All right. Good afternoon. Thanks for having everybody stand, Ben. Welcome to our first afternoon service. If you're unfamiliar with the previous evening service, a preacher of merit will usually come up and give an expositional sermon. Mr. Ryle, for example, will be reading through Acts. Yes? Preaching through Acts, sorry. And the other preachers will be doing topical messages. I will be going through the Shorter Catechism. We'll be meditating on the subject matter therein. Question 12, what special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created? Our text is Genesis chapter 2, verses 15 through 17. Hear the reading of God's word. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. So reads the word of God, let us pray. Oh, our Heavenly Father, who have we to thank for our faith? Who have we to thank for the rest of this day? And who have we to thank for the gathering of this church, Lord? It is all to you, Lord, that we pray and sing praise. All glory is due to you, Lord. And it's through your word that you reveal to us who we are and how we are to live. So we pray this time, through your spirit, Lord, by your word, that you would illuminate who we are and how we are to live. All in Christ's name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Westminster Shorter Catechism 12, what is the special act of providence God did exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created? The answer being, When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death. If you were to examine the flow of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, you would notice that there is an evangelistic flow. Fall, or creation, fall, redemption, leading to glory. Creation is the what things were, or what things should be, the norm. This is why many of the proof texts for the earlier catechism questions focus on Genesis. specifically the first two chapters. Within Genesis chapters one and two, we are given an image of everything that should be, what our origins are, what our purpose is, and what is expected of us. Expectation, responsibility, is what is in view of our text and our catechism question. Verse 15, God placed Adam in the garden with the charge to work it and keep it. So Adam must cultivate, work, increase the beauty of the garden, and protect it. Verse 16, God allows Adam to partake of all the joys of the garden. You may surely eat of every tree in the garden. God is giving Adam a great gift here, one uncommon in the world, both modern and ancient. In the Greek myths, the Garden of Olympus, none of the gardeners were permitted to partake of Hera's golden orchard. In Chinese myths, the Jade Emperor's pear gardens were forbidden for all of the caretakers. And even today, there is no hired worker who is given freedom to partake of the harvest. But God gives Adam the whole of Garden of Eden to enjoy. If you've ever worked in a kitchen, you know how serious the charge is to not eat the food that's in front of you or what you're preparing. Imagine if your boss came in and said, order at table seven and you can have some fries. God here gave Adam more than food. He gave him a life, but not one without limits. If Adam reached his hand out for one tree in particular, one out of the whole of this wide paradise, all of it would be taken from him. That boundary was no arbitrary rule about fruits and plants. It was a loving boundary for a man and his position to God. Cross it, break my law, and death will surely follow. What is the sum of all this? God gave Adam a covenant, the covenant of life. This is the teaching of the 12th Catechism question and our study. What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created? When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon the pain of death. We'll expound on this teaching through three sections. One, the covenant of life. Two, the binding of the covenant. And three, a covenant life. Our first section, the covenant of life. Let's set the foundation quickly to make clear what a covenant is and then what in particular the covenant of life is. If you are unfamiliar with what a covenant is, I'd like to be the one to welcome you to your relationship to God. Covenants are the primary ways our Lord has held relation with his people and what ties us to him. If I were to give a definition, it would simply be a covenant is a binding agreement between two parties. It includes promises, stipulations, and vows. Two families can covenant together, such as Genesis 21. Abimelech, the Philistine king, strikes a covenant with Abraham that they will treat each other peaceably and deal honestly with each other, they and their household, for many years. Covenants are not to be mistaken for contracts. A contract can be ended or exited with little to no repercussion. Contracts also have, most of the time, built-in expiration dates, a completion of a job, or a set duration. And people who make contracts are most normally on equal grounds. Yes, if you go get a job at Amazon, you are in some sense on equal grounds with these people. This is not so with covenants. Covenants do not normally expire. They have horrid consequences for leaving, and the covenant is most always made from greater to lesser parties. Kids, when you go out one day and get a job in the world, you'll most likely sign a contract. Your job will agree to pay you and, if they're nice enough, take care of you in various ways, and you'll agree to work hard. The contract you sign will either say you agree to work there for six months or until either of you decide that you should part ways. You can leave whenever you want and they can remove you whenever they want, as long as it's in the contract. Nothing terrible about that, unless you get fired because you're really bad at your job or something. In comparison, covenants are normally imposed. Verbal agreement is not necessary. Kids, did you agree to be faithful children to your parents? No, it's expected that you are faithful children to your parents. Adults, did you ask God how you would like your relationship to Him to look like? No, it was expected before you. God does not deal in contracts. He deals in covenants. Godly covenants involve condescension and imposition. He, the greater party, bends down to man and brings him into a relationship. God reached out to Abraham, not Abraham to God. Genesis 12, verse one. Now the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you. Godly covenants involve blessings. God to Noah in Genesis 9 verse 11. I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood. Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. That's a promise and a blessing. God's covenants provide conditions, things that the parties involved must do. It demands obedience to them. Exodus 24 verse seven, Moses shows the people all the things that God requires in the book of the covenant. Verse seven, then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient. And all godly covenants come with consequences for breaking them. Go and read Deuteronomy 28. There God lays out enslavement, starvation, hatred, even cannibalism for people who walk away from him. Even our Lord Jesus' covenant of grace comes with warnings of punishment for not proceeding with what is required, faith. Hebrews 10 verse 29, how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace? Now these things, promises, vows, stipulations, these are what make a covenant generally. So with the characteristics of a covenant, let us see the particulars of the covenant of life. Adam, who has no power or capacity to reach out to heaven, did not strike a covenant with God. God stroke a covenant with Adam and brought him into his covenant of life. This is an act of grace. God is initiating a relationship with Adam that Adam could not start. Verse 15 of our text. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden. took and put here are acts of grace. Verse 15 also gives Adam all of his duties. Work, keep, hold to these things. He must only engage in godly things. Then there are blessings for being in the covenant of life. Blessings for being a part of it, for adhering. Verse 16 lays out that Adam may enjoy the fruit of his labor by God's grace, that by having dominion over the garden and the creatures of the earth that he may eat and be merry and walk with God. And the consequence for breaking this covenant? Death, surely. Conversely, this is also the promise therein, life. If Adam held perfectly to the covenant, he would live, not merely bodily, but he would be with the source of all life, his father, his creator, his God. To walk with him and be with him is life. This is the special act of providence that God had upon Adam, taking Adam and putting him into relationship with him. and telling him to enjoy all of his good commands. Let's proceed to our next section, the binding of the covenant. What does this covenant of life mean to us? Is there more here than just facts we are to memorize for the catechism? Indeed, covenants are not something that the world thinks about much nowadays, especially the church. I realize most of my opposing thoughts are usually geared towards the modern church. But concerning Christianity at large, I'm speaking in the majority sense, there are normally two common trains of thought concerning covenants, and especially the covenant of life. First, they say covenants are something of the Old Testament. we do not engage in them as Christ has completed and done away with them. This is born of confusion between law and covenants. Maybe you've heard this, the law was given at Mount Sinai and that's the only thing that we can be concerned with and Christ has completed that as well. Well certainly the Ten Commandments were given in Exodus 20. but the Israelites were already sinful to the point of death. Why would God give them a second law that would crush them? No, what happened on that mountain was part of a covenant of grace. While covenants employ laws for stipulations, they are different. Yes, the ceremonial law and portions of the judicial law have been abrogated. but the covenants that utilize them are still present. The second train of thought, well, is not much thought at all. We are in the covenant of grace, the covenant of life, or the covenant of works, as some people call it, is dead to me. I live by faith. While this is partly true, there is no biblical ground for the full annulment of the covenant of life. The truth is this, my friends. There is no escape from the covenant of life. It binds all people. Unbelievers, believers, they are all still counted as members of this covenant of life they one party, and God the other, a much greater. It was given to Adam, it was given to humanity, all humanity, every boy and girl, man and woman, is expected without error to obey. You, right now, are expected to obey. It would not be sin if it was not true. At the first slip, at the first reach of the hand towards sin, it's over. And surely we have sinned. And now what comes next is death. Every person who draws breath must die. I'm a Christian, I hear you say. Do you not get sick? Do you not feel pain? Are your days not set? There will be a day that you die because of the curse that came from breaking that covenant. This is the melancholy wisdom of Ecclesiastes. All is vanity. No matter what you do, it is all vanity for death will come. We can blame Adam as much as we want, but see how the covenant of life illuminates our position. Perfect is a foreign word to us, and when we pair it with obedience, suddenly we're talking about myth. We have made it to the afternoon service of our structure, and I would say quite joyfully. But have we done it without sighing? Have we done it about worrying without the time? Do you trust that God's ways are good even when your humanity and flesh rises up within you when the church of Christ makes a decision that you don't agree with? Not to mention anything about your week outside of here. Have you cultivated the world or are you passing it by waiting for something better? God demands that you work in perfection in your vocation, in your marriage, in your obedience to your parents, to your whole life. That hasn't changed. It will not change. It is vanity, then, as well, to pursue this unchanging demand for obedience for life's sake. For there has been another covenant. The one that was given would kill us. Christ has given you this new covenant, a covenant of grace, not as a replacement, no, but as a great act of grace towards that one that demands obedience in life. And this too is imposed He came and he lived the covenant life that Adam was to live. He lived it without error and he died without error. He did it all without you asking. John chapter 14 verse six. Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Christ's covenant has requirements Again, in John 14, verse 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. It has promises. You will be kept from death eternal, and Christ will never forsake you. Matthew 28, 20, and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Faith, this covenant demands faith. And the requirements here are even imposed. It has been given. And the rewards from the covenant of life have been imposed. Life and obedience given. They've been given on Christ's behalf. You have life that was promised. You have perfect obedience that was promised. Yes, you will have to die. But a worthy death. made possible by the perfect obedience of Christ. It will be the final parting between you and sin. You will proceed to glory, and it will stay in the grave. Every person in glory will be in glory because of the covenant of life, because of works, because of the works of Christ, which he has shared with you most gracefully. And now, Saint, you are free. You are free to enjoy the blessings in the covenant of life. Yes, that covenant of life, which pulled so many people to death, can be enjoyed now. Let's move on to our point of application, our third section, A Covenant Life. I don't want you to be mistaken. Yes, there are requirements of the covenant, and its rewards are given to you, but the only thing removed is the penalty, death. We are still held to obedience. Romans 3 verse 31. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. And where your obedience fails, grace will abound. Allow me to explain why pursuing this covenant blessing in the covenant of life is wonderful. First, we know that God is good. and that this good God at the end of creation looked upon it all and said, it is good. And then that God took man and placed him in his good garden and gave him good work to do. We know that it wasn't slavish work for at the time the ground wasn't withholding its food under the curse, Genesis 3.17. So then it was for man's good and God's glory. God gave Adam worship, blissful, wonderful worship, in adhering to all that God commanded him. Another way of saying it is this, Adam's first moments in the garden were not blissful because the scenery was nice, but because God gave him a law for his life. And holding to this law drew him closer to God. with our sins paid for. We can begin to enjoy that too. How? By returning condemnation-free to the covenant of life. Two points. One, recognize that you and all people around you are in this covenant. There is no person on earth who does not belong to the covenant of life. Remember that we are all called to obedience. This is not works-based salvation or a life of legalism. This is the new gift of life. And the only thing that God calls us to is good things. And secondly, live a covenant life. Christ has not saved you into an ambiguous ether that some call the Christian life. No. With the covenant of grace, he has cleaned you off. He's dusted you clean and turns you around and says, go. Live that life that the one before me failed. Live and sin no more. Seriously, look at your marriages, look at the way you work, look at the way that you raise your children. God demands good things from all of them. Your king, the second Adam, has taken away death, so you can happily march to glory in his commands. You can engage in what we always should have done. Have mastery over the land and your home. Give God praise for binding us to him, and uphold the covenant name given to you, Christian. Amen, and let us pray. Oh, gracious Father, show us the way to live. Pour into our hearts the joy of your word and your commands. Let us not slip. Hold us when we fall, Lord. May the grace of your King keep us. Remember his blood so that we may walk as our first father should have. to the second Adam, to the great king and our elder brother, that we may be found in the good standing of the covenant, Lord. And mysteriously and joyfully all, when we get there, we will say, not I, but he. It is in his name we pray. Amen.