into the material. Our Father, we bless your name because you are worthy of all our praise. We thank you that you've gathered us together on this Lord's Day, this Christian Sabbath, this Christian holiday, that we get to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that 52 weeks out of the year, you set apart a day that we can celebrate our Savior and his resurrection. And we ask you to bless this time, both me as I'm teaching and those who are listening. May it be edifying and encouraging and uplifting. And may people learn more and grow more. And may they love you more through your son by the Spirit, knowing that you deserve all the glory, honor, and praise. So we ask that the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts might be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. So to review, because we have a lot of new people today, we've been talking about Reformed Baptist Covenant Theology. That's been the subject for these past, this is my third week teaching, Reformed Baptist Covenant Theology. First week I talked about the Covenant of Redemption and the Covenant of Works. To fill everybody in, the Covenant of Redemption is the covenant that God made within himself before the foundation of the world with one purpose and one will. to save a people for himself from all the nations. That's what we call the covenant of redemption. A biblical text for that is Titus 1, 1 and 2, when it talks about God who cannot lie, promised eternal life before time began. So there's this promise of eternal life that God made before time began, and that's what we call the covenant of redemption, in which the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with one purpose and one will, before the foundation of the world chose to save sinners from all the nations. So that's where we get what we call the Covenant of Redemption. This one purpose, this one will within the Godhead to save sinners from all the nations. So that was the first part of the first week. And all these lectures are on sermon audio, if you're interested in listening to them week one, week two, because I spent a long time on the Covenant of Redemption, a long time on the Covenant of Works, if you're interested in that. Second, I spent time on the Covenant of Works. The Covenant of Works is the covenant that God made with Adam in the garden. writing the moral law on his heart and giving him a positive law, namely not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon the pain of death. We see that in Genesis 2, 16 and 17, when God says, you can eat of every tree of the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. So the covenant of works was the covenant that God made with Adam. writing the moral law in Adam's heart, and giving him a positive law, namely, forbidding him to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That's what the covenant of works was. And if Adam obeyed, he was blessed. If Adam disobeyed, he was cursed. This is what we call the covenant of works. of works. So covenant of redemption is the before the foundation of the world covenant within the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to choose sinners from all the nations to be saved. The covenant of works is the one that God made with Adam in the garden, writing the moral law in his heart. We get that. You might be thinking, why do I keep saying writing the moral law in his heart? Romans 2, that the Gentiles who don't have the scriptures had the law written on their heart. Why? Because they're made in the image of God. So Adam, being made in the image of God, therefore had the moral law summed up later in the Ten Commandments written on his heart. But he also had a positive law of not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If he obeyed, he was blessed. If he disobeyed, he was cursed. And I said, when I was teaching through this, it was kind of this do this and live principle. If you do this, you live. If you don't do this, you die. Then last week, so that was two weeks ago, last week I went over what we call the covenants of promise. Ephesians 2 12 talks about how Gentiles were strangers from Christ, they were alienated from Christ, and they were not in or related to the covenants of promise. So I talked about the Noahic covenant being the covenant that God made with Noah. Genesis 9 talks about God making the rainbow, making a covenant with Noah and all creation not to flood the earth again. And I showed that in that we see a promise of the covenant of grace that Christ is the ark of our salvation. That Christ is the door in which we enter that we might escape the wrath to come. And so in the ark we see both a real literal story where God flooded the whole world but also a picture of what Christ would do as the ark of our salvation. That's what I mean where it was a covenant of promise. It was a true historical event, but it also pointed to something greater in itself. When Jesus in John 10 says, I am the door. He who enters by me will be saved. Then in the Abrahamic covenant, Genesis 17, 7, and 8 are the key verses there. When God promises to be a God to Abraham and to his seed, and to give him the land of Canaan. And I spent a long time talking about the two natures of the seed in the Old Testament, and I don't have time to really unpack it. We'll see it as we get into the New Covenant today. But I talked a lot about how Abraham had a fleshly seed, namely natural and original, and he had a spiritual seed, namely those who were truly regenerate and born again. So he had two seeds. And that's what we see in Romans 9. Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. And just because you're Abraham's seed doesn't mean you're a child of God. That's the whole point of Romans 9. There was a dual nature. Just because you were in the Abrahamic covenant didn't mean you were truly Abraham's seed after his faith. So we saw those two realities. And I would love to talk about this more, but for the sake of time, and he continued to move on. Then the Mosaic Covenant, which I said was a fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant, where God promised to Abraham, seed and land, I'll be a God to you and your seed forever, and he promised the land of Canaan. In Joshua's day, under the Mosaic Covenant, it says clearly that their descendants were as numerous as the stars, fulfilling the promise to Abraham. And in Joshua 21, God fulfilled the land of Canaan. They entered as a people in the land of Canaan. And I made a side note. This tells us that we're not looking for the land of Canaan as believers anymore. The only land that a believer is looking for is the new heavens and the new earth, because Israel already got the land under the Mosaic covenant. And so the Mosaic Covenant, if Abraham was seed and land, God promised him seed and land, namely children and land, the Mosaic Covenant was the fulfillment of that, of the seed and of the land promise. And then the Davidic Covenant was the reality of God promising a king to Israel in 2 Samuel 7-11, who was of course David. And God promised a king for the people. But with all these covenants, so if you think about the Abrahamic covenant, what does it promise? Well, who's the seed of Abraham? If you know your New Testament, Galatians 3.16, it's not seeds, but it's seed singular. Who is Christ? Who is Abraham's seed? Christ. Romans 4, Abraham was promised the whole world, or Maybe even more familiar, Matthew 5, the meek shall inherit the land of Canaan? No. The meek shall inherit the whole earth. So there was a type, anti-type, a shadow and a reality to these pictures. And then the Davidic covenant, Luke 1, very clearly says that the Lord Jesus Christ will forever reign on the throne of his father David. So that's what I'm getting at. There is a temporal fulfillment of all these things, but there is a further fulfillment in the covenant of grace where Jesus Christ would fulfill all these things as the true seed of Abraham, as the one who really brings us into the land, namely the new heaven, new earth, as the one who truly is the king of all the nations, and particularly of his church. And so that's what we saw those past couple weeks. But some of you might be thinking, Why have we spent so much time on something like covenant theology? Can't we just say we love Jesus and kind of be done with it? Why have we spent all this time really parsing out what do these covenants look like? What does it look like to be Abraham's seed? Well, when you say you love Jesus, the next question is what Jesus? The Mormon Jesus? The Jehovah's Witness Jesus? No, no, the Jesus who's truly God and truly man in one person, the one who's the Son of God and the Son of man. Well, that's doctrine, my friends. Or you say, why can't we just kind of say we're just gonna be simple? Well, every time you say something that you think is simple, you have to define what you mean. And so when we say God saves sinners, which sounds simple, if you want to flesh that out, you have to get into covenant theology. Because covenant theology is the way in which God saves sinners. And you can't have a great understanding of God's salvation, or as good as God would want you to have, unless you have a good understanding of how God has done it in history. And then some people might say, can't we just be practical? Can't we just do practical teaching on, I mean, I taught a series in Sabbath school on the fruit of the Spirit of kindness, which was maybe more practical in your eyes than this. Why can't we just be practical? But my dear friends, if you have no sound doctrine, you won't have sound living. If you don't have healthy doctrine, you won't be a healthy Christian. And if you just try to do the practical without the doctrine, that's what we call moralism. Obedience is not moralism, but if you don't have the foundation of good doctrine, you're just obeying because someone said to do it. But when you have a right foundation of what God has done in history, Through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ applied by his spirit, it gives you motivation and the enablement and the reason to live as a healthy, sound believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're not just doing this because we want to talk about fancy words like the covenant of redemption. I actually believe that this matters for what we think about Jesus Christ, and even, I'll say at the end, how we read the Bible. This affects how we read the Bible itself. And so this week, we're talking about the new covenant. If the first week was the covenant of redemption, And the covenant works. The second week was the covenants of promise. This week is the new covenant or the covenant of grace. If you turn to Hebrews chapter 8 with me, we'll read that whole chapter or I'll read that whole chapter. Hebrews chapter 8. And this is the section probably most clearly unpacking the New Covenant, which is just a reciting of Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34, particularly at the end of the chapter. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 1 now this is the main point of the things we are saying we have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man for every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices therefore is necessary that this one also have something to offer. For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For he said, see that you make all things according to the pattern shown on the mountain. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. And here we get into really the nature of the New Covenant. For if that covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second, because finding fault with them, he says, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in that day, when I took them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them. says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind, and write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful toward their unrighteousness, and their sin and lawless deeds I will remember no more. In that he says a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. This is the new covenant or the covenant of grace. The new covenant, first off, is the new covenant in Christ's blood. If you remember during the Passover meal, the Lord Jesus Christ puts it like this. As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples. Take, eat, this is my body. Then he took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you. Here it is. For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new in my Father's kingdom. So ultimately, the new covenant was purchased or brought in by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the new covenant was brought in when the Lord Jesus Christ, as the second Adam, as the one who came to fulfill the covenant of works, died upon Calvary's cross and was resurrected from the dead. But there's some people who don't hold to the new covenant being for today. They say the new covenant is something different. And why do they say that? Because if you were paying attention to the reading or in your own Bible, it says, behold, this covenant is made with the Gentiles. No, it doesn't say that. It says, behold the covenant with Israel and the house of Judah. And so some people look and say, this can't be for us today because it says this is for Israel and this is for Judah. So this must be something future. Yes, we believe Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead, but this new covenant must be something in the future. So I want to, for a few minutes, try to convince you that it's right of us, as probably predominantly Gentiles who are not Jewish by birth, to claim the new covenant for ourselves. Well, think about one text, or one or two, in Galatians. I quoted this one earlier, Galatians 3.16, where it says, and to your seed, or it doesn't say and to seeds, but to seed, Who is Christ? So who is Abraham's seed? Christ. But then it goes on to say in verse 29, and if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise. There was hardly any more stronger way to talk about being a Jew than saying, I am Abraham's seed. What did the Pharisees say when they were talking to Jesus? They said, we're Abraham's seed. And the spirit-inspired scriptures say, if you are in Christ, then you are Abraham's seed. Jew or Gentile, male or female, because the verse before is the verse that we love to quote, there's no male or female, there's no Jew or Greek, we're all one in Christ Jesus, because if you're Christ, then you're Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise. Let's take another verse, Philippians 3, verse 3, where the spirit-inspired scriptures say, for we, talking to a Jew and Gentile church, for we are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. So the spirit-inspired scriptures talking to a Jew and Gentile church say, we, All of us, if you're in Christ, are the circumcision. You can't get a more, maybe a stronger word for what it meant to be a Jew than to be the circumcision. And Paul, by inspiration of the Spirit, says, you as a Gentile or Jewish believer, no matter what ethnicity you are, if you're in Christ, you are the circumcision. But based on Old Testament precept, every claim should be established on two or three witnesses. So I've given you two witnesses. Let me give you a third. If you look at Romans chapter 2, and all these I'm just going to quote, but if you want to turn there, feel free. Romans 2 says, a Jew is not one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. And you might be saying, what? A Jew is outward and physical. It is an ethnicity. Circumcision was an outward right he received. What do you mean a Jew is not one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical? Well, what he goes on to say, but a Jew, namely a true Jew, someone who is truly Abraham's seed, a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart. His praise is not from man, but from God. So a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart. That's why when the Lord Jesus Christ was talking to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, and he says, you must be born again, or ye must be born again, plural. And Nicodemus says, I have to go back in my mother's womb a second time. And he says, you're a teacher of Israel, and you don't know these things? Why? Over and over and over again in the Old Testament, what is the word for being born again? The circumcision of the heart. So Nicodemus should have understood what it meant to be born again, because all over the Old Testament, it talks about circumcising your heart or being circumcised in the heart. And so what Paul, by inspiration of the Spirit, says, if you have been circumcised in your heart, if you've been brought from death to life being born again, you are a Jew inwardly, because your circumcision is a matter of the heart. So when we look at Hebrews 8 and say, behold Israel and Judah, I can say, I'm Abraham's seed, so therefore this is for me. I'm the circumcision, therefore this is for me. I'm a Jew inwardly, so this is for me. So when I look at Hebrews 8, I can say this text is just as much for me as someone who is ethnically Jewish. because I am the circumcision. And sometimes I'll use a word and maybe define it briefly. When I talk to friends and brothers who are what we call dispensational, it's a big way of saying they make a big distinction between Israel and the church. Israel, its own separate body, and the church is its own separate body. I like to sometimes ask them, what do I have to do? What do the scriptures have to say for me to be a true Israelite? If it says, I'm Abraham's seed, I'm the circumcision, and I'm the true Jew, what else does it have to say for it to make sense that we as Gentiles and Jews are part of this one body, what we call the church? And so we see from these texts that God has brought Jews and Gentiles together into one church, who are Abraham's seed. We also see in the Old Covenant, the promise of a prophet to come, a priest to come, and a king to come. We see in the Mosaic Covenant, a priest and a sacrifice was needed, correct? A priest and a sacrifice. In the Davidic Covenant, we see a king was needed. Also in the Mosaic Covenant, according to Deuteronomy 18, we see there was a prophet to come, because Moses says, A prophet is to come, and you should listen to him. And we see all three of these categories in the new covenant Jesus Christ fulfills. He is the prophet. He is the priest. He is the sacrifice. And he is the king. In Acts 3, 22 and 23, It says, for Moses truly said to the fathers, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever he says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. And that prophet, according to Acts chapter 3, who is Peter talking about? He's talking about the prophet of Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? When Moses said this prophet was gonna come, God fulfilled that in Jesus Christ as the true and last prophet because God who at many times, Hebrews 1, and in many ways spoke to our fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken how? Through his son. So Hebrews is saying the last one to speak is Christ and, of course, by implication, is apostolic, apostles. Then we also see Jesus Christ is a priest in Hebrews 7, 23 through 25. Also, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. But He continues forever. But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, He is able to save the uttermost, those who come to God through Him. since he always lives to make intercession for them. So the Old Testament priests couldn't last forever. Why? Because they kept dying. The Old Testament priests lived and died, lived and died, lived and died. And the writer of Hebrews powerfully puts it, Jesus Christ keeps his priesthood forever. Why? Because he never dies. Once he rose from the dead, he never dies again. So he can forever make intercession for his people. And then the last one, we see Jesus Christ all, many places in scripture, 1 Timothy 6, Revelation 19, referred to as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. So Jesus Christ is that prophet we were waiting for. He was that priest and sacrifice because he's also the one who gives the sacrifice and who is the sacrifice himself. as he's on the cross bearing God's wrath. He is both the priest and he's the one who sacrifices himself as a sacrificial death, as a propitiation, which is a big word for saying a wrath-absorbing sacrifice for our sin. He's the one who's risen from the dead, who forever makes intercession for us. And he's now reigning as King of Kings and as Lord of Lords. And so, What we see in the New Covenant is the reality of the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises, are not some future reality, but are fulfilled in the New Covenant Church. What I said last week, and it was based on this very helpful book by Keith A. Matheson called Dispensationalism, rightly dividing the people of God, and so it's a critique of dispensationalism, But I think kind and gracious and polemical because he's trying to show errors, but he's not harsh or mean. So that's a helpful book. But one thing that was really helpful in that book for me to kind of get a grip on was he had a two circle approach. And you won't be able to see it from where you're at, but I'll just explain it. In the Old Testament, there was a national people of God. This is important to understand the Old Testament and the New Covenant. The Old Covenant, New Covenant. There was a national people of God. It's what we call national Israel. But within that people, there was a smaller circle, which is what we call true Israel or spiritual Israel. So as an example, Esau. was part of national Israel but he was not part of spiritual Israel. Why? Because Jacob I love but Esau I hated. But Jacob was part of national Israel and he was part of spiritual Israel. Maybe even a more clear example. Abraham was a part of national Israel but was also a member of true Israel. And so the church is not national Israel, but is true Israel. And why does this matter? National Israel is this big body who most didn't know the Lord. If you read 1 Corinthians 10, most of them God was not pleased. But you always had within national Israel a faithful remnant who are what we call true or spiritual Israel. And the church that is the fulfillment of spiritual Israel. This is what it's getting into in Romans 11. The natural branches, what happened to them? They were cut off. What are those natural branches? National Israel. Namely, Israel according to flesh and not according to faith. They were cut off. But Gentiles, into one tree, are grafted in. Not two trees, one tree, one branch. One reality, one people. So what is that telling us? National Israel has been done away with, because the old covenants have passed away, according to Hebrews 8. But the Israel of God hasn't, because the church is the fulfillment of that. We are, as the people of God in the new covenant, the fulfillment of true Israel. And why this matters? I said it last week, but I'll say it again. So I was paedo-baptist for a while. Love my paedo-baptist brethren. We have nothing but good things to say about those guys. Some of my men I've learned the most from have been paedo-baptists or Presbyterians. But when I begin to understand, I think, covenant theology a little bit better, this is why this is a Reformed Baptist church and not a Reformed Presbyterian church. Because if the church is true Israel, What is true Israel always been? Believers only. So if the church is true Israel, who's a member of the church? Only those who are in Christ. Therefore, only those who are in Christ by credible profession of faith, that's the way we know, should receive baptism in the Lord's Supper. Because we're not a national people anymore where you had a fleshly people and a spiritual people. The church is a spiritual nation, not a physical nation. Namely, it's a nation made up of spiritual disciples who've been brought by the grace of God to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the church is. It's a spiritual nation of blood-bought believers. And that's why Hebrews 8 makes sense, too. Because some people want to go right to Hebrews 8 and say, in the New Covenant, though, everyone knows the Lord. In the New Covenant, everyone has forgiveness of sins. In the New Covenant, everyone has the law in their heart. And I want to say amen to that. But if you don't understand the framework of the Old Covenant promises, that can lose its thrust. But if you understand the old covenant promises were not the covenant of grace, they only promised that. They only promised what Christ would accomplish. You realize once he accomplished it, if the church is true Israel, then it makes sense. Everyone in the new covenant has the law written on their heart. That's what Hebrews 8 says. Everyone in the New Covenant knows God. That's why it says, no longer will you teach your neighbor, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. And then it goes on to say, for, why will everyone know the Lord? For I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. So if you're in the New Covenant, that means you have the law written on your heart. And what law could that be? Well, what law was written on Adam's heart? The Ten Commandments. But some of you might be thinking, if you're thinking about what I said earlier, but didn't, Sam, didn't you say earlier that everyone has the law written on their heart? Yes, I did say that. But now you're saying only members of the New Covenant have the law written on their heart? Yes, that's what I'm saying. Well, let me explain a little bit. Just like everyone through creation has a knowledge of God, the heavens, Psalm 19 one, declare the glory of God and the firmament above shows his handiwork. Or Romans one, because although they knew God, they did not honor him as God, neither were they thankful. There's a general knowledge of God that God has given through creation in our conscience. But none of us would say that's saving knowledge, right? Because the heavens can show you that God exists, but they can't show you the gospel. And so, just like the law, there's a general knowledge, because God's written on our hearts, that the law is right and good. But when God writes the law on our heart in the new covenant, he writes it on our hearts so we can say with David, oh, how I love your law. Where before the law was our condemnation, now because we've been saved from God's wrath, it's our love. And we can say with the Apostle Paul, for I delight in the law of God, according to the inward man. So it goes from being something that condemns us to something that we love. Something that once was bringing God's wrath upon us because we were lawbreakers. Because what is sin? The transgression of God's law, 1 John 3, 4. But now as new covenant believers, we have been removed from the law as a curse. That's what it means in Romans 6, 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. It doesn't mean that we throw away the law. It means the law is no longer over you as a condemnation where it will judge you on the last day. But now you're under grace. Namely, you're under the grace of God purchased for you by the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, applied by the Holy Spirit, where the law is now something you can delight in because you love the God of the law. That's what it means in Hebrews 8 that in the New Covenant, everyone has the law written on their heart. So therefore, we should love God's being, the first commandment. We should love God's worship, the second commandment. We should love God's name, the third commandment. We should love God's day, the fourth commandment. We should love people who are an authority over us, the fifth commandment. We should love other people and their person, the sixth commandment. We should love other people's marriages, the Seventh Commandment. We should love other people enough to not steal from their possessions, the Eighth Commandment. We should love people enough to not belittle their name, the Ninth Commandment. And we should love people enough not to desire something that's rightfully theirs and not ours, the Tenth Commandment. And this is what God does in the New Covenant. He writes savingly the law in our hearts so that we might say, again with David, oh, how I love your law. And then he also, we see here, none of them shall teach his neighbor, none his brother, saying, know the Lord. Well, it's the same concept. If everyone knows God through what he's made, because although they knew God, they did not honor him as God, this knowledge of God is a saving knowledge of God, where we come from being enemies of God under his wrath to being friends of God as we come to embrace the gospel of our salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. So we come to have a saving knowledge of God. So there's a general knowledge of God through what he's made, which God gives to all man. That's why they're without excuse, Romans 1. But only those who come in repentance and faith to the Lord Jesus Christ have this saving knowledge of God. And so therefore, if you're in the new covenant, because you're a true Israelite, and what is a true Israelite always been? Someone who knows the Lord savingly. you know the Lord in a saving relationship through the Lord Jesus Christ applied by the spirits. And then lastly, it says, and you have the forgiveness of all your sins. Well, a true Israelite has always had the forgiveness of their sins. David knew what it was to have his sins forgiven. Wash me thoroughly with hyssop, and I shall be clean. What was he confessing? That God forgives sin. Or Psalm 32, blessed is the man whom the Lord forgives sin. But here we see, if we are true Israel, which is just a fulfillment of the true people of God of old, we have the forgiveness of all of our sins, past, present, and future. And so this matters because we realize this is just a fulfillment of what God has always done. So it's not like this is a new thing for God to write the law saving the people's heart. It's not a new thing for people to know God. It's not a new thing for people to have forgiveness of their sins. But it's a new thing because this is what defines the new covenant church, where the old covenant you had a fleshly people, the nation, and a spiritual people, and the New Covenant is not like that. Everyone who's in this nation, 1 Peter 2.9, you are a holy nation, has these spiritual benefits. The law, forgiveness, and knowledge of God. And then, if you have questions, once I close in just a minute, feel free to ask, so, if you want to begin thinking about that. And then I want to also say, consider how the church is referred in the epistles. I just want to give two examples of this. If what I'm saying is true, that the church is true Israel, it would make sense with the way the church would be referred to in the New Covenant. Well, listen, I'll maybe read two or three examples. 1 Corinthians 1.2, to the church of God which is at Corinth. to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." So the church is sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints, and they call on Jesus Christ as Lord. Well, that sounds like people who know God. If you look at Colossians 3, 12 and 13, this is how The Spirit addresses people in Colossae, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved. And then he gives them commands. So the church is the elect of God, holy and beloved. And some brothers might push back, well, you don't know the heart. You don't know if they're elect. You can't read their heart. But what we base it on, just like Paul, who just like us didn't have infallible knowledge because he was a mere man just like us, he based it on their credible profession. And so based on their credible profession of repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, he gave them the benefit of the doubt, the judgment of charity, that they were the elect of God. And he only said they weren't if they rejected their credible profession of faith. That's why he can refer to the churches, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved. Last two things, and then I'll open up for questions. We'll have several minutes for that. What are some practical benefits of knowing this? What are some practical benefits of knowing you are the Israel of God? You are a true Israelite in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, that the new covenant is for you. Well, one, it gives you a greater grasp of God's saving purposes in history. That the cross was not plan B, my friends. The cross was plan A. God, before the foundation of the world, Revelation 13.8, promised that the Son of God would be slain. The cross is not plan B. The cross is plan A. That God, even though all we like sheep have gone astray, God would provide salvation in and through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ as his plan A. That's what covenant theology does for you. It helps you realize that the cross is God's ultimate purpose, where the love of God was magnified and the wrath of God was satisfied. where the justice of God was drank by the cup of the Lord Jesus Christ. As he drank the cup and turned it over and said, it is finished. But you also see the mercy of God in which the Son of God laid down his life for sinners. And so the cross is not plan B. The cross is plan A, God's purposes. And therefore, because of covenant theology, you can celebrate the cross as not as something that God did as an afterthought, but something based on the covenant of redemption the first week that was always part of God's purpose. Second implication is some people have been taught to think about the Bible as we have 27, but the rest of the books aren't for us. That we have the New Testament scriptures, but the Old Testament was something for them. So you have 27 books and the New Testament, good. The Old Testament stuff, that was for the Jews. But my dear friend, if you are a true Israelite of God, who is the Bible written to? True Israel. Who is the Bible for? You. All 66 books are Christian literature. All 66 books are for the blood-bought church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the old covenant scriptures show you Christ and show you what Christ desires of his people. Because, my dear friends, the Lord Jesus Christ is the second person of the Holy Trinity. So when God was giving what he wanted in the Old Testament to be inspired, of course there's things that are done away with, we understand that. But Christ was giving it as the second person of the Holy Trinity. And so all 66 books of the Bible are Christian literature for the people of God, for the glory of God. So you understand the cross better when you understand covenant theology. It was plan A. And you understand that every book in this Bible, all 66, were written for the good of true Israel. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise. Are there any questions that might be helpful to get some clarity on what I said, or anything that might be helpful? Kind of a technical question about the moral of the 10 Commandments written on our hearts. I understand that you say that that's from all time, that the 10 Commandments prior to the New Covenant? That's a great question. So I think Adam and thereby everyone else in the Old Covenant had the moral law, which would later be more clearly propounded in the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. But I believe that Cain and Abel, as an example, had the Ten Commandments written on their heart. Why do I say that? Because when Cain kills Abel, if you read the account, it's not, well, murder doesn't become wrong until the Ten Commandments are actually written. And I don't mean that to be silly. You see in that account that when Cain kills Abel, the ground starts crying out because Cain had the moral law written on his heart of you shall not murder. So everyone, they can suppress that truth, Romans 118. for the wrath of God's revealed, and they suppress the truth and unrighteousness. So they suppress that reality, but because they have a conscience, they know God's law. Not perfectly, because that's why we need special revelation, but they do have the law written on their heart. I have a follow-up. The second's written in 3.3. It says, can you show that you are a letter from Christ, a letter by us, written not with the spirit of a living love, not on tablets of stone, which to me says, The Ten Commandments were not written on the hearts of people until... I think what that verse is getting at is just because you had the law didn't mean it was written on your heart savingly. And so what I think that's getting at is because David says, oh, how I love your law, and the only way he could have that is if God regenerated his heart and wrote it on his heart. No one can say that by nature because we're slaves of sin. And so I think that verse is saying that Not that it's a new concept for the law to be written savingly on your heart, but in the New Covenant, which is different from the Old Covenant, which the Old Covenant, all it could do was bring condemnation. The Old Covenant in itself couldn't bring salvation. But in the New Covenant, it does, because that's the point of 2 Corinthians 3, what makes the New Covenant better and different. But what it's saying is you, as the New Covenant church, you have the law written on your heart savingly. Not that it's a new concept, but everyone in the Old Covenant didn't have the law written on their heart based on the Old Covenant. but based on the covenant of grace to come as a promise. Just like they had the forgiveness of their sins, not based ultimately on the sacrificial system, but on the sacrifice of Christ. So I think it's getting at the reality that God, in the new covenant church, everyone has that written on their heart, even though it's not a new reality, but just like they had forgiveness, not through the sacrificial system, but they still had forgiveness, but it was based on Christ to come. Yes, ma'am. So, that's Galatians 3.24, that's a great verse to bring up. The law is the schoolmaster, the tutor to bring us to Christ. And so, there's three uses of the law historically. The first use of law is what you unpacked, that God through the law, namely the Ten Commandments, shows us our sin. It's like a mirror. You're a liar. You're a thief. You're a blasphemer. You're an adulterer in your heart. You're a murderer in your heart. And then it brings us to, wow, I'm a sinner, and I need a savior. And then it brings us to Jesus Christ. Second, historically, it's a restraint for sin in this society. And then third use that kind of I was getting at when I was thinking about the law written on our heart is it's a rule of life for how believers can be pleasing to their Heavenly Father. But definitely the law is used to bring us to Jesus Christ to show us we're sinners. Because Paul says in Romans 7, 7, how would I know sin except through the law? So it is the law that shows us our sin because sin is the transgression of God's law. And so since they have it already written on their conscience, we can just go about, preach the law to them to show them their need and then show them Christ as the savior of sinners. But it's not just the turning into it. It's more of, it's like the next step front. And I think the reason they bring that up is because, well, everyone was loved. There's this in-gathering of Jews that seem to come eventually. But as well, is it that they become real brothers? It's almost like that. They would see it be easier to be If I'm following your question right because I was I was a little bit confused But I think what what we're getting at is that true Israel Yes So we could even say Adam because I believe that God saved him post fall because we see that with him clothing with the animals skin and Adam was a true Israelite before the nation was started. So there was true Israel even before the nation. And so this people of God truly have always been true Israel even before the nation started. But then once the nation started, you have a blending, because you have people part of a nation, a fleshly people, any spiritual people. And so what we're just saying, we're not, some people like to say this is replacement theology, and that's kind of the slanderous word people will use. But what I think is better to say, this is fulfillment theology. in terms of the church fulfills the promises that God gives. It doesn't replace it. It fulfills what God has always promised. So, and people interpret Romans 11 differently. The two main interpretations are, in this way, all Israel will be saved, Romans 11, 26, means that all spiritual Israel will be saved. Or some people interpret it that towards the end of the age, God will bring in the fullness of the Gentiles and a mass and gathering of ethnic Jews into the true people of God, the church. So there's just two interpretations of that. Welcome. I'm just trying to remember exactly where in the Gospels we were talking, Jesus talking about the law being, the summary being of the Lord's power of the heart. Yeah, Matthew 22. He's pushing it out because we want specifics on this. Of course, I think they've added a huge amount of elements and specifics on top of that. Yeah, so I mean, you're talking about the written heart. That was what we used to do. Yeah. Yeah, so Matthew 22, they ask him, Matthew 22, 37 through 40, what is the greatest commandment? Love God and love the neighbor. And what the Ten Commandments do helpfully, I think, is, well, what does it look like to love my neighbor? Well, it looks like I don't murder him. What does it look like to love my neighbor? It looks like I don't slander his name. What does it look like to love my neighbor? It looks like I don't covet what belongs to him. What does it look like to love my neighbor? I don't commit adultery with his wife. So the Ten Commandments are helpful to say, what does this practically look like? And, of course, we can always misuse the law and extend it where it wasn't supposed to go. But it's helpful to kind of have a road map, so to speak, of what is pleasing to God. Yeah, I was dealing with the new RFP. This is huge. So we want specifics to spell out that version. Yeah, we have to be careful to not add or take away. Yes, Doug. I don't disagree with anything you say, especially about all 66 books of the Bible being important, but I have to confess that I still see through it glass darkly. And when I read books like Obadiah and A.M., I struggle with their relevance to today. And I know when Pastor Ryan does his next summer series on Seth and I, I say, then we'll make it all clear. But this is more of a confidential question. I still struggle with that. Well, let's think about Naaman. So Naaman 1 starts. Basically, God's wrath against his enemies. That's the beginning half of Naaman 1. God's wrath against the enemies. He destroys the wicked. Well, what application do we get that? Well, we are sinners, and so therefore, by nature, we're God's enemies. And unless God does something, we will experience his wrath. And so even if we look at Nahum 1 as a gospel perspective of, wow, the wrath that God had towards me, a sinner, which I rightly deserve, was satisfied on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Nahum 1, when you read it, you're like, wow, this is a wonderful gospel reality that I was once God's enemy. And his darts were coming towards me. But Jesus Christ took the dart for me, satisfied the wrath for me. And therefore, I'm the friend of God, no longer his enemy. So that's a helpful way to see in a book like that, that's kind of obscure, when you see the wrath of God, the judgments of God, which a lot of the minor prophets are about the judgment of God towards the nation. You can say, wow, that judgment should be for me. But Christ himself on the cross satisfied it in his one sacrificial death. So I think this book, this looks very big, so I'm not recommending the whole thing. Even though it would be helpful, I was able to read it during my internship here. But the last chapter, it's chapter 16 by Sam Renahan and Michael Renahan. If you're interested in picking this up, it's in the bookshelf over here of just a really helpful unpacking of what I've been talking about these last couple weeks in book form, chapter 16. by Mike and Sam Renahan. If you want more, feel free to rent it out or get that. Or if this book is helpful too, some of you might know the name Dr. R.C. Sproul, the late Dr. R.C. Sproul, and he said about this book, a valuable tool for the layperson. So if Dr. Sproul says that, that probably means something. Yeah, so it's Recovering a Covenantal Heritage, edited by Richard Barcello for Chapter 16, and then this is Dispensationalism, Rightly Dividing the People of God by Keith A. Matheson. So let me, just for the sake of time, close in prayer. And feel free, if you have more questions, I'll be up here until service starts, answering whatever questions might be needed. So let me pray. Father, we bless your name because you have saved us on the basis of the new covenant. We thank you that we have been brought from death to life from the power of Satan unto you. We thank you that once we were your enemies under your wrath, under your judgment, under the curse of the law, because of the active and passive obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ, you have saved us from our sin and brought us into newness of life. We bless your name for these truths, and we thank you that you have not treated us as our sins deserve. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so far, so great is your mercy to those who fear you. And you've removed our transgressions as far as the east is from the west. And we bless your name. We thank you for the book, the 66 books of the Old and New Testament for us. And we ask you to bless these things to us in Jesus' name. Amen.