Core Doctrine: Covenant Theology Pt. 2

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Happy Lord's Day, Apologia. I am very honored, I'm thankful to be here again tonight.

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Do we have any church history buffs in the room today? Other than you?

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Does anybody know, I stumbled across this this afternoon and I thought, ah, fitting, right?

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Here's the Lord providing an illustration. Who knows what happened 488 years ago today?

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Anybody? Have you heard of a man named Tyndale? 488 years ago,

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Tyndale was martyred for the very things that we stand on here at Apologia. 488 years ago,

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Tyndale was convinced that this is something you ought to be able to read.

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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.

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So, interesting tidbit there, but tonight we're gonna be continuing in the core doctrine series on covenant theology.

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This will be the second part. If you didn't catch the very long message last week,

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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 you really need to grasp before we dive into this today.

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But with that said, would you turn to the book of Ephesians chapter two, very famous passage if you've done any outreach to unbelievers or cult members, et cetera.

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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 Ephesians.

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It 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.

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So if you would, Ephesians chapter two, verses one through 13, this is the word of God.

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

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Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature, children of wrath, even as the rest.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Therefore, remember that formerly you, the

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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.

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But now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

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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.

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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.

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And we ask, Lord, that you would apply this word to the hearts of your people. Help us,

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Father. Help us to become like your son. Shape us into his image. And it's in his name that we pray.

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Amen. All right, so last week, last week we left off with the introduction of the promise of the

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Messiah, right? 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.

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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.

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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.

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Adam fell. Adam broke that covenant and brought all of humanity under God's just condemnation.

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But the story didn't end there, right? Rather than leaving humanity in their state of misery, God promised to bring a

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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

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Messiah, the promise of a seed. But the question remains, at this point in the story, the question remains, who is this promised seed?

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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?

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Otherwise, we wouldn't be sitting here. But, place yourself, if you would, in the shoes of Adam.

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Right, he was walking in the garden with God, sinless, face -to -face with his creator.

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And he heard that what he messed up, God was gonna fix. Imagine that you weren't holding that Bible that Tyndale helped you get.

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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

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Messiah. Would that be enough? Is that enough of a truth claim to believe for you to be saved?

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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?

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If you didn't have the Bible, all you had was, I'm sending a Messiah, right? Can you imagine the anticipation? Messiah's coming.

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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?

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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.

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Adam didn't have the details, but Adam did have the gospel, right?

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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.

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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.

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We just have more details than Adam did, right? What Adam received on credit, if it were, we receive on debit.

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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.

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You and I can be saved by the promised redemption that has already been accomplished in history.

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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.

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This notion, this idea that Old Testament saints were somehow justified in a different ways than non -starter, right?

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Likewise, this idea that you'll hear popular today that there's many paths that lead to God is reprehensible.

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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

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Christ or condemnation. There is no third way. There's no middle way.

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But once again, the question remains, how did

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God bring the seed of the woman into history? If there's a main point for today's sermon, it's this.

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God revealed it step -by -step in history until the fullness of that gospel was revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

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The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith says it this way in chapter seven, paragraph three.

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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

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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.

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And it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen

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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

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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

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Reformed Baptists, right? We love our brothers and sisters who have a different confession.

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Last week, we should be able to have broad agreement with all of them. Today, this is gonna be a more Baptist understanding of covenant theology, right?

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Just like there's varying interpretations of the Westminster by different Presbyterians. Believe it or not, there's varying interpretations of the

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New Testament and variations 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.

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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?

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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.

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Two, this gospel was revealed to Adam by way of the promise of the seed of the woman.

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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

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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?

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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

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Trinity took on human flesh, lived a perfect life, was crucified, died, buried, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven on clouds?

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Are we saying that the covenant of grace was not working? It wasn't operative before that point? Of course not.

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That's not what we're saying. How else could Abraham have believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness?

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Abraham knew the gospel. That's what Galatians three, verse eight tells us. Abraham knew the gospel.

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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, that nobody could have been saved prior to that point.

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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?

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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

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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.

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They believed the gospel. They believed that Messiah was coming.

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They believed that God was going to rescue the world by the work of a singular individual who would have absolute victory in history.

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They believed God's promise. We covered last week how the gospel was revealed to Adam in the curse, right?

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In Genesis 3 .15. God cursed the serpent. And there in Genesis 3 .15,

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we see how the seed of the woman, a single individual is going to come, defeat the enemy of our souls.

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This was good news, right? And upon that declaration of good news, God instituted substitutionary atonement, animal sacrifice.

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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.

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As the confession said, it was revealed by farther steps in history until the fullness was revealed in the

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New Testament. Where was that next step in the revelation of the covenant of grace?

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Think about Noah, okay? After washing the world in a flood and cleansing it from wickedness.

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After a new creation emerged out of those chaotic waters and God repeated the commands to Noah to be fruitful and multiply.

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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 be saved.

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They must have thought that the promised seed of the woman was imminent, must be right around the corner. Look what God has done.

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He's eliminated wickedness, the seed is coming. Once again, put yourself in their shoes, right?

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Think of this. Was it maybe the one who found grace in the sight of God? What was Noah? This promised seed, his family must have at least wondered.

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And then we read in Genesis 9, verses 20 to 21. Noah began to be a man of the soil and he planted a vineyard.

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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?

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And much as Adam sinned in a garden and was found naked, Noah sinned in a vineyard and was found to be naked.

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Verse 28 to 29 of that chapter say, after the flood, Noah lived 350 years.

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All the days of Noah were 950 years and he died.

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Unceremonious and he died. Was Noah the seed of the woman? Was Noah the promised one?

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Nope. Humanity was still on the lookout for God to fulfill that promise. Now, maybe it was

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Shem, right? Maybe it was the one that covered his father's nakedness and received his father's blessing. Was Shem this promised seed?

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Could it be him? Genesis 11, 11, and Shem lived after he fathered our pasture 500 years.

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Nope, not Shem, he died too. Humanity was still on the lookout for God's fulfillment of the promised seed.

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Maybe it's one of the many descendants of Noah mentioned in Genesis 11, right? Maybe one of them is the promised seed.

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No, death took them too. They were all infected by the very same curse as the rest of humanity.

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This pattern continued for thousands of years after the gospel was initially delivered to Adam and the promise of the seed of the woman.

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Is it him? Dead. Is it him? Dead. Is it him? Nope. Where's the seed?

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There had to be some, right, who were thinking. There had to be some faithful people who were wondering, has God forgotten his promise?

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Maybe we misunderstood him. Lord, we thought you were bringing a redeemer, but we've not seen so much as a hint of the

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Messiah. God, where is the seed of the woman? And then comes

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Genesis 12, verses one to three. After thousands of years of relative silence, we read the following in Genesis 12, verses one to three.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Prior to this point, all of God's covenant dealings were with all of humanity, right?

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Adam, all of humanity. Noah, all of humanity. But here with Noah, we see that focus narrow.

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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.

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Now, here's what we're gonna see when we look at God's relationship with Abram, right? God will covenant to give him three things.

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God is going to give Abram a lineage, a land, and a Lord. A lineage, a land, and a

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Lord. But starting here in Genesis 12, we've gotta ask a question.

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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?

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Right, remember those categories from last week. Ranking, rules, rewards, and or retribution, and ratification are all of these elements present in Genesis 12.

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Well, we see the ranking. We see this covenant ranking. God is the sovereign and transcendent ruler who will bless

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Abram. We see what amounts to rules, right? God will make Abram a great nation.

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God will bless Abram and make his name great, and Abram's gonna receive it. And we see these rewards and retribution, right?

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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.

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But what about a covenant ratification? Here in Genesis 12 specifically, does

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God seal this promise with an oath or a covenant ceremony? He doesn't.

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No, he doesn't. Therefore, as of Genesis 12, we're gonna get to this covenant, but as of Genesis 12, this relationship is not yet a covenant, it's the promise of God.

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Now, you might think that I'm straining at gnats up here, right? Nah, what's the difference, Eric? Why does this matter?

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I'm not straining at gnats. If I'm straining at gnats, so was the author to the book of Hebrews.

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It mattered to the author of the book of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter six, verses 13 to 18.

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For when God made a promise to Abram, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself saying, surely

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I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

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For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation.

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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.

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The author to the Hebrews, leading up, by the way, to the most clear section in all of the

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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

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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.

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If we are going to allow the Bible to determine its own categories, we must likewise make the same distinction.

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Genesis 12 is a promise. And what is promised there in Genesis 12?

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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.

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Now, this is a sure promise, right? God can't lie. It's gonna happen, but it's not yet a covenant.

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When does that covenant come into history? It comes three chapters later in Genesis 15.

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After Abram believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, we read the following in Genesis chapter 15, verses one to six.

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After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram, I am your shield.

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Your reward shall be very great. But Abram said, oh Lord God, what will you give me for I continue childless and the heir of my house is

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Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram said, behold, you have given me no offspring and a member of my household will be my heir.

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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.

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And he brought him outside and said, look towards the heaven and number the stars if you're able to number them.

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Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. And he believed the

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Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. The Lord here promises

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Abram a singular son and numerous offspring. And only then do we see a ratification ceremony.

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God promises Abram a lineage. And in verses seven to 21, we see every single element of a covenant present.

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And the ratification of that covenant. What are the covenant elements here in Genesis 15, right?

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We see a ranking. God is the gracious king. Abram and his offspring are the recipients of blessing.

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Rules, God will give Abram this blessing and Abram will receive it. Reward, specifically in Genesis 15, what's the reward there?

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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?

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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

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God taking what's called a self -maledictory oath upon himself. God is saying that he will accomplish this work apart from any work of Abram or his offspring.

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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.

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Who is it that took this oath? Was it Abram? God's gonna do it. God will accomplish this in history.

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In Genesis 15, we see God cut a covenant with Abram and that covenant includes a lineage and a land.

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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.

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If we import something else in here that we ought not import. Genesis 17 says, when

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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.

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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.

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Now, hold on a sec, Eric. Didn't you just say that God already made a covenant with Abram two chapters earlier in 15?

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Does Genesis 17 indicate that God's now making a second covenant with Abraham?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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And then the term make a covenant in Genesis 17, 7 is different. They're different words and they mean different things.

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Genesis 15 is cutting a new covenant in history. Genesis 17 is ratifying or confirming that previous covenant to Abraham and his posterity.

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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.

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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.

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Now, how on earth is a covenant secured by God now going to be affected by the blamelessness of Abraham?

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Is God's gracious promise now based on works? No, that's the answer.

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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?

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That blessing is secured by promise. We see this on full display in Romans chapter four, verses one to seven.

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When Paul is responding to those who would say that God wasn't keeping his promise to Israel, what does

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Paul say? Romans four, one to seven. Paul says, I ask then, has God rejected his people?

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By no means, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

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God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah?

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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.

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But what is God's reply to him? I have kept for myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

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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.

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Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.

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The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. God is keeping a remnant.

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God has always kept a remnant, and he secured his blessing to Abraham through that remnant by way of divine election.

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The Father chose them in eternity past. The Son would die for them in history, and the

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Spirit was keeping them. So between Genesis 15 and Genesis 17, we see a couple realities.

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There's a few realities at play here. There's two aspects to the Abrahamic covenant.

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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.

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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.

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Only those who were elected in eternity past, the remnant, if you will, the elect, are secured by God.

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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 gotta look at.

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So far, we've seen the promise in Genesis 12. We've seen a covenant cut in Genesis 15.

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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.

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He was promised a singular nation and numerous nations, and he was promised that many kings would come from him.

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Genesis 22, verses 17 to 18, adds one more vital aspect to understanding the unfolding of the covenant of grace in history.

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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.

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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

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Abrahamic economy, his conclusion in Galatians 3, 16 led

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Paul to see a distinction between a singular offspring and plural offspring.

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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.

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The promised seed of the woman was coming, and it was coming through Abraham.

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At last, at last, after thousands of years of waiting, we know which family the

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Messiah will come through. Abraham was promised a lineage, a land, and a

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Lord, and that Lord would bring the blessing of Abraham to all of the nations.

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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

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Mosaic covenant and the Davidic covenant, you'd see the very same consistency of covenantal structure and a narrowing of redemptive history, right?

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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.

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To David, God told Abraham his lineage would be in bondage for 400 years, and then take possession of a singular nation.

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Did that happen? That happened exactly as God promised. Joshua 21, 43 to 45 says, thus the

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Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give their fathers, and they took possession of it, and they settled there.

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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

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Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the

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Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass. God gave

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Abraham offspring as numerous as the stars, and he fulfilled his promise to give them a nation.

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But what about that singular offspring who would bless all of the nations and all of the families of the earth?

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Where was he? Where was the promised seed? Where was the offspring of Abraham?

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The Messiah, the promised King, right? We know that he's coming from Abraham. We know that he's gonna come through Israel.

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We even know that he's gonna come from the tribe of Judah. But where is he? Which family of Judah will the

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King come from? At first glance, hey, maybe it's King Saul, right? Was King Saul our promised

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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.

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Israel was still looking for her promised King. And then in 1 Samuel chapter 16, we find a

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King from the tribe of Judah. 1 Samuel chapter 16.

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The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul? Since I've rejected him from being

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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

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King among his sons. And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.

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And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. Then Samuel said to Jesse, are all of your sons here?

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And he said, there remains one, it 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.

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And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ready and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the

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Lord said, arise, anoint him for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers.

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And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.

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The Lord has chosen the family within Israel from Abraham that would give rise to that promised seed.

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The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lord of lords, the King of kings was coming through David. We can see this covenant of grace, how it's being revealed in the gospel, but it's advancing step by step.

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It was revealed in the gospel, first of all, to Adam and that promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and then step by step by step in history, we're getting more information about who this promised seed is going to be, how

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God is going to save his people. And then God cuts a covenant with David in 2

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Samuel 7, verses eight to 16. And here's a summary, if you will, of what

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God promises in that covenant. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers,

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I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.

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He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.

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Your throne shall be established forever. David's throne shall be secure forever.

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He will not lack a descendant to rule from it. Now, how does this happen? This can only happen in one of two ways.

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Either David will have an ongoing line of mortal descendants who are all blameless and worthy of the throne.

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Or he will have a single descendant who is blameless and who will live forever. We know from the history of the kings, if you've read

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Kings, David did not exactly have a line of faithful offspring, did he? So that option, we can kick that one to the side right now.

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It wasn't that way. But how then will a single man from the line of David be perfectly blameless and have a life that is eternal?

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Who on earth could possibly meet such a requirement? How could any man have the power of an indestructible life?

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If you didn't already know the answer, it would blow your mind. Actually, knowing the answer might blow your mind even more.

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Isaiah already told us this was a question of how this was gonna happen, didn't he? The son who would be born to Israel would be the mighty

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God, the El Gabor. But then it actually happened. What does

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John say, right? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the

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Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Glory as of the only

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Son from the Father, full of grace. In truth, God promised that He would dwell with His people.

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But like that, by taking on our own likeness, the

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Son of God Himself was going to take on human flesh, right, and become the seed of the woman.

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God will secure the blessings for His people, and the covenant of redemption between the Trinity from eternity past will be accomplished in history when the seed of the woman cuts a new covenant, one that unlike the old covenant with Israel can never be broken because it will be accomplished by the eternal

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King who possesses indestructible life, and He will be the covenant head of a new race of humanity.

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Now let's look at that initial promise, right? I hope you all know where this is found initially.

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If not, no shame, but it's Jeremiah 31, right? Let's look at the initial promise of that new covenant, and we're gonna use the same evaluation method on this that we have used on every other covenant in the

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Bible. Jeremiah 31, verses 31 to 34. Behold, the days are coming, declares the

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Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when

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I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the

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Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the

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Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their

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God, and they shall be my people, and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, know the

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Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.

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For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

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If we're gonna use this same analysis, if we're gonna be consistent with the way that we interpret the

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Bible, and we need to be, let's look at this covenant. What is the ranking in this covenant?

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God is sovereign, and he's making a covenant with Israel and Judah. If you're not part of Israel, that's to say if you're not an offspring of Abraham, you're not in this covenant.

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Now, who is an offspring of Abraham, right? Who's part of the olive tree of Israel?

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Those who have a connection to Abraham, but remember, God's promise to Abraham had two aspects, didn't it?

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There was the offspring of the flesh, and the offspring of the promise. Only those who are children of the promise are insured of a connection with the

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Abrahamic blessing. And in Romans 11, we see that that olive tree was pruned. The children of the flesh were cut off from that tree if they were not also children of the promise.

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But we see something else, right? Gentile believers, this is our hope, I'm assuming most of us are former

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Gentiles here, Gentile believers were grafted into it. Gentile believers are children of Abraham, and as such, we have a connection to every promise that was given to Abraham.

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If, and only if, we are members of the true Israel, Jesus Christ, right?

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That was the ranking, here's God, right? What are the rules for that covenant given in Jeremiah 31? Who does what?

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God will put his law in their hearts. No longer will the law be external, right? It's no longer gonna be on tablets of stone, it will be written upon the heart of every member of this covenant.

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And God will be God to the members of this covenant, and they will be his people. Now, we've gotta ask this question, right?

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If the rules that God lays forth are that he will write his law on the heart of new covenant members, could

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God fail to do so? Could God break his own covenant rules? Could he have a member of that covenant who does not have a new heart?

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Remember, this is important, right? Let the scripture speak for itself. Covenants define their own terms.

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Could God fail in that? Of course not. Now, what are the rewards for that new covenant?

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They will no longer have to teach one another to know God, that's to say that they'll know God intimately and uniquely in a way that only a covenant relationship can create.

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And here's the kicker, right? God will remember their sin no more. Every member of true

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Israel, every offspring of Abraham under this new covenant will be forgiven of their sins.

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But how? The seed of the woman will be victorious and he will ascend to the ancient of days.

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And he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek with, as Hebrews 7, 16 says, the power of an indestructible life.

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He is that faithful, eternal son of David and the king priest who will save to the uttermost all who draw near to God in him.

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But where's the covenant ratification, right? I said you have to have all of these. Where's that covenant ratification in Jeremiah 31?

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It's not present. Why? Because Jeremiah is telling us the content of the covenant that will be made in the future, right?

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In Jeremiah, however, it's not yet a covenant in history. It's the promise of a new covenant, the promise of a coming covenant in the future.

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So where do we see that covenant ratification? Where's the oath that's necessary for this to be a covenant?

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It comes hundreds of years later. And we went over this verse last week, but it comes hundreds of years later in the upper room on the eve of the sacrifice of the

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Lamb of God who was promised all the way back in Genesis 22. On the very mountain, by the way, where our

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Lord would be offered for our sins, right? We see the covenant ratification, this oath, if you will, in Luke chapter 22.

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And it says, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I covenant to you as my father covenanted to me a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

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What does all of this mean for us today, okay? How are we to operate and live in light of the reality that Christ has come?

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Every promise has focused in upon this one singular man. The Davidic king is here.

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The suffering servant of Isaiah 53 is here, and he has died for his offspring. God has given a promise, and he has sealed it with an oath that that messianic king priest would intercede for all of his covenant people, and that he will not lose a single one of them.

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The true Israel, the offspring of Abraham, the seed of the woman has come, and he's crushing

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Satan beneath his feet. How should we live now that the covenant of grace has been fully revealed and accomplished in history?

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Way back in the first sermon, right, towards the beginning, I made this emphatic statement, right, that our view on this topic has to be consistent, right, our view of the covenant should carry across to every area of faith and life, theology proper.

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Our view of God's decree in eternity past, our view of salvation, the church, the household, our mission in the world, and our view of apologetics and eschatology, all of this needs to be consistent.

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So how should we live? We live consistently with the revelation of God in history.

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Consistently with the covenant of grace in history as it has reached its intended destination in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

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Think of this, before the Abrahamic covenant, right, how were men saved?

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You can shout it out. How were men saved before the Abrahamic covenant? By grace through faith.

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Trick question, who received the sign of the covenant before Abraham? There wasn't one.

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Who was part of God's visible covenant people on earth? No, before the

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Abrahamic covenant, no such covenant existed in history, right? Genesis 12, that didn't come until Genesis 15 when it was formalized in a covenant, right?

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After Abraham believed, who was part of God's eternal people? Those who belong to the son in eternity past.

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It wasn't until after this covenant with Abraham was made in history that God promised a lineage and a land and a

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Lord, and then Abraham lived consistently with that covenant arrangement, right? After the

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Abrahamic covenant, between Abraham and Moses, you can answer again, how were men saved?

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By grace through faith. Who received the sign? Those who were connected to Abraham.

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Who was part of God's visible people on earth? Those who were connected to Abraham. Who was part of God's eternal people?

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Those who belong to the son in eternity past. And then God made a covenant with Israel and gave

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Abraham's lineage a land. But the promise of that Abrahamic Lord was still waiting, right?

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Now let's fast forward a little bit. Between Moses and David, how were men saved?

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By grace through faith. Who received the sign? Those who were connected to Abraham.

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Who was part of God's visible people on earth? I know this is getting old, but it's important. Who were part of God's visible people on earth?

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The offspring of Abraham. Who was part of God's eternal people? Those who belong to the son in eternity past.

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And then God made a covenant with David from the house of Judah to bring the perfect and obedient son into history through him.

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All right, let's summarize all of that. Under Abraham, Moses, and David, how were men saved?

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By grace through faith. Who received the sign? The children of Abraham.

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Who was to be part of God's visible people on earth? Israel, the children of Abraham.

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Who was part of God's eternal people? Only children of Abraham by the promise.

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And then in the fullness of time, right? The promised son, that promised seed arrived and he cut a covenant in history with his own blood.

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And we've got to ask the very same questions here that we've asked of every other covenant up to this point.

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And just as with every inauguration of every covenant before this, we have to allow the covenants to define themselves and to further reveal the covenant of grace in history.

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And then with that final revelation in the person and the work of Christ in history, how are men saved?

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Same way, by grace through faith. Who receives the sign?

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Same group, the children of Abraham. Who is to be part of God's visible people on earth?

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Same group, those who are part of Israel, the children of Abraham. Who is part of God's eternal people?

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Same group, only children of Abraham by the promise. Now, this is the consistent story for all of history, right?

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There's continuity in every single one of these categories from old to new. What's different though today, okay?

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Who's a child of Abraham? Is God unjust?

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Ask yourself this, is God unjust for removing those from Abraham who did not meet the terms of that covenant?

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Would it be unjust for God to remove them, the covenant breakers? Or is that not exactly what he promised he would do in the prophets when he told of the time in the future that the disobedient would be cut off?

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What are the covenant rules under the new covenant? God -given faith.

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And because this faith is from God and it's a sure thing, this is how Christ could say to his sheep, right?

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That it's his sheep and only his sheep that hear his voice and that he will never lose them. It's a work of the

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Trinity from eternity past being realized in time. Can somebody who does not have

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God -given faith, can somebody who does not have God -given faith be called Jesus' sheep? Do you remember some of the criticisms

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I brought up in the first sermon that we'll receive from our dispensational brothers? We're accused of replacement theology, right?

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Because we don't see, we no longer see a special covenantal existence for the nation state of Israel, according to the flesh, right?

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We have different views of future priests and the temple and future sacrifices. Why do we get this criticism?

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Do we think that God failed to keep his promise or that he broke his promises? Of course not. We believe the church is the eschatological

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Israel that the Old Testament was pointing to. We still have a priest and we still have a temple and we still have a sacrifice, but we have the final and perfect eschatological priest and temple and sacrifice in the work and the person of Jesus Christ.

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We see continuity from old to new, but we do see discontinuity.

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But it's not discontinuity as if God's done away with dealing with the children of Abraham. It's discontinuity by way of fulfillment, right?

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It's discontinuity by way of Christ has come. That's what they were pointing to, he's here.

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We recognize that what the faithful Old Testament saints experienced by way of fleshly types and shadows, we experienced by way of the fulfillment of those types and those shadows in history.

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They looked at the types and the shadows in faith and got a picture of that reality.

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We look at the reality itself. This is what's better about the new covenant.

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We have a better priest, we have a better promise, we have a better sacrifice.

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Jesus is the true Israel, the true priest, the true temple, the true sacrifice.

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And if we are under his federal headship, we are identified in him as children of Abraham.

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For all of history, okay, who's part of Israel? The children of Abraham.

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But remember, Abraham had two seeds, the children of the flesh and the children of the promise.

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One that could be cut off for disobedience to the covenant terms and one that was elected in eternity past and secured by God, the spirit.

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And what are the covenantal rules of the new covenant that we went over? What does covenant obedience look like and where does that obedience come from?

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Here's what it looks like. God will put his law in their hearts and the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish it.

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A new heart is the condition of the new covenant. If you were part of Old Testament Israel, but you did not meet that new covenant condition, you were cut off from Israel.

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But you could be grafted back in, is what Romans 11 says. You could be grafted back into the true Israel if you were grafted in by meeting the covenant condition.

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God -given faith, faith in the true Israel, Jesus Christ. And this is something that only children of the promise can truly have.

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It's the condition for continuing to be connected to Abraham and receiving the blessing that was secured to him by way of covenant.

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Only those who have faith in Jesus Christ are connected to that Abrahamic promise.

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Romans 11, and there's different interpretations on this, I get it, but Romans 11 says that the physical connection alone is no longer a way to be part of Israel because the only connection to Abraham that remains is the connection by way of the promise.

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I know this can be uncomfortable for some, I get it, okay? But once again, we have to allow the covenants to define their own terms.

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The promise has come in history. Galatians 4 makes this very same point, right?

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Tell me, Paul says, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?

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For it's written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman, but the son of the slave was born according to the flesh while the son of the free woman was born through promise.

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Now, this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery.

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She is Hagar. Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem for she is in slavery with her children.

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But the Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother. Now you brothers like Isaac are children of promise.

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Who is part of God's eternal people? The very same group that it has always been.

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Those who have been given to the seed of the woman, the offspring of Abraham, the true Israel, the son of David.

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Who's part of God's eternal people? The children of promise, right? Same group, start to finish.

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And it's those and those alone whom he intercedes for as the high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

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To say otherwise is to say that Christ intercedes for some and fails.

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That's not the type of savior that we have. That's not possible. Christ does not intercede for some and fail.

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He saves to the uttermost all who are in him, right? We live in light of the covenants that God has revealed in history.

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And we've received what the Old Testament saints were waiting for. We have received what was promised in history.

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The covenant of grace has been fully revealed and accomplished. We are the children of promise, not the flesh.

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We are part of the true Israel. We are in Christ, the true

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Israel. As Galatians 3 .29 says, "'If you are

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Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, "'heirs according to promise.'

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And since we are Abraham's offspring in Christ, we are part of that true

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Israel. And our role remains as a holy nation of priests. Church, our job is to be a light to the nations.

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Because of this, we go to all persons and we tell everybody about the victory of the king and what he commands.

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We proclaim his standards to every realm of Christ's world.

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We tell those who are not part of true Israel to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. We tell them to worship the conquering king and we teach them how.

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They must have faith if they are to be Abraham's offspring and heirs of the promise.

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The time of ignorance has passed and God commands all men everywhere to repent. Either you are in Adam or you are in Christ.

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You cannot have two federal heads. Now, because of everything we've gone over here today, this is why we're

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Reformed Baptists. Only Abraham's offspring are part of that true eschatological Israel and therefore only

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Abraham's offspring ought to receive the visible sign of that community. This is the natural result when we allow the covenants to define their own terms.

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Now, I also want you to take note of the way that I presented this argument, okay?

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Because Baptists, right, us, we're often accused of using only the New Testament and not allowing the

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Old Testament categories to define themselves. I didn't do that today for a reason, right?

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I allowed the Old Testament, how much of what I went over was New Testament? Not a lot. I stuck with the

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Old Testament. I allowed the Old Testament to give us those categories that we should see in the New. Why?

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Because regardless of if we're reading our Bible from the left to the right or the right to the left, when we allow the covenants to define themselves, the message is the same.

01:00:05

It's consistent. I've also heard the criticism that it's not consistent, and this is laughable to me, that it's not consistent for us

01:00:17

Baptists to teach our kids to pray or to worship Jesus because we don't know their heart, right?

01:00:24

I've even heard some Baptists say that our kids are nothing more than vipers and diapers. But listen, we can no more presume that than we can presume that they're

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Abraham's offspring. Both are wrong, and a proper view of sphere sovereignty addresses this issue, right?

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Because we worship the seed of the woman who's been given all authority, we teach all men everywhere to repent and worship that king.

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Who else should we teach our kids to worship? Worship's inevitable, right?

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We all worship. Ought we not teach our kids to worship the king of kings and trust that the

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Lord knew what he was doing when he sovereignly placed those little munchkins under our household authority?

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Every sphere, household, church, state is to serve Jesus. He's the king.

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We have different tools in that, but there's one rule, one king. The church has the keys.

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The civil magistrate has the sword. The household has the rod. And we implement these tools that the

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Lord has given us, but we're implementing the very same standard and proclaiming the very same message of the king who has come.

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Does our role as priests and prophets stop when we go to work?

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Of course not. Does it stop when we go to the voting booth? I sure hope not. Don't we, especially, go to the civil magistrate, we pray and we command them to repent and kiss the son.

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Does this priestly role, does this prophetic role somehow stop when we get home? Ought we not give our children the same commands?

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Our child is either in Adam or Christ. That's up to God, not us. They're either united with the true

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Israel or they're not, but we give the gospel in every sphere because the gospel alone is the power to save.

01:02:12

And that gospel is the gospel of a kingdom, regardless, right?

01:02:18

The standard is the same for all people. No matter where you're at, the standard is the same for all people and we deliver that same message to everybody.

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Christ is the messianic king. He has been given the nations. Repent and believe the gospel.

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The church's role is to disciple the nations. The role of our pastors is to disciple the sheep. The role of the parents is to disciple the children, but we are discipling according to one standard, under the authority of one king.

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This is what obedience as a Christian looks like, Baptist or Presbyterian, doesn't matter. This is what obedience looks like.

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And we trust God with the results. We trust him in all of it because he is the faithful one and every enemy will be defeated.

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Because of that, we're to act like this is true, because it is true. I'll be closing with this, okay?

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Think of this, would you? Even an atheist is obligated to teach their children to worship

01:03:17

Jesus, aren't they? They don't, but they're commanded to. Even the

01:03:23

Muslim is obligated to worship Jesus and teach their kids to do likewise. Once again, they don't, but they're commanded to.

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Do we somehow not have the same obligation because we're Baptists? That's silly.

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It's just a silly argument. Our view must be consistent, start to finish.

01:03:43

Jesus is the king of everything. He has been given the nations. If we are Christ's, we are children of Abraham and we live in light of the reality of the covenant of grace in history.

01:03:53

Brothers and sisters, are you new creations? Are you part of the eschatological

01:04:00

Israel? Live like it and proclaim the victory of the messianic king.

01:04:06

That king is uniting all things to himself in heaven and on earth and his covenant of grace, the means by which he's restoring and advancing the cosmos to their intended destination has been revealed in history step by step by step.

01:04:23

The promised seed of the woman has come and he has passed through the fiery judgment of God on behalf of all of his sheep.

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He's collected life from that tree. The coastlands wait for his Torah and in him, every nation of the earth will be blessed.

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Let's pray. Heavenly father, we do thank you that you are faithful to your promises because we are not.

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We thank you father that you have grafted us into your promises in the person of Christ.

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And we ask Lord, as we go out into this week, as we apply this message to our lives, that we would be consistent with your message, start to finish, that we would live like the messianic king has actually come because he has.

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That we would go into the world as Christians in every area that we go into and actually live like Christ is king.