Baptist Covenant Theology: The Abrahamic Covenant

So, Baptist Covenant Theology, week seven.

Big one tonight, the Abrahamic Covenant. Who's that a covenant with? Abraham.

Very good. Let me read this quote. It's on your outline. This is just a good kind of overview quote from Sam Waldron.

So maybe I should have read it last week. The covenant with Noah is given as a framework in which creation will be preserved by common grace until the fulfillment of the promise.

That is, the promise of Jesus. The covenant with Abraham formally initiates that community through which the promised

Redeemer will come. The Mosaic Covenant provides the necessary regulation and legislation for that community at the time when it has ceased to be a family and has become a nation.

In the Davidic Covenant, God's rule over His people is given concrete manifestation.

In so doing, the line through which the Redeemer would come is specified. And in the New Covenant, the

Redeemer appears and accomplishes redemption, thus bringing to fruition all the types and predictions of the earlier covenants.

He inaugurates the final form of the covenant community. Now that's just a big overview.

You can kind of tease that out later. You can think through that later.

But just kind of giving an overview of what we're doing. What are the covenants doing? Ultimately, they're pointing us to and getting us to Christ.

One thing you need to know about Baptist covenant theology that distinguishes us from our

Pato -Baptist brothers, particularly Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed, is that we understand in the

Old Covenant that the Old Covenant is not the covenant of grace. I know it sounds...

I'm not trying to be rude or pejorative toward them, but it sounds so simple, doesn't it?

We're saying the Old Covenant is not the New Covenant, right? You're like, isn't that obvious? Well, it should be obvious,

I think, but there are some arguments that are given whereby it's made not so obvious, but I think it is obvious.

I wanna push back against the teaching that would say a covenant of grace was inaugurated with Abraham.

So let's talk about this tonight. So let's look at the Bible. Genesis 12, one through three.

That's where we're gonna start. And I'll kind of give you an overview right here.

So let me just pause real quick. Where are we at in Genesis 12?

What all events have taken place? The flood's taken place.

What else? Tower of Babel has taken place. And now

God has essentially forced the nations to disperse, the people to disperse.

And now we come to Genesis 12. So that's just a little context. Now, the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse.

And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. I also should mention verse seven.

Then the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to your offspring, I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the

Lord who had appeared to him. So first of all, just wading into it, we're just putting our toes in the water.

This is just an overview. There are four things really promised to Abraham.

That is a seed, he is gonna be given an offspring. He's old, he's gonna be given, his offspring is gonna be given a land, a land of rest.

He is gonna be the father of a multitude. And ultimately his children are going to be understood as God's children.

So keep all that in mind just as we're wading in here. So it's a promise to Abraham, whereby it will be through his lineage that the whole earth will be blessed.

That's in verse three. All the families of the earth are going to be blessed through the lineage of Abraham.

Now, is this covenant with Abraham conditional or unconditioned?

What'd you say? Unconditional, okay. Anybody say conditional?

So I think it's one of those questions, I think from our perspective that we need to answer it this way. Is it conditional or unconditional?

Well, the answer is yes, yes. But let's walk through that for a minute. Alex is right, it's unconditional in the sense that the promise of Christ and His blessings are initiated and guaranteed by who?

By Yahweh, by the Lord, by God. This is unconditional. God is going to do this and He's gonna do it through Abraham.

But it's also, we'll see this tonight, this is an important distinction, it's also conditional. Because in Genesis 17,

God says that the work, if the work of circumcision is not kept, and we'll read this later, then

Abraham's children will be cut off. They have to do it or otherwise they'll be cut off. So there is a promise, what you need to know tonight,

I mean, this is just overview, so if you're like, too fast, this is just big picture for a moment. There is a promise of the covenant of grace in the

Abrahamic covenant. But this promise is also conditioned upon the seed of Abraham keeping the covenant.

The offspring of Abraham must work, okay?

So just keep that in mind. We're gonna flesh all this out later. So the big picture is the covenant of grace, the new covenant was promised to Abraham, but it's not established with Abraham, it's not inaugurated with Abraham, rather it's going to be ultimately for his offspring.

So keep this in mind. In Genesis 3, God promises what? Let's know this.

What does God promise in Genesis 3? Verse 15, yeah.

He promises a redeemer. Now, where's that redeemer gonna come from? Well, we don't know,

I mean, we gotta pretend we don't know. We don't know where that redeemer is gonna come from until when?

Until we get to Genesis 12. So now we know that this redeemer is going to come through whose family?

Abraham's family. In Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

This is what we're seeing in Genesis 12. There is here, if you will, listen carefully, there's some nuances and some parsing here to think through, but there is, if you will, another covenant of works with Abraham and his seed, whereby his offspring must keep the covenant.

Now, I think there's a little bit of differences among Baptists here. I think that we should think of it as a republication of the covenant of works in this sense, that it's not that God is saying here to Abraham like he did to Adam.

It's not the same in that sense where like, if you do this, you will live. It's not that so much.

Rather, it's upon the condition of perfect righteousness, his offspring is going to procure eternal life.

And I'm gonna show you some passages in just a minute, but I'm just giving you an overview. His offspring is obligated to keep the covenant.

His offspring is obligated to uphold God's law. And if his seed upholds

God's law, there's gonna be great blessing. But the promise in Genesis 12, verse three, it's like it's already happened.

It's not maybe you will bless all the families of the earth. Rather, it's a promise.

In you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. In other words, this is going to happen. Of course, it's pointing to Christ.

So what you need to understand tonight is this Abrahamic covenant is one of the biggest we've covered so far because it promises

Christ, but it also says that or sets up the stage for the

Mosaic covenant, for the Davidic covenant, et cetera, et cetera, okay?

So the question is tonight is, so you have to look at it in two ways and I'll bring this home later.

Would the physical offspring of Abraham keep the covenant? If by physical offspring, you mean national

Israel, what's the answer? No. But if by physical offspring, you mean

Christ, what's the answer? Yes, all right? So I've been waiting for the marker board.

So let's just talk for just a second, all right? So you have the covenant of redemption, this plan that God makes in eternity past.

He gives a people to the son. The son agrees to be the elect's representative and then the

Holy Spirit agrees to apply redemption in time after the work of Christ or even to those before Christ who are looking forward.

So then you have the covenant of works established with, I almost said

Abraham, with Adam in the garden. You can't see that very good. Genesis 2, 15 through 17, what happens?

The covenant of works is broken, but as the covenant of works is broken, God comes in and gives that promise,

Genesis 3, 15, the gospel promise. Now we talked about there's two kingdoms, right? There's two kingdoms, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of the seed of the woman and the kingdom of the seed of the serpent and God is going to have his kingdom and that's what you need to think about what's happening.

Well, let me get to it. So you have the gospel promise, you have the flood because mankind is wicked. They continue in their wickedness.

God sends a flood, wipes it out, but now he brings stability in the

Noahic covenant. There's stability or preservation in that this Noahic covenant is a promise that the seasons are gonna continue, that God's not gonna destroy the world again by means of a flood, that he establishes the death penalty.

So we talked about government. He establishes the continued obligation of mankind to be fruitful, multiply.

So there's a stability here to the world and it's all to get us to Christ and then we leave that covenant and now we come to the

Abrahamic covenant. And what I've tried to illustrate here is the Abrahamic covenant is taking this big promise that's out there and it's pulling it in and it's focusing it, narrowing it, if you will, into the family that's eventually we're gonna call

Israel, Abraham's family.

But it's conditional. It's conditional, it's unconditional in the sense that it's

God that's going to do it ultimately, but it's conditional in the sense that there's something hanging over Abraham's offspring's head and that is there has to be a fulfillment of the work.

Adam didn't do it. Somebody has to do it. Israel's not gonna do it.

You and I haven't done it and that's how it ultimately points us to Christ.

So what we have is the Abrahamic covenant focusing in the promise from Genesis 3 .15,

which promises the seed of the woman to crush the serpent's head. Genesis 12 is now showing us from what family this seed of the woman is going to come from.

It's going to come from Abraham's family. Let's, we don't do this a lot while we're going, but let's just pause for a second.

Any questions you got right now? It's kind of big picture and then we're gonna walk through it more.

All right, so let's talk about now progressive revelation. Now in our day, someone says there are progressives.

That's not good. We're like, ah, we don't want that. But progressive revelation is, simply means this, that God's word does what?

It's not all revealed at once. It progresses as it were step by step. I'll put a couple of quotes on your sheet.

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. This is good, listen. We affirm that God's revelation in the

Holy Scriptures was progressive. We deny that later revelation, which may fulfill earlier revelation ever corrects or contradicts it.

We further deny that any normative revelation has been given since the completion of the

New Testament writing. So in other words, God's word unfolds over time, but it never unfolds in such a way that later revelation comes back and fixes something.

That's not how it works. So let me just put it to you this way. Genesis 3 .15, did God reveal everything that could be revealed about the

Messiah in Genesis 3 .15? Of course not. Are there things that you learned even in the

New Testament about Jesus that weren't completely revealed, or maybe at least they were only partially revealed in the

Old Testament? Of course, yeah. So things unfolded in God's wisdom over thousands of years.

By the way, let me offer you something interesting. I don't know what to really make of it, but I'm just gonna give you an interesting thought.

The time from Adam to Christ is how many years? Give or take, 4 ,000 years, okay, estimate.

What's the time from Adam to Abraham? About 2 ,000 years.

Now, if we're talking about redemptive history in the Old Testament, as far as years go, we're about halfway, all right?

So from the time Adam receives the promise to Jesus, 4 ,000 years, the halfway point is

Abraham's. I'm not trying to make a point about that, just it's interesting, right? So it took 2 ,000 years for this promise from Genesis 3 .15

to take the form of Genesis 12, but there was enough in it to trust and be saved, okay?

Trust that God's gonna send a Redeemer. But now we have, excuse me, we have further revelation here.

Kim Riddlebarger, he's a Baptist. He said, there is one people of God in both

Testaments, all members of the one covenant of grace, whose one mediator is

Jesus Christ. So again, this is a bit off topic, but let me just mention this again. What we're saying is all the people in the, the universal church, as it were, doesn't begin at Pentecost.

People are saved in the Old Testament, but they're not saved by the inauguration, the beginning of the covenant of grace.

Rather, they're saved by the promise of the covenant of grace, which is ratified in who?

In Christ, right? And then our confession is 69, 7 .3,

this important chapter seven, paragraph three. This covenant, talking about the new 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.

After that, it was revealed step -by -step. I'm gonna ask you what that means, so think about it. It was revealed step -by -step until the full revelation of it was completed in the

New Testament. So what does it mean that this gospel was revealed, the new covenant that is, was revealed step -by -step?

What does that mean? Yeah, as we think about these stories, we think about these covenants, we're getting a little bit closer.

For this big promise in Genesis three and what we have in the Abrahamic covenant now,

Genesis 12 through 17, really, is a focusing of that promise and seeing how this is going to come about, all right?

Now, let's do some more digging. Genesis 15. I wanna talk about how this covenant of grace is promised here, but it's not inaugurated.

So go to Genesis 15, this is important, and then we'll go to Romans four. So we're gonna read these together. Genesis 15 and Romans four, we're gonna take these together.

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

Your reward shall be very great. But Abram said, oh, Lord God, what will you give me?

For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Elisha of Damascus.

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

In other words, you've promised me an offspring, but I don't have an offspring. Verse four, and behold, the word of the

Lord came to him. This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir.

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

Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. Now listen to verse six. And he believed the

Lord. He believed Yahweh. He had faith in this promise.

And he, that is the Lord, Yahweh, counted it to him, that is Abram, as righteousness.

So how is Abram justified? Works or faith? By faith.

So let's go to Romans four, and let's just see what the apostle Paul has to say, who also talks about this event.

And this is important. Romans four, what then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh?

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the

Lord will not count his sin. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?

That is, is it only for the Jews or also the Gentiles? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.

How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? Now Paul brings a bombshell.

It was not after, it was before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal.

This is only for Abraham, by the way, as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith, which he was, while he was still uncircumcised.

The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well.

And to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father

Abraham had before he was circumcised. What the text is saying is that Abraham is the true father.

When it fleshes out later, he's the true father, not of Israel, but of the circumcised and uncircumcised who are trusting

Christ by what? By faith. So we have a promise in the

Abrahamic covenant of the covenant of grace. And it is by virtue of this covenant, virtue of what

God's gonna do through Christ, that Abraham is counted righteous. And he believes

God, he has faith, and he's justified before his circumcision. But the covenant of grace is not inaugurated with Abraham.

That is, his physical offspring, none of you in here are wrestling with pato -baptism, but just say this clear, this is the argument.

His physical offspring were not in the covenant of grace. They were remained as being born in their birth under works.

No unbeliever has ever been included in the new covenant ever, ever.

The new covenant does not contain believers and their unbelieving children. It only always has only contained those of faith.

So circumcision for Abraham's offspring is not a sign of grace. Ultimately, it's a sign of works.

I'll show you that. So go back to Genesis 17. It is a sign that God's law must be upheld.

Genesis 17, verse 14.

Genesis 17, verse 14. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people, he has broken my covenant.

Is that conditional or unconditional? It's conditional. If this is not upheld, they are cut off, broken.

Look over at chapter 18, verse 19. God says, talking about Abraham, for I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the

Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.

So what I'm saying here is this covenant, though it is gracious and it contains the promise, it ultimately is conditional in that it requires fulfillment.

It requires being kept. It is essentially your offspring must do this and live.

Now, Abraham believes this. He trusts God. He looks forward to the offspring that God is gonna give him that will ultimately keep this for him.

Let me say this. There's some interesting parallels. Do this and you will live, same setup with Adam.

There's some interesting parallels between Abraham and Adam. I'm just gonna note a couple. In chapter 17, so you're right there in your text.

In chapter 17, back in verse nine and 10, it says, and God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

Verse 10, this is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you.

Every male among you shall be circumcised. Now, here's the parallel. The word keep in verse 17, or chapter 17, verse nine and 10, is there anywhere else in your brain,

I know it's in the evening, a Wednesday evening, is there anywhere else in your brain that you can remember when it comes to Adam about the word keep?

What did God put Adam in the garden to do? To work it and keep it.

Same Hebrew word. Why, we're not just making it up. Same Hebrew word for keep in Genesis 2 is the same here in Genesis 17.

Here's another observation. We wanna be careful with this, unless you think we're trying to be disparaging to the ladies here.

It's the same language. So listen, Genesis 16, verse two. And Sarai said to Abram, behold, hold on.

Behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by her.

And Abram, this is the right here, listened to the voice of Sarai.

Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. That's the same exact language in Genesis 3, 17, where God says to Adam, you have listened to the voice of your wife.

Now, stop worrying about trying to make this into something that it's not.

I'm just showing you it's a parallel. So if guys, if you go home tonight and you say, I don't gotta listen to you because look at the

Bible, you've missed what I'm trying to make. The point I'm making is there's a parallel here, okay?

In both of these. And there's a connection to be recognized between Adam and Abraham.

The careful reader should not miss them. It's this, it's actually one danger that we have.

I do it too, okay? It's a danger we have when we say, I'm gonna read a chapter of the Bible. Well, what's the problem with that?

You read a chapter of the Bible and you forget Genesis is an entire story. It's not just supposed to,

I'm not saying you have to read Genesis in one sitting, though that would be a good practice.

If you've never done that, it will take you a little bit. Read Genesis in one sitting. But if you were to read

Genesis in one sitting, some of these things would pop in your mind. Like, didn't

I just, I read that over here. Oh, that's interesting. I wonder if it's a coincidence. Narrator, it's not a coincidence, right?

This is the way that the Bible unfolds, right? So I might make another comment here that the serpent is continually working to overtake

God's church. You see that in Genesis three, you see that. Why does

Sarai say, hey, you know what? I'm not gonna be able to have a child.

God's promised you a child. Have a child with my servant, Hagar. Is that just a coincidence?

Like, wow, okay, I mean, no. That's Satan's work. He wants to make the bride of Christ into this biblical language, a harlot.

So Abraham fathered Ishmael as a counterfeit, if you will, in Satan's strategy.

So if you think about this, Satan is very crafty at creating counterfeits.

Counterfeits to the gospel, counterfeits to the church, counterfeits to holiness, shortcuts, imitations, all these things.

For example, remember in the temptation, he offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world.

Jesus came to be what? To be king. Well, here's a shortcut. This is why it's a temptation.

Satan says, it's a good thing for Christ to be king, right? So Satan says, I'll give you the kingdoms of the world.

Here they are. You can have them. You can have them right now. You don't have to go through the cross.

You don't have to suffer. You don't have to die. You can have the kingdom now, but how would he have to receive the kingdom?

If he does what? Falls down and worships

Satan. No, Satan offers him, that's, you understand, that's why it's a temptation.

Satan says, here it is. And of course our Lord resists that, but the point is

Satan offers counterfeits. He offers shortcuts. Jesus rebukes

Satan. Abraham here, he doesn't say no in this situation. He wanted to have the offspring right now with Hagar, because this is

Satan's strategy to corrupt God's church. But anyway, I'm just saying there is a reestablishment.

I think that we can establish, in my opinion, the covenant of works, not so that Abraham could gain life by it.

Of course he can't, but it's the standard, if you will, that has to be met by his offspring.

And what is the standard? Perfect, personal, perpetual, and precise obedience.

Flawless righteousness, all right? Now this brings us to the final point, and I think we get through this.

Abraham is the father of two seeds. Nehemiah Cox, one of our Baptist forefathers, 17th century, 1600.

She says, Abraham is to be considered in a double capacity. He is the father of all true believers and the father and root of the

Israelite nation. So Abraham has two seeds. He has his physical offspring, and he has what we're gonna call children of the promise.

Now he's given the sign of circumcision. Jeff Johnson says this, circumcision not only represented the cutting off of the fleshly nature, it also represented the separation of the seed of the woman from the seed of the serpent.

The children of Abraham were called to be a holy nation unto the Lord. The cutting of their flesh represented their separation from the kingdom of darkness.

And we'll talk about this more, I think, in the Mosaic Covenant. Now circumcision was a sign of these things, but it did not procure these things.

All the physical sons of Abraham were to receive this sign. So he was the physical father of the people of Israel.

Sons and daughters born according to the flesh. But hear me tonight. To be a true child of Abraham, so he's the father of all the physical people, but to be a true child of Abraham, to be a child of the promise, you needed circumcision of the heart.

I put these on your paper, Deuteronomy 10, 16. Circumcised, God says, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

Then he promises in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse six, and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the

Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, that you may live. A little bit of monergistic promise there, you know.

Who, you ultimately, you're commanded to circumcise your heart, but you can't do it. Who's ultimately going to do it?

God. So now a very important text. Go to Galatians 3.

Some people ask me sometimes, you know, Brother Quatro, what is your favorite book on covenant theology?

Can you recommend any books on covenant theology? Well, you know what? I could recommend a lot of books on covenant theology,

I think will help you. But my favorite book, the best book on covenant theology, it's

Galatians. Or maybe Romans, maybe Genesis, maybe just the whole Bible. But listen to this.

So listen carefully, I'm going to read, and we're going to, it's like, quick read, but listen carefully.

Galatians chapter three, verse seven. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed.

So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, curse be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.

But the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the

Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. To give a human example, brothers, even with a manmade covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. That's Genesis 12 through 17.

It does not say, and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is

Christ. This is what I mean. The law, which came 430 years afterwards, so now we're talking about the

Mosaic covenant, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void.

For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.

Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God?

Certainly not, for if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned, until the coming faith would be revealed.

So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.

But now that faith has come, we're no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Listen to this, there is neither

Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Now there's a lot in there to sort through, I understand that a lot more than we're gonna cover tonight. But do you understand who the true sons and daughters of Abraham are?

It is all, and it's always been that way. It didn't just happen in the New Testament. Oh, now the people of faith.

No, no, even in the Old Testament, those of faith are the true sons and daughters of Abraham.

The ultimate fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant of the promise to Abraham is Christ. He's the promised seed of Abraham through which the nations are gonna be blessed by his life, death, burial, resurrection.

The physical children of Abraham alone are not as true as the physical children. Now, are physical children, the children of Abraham?

Yes, those of what? Those of faith. The circumcised of faith are the children of Abraham.

The uncircumcised of faith, the Jews and Gentiles of faith, right? And I won't read it to you, or I won't turn there, but right now in John 8, a group of Jews say this to Jesus.

John 8, 39, you can look at it later. They say, Abraham is our father, John 8, 39.

This is what Jesus says. That's not true. The text actually says this. Jesus said to them, if you were

Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did. Now, how can

Jesus look at Jews and tell them they're not Abraham's children?

Well, they are his physical offspring, yes, but they were not born again. The physical offspring of Abraham remain only, remain under the covenant of works, whereby a son of Abraham must complete perfect righteousness, must uphold the law, the same requirement that Adam had, and that offspring is

Christ. Only those looking to Christ by faith are included in the covenant of grace.

All others remain under the covenant of works. I have another quote by Sam Rinehan.

I'll probably read that the next time, but essentially, let me wrap this up by saying this. The Presbyterian or the

Dutch reform, the Pato -Baptist argument in that line basically says, the children in the

Old Testament were included in the covenant, so we should include children in the New Testament in the covenant.

Why would you, why would, when Jesus came, all of a sudden, we would not include children in the covenant?

Okay, the Baptist response, the 1689 federalism response, the

Reformed Baptist response, and I would argue, and I'm not trying to be arrogant here, the biblical response is, the children of Abraham in the

Old Testament were never included in the covenant of grace, the physical children.

Only those who, what, put their faith in Christ.

That's it, only those. Circumcision remained as a sign that this work had to be completed, and let me give you the proof of that too.

In the New Testament, when the work is completed, what happens to circumcision? It goes away, because it's irrelevant now, right?

Because it remained as a sign of works. Okay, we'll pause, or we'll stop there.

You can hit stop on the recording, and we'll now have opportunities.