We began to look last time at the Abrahamic covenant, the character and nature of it. We haven't yet got to the contents of it. being a covenant of promise and we studied together how that the covenant with Abraham was used by the Apostle Paul as a model for the gospel of grace and particularly for justification by faith alone. The progress of God's redemptive plan, which this series is all about really, up until now, up until we get to Abraham, has been mainly in terms of, or instances of, individual deliverances from specific judgments. But when we get to the Abrahamic covenant, the program of redemption, moves to a far more positive promise of blessing, not only for the people of God, but for the whole world. So there's an acceleration, in a way, in God's redemptive plan. When we get to the Abrahamic covenant, there is a gear change up in God's redemptive plan. And the promises we spoke about last time are contained in the reading that we just had in Genesis 12, 1, 2, and 3. We looked at that. We studied how these covenantal promises through a divine oath. So not only was there a promise, which was amazing enough, but then God took an oath that he would keep, that he would be the keeper of this covenant. And we looked at that very strange and odd to us covenant ratification ceremony. How Yahweh himself, Jehovah himself, threw a theophany walked the path of darkness and dereliction and destruction, which we studied how that was a shadow and a type of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, who redeemed us from the curse of the broken covenant. And he was made a curse for us because he hung on a tree. So tonight we're going to continue to sketch out the general character, the general nature of this Abrahamic covenant. And we've established last time that it was a covenant of promise. I said that there were three characteristics I wanted to cover. What I think we're all going to do tonight is cover the second one. And the second one is this, that this covenant with Abraham is an exercise, really, an exercise of God's sovereignty. Another characteristic of this Abrahamic covenant is God's sovereignty, and I'll explain what I mean. I assume that we all have a basic idea of what God's sovereignty means, but just very briefly, in the Bible, God is everywhere presented as the sovereign. has a sovereign king, the one on the throne, so it's easier, I think, for British people to get a handle on God's sovereignty in some ways, the one on the throne exercising kingly rule over all things. And practically speaking, that means that God controls everything in a way which forwards his plans and his desires. He's on the throne after all. He's God. And it means that his authority, his authority means that all his commands must be obeyed, and his royal presence is everywhere. Just like the writ of King Charles, whether you like it or not, is everywhere through this kingdom. His writ, his rule, is everywhere. And in the Bible we're taught how you cannot run from God's control. You can't run from his authority, you can't escape from his justice or from his love. And so God's sovereignty is a big feature of this covenant with Abraham. in fact with all the covenants, but it's so important that we understand the Abrahamic covenant because it's used so much in the New Testament, particularly by the Apostle Paul, to explain the Gospel. And there are two main ways that the sovereignty of God feature in this covenant with Abraham, and I want to go through two aspects of this tonight. The first one is God's sovereign election. I want to talk a bit about election. And also, secondly, this covenant is marked by God's sovereign power. So we have God's sovereign election and God's sovereign power running right through this Abrahamic covenant. So first of all, sovereign election. In Reformed teaching, The doctrine of election states that God chooses whom he will save, and that God's choice precedes any consideration of our faith. That's really the big difference between the Reformation, the formal understanding of the Bible, and many others, is that God chooses. And I don't want to get too far into election as a doctrine in particular tonight, but suffice it to say that the doctrine of election, as understood within Reformation churches and creeds, traces, as I say, the decision to save back to God himself in eternity past, rather than to man. In communism, the first cause of salvation is in man. Man's decision to choose God. Our understanding from the Bible is that the first cause is God's decision to choose us. It's a big difference. I'd like to get into that, but we perhaps will one day. But I just want to mention it in passing, in a way, because what I want to focus on tonight is something of how the scriptures deal with that concept of election, which we believe as Reformed believers, how the scriptures deal with election, an individual being chosen to be saved by God, in eternity past, before the world began. How that relates to this covenant, in fact to all covenants, but we're just going to focus on this covenant with Abraham. What is the relationship between election of an individual sinner and this Abrahamic covenant? Or to put it in a in a different way, in a simpler way. What is the relationship between election and government? Now that sounds complicated. But there's a reason why we need to try and understand it. And I'm going to make it simple as I can. It is fairly easy to understand if you stick to the scriptures. And I just want to say why I think it's important before getting into it. I think it gives us a realistic understanding of the relationship between national Israel and the church in the first place, and it gives us a realistic understanding of the relationship between the external, visible church and the invisible church of the truly elect, born again, people of God. And that's so important because people's faith has been destroyed when they've been in the church, which has let them down. The vicar has run off with somebody, I'm not sure who it might be, and their faith is destroyed because all their faith has been in church. And I want you just to go through tonight the relationship between election and covenant. Now, there is a difference here of understanding between Presbyterian, Reformed tradition, and Reformed Baptist position. I'm not going to get too far into that. I'll be up front from the beginning. I think on this particular issue, the Presbyterian understanding is more accurate. I think I can convince you of that. This is all about trying to understand, is it the case that every individual that was elected by God for individual salvation, is it the case that when they join a church, that means that every single person in that church is truly elect, truly born again. Now, there's a difference of opinion on that. We shall become clear as we go through. Right, so, this is a Bible study rather than a sermon, so I'm going to be relying on you to put the order. I'm trying to keep up because this might be stretching you a bit too far, but I'm hoping that you'll be able to keep up with this. If I'm going over your head, just stop me. I'm trying to say it in a different way. So, let's begin by saying that right from the beginning of the Bible the Proto-Evangelium, which we studied in Genesis 3.15, God announced that there would be a separation, a great division in humanity. There would be a people of God and his Christ who would be separate And we've already studied, and we've probably, without knowing it, covered maybe thousands of years, and it's very difficult to tell. We've covered certainly a long time of biblical history, of how this separation of the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman has worked out in history, in God's redemption history. And it's clear, to me at least, individual election to salvation. And that this continues through the generations up to and including and beyond, of course, the stage that we've reached so far, the stage that we've reached with Abraham and this covenant. So the question that we have to ask ourselves is, what evidence is there, how does anyone know that this separation of the seed of the promise of the woman and separating them out, God's people, from the seed of the serpent. What is there to say that any of that is happening? What proof is there that God is doing it? We know from what we've studied so far that the evidence, the visible external evidence that this work of redemption is happening is through the creation, the creation and preservation of a covenant community. That's the only external evidence we have that this Genesis 3.15 is happening, is that God is creating, we've looked at this before, communities of faith, communities of separating people away from the world around very simple altars made of earth and stone and gathered, and they would worship Yahweh. And so God's election of individuals is manifested in the creation and preservation of a covenant community. And the history of those communities, we've looked at, we've studied in the genealogies, Genesis chapter 5 being one example. And so God, right from in this pattern of covenant, which leads to covenant communities, and elections, individual elections which took place even before the world began. And in this Abrahamic covenant, At the core of it, and you know I've come on to this a bit lately, at the very core of it, at its deepest meaning, it's referring to individuals who God chose and God elected before the world began coming to faith. an Abrahamic community, a covenant community of God, ultimately Israel, a nation of Israel. So the question is, and this is where Reformed Baptists and Presbyterians differ to some extent, is if you take, of course we never know this, but if we take theoretically the elect, the elect, those who are truly born again, those who are truly gods. And if we take them as a group, and then we look at the external covenant community, the church, if you like, and the church in the Old Testament, visible, external, communities of faith who are worshipping at the altar, eventually leading to the nation of Israel. If we were to take both groups, or if we were to say they were both a circle, and we put one on top of the other, would they match? Would everybody in the covenant community, in the external, visible community of God, would they truly be elect? Would they truly be in the heart following God? And that is the question that We'll come on to see what the Apostle Paul talks about a great deal in Romans chapter 9. In other words, is sovereign election to personal salvation, does it always fit the boundaries of the covenant community or the church, the external visible church? Or is the circle of the covenant community broader than the circle of election in God's plan of redemption? As I say, my personal view, and I think I can demonstrate this, is that they don't know as much. That there are people, I don't know how many, that there are people who are not elect. who are not truly born again, who are not truly, as I say, elect, who are nonetheless externally, for all intents and purposes, saying that they are a Christian, saying that they are a visible member of the invisible church, and yet they're not really. They're not really born again. They're not elect according to promise, but they are perhaps through being born into a Christian family, Jewish family in the Old Testament, they ended up being in the covenant community. And this is where there's a big difference between Baptists and Presbyterians. How do we view the visible, I'm not talking about the invisible, I'm talking about the visible church. Let's just carry on a bit and see if this will become a bit clearer. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this sovereign election is when God separated mankind into two communities in the flood. There was the Ark community, which was a visible, in a way, a visible covenant community in the Ark, and they were separated from the rest of the world. But we soon find out, don't we, almost immediately, that not all members of that Ark community, of that covenant Ark community, not all the members of it, showed evidence of being elect, in fact the very opposite. They showed no evidence of being of the seed of the woman. It was quite clear that they were of the seed of the serpent, yet they were in the ark. They did not perish with the rest of the world. They entered into the new world. Again, this will become clear as we go along. Just hold on to that thought. Not everyone in the ark was of the seed of the woman. After the flood, this pattern of covenant and election continued, both individual elections of salvation and selection of the branch of the covenant people that would lead to Israel through Shem, and eventually from Israel through to the Messiah. And of course individual's election to salvation is signified in the call of Abraham in Genesis 12, and in the revelations made to Isaac and Jacob. But there's a big problem, and this is what I want to try and get us to now, and I hope this is making sense. There's a big problem here, which as we will see the Apostle Paul addresses. is this, that God promised Abraham and the patriarchs not only a great land, not only a great nation, not only a great name, but he promised that there would be a great blessing that would begin with Abraham but extend to all the families of the earth. That was the promise of the Abrahamic covenant. And God promised It even made an oath, which we studied last time, that he would be the keeper of these covenant promises. Through a covenant ratification ritual, Jehovah promised that he would keep this covenant. It wasn't Abraham who promised to keep the covenant, it was God, sworn by himself that he would keep this covenant. And yet, here's the problem, and yet for the most part, the Israelite community as a whole, the external visible people of God as a whole, the genealogical outward form of the covenant, had utterly failed to enter into the blessings of Abraham. And by the time of the New Testament, there was hardly any of them that entered into the covenant, the new covenant in Jesus Christ. So that raises the question that if the promise of the core, the main point of the holy Abrahamic covenant was that Abraham would be a blessing to the whole world. And so here we are. The external covenant people that come from this covenant have not entered into it. They have utterly failed. They have utterly rejected God for the most part. So the Apostle Paul, in Romans chapter 9, addresses this issue. And by so doing, he provides a wonderful explanation of the character of the Abrahamic Covenants, what that's about. So let's turn to Romans 9 now. And to reiterate, what is going on here in Romans 9? Why was Romans 9 written? It's written to answer this problem that some would ask. How can it be said that God has kept the covenant with Abraham in the light of the fact that national Israel as a whole has not entered into the new covenant. Surely that proves that God has not kept the covenant. That is the question and the objection which Romans 9 is really addressing. Now, I know this is hard. really the position of Israel in relation to the church. People have trouble with Romans 9, and they have problems with the whole issue of the role of Israel. But before we get to Romans 9, there's just a couple of things we need to understand. about the meaning and the fulfilment of the Abrahamic covenant, at least in how Paul would have had some presuppositions about it. So, what I'm about to say is not from the Bible, I think this is trying to condense what the Bible is saying about this Abrahamic covenant. This I think would have been in Paul, this is the way Paul would have approached this when he wrote Romans 9. So if we can imagine putting this covenant, just imagine putting the Abrahamic covenant under a microscope. Pretend you're in a laboratory with a microscope. You put this covenant under the microscope. What you would see would be an inner core and an outer core. There would be two structures, two levels of meaning and fulfilment. And I'll explain what I mean. If it's simple to think of it, there's a temporary phase of meaning in this covenant, and there's a permanent phase of meaning. And the temporary and the permanent phase of meaning in this covenant, it's not like one follows another, the temporary comes first and then the permanent. They both start off together, they run in parallel. The Abrahamic covenant has a temporary meaning and a permanent meaning and they go alongside each other right from the beginning. So to understand Romans 9, we need to see that the first level of the Abrahamic covenant was the typological kingdom of Israel under Moses in the Old Testament. And that was a temporary level. A temporary level of fulfillment. And this is clear from Genesis 12, isn't it? There's a mixture of very physical So on this inner level, this first level, if you like, the temporary level, we know that the Israelites were the promised seed, that the Jewish people were the promised seed, numerous as the sand on the seashore. And we know from 1 Kings 4, 20 and 21 that their entrance into Canaan, the promised land, was seen as a fulfillment of the land promise made to Abraham. It says, Judah and Israel were many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry. And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines and unto the border of Egypt, the boundaries of what the promise was. That fulfilment of the Abrahamic covenant was a temporary level of fulfilment. But the promises in the Abrahamic covenant have a second level, or a permanent meaning and fulfilment. These spiritual aspects apply to the elect, the remnant, the true seed of the woman, which is realised Right from the beginning also, through the patriarchal period, and then in the Old Covenant, the rest of the Old Testament, and of course under the New Covenant. And it comes to fulfilment in the latter days, in these days in which we live. That is to say, consciousness and joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. So now we're coming to Romans 9. In Romans 9, Paul, as I say, is dealing with this question. of did God, is it true to say that God has kept the Abrahamic Covenant? And he begins, let's look at it now. We can see that he starts off in the first few verses dealing with this temporary level meaning of the Abrahamic Covenant. He talks about the adoption, the glory, the covenants, and the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came. He's talking there about Israel as a nation. It's genealogical Israel and the privileges that the Israelites had. But then, if you go on then to verses 6 to 8, Paul begins to answer the issue of whether God has been a faithful keeper of the Abrahamic promises by arguing that not all the natural descendants of Abraham, which come from the nation Israel, were the intended seed of promise. So it looks like that. It says, not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called, that is, they which are the children of the flesh, These are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. What I'm trying to get at is that Paul is defending God here by saying, yes, God did keep the Abrahamic covenant, because Abraham's promised seed in the permanent spiritual level of the covenant according to Paul is Christ and those who are in Christ by faith. Galatians 3 verse 16 says about Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ. And then in verse 29 of Galatians 3 it says, And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. And then he teaches, I think it was in Romans, Romans 9, 24, he goes on to explain how this seed now includes believers from among the Gentiles, even us whom he hath called not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. And so, if I can summarise all of that, what Paul is saying in a way is the defence of God's covenant keeping, of the Abraham covenant. He's saying this believing seed of Abraham was only ever a small minority, a remnant within Israel, was only ever a small remnant from within the covenant people of God in its visible form. I mean, the alternative is that all the Israelites that we really have in the Old Testament were truly born again. It doesn't look like that, does it? So, and Paul goes on in Romans 11, Romans 11 is very interesting, Romans 11.5. Even so, at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. If you put one circle on top of another, they don't, do they? There are people in the external, visible church who are not truly born again. Paul is arguing that in terms of Israel, national Israel, which was the covenant community, the Abrahamic covenant community in its visible form, there was only ever a small minority of them that were elect according to salvation. I hope that makes sense. It starts by posing the question, hath God cast away his people? God forbid, Paul says, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. Paul's proof that Israel had not been cast away is couched in terms of a reference to the 7,000 men who did not bow the knee to Baal in the time of Elijah. To me, that's very interesting. Israel has not failed. God's promise to Israel has not failed. How can I prove that God's promise to Israel has not failed? It's because of the remnant. It's because of the truly elect, the truly born again, to those very small number of people that did not bow their knee to Babylon. It's because of them, it's because of them that we can say that God has not passed away his people. It's interesting, isn't it? What then, he says in 11-7, what then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it. That's so interesting, isn't it? What then Israel hath not obtained, that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. The vast majority of the visible external covenant community of God were blinded, but the election hath obtained it. The truly elect hath obtained the Abrahamic promise. So that's why I'm trying to explain this two-level structure, because all of Israel, unbelieving Jews, unbelieving Jews, they all entered into the land. Some of the temporary aspects of the Abrahamic covenant, all of Israel entered into, all came into that aspect of the promise. But not all of them, in fact, a small minority of them entered into the core of the Abrahamic covenant which was justification by faith. It was a real relationship with God. So to sum up Paul's Romans 9 argument, he says, no, God has not failed to keep the covenant. God's promise has not failed due to the falling away in unbelief of the majority of national Israel because the promise was not intended for them in the first place. of Abraham was intended as the promised seed of this second level meaning, this permanent level meaning of the Abrahamic covenant, Christ's kingdom in the spirit. At that level, at the deepest core of the meaning of the Abrahamic covenant, it was always intended for all of God's electors, it was intended to apply to all those who God chose in eternity past, before the world was ever made. On the contrary, Paul argues, the seed actually promised at Abraham At the permanent level are the true children of God, the elect heirs, and the promise has been fulfilled. Romans 9, 8. That is, they which are the children of the flesh. He's talking about Israel, don't forget. National Israel. They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. But the children of the promise are counted for the seed. Now we need to understand this because there are many Christians today, give me the impression they'd rather be an ethnic Jew than be a Christian. They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. It's so important that we get this right. So what does all this amount to? we can just pause and just say with complete wonder and amazement and admiration for God that in His sovereign electing purposes and power, the Lord has ensured an unbroken, continuous, elect remnant, albeit from within the total covenant community, right from the Garden of Eden, right through Generation after generation, genealogy after genealogy. There's this true elect people of God. I've always been there. They've been within the visible covenant community. Not all of them would have been truly elect, but that is the external evidence of this promise Sovereign, individual election, defines the intention of the covenant promises at the fullest meaning of this covenant. And that is Paul's defense of God's covenant keeping. Romans 9.6, not as though, this is important, not as though the word of God hath taken none effect for they are not all Israel which are of Israel. Does that make sense? God's word is true, God has kept the promise, because not all Israel, in the Abrahamic covenant sense, were Israel anyway. There's a way of being an Israelite which is being an Israelite indeed. There's a way of being an Israelite, which is just being an external Jew. And not all who are of covenant status were children of the promise, chosen according to the purpose of grace. Now why is this got any practical application? It's this, this is a very serious warning to us. It's a serious warning to the churchgoing, It's a serious warning to the baptized professor. Now, I don't care if he's infant-baptized or adult-baptized. I disagree about that. I think the Baptist situation is no better than the Presbyterian, that there is false assurance and security taken in baptisms. Whether you're baptized as a feeling of reliance on a baptism, as a child or as a baby, or a baptism taken when you weren't really a true born again believer in it. There are millions of people baptised around the world as Adams. We've gone through a believer's baptism and they're as lost as anything. So we're no better off than the infant baptisers in my opinion. The eternal promise committed to Abraham was not defined or boundaried, as I say, by the visible community it created, but rather it finds its definition in the eternal commitment of the Father made to the Son in the covenant of redemption before the world was ever made. There are not all Israel which are of Israel. We can say not all church which are of church, not everyone in church is of the real invisible church, the truly elect people of God. As I say, there's a difference there, different theologies. I think it helps an awful lot to accept that fact. It seems obvious to me that as you read Hebrews for example, It seems obvious that you can be part of the covenant people of God and even get great benefit from being part of the covenant people of God and yet not be truly born again. It makes no sense. Either that is the case or the only other way of reading Hebrews is that you can lose your salvation once you become a Christian to one or the other and take a choice. creation, make you back to where you were, it's impossible. No, they were in danger of falling away, of being apostate, because although they were covenantally, externally, visibly church goers, they probably heard the sermons, they had the sacrament, but they weren't elect, they weren't born again. And so there's a great danger in defining visible church in exactly the same terms as invisible church. Verse 28 and 29, again this is a proof text in a way, it says, for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one inwardly. One inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter. His praise is not of men, but of God. So important to understand that. He's talking about the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 13, 24, Jesus speaking, another parable, putting forth unto them, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared it tares also. So the servants of the household came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. This is it, verse 30. Let both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of harvest I will say to the weepers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn. Makes sense to me. I think this gives us a context to understand how people fall away from the faith. People that are in church, part of us, we sing the same hymns, listen to the same sermons, they speak the same language, they're baptised, they may even be busy. And yet, mysteriously to us, they wander away, give up their faith. apostatize. I think it helps us not to rely on any one man or two men. People's faith is destroyed when a minister or a pastor or a preacher commits adultery or whatever it might be. Their whole life is destroyed because all their faith in a man, in a position. Church is really important to us, but the basis of our faith is not churches, it's God's election and we're in the palm of his hand. Some people have had a terrible time in church. I think this helps us be realistic about church. We need church to be as good Our faith is in Christ. Our faith is not in each other or in any preachers. And I think, because I've run out of time, I haven't gone very far at all. It helps us, well it doesn't help us, it warns us to want to think. Don't take any or put weight in the fact that you are part of a visible local church and use that as evidence that you are truly inept or truly saved. That is not the evidence. You need to be in church. You are part of a church. You are certainly baptised by the spirit into the invisible church and you need to be baptised in water into the visible church. But Jesus said, they will be teared and let both grow together. We won't always know. And you need to wait until the end of the harvest. And then there will be the separation. Not all Israel are Israel. Not every church goer is truly born again. And so, I think the Abrahamic covenant in this aspect of this characteristic of sovereign election and how that relates to the covenant community and how that worked out in the Old Testament and how Paul takes that up and justifies or defends God's covenant keeping through the explanation of how this relationship between covenant and election works. I hope that that has given us an insight into just one further aspect of this Abrahamic covenant. I want to say a bit more about election next time, because I've only got about halfway through, which is typical of me, and there's quite a bit more I want to say. It's not the kind it should be, The Lord that could not be. His heart would still refuse thee, as thou art chosen thee. Love, love, worship and standing As princes shall be free. of all that has formed in thee, that I should give to thee. The sovereign mercy of thee, ♪ And sure tide of green mines ♪ ♪ The world's earth doth send lowly ♪ ♪ To heavenly glory's light ♪ ♪ By the dawn's early light ♪