The Covenant Keeping God Part 2
Last week we looked at a passage in Genesis 15 and saw God make a covenant with Abram and He showed how He would not break this covenant with Abram. Abram may break it, but God could swear by Himself that He would not break it and we showed how that could not be possible. God's word, promises, oaths, covenants, etc. cannot and will not ever come up short or deny what He has said and promised, absolutely impossible. Isa.46:10 reiterates it again; “My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.” 2 Tim.2:13, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” So today as we continue, we look at one of my favorite verses, and promises that show us all that God will keep His promises, oaths, and covenants with His favored people!
Our verse is found at Jer.32:40-41, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me”. The words, I will, appear some five times in our verses, God is taking it upon Himself that this promise of this everlasting covenant is completely dependent upon Him and will certainly be kept by His presence with them. He will not turn away from us, nor will we be able to turn away from Him. 1Thess.5:24, “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” He will not turn away from us, much like Heb.13:5, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” And He will do us good, and why not. We are a favored people of His, blood bought, children of God, children of the King, children of promise. For one of our favorite verses lines up with this from Rom.8:28, “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God.” The fear of Him He will also put into our hearts, a healthy fear, a reverent fear, a loving fear of One who bought us with a price. And He plainly tells us why as the text explains it that we will not turn away from Him.
The Covenant, the agreement between two parties comes with promises and obligations, all given by God and all carried out by God and all will be fulfilled by God. You are going to make it Home, yes to Heaven, for the believer, the called, the justified, the glorified, none of us will drop out. John 6:37, “The one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” In other words, He will keep you in. He has made you a Christian, and He will keep you a Christian. You woke up today as a Christian, and why was that? Because Phil.1:6,”He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.” No one is lost in the covenant, GCC, your church, is still here because of the covenant, those leaders that are led by the Spirit have been helped to carry on this local church for nearly 34 years now. God will not let you turn from Him. The hymn, On Christ the solid rock, “His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood, When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay" Heb.13:20 tell us about this precious blood, that blood of the new covenant, ”Now the God of peace, Who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord.”
It is an everlasting, it is an eternal, it is a forever and ever covenant that God will keep us in. In Jer.32:41, He does not begrudge good to us, but rejoices over us to do us good! And will faithfully do all this with all His heart and all His soul. This is God talking to us here. What a wonder this is, as we walk by faith and not by sight. So the faithfulness of God in not turning away from us, and the fear He puts in us we will not turn away from Him is a perfect recipe for an everlasting success. The new covenant is not externally written on stone, but internally written on the heart, and eternally secured by Christ's blood that bought it. Commentator Alexander Maclaren states, “Whoever you are and whatever you have been, be sure of this, that He can lift you from its stains, and set you at His right hand in the heavenly places. For the name, and the risen Shepherd, and the blood of the everlasting covenant, make a threefold cord, not to be quickly broken, and able to bear the weight of the loftiest hopes and firmest confidence that we can hang on it.” Eph.3:20, sums it up quite well, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
Elder Randy Slak
01/11/2022