there is right here in this pulpit a copy of Table Talk magazine. I did not plan it And I think that shows that you all have simply mastered the art of Southern hospitality. I am so impressed that you... Here, I will prove it to you right there, Table Talk magazine, I feel right at home. Not only did I have Pastor Bauer. as a student, but also his wife, Sarah. Before she was Sarah, Bauer was... I tried to warn her, but to no avail. And it's delightful to see them and their two lovely sons. When Michael was a student of mine, I always teased him and I called him Jack Bauer. Some of you will get that cultural reference. It's a real joy to be in this pulpit, be in this church with you all. Your pastor is a dear friend of ours at Leonard Ministries, as is often the case. When you get invited to your friend's church, you're invited because they're somewhere else. And so that's always a little bit of the downside of getting invited. I don't get to see him, so we'll make sure we get him back down to us at Ligonier so I can see him again. But pray a blessing upon his ministry today. I'm sure you all woke up at 3.30 and prayed for your pastor as he was about to begin the church service there. in Oxford, but we do pray for His ministry and pray for you all and your ministry here in this Mount Pleasant, which I actually grew up in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, so it's delightful to be in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and your ministry here and in this region. Our text is Isaiah 51, 15 to 16. I want to use those verses to really wander throughout this chapter and talk with you about a topic that is right at the heart of the Reformed faith. the idea of the covenant. As you're finding Isaiah 51, 15 to 16, I don't know what your experiences were growing up or coming to the Reformed faith. I was not raised in the Reformed faith. I always suspected that I was a Calvinist And there were things that never quite resonated with the contexts I found myself in. But it was quite a while before I fully came into the Reformed faith. And if your trajectory was like mine, you can sometimes then have a real deep appreciation for those hallmark features of what it means to be Reformed. And I think one of those things is the covenant. It's a beautiful thing, the idea of the covenant. It really is the most basic structure of the relationship that we have with God. So I'd like to explore with you, hopefully encourage you today by looking at the covenant and using Isaiah 51. verses 15 and 16 provide a succinct definition of the covenant. If you were to just take the first phrase of verse 15 and the final phrase of verse 16, drop the middle out, you would have a succinct definition of the covenant. But please hear God's word, Isaiah 51.15, "'I am the Lord your God.'" who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is His name. And I put my words in your mouth, covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth and saying in Zion, you are my people.'" Do you see the succinct definition of the covenant there? I am the Lord your God. You are my people. This is the Word of God. May He bless it in our midst, and may His Holy Spirit guide us into its truth to obedience to it this morning. As you think about this text, It should give you a little fear. I spent all my life in Pennsylvania until 2014, and then moving to central Florida, I got introduced to something. Hurricane season. We didn't have that in Pennsylvania. We didn't have the temperature changes and the winds gathering over the seas and dumping violently upon the land. But we know what it means to say, the seas are stirred up. Did Hugo decades ago? Some of you here would have lived through that. know how helpless, how infinitesimal we feel when the seas are whipped into a rage. We think of the heavens. Have you been following this web telescope and the images that are mind-blowing that are returning to us? And we think of this magnificent universe and the expanse of it, and we think of all that is covering the earth. And out of all of this, what has God done? He has picked a place, and He has chosen a people, and it is Zion, and it is His people, and He is our covenant God. To grasp, first of all, what the covenant is, is to grasp who the God of the covenant is. This is the holy God. This is the eternal God. This is the God who controls the seas. This is the God who laid out the stars at creation. This is the God who created all things. And this God is our God. This God has called us as His people. I won't include you. I am a guest here. You are all great-looking South Carolinians. I will just talk about me. Why would God choose us? A little line tucked away in a beautiful Isaac Watts hymn, how sweet and awesome is this place? He's talking about church. It's a hymn about the church. It's a hymn about how the church is a shadow, just a shadow of the union of the marriage supper of the Lamb that is to come in heaven. And there's a little line in there, and he's placed himself at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and he's enjoying the feast, and he looks around and he says, each one of us, we beat our breast and we say, Lord, why was I, why was I a guest? How is it that I was brought into this covenant? We say sometimes we come to God with empty hands. It's actually not true. We come to God with hands stained in sin and unrighteousness. We come to God as His enemy. We come to God as a child of wrath. we come to God with nothing to offer. Go back to Deuteronomy 7, go back to Deuteronomy 10, go back to Deuteronomy 14. Israel, you were the least of all the nations, nothing to offer, nothing special. In fact, to the Lord your God not only belonged all the nations on the face of the earth, but to the Lord your God belonged the heavens. And yet, He chose to select you. He chose to put His elective love on your shoulders and chose you. The beauty of the covenant, and it is the mystery of the covenant that God would choose us to be His people. Well, as you read around chapter 51, and maybe you should this afternoon or sometime this week, you will find easily a dozen descriptions of what it means to be in the covenant. And if I were a Baptist preacher and this were a Baptist church, we'd look at all dozen of them, but we're not, so we'll only select a handful. We're good Calvinists, five sounds like about the right number to me. The first is verse 2. What does it mean to be a child of the covenant, a son of God, a daughter of God? What does it mean? What are the descriptions of the covenant? How can we turn this around like a jeweler would show off the facets of a diamond for us? The first is verse 2. What does it mean to be a child of the covenant? It means that you're a child of Abraham. What's more or additional? You're a child of Sarah. It's there in verse 2. Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah who bore you. And we find this all over the Old Testament, don't we? It's not the abstract God, not the God who is sort of the unknown God, the God who just is enshrouded in a cloud of mystery. It is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God who reveals Himself in space and time, in the lives of real people. in the vicissitudes of the lives of real people, in the machinations of real people as they try to manipulate and counter and as they try to deal. Conjure up all sorts of images when you think of the God of Abraham, don't you? This is the one who was at times unfaithful to God. This is the one who, in a moment of cowardice, passes off very dangerous to her, passes off his wife as his sister. And yet, this is the one who stands at the head of this covenant people of God. Despite Abraham's faithless moments, Despite his times of disobedience, God remains faithful and remained faithful to Abraham. And here was this unbelievable promise that to Abraham, and at that point he and Sarah are childless, to Abraham will come a mighty nation, innumerable. at the time a seemingly impossible promise, and yet God made it happen. And so often we read in the Old Testament, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, we have Abraham our father, but here Isaiah brings in Sarah. There's also the God of Sarah. And immediately we go back to those moments where Sarah, hearing the promise of God, responds in mocking laughter. We go back to that moment where she devises a scheme to have God's promise fulfilled because it obviously is not going to happen unless she devises a scheme to make it happen. and immediately sets off a wake of turmoil and trouble that just has mushroomed over the generations and over the centuries. As we look at this, see what comes of this. Abraham was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. He was but one. And here we are downstream, Isaiah's audience of this nation of Israel. The fulfillment of God's promises, despite even our faithlessness, our covenant God is faithful. And I think verse 3 has Sarah in mind, for the Lord comforts Zion, He comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden. It was a death sentence to be a woman without a child in the ancient Near Eastern world. As the case then, the case today, most women outlived the husband, and so to be a widow with no heir, with no son to protect, was a delicate situation at best to be in. And so Sarah was barren in her womb. Sarah was in a desperate strait. like in a desert, without resources, without options. But now it is full. God brought to it life, the garden of the Lord. Remember Sarah, that mocking voice that she gave of laughter? Now it is a voice of song. Joy and gladness, verse 3 tells us, joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving, not mocking. thanksgiving in the voice of Saul. That's what it means to be a child of the covenant. It means that even in our unfaithful times, God remains faithful. It means that when God's promises seem like they'll never be brought to fruition, But we speak of sometimes as the already, not yet, the promise, but we live in that not yet of fulfillment. And it seems like that not yet sometimes can just simply swallow up the promises that are to come. So we are reminded that our God manifests Himself in the lives of His people. Our covenant God makes Himself known. in His people, through His people, and bringing His promises to fruition. We go over to verse 4, we find another description of what it means to be in the covenant. The second description here, give attention to me, my people. A few months ago, I had an opportunity to be in Oklahoma and to speak at one of the tribes. It was the Sac and Fox tribe, a tribe that originated in the Chicago area and was sent to Oklahoma and has their tribal land there and was able to speak at the tribal center. It was a very fascinating moment, but it was impressed upon me what it means to be part of a people, to have that identity. of being part of a tribe. And all that that meant for those members of that tribe, all of that privilege that it meant, but for them, it was also an intense obligation to honor what it means to be a member of the Sac and Fox Nation. We are hoping tomorrow to get out onto the Yorktown. What a tremendous privilege it is to not have to defend the seas as individuals, but as part of a people, as part of a nation, we have the privilege of having defending us the United States Navy with all of its power and aircraft carriers that make that one look small in its fleet. What a privilege. What a privilege it is to not stand alone against this world. What a privilege it is, in the sort of buzzword of this moment, to be in genuine community, to have brothers and sisters who encourage us to not be an individual shouting into the darkness, but to be part of a people, to be part of a nation, to be part of a holy tribe. To be a child of the covenant means that we are a people. It also means, as we drop down to verse 7, the third thing it means is that we have God's law on, in, rather, our heart. There it is in verse 7, listen to me, you who know righteous, the people in whose heart is my law. This is a little bit of a clunky expression, but if you want to know what it means to be a child of the covenant, it means you are a people in whose heart is the law of God, a people whose in your heart is the law of God. Now, let's think about this. This too is tremendous privilege and tremendous obligation. Think about, just for a moment, try to remember what it was like when you were unregenerate. Try to have some sympathy for your unregenerate friends or neighbors or co-workers and realize what does it mean to go through this life and world without the sure guide of God's law? What would it mean to make decisions? ethical decisions, life decisions, without having the law of God as your true north. What a privilege it is to have the law. Now, isn't this the great irony as we read through the Old Testament? We don't like law. We have a saying, right, as part of our American DNA, give me liberty or give me death. We take liberty over life. Law? Freedom. I want wide open spaces. Give me land, lots of land, or I can roam free. Isn't that part of the American spirit? Laws are restricting and confining and straightjacketing and bad. Freedom is good. Law is bad. What is the great irony? It's the great irony of the book of Proverbs. It's the great irony of the Pentateuch. It's the great irony of the Bible. There is freedom, true freedom, when we are bound in the law of God. To be fenced in by the law is actually freedom. To have the law of God is a true privilege. It is also an obligation. To have the law of God means that we have commands to follow. To have the law of God means that we are to bear the heart, to reflect the heart of our covenant God. What God delights in, we are to delight in. What God hates, we are to hate. Sort of means to follow the law. That means to be a man and a woman, a child after the very heart of God, to know His law, to study His law, to observe His law so that we have a life that reflects the lawgiver. To have the law is both privilege and it is obligation. And it is what it means to be a covenant child. You find this again and again in the Old Testament, don't you? There is a conditionality to the covenant. There is a conditionality to enjoying God's blessings. There is a conditionality to enjoying life in His chosen land, life in His temple, life as His people. And when we do not live up to that conditionality, well, there's judgment. That's why Isaiah's audience is going to be in the predicament they find themselves in. Isaiah is prophesying to a people on the eve of exile. It's the 11th hour, last-ditch effort. Yet another prophet sent to call, hearken God's people back from the abyss of disobedience and punishment and judgment. It doesn't work. It's not heeded. And very quickly, they will go into exile under the thumb of Nebuchadnezzar and mighty Babylon, only to be overshadowed by the tyrant of all tyrants, Cyrus. Persians, purveyors of violence, and Israel's at their mercy by not following the commands of God. Well, if you're taking stock, to be a child of the covenant means we are a son of Abraham, we are a son of Sarah. Secondly, it means that we are a people, we have an identity, a nation, a tribe. Thirdly, it means that the law of God is in our hearts. Fourthly, and we probably should have started here, but it's verse 11, it's very simply this, to be a child of the covenant is to be ransomed. You know, I love thinking about this. I think of Peter, I don't know what you think of Peter, but I think of Peter as a burly fisherman. And this is going to be using 21st century sensibilities, but I would see him tattooed from head to toe. It's an anachronistic thing, I know, but it's how I see him. draw a sword and lash out and be a man of diplomacy. You fathers, if your daughter brought Peter home, you would chase him off your property as fast as you can, Peter." And there he is in his epistle using the word precious. Isn't that amazing? This manly man, Peter, using the word precious to talk about the blood of His dear Savior, the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the precious blood of the Lamb. We know what it means to be ransomed. Let me put it this way. Is our entering into the covenant relationship with God, is our entering into that, or does our entering into that come at a cost? Absolutely. And do you know what the cost is? The precious blood of the beloved Son. That's the cost. You see it in a shadow form, don't you, of here's Adam and Eve sinning against God, covered now in shame and guilt. And all of a sudden there's animal skins. It's a hint, isn't it? It's a hint that there was a shedding of blood for that to happen. And then that hint comes into fruition as we move into the tabernacle, move into the temple, and the Levitical laws of the Passover lamb. And we could even back it up to the Exodus itself. Every single house in Egypt that night had blood in it. Whether it was the blood of a lamb or the blood of the firstborn, no house escaped without blood that night in Egypt. And all this, all this is like an arrow aimed, a heat-seeking missile aimed at the target of the death of Jesus Christ. What does John say? To kick off Jesus' public ministry, but to point and say, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Teacher Bonhoeffer was imprisoned. by the Nazis, imprisoned on April 5, 1943. Early in his imprisonment at Tegel, he had a good relationship with the guards, books were passed in and out. He wrote a novel while he was in prison. He wrote a textbook on ethics, wrote letters, he wrote sermons for his students who were getting married and having baptisms of their kids. And then in the spring of late 1944, early 1945, all that comes to a halt. He gets pushed into the Gestapo prison in the basement of the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin, and the flow of pen and paper and books is cut off. He gets to write one last letter, which he writes on August 23 in 1944, and he writes, Please don't ever get anxious or worried about me." To his parents and to his fiancee, Maria. Don't ever get anxious or worried about me, but don't forget to pray for me. I'm sure you don't. I'm so sure of God's guiding hand that I hope I shall always be kept in that certainty. You must never doubt that I'm traveling with gratitude and cheerfulness along the road where I'm being led. Here's the sentence. My past life is brimful of God's goodness, and my sins are covered by the forgiving love of Christ crucified. Everything's stripped away. Bonhoeffer was a professor of theology at Berlin. His dad was a professor of psychology at Berlin that pioneered, in many ways, psychology. They were wealthy. They had a chauffeur. They had a summer house. He had all this stuff, prestige, honor. He was a PhD by the time he turned 20. And here he is in a six-by-nine prison cell, and it's all stripped away. And what does he hold on to? My sins are covered by the forgiving, by the cleansing blood of the Lamb of Christ crucified." What a beautiful thing it is to be ransomed. What a beautiful thing it is to be a redeemed people. You could have all the pressures on the world, you could be in the absolute worst situation, and you remember this, my sins are covered. The one thing that ultimately matters, can I be right with this holy God? Because I'm clothed, not in my righteous robes, there's no such thing. Those are but filthy rags. I'm clothed in the righteous robe of Jesus Christ, and my sins are forgiven. I'm ransomed. I'm ransomed. To be a son or daughter of the covenant is to be ransomed. You were bought by the blood of Jesus Christ, and you wear His blood-washed robes of righteousness. Lastly, and by way of application, what do we think about all this? It comes in verse 8. Jonathan Edwards, in 1739, preached a 30-sermon series on Isaiah 51, 8. Actually, it was Isaiah 51, 8. And I have to think if I was in that congregation, somewhere around sermon four or five, I would say, all right, Pastor Edwards, I think we got this. I think we can move on. There's a lot of other verses here that might be help. Of course, he uses it as a launch pad in Dall Scripture, but a 30-sermon series. And the Puritans had a style or structure where they would do text, doctrine, and application. You'd have the text, you'd have the doctrine, many points, not three or four, 10, 12 sub-points. Then you'd have application. Again, not one or six, eight sub-points. It's a Puritan sermon. Edwards turns all 30 into that structure. First is the text. Next, 27, our doctrine, 27. Well, more like 28. And then 29, 30, application. Writing on this verse, and think about it, right? Here's the thing. Here's Babylon. Here's Persia. Here's the appearance. The appearance is these things are intractable, insurmountable. No, the moth is going to eat them up like a garment because they're temporary. There's one thing that is permanent, and it is the covenant. Isaiah 51.8b, that my righteousness will be forever, my salvation, not to the next generation. Not to ten generations, all generations. Look at what Edwards says, "'With pleasure and joy, let us celebrate the everlasting duration of God's mercy and faithfulness to His covenant people.'" That's it, permanent, everlasting duration. Nothing is permanent. Haven't we learned that by now? We think these things that matter are permanent, we give our lives to them, we pursue them, this thing will last, this dynasty, this legacy. Only thing of duration is God's coming. Then Edward says this, how does this not sound like 2022? Listen to this, let us be comforted by it under the present dark circumstances that the church faces. Do you feel that? Do you feel it? It's palpable, isn't it? Think of the cultural change that has happened in the last three years, the upheaval, the hostility, the world we find ourselves in, dark, brutal, present dark circumstances that the church faces, and all the uproar and confusions there are in the world. and all the threatenings of the church's enemies." He's writing this in 1739, sounds like today, doesn't it? Against the threatenings of God's enemies, against the uproars and confusions, against the dark present circumstances, there's the duration of the faithfulness of the covenant of God. Let us pray earnestly, Edward says, for those glorious things that God has promised to accomplish for His covenant people. Covenant is a beautiful theological concept, isn't it? It's a beautiful thing But it gives us confidence, comfort, and assurance, and encouragement because in these present dark circumstances and in this moment of hostility and threatenings, there is the permanent, durable covenant of God. And we know, we know that His salvation is eternal, that His covenant is for all generations. It is a beautiful thing to be a son, to be a daughter, covenant son, covenant daughter of the Lord our God. Let's pray. Father God, You are our God, and we are Your people. You have ransomed us by the precious blood of Your Son, our Savior. We find You faithful, merciful, loving, kind. You've promised glorious things for us, Your people. May we praise You. May we trust and obey You. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.