What is a Covenant?

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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March 21, 2021

00:24: Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist, my name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.
00:29: On today's program we're going to be listening to a short sermon clip from last Lord's Day at Sovereign Grace Family Church.
00:37: If you'd like to listen to the rest of this sermon or to other sermons on our website you can go to Sovereign Grace Family Church website at sgfcjax.org.
00:49: And now on to the sermon clip.
00:51: Now we're asking the question, what is that? What is a covenant? The word covenant is not something which we use a lot today.
01:01: The language of covenant is limited almost exclusively to religious conversation, even though I'm seeing it become more common in secular use.
01:10: I saw something the other day, an HOA covenant, y'all know what an HOA is, right? That's our own little brand of socialism, no I'm just kidding, be careful.
01:22: We're in covenant relationship with all of our neighbors that nobody's going to reduce our property values.
01:28: But it's called an HOA covenant, I'd never seen, but I saw the word covenant used and I thought it was kind of interesting that they would choose that language because again the word covenant is almost exclusively used in religious conversations.
01:48: But that's not the way it's always been.
01:51: Especially in the ancient world, covenants were made and established for all kinds of relational bonds, not necessarily all spiritual.
02:03: In 1 Samuel chapter 18 verse 3, it says Jonathan and David entered into a covenant together.
02:11: You remember Jonathan was David's best friend, he was son of Saul the king, and Jonathan loved David with all of his heart, and the Bible says in Genesis 18 verse 3, then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul.
02:23: So that was something that Jonathan felt he needed to do, he needed to be in a covenant with David, a covenant of friendship and trust.
02:36: In Genesis 31, we'll get there in a few years as we're going through Genesis pretty slowly, when we get to Genesis 31 we'll see that Laban and Jacob entered into a covenant regarding marriage and the daughters.
02:48: There was a covenant relationship there in regard to family, and Laban asked Jacob to enter into a covenant relationship.
02:57: It says in verse 44 of chapter 31, Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.
03:05: So a covenant in that sense is an establishment of an agreement or an establishment of a relationship.
03:12: The term covenant is from Latin, the Latin is convener and it means a coming together, it presupposes two or more parties that are coming together.
03:24: The Hebrew word is berit and it means a treaty, a compact or an agreement between two parties and in our modern language we have used a different word, and I do think we need to understand the difference.
03:39: In our modern language we tend to use the word contract rather than covenant.
03:46: And there are similarities between a contract and a covenant that needs to be understood.
03:51: There are similarities between a contract and a covenant but they're not the same.
03:57: They both involve two parties or more coming together, they both involve an agreement and a promise usually of mutual benefit, they both tend to include penalties for breaking the agreement.
04:09: But covenants carry more weight than a mere contract.
04:15: I'll give you an example.
04:18: When someone enters into a contract, there's usually a clause that they can break the contract at some type of personal expense.
04:26: For instance, let's say a person has a rental apartment and they say, okay, you're going to sign an agreement to stay for a year, but let's say six months into it the person gets a job in another city and they have to break the contract.
04:40: Well there's a payment that can be made that breaks the contract and there's no more moral issue.
04:46: The moral issue is done because there's a payment that's made and the moral issue is done.
04:50: The person is satisfied, you understand, because the contract is intended to have this sort of way of getting out.
05:01: But with a covenant we see a different type of relationship established.
05:05: I'll give you the best example that I can, the covenant of marriage.
05:13: Marriage is not a mere contract.
05:16: When I met Jennifer I was 17 years old, we got married two years later, we got married right here, and I didn't feel like I was signing a contract.
05:30: Sometimes she'll, well, sometimes we joke about being under contract with one another, a lifetime contract deal, but the idea of the covenant is it was more than a mere contract.
05:43: Because to break this covenant would be more than simply paying a debt or paying off something.
05:50: It would be, there would be a moral issue, there would be a moral breaking, there would be something that had to happen, a sin that would have to break that covenant.
05:58: Could not simply be a payoff.
06:02: We are in a relationship that is intended to be from death to us part.
06:08: Are there sins that can break covenants? We do believe there are.
06:13: But the intention of the covenant is that it is lifelong and not easily broken.
06:23: And so we see the moral difference between contract and covenant.
06:26: Just in that one simple example.
06:31: I want you to think about that in joining the church.
06:34: You realize when you join the church, this is a covenant relationship.
06:38: Now it's not the same as marriage, but we do treat it as such as joining a family, because a covenant is a family matter, it's a relational matter.
06:50: We're coming together, it should not be that we take marriage lightly, and it should not be that we take church membership lightly.
07:02: That's not to say that there's never a reason to leave, but at the same time we should not church hop and we should not church shop.
07:12: It is a covenant relationship that we're entering into under God to be a part of a family.
07:18: That's why it's Sovereign Grace Family Church, because we are a family and we have entered into a relationship together.
07:26: We're not just fulfilling duties.
07:29: See a covenant is all about duties.
07:31: You do this, I'll do this, and we're going to fulfill our duties.
07:37: I'm sorry, contracts, thank you.
07:40: See, family, I'm corrected all the time, I appreciate it, love it.
07:44: A contract brings two parties together to fulfill certain duties, but a covenant establishes a relationship, and a relationship that's intended not to be easily broken.
07:57: So I would say, if somebody says, what's the difference between a covenant and a contract? It really is the weight of it.
08:02: It really is the morality of it.
08:05: It's the relationship of it.
08:08: This is why, in the Old Testament, when the covenants were made, oftentimes there was a very gruesome scene that accompanied the establishment of the covenant.
08:20: When we get to Genesis 15, we'll look at this more closely, but what we see in Genesis 15 is what was known as cutting the covenant, and cutting the covenant was when they would take an animal and they would cut the animal in half, and then both parties of the covenant would walk between the animal.
08:38: And the reason for doing that was both parties of the covenant walked between the cut animal so as to say, let it be done unto me, as has been done unto this animal, if I break this covenant.
08:53: So it was referred to not as making a covenant, but as cutting a covenant.
08:57: Because you cut the animal, you separated the animal, you walk through.
09:01: Now what we're going to see in Genesis 15 is when God makes His covenant with Abraham, only God walks through.
09:06: Because God is the one making the promise independent of Abraham.
09:10: It's to Abraham, not with Abraham.
09:13: We'll talk about that later, but that's a big part of understanding how the covenants go.
09:19: And so, the idea of a covenant is the establishment of a relationship.
09:26: And God establishes His relationship with us through His covenant.
09:33: I hope you enjoyed that short sermon clip from Sovereign Grace Family Church.
09:38: Again, if you're interested in hearing more, or you would like more information about SGFC, please go to our website at sgfcjax.org.
09:47: That's Sovereign Grace Family Church of Jacksonville.
09:49: And if you're in the Jacksonville area, please come visit us on an upcoming Lord's Day.
09:54: Thank you for listening today to Coffee with a Calvinist.
09:57: I'm Keith Foskey and I have been your Calvinist.
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10:19: As you go about your day, remember this.
10:23: Jesus Christ came to save sinners.
10:26: All who come to Him in repentance and faith will find Him to be a perfect Savior.
10:32: He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.
10:38: May God be with you.