Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

nant."
mind,"
covenant"
posterity."
secured."
as it is seen at the coming of Jesus Christ, the Re
deemer. In the words of Zacharias, the father of
John the Baptist, speaking of the birth of Christ, "To
perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to
remember his holy (Luke 1:72).
II. To whom the covenant obligations extend.
On the occasion from which our text comes it is
apparent that all classes of the congregation of Israel
are included as being bound by the Covenant. There
were Moses, Aaron, the Levites, and the elders of the
people who were the representatives of the tribes of
Israel. There were men, women and children, in
tribes and in families. This fact is recognized
in other passages. In Deut. 29:14, 15 Israel
stands in Moab before crossing the Jordan
into the promised land and Moses declares,
"Neither with you only do I make this cove
nant and this oath, but with him that standeth here
with us this day before the Lord our God, and also
with him that is not here with us this day." All were
to be included. In the taking of the Covenant under
King Josiah this is seen again. We read in II Kings
23:2, 3 "and the king went up into the house of the
Lord, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabi
tants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and
the prophets, and all the people, both small and
great ; and he read in their ears all the words of the
book of the covenant which was found in the house
of the Lord . . . And all the people stood to the cove
Accordingly we find this principle of cove
nanting is recognized in our own covenant of 1871 in
the opening words, "We ministers, elders, deacons
and members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church
in North America, with our hands lifted up, do joint
ly and severally swear by the Great and Dreadful
name of the Lord our God."
III. The third observation in development of our
theme is the permanent nature of Covenant
obligations
This principle has been an historic position of
our church through the centuries, and it is clearly
drawn from the Bible. The principle rests upon a
two-fold foundation. The first is the permanent ap
plication of the moral law of God, which always
forms a part of the Covenant relationship. The Bible
commands pronounced in the Old Testament and re
inforced by our Lord in the New Testament were,
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart
and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength and
with all thy and "Thou shalt love thy neigh
bor as thyself." These never have and never shall be
rescinded. The Ten Commandments shall always be
the rule of obedience for God's people as well as the
finger of God to point out sin to the unrepentant.
The law of God is of permanent and perpetual appli
cation.
The second of the two-fold foundation to the
principle of the permanent or descending obligations
of the Covenants is the organic
unity of succeeding
generations with their forebears. Here again let us
appeal to scripture. In Deuteronomy 5:2, 3 we find
the Israelites almost forty years after the ratifying
of the Covenant at Sinai, with a new generation
standing in God's presence before entering Canaan.
We hear Moses saying to them, "The Lord our God
made a Covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord
made not this Covenant with our fathers, but with
January 19, 1955
us, even us who are all of us here alive this day."
Further, we find Israel warned of punishment by the
prophets because the covenant people in their days
were breaking the Covenant of their fathers. To cite
but one, we turn to Isaiah 24:5, 6, "The earth also
is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because
they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordin
ance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore
hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that
dwell therein are desolate."
Accordingly our Covenanting forefathers have
recognized the descending obligations of the Cove
nants. In the National Covenant of Scotland in 1638
we quote, "Finally, being convinced in our minds and
confessing with our mouths, that the present and
succeeding generations in this land are bound to
keep the foresaid national oath ... we hereby pro
fess . .
In the Solemn League and Covenant (1643) the
oath was taken in these words, "That we, and- our
posterity after us, may, as brethren, live in faith
and love . .
In our Covenant in America in 1871 we find at
least three such expressions : Section K. "We receive
for ourselves and for our children the Lord Jesus
Christ as He is offered in the Gospel to be our Sav
iour."
Then in Section II we promise "to transmit the
knowledge of (our faith) to In Section III
we declare that we will "pray and labor for the Chris
tian Amendment and we will continue to refuse to
incorporate with the political body, until this blessed
reformation has been These are clear indi
cations that we bind, with us, our sons and daugh
ters from generation to generation under the bonds
of the covenants that which is clearly the teaching
of the Word of God until the objectives sought are
attained.
IV. Finally we must conclude by observing the
elements of our Covenant obligations.
As the people standing before God and Moses
at Sinai recognized their obligations with the words
"All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obe
dient,"
so we, today, must confess that our personal
and combined obligation can be summarized in one
word
obedience. And let us recognize that it is a
perfect obedience that is required. Yet we must con
fess that we are prone to failure and given to sin, for
"no mere man, since the .is
fall, able in this life, per
fectly to keep the commandments of God ; but doth
daily break them, in thought, word, and deed." Thus
we must enlist the aid indeed rely wholly upon
the perfect obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ as the
Mediator and surety of the New Covenant.
As we turn to our Covenant we see that it is
called "A Brief Covenant." This should not be under
stood to suggest that we consider that God has re
duced His terms of obligation laid upon us in con
trast with earlier generations. No! In fact the irre
ducible obligations of God's people are set forth in
the whole scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.
Our prepared Covenant is professedly a summary
in brief compass of the obligations laid upon God's
Covenant people.
Turning to the Covenant itself, let us point out
briefly the following:
1. We begin our statement of obligation by a
(Continued on page 41)
37