Turn back to Hebrews chapter
10, or excuse me, chapter 13. I'd like to say, first of all, thank
you all for the warm reception. This place is like home to me.
Had been for many years. I appreciate your kindnesses.
The years of support over these years, you've supported me in
so many ways. You're interested in the work there in Cherokee,
and it's just a delight to see old friends and make new ones,
and I appreciate it. I would like you to know that
Brother Pastor has already tested my water down here to make sure
it's tasty. He also stuck his fingers in
it and sprinkled us all with it, so. We've been duly baptized
and we're okay. The title of my message this
morning is Eternity and Time. Eternity and Time. If you'll
look with me at verse 20 of this passage of scripture. Now the God of peace 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 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. This is a prayer of benediction
for the Hebrew believers to whom this epistle is written to reveal
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ opposed to the Old Covenant and
show it that it supersedes and exceeds the Old Covenant types
and shadows and pictures. In simple terms, Christ has been
set forth as the better manner of the revelation of God. He's
a better angel. He's the better king, the better
priest, the better temple, the better law, the better sacrifice.
Christ surpasses all these in that all these were temporal
and He is eternal. Our brother just read that Christ
is the same yesterday, today and forever. He exceeds them
all because they only pointed to what was to be done, whereas
He did what was to be done. The hinge pin and the nucleus
of this passage of scripture that I just read, the center
point of it all, the center point of this prayer, And those things
declared is this, the blood of the everlasting covenant. The
everlasting covenant means the eternal covenant or the covenant
of grace, the covenant of always and the covenant of forever and
the covenant that was established before the world was before anything began when there
was only God, the triune Godhead. And all that is mentioned, described,
and defined in this prayer, and all things that are, and all
things that will ever be, and all things that can truly be
known of God are based upon and hang upon this fact. There is
the blood of the everlasting covenant. We have no idea of
who God is if we don't grasp and understand that basic principle. Concerning the work that he speaks
of in verse 21, that's taken care of. A lot of people worry
about their works. They wonder what they are. You
need to quit that. You need to get up in the morning
and love Christ. And He'll take care of the rest.
Because you see, you are His workmanship. Created in Jesus
Christ unto good works, which God hath before ordained That
you should walk in them. What are they? I don't know and
neither do you But when they come up you'll be equipped for
them and you'll do them and you'll not even know you've done them
Probably you'll just be living in this world Loving the Lord
Jesus Christ Don't worry about your works Look to him But the
writer here is dealing with and expressing things that took place
in time as they relate and are perceived and understood through
the singular lens of this blood of the eternal covenant. Now
we poor creatures do not understand a great deal about time. We really
don't. Though it exists for Christ and
for his people, we're not really convinced of how its fleeting
nature is until we begin to perceive our own mortality. When I was
young, I just thought everything took forever. I can remember
when I was a boy, this time of the year we were waiting for
the Dixie Classic Fair. And it seemed like forever before
we got to ride those rides and eat that popcorn and those police
pistol club hot dogs that they served. seem like forever. That's not
the case anymore. As we age and grow more and more
infirm, we rarely spoke of time in terms of its swift passing. But as the hoary hairs decorate
our heads, we find our language salted with phrases that denote
how quickly our life has passed. I think I stood in this pool
pit in a suit I bought from Sears Roebuck made out of denim and
an old pair of orange boots and some suspenders many years ago,
but it only seems like yesterday. I remember what I preached. I
preached from Galatians 511 on the offense of the cross, first
message. After I got through that night,
I guess the fellas in the church think I needed some help, so
they loaded up my car with a set of CH Spurgeons, Metropolitan
Tabernacle Pit, and New Park Street. I think one of them said,
we do this so you can get along a little better. Those days are gone, but I see
many who were there that night, and who wished me well and have
through the years. Seems like only yesterday. how short the months seem and
how speedily a year goes by even as if it was only a day. We begin
as we become more decrepit, and that's what we're becoming, to
grasp words from the Lord such as life is a vapor. Life is faster
than a post or goes faster than a weaver's shuttle. We grasp
the concept of time when our time nears its end. Time gains importance and relevance
to us when it is revealed in the light of the blood of the
everlasting covenant because that is what defines time. It
alone gives meaning and value to time. It alone gives us hope and promise
of life beyond. this time, this pale in which
we live. Now when we speak of eternity,
and we do, because eternity is how we measure everything really,
we are even less capable of defining what eternity is. Being subject
and naturally governed by the rising and the setting of the
sun, Even our greatest imagination cannot conceive the notion of
a thing without beginning and without end. Eternity simply
is. So that we might try to explain
it, we speak in terms that are familiar to us, terms like eternity
past and eternity future, because our only reference is time. Eternity
is neither past nor future. It's now. Always now. Right now, according to the Word
of God, as you sit here at 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland,
Kentucky, 41101, is that what it is? If you're a child of God, you
are now seated in heavenly places. with Jesus Christ. How can that
be? I don't know. I'm as amazed as you are even
to say it. Always now imagine, and this
is how I imagine it, imagine if you will a circle and a diameter
line cutting across the center of the circle. The line would
be timed. enveloped in all points by eternity,
the circle. Go right or left, left to right,
make a mark on any part of the line. It has a beginning and
it has an end. At its beginning and at its end
and everything in the middle and above it and below it and
all around it is eternity. Surrounding it and engulfing
it is that which neither has beginning or end. That circle
is the blood of the everlasting covenant. And everything on this
diametric line that we call time is defined and understood in
the realm in which it is temporarily existing or takes place by that
fact. You can name it. Go in history,
if you will, sin, righteousness, birth, conception, life, The
seed, the harvest, the vine, the fruit, all things that have
to do with time fall completely in the realm of eternity and
are only grasped as to significance in the blood of the everlasting
covenant. The blood of the eternal covenant is eternal blood. It's
eternal blood. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth about 2,000 years ago as a man. He came to suffer and die in
the room instead of His people, to purchase their redemption,
to secure their salvation, to put away their sins by the sacrifice
of Himself. On that glorious day, many years
ago, He redeemed His people. He didn't give it a good shot.
He redeemed His people. He justified them and put away
their sin. He died their death and was made
to be their righteousness by amputation 2,000 years ago. He went to the cross of Calvary.
His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension,
His glorification took place between a time span of 33 and
34 years. That's a little mark on that
line. A little teeny mark on that line. His blood was shed. His death accomplished in time.
But scripture declares that he was the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Why did he come to earth? Because
he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He came
and made his mark on that diametrical line because he was that lamb
whose blood was eternal blood. And that shed blood, that eternal
blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant. And when you see the
word blood in scripture, you can also, you can put a hash,
one of those forward slashes beside it and write the word
death because that's what it's talking about. When it talks
about the shedding of blood, it's not talking about a little
bleeding wound. It's talking about bleeding until
you can no longer bleed and you die. That shed blood is eternal
blood. And the wisest of natural men
in declaring the works of God He declared them to be forever
and never to be changed. He defined eternity and time
as best as can be explained, I think, in human language. In
Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 14, Solomon said, that which
hath been is now. And that which is to be has already
been. And God required that which is
past. I love that verse of scripture.
I just ponder it and think about it because it's so beyond my
ability to comprehend, but it's said in plain language. That
which hath been, whatever's gone on before, is now. And that which is to be, which
we call the future, it's already been. How is that so? How is
that so? God is eternal. And we see it
and understand it and appreciate it in the fact that Jesus Christ
died on Calvary's tree because he was the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Paul begins this prayer by referring
to God as the God of peace. May the God of peace, now the
God of peace, this is of course a reference to the Lord Jesus
Christ who is the Prince of Peace and he's the peacemaker and he
is the peace giver. This is not a generic description
of God. God is known as God, as the God
of peace in the blood of the eternal covenant. There's no
peace with God outside of that. Otherwise, He's the God of war.
He's the God of wrath. He's the God of vengeance. But
that is salvation when you really think about it. People talk about
salvation and it's been reduced to mean nothing in the day in
which we live. People talk about being saved.
They're just being saved like it's just a thing, you know,
being saved. But think of the word. Think
of the word salvation. Think of the word deliverance.
Just ponder the word for a moment as to what it means. To be saved
must mean that you were lost. So that has to be corrected somehow
for you to be saved. To be delivered must have been
that you were held captive. Now this was not some covert,
overnight dark thing where the Lord came in covertly and jerked
us out and didn't tell nobody. No, how are we delivered? How
are we delivered? Scripture says Jesus Christ came
into Satan's domain and wrapped up the strong man and put him
down and took what was his, that's salvation. That's the language. So you can rest assured as you
read of salvation from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, you're going
to find out two things that always happen. The salvation of His
people, that's the first thing, is also the destruction of the
enemy. Always, when Christ went to the
cross of Calvary, He bruised the serpent's head. He stomped
him down and he took his spoils from him. That is salvation.
It ain't a trot down an aisle. Nobody decides to be saved. Everybody
who is lost, really lost, wants to be saved. Everybody who's
held captive wants to be set free. Everybody who's in jail
wants out. And you don't have to ask them
to decide. I know. I was in jail down in Atlanta,
Georgia. And they didn't come and open
up that cell and say, would you like to leave? Are you kidding? Won't you make a decision? Well,
I don't know whether I want to. I'm going to weigh whether they're
good and evil of it, you know, and I'll see whether I want to
go or not. Open the door and let me out of this place. Why? Because I was captured. I wanted
to be set free. The notion that preached about
salvation this day is poppycock, if you allow me to use that word. God of peace is the Lord Jesus
Christ, because he saved us by his blood. He delivered us. Men may use this kind of language
about God of peace, the God of peace, and say that he desires
peace, and he does. And what he does is he gives
peace, and he does, but it's based, it's a peace based on
established peace. For and among his people, when
men who meet God, who have never believed the gospel, they will
never meet the God of peace, but rather the God of inflexible
justice. He is the God of peace one way. only in the blood of the everlasting
covenant that was established and ratified by Him and His Son. You see, peace was established
on the cross. That's what it says in Colossians.
He made peace by the blood of His cross and He established
peace. And He reconciled us to God by that action. And peace
was established. Peace was established between
us and God. Now God didn't need to be reconciled
to us. He hadn't done nothing wrong.
We needed to be reconciled to Him. And that blood of the eternal
covenant was what reconciled us to God. Peace was established
there. This fact, this immutable truth
is established in the inspired canon that you read, recorded
in the next phrase. It's the God of peace that brought
from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ. That blood of the cross
was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection must
need to require the death and the burial. The death and the
burial and resurrection are seen only and perceived in the blood
of the everlasting covenant. Everything else that it might
mean, or people might say it means, doesn't mean anything
if it's not in the everlasting covenant of blood. What did God say about showing
his love? Hereby perceive we the love of
God that He laid down His life for us. And if we love each other, we
ought to lay down our life for each other also. But what does
that mean? Is it just sort of a general
foolish statement? Because if it is, it's foolish.
Why did God die? Why did Jesus Christ die on Galilee
Street? Why? To show us that He liked
us? They had a general affection
for us. I love you, Gary. That proved it, didn't it? You
say, that's stupid. It is. That's exactly what it
is. However, if Gary's in trouble, and the only way I can save him
is to die saving him, then I love him. And that's what that love is.
Hereby we perceive God's love. We were in such trouble that
we were going to die and spend eternity separated from God in
hell, ruined and undone, no hope for us. How can we be saved? God loves his children so much.
He said, I'll die in their place so they'll live. Hereby perceive
we the love of God, that blood of the everlasting covenant.
How long has he loved us? Like our brother said the other
night, by the time you find something that God has done, it's always
in the past tense. And if you read the word love
in scripture, it's always God hath loved us and gave himself
for us. How long did he love us? Forever. In what? In the
blood of the eternal covenant. He is the God of peace and that
ratified covenant. That covenant was ratified by
the blood of Jesus Christ look over at Hebrews chapter 9 for
just a second Hebrews chapter 9 in verse 15 he says and for
this cause For this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament
that by means of death. I for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the first testament, which they which are called might
receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testimony
is, and that's another word for a covenant. Where a testament
is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
For a testament is of force after men are dead, otherwise it is
of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Wherefore, neither
the first testament was dedicated without blood. In other words,
until somebody dies, nothing's in force. This is an eternal
covenant of grace. This is an eternal testimony from God. It's the
blood of the eternal covenant. So when did this take place? Now we heard our brother talk
about the surety ship of the Lord Jesus Christ last night.
What a wonderful thing that is. Christ signing His name to our
debt before we existed in this world. Signing His name to our
debt. That meant the elect those sinners
all and worthy of death. were never responsible to pay
God for their sin. Never! God never looked to any
one of His elect to pay that sin debt. Why? Because it wasn't
our debt anymore. Our surety, our guarantor had
already signed His name to it. And we come into this world,
this is awful and God-hating as anybody could imagine. Never
owing one thing to God. Think about that. When did that
take place? Yesterday? It took place in eternity. And it was the blood of the eternal
everlasting covenant. That was the payment. Also this
text clearly declares for whom this peace was established and
by whom it was established. It says now the God of peace
that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ that great
shepherd of the sheep. The great shepherd of the sheep. It was established for the sheep
by the great shepherd. The sheep or another name for
the elect or the chosen of the church, the bride, the people
of God, the children of God throughout scripture. And that relationship
realized in time through the preaching of the gospel was established
in eternity under this wonderful everlasting covenant of blood.
That's how, that's what it took place. It's a spiritual gift
what we have. God has blessed us. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings. According as he's chosen us in
Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy without blame before him. And love hath predestinated us
to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself according
to the good pleasure of his own will wherein he's made us accepted
in the beloved to the praise of the glory of his grace. We are bound to give thanks to
God always for you, brethren, because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of spirit and
belief in the truth, whereunto he called you by a gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see,
the response of the sheep to the voice of the great shepherd
was established when? In eternity. They will hear his
voice and they will follow him. They will believe because they
are sheep. That's what sheep do. They believe. They will be gathered into one
fold because Christ is that great shepherd and they must be brought
and there must be one fold. The outcome is sure because it
always has been sure. You say, well, you're talking about
absolute predestination. Can you name another kind? Silliness to talk that kind of
language, theological mumbo-jumbo he shall see all the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied the fact that this covenant is
referred to as eternal and ratified by eternal blood distinguish
it from the covenant of works established with Adam which was
broken in Adam's sin. The covenant with Abraham, which
involved blood by the token of circumcision, was temporal and
was merely a picture of the covenant of grace. The covenant at Sinai,
which was being broken as it was being engraved in stone.
Thou shalt have no other gods before. There's a golden calf
down there. Them people are going crazy down
there. I shall not make any graven image.
There's a golden calf down there. I'm kind of thinking that whole
thing at Sinai was written for what was going on at the bottom
of that mountain, I believe, don't you? This covenant supersedes all
those. All those covenants just showed
the failure of humanity to be able to obey God in anything. Paul said, if he was the one
that wrote Hebrews, and I usually just say Paul because the writer
of Hebrews takes too long. He said, those old covenants
waxed old and vanished away. But not this one. This is the
eternal covenant because the mediator of it is the one whose
blood ratified it. And those other covenants had
no mediator. This one has a mediator, a mediator,
an accomplisher of the covenant. It's the blood of the everlasting
covenant. It's that which informs the believer of all that is and
is to be. It's the glass through which
we look. It's our looking glass, and what lens you look through
governs your perception of what's going on. If you look through
rose-colored glasses, you'll be oblivious to all that occurs.
If your lens is cynicism, nothing will be perceived as anything
but questionable and suspicious. Oh, but for those who've been
given faith, God-given faith, blessed faith, and are caused
to see all in the light of the blood of the everlasting covenant.
They can look at all that takes place, everything, and we're
living in a crazy world. We're a bunch of lunatics. The
lunatics are running the asylum, folks. It's that simple. You
say, oh, I despair. Don't despair. You know what
you ought to do when you look at all this that's taking place?
If you can see it through the blood of the everlasting covenant, you can say, all is well. You can say, everything's on
schedule. And when somebody says, well,
I don't believe that, you can look at your watch and say, you
said that right on time. You can say all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them that call according to
His purpose. You know what you can say? The
prophet Zephaniah said it this way, I love this. Zephaniah 3.15, he says, The
Lord hath taken away thy judgments, cast away thine enemy. The King
of Israel, even the Lord is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt
not see evil anymore. Wait a minute, there's got to
be evil. No, no evil. Everything's good. I shall say
unto the righteous, it shall be well with thee. Scott Richardson
said a couple of things over the years, many things that I've
quoted. I love the old man. He was such a dear man. He said
one time, he said, since I heard the good news, I ain't heard
no bad news. You've heard him say that. But I remember one
time he was preaching at Cherokee and he says, oh, oh, would the
God, we could see everything in Christ. He said, if we could see everything
in Christ, because that's where it's at. everything would be fine every
day of every moment of our lives. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ 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 forever. I can say without hesitation
to every one of God's people, it shall be well with thee. Why?