The Promise of God

The Promise of God

“I will” and “Ye shall”

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Ezekiel 36:24-38

            Concerning the children of men and their salvation from sin and death; God has promised to do certain things for some persons. “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of world,” (Acts 15:18). Those things that God has from eternity determined to do, are surely the things that he has promised to do.

First: “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel,” (Jeremiah 31:31). God promised a new covenant, for the house of Israel, that is of course “the Israel of God,” (Galatians 6:16) or the church of his elect, the spiritual seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16; Romans 2:28, 29; Isaiah 11:10). The reason for a new covenant is that the children of men could not meet the requirements of the old covenant, because it required perfect obedience. The old covenant is the Old Testament Law, or the Law as given to Moses at Mount Sinai, called (by some) the moral law. Because the children of men are sinners by birth, practice, and choice; they have neither the ability nor the desire to obey the law of God, therefore the law can only sentence to death eternal, for “the wages of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23). And so “finding fault with them” (Hebrews 8:8). God promised a new covenant.

Now the New Testament or the Everlasting Covenant of Grace is conditioned on the finished work of Jesus Christ who is the surety of the New Testament (Hebrews 7:22). Therefore when Christ Jesus finished the work committed to his trust by the Father, all the persons interested in that covenant were actually redeemed, they had been virtually so from everlasting; and since they were and are redeemed they must be (at the time appointed or predestinated) regenerated by the Holy Spirit. The law is “weak through the flesh” (Romans 8:3) but the law is only weak as an instrument of justification, but is a mighty instrument to condemnation, (II Corinthians 3:9) and it is an instrument of condemnation in order to show men their inability to be justified by their own work or merit.

Stated simply; the Old Testament covenant of works could not bring the children of God before him in perfection; which is that condition, that is required. “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Hebrews 7:19). Therefore God provided another covenant which could and did justify his children and bring them before him in perfection; “For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Jesus Christ perfected the whole and entire election of grace by his one offering; that is, he perfected in the sight of God the entire church of God, whether male or female, bond or free, of what ever nation or class, or any other distinction. This course of bringing salvation by Jesus Christ in the New Testament or covenant is not reactionary but is that course settled on by the three persons of the Godhead from everlasting.

Second: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts,” (Jeremiah 31:33) This is the same promise that is given in Ezekiel 36:26, 27 “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 a heart of flesh, (27) 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. See also Jeremiah 32:39. The fulfillment of this promise is the operation of the Spirit of God on the hearts of men and is called, Sanctification of the Spirit, (I Peter 1:2 and II Thessalonians 2:13) it is the new birth and “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5). Our Lord Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7) and this is that work of grace, by the Spirit of God, on the souls of men that takes away the hard and stony heart and gives a new heart, or stated in another way; it replaces the rebellious heart, which is the natural heart, (Romans 8:7) with a willing heart, which is the gift of God, (Psalm 110:3; Ephesians 2:8, 9; Philippians 2:13;1:29; John 3:8; 1:13; Romans 9:16) Therefore the call of the gospel is “whosoever will” anyone who is willing may come to Christ for life eternal, the requirement is a willing heart. A willing heart may be manifested by honest desire to be accepted of God, and a willingness to come to God in his way. This willingness of heart is the gift and operation of God upon the hearts of men and is life from the dead (Ephesians 2:1).

Third: “Ye shall keep my judgments and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27) this keeping the judgments of God and doing them is the effect of the (before mentioned) operations of the Spirit of God. The cause is the effectual working of the Spirit of God (I Thessalonians 2:13; Ephesians 3:7; 4:16), the effect is a willing heart, and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Savior of any of the sons of men and the all sufficient Savior of all who “must be saved” (Acts 4:12).   

           

Thee Have I Seen Righteous

Thee Have I Seen Righteous

Genesis 7:1

            “And the Lord said to Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the arch; for thee have I seen righteous in this generation.”

            Notice Dear Reader, it is not written, thou art righteous; but, thee have I seen righteous. There is a very great difference, for if the Lord had said; Noah, thou art righteous before me; it would have been a righteous person that had caught the eye of Jehovah. Isaiah nullifies all such notions in 64:6 of his prophecy. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Reader, have you been taught of God that you are a miserable sinner from the top of your pitiful sinful head to the sole of  your corrupt foot? Those whom the Lord of life has loved he teaches that lesson. In very faithfulness Jehovah of Hosts allows his covenant children to experience their sinner-hood and the effect is always to drive them to their eternal Father through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

 Noah and all his house had suffered the effects of the fall along with the rest of Adam’s sons and daughters. “For there is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not,” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Isaiah did not write; but you are all as an unclean thing, and all your righteousnrsses are as filthy rags, no, even the great prophet of Messiah, included himself when he wrote; all we like sheep have gone astray. Daniel the Prophet confessed “We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even in departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments,” (Daniel 9:5). The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome, “…I am carnal, sold under sin,” (Romans 7:14). The Psalmist wrote “Enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified,” (Psalm 143:2). Sad but true “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps,” (Jeremiah 10:23). Our Lord said to the Jews “…ye will not come to me that ye might have life,” (John 5:40). Noah might have said, as did David, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me,” (Psalm 51:5).

How then could God, who cannot lie, say of Noah, “thee have I seen righteous”? How is the Lord our God, “a just God and a savior” (Isaiah 45:21)? How is God just, while he “justifieth the ungodly” (Romans 4:5)? Can you explain how “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed other” (Psalm 85:10)? Do you know what means God hath devised “that his banished be not expelled from him” (II Samuel 14:14)? The answer to these questions lies in the person and finished salvation of the “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Jeremiah 23:6)

The God of holy writ looked upon Noah dressed in the royal priestly garments of salvation purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ; for Isaiah’s prophecy runs thus “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul, shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). Noah along with all the children of promise (Galatians 4:28; Romans 9:7, 8) had been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and had been predestined to the adoption children, according to the purpose and grace of God; in Jesus Christ, (Ephesians 1:3-5; 3:11; II Timothy 1:9). All the children of promise, have been given to Christ, of the Father, from everlasting, (I Corinthians 1:30; Jeremiah 31:3; John 17:2, 6-10) they have been in federal union with Christ from all eternity, all that Christ did while here on the earth he did as the federal head of the children promise, and in their name and all that he did is laid to their account, or imputed to each individual of the group at the time appointed of the Father. When that everlasting righteousness is laid to the account, of the covenant children, life eternal must ensue, for, “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord,” (Leviticus 18:5).  

All that our Lord Jesus Christ did, he did, while in union with his elect, and all that the individual members of the church ever did; they did while in that same union. Because of the federal union that has been in existence since the elect were chosen in Christ: which was before the world was made, there is a just transference from the one to the other. The holiness of the federal head Jesus Christ, may justly be imputed to the body and the sins of the body may justly be imputed the head. For, “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (II Corinthians 5:21). And “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree:” (Galatians 3:13).

Noah, like all the chosen of the Father, are predestinated to receive all the blessings of the covenant of grace in Jesus Christ. All the elect including Noah, are predestined to be made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, Noah was made, not righteous, but Noah was made righteousness; Noah was made the righteousness of God in Christ. Therefore, when God looked upon Noah in Christ; he did not see Noah dressed in a righteous garment of his own making, but he saw Noah dressed in the robe of righteousness established by Jesus Christ, which is the righteousness of God. It is the righteousness that Jesus Christ established, it is the righteousness that God the Father provided for the children of promise through the mediation of Jesus Christ, it is the righteousness that God the Father requires, it is the only righteousness that God the Father will accept as the justifying righteousness for any individual, and the righteousness of God is only received by faith.

Persons who believe themselves righteous through their own works of righteousness, are only self righteous; and shall find that “the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself upon it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it,” (Isaiah 28:20). In our day, as in the past there is great “zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” For persons, “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth,” (Romans 10: 2-4). We must be clothed in the righteousness which is in Christ Jesus, who is “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:6), and he is, the very righteousness of God, or we must perish to all eternity.

   Oh, Spirit of Christ, our most sovereign and glorious LORD, would you turn the hearts of many of those who are lost in the blindness of free-will works religion to the Sovereign Christ of the scriptures. In the day of thy power make thy people willing, according to thy word: in the Name of Christ; Amen.

A.J.Ison

Transgressions Blotted Out

   

Transgressions Blotted Out

Psalm 51:1

“Have mercy upon me Oh God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.”

            Personal sin being past and irrevocable; brings consternation upon the awakened soul of the sinner who at last realizes that he must meet the God against whom he has sinned; and answer for his affront to the perfect holiness of his creator. Further; by the word of truth, he may find that he is a helpless sinner, (having sinned in his federal head, Adam) and that because of participation in federal union in Adam he has received a fallen, corrupted, and ruined nature; and that, because of what he is by nature he is only obnoxious to eternal destruction in the sight of God. So that as he stands in the flesh and under the law of God; he is punishable in the sight of God to eternal ruin, the everlasting burnings, eternal contempt in the sight of God, and sentenced to ceaseless, unbearable and intolerable misery. But such a person may; through the providence of God, find that there is mercy in the Lord. Oh, glad day; when hope of peace with God is found for those who are and have been offenders of his holiness and truth.

            David knew of the mercy of God; he knew that our God delights to show mercy, and therefore betook himself to beg for mercy, seeing it was his only hope. He asked for mercy according to the tender mercies of God; and according to the lovingkindness of God; attributes that are in God as he is in himself. Though our God is a God of great mercies; yet he will not show mercy at the expense of his truth, and holiness, his law must be satisfied in its penalty and fulfilled in its precept: Therefore, God sent his Son; The Son of God, and God the Son, into this world to fill up the breach created by the sin of man.

            Christ would fill the breach by taking our nature into union with His Divine person; and in our nature, fulfill the Surety-ship engagements He had agreed to in the covenant of grace in old eternity. By His blood He would satisfy the penalty of the law; for we who were the subjects of his Surety-ship had sinned, and the sin of those for whom Christ is Surety was laid on him. In His Humanity He would obey the law to its jot and tittle and thus for His covenant people fulfill the precept of the law. Therefore; in the Surety of the covenant those who are the children of the covenant, are without fault before the law of God, for Christ Jesus has fulfilled all the law of God in the room and stead of His people. Therefore rejoice, Oh, believer, for thy sin is blotted out with the blood of Jesus Christ; and that blot, is a blot, that the judicial eye of God will never penetrate.

A.J. Ison