Dale Partridge - Covenant Home Part 1： Representation & Responsibility with Dale Partridge

00:00:00.000 Amen. Well, today is what I'm calling a legacy sermon, meaning that it's a sermon that,

00:00:11.120 Lord willing, our church will refer to for many years. I recently had a friend who has had a

00:00:17.920 growing church for the last 15 years, and he produced a handful of legacy sermons that are

00:00:23.580 required for new members as they go to really capture the culture of the church. And today's

00:00:32.580 sermon, it might even feel a little bit like a lecture, it's the Covenant Home, and we are going

00:00:40.320 to be talking about representation and responsibility. I expect that many of you, this will be a first

00:00:48.260 time that you've heard this perspective. Unfortunately, it's not taught often in

00:00:54.140 churches. The great plague of our generation is individualism. It is

00:01:02.500 creating a wake of destruction that is difficult to even comprehend. The loneliness, selfishness,

00:01:11.980 the detachment, the autonomy has left this generation starved for identity, history, heritage,

00:01:22.180 legacy, vision. We are so individualized that we see ourselves as disconnected rather than

00:01:30.600 part of something bigger than ourselves. Now, this disease has certainly infected

00:01:36.000 the church and the family. So husbands, in the context of marriage, often view their wives

00:01:44.620 as, you know, a partner in parallel rather than their covenant representative before God, which

00:01:53.220 we'll get to here in a minute. Wives often view their husbands as equals rather than having a

00:01:59.340 covenant head. Parents view their children, especially unmarried adult children, as individuals

00:02:09.140 rather than members of a covenant household. Children often view their parents as loving

00:02:16.820 guardians rather than covenant conveyors of blessings and curses. And so our departure from

00:02:27.280 this idea of covenantal framework has led us to embrace individualism. So at large, we have a

00:02:34.900 church that is very individualistic. In fact, we're so individualistic, we don't even know it. It's

00:02:39.600 like a fish that doesn't know it's wet. It's the air we breathe is individualistic. And this causes

00:02:45.680 a major problem because when you're hooked on individualism, it makes it incredibly difficult

00:02:51.240 to return back to biblically structured relationships.

00:02:56.320 It's like eating candy and coming back to a healthy diet.

00:03:00.080 We are so stuck and gorged on individualistic, autonomous, spirit of independent type relationships

00:03:08.280 and perspective that having any sort of structure or hierarchy or covenant or submission or

00:03:15.100 subordination or leadership, any of that is almost offensive to our flesh.

00:03:21.240 But returning to covenantal thinking, returning to what the scripture says about relationship,

00:03:29.940 it's always good for you. It's always good for you to return back to scripture.

00:03:35.600 The truth is we need to look at the scriptures and say, what does the Bible say for our home,

00:03:42.780 for our marriage, for our future marriage? Now, in the same way that we cannot talk about

00:03:51.000 a gospel-centered home without talking about first the gospel. We can't talk about the covenant

00:03:58.300 household without first defining covenant. So what is a covenant? That's an important question.

00:04:05.040 What is a covenant? My friend Toby Sumter, he once said, covenant is the name of the relationship

00:04:11.960 God has chosen to have with his people.

00:04:18.440 That is, the relationship that you have with God is covenantal.

00:04:24.380 Unfortunately, many of you don't understand what that means.

00:04:29.060 But scripture also says that the relationship between husbands and wives

00:04:32.800 is also covenantal.

00:04:36.580 Malachi 2, 14 through 15 says,

00:04:38.400 Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless,

00:04:43.780 though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

00:04:48.400 You are in covenant if you are married.

00:04:51.340 So according to scripture, the Christian life is multi-covenantal.

00:04:54.920 There are greater and lesser versions of the covenant.

00:04:57.740 There is the covenant of grace, which is a greater expression of the covenant.

00:05:01.340 And then there are lesser covenants like the covenant of marriage and the covenant of the family.

00:05:06.420 Not that they're less important, but they are certainly different.

00:05:10.840 Now, I have found it easier to understand covenant by comparing it to the concept of a contract.

00:05:16.280 I think in America, we understand contracts.

00:05:18.820 A contract is a legal agreement with terms.

00:05:23.000 It's almost always temporary.

00:05:25.260 It's morally indifferent.

00:05:27.580 A contract is morally indifferent.

00:05:29.820 You can break the contract terms and as long as they're broken according to the

00:05:35.700 terms, there is no sin involved. You know, say, you know, you have a lease at your

00:05:40.740 apartment, you're in a contract, you get a new job in another town, or you want to

00:05:48.000 shift to a place that has a better rent, you contact the landlord and you

00:05:54.000 say, I'd like to pay the last six months of my lease so that I can get out. There's

00:05:57.900 nothing wrong with that. They have fulfilled the agreement. There is no sin involved. A covenant

00:06:04.980 is also an agreement, but it's sovereignly and morally administered. And instead of having

00:06:12.840 covenant terms, it has attendant blessings and curses. If you keep the covenant conditions,

00:06:19.880 then you will be blessed. If you break the covenant conditions, you will be cursed. This

00:06:25.320 is the structure of covenants. In addition, a covenant is not made to be broken, ever.

00:06:31.820 It's not made to be broken. It's made to be fulfilled. And there's some distinctions there.

00:06:38.320 If the covenant does break, it's grievously sinful. So if you're married and you go,

00:06:47.180 well, I just don't like him anymore. And you know what? I don't really like her anymore.

00:06:53.440 You can't just break the covenant without engaging in sin,

00:06:57.960 because the covenant is actually greater than the sum total of the parts or members within it.

00:07:05.080 The covenant is a moral agreement before the Lord.

00:07:10.780 And so, as you witnessed in that passage I read in Malachi,

00:07:15.920 because the Lord was witness between you and your wife.

00:07:19.600 And so you can't break that covenant in the same way that you can break an agreement.

00:07:26.300 A covenant has a moral weight that is not experienced in a typical contract.

00:07:33.580 Now, unlike a contract that is actuated by signatures, a covenant is enacted by signs, seals, and ceremonies.

00:07:46.320 Again, the wedding ceremony is an easy example.

00:07:49.600 when we see this structure of signs and seals, you can realize that we're a covenant people with

00:07:58.080 the Lord and why we take the Lord's Supper and why we do baptism. You can understand that what

00:08:04.560 we're doing in these is covenant renewal. We know that baptism is covenant entrance. You want to

00:08:10.820 come into the people of God? You want to come into that covenant? You come in by baptism.

00:08:15.340 That's a sign.

00:08:16.580 You want to have covenant renewal.

00:08:19.140 The Lord's table is covenant renewal.

00:08:22.000 It is reaffirming.

00:08:24.380 In marriage, you want to come into marriage. 0.84

00:08:28.280 Well, that is a ceremony.

00:08:30.220 And you want to have a sustaining of that marriage.

00:08:35.460 Intimacy within a marriage is covenant renewal.

00:08:38.180 And so those are signs and seals or sacramental elements of covenantal theology.

00:08:45.920 And so we see this exact structure in the Garden of Eden, and this is important.

00:08:52.380 God enters into covenant with Adam.

00:08:54.740 Now, Adam is the covenant head of humanity.

00:08:58.680 If Adam keeps God's commandments, God promises a few blessings.

00:09:04.160 And so the commandments he gives are to be fruitful and multiply, to take

00:09:10.340 dominion over the earth, to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and

00:09:15.740 evil. Those are the commands that we see given to Adam. And if Adam keeps these

00:09:24.500 commandments, God will bless Adam and all humanity with eternal life. But if Adam

00:09:30.800 disobeys the covenant conditions of obedience, God will curse him and all humanity with eternal

00:09:37.500 death. The sign or seal in the Garden of Eden, if you look at that whole context, again,

00:09:45.760 there's no particular word covenant used in Genesis chapter 1 through 3, but if you look

00:09:49.860 to Hosea 6 verse 7, it talks about Adam in covenant with God. So later the prophets reaffirmed

00:09:56.940 that what did occur there in Genesis 1 through 3 is what's called the covenant of works.

00:10:02.540 But the sign or seal in the Garden of Eden, or the sacrament of the covenant, is the tree of life.

00:10:10.540 When they were in the garden, if they wanted to renew that covenant, they would eat of the tree

00:10:15.180 of life. And Adam and Eve were permitted to eat of that tree until when? Well, until they sinned.

00:10:21.480 And the whole purpose of removing them from the garden was that they might not have access to

00:10:26.920 the tree of life again. And so you start to see this covenantal structure in chapters 1 through

00:10:33.800 3 of the book of Genesis. Now, once we understand the basic structure of covenant, we need to

00:10:41.440 understand covenant headship. This is getting to the core of what we're going to be talking about

00:10:46.640 today. Covenant headship is best understood in the concept of federalism or representative

00:10:52.680 government. In fact, the Latin word foitas is where we get our English word federalism. And

00:11:01.080 the Latin word foitas means covenant. And so this is certainly a connected reality. So we were at

00:11:09.760 our men's meeting, we were talking about this on Thursday. When our country goes to war with a 0.97

00:11:15.140 particular country, you go to war with a particular country. And that's true because we have a 0.88

00:11:20.740 representative government. When our representatives vote to pass laws, each citizen is bound by the

00:11:26.920 laws enacted by their representatives. That's a basic understanding of representative government.

00:11:33.140 Whether you like it or not, that's the truth of the matter. When God establishes a covenant with

00:11:38.360 a particular person, that covenant extends to everyone that person represents. Okay, I'm going

00:11:47.120 explain this. God did not make a covenant with Adam alone. He didn't make a covenant with Adam

00:11:53.760 alone. He made a covenant with mankind through Adam as the covenant head or representative of

00:12:00.460 humanity. We know this. This is very important for your theology. Please pay attention. In fact,

00:12:06.820 the word Adam actually means mankind. You could translate it easily to humanity.

00:12:12.160 And so when Adam disobeyed as the covenant head of humanity, he represented you as a human before

00:12:20.980 God. He was your representative before God. God made a covenant with humanity through Adam. And

00:12:27.960 when Adam sinned, you sinned with Adam. This is important. This is important because it teaches

00:12:34.880 us how Adam's sin affects the whole world. Many ask, how could I be guilty of Adam's sin

00:12:45.700 if I wasn't in the garden to commit that sin that Adam committed? So imagine a seed

00:12:52.560 to a great redwood tree. Imagine that seed is Adam and that all that will come from that seed

00:13:02.060 will reflect the likeness and covenant status of that seed. Does that make sense?

00:13:10.620 When that seed is planted, the nature of that seed will be reflected in the trunk,

00:13:19.420 in every branch, in every twig, in every leaf, because it stemmed from that seed.

00:13:26.180 So when Adam, as the covenant head, breaks the covenant, the curse is not just on Adam.

00:13:37.040 But the entire tree that comes from him, including all of its branches, leaves, and fruit,

00:13:43.940 receive or experience the curse that was given to the seed.

00:13:48.740 Does that make sense?

00:13:50.960 Romans 5, 12 through 14 teaches this exact thing.

00:13:55.800 It says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man.

00:14:02.620 Sin came into the world through one man.

00:14:04.840 And death through sin.

00:14:07.140 What was the consequence of disobeying the covenant of works for Adam? 0.51

00:14:10.960 That you will surely die.

00:14:13.700 And death through sin. 0.99

00:14:15.220 And check this out.

00:14:15.860 It says, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

00:14:21.360 and if you look in the Greek, it would be implying all sinned in Adam.

00:14:26.720 We all sinned in Adam.

00:14:28.860 We are from that same seed.

00:14:32.560 Genetically speaking, you were there.

00:14:36.040 Because all humanity has come from Adam and Eve.

00:14:38.440 When Adam sinned, you were genetically there, sinning with him.

00:14:44.460 And so all of his progeny, all of his descendants,

00:14:49.500 the curse was not just to Adam.

00:14:51.360 And we know this.

00:14:53.240 We don't get a restart with Seth.

00:14:56.380 We didn't get a restart with Cain and Abel.

00:14:58.900 We don't get a restart.

00:14:59.880 No, it's that they were made in the likeness and nature of Adam.

00:15:04.740 That's Genesis 5, verse 3.

00:15:09.700 That Adam created a child in his image, in his likeness.

00:15:18.400 Back to Romans real quick, chapter 5, verse 14.

00:15:20.860 it says, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the

00:15:26.420 transgression of Adam. Catch this. It's saying that just as sin came into the world through one man

00:15:34.660 and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all had sinned, yet death reigned

00:15:38.360 from Adam to Moses, even though there wasn't a law at that point, at least written on stone,

00:15:44.080 even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam. People are still dying.

00:15:49.200 they're still receiving the covenantal curse of Adam's covenant in the garden,

00:15:55.900 even though they did not sin in the same likeness as Adam.

00:16:01.540 So again, when Adam became sinful, the humanity that he represented became sinful,

00:16:09.420 resulting in everyone born of Adam being subject to what?

00:16:14.620 Well, the covenant curse, physical death and spiritual death.

00:16:18.900 Why are babies who have never committed a sin in their entire life die and are not resurrected?

00:16:29.520 Because if they had no sin, the wages of sin is death.

00:16:35.240 Why was Jesus resurrected?

00:16:36.740 Because he was the only one without sin who ever died.

00:16:39.840 Jesus had to be resurrected because he was not born of the seed of Adam.

00:16:44.100 He was born of the seed of the Holy Spirit, born without sin, not of that seed, but of a new seed.

00:16:52.320 And when Jesus died, he died and he had no sin. Therefore, he was able to be righteously

00:16:56.780 vindicated and resurrected. But an infant who never commits any act of sin still dies and is

00:17:03.820 not resurrected. And that is just. Well, because why? Because his representative imputed the sin

00:17:12.360 of Adam to that child. Now, does that mean that that child goes to hell? The Bible does not answer

00:17:18.000 that. Unfortunately, the Bible does not answer that. There are many great arguments about what

00:17:24.040 happens to that child, and we don't have time to get into that reality in this sermon. But you need

00:17:31.500 to understand that reality, biology, theology, all support the reality that when Adam sinned,

00:17:41.220 you sinned with him. This is called the doctrine of original sin. You are born a sinner. We don't

00:17:47.120 sin because we learned how to sin. No, we sin because we're born as sinners. It's a result.

00:17:54.500 go try to find a child that doesn't sin by the age of six months old. You don't need to teach

00:18:02.340 them how to sin. They'll bite you. They'll disobey you. They'll want them all of their own. They'll

00:18:07.840 be selfish. This is the natural reality of those who are born of Adam and why we must be reborn 1.00

00:18:15.860 in Christ. And this is why all of this is so significant in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15.

00:18:24.500 it's called the Protoevangelium. It's the first good news. It doesn't just promise a serpent 0.81

00:18:32.140 crusher, but it promises a new covenant and a new covenant head, a new representative,

00:18:41.020 a second Adam is what the Bible calls Jesus. Not from the seed of fallen Adam,

00:18:46.500 but from the seed of the Holy Spirit, which is why the virgin birth is so dependent. 0.73

00:18:52.040 Think about if Jesus was born of Joseph, then Jesus would be born with original sin

00:19:00.700 and would not be able to pay for your sins as a substitute because he would have to die for his 0.62

00:19:07.600 own sin. But because he is without sin, born not of the seed of Adam, but born of the seed of the

00:19:14.420 Holy Spirit. He is a second Adam, a new humanity. He can be a substitute taking on your sin,

00:19:23.540 my sin, dying in your place and in my place.

00:19:29.560 Hebrews 9.15 says, therefore, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant,

00:19:34.180 so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

00:19:38.120 Now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

00:19:46.580 Jesus came to fulfill the curse of the first covenant for humanity.

00:19:55.660 Galatians 3.13 says,

00:19:57.960 Christ redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse for us.

00:20:03.140 Romans 8.19, 5.18-19 says,

00:20:06.040 Therefore, as one trespass, please, if you don't catch this, you'll miss a lot.

00:20:15.920 Romans 5, 18 through 19.

00:20:18.180 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men.

00:20:24.360 That's Adam.

00:20:26.080 So one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

00:20:31.500 For as by the one man, Adam's disobedient, many were made sinners.

00:20:39.560 So by one man's obedience, Christ, many will be made righteous.

00:20:45.500 Representative, covenantal headship.

00:20:49.680 And the main points that I want to emphasize are representation and responsibility.

00:20:55.320 As a covenant head, Adam acted as the representative of humanity and bore responsibility for the

00:21:04.900 covenantal status of not only himself, but of every person that came from him.

00:21:11.600 But then we have Christ, the second Adam, who comes in as a new covenant head, and he

00:21:20.680 does what the first Adam failed to do.

00:21:23.820 He does what the first Adam failed to do.

00:21:27.200 Not only does he perfectly obey the covenant conditions, we know this,

00:21:32.760 but he also pays the price of the covenant curse for those from the first Adam. 0.72

00:21:40.800 So when Christ obeyed, you obeyed. 0.79

00:21:44.680 When Christ died, you died.

00:21:47.300 When Christ resurrected, it guarantees your resurrection.

00:21:52.880 Doug Wilson said it this way, quote, Jesus didn't just die that you might live. He died that you

00:22:00.740 might die. He was buried that you might be buried. He was resurrected that you might be resurrected,

00:22:06.460 end quote. We need a new representative. We need someone to take responsibility for our sin.

00:22:19.040 This is what Christ does. Ultimately, Christ came to represent and take responsibility

00:22:25.300 for his bride as her new covenant head. So I want to talk about representation and

00:22:33.500 responsibility for a minute. This is a critical point for husbands to understand

00:22:39.460 as covenant heads of their home. Two passages of scripture come to mind.

00:22:45.840 1 Corinthians 11, verse 3 says,

00:22:50.380 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ.

00:22:55.280 The head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

00:23:00.380 So in the similar way that Christ represents his bride, the church, before God, 0.92

00:23:07.320 a husband represents, to some extent, his wife before Christ.

00:23:12.240 Men who are married in here, you represent your wife and family in a similar way that

00:23:23.340 Christ represents the church before God.

00:23:27.700 Now remember, when Adam and Eve sinned, God did not call them both for judgment. 0.86

00:23:34.600 God calls Adam.

00:23:36.720 Why did he call Adam?

00:23:38.120 Because Adam was the representative and head of Eve.

00:23:40.640 Eve. When did God give the instructions for morality in the garden? He gave them to Adam, 0.67

00:23:48.860 not to Eve, because Adam is the covenant head over Eve. Now, this doesn't imply that wives don't have

00:23:57.560 a direct accountability with Christ. They do. It simply means that covenantally,

00:24:02.240 a wife's condition is the husband's responsibility. A wife's condition is the husband's 0.99

00:24:11.180 responsibility. We see this perfectly in Christ. Christ isn't guilty of his wife's sin, 1.00

00:24:19.240 but he assumes responsibility for her sin on the cross. It's a very important distinction about

00:24:25.520 he's not taking on, he's not guilty for her sins. He's not guilty for my sin, but he assumes

00:24:32.220 responsibility of the church's sins. Now, this is a very important distinction because if you get

00:24:40.160 into a counseling session with somebody and you have a couple there, you might struggle to get

00:24:46.300 the husband to take responsibility for his own sin, let alone take responsibility for his wife's sin.

00:24:52.960 But then we have Ephesians that we just read earlier. I'm going to read part of it again.

00:24:56.060 Ephesians 5, 27. It says,

00:25:00.060 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

00:25:06.560 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

00:25:11.800 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,

00:25:18.500 that she might be holy and without blemish.

00:25:21.980 Is she holy and without blemish because she's holy and without blemish?

00:25:26.060 Or is she made holy and without blemish because of her representative who is holy and without blemish?

00:25:34.920 He is the one that is holy and without blemish.

00:25:38.760 And he imputes his holiness, his righteousness, his goodness to us.

00:25:46.100 And so what husbands need to see is that the way that Christ loved the church

00:25:50.860 was by assuming responsibility for her condition.

00:25:56.060 and out of love brought her out of a condition of filth and into a condition of holiness and beauty.

00:26:06.340 He loved her as a representative before God.

00:26:11.400 That is the covenantal context of what you need to know about who Christ is

00:26:16.500 and how he relates with his wife so that we can love our wives as Christ loved the church.

00:26:24.620 You can't love your wife as Christ loved the church if you don't understand how Christ loved the church.

00:26:31.320 So headship does not mean that the husband is the boss of the home.

00:26:36.640 It means that he is the representative of the home.

00:26:40.560 You are the representative of the home.

00:26:44.080 He is responsible for the state of the home. 0.56

00:26:47.640 now this is a problem because again men have been denying responsibility for their own sin

00:26:56.480 since Adam in the garden Genesis 3 12 God confronts Adam and says and Adam says the

00:27:05.340 woman whom you gave to me the woman whom you gave to be with me she gave the fruit of the tree and

00:27:10.680 8. It's already a blame fest right there in the first couple chapters of the Bible. Now, this is

00:27:19.020 an incredibly contrasted reality to the second Adam. The first Adam denies responsibility for

00:27:28.680 his wife's sin. The second Adam assumes responsibility for his wife's sin.

00:27:33.860 core distinction. Now in a culture when men don't want to take on the responsibility of their own

00:27:43.280 sin, it becomes extremely difficult to get them to take on the responsibility for their wife's sin

00:27:50.360 or their children's sin. But the struggle is because they don't understand covenantal framework

00:27:57.480 for the family. The Christ-like response is not to look at your wife and children and be like,

00:28:02.760 yeah, you know what? They are kind of a mess. My wife is irritable all the time. My children are

00:28:06.360 disobedient. Okay, the Christ-like response to something when you're looking at the tragedy of

00:28:14.440 your current state of your family is to say, Lord, forgive me for the irritability that my wife has

00:28:19.560 and the disobedient and frustrating fighting that's occurring between my children. Forgive

00:28:26.100 me, Father. Give me the wisdom to shepherd my family out of this state of disobedience and

00:28:31.700 into a state of holiness and righteousness. It's taking on the responsibility.

00:28:39.560 When a man assumes responsibility, it does two things. Number one, it sanctifies his wife and 0.56

00:28:48.800 children. It makes his home holy in the same way that Christ, when he takes on responsibility for

00:28:55.720 his wife makes her holy. Number two, it gives him authority in the home. It gives him authority in

00:29:05.280 the home. Doug Wilson once said, authority flows to those who take responsibility. Authority flows

00:29:14.860 to those who take responsibility. If a man wants authority in his home, he must shoulder 0.83

00:29:22.560 responsibility for the state of the people in the home. That's central. When a wife sees her

00:29:32.480 husband lovingly assume the condition of her soul and her heart and her sin, 0.94

00:29:41.140 and then the husband takes responsibility for the state of their children,

00:29:45.720 for the things that are good, for the things that are bad, for the things that might be

00:29:49.720 embarrassing, she will honor him for that. When she sees him repenting and praying and pleading

00:29:58.900 for the family and instructing her and the children in Christ's likeness, she will respect him.

00:30:11.040 In the same way that Christ makes his people holy,

00:30:14.640 a godly husband and father makes his people

00:30:19.460 holy. That is how we model

00:30:23.340 Christ-like covenantal thinking

00:30:26.180 in our homes. Now, you can't replicate 0.74

00:30:31.560 what Christ did, but you can emulate what Christ

00:30:35.540 did. That's what we're called to do.

00:30:39.320 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. We're called to

00:30:43.100 imitate, not duplicate. We are in a lesser covenant, but we are to mimic that reality.

00:30:54.240 On the other hand, if a man doesn't have authority in his home,

00:30:57.820 it's likely because he has a record of not taking responsibility.

00:31:03.860 He's checked out or abdicating the spiritual and moral duties of his family.

00:31:10.520 Many men take responsibility for the financial provision of the home, and that's commendable

00:31:15.720 to be a provider and to be a protector of the home. But as a covenant head, God requires men 0.75

00:31:23.140 to take responsibility for the entirety of the state of the home, the state of the finances,

00:31:31.580 which church you go to, the state of the spiritual realities of the home,

00:31:40.160 the state of the order, the state of the marriage, the state of the young children,

00:31:44.640 the state of the adult children.

00:31:48.200 In Job 1, 4 through 5, we see Job take responsibility for his grown children.

00:31:58.680 It says,

00:32:00.080 His sons used to go up and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day.

00:32:05.360 And they would send an invite to their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

00:32:09.440 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them.

00:32:15.700 And he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.

00:32:21.420 For Job said,

00:32:22.540 It may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.

00:32:28.000 Thus, Job did this continually.

00:32:32.060 He is a man who takes responsibility for the spiritual state of his home.

00:32:41.100 He is a patriarch, a father ruling representative for his family.

00:32:47.780 He is a man who not only comprehends covenant representation, but also covenant imputation.

00:32:56.540 That is, in some degree, Job's actions are applied to his children, in some degree.

00:33:01.340 I haven't done a full exegetical reality on this, but at some degree, Job is making sacrifices

00:33:07.040 for his children. And any of you who are a decent parent have prayed for your child.

00:33:13.820 you've gotten down on your hands and knees asking the Lord. The key thing is, are you thinking about

00:33:20.540 them as individuals? Or are you thinking of them as part of your covenant home? Are you asking

00:33:28.060 for the forgiveness of their sins? Are you asking for repentance for your own neglect

00:33:35.240 of representation for their state.

00:33:40.640 Now, imputation shouldn't shock us, right?

00:33:43.120 We see imputation in the greater covenants,

00:33:45.200 in the new covenant, in the covenant of works.

00:33:47.200 We see imputation.

00:33:48.620 When Adam sinned, we sinned.

00:33:50.540 When Christ obeyed, we obeyed.

00:33:55.560 Again, I'm not saying there's a one-to-one issue

00:33:57.460 or comparison there between the covenant of grace

00:34:00.340 and the covenant household,

00:34:01.160 but we are called to mimic these covenant structures.

00:34:05.240 but in some sense, the disobedience and shame

00:34:09.040 or the righteousness and honor of a family's covenant head

00:34:14.820 will be imputed to his family.

00:34:19.460 Pay attention to this.

00:34:21.040 It's the same with our bodies, right?

00:34:22.320 If you walk and you hit your physical head on the garage door,

00:34:27.440 your whole body suffers with it.

00:34:31.520 It's not like, oh, just my head hurts

00:34:33.080 and the whole rest of my body doesn't care.

00:34:35.240 No, you're one unit.

00:34:37.820 There's no isolating injury or honor from your one body.

00:34:44.720 We rise and fall together.

00:34:48.540 And what I'm really trying to get at is husbands and fathers need to stop thinking me and start thinking we.

00:34:57.760 This is the shift.

00:34:59.340 Christ does not think me.

00:35:01.580 Christ thinks we.

00:35:02.560 They need to stop thinking individually and start thinking covenantally.

00:35:10.540 When a covenant head does something disobedient, he does bring, in some degree, dishonor and shame to his home.

00:35:19.340 When he does something righteous, he brings, in some degree, honor and purity to his home.

00:35:27.020 A Christ-like covenant head begins to see how his behavior is the representative standard

00:35:38.240 of the home.

00:35:40.400 And so if he's angry, he's really given his children covenantal permission to be angry.

00:35:47.680 If he's looking at porn, he's giving his children covenantal permission to look at porn.

00:35:51.640 I actually think this is a spiritual reality.

00:35:53.480 I think if the demons can say, I can tempt that man with this sin and he falls, then

00:35:59.020 I'll tempt that child with that sin and watch him fall.

00:36:04.740 So husbands need to see themselves not so much as the boss, but again, as the representative

00:36:10.940 of the family.

00:36:14.000 In a real sense, he has to see that I'm an angry person really means we're angry people.

00:36:23.480 And I dodge responsibility is really we dodge responsibility.

00:36:33.360 You've heard the whole phrase, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

00:36:37.920 Someone was thinking covenantally.

00:36:42.120 Covenant heads affirm or deny what is appropriate for the household.

00:36:48.680 Parents do this. 1.00

00:36:50.480 Grandparents do this.

00:36:51.440 great-grandparents do this. 0.99

00:36:56.340 Yes, a good representative will be viewed as the boss.

00:37:05.580 But their authority is not because they're male.

00:37:09.420 Their authority is because they took joyful responsibility

00:37:13.640 for the state of their home.

00:37:16.060 And everybody saw it.

00:37:19.560 It's earned authority.

00:37:21.920 It's earned authority. 1.00

00:37:26.040 So if you have a marriage that's backwards,

00:37:29.360 that feels upside down or at least egalitarian,

00:37:34.080 but there is no true covenant head representative,

00:37:38.060 it needs to be fixed.

00:37:41.040 It's not good for you to operate outside of God's design for covenantal thinking.

00:37:46.280 All of us, me included

00:37:51.480 I had to pray in repentance while I wrote this sermon

00:37:55.560 We all fall short

00:38:00.020 At being a Christ-like representative

00:38:02.700 But what will make this church incredibly strong

00:38:07.840 Is households 0.99

00:38:10.840 Where men take responsibility 0.73

00:38:13.800 and representation for their homes. 0.64

00:38:18.080 Jesus Christ is the ultimate patriarch.

00:38:24.960 He has complete authority

00:38:28.200 because he took complete responsibility.

00:38:32.580 He expressed his love by sacrificial representation.

00:38:38.240 One pastor said,

00:38:40.440 there is no authority in the Christian home

00:38:42.180 without a man dying. 0.96

00:38:43.800 Taking responsibility and instructing in righteousness.

00:38:48.340 If you want to be like Christ, that's what you do.

00:38:53.840 So where do you begin?

00:38:55.760 Where do the men begin?

00:38:59.600 It starts with repentance.

00:39:02.420 It starts with getting out by yourself and going,

00:39:06.580 Lord, look at the state of my home.

00:39:12.120 Look at the state of my kids. 1.00

00:39:13.800 Look at the state of my wife.

00:39:16.640 Look at the state of my grandkids.

00:39:21.240 Yes, when your kids get married, they start a new covenant.

00:39:25.500 But there is, again, some sort of mimicking that goes along there.

00:39:31.980 And repent for your past sins.

00:39:34.780 Not just for your past sins, but the past sins of your wife and children.

00:39:40.340 Take responsibility for them.

00:39:42.680 You are the model.

00:39:43.800 you were the representative, you were the leader, everybody was following you.

00:39:51.260 So when the apple's rotten, don't say that my roots weren't.

00:39:56.460 No, when the apple's rotten, it's because the roots were rotten.

00:39:59.940 Repent of it.

00:40:02.840 Then, imitate Christ by assuming responsibility of all future sin,

00:40:10.380 of all future need for sanctification in the home.

00:40:18.080 Take ownership of applying the word of God

00:40:22.320 to your wife and children,

00:40:25.480 sanctifying them with the word.

00:40:28.180 And then lastly,

00:40:29.060 as you walk,

00:40:33.660 impute honor and purity to your family

00:40:37.320 by living as a righteous and glorious covenantal head.

00:40:44.140 Amen?

00:40:45.000 Amen.

00:40:45.560 Let me pray.

00:40:47.540 Father, we thank you, Lord, for giving us a model for the family.

00:40:51.700 Lord, that we don't have to invent a model.

00:40:56.780 That we're not left guessing how to do this right.

00:41:00.200 Lord I ask that these

00:41:03.940 truths today would sink

00:41:06.240 in to our minds

00:41:08.240 and hearts over the coming

00:41:10.200 weeks

00:41:10.620 that they would be deeply

00:41:13.700 convicting

00:41:15.260 and altering

00:41:17.500 that we would have men

00:41:19.800 that have authority in this church

00:41:22.180 because they are men who take responsibility

00:41:24.580 lovingly

00:41:25.800 joyfully

00:41:26.780 sacrificially over their homes

00:41:31.180 Father, we pray for a blessing on that.

00:41:32.800 In Jesus' name, amen.

00:41:35.520 Amen.

Dale Partridge - April 18, 2024

Covenant Home Part 1： Representation & Responsibility with Dale Partridge

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