Alright, well good morning everyone. It's nice to see you as always. Let's begin with prayer. Father, we thank you for your loving kindness and your grace and your mercy in our lives. Lord, you are truly wonderful and beautiful beyond compare. And Lord, we praise you and we thank you for this day that you've granted us and for your kind providence towards us and drawing us near to you to be with your people and to hear from your word, to give you praise, to give you thanksgiving, to give you honor and glory, and to let our requests be made known to you and to receive from your kind hand, Lord. You truly are excellent. And You are excellence, Lord. And we thank You and we praise You for Your kindness towards us. And we ask, Lord, that as we look into the things of Your Word, that You would help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Your Son, and that You would draw us ever nearer to Him, conforming us into His image, and that You would, by Your Spirit, work in us the willing and the doing according to Your good pleasure. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Welcome. All right, so back to the covenant of works. We should be basically wrapping up what our argument is for there being a covenant of works from scripture, though it's a theme that we will return to again, particularly we'll talk about it again when we talk about the Mosaic covenant and Is that a covenant of works? Is that a republication of the covenant of works? Is it an administration of the covenant of grace? What are the relationship between those two things? And again, in talking about the covenant of grace as an execution of the first covenant, the covenant of grace to us being a covenant of works for Christ, in order for us to obtain the righteousness we need, in order to be saved, in order to be forgiven. So the themes that we've talked about the last several weeks in looking at the scriptural argument for there being a covenant of works, we're going to see those themes come up again. What I want to do today is sort of wrap up as best we can Just to summarize the discussion of a covenant of works, I want to talk about, largely what we'll talk about will be review, especially for those of you who are here for the Westminster Confession class, about the fall of man and the effects of that fall because it's related to the issue of the covenant of works specifically. are the effects of that covenant of works being broken. So we'll be looking at the doctrine of total depravity or total inability, which I think is a better way of putting it. And then, Lord willing, as we wrap up some of that discussion, we'll talk about the really where we first start to hear about the covenant of grace in Genesis chapter 3 next week, and then leading up to the Noahic covenant, which is going to be an interesting discussion because that covenant is very interesting in many, many ways. and then Lord willing from there once we will move on to the Mosaic Covenant. And I think as you'll see as we do that, as we move on to the various covenants, I think that the argument for there being a covenant of works will be strengthened in your mind in particular because there's a, as again, these elements of covenant we'll see those established in the establishment of the various covenants subsequent to the fall of man. We'll see that there's a pattern, or there's a language, there's a way of talking about covenants being, the scriptures talk about covenants being established in a certain way, and there's certain markers that show up again and again, and I think that as we see that, and I'll point it out, the argument for there being a covenant of works should be strengthened, I think, in your minds. All right, and then again, that argument just basically is that, you know, and we're using Palmer Robertson's definition for a covenant that's an oath or a bond in blood that's sovereignly administered. It's not exhaustive, but it encapsulates some of the main aspects of what a covenant is as Scripture talks about it, and I think it's very helpful. For those of you who want to do extracurricular study on it, O. Paul Robertson's book, Christ of the Covenants, is an excellent book, very helpful on this subject. But again, the argument is that There's a covenant of works, and we say so because the elements of a covenant are present, even though the Word is not present. We see the presence of blessings and cursings. We see, and I think probably one of the strongest strands in the argument is the parallel that's made between Adam and Christ, which we've been looking at the previous two weeks, from Romans 5 in particular, and then also 1 Corinthians 15. Again, Paul's argument is that, and this is Guy Waters again, if Paul understands Jesus' representative work in covenantal terms, And if Paul understands Jesus and Adam to be parallel as representative persons, then we are bound to understand Adam's representative work in covenantal terms. So in short, what he's arguing is that we have Christ, we have the revelation of Christ in the New Testament, and he's clearly put forth to us in covenantal terms. He's clearly put forth to us as the mediator of the new covenant. He's the one who establishes the new covenant in his blood. and that he is the representative of his people before God, and that all those who are in him are justified, are sanctified, and saved, essentially. So if we see that parallel, if we see that clearly that Christ is represented to us in this fashion, and then we see that Scripture explicitly makes a parallel between Adam and Christ, and Christ being the second Adam, then we are justified in understanding Adam in covenantal terms, that Adam is a representative, a covenantal representative. He goes on, Paul would therefore have us see both the command that God gave to Adam and Adam's disobedience to that command in an entirely covenantal framework. For these reasons, we conclude that Paul understood God to have entered into a covenant with Adam as a representative man, or federal head, is what we talk about as the federal. When you hear federal in regards to Christian theology, you think covenantal. That's essentially what's from the Latin term. representative. The outcome of this covenant was contingent on Adam's works, that is, obedience or disobedience to God's commands. It is true to Paul then to denominate this covenant the covenant of works. We may now consider, and we did this in the previous weeks, and he goes on to talk about what we talked about in Romans chapter 5 and in 1 Corinthians 15, so that That parallel, which what we've looked at, and you can go back and listen to the classes on it, between Adam and Christ is really very clear. That all in Adam die, all in Christ live. One man's disobedience led to condemnation to all. One man's obedience led to salvation for all. So, we've argued that there need not be an explicit mention of the term covenant of works in order for us to make that conclusion. that God and Adam were in a covenantal relationship. Since the elements of a covenant which are identified in subsequent passages of Scripture, and again that's what I was talking about just a moment ago, that we're going to rehash those things. We're going to see, we'll see particularly when it comes to the Abrahamic covenant and the Noahic covenant and again in the Mosaic covenant. There's a pattern of covenants being established in Scripture and the language that it's used. I think as we look at that more clearly, again, the argument for there being a covenant works will be shored up in your minds, Lord willing. So since those elements of a covenant which are identified in subsequent passages of Scripture, where covenant language is used, they're present in the Genesis narrative. Again, because of Paul's linking of Adam and Christ in a covenantal way, it really is a good and necessary deduction from Scripture that the covenant of works is a biblical concept. If you're talking with other Christians about this and discussing with them, they offer that, well, there's no covenant even mentioned in that passage. That argument really shouldn't, you should be able to kind of respectfully brush that aside. It's not as strong an argument as people think that it is. It really isn't. It kind of comes really more from a Biblicist perspective where People in their minds, even though no one does this consistently, they want to have an explicit passage, an explicit mention of something in order for a doctrine to be quote-unquote biblical. But really, there's so much of what we talked about. We went over this when we went through the Nicene Creed. We don't see the statements that the Nicene Creed makes explicitly about the person of Christ, but what we see in the Nicene Creed is a bringing together of all that the Scriptures have to say about the person of Christ and putting it together in language that is not contradictory and that is graspable for us to understand all that the Scriptures have to say. and gives us a boundary marker for being able to argue against the notion that Christ is anything less than the eternal Son of God of the same nature as the Father. I guess, just as I'm listening to you, it seems that you're talking about a covenant works throughout Scripture. And the only place I see it is with Adam. No, no, that's not, that's not, no, no, no, don't apologize. What I'm saying is that we see the elements of different covenants, the covenant of grace in particular as it's administered throughout the scriptures, we still see those same covenantal elements, not that the covenants themselves are the same. that the covenant of grace is the same as the covenant of works, but that we see that the understanding that the scriptures give us of a covenant are present in the establishment of the covenant of works. So that there's parallels there, there's similarities there even though the covenants themselves are different. The covenant of works differs greatly from the covenant of grace from our perspective. But before moving on to the Noahic covenant, I want to look just briefly, this is from Dr. Richard Belcher's section on covenant theology on the issue, and I think I used to have it up here anyway, of the argument for there being an explicit statement of a covenant from Hosea 6. He writes, it's also significant that another passage in the Old Testament refers to God's relationship with Adam in Genesis 1-3 with the term covenant. Hosea 6-7 states, but like Adam they transgressed the covenant. There they dealt faithlessly with me. Much discussion centers on whether Adam is a personal name, a generic use referring to humanity because the name Adam means man, or a place name. Support for the place name Adam comes from the use of the adverb there in the next clause. This would refer to some transgression of the covenant that took place at Adam. Yet no scriptural evidence of covenant breaking at Adam exists. Also, this view requires that the preposition before Adam be amended from like. Preposition like supports the view that Adam is a reference either to the first human being who broke the covenant through his disobedience, or to human beings who show themselves to be men in violating the covenant. The generic view of human beings takes away from the forceful comparison between the Israelites and Adam as covenant breakers. In the context of Hosea 6, 6-10, the adverb there could be referring to the false worship at Bethel. Others are persuaded that the adverb there is referring to a place name, but also believe that Adam is referring to a personal name. In this view, the prophet makes a pun on the name of the town and the name of the first transgressor, so that the reference is to both. Now, Hosea is well known for his use of word plays and metaphors. He also refers many times to the stories of Genesis. The least likely view is that Hosea 6-7 is referring only to a geographical location where Israel broke a covenant. Whether Adam refers only to the first man or is a pun that refers to both a person and a place, Hosea 6-7 identifies Adam as a covenant breaker to make the point that the Israelites are also covenant breakers and will experience the consequences of breaking the covenant. And I tend to agree with this. It does seem that, and it is debatable, but it does seem that Hosea 6 is actually referring to the fact that there was a covenant between God and Adam, and identifies Adam particularly as covenant breaker. Now, how could he be a covenant breaker if there was no covenant there for him to break? So, there's just briefly just to give an argument. And again, It's a good verse to bring up with people and say, well, there's no explicit mention. Just to even get the ball rolling in their mind, like, oh, maybe there's more to this Reformed theology and Covenant theology than what I recognize. And in general, particularly in our area, that's gonna be the case. Covenant theology is a foreign subject to many, many Christians for a variety of reasons. All right, so that's that. All right. The Fall. Oh wait, before we move on, any comments or questions? Hosea 6, 7. All right. Okay, the fall. Let's see. Again, from the book Covenant Theology, Dr. John Currid writes, and again, that's an excellent book. It's from the Faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary, various professors there, each covering a different aspect of covenant theology. A very, very helpful book. He writes, the consequences of Adam and Eve breaking the covenant of works through their sinful behavior were staggering and far-reaching. And this is an important thing for us to grasp because it helps us to understand I was having a discussion the other day with someone about the fact that in my life and in our lives and I think in the church abroad, one of the problems or one of the difficulties that we have is really grasping the sinfulness of sin. And also along with that, in failing to grasp the sinfulness of sin or the wickedness of sin, we also fail to grasp the holiness of God. One thing really helps us to see the other. Because if we have a light view of sin and a light view of the holiness of God, what also are we going to have a light view of? Punishment. the punishments, God's holiness, but the cross and what Christ did, what He actually accomplished for us. I think that to the degree that we have, and none of us are going to, if we were able to see the sinfulness of our sin as God sees it, if such a thing were possible, we would be absolutely horrified. It would destroy us. But I do believe that to the degree that we have an apprehension of how heinous our sin is, actually is, and how holy God is, I think to that degree we grow in our appreciation and our love for what Christ has done for us and the gratitude that we ought to have for what He's done. And to consider the weightiness of such passages of Scripture where it says that He was made sin for us. That He who knew no sin was made sin for us. You know, we start to have an understanding of really what Christ was starting to go through in the garden when He was sweating, as it were, great drops of blood. And He was praying to the Father, if it's possible, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from Me. Because He's the eternal Son of God, perfect in holiness, who enjoyed the eternal blessedness of communion with the Father and the Spirit and the joy and loving of the nature of God and of the holiness and of the goodness of God. It was horrifying to him to think that he was going to be made to be sin and the object of sin and to suffer that. To suffer that punishment, it's, so I think, you know. So that we might have the righteousness, so that the very thing which he possessed in and of himself from all eternity, that righteousness, that same righteousness may be credited to us. You know, as if you were at the service, the funeral service yesterday, as James said, that for the ungodly to be made righteous, It's another worldly love that God has for us that he would give us such a thing. So it's important for us, long story short, it's important for us to grasp, I think, really what the effects of the fall are and what Adam's transgression and our subsequent guilt because of that really means. because it helps us to understand so many other aspects of the scripture. It helps us to understand the graciousness of God, the love of God, the mercy of God, the grace of the covenant of grace, the holiness of God. It's... Clark, the sinfulness of sin is so easily dismissed. People look at the garden and they ate fruit. Yeah, big deal. But to will, apart from the will of God, is huge. you know, think you know better, basically. Yeah, and like, to essentially say to God, who is goodness itself, who is the highest, the highest of standards to us, and the source of true and ultimate blessedness to us, to say no to that, is a huge affront. And to say no to that knowing when you've been told if you do this you will die. And it's exceedingly evil. The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it this way, quote, Sin simply darkened and distorted the hearts and minds of humanity. In addition, sin has resulted in the death of the human body. As Paul comments in Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death. God had threatened Adam with that punishment for covenantal disobedience, and it came to pass. The upshot is that by their rebellion, Adam and Eve lost their lives, both physically and spiritually. Dr. Kirk goes on, covenants are communal and generational. So when our first parents revolted against the covenant of works, that's a huge statement actually. Covenants are communal and generational. Our sin doesn't, no man's an island. Our sin doesn't just affect ourselves. It doesn't. Even our secret sins that no one knows about, it at least affected Christ. Did it not? Look what Christ had to do to overcome that, to overcome the evil thoughts that arise in our hearts. The same death and sin and corrupted nature was conveyed to all their prosperity, descending from them by ordinary generation. In Edom, Adam was the covenant representative for all mankind. When he broke the covenant, he brought a curse down on all those he represented." So, from that sentence, think about, you know, Bill, you mentioned, well, they just ate fruit. Think about what that eating of the fruit brought about. Let's just go back to the last 150, 200 years of human history. We just came out of the 20th century, which by all accounts is the bloodiest, most violent history in human history. Tens of millions of people butchered by their own governments or by foreign governments. Death on a massive scale. Just think of this small portion of time. Atomic bombs being set off, cities being leveled, on and on and on the list could go. And those are massive atrocities, and we think of the World Wars, but think about just the growth in criminality and crime and lasciviousness in our own society. day after day after day, that's a result that comes about as a result of one man's disobedience. So it is no light thing for us to consider, again, this exceeding sinfulness of sin and the tragedy that came about as a result of one man's disobedience to God. Now, thank the Lord and praise Him. What Christ has done, what one man's obedience has done, will bring about something even far exceeding the great tragedy that's befallen humanity, ultimately in the new heavens and the new earth. A far greater amount of blessing than cursing and evil and wickedness that was brought into the world. But that doesn't change the gravity of what Adam has done and what has been unleashed on the world. Because of Adam's sin, all people are born sinners and are held accountable for Adam's original sin. God simply imputes or credits Adam's sin to all who descend from Adam. As David proclaims in Psalm 51 5, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Evidence that this curse is in effect for all humanity is clearly seen in the genealogy of Genesis 5, which I believe we've mentioned, in which all the people except Enoch are described by the ringing, insistent refrain, and he died, and he died, and he died. Read the first 11 chapters of Genesis and just underline how many times that phrase comes across. Moses is making a point here. what God said in the garden, and the day that you eat of it, you will die. That phrase, that pronunciation is far weightier than just mere physical death. And we, as we'll see hopefully in the next few moments, it takes into account all that scripture has to say to us about what death is, about what it talks to us about being dead in sin and trespasses. We may be walking around conscious of breathing and alive, but yet we're dead. were dead in sin and trespasses. Again, hopefully this will be helpful. We've gone over this in previous classes, but just for us to keep it in mind again. I believe it's Thomas Boston who put forth what's called the fourfold state of man, where he talks about all that scripture has to say to us about the state of man from Genesis to Revelation. Obviously, we get Adam, the pre-fall. Good and holy, yet mutable, able, to not sin and able to sin. All right? So that's Adam before the fall. He was good. God created him good. But he also created him with the capacity to do evil. Created him with the ability, he was mutable. He could sin, obviously, is what scripture says to us. Post-fall, Adam rendered himself able only to sin. That even in his efforts in and of himself, and this is apart from the grace of God at work in his life or our lives, we are only able to sin. That even when we would do good, evil is present. And that doesn't mean, and this is important, that doesn't mean that human beings are as evil as they possibly could be. That would be utter depravity. It doesn't mean that we can't be kind to one another, that human beings don't take care of one another, that on a horizontal humanly level, we can't do good in that sense. But what it means is that in all of those things that we would call good, they are sinful. that they fall short of the glory of God, that they are not done with entire love and devotion towards God, that we do not love God with all our hearts, mind, soul, and strength, that we do not love our neighbor as ourself. So that even in the kindness of a grandmother to her grandchildren, apart from the grace of God, even that kindness is idolatrous and marked and stained by sin in some way. All right, is everybody tracking with that? Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. All right, and then this next state, regenerated. I should put regenerated. I don't know why it's harder to write on boards. Oh my goodness, let's regenerated. It's always harder to spell when people are watching for some reason. So, prior to leaving this life and going to be in the presence of the Lord, those whom God raises from spiritual death to spiritual life, grants them the Holy Spirit, regenerates them, grants them faith and repentance in Christ, unites them spiritually to Christ, those people are progressively sanctified That means bit by bit made more and more like Jesus. And it gives us an ability able to do good by God's grace, yet imperfectly. So sin is still present with us, as Paul says very clearly in Romans chapter seven, but we are enabled by the Spirit of God to do good. That we do, though still tainted with sin, but that sin being covered and cleansed, that we're able to accomplish things that are of spiritual benefit. Not in the sense of earning our righteousness before God, but things that are actually good. like believing in the gospel, trusting in Christ, loving the brethren, loving God, worshiping God, those things are good. And we are progressively enabled to do those things, to repent, to turn away from sin. We are enabled to do that because of what Christ has done for us. Sin is still present though. And then lastly, the glorified state, no longer able to sin. We are rendered holy and blameless. And, you know, people talk about, you know, free will and the issue of, you know, if God loves us and he's going to keep us free, we've got to be able to do evil. I would argue that we are no more free than we are in this state right here, where we are rendered immutably good, no longer able to sin. All right. Any comments or questions there? Just to give us a refresher. Yeah, and you know as the Westminster Confession talks about, I can't, forgive me, I don't remember which chapter it is, but we do have free will in a sense. It always comes down to how it is that we're defining it. We have free will in the sense that we make our own decisions, and those decisions are voluntary. We do what we want to do. But the issue is that because of the fall, because of our fallen nature, what we want to do is sin. And that when we're presented with the good, when we're presented with the gospel, apart from the grace of God, we will always reject it. We will always choose an alternative. It's, Christ says, and I think we're gonna go over it in a second, in John chapter six, no one, except the Father who sent me draws them, no one's able to come to me. I think it's John 6, 44. And the language there is very, very strong in the Greek texts. It's no one has the ability in and of themselves to come to Christ unless the Father does this. And that language is very strong. Literally drags someone to Jesus. drags them to Jesus, draws them to Jesus, and grants them faith. That is not going to happen. You are not going to come to faith in Christ. No one is able to. No one has the inherent power within themselves to do that because of the fall. But thankfully, God in his grace, he draws people to Christ. All right? Yeah, you know. Right. I've heard the analogy, you take a hungry lion, you put a bowl of fresh meat in front of him, and you put a head of lettuce in front of him, which one's the hungry lion going to choose? He's going to choose the fresh meat. Because that's what's his nature to do. You take an unregenerate, sinful human being, you put the Ten Commandments on one side, and you put anything else outside of that, what are they going to choose? They're going to choose anything other than that. And for someone who's a Pelagian or a Semi-Pelagian, I don't want to go into where those words come from right now, but a simple test, someone who is adamant about us having a free will ability or a libertarian view of ability where we're equally able to choose one or two of the alternatives presented to us, to have them go to Exodus chapter 20, read them the Ten Commandments, take out a stopwatch and go, okay, go. Do those. Do those. How far are they gonna get? Not one second. Not one second. They're done with the first command. I'm the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me. Which essentially, those commandments are summed up. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Those are the two greatest commandments of scripture. Okay, go. Use that free will of yours and do that right now. It may sound flippant but it really has to be pointed out to us because we are fallen human beings how fallen we really are. How pervasive the effects of the fall are. It's also helpful for us to remove any false ideas that we might have about total depravity or total inability. It does not mean that man is as evil as he could be. It does not mean that the image of God has been eradicated. It does not mean, as I said, humanly speaking, that man is incapable of good works. Man is capable of good things. I mean, we've got doctors and nurses and all kinds of people working around the world and in our culture and our society seeking to do good. And by God's common grace, thank God for that. Thank God for that. It's inconsistent with their unbelief, but thank God for that. As I said, this doctrine of total depravity can be renamed total inability because the doctrine refers to the pervasive effects of sin which renders all mankind unable to do that which is pleasing in the sight of God. So by that we mean that even the grandmother who's kind to her grandkids is not doing so with a heart of utter and complete and total love and devotion and honor and respect to God. This condition leaves man in the unenviable position of being under the wrath of Almighty God, Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, which again is one of the clearest passages, I think, in Scripture that tells us plainly that we're followers of the devil, that we're children of wrath. We're dead in trespasses and sin. This is really strong language. The language that Scripture uses of this is a result of the fall, is a result of the breaking of this. So that when God says to Adam, in the day that you eat of it, you will die. This is what is meant by that. This is what is meant by you will die. You will become a child of wrath. You will follow after the prince of the power of the air. You will render yourself unable to obey me. Unwilling to obey me. The fall is immense. And that all men are sinners should be of no great surprise to any Christian, Romans 3 23. However, because of the unpopularity of expounding upon the effects of man's fall into sin, many Christians are ignorant of the extent and power that sin wields over us. However, scripture provides us with overwhelming testimony that mankind is hopelessly in bondage to sin, so much so that he is naturally inclined to embrace evil, reject God, and commit numerous errors in his thinking. And that teaching becomes even more offensive when it comes to the issue, as I said, of man's ability to freely accept or reject the gospel. And we're getting close to the end here. We're getting around 40 minutes. So we'll continue there. I'll go over some more passages that talk about the bondage of man into sin. And then we'll talk about how that relates to what we see really of the first mentioning of the covenant of grace in Genesis chapter 3 where God speaks to man and he speaks to the serpent and the things that he says and why that's significant for us in mentioning the first mention of the gospel so early in scripture, which, you know, I don't want to leave us on a completely darkened dreary note of the extent of sin, though, it is important for us to meditate upon us, and hopefully encourages us, as we go to worship now, to be more grateful, more thankful for what God has done for us in Christ. It is. Yes, and the wonderful and beautiful thing about it is that for all the things that I've just talked about, from the very beginning, once the fall happens, God immediately starts to go to work to undo that. So what we see from Genesis 3 onwards is God undoing the effects of sin and rebellion against us, against Him. And he does that through the person of a son. And that's the purpose of these covenants. It's how he does it. He curses the serpent and he tells us about the seed of the woman who's going to come. And he's doing that, essentially saying to the devil, you think you've got me here, but there's going to be one who comes. You're going to bruise his heel. He's going to crush your head. And that's what comes to us in the flow of scripture afterwards, is God's unworking the effects of the fall, all right? Is the privilege of all privileges. Children of wrath made children of the king. Children of sin and rebels made loving, loving servants and children of the King. People in this kingdom of darkness pulled out of that kingdom, rescued out of that kingdom, and made willing servants of the Father to enjoy the blessedness of His presence forever, though we completely and totally and utterly do not deserve it. That's what I mean about the importance of us seeing the exceedingly sinfulness of sin and the holiness of God because it leads us to a greater apprehension and appreciation of the gospel and of what Christ has done for us. Any last comments or questions? All right, thank you for your attention. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your kindness and grace towards us in Christ that though we have fallen so far, you have rescued us. You have sent your Son, who lived and died in our place and rose from the dead and even now stands at your right hand, interceding on our behalf to provide us that which we have squandered and which we've lost. Lord, help us to grasp that more fully and cling to it more sincerely, Lord. Have mercy upon us, Lord. Do this for all who are gathered here today. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.