TOPIC: Covenant; Faithfulness (God's), Promises (of God)
TITLE: CHRIST - THE QUINTESSENTIAL TREATY - A Covenant of Peace Between God & Man! [Adapted from Spurgeon's Morning & Evening; January 3, "Morning"]
TEXT: Isaiah 49:8
TITLE: CHRIST - THE QUINTESSENTIAL TREATY - A Covenant of Peace Between God & Man! [Adapted from Spurgeon's Morning & Evening; January 3, "Morning"]
TEXT: Isaiah 49:8
Thus says the LORD, “… I will … give You for a covenant of the people …”
TRUTH CLAIM: In this day, when truth is so urgently needed in our great nation, a drought has struck this land, a desolate vacuum of integrity has descended upon this people.
If there were ever a day when the sweet, reviving moisture of God’s Word was needed by His people, it would have been in the centuries prior to Christ’s first coming.
But, as we behold these days which precede His second coming, the tearless weeping of God’s children is heard as a silent roar and their parched brittleness cries out for the washing of His Word.
God’s Word is His promise, our covenant, our assurance of peace with God. And God has given His Word. Yes, He has given His Word; and the Redeemed of God must remember His Word.
… the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.John 1:14
CONCISE OUTLINE:
I. The Power of Christ is ours!Jesus Christ is this quintessential covenant; an agreement of peace between God and man. He Himself is the sum and substance of the promise and, as one of its gifts, He … the Lord of lords, the King of kings … is the equity of every believer.
II. The Love of Christ is ours!
III. The Justice of Christ is ours!
IV. The Acceptance of Christ is ours!
V. The Righteousness of Christ is ours!
O my friends, YES! Yes, yes, yes! This people needs, and this nation needs, the cool, wet wash of heaven’s Living Water. But we (you and me and all of our redeemed brothers and sisters) do not! We have His promise!
Can you estimate what you have received in Christ? "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily …" [Colossians 2:9]
For all that He (Jesus Christ), as God and man, ever had or will have, is yours - out of sovereign, spotless grace, it has been given over to you for your personal possession forever.
- Consider that word “Godhead” and all its infinity! (How does the finite explore the borders of endlessness?)
- Meditate then upon His loveliness and all His perfection. (How do the unattractive and imperfect enter in to His glory?)
FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: What then are some of His possessions which are now yours?
EXPANDED OUTLINE:
I. The Power of Christ is ours!Does He have power?II. The Love of Christ is ours!
His power is yours to sustain and strengthen you, to overcome your enemies, and to preserve you even to the end.
Paul said Jesus was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead [Romans 1:4]; being baptized into His death we are also baptized into His resurrection [Romans 6:1-11].Does He have love?
Well, there is not a drop of love in His heart which is not yours; you may dive into the immense ocean of His love, and you may say of it all, “It is mine.”God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.Romans 5:8III. The Justice of Christ is ours!Does He have justice?
It may seem a stern attribute, but even that is yours, for He will by His justice see to it that all which is promised to you in the covenant of grace shall be most certainly secured to you.BEHOLD, MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN; MY BELOVED IN WHOM MY SOUL is WELL-PLEASED; I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM, AND HE SHALL PROCLAIM JUSTICE TO THE GENTILES.Matthew 12:18IV. The Acceptance of Christ is ours!Does He have acceptance?V. The Righteousness of Christ is ours!
All that He has as perfect man is yours. As a perfect man the Father’s delight was upon Him. He stood accepted by the Most High.… a voice came out of the heavens: "Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well-pleased."O believer, God’s acceptance of Christ is your acceptance; for do you not know that the love which the Father set on a perfect Christ, He sets on you now? For all that Christ did is yours.Mark 1:11Does He have righteousness?
That perfect righteousness which Jesus wrought out, when through His stainless life He kept the law and made it honorable, is yours, and is imputed to you.
Paul said …whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.Philippians 3:7-11If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.1 John 2:29
APPLICATION/CHALLENGE: Our blessed Jesus, as God, is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. Will it not console you to know that all these great and glorious attributes are altogether yours?
Our blessed Lord, as perfect man, is our substitute, our blood atonement. Does it not give you hope and peace to know that He did these things for you and that they are altogether yours?
Christ Himself is our peace and Christ is our the covenant, but you must be in Him to be a part of the agreement.
[TRUST] Have you ever watched people try to feed the squirrels in the parks; the animal doesn’t seem to trust the human. Even though the man leaves a peanut for the squirrel again and again, it doesn’t trust him … again and again.
No matter how patient the man was the squirrel is not quite persuaded. Some people are like that, “Almost persuaded.”
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