1. "Ezekiel is like Back to the Future in the sense that the lines of the past, the present, and the future run parallel altogether to tell one unified story."

2. "The Lord is using this simple word to express again and again the overabundance of his protection and provision and his promises to and for his people."

3. "When God makes a covenant promise, we have to recognize that the parties that he makes a covenant with are never equal to him. He is the sovereign, he is the Lord overall and he is ultimately and unilaterally keeping his own promises that he makes."

4. "The human heart desires peace. The heart of the Israelites craved peace. What Israel needed was Shalom. What Israel needed was the absence of strife. What they needed was wholeness and completeness."

5. "A baby wrapped close to their parent is a great picture of what the Lord is trying to show us right here. Security through Shalom."

6. "Even though God warned their forefathers, even though God clearly delineates the line between obedience and disobedience, blessing and cursing, and even through these Israelites sinned to the point of their own exile, what does God remind them of? He does not remind them of their sin. No, he reminds them of his covenant mercy."

7. "Although Jesus was the only perfect man who entirely obeyed God's commands to the full, Jesus took on all the curses of this old covenant in order that we might have access to all the promised blessings in the new."

8. "Because of the new covenant in Christ's blood, we are freed from sin's penalty and its curse. We were dead to sin now and alive to Christ. We're no longer slaves, but we're sons."

9. "Though you are still under the oppression of your sin, you have already been liberated through this new covenant in Christ. You are no longer a prey to the nations. No more will beasts devour you. You are now redeemed under the covenanter's hand that delivers you."

10. "This covenant formula, 'I will be their God and they shall be my people,' is like a pledge of allegiance, except it's not from man to God—surprisingly and amazingly, it is from God to man. He's pledging his own allegiance not to us but to himself."

Observation Questions

1. In Ezekiel 34:25, what specific covenant does God promise to make with His people, and what does He say He will do to the wild beasts of the land?

2. According to verses 26-27a, what specific blessings does God promise to send upon His people and the land, and what will be the result for the trees and the earth?

3. In verse 27b, what does God say He will break, and from whose hand will He deliver His people?

4. What two things does verse 28 say will no longer happen to God's people, and how does it describe the way they will dwell?

5. In verse 30, what does God say His people will know about Him, and what relationship does He declare exists between Himself and "the house of Israel"?

6. How does God describe His people in verse 31, and what declaration does He make about Himself in relation to them?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is this covenant called a "covenant of peace" rather than simply a "new covenant," and what would this specific language have meant to Israelites who had experienced the devastation of exile?

2. How do the promises in Ezekiel 34:26-27a connect to the blessings and curses outlined in Leviticus 26, and what does this connection reveal about God's character toward His sinful people?

3. The sermon identified the repeated word "and" throughout verses 23-31 as significant. What does this repetition communicate about the nature and extent of God's covenant provisions for His people?

4. How does the phrase "with them" in verse 30 ("I am the Lord their God with them") add to our understanding of what God promises beyond simply being "their God"?

5. The sermon described the "covenant formula" ("I will be their God, they shall be my people") as appearing throughout Scripture. How does this formula in Ezekiel 34:30-31 point both backward to God's past dealings with His people and forward to the ultimate fulfillment in Christ and the new creation?

Application Questions

1. The sermon compared the security of God's peace to a baby wrapped close to a parent. In what specific area of your life right now do you need to "nestle in" to God's covenant promises rather than striving or fearing on your own?

2. God reminded exiled Israel of His covenant mercy rather than rehearsing their failures. How might this shape the way you approach God in prayer this week when you are acutely aware of your own sin and shortcomings?

3. The sermon pointed out that Christians are freed from sin's penalty but still struggle with sin's power (Romans 7). What is one practical step you could take this week to remind yourself of your deliverance in Christ when you feel defeated by a particular temptation or sinful pattern?

4. Verse 28 promises that God's people will "dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid." What circumstances, relationships, or fears currently threaten your sense of security, and how might meditating on God's covenant promises change your response to those threats?

5. John Wesley's dying words were "Best of all, God is with us." How would your daily priorities, conversations, or decisions change this week if you truly lived as though God's presence with you was the "best of all" realities in your life?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Leviticus 26:3-13 — This passage details the blessings God promised Israel for obedience, which Ezekiel 34 echoes almost word-for-word as God reminds His exiled people of covenant mercy rather than judgment.

2. Jeremiah 31:31-34 — Here Jeremiah describes the "new covenant" that God will make with His people, including the promise of heart transformation and complete forgiveness that parallels Ezekiel's "covenant of peace."

3. Romans 6:1-14 — Paul explains how believers have been freed from sin's dominion through union with Christ, connecting to the sermon's point about deliverance from slavery and the breaking of sin's yoke.

4. Galatians 3:10-14 — This passage explains how Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, directly supporting the sermon's explanation of how Jesus took old covenant curses so we could receive new covenant blessings.

5. Revelation 21:1-7 — John's vision of the new heaven and earth shows the ultimate fulfillment of the covenant formula ("He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God"), completing what Ezekiel 34 anticipated.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Ezekiel's Prophetic Style Presents God's Grand Plan Through Surrealist-Like Imagery

II. God's Covenant Provisions for His People (Ezekiel 34:25-31)

III. The Security of God's Peace (v. 25)

IV. The Prosperity of God's Blessing (vv. 26-27a)

V. The Certainty of God's Deliverance (vv. 27b-29)

VI. The Eternality of God's Presence (vv. 30-31)

VII. Those Who Know the Promiser Will Know These Promises

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Detailed Sermon Outline

On the whole, the book of Ezekiel gives us a grand picture of God's grand plan for a grand future.

But the way that the prophecies of Ezekiel are often expressed is through a common but peculiar perspective. Ezekiel is beautiful if you read it start to finish. It's filled with its dramatic symbolism, visions, oracles, but we have to admit, at some times, the Book of Ezekiel seems a bit bizarre. If you're cultured, you might say that looking at Ezekiel is like staring at a piece of surrealist art. Surrealism takes the common experiences of life and then juxtaposes them against unexpected settings.

Think of the famous Rene Magritte portrait, right? Of that green apple suspended as if it was almost levitating in front of the face of a man with a suit and a tie and a bowler hat. Or think about a Salvador Dali painting. Familiar but strange. You've probably seen this, right?

The persistence of memory. Pocket watches are melting in a barren desert landscape, hanging all over the rocks and the trees. You look at that and you go, how strange, but also how strangely familiar. And like Ezekiel, these paintings attempt to arrest your attention with a common but peculiar perspective that causes you to look just a little bit more closely to try to perceive exactly what it is that is happening. And once you stare at that symbolism long enough, you begin to see that what is being communicated by the artist somehow becomes just a little bit more clear.

In a similar way, in Ezekiel, God paints a grand picture of the future, full of symbolism but also clarity about his covenant promises for what is ahead.

If you're a little less cultured, like me, the Book of Ezekiel is a little bit more like, I don't know, the classic 1985 movie Back to the Future.

Back to the Future has got to be one of the best screenplays of all time, right? Forget Citizen Kane, forget Casablanca. Maybe nostalgia is clouding my judgment a bit, but I think Back to the Future is an amazing plot, right? You got Doc Brown. You have the DeLorean time machine with the flux capacitor.

You have the antagonist, bully, Biff, who's messing up the entire space-time continuum. You have Marty McFly, whose mom falls in love with him instead of the nerdy dad. It's just an amazing plot. And then, of course, at the end, Marty plays the guitar at the Enchantment by the Sea Dance, right? And he plays Johnny B. Goode and gets into the DeLorean in time to have the lightning strike the clock tower and send 21.1 gigawatts, right?

Who could forget that? I mean, that's amazing. And yes, I had to rewatch it this week just for sermon prep.

I didn't have to, but I chose to. Ezekiel is like Back to the Future in the sense that the lines of the past, the present, and the future run parallel altogether to tell one unified story. In the movie, there's overlapping narratives and paradoxes, but eventually all of that gives way to a beautiful resolution and total clarity for the McFly family. So also in the verses that we're gonna look at here in Ezekiel 34 this morning, God's covenant that he has made in the past impacts Israel's present and points all of the people of God to their future new covenant realities. And all of these things are woven together with a stunning beauty and deep symbolism and wonderful resolution that causes God's family of faith to hold on, to hold on to tangible hope that he will provide for their spiritual flourishing in the days to come.

So let's look into the clarity of God's covenant promises today in our text. Ezekiel chapter 34. We're gonna examine the final verses of this chapter, verses 25 to 31.

It's on page 722 of the Pew Bible.

Over the last two sermons that we've had here in Ezekiel 34, we've observed the just and gentle rule of God on display as God shows off the reality that he's our shepherd king. He intervenes in order to rescue in verses 1 through 10. We looked at that earlier this spring. Then just three weeks ago, we looked at verses 11 to 24. And we saw how God lavishes his promises of restoration upon his people, including the promise in verses 23 and 24 that God would set up a messiah, a singular shepherd who would lead his sheep as both a servant and as a son.

And over the course of these three studies in the book of Ezekiel, well, I should say in Ezekiel 34, I've tried to identify a word in each of these sermons to help us better understand the kindness and the care of God on behalf of his weak and wounded sheep. In the first sermon, if you can remember, it was the intimate and personally possessive nature in which God calls his sheep, my sheep. That occurs 25 times in this chapter. In the second sermon, we identified the 27 I will statements that God proclaims and promises throughout the chapter. And in this sermon, I want you to give special attention to a very simple word, the most simple of words, I think, that we find here in verses 25 to 31, which is the word and.

Just that simple word and. Let me show you this in the text. If you would look back to the great promise of that Davidic Messiah that we closed with in verse 23 and 24 last time, notice what word these verses begin with, the word and. Verse 23 says, and I will set up over them one shepherd. My servant David, and he shall feed them.

He shall feed them and be their shepherd. Verse 24, and I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord, I have spoken. From verse 23 all the way to the very end of this chapter, virtually every single sentence in this final section begins with the word and. Look again with me, verse 23.

Verse 24. It's almost implied there in verse 25, but we also see and again there in verse 26, twice in 27, in 29, in verse 30, and also in verse 31. And is written all over this text before us this morning. So you might be wondering, why this repetition? What's the point?

What's the reason behind this repetition? The reason is that the Lord is using this simple word to express again and again, the overabundance of his protection and provision and his promises to and for his people.

So now we come to our text for this morning, verses 25 to 31, as we keep in mind those three buzz words, my, I will, and the word and, which all coalesce together beautifully here in these last few verses. Let's look at verse 25 to 31.

I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season. They shall be showers of blessing. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land, and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslave them. They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them; they shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid.

And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord God. And you, are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord God.

What a great text. Here's the big idea of verses 25 to 31. God's provisions through God's covenant are provided for God's people. God's provisions through God's covenant are provided for God's people.

If you were to say it in a sentence, that's it right there. It's pretty simplistic but it has much depth to it. And the question that we'll answer this morning is, well, what kind of provisions? What kind of abundant provisions come from God's covenant promises? Well, see four, sure provisions from God in this section.

And here they are. Number one, the security of God's peace. Verse 25. Number one, the security of God's peace in verse 25. Second, we'll see the prosperity of God's blessing in verses 26 to 27a, the prosperity of God's blessing, verse 26 to 27.

Then number three, we'll see the certainty of God's deliverance, the second half of 27, 27b to 29, the certainty of God's deliverance. And then number four, we'll see the eternality of God's presence from verses 30 to 31. So through our shepherd king, what provisions will God's covenant provide for God's people? We'll start here with that first provision. Number one, the security of God's peace.

In verse 25, the Lord says, I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. Here in verse 25, those first five words set the tone of God's abundant provisions as he says, I will make with them. As we have seen, this is yet again another example of the divine initiative of God in this declaration of his covenant care over his people. Who is the only one that has made and faithfully keeps this covenant of peace? It is God.

It is God alone. And when he keeps this covenant, he keeps it unilaterally, he keeps it persistently, He keeps it graciously and he keeps it certainly. And under this promise then, who is the them in the passage? Well, it's his people. It's the sheep of his pasture, right?

Verse 31 explains it all to us if we didn't catch it along the way. And if you are a Christian, anytime that you see the word they here in Ezekiel 34, you gotta know that God is referring to you. If you are under his covenant of peace, through Christ, the Prince of Peace, then this them that is all throughout the passage is to be understood as us. And what is God promising exactly to make with his people? Well, he's making a covenant of peace.

Isn't that interesting? Is this covenant of peace referring to the covenant God has made with Israel in the past? Or is he referring to the present hope of a return for Israel back into their land after being exiled by the Babylonians?

Or maybe is the Lord referring to some future eternal peace that he has for his people? For all three of those questions, past, present, and future, the answer is unequivocally yes. It might be really important for us just for a moment to reconsider what covenant means in the pages of the Old Testament leading up to Ezekiel here. So we'll ask a couple questions. Here's the first one: what's a covenant?

What is the covenant? At its most basic, a covenant is defined as a chosen relationship in which two parties make binding promises to each other. And those binding promises are often accompanied by oaths and often by signs and ceremonies as well. But when God makes a covenant promise, we have to recognize that the parties that he makes a covenant with are never equal to him. He is the sovereign, he is the Lord overall and he is ultimately and unilaterally keeping his own promises that he makes.

And throughout the pages of the Old Testament, God makes covenants with and on behalf of his people. Think about the covenant of creation. You think about the covenant with Noah. You think about the covenant with Abraham. The covenant with Israel through Moses at Sinai.

And we saw a little bit earlier in this chapter, of course, the covenant with David, which we see in 2 Samuel 7. So then, is this covenant of peace categorically something new? Is it another covenant alongside of those previous progressive promises of redemption that God's made throughout the Old Testament? No, actually, it's not. Here in Ezekiel, as elsewhere in the prophets, this covenant of peace is just simply one of a variety of different terms that the prophets use to be able to describe the new covenant.

In Jeremiah 31, it's called just that, the new covenant. In Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, the new covenant is called the everlasting covenant. In Isaiah, and it's also in Ezekiel here, introduced in chapter 34, it's built out a little bit more fully in chapter 37. This new covenant is simply called the covenant of peace. All of these things are differing terms but all of them point to a final redemptive new covenant reality.

We could ask, what are these new covenant realities that God's people will experience? Well, it's fivefold. Tom Shreiner says this. He says, It's about the renewal of heart. It's about regeneration.

The new covenant brings complete forgiveness of sin. The new covenant brings a new exodus. And finally, the reunification of God's people as the people of God. And so then why specifically here in verse, well throughout the chapter but specifically here in verse 25, why is this covenant specifically called a covenant of peace then? Why is this provision of security expressed here by Israel?

If you would for a moment think about how these words of peace would have landed on these Israelites after all that they have experienced personally. First, Israel was plunged into exile because of their sin. Their prophets, their priests, their kings had all oppressed and failed them. There was no peace morally, civically, spiritually. Homes were emptied.

The temple was destroyed. And the city, we're talking about God's city, Jerusalem here, David's city, the holy city was lying in ruins. And in all of this, the human heart desires peace. The heart of the Israelites craved peace. What Israel needed was Shalom.

What Israel needed was the absence of strife. What they needed was wholeness and completeness. The Israelites needed the hope of peace because of the complete absence of it. And in his grace, God knew this and so he speaks a word of promise to his people. And he brings them comfort and security.

Think about this in your own life. Have you ever been brought to a very low place, to the end of yourself, because you lacked hope, because you lacked peace? If there's some here, even now, where you feel like peace is dwindling week by week, day by day in your own life, Circumstantially, think about this for yourself. What has come into your life as an unwelcomed guest just like this Babylonian army that has ruined the peace and ruined the stability that God has provided for you in Christ? And where have the effects of your own sin perhaps or the sin of others eroded away at your peace?

If this is you today, know that through the new covenant and through the land that God promises his regenerated people, all of these beasts will eventually be banished. Where wickedness is rampant in the wilderness and in the woods, all will be made well because of the presence of the shepherd with his sheep. And under this good shepherd's care, there is a dwelling of total security and complete peace if you would come near to him for security and peace.

Perhaps it's because Grace and I and our daughters moved here from Florida, where there's more grandparents than there are parents down there. But I'm just struck at how many babies there are, obviously, at all times in this church. And I'm just talking about, like, you know, a six-month-old here or an eight-month-old there. I'm talking about newborn babies are everywhere. In fact, this week, I think I saw three newborn babies just on this block alone.

We praise God for these little lives.

You see those babies sometimes, they're snuggled up really quite beautifully in one of those little baby wraps, right, that the moms wear and the secure dads, I should say, also wear. The men that are secure in their masculinity.

You know one thing that you rarely see when you see a baby in one of those little wraps? You rarely see them fearing. You don't see those little babies fretting. You don't see them flailing around as in need. These children are comforted through closeness.

They experience peacefulness through nearness. A baby wrapped close to their parent is a great picture of what the Lord is trying to show us right here. Security through Shalom. So if you are here and you're experiencing an absence of peace today, I would encourage you to nestle in to these New Covenant promises of peace that God has for you like a child. Like a newborn child, God has brought you in close.

He's covered you securely. His security is your peace. And if you don't have peace in Christ today, if you feel like you're helpless, you're harassed by your sin, you're weak, you're wounded as a sheep, outside of his fold, hear Isaiah 40:11 again today. God promises that he will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather his lambs in his arms.

He will carry them in his bosom, and he will gently lead those that are with young.

What place could be more secure than near to the good shepherd in his flock, even more so being carried along by his everlasting arms. To be brought in so closely and so securely and so close to his heart. These covenant promises that we see here of the security of God's peace like this are yours if you are a sheep in his fold. If you are like a newborn child willing to stay close to the shepherd. And if you are willing to stay close to the shepherd, you will be secure in the shepherd and his covenant will bring you peace.

So through our shepherd king, what provisions will God's covenant provide for his people? Number one, the security of God's peace. Point two, the prosperity of God's blessing. Verse 26 says, and I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers.

In their season, they shall be showers of blessing. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. There's that word and again.

When God promises this kind of abundance under his new covenant, what he is expressing is the spiritual prosperity of his blessing and not his cursing. I mean, this is a great hope. It would have been a great hope and a great promise for those Israelites who experienced the opposite of abundance, right? In exile, they probably felt like they were under a curse because actually they were. They were under the curse of their own sin and the sin of their leaders.

But if you think about it, somewhere along the way, prior to one of those covenants that we mentioned earlier, Didn't God clearly tell his people what would happen if they obeyed and what would happen if they would disobey? Didn't he promise the people's blessings for obedience and promise the people's cursing for their disobedience? If you would for a moment, keep your finger in Ezekiel 34 and turn back with me to Leviticus chapter 26.

Leviticus chapter 26.

Here in Leviticus 26 we see what God spoke to Moses in his covenant with Israel. Look at Leviticus 26 verse 14. God clearly lays out the charge for disobedience. And he tells them that cursing will come upon God's people. Let's pick it up there in verse 27.

It says this, Leviticus 26:27, But if in spite of this, you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, And you shall eat the flesh of your daughters, and I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities waste, and I will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. And I myself will devastate the land. So that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it.

And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. In Ezekiel's day, all of that came to pass because of Israel's sin. But as they are exiled in Babylon, When God decides it is time to speak to the Israelites through the mouth of Ezekiel, to this sinful people, what does God remind them of? Does he remind them of their cursing or does he remind them of his blessing? Look up now at Leviticus 26:3.

If you walk in my statutes, and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing, and you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.

Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will turn to you and make you fruitful, and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

That's incredible. This here in Leviticus 26 is almost exactly word for word what God reminds them in Ezekiel 34. Even though God warned their forefathers, even though God clearly delineates the line between obedience and disobedience, blessing and cursing, and even through these Israelites, even though these Israelites sinned to the point of their own exile, from all that God had promised them. What does God remind them of? He does not remind them of their sin.

No, he reminds them of his covenant mercy.

As you turn back to Ezekiel 34, consider this, even though they had it coming. Why are the curses not laid out in chapter 34? The only explanation is that God in his steadfast loving kindness lives to extend grace and mercy even to those who have so clearly sinned against him. Moreover, if you are here this morning and you consider yourself a Christian, you know, I know, that left to myself and you know left to yourself that these curses of Leviticus 26 should be on you and I, but they're not. And why is that?

Because of God's steadfast loving kindness to extend his grace and his mercy to unworthy sinners like us. And even more so, if you are here this morning and you consider yourself not a Christian, you have to know that because of your sin and disobedience against your Creator, that these same curses of Leviticus are on you. Indeed, they are on every single person who has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Yet, in his love and because of his great mercy, God sent his only son.

To become a curse for the curse, to become a curse for us. Galatians 3:13 says this, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Although Jesus was the only perfect man who entirely obeyed God's commands to the full, Jesus took on all the curses of this old covenant in order that we might have access to all the promised blessings in the new. And in his dying on a cross for us, Christ took on all the curses of the old covenant on your behalf so that through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, you yourself could personally know and live under the blessings of the new covenant.

So if you are here and you are unreconciled to God today, hear this. In the new covenant of Christ's shed blood, you can know the peace and the security of peace and the prosperity of blessing and not cursing that can only come from Jesus's hand. The Bible is super clear. There are only two ways to live. And so the question is, do you desire to live under God's curse by continuing in sin or do you desire to live under God's blessing because your sin has been covered and canceled by Jesus?

And if you're like, well, where do I start? Here's where you start. The way into a relationship with God has always been by faith and repentance and it always will be that way. In other words, you turn from your sin and you turn to Jesus by faith. It's about trusting not in your own good work but rather trusting only in Christ's finished work on your behalf.

So if you're intrigued about this, we would encourage you to grab one of those Bibles, one of those of those Red Pew Bibles and just take that home with you. And I want to encourage you to read Galatians three. And if you would be so bold to take a Bible with you this morning and maybe even turn to someone around you and ask if they would maybe be willing to read Galatians three with you, that might really be a helpful thing for you. Or even take it to one of the doors that our pastors are going to be standing at afterwards and just say, I'd love to read Galatians three. Would you, there'd be, hundreds of people around the room here that would love to read Galatians 3 with you and to show you what life in Christ is all about.

So what provisions will God's covenant provide for God's people? Number one, the security of God's peace. Number two, the prosperity of God's blessing. Number three, the certainty of God's deliverance. Let's pick the text up on the second half of verse 27 there: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

When I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslave them, they shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them; they shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will provide for them a renowned plantation, so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. What kind of deliverance is God providing for his own here? The deliverance that provides his sheep with certainty. God metaphorically is breaking the bars of the yoke that holds and oppresses even as he delivers from the hands of those that have enslaved.

Just like the Hebrews in the book of Exodus who were delivered from the oppressive grip of the Egyptians and those that enslaved them. God takes his people from their own exodus and from their own wandering and he brings them to his promised land through Christ so that God can uphold his covenant again to his people. And in a similar way, if you look at verses 27 to 29, they're very analogous to the Christian life as a whole. For our time here on earth as we live our lives in Christ, through Jesus, we are free from the penalty of sin and yet the power of sin still remains. Because of the new covenant in Christ's blood, we are freed from sin's penalty and its curse.

Go read Romans six, right? We were dead to sin now and alive to Christ. We're no longer slaves, but we're sons. We don't have to live under that old curse with all of its guilt and its shame, but yet we must also admit that even as Christians who are under the new covenant, We still do struggle in sin. That's where Romans 7 is so incredibly helpful.

Paul says in Romans 7:8, For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Not want is what I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells within me.

And just a few verses later, right before getting to the glories of Romans chapter eight, Paul speaks of the certainty of God's delivery when he says this, what a wretched man I am. That's the confession of every single Christian. What a wretched man that I am. And then Paul asks, who will deliver? Who will deliver me from this body of death?

And Paul does answer with certainty to the praise and glory of God, the only one who could ever bring full deliverance from sin as he exclaims, Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the answer. So Christian, be reminded today, but especially tonight as we come to the Lord's Supper, together in the evening service, be reminded that though you are still under the oppression of your sin, you have already been liberated through this new covenant in Christ. You are no longer a prey to the nations. No more will beasts devour you.

You are no longer under the sin and the dominion of Satan's grip. You are now redeemed under the covenanters hand that delivers you. You once feared but now you are secure. And like these Israelites who were exiled into Babylon and were eventually brought back into the land to reestablish the temple, so also those who trust in Christ and in the new covenant of his peace through his blood will one day see and dwell in an eternal heavenly temple with the Lord. There we will see God's glory in this new covenant reality with our own eyes.

And because atonement has been made, sin's penalty has been paid. We will glory in the new covenant reality that the power of sin has no life after death because Christ put death to death. And we will glory forever in the full deliverance of the presence of sin because of the holy presence of God Almighty. That's what we have to look forward to. And it is that eternal vision that brings us to our fourth point this morning.

Through our shepherd king, what provisions will God's covenant provide for God's people? Security, of God's peace, the prosperity of God's blessing, the certainty of God's deliverance. And lastly, number four, the eternality of of God's presence. Verse 30, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord God, and you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord God. All over the Scripture, from Old Testament to New and back again.

We see eternity written all about in advance, actually. And one of the ways in which this becomes clear is what scholars call the covenant formula that is repeated throughout the Bible, not only here in these verses, but we get an extended reaffirmation of that covenant formula between verses 24 and verse 30. When God says in verse 24, I will be their God, and then in verse 30 he says, they shall be my people, we see this covenant formula being reminded over and over again by God to his people. God promises this not as the lesser to the greater, but as the greater on behalf of the lesser. And we see this covenant formula in a variety of places in Scripture.

Genesis 17, Exodus 6, here in Ezekiel 34, and then again in Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 7, Jeremiah 30, Jeremiah 31, this is God's heart for his people and it is just on display for all to see. This covenant formula, I will be their God and they shall be my people is like a pledge of allegiance, except for it's not from man to God, surprisingly and amazingly, it is from God to man. He's pleading his own allegiance, pledging his own allegiance not to us but to himself. And similarly, the words here in verse 30, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God, it's already been spoken over them back in verse 27. It's just repeated again, verse 27 and also in verse 30.

But this time in verse 30, God adds a little something. He adds a little something to this eternal covenant promise when he says, I am the Lord their God with them. With them. This is the covenant promise of the eternality of God's presence with his people. With us and also for us.

On March 2nd, 1791, an 87-year-old man lay in his deathbed in the city center of London. And in his last months, John Wesley was cared for by his physician and a woman named Elizabeth Richie, who, after his dying, recounted his last words in his very last moments. She wrote this eyewitness account of Wesley's deathbed and she said this: Some of those who were most used to hear our dear father's dying voice would be able to interpret his meaning, but though he strove to speak, we were still unsuccessful. Finding that we could not understand what he said, he paused a little, and then with all of the remaining strength that he had, he cried out, Best of all, God is with us.

And then, as if to assert the faithfulness of our promise keeping Jehovah and to comfort the hearts of his weeping friends, lifting up his dying arm in a token of victory and raising his feeble voice with a holy triumph not to be expressed, again repeated the heart reviving words Best of all, God is with us.

Best of all, by his Holy Spirit, he is with us even now as we gather. And one day, a church that is much larger than this one will be with him. In all of human history, every single person who has ever been redeemed and regenerated by God will be there.

And best of all, God will be with us. He will be there among his sheep even throughout all of eternity. What will that be like? Who will be there? How many people will our eyes see?

It's astounding to think about. But we do see a glimpse and a picture of what this looks like in the book of Revelation. In Revelation 4, the future vision of the throne room of God is described by concentric circles that surround the throne. The innermost circle is a rainbow, followed by the four living creatures, and then the 24 elders on their thrones, and then a great host of angels, and eventually all of creation joins to worship the one who sits enthroned, and Jesus Christ will be at the center of it all. Best of all, God is with us.

And then in Revelation 7:17, it gives us even more of a picture of what lies ahead as it promises that the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Best of all, God is with us. And even as we read earlier, as we read earlier from Revelation 21, we see the full restoration of all the things that were once lost in the Garden of Eden. And really quite beautifully in Revelation 21 and 22, the end ends the same as the beginning began. How so?

God is dwelling and he's dwelling with his people. Revelation 21 again. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. With them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eye, and death shall be no more, and neither shall be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Best of all, God is with us.

To close then, those who know the Promiser will know these promises. Those who know the promiser will know the security of God's peace, will know the prosperity of God's blessing, will know the certainty of God's deliverance and also the eternality of God's presence. So in the present, keep your eye firmly fixed on these covenant promises from the past. And most of all, keep your eye firmly fixed on a future with the covenant promiser, the one who was and is and is to come. Let's pray.

Lord God, we praise you and extol you today for being a promise-keeping God who never changes. We thank you that you have come to us and not necessarily us to you. We thank you for that divine initiative and that divine provision that you have provided for us abundantly. And so Lord, we express our gratitude again today for Christ who has freed us from our sin and Lord has brought us into this faith family. Cause us to live lives that follow you, as you like a good shepherd, lead us from this barren land and into the greenest of your pastures.

In Christ's name we pray, amen.