Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vols. 13–63

May the Spirit of God graciously instruct us while we read this Chapter! You know that in the 11th Chapter, the Apostle has pictured the ancient worthies and their victories. Imagine that you see them mounting in their chariots of fire up to their seats in Heaven! Behold them going from the mouths of lions, from the deserts, mountains, dens and caves of the earth up to their glorious thrones on high where they recline in ease and honor!

The Apostle then introduces us to a racecourse in which he represents all these conquerors as sitting upon seats all around the course, watching those who are about to run. And thus he begins—

Verses 1, 2. Therefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto

Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. [See Sermon #2037, Volume 34—THERE RULES OF THE RACE.] It was no excitement to run if there were no onlookers. The spur to the racers and wrestlers in the Grecian games was found in the eyes of those who gazed, in the clapping of their hands, in the shouting of their applause, as well as in the prizes that awaited the winners! Behold, my Brothers and Sisters, even our most private acts are looked upon by the millions of eyes of the great cloud of witnesses! Angels tell the news of how we run the great race and they rejoice when we prosper. Let us "run well" because so many are looking at us and, just as the Grecian runner stripped himself of his clothes before he started, so "let us lay aside every weight"—the weight of sin, the weight of care, the weight of grief, the weight of worldliness and everything else that might hinder us. Above all, let us beware of that sin which, like a trailing garment, might entangle our feet and trip us up, for if we fall, our opponent will certainly win the prize! Look well to that sin to which you are the most liable. We all have some besetting sin—let us especially be on the watch against that. While we keep all the wall with diligence, let us set a double guard at the most vulnerable point.

"And let us run with patience" or, "endurance." There is to be a combination of the active and passive in the Christian—he must be able to endure and yet be able to still work. "Let us run with patience"—run when we are out of breath, run when our bones ache, run when the prize seems to be further off than ever and to be hidden from our eyes, run when the hot sun makes us thirsty. Still, "let us run with patience the race that is set before us," for it is he that endures unto the end who shall be saved—not merely the starter in the race, for there are many who begin, but who begin not in the power of the Spirit of God and who, therefore do not persevere unto the end. By this sign shall the true children of God be known, that they run with endurance unto the end, "looking unto Jesus." As the wife of the Persian nobleman said, when her husband asked her what she thought of Darius, that she had not looked at him, she had no eyes for any man but her husband, so the Christian has no eyes for any but Christ—"looking unto Jesus"—keeping his eyes always upon Him and so running the Christian race!

Jesus is here delightfully called "the Author and Finisher of our faith." In most of the arts, there is a division of labor—one man begins and another completes—there is scarcely anything that is completed by one man. But the stupendous work of our salvation was not only commenced, but it was also completed by the Lord Jesus Christ alone! Let us look unto Him then. This will help us to persevere to the end because He persevered to the end.

2. Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God. It was this joy that made Christ strong to endure in the day of His sorrow. And joy must make you also strong to endure unto the end. He had the joy of anticipated victory. It "was set before Him," and so He "endured the Cross, despising the shame." He ran with a heavy Cross on His back and yet He ran faster than you or I have run—He ran because He had more joy than we have! So, my Brothers and Sisters, let us live in the joy of Heaven, let us live in the joy of ultimate victory—and this will enable us to bear all the toils and trials of our present life.

3. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. Luther says, "When I think of what Christ suffered, I am ashamed to call anything that I have endured, suffering for His sake." He carried His heavy Cross, but we only carry a sliver or two of it! He drank His cup to the dregs and we do but sip a drop or two at the very most. "Consider Him." Consider how He suffered far more than you can ever suffer and how He is now crowned with Glory and honor—and so you are to be like He, descend like He into the depths of agony, that with Him you may rise to the heights of Glory!

4-7. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not you the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and encourages every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not? Here is a little variation in the subject. First we have the trials which come from the world—these we are to endure looking to Christ for Grace to enable us to overcome them. Now we have the trials which come from God and here Nature becomes an assistant to Grace. We are reminded that children have to be chastened and, therefore, if we are the children of God we must expect to be chastened by Him.

Note in the 5th verse, the two evils of which we are in danger—either of deepening God's chastening or else of fainting under them—either of thinking too little or too much of them. Happy is the Christian who always takes the middle course and never despises the chastening of the Lord, nor ever faints under them.

Note, in the 6th verse, that we are to expect sharp blows from God's chastening hand. That word "encourages, "is an incorrect word—"Whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives." The scourge was always a most severe form of punishment. God will not spare His children when they need to be chastened—they shall have some blows as hard as He can well lay on them, that is to say, as hard as such a loving heart as His will permit Him to give. They shall have such blows that each one of them shall have to cry out, "I am broken in sunder, my heart is smitten and withered like grass." And this is to be the treatment for every son whom God receives—not for some of them, but for all—"He scourges every son whom He receives."

8. But if you are without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons. He does not say, "then are you alone." He is speaking about those who profess to be the children of God, writing concerning those who claim to be members of the Lord's family—and he stigmatizes with one of the most dreadful of names, those who may escape without chastisement. But, Brothers and Sisters who among us would have the pleasure of carnal ease if with it we are to have the shame of spiritual illegitimacy?

9, 10. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits, and live? For they, verily, for a few days chastened us after their own pleasures. [See Sermon #1073 Volume 18—A HONEYCOMB.] There was, possibly, much of their own temper mixed with their chastisements. They let off their wrath upon us sometimes by the medium of chastisement, but God never chastens His children merely out of anger.

10-12. But He for our profit, that we might bepartakers ofHis holiness. Now no chastening for thepresent seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised thereby. Therefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. Let not your service to God slacken. Lift up to God that which was idly hanging down through despondency. Let not your prayers grow weak through grief, but strengthen the feeble knees!

13-15. And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many are defiled For, alas, under the means of Grace, there are many who "fail of the Grace of God." They get something that they think is like Grace, but it is not the true Grace of God and they ultimately fall from it and perish! What we need is to have unfailing Grace and power to hold on to it so that, at the last, we may inherit the crown of life. But for this we must look diligently, for the best of us has good cause to suspect himself, and in Church fellowship we ought to be very watchful lest the Church as a whole should fail through lack of the true Grace of God, and especially lest any root of bitterness springing up among us should trouble us and, thereby, many are defiled.

16. Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Those who seek the pleasures of the flesh rather than the pleasures of a higher world are here put side by side with Esau. Now Esau sold the right to his future heritage for a present mess of pottage—and many there are who do something very like that—sell their souls for a little Sunday trading, or for a little carnal company, a little of that fool's mirth which is like the crackling of thorns under a pot. They are willing to damn themselves to all eternity because they cannot bear the jeers and sneers of a ribald world. O Brothers and Sisters, let us not be like they or like Esau!

17. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. He never repented of his sin, but only of the consequences of it. He never sought pardon of God, but only sought to inherit the blessing. And there will be many who have lived for this world, and loved it, who, when they wake up in another world, will begin to seek the blessing, but they will be rejected! This may happen even in this world. If they only seek to die the death of the righteous and seek not the pardon of their sin, they shall hear the Lord say to them, "Because I have called, and you refused. I have stretched out My hand and no man regarded: but you have set at nothing all My counsel, and would none of My reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear comes." [See Sermons #528, Volume 9—CHASTISEMENT—NOW AND AFTERWARDS, and #2902, Volume 50— HOLINESS DEMANDED.]

"He will ever be mindful of His Covenant." Psalm 111:5.

IT is an amazing thing that God should enter into gracious Covenant with men. That He should make man and be gracious to man is easily to be conceived, but that He should strike hands with his nature and put His august majesty under bond to him by His own promise is marvelous! Once let me know that God has made a Covenant and I do not think it amazing that He should be mindful of it, for He is "God that cannot lie." "Has He said, and shall He not do it?" Has He once given His pledge? It is inconceivable that He should ever desert from it. The doctrine of the text commends itself to every reasonable and thoughtful man—if God has made a Covenant, He will ever be faithful of it. It is to that point that I would now call your attention with the desire to use it practically.

For God to make a gracious Covenant with us is so great a gift that I hope everyone here is saying within his heart, "Oh, that the Lord had entered into Covenant with me!"

We shall practically look into this matter, first, by answering the question, What is this Covenant? Secondly, by putting the enquiry, Have I any portion in it? And, thirdly, by bidding each one say, "If, indeed, I am in Covenant with God, then every part of that Covenant will be carried out, for God is ever mindful of it."

If you go to a lawyer and enquire how a deed runs, he may reply, "I can give you an abstract, but I had better read it to you." He can tell you the sum and substance of it, but if you want to be very accurate—and it is a very important business—you will say, "I would like to hear it read." We will now read certain parts of Scripture which contain the Covenant of Grace, or an abstract of it. Turn to Jeremiah 31:31-34—"Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My Covenant they broke, although I was an Husband unto them, says the Lord. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord, I will put My Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts; and will be their God and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

Print every word of that in diamonds, for the sense is inconceivably precious! God in Covenant promises to His people that instead of writing His law upon tablets of stone, He will write it on the tablets of their hearts. Instead of the Law of God coming on a hard, crushing command, it shall be placed within themas the object of love and delight, written on the transformed nature of the beloved objects of God's choice! "I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts"—what a Covenant privilege this is! "And I will be their God." Therefore all that there is in God shall belong to them. "And they shall be My people." They shall belong to Me. I will love them as Mine. I will keep them, bless them, honor them and provide for them as My people. I will be their portion and they shall be My portion.

Note the next privilege. They shall all receive heavenly instruction upon the most vital point—"They shall all know Me." There may be some things they do not know, but "they shall all know Me." They shall know Me as their Father. They shall know Jesus Christ as their Brother. They shall know the Holy Spirit as their Comforter. They shall have communion and fellowship with God! What a Covenant privilege is this! Hence comes pardon, "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." What a clean sweep of sin! God will forgive and forget—the two go together. "I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more." All gone—all their transgression blotted out, never to be mentioned against you again, forever! What an unutterable favor! This is the Covenant of Grace! I call your attention to the fact that there is no, "if," in it! There is no, "but," in it—there is no requirement made by it of man. It is all, "I will," and, "they shall." "I will be their God, and they shall be My people." It is a charter written in a royal tone and the majestic straining not marred by a "perhaps" or a "maybe"—but dwells always on, "shall," and, "will." These are two prerogative words of the Divine Majesty and in this wondrous deed of gift in which the Lord bestows a Heaven of Grace upon guilty sinners, He bestows it after the Sovereignty of His own will without anything to put the gift in jeopardy, or to make the promise insecure! Thus I have read the Covenant to you in one form.

Turn over the pages a little and you will come to a passage in Ezekiel. There we shall have the bright-eyed Prophet—he who could live among the wheels and the seraphim—telling us what the Covenant of Grace is. In Ezekiel, the 11th Chapter, 19th and 20th verses, we read, "I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God."

You will find another form of it further on in the 36th of Ezekiel, beginning at the 25th verse. How intently ought you to listen to this! It is a deal better than hearing any preaching of mortal men to listen to the very words of God's own Covenant—a Covenant which saves all those who are concerned in it! Unless you have an interest in it, you are, indeed, unhappy. Let us read it—"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean; from all your filthiness and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them...And you shall be My people, and I will be your God." This promise always come in at the close, "I will be your God." In this form of the Covenant, I call you again to witness that God demands nothing, asks no price, demands no payment—but to the people with whom He enters into Covenant, He makes promise after promise, all free, all unconditional, all made according to the bounty of His royal heart!

Let us go into a little detail about this. God has made a Covenant with certain people that He will do all this for them—and in each case it is of pure Grace. He will take away their own hearts—it is clear from the promise that when He began with them, they had stony hearts. He will forgive their iniquities—when He began with them, they had many iniquities. He will give them a heart of flesh—when He began with them, they had not a heart of flesh. He will turn them to keep His statutes—when He began with them, they did not keep His statutes. They were a sinful, willful, wicked, degenerate people and He called to them many times to come to Him and repent—but they would not. Here He speaks like a king and no longer pleads, but decrees! He says, I will do this and that to you and you shall be this and this in return. Oh, blessed Covenant! Oh, mighty, Sovereign Grace!

How came it about? Learn the Doctrine of the two Covenants.

The first Covenant of which we will now speak was that of Works, the Covenant made with our first father, Adam. This is not first in purpose, but it was first revealed in time. It ran thus—You, Adam, and your posterity shall live and be happy if you will keep My Law. To test your obedience to Me, there is a certain tree—if you let it alone, you shall live. If you touch it, you shall die, and they whom you represent shall die.

Our first Covenant head snatched greedily at the forbidden fruit and fell—and what a Fall was there, my Brothers and Sisters! There you and I, and all of us, fell down while it was proven once and for all that by works of the Law no man can be justified! For if perfect Adam broke the Law so readily, depend upon it, you and I would break any Law that God had ever made! There was no hope of happiness for any of us by a Covenant which contained an, "if," in it. That Old Covenant is put away, for it has utterly failed. It brought nothing to us but a curse—and we are glad that it has waxed old and, as far as Believers are concerned, has vanished!

Then there came the Second Adam. You know His name, He is the ever-blessed Son of the Highest. This Second Adam entered into Covenant with God somewhat after this fashion—The Father said, I give You a people; they shall be

Yours: You must die to redeem them and when You have done this—when for their sakes You have kept My Law and made it honorable—when for their sakes you have borne My wrath against their transgressions—then I will bless them. They shall be My people. I will forgive their iniquities. I will change their natures. I will sanctify them and make them perfect. There was an apparent, "if," in this Covenant at the first. That "if" hinged upon the question whether the Lord Jesus would obey the Law and pay the ransom—a question which His faithfulness placed beyond doubt! There is no "if" in it, now. When Jesus bowed His head and said, "It is finished," there remained no "if in the Covenant! It stands, therefore, now as a Covenant entirely of one side, a Covenant of promises—of promises which must be kept because the other portion of the Covenant having been fulfilled—the Father's side of it must stand! He cannot and He will not draw back from the doing of that which He covenanted with Christ to do! The Lord Jesus shall receive the joy which was set before Him. "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." By His knowledge shall the Christ who became God's righteous Servant justify many, for has He not borne their iniquities? How can it be otherwise than that they should be accepted for whom He was the Surety? Do you see why it is that the Covenant, as I have read it, stands so absolutely without, "ifs," "buts," and, "perhapses," and runs only on, "shalls," and, "wills"? It is because the one side of it that did look uncertain was committed into the hands of Christ, who cannot fail or be discouraged! He has completed His part of it and now it stands fast and must stand fast forever and ever! This is now a Covenant of pure Grace and nothing else but Grace! Let no man attempt to mix up works with it, or anything of human merit! God saves now because He chooses to save—and over the head of us all there comes a sound as of a martial trumpet and yet with a deep, inner peaceful music in it—"I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." God observes us all lost and ruined and, in His Infinite Mercy, comes with absolute promises of Divine Grace to those whom He has given to His Son Jesus.

So much, then, with regard to the Covenant.

II. Now comes the important question, "HAVE I ANY PORTION IN IT?" May the Holy Spirit help us to ascertain the Truth of God on this point! You who are really anxious in your hearts to know, I would earnestly persuade to read the Epistle to the Galatians. Read that Epistle through if you want to know whether you have any part or lot in the Covenant of Grace. Did Christ fulfill the Law for me? Are the promises of God, absolute and unconditional, made to me? You can know by answering three questions.

First, Are you in Christ? Did you not notice that I said that we were all in Adam and in Adam we all fell? Now, "as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so, by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." Are you in the Second Adam? You certainly were in the first one, for so you fell! Are you in the Second? Because if you are in Him, you are saved in Him! He has kept the Law for you. The Covenant of Grace made with Him was made with you if you are in Him, for as surely as Levi was in the loins of Abraham when Melchisedec met him, so were all Believers in the loins of Christ when He died upon the Cross! If you are in Christ, you are a part and parcel of the Seed to whom the promise was made—but there is only one seed, and the Apostle tells us—"He says not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of One, And to your Seed, which is Christ." If, then, you are in Christ, you are in the Seed—and the Covenant of Grace was made with you!

I must ask you another question. Have you faith? By this question you will be helped to answer the previous one, for Believers are in Christ. In the Epistle to the Galatians, you will find that the mark of those who are in Christ is that they believe in Christ. The mark of all that are saved is not confidence in work, but faith in Christ. In the Epistle to the Gala-tians, Paul insists upon it, "The just shall live by faith," and the Law is not of faith. Over and over again he puts it so. Come, then, do you believe in Jesus Christ with all your heart? Is He your sole hope for Heaven? Do you lean your whole weight, the entire stress of your salvation, on Jesus? Then you are in Him and the Covenant is yours—and there is not a blessing which God has decreed to give but what He will give to you! There is not a gift which out of the grandeur of His heart, He has determined to bestow upon His elect but what He will bestow it upon you! You have the mark, the seal, the badge of His chosen if you believe in Christ Jesus!

Another question should help you. It is this—Have you been born-again? I refer you again to the Epistle to the Ga-latians which I would like every anxious person to read through very carefully. There you will see that Abraham had two sons. One of them was born according to the flesh. He was Ishmael, the child of the bondwoman. Though he was the firstborn son, he was not the heir, for Sarah said to Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." He who was born after the flesh did not inherit the Covenant promise! Is your hope of Heaven fixed on the fact that you had a good mother and father? Then your hope is born after the flesh and you are not in the Covenant! I am constantly hearing it said that children of godly parents do not need converting. Let me denounce that wicked lie! "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," and nothing better! They that are born after the flesh—those are not the children of God! Do not trust in gracious descent, or in holy ancestors! You must be born-again, every one of you, or you will perish forever, whoever your parents may be! Abraham had another son, even Isaac—he was not born of the strength of his father, nor after the flesh at all—for we are told that both Abraham and Sarah had become old. Isaac was born by God's power according to promise. He was the child given by Grace. Now, have you ever been born like that—not by human strength but by Divine Power? Is the life that is in you a life given by God? The true life is not of the will of man, nor of blood, nor of natural excellence—it comes by the working of the Holy Spirit and is of God. If you have this life, you are in the Covenant, for it is written, "in Isaac shall your Seed be called." The children of the promise, these are counted for the seed. God said to Abraham, "In your Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," and that was because He meant to justify the Gentiles by faith, that the blessing given to believing Abraham might come on all Believers! Abraham is the father of the faithful, or the father of all them that believe in God—and with such is the Covenant established.

Here, then, are the test questions—Am I in Christ? Am I believing in Jesus? Am I born by the power of the Spirit of God according to the promise, and not by the fleshly birth, or according to works? Then I am in the Covenant! My name stands in the eternal record! Before the stars began to shine, the Lord had covenanted to bless me. Or before evening and morning made the first day, my name was in His Book of Life. Christ, before the world's foundation, struck hands with the Father in the council chamber of eternity and pledged Himself to redeem me and to bring me and multitudes of others into His eternal Glory! And He will do it, too, for He never breaks His suretyship engagements any more than the Father breaks His Covenant engagements! I want you to get quite sure upon these points, for oh, what peace it will breed in your soul, what a restfulness of heart to understand the Covenant and to know that your name is in it!

III. This is our last point. If, indeed, we can believe upon the good evidence of God's Word—that we are of the Seed with whom the Covenant was made in Christ Jesus—then EVERY BLESSING OF THE COVENANT WILL COME TO US. I will put it a little more personally—every blessing of the Covenant will come to you!

The devil says, "No, it, won't." Why not, Satan? "Why," he says, "you are not able to do this or that." Refer the devil to the text! Tell him to read those passages which I read to you and ask him if he can spy an, "if," or a, "but," for I cannot. "Oh," he says, "but, but, but, but, but you cannot do enough, you can't feelenough." Does it say anything about feeling there? It only says, "I will give them a heart of flesh." They will feel enough then! "Oh, but," the devil says, "you cannot soften your hard heart." Does it say that you are to do so? Does it not say, "I will take the stony heart out of their flesh"? The tenor of it is—I will do it. I WILL DO IT. The devil dares not say that God cannot do it—he knows that God can enable us to tread him under our feet. "Oh, but," he says, "you will never hold on your way if you begin to be a Christian." Does it say anything about that in the Covenant further than this, "they shall walk in My statutes"? What if we have not power in and of ourselves to continue in God's statutes? Yet He has power to make us continue in them! He can work obedience and final perseverance in holiness in us. His Covenant virtually promises these blessings to us. To came back to what we said before—God does not ask of us, but He gives to us! He sees us dead and He loves us even when we are dead in trespasses and sins! He sees us feeble and unable to help ourselves—and He comes in and works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure—and then we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. The bottom of it, the very foundation of it, is Himself! And He finds nothing in us to help Him. There is neither fire nor wood in us, much less the lamb for the burnt offering—all is emptiness and condemnation! He comes in with, "I will," and, "you shall," like a royal helper affording free aid to destitute, helpless sinners, according to the riches of His Grace! Now be sure that, having made such a Covenant as this, God will ever be mindful of it!

He will do so, first, because He cannot lie. If He says He will, He will. His very name is "God That Cannot Lie." If I am in Christ, I must be saved—none can prevent it. If I am a Believer in Christ, I must be saved—all the devils in Hell cannot stop it, for God has said, "He that believes in Him is not condemned." "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." God's word is not, yes, and, no. He knew what He said when He spoke the Covenant and He has never changed it, nor contradicted it. If, then, I am a Believer, I must be saved, for I am in Christ to whom the promise is made! If I have the new Life in me, I must be saved, for is not this spiritual Life the living and incorruptible Seed which lives and abides forever? Did not Jesus say, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life"? I have drunk the water Christ gave me and it must spring up into everlasting life! It is not possible for death to kill the Life that God has given me, nor for all the fallen spirits to tread out the Divine fire which Christ's own Spirit has cast into my bosom! I must be saved, for God cannot deny Himself!

Next, God made the Covenant freely. If He had not meant to keep it, He would not have made it. When a man is driven up into a corner by someone who says, "Now you must pay me," then he is apt to promise more than he can perform. He solemnly declares, "I will pay you this day fortnight." Poor fellow, he has no money, now, and will not have any then, but he makes a promise because he cannot help himself. No such necessity can be imagined with our God! The Lord was under no compulsion—He might have left men to perish because of sin—there was no one to prompt Him to make the Covenant of Grace, or even to suggest the idea! "With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him?" He made the Covenant of His own royal will and, having made it, rest you sure that He will never run back from it! A Covenant so freely made must be fully carried out.

Moreover, on the Covenant document there is a seal Did you see the seal? The grand thing in a deed of gift is the signature or seal. What is this—this red splash at the bottom of it? It is blood! Yes, it is blood. Whose blood? It is the blood of the Son of God! This has ratified and sealed the Covenant. Jesus died. Jesus' death has made the Covenant sure! Can God forget the blood of His dear Son, or do despite to His Sacrifice? Impossible! All for whom He died as a Covenant Substitute He will save! His redeemed shall not be left in captivity, as if the ransom price had effected nothing. Has He not said, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and he that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out"? That Covenant stands secure, though earth's old columns bow, for despite to the blood can never be possible on the part of the Father.

Again, God delights in the Covenantand so we are sure He will not run back from it. It is the very joy of His holy heart! He delights to do His people good. To pass by transgression, iniquity and sin is the recreation of Jehovah! Did you ever hear of God singing? It is singular that the Divine One should solace Himself with song, but yet a Prophet has thus revealed the Lord to us, "He will rest in His love; He will joy over you with singing." The Covenant is the heart of God written out in the blood of Jesus—and since the whole Nature of God runs parallel with the tenor of the Everlasting Co-venant—you may rest assured that even its jots and its tittles stand secure!

And then, last of all, O you who are in the Covenant, do not doubt that God will save you, keep you, bless you seeing you have believedon Jesus, are inJesus and are quickened into newness of life! You dare not doubt if I tell you one thing more—if your father, if your brother, if your dearest friend had solemnly stated a fact, would you bear for anybody to say that he lied? I know you would be indignant at such a charge! But suppose your father, in the most solemn manner, had taken an oath—would you for a minute think that he had perjured himself and had sworn a lie? Now turn to the Word of God and you will find that God, because He knew that an oath among men is the end of strife, has been pleased to seal the Covenant with an oath. "That by two Immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us." God has lifted His hand to Heaven and sworn that Christ shall have the reward of His passion, that His purchased ones shall be brought under His sway, that having borne sin and put it away, it never shall be a second time charged on His redeemed!

There is all of it. Do you believe in Christ? Then God will work in you to will and do of His good pleasure! God will conquer your sin! God will sanctify you! God will save you! God will keep you! God will bring you to Himself at last! Rest on that Covenant and then, moved by intense gratitude, go forward to serve your Lord with all your heart, and soul and strength! Being saved, live to praise Him! Work not that you may be saved, but becauseyou are saved—the Covenant has secured your safety! Delivered from the servile fear which an Ishmael might have known, live the joyous life of an Isaac! And moved by love of the Father, spend and be spent for His sake! If the selfish hope of winning Heaven by works has moved some men to great sacrifice, much more shall the godly motive of gratitude to Him who has done all this for us move us to the noblest service and make us feel that it is no sacrifice at all! "We thus judge that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again." "You are not your own, you are bought with a price." If you are saved under the Covenant of Grace, the mark of the covenanted ones is upon you and the sacred character of the covenanted ones should be displayed in you! Bless and magnify your Covenant God! Take the cup of the Covenant and call upon His name! Plead the promises of the Covenant and have whatever you need! Amen.