Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

curse."
sacrifice"
sinful"
us."
and a
Which is it going to be
a blessing or
or further decline
There are four things necessary if this Cove
a curse, new life and growth,
nant is to be a blessing to our Church and not a
curse . . .
I. A Personal Experience of Redemption
The children of Israel were encamped on the
border of the promised land, and were at last pre
paring to cross the Jordan and take possession of
Canaan. To prepare them for entering the promised
land of Canaan, Moses stood before them and re
peated the Law which had formerly been given,
straitly charging them to be obedient.
The Book of Deuteronomy is, for the most part,
a record of the discourses which Moses delivered
before the congregation of Israel just before they
entered Canaan. Many times in these addresses to
the people, Moses recounted the work of divine re
demption which had been wrought on their 'behalf.
He began with God's covenant with Abraham and
told the history of redemption down to that time.
He told how God had delivered His people from the
cursed land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, in the wildnerness,
at Horeb, in Moab. He told how God had
helped them conquer the Amorites and the Ammon
ites and Og king of Bashan. Throughout their long
history God had been redeeming them from the
power of evil, heathen enemies.
Because they had this background of redemp
tion, they were God's people and were now standing
on the border of the promised land and were about
to enter upon its blessings.
This redemption from the bondage of Egypt
and from the power of heathen enemies is typical
of God's redemption of His people from evil through
his Son, Jesus Christ. That is, all the marvellous
deliverances wrought by God in the history of Israel
are a sample of the final work of salvation accomp
lished by Jesus Christ.
Before the Israelites could enter Canaan and
possess its promised blessings, it was necessary for
them to experience God's work of redemption.
God'
And before people today can receive
covenant 'blessings, it is necessary that they have a
personal experience of redemption.
If you have not experienced the salvation of
Christ, what good will it do to "seek to conform
your life to the teaching and example of our Lord
Jesus Christ" (Section 3 of The Brief Covenant).
If you are not saved from the power of sin, how
can you expect to "forsake all that is
.
(ibid)
How can you expect to receive the blessings of Sab
bath keeping if you have not been healed by the
Lord of the Sabbath How can you expect to receive
the blessing of giving your tithes if you have not
given your life to God, through the Redeemer How
can you expect to receive the blessing of the Lord's
Supper if you have not been redeemed by the sacri
ficial death represented by the Lord's Supper
True covenanting is based upon redemption.
God says, through the psalmist, "Gather my saints
together unto me, who make a covenant with me
upon the (Psalm 50:5, translation, J.H.).
on the ground of the sacrifice of Christ can
Only
we enter into covenant with God. Those who are
not really saved, not really converted to God, can
not receive the blessings of this Covenant. If they
signed it last Sabbath, that was a sin. It will in-
230
crease their judgment before God because it will be
added to all their other sins. Instead of a blessing,
the Covenant will be a curse.
Covenant blessings are granted only on the basis
of redemption already experienced.
II. A Heart of Obedience.
Moses spoke very frankly with Israel. He made
very
plain the condition upon which Israel would
enjoy the good things of the land of promise. "A
blessing, if ye obey the commandmenots of the
Lord your God, which I command you this day."
Moses also straitly warned the people of the peril of
disobedience: "A curse, if ye will not obey the com
mandments of the Lord your God."
Obedience would result, stated Moses, in the
blessings of rain and fertile land, bringing a
plentiful harvest each year. It would bring them
victory over evil nations and would make Israel
a great nation, doing service for God. But disobedi
ence would result in drought and famine. It would
bring war upon them to destroy them and carry
them away captive into a foreign land, as they had
been in Egypt. These material blessings and curses
would be concrete expressions of God's favor and of
His wrath upon them, whichever the case might be.
The same alternatives are set before us
today. This Covenant will be either a blessing or
a curse. If we mean what we say, and earnestly en
deavor to fulfill our vows, our Church will begin to
flourish and prosper as never before. We will be
as "the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted,
and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself"
(Psalm 80:15). But if we have no intention of keep
ing the Covenant which we have signed and sworn,
we will wither and die as a Church.
Someone said to me not long ago, "We can't
keep the Covenant ; we're sinners, and the terms of
this Covenant are too high above Yes, we are
sinners. And the terms of the Covenant are indeed
high above us. But the Covenant mentions some
specific things that we can perform if we want to
perform them.
It mentions Sabbath keeping: Do we really in
tend to keep the Sabbath holy, or will we continue
to use God's holy day as our holiday.
It mentions worship: Do we really intend to
come to Church, morning and evening, or will we con
tinue to obey the inclination of our fallen,
sinful
nature on a sunny Sabbath morning or a stormy,
cold Sabbath evening
It mentions Bible study: Do we really intend
to study the Bible regularly, and in a systematic
manner, or will we just read ten verses now and
then, or pick out a few choice gems to commit to
memory
It mentions the New Testament pattern of wor
ship: Do we intend to sing only the Psalms in wor
ship, or will we continue to sing hymns in other
churches, and advertise the fact we do not really
believe our profession of faith
It mentions the Reformed Faith: Do we really
intend to study the Westminster Confession of Faith
and the other confessional standards of our
Church, or will we just let them collect more dust on
the book shelf Do we really intend to be Calvinists,
or will we continue to make some pious remark about
being "Christians"
These are things that we can do if we want to do
COVENANTEE WITNESS