Covenantalism:

pt.2 Works and Signs of Family & Corporate Covenants

In this message we will be looking at the various points of the covenantal ordinance. We will again first center our selves on the Faithfulness of YHWH God in concidering the uni-lateral covenants of Grace and Redemption, and how it is by His nature example to us as made in his image and likeness we as men utilize and find blessing and comfort in covenanting with God and accepting His covenant with us.
We will discuss the importance of entering into covenant and keeping covenant with God, the faithful obligations or ‘works’ we are bound to in a covenant relationship according to the terms thereof, as well as the use of signs or tokens in the memorial of a covenant promised and entered into by a member of that covenant.

Remember when You are

freely enjoying the notes you are reading or freely listen…

SOME ONE IS STILL PAYING FOR IT

Contribute when you can to keep us growing and free

Subscribe to RNCM Podcast Feed

iTunes • Other 

CLICK HERE FOR OUR SUPPORT PAGE

MP3 AUDIO MESSAGE DOWN LOAD-Listen any time!

OR

Page for Streaming Message – You can follow along with study notes below!

This message directly follows the Worship Service and is integrated with it:

 Also Click HERE for our Psalm worship and Scriptural resuscitation service accompanying this message.

Our Worship is from the 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter (SMP) and Scriptural resuscitations from the KJV or from our Own ‘Convocational Book of Doctrinal Resuscitations’.

Please feel free to get a copy of the words from any source and Worship with us.

Scottish Psalter 1650 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

And please always support the efforts of Christians that devote time in their lives for your spiritual well-being.

Delivered on 3-15-2022 / grego. 7-13-2022

These Study notes below are Interactive with E-Sword! – FREE DOWN LOAD HERE

THEN: Just cut and paste into you E-Sword topic notes

Compiled by JS LOWTHER
renewedcovenantministry.com
servant@renewedcovenantministry.com

Covenantalism:

pt.2 Works and Signs of Family & Corporate Covenants

Deu_29:1  These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
Deu 29:2  And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;
Deu 29:3  The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:
Deu 29:4  Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
Deu 29:5  And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.
Deu 29:6  Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.
Deu 29:7  And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:
Deu 29:8  And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.
Deu 29:9  Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.
Deu 29:10  Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
Deu 29:11  Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water:
Deu 29:12  That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day:
Deu 29:13  That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Deu 29:14  Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;
Deu 29:15  But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:
Deu 29:16  (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by;
Deu 29:17  And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)
Deu 29:18  Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
Deu 29:19  And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
Deu 29:20  The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
Deu 29:21  And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:
Deu 29:22  So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;
Deu 29:23  And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
Deu 29:24  Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?
Deu 29:25  Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:
Deu 29:26  For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:
Deu 29:27  And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:
Deu 29:28  And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.
Deu 29:29  The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Last week I hoped to have shared the nature of covenanting as being resident in the nature of God’s faithfulness and truth, that is that without the ultimate and infinite attributes of YHWH as he expresses himself to be in terms of honesty or faithfulness all covenants would be of little value in the lives of men. But YHWH’s faithfulness is a pattern for our faithfulness. And knowing of the gods (so called) of the pagans who are mutable and believed to be liars, that this human fault is but an imposition graven upon what is called god, and that the God who is known by revelation and Logic is in fact the purest virtue of truth and faithfulness, being entirely consistent in his Essance.

As stated in

Deu_32:39-40
See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live forever.

What is being said is YHWH is in control of all things, and thus his LORDship resolves Him as entirely faithful, this is God’s willingness to abundantly show unto the heirs of promise

Heb_6:17-19 … the immutability of his counsel, thus, to show us His will He God confirmed it by an oath:
showing us
That by two unchangeable immutable things,
1. His counsel,
2. and thus that it is impossible for God to lie

Why?

That we might  have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us:
Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as a sure and steadfast anchor of our soul…

God by his word causes us to know the terms of His covenant of grace and redemption, we know God is unchangeable and immutable and that God does not lie, in this way we know that we cannot be and were not…

1Pe_1:18…redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
1Pe 1:19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1Pe 1:20  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,   Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

And thus
1Jn 2:25  this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.

And on account of this immutable truth in our life the Apostle goes on to say:

1Pe 1:22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
1Pe 1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
1Pe 1:24  For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
1Pe 1:25  But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

“the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. “

This is the hope of eternal life it is in the promise of God, the Oath to demonstrate His will abundantly to us, His covenant made before the world was in the glory Christ had with the Father wherein, we open our ear in hearing the words of Love Jesus tells us of promised to Him and given to us as His:

Joh_17:5  And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

Joh_17:24  …be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

God the Father Had Glory with the Father before the world was, and 24 tells us that when Christ the Son was sent into the World subsistent to the father as touching His manhood he was given that Glory by the Father to be seen and to know before the world was founded there was the love of the Father and the Son.
All of this language shows us the nature of an everlasting and immutable covenant Of Love between the Father with the Son in Glory and that covenant in Love was about the redemption of Sins.
Here is the basis of all covenants for a Christian, here is the example.

And for this reason, Covenants are patterns to man. God has built into man a desire towards honest and true and faithful dealings with one another, and God shows us that He has respect unto faithfulness devoted towards Him in the nature of promises, vows, oaths and covenants, in our carnal dealings on earth we have spiritual fortifications in these means available to us.
Of course, in the Covenants of Glory “before the foundation of the world”, we have God in agreement with Himself, with in the council of the Father Son and Spirit: Absolute Faithfulness in agreement with Absolute Faithfulness in agreement with Absolute Faithfulness.

But as we deal with our interactions as men God who is infinitely faithful and we are not, God is infinitely true, and we are not, we find sure hope in the Love of God, his forgiveness, His Grace and mercy by His Absolutly Faithful. On earth we are fallen in our flesh and we will fail God in our faithfulness to his covenant, but His Covenant promised to us not contingent on us and our works but on His grace alone succures us; therefore, we as Godly men and women have Godly desires and concerns, and when they be Godly desires & concerns God honors His own Word which is in us which is His absolute faithfulness and we agree thereby and covenant with our desire to his Absolute Faithfulness according to his Word.

This is why I pointed out the 4 points of Jacob’s vow:

1. to prove God
If God will be with me,
2. for God’s protection
and will keep me in this way that I go,
3. God’s provision
and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
4. security for the future
So that I come again to my father’s house in peace

Because God’s Word offers us this desire as seen in the blessings of God throughout His word, we can with confidence Vow certain things in our life in devotion to God and expect a return on God’s TERMs of these devotions.

Jacob said,
If you do this for me: then shall YHWH be my God:
Gen_28:22  And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house:
and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

And so in the life of Jacob we see him honoring his vow unto God, and we even see a time where Jacob enters His family, his church into his covenant with him, and we see, that though Jacob poured the oil and christened the Rock and this was the token, the mark, or sign of his vow, his covenant with God, what we see is the family commanded to return to the commandments of God’s Law known to Jacob from his father’s when he says:

Gen_35:2  Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:
Gen 35:3  And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
Gen 35:4  And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

In v. Gen 35:5  we see God preforming the word Jacob had asked of God to do for him as his saint:

And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

Gen 35:6  So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.
Gen 35:7  And he built there an altar, and called the place El-bethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
…
Gen 35:9  And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.
Gen 35:10  And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
Gen_35:11  And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
Gen 35:12  And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
Gen 35:13  And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.

And here we see the children and wives the people of the Church of Jacob- Israel entering into the vow of Jacob in not only preforming the commandments of God by getting rid of all the strange gods (idols), but by sanctifying themselves or cleansing themselves, changing their garments in worship to God.
This is the protos institution of baptism and so called ceremonial cleansing, it is a logical sign and token of repentance a like figure of covenantal obligation, to wash away the filth of the flesh as symbolic of the riddance of sin from the life.

And thus

Gen 35:14  And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.
Gen 35:15  And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.

The Covenantalism of the visible Church is easily seen here in the life of Jacob, as if we looked back further, we would also see other covenants entered into by the fathers of Jacob, which Jacob is bound to and has contingently entered into by His forebearers.
Such generational and corporate covenants all have characteristic signs and faithful obligations also assigned to them by the terms of the covenant in vows, oaths and promises consecrated at that time of the covenants making.

Let’s move back from Jacob and consider these corporate covenants which we have either the directives of God or man as to the sign which He accepts for a covenant member to perform.

As we read in Gen_35:11-12, this promise was passed on to Isaac:

Gen_26:2  And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:
Gen 26:3  Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;
Gen 26:4  And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
Gen 26:5  Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

And if you notice in this act it is God reaching out to Isaac on account of the obedience of Abraham his father, all God asks of Isaac is that he not go to Egypt but dwell in Gerar.

Circumcision a sign of the faith and covenant of Abraham as directed by God

And what was the charges of God that Abraham kept concerning Isaac?

Circumcision, which we know every Israelite until those living in the wilderness had as a sign of the covenant:
Notice in v. 1 it is God that initiates this covenant with Abraham, this sets it as distinct from Jacob’s covenant and those others we saw performed by Hannah and Jephthah:

Gen_17:1  And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
Gen 17:2  And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
Gen 17:3  And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
Gen 17:4  As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Gen 17:5  Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
Gen 17:6  And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
Gen 17:7  And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

Here we see a highly important fact of this covenant, and that is this, in God’s initiation and terms set he makes a place for Abraham’s seed (such as Isaac and Jacob and does so everlastingly, and as we know the ultimate covenant here made is not only to all the people of Abraha’s generation or genealogy, but ultimately to Christ the Seed singular of the covenant)
Next God promises the Land of the Canaanites which has its own covenant.
and then God sets the sign of this Covenant whereby the future generations will be initiated into covenant with God on these terms and condition with these goals and desires by the passive participation of the child in the act of circumcision.

…Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
Gen 17:10  This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
Gen 17:11  And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
Gen 17:12  And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
Gen 17:13  He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

So here are the terms:

Ab’s part:
walk before me, and be thou perfect.
God’s part:
I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
Ab’s part:
fell on his face

God’s part:
my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
and
I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

1. to receive these blessings or returns for most one must be of th seed, from the loins of Abraham:
the bearers of this covenant and all it implies will be carried by:
1. a male among Abraham’s house, specifically his lineal sons
a. genetic descent
b. an allowance of covenantal participation for those perpetually owned as slaves

2. eight days is preferred but older is obviously implied.

These covenantal signs are from hence fore to be the sign bore in the flesh of the people of Abraham, and thus:

Gen_17:14  And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

God by use of His Word tell Abraham that Isaac, his first son to be circumcised exactly on the 8th day will show by promise the establishment of this Word:

Gen_17:21  But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

And thus, we are told that:

Gen 17:26  In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.
Gen 17:27  And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

And it is here after that Isaac and Jacob and the 12 tribes are known as sons of Abraham both in natural descent but also in their fathers passing on this generational and covenant obligation given to Abraham to be a father of many nations to be fruitful and multiply, to have kings come out of them.

And it is like we see with Jacob, who made the vow to God and God returned in answer and he commands the obedience of his house, the sanctification of His house and the worship of his house, like wise Abraham, and Isaac were obligated to do the same but at the point hereafter of 8 days old.
And this sign in the flesh, that committed a son to a household of Abraham, to the people of Abraham, was the reminded in life that you have a covenantal obligation to live up to as an heir of Abraham, as a father or brother of Christ to come and in our case of Christ who has come.

In the time Joshua when the people forsook Circumcision for 40 years as they fell dead in the wilderness due to faithlessness, though they were the seed of Abraham and predestine heirs of the promises and the promise land, and were accepted as such, nevertheless due to generational covenantal obligations placed upon them by God and his charges, we see faithful obedience as heirs of Abraham renew that covenant according to the word of the LORD… but only, sadly after 40 years of faithlessness takes its death toll.

If we look back also to Noah, we have yet another covenant where we see generational impact:
Again, God acts according to Grace and reveals himself to Noah

Gen_6:8  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Noah’s life reflects a recipient of grace in his works of love and obedience

Gen_6:9  These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

And God reveals the established plan of covenant He is giving to Noah’s house:

Gen 6:17  And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Gen 6:18  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.

And so God sets the terms of obedience in entering to the ark
After the flood Noah builds an Altar:

Gen 9:1  And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
Gen 9:2  And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
Gen 9:3  Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Gen 9:4  But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Gen 9:5  And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.
Gen 9:6  Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
Gen 9:7  And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
Gen 9:8  And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
Gen 9:9  And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
Gen 9:10  And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
Gen 9:11  And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
Gen 9:12  And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

Here we have to Noahic terms of covenant, we obstain from eating the blood of any creature we are allowed to eat, this is to teach us the covenant of the flood, in that the life is in the blood, and that the highest valued blood is that of Adam who is made in the image of God.
And secondly, we have the witness of the promise of God to not flood the earth in the sign of the rainbow, though the science of the rainbow was here since creation, God here assigns to it a perpetual meaning thus stated ‘everlasting’ to be remembered.
As you see the signs of the covenant are part and parcel to the covenants, we eat not blood, God offer the rainbow. God gives fruitfulness and multiplicity to Abraham’s people, we circumcise the males there of.

Yes, these are 2 different types of covenants observed in different ways with different but related promises ‘fruitful multiplicity’, but to the sons of Noah, and the Sons of Abraham we have access into those covenants in a more personal way, where by knowing the terms of the covenant we might in such a way as individuals and as families and as church families enter into a pre-established covenant according to the very word of God preserved for us, and thus such a personalized covenant is lawful and desirable and convenient to us as Christians and yet so much more affective when entered into in a corporate and collective way.