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Jim Byrd

Sanctified By the Word

John 17:17
Jim Byrd July, 3 2019 Video & Audio
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Jim Byrd
Jim Byrd July, 3 2019
What does the Bible say about covenants?

The Bible explains that God always deals with humanity through covenants, primarily the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.

Throughout Scripture, God communicates with humanity via covenants, which are solemn agreements. The two primary covenants outlined in the Bible are the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. The covenant of works, established with Adam, required perfect obedience for life and happiness, but Adam failed, bringing spiritual death upon humanity. Conversely, the covenant of grace, made by God with Himself, ensures salvation for the elect through the obedience of Christ, offering spiritual life as a gift rather than a reward for our efforts.

Genesis 2:16-17, Romans 5:12-21, Ephesians 1:4-5

How do we know grace is essential for salvation?

Grace is essential for salvation as it is God’s unmerited favor given to believers through Jesus Christ’s obedience.

Salvation in the Reformed understanding hinges entirely on grace, rooted in the covenant of grace God established before creation. Unlike the covenant of works, which is conditional upon obedience, the covenant of grace offers unconditional salvation through the finished work of Christ. By God's grace, the elect are drawn to faith in Christ, receiving His righteousness and assurance of eternal life, thus emphasizing that salvation cannot be earned but is a divine gift through faith alone.

Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 3:23-24, 2 Timothy 1:9

Why is worship important for Christians?

Worship is vital as it fulfills the primary purpose of redemption: to glorify and honor God.

Worship is at the heart of the Christian experience, serving as the ultimate purpose for which God redeems His people. As expressed in Exodus, God liberated Israel from bondage not only for their freedom but specifically 'that they may serve Me.' In the same way, believers are saved through Christ not just for personal benefit but primarily to glorify God. Our worship recognizes God’s sovereignty, grace, and faithfulness, affirming that our salvation is for His glory above all.

Exodus 3:12, Revelation 4:11, Romans 12:1

How does the covenant of works contrast with the covenant of grace?

The covenant of works requires obedience for life, while the covenant of grace grants life through faith in Christ’s completed work.

The covenant of works, represented by Adam, demands perfect obedience to God's law as a condition for life. Adam’s failure resulted in death for himself and all of humanity. In stark contrast, the covenant of grace, unconditionally secured by Christ, offers salvation to the elect through faith, independent of their works. This covenant is characterized by God’s promise to save through Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice, underscoring that salvation is a divine gift rather than a reward for obedience.

Romans 5:12-21, 1 Corinthians 15:22, Hebrews 7:22

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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to the book of Exodus this morning,
chapter 3. This is where I'm going to begin. And I've got several verses in
Exodus that I want you to look at with me. Here's my subject
today. Grace, covenant, works. Covenant. Grace, covenant, works,
covenant. Those of you who are students
of the scripture, and many of you are, many of you have been
under the sound of the gospel for a long, long time, you know
that in every age when God deals with people, It is always through
a covenant. No exceptions to that. God always
deals with men through a covenant. And of all the covenants that
the Bible sets forth, especially Old Testament, but of all of
them, really there are only two that are major. And the other
covenants that God used to deal with people are really but sort
of offshoots of these two main covenants. Here's the first one that was
set forth in the scriptures. It is the works covenant or the
covenant of works. This was an agreement, a covenant
is an agreement or we might call it a contract. That's what a
covenant is. And in the Bible, the very first
one that is revealed is the works covenant that God entered into
with Adam. Now Adam was a representative
individual. He represented everybody who
would ever live on the face of this earth. That is all of his
posterity. He was the spokesman. He was
the representative. He was the one who acted on our
behalf. And with that man, God made an
agreement. God made a covenant. God entered
into sort of a contract with him. And briefly, this is what
the contract consisted of. You'll have life and happiness
if you do what I tell you to do. That's really the covenant
of works. That's the works covenant. God
said you'll have You'll have glory, you'll have everlasting
life, you'll have joy, you'll have happiness, if you obey me
and never break my law. Keep the commandments. live. But, God said, if you break my
law, if you break this covenant, if you break this contract that
I now make with you, if you break it, if you violate it, it's going to cost you life. You die. It's that simple. Obey
me and live. Disobey me and die. Now we know Adam broke his part
of the covenant. God didn't break His part. God
did what He said He would do. As long as Adam obeyed Him, Adam
lived, he lived in happiness, he lived in joy, he lived in
the mercy of God, or the goodness of God, I should say. But in
the moment Adam disobeyed, as God said, he died. He died spiritually. He lost
that life of God in the soul. He would die physically. But for the grace of God, he
would have died forever. That is the works covenant. Adam failed. He failed. He broke the covenant. Therefore,
he died. And all of us are born in spiritual
death. We're going to face physical
death. And but for the grace of God,
we'll face everlasting death. But there was another covenant,
it was actually already in force when this one was revealed. And it's called the grace covenant,
or the covenant of grace. It was made back before God ever
made anything, before creation, and this was a covenant, this
was a contract, this was an agreement, and I want to be as simple as
I can be, because I want you all to understand. This was a
covenant that God made with Himself. Now remember, God is Trinity. Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. And in this covenant, God ordained
to save a multitude of Adam's race. They're referred to as
the elect of God, the people of God. The Savior, who is the
shepherd, He referred to them as His sheep. And in this covenant
of grace, God said, I'll give them life. I'll give them happiness
if you My only begotten Son, if you will on their behalf represent
them, and if you will live in their body, in a body like theirs,
if you'll live on earth as their representative and obey my law,
and then die as the payment for all of their transgressions,
for all of their sins. If you'll face the penalty of
death on their behalf, I promise to give them life and happiness
forever and ever." That's the covenant of grace. And the Spirit
of God, He chimed in and He said, those that the Father has ordained
everlasting life, and those the Son of God is going to redeem
and reconcile and restore to favor with God, I will take the
Word of the Gospel, and I will give them life, spiritual life. And with that life, I will give
them the ability to believe the Lord Jesus Christ, to flee to
Him as she just sang. to flee as a bird, to flee as
one who is needy, to flee to this only Savior of sinners,
and in Him find everlasting life and joy and happiness. And so God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit, as it were, they all shook hands
and made this covenant, all of grace, and all conditioned on
the obedience of this representative man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the two covenants.
The works covenant consists of this. Do you do God's law and
live? You understand that? It's very
simple. You obey God in your words, your thoughts, your mind,
your dreams, your actions. You obey God and you'll live. You'll live forever. You'll live
in happiness. But disobey Him, you've got to
die. That's the works covenant. It's due. But the other covenant Grace,
the grace covenant, it also consists of one word, but it is the word
done. It is done. Because our representative, just
like Adam represented all of his race, all of his posterity,
all of his seed, all of us, we were, as it were, in his loins. He stood before God innocent.
We were innocent when He fell. We all fell. Like it or not,
that's how God deals with people, through a representative. It
doesn't matter what you think of that. Here's all that matters. That's the way God has set it
up. We live through a representative and we die through a representative.
In Adam, our representative, we died. We're in bad shape,
I'm telling you. We're lost. We're condemned before
God's law. We're helpless. We're Christless. We're hopeless. We have no life. And we're heading out into an
awful eternity without God and without help. That's the works
covenant. Thank God for the grace covenant
where our Lord Jesus met every condition for the blessings that
God would give on His people. And you understand this, you
who believe, you who have laid hold of Christ Jesus, you who
look to Him, the reason you are saved, the reason you are a child
of God, The reason you're an heir of God and a joint heir
with Christ Jesus is not because of anything whatsoever you have
done, but it's because of your representative, your substitute,
your Savior, and His faithfulness to God to do everything necessary
to save you. That's the sole reason. Now, That's the introduction
to the message. And I want that to resonate in
your minds for a little bit. Let that kind of marinate. And let me give you something
else and we're going to go right back to it and you'll see in
a couple of minutes where I'm going on this. Now we're in Exodus
chapter 3. Exodus chapter 3, you know, The
Lord spoke to Moses out of a bush that didn't burn. Exodus chapter
three. The scripture says that God met
him on a mountain in verse one of chapter three, Horeb, which
is like a mountain range, okay? Think of a Horeb as a mountain
range. And in that mountain range, one
of the peaks is Mount Sinai, okay? So it's virtually the same. When you talk about Mount Horeb,
it's the whole range of mountains. You talk about Mount Sinai, it's
one of the peaks of the mountain. And this is where God met Moses.
And he spoke to him out of a bush that burned but wasn't consumed.
And I'm not gonna spend much time on this, but this is literally
a thorn bush. It's a thorny bush. In fact,
Mount Sinai, they'll tell you even today, it's filled with
thorn bushes. And I think it's significant,
and I just can't pass over this, that the Lord, and this is the
Lord Jesus, because he identifies himself later in this when Moses
said, well, who shall I say to Israel has sent me? And the voices
say, I am, that I am has sent you. And our Lord Jesus identified
Himself in the Gospels as being, especially in the Gospel of John,
as being the Great I Am. I am. He's the one who spoke
to Moses out of this bush that didn't burn, but he spoke out
of a thorn bush, not a stately oak tree that seems to live for
hundreds and hundreds of years and they're so magnificent. And
not one of the cedars of Lebanon, which people traveled for many
miles to see the cedars of Lebanon, which were so glorious and so
stately in themselves. But he didn't speak to Moses
out of those, he spoke to Moses out of a thorn bush. Does that
not speak to us of our Lord Jesus and his humanity? Look, just
like any other man, but he's the God man. But the Lord dealt
with, he dealt with Moses here, and he taught him several things,
which I don't have time to go into now, but I want you to go
down to verse, Chapter three, verse 12. Now
here's the verse I want. And he said, that is the voice
out of the burning bush spoke to Moses and said, surely I will
be with thee. And this shall be a token unto
thee that I have sent thee, when thou hast brought forth the people
out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this very mountain where
you are now." In other words, God said, I'm going to bring
you right back here. This will be a sign to you. I'm
going to bring you right back here to this very mountain. And
the Israel shall, they shall serve God, where it's serve means
worship. They gonna worship God right
here, right here. Go to chapter four in verse 23. Chapter four in verse 23, here
is Moses and Aaron, their message to Pharaoh. Of course, you know,
the Israelites are in bondage to Egypt, Look at chapter four,
verse 23. And I say unto thee, let my son
go that he may serve me, that he may worship me. That's the
statement I'm working on here. Let him go, let Israel go that
he may worship me, that he may serve me. Look again at chapter
seven in verse 16. Chapter seven in verse 16. God
said, chapter 7, verse 16, Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, The Lord
God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my
people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness, that they
may worship me, that they may honor me, that they may exalt
me in the wilderness. All right, now go to chapter
8 in verse 1. The Lord spake unto Moses, going
to Pharaoh and saying to him, thus saith the Lord, let my people
go that they may serve me. God keeps on saying this, my
people are gonna serve me. They're going to worship me and
they're gonna worship me as he said to Moses back in chapter
three in this mountain. Chapter eight again in verse
20. Chapter eight and verse 20. And
the Lord said unto Moses, rise up early in the morning and stand
before Pharaoh. For lo, he cometh forth to the
water and saying to him, thus saith the Lord, let my people
go that they may serve me, that they may worship me, that they
may exalt me, that they might sing my praise and honor me. Now look at chapter nine and
verse one. Then the Lord said unto Moses,
Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the Lord God
of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Chapter 9, verse 13. And the Lord said unto Moses,
rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and
say unto him, thus said the Lord God of the Hebrews, let my people
go that they may serve me. Again, in chapter, the next chapter,
10 in verse three. And Moses and Aaron came in unto
Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews,
How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? Let
my people go, that they may serve me. Over and over again, this
is repeated. This is like driven into the
mind of Pharaoh. Let my people go, that they may
worship me. Now go to chapter 12 and verse
31. This is after the death of the
firstborn. Chapter 12, verse 31, and he,
that's Pharaoh. Pharaoh called for Moses and
Aaron by night. And he said, rise up, get you
forth. from among my people, both ye
and the children of Israel, and go, do what? Serve the Lord, as ye have said,
as ye have said repeatedly. The promise of the Lord is being
fulfilled. Israel, go over to chapter 19
now. The promise of the Lord is being
fulfilled And here we see in chapter 19, and also in that
portion of scripture that Ron read to us, the fulfillment of
this word. Chapter 19, verse one, in the
third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out
of the land of Egypt the same day, came they into the wilderness
of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim,
Rephidim, that's the place of murmuring. God help us to leave
the place of murmuring and go to the mount of worship. God
help us to leave that location where we fuss about God's providence
and go, go to the mountain of God. where we honor Him. For they departed from Rephidim
and were come to the desert of Sinai. They had pitched in the
wilderness and there Israel encamped right before the mount." The
promise of God has been fulfilled. Here they are at the mount. After so very long. You see, God makes His promises
and He keeps His promises in His time. in His time. If somebody had said to these
Israelites a few months before this, you know, we're all going
to meet at a mountain in just a few months. And we're going
to worship God. And all of this, all this servitude,
all this bondage, all this making of the pyramids, All this slavery,
it's all gonna be in the past. It will be a liberated people
if somebody had said that to them a few months before this.
They'd said, you need to be committed. That'll never happen. That'll
never happen. But I'll tell you what does happen.
God's Word comes to pass. Don't ever doubt what He has
to say. And the Lord brings them to this mountain where they worship
the Lord. Now, he said over and over again,
let my people go that they may serve me, that they may worship
me. Let me ask you a question. What
was the reason that God brought Israel out of Egyptian bondage? We say, so they would enjoy liberty. Well, yeah, they would enjoy
liberty. So there'd be a free people. Yes, there'd be a free
people. But there's a specific reason for their redemption.
There's a specific reason given for their restoration. God has
given the reason that he would liberate them and bring them
out of Egyptian captivity to worship him. They've been freed
to worship, and that's the way it is with you and me. We've
been saved by the grace of God. Those of us who believe the Lord
Jesus Christ, who've been washed in His blood and robed in the
garments of salvation, yes, we're free, we're not going to perish,
we enjoy the happiness of salvation, but we're saved to worship God. We're saved, we're redeemed to
honor Him. You see, our salvation first
and foremost is not even about us, it's about the glory of God. And if we were to learn anything
about the book of God, it's this, everything He does is for His
glory. And the reason He saves poor
sinners like you and me, indeed it is that certainly we enjoy
this salvation and we're free. We will have heaven as our everlasting
home. But the first reason, the main
reason is this, that God might be worshiped and honored and
exalted. The Lord said in the book of
Revelation, I've created all things for Myself, for My pleasure
they are and were created. Everything is for the pleasure
of God. And nobody, very few people I'll
say in religion are talking about that today. They're not talking
about the glory of God. They'll say, if you'll come to
Jesus, He'll heal your bank account. He'll heal your marriage. He'll
put three cars in your garage. You won't be sick anymore. You're
going to have tons of money if you'll just come to Jesus. And
nothing is said about the Lord Jesus Christ being glorified
and honored in the salvation, in the liberation, in the redemption
of ungodly sinners. What about that? You see, we
need to say we're saved to honor our God. That's why we're saved.
We're saved to worship Him. We're saved to do exactly what
we're trying to do right now. Exalt our God for His grace,
for His mercy, and for His salvation. And so Israel here, In chapter
19, they're settled in their tents at Mount Sinai to worship
the Lord. He said that He would bring them
there and He did it. You know how long it took them
to get there? 50 days. 50 days. You know what happened 50 days
after Passover? This is 50 days after the Passover. And they've gone through several
things in order to get this far. They've gone through the Red
Sea during these 50 days. They have gone to the bitter
waters of Marah. The Lord said, cut down a tree
and cast in it, it'll sweeten the waters. Let me tell you something,
the cross of Christ will sweeten those bitter troubles and trials
and afflictions in the lives of God's people. Next time you
taste the bitterness of the afflictions of life, take a look at the cross
of Calvary and see your substitute dying in your stead. See that
sacrifice of God's appointment laying down His life that you
live forever. See yourself redeemed by His
blood. See yourself robed in the garments
of His own righteousness. See what God has done for you
forever. That'll bring you, that'll bring
you out of the dumps. That'll bring you out of the
bitter waters of Marah. And then of course, there are
other things, at Rephidim, they were in need. God himself provided
for them. They got hungry, God gave them
manna in the morning, quail in the evening. They got thirsty,
God gave them water from a rock. All of these things happened
in the first 50 days. And here they come to Mount Sinai. It's been 50 days since the Lord
redeemed them by the blood of the Passover lamb. So they've
been, here they are at Mount Sinai, and this is where they
camp out. And this is not going to be a
brief camping. This is not a short camping trip.
Make a note of this, they're gonna stay here 11 months, almost
a year. They're gonna stay right here.
They're gonna stay right here. During this nearly a year, during
this next 11 months, the rest of Exodus is going to come to
pass, all of Leviticus is going to come to pass, and the first
10 chapters of Numbers, right here. 11 months at Mount Sinai,
nearly a year. He's got some things He's going
to teach them. He's going to give the law. He's going to give
the instructions pertaining to the tabernacle. Now, up to this
point, the reason God dealt so graciously with Israel was on
account of a covenant that He made with Abraham. God made a
covenant with Abraham. And it wasn't a covenant of works. It was a gracious covenant. Because
nothing about the conditions of the covenant were dependent
upon Abraham. It was God Himself who in Genesis
chapter 15 told Abraham what He would do. He said, I will
do this, I shall do this. And then at the end God says,
I have done, I have given you the land. In other words, all
the conditions of the covenant that God made with Abraham were
on God. Nothing was dependent upon Abraham. And that's important for you
to remember. Let me take the time to just
show you a couple of scriptures. Go to Exodus chapter 15. All of the stipulations of the
covenant, God himself would fulfill. Now he made that covenant with
Abraham 400 years before this. Isn't that right? That's right,
isn't it? 400 years before this passage of script, these passages
that we're reading, God made these promises to Abraham. And
now from the moment God made those promises to Abraham, we'll
fast forward 400 years. Look at chapter 15 in verse 24.
Chapter 15 in verse 24. And we know Israel murmured all
the time, right? We get it naturally, don't we?
It just comes natural to the flesh to murmur, to fuss. We're
just awful complainers. Look at chapter 15, verse 24. Well, read verse 23. When they
were come to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah,
for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was
called Marah. And the people murmured against
Moses and said, what shall we drink? What shall we drink? But now here's the question.
Did God punish them for their murmurings? The answer is no. No. He sweetened the waters. You know why he didn't punish
them for their murmurings? Because a covenant of grace was
made between God and Abraham. You gotta file that away in your
memory banks now. Go to chapter 16. They took their
journey from Elam and all the congregation of the children
of Israel They came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elam
and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their
departing out of the land of Egypt. The whole congregation
of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the
wilderness. And the children of Israel said
unto them, would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord
in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, when we
did eat bread to the full, for ye brought us forth into this
wilderness to kill this whole assembly with anger, or with
a hunger. Verse four. Then said the Lord
unto Moses, behold, I will reign, and you can almost expect the
Lord to say, I'm gonna rain down wrath from heaven. I'm going
to rain down fire from heaven, but no! He said, I'm going to rain down
bread. God was gracious to them. There was no punishment for their
murmurings. And here's the reason. Because
of a grace covenant made with Abraham. God did not reward them
according to their iniquities. You've got to remember that.
He did not reward them according to their iniquities. Look what Moses said in verse
7. In the morning, he said, you'll see the glory of the Lord. For
that he heareth your murmurings against the Lord. And what are
we that ye murmur against us? Why do you murmur? Look what
God's doing for you. And God gave them meat. Chapter
17, go quickly, chapter 17, verses one through three. And all the
congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the
wilderness of sin. After their journeys, according
to the commandment of the Lord, they pitched in Rephidim, resting
place. And there was no water for the
people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses and
said, give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them,
why chide ye with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?
And the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured
against Moses and said, why have you brought us up out of Egypt
to kill us and kill our children and our cattle with thirst? But did God punish them for their
murmuring? No. No. Per the instructions of God,
Moses took a rod, hit a rock and water came out. That's Christ
crucified. The water of salvation, the water
of life. Drink freely of the water of
life. He that is a thirst let him come
unto me, the Savior said. And drank. God didn't punish
them. Here's the point. before they
got to Mount Sinai. Every time they murmured, God dealt with them in mercy.
He never did punish them. You study it, study the history
of Israel, it's quite amazing. All this fussing about what God
had done for them, He always gave them mercies, mercies. However, they're now at Mount
Sinai. Go back to chapter 19 again. Now, this other covenant comes
into view, works covenant. Verse 3, 19, 3, Moses went up
unto God, the Lord called unto him out on the mountain saying,
thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, tell the children of
Israel, you see what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear
you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself? Now and therefore,
if, uh-oh, now this is a conditional covenant. That word if's only
two letters, but it sure is a big word. You see, beforehand, God
said to Abraham, I will. I will bless you. I'll give you
a seed as numerous as the sands on the seashore and for the glory
of the stars in the sky. And I'll give you an inheritance.
I'll give you people. I'll give you land to inherit.
I will do this. In fact, he says at the end of
Genesis chapter 15, I have done it. I have done it. It was all dependent upon God,
that Abrahamic covenant. But now God's going to enter
into another kind of covenant with Israel. And so he says in
verse 5, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant,
then you shall be a peculiar treasure, a special treasure
unto me above all people. For all the earth is mine, you
shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These
are the words, Moses, which you shall speak to the children of
Israel. And so Moses goes to the children of Israel, he calls
for the elders of the people. He laid out before their faces
all these words which the Lord commanded him. God said, he'll
bless you if you obey him. And the people answered together
and said, all that the Lord had spoken, we will do. And Moses,
he returned the words of the people unto the Lord. In other
words, remember when I said in that covenant of grace, it's
like the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all shook hands
and said, this is the agreement, this is the covenant. Now it's
like Israel says to God, You got a deal. We'll enter into
a covenant. We'll enter into this contract.
We'll obey everything you tell us to do. And we know that you
said we'll live because of that. And we'll be your special people.
Okay? And so Israel enters into this
contract with the Lord. After this meeting of Israel
at Mount Sinai, however, whenever they murmured against God, guess
what? Judgment. Judgment. Because listen, any
deliverance that is ultimately dependent and conditioned upon
our obedience is not going to end well for us. Now that's for
sure. Go to Numbers chapter 14. Numbers chapter 14. You know, they sent twelve spies
over into the land of Canaan. 10 came back and said, man, we
can't go in there. They got giants in that land.
They'll wipe us out, but two of them, Joshua and Caleb said,
hey, the Lord's with us, we can take it. Joshua and Caleb were outvoted.
Numbers chapter 14. Here Joshua told the people,
look at verse 9. Only rebel ye not against the
Lord. Don't rebel against God. Neither fear ye the people of
the land. They're bread for us. Their defense
is departed from them. The Lord's with us. Fear them
not. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. The glory of the Lord appeared
in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Would this people provoke me?
And how long will it be ere they believe me? For all the signs
which I have showed among them, I will smite them with a pestilence."
Oh, no mercy. That's what I want you to say.
There's no mercy. I'll disinherit them, God said. I'll make of thee a greater nation
and a mightier than they. I'll kill them all and I'll start
all over again. That's what God is saying. Go to Numbers 16. Numbers 16. This is the rebellion
of Korah and Dathan and Abiram. You know what? My time is running
short. Go to Numbers 21. I'm going to
have to skip over a little bit here. But anyway, they murmured
against the Lord. God killed 14,700 back there
in that passage there in Numbers. But now go to Numbers chapter
21. Verse four, they journeyed from
Mount Horeb by the way of the Red Sea to encompass the land
of Edom. The soul of the people was much
discouraged because of the way. The people spake against God
and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread,
neither is there any water, and our souls loathe this light bread. What did God do? Did He show
mercy? No. He sent the fiery serpents. He
sent the fiery serpents. Here's the point. And you're
getting it already. And don't miss this because this
is of vital importance. Before Mount Sinai, Whenever
the people murmured against the Lord, God continued His uninterrupted
stream or river of mercy to them because of a grace covenant made
with Abraham. Read it for yourself back in
Genesis chapter 15. God said, I make this covenant
with you. And as long as they were under
that grace covenant, Whatever bad thing they did, God forgave
them and God just kept on with the mercies. You see, that's
the covenant of grace. It's a picture of the covenant
of grace. Our sins are under the blood,
the blood of the Lord Jesus. There is no condemnation, there
is no judgment, there is no wrath for any of the people of God,
though we do sin against the Lord. The reason is because all
of our sins have been paid for and put away, hidden behind God's
back, buried in the depths of the deepest sea, separated from
us as far as the east is from the west through the substitutionary
sacrifice of Christ. And God doesn't reward us for
our iniquities. But, if you're one of those who
insists upon making a deal with God,
I'll obey you. I'll be a good person. And you
think you're going to live? You're not going to live. You're
going to die. Because God demands perfection. God demands righteousness. And
righteousness is only found in His darling Son. Unless you're
robed in His righteousness, unless you're made the righteousness
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot stand acceptably before
God. And He will reward you for every
one of your iniquities. That's the works covenant. I don't want anything to do with
that covenant. No. No. I want a covenant that's fully
dependent upon Christ Jesus. I want one that the Lord says,
it's done. The work is done. It is finished. The Savior has died. And though
we ought not murmur and we ought not fuss and we ought not be
complainers of what God does and what God brings to pass,
thankfully they're all under the blood. And though in this
life we will experience the disciplinary hand of God, because He chastens
His children, that isn't judgment. That isn't wrath. That isn't
death. God always deals with his people
on the basis of grace. Because our salvation was fully
conditioned upon the obedience of our dear Savior, the Lord
Jesus. So then, which one of these covenants
get your interest? A works covenant? Well, you can
have it. You can go ahead and say, hey,
I'm going to keep the Ten Commandments, and I'm going to be good, and
I'm going to treat others fairly. I know when I die, God will reward
me. Oh, you're right. He will reward
you for your disobedience. Or you can say, listen, oh, to
grace, how great a debtor! Daily I'm constrained to be.
Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering soul and heart
to thee. Amazing grace, the grace of God
done worthy sinners through the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's sing a...
Jim Byrd
About Jim Byrd
Jim Byrd serves as a teacher and pastor of 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland Kentucky, USA.

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