All right, let's begin. Father in heaven, we ask you for your grace to be upon us this morning as we try to understand your word in a way that would make it not only more relevant to us, but that would reside more deeply in our hearts, that we would have a more effective witness for you and for your kingdom, that we would that we would love and appreciate and understand your word and so be able to rely on you through it, live according to its precepts and laws, and that in your word we would find life. Bring us that life this morning through your Holy Spirit. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Is it, am I a little echoey or is that? Just a little bit, okay. All right, so we're gonna finish up with Abraham today, Lord willing. Quick review, I'm not gonna go through this point by point, but just remember from our last time that we looked at this, that Abraham is the second unit of our casket model, creation, Abraham, Sinai, kings, exile. Second temple, we're cheating a little bit with the T in the second temple, but caskets, just caskets, doesn't work, casket works. The really neat thing is that the New Testament, the outline for that is empty, so the whole thing is casket empty. Right? 2100-1450 BC. significant points of Abraham's life. He was living in the land of Ur. We see in Genesis 11, 31. He was worshipping other gods. Does anybody remember what book tells us that Abraham was worshipping other gods? It's not Genesis. We read about this in the book of Joshua. It's Joshua's testimony to Israel that reveals to us, now this is something that they probably knew. but it's revealed to us as readers that Abraham was not worshipping Yahweh. He was worshipping other gods at the time when he was called. And God made him promises that he would be a great nation, blessings would be upon him, his name would be great, he would become a blessing, that God would bless those that blessed Abraham and his offspring and curse those who cursed him, that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. In Genesis 15, that his son would be his heir and his offspring would be as numerous as the stars. In Genesis 17, that the covenant would be established with him and with his offspring. It would be an everlasting covenant and that Canaan was granted as possession in that covenant. And, of course, it wasn't simply Abraham that was being promised Canaan, but he was being promised the whole world. So there it is from Joshua. Long ago your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, and they served other gods. And of course we looked at those, so we remember, you want to remember the three key passages of the Abrahamic Covenant come in Genesis 12, 15, and 17. And you also want to remember two really important New Testament chapters as it relates to Abraham. What are those? The book of blah, blah. Yes, there's one. What are those? Romans 4. Galatians 3, got it, Romans 4 and Galatians 3, the strong bridge between us and Abraham unequivocally connecting us with him. We reviewed that Abraham's righteousness was found in his faith. He went, and I just included that because it's not a little easy animation to do, let me tell you. He obeyed when he was called to go. He was looking, and again, verse 10 there from Hebrews 11, Hebrews 11, 10, he was looking forward to the city that had foundations, whose designer and builder is God. So Abraham was not simply looking for a new place to graze his cattle. He had spiritual eyes with which he saw the command that God was giving him, the promises that God was making. He went by faith. And that faith was counted to Him right there in the Old Testament, right there in the old, God of war, it's the law, not grace until Jesus comes. Of course, those are all terrible ideas that you're going to hear in like 70% of American evangelical churches. In the Old Testament, they were saved by law, but now we're saved by grace. Abraham believed the Lord and it was counted to him, to Mr. Old Testament, as righteousness. Okay, so now we're going to look at the covenant. The covenant was cut. Covenants were literally cut. Covenants at the time were now we would sign a contract perhaps or make a formal vow before people as in a wedding or an ordination ceremony, for example. Doctors take vows, lawyers take vows. At the time though, covenants were cut and it was how you made a promise with someone is you cut a covenant by cutting up animals. And the effect of a covenant, the reason that it was so binding, is as you cut that covenant, what you're saying is, if I fail in my portion of this covenant, if I fail to do what I'm supposed to do, may I be treated as this animal. May I be treated as this animal. In the 1950s, a lot of work started to be done on ancient Near Eastern documents. Dead Sea Scrolls were among those, but others as well, ancient Mesopotamian texts. And so, while the Westminster Standards and older theologians will refer to covenants and And they have a basic understanding of covenant as an agreement. Since the 1950s, we have a much greater insight into the nature of covenants. So modern scholarship has really helped us here. So let's talk about what's referred to as a suzerain vassal treaty. Meredith Klein did a lot of work with suzerain vassal treaties, studying these ancient documents. And what he saw there was that the pattern by which God approaches his people in making covenants follows very precisely the pattern of making promises, the pattern of making covenants among ancient people of the ancient Near East. And so you think, well, wait a second. Does that mean that God isn't true or does that mean that He's claiming that the Bible is just a rip-off of some other stuff? Well, no. God is always communicating to people in means by which they can understand, right? So, in an era when people wrote letters, what does God have Paul do? He has him write letters. You see letters being written in the Bible at times in history when people wrote letters. You see public preaching when people did public preaching. So God is always accommodating His means of speech into ways that we can understand. John Calvin writes an awful lot about God's accommodation to us, that he speaks, like Calvin says, he speaks as if in baby language so that we can understand. So we would expect, in fact, that with every era, God would speak in a means by which those people can understand and be effectively communicated to. So a suzerain-vassal treaty The definition of a suzerain vassal or, I think, a fair definition of a covenant in the Bible, Gordon Hugenberger defines it as an elected, that's opposed to a natural, an elected relationship of obligation. So, a natural, what would be an example of a natural relationship? Parents and children. Parents and children have a natural relationship of obligation. You are obligated to your children by virtue of being their parent. You don't get to decide whether or not you're obligated to them, you are. An elected relationship is one that you choose to enter into. And so, of course, marriage would be the most obvious one in our current society. Now, as we're dealing with suzerain vassals, what that means is that you have one higher...so what would happen is like the king would come in, his army would come in, and they'd conquer everybody. And then the king would establish a treaty. with the local rulers. So the old king had been deposed and killed or executed or whatever, but all the local level governors, well, they're still in place, right? So kind of like when one company buys another, they don't fire everybody from the new company and replace them all. they'll typically fire some people, but they'll keep some on because they need effective workers. Or during World War II, when the Americans had defeated Italy, for example, the Americans American soldiers in particular would take over in various administrative positions within Italian government. They would be running a town in the position of mayor, but the mayor was still there and eventually control was given back to the mayor. So you keep some people in place. So for the suzerain, he was electing to enter for the High King, he was electing to enter into this relationship out of his kindness. He says, I could have had you executed, but I decided to spare you and now I will enter into a treaty with you. And the vassal is somebody, now they are electing also, but it's a poor choice. It's, well, we've got misery and death here, or we can obey you. I think we're going to obey you." And, of course, that's with a human suzerain. With God as the suzerain, with God as the High King, you're entering into a relationship. It's certainly, well, would it be fair to say that your relationship with God is relationship or death? Certainly, yeah. There's no other option, so you're like, okay, well, I guess I'll be a Christian. I guess I'll enter into covenant with God. But unlike the suzerain who could, if he chose to be so, could be cruel, God is always good in His dealing with His people. So God says, look, the choice is not just between Me or I punish you, the choice is between life and joy and fulfillment and resurrection and death. you enter into my covenant and I will serve you." So, an elected relationship of obligation. Obligation means there are things that you must do to remain in that covenant. So, we'll look at that in a minute. Parties, the greater lord, the suzerain who formulates the relationship with the lesser lord or vassal. Now, why don't I say with just everyday people? Two reasons. One, everyday people didn't really enter into these kinds of covenants. They might in certain other ways, but the suzerain, the great king didn't enter into covenant with his lowly subjects, right? They're just, you know, guys out milking their cows, working the field, whatever. They didn't have any threat to him. A lesser Lord could be a threat, right? He could decide, we're going to rebel against this guy. And of course, that happened frequently. And so, the idea behind the covenant is that you're promising we'll be in subjection to you and you will be good to us. So, there's two parties, greater and the lesser. The other reason that I point out that it's a lesser Lord is because we have still been given dominion on the earth. And so, God is not regarding us as mere subjects. In one sense, we are slaves of God. In another sense, we are also lords over the earth. And again, back to Romans 14, which I'm just delighting in. Who's going to crush Satan under their feet? Somehow, in a way that baffles my mind, it's the church that does that, certainly with Christ at our head, but we are included in that. So, the royal dominion, the royal nature of a covenant should not be ignored. The elements, I'm going to help you remember this, the elements of a suzerain vassal treaty are the elements of a covenant. First of all, the name of the king. Secondly, the prologue. The prologue is a history of kindness, a history of great deeds. And so we see right up here, I've had this from Genesis 12, I am the Lord, I am Yahweh, there it is, name of the King, who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess. And there is the history of kindness. There is the prologue. Name, prologue. Where else do we see, and we do this about once a month, so you should all know this, where else do we see a name and a prologue? Exodus 20. And also? Deuteronomy. Close. Five. Five. Who said it? You got it. What? Wow. Really? Yeah. That was not a plant. Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Name, prologue. Name, prologue. Got it? The next is law. The law is sometimes referred to as stipulations and theological literature, the law is, this is what I did and now this is what you must do. Here's the, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, you shall have no other gods before me. The law, and nine others that follow. Sanctions, what are sanctions? If thens, very good. Sanctions are the if then statements. If you obey Me, I will defend you, I will do good things, but if you rebel against Me, then bad things will happen." So there's always stipulations. Name, prologue, law, sanctions. Where do we see the stipulations, for example, in the Mosaic Covenant? Remember that in Leviticus? Why do we have a Bible reading plan? So you read Leviticus. Remember that in Leviticus and Deuteronomy? You've got all the blessings and curses listed, that all these things, if you do them, then God says, I will be your God and I will protect you and defend you. But if you turn away and turn to other gods, then all these terrible things are going to happen. This shows up at the end of Deuteronomy. We'll look at this, of course, in depth when we get to Sinai. So it's Deuteronomy 28. We read in 28.1, And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on the earth. He'll cause your enemies to rise against you and be defeated before you. He will establish you as a people holy to Himself. He will make you abound in prosperity. He will open to you His good treasury, the heavens. You will lend to nations but not borrow." But, in verse 15, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, Then curses shall be in your city, cursed in the field, your basket and your kneading bowl. You shall plant vineyards, but not enjoy its fruit. Your oxen shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it." Et cetera. Blessings and curses. So sanctions you can think of as the blessings and curses that come from that. And lastly, continuity. How will this covenant continue on? So, for example, again, in Deuteronomy 31, The law is that at the end of every seven years, all Israel comes together for the Feast of Booths, and you shall read the law before Israel in their hearing." So that's one of the ways to say, this is how we're going to make sure this thing is going to keep going. It doesn't get lost. It doesn't go to the basement of the temple where nobody ever sees it again. Name, prologue, laws, sanctions, continuity. Well, look at this. See this picture here? What are they eating? Snow cones. And don't those look like nice little children? Don't those look like nice kids you would want to be friends with? Do they look like they're just loving their snow cones? That's right, because nice people love snow cones. Nice people love snow cones. Name, prologue, laws, stipulations, continuity. Nice people love snow cones. So is that silly? Of course it's silly. But how are you going to remember the elements of a covenant? Nice people love snow cones. You wait. You see if this works next week. There's a lot of stuff you haven't remembered, but I bet you will remember. Nice people love snow cones. Okay. We'll keep them up there in the corner so that we remember that nice people love snow cones, which stands for name, prologue, law, sanctions, continuity. Nice people love snow cones. All right. So let's look at this covenant. Genesis 15. Name and prologue, I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess. Again, we just looked at this. There's the name, there's the prologue, the kindness that God did. Nice people. So what should be next? Law. And this is interesting. Know for certain. that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there. And they will be afflicted for 400 years, but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterwards they shall go out with great possessions." What's he talking about here? This is the Exodus into Egypt being prophesied, but what is the law here? What is Abraham being told to do? What's the imperative verb? Not have children, no. No. Yeah, oh, I thought you were saying no. Right. Yeah, that Abraham must know. He must, which is another way of saying you must, if I say no for certain something that will happen in the future, what am I saying? Believe. I'm saying believe me. Have faith in what I'm telling you. Again, what is the law? comes down to faith. So, as we think about the New Covenant, for example, you wonder why the name of Jesus is so prominent. At the name of Jesus, every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. Of course, the prologue of the New Covenant is everything that Jesus has done for us. What is the law Another way of saying this, what are the conditions of the New Covenant? Is the New Covenant unconditional? Sounds like a little bit... There's a lot of people who say yes. They'd say, because Jesus does everything that is required for us, which He does, therefore the New Covenant is unconditional. I would say it's unconditional from God's perspective in that He's doing every kindness that needs to be done. But I would not say the New Covenant is entirely unconditional because if I said that I would have to be a universalist. I would have to believe in universal salvation. Why is that? Why would I have to be a universalist? Or I'd at least have to be a federal visionist. If there's no conditions, then everybody's in. Now you might say, but you don't enter the covenant until you're baptized. So then why would I have to be a federal visionist? Because I'd have to say, and this is not all federal vision, this is more of the light heart side. I would have to say, if you are baptized then, and I believe in unconditional covenants, then I'd say you're baptized, ergo you are saved. And you are saved by nature of your baptism. Okay, the sanctions and the continuity here. Now remember I said that the Abrahamic Covenant comes to us in three chapters of Genesis. What are those three chapters? Zachary, go. No, Zachary, Zachary's up. 12, 15, and 17, all right. Okay, now this is where it really gets interesting. Remember I said a covenant is cut. So what we read in Genesis 15 is, when the sun had gone down, it was dark. Behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. So I'm skipping over some stuff here, but at the head of Genesis 15, God told Abraham, he says, fear not, Abraham, I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. So, again, we've established the name, we're looking at promises, and right after Genesis 15, 6, and he believed the Lord and it was counted to him as righteousness. So, Abraham has faith, that faith is counted to him as righteousness, and then God says, in verse 9, a few verses later, bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram, turtle dove, young pigeon. And he brought all of these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. So he literally cut the animal down the middle, right, each one of these animals. So as soon as God said, go and get me these animals, Abraham would have said, oh, we're making a covenant, I got it. That's what that would mean to him. It would be like if I said, so we're going to, Marty, you're going to sell me your van. Okay. Sounds good. We'll go get a, I'll write a check. You get a piece of paper and a pen and we'll write it up. Marty knows we're about to do what? Bill of sale. I don't need to tell him now we are going to make a bill of sale. Because we all do this, that's what you do with a piece of paper and a pen when you're selling an item like that, okay? God says, Abraham, go get these animals. Abraham's like, oh, yeah, okay, getting the animals. I know what that means, covenant time. Splits them in half. Lays them out like this, right, one on either side. Now, this is well known to Moses' audience as they're reading this. This is well known to Abraham as he's encountering it. By cutting the animals in half and walking between them, you are ritually identifying with the animal. And you are saying, if I fail, cut me apart. If I fail to fulfill this covenant that I'm vowing as I walk through these pieces, rip me in half, tear me up, bring your wrath on me. This is how I'm making my promise to you. You know I will be faithful because I don't want that to happen. And then the most interesting thing happens. Unprecedented in ancient literature. This is not seen anywhere. And the Bible is singularly unique in presenting it to us. It's not among the Hittites, the Amorites, the Jebusites, any ancient culture for which we have suzerain vassal treaties, and we have a lot at this point. It's never the suzerain who walks through the pieces. He's the one demonstrating His kindness. He's the one allowing the vassal to not be executed, but in fact, instead of execution, to join Him, to be a part of His nation, to meet certain obligations, but also to receive fatherly kindness. I actually have a book of some of these ancient Near East documents translated into English, fortunately, because I don't speak Ugaritic. And it's always, you know, I will be a father to you. There's this great benevolence bestowed by the king. Now, of course, a lot of that was so much fluff. You know, a lot of that on the part of the suzerain would have been, you have to give me a lot of your agriculture and a lot of your horses, pay high taxes, and then I won't raid and kill you. But the principle is still there. I have the, your life is in my hands and I'm sparing you as long as you make a promise to me. alone in ancient literature, God represented as the smoking fire pot and the flaming torch. Of course, Abraham knew what this was because it wasn't him. He understood this was God's presence, and Moses' audience certainly would have understood this as God's presence because they just saw a giant pillar of fire representing a manifestation of God's presence. God passes through the pieces. If you don't know what an ancient covenant is, you will not pick this up. Unprecedented, the one time in ancient literature that the suzerain goes between the pieces and Abraham does not. God goes through the pieces and Abraham does not. God going through says, in essence, If you fail at this covenant, Abraham, I will bear the burden of that. I will be torn apart. If there is faithlessness in this covenant, I will bear the burden of that. You see why Abraham was a Christian? He was a Christian before Christ was there, so we couldn't properly, it's anachronistic to call him a Christian. But do you see why I would say that? What are we saying? What do we say every Sunday? We say, God, I have not been faithful like I should have, but you have borne the weight of my rebellion. Where there is a violation in our relationship, you take that upon yourself on the cross. I don't have to bear that. This is one faith, ladies and gentlemen, and this is established from the very beginning that God bears the weight of failure. Throughout Israel's history, were they punished? Yes, they were, but Israel always comes back to these promises because this is an everlasting covenant. Although Israel as a nation was disciplined, Israel as a nation survived. And here they are. Although the church is disciplined, although you might be disciplined in your own personal life, the church survives and always will. There's nothing that can stop the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. It may wax or wane, may grow or shrink. The church will always be here until the very end. And it doesn't matter, you know, I believe that we're on a In the long view, we're on an upswing. The stock market used to be at 500. Now it's at 15,000 or something. But it still had drops. And I don't have the wisdom to be able to tell you what kind of a drop we're in right now, or if we even are when you compare the United States with Africa. Have our losses been offset by China's gains? probably, so we may be in an upswing even right now. In terms of the United States, this is a downtrend, I think unequivocally, a downtrend nationwide. But even if we saw the same thing in China, even if we see nationwide downtrend, the church is here and will always be here because we're part of an everlasting covenant established with Abraham. which overall we call the covenant of grace, and God bears the penalty for that. This is the difference now, not just between Judaism and every ancient religion, but between Christianity and every other religion on the planet. Buddhism says work harder, try harder, get nirvana. Islam says obey the five pillars of Islam. Be generous to the poor, make pilgrimage to Mecca, whatever the other three are. Even Mormonism, you're saved by your works. Everybody says you're saved by your works. Christianity says, no, you're saved by Christ and he bears the penalty for your failure. If you want to evangelize a Muslim or a Mormon, it doesn't matter, just bring up failure. Don't let them escape the idea that they have failed to do what they ought to do. They have to put on a very good gloss. Mormon neighbors are always very nice. Back in our old neighborhood, I don't even know if I told you about this, sorry, where we used to live, we had Mormon neighbors right next door, and they were always very fine neighbors, very friendly, not near. They didn't want you in their house. But they were very friendly. But one day when it was just the kids at home, I just heard this screaming match, like, you know, top of your lungs, horse screaming at one another. And, you know, stuff is smashing now. So I go over, and it's two girls, the two sisters. I go over and knock on the door. I go, hey, is everything OK? Oh, yeah. Yeah, everything's fine. Just had a little fight. I'm like, that's not a little fight. I've never heard a little fight. Ah! Ah! You know, sort of screaming. 10 minutes later, it all starts up again. Even worse this time. So I go over, I'm like, hey, you know, stuff's, I don't want to know what's happening. It sounds like someone's getting murdered in there. I go in, I was like, hey. If you guys can't, like, lock this down, you know, these are girls, 19, 20, 21, something like that. I'm like, if you can't lock this down, I'm gonna have to call the police. Like, you can't scream, just, you guys just separate, wait till your parents get home, work it out. They're like, oh, thanks, it's fine. I'm like, are you seriously gonna act like it's fine right now? They can hear you halfway down the street. That is not fine. The chinks in the armor there, they're sinners. And they're trying desperately to convince themselves that they're not, and they're trying even more desperately to convince you that they're not. Because if they were, then they would have to be filled with fear. Instead, they're filled with false confidence because they think they're doing okay. All right, continuity. The continuity comes up actually in Genesis 16, and it's kind of a false start on the continuity. It's like, oh, so how is this going to continue? Right after, and you can look in your Bible, right after the smoking fire pot and flaming torch, that's in verse 17, God makes the promise in verses 18 through 21, chapter ends. And so everybody's thinking, wait, what about the continuity? Boom, 16.1. Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. There's the continuity, and it's an unresolved storyline. She had a female Egyptian servant named Hagar and said, Abram, go have babies with my servant Hagar. So it seems like, oh, that's the continuity. But, of course, Moses is writing this to explain to people, how come it's not just us? What's with all these other people, our distant cousins? Then we get into Genesis 17, and that's where that continuity – so Genesis 16 is a false start on continuity. Genesis 17, we get the real start. Now look at this. In this whole section, look at everything that has to do with continuity. Right here. See that? You shall be a father of the multitude of nations. Father of the multitude of nations. I will make you fruitful. I will make you into a nation. Kings shall come from you. There's the covenant. You and your offspring after you throughout their generation form an everlasting covenant. I will be God to you and to your offspring after you. I will give to you and your offspring and I will be their God. So Genesis 16 starts off, here's the continuity. Nope, that's Hagar. That explains Ishmael and all his descendants. Genesis 17, now, that's the continuity. That's where it really occurs. And, of course, in Genesis 17, then, with the continuity, and that's why we say that the covenant with Abraham kind of spans these three chapters, which are, Zachary, Genesis? 12, 15, 17. All right. And what are the elements of a covenant? Jake? Right? Nice people love snow cones. And N? Way to go, Judah. Name? Prologue? Law? Good. You got it. Good start, Jude. As soon as Judah got you rolling, you're good to go. Way to go, buddy. Okay, so circumcision, the sign of the covenant given to Abraham and his seed. Again, this is Genesis 17. Every male among you shall be circumcised. Throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money, so really this is not simply paedo-circumcision, as we would say in Greek, this is oikio-circumcision, this is household circumcision, everyone under your authority. It's an issue of authority. And why under your authority? Because if they're under your authority, then they are expected by the conventions of the time to follow you in your worship. So your household, your servants would worship with you and they would worship the same God you worship, right? And you'd say, this is a house of Yahweh. We don't allow idols to foreign gods in this house. We only worship Yahweh here. Now, is it possible for someone to have their body circumcised and yet not their heart? Absolutely. Yeah. It was a picture of inward circumcision. So let me just show you a few things. Leviticus 26, if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity. So we see here, wait a second, uncircumcised heart? I thought it was about your physical body. No, it's about your heart really being metaphorically circumcised. Deuteronomy 10, circumcise then the foreskin of your heart. and be no longer stubborn." Not about the body, not really. It's about the heart. Deuteronomy 30, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring. There's the offspring again. Offspring are not ignored because the Abrahamic covenant is a part of the covenant of grace and it contains continuity. It's meant to go on throughout generations. Other people can be grafted in as all you non-Jews are. right, because you're Gentiles, grafted in as wild branches into the tree, and others can be grafted in also. But, so we can say this, the idea behind the New Testament church is that it grows because we have children and we gain converts. It does not grow because we have children and lose children and gain them back as converts. It does not happen, it does not grow because we have children and lose them and replace them with other converts while our children run wild. The idea is that it's a body of believers growing naturally and growing through new belief and conversion. And why must your heart be circumcised? So that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." Does that sound like anything we've heard before? You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. If I say mind and strength, does that help? Yeah, this is the summary of the whole law. And isn't it marvelous that the summary of the law, what must you do? How do you obey God? Love Him. Love Him with all your heart. Love is the fulfillment of the law, and in fact, it always was. But now we just have the law of love back in the Old Testament. They had to obey all those laws. Please. If you're a new covenant believer and your heart is warm towards the Lord, your heart is circumcised in faith, what do you do? You say, oh, it's God's law. I would really like to obey His law. I struggle to do so, but I endeavor. I love His law. Oh, kind of like Psalm 119 says, oh, how I love your law is my meditation all the day. I love the law of God. I seek to fulfill it. Now, was perfect obedience and flawless obedience expected? If it was, then Leviticus 1 through 4 make no sense at all. Why in heaven's name would God command them to make sacrifice for their sins if He expected them to be utterly perfect and without sin? The covenant allows for sins. It does not allow for leaving the covenant. So, you can be part of the New Testament, you can be part of the New Covenant even though you sin. You can't be a part of the New Covenant if you do not have faith. You could be part of the Mosaic Covenant if you sinned. You could not be part of the Mosaic Covenant if you gave up on the Mosaic Covenant altogether. So this is not a one and done, right? And for that, let's look to Romans 228. He who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. Circumcision is not outward and physical. Okay? The essence of circumcision, the essence of being a Jew in the Old Testament, was a matter of the heart. It was a matter of the spirit. It was not a matter of obeying the law. So for all of that, all of the effort that they went into, all the faithfulness that they had regarding circumcision, not one of it meant anything at all if it was not joined by faith. In fact, the outward display could be done away with. We see a number of uncircumcised Gentiles demonstrating faith. Gehazi, Nebuchadnezzar, not circumcised, demonstrating faith. Was it normal that you would be circumcised if you were a Jew? Of course it was. But, there are certain circumstances in which it was unpermissible not to be. So, in the same way, would you say, the thief on the cross, well, he wasn't baptized, so, you know, he didn't go to heaven. No, it's not really about the baptism. Baptism is the first thing that a new believer ought to do, and it's the first thing he wants to do. And if he's not baptized, then you have every reason to question, if somebody's like, no, I just never wanted to get baptized, you have every reason to question whether or not that person is really a believer. And I would be very dim on the prospect for somebody who actually refuses baptism. I would say probably if you're not willing to undergo baptism, you're probably not actually a Christian. Guy's like, hey, I'm in prison and, you know, I don't know, we drink water through a straw or something for whatever reason. We just can't do baptism, right? Can I still be a Christian? Yes. The first thing, we'll baptize you as soon as we can get a cup of water, but that's not the point. The point is that you have faith and thus you're brought in. So what does that mean for us? The purpose, so Romans 4, Abraham received the sign of circumcision as a seal, there it is, Westminster language, circumcision, as a sign and seal of the righteousness he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. Again, here's Romans 4, Abraham had the sign of his faith. And then Abraham was commanded to apply that sign of his faith to his children. The purpose was to make him the father of all who would believe without being circumcised, the Gentiles, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. It's about the faith. Now, what if I replace that with baptism? The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being baptized, so that the righteousness was counted to them as well, to make him the father of the baptized, who are not merely baptized, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham before he was baptized." What does that mean for us? It means, and this applies dramatically to young people. It does not matter that you were baptized if your baptism is not joined by faith. If you have a faithless life, your baptism doesn't mean anything at all. Maybe I shouldn't say that. It does mean something. It means something to God, but it just means bad things to you. It doesn't mean anything good is maybe the better way to say that. It's about...and so one of my real issues with the federal vision guys is that they overdo the idea, look to your baptism. Now, Martin Luther did say, look to your baptism, I'm baptized. And in a crisis of faith, if you're full of doubt and anxiety, if you understand the phrase correctly, remember my baptism, I was baptized. You're remembering that correctly if you're saying, I'm looking to my baptism as a sign and seal of God's faithfulness. But if you're looking to that to say, I'm fine. It doesn't matter what I do. It doesn't matter how I live. It doesn't really matter what I believe. I was baptized and I guess I'm good with God. That's presumption and it's wickedness. You cannot rest on your parents' faith. You cannot rest. Now, can you build on your parents' faith? Yes, you can. Can you be carried along in many ways, especially as a young person, by your parents' faith? Yes, you can. As you grow, as you develop, as you start thinking more and more for yourself, you don't just say, well, I'm just going to go along the Christian path that's laid out for me, you know. I homeschool till I'm 18, and then I, you know, start a business or something, and then I get married, and then I have kids, and then I homeschool my kids, right? That might all be well and good. That's what I'm doing outwardly. That's what I hope that my own children do outwardly. But far more important than that is the need to be inwardly circumcised, to have your heart given to the Lord in faith. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, who was circumcised, right? As Jesus said to the man who was a really important person in this Abrahamic faith, you must be born again. So all of the ceremony, all of the confessions of sin, all the words of absolution, all the benedictions, all the sermons, everything that we do on a Sunday morning matters for nothing if it is not joined by faith. Parents, it's what we care about in our children. Not that they would have outward obedience, but their outward obedience would come from a regenerate heart. Can we make regeneration happen? No. We don't make that, but God uses secondary means. He uses the preached word, and he uses, I would say, the first level of secondary means is parents. In your faith, demonstrated to your children, taught to your children, catechized, sung, prayed, enjoyed with your children. Now I'm preaching. The denouement. You remember denouement from English class? You remember that? English majors? Yes? No? The denouement is, you know, this is a storyline. Exposition, the incident, action happens, it's the climax of the action, and then the Resolution, and then kind of leading up to the end, and they all lived happily ever after, the denouement. So, as far as our concerns are for Abraham, there's a lot of Bible here, remember I said we'd go faster as we move along, that is just kind of denouement, the kind of end of the story here of Abraham. Abraham offers his son Isaac Faith produces works. Isaac and Jacob receive the promises given to Abraham. This is why God is so often referred to as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob becomes Israel. His twelve sons go to Egypt. Long story with Joseph. Very interesting, but for the purposes of the Old Testament history narrative that we're doing, they actually don't show up very much because we're looking at this primarily covenantally. So, we're summarizing everything there, although it is within the Abrahamic period. We're summarizing everything with Israel and Joseph and the coat of many colors and all of that simply to say that his twelve sons go to Egypt, stuff happens, there's an interesting story, and they increase as a people. And that explains how they all arrived in Egypt under Moses. And when we start next week with Moses in the synodic period, that's when we will see that there arose a new pharaoh who did not remember Joseph or his people. And we'll learn how the pyramids were built to store grain. I'm just kidding. Okay, you can cut that off if you don't mind. Prayer requests.