I love contemplating and I love preaching on the terms of the eternal covenant of grace. I love the fact that, as this verse here before us indicates, is that God does and God says, I will and they shall. He says, I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me. Salvation is knowing God in His true character as revealed in the scriptures and particularly as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I love how this covenant holds all of the scriptures together. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is the covenant. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 8 for a minute and I'll just read you these glorious verses to set our minds as to who is the one that causes us to know We know that it's a righteous act of God to reveal and it's a righteous act of God to hide. And there will come a day when every mouth will be stopped and all the world held guilty before God and our God will be seen to be perfectly righteous and perfectly just in everything that he does. But Hebrews 8 verse 10 says, for this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. And there's a reason, isn't it? For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he sayeth a new covenant, he hath made the first old, now that which decayeth and waxes old is ready to vanish away. This is the covenant, isn't it, that they will know God? And there's a reason. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. And I want us to be reminded again and again that in John chapter 17, within maybe half an hour of these words being said, the Lord Jesus Christ will be bowed down in Gethsemane's garden and great drops of blood from his broken heart will burst through his veins as he looks into that cup and bears the crushing weight of having all of the sins of all of his bride laid on him. And he says, I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more, because they're gone. They're gone altogether. That's what it is to be justified. That's what it is for him to say in this verse before us, a righteous father. So here is the great contrast, yet again laid out in scriptures for us, isn't it? The great contrast between the elect and the reprobate. And it's the difference, the difference is always a difference that the Lord makes. And the difference is a difference of grace and a difference of mercy. But also it's a difference that's in righteousness. No matter what we think about those things, may the Lord write on our hearts that God is righteous in all The world was in ignorance, and their willful ignorance and rebellion against God Almighty was 100% their responsibility and their fault. And God, in sovereign grace and mercy, in covenant love, comes to his own, and he reveals himself to them. These have known that thou hast sent me, your righteous in your sending, you're righteous in your revealing. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that reveals the character of God. If you want to find out what God is like, you look to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to find out all of the glories of the character of God, the name of God, you go to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you particularly go to the Cross of Calvary. And there you'll see, in stark display before all worlds, according to the Scriptures, the very attributes of God on display, His glorious holiness, His absolute sovereignty over all people, His grace, His mercy, His extraordinary wisdom that God would find a way to magnify all of His character in the saving of sinners like us. But it's interesting here, isn't it, at the end of this prayer in John 17, that the Lord would say, these have known that thou hast sent me. And 40-something times throughout the Gospels, the Lord Jesus Christ describes himself as the one who is sent. And in this particular prayer, the Lord speaks in John 17.3, he says, this is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Verse 8, I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. Verse 18, as thou hast sent me into the world, even so I send them into the world. Verse 21, that they all may be one, Father, as thou art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known, and these have known, that thou hast sent me. All this focus on Him being the sent one. The first thing we need to remember, of course, isn't it, is that the Lord Jesus Christ comes in perfect obedience to His Father. And in perfect obedience and in perfect submission to His Father's will, He loses none of His deity and none of His glory. In fact, He enhances it. But the other thing that I think is so important is that he wants us, as he does these apostles, to remember again and again that the eternal covenant engagements that cause descending are vital to our comfort and vital We look back in time and as Jeremiah 6.16 says, we stand in the paths and you have many paths around you and you look, I'll read the verse for you so I get it right, but I just love it. It's just a lovely picture because he's saying to his people who have many paths set before them, he says, stand ye, verse 16 of Jeremiah 6, Stand ye in the ways, so there are many ways around us, and see. Take notice of what's going on and ask. And he says, ask for the old path. The old path is that path that is so old that it vanishes into eternity past. That's the path that you ask for, the old path. Listen to what he says, where is the good way and walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls. Isn't that a beautiful verse? You stand in the ways. We stand in this world and we have many ways before us, many ways in things that we can do, many ways in things that we can think, many ways in religion. It's all around, isn't it? It's complicated and confusing except when God speaks and God reveals himself. When you stand in all of those ways and you say, I'm going to ask, I'm going to be humbled by God and I'm going to ask, which is the old way? The old way is the way of the eternal covenant of grace, the eternal covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal covenant that reminds us again and again that he was the sent one, he was sent with a purpose from God Almighty. You'll call his name Jesus because he shall save his people from their sins. Our God doesn't try. Our God doesn't attempt anything at all. Our God doesn't make offers of salvation. Our God does. Just as when he created this universe, he just says, Light be, and light was. And when he comes in saving grace into the hearts of his people, he just shines a light, and the light is the Lord Jesus Christ and that light shines in us and shines on us and we see the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his glory. We are to remember by the grace of God that to know God is to know Him in this covenant character. That's what took Him to the cross, that's what the blood is all about, that's what the sacrifice on the cross is all about, because in that covenant there is a union, such a close union between the Lord Jesus Christ and His bride that He is the head and we are the body, He is the vine and we are the branches, He is the shepherd and we are the sheep. We are one with Him, such that in the scriptures The union is so close when God the Father made him to be sin for us. He who knew no sin, did no sin and could never sin was made sin on the cross of Calvary and he was made sin for a particular people because God's actions are always righteous, God's actions are always holy, God's actions are always just. There was a perfect, perfect justice in the punishment of the Lord Jesus Christ and all the sins of all those people. That's why In that covenant that we read about in Hebrews chapter 8, he says, I remember them no more. They're gone altogether. That's what it is to be justified. That's what it is to be in the presence of a righteous God. So he reminds us again and again, these have known that you have sent me. You're righteous in sending. You're righteous in everything that happened. You're righteous in what happened on the cross at Calvary. You're righteous in what happened when I was placed in a tomb, dead. You're righteous when I was raised from the dead. Raised victorious on that resurrection Sunday, you're righteous in everything you do all the time. You're righteous in coming and revealing yourself and revealing me to your people. You're righteous. God is righteous. This is eternal life. that we know the righteous God, we know the holy God, we know the only true God, we know the God who made an eternal covenant in the grace and in the blood of his dear and precious son. And he, because of that, he's the first cause of all things. We know him because he reveals himself to us. We love him because he first loved us. These have known. I have known and these have known. Turn with me to Philippians chapter 3. It's just an amazing passage of scripture, Philippians 3. Because if this saving knowledge of this sent Saviour by a righteous Father has been granted to you, you'd never get over it. Paul didn't get over it. Paul is a pattern, isn't he, of all those who hereafter would believe. He says, verse 3, we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. I've got more reason to boast about all my religious credentials than any other man on this earth. I was circumcised on the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee. I knew every one of those 613 laws, and I kept them." Listen to what he goes on to say. concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. What an extraordinary statement to make. He could go to the law of God and say, I've kept it. But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ? Yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. I do count them but done, that I may win Christ. and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him. If you know Him, your desire is to know Him. Simple, isn't it? He puts a desire in our hearts that we will just know Him as He is, and everything about Him we love, don't we? There's not a single attribute of God that the child of God finds offensive. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, neither were already perfect, but I follow after that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. He was taken captive as a prisoner. You're apprehended by the law, aren't you? He was apprehended by the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're taken captive by him, You want to know him. You just keep wanting to know him. I want to know him. I want to know him and I want to know him more. I want to be more in his presence. I want us to rejoice in who he is. He's the sent one to make God known in all of his glory and all of his attributes. He hides us like he hid Moses in the cleft of the rock. He says, I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. Someone wrote that his name is the collection of his attributes. And one of the things that marks out the preacher's scent of God is that they're always going back again and again and again and talking about the character of God. There's not much to talk about when it comes to the character of man, but there's an awful lot to talk about when it comes to the character of God. We can never plumb the depths of it. We love to think of how wise he is. We love to think of how sovereign he is. We love to think of how holy he is. is. We love to think that he sent his son into this world on a purpose. This is why he came. He tells us again and again and again in John's Gospel why he came. This is the will of him that sent me. John chapter 6. Turn there for a second. This is the will of him that sent me. Verse 39, and this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he has given me, I should lose nothing. but raise it up again at the last day. This is the will of him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. We know him because he reveals himself to his people. He comes to them just like he came to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road. He comes to his people in the preaching of the gospel. He comes to them and reveals Himself. And don't you love that He's the One that does everything. He's the One that entered into that covenant. He's the One that said, I will and they shall. I will come and reveal and they shall know Me. And they shall come and they shall rejoice. Listen to what He goes on to say in verse 44 of John 6. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. As it is written in the Prophets, they shall all be taught of God. God will do the teaching. I rejoice to think that God does the teaching of his people. I just have to say what he says. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God. He hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath life everlasting. He comes and he reveals himself. He comes and reveals himself as the sent one. He is the one who reveals God Almighty. He illuminates his church. Don't you love that in heaven's glory, what will there be? There's no light of the moon, no light of the sun, but the Lord God. The city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God did lighten it. And the lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth to bring their glory into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut by day, for there shall be no night there, and they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. He's the sent one from the beginning. He comes as the light of everlasting life. He is the light of this world. He's the bright and morning star. He's the sun of everlasting righteousness. He's the light of all grace. He's the light of all glory. He's the day spring from on high. He illuminates God. I have known thee and these have known that thou has sent me. He's the Great Sent One, our Great and Sovereign Saviour. He wants us, I shouldn't say want, God doesn't have any wants, but throughout the scriptures we are reminded again and again of this eternal covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know I've read it lots of times, but I'd like to close by reading from Hebrews 13, 20, because this covenant, like all of God's covenant, is not something that just sits there, it's active, it's active. And it works in the hearts of God's people. Our knowledge of Him is linked to love for Him and it's linked to His work in the hearts of His people to cause us to come again and again and again in simple childlike faith. We look to our Father and adore Him for who He is. We look to our Saviour and we just adore Him for who He is. Verse 20 of Hebrews 13. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Listen to what he goes on to say. Make you perfect in every Son, believe on His Son, to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. O righteous Father, The world has not known thee. You're righteous in hiding yourself. But I have known thee. You're righteous in sending me. And these have now and you're righteous in giving them knowledge of who I am and why I was sent into this world and what I did as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world and what I did in my perfect obedience and what I did in my perfect death and what I'm doing right now in the hearts of all of my people. And these have known, they have known, that thou hast sent me. God gets all the glory, his people get all the joy and peace of believing. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the revelation of who you are. We thank you for your precious word, Heavenly Father. We have read words that were penned so long ago. They were written and sealed with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Blessed Holy Spirit has promised to take those things that we have read that you have written and reveal them unto us, to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ unto us in all of his glory. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that our salvation is an eternal salvation, that we have an everlasting gospel to proclaim, that your Son was sent and he achieved absolutely everything that he was sent to do. And we just praise you, Heavenly Father, that we can rest all of the hopes of all of our eternity in His faithfulness, in His righteousness, in His work, in Him revealing you to us. And Heavenly Father, we pray that you give us a heart that just desires to know Him and continue to know Him, to believe and to have the childlike faith of the babes that you reveal yourself to. Make us like those babes, our Father. May his blood and his broken body be precious to us. May we rejoice, our Father, in salvation finished and sure and secure in your dear and precious Son. Bless your word, bless your people wherever they are, bless those that aren't well, Heavenly Father, and bless the preaching.