Covenant with God, Now and Forever [Family Worship lesson in Deuteronomy 29:2–21]

How can we be blessed in covenant with God? Deuteronomy 29:2–21 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that branches of the church are blessed by God, when they walk with Him, but that for anyone to walk with God and be blessed forever, he needs God to give him new life and union with Christ through faith. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) Summary of the transcript of the audio: This devotional unfolds the covenantal relationship between YHWH and Israel as a people, emphasizing God’s faithfulness in delivering, sustaining, and conquering on their behalf, thereby establishing their identity as a holy, distinct people. It underscores that the covenant includes all generations—leaders to servants, present and future—binding them collectively to God’s oath, with the promise of divine establishment as His people and His personal presence among them. The central warning is that covenantal membership without spiritual regeneration leads to condemnation, as the failure to perceive, see, and hear God’s truth results in idolatry, self-reliance, and suffering the burning of God's wrath for ever. But those whom God gives life, to be united to Christ by faith, truly prosper in all they do and inherit eternal blessings.

2026.02.04 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 29:2–21

Read Deuteronomy 29:2–21

Questions from the Scripture text: Who called whom (Deuteronomy 29:2)? What had they seen (Deuteronomy 29:2-3)? But what had YHWH not given them (Deuteronomy 29:4)? What has YHWH done (Deuteronomy 29:5)? What hasn’t happened? And why haven’t they had bread or wine (Deuteronomy 29:6)? Whom did they conquer (Deuteronomy 29:7)? What did they do with their land (Deuteronomy 29:8)? Now, what must they do (Deuteronomy 29:9)? Before whom are they standing (Deuteronomy 29:10)? Who are standing (Deuteronomy 29:11)? To do what (Deuteronomy 29:12)? So that God may do what (Deuteronomy 29:13)? And be what to them? In accordance with what? What is YHWH cutting with them (Deuteronomy 29:14)? And with whom else (Deuteronomy 29:15)? What had they seen in Egypt (Deuteronomy 29:16-17)? Now what must there not be among them (Deuteronomy 29:18)? What mustn’t a man think he can be blessed to follow (Deuteronomy 29:19)? What will YHWH not do with the one who follows the dictates of his own heart (Deuteronomy 29:20)? What will burn against such a man? What will settle on him? What will YHWH blot out? Unto what will YHWH separate him (Deuteronomy 29:21)? From whom? According to what? 

How can we be blessed in covenant with God? Deuteronomy 29:2–21 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that branches of the church are blessed by God, when they walk with Him, but that for anyone to walk with God and be blessed forever, he needs God to give him new life and union with Christ through faith.  

Our passage is really in three sections, establishing this covenant between YHWH God and Israel. First, there is the recounting of the benefits that the Lord has already given them (Deuteronomy 29:2-9), and then there are the parties between whom the covenant is established (Deuteronomy 29:10-15), and then there is the duty and warning if they break the covenant (Deuteronomy 29:16-21). They have already received covenant benefits: deliverance and avenging (Deuteronomy 29:2-3), sustaining and leading (Deuteronomy 29:5-6), and then strengthening them and giving victory (Deuteronomy 29:7-8). Now, in the administration under Christ, we gain , remembering that our spiritual benefits in Him Already, all material prospering comes in the love that gave Him to us, but our spiritual blessings in Him also obtain eternal material benefits in the new heavens and new earth.

This underlines to us the necessity of the new birth. Israel, generally, had not been given new hearts, eyes, and ears (Deuteronomy 29:4). This spiritual condition continues today (cf. Romans 11:8); new birth is given to God’s elect (Deuteronomy 29:7). If you want to remain in the church forever, you must be united to Christ by faith, justified, and sanctified. There are many who are excommunicated at the point of their death because they were never justified, and they were never sanctified, so their souls were not glorified at the point of their death. Yet they remained church members. It is a dreadful thing. 

It is a mercy when these spiritually dead are excommunicated in life because their unconverted state is exposed by their conduct and the church’s discipline. Believers receive earthly blessings as an earnest, looking forward to the new heavens and the new earth and perfect material blessing forever. But the greater blessing is growing up into the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, with whom you will inherit. So what we need to seek from God is not just that He would give us the blessings of being members of His church in this world, but that He would give us new hearts, new eyes, and new ears, so that we would be covenantally blessed, in and with Christ, forever. 

Then, in Deuteronomy 29:10-16, we see the parties of the covenant: with whom is it being made? It is with everyone from top to bottom.: leaders, elders, officers, men, wives, children, strangers, servants, woodcutters, and water drawers. So everyone in Israel was a member of the covenant, and everyone was obligated by this covenant ceremony. The covenant ceremony is a little bit hidden in Deuteronomy 29:12, Deuteronomy 29:14 in the NKJ, because the verbs are not translated literally. But "that you may enter into the covenant" is literally "that you may pass through the covenant." And at the end of Deuteronomy 29:12, "YHWH your God makes," and at the beginning of Deuteronomy 29:14, "I make this covenant,” use the verb “cut”: “YHWH your God cuts,” and “I cut this covenant." It is a reference back to Genesis 15:9–21, with the cutting of the animals, and the two appearances of God passing through between them.  

This covenanting is not just with all those who are standing today, from the leaders down to those who draw water (Deuteronomy 29:10-11), but it is also with future generations (Deuteronomy 29:14-15). God's covenant administrations, in which He administers the covenant with His church on earth, includes the children (cf. Matthew 27:25 and Acts 2:23, Acts 2:36–39). 

And so the God’s administrations of His covenant, in the visible church throughout history, is always not just with you and your children (because they are part of your household), but it is established as multi-generational, for successive generations. He is God to them and to their children.

This brings us to the final section (Deuteronomy 29:16-21) which emphasize how dreadful it is to turn away from His words, because turning away from His words is turning away from having him as God to us. It is turning away from being covenant people to him. The worst part of every sin is that it is a form of idolatry. And therefore, one of the most dreadful sins is the sin of idolatry. The essence of idolatry is “following the dictates of our own heart.” To do so is to reject the Lord from being our God. Those spiritually dead and dry ones who do this (roots of bitterness, Deuteronomy 29:18), cannot expect to be blessed with the spiritually alive and moist ones (Deuteronomy 29:19—more literally translated). 

Whatever happens with a branch of the visible church, those who have life in themselves from God will be saved. But, even if a branch of the visible church is covenantally blessed, any within it who are still spiritually dead will be cursed and condemned. We see this in the letters in Revelation 2–3, where even to churches that are going to lose their lampstand, there is still "Him who overcomes" and "Him who has ears to hear." And that harkens back to this chapter and this passage, "Him to whom God has given hearts to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear" (Deuteronomy 29:4). 

So even in those churches that will be disciplined and become no church at all, yet the one who is regenerated, who has ears to hear from God by grace, and therefore who overcomes, that one will be saved. That one will have fellowship with Christ. That one will have their salvation and their blessedness in Christ sealed unto them. And so just as this corporate covenanting ceremony started with everyone recognizing that each of us individually deserves God's wrath and curse (cf. Deuteronomy 27:14–26), this corporate ceremony ends with this proclamation that the individual who fails to have, from God by grace, a heart to perceive, eyes to see, ears to hear (Deuteronomy 29:4, Deuteronomy 29:19), that one will be cursed; YHWH will not spare him. “The anger of Yahweh and his jealousy will burn against that man” (Deuteronomy 29:20), and that means forever. He will be separated from God's church (Deuteronomy 29:21) forever, not just in the excommunication-way that can happen during your life. Notice that verse 21 comes after his name is blotted out from under heaven (Deuteronomy 29:20). 

So God uses the blessedness or cursedness of His church, in the administrations of the covenant of grace in the history of the church, to hold before us the necessity of the new birth, the necessity of regeneration, of believing into Christ—of walking with God from the life of Christ within us. These covenantal chastenings, of particular branches of the visible church, publish to us the danger of being left in our sins, left in the dead condition in which we came into this world: hearts that don't perceive, eyes that don't see, ears that don't hear. The danger of hearts that are still stone towards God and not tender and listening to Him, the danger of not being joined to the Lord Jesus Christ through faith, so that we may be blessed with Him forever. 

What material blessings do you enjoy? What spiritual blessings do you enjoy? How do these obtain full and forever material blessing? What use are you making of your church membership? How is your church conducting itself in covenant with God?

Sample prayer:  Lord, we confess that we have sometimes allowed ourselves to feel safe, merely because we are members of the church. But Your dealings with Your church have taught us that we need from You new life: new hearts, new eyes, new ears. Apart from these, we turn from Your words. And, whenever we follow the dictates of our own heart, we are truly rejecting You from being our God. So, help us, by Your life-giving Spirit. And forgive and cleanse us by the blood of Your Son. From His own righteousness, make us to live righteously, we ask in His Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH51C “God, Be Merciful to Me”  

The Bride’s Great Desire [2026.02.01 Evening Sermon in Song of Songs 4:16]

The church's great desire is the triune God.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

His Blood Be Upon Us [2026.02.01 Morning Sermon in Matthew 27:1–25]

Jesus is the true Priest and Elder, the true Governor, and the true Guilt-Bearer.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

Bad Ideas About Our Fellowship [2026.02.01 Sabbath School in Westminster Confession of Faith 26.3—Hopewell 101]

Westminster Confession 26, article 3, corrects serious theological errors about our communion with Christ and one another.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

The Desires of the Delightful Bride [Family Worship lesson in Song of Songs 4:16]

What does the church desire? Song of Songs 4:16 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the church desires the presence of Christ and revival by the Spirit. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) Summary of the transcript of the audio: The devotional centers on the bride’s dual longing in Song of Songs 4:16 for the active presence of the Holy Spirit and the intimate fellowship of Christ. It emphasizes that the Spirit’s work—symbolized by the winds from every direction—is not merely for revival in times of decline but is a continual desire for the church to increasingly reflect Christ’s likeness through the fruit of His life. The second request, for Christ’s personal presence, reorients the church's motivation from human approval to divine delight, affirming that true spiritual vitality is found in communion with Christ, Who dwells in the believer through the Spirit. Ultimately, the devotional affirms that God’s greatest gift is Himself—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—offering union and communion as the foundation of a life that bears Christ’s fruit in His presence.

2026.02.03 Hopewell @Home ▫ Song of Songs 4:16

Read Song of Songs 4:16

Questions from the Scripture text: Whom does she awaken (Song of Songs 4:16a)? To come where (verse 16b)? and do what (verse 16c)? For what purpose (verse 16d)? To facilitate what (verse 16e–f)? 

What does the church desire? Song of Songs 4:16 prepares us for the opening portion of public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the church desires the presence of Christ and revival by the Spirit. 

The bride has heard what delights the Bridegroom, and desires to give Him more of it. Isn’t this what the Spirit teaches your heart to desire? And it is the Spirit to Whom the bride now appeals in Song of Songs 4:16. It is the Spirit Who “blows” (verse 16c, cf. John 3:6–7). He has described her as a garden (Song of Songs 4:12), full of pleasant spices (Song of Songs 4:13-14, a reference to all of her likenesses to Him), and pleasant fruits (Song of Songs 4:13a–b, a reference to all of the good produce of her life). It is the Spirit Who produces Christ-likeness in the church. It is the Spirit Who makes the church to bear fruit (cf. Galatians 5:22–23). Even in her best condition, the church ought always to pray for the work of the Spirit to make her more fragrant and fruitful in Christ. Song of Songs 4:16e–f make a second request: for the presence of Christ. The church does not desire revival for revival’s sake, but for the enjoyment of Christ with her. It is His delighted presence that is her desire. Let us learn, from this passage always to desire revival by the Spirit, and the presence of Christ.

What is your level of desire for revival? How do you show it? For Christ’s presence? How do you show it?

Sample prayer:  Lord, grant to us revival by Your Holy Spirit. Fill us with that which pleases Christ. And, grant that He would be with us, unto His great delight, we ask in His Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP45B “Daughter, Incline Your Ear” or TPH400 “Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me” 

The Holiness Needed for Heaven [Children's Catechism 38—Theology Simply Explained]

Pastor walks his children through Children's Catechism question 38—especially explaining how you must be holy either to enter heaven, or to be happy there.

Q38. Can anyone go to heaven with this sinful nature? No; our hearts must be changed before we can be fit for heaven. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) The lesson emphasizes that no one can enter heaven with an unregenerate, sinful nature, as holiness is essential for communion with God. Drawing from Hebrews 12:14 and Jesus’s prayer in John 17, it distinguishes between positional holiness—being set apart to God through union with Christ—and the ongoing, transformative holiness that sanctifies believers by God’s truth. This moral and spiritual renewal is not optional but necessary, for heaven is a realm of perfect purity where sin cannot coexist; without it, the glory of God would be torment rather than blessing.

Keeper or Destroyer at Home? [Family Worship lesson in Proverbs 21:9, 19]

What robs a house of peace and flourishing? Proverbs 21:9–19 looks forward to the midweek sermon. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that a contentious wife robs a house of peace and flourishing. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) Summary of the transcript of the audio: the devotional presents a meditation on the moral and spiritual dynamics of family life, centered on the critical role of a wife’s character in shaping the household’s peace and flourishing. The Drawing from 1 Peter 3 and Titus 2, the devotional emphasizes that a gentle, quiet, and submissive spirit, rooted in a heart devoted to God, is essential for a wife to become a true keeper of the home and a source of peace and flourishing for her husband. It calls both young men and women to examine their hearts: men are warned against poor choice in a wife, or harsh or neglectful leadership that provokes resistance, while women are urged to cultivate a spirit of gratitude, service, and humility, beginning in their relationship with God . Ultimately, the passage reveals that the health of a household rests not only on the husband’s headship but on the wife’s willing, Spirit-led submission and love, making her a vital instrument of God’s grace in the home..Summary of the transcript of the audio: the devotional presents a meditation on the moral and spiritual dynamics of family life, centered on the critical role of a wife’s character in shaping the household’s peace and flourishing. The Drawing from 1 Peter 3 and Titus 2, the devotional emphasizes that a gentle, quiet, and submissive spirit, rooted in a heart devoted to God, is essential for a wife to become a true keeper of the home and a source of peace and flourishing for her husband. It calls both young men and women to examine their hearts: men are warned against poor choice in a wife, or harsh or neglectful leadership that provokes resistance, while women are urged to cultivate a spirit of gratitude, service, and humility, beginning in their relationship with God . Ultimately, the passage reveals that the health of a household rests not only on the husband’s headship but on the wife’s willing, Spirit-led submission and love, making her a vital instrument of God’s grace in the home..

2026.02.02 Hopewell @Home ▫ Proverbs 21:9 and Proverbs 21:19

Read Proverbs 21:9 and Proverbs 21:19

Questions from the Scripture text: Where is better to dwell (Proverbs 21:9)? Than where? With whom? Where is it better to dwell (Proverbs 21:19)? Than with whom?

What robs a house of peace and flourishing? Proverbs 21:9–19 looks forward to the midweek sermon. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that a contentious wife robs a house of peace and flourishing.  

Proverbs 21 contains four main lessons that make up the body of this chapter: Proverbs 21:4-8, which we discussed last time; Proverbs 21:10–18; and Proverbs 21:20–29. The hinges between these three sections are the fourth section: Proverbs 21:9, Proverbs 21:19. The middle section, especially addresses those who are harsh, stingy, and selfish. With that as the center of the chapter, the hinges then deal with a special case of these: the contentious wife. In Proverbs 21:9, the corner of the housetop is better, implying that she has made it impossible to have peace in the home. In Proverbs 21:19, the wilderness is better, implying that she has made it impossible to flourish in the home. 

This is the opposite of what Scripture teaches about wives in other places, such as 1 Peter 3, about the gentle and quiet spirit that is very precious in the sight of the Lord—the sort of heart from which biblical submission to the husband comes. Or Titus 2, where it states that the wife is to be a keeper at home, a lover of her husband and her children. A wife ought to strive to make the home a place of peace and flourishing for her husband. 

In contrast to this, the contentious woman robs the home of peace and flourishing. She is combative (Proverbs 21:9). Her heart is always against her husband, her speech is always against her husband, and her actions are always against her husband. And Proverbs 21:19 emphasizes that this proceeds from a heart that is angry and hostile. 

So there are several lessons here for the young man who is especially the object of the Book of Proverbs. One is wife selection: that you observe. If a lady is always arguing, always resisting, always grumbling, always opposing anyone, that indicates her heart. And, if you are the sort of husband, against whom Proverbs 21:10–18 warns, you may provoke or exacerbate contentiousness in your wife. 

These verses, of course, also have much to say to the young ladies. There are many things that you want to work on and develop as you prepare to be a wife someday, not only training to do tasks well, but also training to do them spiritually well, with diligence that proceeds from love and joy in the Lord. These verses establish a vital component of your training: eliminating contentiousness from your heart. The place to begin is with the Lord. He is always doing you good. If you remember Him in everything you do, you can operate with peace, gentleness, and generosity that guard against murmuring, grumbling, anger, resistance, and stubbornness. Then, operating with the Lord in this way, you can mortify contentiousness against parents or others, training to be a wife who fosters peace in the whole house, not just in a corner of a rooftop—helping him to flourish, not just by the way you do your tasks as a wife, but by the attitude of your heart towards him and your gentleness and submissiveness of interacting with him. 

Much rests upon a wife being the gentle and quiet spirit, the lover of husband and children, the keeper at home, that 1 Peter 3 and Titus 2 talk about. The husband is the head, and he ministers the Word, and he leads the family before God, and he establishes the spiritual tone of the household. Much rests on him. But much also rests on the wife. She has power to undo much of that. Her hope for reinforcing and helping the good is that the Lord would graciously have her heart in His hand, turning it upon what pleases Him. 

When do you find your heart being contentious? How are you fighting that? What place does gentle, submissive, service have in your idea of the ideal wife?

Sample prayer:  Lord, turn our hearts toward that which pleases You. And help each of us in the particular role that we have. Make us depend upon You, delight in You, and be devoted to You. Use us to do good to those with whom You have made us to dwell. Grant that our children would neither marry, nor be, a contentious wife.

Suggested songs: ARP119I “According to Your Word, O LORD” or TPH51C “God, Be Merciful to Me”