to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. We're looking tonight at the 1689 Baptist Confession chapter 7 and we're looking this week at paragraph 2. Does anyone need a copy of the confession? I see those hands. Again, we will be looking at paragraph two of chapter seven this evening. You'll take your bibles and john one. We'll begin reading in verse number nine. This is the inerrant, infallible, and inspired word of God. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. This is the word of God. Amen. Let's pray. Our father and our God, we thank you for another Lord's day and for the opportunity to close another one out together. We praise you for how you have worked mightily in our congregation and ask that you would work mightily still. Father, that we would be a people who offer ourselves up to you willingly every day, that we are people who are growing in our desire and love for holiness, and that we are growing as a people in abhorrence and in forsaking of our sin. Lord, as we gather to look at your word and the truths of your word testified in the confession this evening, Father, I ask that you would open our eyes to behold wondrous things out of your word. Lord, as we open your word, if your spirit does not attend, none of us will be benefited. If you do not uphold me in the teaching, I will be of as a tinkling brass and a clanging symbol and I will do no good unto your people. And so I ask for your help for the sake of the renown, the glory of Christ for the sake of his being treasured among his people. Be with us. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. and now I realize I didn't bring my copy of the confession up here. So thankfully I've got it pulled up in digital format. If you've got one more readily more readily available, I will take it. Thank you. Had everything else. So chapter 7, of course, of God's covenant. Before we dive in, resume working from where we left off a couple of weeks ago, just a recap for those of us who may not have been here, may not have been able to catch those lessons online, and just a restatement for those who have slept since our last lessons. We have learned a number of things thus far. As we've come to this particular chapter, we've begun to consider the doctrines surrounding covenant theology. You've heard us use the terms of covenant theology very often, and that won't stop. because covenant theology is the foundation of all of scripture and it permeates throughout every page. God's decrees are ordered in all things insure and covenant theology is one of those tools by which we are able to better see and categorize and outline the decrees of God at work within history. So we've learned thus far that covenants, defining covenants, they are divinely chosen vehicles through which God makes contact and communication with men. a divinely chosen vehicle, a divinely chosen manner of God condescending to make himself known to men. Covenants are the foundation of special relations between parties involved therein. We have, of course, our probably our most familiar form of covenant is in the covenant in our day is covenant of marriage, where a man and a woman covenant together to one another in the sight of God in matrimony to be true to one another and to live together in that state until death do they part. So we have some concept of covenant in our world. But God, in order for him to make covenant with men, it is required, of course, that Inherently, there is a condescension involved in that. God is not obligated to make Himself known to anyone, and He's not obligated to do it in any particular manner, but He has shown Himself pleased to do it by way of covenant. We've seen that covenants are positive, that is expressly stated, arrangements. They are not natural arrangements. So, in other words, they're not part of the created order. The created order, just as an example, does anyone or did anyone ever have to tell you that it was wrong to murder someone? No, because that Being part of the eternal, enduring, and unchanging moral law of God is written upon your heart. You know it innately. By means of being an image-bearer, you know that you ought not to steal from your neighbor, you know you ought not to murder them, and so on and so forth. Those are the things of the natural created order, things that don't have to be told to us, we know them. But there are positive things, expressly stated things, We have God's moral law, but we also have, in positive, we have what Sam Renahan, I think, helpfully states as plus law. So God has an enduring moral law that doesn't change, but of course, God is free to add to those laws at any point He wants to. If you want an example, look at the children of Israel, and as they go upon, as Moses goes upon Sinai, as he receives the Ten Commandments, but further, as we see laws being given to them that are ultimately an outworking of the Ten Commandments, they've had their foundation in the Ten Commandments, but the civil laws that they have, the ceremonial laws that they have to govern their people, those are laws that are temporary. They are rooted and they flow out from God's enduring moral law as summarized in the Ten Commandments. But these are laws that are positively given, they're added plus law, and they have an expiration date. They have a particular purpose for which they serve, and when God says they no longer serve a purpose, they no longer serve a purpose. Another example, of course, in how things serve a purpose and how things can shift and how God has the right to make stipulations about his law is how before the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath and the first day of the week ever since to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath. God has the right to take his law and to make stipulations for us. Any of you who have children, and have had children that have attained any degree of age, their freedoms have changed over time, have they not? As they've shown themselves responsible, you have moved the boundaries, as it were, right? They have been allowed, at one point they weren't allowed to touch the stove, but now, I'm really glad that they're capable of using the stove, because I like my eggs just so. Those things change, they shift. Well, in a similar manner, um, God is free to, without any change taking place within himself, God is free to change, uh, to change particular things about his positive law, his added law on top of his moral law that suits to the betterment of mankind as all of his covenants do. Every covenant is for the purpose of bettering our state. And what a kindness of God that is. So covenants are positive, expressly stated arrangements. They're not natural, not part of the created order. So they are not required. Covenants don't naturally exist. They only exist because God says that they do. Our catechism asks, how does God execute his decrees? And we answer that God executed his decrees in the works of creation and providence. Now, Covenant belongs to providence, not creation. Covenants are part of God's providence, His most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all of His creatures and all their actions. Covenant falls underneath that realm, not the realm of creation. It's not naturally that they exist. And so, therefore, covenants, because they are not natural, because they don't go without saying, because they occur because God says that they do, so the stipulations and the terms of each covenant must be defined by divine revelation from God. We cannot draw lines and define these things as we want to or according to human wisdom. They are what God says that they are, because they only exist because God says that they exist. So all of the promises of a particular covenant, the people that are involved in a covenant, the precepts involved in a covenant, those are restricted. Knowledge of those things is restricted to what God says that they are. And finally, we've learned, and this is something that I'm going to repeat every single time because it is incumbent upon us to remember, covenant theology is not ivory tower theology. It is not for those merely who are theologically adept who have attained to some degree of understanding and not for anybody beneath that understanding. Covenant theology is important for all Christians because it enriches our understanding of the unity of God's purposes. Covenant theology assures God's people of the security of their salvation because it is God's covenant that must remain steadfast and sure, and if it does, then their salvation does. Covenant theology magnifies the majesty of the triune God's plan of redemption, which cannot fail. It inspires unity among the brethren, and it inflames love to God within our hearts. It is, as we've said before, the old, old story of Jesus and his love. Covenant theology is the foundation of scripture. It is the gospel itself, because all of the covenants, every single one of them prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus, pointed to the Lord Jesus. They served as a means to show man that he is not enough, contrary to what the wisdom of our day says. To show man, you're not enough. You cannot get back to God. Unless I condescend to you, you can't even know me. You can't even know that I exist, let alone lay hold of me and have any of my affection. You cannot be in any particular covenantal relationship or arrangement unless I say so. And so, with that, we come to chapter 7. Begin in paragraph 1. The distance between God and the creature is so great that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant. Paragraph 2. Moreover, man, having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life his Holy Spirit to make them willing and able to believe. In paragraph three, this covenant is revealed in the gospel, first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament. And it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the father and the son about the redemption of the elect. And it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality. man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency." There are two primary covenants within Scripture. Ultimately, there are seven covenants, the covenants that if you had us walk you through all of the primary covenants in Scripture, there are seven. If we are to whittle it down, if we're to take, as it were, to take the law and the prophets and to distill them down into something as love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. So if we distill the covenants down into the smallest heading possible, the two primary covenants that exist in human history are what we call the covenant of works, the covenant of creation, the covenant of life, which was made with Adam in the garden. And also, the second is the covenant of grace which is given by the Lord Jesus Christ in His incarnation. So our catechism also asks, did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression? And the answer, the covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself but for his posterity. all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression. So all of those of Adam and his posterity, all those descending from him by ordinary generation. If you've heard the song Cats in the Cradle, it mentions a child who was born just the other day who came to the world in the usual way. That's what we're talking about. All the children who came to the earth in the usual way. The normal manner of things, if you will. This, of course, is what is called by theologians the doctrine of federal, this gets at what's called the doctrine of federal headship. Federal or covenantal. If you hear those words, you can treat them as synonyms. federal headship or covenantal headship. What we mean by this is that God, whenever he makes covenants, oftentimes does so in a way that he chooses a man that will be the representative of those who are to be concerned in that covenant, right? So a federal head, for instance, you take Abraham. Abraham is the federal head of his covenant, the covenant of circumcision. What does that mean? It means that apart from common descent from Abraham, you don't have interest in the covenant of Abraham, right? The covenant made with David, the Davidic covenant. What does that mean if he's a federal head of that covenant? It means that apart from being descendant from David, you can't be a king of Judah. You won't be one of those who God says he will preserve and always have a man to sit on that throne forever. Apart from David, you have no interest in that covenant as far as descending from him and being part of that possible line of kings. Well, the doctrine of federal headship is most important for us to recognize as regards Adam and Christ. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15. We'll be going to a number of places in scripture. We're getting into, in chapter, excuse me, in section two of chapter seven, we're outlining primarily the covenant of grace, the covenant that the Lord Jesus Christ brings, that he accomplishes, that he ratifies with his own blood. And then in chapter 3, we're going to see about all of the other covenants that are mentioned in scripture and what is their significance, what is their relation to the covenant of grace. Are they the same thing? Are they just parts of the covenant of grace and it just, we were in this part and now we're in this part and now we're in this part? I'm just going to give you a little hint. No, we're not Presbyterians and we're not dispensationalists. So, there are not parts to the covenant of grace. There is the covenant of grace and that's it. It comes when the Lord Jesus comes and it endures forever. So, 1 Corinthians 15. Verse 21 and 22, for as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. This is the most succinct summary that you can be given for the doctrine of federal headship, as by man came death, so The covenant being made with Adam not only for himself but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression. They were, all of us, represented by Adam. There's an imputation of guilt by the fall of Adam. We are born, we come forth, as the scripture says, speaking lies. We are We were made upright and yet we sought out many schemes. So, we are all in Adam if we are not in Christ. Every single man, woman, and child in the world today is either in Adam or in Christ. This is the doctrine of federal headship or covenantal headship. So, for as in Adam, all those who are in Adam, represented by Adam, descending from Adam, die. So also in Christ shall all be made alive." The gospel is to take men who are in Adam to transfer them into the kingdom of the beloved Son in whom men have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. It is to take them from being in Adam and to place them in the Lord Jesus. That becomes their identity. No longer are they a lawbreaker like their father was, but they are now counted righteous in the blood of the father's son. They are in Christ. Also, Romans 5. Verses 18 and 19, it says, therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. So we see in Adam an imputation of guilt. That because we are represented by Him, there is an inherent guiltiness. We are born stained with sin. We come forth as sinners. And so even those children that we praise God for that are being born into our church, They need to be washed in the blood of the Lamb themselves. And so we see an imputation of guilt in Adam, but in Christ we see an imputation of righteousness. That is that you and I, we can't accomplish righteousness in and of ourselves. We cannot merit righteousness by any of our good works. And even the righteousness that is given to us in Christ, it is an imputed righteousness, not an infused righteousness. What is the distinction there? An infusion means that it's something that is injected into something. It becomes part and parcel of them. So much so that we say, you are what you eat. Certainly in which that is absolutely true, right? And so if it was an infused righteousness, then all of a sudden you become inherently at the core of your essence, who you are, you become righteous. But imputed righteousness is a righteousness that is not earned by us and is not ultimately...it's not...it was given as a gift. And so rather than being something that is injected or becomes a part of me, it is rather, according to the language of Scripture, it is the corner of a garment spread across me and you. It is a robe. that covers all of our filth and our iniquity in perfect, spotless righteousness, what we just sang a few moments ago. My perfect, spotless righteousness. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us that robe of righteousness and it is a covering for all our filth. It's one of the most important doctrines of the Christian faith. And so, federal headship, as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive. The covenant of works in Adam, the covenant of grace in Christ. The nature of Adam's covenant is different than the nature of Christ's covenant. To state it most clearly, Jesus' covenant is unlike any other covenant between God and man. It's unlike any other covenant. And so, tonight, what we will survey distinctly is the natures of the covenant made with Adam over against the covenant that is brought by Christ. Beginning in chapter 7, paragraph 2, the confession says, "'Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall.'" Moreover, of course, whenever we see those therefores and moreovers, we ought to stop and realize that we're being given context. Moreover, is a manner by which we are continuing on from what was said right before. What said right before at the end of paragraph one, he'd been pleased to express that God had been pleased to express his voluntary condescension by way of covenant. Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall. So it's a continuation there. He's brought himself under the curse of this law. And so what we saw in paragraph one was that there was a distance between God and the creature that is so great. And the reason why the distance is so great is not because man fell. The distance being so great existed before man fell. It's rooted in his creatureliness. It is rooted in man simply being a creature and God, the infinite creator, being distinct, altogether holy and set apart from us. In no way is He like us. And so, it is the creator-creature distinction that is the root of man's need for God's condescension and covenant. But man's fall introduces the root of man's further need for God's condescending grace. He goes from creature to fallen creature. And so there's a great chasm of difference, excuse me, of distance. Now the chasm widens. Now, not only is there the distance inherent between God and man, between creature and Creator, but now man bears the curse which is owing to his sinful treason against the Creator. And so, it says that man has brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall. The question may rightly be asked, what law? What law? And you might think that this is a very clear cut and simple answer, but Romans 2, you don't have to turn there if you don't want to, but, because I will read it out loud for you, but Romans 2, is helpful in defining what exactly is this law that we're speaking of that man has brought himself under the curse of. For when Gentiles who do not have the law," this is verse 14 of Romans 2, for when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves. Even though they do not have the law, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. So, men have law written on their hearts. And earlier on, we mentioned, of course, the distinction between natural law, that which exists. It exists because God exists. Natural law is what it means to be holy for I am holy. All of God's attributes, His perfections, that is what makes up the sum total of the law of God. Because we are called to be like Him. And apart from Him, we cannot be. Apart from His condescension and His grace, we will not be like Him. But if He sets His affections upon us, His covenant is sure, and nothing can stop us from being made like Him. Nothing can stop us from being redeemed. So, it shows that even whenever the Gentiles who haven't been given the law, whenever He says they don't have the law, He doesn't mean, oh, they don't possess it in any way, shape, or form. He means Gentiles who don't descend from Israel, don't come from Abraham, and weren't given the law summarized in the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. They weren't given the law in this way. It doesn't mean that it's not written on their heart, because he goes on to say, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. So it's not written on tablets of stone, but it's actually written on tablets of human hearts. As Paul goes on to say in 2 Corinthians, written on tablets of human hearts is this law. And so this is the natural law. But Adam, of course, was also given an additional law. What was that? You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. So, eating the fruit of the tree broke not only God's positive, his plus law of don't eat of this tree, eat of all of the other trees, but do not eat of this one. It not only broke that, But it broke the eternal moral law of God written, the work of which is written on Adam's heart and has been written on every human's heart that came from him. It broke that eternal moral law. We've said, you've heard it before and you've seen it in scripture that if you break one I'm paraphrasing, but if you break one law, you're guilty of breaking the entirety of the law. If you break one of the commandments, you've broken all of them. And so, in Adam, taking of the fruit, he broke all ten commandments, even in that. He didn't have to be given them on tablets of stone, he had them in his heart. They were written on him inherently, just as they are in us, and he knew them. And so how did this happen? He takes the fruit that doesn't belong to him. He sets up another God. He sets up an idol in the place that belongs to the only true God. He makes a graven image, and he worships it instead of the true God. He takes a means by which God has made himself known, and he deals with it in an unholy and unfaithful manner. He takes the Lord's name in vain. By his sin, he presents himself completely incapable of resting in the Lord on the appointed day. He's broken the fourth commandment. He has despised the authority of the Lord that is affirmed in the fifth commandment. In the sixth commandment, he has committed soul murder, not only of himself, but of all who descend from him, he has killed. In the seventh, he has committed adultery against the Lord, his maker. In the eighth, he has stolen that which did not belong to him. He has taken it willingly. He has borne false witness in echoing what the serpent said in his ear, did God really say? And calling God a liar. And he has coveted that which God expressly told him did not belong to him. Yes, indeed, the transgression of Adam is the transgression of all of God's moral law. He broke all ten in one action. So continuing on. It says, it pleased the Lord. It pleased the Lord. Man having brought himself underneath the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased the Lord. We see here again that same phrase that we saw in the first. He had been pleased to express his voluntary condescension by way of covenant. And so here, it pleased again the Lord. We see that divine prerogative, a divine prerogative. in the scriptures. I'd ask you to turn here, I don't want to subject you to overmuch page flipping, but I do want to take pains to show that these things that are being said in the Confession and this exposition that you're listening to right now is firmly rooted in God's Word. It's not merely something that's been worked out and sounds really good or makes sense, just simply makes sense, but it is something that is rooted in the unchanging Word of God. Isaiah 46. These are familiar words. Remember this and stand firm. Beginning of verse 8. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old. For I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose. Calling a bird of prey from the east and a man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed and I will do it. Divine prerogative. Our catechism asks the question, did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery? And the opening words of the answer are God having out of his mere good pleasure. Why? Because it pleased him. Why did it please him? He doesn't have to tell you that. Because it pleased him. That's the answer. And yes, sir, is the response. As we tell our children. Covenant theology is inextricably bound to the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God, apart from covenant theology, completely falls apart. It is inextricably bound there. God's sovereignty is foundational and intricately interwoven throughout the theology of God's covenantal relations to man. It is the clearest affirmation that God is sovereign, that He is the one who sets up kings and deposes them, the one who directs rivers. and even every minute detail. It speaks of, in Isaiah 46, 11, it says that, calling a bird of prey from the east and a man of my counsel from a far country. So these are meant to be references of meticulous providence, very specific things that God has caused to do. Even the ants out there on the corner in the ant hill, in all of their paths, those are directed by the Lord. If that alone is not amazing, I don't know what will amaze you. Every minute detail goes according to plan and accomplishes all His purpose. So it says it pleased Him to make a covenant of grace, a covenant of grace. We go here very often, but Jeremiah 31, beginning in verse 31, "'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the Lord, "'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel "'and with the house of Judah, "'not like the covenant that I made with their fathers "'on the day when I took them by the hand "'to bring them out of the land of Egypt, "'my covenant that they broke.'" That is the covenant that was given to Moses, the law. The covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. So it pleased God to make a covenant of grace. By the covenant of grace, what we mean is that which is accomplished by Christ in the new covenant. And so you may hear us use new covenant and covenant of grace synonymously. You may hear us use those interchangeably. That's not by accident. That's not ultimately by accident. Other brothers who are of the same faith as we are do not perhaps articulate it quite as we would. But nevertheless, the foundation of the doctrine, the means by which we understand that we must be saved, these words that are affirmed in the Confession, we all affirm them just the same. But it's been true throughout Baptist history that men have have delineated the distinctions, the primary, the little bullet points of covenant theology. They've done it in different ways, some more helpful than others. We'll just say some more helpful than others. They are not all equal in their use and in their value. of your reading. So, just understand that there's been some distinction there, but nevertheless, not so much distinction that it changes ultimately the foundation of the doctrine of covenant theology, Baptist covenant theology. So, the covenant of grace, it's the work that is accomplished by Christ in the new covenant. The covenant of grace was promised in the Old Testament era, right? So, from Genesis to Malachi, you see a continual pointing forth to the Lord Jesus Christ coming. As paragraph 3 says that it's revealed first to Adam, it's revealed to him, the covenant of grace that is. And so, it's promised in the Old Testament era, and with the appearing of the Word made flesh, the covenant of grace has been fulfilled by his completed work in the new covenant. While every covenant is defined on its own, clarifying observation may be made. that every covenant falls underneath one of two headings. Works-based, that is dependent upon man's faithfulness, or grace-based, which is depending upon God's faithfulness. You remember we went to the examples, we looked at Noah, and we saw that there were no requirements placed on Noah. God simply says, as they get out of the boat, he sets his bow in the sky, he gives his sign, and he says that as sure as this is in the sky, I will never destroy all life, all flesh on the earth again by flood. I will never do that. I will preserve the setting of redemptive history. I'm not going to throw away the human race. I'm not going to abandon my plan to redeem a people for myself and to give my son a bride spotless. I'm not changing anything here. I'm reaffirming this is where it's going to happen. I'm going to preserve this earth. This is where I'm going to work these things out. It wasn't contingent upon man's faithfulness, it was all dependent upon God's faithfulness. But then we go to Abraham, and what is it that's said in Genesis 17 to Abraham? I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless. And so we see there that there is a command to be blameless. There's a command to circumcise his children. And it's said that if a man will not circumcise his children or a man will not be circumcised himself, he has broken my covenant. There's a contingency there upon man's faithfulness. It is a works-based covenant. It's something that the rewards are absolutely promised. There are promises in every covenant. There are promises But in a workspace covenant such as that made with Abraham, it is contingent upon your faithfulness as a descendant of Abraham and your keeping my command of being circumcised, and then later, of course, keeping the whole of the law, dwelling in the land of Canaan, setting up kings, and they're supposed to live righteously and show what righteousness is supposed to be to the people. And yet those things can be broken because they're works. But the covenant of grace is of an altogether different nature because it is contingent upon God's faithfulness. Now Noah's covenant was contingent upon God's faithfulness, but there was no redemption promised in that. No one was saved by means of the Noahic covenant. No one is saved by that. The Noahic Covenant preaches Christ. It points forward to Christ. It is a type and a shadow of Christ, who in 1 Peter 3, it says that the ark is a type of Christ. Again, keeping with the language of federal headship, in Christ. We are hidden in Christ, so in the same way that Noah and his family was hidden in the ark. It preaches Christ from afar. But it does not save itself. It points to the one who saves. It points to the covenant that saves. The covenant of grace is the only covenant by which any man, any descendant of Adam, sinful Adam, has been saved. And so, two types of covenants, works-based, man's faithfulness, grace-based, God's faithfulness. It says, continuing on, wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him that they may be saved. It says he freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ. The freeness, the freely offered, the freeness here is not speaking of anything before speaking of God's freeness. It is a freely given thing. It's because God is free to give it. He freely offers them. It's not just simply that this offer is free. No, God has freedom in Himself to do what He wishes, to do this how He wants to do it, and it is His freedom that issues forth in a free offer to us, the free offer of the gospel. Based upon no external coercion, but purely out of His own pleasure, God freely offers life and salvation to sinners through His Son. But by what means does God send this free offer? You remember Romans 10, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then are they to call upon him in whom they've not believed? How are they to believe in him of whom they've never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? So God does this work primarily through the means of preaching. We hear means of grace preaching every Lord's Day. Preaching is the primary means of grace. It is God's primary means of communicating His grace to His people and keeping them to Himself and converting them to a more Christward way of life. It is God's primary means for sanctifying us. All the more reason we see that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Every chance I have to be underneath preaching in my local congregation, I want to be there. Because God has promised to give me good for it. Why would I not attend that? God's promised to meet us in his table. Why would, if we're given the opportunity to do it every week, why would we not? And so I want as much grace as I can receive. And so I want to put myself, I want to place myself underneath the flow of that grace as consistently as I possibly can. I hope you do too. So thus we see the manner in which we must preach freely. It's given freely. It's preached to men freely, to all men without distinction. It's a free offer of God's mercy made to all men. He goes on to say that it's requiring of them faith in Him that they may be saved. So there is a requirement here that's placed. Now you've heard, of course, us saying that all of these others, these works, covenants, are contingent upon man's faithfulness. Now if there's a requirement placed upon man, how is this not then requiring something of man How is it not requiring man's faithfulness in this covenant of grace? The answer is found in Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, and these are familiar words, you'll likely be able to quote them. Ephesians 2, verse 8, beginning of verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." So how is it a requirement? Because faith is a gift. Faith is the open hand that receives the Lord Jesus. It is an open hand that lays there and is given. It has the gift placed in its hand. But he goes on, he goes on in the confession, requiring of them faith in him that they may be saved. and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life his Holy Spirit to make them willing and able to believe. So how are we to think of this? Our catechism asks the question, what is effectual calling? And the answer is, effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us You hear that? Persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered, freely offered to us in the gospel. It's almost as if these documents were made by the same man, meaning the catechism and the confession. It's almost as if they were drafted by the same man, believed by the same man, using the same language. That is effectual calling, enabling us to embrace Jesus Christ freely, to persuade and enable us to embrace him. And so we read John 6, 44 earlier in our call to worship that all that the Father gives me will come to me, and no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. That is effectual calling. So what is required of men to believe is nothing less than a spiritual resurrection. We remember the words of Ezekiel 36, 26, I will take from you your heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh. It is nothing less than a spiritual resurrection from the dead that makes men alive and able to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to men in the gospel. The free offer is universal. It is given to all men. We don't make distinction. We don't look and say, you know, based off these studies that I've seen, these particular men are more likely to believe, so I'm going to focus my efforts on them. I'm going to preach to them and to where I think they are walking right now, because I'm most certain that among all of the lost people here, those men are probably elect. No, of course not. Election is God's providence. It is God's secret providence. It's God's secret knowledge. It's not for us. Election is a wonderful doctrine because it is, again, a restatement of how it's a different angle, again, looking at God's sovereignty and how God's plans never fail and that he will do all that he has purposed. Everything works for his purpose and nothing escapes that purpose. So the free offer is universal, yes. The preaching of the gospel is to be done indiscriminately, casting seed. without looking at the state of the soil, just cast the seed, just cast the seed. But the promise of regeneration is a promise that is to the elect only, that all that the father gives to the son come to him. That promise is only given to those to whom the Father gives to His Son. And so we see the words of Acts 13, 48 of the Gentiles. It says that they believed and as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. Not as many who believed were then ordained into eternal life. There were not new names written down in glory when that happened, but those who were written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world, as many as were ordained to that eternal life, they believed. And so, in closing, the covenant of grace is the foundation of man's redemption and salvation. It's the foundation of all of it. It runs throughout scripture. It is pointed to in the Old Testament era. It is revealed fully and ratified in the new covenant. by the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. This chapter is the foundation, as you've heard me say a couple of lessons ago, is the foundation for the next 13 chapters. The next 13 chapters. So, you don't have to look at this, but the table of contents of God's covenant is where we're at. Of Christ the mediator, how do we receive this covenant? Who's the only Redeemer of God's elect? The Lord Jesus Christ. Of free will, how are we to think of the will by which we lay hold of Christ? Effectual calling. This is the means by which we've already established that we're called to God, effectually enabling us to embrace Jesus Christ, persuading and enable us to embrace him. Effectual calling. Well, what's the works of effectual calling? Justification, adoption, sanctification. That's part of your salvation as well, right? Those are components. Saving faith, what is the nature of saving faith? That's rooted in the covenant of grace. Repentance of life and unto life and salvation, of good works, of perseverance. What do all these things look like? The covenant of grace is the foundation of every single one of these. Of assurance, we've already stated that the covenant of grace is the foundation of assurance for all who believe because this covenant has to fail before your salvation can fail. The law of God, how is it that we are to walk and how do we think of the law of God? Is it a terrible thing now? No, it's the way in which we live because we want to be holy as God is holy. And finally, chapter 20 of the gospel. of the grace thereof, where we end up finding ourselves back at what we're touching on here in the doctrine of election, that the seed of the gospel goes out indiscriminately, that the free offer is cast before all men without distinction, without discrimination, but yet the extent of the grace is contingent upon God's secret work, God's secret purpose in saving men whom He wills. But the wondrous thing of this is that God justifies wicked men, that God has seen fit, that he has been pleased to, in sending his son, make men new and justify them based on no righteousness that they possess of their own, only because of his son. He's pleased to do this. Why? We don't have to know why he's pleased to do this. We only see continually, God only does that which pleases him. And that's the best news for us. The best news for us who have laid hold of Christ in truth, by faith, because we know that in God saving us, it wasn't a mistake. It was a special thing that pleased God. And so we see those words. We close with Isaiah 43. Read these a couple of lessons ago. These are precious words, and I think they merit repeating again. The foundation of the covenant of grace is the eternal decree of the decrees of this God. And that includes this covenant of grace. Isaiah 43, but now thus says the Lord. He who created you, O Jacob. He who formed you, O Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as a ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you, because you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you. I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold. Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the end of the earth. everyone who was called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Brothers and sisters, we have been made for the glory of this glorious king who deserves all of the glory that exists. Let us rejoice with joy and expressible and full of glory that God is pleased through his son to justify the wicked in his covenant of grace, to make men new, and to promise to keep them throughout all generations. Let's pray. Our Father, we do thank you once again for the privilege of opening your word and for surveying your faithfulness as attested to in all its pages. We ask that you would indeed through these things inflame within us love toward you, deepen our unity in the faith, cause us to behold the marvelous redemption that our triune God works for the sake of his people and for the sake of his glory. help us to regard doctrines such as these with the right heart to not cast them off, but to see their use to see that they they bear weight on our soul and that they serve our good. We ask that as we're about to partake of this food you set before us that you would use it to strengthen us, that you would bless our time together, cause us to spur one another on to good works. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand. Praise and glory to the Father. Praise and glory to the Son. Praise and glory to the Spirit. Ever three and ever one. Go in the peace of Christ to the back tables and enjoy some food and some fellowship. The Lord be with you.