The title of my message tonight
I take from the 10th verse of Leviticus chapter 26. And ye shall eat the old store
and bring forth the old because of the new. The old store and
the new. The old store and the new. Our great God, ever gracious,
ever merciful, constantly displace himself in a way that the God's
men invent for themselves never do. As one who delights in mercy,
even as he gives the law at Sinai, the Lord God showed himself merciful
and gracious and declares to us the way of life and salvation. And what we have before us in
the book of Leviticus are the commandments of God, In chapters
1 through 24, the laws and commandments and ceremonies, the garments
of the priesthood, the instruction, all those things that are given
in those 24 chapters were given to the children of Israel as
they proceeded through the wilderness. But we're told specifically in
chapters 25, 26, and 27 that these things were given by the hand of Moses from God
Almighty when he gave the law at Mount Sinai. Three times,
once in each of these last three chapters of the book of Leviticus,
we're told this was given by God at Sinai. So that at the
very giving of the law, God shows us the way of grace and life
and salvation, symbolically and typically, and he issues promises. Wondrous, wondrous promises that
show forth His goodness, His grace, His purpose. Promises
that many take to be promises of God rewarding our good works
and so on, but they're anything but that. They're promises of
God in Christ Jesus. and the promises of God in Christ
Jesus are yea and amen. As we walk through the sacred
ground of these 27 chapters, we ought to always seek to see
something here of the wondrous work of our God in redemption,
in grace, in salvation. He is portraying for us the person
and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's telling us, I have found
a ransom. have found a ransom. He's telling
us, I've found a way in which I can be both a just God and
a savior. A way whereby I can save sinners
and righteousness still be maintained. Holiness still be holiness. Justice
still be justice. God still be pure and unbending. And in those promises of God,
we find God's promises given to us in Christ as we go through
this world. Let's look at verses one through
13. I gave you the highlights of this Sunday evening and want
to come back to it this evening. In these 13 verses, the Lord
God shows us what great blessings of grace he will bestow upon
all who obey his word, upon all who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what it is to obey God's
word. That's what it is to obey God's
commandments. That's what it is to keep the
law. It is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let no
one misunderstand me. The scriptures are very, very
clear. Things God gives us as the way
we ought to live, how we ought to behave. You read Ephesians
chapter four, Galatians chapter five, you read Romans chapter
12, and you can go on and on. The scriptures are very, very
clear. We do not have any license or
liberty and we do not want any to live according to our lust
and the lust of our flesh and according to the fashion of this
world. We want to honor God in our behavior. We seek to honor
God in our behavior. But obedience to God's commandments,
obedience to God's law begins with and is accomplished by faith. in the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
you to see this and see clearly. This 26th chapter of Leviticus
begins by telling us that we must call upon the name of the
Lord. That is, we must worship God. Worship God alone. Acknowledging him as the Lord
our God. Finding rest in him. You see,
salvation is believing God. Salvation is believing God as
He has made Himself known and as He makes Himself known in
the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Salvation
is trusting God, knowing God, worshiping God as God, as God
revealed in Christ. Our Lord Jesus said, this is
life eternal. that they might know thee the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Now look
here at Leviticus 26 what? Ye shall make you no idols, nor
graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither
shall you set up any image of stone in your land to bow down
unto it. For I am the Lord your God. You're
not to make a God for yourself. Not a God you can see or any
other thought concerning God. You're to bow to me and worship
me. You shall keep my Sabbaths. You
shall rest in me and reverence my sanctuary, the house where
I reveal myself. I am the Lord. We'll look at
this a couple of times tonight, but I want you to turn to Romans
chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Brother Lindsey read this to
the men back in the office a little bit ago, but I want you to look
at it. Very familiar passage of Scripture. To call upon the name of the
Lord is to worship Him. It is not merely to express His
name or to pronounce His name, it is to worship Him. Romans
10 verse 9. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever shall worship
the Lord God, the triune Jehovah, as he is known in the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. Now listen to
the Lord God himself. Coming as it were to sinners,
he woos rebels. and calls us to himself by promises
of bounteous riches of goodness and mercy and grace and love
in Christ Jesus. Here in these first 13 verses
are Sinai's promises, God's promises of grace given at Mount Sinai. Sinai's promises of grace, God's
promises of grace given to his people as he gives his law. Verse three, if you walk in my
statutes and keep my commandments and do them, then I will give
you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase,
and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and your threshing
shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto
the sowing time, and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and
dwell in your land safely, and I will give peace in the land,
and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid, and I
will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword
go through your land, and ye shall chase your enemies, and
they shall fall before you by the sword, and five of you shall
chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put 10,000 to flight,
and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. For I will
have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you,
and establish my covenant with you, and you shall eat old store,
and bring forth the old because of the new. and I will set my
tabernacle among you, and my soul shall not abhor you, and
I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be
my people. I am the Lord your God, which
brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should
not be there bondmen, and I have broken the bands of your yoke,
and made you go upright. What a dazzling catalog of goodness
this is. Henry Law made this observation. This is a picture in which plenteousness
abounds. The earth in his season yields
luxury crops. Scarceness and need are buried
deep in graves. Peace waves her gentle scepter. Invading host, scare not the
quiet valleys. No ravening beast watch for their
prey. And if assailing armies make
attack, they move to sure defeat. A little man puts multitudes
to flight. A happy progeny rejoices in every
house. This reaches beyond material,
temporal, carnal, earthly things. We're talking now about things
revealed by God as he gives his law and his promises of grace
to his people. These things spoken of. Refer
not just to external earthly things, but earthly language
is used only to convey spiritual blessedness, spiritual delight,
delight in our souls, scattered by God's infinite hand upon his
people continually. So that God here promises he
will continually, relentlessly, steadily, always, everywhere,
in all things, pour out His goodness. Pour out His goodness. Now, if
you have any question at all, is this really what the scriptures
mean? By obeying God, we believe Him,
and believing Him, now we receive from God all the promises of
covenant mercy. all the promises of His goodness,
all the promises of His favor, because we believe His Son. Now
we've obeyed His commands. Listen to the Scriptures. You
turn to Romans chapter 10 again. We'll back up to verse, chapter
9. Romans chapter 9 and verse 30, 31. By faith, we establish the law. By faith, we establish the law. Most people seek to do good in
religious things, seek to perform righteousness in a religious
way, seek to make themselves righteous, seek to make themselves
good, to make themselves superior to others in order to at least
obtain a higher measure of God's favor, if not to obtain salvation
altogether. That's called works religion. and God considers your works
by which you attempt to satisfy His justice and fulfill righteousness,
He counts all such works, that's prayers, sacrifice, service,
devotion, church going, Bible reading, He counts your works
but filthy rags. They count for nothing. Your good works will carry you
to hell. We believe God, and believing
God, we establish the law. Look at Romans chapter 9, verse
31. Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, they
read the Ten Commandments and said, let's do this. As a matter
of fact, they sent Moses up to the message, you go talk to God,
whatever God says, that's what we'll do. And Moses came down
and gave the law. They said, we can do that. We
can do that. Most folks presume they can.
They followed after the law of righteousness, have not obtained
that law of righteousness. Wherefore, verse 32, because
they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of
the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling
stone. Christ Jesus crucified. a crucified
Redeemer, salvation by a substitute, salvation by the doing and dying
of the Son of God, salvation by grace without works, salvation
by God's work and none of your own, is a stumbling stone to
proud, arrogant, self-righteous men. And they stumble over Christ
and go to hell. Verse 33, as it is written, behold,
I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, He's for
us who believe a foundation stone, a sure foundation, a tried and
proved foundation. But for the unbelieving, a stumbling
stone, a rock of offense. And whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed. Paul said, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. For I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of what
God has done in the person of his Son, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth." Turn to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter
3. Verse 19, wherefore then serveth
the law? Why was the law given? What was
its purpose? It was added because of transgressions. Till the seed should come, to
whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in
the hand of a mediator. Verse 24. Wherefore, the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might
be justified by faith. The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. being brought to Christ by the
law, that is, by the terror of the law, by the threat of the
law, by the things God reveals in the law. We're brought shut
up to Christ alone. I have no hope except in Him
who lived and died for me. The law has done its work and
has no more work to do. Look at 1 John 5, 1 John 5. In chapter three, verse 23, this
is God's commandment, that we should believe on the name of
his son and Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave his
commandment. Now, this is hard for many folks to grasp, but
Rex, this book is full of gins and snares. as full of gins and
snares to trip up the self-righteous who will not believe God as it
is a promises and mercy and grace for the benefit of God's elect."
Men read that and they say, yes, we must believe God, but we must
also love one another. And then they start to give some
rules about how you love each other and the way you must not
love each other. Maybe you do love each other.
Look at chapter five. Whosoever believeth that Jesus,
that man of Nazareth, is the Christ, that Jesus of Nazareth,
who died at Calvary 2,000 years ago, actually fulfilled all things
written in the Old Testament that God said the Christ would
accomplish. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God. And every one that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we
know that we love the children of God, when we love God and
keep his commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not
grievous. We know we are gods by faith in Christ. We know we
are redeemed by faith in Christ. We know we've been called and
born again by God's spirit, by faith in Christ. Not by strong
faith, Not by great experimental faith, not by great knowledgeable
faith, by faith in Christ. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you trust Jesus Christ the
Lord? That's the issue. Do you believe
the Son of God? If you do, you're born of God
and you keep his commandments. You fulfill the law in him and
having done so, This is what it is to love God and love one
another. Believing on the Son of God. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now let's go back
to our text, Leviticus 26. Here are 12 Sinai promises of
grace. I wrote this in the bulletin
recently. It might have been last week, I don't remember. It's
worth remembering. What the law of God requires,
the gospel of God gives. What the law requires, grace
provides. What God demands, God gives. Here are promises, things God
gave when he gave his law. He speaks of grace, rich supplies
of grace, grace for all who believe in. First, in verse four, God
promises he will send his rain from heaven. It's described in
Deuteronomy 32 as doctrine. His word, his spirit, his grace. At the appointed season, God
sends his word to chosen sinners, calls them by his grace. They
being taught of God come to Christ, and coming to Christ have life
everlasting. This you can be sure of. Every chosen sinner, every sinner
redeemed by the blood of Christ shall at God's appointed time
of mercy be called by his grace through the preaching of his
word, by learning his doctrine, the doctrine of the gospel, being
taught not of man but of God and being taught of God that
come to Christ. Look again, here's the second
thing. God promises that his grace toward
us will be constantly bounteous, constantly satisfying to our
souls. Verse four. Then I will give
you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase,
and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. and your threshing
shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto
the sowing time, and ye shall eat your bread to the full. There's a passage in Hosea chapter
two, you don't need to turn there, but I want you to listen carefully,
that speaks of God's wondrous, gracious purpose, by which he
rules all things and orders all things for our benefit. He says
in that day, Hosea 2.18, I will make a covenant for them, for
you who are his people. I'll make a covenant for you
with the beast of the field and with the fowls of heaven and
with the creeping things of the ground. And I will break the
bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth. and I will
make them to lie down safely." What a statement. What a promise. What is that? All things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. A few weeks ago, I received a
note from my friend, Pastor Rick Water, asking about Shelby and
I, and I made the statement, and it grasped Rick rather firmly. I said, in our present experience
of God's great goodness, that's what we experience. Children of God, that's what
we experience every day. in every event, in everything,
God's goodness towards us. He made a covenant with the beast
of the field, with the creeping things in the earth, with the
fowls of the air, a covenant with the things of the earth
for us, so that nothing on this earth hurts, but only helps his
people. He says, my grace is sufficient
for they. Our Lord Jesus looked at his
disciples after they'd been walking with him for three years and
he said, lacked he anything? And they responded, nothing Lord,
nothing. These wondrous years of grace
in which we have walked with God and God has walked with us,
he has proved himself faithful. I started to say over and over
again, Lindsay, with every second, with every breath, he's proved
himself faithful. And he will yet prove himself
faithful until our days on this earth are done. He says, my grace
is sufficient for you. Look at the last line of verse
five. He says, and I will dwell, or
they shall dwell, you shall dwell in your land safely. Not only
safely, but securely. Confident of safety. My sheep,
the Savior said, hear my voice. I know them, and they follow
me. I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. So that while we live in this
world, we live not only with this word from God concerning
our safety. No weapon formed against you
shall hurt you. Not a dog shall move its tongue
against you. We live under God's protection
and God's care. God keeps us. As we walk with
God by faith, We live in the sweet security that safety gives. In the sweet sense of security,
safety in God's hand gives. Everything just fine, I'm in
his hands. Everything's just fine, you're
in his hands. Here's the fourth one. God promises
us peace. Peace. Oh, wondrous, wondrous
peace. When the love of God is shared
abroad in our hearts, testifying that we are gods, that Christ
has redeemed us, that we're justified by his grace, then by faith we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace while
we live in this world. Peace in our souls. Peace in
God's providence, peace with God, peace no matter how things
go in this world. No matter how things go in this
world, peace with God. The peace of God that passes
understanding keeps your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.
Oh, blessed, blessed, sweet, sweet peace is the peace of grace. Look at verse seven. Here the
Lord God promises that all who trust Him shall prevail and triumph
over their enemies. Ye shall chase your enemies,
and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you
shall chase an hundred, And a hundred of you shall put 10,000 to flight,
and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. This is how
the gospel puts it. You being dead in your sins,
and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us. and took it out of the way, nailing
it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. The Lord Jesus Christ has, by
his grace, conquered our foes, and by his grace makes us more
than conquerors in him. So that we say with the apostle,
if God be for us, who can be against us? He despaired not
His Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things? If God's for us,
who can be against us? It's God that justifies. Who's
gonna condemn us? We are in Christ, and we are
kept in Christ Jesus, our blessed Redeemer, and our enemies He
has conquered. Oh, my soul, believe God and
run the enemies off. Those who would accuse you and
assail you. Those who would condemn you.
Those who would charge you with evil. Those who would separate
you from his love. Satan himself, soon the God of
peace will bruise him under your heels. Read on, verse nine. For
I will have respect unto you and make you fruitful and multiply
you and establish my covenant with you. What a promise of God's favor. God says, I will have respect
unto you. I will look on you with delight,
with pleasure, with approbation, with approval. Nobody but God can do that with
me. Nobody but God can do that with
you. Everybody else sees some reason
not to be completely satisfied with you. The one who loves you
dearest has reason not to be completely satisfied with you.
The one who thinks most highly of you has some reason not to
think perfectly highly of you. You've given them plenty, me
too. But God says, I will have respect to you. I will look upon
you with delight, with pleasure, with complacency, with approbation,
because God sees me in his son, as his son, as his son is, as
he sees his son. God says, my eye will be upon
you to care for you, watching over you to do you good, to protect
you from all evil. I will turn myself away from
all others just to you. Had a distinct particular regard
for you. So you cast all your care on
me. I care for you. Look at the next
line. He says, I will have respect
unto you and make you fruitful. Fruitful. The Lord Jesus we read,
was it yesterday in a Bible reading? He said, a henceforth I call
you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth,
but I've called you friends. For all things that I have heard
of my Father, I've made known unto you. You've not chosen me,
but I've chosen you, and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. If whatsoever
you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
The psalmist says concerning God's elect, they shall still
bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing. What fruit? Fruit of the Spirit,
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. They shall bring forth fruit. Not such fruit as they see. Not such fruit as they can stand
up tall and bow out their chest and say, look at me, how fruitful
a Christian I am. But such fruit as in their old
age, God's people look at them and enjoy the fruit they bring
forth. Brought forth by the Spirit of
God working in us. Next, the Lord promises to multiply
us. He says, I will have respect
unto you and make you fruitful and multiply you. In Isaiah 54,
the prophet speaks about the church scattered among the Gentiles
and says, seeing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, break forth
into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child,
for more are the children of the desolate than the children
of the married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy
tent, let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitation,
spare it not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes, for
thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and
thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities
to be inhabited. Here's the night thing. God says,
I will have respect unto you and make you fruitful and multiply
you and establish my covenant with you. I will establish my
covenant with you. The covenant was established
with Christ before the world began. But God says, I will establish
my covenant with you. He calls his elect, seals us
with his spirit, the circumcision made without hands, and he seals
to us his covenant, and thereby establishes his covenant with
us, so that we can say with David, the Lord hath made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordering all things in sure. This is what
he promises. Incline your ear and come unto
me. Here and your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. A covenant, a solemn compact
of grace in which God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost pledge themselves
to our everlasting salvation, pledge their love, the faithfulness,
the faithfulness and love of the triune Jehovah to our soul
from everlasting. A covenant in which God says,
I will be their God, and they shall be my people. In which
God says, I will give them a new heart. I will plant a new nature
in them. I will make them partakers of
the divine nature. I will cause you to be new creatures.
I will forgive your iniquity, your transgression, and your
sin. I will remember your sins no more forever, and I'll keep
you. I'll give you one heart. and
one way that you shall not depart from me forever for I am your
God and I have made you my own. This is God's covenant, a covenant
of mercy and of grace. All right, look at verse 10.
And ye shall eat old store and bring forth the old because of
the new. What on earth does that mean?
It means that the Lord God here promises to every believing sinner
a constant, constant, constant supply of grace. There should
be granted by God an unbroken continuity of grace to our souls
forever. Grace sufficient to meet every
need without fail. His supplies of wisdom and love,
mercy and peace and power is always enough and more than enough
to meet our needs. The flow of His grace is uninterrupted. If it comes to us in jets and
spurts, the problem is not with God, but rather we have put something
in the way by which we would quench His spirit. Our great
God, our Father, the God of all grace, is ever pouring out grace ever pouring out grace upon us
from heaven, dumping out buckets of grace, infinite buckets of
infinite grace upon our souls, so that His grace never, never,
never ceases. It is never stopped. It is never
quenched. His grace is that by which He
floods the earth for us, that He may flood our souls. Why should
we have dismal times of famine in our souls? Times of spiritual
deadness, times of paralysis. In our father's house is bread
enough and to spare. And he promises ye shall eat
of the old store and bring forth of the old because of the new. We must not be satisfied with
the past. Let us never forget. I urge you,
don't trust the past. Don't look to the past for hope. Don't look to the past for assurance.
But oh my, don't ever be negligent of the past. Oh, what wondrous grace we've
experienced. What goodness we've known. What
marvelous mercy our God has bestowed upon us. But there's a sense
in which we ought to forget those things which are behind and look
to those things which are before and press toward the mark for
the prize of the calling of God in Christ Jesus. As the Apostle
Paul put it, that I may know him. That I may know him. Oh God, my Savior, I want to
know you. And I've known him for years.
And the more I know him, and the more I know of him, the more
I realize how little I know him and how little I know of him.
That I may know him in the power of his resurrection. That I may
know Him in the power by which He raised Himself from the dead. The power of His resurrection. He who sits upon the throne because
He lived and died and rose again. That I may know Him in the fellowship
of His sufferings. I don't mean by that in any way
that I may know Him and share His sufferings. that I may know him by with feeling
entering into his sufferings. I mean that I may know that as
he suffered and died, so I suffered and died. As he bore the wrath
of God, so I bore the wrath of God. As he satisfied the justice
of God, so I satisfied the justice of God. Being made conformable unto his
death. Made conformable unto his death. Made to live as he lived. Made to walk on this earth as
he walked on this earth. Submissive. Obedient. Compliant. Ever saying not my
will, thy will be done. Verses 11 and 12. The Lord God promises us his
constant abiding presence. And I will set my tabernacle
among you. And my soul shall not abhor you.
And I will walk among you. And will be your God. And you
shall be my people. Wherever you are, there I am. Wherever you go, there I go. Wherever you find yourself, you'll
find me. I'll walk with you. I'll walk
with you. We talk a great deal about me
and walking with God. God promises he'll walk with
us. I'll walk with you. And then
in verse 13, he promises to grant every believer the blessed assurance
of redemption. grace and salvation. He says,
I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the
land of Egypt, that you should not be there by then. And I have
broken the bands of your yoke and made you to go upright. God says, I'm yours and you're
mine. Oh, Pastor, I'd give anything
to live in that awareness of such blessed, sweet assurance
that I've got in God's mind. Believe on the Lord Jesus. Believe on the Lord Jesus. I'll tell you, when you do not
have such sweet assurance, I'll tell you when I do not have such
reassurance. Anytime I start to look in me
for a reason for it. Anytime I start to look for my
feelings, my devotion, the strength of my faith, the change in my
life, Anytime. Anytime I start to look at my
works, anytime I start to look at my labor, anytime I start
to look at my prayers, or lack of it. My devotion, or lack of
it. My commitment, or lack of it.
Anytime I start looking here, any professed assurance I may
give to others is nothing but a fake professed assurance. There's no assurance to be found.
No. There's not one thing I have
ever done or felt or thought that gives me any assurance or
hope before God. He who sits in heaven tells me I am God's and God is mine. I trust him alone. God give you
grace to trust him. Amen.