The Way the Kingdom Comes Isa 22 4, Rev 1911 16 Greg Bahnsen

Please open your Bibles this morning to second Timothy 3, verses 15 through 17, as our scripture reading. Second Timothy, chapter three, a brief reading starting at the 15th verse. Hear now God's Word, and that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every scripture is inspired of God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. And thus far the reading of God's Word. We have been considering the subject of covenant theology over the last number of worship services together, and I think it would be good for us to pause this morning to ask, what difference does it make? Have these just been lessons in some kind of abstract theological notion out there that these pinheaded theologians that live in ivory towers away from the practical details of life like to argue about? When all is said and done, it doesn't come down to any basic difference, does it? After all, people who are dispensationalists rather than covenant theologians, they believe that salvation is by grace. We believe that salvation is by grace. And when all is said and done for the kinds of explanations and what appears to be backpedaling to us, dispensationalists do admit that even the saints of the Old Testament were saved by grace and not by works, even if not hypothetically offered salvation on the basis of obedience there. We think they're wrong about that, but they admit that there were men of faith in the Old Testament who were saved by grace, and we're saved by grace today. And there are dispensationalists believe in the sovereignty of God after all. And so when all is said and done, what's the big difference? Aren't we just arguing about something that doesn't make any difference? And don't theologians love to do that kind of thing anyway? I mean, it'd be easy for people in the pew to say, well, this whole thing about covenant theology, it's just a tempest and a teapot, doesn't amount to anything. You know, the old saw theologians in the Middle Ages were told wanted to argue about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. That's what theologians get interested in. But practical people don't care about those theological debates. And we can put aside this dispensational, covenantal argument as being just as trivial as that. Well, I need to say a couple things about that. First of all, that debate about angels on the head of a pen as I've explained to this group before, was not a trivial debate. Every time I hear somebody use that as an illustration of how theologians get into all these little trivial things, I think, what an ignorant person that is. People love to pick up on that debate. That debate, that debate about angels and the head of a pin had nothing to do with angels and much less to do with the head of a pin. That was just a clever way to ask a very important metaphysical question. Metaphysics is the study of the nature of reality, the origin of reality. What is real, what things exist, what's the character of their existence, and so forth. And so if we ask, what is it that makes two things within the same category different from one another? That is, what is the principle that individuates things? That's a very important question. All of us sitting in this room, we're going to be charitable here, are human beings, but we're not the same human being. So what separates us from one another? And there are different approaches to that. I'm not going to give you entire lesson in metaphysics today, but just to show you that theologians don't argue about silly, trivial matters. One way to say we differ from each other is to say there's different matter in our bodies that make up our bodies, and so we're all of the form human. But then there's different matter that goes into us. You might think of it this way. You have like vega wad of dough. You spread it out and you take the cookie cutter and you use the same cookie cutter on the dough. Why aren't all the cookies identical? Why is it that you have many cookies rather than one? Well, because you have different dough in each cookie, right? Even though they may look the same. So now, is that what individuates us, the matter that goes into it? Or would you say that it's something else, something immaterial? Is it the soul that differentiates us from one another, our personalities? Is it that we do have slight physical differences, we don't all look alike? What is it that makes all the members of a particular class different from each other? We know what makes them like each other, what makes them different. And to ask that question in a clever way, you could say, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? It's kind of like a cute way of saying if matter. If matter is the principle of individuation, then the answer must be no more than one, because obviously the head of the fin is very small. But if matter is not the principle of Individuation, then an infinite number of angels theoretically could be on the head of the pin. And that's all that was about. Now when people look at that and they think, well, people really cared about the head of a pin and an angel, they. They're really showing their own uneducated naivete. That was a very significant philosophical issue. Well, I have to get that off my chest. My point is, theologians do not waste time with impractical issues. Not many people have the patience to. You know, there must be some perception of a practical difference in some issue that keeps a person working on a matter or arguing with somebody over something. But certainly this covenantal, dispensational difference within the evangelical church is not a trivial theological issue. Although covenant theologians and dispensationalists come around to common conclusions on certain basic issues like salvation by grace, I would argue that the way in which dispensationalists get there, the way in which they arrive at that conclusion itself opens the door to other theological errors. Yes, I'm glad that my dispensational brothers believe in salvation by grace and that after some prodding, they'll even admit that was true in the Old Testament and so forth. But you see, it shouldn't be so hard to get to that conclusion. And the nature of God should not be seen in the way that the dispensation was done does, in terms of offering hypothetically salvation by works, but then drawing that back and in the New Testament, saying, it's all by grace. God having one plan for the Jews, another plan for the church, and so forth. These things reflect on the character of God, the God that we worship. Is he faithful? Is he sovereign? Does he fail at anything he does? Those are important theological issues. And so today, what I'd like to do is just spend a few moments with you telling you what the nature of covenant theology is. If you hold to a covenantal approach to God's character and the way of salvation, what kind of Christian faith are you going to have? What does that lead to in terms of distinctives theologically? Paul tells us in 2 Timothy chapter 3 that every scripture is profitable for doctrine. Whenever we are talking about something that's in the Bible and somebody says, oh, who cares? That doesn't make any difference. Then they're standing opposed to the Apostle Paul. Paul said, every bit of the Scripture has practical consequences, that if you understood this, you would see the value, the benefit of getting it right. And I think if I could give you an overall picture of what covenant theology means in terms of defining the Christian faith, you would see the practicality, the importance and the implications that are in this debate between covenant theology, dispensationalism, and other forms of theology. By way of review, remember I taught you what a covenant is. A covenant is a mutually binding compact. It's a covenant, in the case of biblical covenant between God and his people. There's a mutually binding compact between God and His people. Now, this compact was transacted by God sovereignly. We didn't go to God and say, let's negotiate a plan of salvation. God came to us with a promise, but it was a promise and our following in the sanction by blessing or by cursing if we break covenant with God. So once again, what is a covenant? A mutually binding compact between God and his people, sovereignly transacted by the Lord, wherein a promise is made by God which calls for trust on the part of his people and entails obligations of submission which are sanctioned by curses and blessings. Covenant theology is a theology that focuses on what we've just been describing as God's covenant with his people. Covenant theology holds that all of the covenants after man fell into sin are essentially one, and that they all center on God's gracious promise in Jesus Christ. All of these covenants after the fall are one covenant. Basically, they expand on each other, and they all center on Jesus Christ and the promise of salvation in Him. Each of the successive covenants, as I've just said, expands on previous covenants rather than disregarding previous covenants or running parallel to them. Covenant theology stands over against the dispensational view that God has a covenant and then when everything falls apart, he disregards that one and he starts a new one. Then he starts another new one, and so forth. Or dispensationalists will sometimes say, God has made a covenant. But then when that doesn't work out so well, he goes to plan B, and that runs parallel with plan A. So that's where you get the idea that you have the Jews with one covenant promise from God and the Church with another covenant promise. And these run parallel to each other. Covenant theology doesn't believe that. We believe that every successive covenant expands on the previous ones, rather than disregarding or running parallel to them. All of these covenants prior to Christ were marked by anticipation. They looked forward to the coming of the Savior, and for that reason they were administered by foreshadows and prophecies until the fulfillment and substance of those prophecies and foreshadows should come. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The New Covenant has been established by him looking back to his accomplished work. This is a very simple model of theology. And to be honest with you, when I was first introduced to it, I couldn't understand how any Christian could disagree with that. I mean, it just seems so obvious. It seems obvious in the Bible. It seems. Well, I don't know. Maybe it's because undoubtedly it's due to my church upbringing in a Presbyterian church and so forth. It just made common sense to me. So when I found out that people thought otherwise because of my upbringing, I guess I could go immediately to what the problems were in the system that set over against it. For instance, how is the sovereignty of God upheld when somebody says God makes a covenant that fails and then he starts a new one? Or what happens to salvation by grace and we are the people of God by faith when God has some kind of ethnic privilege for the Jews? Now I'm no anti Semite, although people like to raise that against our theological school as kind of a scare tactic. I'm not against the Jews at all. In fact, I believe the Jews have a wondrous future. They're going to believe in Christ in Mass and come into the church and be blessed. Not against the Jews whatsoever. But I don't think being a Jew cuts it with God at all. It doesn't strike me that that is true to the theology of the Old or the New Testament. So anyway, when I first ran into dispensationalism and and other schools of thought that didn't hold to Covenant theology, it just struck me as contrary to common sense and to the clear teaching of the Scripture. But then you get into all these debates with the dispensationalists and so forth and the day eventually comes if you stick with it when someone is going to throw up his hands or her hands and say, oh, what difference does it make? So you hold the covenant theology, I hold the dispensational theology. When all said and done, we're going to heaven. We know it's by the work of Jesus and it's salvation by grace. So why bother with all these things? Well, I think we need to bother with it because first we have an obligation to tell the truth. Does that seem obvious to you? We have an obligation to tell the truth and above all to tell the truth about God, about who he is, what he's like and what he has done. To tell the truth about his plan of salvation, about his work of redemption and his plans for the future. I don't think God is glorified when we believe mistaken things. Even if you can believe one mistaken thing and then correct it by something else in your theology and finally get to a good conclusion when all is said and done. Here are some of the implications of being a covenant theologian without having to jerry rig things and and to use other aspects of your theological system to rescue you without having to go through the contortions of a dispensational approach. The Christian faith, understood in terms of covenant theology, first of all, teaches salvation by grace alone. Salvation by grace alone. After all, covenant theology focuses upon God's free promise of salvation. Salvation. We're not saved because we decided to seek out God or to negotiate with him or to offer some good that he might pay attention to us. We're saved. Why? Because God came and made a covenant. God came and said, I have a promise that I'm going to keep toward you freely. Without our initiation, without our accomplishments. God promised salvation. And that promise, initiated by him is what we mean by a covenant. God entered into this arrangement. He did it by his own initiative. He did it freely, and he promised to save us. And so you should expect that covenant theology is preeminently a theology of salvation by grace alone. Secondly, covenant theology is going to be a theology that emphasizes living by faith. If we're saved by God's promise, what does God call on us to do? Do we earn the fulfillment of his promise? No, we trust him that he'll do what he said he would do. Covenant theology means living by faith, not just being saved by faith, trusting the promise of God that He'll save us according to his grace, as he said he will. But it's a matter of trusting God day by day. Because the things God has promised us are not all yet seen, are they? And so if you hold to covenant theology, then your lifestyle must be one of faith living in terms of what you don't yet see, but you really believe God's going to take care of them. That's not always an easy thing to do, is it? To live by faith? See, if God can show us how our suffering is going to work out for his glory and our good, then we can suffer pretty easily. But it's when we wonder, is there any purpose in this? Is this going anywhere? That's going to be a blessing to me or glorify God. Then we. We start wondering, am I doing the right thing? Is God really paying attention to me? Does he really care for me? Well, if my eternal salvation rests upon his promise and I live day by day, anticipating being with him forever because he has promised to do it. How much more do I have to live day by day expecting he'll take care of the daily affairs of my life? I. I live by faith. I'm saved by faith, and I live by faith because I'm in a covenant relation with God, all centering on his promise. Thirdly, covenant theology means bowing to the sovereignty of God. Let me repeat this. He initiated the covenant because he initiated it. It belongs to Him. He is sovereign over it. He controls the terms. God didn't come and say, let's work out an arrangement. God says, I will set the terms for how you are to live, what you are to believe about Me, and what you will be blessed with in the long run as well as the short run. By following Me, God sets the terms of the covenant. He's the Lord of the covenant. And so if we are covenant theologians, we know what it is to bow the knee to the sovereignty of God. Covenant theologians acknowledge, fourthly, that God owns us and everything about us. He even owns our children. And the day will be coming soon when we hope we'll be having a baptism of a child. And if we can get that accomplished soon enough, we'll hold off preaching on infant baptism until that day. But this doctrine of infant baptism is not just some frill of Presbyterians that, well, when you go to church, every once in a while, they sprinkle babies. Other churches don't do that. It's not just a detail of the worship service that sets Presbyterians over against Baptists. We baptize babies because we believe God owns everything. He owns our lives. He owns our children. Children. And so they are marked out as His. You take that point of infant baptism in the service that works back to an acknowledgment about salvation by grace, God's sovereignty, His care for our families, and his covenant. In one sense, our whole theology comes down and is distilled, pardon the pun, and that drop right there, okay? We baptize our infants because we know that God has. Has saved us and our families. He cares for us. Does that mean our children are automatically going to heaven? No, it doesn't. I'll tell you more about that later. But it does mean they are marked out from the world in covenant with God and they will be blessed accordingly. Fifthly, covenant theology involves thinking that is Christ centered, because Christ is the mediator of. Of God's covenant. He's the one through whom all the promises are fulfilled. Now, dispensationalists can't say that again, without Jerry rigging and going around and making corrections because of other things they have in their theology. But in the very simple and pure sense, Covenant theology centers on Christ. In him all the promises of God are yes and amen. He is the one that establishes and he is the one who confirms all the promises of God for us. He is the mediator of the covenant. And so everything in our theology focuses on him and focuses on him in the fullness of his mediatorial office. Those of you who have learned the Westminster Catechism, you know that there's a question there in the shorter end, the larger catechism, about what are the offices of the mediator? They are the offices of a prophet and a priest and a king. And then the catechism goes on to talk about each one of those particular offices. If you stop and think about it, other theological systems tend to look at one or the other of the offices of Christ and emphasize them. Most evangelicals almost exclusively look at the priestly office of Jesus. He's our Savior, our sacrifice, our mediator, our high priest, and praise God he is, but you know, he's also our prophet. Jesus teaches us to think correctly, to believe the truth, to order all of life around his word. Jesus is a king, not just in the future. Jesus is presently the reigning king over all creation. We don't anticipate a day when he'll come back and set up his kingdom. We believe he is now the king and we live in his kingdom. That makes a great difference. Covenant theology centers on Christ in the fullness of his mediatorial office as prophet, priest and king. As the sixth implication of covenant theology, we put off religious individualism and place our emphasis upon the family and upon God's people. That his covenant theology is a theology of corporate salvation. Now, what does this mean? How is that different from other Bible churches or Baptist churches or dispensational churches? Well, the emphasis in other brands of Christianity, if I can put it that way, is upon your personal relationship with God. And it's like that has no relationship to anybody else around you socially or in your family, whatever. It's just a one on one kind of arrangement. And in the end, all of us are saved. One on one. We agree to that point with our dispensational, our baptism friends, however, that one on one salvation is not the whole of the story. God saves Abraham and his seed. God not only has Abraham circumcised, he has the slaves in his house circumcised. Now, what does this mean? Does that come through to us? God is interested in a corporate salvation. He calls a people to belong to him, not just individuals, like a bunch of marbles in a big bag, you know, when we get to heaven, we're all just these individual marbles that happen to be thrown together in this bag of salvation. God has a people, an organic people, that belong to Him. So he's interested in our children. We've already mentioned that. But our focus in covenant theology is upon the people of God. Church is important to us. And when we say church, when we're thinking as clearly as we should, covenant theologians don't automatically say, oh, yeah, what happens Sunday morning? Church is the people of God. Not just on Sunday, all week long, all through our lives and through all eternity. Hebrews tells us we have come to the church of the firstborn, of the spirits, of just men made perfect. Even those who have gone to glory are part of the church with us. We're still on earth, they are in heaven, but we're one people of God. We think in corporate terms. If we are covenant theologians, we put off a kind of religious individualism that leads to what? A maverick theology. No covenant theologian would make the mistake of saying, oh, well, I don't need the church. I can go out on Sunday and read my Bible and I'll be just fine. I can walk with God on my own. Well, that isn't what God says. That doesn't reflect the terms of his covenant with us. You see, that is an example of men trying to define for themselves their relationship with God, rather than letting God define it on his own terms. Seventhly, if you're a covenant theologian, you are desperate for God's Word. You see the need for God's Word. Why is that? Because if we're in a contract, in a covenant or a compact with God, we need to know the terms of it, don't we? We need to have the Word of God. If we don't have the Word of God, we don't have his promise. We don't know what he expects of us. The Word of God is our lifeline to the Savior. Covenant theology, just because of the covenantal emphasis, must also emphasize the Word of God. Next, we believe that that Word of God evidences a unity and a continuity over against the dispensational way of chopping up God's Word and his redemptive work in history. We believe that there is a unity throughout the Bible cover to cover. We believe there's a continuity, and I've already preached on that in this series talking to you about how we presume between the Old and New Testament a continuity rather than a discontinuity. Whatever God has said in the Old Testament is still true, is still a principle that's binding for us unless God says otherwise, whereas dispensationalism says no. You move from one dispensation sensation to another. It's discontinuity unless God repeats himself. And that makes a great difference practically in how you read your Bible, if you're a dispensationalist. Now, I'm not saying that all dispensationalists live up to their theology. I think they're better than this, actually. But if you're a dispensationalist, in truth, the only reason you read the Old Testament is as a religious museum. That's kind of like the historical background. But as far as a living, you know, day to day guidance and comfort for your life. The Old Testament belongs to a previous dispensation, but not according to us. We believe that the whole Bible can be read for profit today, that we may be perfectly furnished to every good work. Not only do we see unity and continuity in the word of God, we see unity between God's people in the Old Testament and the New. We believe that the church is the new Israel of God and that promises made to Old Testament Israel were in fact promises made to us. That's a very bold claim. Of course, we have New Testament warrant for that. God promised, for instance, to make a new covenant with the house of Israel in Judah. And Jesus establishes that new covenant when he institutes the Lord's Supper with the church, his own church, which is a Jewish gentile mix. We are those who inherit the Abrahamic promises. Paul said so in Galatians, chapter three. We are the seed, we are the sons, we are the heirs according to promise. If we have faith in Christ. So we see a unity in the Scripture and we see a unity in the people of God. And three more consequences. And then I think I've given you enough for an afternoon's reflection about the nature of covenant theology. We also recognize as covenant theologians the need for sanctified, persevering, living under God. I said that this covenant was mutually binding. God doesn't come and make a promise and say, now, no matter what you do, I'm still going to save you at just this point that so many people fall off the wagon because they say, now wait a minute, wait a minute. Are you going to say that I've got to live a certain way? If I want to be saved. Yes, I am. Oh, well, then you believe in salvation by works. No, I don't. Let me see if I can explain this to you. God comes and he makes a promise. He enters into this arrangement by his grace. God comes and he makes a promise. He enters into this arrangement by his grace. He says, I saved you. And if you trust me, if you believe this promise, you're going to live in a certain way. And if you don't live in that way, you don't really trust me. You're not in covenant with Me, and so I will reject you. Now, those who live in covenant with God, will He save them because of their obedience? No, he will save them because of the merit of Jesus Christ. He will save them because they are trusting in the Savior and acting faithful in a faithful way toward the Savior. He will not save them based on their works. But now those who do not follow follow the Savior who are not faithful, are not obedience, not obedient. They will be rejected because they show through their disobedience that they don't trust God. They aren't walking in fellowship with Him. Again, that seems so simple when you approach it one way. But then people want to turn that in and say, oh, well, then you believe that you're saved by obedience. No, we believe we're saved for obedience. And if we're not obedient, then we're not saved. But the basis of our salvation is the merit of Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the Covenant. And so covenant theology, you will notice this if you spend some time studying it and you look around, you will find the churches that are covenantal stress sanctification, and churches that are not. Almost invariably, whether they use this language or not, will say that sanctification is the second step of the Christian life. It's kind of like if you want supercharged Christianity, then you want sanctification as well, or you want the second blessing, or there's a lot of different ways of putting it. But you have churches that think that simple faith is what gets us into the kingdom. And then there are some people who want to go on to we must persevere. It's a very sad thing when you hear evangelicals talk about once saved, always saved. They don't understand God's covenant. They don't understand what true security is in the promises of God. And because they don't, they'll teach this perverted idea that if you've prayed the sinner's prayer, if you've walked the aisle, if you once take Jesus into your heart as Savior. Then even though you fall away and you never read your Bible and you never pray and you never go to church and you lead a pretty wicked life and no one would ever see the difference between you and the world. You could backslide and not care a thing for God, but he's got to save you because you went down the aisle at that Billy Graham rally and he's going to live up to that. That doctrine of one saved, always saved is right out of the pit of hell. Satan would love people to believe that, as though God could be mine. So we can say, yes, God, I do confess my sin. I trust your promise in Christ and I take up my cross to follow him. And then you don't follow him. And God says, well, that's okay. I mean, you said the words, that's good enough for me. No, it isn't. God wants changed lives. He wants us to walk in covenant with him. He establishes the covenant. He says, I expect you to act in a faithful way towards me now. And you must persevere if you would be saved. Those who do not persevere, Those who show 20 years of Christian profession and turn away from it by open flagrant sin that they will not repent of, are not saved. I guarantee you well over 50% of the preachers in Orange county would hear what I just said and say what a legal. What a harsh, mean spirited, unkind man that Bonson is. Well, I'm telling you, this is what Jesus says. And what would be unkind would be for me to not let you know the truth. Jesus says, there will be people on that day who say to me, lord, Lord, didn't we do all these things in your name? And he's going to say, I never knew you. Perseverance is called for. If we would keep covenant with God, this means, then we honor the lordship of Jesus Christ. We believe that God owns all things, that all of his word is binding on us today and that he must be served in a persevering, sanctified way in every area of life. Covenant. The owl then leads naturally to Christian education, to the idea of Christian calling and vocation in this world, to the idea that there's a distinctive way to engage in recreation if you're a Christian as well, a different way of looking at it and participating in it. We have a Christian approach to society and a Christian approach to politics, to the arts and the sciences. Because God is the covenant God. And he calls for us to live in a holy way before him in all Manner of living, as First Peter chapter one says. And again, you don't see that in dispensational churches. Dispensational churches, as a generalization, I know there are going to be some exceptions, but as a generalization, non covenantal churches preach for salvation week after week after after week and then let it go at that. That's Christianity walking the aisle, getting saved. Now obviously people need to get saved. We preach for that too. But that's not the whole of God's covenant. Salvation also means living under the lordship of Christ, persevering, having an active role in the church, and on and on and on. The things that you don't see in dispensational churches are not accidental. They are tied to this question of the covenant and how you view Christianity. And finally, because we are covenant theologians, we believe that we must show in our own lives covenantal faithfulness. Covenantal faithfulness in our marriages. God is a covenant keeping God. We must keep keep covenant in our marriages, covenant faithfulness in our contracts. We believe that when we make promises, we have to keep them, even if afterwards we regret that we made the promise. We believe that we are to keep covenant when we take church vows, we become members of a church. We don't just treat it like any other club where you can come and go. Now why is it, why have Presbyterians had those kind of emphases? I dare say it's because they've seen that God's relationship to us is by means of covenant. And so covenant faithfulness becomes very important in our lives day by day. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine and reproof and correction and instruction and righteousness. That the man of God may be perfectly furnished to every good work. If we would be perfectly equipped to serve God, to honor him, to know him as he wishes to be known, to worship him correctly, and to live before Him. We need to understand his covenant. We need to understand He's a covenant keeping God. We need to understand the terms of his covenant that we would know that salvation is by grace. And we need to know the terms of the covenant so we know how to live with one another before him and individually in our lives. Does it make any difference at all? Is this angels on the head of a pin? Yes, angels on the head of a pin. As long as you remember how important that question was, I'll be glad to have you liken this one to that as well. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you that you are a covenant keeping God, indeed. We confess that if you were not a covenant keeping God, we would be without hope in this world. We thank you that you have revealed yourself to us and that we've had the privilege of seeing that wondrous and rich aspect of your character. That you do keep covenant. We do thank you that in your word you have revealed the terms of your covenant. We thank you for your promise of salvation. We know that we cannot offer anything to you by which you would pay attention to us, much less save us in our sin. And so we depend entirely on you and your promise. We do trust you. We trust you even though we don't see our salvation consummated today. We know that we still struggle with sin. We still struggle with the affairs of this world and disappointment and discouragement. We struggle with pain and sorrow. We have not seen the salvation that you have promised yet come in full fruition for us. And yet we believe you that you are in charge of all things and that you will bring us home to glory one day. We do believe that according to your word you will accept the merit of Jesus Christ in the place of our sin and failure. We do thank you, our Heavenly Father, that you care for us not only individually, but you care for our families and you own our children as your own. We thank you, our Heavenly Father, that you have called us to worship you not just as individuals, but as a church, as the people of God. We thank you that we enjoy a continuity with your people in all ages, the people of faith who have trusted your promise for salvation. We thank you that we are in your sight, the very seed of Abraham and the heirs according to promise. We thank you for the word that you have given us that defines your covenant. We pray that you would give us a greater thirst for it, a hunger for it, that we might study it, that we might grow by it. We would know you better and live more purely and consistently before you. We thank you for the continuity that is evident in your word, that you are not a fluctuation God, you are not a fickle God, that you do declare yourself and that you are true to your own word. You do not break covenant by changing your principles or the declaration of your holy will for us. Help us to live lives that are persevering and sanctified before you. Help us to know your word, to keep covenant with you, and to honor the Lord Jesus Christ as the mediator of this covenant. To honor his lordship, and to honor it not just here at church on Sunday morning, but throughout our lives all day long. All week long and in all areas of our lives. We pray that we would express the lordship of Jesus Christ how we thank you for your covenant. Make us appreciate it. Help us to see the sick significance and implications of it. We pray in Jesus name, amen.