Category: Devotional Grist

The Psalms, associated primarily with David but are written by authors as diverse as Moses, Solomon, Ethan the Ezraite, the sons of Korah and the sons of Asaph. Typically the Psalms are subdivided into 5 books and the book as a whole was compiled over several centuries.

Book 1 — Psalm 1-41
Book 2 — Psalm 42-72

The first two books of the Psalms deal with episodes from David’s life though not in chronological order.

Book 3 — Psalm 73-89

Much of book three is taken up with events surrounding the fall of Jerusalem. Esp. Psalm 89.

Book 4 — Psalm 90-106
Book 5 — Psalm 107-150

These books seemingly respond to the tragedy of the fall of Jerusalem and the Davidic line with a call to trust in the Lord and not human rulers. Some scholars see especially books 4-5 as Psalms of a future David.

It is interesting that each of these five books are by a doxology. The first doxology marking of the first book of Psalms is at the end of Psalm 41.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen. (Psalms 41:13 RSV)

We will speak more about the breakdown of these 5 books later.

I.) Psalms In Context

For now we should note that as we read the Psalms we must keep before us that often the Psalms are providing commentary on a storyline from the OT. So, we are not to read the Psalms in the abstract but keep before us that they are often helping to give us insight to some divine event or record.

Example — 3 2Sa 15:29 On David’s flight from Absalom
4 2Sa 17:29 During the the flight from Absalom
5 2Sa 17:29 During the the flight from Absalom
9 1Sa 17:4, or 1Ch 16:43 On the victory over Goliath
16 1Ch 17:27, or 1Sa 27 On the delivery of the promise by Nathan to David
17 1Sa 22:19 On the murder of the priests by Doeg
31 1Sa 23:12 On David’s persecution by Saul
32,33 2Sa 12:15 On the pardon of David’s adultery
Psalm 51 needs to be read in the context of David’s repentance over his sin of adultery and murder

So as we read the Psalms it would be quite profitable to read them in the probable historic context to which they apply thus making them even more meaty. This is not to say that they can’t be read abstracted from their historical narrative context without profit. It is merely to contend that we will get even more out of them if we read them as informed by their history.

This teaches us that for the Hebrew children they lived all their lives coram deo — before the face of God. Their worship of God wasn’t restricted to the sabbath but rather all their lives were contextualized by their sense of being in God’s presence. In their trials, in their laments, in their despair, in their joy, in their confusion you see they have a sense of God’s presence. In all times they are turning to God.

II.) Psalms as Theocentric

Further, as we read the Psalms we will discover that they are telling the story of God’s majesty in the context of life events. The Psalms are given to us not to place man as the star in the storyline but in order to reveal the person and work of God.

James Luther Mays, Author of a book on the Psalms reminds us,

“The Psalms themselves …. contain more direct statements about God than any other book in the two Testaments of the Christian canon …. The works of God and the attributes of God are the constant agenda of the Psalms.”

So the Psalms teach us of God’s character. If we want to know the character of the God we would spend time in the Psalms.

Examples

** God is Omnipotent (All-powerful)

Psalm 147:5 – “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”

Psalm 135:6 – “The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.”

** God is Good

Psalm 25:8, “Good and upright is the Lord; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.”

Psalm 119:68, “You are good and do good. Teach me Your statutes.”

** God is Forgiving

Psalm 86:5, “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You.”

Psalm 67:1, “God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah.”

** God is Patient

Psalm 86:15, “But Thou, O Lord, art a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.”

** God is Eternal

Psalm 90:2, “Or Thou didst give birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.”

** God is Holy

Psalm 99:9, “Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His holy hill; for holy is the Lord our God.”

So, a good practice in reading the Psalms would find one writing God’s attributes in the margin as one came across them. This would serve to encourage us in becoming familiar with the Character of God so that we in turn, as they did before, live life turning to God in all our settings, and in all our highs and lows.

III.) The Human Element In The Psalms

The Psalms demonstrate for us real people with real sins and a real gamut of emotions. A fake record might desire to whitewash the saints so that they all were presented to us as those who could arise to every occasion and who could overcome every obstacle without fail.

This is not what we find in the Psalms We find real saints like us. Saints who deal with the gamut of emotions but who continually take their emotions before God knowing that God can handle them.

Sundry dispositions of man’s heart are reflected in the Psalms.

If you are fearful, read Psalm 56 or Psalm 91 or Psalm 23.

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”

If you are discouraged, join in with the Psalmist in Psalm 42

“3 Mine tears have been my meat day and night, while they daily say unto me, Where is thy God?

5 Why art thou cast down, my soul, and unquiet within me? wait on God: for I will yet give him thanks for the help of his presence.”

If you happen to be feeling lonely, then I would suggest Psalm 71 or Psalm 62.

How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

If you are convicted, and sense your sin, there are two psalms that echo that: Psalm 51, Psalm 32,

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up[b] as by the heat of summer. Selah
5 I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

If you are worried or anxious, I’d recommend Psalm 37 and Psalm 73.

Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
2 For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.

If you are angry, try Psalm 58 or Psalm 13.

O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away;
when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,
like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

If you are resentful, read Psalm 94 or Psalm 77.

O Lord, God of vengeance,
O God of vengeance, shine forth!
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth;
repay to the proud what they deserve!
3 O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked exult?
4 They pour out their arrogant words;
all the evildoers boast.
5 They crush your people, O Lord,
and afflict your heritage.
6 They kill the widow and the sojourner,
and murder the fatherless;
7 and they say, “The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob does not perceive.”

If you are happy and want some words to express your happiness, try Psalm 92 or Psalm 66.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
3 to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
4 For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

If you feel forsaken, so did the Psalmist (Psalm 88).

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I, O Lord, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.

If you are grateful join in with Psalm 40.

16 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, “Great is the Lord!”
17 As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God!

————————
The failure in the Christian life is not in having difficult and even negative emotions. The failure in the Christian life is thinking that God has never seen those emotions before and wouldn’t know how to handle them if you brought them before Him. In the Psalms we see a wide range of human emotions set in the context of prayer and praise.

Thus far we have seen then that while the Psalms are Theocentric / Christocentric they also demonstrate how to not get lost in our emotions. This is important to note. Modern man has become almost an exclusively emotional being. He is completely conditioned and blown about by his emotion. This sense of no anchor for the uninformed and macro-contextual-less emotions makes for a reckless instability in man. The Psalmists reveal where to find an anchor for our emotions. The anchor is found in the Character of God. Whatever the emotion … whatever the turmoil … whatever the joy … the Psalmist takes it all before God in Prayer and / or praise. He allows the character of God to be an anchor to his emotion unlike the Modern who allows his emotion to be his God. The Christian thus allows the Character of God to be the context in which his emotion is conditioned and so finds meaning as opposed to the Modern whose emotion is like a loaded pistol in the hand of a 3 year old.

___________
Well, back to the breakdown of the book of the Psalms. We will look at the breakdown of Book 1 this morning and then continue with looking at the breakdown of books 2-5 next week.

Some have contended that the 5 book breakdown of the Psalms parallels the Pentateuch so that,

Book 1 Psalms 1-41 (corresponds to Genesis)

Psalm 1, like Genesis 1, opens with the Blessed man and in Psalm two, as in the beginning of Genesis, you find the intended revolt of man against God’s rule in Psalm 2.

Why do the nations conspire,
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and his anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds asunder.” (Psalms 2:1-3 RSV)

Book II Psalms 42-72 (corresponds to Exodus)
Slavery, bondage and freedom

Book III Psalms 73-89 (corresponds to Leviticus)
Tabernacle worship

Book IV Psalms 90-106 (corresponds to Numbers)
Wanderings

Book V Psalms 107-150 (corresponds to Deuteronomy) Deliverance and victory

Reading book 1 Psalm as corresponding to Genesis is an intriguing lens but I would submit that there may be a another organizational way to read book 1 of the Psalms.

A recent book has been written that suggests that much of what goes on in the Psalm book 1 is an attempt by those who put the Psalms together to move God’s people to recognize the intimate connection between God’s Law and God’s King. The argument goes that the Psalms are written so as to draw attention to the Deuteronomic Kingship law (Dt. 17:14-20) which required the King to have intimate knowledge of God’s law. Further, in connecting God’s law to God’s Kingship through through the Psalms what happens is that the people are shaped in terms of their expectation of what the Messiah King would look like. (He would be one who adhered to God’s law.) Also, in this understanding what happens at the same time is that the people themselves are shaped unto a piety that every believer should emulate—that is … the king as exemplar for the people of God.

In this reading Psalm 1 and 2 introduce first the centrality of the law of God and then the centrality of God’s blessed Messiah King. Combined these first two opening Psalms give us a messianic King who will enforce God’s law. The rest of book 1 of the Psalms thus can be read in such a way as to see how the King takes God’s law to apply it to enemies both external and internal. This motif is highlighted again in book 1 in chapters 18-21 where once again the Messiah King and God’s law are highlighted in these 4 Psalms.

The other Psalms would then, as read in the context of their historic narrative concentrate on how God’s King and God’s Law put down enemies internal and external.

Obviously when we talk about God’s King in the Psalms this introduces us to the idea of the importance of how the Psalms are Messianic. The Hebrew Kings were to be typological for the later great Messiah and as such the Psalms are often pointing to the coming Christ who is the perfect fulfillment of God’s great King who implements God’s great law.

In a well known Sermon from the greatest American Theologian and perhaps the greatest mind ever produced by America, Jonathan Edwards, addressed this is a classic Sermon entitled, “Dissertation on the End for which God Created the World.” In a sermon that could not be preached today in most Churches because of how involved its argumentation is Edwards wrote,

“All that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God’s works, is included in that one phrase, “the glory of God;” which is the name by which the ultimate end of God’s works is most commonly called in Scripture; and seems most aptly to signify the thing.”

Jonathan Edwards
The End For Which God Created the World

And so right from the state we offer that God does all He does for His own Glory. Edwards was not alone in this thinking. Calvin himself offered,

“God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.”

We see that Edwards is consistent with Calvin. Calvin held that the Salvation of man had as its chief end “God’s Glory.” Edwards merely expanded that thought to insist that not only man’s salvation but all that God did has as its end God’s glory.

For Calvin this whole world, moved by God’s providence, was a “theater of God’s Glory.”

If we are going to pursue the idea that God does all He for His own Glory we should have a operating idea of what we mean by the word “Glory.”

We might offer that God’s Glory includes the quality of His activities, His attributes, and perfections. We would talk about the Revelation of Jesus Christ who, Scripture says was the “outshining of God’s glory.”

The OT word for “glory” comes from the Hebrew Word for weightiness, or heaviness. What that is communicating is the idea of substance and import. We see an example of the use of the word “glory” in this direction when we read of Joseph’s revelation of himself to his brothers. He tells them,

“So you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen; and you shall hurry and bring my father down here.”

Joseph desired that his weightiness as seen in his position, status, and wealth to be conveyed to his Father.

In the NT the idea of “glory” points to much the same idea. It is that which is true about a man that is praiseworthy.

Matthew 6:2, “Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.”

“Glory” here is what effects praise from men because of the quality and character of the action.

So when the Bible speaks of the glory of God it is speaking of that which is praiseworthy about Him … it is speaking of His worthiness, honor, and exalted Character. When “glory” is used of God it is His supreme Majesty that is in view.

When we suggest then that God does all He does for His own Glory we are suggesting that God’s primary motivation for all His doing His is Glory … is His own Majesty … is His own Supremacy … is His own Exaltedness … is Himself.

We might ask here what other motivation could God find for doing all His doing except Himself? If God were to pursue anything else as His primary motivation, besides Himself, God would at that point be making that other lesser thing, whatever it was that was motivating Him, to be something higher than Himself. That something else would become God to God.

Example — If God’s motivation was Human happiness and as such God was motivated in all He does by human happiness than the chief end of God would be to glorify Human happiness, and if the chief end of God would be to glory human happiness then human happiness would be God’s god. But God’s motivation does not terminate on human happiness, but God’s chief end is Himself.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:16)

Now this does not mean that Human happiness and God’s glory are in Contradiction. Clearly the overflow of God’s glory is the happiness of God’s people.

The understanding that God does all that He does for His own Glory has made a difference in the way Theologies have been crafted as many have noted in Church History. Some Theologies have been crafted so as to find their center terminating on man’s rescue and so on justification. As noble as that theme is if we terminate God’s motivation on man’s justification as if that is God’s chief end, then we end up with a theology that is anthropocentric. Reformed Theology saw a different center…. a different end that God was pursuing even in Justification so that Justification was not a ultimate end but only a proximate end of God pursuing His glory.

Here Robert Letham offers some words that hits upon what I am aiming at here,

“Perhaps most striking is the difference in emphasis on justification between Luther and Lutheranism on the hand and Reformed theology on the other. For the former, justification is central to the whole of theology. It is the doctrine by which the church stands or falls. It functions as a kind of critical methodological tool by which any aspect of theology, or theology as a whole is to be judged….However, there is hardly an instance in Reformed theology placing justification in the center. Not that Reformed theology opposed justification by faith alone, or salvation by pure grace. On the contrary, they saw salvation in its entirety as a display of the sovereign and free mercy of God. The explanation lay in the fact that, for Reformed theology, everything took place to advance the glory of God. Thus the chief purpose of theology and of the whole of life was not the rescue of humanity but the glory of God. The focus was theocentric rather than soteriological. Even in the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), where soteriological concerns are more prominent (one of its authors, Zacharias Ursinus [1533-1587] was formerly a Lutheran) the famous first question ‘What is your only comfort in life and death?’ is answered w/ reference to the action of the Trinity, beginning, ‘I am not my own but belong… to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.

Following from this was an attempt by Reformed theology to grasp the unity of creation and redemption. The whole of life was seen in the embrace of God’s revelatory purpose. With the covenant at its heart, the whole of life was to display God’s glory….

Robert Letham
The Work of Christ — pg. 189-190

God’s people understood the idea that God did all He did for His own glory. The appeal in their prayers throughout Scripture demonstrates that they understood that they were to pin their hopes upon the Character of God as being the motivation for God to answer their requests,

Here we are going to spend some time looking at that idea.

That God’s glory was the basis upon which God’s people prayed is seen everywhere throughout Scripture

That God does all He does for His own Glory was understood by God’s people in the Scripture and was the foundation upon which they made their appeals to God.

(Appeal to God’s Glory)

Exodus 32:12 — (Context — Moses comes down from the Mountain and finds the children of Israel in the midst of
Idolatry and God threatens to wipe them out.)

Listen for the foundation upon which their Appeal to God is made for not destroying Israel

12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

Numbers 14:13-19 (Context — God is threatening to destroy Israel because of their complaint about the prospective
of their being crushed by the inhabitants of the Promised Land.)

Listen for the foundation upon which their Appeal to God is made for not destroying Israel

13 And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;)

14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.

15 Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,

16 Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.

17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,

18 The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

Joshua 7:9 (Context — Israel has been defeated at Ai over Achan’s disobedience. God threatens to destroy Israel. Joshua intercedes in prayer)

Listen for the foundation upon which their Appeal to God is made for not destroying Israel

9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

II Samuel 7:26 (Context — God has given David permission to build a house for God to reside in)

Listen to David’s chief desire for this proposed house,

And let thy name be magnified for ever …

I Kings 8:43, 8:60 — (Context — Solomon dedicates the Temple)

Hear Solomon’s chief desire in the establishment of the Temple that God’s glory might be known

“that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee …”

“That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else.”

Parallel account — II Chronicles 6:32-33 — (Context — Request that prayer might be heard @ the Temple

“… in order that all peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you.”

I Kings 18:36-37 (Context — Contest on Mt. Carmel — That God might be vindicated over Baal)

Hear the appeal to God’s Glory in that God might be known

“let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel… that this people may know that thou art the Lord God…”

II Kings 19:19 — (Context — Threats of destruction to King Hezekiah by the Servants of the Assyrian King)

Hear the appeal for deliverance on the basis of God’s reputation … (His glory) being known.

19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.

Parallel account

Isaiah 37:20 — (Context –Hezekiah’s prayer for deliverance from Sennacherib, King of Assyria)

Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord …

Jeremiah 14:7, 21 — (Context — Relief from famine)

Jeremiah’s prayer — Pinned upon God’s Glory

“do thou it for thy name’s sake”
“Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember …

A theme we find in the Psalms on the lips of David

Psa. 25:11 — Context — for the pardon of guilt

“For thy name’s sake”

Psa. 31:4 — Context — request for leading and guidance

“For thy name’s sake”

Ps. 79:9 — Context — For help and deliverance

“For the glory of thy name … for your name’s sake”

Ps. 109:21 — Context — Deliverance

“For your name’s sake”

Daniel 9:16-19 — Context — Prayer for God to have mercy on the Exiles of Israel and to restore them

“… For your own sake … because of your great mercy … for your own sake … because your city and your people are called by your name.”

I Chronicles 17:19, 21, 24 — Context — Prayer that God would do as he had promised to David

“… and your name will be established and magnified forever.”

II Chronicles 4:11 — Context — King Asa’s prayer going into battle against Zerah the Ethiopian

“…Let not man prevail against you…”

II Chronicles 20:9 — Context — King Jehoshaphat’s prayer for deliverance from enemies Moab & Ammon

“….your name is in your house…”

Now what is the implication of this?

One sure implication of this is that we cannot center ourselves upon God and His glory without Knowing God and His character. If we pin our hope in our prayer life upon God and His glory and then have wrong understandings of God then we are bound to go amiss. We will inevitably have zeal without knowledge.

As such, if we are to live in keeping with God’s glory we have to know the mind of God and the only where we can find the mind of God is in Holy Writ.

These verses have to do with the festival of Pentecost. Pentecost means simply, “fiftieth”. It gains this name because it falls on the fiftieth day after Passover. It was a one-day celebration and it was a thanksgiving for God’s gracious provision. It came at the end of the harvest season. It gave thanks to God for His providence. And there was an offering to God of animal sacrifices, cereal gifts and drink offerings. Our modern Thanksgiving is modeled after Pentecost.

When Jesus ascended into heaven He instructed his disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they should receive power from on high. As a group of 120 were praying in an upper room in Jerusalem fifty days after his death, the Holy Spirit descended upon them with the sound of a great wind and with tongues of fire which settled upon each one of them. They began to speak with other languages and to preach boldly in the name of Christ, with the result that three thousand were converted. In rebuttal to criticism by devout Jews, Peter stood up and, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gave a wonderful sermon. After the sermon Luke wrote in verses 41 and 42. Then read Acts 2:41-42

This incredible manifestation of divine power marked the beginning of the church which has ever since regarded Pentecost as its birthday.

Pentecost, then, is the anniversary of the coming of the Holy Spirit in order to give birth to the Church come of age.

This day was not the beginning of a denomination. It was the beginning of the one church: The One True Church.
The Church that is bought with the blood of Christ.

The Church that is united by the indwelling Spirit.
The Church that is taught with the inspired Word.
The world did not know what happened at Pentecost.
The world did not know that God had come to live with His people forever.

————————–

I.) Pentecost as God’s Harvest

It was the culmination of the “feast of weeks” (Ex. 24:22; Deut. 16:10), which began on the third day after the Passover with the presentation of the first harvest sheaves to God, and which concluded with the offering of two loaves of unleavened bread, representing the first products of the harvest (Lev. 23:17, 20; Deut. 16:9-10).

Of course the Parallel on the Day of Pentecost is that God is Harvesting His elect into the Church. They are rightly seen as the first produce of the Harvest. The book of Acts then records this continued Harvesting of the Church.

Note here that this Pentecost is a single event in God’s Redemptive work. In Pentecost God was putting His imprimatur upon the work of Christ. We should no more look for more Pentecosts today in terms of all the Phenomena then we would look for more Crucifixions, more Resurrections, or more Ascensions. These are all one time Redemptive Historical events. We certainly look forward to the continued Harvest of God as He gathers in His elect from every tribe, tongue, and nation, but we do not demand that every convert has to have this same Pentecost experience of speaking in tongues.

In as much as God is Harvesting a New Church this is testimony that He is done with the nation-State Israel as an entity tied to His Redemptive-Historical outworking in History. Naturally, Hebrews are included into the Church as they look to Christ but the idea that Israel, as a collective Nation State, is still important to God’s macro Redemptive time-table is seen as void by the fact that He creates this New Israel of God.

II.) Pentecost as God’s doing something New

Rabbinic scholars believe that it was on this day that God visited His people after their exodus from Egypt and through Moses, brought the Law down from Mount Sinai. This earthshaking day of visitation, trembling, and betrothal is the birthday of the nation of Israel. Moses brings down the Torah or Law for the nation.

God has made it clear that He is done with disobedient Israel. He is finished with that Nation that He had created at Mt. Sinai.

40 When therefore the Lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those husbandmen?
41 They said unto him, He will [aa]cruelly destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall deliver him the fruits in their seasons.
42 Jesus said unto them, Read ye never in the Scriptures, The stone which the [ab]builders refused, the same is [ac]made the [ad]head of the corner? [ae]This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation, which shall bring forth the [af]fruits thereof.

On this greater Pentecost He creates a New Royal People and Holy Nation. Now there are many many continuities between the Old and the New but the Scripture can even call what is happening a “New and Better” covenant. We would say that it is New in the Sense that it is the fulfillment of all that was promissory before. The Old Israel was promissory of the New Israel. And on the Pentecost following Christ’s death, God creates a New and Improved Israel comprised of Jew and Gentile as one Spiritual Nation.

Of course what we need to see here is the continuity in Scripture. It is true that God is fulfilling all His promises so that a New and Better covenant is coming to the fore, but note the continuities with the Old Covenant. God does this New and Better covenant in the context of the previous covenant. The creation of His Old Covenant people was on Pentecost. The creation of His New Covenant people is on Pentecost. The Creation of His Old Covenant people was for the purpose that they might be a light to the Nations. The creation of the His New Covenant people is that they might be His witnesses to all the Nations. The creation of the Old Covenant people was attended by Fire. The Creation of the Church is attended by cloven tongues of fire. On the First Pentecost 3000 people die because of their sin of rejecting God. On The Pentecost 3000 are saved because of their God given acceptance of their sin covering who is Christ. On the Sinai Pentecost children are part of the Covenant. In the fulfillment Pentecost it is communicated that children are part of the covenant (Acts 2:38)

In the Old Testament (Lev. 23:15-23), Pentecost was considered the primary harvest celebration. In the OT economy Firstfruits celebrated the barley harvest (3 days after Passover), but Pentecost celebrated the wheat harvest—the main staple. In the New and Better Covenant Christ is crucified on the Passover, resurrected on the festival of first fruits (Barley) and then on Pentecost the Church is resurrected from dead Israel.

III.) Pentecost as Revelatory of God’s Intent

God’s intent was to build His Church. Pentecost was revelatory of that purpose.

1.) God would build His Church as a Nation of Nations.

The dividing wall that kept the Gentile from all the spiritual promises would be torn down (Eph. 2:14) All men from every tribe tongue and Nation are now commanded to Repent. And when they are given repentance they are placed into the one body of Christ the Church.

As we see at Pentecost though that Church is comprised of Nations. At Pentecost God baptizes Babel, which is to say that God still insists upon distinct Nations just as He did at Babel but now He calls all those Nations to bow to Christ. We know this because, as the text teaches, all those present heard the Gospel in their own ethnic tongues,

8 [f]How then hear we every man our own language, wherein we were born? 9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, and of Judea, and of Cappadocia, of Pontus, and Asia, 10 And of Phrygia, and Pamphylia, of Egypt, and of the parts of Libya, which is beside Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, and [g]Jews, and Proselytes,11 Cretes, and Arabians: we heard them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.

If God intended to build a Church that was not diverse all would have heard the Gospel in one language. This is why we can say that at Pentecost God Baptized Babel. His intent is to provide a Spiritual unity in the context of diversity thus reinforcing the idea of the One and the Many as found in the Trinity.

So God intends to build a Universal Church that is a Nation of Nations. All the ends of the earth would see the salvation of God” was seen on the day of Pentecost and in the book of Acts as the Gospel comes upon people of diverse tongues and then covers the known world via the Missionary effort.

Unity in diversity. The Unity seen in that all in the Church can call one another “Brothers.” Diversity seen in the promise that it is people from every “Tribe, tongue, and Nation” in their Tribes, Tongues, and Nations, that make up the Church (Rev. 21:24f).

This is what Calvin Seminary Scholar of yesteryear Wyngaarden was getting at when he wrote in another context,

“Thus the highest description of Jehovah’s covenant people is applied to Egypt, — “my people,” — showing that the Gentiles will share the covenant blessings, not less than Israel. Yet the several nationalities are here kept distinct, even when Gentiles share, in the covenant blessing, on a level of equality with Israel. Egypt, Assyria and Israel are not nationally merged. And the same principles, that nationalities are not obliterated, by membership in the covenant, applies, of course, also in the New Testament dispensation.”

Wyngaarden, pp. 101-102.

2.) God would build His Church by the Power of the Holy Spirit working in the lives of His Witnesses

Ten days after the Ascension of the Lord Christ, He, with the Father, sent forth the Holy Spirit as the Agent to empower the Church to accomplish what in His Authority had deigned and ordained to be accomplished. That which He has ordained is the triumph of the Gospel over all the Earth. Over the lands of the Usurper Allah. Over the lands of the Usurper Jew god, over the lands of the Usurper Hindu gods. Over all lands. The Holy Spirit empowers us to the end of working towards triumph in light of the Triumph of the Lord Christ over all the Kings who would put off His chains.

Immediately upon Pentecost the Spirit filled Church fans out, eventually across the known world, to take the Gospel outwards. It is one of the most fascinating aspects of History that a tiny tiny oppressed minority ended up conquering the World. And yet that is exactly what happened.

We need to be reminded of this today when we are increasingly becoming an oppressed minority. Numbers are irrelevant if the Church is operates in terms of being filled by the Spirit of Christ. We shall continue to be His witnesses and He will express the Dominion He currently has through His Spirit filled, Gospel wielding Church.

IV.) Pentecost as God’s Methodology (Word & Sacrament)

Notice that the really big news of Pentecost is not so much the attendant display of Phenomena as it is the fact that a Sermon is preached and a Sacrament distributed. The sermon was focused on Christ. It recited the Historical facts. It was hardly a “wowzer” in terms of pulpiteering ability but it was Spirit filled and it found its target.

Luther said,

“Take me, for example. I opposed indulgences and all papists, but never by force. I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word: otherwise I did nothing. And then, while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip of Amsdorf the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it. I did nothing: the Word did it all. Had I wanted to start trouble…. I could have started such a little game at Worms that even the emperor wouldn’t have been safe. But what would it have been? A mug’s game. I did nothing: I left it to the Word.”

One of the major problems with the current Church is that it has lost its ability to

1.) Know the Word
2.) Trust the Word to accomplish what needs to be accomplished.

Instead we try to jazz things up. But like Luther we need to “leave it to the Word.”

The Word creates what it calls for. The Spirit filled Word is God’s agency to overcome the hardest hearts. We spend time planning, marketing, polling, but if we would just trust the Word God would do it all.

We come this morning to speak about a subject which many erudite Theologians have insisted is the Theme of Scripture. One prominent theologian once said that covenant theology was the architectonic principle of Reformed theology. As such the time we are able to give to it is totally inadequate to the immensity of its subject matter. Our subject matter this morning is the Biblical motif of covenant, specifically as to it’s sign and seal of initiation — Baptism. Narrowing it down even further we will spend some time considering the place of God’s children’s children in the covenant.

It is not to much to say that until we start thinking rightly again on this matter of covenant the Church will remain hopelessly compromised in its identity and mission, just as it currently is.

We will start with our cursory examination today by looking at Acts 2, though in doing so we will be coming in at a point in the story of covenant that has already long been told for centuries. However, working from Acts two we will work backwards in a kind of retrospective movement to consider the long roots of covenant.

As we come to Acts 2 we have the fairly familiar story of God’s gathering of His Church on the day of Pentecost. The Disciples receive the Promised Holy Spirit and the immediate consequence is that Peter Preaches a Sermon. At the end of his sermon the hearers cry out, “Men and Brethren, what shall we do?”

In vs. 38 Peter, speaking as the mouthpiece of God, and calls on them to Repent, (that is to turn to God out of sorrow for sin) and be Baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Peter then tells them the consequent of this action will be the receiving of the gift of the Holy Spirit. in vs. 39 Peter tells them that the “promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

We want to examine these words of vs. 39 a bit more closely. Peter speaks of “the promise,” and we are suggesting this morning that “the promise” that Peter speaks of is another way of speaking of “the covenant.”

Before we go any further then we should try to get in our minds first what this promise is and then what a covenant is and then the relation between the two.

Now as to the promise that Peter speaks of I believe we must identify as God’s age old promise to the Israel of Israel that He would be their God and they would be His people. Peter speaks of this Promise to these Jews who were cut to the heart in conviction as a warrant for why repentance and baptism is extended unto them. So, when Peter references “the Promise” the repentant Jews present would have known this is what he was speak referencing. This Promise of God to the Church in the Old Covenant is littered throughout the pages of the Old Testament.

Genesis 17:7-8 “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

Exodus 6:7 “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”

Exodus 19:5-6 (with 20:2) “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Theses are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel…. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

Exodus 29:45-46 “I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.”

Leviticus 26:11-12 “I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.”

Deuteronomy 4:20 “But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.”

Deuteronomy 7:6 “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

Deuteronomy 14:2 “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

Deuteronomy 26:18 “And the LORD has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments,”

Deuteronomy 29:13 “That he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

2 Samuel 7:24 “And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O LORD, became their God.”

1 Chron. 17:22 “And you made your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O LORD, became their God.”

Jeremiah 7:23 But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’”

Jeremiah 11:4 “That I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God,”

Jeremiah 24:7 “I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.”

Jeremiah 30:22 “And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

Jeremiah 31:1 “At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.”

Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Jeremiah 32:38 “And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”

Ezekiel 11:20 “That they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”

Ezekiel 14:11 “That the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor defile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord GOD.”

Ezekiel 34:24 “And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken.”

Ezekiel 34:30 “And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord GOD.”

Ezekiel 36:27-28 “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

Ezekiel 37:23 “They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”

Ezekiel 37:27 “My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Hosea 2:23 “And I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people‘; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

Zechariah 8:8 “And I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.”

Zechariah 13:9 “And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people‘; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

2 Corinthians 6:16-17 “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,’”

1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

Revelation 21:7 “The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”

So, when Peter speaks of the Promise that was to them and their children he is giving them God’s warrant that repentance and Baptism is for them.

Now, this, in turn, allows us to speak a little more concretely about the idea of covenant. We have said that when Peter speaks about “the Promise” it is a short-hand way of speaking of God’s covenant. The idea of covenant then means a coming together to form an alliance of a people who will remain distinct from those who are not part of the alliance. It presupposes two or more parties who come together to make a contract, agreeing on promises, stipulations, privileges, and responsibilities.

We still enter into covenants though we seldom use that language. The covenant most widely known yet today is the covenant of marriage. A Bride and a Groom come together to form an alliance. The two of them who have formed the alliance will remain distinct from those who are not part of the alliance. In the Marriage covenant promises are made, privileges set forth and responsibilities are owned. In this Marriage covenant there is a relational reality between husband and wife but that relational reality has a legal foundation. That legal foundation is covenant.

So, when Peter speaks of “the Promise” he is speaking of God’s covenant Promise that He would be their God and they would be His people. This promise was the foundation of the covenant where people were gathered as a people who were distinct from those people who had not been gathered into this covenant. In this covenant between God and His people there is a relational reality between the People of God and the Lord Christ but that relational reality has a legal foundation.

Thus far we have established that “the Promise” that Peter speaks of is the God’s Promise that forms the Covenant. We noted what that Promise had always been through Scripture. When Peter calls on them to repent and be Baptized what is being formed then is a covenant community. The community of the people of God. Sometimes called “the Church.”

We have said that the covenant means a coming together to form an alliance of a people who will remain distinct from those who are not part of the alliance. It presupposes two or more parties who come together to make a contract, agreeing on promises, stipulations, privileges, and responsibilities.

Here in Acts 2 Peter calls on convicted men to be confident that they can enter into this covenant as God’s distinct people based upon the fact that the Lord Christ’s death and resurrection forms the legal writ whereby they can escape the rebellion against God that was manifested in their crucifixion of Christ. Most simply put that legal writ whereby we can come into the covenant where God’s favor exist is the truth that Christ died as our substitute.

Two things to note before we move on

Notice the continuity we find between the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament God had made Promises and those Promises are being referenced in the collection of the post Pentecost Church. Whatever is going on in Acts is not a going on that is unrelated to the goings on we find in the Old Testament. To understand Acts 2 you must understand the Old Testament.

Second, notice the legal quality of covenant. The modern church forever has on their lips the idea of “their relationship with Jesus,” but whatever personal relationship exists between the believer and the Lord Christ is a personal relationship that is defined by legal categories such as substitution, reconciliation, redemption, ransom, propitiation, expiation, atonement, justification, imputation and covenant. And the fact that you may not be familiar with those terms indicates that we the Clergy — that I as clergy — have failed you. The modern church today is all about the relationship as seen by their constant sappy “God is my girlfriend” choruses but there remains among us precious few who understand that the relationship with Jesus, which is so incessantly spoken of, is only as legitimate as the legal foundation upon which it sits.

So, thus far we’ve identified the “Promise” that Peter refers to and we’ve attached that to the idea of covenant. Subsequently we have spoken a bit about the idea of covenant.

Let us briefly consider Baptism at this point.

Following Jesus’ words in Mt. 28 to Baptize the Nations Peter calls for the Hebrews to be Baptized.

Baptism then becomes what is known as the “sign of the covenant.” It is the means by which God marks out those that are uniquely His as distinguished from those that are not His. I have, in the past, likened this sign of the covenant as akin to ranchers branding their cattle. When they see their brand on a Steer they know it is theirs.

Previous to Baptism the sign of the covenant was circumcision but that sign in changed to Baptism in the new covenant. This change of sign is consistent with what Jesus said when He taught that one does not put new wine into old wineskins. Circumcision was part and parcel of the old wineskin that had to be replaced. It was replaced with Baptism. In the replacement we see that the bloody rite was set aside for a bloodless rite. This is because that with the work of Christ all bloody rites had been fulfilled. Circumcision had been a picture of Christ’s work but now that Christ had been cut off there was no longer a need for a rite that reminded of blood.

And so enters the waters of Baptism. Scripture puts the highest regard on Baptism calling it in Titus the washing of regeneration. St. Peter can even say that “Baptism saves us.” St. Paul can remind the formally pagan Corinthians of their Baptism saying, “but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God,” thus providing linkage between baptism, sanctification and justification.

Something else we should note here. The fact that all of Israel’s rites were changed or set aside reminds us again that God is done with Israel as a Nation. National Israel is no more God’s people then I am a Rothschild. In point of fact Scripture can refer to National Israel as a “synagogue of Satan.” National Israel as been as thoroughly set aside by God as circumcision has been set aside by Baptism, though we anticipate great numbers of individual Hebrews being in the Kingdom of God.

Now we are ready to look at more of vs. 39. When Peter speaks of this “Promise” and, by way of implication, this covenant, Peter also says in terms of the Promise that it is for not only to those hearing Peter’s sermon but it is also for their children.

Now we have to try to hear Peter’s words through the ears of a covenant people who had been shaped by centuries of living in terms of covenant categories. A faithful Hebrew could only have heard these words “and to your children” as meaning the Promise of the Covenant long established was a promise that included all who were underneath the authority of the head of the household. It is the way it had always been in Scripture.

Indeed, it is the witness of Scripture to believe that since we are not our own and since we belong to God then our children belong to God as well since the Scriptures teach that children are a heritage FROM the Lord, the fruit of HIS reward. We believe that when Peter announces that ‘the promise is to you and to your Children and to as many who are afar off’ that a Believing mindset (Hebrew at that time) would have heard those words in light of how God had ALWAYS historically dealt with families, and we find nothing in Scripture that suggests that in the New Covenant God deals any differently with His people on this issue. Nowhere do the Scriptures teach that children are not to be given all the privileges of what it means to belong to God. Nowhere in the Scriptures are we taught that children must wait for covenant privileges and covenant signs. We believe that all men are either in the Kingdom of Darkness or the Kingdom of God’s dear Son (Colossians 1:13) and we do not believe that God has given His Kingdom people children who do not normatively partake of both covenantal and Kingdom blessings.

We believe with Scripture that whenever God made covenant with man He always included the children of whom He made covenant with in that covenantal arrangement. This is true in the covenant of Works with Adam as seen in the curse upon Adam’s posterity that followed Adam’s fall. It wasn’t just Adam and Eve who fell but all their posterity. We see this family solidarity in the Covenant with Noah, in the Covenant with Abraham, and in the Covenant with David. The general principle of children going with the parents is seen in the delivery of Lot with his daughters, in the curse on Sodom, in the destruction of the Canaanites and Amalkites, and in the destruction of Achan and his family for Achan’s sin. In all of these the infant children go with the parents. It seems that it be requisite that if in the New and Better covenant this common thread were to be reversed there would have been a clear demarcation that the contrary was now expected. There is not a hint in the New Testament that the children no longer are the recipients of the covenant Promise which Peter speaks of here.

Now, we might ask, why might this idea be so unnatural to us that children are included in the covenant?

I can’t answer that with certainty but I can hazard a guess or two.

Guess #1

America was formed on the social theories of John Locke. Locke’s social contract theory is posited on the idea of the sovereign individual and teaches that human beings are isolated and abstracted egos. Before we are anything else we are sovereign individual integers. These sovereign individual integers may make alliances so that “us” and “we” are uttered but those alliances and the corporate structures that result (i.e. – general will) are all based upon the notion of the sovereign self.

According to the Lockean social contract myth human beings are isolated Egos. Each of us have a will of our own, and each is free to make choices on our own. We are sovereign “I’s” first and foremost, though we may, for various selfish reasons, combine with other I’s into a political society

If this is really what is going on, then the most effective argument for infant baptism may be the creation account which teaches that man in isolation is not fully man. It is not until the creation of Eve, and so the inauguration of the community whole, that man is fully self. In short, man only finds the meaning of the individual self in the context of community. The vast majority of the contemporary Church denies this insisting that man as the individual must give assent to the community whole – The Church with Christ as King – before the community whole can recognize the individual as a member of the whole community.

The reality that people develop as members of community before they choose the community to which they will belong is part of the warp and woof of life. We don’t wait for a baby to accede to being part of a family before it is part of the family. What we concede to family life the contemporary Church denies to God and His family-Church. Lee didn’t embrace being a McAtee before he was a member of the McAtee family. In point of fact Lee’s self-understanding will only develop in the context of his understanding and place in the community whole. With that reality being true for all people it strikes me as past curious that the the great majority of the Church today requires their children to embrace being a member of the covenant before they can be acknowledged as a member of the covenant. The only thing that can explain such a mindset is a basic presupposition that insist that the sovereign self is prior to the community. This notion we do not find to be a truth drawn from Scripture.

So, epistemologically self conscious Reformed people bring their children to the Baptismal font because we don’t buy into the deeply embedded American notion of social contract theory. We are not Lockeans. We are Christians.

Guess #2

My second guess as to why we find it so difficult to think of children as being in the covenant receiving God’s covenant promise to be their God is because we forget that our response to the Gospel Promise is not the Gospel. The very dubious argument goes that since children can’t respond to the Gospel by repenting and believing (a very questionable assertion) therefore the Gospel can’t reach them. But the Gospel Promise of God that He shall be our God and we His people is not dependent upon our response. Rather our response is dependent upon His Promise.

It is true … Babies can’t respond in ways we can catalog, to the covenant Promise.

And let us all thank God that is true because what better imagery could you possibly have that God does a solo act when it comes to determining who is and who isn’t in the covenant and so a recipient of the Promise then a helpless child who is only capable of receiving the promise?

Don’t get me wrong. I look for the proper response in the people I am charged to keep. Proper responses to the Gospel promise, in terms of ever increasing walking in obedience to God’s law, is to be expected along the way of ever increasing maturity in the faith. But as necessary as our proper responses are to the Gospel they are not the Gospel. The Gospel is that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself not imputing their trespasses unto them. God does all the saving. We are all just passive recipients in our reception of the covenant Promise and helpless babies being baptized is the best picture we could have of that.

Perhaps this is why Christ said that “one must become as a little child in order to enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” Perhaps it is the case that when we require a response to the Gospel from our babies in order to give them the liquid Gospel of Baptism we have at that moment turned God into the one who waits on our initiation before He responds as opposed to our confession that God always initiates before man responds.

I must say a word here about the purpose of this covenant community.

The covenant community has been formed as the Church militant. We will have plenty of time to rest when we are on the other side gathered as “the Church at rest.” Christ has told us that we are a army when He told Peter that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against us.

The Church, as God’s covenant community, is God’s activist community. We are commissioned to make our own long marches through the institutions. In Christ we are already have the guarantee of victory. But we still must fight.

Our orders are to fight
Then if I win
or bravely fail
What matters it?
God only doth prevail

The servant craveth naught
Except to serve with might
I was not told
to win or lose
Our orders are to fight

We’ve been placed into the covenant community with the Promise of God to be our God with the purpose to be His shock troops. Yes, it is true that we have internal enemies to contend with (pride, selfishness, envy) but let us not so concentrate on those enemies that we forget that we have external enemies to contend with as well.

If the covenant community prays “Thine Kingdom come” then they should work to that end as well. The covenant community must repent of its retreatism, its quietism, and its pietism, and become once again a people who in taking every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ, seek to extend the present Crown Rights of the Lord Christ into every area of life.

On this score O. Palmer Robertson could say,

“The total life involvement of the covenant relationship provides the framework for considering the connection between the ‘great commission’ and the ‘cultural mandate.’ Entrance into God’s kingdom may occur only by repentance and faith, which requires the preaching of the Gospel. This ‘gospel,’ however, must not be conceived in the narrowest possible sense. It is the gospel of the ‘Kingdom.’ It involves discipling men to Jesus Christ. Integral to that discipling process is the awakening of an awareness of the obligations of man to the totality of God’s creation. Redeemed man, remade in God’s image, must fulfill – even surpass – the role originally determined for the first man. In such a manner, the mandate to preach the gospel and the mandate to form a culture glorifying to God merge with one another.”

O. Palmer Robertson
The Christ Of The Covenants – pg. 83

I told you at the outset that the time we give to the idea of covenant this morning will be totally inadequate to the subject matter at hand. And now I’ve proven it. I’ve possibly left you with more questions then I have answered. I am ever ready to receive questions if people should have them. If some of this sounded confusing I can only ask you to join with me in my constant prayer that God would open our eyes to even more of His covenant truth.