THE GOD OF YOUR DESCENDANTS AFTER YOU

Text: Gen 17:1-14
Readings: Gal 3:13-29
Heidelberg Catechism LD 27 Q 74
Theme: The Lord initiated a covenant relationship with Abraham and his descendants.
Purpose: To explain the covenant relationship God made with Abraham and to explain the implications for our children and us. 

Sometimes we have the privilege of seeing a baby baptised and a young person profess his faith in the same service. That doesn’t happen often, but they fit well together, because profession of faith is a response to the promises of baptism. When a young person professes his faith he accepts the promises God gave to him in his baptism.  
Both baptism and profession of faith are part of God’s covenant relationship with his people. Today we want to consider this covenant under three headings: its promise, its parties and its obligations.

1.THE PROMISE OF THE COVENANT. 
The word "covenant" occurs often in this passage and in the rest of the Bible. What does it mean? 

A covenant is a solemn agreement
In Old Testament times individuals made these covenant agreements with each other. Abraham made one with Abimelech, and Jacob with Laban.
Archaeologists have also discovered stones and documents that record agreements made between different peoples and nations. 

God made a covenant with Abraham. He did that when he called him out of the city of Ur (Gen 12), and then confirmed it sometime later in a dramatic ceremony (Gen 15) and then established it more formally with a sign in Genesis 17.

In it God made promises to Abraham: that he would be the father of many nations, that he would be fruitful; that kings would come from him; and he promised him the land of Canaan. 

But the most important promise was, “I will…be your God and the God of your descendants after you" (vs 7). God promised him a relationship. This is the most significant promise of the Bible. It was repeated again and again to the people of Israel; "I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people" (Lev 26:12). Through Jeremiah God promised Israel, "I will be their God and they will be my people" (Jer 31:33).

Our greatest desire as parents is that our children enter this relationship with God. We want them to know God as we know him, even better than we know him! 
That's why it gives us great joy to see a young person profess his faith - because he has confirmed that God is his God and that he is part of God's people, a son in God's family. 

The covenant promise is confirmed by a sign. 

Often promises are confirmed by signs. When two people marry they exchange rings as a sign and seal of the promises they made and as a reminder of their commitment to each other.

The Old Testament sign of the covenant was circumcision. It was given to all boys at the age of eight days old and females were included in the covenant under the males. 

The New Testament sign of the covenant is baptism. It has replaced circumcision and is given to all who are part of this arrangement, male and female, as it was given to Ezekiel this morning. 

God makes a promise to us - the promise of a relationship - and he confirms it with signs.  

2. THE PARTIES OF THE COVENANT. You need at least two people to form a relationship; so a covenant involves at least two parties. 

This covenant was initiated by God. Abraham did not make the first move. After all, he was a worshipper of idols. Before God came to him he did not know the Lord and did not worship him. 
But God, in his mercy, chose him. He elected him. "I will establish..." he said. After that God continued his election: he chose Isaac not Ishmael, Jacob not Esau.

God still does this today. He steps into your life. He speaks to you through his Word, through your parents, through your pastor, through the elders, through preaching, through Christian friends. 
He breaks through your defences and your barriers, through your indifference and your casual attitudes. He does this so that he can be your God and you can be his child. This is our prayer, for every one of you.

God chose Abraham and his descendants.
In our Western society we tend to think first of the individual - every man for himself, every man an island. 
But the Scriptures are written from a covenantal perspective, seeing people in families and communities.
God sees each individual but he also sees you in connection with your family - with those who have gone before you and those who will come after you. This is why God made this promise "to you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you." (vs 7). God's promise of salvation was passed down through family lines. Not only through families of course, because people can be saved from outside the lines of the covenant, but the covenant is one of the main instruments of God in saving his people.

This promise about Abraham's descendants was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The word "descendants" in Genesis 17:7 is literally the word "seed". Paul, in Galatians explains that this refers to "one person, who is Christ" (3:16). The Old Covenant pointed forward to the Lord Jesus; it focused on him. All of God's promises are achieved through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is the centre of the covenant arrangement. 

Through Jesus God's promises to Abraham are passed on to us in the New Covenant. 
Baptists disagree with this. They tend to draw a sharp line between the old and new covenant. But we maintain there is one covenant in two parts, or two phases - an old and a new. In both the same God makes the same promise and calls for the same response of faith and the same requirement of obedience. We are saved by the same Saviour, the Lord Jesus. This is why Paul, in Romans 4:11 describes us who believe as the children of Abraham; "...he is the father of all who believe". 

The covenant promise of God includes our children. This is why we baptise the children of believers.  
We need to be clear on the biblical basis for infant baptism and we need to be able to explain it and defend it. As God made the covenant with Abraham and his descendants so he makes it with us and our children. 
The New Testament repeats the promise given to Abraham when Peter told the Pentecost crowd that the promise was "for you and your children", and then extended it to the Gentiles, those who were "far off" (Acts 2:39).
This is also confirmed in the observation that the children of believers are holy, or set apart (1 Cor 7:14); and by the baptisms of households in the book of Acts. 

3.THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE COVENANT. 

Let's consider now some of the implications and applications of this. What does this mean for us as parents and children and young people and as members of the covenant community? 

We need to understand what we are not saying in the baptism of our children. 
We are not saying that all the children of the covenant are believers or that they will become believers.
We are not saying they are Christians or will become Christians.
We are not saying that these children are regenerated or born again. 
Baptism is not a guarantee of salvation; it is not an eternal insurance for heaven.

What it does mean is that the children of believers are part of the covenant. They have the promises of God; they are they are in a position set apart, they are holy (1 Cor 7:14).
They are "in God's covenant and are his people"; so they “should be received into the visible church and should be distinguished from the children of unbelievers”(HC Q 74); 

This has some implications for children and young people. 

If you have been baptised then you enjoy all the privileges that go along with this: a stable home, a Christian example, learning the Scriptures, being taught to pray, being part of the Christian community of the church, hearing God's word in worship. These are privileges to appreciate and value. 

But you also carry the responsibilities that go along with this: you must respond to God's promises; God calls you to believe in him through the Lord Jesus. The promises of the covenant are conditional on faith. 

God said to Abraham (17:1); “Walk before me…”
Literally it reads; “Walk before my face” or “before my eyes…” One of the favourite phrases of the Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper was Coram Deo, a Latin phrase that means, “Before the face of God”. This is how God wanted Abraham to live, and how he wants you and me to live. 
Do you live each day as though God were watching you? Are you aware that you are always in the presence of God? Do you live Coram Deo – before the face of God?

If you do then that will help you fulfill the other obligation of the covenant; “…and be blameless.”
God expects all of us to be blameless, perfect and holy. Genuine faith will produce works; true faith will express itself in obedience. 
If you are truly in a relationship with God through the Lord Jesus it will change your life. 

Children and young people, baptism is no guarantee of salvation. You can break God’s covenant by unbelief, indifference or disobedience. Rather you must believe in the Lord Jesus, live up to your part of the relationship, walk close to God, and be blameless. It is our prayer that each of you will do that and come to profess your faith in Jesus.

Just as covenant children have responsibilities so too do covenant parents.

Many of us here have stood before God and his people and made promises about our children. These are solemn promises and serious obligations.

Are you doing all in your power to instruct your children in the Christian faith?
Are you leading them by your example into a life of Christian discipleship?
 
In Genesis 18:19 we read God saying of Abraham; "For I have chosen him so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just..."
That is also our responsibility as parents.
Are you directing and training your children in the way they should go?
Are you teaching them to keep the way of the Lord?
Are you guiding them to do what is right and just?

And are you doing all this “in reliance on the Holy Spirit?” We cannot do this in our own strength. The regeneration, conversion and salvation of our children are not our work but is the work of the Holy Spirit. We must rely on him. We must pray that he will work in their hearts, minds and lives. 

And are you doing this “with the help of the Christian community?”
This is not a task to do on our own. We need all the resources of the church and the Christian school.
We need the worship of God’s people Sunday by Sunday, morning and afternoon. 
We need the help of Sunday school and catechism teachers, of cadet and calvinette counsellors, of the elders and deacons, of all our brothers and sisters in the church who will encourage our children, pray for them and help nurture them in their faith. 

Let’s do all we can to provide a loving, caring and united church community that will support and encourage all the members of church, including the children and youth. 

May we see many of our young people respond to their baptism with a clear and sincere profession of faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. 

Amen