Jeremiah 32:40

I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I win not turn away from them, to do them good.

The application of the covenant of grace

I. It is all of grace. Its grand end seems to be, to glorify all God’s attributes, indeed, but especially to manifest “the exceeding riches of His grace.”

1. God was under no necessity of making such a covenant. Man, as fallen, guilty, and depraved, might most justly have been left in the destruction into which his sins had brought him. He could have no claim upon God for a second covenant, merely because he had ruined himself by his breach of the first. God is indeed merciful and gracious, but He is not thereby laid under any necessity to show His goodness in the way of saving sinners of the human race, any more than He was obliged to save the angels who fell. Grace and mercy are, and must be, absolutely free, and spontaneous, and self-moved. God, too, is infinitely independent of all His creatures--self-sufficient, yea, self-satisfied. Though all sinners had been left to perish, His happiness and glory would not have been thereby diminished.

2. God is the party contracting in the covenant for both sides. God the Father engages for the Godhead; and God the Son, as the God-man Mediator, engages for sinners. Moreover, it is an absolute covenant of the richest and the freest promises; for, so far as we sinners are personally concerned, there are no meritorious conditions or prerequisite qualifications.

3. If you consider the character of those persons to whom the covenant is fulfilled, that they are not only all heinous sinners, but that, very often, they are the oldest and the vilest sinners that burden and pollute God’s earth, who are brought to enjoy it; you will see another proof, that it must be a covenant of the freest grace, since it embraces such hell-deserving sinners. “It begins at Jerusalem.” “The publicans and harlots are brought into the kingdom,” while, generally, “the scribes and Pharisees,” the decent, moral, respectable men and women, are left out. “Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight.”

II. It is very kind and beneficent. It is all about doing us good, especially by making us good, holy, and happy. Coming from God, the infinitely good one, “the author of every good and perfect gift,” it is just one great promise of ceaseless and unmixed love to us. It is just a constellation of blessings. Observe, too, their certainty. Nothing will provoke God to turn away from thus doing His people constant good; and even with regard to afflictions and temptations, they shall be enabled to say, “It was good for us that we were afflicted.” You will observe that there is no limitation upon the good here promised, and why should we restrict? We must view it in its universal comprehensiveness. It includes all good--good temporal, spiritual, and eternal--good for the body, the mind, and the soul--all true happiness in time, at death, and through eternity--grace and glory--all the good that God can bestow, or that we can receive. It includes good in three distinct periods of time. Good before our conversion--to bring us into being--to preserve us alive notwithstanding all dangers--to prevent our committing the unpardonable sin, or in any other way putting a tombstone upon our souls, and sealing them over under the curse--and to bring about an effectual calling at the appointed time. Good after conversion and union to Christ, comprehending all the blessings of grace. And glory in eternity. In the first period, eternal life is only coming certainly towards them, and as yet they have no personal title to or enjoyment of it; during the second period, they have the title, and a begun but still an imperfect enjoyment; and during the last period they have both the perfect title and the perfect enjoyment, and that for ever, too!

III. It is very full and comprehensive. The three following ideas will illustrate its amplitude and completeness.

1. First, you will observe that it not only provides for all on the part of God, but that it also secures everything on the part of the sinner with relation to his enjoyment of it, which, strictly speaking, is all that he has to do with it. Hence, it is so suitable to our helpless spiritual condition, who, of ourselves, could do nothing but just sin on, and so deserve fresh wrath, and the upbreaking of the covenant, if that were possible.

2. Again, you will notice that God here provides for the making of this covenant with each and all of His people in the way of their being brought to close with it. The application of it is as much God’s work and promise as is the decreeing of it or the fulfilling of its conditions. “I will make,” and who will or can prevent Him? Neither the devil, nor guilt, nor their own wicked and unbelieving hearts shall.

3. Once more, you will observe that the line of this covenant runs through all time. It is from everlasting to everlasting, like its parties--as endless as the soul of the sinner on which its blessings are to be bestowed. How ample then--how all-comprehensive is God’s covenant! There is no redundancy, but there is no deficiency.

IV. It is personal and particular. It is made or fulfilled with each and all of God’s people individually and separately, and not merely with the whole Church as s corporate body. The persons with whom it is actually made, are not all men without exception. The countless heathen never so much as hear of its existence or offer. It includes, then, only all God’s elect people--all those given to Christ as Mediator by the Father, and accepted by Him as such--all Christ’s mystical members--His spiritual seed--God’s true spiritual Israel. Their names are all enrolled in the book of life, and engraven on Jesus’ breastplate. They are constantly in His eye, and in His breast, and so they are in His prayers, and in His working, and in His dying. “The Lord knoweth them that are His,” directly and unerringly. We again can ascertain them only in so far as we can see this covenant fulfilled to them, enjoyed by them, and exemplified (extracted as it were) in their lives. But when we see the Lord thus doing good to any soul, and putting His fear into any heart, then and there we see God’s seal and mark, and behold His election realised in their sanctification.

V. It is very holy. God, the maker of it, is holy in all His works, and peculiarly so here in this, the glory of them all. Hence, we find Zecharias calling it (Luke 1:72), “God’s holy covenant.” Two observations will show its sanctity. First, it preserves unsullied, yea it peculiarly displays the righteousness and holiness of God’s character and government in at all saving sinners, only through the infinite and vicarious sufferings, death, and obedience of the God-man Mediator, in their room, and on their behalf. Secondly, it secures the personal holiness of all who are brought into the covenant. God here engages to do them good, and especially in the way of making them really and spiritually good. It gives to each a twofold righteousness, corresponding to the twofold unrighteousness he inherited from Adam--the imputed righteousness of Christ for justification, and the inwrought righteousness of the Spirit for sanctification of heart and life; and it never gives the one without the other.

VI. It is everlasting. It would be comparatively valueless, if it could ever end. Oh, how tantalising it would be to be stripped of the enjoyment of its blessings after we had enjoyed them for a period, and so had just come to know their incalculable value l Deprivation of such blessedness would be torture, exquisite just in proportion as we had tasted its sweetness. The reminiscence and the contrast would then make the loss all the more agonising. But it is “everlasting “--“a covenant of salt”--which can never fail, or change or intermit, or end. It must be so; for you will remember that the condition of the covenant has been already performed by Christ, and accepted by the Father. Now, God will not--indeed, He cannot,--alter or reverse what has been already done, for that is an impossibility. Moreover, the condition being the infinitely perfect, unchangeable, and everlasting righteousness of Jesus, the covenant founded thereon must be absolutely unalterable and eternal The very holiness, justice, and truth of God are all pledged to Christ to secure its permanency and everlasting continuance.

VII. Faith in Christ is the only way of our being brought into the enjoyment of it. Faith is just a receiving and resting upon Christ fist and upon all the promises as in Him yea and amen to the glory of God. Nothing more is requisite in us. The fidelity and omnipotence of the promises ensures their fulfilment to, the soul that believes and rests on them. There is nothing left for us to do but thus just to receive and rely upon these promises, and Christ in them, by the empty hand of faith. And even this faith, and its act of closing with the covenant, is here previously secured. It is included in the “good” to be done to us. Faith is God’s gift--one of His promises and one of the operations of His Spirit. Faith and repentance, and new obedience, are all blessings in the covenant, and not conditions of it. At the very most, they are only conditions of connection and of order in the enjoyment of its various and well-regulated blessings. (F. Gillies.)

I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me.

Perseverance in holiness

I. The everlasting covenant. “I will make an everlasting covenant with them.” 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. Brethren, take care to distinguish between the old and the new covenants; for they must never be mingled. 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; and we shall have to show you this as we go on. It is an “everlasting” covenant, however: that is the point upon which the text insists. The other covenant was of very short duration; but this is an “everlasting covenant.”

1. The first reason why it is an everlasting covenant is, that it was made with us in Christ Jesus. 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.

2. Next, 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. 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. Will not God be true to HIS engagements? Yes, verily. Even to the jots and tittles, all shall be carried out.

3. Furthermore, the covenant must be everlasting, for it is founded upon the free grace of God. 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.

4. Again, in the covenant, everything that can be supposed to be a condition is provided. 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.

5. Moreover, the covenant must be everlasting, because it cannot be superseded by anything more glorious. 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!

II. The unchanging God of the covenant. “I will not turn away from them, to do them good.”

1. He will not turn away from doing them good, first, because He has said so. That is enough. Jehovah speaks, and in His voice lies the end of all controversy.

2. Still, 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. Moreover, there can be no reason in the faultiness of the believer why the Lord should cease to do him good, seeing that He foresaw all the evil that would be in us. 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. Moreover, I would have you remember that we are by God at this day viewed in the same light as ever. We were undeserving objects upon whom He bestowed His mercy, out of no motive but that which He drew from His own nature; and if we are undeserving still, His grace is still the same. If it be so, that He still deals with us in the way of grace, it is evident that He still views us as undeserving; and why should He not do good towards us now as He did at the first? Moreover, remember that He sees us now in Christ. Behold, He has put His people into the hands of His dear Son. He sees us in Christ to have died, in Him to have been buried, and in Him to have risen again. As the Lord Jesus Christ is well pleasing to the Father, so in Him are we well pleasing to the Father also; for our being in Him identifies us with Him.

3. The Lord will not turn away from His people, from doing them good, because He has shown them so much kindness already; and all that He has done would be lest if He did not go through with it. When He gave His Son, He gave us a sure pledge that He meant to finish His work of love.

4. We feel sure that He will not cease to bless us, because we have proved that even when He has hidden His face He has not turned away from doing us good. When the Lord has turned away His face from His people, it has been to do them good, by making them sick of self and eager for His love.

5. I close with this argument, that He has involved His honour in the salvation of His people. H the Lord’s chosen and redeemed are cast away, where is the glory of His redemption?

III. The persevering people in the covenant. “I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me.” The salvation of those who are in covenant with God is herein provided for by an absolute promise of the omnipotent God, which must be carried out. It is plain, clear, unconditional, positive. “They shall not depart from Me.”

1. It is not carried out by altering the effect of apostasy. If they did depart from God, it would be fatal If the Holy Ghost has indeed regenerated a soul, and yet that regeneration does not save it from total apostasy, what can be done?

2. Neither does this perseverance of the saints come in by the removal of temptation. No, the Lord does not take His people out of the world; but He allows them to fight the battle of life in the same field as others. He does not remove us from the conflict, but “He giveth us the victory.”

3. This is affected by putting a Divine principle within their hearts. The Lord saith, “I will put My fear in their hearts.” It would never be found there if He did not put it there. What is this fear of God? It is, first, a holy awe and reverence of the great God. Taught of God, we come to see His infinite greatness, and the fact that He is everywhere present with us; and then, filled with a devout sense of His Godhead, we dare not sin. The words, “My fear,” also intend filial fear. God is our Father, and we feel the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father.” There moves also in our hearts a deep sense of grateful obligation. God is so good to me, how can I sin? He loves me so, how can I vex Him? But if you ask, By what instrumentality does God maintain this fear in the hearts of His people? I answer, It is the work of the Spirit of God: but the Holy Spirit usually works by means. The fear of God is kept alive in our hearts by the hearing of the Word; for faith cometh by hearing, and holy fear cometh through faith. Be diligent, then, in hearing the Word. That fear is kept alive in our hearts by reading the Scriptures; for as we feed on the Word, it breathes within us that fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom. This fear of God is maintained in us by the belief of revealed truth, and meditation thereon. Study the doctrines of grace, and be instructed in the analogy of the faith. Know the Gospel well and thoroughly, and this will bring fuel to the fire of the fear of God in your hearts. Be much in private prayer; for that stirs up the fire, and makes it burn more brilliantly. In fine, seek to live near to God, to abide in Him; for as you abide in Him, and His Words abide in you, you shall bring forth much fruit, and so shall you be His disciples. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Bible religion

The world abounds with religions. There is but one true religion, that of the Bible. It is sometimes spoken of as “trust” in God, sometimes as “love” for God, sometimes “obedience” to God; here it is spoken of as the “fear” of God. It is the fear of not pleasing in all things the object of the affections. The fear of not coming up to the Divine idea of goodness.

I. As having its seat in the heart. “Fear in their hearts” There is something in man’s spiritual nature analogous to the heart in his physical organisation. The heart of the body is the most vital of all its organs; it sends the life-blood through all the parts. What in man’s spiritual nature is like his heart, and which the Bible calls his “heart”? It is the chief liking of the soul. The chief liking is the spring of human activity; it works and controls all the faculties of man. Bible religion takes possession of this, inspires this, makes goodness and God the chief objects of liking, so that the soul feels that God is its all in all.

1. Bible religion is in the heart, not merely in the intellect.

2. Not merely in the sentiments.

3. Not merely in occasional service.

II. As imparted by God. How does He put this priceless principle into the heart? Not miraculously, not irrespective of man’s activities.

1. By the revelation of Himself to man.

2. By the ministry of His servants.

III. As a safeguard against apostasy. IS it possible for man to depart from his Maker? In a sense, no. No more than from the atmosphere he breathes, no more than from himself. But there is a solemn sense in which men can and do depart from Him. It is in sympathy of aim. All unregenerate souls are far off from God, vagrants, ever wandering, settling nowhere. To depart from Him is to depart from light, health, harmony, friendship, all in fact that makes life worth having. What can prevent this, the chief of calamities? God s fear in the heart. This is that law of moral attraction that will bind the soul for ever to God as its centre. (Homilist.)