Madison Reformed Church Madison Reformed Church

Deut. 17:18–20
1 Chron. 17:1–15
Lk. 1:26–33
Eph. 2:18–22 
The Davidic Covenant is the agreement in which God promises an everlasting Kingdom to His righteous King. In this sermon, we apply that description to the three promises we’ve learned in past weeks: People, place, & God’s presence. It’s through this royal covenant that we begin to see that God’s central promise (“I will be your God and you will be my people”) will be fulfilled through his King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The story of Cain and Abel highlights the problem of ungodly rivalry  among God’s people. There are, of course, harmless rivalries, like between competing teams. But the rivalry that the Bible speaks of has to do with selfish ambition, and the desire to have or get more than others. In the Church, such rivalries are out of step. We are called, rather, to be our brother’s and sister’s keeper, and today we’re going to learn that this in possible through the blood of Christ, which speaks a better word than the blood of Abel: not a word of condemnation, but mercy and forgiveness.

What rings true to most people about Genesis 3 is the description of a painful and toilsome life. You can put so much thought and work into something, only for it to backfire. So that part of the story of Genesis 3 checks out immediately in our experience. But what about the rest of it? Today’s passage teaches us that even though we all live our lives in the wilderness outside of Eden, Christ makes us to taste of the tree of life. He keeps us going, nourished along the way, while we toil outside the Garden.

Exod. 24
Neh. 1:7–11
Jn 1:14–18
Heb. 9:18–26
The phrase “the old covenant” shows up in the NT in 2 Corinthians 3 and Hebrews 8. It’s important to remember that the Old Covenant actually began at Mount Sinai. It’s an agreement between God and the Israelites, with Moses as the go-between, where God promised a people, place, and his presence if the people obeyed his commandments. This whole set-up showed what perfect righteousness looks like, and therefore, pointed them to Christ. In other words, the Old Covenant (also sometimes called the Mosaic or Sinai Covenant) shows that God’s blessings come only through his righteous Son. In this message, we remember that the Old Covenant was one administration of the greater Covenant of Grace, but that it was unique: It was distinct from Abraham; it was strict; it was shadowy.

Genesis 15 is one of the most important chapters in the whole Old Testament, but it’s not really in children’s storybook Bibles and many lifelong Christians hardly know about it. Why is that? It's an ancient Near Eastern covenant. But by looking into it, we see the glories of our redemption. In this message on the Abrahamic covenant, we learn that God's promise of a  people, a place, and the presence of God belong also to us.

In this passage, the curses that God pronounces against the serpent, woman, and Adam bring us back to the original callings he placed upon image-bearers. We are to be fruitful, but sin now twists this calling. Ecclesiastes calls the result “vanity, and a chasing after the wind.” Paul in Romans calls it “futility.” We try to work, and produce, and live—but the curse brings toil, pain, and eventually death. And yet Christ has overcome and is overcoming this curse. Because of his obedience and his death, we are freed to pursue God’s callings in our lives with all our might—whatever those callings might be.