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When God first appeared to Abraham in Genesis 12, He gave him three distinct promises: a land, a seed, and a blessing of all the nations. We spent the past few weeks exploring all that was entailed in these three promises, and we ended last time with a reminder from Hebrews 11:13, that Abraham never saw the promises truly fulfilled in his lifetime, but rather saw them only in bits and pieces. He lived in the promised land, yet as a foreigner. He had several offspring throughout his life, yet only his son Isaac received the covenantal blessing. Yet even this did not happen immediately after receiving the promise, as it took 25 years for Sarah to finally conceive and give birth to Isaac. It would be during this time of waiting that God would once again appear to Abraham in Genesis 15 to make a covenant with him, but before we dive into the covenant-cutting ceremony itself, we need to take a step back and consider the overall context.

When it comes to events that change the course of human history, we often think of various wars, natural disasters, famines, and plagues. Certainly, these are major events in and of themselves, but what if I told you that there was a single event experienced by one ancient Mesopotamian man that overshadowed all of these? In the next few blogs, we will be talking about that very event: the day when God appeared to a man named Abraham and promised him a land, a seed, and a blessing for all the nations.

As we continue our study of the biblical covenants, a couple of key themes begin to stand out: man’s inability and unwillingness to obey the word of God, and God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant promises in spite of our sinfulness. Just as Adam and Noah were undeserving of God’s mercy and grace, we will find that theme once again played out in the life of a pagan from ancient Mesopotamia called Abram, whose name would be later changed to Abraham.

Previously, we introduced the Noahic Covenant: where we find it in Scripture and its historical context. To sum it all up, God caused a global flood to occur in the days of Noah to judge the world for its wickedness and wipe everyone out except for Noah and his wife, and Noah’s sons and their wives…8 people in total. God saved the animals by bringing two of each kind into the ark. Then, God made a covenant with Noah and all of creation, promising that He would never again destroy the earth with water. God also chose the sign of the covenant to be the rainbow. Why a rainbow? Thomas Schreiner has a good explanation for this in his book Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World, where he wrote, “The sign of the covenant is that God has withdrawn his bow. He has put his weapons of war down and will not wipe out the human race again.”

Among all the books that have ever been written, none have been more under attack than the Bible. Yet, it is the best-selling book of all time, as it is by far the most revered book in all the world! It is amazing how even just the extreme polarization of the Bible is in and of itself a testimony of its truthfulness and divine authorship. Entire church splits and denominations have arisen because of how differently people interpret it, and the passages about the Noahic Covenant that we’ll be examining today are no exception.

From the covenant God made at the time of creation to the new covenant established by God through the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Bible is full of covenantal language that describes the nature of God’s relationship with His people. The purpose of this series is to explore each of the covenants God established with mankind at significant turning points in redemptive history, how they were fulfilled in Christ, and what they mean for believers today. A study of the covenants helps us better understand how the Bible is one cohesive message about God’s eternal plan to save a people for Himself, so that He would be our God and we would be His people. It reminds us of God’s unchanging faithfulness in keeping His promises, despite our failures and shortcomings. Next time, we will lay the groundwork by defining what a covenant is, some common examples that constitute as such, and why it matters.

Christmas is a time of year unlike any other. In fact, even the world recognizes this reality and sings Christmas carols such as, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. So, what makes Christmas so special in comparison to all the other holidays?

Ask the average history student what influences led to the American Revolution, and you will likely get a plethora of answers such as “taxation without representation”, the French and Indian War, and the Enlightenment. And, they would be absolutely correct: all of those were important factors leading up to the American Revolution. But this is about the extent of what you would hear in most history classes, with little to no mention of how the Reformation, the Puritans, and the Great Awakening greatly impacted the spiritual mindsets and attitudes of the Founding Fathers.

October 31, 1517, will forever be remembered in church history as the day when an Augustinian monk by the name of Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, sparking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

Whenever we study and seek to understand various passages in Scripture, we can experience an array of scenarios. Sometimes, the text is explicit and clear in its meaning and application. For example, in Matthew 7:12, the verse sometimes referred to as the “golden rule”, Jesus said, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

When one studies the words that Paul penned to the church at Rome nearly 2000 years ago concerning our submission to governing authorities, a pattern clearly emerges. As Christians, we are to live lives of submission. Paul was by no means the only one in the Bible to teach on this virtue, as Jesus modeled the attitude of submission perfectly throughout His earthly ministry, always doing the will of His Father. In fact, perfect submission was so vital to our Lord that He described the will of the Father as His “food” (John 4:34). The apostle Peter likewise wrote concerning the importance of submission in the life of the Christian because “…such is the will of God” (1 Peter 2:15).

Change: we all experience it on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. In this life we find that nothing is static – things are always changing. Even our spiritual walk changes from day to day, as we continue to grow in our sanctification, defeating sin in our lives one battle at a time. If you are a young person, you will one day find that you don’t have the youthful vigor that you once did, and you won’t always have the amount of free time and carefree lifestyle that you enjoy now. Whether it’s good times or bad times, easy times or hard times, times of plenty or times of want, all of us are going through various seasons of life or transitions from one season to another.

When we think about the relationship between the church and the government in our modern context, what often comes to mind is the clash of worldviews that comes between us and the government’s desire to hinder the advancement of the very gospel that the church is commanded to proclaim to all people.

For many people around the world, 2020 was an unprecedentedly challenging year, so much so that even the term “2020” has become synonymous with chaos or craziness. As many, if not all, Christians continue to feel the devastating effects of all that took place that year — especially as tensions between the church and the government continue to rise across America — there has also been a sudden increase in discussions over Romans 13, among other related passages.

Whether it is a worldwide pandemic or a flat tire, life is hard. Things that are supposed to work as we would expect them to, often don’t. Plans that are made often get canceled or postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. These difficulties are experienced by everyone, including unbelievers. If life as a pagan is difficult, does that mean it gets any easier once you are in a right relationship with God? Does God really “have a wonderful plan for your life”, as is commonly said amongst professing evangelicals?

Last week, we sought to address a couple of passages that are often difficult for some to reconcile with the doctrine of eternal security. What may seem at first glance to be in the favor of the conditionalists (that is, Christians who believe that true saints can later lose their salvation) upon closer examination of the context of the passages in question and understanding the clear teaching of Scripture of true vs. false conversion, show they are not.

The doctrine of eternal security, which teaches that the salvation of believers is forever guaranteed by our Savior and great High Priest Jesus Christ, is a glorious doctrine that gives believers assurance of their faith in Christ and their eternal inheritance.

As Christians, one thing all of us are guaranteed to experience in one form or another in this life is adversity. Regardless of what directly causes the various trials to come our way, we know that God is the one who ultimately causes all things to work together according to His eternal decree.

“Come on! You can do it! You’re almost there!” the bystanders shout as I near the end of a competitive road race. As a distance runner, I know how agonizing the last mile always is, when everything inside of me wants to slow down, catch my breath, and give my battered legs a much-needed break.

The book of Romans has many wonderful and memorable passages, and the “golden chain” of salvation in chapter 8 is undoubtedly one of its key highlights. And what a glorious chain it is…all of it points to God as the sole initiator of our salvation! But, there is also another “chain” of salvation that Paul elaborates on later in his epistle which focuses more on the human side of salvation.

For all of eternity, before He created the universe, the earth, its inhabitants, and the angelic hosts, the Triune God enjoyed perfect contentment within Himself. The Father and the Son enjoy one another with a perfect love that is mediated by the Holy Spirit.

In our last blog, we discussed the miracle of regeneration. To summarize the main point concerning how regeneration relates to the doctrine of irresistible grace, regeneration is the means that God has chosen in our lives to bring about a genuine willingness to be drawn to His saving grace.

When we study our Lord Jesus Christ in the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), one of the first things that stands out for many Christians is the countless miracles that accompanied His life and ministry. Even His birth is accompanied by a great miracle that the Holy Spirit performed in conceiving a child in the womb of a virgin by the name of Mary, and that the Child she bore was none other than Immanuel (“God with us”).

For the past several weeks, we have with due diligence considered what the Bible teaches us concerning atonement and why Christ’s atonement is necessary for our salvation. In the Old Testament, the animal sacrifices that were offered as burnt offerings to atone for sin foreshadowed the bloody and substitutionary nature of Christ’s atonement.

Last time, we made the argument that universal atonement is a problematic position to take for several reasons. We reasoned from the Scriptures that affirming universal atonement, while also maintaining the doctrine of election, disrupts the perfect harmony that exists within the Trinity.

When it comes to the atonement of Christ, there are certain essentials that all true Christians must be in agreement on. For example, we must believe that Christ actually died on the cross and reject any opposing heresies (a popular one being the swoon theory: a belief that Jesus did not really die on the cross but rather became unconscious and was later resuscitated).

he book of Leviticus, and quite frankly the entire Levitical system, can be summed up in a three-word sentence: God demands perfection. He demands perfect sacrifices, a perfect priesthood, perfect worship, perfect purity, perfect justice and righteousness, perfect observance of the ceremonies and festivals, and perfect civility.

As Christians, we live in a world full of unbelievers who view us in a myriad of unfavorable ways. Some would say that we are bizarre and fanatical, while others regard us as foolish, intolerant and offensive. This is no surprise, considering that Scripture teaches us that, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Over the past few weeks, we have done the work of searching the Scriptures to see what the Spirit-inspired writers had to say in regards to the doctrine of election, and we have found many great truths. To recap what we covered: God has elected those whom He foreknew in eternity past, and He has predestined those whom He elected to receive the eternal blessing, all made possible through the finished work of Christ.

Towards the end of the blog titled “God’s Eternal Decree – Part 1”, I made the following assertion concerning the doctrine of election: “Once you see it in one text of Scripture, you begin to see it everywhere in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.” Oh, how true is that statement!

Ask anyone who does not adhere to reformed theology what comes to mind when they hear the term “Calvinism”, and more often than not they will respond with, “predestination”. Predestination is certainly a vital component of the doctrines of grace, and as we began to touch on last week, it is part of God’s eternal decree.

It has been several years now since our church went through John Snyder’s “Behold Your God” series, but I still remember the study like it was yesterday. I remember studying the weightiness of God’s divine attributes and how perfect, beautiful, majestic, and inseparable they are. We considered and meditated on Scriptural truths concerning God’s holiness, eternality, immutability, wrath, righteousness, love, grace, patience, and so on.

The Christian faith is full of many wonderful doctrines that encapsulate what Scripture teaches us concerning who God is, who we are, why we are here, God’s plan of redemption, and where we are going when we die. Consider the doctrine of justification. We know from history that justification by faith was the battle cry of the Protestant reformation in the 16th century.

As we discussed last time, our sinful nature was passed down to us by Adam as a result of his sin. Everyone who is born out of the loins of Adam is born spiritually dead, and we are therefore inherently evil with a disposition towards satisfying the lusts of our flesh, the lusts of our eyes, and the boastful pride of life.

When God created the universe in six days, He described everything He made as “very good” (Genesis 1:31). As fallen human beings, it is difficult, if not impossible, for us to comprehend what it means to live in a world where everything is perfect. No sin. No disease. No suffering. No death. Even our greatest imaginations of a true utopia pale in comparison to life in the Garden of Eden prior to the Fall.

If you were to enter into a time machine, go back to the year 2005, and ask my 14-year-old self to explain the Gospel, I would have likely said that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again on the third day, and by believing in Him, we can have eternal life.

As we continue our study of Romans 13, let’s take a moment to ponder the unambiguous conclusions that we have arrived at so far. God alone is the source of governing authority. The purpose of government is to restrain evil in a society by punishing evildoers. We as the church have been called by our Lord to do the right thing by obeying our leaders ultimately as our obedience unto Him. While these things address why we submit to the government, today we will be taking a closer look at how we submit.