COVENANTS
DR. JIM DIXON
1 CORINTHIANS 11:25
OCTOBER 15, 1995
The covenanters were people in Scotland who, in the year 1638, signed the National Covenant, a covenant wherein they pledged, they swore that they would defend Presbyterianism in Scotland. A covenant wherein the covenanters promised that they would resist King Charles I of England as he sought to impose Episcopalian polity and theology on Scotland. For fifty years, the covenanters were persecuted until they prevailed in what was called the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
This morning, if you’re a Christian, you are a covenantor. If you are a Christian, you are a covenantor. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Presbyterian or an Episcopalian. It doesn’t matter whether you are Baptist, Lutheran, or Methodist, or Catholic, or charismatic. If you are a Christian, you have entered into certain covenants. This morning I would like us to examine a few of the covenants, the most important covenants, that Christians enter. The first covenant is the covenant between the Christian and Jesus Christ. If you’re a Christian, you’ve entered into a covenant with Jesus Christ.
Now, in the winter of 1777 and 1778, George Washington and the Continental Army were in a lot of trouble. They were, of course, at Valley Forge that winter and there was a shortage of food. They were starving. There was a shortage of clothing and they were cold. They didn’t even have shoes for their feet. There was also a shortage of military provisions and so George Washington sent a message to the Governor of Pennsylvania. In that message, George Washington described their situation and he asked for help. But the problem was that the Continental Congress and the revolutionary movement was nearly broke. There was not enough money, not enough supplies to meet the need.
So, the Continental Congress approached a man, a man who lived not too far from Valley Forge, a man who was very wealthy, a man named Jacob DeHaven. In response, Jacob DeHaven gave $450,000 to the Continental Congress in the form of gold and supplies, $450,000. He gave it as a loan, expecting to be paid back. Of course, some of those supplies went to Valley Forge and some of the money was used for other purposes in the Revolutionary War. You know what happened. Most of the Continental Army survived that winter at Valley Forge. The Revolutionary War was successful for the colonies and that’s why the United States of America exists today.
But apparently Jacob DeHaven was never paid back. Today, the descendants of Jacob DeHaven want the United States government to pay them back. They have compounded the interest over 218 years and they claim that the United States government owes their family $141.6 billion. Of course, the United States government has said no. The United States government has questioned whether the debt really exists. There are some who believe that Jacob DeHaven was paid back in Continental dollars and that he had demanded gold and so he had refused the payback. In any event, our government has said the debt is too great. The debt is too great.
Now, the Bible tells us that the people of the world, the men and women of this world, are in a similar situation in that we all have a debt that is too great, too great to ever pay back. It is a debt that the Bible calls sins. We have this great debt of sin before a holy God and we can never pay back the debt. God knows that and God loves us. God loves us so much that He sent His Son into the world. Our Lord Jesus Christ loves us so much that He came to this world. In coming to this world, the Bible tells us, Christ lived a sinless life that He might provide the perfect sacrifice and then He went to Calvary’s cross and He paid the debt. He paid the debt of sin. He paid your debt. He paid my debt and that is why, from the cross, at the end He shouted “tetelestai”…“paid in full.” He paid the debt.
God’s message to the world through the gospel is this: if you will believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin and if you will receive Him as the Lord of your life, you will be saved. “You will become My children, My sons and daughters. You will become part of My kingdom. Your sin will be forgiven you and I will give you eternal life.” This is called, in the Bible, the new covenant. The new covenant, a covenant that God has made with the world.
Now, the normal Greek word for covenant is the word “synth?k?” and it referred to a covenant, the terms of which were mutually agreed upon by two or more parties, that they had negotiated the terms together. But there’s a special word in the Bible for the new covenant, the covenant that we have in Christ, and this special word is the Greek word “diath?k?.” It described a special kind of covenant, a covenant the terms of which were proclaimed by a person in authority. People under authority could accept those terms or reject them and pay the consequences but they could not change them. Diath?k? described a covenant, the terms of which were not mutually agreed upon or mutually negotiated. They were simply declared by a person in authority. They could be accepted or rejected, but they could not be changed or negotiated.
This word diath?k?, in the Septuagint, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it’s this word diath?k? that describes the old covenant between God and Israel. I mean God, in authority, made this covenant with Israel. He gave His law to Moses on Mt. Sinai and that law was etched in stone. He gave His law through the Pentateuch, through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, through the Torah. And God said to Israel, “If you will obey My law, if you will embrace My law, you will be My people and I will be your God and I will bless you.”
That was the old covenant between God and Israel and it was a diath?k? covenant. It could not be negotiated. It could not be changed. The Jews couldn’t come to God and say “Well, let’s talk about this. Maybe we need to change a few things. How about if we obey five of the ten commandments? Can we have half a blessing? Or maybe, you know, what if we don’t steal and we don’t kill, but we do commit adultery. Would that be okay?”
You can’t negotiate a diath?k? covenant. It’s simply proclaimed by the one who is in authority. You can accept it and receive the blessings. You can reject it and take the consequences. You cannot change it. You see, this is the word used to describe the new covenant in Christ too. It’s a diath?k? covenant. God has said to the world, “I have given My Son to pay the debt. I have given My Son and He has died on Calvary’s cross for your sin. If you would embrace Him as your Savior from sins and if you would receive Him as the Lord of your life, you will be My children, My sons and daughters. I will give you a place in My eternal kingdom. You will be washed whiter than snow and your sin will be forgiven you and I will give you eternal life.”
That’s the new covenant and you accepted that new covenant when first you became a Christian. When first you became a Christian, you pledged yourself to this covenant. You gave yourself to this covenant. You embraced it when first you said “Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Wash me whiter than snow. Thank you for dying for me. Come and be my Savior and come be my Lord. I want to live for you.” That’s when you embraced the covenant. When you were baptized, you publicly confessed before a host of witnesses that you embraced the covenant. Every time you take communion, every time you partake of the bread and the cup, you reaffirm your commitment to that covenant in His blood. Reaffirm your commitment.
This morning, as God would remind us that as Christians we are covenanters. God would call us to faithfulness to that covenant, reminding us that as Christians we have made a covenant with Christ. We have committed our lives to Him as Savior and as Lord.
There is a second covenant that I want us to look at this morning. The second covenant is a covenant between the Christian and the church. You see, Christians have not only entered into a covenant with Christ, but Christians have entered into a covenant with the church. The truth is this second covenant, this covenant between the Christian and the church is really part of the first covenant. I mean, you can’t embrace Christ without embracing the people of Christ and the church of Christ. Of course, when you were baptized, you were not only baptized unto Christ but you were baptized into His church. When you take communion, you are not only expressing your commitment to Christ, but when you take communion you are expressing your commitment to the body of Christ which is His church. That is why, in most Christian traditions, individuals are not allowed to take communion alone unless they’re shut-ins or sick because communion is meant to be corporate, where we come together as a church, committing ourselves anew to Christ and to each other in Christ.
So we have this covenant between the Christian and the church and of course, it has not been an easy time for the church. I think this covenant is threatened today, the covenant between the Christian and the church. Part of the fault certainly lies with the clergy. Part of the fault lies with the clergy.
Who can forget Jimmy Swaggart and the tears that just flowed down his face when he confessed his sexual transgressions and improprieties before his congregation and on television before the nation? Who can forget? And who can forget just a few weeks later how the authorities found him participating in the same sexual improprieties? Who can forget Jim and Tammy Baker, the ‘Ken and Barbie’ of Christendom? I mean who can forget them? Who can forget Jim Baker and the financial and sexual indiscretions that he participated in? Certainly, what Mark Fuhrman has been to police officers all over America, that’s what Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Baker were and have been to ministers all over America.
I was at a conference Friday of last week. It was over at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church. H.B. London of Focus on the Family was speaking to a conference of ministers, a conference of clergy. He quoted a statistic from the Fuller Institute of Church Growth. He said that according to this statistic, that 37% of the clergy, the ministers in America, will commit adultery before they are through with their ministry. I found that statistic hard to believe and I don’t believe it. And yet, I must acknowledge, there is no question that in this covenant between the Christian and the church, oftentimes the clergy has failed. Oftentimes the clergy has failed. Perhaps clergy should be less concerned with recruitment and more concerned with repentance.
Of course, there has been a consequence for the churches across this country. I was told at this conference last Friday that the church growth movement in America is dead. I was told that the church growth movement in America is dead. Of course, the mainline denominations ceased to grow 35 years ago. In the last 35 years, there has been no growth in mainline denominations. In fact, there has been an annual decrease in mainline denominational membership. But, you see, there has been this great growth of evangelical churches in America and it peaked, apparently, three years ago. In these last three years, even the evangelical churches in America have begun to shrink in membership. There are 375,000 churches in the United States. Did you know that? The average church having a membership of 93 people. According to Leadership Magazine and according to the Fuller Institute of Church Growth, 90 churches a week are shutting down. Ninety churches a week in the United States of America are shutting their doors and folding up. And this shutting down of churches is increasing almost exponentially so that it is said that by the turn of the century, by the end of this millennium just a few years away, 100,000 churches in the United States will have closed their doors. One hundred thousand churches in the United States will have shut down and 40% of the clergy will have quit their job. At least, those are the statistics that were given to me last Friday morning.
Of course, when we look at this covenant between the Christian and the church and we see the state of the church in the United States today, we have to also say that some of the problems lie with the laity, not just the clergy but with the laity, with the congregation’s and with the members. All the studies indicate that churchgoers today have acquired a consumer mentality. Most men and women who attend churches today have a consumer mentality. You know what that means.
When you go to King Soopers, you go with a consumer mentality. You don’t ask yourself “How can I help this store?” I mean, you don’t ask yourself “What can I do for King Soopers?” All you want to know is what King Soopers offers you and what it can do for you. It’s that way when you go to Safeway. it’s that way when you go to Albertson’s. That’s a consumer mentality and that’s how men and women are entering churches all over this nation, with a consumer mentality. That’s what all the studies are showing; that we’ve become a generation with a consumer mentality. We enter churches not asking what we can do for the church, but rather what the church can do for us.
The studies indicate that people come to church with high expectations and very low commitment. The studies indicate that most people, when they come to church, are only looking for two things. They’re looking for a safe haven for their kids, and they’re looking for a worship experience that feels good. A safe haven for their kids and a worship experience that helps them feel something or maybe experience a kind of spiritual high. That’s what most people are looking for, and no more…but it’s not true worship. It’s not true worship because the studies show that most people today are not looking for faithful, biblical teaching. They’re not looking for opportunities to volunteer themselves for Christian service. They’re not even looking for small groups in which they might connect with some other men and women in Christ. They’re just looking for a safe haven for their kids and some kind of worship experience that feels good. It’s a very shallow commitment.
The studies also show that 15 years ago, the top 20% of church attenders attended church 48 Sundays a year, and when they didn’t come they would find somebody to apologize to. Today, just 15 years later, the top 20% of church attenders only come to church 35 Sundays a year. You see, the commitment is waning and the volunteerism is down. Giving is down. Fifteen years ago, in mainline churches, the average person gave 4.2% of income to the church on an annual basis. Today, in mainline churches, it’s only 3.2%, a decrease of approximately 25% in giving. In evangelical churches 15 years ago, the average evangelical Christian gave 6.7% of income to the church. Today it’s down to 4.7% of income, a drop of almost 30% in giving to evangelical churches. So, you see, there is a shrinking commitment amongst the laity.
Certainly, what has been created in a lot of the megachurches in America today are congregations that are a mile wide and an inch deep, spiritually speaking. A mile wide and an inch deep. I don’t believe that’s true of this congregation. I mean, I really don’t. I think we have a core of deeply committed people. I think there are about a thousand people in this church, 1,000 people who enable this ministry. One thousand people who are sold out for Christ, who do most of the giving, who do most of the praying, who do most of the volunteering, who render most of the service in the ministry. One thousand people.
We want to invite those of you who are on the periphery, those of you who do not understand the covenant between the Christian and the church, to deepen your commitment and come into that core. The church is not perfect. It is not perfect, but it is still God’s chosen vessel in this age of the world. Jesus Christ said “I will build My church and the gates of hell, the powers of hell, will not prevail against it.” We have those words inscribed on our cornerstone as you enter the lobby of this church. This morning, Christ is asking you to consider the covenant between the Christian and the church and to deepen your commitment.
There’s a third covenant I wanted us to take a brief look at this morning and it is a covenant between husband and wife. Obviously, this is a covenant that not all Christians enter into, but it is a covenant that has special meaning for us as Christians. The covenant between the husband and the wife.
You know, this coming Wednesday, on October 18, it will be the 25th anniversary of the day that I first met my wife, Barb. I know that because October 18 is Barb’s birthday and that’s easy to remember. I met Barb at her birthday party 25 years ago. It was easy for me to fail in love with Barb. I fell in love with her in a very short period of time as we were dating. I knew very early in our dating that I loved her and I wanted to marry her. It was about that time, I hadn’t asked her yet, when Barb sent me a card. On the card was a poem. Years ago, I shared this poem with some of you. On the poem that Barb sent me, it had these words: “I am I and you are you. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations and you are not in this world to live up to mine. I do my thing. You do your thing…and if by chance we find each other, it is great. If not, it can’t be helped.” That’s the poem that Barb sent to me. It was a very popular poem back, you know, in the 80’s, well, in the 70’s. How long ago was that?
Anyway, I tend to approach things like that kind of rationally and I take them apart piecemeal and so that’s what I did with this poem. I looked at it, “I am I and you are you,” and I certainly couldn’t argue with that. Then it said “I do my thing and I am not in this world to live up to your expectations and you are not in this world to live up to mine” and I thought about that and I thought that was true too but it bothered me a little bit because it seemed a little detached and I didn’t want to be detached. “I do my thing and you do your thing.” That really bothered me because that seemed really detached. “If by chance we find each other, great, and if not, it can’t be helped.” That really bothered me because that seemed flippantly detached.
I showed the poem to my roommates, a couple of other guys at seminary with me. We pooled our ignorance. They said, “Dixon, I think you’re in a lot of trouble.” I called Barb and I said “What is this?” She just sent the poem to me because she thought it would, you know, kind of send the message that, you know, you don’t have to sweat it. I mean, just relax. This isn’t… I’m not pressuring you, is kind of what she had in mind as she sent the poem.
Of course, eventually Barb and I told each other that we loved each other and we were married 24 years ago. Then is when I was able to say the words that I really wanted to say to Barb and she was able to say those words to me. The words we said in that wedding ceremony when I said “I Jim, take you Barb to be my wedded wife and I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses to be your loving and faithful husband, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health as long as we both shall live.” You see, that’s the covenant of marriage.
I know this morning God would remind us of that covenant. We live in a nation where marriage is threatened and the covenant is being shattered. It is true.
I know that most of you have heard of Lloyd’s of London. Lloyd’s of London was established in 1688 as a marine underwriter company that insured ships and ships’ cargo. Through the years, Lloyd’s of London has broadened its scope and of course Lloyd’s of London insures almost everything. It was Lloyd’s of London who paid the claims on the Titanic when it went down. It was Lloyd’s of London that paid the claims on the Hindenburg when it went down, and it was Lloyd’s of London that paid many of the claims in 1906 in the great San Francisco earthquake. Through the years, Lloyd’s of London has insured everything from coffee shops to circus acts. Lloyd’s of London has insured space flights and everything from singers’ voices to dancers’ legs.
But, you see, there’s one thing that Lloyd’s of London can never insure, never will insure, and that’s your marriage. Lloyd’s of London just can’t insure marriage. You can’t insure that your marriage is going to be happy. You can’t insure that your marriage will last. You see, it takes a lot of work for a marriage to be happy and it takes a lot of commitment for a marriage to last. That’s what the covenant is all about. That’s what the covenant of marriage is all about. It’s all about commitment. It’s about hard work. It’s about the transformation and joy that will come through that commitment and through that hard work.
Some of you have been divorced and it’s not my desire to lay a guilt trip on you this morning. I mean we really, in Christ, want to take people where they are and we want to minister to people with the mercy of Jesus Christ. But, you see, if you’re married today, God’s message to you is clear. If you’re married, God wants you to take that covenant seriously. “Whom God hath joined together, let no one put asunder.” For this reason, the Bible says, “a man leaves his mother and father, cleaves unto his wife and the two become one flesh.” And so we have this message this morning from Christ to His people, that the covenant of marriage be honored.
There’s a final covenant, very briefly, I just want to mention this morning. It is the covenant between parents and children. I mean, as Christians we have a covenant with Christ. We have a covenant with the church. If we’re married, we have a covenant with our spouse. If we have children, we have a covenant with them.
Many of you have come forward in this church and you’ve offered your children for baptism. You’ve offered your children in dedication and you’ve responded to the questions in the presence of God and many witnesses. You have said that you promise to rear your children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the covenant which we make as Christian parents, that we would rear our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Perhaps some of you have heard of Spidermanning. Spidermanning is a new game, a tragic game, that some teenagers are playing today in some parts of the world and in some parts of our country. What these teenagers do is they take an elevator, and they rig the elevator door so that the elevator door is locked in the open position. They do this at a time of day in a high rise building where there’s hardly any people there. They do it at that time of day. Then they just run the elevator with its door rigged open. They run it up and down the building and they try to jump in when it comes to their floor, when it passes by. I mean, it takes extraordinary coordination and split-second timing. Of course, it’s very, very dangerous, and just recently in the city of Chicago one teenager lost his life as he mistimed it and his body was literally cut in two in the presence of his peers, a kind of Russian roulette. Isn’t it dumb? I mean, isn’t it tragically stupid to throw a life away? I mean, isn’t it tragically stupid for our kids to risk their lives like that?
And yet I tell you, there’s another kind of Russian roulette going on in our culture where kids’ lives are being risked, where kids’ lives are being destroyed. It’s a kind of Russian roulette that parents play when they don’t honor the covenant made to their children, when we’re not there for their financial needs, when we’re not there for their relational needs, when we’re not there for their moral and spiritual development, when we’re not there temporally because, you see, in terms of time, the average child in America today spends 3 hours a day in front of the television set and just a few minutes with mom and dad. I think many children in this country are being sacrificed on the altar of parental advancement and parents pursuing their own needs and their own fulfillment and ignoring the needs of kids.
Well, the world is fallen and we live in a world where covenants are easily broken. We live in a world where people will just break a covenant if it’s not convenient. We live in a world like that. But as Christians, we’re called to be covenanters. We’re people of the covenant. We’re not only called to be promise makers but promise keepers. We’re not to be promise breakers. So we’re told that we have this great covenant between the Christian and Christ, the covenant between the Christian and the church, the covenant between husband and wife, and the covenant between parent and child. This morning, as God’s people, Christ is asking us to deepen our commitment to these covenants. Let’s close with a word of prayer.