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Chapter seven is where we're 
at in the confession of faith for this morning. Does anyone 
need a copy? The blue basket is right here. 
The blue basket of truth. We're in chapter seven of God's 
covenant. Last time we looked at of the 
fall of sin and of the punishment thereof, and it's a fitting progression 
now that we find ourselves in chapter 7 of God's covenant, 
because as we'll see, what is the answer to the fall? What 
is the answer to sin? What is the answer with respect 
to the condemnation that is justly to follow the fall and sin? Well, we see that is God's condescension 
by way of covenant. And it's a chapter in our confession 
here that is a little bit different than the Westminster Confession 
of Faith and the Savoy Declaration because of the Baptists' approach 
to covenant theology. They're looking at the covenants, 
and rather than rather than articulating one covenant of grace under multiple 
administrations, they're articulating a difference, or they would articulate 
a difference, between the old covenant and the covenant of 
grace. And rather than the covenant 
of grace being administered, by multiple epochs, the covenant 
is revealed through and across these particular periods and 
different covenants and promises in the Old Covenant. But we'll 
have a look at, not so much, when we did the doctrine of baptism, 
looked at baptism earlier as we sort of finished off our previous 
study through the Confession, we did talk about covenant theology 
to a large degree and the distinctions that the Baptists have. And while 
we'll make a few notes here and there, largely we just want to 
treat the topic itself and God's blessed condescension in saving 
his people from their sins by way of a glorious covenant. So 
I'm going to read the three paragraphs and then we'll have a look at 
this study. 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 attained the reward 
of life, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, 
which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant. Moreover, 
man, having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, 
it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein he freely offereth 
unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of 
them faith in him that they may be saved, and promising to give 
unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, His Holy Spirit, 
to make them willing and able to believe. This covenant is 
revealed in the gospel, first of all to Adam in the promise 
of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterward by farther 
steps until the full, excuse me, full discovery thereof was 
completed in the New Testament. And it is founded in that eternal 
covenant transaction that was between the father and the son 
about the redemption of the elect. And it is alone by the grace 
of this covenant that all of the posterity of fallen Adam 
that ever were saved did obtain life and a blessed immortality, 
man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those 
terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency. So these 
three paragraphs are certainly, as always, richly packed with 
God's truth. One of the things to observe 
by way of introduction is simply that covenant theology, we ought 
not to think of it as sort of some guarded, separate theological 
principle in addition to a multiple of other theological doctrines 
or truths. It simply is God's God's way 
of dealing with his reasonable creatures, or in other words, 
in dealing with man. From the outset of creation, 
with the giving of the covenant of works to Adam in the garden, 
all the way through redemptive history, God has dealt with man 
by way of covenant. And so, it's not just some, you 
know, shadowy, distant doctrine, or a doctrine that should be 
confined to the high places of theological learning, but it's 
simply the way that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, brings 
glory to Himself through the salvation of sinners, and He 
does this by way of condescension in covenant. a reminder that there is a connection, 
of course, between Chapter 6 and Chapter 7, not just that connection 
alone. We'll note some other chapters 
as well. But notice in Chapter 6 again, at paragraph 1, Although God 
created man upright and perfect and gave him a righteous law, 
which had been unto life had he kept it and threatened death 
upon the breach thereof, yet he did not long abide in this 
honor. And so we see there that God 
created man upright and perfect and gave him a righteous law. 
And this giving of a righteous law is encapsulated or is seen 
in that blessing attached to obedience and the cursing connected 
to disobedience, they were able to eat from every tree of the 
garden. And yet God gave a commandment 
to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And 
the moment that they do so, dying they would die. And so this reflects 
the covenant of works given in the garden. And then the rest 
of chapter six, remember, outlines the implications, the entailments. followed upon the heels of the 
fall, well, man was thrust into sin and depravity, and the only 
remedy, the only reality for salvation was the champion who 
would come, Jesus Christ, the one who sets free those who are 
bound in the miseries of sin and depravity. And so chapter 
seven is the bridge between, confessionally speaking here, 
the bridge between the fall and the champion who reverses the 
curse in chapter 8. So chapter 7 is the means by 
which God affects His glory through covenant in the salvation of 
sinners. The language of covenant throughout 
the confession is both implicit and explicit. Whether the covenant 
of works, or the covenant of redemption, or the covenant of 
grace, we see the language of covenant throughout the confession 
of faith. If we could summarize or give 
a title to each particular paragraph, I think this This may be Renahan, 
I should have made a note if it was, but you may have heard 
this summary before of the three paragraphs. Paragraph one, the 
necessity of covenant. Secondly, the necessity of a 
covenant of grace. And then thirdly, the revelation 
of the covenant of grace. So a simple, helpful structure. We see the necessity of covenant, 
and we'll look at that in a moment. We see the necessity of a covenant 
of grace, and then the revelation of that covenant of grace. So 
first off, we see the reality of the need for covenant, the 
reality of the need for condescension by way of covenant. And we see 
this largely in the statement, the distance between God and 
the creature is so great. in paragraph one, the distance 
between God and the creature is so great. Now, this is obviously 
true because of the fall into sin, but this statement doesn't 
yet anticipate or contain the reality of the fall into sin, 
because this is the reality prior to God condescending in the giving 
of the covenant of works. Yes, the distance between God 
and the creature is so great because of sin, but this is a 
doctrine of being distinction being made here. The distance 
between God and the creature is so great, that is, God is 
so other, so separate, so exalted above, the creature being the 
creator, that there is a distance that obtains between God and 
the creature that he has created. And so this is because of the 
creator-creature distinction. Renahan says, the divinely chosen 
vehicle through which contact and communication would be made 
with humanity is covenant. So it's not just yet the doctrine 
of sin, but rather God in communicating and contacting humanity does 
so by way of covenant because the distance between God and 
the creature is so great. This is the language of Theodoritus, 
from the fifth century, he wrote, he is God and they are men, and 
the difference between God and men is incalculable. They are 
mortal and subject to death, like to the grass and to the 
flower, he is almighty. And so this difference between 
God and the creature being so great is the reality of the creator-creature 
distinction. And notice that man, Before covenant 
is even brought into the picture, simply by His creation owes obedience 
unto God. The distance between God and 
the creature is so great that although reasonable creatures 
do owe obedience unto Him as their creator, So simply by virtue 
of being creature, reasonable creature that is, so man, and 
of course angels as reasonable creatures, but this specifically 
has to do most largely with men because he condescends to them 
by way of covenant, and the way in which he communicates to men 
is different than the way he communicates with angels. But 
all of that to come back to this. Simply by us being creature, 
we owe God obedience. But notice there's this yet clause 
that specifically has to do with divine reward or divine blessing. So, we see this clause here, 
yet they could never have attained the reward of life, but by some 
voluntary condescension on God's part. And so, simply by being 
creature, we owe creator obedience, and by that relationship, we 
cannot merit divine blessing. To merit divine blessing, captured 
here with the language the reward of life, something needed to 
happen, and that is God's voluntary condescension by way of covenant. And the covenant largely in view, 
though certainly the larger view of covenant, so the covenant 
of grace as well and any other covenant would be included, but 
specifically the covenant of works. God condescended by way 
of covenant to Adam in the garden and communicated to him the covenant 
of works. Blessing of life for obedience, 
cursing of death for disobedience. And notice, we ought to see here 
the We ought to see here the blessing of having so gracious 
a God that he creates us, but he doesn't leave us in that state 
simply of owing obedience with no reward of life. But he condescends 
and he is pleased, the language says, to express his condescension 
by way of covenant. to give us life, to condescend, 
and to give us life by a promise given in His condescension. What 
a gracious God that we have. What a God of immense condescension. And so, positively speaking, 
the distance between God and the creature is so great because 
of just the reality of being between he and us, but then also 
we see that he condescended to express, by way of covenant, 
the blessing and the reward of life. So the reality or the necessity, 
the need for covenant, is seen in that distance, between God 
and between the Creator. First, because of being. Secondly, 
as we'll see, because of the fall into sin. Secondly, the 
divine covenant and the nature of God. We want to observe something 
here and sort of extricate ourselves of any misunderstanding as to 
what God is doing and who God is in condescending by way of 
covenant. Notice with regards to the language 
of voluntary condescension on God's part. So we see here, yet 
they could never have attained the reward of life but by some 
voluntary condescension on God's part. Some, more recently, but 
not that it didn't obtain before that, but some more recently 
have said that this voluntary condescension is more than just 
revelation, that it's more than just communication, that God, 
in some way, has to change whether it's the creation that changes 
him, or whether it's he tinkering with himself in order to communicate 
by way of covenant. That something has to happen 
to God, whether he incurs it or he implements it, something 
has to change in God in order to properly voluntarily condescend 
by way of covenant. We have the reality in our Bibles 
that God doesn't change. And so this cannot be anything 
other than the unchanging God condescending and revealing. He doesn't change, but rather 
He communicates and He expresses by way of covenant. The language 
of revelation here is clear, to express by way of covenant. So, the voluntary condescension 
in covenant expression does not require nor bring about change 
in God. We have that blessed language 
that ought to cause us to gloriously uphold the reality that God is 
unchanging in one of our hymns. Change and decay in all around 
I see, O thou that changest not, abide with me. There's no comfort 
in a change in God. There is every comfort in a God 
who does not change. And so this voluntary condescension, 
it isn't that God changes. Now, here's a few quotes that 
I noted last time that we did this study on some who say that 
God does change in this voluntary condescension, that it's not 
only revelation, but that it is actually a change in God and 
to God. For example, and these aren't 
good quotes, it's bad theology, Oliphant writes, he remains who 
he is, but decides to be something else as well. He decides to be 
the God of the covenant. It was, to be sure, a monumental 
decision. First of all, God doesn't decide 
to do anything. Okay, anyway, it was, to be sure, 
a monumental decision. It changed the mode of God's 
existence for eternity. He began to exist according to 
relationships outside of himself, which had not been the case before. 
So the statement is made here that God changes, that in this 
condescension, God becomes something that he was not before. The only 
conclusion can be that he becomes creature. that our worship of 
the God now, we're not worshiping the same God before, in quotes, 
creation, because he's changed himself. He goes on to write, 
once God condescends, we should recognize that in taking to himself 
covenantal properties, in other words, he takes to himself that 
which he previously was not, which is terrible, He takes to 
himself, as well, the kind of knowledge that accrues to these 
properties. So, in other words, God learns, 
in a sense, or he learns, which is only something that creatures 
can do. Or, to put it another way, one of the properties that 
he takes to himself is the development of knowledge that is conducive 
to the interaction with creation. So let's just put it this way. These theologians are saying 
that God changes in this condescension. Bruce Ware writes, again, terribly, 
God is changeable in relationship with his creation. In this relational 
mutability, in other words, changeability, God does interact with his people 
in the experiences of their lives as they unfold in time. So God 
experiences things, is what he's saying. He moves from different 
states of being, having not considered this, having not engaged in this. He's a fellow actor, if you will, 
in creation. And so we need to emphasize the 
reiteration or reiterate the reality of divine immutability. God is a most pure spirit. without 
body, parts, and passions, immutable, most absolute. This is Gregory 
of Nazianzus on this reality. For if God was not always what 
he now is, he certainly changed, either from the better to the 
worse, or from the worse to the better. Any of these assertions, 
the impiety is equal either way. Whichever statement is made concerning 
the divine nature, and Charnock similarly, He writes, for the 
better or for the worse, if for the better, then he must not 
have been infinite in perfection prior to the change, and therefore 
was not God. If he changes for the worse, 
then he would no longer be infinite in perfection after the change, 
and therefore no longer God. And so we must uphold in the 
reality of this language of the confession that it's not God 
who is changing, but it's God relating his creation to himself 
by way of communication, by covenant, by expressing blessing and cursing, 
and by ultimately expressing the answer to sin in the covenant 
champion, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, we would want to see 
here, divine covenant as revelatory condescension. We've essentially 
already noted that. So what is the condescension? 
It's not that God changes himself. The condescension isn't that 
God somehow makes himself changeable so that the creature can impact 
him and change him and impress things upon the creator, but 
rather it's revelatory condescension. God stoops down to our creaturehood, 
that's condescension. It's God stooping down to our 
creaturehood in order to speak to us in the manner of our creaturehood. God voluntarily expresses himself 
by way of covenant in order that man may have the reward of life. And so that brings us to paragraph 
two, the occasion and nature of the covenant of grace. And 
notice that the language here reflects language already used 
in the confession of faith. The language of paragraph two, 
first off, with regards to the occasion and nature of the covenant 
of grace, we see that it's due to the fall of man into sin. 
So we see, moreover, man having brought himself under the curse 
of the law by his fall. And so the covenant of grace, 
the reason for it, the cause for it, well, we'll say the historical 
cause for it, the divine cause, for lack of a better term, is 
the covenant of redemption, and we'll see that in a moment. But 
the historical and providential cause for the covenant of grace 
is man's fall into sin, having violated the terms of the covenant 
of works. We noted chapter six in paragraph 
one. Notice as well chapter six in 
paragraph two. Our first parents by this sin 
fell from their original righteousness and communion with God and we 
in them, whereby death came upon all, all becoming dead in sin 
and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and 
body. So this is the reason for, the historical reason for, the 
communication of the covenant of grace. If we ask the question, 
why the covenant of grace? The answer is, because of sin. 
Because of the breaking of the covenant of works. And so when 
we say the historical cause, let's just back up a little bit 
in the confession to see the divine cause, if you will, of 
the covenant of grace, the divine foundation of the covenant of 
grace. Notice in chapter three, regarding 
of God's decree and paragraph six. As God hath appointed the elect 
unto glory, so he hath, by the eternal and most free purpose 
of his will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore, 
they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ. and are effectually called, and 
to summarize, given the blessed graces of salvation by amazing 
grace. And so, we see there in the divine 
decree, it pleased God to save sinners by the last Adam, and 
historically, the cause that brings that about is the transgression 
of the first Adam, his violation of the covenant of works. And 
so, Back to our chapter seven in paragraph two, the occasion 
of the covenant of grace is man's fall into sin, having violated 
the covenant of works. This is John Owen on this. He was at liberty. Let's see 
here. He was at liberty to have left 
all mankind under sin and the curse, as he did all the angels 
that fell. He was at liberty utterly to 
have destroyed the race of mankind that sprang from Adam in his 
fallen state, either in the root of them or in the branches when 
multiplied, as he almost did in the flood, and have created 
another stalk or race of them unto his glory. and hence the 
acting of his will herein is expressed by grace, which is 
free, or it is not grace, and is said to proceed from love, 
acting by choice, all arguing the highest liberty in the will 
of the Father." And what Owen is speaking to is the blessed 
language of transition that we have after, moreover man having 
brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, notice, 
it pleased the Lord to make covenant of grace and praise God for that. 
As Owen said, he was at liberty to have left all mankind in that 
particular state of sin and righteous condemnation for it, but He was 
pleased, the confession reads, and our Bible sets forth, to 
make a covenant of grace. And what a blessed thing, the 
divine action in the covenant of grace, it's not man that merited 
this, it's not the actings, the workings, the deeds, the thoughts 
of men that somehow initiated the divine condescension, but 
rather the language is, it pleased the Lord. to make a covenant 
of grace. It's divine action. He freely 
offers, the next clause says, wherein he freely offereth unto 
sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ. And so God, in 
His condescension, with, in His view, the sinfulness of man, 
the fall of man, the depravity of man, the unending wickedness 
and the transgressions of mankind, nevertheless, it was pleased, 
He was pleased to make this covenant of grace, freely offering salvation 
by Jesus Christ. What a wonderful God that we 
have. We need to understand that man has, Man doesn't deserve 
divine blessing. Man isn't somehow owed divine 
condescension and blessing by the Creator. We have no right 
to goodness. We have no right to blessing. 
We have no right to love, to mercy, to grace, and all of those 
wonderful things that come forth from the divine. We have no right 
to it. It pleased the Lord to condescend 
and to freely give that to us through Jesus Christ, the Savior. 
We see here that there is a requirement, but not a work that deserves 
or merits. Simply, it touches upon the command 
or the gospel summons to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Unlike 
the covenant of works, where man was given particular precepts 
of obedience that reflected the very holy nature of God, We see 
here that it's Christ who wins covenant reality for His people, 
and we see this simple truth of believing in that covenant 
champion, requiring of them faith in Him that they may be saved. 
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Christ 
has answered the terms of the covenant, and our response by 
grace is faith in Him. So we see the covenant of grace 
comes by virtue of man's fall. We see that it is affected not 
by man's action, but by divine action. And we see man's response 
by grace to that which is offered in the covenant of grace. This 
doesn't come From man's nature, from man's sinful nature, remember 
we are, man is, wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts 
of soul and body. And so it isn't man that responds 
to God in his sinful nature, but man made alive, a sinner 
made alive by amazing grace, responds in faith. and is saved 
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see this, the glorious 
language of divine provision. So not only is it divine action, 
it pleased the Lord, but it's also divine provision. He promises, 
the paragraph says near the end, and promising to give unto all 
those that are ordained unto eternal life, His Holy Spirit 
to make them willing and able to believe. Notice in this paragraph 
the triune reality of the covenant of grace, the triune reality 
of salvation. It is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is pleased, through the salvation 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, to give those ordained unto salvation 
His Holy Spirit. What a wonderful triune reality 
we have in divine condescension. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so the nature of the covenant 
of grace, the occasion is man's fall into sin, and the nature 
of it is that it is divine action, and that it is divine provision, 
and that it is richly triune. God condescends, God provides, 
and God gives. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit 
affecting the salvation of a multitude that no man can number by way 
of covenant. And then lastly, we see here 
the communication and the composition of this covenant of grace. Renehan has noted, Jim Renehan, 
this is a, paragraph three, this is a wonderful redemptive historical 
overview of the covenant purpose of God in the gospel. When we 
say redemptive historical, that simply means God's plan, His 
unfolding of redemption from the fall all the way through 
to the consummation, if you will, the last thing. So the history 
of the world is God's redemptive history. It's not as if we have 
this history of the world and then, you know, God's redemptive 
plan is sort of somewhere in there along the same timeline. 
The creation, creation and providence, and the history of all things 
is God's history. And it is serving the end that 
a multitude of sinners would be saved by Jesus Christ to the 
praise of His glorious grace. and that those vessels of dishonor 
made from the same lump of clay would testify to His glorious 
justice, and in that testify to the grace visited upon those 
who are saved by Christ. So, this wonderful, redemptive 
historical overview, paragraph three is a summary of the history 
of God's covenant purpose. Notice what we have first in 
paragraph three, We have, and it's important here 
to notice this language of revealed. Revealed versus administration. 
The Paedo-Baptists would strongly use the language of administration 
so that the Old Covenant is an administration of the Covenant 
of Grace. But the better wisdom of covenant 
theologians has concluded that the Old Covenant is not an administration 
of the Covenant of Grace. The Covenant of Grace can only 
properly be administered, any covenant, can only properly be 
administered when it's ratified. And the covenant of grace was 
ratified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed upon Calvary's 
cross. So the covenant of grace, which 
is the new covenant promised, cannot have administrations until 
the actual time of the ratification of that covenant. So that's why 
this language of revelation is very important here. The covenant 
is revealed. So, first off, the first revelation 
of the covenant of grace. Well, just before we move there, 
one quote by Cox on this language of administration, revelation, 
and try to bear with this, and if it's not very understandable, 
I'll try to communicate what he's saying here. He's speaking 
with regards to the nature of the old covenant and the nature 
of the new covenant. Regarding the new covenant and 
this idea that it was administered prior to Christ, he writes, it 
lacked its solemn confirmation and establishment by the blood 
of the only sacrifice which belonged to it. Before this was done in 
the death of Christ, it had not the formal nature of a covenant 
or a testament. So he's talking about the covenant 
of grace. It's really a promise given and 
revealed to Adam in the garden, and it becomes a ratified covenant 
when that promised one actually comes, because the covenant isn't 
confirmed or established, that is, the covenant of grace, until 
Christ comes. It had not the formal nature 
of a covenant or a testament, as our Apostle proves, Hebrews 
9, 15-23. For neither, as he shows in that 
place, would the law given at Sinai have been a covenant, had 
it not been confirmed with the blood of sacrifices. To that 
end, the promise was not before a formal and solemn covenant. 
So all of that to say that the covenants The old covenant was 
not an administration of the covenant of grace. It cannot 
be administered until it's actually ratified by the blood of Christ 
at His first coming. So the reason for the language 
of revelation. But getting back to it, the first 
revelation of the covenant of grace, notice that it is given 
to Adam in the garden. The covenant is, this covenant 
is revealed in the Gospel, first of all to Adam, in the promise 
of salvation by the seed of the woman. So, the first revelation 
of the Gospel comes in Genesis chapter 3, and remember it comes 
within the context of a curse upon the serpent. And so there's 
this promise of the hero born of woman who will crush the serpent 
with his heel, given in the curse to the serpent, and that promise 
is the promise, the revelation of the covenant of grace given 
to Adam. Turn with me in the confession 
of faith to chapter 20 for a moment, chapter 20. Notice right at the beginning 
of chapter 20 in paragraph one, the covenant of works being broken 
by sin and made unprofitable unto life, God was pleased to 
give forth the promise of Christ, the seed of the woman, as the 
means of calling the elect and begetting in them faith and repentance. In this promise, the gospel, 
as to the substance of it, was revealed and is there ineffectual 
for the conversion and salvation of sinners. This is why we say 
that salvation has always and only ever been by Jesus Christ. His life, His death, His resurrection. In the Old Testament, it was 
by that anticipatory and expected faith. Come thou long-expected 
Jesus is the refrain of the Old Covenant, the Old Testament faithful. 
And so there's this anticipatory faith looking forward to the 
coming seed of the woman. After the coming seed of the 
woman who gives his life, who dies, who rises again, and who 
ascends, faith is in that accomplished reality. Anticipatory in the 
Old Testament, accomplished in the new. It's always been, though, 
salvation has always been, whether in anticipating the Savior or 
in looking back upon the finished work of the Savior, it's always 
been by Jesus Christ. In this promise, the gospel as 
to the substance of it was revealed and is there and effectual for 
the conversion and salvation of sinners. So, finding our way 
back to chapter 7 and paragraph 3, we see the first revelation 
of the covenant of grace is given to Adam in the promise of salvation 
by the seed of the woman. And now, secondly, we want to 
notice here subsequent, subsequent anticipatory revelation in the, of the covenant of grace in the 
Old Testament. So upon the heels of, or after, 
this promise, this revelation to Adam in the garden, we see 
this subsequent looking forward to revelation. Notice the language 
of the confession. And afterwards, by farther steps, 
until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament. 
So in the Old Testament, there's this progressive revelation. God is building upon the promise 
of the seed of the woman, with subsequent providence and redemptive 
history. He's adding to the promise of 
this one who would crush the head of the serpent. And we see 
that as we get to the seed of Abraham. I mean, we see it in 
types and shadows and in declarations before we get to the narrative 
concerning Abraham, but we, you know, we don't have three days. 
So we see the seed of the woman, and then we see the seed of Abraham. We see in Moses this promised 
prophet who would come, who the people will hear. We see it in 
the prophetic anticipations of one who is divine and yet also 
man, who will come and serve God and give himself for the 
people. Think of Isaiah and the suffering 
servant. Isaiah, the servant of Yahweh, 
who comes, the coming Christ who will come in the fullness 
of the times. Revelation is built upon revelation, 
as the language says, until the full discovery thereof was completed 
in the New Testament. So, this progressive revelation 
and then a full discovery of the covenant of grace in the 
New Testament. We've said before that The covenant 
of grace is the New Testament promised. The New Testament is 
the covenant of grace fulfilled and ratified. And so the new 
covenant is not simply another dispensation of the covenant 
of grace in addition to multiple covenants. It is the covenant 
of grace ratified in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This 
is a Paedo-Baptist, Robert South. I know his last name is South. 
I believe his name is Robert. It's an extended quote, but it's 
a wonderful quote that uses this language of further revelation 
and farther steps in the anticipation of Christ. So, notice this language 
as it comports well with paragraph three of the Confession. He, 
that at first was known only as the seed of the woman, was 
in process of time known to be the seed of Abraham, and after 
that, the seed of David. And from thence, proceeding to 
greater particularities relating to the manner of his coming, 
he was known to be born of a virgin, and for the place where to be 
born at Bethlehem. and for his person and condition, 
that he should be a man of sorrows, and that he should suffer and 
die for sin, that he should rise again, that he should ascend 
into heaven and lead captivity captive. He's citing along the 
way here Isaiah, Micah, Isaiah, the Psalms, that he should reign 
till he had subdued his enemies and saw the world brought under 
him, Psalm 110. Thus, by a continual gradation, 
The promise advanced itself with further steps and increases, 
shining more and more unto a perfect day, displaying fresh and fuller 
discoveries through the several ages of the world, every new 
degree of manifestation being a mercy great enough to oblige 
an age. What a wonderful quote. And the 
language there uses two of the phrases, in addition to the glorious 
language, of course, regarding the coming Christ and the Christ 
that affects salvation, but the language of further steps and 
discovery. The promise advanced itself with 
further steps, just like paragraph 3, and increases, shining more 
and more unto a perfect day, displaying fresh and fuller discoveries. The full discovery was completed 
in the New Testament. So this wonderful harmony between 
those contemporaneous to the confession of faith, articulating 
this wonderful development of revelation, this progressive 
promise building upon promise, prophecy upon prophecy, type 
upon type, shadow upon shadow, until the full discovery thereof 
was completed by Christ in the New Testament. Notice as well, with regards 
to the New Covenant, we have the terminal accomplishment, 
so subsequent anticipatory revelation, the building of promises and 
prophecies and proclamations, revelation, and then we have 
the terminal accomplishment. That simply means the end arrived 
at. The term, the terminus, the thing 
to which all of these other things were moving is the full discovery 
thereof made by Christ in the New Testament. Pascal Deneau, 
who has a, if you want some book recommendations on the topic 
of Particular Baptist, Reformed Baptist, Covenant Theology. Pascal 
Denol has a wonderful book. He's a Quebec brother at Reformed 
Baptist Church there in Quebec, and he wrote The Distinctiveness 
of Reformed Baptist Covenant Theology, I believe, is the title. 
There's a second edition where he's made some tweaks and revisions, 
but it's a great book if you'd like to learn more about the 
doctrine of the covenant of grace and covenant theology, largely 
speaking, as well. Mystery of Christ by Samuel Renahan. wonderful treatment of the Covenant 
of Grace. John Owen on Hebrews 8-10, a 
Pato Baptist, but really good on covenant theology. Also, Nehemiah 
Cox, who's, you know, the grand puba of particular Baptists in 
the 17th century, the editor, if you will, of our Confession 
of Faith. He has a discourse on the covenants, which is really 
good, and I believe in the Cox and Owen book on covenant theology 
that Pastor Barcelos, Dr. Barcelos was involved in, it's 
basically Nehemiah Cox, his discourse on the covenants, and then John 
Owen, his covenant theology from the book of Hebrews, so some 
wonderful treatments of covenant theology. All that to come back 
to this, on the New Covenant being the covenant of grace, 
and being the terminus of all of these revelations of the covenant 
promise. The New Testament brings the 
full revelation of the covenant of grace, since the New Covenant 
is its accomplishment. The Baptists considered that 
the new covenant and it alone was the covenant of grace. The 
covenant of grace revealed to Adam and then to Abraham was 
the new covenant promised. And so this promissory, the nature 
of a promise, promissory revelation culminates in the ratification 
of the covenant. That wonderful scene where Jesus 
Christ is inaugurating the Lord's Supper, and it's on the night 
in which he was betrayed, as we know, and he gives the bread, 
he breaks the bread, and he says, this is my body, which is given 
for you. And then he distributes the wine, 
he pours the wine and gives the wine, and he says, this is my 
blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. That's why 
it's such a glorious thing to gather at the Lord's Supper for 
a number of reasons, but to have, hopefully, blessed reflections 
upon Christ and the giving of himself on Calvary's cross. What a blessing. What a thing 
to observe. What a blessing for Christ to 
institute that on the night in which he was betrayed. Giving 
that gift to the church, that those emblems of his body broken 
and his blood shed. And so that blood shedding, that 
reality, that ratification of the covenant, brings to a terminus 
all of those streams of revelation from the promise in the garden 
moving forward throughout redemptive history. Owen writes this regarding 
this. And as it was their wisdom and 
their grace to rejoice in the light they had, the Old Testament 
saints, and in those typical administrations of divine worship 
which shadowed out the glory of Christ unto them, so the sacrifices, 
the ceremonies, the washings, all of those things, yet did 
always pant after that more excellent light and full discovery of it, 
which was to be made by the Gospel, by the coming of Christ in His 
first advent. And herein consists the principal 
advantage of the New Testament above the Old. For although the 
work of the new creation was begun and carried on secretly 
and virtually under the Old Testament, yet they had not a full discovery 
of the economy of the Holy Trinity therein, which was not evidently 
manifest until the whole work was illustriously brought to 
light by the gospel. What a wonderful statement that 
John Owen is giving there. The illustriousness of the light 
brought by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the 
terminal accomplishment of the covenant of grace is the ratification 
of that covenant in the blood of the Savior shed upon Calvary's 
cross. Notice as well the foundation 
of the covenant of grace. The foundation of the covenant 
of grace, near the middle-ish of the paragraph, and it is founded 
in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the father and 
the son about the redemption of the elect. So the foundation 
of the covenant of grace is what theologians have called, what 
Christians have called, the covenant of redemption. that before creation, 
if you'll allow the language, reality, that the triune God 
purposed to save a multitude by the work of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Notice the beginning of chapter 
eight in paragraph one. It pleased God, in His eternal 
purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten 
Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be 
the mediator between God and man." So the foundation for the 
covenant of grace is that eternal transaction. It's that eternal 
compact, the eternal deliberation. All language accommodated to 
man, God doesn't properly deliberate. God cannot properly covenant 
amongst the persons of the Trinity, but it's condescended language 
to speak to the eternal decree as it respects the redemption 
of the elect. by virtue of the work of the 
incarnate Son. So the foundation of the covenant 
of grace is this blessed covenant of redemption. That's why we 
can say that the entirety of history is the history of God 
bringing glory to Himself through the salvation of sinners by His 
Son. That is the purpose of history. the glory of God in the declaration 
of His perfections through the salvation of sinners by the divine 
human mediator, the one Christ, very God and very man who affects 
the salvation of a multitude. What a glorious God we have and 
what a glorious Christ that we have. And then lastly, notice 
the exclusivity of the covenant of grace and its relation to 
the covenant of works. Notice at the end of the paragraph, 
and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the 
posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life 
and a blessed immortality. So the exclusivity of the covenant 
of grace, it's only by that covenant that man can be saved. Man, of 
course, cannot be saved by the covenant of works. In fact, that's 
the last statement. Man being now utterly incapable 
of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in 
his state of innocency. This is why it's such a madness, 
such a colossal folly to say that we can merit our salvation. 
First, because of the glory of God and the perfection of His 
holiness, who He is, and secondly, who man is in light of so glorious 
a God. Not only the creator-creature 
distinction, but the fact that man has fallen into sin such 
that he is wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of 
soul and body. And so then to say, however you 
frame it, whether it's covenantal faithfulness on the part of the 
Christian, whether it's evangelical holiness, the works done in love 
by grace through faith, all of these, if they can somehow merit 
our salvation, then the covenant of grace is vanity, and God is 
cast into the mud of pagan deities. It is the case, gloriously though, 
that our God is the God who He is, that He is condescended by 
way of covenant to save from the first breathing man to the 
last breathing man, that He is determined to save sinners, a 
multitude of them, through the condescending work of the Lord 
Jesus Christ and the perfection of His covenant obedience. In 
other words, we rest upon not our covenant obedience, but we 
rest upon the covenant obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Very 
God, very man, yet one Christ, the only covenant champion, the 
only mediator between God and man. What a glorious God. As 
we go into worship, let's Seek to rejoice in this God, to sing 
his praises, to sing his glories, to honor him, to give him praise, 
and to rest with our Christian hearts upon the finished work 
of Jesus Christ, our covenant champion. Let's pray. God, we 
thank you for this time. In your truth, we pray that you 
would bless us with the knowledge of your truth. Help us as we 
go into worship to be equipped by your spirit to give you all 
honor, to give you all praise. And it's in Christ's name that 
we do pray. Amen. Okay.