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Steve Brown: You don't think so, but covenants can change your life. Let's talk on Key Life.

Matthew: 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. Steve invited our friend Pete Alwinson to do the teaching this week. Pete is a former pastor, founder of forgedtruth.com and the author of Like Father, Like Son.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Hi, Pete.

Pete Alwinson: Hey, Steve. How you doing?

Steve Brown: I'm doing this feels kind of funny cuz I I'm so used to you sitting there and our answering questions every Friday that when you come in and you teach, which I always look forward to, uh I I feel like it we ought to have some questions here somewhere.

Pete Alwinson: I know, right?

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: I've got you have questions about me and I have questions about you, so

Steve Brown: True, but we're not going to share those. That's Dr. Pete Alwinson and he's going to be with us this week and he's going to be teaching us on the biblical subject of covenants. And you think, ah that's about as interesting as a bag of chicken feet. Listen to me. You're going to learn stuff that can change your life. And we'll turn to it. And I hope you had a good weekend and I hope your pastor's sermon was as good as mine. Now let us pray and when we pray, we'll study. Father, we come into your presence and we're so thankful for your word, for the fact that you wrote it down, for the for the covenants that you have given your people because you love them and because you care for them and you watch for them and you do it for us as individuals and we praise you for that.

Father, you know everybody who's listening to this broadcast. You know the hard places and the soft places, the tears and the laughter. And we praise you because you're sovereign over it all. And we can trust you. Father, we give this broadcast to you, this week of broadcast. Uh we ask that you would forgive Pete and me our sins cuz we want people to see Jesus and him only. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay.

Pete Alwinson: Amen. Amen.

Steve Brown: Pete, let's let's kind of let it let's kind of start by you telling us what in the world and and maybe our listeners have heard the idea or the phrase covenant theology.

Pete Alwinson: Mm.

Steve Brown: What is covenant theology and how does that differ from other kinds of the it's a way of looking at the Bible, isn't it?

Pete Alwinson: That that's a perfect way of looking at that. You know Christians have struggled down through the ages to understand Genesis to Revelation, right? And the big picture, the the big flow of biblical history has been summarized in creation, fall, a promise, I always throw in promise.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: And then fulfillment and then the future consummation. So that's kind of the the big picture, the overview of Genesis to Revelation.

Steve Brown: Overview of what it is.

Pete Alwinson: And and and that's what's going on in the Bible and uh and yet the the the question arises, how is all of God's will actually accomplished on the planet?

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: And and and and how does he how does he do that well? He does it by by by establishing relationships with us. And and so um we are you know you and I we're we're Presbyterians, conservative Presbyterians and follow that reformational thinking about covenant which

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: uh is you know in a in a positive way sort of opposed to another major system that came up in the 1800s called dispensationalism.

Steve Brown: And a lot of our listeners are dispensationalists.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. And so there's been these two major systems in modern times and and ancient times that have have been Christian and trying to understand how God accomplishes his will, how he establishes relationships. What does he do, dispensation or covenant? Well, if you just simply look up in a in a uh a great concordance, the word dispensation versus the word covenant, you'll find that the word covenant is found over 300 times in the Bible.

Steve Brown: Mm.

Pete Alwinson: And dispensations found a couple times. And they're they're they're they're related concepts.

Steve Brown: Yeah, and they both are helpful in understanding the big picture. Uh they're just ways of looking at it.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Steve Brown: Okay. All right. Go ahead.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah. So we're not we're not trying to be here in any sense anti one side or the other, but as for who we are, we're just trying to unpack the idea of covenants. So that you guys can understand where we come from.

Steve Brown: That's right.

Pete Alwinson: It'll explain a lot of things and some of the things that we say.

Steve Brown: It really does. It really really is helpful to understand the Bible in that macro sense, but then in the covenantal sense. So uh historically we could think of maybe two major covenants that we call the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.

Pete Alwinson: That's the Old and New Testament, right?

Steve Brown: Old Old and New Testament.

Pete Alwinson: Old and New Covenant.

Steve Brown: Old and New Covenant. So when we think of the covenant of works um you really don't even see the covenantal language in Genesis, early Genesis, but you see some of the elements of a covenant. So theologians have helped us understand and when Adam and Eve were created and put in the Garden of Eden, God had a relationship with them.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah. Yeah. And he said, this is your place. I'm your God. Uh you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right? So there's a relationship. We have a relationship. I created you in my image. All you have to do is be obedient and not eat of that tree and not sin. And so we call that the covenant of works where by all they had to do was be obedient. And you know the reality is is that they had every ability to fulfill that covenant

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: because they hadn't sinned. They were not made morally neutral. They were made in the in the image of God. And so when they actually do eat of the tree of the knowledge of of good and evil, they break that covenant of works.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: Hey, covenant means a deal. I mean you're you're doing it relationally and that's appropriate and as it ought to be, but it's a deal, isn't it? It means we're going to make a deal, a relational deal. You do this and I'll do this and we'll get along fine. I don't do this and I and you don't do this. Break the covenant and really bad things happen.

Steve Brown: It's a deal. Uh-huh. Right. That's right. That's right. It's a bond. It's a it's a bond of relationship. Robertson calls it uh a bond in blood sovereignly administered. Well, in the covenant of works uh we see that they Adam and Eve violated that and um and and then they were ejected from the garden. So there was

Pete Alwinson: Okay. Yeah.

Steve Brown: Now what is unique about the covenant of works and the covenants that God makes with mankind uh versus a covenant that you and I might have

Pete Alwinson: Yeah. is is that is that it's from the greater to the lesser. It's from it's from God to man.

Steve Brown: Yeah. Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: So divine

Steve Brown: He's big and we're little.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: And so they're imposed covenants um uh and and and yet God is is gracious as we'll see. So Adam and Eve when they broke that covenant of works, they were rendered unable themselves to actually fulfill it. They couldn't undo what they had done.

Steve Brown: Yeah. And they messed it up for us too, didn't they?

Pete Alwinson: Well, they did. You know if the rapture happens right now and you and I end up in heaven, let's find Adam quick.

Steve Brown: I'm okay. Yeah. And we'll give him a piece of our mind.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. Adam, what were you thinking? So so so even though the word covenant is not really found in those early passages

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: by the time we we move on in Genesis, we see we see the word surface again in in in at by the time of Noah.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: Uh but now uh but in actuality there's a hint that a that a covenant that is going to be gracious in its tone is going to come. And in Genesis 3 we see in the in what happened after Adam and Eve sinned, the curses.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: Do you remember that incredible passage in Genesis 3 where God speaks to to them? What do they say? I'm testing your biblical knowledge.

Steve Brown: Well, you in trouble. You screw this up.

Pete Alwinson: There you go. That's the new living translation of

Steve Brown: That's right.

Pete Alwinson: He says he he he he gives the curse to the to the to the man to to the snake first. On the belly you shall go the serpent.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: And then to the woman he says in pain I in to the I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. Yet your desire will be for your husband. He will rule over you. Then to Adam he says because you've listened to the voice of your wife, uh cursed is the ground. But but and you're going to work hard. But he does say something um

Steve Brown: That's hopeful.

Pete Alwinson: that is very very hopeful. Um I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He, the seed of the woman, shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: So we see that the the the protoevangelium, the first insight that God is going to do something gracious to redeem man. And almost all theologians talk about it being the covenant of grace in its uh un in its early stages. Another covenant's going to unpack. By the time we get to Abraham, but first we got to get to Noah.

Steve Brown: Oh man. We this this is going to be so good I can't tell you.

Pete Alwinson: But do remember in fact there's one covenant and it is a covenant of grace. It seems like when you look at history that God is moving uh especially biblical history toward you and forgiveness and mercy and the blood of Jesus Christ in the covenant. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew: Covenants can change your life. Thank you, Steve and Pete. That was Steve Brown and Pete Alwinson resuming our series on covenants. It's something we've been doing off and on all this year actually. Tomorrow we'll take a look at everybody's favorite ship builder. Yeah, you know him. You love him. It's Noah. Hope you'll join us. Hey, do you ever feel scared? Do you ever wish you could find peace and contentment? Yeah, of course. We all do. Well, Steve spoke about this in a sermon from Philippians 4 called how to be content, not in it. He teaches on what doesn't work and what does.

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