to require your attention, because
it's not the type of message, it is a study is what it is,
it's not the type of message that perhaps appeals to most
people, but I think that when we're finished this evening that
you will have profited from this study of the covenant of grace. And when we think of studying
the redemption of fallen man, There are some things that ought
to be reviewed first. And I want you to remember this.
In one sense, God could have left man to be punished in his
sin and to die his condemnation. In one sense, God could have
passed man by. Now, God's justice might have
upheld the penalty of the law, and God's righteousness and God's
holiness might have executed the severest penalty on the ungodly
without redeeming a single one, and God would have been just.
And also God's glory is complete without the manifestation of
mercy to sinners. I thought about that a long time.
I read that in a systematic book of theology, checked it with
two or three places. God's glory would have been complete
without the manifestation of mercy to his creatures. And we
have to remember that God was just as glorious before he made
man as after he made man. So the making of man and the
redemption of man did not add to God's, the glory of his character,
the glory of his person, the glory of his being. He's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. Now, I wrestled a long time,
several years ago, with a statement that Brother Barnard And he took issue with men like
Gil and others who, I believe John Gil made this statement,
I know several others have, I know Dick's Theology makes this statement,
that God could have left man without redemption entirely. God could have saved everybody
or God could have damned everybody. And Roth said this, God being
God could not have damned everybody. Now God's justice would be served
in the damnation of everybody, right? God's glory would have
been served in the damnation of everybody, because God gets
glory in the manifestation of his justice and his righteousness.
In other words, when he sends sinners to hell, even the wrath
of man shall glorify or praise the Lord. But God's mercy and
God's love could not have been served in the damnation of every
body. God's mercy and God's love demands
expression, the same as God's justice and God's truth and God's
holiness demands expression. If you only see Brother Ronnie
Lewis when he's mad, you don't know Ronnie Lewis, because he's
not mad all the time. Sometimes he's happy, sometimes
he's manifesting, well, almost all the time, But now you may
catch him in a moment when he's severely angry. Well, that's
not Ronnie. You're just seeing one side.
And God sending sinners to hell, and God passing by men and leaving
them in their rebellion, and even God reprobating sinners,
that's not the whole. You don't see all of God there.
You see Christ cleansing the temple with a whip and driving
out the money changers? You don't see all of God there.
but Christ reaching out and putting his hand on the head of little
children, saying, Suffer the little children that come unto
me, and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of heaven.
You don't see all of God there. But throughout the life of Christ
and the death and burial and resurrection and the ascension
of Christ, you see the glory of God complete, the divine full
revelation. So that's what Roth said, and
as I said, I wrestled over that a little while, because all of
these Calvinistic theologians of the past seem to agree with
one another that God could have saved everybody or damned everybody.
But it's just not, it's just actually not true. It's just
not true, because God delights in mercy as well as justice. And God's divine attributes are
revealed in justice, but they're also revealed in love and in
mercy. God is truth, but God is love. God is holy, but God is merciful. And that mercy demands expression,
just as much as that justice demands expression. But now,
if this redemptive plan is left up to man, then no one will be
redeemed. If this redemptive plan, this
redemptive mercy, is left up to man, it will fall on no one.
Because Christ said, men love darkness rather than light. You
will not come to me that you might have light. Therefore,
the source of redemption, the motivating strength and power
of redemption, the whole plan of redemption, the whole dispensation
of mercy to mankind has as its foundation an eternal agreement
or an eternal covenant between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Now, that covenant, the word contract can be used. I'm going
to show you how covenant is used in the Bible in different senses.
But man didn't have anything to do with this covenant, this
redemptive plan, this redemptive purpose, because it was made.
There are two reasons why man didn't have anything to do with
it. Number one, because it was made before man existed. And
the second reason is, there's nothing he could contribute to
it. It's the covenant of mercy, the covenant of grace, because
of the origin of it and because of the subject of it. Now this
is true, and you always remember this. This is one of the first
things I learned in trying to study theology. All of God's
dealings with man, I don't care who the man is, from Adam to
the last wonder, enter this life. All of God's dealings with man
have a covenant nature, all of them, every one of them. God
will not deal with sinners except on the basis of a contract or
purpose or covenant. Now that's certain. Now here's
something that will astound you. The word covenant is used in
the scriptures over 250 times. I preached a sermon on prayer
the other morning on the radio, and I said this morning the word
prayer occurs in the Bible over 250 times. And you hear people
talk about prayer. They use the word prayer all
the time. And preachers preach about prayer. Brother So-and-so
leads us in prayer. and prayer, let us pray for one
another. And I found out the word prayer
is used in the Bible about 250 times, but today I was going
down the Concordance reading scriptures on the covenant, and
I found out that the word covenant is used in the Bible just as
much as the word prayer is used. And yet I don't hear anybody
talking about the covenant, John. I don't hear anybody preaching
on the covenant. I rarely ever hear the word. In fact, there
are people sitting right here who don't even know what the
covenant is, and it's used 250 times in the Bible, just as much
as prayer. God only deals with man on the
basis of a covenant. He always has and always will,
and he has now. And it's time we found out what
the covenant is all about, this covenant of mercy, this covenant
of grace. Now then, the first covenant
to be revealed, the first covenant to be revealed on this earth. Now, this is not the first covenant.
The first covenant is the everlasting covenant. This covenant we're
about to read about now is not an everlasting covenant because
it had a beginning and it had an ending. It had a beginning
and it had an ending. This everlasting covenant is
from eternity to eternity, it's everlasting. Now turn to Genesis
chapter 2. Here is the first covenant or
contract or agreement. The word covenant means agreement.
And when you have a covenant, you've got to have two parties.
You've got to have two parties to have a covenant. And you've
got to have some basis between those. First of those two parties
have to have a will. They have to represent opposites
or represent disagreement or represent something on which
they're going to agree. It has to be the possibility
of disagreement to have a covenant. So here is the covenant, Genesis
2, verse 16, that God made with Adam. This is the covenant of
works. And the Lord God commanded the
man, Genesis 2, verse 16, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. I'm making a covenant with
you. That's what God is saying. I'm
making an agreement with you. Here's a tree. What it was, we
don't know. But we know what it represented.
And God said, Adam, if you eat of this tree, you're going to
die. If you leave it alone, you'll live. Now, Adam, God gave those
directions to Adam, and Adam's responsibility in this covenant
was to obey God. This do and live. If you don't
do it, you'll die. That's the covenant between God
and Adam. Adam, if long as you keep my
word, you'll live. When you disobey me, you're going
to die. And that was the agreement. Now, how long it lasted, we don't
have any idea, but we know that Adam broke the contract. Adam
broke the agreement. And Adam broke the covenant.
And Adam died. And that covenant has no more
effect at all, except the curse of it and the condemnation of
it. And the damnation as a result
of it is upon you and me. But now what's the second thing
now about the word covenant? Sometimes the word covenant in
the Bible has reference to divine appointment. Divine appointment. Now turn to Jeremiah chapter
33. Jeremiah 33 verse 20. Sometimes the word covenant has
reference to appointment. Jeremiah 33 Thus saith the Lord, if you can
break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night,
and that there should not be day and night in their season,
then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant.
This day and night covenant is God hath ordained that the sun
shall rule by day and the moon by night, that During a certain
period it will be daytime on the earth, and during a certain
period it will be night. That's God's divine appointment, and he calls
it a covenant. He's appointed this. We're going
to have morning and noon and night, and it's going to be that
way. God said it can't be broken.
That's my appointment, my covenant. Now turn to Genesis 8.22. Here's
the same thing, the covenant which is an appointment. in Genesis
8, verse 22. Now, that's God dealing with
man by covenant. In Genesis 8, verse 22, while
the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer
and winter, day and night, shall not cease. I hear people often
talk about, well, the Bible says that we're not going to be able
to know the season at the end of the time. That's not so. The Scripture
says here this is a covenant. God has established an appointment,
God has established it shall not be changed. There's going
to be seed time and harvest, there's going to be heat and
cold, there's going to be summer and winter, there's going to
be day and night, just as long as God lets this earth go on. That's appointment, that's covenant.
Now then, sometimes, and I would say in the majority of cases
in the Bible, the word covenant means promise. The covenant God
made with Noah with Abraham, with Isaac, with David, the word
covenant used in reference to these men is promise. Now turn
to Genesis 9, verse 8 through 13, and this word covenant here
is promise. In Genesis 9, verse 8, God spake
unto Noah and to his son William, saying, And I, behold, I establish
my covenant with you. and with your seed after you,
and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl,
of the cattle, of every beast of the earth with you, from all
that go out of the earth to every beast of the earth, I will establish
my covenant with you." Now, he's not saying that if you eat this,
you'll die, and if you don't eat, that's not the type of covenant
either. It's a promise. Read on. "...neither shall all
flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood." That's
a promise. neither shall there any more
be a flood to destroy the earth. God said, This is the token of
the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature
that is with you for a perpetual generation. I do set my bowl,
that is, rainbow, in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of
a covenant between me and the earth, my promise to the earth.
And it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the that
the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud, and I will remember
my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature
of all flesh, and water shall no more become a flood to destroy
all flesh." That's a promise. Now in Psalms 89, here is the
covenant that this is not the everlasting covenant David's
talking about, which is all his hope and desire and salvation,
but this is the promise of God concerning David's throne. the
promise to him, Psalm 89, verses 3 and 4. I have made a covenant
with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant,
promised him. Thy seed will I establish forever,
and build up thy throne to all generations. Now then, sometimes
the word covenant means dispensation, and I'm not I think sometimes
we get words and we get in trouble. You ask a man, are you a dispensationalist? Well, no, I am not what you call
a Schofield dispensationalist with the seven different ways
of saving sinners, but I'm a dispensationalist in one sense of the word. You
ask a man, are you a premillenarian? Well, in one sense I am, in another
sense I am not. Are you a Calvinist? Well, yes,
I'm a Calvinist, but really I'm not a Calvinist. I'm not a follower
of John Calvin. I wouldn't even go listen to
John Calvin preach every Sunday if he was pastoring in this town.
I'd try to start a work of my own that baptized adults. I wouldn't go watch him sprinkle
infants. These words are dangerous. And
there is such a thing as a dispensation. And the word covenant is used
in the Bible denoting a dispensation. Now turn to Hebrews chapter 8. Now here are two definite dispensations. Back from the time that the Mosaic
ceremonial law was given till the coming of Christ was a dispensation,
was a type of covenant, and that covenant was a dispensation.
And that first covenant was symbolic, that first dispensation was symbolic. There were the tithes, there
was the priesthood, there was the tabernacle, there were the
offerings, there were the ceremonies, there were the feast days. We
don't have these things now. We're not living under that dispensation,
we're living under another dispensation. We're not living under a symbolic
dispensation, a symbolic covenant. We're living under a divine visitation
and a divine covenant. Now look at Hebrews 8, verse
7, and this is the way the word is used here. For if that first
covenant, that first dispensation had been faultless, there would
have been no place sought for the second. Why would Christ
have had to come? If men could be redeemed by animal
sacrifices, why bring the Savior? If that sacrifice in the tabernacle
or in the temple could have perfected those who came through them,
then you don't need the sacrifice of Christ. And that's what the
word covenant means there, it's dispensation. It's not talking
about a promise there, it's not talking about a covenant of works,
it's not talking about an appointment, it's talking about a dispensation,
a time. A time when God dealt with men
through symbols and types and sacrifices. And that dispensation
now has passed away. And God spake to our fathers
in times past, through the prophets, hath in these last days, under
this particular dealing of God, spoken to us by his Son. So you
have covenant in different senses in the word of God. Sometimes
when you're reading about the covenant, you're reading about
a divine appointment, God's covenant, God's appointment, God's purpose. Sometimes you're reading about
a promise which God made to Isaac. God made a promise to Abraham,
in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Now that's not a covenant where
God will do this if Abraham will do that, and Abraham will do
this if God does this. No, that's a promise. And God
made a promise to David, and God made a promise to Noah, and
God made a promise to Jacob. And that's God's covenant throughout
the Old Testament with these men, I'll establish my covenant
with you. And then something called covenant
in Hebrew sometimes talks about that first dispensation, that
dispensation of ceremonial law, that dispensation of symbolism. Now then, but the covenant of
covenants, the everlasting covenant, the covenant of grace, talked
about in Hebrews 13. Let's read the text again. Hebrews
13, verse 20. that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep through
the blood of the everlasting covenant. Make you perfect in
every good work. Now then, this covenant is the
covenant made before the foundation of the world, the parties of
the covenant, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Man did not then You say, well,
if you're going to have a covenant now, you've got to have it between
two parties. That's right. Father and son. Father and son. Well, these two
persons must have, must be representative of two groups, or two opposites,
or two that have some reason to meet in an agreement. That's
right. The father represented heaven and the son represented
earth. The Father represented his divine holiness and the Son
represented his people. He was the federal head of a
people. In other words, when that covenant
was drawn up in the Councils of Eternity, the Father representing
the Father, God, heaven, glory, holiness, Christ stood as the
federal head of his people right then, as their representative. Now then, I can't use divine
language and heavenly language the language of God, but I can
use our language and express to you what I think took place
back then. Now here's what you've got. You've
got a covenant or a contract or an agreement being set up
back yonder before the foundations of the world, the everlasting
covenant back before man existed, which decreed and established
and purposed and predestinated the salvation of a people. But
the Father made this covenant with the Son, this agreement.
And the Son was representing a people. He stood as the first
elect, and we stood in Him. And the agreement was made between
the Father and the Son. The Son representing one side,
and the Father representing the other. The Son representing earth,
and the Father heaven. The Son representing the sinner,
and the Father the Savior, or the Lord, or the Redeemer. Now
watch this. The Father speaks. I, the Most
High Jehovah, do hereby give unto my only begotten and well-beloved
Son a people, countless beyond the stars of heaven, who shall
be by him washed from their sins, who shall be by him preserved
and kept and led, and by him at last presented before my throne. They shall be presented without
spot or wrinkle or any such thing. I covenant by oath, and I swear
by myself, because I can swear by no greater, that these whom
I now give to Christ shall be forever the objects of my eternal
love. Them will I forgive through the
merit of the blood. To these will I give a perfect
righteousness. These will I adopt into my family
and make my sons and my daughters, and they shall reign with Christ
forever and forever." Now the Holy Spirit, Mr. Spurgeon suggests, says this,
I, the Spirit of the living God, hereby covenant that all whom
the Father giveth to the Son, I will in due time quicken. I
will show them their need of redemption. I will cut off from
them all groundless hope. I will destroy their refuges
of lies. I will bring them to the blood
of sprinkling. I will grant unto them repentance
toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, whereby this blood shall
be applied to them. I will work in them every grace.
I will keep their faith alive. I will cleanse them, sanctify
them, and teach them. I will produce in them the fruits
of grace, and they shall be presented at last spotless and thoughtless."
Now then, but the sinner has got to be represented. and the
law has got to be upheld. The other side of the covenant
has to have two parties opposing interests which must be reconciled.
The father acts in the interest of heaven, the honor of the law,
and the son represents man. And the son speaks, My father,
on my part I covenant that in the fullness of time I'll become
a man. I'll take upon myself the form
and nature of the fallen race. I will live in their sinful world,
and for my people I will keep the law perfectly. I will keep
the law. I will work out a spotless righteousness,
a righteousness which shall be acceptable to the demands of
thy just and holy law. In due time, to satisfy thy divine
justice, I will bear their sins in my body on the tree, and thou
shalt exact their debts on me. The chastisement of their peace
I will endure. By my stripes they shall be healed. My Father, I covenant and promise
that I will be obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. I will suffer all that they ought
to have suffered. I will endure the curse of the
law. and all the vials of thy wrath shall be emptied on my
head. I will rise again, I will ascend unto thy right hand, I
will make myself responsible for every one of thine elect,
and not one of them shall be lost. I will present them before
thy throne spotless and thoughtless." And that's the covenant of mercy.
And that's the everlasting covenant of grace, and that covenant was
made back before the world was ever created, for Christ was
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and we were chosen
in Christ from the beginning. And on the basis of that covenant,
all mercy that's ever come upon this earth and upon mankind has
come as a result of that agreement, has come as a result of that
promise made by the Father to the Son, and that purpose that
was worked out. Now look at the Father and the
covenant. First of all, the Father in this
covenant acted out of infinite love. He acted out of infinite
love. God first loved men and then
proceeded to provide a Savior. That's what the Bible says, for
God so loved that he gave Somebody said, Christ came down
here and fixed it so the Father could
love us. That's not so. Christ came down
here because the Father did love us. The love of God produced
the covenant. The love of God provided the
covenant. The covenant of grace proceeded
out of, was born out of, the ground of God's love. Turn to
Ephesians chapter 2 and you'll see that. Verse 3. among whom
we all had our conversion in times past in the lust of the
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together
with Christ." He quickened us because of his love. So the Father in this covenant
of grace saw us without hope, without help, and loved us, and
provided for us a Savior. Now secondly, the Father acted
not only out of infinite love, but the Father acted as a sovereign
God. Now turn to Hebrews chapter 2,
verse 16. There were two races of fallen
creatures. Man wasn't the only fallen creature.
There were two groups of fallen creatures, two races. There were
the angels and there were men. The Scripture says the angels
kept not their first estate, but they fell. Christ said, I
saw Lucifer fall from heaven like lightning. Now, the angels
fell and man fell. and a sovereign God decided which
one would be redeemed. And it says in Hebrews 2.16,
Verily he took not on him the nature of angels. Christ didn't
become an angel to obey for the angels and die for the angels
and redeem the angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham,
the likeness of sinful flesh, wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like his brethren, those he set out to save, that
he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God, and make reconciliation for the sin of the people as
the first divine choice. Christ did not take on himself
the nature of angel. They are reserved in everlasting
change of darkness unto the And I don't hear these preachers
that are blasting sovereignty and election, I don't hear them
saying anything about the unfairness of God to pass by the angel.
But he did. I've never in all of my listening
to preachers who take it upon themselves to blast the doctrine
of election, it's not fair for God to choose one and pass by
another, they don't say anything about the angel. And they know
God didn't redeem the angel, they know God passed by the angel,
because it says right here Christ didn't take on himself the nature
of angels. He could have, but he didn't. He didn't. And then there's the second divine
choice, Exodus 33. Exodus 33, verse 18. Moses says,
Show me thy glory. In verse 19, God said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee, I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. So first of all, God passed by
the angels and chose the seed of Abraham. And he passed by
the Amorites and the Malachites and the Hittites and all the
rest of those hites back then in the Old Testament. They didn't
have the covenant, they didn't have the prophets, they didn't
have the scripture, they didn't have the tabernacle, they didn't
have the sacrifices. I don't hear anybody fussing
about that. And God shows mercy to whom he will. God Almighty
exercises his goodness according to two things. Now you always
remember And this is so according to his good pleasure and his
divine wisdom. Now the third, the Father acted
thirdly as a holy and righteous God. In the covenant of grace
he acted out of infinite love, he acted as a sovereign God,
and he acted thirdly as a righteous God. Now listen to this, it is
impossible. for God to devise or approve
any way of salvation that would reflect dishonor upon himself
and upon his law. He can't do it. Now, that's what
a lot of people think that all God has to do, all they have
to cry is, Lord, be merciful, and the Lord will be merciful.
All they have to do is just say, Lord, forgive me, and he'll forgive
them. He can't do it. Almighty God cannot devise or
approve of any way of pardon, any way of forgiveness, that
dishonors His law, and dishonors His character, and dishonors
His justice. If man is restored, God's law
has got to be obeyed, and God's justice has got to be satisfied,
and God's truth has got to be honored. That's the reason Christ
became a man. That's the reason in the covenant
of mercy God acted as a holy and righteous God. He had to
provide a suitable, sufficient Savior. He couldn't just erase
sin. God cannot blot out sin without
sin being paid for. It's got to be paid for. Sin has got to produce suffering. Sin has got to produce death.
Sin has got to produce punishment. And God cannot, He will in no
wise, clear the guilty. You say, how did He clear us?
We're not guilty. Christ took our guilt, and there
is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ. Now
let's look at the Son and the covenant quickly, and I'll let
you go. The Son was the representative of His people. And this is one
thing, I've heard a lot of people talk about the covenant, but
I've never heard them stress this very much. the Son acted
on behalf of you and me. Actually, the covenant is between
the Father and me, but I was represented by the Son. He is
my head, he is my representative, he is the one who stood in my
place, and he guaranteed to honor God's law, and he guaranteed
to satisfy God's justice for me. When Christ stood in the
Council of Eternity and this covenant or agreement was set
up and made, He stood there for me. Now watch this. He acted, now watch this, as
the surety of the covenant. Turn to Hebrews 7. Now this is
mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty important. This is the gospel
right here. Hebrews 7.22. This is it right
here. was Jesus made a surety of a
better covenant. Now, what's a surety? A surety
is a person who gives security for another, that he will perform
and provide something which is required of the other. I suppose
that Stan Terry and I go down to the bank tomorrow, and I want
to borrow some money, $5,000. And they said, Well, we can't
lend you $5,000. You may not be able to pay it
back. And I said, Well, that's the reason Stan's here. He's
going to stand as my surety. So I signed the note, and underneath
there, Stan signed And he's responsible to do what I can't do. If I forfeit,
if I can't do it, if something happens and I can't make a payment,
you know who's going to make that payment, don't you? Stan's
going to make it. I expect a lot of you here have
had to pay notes that you signed for somebody. It's an unhappy
experience. But that's what Christ did for
us. He stood as our surety. And God's law says you've got
to obey the law. Well, I failed, didn't I? Christ
didn't fail, he obeyed it. God's justice said, you're going
to have to die for your sins. Well, I can't die for my sins
and go to heaven, so Christ came down here in my place. He who
signed the note back in eternity in the covenant, he became a
charity of the everlasting covenant. He signed the note. He agreed
to perform and perfect and provide what I couldn't provide and what
I couldn't perform. That's what Romans 8.3 means. Look at it. That's exactly what
it means in Romans 8.3. Listen to this. What the law
could not do. Romans 8.3. What the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. The flesh couldn't
obey the law. It just couldn't be done. Nowhere
in this world that note couldn't be paid, that note couldn't be
settled. God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh. So Christ, first of all, in this
covenant, acted as our surety. God's law demanded perfection. God's law demanded obedience. And God's justice demanded death. And I just couldn't meet any
of it. I'm in over my head. You are, too. Thank God we have
a surety who signed the note, and it'll never be due. It'll
never come due. It's all taken care of. Secondly,
Christ acted as a mediator, and I'm referring to 1 Timothy 2.
in this covenant. Christ acted as a mediator. 1 Timothy 2.5 says there is one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now then, there are some things
about a mediator. A mediator must understand both
parties. You can't mediate between two
parties which are at difference, or having a difference, unless
you can talk both up. And Christ is God, so he can
communicate with the Father, and Christ is man. We have a
high priest who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmity.
He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without seeing.
So he can be my Mediator, because he can talk to both parties.
He can talk my language and he can talk to the Father. He's
the only one who can. And secondly, the Mediator must
himself be free from the problem. What's the issue between me and
God? Sin. Christ must be free from sin.
He must not be involved in the transgression if he's going to
be the Mediator. And thirdly, the Mediator must
have influence over both parties. He's got to have some power if
he's going to do any good. If you're going to select the mediator,
here are two people having differences. You're going to have to accept
the mediator. If you're going to have a mediator, you're going to have to have
one that's acceptable to both parties. And then the mediator
must be able to be approached by both parties. How can he represent
me if I can't approach him? But he says, No man can come
to the Father but by me. And he turns to the sinner and
says, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and
I'll give you rest. Now then, what are the promises
of the covenant? And I'll quit with this. The promises of the
covenant. The Father promised to regenerate
the elect, and I'll skip the scripture here. The Father promised
to forgive their sins. He said, I'll make a covenant
with them in that day, and I'll forgive their sins and separate
their sins from them as far as the East is from the West, and
remember them no more. The Father promised to sanctify
the elect, the Father promised to preserve the elect. Now, I
do want you to turn to this one, Jeremiah 32. The Father has promised
to preserve the elect. In Jeremiah 32, verse 40. There's a point I wish to make
here, if you'll be patient. Jeremiah 32, verse 40. And I
will make an everlasting covenant with them. I will not turn away
from them to do them good. I will not turn away. God says,
I will not forsake them. But secondly, I will put my fear
in their hearts, and they won't depart from me. Now, one church,
the Baptists, the preservation of the Saints, and that's there,
that's God preserving. But let's not forget the perseverance
of the Saints. God says in this everlasting
covenant, I'm not going to forsake them, I'm not going to let them
go, but I'm going to do a work in their hearts and establish
my presence and fear in their hearts, and they won't let me
go. You see what I'm saying here? They will not depart from me. It's not a one-way street. We
are kept by the power of God through faith. I will not leave
them, but he says, I'm going to do such a work in their hearts,
they won't leave me. Now the Baptist over here preaching,
God keeps you no matter what you do, how you live, who you
are, you see, once you walk down an aisle, shake a preacher's
hand, you are preserved forever. That ain't so. But here the wholeness
group over here talking about a man comes to Christ and then
he goes back out in the world, he comes back to Christ and he
goes back out into sin and backslides, that's not so either. The real
truth of the matter is that God makes a covenant, an everlasting
covenant, and he says, I will not turn away from them, I will
preserve them, but I'm going to put such a work of grace in
their heart and my presence in their heart that they won't leave
me even. And then the Father promises
to glorify the elect. That's what I know about the
covenant of grace, the everlasting covenant, which is the source
and the foundation of all of the mercy of which I am a partaker
at this hour. Our Father, take the message
and use it for thy glory. Give us wisdom. Deliver us from
prejudices. Deliver us from error. Help us
as the days go by to understand a little more of thyself, of
thy glory. May we grow in grace and in the
knowledge of thy dear Son. Take the message tonight and
use it as thou dost see fit as a blessing to all who have heard
according to thy will. More than anything in all the
world, Let our hearts be taken up with Christ, filled with praise
and thanksgiving for his mercy and grace to us. In his name
we pray, amen. you