All right, Ephesians 2.12, start there. We'll actually come back to that at the end. Paul tells the Ephesians, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Stay there. We're launching there, but our subject tonight is, well, the whole class, we're answering this question. What is a Reformed Baptist, you know? Well, again, what kind of church are you? Well, it's a Baptist church. Well, what kind of Baptist? Free will Baptist? General Baptist? Southern Baptist? What kind of church are you? Well, actually, we're a Reformed Baptist. Whoa, Reformed Baptist, what does that mean? Well, that's what we're answering this class. What is a Reformed Baptist? This is week eight. You cannot answer that question. What is a Reformed Baptist without addressing covenant theology, particularly Reformed Baptist covenant theology. That's a mouthful, right? Say that three times fast. On Reformation Eve, if you say that three times fast, the ghost of Martin Luther will visit you or something. No, I don't know. I made that up. That's not a thing. Okay. Let me simplify. This is how we understand and read the scriptures, okay? The whole Bible fits together in a particular way. and we're arguing that it fits together by way of covenant. Now, not long ago, it was in the spring of 2024, I believe, we did a 12-week series on Baptist covenant theology. So I understand you all are already experts. But we're gonna go over it again. I love this stuff, but I've got a guard. For our purposes, we're not gonna do another 12 weeks. We've already did that. Actually, you can go listen to that on our website. We have recommended reading with that. You can re-listen to that. It's all on Sermon Audio. So if you want something more thorough, you have to get to that. But tonight, we're going to do an overview because at the heart of Reformed theology is covenant theology. Tom Hicks writes, Reformed Baptist theology, together with all of Reformed theology, understands that the covenants organize scripture. Well, look at our text. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise. Our text mentions the word covenant. What is a covenant? Take a stab if you want, you probably know. What is a covenant? I didn't hear what you said. Okay, certainly at the base of a covenant there's an agreement, alright. It's promise, promises and blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. So a covenant is a God-initiated relationship in this term, because you can have covenant of marriage, church covenant, such. But it's bound by promises and obligations. Through these, he reveals himself, defines the terms of fellowship, advances his redemptive plan for his people, and it's how God chooses to make himself known and relate to mankind. not as equals, right, but as entering into an agreement by a sovereign grace, binding himself by His Word. So Reformed Baptist covenant theology, again a mouthful, is the understanding that the whole Bible tells one unfolding story of redemption. The covenants point to this. They're all fulfilled in Christ. Particularly, and this is what our main focus tonight, it recognizes three overarching covenants. You know what they are? Three overarching covenants. It's probably on your, I mean, it's on your sheet. You can look ahead, but the three overarching covenants that we sort of fit scripture, that we see scripture fitting around is the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace is progressively revealed through history and established finally in Christ's blood in the new covenant. So the new covenant, covenant of grace, they're the same. You need to know that. It holds that regenerate. Well, let me rephrase that. It holds that regeneration, those in the new covenant are regenerated in the covenant of grace. Salvation has always been, even in the Old Testament, by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone, and that the church is made up of believers alone and is the fulfillment of true Israel and the promised kingdom. This is Reformed Baptist covenant theology. Now, this differs from other systems. So let me just give you a little bit But I can't go into all the other systems, because we're doing one overview, so I don't have time for that. But there are other systems out there. For example, the dispensationalists. They see two peoples that God is working through. What are those two peoples? Yeah, the Jews and Gentiles, or Israel and the church. The Pado-Baptist covenant theologians, they see unbelievers as part of the covenant of grace, so it's believers and the unbelieving children. There is the New Covenant theologians slash the progressive covenantalists. They see the story moving toward Christ, They have problems with the covenant of grace and covenant of works, those things. Like the dispensationalists, they have issues with the continuation of the moral law, the Ten Commandments, and the life of the believer. But, I mean, I'm just giving kind of really generalizations. I can't go into all those. I'm just going to tell you the right way, right? I'll tell you the right way. And this is the biblical view, because if it wasn't, we wouldn't hold it, right? I mean, that would be my argument. So first, the three overarching covenants of Scripture. Now, here's what you need to know about this. When we discuss these covenants I'm about to talk about, there is agreement within the Reformed tradition. So the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Dutch Reformed, all of these in one way or another agree with these overarching covenants, though there's always nuance in theology and arguments and such. But you say, well, Reformed Baptists have a kindred connection, if you will, with the Presbyterians and that we're both going to argue for the covenant of redemption. We're both going to argue for the covenant of works. We're both going to argue for the covenant of grace. We see these things together. though the application with the Covenant of Grace is gonna differ, and it's a significant difference. But the Reformed Baptists understand, particularly, that the Covenant of Grace is not inaugurated until the death of Christ, and it's only and always included believers. Anyway, all a preface there, let's get into it, okay? I'll pause after each one and give you time for questions, but let's just walk through these. Again, grand overview, number one, the covenant of redemption. So, I thought we were already in Ephesians, it'd be easy just to flip over to Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1, 4 and 5 says what? Even as He chose us in Him, that's in Christ, before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will." Just notice in those, and we'll talk about election and that kind of stuff later, but just notice here that He chose us, not the method of salvation, but people. He chose us and it's in Christ. Okay? So, the argument of the covenant of redemption is this. Before the foundation of the world, there is a covenantal agreement, if you will, a promise, a plan, an arrangement. With who? With God. God in and of Himself. In the Trinitarian persons, there is an agreement, a covenant to save fallen man. The Father gave the Son of people in eternity past. John 6, 37 says, all that the Father gives me, gives me, will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. That's not two different groups of people. So it's like, all the Father gives me will come to me, and then everybody else who comes to me, no, no, he's saying, all the Father gives me, they are gonna come to me. And when they come to me, I will not cast them out. Because why? Because the Father has given to me. them to me." So the Son accepts this gift and agrees to be the surety of His people. It's interesting, I thought about, had this thought this afternoon. It's interesting in Revelation 21, if you know that passage, it says what about the Book of Life? It has an adjective, it has a possessive noun there. Whose Book of Life is it? The Lamb's Book of Life. Isn't that interesting? The Lamb knows the names of His people. Isaiah 49-16 says, and we sing this one before the throne, it says, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands. So the Father has given the Son a people, the Son has accepted this gift, and He has come and He has performed the work necessary to save them. John 17-4 says this, it's on your sheet, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave Me to do. So what we're arguing here in the covenant of redemption is there is a plan before the foundation of the world among the persons of the Trinity to save fallen mankind. William S. Abreckle notes, the manifestation of every grace and influence of the Holy Spirit proceeds from this covenant. So it's a triune covenant from eternity past. An undeserving people to be saved out of the mass of fallen humanity. The Father gave a people to the Son. The Son pledged to save them. The Holy Spirit pledged to apply the redemptive work of Christ to the church. This is the covenant of redemption. We will find agreement here in all of the reformed wing of Christianity. So, not just Baptists, Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed, etc. Okay, questions, comments, anything you need to say about that? Okay, likewise, the second one will be true as well. Well, actually, all three of them are true, it's just the application of the third one. Okay, secondly, then, you have the covenant of works. So we're looking at the Bible through the lens of covenant, because this is the way that God has arranged us to understand the way the one story of the Bible fits together. So if you go to Romans 5, it teaches us this is important. Romans 5, verse 12 says, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned." How did all sin? They all sinned in Adam. So the covenant works is this. It says, "...this was an agreement between God and the human race as represented in Adam, in which God promised eternal salvation upon condition of obedience and threatened eternal death upon disobedience." So this takes us back to the garden. In the garden, God says what to Adam? You may eat of every tree, but if you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die. Of course, we understand to not to eat, that means obedience, would result in life. Adam was bound to keep the moral law with personal, total, this is from our confession, personal, total, exact, and perpetual obedience. This is the agreement. This is why some call it the covenant of creation, some call it the covenant of life. I like the terminology covenant of works because the idea is if you do this, you will what? live if you do this Adam you will live you disobey you will surely die well we know the story okay we're dealing with the death of a church member this week and we understand death is is a present part of this creation because Adam disobeyed. So our confession says in chapter 6, paragraph 1, God was pleased in keeping with His wise and holy counsel to permit this act because He has purpose to direct it for His own glory. So this is the covenantal framework. There is a promise, an agreement before foundation of the world to save fallen man, but you don't have fallen man without what? The fall. All right. Sin. So God planned and ordained this event except without sin. OK, you say, well, the fall just take him by surprise. No, but he uses it to bring glory to himself. So Adam is our federal head. And when he fail, all fail within him. So John Bunyan said this, since all people come from Adam, they're in a sad condition because he left them a broken covenant. Or take it thus, because they, while they were in him, did with him break that covenant. So in Adam all die. All humanity stands in a broken relationship with God. Some people say, you just need to have a relationship with God. You already do. You're born into a broken relationship with God. The demands of perfect obedience remain upon us, to love God with everything, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Problem is, we've already broken it in Adam. And outside of Christ, we willfully continue to break it every day. And I would argue that the fact that mankind is in a broken covenant relationship The fact that mankind is in a broken covenantal relationship with God is evidenced in the fact that mankind tries to work its way back to God. The fact is, have you ever seen, let me put it to you this way. You ever had your kids break something at your house and they try to put it back together? And you walk in and you look at it and you're like, What happened to this? It's quite obvious that you've broken it. Don't worry, I'm going to fix it, right? Throw a baseball into the flat screen TV or something like that. Don't worry, I'll fix it. Okay, well imagine humanity trying to fix the covenant words. Oh, Adam broke that. Don't worry, God, we'll fix it. We'll keep it, right? Of course, it's impossible. And not only impossible, but mankind really doesn't want to keep it, right? But they're just trying a way to appease God and hope that God will accept our efforts. Of course, the answer is what? He won't. He won't accept your efforts. Because what does Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 say? By grace are you saved through faith. And this is a gift of God. It's not of yourselves, so that no one may what? So that no one may boast. If you could fix it, if you could take the broken pot and put the glue on it and fix it and say, look, God! He would say, oh, right? Oh, how great! No, no. You can't do it. The glory would be yours. It can't happen. So now we go back to Ephesians 2.12. I'm in Romans, so I've got to go to Ephesians. And in Ephesians 2.12, it says, Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise. What are these covenants of promise? One writer, John Eady, he says, "...covenants of the promise are covenants containing that single and specific announcement of an incarnate and triumphant Redeemer, to such covenants the heathen were strangers." So God is making these promises in the Old Testament that are ultimately pointing to and will be fulfilled in Christ. In our text, Ephesians 2.12, in fact, I'd want to know what the LSB says, because actually the word promise has the definite article in the Greek. So you could say covenants of the promise. It just says covenants of promise. So the idea is covenants of the promise. The promise? Well, what is the promise? Spoiler, you already know it, right? What is it? The promise is? Christ. I'm going to skip over the covenants of promise. I'll come back to them at the end. I'm trying to keep myself together. I know I'm trying to teach this well. We're not going to go long. So the third covenant, three overarching covenants. We have the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works, and thirdly, the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace. Let's turn to Hebrews 8. Hebrews 8 is quoting from Jeremiah 31. Hebrews 8, verses 6-13. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant He mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For He finds fault with them when He says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of David, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in My covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." And speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. This is the covenant of grace. So let me tell you guys, get this in your head lest you become Presbyterian, right? The covenant of grace and the new covenant, they are one and the same. The New Covenant is the Covenant of Grace. And the Covenant of Grace is the New Covenant. They are the same. Okay, what is the Covenant of Grace? Well, listen. Very simple explanation. The Covenant of Grace is Jesus fulfilling the moral law. Remember what Adam was to do? Do this and you will live? And he broke it. Jesus fulfills the moral law. Jesus obtains a righteousness for His people. He completes the work set before Him in the covenant of redemption. He pays our sin debt we deserve for breaking the law and our sin in Adam. And Christ purchased for His people All of these things. In fact, Ephesians 1.3 says what? You've been blessed with every spiritual blessing. Now, there's some arguments there about what is spiritual. Does it mean blessings of the Spirit? Or, I asked my kids last night, what is an antonym for the word spiritual? Physical. That's what they said. I said material, but physical. It's fine, same. Material, physical. So he says, you've been blessed not with physical material blessings, but with spiritual blessings. What are those blessings? What are the immaterial blessings that we have in Christ? It's really easy. Yeah, that's right. Salvation. But let's rip that word apart, if you will, and look inside of it. What's all contained in the word salvation? Regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification, all of these things Jesus Christ has purchased in His life, death, burial, and resurrection. So Tom Hicks says the covenant of grace is a doctrine that shows from Genesis to Revelation that there is only one gospel. One saving promise, which announces Jesus Christ crucified for sinners and risen from the dead, the Old Testament points forward to Christ and various types and shadows, while the New Testament reveals Him explicitly. The covenant of grace is the doctrine that declares there is only one gracious saving promise in the Bible, the gospel of Jesus Christ, that weaves like a golden thread through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. So here's a key, you need to remember that the covenant of grace, the new covenant, is a promise and it's not ratified, it is not inaugurated until when? Christ, very good, until the blood of Christ and His resurrection from the dead. But how were Old Testament saints saved? They were saved by virtue and efficacy of the work of Christ. Forgive me for quoting Shilane, I still kinda like Shilane, I don't think he really went woke, he flirted with it, I think he's come back, I hope. I'm gonna quote him anyway, he's got a psalm that says, in the Old Testament, they were saved on credit, in the New Testament, were saved on debit. Meaning, God made a promise, and the saints, I rap a little on the side, okay? It's what I do. People pay me to stop. So the idea though is that in what he's saying, he's right. Theologically, he's right. In the Old Testament, there's these promises, and God saves these people by looking forward to these promises. In Romans 3, Paul's making this argument. He says that Jesus Christ is our propitiation, so that God would be just and the justifier, because in former days, he passed over former sins. In other words, why did God not crush Abraham? Have you read? Did you find any sin in Abraham's life? Yeah, what about Jacob? What about David? How can it be that God would look at these men with favor and compassion and mercy and grace? He just swept their sin under the rug? No. Their sin is atoned for in Christ. You understand? They're saved by virtue and efficacy. So they're within the New Covenant by virtue and efficacy of the completion of the work of Christ. So, that's always been the requirement, right? The first gospel was given in Genesis 3.15, the first promise, that is, the seed of the woman would come and crush the head of the serpent. God called His people to believe these promises, and all whom He had given to the Son in eternity past did so. They believed. They were justified, again by virtue and efficacy of the work of Jesus, that He would complete in His incarnation. Always and only, so this is important, you taking notes? I see that red-headed woman up here taking notes, but if you are taking notes, It is always and only believers who have been in the covenant of grace. Always and never, never. I mean, you hear the argument. Well, in the old Old Testament, it was believers and their children in the covenant of grace. No, false. Never. No, no, never. It's always and only been those born again. OK, the requirement to enter the covenant of grace has always been faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone. To simply receive all that God is for you in Christ. Those of faith are the children of Abraham. That's Galatians 3. To trust that Jesus has done the work. That He is the only one to fulfill all righteousness. That He is the one to pay our sin debt on the cross under God's wrath. That He is the one to rise again from the dead. This faith in Christ, of course, will manifest itself in repentance from sin and trust in Christ alone as our only suitable and all-sufficient Savior. Luke 22.20 says, Jesus says, "...and likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup is poured out for you in the new covenant in my blood." So, if Adam is the federal head of the covenant of works, who is the federal head of the covenant of grace? Adam is the representative in the covenant of works. Who is the chief representative, the federal head, the man, if you will, in the covenant of grace? It's Jesus, okay? It's Jesus. The last Adam. The true and better Moses, the song we sing. True and better David. It's Jesus. Jesus is the federal head. In Adam, all die. In Christ, All in Christ are made alive. In Adam comes death. In Christ is life. In Adam is imputed guilt. In Christ is imputed righteousness. You get the contrast. So just to summarize, covenant of grace. Christ fulfills the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works, and inaugurates the covenant of grace. He has kept the law, which is required for eternal life. You can't get into eternal life without keeping the law. When you can't do that, Jesus has kept it for us. It's applied to us by faith, credited to our account, imputed to our account. And He has paid the debt that we owe because we've broken the law. He did that on the cross, bearing our sin and shame and guilt, dying and rising again the third day from the dead. The new covenant is conditional on Christ's obedience, but unconditional for His people. By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, all the benefits of the New Covenant are applied. Somebody said it this way, you know a Christian, you're saved by works. Is that true? Are you saved by works, Christian? Yeah, you are saved by works. It's just not your works, right? It's the works of King Jesus on behalf of His people. That's how we're saved. All the promises of God find their yes and amen in Christ. 2 Corinthians 1.20. And the new covenant. All the members know the Lord. There are no unbelievers in it. Their sins are forgiven. It's this plain promise. By the way, this is why Baptists hold that the covenant sign of the covenant of grace is what? Baptism. And it belongs only to believers. So this shapes our view of the church. The church is a regenerate people, a believing people, covenantally united to Christ, marked by baptism as a sign of the covenant. It's why only those baptized take the Lord's Supper. It's why we practice church discipline. It's why we seek to obey God's moral law by grace and in the power of the Holy Spirit, because the church is the new covenant community. She is the kingdom. She is what Christ has purchased and is building. Questions, comments on that? Those are the three overarching covenants. OK, this next line is not going to take long. All of these, just remember, all of these pretty much took their own point, their own week. But the second thing I want to talk about the covenants of promise. So those are the three overarching covenants. But then Paul says in Ephesians 2 that the Gentiles were strangers to these covenants of promise. Okay? So our confession says in chapter 7, paragraph 3, this covenant, the new covenant, the covenant of grace, is revealed in the Gospel. It was revealed first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation through the seed of the woman. And after that, it was revealed step by step until the full revelation of it was completed in the New Testament. This covenant is based on the eternal covenant transaction between the Father and the Son concerning the redemption of the elect. Only through the grace of this covenant have those saved from among the descendants of fallen Adam obtained life and blessed immortality. Humanity is now utterly incapable of being accepted by God and on the same terms on which Adam was accepted in his state of innocence. So let me walk through these, and I'll give you some basic definitions. Okay, quick refresher. So these aren't the covenants of promise yet. Quick refresher, here's just little punchy definitions. Covenant of redemption, definition. The eternal, intra-Trinitarian pact where the father promises the son of people, the son agrees to be their mediator, to redeem the elect, the spirit agrees to apply it. That's the covenant of redemption. Covenant of works. God's pre-fall agreement with Adam, promising eternal life, for perfect obedience to the moral law, broken by sin, and imputing death, I should say, death and sin to all. Now, here are the covenants of promise. This is the moral law too, transcends through all of these. First, I didn't just know where to put this one. The Proto-Evangelium. It's not a covenant. But it's the first post-fall gospel promise. That's Genesis 3.15. The seed of the woman. This is important. Listen to this language because you're going to hear it. The seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head and it promises redemption in the covenant of grace. Now, here's the covenants. You have the Noahic covenant. It's God's Flood pledge to preserve creation in order to bring the promised seed of the woman, right? We're building on that and never again destroy the world with water marked by a rainbow a sign of common grace the Abrahamic Covenant God's unconditional promise to bless all nation through here's the language Abraham seed which is Christ with circumcision as a conditional positive sign of faithfulness that is the Abrahamic Covenant is not the covenant of grace, but it points to it and Mosaic Covenant, which we often refer to simply as the Old Covenant. A republication of the covenant works in a typological sense with Israel summarizing the moral law with the Ten Commandments and some 613 positive laws giving Fencing, I messed up the language, sorry. Fencing the promised land of Christ, so it's like a fence around that, and giving shadows and types, and sacrifice and ceremony, pointing to Christ and the church. There's so much more we can say on each of these, these are just little nuggets, okay? Quick definition. Then you have the Davidic covenant. God's unconditional oath for an eternal throne through David's seed, conditional on obedience for temporal kings, promising an everlasting kingdom, which is what? The church. And all of this is pointing us to the covenant of grace, the new covenant, which is the covenant of works and redemption fulfilled in Christ for His people, having suffered the due penalty for their sins, and risen again from the dead, formally inaugurated in Christ's shed blood, and containing the promise of a new heart with God's law written upon it, forgiveness of sins forever, and knowing God personally and covenantally. On the back, so this sheet is the mad scientist drawing. We've gone over that before, you can look at it. But on the back, I kind of simplified it and just kind of gave you one line definition. So you have these covenants of the Proto-Evangelium. It's not a covenant. First Gospel seed crushes the serpent. Preserve creation for seed, no more flood. Abrahamic, bless nations through the seed, sign of circumcision. Mosaic, covenant of works, typological republication, fences, the promise line, and types and shadows of Christ in the church. Davidic, eternal throne through the seed, the kingdom is the church, and the new covenant, covenant of grace, law will be written on our hearts, forgiveness, no God. et cetera, just a simple way to understand all that. But the argument I'm making tonight is this a key, don't let it confuse you. There's a lot to take in. This is how the Bible though goes together. I love covenant theology. I'm a nerd, I know. I love that over there because there's one of those things that said Reformation Day because theology nerds need a holiday too, so amen. But we should love covenant theology because it should drive us to be better acquainted with the Scriptures. I'm going to go study this and then impose it on the Scriptures. As I'm reading the Scriptures, long ago I understood I wasn't a dispensationalist, but I was reading the Scriptures and I was seeing things and I was like, yeah, what is the answer? How does this all fit together? And then when I began to understand Reformed Baptist covenant theology, I'm like, this is what I've seen the whole time. And someone put feet on it for me and helped me to grasp it. So this is what we do. We love covenant theology because it's not merely a system, but what? It's the story of salvation in Christ. I hope you get a lot out tonight, but if you don't, at least get this. The Bible is not just a chopped up book of unrelated themes, unrelated books. It's one covenantal story about one Redeemer. And every believer in Christ can say tonight, I was once, Ephesians 2.12, I was once a stranger to the covenants of promise. Right? I wasn't around with Abraham and certainly Noah before him and Moses and David. I was a stranger. That wasn't part of my lineage. Oh, but in Christ, I've been brought near by His blood. I've been brought into these promises because these promises were always about the seed, ultimately fulfilling it, and then the establishment of His church. And the good news for you tonight is if you're an unbeliever, you can say the same thing if what? If you'll receive Christ. You can be brought near. The story that we're talking about, it's your story too. Now, I feel like that's probably drinking from a fire hydrant in some ways. Plus, emotionally, Mentally, I'm just kind of out of it after receiving the news. So I hope that came across helpful, but now we'll stop the recording and we can have a few minutes of discussion.