I've preached this sermon to myself about eight times in the last couple of days. And each time the brief version was about 90 minutes. So don't worry. You'll be in home time for supper. Okay. Nobody threw anything. Yeah. Well, um, we've been talking about the, First covenant, the covenant of works required perfect perpetual obedience to the word of God. Salvation depended upon a man keeping the law of God. And you saw how long that worked out. The second covenant, the covenant of God didn't have to hurry around and come up with plan B. It was already in place. He foreknew before the foundation of the world, as scripture says, he had the plan of salvation already worked out. What is salvation? Well, a right relationship with God. You could define that in a whole bunch of different ways, and that's okay, but I would suggest that's a pretty broad definition of being saved out of what we were, hell-bound sinners with no hope in this world or in eternity, nothing to look forward to but judgment under the wrath of God. Salvation is more than fire insurance. Salvation takes us into a right relationship with God, our Heavenly Father. Old Testament salvation, New Testament salvation, one in the same, right relationship with God. So think with me for a few moments, please. And for those of you taking notes, point one, how is the law the covenant of works, how is that similar to grace, the covenant of grace? So that's point one, law, grace, works, grace. Second, how are they different from free sovereign grace? How is, I'm sorry, how is the law? from free sovereign grace. And third, and this is really where it's going, if you are not a child of God, if you have not professed Jesus as Savior and Lord, if you have not asked him to take your guilt and wipe it away by his blood and to give you his spirit, if you have not done that, I hope you'll be tuned in as we get down to point three, how can I, be saved, and have a right relationship with God. You see lots of answers. Some of my favorites are clothing. I love my good friends at home, but you'll know they're Christians because they wear, and the men wear, a black flat-top hat. Don't think so. I don't see any black flat-top hats here, do I? Okay, good, good. How can I be saved and have a right relationship with God? And frankly, the short answer of that is, it is by God's initiative, His eternal plan. So, the similarities between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. This, by the way, if it's simply academic and intellectual, let's just go home. It's not, it is highly personal. This has to do with your life in this life, and it has to come, it has to do with eternity, future, unending future, either in the presence of a loving heavenly God and of the saints or under the torment of Satan and his minions forever. That's kind of the options. Well, God is the author of both the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. He wrote the contract as it were. He told Adam exactly. God is the originator. God didn't wait around to see if Adam was going to have some sense of life outside his parameters and wait for Adam to have some happy thoughts and come looking for God? He is as dumb as a box of rocks, you know? What did he know? Not much. God authored the plan of salvation covenant of works. And he also authored the covenant of grace. It was God who initiated the relationship. Genesis three and God said, Adam didn't, the text doesn't say an Adam was looking around and said, where's God. Are you out there? He wasn't looking for him. And when I was young and a little wild, I wasn't looking for him either. I was afraid he was around because I'd heard he was there, but I didn't particularly want him. Uh, I hope nobody in this congregation can give me a rousing. Amen. But we weren't looking for God. Adam wasn't looking for God. God initiated the covenant. And he came down not to negotiate, well, what would you like? What can I do for you? What are some things we can agree on together? That's not how it worked out, is it? And God said. He was the initiator of it. He was pursuing Adam. And if you are saved by the blood of Christ, it is because Christ was pursuing you, not because you were so righteous. He is the pursuer. I forget who it was, probably Spurgeon, called God the hound of heaven. He will not let any of his elect go. He will pursue. I'm probably not the only guy who had a father who could be just a little rougher than rough. You didn't really want to, irritate him. And he didn't wait around for us to make good decisions. He intervened when we were making bad decisions. And I didn't recognize this at the time. Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. What was God doing? He was speaking as father through a father to a wayward son. saying, that's not pleasing to our heavenly father. And to help you remember that, and that's where the discipline came in. He pursued when we were running away, he pursued doggedly the hound of heaven. You ever watched a hound pack? I've only done this a very few times. You turn them loose, and they run around sniffing. They're looking for that fox. And when they first smell it, immediately, the sound they're making is different. And you know they've got a hot one, and they are after them. And they'll go through the water. They will jump walls. They will do anything. They do not wait. They pursue. And I'm thankful that God has brought some hard times perhaps into your life. I don't know, but I suspect it's probably true. And what was he doing? He was saying, hey, I'm here and I am after you. Yeah, this is bad stuff. Turn to me. Why will you die? Turn to me. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. You got a burden of sin. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your soul." He was emphatic in his pursuit of us. God entered into both covenants. He was not an observer. He was and is personally involved. He comes one by one to his people. He entered into both covenants voluntarily participating in them each and that goes on. He doesn't save us and then turn us loose. And you've probably been around just enough of some of these tent revivals and all that. The way you get saved is you come down front and you do something and then you go out the door and you live the same way. until another traveling evangelist comes through with his tent and pleads and urges and you come forward again and you get saved over and over and it doesn't change what you're doing by next Thursday. That's not salvation. Salvation is coming to Christ, not to a preacher or an organization or to a theological position. When he pursues, he is calling us to himself. The covenant of works includes Adam, but do you notice there in Genesis 3, he is also immediately talking about his offspring, the passage that we read, the psalm we sang. Adam's posterity was involved in each of them. And then it gets down to Abraham and it becomes much more pronounced you notice a half a dozen, I think seven times in the passage I read descendants occurs. That's a major role. It isn't just you. He has a plan for eternity, a plan for the ages. I so often failed. Dad's Our duty is to share the gospel with our children so that they come to know Christ one-to-one. It isn't enough to know about him. It isn't enough to have their name on the church roll. It is to know him. Our descendants are our duty. They are our obligation, not only to them, hopefully to free them from the chains of sin and from the flames of hell, but to honor Jesus of Nazareth, to bring them to know him in a personal way. And that's the conclusion of the covenants. No, the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. He is the main character of both covenants. He's the main character of the covenant of works because he kept it. Adam didn't, we don't, but Christ always did the will of the father. And so when he died, it wasn't for his sins. It was for the sins of all those who would believe upon him. Jesus, the central figure. in the covenant of works and of the covenant of grace. Jesus kept the law. He kept the first covenant that in the second he might give, yes, he gave his life as a ransom for many, that he might give the Holy Spirit, that he might give forgiveness of sins. Christ is in both covenants. The promise of both covenants, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, is for the human race to receive eternal life in the presence of the biblical God. He did not create us to send us to hell. He created us for a relationship with himself, and he came himself to call. And His Holy Spirit came and wrote that book we call the Bible, the infallible, inspired, inerrant Word of God. There is not a lie in here, not a mistake in here. He gives that so that you don't have to trust me or any preacher. Get your Bible out and read. And I hope the passages I've read will show up in your personal devotional life in the next few days. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as he is revealed here, not as I might preach him or somebody else might preach him. He is revealed here, not by some church teaching, but personally very present. And he came to give eternal life to all those who will trust in him. One of the main goals and purposes of both covenants is God's glory. Shorter catechism, question one. Some of you know that. Catechism question number one. What I'm going to have to do for time constraints, and it's probably a good thing, would you turn with me, please, in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter two? And this is point three of the Consideration, the first covenant works, second covenant, grace. Christ is the fulfiller of both of them, and by his merit, he can pay the penalty for the sins of those who come to him in confession and repentance, who come to him in faith. We spoke of him as the one who makes the covenant of grace, remember? Because God is holy and we are not, There is a need for a bridge, a human mediator, but who can that be? I can't mediate with God on your behalf. I'm a sinner. It was essential that Jesus Christ be the son of God and fully human and in a miracle. And my God is able to do a miracle. I'm not worried about what some other folks might say. He overshadows. That's a great word. the ovum in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Jesus was gestated, he was born, he was suckled, he was raised fully man, but fully God. He didn't give up one to be the other. And because he is both God and man, he can mediate between us and God. Take our petitions to the father, for instance, talk to him on our behalf, which he does. He intercedes for us. The scripture says intercedes for us. So let's look then briefly at Ephesians chapter two. We're talking here of salvation. The old condition, dead to God, but this is written to believers and you, God made alive. You were dead, D-E-D, dead in trespasses, violating the law, sin. You once walked in trespasses and sins according to the course of this world, just like everybody else. You want to be popular, just choose your sin and find the folks that are specializing in it, right? The sins in which you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. talking Satan and his minions. Remember there's war in heaven, Satan is defeated, he's cast out, comes to earth. And the first thing he does is he finds the innocent woman who was ignorant because her husband failed. She sins and he chooses to sin very intentionally and coldly. The spirit of Disobedience continues in our country, and I don't think I have to say anything more than that. You can picture it. You know something about the news, don't you? Among the sons of disobedience, among whom we also once conducted ourselves, yep, in the lusts, the desires of our flesh and of our mind, our imaginations, we were by nature, our fallen sinful human nature, children of wrath. Scripture says, yea, God is angry every day at our sins and at us as sinners. But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he lived, with which he loved us, that's pretty incredible. is it 8 billion people in the world? And I don't know what percentage of them are born again Bible believing, Jesus loving Christians. I don't know. But He came with great love and loved us as sinners, even when we were dead in trespasses. And he made us alive together with Christ by his grace, not because we did something good. And he raised us up out of what? Out of death and out of hell. That's where we were headed. Don't have time to preach on that. He raised us up, but you notice the word together? Together with Christ and together with one another. Christianity is not a big game of solitaire. It's a family thing. He made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And the trumpet shall sound and the dead in Christ shall be raised. Remember all those great promises? Go listen to the Messiah this afternoon. He put, He caused us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come, He could show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us, us in Christ Jesus. There is no other way, no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. If you're going to be saved, it's got to be through Christ alone. We have his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, if you know Christ, this is written to you. For by grace, you have been saved from hell. Through faith, not perfect obedience. And that not of yourself, your faith is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Too often in America, my estimation, the gospel is kind of preached and you know, so now you've made God happy, now go and live like the rest of the world. So many Christians do. We just look just exactly like the unbelievers around us. Same value, same activities, same expenses. We are called out of that into a life of good works. Good being that which father says is good. Good obeying what he has written for us here. What does he say? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. And so we're all social workers, not for the government trying to hand out tax dollars to make other people happy. We come as social workers, see a need, meet it what you can, help out where you can. I'm not responsible for every child starving in some other continent, but we do what we can where God has put us. And the proof of what we believe is what we do. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. He calls us not to be a holy huddle hiding out from the world like a bunch of my Amish friends. He calls us to be deeply involved in the world. I love it. Jesus was a laboring guy, common guy, had a job. You know, if it was today, he'd be lying under a car as a mechanic. What was he doing? He's a builder, a construction guy, doing practical things. He was one of us. He identified with us and yet he is king of kings. He understands us. We can talk to him in a particular way, the way of intimacy. are saved by grace through faith. It is a gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works." If you've been saved, saved out of Hell, saved out of all these satanic things you are saved to something. You are saved to a life of service. And in my hypocrisy let me say saved to a life of evangelism. I have so often failed. But that's an essential part of who we are. Let me tell you about daddy. Good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That is, I think, a reasonable, condensed form of the scripture and its teaching about salvation. And it isn't enough then to say, well, like the guy told me years ago, he said, in August of 1962, I walked the sawdust trail at a camp meeting and I was saved. And? Well, there wasn't any and. That was it. Well, that wasn't saved. He doesn't save us to go on like we were. He saves us out of slavery to Satan and sin into the glorious liberties of Christ. He saved us to be his children and representatives in the world. Good timing.