Well, I was looking over the
notes for tonight. I thought about Joe Terrell less
than three months ago. He stood up in the pulpit and
preached what he didn't know was his last message. And I'm
sure that that has been a very much listened to message. I certainly
listened to it. And I thought with regard to
this message I'm preaching tonight, would I be happy if this was
the last message I ever preached? I can't say before the fact that
it is because I haven't preached it yet. I've heard preachers
get up on numerous occasions saying, I've got a word from
you, and I'm thinking, Why don't you wait till afterwards before
you say that? We'll find out. But I hope that this will be
a message that I would be very pleased for it to be my last
message. I've entitled this message, The
Blood of the Covenant. The Blood of the Covenant. This is the closing statement
of this glorious epistle to the Hebrews, and there are no scriptures
that eclipse these two verses I just read of gospel truth. Let's read them again. I'm actually
going to look at verse 21 next week. I'm not going to say much
about it. I want to spend a whole message on that, but let's read
these words again. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. make
you perfect in every good work to do His will working in you
that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now in these two verses we read
of the work of all three persons of the Trinity in his glorious
salvation. The work of the Father and the
Son is found in verse 20 and the work of the Spirit is found
in verse 21. And I love the way he begins,
now the God of peace. You know that's said five times
in the New Testament, the God of peace. Five being the number
of grace, the God of peace. Now, if salvation is by grace,
all of grace, I have peace. Now, if you introduce anything
that I must do before I can be saved, I have no peace. But if
salvation is all together by the grace of God, I have peace.
I love it when Paul opens his epistles, grace to you and peace
from God, our father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called the God of heaven,
the God of earth, the God of glory. Don't you love that? The
God of hope. The God of all grace. The God
of love. The God of patience. He's never
wringing his hands back and forth. He's patient. The God of all
comfort. And the God of peace. I think
of the peace of God. He's never worried. I think once
you think about how much you and I worry about circumstances,
making wrong decisions, we worry. We shouldn't. It's a sin. You
know that and I know that, but we do. We worry. What if? What if? Thoughts never cross
God's glorious mind. He's the God of peace. And I love that scripture in
Colossians chapter one, verse 20, where it says with regard
to the Lord Jesus Christ, having made peace by the blood of his
cross. Now let that sink in. He made your peace. Have you
made your peace with God? No, Christ made my peace with
God. Oh, what a name, the God of peace. Where there's grace, there's
peace. You see, grace is God's response
to what he has done in Christ. Works. or God's response to what
you have done. The only place I find peace is
God's response to what His Son has done. Ephesians 2 14 puts
it this way, He is our peace. The God of peace that brought
again from the dead the Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep through the blood, of the everlasting covenant. Now, I want to talk about the
everlasting covenant. There's not a phrase in this
verse I want to leave out, but I want to talk about the everlasting
covenant. That's what God the Holy Spirit
calls it. The everlasting covenant, the covenant beyond time. It began. Well, the fact of the
matter is it never began. It's always been in eternity.
Nothing began in eternity. It's always been and it always
will be the blood of the everlasting covenant. Now God deals with
all men through covenant. His dealings with you and with
me and with everybody else is through a covenant. God is a covenant-making, covenant-keeping
God. The New Testament is the new
covenant. The old covenant and the new
covenant. Now there is the two covenants. There's only two. I've heard
people say, well, there's seven covenants. No, there are two
covenants. The covenant of works and the covenant of grace. The
old covenant and the new covenant. Now the new covenant is infinitely
older than the old covenant. But there are two covenants.
The covenant of works, the covenant of grace. The covenant of works
is the covenant that God made with Adam in the garden. And
I think of this, this is, he could eat of any tree in the
whole garden. There's only one tree he was
forbidden to eat of. Now you'd think he could keep
that. I would almost think I could keep that one. I mean, if I had
all kinds of good stuff in the other ones and just that one,
I couldn't, but I couldn't. Neither could you. You would
fail as he did. That is the covenant of work. Salvation conditioned upon what
you do. I think Paul makes it so clear
in Galatians chapter 4 when he says, this is Mount Sinai. He
calls this Mount Sinai, the giving of the law, the covenant of works.
And it's where Sarah said, Abraham, we've waited 10 years. Nothing
is going to happen unless we do our part. We're not going
to have a baby unless we do our part. I know God promised that,
but we need to do our part. You go into Hagar, and through
that means us doing our part, we'll have this child that God
has promised. And God never acknowledges Ishmael
as a child. He said, take now by son, by
only son, Isaac, whom you love. Ishmael is never acknowledged
by God as a child. The covenant of works is we must
do our part before God can do his part. That's the covenant
of works. And then there is the covenant
of grace. The one God made with Christ
before time began. The covenant of pure, free, undiluted,
absolute grace. You know what's amazing? Much more people would prefer
to be under the covenant of works than the covenant of grace. They
actually prefer that. That's what they choose. But
let me say this. God will meet you on the ground
you want to come. If you want to come on the ground
of pure, free, sheer, absolute grace, he'll meet you there.
And if you want to come on the footing of your own works, he'll
meet you there. So don't anybody say, well, how in this thing
of grace, it's not fair for God to elect some and not elect everybody
and Christ to die for some and not die for everybody. Why didn't
he save more people and all the kind of things that we make objections. Remember this, any son of Adam,
God will meet you on the ground you want to come. You want to
come on the ground of pure, free grace. God will meet you right
there. And if you want to come on the
ground of your works, God will meet you there too. He'll meet
you on the ground that you come. Now, the covenant of grace, what
Paul calls everlasting covenant, was made before there was a creation,
before there was a universe, When there was nothing but God,
there was no matter, there was nothing material, all there was
was God in the Trinity of His sacred persons, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now they made a covenant
with one another called the covenant of peace in the scripture. This
is a scriptural term, the covenant of peace. God the Father decided
to save a vast multitude of people. And he gave them to his Son on
the condition that the Son save them and pay for their sins and
give them perfect righteousness. And God the Holy Spirit agreed
to give those the Father elected and the Christ died for life. Life from the dead. This was
a covenant made between the three persons of the Godhead. Now, why did God make this covenant?
He was not under compulsion. It couldn't add to his happiness
in himself. It's not like he needed to do
this. But I love what the Lord said when he said, I thank thee,
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you've hid these
things, these things of the covenant. from the wise and prudent, and
revealed them unto babes, even so, father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. That's the only reason it's needed.
If it seems good in his sight, it's good, isn't it? We really
believe that. That's the only reason, that's
the only answer. If it's good in his sight, it's
good in our sight too. This is who He is. Now, in this
covenant, God foresaw the fall because it was a part of His
eternal purpose, which He purposed in Christ Jesus the Lord. Could
God have prevented Adam from eating that fruit? Answer that. Of course He could have. Of course
He could have. But He didn't. Why? Because of
His eternal purpose, which He purposed in Christ Jesus the
Lord before the fall took place, He'd elected out of the fallen
race a vast number of sinners to save. According as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. I love the way
Romans 9 puts it, and the Holy Spirit puts it this way so we
can hear what's being said. These are the words of the Holy
Spirit for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth." You know
the only thing that would prevent somebody from loving election
is self-righteousness. You think there's some way you
could save yourself and this is taking away your hope. But
if you're a sinner, this is where salvation begins. God's choice,
not yours. And you love it that way. God
the Father elected a people to be the bride of his son. Now don't think there's anything
special about you. There's not. There's nothing special about
me. But there is something special in the sense that he's made me
the bride of his son. That's it. That's special. I've been given to Christ to
be his bride, and Christ in this covenant agreed. They're yours,
but they're going to fall, and you're going to have to save
them, and you're going to have to do it by yourself. And Christ did
it by himself. He took my sin and paid for it. and he took
his righteousness and gave it to me, he made all of his elect
his holy bride. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blame. before him. And in this covenant,
God, the Holy Spirit agreed to give these people who would fall
in Adam and die. He said, I'll give them life.
I'll give them faith. I'll give them repentance. I'll
give them a new heart. They're going to be yours. Now, all this was done before
the foundation of the world. Remember, Christ is called in
Revelation 13, eight, the lamb having been slain from the foundation
of the world. All the works the writer to the
Hebrews said in Hebrews chapter four, verse three, were finished
from the foundation of the world. The objects of this covenant
are the elect of God. He said, I pray for them. These
are the words of the Lord. I pray not for the world, but
for them which you have given me. And I love that the divinely
inspired writer calls this the everlasting covenant. Would you turn with me to a familiar
scripture, 2 Samuel chapter 23. These are David's dying words. Now, I try to put myself in David's
place if I knew I was dying. What would I be thinking about?
What would you be thinking about if you were dying? David could
have remembered what happened with Bathsheba and how he murdered
her husband and brought such sorrow into his home for the
rest of his life. The Lord said, the sword's not
going to depart from your home. And it didn't. He could have
been thinking about that or how he numbered the children of Israel
and caused 24,000 people, no, 70,000 people to die. It was
all his fault. He could have thought of all kinds of terrible
things that took place during his life. And he could have thought
about how God blessed him. Do you know the scripture says
with regard to this man, David, the fear of David fell on every
nation. He became the most powerful,
influential man in the world. He was the sweet psalmist of
Israel. He was the one God called. He's a man after my own heart.
His heart beats. with mine." What a commendation.
I'm sure David knew that the Lord said that. But what does
David speak of when he's speaking, when he's giving his last words? Now look in verse 5, 2 Samuel
chapter 23, verse 5. Although my house be not so with
God, yet hath he made with me David, the beloved. And if I'm a child
of God, just as much as he made this with David, he made this
with me. He made this with you. Your name. Somebody says, well, I thought
that he made this man was shut out and that this covenant was
only made between the three persons of the Godhead. Well, this covenant
was made before time began. David wasn't around. And me and
you certainly weren't around, but this covenant was made for
all of his people. So David could say, and you could
say, although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made
with me. This is personal. Yet hath he
made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure. Now, an everlasting covenant. If it's eternal, there's nothing
can be added to it. There's nothing can be taken
away from it. There are no scenarios where it could be changed if
it's eternal. There's nothing that we can do
to mess it up. There's no way we can fail to
be saved because it's ordered in all things. And sure. Don't you love that language?
I love it when Paul said all the promises of God in him are
yea, not yea, nay. Yes, under this condition, no
under that. No, they're all yea and amen to the glory of God. Thanks be unto God who always
causes us to triumph in Christ. Now, David says, although my
house be not so with God. You know, in David's home, he
had his kids raping one another, murdering one another, and two
of them tried to tear him from the throne. And there was a coup
twice in his home, and he had to run for his life. And the sorrow that remained
in his life remained throughout his lifetime. And he had the
pain of knowing, it's my fault. The Lord told me, sword's never
gonna depart from my house. It's my fault. Truly, my house
is not so with God. And I also have no doubt that
he was talking about this house. The body is called our house
that we live in in the scriptural several times. And he's looking
because he's got a holy nature, because he's a new man in Christ
Jesus. He can recognize the sinfulness of his body. And he's saying,
although my house be not so with God yet. Yet hath he made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, no loose ends,
and sure, absolutely sure. And look what David says about
this. He says, this is all my salvation. Can you say that with
David? That all your salvation is in
the covenant? Well, if you're in the covenant,
that's what you will say. You'll say right along with David, this
is all my salvation. How much, David? All my salvation. And it's all my desire. This
is the only way I want it. I don't want it any other way.
Like Paul said in Philippians 3, 9, oh that I may win Christ
and be found in him, not having my own righteousness. I don't
want to have anything to do with that. But that which is through
the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness which is of God
by faith. That's all my salvation. That's all my desire. And then
he makes this unusual statement. though he make it not to grow." Now, does that mean there's something
missing? A little bit? It'd be better
if it would grow, although he make it not to grow. Now, this
word, although, can also be translated and is often translated, because. Because. This is all my salvation,
and all my desire because he makes it not to grow. Now, if
it could grow, it's not perfect, is it? It's not immutable. It's not
eternal. But you see, in this thing of
God's covenant, there is no growth. Now, in life, there's growth
and grace. We're thankful for that, aren't
we? I love growing in grace. I want to grow in grace. But
in this thing of salvation, there is no growth. Here's what I mean
by this. I can't get any more loved by
God than I am. I can't get any more righteous
before God than I already am. I can't get any more accepted
by God than I am. I can't get any more holy before
God than I am. This is not something that knows
of growth. Can God grow? Of course not. He's infinite.
He's immense. He knows of no increase or decrease. And this salvation is the same
way because it's of the Lord. It knows no growth. If it can
grow, it can get smaller, too. That's what scares me. If it
could grow, it could get smaller. I don't have anything to do with
that. I want this eternal, immutable salvation that knows no Perfect in Christ Jesus. Incapable of becoming better
or worse. It's all my salvation and all
my desire. Now let's go back to our text
in Hebrews chapter 13. If I did die tonight, I don't
think I will, I might. But you know, the only thing
that would give me comfort if I knew you're going to die in an hour,
this would comfort me. This is the only place I would
find true comfort in this covenant. I'd be scared to death if it
wasn't for this covenant. But I could face death and say,
come on, my dear friend, because of this covenant, I'll be made
just like Christ. Now, look what he says in Hebrews
13. If I can get back to it. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of
the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Now
this is why this covenant is so sure because the God of peace brought
again from the dead. the Lord Jesus, that great shepherd
of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. What a name for the Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep. The same one of whom David said,
the Lord's my shepherd, I shall not want. He said, I lay down
my life for the sheep. He actually died. Why? There's
only one reason for death. Sin. That's the only reason he
died. Because of sin. But he never
committed a sin. That's true. He never committed
a sin. But my sin became his sin. He bore it in his own body
on the tree. When he drank of that cup, he
was drinking the sins of the people. And I want you to think
of even the last sin you committed. He bore that sin, as vile and
filthy as it is, in his own body on the tree. And you know what
he did with that sin when he died? He put it away. That's why his body never went
through the process of decay. The moment he died, all the sins
he died for were gone, canceled. They are no more. And His perfect
righteousness, His glorious perfect obedience is given to every believer. He died as our substitute. He
took my place. He bore my sin. He took my sins
and my sorrows. He made them His very own. He
bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. But He didn't stay dead. He was
brought again from the dead by the God of peace. He did something that no one
else could do by his death. He completely satisfied God. He completely satisfied everybody
Christ died for. I mean, everybody that Christ
died for, he's satisfied with them. He's satisfied with me.
He's not looking for anything else. Every believer has been
justified. Don't miss this word, the blood
of the everlasting covenant. Why blood? Why can't he just
forgive sin? He tells us to. Why can't he
just forgive sin? Why blood? When we think that
way, we show what little regard we have toward sin. If I murdered
your son or daughter, And then I said, just forgive me. How
would you respond? Okay. No. You wouldn't respond that way.
If I said, you need to forgive me. I know you wouldn't. Somebody says, yeah, I would.
No, you wouldn't. God is holy. Sin must be punished. And Jesus Christ took the punishment
for the wickedness of our sin and put it away. The blood of
the everlasting covenant. And the fact that it's everlasting
tells us of the finality of this covenant. You know that we read,
I've talked about the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
but it's actually called a book. The book of the names which are
written. in the book of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And it also speaks of those names
who are not written in the book of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, which shows us the finality of this glorious
work of the Lord before time, the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Now, the Passover. This speaks of the blood of the
everlasting covenant, the Passover, which typifies the Lamb who was
slain from the foundation of the world. The Lamb of God is God the Lamb. Now this Lamb
that was to be selected, the physical Lamb, obviously couldn't
put away sin, but it was to picture the Lamb of God. This lamb had
to be without spot or blemish. It had to be a perfect lamb. That speaks of the perfection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, his perfect life, his obedience. And they had to watch it for
14 days. Fourteen days! Where did that
number come from? Well, 14 is two times seven.
Two perfections. The two perfect natures of Jesus
Christ. Perfectly God, just as if He
were not man at all. Perfect manhood, just as if He
were not God at all. What a glorious person. The Lord
Jesus Christ. He was a divinely appointed sacrifice, You know, before time began,
he was the sacrifice. And I love thinking about this.
The universe was created for his sacrifice. That's why there's
a creation. The fall took place because of
his sacrifice. I love saying this, the sacrifice
of Christ wasn't a response to the fall of Adam. The fall of
Adam was for the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how glorious he is. Now, what was the one thing that
God was looking for? One thing. He did not say when I see your
faith. He did not say when I see your repentance. He did not say
when I see your sorrow over sin. He did not say when I see your
strivings against sin. He said, when I see the blood. When I see the blood. Nothing else. When I see the
blood. What was the one thing he was
looking for? The blood, nothing else. When I see the blood, I
will pass over you the blood, nothing more, nothing else. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on
high. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. I love what Top Lady said, could
my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no respite know? These for sin could not atone.
Thou must save and thou alone. What was the one condition? When I see the blood. Not when you see it. When I see
the blood. That's the one condition. Not
when you see it. When I see the blood. The father raised from the dead,
the great shepherd of the sheep. And he says, when I see his blood,
I will pass over you. Now there's a phrase in Romans
chapter three, verse 25, faith in his blood. That's Bible. Let me make sure
you see it. Turn to Romans three. Verse 25, whom God hath set forth,
and my marginal reading says foreordained, whom God hath foreordained
to be a propitiation, a sin-removing sacrifice through faith in His
blood. Now, I have faith in His person,
and that's where faith in His blood comes from. That's why
I have faith in His blood, because of who He is. faith in his blood."
My soul, I'm asking myself this question, do you have faith in
his blood? Do you really believe what God
said when he said, when I see the blood I will pass over you? Do you believe that? Can you
say with Paul, God forbid that I should glory Save in the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ, where his blood was shed, by whom the
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. How precious that blood is. Let me ask you another question. Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? If you are, the blood was shed
for you. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom Paul said, I am the chief. Faith in
his blood. Bless God, I do have by his grace,
faith in his blood. Now let's just read. Verse 21,
I'm going to consider that next week, but the reason is verse
21 is because of what is said in verse 20. Because of this
blood of the everlasting covenant, here's what happens by His Spirit
in our experience. Make you perfect in every good
work to do His will working in you. Him working in you. That which is well pleasing in
His sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. I'm so thankful for that Lord, bring it again.
The Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep
through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
covenant you made with your son and with your spirit. to save those
you've given to be the bride of your son. And Lord, we're
so thankful that you will meet us on the ground we come. Lord, we come only on the ground
of thy grace, thy everlasting covenant ordered in all things
and sure. Lord, this is all of our salvation
and all of our desire. Lord, give us the grace to say
with David, the man after your own heart, although my house
be not so with God, yet have you made with me an everlasting
covenant ordered in all things insure. And this is all my salvation. This is all my desire. Though
he make it not to grow. Bless these words for the glory
of your son and our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.