As we continue talking on the subject of covenant theology, we're talking about what is found in our Bibles. Rather than to lay something like a railway track on top of the Bible and make it go to places it doesn't go, what we're seeking to do is find out from the Bible where the tracks are, where the road is, to use another analogy. And what God does is make covenant relationships with us, or else he makes no covenant relationship at all, no relationship at all outside of a covenant. And so what we're trying to do is draw out from the Scripture what is found in the Scripture. And theologians make distinctions, and one of the things we've already covered is something called the covenant of redemption. In that little figure you see on the chart in the handout there, The covenant of redemption is really an expression, though it's not a scriptural expression per se, it's a summing up of what the Bible teaches that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had some kind of eternal council meeting where the father said, son you need to go and live and die for these people that I'm choosing. The father chose a people, the son said I will go to earth and die for them and be raised from the dead. And the Holy Spirit said, I will quicken them. I will help you in that task, son, son of the father, but I will also come upon and invade the life of these so that the Trinity, the entire Trinity is involved in our redemption. It's not like Jesus died for people to try and persuade the father to have a plan to save them. No, the plan was settled in eternity. Before the foundation of the world, a certain people, a group of humanity would be redeemed. As John 6 says, all that the Father has given me will come to me. One thing happened before the others. The coming to the Son is the way we're saved. And that's what we preach. Come to the Son. Repent and believe. But the Bible says someone will only come to the Son truly if the Father has first given that group of people to the Son in eternity. And so that's the covenant of redemption. The participants in that covenant is God himself. There was no one else around. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's really a blueprint of all of God's dealings with his people. And if you see, it's kind of the overarching covenant. All through history, during the time of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, new covenant, God is saving a people that are never a surprise to him. It's not like someone responds to God after hearing a message, and the father says, I didn't see that happening. He not only knows everything, he decrees everything, and he is working out his purposes in time. Now, we can look back and think, well, the thief on the cross, good example, didn't look like he was elect. In fact, the day of his conversion, on the cross, next to Jesus, he still didn't look like he was five minutes away from being saved. He was hurling insults at Christ. But a turn happened, God changed his heart, and he, as you remember, said, remember me when you come into your kingdom. That was a surprise to everybody, except God. That's the point. That was just the day when God says, you're coming home. We find out that he was not a goat who then became a sheep. Now grasp this. It's not a goat that becomes a sheep. He was always a sheep who was acting like a goat. But he was always a sheep. My sheep, hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and no one will pluck them out of my hand. And the Father who is greater than I, that's talking about His earthly relationship, That's His will also. No one can pluck them out of the Father's hand. I and my Father are one. They're one in mission, not one in personality. The Father's not the Son. They're distinct from each other, but they're one in terms of mission. The Father has decreed a people. The Son comes into the world to save them. And the Holy Spirit applies the redemption wrought by the Son to those same people. It's an amazing thing. That's the covenant of redemption. Now we come to the covenant of works. There are others we're going to tackle at various times. What we call the Noahic covenant. I don't think we need to guess what that is referring to. It's the covenant God made with Noah. The Abrahamic covenant. Mosaic, obviously to do with Moses. The Davidic, to do with David. The new covenant and then the final place where all saved in the covenant of redemption go, new heaven, new earth. So, On your notes there, the covenant of works. Though the word covenant is not seen in the early chapters of Genesis, all the ingredients and components of covenant are evident. And this is by way of just a recap. We've talked about that. You remember God placed Adam in what was something of a temple and made him, as we saw at the end of last time, a priest. a prophet and a king. And Genesis 2, 15 shows he had a priestly function. 16 and 17, he had a prophetic function. And as king, he was to rule in that realm and display as prophet the words of God. God spoke to Adam, gave him instruction, and he should have stepped up to the plate when the serpent was uttering his falsehoods and said, no, God has said, rather than just passively allow everything to happen as it did. We kind of ended with this quote on the second page there by Samuel Renahan. Adam as priest, prophet, and king of Eden was to begin his universal dominion in a specific realm, under a specific law of obedience, Adam must guard the divine sanctuary by upholding the word of God, and to test his obedient protection of the garden, he was prohibited from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That's a good summing up. God promised Adam. Here we see the most prominent feature of the garden were the two trees. There were many, many, many trees, but two were particularly in view. One was the tree of life, the other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and each tree played an important role in the covenant of works. Now, it's interesting, isn't it? When Adam sinned, the Bible tells us, so that he will not take of the tree of life, he was banished from the garden. And I believe that's a reference to the fact that God did not want him to stay eternally in that lost condition. God had a plan of redemption. But what I'd like us just to see as we go to the book of Revelation for a moment, is that the beginning and the ends of our Bible really go together. And that's because, as we would expect, because there's one author of scripture, even though there's around 40 human authors, there's one divine author, When the first book mentions something at the beginning, and the last book mentions something at the end, various themes come together. This is not anything I'm sure you don't already know, but it's good to point those things out. And the tree of life is restored in terms of our access. And little bells should be going off when we're reading Revelation. Whoa, that reminds me of Genesis. Yes. What's happening is full redemption's taking place. Jesus has undone what the first Adam failed to do, and the mess he has caused, the curse upon the earth, it's removed, and full redemption has now come to us, and we're actually restored to a better place than Adam had before the fall. I'm gonna talk about that. Why is that? Well, Adam was in the garden on probation. That's a good key word to recognize, because in terms of the stipulations of the covenant, again, though the word covenant is not used, all of the ingredients, the elements are there. If you were to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the stipulation was what? You shall surely die. Dying, you shall die, is the way the original reads in Hebrew. And so there was this probation. You're not banished now, but should you eat from the tree I've commanded you not to eat, there is going to be radical, radical results. You're called to guard the purity of the temple as the priest, speak as a prophet to any enemy that comes in, and rule this place with the view of expanding that garden even around the world. You remember that is the Genesis 1 mandate of multiply, fill the earth. Many believe that this garden was elevated because of the layout of the rivers, rivers with water flowing down, and that it was on a mountain. And that was news to me when I first heard of that some years ago, but I think it bears out. And this temple garden was the place where Adam was called upon to act as our representative. Rather than Washington DC, it was Garden of Eden, you, with your mandate, fulfill the covenant of works, which is what theologians refer to as all of this. He was to ask priest, prophet, and king of Eden to begin his universal dominion in a specific realm. This is that quote. Under a specific law of obedience, found in Genesis 2, 16 and 17, Adam must guard the divine sanctuary by upholding the word of God, and to test his obedient protection of the garden, he was prohibited from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And I'm sure you've if you were here last time or if you heard the message of last time, you can see Jesus succeeded where Adam fell and where Adam failed. Adam failed to rule as king. He failed to mediate as a priest. He failed to speak as a prophet. But Jesus, on the other hand, as the second Adam, the federal head of a new people, he fulfilled every demand of priesthood, prophethood, and kingship. And theologians refer to this threefold office of Christ as the monos, triplex, the threefold offices of Christ. He's prophet, priest, and king. And when you begin to see that, the cross becomes central because we're now understanding that what Jesus did was his righteous life of obedience to what we would call the covenant of works, all that God demanded, that is the righteousness given to the believer. The life of Christ, plus the death of Christ. And so you go to a little five or six year old and you ask them, what is the gospel? Or what did Jesus do for you? And they might say, Jesus died for my sins. And that's wonderful. It's true. But it's not the whole story. We could also say this. I want to say, wonderful, you've grasped the gospel. Jesus died for our sins. and he rose from the dead. But what else did he do? He lived for our righteousness. He lived for our righteousness. And so, a little six-year-old, or a ninety-six-year-old, doesn't matter what the age, someone believes in Christ, what God does is, he reckons the death of Christ to them, to take away their sins, and the life of Christ to them, to give them righteousness. You see, if we've got a bank account and we're below zero, I don't know if you've ever had that experience, zero would be the goal one day. but you're in debt, and you're massively in debt, and some rich person comes to you and cancels your debt, he gets you to zero. Say you've got a $35,000 debt, someone comes and pays it, you're very, very grateful, but you still don't have any money to spend, you're at zero. And to get to heaven, you need more than zero. You need positive, not just your sins removed, you need positive righteousness. Jesus said, unless your righteousness supersedes, is greater than the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no way enter the kingdom of God. So getting us to zero is not enough. As wonderful as it is to have our sins forgiven, to get to heaven, we need positive righteousness. And so Jesus comes, rather than coming, being beamed down from heaven, arriving on a Thursday, having a night in a hotel, Friday he goes to the cross, Sunday he raised from the dead, Monday he's ascending to the Father, just basically a weekend's work and redemption's done. Why is that not the gospel? No, the gospel is about Jesus was born of a virgin. He lived a sinless life for 33 years, fulfilled every demand of God. And on the cross, this innocent one who had fulfilled the law absorbed all the sin of all God's people in human history. He bore our sins in his body on the cross. So that would cancel out our sins and bring us to zero. He died for our sins, but he also lived for our righteousness so that, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, he God made him Jesus who knew no sin to become sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. What? Yeah, so little six-year-old and the elderly 96-year-old, though they may not understand any of this, you do because you're studying your Bible. They are not only brought to zero, they're given trillions in terms of monetary value, trillions in terms of righteousness. Perfect righteousness. The moment we believe. Because the righteousness of Christ is credited to your account. You think of the bank illustration, think of the bank wire transfer. You ever had to do that? Maybe your son has needed 20 bucks and you need to get 20 bucks to him and you're generous, you give him 25. But what you do is you take money from your account and transfer it to his account. What God does is the moment you believe all your sins have already been transferred to Christ on the cross, he bore them, Well, how could he do that when that was 2,000 years ago? God was able to see the cross at the center of history so that Abraham, more than 1,000 years, 2,000 years before the cross, believed God. And what do we find? Genesis 15, 6. God credits it to him as righteousness. Where does he get righteousness from? The life of Christ. But Jesus hasn't lived yet, right? He's alive in eternity as the eternal son, but he hasn't come to the earth yet. No, but what God does is, knowing that Christ will come, on the basis of him knowing Christ will come, credits what Christ will do in his life and his death to Abraham before the cross, so that Abraham is in the kingdom of God, the exact same way you and I are 2,000 years later. So that us, 2025 and beyond, We're just minding our own business as sinners. We believe in Christ. What God does is not send Christ back to the cross for us. Doesn't have to. But he credits us with the death of Christ for us and the life of Christ for us. So that, though our feelings may not show it, you might think, if I was the righteousness of God in Christ, wouldn't I know it? No, not necessarily. You have to believe it because scripture says it. And many, many times we doubt our salvation, don't we, because the feeling we might have had at one point on a Tuesday afternoon is gone on Thursday morning. But if you think about the legal aspects of a bank account, you can be worried in the middle of the night, I don't think I've got any money. And your wife says to you, well, what are you worried about? I'm sorry that I just feel very, very worried about my bank account. Well, go check it. And you can do it online. You don't have to wait till nine in the morning on a Monday morning if it's the weekend. You can check your bank account and it still says you're loaded. Because God has transferred the righteousness of his Son to us. Why? Here's why. Because Jesus fulfilled the covenant of works for us. Where Adam failed, Jesus succeeded. So, Revelation comes along, chapter 2, and verse 7. And what do we see? A familiar picture. Revelation 2, verse 7. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. Now, this verse explains a lot about what the tree of life is when we're reading Genesis. It gives you access to the paradise of God, which speaks of the pleasure of God, the peace of God, life with God, summing it up in two words, eternal life. To the one who conquers, to the one who overcomes. Look at chapter 21. Verse seven. The one who conquers, familiar language again, will have this heritage, I will be his God and he will be my son. Now in our first session on theology, covenant theology, I made the point that this is covenant language throughout the Bible, when God says, I will be your God and you will be my people. That's covenant language. Chapter 22, look at verse two. Verse one, then, the angel showed me the river of the water of life bright as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city also on either side of the river. What do we have? The tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Drop down to verse 14. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life. and that they may enter the city by the gates. Verse 19. There's a warning, verse 18, I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book. We then, as people who tend to worry, if we're going to worry about something, we say, well, wasn't there a condition? It's not everybody who gets access to the tree of life, it's the one who conquers. Absolutely right. So, What does the Bible say regarding who are the conquerors? Well, the way I've said it, you might think of Romans 8, that we are more than conquerors. That's a clue right there. Can you illustrate that, John? I can try. Imagine a boxing championship, the World Heavyweight Championship boxing event. It's going to be pay-per-view. There's a guy training for the fight. And for nine months, he makes himself ready for that event. His training means he sleeps at certain hours. It's regulated. He eats whatever is the right thing to eat. He exercises so many times a day, weights and running and ropes and all kinds of things. The day finally comes when it's the fight. He's up against, he's the challenger, and he's up against the current champion. And the referee starts the fight. It's a 15-round fight, and it goes all 15 rounds. But eventually, in the last part of the fight, the challenger knocks the current champion out. There's a count of 10. There's a new champion. In today's world, that means he's rich. He has not only got sponsorship for the shoes he's wearing, but the clothes he wears, and for the rest of his life, he's going to be taken care of. He's given this massive check in the millions, all right? He comes home, and he comes to his hometown. Let's say it's somewhere in Alabama. And he's coming home. That's his hometown. And crowds are lining the street, shouting his name. And eventually, the crowd goes away. He comes home. He's got the belt over his shoulder. And he's coming down the garden path to the doorway of the house where his wife's waiting for him. Now, she's done no training. She has not even watched the fight. She was just eating popcorn, enjoying movies. But he loves her. And she opens the door and says, kind of, where have you been? He says, well, I kind of conquered the world. That's OK. And I got this amazing check, $4 million. Wow. And he gives it to her. And he says, honey, I did this for you. Now, what's the point of all this? He was the conqueror. She is more than a conqueror. Because she gets all of the benefits of his conquering. Now think about that. What had we done in the thing of redemption? We'd just committed the sin that caused Christ to have to go to the cross. And Jesus battled our adversary, won a terrific fight, conquered the devil, fulfilled what Genesis 3, 15 promised. He crushed the head of the serpent for us. lived the life we should have lived, died the death we should have died, rose again from the dead, to give us the inheritance of a life pleasing to God. What did we do? We committed sin. What did Christ do? Only righteousness. And he has given us all of the benefits of redemption received by grace alone. through faith alone in Christ alone. And if you think about it, it's kind of fathomless. And Christ is the champion. And yet, we're more than conquerors because we got the check. The Bible says we're heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ. What Jesus Christ did, he's given us access to. So if that doesn't rock your boat, you're in the wrong place. I don't know what to say, but it's so encouraging. But if you've still got a little battle in your mind, I'm not sure, I'm not sure. Let's go to 1 John. 1 John. Because if salvation and the benefits of heaven were by our works, I would be trouble tonight. I'm sure you'd be trouble about your own life. And people that are not established in the gospel as a pastor, I'm sometimes summoned to places where folk know they're within hours of death. even Christians who maybe have been under my ministry for some time, and thankfully it doesn't happen often, but I walk people through a series of questions just to give them assurance, not that I will get something out of it, but that they would. And I ask them, is your personal trust in the Savior for your standing with God? I go through very basic questions. And they may not be able to say too much. And if that's true, I say, squeeze my hand. And then if they were able to say something, I would say, now, do you have the assurance that if you died at this moment, you go straight to be with Jesus. And some people say yes, and some people say no, and some people say I hope so. And whatever their answer, if it's no or hope so, I then explain the gospel. But even if they say yes, I want to ask now on what basis? Because sometimes even there they might say, you know, I've lived a pretty good life. Mm-mm. No, no, no, no, no. No, we need to go over the gospel. You're a sinner and your only hope is Jesus Christ. Now, we say all that, but behind all of this is this covenant of works. So that we then say, okay, the old question from evangelism explosion, if you were to stand before God and he were to ask you, why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say? And that reveals the basis of their assurance. The right answer is, I can't think of any reason why I should be let into heaven except Jesus died in my place and has given me righteousness as a gift. That's it. That's the gospel. And when we're established in the gospel, it means that works, what we do, play no part in our redemption. Ephesians 2 is one of the many scriptures that affirms it, Romans 4, 4 and 5. But Ephesians 2, by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. Here's what I'm gonna say to you in the way R.C. Sproul has said it. In the end, Everyone who gets to heaven are there because of works. And he makes a pause and everybody is shocked that he's saying such a word. He says, I didn't stammer, I didn't stutter. Everyone who gets to heaven, if I'm getting to heaven, it's because of works. But none of them were mine. It's all because of Him and His work for us in His death for us and in His life for us. So that our boasting, and by the way, Abraham's boasting, and Jeremiah and David and all of the Old Testament saints, and all of us this side of the cross, guess what, in heaven, we'll be singing the same song of redemption. There won't be an Old Testament community And then a New Testament community, okay, you sing your song how you are saved. I'm saved by my works, amen. It's not gonna happen. Romans 3.20, by the works of the law, no one will be justified in the sight of God because through the law comes the knowledge of sin. So, no one, that's right, no one is justified by God by their works. So, what will Abraham be singing? Well, if we're allowed to sing in English, maybe we'll be singing Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Because that's the way he's saved, and that's the way we are. So that there's one church. I believe the church of Jesus Christ goes back, before the day of Pentecost, it goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. that God has one people throughout history in what we call the covenant of redemption. There's one people. Some are Jews, some are Gentiles, but there's one church. Saved the same way. Now, there's about 28 different directions we can go to, but look in 1 John chapter 5. Because we've read the scripture, haven't we, that it's only the one who conquers that has access to the tree of life. Remember that? So who is the one who conquers? Question. Is it someone who works really hard that would undo everything I just said? Or does the Bible answer the question? I think you know the Bible answers the question. Look at verse 5. 1 John 5. Verse five, who is it that overcomes the world except the one who works really, really, really hard? No, sir. Who is it who overcomes? Who is it that conquers? the world, except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. You mean it's that simple? Yes, it is. And we've got, through the years, a lot of religiosity out there that will help us to be tripped up on this. There's a doctrine that says, yeah, you're in the kingdom by faith, but then you stand before God based on your works. Now, there should be works that prove that you're a genuine Christian. That's different. But your standing before God is Jesus Christ plus nothing. That's now and that's forever. You're justified by faith. You've gone to the courtroom and God has pronounced a sentence on you and it is not guilty. I reckon you righteous because of the work of my son. Plus nothing. If you're truly saved, you're also someone with a new heart that has new affections. But none of the things you do gives you a greater standing with God than the moment you believe. We need to be very clear on that or else we lose the gospel. And here's what's at stake. There are some out there in the professing church that just reject outright. Just remember the first thing that R.C. Sproul said in the video, the short video we watched. This is the controversial doctrine. Covenant of works, do you remember that? He said this is controversial. You deny this without realizing it, you're undoing the very heart of the gospel. Because this is the way Paul explains the gospel in Romans 5. And in 1 Corinthians 15, as in Adam, 1 Corinthians 15, 22, all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive, those that belong to Christ. That's the next verse, verse 23. That's Paul's way of framing the gospel. In Adam, we all died. All those in Christ are made alive. All those in Christ have righteousness. And the one who overcomes is the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God, because all of the covenant of works was fulfilled on their behalf, and they get the benefits, like the wife at the door. He's the conqueror. We're more than conquerors. And our standing with God is based on the finished work of Christ. And guess what? Your justification is not up for renegotiation. There are many Christians who need just Because they've been under maybe legalistic thinking, or else they don't even need that. They've got their own thoughts in their head. If I was a Christian, I wouldn't have done this. You ever done something and thought, oh gosh, I didn't know that was in my heart? Yeah. God never says, you know, I didn't know either. If I knew that was what we're taking on, I would never have started this project. No, he's never been shocked. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And that's how the gospel's praying. Turn to Romans 5. It's the second part of the chapter we normally talk about and we have in this series already, but go to the first part. Romans chapter 5, verse 1. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, not are on the way to being justified, not will one day be justified. Justified is a past tense condition. And it's a courtroom word. It's outside the realm of your feelings. Now, there are days when you feel like you're in right standing with God, I'm sure. But there are days when you sense the heavens are like brass, Things are going wrong. You can't even get a green light on the way to anywhere. Nothing's going well. You're dog sick. You're sick. You feel sick. You're tired. You're sick and tired of being sick and tired. But this is as if God says, you believe in Jesus? Here's a certificate. You can put it on your wall. It's like a marriage certificate. Three weeks after the marriage, the husband might say, you know what? I don't feel married. The wife just says, just check the certificate. Too late. It's a legal document. It's a legal proceeding. And God has taken you to his court, which is where Romans 8 goes. and says, you've been justified. I've justified you because of the person and the work of Christ, his life for you, his death for you. Who shall bring a charge, that's a courtroom word, against God's elect? It's God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? But Christ now intercedes for us. Look at verse six. Not that while we were seeking God, we weren't. Not that we were on the way of righteousness, we were not. While we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the really zealous people going after God. Is that what your Bible says? No? Christ died for the ungodly. I, for one, qualify. How about you? He died for the ungodly. The devil says, but you're a sinner. That's right. Christ died for sinners. For one would scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." All right, we get that usually. But where Christians tend to really slip up is, look, I know in 1991 when I came to Christ, or 2019 when I came to Christ, or last week when I came to Christ, I was justified, He saved me. But I've sinned big since then. This next portion deals with that. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Continue reading. Since therefore. In other words, continue reading. On the basis of that, while you were at your worst, Christ died for us. showing his love, since therefore we have now been, past tense, justified by his blood, that speaks of the death of Christ, much more shall we be saved, that's future tense, by him from the wrath of God. You can't undo this. If you've truly come to Christ and you've truly been justified, there'll not be a second court case. You're not going to be tried for the same offenses again, or even new ones. Now people say, if you say that, you're just giving people a license to sin. No, people will sin without a license. What I'm saying is, and this is controversial, your future sins have been taken care of. You can't say that. That's what Rome says. That's what a lot of Christians teaching churches say that. You can't say that. Well, think about it. When Christ was on the cross in the year around 30 AD, all your sins were future. And he died for them. Now you're living them out, and January turns to February, February to March. Let's say you sin in March. It's possible, right? Jesus doesn't have to go and say, oh, that's one I didn't cover back then, I have to go to the cross again. No. He died for all your sins, past, present, and future, so he doesn't have to go back to the cross again. It's fathomless. So that you can have assurance now. Look, well, I'm saved right now. Right now, I'm in a church meeting. I could be somewhere else. It's looking good. I'm doing the right thing. But tomorrow's another day. Tomorrow, you'll be equally justified. Do you know you can't grow in justification? You can grow in sanctification. You can grow in holiness. But God's dealing with you is based on Christ and His work in the covenant of works forever. In heaven, your standing is not because, well, you've had a good 82 years in heaven. We just want to just close the door to you being banished. You've been a real good boy, a real good girl. No. absent from the body, present with the Lord. You die now, you go straight to be with him. And God doesn't say, well, you know, you've lived a very poor life, we're going to put you on row 8702, and you've got these binoculars so you can maybe see the throne. But Brother Charles here, you go up front. Now, there will be different degrees of reward. That's for sure. The Bible teaches that. There are different punishments in hell. But in terms of your standing, you can't be made more righteous than the perfect righteousness of Christ, which is yours as a gift. In Adam we die. All in Adam die. He's the federal head of the entire human race. That's why we need to get the message of the gospel out to people. Now, we may not unpack it in these terms because this is a Bible study, but this is behind all what we say when we say Christ died for sinners on the cross, come to Him. Behind those statements is this big, huge doctrine of the covenant of works. In Adam, we all died. In Christ, He made all of us in Christ alive. and we're given righteousness, the righteousness of one who fulfilled the covenant of works for us. And it's fathomless. And what God has given us is better than life that Adam had before the fall. Because if you remember, that was probation. You know the difference between justification and probation? Justified means, one man put it this way, and I'll end with this. It's a good way to remember justification. It's a legal declaration by God. Do you remember the man who wouldn't raise his eyes to heaven, but said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. The Bible says Jesus said, that man went to his house justified. Justified means just as if I'd never sinned. You ever heard that? It's a good thing to remember. One man, Jerry Bridges, took it a step further and I love it. It is that, but it's more than that. So, justified means just as if I'd, God treats me just as if I'd never sinned. But if you remember, that only takes you to zero. Jerry Bridges, justification, justified. To be justified means just as if I'd never sinned, and just as if I'd always obeyed. Isn't that beautiful? Because the righteousness you've been given is one that always obeyed God in word, thought, and deed. Fathomless. And we need to be grounded in this. Well, what of works? Well, don't you want to serve the one who saved you? But you're not serving Christ to get what Christ gave you in grace. You do it because you love him. Why do you do what you do with your finances? Because I love him. Why do you come to church? Because I love him. Why do you love your brother and sister? Because I love him. It's the overflow of the regenerated heart. And if there is no pulse that wants to do any of that, have you really come to Christ? Because those who do come because they want to. I often ask people, can we, you know, if you, someone said it this way, if you're arrested for being a Christian, would there be any evidence to convict you? Now, you don't do stuff to gain right relationship with God. You do the stuff of the Christian life. Jesus said it this way, if you love me, keep my commandments. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you for this amazing grace found in the gospel. And Lord, we pray as we continue on in this, we're not done. You've got more to show us, more to enlighten us, and in doing so we will revel in Christ. And that's the whole message here. Not to get simply our minds filled with the right things, which is what studying the Bible is all about. That's one of the ways we love you, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But Lord, we do want to follow you. We do want to Go where you lead us and do what you say, and not be hearers only. But Lord, we know that anything we do does not add to our standing with Christ and with God. But our standing with God is based on the sure foundation of Scripture alone, And we're saved. And anyone who is saved is saved the same way. Abraham, David, us, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, because he lived for us, and he died for us, and he fulfilled the covenant of works in our place. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.