It's an honor and privilege to be with you this evening, a delight as well and privilege to speak on the passage which I have before me. When Scott asked if I would preach this year, he also asked me to suggest several texts regarding the fear of God, which I might like to preach upon. And one of the first texts that came to my mind was Jeremiah 32 and verse 40. It places the fear of God squarely in the center of one of the most exalted statements of the grace of God to be found anywhere in scripture. In so doing, it sheds a brilliant light on both the compatibility and indeed the inseparability of the most exalted views of the grace of God and the deepest and truest views of the fear of God.

I'm both excited to preach on the text and terrified that I won't do it justice this evening, so before we take up the text, let's pray together. By your birth, your cross, your passion, by your tears of deep compassion, by your mighty intercession, Lord and Savior, Help us. Amen. So turn in your Bibles, please, to Jeremiah chapter 32. We'll commence by reading verses 36 to 41.

Jeremiah 32, verse 36 through verse 41. Now therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the city of which you say it is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. Behold I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in my anger, in my wrath, and in great indignation, and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety. They shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always.

For their own good and for the good of their children after them, I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me. I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all my heart and with all my soul. The theme of this passage is as you can plainly see the everlasting covenant and in this hour I want you to consider three things about it. First of all I want you to consider the foreshadowing of the everlasting covenant, then the fulfilling of the everlasting covenant, and then the functioning of the everlasting covenant.

First of all, the foreshadowing of the everlasting covenant. Because the Bible is the word of God, because the Bible looks at history as it is in truth, as the unfolding plan of God, the great events recorded in the Old Testament are seen as shadows of the even greater events to come in New Testament times. Thus, because there was an old Israel, and an old covenant, and an old exodus, Jeremiah prophesies of a new Israel, a new covenant, and a new Exodus. Now you know what the old Exodus was. It was the redemption of Israel out of Egypt so that they make their way to the promised land.

The New Exodus is the redemption of God's people out of their exile in all the earth, where the wrath of God has driven them, and they're being brought back to the promised land. The old Exodus under Moses is the shadow used in Jeremiah to picture the new exodus led by Christ, our pioneer. Now under this first point then, I simply want to expound the way the passage uses the New Exodus to depict the everlasting covenant. First of all, notice its catastrophic circumstances, the catastrophic circumstances of the everlasting covenant. Verse 36 tells us that the backdrop or background of the New Exodus and the Everlasting Covenant is the catastrophe that has overtaken Jerusalem.

Now therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning this city of which you say it is given into the hand of the King of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. It is crucial to notice here that the text is explicit that these catastrophic circumstances were not the product of historical bad luck. They are the product of the city being, notice the word, given into the hand of the king of Babylon. That word given suggests what verse 37 will make explicit, the catastrophe that had fallen upon God's city and the consequent exile which had driven its inhabitants into all these surrounding lands was the result of God's wrath and judgment on his old covenant people. The source of the catastrophe of the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of its people was the wrath and judgment of God.

But then notice also its outward objective, the outward objective of the everlasting covenant in the new Exodus. Verse 37 goes on to speak of the purpose of God to reverse this exile. Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation, and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety." God states here his sovereign good pleasure to regather Israel to the land of promise. This implies, of course, that the wrath which drove them into exile would by that time be satisfied, and God's great indignation placated. And this is made explicit in what follows as verse 38 speaks of the new exodus.

Notice its spiritual significance. In Verse 38, the spiritual implications and significance of this regathering of Israel are made absolutely clear. They shall be my people and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always for their own good and for the good of their children after them." You see, the implication of the regathering of Israel to the land is that once more they are God's people and he is their God. This involves not only a change in God's attitude or disposition toward them, but also necessarily implies a change in their attitude and disposition toward him.

Without this change, so the text says, no good could come to God's people. Notice the necessity of this change. It is underscored in the words, for their own good, and for the good of their children after them. These things, this change which was to take place in their hearts and lives, this change of attitude was necessary. This change of attitude was inseparable from their spiritual and physical good.

There was no good for them without it. Notice the nature of this change. What is this new attitude which is so necessary to their spiritual good. Well, it's described in these words, one heart and one way that they may fear me always. What are we to think of when we hear of the Lord giving us people one heart and one way that they may fear me always.

Well, we have to think of the fear of God. First of all, nothing more needs to be said than what has been said already by the fine speakers in this conference, by Joe Beakey and by Scott and by the others and by our brother Jeff this morning especially. Nothing more needs to be said than what Matthew Henry actually says in his commentary. That which he requires of those whom he takes into covenant with him, as his people, is that they fear him, that they reverence his majesty, dread his wrath, stand in awe of his authority, pay homage to him, and give him the glory due unto his name. Now what God requires of them, he here promises to work in them, pursuant to his choice of them as his people.

But then the prophet speaks of their being given one heart. Now, I really think you have to chase this idea of the one heart back, believe it or not, to 2 Chronicles. You don't have to turn there, but in chapter 30 we read, So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them, they're trying to gather them to the feast in Jerusalem. Nevertheless, some men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord.

Now many people were gathered at Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread in the second month of very large assembly. The one heart of Judah speaks of the unity of Judah to do God's will in contrast to the absolute refusal of some tribes and the partial refusal of other tribes in Israel to obey the word of the Lord. In this same unity, among God's people is mentioned in the parallel prophecy in Ezekiel. There we read, Ezekiel 11, 19 to 20, and I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them, and it will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and do them, that they will be my people and I shall be their God. Now this giving them one heart and way is I think true in two respects.

It has two different applications if you will. God will unite their individual hearts so that each of his children no longer struggle with a divided and double heart. We still struggle with divided hearts, don't we? We fear God and we do that, we call it stupid, it's actually a sinful thing. We thought we feared God, we do fear God, and yet we find it so hard to be consistent in that fear of God.

We have divided hearts still with our remaining sin. And God promises here that the day is coming that his people will have one heart. But this is true also in another respect. Israel was divided in its corporate heart. This is what we see in 2 Chronicles, isn't it?

Some tribes willing to obey God, other tribes half willing, other tribes not willing at all to obey God's command to come up to the feast. Ah, but the day is coming, says The prophet, the day is coming when this division in Israel will no longer obtain. In the new covenant, in the new Israel, in the language of the previous chapter, they all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, for I'll forgive their iniquities and remember their sins and iniquities no more." But the prophet also speaks of the fact that God gives them one way. Now, the language of one way has, as far as I can see, no direct biblical parallel. Isaiah 53.6 does, however, suggest that the ways of sin are various and diverse.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. There are many ways to sin. There's only one way to follow God. The way of service to God is one and we think here of another passage in Jeremiah, Jeremiah 6 16 It is one of many passages in Jeremiah that speak of the way and it reads thus says the Lord stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls but they said we will not walk in it.

So the fear of God, one heart, one way. Overall, the thought seems to be that God will unite the hearts of his people to fear his name and walk in his ways. In fact, all the key words used in this prophecy, one, heart, way, and fear, are all used in the prayer of the psalmist in Psalm 86-11. Teach me your way, oh Lord, I will walk in your truth, unite my heart to fear your name. And God promises here in our passage and in this prophecy to do exactly that forever and for all his people.

Yahweh will unite the hearts of his people actually to do his will. The one heart results in the one way. A change in our lifestyle is the true index of a change in our heart. Calvin affirms this and says, and Paul seems to have borrowed from this place when he says, that God gives us to will and to do according to his good pleasure. But the agent of this change is also plain in the prophecy, the agent or source of this change.

This change of heart and weight does not arise from the free will of Israel. It does not arise spontaneously out of their corporate heart. No, the text is emphatic. The New American Standard from which I'm reading, there are six I wills in verses 38 to 41 in which God says that he is the agent of this change. Of course, this is reminiscent of the previous chapter where with regard to the New Covenant, God says, I will put my law within them, and on their heart, I will write it.

The agent of this change is the sovereign spirit of Yahweh, who works when, where, and how he pleases in turning the hearts of men to himself." Now this language debunks the modern notion that God will not tamper with the free wills of men. And that he leaves the hearts of men to choose him out of their own volition. Men must choose Yahweh indeed, but they will do so because he gives them one heart and one way and because he sovereignly puts his law in them and writes it on their hearts. This language also demunks the notion that God's grace simply enables men to come to the place where they can choose grace for themselves. That was the way people prayed in the Baptist Church I was raised in.

I don't know if they really had a theology behind it, but this is the way they prayed. Lord, bring that person to the point of salvation. I learned later in college that God doesn't just bring people to the point of salvation, He brings them all the way into salvation. Kelvin had the same argument with the papist. Would you like to hear what he said?

And he thought this was the text that refuted them. It ought to be noticed that the beginning of the fear of God is the regeneration of the spirit. But we ought to notice the words when he says that he would give them one heart and one way, that they might fear him. For he does not say that they may be able to fear me, or that there may be a free option and yet flexible will, but he mentions, so to speak, the actual fear of God as the result of forming anew the hearts of men. This I have said ought to be carefully observed because the papists confess with us that we are wholly weak as to what is good and that all our faculties are so corrupt that the will cannot move itself nor can any effect follow without the constant cooperation of the Holy Spirit.

But at the same time, they imagine that the Holy Spirit does only one half of the work in us. And as the grace of the Spirit is called by them, aid and cooperation. What do the papers mean, or what do they understand by this grace going before? Even that God inspires us with good and pious feelings, so that if we wish, we may be free to follow what is right. But what does the prophet say?

I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me. We hence see that the grace of God is of itself efficacious. And then he does not say that he would give them a power to turn either way, but that he would give them one heart. Amen. God does not merely bring us to the point or place of salvation.

He brings us all the way in by actually giving us repentance and faith and the fear of God. But then We come to a fourth thing about this everlasting covenant that we see in these verses, and that's its continuing character. Its continuing character. The result of this change is emphasized in verse 40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me.

It is because of the sovereign activity of God and salvation in changing the hearts of men that this covenant will not be broken as the old covenant was. Remember the language of Jeremiah 31, 31 and 32, my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them. No, this covenant will not be broken. And why not? Because God will make sure that in the hearts of his people is that indispensable commodity which is necessary for the continuation of the covenant.

It is because of this that God's covenant will not be broken as the old covenant was. Rather, Because of God's sovereign good pleasure, this covenant will continue and be everlasting. And the sovereign good pleasure of Yahweh in all of this is the note on which this description of the new exodus and the everlasting covenant which God makes concludes. So notice finally under this first point of the foreshadowing of the everlasting covenant, its sovereign source. Verse 41 records the heart of God that stands behind and results in the new exodus and everlasting covenant.

In these tremendous words, I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all my heart and with all my soul." Now, God, of course, wills many things, according to his perceptive or revealed will, that do not come to pass. He willed to give Israel the land and for them to dwell in it, but that was left dependent upon their obedience to the covenant. Of old Israel, after the old exodus, and on the day of the old covenant, he said, oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always that it may be well with them and with their sons forever. But of course, this will with these desires was not embodied in God's decree, but the Bible teaches that there is a sovereign good pleasure of God, embodied in his eternal decree for the salvation of his elect people. And it is this sovereign good pleasure of God of which verse 41 speaks.

It is this sovereign good pleasure of God which stands behind the everlasting covenant. It is this eternal and electing love of God that reaches out with his whole heart, he says, and with his whole soul in irresistible grace, in power to those people. He rejoices over them to do them good. He determines to faithfully plant them in this land, he says, with all his heart and with all his soul. This is that dimension of the will of God of which Isaiah 46 10 speaks, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.

Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken. Truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it. Surely I will do it.

By the everlasting covenant, by this covenant, He plants his people in the land, and he does it all. We can't hear the words too often. He does it rejoicing over them with all his heart and with all his soul, says the text. That's the foreshadowing of the everlasting covenant. I want you to consider in the second place the fulfilling of the everlasting covenant.

In our context today, Many strange, novel interpretations of Old Testament prophecy abound on every side and on every Christian TV channel. It is therefore necessary to ask about the fulfillment of this prophecy. When and how does this great prediction and the wonderful promise of Jeremiah 32 come to pass? Does it await the Millennial Kingdom after Christ's return? Does it await the return of God's purpose to deal with physical Israel after the conclusion of the church age?

I think not. I want to assert and prove that the everlasting covenant is inaugurated in this age in the church and consummated in the perfected church in the age to come. The everlasting covenant is the new covenant. And so the everlasting covenant is inaugurated in this age in the church and consummated in the perfected church in the age to come. Now let's walk through that syllogism.

First of all, the New Covenant is inaugurated in this age in the church and consummated in the perfected church in the age to come. The words New Covenant occur five times verbatim in the New Testament. Now, the New Covenant's mentioned a lot more times, I know that. But each time that that phrase, New Covenant, is used in the New Testament, it's derived from Jeremiah 31, it is seen as fulfilled in the church and that the church is built on the spiritual realities of the new covenant. Luke 22, 20, and in the same way he took the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup, which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Here the cup of the Lord's supper, the cup which we drink week by week or month by month in our church services is called the cup of the new covenant and drinking it. We say we share in the benefits of that covenant. First Corinthians 11, 25 speaks of the same thing. In the same way, he took the cup also after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me." Once more, the cup of the Lord's Supper, drunk by the church every time it celebrates the Lord's table, is called the cup of the new covenant.

2 Corinthians 3, 6, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. Here Paul, the apostle of the church, the apostle of the Gentiles calls himself and his ministry a minister of the new covenant. Hebrews 9.15, for this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant so that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant. Those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Here, Jesus, our Savior, is identified as the mediator of the new covenant who redeems the transgressions of those who are called and causes them to be forgiven.

We are forgiven then because of the grace and mediator of the new covenant. And Hebrews 12 24, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant we have come and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than than the blood of Abel here the church is told that they have come by faith that Jesus the mediator of the new covenant Every single one of these mentions of the New Covenant, every last one in the New Testament makes clear that the New Covenant is fulfilled in the church. And if you take the time to examine all the other references and allusions to the New Covenant and New Testament, you'll see they all confirm the same thing. That's the first, that's the major premise of our syllogism. Look at the second premise.

The everlasting covenant is the new covenant. Now I struggle here, I like to be exhaustive and I may exhaust you in being exhaustive with the text. I apologize if I do that. But think of at least six reasons why we have to conclude that the New Covenant is the everlasting covenant of our text. How do we know this?

Well, the context makes clear. This is kind of a duh argument. Jeremiah 32 comes right after Jeremiah 31. And Jeremiah 31 is talking about the new covenant. Well, But to go on, the blessings of the new covenant and the everlasting covenant are the same.

The spiritual blessings bestowed in the everlasting covenant are the same as those bestowed in the new covenant. And this identifies the two things. Compare especially, and I will be their God and they shall be my people, Jeremiah 31, 33, with they shall be my people and I will be their God, Jeremiah 32, 38. And notice also that the tenor of the spiritual blessings are, though not verbally, really the same. God writing his law on our hearts, putting his law within us.

Is that not the same as his giving us one heart and one way and putting the fear of God within us? Well then, I also might point out that following the description of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31, there is a restoration of the people to the land described. And the same restoration is described in Jeremiah 32, following our passage. Or I could say, and I think if I had to say just one thing, I would say this. I could say that in the New Testament, the phrase everlasting covenant is used just once, just once, and it is plainly used of the New Covenant.

Hebrews, the great words of the benediction of Hebrews 13, 20, and 21, Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ buy the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do as well, working in you what is well pleasing in his sight. Isn't this the language of Jeremiah 32? It's the language of God giving us one heart and one way that we may fear him always, working in us, what is well pleasing in his sight. Praise God for that promise. Praise God for that benediction.

Praise God that it's true for us. But you see, in the context of the book of Hebrews, where two covenants are constantly being contrasted, the old and the new covenant, it's plain that the everlasting covenant is the new covenant. The Old Covenant passes away. The New Covenant is everlasting. The New Testament also uses language that suggests that the church fulfills the everlasting covenant.

Jesus prays in John 17, 21, that all his people may be one. And we're told in Acts 4 32 that the whole congregation of the believers were of one heart and one soul. And then finally, I want to say that even the promise of the land that you have in Jeremiah 32, 41, I will faithfully prompt them in this land with all my heart and all my soul, this promise of the land makes clear that the everlasting covenant is fulfilled in the new covenant. The promise of the land, well what do you do about that preacher? What are you going to say about that?

You're going to spiritualize it preacher? No, I'm going to universalize it. I'm not going to spiritualize it. It's not like it stands for heaven it's not like it even stands for the church now it's like it stands for the whole crazy world which God is one day going to redeem. That's what it stands for.

Matthew 5-5 contains the promise of Jesus Christ to his disciples. The meek shall inherit the earth. Romans 8-19 contains the prospect which the apostle Paul sets before his people. He says, for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to fertility, not willingly, but because of him was subjected in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

No, the land is not to be spiritualized, it is to be universalized. The land given to Israel was the type, symbol, and emblem of the fact that God was going to redeem the earth and in the new heavens and new earth give the whole thing to his people. This is the meaning of the language of Jeremiah 32 41, I will faithfully plant them in this land with all my heart and my soul. This is what it comes to mean in the teaching of Jesus and the teaching of the Apostle Paul that one day the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That one day as we pray in the Lord's Prayer the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And this is the prospect of salvation, that a redeemed world is the inheritance of Christ and his people. And This is the promise of Jeremiah 32, 41. So let's review the argument. The new covenant is inaugurated in this age in the church and consummated in the perfected church in the age to come. The everlasting covenant is the new covenant.

Now I think then that my conclusion logically and necessarily follows the everlasting covenant is inaugurated in this age in the church and consummated in the perfected church in the age to come. What therefore is said of the everlasting covenant in Jeremiah 32 applies to us. We take that to heart, it'll do something for us. All of its glorious promises belong to us as God's new covenant people. Well, that brings me to our third point, and it's this, what I call the functioning of the everlasting covenant.

There is, I guess what I want to call it, a presupposition in our text about the new and everlasting covenant. And that assumption is that this covenant is in a sense, well, I want to say bilateral, but actually I'll say two-sided. There are two sides to this covenant. Now, it's of course clear that in its origin, the new covenant, the everlasting covenant, is in an important sense one-sided. Nobody asked God to send Jesus to become the guarantee of a better covenant.

God did that unilaterally. No one twisted God's arm in the eternal covenant of redemption to make the covenant of redemption or to plan the covenant of grace. Nobody did that. That was unilateral. But there's also a sense, and I think you can't understand our text without it in which the covenant is and must be called bilateral or two-sided.

Why is that? Well the reason is that it's intended to create an intimate personal relationship between God and his people, this relationship that God can describe as rejoicing over them to do them good, and have his whole heart and his soul committed to, this relationship between God and his people requires on their part, in response, loving commitment and covenant faithfulness. In contrast to the covenant unfaithfulness of old Israel, this new Israel must be marked by covenant faithfulness or a keeping of the covenant by the people of God? Only if such covenant faithfulness continues, such is the teaching of our text, to mark the covenant people of God, can this covenant continue? Can it be everlasting?

Well, that brings us to a problem. The history of Israel shows, not that Israel was worse than every other nation, Israel, and that's the problem with the terrible sin of anti-Semitism. Israel is not set before us in the Bible as an example of some unusually bad nation. It's not like the Jews are worse than everybody else. The Jews are everybody else.

The Jews are what all nations are. They're the test nation. And so the history of Israel shows that such continuing covenant faithfulness is not native to fallen human beings. In fact, it's impossible for us to continue in undeviating covenant faithfulness to give God the perfect and perpetual obedience that Christ had to fulfill for us. So how can any spiritual covenant then between God and man be everlasting?

When one of the parties is so fickle. When one of the parties is so vacillating, when one of the parties is so unstable, how can a covenant be everlasting? How can there be any surety to this personal relationship between God and his people? And that brings us to the promise. The promise of the everlasting covenant is that God will not leave the keeping of the covenant by us up to us.

On his own part, God promises that he will not turn away from this people to do them good. Ah, but the Arminian says, what if they turn away from him? And God has an answer for that here too, doesn't he? He says, and I will put my fear in their hearts so that they don't turn away from me. Well, and that's the provision, isn't it?

What is the crucial commodity? What is it that has to happen to the hearts of men? What ingredient has to be mixed into their souls so that they don't turn from God? The passage is clear and says it twice. I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always.

I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me. Fear of God is crucial, and the fear of God is sovereignly supplied to the hearts of his people. Now I come to application. Frankly, there's so much application here and I don't know how to apply the passage. And so I apologize.

I'm sure there are 100 preachers here that can apply this better than I can. But I'm gonna do the best I can. And here are six things, I think there are six things, that I wanna tell you that this passage teaches us. First of all, it teaches us this passage, with all its glorious promises, belongs to us. It belongs to you, sister.

It belongs to you, brother. It's of you, dear Father in the faith. I'm 65, I can't call many people fathers in the faith anymore. It belongs to all of us because God says to us, I will rejoice over you to do you good. I will plant you in this land with all my heart, with all my soul.

Such is the commitment of God to his people. It is the soul and only the soul that knows that the everlasting covenant belongs to him who can sing the great hymn, my name from the palms of his hands, eternity will not erase. Impressed on his heart it remains in marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall endure as sure as the promise is given, more happy but not more secure, the glorified spirits in heaven. Even Charles Wesley, inconsistently, illogically, but still speaking the truth says, He wills that I should wholly be.

Who can withstand his will? The counsel of his grace in me, he surely shall fulfill. Praise God for Charles Wesley's inconsistencies. This passage also shows that there is no inconsistency or contradiction between the highest views of grace and the deepest views of the fear of God. Now We have these kind of contradictions and dichotomies in our heads, and it's the hardest thing in the world for preachers or for ourselves to get them out of their heads.

We have some sort of contrast or contradiction or inconsistency between fear and grace. But there's no such contrast or inconsistency in this passage. Here is one, I think it's, I think it is perhaps the one of the greatest descriptions of the grace of the covenant God anywhere in scripture, taking his people out to a glorious and everlasting eternity. And they're embedded in it, is the fear of God. You see it?

Ah, no contrast. No contrast between fear of God and grace of God. The creation of sovereign and saving grace is the fear of God. It is crucial for the continued experience of such grace. And this is extraordinarily significant for the way we understand the true and saving fear of God.

But another thing we learn is that one of those kinds of fear that Scott was talking about last night is plainly here. The fear of which this passage speaks is a fear which draws men to God rather than driving them away from God. You see it? He puts his fear in their hearts so that this relationship between himself and his people continue. Obviously, this is a fear that does not drive people from God, not the fear of bondage, slavery, and terror, it's a fear that brings them to God.

Now, I know that this can be a hard thing to conceptualize, But I'll tell you how I conceptualize it, okay? And if this helps you, I'm glad it does. If it doesn't, well, ask for forgiveness in advance. I have 12 grandchildren, age 10 and under. And 10 of them are granddaughters.

Granddaughters are weird. But they're also wonderful. You got to know how to how to get to the hearts of granddaughters. And I have one granddaughter that spends a lot of time at my house recently since we moved our 90-year-old, my wife's 90-year-old mother in with us, and helps us with her. And little Emery Renee is a sober little thing, and she looks at me with big eyes, and is like, you're too big, and your voice is too deep and loud, I'm not sure what I think of you.

And then she holds out her arms and comes to me. It's wonderful. But I think there's something like that in the fear of God in this passage. There is a kind of wide-eyed awe and reverence at the thunder of God's voice. There is a kind of Awe at the might of his arm, but it is a wide-eyed awe and a reverence that actually draws us to him rather than driving us away from him.

This is the wonder of eternity. We shall still fear God a million years from now. A fourth application is this. The fear of which the passage speaks teaches us the true doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. The everlasting covenant means this.

They will fear me always. The fact that the everlasting covenant assures that God's people will fear him always means that The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is true. But the way in which the perseverance of the saints must be understood is that God's grace in the everlasting covenant secures that they fear him always. Eternal security, in its watered down meaning today, is not true. It teaches that it does not matter how we feel about God or how we act, we go into heaven anyway.

But according to our text, it does matter. Easy believism and the idea that men will go to heaven regardless of whether they continue in sin and irrespective of whether they live a life of repentance is false, was never true, was never the doctrine of Calvinists, was never the doctrine of Arminians, is only the doctrine of antinomians today. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is built on the doctrine of the sovereign grace of God which so works as our text affirms that they will fear me always. And you know that it's only because this doctrine is true that Christians may have a solid hope and assurance of eternal life. The daisy is not the flower of Christianity.

It's not true of either God or of his people that each day they pluck another pedal off the theological daisy and say, He loves me, and then he loves me not. No, no, God will not turn away from us. That's the tenor of our text, and He will put His fear in us that we don't turn away from Him. We never turn away from each other, and it's all by the grace of God. We can know that we will persevere to the end.

We can have assurance of eternal life here tonight, because we know that God is working in the everlasting covenant to maintain that fear he's once put in our hearts, to maintain that fear that he's once put in our hearts forever. And then we learn two matching things. This is where I close. There is no fear of God in a soul which does not have planted in it the grace and cross of Christ. The fear of which this passage speaks is only conceivable as the result of the wrath satisfying work of Christ as the guarantee of the everlasting covenant.

And though it isn't explicitly in our text, in the very next chapter the work of the Messiah in establishing this everlasting covenant is brought front and center where we read in Jeremiah 33, In those days and at that time I will cause the righteous brands of David to spring forth and he shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell in safety and this is the name by which he shall be called. The Lord is our righteousness. How is it that sinful men, whose very nature is apostasy, how is it that such sinful men can feel anything towards a holy God but dread and terror, it is because of the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ. You've heard it, praise God that you heard it from man after man this week and it's true because even the Old Testament taught, Psalm 130, verse 4, that there is forgiveness with God that he may be feared.

But Just as there is no fear of God in the soul, which does not have planted in it the cross of Christ and the grace of Christ, there is no grace or cross of Christ in the soul, which does not have planted in it the fear of God." It is plain in our passage. The fear of God is essential to any saving, covenantal, and personal relationship with God. And so let me share with you a concern I have. We live in a day in which the great Protestant doctrine of justification has been rediscovered and properly re-emphasized. I love the Protestant doctrine of justification.

I believe that doctrine with all my heart. I believe it is a saving experience of that doctrine which produces the fear of God. But, look, I also think that some of its fans have become fanatics who virtually teach that nothing else matters. I also think that some people can see little besides justification in the Bible. I also think that some people are seeing justification where the Bible is teaching something else.

We lose the balance of scripture between the grace of God and the fear of God, between the cross of Christ and the fear of God. If we lose the balance of those things, the balance found in Jeremiah 32, 40, we lose Protestant Christianity, we lose Reformed Christianity, we lose Biblical Christianity, we lose everything. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we come to you and we thank you for your word.

The entrance of your words gives light. Oh, grant that light to the souls of men this evening in this place, we pray In Jesus' name, amen. Articles and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the Word of God. And for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website ncfic.org.