If you held your place in Jeremiah
32, if you would turn there at this time. We live in a world
today that promotes something called security. Men desire to
be financially secure. Most homes have security systems. I bet I get a call once a week
about when somebody wants to install a free home security
system. Most banks have not only security
systems, but security guards. Most exclusive neighborhoods
have security gates. But is there really any security
in these things? That's what I want to talk to
you about for a few minutes this morning, about real security. And friends, it's the security
that is found in Christ Jesus. Now, what if the scriptures taught
that the forgiveness of sin was only up until the time that we
were converted? In other words, God paid for
all our past sin, but after He saved us, it was up to us. There
wouldn't be much security. And it would also cease to be
much of a gospel if you thought that way, because the gospel
means good news. That wouldn't be good news. If
God only paid for some of my sins, that wouldn't be good news
for me. Now, isn't it reasonable to think
that if I cannot in any way, shape, or form provide the righteousness
that God requires before He saves me, that there's no way I can
provide that righteousness after He does? Unless it be in my security,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And God wipes the slate clean
and it's up to me by works of my righteousness to keep the
slate clean, you'll fall and you'll fail. And there's no security
in what you can do. The evil in the old man of nature
still causes men and women's hearts to be deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked, even after God saves us, though
the inward man is perfect. That's a great mystery. The heart
of the fallen creature is great in wickedness, and the thoughts
of his heart, Scripture says, is only evil continually. Even after God saves me? Even
after God saves you. Now in the eyes of God, in the
Lord Jesus Christ, you're perfect. But you're still plagued. Every
day, every minute of every day, we're plagued. We're plagued
with that sin that so easily besets us. Now, hold your place
here in Jeremiah and turn with me to Romans 7 if you would. And I want to read starting in
verse 21. This is what the Apostle Paul
is saying. He says in verse 21 of Romans
7, he said, I find then a law that when I would do good, evil
is present with me. For I delight in the law of God,"
and notice those words, "...after the inward man." That part that
God's made new. That which is born again, the
incorruptible seed. Oh, I delight in the law of God. But, verse 23, I see another
law. Another law in my members warring
against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin, which is in my members. And he concludes concerning
himself in verse 24, Oh, wretched man that I am. Now, does he say,
Oh, wretched man that I was? He says, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Friends,
there's only one that can. And he says, I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. I don't find any security in
anything being left up to me for the way of appeasing righteousness
towards God. That's not good news, and I tell
you, there's no security in that. None whatsoever. So if it's true
that God only forgives some of our sin, wouldn't it be true
to say that we're no better off than we were before we were saved? We would have nothing but a dismal
outlook ahead of us if those things were true. Well, it surely
wouldn't be good news, I know that. It certainly would not
provide any real security. Now let me ask you, did Christ
die for all the sins of all the world? If He did, there would
be none in hell. And we know that there's a place
called hell. And we know that it exists. And
that there will be many that will dwell there in eternity.
Or did Christ die for some of the sins of all the world? Well, if that's true, then nobody
has any hope. If He only died for some of the
sins, then you cannot stand before God perfectly holy and righteous
as God requires. Or did He die for all the sins
of some? Those whom He chose and elected
before the world's foundation This book teaches that He died
for all the sins of some of the people. That's the teaching of
Scripture. That's what God's Word says.
Our Lord said, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them. Who? Those He chose. Those that
are His sheep. He says, them which thou hast
given Me, for they are thine. They're yours. You gave them
to Me. Either way, my friends, you're in the hands of God. In
John 13, He said, I speak not of you all. How plain is that? I'm not speaking to all of you. I know whom I have chosen. Matthew 26, our Lord said, for
this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many, not all,
many for the remission of sins. It doesn't say for some of the
sins, it says for the remission of all of them, but it's for
some. Many. And thank God, the scripture
says it will be a number no man can number. In Mark 10, he said,
for even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but
to minister and to give his life a ransom for the whole world? No, for many. Many. Not all. In Luke 13, he said,
you strive to enter in at the straight gate. For many I say
unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able. Not all,
but all God's sheep will enter in. All God's sheep will. Scriptures go on and on. Mark
14, and he said unto them, This is my blood of the New Testament
which is shed for many. So if such a gospel was one of
such where only some sins are forgiven, then those who believe
it would be complete strangers to any peace or joy. Where do
we find security? I find it in knowing that my
Lord paid my sin debt in full. Now will I continue to sin? Unfortunately. Because remember what Paul said,
there's a war going on in my members. But all my sin, past,
present, and future, paid, washed clean by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. For sinners that believe that
only God paid only for some of their sin and the rest is up
to them, there's nothing to waste them but a perpetual dread of
hell. For the sinner must be perfect
to be accepted according to Leviticus 22, 21. The sacrifice must be
perfect. How are we going to attain that?
How are we going to do that? Only one way. Just one. In Christ. I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions. Why? For my own sake. and will not remember thy sins. God doesn't only forgive our
sins, He forgets them. That's something we're not very
good at, you know. Well, I forgive you, but I won't forget it. It's
not forgiveness. God help us to truly forgive.
Now back in Jeremiah 32, he had it marked. I have three points I would have
you consider this morning. Three points from this amazing
verse. Let's read it again together
in verse 40. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good. He's talking about us particular
people here, isn't he? But I will put my fear in their
hearts that they shall not depart from me. Now what kind of covenant
does God make? It's an everlasting covenant.
It's an everlasting covenant. That's my first point. God's
covenant with his people is an everlasting covenant. And I pray
and hope that God continues to allow me to believe that that
word everlasting means just what it says, lasting forever. There's security there. The security that I have in Christ
is an everlasting covenant with God. And that means a covenant
that will never come to an end. Never. Lasting forever. And the first and main reason,
dear friends, why it's an everlasting covenant is because it's made
with us in Christ Jesus, a forever Savior, if I may use that term. The first covenant God made with
man was a covenant of works. It was made in Adam. God said
you can do whatever you like except for this one thing. It
was based upon His obedience to works, was it not? And what
did He do? He sinned against God and the
one thing that God told him not to do is the covenant of works. It was a covenant of works. The first Adam was faulty and
he failed because he could not bear the stress of his responsibility
and he sinned and the covenant was broken. But the surety of
the new covenant An everlasting covenant is our Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you that He cannot
fail. He is not faulty, but perfect. Perfect in every sense of the
word. He's the federal head of His
chosen, and He stands for us. And we're regarded as members
of His body. And He's our head. He's our mouthpiece. He's our representative. He's
our advocate when we stand before God. And God says, how do you
plead, sinner? And you can't say nothing but
guilty. And a voice comes from the back of the courtroom and
says, I died for Him. Mercy said, let that sinner go
free. Oh, Brother Ed Hale couldn't
have said it any better. Mercy! He said, let that sinner
go. Christ being God cannot fail. That's our security. That's a
security you can grab hold of and be confident in, my friends.
He is the new covenant. That's what Hebrews 12, 24 says. And to Jesus, the mediator of
what? The new covenant. It's a new
and a better covenant. And to the blood of sprinkling
that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Oh, this is a better,
much, much better covenant. It's an everlasting covenant.
And because the Lord Jesus represents all His believing people in the
covenant, therefore the covenant is everlasting because He's everlasting. Another reason this covenant
cannot fail, because the human side of it has been fulfilled.
Now what do you mean by that? Well, just like I said, Adam
failed. He failed miserably. But with
us, the human side of this thing has been fulfilled. The human
side might be regarded as the weak side, but when Christ our
Lord took on flesh and became a man, He was our representative. And everything was made right.
Made right by Christ for us. That human side has been taken
care of. So now it all rests on God. I can find security in that. He has at this very moment fulfilled
to the letter every stipulation required of you and I by God's
law. Every one. Every I perfectly
dotted and every T perfectly crossed. Oh, I'm telling you
friends, He is a surety. Don't you like that word? It's
a sure thing. Oh, in the first of the old covenant,
the human side, it failed. And that's why Paul said in Romans
8, for what the law could not do, why? In that it was weak
through the flesh. He was weak through the flesh.
The law was never given for man to keep. It was given to show
man his inability of keeping. And in doing so, God sent His
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and bore sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. Oh, I like that. You know, I
think sometimes, too, we pass by those three little words in
that verse, and for sin. We pass by them too quickly.
I mean, it's such a rich verse. The law is weak through the flesh. And that's what we are, weak
flesh. God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Oh, what a blessing and what
wonderful news that is. And we rejoice in hearing those
words. And then it says, and for sin.
And we just kind of pass right over them. Condemn sin in the
flesh. Even though Christ was perfect,
just, and innocent, friends, He underwent punishment for sinners. And for sin. Don't you pass by
those words without any thought. No sir, he was made sin and the
price of redemption was paid and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh. He didn't just wave a magic wand. No sir, he took our place and
he died on the cross as the guiltiest man that ever lived. That his
people might have life. Eternal life. Everlasting covenant. Oh, can you find security in
that? Christ magnified the law of God and He made it honorable
by His obedience to it. Now listen, He met all the demands
of morality. Men today are still trying to
be moral. And you know, I commend that. We ought to endeavor to
live like men who believe the Gospel. The problem is we just
can't. We're going to fail. We're going
to fall. I heard this one time, and I can't remember now who
said it, but I had it written down in an older Bible of mine. It says, the law is more glorified
by His atoning death than it was dishonored by man's sin. And it is. And it was. Romans 5.20 says, Moreover, the
law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded,
what grace did much more abound. A friend's God in divine sovereignty
determined to deal with men not according to merit, but according
to mercy. That's where your security lies.
If it was in merit, you'd be in trouble. You'd be bound for
hell. But God delights to show mercy.
He's never turned down anyone ever. That's why I love those
two words, whosoever will. God makes you willing. But whosoever
will, never been turned down, never been denied. It's not according
to merit, but according to mercy. according to His merit, not mine. God determined not to deal with
men according to their personal character. Aren't you glad? But according to the character
of Christ. It was not according to what
men might do, but according to what the Lord Jesus Christ did. What He performed in their place. Sovereign grace declares that
He'll have mercy upon whom He'll have mercy. He'll have compassion
on whom He'll have compassion. And in Christ, He had compassion
on me. That's where my security is.
That's where mine is. I think about all these
little cute signs and things that they put on church bulletin
boards. Remember one said, turn right
and go straight. That's the way to heaven. I can't drive. I can't walk. I can't hitch a
ride. I'm dead. Dead in trespasses
and sin. Don't tell me what I got to do.
I can't do nothing. The covenant that I'm talking
about which saves men according to God's will and good pleasure
is founded upon the rock, the solid rock, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And God's free grace is always the same in Him. We have an everlasting
covenant because, in my second point, the God of the covenant
is unchanging. That's why we have an everlasting
covenant. God is unchanging. He's the same
yesterday and today and forever. God is not a son of man that
He should repent, change His mind. No, He's the same. He's unchanging. Does God leave
us to ourselves after He forgives our past sin? That was the proposition
that I brought up in the beginning. No. Look what He says in verse
40. I'll make an everlasting covenant
with them that I will not turn away from them." That sounds
like a pretty secure deal to me. Here we have an everlasting
covenant, and it's everlasting because we have an unchanging
God, and He is a God who cannot lie, and He says, I will not
turn away from them. And friends, I got better news
than that. He says, I will not turn away
from them to do them good. He'll not cease to work good
for His people. The Lord's always doing good
for His people. Always. Oh, even when I lose
a loved one, He's working that for your good. Even when I have
a bill I can't pay, He's working that for your good. Even when
I'm in sickness and near death, it's all for your good. He won't turn away from them
to do them good. That's what He said. Never stops doing good. He promises
here that He'll never stop blessing His people. Never. Not only will
He always love us, but He will always prove His love for us
by sovereign providence, active kindness, and eternal blessings.
Oh my, what security! What security! He's pledged by
His own namesake to continue the gifts and the work of His
goodness. And what He's actually saying,
to put this in more in terms that maybe we can understand,
even though that's pretty plain to me. He's saying, I will not
cease blessing them. I will continually, everlastingly
be doing them good. That's God's promise to His people.
Now we either believe God or we don't. Well, do you believe
me? Not like I should. But Lord,
help thou my unbelief. If anybody's ever said anything
is true, friends, it's God Almighty. This God Almighty. If He said
He would, then He surely will. And that's reason enough, isn't
it? That's reason enough. Well, what about their unworthiness? Well, He began to do good to
us when we were unworthy. To begin with, while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. He began to do us good when
we were dead in trespasses and sin. He began to do good to us
when we were enemies of rebels and under condemnation. God commended
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Now that's the teaching of the
Bible. Do you believe the Bible? Then your unworthiness doesn't
have anything to do with it. The same as your faithfulness
doesn't have anything to do with it. There's no scarlet secret
sin which has been left unpaid. The Lord said Himself, Come now,
let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. God doesn't turn away from us
to do us good. The Word of God says, Though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. They shall
be, shall be, shall be. He entered into a covenant, friends,
that promises that He would not turn away from us to do us good.
In no circumstances, nothing can arise that can change His
desire for us or to us. He desires to do us good. Whether
we see it or realize it or not, He does. God never changes. When He entered into an everlasting
covenant with us, we were but sinful, fallen, depraved. But
He promised to do us good when He saved us by His grace. And
friends, today I still groan. Oh, I groan over my evil nature. But I have a safe and a secure
promise. And you do too. that trust in
Christ, that God will always be about to do good to me. God
now sees me in Christ. I was and still am without strength,
but Christ died for the ungodly. An undeserving object of whom
He's pleased to show mercy. That's all I am. That's all I
am. And I'm still undeserving, but
by His grace, He continues to do me good. Oh, I can't find
a secure place than that. Do you know why I'm secure? It's
for one reason, one reason alone. God has placed me in the hand
of His dear Sovereign Son. He put me in His body. We're
members of His body, His flesh and His bone. He sees us in Christ
our Lord. He sees us to have died, to have
been buried with Him, to have been risen with Him. And as the
Lord Jesus Christ is well pleasing to God the Father and Him, so
are we. So are we. Our being in Him identifies
us with Him. And our acceptance with God stands
only on the footing, my friends, of Christ's acceptance with God. It stands firmly and securely. And it's for certain that our
God will not turn away from us or do us good. If you ever believed
anything I've ever told you, believe that. Because it's God
that promised it, not me. Now, if we stand before God in
our own individual righteousness, I'm telling you, our ruin will
be sure and speedy. No security in that. But in Christ,
our life is hid beyond anything that is not for our eternal good.
Third thing, We will continue forever in the everlasting covenant. That's a pretty obvious third
point, isn't it? What does he say here? He says,
I will put my fear in their hearts. Notice those last words, that
they shall not depart from me. Oh, may we rejoice in those last
six words which prove God's preservation and our God-given perseverance.
They shall not depart from me. The salvation of those who are
in this everlasting covenant with God is herein provided by
an absolute promise of the omnipotent God. Now, this is not some weak,
helpless God trying to do something. This is God. And it's going to
be carried out. You can count on it. It's plain,
it's clear, it's unconditional. They shall not depart from me. That blessed verse does not say
they shall be saved though they shall depart from me. That is
not what it says. But it's promised by none other
than God who cannot change and he says they shall not depart
from me. Woe unto them that depart from the living God. They're
going to perish. and with them no covenant of peace can be made."
But notice that our persevering, don't get proud about that now,
because your persevering does not come by works that you do. It's by the same sovereign grace
that saved you that God keeps you. And it doesn't come without
the removal of temptation. Now, does it say, I'll put them
where they shall not be tempted? No. It does not promise that
we shall not be tried, that we may not see poverty, sin, tribulations. Well, the Lord doesn't take His
people out of the world, but He allows us to fight the battle
of life while in this world. Does God remove us from conflict?
No. No. He gives us the victory over
conflict. We're as tempted as our Lord
was, but we have a way of escape, and it's provided by Him. We
may be tempted, but we shall not be overcome. And friends,
though we sin in Christ, our sin debt is paid and forgiven,
and therefore we cannot depart from God. cannot depart. By His sovereign grace, we'll
hold on to Him. You know why? Because He holds
on to us. No man can pluck them from my
hand. And we live in Christ by the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We don't preach that men may
depart from God and live. That's not what we preach. We
preach that God's elect shall not depart from Him. They can't. We'll never depart from Him because
He's put a reverential fear of honor and respect in our hearts. Friends, salvation begins with
the Lord and it ends with the Lord. We had nothing to do with
being saved and we don't have anything to do with being preserved. Salvation is of the Lord in its
entirety. I'll put my fear in their hearts. A child of God. simply believes
God to keep them. I trust God to keep me faithful.
I sure don't trust me to be faithful. I trust him to keep me faithful. My security, and if I'd have
you take anything with you, would be this. The only true security
that any of us have is in what God says right here. And I will
make. God made it. I'll make just a
covenant with Him. No, I'll make an everlasting
covenant with them, those that He chose. That I will not turn
away from them. Oh, that's good news in itself,
but He's not going to turn away from us to do us good. I'll put
my fears in their hearts and they shall not, shall not depart
from me. That's my security. Isn't that
yours? That's all the security we've
got.