Returning to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2, we'll read the most of the chapter together, and so Genesis chapter 2. And we'll read from verse number 1, the opening verse here. Genesis chapter 2 and the verse number 1. Word of God says, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created. in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was, and the earth and every herb of the field before it grew. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face off the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the river went out of Eden to water the garden. And from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. And the name of the first is Pison, that is, that which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. There is bendalum, and on stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon, the same as that which compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Helkeda. That is that which goeth forth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof. thou shalt surely die. We'll end our reading at the end of verse 17, and let's stand again briefly for a word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, we come to the preaching of thy holy word. How I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. Lord, I come to thee to pray for the infilling of thy spirit. Help me to rightly divide the word and grant, dear God, an understanding to my heart and to the heart of every hearer. And may we understand, O God, all that God has done for us in, O God, the gospel. And so draw near to us, we pray. Meet with our waiting souls. Speak to every eager heart. We offer prayer in and through the Savior's holy name. Amen. You may be seated. Last Lord's Day we considered together the Covenant of Redemption. That great covenant that was drawn up in the Council of Eternity between God the Eternal Father and God the Eternal Son. We considered together the parties of the Covenant, the Father and Son, alongside the Plages, the Promises and the Perpetuity. And then we concluded with a number of thoughts about the practical uses off the covenant of redemption within our lives. Today we want to consider another covenant, another Bible covenant. Today we want to consider the covenant of works. Now the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is the substandard of our own denomination, speaks of that covenant in following terms. It says the first covenant made with man was a covenant of works. wherein life was promised to Adam and then him to his posterity or his offspring upon condition of perfect and personal obedience. So important is the covenant of works that other key doctrines within the scriptures really depend upon his existence. Without it, the obedience of Christ on our behalf, the relationship between Christ and Adam, and the concept of Christ being the mediator of the new covenant make no sense outside this context of the covenant of works. Now the covenant of works between God and unfallen man is one that is not accepted by all theologians. Such would argue that there is no evidence within the initial chapters of the book of Genesis for such a covenant existing. However, although the word covenant does not exist or appear in the opening chapters of Genesis, the key elements of the covenant do. The parties, the promise, the palantine. So we need to begin and deal with what is termed the elephant in the room. As I've stated, the covenant of works, those who deny it would say that such a covenant, the word does not appear in Genesis chapters 1 to 3, and they would be right in saying so, no doubt about that. However, the absence of a particular term does not mean the absence of a particular concept. For example, Genesis chapter 3 does not contain any standard Hebrew word for sin. Or four, transgression. You'll never read the word sin in Genesis chapter 3. You'll not read the word transgression in Genesis chapter 3. But surely the concept is there. Man's rebellion against God. His transgressing of God's holy covenant. and then sin entering into this particular world. And so though the term does not appear, yet the concept or the truth really does. And it's no different when it comes to the covenant of works. The term does not appear, yet the elements do appear and so we want to consider that but before doing so and considering the various elements to this covenant the covenant of works I do want to direct your attention to a proof text that many theologians use to prove that the covenant of works really did exist between God and unfallen man, Adam. We have to go to the book of Hosea. And so if you find the book of Daniel, then you'll find after Daniel, you'll find the book of Hosea. Daniel, Hosea, and then Joel. And so we're in the Old Testament here. Hosea chapter number six and the verse seven. Let's read the verse. But they, like men, have transgressed the covenant. There have they dealt treacherously against me. There, but they like men have transgressed the covenant. There have they dealt treacherously against me. Jose is speaking here about Ephraim and Judah and how they had transgressed the covenant between them and God. But I want you to notice that that word men in the original language is the word Adam. That is how the word literally appears in the Hebrew scriptures. And so we could read the verse like this, but they like Adam, they like Adam have transgressed the covenant. What covenant? It is the covenant of works. Another scriptural argument that argues for the existence of the covenant between God and Adam is derived from Paul's teaching over there in Romans chapter 5. Let's read there Romans 5 and the verse 12 through to 19. Let me read as you find the passage. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. And thereby we have this thought of Adam being the representative of the human race. There in the Garden of Eden, he acted as our representative, just as those who are voted into some parliament are sent there by their constituents to represent them and to voice their concerns and their desires within that particular parliament. So Adam was the representative of mankind in the Garden of Eden. And thereby, when Adam sinned, we sinned in Adam. We sinned in him. And this is why death has passed upon all men. That's why you'll find people, they'll say it's not fair. It's not fair because Adam sinned that we are then guilty of his transgression and we suffer the penalty of the broken law that he broke. Why do we suffer from Adam? Why because of Adam's sin do we suffer? It's because Adam was our representative. Within his loins was all of humanity. And so in Adam we sinned. And this thought of a representative head It's a wonderful thought, yes. It's a despairing thought when we think about how we sinned in Adam. But whenever we come to the gospel, and we come to think of the last Adam, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, He engages to be the representative of His people, and thereby He fulfills all the terms of the covenant of redemption and grace and works. And thereby what He does is made over to us by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And thereby we do not die eternally because Christ has paid the ransom price for our redemption. And so let's read on. For unto the law sin was in the world, Verse 13, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that is to come. But not as the offense, so also as the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, speaking of Adam, much more the grace of God and the gift of grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded on to many not to all not to all to many to many not as it was by one that sin so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation Adam again but the free gift is of many offenses on the justification for if by one man's offense Death reigned by one, much more they which received abundant grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one. Now Paul, he presents both Adam and Christ as two covenant heads. Here he argues that life and justification came to all of God's people through one man, Jesus Christ, in the same way that death and condemnation came upon all through another man, through Adam. You see, Adam was as much a representative in a covenant as Jesus Christ was. The difference was that Adam brought death and condemnation to all those that he represented through his disobedience, while Christ instead brought life and justification to all that he represented through his obedience. Since there is a covenant representative, Why, or sorry, since a covenant representative is by definition the representative of a covenant, that only stands to sense if these are representatives of a covenant, there must be a covenant, since that is the case, and Adam is a covenant representative then. It is foolish, it is foolish by those who claim that there is no such covenant between God and innocent or unfallen man there in the garden of Eden. But I trust that as we make our way through Genesis 2 and other passages that we'll begin to see Although this word covenant does not appear yet, most certainly the elements of the covenant of works really does exist. I want you to notice, first of all, the parties to the covenant of works. The parties to the covenant of works. Now it's clear, as we've said over the last number of weeks, that there needs to be always at least two parties to form any covenant, any contract. any obligation, and that is certainly the case when it comes to the covenant of works, because we have initially God. God is most certainly one of the parties. Genesis 1 and the verse 1 makes that very clear. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And so Genesis 1 assumes the very existence of God, the very presence of God, He who is eternal, He finds himself here, here with man in the Garden of Eden and speaking to him as we will soon see in the verses 16 and 17. God, as we find him in the Bible, the Word of God is presented to us as the sovereign ruler of the universe. He demonstrated such when he created all things, whether visible or invisible. He is revealed to us in the pages of Holy Scripture as the moral lawgiver, and most certainly the infinite lawgiver, demanding perfect obedience to every commandment and every statute of his. And yet at the same time, though he be the moral governor and though he be the infinite law giver, he also reveals himself as a loving father who seeks the eternal welfare of his creatures and especially of his children. And so God is one of the parties, man represented by Adam is the other party. Genesis 2 verse 16, and the Lord God commanded the man. He commanded the man. Now I need to emphasize that man made no contribution to the covenant of works. It was God out of his own good pleasure and mercy and grace that he formulated and prescribed the promises and the terms to the covenant of works. Adam's only choice and only role that he was to play was that he would either keep or he would break the terms of that covenant. It is God who initiated the covenant and entering into a covenant relationship with the first Adam, the representative of the entire human race. God was under no obligation, God was under no duress to enter into such a covenant, but out of His good pleasure and out of His good grace, God enters into such a covenant. You see, what Adam did in the covenant of works would have repercussions for the entire human race who were, as I've said, in Adam's loins at that very time. Let me try and explain it by a way of a very simple illustration. The head of the family refuses to pay the electric bill. That family head, he entered into a contract with the energy supplier. The contract stipulated that if he paid the monthly fee, that electricity would be supplied into that home. But for some reason, the head of the family decides not to pay, and thereby he breaks the terms of that very contract. Who suffers? as a result of the family head refusing to meet up to the obligations. It's not only him, but it's his wife who goes to turn on the cooker or who goes on to turn on the washing machine. It's the young people, the children in the home who go and turn on the radio or their computer. They find themselves that because of another's disobedience, consequences flow down to the entire family circle. And so it is, I know it's a very simple illustration, but so it is with regard to Adam. Adam as the only man on earth represented the entire human race. God made Adam. Adam was man's representative and he chose on our behalf as our representative to break the terms of the covenant of works. He chose to disobey God and thereby the entire human race, the entire family, the human family suffer as a consequence of Adam's disobedience. The fate therefore of the entire human race was at stake in either Adam's obedience or his disobedience to the command that God had given him. Adam acted as our representative and in him we fail because of his fall and our fall in him death has passed upon all men for that all have sinned and thereby every funeral and every death is a reminder to us all of Adam's disobedience in the Garden of Eden, of the breaking of the covenant of works. And so we have two parties, God, the eternal God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and man. as found represented in Adam. We not only find the parties to the covenant of works in the opening chapters, we also find the promise of the covenant of works. As I've mentioned, these things should be now in the forefront of your mind. With all covenants, there is promises attached to them. Certain blessings, benefits that are made over to the individual who meets the obligations and the terms of the contract, the covenant. And such is the case in the covenant of works. What was the promise? Well, we read it within the confession of faith. The promise was that of life. The promise was that of life. Now you may ask, well, where do you find that? Well, let's read verse 16 and 17 of Genesis chapter number two. It says, And the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Where's the promise of life? You may ask. Well, it isn't implied. We need to follow the reasoning here. God promised Adam that if he obeyed the stipulation not to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that God would, or if he did transgress the commandment, that he would die. That he would die. Thereby we can but infer that if he didn't disobey the commandment, that he would live, that he would be given life. Now not physical life, because Adam already had life in him at this present moment of time. No, this is a greater life. This is eternal life. Eternal life. After a period of probation, a period of testing, it was within the grasp of Adam. to obtain eternal life for not only him but also for those whom he represented. Do this, Adam, and live. Don't do this and die. That's what God said to Adam here in the garden of Eden. The theologian Louis Burkhoff wrote the promise of life in the covenant of works was a promise of the removal of all limitations of life to which Adam was still subject to and of raising his life to the highest degree of perfection where he was beyond the possibility of erring, sinning and dying. He would be taken to a place to a position, to a degree of perfection that was beyond the possibility of erring, of sinning, and even dying. As I read many commentaries with regard to this and theologians, many believe that Adam, at a period of time, if he had of obeyed this command, he would have been translated from earth to heaven. Paradise just as Enoch and Elijah were, translated in to the very presence of God. We know that this promise of life, eternal life, and the obedience to the terms of the covenant can also be inferred from other portions of Scripture. Let me give you a number. Romans chapter 7 and the verse 10. There we read, and the commandment which was ordained to life I found it to be unto death." Notice the commandment. The law was ordained to life. To life, not to death, but to life. The obedience of the command was ordained unto life. If Adam had kept the commandment of God, as I've said, during the period of probation, he would have merited, he would have attained eternal life for himself and his descendants. Sadly, we know that he chose instead to transgress the commandment and thereby forfeit the right to eternal life and brought death upon the entire human race. Think of that occasion when Jesus Christ met the rich young ruler. There in Matthew chapter 19 verse 17, the Lord Jesus Christ said to that young man, if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Keep the commandments. If thou wilt enter into life, eternal life, keep the commandments. That's a strange statement by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ knew that that young man could never perfectly keep the commandments. He claimed that he had, but Christ knew exactly that he hadn't. He knew that this young man, to keep the commandments perfectly, was totally impossible. But the promise of life, eternal life, was held out nonetheless. If you keep all the commandments of God perfectly, he said, you'll enter into life. Perfectly obeying. The commandments would earn for him the title to eternal life. The problem was that he couldn't do that, and that's what the Savior was trying to get across to him. With all your attempts to keep the commandments, you failed miserably. You failed miserably. Thereby, this offer of life, eternal life held out to you by keeping the commandments is withdrawn because of your disobedience. because of your transgressing of God's commandment. You see, the Bible really represents but two ways to obtain eternal life. The first demands perfect obedience to the law of God. None of Adam's fallen race can give that. No man can give obedience to the law of God. For the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, our sin nature. finds to it and makes sure of it that none of us can obey the law of God perfectly. The second way demands faith. Faith in another. In another who has kept the law perfectly. And who is that? None other than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Christ fulfilled the law. He met its precepts. he met its palanty and thereby he fulfills the covenant of works. Obey and live and Christ obeyed and thereby secured eternal life for all who believe in him. And so folks really the only option for us as sinners is to have faith in one who has obeyed the law perfectly, Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners. All of our attempts to adhere and obey the law of God are never going to succeed, but Christ came to do what Adam failed to do. Christ came into this world to fulfill the law. That's what he said. I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. And thereby, he meets the terms of the covenant of works. Christ is the doer, he is the fulfiller of the covenant of works. Both precept and penalty of the covenant of works is satisfied by him, and thus the promise of eternal life. The prize or the promise that was held out to Adam in the covenant of works is then made over to us because Christ has met the covenant of works, its stipulations, its demands, its requirements. Christ lived for me. Christ lived for you. And thereby he obtained righteousness for us. And that righteousness is made over to us, imputed to us, reckoned to us on faith in Jesus Christ. I'm not depending on my works or my adherence to the law of God to get me into heaven itself, but rather I'm depending on another, one who has paid the price of sin and met the precept of the law. Christ has made atonement for sin. Now let's think of the terms of the covenant of works very quickly. God promised to Adam and his descendants eternal life on Adam's obedience. And that life was symbolized there in that tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that stood before Adam in the garden of Eden. Now the terms, the conditions of eternal life being made over to Adam was Adam's obedience to the commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As I've said, if Adam obeyed and successfully navigated the time of testing, probation, he would have secured for himself and his descendants eternal life. But he didn't. He didn't. And so we have to deal with what it is today. He didn't do it. He failed in it. He failed in obeying the command, the single command. But I must remind you that It wasn't just a single command. You see, that command was but the moral law in embryonic form. Adam, all the laws of God are really summarized in but this law. Are you going to obey me or not? With regard to the tree that stands before you. With respect to then Adam's obedience, God required, first of all, perfect obedience. See, Adam had to live up to the whole breadth of the moral law, as I've said, contained in but embryonic form within that single command, and do exactly according to it. Any divergence from the command would have seen to the severing or to the forfeiting of all promises made within the covenant of works, and that's exactly what happened. When he partook of that fruit, And he partook of that fruit, that whole covenant between God and man was disannulled. Adam, you have the opportunity here to obtain eternal life by your own works, but he failed. But thank God there was another covenant, a covenant of grace, not based upon man's work, but based upon Christ's work. thereby eternal life secured through Christ's life and death and resurrection. It had to be perfect obedience. It had to be personal obedience. Adam must not obey by means of a substitute. Rather, it had to be done in his own person. It was Adam's responsibility to keep the law, to obey the commandment, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou, God said, verse 17, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. This is personal, Adam. Adam, you must personally obey me. Sadly, the first Adam failed to fulfill those very terms. Look there at Genesis chapter 3 and we find what happened. Genesis chapter 3 and the verse number 6. Genesis 3 verse 6 it tells us, And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of it the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. When Adam disobeyed It wasn't just the transgression of a random command. It was the shattering of a covenant relationship between God and man. A gulf, a chasm opens up between God and man on Adam's failure to fulfill the terms. So great is the gulf that it will take the God-man to take on flesh and live and die and rise again on our behalf in order to span that great gulf. And so we must not think of it as simply disobeying a single commandment. Adam willfully, deliberately chose to transgress the covenant of works and thereby sever relationship between God and mankind, and he partook of that forbidden fruit. Sin entered, and we suffer from that single act of disobedience until this very day. Let me say, A few things about the penalty of the covenant of works. As I've said, eternal life is held out to Adam as the prize of his obedience to the command in Genesis 2. However, death is the penalty for his disobedience. Again, verse number 16, or verse 17, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest her off, thou shalt surely die. Let me read it to you in the Hebrew. In the day that thou eatest thereof, in dying you shall die. In dying you shall die. That is how it literally is translated. In dying. Yes, Adam, you're going to start dying physically, but in dying you are going to die eternally. The death that was threatened and ultimately imposed upon Adam and his descendants As I've said on many occasions, was threefold. There was physical death, the death of the body, when life ceases to exist. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 7, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return on to God who gave it. The death, physical death, spiritual death, the separation of soul from God. All enter this world spiritually dead to God. liveth, in pleasure is dead, spiritually dead, while she liveth. 1 Timothy 5 and the verse 6. Yes, we can have physical life, but we can be spiritually dead. And that's what we are. That's what sinners are. That's what you are. If you're not a Christian, you're spiritually dead to God today. And then there is eternal death. The death of body and soul in hell. Separated forever from God. Revelation 24, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And so what we see around us today when it comes to death is really the fallout of Adam's willful and deliberate noncompliance to the covenant of works. In other words, his sin. What a scandal. What a scandal took place in the Garden of Eden when Adam chose to disobey God's command and confronted with the temptation to sin. What a scandal. Think of it. Adam was placed in the paradise of God. He had his choice of every tree but one. He was full of holiness. His soul was adorned with grace. His well and his affections were tuned harmoniously to the very will of God. And despite all of this, Adam chose to violate the terms of the covenant of works. There are lessons for us to learn, and with these I close. First of all, I learn By Adam's disobedience and his breaking off the covenant of works, I learn how unable I am to stand in my own strength. If unfallen Adam in a state of innocence did not stand, how unable am I to stand as a fallen creature? Thomas Watson said, if purified nature did not stand, how then shall corrupt nature? We need more strength, he said, to uphold us than our own. We come to understand our own weakness. We come to understand our own sinfulness when we consider Adam's sin. Because if I had been in the garden, I too would have fallen, and you would have fallen. Secondly, I learned the sad condition that all unbelievers are presently in. Because you see, as long as the sinner continues in their sin, they find themselves under the curse, under the penalty of the broken law. They find themselves under the curse and penalty of the covenant, even of work's death. That was the penalty. And as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, and thereby the sinner is still under the broken, the consequences of the broken covenant of works of Adam. You know, faith entitles us to mercy in the covenant of grace, but while men and women are still under the power of their sins and under, they're under the curse of the first covenant. And if they die in that condition, they die with no mercy. They die with no mercy. I learned thirdly of the goodness of God. Because, brethren and sisters, it pleased God when man had forfeited, man had forfeited the first covenant to enter into another covenant with man, the covenant of grace. And when you think of it, works in grace are the antithesis of each other. They're the complete opposite of each other, works versus grace. And such displays and exhibits really the goodness of God, because God was under no obligation to do anything for sinful man. God provided no way of salvation for the angels who fell from their first estate, and yet God out of his good pleasure, he devises a way whereby sinful man can be reconciled to God through a mediator, through a substitute, through the Christ of God. And thereby, what he does for them, He secures life, eternal life, for all that trust in Him. I wonder, as I close today, let me ask you, are you living under the penalty of the covenant of works? Are you trying to somehow foolishly fulfill the terms of such a covenant by trying to perfectly obey the law of God? Listen, your attempts are doomed to failure. Your sin nature will dictate that. You'll not be able to do it. You'll not be able to fulfill its terms. But praise God, I can point you to one who perfectly gave obedience to the law of God on behalf of his people. By so he secured eternal life for all that trust in him. I trust that your faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ today. The one who is the mediator of the new covenant. And if it isn't, why not make this moment the moment of your salvation? And then as a Christian, you'll be able to sing, thy works, not mine, O Christ. Speak gladness to this heart. They tell me all is done, and bid my fear depart. To whom? Save thee, who canst atone, or who canst alone for sin atone. Lord, shall I flee? May this day see you fleeing to Christ, who canst alone for sin atone. May you come now to Christ. for his eternal sake and glory. Amen. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Let's pray. In the will of God, we will consider next week, it may be the last week, I'm not just too sure, we will consider the great covenant of grace. What God has done for us in that covenant, the covenant between the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the Son. between God and the Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who became our representative head, who lived and died for us. Our loving Father, we come before Thee. Lord, we confess, Lord, our old sinful nature would have us to try and work salvation for ourselves. God, our pride would have us to try and fulfill the commandments of God try and secure for ourselves eternal life. But such is not possible, because if an unfallen man in his pristine state with all of the various mercies towards him and the very privileged state he was found to be in, if Adam feels, if Adam feels Well then, how much more will we not feel we find ourselves in a sinful state, in a fallen state? O God, therefore, we are shut in to God's grace and the grace of God appearing unto man in the person of Jesus Christ. one who fulfills all obligations, one who pays the price of sin, the one who lived and died for me, and thereby eternal life and salvation is made over to the one who puts their faith exclusively in the person of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a failure mankind is, and yet what a Savior Jesus Christ is. Thank you, Lord Jesus. for meeting all terms and conditions on my behalf, and thereby I enjoy the blessing of sins forgiven and membership of the family of God. I cease from my works, for Christ has done the work for me. Lord, part us with Thy blessing, those that leave. And for those who remain, give us help as we come to seek Thy face in prayer. We offer these petitions in and through the Savior's precious and worthy name. Amen and amen. May the Lord bless as you make your journey home. Thank you.