Covenants and Commandments

Welcome

Announcements

Sunday and Wednesday Nights - New Study on Sunday Mornings, 12 September - 8 Weeks - Ligonier - Reformation Truths, Wednesday we continue our look at the lives of the Puritans

Sept 11th - Special Event for Farmers Market

Wednesday 10am at the Roswell Southpark Cemetery, funeral for Leonard Witcher. For those who cannot make it up to Roswell, there will be a memorial service at the First Baptist Church at 2pm the same day.

Saturday Sept 11th at 1pm, Memorial Service for Mrs. Betty White. If you have not done so, get with Felicia to help with meak service. Also, if you have any fond memories of Mrs. White that you might want to share during the service, feel free to write them down and get them to me by Wednesday.

Prepare for Worship

Call To Worship

Responsive Reading pg 333 - Psalm 136

Confession

Prayer of Confession

There are many ways to be unfaithful to what we have become through baptism, to our commitment and our obedience to God. We offer God now our prayers of repentance. We confess to you, living God, our failure to live as brothers and sisters, and as your children. We confess to you, loving God, that we have not loved you as you have loved us. We confess to you, gracious God, that we have doubted your word and failed to obey its teaching. We confess to you, merciful God, our desire to own you and contain you within our doctrines and theologies. We confess to you, almighty God, that we do not acknowledge you as Lord of all the earth. Forgive us and redeem us for we have not allowed your presence to shine among us. There are many ways in which we have failed in our commitment and obedience to our fellow men and women. We turn towards our neighbors and our friends and offer them our prayers of repentance.

Assurance of Faith

Our God fulfils his promises and is true to his word. We have confessed our sins. God has forgiven us, because Christ died for us. Amen.

Catechism

Q. 7. What are the decrees of God?

A. The decrees of God are, his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

It may be challenging for us to accept, especially in times of turmoil and strife, but it is true we serve a God how declares that He declares the beginning from the end, and that He sits in the Heavens and does as He pleases.

The Westminster Confession of Faith states this:

From all eternity and by the completely wise and holy purpose of his own will, God has freely and unchangeably ordained whatever happens. This ordainment does not mean, however, that God is the author of sin (he is not), that he represses the will of his created beings, or that he takes away the freedom or contingency of secondary causes. Rather, the will of created beings and the freedom and contingency of secondary causes are established by him.

Last weeks lesson ended with the proclamation that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” We can live assured that as the proverb says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” We all have a plan, but He has a far better one.

Worship

Song 1 - 335 - Who is on the Lord’s Side

Song 2 - 352 - I Love Thy Kingdom

Song 3 - 356 - I know Whom I have believed

Prayers of the People

Prayer Request

Peoples of Afghanistan

Our Leaders

The multitude of families that have lost loved ones in the previous weeks.

Sermon Intro

Walking through Pauls letter to Ephesians

Going from corporate to individual salvation, often times hard to discern

Constant emphasis on God’s sovereignty in the work of salvation

What is sovereignty? God is not beholden to anyone or anything outside of himself/

We are not sovereign as we are captive to sin....but God

We now come to Eph 2:11-16

Ephesians 2:11–16 ESV

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Paul now focuses back primarily on the idea of corporate salvation

Discerning between Jew and Gentile, (circumcision and uncircumcision)

Those outside the kingdom were separated from Christ

They were alienated from Israel

Without Hope and without God “in the world”

They were strangers to the covenants of promise

Covenants

God has always worked through covenants

Adam to Jesus, many people in between

We see the discussion of a multitude of Covenants in the Bible

Only two covenants at play in terms of eternal life, works and grace

Multiple administration of the covenant of grace

these administrations worked in providential ways for Gods people, but did not define salvation

all pointed forward to Christ

Covenant of Works

last week we saw Adam’s covenant of works

could have provided eternal life with God if followed

defined the purpose of man, gave him reason for existence

man unable to meet even the simplest requirement

Adams failure

Moses failure

Covenant of works completed by Christ

Covenant of Grace

God knows the weakness of Man

He provides another means of salvation - grace

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Grace is God doing the work of salvation for us, those who cannot

God establishes a covenant with man, telling him that He will provide the way to eternal life for him

God saves sinners by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone

The way to eternal salvation is through Christ. Always has been always will be.

OT looking forward to Messiah, NT church looking back

Administrations of the Covenant of grace

This covenant of grace has been delivered through various ways

God made many covenants with the patriarchs, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David among others

There are views or understandings of Scripture that see each of these subsequent covenants as a “change in the plan” as differing means of salvation for God’s people.

Galatians 3:11 makes it clear, “the fact that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for ‘the righteous man shall live by faith’.”

Quoting Habb 2:4

Each subsequent covenant we refere to as an administration of the covenant of grace

Notice in each covenant more and more requirements were placed upon the people

these were not means of salvation

Types and Antetypes - pointing forward

fulfilled in Christ

We have the great fortune of living in the Gospel age, in which we can experience the efficacy of the New Covenant

The Ephesians were said to live in the transition time. They were once strangers to the covenants of promise

multiple covenants pointing to one promise the Messiah

Commandments

God’s law is pervasive throughout the Scirptures

People can look at the passages here and see something very wrong: Eph 2:14-15

Ephesians 2:14–15 ESV

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

We must ask is Paul here saying the totality of God’s law is abolished

What was the purpose of the Law given in the covenant to Moses

Is the Law monolithic, or can it be understood in parts as defined by their purpose

moral, civil, and ceremonial

Moral Law

Eternal

Defined by the very nature of God

Given in the 10 Commandments

Expressed by Jesus in the greatest commandments

We must ask is Paul saying this law is abolished?

Civil Law

Given first to Israel

Deuteronomy 4:1–8 ESV

“And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

All of the law was given as a gift to Israel, but it was considered so good that surrounding nations would be envious

Civil Law prescribed to the magistrate what was the proper earthly action in order to execute justice, bringing peace, and order to the land.

Is this law what divided the Jews and the Gentiles?

Ceremonial Law

These laws are also called the cultic laws. Laws that prescribed proper worship of God for the Israelites.

These laws also called the holy laws. The prescribed actions and lifestyle directives that set Israel apart from all the other nations.

Laws that should have made one humble, but rather brought about hubris.

These laws also directed the nature of worship through sacrifice. Blood of Goats and Bulls

These laws most assuredly were the defining feature that divided Jew from Gentile.

New Covenant and the Law

New Covenant

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

We live in the reality of the new covenant

Notice the “law” in this passage. It is not put away, or abolished, but put where?

The final administration of the CoG.

All administrations looked forward, painted the picture of the full reality, now we look back and believe on the fullness of that promise

Breaking the wall of hostility

Paul says that Christ made us one by breaking down the wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances.

What division of the law was contained in ordinances (dogma)? Which part of the law was it that created the greatest division between Jew and gentile?

Christ said He came not to do away with the Law, but rather to fulfill it.

He fulfills things for all time. If a sacrifice is required for payment of sin in the law, then it is always required. Jesus fulfills that.

If a Priest is required as a mediator between God and man in the Law it is always required. Jesus fulfills that role for all time.

If we are to be clean before the Lord, then we need to be washed clean of sin before we stand before him forever, Jesus is the fulfillment.

His fulfillment of the law, abolishes it in the sense that it removes it as an encumbrance of unity between jew and gentile as the Whole of Gods people.

But what of the Law

Paul says that this work of Christ creates one new man, reconciles us both to God in one body through the cross.

Christ work on the cross creates a new man, corporately the eternal Israel, we are all sons of Abraham, children of the promise.

The work on the Cross also creates in each of us a new person. We are reconciled individually to God, and we are part of the body of Christ. Called to walk in Him.

The law has application in our lives

Individually

Corporately as a Church

As a city, state, and nation. Gods law reigns supreme

Conclusion

We should see Gods law in the new covenant with the same love as those in the OT did.

What God is so close as to give laws so righteous

Seek to apply these laws in every facet of life and society

We must not remain silent in the face of injustice

The only way we reflect God in the world is to live as He has deemed us to live, to do so apologetically.

Lords Supper

Lets us now partake of the Lord’s Supper together as the New Covenant body:

Table is open to all who are professing believers

The words of Institution that the Apostle Paul has given us should give us caution as we come to the table this morning:

English Standard Version Chapter 11

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.

So as we pray and prepare to recieve the supper, keep the Word in your mind, preparing your heart for the recieving of the Supper.

And now in His name, I take these elements to be set apart by prayer and thanksgiving to the holy and mysterious use for which he has appointed them. As He gave thanks and blessed, let us draw near to God, and present unto Him our prayers and thanksgivings. Let us Pray

God, Who by the blood of your dear Son has consecrated us a new and living way into the holiest of all: we ask of you, cleanse our minds by the work of the Holy Spirit, that drawing near to you with a pure heart and clear conscience, we may recieve these gifts without sin, and in doing so glorify your Holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Have the people come and take. Elders deliver to those who cannot rise.

THe Bread: On the night Jesus was betrayed , he took the bread and when He had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to the disciples to eat saying: “This is my body which is broken for your; do this in remembrance of me” Take the bread

The Wine: And in the same manner He also took the Cup, and having given thanks, He gave it to the disciples, saying: “This is the cup of the New Covenant in my Blood, shed for many for the remission of sin. Do This as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” Drink of the cup.

Let us Pray.....

Doxology

Closing Prayer

If anyone has any questions or concerns feel free to catch me afterwards. And a quick reminder we do have plates in the back for anyone who desires to worship through giving today. The plate to the right is general giving, and the one to the left is specific for our missions giving.

Join us as we sing the doxology:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Now I would like to invite up Jess Holmes to speak with a message from the Session.