Genesis 6. You may recall in
my message Tuesday night, preaching to you on God remembered his
covenant from Exodus 2, I made a statement that all the covenants
of promise that God made in the Old Testament were but a portion
of the revelation of God's new and everlasting covenant of grace.
which he made with Christ on our behalf before the world began.
After service Tuesday night, some of us were discussing that,
but Larry said, if you ever get liberty to do so, I'd like for
you to show us how those Old Testament covenants relate to
and show the everlasting covenant of grace. And so that's what
I plan to do this morning. The title of this message is
Covenants and the Covenant. Let's begin in Genesis 6, verse
18. This is the first time the word
covenant is used in scripture. Here, before he sent the flood,
the Lord God said to Noah, But with thee will I establish my
covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons,
and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee. Now, we all know and
understand that our salvation is according to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, according to his purpose
of grace, as is stated in Romans 8, 28-30. It is set forth in
the scripture as an everlasting covenant made with Christ as
our surety, the surety of the better testament or the better
covenant before the world began. Now that eternal, immutable covenant
of grace and the salvation that comes as a result of that covenant
is described as the New Covenant or the New Testament. The word
testament, as you read it in the New Testament, particularly
the book of Hebrews, is exactly the same word as the word translated
covenant. It is called the New Covenant
or the New Testament because it is newly revealed in this
gospel age and because it is continually new in the experience
of the believer when God gives life and faith in Christ, causing
us to have the covenant established with us in the experience of
His grace. Now, understand, our experience
of grace has nothing to do with the covenant being established. It is established with us experientially
when God reveals to us and makes known to us and in us the blessings
of His grace. Every chosen sinner, when he
is born of God, is made to receive experimentally the blessedness
of being an heir of that covenant, this covenant made between the
three persons of the Holy Trinity before the world began. Now,
I've shown you many times that all the blessings of grace come
to chosen sinners in Christ Jesus through this covenant. That is
clearly stated before us in Ephesians 1, verses 3-6, where the apostle
tells us that God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and blessed us with those
blessings according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. In a word, God only deals with
sinners in grace according to this covenant, according to His
purpose of grace in Christ. God always deals with chosen
sinners graciously because of the covenant. And yet the scriptures
do speak throughout the Old Testament of many covenants that God made
with men in that older dispensation. The word covenant is used over
300 times in the scriptures. So obviously I'm not going to
think about trying to exhaust the subject today or the rest
of my life. But I want us to look at these
covenants as they're set before us in the Scriptures and show
the unity of the covenants. Now, we'll look at them one at
a time. There are seven distinct covenants spoken of. Now, the
covenants are spoken of in many different ways and revealed to
many different people, but these seven distinct covenants are
spoken of in Scripture. First, God made a covenant with
Adam in the garden before the fall, and then God made a covenant
with Adam after the fall, before he expelled Adam and Eve from
the garden. In Genesis 9, we read of a covenant
God made with Noah. In Genesis 12, 13, 15, 17, we
read of a covenant God made with Abraham. Then we read of a covenant
that God made with Moses, the Mosaic or Sinaitic covenant,
and the covenant that God made with David, and then at last,
the new covenant. Now, it is the unity of these
covenants. the failure to see the unity
of these covenants that causes a great deal of confusion and
misunderstanding. There are many, many who refer
to things in the Old Testament and various ordinances of the
covenants as they were given and try to make a reason for
baptizing babies for church government, for church state and the government
being run by the church, and none of those things are in any
way applicable if you understand the unity of these covenants.
John Gill suggested, and I think he's right, that all these other
covenants are but varying administrations of the new covenant, varying
administrations of God's covenant of grace. Let me see if I can
give it to you as a picture. If you look at all the things
in a household, if you could put them all on one of those
CAD systems you use, put everything on one computer screen, and you
can see everything in the house in one picture. You see the house
in various parts, and then you stand back and see all those
things encompassed in that house. So it is with the everlasting
covenant, God's eternal covenant. It is that which encompasses
all of time. And within that, we have the
various progressive degrees of revelation of that covenant in
these other covenants in the Old Testament. The Lord God is
that one who made the covenant. He made it with his Son as our
surety, and with God the Holy Spirit, the blessed Comforter,
who applies the covenant to us. Jesus Christ was, from eternity,
given for a covenant to the people. He is the sum, the substance,
and the essence of the covenant. He is that one who is the same
in the yesterday of the Old Testament, in the today of the new, and
forever. He is now, always has been, and
forever shall be the way, the truth, and the life. There is
no other. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There never
has been another name, is not now another name, and can never
be another name. The patriarchs, those before
the flood, those after the flood, those before the giving of the
law, those after the giving of the law, those who lived on the
earth before Christ's coming into the world, and all who have
been saved by God's grace since the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, have all been saved in exactly the same way by the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of God that is given
to us and flows to us from Jesus Christ the Redeemer. There never
has been any other way of salvation. Now let's go back to Genesis
chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. And I'm going
to show you that in each of these covenants we will see a progressive
revelation of God's great work of grace in saving our souls,
a progressive revelation of the performance of Jesus Christ when
he came into this world and accomplished redemption, and of his grace
that he bestows upon us in saving our souls. In Genesis 1, the
Lord God made a unilateral covenant. Now, the word covenant speaks
of an agreement between two people. Well, when God makes a covenant,
it's a unilateral covenant. It doesn't matter whether you
agree or not. That's irrelevant. The covenant made between the
three persons of the Holy Trinity is a covenant of mutual agreement,
but the covenants revealed in Scripture are all unilateral
covenants. That is, they are one-sided covenants. God said this is the way it's
going to be, and that's the way it's going to be. In Genesis
1, he created Adam, set him in the garden. In verse 28, he blessed
Adam and Eve, told them to multiply, be fruitful. Replenish the earth,
subdue it, have dominion over it. Look at verse 29. God said,
Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon
the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit
of the tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for me. Now
look at chapter 2, verse 15. And the Lord God took the man
and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it. and to keep
it, to guard it, and to preserve it. And the Lord commanded the
man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not
eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die. Now like the law that was given
at Mount Sinai, this was a covenant of works. No question about that.
Adam's life was conditioned upon his obedience, and death was
the certain result of disobedience. Now, the one matter of obedience
was a tree that God placed in the midst of the garden, a tree
called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And God said,
Now, Adam, everything I've created, everything is yours. I give it
to you. Enjoy. It's all yours. Subdue
the whole creation, rule over it, and use it as you will, except
this one symbol of my right to be God. That's it. This one symbol
of my right to be God. And when Adam saw Eve in transgression,
he shoved his fist in God's face and said, you've got no right
to do this. You've got no right to judge
this woman. You've got no right to be God. And by his act of transgression,
acting as our federal head and representative, we got into this
mess we're in called sin, so that we are all conceived in
sin, shaped in iniquity, and come forth from the womb as transgressors
speaking lies in rebellion against God. That's the nature of man
since the fall, and that's the result of having broken this
covenant of works by our willful transgression. And yet, even
in this covenant of works, which we all broke in the Garden of
Eden, there are several things revealed about grace and salvation. These things I do not suggest
Adam understood. In fact, I rather doubt that
he could have understood them until he had experienced sin
and the need of these things. But as we read back through the
scriptures, looking at the Old Testament through the light of
the New Testament, we understand these things clearly. Adam was
made in the image of Him who was to come, our Mediator and
Redeemer, who is the image of God. He was made specifically,
we're told in Romans 5.14, as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ,
as one who would portray another substitutionary man. Since we
fell by one man, there is evidence perhaps there is another man
coming by whom we might be restored, and that man is Christ Jesus.
The entrance of sin into the world proclaimed the need of
redemption and the need of grace. The angels that fell not knew
nothing of this experientially, and the fact that we were made
sinners by the fall of that one man who anticipates and foreshadows
the coming of Christ, the last Adam. We're told that God set
a tree in the garden called the tree of life. Wonder what that
is. Wonder what that is. You don't
have to wonder. If you turn to the book of Revelation
chapter 22 when you get home and read the passage, you'll
see that Jesus Christ, our Lord, is the tree of life. And when
Adam and Eve had sinned, before God expelled them from the garden,
he set cherubims with flaming swords to guard the tree of life. That is, to guard the way of
the tree of life, to keep open and preserve the way to the tree
of life. Then in Genesis chapter 3, we
have another covenant. After the fall, before driving
Adam and Eve out of the garden, the Lord made another covenant
of grace. Though cursed because of sin,
God made a covenant of pure, free grace with our fallen parents,
a covenant in which He both promised and portrayed redemption and
salvation by Christ. In chapter 3, verse 9, the Lord
called Adam, and when He called Adam to Himself, He compelled
Adam to acknowledge his nakedness. Read through the Old Testament.
All the way through the Old Testament, nakedness is the word used to
speak of sin. When Ham uncovered his father's
nakedness, there's no indication at all of anything more perverse
than this, but nothing could be more perverse. Ham said to
his brothers Shem and Japheth, look here boys, I told you the
old man was like this. Look at this drunk old coot.
Nothing good about him. And so he exposed his father's
nakedness. In Exodus 20, the Lord forbids
us to go up by steps to the altar to worship him, lest our nakedness
be exposed, speaking again of sin and transgression. But here
Adam is made to acknowledge, I was naked. And then the first
gospel message was preached by the God of all grace. Look at
chapter 3, verse 15. The Lord said to Eve, I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her
seed, and it, the seed of the woman, shall bruise thy head,
and thou, the serpent, shalt bruise his heel." Well, how do
you know that's talking about the Lord Jesus? Because Galatians
chapter 4 tells us plainly that Christ was made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. And
then, as if to make certain, that Adam and Eve understood
exactly what he had said. Before he drove them out of the
garden, this cursed pair to whom he had made a promise, the Lord
God stripped off their fig leaves of self-righteousness, the clothing
they had made to hide from God. He killed an innocent victim,
I presume a lamb. And from the death of that innocent
victim, God made skin brought Adam and Eve to them, the naked
pair whom he had stripped before them, and clothed them with the
skins of that innocent animal." What a picture of Christ and
redemption by him. Do you reckon Adam and Eve got
the picture? Do you reckon they got the message? They dead sure
did. In chapter 4, verse 1, Eve bore
a son, and she said, I've gotten the man. I've got this redeeming. She was mistaken, but she understood
the message. And then God made a covenant
with Noah. This covenant that God made or
established with Noah was a covenant that he promised in chapter 6
before the flood. And then just as soon as he came
out of the ark, the Lord made or established his covenant with
Noah in Genesis chapter 9. God called Noah and his sons
or blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, Be fruitful,
multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread
of you shall be upon every beast of the earth." That looks a whole
lot like Hosea chapter 2, where God said, I made a covenant for
you with the beast of the field. God said, I made a covenant with
you. I will preserve you and keep
you, and nothing shall harm you. Verse 3, Every moving thing that
liveth shall be meat for you. I have given you everything to
enjoy. Behold, I will establish my covenant
with you and with your seed forever. Verse 13, I do set my bow in
the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between
me and the earth. Verse 16, And the bow shall be
in the cloud, and I will look upon it, that I may remember
the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature
of all flesh that is upon the earth. God says, I'm going to
put my bow in the sky, and I'll look at it and remember my covenant.
This is the bow John saw encircling the throne of God, according
to which God rules all the world in providence. We know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called, according to the bow that encircles his
throne, according to his purpose. Look in Genesis chapter 12. And
we'll skip through this. You get over to chapter 15. The fourth covenant set before
us in the Old Testament is the covenant God made with Abraham.
Now, if you want to get a clear picture of it, read all of Genesis
12 through 18 at one sitting. But God called Abraham out of
the air of the Calvary. And we will never know anything
about God's gracious purpose toward us until we are called
by his grace and granted life and faith in Christ. In chapter
15, the Lord revealed himself to Abraham as his shield, his
protector, and his exceeding great reward. He promised him
a seed, a seed through whom he and all the nations of the earth
would be blessed, a seed who would possess all the earth.
And Paul tells us in Galatians 3, that seed is Jesus Christ. Then in verse 6, And he believed
God, believed the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Because Abraham believed God's
revelation, God testified to his conscience that he not should
be, but that he was righteous, accepted in Christ before the
world began. Then you'll remember in the last
portion of Genesis 15, God told Abraham to make some sacrifices.
And if you compare what's written there with Leviticus chapters
1 through 5, you'll see that Abraham sacrificed on an altar
before God all the animals that were used in the sin offerings
under the law. He was required to take a ram,
a heifer, a she-goat, a pigeon, and two turtle doves. And he
was required to divide the animals, not the birds, but the other
animals, and spread them out before the Lord. When he did,
Abraham saw buzzards coming down to devour the carcasses. and
he understanding what those sacrifices represented, understanding they
represented his seed through whom God's blessing would come
to him, by whom God's promise to Mother Eve would be fulfilled,
and he drove the buzzards away from the sacrifices. And that
is in great measure exactly what we do continually in the preaching
of the gospel. Satan would ever devour and take
away the sacrifice. by false religion and by other
means, and it is our business constantly to keep and guard
the sacrifice." Then Abraham, as evening drew on, fell asleep,
and he had a horrible, horrible dream. We're not told what it
was, but as he awoke from the dream, God called the lantern
to pass between the pieces of the sacrifice, as if to say,
I've accepted the sacrifice, and now I've accepted you because
of the sacrifice. Then in chapter 17, God gave
his covenant in specific words to Abraham. In verses 1 through
8, the things involved in the covenant were these. God said,
walk before me and be thou perfect. In other words, in this covenant
that I make with you, by which you shall be blessed, I demand
perfection, and I give perfection. He gave Abraham a new name. His name had been Abram, and
he now calls him Abraham. And if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. God gives him a new name. Even the name of Christ, Jehovah,
seeking you, the Lord, our righteousness. And then he said to Abraham,
he said, now here's the token of the covenant. Take every one
of your sons and circumcise them. and the token shall be in your
flesh." Now, this circumcision has nothing to do with baptism,
nothing whatsoever to do with baptism. It is a picture of the
new birth, and we are the circumcision. We are the Israel of God. We
are the people circumcised in heart by God the Holy Spirit,
His covenant people who worship God in spirit and rejoice in,
trust in Christ Jesus. and have no confidence in the
flesh. Four times in the 17th chapter, God called His covenant
with Abraham an everlasting covenant, an eternal covenant. Well, how
can that be? He just made it right here. He
made the covenant before the world was. This has got a greater
revelation of it than we've seen before. And this covenant that
God made with Abraham continues forever. You remember, as far
as any kind of physical temporal promises are concerned. Joshua
told the children of Israel in Joshua 24, God fulfilled everything
he promised you right here. But the covenant reaches far
beyond Israel in the land of Canaan. It reaches to that which
Canaan typified in the salvation of God's elect in everlasting
glory. The whole thing was done and
God promised Abraham a son. That son was a child of promise.
a picture of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, who would be sacrificed
in our room instead, just as Abraham sacrificed Isaac. And
when Abraham heard that promise, he fell down laughing. He fell
on his face and laughed in his heart with joy, understanding
that Jesus Christ indeed is his Savior. In Exodus 20, God made
a covenant with Moses and with the children of Israel. In chapter
19, he said, ìYouíve seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I
buried you on eaglesí wings and brought you unto myself.î And
he gives the covenant in chapter 20, by which he said, ìIíll make
you a nation, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.î But this
wasnít talking just to the children of Israel, the physical seed
of Abraham. It was God's promise concerning
all His elect, as the Holy Spirit tells us in 1 Peter 2. And then
He gives in chapter 20 His covenant, what we call the Ten Commandments.
It's given fuller in various laws in Israel. But in those
commandments, God sets forth the perfection He requires and
the perfection He would perform by the obedience of His Son.
But even after the commandments are given, if you read the last
part of the chapter, The Lord made it clear to Moses and to
Israel, at least it should have been clear to them, that the
fulfilling of this covenant, the fulfilling of this law, has
nothing to do with your works. He said you build an altar, make
it an altar of dirt. If you make an altar of stone,
make sure you don't make it of hewn stone. Just pile together
the rocks I have made and worship me on that altar, because if
you lift up your tool upon it, you shall have defiled it. And
then he said, now you can't come to me by degrees. You will not
do a little and a little more and a little more and a little
more until at last you get so good you can come to God. Don't
come to me on any steps. Because just as sure as you try
to approach me on the basis of your works and your obedience,
you do nothing but expose your nakedness, your sin. Now we understand
then why the law was given. It was given to expose our sin. It was given to condemn sin. It was given to show us that
we must be justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. It was our schoolmaster to bring
us unto Christ. Then in 2 Samuel, you can read
it again in 1 Chronicles, but in 2 Samuel 7, the Lord established
His covenant with David. Again, it was a unilateral, one-sided
covenant, just like the other. And in 2 Samuel 7, verse 10,
God promised David that he would make a place for his people,
that he would plant his people in their place, securing them
from all possibility of harm, that he would establish his seed
forever, that his seed would be king upon his throne forever,
verse 13, and that this king would build his house. And then
in verse 15, The Lord God promised my mercy shall not depart away
from him. And when David heard those things,
just like Abraham back in Genesis 17, he went in and sat down before
the Lord, confessed himself to be a man altogether unworthy
of his grace, rejoicing in God's covenant. He said, Do just exactly
what you said you would do. Do the whole thing. Perform now
your covenant. And we know this is referring
not just to this temporary experience of David, but to the everlasting
covenant of grace, because in 2 Samuel 23, 5, David calls it
just that. As he was about to die, he said
to the Lord, has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things insure, and this is all my salvation and all my
desire, although he make it not to grow." Now, look at one more
passage, Hebrews chapter 8. All these promises of mercy and
grace, all these blessings of the covenant, find their fulfillment
in Christ. And the everlasting covenant
newly revealed to us and made ours by the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 1. Now
of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. Read Hebrews
1 through 8 and you'll see things he's been talking about. He's
been talking about priest, assurity, a house, a covenant. A priest,
assurity, a house, a covenant. Talking about the will of God.
He said this is the sum of the whole thing. We have such an
high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the
majesty in heaven, a minister of the sanctuary and the true
tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man. This is the psalm
of it all, Jesus Christ and that covenant in which God said, their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more, and that's the message
of all the covenants. Amen.