever back there is, however far back there was,
this covenant was made back then, by which the salvation of God's
elect was secured. Way back then, it was secured
by the purpose and promise of God the Father to his son, I'm
reading this. This is complicated. To his son,
the Lord. This is not mine. I can't make
anything up this complicated. John Chapman was preaching the
other night. He said, Well, all I did, I took a little bit of
Henry and I took a little bit of Spurgeon and I took a little
bit of Gil and I put it together and I added a little bit of myself.
You all remember Charlie Payne. I walked in on Charlie Payne
one time he was studying for a message in Henry's study and
I said, How are you coming along? Well, he says, I'm taking Henry
and Spurgeon and Gil and I'm improving on it a little bit.
So, these are not my words, but this covenant is a covenant made
in eternity by which the salvation of God's elect was secured by
the purpose and promise of the Father to his Son, which is our
surety of the covenant, and the pledge of the Holy Spirit, by
whose power and grace every elect redeemed sinner is sealed. You ladies, I've watched my wife
can every once in a while, and when you do that canning, What
do you listen for? Ping. Do you listen for that?
Trish made some, what was that you made one time? Pickles. Yeah, not sweet and sour pickles.
Anyway, she made some pickles and I helped her a little bit
and we put them in those and every once in a while you'd be
off doing something, you might be in another part of the house and all of
a sudden, ping, you hear it. It's sealed. That pickle is now
a pickle. The cucumber is a pickle, it's
different. And there it was, you heard it, and it was sealed.
And you knew that as long as that seal lasted, and you could
tell what, when the top was still sunk in? As long as that was
that way, you knew that you had something to, you could enjoy
somewhere down the road. Well, that's the same thing.
This covenant has been sealed by the promise and surety of
those three on our behalf. And you know, cucumbers had nothing
to do with being a pickle either. They were sealed. in that jar,
and they were perfectly secure, and they were just waiting to
be opened up, and that's how it is with us. We're perfectly
secure and sealed by the promise of God in Christ through the
application of the Spirit, and we're just waiting to leave this
world. Don't get me wrong, we're not
going to be a pickle, but we're waiting. We're sealed, perfectly
sealed. Now, the Lord God has always,
does now, and shall forever rule the universe. for the accomplishment
of his purpose and grace in the covenant. Everything happening
in this universe is for the elect's sake. History, I used to have,
I used to tell Jenny, the one definition of history, but history
now to me is everything that God is doing for the purpose
of calling his elect out of this world to be conformable into
the image of his Son. That's what history is. That's
why everything is taking place. Let me show you that. Romans
8, just turn back the page. Romans 8, 28 through 30. This
is what God is doing in this universe for his people. It says,
and we know, God's people know, that all things work together
for good. It doesn't matter how big or
how little those things are, how many or how few, all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
called according to his purpose. Everything in our life is working
toward that end. Now, this covenant, it's everlasting
because it comes from God's everlasting love for his people. It's everlasting. I read that this morning, Jeremiah
31, 3. God made a promise in eternity
past, and his covenant will come true because he's loved us with
an everlasting love, and that love will never diminish, will
never diminish. Our love will grow stronger and
stronger for him, but his love has no beginning, no end, no
highs, no lows. It's consistently the same. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator of this covenant ever before
the earth was made. I have a man at 13th Street who
is to carry out mine and Tricia's will. He's going to go. He's
going to be the go-between because we're not going to be around.
He's going to be the one that goes between what we said here
and what the attorney must do. And Christ is this mediator of
this covenant. Look with me at Proverbs 8 and
to show you how long That covenant that God made with his son has
been around. I mentioned Proverbs 8 this morning.
Well, tonight I'd like to read a few verses out of it. Proverbs
8, beginning with verse 22. In this Proverbs 8, we talk about
wisdom. Well, wisdom in this proverb
is Christ. Look with me at verse 22 of Proverbs
8. It says, The Lord possessed me
in the beginning of his way before his works of old. This is Christ
talking. This is our Lord, our Savior,
our mediator. It says in verse 23, I was set
up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth
was. When there were no depths, I
was brought forth. When there were no mountains,
abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled,
before the hills was, I was brought forth. While as yet God had not
made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world. This is Christ talking. When
God prepared the heavens, I was there. When he set a compass
upon the face of the depth, when he established the clouds above,
when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he gave to
the sea his decree that the water should not pass his commandment,
when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him
as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing
always before him. This is how long that covenant
of grace and mercy has been there. Whenever this is that we just
read, that's how long that's been there. Now, this covenant
is the promise of life and the promise of life in this covenant
is eternal life. Turn over to Titus chapter one. So there's nothing about this
covenant that will that has not been done or that will not come
true. It's a sure covenant. It's a
promise Titus chapter one verse two. It says there. Proverbs eight the blessings
of the covenant and the salvation security in the covenant are
eternal Ephesians turn back a few pages to Ephesians one. Verse
three, it's an eternal covenant with eternal promises that are
going to take place in time. Ephesians 1, 3, what's it say?
Blessed be the Lord and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. It's a promise that's eternal
that will take place. God never changes. He never does. You're all different than you
were this morning. If you look at me a little close, you'll
probably see a few more pounds. But I'm different than when I
was here last time. We change. Our feelings change,
and we're high and we're low. We're this and we're that. But
God never changes, and I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for that.
He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Therefore, if God
never changes, what about His promises? It never changes. What about His covenant? It never
changes. No matter what is done to God's
elect or done by them, God will not break his covenant nor alter
the thing that has gone out of his lips. It doesn't matter. You think of David. Think of
what David did with Bathsheba. Did that alter God's covenant?
No. Think of how David was. He was
told not to number Israel. He did. Did that alter God's
covenant? No. It did not change. Before some of you think, I just
said we can go out and sin all we want because God's covenant
of grace will not change. No, I didn't say that. We go
out and sin all we want anyway, don't we? But what we do is not
going to change God's covenant, not at all. Paul the apostle
had this same question brought up before him. Turn with me to
Romans 6. Those people listened to Paul
preach, and he said basically the same thing I said, and they
asked him that same question. They said, well, if that's the
case, can we go out here and do all we want, that the grace
of God might magnify and abound itself even greater? Paul there
in Romans 6, look at verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? That's the question.
Paul just preached this grace of God in Christ up there in
the first few chapters of Romans. Well, these people listening
to him, that's what they got out of that. That's what they
heard. And Paul looks at him there in
verse two, and this is the closest Paul comes to profanity, you
might say. He said, God forbid. He said,
how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? How shall we, who Christ died
to take away our sin, how shall we go out there and continue
to just do that deliberately on purpose for what he did for
us? He says in verse 3, Know ye not
that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into his death? Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. He's given us a new heart and
renewed a new spirit in us. Should we go out there and do
these things and dishonor him and shame him and these things? You know, we're walking around
this community as witnesses as to what's preached here. And
if we go out there and, oh, how often we do it anyway, how often
we do it, but to go out there and deliberately do it on purpose?
Those people out there looking at us and watching us and thinking,
well, is that what they're like there? Is that what they preach
there? How shall we also walk in newness of life? Christ did
these things for us. For if we've been planted, this
is verse five, together in the likeness of his death, we shall
be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might
be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. That's part of Paul's answer
to those people that says, well, let's go out there and just continue
to sin more that God's grace will abound. Well, barely, they
weren't quite satisfied because down in verse twelve through
eighteen, Paul continues this. He says, let not sin, therefore,
reign in your mortal body. Let that ye should obey it in
the lust thereof. Now we sin. We sin more than
we want, and David said our sins are against God and God alone.
What this is talking about, that's not our desire in this life.
For when we sin, we do as David says. We repent and we hate ourselves
and all of these things. And that's what Paul's trying
to say to these people, that we should not obey it in the
lust thereof. That's not our will. That's not our desire to
do. Verse thirteen, neither yield
you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,
but yield yourself unto God as those that are alive from the
dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For
sin shall not have dominion over you. For ye are not under the
law, but under grace. I just said earlier that God
will not break his covenant nor alter the thing that has gone
out of his lips. He cannot. He will not. What
then, verse fifteen, shall we sin because we're not under the
law but under grace? Paul says, God forbid that we
have that attitude. Shall we go out there and dishonor
our Lord by our actions? Shall we go out there and be
a bad witness as to what your pastor Paul preaches you from
this pulpit? We do it, oh, we do it too much
anyway. Then Paul says of our sixteen
seventeen and eighteen know you not that to whom you yield yourself
service to obey. His servants you are to whom
you obey whether of sin and to death or of obedience and to
righteousness. But God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin but you have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from
sin you became the servants of righteousness. And I can't say
it, and I'm not even going to try to even comment on that.
Paul says it, and he says it clearly. And if God's working
on our hearts tonight, we understand that. We know what that means.
Now, as Hebrews 8, 6 says, the covenant of grace is a better
covenant than the old covenant of works. Christian and I have
had two wills. We got rid of the first will.
It wasn't as good as the second will. So the covenant of grace
is a better covenant than the covenant of works. I usually
like to think that I can profit by the mistakes, stupid mistakes
I make. I usually like to think, well,
I can learn from this. Well, I don't always, but I usually
try to learn from that. So this old covenant of works
is gone. And that covenant of grace, well,
you know, that covenant of grace was there before the covenant
of works. The covenant of works was revealed first, but the covenant
of grace has always been revealed. The grace covenant is the oldest
of the two. The covenant of works had a beginning
in Genesis 2. What did our Lord, our God, told
Adam? Stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
But then that also covenant of works had an end in John 19,
30. When our Lord hung on the cross,
what did he say? It is finished. He completed
it. told Adam not to do something,
Adam did it anyway. Our Lord came into this world
to perfect that law that Adam couldn't, and he said it's finished.
The better covenant, the covenant of grace, has neither beginning
nor end. Think of this. Before time, God loved his people
and his son. Before the mountains, the stars,
and the seas were made, God thought of us. Think of that. Before Adam fell and before we
went astray, Adam fell and we did go astray. And we're going
to go astray before this night's over. And before Adam failed,
before we went astray, God gave us the one who was mighty. He
gave us the one who could make us holy and righteous before
God. He gave us the one who can bring
us home before he created the angels to watch over. Think about
that before God created the angels to watch over us. He gave us his son, he devoted
himself to us. In covenant love, listen to this. God who had his heart upon us
in Christ will never forget us, nor will he forsake us. Turn
to Isaiah 54. God's words, God's promises.
I told you David could not look to himself, but he looked into
God's words and God's promises. Isaiah 54. Listen to this promise. Isaiah 54, beginning with verse
7. It says, for a small moment have I forsaken thee. This morning
we all have experienced sometime in our life that God will teach
us something about ourselves and he may let us see what we're
like. And when we see what we're like, we run back to him. But
it says, for a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great
mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as
the waters of Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I
sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. For
the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed. And here's
God's promise in his covenant, "...but my kindness shall not
depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." Oh, thou afflicted! Tossed with tempest, aren't you?
tossed like a ship sometime on that sea out there. You're tossed
this, you're torn between this, you're torn between that. Do
I do this? What are the consequences of
that? And that's us. O thou tossed and afflicted with
tempest and not comforted, behold God's word. I will lay thy stones
with fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And
I will make thy windows of agates and thy gates of carbuncles and
all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.
In righteousness shalt thou be established. Thou shalt be far
from oppression, for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for
it shall not come near thee. Behold, they shall surely gather
together, but not by me." Oh, there's trials and temptations
out there. God says there's enemies out there. But look what he says.
Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy
sake. He will not let anything get
his people. Behold, I have created the smith
that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth
an instrument of his work. And I have created the water,
the waster to destroy. But look at this comforting thing.
David's comfort No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment
thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord and their righteousness of me, saith the Lord. He will
never forget us nor forsake us. Before a covenant or testament
can be enforced, the testator must die. And this is exactly
what our Lord did when he hung on the cross. With the shedding
of his blood, he fulfilled all parts of this covenant of grace,
this covenant that was required by the Father for the salvation
of his people. By Christ's life, he established
a righteousness to be imputed to us. When he died as our substitute
by the sacrifice of himself, he finished the work of atonement
and satisfaction before the Father. By Christ's shed blood, the Father's
law has been upheld. All of the elect have been redeemed,
pardoned, and ransomed. None of them have been left out,
not a one. The Holy Spirit sees Christ's
blood and spiritually applies it to the broken hearts of God's
chosen people with an effectual calling. If God's Holy Spirit
calls you, you'll come. You sure will. You may fight it. Have some of
you done that? Oh, how many times did I hear
God's word, and I ignored it, I rejected it, I fought it, but
God kept me there, like he kept all of you, and it'll be effectual. Just because it doesn't happen
when we think it should, doesn't mean it's not happening. God's
word is effectual, and when his spirit calls his people, it will
come. He'll apply that blood to the
broken heart of God's chosen people. The blood is the ground
of peace and assurance for us before God. Remember, though,
it's not how much blood that was shed, it's whose blood. It's
the blood of Christ. David's words in 2 Samuel 23
verse 5 says, The covenant is ordered in all things and sure.
You ever have at home, Trish has a little collection of what,
little spice houses And she knows exactly where each one's supposed
to go. I can't tell if one's out of
place, but she knows exactly. I may go in there sometime and
move one just to see if she knows that she knows it's where it's
ordered and she knows where they're supposed to go. If anybody walks
in my classroom at school when I'm gone, when I come back, I
know they've been there because something's out of place. And
God's covenant is ordered ensure everything is in place it's working
exactly as God purpose is to do the covenant of grace is designed
of God to fulfill a specific purpose for a particular people.
It's ordered in that the father will be glorified that the first
thing the son will be exalted the spirit will work and the
elect will be saved none will be left out. This is a sure covenant
in that Christ shall see his seed promised in Isaiah fifty
three Christ you'll see his seed. He shall prolong his days. The
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Those words shall.
Shall he shall see the travail of his soul. He shall be satisfied
and by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many
for why for he shall bear their iniquities. In this covenant
of grace, Christ is all my salvation. In him, we're complete and we're
safe. Your pastor and his wife and
young daughter are going to be traveling back. I assume they're
coming back tonight from Cottageville. Nothing on that road is going
to touch them if it's not in God's will and purpose. And if
it's God's will and purpose, it's in God's covenant of grace,
and it's going to be OK. It's going to be all right. Matthew Henry says, let me have
an interest in this covenant and the promises of it, and I
have enough." Matthew Henry says, I desire no more. To be an heir
of this covenant is to be elected by grace, is to be loved of God,
is to be adopted as a son, is to be redeemed by Christ, is
to be forgiven of all sin, is to be accepted in the beloved,
is to be an heir of God, is to be sealed by the Spirit, and
is to be forever one with Christ. Now, here's the comfort of God's
covenant. The sins of the believer cannot destroy his hope. It cannot
haunt him with fear in the time of death, nor can it rob him
of his everlasting inheritance. You know, this inheritance I
was telling you about, the Christian will have. Somebody could go
to a bank and rob that bank, and that which we put away, it
could be gone. But you know that inheritance
God has for us, it's in heaven. It can't be touched by these
hands. Nothing can bother it. It won't rust. It's there. It's
waiting on us, and it's a sure covenant, and nothing can rob
it. It's an everlasting inheritance.
In the very midst of his sins, this David that we're talking
about, David trusted Christ. He believed God, and he was confident
that God would not impute his sins to him. He had his covenant in Christ
to assure him of it and let me close to turn with me to Psalm
thirty two and I want to read five verses. This is that promise
in God's word that we just talked about in those last words of
David Psalm thirty two. Verses one through five. And this is where David rested
and this is our rest and this is our hope it says blessed is
he. whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and whose spirit there is no
guile. When I kept silence, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long, for day and
night the hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into
the drought of summer." In a look at verse five, I acknowledge
my sin unto thee. This is what David said. In Psalm
fifty-one he said, Lord against thee and thee only have I sinned
and done this evil on thy sight. Here in verse five I acknowledge
my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid. Who in this world,
in this building can think you can hide your sins from God?
We can sneak around and hide things from each other, but God
is all seeing, all knowing. And David says, he says, and
my iniquity have I not hid. I said, this last verse, I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin." You see that word selah there? That
says, ponder that, think about that. It says, and thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin.