Core Doctrine: Covenant Theology Pt. 2

Happy Lord's Day Apologia. I am very honored. I'm thankful to be here again tonight. Do we have any church history buffs in the room today other than you? Does anybody know? I stumbled across this this afternoon and I thought, ah, fitting, right?

Here's the Lord providing an illustration. Who knows what happened 488 years ago today? Anybody? Have you heard of a man named Tyndale? 488 years ago, Tyndale was martyred for the very things that we stand on here at Apologia.

488 years ago, Tyndale was convinced that this is something you ought to be able to read. This is what should shape your faith and your life. And this is ultimately where we should draw all of our doctrines for faith and for church practice as well.

So interesting tidbit there. But tonight we're going to be continuing in the core doctrine series on covenant theology. This will be the second part. If you didn't catch the very long message last week, I'm sorry, moms.

If you didn't catch the message last week, go back and listen to it because I laid some very important foundations that, uh, that you really need to grasp before we dive into this today. But with that said, would you turn to the book of Ephesians chapter two?

The Gospel of Grace in Ephesians 2

Very famous passage if you've done any outreach to unbelievers or cult members, et cetera. This is where we learn about grace through faith apart from works that leads us to good works. But there's a really interesting nugget in there towards the end of, uh, of Ephesians that talks about multiple covenants of promise.

And that'll be the foundation that we're digging into today as we look at the covenant of grace as it was revealed in history. So if you would, Ephesians chapter two verses one through 13, this is the word of God.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prints of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And whereby nature children of wrath, even as the rest, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of work so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do once again praise you for the gift that it is to gather together as your saints and to worship you, to worship you in Christ by your spirit.

And we ask today, Father, that you would get the preacher out of the way. Father, we thank you that your word does not return void. And we ask, Lord, that you would apply this word to the hearts of your people.

Help us, Father, help us to become like your son, shape us into his image. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. So last week, last week, we left off with the introduction of the promise of the Messiah, right?

The Promise of the Seed of the Woman

The seed of the woman, you remember the story, and the one who ultimately was going to bring the completion of the covenant of redemption. You remember that Trinity covenant in the past? He's going to bring the completion of the covenant of redemption into reality by means of the covenant of grace in history.

The Trinity covenanted in eternity past. God placed his image bearer in the garden and covenanted with him. And humanity would either fall in Adam or succeed in Adam. Adam fell. Adam broke that covenant and brought all of humanity under God's just condemnation.

But the story didn't end there, right? Rather than leaving humanity in their state of misery, God promised to bring a Messiah, the seed of the woman who would crush the enemy under his feet. And we see the very first example in that garden scene of substitutionary atonement.

And then, rather than destroy that tree of life, God set a guard along the path to the tree of life. An angel with a flaming sword turning in every direction, right? If somebody was going to collect life from that tree, they were going to pass through the fiery judgment of God and come out the other side in victory to do it.

That's where we left off. The covenant of redemption in eternity past, the covenant of works broken, all of mankind fallen, but God has given the promise of a Messiah, the promise of a seed. But the question remains at this point in the story, the question remains, who is this promised seed?

And when will we see this covenant of grace brought into fullness in history? Now, obviously, we're all sitting here, so I think we know the answer, right? Otherwise, we wouldn't be sitting here. But place yourself, if you would, in the shoes of Adam, right?

He was walking in the garden with God, sinless, face to face with his creator. And he heard that what he messed up, God was going to fix. Imagine that you weren't holding that Bible that Tyndale helped you get.

Imagine you weren't holding that Bible in your hands, and all you had to go on was that promise. You had the word of God. I'm sending a Messiah. Would that be enough? Is that enough of a truth claim to believe for you to be saved?

Is that enough to be made right with God? How would you hear the revelation of the good news in history if that was the case? If you didn't have the Bible, all you had was, I'm sending a Messiah, right?

Can you imagine the anticipation? Messiah is coming. Let's look at that story, shall we? Let's look at how God revealed that story in history. And he did so by way of covenant, right? But he didn't reveal everything in an instant.

He didn't reveal the mystery of Christ until thousands of years after the fall of Adam. Adam didn't have the details, but Adam did have the gospel, right? Adam did have the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman.

And if he placed his trust in the coming seed, he would be justified. He would be made right with God. Just as you and I, this side of the cross, if we place our trust in that very same promised seed, we have salvation.

We're made right with God. We just have more details than Adam did, right? What Adam received on credit, if it were, we receive on debit. What Adam was looking for somebody to pay in the future has been already paid on our behalf.

Adam could be saved by the promise of God that in the future he would accomplish redemption in history. You and I can be saved by the promised redemption that has already been accomplished in history.

And we need to get this, okay? This is very important. Both Old Testament saints and New Testament saints are justified before God by looking to the very same person and the work that he accomplished in history.

This notion, this idea that Old Testament saints were somehow justified in a different way is a non-starter, right? Likewise, this idea that you'll hear popular today that there's many paths that lead to God is reprehensible.

Yeah, they all lead to God, and for most people it's judgment. All paths do not lead to God. The options are, and always have been, Christ or condemnation. There is no third way. There's no middle way.

But once again, the question remains, how did God bring the seed of the woman into history? If there's a main point for today's sermon, it's this. God revealed it step by step in history until the fullness of that gospel was revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith says it this way in chapter 7, paragraph 3. This covenant, that's the covenant of grace, is revealed in the gospel, first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament.

And it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect. And it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency.

Now from the catechism question that we read before church, nobody here should be surprised that we're Reformed Baptists, right? We love our brothers and sisters who have a different confession. Last week we should be able to have broad agreement with all of them.

Today this is going to be a more Baptist understanding of covenant theology, right? Just like there's varying interpretations of the Westminster by different Presbyterians, believe it or not there's varying interpretations of the 1689 by Baptists.

And my goal today is not to explain all of those intricate details or differences or even pick a side. My goal is to present a view that all Reformed Baptists should have general agreement on, even though there are, and there are, some intramural debates on how you hash up these details, okay?

Now here's the main claims that we need to look at from that paragraph. One, the covenant of grace is revealed in the gospel. Two, this gospel was revealed to Adam by way of the promise of the seed of the woman.

And three, and this will be the main body of tonight's message, is three, it was revealed by farther steps in history until the fullness was revealed in the New Testament. Now when we say revealed in the gospel, right?

That the gospel, or that it's revealed in the gospel, what do we mean by this? Right? When we say that the covenant of grace is revealed in the gospel, are we saying that the covenant of grace was not operative?

Until thousands of years later when the second person of the Trinity took on human flesh, lived a perfect life, was crucified, died, buried, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven on clouds. Are we saying that the covenant of grace was not working?

It wasn't operative before that point? Of course not. That's not what we're saying. How else could Abraham have believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness? Abraham knew the gospel. That's what Galatians 3 verse 8 tells us.

Abraham knew the gospel. He might not have known the fullness that we know today, but he knew the gospel. If what you mean by the gospel in the context of this message is the strict definition that can only be known after all of Christ's work has actually been accomplished in history, then nobody could have been saved prior to that point.

But is that what we see in the scriptures? Were there Old Testament saints who were justified before God prior to Christ's work on the cross? Yes, there were. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and there were myriads of Old Testament saints in Abraham's bosom who were justified by the work of the Messiah who was going to come in history to rescue them from the grave, right?

And they were justified in the same way that you and I are justified. They believed the gospel. They believed that Messiah was coming. They believed that God was going to rescue the world by the work of a singular individual who would have absolute victory in history.

They believed God's promise. We covered last week how the gospel was revealed to Adam in the curse, right, in Genesis 3 .15. God cursed the serpent, and there in Genesis 3 .15 we see how the seed of the woman, a single individual, is going to come defeat the enemy of our souls.

This was good news, right? And upon that declaration of good news, God instituted substitutionary atonement, animal sacrifice. He covered Adam with the garments of a sacrifice, but that wasn't the end of the revelation of the good news of the covenant of grace.

As the Confession said, it was revealed by farther steps in history until the fullness was revealed in the New Testament. Where was that next step in the revelation of the covenant of grace? Think about Noah, okay?

After washing the world in a flood and cleansing it from wickedness. After a new creation emerged out of those chaotic waters, and God repeated the commands to Noah to be fruitful and multiply. After giving the sign of the rainbow and promising to never again destroy the earth by a flood, humanity, what was left of them anyways, they must have thought that the promised seed of the woman was imminent.

Must be right around the corner. Look what God has done. He's eliminated wickedness. The seed is coming. Once again, put yourself in their shoes, right? Think of this. Was it maybe the one who found grace in the sight of God?

Was Noah this promised seed? His family must have at least wondered. And then we read in Genesis chapter 9, verses 20 to 21, Noah began to be a man of the soil and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.

Noah was infected by the very same toxin as our first father, right? And much as Adam sinned in a garden and was found naked, Noah sinned in a vineyard and was found to be naked. Verse 28 to 29 of that chapter say, after the flood, Noah lived 350 years.

All the days of Noah were 950 years and he died. Unceremonious and he died. Was Noah the seed of the woman? Was Noah the promised one? Nope. Humanity was still on the lookout for God to fulfill that promise.

Now, maybe it was Shem, right? Maybe it was the one that covered his father's nakedness and received his father's blessing. Was Shem this promised seed? Could it be him? Genesis 11, 11. And Shem lived after he fathered our pasture 500 years.

Nope. Not Shem, he died too. Humanity was still on the lookout for God's fulfillment of the promised seed. Maybe it's one of the many descendants of Noah mentioned in Genesis 11, right? Maybe one of them is the promised seed.

No, death took them too. They were all infected by the very same curse as the rest of humanity. This pattern continued for thousands of years after the gospel was initially delivered to Adam and the promise of the seed of the woman.

Is it him? Dead. Is it him? Dead. Is it him? Nope. Where's the seed? There had to be some, right, who were thinking. There had to be some faithful people who were wondering, has God forgotten his promise?

Maybe we misunderstood him. Lord, we thought you were bringing a redeemer, but we've not seen so much as a hint of the Messiah. God, where is the seed of the woman? And then comes Genesis 12, verses 1 to 3.

The Promise to Abraham and the Covenant of Grace

After thousands of years of relative silence, we read the following in Genesis 12, verses 1 to 3. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

It's here. It's here in God's interactions with Abraham that we begin to see the long-awaited promise of God play out in history. Prior to this point, all of God's covenant dealings were with all of humanity, right?

Adam, all of humanity. Noah, all of humanity. But here with Noah, we see that focus narrow. It's through Abram that all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And because of that, it's here with Abram that we have to take a great deal of time and pay a lot of attention if we're going to understand this step-by-step revelation of the covenant of grace in history.

Now here's what we're going to see when we look at God's relationship with Abram, right? God will covenant to give him three things. God is going to give Abram a lineage, a land, and a Lord. A lineage, a land, and a Lord.

But starting here in Genesis 12, we've got to ask a question. Remember last week's categories, right? Do we see the implementation of a covenant in this passage, or do we see something else here in Genesis 12, right?

Remember those categories from last week. Ranking, rules, rewards, and or retribution, and ratification are all of these elements present in Genesis 12. Well, we see the ranking. We see this covenant ranking.

God is the sovereign and transcendent ruler who will bless Abram. We see what amounts to rules, right? God will make Abram a great nation. God will bless Abram and make his name great, and Abram's going to receive it.

And we see these rewards and retribution, right? Those who bless Abram will be blessed. Those who dishonor Abram will be cursed. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through Abram. But what about a covenant ratification?

Here in Genesis 12 specifically, does God seal this promise with an oath or a covenant ceremony? He doesn't. No, he doesn't. Therefore, as of Genesis 12, we're going to get to this covenant, but as of Genesis 12, this relationship is not yet a covenant.

It's the promise of God. Now, you might think that I'm straining at gnats up here, right? Ah, what's the difference, Eric? Why does this matter? I'm not straining at gnats. If I'm straining at gnats, so was the author to the book of Hebrews.

It mattered to the author of the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 6, verses 13 to 18, for when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, Surely I will bless you and multiply you.

And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation. So, when God decided to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

The author to the Hebrews, leading up, by the way, to the most clear section in all of the Bible on the nature of the new covenant and on the nature of Christ's role as our high priest, leading up to that, the foundation here, the author of the Hebrews sees the need to make a distinction between a promise and an oath.

He makes the distinction, if you would, between a promise and a covenant. If we are going to allow the Bible to determine its own categories, we must likewise make the same distinction. Genesis 12 is a promise.

And what is promised there in Genesis 12? A nation. A singular nation in Genesis 12. Abram is promised a land. And by Abram, all of the families of the earth will be blessed. Now, this is a sure promise, right?

God can't lie. It's going to happen. But it's not yet a covenant. When does that covenant come into history? It comes three chapters later in Genesis 15. After Abram believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, we read the following in Genesis chapter 15, verses 1 to 6.

After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram, I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. But Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me? For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus.

And Abram said, Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir.

And he brought him outside and said, Look towards the heaven and number the stars if you're able to number them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be. And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

The Lord here promises Abram a singular son and numerous offspring. And only then do we see a ratification ceremony. God promises Abram a lineage. And in verses 7 to 21, we see every single element of a covenant present.

And the ratification of that covenant. What are the covenant elements here in Genesis 15, right? We see a ranking. God is the gracious king. Abram and his offspring are the recipients of blessing. Rules.

God will give Abram this blessing, and Abram will receive it. Reward, specifically in Genesis 15. What's the reward there? The land of Canaan that 400 years later will be possessed by offspring as numerous as the stars.

Ratification. What's the covenant ratification here in Genesis 15? It's the entire scene, right? This entire scene with sacrificed animals and God alone walking through the pieces while Abram was asleep, by the way, is God taking what's called a self-maledictory oath upon himself.

God is saying that that he will accomplish this work apart from any work of Abram or his offspring. This type of ceremony is where we get the phrase to cut a covenant, right? And it's a visual testimony that if the one taking the oath does not fulfill his covenant obligations, he will perish just like the animals that he's passing through.

Who is it that took this oath? Was it Abram? God's gonna do it. God will accomplish this in history. In Genesis 15, we see God cut a covenant with Abram, and that covenant includes a lineage and a land.

And then in Genesis 17, we get even more detail, right? It's here that we get the sign of circumcision, and this can be a bit of a tricky passage to understand if we don't allow a covenant to actually define its own terms, if we import something else in here that we ought not import.

Genesis 17 says, when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly.

And then God goes on to change Abram's name to Abraham. Why? Because he will be the father of a multitude of nations and kings will come from him. Now, hold on. Hold on a sec, Eric. Didn't you just say that God already made a covenant with Abram two chapters earlier in 15?

Does Genesis 17 indicate that God's now making a second covenant with Abraham? Some people have held that view in history, but no, no, it doesn't. On the surface, it might seem that way, but that's not what's happening here.

It's a ratification, okay? Not only is the Abrahamic economy identified as a single covenant in all but one allegorical passage in the book of Galatians, but the words that are used in Genesis 15 and Genesis 17, they're different.

Make a covenant in Genesis 15, 18 is kerath bereth, right? That doesn't matter, but there's a certain word, and that's the cutting of a previously non-existent covenant. And then the term make a covenant in Genesis 17, 7 is different.

They're different words, and they mean different things. Genesis 15 is cutting a new covenant in history. Genesis 17 is ratifying or confirming that previous covenant to Abraham and his posterity, and then explaining how that's going to come to pass in history.

Previously, we see that all of the corporate blessings, all of them promised to Abraham are secured by God himself. But here in 17, we see something interesting, don't we? God says, walk before me and be blameless, so that I may confirm my covenant.

Now, how on earth is a covenant secured by God now going to be affected by the blamelessness of Abraham? Is God's gracious promise now based on works? No, that's the answer. No, resounding no. God has secured these promises to Abraham, but he did not secure the blessing of that covenant to every single individual who would come from Abraham's loins, right?

That blessing is secured by promise. We see this on full display in Romans 4, verses 1 -7, when Paul is responding to those who would say that God wasn't keeping his promise to Israel. What does Paul say?

Romans 4, 1 -7, Paul says, I ask then, has God rejected his people? By no means, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? Lord, they've killed your prophets, they've demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.

But what is God's reply to him? I have kept for myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So too, at the present time, there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works.

Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. God is keeping a remnant. God has always kept a remnant, and he secured his blessing to Abraham through that remnant by way of divine election.

The Father chose them in eternity past. The Son would die for them in history, and the Spirit was keeping them. So between Genesis 15 and Genesis 17, we see a couple realities. There's a few realities at play here.

There's two aspects to the Abrahamic covenant. There are children of the flesh, and there are children of the promise. Children of the flesh may be cut off from Abraham and his blessing, but children of the promise never will be.

God will most certainly bless Abraham corporately, but that does not mean that every individual who comes from Abraham is a rightful heir of his blessing. Only those who were elected in eternity past, the remnant, if you will, the elect, are secured by God.

Those who are not may be cut off for covenant disobedience. Now this almost wraps up our look at Abraham, but there's one more important text that we've got to look at. So far we've seen the promise in Genesis 12.

We've seen a covenant cut in Genesis 15. We've seen a ratification in Genesis 17, right? We've seen Abraham has been promised a son who would be his heir, as well as innumerable offspring. He was promised a singular nation and numerous nations, and he was promised that many kings would come from him.

Genesis 22, verses 17 to 18, adds one more vital aspect to understanding the unfolding of the covenant of grace in history. Genesis 22, 17 to 18, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.

And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you've obeyed my voice. Now, there's not complete agreement. Some of your translations may say something else.

There's not a complete agreement on if this should say the gate of his enemies or the gate of their enemies, and there's good reasons for both. But however it is that Paul was interpreting the economy of Abrahamic promise, whether by this verse alone or more of an entire Abrahamic economy, his conclusion in Galatians 3 .16 led Paul to see a distinction between a singular offspring and plural offspring.

We likewise need to see the distinction. Not only would Abraham be the father of many kings, but Abraham would have a singular offspring who would be the king of kings. The promised seed of the woman was coming, and it was coming through Abraham.

At last, at last, after thousands of years of waiting, we know which family the Messiah will come through. Abraham was promised a lineage, a land, and a Lord, and that Lord would bring the blessing of Abraham to all of the nations.

Now, I'd love to spend a bunch of time going into the covenant at Sinai and David, right? Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of time to go super deep into those covenants, but if we did, if we took the time to dive deep into the Mosaic covenant and the Davidic covenant, you'd see the very same consistency of covenantal structure and a narrowing of redemptive history, right?

God narrows from the whole world with Adam and Noah to the nations of Abraham to a single nation to the ruling family of a nation. To David, God told Abraham his lineage would be in bondage for 400 years and then take possession of a singular nation.

Did that happen? That happened exactly as God promised. Joshua 21, 43 -45 says,. Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give their fathers, and they took possession of it, and they settled there.

And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed.

All came to pass. God gave Abraham offspring as numerous as the stars, and he fulfilled his promise to give them a nation. But what about that singular offspring who would bless all of the nations and all of the families of the earth?

Where was he? Where was the promised seed? Where was the offspring of Abraham, the Messiah, the promised king? Right, we know that he's coming from Abraham. We know that he's going to come through Israel.

We even know that he's going to come from the tribe of Judah. But where is he? Which family of Judah will the king come from? At first glance, hey, maybe it's King Saul, right? Was King Saul our promised Messiah?

Well, no. Not only is he not from the tribe of Judah, but Saul showed himself to be a child of the flesh, not a child of the promise. Israel was still looking for her promised king. And then in 1 Samuel chapter 16, we find a king from the tribe of Judah.

1 Samuel chapter 16. The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul, since I've rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.

And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. Then Samuel said to Jesse, are all of your sons here? And he said, there remains yet the youngest, but behold, he's keeping the sheep.

And Samuel said to Jesse, send and get him, for we will not sit down until he comes here. And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ready and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, arise, anoint him, for this is he.