Reformed Theology Pt 12 | The Covenant of Grace Intro.

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Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Pastor Jeff Rice

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Reformed Theology Pt 13| Covenant of Grace | 1689 Federalism

Reformed Theology Pt 13| Covenant of Grace | 1689 Federalism

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If you would turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3, we will look at verse 15.
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Genesis 3, 15. Let's pray.
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Father, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, we come to you.
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Lord, we depend upon you. Your people has not gathered today to listen to my opinion, but they have gathered to be under your word.
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I pray, Lord, that I have been faithful with your text and that you will help me today to articulate well.
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And I pray this in the name of the name, Jesus of Nazareth.
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Amen. All right, so before we begin,
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I want to kind of give you all some book recommendations of where I'm coming from. So I'm coming from a perspective in Baptist covenant theology that's called 1689 federalism.
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Now it's not something that I've coined, it's been coined, okay? Over the last 20 years, writings from those who have the framers of our confession have been discovered, say
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Nehemiah Cox and others. And these writings that have been discovered, now books are being written about what they believed and what they held to.
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And so a real good book by Jeffrey Johnson is The Kingdom of God. This is a really good book that's going to deal with this subject.
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And also, someone I will be quoting from in my sermon today is a man by the name of Samuel Rennihan.
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And it's a book called The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom. Really good books.
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This one is like, you need your brain power when you read this thing. No one needs to be talking to you.
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It's straight focus, leave me alone, crawl up in a room where no one's around and read it.
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All right? Jeffrey Johnson is an excellent, one of the best authors I've read. His writing is so smooth.
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Those are two books that I would, I mean, there's others. If you want other recommendations, please come see me.
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I can point you to many, many other books. But these two really get down to the core issue.
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So this is our twelfth part in a series dealing with Reformed theology, and we're looking at confessional, covenantal,
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Calvinistic, law and gospel distinction, the ordinary means of grace, and the five solas of the
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Reformation. So it being our twelfth, we're still in covenantal, and we have come to the grand finale when it comes to covenantal, and that is the covenant of grace.
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And we will not be moving through it quickly, so just to put that out there.
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Our theme is the covenant of grace, and our timeless truth for this week is this.
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There has only been one way of salvation. Now I say that, and I'm not in the majority.
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Most Christendom would not agree with that statement. I appear today as a
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Reformed Baptist, as a 1689 Federalist. I hold to Baptist covenant theology. I'm proclaiming to you today,
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I stand on this, I will die on this hill. There's only been one way of salvation.
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I believe that in order for Christianity to be true, Christianity has to be owed.
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It has to be owed. In order for Christianity to be owed, Christianity cannot be a parenthesis in the historical plan of redemption, meaning that it just can't be something that God thought up because something else didn't work.
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Oh, well, that didn't work, so let me maneuver something over here. Let me work out some pieces down this way.
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Oh, I got it, I'll send my son. There we go. That's false.
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In order for Christianity to be true, it has to be owed. It has to be what
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Abraham believed. And my hope for today is that you will give me your attention, because this is just the opening the top.
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If this was a bottle of champagne, with this sermon, I'm popping the top. And over the next few weeks, we're going to celebrate by drinking that bottle.
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Look with me in our text. Genesis 3, verse 15.
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I will put enmity between you and the woman. Now this is God speaking to the serpent.
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This is the promised curse to the serpent. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.
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He will bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
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In our outline, we will see the promise as well as the fulfillment. I'm going to give you three ways to look at the covenant of grace.
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Three ways. One, the covenant of grace was a promise only in the old covenant.
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Two, the covenant of grace is the new covenant.
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And three, the covenant of grace is the covenant of works fulfilled.
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One, the covenant of grace is a promise only in the Old Testament, the old covenant.
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Two, the covenant of grace is, present tense, is the new covenant.
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And three, the covenant of grace is the covenant of works fulfilled.
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Now over the last few weeks, well, I'm lying, right, month or a few months, we've been dealing with the covenant of works.
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And what we have here today is the fulfillment. This is being, this is how it's fulfilled. And as we transition, early on in the series,
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I made a statement that our particular Baptist forefathers were not only reforming from the
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Roman Catholic Church, but they were also reforming from the Presbyterian Church.
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More so from the Roman Catholic Church, but one particular point we have to address concerning the
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Presbyterian Church is the issue of covenant theology. We've had a couple that's been visiting with us for several weeks.
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They're not here today, but they pointed out that our document is very Presbyterian.
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It has the predestinations and it has all this other stuff in there. That sounds very
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Presbyterian. I said, well, we're reformed. I said, but where we separate with them is in our covenant theology.
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After the fall, speaking of the fall of man, the Presbyterians saw one covenant, the covenant of grace being utilized in the old covenant and in the new covenant.
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And so I want to read to you the Westminster Confession, chapter seven.
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Now this is written in an English that I do not speak, the King's English. So there's some words in here that I'm going to say, and I can't translate for you, okay?
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Like I'm just not that intellectually smart. This is chapter seven of the covenant.
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It's titled, Of God's Covenant with Man. The distance between God and the creature is so great that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their creator, yet they could never have fruition with him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.
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The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works, wherein life was promised to Adam and in him to his posterity upon condition of perfect and personal obedience.
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Paragraph three, man by his fall have made himself incapable of life by that covenant.
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The Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace, wherein he freely offered unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those who are ordained to eternal life his
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Holy Spirit to make them willing and able to believe. This covenant of grace is frequently set forth in scripture by the name of a testament in reference to the death of Jesus, the testator, and the everlasting inheritance with all things belonging to it therein bequeathed.
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That's one of the words, I have no idea, bequeathed. Paragraph five, this covenant was differently administrated in the time of the law.
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Here's where you really need to listen. This covenant was differently administrated in the time of the law and in the time of the gospel.
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Under the law, it was administrated by promises, prophecies, sacrifice, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the
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Jews, all for signifying Christ to come, which were for that time sufficient and efficacious through the operation of the
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Spirit to instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah by whom they had full remission of sins.
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Listen, they had full remission of sins and eternal salvation, and it is called the
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Old Testament. Paragraph six, and under the gospel, when Christ the substance was exhibited, the ordinance which this covenant is dispensed are the preaching of the word and the administration as of sacraments of baptism and the
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Lord's Supper, which, though fewer in number, and administered more,
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I lost my place, which are fewer in number, which are administered more simplicity, that's it, simplicity, words
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I need to read every day, and less outward glory, yet in them it held forth in more fullness evidence and spiritual efficacy to all nations, both
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Jews and Gentiles, it is called the New Testament. There are, listen right here, there are not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same under various dispensations.
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Now me and Josh had a conversation not long ago, and I was telling him why I don't read the
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King's English, that's why. It's tough. I've been reading that thing for three days, and I can't get it still.
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So I want you to notice real quick with me, in paragraph one, I'm sorry, in paragraph two, they only see the
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Edemic Covenant as the Covenant of Works. We walk through the
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Edemic Covenant, we walk through the Abrahamic Covenant, we walk through the Davidic, Mosaic Covenant, and the Davidic Covenant. They only see the
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Abrahamic, I mean, the Edemic Covenant as the Covenant of Works. The Abrahamic Covenant, the
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Mosaic Covenant, and the Davidic Covenant are administrations of the covenant of grace, meaning that the covenant of grace was established immediately after the fall and the curse of the serpent.
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So let's go back to our text, let's jump up one verse just for a little context.
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He issued the curse to the woman, childbearing, and that she will have a want in her to rule her husband, but the husband must rule over her.
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To the husband, that through him, taken of this fruit, that he has not only cursed the whole earth, the ground, but that all men in him will die, and that he will have to earn his living by the sweat of the brow through this cursed earth.
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And verse 14 is where he starts the conversation with the serpent.
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The Lord said to the serpent, because you have done this, meaning deceived the woman, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field.
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On your belly you shall go, and the dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
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I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.
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He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Christ being the offspring, the the offspring of the woman who would bruise the head of the serpent while only bruising his heel.
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Now although, you know, as Reformed Baptists we would say that they got a lot right, like there's a lot of truth with what we believe the
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Presbyterians believe here, but ultimately we believe that they have misunderstood the text.
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So we would see that the text gives an immediate promise, but a latter fulfillment, which takes us to our first point, the covenant of grace promised in the
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Old Covenant. Now I want to read that again and I'll point some things out.
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Listen, 15, I will, this is the promise, I will put enmity between you, the serpent, and the woman, between your offspring, the offspring of the serpent and the woman's offspring.
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He, this offspring that would come from the woman, will bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
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The promise in Genesis 315 is that one will come from the woman who will defeat the serpent that deceived the woman.
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So the promise is that someone's going to come, not that someone appeared.
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Someone is going to come and when he comes he is going to defeat you.
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Now what we agree with them is that we agree that this is the covenant of grace, that Genesis 315 speaks about the covenant of grace, but the fulfillment of the promise would be when he, this offspring, shall bruise the head of the serpent while only bruising his heel, and that took place at the cross.
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So we have a promise given. I am going to put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and his, and he will bruise your head.
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This is a promise. Now when's it going to happen? And when he bruises his head while only bruising his heel.
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In this passage he gives a promise. I'm going to do this, and you'll know it's done when this happens.
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What happens? When he bruises the head of the serpent while only bruising his heel.
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If that does not happen, the covenant of grace has not been established.
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Now that's what we believe as Federalists, and I want to read our version of this covenant.
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Chapter 7 of the 1689, Though rational creatures are responsible to God as their creator, the distance between God and these creatures is so great that they could never have obtained the reward of life except by God's voluntary condescension.
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He has been pleased to express this through a covenant framework.
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Since humanity brought itself under the curse of the law, by its fall it pleased the
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Lord to make a covenant of grace. In this covenant he freely offers to sinners life and salvation through Jesus Christ.
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On their part he requires faith in him that they may be saved, and promises to give life, his
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Holy Spirit, to all who are ordained to eternal life to make them willing and able to believe.
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Paragraph 3. This covenant reveals the gospel.
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It was first revealed to Adam, listen very carefully, it was first revealed first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation through the seed of the woman.
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After that it was revealed step by step until the full revelation was completed in the
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New Testament. This covenant, this covenant of grace, it's based on the eternal covenant transaction between the
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Father and the Son concerning the redemption of the elect. What is that?
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The covenant of redemption. The Father purposed to save a people.
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The Son accomplishes the purpose. The Holy Spirit applies the purpose.
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The covenant of grace is based on that covenant. Only through grace of this covenant have those saved, right here, from among the descendants of Adam obtained life and blessed immortality.
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Humanity is not utterly incapable, is now utterly incapable of accepting, of being accepted by God on the same terms on which
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Adam was accepted in his state of innocence. So the covenant of grace that we hope to comes out of, is a part of, the covenant of redemption.
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That God purposed to save a people and He does so by sending
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His Son. His Son accomplishes the Father's purpose by living the life we could not live and dying the death that we should die.
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And the Holy Spirit accomplishes that purpose by those who are indwelled with Him, who have
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Christ in them, preaches this word, God saves humanity. That's where the covenant of grace comes from.
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And so the Abrahamic, I mean the Adamic, the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, the Davidic, and our estimations are the covenants of works.
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As they would see, the Adamic, the covenant of works, the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, and the
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Davidic are all administrations of the covenant of grace. And what we would say is, is that the
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Abrahamic, I mean that the Mosaic and the Davidic are an administration of the Abrahamic.
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God separating two peoples, the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman, the
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Adamic coming from the offspring, I mean the Abrahamic coming from the offspring of the woman. So while they would read
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Genesis 315 and they would say this, established, covenant of grace established, right there
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Genesis 315. We would read it and say, a promise.
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We would not say established, we would say a promise. We would say that the inauguration, we would say at the inauguration, it has been established.
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And that would have been when Christ was crucified. So promise given, Christ comes,
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Christ crucified, promise established. So the
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Protoevangelium is a promise as well as a fulfillment. I know
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I'm beating a dead horse. When you leave here today, you have to understand this one concept to understand
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Baptist covenant theology. The promise was fulfilled in Genesis, I mean the promise in Genesis 315 and fulfilled at the cross.
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So to put it plainly, the covenant of grace is only a promise until. It's not a promise now.
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It's been fulfilled. It was established. It's been fulfilled at the cross.
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So as you can see, particular Reformed Baptists formulated their covenant different than the
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Presbyterians. But I want to make it clear, not clear as mud but clear as crystal. I want to read, attempt to read one more time, paragraph 5 of the
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Westminster. I just want to point out some things that just reading through it, you might overlook or hearing me stumble through it, you might overlook.
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Pay attention. I'm going to definitely point this out as we go. Paragraph 5, this covenant was differently administered in the time of the law.
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So it's right here. Paragraph 5 is dealing with the time of the law. Paragraph 6 deals with the time of the
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New Testament. In the time of the law and in the time of the gospel.
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Under the law, it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifice, circumcision.
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The paschal lamb and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the
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Jews, all for signifying Christ to come, which were for that time.
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Now, listen, this which were for that time, speaking of the prophecies, the promise, the prophecies, the sacrifice, the circumcision of the paschal lamb were sufficient and efficacious, efficacious,
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I got it, through the operation of the Spirit to instruct and to build up in the faith of the promise of the
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Messiah by whom they had, listen, full remission of sins and eternal salvation and is called the
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Old Testament, that through them doing these acts, they had full remission of sins and eternal salvation.
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Our Presbyterian brothers would see full remission of sins and eternal salvation in the
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Old Covenant, which they see as the covenant of grace, how? By performing these deeds.
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Now, you say, there's no way to believe that. That right there was a quote from a Presbyterian pastor
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I just gave you that I talked to on the phone as I'm doing this sermon. He says, they had salvation by faith in performing the deeds.
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What deeds? By sacrificing animals, by putting the...by
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celebrating the Passover, they had salvation, forgiveness of sins.
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Israelites, this is what the Presbyterians believed. These deeds being the sacrifice, circumcision, paschal lamb, and other types.
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So we would see that the act of obedience done in faith...sorry,
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so they would see the act of obedience done in faith in the Old Testament is how they received salvation.
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Ladies and gentlemen, there's only been one way of salvation.
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One way. Same way Abraham is saved is the same way that I have to be saved.
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Same way that you have to be saved. Same way that your kids have to be saved. Abraham believed
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God and was counted righteous. All I did was quote from a pastor who is a good friend of mine, whom
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I love. Now, to be fair, they would see these things as prefiguring the promise of Christ to come.
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But if you're debating a Muslim, if you're debating an atheist, oh, you're a Christian?
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That's new. No, it's old. It's Abraham old. Abraham believed
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God and was counted with righteousness. What did he believe? That an offspring would come from him, and through this offspring, all the nations of the world will be blessed, and that through that offspring, that they would inherit the land.
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Jesus came, an offspring of Abraham, and through him, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
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And he has kept the law by doing so. He has earned not only the land, but the entire world.
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The meek shall inherit the earth. So we don't see deeds being performed having eternal ramifications, as Reformed Baptists.
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We don't see deeds being performed having eternal ramifications, but only earthly ramifications, right?
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We do, however, see them pointing to something greater. Real quick, I want to look at, one, the
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Paschal Lamb. Turn your
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Bibles to the Gospel of John, verse 29.
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We have John the Baptist. People are questioning John the Baptist. Are you the
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Christ? Are you the prophet? Or should we expect another?
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John, it says, John 1 .29, it says, the next day, he, being
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John the Baptist, saw Jesus coming toward him. And he said,
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Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.
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We see that salvation is through Jesus Christ, through the active and passive obedience of Jesus Christ.
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As Reformed Baptists, as 1689 Federalists, that salvation is through Jesus Christ.
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That this one moment in history, that everything that has ever happened, or everything that's going to happen is making its way, it's gravitating toward this one moment when the
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Roman guards were nailing Jesus on the cross. That is the pivotal point in history.
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That is when the covenant of grace was inaugurated. Everything that has ever happened before then, and everything that is ever going to happen, it's making its way to that point to be footstooled under Jesus' feet.
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So, you say, well, when Babylon was destroyed, who destroyed it? It was put under the feet of Jesus.
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And when our nation is destroyed, who's going to do it? It's going to be put under the feet of Jesus.
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Everything has to do with this one moment in time. So, when we're talking about salvation, we're talking about this one moment, the active and passive obedience from those in the
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Old Testament, and those in the New Testament, and those who will ever be saved, those who have been saved, and those who will ever be saved, are only saved because of what
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Jesus Christ accomplished on that cross. When he said, tell us, God, it is finished. It is finished.
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But there's types and anti -types. There's shadows and there's substances. I want to read to you a quote from Samuel Rinehan.
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And please listen to me. If anyone that you should go home and Google today, it's Samuel Rinehan.
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The man is a genius when it comes to this subject. He writes this.
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And when I say this, you're going to be so profound, but it's going to be like, of course.
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Duh. Listen, your shadow is not you.
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Your shadow is not you. But it communicates information such as approximates physical features.
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Shadows don't show faces, so also types are shadows that give true information about something other and greater than themselves.
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The biblical language of pictures and realities makes the same points. Listen to this.
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Some restaurants have menus with pictures of food in them.
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You can't eat the food in the picture, just in case y 'all didn't know.
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You can't eat the food in the picture, but you can order food based on the information the picture provides.
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Now, turn with me to Exodus 12. I'm going to read verses 3 through 7, and we'll skip down to verses 12 and 13.
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Exodus 12, beginning in verse 3. To all the congregation of Israel, that on the tenth day of the month, every man shall take a lamb according to his father's house, a lamb for a household.
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And if a household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons, according to what each can eat.
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You shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old.
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You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats.
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And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, and when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
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Verse 7, then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lentil of the house in which they eat.
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Jump down to verse 12. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborns in the land of Egypt, both man and beast.
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And on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am
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Yahweh. The blood shall be a sign for you on your house where you are.
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And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you.
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I will strike the land of Egypt. Notice in the story, by doing this, they're promised earthly blessings.
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They're not promised salvation as in the eternal state.
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They're promised earthly salvation. The word salvation just means rescued.
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Again, I made this point, if you're running out in the street and you're about to get hit by a car and I tackle you and knock you out the way, you could legitimately say,
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I was your salvation. They earned earthly promise.
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The earthly promise that they got was that their firstborn males were not killed. How? By putting the lamb's blood over the doors on the doorpost and the lentil, and then eating this lamb that they killed.
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Now, it does work as a picture. Shadow and the substance.
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The substance being Jesus and the Lord's Supper. I want to go back to that restaurant menu analogy.
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The picture is the shadow, and the meal is the substance. When we go out to eat, me and my wife and kids, we go out to eat, and we get a menu.
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And I, you ask my wife, I like pictures. Right? Like, this really hits home for me.
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I don't want to just read something, I want to see something, you know? I want to see what it looks like. And so, if I don't see what it looks like,
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I'm not ordering it. Like, I'm just, I'm not doing it. Like, I want to see it.
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When I order my food, they take away the menu. Why?
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Because it's not the substance. It's not what I ordered. It's just pictures that gave me information about what
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I ordered. When you order your food, they remove the menu, and they bring you back the menu?
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No. A plate of food. The substance. John sees
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Jesus, and he says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
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He says, that's Him. He's the one. That's who the prophets spoke about.
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That's why the blood was on the lentils and on the mantle. That's why we ate of it.
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That was a picture of Him. Jesus was not the literal
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Pascal Lamb that was killed, cooked, and ate every year. But the
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Pascal Lamb was a type, an antitype, in the shadow, and Jesus was the substance.
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Today, when we partake in the Lord's Supper, it's not to give us life or salvation.
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Listen to me. When we partake in the Lord's Supper, it is not to give us life, it is not to give us forgiveness of sins, and it is not to give us salvation.
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It does not point us to a greater fulfillment. The Lord's Supper signifies what the
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Lord's Supper signifies, and that is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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We're not looking to something greater. It doesn't point to something greater to come. It points back to that one moment on the cross when
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Jesus took our sins away. When we partake, and we will, it is in remembrance of Him, and by doing so, graciously,
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He grows us in holiness. We will read it later, but I want to look at it real quick.
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First Corinthians chapter 11, beginning in verse 23.
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I just want to read through it. First Corinthians 11, verse 23.
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For I receive from the Lord what I also deliver to you, that the
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Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said,
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This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.
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In the same way also, He took the cup after supper, saying, This is the cup of the new covenant in My blood.
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Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the
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Lord's death until He comes. So in this, we see that it was delivered to us.
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I want you to see the passiveness here. It was delivered to us, verse 23. It was done for us, verse 24.
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We partake in remembrance, verse 25, and by doing so, we proclaim the
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Lord's death, verse 26. We partake in faith, but we're not actively performing the deed.
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The deed was done for us by Christ through His passive obedience.
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Actively, He kept the law. He lived a life we could not live. Passively, He died in our place.
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Not only was He the mediator, but He was the sacrifice. And in closing, next week, we will examine a lot of what
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I said today. We're not going to the next point next week. We're going to go through and fully examine more to prove the point.
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But in closing, I want to make something clear. I probably made it clear earlier, but I just don't want anyone to leave without understanding this one thing.
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If you don't get anything else listening, get this. Anyone and everyone who has ever been saved is saved by virtue of what
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Christ has done, not because of works done in faith.
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No one was ever saved salvifically by putting blood on doorposts and lentils, by offering sacrifices at temples.
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No one was ever salvifically saved in that way. The only way that anyone has ever been plucked from the fire,
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God in eternity, reaching into time, removing something from the fire, is when their faith is in the offspring.
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And it's by virtue of the new covenant, by what Christ Jesus has done, that we are saved. Abraham looked forward to that coming offspring that would fulfill the promise that by Him, all the nations will be blessed.
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We look back at that same promise, that same moment in time when
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Jesus Christ bruises the head of the serpent on the cross. Anyone who has ever saved is by virtue of what took place that day, and not anything else.
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So the call of repentance and faith is this, that we turn from our ignorance, from our self -righteousness, from thinking that we in and of ourselves can accomplish anything before God, concerning salvation.
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And we trust 100 % in what He has already done for us.
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Your works are filthy rags. The only thing we earn is death. The wages of sin is death.
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But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. We trust in what
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He has done for us. That's the call and repentance, faith and repentance. I'm available to anyone who wants to talk.
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Pastor Cal as well, and I know our deacon, Josh. If you have any needs, please come and see us.
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Join me in prayer. Father, Lord, we love you and thank you.
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God, you're so gracious to us. Lord, we're thankful that you have not left us with the menu, that you have given us the substance that the menu spoke about.
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The menu being the old covenant. That through the new covenant, you have provided the substance.
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You have provided the lamb. As Isaac was being taken up to be sacrificed, asking his dad, where's the lamb, daddy?
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Daddy, where's the lamb? For Abraham to say, the Lord will provide. Lord, you have more than provided through your son,
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Jesus Christ, the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world, the lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
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Lord, help us to trust in what you have already done.
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Lord, we also pray for the supper. We pray, Lord, that as the people right now are preparing their hearts to partake,
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Lord, that you are with your people and that you are blessing this meal and that you will cause it to grow us in greater holiness and knowledge of yourself.