GOD's COVENANT - GOD'S CHOICE

Today we start a new theme in the church. The theme is “God's covenant”, that which he has established with his people, the covenant of which we are partakers in, and sharers in. The word “Testament” as used in our bible, is similar in it's usage to the word “Covenant”, meaning a type of contract, or binding agreement, so there is an Old Testament, as there is an Old covenant, and there is a New Testament, and a New Covenant.

Indeed when we take holy communion we recall Christ's words when he speaks of the cup being the blood of his covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matt 26:28). This is the very essence of the message of the bible, the core of God's dealing with man through the ages, there could hardly be a more important theme to start on this 2012.

So, to have scripture that anchors our understanding of the covenant, I'll suggest that we consider Jer 31:33-34 and Eph 3:6.

Jer 31:33-34
“This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD, I will place my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying. “Know the LORD”, because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their
sins no more.”

Eph 3:6
This mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

So, we see that we are partakers in this new covenant spoken of in Jeremiah, just as the Israelites are. This is a glorious truth church. The new covenant assures those who partake in it that:

- they shall know God
- through the forgiveness of their sins
- by Christ Jesus

This is the happy subject with which we shall be dealing with these few weeks, the macro overview of the theme.

Today, we shall be specifically dealing with the matter of God's Choice in God's Covenant. We will be examining the scriptures to understand the truth that the establishment and the fulfillment of God's covenant is fully dependent on God's choice. It is not an easy topic, and this truth will possibly shake our ideas of self-determination and change how we see our role in our salvation. I pray that God guides us along this journey, that we continue to keep our eyes fixed on him and will treasure his truth even more as we learn about his sovereignty in all things, especially his covenant.

We'll see in the prayers of David in the Psalms, that God knows us and protects us with more intimacy and closeness than we can even understand, and we will see in Jesus' conversations with his disciples in the second reading that God's knowledge and choice extends not just to our thoughts, actions, birth and death, but in our very act of believing in his gospel, and our participation in the new covenant. May God be glorified in our time together.

We start our journey in Psalms 139. And here David begins with an alarming truth, that should radically alter how we approach God in prayer and petition. He starts his Psalm in v1 saying that “God, you have already searched me, and you know me.” And it is this realization that outlines the rest of his prayer. How would this truth affect our prayer life? For me, it challenges how I speak to God. Do I simply list off a catalogue of problems and issues that I would like him to solve, or does the fact that he knows my heart, he knows my pain and he knows my issues change my approach. I believe this truth should lead us to start to converse with God as one who is intimately aware of what we are going through, and submitting to the fact that he knows best. And this shouldn't lead us to be less persistent, or less faithful in prayer, with the attitude of, “he already knows my problems, so why should I approach him?” It is precisely because he knows all of our life's problems that we should seek to commune with him in prayer, it is the closest of friends, and the closest of
family (who know us best) that we spend most time in sharing and seeking guidance from. How much more God, who knows us more than any friend every can? In a few verses we will see how David does this in his prayer.

David continues his prayer with outlining how closely God knows him. Each verse showing us the greater and greater familiarity with which God knows David.

V2 – you know when I sit and when I rise
v3 – you discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways
v4 is almost frightening – before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord.
He knows what David will say, and think, before he says it, or thinks it.
This leads David to say in v5 that such knowledge is too wonderful for him, and too lofty for him to attain. He simply cannot fathom or understand the full extent of these revelations the Spirit gives to him.

In v7, David starts to hypothesize where he can go to be away from the presence of God. He concludes that in the highest heights of heaven, the deepest depths of the earth, and the farthest side of the sea, the hand of the Lord continues to guide him, and his right arm hold on to him. There is no place he can go to escape the guidance of God, or the protection of God. Not only does he know us completely, his protection is complete. Jesus refers to this same analogy of remaining in God's hand with regard to the covenant of God, telling us that we remain in the covenant by the strength of God's hand

John 10:28-29 I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.

He does not promise that no one will try snatch them out of the Father's hand, rather that no one will be able to, because he is greater than all.

v15-16 is a summary of our whole lives, our entire bodily existence is summed up in two sentences of the bible. He saw our unformed body when he made us in the secret place, then he knit us together in our mother's womb, and he ordained even the day of our death, before the first day we were alive. All of it, all of it, controlled, and orchestrated by God.

But what do we do with these magnificent revelations? What sort of reaction should they elicit in us? I think David's reaction is indicative of what such revelations of God's intimate knowledge of us should produce.

v17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I were to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. An understanding of how intimately God knows us should bring in us, firstly, an earnest desire to know him intimately as well. David says, you know me fully, completely, better than I could ever even dream of knowing myself, and you decided to create me. Because of
this, I consider as precious your thoughts to me, my desire is to know you.

The second application of how David reacts to God's intimate knowledge of him is a
realisation of his own inadequacy in measuring and judging his own motives.
In v19-22, David asks God to kill those who are wicked. He says of them that they are bloodthirsty, that they speak with evil intent, they misuse the name of God. Then David seems to justify his ill-feelings about these men to God in v22, saying,

“Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them, I count them my enemies.”

He seems to be saying, in a rather noble way that we would probably applaud, that he hates those who rise up against God, and those who hate God he counts them as his enemies. Yet, the last 2 verses of the prayer should be our 2 nd reaction to the revelation that God's knowledge of us is infinitely greater than our own knowledge or ourselves. David says, in the last two verses, that, despite the fact that I believe that my thoughts, my actions, my motives are correct, and glorifying to you, I ask that you search me, and see if there is any offensive motive in my ambitions, take it out, and lead me in the way everlasting. May that be our prayer, in view of this magnificent revelation of our Lord.

So, we have seen how deeply and intimately God knows us, and every facet of our lives. Let us look at how he not only knows, but chooses for us to be partakers of the riches of knowing him in his new covenant.


In the John 1 reading, we notice that when Nathaniel comes up to him, when he has as yet not believed, Jesus says of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false” v47. It is important to consider how we understand this verse. At first glance, it would seem that Jesus is saying something about the character of Nathaniel. Saying possibly that he is of high moral character, that he is a truthful, trustworthy man. But it doesn't seem to really resonate, that Jesus, the only perfect, sinless man who ever lived, who came to save sinners, would say of another man, that in him there is nothing false.

I believe the right way to understand this verse is more clearly seen when we consider that this quote from Jesus comes from Psalms 32:2, and refers not to man's good character on his own, but rather his righteousness after partaking in the new covenant.

Ps 32:1-2
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

So it would seem that Jesus is referring not to Nathaniel's good character, but of his righteousness before God, because of the new covenant. So, before he believes, before he confesses that Christ is the Son of God in v49, Jesus says to him, Behold, here stands one who shall have the forgiveness of sins of the new covenant. In essence, I knew that you will believe, before you believed. Not only do I know the most intimate details of your life, but I know whether or not you will partake in my covenant. This may be seen to be dependent on the interpretation of this line that I have chosen, so let us look at other scriptures to see whether this conclusion find support in the rest of the New Testament. First, lets look in the
rest of John:

John 6:67-70
“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve (after many disciples left him due to the teaching of their having to eat his flesh and drink his blood). Simon Peter answered him, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!”

Here we see that Jesus says that not only did he know that the Twelve would believe (hence their believing that he was the Holy One of God) but that it is he who chose them for this outcome. Peter says, “We will not leave you, for your words are life, and we have believed”, Jesus replies, “It is I who has chosen you, and I am so in control of all things am I, that even the one who shall betray me to death is among you, and I chose him to be here.”

Or perhaps most clearly stated at the Last supper with his disciples,

John 15:16
“You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last”

It is I who chose you. Not the other way around. So, don't get it wrong Peter, you have believed, but I did not choose you because you believed, but rather you believed because I chose you. I truly believe this is what Jesus is saying to his 12 apostles here. Let us see if we can extend this to a command that is given to us, who are not the Apostles who walked with Jesus, who believe because of their testimony, thousands of years later.

Is this dynamic of his choosing, then our believing, applicable to us?

Let us look at the words spoken of by Paul, about our salvation in his letter to the Ephesians:
Eph 2:1-5
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit that is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest of mankind, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.

The reason he had to make us alive was because we were dead! The reason he had to give us sight was because we were blind! (John 9:39). He had to save you, because you could not save yourself. That is why he had to choose for you to believe, that is why he knew Nathaniel would believe before he professed his faith. It is his covenant, it is by his choosing.


In this passage in John, Jesus speaks of the fulfillment of the covenant, of the final day, when we shall fully know God, and see him in all his glory. He tells Nathaniel that the miracle that led to his believing (Jesus somehow miraculously seeing him under the fig tree before Phillip came to call him) is nothing compared to what he shall see on the last day. He says to him, “you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that...I tell you the truth, you shall see heavens open, and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. When we see God in all his glory, in all his magnificence, only then will we truly know him, for now, we look to that day, eagerly awaiting it.

Right now, we are limited. As David, some of his thoughts and ways are too wonderful for us to attain, to high for us to reach. His thoughts are precious to us, but they are so many, so vast, too numerous to count.

But on that day, here what the apostles have to say about it:
Paul speaks of how this day will replace our imperfect knowledge of God, with a perfect one,
he says in 1Cor 13:9-12
“For we know in part and we prophecy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

Or
1 Jn 3:2
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Or

Phi 3:20-21
But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will also transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Consider the terms the apostles use to describe this day, “see face to face”, “know fully, as we are fully known, “be like God, for we shall see him as he is”. Full knowledge – this is the fulfillment of the covenant. Jesus knows not simply that
Nathaniel will believe, but that he will see the fulfillment of God's promised covenant with his people. If you have believed on Christ, it was through his choosing that you became alive, he foreknew this, and the strength of the Father, greater than anyone else, will hold you until the great day in which you will see the heavens open up, Christ coming down in all his glory and angels, and know him fully.

Let us then rejoice in saying with Paul in Gal 1:15 that he set us apart before we were born,
he called us by his grace and was pleased to reveal to us his Son.


Difficulties that arise from this glorious truth that God's covenant is God's choice

The truth of God's sovereignty over salvation, and over the fulfillment of his covenant is a difficult one to understand. And with these sorts of sermons, I fear that the enemy, the devil, looks to take the confusion that these sorts of truths bring to our minds to make us doubt some attribute of God, and to reduce him in our minds. To hold less tightly to his Word, to withdraw some of our trust in him. It may start off with a question like:

– If the salvation of the soul is due to the choice of God, where is the place of free will?

OR

– What about those who are not chosen? What does this mean about God's love?

These questions, and many like them, are motivated by an honest attempt to clear up
confusion in our minds and there are analogies, and explanations that go far in clearing up these difficult topics. But some things will always remain mysteries, we need to first accept that some of the truths of an eternal, unlimited God will not be understood by limited, mortal beings like ourselves. Some definitely will, but some won't.

Some mysteries of God will remain mysteries to us till our grave. In realising this, there is added caution in how to receive a message like today's sermon, since we are told of the nature and the actions of the enemy, the devil.

We are told that the devil prowls around like a lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8) and again, that when the word is preached to some, it is like seed along a path, as soon as it is sown, Satan comes and takes away what was sown in them. (Mark 4:15).

If in our seeking to resolve our confusion, we are led to question his love, or his goodness, or justice, or any of his other attributes, then let us be careful to ensure that we are not falling into the snares of the devil, let us remember that he
has used scriptures before to try and cause Jesus to sin in the desert.

So, even as we seek answers to some of these paradoxes in the scriptures, let us consider the reactions that David had, after realising the vast gap between his understanding and that of God's. He spoke not a word against God's truths, but rather admitted to his inability to understand these truths.

Ps 139:6 – Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain
Ps 131: 1-2a – My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul.

Or Paul, reminding us that though we know him in part, he is still, in most part,
unsearchable and unfathomable to us in Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgements, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him, and through him, and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen

In view of his greatness, in view of his majesty, and where our understanding fails us in comprehending all the things of God, I believe that we have to sometimes to say, simply, that we cannot understand some of these wonderful truths God.

We are like children Paul says in the 1 Corinthians verse we looked at earlier. We talk like, think like and reason like children when we compare ourselves to God's wisdom, thoughts,and understanding. But a time is coming when all shall be revealed.

For now,before that time comes, let us give him all our praise and all our worship because he has chosen us to partake in his covenant, and to have the underserved pleasure of knowing him all the days ordained for us here on earth, and forever in heaven.

May the Lord be glorified in all things.