[0:00] Good morning. We open us up in a word of prayer, and then we'll begin. Our Father in Heaven, O Lord, as we read your word today, Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear.
[0:19] Incline our hearts to your testimonies. Revive us again as we look to your word. Open our eyes, open our minds to see wondrous things in your word, Lord.
[0:31] For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen. For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
[0:45] Familiar words. So Jesus taught us to pray. And Jesus taught us to live by first seeking that kingdom before anything else.
[0:58] Jesus told Herod, my kingdom is not of this world. We know a lot about this kingdom. The New Testament says a lot about this kingdom.
[1:10] And God's kingdom isn't just one of the many themes running through the Bible. Therefore, the kingdom lies just beneath the surface of almost every passage in every book in the Bible.
[1:22] So as a church, right now, we're going through the book of Philippians. And what does Paul tell the church at Philippi? He says, you are a citizen of God's kingdom. Your allegiance lies into God's kingdom, not Rome, to God's.
[1:36] So the thread of the kingdom can be seen from Adam to Abraham. From Abraham to Moses. Moses to David through the Psalms.
[1:49] To Isaiah. To Nehemiah. And eventually to Jesus, his church. And eventually to the point where Christ reigns with his people forever and ever. In the new heavens and the new earth.
[2:01] That thread of the kingdom runs straight through from the narrative from Genesis to Revelation. And as we said last week, it is both true that the Bible has one author and multiple authors at the same time.
[2:15] Since there is only one author, the divine author, the Bible has a single coherent plot line that is centered on Christ, as we discussed.
[2:25] So a caveat, I don't mean to say the kingdom of God is the center of all biblical theology. I only mean that the kingdom is going to be the means by which the story will advance from Genesis to Revelation.
[2:40] And by the end of this series, my hope is, as we look at a lot of the themes in the Bible and how they run through the thread, the narrative, that you can drop into any point within the scriptures and know where you are in the storyline.
[2:53] So that's my hope and my prayer. So to understand the kingdom, before we get started, and we talked about the systematic versus biblical theology last week, to understand the kingdom, we have to understand the idea of a covenant.
[3:13] The Bible uses the term covenant throughout the Bible. What is a covenant? So this class is called The Kingdom Through the Covenant. And by the way, there's a great book about this, if you're interested in learning more, by authors Stephen Wellam and Peter Gentry.
[3:30] Their book is called The Kingdom Through the Covenant. So it's a fantastic book. So what is a covenant exactly, and how does it relate to the kingdom? So today, we typically think of covenants as dry, legal relationships.
[3:47] So if you have a mortgage, you may have covenanted with the bank to make those payments on time. First of the month. You've entered into a covenant. But in the Bible, covenants are different.
[4:00] They're different. They are bonds of life and death out of love. So the word lovenant would be a great word to describe this kind of relationship in the English language.
[4:13] But alas, we're stuck with the word covenant. So covenants are bonds of life and death. And that's the idea of a covenant the Bible presents to us.
[4:25] And when I say the theme of the kingdom of God, what do I mean when I say kingdom of God? So eight words to define the kingdom of God. God's people and God's place under God's rule.
[4:37] That's how Graham Goldworthy described the kingdom of God. The kingdom is the place where God as king rules over his people. And so by tracing, as Stephen, Wellam, and Gentry know, the covenant is the entire backbone of the entire storyline of the scripture.
[5:00] So it's important we get our arms around this idea of covenant and kingdom. So in fact, many Christians across the centuries have made the idea of a covenant the organizing principle by which the Bible is cemented together.
[5:14] So we say the Bible has two testaments, right? The Old Testament and the New Testament. But that can easily be translated as the old covenant of God's kingdom and the new covenant of God's kingdom.
[5:28] And so by tracing that trajectory from its conception to its consummation in the new heavens and new earth, we'll begin to see how the Bible really is one grand story centered on Christ.
[5:39] And so I hope this class helps us to read our Bibles better, but also for us to reflect on the majesty and beauty of the biblical message. So let's jump right in.
[5:51] Turn to Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Verse 3, And God said, Let there be light.
[6:02] And there was light. Ten times in this opening chapter of Genesis 1, we read, And God said, and it was so. So we see God speaks as a king.
[6:16] And his lordship is on full display. The king and the author of creation has authority over his creation. And so while it is true that God alone is the ultimate king, God portrays Adam, the first person bearing his image, as a king.
[6:37] Look at verse 26. This is the pattern of the kingdom of God. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
[7:00] So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. So kingship to Adam is at the heart of the commission that God gives to Adam and Eve.
[7:15] They are granted dominion over animal life on the earth. So the language of being given dominion means God has appointed humans as his vice regents.
[7:25] Vice regents. So just like the vice president acts on behalf of the president, Adam and Eve act as the vice regents on behalf of the king in creation. And in the creation mandate, in verse 28, Adam and Eve were to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and thus spread God's own dominion outside the boundaries of the Garden of Eden so that it reached the furthest points of creation.
[7:51] God reigned over his creation in and through the partnership of Adam and Eve together. So the kingdom of God in the garden would spread. And later in the Bible, God even calls Adam a son.
[8:04] So he's royalty. Right? Luke 3 tells us that. And so, think about the dignity of all people created in the image of God here. The Imago Dei.
[8:15] And this is scandalous, friends. When Moses wrote this, only Pharaoh would ever claim to be made in the image of king. Right? So imagine how the Israelites would have felt after years of being slaves in Egypt that they too were created in the image of the creator God.
[8:32] So friends, Adam and Eve had an exalted position in creation as all human beings do. Right? And the Garden of Eden where God places them is significant.
[8:45] The garden is portrayed as a microcosm of the blessing God intended for the whole earth. So Eden, we can say, is the center for the world's blessing reflected in the depiction of four rivers flowing from the garden in chapters 2, verses 10 to 14.
[9:03] So in that blessing would extend the ends of the earth as Adam and Eve were fruitful and multiplied and populated the earth with image bearers. So the kingdom of God would bring blessing.
[9:14] So this is paradise. This is God's kingdom. And then disaster strikes. Right? In Genesis 3. A disaster strikes. Adam and Eve reject God's rule through that serpent's deception.
[9:31] The first great conflict in the story emerges at this point. Has the kingdom perished? Has the kingdom perished? Sin jeopardized God's divine plan to bless the world, but was it eradicated by human rebellion?
[9:48] So in the first few chapters, we see that although sin had entered the world through Adam, God's sovereign plan was not abandoned. So surprisingly, I think the reader would be surprised at this point, and very unexpectedly, the plot thickens.
[10:04] The plot thickens. Genesis 3.15 is that first musical note of God's redemptive intention in this grand symphony of the Bible. Following the fall, God says this, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.
[10:21] He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Sometimes called the proto-evangelion. Proto-first evangelion is the gospel.
[10:32] The first gospel promise in the Bible. God did not destroy them, but he promised a savior. Surprising. So the author here is foreshadowing a solution to solve the problem of sin.
[10:48] To solve the problem of this conflict by providing a savior. God is going to rebuild his kingdom that had been destroyed by sin through this offspring promised to Adam and Eve.
[11:03] God will do something in the history of Israel that has its genesis in this promise given in Eden. So Adam's temptation in the garden should make us think of temptation in another garden.
[11:19] Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Both Adam and Jesus faced temptation, but only one was faithful. The original Adam wilted under temptation of eating the forbidden fruit.
[11:33] But in another garden, Jesus, the last Adam, overcame temptation. Adam's choice to sin by rejecting God had the potential of bringing condemnation and death to everyone.
[11:45] But in the garden of Gethsemane, Christ's decision to die for sins brought life. Adam disobeyed God's will by eating of the tree, whereas Jesus submitted to the Father's will by going to the cross and being nailed to a tree.
[11:58] So in biblical theology, as we discussed last week, this is known as typology. Typology. Adam is the type.
[12:10] Christ is the antitype, the fulfillment. So are we being clever in making this comparison? No, rather, Paul makes his connection for us in Romans 5, verse 14.
[12:21] He uses the word type to describe Adam and the one who is to come, Christ. So Paul is comparing the two for us, but he's also knowing the differences between Adam and Christ.
[12:33] So in reading the Bible canonically, we can say the scene in the garden in Genesis is anticipating Christ. That's biblical theology. According to Paul, Christ is the second Adam.
[12:46] So just a sidebar conference here. There's a question that many have about whether God made a conditional covenant with Adam. was there a covenant with Adam in the garden?
[12:59] And I would say, I think there's good reason to believe there is a covenant, but people differ on this. So the argument for why there is a covenant pretty much is, look, if it quacks like a duck and it smells like a duck, it looks like a duck, well, it's probably a duck then.
[13:14] So people say there's a covenant with Adam because there are binding promises between two parties. God would establish Adam and Eve in the garden if they obeyed the Lord.
[13:26] But they would be cursed if they transgressed the command to not eat of the tree of the life of good and evil. So there are covenant blessings and covenant curses. So the account has all the elements of a covenant except officially calling it one.
[13:42] So one more reason that people think there's a covenant here is the prophets sometimes are called the covenant prosecutors. So like a prosecutor in a courtroom, the prophets lay out a case of why Israel has failed to keep its commitments in the covenant.
[13:59] And Hosea does this and compares Israel to Adam in transgressing its covenant to the Lord. So however, people find the reason why people don't think there's a covenant here is because nowhere in Genesis is the word covenant used.
[14:13] And there's no covenant ceremony which is a weakness. You'd expect to see a covenant ceremony here. But there's not. So why does it even matter why am I bringing this up?
[14:25] Because, and this is using the tool of continuity, it helps us to understand our redemption. Theologians will say the covenant with Adam, they will call it the covenant of works, puts Christ's active obedience into perspective.
[14:42] His active obedience. So, Paul makes clear in Romans 5, both Adam and Christ stand in covenant relation to humanity. Right? We are either in Adam or in Christ.
[14:54] And when Christ comes as a second Adam, Christ is keeping the covenant that Adam failed to keep. So in that respect, Christ is the covenant keeper for a new humanity.
[15:05] And God means to always relate to his people through their obedience. Right? But we know even in paradise, human beings in ourselves are unable to maintain that perfect obedience that God requires.
[15:18] Even in paradise, we can't obey. And God's good law commands us, but we're unable to obey it ourselves. So Christ did this perfectly on our behalf.
[15:30] He fulfilled the covenant of works, theologians will say. However, if you're a dispensationalist, you see these in a different way. So a dispensationalist sees a lot of discontinuity like we talked about last week. And so biblical history is thus divided into dispensations.
[15:43] And they would say that in Adam, it's a dispensation of, usually it's called innocence. And that was very short-lived because Adam and Eve failed pretty quickly. So getting back to the story in Genesis.
[15:57] Adam and Eve fell. And as the story unfolds, unfolds, the horrific consequences of Adam and Eve's sin become evident very quickly. So Genesis 6, verse 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
[16:18] So by the time of Noah, there were only eight righteous people in the entire world. Only eight. So if you think about living in today's day and age is bad, friends, think about how bad it got in Noah's day.
[16:28] There were only eight people in the entire world that followed God. There were more than eight people in this room. Praise the Lord. And of course, we have the Holy Spirit. But God is not taken by surprise, friends, by an entire culture and even an entire world that reject him.
[16:46] So I'm thinking about Noah's day. It must have been hard. I mean, your only family is the only people that follow Christ or follow God as king. So in Noah's day, the promise of redemption of the offspring of the woman was a distant memory.
[17:02] Barely remembered. A dream within a dream. But God would not wipe out everyone. Why? Because the promise God made in Genesis 3. Right?
[17:13] Noah is in the line of the promised offspring of Eve. The human race would not again be annihilated until the plan of redemption through the offspring of the woman was fulfilled.
[17:24] And God promises this in the Noahic covenant in Genesis 9, verse 8. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, I now establish my covenant with you and with all your descendants after you.
[17:38] I will establish my covenant with you. Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
[17:52] So covenants always have a sign. This one is the rainbow. God's bow of war set down. So the Hebrew root for rainbow and bow as an archery are the same word.
[18:05] So when you see the rainbow, it's a reminder that God will withhold his judgment. So this covenant is not directly tied up to God's plan of redemption in Genesis 3.
[18:17] However, it did preserve the created order long enough for that plan of redemption to come to pass. It also shows, I think, God is committed to his creation and anticipating the new heavens and the new earth where God will eventually restore his creation.
[18:34] But even after the flood, the fundamental problem with human beings was not solved. The Tower of Babel illustrates that the human heart had not changed at all. In Genesis 3-11, it is like William Golding's Lord of the Flies.
[18:49] Left to us, human beings would devolve into savagery and evil. So the only hope at this point for redemption must come from God himself. God must carry out a rescue plan.
[19:03] Indeed, God does this by choosing one man, Abraham, as the one through whom the promise of Genesis 3-15 would become a reality. So the covenant of Abraham is fulfilling the promise of Genesis 3.
[19:19] So in a sense, Abraham would be a new Adam. And Abraham would be a new Adam and Canaan would be a new Eden where God would dwell with his people once again.
[19:30] In Genesis 12, God promised Abraham three things in the Abrahamic covenant. Numerous offspring, land, and that he would be the source of blessing to all nations through one of his descendants.
[19:43] So Abraham is faltering about God's promise of an offspring since he's in his 70s.
[19:54] That's an old age to have children. And God showed him the stars and told him his offspring would be as numerous as the stars.
[20:06] And so God kind of gives Abraham the Rafiki treatment. Like, hey, Simba, look at the stars here. Like, your offspring was numerous as the stars. And as Romans 4 says, it's in that moment Abraham believed God and God would provide an heir and it was accounted to him as righteousness.
[20:28] So Genesis 15, 6, a very famous verse. And he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. So here, Abraham is believing a promise.
[20:40] The Lord counts him, reckons him, as a righteous man. So righteousness means walking before God, loving him, and obeying him. So a theological word here is this is an imputation of righteousness to Abraham.
[20:58] This is an alien righteousness coming to Abraham. To use a biblical metaphor, Isaiah will say this is a white robe that clothes us. Abraham in himself is not a righteous man.
[21:10] So the very next chapter, I think it's significant in the narrative, Abraham commits a heinous sin with Hagar. So Abraham is a polygamist. And who's the only other polygamist to this point in Genesis?
[21:24] A man called Lamech. It's not a good company to be in. You don't want to be compared to Lamech. But Abraham, after he's accounted as righteous, he commits a heinous sin.
[21:34] So Moses here is not whitewashing the heroes of the Jewish faith. Faith was the key. God accounted Abraham as a righteous man.
[21:48] It wasn't his ethnicity or any kind of works done by Abraham. Abraham was justified by faith. That's what Paul tells us. And the kingdom that God is starting through Abraham, seed, will be those who are justified by faith.
[22:03] Right? In Genesis 15, there's this curious ceremony that happens that takes place to seal this solemn covenant between God and Abraham, which highlights the unconditional aspects of this covenant for us.
[22:20] So covenants in the ancient Near East were sometimes ratified through a ceremony in which animals were cut up and the pieces arranged on the ground. And that's what's happening in Genesis 15.
[22:32] The two parties would walk between the pieces stating that a similar fate should befall them if either party broke the agreement. They would be torn apart like those animals on the ground.
[22:45] But something very interesting happens in Genesis 15. Something very unexpected happens in the ceremony. God puts Abraham to sleep. And it was only God who walked between the animal pieces in the figures of a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch in Abraham's place.
[23:03] Very strange. God is saying, I will keep my end of the deal. And Abraham, if you fail on your side, God is saying, I will take on myself the curse of breaking the covenant. So God has sole responsibility for keeping the covenant by providing offspring.
[23:18] It's unconditional. I am going to do it. And the sign of this covenant was circumcision, showing that God's people, the Israelites, had a special place in God's redemptive plan.
[23:32] However, one question that people typically have about the Abrahamic covenant is whether this is a conditional or unconditional covenant and how do we think about those aspects in Genesis.
[23:44] So, I would say the covenant with Abraham has both conditional and unconditional elements. So we see in Genesis 17, verse 1, God commands Abraham to walk before him faithfully and be blameless.
[23:57] So in that sense, it's conditional. The people, Abraham's descendants, would not experience the covenant blessings of the Abrahamic covenant if they are not faithful. However, so in this respect, Abraham himself was even called to walk by faith before God.
[24:14] But in another sense, though, God is committing to meet all the conditions of the covenant. So in that sense, it is unconditional. So it's both conditional and unconditional. Some people think it's only unconditional.
[24:26] Fine. A lot of people believe that. But I think there's both, I think there's both elements here. By the end of Genesis, these promises to Abraham of numerous offspring, land, or international blessing have scarcely been advanced at all.
[24:42] So by the end of Genesis, Israel was not in Canaan, but in Egypt. And obviously, the whole world was not being renewed through Abraham's family. So clearly, like Hebrews 11 says, the patriarchs lived by faith that the Lord would fulfill his promises in the future.
[25:00] So by the end of the book, the entire family of Abraham is limited to about 70 people. So how does the Abrahamic covenant relate to the promise that God made to Adam and Eve?
[25:12] the Abrahamic covenant is fulfilling the promise of offspring in Genesis 3.15. The promised offspring of Eve would come through Abraham's line. So the story is unfolding.
[25:24] That promised Savior will now be a descendant of Abraham. And as the Bible continues, we see how committed God is to keeping those promises.
[25:36] So the promise of Abraham's family was like the stars of heaven began to be fulfilled in Exodus. So we read in Exodus 1.7, but the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly.
[25:49] They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. But they were suffering miserably under Egyptian rule and cried out for deliverance.
[26:00] So would Pharaoh ultimately frustrate the Lord's plan? Exodus 2.23-25 During those many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help.
[26:16] Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel and God knew.
[26:28] The Lord remembered his covenant promise. But what will God do? God showed his unfailing love for his people in the Exodus by rescuing them from slavery.
[26:40] So the entire book of Exodus is building off the book of Genesis. The story is unfolding. God brought them through the Exodus to the foot of Mount Sinai and made another major covenant with them there, promising to take them as his treasured possession and dwell among them as their God if, if they would obey him.
[27:01] So this is called the Mosaic Covenant. This is the Mosaic Covenant. Here's what Exodus 19 verses 5 and 6 say.
[27:13] Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be to me a treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
[27:31] Israel would be a kingdom of priests who would mediate God's blessing to the rest of the earth just like Adam and Eve were meant to in the garden. They would be the new Adams in the land of Canaan.
[27:43] God's new humanity. In order to mediate the blessing, Israel must model the kingdom of God by living according to the Mosaic Law. Right?
[27:54] So God gave Israel a law code summarized in the Ten Commandments. And the Sabbath was a covenant sign that they were set apart to bless the nations. They were meant to be a holy nation.
[28:08] So would Israel be a truly righteous kingdom of priests that blessed the world? We'll find out. So how does the Mosaic Covenant relate to the Abrahamic Covenant?
[28:22] The Mosaic Covenant is implementing the Abrahamic Covenant. The story is unfolding. The Abrahamic Covenant fulfilled that promise given to Adam and Eve and now the Mosaic Covenant is implementing it.
[28:33] So God promised a kingdom to Abraham and now Israel be that kingdom of priests in the land of Canaan mediating God's blessing to the earth like God had planned for Adam and Eve in the garden.
[28:46] So the Mosaic Covenant would be the most conditional of all the covenants that we'll see with extensive promises of blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience.
[28:56] The worst being ultimate exile in the land. So you should notice there's a real tension in the progression of these biblical covenants. There are unconditional and unilateral promises that God of grace that God will do something but there are real two-sided conditions that the people must meet in the Mosaic Covenant.
[29:17] So there's a real tension in the narrative that's developing at this point. But the real drama in Exodus is how are these sinful people going to dwell with the Holy God who cannot tolerate sin?
[29:30] And Exodus makes that point. Figuratively speaking the Mosaic Covenant was broken before the ink was even dry in the covenant document. The people violated the covenant by doing what?
[29:40] Making and worshipping a golden calf. And Moses intercedes for Israel and they were forgiven but the question's raised how is Yahweh going to dwell with the stubborn people?
[29:53] The people were delivered from Egypt but were they really changed on the inside spiritually? By the end of Exodus this is a lingering question in the reader's mind. And in Deuteronomy and Joshua there is an intimation of what is to come.
[30:09] A hint. There's a hint that the Mosaic Covenant might actually be defective because it did not change the hearts of the people in Israel. I don't say that God meant for it to be defective as we'll understand.
[30:23] God meant for the Mosaic Covenant to be defective. So Deuteronomy really is one long exposition of the Mosaic Covenant that Moses preaches right before the people enter into the Promised Land.
[30:40] And Moses unpacks what it means for Israel to be loyal to its covenant God in the Mosaic Covenant. And the most famous verse in Deuteronomy is the Shema. The Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
[30:54] You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. In these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. Right? Famous Shema.
[31:05] Israel must keep his law and regulations to be a kingdom of priests that God had intended them to be. God commanded them to love him, to fear him, to treasure him, to cling to him.
[31:16] If they obey, covenant blessings will follow. They will be established in the land. But if they turn away from the Lord, covenant curses will descend upon them. So, but interestingly, right in the heart of Deuteronomy, the author is hinting that the law and the Mosaic Covenant could not change anyone's hearts.
[31:34] So Moses declares to the people, but to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. And in Deuteronomy chapter 30, in order to keep the covenant God declared, he, must circumcise the people's heart so they will love him with all their heart and with all their soul and live.
[31:56] So the very thing Moses tells the people they needed to do in the Shema, he later tells them they can't do unless God gave them new hearts to understand. Isn't that interesting? So in the middle of the Mosaic Covenant, Moses is prophesying about a new covenant that would need to come.
[32:12] So you see, the new covenant would involve a total change of heart for God's people. God needed to give them new hearts or what we would say today, conversion.
[32:27] The people need to be converted by the Spirit. I don't think Moses fully understood what he was saying here, but the new covenant doesn't really become explicit until Jeremiah's day.
[32:39] But you can see the progressive revelation of the new covenant that would establish a truly righteous kingdom. So you can see it starts dimly in the Mosaic Covenant, but then the Bible is going to become much clearer as the story goes along.
[32:53] So in Joshua, there's a major advance in the storyline because the second dimension of the promise to Abraham is now fulfilled. Israel now possesses the land of Canaan.
[33:06] But with the universal blessing promised to Abraham, Abraham become a reality through them. Toward the end of the book of Joshua, when renewing the Mosaic Covenant, Joshua echoes Moses' words and tells the people, you are not able to serve the Lord and God's jealous wrath will burn against you.
[33:23] So the key theme in Deuteronomy and Joshua is this. It explains that the law gave Israel a set of moral requirements but not the power to obey them.
[33:35] So the law gave Israel a set of moral requirements but not the power to obey them. So the Jews weren't asking whether Adam had a belly button. That really wasn't on their minds.
[33:45] The mystery is how is Israel going to be a blessing to the whole earth, the whole world, if they don't have the power to obey the law in their hearts? How is God going to build a kingdom that would bless the whole world?
[33:59] It's a mystery. We don't know at this point. And as the story unfolds, the book of Judges and Ruth would form a bridge to the next major part of the Bible.
[34:11] The book of Judges dashes any hope, any hope, that a kingdom of worldwide blessing would come through Israel anytime soon. So God had told the people in Deuteronomy, you shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes.
[34:28] A recurring verse in Judges is, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. So the people of Israel are doing a downward nosedive as they break the Mosaic Covenant and how they're living.
[34:41] And with these gruesome episodes of depravity, instead of being a blessing, Israel seemed to be cursed with the world. So Israel needed a new direction, a new direction.
[34:53] And a common refrain in Judges is, in those days, there was no king in Israel. There was no king. So according to Judges, Israel needed a righteous king for Israel to truly be a righteous kingdom in the world.
[35:07] Right? But Ruth, the book of Ruth, in contrast to Judges, shows us the beauty of living under the Mosaic Covenant and Yahweh's rule. The beautiful picture that we get of life under Yahweh's rule.
[35:22] So Boaz, right, is that kinsman redeemer. Interestingly, Boaz is from Bethlehem in Judah. And he was that kinsman redeemer, the relative that can redeem someone by bearing the cost himself.
[35:38] Just like Yahweh redeemed his people from Egypt in the Exodus, the redeemer images Yahweh who helps the helpless. And Boaz redeeming Ruth pictures what God would do for Israel in the future.
[35:50] In the fullness of God's plan, Boaz foreshadows the work of the greater redeemer, Jesus, who came to the spiritually destitute, those enslaved in sin and in helpless estate, and he bore the cost himself.
[36:05] And just like Ruth, a Gentile was brought into the fold of God's people by the redeemer, that future descendant of Ruth, the son of David, would one day bring many more Ruths and many more Gentiles into the fold of God's people.
[36:19] So if someone invited you to listen to a story, sit down, let me tell you a story about a redeemer who performed great acts of mercy before entering into a covenant with a bribe from the nations. That story could be about Boaz, or it could be about Jesus.
[36:34] That's typology. So it's a shadow in reality. God is giving us preparatory shadows for the real saving events that will come along. along the way.
[36:44] And the book of Ruth closes with a genealogy. The last word in the book of Ruth is the name David. So the book culminates with the man who served as Israel's king, David.
[36:56] And the need for a king is immediately fulfilled in the reign of David. The need for a king that judges says in order for Israel to be a righteous nation. And David comes. And of course, Boaz and Ruth are not only ancestors of David, but also of Jesus.
[37:12] So this far in the story, we know the promise of victory over the serpent and his offspring will come through a child of Abraham. But in 1 and 2 Samuel, the author gives us a new feature about this much anticipated promised offspring.
[37:28] But the divine author has been giving us hints along the way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[37:42] Here we go. So remember that false prophet character Balaam, who hated Israel in the wilderness back in the book of Numbers? Balaam is looking to get rich quick.
[37:55] All right. In Numbers 24, God just takes over and starts speaking through Balaam. Listen to what Balaam prophesied back in the wilderness. I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near.
[38:06] A star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel and it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheph. Crush the forehead of Moab?
[38:20] Does that sound familiar? It echoes those words that God made to Adam and Eve, doesn't it? Back in Genesis 3. The offspring would crush the serpent's head. So the story's unfolding.
[38:32] The promise to Abraham and to Adam and Eve will be fulfilled through a king. Right? So that's progressive revelation. And God makes a covenant with this king, with David, in 2 Samuel 7.
[38:48] Think about how the covenant with David might relate to the promise that God made with Abraham and Adam and Eve. So 2 Samuel 7, verse 11 to 16. This is called the Davidic covenant. The Davidic covenant.
[39:00] The Lord declared to David that the Lord himself will establish a house for you. When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you.
[39:12] Your own flesh and blood and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he will be my son.
[39:23] When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
[39:35] Your house and your kingdom will endure forever. Before me, your throne will be established forever. So there's an unconditional aspect to this covenant. God will never, ever, ever, ever, ever revoke his love for David's house.
[39:50] However, there is a conditional aspect to it as well. The king could not presume upon God's grace. The Lord would discipline David's line for his transgressions. So how do these two things relate?
[40:02] How is the Davidic covenant related to the previous covenant? The Davidic covenant is an exposition of the previous covenants. The promised offspring in Genesis 3 was fulfilled with Abraham.
[40:18] Moses implemented that promise and now we see that offspring will be a king from the house of David. The promised offspring will be a king that establishes a truly just and righteous kingdom.
[40:36] So as you read this narrative of 1 and 2 Samuel, you see that David was a good king, of course. He was a good king. But Israel needed a better king. David obeyed Yahweh and trusted in the Lord rather than taking revenge against Saul but he sinned extravagantly by committing adultery with Bathsheba and then turning around and murdering her husband, Uriah.
[40:57] So a better king was needed for the promise that Israel would be a universal blessing. So here are David's last words. I don't know if you can read that. His last words in 2 Samuel.
[41:11] David draws attention to this ideal king. The spirit of the Lord spoke through me. His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel spoke.
[41:23] The rock of Israel said to me, when one, that is the king, rules over people in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of the morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth.
[41:40] So God is speaking to David clearly in verse 2. And this king is radically God-centered. He rules in the fear of God and dispenses justice in the land.
[41:53] Israel needed a king who dawns like the light of the sun and blessed the people through gentle rains. That king would bless the whole world. And Israel needed a better king than David.
[42:04] So who would be that promised king? Like the classic story in King Arthur where the people waited for that promised king who would come and pull out the sword of Excalibur out of the stone.
[42:15] The Bible asks the question, who is that king that's going to come? Who will be the promised king? It's a mystery. It's a mystery. And the Jews talked about this. The Psalms are full of promises of that promised Davidic king when he would one day come and exercise his rule.
[42:33] And the future Davidic king came to be known as the Messiah or the Christ. Who will be the Messiah? So just like we ask ourselves when will Christ return?
[42:45] When will be that promised day when we will be with him forever? The Jews ask themselves when will this Messiah arrive? When will that righteous king come and make Israel a truly righteous kingdom that will bless the world?
[42:57] Will Solomon be that king who ruled into the fear of God bringing blessing to the nations? For a brief time it almost seemed like yeah he's the guy. It almost seemed like the promises were right around the corner in Solomon's reign.
[43:11] Solomon's kingdom blessed the surrounding nations. But sadly Solomon turned away from God. And Solomon wasn't that king the people needed for Israel to truly be a blessing to the world.
[43:23] And things rapidly deteriorate from here on with the kings. Will Solomon's son Rehoboam be the promised Christ to the king to bless the world? No. No. He sinned greatly by setting up false gods at the altars.
[43:37] What about the next king Abijah? Was he the Christ? No. His son Asaph? No. So for centuries the kings were wicked in Israel. And the cancer of sin residing in Israel was spreading rapidly with no godly king in sight.
[43:52] So by the time you get to the book of by the time you get to the book of Isaiah the people were experiencing the covenant curses right back in Deuteronomy if you if you disobey the Mosaic covenant you'll be cursed and now they're experiencing the covenant curses.
[44:12] Widespread famine. The king had split into two kingdoms Israel and Judah. The northern kingdom Israel experienced this devastating storm of God's judgment. The judgment described is Yahweh's strange work in Isaiah 28 for he longed to save his people but he judges them as well if they turn away from his goodness.
[44:33] And Yahweh in Isaiah 6 is the thrice holy one right? Holy holy holy holy he cannot tolerate sin and Israel had made a mess of things and it almost seems as if the promise of triumph over the serpent had been withdrawn.
[44:49] Just like Adam was exiled from the garden these nations were exiled from the promised land of Canaan. The people were like Gomer back in Hosea. Aren't we the same?
[45:01] The Lord is a faithful husband but Gomer keeps going back into the brothel and God says my people are like that. I'm the faithful husband and my people keep going back into idolatry.
[45:16] But God remember God had taken sole responsibility to fulfill the promise. what is God going to do at this point? What can he do? The people are wicked.
[45:28] They're not a blessing. They're cursed. But in a pivotal moment in Isaiah God repeats the Davidic covenant. The promise had not been revoked.
[45:39] God is going to do something in the future. come everyone who thirsts come to the waters and he who has no money come buy and eat and I will make with you an everlasting covenant my steadfast sure love for David.
[45:59] Right? Jesus says if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Promise kept. Right? So the Davidic covenant had not been revoked.
[46:12] God is still going to do something to establish a truly righteous kingdom in the world. In Isaiah one of the most famous prophecies of a Davidic king is found in Isaiah 9 that we read during Christmas.
[46:28] A new prophecy of this future Davidic king is given. Isaiah explains that a son is coming. A child is on the horizon who will sit on David's throne. This child will reign as the governor and rule over the land forever.
[46:44] Peace, righteousness, and justice will never cease upon his coming. This king is remarkable for he is the wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace.
[46:56] So these descriptions explode. They explode the expectation of this coming king who would bring the kingdom of God. He is much more than just a mere descendant of David. He is that.
[47:07] But clearly Isaiah's promise of a king who is a mighty God, everlasting father, was not fulfilled in his day. In chapter 11, Isaiah elaborates on this king.
[47:19] He is the shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots, which is a description that anticipates the suffering servant described in Isaiah 53. So he is equipped with the spirit to rule over Israel, and he surpasses all previous kings.
[47:33] And this salvation reaches to the ends of the earth. The promise of worldwide blessing made to Abraham will become a reality because he will bring salvation even to the Gentiles in Isaiah 11.
[47:48] And in that day, Isaiah says, your eyes will behold the king and his beauty. So God is going to redeem Israel, not only physically, but spiritually too. And so God was determined to offer a new covenant which would relate to his people in which he would relate to his people.
[48:04] In this covenant would establish a truly just and righteous kingdom, not like the covenant made at Mount Sinai. And the famous verse in Jeremiah 31 says this.
[48:17] This is the covenant I will make, says God. And notice the terms of this covenant. Jeremiah 31. 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 the land of Egypt.
[48:36] 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.
[49:04] So when this new David arrives, Israel will be forgiven its sin and given new hearts to obey the Lord. The law will be written on their hearts as Jeremiah says and they'll be given new hearts as God had promised back in Deuteronomy with Moses.
[49:21] Yahweh will show compassion and mercy on his people once again. So the Old Testament history concludes and Ezra and Nehemiah with Israel returning from exile. But the return from exile did not bring expected blessing.
[49:34] A new David ruling over Israel did not appear. So the Old Testament concludes on a note of expectation. The great promises for Israel and the world were not realized. And then it's with all this background that an obscure person from Bethlehem named Jesus shows up preaching about the kingdom of God.
[49:59] So if you turn to Matthew 1. 1. Basically this genealogy about Jesus screams out to us that God who made that promise in Genesis 3 is now fulfilling that promise.
[50:11] In the very two first words of the first book of the New Testament, Matthew grabs the very language of the opening chapters of Genesis. The words genealogy can be replaced with the book of Genesis, of Jesus Christ.
[50:24] God's name is the firstborn of a new creation. And who is he saying Jesus is at this point? He's a new Adam. According to Matthew, he's not only a new Adam, he's the son of David.
[50:36] Who else? He's the promised seed of Abraham. And God is keeping his promise to Abraham of providing an offspring through him that would bless the entire world. So the gospel of Matthew opens up saying the king of kings is on the scene.
[50:52] The king has finally returned, but no one recognizes him. The magi come to worship him, but the other kings like Herod are even troubled. They're even threatened by this competitor to his rule.
[51:05] And there's no pomp or fanfare when this king arrives. You know, the king comes riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. The crowds yell out, Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna!
[51:16] The son of David! The king is finally here! He's arrived! He's returned! But do the people enthrone this king? No. They don't enthrone the king. Instead, the king is crucified.
[51:27] The king is crucified by his people. There's a sign on this cross that read, Hail the king of the Jews! The king wears a purple robe.
[51:38] Instead of a crown of gold, a crown of thorns is twisted onto his head. And when the thief on the cross looked at this crucifixion, king, he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
[51:50] Somehow, this thief thought Jesus was presently ruling over a kingdom while he was being crucified. At the cross, the kingdom had come. God's will had been done on earth as it is in heaven.
[52:04] The kingdom of God comes in power, but the power of this kingdom is through Christ being crucified. And Jesus rises from the dead and ascends to his throne. We have to admit, this is a strange and unexpected kingdom.
[52:17] We weren't expecting this. The readers of the Bible, this is a plot twist. And so how does a cross relate to the kingdom of God? Well, through the cross, Christ inaugurated a new covenant to bring about a truly just and righteous kingdom.
[52:32] turn to 1 Corinthians 11. We say this when we celebrate the Lord's Supper. For I received from the Lord what I also passed to you.
[52:44] The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
[52:58] Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So, through Jesus' death at the cross and resurrection, Jesus inaugurated the new covenant.
[53:14] That truly just and righteous kingdom is here, that Jeremiah prophesied about. And the people of the new covenant are to be the people of his kingdom, who especially represent God.
[53:25] The new covenant is bound up with the kingdom of God. The universal blessing, blessing for all nations, is the people's, come to pass in Jesus and through his church. So, in the old covenant, God's people consisted almost exclusively of Israel.
[53:40] But the fullness of God's promise to Abraham has now become a reality. Every tribe, tongue, people, and nation are now blessed in Christ as they trust in him for eternal life. So, now in the New Testament, no one, no one, not even the disciples, ever expected the kingdom to come in two stages.
[53:57] Two stages. Jesus is the king who came to establish God's kingdom through the new covenant. But the kingdom is not consummated. It's not consummated. So, we live in the already-but-not-yet period.
[54:08] Jesus is the righteous king who presently is ruling wisely. And God's special kingdom will endure until it conquers and fills the world. And that's the final destination of biblical prophecy, when Jesus returns in glory.
[54:21] And God's special reign will encompass every kingdom on earth. So, as Richard Sibbes once said, faith makes us kings, because thereby we marry the king of heaven.
[54:33] So, just like Adam, now because we're married to Christ, we are kings because he is the king of heaven, and we are in Christ. Revelation 22, we see the kingdom is perfected.
[54:44] It's perfected. The conquering king is on his throne. Revelation 22, verse 3 says, no longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God, and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
[54:59] Amen. So we sing, come thou long expected Jesus in Christmas, to rightly recognize that Jesus is the long-awaited king. But this hymn is a window into the storyline about God's kingdom. The Old Testament saints long to see the coming of the Messiah, but they didn't know the Messiah was Jesus.
[55:14] And Jesus is our only hope for salvation, born a child and yet a king. So the promised king is that all the scriptures point to, and we are waiting for Jesus to return once again. So here's the lyrics.
[55:26] I'd love to sing it together if we can. I'll start. Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free.
[55:46] From our fears and sins release us. Let us find our rest in thee.
[55:58] Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth, thou art.
[56:10] Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.
[56:25] born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a king, born to reign in us forever.
[56:44] Now thy gracious kingdom bring. By thine own eternal spirit, rule in all our hearts alone.
[57:05] By thine own, raise us to thy glorious throne. By thine all sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne.
[57:18] Amen. Amen. Let me close this in a word of prayer. Amen. I'm happy to have questions. Father in heaven, oh Lord, we thank you that Jesus came, born a child yet a king.
[57:33] The king that was Israel's hope. And we thank you that we know this king because of your spirit who has regenerated our hearts to love the king more than sin.
[57:46] And I pray that you would help us to set our eyes on this king today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So I have this slide here.
[57:59] It's more for, it's more, this is going back to our talk last week about allegory versus typology. And I came across this and I'm like, oh, this is interesting.
[58:13] Is that allegory or is that typology? And if so, is it good allegory or is it bad allegory? But we had other questions, happy to answer them, but this was our, we were talking a lot about allegory and typology last week.
[58:29] Any questions? No questions. Allegory or typology? Oh, Tom. I have a question. So I was fascinated by you were drawing similarities between various thoughts, especially the new covenant of Jesus, the covenant or whatever you want to call it, the promise that God made when they fell, that there would be a promise to see who would crush the serpent's head, that his heel would be bruised.
[58:59] But I never realized, I guess, potential connection is what I want to ask you about, between the Abrahamic covenant and that God made that involved, you know, the killing of animals and that God became.
[59:12] Between them and that, I was wondering if you could talk about that a little more. I missed a little bit what you were saying, but it seems like potentially a dramatic kind of further elaboration of God's future suffering.
[59:26] Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it does foreshadow Christ's taking a curse at Calvary, especially when, Abraham, if you fail on your side, I'm going to take the curse on myself, God says.
[59:41] That's an interesting question because I think here's what people have said, that the conditionality of the Abrahamic covenant may have been, like, republished in the Mosaic covenant.
[59:55] In that sense, we can understand that Christ has taken the covenant curses at the cross at Calvary, DeNorma 27, 28, so there is question about whether, though, that conditionality is being republished.
[60:11] Because I don't think, otherwise, I don't think that when we talk about covenant curses, I think we're, people are referring to the Mosaic covenant at Mount Sinai.
[60:23] I haven't heard people talk about the Abrahamic curses that have happened. But I think there is a continuity there. There's a string that, there's a single flow of thought that is definitely foreshadowed in the cross, in that ceremony, especially in Genesis 15.
[60:41] Yeah, it's also interesting that, it's so, it needs to be on this idea that these covenants were about, we have to do, do, do, and work, work, work, to earn our righteousness, and then all of a sudden, the new covenant comes along, and it's like, oh, it's all changed now.
[60:57] But it's beautiful to see that that really, I mean, that wasn't the case, that these covenants had these illusions or predictions or images of God from family.
[61:07] When you point out the Mosaic covenant, I never realized that Moses is saying, you've got to do all this, and you've got to be served, and then again, he's like, yeah, God's going to have to talk. It's just, it's beautiful, it's encouraging, it's inspiring to see that.
[61:23] Thank you, Sharon. Yeah, thank you, Billy, I appreciate that. It is wonderful to see that God is, it is really one story centered on Christ. And that's really biblical theology. It's tracing that promise that God made to Adam and Eve that goes through each covenant and finds its climax in Christ.
[61:43] And that was the goal of trying to walk through all these chapters together. It was really, that was a lot. We walked through a lot. So you mentioned the Noahic, not the covenant, not quite being a continuation of the covenant with Adam.
[62:05] Adam, I kind of wanted to push back on that. Yeah. Because you see in, I think it's Peter, comparing using the flood as a shadow of baptism.
[62:18] Yeah. So it seems like it's almost kind of being pulled back in. Hmm. Then. Yeah, no, thank you for, feel free to push back anybody. I'm happy, but I think it's a good point.
[62:30] I think that's well taken because I think the way covenant is reestablishing sort of the covenant that God made with Adam, but a little different because he, and, because, and Noah, you're recognizing the fall at that point.
[62:47] And he's like, you know, you're going to experience pain and death, but he is commissioning them similar, Noah, similar to how he did with Adam. And there's a similar sort of foreshadowing of God's unconditional nature kind of underlying all of these covenants.
[63:09] I think it's interesting to look through these and realize, like, God sticks out and open the garden before they do anything, and he promises to see before they've really done anything that you can tell as a repentance.
[63:21] And in each of these covenants, God's going, let's say, okay, we'll see how this goes. And there's this. Yeah, there's that unconditional aspect.
[63:33] It's kind of like sitting just underneath all the conditions. And God says, I'm promising to do this if you do that. But I really want to do this, so we're going to make sure you do that.
[63:43] Yeah, yeah. Amen. It is called the great riddle of the Old Testament of how is God going to fulfill the promise to Abraham, but also there is two sided conditions in the Mosaic covenant.
[63:57] If you obey me, then I will do this. But God says, look, I'm going to do this. You're going to be a righteous kingdom, and it's going to bless the whole world. So there is tension in the narrative, and I think God is like, that's probably a storyline tool to point us to the cross and the new covenants, because God in Christ is keeping all the covenant conditions for his people on their behalf.
[64:22] And he's also fulfilling the covenant that God made with Abraham to bless the world through Christ. So we find, that's why Paul thinks in Christ, because like we're in, even Paul will say, Christ is the new Israel.
[64:36] Like, so all that Israel was meant to be, Christ is. And we find ourselves in Christ. So it's fascinating. You see, there are these divergent parallel plot lines that just find their climax in Christ.
[64:56] One of the interesting things with theologians, tracing any one of these things and then trying to elaborate, what does the gospel look like by focusing on this thing? So what is the gospel in terms of covenant?
[65:08] What is the gospel in terms of sacrifice, priesthood, light? Yeah. Retelling. It's the same gospel, but it gives us different endpoints of the other.
[65:23] So are you saying through it all that man has no responsibility? I don't think that at all. What is the tension you're talking about?
[65:34] The tension of how God is going to relate to his people. So in Genesis 12, we see God is making an unconditional promise to Abraham.
[65:46] I'm going to do something for you. And I'm going to establish a righteous kingdom through your line, Abraham. And that ceremony is saying, God's saying, look, I'm going to take the curse on myself if you fail on your side, Abraham.
[65:58] So in that sense, God's going to do it no matter what. Another sense, though, the Mosaic covenant is a conditional covenant between God and his people, where he's like, if you don't keep the terms of this covenant, you're exiled.
[66:14] You're gone. And so I think that's a tension between the terms of both those covenants. I think man is responsible and Christ is, and God will do his redemption, redemptive plan, without any help from anybody.
[66:32] He's going to do it himself. Those two covenants paired together kind of set up the riddle that's solved in the spirit's empowerment of us.
[66:44] Yeah. Yeah. Right. Now, you know, the covenants that, you know, have changed from generation to generation. Do you feel that these covenants are made to make it easier for us to reach heaven, or is it to encompass more people to reach heaven, or do you think this is each?
[67:04] It seems like it's easier to get to heaven. Yeah, I think the covenant there, each covenant is just saying how God is going to relate to his people.
[67:18] I think Abraham, the account of Abraham is important in Genesis 12, because it says Abraham was justified by faith. And Paul in Romans 4 says, now we are justified by faith.
[67:33] I think God has always related to his people the same way, and that's by faith. That hasn't changed. But I will say, now that we have the spirit, we have a fuller understanding, a fuller revelation of God's plan through the church.
[67:48] So, in some ways, it's easier just because it's clearer. Like, we have God's plan, now it's laid out for us. But he always means to relate by faith for his people.
[68:01] I think that, I agree with that, and I think that's a good point of the progressive revelation, is that I think that when Adam used in the week, chose to depart from God's covenant, I know there's some debate whether that's the covenant, but, I mean, there's sort of an agreement that God is holy, and that he is glorious, and that to depart from that, to desire to be like God apart from his plan and wisdom, that so profoundly broke the world, and just all of creation thrown into futility, that I think that for humans it was almost necessary to have progressive revelation, because we're just now so thick-headed.
[68:47] You know, it took a little bit at a time, God revealing his nature, while at the same time, Paul talks about his divine forbearance, you know, God's glory and his nature was transgressed so profoundly, that he should have had nothing to do with this, but he was very gracious, and he revealed more and more of his nature to us, I think, as a mercy, instead of either doing away with us all at once, or requiring everything of us all at once, I think he was very gracious to work slowly with a family of people, that would then be encompassable, so I think progressive revelation is a good answer for why God chose to work with a small group of people slowly, because we just need time to get to it.
[69:46] That's so true. He's teaching his people what it's going to mean for them when Jesus eventually comes. And he's setting up the categories for understanding the gospel. Yeah. Amen.
[69:58] That's such a good thought, brother. Thank you. So, by the end, the Bible really is about Christ, and I think the apostles share that conviction, so I think if you just walk through each text, you kind of see, yeah, this is actually heading in that direction.
[70:14] The offspring will come through David, and David's looking forward to the Messiah. The Messiah eventually comes and establishes a new covenant, a truly just and righteous kingdom that Genesis 3 had always, that's what it was going toward.
[70:28] So, the structure of the New Testament is pointed to the cross. I think if you do faithful exposition, you'll see that.
[70:38] It's not, I don't think we're imposing anything on the text that's not there itself. All right.
[70:50] Well, thank you all. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I know.
[71:14] I know. It was the light being broken. Light being broken was one thing. I was like, wow. God was like, yeah. I was like, yeah. I was like, yeah. I was like, yeah.
[71:26] That's Sam? Sam Alvarez. God was not presuming Newman's understanding of physics. Yeah, yeah. He inspired that. But you're not wrong about why you're, yeah.
[71:42] That's one of those. You're not getting any false doctrine out of it. Yeah, yeah. Like, if I heard that. Don't preach that as an exegesis text. I know. If I heard that, I wouldn't be like, he's pushing people to Christ.
[71:58] I'm like, hey. Right. Praise God. If we just take our bow and just send our prayers. Yeah, that one was a little bit like, oh.
[72:09] I don't know if I like that analogy. I feel like it makes it sound a little bit too worksy. But I'd have to see the rest of the time.
[72:20] Because there's one of those. Not knowing Spurgeon, I would have real issues with that. But knowing Spurgeon, I suspect there's better theology going on in the background there.
[72:30] So, yeah. Yeah. It was good. Thanks. I... ... ...
[72:42] The next question you Qualified play. Yes. ... You have to kinda like that. I was going to might berr реш. Exactly.