Everlasting

to see y'all out this morning. Got some folks out of sick. Cynthia just came through her operation well. They're all in sick, so we heard your prayers and then we had to request a prayer also. Seek the Lord's help for them. Happy birthday this week to Sharon. We've got a small crowd this morning, so we're going to have to sing out.

Let's begin with hymn number 45, which serves as our gymnastic proclamation. your master proclaim, and the nation love his wonderful name. The name of victorious, of Jesus saved. His kingdom is glorious, He rules over all! God ruleth on high, Almighty to save, And still He is mine, His presence we have! The great congregation, His triumph shall sing, Salvation to God! who sits on the throne, that all might allow and honor the Son. The praises of Jesus the angels proclaim, fall down on their faces and worship the Lamb.

Let us adore and give Him His right, All glory and power and wisdom and might, All honor and praise sing with angels above, And thanksgivings sing in heaven above. After Scripture reading and prayer, we'll sing hymn number 39, which is my father's word. Grab your Bibles, turn with me to the 13th chapter of Hebrews. We'll read one verse of Scripture. Verse 20.

Now the God of peace has brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Our Father, we come in the name of Jesus Christ, our great Savior, who even now sits at thy right hand, having accomplished the redemption of his people. being rewarded with a seat in glory. We thank you, Father, that we can speak his name and say it with familiarity. For you have given us faith to believe that he is indeed our great shepherd, our great high priest. He is the one who stood for us and was made to be sin for us. He knew no sin. And in that great transaction between you and him, He was made to be our righteousness. And we thank you. And we stand accepted in the beloved, knowing full well there's nothing in us or about us could ever bring about such a thing. When we know the wages of sin is death, we are thankful for the gift of God's eternal blessing. Father, we pray for those who are sick, for Julie, she's recovering from therapy. Remember Cynthia also, she's starting her recovery from the operation. I pray for Arlene if she's sick. And others, whatever the reason, they might not be here.

We ask Lord you'd watch over them and bring them safely to us back home. Help us this day as we gather here that you might cause us in our hearts to see Him before you all praise. That we hear the gospel and receive the Lord's table. Let us do so with joy in our hearts and full knowledge. and full of it, that our redemption and our salvation, from Pole to Pole, is fully and completely the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are thankful for Him, who is altogether lovely, Jesus among 10,000, the lily of the valley, the rose of Sharon, the grace rich from His lips, We are thankful that we can call him our elder brother, our closest friend, our Lord and our Savior. Help us to worship him this day, we pray in Christ's name, amen.

In number 39, this is my father's word. ♪ This is my Father's world ♪ ♪ And to my listening ears ♪ ♪ Old angels sing and round me reach ♪ ♪ Old music of those years ♪ ♪ This is my Father's world ♪ I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas, built in the wondrous love. This is my Father's Word, the words that carols praise. The morning light, the evening light, today the makers play. This is my Father's world, He shines in all that's fair.

This is my ♪ Is the ruler here ♪ ♪ This is my Father's power ♪ ♪ Though my Lord is not God ♪ ♪ Jesus who died should stand astride ♪ ♪ And earth and heaven be one ♪ Father, again, we come in the name of Jesus Christ, the unspeakable gift that you've given to your children.

We know that what we have, we have to call it mercy and grace. And we render to thee that which belongs to you. Let us do so with joy and thanksgiving in our hearts. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. You. do do and bring attention back to Hebrews chapter 13. This is the last chapter of the Hebrews letter. This is the Hebrews.

Paul wrote to the Hebrew children who were still actually holding on to some of the conditions and customs of the Hebrew religion. Still had an affinity for things like the temple, the priesthood, things like that. It was time that Paul, set them straight on this matter of the old and new covenants. And therefore, he set aside to, he said, he's been forced to take, to look at the old covenant, to look at the temple, to look at the priesthood, to look at the law. All those things that happened in the hand of Sinai show that these hadn't served their purpose. They were useful in what they were designed to do, but they had now been set aside. And a new covenant had been ratified and established by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here it's called the blood of the everlasting covenant. Blood of the everlasting covenant.

And this word everlasting is employed over 90 times in the word of God. It's applied to God's love in Jeremiah 31. Our Lord said, I love thee with an everlasting love. And because I love thee, I have drawn thee with tender kindness. When the Lord began to speak specifically in a different covenant, he used the word everlasting in Jeremiah 31, 31.

It is applied to life eternal many times in scripture. One might say everlasting life and eternal life mean exactly the same thing. It's applied to the consolation of the saints in 2 Thessalonians, the everlasting consolation by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That means everlasting comfort and being consoled no matter what trouble might come. It's because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in this everlasting gospel that we preach. It was applied several times to hell, the word everlasting to hell. Eternal fire and damnation and never ending judgment and change. These are all references that the word everlasting is applied to. It's attached to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenly context where it says the angels will eternally and everlastingly preach the everlasting gospel.

So what we are hearing today is not just a temporal thing. It's been around since the beginning because that's what it means. The word means neither having beginning nor end. That which always has been and ever will be and will never cease. And all these applications put the word and the concept in the category of divine predestinated purpose. Set solidly and immovable and immutable in the mind and heart of God Almighty. Everlasting means as good as done. Done and never undone. That's what everlasting means. So here it says, the blood of the everlasting covenant. Everlasting, so we know right off the hat that covenant didn't begin somewhere in time. Because it's everlasting, it had no beginning, and will have no end.

So here in our text, it's applied to this covenant. The Epistle of Hebrews is a categorical disassembling of the old covenant and declaring the establishment of a new covenant, which is referred to as the everlasting covenant in Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 13.

It says this, in that it said, a new covenant, a new covenant is made the first old. The first old, now that which decayeth and waxes old is ready to vanish away. That's talking about the old covenant. Now, a great deal of religion today still operates using that old covenant as a rule of life and bringing people back under the law. They use that old covenant. I preached to a church several years ago, a Sovereign Grace Church, that behind the pulpit, they had the Ten Commandments on the wall. That's fine. They don't want to do that, but they need to know what it does.

And remember, the law was added because of transgression. the ball of air that sin might have found. So the next time you read the Ten Commandments, and I invite you to do this, as you read these Ten Commandments, know that they were given because the sin that they addressed was being committed at the time our Lord gave the commandments.

So when you read, Thou shalt have no other gods before me, why did he write that? Because they had other gods before. When they said, thou shalt not commit adultery, what was the problem? People were committing adultery. Because sin was added. Or rather, the law was added because of transgression. Transgression was there, and the law was added to show that that's punishable by death.

Don't covet your neighbor's property. Why do you say that? Because people will covet even their neighbor's property and their neighbor's wife. Thou shalt not steal. Why not? Because, why would he put that there? Because people were thieves. So that's why the law was given. It was not given as a rule of right behavior. It was given as a condemnation of the behavior that existed at the time. That's the old covenant. The old covenant is declared to be established.

This new covenant, this everlasting covenant, is declared to be established in blood. And since the blood attached to it And to the everlasting covenant it too must be everlasting blood, which we know to be true. Our Lord physically shed his blood in time.

2,000 years ago on Calvary Street. But that was all according to the everlasting covenant. So it had already been done in eternity. When we read in Revelation 13a, he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world before the conception of the world. So this eternal covenant His everlasting covenant is based on everlasting blood, the blood of Jesus Christ.

And though the blood was everlasting, it was shed in time, as I said, and was shed to ratify the new covenant. So when he shed his blood, something happened. Something happened. This covenant, this new covenant was ratified. In other words, it was signed in the blood of God. Look back over at Hebrews chapter 9. beginning with verse 15 it says, and for this cause he is the mediator of the new covenant or new testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament that was under the law they which were called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance for where a testament is or a covenant is there must also be the necessity of the death of the testator for the will to be enforced.

Debbie and I have made a will. It's in a strongboard in one of those boxes at the bank. It's secure. It's a will and testament. It means nothing. It won't mean anything until I die or until she dies. That's when it will mean something. That's when it will go into effect.

And that's what happened. This covenant was set in eternity, but it was ratified. and put in force on the cross of Calvary. And from that time on, it showed that the old covenant was done and taken care of. This new covenant was ratified. For a testament is a force after men are dead. Otherwise, it has no strength at all while the testator liveth. I can't ever read that passage to you.

But I'm thinking about that story, that young girl in the USSR who was walking on a lonely road back near the Kremlin somewhere out in the woods. She was walking on a lonely road and the KJB stopped her and said, where are you going? Well, she was planning on going to a Lingdu where they were going to study the scriptures that night. She was a believer. The KJB said, where are you going? She said, my father died. And he left a will. We're going to read the last will and testament. And he let her go. Well, that's what we do. This is the last will and testament of God. This is the covenant that he sets forth.

Though the blood was everlasting, it was shed in time and shed to ratify that covenant. And when the blood of Christ was shed and he gave up the ghost, that covenant was enforced and all who were named in that covenant were redeemed. All who were named in that covenant were redeemed, justified, sanctified, saved, and made to be righteous. and the recipient of every spiritual blessing. All that came when this was ratified. For everything that God had for His children was in that covenant, in that testament, in that will and testament of God. And if your name was in that will and testament, everything that Christ bought on Calvary is yours. You are joint heirs with Christ, heirs of God, God's heirs, and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And when the blood of Christ was shed and He gave up the ghost, that covenant was enforced. By that blood, by that death, the elect are complete, having needed nothing. It is that blood, that efficient, effectual death that we will commemorate in just a bit when we take the Lord's table. We'll commemorate that death, that everlasting blood for that everlasting covenant.

And the everlasting covenant is also referred to as the new covenant. It's referred to as both of these in the book of Hebrews and in the New Testament. This is somewhat of an oxymoron when you think about an everlasting covenant being new. How can something be everlasting and also be new at the same time? The word new has to do with time rather than eternity.

It has to do with when these two covenants were revealed. The old covenant, specifically, which refers to the laws handed down on Sinai, was old in that it was revealed before the new covenant, but it does exist. before the Mew. The Mew was promised in the old covenant, but revealed later and revealed as the everlasting covenant. It was first revealed in Jeremiah, well not first, but in a more clear manner in Jeremiah chapter 31. Verse 31 says this, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant.

The new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, that's all of his people, that's what it means, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in that day that I took them and threw them out of the land of Egypt. So it's not according to the Sinai covenant, because that's the covenant he gave them when he took them out of Egypt, which my covenant they break. Although I wasn't a husband unto them, I was good to them, they were bad to me. But this should be the covenant that I will make with them in the House of Bill after those days here in Florida.

I'll put mine along. my words in their hearts and in their inward parts and I'll write them in their hearts and I will be your God and they shall be my people. There was a contingency plan of the old covenant because they would worship other gods. He said when this covenant comes, when this new covenant is applied, my people, they're going to be my people and I'm going to be their God. I'm going to be their only God. When this new covenant comes, this is the covenant we talk about here, the everlasting covenant.

They shall teach no man ever his neighbor, every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. They all will know me. All of them will know me, from the least of them to the greatest, sayeth the Lord. And here, it's what is repeated also in Hebrews, I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more. Under this new covenant, sins were not remembered. Under the old covenant, they were recalled every year on the Day of Atonement. They were recalled with every law that they broke, sin was remembered. Now He says, I will remember their sins no more. How can that be? How can that be? It must be somehow in the economy of God and in His wisdom and in His purpose, their sins have been removed. They've been forgiven of their sins.

And He'll forgive their iniquity and He'll remember their sins no more. Over in Zephaniah, that new covenant is not spoken of as the new covenant, but it does speak of what goes on when the new covenant is set forth. In Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 9, it says, For I will turn to a pure language and turn to the people a pure language. Zephaniah 3, 9. That they may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one consent, a singular mind. What is that singular mind?

Christ is all. Christ is it. In that day thou shalt not be ashamed for all thy doings. How can that be? Wherein thou hast transgressed against me, for I will take away in the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holding out. Now, Calvary.

And I will leave in the midst of them an afflicted and poor people, the people who are always in trial and tribulation, which we call them to cause, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. If they're afflicted and they're poor, what are they going to trust? They can't trust in their riches, they can't trust in their friends.

The remnant of Israel, the remnant according to the election of grace, according to Romans chapter 11, shall not do iniquity, shall not do iniquity. Neither speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down. They shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

That's that new covenant, that everlasting covenant that's being spoken of in that passage of Scripture. Then over in Hebrews chapter 10, we see that whole thing set forth very clearly in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He quotes from Jeremiah 31, verse 2-9. In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 9, it says this. He says, then said, I, although I come to do that will of God, He'll take away the first, plus that's the old covenant. And He establishes the second, that's the new covenant, the everlasting covenant.

By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. For all our inattentive. He was offered once. And every priest daily mentioned an offering all times the same effect. Christ would never take away sin. They did. They offered many sacrifices. No sin was ever committed. He offered one sacrifice. But this man, after he offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God for an inch worth expecting. to his enemies he made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us that have said the full prayer of Jeremiah chapter 31. This is the covenant I will make with him after those days, saith the Lord. I put my laws, my word, my book, In their hearts and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. For where remission is, is where these sins have been put away. Where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. One offering did the trick. But the language of the New Testament, the everlasting covenant that Prophets and Jeremiah 31 has set forth in Hebrews is being fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ where he writes his book in their hearts. And he does.

We don't know all the Bible. I've read it all, but I don't know it all. A lot of times I read it and didn't get anything out of it. You know how you read sometimes and read one phrase over ten times and don't get anything out of it. I've read the book, but I don't know the book, but the book's in my heart. All of it's there.

How do I know? When somebody tells me the truth. When a preacher stands up and tells me the truth of scripture, I know it's right. How do I know? The book's here in my heart. It's in my mind and in my heart. I can discern that which is spiritual according to the Word of God.

The old covenant was temporal. It said to be added because of transgressions. It said to be added and it said to have entered. These are words that have to do with time. If something enters, it wasn't there before it came in. If something is added, it wasn't there before it came in.

That's how it says about the law of God. It did not exist outside of time. So in eternity, the law didn't exist. Except in the purpose and mind of God to bring it in, to bring it to pass. In eternity, the law didn't enter. Not in the sense of everlasting.

That's how it says in Romans 5 20, it says the law entered. That sin might abound. What does that mean? It means what it says. The law entered and sin was shown to be what it was. It was shown to be a violent, cruel, vile thing. And not only that, when the law entered into a rebel's heart, it enticed him to sin. Because you know, if you tell the truth about yourself, when somebody tells you they can't do something, that's what you want to do. So when the law was given, it actually incited. Paul said, I had not known sin except the law.

Galatians 3.19 said it was added. Paul says, wherefore serveth the law?

In Galatians 3.19, wherefore then serveth the law? It was added. Because of transgression. That's why it was added. Because there was already sin in the camp. And what our Lord did was list ten things that they were evidently guilty of doing. And the covenant ratified by Christ's blood supersedes all covenants.

And there are many colors in Scripture. John Gill says, this covenant spoken of is not the covenant of works made with Adam as the federal head of his natural seed. There was no mediator or shepherd of the sheep that had any concern therein. But this talks about the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of peace, raising up the shepherd of the sheep. So it has to be tied in with the Lord Jesus covenant.

There was no blood of the covenant mentioned. in the law that was given to Adam in that covenant. Nor is there an everlasting one, nor the covenant of circumcision given to Abraham. Though possibly there may have been some reference to it because blood was shed. This may be opposed to that since the blood of circumcision was often called by Jews the blood of the covenant because the covenant was made with Abraham. And this is not speaking about the covenant of Mount Sinai, though there may be an allusion to it since the blood which was then shed and sprinkled on the people is called the blood of the covenant in Exodus chapter 34 verse 8.

But that was not an everlasting covenant. That is white stone we just read. It has vanished away. What is this everlasting covenant? It's also called the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace. It's called the new covenant. It's called the better covenant. Two times in the Hebrews. Of which Christ is said to be the sure deal of better covenant. And the mediator of a better covenant.

This is the everlasting one. It commenced from everlasting and appears from the everlasting love of God. which is the rise and the foundation of it, from the counsels of God of old which issued it, from Christ being set up from everlasting as a mediator of it, from the promises of it were made before the world began, and from the spiritual blessings of grace in it, which were given to God's elect in Christ before the foundation of it. Moreover, it will endure forever. It'll never go away.

Nor will it be succeeded by any other covenant. And the blood of Christ may be called the blood of it, because the shedding of it is the principal article in it, but by it the covenant is ratified and confirmed, and all the blessings of it come through it. Everything comes through this covenant. Everything. Redemption. Peace.

The God of peace. who raised Jesus Christ our great shepherd from the dead. Pardon, justification, sanctification, even admittance into heaven is all because of this glorious covenant made between God and His Son for the benefit of those He has chosen in the foundation of the world. God again from the dead, Lord Jesus Christ. because he fulfilled his covenant agreement and engagements with God. He was brought again from the dead. He satisfied divine justice and abolished sin. And Peter said, we abolish death itself.

This is the everlasting covenant. This is the one that exists today. The others have been set aside. whether it be the Noahic covenant, whether it be the Abrahamic covenant, whether it be the covenant made with Adam, whether it be the covenant made with the Jews on Sinai, these are all been set aside. There's just one left, and it's the one that supersedes all of them, the one that was started in all eternity. And the results of that blessed everlasting covenant are clearly and everlastingly most assuredly and immutably declared. Listen to it. Back in our text.

Now the God of peace. How is that peace established? How can you have peace with God knowing what you are? According to scripture, Christ made peace by the blood of the cross. and reconciled unto us unto God, the God of peace, that brought again the dead dying from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his resurrection, that great shepherd of the sheep, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, what's he gonna do? What did he say back there? Hello?

They'll not do anything to you. They'll not lie. In other places, there'd be no guile in their mouth. He said, in one place, there'd be, my children won't harm you. We wouldn't dare apply those things to ourselves. But he says, my children won't harm you.

So what God's going to do, I'm going to make you perfect in every good work. What are those? I don't know, but they're going to happen, aren't they? Aren't they? If God has ordained it, if God has purposed it, if God has predestinated it, you're going to have good works.

Don't go looking at what they are. Go on living, loving Christ. It'll take place, make you perfect in every way to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His Son. I want to do my best to please God. I know you do. But if you do, it's because He worked in you to please Him. He changed your heart. He changed your mind. He changed your work. Yeah, do it. That's what He said.

Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. of the everlasting government of the United States of America. through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Our Lord has made His people perfect to do His will in every good work. He worked in them to please Him in His sight, all because of the blood of the everlasting covenant.

When we see the word blood in scripture, it's not talking about a wound. It's not talking about a cut. It's talking about death. Blood means I know they're saying it's all in one drop of blood. Well, it wasn't one drop of blood. It was Christ's death that saved us. Through His death and His resurrection, we have life eternal. And we take this table to commemorate that simple, singular thing. It doesn't do anything for us. It doesn't establish anything for us. It doesn't make us anything. It doesn't put us in any favor with God.

What we're doing, we're saying, I understood and I understand and discern the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, what it actually accomplished. When I take this table, I'm saved, and my brothers and sisters in Christ, this death saved my soul.

This death made me perfect before God. This death made me accepted in the beloved. That's it. When these elements represent his body broken, and his blood shed, or his death, And he said, well, often as you do this, do it in reverence to me, you do show forth my death. And he said, this cup is the new-born testament of covenant in my blood. In my blood. Let's ask the Lord to bless him.

Father, as we take this table, let us do so with thanksgiving in our hearts, knowing full well that we have nothing to offer thee. Nothing about us that could ever please Thee, and yet You fixed it so we will be well-pleasing in Your sight. We thank You for such a thing. We don't even know when we're doing it, if we're doing it. Thou knowest.

But we know, Father, that our hope is built on Jesus Christ's blood and nothing else. We know that He died, and when He died before you and your great record of things, we died also. redeem us, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Help us now to rejoice as we take this table in thanksgiving and praise of our Savior who did it all once and perfected all for whom He performed. Help us now to pray in Christ's name.

On the night I rose from the grave, he took the unleavened bread of the Passover feast and he'd break it and hand it to his disciples and say, take, eat. This is my body broken for you. As often as you do it, do it in remembrance of me. And he took the cup and after he had blessed it, he said, this cup is the new testament and the new covenant, the everlasting covenant in my blood. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you will show forth my death until I come again. Do this in remembrance of me." That night the disciples sang to him and our Lord went out into the church to stand together.

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow! No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus! How are you? Good to see you.

Everlasting

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