The new covenant (2)

Issue no. 24

  Scripture Reading: Matt. 26:28

  This morning I spoke about the difference between a promise and a fact. This afternoon, I still want to say something more about the difference between a promise and a fact so that you can become clearer.

  A promise is what God says before something is done, and a fact is what God says after something has been done. A promise is God's intention concerning something that is not yet done, while a fact is His declaration after His move and His acts.

  This is the difference between God's promise and His fact. We need to see one thing concerning God's promise: a believer has to receive it in faith. Concerning God's fact, we have to receive it in faith, and we also have to apply His accomplished facts and act as if we believe that they are accomplished. Since God has given something to us, we do not have to repeatedly ask Him to do the same thing; all we have to do is apply what God has given us.

  Now let us say something concerning the difference between God's promise and His fact. Every time we read the Bible, we have to ask if what we are reading is a promise or a fact. If it is a promise, all we have to do is ask in faith, and we will receive it. If it is a fact, we do not have to even ask; all we have to do is apply by faith, and we will have it.

  This is all we will say for now concerning the difference between a promise and a fact. Now we will add another thing: the difference between God's covenant made with an oath, and His promises and facts. In the morning, we said that God's Word concerning grace includes three aspects: promises, facts, and covenants. This afternoon, we will cover the covenants. Every heart taught by grace should praise God for His established covenants with man. If we have never encountered difficulties, we do not know the wonder and preciousness of God's covenant. Why does God establish covenants with man? Are God's promises insufficient? God's promises are indeed precious. If we have never experienced poverty, suffering, sickness, or danger we do not know the preciousness of God's promises. When we are poor, God's promises will supply us. Then we will realize that His promises are manna from heaven and springs in the wilderness. When we are in serious sickness, or when we are helpless and without aid from anyone, God's promises help and heal us. When we encounter perils, dangers, and sufferings, God's messengers will look upon us, deliver us, and comfort us according to His Word. Only then will we realize that God's promises are sweet as honey, refreshing as water, and a rock of shadow in a dry land. Here we have no danger, here we are revived, and here we are allowed to rest. Unless we pass through great tribulations, sufferings, and dangers, we will never know the preciousness and sweetness of God's promises.

  While God's promises are precious, His facts are more available than His promises. God not only gives us promises which will be fulfilled; He has also given us facts that are already fulfilled. Today God is not only giving us promises and accomplished facts; He is also making covenants with us. It is more glorious for God to make a covenant with us than for Him to promise or accomplish something for us. When God establishes a covenant with us, He binds Himself. A covenant takes away God's own freedom so that we can have all that He is.

  Who established the covenants with man? God established them. Do you know the meaning of a covenant? A covenant is something righteous; a covenant relates to justice and the law. Once we mention a covenant, there cannot be any consideration of personal desire, pleasure, or grace. A covenant can only be executed according to righteousness, justice, and the law. Grace cannot execute a covenant. Suppose that I agreed to give a brother five dollars every morning. Do not ask why I would make such a covenant with the brother; just remember that if I made such a covenant, I would have to give him five dollars every morning. Since I made such a covenant and signed my name in the covenant, I would be unrighteous and dishonest if I did not keep this covenant. I would be acting contrary and unfaithfully to my own words. This would immediately lower my own moral standard. Doing this would be acting contrary to law and justice; rather, I would be acting according to my own will. Have you seen that when God makes a covenant with man, He puts Himself in a very restricted position? God is able to deal with man according to His own will. If He so desired, He could deal with you in grace, and if He did not desire, He could deal with you harshly. If He so desired, He could save you one day, and if He did not desire, He could choose not to save you the next day. If God is not bound by a covenant, He can act freely according to His own pleasure. If He is outside a covenant, He can hold back His will. He has the freedom to do this. If He wants to do something, He can do it. If He does not want to do something, He can choose not to do it. But if God has made a covenant, He is bound by it. God has to act according to the covenant. Hallelujah! God is bound by the covenant. God has sacrificed His desires and His freedom for the sake of the covenant! Brothers and sisters, do you realize that this is the highest expression of grace? This is not just God's promising us a plenitude of food and raiment, or deliverance from dangers and sufferings. This is not just the declaration of God's accomplished facts for our application. This is God putting Himself in our position; God has put Himself in a covenant. Whether or not He likes it, God has to carry out the covenant. No matter what His desire is, He has to carry the covenant out. He cannot change the words in His covenant. What a wonderful thing that God has established covenants with us.

  Covenants are different from grace. The difference between covenants and grace is the difference between law and grace. For example, if refugees came to us asking for relief during a flood, we could do as we pleased. If we wanted to, we could help them. If we did not want to, we would not have to help them. We would have absolute freedom. If we had mercy on them, we could send some relief to them. If we did not have mercy on them and did not send any relief to them, no one could force us to do anything. We would have complete liberty to do whatever we wanted to do. But if we made a covenant with them to supply them with food and drink for three months, then we would have to begin preparing food for them today. My friends, that would not be just grace. Giving them food yesterday would be a matter of grace. Giving them food today, even though it could be considered grace, is actually a matter of righteousness, justice, and law. It would not be grace alone. We are carrying out a promise that we made yesterday. We are just carrying out our covenant today. If we do not give them food today, we are being more than unmerciful, we are being unrighteous. What has been promised must be done. God has made covenants with us; He has promised us. If God does not work according to His promise, what will become of Him? If He does not do this, He would be unfaithful, dishonest, and unrighteous. If God has not promised us anything, we can only say that He does not have the grace to give or the mercy to grant to us. But if He does not fulfill His promise, He would be unrighteous. Who can say that God is unrighteous? God would rather lose His freedom; He can never lose His righteousness.

  Now let us consider some covenants made in the Bible, and see how covenants are different from facts and promises. First we will consider Hebrews 6:13-18 which says that there are two things that cannot be changed, God's promise and His oath. Abraham was greatly encouraged by this. When God made a covenant with Abraham, He gave him two unchangeable things. One was an unchangeable promise. The other was an unchangeable oath. Let us see how God gave a promise and an oath to Abraham.

  Please read Genesis 15:1-13. This portion of the Word records God's promise to Abraham of descendants and land. God said to him, "Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward" (v. 1). When Abraham heard it, he said, "Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?" (v. 2). This word shows that Abraham did not yet believe in God's promise. God said to him, "This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir" (v. 4). Verse 6 says, "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." Friends, please pay attention to this verse. What did the Lord tell Abraham? He told him a promise, not a fact. God promised Abraham that he would have a son, and his seed would be numerous. The Lord asked if he could count the number of the stars and told him that the number of his seed would be as the stars. This is not a fact, but a promise. At that time Abraham did not have a son, and the promise was not yet fulfilled. Abraham believed God's promise. God was pleased with him and justified him. Abraham became a giant of faith.

  God has His promises for us. If we believe in them, we will become extraordinary people. We are all limited in our capacity. God's promises are too great, and it seems that we cannot hold them. We may be able to believe one promise of God. But we are not able to believe in the second and the third promises because of the smallness of our faith. We may think that it is a tremendous thing to believe in one promise, and that this is enough. We may think that we cannot believe in another promise and that we do not have the capacity to receive greater blessings. But if we can believe in God's first promise, He will right away give us a second promise.

  God took Abraham outside and told him to look toward heaven and count the stars. Could he count them? Then God said to him, "So shall thy seed be." Abraham believed this promise. As a result, God's second promise came. Verse 7 says, "I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it." God not only promised that Abraham's seed would be as numerous as the stars, He also promised that Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, would be given to his seed. When Abraham heard this promise, what did he do? Unfortunately, his capacity was too small; he could not receive so much. Verse 8 says, "And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" Abraham doubted. The promise was too great. How could Abraham know that he would receive Canaan as his inheritance? How could he believe such a great promise? If God just told him that he would have families, he could believe that. But when God told him that he would have an inheritance, he could not believe. He could believe in seed as numerous as the stars in heaven. But he could not believe that he would inherit Canaan, and that his descendants would drive out the seven strong tribes and inherit their lands. Abraham could believe in God giving him the seeds, but he could not believe that he would inherit the land in addition to having the seed. Friends, we often commit the same mistake. We believe one promise of God, but do not believe another promise. If God promises us this, we believe it. But if He promises us that, we cannot believe it. We often choose what we want to believe and can believe from among the many promises of God. Those that we cannot believe, we do not believe. Some brothers believe that God can supply their needs, but do not believe that God will heal their sicknesses. Some believe that God will heal them, but do not believe that God will supply their needs. Some believe that God will heal them, but do not believe that God will protect and deliver them from dangers. It is even possible for some people to believe at one time, that God will deliver them from dangers, but later no longer believe in His deliverance. For example, when Elijah confronted the prophets of Jezebel on Mount Carmel, he fully believed that God would protect him from the harm of the enemy. He was bold to prevail over the false prophets. But soon after that, he became afraid of Jezebel's plot and escaped to Beersheba (1 Kings 19:3).

  Many times we choose the things that we want to believe from among God's promises, believe them, and reject those that we do not believe. We believe some of God's promises but do not believe others. This is wrong. If we could believe what God has promised, like Abraham, everything would be well. What will God do when we cannot believe? He has promised, and He cannot break His promises. He has promised, but we cannot come up to His standing to receive these promises. Therefore, He has to lower Himself to our standing, so that we can receive His promises boldly.

  When Abraham believed God's first promise, God gave what He promised to him. Later, when God gave Abraham the second promise, he could not believe it. What did God then do? He made a covenant with Abraham, so that he would believe. A covenant makes up for what a promise lacks. It is the best way to deal with unbelief. Even though we may not believe, God cannot change what He has promised. Therefore, our unbelief forces Him to make a covenant with us so that we will believe.

  Abraham did not believe God's second promise. What did God do? Genesis 15:9-10 says, "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 turtledove, 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." What does this mean? Abraham understood what this meant. This was the way men covenanted with each other in his day. When a person entered into a covenant with another person, he cut a heifer or a goat in half and laid each half of the sacrifice against the other. The one who made the covenant would then walk through the two halves of the sacrifice as a sign that he had covenanted with the other party. This sign signified that the covenant passed through the heart and organs, and was sealed with blood. The body of an animal was cut in half and the blood was shed, then God Himself passed through the two halves. This signifies that the covenant that He had made would never change and never fail. After He did this, "in that 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" (v. 18).

  Friends, have you seen this? In Genesis 15, God gave half of the promise to Abraham, which was to have seed as numerous as the stars in heaven. After he believed this promise and accepted this promise, God gave to him the promise of the land. God had not only promised him a family, but an inheritance. He not only promised him descendants, but a land for them to dwell in and live on. Abram did not have the capacity to accept this promise. If God had not opened His mouth, His words would not be fulfilled. However, since God had uttered His promise, He had to fulfill His words according to His promise. If a man did not believe it, however, the promise would be made of none effect. For this reason, God had to make a covenant with man, so that man would realize that God had to fulfill His word and carry it out so that there would be no unfaithfulness on His part. Unfaithfulness is a sin; God could surely not do such a thing. To promise something without giving it is unrighteous and dishonest. It is walking contrary to the highest standard of morality. God did not only give a promise and facts for man to apply. God did not only say with His mouth what He would do for man and show man the accomplished facts. He made a covenant with man with the intention that man could lay hold of Him through the covenants. God knew that Abram had only so much faith. The inheritance that God promised was too great and wonderful; it was beyond the capacity of his faith. God knew that He had to increase the capacity of Abram's faith. God covenanted with Abram to increase his faith. Not only did God promise to do it, He made a covenant to do it so that Abram could not do anything other than believe. Once God had made a covenant, it would be unfaithful, unrighteous, and illegal for Him not to act according to His covenant. Under this circumstance, faith has to increase. The reason God makes a covenant with us, and does not just give promises or facts to us, is because He cares for the smallness of our faith in the same way that He cared for Abraham's lack of faith. He wants us to learn to lay hold of His righteousness, faithfulness, and rightful glory, just as Abraham did. It is a small thing for us to lose our blessing; it is a great thing for God to lose His credibility. Now let me read some Scriptures where men dealt with God on the basis of covenants, so that you will understand the matter more fully.

  Psalms 143:1, "Hear my prayer, O Lord, / give ear to my supplications: / in thy faithfulness answer me, / and in thy righteousness." David was not asking God to answer him according to His mercy, lovingkindness, or grace, but according to His faithfulness and righteousness. I have heard many people praying for God to answer them in His mercy and love, or according to His will. But David's prayer was different from others. He did not ask God to grant him grace, or bless him with mercy and lovingkindness. His prayer was special. He only prayed that God would answer him according to His righteousness and faithfulness. The word in here means "according to." He prayed that God would answer him according to His righteousness and faithfulness. What does this mean? Do you know the meaning of this? Frankly speaking, only those who understand this point know how to pray. Anyone who does not understand this, will not have their prayers answered. Their prayers will be ineffective. Sometimes we ask God to grant us grace and mercy, and accomplish His will. But sometimes, these prayers are absolutely meaningless. When we do not have God's promise or God's Word, it is all right to pray such prayers. But when God has promised, and when He has given us His Word, these prayers indicate unbelief and become a sin.

  We have to ask God to accomplish His will. But sometimes, this kind of prayer is offered in either ignorance or unbelief. Sometimes when a person prays for a sick one, he does not pray for God to heal, nor does he pray for God to not heal. He merely prays that God will act according to His will. Apparently, this is very good. But many times, this is a sign of ignorance. This kind of prayer exposes the laziness of the praying ones; they are not willing to spend the time to seek after God's will and pray according to His will. They only know how to pray to God in an ignorant way. When some start to pray for others, they ask God to heal them and help them to recuperate quickly. But when the illness becomes serious or terminal, they change their tone and ask that God's will be done. This prayer really means: "God, You are not answering my prayer now, and I cannot pray for the healing anymore. This person is critically ill, and there is no chance for him to get better. Therefore, I only ask that Your will be done, and that You allow him to die." What kind of prayer is this? This kind of prayer does not have any assurance or any faith to it.

  Do you think that at the present time God is dealing with you only according to grace? God surely deals with you in grace. But grace is the flow, while righteousness is the channel. God not only deals with man according to grace today; He also deals with man in grace through righteousness. His rich grace is dispensed to us through His righteousness. "Grace might reign through righteousness" (Rom. 5:21). I hope that you will not misunderstand me. God has not only promised, but He has made a covenant with us. This is why He cannot break His covenant; He cannot take back the words of His covenant. Anyone can say to God today, "You have established Your covenant. Now I ask You to fulfill the words of the covenant according to Your righteousness." If God will not accomplish what His covenant says, I can reverently say that God is being unrighteous. This, of course, can never happen. I am afraid that some may think that what I am saying is too much. They may think that this gospel is too good to be true and do not believe that it can be this good. Many people think that God acts according to His will and His pleasure. But I must tell you that concerning our redemption, God never acts according to His will or His pleasure. He cares for our weaknesses and knows that our faith cannot match His promise. So He made His promise into a covenant and covenanted with man so that we will have the boldness to stand on His ground, lay hold of His Word, and ask Him to fulfill His promise according to His righteousness. Concerning our redemption, we are not standing here asking God to change His mind or to grant us mercy. This type of asking is not completely wrong; sometimes we can ask in this way. If we want to receive God's promise, we can ask God to fulfill His promise in this way. But if God's promise has become a covenant with us, all we have to do is appropriate and apply it by faith.

  God is bound by His covenant. God no longer has His will, liberty, or pleasure. He has to be faithful and righteous. Read 1 John 1:9 again, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Friends, have you realized the distinctiveness of this verse? Many times we say that a person who prays in this way does not sound like the publican in the temple, who prayed for God to be merciful to him, a sinner. But this prayer asks God to forgive sins and cleanse from all unrighteousness according to His righteousness and faithfulness. If God has not promised the forgiveness of sins in the Bible, we have to pray for Him to be merciful to us, the sinners. But if the Bible has promised the forgiveness of sins, we do not have to pray for God to grant mercy to us; all we have to do is apply it by faith. God has allowed His words to be caught in our hands. We can seize them and say to Him, "Forgive my sins and cleanse my unrighteousness according to Your righteousness and faithfulness." If God did not forgive or cleanse us, He would be unrighteous because the Lord Jesus died for us on the cross, shed His precious blood, and bore our sins. His death has become our death. When He shed His blood and bore the punishment, it was as if we were judged and punished there. Since the Lord has died, and since God has accepted this sacrifice, God has to forgive our sins and cleanse our unrighteousness according to His faithfulness and righteousness.

  Friends, God truly has no way to not forgive our sins. Whether He wants to or not, He has to forgive our sins. If He did not forgive our sins, He would be dishonest. Even if God does not want to forgive our sins now, He still must do so. God has not only given us the promise of grace, He is keeping His covenant with us in righteousness. If the Lord had not died on the cross, God could choose not to forgive us. But the Lord has died on the cross. Therefore, He has to forgive us. This is not just God's promise, but God's covenant with us. God has graced us to such a point that He has covenanted with us so that we will believe in Him. If we still cannot believe in God's covenant, truthfully speaking, God can do nothing more; He has done His best. If God had not made a covenant for the forgiveness of sins, He could choose not to forgive us. But He has made a covenant for the forgiveness of sins. If we have received the words of this covenant, He would be unfaithful if He did not forgive us. Being unfaithful is lying, and lying is immoral and sin. Even thinking that God would act this way is sin itself! God has made a covenant with us, and He must act according to His covenant. Thank God that He is willing to put aside His will and desires, and that He is willing to stand on the ground of being bound by the covenant. He is no longer free. God has to take care of His covenant in a righteous way. The Lord has redeemed us, shed His blood for us, and been crucified for us. God has to forgive our sins because He cannot be unrighteous.

  May we see that we are standing on a special ground, and that we are different from ordinary men. If God had not made a covenant with us, and if He had not promised us, He would be free to forgive us or not to forgive us. Then if He was happy, He could cleanse us, and when He was not happy, He could choose not to cleanse us. He could act according to His freedom and will. But God has lost His pleasure and freedom. He is bound and cannot have any other will besides the covenant that He has made with us. God did this in order that we would come to Him with boldness and say, "Please forgive my sins and cleanse my unrighteousness according to Your faithfulness and righteousness." For Him to forgive us is righteousness. Unfortunately, many people pray without any faith. Many prayers are signs of unbelief. I am not overturning your prayers. I am saying that prayer is indeed a very important thing to a Christian. But the prayers of many people are as full of unbelief as the disciples' cry for help to the Lord Jesus on the boat. When the Lord was with the disciples on the boat, they met a great storm. The boat was about to sink, but the Lord was fast asleep at the stern of the boat. The disciples frantically woke the Lord up saying, "Teacher,...we are perishing!" (Mark 4:38). What did the Lord reply? He did not praise them for being watchful in prayer. He said, "How is it that you do not have faith?" (v. 40). The Lord rebuked them for their lack of faith. Why did the Lord rebuke them? He rebuked them because they had forgotten His word, "Let us go over to the other side" (v. 35). If the Lord had never said such a word, their alarming prayers would not have been bad. But since the Lord said to "go over to the other side," there was nothing that could have stopped them from going over to the other side. Many people think that the more we pray, the wordier our prayers are, and the more desperate we become, the better it is. But I have to say that these beggings only expose the unbelief of the begging ones, or their ignorance of the fact of the promise and the covenant that God has made with them. Perhaps one of the chief reasons that our prayers are not answered is that we have not seen God's covenant. Why is God's power manifested so poorly? Perhaps one reason that we have failed is that before the Lord, we have not laid hold of the "handle" God has given to us. Instead, we think that God deals with us according to some incomprehensible preference and some inexplicable will of His. If we want to overcome, we have to lay hold of the Word God has given to us and use it as our handle. When we finish our prayer, or when we like what others pray, we say, "Amen." What is the meaning of the word amen? We think that amen means "may such a thing be accomplished." But Mr. Gordon said that the word amen does not mean a wish for something to be accomplished, but a declaration that it will surely be accomplished, and that there is no doubt about it. If you think that God deals with you in mercy, and you want Him to hear your prayer based on His kindness and mercy, you will not have any confidence. If He will not be gracious to you, what can you do? When this happens, you can do nothing. I am not saying that you should not pray this way. At the right time, you can pray this way. God deals with us today according to the principle of righteousness and faithfulness. His grace is hidden in righteousness and faithfulness. He deals with us according to a covenant. Please remember that from the time that the Lord Jesus died on the cross, God's communication with us has been based on the covenant that He made with us. Outside this covenant, He will not do anything. Today many believers do not understand God's promise, His fact, and His Word. They beg desperately according to their feelings, but do not receive anything. What they lack is faith. May we henceforth pray less and believe more. When we give up praying and instead believe more, we will see that everything will be all right. By then, we will understand what the new covenant is. We will understand that it is not just grace, but grace through righteousness.

  Do we know what a covenant is? A covenant means "a bondage, a loss of freedom and self will." When God makes a covenant with us, even if He later regrets making such a covenant, I can reverently say that He cannot touch an established covenant which He has made. He has no way to change the covenant. Hallelujah! God is bound by the covenant. We will never lose the blessing of the covenant. It is not too important if we do not know, for the moment, what the new covenant is, or how much the new covenant includes. As long as we know that God has made a covenant with us, we are blessed.

  What an amazing thing that God would want to make a covenant with us and would want His word to be "caught" by us. Men are always afraid that they will be "caught" by others in their words. In order to build up our faith, God is not afraid of us catching Him at His word. In fact, He loves to see us catching Him at His word. Let us consider the story of Abraham. We are now clear about the difference between a covenant and a promise. God gave to Abraham a promise. When Abraham could not believe it, God ordered him to cut a sacrifice in half, and He passed through it. This made His promise an unchangeable covenant. In this way, Abraham believed. A covenant is a promise that God guarantees the fulfillment of with His faithfulness, righteousness, and highest standard of morality. If God's faithfulness, righteousness, and upright morality fail, God Himself fails. But such a covenant will never fail. God and His covenant exist together. If God failed, His covenant would be made of none effect. But as long as God remains, His covenant remains. If we say that a covenant can be annulled, we are saying that God can be annulled. Saying this blasphemes God. May God deliver us from unbelief and blasphemy.

  The sacrifice used in the covenant in this record is also very meaningful. A heifer signifies Christ's patient and toiling life, and Christ as the peace offering. A she goat signifies Christ's fruitfulness, and Christ as the sin offering. A ram signifies Christ as the powerful victor being slain, and Christ as the burnt offering. The two birds signify Christ being from heaven; the turtledove signifies Christ's suffering life, and the young pigeon signifies Christ's life of faith, by which He daily looked to God for His living. This shows us that the covenant God made with us is in Christ and is as firm as a seal; it is eternally immutable. The covenant that God made with us was made through the work of Christ and in Christ. God not only promised salvation, but accomplished redemption. Now there is not only a promise, there is also a fact. This covenant is as firm as the work of Christ.

  In the Bible there are many covenants and promises, and we cannot consider them all. We can only consider the covenants that God made with Abraham and David. In Matthew the genealogy of the Lord Jesus tells us that Christ is the descendant of Abraham and the descendant of David. Hence, we can consider these two as representatives in the matter of covenant making. Both 2 Samuel 7:4-15 and Psalm 89:19-37 show us this matter. Samuel did not show us how God made the covenant with David. But Psalm 89 shows us that Jehovah sent Nathan the prophet to David; the word that he said to David was a covenant. David wanted to build a temple for Jehovah, and Jehovah sent Nathan the prophet to him saying, "I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle...Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever" (2 Sam. 7:6, 11b-16). Psalms records the same thing as 2 Samuel, but it points out that this was a covenant. "My covenant shall stand fast with him. / His seed also will I make to endure for ever, / and his throne as the days of heaven. / If his children forsake my law, / and walk not in my judgments; / if they break my statutes, / and keep not my commandments;/ then will I visit their transgression with the rod, / and their iniquity with stripes. / Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, / nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. / My covenant will I not break, / nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips" (Psa. 89:28b-34). God gave His word to the descendants of David as a "handle" for them to lay hold of. He loves to see man taking hold of His word and using it as a means to demand fulfillment from Him. God is pleased to see man doing this. He allows His word to fall into man's hand so that man would specifically do this.

  One day a Canaanite woman asked the Lord to heal her daughter of her sickness. The Lord did not answer her. After the woman pleaded with earnestness, the Lord opened His mouth and said that He was sent to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and that it was not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. The Lord compared her, a Gentile, to a little dog, and the house of Israel to the children. He was telling the woman that she was not worthy of such blessing. The Lord's word seemed to build a wall around Himself that kept the woman from coming any closer to Him. But the woman caught the Lord's word, and said that even the little dogs could eat the children's crumbs. When she said this, the Lord healed her daughter, and He praised her as being great in her faith (Matt. 15:22-28). God loves to see man taking hold of His word and asking Him to do things based on such words. In His dealings with us, He loves to leave a "handle" for us to take hold of Him, like He did with the woman. But He was afraid that we would not see the handle. As a result, He gave us a greater and more obvious handle, a covenant with us, so that we could believe in Him. The Holy Spirit allowed the woman to find a catch in the Lord's word. She found one word which served as her handle to ask for more. In His parable, the Lord only mentioned the food of the children. He did not mention food for the little dogs. The Lord only mentioned the bread. He did not mention the crumbs of the bread. When the Lord said that she was a dog and not the children, she did not object. But should not dogs also have food? Could they not even eat the crumbs? She found a handle in the Lord's word. When she asked the Lord to give her the crumbs, the Lord could not ignore her, but had to respond to her. The reason for this is that He is faithful, and He leaves a "handle" in His word for man. When man lays hold of such a handle, God is most pleased.

  The Lord said clearly to David, that even if his descendants were to forsake His commandments and break His laws, He could not break His covenant. Do you know when Psalm 89 was written? It was written at the time the Jews were captured in Babylon, at the time of captivity. The people thought that God had forgotten His covenant with David. God promised that David's descendants would continue on the throne, and that his kingdom and house would be forever. But the kingdom was gone, and the people were exiled into the enemy's land. Where was the king? How could the kingdom and house be established? In the middle of all these visible things, the psalmist said to God, "But thou hast cast off and abhorred, / thou hast been wroth with thine anointed. / Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: / thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground" (vv. 38-39). First he mentioned God's covenant. Then he continued with the captivity of his countrymen and their suffering under the enemy. When he came to verse 49, he seized the covenant and interrogated God, "Lord, where are thy former loving-kindnesses, / which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?" Notice this word: "Lord, where are thy former loving-kindnesses, / which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?" Friends, have we ever prayed this way? Have we ever been so bold in our prayer? Many people beg for the Lord's mercy like beggars. We have never said to God, "Lord, execute the covenant that You made with me according to Your faithfulness." The Holy Spirit purposely records this interrogating prayer to God; it shows us that God loves to see us interrogating Him according to a "handle" in His word. When we do this, it gives Him far more glory. We have said many wavering words to God; all these words come from an evil heart of unbelief. Although we have prayed to God, we do not have any assurance at all. How can God answer our prayers? The problem is not on God's side, but on our side. If we believe, God will surely forgive our sins and cleanse our unrighteousness. He will surely fill us with the Holy Spirit and give His life to us so that we can live, grow, and be obedient children according to His new life. With His life, we will become perfect, even as His Son the Lord Jesus was perfect, clean, undefiled, and without blemish. Can we achieve all this? On God's side, there is no problem. The problem is whether or not we will believe in His word. Just as He made a covenant with David and promised His loving-kindness to him, He has made a covenant with us, who have believed in the name of His Son, and has promised us unmatched spiritual blessings. God loves to see us drawing nigh to Him, seeking after Him, and interrogating Him according to His covenant. He loves to see us taking His same standing and communicating with Him, demanding that He fulfill all that He has promised in His covenant. At this point, I have to exalt and thank God, for He has given us many "handles" in His Word so that we can lay hold of them and apply them.

  Our God is worthy of all praises. He will surely fulfill what He has promised and covenanted with us. Brothers and sisters, have you ever realized that God has given us "handles" in His Word by which we can believe in Him? Today, we present you this glorious truth. God has not only given us His promises and facts, He has given us the greatest handle of all — His covenant, by which we can lay hold of Him. Tomorrow we will see how much this covenant includes. Presently we have seen that God has made a covenant with us and promised to accomplish the things said in the covenant for us. The believers who are weak, despondent, and cold should realize that God has made a covenant with us. He has put this handle in our hand. Let us come to Him in all boldness, interrogate Him according to this covenant, and deal with Him because this is His Word. He says that whoever believes in Him will see Him accomplishing things for them. The only reason the church is so feeble in strength is that it does not know the new covenant. The new covenant has been forgotten!

  Has not the Bible taught us about the new covenant? When we read the Bible, we will find out that we are now in the New Testament age; we will see that the Lord Jesus died and shed His blood for the enactment of the new covenant. Since we know the Bible and the term the new covenant, why are we so weak and powerless? The reason is that the letter kills, while the Spirit gives life. We know that this is the New Testament age, but we do not know how to bargain with God and apply God's promises to us. In this conference, we want to consider how precious and wonderful the covenant is. We want to see how much the new covenant includes. But in order to receive the blessing of the new covenant, we must have an honest and upright heart before God. We must not only listen to the truth and know about the truth, we must also receive God's revelation before we can have the strength to believe and to receive. Psalm 25:14 says, "The intimate counsel of Jehovah belongs to those who fear Him, / And His covenant will He make known to them." Unless the Lord shows us His covenant, we have no way to know about it. We can hear men speaking about God's covenant, and our mind can understand something concerning the covenant. But when we go home, we are still the same as before; we have not received anything. We are still weak and have not taken hold of God's Word. We need God to grant us a revelation in our spirit. However, we must first fear God before He can show us anything. What does it mean to fear God? Fearing God means wanting God, desiring single-heartedly to keep His will, being fully submissive to Him, wanting nothing of ourselves, walking not according to our will, seeing not ourselves, and seeing God's greatness alone. According to the Hebrew language, Psalm 25 is in parallel form, where two sentences are parallel one to another, saying the same thing. The first sentence says that the Lord reveals His intimate counsel to those who fear Him. The second sentence says that He will make His covenant known to them. From this we see that the intimate counsel of the Lord is His covenant, the covenant of God. Today, God's intimate counsel, the covenant, is before us. We should fear Him, exalt Him, and consider ourselves as nothing. In this way we will see God's covenant; we will be able to inquire of God by laying hold of His covenant, and we will receive the blessing of the new covenant. May God work in this conference. May He attract men and lead men to know His secret. On the one hand, we have to be careful about God's covenant because this is holy ground, and everyone who comes to Him has to fear Him. On the other hand, may we come boldly before Him because this covenant is filled with grace.