Now our theme always, the objective
of our services and the aim of every message is to proclaim
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't want to deal
with moral lessons or things like that. We want to proclaim
the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
what we seek to do every week and we have done in recent weeks.
And then last week particularly, We were considering, well, yes,
okay, that's the gospel, but what is it to be a Christian,
to become a Christian, to be a participant in that grace of
God. What is it to experience it,
to know it, to feel it, to sense it, to live in the good of it?
What is it? And I quoted in that message
last week a text which I suppose I often quote, the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom, or the beginning of knowledge.
And that term has played on my mind And this verse came to my
mind in Psalm 25 and verse 14. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. Just
a few words, but what rich words. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. You see,
we live in a world where it looks all around us in this country
at any rate this is how this country is so much different
to the united states of america where there are christian churches
everywhere those of you that have just been will testify there
are churches on every street corner and up and down every
street there are just church buildings everywhere but in this
country not it looks like christianity has died what you see happening
to all church buildings more than anything else is them being
converted into places of business or dwellings or whatever But
despite what looks like the demise of Christianity in the UK, there
is still a lot of religion around. There are still what like to
call themselves big churches, but really, you know, it's only
of two sorts. There's that religion which is
external. It's natural. It's fleshly. It's ceremonial. And they go
through their own particular brand of liturgies, whether it's
very formal or very informal, it's the same recipe all of the
time. It's architectural in some cases.
It's hierarchical in terms of the structures of who rules and
who's boss of whoever else. It's a whole kind of, just like
a mimicking of the world with its structures of power. that
kind of external religion, which still a lot of people are involved
in, and they think it is the only true proper religion. You hear them say, we are not
a proper church because we're not like that. We don't have
those structures. That's one type. The other type
is this, and it's the only true type. It's internal. It's in
the heart. It's spiritual. It's experimental. You sense it, you feel it, you
grasp it, you know what it is to be the object of the grace
of God, to have experienced the mercy of God, to know the blessings
and the power of the truth of salvation. It's internal. And
how is it there? By the Holy Spirit of God. No
external types or patterns or formulas or come to this building
and go through these movements or whatever else it might be
will make any difference. What matters is the Spirit of
God within, showing you the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
he comes and enlightens your darkened mind, because your mind
naturally is darkened to the truth of God, and yet he comes
and he shines his divine light there, that you see and understand
the things of God. Now that is true. That's the one that is true.
It's the gospel of Christ. There's no other that is true.
All the rest you can put them all in one great big basket because
they're all equally false. That's the only one that is true.
It is the only one that will last for eternity. It is the
only one that is deeply felt, both when it's present, you know
it, and if you're a true child of God you go through periods
where that sense of the Spirit of God is absent from you. And if you're a true child of
God, you feel it. Those that don't have it don't
miss it. They don't know that they're
missing it. But you, the true child of God, when that sense
of God's presence is taken from you for a season, you feel it
deeply, you long to be there. You know it says in the Psalms,
as the heart, as the deer, pants for the brooks of water, your
soul, pants for the thirst quenching truth of the gospel of our God. So, what is it to feel and know
the true presence of the person, and experience it, the person
and the presence and the favour of the one true God? Well it's
there in that verse, the secret of the Lord is with them that
fear him and he will show them his covenant. So I want us to
see, and we could take it in a number of different ways, but
I'm going to break it down into those three clear bits, the secret
and those that fear him, and he'll show them his covenant.
But look first at those who fear the Lord, then at those being
in on the Lord's secret, and then the promise to them that
they're promised a divine sight, a divine revelation of seeing
God's covenant. He will show them his covenant.
First of all then, those who fear the Lord, those who fear
the Lord, Now, modern man will tell you, modern religionist
will tell you, ooh, that's a medieval view of God. We don't want to
be hearing about fearing God. No, no, no. No, we know God.
Let's go down to our meeting together and we'll all be relaxed
and easy about it. Fearing God, that's medieval.
Aren't we more sophisticated these days than talk of hell
and damnation? We don't need any of that, do
we? We don't need, you know, a friend from many many years
ago who we met not long ago and is in a so-called christian church
and uh... she said to us we don't hear
about hell anymore i trust you hear about hell here and i trust
when you listen to free grace radio sermons you hear about
hell those who preach the truth preach about hell because hell's
still in the bible it hasn't gone away yes all of those things
are true so don't be so sure you see When he talks here about
the fear of the Lord, those that fear him, we need to understand
that there are two kinds of fear in the Bible. There is what we
can call a servile fear, and that's the fear felt by a slave. Imagine a slave, and he hasn't
got a very kind master over him. I know we don't, officially we
don't have slavery today, but it still exists as we see in
the news. That slave is in fear, servile fear, fear of pain, fear
of loss, fear of hardship, fear of all, that's a servile fear. And there is a servile fear of
God. Just be clear about that, there
is a servile fear of God. Let me give you some scriptures.
James, chapter 2, verse 19. He's talking to people who claim
to be Christians and he's saying, are you sure? He says, you say
you believe? Oh, very good. Very good. He
said, the devils also believe and tremble. The devil's believing
the truth. They tremble because they know
what God really is. They have a servile fear of God. When Paul, the apostle, was preaching
the gospel to Felix, he was a sort of, how can I put it, he was
a provincial governor of a part of Palestine. I think that's
the best way to summarize, without going into too much detail, what
he was. Felix, the provincial governor of this part of Palestine,
and Paul was reasoning with him, and Paul was preaching the gospel
to him, and we read in Acts 24-25, as Paul reasoned of righteousness. The righteousness that God requires
when we die. The righteousness that God requires
to accept us into his heaven, and not condemn us for our sin.
The righteousness of God. When Paul reasoned of righteousness,
of temperance and of judgment to come, Felix, this Roman provincial
governor, Felix trembled. He trembled. He quaked. He suddenly
had a sense, a fear of God. God is the one who's given me
my life and I must meet him. When Jonah was, when the sailors
on the ship, Jonah said, you've got to chuck me overboard because
otherwise the ship's going down and you're all going to drown.
He said, you must chuck me overboard, and they did. But because of
what they did, it says the men feared the Lord exceedingly. They were terrified. Can you
imagine? Darkness, a raging storm, over the side is a certain drowning,
and they'd thrown this man overboard and they were terrified. They
were afraid of God. They feared the Lord exceedingly. Why? Why? With good cause, because
the Scriptures tell us. God, the true God, not the God
of make-up, not the idol of religious folks' minds, the true God of
Scripture is angry with the wicked every day. God is angry with
sinners every day. God is angry with those who reject
the Gospel of Christ every day. It is a fearful thing. to fall
into the hands of the living God. A fearful thing! A fearful
thing, because our God is a consuming fire. But, but, but, 1 John chapter
4 verse 18, John is talking about the love of God and he says,
perfect love, which is gospel love, casteth out servile fear,
that kind of fear, because fear has torment. Paul writing to
the Romans in 8.15 says, to believers, you haven't received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, by which he means servile fear. It was servile fear that caused
Adam to hide himself. You know when Adam sinned, they
walked in the garden before the fall and they talked with God
and they were in perfect fellowship with God who had made them and
all things. Adam and Eve and all the animals
and they were in a state of perfect fellowship together and Adam
sinned Adam sinned and that caused him to be terrified of God for
God had said in the day that thou eatest of that tree you
shall surely die and God came looking symbolical language God
doesn't need to look he knows everything but in the symbolical
language God comes looking for Adam and Adam hid himself why
he was afraid he was terrified he disobeyed God he'd done the
very thing God had told him not to do And Cain and Abel were
born, and Cain slew Abel. Why? Because Abel brought a gift
that God accepted, and Cain's gift was not accepted. And it
says, Cain's countenance fell. What does that mean? It means
he was terrified of God. he was terrified of God. King
Saul, when he fell out of favor for his disobedience, King Saul
was terrified of God and went seeking to familiar spirits,
as they're called. He went to the witch of Endor.
Ahab, the wicked king, was terrified of God when he knew he was going
to die and judgment was pronounced on him. Herod was terrified of
God when he sought to do the right thing by John the Baptist
but was backed into a corner and he had to have his head cut
off. even the Philippian jailer, even him, when he was pretty
certain he was going to die and then meet his God, he was terrified
and cried out, what must I do to be saved? But here, in this
verse 14, it speaks of filial fear, filial fear from the French
for a son, fils, filial fear, the fear of a son who loves his
father, a son who loves and respects his father, And we come before
God, if we're true believers, with that filial fear of God,
as a son, a reverential fear, a respectful fear, fearing a
benign father. We are told to come boldly before
the throne of grace, but we don't come casually and flippantly.
We come reverently. We come with fear. We know who
God is. We know something of what he
is like. When a person is born again of God's Spirit, that new
man that is born within fears God with a filial fear, with
that fear. Because God says, look what he
says, Jeremiah 32, turn to this with me, Jeremiah 32 and verse
38. And it's a chapter which is talking
about bringing back the Jews from their Babylonian captivity,
but the Holy Spirit applies it to us, applies it to all of God's
people. Coming back from the captivity
of sin when they don't know the truth of the gospel into the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. And in verse 38 of Jeremiah 32, God says, they shall be my
people and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart
and one way. That's the new man. That they
may fear me forever for the good of them. It's good for us to
fear God. And of their children after them.
Oh, what a blessing. You boys, what a blessing it
is to be being brought up in households that believe the truth
of the living God. Your children after them. And
I will make an everlasting covenant with them. This one isn't going
to end. That I will not turn away from them. to do them good.
God has promised he's doing his people good. And this is what
he says, verse 40, But I will put my fear in their hearts that
they shall not depart from me. That's what God says. It's a
good thing, this filial fear. Those that fear the Lord. It's
a good thing is this fear of the Lord. It's godly fear. Hebrews
12, 28, godly fear. As Psalm 111 verse 10 says, as
I already quoted, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom. It is a reverential respect for
who God is and it comes with blessings. Let me read you some
Psalms, you won't be able to keep up with this but just listen
to them. Psalm 33 verses 18 and 19, the eye of the Lord is upon
them that fear him. That means the eye of the Lord
means he's looking over you for good. He looks over those that
fear Him for good, upon them that hope in His mercy, to deliver
their soul from death. You're going to heaven. If you
fear the Lord, the eye of the Lord is upon you for good, to
deliver your soul from death. Psalm 34, verse 7. The angel of the Lord could be
just one of God's legions of angels. but I think more probably
it's referring to the angel that was promised to Moses, who is
Christ, to be with his people. Camps around them that fear him. Would you like, do you want to
go through this life with the knowledge that the angel of the
Lord is camped around you, protecting you from anything evil that will
come upon you? Yes, of course you would, of
course you would. Well he does that to those that fear him.
He camps around those that fear him. Psalm 34 verse 9, O fear
the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them that
fear him. He gives you all that you need.
There is no want to them that fear him. Psalm 112 verse 1,
blessed by which he means in this life, blessed, favoured
by God, is the man that feareth the Lord, the one who fears the
Lord. Psalm 145 verse 19. He will fulfil the desire of
them that fear him. Do you see that? Blessings from
God always are linked to this filial fear, the fear, the respectful
fear of a son for a father he loves. We can come into his presence. We don't come quaking with servile
fear, but we come with filial fear, crying, Abba, Father, because
he is Daddy. Abba is the Jews' word for Daddy. Abba, Father, is God's name to
his people. But we respect who he is, and
we fear him. Unlike the world, also, you know,
in the world you might be if you started a new company and
the boss has got quite a reputation you might be in general fear
of him and then the more you get to know your way around and
the more you get to know him that fear diminishes with familiarity
but not with God and his children with God this filial fear increases
with knowledge of him the more we know of him the more we fear
him in that way The prosperity of the early church was linked
to the fear of God. In Acts chapter 9 and verse 31,
I'll read this to you. Then had the church's rest. This
is the early church. Then had the church's rest, meaning
the persecution eased off. They had a time of ease and prosperity. The churches had rest throughout
all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified, built up. And
walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy
Ghost were multiplied." Now, do you see what it said there?
the fear of the Lord that they walked in was matched by the
comfort of the Holy Ghost fearing the Lord they were comforted
and the more they grew in knowledge because Peter encourages us to
grow in grace the more we grow in that grace and knowledge the
more our fear of God, that reverential, filial fear increases. Proverbs
14 verse 26 to 27, in the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. In that fear, filial fear. Oh,
in the servile fear of those who stand waiting for his judgment,
it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. He's a consuming fire. There's no strong confidence
there. There's just a plea to the mountains and the hills to
fall on us and hide us from his presence. But in the filial fear
of the Lord is strong confidence. And his children shall have a
place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain
of life. The fear of the Lord is a fountain
of life, to depart from the snares of death. The more a believer
is comforted by the everlasting arms of God our Father, the more
this filial fear of children, his children, towards Abba Father
will increase. Reverence and fear marks genuine
spirituality. Why do we come together in these
modern days, and why do we stick to prayers the singing of good
old-fashioned hymns not because they're old-fashioned we'll sing
modern ones when they've got the truth of God in them it's
just that there are not that many of them about these days but
some of these most virtually all I haven't yet found a bad
one in Gadsby's hymns I haven't found a bad one they all speak
of gospel grace we sing them we sing them to How can I put
it? They're good tunes, but they're
serious tunes. You know, it's not the music
of the world. We sing them properly. And we have the preaching of
the word. We don't have drama. And we're
not gonna sit around and have a debate because we'll just get
shared confusion, shared ignorance if we do that. We have a preacher
who preaches the word of God. And that's what God says. We
stick to that kind of formality. Why? Because we fear the Lord. We fear to go against what he
said. That's the elements of worship that are clear in his
word. That's what the early church meant to do. That's what we will
meet to do over 2,000 years later. And nobody's going to persuade
us that we're going to be dancing in the aisles, because we do
not do that, and we will not do that. We have reverence and
fear marking our services. You can test those who claim
to be having a great time, test those if you ever come across
them on the television or wherever else, test those in their big
buildings with their hundreds and hundreds of people, not far
from us, test them who seem fearlessly familiar with the one they call
God, in what they claim to be God's presence, and where it's
so relaxed and so casual I can tell you the Spirit of God is
not there. The spirit of some false idol
is there, but not the spirit of God. But what is it that will
produce the filial fear of God in one of his people? What is
it that produces it? It's only when we know him. It's
only as we grow in knowledge of him. You see, what is it that
causes you to be afraid? It's either that you don't know
what's around the corner, and it might be something nasty,
Or, it's that you do know what's around the corner, and you know
for sure it's nasty. You know, it's one of those two things.
Why do you fear a lion? Why do you fear a lion? You know,
if I was to say to Timothy, and there was a lion's cage out there
with a great big lion in, and I would say, go in there and
give the lion a cuddle, he'd go, I'm not going in there, no
way. Why? Because he knows what a
lion can do. He knows it's a big strong animal that generally
speaking would regard him as a nice juicy lump of meat, you
know, so you wouldn't go in there. No, you know what it is. Well,
in the same way, God must reveal himself to you in the core of
your being so that you know the character of God, revealed by
the Holy Spirit. How does he do it? Through the
scriptures. Oh, we won't have any of this
extra scriptural outside of scriptural revelation. No, no, to the law
and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, there is no truth in them. Through the scriptures,
the Holy Spirit comes and applies to our knowledge, what God is,
who God is, what he's like, what he's done, of what he's capable,
his omnipotence, his omnipresence, his all-seeing eye, his holiness,
his justice, his redeeming love, his sovereign grace. And we fear
him because we know how there is nothing that he sets out to
do that he doesn't accomplish. If he says he will judge the
wicked, you know he will do it. There is no way of escape, you
know he will, where can I go from his presence? Says Psalm
139, where can I go, I can't flee from him, no. And when that
fear comes into your soul, that true, blessed, spiritual, filial
fear of God, I'll tell you what grows inside of you, an abhorrence
of evil and of sin. You more and more hate it. Oh,
I wish my flesh still sins, but I wish it wouldn't. I wish I
could stop it. I long for the day when I'm free of this flesh
that will not sin anymore. You've become increasingly dead.
You live in the world, you enjoy the things of the world, but
you become increasingly dead to the enticements of the world. They don't hold the absolutely
must have and I'll die if I don't get it allure that they used
to do. A desire to please God grows in you. A fear to offend
God grows in you. You live conscious that, every
step you take, you're in His gaze. Now, to those who have
experienced this filial fear of God by the Spirit's revelation
we read here in our text, they have the Lord's secret. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him. The secret of the Lord. The secret
of the Lord. What's the secret of the Lord?
What's he talking about? You see, the thing that marks
out a secret from that which isn't a secret is it's only known
by a few there's only a limited number that know it, is that
not true? you know, once it's out it's not a secret anymore
is it? a secret is known only to a few in John 15 and verse
15 Jesus said to his disciples henceforth I call you not servants
for a servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth but I have called
you friends for all things that I have heard of my father I have
made known unto you. You share your secrets with your
friends, don't you? Isn't that right? You share your
secrets with your, he says, you are my friends. Here are the
secrets of God, the secrets that I've heard from my heavenly father,
and I've made them known to you because you're my friends. When
I was at work in a fairly big company, the board of directors
didn't tell me One little bit about what their overall intention
was, the deals that they were planning to do and the direction
they were going, because we were all just servants that worked
there. They wouldn't do that. It's only the ones that are in
on the secret that get to know it. It's hidden from the majority. Jesus said about the truth of
the gospel, he said it's been hidden from those who think they
can get at it by worldly wisdom, the wise and the prudent, those
who think by their intellect and their prowess that they can
work it out for themselves. No, no, no. He says it's revealed
to babes. And you know the way that God
reveals his truth to babes? He tells us. Again, what's going
to tell us? The scriptures tell us, by the
foolishness of preaching, it pleased God. By the foolishness
of preaching, it pleased God to reveal his gospel to the objects
of his grace. Outward profession and religious
doings are no sign of the inward working of God's Spirit on the
soul. There's just no sign of it. Don't
be fooled by it. Those who fear the Lord, who
have that fear that comes from on high, share the secret of
the Lord. Now, here are some things that
this secret of the Lord involves, that the world that doesn't believe
doesn't have. The first one is that God exists. You say, oh, that's pretty obvious,
isn't it? It isn't to many, many, many. You ask people around,
does God exist? Well, I don't know. No, there's
no, I don't think there's any evidence for God existing. You'll
ask really intelligent people. They'll say, no, there's no,
no, not as far as I know. There's, there's no evidence
of God existing as far as I'm concerned, but Hebrews 11 verse
six, talking about faith says that we must believe that he
is, we believe that God exists. We believe that he is there.
The entrance of God's word gives us light. believing that he exists. We know this. The awareness of
the God who sees us. This is when Hagar left Abraham
and Sarah, and in Genesis 16, 13, she's there on her own, and
she becomes aware of the presence of God, and she says, Thou, God,
seeth me. Thou, God, seeth me. Have you got that awareness?
This is the secret of the Lord. that God sees us, that he exists,
that we walk. I look out of this window, and
I'm not constantly formulating words in my mind about it, I
just know God exists, he's in everything, absolutely everything. This is part of the secret of
the Lord, to know that God exists, and that knowledge has effects. Does it not? It suppresses sin. It suppresses it, dampens it
down. It sobers frivolity. It's good to be happy, but there
are times when frivolity can go too far. And this knowledge
of God can sober unrestrained frivolity. And gossip is not
a good thing, is it? Back-chatting about one another.
It restrains gossip. This knowledge of who God is
restrains gossip. And when we covet the things
of the world, this knowledge of God dampens covetousness. Read the articles in the bulletin.
And it demolishes. Well, we get proud and proud
of ourselves that this knowledge of God, are you going to go strutting
around bragging on how good you are and what you've done? Not
if you know the true God. It dampens, it demolishes pride
and hypocrisy. That's part of the secret of
the Lord. And the world around, and unbelievers, they say, we're
waiting for the evidence, then we'll fear God. Oh no, no, no,
no. You fear God, and he'll give
you his secret, that secret of inwardly knowing that God exists. Secondly, the secret of his providential
dealings with us, in all things, You know, we can over-spiritualize
things, but you know, we live every minute of every day under
the providential hand of God. Give us this day our daily bread,
and He does. He gives us all things necessary.
He may not give us what our flesh wants at times, but He gives
us all things necessary. All things work together for
good to those that love God, who are called according to His
purpose. All of it. We see everything. If we have his secret, we see
everything. The things that feel to the flesh
good, and the things that don't feel so good. The times of prosperity,
and the times of hardship. The times of health, and the
times of sickness we see us all being from the Lord. That's being
in on the Lord's secret. You who fear the Lord you know
the secret of the Lord. You live with a sense of his
presence as Jacob did when he was there in Genesis 28 and you
know he'd slept on a stone for his pillar and he'd seen the
ladder going up to heaven in his dream and he woke up in the
morning and he said Surely the Lord is in this place. What an
awesome place, what a dreadful place this is. And I didn't know
it. And now I... The Lord was in
the... And you live, if you have the secret of the Lord, in the
knowledge that wherever you are, or whatever you're doing, for
you believer, the Lord is in this place. Because you fear
the Lord. He gives you his secret. In all circumstances of life,
in trouble, in strife, There's a calming influence. That's the
secret of the Lord, knowing that he's there. There's then the
secret of communing with God in prayer. in prayer. What do
I mean? All-night prayer meetings? No,
I do not mean all-night prayer meetings. All-night prayer meetings
are what Pharisees call because they think they can twist God's
arm up his back. No, I'm talking about the secret of the Lord
which is communing with God because as one very wisely said, one
minute of true heart prayer is better than a whole day in mere
outward form. One minute of true heart prayer
is better than a whole day in mere outward form. The secret
of the Lord is feeling the power of gospel truth in the conscience.
I can tell you, like I said last week, I can tell you all those
truths of the gospel, how the Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied
the justice of God on behalf of his people in his death on
the cross, his blood shed, his life poured out, paying the Lord's
demand that the soul that sins it shall die. And I can say,
yes, yes, I tick all those boxes, but do you feel it in your heart?
Do you feel the power of it? Do you feel the power to know
that my sins are washed away? And that when I die, if I die
today or if I die in twenty years or whenever I die, I go straight,
this day you shall be with me in paradise. Do you know the
power of that? Do you know the feeling of that?
Do you know the blessing of that? That's to be in on the secret
of the Lord. You who fear him, that's to be
in on the secret of the Lord. You possess, next one, you possess
those blessed graces of faith and hope and love. That's the
secret of the Lord. Oh, I don't know anything. You
know, you tell me to believe, but I can't have faith. No, you
can't. You can't of yourself. It is the gift of God. pray that
he'll give you that fear of the Lord and bring you into his secret
to know his faith and the hope that comes from God and the love
of God and Knowing and here's another one Is this not part
of the secret of the Lord to those who fear him? The blessedness
of fellowship with others who believe the same, who are in
on the Lord's secret. I tell you, this is so, so important. You meet other religious folks,
you'll meet Reformed Baptists, you'll meet all sorts that will
say all the right doctrinal things You know, they think that they stand in
such a right place, but do you know something? You know what
it is when you have fellowship with others. Fellowship with
other believers who know the same thing as you do, who are
in on the Lord's secret. You know, we meet people from
thousands of miles away who know and trust and love and believe
the same gospel and the same Lord Jesus Christ, And when we're
in one another's company, is that not part of the secret of
the Lord? I mean, we get on with all sorts of people, but when
we're with them, oh, there is such an ease in one another's
presence, isn't there? So then, let me move on. Those
who fear the Lord He shows them His secret. The secret of the
Lord is with them. And those who have that secret,
they fear they have the secret of the Lord, He will show them
His covenant. He promises to show them His
covenant. And I'll be very quick finishing
this off. It says He will show them His covenant. In the future,
when those that are ordained to eternal life, Acts 13, 48,
When they are taught by God's Spirit to fear Him, when they
are brought to share His secret, then He shows them His covenant. What is it to show them His covenant?
What is the covenant He's talking about? He's talking about the
eternal covenant. The covenant that has always
been between the persons of the Godhead. God the Father in love
and grace chose a people in Christ before the foundation of the
world. God the Son undertook, undertook, symbolically, they
struck hands before time began to come and to redeem in the
body of a man to come and redeem to shed his blood to pay the
law's price for the sins of those people the father had loved and
given him the bride that he betrothed to Christ before the beginning
of time and the Holy Spirit undertook because you say there's a time
when I wasn't a Christian and now I am and that was the Holy
Spirit's work for he came and made alive you who were dead
in trespasses and sins he hath quickened together with himself
you who were dead. He's made you alive. Who? The
Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit. He's shown
you the covenant of sovereign election. Oh, man doesn't like
that because it's sovereign. I like to be sovereign. I like
to do what I want. No. When it comes to these things,
God is sovereign. He is the one who will be gracious
to whom he will be gracious. Of discriminating grace, he makes
a difference. There are some that he has chosen
to be redeemed by Christ, and there are multitudes that he
has chosen to pass by. Hence that hymn, Pass me not,
O gracious Saviour. Hear my humble cry. Whilst on
others thou art calling, please do not pass me by. And you know,
anyone that prays that prayer, he will not pass them by. The
covenant of particular redemption. for a specific people by Jesus
blood that he came to shed his blood not for the whole world
should they choose to believe him but for the people the father
gave to him the covenant of justification he was he was delivered for our
transgressions and raised from the dead for our justification.
Justified by what? What is it that justifies you?
When you stand before the throne of God, what is it that declares
you just? The fact that you are righteous.
The fact that you have the righteousness of God and he who knew no sin
was made sin. That we who believe this might
be made the righteousness of God in him. imputed righteousness. Now, those who deny or try to
hide these eternal truths, they demonstrate that they cannot
be those who have learned the fear of God, for if they did,
they would have seen His covenant. John 15 15 I call you my friends
for are all things that my father has shown me I have shown unto
you there are things that you can be shown that are very precious
but they will have no effect on your life in this last week
we went to Paris and we visited the Palace of Versailles and
I must say even though there was a strike on that day and
we only got to see a third of it, it was more than enough because
it was all we could fit in with the gardens in that day. If the
rest of the palace had been open we would have needed two or three
days to see it all. And it was, I have to say, without a shadow
of a doubt, it was the most magnificent palace I have ever been in. The
treasures in there are just unbelievable. It was wonderful to see. Wonderful
feast of the eyes. Lovely memories. But do you know
something? It has no effect on me. I mean, yes, yes, it affects
your emotions, you know, you go, oh wow, look at that. But
in terms of, does it make me any richer, does it make me any
poorer, does it make me live any longer? No, no, it doesn't
have any effect at all. but seeing God's covenant, seeing
the treasure, having that treasure revealed by the Spirit of God,
and the eternal interest that I have in it, that is utterly
transforming. Utterly transforming. This is
the experience of the true people of God. Ask yourself, is it my
experience? Is it your experience? If yes,
then rejoice that your name is written in heaven. If it isn't
your experience, but you desire it, oh, these have been sweet
words to your soul, oh, I want that, I want to know the blessing
of that, then seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him
while he is near. He will not turn you away. He
will save and he will accept and he will welcome All who come
to Him in repentance, trusting, He will not turn you away. All
that the Father gives me shall come to me, and he that comes
to me I will in no wise turn away. Amen.