Let's go to the Lord now in prayer. Again, you are the God eternal. You are the God who is immortal, the God who is invisible, and God only wise. We do praise you for an opportunity again today to worship. Lord, we've seen again in just the past weeks the changing of the seasons, which reminds us of your faithfulness as the harvest time has come. We're headed into winter again. We see the leaves changing. We see the sun shining yet brightly. The rain still waters the earth. And Lord, you are still faithful. Lord, even as you take care of your creation, the refreshing rains, the rising of the sun, and the giving of food and drink, you take care of us each week. You give us your word and you feed us again and again and again. You feed us with the bread of life, our Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray this morning as we turn again to your word, as we consider that you're the God who keeps covenant, who keeps promise forever, that you would indeed bless us as we study that word and that you would fill us and refresh us we realize, anew and afresh today, that you're a God who has not only made the world, but that you delight to have fellowship with sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ by way of covenant. We pray, bless us as we study, and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we're on to another theme from Genesis first eleven chapters of Genesis. Another theme here, which perhaps of all the themes that we're going to cover, we've covered the matter of creation, we've talked about the environment in which man was placed, we talked about law, and the idea of aughtness, that God has revealed His will, both, and that will is both demonstrated in the pattern of how his creation works, that his creation is in obedience to him, and that man was created to be in obedience to God and obeying his revealed will. But, really at the heart of this creation that we've been studying, first the physical creation, then Adam placed in that creation the man who has both body and soul, who is under God's law, who is in that sanctuary, Here we get really to perhaps what is the heart of the matter, and that is the matter of communion and fellowship between God and man. Communion and fellowship between God and man. And we're going to study that under the heading of Covenant. What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word Covenant? What's the first thing you think of? Anybody. Or somebody. Promise. That's good. very good yeah agreement yes agreement has both blessing and curses where's that where's that where's a very practical and common place that we still hear the language of covenant today marriage any legal agreement perhaps baptisms perhaps you live in a uh... live in a neighborhood, and the development is bound by something what they call a covenant, which is an agreement that you're going to live in that neighborhood, but you're going to keep your home and anything that you do in your home up to certain standards. There's an agreement. So covenant has, in one sense, a range of meanings. It can have the meaning of a contract. It can have the meaning of a bond, a bond between two parties, and that's its most basic meaning, a bond between two parties. And we'll see that there are indeed, there are promises, there are curses, there are stipulations, the biblical covenants. But the heart of the idea of a covenant is the idea of a bond between two parties. Now, today, this idea of being a bond between two parties, in so many ways, is under attack by the world and the devil, as the institutions of the family, of fellowship, of friendship, of even general society, this idea of fellowship and communion, is under siege. Now, when you have a, at the heart of the covenant, is this bond between two parties, How does a covenant come into being? How does a covenant come into being? Think about marriage. What happens? Well, usually there's a formal ceremony. There's some point at which we can mark the beginning of a covenant. In a marriage, that would be a marriage covenant. That would be at the taking of vows. That there are vows always attached to a covenant. We'll see that in Scripture as well. There are formalities. There's a point of commencement of a covenant. there is also in the scriptures when we come to the idea of covenant the bond of course is between God and man through his representatives between God and man and indeed it begins their points of commencement with a vows and ceremonies And the covenants, however, in the scriptures that God establishes are sovereignly administered. In other words, God is both the initiator and the establisher of the covenant. If you enter into a covenant If you enter into a covenant, for example, a homeowner's association in your development, well, you and your fellow homeowners are all bound by a contract, but you're all equal parties to that contract, and you have all equally agreed to the terms of that contract. And if you were there at the very beginning, you might have even been able to negotiate some of those terms of that contract. However, covenants in Scripture are very different. They are sovereignly administered. God, He sets the terms, He gives the promises, He declares the curses for those who break the terms of the covenant. He sovereignly administers every covenant in which He is a party. He sets the terms. Now, the question is, What is, how do we understand God's covenant relationships in the scriptures? Did God enter into a covenant, for example, with Adam, with mankind, or with you? With you and I? And the answer of the scriptures is that yes, he has. And this is summarized if you take out your If you take your hymnal, you don't have to, but if you want to look and have this open, page 852 in the back of the red Trinity hymnal, has the Westminster Confession statement of God's covenant with man. And here, the confession will arguing between the first and second paragraph of chapter 7 page 852 that indeed God is a God who enters into covenant with mankind and that particularly at the very beginning of history In Genesis chapter, right at the moment of creation, creation of Adam and Eve, God entered into a covenant with them. Now notice the first paragraph says this, the distance between God and the creature is so great that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward but by some voluntary condescension on God's part which he has been pleased to express by way of covenant. And then here, the first covenant made with man was a covenant of works where in life was promised to Adam and to his posterity upon the condition of perfect and personal obedience. So the confession states, that there was a covenant made with Adam at the beginning before the fall, so that God entered into a covenant relationship with Adam at the beginning before the fall. Now, this language is echoed, the actual language of covenant, in Hosea 6 verse 7, We read of the rebellion of mankind and it says here, but like Adam they transgressed the covenant, there they dealt treacherously with me. Hosea 6 verse 7. Now some of your translations there will say, but like men, because the word for Adam and man are the same thing in Hebrew, But there is a verse that seems to indicate that Israel's disobedience and rebellion was an echo of Adam's disobedience and rebellion in the Garden of Eden. And that as Adam transgressed the covenant in the Garden, So, Israel was to Ephraim and the other tribes mentioned there were transgressing the covenant between God and Israel later on. So, it seems to indicate that there was a covenant already at the very beginning between God and Adam, a covenant which our confession calls the covenant of war. also the covenant of life now where we there's more biblical evidence for this idea of a covenant from the very beginning of creation and for that we're going to turn to Genesis 6 Genesis 6 and we're gonna we're trying to what we're trying to do here is establish this idea of a covenant a covenant of works as we see reflected in the confession or I'll cut also called a covenant of life made with Adam at the beginning of creation and a bond an agreement sovereignly administered by God where he is party and promises in condescension to be in communion and fellowship with Adam and we call that first covenant the covenant of works now in Genesis 6 we have We have the wickedness of mankind on the earth, God's intention to judge all of humanity with a global, with a worldwide flood. And God looks on the earth, and indeed it was corrupt, verse 12, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. Noah, of all flesh on the earth, found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And then God starts giving those instructions to Noah in verses 13 and 14. The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood, make rooms in the ark, cover it inside and outside with pitch. And it goes on to describe how God will bring floodwaters on the earth in destruction. But then in verse 18, in the middle of this language of destruction, we read these words, But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall go into the ark. Now the language here in the Hebrew Establish is really... Establish doesn't translate it in the best sense. I will cause to stand or I will maintain my covenant. In other words, I will honor my covenant is what God is saying. I will honor, I will cause to stand, I will maintain my covenant dealings with mankind. He's saying, he's saying, Noah, even though I'm going to destroy the whole earth with a flood and all mankind, I will still remember, I will still maintain my covenant bond with my creation and with humanity. God's covenant is apparently already in existence in Genesis 6 verse 18 and Noah was to understand that God was not dissolving his covenant bond with humanity but that God would cause it to stand or maintain it. Now the covenant here, there's a covenant ceremony in or a covenant interaction here as God speaks with Noah as he says, but I will establish my covenant and we're going to see a number of things right here from Genesis 6 in this short statement that we have the Creator God who initiates a covenant transaction or a covenant ceremony and makes a declaration to a representative head namely Noah, so we have the Creator God, here's the parties we have a representative head here Noah, but pointing back to Adam and then also going on, notice, I will establish my covenant with you and you shall go into the ark, so Noah, I'm establishing my covenant with you, you shall go into the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you, the head of mankind, Noah, there's a party here, his descendants and every living creature. Now it's interesting. when you go to this is jumping ahead of myself here but when you go to peter he's talking about talking at first peter about baptism actually goes right to this reference here this is why we understand baptism to be a covenant sign which includes believers and their see their children when he said that uh... the art was a picture of baptism in which no one and his family were saved And that's why baptism, we call it a covenant sign. It has at its heart this picture right here, the covenant head. It has Noah, and God is dealing with this covenant head, but it has implications for Noah's you, your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And then for all of creation, verse 19, and you will take a living thing, and of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Now attached to the covenant with Noah, we have another element. Another element in chapter 9 verses 9 and 10. as for me behold I established my covenant with you and your descendants after you see the same the same language God spoke to know so it's got a Noah and to his son saying but as for me behold I established my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that is with you the birds the cattle every beast of the earth and with you of all that go out of the ark every beast of the earth And attached to that idea of every living creature in the covenant, there is also the idea of a sacrifice that's at the heart of this covenant. Chapter 8, verse 20, Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Where's that used in the New Testament? Anyone know where that language is used in the New Testament? An altar of sacrifice, a soothing aroma reaches to heaven and God is pleased. Ephesians 5 verse 2, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. Again, all of this is tied together, but we have an altar, an offering. So we have the parties, Creator God, Head of Mankind, His descendants, every living creature. So, God and Noah, and in Noah, all of creation, we have a sacrifice, an altar, an offering, and then finally we have a sign. Then finally we have a sign in 9 verse 13. I set my rainbow in the cloud and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. It shall be when I bring a cloud over the earth that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. The water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." Now what is this covenant referring to? This idea of covenant? And we see here repetition, a lot of repetition between Adam and Noah. Adam as a representative head of mankind and Noah, we see the repetition in the parties. We see the implications for Adam as being a representative head for all of mankind. We see the implications for all of the creation. As a matter of fact, something I missed in chapter 9 verse 1, God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. That's the same command God gave to Adam. What I'm trying to illustrate here is that there is a covenant principle that's clear in Noah which is also, which has, which borrows all of its elements from God's relationship with Adam. And God has said that this covenant with Noah, He's not making a new one, He's maintaining the one He made with Adam. We call this, we can call it generally, the Creation Covenant. Again, at the heart of the covenant is the bond between two parties. The first moment of creation, man recognized surely that he was distinct and separate from God, so was the whole of creation. There was an otherness. And He was, He and all creation, He and all creation were separate and distinct from God the Creator. And the Confession says that the distance, this distance between God and the creature is so great. In other words, there is a vast gulf between Adam and God that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, So Adam would have understood that he had an obligation to be obedient to God, but would he have had any hope of fellowship and communion with God unless God had first communicated himself in a covenant. In other words, would Adam have known the blessing and the favor of covenant fellowship with God, a distinctly personal creator, if God had not condescended in covenant. Adam and God were not simply together, that is, because by relationship of creation itself, like sitting in a room without talking, but that Adam and Eve, the design for God and man was that there were to be interactivity, communication, fellowship, what we call broadly communion between God and His creation. And we see this again, Genesis 128. And God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, that His presence was not simply a presence of transcendent otherness, but a presence of blessing and goodness and fellowship. That He was to be obeyed, He was to be delighted in for His goodness, He was to be worshipped. In our broken world, we're almost too cynical to believe that this could be true. We so wrestle with sin and we so often feel so far from God, this picture of this idyllic, wondrous covenant bond and fellowship where God condescended and came and made a covenant with Adam in the garden, and that it was a picture of God's intention to have friendship with men, a glorious love between God and man, and God and creation, and man as the crown of creation created in the image of God. So with Noah, we're seeing a reflection of what God did already when he came to Adam in the covenant of works, where he promised life on the condition of perfect obedience. Now, Noah, the covenant with Noah we're going to see in a moment has transitional elements because it's after the fall, but let's go look at the covenant of works. Because the principle we've established here is that God, when he talks to Noah, says, I'm not making a brand new covenant, I'm establishing a pattern which I've already started. Now, the covenant of works, more properly, we're going to go back to the command in Genesis 2, verses 16 and 17. The Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Here is in summary form the command that lies at the heart of the covenant of works that God had asked Adam on condition of perfect obedience which we just read in the covenant. The first covenant was made with man, was a covenant of works wherein life was promised to Adam and in him to his posterity upon condition of perfect and personal obedience. Now, How is this covenant of works, or covenant of life, related to this broader concept of the creation covenant that I talked about a moment ago? Well, God gave to Adam, not as the natural head of creation. See, the creation covenant, broadly, that I was talking about with Noah, is God's relationship with his whole creation. But the covenant of works is a special and distinct, to use large words, theological category, where God establishes Adam as what we call a federal head of the whole human race and gives him a life and death test. Now, federal. What does federal mean? What does federal mean? What's a federal government? Representative. Very good. A federal head or a federal representative is ordained by God as representative of other men such that his actions, by God's ordination, are imputed to those represented by Him. And so God, when He gives Adam this command, sets up Adam as the representative of all of humanity and he gives him this covenant, and in this covenant Adam is put to the test, and all mankind then are put to the test. The probation, the heart of the test, is the command. If we go to Romans 5, we will see that Paul spells this out very clearly, that Adam is Adam was the representative head. He failed the test that God had given him. He sinned. He plunged all mankind into sin. But Christ, as we'll get to in a few moments, is the second Adam. Adam failed, but Christ has indeed, granted by his perfect life and substitutionary death, has lifted the curse due to us. Because of Adam's sin. But this covenant of works, the probation, at the heart of it was the probation of the tree. It would prove whether man would obey God, as we said last week, simply for who he is, without any natural reason. You see that? The question was, the tree, as we said last week, when Eve saw it, it was good for food. It was something to be desired. It was beautiful. And the only thing that stood between Adam and that tree was the fact that God indeed had said. God had made a declaration. And the test of the covenant of works was whether man would obey God simply for who He is and what He had said. Would the Word of God be the ultimate rule for his life? And mankind would enjoy life with God through Adam's obedience, if Adam had obeyed. But he sinned unto death, and we sinned in him, and we fell with him, and now we are incapable of life by that covenant. Again, this is reflected in the third chapter on page 852 in the Confession. Man, by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that covenant. So man, by his fall, plunged himself into death and alienation from God. The covenant was a covenant of works in the sense that man was to obey and fulfill its terms. It was one of life, as it's called the covenant of life also in the Confession and Catechism, because everlasting life and blessedness with God was in view if Adam had kept the covenant. Did Adam keep the covenant? No, we know. We're going to see that in a few weeks. He failed, resulted in death, separation from God. Now what? Now we have the covenant, the broad covenant with creation. We have the covenant of works. Now what? And what happens to this theme of covenant in the scriptures? Well, let's do a quick review. What did we have? So far, We had the idea of covenant, it's a bond. There's two parties, the Creator God and a representative of mankind. First Adam, then we saw Noah. We go chronologically, and their descendants included in that covenant in every case. And even more broadly, every living creature that God has redemptive, well we're going to see in the redemptive covenants, God has redemptive purposes for the whole of creation itself. and that we see in uh... after the fall that there's always sacrifices attached to covenants and there are always signs attached to covenants Indeed, covenant now from Noah to Christ we'll look at. Noah was a re-proclamation of this creation covenant, but already had in it the ideas, the reality of sin and sinfulness because the re-proclamation of God's covenant came out of, came after his great judgment against sin and all the earth. We already have a sacrifice We have Noah then here as a new head of mankind, but what happens after Noah? Well, it seems almost immediately that mankind returns back to his rebellious state. And the whole human race is plunged into organized, purposeful rebellion at the Tower of Babel, where man decides to make a name for himself, to build a tower, and to cast off the rule of Almighty God, even when the flood is fresh in their memories. When God's punishment was fresh in their memories. And so we have a great failure, again, of mankind to keep the Covenant. It's a reflection of Adam all over again, and Adam's sinfulness. And from here, we can trace this idea of the Covenant, a Covenant-making and a Covenant-keeping God, all through the Scriptures to the very end of time. And in every Covenant we're going to have the two parties, God and a representative, We're going to have implications for His descendants, and we're going to have implications really for all of creation. This isn't as obvious in all of the covenant proclamations, but if we look at them all together, we're going to see that covenant really structures biblical revelation. And if you don't understand this concept of covenant, and that God deals with mankind in covenant, then you really can't understand the structure of the Scriptures. Every covenant, and we're going to see them in a moment, there's going to be a series of redemptive covenants, they progressively reveal more and more of God's purpose to redeem mankind, or sinners out from mankind, to recreate the heavens and the earth again, to lift the curse according to the original purpose. And these covenants are never, they never simply have one individual in view. They always have God's redemptive purposes in their broadest sense in view. The redemption of sinners, of humanity, the final recreation of all things according to God's original purposes. Actually, at the end, when all things are made new, even better, for there will be no possibility of sin or falling away as there was in the garden with Adam. Well, what are these covenants, these redemptive covenants? Well, we're going to start, if we go quickly through the scriptures, we have the Abrahamic covenant, which comes right on the heels of what happens at Babel. Tower of Babel, mankind is scattered on the face of the earth, through God's confusing of their languages. And out of that scattering, we find a man named Terah. Terah has a son named Abram. And Abram is chosen by God to be a new representative. Now look what we're going to have in the covenant with Abraham. We're going to have God sovereignly. I'm trying to follow this through here, Peter. Are you saying that there is a covenant of creation the noetic covenant follows this covenant of creation, then there's a covenant of works. So that you have two distinct covenants before the fall, a covenant of creation and a covenant of works. Broadly, the covenant of works is really the centerpiece of God's covenant of creation. In other words, you can call the covenant of works technique you can keep him to subsume god's covenant with man before creation under the heading covenant of works however god's related generally to his whole creation that makes sense to you okay at opal robertson in his in his uh... work on uh... my brain's gone blank here christ in the covenants talks about God's general relationship to His whole creation under a covenant of creation. In other words, broadly, that He is God the Creator, that He communicates Himself to His creatures. And He calls that generally a covenant of creation. I have no issue with that language. Within that, generally, we have, within that general covenant, we have specifically a covenant of works And in one sense, you could say, you could almost use them as an interchangeable language, the one for the other, because at the heart of God's covenant creation is this covenant with Adam, which is called the covenant of works. So, that's where that language comes from, that's where... But I'm also trying to figure out how you are relating the noetic covenant to creation covenant versus noetic covenant. You know it certainly is well, we're gonna get to that in a moment, but the the Noahic Covenant Reflects in a different way in a different in a broader way than the covenant with Abram in a moment It is dealing with all of when God deals with Noah. He's still dealing with humanity the whole of creation and the whole of humanity Singly When he calls Abram out, we have the beginning of, we have a new development in the covenant of grace. We're going to get to that in a moment. These are all developments in the covenant of grace, where God is now calling out a special people for himself. Indeed, he's always been doing this, but he hasn't declared it until we get to the covenant with Abraham in the same way. Understand what I mean? We'll get to this in a moment. All of these covenants, God declares in Genesis 3.15 to Adam, the first covenant promise, which is that he would give a representative seed. That's the beginning of the covenant of grace. Then after this, God declares to Noah redemption, and we have the sacrifice, etc., which is an example of the covenant of grace, already the line of the covenant of grace. However, the covenant with Noah is different in its scope than the covenant with Abraham. Yes. Yeah, well, for example, Adam and Noah as representative heads, clearly they're representatives of mankind in creation. However, Noah's representation is ultimately subsumed in Adam. I mean, in every covenant, God is dealing with a representative. We are sons of Abraham, for example, in the Abrahamic covenant. Now, there's only two federal heads in mankind in the scheme of redemption. There's no doubt about that. But God always deals in every one of his covenant administrations. He makes a covenant and there's parties in that covenant. The first party is God. The second party is the one with whom he's establishing his covenant, which will be Abraham, Moses, David, etc. So you don't see Yeah, but even there, I mean, I don't know how long we can spend on this, but theologically the language of mediator doesn't help terribly because But there's only one mediator of the covenant of grace, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's true. Yes. But there's only one mediator between God and man. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. But in terms of representative headship, that carries a legal connotation that mediatorship doesn't. Okay. Well, I understand what you're saying completely. There are only two federal heads in history, and that's Adam and Christ. They represent mankind, Adam in the fall, Christ represents redeemed humanity, his elect, and only men as they're represented in him are, that's the only way that they can be saved. Yeah, I don't have any trouble with that. Yeah. So, the, if you're talking about language of representation, and you want to keep it focused, or more tightly focused to those two heads, I see why. I mean, I think with the idea of mediatorship, surely Moses, the mediator of the Mosaic Covenant and the administration, yes, the book of Hebrews does talk to him about that. But we recognize with these terms, the idea of representation, the idea of mediatorship, that there's an ultimate sense and then there's a smaller sense underneath in both terms. without destroying any of the legal fabric of federal theology. But you and I might differ on that. since there's only one covenant, differently administered in terms of that administration. And that, historically, in those debates, that language has become very precise to guard those truths as we're going through there. And in terms of the mediation of those, Well, we'll get to that in a moment and then maybe that will help put this all together so let's get back to hear the series of redemptive covenants throughout the Old Testament where God establishes and maybe to help here before we get into these The series of redemptive covenants, well, we did say this, that the covenant really structures biblical revelation and it's progressively revealing more of God's purposes to redeem man, to recreate the cosmos according to the original purpose. In other words, it's a progressive revelation, maybe this will make it clearer, of the one covenant of grace through history, beginning with when God gave his first promise to Adam and going through to the end which is the new covenant and where all these things are realized in the Lord Jesus Christ in the Abrahamic covenant we have God establishing his covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 and 17 and he does so sovereignly He does so indeed coming with his promises to Abraham. We have a ceremony of a sacrifice again. So we have the two parties. We have God and Abraham. We have the ceremony of the sacrifice. And we have the covenant sign like we had in the Noahic covenant. We had the rainbow. Here we have circumcision. Then we have the Mosaic Covenant, another covenant administration of the one covenant of grace. And there we see that's established after Israel comes out of Sinai, out of Sinai, and in basically chapters 19 through 24, and really the covenant language focuses on chapter 24, though the whole section is covenant, where God again establishes a covenant with as a doctor just said with moses is the mediator of that covenant with the covenant having its stipulations here we get the idea of promises and stipulations very clearly where we have both the blessings and curses attached to the covenant with moses we have the full sacrificial system not just sink sacrifices singly anymore but a fully worked out sacrificial system and we have again in moses well actually in abraham well, we'll see this in a moment, in Abraham and Moses. Then we'll move on to the Davidic Covenant, 2 Samuel chapter 7, where we have God establishing again His covenant with David, and this time it is a covenant which includes, in particular it's focused on the great son of David. And here we're going to start to see even more clearly now from the very beginning of the first utterance of the covenants of grace, the revelation of it in Genesis 3.15, we had a promised seed, a representative seed. Now we're going to trace something through all these redemptive covenants. They really are focused on the promise of the coming of the, indeed, the mediator of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the promised seed to Abram in Genesis chapter 17 and then Genesis chapter 22 in particular, Paul will say that this promised seed is Christ. In Moses we have the whole sacrificial system, we have the Passover lamb, we have this full picture of sacrifice and the propitiation of the wrath of God in the lamb. In David we have another administration here of the covenant of grace in David we have the promised son who would sit on the throne of David forever and then finally in the Old Testament this all culminates in all the glorious promises of what we call the new covenant in jeremiah chapter thirty-one perhaps singly in ezekiel chapter thirty-six where god promises in this overarching the overarching concept that we can hold this all together god promises all the promises the covenant of grace the promise of of everlasting fellowship with god of new hearts of freedom from sin uh... ever indeed everlasting fellowship with god which is the promise of everlasting eternal life And then we get to the New Testament. Now, the word Testament is... we can also use another word for Testament. And that is the word Covenant. The New Testament is really the full revelation of all that God has promised in the Covenant of Grace, in the Old Testament. And it throws into full light the goal of every preceding covenant that God has established. Again, understanding these are all under the heading of one creation... Covenant of Grace. Every preceding covenant. God is what he's doing in the covenant of grace after Adam breaks the covenant of works. He is promising and working out the promise that he will redeem sinners, that he will make a new creation, that he will lift the curse, and that he will do it through his representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the heart of the matter here in covenant is that God would establish union and communion between man, God, and man again through the mediator Jesus Christ. The central promise of the covenant of grace is then this, I will be their God and they shall be my people. we have in the covenant of grace then the heart of the covenant of grace is being unfolded in the Old Testament is Jesus Christ the mediator of the covenant he reconciles sinners and a holy God. He brings union between the Creator and fallen mankind and there's always necessary, always necessary after the fall that there be a mediator in view who is the promised Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot return to that fellowship and communion of the garden except through the mediator because of the broken covenant of works there is always a necessity of a new federal head. Adam, the first federal head, having failed. Christ, here, the mediator. He's the one who we can trace through the whole Old Testament as the promised one who is at the heart of the covenant of grace. We have a mediator, but we also have an exchange in this covenant, the covenant itself, which all of God's people, if they believe the promises of God, experienced, but we supremely now, in the light of the New Testament, understand. The great exchange is that God gives Himself to us, the Father's love, Christ's grace, the Spirit's comfort and strength and encouragement. Here's the exchange at the heart of communion and fellowship with God. John Owen said, This is the will of God, that he may always be eyed as benign, kind, tender, loving, and unchangeable therein, and that peculiarly as the Father is the great fountain and spring of all gracious communications and fruits of love, The love of the Father is the only rest of the soul. That gives you here a snapshot that God gives Himself in covenant mercy to us through Christ that we might know the Father's love and through Christ's grace and the Spirit's comfort, strength, and encouragement. The other side of the exchange in the covenant of grace is that we give ourselves to God to worship and enjoy Him. Communion goes both ways in that covenant bond. Thomas Goodwin said this, Besides the common tribute of daily worship you owe to God, take occasion to come into His presence on purpose to have communion with Him. This is truly friendly, for friendship is most maintained and kept up by visits. These, the more frequent and less occasioned by urgent business they are, the more friendly they are. We used to check our friends with us upbraiding. You always come to me when you have some business, but when will you come and see me? When you come into God's presence, be telling Him how well you love Him. Labor to abound in expressions of that kind." And here, Goodwin is talking here about the beauty and delight of fellowship with God. From the covenant of grace to the new representative, Jesus Christ, who has delivered us from our sins, He's opened a way that we might enter again into fellowship and communion with God and have indeed that experience even of love, the love of God for us and our love towards Him. At the heart of the idea of the covenant and God's covenant bond in Jesus Christ is a love affair, a glorious friendship and fellowship between God and man again. This is what God was promising. This is what Adam and Eve had with God before the fall. This is what Adam lost for humanity. This is what Christ has purchased and secured for humanity also. J.I. Packer, talking about communion with God. We do not spend much time alone or together in dwelling on the wonder of the fact that God and sinners have communion at all. No, we just take that for granted and we put our minds to other realities. Thus we make it plain that communion with the living God, purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ, has become a small thing to us. John Bunyan speaks of communion again. Three or four poor women sitting at the door in the sun at Bedford, where he was, their talk was about a new birth, the work of God in their hearts, how they were convinced of their miserable state by nature, and they talked how God had visited their souls with His love in the Lord Jesus, and with what words and promises they had been refreshed, comforted, and supported against the temptations of the devil. how God had borne them up under His assaults. And I thought, said Bunyan, they spoke as if joy made them speak." Again, another quote on this idea of communion and fellowship, which flows out of God's covenant bond with man. Truly, for sinners to have fellowship with God, the infinitely holy God, is an astonishing dispensation. Again, Packer, yet we in our day, as much as we love to sing Amazing Grace, I suppose, he says, because we like the tune, are not inwardly amazed by grace. It does not startle us that a holy creator should receive sinners into his company. Rather, we take it for granted. And here, indeed, we have This, it is this pulse right here, which lies at the heart of God's covenant dealings with man, that God again delights in Christ, the mediator of the covenant of grace, to draw us near to Him that we might have communion with Him, that we should be His people, because first He has declared that He is our God. Now, there is a great mystery We do not know why God has ordained history to be the way it is. Why? He ordained it. There was a covenant of works and that Adam fell. Mankind was plunged into sin and misery and rebellion. What we do know is that we, as part of that humanity, are guilty of sin against God. We have original sin and we commit actual sin. And that we are no different than Adam. As a matter of fact, in Adam, we have sinned against God. We are partakers. The sin of Adam has been imputed to us. And so we find ourselves guilty and in a broken creation. But it's at this point where God has revealed to us the contours of the covenant of grace, forgiveness and restoration. Now we have been talking about creation for a number of weeks. We're going to talk a little bit more about this theme in the coming weeks. But if we worship and wonder at creation and the power of God in making the heavens and the earth in its perfection and glory, how much more should we wonder at this principle? that now in a fallen creation where we deserve God's wrath and curse forever, that God has established His covenant of grace, and that in Jesus Christ He calls us to have communion with Himself yet, and does a mighty work of recreation, of making our hearts new, and promising to make this whole creation under the curse to be new again. This indeed is reason for worship and for wonder. Let's pray together. Our God and Heavenly Father, we do bless your name. You are the God who, as we have confessed just moments ago, that the God between whom you and the Creator, the distance is so great We could never have any fruition of you as our blessedness, as our reward, unless you had voluntarily condescended to us. And your scriptures teach us that you have done so by way of covenant. That you did so with Adam in the garden in the covenant of works, that you did so with Adam after the fall in establishing that covenant of grace. Lord, what a wonder it is that though we are rebels against you, yet your purposes for communion and fellowship between God and man stand. Lord, we bless you that they stand because we have the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that in him there is a way to you, the Father. Lord, we bless Your name and we marvel that we can turn through the pages of the Old Testament all the way to the end of the New. And we can see that Your purpose is to raise up this Jesus and to re-establish this communion which was lost, to provide forgiveness and the promise of everlasting life that You never wavered, that You were always faithful. And that after, in covenant administration after administration, from Abraham to Moses to David to the New Covenant, in all of its glories in Jesus Christ, that you have always been faithful. We pray, give us hearts that would ever worship you for your covenant mercy. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I probably just wasn't as clear as I should have been, but how have we gotten just two minutes farther? We would have gotten to the unifying principle, the covenant of grace. the idea of represented headship in terms of the covenants outside of just, those terms are usually exclusively used. I probably said headship, the representative. Yeah, and it was like covenant works, covenant grace. But I do, I would tell you that I do disagree, and I studied under Palmer as you know, I do disagree with him that there is a distinct or separate aspect in terms of covenant creation versus covenant works. but I think the controlling principle, helpful principle, helpful to understand the broadness of God's covenant in that creation. But the controlling principle, I would assume it all under the heading of covenant of works. Understand what I mean? Yeah, and that's the thing. I mean, there's a sense in which, I think that our confession of faith, and I think biblically right, is that the whole concept of covenant is in relationship to God's image. When it says the distance was so great between God and the creature, the creature that it's referring to is not creation. The creature that it's being referred to is man, because the very next thing says, and so therefore God condescended into this covenant with man. That's where one of the things I think Palmer does is he takes that idea that the distance was so great between God and the creature as being creation instead. What do you do then with the whole thing through the scriptures of the redemption of the creation? Well, I think that man, as God's vice-regent, and whom the Lord had put to be ruler and dominion, king over his world, his sin has effect. And that God is, through that covenant of grace and restoring man, is going to have ramifications. The fine distinction that deals with headship, it's not necessarily substantive in terms of the scope of what happens. Obviously it isn't. You're trying to, what you're doing is you're preserving a focus on headship without using the broader language of covenant. Covenant always... Well, no, there's broader language. through right yeah and i don't use it so another intersection point is that it is the head so in other words adam is the head brings not only you know destruction to human rights but all creation and then christ and christ is the new head not only brings redemption to man whom he represents but all of the creation yeah yeah i agree i'd agree and so it's in that context and what palmer does and some of the uh... more Dutch theologians, and that's what Palmer's doing, is almost having this kind of, like, I don't think they necessarily, well, Coxias and others didn't hold to necessarily a bi-covenantal view of history. A lot of them were tri-covenantal. Yes, and that's kind of what Palmer does, and then Murray on the other hand... But they're tri-covenantal in a different way, they're tri-covenantal with the covenant of redemption. I consider myself bi-covenantal though I hold to the pactus salutis. I do hold to a covenant of redemption, but I don't see that as being the same as a covenant between men. I do believe bi-covenantally God has only made two covenants with man. The covenant of works and the covenant of grace. Yes, but in his own in his own secret council, the pactus salutis, whatever we want to call it, or as the scripture says, I think we can use the term covenant because of that, though I don't think you have to use the term covenant. Now, at the same time, Murray, on the other hand, was taking, I don't think he made the complete step that some have taken him today, but I think he certainly was leaning that direction into a mono-covenant because he doesn't want to even look at Adam in a covenantal situation. And so that's why, you know, in terms of the language. The other thing that I was wondering, was trying to figure out is if It seemed as if there was this covenant of creation and the covenant of works, Adam fell in the covenant of works, and then somehow you were saying by calling the noetic administration a covenant of creation, see I'd refer to it as a covenant of preservation. I will later. But by calling it a covenant creation, in a sense, you are bringing these two elements together again. I wasn't sure. That's why I was asking the question. That was all that was there. Well, I think those two elements do come together there, in a sense. I think they're just reiterated in terms of the reality that God, through this covenant of grace, is going to... Because in a sense, almost what you have, eyes of the Lord, God relents. In the same way He relents, some would argue that it came that close to Moses, where God says, I'm going to destroy all the children of Israel and start a new nation through you. But that wasn't a worldwide destruction. That's why I don't see it in the same category as Noah. But the distinction I'm trying to make with the Noahic covenant was that it is different from the Abrahamic covenant in that its scope is Noah, up till Noah. I still see even the worldwide scope in the Abrahamic covenant. It is, yes. Because God says I will bless. Yeah, it's in there. Oh, I know. Listen, when I was sitting through this, I had Homer Robertson, Meredith Klein, Bob Shrumple, who was as, you know, Murray is, you know, I mean, he was a Murray clone, and Norman Shepard. And these are the guys that I was sitting and listening to these debates as they were, you know, as they were going on and, you know, just going... you know, as these different strains were all coming in because... That's a lot of different strains there. Yeah. But anyway, like I said, I was just trying to get clear in my own mind, especially with the, you know, like I said, I had not heard anybody use the terminology. Well, representation probably, it's when I use the word head. Because I actually don't like to use the word, for example, I don't like to use the word representative head for myself and my family. Which a lot of people do. I don't think it's right. On the same basis, the same principle. Yeah, and see, again, in one sense you're using the term representative. I've always, theologically, we've used the term representative head in terms of the establishment of covenant. And God is not establishing a covenant in one sense. with Noah he's renewing that's why I said the beginning new administration you probably missed the beginning so the beginning was in the language in the Hebrew even he the word he uses that's how I started out that he's not establishing a new covenant but he's he's causing to stand or maintaining an existing through a through a new like a A new administration of the same, unfolding the same, yeah. So probably what, maybe that would have helped if you heard it at the beginning, but then also, I think, I think I would agree with you that the term head is probably one that I, I just used a couple of times that I shouldn't have used. No, that's, I mean, like I said, I was just, for me, I was just trying to think through use this language where we use it, those kinds of things so that we don't get confused with it. I wasn't trying to delve into those debates today. I was trying to give the broader principle of communion. But anyway, like I said, if I put you on the spot, I didn't mean to. I was just trying to figure out in my own mind. So I knew what you were saying. So even if somebody asked me afterwards, I could say, yes, he was saying exactly