CREC- Communion 1- Covenant Promises

This is the first of 15 Sermons on the CREC

CREC

Communion 1

Sermon Notes

Listen

October 15, 2017

Lynchburg, Virginia

Text: Luke 1:67-75

EXHORDIUM

         Luke 1:67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, ⁶⁸ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, ⁶⁹ And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; ⁷⁰ As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: ⁷¹ That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; ⁷² To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; ⁷³ The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, ⁷⁴ That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, ⁷⁵ In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

The text I read this morning is Zacharias speaking on the occasion of the birth of his son, John the Baptist. But in this portion of his famous speech, he is not talking about John. He is speaking about the Messiah. He does not yet know His name. Jesus was born six months later.

But the words Zacharias says here are an excellent starting point for our discussion about the CREC. Over the next 14 Sundays, I am going to preach through our acronym, CREC, The Communion of Evangelical Reformed Churches.

How do you preach an Acronym? How do you preach the name of a denomination?

We intend to ground everything that we do in Scripture. We may not always be successful but it is certainly our intent to only do what the Bible calls us to and to refuse to do those things the Bible tells us not to do.

This flows from our Reformed Doctrine of the Sufficiency of Scripture for Theology and Practice. The Bible is our only ultimate and infallible source of faith and practice. The Bible tells us what to believe and how to live. We can glean wisdom from other sources but only those things revealed to us in the Scriptures are required of us.

Thus, it is our intent that our core beliefs, many of which are represented by our name, CREC, must be Biblical in character. If the Bible requires it of us, we must do this. If the Bible forbids a certain belief or behavior, then we must refrain.

I want to make a qualification here before I press on. I want to be clear about what I am NOT saying, before I press in to what I am saying. I am NOT saying that the CREC has it all figured out. The CREC is not the only an infallible source of faith and practice. Nor is the Reformed Tradition, or the Westminster Confession or the Shorter Catechism. The lofty title of ultimate and infallible resides with Holy Writ alone.

Having said that, we have to then flesh out what we think the Bible teaches. When we do so, we are going to present our ideas of what the Bible says. We will quote Scripture defending our views, even when we know there are opposing views within the Christian faith. When a man argues for his view, he thinks he is right. Every man does this and it is manly to present your views as if they were true because you believe them to be so. That is not arrogance or pride. Arrogance and pride raise their heads when a man is shown, in the Bible, that his views clearly contradict the word, and then, having been shown, flatly refuses to alter his view.

But a man who argues his view with an open Bible, seeking to honestly submit to the testimony of God’s Word, is not an arrogant man. In fact, such a man is exactly the definition of true humility. If he is willing to humble himself based upon God’s standard and not man’s standard, then he is humble before God.

There are many honest disagreements about what the Bible teaches. We come to these disagreements with an entire lifetime of assumptions. Sometimes, these preconceived assumptions color how we read the text. We should try to be both honest and consistent when we read the Bible.

Much of what is revealed in Scripture is clear and easy to understand. Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not bear false witness. No argument as to what these mean. But other passages are not as clear.

Jesus said, John 8:56-58 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. ⁵⁷ Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? ⁵⁸ Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

What was the point of bringing up Abraham? What is His reference to I AM? Without a biblical and systematic framework to understand such a passage, we cannot really understand what Jesus was saying.

         Our intent in the CREC is to frame all such questions about theology and practice in a biblical framework. That basic framework is a Covenantal understanding of the Bible. What is the story of the Bible? What has God revealed from the beginning and how is that presented to us in the pages of Scripture? With such a wide array of time and writers in the Bible, how are we to understand what God is saying? What is the glue that holds the Bible together?

         The Reformed answer to that question is Covenant. That is why in Reformed Churches, Covenant becomes a key way to understand the world in which we live. We have Covenant Renewal Worship services. We bring Covenant children to the Lord for Baptism. We renew our covenant with God at the Lord’s Supper. Our marriage vows are a solemn covenant.

         So, what is a covenant? Mark Jones, “At its most basic level, a covenant is an oath-bound relationship between two or more parties. Thus, human covenants (for example, marriage) fall under this general definition. In divine covenants, God sovereignly establishes the relationship with His creatures. There are other nuances, but a divine covenant given after the fall is, fundamentally, one in which God binds Himself by His own oath to keep His promises.

Still, there are conditions attached to that oath on the human side. If the human party involved in a covenant with God does not keep the covenant’s conditions, there will be consequences.”

Mark Jones article, What is a Covenant? Ligonier Ministries website, http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/what-covenant/

O Palmer Robertson Christ of the Covenants, Douglas Wilson, Mark Jones.

A bond in blood, sovereignly administered, with attendant blessings and curses.

         Bond in Blood- life or death bond. Breaking of it means the life of the breaker is forfeit. Thus, the cutting of the covenant. In Abraham’s case, God passed through the pieces. He will not break His Covenant.

         Sovereignly Administered- The biblical covenant was established by God.

         Blessing for obedience.

         Curses for disobedience.

         At the heart of the work of the CREC, which is built squarely upon the Reformed Tradition, is this idea of Covenant. God has established His Covenant with His people and He is faithful. This was revealed in the garden prior to the Fall and also immediately after the Fall, when God continued His Covenant promises to Eve and to her seed. Gen. 3:15. This Covenant is then renewed over and over by God throughout the pages of the Old Testament, all the way up to the time of Christ.  Our passage in Luke today is the fulfillment of those historic covenant promises.

         God makes promises to Eve, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to David, and finally fulfills them all in His own Son, Jesus Christ. Without this framework of Covenant, there is simply no way to accurately understand the pages of Scripture, particularly the Advent of Christ, the character of God, what He requires of us and what God plans are for us and for the future of His Church.

         The Covenant is so fundamental to the understanding of Scripture, that unless we clearly grasp its nature and the revelation of God through it, we are prone to make a hundred mistakes about the Bible, even misunderstanding some of the most basic Christian doctrine. And if we understand the doctrine of the Bible, we will also miss the application. If we don’t get the doctrine right we cannot answer Francis Schaeffer’s famous question, “How should we then live?”

         So, at the heart of God’s Covenant with His people is the fulfillment of His promise to crush the serpent’s head. The serpent deceived Eve in the garden. Adam failed to protect his wife from the serpent and fell into the sin that plunged mankind into an estate of sin and misery. God pronounced a judgement on the devil and announced that one day the seed of the women would crush the head of the serpent. Eve’s seed that crushed the serpent is Jesus. The Bible tells us that on the cross, Jesus made an open show of His enemies, triumphing over them in the cross. On the cross, Jesus destroyed the works of the devil, thus fulfilling God’s promise to Eve, to Noah, to Abraham, Moses, and David.

         This promise keeping God has made further promises. Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father. He has entered into the Sovereign Rule of His Kingdom. The Bible teaches that Jesus will remain there until the nations are subdued beneath His feet. The nations already belong to Jesus but they are still in rebellion.

         The story of the Gospel, is that God, the Father, has spoken in these last days by His Son. The Word has gone out to the corners of the Earth, that all who profess faith in Jesus Christ, will enter into the blessedness of the Father. This Word of the Gospel is what transforms the world into submission to Jesus Christ. God has promised that it would be so.  This is His ongoing Covenant with His people. God is ever faithful to His covenant.

         Furthermore, in Jesus Christ, the Church has become what Jesus would make of her. She is His beloved and He will continue to love and cherish her until His work is done. What is that work? To make of her a bride without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

In principle, this is already true. All those who are in Christ are washed. They have washed their garments in the blood of the lamb only to find them white as the sparkling snow. Her sins are forgiven her and she is made a holy and beloved bride.

But the work of Jesus in His Church is not yet finished. When it is, He will hand the Kingdom over to His Father. Until then, the Word must be proclaimed until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus is the Christ.

As you can see, this conclusion of the eternal reign of Christ, having begun at the Ascension and continuing until the Resurrection, has a dramatically different understanding once we get the full view of the covenant. The Covenant continues and God, the Father continues to administer this covenant in a perfect fashion until the promises are fulfilled.

        

EXHORTATION

CREC- A collection of churches in the historic reformed tradition that preach the entire Bible as the infallible Word of God. Our emphasis is faithful Sunday worship as we gather together as families, and Biblical teaching on practical Biblical Christian living in every area of life.

Briefly explain our CREC name with a fully positive apologetic.

Communion- gathered churches, mutual accountability

Reformed- committed to the historic faith, primary confession is historic creeds. Secondary confession I modern creeds that include historically reformed Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Baptists.

Evangelical- Emphasize the need for personal faith in Jesus Christ. This includes the new birth, conversion and regeneration. These may by synonyms of the same event. Define, explain and distinguish. Give some examples of how these are practiced in CREC churches.

Churches

15 Sermons on the CREC 

Communion

1.   Covenant, Creation, Adam, Fall, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus

         2. Covenant Renewal Worship- Practical Christianity through Worship, culminates in communion=intimacy with God and His saints at His table.

         3. Paedo Everything- Practical Ramifications of Covenantal Theology/Sacraments- Raising Godly Children, Covenant Succession, Marriage

         4. Life Together- Knowing God and His Saints, Manners, Unity in Diversity,

of Reformed

         5. Reformation, Bible Centric, Proudly Protestant

         6. Biblical Theology- Not ashamed to be Calvinist, Doctrines of Grace- TULIP

         7. Post-Mil, hopeful gospel, the world

         8. Sabbatarian, Rest, Hospitality, Manners

        

Evangelical

         9. Gospel Centered Evangelical Faith, need for repentance unto life

         10. Practical theology - flows out of our fingertips

         11. Education- Christian Ed for cultural engagement and generational faithfulness, Christian schools, homeschools, etc.

Churches

         12. Gathered churches, Polity of CREC, Expanding the Kingdom

         13. The Church, Congregational vs. Presbyterian, etc.

         14. Individuals connected to Christ and His church through families. The family is not the church but families are essential and central to the church.

         15. Church Centric Families- Headship, Christ and the Church, faithful children, generational faithfulness, sphere sovereignty, jurisdictional wisdom.