That's what it was. Turn with me again to question 32. We've been working through this, quite a long answer, much in it, of how is the grace of God manifested in the second covenant. The grace of God is manifested in the second covenant in that he freely provideth and offereth the centers of mediator and life and salvation by him. and requiring faith is the condition to interest them in him, promiseth and giveth his Holy Spirit to all his elect to work in them that faith with all other saving graces and to enable them unto all holy obedience as the evidence of the truth of their faith and thankfulness to God and as the way which he hath appointed them to salvation. And so we've looked through most of this at how God's grace is shown in there being a second covenant and it being formed in the context of a mediator because we're alienated, we're offenders, we're enemies of God in our sin, but he reestablishes relationship with us through the work of a mediator and he gives us life and salvation by him. He requires only faith, looking to Jesus as the condition to have an interest in Jesus and His work. It does not require a life of servitude of us or a life of pilgrimage or a life of self-denial in those sense to have interest in the blessings of the second covenant, but only faith, faith in Jesus. is what we are called unto. And He gives that faith to us through His Holy Spirit with all other saving graces, and we looked at the fruit of the Spirit there. And also, the grace of God also enables us unto all holy obedience as the evidence of the truth of their faith, and that's where we stopped last week, and thankfulness to God. In other words, not only does God address the legal status of us as lawbreakers who are expecting and anticipating a sentence of judgment against us for our lawbreaking. He addresses that in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross and his life of obedience, he pardons us of our sin, he punishes his son in our place there on the cross. And so we have the legal status dealt with in that way, but he also transforms us. He progressively leads us by his spirit to be freed of those things that do bring sorrow and grief upon us, those paths of sin that we had once known. He enables us to walk in the highway of holiness in obedience to him, and that's the work of his spirit. It is also his grace to us. And so we certainly see the grace of God leading us to that point. But even as the children of God, even as we are learning to walk in obedience, that also is God's grace to us. That he is the one, as we read in Philippians, who is at work in us both to will and to do his good pleasure. He's the one at work in us. And so it's still his grace. Even our obedience is his grace toward us. And he gives us that as the evidence of the truth of our faith, that's what we saw in James chapter 2, and thankfulness to God if you'll look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. For the love of Christ controls us, here in verse 14, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. So even though we're not held at arm's length, We're not required to offer a life of obedience to have interest in the blessings of the covenant. We have faith in Jesus, He grants us those blessings of fellowship and grace, but He does give us a desire and the ability to act on that desire more and more consistently by His Spirit, that having been redeemed, having been brought into fellowship with God through Jesus Christ, our obedience has nothing in terms of bringing us there, but having been brought in fellowship with God through Jesus Christ, What do we see? It's the love of Jesus Christ, the love of our Savior who has saved us. He's already done it. He's already accomplished what we could not accomplish. But because of the love of Christ, that becomes the controlling force in our lives, our love for Jesus. And if that's not true of you, then you may know the gospel, you may understand the truth of what God has done, but in terms of having an interest in it, that's something you need to wrestle with and search your heart about because the love of Christ is what results when Jesus Christ has saved us. And so as Paul would say, the love of Christ controls us because we've concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. In other words, Jesus laid his life down. have purchased salvation for us through His death. And if we belong to Him, what does that mean for us? We have died to ourselves. We do not want to live for ourselves anymore. We hate the old sinful self that Christ saved us from. We want to be freed from that, we want to walk with Jesus and His paths just out of gratitude and love and delight in Him. And so we have to consider ourselves dead as well because Christ has died for us, we also have died. But Christ is no longer dead, He has been raised, He is a living Savior, and we also aren't terminating in death but in a new life. He died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. And so Jesus did what He did for our sake. He died and was raised for our sake. And we wish to freely, joyfully die to ourselves and live in Him for His sake. because of what He has done for us. And so the Holy Spirit gives us the desire of our heart then as the children of God. Our desire is to please Jesus. Our desire is to walk with Him. Our desire is to give our lives in a joyful grateful service to God to do His will, to walk with Him as we never once did because of our sinful hearts. We now have a desire to do that and it's the grace of God to us to grant us that desire by His Holy Spirit's powerful work within us. And He shows us that it's His grace. by allowing us those times when we begin to stray from Him, what happens every time? We stumble into sin every single time. It's like the Lord showed Hezekiah. He was going to show him the difference between what was in his heart and the Lord's hand upon him. And so the Lord removed his hand just for a moment, just like a parent walking with a child, and the child begins to think, well, I've got this. I'm the one doing all of this. You can let go of me. I mean, what child hasn't said that? And it's like the Lord, he didn't renounce him as a child, but he allows him to understand just how dependent he is. He removes his hand just for a moment. Okay, you can walk. And what does Hezekiah do? Well, he gets to see what's in his heart, what happens when he lets go of the hand of God and he stumbles deeply into sin and the Lord rescues him and grants him grace. It's the same thing with Peter coming to Jesus on the water, he's coming. How is he walking on the water? Of course, it's not anything native to himself, we don't walk on water, we all know that. But when Jesus calls him, he helps Peter to walk toward him on the water. But the moment Peter begins to look away from Jesus and look at the water and no doubt have doubts as to what in the world he's doing, he begins to sink. And so it is in terms of our sanctification. We have a desire, if we're a child of God, we have a desire to walk with Jesus. and it's the Holy Spirit's power within us that enables that desire to come to fruition. It's the grace of God that we are enabled unto all holy obedience as a thankfulness on our part to God, and as the way which he hath appointed them to salvation. In other words, it's not just any of these things, it's all of these things, but this is the path of salvation. We keep finding the same path over and over. That God gave to Adam what was required of him. It was obedience to God. That was required. And we see the same thing in the Mosaic Covenant. There is the grace of God, there is the provision of atonement, there is the covering of sin being anticipated in the work of the great sacrifice to come. But nonetheless, what is required of us as the children of God, as the people of God, what does fellowship with God look like? It doesn't look like a bunch of people declaring their autonomy and saying, I'm going to do whatever I want to. it looks like people being saved out of Egypt by a powerful hand of God and brought to a mountain where they receive the will of God. Here is what you are to do, this is what walking with God looks like, he's the sovereign, that defines the relationship. between God and his people. He's a loving sovereign. He's a gracious sovereign. He's a sovereign who has redeemed us from our own failings in sin through the sacrifice of his son, but that doesn't change the fact that he is the sovereign. And when we are redeemed, we're brought back to the same point. of what does fellowship with God look like? Well, in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is a gracious administration. It is motivated by love and not fear in any way. Perfect love casts out fear, as John would say. Our hearts are overflowing with thankfulness. We consider ourselves blessed and privileged to die to ourselves that we might live in the one who has loved us so well. But these are the ways, this is the path of salvation as we read in Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, we have a glorious passage speaking about the purpose of God being brought forth in response to our sinfulness and fallenness in verse 4, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." So, just so clearly said, it is the grace of God toward us. It is not our obedience that accomplishes anything in terms of achieving our salvation. We have been saved through faith. Notice the tense there in verse 8. What has to be accomplished is our faith in Jesus. The moment we believe in Jesus, He is the one who accomplishes our salvation. There's nothing to add to that in terms of what we must do to accomplish and so Paul can speak of that in the past tense even though sanctification's ahead of us and glorification's ahead of us. The moment we've believed in Jesus, for by grace you have been saved through faith. and this is not your own doing. But again, what does a restored relationship with God look like? It is the grace of God toward us to allow us to walk in a right relationship with God as his children. and a right relationship with God is one in which we acknowledge the truth that He is the Lord, He is the Creator, He is the God, we are the creature, we are the child, we are the servant, We have a gracious master. There is no other right relationship with God that can be had. You can't deny those things about who he is and who you are and have a right relationship. And so what do we read in verse 10? What is the end result of all of this grace and all of this mercy and it's faith alone? And even that has been given to us. So we can't claim any credit out of our own obedience or efforts or work, and nonetheless, in verse 10, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And so the purpose of those good works, it's not to save ourselves, it's not to earn a righteousness that would somehow merit entry into the kingdom of God. No, that's all accomplished by grace through faith. But this is a description of what it means to be restored in fellowship to God. This is the path, notice, it is a path that we should walk in at the end of verse 10. It's the path of walking with our God, walking with the Lord Jesus in close fellowship with him as his workmanship, acknowledging that you're the master and we're the clay. You're the master, we're the servant, You are the Lord, we are the subjects, you are the father, we are the children and that defines how we walk with him. And so our obedience, our good works are the result because this is what God has purposed, this is what he is bringing us to, he's prepared these good works beforehand that we should walk in them. We've been created in Christ Jesus. We're a new creation. He's taken something, just like he took the pinch of the clay and made Adam and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. He's taken us. from the lump of clay as we read in Isaiah and Romans. He's taken us from the lump of clay of fallen humanity and he has made us into a new creation. And what is the highest purpose? Where will we find joy? Where will we have things as they should be and all will be right and we can have joy? It's when we acknowledge that. and we serve him with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength just as we love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We acknowledge that we are his workmanship and then everything is as it should be and he's a gracious and kind master to serve. and he will care for us always and it's such that he has even adopted us into his family. He gives us that encouragement that it is a loving relationship in which there is his authority. This is the way which he is appointed. And so having resisted obedience, having fought against submission, having asserted our own will in our sin, the Lord renews our will. He gives us eyes to see that those old paths were the paths of death and misery. And he gives us a gratitude for the rescue he has granted us so that what we desire with all our heart is to be able to walk with him and to obey him. That's what we want. And the Lord Jesus, of course, is the only one who can accomplish that for us, along with all other aspects of his redeeming work. And so that itself is the grace of God manifested in the second covenant. Now, we come to question 33. Was the covenant of grace always administered after one in the same manner? And so we've talked about the first covenant and the second covenant. The first covenant was with Adam in the garden before sin entered the picture and that first covenant you might say certainly is a condescension on God's part. He comes and walks with his creatures in the garden. And so in that sense, there is a grace manifested in it. But it's not to be confused with the grace of pardoning sin, the grace of withholding a deserved judgment and giving mercy instead. And so that's why typically that first covenant is termed the covenant of life or even the covenant of works because it was a covenant before sin entered the picture in which the focus was upon our continued obedience to God. You're on the path. You need to keep walking on this path of obedience. That's what God told Adam. Well, he didn't. He fell. And so the second covenant Who would come back to these same people? Who would approach them and reestablish immediately the basis of continued relationship on terms that would be so costly to the one initiating that covenant? But God did, and that's why if the first covenant was marked by condescension and graciousness, the second covenant is just overwhelmingly, and it should blow our minds how gracious the second covenant is. And so it is called the covenant of grace for good reason, and that's what we find here in question 33. That's the second covenant, the covenant of grace where God comes back to Adam and Eve in the garden, the very moment of hearing them confess their sin and confronting that and passing his judgment upon it in measure, putting a curse upon the world, making the consequences of sin be felt in degree. But withholding the ultimate judgment for a time, which was, in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. They had earned that. But instead of passing that measure of judgment upon them in that very day, the Lord provided grace. did not strike them down and pointed them forward to one who would be their redeemer, who would save them because now they are in bondage, they are in the slavery of sin and they have taken for themselves a prince of darkness as their master that they don't even know fully. what is ahead of them, but the Lord has provided that covenant of grace. And so the question asks, was that covenant of grace always administered after one in the same manner? And so when we think of that, big picture, the covenant of grace begins there in Genesis 3, verse 15 in particular with the seed of the gospel being presented And it continues on, that's where we are, we're in the covenant of grace. But we have reference to different administrations, and so we come to our answer, the covenant of grace was not always administered after the same manner, but the administrations of it under the Old Testament were different from those under the New. So there are distinctions, there are differences, and they hinge on, they center around the proximity to the Messiah who was promised in Genesis 3.15. All of these different administrations of the covenant of grace, the Lord would have it administered in one manner and then another and then another throughout the Old Testament. First with, well, of course you have the references to the covenant with Adam. We have that covenant preserved and renewed through the line of Seth. We have it renewed formally with Noah. So that covenant is continuing forward. Abraham, of course, is a large step forward in terms of our understanding of the grace of God and His covenant dealings. And Abraham, then Moses, and so there are different administrations under each of those. But the big change comes when we pass from the Old Testament into the New. That's the largest change of all as these progressively incrementally change. And the changes all center around the Messiah, the fullness of understanding growing. as more and more is revealed of who he would be and what he would do. That he was the seed who was promised. That's what Abraham's promises centered around. And that this seed was one who would come and bring blessings to all the families of the world and in so doing would be a redeemer for the world such that the world itself would belong to the children of God again. That was Abraham's understanding of the promises of God. And then we see with David. Well with Moses first we see the price of the covenant being highlighted, the problem of sin being brought to the fore with the giving of the law and the people wrestling with their failure to live by the terms of the law and the atonement, the blood sacrifice, a gory picture. for hundreds and hundreds of years of the true consequences of sin being death itself and therefore the price of a redeemer who would be a substitute requiring the death of that one. We have other lessons taught in that administration, but with the Davidic covenant, as we read in Samuel, as we read in Psalm 89, we have the son of Abraham now being highlighted as the son of David, who would be a kingly figure, who would rule as the king over God's people and on their behalf bring victory over the enemies of God. But with the coming of the Lord Jesus, we see a radical change in the administration. It's the same covenant, the same promises, but the administration changes. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 3. All of those Old Testament covenants can be grouped together and characterized, those administrations of the covenant of grace, as a covenant of the letter. We see in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 4, such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us. But our sufficiency is from God, notice verse 6, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now, it's important to understand what that means. It's not to say that there wasn't the covenant of grace in force and administered in the Old Testament. There was. You read so clearly of the forgiveness of God in David's Psalms. We see the work of the Messiah pictured in the Mosaic covenant with the priesthood and the sacrifices. But there is something that Paul, by the Holy Spirit, is looking back on and rejoicing to see a change from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. And that is that the Old Covenant was largely presented in negative terms. It was largely creating an anticipation of relief in terms of showing God's people their sinfulness, showing them that they could not be righteous in the sight of God because of their sin. And so the law is so prominent in the Old Testament in a negative work of showing that they cannot deserve to be in covenant with God. And so the letter kills. The letter kills. And so that's one of the chief works of the law, and this is one of the focus points of the whole Old Testament administration of the covenant. Paul says the Old Covenant in terms of the Old Testament administration of this covenant of grace, it was a covenant of the letter rather than the Spirit. There was the law of God standing in the foreground showing people, here's what God requires, here's what you're not doing, and causing them to long for deliverance, to long for the Messiah to come and obey the law for them and give them the Spirit of God that had been promised. That's what Jesus told his disciples, by the way. It's so interesting to read the Gospels in light of the Old Testament. Jesus told them that the promise of God would be given to them with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Peter speaks of that too in reference to the prophet Joel and others in explaining Pentecost, that there was an anticipation in the Old Testament that the law continued to drive them as Galatians refers to it. The law was a tutor. That's not a kindly figure in Roman culture, by the way. It would make you really, really be motivated to want to mature and move out from under the tutelage of this tutor. Very strict, very harsh. accomplishing something good for the wayward youth, but nonetheless, this is why Simeon is just so overcome with joy when he says, this is the one who will bring consolation to Israel. This is why Isaiah in Isaiah 40 will anticipate the joy and the relief of finally being able to hold in hand the Lord has paid for your sins, he's paid double for your sins. And so the people of God in the Old Testament were saved by the same Savior but they were looking forward with longing and anticipation that his work would be accomplished. for them had not been accomplished at that time. All their experience up to the coming of Jesus of God's people with God's law was what? We are lawbreakers, we know. We're lawbreakers over and over and over again. There is so much that is leading them longingly to the coming of Jesus. And what does Jesus do as not only the Son of God, but as the Son of Man for the first time ever? He keeps the law. He obeys his Father perfectly in fullness, and the clamor of the law for obedience is stilled by the obedience of Jesus in the covenant of grace. It's not to say again, we've already said, there is a large place for good works and obedience, but it is out of having been. made the children of God, having been brought into the kingdom of God, having been made those who have already paid the debt that the law owes through the obedience of Jesus Christ. And so Paul refers to the Old Testament in this way, not to say that there was no grace. Of course there was grace. Not to say there was no life. or there was no work of the Spirit, but all of those things were just being meted out in shadows and small measure, helping them understand where it all comes from. It all comes from the cross. It all comes from the Lord Jesus. And so they couldn't have the full measure of it yet. All of those blessings were bundled together with the Son of God himself come as the Messiah. And so when he finally comes what a relief, what joy, what blessing. We see that transformation from before the Spirit is poured out to after the Spirit is poured out most clearly in the disciples. Just read the Gospels and then read the book of Acts. That's the difference that Pentecost makes. They were believers apart from Judas. These men were all believers in Jesus. They were all covenant men of God. but they had just the shadow, the anticipation, just the drippings, as that woman of Phoenicia would say, even the dogs eat the crumbs from the table. Well, the table was being set and the Lord Jesus is the one who poured forth the bounty of God's Spirit. The prophets looked forward to that as a river rushing into the world. that there was some rain, there was some moisture, there is some evidence, or otherwise there would have been no people of God to speak of. But there was yet a time coming when there would be a pouring out of the Spirit, like a river rushing upon this world. And that's what we read about in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost. And so that's why Paul says in particular it is the pouring out of the Spirit and the work of Jesus. That is what makes such a transformation between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Notice how the Holy Spirit features in His explanation in verse 6 of 2 Corinthians 3, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. So what is the relationship between the law in the Old Testament and the Spirit in the New Testament? Well, the law laid forth demands that God's people struggled and struggled and reached for and reached for and had to continually be brought to the gospel by guilt and grief and sorrow. Lord, we've not obeyed you. Again, we've not obeyed you. Here's another sacrifice. Here's more blood. We need a Redeemer. We need to shed blood. We need salvation. That was the experience up until Pentecost. But when the Lord Jesus pours the Spirit out upon God's people, we find the fulfillment of what we read about last week in Ezekiel 36. That in those days, let's just read that again quickly for a refresher. In Ezekiel 36, We'll begin in verse... 24, I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses. And from all your idols I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Do you see the role of the Spirit and what He does in terms of the law of God for God's people? They would finally have the power of God within them. to lead them into an obedience to God's law far beyond what they had ever been able to accomplish. And of course, not so that they could then earn their way into heaven. This is because the Messiah and the Redeemer, the sacrifice, had come and paid for our sins and perfectly kept the law of God. Then He pours the Spirit out and gives us a new power to walk. with him. Now again, there's some mystery to how was the Holy Spirit present before Pentecost, because he was. Read about David and him saying in Psalm 53, take not your spirit from me. Read about the Holy Spirit coming upon someone like Samson and empowering him to do great things. But the Lord Jesus would also tell his disciples the Holy Spirit's not yet been given. You need to wait in Jerusalem, wait for the promise to be poured out. And this reference to within, that is an emphasis in the promises about the Spirit. And Jesus speaks about the Spirit coming and taking up His abode within His people so that it is the Son and the Father themselves coming and living personally within their hearts. it seems to be connected to the presence of the Spirit in the temple in the Old Testament. And that same presence now being granted in the temple in the New Covenant, which is the people of God. that the same powerful presence of God that dwelt in the Holy of Holies is now within the hearts of God's children in some greater way than was ever before known. And what is the Spirit's name again and again and again in the New Testament in particular? The Holy Spirit. He's the Holy Spirit and that speaks to the work that He accomplishes as much as it describes Himself. He is the Holy Spirit. He's the Spirit of holiness. He is the Spirit that accomplishes within us the call to be holy as I am holy that the Father gives to us. And so the Holy Spirit is the gift that transforms the covenant relationship of God with His people because of the coming of Jesus Christ. We now have the Spirit of God within us because we are joined to Jesus Christ in this relationship. The Holy Spirit has finally been poured out, that river flowing in a desert place, making it fruitful with obedience to God. Well, let's quickly look at Hebrews chapter 8, verses 7 and following, another reference to this Old Testament and the glory that is greater in the New Testament with the coming of Jesus and the pouring out of the Spirit. We read in verse 7, For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says, Behold the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish 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. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord." Notice again, our relationship with the law has radically changed. in the New Covenant by the power of the Holy Spirit. Look at the middle of verse 10. I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach each one his neighbor, and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete, and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. And so with the coming of Jesus, with the pouring out of the Spirit, what do we see happen with the Mosaic Covenant, with all of the laws about separation, All of the laws for the Kingdom of Israel, the civil laws, the laws governing their civil life, how they were to harvest their crops, how they were to wear their clothes, all of those laws that had to do with that period of time preserving God's people, preserving the line of promise separate from the world, but also teaching the world and the children of Israel of the failure of mankind and the impossible standard it is to seek to earn righteousness before the God of heaven. only the shed blood of the Redeemer would accomplish that. And so, in speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. All of those dietary laws, all of those civil laws of Israel, and the administration of the old covenant with the sacrificial system. and the Aaronic priesthood, all of that is obsolete. Why? Because what it was picturing has finally come. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. Well, let's pray and we'll prepare our hearts for worship. Father, we give thanks to you for the grace you have shown us as we've been studying the grace in the second covenant. We thank you that there is such grace to be found. Your grace was magnified in the Old Testament with the forgiveness of sin being anticipated and even provided for. in the shadow sacrifices of the Old Testament and that grace bursting forth in all its fullness in glorious light with the coming of the Lord Jesus, your own Son, come to be the sacrifice to pay for the sins of your people and to accomplish a gospel for the entire world that there is forgiveness to be found and a new kingdom and deliverance may be had from the kingdom of darkness. Lord, we confess that none will answer that call, none will enter that kingdom apart from your work in their heart, for such is the blindness and hardness of sin. And so do your great work in our midst, Lord, any who are not yet closed with the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. We pray that they would come to Him and be saved. And we pray that you would bring those who need to hear the gospel into our fellowship, that they might hear it and be saved. We pray that you would bless our witness in the world, O Lord, as we witness in our community the various circles of influence you've granted us. May we always bear the savor of Jesus Christ wherever we go. We pray that you would do this, Lord, and keep us by your grace. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.