If I seem a little strange, that's because I feel that way. This is different. Small congregations and so on. I appreciate being with fellow believers. As I said, don't trust anything I tell you. These were more noble than they for they searched the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. So let's just kind of jump in. In the beginning. Hmm. I hadn't thought about that with any seriousness until a matter of months ago. So what happened before? That's a logical question. What happened before the beginning? We're to run a race. Before you run the race, there's a lot of preparation. What happened before in the beginning? And I expect to Kind of use that as a theme for the next several weeks probably. Before in the beginning, there was that inter-Trinitarian planning. You sometimes read that in the councils of eternity. Well, what's that? God is one God, but there is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I don't understand the word begotten. It means to cause to be, to become. I don't understand that, how Christ is the begotten of the Father. The scripture says it, and I believe it in my ignorance, okay? So there are three persons before time, before the creation. And I'll give you a little warning. What they're doing is what you and I live. It's the history of the world. It is sovereign predestination, election for ordination. We'll use some of those words later. In the beginning, there was that inter-Trinitarian planning. What will the world be like? But what will this guy be like? That woman be like? Where will they be? What will they hear? And he appointed from that before the beginning. Well, that's what foreordination means. He ordained beforehand, before everything, he ordained that you would hear the gospel and that the spirit would give you faith that you would believe. Let's, the question then of the covenant. So let me just give you the summary is covenant is gospel and gospel is covenant. When you read the old Testament, if you're just reading the old Testament, you're not reading it right. It points to Christ. He is the common denominator in all of scripture. He is the word spoken. He is the one who speaks. So you need to be looking and I knew this. I've known this. So have you, but it has become more acutely aware. You got to be looking for Jesus on every page of scripture. And if you don't see him go back and start over, try it again. The question then of the covenants. The questions of the gospel are a little bit like the philosophy professor's final exam. He told his college students, define the universe and give two examples. We're not going to wear this out. And if you say, well, there's more to say, I wonder what else? There hopefully will be time. We're not going to wrap it all up and get all the connections made, but at least a beginning. So we read there in Genesis chapter one, the spirit was brooding over the waters. The spirit was moving in the waters. The Spirit, having come on the authority of Father and Son, and He is the third person of the Trinity, He comes and He hovers over. Did you think your life was a mess? It was chaotic? Nothing like the chaos that He came to deal with. You've read that account there in Genesis. Horrible stuff. As God is bringing about His work of creation. The spirit hovered over the chaos. We read that Genesis chapter one, one. Why is he hovering? Because God, the father and the son sent him, sent the spirit to control. We don't hope for good luck. We pray for God's kind providential care. Vastly different, isn't it? He controls, in partnership with Father and Son, He controls the creation which they are just making there in Genesis chapter 1. From before the creation was complete, you have the storms and the sea and the wind and all of that, until after the creation terminates, it is ended. So you've got this going on and then you have the world as we know it, time and space. And then we're told in Revelation chapter 21 a third kind of a new thing. The first heaven and the first earth had passed away. The sea was no more. The first things have passed away. There is a new heaven and a new earth. This is only perhaps a foretaste of that, but we look forward to a time when it is completed. And we who were foreordained predestined scripture says from before the foundation of the world, we will see our heavenly father. We will see our savior, our big brother, Jesus Christ. The questions will be answered. There are things you and I cannot, we can't even ask all the right questions. We certainly don't know all the right answers, but we have an eternity to hear him teach, to experience his love and his care and so on. So there is this new world yet into, into which we will enter that new heaven, a part of the new earth. these same two elements, the flowing water and the Holy Spirit show up in Revelation chapter 22. The Bible starts with it, it ends with it. And this is a theme throughout. There is in Revelation chapter 22 verse 1, a flowing river of the water of life. The waters there before the creation was complete were destructive. And now the river of the water of life flows out from before the throne. And the gospel permeates this water which was once destructive is now blessing to us. There was darkness in Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. In Revelation 22, what do you have? Christ, the light of life. And I hope you see what I'm doing. Looking back here at the text and then looking for Jesus. He is the light of life in contrast to the darkness that hovered over the earth. I've never been blind and I'm very, very thankful. But you see, blind folks, I've known some. Life is so difficult when they cannot see. They bump into things and so on. They don't know where to go, how to go. You need light to teach you. We need the light of the gospel to teach us how to live a life pleasing to God, our Heavenly Father. Coming back, gospel is covenant. covenant is gospel. The covenant predates, but it pre-states the gospel. I'll get to that in just a moment. And I forgot to do what I always do. What time does the service end? Okay. I'm not going to take time to fool that. Help me out. Okay. We're not going to get it done. It's a six-week series. So we can chop this thing wherever it needs to be chopped. The reason for starting to do what I did there, pick up a few of these words and phrases and expressions out of Genesis 1 and take them to Revelation chapter 21 or 22, is illustrative. It illustrates that the gospel that the covenants predate the gospel. The gospel isn't God having to come up with a new plan. And I don't want to chase a rabbit too hard on this, but there is a teaching which is unfortunately too common in the American Christian church, and that is that God had a plan. Adam sinned and goofed it up, so God had to go back and re-plan. And Adam sinned and God had to go back and people sinned and God had to go back. They talk about seven different epochs where God had to redo what amounts to the plan of salvation. No, no, no. If Adam or you or I can goof up God's plans, who needs him? He knows all things because all things exist because of Him. He laid out in the councils of eternity before time began what would happen. He did all the detailed work. He knows at any moment of our time, He knows everything about all things past, all things present, and all things future. He is not surprised by anything we do and He doesn't have to alter his plan as some folks badly mistakenly think. We'll see this in a moment. Little things in Genesis 1, and God said, I've read that for 70, well, 74 years since I learned to read. And God said to Adam, well, you know, we can talk about the weather and sports and we're kind of equal. You got to stop. Rethink this. What does that have to do with Christ? What does that have to do with Christianity? What does that have to do with the gospel or eternity? Well, he was talking. the Creator, the Redeemer, the Sustainer, and God, he said. He told, he didn't come to Adam and say, well, let's sit down and kind of work this thing out. I'd like you to do this. What would you like to do? He didn't negotiate, did he? Adam doesn't have any input. You and I don't have any input in the gospel. He didn't ask our opinion. He authoritatively said, that's power. But it is also a relationship. He wasn't talking to a rock. He was talking to a person, telling him how it is, establishing God and man. and what is the gospel except how man comes back into fellowship relationship with God the Father. So here in the garden you have the foretaste of Jesus speaking authoritatively to the Jews, the Gentiles, the lost, the believers, all of that. He said, he spoke God by speaking and saying established covenant relationship then, and through speaking the gospel, he establishes us in a covenant relationship with himself. It is from the top down, not negotiated. It is imposed by the greater upon the lesser. And again, I don't want to, I have a gift for putting my foot in my mouth, okay? Try to ignore that. I think one of the classic examples of this imposing, the greater imposing upon the lesser, had to do after the atomic bombs were dropped in Japan and when the Japanese power people came out onto USS Missouri. You've seen pictures of that. That was a significant moment in world history. But they didn't come with their list of, well, we demand this, this, this, and this, and we like this, this, and we're going to talk about this. No, how did they come? They came and stood at attention to hear what MacArthur said, not because he was MacArthur, he was representing not just the President of the United States, he was representing the whole nation, okay? And the terms were dictated. You will do this, and the promise unstated, if you don't, remember the bomb. You're not going to do these things. If you do them, remember the bomb. You're going to do these things if you don't. Okay? That is authority. That nuclear bomb was nothing compared to the power of God. This is the greater in this historic case, the United States, imposing as victor, imposing terms upon the lesser, the loser. It was not negotiated, it was dictated. The gospel isn't something you can say to God, well, hey, I'll give you one day in seven if I can watch the Super Bowl. You can multiply those. What would you like? You don't go to God and say, I will give you my life, but you can't have my academic life, my professional life, my family life. Okay. You hear what I'm saying? The gospel isn't negotiated based on what we want. It requires obedience to the terms. It comes with threats of punishment. God is talking to Adam in the garden. If Adam does these things, what's going to happen? If he cultivates it and so on, the various verbs, what's going to happen? He's going to continue to live. That's the promise. It's not stated. It is certainly implied. You will get to live. And in fact, that's a pretty good deal. You'll get to live in the garden of Eden. All this neat stuff that you didn't have to do one thing for. You didn't sweat one drop of blood for all this. And if you do what I say, you will have it all. Oh, plus, by the way, life with the most beautiful woman in the history of the universe, right? So even home life. Contingent on Adam's obedience, God required obedience, but he, and he rewarded obedience, the covenant stipulations do this and this and this covenant. I'm sorry. Restates the gospel, which is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Well, how do you demonstrate what you believe? It regulates what you do. I believe I should follow the speed limit so I drive 55 or whatever it is. You understand that. What you do demonstrates what you believe. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you will live a life markedly different from those who reject Him, they poo-poo Him, they worship another God, probably themselves. America's favorite idol after all is me, right? And that leads to a different lifestyle than a lifestyle that says, God is God. Jesus came down, brought the gospel, died to pay my death penalty. He gives me life. He's going to take me home to heaven to be with him. Let me work on that. Let me obey him. He loved me that much. Is it not true that it's easier to love a lovable person than it is to love an old grouch? you got some love coming at you it is much easier to love. Look at the love that is coming at us from Jesus Christ. And then from the Holy Spirit. And that goes back to my initial thing there was war in heaven. Why do you think that car accident happened yesterday? That was Satan's attack on saints. Since he couldn't get God he attacked saints. Why were they not killed? Because God says to Satan, thus far and no farther. This stuff, I'm saying, isn't just airy-fairy theological theory, nice things to talk about on a Sunday morning since there's no football game on. No. This is dead serious, eternal consequences. But I hope out of this too, you are finding your heart stirred more to love, to adore, to believe, to obey this one who didn't, he didn't just take his, take a chance. You know, people keep saying, thanks for your service. I had to take a chance. You could say that in quotes, there's no chance that was predetermined. Well, let me, let me go back. Obedience. is the evidence of love. Our response to that overwhelming love of Christ who didn't just risk, he paid the death penalty. So the covenant is pre-stating the gospel, the promises for obedience of that first covenant of works. The promises are implied. You'll live. You'll enjoy the garden. You'll have your wife. You'll have fellowship. Remember, God came down. Right? What does that say about the gospel? Did Christ come down, leave heaven, and came down to walk in a desert? Yeah. Those promises of the covenant of works Those promises are not explicitly stated, but implied. Now, we talk about being a child of God. There are parents here. What do you want your kids to do? Give me a word that begins with O. To obey is evidence we are continuing as children of God, not assuming we know better. I get almost a tickle and then almost irritated at people who will want to pull a verse or half a verse out of scripture and criticize it and condemn it. And I would think particularly, uh, of the imprecatory Psalms. Oh, that's anti-Christian. That's not nice. Well, that's because they never read it. continue as God's children. We believe these things because He said it. We look forward to living in perfection, not in the Garden of Eden, but in perfection in Heaven. So, the Garden has to do with the Gospel. It is a foretaste of Heaven. The Gospel, I'm sorry, the Covenant of Works pre-states the Gospel which includes the soul, that sinneth, it shall die. And what did God tell Adam? In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely. Yeah. There's the beginning of the need for the gospel. And remember Adam was created with the ability to obey God and the ability to disobey. He could choose to obey God, he could choose not. Remember old Sergeant Friday, dum-da-dum-dum. Because he exercised that. He exercised it wrongly. He who had the gospel declared to him. I've just talked about that. I hope you see that. The gospel in Genesis chapters 1, 2, and 3. He'd had all that. How he could make the decision is beyond my imagination. But that covenant of works included the promise of death. He says, thou shalt not eat of it, the fruit, Because, or the consequence of eating, in the day you eat it, that is to say immediately, you will assuredly, undoubtedly die. Well, what does that mean? And you're seeing this much more in our culture now than at any time in the past. I believe I'll just be a good guy and I'll go to heaven. I have had recently an elder in the United Presbyterian Church, UPC USA, and I had a guy, a member of the Brethren Church. We have some differences, but we would acknowledge they're Christian. Two leaders, two different denominations just lately said, All paths lead to heaven. It doesn't matter what religion you are. Everything goes to heaven. Every ladder that leads against the building takes you to the roof. I ain't 10 brides. But I can figure that one out. He says, no one cometh unto the Father but by me. The gospel It's great, it's very broad, but it's very narrow to get in. Narrow the gate that leads to everlasting life. Broad is the way that leads to destruction. And for Adam, he's never seen anything die. He hasn't even seen a flower wilt. There isn't any death in that garden. So when he's told you will die, I can almost feel sorry for the guy. Can you define that? What are we talking about? He didn't ask that apparently. Losing the benefits of the first covenant. You lose relationship with me, your wife, everything you had. everything you've seen, you lose it all. Some folks talk about, you know, you just die and that's it. No, unfortunately for ones who reject the gospel of Christ, unfortunately, that's not the case. When you die, your spirit, your soul goes before the judgment. And I'm a simple guy. I believe that the great judgment. He is not going to ask you your theology of this or your theory about that. I believe the final exam question is what do you think about my son? Yes, I believe in theological truth. I believe in studying that. But if you are doing that and I have known a couple of people they studied it all their life and they didn't believe a word of it. It was an academic thing. I'm smarter than you. I found this apostrophe here. No, y'all need to be looking at finding Jesus in the Gospel. Finding Him in every page here. He is in the Covenant. He is throughout. As I speak so often, preach on, teach on, speak about Christ in the Psalms. If you don't see Him when you are singing, to start looking. Okay. Let me look at the bulletin here. I told you it's about a eight part sermon. I'm going to try to jam it into six or with Bruce, I guess five. I hope this doesn't look like it's just terribly abrupt. Can you see the continuity? I hope so. So we'll come right back and start again. In the meantime might we sing to God's praise Psalm 45, the beast selection and in just a second 45b, the second line of the first verse. My tongue speaks about the King, Jesus Christ, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. He's the only one. And that's what our fellowship is about. It's about living that out. You encourage me, I encourage you. Together we obey the Lord. I could go on. but probably shouldn't Psalm 45, the B selection. Let me ask that you, uh, we'll stand in a moment. You might stick your thumb in that Psalm one 34 B. I need to do that. Psalm one 34, the B selection as our doxology with that in mind, then let me invite you please to stand for the balance of the service.