and discern his faults. Forgive my hidden sin. Protect from willful sins. Let them not reign within. And blameless shall your servant be, From great transgression thou set free. Amen. People of God, we come now to the reading of God's Word and then of our confessions, Canons of Dort 3-4, the third and fourth heads of doctrine being put together. Article 1, that'll be on page 271. But first, let us turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Ecclesiastes chapter 7, and we'll read verses 25 to 29. So first reading Ecclesiastes 7, that's page 708, most of the few Bibles, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. And following that, Colossians chapter 3. So first let us hear from Ecclesiastes chapter 7. We'll read 25 to 29 and we'll be thinking particularly about verse 29. I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. And I found something more bitter than death. the woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. Behold, this is what I found, says the preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes." So far the reading of God's Word there in the Old Testament. We turn then to Colossians chapter 3. We'll read verses 1 to 11, and we'll be looking particularly at verses 9 to 11. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Colossians chapter 3, beginning at verse 1. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passions, evil desires, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. so far the reading of God's Holy Word. Let us turn then to our confessions, Canons of Dort, third and fourth main points of doctrine, human corruption, conversion to God, and the way it occurs. And we'll perhaps think more about why they are combined next week. But we will read Article 1, And again, I'll read the article this evening. Article 1, page 271 in the Forms and Prayers book. The effects of the fall on human nature. Man was originally created in the image of God and was furnished in his mind with a true and salutary knowledge of his Creator and of things spiritual in his will and heart with righteousness and in all his emotions with purity. Indeed, the whole man was holy. However, rebelling against God at the devil's instigation and by his own free will, He deprived himself of these outstanding gifts. Rather in their place, he brought upon himself blindness, terrible darkness, futility, and distortion of judgment in his mind, perversity, defiance, and hardness in his heart and will, and finally impurity in all his emotions. dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are some people who have a gift for fixing things, for renewing things. They take an object, anything from a computer, to a tool, to a toy. They refurbish it. They renew it. They make it like it once was. That's what the word renew implies. It implies that it once was in a good state It has fallen into a state of disrepair. It is broken. And now it must be renewed. It must be made functional again. It must be made to do what it was originally meant to do. And this is an illustration of the nature of the entire human race. And this is what we'll consider together tonight. The human heart is corrupt. but there is hope for renewal. And our three points are first, the great gift, then second, the great loss, and third, the greater gift. And if you want we'll be turning to a number of passages, but especially we'll be turning soon to Genesis 1. And we'll basically have Genesis 1 and 3 open as we work through that first point. And then we'll have Ecclesiastes 7 open as we walk through the second point. And then Colossians 3 open especially as we go through the third point. And then especially we'll be making reference back to even some very particular things in Genesis 1 and Genesis 3. And the reason why we can turn to Genesis 1 again, and if you would turn there now, is because in the beginning man was created good, even as everything was at the end of the sixth day very good. And we can read that account in Genesis 1, just of the sixth day, beginning at verse 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds and it was so and God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind and God saw that it was good then God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. 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. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed and its fruit you shall have them for food, and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth. everything that has the breath of the earth I have given every green plant for food and it was so and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good and there is evening and there is morning the sixth day very good notice how notice how the the confessions walk through the goodness of man in the image of God the Creator how it impacts all these things. He has a true knowledge. It is a salutary knowledge. In other words, it's a knowledge which is beneficial. It's not just some empty knowledge. It's a knowledge which can be used in a beneficial way. And this permeates his heart, his will, down to his very emotions, right? It's this full language, to describe it, just as there is full language in Genesis 1. It's everything. Man is created as the crown of creation and all of creation. Everything is very good. Now, there is still a command to subdue, to bring into dominion. We might call that the command to expand Eden, so to speak. But everything is very good. There is no sin. There is no death. The emotions themselves, that is The emotions, that's full language, right? If we ever come before God in confession and we don't know what sin to confess, we think of our thoughts and our emotions of that day, correct? How can emotions themselves be perfect? What does that even look like in the mind? What kind of inside-out movie would that be? We can't even imagine. It's down to the very emotions, perfect, true knowledge, useful knowledge. This is a great gift and everything is very good. There's perfect harmony There's no need to be afraid of the storm. There is no storm. But then there is the fall. Now let's read a handful of verses from Genesis 3. Again, I hope these verses are familiar, but it's good to read them again and we'll even be Especially in our third point, we'll be looking at some very particular connections between Colossians 3, Genesis 1, and 3. So Genesis 3, the first five verses, Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the servant, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the servant said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Eve then takes and eats, Adam does as well. We come then to verse 21, Then the Lord said, Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now lest he reach out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord sent him out from the garden of Eden. to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man and at the east garden, at the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. God is not responsible for the fall. Our confessions say this in the middle Article one in the middle there, however, rebelling against God at the devil's instigation and by his own free will, he deprived himself of these outstanding gifts. It doesn't tell us exactly how long, but we know it wasn't long. Adam and Eve were perfect. They were commanded to be fruitful and multiply. And well, there were no children until after the fall. Only a short time does this great gift last. And then they are in need of cover. They first seek out the fig leaves, and that's not sufficient cover. God gives them a more sufficient covering, gives them more sufficient clothing. The first sacrifice, the first death of an animal. man had free will and at the instigation of he lost it at the instigation of the devil. This is the very clear teaching of scripture from Genesis to Revelation. While God is in sovereign control over all things, God is not responsible for evil because it is the free will of man at the instigation of the devil, which brought about the fall. Man had free will, man exercised that free will after only a short time and lost the goodness he once had. We are now broken. There is a need to be fixed, a need to be renewed. So that brings us into our second point, that there is a great loss. So let us just have Ecclesiastes 7 open before us, people of God, and walk through. walk with Solomon, if Solomon is indeed the author of Ecclesiastes, I think probably he is. So we'll just say this, let's walk with Solomon through these verses. What's going on? He's thinking particularly in the context of, and this is important, we're just gonna do a quick walkthrough, and this is important when we get to verse 28. He's thinking in the context of particularly snares, schemes, And so, when we come to verse 28, you know, is he saying, is he a misogynist? Is he saying, you know, women, there's no good women. At least there's one good man among a thousand. Well, within the context of schemes and within the context of one who would set a snare and a trap, Well, there is something to be said about a woman being a seductress. It doesn't mean that man can't be setting snares and things like this as well. No, of course not. But if I say the word tyrant and then I say the word seductress and I ask you to say which one goes with man and which one goes with woman, You'll say, well, the seductress is the woman and the tyrant is the man. Does this mean that a woman can never be a tyrant, that a man can never have a seductress-like sin? Well, no, it doesn't mean that. But these are general rules. And so within that context of the woman and her nets and her follies, he even says that right in verse 26, the woman whose heart is snares and nets. We might think then of Proverbs chapter 5, which Solomon definitely wrote, my son, be attentive You only turn back a few pages right to Proverbs chapter 5 beginning at verse 1. My son, be attentive to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge for the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey. Forbidden woman. There are men who speak lies as well. Let's just give one example that impacts many young men in cities. We even heard something of that in a presentation not too long ago. A drug dealer or a gang leader, he speaks honey and lies of seduction about power. A right man can commit this sin as well. But generally speaking, It is the woman which is the symbol of seduction. And even in verse 28, even in this context of schemes and of setting snares, is man that much better than woman? I have not found not one woman among all of these I have not found, but one man among 1,000. In other words, one-tenth of 1% man is better in this specific realm is kind of the symbolic language going on there. Scripture gives particular commands to men and women at times, does it not? We're going to be walking through Colossians 3, 9 to 11 in a moment, but it's Colossians 3, verse 18 and 19, which says, wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Again, if I said tyrant, seductress, we would think the man is more often the tyrant. The woman is more often the seductress, not absolute rules, but general rules. So in that context, he says, humanity is a mess. The men are awful. The women are even worse. And then, so let's walk through Solomon with this in Ecclesiastes 7. And then he's like, where does this come from? Where does this mess, where does this broken mess come from? And so he walks. Matthew Henry says, we can illustrate it, it's like he's walking upstream to find the headwaters. He's walking up, he's trying to find the fountain of this evil. Where do these schemes and this evil, where does this all come from? These snares, these traps, this sin, this mess, which is man. You know, Lewis and Clark expedition, it had many goals and kind of an indirect goal was to find headwaters, right, because they're going upstream as they travel west. And so they come, and they come, and they find this place that we now say is right outside of Three Forks, Montana. It wasn't called that back then. And there's these three rivers that come together. You can stand on a little hill. I've done this. And Lewis and Clark did this. You can stand on the little hill, and you can look out. And these three rivers come together in such short order that you can just stand on that one hill and see these three rivers coming together. And then from those three rivers coming together in that short place, we get the Missouri. And so we consider that the birthplace of the Missouri River. And then you can debate if the Missouri River or the Mississippi River is the largest river in America, but it's a very large river, right? But how did they get there? They had to walk upstream to get there. They had to spend many years, I don't know their expedition that well, but right, many, many months at least, and then they get there, and then they, see, this is the source. This is where it comes from. This is where this river comes from that we've been on all the way from St. Louis. Well, Solomon is walking up, and He says, where does this mess come from? Where does this brokenness come from? Now, there are many non-Christian scholars who like to point out whenever scripture says something like, other ancient texts say something, right? So they'll be like, well, look, scripture says this, and we can find this ancient text that says this. Well, what do ancient texts of, say, Babylon, say about this kind of question? Well, there are ancient Babylonian wise men who trace the river's back of evil and they come to the headwaters and they say, God made us evil. It was a fight of the gods and they made us this messy people and so we're messy and we do bad things. This is not what Solomon says. He comes to the end and he says, this alone I have found. I've turned my Bible back to Genesis one and two and three. God made man upright. But they have sought out many schemes. God is not responsible. But man is sinful. Because even though man was created upright, man schemed away from God, fell in rebellion early on, and now all of human nature is this way. There is a great loss. God made man upright, but now we are a mess. We are broken. There's a fulsome language, emotions and all that describe how good God made man in Article 1, and then it basically walks through all that language again to describe now. How man has deprived himself of all these things. Now we're blind. We're in darkness, futility. And yes, the impurity reaches to all our emotions. This is why surely it is good to say, I am not my own. because to be our own is to be lost in this state of sin. But this is not our third point, because there is another great gift, which is an even greater gift. Colossians chapter three. very much in the context of what Christ has done. For you have died, verse 3, your life is hidden with Christ in God when Christ, who is your life, appears. And then we come to verse 9. Notice, people of God, with me what the command is. The command verb is not put off and put on. Rather, putting off the old and putting off the new is who we are. And since that is who we are, the command is do not lie. What does this mean? This means that in Christ, The old man, which is in the context so definitely associated with all of the sinful nature of man, how you were born, who you are, because we are corrupt as people, we are sinful, we are in need of, we are broken, we are in need of renewal. And now the point is that in Christ, you have put this off. And it's the language of clothing. We could paraphrase verses 9 and 10 like, put off like you put off clothing, the old self, and put on like you put on clothing, the new self. But again, that's not the command. That's who we are. And the command is, since you are these things, since you are in Christ a new person, do not lie. Now, since you are in Christ, since you are new, since you are no longer associated with this corruption of your entire self down to the emotions, but rather renewed, unbroken, don't lie. You see what it's saying? It's saying any Christian who sins, their life is then, whenever a Christian sins, that's not who they are. That's a lie. Do you hear that? In Christ you are new. Therefore, do not lie, do not sin, do not turn away from this new creature who you are in Christ. But it's not just the language of new, it's also very explicitly says renew, right? And why renew? Because the old man is not the oldest man. The oldest man is Adam and man was originally created good, And so, in Christ, the new Adam be renewed, be fixed. You see, it's dripping with the background of Genesis 1, because otherwise it couldn't say the word renewed. If man wasn't first made good, that word would make no sense. being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator. Creator, Genesis 1 language. Image, let us make man in our image, Genesis 1 language. Knowledge, that makes us think of Genesis 1 and Genesis 3, does it not? Remember the put off and put on words, those are clothing words, those are words which in the Greek would immediately be associated with putting off and putting on clothes. There's clothes in Genesis 3 too, aren't there? There's a need to, now we need to have clothes in order to be before the holiness of God. That's one thing, Genesis 3. This is a little bit indirect, but people of God... There's also implied clothing language in Genesis 1. What am I talking about? To give or to take a robe is an ancient symbol of giving or taking an inheritance. It can be associated with royal language. And there's language in Genesis 1 of, like, Adam, you have a great gift, but you do not have the greatest gift, right? Because he has not yet subdued. He has that command in Genesis 1 verse 28. He has to subdue it and have dominion. He has to exercise that, right? The renewal is more than just going back to Eden. It's that, but it's more. It's more because It's going back to Eden and that dominion subduing mandate is fulfilled. This is not the most direct thing we've ever looked at together as the people of God. Do you follow that? Adam needed to do something kingly. He needed to subdue. He needed to rule. He needed to make Eden more than it was. It was without sin. It was very good. But he hadn't yet fulfilled that kingly command. Who fulfills the kingly command? The new Adam does this. because Jesus Christ does all things, including bringing about perfect reign, perfect subduing, renewing the entire creation. This mandate, Adam and Eve never fulfilled. They had a great gift, but they had not yet pressed on to the even greater gift. A renewal, which is a renewal in Jesus Christ, means that we have not only the great gift of Genesis 1, but we have also the greater gift. We have the royal clothes. We're not going to be naked in heaven. We're going to be wearing royal clothes. We have the royal clothes of everything being done by Jesus Christ, including this. You see Colossians 3 verses 9 to 11. And that Christ is all and in all. This has all kinds of Genesis 1 and Genesis 3 connections. In Christ, we have not only the great gift of even, but the even greater gift of the entire kingdom. Now we say, Lord, come quickly, because he has to exercise that fullness at the end of time. But he surely will. What is old? Old is sin, the sinful nature we are born with in Adam who fell. What is new and renewing? It's being renewed according to that harmony with God and more than that, the royal clothes of the mandate to subdue being fulfilled. People of God, it is a good thing to think about heaven. It's a good thing to think about Eden and the fact that we live in a place that is now broken. Like Solomon, to go up the river and to see God created man upright. And it's not like that anymore, and I wish it was. What was Eden like? What was it like to have emotions right? Well, when we're thinking about heaven, we're thinking about a place that's better than Eden. It's not just getting back to Eden. It's all of the goodness of Eden, and in Christ, total subduing, total dominion, and no longer the ability to fall at all. Because Christ, unlike Adam, never falls. There is a greater gift in Jesus Christ. Know then your need for renewal. Do not enjoy rebellion, which is now our state apart from Christ. but know your need for renewal. This is something which all are to know. There is not a Greek and Jew circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, Gideon slave free, but Christ is all and in all. He is the creator of all. We have all come from Adam and Eve. He is the one who can restore and make it, take that thing which is broken and make it better than new, better than it was. That is the second Adam, Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, we give thanks for the unity of scripture, of your word. for the unity of your testimony concerning who you are and what we need. And not only what we need, but what through Christ you accomplish. And so we rejoice that in Christ we can call ourselves new creatures who must not lie, but must live according to that newness. And that we have a promised gift, which is greater even than the great gift of Eden in more ways than one. So we pray in his name, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. People of God, our song of application tonight, number 429. Let us stand together to sing number 429. Homes of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above. Raise the mount I'm fixed upon it, mount of love. Praise my Ebeneezer, hither by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God. He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood. O to grace, how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be! Let thy grace now, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love Here's my heart, O take and seal it Seal it for Thy courts above People of God, it's time now for our evening gifts and freewill offerings this evening. That's for the General Fund. Following that, our benediction and doxology then, 563. If you would stand. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. The grace of Christ our Savior, and the Father's boundless love, and the Holy Spirit's favor, rest upon us from all evil. Thus may we abide in union with each other and the Lord, and possess in sweet communion Thank you very much.