Almighty and infinite God, we bless and praise your name, that you are a God of grace, a God of faithfulness, a God who has entered into covenant with your Son on our behalf, with us in Him, swearing and guaranteeing to us an eternal salvation. We thank you for the privilege of looking at the structure of the covenant and we pray that you help us to appreciate its reality in our own lives. As we look at its administration now, that you will bless this hour as well, as we briefly will survey the administration of the covenant in the Old Testament, that we will see something of how this fits together in the progressively unfolding work of your redemption. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now the last hour, the main thing I sought to get before you was that Christ is the covenant head, he is the covenant of grace, was made with him and the elect in him. But the Bible uses many other terms to talk about the role of Christ in the covenant. For example, in Isaiah 42, verse 6 we read, I am the Lord, and here Jehovah the Father is speaking to the Son. I have called you in righteousness. I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you. And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations." Now here Christ is spoken of not simply as the head of the covenant, the second Adam, but as the embodiment of the covenant. that as Savior he is appointed as light to the nations and thus a covenant to the people. This, in addition to reminding us that the covenant is in Christ and with Christ, reminds us that Christ is the administrator of the covenant of grace. Because of who he is, he has all these different responsibilities. He is the covenant head, He's the covenant mediator. He's the covenant surety. He's the covenant administrator. In other words, the grace that Christ himself, from the Old Testament perspective, would purchase through his incarnate work as covenant head. And from our perspective, he has purchased that grace. He himself, as the covenant head, administers to us. And so he is the administrator of the covenant grace and he has done so through the church. The covenant of grace from the beginning until now until the end of the age is administered by Christ through his church. Moreover, he's done so in a progressive manner. This is one of those Great questions of biblical theology. When God made the covenant of grace, why didn't he send Christ right then to accomplish the work for his people and save us? Ultimately, we can't answer that question besides the fact that God does all things for his own glory. He does all things for his own glory, but what we see is A couple of very important biblical truths in terms of this progressive unfolding of salvation. The first is, as we've just hinted at, the person and work of our Savior is so profound that if he had simply come on the scene without preparation, we never could have grasped all that he is. We couldn't even begin to grasp all that he is. all that he does for us. So what God so wonderfully did for us is, beginning with the post-fall Adamic covenant straight through until Christ, he brought these different covenant administrations, each revealing to us parts of the covenant of grace and how God, through Christ, would accomplish the redemption of his people. And each, as we said last night, bringing grace. The covenant of grace is a beautiful divine work in that it is revelatory, laying the foundation. It's like a giant mosaic and each piece of the puzzle is causing the picture to flesh out more fully and wonderfully. But at the same time, as God's revealing the work of Christ through his covenant administrations, he's gathering his people. He's saving his people through these covenant administrations. So it gives us this appreciation, understanding what Christ has done, even as God is saving us. And then the second thing is, this is the way that God works, isn't it? Outside of the fiat acts of creation, God has always determined to work in order of progress. human development, animal development, plant development, geological development. Outside the initial creation, God does things in progressive stages. It's not unusual then in the way that God works that he progressively unfolded the work of the Savior over the 4,000 years from the creation until the advent of Christ. Just as in our lives individually he progressively applies that salvation as he has redeemed each one of us. So the covenant of ministration is a progressive unfolding of the message of the covenant of grace as it ministers the grace itself to God's people. Now in the confession of faith Again, back to page 852, paragraph 5. This covenant was differently administered. That's a very important word. They're not different covenants, and we'll come back and we'll deal with that by God's grace tomorrow at Sunday school. They're administrations of the one covenant of grace made with Christ in eternity. This covenant was differently administered in the time of the law. In the time of the Gospel, under the law it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the Paschal Lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all for signifying Christ to come, which were for that time sufficient and efficacious through the operation of the Spirit to instruct and build up the elect in faith and the promised Messiah by whom they had full remission of sins and eternal salvation and is called the Old Testament. That is what we are going to look at in the remainder of this hour. These various administrations of the covenant of grace before Christ that through promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, Passover and other types of ordinances pointed to Christ, but which were sufficient and efficacious to gather the elect and to build them up in the faith and is called the Old Testament or the Old Covenant. Now a little more about administration before we start talking about the distinct administrations. The first is that each administration is entered into by taking either in type or prophecy or for us in reality, coming into covenant with God through Christ, taking Christ as covenant head or from the old covenant perspective, believing in the Savior to come. Federally, covenantally in other words, every individual is under one of two covenants. All those in the world are under the covenant with Adam still. under its condemnation and curse and living in its consequences. All those in the covenant of grace are in the covenant headship of the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the great dividing line in the human race. We trust that by God's grace many from the world will yet be brought to Christ, but to be brought to Christ is to be brought under His covenant headship. Now we enter into that covenant with Christ as adults, I said, by receiving Christ as he is offered to us in the gospel, either before he came in the types and ceremonies or in the fullness of the gospel since he's come. But we understand the Bible teaches that there are two ways that people enter into the covenant. We enter into the covenant by faith and we bring with us our covenant seed, our children. And the Bible is quite clear, and we'll see this in all the covenant administrations. I'll prove it to you, Lord willing, in a few moments. But right now, to establish this principle, that we are in covenant with Christ through faith and with our covenant children. And they are also in covenant with Christ. And that covenant is only administered in the visible church. The Bible does not know of this Christian that says, God is my savior, I'm trusting Christ, but I'm a church unto myself. Yesterday we visited with a really delightful couple at a bookshop and they have church at home now because they had been burned in a previous church relationship. Well, that's foreign to everything in the Bible. There is no administration of grace from the covenant head apart from his church. And so to come into the church is to come into the covenant with Christ. And that's why we're baptized in the church, that's why we baptize our children then in the church. They are solemnly admitted into that covenant membership through their baptism. Now this brings us to the question, does that mean that everybody that's in the covenant administration is elect? Here's the tension. flesh it out for you. We've said that the covenant of grace is made with Christ and his elect, but it's administered by Christ through the church. In the Old Testament, these various covenant ministrations now through the new covenant, the fullness of the covenant of grace. But that word administrate is very important, you see, for it helps us understand that all who are legally in the covenant, and thus they are, everyone who enters the covenant in the one of two ways that I've said, by profession of faith or by being part of a family that professes faith, all are legally in covenant with Christ under the covenant administration. But only the elect are in Christ in an eternally appointed union with the covenant head. Now the way that you know your election is by being in Christ, in his church, obeying him, receiving the sacraments, claiming the promises as they fit with the changes the Spirit is doing in your life, and the Spirit ties all that together in terms of the testimony of your adoption as the children of God. But what this teaches us is that there are those in the covenant legally, We're not in the covenant eternally. And I like that distinction. One of the controversy that's going on right now with respect to covenant theology is what is the status of those in the covenant if they're not in Christ? And some parties are saying, well, everybody's in Christ in kind of the same way. And that creates big problems for me. If you have, or the elders in the church and the pastors have, and you can photocopy it, Berkhoff has an excellent section on this legal membership in the covenant. He discusses the various options. Is it external, internal? That's language that I have traditionally used, but I've been pushed this direction by Berkhoff to talk about a legal membership and a truly saving. So everybody that's in covenant by profession of faith or by belonging to a family that professes faith, is legally in the covenant with Christ under that covenant administration. And by God's grace, Sunday night we'll talk about what that means for our children. But only the elect are going to be in the covenant for the full saving benefits of the covenant as it's been made with Christ. Now, we understand this. Simon the magician was in the covenant, wasn't he? He was baptized, he was a part of the church and yet Peter will testify of him that he is still in the bonds of gall and bitterness. He was unregenerate. He entered the church by profession of faith. His life by its pattern showed that he was unregenerate and thus he was put out of the church. When he was in the church, he was legally in covenant with Christ with obligations, promises, and curses. And thus, that's why in the covenant of grace, one can be a covenant breaker. Now the elect cannot be a covenant breaker, but one can be a covenant breaker because legally one is in covenant with Christ and will violate that covenant. So we, in the first place, recognize that church membership is not by conversion. Because we can't judge the heart. It's by profession of faith. That's why in Presbyterian churches we talk about a credible profession of faith. We don't claim to judge the heart. We want to see someone embrace Christ and have a lifestyle externally that is consistent with that profession. And thus we know that there will be those in the church, there will be tares. And we're aware of that in our own experience. Some of us perhaps having been hypocrites and then later converted, perhaps even today some of you still are hypocrites. So we recognize that there are those in the church that are not converted at this point. But they are in the church by profession of faith. That's exactly what's true of our children you see. They're in the church by their covenant membership under their own covenant head. which is at least one Christian parent, or guardian, legally appointed guardian, or legally appointed grandparent, guardian, whatever. So that we treat them as legally members of the covenant. They're under the covenant headship of Christ, and that has specific blessings for them and obligations. And if our children do not fulfill the obligations, then they'll become covenant breakers, and they'll be put out of the covenant. But it's our hope and prayer and the promise of God that the majority of covenant seed will, not just be in the covenant legally, but will be savingly, eternally part of the elect people for whom Christ acted. So it's important to keep in mind the distinction. I hope I'm not being too obscure. The covenant of grace is made with Christ and is elect in him. That's what we mean by the invisible church as it's defined in the larger catechism. And that is the body of Christ past, present and future. All those for whom he acted as the second Adam who will be saved on the basis of what he has done. That covenant grace is administered through covenant administrations. Spoken of in the big terms of the old covenant and the new covenant. And the old covenant then had four Five major administrations, the Adamic, the Noahic, the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, and the Davidic. And all of that is fulfilled in the new covenant, which is now not new in something different as we'll see tomorrow morning, but new in the fulfillment of the maturity and reality of the covenant of grace. But it's all one covenant of grace made with Christ, being progressively administered at different epochs of the church. Some of you will have questions about dispensationalism, and we're going to try to deal with that in Sunday school tomorrow, where we'll revisit this matter of the unity of the covenants. But right now, in what time is left to us, which is about 30 minutes, I just want to hit the highlights for you of what God was doing in the various covenant administrations. We began reading in Genesis 3.15 where we see that the covenant of grace is promised and that Christ is the supernaturally provided seed who is going to destroy Satan. But in addition to being the announcement of covenant grace, this arrangement with Adam in Genesis 3, I believe, is the first administration of the covenant of grace. Just as we've said, nobody is saved apart from the covenant. And thus, if Adam and Eve were saved, and I believe that Adam and Eve are in heaven, again, it's remarkable. And if any of you think that you have sinned too much and you're too wicked for God to save you, if God saved Adam and Eve, who ruined an entire earth of people, will He not save you? There's no more wonderful testimony about God's grace. than that. If anybody in the human race should be in hell, it's Adam and Eve, or you or me. But isn't that remarkable that God saved them, and He'll save you too, you see. And that's the beauty of this grace. But if they were saved, as I believe they were, then they were saved through the covenant. And although it's not called covenant, it has all the things that we've been speaking about with respect to covenant. It was sovereignly administered. As we read, perhaps you noticed that language of God. I will, I will, I will. I will do this. I will do that. I will put enmity between you and the serpent. I will, you know, it's sovereign. They ran away from God. They were hiding from God. They were trying to deal with their sin, guilt themselves. And God says, no, no, I will do it. And thus, he makes promises to Adam and Eve. As we saw, as he came, and yes, the curse and chasing and judgment were brought upon the inhuman race and upon the creation, and yet it was tempered with grace, but the most wonderful promise was that God was going to provide the Savior. And that was a promise made to Adam and Eve and to their seed. And so what does he say? He says to the serpent, that I'll put enmity between the seed and the woman. Who is he talking about there? Well, it's two groups of people, narrowing into two individuals, and broadening out into two groups of people. That from this point forward in the Bible, there will be two lines of people. The seed of woman, who are also called the sons of God, the righteous. And the seed of the serpent were called the daughters of men and the wicked and the unrighteous, the elect and the reprobates. Right here, though, we see that in Adam, who brought his entire seed into damnation, that God was promising to him and a seed that would come from him salvation through the Redeemer. And yet it's sobering because God makes it clear even here that all the descendants of Adam and Eve would not be redeemed. That there would be a wicked seed. Those that would be the seed of the serpent. Of course that narrows, that from the seed of the woman, the righteous, the sons of God come the seed. The Lord Jesus Christ. It's clear in the language that now it's He The one seed shall destroy Satan. Not his seed, but Satan is destroyed by the seed of the woman. And out of that, the two lines will continue then. The seed of Christ and the seed of Satan until the end of the age. So we've got the principle right here. Promise of salvation and life to the covenant head, Adam, and to his seed, but that within his seed there will be those that are not elect. And that quickly manifested itself in the covenant as Cain showed himself to be reprobate and murdered his righteous brother Abel. But God is able to keep a seed and so he grants another one, Seth, and he appointed in the place of Abel In Genesis chapter 5 we read then of the development of the righteous as Genesis 4 shows us of the development or decline of the seed of the wicked descendants of Cain. Now the human condition for the covenant of grace we said is faith and repentance. And we see faith here expressed both by Adam and Eve. Adam expresses his faith how? He names his wife Eve. Not the mother of death. That's what Eve had become. But rather he names her Eve, the mother of life. And by that Adam was taking hold of the promise of God that life was going to be brought about through the seed of the woman. And he ascended then to the covenant and was saved. Eve expressed her faith. In that divinely provided seed, she named her firstborn Cain. I've gotten a man from the Lord. She thought he was going to be the deliverer. She didn't know this was going to take millennia before God would accomplish these saving purposes. Just as Lamech didn't know when he named his son Noah that he would give some rest, okay, but he was not going to be the promised deliverer that would bring salvation. But Eve expressed her faith, you see. in the promise of God. And thus, though they were driven out of the garden, lest they take hold in self-righteousness of the tree of life and try sacramentally to earn their salvation, put out of the garden and yet they were in communion with God. And so we are told that in the days of Enos the son of Seth that men began corporately to call upon the name of the Lord. and they existed as the people of God and their sins were forgiven. We also see in the damning covenant that God now establishes the type of the work of the Savior for he institutes the sacrificial system. I say that because we read here that Adam and Eve had tried to cover their guilt with what? Flimsy leaves. And that is the beautiful picture of all attempts at self-righteousness. Try to deal with your own guilt. It's like covering your nakedness with some leaves off a tree in your backyard. But God covered the nakedness with the skins of animals. He made them a clothing. A clothing that is in itself a picture of righteousness. That he would cover over their guilt. And he alone could do that. But now where do those animal skins come from? Well I believe that by implication that God slew the animals as the first sacrifices. And so you see the beautiful relationship of remission of sin through sacrificial death because the guilt was covered by the skin of the animal that was slain as a substitutionary atonement in the place of the people. And we say this is the beginning of sacrifices because how did Abel know to worship God by sacrifice? It was instituted in the Adamic covenant. How did Noah know to take seven pairs of clean animals on the ark for sacrifices? Because it was instituted in the Adamic covenant. And so we see here really the basis of all covenant activity The one thing that is not given at this point is a covenant sign, but this is part of the progressive unfolding. But God now has set forth life. Life now not through the obedience of a man, but life through the obedience and death of the God-man. And Adam and Eve, and Abel, and Seth, and Enosh, and Methuselah, and Enoch, and Lamech, and Noah received that by faith. entered into covenant with God, though all their seed did not persevere in the covenant, that those that resisted the covenant legally would fall away. What brings us then to the Noahic administration of the covenant. If you'll just look quickly at Genesis, we read them last night, but what we want to do is look at Genesis chapter nine, I think. I have to give you a contrast though, but remember in Genesis 6, God promises the covenant in verse 18, I will establish my covenant with you and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your daughters. Then they get off the ark and we read in Genesis 9, 9. Now, behold, I myself to establish my covenant with you and your seed after you and every living creature. Now again, the parties of the covenant are quite clear. It's God solemnly establishing a covenant, I will establish, I have established, and Noah. But notice now, it's Noah and his seed and the entire physical creation. Some people say that this covenant was just with God and the creation, but the language is quite clear. The covenant is with Noah, a covenant head, In a sense, a type of the second Adam. He's also the head of the race. And God makes this covenant with him and his seed and with all of the creation. And God makes this covenant unconditional. Because of what Christ would do, God is now saying, I will never again destroy the earth in this manner. It doesn't matter what you people do. You're going to flaunt me, you're going to disobey me, you're going to be in rebellion against me, but I'm never again going to do so. And the reason is very interesting. For you look in chapter 8, verse 21, the Lord smelled the soothing aroma, and the Lord said to himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man. Now there's the promise. Now, you'll see why this promise needs a covenant. 4. Because the intent of his heart is evil from his youth. Does that not strike you as strange? I will never again destroy all the creation because man is so corrupt. In fact, it really is strange if you go back and look at chapter 6 and you find out that God says there, I am going to destroy everybody because they are so corrupt. He says in verse 5 of chapter 6, that the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent, look at the language, just like chapter 8, every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now, what's going on here? God says, I'm going to destroy everything except Noah and his family because the thoughts of man's hearts are continually evil. And then God says, I will never again destroy all flesh because the thoughts of man's hearts are continually evil. What's going on? Well, what God has done in the Noahic covenant, in the first place, He has manifested His awful hatred of sin and His ultimate judgment of the sinner. And so, all those who refuse His way of salvation in the ark are destroyed, along with the other life of the creation, the land and air life. But what God wants us to understand is that judgment never accomplishes salvation. And because the man's heart is so corrupt, God is saying, if I dealt with man in the way that I should deal with man, I'd constantly be wiping everybody out and having to start over. And I would never accomplish my purposes of grace. And so He destroyed everybody once to make a statement. And that's why it is so dangerous today that people in our reformed churches are watering down this statement because they're taken away from one of the most important statements that God makes in the Bible about his justice and wrath and that is the entire earth was flooded and every living creature with the breath of life in it was destroyed except fish because God wanted people to know how much he hated sin and what judgment was all about but judgment doesn't save And so having shown his judgment once, God now makes a covenant that he will never again destroy the human race until he fully accomplishes his redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ. But because of the wickedness so often of people, God makes a covenant so that by the solemn obligation of himself, you see, No responsibility placed now on the race. But God takes obligation upon himself. God swears never again to do this and God makes a covenant so that when we see wickedness abound we wonder why the Lord will he not break forth and destroy all things and we know no he won't. Never again. And this is the promise that he has made. It's the promise of preservation. And by this promise, he is promised, for the sake of the gospel, to cause there to prevail a certain degree of peace and law and order. Now, because the heart of man is evil continually, God now institutes government with the sword, and the death penalty for murder, so that there is some God-appointed restraint to create order. But the purpose of order is twofold. That the church might live prosperously and there might be room for the gospel to come. And that's why God appointed government. And that's why Christ has soldiers right now in Iraq. You see? If Iraq gets some semblance of peace and order, there's then a place for the gospel to come. That's why you should long and pray for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, not because you've got some mistaken notion about the Jews being something special. No, because until there's peace there, there's no room for the gospel to come. God uses law and order. God uses a cultural prosperity to create an avenue in which he comes not in judgment, but he comes in gospel. That's what we've got to look beyond war and liberation of Iraq and a peace with Israel and her neighbors to this end. But that's what Noahic covenant is all about, you see, is that God has brought, he himself will not destroy the earth and he's appointed these instruments, his law as a restraint against the spread of evil and the sword given to the state that he might accomplish these things. But notice that the principles of the covenant of grace that we saw in the Adamic covenant and the covenant in general continue. It's made with the covenant head and his seed, and those eight people were in the ark, and that all the seed were not elect, that Ham and Canaan rebelled against the covenant head, and thus against God. and became a cursed race that would be destroyed by the covenant people when they entered the promised land. But that God's covenant purposes would be accomplished and now there begins to be a narrowing of the seed. It was the seed of woman and that was left vague in contrast to the seed of the serpent. But now amongst the seed of the woman and the righteous seed a family line has been selected. It's going to be the seed of Shem. through whom this Savior is going to come. But the seed of Japheth will not be forever cut off. The Gentiles represented there shall one day be brought back into the covenant in great numbers as we hear this morning our testimony. And then we notice that the sacrifices continue. that from the very beginning, when God made covenant with Noah, it was going to be based upon still that Noah and his sea would be accepted on the basis of the sacrifices that would be offered. And so the sacrifices continue. And don't make a disjunct. Though we say this covenant is unconditionally with the world, it is still on the basis of the shed blood of the mediator. Because how in the world could God spare the world for a moment, except the fact He not only had demonstrated justice in the flood, but would satisfy justice in His Son, the Savior. And thus, forbearance comes out of this Noahic covenant. God bears long with sinners. But it's for the sake of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're not a Christian today, every breath that you draw is still a gift of God to you, purchased for you by Christ Jesus. And thus the Noahic Covenant becomes the covenant that is the basis of the free offer of the gospel. You see, people get all confused about this. Well, how can you preach the gospel to everybody if God will always save and elect? Well, right here, God's made a covenant with the world to spare it. He spared it for the sake of the covenant head, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what you and I are to do is to tell the world that everything that they enjoy, every moment of peace and prosperity, every breath they draw, is because of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they refuse to yield to Him as covenant head. They hate the provision that God has made to spare their lives now and to save them from eternity. And it's on the basis of that that you call them to repent and believe in the covenant head. They're enjoying the privileges. need now to come and embrace him as their own covenant head. And God seals this covenant now with a universal sign, a rainbow. A rainbow, he says, that he will look on and remember. And you see, remember is a very important covenantal word. God doesn't forget, but when God remembers, he means he's acting on the basis of covenant. And every time you see a rainbow, it should remind you that God is confirming that he does not forget this covenant. Yes, it's rained for six days and six nights here, but it never will rain for 40 days and 40 nights. And the earth will never again break open in awful destructive torrents. No, God will destroy people in temporal judgment, but never again the entire race in that rainbow is the mark of covenant grace. And that's why in Revelation chapter 4 it is over the throne of God. the perpetual seal that our God is a God of grace. Now you see how the Noahic Covenant fits in the unfolding of God's purposes of covenant redemption. Well then we come to the Abrahamic Covenant. And when we get to the Abrahamic Covenant, we recognize in the first place that it embraces all that has already been established covenantally. The promise of salvation through a seed, the structure and order of society and that God's seed will develop through Shem. It continues the sacrificial system as the basis by which God's people look to the Saviors to come. So what's new then in the Abrahamic Covenant? Well in the Abrahamic Covenant God having shown in the Noahic covenant that judgment does not save, we also learn under the Noahic covenant that the race left to itself is going to continue to decline. So by the time that God makes covenant with Abraham, the majority of the covenant people had become idolaters. And so what does God do? He calls Abraham out of the land of his fathers. Now, remember, this is amazing. Let me get this straight. Noah would have lived until about the 50th year of Abraham, if I'm correct. Methuselah lived until the year of the flood. And Adam lived in Methuselah. So you see, Abraham's only, in a sense, four generations removed from all that had happened. But and we don't say that Noah or Shem had begun to turn to idolatry, but that the covenant seed itself had. So what God does now, he pulls them away. He puts them in an isolation, so to speak, in this land where they're strangers. To begin now to isolate the church in a more corporate fashion. and does a number of new things in the covenant. Abraham now becomes the covenant party with God in the administration of the covenant. It's promised to him and his seed and now is promised a great seed more than can be numbered. And that through that seed of Abraham the Messiah would come and whom the nations would bless themselves. So we see now a narrowing yet of the seed. Now from all the descendants of Shem we've come down to Abraham. And under the Abrahamic covenant we'll actually come all the way down to Judah. All in Genesis. Remember I told you last night how important Genesis is. So all this now is taking place in the Abrahamic covenant. A particular seed of Abraham through whom the seed would come that would bless the world. That seed is further narrowed into the seed of Judah. Moreover, they are now promised the land. This is a new part of the covenant of grace, not as an end in itself, but as a place where the church would grow and prosper, where Messiah would accomplish his purposes, but the land itself was but a picture or a type that we are the heirs of the earth. Listen, I'm not concerned about a piece of real estate in Palestine. I'm an heir of the entire world as a son of the Lord Jesus Christ. This world belongs to Him. It belongs to us to enjoy for His glory and to claim by His grace. But that's all a fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant. And then in the Abrahamic Covenant, God establishes more clearly now the relationship of faith to the promise. Now we said that Adam and Eve believed. Noah believed, but now faith is spelled out in the clear enunciation that Abraham believed the promises of God and it was declared to him as righteousness. It was justified by faith, the great principle of the covenant of grace. Known before, experienced, but now clearly enunciated, this is the great Abrahamic contribution to the covenant of grace, that we enter into this covenant with our seed by faith. But again, the sobering note that not all seed are elect, thus we have Ishmael and Esau, covenant seed and yet non-elect. But you see how it all fits together, focusing now on the role of faith in receiving the promises, and now the next covenant sign is given. And that is circumcision. In Genesis chapter 17, God gives circumcision as a sign and seal of the covenant of grace in its old covenant administration. This brings us to the Mosaic covenant. Now, as I'll show you tomorrow, when these new covenants come along, or administrations, they're not doing away with what's happened. They are in the encompassing of all that's gone before. And so what do we see? The Mosaic Covenant, and Paul makes this clear in Galatians chapter 3, carries with it everything in the Abrahamic Covenant, and the Noahic Covenant, and the Adamic Covenant. It's the same promise. It's the same principle of faith. It's the same concept of seed. It's the same principle of the sacrifices. All of that is brought over, but now the people of God, what we really see in the Mosaic Covenant, is a special application of the Noahic Covenant to the Abrahamic Covenant. God's people themselves are given the sword, that they might be further protected, both from their enemies on the one hand, who will seek to destroy them, and from the apostasy within their own midst. So as they now are brought to the land that God had promised them, and he brings them there by an act of redemption, he puts them in the land and makes them a church state. So the church now becomes governed by God through his appointed governors for the twofold purpose of protection from their enemies and protection from themselves, so to speak. But all the purposes of the Abrahamic covenant continue. The Great Covenant promised, I am your God, you are my children, enunciated in Exodus 19 verse 5. But what's new now, in addition to the church-state relationship with the Mosaic Covenant, is the role of law. This is what confuses so many people. But the role of law was not foreign in any of the other covenants. Were Adam and Eve to obey the law of God written on their heart? And we talked last night about the Sabbath and about the cultural mandate and about the marriage institution. Was Noah not described as a righteous man who was blameless? Was Abraham not told, walk before me and be blameless all of your days? You see, law was always operative in the covenant of grace as it is now. And law was nothing new in the Mosaic covenant. It just now takes a more pronounced role in the Mosaic Covenant a necessary role. Law is externalized in the Mosaic Covenant for two purposes. One is that the people might externally be locked in and set apart, separated to some degree from the nations around them that would lead them back into idolatry and from their own defilement. And the law is external in two ways. In the first place is external. God writes the moral law, which originally was on Adam's heart before the fall, on tablets of stone. There is an external relationship that is often more provocative than not. And then he gives them a whole set of ceremonial and civil laws that are also external laws to lock them in, to preserve them, and to keep them until the Savior would come. But the second role of law in the Mosaic covenant is to provide the framework under which the Lord Jesus Christ would fulfill the covenant of works. That's why the Mosaic Covenant says, do this and live. It was not that the people were to think they could do it and live. God gave them sacrifices, many more than they had before this time, to teach them clearly they couldn't do it. But remember, we've said that Christ was the second Adam. And as the second Adam, that means that he had to fulfill the obligations and pay the penalty of the covenant of works. The covenant of works is a wrecked covenant. People are still under it by birth in terms of its obligations and its consequences. But the covenant of grace is now operating. And so how is Christ going to fulfill the covenant of works? Well, it is in form repeated in the Mosaic covenant for the sake of Christ. So when the Mosaic covenant says do this and live, who is the one person that could do that? the Lord Jesus Christ. Under the Mosaic Covenant, he accomplished perfect righteousness. And because he is the divine man, what he did was eternal in its efficacy in nature. So if he's doing this to live, he accomplished it not for himself, but for all of his elect people. And then Paul tells us, why was he crucified? Because the Mosaic Covenant said, Cursed is every man that hangs on a tree. It was in the Mosaic Covenant that Christ bore the curse and consequences of the Adamic Covenant, the Covenant of Works, the pre-Paul Adamic Covenant, and thus satisfied the justice and the wrath of God. And that's a very important role to grasp about law in the Mosaic Covenant. It was the legal structure under which the true seed of God would accomplish the salvation of his people. But everything else continues for the people of God, the promises, the sacrifices, the concept of seed continues with an elect seed and a reprobate seed, which is seen so terribly clear in the Mosaic Covenant. Paul delineates that for us, for example, in the first five verses of 1 Corinthians 10. That leads us then to the Davidic Covenant. What you see is that all these are operating one inside and part of the other, and that's surely clear about the Davidic Covenant. The Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, were not done away with. But now, the Davidic covenant brings the last piece of the Mosaic in place and all will be prepared for the Lord Jesus Christ. And this came to me, I've never seen this before a few weeks ago, that one of the things that God revealed new in the Davidic covenant was the divine nature of the supernaturally provided seed. I've never thought about this, but if you go back and think about the Old Testament, The clear, divine revelation of the Messiah all takes place after the Davidic Covenant. Right? We know he's going to be a descendant of Judah. We know that he'll be supernaturally provided. He's going to do these great works. But it was David who said in Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, and that's where Christ took the Jews. Who do you say that the Messiah is? David's son? Then why does David call him God? And you see, all the prophecies then in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Micah about the Messiah being divine are under the Davidic covenant. And God says, for example, that He will come and shepherd His people. And He calls the Messiah David. And so what we have here in the first place in the Davidic covenant is the revelation now, the clear revelation, that the supernaturally provided seed, the Messiah, because he's the anointed one, is going to be divine as well as human. And then we're shown that he is going to be a prophet, priest, and king who shall rule over his people and shall administer his grace to them. and shall be their teacher and their priest. So it is under the Davidic covenant that we are also told that the Messiah is going to be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek and that he is the great prophet of God, early on prophesied by Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 18, but again coming to clear fulfillment in the Davidic prophets. Everything else continues of the other covenants, but now the person is set forth, and his work is prophet, priest, and king. And the fact that he shall then administer his covenant grace through his kingdom, which is administered through his church. You see how it all fits together? A great unfolding of history. I left out the Passover, which was the sign that was added to the covenant under Moses. From that point forward we have the two covenant signs. So Christ administered his covenant through these five Old Testament ministrations, not one replacing the other but each one giving birth to the next and being yet a part of it. Each one bringing us new revelation about the way of the covenant until finally in the Davidic we understand that our Savior is going to be the King and the Divine King and that he shall do all things for us in the covenant of grace. And that's where we live today. Amen. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for what your word shows us, Lord, and we've only been able to skim across the surface. We pray that you will help us to grasp how these things relate and to glory in the divine wisdom that has administered your covenant in such a wonderful fashion. In Christ's name, amen. I understand from what you said this morning in regards to membership within the framework of the covenant, that those who are members, either by profession or by baptism, would be saved eternally if they don't break the covenant, that is to say, if they don't rebel. I'm sorry. I'm sure that's what came across. That's not what I meant to say. Right. Let me clarify that first, because I appreciate you saying that. What I was trying to say is that in the covenant there, that the non-elect are truly in the covenant legally, but only the elect have the saving benefits. What I did not say clearly was they must be born again. sovereignty generated by the Holy Spirit and brought into all the saving benefits of the covenant. There will be those in the covenant that will die in the covenant only as legal members. So just because one does not openly apostatize does not necessarily mean that one is truly saved. So thank you. So I take in their remarks that it would be wrong for us to have an attitude that presumes that all that stand within the covenants are elect. It's not converted yet that they are elect. Right. Yes. No, I think that we must encourage people to follow First John, to look for the marks of grace that will be there if they are in covenant. And we do use our baptism as well and the promises, but I think there's no finer statement on assurance than what we have in the confession of faith that takes the promises, the marks of grace and the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Yes. are presumed to be elect. And I think the bad thing about this attitude that's found in so many places and in so many churches today is that it leads to not preaching the gospels to the members of the church, and stressing the need for individual conversion of church members, of covenant members, and others who may be standing in the covenant, but who are getting converted. Correct, yes. I'm glad you brought that up because it is a serious problem and that we need to recognize that a person can be legally in the covenant and not savingly in the covenant. And then what I had tried to say earlier was some will come to Christ as adult members of the covenant and others will die in or out of the covenant either as covenant breakers overtly or in their heart as covenant breakers because they've never truly embraced Christ by repentance and faith. On the other hand, we strive for a balance. We don't treat the covenant people as a bunch of goats, particularly in the New Covenant. We recognize that we accept the credible profession of faith. For example, some people give a benediction and they'll distinguish. Now all of you who are truly regenerate, and I think that's wrong. I think the benediction belongs to the congregation of the people of God. A wise pastor will periodically warn his church members that there are tares and there are hypocrites, and if your life does not reflect the progressive work of Christ in transformation, it is reason to examine yourself to see if you are truly in Christ. So we must labor for that balance. The presumption of covenant election is going to breed a great deal of formalism, in my in the church and it's going to be quite deadly. Thank you for letting me clarify that. Appreciate it. Any other questions? There was a question about the new covenant and the law on the heart and such. I'm going to deal with that tomorrow morning. If you can't be there, then you can get the tape of that sermon. Yes. Okay. It came about that when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and the daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Now the original designation here goes back to Genesis chapter 3. the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. So there are two lines of men. Chapter 4 then unfolds the unrighteous line of Cain down through Lamech. Chapter 5 unfolds the righteous line. That lays the foundation now for the fact that we have two categories of people that live on the face of the earth in the days that are being described here and as they multiply The sons of God, which covenantally all who are in the covenant are, the sons of God began to look on the daughters of men, the wicked, those who are not part of the covenant of grace, and took them as wives for themselves. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh. Nevertheless, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. Now this is the amount of time that the Spirit will continue through Noah's preaching to About 120 years from this declaration until the flood. And so the Spirit now through Noah's preaching. As Noah is building this ark in the middle of the plain, he's calling on people to repent and come to God. And the Spirit will strive then with men through this preaching. As we read in Peter, it's the preaching of Christ through Noah by a Spirit. The Methylene were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown or men of infamy. The Methylene were a race of giants evidently. They sprung up again. Because actually DNA helps us understand a lot of things in the Bible. For example, how at the Tower of Babel you could suddenly disperse and have all these racial characteristics develop. Well, they develop because God had put in Adam and in Noah all of the various genetic features of all the people that would ever come forth from them. And then the spirit would activate that which was dormant as that happened. And so we read the Nephilim again after the flood, but it's simply this race of mighty men, of robbers, infamous men, perhaps gigantic in stature as well. They weren't giants that were produced by the cohabitation of angels and men. That's how some interpret verse 4, that children were born to them. We say that wasn't for the positive reason that what we see here is a righteous line and an unrighteous line. For the negative reason that our Savior teaches us himself that angels do not marry or give in marriage. Angels do not have the ability for sexual reproduction. In fact, what the outcome is described here in verses 5 and 6 is that men became corrupt and wicked. This is their own moral culpability. book and film, Rosemary's Daughter, was that it, about the demon creating Rosemary's baby? Well, if that happened, the child wouldn't be responsible for its sin. You see? It's absurd, but because these people are responsible for their sin, they're not the product of some supernatural liaison that produced freaks. No, these people are responsible, thus God destroys them, and so for those reasons, The great majority of biblical commentators say that what we have here is simply the wicked and the righteous intermarrying and no angelic cohabitation with people. You mentioned this morning that the judge announced the curse upon the Catholic Church. that even in the midst of the curse, men would still be able to access blessing through that. And just what you said, I see that as being provable by the fact that part of the curse was that men would have to work in order to survive. In fact, work was part of the pre-fall arrangement. We dealt with that last night. Yeah. Unless you're a preacher and you just work one day a week. The curse that would come on me was prevailing in childbirth, difficult childbirth. And yet, Paul tells us that women may be saved through childhood. Now, how is the how we want to access blessing in that person. I tend to think it's because Paul doesn't need to say the way we normally think of things, say that the notion isn't particularly important in time. Paul's notion isn't. In 1 Timothy 2, 15, 16, and 17 is the place that he's referring to. I think the blessing is two-fold. In the first place, it was through the seed of woman that the Savior would come. And so before Christ came, a role of childbearing within the covenant community was a very important role for the development of God's seed and for the coming of the Savior. But because the covenant promises to us and our seed, what Paul is emphasizing here is the domestic role of the woman in the covenant. That not just her salvation, but the church's salvation is through her seed bearing. We need to understand that the primary way the church ought to be growing is through covenant seed. And even if God blesses us evangelistically and say the Lord starts bringing scores of people from the world into the church, you recognize they come with their seed and they remain with their seed. So for every individual that's being converted, you've got all these covenant families that are supposed to be producing a righteous seed. Now, the problem that we see today is so many of our churches where our children have left the churches. That tells us there's a problem in our families and in the church. That is not normal. That is not God's order. God's order, that's disorder, that's God's judgment when he says that I will visit my punishment unto your seed of the third and fourth generation. But the order is I will show mercy unto a thousand generations. If you're conservative and you say a generation is 20 years, that is 20,000 years. I'm not saying that Christ is going to wait 20,000 years to come, but what I am saying is, he set before us this remarkable promise of covenant seed. And our faithful churches, as Now I recognize that we have congregations like the one here that mostly is now older people and are not having children and your desire is that God would bring families into you. We want to see our congregations full of covenant youth who are then nurtured at home and in the church and don't leave the church but serve God in godliness. And so I believe that's what Paul is about in 1 Timothy chapter 2. is that the covenant mother that seeks this godly seed, whether God in his providence gives her one child or seven children, she is contributing to the church in the bearing and the rearing of that child and those children and to the coming of the kingdom of Christ. And that's where Paul wants you women to focus. There is no greater honor. than to bear and rear a seed for the Lord Jesus Christ. So I think that's what he's talking about in 1 Timothy chapter 2.