promises

God’s Motive: Grace

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

…I will not turn away from them, to do them good… – Jeremiah 32:40

Please notice the terms here: the Lord does not merely say, “I will not turn away from them,” but, “I will not turn away from them, to do them good.” He will not cease to work good for His chosen. The Lord is always doing His people good; and here He promises that He will never leave off blessing them. Not only will He always love them, but He will always prove His love by active kindness and blessing. He is pledged to continue the gifts and work of His goodness…let us remember that there is no valid reason why He should turn away from them to do them good. You remind me of their unworthiness. Yes, but observe that when He began to do them good they were as unworthy as they could possibly be. He began to do them good when they were “dead in trespasses and sins.” He began to do them good when they were enemies, rebels, and under condemnation. When first the sinner feels the movement of divine love upon his heart, he is in no commendable state. In some cases, the man is a drunkard, a swearer, a liar, or a profane person. In certain cases, the man has been a persecutor like Manasseh or Saul. If God left off blessing us because He could see no good in us, why did He begin to do us good when we were without desire towards Him? We were a mass of misery, a pit of wants, and a dunghill of sins when He began to do us good. Whatever we may be now, we are not otherwise than we were when first He revealed His love towards us. The same motive which led Him to begin leads Him to continue; and that motive is nothing but His grace….He entered into a covenant that He would not turn away from us, to do us good; and no circumstance has arisen, or can arise, which was unknown to Him when He thus pledged His word of grace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm

Nothing More Glorious

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

And I will make an everlasting covenant with them… – Jeremiah 32:40

In the order of God’s working He always advances from the good to the better. The old law was put away because He found fault with it, and therefore the new covenant must last till a fault can be found with it, which will never be. This is the glory which excelleth: no brightness can exceed the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. There can be nothing more gracious, nothing more righteous, nothing more just to God or more safe to man, than the plan of salvation set forth in the covenant of grace. The moon gives way to the sun, and the sun gives way to a lustre which shall exceed the light of seven days; but what is to supersede the light of free grace and dying love, the glory of the love which gave the Only-begotten that we might live through Him? The covenant of grace made with us in Christ Jesus is the masterpiece of divine wisdom and love, and it is established on such sure principles that it must last for ever.

Who else could have thought of a covenant, “ordered in all things and sure,” to be made with guilty man? It was also divine in its carrying out, and therefore it shall endure. Who could have provided a Saviour like the Only-begotten of the Father? Who could have given Him for a covenant but the Father? The covenant is divine in its maintenance. Note well the word of the Lord: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them.” He does not say, “They shall make a covenant with Me”; but “I will make a covenant with them.” That God is the maker of the covenant is a reason for its certainty and everlastingness. The faithful God has given guarantees which fix it fast, even His promise and His oath; those two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie. Through these we have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to Christ Jesus. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm

The Covenant According to Mercy

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 9 Comments

And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good… – Jeremiah 32:40

The first covenant was conditioned upon the obedience of men. If they kept the law, God would bless them; but they failed through disobedience and inherited the curse. The divine sovereignty determined to deal with men, not according to merit, but according to mercy; not according to the personal character of men, but according to the personal character of God; not according to what men might do, but according to what the Lord Jesus would perform. Sovereign grace declares that He will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy and will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. This basis of sovereignty cannot be shaken. The covenant which saves men according to God’s will and good pleasure, is founded upon a rock; for God’s free grace is always the same, and God’s sovereignty is linked to immutability, even as it is written, “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” The slightest touch of merit puts perishable material into the covenant; but if it be of pure grace, then the covenant is everlasting.

It is necessary that a man, to be forgiven, should repent; but then the Lord Jesus is exalted on high to give repentance and remission of sins. It is necessary that a man, in order to be saved, should have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; but faith is of the operation of God, and the Holy Ghost worketh in us this fruit of the Spirit. It is needful, before we enter heaven, that we should be holy; but the Lord sanctifies us through the Word, and worketh in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure. All that is required is also supplied. If there be, anywhere in the Word of God, any act or grace mentioned as though it were a condition of salvation, it is in another Scripture described as a covenant gift which will be bestowed upon the heirs of salvation by Christ Jesus. So that the condition, which might seem to put the covenant in danger, is so surely provided for, that thence ariseth no flaw or fracture. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm

An Unfailing Covenant with Unconditional Promises

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

…so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. – Hebrews 7:22

The covenant cannot fail because the human side of it has been fulfilled. The human side might be regarded as the weak side of it; but when Jesus became the representative of man that side was sure. He has at this hour fulfilled to the letter every stipulation upon that side of which He was the surety. He has magnified the law and made it honourable by His own obedience to it. He has met the demands of moral government and made amends to holiness for man’s offences. The law is more glorified by His atoning death than it was dishonoured by man’s sin. This Man hath offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, and that is so effectual for the fulfillment of the covenant that He sits down at the right hand of God. Since, then, that side of the covenant has been fulfilled which appertains to man, there remaineth only God’s side of it to be fulfilled, which consists of promises-unconditional promises, full of grace and truth, such as these: -“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye 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 an heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.” Will not God be true to His engagements? Yes, verily. When He makes a covenant, and on man’s part the compact has been fulfilled, depend upon it, on the Lord’s side no word will fall to the ground. Even to the jots and tittles, all shall be carried out. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm

The Surety of the Everlasting Covenant

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant – Jeremiah 31:31

The covenant of works was made with the race in the first Adam; but the first Adam was faulty and failed full soon; he could not bear the stress of his responsibility, and so that covenant was broken. But the surety of the new covenant is our Lord Jesus Christ; and He is not faulty, but perfect. The Lord Jesus is the federal Head of His chosen, and He stands for them: they are regarded as members of His body, and He is their head, their mouthpiece, their representative. The Lord Jesus, as the second Adam, entered into covenant with God on the behalf of His people; and because He cannot fail-for in Him there is no infirmity or sin-therefore the covenant of which He is the surety must stand. He abideth for ever in His Melchizedek priesthood, and in the power of an endless life. He is, both in His nature and in His work, eternally qualified to stand before the living God. He stands in absolute perfectness under every strain, and, therefore, the covenant stands in Him. When it is written, “I have given Him for a covenant to the people,” we see that the covenant cannot fail, because He cannot fail who is the sum and substance of it. Because the Lord Jesus represents all His believing people in the covenant, therefore the covenant is everlasting.

Faith in the everlasting covenant stirs my heart’s blood, fills me with grateful joy, inspires me with confidence, fires me with enthusiasm. I can never give up my belief in what the Lord hath said, “And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm

A Compact of Pure Promise

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

And I will make an everlasting covenant with them… – Jeremiah 32:40

In the previous chapter, in the thirty-first verse, this covenant is called “a new covenant”; and it is new in contrast with the former one which the Lord made with Israel when He brought them out of Egypt. It is new as to the principle upon which it is based. The Lord had said unto His people, that if they would keep His laws and walk in His statutes, He would bless them. He set before them a long line of blessings, rich and full: all these would be their portion if they would hearken to the Lord and obey His law…But under the exceedingly favourable circumstances in which they lived in the wilderness, where they had no temporal cares, and no neighbours to mislead them, they did not keep the statutes of their God; nay, they did not even remain faithful to Him as their God; for they worshipped a molten image and likened the Lord of Glory to an ox that eateth grass…Thus they brake the covenant in the most wanton and wicked manner. Such a covenant was easily violated by a rebellious people; therefore the Lord, in His immeasurable grace, resolves to make with them a covenant of a new kind, which cannot thus be broken…In these days the Lord hath, in Christ Jesus, made with the true seed of Abraham, even with all believers, a new covenant; not after the tenor of the old, nor liable to be broken as it was. Brethren, take care to distinguish between the old and the new covenants; for they must never be mingled. Many never catch the true idea of the covenant of grace; they do not understand a compact of pure promise. They talk about grace, but they regard it as dependent upon merit. They speak about God’s mercy, and then combine with it conditions which make it rather justice than grace. Distinguish between things which differ. If salvation be of grace, it is not of works, otherwise grace is no more grace; and if it be of works, it is not of grace, otherwise work is no more work. The new covenant is all of grace, from its first letter to its closing word. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm

The Seal of God’s Covenant

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 4 Comments

“And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me”- Jeremiah 32:40

These covenanted ones may be known by certain marks and evidences. It is most important that we should know that we ourselves belong to them. They are a people, according to the text, to whom God is doing good. Friend, do you perceive that He is doing good to you? Has the Lord dealt graciously with you? Has He appeared to you, and said, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee”? Do all things work together for good for you? I mean, for your spiritual good? your lasting good? Have you received the greatest good by the renewal of the Holy Spirit? Has He given Christ to you? Has He made you hate evil and cleave to that which is good? If these good gifts have been bestowed on you, He has done you good; for these gifts are the outcome of the covenant and are sure guarantees that it stands fast between God and your soul.

These people are known by having the fear of God in their hearts. Judge ye, whether it be so in your own case. This is the covenant promise-“I will put My fear in their hearts.” Do you fear the Lord? Do you reverence Jehovah, our God? Do you desire to please the Lord? Do you please Him? Do you desire to be like Him? Are you like Him in some humble degree? Do you feel ashamed when you see how sadly you come short; and does this make you hunger and thirst after righteousness? Is the gracious presence of God your heaven below? Is it all the heaven you desire above? If so, this fear of God in your heart is the seal of the covenant to you. Towards you God has thoughts of love which shall never change. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm