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Open Air Theology Conference 2024: Why Calvinism
Got to get my timer up here right now. Jeff did say I could go an hour and 30. Is that right after that last message? I was joking. I feel like I might be a Pentecostal now because I felt slain in the spirit after that.
That was a blessing to hear that. That's a hard one to follow up, but I take a surety that God's Word will go forth and it will not return to him void Christ will be glorified nonetheless. And I am confident that his scripture has spoken of him and the magnitude the glory and the holiness of who he is.
I want to begin first by starting off with a word of prayer. So let's go ahead and pray together right now Lord God, I thank you so much Lord for who you are and all the ways that you have been talked about the ways that You've been magnified by the speakers and the fellowship Lord God I I want to I want to come before you now Lord as a humble servant Lord.
And I just want to throw myself upon your word Let my mouth not utter a sentence beyond what you have revealed Lord. Bind my tongue to your text and to your text alone Lord God, I would ask today that if it be your will that you would Break the knees of those that are not bowing to you today Lord that though their will would Fail them Lord that you would reveal yourself to them Lord God I would ask that you would be glorified in the continual fellowship here and that The messages would bless the individuals here that they would take forth the things that are being taught and the things that they are seeing Even myself and we would take it back to our home churches.
And we continue to glorify you Lord God. I would ask today that even in my message that I am so gratefully Blessed beyond measure to preach Lord that God that you would cause to Bring to my intellect my remembrance of that which has been put in my heart Lord God.
I would ask That the name above all names would be sought today. That you would be glorified and I asked this in the man of sorrows name the one that has saved me the filthiest of men The sinner and has saved us that place faith in you Jesus the Christ.
Amen, so I'll just be up front with you right now and let you know that Hebrews chapter 8 is going to be the main Text that I'm going to be in and so if you want to put a finger or a bookmark in chapter 8 of Hebrews.
That would probably be wise but I will be honest with you. My topic that I've been given today is Calvinism in the Old Covenant to the New Covenant and I will be really really Frank with you that I am NOT a Calvinist because of a systematic theology.
Or because I watched a YouTube video that convinced me of it. Or I was discipled by an individual that planted it into my mind. I am convinced of Calvinism because I believe in Covenant theology the doctrines of grace are spelt out in the acronym that we all know oh so well and you will even see on the Pulpit in front of me as a tulip right the acronym tulip and in our minds.
We might get this picture of a tulip bulb in front of us like you see here before me. But brothers and sisters what I would propose to you today is that that tulip would fall apart. It would never bud it would fall away in the wind if it did not have a stem that nourished the petals.
This is what Covenant theology is for Calvinism. I look back at what brother Waldron has just said confessional Calvinism. I would like to represent this idea today by putting forth as one would and one does a new acronym.
Maybe it'll stick. Maybe it won't but stem STEM salvation through eternal mediation as Christ is the mediator of the better covenant that has brought about eternal Redemption for its members assuredly salvation through eternal Mediation.
I want to begin today's message by having us read from Isaiah 46 9 through 10. I will ask you to please stand with me at the reading of this text Isaiah 46 verse 9 through 10 for this morning. This is the Word of God.
Remember the former things long past. For I am God and there is no other I am God and there is no one like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not Been done saying my counsel will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.
This is the Word of God. We can be seated at this point. Brothers and sisters. This text is only illustrated and magnified if you understand the context of what is being done in here. The prophet Isaiah is preaching about a future day of captivity that Israel is yet in and he's not only just preaching about that.
He's not just prophesying about that future day. But he's saying there's going to be a day when you're going to be released from captivity in the context of what's going on here. He's saying that when you see These false gods that you bowed the knee to that you worship while in Babylon when you sinned against Yahweh.
When you see them fall. You will know that God alone is God. And you want to know the way that you can know this assuredly children of Israel? It's because God told you it would happen. God's sovereignty is the backbone of Calvinism and it just so happens that God's Sovereignty is the very attribute that separates him from all false gods of Babylon and all false theologies.
Today I.
Want you to keep this in your mind as we continue on through today's message for my from myself. Keep it in the back of your mind. God is Sovereign. He spoke beforehand of something that would come in the future and when it came all those people knew that God was Sovereign.
He declared it before the beginnings. Remember that remember that I boldly believe that God has revealed His glorious plan through through his glorious plan through the covenant framework that we see in God's Word.
And to illustrate this and to show you that the flavor which it's really good flavor I'd encourage you to all have this flavor of Christianity, but the 1689 line about his confession of faith. Chapter 7 on God's Covenant paragraph 2 and paragraph 3 lays this out as the covenant theology for the reformed Particular Baptist.
I want to read this with us now. Chapter 7 paragraph 2 and paragraph 3. Since Humanity brought itself under the curse of the law by its fall it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace. In this covenant He freely offers to sinners life and salvation.
Through Jesus Christ on their part He requires their faith in him that they may be saved and promised to give His Holy Spirit to all who are ordained to eternal life to make them willing and able to believe.
Paragraph 3.
This covenant is revealed in the gospel and I'll remind us paragraph 2 says that this is the covenant of grace that it's talking about. The very topic I'm preaching on today. This covenant is revealed in the gospel.
It was revealed first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation through the seed of the woman and After that, it was revealed step by step until the full revelation of it was completed in the New Testament.
This covenant is based on eternal covenant. Transaction between the father and the son concerning the redemption of the elect. Only through this grace of this covenant have those saved from among the descendants of fallen Adam obtained life and blessed immortality.
Humanity is now utterly incapable of being accepted by God on the same terms on which Adam was accepted in the state of innocence. Brothers and sisters, I'm sure each one of us in this room have heard the common definition of covenants.
Let me let me I list this out with the tune of the car that the tune the common tune of this definition would be something along the lines of an agreement between two or more parties consisting of terms blessings and Curses.
Anyone in here have heard something along those lines for covenants. I was Mormon for 19 years and guess what? I would say that's my definition as well when I was Mormon. If a Mormon can say amen to anything in your theology, you probably ought to check it out again.
It's funny I'm just speaking on Mormons. I ran into some Mormons the other day and at the restaurant while we're out enjoying time with one another and I Saw them walk by and went and told him the gospel and it was the first time In a gospel presentation of Mormons that I had someone say no cap and you'll legend.
It was very strange. Very very strange. I don't know how to take that. I walked away more confused in that conversation than I've ever done anywhere else. However, this common definition of covenant an Agreement between two or three more parties is something that a Mormon could agree with you on.
Let me ask you this. Did God ask for permission of? Adam before giving to him the positive law that has condemned us all in Adam. Did God give an option to do something other than the command for no one when he was commanded to build the ark.
Did God go to Abram to make this the decision that it was to be his seed that would bless the nations. Did God seek out Moses and ask him what was a sensible and agreeable terms for the law to be given there on Mount Sinai.
Did God do that? Did God go to David and get permission from him to see the descended upon of his upon the throne forever? Did God do that? And each one of these examples we see that when we define the word covenant when it comes to God Covenanting with man.
It is not an agreed-upon Term it's an imposed covenant. It's divinely instituted upon man. God said Adam do this live break this die. He said to Abraham you do this you live break this you will be cast out.
It was imposed upon them. Because they are his creation and he is the creator. They owed all Respect and obeying him. Perfect obedience is what was demanded of them. This to my type of demanded obedience are the hallmarks of the covenants of old and that is why they're often referred to as the covenant of works and each of these covenants of works found in the Old Testament was dependent upon the imposed party.
To be perfectly obedient to them. These covenants ultimately brought about the seed that is the Christ the object of our faith and the mediator of what we've just read in The 1689 the covenant of grace that saves us now if you would like to turn with me to 2nd Timothy 3 15.
You're more than welcome to but Paul in this text is telling Timothy to look to something. 2nd Timothy 3 15 It says in that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation.
Through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. The old covenants and their promises all foretold the coming serpent. Crushing seed the seed that would bless the nations and the seed that would sit upon the throne.
Galatians 3 15 through 16 says this brother brothers I speak in human terms even though it is only a man's covenant yet when it has been ratified. No one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed he does not say and two seeds is referring to many but rather to one and to your seed that is Christ I would argue.
This is how we should be looking at the old covenants. You should be able to look at it and you should be able to see Christ as the promised seed within it. How does this old covenant come about to the new covenant though, how does that take place?
I want to give us two analogies. I think will help us Illustrate this for us in our minds and it actually happens to be Pictures that we see even in the Bible now. I am a firefighter as brother Greg has said and Recently we had a new fire station built in our city.
It was one that was very desperately needed and there I was on the groundbreaking Service and they broke the ground and many of the people that were on the team Helping put together the plans for this building.
Do you know where they went after that ground was broken? They went into a construction trailer that was there on the site. The construction trailer had four walls. Several windows and even a bathroom on the inside.
It was it was kind of a cool little construction trailer. However, the important part of the construction trailer was the blueprints inside. You may look at the blueprints and say that was the promise of the fire station.
That was the promise of what the construction trailer was meant to bring about. Externally you can look at both the construction trailer in the firehouse that has now been accomplished and you could say man.
They are similar in very many ways. There's walls. There's windows. There's bathrooms. But you know what the construction trailer lacked. It lacked the square footage. It lacked their bedrooms. It lacked the the kitchen the apparatus Bay and so much more.
Those firefighters that were often found in the trailer when it was being construction. Constructed guess when they left the construction trailer when the house was built. This is like the Old Covenant bringing about the New Covenant.
The blueprints were the promises of the firehouse were inside those covenants. They were the promises of the seed that would come through these covenants. It would just take us a moment to read Hebrews 3 4 through 6 to see that God is the builder of the better.
House.
Now let me give you a second analogy to help us understand this another one that comes from the Bible. My wife and I have three little boys also known as turkeys or terrorists depending on the day, right?
Love them to death. They're wonderful little kids and every time that we've had one in Lord willing my wife and I will have a plethora more. She's always hopeful and excited to see in which way our children will resemble her and I.
She always says I hope that they will have my brown eyes or my brown hair. And however, she always has a joyful sigh when she sees that they have blue eyes and blonde hair like their dad. The Covenant of works of the ethnic faithful people of God were like the pregnant woman carrying the promised seed.
Which is the mediator of the New Covenant? This is seen symbolically in Revelation chapter 12 when we see this woman that is associated with the moon stars and Sun. It says that she gives birth to the seed that is taken up into heaven.
Would like to think I'd like you to think about this. Wouldn't you expect there to be some similarities passed on from a mother to a son? Are they still different though. Are all the traits passed on?
They're not all passed on but you would expect some to be there. This is what I would argue is how we see Calvinism in the Old Testament. We will see Calvinism in some capacity. Demonstrate what we now have in its fullness now in the New Testament.
You see glimpses and shadows and types very fitting for last year's conference. Shadows to substance. Shadows of Calvinism. Even Calvinism the doctrines of grace there in the Old Covenant. Now I want to be clear in this anybody that was saved while in That old covenants.
They were saved through and under the New Covenant, even though they lived in the old. They were saved in the new just like the firefighter that's in the construction trailer. Guess what he goes into when the firehouse is built.
That's the promise. That's the blueprints. That's where I want to be. Let's consider some of these attributes of the old covenants, and I want to ask this in form of questions. Do we not see total depravity?
When Adam first broke that covenant of works that was divinely imposed upon him there in the garden. Immediately the gardening ability that he had and possessed that could have pleased God. What did he use it after the fall?
Same gardening ability. He takes it and he covers himself the same gardening ability. Could never be used again in a pleasing way to God like it could have before the fall. I Would argue now that Adam at that point in time?
He experienced what Ephesians 2 1 through 5 is discussing and talking about. He was dead in his sins and trespasses. What do I think this means? What is the definition? I would put to this state. He was in a state of a cessation a permanent cessation of ability to ever please God outside of Christ.
This is the teaching of total depravity. Not that anyone is the worst that they can be but instead. Their entire being is thoroughly wrought with sin in such a way that outside of Christ Adam. You and I his offspring.
Adam could never again be in a pleasing state to God in them in them and in themselves alone. How do we not see unconditional election? Let's look at another example. Do we not see unconditional election with the example of Noah that we see in the days of Noah?
The evil of men was great even to the point that it caused our heart our Lord to grieve over his creation. God chosen his sovereignty to blot out in justice all his creation because all men's thoughts were exhaustively continually blasphemous.
To him.
And you know, it's wonderful after that description of how all men are in there. Just like in Ephesians 2 that it says but we have been made alive together with Christ. It says but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
That's a beautiful but there in the text, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Why? Not because of any good in him nor was it because he was owed any favor. But because God's gracious plan of the Christ was to come through him and bring salvation even to the recipient Noah there in the ark.
Do we not see limited atonement even in that same example in some capacity when Noah got into that ark was not the ark given an exact dimension. For Noah to build. It was limited in its Effectual construction to carry only those that it was carried to.
It was designed to carry which was eight people safely through the water. That ark felt every ounce of wrath that was owed against those people inside the ark. But they didn't feel any of it. They were inside the ark.
Is this not a type of Christ? It was designed purposely. Purposefully. God gave him the dimensions. It just didn't just happen that he built it just for his family. No, God gave him the dimensions to build it and it was sufficient for everyone.
It was designed for. Let me ask you another question regarding limited atonement. Do we not see limited atonement with the sacrifices made in Israel? The sacrifices in Israel demonstrated in shadows and types.
A Definite atonement that would take place in the substance of the better and true sacrifice Jesus. That's Hebrews 10 1 through 10. But I want you to specifically consider the sacrifice that happened on the Passover in Egypt when it was first instituted.
And this story is found in Exodus 11 through 12. We don't have time to read the whole story. But the sacrifice that was made by the household was intended for only that household and not all of Egypt and One might argue if there's no provisionist or Arminianist in this room.
You might argue this. Was it not the individual's free will to make a sacrifice and their free will to cover the doorposts. Now why this seems like a logical answer a logical thing to ask it is actually missing the historical Significance of that day and the typology of that event.
Who received loss that day? And when I say loss, I'm not talking about a father grieving over his son. I'm saying who died that night. Was the firstborn male? Exodus 12 12. Who was the substitute to save those firstborns.
A? Lamb exodus 12 3. Who did the crushing of the lamb in that text? The father did. Exodus 12 21. We must not put ourselves in the shoes of the father that dreadful night. Brothers and sisters theology is seeking to make us into heroes and we are not not not God is is is that hero.
You want to put yourself in the shoes of the father that night because you want to take responsibility for saving. You weren't the one that you should you should not be putting yourself in those shoes.
Put yourself in the shoes of the one-year-old that night. Put yourself in the shoes of the five-year-old that night. Put yourself in the shoes of the one that was going to suffer that night. We must not put ourselves in the shoes of the father that dreadful night thinking that it is our own free will to choose the Blood of the lamb, but put ourselves in the shoes of the firstborn males who have been saved from that wrath.
Would you have died that night if your father did not slaughter the lamb in your place?
Yes.
Because you did not have a substitute who was crushed for you. Would you have been saved if your father and made the sacrifice for you the one-year-old that was completely unaware of what was going on.
Yes, you would have because the father made a sacrifice for you. The father crushed a lamb for you. I think of my own three sons right now. And I I would I would I would look at them and imagine if they were able to were able to say and talk back To me and say father.
No, I love the lamb. It was something I was playing with just the day before as you had got it and you searched it out and you brought it Into our household. We love it. Don't kill it. Don't crush it.
You know what? I would tell to my son get in your room. I'm doing this for you. This obviously Demonstrates for us that it is God the father who has crushed the perfect lamb and did so regardless of my say in the matter.
I.
Am adopted by his blood and he was pierced through for my transgressions and crushed for my iniquities. Who crushed the lamb in my place? It was our father in heaven who has done this and he has done it for those in the household and none in Egypt.
Do we not see irresistible grace in the offspring of Adam or in the offspring of Abraham? Excuse me? We understand that in the New Testament. We are made partakers of this promise through faith in Jesus Christ.
But I want you to consider what was taking place there in the old covenants. In the Abrahamic Covenant. When one was born in that day a physical descendant of Abraham. Could a child in that day refuse the birth?
Would a child want to? Do we have an example of a child being born and him saying as he's going through the birth canal? No, push me back in. I do not desire to breathe.
They were born.
Irrevocably and irresistibly. Brothers and sisters when we are born again, do we not cry out Abba father in our infancy as brothers and sisters in the faith? We are born crying Abba father irresistibly and irrevocably just like the children of Abraham did.
Do we not see perseverance of the Saints in some shape or fashion? There in the Old Testament with the perseverance of the remnant found in Israel all the people under Israel Were under these old covenants of old but many of them sadly were not believers in the promises of Yahweh.
They lacked a true reverent fear of Yahweh and thus did not have part in the promised seed that would come. But God always had a faithful remnant in those old covenants. This was according to his gracious choice Not only so that the ethnic Israel would be preserved as a nation But also that his promised seed would come to substance through that same perseverance.
If you are in Hebrews chapter 8 with that bookmark, you can go to Hebrews 11 when I read this Hebrews 11. Consider for a moment Abel Enoch Noah Abraham Sarah Isaac Jacob Joseph Moses Moses Rahab Gideon Barak Samson Jephthah David Samuel the prophets those who conquered performed righteousness.
Obtained promises shut mouth lions quenched the power of fire. Escaped the edge of the sword. Those who were made strong from weakness became mighty and war put foreign armies to flight. Women who received back their dead by resurrection and others who were tortured mocked flogged chained stone Sawn and two were tempted put to death with a sword lived in sheepskins and goatskins destitute afflicted mistreated wandering hiding from the persecution of this world.
Take your eyes with the verse 39 to 40 and. All these having gained approval through their faith. Did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for us. So that from us for apart from us, they would not be made.
Perfect.
Go to Hebrews 8 now. We're gonna read verses 1 through 5 and then we'll be in chapter 9 for a moment. 1 through 5 says this. Now the main point and what is being said is this. We have such a high priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in the heavens a minister in the holy places and in the true Tabernacle, which the Lord pitched not man.
For every high priest is appointed to only offer to offer both gifts and sacrifices. So it was necessary that this high priest also has something to offer now while he was on earth. He would not be a priest at all since there are those who offer gifts according to law who serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to Erect the tabernacle for see he says that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain.
Follow me to Hebrews 9 22 through 24. And According to the law one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood. There is no forgiveness. Therefore it was necessary for the copies of these things in the heavens to be cleansed with these but the heavenly things themselves with the better sacrifices than these.
For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands mere copies of The true ones but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God.
For us.
Consider those saints of old that we just read about. You can almost imagine that those that have died in the faith during the old covenants prior to the incarnation. They would be standing in this true tabernacle in heaven crying out.
Where is the priest? Where is the prophet? Where is the king? Where is the sacrifice? Where is the blood? Where is the law keeper? Where is the seed? Where is the ark? Where is my substitute? Revelation 5 1 through 2 says this.
Then I saw in the right hand of him who sits on the throne. I scroll written inside and on the back sealed up with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy. To open the scrolls and to break its seals first.
Peter 1 10 through 12 says this concerning this salvation. The Prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you make careful searches and inquiries. Inquiring to know what time or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.
It was revealing to them that they were not serving themselves by you. In these things which now have been declared to you through those who proclaim the gospel. To you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things into which angels long to look.
You can almost imagine that these Old Testament saints in essence are crying out who is Worthy it is when this better and new covenant was instituted at the death of Christ. It resulted in having a new song to be sung those who cried.
Where is the lamb? Where is the seed? Where is the priest they also said who is worthy? They all now sing the new glorious song when the lamb standing as if slain entered beyond the veil as the forerunner.
That is the hope and our anchor of our souls. Hebrews 6 19. He inaugurated a new and living way. That is the flesh that went beyond the veil. That is the confidence of our confession. He who has promised his faithful Jesus our high priest who saved us by his blood.
Hebrews 10 19 through 23. Those who sung that song now know with a surety. That he is the cornerstone that he is the seed. That he is the sacrifice that he is the substitute and they all sing in glorious ray.
He is worthy The mediator that has cut with his own blood the covenant of grace that eternally saves us. The way that this covenant of grace functions is by the doctrines of grace. Let's read now here in Hebrews chapter 8 verse 6 through 13.
But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry By as much as he's also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless There would have been no occasion sought for a second For finding fault with them.
He says behold days are coming says the Lord when I will cut is what Jeremiah 31 uses. I Will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not like the covenant Which I made with their fathers in the days when I took him by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant and I did not care for them says the Lord. There is a textual variant here. I would encourage you to go hit up James White later today. He does a great presentation on this.
We don't have time to address it though. For this is the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel. Those after those days says the Lord I will put my law into their minds and upon their hearts.
I will write them and I will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall not teach everyone his fellow Citizen and everyone his brother saying no the Lord for all will know me From the least of the greatest of them for I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.
This is the covenant of grace praise the Lord. Verse 13 when he said a new covenant. He has made the first obsolete but whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. That construction trailer, do you think it stayed on the firehouse land?
It was taken away shortly after it completed. I want you to consider five ways when we think about that resemblance of mother and child construction trailer and firehouse. I want to give you five examples that this covenant is far better than the old and not like them in any way.
Number one. This covenant has the forgiveness of sins. Number two, there is no required obedience in this text. Number three that law that governed the people of Israel it was external to them. Where is this law?
It's internal. Number four the members of this covenant actually know God and are known by him in a self-evident manner. And Number five and I think this is the most glorious reason of why it's better and not like the ones of old.
Christ is the mediator of this one. Even though this new covenant in many ways is not like the covenant of works it still retains many of the same functions of the old covenants and therefore bears resemblance.
I Want us to now look at My topic that we are in right now, which is Calvinism from the old to the new. I've given you several examples in the old of how we see the the workings of the doctrines of grace found there.
It's reasonable to say that that mother of the old covenant passed on traits to the new. I want to look back here. Let's keep our eyes focused on 8 through 12 for today We noticed that in the new covenant compared to the covenants of old there lacks a required obedience to maintain covenant blessedness.
While also lacking an ability to suffer any curse while in this covenant. The recognition of this lack of ability to fall from the covenant requires us to ask why? Why does the new covenant lack a curse for its members?
Brothers and sisters that it's it's simply answered in a question to pose back at the person that asked the why. Can there be a curse for the people of a covenant that requires no obedience to enter or to maintain?
No.
No, and that's precisely why we don't see a curse for those new covenant members like you and I in this text. But the objection to this is this weren't we all dead though? Weren't we all dead through the old covenants through the covenants of work and therefore aren't we deserving of those covenant curses?
How could we enter into a covenant which only has blessings when we are still deserving of the curses. It is because Christ took the covenant curse on our behalf. Galatians 3 13 says this Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.
Having become a curse for us. For it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. But what about before we've entered into this new covenant. Could we do anything pleasing to earn our own favor into the new covenant?
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. Where was the law written that that we have now been redeemed from it is it was written thereupon the stone tablets. Which are old stony heart reflected in that unconverted stony heart state.
As we sought those external means to justify ourselves before the Almighty. Where was the law out in the temple? Who's in the Holy Spirit? I can't get there. I can't get to that Ezekiel 36 26 to 27 which brother Jeff will be talking about later.
It says this moreover I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to do my judgments and I want you to notice what are the pronouns in both Ezekiel and Hebrews as the covenant of grace and I will write.
I will cause I will remove and I will place within. Why does the terms of the new covenant lack the saying we will write on our own hearts? We will cause ourselves to walk. We will remove our heart of stone.
We will place within ourselves. Why does it lack this saying that all non monergistic soteriologies aka synergism seem to have in common. Because if the act of generating faith in a dead stony heart was needed before the removal of that heart We would all be doomed as we are full of fault in that covenant of death for us.
We were still old to curses.
This is the teaching of total depravity. Is that while in a state of being dead in our sins in a covenant status of fault And only old eternal wrath you cannot generate something from the midst of that filth.
That would be pleasing to God. Why? Because the sinner in that state will only produce that which is a consistent of their nature and that is filth. Which is the continual disobedience to our wonderful.
Holy, holy, holy covenantal God that we have. Could they do anything could could they have done anything to please God in that new state of sin. Adam and Eve there in the Garden, no, they could not and no they did not.
So if in the state of death nothing good dwells within us That is to say nothing that is pleasing to God can flow from us or out of us. How do we come to a place that verse 10 here says I will be their God and they shall be my people.
How do dead sinners come to have a living relationship with their life-giving God? Well, you are given life because God is merciful not because you have anything good in you. This New covenant was not made with a single nation.
Let's read verse 10 for this is the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel. After those days says the Lord I will put my law into their minds and upon their hearts. I will write them and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
It's not with a single nation, but it's rather mediated on behalf of a people from all nations Tribes and tongues that's Revelation 7 9 through 10. These individuals are made partakers of the Commonwealth of Israel Ephesians 2 11 through 22 Through the peace of Jesus Christ and are made a part of the household of God as children rather than enemies.
They will have gone from death to life Adam to Christ. Because it is God who has written his law upon their hearts and upon their minds in regeneration. Just as in the days of Noah, all are evil and all are undeserving including you and I.
The fact that any of us are considered today as elect Demonstrates to us. It must have been unconditional election in the first place because we are only evil and dead in our sins apart from Christ and His wonderful grace.
If this covenant of grace was dependent upon us or some foreseen faith That caused God to choose and predestine us it too would be a covenant full of fault. Because that faith would have been generated from a dead filthy Crimson stained diseased heart that could only begat more death and never a reverent pleasing faithful fear in Yahweh.
God.
Has taken that stony evil heart that produced vile works that could never justify us. And he places within us a heart of flesh because he is merciful and not because I was owed. Anything other than this would result in condemnation for us all as we'd have our foreseen faith to boast of before one another.
But may that never be. What is unconditional election? According to the terms of the New Covenant here. It is simply that we've been made the people of God or it could be said made the Israel of God. Because he is merciful and not because I am deserving.
According to Romans 8 28 through 29 that has been quoted for us several times us being in a relationship To God and his people as his people is because he for beforehand loved us. He predestined us he calls us he justifies us and he glorifies us.
Again, put yourself in the shoes of the Passover that night. The father crushed a lamb for you. If one is not elected from before the foundations of the world would state and what state and what covenant do they live in?
Or may be better said as this what covenant do they die in there in a covenant of works deserving curses? None of those covenants that were full of fault ever forgave sin. What covenant is the only covenant that has the forgiveness of sins for its members and its members alone.
The New Covenant the covenant of grace in this covenant of grace. All the members are equally and irrevocably saved through the atonement by its Mediator and we've already seen that one way that this covenant is better than the old is Christ is that mediator?
Salvation through eternal mediation in The Old Covenant those that have been born of Abraham. You could go door-to-door and tell them to repent and have faith in Yahweh since many of them didn't truly believe in God.
Even though they were born physically into those covenants, but not in the New Covenant. Those that have been born again and have had their sins paid for by this mediator. They all know him. They all profess him.
Their assurance is not in their own works or their own obedience, but in the works of the hands that are pierced for them Notice to whom the benefactors of this forgiveness is. It is the house of.
Israel.
Just as the doorpost was painted in the blood of in the blood of the lamb that was crushed by the father on the night Of the Passover was meant for the firstborn of the household and not all of Egypt.
Such is the blood of Christ that paints the household of Israel. The household of the New Covenant. It is those and those alone that have faith. A true faith in Yahweh. The blood of this covenant of Grace is spilt out only for those within its membership and none else.
Consider again Noah and Think about the design of the ark. It was designed to carry eight those that found favor in the eyes of Yahweh and Such is the dimension of the blood of Christ. It is given assuredly to the exact number of the elect that the blood was intended for.
Everyone that is found in the body of Christ the better ark has found refuge in him. Because he has saved us as he has taken our punishment for us. Because he was crushed by the father that day. Everyone that has the blood of the New Covenant upon their doorpost that the father put there for them will be redeemed.
Surely those that are outside this covenant there will be no substitute as they will be crushed as They follow their father the devil. This is the teaching of the term of the New Covenant regarding limited atonement.
The blood was not in vain in any regard nor is there any empty space on this better ark of our salvation. The blood is purposeful towards the house and the ark does not have an empty seat within it. Do we not believe that two thousand years ago?
That is when the payment of my sin was made. Colossians 2 verse 14 clearly teaches this. It would be unjust for our God to give double payment both to his son and to the unbeliever. Christ paid the price perfectly and.
Fully.
For those that would have faith in him alone He drank that wine filled wrath cup of God that we were owed. The atonement of the mediator is definite in both its function and in its securement. How then is this covenant that consists of true forgiveness transmitted? to its members.
It is a work of God. I want to read verse 10 here in Hebrews 8. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord. I will put my law into their minds and I'm upon their hearts.
I will write them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Exodus 31 18 says that the Ten Commandments were written by God's own finger. I Have a question for us to consider regarding this.
Could Moses have stayed.
Stopped.
Prohibited refused or denied the finger of God when his transcendent law was written there upon the mount. Could any of the children of Israel grab that hand to stop God from writing his own law. It was written there surely.
Because it was a work of God. Take notice to now where the law is written. It's not external from us brothers and sisters. It's internal. It's upon our hearts and upon our minds. We love God's law for this.
Can we stop this from taking place? Can I be more powerful than the work of God and stay stop prohibits slow down the writing of God's law upon my heart.
Why?
It's a work of God again, think about those Old Testament believers the the descendants of Abraham on day eight of that male child when he was circumcised. Do we think that that male knife could that male child could have stayed and kept away the knife that was to circumcise their flesh?
Why do we think that we could stop? Why do we think someone would want to stop someone? The the work of God from circumcising their own heart. Romans 2 28 through 29 Teaches us this that we are made Jews inwardly through the circumcision.
That is regeneration. Paul argues in that same chapter that those Gentiles who had the law written upon their hearts and upon their consciences when they do law-abiding Actions it is a testimony to the Jews that the Gentiles have had the law written upon them by God and it is not external or foreign to them.
It's not true for us. The law was external to us now. We have it inside of us. It was a work of God and it's a testimony of his work. This is irresistible grace. The heart that has been circumcised by God will know him.
Love his law and wage war with sin. No man can stop the knife of God that circumcises the heart. Nor would any man want to and none are more powerful than any work of God including regeneration. The question that may arise can the circumcised heart redress itself with the removal that of the of the stony heart.
Can it redress itself there? Can a heart of flesh go back to a heart of stone? Can a covenant member lose their status and not be known by God? This question of can believers lose their salvations and is it is a very important one.
But it is quenched at remembering at who cut this covenant and how it was cut. Matthew 26 through 28 Christ says for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for the many for the forgiveness of sins.
When was that blood poured out? It was when he who knew no sin became sin on my behalf our behalf. So that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. How was this covenant cut. Isaiah 53 4 through 5 says this surely our griefs?
He himself bore and our sorrows he carried yet. We esteemed are we ourselves esteemed him stricken and smitten of God and afflicted but he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities the chastising of out for our peace fell upon him and by his wounds.
We are healed. What was the result of the cutting of this covenant? If you need a flip a page go to Hebrews 9 11 through 12. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands.
That is to say not of this creation.
And.
Not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood. He entered the holy places once for all having. Having bought having obtained eternal Redemption we persevere brothers and sisters because God himself paid our price for eternal redemption.
Our perseverance is not because we maintain salvation, but because we are purchased for salvation. He did the purchasing. That is what makes us Saints to him. We persevere as Saints. The perseverance of the Saints is the teaching that the Saint that has been granted the favor and the eternal Redemption can never fall away from that state of favor.
Though while in their perseverance they can expect seasons of trial persecution growth Sanctification and war with sin and so much more. But through this all they will ultimately receive glorification because the one that cut the covenant did it for them.
This ought to remind us of something that I made mention of at the very beginning of today's message.
Isaiah said.
Remember when these things come to pass that God is sovereign. That I that that God decreed them before the Foundations of the world. That he decreed them beforehand. Know that I am God and no one else is like me.
This new covenant was prophesied a long long time ago. It comes from that Jeremiah 31 31 through 34. And I would ask you to turn with me to Jeremiah 32 verse 40. And I will cut an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do good.
And I will put the fear of me in the hearts of those so that they will not turn away from me. God spoke of this a long time ago. Take a surety that God is sovereign because of it. He declared this.
Beforehand.
So that we would know that he is sovereign that he has done it. And brothers and sisters those covenants that were imposed upon a people That was not agreed upon based off of God condescending to them and asking.
Hey little guy. What would be sensible for you? No, he said do not do this or die. Likewise he said you will surely live because my son was crushed for you. It was imposed upon us just like those old covenants were.
This covenant of grace was imposed. Again, ask you put yourself in the shoes of the Sun that night on the day of Passover. Put yourself in the shoes Of the ones that saw the false gods of Babylon fall over years after Isaiah prophesied about it.
The words that the father of the child would have heard Repeated to them and the father may have said that full Isaiah. What a fool he is we rejected him. Those children of Israel when they saw the gods of Babylon fall.
What did they do? He was right. My father was the fool. What should be the result of all these things with the covenant of grace with Calvinism doctrines of grace the tulip and the stem? Salvation through eternal mediation.
What should this all result in?
Sola Deo.
Gloria.
So why Calvinism want to finish out by reading Romans 11 33 through 36. Why Calvinism. Oh the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How? Unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways.
For who has been known who has known the mind of the Lord or who became his counselor? Or who has first given to him that he might be repaid to him for from him and through him and to him are all Things to him be the glory.
Forever.
Amen.
Why Calvinism? That's the terms of the New Covenant. Why Calvinism? Glorifies God. The applications are many. For why you should adopt Calvinism if you're not convinced of it today. But I will tell you that accepting Calvinism and accepting The reality that Christ has cut a covenant for us. I promise you that you will rejoice over God's sovereign plan Rather than trying to compromise the Word of God to fit within your vain philosophy.
Benefits to saying yes to why Calvinism is many but the sufficient reason is because the Lord has spoken. Let us pray Lord God. I thank you for this time. I thank you for this hour and one minute Lord.
I thank you for the time to be able to preach you crucified and to announce the covenant that has been cut on our behalf.
Lord.
God I would ask today that if anyone in this room is outside of that covenant of grace and are being convicted through the word Going forth Lord that it would not return to you void Lord I would ask that you would cause them to have faith in you.
That they would come to you truly in repentance and humility that they would take part of this covenant kingdom people that we are a part of and that they too and Us that are already a part of this covenant that we would look to our mediator.
Today.
We rejoice me covered in his righteousness Rejoice and being crucified with him and rejoice in rising to a newness of life. Lord I thank you for the new birth Lord and I thank you for being sovereign.
You have decreed this beforehand. So I rejoice over you and what you have revealed to us Lord God. I would ask that through the time to come that you would continue to be glorified and you'd be continue to be sought.
I asked this would be according to your will. Now you would receive all the glory forever and ever and in the name of that mediator Jesus the Christ. Amen.
