Please remain standing as we turn to our sermon text this morning, Genesis chapter 12, verses 1, 2, and 3. Genesis chapter 12, 1, 2, and 3, and we remain standing out of respect for God's Holy Word. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house. to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And I will curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Congregation, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Amen. Please be seated. Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, last week we began to inquire on the subject of corporate biblical worship. And we have learned that worship is the most important thing that we will ever do, both in this life and in the life to come. And because worship is the most important thing that we will ever do, it is of the utmost importance for us to do it right. And in exploring how to worship rightly, we have discovered a principle, a biblical principle. And this principle is called the regulative principle of worship as the only proper way to worship God. And we have begun with this mini series on worship because it is the most important thing that we will ever do. And also that future congregants will know right away why we do the things that we do. That worship is not just a meaningless, traditional, form of liturgy that we do just because our forefathers did. Now let me be clear, what the fathers did is of importance, but it is never of as much importance as the Word of God, and therefore it is important, utterly important, to see from the Scriptures Why we do what we do? I mean, if you ask worshipers in Grand Rapids or other churches today, even the most conservative ones, and you ask them, explain the liturgy to me. Why you do what you're doing? I'm not so sure how many would be able to defend that. I don't want to look down upon them. I myself... for a long time had no clue what worship really was. In fact, I'm not afraid to say I was already a minister for a few years when I became familiarized with true biblical worship. Now, we did it right for the most part because of the fathers, but we also want to know why? We are Sola Scriptura Christians. We are Protestants, which means we go and live and think and have our being only by the Word of God. And therefore, it is so important for us to understand from the Scriptures why we do what we're doing and that we do understand what are we doing at every stage of the worship service. And again, there is a principle, the regulative principle of worship. And this biblical principle says exactly that, that we must worship God only in the way that He has prescribed. Now, here's the next problem, you walk around in churches, especially more contemporary ones, and it seems to me that apart from a few very basic principles, worship or their practice of worship is being determined by what they like. And this is also a problem in very conservative churches. You know, when young people go to a conference or go to a camp and they come back and said, wow, why is our worship so boring? Because where we were, we raised our hands and we were emotional. Of course, the old man likes that. But worship again is not for men. Worship is for God. What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God. And our most concentrated glorifying of God is corporate worship. And therefore, corporate worship also, and especially, must be directed only and entirely to the pleasure of our God. Now, let me be quick to add that we will find our joy in glorifying God. That does not only hold true for worship, it holds true for the whole of the Christian life that you will find true joy only in being God-centered and you will find fear, restlessness, even depression in self-centeredness. In other words, you were made to give, give to God and in God to your neighbor. That's what you were made for. If you live contrary to the reason or the task that you were made for, you will face severe soul problems by the grace of God, because only through pain we even ask the question, am I doing something wrong? And God is gracious and kind. And He teaches us and it is no coincidence that you're here this morning and hearing exactly what worship is and how it ought to look like. So worship has to be God-centered. It has to be conducted only in the way that God has prescribed. And this principle is called the regulative principle of worship. God regulates worship and not man. And there are three major rules in this regulative principle, very easy to remember. Maybe you want to remember them, children, boys and girls, and you can then be asked by mom or dad at the lunch or dinner table. The first principle concerning worship is, whatever is prescribed in the Scriptures about worship is required. Whatever is prescribed is required. That's also in the common life, apart from worship, whatever God says in His Word is required. But then there's a second rule that is a little bit different than our practice in the rest of our lives outside of corporate worship. Whatever is not actively and expressly described is forbidden when it comes to worship. So, whatever is not prescribed, positively prescribed, is forbidden. That's different to our other life areas, areas of life outside of worship, because if it's not forbidden by the Word of God, then it's allowed, right? But in worship, it's different. Something has to be actively prescribed. And if it's not prescribed, it's forbidden. It's not left up to us. That, by the way, separates us from the Lutherans with their so-called normative principle. They say whatever is not forbidden is allowed. And that's not true for us. What is not prescribed is forbidden. And the third one is very easy. Whatever is forbidden is forbidden. That's always true, right? So the first one, whatever is prescribed in matters of worship is required. Whatever is not prescribed is forbidden. Whatever is forbidden in God's Word is forbidden in worship. That's the regulative principle of worship. And then we asked another question. We asked the question, what corporate worship actually is? What is its main thrust? And we concluded that worship is first and foremostly covenant renewal. Now that might be new for many of you. One hardly hears that anymore from pulpits. But I'm telling you, it's usually not really the fault of the preachers. Seminaries don't teach that as much anymore. Many things are the fault of preachers, don't misunderstand me, but this is not properly taught, if taught at all in many seminaries. that worship is covenant renewal, that every time we come together as God's people to worship Him in His house, we renew our existing covenant relationship with Him within the covenant of grace. And that's where we left off last week. And this morning, we will look a little bit deeper into the elements, into the chronology, the order of this covenant renewal worship, so we can work our way forward to understand why we do what we do and what the significance of every element in our worship service is. And doing this, we have to ask a very profound or foundational question first. And it is this, what is a biblical covenant? I said worship is covenant renewal, and in order to know what covenant renewal is, we have to understand what a covenant is. We have to work our way from the most general to the specific in order to understand deductively what we're talking here about. Now there are several, or I should say many, very good definitions about what a covenant is. The one that I learned in seminary stuck with me. It stems from Dr. O. Palmer Robertson and is a very basic but very good definition of what a covenant is. And it says that a covenant is a bond. It's a bond sovereignly administered in blood. So a bond is a binding. There is a binding between the parties, and it's not a mutual contract. Neither the Hebrew nor the Greek word for covenant, when it comes to God's covenant, ever uses bond or covenant in the sense of contract, but it is a binding that is sovereignly initiated by God. So this separates us right away from Arminianism, from the idea that both God, if that was even possible, and man are sovereign. And two sovereigns come into a conference room and God asks, do you feel like covenanting with me? And then man says, yes or no. That would be a contract. That's not a covenant in the biblical sense. No, God comes and He unilaterally covenants with man. So it's a bond sovereignly administered in blood. That's how God has set it up. No blood, no covenant. That's how it works. in the Bible, so the covenant therefore is a way or a framework or a paradigm that God chose to communicate with mankind. You have to remember this, the only way that God ever communicates or has ever communicated with mankind is within the framework, within the paradigm of His sovereignly administered covenant. and he has covenanted with his elect by way of the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace is the covenant in which God's people are. Now, the Westminster Confession sometimes uses the term covenant of works and then covenant of grace as two different covenants. Now, there's two ways you can look at this. You can say, because it is true, the term covenant of works is very misleading. Because it would mean that the covenant with Adam before the fall was not gracious, but depended all on Adam's works. Now, let me add, Adam did not deserve a covenant of works. Adam did not deserve being in eternal communion with God, and therefore covenant of works is very misleading as a term, but it helps us in order to define things. Some see the covenant of works and the covenant of grace as one covenant, which was first the pre-fall covenant of grace, or the pre-lapsarian covenant of grace, and then the post-lapsarian covenant of grace. I really don't care how you call it, as long as you understand it. But one thing you see right away, There is always a covenant when God communicates with man. Well, even the unbeliever is in a covenant relationship with God. He is in the covenant that was pre-fall. He still owes the keeping of the law, which of course he can't. But his wages, his wages of sin is death. So he is in a covenant relationship with God, whether he wants it or not. I told you, it's sovereignly administered. He's not being asked just because the unbeliever says, I don't want to have anything to do with it. God doesn't politely say, okay, sorry, my bad. God is the Creator of all things, He is the owner of all things, even the unbeliever, even the reprobate. And therefore they are, whether they want it or not, in a covenant relationship with God. But they are not in a covenant relationship with obedience and blessing. They are in a covenant relationship with disobedience and curse. And the covenant of grace has two major benefits. One benefit is a personal relationship with God, or in other words, reconciliation and fellowship with God. That's the first benefit, but there's another benefit that sadly in pulpits today is being presented as a curse. But it's a wonderful benefit. There's not only the restored relationship with God, there's also a dictated order of life. In other words, in the covenant of grace, we receive God's love and forgiveness, fellowship with God, union with Christ, but also God's law. God's law, and that is a sad part, even in many Presbyterian reformed pulpits is being really talked down and dismissed as a negative. But if you understand that God didn't have a bad day in the Old Testament when He gave His holy law, when you understand that God is unchangeable and that the law is a representation of His character, of His understanding of right or wrong, there is no way in the world, unless you're a dispensationalist, that you can even think of dismissing God's moral law. as it is a gift for us so often. We think that the law is restricting us, but the law is helping us. Read Psalm 119. It's by far the longest chapter in the Bible. And what does it talk about? The blessings of God's law. Now, children, I'll give you an example about the benefits of God's law. There was a train in the desert. And this is fantasy, right? Because the train said to himself, all these gazelles and antelopes, they run so free. They can do whatever they want. And I'm bound to these tracks. And he would watch them year after year. Whereas he went back and forth. And one day he said, I've had it with my tracks. I will be like the antelopes. And he jumps out of the tracks. I don't think I have to explain to you what happened to the poor train. Although this is a poor example, as all examples of earthly things about heavenly things must be by definition, this gives you an idea how the law of God is good. The law of God is not a restriction. It is a prescription. It is the directions of your Maker of how to live in order to glorify God and also enjoy Him forever. The law of God is good. It is not an enemy. And therefore, it is one benefit of the covenant of grace. For the unbeliever, the law is an enemy. Unless the law drives him to Christ, then it will become his friend. And once he is in Christ, he has been forgiven. He has been cleansed of all his sin. He has been given freely eternal life and eternal hope. And he will ask, Oh, how can I ever thank you, Lord? And Christ says in John 14, 15, If you love me, keep my commandments. It has become from an enemy. to a means of gratitude. And those who hate the law of God essentially hate God. Because the law of God is a representation of His character. And as little as God changes, the law changes. Namely, not at all. This is what we have to understand. So the covenant of grace is the formal framework or paradigm, if you will, for God's personal interaction with us. Personal is God gives us forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration, eternal life and formal is the framework in which He does it and that is the covenant. And since we are here primarily interested in worship, which is covenant renewal, what interests us now is the formal side. We assume for now that our hearts are right with God and that we are in Jesus Christ as we look at the formal side of the covenant as a blueprint for our worship service. Now, when a married couple renews their covenant, and often this happens after a crisis, often this happens after the couple went through difficult times, but sometimes it just happens because they feel the need, that they need to renew their covenant and to recommit themselves to each other. The order for this covenant renewal service is usually formed after the marriage itself, the wedding itself. So the covenant renewal is shaped and formed after the original institution of the covenant and it is no different with worship. It is a covenant renewal service and therefore it is formed and shaped and the elements are in line with the original institution of God's covenant. And we will look at three covenants in order to identify common practice. You see, in Reformed theology, in Reformed ecclesiology, transparency is of the utmost importance. It is important in small things, like we put into the bulletin how much the offering was. We want everybody to know everything. And it is most important in preaching. We must be able, must, must, must be able to explain to you everything we do from the Word of God. And you must be able to hold me to hold us accountable for what we teach from the Word of God. That's how we will not turn into a cult, but remain a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will look at three covenants in order to identify, we will look briefly, I should say, three covenants in order to identify a common pattern. The first one is the Abrahamic covenant. The second one is the Mosaic covenant. And the third one is the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. So Abrahamic, Mosaic and New Covenant. Now, let us look at the Abrahamic covenant, which is described in Genesis 12-25, God's dealings with Abraham. Now, here's the sequence of events when God institutes a covenant with Abraham. First of all, and this is utterly important, God initiates, God initiates the covenant. And He does it by calling Abraham out of the world. It is not Abraham who initiates the covenant. It is God. Genesis chapter 12, verse 1, we already read. Now the Lord said to Abraham, get out of your country. from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. So God initiates, God speaks to Abraham completely unexpectedly. Then secondly, God sets Abraham apart and renews him. God removes him from his pagan ancestry and land and He reveals to him the true faith. And then he changes Abram's pagan name to Abraham, which represents what he's going to be, a father of a multitude. And he promises him a land and a home. Verse 2 of Genesis 12, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Then thirdly, God instructs Abraham about his new life in the covenant with God. You see instruction, here comes the dictated order of life. The institution of the covenant included this order for Abraham and his offspring with the command of Genesis chapter 17, verse 1, walk before me and be blameless. See, that's always part of the covenant. Walk before me and be blameless. It still applies to us as well. It's the same covenant of grace. And then fourthly, God gives Abraham a sign and seal of his covenant. And that sign and seal is circumcision, the sacrament of God's covenant with Abraham. It was a sign for the removal, for the separation from the world and is a picture of the covenant itself. Genesis 17, verse 10, this is My covenant, which you shall keep between Me and you and your descendants after you. Every male child among you shall be circumcised. That's by the way, in my point of view, the strongest argument for covenant baptism, because the covenant is the same, the principle is the same. God covenants with us and our children. And fifthly, and finally, God points to the future. This covenant is not an individual covenant with Abraham only, but it points forward. It points into the future, initially to Abraham's offspring, but then ultimately to all nations who will be blessed by God's covenant promise. Genesis chapter 22, verse 17, Blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. And here it comes, verse 18, in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. So we have five elements in God's covenant initiation with Abraham. First, initiation, God initiates. Secondly, separation and renewal. Thirdly, instruction. Fourthly, sign and seal. And fifthly, pointing into the future. Let's look at the same thing now for our second covenant, God's covenant with Moses. By the way, this should be said, I should have said it much earlier. The Bible sometimes speaks of covenants, but sometimes it uses the single word covenant. for the history of the Old Testament covenant history between God and His people. You have to understand that all these covenants that you see are only sub-covenants to the one covenant of grace. That is the metanarrative. The covenant of grace is the overarching principle of the whole history of God with His people. And the content is, I will be your God, and you will be My people. So as God initiates the covenant with Abraham, initiates the covenant with Moses, initiates the covenant with David and so forth, it is always the same covenant just revealed more and more, pointing to one point in time, pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. And once Christ comes, boom, it goes into all the world. And in Christ, all the promises, all the covenants are yea and Amen. So the covenant with Moses, God again initiates because He chooses at this point to hear the groaning of Israel and by taking hold of His people through Moses. And it is interesting how God refers to the existing covenant with Abraham and that fits with what I just said, it's one covenant. So God refers back to Abraham and this covenant is now being unveiled more and more. Now, in Exodus chapter 3, verse 6, at the burning bush, he says, Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. And then, moreover, he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. So why is he saying that? Because what God is saying here to Moses is, I am the covenant instituting and covenant keeping God. I'm not making a new covenant. I'm renewing and further revealing the one covenant through which I have decided sovereignly to relate to mankind. And if you read further on about the covenants in the Bible and you come to Genesis chapter 15, you will realize that exactly what was happening with Moses here was already prophesied to Abraham. When God said to him in Genesis chapter 15, verse 13, Now know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. and will serve them, and they will afflict them 400 years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge afterward, and they shall come out with great possessions." So God is referring back to something that He had already promised long ago. And you can see there's one metanarrative, one covenant of grace. So He initiates, then God sets apart the Israelites. as He not only spares them from the plagues, but He leads them out from Egypt. And for the first time, they are constituted as a nation, the nation of Israel. That's the first time they were called that, they are being set apart. And immediately God continues and He instructs them by giving them His holy law as a dictated order of life and the blessings and curses. Fourthly, again, God gives them the sacrament of Passover and other symbols of the covenant, like the tabernacle and the priesthood. And fifthly, God takes care of their future in the form of the promised land. After the first generation was unfaithful and they died in the desert, except for a couple of exceptions, the second generation was prepared to take the promised land, but not before another covenant renewal was being applied. And that is the book of Deuteronomy. They were being reminded that they are in a covenant relationship with God before they start entering the promised land. So again, we see five elements of God's covenant order. Initiation, separation and renewal, instruction, and sign and seal and pointing to the future, these five elements. And now we come to the new covenant order, the one we've all been waiting for, the one that moves us into the New Testament era. What happened here? God again takes the initiative through the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody rose up to heaven and took Christ down. God initiates in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. God becomes man. He takes on our flesh. Or as the Shorter Catechism says, He took on a human body and a reasonable human soul. And He becomes the Son of God and Son of Man in one Jesus Christ. He takes on our flesh and becomes our righteousness and the atonement for our sins. Galatians 4, verse 4, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And God sets us apart as a people for Himself. He separates us from the world through our union with Christ. Oh my goodness, a term that is so often mentioned and so little explained. What is our union with Christ? Has anyone ever explained it to you? Our union with Christ means that we are now in Christ and it is as if anything or everything that Christ had done, we have done. So Christ's righteousness, Christ's atonement, Christ's sonship becomes ours. That's union with Christ. How could you ever more be set apart from the world and from your old self than being in union with the Lord Jesus Christ? We are made new with new life and new hope. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17, that famous text, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Thirdly, through the Word incarnate, through Jesus Christ, God instructs us about this new life. Hebrews 1, verses 1 and 2, where it says, God, who at various times, in various ways, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. This is what is called incarnational revelation. God instructs us through His Son. And when the Son ascended into heaven to be enthroned as the ultimate ruler of all things, He gave us His Spirit to continue instructing us through the means of His Word, which is happening at this moment, for example, right now. Christ then gives us two new signs and seals again of the same covenant of grace, two new sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper. And fifthly, God points us into the future through providing us with ministers, elders, evangelists, and by giving us the Great Commission. In Matthew 28, that's our marching orders for the future, where it says, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I will be with you always, even to the end. of the age, that's our pointing into the future. And what do we have again in this new covenant administration in Jesus Christ, in whom all promises, all sub-covenants, all former revelations are yea and amen? We have the same covenant order, initiation, separation and renewal, instruction, sign and seal, and the pointing into the future. And this was the last time that we received it, because in Christ everything is fulfilled pertaining to our salvation in the covenant of grace. All that is left to do is our glorification, our coming into the presence of God, being renewed, the earth being refurbished with fire, after the nations have been discipled, as it is written in Matthew chapter 28 and verses 16 through 18. We find this covenant order, this five-point covenant order, whenever God institutes or renews a covenant, whether it be with Adam, with Noah, with Moses, with David, it's always this order, and since we must know that worship is covenant renewal, our worship service too, modeled after the covenant initiation, must be also according to these points of the covenant, be modeled after this five covenant view. And how this exactly looks like, we will, Lord willing, be looking at next week. For now, this shall suffice. Let us pray. Almighty God, our most gracious and merciful Heavenly Father, oh, how we thank you for your word, how we thank you for your covenant, and most importantly, how we thank you for Jesus Christ. Thank you, Father, for decreeing so great a salvation that reaches as far as the curse is found. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for buying our salvation with your precious blood, living our righteousness and dying our death, being enthroned in heaven, ruling over all things. And Holy Spirit, how much we thank you for applying this great salvation. and helping us in our sanctification, O Holy Spirit, help us to walk in Your ways, not only in worship, but in daily life, in our thoughts, in our words, in our actions. O Lord, be with us, help us, so we may be enabled to glorify Your name and to bless Your people. And we ask it all in the name that is above all names, the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray in His name and for His sake, and all of God's people say, Amen.