Reformed Theology Pt 13| Covenant of Grace | 1689 Federalism

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Pastor Jeff Rice

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Reformed Theology Pt 14 | Covenant Theology | 1689 Federalism

Reformed Theology Pt 14 | Covenant Theology | 1689 Federalism

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Our text, again, is in Genesis 3, verse 15.
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Genesis 3, verse 15. Let's pray. Father, thank you.
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Lord, we look to you, the only God, for salvation, for comfort, for the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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Lord, we know that whatever is in our way, we have clear foresight because we know that Christ Jesus has already taken the victory.
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That no matter what's going on in the world today, or whatever the world system can dream up to bring about to put upon us, we know that our
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Lord and Savior sits on the throne of David at your right hand and is putting all enemies under his feet.
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And he is doing so by what took place close to 2 ,000 years ago, when the nations raged in vain and they nailed him to that cross.
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And in doing so, they nailed the record of death that stood against the elect. Oh, Lord, be with us, your people.
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Be with me as I attempt to explain the gracious covenant you have bestowed upon your people from all eternity.
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Amen. All right.
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So this is part 13 of our series dealing with reformed theology.
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Our theme for today was last week has been the covenant of grace.
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And our timeless truth is this, there has only been one way of salvation.
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And I explained that last week. There cannot be two ways. There can only be one way. If Christianity is true, there can only be one way of salvation.
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In order for Christianity to be true, Christianity has to be owed. And in order for Christianity to be owed,
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Christianity cannot be a parenthesis in the historical plan of redemption.
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Our dispensational brothers would say that God's redemptive plan was for the
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Jews. Jesus came in time, the fullness of time. The Jews rejected
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Jesus, so God had to make a plan B. And in doing so, came about the church.
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Ladies and gentlemen, if that is true, what I just mentioned beforehand is false and Christianity isn't true.
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In order for Christianity to be true, it has to be owed. The same way
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Abraham was saved is the same way that you and I today are saved. And my hope is this, is that for these few minutes, 45 -ish, you would give me your attention and that we could together walk through these passages of Scripture and we can see what
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God has revealed to us. Look with me at our text,
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Genesis 3, verse 15. This is the Proto -Evangelium. The Lord's speaking,
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I will put enmity between you and the woman. He is speaking, pronouncing this curse on the serpent that deceived the woman.
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I will put enmity between you, the serpent, and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.
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He will bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
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In our outline today, we will see the promise as well as the fulfillment, and I'm gonna give you three ways to think about the covenant of grace.
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One, the covenant of grace was a promise only in the old covenant. Two, the covenant of grace is the new covenant.
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And three, the covenant of grace is the covenant of works fulfilled.
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Now we are still at our first point. The covenant of grace was a promise only in the old covenant, and as we transition, last week we saw that our
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Presbyterian brothers would see, listen, full remission of sins and eternal salvation in the old covenant, which they see as the covenant of grace.
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How? How was this accomplished? By faith in performing the deeds.
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What are the deeds? The deeds being sacrifice, circumcision, paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered.
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Now ladies and gentlemen, is that what Christianity holds to as what we believe when it comes about salvation is if Abraham was saved by this, then that's how we have to be saved, by performing deeds.
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If we're not saved by performing deeds, then Christianity is an ode, according to this belief.
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Now I'm not saying that the
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Presbyterians believe this about Christianity, about Christians. They don't believe you perform deeds to be saved.
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But the Baptists have always taught, Reformed Baptists have always taught that salvation is by grace through faith,
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Old Testament, New Testament, Old Covenant, New Covenant. Last week
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I gave the example of one, and the one that I gave was the paschal lamb.
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If you remember the story about the paschal lamb, that they would once a year during the
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Passover, they would celebrate what took place in Egypt, them being freed from the bondage of Egypt.
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God sent plagues, and the last plague that he sent was the plague of the death of the firstborn.
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And so what the Jews had to do was, was they had to take the lamb, they had to slaughter the lamb, and they would put the blood on the two doorposts and over the lintel.
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And they were to cook and eat this lamb. And then as the death angel would come through, he would see the blood, he would see that these people were obedient, and he would not cause the death of the firstborn to take place over the house that was covered in the blood.
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And so year after year, every year, the Jews would celebrate this by taking a lamb, slaughtering it, putting its blood over the lintel and on the doorpost, and cooking and eating the lamb.
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This is called the Passover. It's still celebrated today, even by some
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Christians today. They celebrate and eat this meal. If you would turn your attention to Isaiah chapter one, we read this a couple of weeks ago,
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I just want to look at verses 11 through 20. This is the
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Lord revealing something to Isaiah. Isaiah chapter one, beginning in verse 11.
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What to me, listen to this, what to me is a multitude of your sacrifices, says the
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Lord. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well -fed beasts.
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I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats.
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If this was a way of full remission of sins and salvation, yet God's saying he does not delight in these things.
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When you come to appear before me, who has required of this trampling in my courts?
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Bring no more vain offerings, incenses and abomination to me, new moons and Sabbaths and the calling of convocations.
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I can not endure, iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates.
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They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.
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When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you will make many prayers,
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I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean.
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Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good.
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Seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless.
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Plead the widow's case. Plead the widow's cause, excuse me.
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Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.
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Though they are red like crimson, they shall become white, they shall become like wool.
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If you are willing and obedient, you shall, listen, this is to the
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Jews. Ask yourself, is this to us? If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.
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But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword.
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For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. John the Baptist sees Jesus coming toward him, and he says, behold the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He says, that is him.
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He's the one that's coming to take the sins of the world. No more repeating this process of killing lambs and putting their blood on the doors.
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Jesus Christ is come, and he is going to take away the sins of the world.
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This takes us to our first point. The covenant of grace was a promise only, and the old covenant.
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In dealing with typology, we as 1689
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Federalists would see the distinction between types and anti -types. So a type, it's pointing to something greater.
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The anti -type is the something greater. So you have the Pascal Lamb was pointing to Jesus.
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Pascal Lamb, type, Jesus, anti -type. It pointed to something greater.
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Our Presbyterian brothers, although they would recognize types, not so much anti -types, they would view one covenant of grace in the
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Old and New Testament, and one substance varying in dispensations.
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So they would see that in the old covenant, that the covenant of grace was revealed and established at Genesis chapter three, verse 15.
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And that old covenant, it's the same old covenant, I mean, that old covenant, the covenant of grace appeared in the old covenant, and when the new covenant came, it's still the covenant of grace, same covenant of grace, different substance, same substance, one substance under various dispensations, meaning that the type has changed, but the type is the same.
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For instance, they would view one substance, substance being
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Christ, everything for signifying Him to come, such as the
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Pascal Lamb. So they would see the Pascal Lamb signifying Christ to come. We would say amen.
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Amen. And since they view the covenant of grace as the new covenant and the old covenant, it makes them the same as Israel.
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So let me read that again. And since they view the covenant of grace as the old and new covenant to them, it makes
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Israel the same as the church. So Israel and the church are the same.
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And they would also view circumcision and baptism the same.
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It's the same thing. They come to this conclusion because in Genesis chapter 315, the covenant of grace appears, they believe it's established, it's the same covenant of grace in the
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Old Testament and the New Testament. So as the type and the anti -type is greater, but the anti -type is, it's only forced, the type is only a force signifying the anti -type.
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So it's the same. It's the same in substance, just a different administration, a different dispensation.
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So to them, the church is Israel and baptism is circumcision.
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Because it's the same, same covenant of grace in Old and New Testament. So baptism is circumcision and the church is
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Israel. Now, how would we look at this? We would say that they are not the same, but they are types, shadows, and pictures.
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We would say that the church isn't Israel, but that the church is the eschatological
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Israel, meaning it's the last things, the eschatological, eschatology means last things.
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So the church isn't Israel, but the church is the eschatological Israel, meaning that Israel as the old covenant was a picture of the true
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Israel, which is the church and the new covenant. So the church being an anti -type is not pointing us to something greater.
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So Israel as a type is pointing to an anti -type. The anti -type is the church.
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The church is not a type pointing us to a greater fulfillment, which makes it the eschatological picture, the end time, the things that's concerning the end time.
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I hope I'm articulating that well. Old covenant Israel would differ in substance, meaning the physical descendants of Abraham.
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So the old covenant Israel was different in substance, meaning that the
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Israelites are at the physical descendants of Abraham. Now I'm gonna try to show you how the church is different.
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The church is the spiritual descendants of Abraham. We are not the physical descendants of Abraham.
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If you return to your Bibles to Genesis Chapman, excuse me, Galatians chapter four, beginning in verse 21, we'll look at 21 through 31, but we'll read it in sections.
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Genesis chapter, Galatians chapter four, excuse me, Galatians chapter four, 21 through 31.
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All right, this text tells us that Abraham has two sons. It reveals them to us, not the text, but we know because we read the
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Bible as Isaac and Ishmael. So Abraham has two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.
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It's dealing with two women. The two women are Sarah and Hagar. And this text lets us know that these two women are two covenants.
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So verses 21 through 23. Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?
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For it is written, Abraham had two sons. Remember, Isaac and Ishmael.
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One by a slave woman, one by a free woman,
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Sarah and Hagar. Sarah is the free, Hagar is the slave.
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But the son of the slave, born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through the promise.
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So we have the two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, the two women, Hagar and Sarah.
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And it says that the son born to the slave woman, the slave woman who is
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Hagar, the son that was born in the flesh is Ishmael. We have the son,
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Isaac, is born to the free woman, the free woman being Sarah. And in our text, and in our text,
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Hagar represents the old covenant, Mount Sinai. Old covenant,
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Mount Sinai. Her children are the children of flesh born in slavery.
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This points us to the law of Moses and her physical children are the descendants of Abraham.
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Now, if you know the story, Ishmael's children are descendants of Abraham, but that's not who
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Paul is talking about. Let's read the real quick.
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Now I have down here chapter four, verses 24 through 25, but I want to go back and read verse 23.
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And so we'll read 23 through 25. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh,
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Hagar's, I mean, so Hagar would be the woman, the son of the slave would be
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Ishmael, was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman, so Isaac is the son, the woman is
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Sarah, was born through the promise. Verse 24, now this may be interpreted allegorically, these two women are two covenants.
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These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children of slavery.
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She is Hagar. So what happened at Mount Sinai? This is where, so imagine this, imagine you're an
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Israelite, you're walking with God because God has appeared, in the daytime
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He is a cloud, and at nighttime He is fire, and He is leading the
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Israelites through the wilderness. All of a sudden they come up to a mountain, and this cloud, this pillar of fire wraps itself in the mountain, and it starts to speak.
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And Moses goes into the mountain. But he tells them if they even, he says even if a beast touches the mountain, the congregation is to stone the beast.
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God in a theophany, I guess you could say, leads them as a cloud, and as a pillar of fire, and they come to this mountain,
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Mount Sinai, and this cloud, this fire wraps the mountain.
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Just giving you a picture, it wraps the mountain. And when
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Moses goes up there, he delivers to Moses the law, the 10 commandments.
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So this is what takes place on Mount Sinai. And Paul is saying it represents
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Hagar. Verse 25, now Hagar is
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Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds, listen, to the present, not our present, present, him speaking around 50 through 60
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B .C., I mean A .D., corresponds to present
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Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
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Why are they in slavery? Because they are under the law, the law of Moses, this law that was given to them on Mount Sinai with this mountain that was wrapped in smoke and fire, that even if a beast touches it, you shall stone it.
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Now in our text, Sarah represents the new covenant, and she is called the
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Jerusalem above. Her children are the children of promise, born free, this pointing us to the spiritual descendants of Abraham.
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So the physical descendants of Abraham are born enslaved, under the law, bondage, wrapped in smoke and fire.
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Right? Sarah's children, the
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Jerusalem above, is born free. This is pointing us to the spiritual descendants of Abraham.
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Now in context, if you know anything about this, this was actually the Jews also, right?
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I mean that's why, if you know the story, if you read the Old Testament, it's still talking about the Israelites, the
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Jewish people. It's verse 26 of our chapter.
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But the Jerusalem above is free. She is our mother, for it is written. I mean, yeah,
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I didn't mean to get to verse 27. She is our mother. This text,
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I believe, makes clear that the covenant of grace was not inaugurated in the
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Old Testament. If the covenant of grace was inaugurated in the New Testament, then that present
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Jerusalem would not be Hagar. She would not be in slavery.
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Her descendants would not be in slavery. It is pointing to the present Jerusalem.
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In the Abrahamic covenant, God made with Abraham a covenant of works.
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So when God came to Abraham to establish the Abrahamic covenant, as Reformed Baptists, we would say that it is a covenant of works.
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Our Presbyterian brothers would say, no, that's the covenant of grace. We would say that it is the covenant of works.
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And in doing so, in establishing this covenant, this covenant of works, it was to establish the kingdom people, an earthly kingdom people.
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That was the purpose of the Abrahamic covenant at that time for that people.
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Now we know through the covenant of grace, like the promise that it looks forward to would be that all the earth would be blessed through the offspring that comes from him.
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Now that's a promise. That's not what we see take place at that time. At that time, it was to establish a kingdom people.
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In the Mosaic covenant, he gave this kingdom people a law.
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Remember Mount Sinai wrapped in smoke. He gave them the law and he gave them a land, the land of Canaan.
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And then in the Davidic covenant, he gave this kingdom people whom he gave a law and whom he gave a land.
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He gave them a king. That the Adamic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic covenant are summarized in the old covenant as the
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Adamic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenant are summarized as the old covenant, which is a covenant of works.
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A covenant of works gave a do this or this would happen kind of an idea.
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This wasn't a, no, I'm going to do this and I'm going to bless you.
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This was a, I'm going to do this if you do this. If there's stipulations in the covenant, it is a covenant of works.
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And in the weeks of head, we'll hash that out. So what we're looking at is if the two covenants, old covenant and new covenant is the same covenant of grace, then you do not throw away, you do not do away with one of the covenants.
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So if it's the old covenant and the new covenant are the same covenants, then you don't do away with the covenant.
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It's the same covenant. You don't put one away. You don't throw it away. It doesn't get abolished.
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But yet we read in Galatians chapter three, verses 15 through 19.
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I'll give a little commentary. And I gave a little commentary in the past, but I'm going to be looking at it from a different angle.
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To give a human example, brothers, even with a man -made covenant, no one annuls or adds to it once it has been ratified.
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All right? So you ask yourself, what covenant is he talking about? Verse 16.
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Now the promises were made to Abraham. So this is talking about the covenant made with Abraham.
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To give a human example, brothers, even with a man -made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.
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Speaking of the covenant of Abraham. Now the promises were made to Abraham.
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A promise of a covenant of grace. This was made to Abraham. Listen, and to his offspring.
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It does not say, and to offsprings, referring to many, but to offspring, referring to one.
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And to your offspring, who is Christ. So the promise would be realized in Christ.
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Not in the Old Testament, but in Christ who was revealed in the
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New Testament. Verse 17. This is what
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I mean, brothers. The law, which came 430 years afterwards.
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After what? The Abrahamic covenant. Afterwards did not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void.
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So the law was added to the covenant made with Abraham.
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The Abrahamic covenant. It was not added to the covenant of grace.
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For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise, but God made it to Abraham as a promise.
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Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions until the offspring, which is
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Christ, should come to whom the promises had been made.
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The promises were made about Christ to Christ. And at his coming, the fullness of time, it would be established.
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So what does that mean? The Abrahamic covenant, no more. The law, no more.
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Why? Because the kingdom people are, them as a covenant kingdom people are no more.
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Is there still Jews? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. But the covenant that God had with them is no more.
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Why? Because the new covenant has been established. The covenant in the blood of Christ.
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Jesus said, this is the blood of the new covenant. It's something different.
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The law was added to the Abrahamic covenant. And I proved, I took weeks and proved that that law had been abolished.
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Not the law of God, meaning the 10 commandments, but the law that Jesus Christ fulfilled, ceremonial, judicial, that pertained to the geopolitical people of Jerusalem.
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Now, Galatians 4, 25 points us to the then present
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Jerusalem, who we know were the physical descendants of Abraham, that they were under the
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Mosaic covenant and Paul calls them Ishmaelites.
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He said, your mother is Hagar, not Sarah. Now, I don't know what it would take for you to lose your religion and put up your dukes and fight somebody.
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Like, I don't know what it would take for someone to, what someone would have to say to you that would make you want to fight.
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But these were fighting words to a Jew. All right? He said, you're not from Sarah, you're from Hagar.
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You're not a descendant. You're from Hagar, you are enslaved to your sins.
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Trust me, this is the worst thing, the worst thing that you could have said to a
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Jew was to call his mother not Sarah, but Hagar.
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Look at verse 25. Yeah, verse 25.
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Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai. Remember, wrapped in smoke. She corresponds to the present
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Jerusalem for she is in slavery with her children.
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So all those at that time who were in present Jerusalem, he says, your mother is
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Hagar. You're not of this covenant. Then he points to the
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Gentile Christians and he names them Israelites, saying that they were the children of promise, that they were the spiritual descendants of Abraham.
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Gentiles are not Jews, like, right? Like they're not physically, like they're not the
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Jews. But he says, spiritually, you are the children of Abraham.
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And your mother is Sarah. She's from the Jerusalem above.
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Verses 26 through 28. But the Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother.
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For it is written, rejoice, O bearing one who does not bear. Break forth and cry it loud, you who are not in labor.
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For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.
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Right here. Now you, who's he speaking to? The Galatian church, who are what? Gentiles.
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Now you, Gentile brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise.
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Note this, the Gentile Christians, I just said it, are not
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Jews. I'm gonna give you some reasons. For one, the
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Jews were the physical descendants of Abraham. They're not physical descendants of Abraham, so they're not Jews.
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For two, they were under the law.
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So in order to be a physical descendant of, so in order to be a physical descendant of Abraham, you had to be born under that covenant and you had to be under the law.
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Our text calls them children of Hagar. He's saying, you're under the law. A Gentile could not be a physical descendant of Abraham, though they could be made under the law.
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So a Jew could, it's what you would call proselyte. A Jew could take a
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Gentile, have him circumcised, and there would be these baptismal things that they would have to go through, and they could be made a
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Jew. But they were not physical descendants of Abraham.
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They were proselyte, they were made Jews. This is what the Jews, the Judaizers, were trying to do to the
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Gentiles. They said, yeah, yeah, Jesus, Jesus, yeah, we know Jesus, but in order for you to be a
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Christian, since Jesus came for the Jews, you have to become a Jew in order to be a Christian. They could be made a
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Jew, but you cannot be made a physical descendant of Abraham.
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A physical descendant of Abraham was born under the law. A spiritual descendant of Abraham is under the promise.
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Those that are under the promise are not bound by the law. And by that, again,
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I know people will take you out of context, I'm not talking about the Ten Commandments. I'm talking about the geopolitical rule system that was given to Israel.
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If you're under the promise, if you're a Christian, if you're under the sound of my voice and you're a Christian, you're under the promise and you're not bound by a law that was given to Israel when the cloud was wrapped in smoke.
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Now, don't let me confuse you here. Not that I probably already haven't.
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You could be a physical descendant of Abraham and a spiritual descendant of Abraham, meaning
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Paul, great example, Peter, great example. Any of Jesus' disciples, great example.
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Just name one. They were physical descendants of Abraham, but yet they believed in Jesus, which made them a physical,
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I mean, a spiritual descendant of Abraham. So they were both physical, born under the law, born under that covenant, but then they were spiritual because their faith was in Christ.
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So you can be a physical descendant of Abraham and a spiritual descendant of Abraham, meaning the
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Jews are welcome to believe in Christ. Or you can be a spiritual descendant of Abraham, meaning a
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Gentile like myself who has no part in the Jewish lineage, I can believe in Christ and by believing in him,
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I am a spiritual descendant of Abraham. But you cannot be a spiritual descendant of Abraham and be put under the law.
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This is what Galatians is written for. You cannot be a spiritual descendant of Abraham and become a
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Jew, become under the law. This is Judaizing and this is what
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Galatians 4, 29 through 31, read with me. But just at that time, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit.
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So also now, he's speaking in his present tense, now, but the scripture,
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I mean, but what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave woman, cast out those who are under the law and her son, for the sons of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.
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Brothers, so brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free.
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He's telling them that slavery came through being under the law.
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If you're under a law, you are a slave to sin. You are bound, you are in bondage to that system.
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And the Judaizers, they came preaching another gospel, how were they doing it? They were adding to the promise.
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What was the promise? That Jesus was going to come and that we would look to him.
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Jesus being the perfect God, perfect man, came, lived the life we could not live, died the death that we should die and in doing so, we look to him.
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They came preaching another gospel, saying, yeah, Jesus, but you have to become a
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Jew. And Paul says, they are anathema, cut off from Christ.
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Now, all that to say, I hope this will simplify, all that to say is that the physical descendants of Abraham, which was
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Israel, so Israel was the spiritual descendant of Abraham and the spiritual descendant of Abraham, which is the church, are two different substance.
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The substance being physical, spiritual. That's two different substance.
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So, hashtag not the same. It's not the same. Physical Israel is not the church.
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The church is not physical Israel. It is the eschatological
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Israel. Israel was a picture. It was pointing to something greater and that something greater is the spiritual descendant of Abraham, the church.
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I wanna read to you real quick. I read it last week and stumbled through it. I think I got it now. I wanna go through the
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WCF chapter seven, paragraphs five and six. Paragraphs five deals with the
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Old Testament. Paragraph six deals with the New Testament. It says, this covenant was differently administrated in the time of the law, speaking of the
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Old Testament, and in the time of the gospel, New Testament, under the law.
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Under the law, it was administered by promises, prophecy, sacrifice, circumcision, the
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Paschal Lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all for signifying
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Christ to come, which were for that time sufficient and efficacious through the operation of the
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Spirit to instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah by whom they had full remission of sins and eternal salvation and is called the
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Old Testament. So a quote from my pastor friend said that them, by performing these deeds in faith, by faith in performing these deeds, they had full remission of sins and eternal salvation.
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And my argument is this, is that the Old Testament under that kingdom people, earthly kingdom people, was never promised full remission of sins and eternal salvation.
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They were promised life in Canaan if they kept the law, and they were promised, cursed, removed from Canaan if they did not keep the law.
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Earthly promises, earthly curses, nothing, absolutely nothing was eternal.
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And when we get to the law and the distinction between the law and the gospel, we will prove that, we'll set out to prove that.
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I'm just putting that in your head right now. Paragraph six, under the gospel, when
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Christ, the substance, so it's naming Christ as the substance of what?
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And it speaks about the promises, prophecies, sacrifice, circumcision, Paschal lambs, and others.
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So all these were for signifying, that was pointing to the substance, for Christ, the substance, we exhibited the ordinances in which in covenant is dispensed are the preaching of the word and the administration of sacraments of baptism and the
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Lord's Supper, which through though fewer in number and administered in simplicity and less outward glory, yet in them, it is held forth in more fullness, evidence, and spiritual efficacy to all nations, both
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Jew and Gentile, and it is called the New Testament. Now here, here, here, here it is. There are not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one in the same under various dispensations.
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So, Old Covenant, this is their words, the Old Covenant is the covenant of grace, the
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New Covenant is the covenant of grace. You receive full remission of sins and eternal salvation by performing
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Old Covenant deeds, prophecies, sacrifices, so when they would sacrifice an animal, if they were in faith, sacrifice an animal, they will receive full remission of sin and eternal salvation.
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Ladies and gentlemen, that's a different gospel than what we're saying. That's not how people were saved now.
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It's different, that's not how Abraham was saved. But what makes them, in my opinion, still my brother is what they say in the
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New Testament. Now I think they're horribly wrong about the
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Old Testament, but what makes them my brother is what they say about the New Testament, and they get it right.
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It's the preaching of God's word, the sacraments of baptism in the Lord's Supper. Yes, yes, and amen, hallelujah, hollaback, that is absolutely correct, we agree 100%, but that covenant was not established until Jesus Christ died on the cross.
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Abraham believed and was credited with righteousness.
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Believed what? That one would come from him that would live the life he could not live. Now if we're right, and I believe we are, and the covenant of grace was a promise only in Genesis 3 .15
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and fulfilled at the cross, that means the covenant of grace is not, listen, is not the
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Old, is not of the Old Testament. And Israel is not the same thing as the church, as well as circumcision and baptism are not the same under different administrations.
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And next week we will examine circumcision and baptism. That'll make a lot of people mad.
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I'm gonna quote again from Samuel Renahan. Quote, your shadow is not you.
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Picture the church, I mean, picture Israel as the shadow. Your shadow is not you, but your shadow communicates information such as approximates physical features.
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Shadows don't show faces, also types are shadows that give true information about something other and greater than themselves.
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The church don't give information about something other and greater than itself. The church is what it is.
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The biblical language of pictures and realities makes the same point. Some restaurants have menus with pictures of their food in them.
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You can't eat the food in the picture, but you can order food based off the information from the picture.
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This goes back to the restaurant analogy. The picture is the shadow and the menu is the substance.
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Israel was the picture and the church is the substance. An analogy that Samuel Renahan gave in a lecture of his, he said that, imagine scaffolding.
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So if you know anything about construction, the scaffolding, the workers would use the scaffold to build the construction, the building.
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The church is the building. The scaffolding is this covenant that God had made with them that was constructing this building, which is the church.
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And once the building is completed, the scaffolding is taken down.
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But the difference is, is that the workers, which was Israel, were invited to come into the building.
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They were not told to go home. Your work is done, go home. They were invited to come and be a part of the building.
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And if you could picture Genesis 3 .15, let me read that real quick.
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I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
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If you can picture Genesis 3 .15 as a marriage proposal. So when
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I proposed to my wife, I gave her a ring. It really wasn't very romantic.
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Probably, yeah, she's shaking her head, no, not at all. I did my best. It was kind of like a heat of, it was kind of like a make -up and argument kind of a thing.
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But when I proposed to her and I gave her that ring, I promised her that I would, if she would take me, that I would,
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I was promising myself to her and only her, all right?
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It was a promise. That promise was fulfilled at the ceremony.
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When the ceremony took place, we were no longer engaged and that promise was fulfilled. There was no longer a promise, like it was done.
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The promise was kept, the promise was fulfilled, it was established. The covenant of grace was a promise only in the old covenant.
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I will put enmity. He said, I'm gonna do something. I'm gonna put enmity between you and the offspring of the woman.
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And he's gonna bruise your head and you're gonna bruise his heel. That's a promise.
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It is fulfilled whenever the bruising takes place and it's not fulfilled until then.
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The old covenant of grace was a promise only in the New Testament, in the old covenant.
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Genesis 3 .15 was the proposal. The COC, the covenant of grace, found its ceremony when
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Jesus Christ was nailed hands and feet to that cross. When Jesus was nailed hands and feet to that cross, that was the ceremony.
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That's when the covenant of grace was inaugurated. The covenant of works pretended to be the covenant of grace.
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I mean, the covenant, excuse me, the covenant of works pointed to the covenant of grace and here's why it ended.
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And I'll close with this. Galatians 2 verses,
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Galatians 3, verse 11 and 12. Now it is evident that no one,
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I mean, that is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by faith.
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But the law is not a faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them.
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If the covenant of works, Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the
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Davidic covenant was still established right now, we would not be living by faith.
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But by works of the law. And it had to end because now it is evident that Jesus is here, no one shall be justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.
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But the law is not a faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them.
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The law demands absolute perfection and none of us are perfect.
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That's why God sent his son to live the perfection that the law demands. And that is why we over and over and over, we talk about the sufficiency of Christ.
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The sufficiency of Christ that he is enough, that we don't need anything else. We don't need heaven to open up and to send us anything else.
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Why? Because Christ Jesus came and he did what we could not do.
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He lived that perfect life. And died a substitutionary atonement. And the call of faith and repentance is this, is that we by faith, trust in the one who lived the life we could not live and died the death that we should die.
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And in repentance, we turn from our selfishness, we turn from our sins, we turn from our wickedness, we turn from thinking that we can do something to earn righteousness and we turn to God by trusting in what
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Jesus Christ has done, by resting in that Sabbath. And as always,
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I'm available to anyone who wants to talk. Let's pray. Father, thank you.
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Lord, we love you. And God, I thank you for this day.
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Lord, it's so hard to stand before your people. So much stuff that goes, when preaching, that can go through my mind and the minds of other men who are faithfully carrying out this ministry.
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Lord, I pray that your hand be upon them as well. Lord, I ask for grace. I ask, Lord, if I said anything that was confusing, that you will unconfuse it.
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Lord, that you will cause your people to fall in love with your word and that they will read it and study and learn more about you.
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Lord, I pray for your supper. Lord, I pray that you will bless this meal, the body that was broken for us and the blood that was shed for us.
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That as we partake in this meal, Lord, we're doing it and proclaiming the
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Lord's death until he comes. So please bless these elements. We pray that you use them to grow us in holiness.