He Will Dwell With Them

Q: What does the Bible say about the covenant of grace?

The Bible reveals the covenant of grace as God's promise to restore communion with His people, culminating in Revelation 21:3. The covenant of grace is a fundamental theme throughout Scripture, highlighting God's relationship with His people following the fall of man. In Revelation 21:3, it is stated that 'the tabernacle of God is with men,' signifying that God will dwell among His people, establishing an unbroken communion that was lost in the Garden of Eden. This restoration is not only a future hope but begins in the lives of believers as they experience the reality of being God’s children through faith in Christ. The essence of this covenant is that God is committed to His people and guarantees that they will be His, ensuring an everlasting relationship free from sin and strife.

Q: How do we know that God will always be our God?

Scripture assures us that God will always be our God because of His unwavering covenant promises, as seen in Jeremiah 31:33. God’s commitment to His people is exemplified in His covenant promises, particularly noted in Jeremiah 31:33, where He declares, 'I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' This promise is based not on our performance but on God’s faithfulness and grace. Unlike the Old Covenant which depended on human obedience, the New Covenant established by Christ ensures that God’s relationship with believers is secured by His grace alone. This assurance gives believers the confidence that God will never abandon them, making His presence everlasting and their identity as His people eternal, regardless of their failures.

Q: Why is the new heart important for Christians?

The new heart is crucial for Christians as it enables them to obey God and respond to His love, as promised in Ezekiel 36:26. In Ezekiel 36:26, God promises to give His people a new heart and a new spirit, which is vital for authentic Christian living. This transformation occurs at the moment of regeneration, whereby God changes the believer's nature, enabling them to love Him and desire to walk in His ways. Unlike the unregenerate heart, which is resistant to God, the new heart longs for obedience and intimate fellowship with Him. As believers, this change is not a result of our effort but is entirely an act of divine grace. This new heart exemplifies the fulfillment of the covenant of grace, signifying that God's law is internalized, leading to a deeper understanding and appreciation for His Word and will.

Q: What does Revelation 21:3 teach us about God's future with His people?

Revelation 21:3 teaches us that God will dwell with His people forever, restoring the perfect communion lost at the fall. In Revelation 21:3, the apostle John proclaims that God will dwell among His people, affirming the culmination of the covenant of grace. This verse represents the ultimate hope for believers when sin, suffering, and separation will be eradicated. The promise of God's presence is the fulfillment of the longing for communion that began in the Garden of Eden. In this final state, there will be no barriers between God and His people; all will be made new, and the relationship between God and His children will be characterized by perfect unity and peace. This promise, central to the believer’s hope, encourages perseverance in faith as it assures us that God's everlasting covenant secures our future with Him.

Would you join me in your Bibles
in the book of Revelation chapter 21, Revelation 21. I'd like to look for a little bit
or continue looking a little bit at that verse 3 which for
our blessing is the final statement of the covenant of grace. God walked with men before the
fall. He walked with Adam and Eve before
the fall. He visited them before the fall.
And after the fall, there was never that communion. until it's
reestablished at the fulfillment of the covenant of grace here
as it's shared with us in this chapter and in this verse in
Revelation chapter 21 verse 3 and I heard a great voice out of
heaven saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he shall
glow with them and they shall be his people and God himself
shall be with them and be their God now this is a It's for us
now. We enjoy it and appreciate it
now, but there will be a reality in the future that will be much
better than we know it now. There will not be any sin to
prevent us from seeing that in its completeness and its wholeness. He rules and reigns from heaven. He rules and reigns with a rod
of iron. And in that spirit that He left
us, in that new creation that He has created within us, He
is the Sovereign King of that. And it is moved only by Him,
and only worships Him, and only follows Him. It's an interesting situation
that we're in. I've thought of it oftentimes
that there is only one true schizophrenic and that's a believer. He's got
the old nature and he has a new nature and we are Well, sometimes
we know I'm... I know I'm worshipping God and
sometimes I know I'm not walking there. So, we're just... it's
that nature that we are... we had by Adam by the first birth
and then we have that nature which we have by the second birth.
And there is a warfare that goes on there. And the Apostle Paul
was called to write a great deal about that spiritual warfare
that goes on in the hearts of a believer. Keeping this verse
in mind and we're going to be back here a couple of times But
we're going to be in the Old Testament primarily tonight,
but on our way to the Old Testament. Would you stop by Romans? Romans
chapter 9 Romans chapter 9 There's a verse, and I think it was read
during the Bible class and then it was read during the second
service on Sunday, but it just has so much for us with regard
to these verses that we're going to look at in the Old Testament.
If we remember, and it was brought to our attention, but I photocopied
it and I taped it in my notes that comment that Robert Hawker
made with regard to remembering that the whole Bible was written
to believers. There is not one page written
to unbelievers. Now, by the grace of God, unbelievers
get to hear it. And as they are saved by the
grace of God and become believers, they realize it was really written
to the people it was being preached to. Peter was told, feed my sheep,
feed my lambs, and feed my sheep. The preaching of the gospel is
good news to the believers, but it overflows sometimes to the
unbelievers, and God uses it to cause them to believe, and
it's a mystery. It's just a mystery. It's the
green grass that God feeds his sheep by that he uses to bring
in the lost sheep with, and it's a mystery. All right, here in
the book of Romans, Romans chapter 9 and verse 6, Romans chapter
9 verse 6, not as though the word of God
hath taken none effect for they are not all Israel which are
of Israel neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they
all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called that is they
which are the children of the flesh These are not the children
of God. Now as I was in my study this
afternoon and I read that again, it struck me how that verse of
scripture is given to us to apply to the passages of scripture
in the Old Testament when it's talking about spiritual blessings
given to Israel. He's not talking about spiritual
blessings being given to national Israel, physical Israel. Because as it says here in verse
8, they which are of the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God. So in national Israel, those
who depended upon their fleshly relationship, they are not the
children of God. And everything that the writers
were used to write in the Old Testament about Israel, about
Zion, about Jerusalem, about Judah, was applying to the children
of God. The truth about it is, it applies
to the children of God. The fleshly Israel were not the
children of God. And as the gospel was preached
unto them, yet it did not help them because they believed not.
And we just find a whole generation or two died off in the wilderness
because they believe not. So those that are, as it says,
that is, they which first ate are the children of the flesh.
These are not the children of God, but the children of the
promise are the counted for seed. So when we look at the Old Testament
and we're reading a prophetic statement about what God is going
to do for Israel, we, I need to keep in mind that this is
written number one it's written to the church and the real Israel
spiritual Israel are those that are after the seed and not after
the flesh if they're just depending upon their fleshy relationship
with Abraham then they're not the children of God. Children
of God are born special. Children of God are born spiritual. Children of God are born, they're
created in Christ Jesus. And he didn't start doing that
on the day of Pentecost. He didn't start giving the new
birth on the day of Pentecost. He didn't start giving it with
Nicodemus. Nicodemus is counted as an Old
Testament individual. They're still under the Old Covenant
then, when Nicodemus was around. He's still watching sacrifices
being made. So the message to Nicodemus was
a message of grace to Old Testament individuals under the Old Economy,
under the Old Covenant, and he is not a child of God because
he was related to Abraham. Now, the Lord appears to have
saved him, and he is a child of Abraham because of spiritual
birth. Now, Dr. Hawker, Robert Hawker
said this in his reflections on 1 Corinthians, and Mike alluded
to this, and I just had to go back and read it, and I copied
part of it out. The reader and reader, let us
also not lose sight of the Lord's distinguishing mercy in this
and all the sacred and inspired writings sent to the church. It is to Christ's church they
are sent and not to the world. So Genesis is not sent to the
world. Genesis is sent to the church. That's a message of grace
to the church. It's the gospel according to
Genesis. And he goes on to say, it is
to them that are sanctified, as the opening of this chapter
shows, 1 Corinthians 1, not to the unsanctified, to the called
to be saints, not to them whose names are not written in the
book of life. Oh, for the grace here also to watch the Lord's
gracious regard to his church. So when we read passages of scripture
from the book of Ezekiel or Jeremiah or Isaiah, they are passages
of scripture that God the Holy Spirit intended for the church. Now if some unbelievers read
it, which they do, and I wrote down here, I heard this today
and I had to write it down, religion is believing without revelation. Is that kind of how it went? Believing without revelation. Now that's not true believing.
That's believing there is a God. That's believing that there is
Israel. That's believing that there was
creation. Religion is believing without
revelation. And revelation is absolutely
necessary for us to be identified as the children of God. Without
that, They're not the children of God. Being born after the
flesh, just having human birth, is not the children of God, but
the new birth identifies that. Now, I'd like to go over to the
book of Leviticus. Leviticus 26. As we think about
this finalization of the covenant of grace, God has been speaking
throughout the Old Testament about this very subject. the
covenant of grace, that there is an agreement that God has
made. And this agreement is so enticing to believers because
it shares with us that there will be a restoration of all
things. And in fact, it's going to be
a better restoration. Maybe that's not the appropriate
word to use, but what it's going to end up with is going to be
far better than what it started out with. We're going to be,
the church is going to end up far better in the end than we
ever started with God in the Garden of Eden. He came down
in the pool of the evening. In this, from the time that we
are identified in the new birth by believing the Lord Jesus Christ,
we are called the children of God and He is called our God. an eternity that relationship
will not be interfered with. Nobody can interfere with it.
No situation can interfere with it. We can't interfere with it. And sin won't interfere with
it. Because there will be none of those hindrances. There will
be a positive, eternal, everlasting relationship with God. And it
will ring in our ears that's clear and sound. He has me. He has us as His people. And
He is our God. He is the absolute object of
worship. There is nothing in between.
There's nothing to hinder that. There's no flesh. There's just
nothing. And so that's the finalization,
the culmination, the end of the covenant of grace is having His
people with that relationship. But it has been promised and
we have entered into that by faith now. There's a relationship
that the church has that we didn't have by nature and that is God
is my God. and we are his people now not
children of the flesh are not the children of God now let's
read that let's read the book of Leviticus chapter 26 with
that thought in our mind that every time God speaks in the
Old Testament and he uses reference words that we're familiar with
in the new Israel Judah Jerusalem Zion He talks about being called
out of all the places brought back to the to the promised land
Those people that were brought into Canaan by and large they
are children of the flesh They are not the children of God.
They're only typical pictorial shadowy figures of the church
Leviticus chapter 6, verse 9. Leviticus chapter 26
and verse 9. For I will have respect unto
you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my
covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store, and
bring forth the old because of the new. And I will set my tabernacle
among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk
among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. And
I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the
land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondman. And I have broken the bands of
their yoke, and made you go upright. But if you will not hearken unto
me, and will not do all these commandments, and if ye shall
despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my statutes, now I've
had preachers tell me, now this is what Christians can do. It
is not. Christians cannot go against
the covenant of God if He saved them. Now, we may speak out against
it, but it doesn't erase the fact that we have a birth-tie
to God. That's why it's so valuable,
so important, that God is our birth-giver. Now, I don't know
about you, but I've had children do things I didn't approve of.
My children. Have you? Yeah. And sometimes it was stuff that
was not good at all. And I'll tell you some of it
I didn't want anybody else to find out about. But that still
they were my children and I still loved them and I would fight
for them. I'd go to battle for them. Now
that's just a small inkling of what God does. Now the children
of Israel of the flesh did all of this. They went against the
covenant because they did not have a heart to keep it. But
to say that this is what Christians can do and they can despise the
covenant of grace and put away the covenant of grace and then
have God turn against them, that is not true. God will not turn
against his people. God will always be with his people. And we may say things we regret,
but God is with his people for eternity. Now sometimes it's
an indication that the fruit is just an indication of what
the vine is like. But God's people... I read something
today I got a book of sermons of Christmas
Evans and just lo and behold one of them happened to be on
the on the suffering Savior so I've been reading it and there's
another one in there it was it is finished and in his statement
in Christmas Evans was going along he says one of the things
that was finished was the disciples would quit denying him because
of the covenant of grace the disciples would quit denying
Him. What a blessing that covenant
of grace did for us. The Spirit will never deny Him. That part that's left to us.
And this is the finalization. This is the practical part of
the covenant of grace. God shall be our God and we shall
be His people. Alright, now turn with me if
you would to the book of Jeremiah 7. Jeremiah is quite a commentary
on this very subject. It takes us through stages. It's
kind of like the book of Job. The book of Job starts off, things
are going great, then we have a fall, then we have religious
people come along and try to help him out of his problems.
Couldn't help him out of the pit. They may have wrapped all
kinds of garments around him and put powder on his face. It's
kind of interesting at school you see these teenage girls with
facial problems and what do they do? They put stuff on it to cover
it up that makes the problem worse. You know, they plug up
the pores and then they get a worse face about it. Well, that's just
the way religion is. Got a problem, we put stuff on
it, it makes it worse. Just makes it worse. So, here
we are, and Job got worse. Until the preacher came and shared
with him the gospel and then he saw the Lord And he said I've
heard of you at the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes seeth
you and from then on He was a different person. He's just a picture of
what God does for everyone That he has into his children. This
is what I want to do. I will bring you out of the pit
and And the preacher's going to come along. He may stand and
listen to this rhetoric for a long time, but someday he's going
to be heard. And when he was, the Lord came. All right, Book of Jeremiah,
commentary on what it is, this covenant of grace. And for a
long season, going through the Book of Jeremiah, we find that
people, I don't want that. I don't want that. Children of
Israel, Sharon, I don't want that. Why did, Duane and I were talking
and I read this article, why did Felix say, you know, I'll
call you back, Paul, and we'll talk about this. Why do people
say, you know, you really seem to have something there, but
right now, no, I'm not interested. Why? Because they like what they're
doing. Why is Christ uninviting? Because people like where they
are. They like what they're doing.
And as soon as God gets a hold of us, we find out we all like
what we're doing. Turn us and we shall be turned.
All right. Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 23. Keeping in mind the covenant
of grace over there in the book of Revelation. Jeremiah chapter
7 verse 23. But this thing commanded I them,
saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be
my people. And walk ye in all my ways, that
I have commanded you, that it may be well with you. Well, Jeremiah
shared this with national Israel several times. Obey my voice
and I will. They didn't. They couldn't. They couldn't obey. Turn with
me to Jeremiah 11. 11 verse 1. Jeremiah 11 verse
1. Jeremiah 11 verse 1 it says,
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, Hear ye
the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah,
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and say unto them, Thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the
words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the
day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt. from
the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them according
to all which I commanded you. So shall you be my people, and
I will be your God, that I may perform the oath which I have
sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk
and honey, as in this day. Then answered I, and said, So
be it, Lord. Then the Lord said unto me, They
proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets
of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of the covenant, and
do them. For I am earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day
that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, even unto this
day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice. Yet they
obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one of
them in the imagination of their evil heart. Therefore I will
bring upon them all the words of this covenant which I commanded
them to do, but they did them not." Man, the commentary. And this is really a commentary
about natural man. Do it. Do my word. And it's not done. Turn with
me just a little further. Jeremiah 24. As we see this unfolding
statement about God's determined will and determinate will about
how He is going to get this covenant of grace applied. Men will have
nothing to do with it on their own. Because they're happy with
where they are. They like the situation that
they're in. Or they would come. God's got
to break that. Alright, Jeremiah chapter 24
verse 4. Again the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Like
these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive
of Judah, whom I have sent out of the plates into the land of
the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set my eyes upon them
for good, and will bring them again to this land, and I will
build them, and not pull them down. I will plant them, and
not pluck them up. And I will give them a heart
to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people,
and I will be their God. For they shall return unto me
with their whole heart." My goodness, what happened now? I will give
them a heart. I will give them a heart. Now
that's so essential and that's how God gets us to the covenant
of grace. We've never come any other way. We're so opposed to everything
that is godly and the covenant of grace. We're opposed to having
God as our God. and we're opposed to being his
people by nature but when he gives us that heart that new
heart and that's what he said I'll bring you out of the now
he's talking about what he's going to do the church earlier
in this book we found out what he came to Israel Do what I ask
you to do, and you'll be my people." And we find out they didn't do
it. So he didn't have to fulfill
his part, but he will fulfill his part that he made in the
covenant of grace. Now that covenant, as we've mentioned
many times, that covenant was made before the world began,
and we were not privy to it. We weren't involved in it. We
didn't vote on it. We didn't go forward on it. We
didn't bow. We didn't raise our hand. We
didn't sign our name. We had none of those things to
do with this covenant of grace. It was made by the Godhead, for
the Godhead, on the behalf of the Godhead, with some beneficiaries. And that's the church. The church
is the beneficiaries. The natural covenant. We call
it the old covenant. We call it the covenant of works.
Whatever you want to call it. It was ineffectual. God made nobody obey it. Nobody
could obey it, and he didn't make anybody obey it. And every
time he pushed them off into the Chaldeans or the Babylonians
or the Egyptians or wherever, they never changed their mind
about God. It wasn't the covenant of grace.
You'll never enforce the covenant of grace with the law. The only
law there is in the covenant of grace is love the Lord your
God with all your body, all your mind, all your soul, and that's
not something we do physically. I used to have that problem.
You've got to get all this put together or you're in sad shape. Well, about time I'd love him
with my My mind, my heart was far from him. By the time I got
the heart lined up, the flesh was away from him. Ah, just a
constant battle. It never worked. But that was
what was expected. You've got to love him with all
this, your whole heart, and then you find out, my goodness, that's
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, or it's not
going to work. And then you finally say, what's
the use? It's not going to work. And thank God Almighty there
was a covenant of grace made before the world began that would
apply. God would institute it, make
it work, cause us to have a new heart, and then our heart would
worship Him. All right, Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah 31. the capstone of the covenant
of grace now it is purchased at Calvary covenant of grace
it's the blood of the everlasting covenant that makes it official
but the outcome I will be your God you shall be my people that's
the outcome typified with Israel but they didn't have a heart
to believe it but realized by the church because he gives a
heart to believe it. That's the difference in all
of it. All right, Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 31. Behold the days come, saith the
Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah. Now the house of Israel and the
house of Judah by the flesh are not the children of God. They
have nothing to do with God. They had nothing to do with His
covenant. They wouldn't trust Him. They wouldn't follow Him.
They rebelled against Him. They didn't have a heart to do
it. They didn't have eyes to do it. They had no interest in
it. It's no wonder they just wandered away. It's like dropping
water on the ground. It's just going to go to the
lowest point. The days come, the Lord says,
I'll do this, not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring
them out of the land of Egypt. Now certainly God does that for
the church. He leads his people out of the
land of Egypt, out of sin, out of the natural state. And it's
he that does it. And he is using this covenant
of grace. which my covenant they break,
although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this
shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my law in their inward
parts, and write it in their hearts, and we'll be their God,
and they shall be my people." Now, how do we know that the
law has been written on our hearts? Do we go down through the Ten
Commandments every morning? I think God's people are hurt. I mean, God brings it to their
remembrance when they go against God and they do the things that
are contrary to those Ten Commandments. But that's not our guide. That's
not our guide. Christ is our guide. How does
God do this? How does He let us know that
His law is written on our heart? Well, if you hear the Word of
God read and explained, And your heart says, that's it. He's written it on your heart.
Even hard sayings. Lord lost 5,000 followers at
one time, and that's just the men. 5,000 at one time, because he preached
a hard saying. What did he preach? Grace. It's all of grace, none of works. And they said, we find this is
a hard thing. And the disciple said, he asked
them, will you also go away? And their comment was, I've got
this written on my heart. Who shall we go? You have the
words of eternal life. The words to some are music. The words to others is, I can't
stand this. I won't put up with this. I'm
going to leave this. I'm going away from this. So
the law written on our heart is not the Ten Commandments. The law written on our heart
is, our heart is made to, when we hear the word of God, we say,
Amen. That's God's word. I didn't know
it. Now there's a whole bunch in
here we don't know. But when someone brings it to our attention
that that's the Word of God and that's just read out of the Word
of God, and we walk away and say, boy, was that something.
Now I've never found, I don't find it in scripture, haven't
found an example yet, maybe you have, but I don't think you'll
find it. And I've never seen it in reality, I've never seen
it among people that really know grace, that really know God,
really are in the covenant of grace, I've never heard them
say this. I don't believe that. When the word is read, when the
word is preached. And I've heard people say that,
but they've just identified themselves as saying they don't know. That's
all they're saying. I don't know. I don't know. God's people do not walk away
from the word of God and say, I don't believe that. Now I've
said this, we may walk away and say, boy, I don't understand
that. But his law written on our hearts
is, when we hear the word of God, we are in agreement with
it. All right, he goes on to tell
us, in verse 33, I'll put my law
on their inward parts and write it in their hearts and we'll
be their God and they shall be my people. And they shall teach
no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for they shall all know me. From the least of
them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive
their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more. There's only
one group that ever hears those words. It's not a church. Baptist, church, Presbyterian,
church, Methodist, church, Catholic. That's not to them. It's not
a denomination. It's the elect of God. It's the church of the living
God that ever hear your sins are forgiven you. They are the
beneficiaries of the covenant of grace. Now Ezekiel has a lot
to say about this too. I'd just like to read in Ezekiel
11. Ezekiel 11. Ezekiel 11, 17. Therefore say, thus saith the
Lord God, I will even gather you from the people, and assemble
you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I'll
give you the land of Israel, and they shall come thither,
and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof,
and all the abominations thereof from thence, and I will give
them one heart, and I'll put a new spirit within them, And
I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give
them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and
keep my ordinances, and do them, and they shall be my people,
and I will be their God. Now, since I will give them one
heart is spiritual, And since a new spirit within them is spiritual,
and I'll take out the stony heart out of their flesh, that's spiritual,
and I'll give them a heart of flesh, which is spiritual, then
we are going to go back and we're going to find out that I will
gather you from the people, assemble you out of the countries where
you were scattered. I'm not going to gather up a
nationality. I'm going to gather up a people
that were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
It's not a nationality, it's a people, a nation after God. And then turn over again to the
book of Romans, Romans chapter 9. there's no greater reference
given to the church than they are the people of God we have no greater blessing than
God saying they are the people of God they are my people and
I am their God no greater blessing when we know the ignorance that
we were in and then to know God to believe because of revelation,
to believe because God opened our heart, to believe because
there was a new birth. All right, Romans chapter 9,
verse 26. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people,
There shall they be called the children of the living God. Isaiah
also cried concerning Israel, Though the number of the children
of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. For he will finish the work and
cut it short in righteousness, because a short work will the
Lord make upon the earth. And as Isaiah said, a short work. Christ is the only one who could
do that. And we've been working since the beginning of time.
But a short work, that word, it is finished, it was never
used by a priest in the Old Testament. Priests in the Old Testament
never finished. Now, yesterday I was bringing
Victoria home from school. Since she's asleep, she won't
mind. Yesterday I was bringing her
home from school and she said, Granddaddy, it's not very far to my birthday.
And I says, honey, it's over a month away. She says, that's
not very far. She's a gal that plans her birthday
party February 20th for the following February 19th And that's the
way the preachers were They came out of doing their service and
they were making plans for tomorrow And then they were making plans
for the special high days of the month and the special high
high days for the year And as soon as they got that all done,
they went home and said well We're starting the new year and
we're gonna have to play never got to use the word finished
And that's the same with religion. You never hear the Word. I've
heard people say, how much do I have to do? Well, you know,
just keep going. Well, how far do I have to go?
Well, just keep going. Nobody ever tells anybody. It's
finished. It's done. It's completed. Except
Christ. Christians are the only ones
that ever get to hear the Word. It's finished. The work is completed. Now God demonstrated that on
the seventh day. It's finished. And it looks grand. It's good. But nobody else has
ever said that until we hear Christ from the cross say, it
is finished. And there's no more sacrifice
for sin. And he's not going to come back and sacrifice again.
And he's not going to authorize animal sacrifices and all the
foolishness people talk about. It's finished. Here it says,
Romans chapter 9 verse 28, for he will finish the work and cut
short the righteousness because a short work will the Lord make
upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, except
the Lord of Sabaoth, or peace, had left us a seed, we had been
as Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrah. What shall we say,
then, that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness,
have attained to righteousness, even the righteousnesses which
is of faith? But Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Wherefore? Because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled
at the stumbling stone. It is written behold I lay in
Zion a stumbling stone on a rock of the fence and whosoever believeth
on him Shall not be ashamed or confounded or fall down Hebrews mentions twice This is
the covenant that I won't make with him bring it right over
to the New Testament We have the Lord Jesus Christ Just prior
to his crucifixion. This is the new covenant in my
blood. I And he illustrated it by the
beginning of the communion service. It is the blood of the everlasting
covenant. It is the eternal covenant. It
is the new covenant. But the culmination of it is
God sitting down with his people. And they knowing full well that
they are the people of God. That's what the covenant said.
The covenant of God. I will be their God. Well, they
shall be my people and I will be their God. He spoke of it
to National Israel. They'd have nothing to do with
it. He spoke it to a people who are not his people and they had
everything to do with it. Why? Because he gave them a new
heart. Now, I'd like to conclude by reading one verse in John,
John chapter 14. Over there in the book of Revelation,
he's going to abide He's going to live. I like what Solomon
said at the dedication of the temple. Will this building hold
God? The heaven to the heavens cannot
contain Him. And yet this God is going to
be with His people. Alright, John chapter 14. John
14 verse 23. No wonder Acts doesn't read it right. 1423, Jesus answered and said unto
him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father
will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode
with him. We will come unto him, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, and make our abode with him. That's the
covenant of grace completed. God abiding with his people. We'll stop there and we'll pick
up maybe verse 4 of Revelation 21 next time.

He Will Dwell With Them

What does the Bible say about the covenant of grace?

How do we know that God will always be our God?

Why is the new heart important for Christians?

What does Revelation 21:3 teach us about God's future with His people?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

He Will Dwell With Them

What does the Bible say about the covenant of grace?

How do we know that God will always be our God?

Why is the new heart important for Christians?

What does Revelation 21:3 teach us about God's future with His people?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

More from Norm Wells

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Norm Wells

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book