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Steve Brown: Moses, David, Jesus. Let's talk on Key Life.

Guest (Male): This is Key Life. We're here to let you know that because of what Jesus has done, God will never be angry at you again. Pete Alwinson is a former pastor, founder of forgedtruth.com and the author of Like Father, Like Son, and he's been teaching us all this week.

Steve Brown: Those teaser people don't understand just behind the scenes, we work harder on the teasers than we do on the teaching cuz the teaching is where we live. The teasers you have to make up.

Pete Alwinson: And and you know, Steve, this is why where you're a true professional. You make it look easy.

Steve Brown: It's cuz I'm so superficial.

Pete Alwinson: No.

Steve Brown: We been we been talking this way and this has been so so good on the covenants, a way of looking at how God um is in relationship with the world, with his people, with Christians, and moving in our direction. Uh you've taught us that there's one covenant. It's a covenant of grace. There are two manifestations of it in the older and the newer. We have we've looked at a covenant before God picked his people with the world, and now we're going to where we saw Abraham and how that was the gospel when the covenant was made with him.

Where are you going now?

Pete Alwinson: Yeah, that's perfect. So the covenant of grace established with Abraham, God didn't have to do anything, and here we go. And then and then it's it it moves along, and then Genesis really is is is a powerful unfolding of all of the history after God's establishment of this covenant. And there's a clear covenant line. God's going to bless all of the nations of the world through the line of Abraham and the people that come from him. So we see this continual line through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the 12 tribes of Israel.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: And then my favorite of all of the uh sons of Jacob, the 12 sons of Jacob is Joseph. You got to love Joseph. You know, he was a spoiled kid who who who who God redeemed and used in a powerful way.

Steve Brown: We could spend three or four weeks just on Joseph.

Pete Alwinson: Totally, totally. But Joseph then lever you know, Genesis really ends with the story of Israel in in in in in Egypt, but not in bondage. But when we open up the book of Exodus, Egypt now, a lot of time has passed, and and Israel, the is now a nation. It's a mighty nation. Thousands and thousands of people, upwards of a million people, perhaps even. And so we have we have this whole reality that it's a nation, and God raises up Moses uh to to begin to bring the people of Israel out of out of bondage into the promised land.

And so the the Exodus story is is really fascinating. Um you know, and and you can read all about that, Exodus 1 2 3. What's your favorite plague, Steve? What's your favorite plague?

Steve Brown: The frogs.

Pete Alwinson: The frogs.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: Everywhere.

Steve Brown: Everywhere.

Pete Alwinson: So we see all we see all of the plagues, but but all of these were means by which this the Israel would be let out and Pharaoh would would would go. Let my people go, Moses claimed. And finally, he lets them go, but the the horrible element of the firstborn of people of Egypt has to die. Um because Pharaoh's heart is just so hard. And so there's the shedding of the Passover lamb and the blood on oh yeah.

Steve Brown: And the blood is put over what where do they what do they what do they do with the blood?

Pete Alwinson: Doorpost.

Steve Brown: Doorpost on the houses.

Pete Alwinson: And then and then they they sacrifice the Passover lamb.

Steve Brown: Yeah, that's right.

Pete Alwinson: Right? And so and then and then they're told get up and go when finally they're able to go. And Israel leaves, and we know the Red Sea story, the miraculous deliverance of all that. It's just incredible. Uh but then they end up after they're traveling and their rescue and after the Passover lamb, they end up at the foot of Mount Sinai. And what happens? Um everybody knows what happens on Mount Sinai.

Steve Brown: Well, they don't think of it in most people in terms of what you've been teaching us. This is the mother of all covenants and that are that's too big. The grace is the mother, but

Pete Alwinson: It's it's amazing.

Steve Brown: this is a big deal.

Pete Alwinson: This is a huge deal. And and and and why and how we understand. So it's the 10 Commandments, right? He gets the 10 Commandments. We might call it the Mosaic covenant, the the the the the Torah, the 10 uh Commandments. But most people don't understand what this is in the context of covenantal theology. So if we have God establishing the covenant of grace with Abraham,

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: what is this? Because you and I have heard it so many times. You say to somebody, well, are you a Christian? And how do you know you're going to heaven?

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: And they say, well, I keep the 10 Commandments.

Steve Brown: I've been good.

Pete Alwinson: I've been good. As if keeping the 10 Commandments was a vehicle to earn your salvation, in a sense to off put your sins and offset your sins and earn righteousness. Well, what we see historically is that the 10 Commandments was never ever intended to be that because Israel was given the covenant of grace with Abraham, and then they were redeemed out of Egyptian bondage as sinners graciously while they were still sinners and in in rebellion per se uh before any blood had been shed on their behalf. They were graciously redeemed, and now they're given the 10 Commandments.

Steve Brown: Oh man.

Pete Alwinson: The law of Moses is an administrative covenant within the covenant of grace. In other words, now that I've redeemed you graciously, here's how you live. Here's how you live.

Steve Brown: Good.

Pete Alwinson: Um and what Calvin calls the the the third use of the law, right? So the law was a means of now as graciously redeemed people, this is how you live. And so all of the Old Testament elements of the covenant of grace uh even under the Mosaic covenant, look ahead. The sacrifices of the animals um all look ahead to the one sacrifice of the Messiah who is to come. And so the uh all of the stipulations of law keeping, yes, you're saved by grace, but you have a part to play in this covenant that we have too.

You have to be obedient. You have to love your wives. You have to love your kids. You have to worship me. You have to do these things that are laid out in the law. But they all look ahead to the fact that that one Passover lamb that was sacrificed would have to be fulfilled in a Passover lamb uh that never had to be sacrificed again. And so all of the Old Testament covenant of grace with all of its laws and regulations are just how you live under grace under the Old Testament looking ahead to the coming of that one Messiah who would literally would literally take away the sins of the world.

And that's of course Jesus.

Steve Brown: And that's what this thing is all about.

Pete Alwinson: What this thing is all about.

Steve Brown: And when Paul talks about the law, he talks about the impossibility of it saving us.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. That's right.

Steve Brown: It's kind of nice, but but nobody can live by that. You that's why you know, it just dawned on me, the gospel is clear in the Old Testament.

Pete Alwinson: It's clear.

Steve Brown: I mean, it's this isn't a different God. I mean, God this has been him all along. It's all about grace. And all of a sudden,

Pete Alwinson: All along.

Steve Brown: uh we see what this is all about.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. All of a sudden, you know, okay, it gets a little bit more. You you go through all of the laws of Moses, you all of the teaching that way. And then and then you get to to David. Uh and then oh we see the line through whom God is going to bless the world getting even tighter.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and now Moses. But Moses is in that line. And then David. And through David then, we see by the time we get to Matthew uh and and here's where it comes together. The record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And then what we see in the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1 is that we see the line of the Messiah carefully uh brought down to Jesus, who is the lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. And that's in fact what John the Baptist says about Jesus when he first sees him.

He says, there he is, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus comes, and in his life, death, burial, and resurrection, we see this amazing, incredible reality that the covenant of grace has been fulfilled. Uh now we don't look forward to the Messiah coming. He he came. And so we look back in faith. They looked ahead in faith in the Old Testament dispensation of the covenant of grace. We looked back in faith. He came. He has conquered. He's alive. Now he's coming again, and he's going to restore everything. But we have one covenant of grace that will be ultimately fulfilled in the kingdom of God in which we will celebrate the Lord's supper with him in the kingdom to come.

Steve Brown: Oh Pete, this week has been incredible in terms of the teaching of seeing something that is so big that you can hardly get your mind around it. You can see a sovereign God working his will uh throughout all of the universe and history. And it comes down to you and me cuz we're part of this covenant too. And when you ran to Jesus, the deal was made, and it was given to you as a gift. You think about that. Amen.

Pete Alwinson: And that wraps up our survey look at God's covenants. Thank you Steve and Pete. And if you're enjoying this ongoing series, go ahead and drop by keylife.org/covenants to hear each week of this series. Tomorrow, Steve and Pete will return for Friday Q&A answering the questions you've sent in. Don't miss it. And we have a brand new booklet we would love to send you. It's called God's Not Mad at You. It features powerful excerpts from Steve's new book of the same name. In this booklet, Steve breaks down what guilt and fear really are and exposes the kickers, the fine print lies that trick us into thinking God's grace comes with conditions.

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