Outlines seven major covenants God has made with humanity throughout history, emphasizing their role as keys to understanding God's plan. Beginning with the covenant in Eden (Genesis 3:15) concerning the seed of the woman, it progresses through the covenant with Noah (Genesis 9) symbolized by the rainbow, and the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 15) promising land and innumerable descendants. The sermon details the Mosaic covenant (Exodus 24) and the Palestinian covenant (Deuteronomy 28-30) with Israel, the Davidic covenant (2 Samuel 7) for an eternal throne, and concludes with the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31) established in Christ's blood. The central lesson is that these divine promises, both conditional and unconditional, are literal and will be fully fulfilled, offering assurance amidst world events.
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Shall we read together, please, in Genesis chapter fifteen? The book of Genesis chapter fifteen. And we'll read from the beginning, verse one. After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying, Fear not Abram. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what will thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and though one born in my house is mine heir.
And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir. but he that shall come forth out of thy known bowels shall be thine ear. And he brought them forth abroad and said, Luke now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them, and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Caldeas to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it.
And he said unto him, Take me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another. But the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and low and horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety.
that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites, is not yet full. And it came to pass that when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river the river Euphrates. the Canaanites, the Canazites, the Cadmanites, the Hittites, and the Pyrrhusites, and the Refuims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Gyrusites, and the Jebusites. May God add his blessing to the reading of this portion of his word. We have been looking at the dispensations in Holy Scripture. and pointing out that God has a plan for mankind.
In seven grid dispensations, seven grid periods or administrations in Holy Scripture, we find the key to the interpretation of that plan. The dispensations in Holy Scripture, seven of them altogether, seven grid periods of time in which God is dealing with man, we find a progression of revelation by God Himself. And at the end we find Christ upon the throne, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, reigning from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. Now these seven dispensations are really the key to the interpretation of God's plan for mankind.
And the reason that we're having these meetings is to get a clear conception in our mind what the dispensations mean and how God is dealing with man. There is a progression of doctrine right through. As a brother many years ago wrote a tremendous book, his name was Canon Bernard. He was a clergyman of the Church of England, but a very learned man and a true believer. And the title of his book is The Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament. Now, he confined himself particularly to the teaching of the New Testament and pointed out, in different periods of time, God is gradually revealing himself in his word.
And he points out that in that way, God is revealing his mind and will for his people. Now, not only do we get that in the New Testament, but we get exactly the same thing in the old. And from Genesis to Revelation... seven great periods of time that are called dispensations or administrations. We find God developing this great idea of the redemption of mankind through the person of his beloved Son. Now alongside of the dispensations that we've been looking at and trying very briefly to delineate, we find seven great covenants in Holy Scripture.
And it's this that we want very briefly this morning to outline. We won't be able to go into detail about that. As a matter of fact, that any man worth a salt should be able to occupy at least seven hours in expounding these seven great covenants that we find in Holy Scripture. And I am the period of half an hour. to try to expound these seven covenants, that is quite a tall order. I don't propose at all to go into detail about it. But if we could only get the idea of these great promises and compacts that God has made with mankind, I think it would be the key to many of the great doctrines and the purposes of God for His people at the present time.
Now, the word covenant It has a technical meaning. In the Word of God, we find a blood covenant mentioned. We find that in the book of Exodus chapter twenty-four, a blood covenant. And then on two occasions in the Old Testament, we also read about a covenant of salt. It would be interesting to turn over to the relevant passages and point out some of the beautiful things we find in it. Now, we know among primitive people, even today, a covenant of blood and a covenant of salt is very, very important.
I don't want to occupy time in speaking about it. In the area where we have spent a good part of our life, we spent about forty years in Angola, and there they have a covenant of blood. The technical term that they use for it is... That is the word that they use, and it means to cut a covenant. And exactly the same idea, the same idiomatic expression is used in Holy Scripture, to cut a covenant. The first man, as far as we are concerned, who landed in Angola, right away back in eighteen eighty-nine, eighteen-eight-six actually, Mr.
Fred Stanley Arnott. When he came into the country, he met an old chiefess of the Luwina people out on the frontier with what today is Zambia. Her name was Nanakandundo, and he wanted to get her permission to establish a work in that area. But before he was allowed to do that, they had to cut a covenant. I'm not going to go into all the details connected with it. It would take too long. That was not my purpose to tell stories here this morning. But Mr. Arnott, with Nanakandundu, they cut a covenant. Each one, they made a compact.
They made certain promises, and it was confirmed by an oath. And then a cut was made in their arm. And the blood of that African woman was mixed with the blood of Mr. Fred Stanley Arnett. And a covenant was made. A covenant was cut. And you know, African people, and primitive people today, the covenant of blood on the covenant of salt, it means that it's so important that they will never go back on any promise that they have made. They are blood brothers. Blood and salt are two great covenants that we find in Holy Scripture. That is the background to the Word, a covenant.
Now looking at the Word, the Word of God, we find seven great covenants that God has made with mankind. Some of them are conditional. Others are unconditional and eternal. Some of them are conditional in the fact that man has to enter into it. and if man fails in his sight of the covenant, the thing is temporary. But God has made certain covenant promises under unconditional, under permanent, under eternal. And when we look at these covenants in the Word of God, I think it is a very lovely key for the interpretation of many, many great passages of Holy Scripture.
Now, just for a few minutes this morning, I want to outline them. and just a word or two about each one. The one I want to concentrate more particularly is this one in Genesis chapter fifteen that was made with Abraham. And then another covenant that we want to emphasize is the new covenant that we find in Jeremiah thirty one and also in the New Testament in Hebrews chapter eight and chapter nine. The covenant that was made with Abraham was a never-lasting covenant. It was a non-conditional covenant. And God made promises to him, I believe, that we see unfolding under our very eyes today.
It's absolutely thrilling. It's exciting to see the promises that God made in the Old Testament scriptures that are being fulfilled in our day and generation. And that is the way that we want to apply it this morning. Now, the first covenant that we find in Scripture was made with Adam. We spoke the other day in connection with the dispensations. There was that dispensation of innocence. When man was created, there was a period, possibly quite a long period, when man in innocence had fellowship with God. and when he was in touch with God.
That was before sin entered at all. I'm not going to go over this story again. It's so sad to contemplate that all the trouble and the trial, the tribulation, the tragedy that we find in the world today, it had its origin in the Garden of Eden. But after sin had entered, God had to deal with it. And you remember just before the guilty pair were expelled from the Garden of Eden, God made a covenant with them. Now, there are seven items in that covenant. The only one that I want to mention we find in chapter fifteen of Genesis chapter three. God in speaking to Satan, speaking to the servant, he said this, Genesis three and fifteen, I will put enmity between thee and the woman.
between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, shall crush thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now that is a tremendous statement. I believe that there we get the gospel in essence. The first great statement concerning the cross of Christ We find there in that covenant that God made in the Garden of Eden before the guilty pair were expelled. I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed. You know, that is something that we find extended right through the pages of Holy Writ.
The seed of the woman. which ultimately, of course, is Christ. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. I believe that that will head up on the Antichrist in the coming day. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, we find enmity between the two. On a one word to take, many, many passages on the word of God this morning, we would find the battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The devil has done everything that he possibly can to smash up God's program on God's purpose for mankind in the seed. But ultimately it was the seed of the woman, Christ born of the virgin.
Do you believe in the virgin birth? I believe we get a little indication of that and that first great promise. That first great covenant that God made in the garden before Adam and Eve were expelled. The seed of the woman. Oh, thank God for the virgin, the virgin Mary, the seed of the woman. Our blessed Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, uplifted upon Calvary's cross. I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed. And the ultimate seed was Christ upon Calvary's cross. We thank God for that.
But that battle between the seeds has opened up for us right throughout Holy Scripture. It's one of the great themes of Holy Scripture, the battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Ultimately, coming to a conclusion on Mount Calvary, where Christ died for you and for me, we read, It shall bruise thy head. You know, that is the head of a serpent. His power was annulled at Calvary. There that great battle, it came to a conclusion, it came to a culmination upon Calvary's cross. Thou shalt bruise his head.
It shall bruise thy head. It was there that Satan was defeated. But read, he shall bruise his heel. That means to say that our blessed Lord suffered upon Calvary's cross. for you and for me. So here's that great covenant that was made in the garden. There are some other clauses connected with it. For the sake of time this morning, I don't want to refer to them. There are seven of them altogether. In the garden, it was made with Adam. That is the first great covenant that was made. Now the second was made with Noah. We were speaking again about that tremendous tragedy, that cataclysm that took place when God had to wipe out a whole generation on account of unnatural sins that was taking place at that time.
Man had corrupted his way upon the earth. We read about violence. We read about corruption. We read about unnatural immorality at that time. And God had to wipe out a whole generation. But thank God there was one family, only one, that were not polluted, that were not contaminated, and that sin that took place at that time. And God bid Noah to build an ark for his salvation and that of his family. And when they came out of the ark, you remember he built an altar. And on that altar he offered a sacrifice of all the clean animals.
He offered that sacrifice to God, and God made a covenant with him. If we were to turn over this morning to the ninth chapter of the book of Genesis, seven times there we read about a covenant and a token of a covenant. And God made a promise that that desolation, that cataclysm, that terrible tragedy that took place when God wiped out our whole generation at that time on account of sin. the sin of man. He said he would never do that again. There never would be a flood that would wipe out the whole of the population of the world. And he said the sign of the covenant that he would make would be the bow in the cloud.
One would love to pause here and speak a little bit about that bow, the bow and the cloud. You remember in the book of Revelation chapter four, we read about that wonderful vision of the throne and the one that sent upon the throne and we read that there was a bow, a rainbow, right round about the throne. You know, today all that we can see is a part of the rainbow. All we can see is a fragment, a segment. While we have our feet on the ground, we will never see the completed rainbow. Noah, when he saw, it was just a fragment of it.
But oh, when earth has passed and we land on the heavenly shore, we read about a completed rainbow around about the throne. It speaks of God's covenant. It speaks of God's mercy. It speaks of God's love. Did you ever see a completed rainbow down here? You never will have your feet on the ground. But on two occasions in my life I have seen a complete circle, a complete rainbow. When you get above the clouds, if you're traveling in a plane and get above the clouds, and going through a storm cloud with a cloud overhead and one below and passing beneath the clouds.
And if the sun's rays strike that cloud above, if you look at the wind of the plane, you'll see a complete circle, a completed circle. You'll never see it when you have your feet on the ground, but get above the clouds and you can see the completed circle. It speaks of God's mercy, God's love. for his people there are many things that are mysterious down here things that we don't understand and sometimes we say oh God why has this to happen to me all we can see down here is the segment a part of the rainbow But when we get up there, it will be the completed rainbow.
And thank God, God's purposes in our lives will be complete at that time. And we'll thank God for every experience that we have done here, whether of sorrow or of joy. So there in that great covenant that God made with Noah, we find the seven items connected with it in the book of Genesis, chapter nine. Again, for the sake of her time, we're not going into detail about it. So the first great promise was made in the Garden of Eden, of the coming seed that would crush the head of the serpent upon the cross. And the second was given to Noah, And the sign, the symbol of that covenant was the rainbow.
And God said, when you look upon the rainbow, you can remember that he made a promise that the earth never would be destroyed again by flood water. And he said, Seed time and harvest, summer and winter, heat and cold, and day and night shall not cease. It was an everlasting covenant that God made with his dear servant Noah at that time after the tragedy of the flood. We come on over again into the third and one that was made with Abraham. Now, that's the one that we've read here this morning. And I personally believe it's one of the greatest covenants in Holy Scripture.
And I don't think we could understand the teaching of the Word of God from this time on unless we understand thoroughly the covenant that was made with Abraham. Yesterday we pointed out that when God called Abraham, it was a critical point in human history. Looking back to Adam, it was two thousand years approximately. And looking forward to Christ, the coming of the Savior again, it was approximately... It was halfway between Adam and Christ when God called a man. It's one of the great critical points in Holy Scripture when God called his dear servant and made a covenant with him.
Some time ago I was at a Bible reading, not in this country, but in another country. I was in the audience. And the brother that was conducting the Bible reading, he spoke to me. He saw me sitting in the audience. He said, you haven't opened your mouth. The subject of the Bible reading that morning was Abraham and his call. He said, you haven't opened your mouth. He said, what do you feel about the call of Abraham? Well, I said, one thing that I have noticed is that it was one of the critical points in Holy Scripture, two thousand years back to Adam. Two thousand years forward to Christ. A period of four thousand years.
And I said, the fact that God called this man shows that God was doing something completely new and something very, very important. Oh, he said, I see what you believe. I said, what do you mean? He said, I suppose that you believe that four thousand years from Adam to Christ and two thousand years from Christ to the rapture and then one thousand years for the millennium, seven great periods of a thousand years. I said, I didn't say that. Neither did I think it. You know, it is an amazing thing that approximately four thousand years from Adam to Christ and then approximately two thousand years for the present dispensation and then a thousand years for the millennium covering a period of seven thousand years.
You know, I would never publicly ever expound that and say that that is the way it's going to be. It may. And it would be a remarkable thing. A very remarkable thing is the Lord was to come before the end of this century. Now, let me make it plain. We do not believe in setting dates. The Word of God discourages that completely. But it would be rather remarkable thing if before the end of the century our blessed Lord was to come and take his church home and then inaugurate the great period called the millennium, a period of seven thousand. That may be God's purpose.
I don't say that it is. But in any case, it is an amazing thing that when God called Abraham, it was the halfway point between Adam and Christ and God made a covenant with him. Now looking at that covenant, it was a blood covenant. God had made a promise to him that he was going to have a seed and also that he was going to have a land. These were the two points in that covenant that God made with Abraham, a seed and the land. You remember in the previous chapter, I think it's chapter thirteen, God called Abraham and told him that he was going to give him a seed.
give him a sun. And he asked him if he was able to cut the dust on the ground. He said, No. Well, he said, One day your seed is going to be as the dust of the earth. And then the passage that we have read this morning will read that God called him out at night, told him to look up at the stars. He said, are you able to count the stars of heaven? He said, no, I'm not. Well, I said, one day your seed will be as the stars of heaven absolutely innumerable. And then you remember in Genesis chapter twenty two, after he had gone through that tremendous test, When he offered his son Isaac upon the altar, God made again another promise to him.
And he told him his seed would be as the sand of the seashore. Now notice the three types or the three figures that God uses in connection with the seed that God promised to Abraham. First of all, the dust of the earth. Secondly, the stars of heaven. And thirdly, the sand of the seashore. This was a three-fold promise. that God made to Abraham that his children, that those that he would that would later come from him, his children would be, first of all, at the dust of the earth, on earthly sea, on the stars of heaven, on heavenly sea, and then the sand of the seashore, speaking of the nations of earth, that God would bless them as a result of his call to this dear man.
Now, this is the reason for the tremendous importance of the covenant that was made to Abraham. After he made that promise to him, you remember, God put him into a deep sleep after he had offered a sacrifice. He took these different animals. And there were parted down the middle. And one half of the animal was placed on one side and the other half on the other. And then there was a pathway of blood between the two sides of the animals. And Abraham was put into a deep sleep. And in that deep sleep, God made that covenant with him.
that he would have a seed and that he would have a land. It's a threefold seed, an earthly seed. That is the nation of Israel. A heavenly seed, that's God's dear people of the present time. We read about this in the epistle of the Romans, that those that have the faith of Abraham are saved. He has a heavenly seed and then in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. But it has to do with, first of all, the seed and also the land. Now, Abraham, when he was in that deep sleep, God put him to the one side. It was unconditional.
The promise that was later confirmed by an oath, God made that with him at that time. And the blood covenant that was made, represented by these animals, and the pathway of blood between he saw a smoking furnace and he saw a burning lamp. The smoking furnace was what God's people, the people of Israel would pass through. No nation has ever gone through such a series of trouble and trial and persecution of the nation of Israel. That is the smoking furnace. Four hundred years, first of all, in the land of Egypt.
and later on in the captivity and then the Holocaust that has taken place in our lifetime. Oh, the burning furnace. But thank God for the smoking lamp, for the burning lamp, a lamp that shone. God put his testimony in the nation of Israel at that time. And then God made a promise to him connected with the land. It's rather remarkable that God outlines... the borders of the land that Abraham was going to possess. Notice what it says. On to thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt onto that great river, the river Euphrates.
Did you ever consider the borders of the land that God promised to Abraham? Do you think it's literal? Do you want to spiritualize it? I don't think that we can. But some people today would want to spiritualize these things. But this is the promise that God has made to Abraham and to his seed. It's a literal promise from the river of Egypt. What is that? I believe it's the river Nile. I know that some would like to use a little wadi called a wadi-arish, a place just on the Gaza Strip. I don't believe anything of the kind. The outline that God gives here is the river of Egypt.
That can be nothing else but the Nile, the river Nile, to the great river, the river Euphrates. That is the borders of the land that God has promised to his people. That would take in Lebanon. It would take in Syria. It would take in Saudi Arabia and it would take in a part of Iraq as well as the whole of the land of Israel. That never, never, never has been fulfilled. And God has promised with an oath that this, the borders of the land. You know, when we think of what is happening at the present time among the politicians and the conferences that have been going on in Camp David, and the PLO and all the rest of it.
This is what is happening in our day. God has fulfilled this promise in bringing the people back to the land, back to the land of Israel, but they're under attack today, under pressure. But God has promised that the land that they will occupy, it will be from the River Nile to that great river, the River Euphrates, and it takes in these portions of that part of the Middle East that is delineated here in this portion of Scripture. Now, it will be fulfilled. I believe that in the millennia that this will be the borders of the land, the promise that was made, an unconditional promise that was made to Abraham and to his seed at that time.
To me, this is absolutely marvelous. You know, as I think about it today and read the reports on the papers and what is going on among the politicians today, I thank God that God has made a promise, is made a covenant. It's an unconditional covenant. It is an everlasting covenant and it will be fulfilled so we can keep our minds at rest in all the political movements that's going on at the present time that this promise will be completely fulfilled. Now going on a little further, there is the Mosaic covenant. Just a word about that. We mentioned it again yesterday.
You remember, after the nation of Israel had been brought out of the land of Egypt, and that promise that God had made to Abraham had that four hundred years would be unto the heel of the oppressor, but then they would be brought out of the land of Egypt and brought into the land. And when they arrived at Mount Sinai, God made a covenant with them again. It was a blood covenant. The details of it we find at Exodus chapter twenty four. Moses, he built an altar, and he offered a sacrifice. On behalf of the blood he put upon the altar, on the other half he sprinkled upon the people, and then he read the terms of the covenant that God made with the nation of Israel at that time.
He read it to them, and they said, all that the Lord has said we will do. Now that was a conditional covenant. and unfortunately the nation of Israel, while God made a covenant with them, unfortunately, on account of their sin, they had to be carried into captivity and they had to suffer for the fact that they did not observe the covenant that God had given with them. God gave them the commandments and the judgments and the ordinances, a three-fold covenant that he made with them, but unfortunately they were not faithful to that covenant. And the result was that a new covenant had to be brought in later on.
But here is the Mosaic covenant. And it is expanded for us on the details connected with it in the book of Exodus chapter twenty four. And then later there was a Palestinian covenant. We find that in Deuteronomy twenty eight through chapter thirty. Now again, for the sake of time, let's be brief. In that great covenant that was given by Moses, to the nation just before he went up to Mount Nebo and the Lord took his dear servant home there was that covenant connected with the land God had told his people that if they obeyed his law and if they observed the statutes and the judgment that he had given to them they would remain in the land but if they disobeyed that would be carried into captivity, and there there would be chastised.
There there would come under God's hand in discipline and in judgment on the count of their sin, and that is acted in what truth plays. We can't take time just now to win the three captivities and the three deliverances of the nation of Israel. Just let me mention them. First of all, for hundred and thirty years in Egypt, The man who brought them out was Moses, a prophet. The second great captivity, it took place for seventy years when they were carried on to Babylon. The man who delivered them from that was a priest. His name was Ezra. On the third captivity, it took place in AD seventy when they were carried into captivity to every country in the world, scattered and peeled.
And the man who will be responsible for the recovery from that captivity will be a king, king of kings and lord of lords. So the overall picture of the nation of Israel is composed of three captivities and three deliverances. And we believe that that will be fulfilled. The first two, certainly have. The captivity in Egypt and the captivity in Babylon and the recovery from it. But the final one. That is the two thousand years that Israel were in captivity to the nations of the earth. The one who was responsible for the complete recovery of the nation will be our Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet and the priest and the king.
The Palestinian covenant. And then the next one is a covenant that was made with David. Second Samuel chapter seven. He was promised to us. He was promised a throne and he was promised a kingdom. And if we read the passage, we find there that God made a non-conditional on an everlasting covenant with his dear servant, David. We find an exposition of it in the eighty-ninth Psalm. Again, one would love to turn over to the passage and good items connected with it. Don't spiritualize it. It is literal. It is unconditional. And God will fulfill the promises that he made to his dear servant David.
So here are six different covenants that we have mentioned in Holy Scripture. Some of them conditional, others unconditional and eternal. These are God's purposes for his people and they will be fulfilled. Now the final one is the new covenant. Jeremiah chapter thirty-one. And gone there, he made a new covenant. The first old covenant had not been observed, and God makes a non-conditional covenant with His dear people. There are a number of items in it that have expounded for us in Hebrews chapter eight and chapter nine. But I think that the great outstanding picture, the great outstanding exposition of it is in an upper room.
And you remember our blessed Lord. just before he went to the cross with a little company around him that he called his own. At the end of giving a tremendous body of teaching, upon the table there was a loaf of bread, and there was a cup of wine. And after the Lord had taken that bread and brokenly said, This, he said, is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. And then he took the cup and noticed what he said. As he lifted that cup, he said, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is given for you.
This do in remembrance of me. Oh, I love that. The New Covenant in my blood. These great covenants that were made in the past with the nation of Israel, they will be fulfilled. Don't spiritualize them. They will be fulfilled. Literally. in a coming day and we see them unfolding under our very eyes today with this new covenant or does include us and there he takes that wine and uplifts it and he said this is a new covenant in my blood which is shed for you this too in the remembrance of me and every time we sit at the Lord's Supper and take the cup let's always forget that God has made a covenant Now, we find three terms of the covenant in the epistle of the Hebrews and also in Jeremiah thirty-one, where it applies there to Israel.
But in Hebrews, I think we are included in it. First of all, the law is written in our mind and in our heart. Not on tables of stone, as it was given to Moses, but on the fleshly tables of our heart. How do you regard the Word of God? You know, I believe it's our bound and duty today to sit down and carefully study the Word of God, not only to have it in our mind, but to have it engraving on the fleshly tables of our hearts, this perfect law of liberty that God has given to you and to me. That is the first item. And then the second item is the knowledge of God.
What is salvation? The Lord Jesus in this great high priestly prayer, he said, This is life eternal, that the might know thee, the true God, on Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Salvation is just not knowing a doctrine, or even not knowing the Bible, but it's knowing a person. And that person is the person of God's beloved Son. The second item in the New Covenant, on them there are sins and iniquities, will I remember no more. Thank God our sins have been taken away. And this new covenant that God has made, not the old covenant written on tables of stone, but written on the fleshly tables of our heart.
And thank God today we have this covenant. And one day, in the presence of God, we'll be able to worship and praise and adore in a way that we never can down here. My beloved brethren and sisters this morning, looking at these great and precious promises, that is the way that Simon Peter puts it. great and precious promises and covenants that God has made and looking at them and understanding them, it lifts their hearts above the politics of the world at the present time in spite of all that Russia is doing, in spite of all that the PLO is doing, in spite of all that the politicians of the world is doing.
God has a purpose. He has a promise and these promises will be fulfilled to the letter and literally not only in the past, but also in a coming day. On this we rest, on our hearts can be a thief when we see what is happening in this poor old world at the present time. Now shall we pray. Our God and Father, with joy in our hearts, we lift our hearts to thee with worship and praise and adoration. We thank thee for these great promises that thou hast made to mankind. And our Father, as we look at them, trying to understand them, it rejoices our hearts.
Our Father, as we look at the world of the present time, fast ripening for judgment, we do pray, our Father, that our minds may be able to lift it above that and to look forward to that time when Christ shall come, take us into thy presence where there's joy unspeakable and pleasures forevermore. Bless thy word, we pray. Bless thy dear people. Our Father, each one of us, as long as thou dost leave us down here, we pray that it may be our chief ambition in life to please thee and to do thy will and to wait for the coming of that one who died for us upon Calvary's cross.
These are our desires. We commend them to thee in the worthy name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Thank you. so Thank