If you got your Bibles and will,
turn with me to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. While you are turning,
let me ask you girls, would you sing? Are you able to sing? And we want to remember Kathleen. She is getting a little better. There's a meeting down in Sylacauga,
Alabama at Fairmont Grace Church next Friday through Sunday. Don Fortner, Darwin Pruitt, and myself. But
I'm going to preach Friday and Saturday night, and I'm coming.
I'll be here next Sunday. And so there's a meeting down
there, and they're finishing one up up in Kingsport this week.
I'm sure they had a great meeting. Let's read. I'm going to read
this whole chapter. Everyone that thirsteth, come
ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which
satisfieth not, hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which
is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your
ear, and come unto me, and hear, and your soul shall live. For
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of
David. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people. a leader and commander to the
people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation
that thou knowest not, nations that knew not thee shall run
unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the Holy One
of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye the Lord while
he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord.
And he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the
rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not
thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth in
bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall
not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which
I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it.
For you should go out with joy and be led forth with peace.
The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing, and
all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of
the thorn shall come up the fir tree, instead of the briar shall
come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a
name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Our blessed, blessed Savior,
our Lord Jesus Christ. You're our God. You're our Savior.
You're the one we worship. You're the one we call on. You're
the one we trust. You're the one who saved us by
your blessed grace and washed us in your blood, called us,
O Lord, and separated us even from our mother's womb. Oh, blessed
be your name. Lord, we've gathered here this
morning with the saints of God to worship you, to honor you,
to magnify you, to see the saints of God fed and edified and established
in the faith, to see sinners brought to the Lord Jesus Christ,
brought to understand that he's the only one that can melt the
heart of stone, And O Lord, the only one that
can save a sinner. And O our Father, we ask that
you'd be pleased to meet the needs of every home, every heart
represented here. All of us have needs in our hearts
for our loved ones, people we love dearly. And O Lord God,
they have no interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't even
know they're lost, don't know they're sinners. But Lord, as
we said the other day, God, you can get them in trouble. And
I ask that you'd send forth the Holy Spirit and get them in trouble.
Make them feel the trouble, Lord, like they've never had trouble
before. And there's no trouble like knowing that you're without
God, without hope, and without Christ in this world. And know
it. God, I pray that you do that.
And Lord Jesus, we Pray for those among us who are so sick, so
weak, so frail. Lord, Kathleen, we pray for Peggy
that you'd continue to strengthen her, bless her in her heart and
soul. Lord, God, strengthen Kathleen. God, strengthen her body. Make
her strong, encourage her. Lord, make it where she can come
worship again. And Lord, we thank you for what
you do for your people. Meet our needs today. Receive
this service. Receive every offering, every
song, the prayers and the preaching. Sanctify it. Use it for your
glory and our good. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. And I do pray the Lord
meet the needs of our hearts this morning. But look what it
says in verse 3, Isaiah 55, 3. incline your ear and come unto
me. Hear, and your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David." Do you hear what God is saying?
Do you hear what He's saying? He
says, turn your ear this way. Incline your ear. Turn your ear
this way. Listen to what I have to say.
Incline your ear and hear. Listen to me. I'm speaking to
you. God said, I'm speaking to you.
Incline your ear. Turn it this way. Hear. Hear. He says, hear my
word. Hear my promises. Come, come
with a hearing ear. Come with a ready heart. And
he says, and you do this, and your soul shall live. And he says, and I'll make an
everlasting covenant with you. With you. I'll make an everlasting
covenant with you. Me, I, God Almighty, the Eternal
God, the Living God, Sovereign God, Creating God, I, the King
of Kings and Lord of Lords, He says, I'll enter into a covenant
with you. And it'll be an everlasting covenant,
a covenant that won't change. It won't change, it's everlasting. A covenant that'll never be broken.
A covenant that will never ever cease. So he says, listen to
me. Listen to me. Here, and your
soul shall live. God says, I'll make an everlasting
covenant with you, and I'll give you the sure mercies of David. It's what God says. Incline your
ear. God's speaking here. I know you're
hearing me, but Oh, if you'd hear God, that's what God said. So I'm going to, I got my ear
cocked. And I'm listening. I mean, I'm
listening. Are you listening? Oh my. You know, the word covenant,
God says, I'll make an everlasting covenant with you. The word covenant
appears in the Bible, appears in God's word. over 250 times,
250 times. And oh, just the word covenant,
just the word covenant, not everlasting before it, not eternal before
it, just the word covenant. God's
always dealt with men on the basis of a covenant. He made
a covenant with Noah. You remember when Noah When the
rain stopped and it abated, God said, I'm going to put a bow
in the sky. Because Noah's afraid, said, if it ever starts to rain
again, we're going to go through this again? If I am, I'm not
getting off this boat. But God said, I'll put a bow
in the sky. And that bow will be a sign to
you that I'll never, ever destroy the earth with the rain ever
again. You'll always see a rainbow.
And I tell you what, I always, I love looking at rainbows. I've
seen double rainbows. Just love to look at them because
it tells me that God made a covenant with Noah and he ain't never
going to destroy this world like he did with water before. And
I tell you, God made a covenant with Abraham. God deals with
men on the basis of covenant. He told Abraham that out of his
seed, out of his seed, would come a multitude that no man
could number, like the stars in heaven, like the sands by
the sea, made a covenant with Abraham that through his seed
that he'd be the father of many nations. And he made a covenant
with Israel. And then he made a covenant with
David. And we'll get to that in a minute. But he said, I'll
give you the sure mercies of David. I'll enter into a love
and lasting covenant with you and give you the sure mercies
of David. So over 250 times God talks about
the covenant. Now I'm going to do a little
instructing this morning, a little teaching if I can. There's two
main covenants mentioned in which we have to do with. Two main
covenants that we have to do with. There's the covenant of
works. There's a covenant of works.
A covenant that God made with Adam. and all His children that's
in Him. And this covenant was made in
the Garden of Eden, made in Paradise. And then there's the second covenant
called the New Covenant, the covenant of mercy, the covenant
of David, the covenant of sure mercies, the everlasting covenant.
But why is it called a New Covenant? Well, it's not because it's a
covenant made after the first covenant, the covenant with Adam.
but because it's newly revealed. God revealed it newly. This covenant,
this everlasting covenant, this covenant I'm talking about, this
was made before the first Adam was ever made. But God, in His
way of dealing with us in this world, He revealed the covenant
of works before He revealed the covenant of grace to us. Ain't
that right? Everybody tried to be saved by
works before they really understood and saw and revealed Christ in
the covenant of grace. Everybody wanted to be saved
by their works. But ah, listen, the covenant
of grace preceded the covenant of works. And I can prove that
from the scripture. Revelation 13a says that Christ
was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. 2nd
timothy 1 9 says that god who hath saved us and called us with
the holy calling not according to our works but according to
his purpose purpose and grace which was given us in christ
when before the foundation of the world So you see, the covenant
of grace was long before the covenant of works, but we always
went to the covenant of works until God brought us to the covenant
of grace. Is that not right? God had a
people chosen. God had an elect people chosen
in Christ before the world ever was, before the foundation of
the world. He chose us in Christ before
he ever laid the foundation of this world. That's why Job said,
I know my Redeemer lives. I know He does. And I shall see
Him with my own eyes as He stands on the earth in the latter days.
I'll see Him for myself. And so here are the two covenants.
Covenant of works, covenant of grace. Old covenant, new covenant. an everlasting covenant. Now
let me tell you something, all of us, all of us, and everybody
we know, everybody we know is vitally connected to that first
covenant, that covenant of works. We all come from Adam. If you got a child in you yourself,
every single soul on this earth, everybody that walks on two legs
and got any sense at all, descended from our father Adam. Oh, every
one of us. And I hope by God's blessed grace,
you have an interest in that new covenant, that covenant of
grace, the everlasting covenant. I hope by God's grace you do.
But we need to study these covenants, need to be studied. They have
some, you know these covenants, they have some relationship to
our Lord Jesus Christ in revealing himself to us. These covenants
have a relationship, that's why we study them, that's why we
talk about them all the time. They have some relationship to
our Lord Jesus Christ in revealing himself to us. Now you think
that people, you think that most folks would understand how they
became sinners. They didn't become sinners when
they got 12 years old and become the age of accountability. They
became sinners in Adam before they was ever born. They were
in the loins of Adam. But I do know this. I know lots
of preachers that don't understand this. There's lots of churches
that don't preach this. They don't know how in the world
they became sinners. They don't have a clue how they
became sinners. They don't have a clue how they
became lost. So if you don't know how you got lost, and that's
why these covenants have such a relationship to Christ revealing
himself to us, is because if you don't know how you got lost,
you'll never understand how in the world you get saved. And
who saves you, is that not right? If you don't understand these
two things, you miss what happened with your relationship with Adam,
you'll miss Christ. If you don't understand how you
were vitally connected to Adam, then you'll never understand
how you're vilely united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you
agree with that? If you don't know what happened
in the fall, you'll never understand grace at all. Now that's a fact.
And I tell you, when you and I are involved in these two covenants,
in one of two covenants, there's the covenant of works and the
covenant of grace. As far as God's concerned, there's
only two men in His sight, two men that He deals with the human
race in. He deals with them either in
Adam or in Christ. But every one of us, every single
one of us in Christ, in one we fell in our standing in our state. We stood before God in Adam,
holy and righteous, but it was a man's holiness, it was a man's
righteousness. God made him upright. Not only
did he lose his standing before God, but he lost his state of
holiness and righteousness when he fell in the garden. But in
Christ, in the covenant of grace, we are restored. We're restored
back to the image of God, restored to our holiness, restored to
righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said it this
way. Turn with me to Isaiah 15, just a minute. Our Lord said
it this way in Psalm 69, for I restored that which I took
not away. Look in 1 Corinthians 15. Here's
the long and the shorter. Covenant of works, covenant of
grace. God deals with men either, and
He deals with all men in Adam, and He deals with men in Christ,
and those two men, and that's the only men that God deals with,
people in this world. Look what it said here in 1 Corinthians
15, 22. 1 Corinthians 15, 22. For as in Adam, we all die, Huh? In Adam, death came. In Adam, sin came. Look what it says. For in Adam,
all died. But even so, in Christ, life
came. In Christ, we're made alive.
In Christ, came a resurrection from the dead. In Christ, came
life. In Adam, death came. In Christ,
life came. In Adam, we died. In Christ, we're made alive.
In Christ, came a resurrection from this death that we had in
Adam. Now, let me take just a little while and just a few minutes
to talk about this first covenant. This covenant of works. Now go
back over to our text. God made Adam. I was talking
to somebody recently and we was talking about how did God resurrect
men from the dead. Now here's the thing about it.
Adam was the first man. And you know why he's called
Adam? Because he is a man out of the red earth. That's what
Adam means. Man out of the red earth. God drenched down and
got some red dirt. Got it up out of the ground.
And he formed a man and that man was an inanimate object until
God himself walked up in the person of his son and breathed
in his nostrils and that man became a living soul. So since
man came from the dirt and God created man from the dirt, then
don't you know where God was all where all the dirt is buried? He knows where Adam's at. He
knows where Moses' at. He knows where everybody that
don't even have an existence anymore. There's graveyards that
people don't even know where they are. But God does if he's
got any. And listen, and I tell you, God
breathed into the breath of life. And then God took from him a
rib and he made the first woman, Eve. So there's a man and a woman,
mother, father. And I tell you, they all come
from him. And Adam, here's the thing about
it, Adam was a representative man. He didn't just represent
himself. He stood for the whole human
race, for all his generations that would follow him. He was
a federal head. And the whole human race You
and me and my great-grandchildren and my, if I live long enough,
Herman's great-great-grandchildren. I'm telling you, if I live long
enough and I see my great-great-grandchildren, you know where they come from?
They come from the loins of Adam. Every living soul that's created
on this earth was created in Adam and he was every one of
us was in the loins of Adam in the seed of Adam that's called
the seed of corruption the seed of the flesh and God spoke to
Adam this way spoke to him in covenant God told Adam said this
do and you shall live God created him put him in paradise and God
says you're the king and You're the prince. You have dominion
over this whole world, over this whole earth. You start naming things. You
give names to them. You do it. And he says, you have
dominion over the whole earth. And then he says, you multiply
and replenish the earth. But there's one thing, one thing
that you must not do. There's one tree right in the
middle of that garden, right dead center in it. And that's
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and don't you eat
of that fruit for the day you eat thereof you'll die. And listen,
Adam stood And why God told him not to eat of that fruit of that
tree was, I'm God. I created you. You're not the
creator. I am. You're not the one running this
world, I am. You didn't create this paradise,
I did. You didn't make yourself, I did. And you're gonna have to understand
that you're under my will, under my submission, under my power,
under my rights, under my authority. That's what's gonna happen. And
if you do what I tell you not to do, you're gonna die. But
you do this, Adam, and you'll live. Well, what did Adam do? He did exactly what God told
him not to do. And I've used this illustration,
and Gary Williams said the other night, if you don't believe in
depravity, all you got to do is watch a child. Watch a child. Riley and Bentley
was with us last weekend, and Bentley has a little old scooter.
He rides that little old scooter, he can fly on that thing. He
can get on two feet and stand on that thing and balance it.
Two years old. You know what Riley wanted all
day long? She got a closet full of toys.
Got a television in her own bedroom. Got dolls that she can dress
and her and her dolls can dress alike. But you know what she
wanted all day long? She wanted that scooter. She cried over that scooter.
She patted over that scooter. Man wants what he don't have,
and Adam wanted what he didn't have. He devil said, you'll be
like God. He said, oh boy. And he took of that fruit, and
when he did, he felled in that covenant of works. He failed
and he failed miserably. He died that day in the presence
of God and God himself took him outside that garden and says,
get out of here. You're not getting back in here.
And I'm going to put me a sword here to guarantee that you don't
get back in here. And oh, listen, Adam failed. And now by Adam's sin, death
came on man. Judgment came on man. Condemnation
came on all of us. And all of his seed whom he represented. Look in Romans 5. You all know
these verses very well, but they're worth repeating. They're worth
seeing. And men need to understand this. I remember somebody years
ago, talking to folks that they work with, and these people go
to church every three times a week, and you start talking to them
about Adam and his sin, talk about Christ as a substitute,
and they said, where in the world did you all come up with that
kind of stuff at? Where did you learn that at?
I've never heard of such a thing in my life. You know why they
never heard such a thing in their life? Because they're always
told what they're supposed to do. Anything besides trust Christ. You live right. You dress right. You go to the right places and
don't go to the wrong places. And I tell you what, when you
get to the end of the way, if you've done good enough, God
will put you in the scales and your weight, if your good outweighs
your bad, you get to go to heaven. If it don't, I'm sorry, but you'll
have to go to hell. And I tell you what, you may
have to even go through seven years of tribulation, but if
you'll endure in that seven years tribulation, you might make it
anyway. Oh, and if you think I'm making
it up, Bill and Dortha was at a funeral
last week. This is what the preacher said.
Do you think I'm making this up? This is what the preacher
said. He's preaching now. He's preaching a funeral. And
he said there's three types of mansions in heaven. He said there's
the mansions that people's living in now. gone. There's a mansion that people
are gonna go in and live in and then there's a third kind of
mansion that's the kind of mansion that you could ask the mansion
you could have if you had accepted Jesus. So there's going to be
a lot of mansions up there Brad that ain't nobody ever going
to occupy because they didn't accept Jesus and didn't do work
good enough and didn't live right enough and so they don't get
to live in their mansions. Huh? That's what I'm talking
about. There's evidence of our relationship
to Adam. A man lost his understanding
of what righteousness is and holiness is and how to be accepted
of God. Anybody stupid enough to say
something like that ought not be in a pulpit, ought to be sitting
down. Hopefully God will make him understand
something before he goes out into eternity. Romans 5, 12, look what it says
here now. Wherefore, wherefore, as by one
man sin entered into the world. Where'd sin come from? One man. How'd sin get into this world?
By one man. And so since death, in the world
and death came by that sin, God told him, said, you're gonna
die. And death, first thing about it is, is separation from God. And then, so death passed upon
all men, what for? Because all have sinned. Where'd
they sin at? In Adam. That's what he's saying
here. Look down at verse 17. For if by one man's offense,
by that one sin of one man, death reigned by that one sin, Now
listen to this, the difference in what Adam did and what Christ
did. Much more abundance of grace. One sin condemned us all, judged
us all. We all died. If by one man's
offense death reigned by that one sin, by that one man and
his sin, much more, they which receive abundance of grace, and
listen to this, and the gift of righteousness, this grace
and righteousness shall reign in life by one man, by one deed,
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? Down in verse 19, yes, yeah,
verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience
were many made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Huh? Oh my, and I tell you the
scriptures tells us that no man is justified by works in the
sight of God. We need a new covenant. We need a new way. And back over
here in Isaiah 55 and three, it says we have one. Incline
your ear, come to me, hear me, hear me, hear me, and your soul
shall live. And I'll make with you an everlasting
covenant, even the sure mercies of David. I'll make a new covenant. The old one's broken. The old
one destroyed. The old one condemned us and
there's nothing we can do. And when we face it, all it does
is condemn us. But here we have a new one, newly
revealed. And God's not like us. God's
not like us. He doesn't wait for something
to happen and then have to react to it. That's what we do. Something
happens and then we have to react to it. God don't do that. No, he ain't waiting for something
to happen. He said, oh, whoop, I'm gonna
take care of this now. He's not like you and I. No,
known unto God are all his works from the creation of the world,
the beginning of the world. Isaiah 49 and verse nine, look
what it says. Oh, look, we know this one very
well. Isaiah 46 and verse nine. Oh, this is what God says. Remember
the former things of old. For I am God, there's none else. I am God and there's none like
me. Well, what makes you different?
He said, I declared the end from the beginning. I told what the
end of this thing was gonna be right from the day I started
it. And look what else he said. And from ancient times are things
that are not yet done, saying, you know what happens? My counsel,
my will shall stand and I'll do everything that pleases me. Oh, what a blessing. Let me give you six things, six
things about this new covenant. Six things about this covenant
that God said, I'll make with you. And I tell you, you've heard
this before, but I mean it, you know, it's just, that's why it's,
oh, I love it. The first thing about this new covenant, this
covenant that we're talking about, this new covenant is of grace.
I will make, I will make, Not you. I will do this. This is my doing. This is my
act. This is the power that I have
to do it. The new covenant is of grace,
pure grace. Pure grace. And when we talk
about pure grace, that means that man absolutely has nothing
to do with it whatsoever. Pure grace. Grace and works,
they cannot mix. They can't do it. And it's of
grace that the promise might be sure. If that promise depended
upon us in anything we did, God says, you know how come my promise
is sure? Because I do it because of grace. Because of grace. For by grace
are you saved. And that's not of yourselves,
it's a gift of God. Pure grace. Shirley and I was
eating dinner last night, and this lady was talking behind
us, and she's talking to the waitress, and she said, you know,
there's only two things in life that I know are free, and that's
a free sample and salvation. And I looked at Shirley and said,
you hear what that woman said? I hope she believed what she
said. I hope she really did because she said it's free. And I thought,
boy, I tell you what, maybe she knows something, I don't know.
But the second thing about this covenant is, this everlasting
covenant God said, I'll make with you. It's a covenant for
sinners. It's a covenant for sinners.
Ain't that what he says? You that labor for nothing, you
that absolutely have nothing, you that absolutely can do nothing,
And you're laboring for something that's not bread? You don't have
any money? He said, come! Huh? And oh, listen, this is
for sinners. This covenant's for sinners.
Is there a sinner in this outfit this morning? Is there a sinner
in this building this morning? Is there somebody this morning
that God said that I'll make this everlasting covenant with
you, give you the sure mercies of David, for this covenant is
for sinners. Ain't that what he said there?
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while
he's near. He said in verse seven, let the
wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts
and let him return to who? Me. And oh, look what he says
when he returns to him. He said, I'll have mercy upon
him. And you know what he said there
in verse eight, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. And that's
the first thing Dirk, a man thinks about is he thinks about this.
How, what do I need to do to be saved? He thinks about what
I need to do. I know what I'll do. I'll start
reading my Bible and I'll start praying and I'll start going
to church. That's what I'll do. And I'm going to start living
right if it kills me. But this is a covenant for sinners,
not for people that are righteous, not for people that stand and
talk about how good they are and what they've attained and
their accomplishments. God said it this way in Romans
3. He says there's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
understand it. There's none that doeth good,
not one. Now if that don't cover you,
I don't know what would. If you don't fit in one of those
outfits right there, I don't know what to think about. But
oh, listen, God come to, this is a covenant for sinners. Sinners. Old John Newton got ready to
die and he said, there's two things I know. That I'm a great
sinner. Christ is a great Savior. This is an old man up in his
90s before he died. He's the one who wrote all these
wonderful hymns that we sing. Disappoint I long to know, oft
he gives me anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I his or am I not? And then he comes down to die.
What's your hope, Mr. Newton? Oh, I'm such a great,
great sinner. Ah, but oh my, Christ is a great,
great, great Savior. He come to call sinners, sinners. And I'll tell you, this is the
third thing about this covenant that God said, I'll make with
you. This covenant is unconditional. It's an unconditional covenant.
And it's free. Now, when I talk about this covenant
is unconditional, that means there's no conditions for a soul
to meet. Not one condition that they have
to meet. No conditions to do. Now, why do I say that? Because
everybody you meet will say, well, it's conditioned on faith. It's conditioned on this. It's
conditioned on that. Well, it's not conditioned on
one thing. It's an unconditional and it's
free. It's free grace. And eternal
life is a gift. It's unconditional. No conditions
to be met. You say, well, I've got to have
faith. Where are you going to get that at? You're not born
with it. People say, exercise your faith.
You can't exercise something you ain't got. Dead men don't
have faith. He said, oh, except you repent.
Yes, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. But I tell
you what, him God exalted to be a prince that he might grant
repentance. Oh, if somebody gives you a gift,
you don't try to pay them for it, do you? You know what you
do? You thank them. You say, boy,
thank you very much that you thought of me like that. That's
the way salvation is. It's unconditional. It's a free
gift. It's a free grace. And oh, you know why it's not
conditional? Because Christ met every condition
that's required of us. every condition that God requires. And this is, if a man's going
to be saved by works, if he's going to be saved by his feelings,
if he's going to be saved by his emotions and his commitment,
and saved by his faith, and saved by all of his repentance, if
he's gonna be saved by some act of his, then he's got to do that
act from the time he has sense enough to walk until he enters
into glory. And though he wants to do all
that, he's still got one issue he has to deal with, that sin
that he had in Adam. He's got to still deal with that.
And whoa, listen, that's why people can never have no peace,
because they always say, well, I get this far, and I think I'm
alright, and I feel good about it, and then all of a sudden
they fly off the handle, somebody makes them mad, somebody upsets
them, and they've stepped back three steps, and they've got
to start all over again. But if you've got a salvation
conditioned on what Christ did, If Christ loved God, if Christ
obeyed God, if Christ is the righteousness of God, if Christ
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, if Christ offered
Himself to God and made satisfaction once and for all to everything
that a sinner ever did, and God now, that man that comes to Christ,
God said, I'll receive that man just like my son. Huh? Oh my, it's unconditional, it's
free. Oh, I've talked to people about
this over the years and almost exclusively until God does something
for them. You know what they say? It's
too good to be true. It's just too good to be true.
Well, if somebody tries to sell you a car and they say, boy,
it's got all this stuff and all that stuff and all that, and
they say, well, it's too good to be true. If man offers it,
it will be. But if God says it, It's true,
you can take his word on it. God says, incline your ear,
listen, hear, and your soul shall live and I'll make an everlasting
covenant with you. And the fourth thing about this
everlasting covenant is, and I love this, it'll never cease.
It'll never ever cease. It's always, what does everlasting
mean? Huh? What does everlasting mean? The only thing everlasting that
you and I can ever know anything about is what God does for us.
And I'm telling you, I know what I'm talking about here. What
does everlasting mean? God is eternal. And eternal life
is to know Him. Eternal life is to know His Son.
Now, you know, we say, well, we're going to, you know, we
meet a woman or a man or something, we say, I'm going to love you
with an everlasting love. No, you won't. No, you won't. You'll love Him until you go
to glory. And when you go to glory, earthly
love ceases. Fleshly love ceases. Everything
about this world ceases. And you know who your head over
heels in love with then? The one you long to seize face
all the time you're here. So only love that you'll ever
have of this earth, no matter who it is and how much you love
him, When that earthly relationship's dissolved, I mean, they're gone
to glory, and they don't know anything about earthly love again.
And that's what happens when we go. Our love is our love,
and as far as this world's done, it's over and done with. And that's why he said it's everlasting.
That's why he said, I give unto them eternal life. Eternal. Everlasting. It'll never cease. We're not
going to get to glory and stay up there for a thousand years
and have to come back down here and Christ set up a earthly throne
in Jerusalem. We come back down here and have
to walk around on the earth and deal with this over it. Oh, no,
no, no, no. It'll never cease. And oh, listen
now, turn with me to 2 Samuel 23. Let's look at this covenant
of David. 2 Samuel 23. And this covenant, this covenant,
the fifth thing about this covenant is it's ordered in all things
and sure. Ordered in all things and sure. Look what David said here in
verse, chapter 23, 2 Samuel, verse 1. These be the last words
of David. the son of Jesse, and the man
who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob,
the sweet psalmist of Israel. The spirit of the Lord spake
by me, and the word, his word was in my tongue. And then look
what he said in verse five. Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things insure. And this is all my salvation,
all my desire. Now these are the very last words
of David. This is the David on his deathbed. This is David dying. He is the
one as a lad slew Goliath with one little old stone. slew Goliath,
that giant. This is the king that God raised
up and anointed. This is the one that God said,
this is the man after my own heart. That's who he said. This is the king that God said,
I've anointed him and raised him up. This is the man after
my own heart. And before he died, before he
died, he said, although it be not so, My house will never ever
feel the salvation that I've got. Absalom won't know it. A lot of my children won't enter
into this. But he said, it may not be so,
and that was his last words. God hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, and it's ordered. It's got, it's ordered in every
way. And it's sure. And oh, David
talked about God's word in his mouth. He talked about the shepherd.
You know what he said about the shepherd? He said, the Lord's
my shepherd. He talked about God's power.
He said, I've heard once, yea, twice, that all power belongs
unto God. He talked about God's holiness,
that God dwells in the beauty of holiness. He talked about
God's Redeemer. And all the blessed subjects
in the psalm, David said, he said, the Lord said unto my Lord,
sit at thy right hand until I make thee enemies, you footstool.
He said, in the day of his power, he said, his people will be made
willing. Oh, he talked about Christ. But
when he came to die, when he came to die, where did he find his rest? Where did he find his hope? Where did he find his confidence? Where did he find his assurance?
God, God, God, hath made with thee, with me, an everlasting covenant. And
it was ordered. God ordered this thing. God made
this thing. He ordered it. And David said, and it's sure.
And he said, this is all my salvation. My salvation's all in this. All
in this. And oh my. Oh boy. Wouldn't you love that
to be your nine words? If I'm in my right mind and I'm
laying on my deathbed, you come and I'll be able to say anything
to you. I hope that's what I can say. And the sixth thing about this
covenant is this. This covenant is filled with
the sure, sure mercies of David. Sure mercies. I need sure mercies, don't you? Oh, I'm tired of temporal things.
Things are so temporal. Oh, voids are left in our lives. Things change. People come, people
go. Everything changes as far as
time goes. But I need some sure mercies. I'm tired of temporal things.
Change and decay on all around I see. Oh, that thou changest
not. Abide with me. I know I'm taking
too long, but let me give you just, let me show you this just
for a minute. Psalm 89. You all need to see
this is what I'm talking about. Psalm 89. Talking about this
covenant, how sure they are with David. How sure they are. God said, I'll make with you.
I'll make with you. Look what God said in verse 20
of Psalm 89. Verse 20, I have found David
my servant, with my holy oil I have anointed him. With whom my hand shall be established,
mine arms shall all well strengthen in him. And look what he said
in verse 24, but my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him.
and in my name shall his horn be exalted. And look what he
says in verse 26, so we know he's talking about Christ. He
shall cry unto me, thou art my father, my God, the rock of my
salvation. I'll also make him my firstborn,
higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for
him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. And listen to what he said in
verse 29. His seed also will I make to dear forever in his
throne as the days of heaven. And look what happens now. Now
here's that seed is us, you see, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And if his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments,
if they break my statues and keep not my, then I'll visit
their transgressions with the rod. They're knickered with stripes. Now listen to me now. Nevertheless,
my loving kindness will I utterly not take from him, nor suffer
my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that's gone out of my lips. Ah, I'm not gonna never change it.
Oh, they'll fail, but I won't. They'll fail, but I won't. And
I'm gonna make a covenant with you. I'll make it with you. This
covenant's in our Lord Jesus Christ. He shall not fail, nor
be discouraged. God made Christ unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. But of you are
in Christ. We was in Christ in his birth.
This covenant's in Christ. We was in Christ in his birth.
We was in Christ in his life. We was in Christ in his death.
We're with Christ in His burial. We're in Christ in His resurrection. We're in Christ in His ascension. We're in Christ in His mediatorial
reign. You are in Christ. How'd you
get there? God made Christ unto us. And ain't that what he says there
in Isaiah 53? He says that I will make him
to be a light, to make him to be the Redeemer. Oh my. Climb you here, here, and your
soul shall live. And I'll make with you an everlasting
covenant. and give you the sure mercies
of David. Our Father, O our Father, in
the blessed, blessed name of Christ our Lord, thank you for
the gospel of the free grace of God. Thank you for the gospel
that makes salvation sure, for the gospel that depends on Christ
and His faithfulness, that looks to Christ and His righteousness,
that trusts Him, embraces Him, bows to Him, submits to Him,
and takes our yoke upon Him, that we take His yoke upon us.
We thank you for this gospel. In our Lord Jesus' name, we thank
you. Amen. Amen. 209. That's what we'll sing. 209, yeah, come on up please. 209, stand together with me. And after
the end of the song, you're delivered to go. Unless you wanna stay
after and tell me what the Lord's done for you. ♪ Marvelous grace
of our loving Lord Grace that exceeds our sin and
our guilt, yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured. There where the blood of the
Lamb was shed, Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace that will
pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace
that is greater than all our sin Sin and despair like the
sea waves cold, Threaten the soul with infinite loss. Grace that is greater, yes, grace
untold, To the refuge, the hiding cross
Grace, grace, God's grace Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. Dark is the stain that we cannot
hide. What can a man do to wash it
away? Look, there is snow in the crimson
tide Whiter than snow you may be today Grace, grace, God's
grace Grace that will pardon and clean within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. Marvelous, infinite, matchless
grace Freely bestowed on all who believe You that are longing
to see His face Will you this moment His grace believe? Grace, grace, God's grace Grace
that will pardon and cleanse within Grace, grace God's grace
reigns and is greater than all our sin.