We're continuing on our series on covenant theology and we're basking in the fact that it's really the framework in which the Bible comes to us. God makes a covenant with anyone he's going to have a relationship with so that it's not flimsy, it's not based on some experience someone has or the whims of this or that, it's in covenant form. And that's the structure of the Bible, and that's what we're after in our study of God's Word, is not to impose something on the text of Scripture, on the Scripture itself, but to draw out from the Scripture what's there. We've talked at some length about something called the covenant of redemption. And that is a theological expression. We're working through a book called Sacred Bond, Covenant Theology Explored by Michael G. Brown and Zach Keel. I do have some difference with them regarding The Abrahamic Covenant will come to that. They're coming from a Presbyterian perspective. I'm from a Baptist, and I'm not scared of the fact you might be reading a Presbyterian book because I believe when we go to the Scriptures on that theme, I believe I'll be able to persuade you if your heart's open regarding that particular subject. But why I love this book is because of the simplicity of it. The language is easy to grasp for someone who's not been exposed to this. And so we've talked about the fact that God makes covenant with us, and the first covenant we talk about is called the covenant of redemption. Some people react to that and say, well, I don't find that expression in the Bible. I always remind them of Jehovah's Witnesses, Watchtower organization people who come to your door and when you talk about the Trinity they say, the word Trinity is not in your Bible. My reply is, the word Bible is not in your Bible. That takes them back. It's on the cover of the Bible, Holy Bible, but you don't find the word Bible between Genesis and Revelation. But the concept is there. We have the Bible because this is the book. This is God's book. And similarly with the Trinity, there's not one verse where you see Paul or someone else writing, this is the doctrine of the Trinity. There is one God, three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There's not one verse you can go to, but the components are all there. The ingredients are all there. You can go to many scriptures that teach there is only one God. That is the Shema of Israel. The Lord is one, and that is so, so repeated throughout Jewish history. Jesus even quotes the Shema in the Gospels. There is one God, but there are three persons each called and given the title of God, and those three persons are distinct from each other. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not the Father. There are three components which gives us very dramatically the doctrine of the Trinity. There's one God, we are monotheists, and yet there are three persons called God and they are distinct from one another. Similarly, There's not a phrase in our Bible that says, the covenant of redemption. There's the word covenant and there's the word redemption, but not in the same verse. But I believe scripture bears it out that there was a covenant, an agreement made before time, before God ever said, let there be light. And the parties to this covenant were the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And various texts bring that out. Grace was given to a people, the Bible says, before the foundation of the world, before time began. And the covenant of redemption is the fact that in the fellowship of the Holy Trinity, the Father was going to send the Son into the world, the Son was going to come into the world, live a righteous life, die an atoning death on the cross, be raised from the dead, and be seated at a place of all authority, and then the Holy Spirit was going to apply the redemption that He wrought to the same people. The Father sent the Son to save a people, He gave a people to the Son. That's the language we find throughout John's Gospel. All that the Father gives me will come to me. John 10 is all about that. The Father and I are one, one in mission. No one can be snatched from the Father's hand, none can be snatched from the Son's hand. There's an agreement regarding that. There's mission, save the elect, and this was an agreement established before time began, before there ever was an us to save. We were not yet in existence, but the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the covenant of redemption, agreed to save a people. We come now to a wonderful theme, and if you have the book Sacred Bond, I'm going to encourage you to read up to page 58 of the book, and you'll have it spelled out. So that's 58, page 58 of the book Sacred Bond, if you should desire to follow along there. But we're going to talk about the covenant of works. And we're starting in Luke chapter 17 to establish a principle. And beginning in verse 7, these are the words of Jesus. Luke 17 verse 7, Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and recline at table? Will he not rather say to him, Prepare supper for me. So it's a rhetorical question. It's not answered. Come at once and recline at table. Is that what he's going to say after the servant has been fulfilling his servant obligations throughout the day? Is that what is said to him? Come at once and recline at table. And the answer is no. We know that by verse 8. Will he not rather say to him? So he won't say that. He will rather say this, prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink and afterward you will eat and drink. That's the second thing that could be said and that's really what is brought out here. that the question is answered by, no, he won't say the first thing, he'll say the second thing. Prepare supper for me, dress properly, serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward, you will eat and drink. So, another question, verse 9, does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? And again, it's a rhetorical question in that it's not answered, but I believe, again, the answer is no. He could, but he doesn't have to because the servant was obligated to obey and he did what was commanded. It's courtesy to say thank you, but he doesn't have to because that's the requirement of the servant. the application Jesus now brings, verse 10, So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty. So, Jesus is making it clear that in the kingdom of God, there are obligations, and as servants of God, when we obey God, we're only doing what is right. We're only doing what is commanded. With that as a principle, and we could spend a lot of time in that text, as I'm sure you agree, let's go now back to the book of Genesis. And in Genesis, what I want to see is this covenant laid out. And what we're going to see is the fact that the word covenant is not found, but the concept of covenant certainly and surely is. And we're going to talk about that tonight. The ingredients. look online or you go to a restaurant and see a menu and you look under the breakfast section, there might be a particular breakfast that is outlined as an American Grand Slam. And you think of the ingredients that will be on the plate should you order it, and you're thinking of bacon maybe, sausages, eggs. Think about the Grand Slam. What would be on there? potatoes or hash browns, you'll think about the American Grand Slam and there will be a listing of what you will get should you order it. And you will order that and you will be very shocked to get prunes and salad because that's not what an American Grand Slam is. In the same way, Though you went into a restaurant and you saw on the table all the elements of the Grand Slam, someone doesn't have to say, this is a Grand Slam, an American Grand Slam breakfast, for you to know you're looking at an American Grand Slam breakfast because all the elements are there. That's the point of what I'm saying. All of the elements of covenant are here in Genesis 1 and 2. All the ingredients, the concept certainly is. So, God, as we know, created man. He created man in his image. Familiar to us? Verse 26 of chapter 1. I heard one preacher say, isn't it great to have dominion over creeps? Didn't know quite what to do with that, but he did say that. Verse 27, So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. So both male and female are equally created in the image of God, The exact same worth, we'll see later on that they may certainly have different functions. A man is not to do what the woman is to do, the woman is not to do what the man is to do ordinarily, but they are equal in the sight of God, made in the image of God. Male and female, He created them. Verse 28, And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." That mandate is still in effect today. If you were to visit a zoo, it's not the lions or the tigers or the bears that put us human beings in an enclosed environment, it's man having dominion over the animals in that sense. So this is something that carries on to this day. Over the fish, over the birds of the heavens, over every living thing that moves on the earth. And in just describing those words and recounting those words, we understand that when God made man in his image, it obligates man to obey him. We actually owe him 100% flawless, perfect, absolute obedience. Now we're going to see that very quickly in Genesis chapter 3 that man fell and that we are fallen and no one other than the Lord Jesus has ever fully obeyed God with their thoughts, with their words, with their actions. But Jesus, when he came along in Matthew chapter 5, some people look at the Sermon on the Mount and say it's wonderful good news. I don't think they've read it very well because it says things like this, Jesus speaking, you must be perfect. Well, compared to this guy over here, compared to Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini, I'm doing pretty good. Maybe not perfect, but I'm doing better. Jesus would say they're not the standard. Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, these dictators, they're not the standard. The standard is God himself. You must be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect. So Jesus didn't lower the bar when he came and said, look, not many people, in fact, no one is making the grade. So we're going to do the American thing in the school system of grading on a curve. 62% is a pass. That's a passing grade because no one's getting in the 90s anymore. That's not what happened. The bar was at 100%, and Jesus comes along and says, and I enforce that. You must be perfect. 100% or you fail. Now, that's not good news. It's news, but it's not good news. If the message of the gospel was, you must be perfect, and they just had that one verse, to lean on, what a message we'd have going door to door, knocking on the door, ringing the doorbell, hello, Mr. Sinner, Mrs. Sinner, Miss Sinner, you must be perfect, amen. Well, you haven't done that, well, onto the next house then. What a message. And the message is, though the requirement is perfection, You have not, I have not, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God and are in need of redemption, of salvation, of rescue. Because it is a calamitous thing to face God when he is perfectly holy and he requires perfect holiness and we don't have it. So what we need is a perfect righteousness Where are we going to get that? Well, we can say, you know, I'm going to start from now and I'm really never going to sin again. Well, what about the fact that you've lived all your life now and haven't lived perfect? Well, everyone's entitled to one mistake. Well, when did you use that one up? And by the way, where in the Bible does it say you're entitled to one mistake anyway? No, we need to be redeemed. We need a cancellation of our sins. We need forgiveness. And more than that, we need righteousness. And that's where the gospel comes in. Jesus, born of the Virgin, lived a flawless life that obeyed all of God's commands perfectly. And on the cross, he absorbed our sin and now gives to us a righteousness that fulfills the Lord. Now, we're gonna unpack that through what we call covenant theology, bringing out from the text of the Bible what's there, and it will go from, if it's black and white to you now, it'll become full, dazzling color. That's my prayer for us anyway, as we continue on in this course. So, because man is a creature, would you agree with me, man, is obligated. He owes complete obedience to God. That's why we started with Luke 17. When man does the right thing, it's not that special. It's what's required. There shouldn't be necessarily a reward. You did the right thing. Good. That's better than doing the wrong thing. But you, as the owner, don't have to bring and give and provide a reward for people that obey. Such is the grace of God that God gives not only mercy but grace. We're going to get into that. But because he's creator, Man is obligated to provide complete obedience at all times to the Creator. And God doesn't owe a reward to man for obedience. That's the point. God doesn't owe man a reward. The servant, the slave, can't hold his hand out and say, I did the right thing, reward me. No, he's obligated to do it without reward. He only did what he was supposed to do, in other words. What we have in Genesis 1, and I'm sure you are aware of this, is not two different creation accounts, as some would say. Usually liberal scholars do that and say there's a contradiction between chapter 1 and chapter 2. No, no, no. What's happening is Genesis 1 provides the big picture. And Genesis 2 provides the details. And that's often the case in Hebrew writings. It's a lot like us in our own day-to-day. There used to be newspapers that were delivered in paper form on our doorsteps or in our driveways. Very often that's not the case today. But even online, there'll be a series of maybe eight articles you can go to which are the current news, and there will be a headline. And either the headline interests you or it doesn't interest you. And if it interests you, you click on it and you get more information. That's kind of what's happening here. Genesis 1 is the big headline that God made everything in six 24-hour period days. That's what Genesis 1 is all about. God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Genesis 2 provides the details concerning what happened when God made man. And what we find when we read Genesis 1 and then into chapter 2 is that God placed before Adam, get this, the possibility of a reward for his obedience. And my whole point is, he didn't have to. didn't have to. Genesis 1 is the big picture and man is the summit of creation called to have dominion over all the earth. That's chapter 126. Fill the earth and subdue it. That's verse 28. And he is given that dominion and with that dominion is an obligation to imitate God. He's made in his image. and spread the knowledge of God throughout that realm of dominion in which you've been given. He must do this. He is obligated to do it. He's to exercise that dominion. He's to fill the earth. He is to subdue it. And he must do those things because God has commanded, and as we've already seen, God has every right to impose obligations on his creation, and he makes it clear. That's what I want of you, Adam. You have dominion and then fill the earth and subdue it. Bring it under your dominion. If you read chapter 2, let's read verses 1 through 3 of Genesis. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all of His work that He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation. So God is in this place of rest. He's now going to speak more about obligation. And that's what we find in, if you think about it, Genesis 1 is the big picture of God creating the universe. Now we have a very local arena laid out in Genesis chapter 2 in what is known as the Garden of Eden. And these two accounts, I don't believe, are in any way contradictory. They're not conflicting. They're complementary. More details now. Click on the headline in Chapter 1 and you get the details in Chapter 2. And man has been made as the center of creation. I wonder if you catch the magnitude of that statement. Have you ever looked through a telescope or even watched a television program trying to give you some sort of sense of the size of the universe? Your mind is boggled after the first 15 seconds. And then it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on so that there's galaxies beyond and billions of stars in galaxies and billions of galaxies and on and on and on and on it goes and then. The claim of the Bible is ridiculous to some people, but it's there, that God made a special arrangement with planet Earth. If you've ever seen a composite picture of just the Milky Way, finding Earth is hard. You are here. And it's this little pinprick in the midst of billions of stars. You are here. And the claim of the Bible is that God had a special arrangement covenant with people on this planet. And you think, well, Why would he do that? Do you know the book of Psalms actually raises that question? Psalm 8, when I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the stars that you've created, what is man that you are mindful of him? It's actually ludicrous unless it's true, but it is true. God has covenanted with the human race and made us in his image. I'm convinced that he's made no one else in his image. And part of the reason for that is that when God, the second person of the Trinity, became a man, he became a man forever. It's not like a three-week mission trip whereby, you know, you go to certain places like Mexico, or I've been to India a number of times, but after three weeks you come back home. And it's not as if Jesus became a man for 33 and a half years and that was it. He's a man forever. And he came and provided redemption for man and he is truly man and truly God. It's fathomless because He can't also be truly man, truly God, truly potato, truly alien. Fill in the blank. He is now the God-man forever and has provided redemption for people on this planet. It is mind-blowing. So, Adam has a mandate, it's laid out in Genesis 1, and then we get further details. And what God does is, I love this word, he condescends. He condescends. He comes down to our level. If you ever to ask God a question and he was to answer you audibly, Unless God condescends, we wouldn't understand a thing that we're told, even if it was in English. Because God's level of knowledge is infinite, and we are finite. And so if God were to answer your question as He can answer it as God, You know, you can, it's like stooping over the little newborn baby and the father and the mother is there in that scenario. The little baby's looking up and does the baby understand trigonometry? No. Does the baby understand how to count to two yet? No. But that little baby can understand the love shown in the eyes of the parents, and the tone of voice, and they feel security there. And all of that is real. And in a sense, what the parents do in that environment is condescend, rather than standing far off and talking and reading from a book on trigonometry. They come over the bed, the little bed of the baby, and say, who loves you? And all of that is meaningful, and in a sense, In that scenario, it is real love. It's not fake, it's real. And everything God says to us is true and real, but we must understand God is stooping to give us information that we can handle as human beings. And we're made with the image of God so that we can understand what he has revealed. So, laid out here in Scripture, God lays out a reward for Adam for his obedience, and it's mind-blowing because God is under no obligation. And God establishes a supernatural relationship with Adam And in that relationship, it is a covenant. We're going to see that as things unfold. There are fulfillments necessary for Adam in this mandate. He's not just to lay around and breathe in and out. He's called upon, as we've already seen, to do some things. And he's called upon to obey. So, He's created in that condition with obligations. Then we're going to see that this covenant that God makes with Adam has those sanctions and God placed Adam with those sanctions, things he had to do And there are also rewards for his obedience. And we call these things the covenant of works. That's what we're talking about. The obligations God made or gave to Adam, where he was required to obey God completely, always, all the time. And that was the obligation upon him. And we read of this in Genesis 2. Let's read verse 7. So what happened is God planted a garden in a certain place called Eden in the east, and then he put the man there. So if you can imagine Adam being lifted up and then placed in the garden, and then he's given obligations. It's spelled out for him. Adam, as we find from Romans chapter five, is what we call the federal head of the human race. Federal head. Again, you won't find that expression in the Bible, but it's the only way of making sense of what the Bible teaches. Keep your place in Genesis. Go to Romans and chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. This could be very familiar to you or else it might be just mind-blowing to you, but either way, it's a wonderful truth and it's the way Paul outlines the gospel. He does it based on what we as people of the Bible and what theologians describe as the covenant of works. Adam, let me back up and say this. Here in the United States, we have a system of government whereby we have representatives of each state that go to Washington and they vote for us. They argue for us. And that's at least the theory. But they're supposed to, rather than all of us in Arizona every Monday making a train trip or a bus trip or a car trip or a plane flight to Washington, imagine that, all the millions of Arizonans going to Washington DC to get our will done, we have people that represent us. And there is something called the House of Representatives. And they are people from each state in the Union who go to, this again is the theory, they go to Washington, D.C., and they make the will of our state known in the Capitol. And so rather than all of us going to vote, they vote in our place. That make sense? I think we all get the concept. That's how politics works. And if we, every two years, every four years, we can say that guy's not representing us well. We wanted someone else to represent us. That's the voting system. Think of that, and then think of the Garden of Eden. Adam was not simply acting for himself, he was representing all of us. There in the garden. And if he were to obey God's obligations, we would be the beneficiaries of that obedience. Were he to not obey, we would be the recipients of whatever calamity would come upon him, that would come upon us. And Romans 5 is a chapter that only makes sense with the concept of Adam as our federal head being that, that he was our federal head. He represented us in the garden. Now, there are objections to this. People say, well, I didn't vote for him. Well, true. But God, God is the one who said, I'm making you, Adam, the federal head of the human race. And in all of the politics of this land and anywhere else, we have never had a better representative because he was at that moment without sin. He hadn't sinned. Try that in politics. Have you ever had anyone who represented you or the President of the United States who was without sin? No. So, he was the best possible representative for us. And when he, in the garden, did what he did, all of mankind was affected. And again, people say, I'm not sure I like that. Well, here's what happens if you don't buy that. The flip side is, there's another federal head. There are two federal heads in the human race. One is Adam, one is Christ. And if you deny the concept of federal headship for Adam, logic would say you have to deny that Christ is the federal head of a new people. And that would put you outside of being saved because we're saved by what the federal head Christ did for us. Now, I've said a lot. The question is, is any of this found in the Bible? I'm going to submit to you that's what Romans 5 is actually teaching. Let's go to Romans 5. Look at verse 12. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, question, who's the one man? Adam. And death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. Question, question, how did all sin? Because, how did they all sin? Because their representative sinned and we sinned in him. All sinned. That is a statement that only works with federal headship. Otherwise, I mean, were you there in the Garden of Eden? I wasn't. But in God's mind, Holy Scripture says, all sinned. And that's why death has spread throughout the human race, because all of the seed of Adam sinned in Adam. And that's why people die. I don't believe that people are born neutral. They're as cute as can be, but they're very cute rebels at heart. They may be born physically alive, but the Bible teaches they're born spiritually dead and in need of regeneration and redemption and all of the wonderful themes of scripture. In sin did my mother conceive me, David wrote in the Psalms. We're born with a sin nature that's passed on from Adam to all in the human race. So verse 12, is very shocking, but it's God's assessment of the human race. Death happens, and that's why even, I believe, there's a real baby at conception. Not every baby that's conceived makes it to birth, right? And you can't say it's because of their personal sin. They haven't sinned. But because death is in the human race, God is under no obligation to make any fallen son or daughter of Adam have a breath of life on planet Earth. And you think, well that's kind of harsh. You don't understand, we don't understand the nature of sin, how grievous, how hideous it is, and God sees it as perfectly just for death to be the experience of every person, which is why Science, I've never been able to, because my knowledge of the medical field is very limited, the medical people I've talked to and have confirmed this, we can't find a thing in the body that says, because of this, someone will die. There's not like this factor that means everyone will die. But it's the experience of everybody on planet Earth, apart from someone like Enoch, who was just transported to heaven, Moses, who was transported as well, at least his body, they experienced 100% of people die. So even if we didn't have our Bibles, something would say to us, something's wrong here. It shouldn't, shouldn't it not be? Look, 84% of people die, but God, God makes sure that 16% survive because they're more righteous. No, God is actually explaining why death is in the human race. And it's because of Adam. Now, a lot of people in hearing that say, well, when I get to heaven, I'm going to have a few words with him, you know, look what you did. Well, he was very aware of what he did, but, He was born without sin and chose sin. And when he chose, just as in the House of Representatives, those representing our state, We have to suffer the consequences. If they are involved in a massive 58% tax for Arizona and they choose that for us, that's what's in the bill, that's what they choose, guess what? We suffer for it. And we might have been just sitting out on the back porch, not thinking about it, but IRS comes along and says, right, for this year, you owe 58% in taxes. Why? Because your representative voted for that. And our representative chose sin. And we're born fallen in Adam. Continuing on, verse 13. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given. That's when Moses wrote the law. But sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam. who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's trespass, who's the one man? It's Adam. Much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, as to the whole human race, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, one man's actions, one man's sin, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness How beautiful is that? Reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Again, do you see? Adam and Christ are contrasted. Therefore, look at the therefore. As a result of what I've declared now, here's the application. Therefore, as one trespass, one sin, led to condemnation for all men. That's exactly what we've been talking about. So one act of righteousness, I believe here it's talking about the entire life of Jesus Christ. So one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men, all men who are in Christ. Verse 19. Verse 19 is so crucial. Do you see that? So by the one man's obedience, this is the obedience of Christ, the many will be made righteous. Ladies and gentlemen, that's the gospel. Now the law came to increase the trespass, to bring it out into the open. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are running through this very, very quickly, but that's because we want to talk about the whole concept rather than more that's certainly there in that passage. But go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and you see that this theme is again in view. This is how Paul presents the gospel, isn't it? Romans is all about the gospel. Where does he go? He goes to Adam in the garden, representing us. as our federal head. Again, those words are not there in the text, but the concept is. Otherwise, it makes no sense. And then he repeats it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And that's starting with a revelation of the gospel. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I remind you, verse 1, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand. Let's go on and look at chapter 15 here and verse 21. And again, it's the same Paul, the same apostle, and this is where he goes. For as by a man came death. Who do you think that is? Adam. By a man. Who do you think this is? Jesus, has also come, has come also the resurrection of the dead. Look at this, verse 22. Wow. So, what we're saying, if we put all of these ingredients together, and we haven't looked at a whole lot of them yet, That's why there's going to be more than this one session on the covenant of works. Adam as our federal head, because in the garden when he sinned and he ate of the fruit, all humanity was in him, and when he died, we died. and the consequences of his sin is massive, it's vast, it's ongoing. However, the flip side is Jesus Christ is presented as the second man, the last Adam. In fact, this is a chapter that brings that out. And the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled God's obligations in the covenant of works. Whatever God told him to do, he did. And on the cross he absorbed the sin of the sons of Adam, the people of God, and lived a righteous life so perfect that it pleased the Father always. God bellowed out, the Father bellowed out, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. That is the righteousness of God. The little five-year-old child who says, Lord Jesus, I'm sorry for my sin. I believe you're the Son of God. Raised from the dead, you're my Lord. Be my Savior. Save me from my sin. Simple little prayer. And if you could see in the spiritual realm, she is now transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son. She's transferred out of the consequences of Adam's failure to the consequences and blessings of all that Christ achieved in his life. and his death and his resurrection. And she may not understand that till she's 38 years old. Doesn't matter. She, in the sight of God, is given a righteousness that's perfect, that fulfilled the law, because Jesus now is her federal head. It's amazing. That is how the gospel is presented. What the first Adam messed up. Christ has cleaned up and has not only given us what Adam had before the fall, it's better than that. Because Adam, in the covenant of works, what he was required to do was under a period of what we call probation. You know when someone is in prison and they're granted probation, it's basically like this. We're letting you out, but we're watching you. For the next two years, you better keep yourself clean or else you're back in here. That's what probation is. Jesus has not merely put us in Adam's condition before the fall. He has put us in His relationship with the Father. so that we're given a righteousness that can never be taken away from us, ever. And it's not like your justification to be declared right in His sight is up for negotiation. We're going to review it in a couple of years. Let's see how you're doing. Okay, let's watch you for the next two. Let's see how much you pray. Let's see how much you evangelize. Let's check your tithing record. Let's do all this. And then in two years, we'll confirm your justification. That's a satanic misrepresentation of the gospel. We are saved not by our works, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Now we might now, as the six-year-old, not understand all of the ramifications. So that's why we come to a Bible study to say, okay, show me what God has done. I want to now rejoice in it. And when you understand this You know, you can get a little Pentecostal here, run around the building with your hands in the air, as I say. Why? Because the righteousness you've given is as righteous as God himself. It's a robe of righteousness that wasn't, is not found on some tree somewhere. It's the righteousness of Christ credited to your account, because he now is your federal head. All right, verse 22, verse 21. As by a man came death, by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then that is coming those who belong to Christ. This, by the way, verse 22, is not teaching universalism. That's the doctrine that everybody will be saved. If you just read verse 22, you might have that impression. In Christ shall all be made alive. Oh, everybody's going to be saved. No. Verse 23 is actually a modifier for it. It says those who belong to Christ. Those who belong to Christ. So, just as an aside. So, God made threats to Adam. He tested Adam's obedience. God placed Adam, if we go back to Genesis chapter 2, and we're going to have to stop fairly soon, but what really excited me in my study today when I thought we're gonna get to something quite amazing. I'm not sure we're gonna get to all that I wanted to get to, but I need to be less long-winded. As someone said, blessed are the short-winded for they shall be invited back. You ever heard that? But I just have to, I love these details. I love the details of this, yeah. So, Genesis 2, verse 8. The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. He was there for a reason. Verse 9 brings that out. Out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. And the tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So in that garden, there were two trees, tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Well, there were many, many, many trees, but two in particular are brought to our attention. Let me put it that way. Now, if we go back down to verse 15, we have more information. These are really interesting words. And I want to kind of close with this, and it might be a new thought to you. It was to me some years ago. I thought, I don't think I've heard that. And then I read others and they kind of laid out in more precise and detailed terms as to why they would say this. I believe, biblically, Eden was something of a temple. Now, hang in there. It's presented that way. First of all, God planted this Eden, it says, in the East. Do you remember that, verse eight? In the East. And I believe it was on a mountain. Now, there are many pictures, many artists' impressions, renditions of the Garden of Eden. All of those could be accurate, but in your mind, think of it elevated on a mountain. Why? because we're told in the intervening verses we've kind of skipped over, there were a number of rivers. Verse 10, a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. There it divided and became four rivers. And I didn't, how many times we read that never really paid much attention to the fact that Eden is associated with rivers. But here's the big thing. Rivers always flow downhill, not uphill. Not only were there rivers and trees, but in verses 11 and 12, there are all kinds of precious stones. Bdellium, onyx stone, precious stone. We're told, the gold of the land of Habila there, there's gold. It's good gold. Now, precious stones and metals, something should be awakening in our minds because when you look at the tabernacle, and when you look at the temple, Precious stones and metals are used. The high priest's garment. God didn't say, now find a few stones by the river. No, these were intricate, very valuable stones. Always involved in the construction of the tabernacle and the temple. And what amazed me when I kind of looked further into it, A lot of the language in our Bibles, later on in our Bibles, in the temples and even onto the book of Revelation, you've got Aaron's breastplate, you've got the precious stones. Then in Revelation 21, things are brought out that we haven't seen for a long while and they go all the way back to Eden. And it's a new Jerusalem and a new temple. The temple of God coming down, God dwelling with man. And that's why there's such comparison and similarity between Genesis and Eden and the new temple that's yet to come that's laid out in Revelation 21. And it's better than Eden, better than other temples. And they were pointing to what will be true of the new creation. So I believe that Eden was a mountain, was on a mountain, and that in a real sense it was a temple. Now I'm going to go just for an egg. How many people here will give me an extra five minutes? All right. Can I see your hands? Okay. 5, 10, 15, 20. No, no, no, no, no. Right. These were a pattern. These, these, these were a pattern of heaven, heaven realities. The tree of life is there, found again in the book of Revelation, if you remember that. We're told that Adam was in the garden to keep it and work it. Keep it and work it. The Hebrew words translated work and keep that's found in Genesis 2.15 are the exact same words God uses in Numbers 3. Let's go to Numbers 3. This is the fourth book of our Bible, the book of Numbers, chapter 3. And here we're looking at a presentation of the Levites, what their duties are, Look at verse five, the Lord spoke to Moses. This is numbers three, verse five. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, bring the tribe of Levi near and set them before Aaron the priest that they may minister to him. Numbers three, now verse seven, they shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting as they minister at the tabernacle. These are the same Hebrew words that we found in Genesis chapter 2. And here they are translated as minister and God. And it describes here in this context priestly duties. So again, as we read our Bibles, we're getting more information about what was really going on in Eden. And these words are highly interesting to me because they relate to what Adam's assignment was in the garden. Just as Levitical priests were told to guard and minister, that was Adam's function in the garden. And if you think about it, he's acting as a priest. in the garden. He used to be a faithful priest who worked in a guarded garden sanctuary. And the message was this, keep that temple garden pure. Keep it pure. Don't allow anything to undermine the purity of this garden. Adam was a priest. I'm going to say also he was a prophet, and I'm going to tell you why, and he was a king. And again, some light should start coming on in our hearts because Jesus is the ultimate priest, the ultimate prophet, the ultimate king. And when I say Jesus fulfilled what Adam failed to do, he not only did so as the federal head, but in three functions, as priest, as prophet, and as king. Let's look in Genesis 2, 16. He was given that task of guarding the purity of the sanctuary And as prophet, God spoke directly to Adam. And therefore, he had the job, the task, the assignment of keeping truth in the garden, and not succumbing to lies, and not letting anyone come under the sway of lies. And of course, someone came in. In fact, that's what happened in the Levitical system. The priests were to guard the tabernacle, and Adam's task was to guard the garden, temple. And he failed at that because the serpent came in with its lies, and rather than speaking as a prophet and saying, no, God has said this, The serpent raised the question, did God really say? Adam should have stood up and said, yes, God really did say, and I'm not listening to you, nor is my wife. I'm going to stand between you and her. But instead he was passive. And so he failed as a priest. He failed as a prophet. God had spoken directly to him. And then as king, look at verses 18 to 19. And then the Lord God said, it's not good that the man should be alone. I'll make a helper fit for him. An hour after the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The fact that he was naming every creature really, really symbolized the fact that everything was under his dominion. And he was the reigning king in the temple, the temple garden. And so the mandate was starting in Eden, take the knowledge of God, you're made in the image of God, and spread abroad the knowledge of God beyond the garden, fill the whole earth with seed who will be able to divulge the knowledge of God to anyone else that they meet. And of course, he failed at that. Let me close with a quote by Samuel Ranahan. Did you see the fact he was ruling the garden? That was the kingly function. He was to mediate. He was the priest. He was supposed to be the speaking prophet to the serpent, and he failed at that. Jesus as the federal head of a new people. He's the priest. He's the prophet. He's the king. Those are the threefold offices of Christ. You might have heard of that. There's a A Latin phrase, munus, triplex, the threefold offices of Christ. And again, he succeeded where Adam failed. Let me go to this quote. Samuel Ranahan will close with this. Adam as priest, prophet, and king of Eden was to begin his universal dominion in a specific realm under a specific law of obedience. That's what we're calling the covenant of works. Adam must guard the divine sanctuary by upholding the word of God. And to test his obedient protection of the garden, he was prohibited from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When we understand that, it's as if now we're reading the passage with all the lights on and in full color, and we're seeing just the beauty and grandeur of the magnitude of what Christ came to do. And that's where covenant theology takes us. And let me end with this, and I'm pretty sure it's a paraphrase of a quote by R.C. Sproul. In the end, if you're saved, you're saved by works. And he said, I haven't finished speaking. You're saved by works, but none of them were yours. They were the actions of Christ as your federal head, and should you come into Christ, you gain by grace all that Christ achieved by his lifetime of obedience. And we saw that in Romans 5. We saw that in Romans 5. So that, though you and I have sinned, and we've grieved God, the moment we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we can have assurance that we are justified, because perfect righteousness is counted to you. Your sin's taken away, perfect righteousness, one that fulfilled the covenant of works. Whatever God called Christ to do, He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Everything He did, He did for us. He lived for us as well as died for us. And when we put our faith in Jesus, all that He did in His life is credited to your account, so that Paul could write in Romans 5, and with this we'll close, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. We pray, Lord, that we would just revel in the grace of God and the knowledge of God, that we might more beautifully magnify the grace of Jesus Christ, who has, when God gives us grace, he doesn't give us a substance or a liquid. and pour that into us, when we get grace, we get Jesus Christ, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Father, we thank you for these things. And as we delve further into it, I pray, Lord, that you would set our hearts aflame with your truth, that we would glory in the gospel, recognizing it is by grace that we are saved through faith, not of works, not our works, lest anyone should boast, but was saved by the action of Jesus Christ in his life for us and his death for us. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.