Let's back up to, uh, uh, let's back up to verse nine of Galatians three. So then they, which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Amen. For as many are, as are of the works of the law are under the curse for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall live by faith. And this is our memory verse of what we're gonna be talking about tonight. And the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. It's a tall order, isn't it? I know. I'm going to be barking up a tree tonight. Let's pray and ask for the Lord's help. Lord, I pray that you would teach us from your word, instruct us in the way that we should walk. Show us, Lord, we pray. Amen. We've been doing a series on Wednesday nights through the Baptist catechism, relying a great deal on the work by the old Baptist preacher of yesteryear, Benjamin Badone. And he wrote a fabulous Baptist catechism. I know that's a name, a word that a lot of folks associate with your Roman Catholic upbringing or perhaps Anglican or Lutheran. But catechism simply means to, well it's, catechism is popularly understood to mean to teach others through the question and answer format. And this was especially useful when teaching small children who learn things by rote. In other words, they're little sponges, right? And they learn words and answers before they actually understand what they mean, which is good because you can attach the understanding later after you have the words memorized. And usually from about age four up until around fourth grade is like prime time for teaching children to memorize by rote because they just A lot of, most of the children just really enjoy that. Afterwards, they start wanting to know what stuff means, which is good, and that's how you teach them even deeper. I know none of you here are between the ages of four and nine. Maybe mentally. Second child. But what is taught in the catechisms I feel is still very much essential for Christians. to understand because it's basic doctrines that are being taught. And I know that with this, the old catechisms, the language is antiquated, and even for teaching children, of course, it can be difficult. But again, they can memorize stuff word for word. I remember memorizing the Gettysburg Address, and I had no idea what four score and seven years meant. But I knew what to say, right? I didn't memorize it. You didn't memorize it? I did not. Now, a lot of these, and we're on question 15 tonight, and a lot of it, I know you ask these questions, they can be wordy, the answers are wordier, more wordy, whatever the proper language is there. But by way of a quick review, remember, so far we've discussed the doctrine of God. What is God? God is a spirit. Yes, God is a spirit. And we've talked about God, we've talked about the Godhead, the three in one, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. We've talked about God and also not only God, but God's word. His word. And how you can believe His word and why you should believe His word. We also talked about God and His being. in his being, that is, what kind of a God is he? I guess I should move this out a little bit here so those who would want to see maybe can try a little bit easier to see except for you tomorrow. I would have to hit you over the head with the whiteboard. And we've also talked about God in his being and also God in his decrees. And of course, we're on question 15. but that's what we've been discussing. God, his word, his being, his decrees, laying the foundation of Christian theology. And who remembers, you don't have to get the answer word for word correct, but who remembers essentially what God's decrees are. Devon, your hand is up. Oh, I know, I know, I'm putting you on the spot. Miss Libby, what are God's decrees? Yes, God's purposes. His purposes whereby he has foreordained whatsoever shall come to pass. And how does God then execute his decrees? Creation. Creation and? Providence. Providence, good. If you can get at least the major words down, that helps a lot. I have to deem myself a little bit. Good, yes, amen brother. His creation and his providence. And I think we understand what God's creation is and God's creative works are. He made stuff out of what? Nothing. He made stuff out of nothing in how many days? Seven. No, six days. I'm calling your professor this week. Remember, you're taking a quiz on Saturday, brother. I didn't get to this part yet. Yes, six days, and he got rested on the seventh, didn't he? And so we sort of grasped this idea, because the word creation is used a lot in even common language, right? But what is meant by God's providence? Oh, I know what happened. Go ahead, Jamie. That's when God does something through a living agency or some earthly occurrence to cause his purposes to happen. Good. Yes, I think that's... Do you want an example? Yes. Wait, do we want an example? When you clear your throat like that, I brace myself. When it comes to past that you gotta pay seven plus five times as much income tax. Oh, good reason. Testify brother. That I can determine. Yeah. Brother Jamie Smartin from a recent, uh, contemporary event in his personal life. Uh, a little, little surprise from the tax man, uh, so to speak. Um, but, uh, Miss Libby, what is the Bedone's answer to the, what is the providence of God? Can you read that for us? Yeah, so it should be question 13 or 14. God's preserving and governing. There's a reason why We're still around, right? There's a reason why that the universe, uh, operates as if there was a designer and, uh, the sun comes up in the morning, the sun goes down. Uh, and, uh, huh? The, the, yes, yes. The rain stopped. Um, so God's acts of providence are his preserving and his governing. And so that's sort of a short review of the last 14 questions of the catechism. And you all passed, you get an A, give yourselves a hand. Except for you, Devon, you don't get to, I'm sorry, I'm kidding. I spent all day with him yesterday. Well, and John Kirkendall. Y'all pray for me. I bring you greetings from Kansas City at the conference we went to, and Kansas City, home of mediocre barbecue. No, it's okay. It's good. It's good. We talked about the difference between St. Louis barbecue and Kansas City barbecue. I think most of it just has to do with your own personal prejudices from where you're from. I mean, it's a pig. You smoke it, right? You put sauce on it. It's good. Or the line you weighed in. Yeah. Yeah. We, we, uh, we were blessed with short lines though. Anyways, we had a good time at the Spurgeon conference and, uh, learned quite a bit, uh, enjoyed it. But, uh, why am I talking about that? I don't know. We're talking about the providence of God. Uh, tonight's question is this, what special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created? And I think it helps to remember this word right here, governing. That is, God has made everything, right? But he can also run everything the way that he chooses to run everything. And that's exactly what he does. And one of the ways that God governs is through the law and through making a covenant with man. And this is where we get into the beginnings, the ground level of Baptist Covenantal theology. This is one of Devon's favorite subjects, so if you just want to get him started, if there's ever an awkward pause in a conversation and Devon's around, just ask him about Baptist Covenantalism. and the pause will go away and you'll have plenty to listen to. Yes. Does that ever happen? Not when Chatterbox is around. But the question is, what special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created? If I can put it in a little less wordy way, when God made man, what agreement, what covenant did God establish with Adam. In other words, God didn't say to Adam, here's the keys, enjoy. If you need me, give me a call. God didn't treat Adam in the Garden of Eden like an Airbnb, right? Enjoy your time while you're here. Here's a few rules we have. He made a covenant. Sir? He told him one thing to do. One thing to do, yes. But he gives him a covenant. And that's another very important word in Baptist theology and really even other denominations too. Everyone has a view of the covenant. covenant. And, uh, Devon, I'm going to put you on the spot. Okay. Can you give us a short definition of what is a covenant? A covenant is a promise between usually it can be two people or a higher person of a higher authority to another in which they make a promise, which includes a relationship built on stipulations. Yes, a relationship built on stipulations. In other words, God says, I promise to do this if you will do this. Okay. A covenant agreement. Um, and I guess if we, if you wanted to get into the tall grass on this, you could talk about the differences between contracts, covenants and covenants and treaties. I don't, there's a lot of similarities between those though. But understand that, as Devon has said, it's an agreement made, and usually a covenant comes down from a higher power to a lower. For instance, when you have a conquering king, and he has conquered a city, he is in, in other words, the ball is in his court. And he can make a covenant with those people, I will be your king, and you will be my people if, A lot of times it was, do this and live. Don't do this. And you know, we're going to, we'll kill everybody inside the city. But that's one example of, of an extreme example, maybe of a covenant. So again, the Bedouin answer is this, when God created man, he entered into a covenant of life. And some would call it a covenant of works, which is another good way to put it. I do think it's interesting, but don't use the term covenant of life. upon condition of perfect obedience, okay? Forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon, see if you can finish this, upon pain of death. In other words, eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, no, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Yeah, so God made Adam, gave him life, gave him a garden, gave him a wife, gave him everything, and then gives him this law. Thou shalt not eat of this tree, and in the day that you eat of it, thou shalt surely die. Part of the questioning that goes along with this truth is this question. Did God make man perfectly holy? This is not a trick question. Did God make man, Adam, perfectly holy? Yes, yes he did. Now when Adam was made, he was made with the ability to sin, and the ability not to sin. And again, that's an important understanding of the difference between the way Adam was made and the way that you and I are born. Adam was made with the ability to sin and the ability not to sin. Because of the fall into sin, and we'll talk more about this in the future, When people are born now, they are born in sin, fallen in sin, unable to not sin. We don't sin simply because of our environment. That does sometimes exacerbate the sin nature, right, of somebody's environment. You know, you grew up in a really wicked environment, there's a good chance you're gonna be Really wicked. You know, God's grace though can intervene, can't he? Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 29 says, God made man upright. God made man upright. So when God created man, he made him holy and he also made him happy. And this is the ideal, isn't it? To be holy, and to be happy. And we'll notice this, that we are not truly happy unless we are truly holy. And to the extent that we are pursuing holiness, I think is also an extent to which we are pursuing happiness. And that happiness is, of course, what I would call Christian joy. It says in Genesis 1 and verse 28 that God blessed him. God blessed Adam. And to be blessed doesn't mean that you just have a bunch of stuff. To be blessed means that you're happy. That's the understanding of blessedness. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, et cetera. The word blessed is to be joyful, to be bone deep happy, to have a happiness that is not contingent upon the outside world is to have a happiness within. God made man holy, God made man happy, and God gave man a law. The Lord God commanded the man. We see in Genesis two and verse 16. And man was as God's creature obliged to that law. He made them. And so he was under obligation. Adam was. And so also are we. God made us, didn't he? And I know that there's a biological reason behind that, but in the end, God brought us into this world. And in fact, we read in Isaiah 44 and verse 21, Oh, remember, Oh Israel, thou art my servant. I, have formed thee. God speaks even of a nation. And this covenant that God entered into with Adam is described by Badom as a covenant of life. And by that he means you can live if. It's an agreement on life. You can live if you have life, you can continue to have this life, But because I have given you this life, I may also give you a law that governs this life. And the law that He gave them is that law of not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The law, we see in Galatians 3.12, the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. If you will live by the law, what does that require? Perfection. Obedience. You got to do what the law says. Now the question can be asked, and Badon doesn't necessarily cover this in this question, why did God put the tree in the garden? His own good pleasure. Out of his own good pleasure, yes. And Badom approaches the subject by asking this question, was there a special command given him by way of trial, or that is, to test him? Yes, and that special command was that one command, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat. And this was given to Adam as a test, yes, indeed. And remember this about testing. A trial is the word that we see in this catechism. A test, whenever there is a test, there's a crossroads, isn't there? There's a fork in the road. And if you go by way of obedience, that test becomes opportunity for service and life in the glory of God. If you fail in the test, it becomes the temptation for sin, okay? So you either have this, service or sin, one of the two. And this is true of every test that comes into our lives, okay? God is testing you. Now, people don't like to be tested, but if you don't like the test, then that means you also will shrink back from the service. The Lord is calling you to serve. He's calling you to glorify Him. In the test, He's calling you to an opportunity, isn't He? And when you have a test in your life, and it can be anything from when you find out you owe more on your taxes than you think you should. Or... Or it could be something like, he's stricken with blindness at the age of 17. Or it could be to be a little more contemporary with our church events, to lose an adult son, when by all human accounts, he should outlive you. This is a test. And anything can be a test, really. You will face tests frequently. In fact, perhaps you may even face tests of different magnitude every day. Some will be quite severe. Some will be soul crushingly severe. But you will either be called in that test to serve the Lord, an opportunity to serve, if you respond to it in faith and obedience, or you will derail and go into sin and misery. Here's the problem. Adam chose poorly, didn't he? He faced the test and he failed. And in that failure, he plunged all of mankind into sin. Another possible reason beyond just the fact that God was testing him, part of that test, I believe, was that God was wanting, he was inviting Adam and Eve to recognize God's benevolence. He gave them everything except one tree. So we look at this the wrong way. Why did God put that one tree in the garden? You know, so, you know, yeah, there's a tree of life, but this was the one that they were forbidden to eat from until after the sin, they weren't allowed in the garden at all. But he puts this one tree in the garden that they were to have hands off of, right? The Lord is telling them through that not to be mean to them, not to entice them to sin, but to give them an opportunity to reserve a place for God at the table. He set the table. Let him have a spot too. Now I know that God's not going to come down and eat fruit. Oh, Jesus did, but you know. He's not asking them to save him the fruit, but he is asking them to set a place for him at the table that he himself is furnished. And we are still called to do this, aren't we? Honor God with the first fruits. And we give back to God, not just in generosity to humankind, but we give back to God because we acknowledge that it's all from him anyways. And so this is the issue from the very first of humanity, right? God says, I give you everything, remember me. And we even see that overlapping with the Lord's Supper, don't we? This do and what? Remembrance of me. And we eat bread, we drink cup, remembering the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. If I may, we set a place for Jesus amongst the feasts that he himself has furnished. And so the Lord put this tree in the garden, not to be cruel, as some skeptics would say, not to be mean, not to dangle this temptation in front of a little toddler and daring them to disobey, but as an opportunity to serve and commune with God. And God invites us to communion with him through these tests, doesn't he? And of course, you know what happened. Death was threatened in case of disobedience. In the day that thou eatest, thou shalt surely die. And this was not only a just punishment from a holy God, but it was also an understandable repercussion. God is life, isn't he? And when you push God away, what are you pushing away? Life and blessing. And if you push that away from you, what do you expect would happen? But misery and death. So it is both a just punishment and also an understandable repercussion. And another part of this understanding that we should have about the, the sin in the garden and the law of life, the covenant of life that God made was that there was not placed upon Adam any natural necessity to break this law. He didn't have to. He wasn't forced to. He did this of his own sinful decision. In fact, God said of the tree of the garden, of every other tree of the garden, he had liberty to eat, we read in Genesis 2.16. And I don't know how many trees there were, but that's a lot of trees, I'm sure. Yeah. Now was this covenant made with Adam as a public head? Yes, it was. Adam is our head, our federal head. He is, if I may put it, he is our federal representative. He represented all of humanity to come. And when Adam fell, we fell. Okay. We send representatives all the time to make agreements on our behalf. Adam was our representative of humanity. And when he fell into sin, he plunged the whole human race and even all of creation into sin. And even Eve was included in this. God said unto the woman, what hast thou done? You have done this. Now we know that Eve did not bring the curse upon humanity. Adam, as the head of the family of humanity, he is the one that brought the curse upon us. Paul says that the woman was deceived, but Adam knew what he was doing. And he went into it headlong. And this law that God made is good. When God told Adam not to eat of the law or of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this was not a bad law, this was a good law. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Yes, he will. Now, this was the first covenant that God made with man. And here is the essence of what is legalism and what isn't. Legalism is do this and live. That's legalism. Do and then you'll live. Problem with us now is though we can't do and we won't live. But there was a man, there was a man who did and he lived that second Adam, amen? Romans chapter five. Where the first Adam fell, the second Adam succeeded. Where the first Adam plunged us into sin, the second Adam raises his people into holiness and purity in life. And the juxtapositions of Adam versus Jesus, they'll give you goosebumps if you think about it. Think about Adam was in the garden. Paradise. Adam had a wife by his side, a perfect helpmeet. Adam had a full belly. Adam wasn't thirsty. Adam had social support. Adam had his physical needs met. Adam wasn't abandoned. Jesus, though, When he went into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, he was in the wilderness, not in paradise. He was alone. He did not have a companion by his side. He was not fed. He was not surrounded by the bounty of paradise, was he? He was hungry and thirsty. And he wasn't just tempted one time. He was tempted how many times? Three times, we're told. Yes, and the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. Jesus just didn't succeed one time. Somebody might say, well, that was luck. Right? Anybody can get it right once. Jesus faced the tempter face to face in this confrontational way three times. And of course, all through his life, there was the regular temptations of any man on earth. Jesus was without sin. Jesus faces the devil with his hands tied behind his back, so to speak, and knocks him out. Adam fell on his face. when he had everything going for him. Do you see the superiority of the second Adam over the first and he had victory in Jesus. Amen. My savior forever. He sought me and he bought me. Amen. Adam is our head, but Jesus is our new figure head. Amen. Adam represented me in his disobedience. Jesus represented me in his obedience. I am united to Adam through his blood to me. I am united to Christ through his blood for me. Amen. Here's the good news though. Jesus said when he met with his disciples before his crucifixion, He took the cup and he said, this is the new Testament in my blood. That Testament means covenant. The old covenant that was started with Adam could not save. Jesus said that the new Testament, the new covenant in my blood, It does say we read in Hebrews eight and verse six, Christ is the mediator of a better covenant. Amen. A better covenant. That doesn't mean that God's first covenant was bad. It was holy. The law is holy and just and good. but the new covenant is better in the sense that it saves the first one cannot say Adam was born. Amen. Adam was born with it already. He had eternal life. He lost eternal life. The second covenant is better because now it can give eternal life, whereas the first one only brought death. The new one brings life. Do you see? Amen. So when folks say, well, is the law bad because it causes death? No, the law given do this and live. That's that's a good covenant. The problem is Adam didn't. Where's the problem at? Adam. Adam's the problem. We are the problem. We can't do this and live, but Jesus did this. And because Jesus did this and lived, we follow after him. Amen. And so we may not be perfect as Jesus was, but we strive for holiness because we have a perfect example. And when we fail, we have forgiveness. Because Christ already paid the penalty. Adam needed somebody to pay the penalty for him, didn't he? We have that, we have Jesus who paid the penalty, amen? So what special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created? Here's the answer. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon pain of death. You know what's interesting? When you start to see the parallels in scripture, I'm telling you, you get goosebumps. Adam died because of a tree, not because of a tree. not directly because of the tree, but there was a tree and he died because of it. Jesus died on a tree and we live because of it. Amen. Look, folks, you can't make this stuff up. Amen. It's true. It's true. The word is true. God's word is true. The gospel is true and how we need to praise the Lord. Hey, folks need to hear about us, don't they? And may the Lord help us to share this with other