TiL- Reformed Covenant Theology pt 6

Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast. Tonight we are back into Reformed Covenant Theology by Harrison Perkins.

We hope you will stick with us. Tonight we are going to be looking at chapter 6.

Ephesians. Didn't I play that one last time? I'm pretty sure that's different music.

It is different music than what we're used to. It is. It was catchy. I like it.

I'm glad you liked it. And I'm not above free things.

I'm trying to utilize all that the internet has to offer. And so I'm not above it.

We're not professional. We are low -budget, but we love the

Lord and we love to talk about His goodness and truth. So yeah,

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Oh yeah. I enjoy it all the time. If they could only see me dancing backstage.

I know you Baptists aren't allowed to dance. Us Presbyterians are allowed to. You have to dance for us.

That is true. No, I don't have to dance for you. I'm just allowed to do it. I need to be able to dance vicariously.

Oh goodness. I don't think either of us need to be dancing. Anyway, we have derailed.

We've derailed. Let me read this passage that starts off the chapter. Ephesians 1 7 through 10.

In Him we have redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which

He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose, which

He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things to Him, things in heaven and on earth.

We're back in Reformed Covenant Theology by Harrison Perkins chapter 6 tonight.

The comment line is open. We'd love to hear from you. Dan, this chapter is the

Father, Son, and the Spirit in the fulfillment of salvation. And as I looked at this chapter, meditate on this chapter,

I thought to myself, I really don't see how a dispensationalist or somebody who's not a covenant theologian would disagree with much of what is said in this passage.

It's basically pulling out from Scripture who God is in the

Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Their work, their different parts, the things that they do when it comes to redemption.

Now we as covenant theologians, we see this... Parts of the action, not parts of God, right?

Parts of the action, right. Yeah, parts of their action. From what I understand, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm learning through this book, they each have different missions or different actions that they have covenant together that they each will have these different actions, these different parts.

They all have a different role to play in the one action that is

God securing and applying salvation to mankind. Yeah, yeah.

I don't remember all the big words that we learned in the last chapter, but we do know that...

Go ahead. To kind of bring us back to the last chapter, it talked about, basically it was going over how

God in the ontological Trinity, or how God exists, how all that worked.

It was talking about how God the Father is unbegotten, how

He doesn't proceed from anyone, but He is self -existent, as are all persons of the

Godhead. But then the Son proceeds from the Father, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the

Father and the Son. That should be good across the board, unless you're

Eastern Orthodox. They kind of deny that last part, that the Spirit proceeds from the

Father and the Son. But in redemption, it's that God that worked the plan of salvation for us.

And what we're doing now in this chapter is saying, all right, there has been this triune decree of God that God will save us.

Now, which person of the Trinity is accomplishing what in their one action of salvation of mankind as we go along through this life?

And anytime you talk about the Trinity, you gotta stumble over your words a little bit. Try to make sure you're not committing some heresy.

You gotta be careful. Yeah, because, well, God is so complex.

Well, He's complex and He's simple, because God is simple.

And I mean that as in, like, He's not made of parts or passions. He's not made of anything. You know, all three persons of the

Trinity are God. They're all co -equal, co -eternal, but not how you, so you have three powers, but one power.

And I mean, the whole Athanasian Creed, you've got to be careful not to overspeak when dealing with the

Trinity. But at the same time, we understand that God acts, and He acts, you know, as Father, Son, and Spirit, as three different persons, one

God. You know, unity in Trinity, Trinity in unity.

So we'll proceed with caution in our language, and we'll be good.

Absolutely, and that's wisdom. That's wisdom. Yeah, I've always wanted to be careful my whole life, and I believe it's always been the

Holy Spirit that has worked that in me, that, you know, we are image bearers.

We represent Christ, and with our words, with our actions, and what we do, and what we say, always are a reflection, either good or bad, of who

God is, and who God says He is. We are saying who God, we are saying with our words, with our actions, this is who

God is, and so I believe it's been the Spirit in my life that has always given me desire to walk a line of caution because of who we represent, because of whose image we bear, and so I think it's wisdom that you say that, that we proceed with caution.

I was thinking about it from the previous chapter. The members of the

Trinity, their wills are the same. They have the same will, but their functions are different, and their will is redemption.

Their will is to bring glory to the Father, and their will is for the

Spirit, which we'll learn in this chapter, is to bring glory to the Son, and to secure the elect, all those whom

God has given to the Son, to secure their redemption, and this work that is proceeding from the

Father, and proceeding from the Son, that's accomplished through the Son and the Holy Spirit here on earth.

So it's an amazing plan, and I guess that's why

Scripture says that God's ways are higher than ours, because we would never come up with a plan that would rival, even match, come close to the beautiful plan that this is of redemption.

Of course, it seems that it has to be that way because of the nature of who God is. You know, being a thrice holy

God, being an eternal God, there's going to be certain requirements that need to be met to satisfy

His justice, to satisfy His wrath, to represent His glory and His goodness,

His love and kindness, so the plan had to proceed from Him.

It could never proceed from us. Lead us on to the chapter 6.

Yeah, so Harrison puts it, right? What's his name? First name?

Perkins. Mr. Perkins. Dr. Perkins? I can't remember. He's a pastor. We call him

Pastor Perkins because I can't remember if he's a doctor or not, but he starts off talking about what is known as the economic trinity.

The economic trinity is how the Father, Son, and Spirit accomplish the different actions of God.

So how does it go about that? Alright, now God has decreed that salvation is going to come to mankind through the work of God in putting away our sins.

So how does that work? And how it breaks down is the Father is going to decree salvation through the

Son, and the Son is going to accomplish that salvation, and the

Spirit is going to apply that redemption to the believer. Now Perkins breaks it down a little bit further, and I think it's really irritating the way that he does it.

I say irritating because he uses all A -words, and I don't know, every time somebody uses that method where they just put everything in one letter word, it's irritating to me, but I mean really it works kind of well.

So we can't harp on him too much because I think he did a fairly good job of putting it together.

He calls it a triad of triads. Notice he doesn't say a trinity of trinities because he knows better.

It's a triad of triads. So what he says is this, and these are the A -words. He says the Father arranges redemption by the appointing of the

Son and the assigning of the elect to the Son.

So what he does is he says the Son will accomplish redemption, and he will accomplish redemption for these elect folks here.

So he has means of salvation and those who is going to be applied to. Move on to the work of the

Son, and it says that the Son will accomplish redemption by accepting the task given to him from the

Father. Notice how about that being begotten of the Father, or proceeding, you know, being begotten from the

Father. And then the attaining of righteousness for the elect.

So Father has said that the Son will go out and accomplish redemption. He assigns the elect to him, and so Jesus's role then is to say, yes

Father I will do that, and then he goes and actually purchases redemption for the elect.

Then you come to the Holy Spirit. We're gonna go over all these in detail, but I figured I'd give us an overview before we get into it.

So then the Spirit will apply redemption by accompanying the

Son through his work on the earth, and then administering redemption to the elect.

So there you have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all working together to accomplish the one action of God, which was, as it says in our passage, from the foundations of the world, that he has put these things into motion and really set them up to come to pass in time for us.

So good stuff. It is annoying because he alliterated it, but it's good stuff.

It's good stuff nonetheless. I know this is off subject, but I just realized that I resemble the picture on my shirt.

You are looking a little Sasquatch -y. Oh, and there went our one viewer that was with us with that comment.

It happens. Yeah, and I noticed that there were other attributes of the

Holy Spirit as well, which I found fascinating. Of course, like you said, he alliterated with A's the distinguishing attributes of the

Holy Spirit, but it was good to reflect on all those things because...

and it's rightly mentioned that in some circles that the

Holy Spirit is not studied, discussed, mentioned, talked about as often as he is in other denominations, and so it was good to explore this chapter and this section on the

Holy Spirit, and we'll talk about the Holy Spirit here in a few minutes, but it just reminded me, as you were talking about it, to think about all those different attributes of his and what he does to accomplish or his role in redemption, in this covenant of redemption, and just one other thought before we get started.

I was talking about how this chapter is basically talking about who

God the Father is, who God the Son is, and who God the Holy Spirit is, their parts, their work in redemption, and I don't think that there would be much argument from those who differ in viewpoints on how to interpret

Scripture, your dispensationalist versus covenant theology. This is just pulling from Scripture who

God says he is, but the one thing about it that I tried to settle this in my mind,

Dan, how does this chapter fit in a book on Reformed Covenant Theology, and to me, how

I understood this was it speaks of how

God does things. He does things in covenant, so we need to know who he is, the work that he said he is doing, has done in each person, and amongst the

Trinity, this work is accomplished by the covenant or promises that they have made amongst each other and then are worked out, and we reap benefits.

Those who are in him are reaping the benefits of this covenant plan of redemption that he has made, and so that's what it, from end to end, from the beginning to end, it's about the covenant of redemption, but it's about God saving his creation, and to me, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, when we have these,

I'll call them examples, so you have the Adamic, the Davidic, the

Noahic, to me it's just an example of reflection, saying,

I'm just showing you who I am. This is the God that I am.

This is how I communicate. This is how I work, so therefore, this is how it's going to work and operate within my creation.

It's pointing to God. When covenants are made here on this earth between men, between men and God, it's just pointing back to him and the covenant and covenantal promises made amongst the

Trinity. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What Perkins did in this book is he kind of pressed us into the issue in the first few chapters.

Dude, just kind of stuck our head or our noses in it just enough to where we can get a feel for what's going on, so he stuck us in there to where we could see our sin, problem of the fall, what happened in the garden, and then what he's doing now is he's saying, all right, so all of that took place, but back up a second, look at what is happening from God's perspective, who's outside of time, who is eternal, and then later on he's going to go into the rest of it.

He's in time. So the covenant of redemption, the eternal covenant of God determining salvation for mankind is then worked out through the other covenants throughout

Scripture, culminating in the new covenant in Christ, which is the fullness of the revelation of what

God is doing for us in time, which is crazy because it's like, here's what

God has done throughout all eternity and here it is given to you. So yeah,

I think you're right on. And we're in a position where why would,

I mean, if we're fortunate enough to have the Holy Spirit open our eyes, we're in the position of why would you do this for us?

And I believe he says to show you that I'm faithful in my promises.

I'm a covenant God and I'm faithful in my promises. Lord, why would you save a wretched sinner like me?

I'm faithful to my covenant promises. Yeah, yeah. In fact, God showed his love toward us and that while we were sinners,

Christ died for us. That's right. And even before that, before we were formed in the womb, he thought of us to plan to die for us.

So it's, yeah, it's an amazing thing. And Christ being the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.

I mean, this was his plan and he promised it and he kept his promise.

Right. And then he said, let there be light. Yeah. Yeah. Well, crazy.

Good stuff. So he made a lot of points about these a words, right?

So let's go back and kind of go through them. But like you so often impressed upon everyone that you come across, let's go to scripture with it because we're not going to pull it from anywhere but scripture, right?

Right. So the first point that he makes is that the father arranges redemption by appointing the son.

So where Perkins points us to is the book of Hebrews and he does it as he's the author of Hebrews is arguing that the folks who are tempted to go back to Judaism shouldn't go back because the high priest that is there is inferior to the high priest that is

Christ. Now we believe that Christ fulfills three offices, at least three offices, we'll say three of prophet, priest, and King.

Especially as priest, he takes his own sacrifice, places it on the altar and pays for the sins of men, which is accomplishing redemption for mankind, right?

So where does the scripture say that? Are we just making it up? But Hebrews five, look at it starting in verse one.

Every high priest, talking about the old covenant high priest, taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, being able to deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself is also beset with weakness.

And because of it, he is obligated just as for the people to offer sacrifices for sins in the same way for himself.

And no one takes this honor to himself, but receives it when he's called by God, even as Aaron was.

So his argument is the old covenant priest, especially the high priest, wasn't a high priest just because he wanted to be.

He had to be called by God in order to take on that office. Now look what it says in the next verse.

In this way also, Christ did not glorify himself to become a high priest, but he who said to him, you are my son, today

I've begotten you, just as he says also in another passage, you are a priest forever after or according to the order of Melchizedek.

So what you have there is you have it saying the old covenant priests were only priests because God made them priests.

And even more so, Christ is now a high priest not because he tried to take it to himself, but because God had appointed him as a priest forever.

And he calls it, it's a Melchizedekian priesthood.

What does that mean? It goes on at some point in here, I forget where, it talks about Melchizedek a little bit more.

Melchizedek was, you know, without origin, without beginning, without end, he didn't come from anywhere, he didn't go anywhere, he was in the story of Abraham, he was just kind of there.

He was, you know, eternal, so to speak. I mean, he wasn't, he was just a dude. But, well, some people think that Melchizedek was actually a pre -incarnate

Christ. I'm not so sure, but he was just there. So he's saying after the one who was just a priest out of nowhere, called by God to be priest in the time in which he lived, after that order,

Christ has been called forever to be the priest. So what does that mean? It means that Christ himself is going to be the one to offer the sacrifice for the people.

In order to offer the sacrifice, he has to have it. And that sacrifice is himself.

So that proves the first point that God the Father arranged redemption.

How he appointed Christ, Jesus Yugo, secure redemption for these people.

And I think that is incredible. Yeah, absolutely.

I'm just sitting here trying to think through, and I wish I could remember all the things that has went through these ears about Melchizedek and all the different theories of who he was and his interaction with Abraham and Abraham giving him the tithe.

Yeah, yeah, Melchizedek means a king of righteousness.

And he gives them a tenth of all the spoil, right? And Jacob later, at Jacob's ladder, when he's called in Genesis 28, he sees

God in a dream and God calls out to him and says, I'm gonna do this, this, this, and this for you. He comes to, wakes up in the morning, he stands up the rock on the end, pours the oil on top of it and says, if God's going to do all this for me, that's going to be my

God. And I'm going to give him a tenth of everything that I have. So some people will see if Melchizedek was the king of righteousness in a place called

Salem, which means peace. Then over here, Jacob, with God actually visiting him, he's going to give him a tenth.

He saw him as being the same person. I don't know. Yeah. But what

I do know is that Christ is the eternal priest because the father has called him to be our priest and our sacrifice.

Yeah. I'm also, I'm also reflecting on those theories about the king of Salem and that he could have been one of Noah's sons, and I can't remember which one.

Um, uh, it's, it left me and I'm not based on what

I recall in, in listening to those theories, I wasn't, I didn't dismiss right off the bat, the, those theories,

I found them intriguing and I want to, I want to look into them further about, uh, who this

McKell's McKell's is and the theory that he could be one of Noah's sons. You know, that sounds like a great master's thesis.

It does. And it, you can do it. I believe in you.

Uh, it, it may be part of Jewish tradition. I can't remember. But anyway, it's, it's fascinating and it's, uh, very interesting, but, uh, but yeah,

God, God arranged, um, and then is the next one he, he assigned and he assigned the elect.

Yeah. Yeah. And this, this will be the part where, you know, I was talking about how we could get along with, with many people in this chapter, this will be the part where, you know, we would set up a part ways a little bit, uh, where they, they don't see a scripture where, where God assigned the elect and give a certain people to the sun, every, everyone has a, uh, uh, a theology of election.

I don't think anybody would deny election, but they're definitely going to define it in different ways.

Differently. Yeah. Um, the, the reformed, um, view election is something that work or God, um, chose some for eternal life and some for eternal damnation of the

Lutherans believe that God did not, uh, make a decree with regard to reprobation.

Uh, just that he looked and decided to save some and just like it.

So in Lutheran theology, reprobation wasn't even an issue. It wasn't there. It wasn't, it just wasn't on God's mind.

He was just, these will be safe. I said, uh, you've got others, uh, the more

Wesleyan tradition who say that, uh, God saw who would believe and he elected those, you know, through foreknowledge, uh, in fact, a lot of people would say that, uh, some believe it's a corporate election where God, uh, elected those who would believe.

And then God doesn't really know who's going to do that. So they'll walk themselves in and out of election until they're finally there for good.

Um, so everybody would have a theology of election, but like you're always telling us, let's go to the scriptures and see what the scriptures say.

Right. That's right. I believe God has more involved role in choosing who is going to be his.

Yeah. And just no, you do have to wrestle with it.

I mean, you, you'll come across folks that, that want to argue with you. Well, I don't believe in election.

I don't believe in predestination. I believe that God gave us a free will. Okay. But you're still going to have to wrestle with election and predestination because God uses those words, right?

So you, you've got to wrestle with them and decide what does this mean? What is God telling me?

You can't, you can't just dismiss it because there's a certain group of people or it goes against the grain of, of maybe how you are brought up or, um, how you think things should be.

You got to deal with those words. Yep. So, uh,

Jesus in the parable, not yeah. Parable of the good shepherd. Um, I guess it's a parable.

Anyway, it's an analogy at the very least he goes, he goes, when he says I'm the good shepherd, it's like, uh, he, he, he talks about the, uh, but before that he says, you know, there's a gate, some sheep sheep over here and they're like,

Hey, uh, can you explain that to us? We're not really understanding what you're saying is I'm the good shepherd.

I'm the gate. They go in and out through me. So I call to my sheep, my sheep hear my voice and they come to me.

No, there's other ones. They're not my sheep. I have other sheep that are of this fold.

I'm going to call them. They're going to come to me because they're mine. And then in a versus 25 through 30, he says this,

Jesus, you know, cause they ask him, no, are you the Christ?

No. Are you the one that we should be believing in? And he answers, I told you, you do not believe me.

The works that I do in my father's name, these bear witness of me.

So what is he doing? He's doing these in the name of the father, which goes back to the previous point that he was appointed to do these.

Hey, go out and do these in my name. Here's my stamp of approval. Where's 26, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.

My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. So there are some who hear and follow some who hear and do not follow.

Why? Because there are some who are his sheep and some who are not. Uh, and I give eternal life to them.

Who his sheep, where did it go? And they will never perish ever.

And no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me. That's the point.

The father who has given them to me, the father said, son, go secure salvation, go secure redemption.

And here is the people you're going to secure it for. Oh, keep on losing my plastic.

Keep on pending there. Uh, father, uh, eternal life.

Uh, they will perish. And my father who has given it to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand.

I and the father are one set singular purpose of God.

What Jesus is doing. This is what God has arranged beforehand. This is what the father in heaven has said.

Go do. This is what Jesus has agreed to. This is, this is the plan of God. This is the action of the one triune

God. And you're seeing it through Christ. Christ has gone. The father has spoken and there he is doing, getting ready to, to perish on the cross and take the sins of men.

Because God has said here, die for these. Yeah. Got you. Yeah.

Yeah. I appreciate how you pointed out those two things that the father gave them to the son and then the son secures, um, the redemption for those that God has given to him, um, their, their, his sheep.

And it makes me reflect on what Christ didn't do. Uh, we're, we're in this time of,

I don't know when anybody, if anybody watches or listen to this later on down the road, when you will watch or listen to this later on down the road, where we are right now, we are in the middle of an upcoming election.

So what do we have? We have people trying to convince us not to vote for this person and to vote for this person.

So don't vote, don't vote for them. Vote for me. And here's why Jesus, this was not his approach.

This is not what happened when Jesus came. He did not come to try to persuade or convince people that, um, you, you need to, um, this is who

I am. You need to, to believe, um, you know, he didn't come to, uh, win a presidential campaign to, um, to get voted in as King.

Um, those things were, um, it's the passage acts that, that word, that word hit me.

So we were in our, our small group Bible study last night for church, and we have just started preaching through the book of acts and we're in acts chapter one.

And this is Jesus' response to, uh, the disciples. Uh, they asked, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel?

They were, they were concerned about the kingdom. This, they were, you know, they were being political.

And he said to them, it was not for you to know the times of the epics, which the father has fixed by his own authority.

We, these things are fixed. Jesus, Jesus wasn't, um, weary, worried, or concerned because he possibly wouldn't get voted in or he wouldn't persuade enough people.

Um, he wouldn't persuade the right people. That's not how he came.

He came with confidence because God's, as we spoke at the beginning, God's promises are faithful and true.

And, and we'll come to fruition because Jesus says the father has fixed these things by his own authority.

And so when Christ came, he came with authority and could speak to the winds and the waves, he could speak to the, to the demons and, and cast them out.

Um, Jesus had authority over creation.

He, he knew that, um, Philip was under the right.

Am I, am I correct? And I feel it was under the big tree. Um, I hope,

I hope I'm putting that correct. Well, I mean, I'm sure he was, but he, he knew these things because he, he w he was

God himself and, and had the ability to do those things and he could stand.

Um, he could stand with confidence before pilot, before the high priest, before the

Sanhedrin, before everyone, because God has fixed these things with, by his authority that they will be accomplished and, um, yeah.

So, so when you look at this, this election, um, you're only left with a couple options, you're left with either something that looks like the reformed view or something that looks like the

Lutheran view, uh, really, it depends on where you start, depends on how you get there.

Cause well, that's neither here nor there, but both of those, uh, set that, uh, they, they set that, that God has elected a people to be saved and that Christ is going to purchase salvation that will be given to those people.

And that's exactly what we're being told here in, uh, in this passage, all because this is, this is, this is the purpose of the father that the son would accomplish a redemption for the elect.

Yeah. So you want to know what the son does? Let's talk about, let's talk about the son and what he does.

Cause we only got 20 minutes to get him in the spirit. Doesn't seem like enough time. It doesn't.

All right. Well, we'll do what we can in 20 minutes and then we'll, we'll just take the rest of eternity to, uh, to praise the rest of it.

How about, how's that sound? We'll be, we'll be doing it. I like it. All right. So then we say the son accomplishes redemption by accepting the tax of redemption and attaining righteousness.

So let's bounce over backwards a couple chapters in John to John five.

We'll look through this passage real quick. Uh, what we're looking at is that the son is going to accomplish redemption by accepting the task.

So what God has called him to do, he's going to do. So John five verse 19, uh, therefore

Jesus answered and was saying to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the son cannot do, or the son can do nothing from himself unless it is something he sees the father doing for whatever the father does, these things, the son also does in the same manner.

So the father in heaven is saying, this is what will be done. And the son down here says,

I'm just doing what the father's doing. It's it's two persons, one action, one incarnate upon the earth, one and seated in the throne in heaven.

Well, and everywhere. Cause he's on, on the president, uh, they go on.

They want to kill him at some point. Uh, he, he talks a little bit more of verse 30.

I can, he says, again, I can do nothing from myself. As I hear, I judge my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

So what is he doing there? He's accepted the task that what God has said in heaven to do, he is doing now on the earth.

It's father and son working together. I look at verse 36, says it again, but the witness

I have is greater than the witness of John for the works, which the father has given me to finish the very works that I do.

Bear witness about me that the father has sent me. So not only do

I have witness from the father himself, but the works that I'm doing, you know, he's healing the sick.

He's changing water to wine. He's doing all sorts of stuff. These are Ted, like the father himself has sent me.

I'm doing what he said. So he's testifying. And so is the works that I'm doing, that I'm doing the work of the father.

Why? Because he accepted the task that the father had given to him go and secure redemption.

So he said, yes, sir. And he came to earth, born of a virgin, grew up, didn't sin.

Now, some debate over whether he could have or not, people are probably going to slap me for this.

Now, don't get me wrong. God cannot sin. And Jesus being God could not sin, but people say, you know, could

Jesus sin? I was like, well, sure. He had a body. I mean, he, he, he could have done sinful stuff with it.

So could he have sinned? Sure. He had the physical capability of doing it.

But he's God. So can God sin? Absolutely not.

So, so Christ could not sin. Yeah. So he came to earth to secure righteousness because he who had no sin took on humanity.

That humanity might be renewed sinless. Incredible.

That's right. Perfectly. That's right. Well, and tag on to what

I was speaking on just a few minutes ago was that, you know,

God, Jesus came a certain way, behaved a certain way, behaved with the confidence of the promises of God.

And so his presentation of himself and his, and his work reflected that.

And so to me, that's an example, you know, for us.

Um, uh, a position of confidence in, in the promises of the father, um, in how we evangelize that we we're not trying to, um, trying to get

Jesus elected. That's not evangelism. Um, we're, we're not, it's, it's, it's more, it's more than just, it's more,

I'm sorry, I should've let you finish your thought because I knew where you were going because you said you were saying, you know, when we evangelize, no, we should be, we're not, it's not, we're proclaiming crisis

King, but, but it popped into my head, you know, it's more than that because there's, there's real physical harm and danger that can come our way by preaching the gospel.

People are getting more and more angry and upset at the gospel every day. Uh, we went out with, uh, uh, a few months ago with, uh, one of the guys from church and we were, they were street preaching in the, uh, uh, in the square and we had people,

I'm, I mean, we, we don't know, no, but it looked like demonic activity.

No, what, what's to happen. What's to say that we don't get attacked. Um, Paul got beaten and checked out in a street and Brock's thrown on him.

What did he do? He got up, dusted himself off and went back inside to preach. So it's, it's exactly what you said.

We're not trying to timidly convinced. Well, maybe you will. Maybe we're proclaiming crisis

King. He has died for the sins of men. You're a sinner. You need to turn from your sins, repent and find salvation in him.

You can have all of your sins forgiven. You can find the goodness of God placed upon your life.

You can have the assurance that one day all your tears will be wiped away and you will have the father in heaven that you never had here on earth.

You can have all these good things. Why? Because he has spoken and he has done good. He has a confidence with a conference and it doesn't matter if along the way we catch a stray right hook or a bullet even because what we're proclaiming is something that is much bigger and stronger than that.

So yeah, you're absolutely right. When we look at Christ and his confidence, we should have confidence.

Because he is good. So I'm not going to let it go. So it's the son honor him as King.

Honor him as King. Um, and my second point is, is a real reflection on what you just said.

Um, you were talking about the, the, the potential possibility of, and there are people that potential possibility is a reality, but you were talking about in your case of, of harm, persecution, um, ridicule.

That's why the second point that I'm thinking is so important, how Christ, how, how

God in the Trinity and how we're studying him tonight is such an example for us, because we talked about the role and the actions of the father, and we're talking about the role and actions of the son.

Those roles and actions are in, in such harmony that there, there is not even, um, a hint of separation in that will there, there is harmony in the will of God, though their actions may be separate.

There is harmony. And that speaks to me as an example of how we should be, you know, we, we were talking about, you know, throwing out the idea of putting together, um, in, in a good way, ecumenical seminary.

Um, but, but that's what we do in the truth and love network and the laborers podcast, and even you and I here on the truth and love podcast, where we, we are in different places in our theological walk, but yet we want to have harmony in the will of God and harmony in the gospel, harmony in the glory of God, harmony in pointing to Christ and trusting in the spirit in all places where we can have harmony, we want to have that harmony so that we are, are showing our confidence in God and that we are, we are there for each other in those times that you were talking about a persecution, ridicule, good stuff.

So attaining righteousness, 12 seconds.

No, I'm kidding. Oh, Romans five, uh, starting verse 17.

And this goes back to the whole thing of covenant theology, all the way back to Adam for, if by the transgression of one

Adam Veritas university, here we go.

Uh, for if by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one.

Much more. Those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one

Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression, there resulted the condemnation to all men, even so through the act of righteousness, the result of justification of life to all men for, as though for, as through the one man's disobedience to many were appointed sinners, even so the obedience of the one, or through the obedience of the one, the many will be appointed righteous.

So is this say through the obedience of the many, the many will be made righteous. No, it says through the obedience of the one who is

Christ, who attained righteousness for his people, the many will be made righteous.

That was a verse 18, the justification of life to all men. It comes through Jesus Christ.

So when the father said, son, I want you to go and save the elect, then he, the son accomplished that by accepting the task and he actually attained that righteousness so that people would actually be saved that in the sight of God, they would,

God would no longer see their sinfulness, but they would see Christ's righteousness laying in their stead. And that is just beautiful.

Praise the Lord. Yeah. You want to talk about the spirit?

Yeah, we probably do need to jump, jump to the spirit. It's yeah, it would be, it'd be, it'd be incredible to have a couple of reform guys over here talking and just leave the

Holy spirit right out of it. We'd never hear the end of it from our church of God folks. So let's talk about the

Holy spirit. Uh, the Holy spirit applies redemption by a company, a company.

We'll get, you got a company, the sun and administering redemption to the elect.

So let's go to Psalm 40. And, uh, while we're going there, just as a little aside,

I don't know how many of you have, uh, checked into the legacy standard Bible.

I really like it. This thing is great. I've been using it as my daily driver for a while now.

And, uh, I really liked the way it, it works reads. All right.

So Psalm 40, starting in verse six, sacrifice and meal.

And this is in, in regards to the spirit applies redemption by number one, accompanying the sun, uh, sacrifice and meal offering.

You have not desired my ears. You have opened burnt offering and sin offering. You have not required.

So are the things that were, that are required through old testament law, are they required for the salvation of my soul?

No, it's through faith, but what then? Verse seven.

Then I said, behold, I come in the scroll of the book. It is written of me.

Uh, I desire to do your will. Oh my God. Your law is within my inner being.

You know, I may have written down the wrong verse. I still like it. It looks really, really good verse, but I may have written down the wrong one.

Um, because it says, hold on, let me look this up.

Rob, talk about something for a second. Well, what, one of the things that I found fascinating in this section on the

Holy spirit, um, you know how I mentioned earlier, how he gives these, you know, those two at the beginning, accompanying

Christ, um, during his mission and administering Christ benefits to the elect. Um, he also talks about awarding the

Holy spirit awards Christ and, um, Christ receives the, the award through the spirit for accomplishing that righteousness.

And then, and then this point he's resting upon him, uh,

Jesus as the anointed Messiah. This is how he accompanies Christ.

He, he anoints Jesus as the Messiah. And then, um, he, he accompanies him through his life.

Um, as he attains righteousness, where were you pulling this from Rob? I'm on page 149.

Oh, I don't know about that. Where are you pulling it from in the Bible? Oh, from the Bible. Yeah. Um, all right, here you go.

I got you. Go, go. I was way wrong. It was Isaiah Isaiah 42 verse one.

Behold my servant. This is Jesus whom I uphold my chosen one in whom my soul is well -pleased.

I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations.

So you have son and spirit working together upon the earth.

Now, obviously Jesus is the one accomplishing, um, righteousness for mankind.

The spirit is not incarnate. I'm not saying that, but the spirit is there with Christ, working with him.

Um, upholding him, uplifting him, um, all along the way.

Mm hmm. So that the work of Jesus, while Jesus is accomplishing it, he's not doing it alone.

There's a witness there with him the whole time to what the father has said. And he's there working with him, the

Holy spirit. So the Holy spirit applies redemption by accompanying the son on the earth.

Yeah. No. And that's one of the reasons why I like, um, even though I'm joining you in reading a

Presbyterian author, um, and Presbyterians are our brothers in this way, um, especially, you know, this book is an example, um,

Dan was asking about, you know, where in scripture. And I was, I was discussing the points from the chapter, but that's the thing about these chapters.

Um, on the next page, you know, that's where Dan got Psalm 40 and Isaiah. Um, here's the

Perkins gives the scripture references. Yeah. Um, he's pulling these things from scripture. It's not, it's not, um, you know, willy nilly.

It's not pulling them out of air. He pulls them from scripture. So as I'm talking about the things that the spirit does, um, the book here, the chapter is giving the scripture reference.

Um, it talks about how the spirit rests upon Christ anoints Christ and, um, and then, um, what's so fascinating and so encouraging, um, is the administering and the, um, benefits administering the benefits to the elect what we're blessed with and I want to find that book.

Um, in my highlighted sections, I'm going to find it.

Um, would you like me to stall for you? Yeah.

All right. Uh, Titus three, starting in verse four, speaking about the administrating of, or the administering of redemption to the, to the elect.

Uh, three verse four, uh, starts off when the kindness.

And the affection of God, our savior appeared. He saved us not by works we, which we did in righteousness, but according to his mercy through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the

Holy spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior.

So that having been justified by his grace, we would become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

So how is it that Christ, um, that Christ's sacrifice is administered to us?

How is it that redemption comes to us? Obviously we receive it through faith, but all of this happens as a work of the

Holy spirit and renewing our lives, giving us new affections to love and honor

Christ. And it's the same way that we're brought on home. We're given the gift of perseverance that we wouldn't fall away.

That we would turn to Christ continually. We wouldn't be like the seed that pops up for a little bit.

And then you think it's choked out by the cares of this life or burn up when things get hard. We'd actually persevere to the end because while we have been given the gift of Christ through the power of the

Holy spirit, and that's a gift that keeps on giving because it's the spirit that works through the word to remind us of our

Christ, to believe in the gospel again and again, each and every, uh, each and every week, uh, every time we eat the

Lord's supper, we remember Christ's body and blood broken and shed for us every time we remember our baptism or see somebody baptized.

We remember that it is Christ who has washed away our sins. No, was it in, uh, first, first Peter talks about, uh, baptism being likened to Noah's flood.

Uh, Noah's flood was, was destructive to some and it was, it was cleansing to others, you know, they were saved through the ark of Christ.

We think about, um, the different ways that water was used in, uh, in the old

Testament, you know, God used it to judge and he used it to save, you know, the same sea that parted for the

Israelites crushed the, crushed the, uh, the Egyptians and what was the difference?

It was the working of God and the people that were there. God's people have administered the redemption of Christ.

When God delivers a people, he does it through the power of his spirit at the accomplishment of the son and at the direction of the father.

Did you find a quote? I did.

And, um, did I step all over it with what I said? I'm sorry. No, no, no.

You were good. Um, it just goes back to, to the, um, amazing benefits, the, the amazing love of the father that a part of his plan is the benefits that we receive, um, from Christ administered to us through the

Holy spirit, um, two sections of this is part of it, um, and his, his scripture is

Romans eight, nine, the spirit descended upon the son at his baptism to anoint him for his incarnate mission.

But the son's reception of the spirit in this manner did not grant full possession of the glorified spiritual state that he has now after his resurrection, as the reward is so tied to this glorified condition, the spirit as the spirit of price can now be dispensed from the son to the elect for whom he earned salvation as the pledge, the down payment guaranteeing and ensuring their full final salvation.

So there's, there's part of the benefits of receiving the

Holy spirit or receiving Christ through the Holy spirit that, that we're most familiar with the seal, the down payment, um, the, the promise, the pledge of, um, this, this glorified state that he is, he has justified us.

He is going to be sanctifying us and he's, he's going to glorify us. So, so there's that benefit.

I think most of us are familiar with, but here's the other one. And he, um, after he, after he looks at Hebrews two,

Galatians five and Romans eight, um, he brings us to the Heidelberg catechism. He says, even as the spirit anoints

Christ, the Heidelberg catechism affirms that we are called Christians because each believer is a partaker in his anointing.

Now you were talking about our, our Pentecostal brothers and sisters. Um, and we may verge on our understanding of, of the meanings of these words and anointing and how that works out.

But, but the, in a sense, this is true that we are partakers in, in his anointing is that he says the blessing that Christ obtains from the spirit as the head are extended from Christ to his body, the church, as the boss, right.

Consequently, it is not subject to any doubt that the bond between Christ and the members of his body is the

Holy spirit. When Christ became the glorified head, he took his gift and imparted it all to who are members of his body.

Yeah, I don't, I don't know as if we do need to disagree with our Pentecostal brothers on, uh, on, well,

I mean, maybe on what the anointing looks like, but maybe not on the, not on the nature of it. Um, look at, uh, uh, second, second

Peter one, um, it says his divine powers granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the full knowledge of him and called us by his own glory and excellence.

So God has given us everything we need for salvation and he called us to it by his own glory and excellence.

Uh, verse four for by these being his own glory and excellence, he granted to us his precious and magnificent promises that is salvation full and clear through Jesus Christ so that by them, so that by the promises of God, one of the promises he gave to us is the

Holy spirit reminds you, we may become partakers of the divine nature. Now we could go on for forever on that one, but what, what, what does it mean is having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

How is it that we're partakers of the divine nature at the very least? It means that we have been given the very righteousness of Christ through the power of the

Holy spirit. What is the anointing of the Holy spirit? Um, and it's no less than salvation and it's also an empowerment to do the will of God in the world around us.

Now that takes the plate that takes the form of different gifts that we're given to some preaching, some, uh, you know, however you want to look at prophesying,

I mean, that, that's really where we depart is like, what do we expect God to do with it?

But what we should all agree upon is that through the, through Christ's sacrifice and the power of the

Holy spirit given to us, we are able to work within the power of God to do the things that God has called us to do.

Like, uh, Ephesians two, eight, uh, through 10, um, for by grace, are you saved through faith and not of yourselves as a gift of God and not of works, unless anyone should boast for, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that we may walk in them.

We were saved by God's grace through the medium of faith so that we would be able to do good works.

And how do we do that? We do that by the power of the Holy spirit through his anointing on our lives. Yeah, that's right.

And that's incredible. So I don't think we're that far off from the Pentecostals. Well, I mean, we might be, but at least on that point, well, you could be fairly well in tune.

Yeah. As you quoted the passage from Peter, you're talking about the nature of what we receive from, um, nature of the

Holy spirit and the nature of what we receive from the Holy spirit. Um, you know, that passage does say, um, his divine power has given us everything, everything we need for life and godliness.

So I think, I think that's one of the places where we would split when it comes to the nature of the anointing is that we don't, why do we need another anointing?

Why do we need a special anointing? Why do we need additional anointing? When the anointing that we receive gives us everything we need for life and godliness.

Well, I don't necessarily think it's a, uh, if, if Christ or if the Holy spirit is given to us as an earnest payment, he's, he's with us all the time, then it's not, it's not like a one -time anointing, then you're done.

Throw it away. It's there all the time. Exactly. Constantly working. So to have, have a, even if you have like, say you've got a, say you're driving down the road, you got your foot on the accelerator and I want to go faster, well, why do

I need to press the gas down more? Well, you get a little bit extra gas, you get to go faster.

So there's a further anointing of gas into your cylinder. Um, it's not that, that the

Holy spirit is not working. Sometimes he's always working. Sometimes it's more visible than others.

And I think some people call that an extra anointing. No, it's when the Holy spirit presses on a gas a little bit, because all of that serves for us to, to follow and know

Christ, because a little bit later on, it says this in the same passage, it says, uh, uh, where's it go?

Uh, uh, therefore brothers be all the more diligent, uh, to make your calling and choosing sure for in doing these things, you will never stumble for in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our

Lord and savior, Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. And it goes, that that's that whole thing where it says in a different portion, we live from, from faith to faith, from faith at the beginning through on to the end, we make our calling and election sure that we would enter fully into that perfect kingdom of God that has no sin in the last day.

Why? Because of his divine power, his divine power working in us all along the way.

Yeah. And I'm sure there's many folks out there that have, I've heard preachers um, passionately come to their audience to say they, to remind them that they have, um, they have

God living within them. There, there is the, the, the power of God living within them.

So there, whatever their motivation is for them, reminding their audience that that that's a reality.

Um, in a sense, if, if we want to understand that rightly, this goes, this relates to what we're learning here in this chapter, and that's the, the benefit that we received from, um, from Christ is the

Holy spirit himself, the Holy spirit himself, which an anointed Christ and administered, anointed and ministered, accompanied and, and, um, supported, sustained all those things.

He is with us. And as you, you were talking about the, the anointing that we received from the

Holy spirit, he's, he's always working. He's always with us. And just as he was with Christ.

So because of the work accomplished by Christ, that same

Holy spirit is with us. Yeah, but I think it's a little bit more than that.

Um, because Christ has promised that he would never leave us.

He would be with us always, even to the end of the age. So if we have the spirit and Christ has never left us, and if you, like Christ says, if you, if you've, if you've seen me, you've seen the father, if you know me, you know, the father, it's not just a spirit that we're given.

We're given father, son, and Holy spirit, the fullness of the triune

Godhead, all because Jesus came and died on the cross for our sins, laid in the grave and got up again at the direction of the father and the working of the

Holy spirit in our lives to give us that benefit. That if we turn from our sins and look to Christ, we would have full right fellowship with the triune

God on the basis of Christ goodness and righteousness. Our sins gone, his righteousness in our, in it, in its place.

That's beautiful. That's a good, that's a good thing. It is. And, and to wrap things up, um, looking back at what we said at the beginning, why put a chapter in reformed covenant theology on who is the

Trinity and, and what, what does each person do is the point as to how, who he is and how he works that he's faithful, he's faithful to his promises.

He was a promise maker and he's a promise keeper. And as Dan, so, um, rightly and beautifully, um, has said and shown us from scripture, he is faithful and true to his promise to those that would believe in him, he will grant forgiveness and give everlasting life.

And so our call every time that we, that we get together is anybody that, that is listening or watching, um, to remind yourself of the gospel of the faithful promise maker and promise keeper.

That is our God. That's our creator and the faithful redeemer. That is our

King Jesus who lived the life that we couldn't live and took the wrath of God upon himself that we deserve.

And as Dan said, and reminded us that he was, he was raised from the grave victorious over sin and death.

And so he, God raised him from the dead.

He raised himself from the dead. Holy spirit raised him from the dead. Scripture gives credit to, um,

God, the Trinity for this work of redemption in all its parts and all glory goes to our

Trinitarian God, our covenant maker, covenant keeper God, and he will save to the uttermost save you completely and fully and will not lose you because of his promise to you that he will never leave you or safe you or lose you.

He's made us those promises and he's faithful to those promises. So turn to him today.

Turn from your sins and put your faith in Jesus Christ. Dan, would you mind to close this in prayer?

Sure. Uh, dear heavenly father, thank you for your goodness, for your grace, for your working in, uh, in the world.

Pray that, uh, you would show your kindness to us.

Uh, even if we, we know we don't all the time, deserve it. Pray for your mercy.

We know that you are good in Christ. Let me pray. Amen. Thank you everybody for your support and watching

Dan and I have this conversation or listening to us. We'd love for you to join the conversation.

Let us know you're watching. Ask a question, pray for us and let us know how we can pray for you. And as always, we want to remind you that Jesus is not only our king, he is king over all the universe.

So go live in the authority of Christ. Go live in the victory of Christ.

Just speak with the authority of Christ and go share the gospel of Christ. Baptize your babies.

And, and that's a different program.