WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:01.600 Good morning. 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:07.200 Today's text is from Genesis 17, verses 1 through 10. 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:23.039 And when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly. 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:32.960 Then Abram fell on his face and said to him, and God said to him, Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:38.799 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.920 For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:48.240 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 00:00:48.479 --> 00:01:01.520 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after your throughout after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, and be God to you and the rest of your offspring after you. 00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:12.159 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojourning and the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:13.680 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:15.200 Thanks be to God. 00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:20.799 Good morning. 00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:22.560 Here, let me put this on. 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:27.760 Alrighty, good morning. 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:30.799 Thanks for uh joining us this morning. 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:32.079 It's great to see you all. 00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:36.000 Uh it's a joy to get to gather together on this Lord's Day. 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:38.719 And also it is it is Father's Day. 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:41.120 Um how many of you got socks? 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:43.439 You might. 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:45.519 There's still a lot of daylight left. 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:47.599 You still might. 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:49.280 It could still be a very good day. 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:54.319 There's um uh it's uh it's a wonderful thing we uh to celebrate fathers. 00:01:54.400 --> 00:02:03.840 It's uh um uh one of the things that I think I I'm I'm most proud of in our church is the caliber of fathers that we have in our church. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:19.039 I think it is the probably probably you know top three in terms of the witness that we have as a church community is to see the uh uh the love, the the provision, the leadership that our fathers in this church demonstrate. 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:23.120 And it's just such a joy uh to get to see and to get to witness. 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:28.159 Um, fathers, you are uh, of course, absolutely essential. 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:34.319 And you are in many ways, you are the cornerstone of civilization. 00:02:35.039 --> 00:02:39.120 And there's this uh incredible weight that you bear. 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:56.240 And I want you to remember this morning that as you bear this incredible weight, and and as you're, you know, you stress over problems that come up and you worry over the direction of your families and over finances and over work and uh over the spiritual care of your homes. 00:02:56.319 --> 00:03:08.159 Uh and as that weight can feel so heavy and can feel so burdensome and can feel like uh um uh this incredible pressure that that fathers carry, I want you to remember your father in heaven. 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:10.560 That fathers, you have a father. 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:22.319 And you have a father that loves you, that cares for you, that desires you to cast those burdens upon him, and that he desires to carry those for you as a true and good and loving father. 00:03:22.479 --> 00:03:26.639 And I want you to know that your father in heaven is proud of you. 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:40.240 And he's proud of the labor that you do as a father, and he's proud of the love that you show to the families and to the children, to the wives that you uh that he has given to you, and he cares for you, and he is for you. 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:43.919 And I want you to just remember that today as you're celebrated. 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:47.039 Um, so that's that's uh that's my note for fathers. 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:48.080 Let's pray. 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:51.840 Lord God, we praise you. 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:56.400 Lord, that you are a loving father to us. 00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:06.319 Lord, that your spirit testifies with our spirit that we are sons of God, Lord, and that we might cry out truthfully that you are our father. 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:12.159 And as your father, as as our father, Lord, you treat us as true sons. 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:15.360 Lord, you make us co-heirs with Christ. 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:32.000 Lord, you have even blessed the blessed fathers, blessed earthly fathers to share this same name, Lord, that we might be called fathers as well, to get a taste of what your love looks like, Lord, by even experiencing it for our families. 00:04:32.959 --> 00:05:01.600 Lord God, I pray that you would work in our hearts, that where we as Christians do not uh uh recognize the the reality or experience the truthfulness of you being our father and us being your sons, Lord, I pray that you would work those uh uh fears and doubts out of our hearts, that we might with singleness of heart trust and believe the position that you have given to us, that we might receive it with gratitude, and Lord, that we might respond to it with faith. 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:12.480 Lord, that we might be strengthened for the task that you have given to us, and that we might joyfully celebrate the work that you have done in Jesus Christ on our behalf. 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:14.959 We lift this up in Jesus' name, amen. 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:20.879 Okay, so we are continuing our sermon series on the Christian home. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:23.439 This is our second week in this series. 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:50.639 And last week I wanted to establish that the way that we consider ourselves as individuals, uh, and as we consider ourselves as individuals that are, in a sense, stand outside of families, but it's good if we opt into the family relationship, that that dynamic of free people who get to opt into a family relationship, is actually a false story of what the family is. 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:53.439 The family is not something that you opt into. 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:58.879 The family is something that you, as an individual, are actually constituted by. 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:03.120 You are constituted by the family. 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:08.480 There is no individual that exists outside of the family context. 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:15.040 No matter how broken that is, even the brokenness of it is what constitutes our us as individuals. 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:17.839 We are constituted by the family. 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:39.759 And when we talk about uh what we are constituted by, I think last week one of the um things that I heard a lot of was um, wow, it our pastor really loves to talk about uh non-consensual relationships being so great, uh, because I talked a lot last week about how the family is not something you consent to. 00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:42.000 The family is something you receive. 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:50.720 And I thought somebody could go through the sermon from last week and make clips and post them online, and I would certainly lose my job and it would be you know something catastrophic. 00:06:50.959 --> 00:07:01.519 But the um uh but what what we mean by that is that this what the family is, and it being non-consensual, and is something that's that you just receive, it's thrust upon you. 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:04.160 You did not choose it, you're born into it. 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:07.279 Uh, what that means is we're actually receiving a gift. 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:24.399 The intention of God placing us in these families was that he is giving us this good gift of participating as image-bearers of God and ones who are created in the likeness of God, we are to participate in relationships that are just like who he is. 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:36.000 Because our God is three persons, and as three persons, he is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God. 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:48.480 And that means that there is a relational dynamic within the Godhead of family that is demonstrated to us, and we get to participate in the glory of that in the families that he has placed us in. 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:54.720 So, us as creatures, we are a familially constituted being. 00:07:55.279 --> 00:08:00.560 We often think that families are the types of things that are constituted of individuals. 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:08.079 But the opposite is just as true, that individuals are the types of things that are constituted by the family. 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:12.240 We do not exist outside of that context. 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:34.159 Now, when we're talking about the family that the Lord has created, we see that this uh duty-bound relationship that is both naturally received by blood and by birth, that is declared by the Lord as good, that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, that this is a covenantal type of relationship. 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:40.639 And that relationship, the relationship of the family that we find ourselves in, is covenantally bound. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:42.480 It is bound by promises. 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:49.840 And that finds its fullness as we see that God enters into a covenant with Adam. 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:54.960 Adam is one of those types of people who can say, God is my father. 00:08:55.279 --> 00:08:56.559 He could say that directly. 00:08:56.720 --> 00:09:00.240 When he would talk to his children, it would say, Who's your father? 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:01.679 Adam, I know you're my father. 00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:03.840 And Adam would say, God is my father. 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:06.159 God directly is my father. 00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:08.159 And I am in a covenant with him. 00:09:08.399 --> 00:09:14.480 God has committed to me such that he will be my God, and I am his people. 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:19.519 And because I am his people and you are my offspring, that means you are God's people too. 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:21.279 You belong to God. 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:29.519 And that that the description of that throughout Scripture, what it means to belong to God, it means that we are in covenant with him. 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:51.039 Covenant is the making explicit in language and by the word of God to us, the implicit, the creationally ordered nature of the relationship that we're already in, so that we might know it and talk about it and receive it with gratitude and respond to it with gratitude, explain it to one another with our words. 00:09:51.919 --> 00:10:06.240 But this covenantal bond that we that God entered into with his human creatures, that is expressed also through the family, was broken by that first man, Adam. 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:17.440 And so the way that we experience our families now, and the way that we experience our relationship with God now, the starting position for all of us is a position of original sin. 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:20.799 It is a position of brokenness with God. 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:31.600 And we experience this in all levels of sin and misery that inform the that inform our experience of the world and of our own hearts, this brokenness of relationship with God. 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:46.879 That's why we can sing a song like we just sang in Psalm 42, where we have downcast souls, we we feel out of accord with God, feel separated from him, and that's reflecting a reality of our position of original sin. 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:50.000 Where did this original sin come from? 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:57.039 It came from our father Adam breaking his covenant with God, God's covenant with him. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:10.879 And because Adam fell in that first transgression by eating from the fruit of the tree that he was forbidden to eat from, that means we all fell in Adam. 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:19.600 I remember encountering this truth for the first time and thinking, well, but I didn't eat the fruit from the tree. 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:22.960 Why do I inherit this original sin? 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:26.799 Why is that something that I have to be born into and bear? 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:38.559 It seems unjust and it seems unfair, right, that we would inherit this original sin from our Father, that we didn't do anything to we didn't eat the fruit. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:41.120 You know, we didn't betray that covenant. 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:49.600 In the shorter catechism question 16, it says, Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression? 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:55.360 Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression? 00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:00.799 Some um shorter catechism questions, you you think the answer is going to be yes. 00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:01.919 You know? 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:04.080 Yeah. 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:08.320 But they they always they always want to say more, and it's helpful that they say more. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:11.039 It's like um, are there more gods than one? 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:16.320 My children often say no to that catechism question. 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:19.440 But uh the the the answer in the catechism is longer. 00:12:19.519 --> 00:12:23.200 So this one, did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression? 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:36.240 Here's the answer to that question: the covenant being made with Adam not only for himself, but for his posterity. 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:48.879 All mankind descending from him by ordinary generation sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression. 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:51.200 Why is that? 00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:59.200 Well, because the covenant was made with Adam not only for himself, but for his posterity. 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:07.519 Now, why was the covenant made with Adam not just at the level of the individual Adam? 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:17.120 Why instead why why instead was the covenant made at the level of Adam and his posterity? 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:27.840 It might seem to us that how many different covenants should God have where though there should be like eight billion, you know, covenants, or however many people there are or have been. 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:30.080 You know, ten billion. 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:32.399 There should be ten billion different covenants. 00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:42.480 And God makes them with Adam, and then he makes a separate one with Steve, and he makes a separate one with Joe, and there'd be all these different covenants. 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:47.679 That's not the way God, that's not the way God organized his covenantal relationship. 00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:52.480 Instead, he made it with Adam and all of his posterity. 00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:54.799 And why did he make it that way? 00:13:55.200 --> 00:14:04.080 Well, I think after last week we have a better understanding of why it is that God organized his covenantal relationship with his people in that way. 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:09.279 Well, that's because it perfectly fits the type of creature that you are. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:34.000 If you were the type of creature that was not familiarly constituted, but you were the type of creature that was just sort of a bunch of ad hoc individuals that were disconnected from one another, then it would make sense for God to make a bunch of ad hoc covenants that it did not uh cross-contaminate one another. 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:38.480 But you are the type of creature that is familially constituted. 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:40.399 Why is that? 00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:55.039 Well, because God wanted you as a creature to reflect his image, to participate in the loving dynamic that God himself participates in within the Godhead. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:00.000 And so you are like this, you know, fractal picture. 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:07.759 That is not exactly what the Godhead is, of course, but it rhymes with what the Godhead is. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:14.879 And the glories of the Godhead, you are, you are formed in order that you might receive and participate within them. 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:21.600 That is why we are bound in these loving familial relationships that form us. 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:34.000 That if you aren't born into the context of that loving familial relationship, if you, as a as a child, there's a new six-week old that uh is back for the summer that I got to see this morning. 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:39.919 Uh six week I've noticed that this since she's been here, that six-week old has done nothing for herself. 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:44.240 She's it's just been receiving the whole time. 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:50.720 It's been receiving the whole time because we are born into this utter dependence. 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:55.120 Just like Adam was formed into this utter dependence. 00:15:55.600 --> 00:16:07.519 And so we are all born into this utter depend this dependent position of receiving love, and within the receiving of that love, what we what we receive is life itself. 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:10.240 And that's where people come from. 00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:12.320 That's the type of thing you are. 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:20.720 That if you don't receive, if you aren't a member of a loving community, then you don't live. 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:35.919 You do not live if you are not born into some membership where people take responsibility for you and they demonstrate your love, their love towards you, although you have given nothing yet. 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:39.279 That is the shape of humanity. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.720 And so the shape of humanity is that we are bound together. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:49.039 We are constituted by the ones who have gone before us. 00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:54.720 So we are, so that is the shape that the covenant takes. 00:16:55.440 --> 00:17:01.279 The covenant perfectly maps onto the type of creature that you are. 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:05.119 That is the glory that's shown to us in the covenant. 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:24.960 And so it makes sense then when we understand the type of thing that you are, if you conceive of yourself as an ad hoc individual that that has been uh that has no duty towards the ones that have come before you, then it seems unfair or unjust that in Adam we all fall. 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:32.799 But when we understand the type of creatures that we are, then we see that it's perfectly sensible. 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:36.880 That when Adam fell, we all fell. 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:47.519 That all of us descending from him by ordinary generation sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression. 00:17:47.680 --> 00:18:01.200 That breaking of Adam, our covenant head, that when he broke fellowship with God by not obeying the covenant, then all of his posterity would be born into a position of original sin. 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:05.519 So, what do we see that the family is like? 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:09.359 What did sin do when it entered the world to corrupt the family? 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:13.279 Well, we see that the family structure remains. 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:24.720 Sin did not remove the family structure that God created at the beginning of the world, the way that He created humanity to exist in these family structures. 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:27.759 That is not taken away by sin. 00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:39.359 Because it is not as though once sin entered the world, there is no more lineage, or there is no more posterity, or there is no more inheritance. 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:52.480 What happened is that this lineage, this posterity, this structure of the family, which still holds in creation, has now been twisted away from the purposes of God. 00:18:53.279 --> 00:19:11.359 So that what was created to be this familial structure, such that we are bound to one another in love, that in love we have offspring, that in showing our love to those offspring they grow up and flourish, and that this loving dynamic multiplies and the world is held together. 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:26.799 Instead, what is passed on is original sin and death, so that all families die, and that the birth of every child we understand terminate will finally terminate in the death of that child. 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:31.599 This is what the consequences of original sin are. 00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:33.039 This is what they mean. 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:42.799 And so now, rather than inheriting holiness and knowledge and righteousness, we inherit sinfulness. 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:57.359 And this inheritance of sinfulness, it comes through the same family structure whose intention was to be a mechanism of the multiplication of righteousness. 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:14.240 So when God sees that the family now as the structure of the family holds, and that there's still a lineage, there's still a posterity, there's still a covenantal significance to the family, but now it's broken. 00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:27.200 And that we see is the multiplication of those who are out of fellowship with God, the multiplication of objects of wrath who are out of fellowship with God. 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:29.599 God does not say, you know what? 00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:31.680 Let's throw away the family. 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:36.000 I've made a mistake, I've made something too powerful. 00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:41.440 Because when it has broken fellowship with me, it is able to multiply sinfulness in the world. 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:43.920 God does not say, let's throw it away. 00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:46.640 Let's get rid of the family. 00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:53.680 He does not say, look, those families that I have created, now because Adam has sinned, they only lead to death. 00:20:54.079 --> 00:20:58.160 And each new child born to them is born into original sin. 00:20:58.319 --> 00:21:02.400 Therefore, we should stop the multiplication of families. 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:07.759 I'm going to cancel this original plan that I had and I'm going to get rid of it. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:18.559 He does not, uh instead, what he determines to do is to restore the family by a covenant of grace. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.559 And the covenant of grace is something which does not transcend the family. 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:33.200 It does not say, I'm going to ignore the reality of the family and say, that was probably a mistake in my original creation. 00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:37.039 And instead, I'm just going to operate at the level of individuals now. 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:39.119 I'm going to remove the family dynamic. 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:41.440 He does not order it that way. 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:57.039 What is lost in sin or what is corrupted by sin, God does not say, Well, that goodness that I intended, now that sin has come into the world, I'm just going to ignore that goodness that I intended. 00:21:57.440 --> 00:21:59.759 This would be, in one sense, to allow sin. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:01.599 Sin to have the last word. 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:10.960 And God, in his restoration of all things in Jesus Christ, does not allow sin to have the last word. 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:13.440 He will not allow it. 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:17.119 Likewise, he does not transgress the family. 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:21.519 Our culture makes this mistake all of the time. 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:26.160 We mistake transgression with transcendence. 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:32.720 We think that the family is something that binds us in a negative sense. 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:44.480 We think that the family is something that is imposed upon us and is wrong, and that the structure of the biblical family that is shown to us in Scripture is something that we need to transcend. 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:49.359 But the way that we transcend it is we transgress the structure that has given to us. 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:54.960 Our culture constantly confuses transcendence and transgression. 00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:58.720 You know, we need to transcend gender. 00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:02.799 But what actually happens is we transgress it. 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:08.319 We need to transcend the constraints of the family as it's been shown to us. 00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:11.839 You know, one man, one woman, for a lifetime. 00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:21.119 Well, this is a this is a trap, a terrible constraint that's been placed upon us that we need to transcend that and progress beyond it. 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:23.920 But what we actually do is we transgress it. 00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:28.160 We constantly mistake these things, transcendence and transgression. 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:31.039 But God does not transgress the family. 00:23:31.359 --> 00:23:40.240 He does not say there are dangers associated with the goodness of family, therefore, transgress the family entirely. 00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:47.680 He does not say, you know, there's, I made it so that the fathers are to rule their homes. 00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:51.839 But there's a danger with sinful fathers ruling their homes. 00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:54.640 Therefore, we should, you know, what is that? 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:55.759 Father rule. 00:23:55.920 --> 00:23:57.359 There's a quick way of saying that. 00:23:57.599 --> 00:23:58.799 Do we remember it? 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:03.839 Father rule archai. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:04.799 Patriarchy. 00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:05.359 That's it. 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:12.079 We need to take down the patriarchy because it's dangerous if these sinners are ruling. 00:24:12.319 --> 00:24:14.160 Well, God does not say that. 00:24:14.880 --> 00:24:23.920 This would be to give sin the last word and to take something which God had intended for good and instead to turn it for evil. 00:24:24.079 --> 00:24:32.799 What God does instead is he says, By my grace I will restore this to the goodness that I had intended. 00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:35.920 That is what his restoration looks like. 00:24:36.160 --> 00:24:47.359 So the question is, uh, question twenty of uh the shorter catechism, did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery? 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:49.599 The answer is no. 00:24:54.319 --> 00:25:23.759 God having, out of his mere good pleasure from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into the estate of salvation by a redeemer. 00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:28.400 I want you to understand the shape of the story. 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:36.319 The shape of the story is that God created these good structures in the world, one of them being family. 00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:47.119 And this good structure that God created in the world, now because of sin, is corrupted and becomes a place of sin and misery. 00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:53.680 But God did not abandon us to the place of sin and misery. 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:59.359 Instead, he enters into a covenant of grace. 00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:04.319 He says, I've got another covenant for these sinners. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:10.079 And this covenant for these sinners is a covenant of grace. 00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:20.079 And in this covenant of grace, he will bring about the full restoration of all that he had intended at the beginning. 00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:31.119 So that the family can once again, by the Redeemer, who is Jesus Christ, become the place where life and flourishing take place. 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:44.960 That they can, the family now, outside of God, in rebellion against God, becomes a culture which causes people to walk away and abandon the Lord. 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:55.200 It is a uh it can become, by original sin, it is a mechanism which turns people away from eternal life and towards death. 00:26:55.599 --> 00:27:02.799 But now, in the redemption of Christ Jesus, the fullness of the family is realized again. 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:15.119 In the fullness of the family, now it becomes a place where the family is now a place which arcs towards eternal life in Christ Jesus. 00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:24.880 Becomes once again a supportive mechanism of love that orients itself towards eternal life in Christ Jesus. 00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:32.640 The final end of the family no longer terminates in death as it does by original sin. 00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:42.960 But in the covenant of grace, the final end of the family is restored to what the final end of the family was for Adam. 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:55.599 Because the final end of the family for Adam was that in his obedience, all of his posterity would be joined towards eternal life with God. 00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:11.839 But now in Christ the family can be restored once again, where the final end of the family joins up with what the final end of every person is meant to be, which is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:20.079 So let's look at this covenant, this covenant of grace in families, so that we might understand what the covenant family is. 00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:26.079 How does the gospel transform our broken families? 00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:35.920 It transforms them by restoring them towards God's original intention for the family, so that sin never has the last word. 00:28:36.960 --> 00:29:09.519 In Genesis 17, 6 through 7, God says to Abraham, I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:19.279 What God does is he sees these families that tend toward decay, and he chooses one man out of all the families of the world. 00:29:19.759 --> 00:29:23.440 And he chooses this man and he makes him a father. 00:29:24.400 --> 00:29:30.720 And he's and he enters into a covenant of grace with this father. 00:29:31.119 --> 00:29:34.240 Now that should remind you, yeah, of course he would do this. 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:36.720 This is the way God has organized the world. 00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:48.000 And he entered into a covenant with that man, which had promises, blessings, and curses associated with for all of his posterity. 00:29:48.319 --> 00:30:00.720 Now, God, of course, does the same thing with Abraham as he enacts his movement of grace, his redemptive, his plan of redemption through history to take place through the family of Abraham. 00:30:00.799 --> 00:30:01.440 So what does he do? 00:30:01.599 --> 00:30:08.240 He chooses a father and he enters into a covenant with him, which will be for all his posterity. 00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:12.880 He promises to make him exceedingly fruitful. 00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:19.599 God is not afraid of fruitfulness now that sin has corrupted the world. 00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:21.119 He likes it. 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:36.720 He wants more of it because he sees that by his grace, this pattern of fruitfulness will not be multiplying the death that takes place in the world, but it will be restored to its original position so that it multiplies eternal life. 00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:44.559 He promises that nations will come from him, kings will come from him, and he will establish his covenant. 00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:57.119 He says, I will establish my covenant between me and you to Abraham, he says, and to your offspring after you, throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant. 00:30:57.200 --> 00:30:58.240 And here is the heart of it. 00:30:58.400 --> 00:31:00.000 What is God promising to do? 00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:05.839 To be God to you and to your offspring after you. 00:31:07.680 --> 00:31:18.160 What this is, what this promise means, is that all that was lost in Adam will be restored by the grace of God. 00:31:19.279 --> 00:31:30.880 That the hope of the family which is shown to us in Genesis 1 and 2 will be restored by the covenant of grace, by the gracious act of God alone. 00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:36.559 I love that in the catechism question, question 20, that it begins with the reason for this. 00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:53.920 It says, God having out of his mere good pleasure, why is it that when all of humanity fell into sinful rebellion against God, why is it that God set forth to restore them to the to glory and eternal life with him? 00:31:54.240 --> 00:32:00.400 Why did God do that instead of what he could have done, which was justly punish them with eternal death? 00:32:01.359 --> 00:32:02.559 Why did he do that? 00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:04.880 Out of his mere good pleasure. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:08.000 Out of his mere good pleasure. 00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:13.200 Because within God, he likes to save sinners. 00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:19.039 He likes to restore sinners to himself by grace alone. 00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:22.480 This is the type of God that we worship. 00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:24.240 This is what he is like. 00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:26.000 You know what, you know what that's like. 00:32:26.079 --> 00:32:27.759 You know what that's a picture of. 00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:33.119 You know, it just reminds me of the of the father and the prodigal son story. 00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:47.839 That when the the prodigal son, which means he spends too much money, when he returns to the father, the father runs to meet him. 00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:55.359 He runs to meet him because the father loves to restore his wayward son. 00:32:56.079 --> 00:33:02.160 The father loves, he longs to see his wayward children restored to him. 00:33:02.480 --> 00:33:05.839 Why does the father in the story of the prodigal son run? 00:33:06.319 --> 00:33:08.000 What is it that he he runs towards? 00:33:08.160 --> 00:33:11.200 He runs out of his mere good pleasure. 00:33:12.799 --> 00:33:20.000 What we see in this is that our father in heaven has the heart of a father towards us. 00:33:20.640 --> 00:33:25.519 And he loves to run towards his wayward children so that they might be restored. 00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:28.000 This is the heart of God towards you. 00:33:29.359 --> 00:33:31.200 This is the heart of God towards you. 00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:34.000 He longs to see restoration. 00:33:34.640 --> 00:33:37.039 He promises to be God towards them. 00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:52.799 This is the covenant of grace, and the covenant is established between Abraham for an everlasting covenant to his offspring and to their offspring after them, so that it's an everlasting covenant that is passed down through generations. 00:33:54.079 --> 00:34:08.480 It sounds like what God had originally intended for his creation in the first place: a multiplying of glory that is passed down through generations that arcs towards eternal life with God. 00:34:10.159 --> 00:34:16.239 Imagine if God established a covenant with Abraham that did not include his posterity. 00:34:17.119 --> 00:34:26.079 If God said, I am establishing a covenant with just you, just you, Abraham, and this does not include your posterity. 00:34:26.960 --> 00:34:30.880 It would be a betrayal of what humanity is. 00:34:32.159 --> 00:34:39.920 It would be a denial of the good intentions that God had for humanity at the creation itself. 00:34:40.639 --> 00:34:44.000 We are a lineage type of thing. 00:34:45.039 --> 00:34:49.920 You are a get-born, have children type of creature. 00:34:50.159 --> 00:34:52.000 It's the type of thing you are. 00:34:52.239 --> 00:34:54.159 You're always a part of that story. 00:34:54.320 --> 00:34:56.480 You are connected within that story. 00:34:56.639 --> 00:34:59.840 And God could have said, I'm done with that story. 00:35:00.719 --> 00:35:06.880 Sin has entered the world and it has corrupted that in such a way that it cannot be restored. 00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:14.480 That's what it would mean if God did not enter into this covenant with Abraham at the level of Abraham and his posterity. 00:35:14.639 --> 00:35:17.679 But that is not the way that God treats sin. 00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:24.880 His blessings flow far as the curse is found. 00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:40.480 And if the curse finds itself at the level of corrupting the lineage of the family, then his blessings will flow to that level, such that his original intentions for the family will be fully restored. 00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:50.559 There is no level of sin at which God's grace is not able to bring full restoration in Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:35:50.880 --> 00:36:05.280 So God establishes this family under his covenant of grace, a gracious rescue, which is received by Abraham as the head of this covenant for the family. 00:36:05.599 --> 00:36:14.400 And as the head of this covenant for the family, Abraham is instructed to pass on these promises to his offspring. 00:36:14.639 --> 00:36:19.760 Because he says, These are the promises of God, and I have received them by faith. 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:23.840 And in receiving them by faith, I recognize what his promise said. 00:36:23.920 --> 00:36:28.239 And what his promise said was, This was for me and for my posterity. 00:36:28.480 --> 00:36:33.039 That means this promise which I have received by faith is your promise. 00:36:34.159 --> 00:36:43.599 So I can say, because God came to me, not because I came to God, but because God came to me, I can say, He is my God, I am his people. 00:36:44.159 --> 00:36:51.599 And because I can say that, I can say of you, my offspring, he is your God, you are his people. 00:36:52.960 --> 00:37:00.880 Abraham can talk as a father in the way that Adam could have talked before Adam fell into sin. 00:37:01.840 --> 00:37:12.320 He can tell his children, God is my father, he is my God, he is my creator, and he is your God, and he is your creator. 00:37:13.920 --> 00:37:16.800 He has shown this to us in his covenant promises. 00:37:17.199 --> 00:37:29.039 In verses 9 through 10 of chapter 17, it says, uh Genesis 17, it says, And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you, throughout their generations. 00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:35.039 This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you. 00:37:35.280 --> 00:37:38.639 Every male among you shall be circumcised. 00:37:39.119 --> 00:37:42.079 He gives them a sign of the covenant. 00:37:42.400 --> 00:37:45.039 And the sign of the covenant is circumcision. 00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:51.119 It is a bloody rite, and it is a cutting off, and the cutting off is a mark of covenant inclusion. 00:37:51.599 --> 00:37:54.000 You are marked as the people of God. 00:37:54.159 --> 00:37:55.440 Now, what does that mean? 00:37:55.679 --> 00:38:05.519 It means that the promises of God, which were given to your father, belong to you, and that they are yours to be taken up in faith. 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:08.800 These covenant blessings belong to you. 00:38:09.760 --> 00:38:12.960 They are yours to be taken up in faith. 00:38:14.079 --> 00:38:23.199 This is the same pattern that the new covenant in Christ Jesus takes up, but only in a more glorious way. 00:38:23.920 --> 00:38:45.920 In Acts 2, 38 and 39, after Peter had preached that great sermon at Pentecost, and they are cut to the heart and they wonder what to do, it says, And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 00:38:46.400 --> 00:38:57.920 For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. 00:38:59.119 --> 00:39:02.320 Jesus Christ is the second Adam. 00:39:03.119 --> 00:39:06.639 Jesus Christ can say directly, God is my Father. 00:39:06.800 --> 00:39:09.679 He is not born into original sin. 00:39:10.480 --> 00:39:13.599 He is not from ordinary generation. 00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:18.880 Remember, God is conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary. 00:39:19.199 --> 00:39:21.840 He is not born into this original sin. 00:39:22.159 --> 00:39:50.480 Instead, he is born with knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and he stands in our place to bear the curse of the law on our behalf, so that our covenant breaking, which we inherit from our first father Adam, which we participate in by our own actual transgressions, that that covenant breaking, the punishment due to that, is taken on by Jesus Christ on the cross. 00:39:51.760 --> 00:40:04.639 And that the perfect righteousness which he demonstrated is imputed to us by faith alone, so that we might receive the righteousness which is by faith. 00:40:04.880 --> 00:40:07.280 What is the promise of the covenant? 00:40:07.599 --> 00:40:15.760 That by faith we might be counted righteous to eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:40:16.800 --> 00:40:23.920 And so we repent and we are baptized as we receive this promise of the covenant. 00:40:24.079 --> 00:40:26.559 And who are those promises for? 00:40:27.679 --> 00:40:30.400 The promises that are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. 00:40:30.639 --> 00:40:36.880 The promises are for you and for your children and for all who are far off. 00:40:38.079 --> 00:40:46.480 So the children of believers, the Christian home, we tell our children, these promises are yours. 00:40:47.599 --> 00:40:50.000 These promises belong to you. 00:40:50.239 --> 00:41:05.599 No longer do we use the mark of circumcision because the cutting off by blood took place and was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who was cut off from the people of God, treated as cut off from the people of God by the pouring out of his blood. 00:41:05.760 --> 00:41:10.639 But by his being cut off, we are included in the people of God. 00:41:10.719 --> 00:41:14.800 And these promises belong to us and they belong to our children. 00:41:14.960 --> 00:41:18.480 And so we tell them, this promise is yours. 00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:30.719 And then the home becomes this place where they are, they they receive the a feast that is put before them of the blessings of God. 00:41:31.599 --> 00:41:34.800 So that they might be instructed and taught as they are growing up. 00:41:39.519 --> 00:41:42.639 You should respond to him as his people. 00:41:44.400 --> 00:41:55.199 It means that children born of Christian families are born members of the covenant people of God, just like those who are born of Abraham. 00:41:55.360 --> 00:42:00.880 That is why we can sing that Father Abraham had many sons. 00:42:06.880 --> 00:42:09.360 Which is also like this is the seminals. 00:42:12.559 --> 00:42:13.360 Right, arm. 00:42:15.599 --> 00:42:20.079 The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off. 00:42:20.239 --> 00:42:23.119 So if this were the case, then what would we expect the church to look like? 00:42:23.360 --> 00:42:34.320 We would expect the church to be a place that formed these Christian homes where the promise was understood to be for those who have repented and are baptized and for their children. 00:42:34.639 --> 00:42:37.199 It also says it is for those who are far off. 00:42:37.440 --> 00:42:59.519 So we would expect that the church would be a missionary type of people who look for those who are outside the family of God, and we we say you can be a part of these promises of God can be yours if you take them by faith, even though you are far off, and even though you have not received this by blood, by repentance you might be counted a part of the people of God. 00:42:59.599 --> 00:43:04.239 And we would all be telling each other constantly, take this up by faith. 00:43:04.480 --> 00:43:10.880 We would be reminding one another of the glories of what God has done, and we would receive these promises by faith. 00:43:11.119 --> 00:43:33.679 And when we see our children, we would say, These promises are yours, and we would we would instruct them in what the promises are, and we would we would train them up in how to live in Christ-like ways, and we would seek for them to, by faith in their hearts, to take up these promises so that it would not be a mere outward conformity. 00:43:33.840 --> 00:43:44.719 They would not receive some some dead letter of the law, but by faith in their hearts they would receive the trueness of regeneration, which can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit. 00:43:44.880 --> 00:43:47.679 This is the shape of the Christian home. 00:43:48.159 --> 00:43:52.800 What I want you to see in this is what does the gospel mean for your home? 00:43:53.199 --> 00:43:55.440 What does the gospel mean for families? 00:43:55.599 --> 00:43:58.800 It means the restoration of their true end. 00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:02.320 Restoration of their true goal. 00:44:03.599 --> 00:44:10.960 The true goal of the family was guiding people towards glorious, eternal life with God. 00:44:12.800 --> 00:44:16.960 And that is now the true goal of the family in the gospel. 00:44:18.320 --> 00:44:24.000 We have all sorts of other goals that we have within our families, and these are good things, these are good ends. 00:44:24.159 --> 00:44:27.440 Like we we want to raise up civilized people. 00:44:27.679 --> 00:44:30.239 We want them to be able to be good citizens. 00:44:30.400 --> 00:44:33.519 We want them to be able to take care of themselves, to provide for themselves. 00:44:33.599 --> 00:44:38.960 We want them to be able to be wise in the way that they navigate the difficulties of the world and the challenges of the world. 00:44:39.039 --> 00:44:49.760 And we want them to know about the villains that come to attack them, like credit cards and things of the interest rates and things of this nature. 00:44:50.559 --> 00:44:52.880 And you've got to keep your wits about you. 00:44:52.960 --> 00:44:55.440 These things can you know get you in a pretty bad way. 00:44:55.519 --> 00:45:01.920 And if you if you don't, you know, and we've got we tell them how they could properly structure their lives. 00:45:02.079 --> 00:45:06.079 Just like the the father in the in the Proverbs instructs his sons. 00:45:06.159 --> 00:45:10.320 He's like, You're gonna be walking down the road, there's gonna be two women yelling at you. 00:45:10.480 --> 00:45:15.679 One of them you should not listen to, and the other one you should listen to. 00:45:15.840 --> 00:45:20.639 We should instruct them in things like this, so that they might live these wise lives. 00:45:20.880 --> 00:45:22.960 But all of those things can be accomplished. 00:45:23.119 --> 00:45:40.559 All of those things can be fully realized and fully satisfied, and they can lead prosperous, glorious lives, and the fullness of the end that we desire for them could be terminated in damnation and hell, eternally separated from the love of God. 00:45:40.960 --> 00:46:10.800 If we do not keep as our highest end their glorious faithfulness in receiving the fullness of the gospel shown to us in Christ Jesus our Lord, that the final end of our homes, the glory that we are looking for, because it is the fullness of the realization of what it means to be a person, is eternal life in the glorious presence of God because of Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:46:11.119 --> 00:46:14.400 This is the true end of the family. 00:46:15.199 --> 00:46:22.800 When we have this as the aim of the family, that this is the true end of the family, because it is the chief end of man. 00:46:23.679 --> 00:46:27.440 We might glorify God and enjoy Him forever. 00:46:28.159 --> 00:46:30.880 Thus, it is the chief end of the family. 00:46:32.320 --> 00:46:47.840 If we have all of these other intermediate ends, we we we we should have all of these other intermediate ends, of just like raising up, you know, good children who can have good lives, you know? 00:46:48.159 --> 00:46:48.960 I want that. 00:46:49.199 --> 00:46:50.159 I want that. 00:46:50.800 --> 00:46:54.000 But all of those are in support of the chief end. 00:46:54.480 --> 00:47:01.599 They are all in support of the chief end, that they might glorify God and enjoy Him forever. 00:47:01.840 --> 00:47:02.719