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Some of you, maybe most, I'm 
not sure, were there yesterday. And if you weren't, I'm sorry. I do think it'd be good to review. 
So Pastor Butler asked me to come and address the issue of 
covenant theology. So I had a title, Covenant Theology, 
a brief overview, because that's all you can do in three sessions. And having given The two sessions 
yesterday, if you were there, you remember there were five 
questions I was asking and trying to answer. And we got through 
three questions and answers. The first question is, what is 
a divine covenant? If we're going to talk about 
something, anything, especially theological, we're going to use 
terms and phrases. And we need to understand what 
the speaker is talking about when he uses a term or phrase. 
So I sought to define a covenant like this It is a relational 
arrangement initiated by God's sovereign dispensing of his kindness, 
goodness, and wisdom toward man. So God starts, or covenants start 
with God and they come to man, at least in the sense that I'm 
talking about in these messages. And it is God's initiation of 
a relationship with man, It's not a negotiation. It's not a 
pact between equals. We don't sit at the table and 
God proposes, and then we counter-propose, and then we hire somebody, lawyers 
for us, to go to the table with God's lawyers, or God himself, 
and then we have an agreement between two equals. It's not 
like that at all. God is the sovereign. God is the creator. 
God is the providential ruler. If He's going to have communion 
with man, it's going to be based on His terms, and we just receive 
it and either comply with it or don't. There was a specific 
concern of divine covenants that we focused on yesterday. In the 
words of an old writer, Nehemiah Cox, he says that divine covenants 
are concerned with the benefits God will bestow on man, the communion 
man will have with God, and the ways and means by which this 
communion will be enjoyed by man. So I concluded that divine 
covenants are concerned with the benefits God bestows, the 
type of communion man may have with God, and the means to obtain 
these things. We looked at two Old Testament 
examples, the Older Mosaic Covenant, and saw some of these elements 
illustrated there, and what we call the Davidic Covenant 2 Samuel 
7, and then we looked at the New Testament as the New Covenant 
as an example and drew out various conclusions. I'm not going to 
say everything I said. yesterday. The second question was this, 
what is the study of the divine covenants normally called? It's 
normally called covenant theology. And some people, especially in 
the last 50 years, don't like the phrase covenant theology. They don't view the Bible as 
covenantally structured. They don't view the framework 
through which God reveals himself to his people via covenants. They might use the concept of 
kingdom, or older dispensationalists used the word dispensation. But 
the Bible, I argued yesterday, is actually covenantally structured. 
The Old Testament is basically a covenantal document delivered 
by God through his servants, the prophets, including Moses, 
to the covenant people of God. God enacts a covenant with them 
in space and time in history prior to the writing of the Old 
Testament and then God, through the writers of the Old Testament, 
explains what he did in the Exodus for instance, at Mount Sinai 
for instance, which both happened historically prior to the writing 
of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 
Those are God's divine commentaries on God's divine acts in space 
and time on the earth. So he acts first and then he 
explains his acts. He acts, he interprets his acts 
through the writing of the prophets of the Old Testament. And that 
is all done in vital connection to the enactment of the Old or 
Mosaic Covenant. So stipulations are given, conditions 
are given, promises are given, and explained. And then the subsequent 
part of the Old Testament all depends upon Genesis, Exodus, 
Leviticus, and Deuteronomy as an explanation of the covenant 
God entered into with ancient Israel. And you'll read the prophets 
and they'll do at least two things. They'll act as God's prosecuting 
attorneys. They'll scold the people of God 
they'll point out the people of God's sins and the consequences 
of those sins, but they'll also hold out hope for the future, 
that God, who has done a great deed in the past by extending 
his almighty arm, figure of speech, his power by exerting divine 
power in saving his people from Egyptian bondage and enacting 
a covenant with them, taking them into the promised land. 
God is going to do something like that but even greater in 
the future through the servant of the Lord, the Messiah. So 
the Old Testament itself is a covenantal document. connected to the covenant 
people of God under the Older Mosaic Covenant. The New Testament's 
very similar. It's a covenant document, covenantal 
document, connected to the new covenant people of God. God acts 
in space and time on the earth, his greatest act ever, the incarnation, 
the sufferings and the glory of the Messiah. He comes, he 
assumes human nature, born of a woman, born under the law, 
nor that he might redeem those who are under the law, that we 
might receive the adoption as sons, He's resurrected from the 
dead as a reward for his obedience. He enters into glory and then 
he ascends into heaven. And then the New Testament is 
written after his ascension. The Gospels recount the great 
redemptive historical acts of God in the incarnation, life, 
and death, and resurrection of Christ. The Book of Acts is an 
explanation of what Jesus continued to do Immediately subsequent 
to his exaltation at the right hand of the Father, he continued 
to teach and do things on the earth through the proclamation 
of his word and through the ordained servants, primarily the apostles. 
And then the epistles explain the theological and practical 
implications of what God did in Christ, which is recorded 
for us in the Gospels, the epistles explain that and apply that to 
the New Covenant Church in the first century. So similar to 
the Old Testament, the New Testament is a covenantal document for 
the covenant people of God explaining and interpreting a divine explanation, 
a divine interpretation of that which God did for redemptive 
purposes in space and time on the earth. So that's the justification 
for a covenant theology. The two parts, major parts of 
our Bible are covenantally connected to these two great covenants 
and are also something else that 
I pointed out yesterday. They're also Christ-centered. 
The Old Testament predicts him who would come. The New Testament 
says that which they said would come or he who they said would 
come has come. So there's this two-fold element 
of studying the Bible. It's both covenantally structured 
and Christologically centered and so We try to put those two 
things together. So the study of covenant theology 
is, I think, justified by the structure of the Bible. But we're 
not going to understand the covenants properly unless we understand 
Christology as well. I tried to make that point yesterday. And then the third and final 
question that we covered was, what is the new covenant? Yesterday 
I said we're going to study covenant theology, historically speaking, 
backwards. We're going to start with a new 
covenant in the New Testament and then go backwards. And we 
started to do that by defining the new covenant and various 
things were said about that. The New Covenant was obviously 
promised in the Old Testament, the phrase New Covenant used 
once in the Old Testament, but the concept is in many, many 
passages in the Old Testament, especially in the prophets, Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, and elsewhere. The New Covenant promised in 
the Old Testament was inaugurated formally by the ministry of Christ, 
by the death of Christ, and we saw that in the New Testament. 
It is a covenant in which all the benefits, all the blessings, 
even the communion to be had with God are gifts. They're not 
conditions that we have to fulfill to obtain these benefits. These benefits were obtained 
by somebody else namely the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're given 
as gifts to us. The forgiveness of sins, the 
saving knowledge of God, the law written on our heart, the 
justification before God, adoption into God's family, even sanctification 
and obedience to God's law, and ultimately glorification. These 
are all part of those I wills that we looked at yesterday. 
God says many times in the prophets, I will do this, I will do that, 
I will do the other, and he's going to do this for everybody 
that's in this covenant. And so that the only condition, 
remember I said that yesterday, is faith. is believing the promises 
of God as offered in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And 
even faith itself, we learn elsewhere, is also a gift of God. So unlike the older Mosaic covenant 
and other covenants in the Old Testament, the conditions for 
entrance into this covenant are actually given by God and the 
benefits to be found or had and enjoyed in this covenant are 
actually gifts of God and not requirements of God. So it's 
holy of grace. And somebody asked yesterday, 
I guess I made a statement, once you're in you can't get out in 
the new covenant. And then they asked something 
about Old Testament believers. And I didn't say this yesterday 
publicly, but I said it privately. And Pastor Butler hit on it really 
quickly. He said, well, they were in the 
New Covenant. The Old Testament believers were in the New Covenant. 
Now, they weren't in the New Covenant in the sense that the 
New Covenant was formally inaugurated by the blood of Christ already. 
But the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins. The 
law could not make anyone perfect. So the benefits of the New Covenant 
that would be enacted were delivered to the souls of all the elect. 
of all time, there's only one way of salvation from beginning 
to end, it's always faith in the mediator. Either the mediator, 
the promised seed to come, or the one who has already come. So the New Covenant is God's 
one and only way and means through which sinful man comes into saving 
relationship with God, has communion with Him in an unbreakable covenant, 
because the conditions ultimately of that covenant were all met 
by the perfect, sinless representative of the elect, the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Now, this morning, I want to 
ask the fourth question. I don't think we'll get to the 
fifth. But the fourth question is this, why is the new covenant 
necessary? Why is the new covenant necessary? And I have six reasons. The first 
reason is this, because the old covenant, or Mosaic covenant, 
could not save of itself and was never designed to. The older 
Mosaic Covenant has an if you do this, then I will do this 
motif in it. All over the place. If you do 
this, I'll do this. We're told clearly in the book 
of Hebrews 7.19, the law made nothing perfect. Hebrews 10.4, 
it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to actually 
take away sins. Now, the blood of bulls and goats 
in the sacrificial system could typify, could point to something, 
some greater work of God that would actually do, take away 
sins, absolve God's wrath, exhaust God's justice, but they could 
not of themselves take away sin. So this older Mosaic covenant 
was a temporary covenant with national Israel. It could be 
broken and it was broken. It could become obsolete and 
as we read in Hebrews 8.7 and 8.13 it did become obsolete because 
that to which it pointed had come, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant pointed to the 
New through its typological sacrifices and its priesthood and their 
acts, but it was not the New Covenant and it did not save 
anyone. I didn't say nobody under the 
Old Covenant was saved. I said that the Old Covenant, 
in and of itself, you could obey it till you're dead. It didn't, 
in and of itself, have the means of justification, expiation of 
our sins, and glorification promised to it. Now, that's kind of radical, 
so let me lean on John Owen. John Owen is, I think, is now 
the Mount Everest in most people's minds, of all the Puritans. Not 
because he wrote the most, I don't know if he wrote the most of 
all the Puritans, but because of his known intellect at the 
time, and subsequent to that, all the published writings of 
Owens are, you know, it's massive, 23 volumes, big, fat, 3, 4, 5, 
600 pages. One of them's 800 pages, but 
it's large print. So not just because he wrote 
a lot, but because of the content. of his writings. He's known as 
the Mount Everest of the Puritans. There was a Scottish guy, and 
it wasn't a Scottish guy, it was a continental European scholar 
who said in the 18th century that Owen was so well respected 
that some of our divines, continental reformed divines, German, Dutch, 
whoever they were, learn the English language in order that 
they might read Dr. Owen. Here's what he said. This 
covenant, old Mosaic or Sinai covenant, thus made, did never 
save nor condemn any man eternally. All that lived under the administration 
of it did attain eternal life or perish forever, but not by 
virtue of this covenant as formerly such. It did, indeed, Revive 
the commanding power and sanction of the first covenant of works. 
Do this and live. That is a principle that is in 
the older Mosaic covenant, but it predates the older Mosaic 
covenant. It goes all the way back to the 
Garden of Eden, which we'll look at in a minute. Second Corinthian, 
excuse me. And therein, as the Apostle speaks, 
this Older Mosaic Covenant was the ministry of condemnation, 
because it reminded the people of the requirement of perfect, 
perpetual obedience to the law of God, in order that you might 
attain to inviolable, unbreakable communion with God, a principle 
that was first revealed to man in the Garden of Eden. The Older 
Mosaic Covenant reminded the people of God of that very thing. 
And as sinners, They could not meet up to that standard or that 
requirement. So it was in that way, it was 
a ministry of condemnation. For by the deeds of the law, 
no flesh will be justified. Sinful flesh is what he's talking 
about here. And on the other hand, it directed 
also under the promise. So he says, the older Mosaic 
covenant has echoes of Eden in it. You can hear the principle 
of works righteousness by a sinless representative of others, by 
the way. to attain unto life. You can hear that in the Mosaic 
Covenant. But since they're sinful, they're not like Adam when he 
was created, but they're in Adam. But since they're sinful, they 
can't fulfill the requirements. But the Mosaic Covenant reminded 
the people of God of that principle. If you're going to get to glory, 
you've got to provide righteousness perfectly. So even though it 
reminded them of that, it also reminded them of something else. 
He says, on the other hand, it directed also unto the promise. This would be the promise of 
salvation. And where is the promise of salvation first revealed? 
Anybody that was there yesterday or anybody, you want to guess. 
If you're wrong, Genesis 3.15. You're right, so that's good. 
If you're wrong, I was going to lop your head off. No. I was 
going to email Pastor Butler up tomorrow. Hey, that brother 
or that sister. They need work. We all need work, 
don't we? Some of us more than others. The promise predates, just like 
the curse. for law-breaking predates the 
old covenant. The promise of salvation predates 
the old covenant as well. So here's what Owen's doing. 
He says, this covenant did direct also unto the promise, which 
was the instrument of life and salvation unto all that did believe, 
but as unto what it had of its own. It was confined unto things 
temporal. Believers were saved under it, 
but not by virtue of it. sinners perished eternally under 
it but by the curse of the original law of work." So this older mosaic 
Sinai Covenant promised temporal blessings in the land of promise 
for Old Covenant Israel. Blessings like long life, rain, 
fruitful crops, but it did not in and of itself affect the justification 
or adoption or sanctification or glorification to the Israelites 
upon condition of their obedience. It did not deliver that. It pointed 
to that through its sacrificial system, priestly offerings, and 
other things, but it didn't in and of itself effect those things. Now this is one reason why the 
New Covenant is called a better covenant, because the New Covenant 
does deliver those redemptive blessings to the souls of all 
its members. But that's not true of the Old 
Covenant. So, the necessity of the New Covenant, first of all, 
is due to the nature and temporary nature of the Old or Mosaic Covenant. But the necessity of the new 
covenant predates the old covenant with ancient Israel. Here's my 
second reason for the necessity of the new covenant. Because 
the Abrahamic covenant only promised Christ. You know, there's those 
massive texts in Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 22. Next 
time you read Genesis, Note that the first 11 chapters 
covers a lot of historical ground, and there's a lot of people there, 
genealogies and all sorts of things. And then at Genesis 12, 
it stops. And Genesis 12 through 50, Abraham, 
Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. And those promises originally 
given to Abraham about him having a seed and a land and the blessing 
to the nations of the world are not only stated in Genesis 12, 
15, 18, and 22, but as you subsequently read the entire Old Testament, 
you'll even hear the later prophets going all the way back there. 
There's something very important about what happened through Abraham. 
Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant and promises, promised that there 
would be a seed coming from Abraham that would be a blessing to the 
nations. Christ was promised in the Abrahamic 
covenant, but Christ was not presented to the world in it, 
okay? The Abrahamic promises and covenant 
looks forward to Christ, the seed of Abraham, but does not 
present the Messiah to us. It paved the way for the Messiah. For instance, Paul in Galatians 
says this, Now the promises were spoken 
to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, and to seeds, 
as referring to many, but rather to one and to your seed, that 
is, Christ. So this is a, the Abrahamic covenant 
is a promise of Christ to come. Christ is going to come. That 
promise given in many places in the Old Testament, but in 
our present concern through the Abrahamic promises or Abrahamic 
covenant. So that Messiah has the way paid 
for him through this promise. This promise also to Abraham 
created a nation through which the Messiah would come, but the 
Abrahamic covenant is not in and of itself the new covenant. 
It's not the covenant of grace. It serves the covenant of salvation 
or grace or redemption. It serves the new covenant and 
points to it, but it is not in and of itself it. Everything 
prior to the new covenant is preparatory and anticipatory. Pointing to, tending toward. The third reason for the New 
Covenant is because the first promise of a mediator in Genesis 
3.15 pointed to the New Covenant and the person and work of Christ, 
but like the Abrahamic promises or covenant, did not present 
Christ. Why do we need the New Covenant? 
Well, because in Genesis 3.15, by the way, we should read the 
text. You probably know it well. You 
remember God created all things, created the apex of creation, 
the Mount Everest of creation, man in the image of God, male 
and female, he created them. And Adam is created outside of 
a garden, put in the Garden of Eden, told to till the ground 
to work it, using priestly language that's used after that for priests 
in a temple. The language in Genesis 2 of 
Adam's responsibility in the Garden of Eden, which is the 
first special dwelling place of God on the earth among men. 
It's the first earthly sanctuary. It's the first temple. Ezekiel 
28 calls it a high mountain of God, a sanctuary. God is specially 
present with man, Adam, in the Garden of Eden, Adam's God's 
son, Luke 3.38. Adam is a priest, Adam is a prophet, 
he speaks to other men on behalf of God. God gave him this requirement 
to subdue the earth and fill it and be fruitful and multiply. 
The implication is that Adam would have spoke that to others, 
he would have been a prophet. He would have represented God. 
He would have spoke to others. He was also a king. Rule the 
earth. Isaiah tells us that God, the 
Lord, created the earth to be inhabited. Have you ever had 
this view that God made Adam, put him in a garden, the most 
sanctified, the most holy vocation on the earth is gardening because 
Adam was put in a garden. I actually had a guy tell me 
that. Pastor, shouldn't we all be gardeners? 
We really want to get back to the garden. Now, here's a radical 
statement. I don't want to go back to the 
garden, do you? You know why? Because the garden, 
as wonderful as it was, was a state in which man existed in communion 
with God, where that communion could be lost. through his sin. And that's exactly what happened. 
The first prophet, priest, and king sinned, violated God's, 
we'll see later, covenant, and was exiled, was kicked out of 
the house of God. That's the first church discipline 
there. He was kicked out of the special dwelling place of God 
on the earth, which was the garden. And what he was supposed to do 
was extend that culture of image bearers in communion with God 
all throughout the earth through his seed. He was supposed to, 
in other words, he was supposed to make out of the earth, the 
entire earth, the special dwelling place of God among men all over 
the earth. If you read the last two chapters 
of the Bible, that's what happens. But you know who brings us to 
that point? It's not Adam the first, it's Adam the last. So, 
the New Covenant is necessary due to this promise of a mediator 
in Genesis 3.15, which points ultimately to the New Covenant 
and the person and work of Christ, but it doesn't present Christ. 
It's a promise. It says, in the future, He's 
going to come. In the presence of Adam and Eve 
who had just sinned, and prior to speaking to them, In Genesis 
3.15, God is actually speaking to the serpent. He announces 
the doom of the devil through a skull-crushing seed of the 
woman. So this skull-crusher, this devil-conquering 
seed of the woman is going to come from a woman. It's going 
to be a man. There's the incarnation, at least 
implicitly. Nehemiah Cox again. says this, 
for in the sentence passed on the serpent there was couched 
a blessed promise of redemption and salvation to man. This was 
to be worked out by the Son of God made of a woman, there's 
Paul Galatians 4, 4, and 5, and so her seed and man was to receive 
the promised salvation by faith and a hope in it. When John Owen 
says that the older Mosaic Covenant pointed to or remembered the 
promise. This is the promise that he's 
talking about. This is the first promise of redemption. I have 
read articles where, on the one hand, great scholars deny that 
there's any promise of redemption here. How could they know it? 
And then you read other articles of scholars that have studied 
the concept of skull crushing and the demolition of the devil 
throughout the entirety of the Bible, and their conclusion is 
what Nehemiah Cox said, and historically Protestants have said, and certainly 
Reformed theologians have said, this is the first promise of 
the gospel. Of course the word gospel is 
not used, but you have a lot of things here. You have a woman 
giving birth to a to a male seed who would demolish the devil. There's the incarnation. There's 
the humanity of Christ. There's 1st John 3.8, the Son 
of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil. There's the 
divine interpretation of the incarnation through the Apostle 
John in 1st John 3.8. I think he's going all the way 
back to Genesis 3.15. This was to be worked out by the Son of 
God, made of a woman, and sow her seed. And man was to receive 
the promised salvation by faith and hope in it, in this implied 
promise. was laid the first foundation 
of the church after the fall of man, which was to be raised 
up out of the ruins of the devil's kingdom by the destruction of 
his work by Jesus Christ." And he references 1 John 3.8. So 
the new covenant is necessary due to the promise of redemption 
through the seed of the woman in Genesis 3.15. And then others 
have argued, and I think rightly, that this was a promise to be 
believed. Okay, so it was through the means 
of faith in this promise and its ultimate fulfillment that 
all believers, from the giving of this promise all the way to 
the end until Christ comes, it is the means of faith in this 
promise, whatever it looks like later developed in the Bible, 
it was through the means of faith that one obtained the salvation 
that would come through this promise. Salvation has always 
been by grace alone, through faith alone, in either the promised 
one Genesis 315, or the fulfillment of that promise, the Lord Jesus 
Christ, who was born of a woman born under the law. So a fourth 
reason why the new covenant is necessary is because Paul teaches 
that what Christ did for us has something to do with what Adam 
failed to do. Paul teaches us that What Christ 
did for us, bringing the blessings of the new covenant to us, has 
something to do with what Adam failed to do. So the first reason 
for the... New Covenant was because of the 
nature of the Old Covenant. The second was, though promised 
by the Abrahamic Covenant, Christ wasn't delivered by it. The third 
was, the first promise of redemption has to do with the incarnation 
of the Son of God and the demolition of the devil. That's only a promise, 
that doesn't actually affect it. It's going to be affected 
in the future, that's just the promise of it. Now the fourth 
reason, going back even farther, is because Paul teaches us that 
what Christ did for us in the New Covenant has something to 
do with what Adam failed to do. I'm sorry, I should have been 
going this way because we're going backwards. Romans 5, a 
classic passage on Adam and Christ, very important to understand 
the the relationship and the antitheses between Adam and Christ. Romans 5.12, I'm not going to 
read the whole passage, but just as through one man sin entered 
the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men 
because all sinned for until the law sin was in the world, 
but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, 
death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had 
not sinned in the likeness of the offensive Adam, who was a 
type of him who was to come. but the free gift is not like 
the transgression for if by the transgression of Adam of the 
one many the many died much more by the grace of God and the gift 
by and and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound 
to the many the gift is not like that which came to the one who 
sinned Adam for one For on the one hand, the judgment arose 
from one transgression, resulting in condemnation. But on the other 
hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions, resulting 
in justification. For if by the transgression of 
the one death reigned through the one, much more those who 
receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, 
law-keeping, will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Note that Adam was a type of 
him who was to come, that is Christ, Romans 514, right at 
the end there. In the likeness of the offensive 
Adam, who is, that is, Adam is a type of him who was to come. Now how was Adam a type of Christ? Did Adam become a type of Christ 
when Paul wrote this letter? Suddenly Adam's a type of Christ. 
Why? Because the Apostle says he was. Or does Adam's typological 
function predate the writing of the Book of Romans? I think 
it predates. And since I have both of your pastors doing this, 
if you disagree, they're going to come down heavy on you. I 
don't think Christ became a type simply because Paul calls him 
a type. I think he was already a type. 
He was stationed in the Garden of Eden as a type. Well, how 
was he a type? Well, like Jesus, Adam was God's 
son. Luke 3.38, that long genealogy, 
at the end of the genealogy, it says, Adam, the son of God. So Adam was the first son of 
God on the earth, and the Lord Jesus comes on the scene, the 
son of God appeared. Okay, there's the quintessential 
and eternal son of God. But like Jesus also, Adam was 
a public person who represented others. Adam was a federal or 
covenant head in the garden representing all others. Jesus comes on the 
scene, same thing, in Adam all die, in Christ all shall be made 
alive. So both were sons and yet of 
course Christ's sonship is different in many senses and much more 
glorious than Adam's. And like Jesus, Adam was a public 
person. So like Jesus, Adam was also 
required to obey God's law. How was Adam a type? He was a 
son. He was a public person who represented others. He was required 
to obey God's law. In the fullness of time, God 
sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. So the eternal 
son assumes human nature and human duties. He's born of a 
woman, human nature, body, and soul. He assumes human nature, 
human duties, born under the law. In order that, he might 
redeem those who are under the law. So Jesus was, like Adam, 
was God's son. public person who represented 
others, required to obey God's law, but Adam, as we know, failed. Adam sinned. Adam transgressed 
God's law, which is what sin is, 1 John 3, 4. Adam brings 
condemnation upon us all. Adam disobeyed and brought judgment 
and condemnation upon all. Christ obeyed and brings justification 
to all. Christ's obedience becomes the 
grounds upon which we, or sinners, can be pronounced as law-keepers 
before God. In 1 Corinthians 15-22, I think 
I already said that, in Adam all die, in Christ all should 
be made alive. So the necessity for the New 
Covenant in Christ's blood is born out of Adam's sin in the 
Garden of Eden. But fifth, The fifth reason for 
the new covenant is because Adam, our representative, broke a covenant 
that God had placed him under in the Garden of Eden. And most of you probably know 
this is called by theologians a covenant of works, covenant 
of nature, covenant of obedience. Now turn over to Isaiah 24, because 
there's an interesting passage here, and I've been mentioning 
this several times, yesterday especially, but Isaiah chapter 
24, 5 and 6. This is interesting because, 
you know, Isaiah is toward the end of our Old Testament. Isaiah 
is a prophet, certainly lived after Moses and Joshua and David 
and many others. And Isaiah has all this, has 
the Pentateuch. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, 
and Deuteronomy, and various other portions of what we have 
in one book called the Old Testament. He has that as written revelation 
from God already. So he's assuming all that. and 
as a prophet, writing prophet, he's under the inspiration of 
the Holy Spirit, he's bringing the Word of God to the people 
of God, and he has all this theology, it's already been revealed, that 
he presupposes, and he oftentimes uses it in his writings. Listen to Isaiah chapter 24, 
verses 5 and 6. The earth is also polluted by 
its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke 
the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the 
earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, 
the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left." 
The curse, which extends to the earth, came about due to a violated 
covenant. Isaiah tells us. Since the earth 
was cursed, when was the earth first cursed? Thank you. Since the earth was 
cursed due to Adam's sin as our representative, Adam broke covenant 
as our representative with God in the Garden of Eden. You can 
turn over to Hosea chapter 6 verse 7 as well. There's another prophet 
who assumes the theology that's already revealed. Look what he 
does in connecting Israel's covenant breaking with Adam. Hosea 6-7 
says this, but like Adam, they have transgressed the covenant. There, the place they transgressed 
the covenant, they have dealt treacherously against me. Now I know there's a lot of debate 
about the translation and all that stuff, but I think the best 
understanding of this is that both Adam and Israel broke a 
covenant imposed upon them by God. Israel is likened unto Adam 
as a covenant breaker. Therefore, Adam must have been 
in covenant with God and he violated the covenant. Both covenants 
were conditional, requiring the obedience of those in the covenant 
to enjoy the benefits of the covenant. And it's also interesting 
to note that according to Exodus 422, Israel was God's son and 
firstborn. I think I mentioned that yesterday. 
And in Luke 3.38, Adam is called God's son. And both God's primal 
son, Adam, and God's national son, Israel, were brought into 
covenant by God, imposed upon them, put in a place, put under 
his law, and required to obey to secure, maintain and secure 
benefits. in the covenants, respective 
covenants, that God put them in. Who else, by the way, in 
the Bible is called both God's son and God's firstborn? The Lord Jesus, right? You know 
at the end of Luke, the genealogy in Luke, remember I already mentioned 
that? Adam, the son of God. Luke chapter 4 is about the temptations 
in the wilderness. Now, you didn't preach those 
the wrong way when you went through Matthew, did you? Hopefully not. Did you beat the people over 
the head for not memorizing Scripture and being able to fight the devil 
off by quoting Scripture whenever he tempts you? You didn't do 
that? I think there's a side, I think there is, but I don't 
think that's what Matthew and Luke had in mind here. Here we 
have the Son of God, okay, the firstborn, coming onto the earth 
and being driven out by the Spirit of God to the wilderness to be 
tempted. This is not just merely our example. What a great example of fighting 
the devil off Jesus was. He quoted the Bible. He used 
the Navigator's press cards. He had whatever, you know, whatever 
memory system somebody might be using. That's not why they 
wrote that. What they wrote that for was 
us to marvel at the hero of redemption conquering the devil and not 
being like the national son and firstborn of God, Israel, out 
in the wilderness sinning. This one gets driven out into 
the wilderness, unlike the first Son of God, the first individual 
Son of God, the first sinless Son of God, who was Adam. He 
was placed in a nice, wonderful environment, and yet he succumbed 
to the temptations of the devil. Now the Son of God, the quintessential 
Son of God, the eternal Son of God, is driven out by the Spirit 
of God to be tempted for 40 days. You ever heard of 40 days and 
40 years and all that stuff? I think there's some typology 
in the Old Testament that was pointing toward this. This Son 
of God, this firstborn is gonna conquer the evil one on behalf 
of others. And I think that's what he's 
doing there in Matthew chapter 4, Luke chapter 4. It's the Son 
of God who assumed human nature in order that he might destroy 
the works of the devil. So Adam, as our representative, 
broke the covenant God placed him under. Isaiah sees the curse 
of the earth coming due to a violated covenant. The curse was pronounced. upon the earth through the sin 
of the first sinless Son of God on the earth, Adam. Adam violated 
covenant just like Israel. Israel, like Adam, broke the 
covenant. They dealt treacherously with 
God. Adam was under a covenant. Also, 
if you read Genesis chapter 1, the word for God is Elohim, Elohim, 
Elohim, Elohim. If you read Genesis chapter 2 
beginning at verse 4, the writer Moses says, Lord God, Lord God, 
Lord God, Yahweh Elohim, covenant name of God, Yahweh. So it looks 
to me like an old Jewish reader back then would have known the 
change from just Elohim to Yahweh, covenant keeping God, Elohim. which implies this, that there's 
some sort of covenantal relationship between God and Adam that's being 
depicted by Moses, I think, by the change from just Elohim to 
Elohim Yahweh or Yahweh Elohim. So I think that indicates a covenantal 
status of man at creation. Also man's relationship with 
God is dependent upon his obedience You want the benefits of this 
covenant sovereignly dispensed, conceived and dispensed and given 
by God to man? You want the benefits? Here's 
the condition, obedience. He didn't meet the condition, 
he didn't get the benefits. Christ comes, meets the conditions, 
we get all the benefits. These factors, I think, taken 
together, argue that God brought Adam into a covenant relationship 
with him at his creation. Adam's covenantal relationship 
with God or his communion with God as a sinless image-bearer 
depended on obedience to God's law. This is why they call this 
the covenant of works or the covenant of obedience. And works is just a synonym for, 
in this context, for obedience. But Adam sinned. Adam failed 
to uphold the requirements of the covenant of works or creation. We read that in Genesis chapter 
3. All have sinned and fall short 
of the glory of God. Sin brings about the falling short 
of the glory of God. What does that mean? That if 
Adam didn't sin, he'd become glorious like God? He would assume 
God would communicate eternal, divine attributes? and Adam would become God? All 
of sin would fall short of the glory of God. Who was the first 
sinner? It was Adam. Therefore, Adam fell short of 
the glory of God. Did Jesus sin? No. Was he a sinless image-bearer? Yes. Adam was a sinless image-bearer 
who fell short of something. The glory of God. Jesus was a 
sinless image-bearer who suffered because Adam fell short of something. 
And then what did Jesus do upon his sufferings? He entered into 
his glory. Does that mean his divine glory? 
He became God again? Remember, in the Incarnation, 
He became what He was not, never ceasing to be what He ever was 
and ever shall be, namely, the Eternal Son of God. So when it 
says that He suffered, that's because of Adam's sin, and Jesus 
is a representative of others. He's representing us. He's obeying 
the law of God, even by taking the sanctions upon Himself and 
exhausting divine wrath. But when it says he entered into 
glory, what does that mean? Adam was the first sinner and 
fell short of the glory of God. Jesus became one of us, didn't 
sin, and entered into his glory. I think what Paul's talking about 
there is that the human nature of Christ entered into a glorious 
status. I think not only the body of 
Christ, but the human soul of Christ was exalted to a position 
it was not in the state of humiliation between the incarnation and the 
resurrection. Human nature was brought to a 
point that Adam did not attain to. Adam fell short of bringing 
human nature to an inviolable status of relationship and communion 
with God, where he couldn't fall out of it. That's what Jesus 
takes us to. That's the glory that I think 
he's talking about. As a matter of fact, if you turn 
over to 2 Thessalonians, you'll get another divine commentary 
on this. 2 Thessalonians happens to be 
the Apostle Paul. who, by the way, is the theologian, 
besides Jesus, of the New Testament, in explaining the redemptive 
historical acts of God in Christ, in the humiliation, in the sufferings, 
and in the exaltation of Christ. Paul, like nobody other, explains 
the implications of that. But listen, in verse 14 of 2 
Thessalonians chapter 2, it was for this He, God, called you 
through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. Now I don't think that means 
that you may gain divine glory, divine attributes. You're going 
to become God. I think it means the humanity 
of Christ was glorified upon His resurrection and that place 
that Christ took human nature in his own person is the same 
place or same status that all who are in Christ are going to 
get ultimately when our bodies are transformed. we're going 
to gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2.10, He's 
bringing many sons to glory. That's why I said before, I don't 
want to go back to the garden. Salvation doesn't put us back 
at the starting point where Adam and Eve were. Adam fell short 
of something that was preferred or put out there before him. 
If Adam would have, as a sinless image bearer of God, produced 
seed through his wife, shared the Genesis 128 commission to 
subdue the earth as sinless. image-bearers. If Adam would 
have obeyed that, assuming he would have, and the earth would 
have been populated with sinless image-bearers, there would have 
been a time when it was finished. The earth would have been full 
of the glory of God, and God would have been in communion 
with these sinless image-bearers, but still Adam wouldn't have 
entered into glory yet. Adam could have still fallen 
short. Adam could have at any time still 
sinned So what God put out there for him was what Christ ultimately 
attains for us. Namely, through obedience, get 
through this probationary period, and you'll arrive at a point 
where I will glorify you. That happened to Christ on our 
behalf. That's going to happen to the rest of us. In part, now, 
we get our souls, we get forgiveness of sins, and we get new life. But at the resurrection, we become 
like We don't become like the first Adam, we become like the 
last Adam. We don't become like the first 
Adam was in his incarnation, we become like the last Adam 
as he was at the incarnation. We become like the last Adam 
as he was when he entered into glory. Jesus did not sin, did not fall 
short of the glory of God, and if you're in Christ, He's taken 
you to glory with Him. That's why He came. He came. 
He came to take many sons to glory. And what is glory? It's 
the earth, heavens and the earth, with sinless image bearers all 
over the earth in communion with God in an unbreakable relationship. So the end is better than the 
beginning. And the end is that to which 
the beginning pointed to, and Adam could have taken us to that 
point, but he sinned. So you see how Christ, as the 
antitype or fulfillment of Adam, is much greater, isn't he, than 
the first Adam. The failure and then the conqueror. The sinner and the righteous 
one. the one who sinned and fell short 
of the glory of God, and the one who not only entered into 
glory himself, but will bring many sons to glory. So the covenant with Adam required 
sinless obedience that would have issued in Adam's glorification 
along with the inability to sin and die. And Christ is the only 
other possible sinless candidate to bring us to God. And that 
is exactly what he does. He does not sin. He enters into 
glory and he brings others with him. A sixth and final reason 
for the new covenant is this, because this was God's plan from 
before the foundation of the world. Now, Pastor Butler preached 
on the Covenant of Redemption recently, so I won't go to all 
the texts. But I'll assume that you do know 
your Bibles well enough that, you know, he chose us in him 
before the foundation of the world. There's this plan of redemption 
that ends up finding as its apex on the earth the work of Christ 
and the inauguration of the new covenant and all this. All that's 
in the mind of God prior to the creation of all things. Salvation 
is due to God's purpose and grace granted us in Christ Jesus from 
all eternity." 2 Peter 1.9. Eternal life was promised before 
times eternal. Titus 1.2. And turn over to Hebrews 
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 verses 4 through 
7. This is a wonderful passage. 
It is impossible, verse 4, for the blood of bulls and goats 
to take away sins. Therefore, When He, the Son, 
comes into the world, He says... So here's the Son becoming incarnate, 
and at some point, here's what He says. He says this, "...sacrifice 
and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared 
for Me." In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sins you have 
taken, no pleasure then, I said, behold, I have come in the scroll 
of the book it was written of me to do your will, O God." Isn't 
that an interesting verse, verse 7? Here's John Owen's view of 
verse 7. When it says, in the scroll of 
the book it is written for me, he kind of translates that word, 
in the scroll of the book, in the head of the book, in the 
beginning of the book. Genesis 3.15, it is written of 
me. You can study that out if you 
like. After saying above sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt 
offerings and sacrifices for sin you have not desired nor 
have you taken pleasure in them which are offered according to 
the law. Now, when the Son of God came 
into the world, he realized that his father had prepared a body 
for him for the purpose of obedience to his father in giving himself 
up as a sacrifice for sin in order to establish the new covenant, 
Hebrews 10, 9. And then he said, behold, I have 
come to do your will. He takes away the first in order 
to establish The second, what Jesus did for us was planned 
by God from before the foundation of the world. When the Son assumes 
human nature, He knows that that body was prepared for Him by 
His Father. How did He know that? Because 
of the counsel of redemption before the world began. So those are the six reasons 
for the necessity of the New Covenant. The incarnation itself 
was necessary so Christ could live and die as one of us. This 
was God's plan before the foundation. of the world. And the new covenant 
is the last stage in the drama of God's purpose to save sinners 
and bring them as his sons to glory. The tap roots of all this 
is the eternal purpose of God. And its necessity is due to Adam's 
sin as our covenant head. Its first revelation came in 
the Garden of Eden in the form of a curse upon the devil. It 
is revealed in farther steps to Abraham and through the types 
of Christ in the Mosaic Covenant and other places in the Old Testament. 
It is given further specification in the covenant with David, but 
it's all finally realized in the person and work of our Lord 
Jesus Christ recorded for us in the New Testament. That's 
why when you read the Gospel of John, for instance, when John 
says, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of 
the world, that word behold is pretty strong. It's like maybe 
in the vernacular. Stop! Check this out. This is very important. Okay? It's not like, huh, the little 
lamb of God takes away the sins of the world. No, for John to 
say that, John is starting to put things together in his mind. 
He's drawing conclusions. It's basically, this is it. He is here, the hero of redemption. Not just the example for Christian 
ethics, okay? Which he is. Follow me as I follow 
Christ. But even more so, the last Adam 
is here, the devil conquering seed of the woman here, is here, 
David's great, David's greater son is here. The king of both 
creation, providence, and redemption, he has arrived. God has clothed 
himself in human nature, assumed a body, lived and suffered, died 
a horrible death. And what was the most horrible 
aspect of his death? The deepest stroke that pierced 
him was the stroke that justice gave, exhausting the wrath of 
God on the cross. That's what I think he means 
when he says, it is finished. Damnation has been exhausted. And then God highly exalts him. enters into glory. He attained through obedience 
that which Adam failed to attain. Well, there's a fifth question, 
but I just looked up and we're over time. So I hope that was 
helpful. For some of you, you might be 
going, how many times is he preaching today? It is great to be here. Let's 
pray. Take our break. Father, we thank you for the 
Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the scriptures, 
the written word of God. We thank you for what you have 
done throughout history and creation and providence and great redemptive 
acts and especially in the incarnation. the sufferings, the glory of 
Christ. We thank you for the written record that explains 
all this for us in the Bible and pray that this little exercise 
this morning might help nudge people along in better knowing 
Christ, who he is, his person, his work, what he's taking us 
to, why it's all necessary, and be able to praise better and 
speak on his behalf to those who don't know him. We pray in 
Jesus' name.