So thinking about Grace this week, I reflected upon the fact that I have the benefit in life of parents who have always loved and supported me. I never doubted of that, and they made it quite impossible to doubt it, in part because it was clear that their love for me as their son It was what we call an unconditional love. This doesn't mean that my parents didn't want me to do well. It doesn't mean that they weren't. pleased to see me doing well when I was doing well. But they loved me all the same and they supported me even when I wasn't doing well. And the reason is because their love and their support was before all of that and behind it. And so in the times in my life when I wasn't doing well and I wasn't pleasing them, nonetheless, I found that they did love and support me all the same. And I think only now in my life am I beginning to really appreciate just how important that is, to have that love and support from our parents. And I say that because I have known other people who didn't have what I have. Other people who, it seems, were never assured of their parents' love and support. Maybe they had it, maybe they didn't, I don't know, but they definitely weren't assured of it. And my observation is that when that's the case, people have a hard time just shrugging that off. And one of the ways that manifests itself is that sometimes well into adulthood, even among middle-aged people, I've seen I've seen folks still trying, somewhat desperately, to win the love and the acceptance of parents that they never felt that they had. And sometimes I look at these particular parents, and I'm thinking, who cares? Who cares whether this guy loves you, but it's the only dad they've got? And so it still means a lot to them. And so it seems to me like it's more than just something that people want. It's almost like we need it. somewhere deep down in ways that I don't entirely understand. We need the love and the support of our father and of our mother and we don't have it. There's something missing in me and we suffer for that. And so I recognize that having always had my parents' love and support, even though I took it for granted at times, I have a real advantage in life. over people who didn't have the same thing. And so just as an aside to those of you who are parents, there's a lot of good things you can do for your children to help them in life. Hardly anything as important as making sure that they know that they have your love and support. That means a great deal to all of us, including your children. So as I said, this is a class about God's grace and how that grace is manifested or ways in which we see that under the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace, of course, is called in the catechism the second covenant. It's the covenant that God made with Christ as the second Adam after the fall of the first Adam and it's a covenant we made with with Christ and in him with his elect as the seed of Christ and and what we're gonna Among the things that we're going to see and maybe the most important thing that we'll see in question 32 is there under the covenant of grace truly all is of God's grace and It's not partly of grace and partly of something else. But everything is of the grace of God. There's something of God's grace in everything. And when you search it out, it really is to the bottom, all thoroughly of God's grace, this covenant of grace that we're talking about. And that's the basis of our relationship to God. as Christians. And there's two ways, particularly in which it's important that it be so, and important that we see that and acknowledge that. First, when everything is of God's grace under the covenant of grace, then all of the glory belongs to God, and God alone. And that's quite important to Him, and it should be important to us. Under this covenant, we receive incredible things. From God we receive His love, we receive His favor, we receive His kingdom. Paul says we possess all things in Christ. But all of it, every last bit of it, is of God's grace to unworthy sinners. And so the glory of it is God's and God's alone. There's nothing in it of which we can boast and say, we did this, we deserved this. That's not true at all. The first Corinthians chapter 1 verse 19. shows us that the covenant of grace was so ordered by God that, quote, no flesh would glory in God's presence. So when we understand the covenant of grace correctly, we should be able to see clearly that there is no place for any man to glory in himself in the presence of God under this covenant. And I think that that concept is represented, among other places, by the 24 elders in the book of Revelation, chapter 4, who are sitting, you remember, on thrones in heaven with crowns upon their heads. And yet they come before the throne of God and they fall down and they cast their crowns before him. So they are reigning with Christ and yet their praise sounds like this, you are worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory. Not us, but you. So that certainly is something that's at stake in this understanding of the thorough graciousness of God's covenant with us. Second, going back to the introduction, the other reason this is important is that when all is of God's grace and the covenant of grace, and we see that, then we as God's elects are perfectly secure in His love. That's the other thing that's at stake here. So when we get this right, our religious life as Christians is not a desperate effort to win the love of God of which we are not assured. Christianity shouldn't be like that, it shouldn't look like that, it shouldn't feel like that. Rather, if we understand Christianity correctly, the religious life of a Christian begins with the discovery and the assurance that God loves us. It's an unconditional love. It's unmerited. We didn't earn it. We don't deserve it. It is given freely unto us by God in Christ and not before the foundation of the world. So it is before and behind any idea of God's being pleased with us. And so our religious life as Christians on that basis continues as a joyful effort to honor and to please the God of whose love and support we are already perfectly assured. So not a continual desperate effort to win it, not being sure that we have that, but a joyful effort to honor and please the God of whose love we are assured. Okay? Very important distinction there between two kinds of religion in the world, understanding which one Christianity is and why. All right, any questions? These concepts clear? All right, so we're looking now at larger catechism question 32, which is about how the grace of God is manifested in the covenant of grace. There is certainly a great deal that we can say about this subject. The purpose of the catechism is to provide us with a concise answer. And so in answer to this question, you can see that there's three main parts. And when we have considered this question thoroughly, what should be clear, among other things, is that under the covenant of grace, all is of God's grace. Everything is grace. That's all there is here, and nothing else. And so as all is of God's grace, so all is to the glory of God, and as for His love for His people, that love is truly unconditional. Okay, so question number 32 asks, how is the grace of God manifested in the covenant of grace? So look for the three parts to this answer. It says the grace of God is manifested in the second covenant in that one, God freely provides and offers to sinners a mediator and life and salvation by him. Two, and requiring faith as the condition to interest them in him, promises and gives his Holy Spirit to all his elect to work in them that faith with all other saving graces. And then three, 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. All right, so there are three parts there. We're going to look at each of those, and really a lot to consider. And the Catechism does provide us with a good number of scripture proofs here, so I don't think that we'll get through all of this today. But that's what's before us in question number 32. So the first way in which the grace of God is manifested in the second covenant or the covenant of grace is, it says here, that God freely provides and offers to sinners a mediator. And so what you're hearing there is that the grace of God under the covenant of grace is primarily manifested where? in Jesus. If you want to see the glorious grace of God, His unconditional love for us, His people, under the covenant of grace, look first to Jesus. Now, it doesn't say a whole lot about Jesus in this catechism question. And the reason for that is after question 32, you're going to get 21 questions all about Jesus as the mediator, his person and his work, who he is and what he does in executing the office of a mediator. So we're not going to get into all of that. today. The main thing that we're seeing here is that under the covenant of grace, God's grace is primarily manifested in Jesus himself. And what we hear is that where did Jesus come from? God provided it. How do we come to know about Jesus and to have him as has God's gift to us. It says God offered him to us in the gospel. God provides him and God offers him to us in the gospel. It says he provides and offers him not to deserving saints, but to unworthy sinners. And he does so, it says, freely, which is here synonymous with graciously. He's in no way obliged or compelled to do this, but just out of, you might say, the goodness of his own heart towards poor sinners, God has provided and offers to us Jesus in the gospel. What has God provided for us and offered to us in Jesus? A mediator. is the term. Those of you who know the shorter catechism, when it comes to this part of the teaching of the catechism and the shorter catechism, it doesn't refer to Jesus as the mediator. What does it refer to him as? Do you remember? Redeemer that's right. It was the only Redeemer of God's left and continues to speak of Jesus as the Redeemer Don't make too much out of that The really the story behind that is that when the Westminster Assembly met to begin to work on these things there were different committees for the larger and the shorter catechism and they kind of worked independently and so For some reason, the guys working on the shorter catechism chose Redeemer. Those working on the larger catechism chose Mediator. There's a difference, but it wouldn't make too much of that. So we're going to be talking about Jesus here as the Mediator. And what does a Mediator do? Basically, he enters in to restore peace between two estranged parties. So the parties here are God and sinners. Bottom line is an understanding of who Jesus is and what he has done. We see the grace of God in him as a mediator under the covenant of grace. So scripture proofs that are given for this are these first promise of This mediator, this savior of sinners, is, anybody remember, where do we think we see the first mention of Jesus, particularly Jesus as the mediator of the covenant of grace in Scripture? Sometimes it's called the Proto Evangelium, the first mention in the gospel. Yes. Okay, right. Genesis 3.15, particularly God's words to Satan as he first curses the serpent before cursing the woman and the man. Genesis 3.15, God says to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So this is the first promise. of being a savior for sinners. that we hear in the gospel and we recognize that as Jesus Christ, the mediator of the covenant. And then the larger catechism then further cites two passages that speak specifically of God giving Jesus to us. That's kind of the emphasis of these verses. So Isaiah 42, verse 6, This is one of Isaiah's servant songs, so we're hearing God speaking to his servant, and the servant is, we understand, ultimately Jesus Christ. He says in Isaiah 42.6, I the Lord have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you. as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles. So Jesus is a gift, a gift from God that he has given not only to the Jews but also to the Gentile peoples of the world. And then the other one from the New Testament, maybe the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So he gave his son to the world, particularly as a savior of sinners. And in this verse, John particularly shows us that this is proceeding from God's love. It's not a love that we earned, it's not a love that we deserved. It is this gracious love of an exceedingly gracious God. And how is that manifest? John says, in the gift of His Son, as the world's Savior. The catechism also cites John chapter 6 verse 27 pop quiz. What is John chapter 6? What are you going to find in John chapter 6? Jesus, it's one of the I am statements. Seven I am statements in the gospel of John. It's not the Good Shepherd It's not the resurrection and the life No The bread of life John chapter 6 is the bread of life discourse all right, so So you remember that Jesus performed a miracle, the feeding of thousands. People showed up the next day for breakfast. Right. And so Jesus then kind of, as he does throughout John's gospel, takes this thing to the next level from the material to the spiritual. And he says to these people, do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him. So there again, you have the verb give. Back in the realm of grace. So in the Bread of Life discourse, what is the food? What is the food which endures to everlasting life? The food is Jesus. I am the bread of life. So, His body, His blood, sacrificed for us. That's what God has given us, and there's everlasting life in that gift. The last passage that's cited here is 1 Timothy 2.5, particularly with the idea that what God has given to us in Jesus is a mediator. And this is stated explicitly there by Paul, 1 Timothy 2.5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Okay, so there's your demonstration from Scripture. Again, Scripture proofs are not intended to be a complete list of all the things that we might cite to demonstrate a particular theological point. It's a sufficient demonstration in a book that's supposed to be concise. So that's So that's the first thing we see here with respect to where is the grace of God manifested in the second covenant. It is manifest in the gift of Jesus Christ himself. It then goes on and says, as part of the same point, and life and salvation by him. So it's not Jesus is one gift and life is a different gift and salvation is a different gift. When God gives us Jesus, he gives us Jesus and life and salvation. So Jesus is the whole gift, is the point. Everything that we need for life and salvation. So here we are given 1 John 5, 11 through 12, which we looked at in our sermon series not long ago. 1 John 5, 11-12, John says, and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Okay? So, Jesus is the bread of life, He is the resurrection of life, He is everything, all in one gift. So that's the first point, and rightly first, primary point, with respect to seeing God's grace in the covenant of grace. So here's a question for discussion for you to think about. So in light of this discussion of God's grace, why is it important for us to keep Christ central? in our faith and life. Why is it important that Jesus Christ be the central focus? as opposed to other things that might displace him from the center. Why is that important? Practically speaking, how do we do that? How do we maintain Jesus Christ as the central focus of our faith and lives? What might we expect to happen to us if we should fail to do that? Something else should enter in and displace him from the center. Those are kind of the questions I'm asking. What do you think? Yes? Historically, we're really good at forgetting and displacing. So Jesus is the clearest and most obvious picture of how he's raised to us. So the more we focus on that aspect of our relationship with God, that he sends his son to die for us, It's more obvious, clear, more stupid I guess, so we're less likely to overcomplicate or overplay it just because it's so obvious. We can see it in each one of us. He suffered, he died, he loved us, he gave himself. Those things are easy for us to understand. Okay, alright, good. Anybody want to add to that? What are some things that could and sometimes do displace Jesus as the central focus of Christian faith and life? So these are, you know, we're not talking about absurd things, like a video game. But we're talking about things within the realm of Christian theology, things that are mentioned here, and yet are not actually intended to be the central purpose. The law. Okay, the law would be one. Christian ethics, doing what's right, being a righteous person. These are all important concepts. If they become central, that's primarily what you're about and thinking about, that's a problem. What else? Yes. Okay Okay, all right, so just the spiritual realm generally and things that Maybe Good things that can happen to you through the spiritual realm just the concept of being blessed which is such a emphasis in the prosperity gospel We definitely see that displaced Jesus in certain kinds of Christianity, yes. That's a that's a big one yes, ma'am Okay. All right. So the Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is very important. There's a lot to be said, a lot to appreciate about the Holy Spirit and his work in our life. But if the third person of the Trinity becomes the central focus in Christianity, it becomes, it changes things. and not in a healthy way. And the same could be said of the Father. How do we know the Father? Only through Jesus the Son, right? So the God, the Trinity, the three persons that God had, have intentionally placed the person, the Son, in the central place in our faith and life, that we would only know the Father through the Son, and that we would understand that the ministry of the Spirit proceeding from the Father and Son is only to witness to the Son. So it doesn't matter which way you come at it, for us, as sinners under the covenant of grace, Jesus is the central revelation. And that never changes. You never graduate beyond that to something higher theologically or spiritually. Kind of related to that, I think another thing that sometimes becomes central is just the idea of God's providence and God's sovereignty. God is in control. Well, all things happen for a reason. Blah blah blah. All that is true. All that is really important. That is not the central focus of Christianity. It's not the central focus of Christian faith and life. If Jesus becomes off-center, that's going to make less and less sense, actually, particularly when you go through sufferings in this life. You're going to lose sight of what those sufferings are actually about and ways in which God works graciously through those things in our lives. So obviously we're talking about a lot of big things. We're not saying these things are not important, but we are saying there's only one proper sinner. And like we said, begin to lose that in one way or the other, you begin to lose sight of the fact that all is of God's glory, and you also begin to lose the understanding that in this religion we're not We're not laboring to earn God's favor and God's love. We haven't. So a lot at stake in that. So how then do you, how do we as Christians maintain Jesus as the central focus. There's potentially a lot of ways that go into doing that. If that is critical and if there's all these different ways in which we can begin to lose that and all these negative consequences that happen as a result of that, what's like a continual effort that we make and need to make in order to retain the centrality of Jesus Christ in our theology, in our prayers, in our worship, and in our lives. Yes. This is very Jesus Christ centered. It's right here in the center of the room. Visibly it is represented throughout the whole worship service. In some ways it's the culmination. It's the highest of the high honors of worshiping God in a worship service, having heard the word that we would then come and receive the body and the blood of Jesus. And one of the reasons why in the Reformed Church, only ministers, only ordained ministers are permitted to administer the Lord's Supper. is because it's believed that the only ministers are properly trained and can be trusted to explain clearly what these things mean when they're being administered. So we never administer the Lord's Supper in silence. We never just kind of walk into beautiful music with a grand procession and bring out the elements and take the bread and take the cup without saying clearly what this means. Because without that, it could begin to mean to people something other than Jesus Christ and crucified. So that's kind of an interesting and I think an important aspect. of our church polity. So Lord's Supper is a great example. What else? The worship service itself should center on Christ. It should draw us on Sunday toward Christ so that it helps us through the week maintain that. So whoever is designing the worship service, the order of worship and the particular order of worship, needs to have this in mind, is to see this as a goal in a well-ordered service, that the centrality of Christ would be clear throughout. A lot of times when I'm designing an order of worship for us, I will begin with God as the creator, God as the trinity, and then as the service progresses, the focus narrows more and more upon Jesus Christ in the gospel. But certainly make it my point to make sure we get there sooner rather than later. It's also particularly in preaching There has been a call in our lifetime for Christ-centered preaching, and the reason some people felt that that was necessary is because there was a lot of preaching that was not Christ-centered. It was taking place in our churches, and so a lot of very practical preaching or a lot of kind of pep-talky preaching or preaching of moralism, you know, there's different ways to say what's been going on. And so there was a call to return to more Christ-centered preaching and that was a good thing for sure. How does, you know, but we don't, we don't come to Jesus until we come to the New Testament, right? Wrong. Wrong. Genesis 3.15, right? That's where it begins. Potentially, you go back even earlier to that when God said, let there be light. So, a particular theological perspective, covenant theology, is what we're talking about. does help to illuminate Jesus throughout the scriptures, throughout the Old Testament scriptures and on into the new. So the theology is important as well. If we're to avoid spending our time talking about Israel, when we should be talking about Jesus, understanding rightly what's really going on in God's Word. Okay, any other thoughts? Yes? In our personal lives, sometimes it's not up to us to seek Jesus, to read about Him, to retell the stories to us and to our families, to pray to Him, to continually upkeep the relationship, not that He'll ever fail to maintain His end, but we can't fail to maintain our end in the field, isn't it? We forget Him. So just knowing that we're prone to wander, knowing that we're prone to forget, to be actively read, read about in that relationship. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So as far as you dads lead family and family worship, remember that. You're part of this effort and all of us when we set aside set apart time and our day for reading the Bible, studying the Bible, praying, meditating. Remember that. It makes a big difference to you and ultimately aligns you with God in what He's trying to show you under His covenant. So we have about five minutes left. So let me go ahead and introduce then a potential, an apparent difficulty with which we're going to have to deal if we are going to maintain this idea that under the covenant of grace, all is of God's grace. The first difficulty is that it appears that the covenant of grace, as it's given to us in Scripture, as it's described to us, is a conditional covenant. There is a condition. Yes, Jesus is provided. Yes, Jesus is offered, and in Him is the mediator, life and salvation. But, something is required of you, the sinner, in order to have Jesus, that Jesus has been ordained. And in a word, what is it that's required of you under the covenant of grace according to the gospel? Amen. Thank you. So, you know, it's not just congratulations, you're saved. But it's, this is what God has done. Believe in Jesus and you will be saved. If you don't believe in Jesus, you won't be saved. So that's the apparent condition, faith in Jesus Christ. So the question is, if what we're saying is correct, if all under this covenant is truly of God's grace, how can there be a condition? Isn't the fact of a condition mean that even if God does 99.9% that something is still held out as something that you must do, that's yours? and that thing is faith. Shouldn't a thoroughly gracious covenant of grace be an unconditional covenant, like unconditional love? That's the question. So you can think about that. The second difficulty is that the salvation offered to us in Jesus Christ, under the covenant of grace, includes a way of salvation. Taking up of our cross to follow Jesus, and all that comes along with that. Getting out of the broad way and entering into the narrow way, and that means a different sort of life, which is characterized by holiness. and obedience to God. You see it all over the Bible. The way of salvation, or those who are in the way of salvation, is the way of holy obedience. And so, again, the question is, if all under this covenant is truly of God's grace, How can there be a place for anything like obedience and the holiness of life that characterizes an obedient disciple of Jesus Christ? Shouldn't the way of salvation be simply, merely, inescapably faith? and faith alone, without any reference to obedience, faithfulness, holiness, those sorts of things. Okay? So, you understand the difficulties? The conditionality of the covenant, the conditionality of faith in Jesus Christ, and then the way of salvation to which we're called, which ultimately leads to consummation of what we're promised in Christ, and that's the way of holiness. So I'm going to leave it to you. to look for the answer to those questions, to see how the Westminster Divines solved these two difficulties in question number 32, so that the apparent difficulty just goes away. And we see again, ah, yes, it really is all of God's grace. Okay, any questions about that? You understand your assignment. Alright, I'm going to stop there then. Let's close with prayer.