Well we return to Hebrews 13 and to the text we looked at last week. I mentioned last Sunday that we wanted to think about a particular phrase that is in this text, verse 20, in which the author speaks of the everlasting covenant. And it's easy to pass right over that wording and not think about its importance and not think about the importance that that phrase has for Baptist theology and particularly Baptist covenant theology. And so I want us to think today about the importance of what it means to say there is an everlasting covenant that is sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, in keeping with the rest of this chapter, we've been saying it kind of exposes the idea of this unshakable kingdom that the author of Hebrews brings up at the end of the 12th chapter, a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And we know that it's holding this up as something different from the kingdoms of this world, which are very shakable. In fact, as you think over and over about the history of the world, kingdoms are shaken, kingdoms fall, they don't last forever. In fact, if you even think about Daniel's prophetic word, Daniel was saying these great empires that seem unshakable in their day would be shaken and would fall. The Meadow Persians are no more, Babylon no more, Greece no more, Rome no more. And in fact when you think about the kingdoms shown to us even in Scripture that had every advantage even the kingdom that David was king over, that Solomon reigned over a united kingdom with all the glories attendant to it and yet over and over again it shook and it went through times of foreign occupation and all these things because it was a shakable kingdom. But the promise given to us in Hebrews 12 is of a kingdom that is unshakable. It is not here today and gone tomorrow. It is not movable. It is not shakable. It is glorious. It is eschatological. It is perfect and it is lasting. And that is really what he begins to talk about in the 13th chapter. What is this? What is this kingdom? And we've looked at that at length. But we come to this text last week, which we said is something of a doxology and a prayer and a benediction. It's kind of all these things wrapped up in one and has elements of all of them. But ultimately what it is is a word, isn't it, of the glory of the kingdom that we are in as Christians. This unshakable kingdom that is forever and from forever, if you will, from everlasting to everlasting. This kingdom that is glorious, that is part of a covenant promise made in eternity past. And so as we come to this, we realize that something special is being spoken of here. And we spoke last Sunday about how in this text is our triune God making this a reality for us. promised by God, covenanted by the Father, the Son coming and giving His life as the blood which will seal this covenant, His righteous life standing if you will as the new Adam, the last Adam if you will, and then on top of that the Holy Spirit who does what? Well He makes us complete in every good work to do the will of God. We spoke about this last week to say this is the Gospel. this is the gospel. We'll come full circle today, I think, to that again, to talking about it at the end. But as we come to this today, I want us to think about this covenant and to put it in its proper place in understanding the covenants of the Lord and why this covenant is glorious and unshakable and everlasting. So let's read our text one more time and then we'll get into it. Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. As we think about this text I want us to look at three points. First of all, a covenantal history I think we would argue that the Bible itself is a covenantal history. Second of all, an everlasting covenant, the obvious main point we have today. And then lastly, a glorious word. and I believe it is a glorious word to us, that we are in this glorious and unshakeable covenant and kingdom. And so beginning first of all with this covenantal history, as we come back to this we'll see that this text is essentially covenantal and that shouldn't surprise us because this whole letter has been covenantal, which shouldn't surprise us because the framework of scriptures itself is covenantal. The story that God is telling us is through covenants. God has established covenants throughout the pages of Scripture. We see them over and over again. And whatever framework you put the Scriptures in, you're going to have to wrestle with all these covenants that emerge and appear. and seem to tell the story of Scripture. We see clear and explicit examples of covenants given to men like Noah and Abraham and David. There is no question about that. Covenants that are for them and their offspring, if you will, in some regard. And we'll talk about that a little bit. We know that's important to our Baptist argument. These covenants have far-reaching implications, not only for the men then, but also those that come after them. For instance, the Levitic covenant is made to David, yes, but also the sons of David in the sense of the kings of Israel. And we'll come back to see what David says about that at the end of his days. But we recognize the importance of these covenants. And we recognize from the very beginning, these aren't sideshows to the story. These are themselves the story of what God is doing. From the very beginning, the history of scripture is developed through covenants, through the understanding of these covenants. In fact, we would argue historically as Baptists, you cannot understand the story that God is giving to us if you don't understand the covenants that are its framework, its bones, if you will. And so we need to recognize this. These covenants form the backbone of our story, the story that we care about and that we're looking at today. Now, it's not the first covenant. The first covenant happens in eternity past, and we'll look at that today as part of the everlasting covenant, or we would argue the everlasting covenant. But there are other covenants, and right from the very beginning of text there is a covenant that is presented to us. Maybe it's not presented in the text of Scripture, but we recognize there must be a framework of covenant in what happens in the Garden of Eden. Because we see in the Garden of Eden Adam And we see that there is an agreement that God has given him. He has given him some sort of framework that if he does what God has demanded there will be something that he receives. That is the framework of covenant, right? An agreement of some kind. Now we recognize God enters these things sovereignly. Nobody can force God's hand in this way. But we recognize also that God does this for man's good. And in every way, as we see the covenants presented, it does something that is good for man. In the case of the garden in this initial covenant of works, we recognize by what happens in Scripture, what it implies would have happened had Adam obeyed. Adam is told, you may eat of all the trees in this garden, but one. Do not eat of this one tree. And if you eat of that tree, and the day you eat of it, you will surely die. And we know what happens. Adam disobeys. Paul in Romans goes through extensively on this, doesn't he? That just as in the disobedience of one man all men fell and death came to all men. So we see here the framework of covenant. And some people will say, well, it doesn't say anything of covenant in those early chapters of Genesis. But I would argue you can't understand Paul's language in Romans 5 without it. There must be this framework of covenant and understanding that God had an agreement with Adam, if you will. He entered into this covenant with Adam and told him, if you do this then, and theologians may argue about the fullness of what was promised, but the idea being if he did not eat of the fruit of the tree, at the very least he would stay in the garden. But most theologians Suppose the deal was that Adam would have entered into glory at some point after a probational time. But that didn't happen. I say it's not the first covenant because this doesn't surprise God, our God who sees all things. God had already in eternity past made a covenant, our triune God, within himself, if you will, the persons of the Trinity, the Father and the Son, enter into an agreement to save sinners. In fact, this is the beautiful message given right after the fall where we have in the garden this message, this promise, this proto-evangelium, this first gospel that though you have fallen under this curse, though all these things have happened and it would seem that there is nothing good. And by the way, God could have done that if He desired. God could have said, you are sinners. You have broken My covenant. You and all your posterity shall be in sin and death. You'll live a short life here on earth full of trouble and when you die you'll enter into judgment. And God would have been just to do that. See Adam stood as a federal head in that covenant for all his progeny, for all his descendants. Paul tells us that again in Romans. God would have been just to offer no salvation at all. No chance, if you will, to have life after this fall. But God, who is rich in mercy from eternity past, held out this hope for sinners. In fact, it's given in the Garden in chapter 3 as He says that there'll be enmity between the woman's seed and the serpent's seed. that the serpent and his seed will bite the heel of her seed, but the seed, the son of woman, shall crush the serpent's head." And that's that Proto-Evangelium, right? That first gospel that there will be one who comes from this line who will crush the serpent, who will crush all this evil and who will deliver a people. Now, if we follow out those covenants, we recognize that there are many covenants, but we would kind of point to in this short time we have today, you know, in the spring we spend an entire semester on Wednesday nights walking through the covenants and covenant theology. We can't do that obviously this morning, but if you just think about those main covenants that are given to us, God begins through these covenants to explain how he's going to do this. When he comes to Abraham, he calls Abraham of the Chaldees, Abram, out tells him to get up and leave his home and go to a place he would show him. And he tells him he'll make him a father of a people, a numerous people. And that through his seed, all the nation shall be blessed. Again, in that moment, what does Abraham take that to mean? I don't know. But we can look back and understand the fullness of the mystery of the gospel right there. That God was gonna bless the ends of the earth through what the seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ would do. If we wonder, are we interpreting that right, Paul tells us in Galatians, yes, singular seed, Jesus Christ. There is a promise, we would argue, to the seeds, the plurality of the children of Abraham found through this lineage of Isaac and Jacob that will be the people of Israel which God will have as a nation that He calls out through whom He'll bring this promised seed, Jesus Christ. In fact, as we follow along, we'll see that He brings them to this point at Sinai where He gives them this national covenant. A kingdom, if you will, on earth that is His people. And you might think for a moment, what's the purpose in that? Well, He's gonna bring forth His seed. And everything that He gives, if you will, in this covenant is important. We could walk through the three uses of the law and all this stuff that we have through our theology, but ultimately all of it teaches about Jesus. The ceremonial law teaches about Jesus. In fact, as we've walked through this letter, what has our author done? He's gone back to the ceremonial law and said, it all points to Jesus. If you wanna understand Yom Kippur, you've gotta look to Jesus. Why don't you need Yom Kippur anymore? Because of Jesus. But even as you think about this, all those other laws that were given were to set Israel apart. They were unique. That's what the early church wrestles with, right? As God tells them, these dietary laws that were given to Israel, they were positive laws in covenantal terms. Positive law means given as a unique thing by the Lord to a particular covenant. These aren't immutable, eternal moral laws. It was not wrong to eat pork. except in that covenant in which God said, you shall not eat pork. And then it's a sin to eat pork. So when Peter is told in this vision of this sheet coming down with all these animals, he knows he's not allowed to eat. And he hears, take and eat. And he says, no, Lord, I would never do this. The Lord explains to him, you've got to realize, or in fact, he just tells him plainly, doesn't he? He says, what I have called clean, do not call unclean. Of course, what is the meaning of this? Well, in our biblical theology we recognize he's about to get a visitor asking him to take the gospel to Gentiles. Something Peter the day before would have said, no way I'm going into the house of a Gentile. That is an unclean thing. This message is for us and we are lights in the nations and we know that Israel got a lot of that wrong. The point is this, he recognizes in this that God is telling him those things that were unique to the old covenant are not binding on him now. These particular things that the gospel now will go out to the nations and that he needs to realize that those things held a place in that old covenant economy An economy that is no longer binding on him. And we'll see the importance of that throughout our Baptist history. We dealt with that a lot during our covenant theology class in the spring. But we recognize this important reality that there is a people set apart for God's mission. For God's mission. Until the seed shall come. Until the fullness of Christ's coming. And what's interesting here is there are other covenants along the way, aren't there? We have a covenant that we find made with David. And that's itself an interesting covenant because it holds out a promise, doesn't it? God promises him that there will be one on his throne who will reign forevermore. And in the day of that Davidic promise, there's also a covenant made in which there's the holding out that Israel shall do as its king does. In the days where the kings are faithful and just and good, the nation will prosper. In the days where the king is wicked and bad and does not do what God has called him to do, the nation will suffer and weaken. But there's also a promise. You know, we see Israel's history, it's mostly wicked kings, unfortunately. Well, if we say the northern kingdom of Israel, it's pretty much all wicked kings. But even in Judah, it's mostly bad kings. And things don't go well. We'll hear David himself say that at the end of this sermon. But David wasn't trusting in that covenantal part of the promise in which, by your works, the nation shall fare. David was holding on to the promise that was with that. You seek to establish me a house, David. No, that's not how this will work. I will establish your house. And how will I do that? By placing a king to reign on your throne forevermore. And he will reign, and he will be just, and he will be his people's king. And so my friends, we'll see later, this is what David's hope was in, as it was the hope of Abraham. Not of an earthly people. How many times has our author told us this? He wasn't looking for an earthly Jerusalem. He wasn't looking for a city that's built by the hands of men. He was looking for one whose builder was God. He was looking for the heavenly Jerusalem that no man can build, but would descend from glory. And so my friends, again and again this is telling us they weren't looking to earthly promises. They were looking to the eschatological and glorious promises of God that those things pictured or we say typified, right, that language of typology. The earthly Jerusalem is not unimportant. It's just not the end. It's not the end. It's not the fullness. But that glorious Jerusalem that ascends from glory, that is the one that we are looking for. Just as our author has told us, the earthly tabernacle, as great as it was, was not the end. In fact, it was built after the pattern of the glorious heavenly tabernacle. Over and over again, type fulfilled in anti-type. And so our author says, think about this rightly and recognize that we see here as a story of covenants. But we recognize that all those covenants that we're speaking about have an element of work to them. All the earthly sides of them do. If you think for a moment about Israel, they will be in the land as long as they obey. Right? As long as they obey. Is there some sort of life held out in the law? Well, in theory, do this and live, except nobody can do it in Adam. We are fallen sinners. In fact, the story of what's wrong with the world is found in what happened in the story of the garden. Because when man fell his heart was corrupted by sin and now his heart desires that which is evil. We know this. We as men don't have any trouble desiring things we shouldn't. What we need and what the Bible tells us over and over we need is something we can't give to ourselves. What is it? A new heart. The Old Covenant says to be a part of this covenant you need to be circumcised in the flesh. And yet over and over what Moses says is, what you really need is a circumcision of heart. What Paul says is, my brothers according to the flesh have put so much interest in circumcision of the foreskin, they've forgotten what Moses said. That the circumcision that God really requires is that of the heart. You need a new heart. And that's one thing you can't give yourself. And that's one thing the old covenant cannot give you. You see, what we see over and over in Scripture is the holding out of a better covenant coming. Whether it's Ezekiel or Jeremiah or whoever you want to go to, there is the promise of another covenant unlike the former ones. It's different than those that came before it. Why? Because all those others required something of you. You want to be in the covenant of Abraham? Make sure you're circumcised. For any man who is not circumcised is utterly cut off from the covenant. You want to be in the covenant with Israel? Well, again, you better be circumcised. And you better do the works the law requires, or at least the sacrifices to atone for the failings under that covenant. If you want to be in the Davidic covenant, if you want to be a king that is right before God, you must do what is just and right. But we all fail. This is the story of humankind. We fail because we're sons of Adam with corrupt hearts. And so, my friends, what we're told over and over again in Scripture is this holding out of a glorious promise that's principle is obey and live, just not for us. But we will have a mediator who obeys and lives for us. He obeys and we live. That is the glorious thing about this covenant. Why is it the gospel? Because if it's up to me, I will fail. We sing these songs like, he shall hold me fast, because my grip isn't very strong, but his is unfailing. So my friends, as we think about this for a moment, we see here held out over and over again is a promise of a new and better covenant, unlike the former ones, a covenant that will not fail. A covenant that will give us what we need most, a new heart. In fact, God's law will no longer be external to us, but God's law will be placed in our hearts and minds. And we talked about this a little bit last week. That's what this text is ultimately giving us, telling us about. We'll come back to that in a moment. But what we really need is not more made external laws, not more man-made external laws, I should say. Everywhere in the New Testament we see this. Somebody says, well we've got the Gospel, what can we add to it? Colossians, can we add some sort of Old Testament form of Gnosticism to it? Galatians, can we add works of righteousness to it? What can we do to make our election more sure? And the answer is nothing. Nothing. Christ did it and He did it all. He did it all. Now does that mean that we're not called to works of righteousness in thanksgiving and praise to our God? Of course we are. We're just not saved by them. They're the fitting and proper response of a people who have received grace. We love our Father. We want to serve our Father. We do not gain merit in terms of salvation in this way. What we really need is a new covenant head, somebody other than Adam in which to stand. We need a Christ. You know, there's no human being that could do this for us. Abraham couldn't do it. Isaac couldn't do it, Jacob couldn't do it, Moses couldn't do it, David couldn't do it. They're sinners. In fact, the Scriptures give us a record of the sin of all these men. They all had their failings, right? We look at these men and read about them and learn from them as great examples of faith, but my friends, they were human beings like us in Adam, fallen human beings. We could walk through each one of them and their failings. And yet what we really needed was one who was spotless. When John sees Christ, he says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That's what we needed. We needed a spotless Lamb who could go and pay for our sins because He Himself is sinless. A perfect and spotless High Priest who would come and be tempted and tried in all ways as we are, yet not sinning. Not sinning. Can't be said of those other men I named. But it can be said of Christ. And so, my friends, what we needed was one who would succeed where Adam failed, whose record would be perfect in terms of obedience. He would do all things required of him. And the Scriptures tell us Jesus did that. He became obedient to death. Yes, even the death of the cross. Even the death of the cross. He took our curse upon Himself. Not that He deserved the curse. He was sinless. But He did it. out of love and out of this commitment to this covenant that was made in eternity past. And that really brings us to our second point this morning, this everlasting covenant, because God is great and greatly to be praised. He is great in mercy and forgiveness. He'd already dealt with the need. All of these problems don't take him by surprise. He sees the end from the beginning. And the Bible tells us that over and over again, that long before any of these events took place, God saw what was going to happen, as He sovereignly can, and He had a plan. In fact, the Bible tells us this in many places. Before creation ever even happened, God had ordained a plan to redeem sinners. 2 Timothy 1, 8-12, Now we can all agree, but listen to what he says next. before time began. But now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this reason I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him until that day. He started it in eternity past, and He will see it through. He will see it through. So my friends, there is one evidence. We could go on, Ephesians 1, 3-6, Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved." Revelation 13 speaks of Jesus as the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. All these details set in motion in eternity past because of God's mercy and great love. So again, our text today speaks of the everlasting covenant. It began before time. And the results of this covenant will exist at the end of the age and beyond. Everlasting, everlasting. From eternity past, forever glorious and effective, a better covenant, this letter says. You had other covenants, but they were lesser covenants. This alone is a better covenant and logic just demands it, right? Like why do we need to replace the old covenant? Why not just stay under that priesthood and under all the ministrations of the old covenant? Well, our author told us because there's something better. There's something we need, something that old covenant could not provide. And we know it's not the everlasting covenant. How? Because the covenant made with Abraham was sealed by what? The blood of animals. The Sinai covenant, sealed with what? The blood of animals. And it's clear in our text here today that this is sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ. It is the blood of the everlasting covenant. Well, how do we know what he means by this? Well, first of all, he's tying it to the death and resurrection of Christ, the oblation of Christ. But on top of that, Jesus, at the institution of the Last Supper, the Lord's table, said what? This is the blood of the new covenant. This is the blood that seals and gives power to the new covenant again. It's Christ's blood. It's Christ's blood. And only one covenant is sealed with the blood of Christ. And Arthur says that is the everlasting covenant. We often call it the covenant of grace or the new covenant. That is a Baptist distinctive, I know. But that's what we call it. We say this is the same covenant, the one and same covenant. And so my friends, as we look at this, we recognize the need of understanding that what we have received in this new covenant will never be replaced. Why would it? How could it? What could be more glorious or greater than the fullness of all things God promised? This is one of the points that John Bunyan gets at in Pilgrim's Progress. He has this great scene of passion and patience. Maybe some of you remember this scene. And passion has all that passion wants in the moment and patience is waiting for that which is to come. And Bunyan is playing this off as the covenants, right? The covenant that was temporal and the covenant that is everlasting. And he says this, Bunyan writes in that section, because he has had good things first. As patience will have the laugh at passion, because he had the best things last. For first must give place to last, because last must also have his time to come. But last gives place to nothing, for there is not another to succeed. My friends, that is at the heart of the covenant theology we as Baptists have held to for hundreds of years. That's the glory of the new covenant, the everlasting covenant of grace, planned from eternity past, perfect to save. It gives way to no successor. There's no need of any successor. There's no need for a succession of priests. Our letter has told us this. Under the old covenant, we needed one priest after another, after another, but now Jesus Christ alone, our priest forevermore. This is what John Brown of Haddington states, This covenant is termed the everlasting covenant to distinguish it from other covenants or arrangements made by God, and especially from that covenant or arrangement which was made with the Israelites at Sinai and which, as it referred directly to temporal blessings, was intended only for a temporary duration. The new covenant is never to give place to any other. Very similar wording here. Bunyan and Brown are talking about the exact same thing. It's an everlasting covenant, but it's revealed in the fullness of time. That's what Paul says. In the fullness of time, God brought forth His Son, born of a virgin, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. Yes, planned in eternity past, covenanted in eternity past, and yet, my friends, this promise fulfilled in the fullness of time in the gospel of Christ. That's what Paul states in Titus 1. The introduction of that letter, listen to what he says, but has in due time manifested His Word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior." An everlasting covenant promised before time, but ensured in the fullness of time in the blood of Christ, bringing many sons to glory through the glories of this everlasting covenant and its perfect effectiveness. Well, that brings us back to our third and final point. It brings us to what we've talked about before and need to think about today. This is a glorious Word. It's a glorious Word. It's why Jesus says, How can He say that? Because it's the nature of this covenant. It's the nature of the Gospel. We cannot earn what we're given. We cannot earn it. But God graciously gives it to us through the the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's the glorious gospel or the good news of Jesus Christ. It's good news because what they had under the old covenant seemed to them a yoke, a heavy burden. A heavy burden. That's what Peter says. Would we ask these Gentiles to bear a yoke that neither we nor our fathers could bear? The glory of the gospel is Jesus says, get into my yoke. He's the one who bore the weight. He's the one who bore the work. He says, enter into it with me. Share in the blessings of the gospel. And so my friends, we have entered into a covenant and all that's required in that covenant, this was our point last Sunday morning, all that is required in that covenant has been given to us. All of it. You need righteousness? You don't have it. But praise God, Christ does, and you stand in His righteousness. Need a perfect track record? You don't have it. I don't have it. Christ has it. We stand in His perfect track record. You need to be born again? You can't do that. But the Holy Spirit can birth you again, so to speak. You can be born again in the power of the Spirit. You need all these things that the Scriptures have held out throughout their pages. You need to be reconciled to a holy and righteous God. You cannot do it. But praise God, Christ can. And He reconciled His people to a holy and righteous God. My friends, as we think about this covenant, we recognize that there are two aspects to it. Benjamin Keech, one of our great early Baptists, preached a funeral sermon, which has been a help to me in preparing for this sermon, of another minister, and it was called the Everlasting Covenant. And it was about this covenant of grace. And he says in there, there's something interesting about this covenant. Like the other covenants, it has an aspect of work to it. There's no doubt about that. If Christ does not come and do His work, we are without hope. That's the gospel we preach every week. If Christ didn't die on the cross, if He didn't live a perfect life, He doesn't come in the incarnation. I probably should reverse that order. If He doesn't come in the incarnation, if He doesn't live a perfect life, if He doesn't go to Calvary's cross and die for sinners, if He isn't buried, if He doesn't rise again, if He isn't ascending into glory, He isn't enthroned as the messianic high priest for his people. If these things do not happen, we don't have hope. All these things must take place. That's why the author of Hebrews walks through all those things and says, wrestle with them. He did all these things. And because he did the work, then we are able to stand in him and receive it all by grace. As by the way, we would have done if Adam had been faithful, presumably. But what we have in Christ is one who did it perfectly. And now we stand in him perfectly righteous and given new hearts and no longer put in this paradigm of work, work, work to earn something that you cannot earn. But now we are called to serve our Lord in thanksgiving and praise, not as those who will ever earn righteousness, but as those who recognize what God has done for us and a desire to make His name known and bring Him glory and to serve Him and to love Him all the days of our life. Imperfectly, we will do that imperfectly, but praise God, the standing we have before our Father is perfect. Because when He looks upon us, He sees His Son, His perfect righteousness. My friends, as we think about this for a moment, we recognize that what's glorious about this gospel is it gives all that it requires. All that it requires. And God did this for us out of love. Our song of the week today had that line in it. I hope you caught it. God set his love on me, on me in spite of me. In spite of me. Not for works I've done. Despite the evil that I've done. Despite the failings I've had in my life. Despite all that, God loved me. and His Son came into this world and died for me, and if you're His, for you too. And so, my friends, we are given the new hearts we need. We are given the ability to serve Him in love and not as a people trying to earn something. My friends, we recognize here that the everlasting covenant is a glorious thing. And I promised I wanted to go back to David. I'll make this quick. If you turn to 2 Samuel 23, And there are many times where the Bible talks about an everlasting covenant and if you remember we talked about exactly what this means in places where in the old covenant it says this is set for you as an everlasting covenant and then the Bible tells us that that ends. And we wrestle with that but Nehemiah Cox in his book on the covenants explains that it means it lasts as long as the dispensation lasts or as long as the age lasts or as long as the covenant lasts. But there is another language found throughout scripture of the everlasting covenant. A covenant that God made before time or promised before time and has been fulfilled in Christ. And David held out for that. I want you to listen to this. 2 Samuel 23. It says, now these are the last words of David. Think about this. We often talk in 2 Timothy about Paul's last words. Paul knows his time is short. Probably what you want to say there is important. You know, when you call your family around your deathbed, those things you want to share with them are probably the most important things, right? You're not going, hey, on channel 382 on Tuesdays at two o'clock, you can watch Gunsmoke or something, you know? You're probably calling them around to talk about the most important things. So what is David talking about here? Thus says David, the son of Jesse. Thus says the man raised up on high, the anointed of God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel. He is the king and he's also the psalmist of Israel. The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said, the rock of Israel spoke to me. He who rules over men must be just." It's not a suggestion, is it? The one who rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, like the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain." And my friends, I want you to stop here for a moment. This speaks of the king as not only must be a just man in this covenant, but he's an example to his people. Just as we say if you want to be an elder or a deacon, you must be an example to the church. We've seen some things the last few weeks about not being examples to the church and the consequences of those things on a national stage. If you want to stand in these positions, you must be, as he says here, one who can say, as Paul did, follow me as I follow the Lord. Imitate me as I imitate Christ. And so he says, a king should be one who is like the light of the morning when the sun rises. A morning without clouds. You've seen mornings like that. You love to sit on your porch with your cup of coffee on mornings like that. When that sun is shining beautifully and there's no clouds, it's just a perfect morning. Tranquility and peace and light. But he also says, like the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after the rain. He's talking about A king who's obviously righteous. That's what we're supposed to be as a king, he says. In this covenant before God, we must be right and we must be honorable and we must be an example. And yet I want you to look at verse 5, what David says about that. Although my house is not so with God. Do you think David thought he was righteous in his own standing? I think we all remember the events of David's life. It's easy to pick on David, right? I mean, but he made it easy in all fairness, you know, by doing many things that he should not have done. But in that one series of events in which David slept with another man's wife as king of Israel, and then when she became pregnant, realized this thing's going to be found out, and so he plots the murder of the husband. I mean, this is dastardly evil. Do you think David didn't realize? Psalm 51 records his repentance before God. David knew he was a man. He knew that he couldn't live up to this standard. Although my house is not so with God, yet what? What is my hope? I'll be more righteous tomorrow? Solomon will be more righteous than me? No. Although my house is not so with God, yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant. My hope is not in Solomon. It's not in Jeroboam or Rehoboam after him. My hope is in this promise that God has made of one who will sit on my throne and be righteous and be just and be good. My hope is in this everlasting covenant. My hope is in the everlasting covenant. And my friends, if you've been reading Hebrews carefully, the author of Hebrews simply says, Amen. So is ours. So is ours. So my friends, thanksgiving should be offered to Christ for what He has done for us. Amen.