TiL- Reformed Covenant Theology pt 9

Cross, Union With Christ, and the Benefits of Salvation

Cling to the cross, then put both arms around it, hold to the crucified and never let him go. Come afresh to the cross at this moment and rest there now and forever, then with the power of God resting upon you, go forth and preach the cross.

Welcome everybody to the Truth and Love podcast. We are thankful, grateful to be back with you. We are on part nine or chapter nine of Covenant Theology, let's see, Reformed Covenant Theology by Harrison Perkins.

Chapter nine, we're going to be going over that tonight. Stick with us.

Truth in Love podcast. Join this Baptist and Presbyterian as they discuss theology and its application to life. Together, let's seek the Son and glorify the Father. Stay tuned as we speak truth in love.

Dan, how's it going?

Good. You just said chapter nine. I'm in the wrong chapter. Oh, that's not good. Here's the cool, here's the fun part about it. I wrote down chapter seven. I wrote down the title to chapter nine. So I'm ready to do all the stuff that we're supposed to do, but I don't have any of the right information written down.

We'll muddle our way through it. Go team. Okay. And we've not been together since November 2nd, the day in which Dan and I share a birthday. So happy birthday, Dan. Well, thank you. I turned 40 this year.

Nice. Nice. Then I had to take a nap for the last three weeks. What does that say for me? I turned 46 this year. Oh, you're used to it. I got you. I got you. Oh, well, before we go on any further, I just wanted to share this.

I got this in the mail today and you can too. If you go to chapellibrary .org, of course we don't do any paid advertisements or get paid for anything, but they have great resources and now they offer, you can put in your card up to $20 worth every month, starts over every month and you can get free resources for yourself or like what I do, I try to order several copies of the same thing of things I think members at my church would be interested in.

So I've got this little track, they call it, on depression and the Christian. I got this one, church membership. Oh, you went dark, Dan. And then I got this one on the regulative principle of the church.

I thought Dan may have a comment on that one, but he has, he has went dark and he has frozen. So we're going to, we're going to wait on Dan, hopefully he'll be back with us. But again, chapellibrary .org, you can get $20 a month of free resources.

Just go through on any topic, search it up and they have tracks, booklets, all kinds of different topics that you can, materials, reading materials that you can get for yourself, good biblical Christian material or for your church.

There we go, we lost Dan and I'm right in the middle. So we'll give Dan just, just a few minutes. Dan lives in a Northern state in America and they recently had, he said, over a foot of snow, which caused them to lose power.

He said they just got power back the other day and they're trying, they've been trying to do some catching up in the house and he's fortunate to have power and was able to be on with us tonight. He may have had some power issues there at the house.

So we're going to give him a few minutes to get back on with us as he is working his way back. And I don't have my phone, I don't know if he's texting me or not. Maybe he can send me a message via the internet.

But we're looking at Covenant Reform, Reformed Covenant Theology by Harrison Perkins. It's a really good book if you're interested in learning more about Reformed Covenant Theology. Reformed Covenant Theology is most prevalent in your Presbyterian and Reformed Baptist churches or Christians who identify as Reformed or Presbyterian or Reformed Baptist.

And there's so many different distinctions that can be made and differences that we could talk about between and nuances between the different denominations, between the different ideologies and doctrines between.

And even there's a Reformed church out there that's definitely not related to the Presbyterian idea of Reformed Theology or the Reformed Baptist idea of Reformed Theology. And maybe that's something that we can tackle later on of what they believe as a Reformed church, not a Reformed Presbyterian, Reformed Baptist, but just the Reformed church.

I'm going to try to take this off while I'm talking. I've got to find it first. We've got two people watching. Thank you guys for watching. Dan, something happened to his internet and it froze on him and he left.

I'm hoping that he still has power and he's able to get back on with us. I'm going to give him a few more minutes to try to join us and get back on so we can look at Chapter 9 of Covenant Theology. But if he doesn't, they've had some power issues where he lives because of snow and things.

So we will get back to this eventually, either tonight or another night when Dan has more stable internet access. But one of the questions that I want to ask Dan first off when it comes to this chapter, Chapter 9 of Reformed Covenant Theology, was this.

As we've been looking through the different chapters in this book and getting Harrison Perkins to understand of Reformed Covenant Theology, and he's pulling from the Westminster Confession, he's Presbyterian, but there's been Reformed Baptist who recommend this book.

I've enjoyed this book and I really don't have too much disagreement. I've not read too much disagreement as we've worked our way through this book. But here's what surprised me. This has been a book on Reformed Covenant Theology.

I feel like there's been a lot that a dispensationalist could agree with, especially this chapter. The title of Chapter 9 is Covenant of Grace in the Benefits of Christ. So just leave off the word covenant.

Dispensationalists believe that we are saved by faith through faith, by grace, by grace through faith. They believe that we are saved by grace just like we do. And they also believe that when you are saved by grace, by God's grace, there are also benefits that come with being in Christ, being saved by God in Christ.

And you receive those benefits. You enjoy those benefits. And they will be the same benefits, many, many, many of the same benefits that we would see as those who hold to and believe in Reformed Covenant Theology.

So my question that I wanted to pose to Dan is, where's that distinction? If we are going through this material, reading this material on Reformed Covenant Theology, where's the distinction from a dispensationalist?

That's the big question. If I want to learn about Covenant Theology or Reformed Covenant Theology, I want to understand the difference between it and the dispensational covenant theology. Like I said in this chapter, a dispensationalist is going to agree that we are saved by grace and that there are benefits in Christ.

Let me read you this quote. I was going to share this with Dan. And I'm going to hate to backtrack and double up, say it again, repeat myself once he comes back. But I'll read this. And actually, bear with me for a second.

I'm going to pull up the messenger here and see if I can reach out to him on messenger. Well, it says something went wrong. It's not working. That's not very helpful. See, I don't have my phone with me, which is odd.

I usually have my phone. And it is not with me tonight. This is my only option is messenger. And it's telling me something's going wrong. That's not working. Let me close this out, open it back up, see if I can get in touch with him.

So what's the difference between dispensational and Reformed Covenant Theology when it comes to being saved by grace and the benefits of Christ? Well, on page 221, this is what I offered Dan. I was hoping to hear from him.

And eventually we will hear from him and his answer. Let me see. Sorry for the silence. See if you can see that. So this little section, and again, we'll cover this when Dan gets back, because this was a question directed to him.

It says Herman Bavick describes this covenantal dimension of union with Christ as a bond, but already forged between the mediator and those who were given to him by the Father in eternity in election.

So there's a key part there. There's something to take note of by the Father in eternity in election. So there would be a distinction. There would be a difference, and more precisely in the pact of salvation.

So you have in eternity in election. That's one thing. And then you have this pact that he's talking about. The pact is the, I would say, and I won't confer with Dan, the covenant of redemption. This is the covenant between the triune God, between God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit to redeem mankind.

So there's this pact from eternity past, and you have election in eternity past, which election is going to be part of that pact. And then he goes on to say, by the decree about this union, the Son became the elect's substitute, ex promissor, precisely because he already was in communion with them and was their guarantor and mediator.

So there's another huge, huge part of this, precisely because he, Jesus, already was in communion in eternity past when this pact was made between the triune God and part of that being election. Read into the fruit of that pact is that he was already in communion with them, the elect, and was their guarantor and mediator.

So we were already seen as in Christ in eternity past because of this pact. And there's a distinction. There's a distinction between dispensational theology and reformed covenant theology. So we both believe in the covenant of grace.

We both believe, or we don't. We both believe that we are saved by grace. We both believe that because we are saved by grace and found in Christ, there are benefits to being in Christ. And we maybe can have a conversation about, are there distinctions between the two theologies when it comes to the benefits of being in Christ?

However, here is where I think the distinction is. And Dan can correct me, or he can make an addition if he'd like to at some point. But the distinction is those who believe in dispensational theology are going to believe that this salvation by grace is during this particular dispensation, which is going to be, I don't remember the seven dispensations, but this dispensation, the post-Christ, after the post-cross, here's the dispensation of grace, I guess.

And I haven't memorized the seven dispensations because I'm not a dispensationalist. But during this time is when grace is offered. And this is when we can be saved by grace. And they would not say that there was a pact, a covenant, a promise made in eternity past, which part of that pact was to elect for himself a covenant people.

And so therefore, Jesus was our, we were seen in Christ because of this covenant, because of this pact. And there, I think, is part of a big distinction that can be made between dispensationalism and reformed covenant theology.

Ministry Update, Chapel Library Resources, and Conference Announcement

So I've been going 15 minutes. Dan was with me at the very beginning. I'm going to cut this short because I want him to be involved in this conversation. So as I said, go to Chapel Library, check out this material, check back with the Truth in Love Network Facebook page or the YouTube page.

Like and subscribe to those different channels and see when we're going to have to reschedule this and see when we can be on next. Unfortunately, the power went out for Dan and we are going to have to reschedule so that he and I can have this conversation together.

It's almost as if we've not been able to make this happen here lately, but that's okay. We are not under any kind of contract or time stipulation. We will get together as the Lord allows. And we're grateful for what he's doing on this earth, in the ministry.

We ask you to continue to pray for us as we try to serve the church and serve our families and try to serve him, serve the kingdom through this ministry. Remember to please go check out the websites, truthinlovenetwork .com and especially laborersconference .com.

Registration is open for the Laborers Conference. It's going to be next April 24th through the 27th at Vertical Life Church in Newton, April 24th through the 27th, 2025. Registration is open. We would love to see you there.

Thursday night, this is a special announcement. I've not announced this live on air before, but a special announcement is Thursday night is going to be Family Night Out, a night of comedy with special guests, a band of followers from South Carolina.

And then following them, we're going to have Keith Foskey. We are so excited to hear from him. He is also going to be preaching at the conference, but we are excited to have him presenting his comedy, especially his comedy skit to us and hearing from him, joining with other families and Family Night Out for Christian comedy.

It's going to be a night focused on coming together with our families and just enjoying the evening in Christ, having a good time. And I think it will be great. And then we will have a very intensive two, two and a half days of preaching and singing and fellowshiping together.

It's going to be great. We plan to have food trucks there for lunch on Friday and Saturday. And so food will be there. You won't have to travel far to get food. That is the plan so far. But please go to laborsconference .com slash registration and let us know that you're coming.

Make plans now to be there at the end of April, especially if you are in my area, in the Catopah County, Lincoln County, Mecklenburg, Burke, Rutherford, Cleveland, Gaston. In this area, it would be really good.

Our aim is for this conference to be very helpful to the local church. The theme this year is Take Up Thy Cross, focusing on sanctification and discipleship. All of the pastors, all the preachers but one, will be working our way through Luke chapter nine.

This is going to be unique for a conference. Normally, every speaker will have their own topic, and they'll use a variety of texts to support their topic. And we've done that before, and we'll probably continue to do that.

But this is very unique this year, where, you know, we all believe in expository preaching. And on this topic of taking up your cross, dying to yourself, sanctification and discipleship, we are going to work our way.

Each of us are going to have passages from Luke chapter nine. We're going to work our way through Luke chapter nine and present Christ, present the gospel on the topic of sanctification and discipleship through Luke chapter nine.

I think that's going to be amazing. And hopefully, our aim is for it to be beneficial and helpful to the local church. And so please go to that website, register, let us know that you're coming. If you have any questions, send us an email or a message or a comment on the videos.

We love trying to answer your questions. But as for now, we are going to be praying for Dan and his family. We hope that the power will come back on and they will be safe and warm. So please pray for Dan and his family.

And with that being said, thank you for watching. Thank you for your support of the Truth and Love podcast. We do hope to be on soon. And we will see you then.