The Blood of the Everlasting Covenant!

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"The blood of the everlasting covenant!" Hebrews 13:20

All of God's dealings with men have had a covenant character. It has so pleased him to arrange it, that he will not deal with us except through a covenant — nor can we deal with him except in the same manner. Adam in the garden was under a covenant with God — and God was in covenant with him. That covenant he speedily broken. There is a covenant still existing in all its terrible power — terrible I say, because it has been broken on man's part, and therefore God will most surely fulfill its solemn threatenings and sanctions. That is the covenant of works. By this he dealt with Moses, and in this does he deal with the whole race of men as represented in the first Adam.

Afterwards when God would deal with Noah — it was by a covenant; and when in succeeding ages, he dealt with Abraham — he was still pleased to bind himself to him by a covenant. That covenant, he preserved and kept, and it was renewed continually to many of his seed. God dealt not even with David, the man after his own heart except with a covenant. He made a covenant with his anointed. And beloved, he deals with you and me this day, still by covenant.

When he shall come in all his terrors to condemn — he shall smite by covenant — namely, by the sword of the covenant of Sinai. And if he comes in the splendors of his grace to save — he still comes to us by covenant — namely, the covenant of Zion; the covenant which he has made with the Lord Jesus Christ, the head and representative of his people.

And mark, whenever we come into close and intimate dealings with God, it is sure to be, on our part, also by covenant. We make with God, after conversion, a covenant of gratitude; we come to him sensible of what he has done for us, and we devote ourselves to him. We set our seal to that covenant when in baptism we are united with his church; and day by day, so often as we come around the table of the breaking of bread, we renew the vow of our covenant, and thus we have personal fellowship with God.

I cannot pray to him except through the covenant of grace; and I know that I am not his child unless I am his, first through the covenant whereby Christ purchased me, and secondly, through the covenant by which I have given up myself, and dedicated all that I am and all that I have to him.

It is important, then, since the covenant is the only ladder which reaches from earth to Heaven — since it is the only way in which God has fellowship with us, and by which we can deal with him — that we should know how to discriminate between covenant and covenant; and should not be in any darkness or error with regard to what is the covenant of grace, and what is not. It shall be my endeavor, this morning, to make as simple and as plain as possible, the matter of the covenant spoken of in our text, and I shall thus speak —
first, upon the covenant of grace;
secondly, its everlasting character;
thirdly, the relationship which the blood bears to it.

"The blood of the everlasting covenant!"

I. First of all then, I have to speak this morning of THE COVENANT mentioned in the text.

1. And I observe that we can readily discover at first sight — what the covenant is NOT. We see at once that this is not the covenant of works, for the simple reason that this is an everlasting covenant. Now the covenant of works was not everlasting in any sense whatever. It was not eternal; it was first made in the garden of Eden. It had a beginning, it had been broken; it has been violated continually, and will soon be wound up and pass away: therefore, it is not everlasting in any sense. The covenant of works cannot bear an everlasting title; but as the one in my text is an everlasting covenant, therefore it is not the covenant of works.

God made a covenant first of all, with the human race, which ran in this way: "If you, O man, will be obedient — you shall live and be happy; but if you will be disobedient — you shall perish. In the day that you disobey me — you shall die." That covenant was made with all of us in the person of our representative — the first Adam. If Adam had kept that covenant, we believe that every one of us would have been preserved. But inasmuch as he broke the covenant — you and I, and all of us, fell down into sin — and were considered henceforth . . .
as inheritors of sin,
as the heirs of wrath,
as prone to every evil,
and subject to every misery.

That covenant has passed away — with regard to God's people; it has been put away through the new and better covenant which has utterly and entirely eclipsed it by its gracious glory.

Again, I may remark that the covenant here meant is not the covenant of gratitude — which is made between the loving child of God, and his Savior. Such a covenant is very right and proper. I trust all of us who know the Savior have said in our very hearts:
"Tis done! the great transaction's done;
I am my Lord's — and he is mine!"

We have given up everything to him. But that covenant is not the one in the text, for the simple reason that the covenant in our text is an everlasting one. Now our covenant of gratitude was only written out some few years ago. It would have been despised by us in the earlier parts of our life, and cannot at the very utmost, be as old as ourselves.

2. Having thus readily shown what this covenant is not — I may observe what this covenant IS. And here it will be necessary for me to subdivide this head again, and to speak of it thus: To understand a covenant, you must know . . .
firstly, who are the contracting parties;
secondly, what are the stipulations of the contract;
thirdly, what are the objects of it; and
then, if you would go still deeper, you must understand something of the motives which lead the contracting parties to form the covenant between themselves.

1. The contracting PARTIES. How, in this covenant of grace, we must first of all, observe the high contracting parties between whom it was made. The covenant of grace was made before the foundation of the world between God the Father, and God the Son. Or to put it in a yet more scriptural light, it was made mutually between the three divine persons of the adorable Trinity.

This covenant was not made directly between God and man. Man did not at that time even exist; but Christ stood in the covenant as man's representative. In that sense, we will allow that it was a covenant between God and man — but not a covenant between God and any man personally and individually. It was a covenant between God and Christ; and through Christ indirectly — with all the blood bought seed who were loved by Christ from the foundation of the world.

It is a noble and glorious thought, the very poetry of that old Calvinistic doctrine which we teach, that . . .
long before the day-star knew its place,
long before God had spoken existence out of nothing,
long before angel's wing had stirred the unnavigated ether,
long before a solitary song had disturbed the solemnity of the silence in which God reigned supreme
— God had entered into solemn counsel with himself, with his Son, and with his Spirit — and had in that council decreed, determined, purposed, and predestined the salvation of his people.

He had, moreover, in the covenant arranged the ways and means, and fixed and settled everything which would work together for the effecting of the purpose and the decree.

My soul flies back now, winged by imagination and by faith, and looks into that mysterious council-chamber — and by faith I behold the Father pledging himself to the Son, and the Son pledging himself to the Father, while the Spirit gives his pledge to both, and thus that divine compact, long to be hidden in darkness, is completed and settled — the covenant which in these latter days has been read in the light of Heaven, and has become the joy, and hope, and boast of all the saints.

2. And now, what were the STIPULATIONS of this covenant? They were somewhat in this way: God had foreseen that man after creation would break the covenant of works; that however mild and gentle the tenure upon which Adam had possession of Paradise, yet that tenure would be too severe for him, and he would be sure to kick against it, and ruin himself. God had also foreseen that his elect ones, whom he had chosen out of the rest of mankind — would fall by the sin of Adam, since they, as well as the rest of mankind, were represented in Adam. The covenant therefore had for its end — the restoration of the chosen people.

And now we may readily understand what were the stipulations. On the Father's part — thus ran the covenant. I cannot tell it to you it in the glorious celestial tongue in which it was written. I am glad to bring it down to the speech which suits to the ear of flesh, and to the heart of a mortal. Thus, I say, ran the covenant in lines like these:

"I, the Most High Jehovah, do hereby give unto My only begotten and well-beloved Son, a people, countless beyond the number of the stars —
who shall be washed from sin by Him;
who shall be preserved, and kept, and led by Him; and
at last, who shall be presented before My throne without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing by Him.

I covenant by oath, and swear by Myself, because I can swear by no one greater, that these whom I now give to Christ — shall forever be the objects of My eternal love!

These, I will forgive through the merit of my Son's blood.

To these, I will give a perfect righteousness.

These, I will I adopt and make my sons and daughters.

And these shall reign with Me through Christ eternally!"

Thus run that glorious side of the covenant. The Holy Spirit also, as one of the high contracting parties of the covenant, gave His declaration, "I hereby covenant, that all whom the Father gives to the Son —
I will in due time quicken.
I will show them their need of redemption.
I will cut off from them all groundless hopes, and destroy their refuges of lies.
I will bring them to the blood of sprinkling.
I will give them faith whereby this blood shall be applied to them.
I will work in them every grace.
I will keep their faith alive.
I will cleanse them and drive out depravity from them.

And they shall be presented at last spotless and faultless in Heaven!" This was the one side of the covenant, which is at this very day being fulfilled and scrupulously kept.

The Lord Jesus also, as one of the high contracting parties of the covenant, gave His declaration, "My Father, on My part, I covenant that in the fullness of time, I will become man. I will live in their wretched world — and for My people, I keep the law perfectly. I will work out a spotless righteousness for them, which shall be acceptable to the demands of Your just and holy law. In due time, I will bear the sins of all My people. You shall exact all their debts upon Me. The chastisement of their peace — I will endure; and by My stripes — they shall be healed. My Father, I covenant and promise that I will be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. I will magnify Your law, and make it honorable. I will suffer all that My people ought to have suffered. I will endure the curse of Your law — and all the vials of Your wrath shall be emptied and spent upon My head! I will then rise again, and ascend into Heaven. I will intercede for them at Your right hand. I will make Myself responsible for every one of them — that not one of those whom You have given me, shall ever be lost! I will bring all My sheep of whom, by My blood, you have constituted Me the Shepherd — I will bring every one safe to You at last!"

Thus ran the covenant; and now, I think, you have a clear idea of what it was and how it stands — the covenant between God the Father and God the Spirit — and God the Son, as the covenant head and representative of all God's elect. I have told you, as briefly as I could, what were the stipulations of it. You will please note, my dear friends, that the covenant is, on one side, perfectly fulfilled.

God the Son has paid the debts of all the elect. He has, for His people and for their redemption — suffered the whole of wrath divine. Nothing remains now on this side of the question, except that he shall continue to intercede, that he may safely bring all his redeemed to glory.

On the side of the Father, this part of the covenant has been fulfilled to countless myriads. God the Father and God the Spirit have not been behindhand in their divine contract. And mark, this side shall be as fully and as completely finished and carried out as the other. Christ can say of what he promised to do, "It is finished!" and the like shall be said by all the glorious covenanters. All for whom Christ died shall be pardoned, all justified, all adopted. The Spirit shall quicken them all, shall give them all faith, shall bring them all to Heaven, and they shall, every one of them, without let or hindrance, stand accepted in the beloved, in the day when the people shall be numbered, and Jesus shall be glorified.

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