The Covenants and Infant Baptism

Introduction to the Final Study on Covenants and Infant Baptism

0:00 This adult Sunday school class was held on February 26th, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:11 This is going to be interesting. If I start to read out of that, I'll be wrong too. Ah, that's better. Yeah, that's good. Very good.

0:20 Now, let's ask for the Lord's blessing upon our study this morning. Our Father, we pray that as we come to consider this broad and foundational category of revelation that you've given to us in your Holy Word, you'll help us to have a basic understanding and grasp upon the revelation that you've given us about your covenants, and also, Lord, that we may take to heart the great comfort that you've given to us in your Holy Word through these things. Come to us, Lord, that these considerations this morning may not merely be academic, but we pray, Lord, that they may touch not only upon our minds, but upon our hearts, that we may commune with you through your Holy Word. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

1:26 Well, we come this morning to the final study. In...

1:34 In respect of this matter of infant baptism, and we come to both begin and conclude the fifth unit of thought. And the fifth unit of thought, as you know, has to do with the divine covenants and the way in which the biblical teaching on the divine covenants relates to the matter of infant baptism. Now, we've already...

2:04 We've already considered the biblical teaching concerning the subjects of baptism, and then the significance of baptism, and then the sacraments, and then the church, and now today, finally, we're going to deal with the biblical teaching concerning the covenants and its relationship to this matter. Now, the elders have asked me to deal with this matter thoroughly, and I believe that it is not an overstatement to say that I have attempted...

2:34 I have attempted to comply with their request since we began these studies back in July, I believe, prior to my leaving for South Africa. On the other hand, the elders have also determined that this subject of the covenant ought not to be dealt with at this time thoroughly and in great detail. So I have not made a unilateral decision, although I must say I have had my part in the making of this decision. And...

3:04 They've determined that it would not be appropriate at this time to attempt to open up this matter of the covenant in great detail in the Sunday school class. However, you should know that detailed treatment of this subject is available. It's available in manuscript form, and it is material in this notebook that I have here, which is...

3:28 It covers about 212 pages of manuscript. I deal with it from two points of view. First of all, from a dogmatic point of view, and then secondly, from an exegetical point of view. And if any of you are interested in this material, it is available to you.

3:45 Please come and ask. What we've determined is not to give this material in great detail in the academy, in the Sunday school, but rather simply to take this stuff and attempt to put it into perspective in one Sunday school lesson. So what you're going to get today is...

4:03 It's an attempt. And, of course, to try to do that with notes would have been ridiculous. But I'm going to attempt to give you what, to me, is the heart of what's in those 212 pages. And the only way I can do that is to tell you what's in my heart about it.

4:18 There's no way I could go through a detailed analysis, but I want to tell you what sticks into my mind, because I figure, being myself simple, I spoke simply, if you know what I mean. That if I can tell you what's in my mind, then maybe I can get it into yours. And if I can get into yours what's in mine, hopefully you'll at least have that understanding of the heart of the matter. And if I, myself, can't understand it, then I assure you I can't explain it to you.

4:46 So there's little point in trying to go through 212 pages of notes in one lesson. It would be ridiculous. But what I wish to do is to give you a compendium of the biblical teaching to try to put this broad mass of materials into...

5:03 perspective. So I have simply two points this morning. First of all, I want to give you a summary and compendium of the biblical teaching concerning the covenants of God. And then secondly, I wish to address the matter of the relevance of this biblical teaching to the subject of infant baptism.

The Covenant as the Organizing Principle of Biblical Revelation

5:21 First of all, a summary and compendium of the biblical teaching concerning the covenants of God. And secondly, the relevance of this to the matter of infant baptism. All right. Firstly, a summary and compendium of the biblical teaching on God's covenants.

5:40 Now, the first thing that you need to recognize is that the covenant, the idea of covenant is a broad, overarching issue, which is vital to be grasped if we are to understand the structure of the revelation that God has given to us. In other words, you cannot help, but open up your Bible and come to grips with the subject of covenant. Why? Because your Bible is divided into two parts.

6:11 Now, that's kind of hard to deny. It's hard to miss. It's right there on the surface. Your Bible is divided into two parts.

6:19 And what are the two parts? The Old and the New. What? Covenants or Testaments.

6:26 Right. The Old Testament or Covenant and the New Testament or Covenant. So when you start to talk about the way in which the Bible, is divided up, you have to face right off the bat. Covenant is involved with it because it's divided into two parts.

6:41 And covenant is the organizing principle that determined that division. And the Old Covenant or the Old Testament is written or was written in Hebrew. And of course, in some parts, the language of their captivity are made, but basically the Hebrew and the new one was written in Greek. And what determined?

7:04 The fact that it would be broken up into two parts. Well, what determined it was the formation of two communities of people. Two communities of people who stood in covenant relationship to God. Who are those two communities of people?

7:29 Number one, the Hebrew nation who stood in the Old Covenant relationship to God. And number two, the Christian Church, which stands in the New Covenant relation to God. Now, it's just as far as I can understand, maybe that's too simple, but it's that's how I understand it. There's Old Testament and New Testament, because there's two covenant communities that have been established.

7:59 To the Old Covenant community was given the Old Covenant. To the New Covenant community is given, both Testaments, both the Old and the New, the entire Bible. The Old was not simply thrown out and discarded when the New came. Although there are some who would take that position upon the relationship between the Old and the New, that that which is canon for the Old is simply the Old, and that which is canon or rule or norm for the New is simply the New.

8:30 But God didn't do that, did he? He didn't just say, all right, now take your Old Testament, throw it away. Don't need that anymore. We got a New Covenant.

8:36 We got a New Testament. We're going to run everything by the New Testament and the New Testament alone. Now, that's not true. Your Bible's got two parts, not one.

8:43 It's got two parts, two parts. It's got an Old and it's got a New. And to the New Covenant community are given both the Old Testament and the New Testament, both of them, not just one of them. And it is the entire Bible, which is the rule for our thinking and practice, not just the New Testament.

9:05 Having said that, it indicates, then, that there's a close or organic relationship between the Old Covenant community and the New Covenant community because there's a close and organic relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. And the New Testament defines our relationship to the Old Testament, and it's multifaceted. So having said those things, next, recognizing the important place of this concept, the covenant in our thinking, we need to ask what happened in order to bring to pass the existence of these two communities. And what happened is God broke into history and performed a saving work. God broke into history and performed a saving work. And as a result of that saving work of God, these two covenant communities were formed. All right, what was the saving work of God that resulted in the formation, of the original covenant community, or the Jews, the Old Covenant community?

Formation of Old and New Covenant Communities: Redemption and Inheritance

10:13 What did he do? Howard, what did he do? All right, he redeemed them in bondage in Egypt. All right, he accomplished the redemption. Is that not true?

10:35 Right? And so then he made a covenant with the redeemed community. Is that not true? And who are the redeemed community? They're redeemed from what? From Egypt, right?

10:44 And you notice that the Old Covenant's got two foundations. That's why we have the book called Deuteronomy, right? The second law, so-called, right? The Old Covenant, first of all, was established with the generation who experienced the redemption from Egypt firsthand.

11:01 And they miraculously crossed the body of water. They miraculously crossed the Red Sea. Then what happens? It's established again with another generation, the very next generation.

11:14 And the continuity between those two generations is found in two people, Joshua and Caleb, who were in both places. The Covenant is established again on the plains of Moab, again with the generation that's going to cross miraculously a body of water, and that's the River Jordan. And those people are being brought to their inheritance, right? And what do they receive? The land of Canaan.

11:43 Did you see that? You got two bodies of water. You got the two halves of the Mosaic Covenant. You've got in between them Joshua and Caleb that joins them together, and the period of time that they spent in the wilderness.

11:56 They miraculously crossed the Red Sea. They miraculously crossed the River Jordan. They're redeemed from bondage to Egypt, and they received the land of Canaan as their inheritance. Now, those are the foundational generations of this Old Covenant community.

12:11 And the concepts identified with the establishment of a covenant community, a community and covenant with God, are these, the reception of inheritance and redemption. Redemption, and reception of inheritance. Now, that's the point. Now, the foundational generation is the generation that experienced these things firsthand.

12:33 Then the covenant is established with the foundational generation, the generation that experiences the redemption and the reception of the inheritance firsthand. It's set up through successive generations, Jews, and it's consummated the final generation. And what's the final generation? What marks the consummation of the covenant?

13:09 Well, I'll tell you what it is. It's the coming of the Messiah. When Jesus says to them, the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. When he says the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost, he says the blood of all the righteous that's been shed is going to come upon this generation.

13:34 It's in that generation that their Jewish sacrificial system is dismantled. It's in that, it's in that generation that their temple is destroyed and God makes a full end of the cultists of the old covenant and brings it to a close forever as far as the history of the world is concerned. So that which they were looking to, which was to bring things to a consummation and which actually did, it was the coming of the Messiah. So you have the foundational generation established with the group that experienced redemption and inheritance firsthand.

14:06 You have successive generations who lived in the land of, and then scattered abroad, et cetera. But anyway, it's established with them and it's consummated with the coming of Messiah. Now you find a similar pattern with the new covenant. You find the foundational generation, you find successive generations, and you find a final generation marked by the coming of Messiah.

14:36 Again, you find the foundational generation marked by the experience of the accomplishment of redemption and the reception of inheritance. Now, here's the difference. The redemption experience is not bondage from Egypt, but what is it bondage to? Sin, correct.

14:58 And the inheritance received is not the land of Canaan, but what is it? What was that? The Spirit. Yeah.

15:08 Very interesting to notice that you have a certain, you have a certain picture within a picture here, all right, which I find remarkable because there's another, there's another covenant, there's another covenant, identified with this old covenant that we need to have to put the whole thing together. And we're going to look at this later on. There's an Abrahamic covenant and then there's a Davidic covenant, which are covenants made with God's righteous servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs, and also covenant made with David, God's righteous servant. Now these covenants, these servant covenants relate to, both relate to the same community covenant with Israel.

15:50 It's very interesting to note that as far as the reception of their inheritance, was concerned, they didn't get the whole parcel of Canaan all at once, did they? What did they get first? Well, in the time of Joshua, the foundational generation received what? The earnest of their inheritance.

16:06 And you read in the Old Testament that they continued to drive them out until the time of David, until the coming of the king. And when the king came, when the Lord's anointed was revealed, when he was established, then at that point, they received, their inheritance in full under the reign of David and Solomon, and David ruled over all the kings from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates, every single inch of real estate that was promised to Abraham and to his posterity, the Jews. David and Solomon ruled over the whole thing. So you see that the pattern of the reception of the inheritance is also revealed, that they received their inheritance, first of all, they got the down payment or the earnest, and then they gradually received it until they got their inheritance, the land of Canaan in full. And what marked the full reception of their inheritance? It was the coming of the Lord's anointed. Well, interesting, isn't it?

17:01 See the parallel. You find the same thing here. You find that we receive the earnest of our inheritance, and we receive it until the coming of the Lord's anointed. And again, at the time that the Lord Jesus Christ comes, we then receive the inheritance in full.

17:19 So indeed, it's the inheritance of the Spirit, and the Spirit now is the earnest of our inheritance, and we will receive the full, the down payment, the abiding, the full manifestation of the Spirit in glory, in eternity, in heaven, when Jesus Christ comes, and we're ushered into our eternal inheritance. Right? So it's again, at the coming of the Lord's anointed, that we receive the full deposit of our inheritance. All right.

17:49 Now, having said that, try to put a few structural things up on the board. We have the foundational generation of the New Covenant community, which is the apostolic generation, and we have successive generations of Christians until the final generation at the second coming, when this is consummated into the eternal state. All right. So there you have a parallel.

The Framework of Salvation: Two Types of Covenants

18:18 Right now, having said this and attempting to put the things into perspective, then you can see that this concept of the covenant, should have an important place in our doctrine of salvation, and thankfully it does in the academy. Now, in terms of the doctrine of salvation, we have five parts. All right. Part one is the plan of salvation, which equals predestination, indicating that God did not simply work salvation to his people in a vacuum, but that from all eternity, God planned salvation. Now, secondly, the framework of salvation, which is God's covenants. That's the central feature in the framework. There are other dimensions, but that's the central one.

19:18 Thirdly, the accomplishment of salvation. Fourthly, the application of salvation. And fifthly, the consummation of salvation. And the accomplishment of salvation has to do with the one, and the application of salvation has to do with the many, and the consummation of salvation has to do with the union of the one and the many at the second coming of Christ when we enter into the eternal state.

19:46 The accomplishment of salvation by the one man involves the person and work of Jesus Christ. The application of salvation to the many has three parts, sections one, two, and three. We deal, first of all, with the blessings that they receive, then the community, and then the agent who brings these blessings to them. The agent who gets the blessings is the Holy Spirit.

20:14 The community formed is the church, and the blessings that they receive, that's the blessings of salvation, justification, sanctification, adoption, the gift of the Spirit, et cetera. Now, where then have we been? Now, I want you to notice that even as everything is determined by the plan of salvation, in other words, God planned in eternity to make these covenants, and God planned in eternity within the framework of these covenants to send Jesus Christ to accomplish the salvation of his people, and God planned in eternity to form his church, and God planned in eternity to apply redemption by giving the gift of repentance and faith to his people, and God planned in eternity to consummate redemption with the second coming of Christ, et cetera. All right, God planned all that in eternity. Now, we have a similar thing with respect to the framework. God established the framework by which we could understand what Jesus Christ was going to do when he came to accomplish our redemption, and what happens to us, the many who experience the application of this redemption.

21:24 And so, what you need to see is that there's going to be two parts to this framework. There's going to be one part to the framework that corresponds to the accomplishment of redemption through the one, and there's going to be another part of the framework that corresponds to the application of redemption to the many. And the one and the many, since that's the crucial concept, what Jesus does for his people and the people for whom Jesus does it, the one and the many, that's the crucial concept of understanding, God's work of salvation. All right, if that's true, then that's going to be revealed in the framework, and sure enough, it is.

22:00 There are two types of covenants which God makes. He makes one covenant with his son, and he makes another covenant with his people. He makes one type of covenant with his son, and he makes another type of covenant with his people, and the various covenants that God makes falls into these categories. The old ones were shadowy, and some of them were pictures of the gospel, of the covenant that God makes with his son, and some of them are pictures of the covenant that God makes with believers, those who trust in his son, those who are his people.

22:35 Right, now, what I call these, there's various terms that theologians give for these, but what I call these is, I call this one the righteous servant covenant, and you can see where that came from, and I call this one, well, a saved community covenant. Right, and you can see, there are different types of these two different types of covenants. There's a righteous servant covenant, and then there's a saved community covenant. God makes covenants with his righteous servants, and when he does that, he made a covenant like that with Noah.

23:18 He made a covenant like that with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, made a covenant like that with David, and those are pictures of the covenant that he makes with his son, and then he makes saved community covenants. He made two of those. He's made a saved community covenant with the entire group of people that was saved from the flood. Well, I should say the entire, I don't know, the people's the right word.

23:41 I should say the entire group of creatures that was saved from the flood, because it included men and animals too. What they all had in common was they were all in the ark. They were all saved from the flood, and he made another saved community covenant, which we just looked at with the people who were saved from Egypt and received the land of Canaan as inheritance, and those two saved community covenants are pictures of the covenant that he makes with those who are saved from their sins right now. We need to understand then that there are two different types of covenants and that these two different types correspond to the biblical doctrine of salvation because what God is doing is giving us the framework in which he works out salvation. So in this category, there goes what's called the antediluvian covenant, the one that God made with Noah prior to the flood, the covenant that God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchal covenant, and the covenant that God made with David. And these all are pictures of what's called the covenant of redemption, which is the covenant that God made with Jesus. And then you have these saved community covenants, the post-diluvian Noahic covenant, the one that he made with everyone in the ark, everyone that was saved in the ark after the flood,

25:11 and the one that he made with the nation of Israel who experienced redemption and the reception of inheritance. And those are pictures of the covenant that he makes with those who experience redemption from sin and receive the inheritance of the Spirit and eternity in heaven. Right now, having said some of these things, there are all kinds of questions. There are raised all kinds of questions that people raise about God's covenants.

Defining Covenant: Promise and Oath

25:45 One of the questions that is commonly raised is, what is a covenant? And then another question that's raised is, are God's covenants the same as men's covenants? And then people say, is there only one covenant that God made, or did God make a plurality more than one covenant? And then they say, well, with regard to covenants, we need to distinguish what God did in eternity and what happens in history between God and his people.

26:19 Now, recognizing all of these questions that are raised by people, what I would like to do now in completing my summary of the biblical teaching is I would like to address, try to answer some of these foundational questions. Having tried to put the thing in perspective, now I want to try to give you a summary of the biblical teaching. The first question is, what is a covenant? That's question number one.

26:46 Now, don't feel bad if you read much of the literature on this subject and say, I must be stupid. I read all this stuff, and after I'm all done reading it, I don't have a clue as to what a covenant is. And in particular, I don't have a clue as to what the covenant of grace is. Now, don't feel stupid.

27:03 If you're stupid, I'm stupid. We're all in the same boat. One of the problems that has commonly characterized the writing on this subject is vagueness and indefiniteness. And it is very difficult to pin people down with regard to what exactly do you mean by covenant.

27:22 Now, recent writers on this subject have recognized this problem and have attempted to solve it by defining the covenant. The problem is that their definitions are all different. And so I don't know whether that removes the confusion or whether it adds to it, but one thing that it does, it at least admits the reality. So don't feel bad if you've read things and you say, I don't know what these people are talking about.

27:45 To be honest with you, I don't know what many of them are talking about either. So, but the question remains, what is the covenant? What is the covenant? Well, the Bible does tell us that there's something that all of these things, whether they're righteous servant covenants or saved community covenants, whether they're the substance, the covenant made with Jesus and the covenant made with his people, those who are his disciples, believers, or whether it's the shadows, the ones made with Noah and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, et cetera, in any event, they all seem to have one thing in common.

28:19 And it is this, a covenant involves the combination of promise and oath. A covenant involves the combination of a promise and an oath. In other words, it is a sworn covenant.

28:41 Commitment or promise. Now, I just would like to show you a couple of passages in the word of God. And I'm not going to go through all of them. I'm only going to go through a couple of them.

28:53 First of all, Luke chapter one. It's pretty clear that covenant equals oath in this context. Luke chapter one, verses seventy two and three. Now here, Zacharias is beginning in verse sixty seven is filled with the Holy Spirit.

29:30 He prophesies. He talks about salvation. It's coming for them in the house of his servant, David. And this is what he says. Salvation from our enemies, from the hand of all that hate us. Verse seventy one to show mercy toward our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swear to Abraham, our father. And then he says to Grant, et cetera. All right. It's clear from this text that his holy covenant is the oath which he swore.

30:05 To Abraham, our father. The Abrahamic covenant is the oath which God swore to Abraham. It comes home to its consummation in Genesis chapter twenty two. After Abraham offers up his son, he says, by myself have I sworn, God says, because you have done this thing, you have not withheld your only son, your only son from me. Therefore, in blessing will I bless.

30:35 The in multiplying will I multiply thee. And he says at that point, and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Right. So it's the oath which God has sworn.

30:51 It is a promise, but it is not simply a bare promise. It is a promise confirmed by the swearing of an oath. It is a very solemn oath. Sworn commitment.

31:05 Commitment or pledge. Now, that thread or common denominator is true of the covenant with Abraham. It's true of the covenant with David. It's true of the covenant God made with Jesus.

31:19 It's true of the covenant made with Noah. It's true of the covenant made with Israel and is true of the new covenant. Now, that's the common denominator. That's true of every one of these things.

The Purpose of God's Oath: Assurance and Encouragement

31:29 It is that God makes a pledge. God makes an oath. It is a sworn promise. Now, just turn with me to two passages.

31:41 And I want to show you the purpose of this with respect to the accomplishment and application of redemption. Why should God swear to his righteous servant Jesus? And why should God swear to the redeemed community that's been redeemed from sin and that's experienced the inheritance? Why should God bother swearing an oath?

32:01 What is the purpose of all of this? It must be important. Or our Bibles wouldn't be divided this way. It must be important.

32:09 Or it wouldn't be the structural determinant of revelation. Why has God done this? Well, look at Psalm 110. Because in Psalm 110, we have the essence of the covenant that God makes with Jesus.

32:32 And he makes it with him at his resurrection from the dead as the New Testament teaches us. And here's the heart of what it is. Verse 1 says, And Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. We learn from Jesus himself that this has reference to the Messiah.

32:56 Then in verse 4, we find the essence of the covenant. Jehovah has sworn, there it is, and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Of course, the writer to Hebrews opens that up.

33:16 But God has sworn, he will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Notice, forever, forever. He was made a priest not after a carnal commandment, which is to be annulled, but he's made a priest when?

33:32 At his resurrection after the power of an endless life. This dimension of the Melchizedekian imagery comes to its fulfillment when Jesus is raised from the dead and he enters into the endless resurrection life. Thou art a priest forever. It's as one raised from the dead that he presents the sacrifice.

33:57 He leaves the earth, he enters the holy of holies in heaven, and there he presents that sacrifice which he has offered, and there he makes intercession for his people. And it's in his capacity as priest, after the order of Melchizedek, after the power of an endless life, which he entered into in his resurrection, now God has sworn to him, and he will never repent. Thou art priest forever. Right? Then also, in Hebrews chapter 6, why is God concerned to do this? He swears to Christ, he swears the new covenant to his people. Hebrews chapter 6 indicates the rationale, that's in God's mind. What is God doing?

34:52 Beginning in verse 13, For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he swear by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee, and thus, referring to the covenant with Abraham, and thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men swear by the greater, and in every dispute of theirs, the oath is final for confirmation. In every dispute of theirs, the oath is final for confirmation. Verse 17, Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise, the immutability of his counsel interposed with an oath, that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

36:16 Now that's the root of the matter. That's the force of it. That's the importance of it. The whole point is to encourage the people of God and to strengthen us in our determination to flee to Christ and to lay hold upon him as refuge.

36:34 God swears to him, Thou art priest forever. After the order of Melchizedek, after the power of an endless life, God has sworn, he has entered into covenantal commitment to Jesus, that his priesthood is final, it abides unchanging, it cannot be overthrown. The integrity of God, the finality of God, is bound to the efficacy of the priesthood of Christ. And not only so, God not only swears to him, he swears to his people.

37:14 God has sworn to us, he's given us that which is final for confirmation in his holy covenant. God wants to make absolutely sure that we know that we are not following cunningly devised fables, that God is not going to change his mind. God has sworn to it. And God's sworn oath is to be the anchor of our hope.

37:45 Now that's what the covenant's all about. And God's determined to give his people, a sure and a solemn encouragement of his determination to save us from our sins through Jesus Christ. And so if you fled to the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy and for pardon, you can rest upon the certainty that God himself has sworn his fidelity to those who trust in Christ. And he swore his fidelity to Jesus and that forever.

38:21 Now that's what it's all about. That's the relevance of this to our spiritual lives. Now, having said what God's covenant is and why God bothers to enter into swearing oaths, why does God do that? That's why he does it.

38:40 He does it for our sake, that we may be assured of the certainty and the immutability of his determination to save our souls. Now, having said that, it's interesting, isn't it, that God thought we needed that? And God went to an awful lot of trouble. He went to an awful lot of trouble to encourage his people, didn't he?

39:03 An awful lot of trouble. Awful lot of trouble. The flood and the ark and Noah and that community, what's behind all of that? It's a picture of that great oath by which God encourages his people.

39:18 The redemption from bondage in Egypt, the giving of a land, the peace of real estate to a group of Jews. Why did God do all that? That's all giving us a picture of the great determination of God to save his people from their sins. Why? God must figure that we need encouragement pretty bad to go through all that trouble over all those years to convince us of his determination to save us. But that's what he's doing. The grace of God, the determination of God to encourage his faint-hearted people. So, brethren, consider all of this that God has done, has this great end in view, that our hearts would be encouraged in his promise to save those who trust in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

Duality and Unity in God's Covenants

40:04 Now, having said what a covenant is, now what are God's covenants like? Now, that's a question that people ask. Has God only made one covenant? No, God made more than one covenant.

40:18 That's pretty clear. You have to stretch the scriptures an awful lot to say God just made one covenant. And many have recognized that in our day and no longer say that God just made one covenant. And that includes Baptists and Paedo-Baptists alike.

40:32 For example, Professor Murray and Morton Smith at Reformed Seminary, who was the teacher of systematics down there, has written an excellent thing on systematic theology. They consistently speak of a plurality of divine covenants, not simply one covenant. And we looked at what those covenants are. The covenant that God made with Noah before the flood, the covenant that he made with all those in the ark after the flood, the covenant that he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the covenant he made with the people of Israel, the covenant he made with David, the covenant he made with Jesus, and the covenant he made with Jesus' people.

41:06 All right, all those are different covenants. Then we've also seen that God's covenants express duality. There's duality. There's two types.

41:15 There's those related to the one and those related to the many. And also, God's covenants express duality. They reveal a unity. There's a unity in God's covenants and there's what could be called three types of unity.

41:30 There's a thematic unity, an organic unity, and a symbolic unity. An organic unity, a thematic unity, and a symbolic unity. Now, what do I mean by thematic unity? I mean they all express the same theme.

41:49 The same theme goes through all of them. What's that theme? It's the theme of salvation. That there's one way of salvation, by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

42:01 That salvation is by grace through faith. And that's the theme of all of God's covenants. And then I say also that there is an organic unity. There's an organic unity.

42:16 And I don't know how exactly to show all this, but I'm going to try. That these covenants are developed within the sphere of each other. If I can put it this way, you have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And then their posterity is Israel.

42:43 And the redeemed community covenant. And then from them comes David. And then in here is Jesus. So there's Abraham, Isaac, Jacob with their posterity set up Israel.

43:02 From Israel comes David. From Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Israel, and David comes Jesus. See that? There's an organic unity.

43:10 And if you want, I guess, you could even do this too, couldn't you? Even put Noah there. So there's an actual line of descent. There's a line of descent in all the servants of the covenant.

43:26 There's a line of descent. And that line of descent, of course, comes to its consummation in Jesus. Then there's another type of organic unity. And this has to do with the Abrahamic covenant.

43:42 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their posterity, I'm not quite sure how to do this, but they have a, maybe I'll do it like that. And there's organic unity here too. And this is the time when Jesus comes.

44:04 But you have here the promise of Abraham's seed. Abraham's seed, Isaac, Jacob, and then Jesus. Abraham's ultimate seed. There's a proximate, and then there's an ultimate.

44:25 And Jesus is Abraham's seed according to Galatians 3.16. He's Abraham's heir. And of course, Isaac is Abraham's heir.

44:33 Ishmael shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac. Now you have Abraham's God-given heir and his elected son. Abraham's God-given heir and his elected son. What's the difference between Jacob and Esau?

44:48 Well, Jacob was elected. Jacob was chosen. These two were twins. And yet Jacob was chosen and Esau was rejected.

44:55 So Jacob is his elected son. And Jacob, of course, is a man who becomes a nation, isn't he? And how does he become a nation? First he starts out as one.

45:03 Then he begets how many? Twelve? And then when he goes down to Egypt, there's seventy. And then he becomes a whole multitude in Egypt.

45:11 So Israel is a man who becomes a nation, who is God's elected, the elected and chosen son of Abraham's heir. And this is Abraham's God-given, miraculously given heir. And Isaac was miraculously given because Abraham and Sarah were too old to have children and God miraculously gave them Isaac. Right now I hope you can see some parallels.

45:35 Because Jesus fulfills the imagery of Isaac and he fulfills the imagery of Jacob. And even as the original covenant community is the posterity of Isaac and Jacob, so also the new covenant community is the posterity of Jesus. And you read in Isaiah chapter 53, he shall see his seed. He shall see his seed.

46:03 You have the biblical doctrine of Jesus' seed. Jesus' posterity. Jesus' seed. And of course there's an organic connection between Jesus' seed and Abraham's seed and that's why we read in Galatians, Galatians 3, if you are Christ's, you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise.

46:29 So there's a duality in the seed of Abraham. And the point is that God enters into covenant with both dimensions of Abraham's seed. First that which is natural and then that which is spiritual. He first of all enters into the old covenant with Abraham's circumcised posterity.

46:49 Who had issued from Abraham through his God-given son and his elected heir, namely Isaac and Jacob. And then he also enters into new covenant with Abraham's circumcised posterity who had issued through his God-given son and elected heir, Jesus. Now the circumcision in this case is circumcision of body and the circumcision in this case is circumcision of heart. And the God-given heir in this case is Isaac and in this case it's Jesus, the miraculously conceived, not from a man and woman too old to have children, but from a virgin.

47:31 And in this case God's elected, his elected son, his chosen one who becomes a nation is of course Jesus. That's why we read Matthew able to say when Israel was a child, then did I love him and out of Egypt did I call my son. And he said, that's a reference to what happened to Jesus. Jesus is Israel.

47:53 Jesus is the man who becomes a nation. He's one firstly, then he's 12 apostles, then he sends 70, then he becomes a multitude of disciples just like the other Israel did. Jesus is Israel, just like Jacob is Israel. And so Jesus' seed, the circumcised in heart, are those with whom the new covenant is made.

48:18 So there's organic continuity. But then, there's also symbolic unity. The symbolism of all this sometimes is overwhelming. But there's symbolic unity as well.

Symbolic Unity and Fulfillment in Jesus

48:39 And there are two basic, there are two complete models of what God does. Remember I said the one and the many? The servant, righteous servant and the saved community. There are two complete models in the Old Testament.

48:53 There's a Noahic model and there's a Mosaic model. There's two complete models. And the first one has one servant, covenant with Noah. And then it's got one community covenant with those who are in the ark.

49:19 And it's set up with successive generations of ark dwellers until, very interesting, until the fire. 2 Peter 3. From the flood to the fire, the Noahic covenant. Second coming of Christ.

49:35 The Mosaic has got two servant covenants. It's got the patriarchal, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then from this, it's got the saved community with Israel. And then here, it's got another servant covenant with David.

49:56 And it comes to its consummation with the coming of Messiah. First coming. So here you have, these are the founders and this is the ruler. From the patriarchs, the redeemed community emerged and he rules over it.

50:19 Alright, so these two dimensions indicate that there's the founder and ruler the servant covenant embodies the notions of founder and ruler of the redeemed community. Right now, all of these are pictures of Jesus. Jesus fulfills all the imagery in all of these covenants. Jesus fulfills the imagery of Noah.

50:41 Noah, by his obedience and righteousness, by his obedience, by his labor of building the ark, he delivered the covenant community from the eschatological wrath. The wrath to come. And that, of course, is exactly what Jesus does. By his obedience, he delivers the covenant community from the wrath to come.

51:01 That's what happens. Alright, now, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham is God's righteous servant who has a promised seed and so is Jesus. Isaac is God's righteous servant who is a promised seed and so is Jesus.

51:15 And Israel is God's righteous servant who becomes a redeemed community and so is Jesus. And then he fulfills David. David is, of course, God's righteous servant who reigns over God's redeemed community. So there's all of this thematic unity.

Covenant Continuity: Spiritual Regeneration vs. Natural Procreation

51:32 Now, or symbolic unity. Now, the question that arises is this. What does all this have to do with baptizing babies?

51:43 Well, one of the things you perhaps would notice is that these covenants are always set up with successive generations. Alright, did you notice that? Yes. They're all set up with successive generations.

51:55 Now, the question is just this. How do you determine the principle by which successive generations are recognized and reckoned? Is it by physical procreation or is it by spiritual regeneration? Well, the point is that the successive generations in the covenant community, and here's the point, are always related to the righteous servants who found that community.

52:21 Alright? Noah, there was the eight souls descended from Noah and their successive generations. Israel, the foundational generation, descended from these. Alright.

52:35 Now, the point is this. That the very same method of generation by which the foundational generation descends from the servant is the very same method of generation by which the community is set up in perpetuity. Right? With Noah, the foundational generation descended from Noah by natural procreation and it was set up in perpetuity by the very same principle of generation, natural procreation.

53:03 Same thing happened here. The foundational generation of Israel, the ones that crossed the sea and Jordan, they were descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by natural procreation and the same method, natural procreation, extends throughout their history. Now, here's the point. The foundational generation the apostolic generation did not descend from Jesus by natural procreation.

53:30 It descended from Jesus by spiritual regeneration and the very same principle establishes the method of organic continuity throughout its history. Even in the same way that the foundational generation descended from Jesus, so also in that same way by spiritual regeneration does one generation of the New Covenant community give birth to the next. That's the point. That's the way we must understand the organic continuity of the New Covenant community.

Concluding Remarks and Pastoral Exhortation

54:05 That's where I am. I'm through. You're going to say something? I'm going to say something.

54:14 I'm going to put on P.S. All right? You sit down.

54:17 That's how all this started when I put a P.S.

54:22 I'm going to take the liberty of taking about two minutes extra to say, to say two or three things. First of all, it's fully understandable that many of us, and I say us including myself, obviously can't take all this in. That's the fruit of hundreds of hours of careful exegesis, prayerful analysis, and you should understand that on the one hand and not be discouraged if you can't absorb all of that and give it back to your husband or wife or son or daughter at the dinner table today. That's number one.

54:55 Number two, I hope if it's done nothing else, it is forever immunized you against the accusation, you Baptists have no doctrine of the covenant. The average paedo-Baptist doesn't have one tenth of a grasp upon the comprehensiveness of the biblical doctrine of covenants set before us today. And again, that's not exaggeration. I've had many a paedo-Baptist say to me, how can you believe in election and the great truths of reformed theology and not baptize your infant?

55:27 Don't you believe in the covenant? I say, what covenant? The covenant. I say, yes.

55:31 What covenant? The way of covenant? The Davidic covenant? Abrahamic covenant?

55:35 What covenant? The covenant. I will be a God to the end of thy seed. As though the very mention of the name covenant is supposed to make a Baptist go .

55:43 You see? Well, I hope that will never happen to you. That though you may not be able to give all of this, at least what you've been exposed to today will help you to realize that you are a God and that you are a covenant. I say, yes.

55:53 What covenant? The covenant. The covenant. The covenant will help you to realize that, by God's grace, some of us who believe that we should not sprinkle our infants do have some grasp upon the biblical doctrine of covenants.

56:10 All right? And I hope you'll understand that and not be unstrung. See, much of what you've been getting has been inoculatory, if there is such a word. We've been giving you inoculations.

56:20 Now, your kids never say, oh, good, today's the day to go get my DPT shot. I love having a needle so that I can be stuck in my hip or in my arm. But you as a parent know they need to be inoculated, so whether they like it or not, you inoculate them. Well, we've been hoping, as elders, that you'll get inoculated so that when you're reading dear men of God and interacting with precious men of God who home to paedobaptism, you won't say, oh, well, I never heard anything about the covenants, so maybe all this arguing about the covenants, justifying infant baptism, holds some weight and the reason we were never told anything is our elders making suspicion that we're really embarrassed by our position.

56:58 We're not embarrassed at all. We believe the doctrine of the covenants mandates, mandates, placing the covenant sign only upon those who have been perpetuated within the covenant community God's way, which is by spiritual generation, not by natural generation. All right? And then finally, and Pastor Nichols will give you more of this next week, but I won't be here to put on my PS and I seldom do this, let's be gracious to our brethren who do not understand the covenants this way and on the basis of their understanding of the covenants sprinkle their infants, let's not accuse them of doing so in bad conscience.

57:36 Many of them do so believing it is their duty. We believe that their understanding of their duty is wrong because of a wrong view of the covenants, but they're doing it in faith and for some of them if they did not do it, it would be sin. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin and there are many of our dear pedo-baptist friends who believe they would be sinning if they did not sprinkle their infants and while we do not admire their theology of the covenants which leads them to that, we can admire their Christian grace which causes them to be obedient to what they regard to be the light of scripture.

58:17 So let's not have a superior attitude but let's not be threatened either and if God can keep us on that razor's edge, then I'm sure Pastor Nichols will feel that his labors have been more than rewarded and I don't say this to throw a sock to him, he doesn't need any nor desire any, but I have never in going through some of this material seen a more thorough and comprehensive treatment of the doctrine of the covenants than that which God has helped Pastor Nichols to wrestle with over these years in preparation for his systematics course and I want to say publicly how deeply grateful to God I am for those who have done those sanctified labors in the word and in doctrine. All right, we're dismissed. Let's try to speed things up a little bit. We've taken a little extra time than usual but I felt these remarks were necessary.