This session is going to focus on how we as a Reformed Church interpret the Old Testament and how we believe that the Bible itself, God's Word, teaches us to interpret the Old Testament. This is a theme that's already hinted at in the Belgic Confession of Faith, not engaged with so deeply. It was not the main controversy of the Reformation times, but it is certainly an issue in our times that there are many in many churches around us, perhaps more of the evangelical types of churches who seem to minimize the Old Testament and to focus on more fully the New Testament, sometimes in good ways, maybe even in a in a way of omission, ignoring or giving less attention than should be given to the Old Testament, that then in other cases, even not seeing the Old Testament as the Word of God. Now, the Belgic Confession makes it very clear in Article 4 that the Old Testament books are indeed the inspired Word of God. That is our confession. Article 10, the doctrine of the Trinity, actually can be found already in the Old Testament. But then we also need to, especially for our time, develop this theme a little bit further to understand how the Reformed Church, especially through what we call covenant theology, understands the Old Testament and sees that it is, in fact, ultimately about and pointing to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's worth thinking about for yourself. How do you read the Old Testament? What's your general impression of it? Have we perhaps been affected to some degree by a dim or a dark or a confused view of the Old Testament? Do you tend to contrast it a lot with the New Testament? There's some justification for that. In fact, the Apostle Paul even did so. But it's already been since the very early days of the church, church history, that there have been those who completely tried to do away with the Old Testament. One example is a man named Martian, who was a heretic actually, who began teaching false teachings in the church around the year A.D. 144, and he went into the church and he started teaching that the Old Testament is a different religion, speaking of a different god, and that the creator of the Old Testament was actually an evil god. where Jesus Christ was a representation of a good God, and he brought in this complete contrast between old and new. And these teachings of Martian, this man named Martian, have actually affected, or we could say infected the church through all the ages since. And that's a very sad thing, but it's important that we wrap our minds around how we treat and think of the Old Testament clearly. And we begin with a question, where would you think the good news in the Bible begins? Where is the first gospel preaching? Well, many in the Reformed churches have seen it coming right after the fall. when the Lord God promises that a seed would come to bruise the head of Satan, and that there was good news of hope. And we can see that woven throughout the Old Testament. There's also another view which emphasizes dangerously that actually God changes through the Bible. He works in sort of one kind of way in the Old Testament and then changes his mind almost when things fail to work out and people turn to be so evil and then he tries to deliver his people. Well, what we would like to see and how we'd like to interpret the Bible is that not that God is changing, but that humanity has changed horrifically. The problem of the fall and sin, and that the Lord was giving pictures and even hints and previews of the coming of his son and working out a plan that he had determined from all eternity. And so let's be careful not to think first and foremost of God as a changing God. The Lord God did not change His ways. His character did not change. It is the same God from eternity to eternity. Malachi 3 verse 6 says this most clearly. I am the Lord. I do not change. I am the Lord. I do not change. And as we approach the Bible, we need to actually start with the right doctrine of God. We've already laid that foundation in this series, looking something at the attributes of God and the doctrine of the Trinity. And here, as we approach the Bible, we should not think of the Lord God as like a tradesman or a craftsman. a human creator of art or something who develops their craft over time and maybe goes through different phases. We trace the development of an artist or their different paintings as they get better, or they go through one phase or another, or we can look at different authors, but we have to look at the Bible differently. It does build, develop, and deepen. There is what's called progressive revelation. So progressive revelation is the concept that God teaches his people with simple pictures and personal visits to men like Adam and Noah and Abraham and others and through the events of their lives, but then he gives his law and then he gives the kings and the land of Israel and he's progressively revealing, but that's not because he is changing. No, he is teaching his people. more and more and more. And what's most important to realize in all of this is that God's holiness does not change. His holiness does not change. After the fall, Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, and that was a sign that sinful mankind cannot live, or dwell with, or commune with, or be in a good relationship with the Holy God. That was an early picture, an early scene, them being banished, driven out of the garden, and then the cherubim being put at the entrance, and then being driven to the east, was a very early picture that God is perfectly holy. And because of our sin in the fall, by nature, we're at a distance from him. And that theme is woven throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. that by nature we are enemies of God, rebels against God. And he doesn't just welcome us into his presence without a price being paid. And that price is death. The soul who sins shall die. But then the problem is, is the price is not paid. by our own sinful nature. All of our most righteous deeds, as Isaiah says, are like filthy rags. And so the law was never meant, going through the events of the Old Testament or the law that was given to Moses, that was never meant to save one's soul. It was meant to show them that they needed to be saved, that they needed ultimately the death of the Savior. Now many people in the Old Testament were indeed saved from different events on earth. The Lord God actually gives picture after picture after picture of his works of salvation. So the Lord gives the flood. The flood was actually a horrific scene. We should not think of it as a cute scene of children's stories and little picture books of arcs and some kind of mythological tale. No, it was actually a horrific and a sad and a heartbreaking judgment where the Lord God had to cleanse actually his earth. because it was filled with corruption and violence. But in the midst of that picture, actually, Noah and his family being saved and being preserved was actually a picture of undeserved sinners. And later in his life, you see even Noah stumble and fall into sin. Undeserved sinners being saved from disaster and destruction by God's merciful work. And you see throughout the Old Testament this developing theme that God has his covenant people, that he gives them his promises, that he's merciful and he's gracious to them. The next one, you can think of Abraham. Joshua chapter 24 actually says, Abraham and his fathers were idolaters. came from a family of idolaters lost in the East. Unless God had visited and called Abraham out of the East, he too would have been lost in a dark world of sin. But the Lord God called him, delivered him, actually into the promised land, and Abraham followed God's ways and the Lord brought his covenant promises to him. You can read about those in Genesis 15, Genesis 17, the hope that God had chosen to set Abraham apart that relates to the election we talked about last week. And that through faith, trust in God, as Hebrews explains, read in Hebrews 11, men like Noah, Believed God's word, Noah built an ark for the saving of his household. And then later, Abraham believed the call to come out of that land. These were men of faith that were delivered by God. And so those pictures were not about works or their goodness in themselves. Abraham later also had his falls and his stumbles. He lied far too many times. He made very foolish decisions. And then his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, they ended up even in Egypt, and there was famine and hardship and difficulty. Pictures of punishment for sin, but yet God preserved. He kept a people for himself again and again. People that we can call his covenant people, the people of his promises. And they're giving promises of salvation, of being saved. And it's God who's not changing throughout that process. It is He who is taking a fickle and foolish and wandering people and gathering them into Himself. And He's actually keeping His covenant relationship, His love, with them. And we can even call it a covenant of grace, all the way from the moment that Adam and Eve felt God's mercy and His grace and His patience was towards them. and he's not changing. In fact, he is continually merciful, gracious, full of kind compassion. And we need to dig a little more into this concept of covenant. Covenant. It's covenant that describes the relationship. Now, we still sometimes talk about covenants. That word is not used so much anymore in our world, but sometimes you'll hear people talk about a marriage as a covenant. firm promise with signs and seals, so the rings are exchanged. People make a promise to one another in public. It's to be for life until death do us part. That's kind of a picture of a covenant like God was making with his people. In ancient times, a covenant was often an agreement between an emperor or a greater and a stronger, more powerful king and a lesser king. his subjects. Usually it was an agreement that the lesser king, perhaps the king over a certain town or area, he would pay taxes and offer his loyalty to the greater king in exchange for peace and protection. He would send some soldiers perhaps to fight in the greater king's army and they would actually have a document that would outline these agreements. It was called a covenant, an agreement. And the penalty of those covenants was usually written out actually as death. And even the covenants like Abraham had with God, kings actually perhaps repeated that and used that picture of where the animals were torn in two parts and then the burning flax and the smoking oven went between actually those parts of the animals. that the Lord God there gave a picture of a covenant, which kings would also use as a picture. And you can still see hints of this in different ceremonies, like knighthood in England, where they would touch a sword. The king would touch a sword on either shoulder of the knight, and that was a symbol of, if you don't keep your covenant, I will cut your head off. And those are the kind of pictures they had. And that's the kind of picture that Abraham had. The price of death for covenant breaking. The price of death for sin. And broadly speaking, The Bible presents mankind very clearly with two covenants. Now we can speak of a third covenant, that election we talked about from all eternity. We could speak of that as a covenant between the Father and the Son from eternity. But in the Bible, you see two covenants laid out, and they're often compared and contrast with one another. The first one, we can call the covenant of works. The covenant of works with Adam and Eve in the garden. The covenant was you obey God, serve him and work as a manager over the garden and over creation. You have one rule, Adam. Positive rule was serve the Lord. And the negative rule was don't eat of the fruit of that tree. And Adam had this opportunity. And we can even say Adam being created very good would have had even a free will, a choice to do the good or to do the evil, to obey God. And that's what we could call the covenant of works. And he's like there a lesser king. given an area to rule over this earth, and especially the garden, on behalf of the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. But the moment that Adam broke that covenant of works by choosing to disobey, that covenant's gone. It's done. It's broken. It became a futile means of pleasing God. Sin, like an infection, like a virus, spread to Adam and his seed, and Adam is now banished. And every fallen person, Hosea puts it this way, Hosea 6 verse 7, like Adam, we have broken the covenant. They have broken the covenant. There's a covenant breaking. And God teaches the futility of trying to approach him with those angels at the entrance to the garden. Now the big question is, where does the covenant of works end? Some people think that that covenant of works continues through the Old Testament and that at Mount Sinai God gave his law and people could keep that law and therefore they could approach him by being good law keepers. And so does the covenant of works end at the moment of the fall or does it continue through the Old Testament? Many people seem to think that it actually dominates the whole Old Testament. And they still teach, especially in some extreme forms of dispensationalism, some teach that God was accepting people into his presence in the Old Testament by their works. So the Israelites, they kept God's law, would be worthy to enter his presence. But the theme and the story of the Old Testament is not even the first high priest, Aaron, could do that. No, he failed and he fell multiple times. He sinned. No one made it through. Moses couldn't even enter the promised land. He failed and he sinned. You see, God was using the law not to show that he would accept sinners by their works. He was using the law to expose to them, you need to be saved. You need grace. You need forgiveness. And the Old Testament people needed grace and forgiveness, and we need it also. And so the covenant of grace or of God's gift of mercy and forgiveness starts right after the fall. Genesis 3 verse 15, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. That's spoken of the seed and that's a gracious hope and a promise for a fallen people that a seed would come, that the Lord would give salvation to those who believe on him. It's a covenant that we never keep any side of. None of us. Nobody did in the Old Testament. Nobody does now. It's a covenant where God promises to send a Savior to be the second Adam. God does not say, here's a second chance here, do better now. Rather, God promises a seed and then he promises rest to Noah. a way of salvation and he promises to Abraham deliverance in the promised land and then the Israelites coming out of Egypt and King David and Nehemiah. The picture is there are sinners who don't deserve to be in God's presence but who learn to plead on his grace and his mercy. They all lived by faith. Hebrews 11 makes that very clear. These were people not characterized as people of works, but they all lived by faith. But now some might still say, well, wait a minute, what about all those times God called those people to obey his law? And he talked about the blessings and the curses to do what's right and live. How is that grace? Well, we have to understand that God was using the law, as the Apostle Paul puts it, as like a schoolmaster or a tutor. And he was teaching his people and repeatedly reminding them of the old broken covenant, pointing them to their need of the Savior. And without reminders of his holiness, without his demands for to be holy as he is holy, perfect living, really demand for perfect living before his face, we would not remember our need for the Savior. And there is this sense where God's law needs to continue to have a role in the life of the church. We need the law to be proclaimed and preached so that people see their need of the Savior. That's why in a Reformed church, we read the Ten Commandments week after week, time after time. We continue to do that because it exposes our need for a Savior. And we could use this as an example. The Lord God was painting throughout the whole Old Testament like a dark backdrop. You know that great painters sometimes will be known, like Rembrandt was an example, for their ability to cast light on a certain subject in a painting, to represent that. But to be able to portray that light, which sometimes focuses on a small part of the painting, even sometimes sort of an off-center corner. First, this darkness needs to be portrayed. It needs to be there in the backdrop. And at times, the darkness seems overwhelming in order for that light to shine through. And it's the dominance of darkness that points to the light. And the Old Testament indeed is undoubtedly filled with a ton of dark events, broken laws. Laws given and then broken. But that does not point us to the covenant of works as a way of salvation. No, they were taught to cry out. As Psalm 50 says, call on me in the day of trouble. That's what the Lord God was teaching his people and he's still teaching us to this day. Now we have a greater and a fuller revelation. We have the beauty of the light of the New Testament. And we see that God's people then struggled in a darkness that we are blessed not to live as much in. He who is the truth and the light has come. The Messiah, the seed. He made a perfect sacrifice. And so God's law in the Old Testament was preparing God's people. It still works in that way today. Turns over the ground of hearts and souls. The Holy Spirit still comes, as the Lord Jesus says, to convict of sin and righteousness and judgment. The Word of God still cuts like a two-edged sword. and it divides into our heart as Hebrews says and still should. But then there's a second reason. So the main focus or the main use of the law and still to this day of the Old Testament, the preaching of the Old Testament and the preaching of the law is to convict of sin. Still the same focus and function today. But then there's a second reason or place for God's law. Indeed, God's law is a gift. that guides his people towards holiness and out of thankfulness for his grace. You know, the Ten Commandments actually start or introduced with a gracious picture. Exodus 20, I am the Lord your God, which has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage or slavery. And so the commandments are actually introduced and given to a redeemed people, in the sense of pulled out of slavery first, then given the commandments. And so the commandments are given that you should respond to your deliverance from slavery now, Israelites, by keeping these commandments. You shall have no other gods before me. Now ironically, right as they were being given these commandments, what did they do? They made a golden calf and they tried to turn back to the Egyptian practices actually in that of having idols. What a sad and a tragic situation. But God indeed does call his people to be holy. As the Apostle John says, keeping the commandments of God is what matters. Apostle Peter, he reviews, be holy as I am holy, God says. Romans or Galatians actually also present the commandments in the same way. How to live is given to God's people after the story of salvation. So the first parts of the epistles often of the Apostle Paul, given by the Holy Spirit, ultimately they convict of sin. And then there is the message of salvation. But then also the law is, we could say, reiterated or given again to God's people, taught to keep his commandments, not to free themselves, but out of thanksgiving, thankfulness for being saved by their holy king of kings. And so there is another use of the law for God's people, still to this day, keeping God's commandments matters. Well, this has taken us through a very brief summary of the main themes of the Old Testament. But I hope what we stay focused on more than anything is the character of God, the Lord God Almighty. reveals his name to Moses on Mount Sinai. He is the Lord who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, full of kind compassion. That is the message of the Old Testament. It comes together clearer and clearer as more and more is revealed. And yet it's of God that we learn that he does not change. since the moment of the fall, he has been merciful. And that develops more and more through the Old Testament. If we read it, understanding this idea of covenant, and then the covenant of grace, which is fully finished at the cross of Jesus Christ, that we see the beauty of the whole Bible. And it turns us, ultimately, it should, to see the beauty of what Jesus Christ has done. He becomes the promise keeper, the covenant keeper. at the cross. He lays down his life for sinners. And that's a beautiful, beautiful culmination of the whole Bible and where that covenant of grace now is revealed as a new covenant of grace. which will be finally and fully developed in what's called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and Revelation, the new heavens and the new earth. And so you see the Bible, it's progressively revealing. I don't know if you've ever seen perhaps an artist that works in the sand or who draws giant pictures on floors or something like that or patterns. And sometimes you see an overhead shot of that. And at first, when that artist is working, you don't really know what they're doing you wonder what are they what are they going to outline and then if they're a gifted artist you see the patterns come together and then and then bang at the last moment all of a sudden you see the different patterns come together and you can speculate and wonder well Word of God, as it develops, it goes along that kind of pattern. Shadows and types in the Old Testament, it's called. Even in biblical language. Patterns, outlines. But then as you work along through it, it gets more and more clear. And what's happening is not that God is changing, but that he's building with the basic strokes, the outlines, the ABCs in the Old Testament, and then teaching more and more who he is. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13, 8. We need to grasp the hope that in him is salvation. Why does it matter that we look at the Old Testament this way? It matters because it teaches us that the whole Bible is the word of God. God does not change. His word teaches us of him from start to beginning. And it is a beautiful book from start to beginning. Yes, the sadness and the darkness, that's all of us and our sin, our fall in Adam. But God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and full of kind compassion.