The following video is from the YouTube site, Ligonier Ministries: video-page link, https://www.youtube.com/@ligonier/videos
My purpose for posting this video is to provide readers with teaching that shows the intimate connections between the Old and New Testaments, especially seen in God’s plan of redemption which was first mentioned in Genesis 3.
I hope readers might see that salvation has, since the fall, always been by God’s grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Since that time, salvation has never been by works.
God’s plan of redemption is most clearly seen via His covenants. In this video, R C provides some clear teaching that should help Christians see how God has used covenants to carry out His promises to those whom He has planned to save.
Highlight statements are below video.
Ligonier’s video description: There is a war on God’s Word from both within and outside the church, and doubts about the trustworthiness of God’s word arise in the hearts of the faithful. How can we be sure God will do all He has promised? Dr. Sproul examines this thought as he explains what measures God has taken to ensure His promises to us.
The Covenant, R C Sproul
HIGHLIGHT POINTS [bracketed statements, underscoring and emboldening are mine]:
The points below do not convey any of the relevant stories that R C told to make his points more meaningful; transitions….
- Initial 3 minutes were attempts at humor
- 3-6 minutes: he explained the idea of ‘life verse’ and shared his, which is very relevant to his sermon:
- Gen 15:17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces
- R C started reading at Genesis 15:1
- Gen 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
- Gen 15:4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
- R C explained that Genesis 15:6 IS the gospel “Counted it to him as righteousness” that is ‘justification’
- When Paul unfolds the gospel in Romans, he explains that ‘justification’ is by faith alone; that is, Christ’s righteousness is IMPUTED to all who are saved by faith in Christ’s blood and righteousness
- Gen 15:7 And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
- Gen 15:8 But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
- [R C explains Suzerain treaties as he is beginning to talk about the covenant, around the 13 minute mark, listen to the sermon for that very relevant discussion]
- In verse 8 above, Abram needed assurance. After he asked God that question, God said
- Gen 15:9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon”
- R C speculated that Abram was likely thinking, I asked how I could know I’d possess what you promised, how is this relevant?
- Gen 15:10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.
- An Isle way was created between the haves [each participant of the covenant was supposed to walk through the pieces and swear that if they failed to keep their part, they would be cut in half]
- Gen 15:17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. [A theophany, an instance of the invisible God becoming visible, as He did in the pillar of cloud and fire…]
- The big point above is that God showed Abram the truth of His word when He Himself passed through the pieces of slain animals, indicating that He would undergo such change if He did not keep His word to Abram: that is, He confirmed His word
- R C spoke about Mary and her encounter with Gabriel, her fear and other aspects of that encounter. R C pointed out that Mary, in her Magnificat, praised God for remembering His covenant with Abram
- Luke 1:54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
- That promise described in Genesis 15:17 when He passed through the slain animals
- R C noted that throughout the pages of the Old Testament, this covenant God made with Abram is renewed, expanded, more and more is revealed as He extends it through Isaac and Jacob; Jacob and his children to the land of Goshen
- The children of God’s promise were brought into bondage in Egypt as the following verses indicate God told Abram
- Gen 15:13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. [Text through verse 21 explains what will happen to Abraham’s children in Egypt…]
- Exo 3:11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
- R C noted that God formed a nation, and that the covenant God made with Abraham would be clarified more via the Law God would give His people through Moses; God added the ceremonies to the promises of the Old Covenant
- The ceremonial law was abolished in the New Testament, and the tendency of Christians to ignore the Old Testament all together, saying things like they don’t want to commit the Judaizing heresy
- His big point was, that when modern Christians do that, they are cutting themselves off from the whole history of redemption and disconnect the Old Testament from the New
- Such Christians do not bother to read Leviticus, Numbers…
- But if one examines the Old Testament ceremonies, he will find that they were ‘driving Christ’ [he likely means, picturing Christ, foreshadowing Christ, pointing to Christ]
- When God rescued His people from Egypt, when the Angel of Death slew the first born who had no lamb’s blood on the lintels; the blood identified God’s people; whom He Passed over
- God required Israel to have a yearly Passover festival to remember what He had done
- They were to recall that He had redeemed them from their afflictions
- NOT: this we do to remember what God did for the older generations of Israelites, because the Passover festival celebrates the redemption of every believer in the Old Covenant, the current one’s celebrating it also
- As if they could say, “We were there too, this is our Exodus…”
- “This is our rescue from bondage”
- And that was carried on year after year after year…
- Until the night in which our Savior was betrayed: He sat down with His disciples, He said that He longed to celebrate the Passover with them one more time
- In the middle of the Passover liturgy, Jesus dared to presume to change the ancient liturgy when He took the bread and said, “This is now my body, which is broken for you”
- What? Change the most important celebration of the Old Covenant?
- He took the cup and said, “This is now the cup of the New Covenant, which is in My blood”
- A new bloody covenant, not by a lamb that was butchered to rub its blood on the door
- Not via the carcass of a three-year-old heifer, or of a ram or a she goat
- My blood is going to be sacrificed
- When Jesus supped with His disciples, it was not the hour of His sacrifice
- The eating of His body and drinking of His blood in the upper room was not the sacrifice
- That would happen the next day, which would occur, ONCE for all [Heb 9:28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many…]
- During the remaining times that the disciples celebrated this event, they never offered Christ again to God
- The celebration of the Eucharist in early church was never a sacrifice
- It was a sacrificial meal – R C goes to Leviticus 7:11
- Lev 7:11 “And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings that one may offer to the LORD
- R C read through verse 21 where it talked about eating unworthily
- Every time the people of God come together at the Lord’s Table, they don’t just remember something, this is not just a mental exercise, they come to the feast of the Lamb, to the sacrificial feast where they are called to eat of the flesh of the sacrifice that has been offered once for all
- All of which is foreshadowed in the peace offering of the Old Covenant
- After the people offered the fat… commanded in the peace offering, then the flesh that was left was to be enjoyed by the people who made the offering; they participated in the feast an in the flesh of the victim that was sacrificed
- Our Lord said, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink My blood, you will not come into My kingdom”
- It would take me 10 years to explain all the issues, theological and ecological that focus on the Lord’s Supper
- Whatever else the Lord’s Supper is, it is a sign and a seal of the New Covenant that Christ has made with us in His body and in His blood
- It is the law of my church never to celebrate the Lord’s Supper without having the preaching of the word
- Yet we think nothing of having the preaching of the word without its sign, its seal [like at the beginning of the sermon when God made a covenant with Abraham to assure to Abraham that His word was true]
- Christ Himself instituted that the disciples come together on the Lord’s day to study the doctrine of the apostles; to pray together; and for the breaking of bread
- Because they understood that when God makes a promise in His word, He confirms that with a sacrament
- We’re not only losing the word in our church today, but we’re losing the sacraments as well
- The war against the Word, in our time; has become the war against the sacraments. These are God’s sign, His vows, His oaths
- Just as when an ancient king would issue a decree in the marketplace, the people looked for that waxed impression that bore the mark of the signet ring of the king, indicating it was from him who was in authority
- God’s word and sacraments must be distinguished, but never separated
The following links accompanied the video of this post at YouTube:
This message is from our 2002 National Conference, War on the Word: • War on the Word: 2002 National Confer…
Purchase this conference on DVD: http://www.ligonier.org/store/war-on-…