So, you can please turn in your Bible to Genesis chapter 3.
All the way back at the beginning, Genesis chapter 3.
We're beginning this semester a series on covenant theology.
So, it's an approach to understanding and interpreting the Bible
that focuses on how God has made a relationship or a covenant with people.
The divine covenants throughout the scriptures.
The first covenant that we're looking at, it's how we received it in God's word.
It's how the story is told in Genesis 1, 2, and 3.
And over time, the church has come to call it the covenant of works with our first king, Adam.
So, last week was part one on the covenant of works.
This week is part two.
Our sermon text today begins with Genesis chapter 3, verse 6.
I'll try to call out where we're reading next,
and we'll catch the key verses through these chapters.
As I read this, remember that this is God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, clear, and sufficient word.
It's God's very own word for you and me, His people.
So, after we've heard God's word, let's respond with the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
All right, Genesis chapter 3, verse 6.
Verse 7.
Now look at verse 17.
To Adam, God said,
Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you,
you shall not eat of it.
Cursed is the ground because of you.
In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you,
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground.
For out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Look at verse 23 next.
Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that returned,
I'm sorry, a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis chapter 4 verse 1.
Now Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying,
I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.
And again she bore his brother Abel.
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.
In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,
and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.
And the Lord had regard for Abel in his offering, but for Cain in his offering he had no regard.
So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
The Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry?
Why is your face fallen?
If you do well, will not you be accepted?
If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.
Cain spoke to Abel his brother, and when they were in the field,
Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother?
He said, I do not know.
Am I my brother's keeper?
And the Lord said, What have you done?
The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground,
and you are now cursed from the ground,
which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength.
You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.
Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground,
and from your face I shall be hidden.
I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth,
and whoever finds me will kill me.
Then the Lord said to him, Not so.
If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.
And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord
and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
You may be seated.
The Bible says that the grass withers and the flower fades,
but the word of the Lord endures forever.
Let's pray.
O Lord, your word is effectual.
When your word goes forth, what you declare happens.
You spoke this world into existence,
and your word goes forth and it regenerates.
It does not return to you void, but it does prosper in your purpose.
May your word go forth today, Lord, for your glory.
May all who have an ear to hear from their creator hear your word clearly.
Please guard my lips,
and may your Holy Spirit press into the souls of each one today your truth.
We ask this in Jesus' name and for your glory alone.
Amen.
Well, some call winter restlessness cabin fever,
but it doesn't get better.
We get to the spring and then we complain about spring fever.
Mark Twain pointed something out about the human soul that's insightful.
He says, when you've got it, you want, oh, you don't know quite what you want.
You do know you want something,
and it just fairly makes your heart ache that you want it so badly.
That's what it is.
It's a restless heart.
We saw last time how the Lord God created this world.
He said it was very good, and then the Lord rested.
So the Lord rests.
He sits enthroned over his creation,
but yet we, his creatures, even though we were made good,
we are so restless.
Why is that?
I feel like today the purpose is really to answer that question.
We are in a broken curse.
You know, the covenant with Adam was a tripwire,
and all of the effects are still at play
on those born into this fallen, broken world.
We were created to share in God's rest,
but we know that we don't have that fully yet,
and we desire that, don't we?
Some days we desire that more than anything else.
So one way to describe this restless state
that all the world is in
is that we are east of Eden.
We saw last week how the garden was the temple,
presence of the Lord.
Did you pick up on that phrase that was repeated twice
in our sermon text today?
Look at chapter 3, verse 24.
Therefore, God drove out the man
east of the garden of Eden.
And then look again at the very end of our sermon text,
chapter 4, verse 16.
The next generation,
Cain went away from the presence of the Lord,
and he settled in the land.
What direction?
East of Eden.
So in Hebrew narrative,
when we get a phrase like that repeated,
it bookends a passage.
That's why our sermon text is a bit longer,
because it all goes together.
We're supposed to pick up on that clue.
That means something.
And as God's word unfolds,
we know that the temple
was to face a certain direction,
the same direction as the tabernacle.
What direction does the door of the temple face?
It faced east.
So to the extent that the garden of Eden
was a prototypical dwelling presence of God,
it's facing east,
and man is being driven out of that holy presence of God.
So as we walk through that,
I want to try to answer for you
Covenant of Works Part 2,
what are we born into?
You were born into a world
that's east of Eden,
and it affects everything.
Number one,
God's holy presence filled Eden,
leaving no room for sin.
God's holy presence filled Eden,
leaving no room for sin.
Eden was a garden temple,
but when Adam and Eve sinned,
it changed their relationship
and their standing
and even their inner being.
So first,
sin makes you feel exposed
before the holy God.
Take a look again at chapter 3, verse 6.
They ate.
Verse 7 then says,
their eyes were opened.
They knew that they were naked.
That's because sin makes you feel exposed
before the all-knowing,
omniscient God.
And then what comes next?
Well,
feeling exposed,
man works to cover himself up.
They sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves loincloths.
They get to work.
We got to make this right.
Sinful man tries to then hide himself from God,
but notice where they're trying to hide.
They're trying to hide within God's own temple.
It's in Eden.
Look at verse 8.
They heard the sound of the Lord God,
and where was the Lord God walking,
so to speak?
He was walking in the garden
in the cool of the day.
The man and his wife hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord God,
and where did they try to hide?
Among the trees of the garden.
They're still inside Eden.
Now that word,
the cool of the day,
the word is ruach,
and that means wind,
spirit,
or breath.
Literally,
verse 8 is translated this way,
Yahweh Elohim
walking
in the wind,
the spirit
of the day.
So here's the temple presence of God
in the garden of Eden,
and here comes the great wind
that they hear.
It's rustling the leaves and the grass.
And this represents the presence of God
filling up his temple,
leaving no room for their sin.
That same word is used
associated with new creation.
Remember at the very beginning,
the spirit of God hovered.
There's the picture like a great eagle
hovering its wings,
the flapping in the wind,
hovering over the waters of the deep.
And then we're told later
in Genesis chapter 8,
after the world had been destroyed,
a ruach,
a wind,
spirit,
breath,
blows away the waters
of the flood.
And this allows them
the dove of peace
to settle
and bring back
life to show
there's going to be
a new beginning for mankind.
We can go all the way
to the new covenant.
Remember in Acts 2,
there's a wind,
a ruach,
that fills up
the early church.
And the spirit of God
says,
these people
are my temple.
I dwell with them.
And Adam
gives a priest's report
of what he experienced
in verse 10.
Look at that.
He said,
I heard the sound
of you,
God,
in the garden.
And what effect
did it have on Adam?
I was afraid.
Why?
Because I was naked.
What did you do?
I hid myself
anywhere I could,
even within the temple,
garden of Eden.
Do you see the curses
of this broken covenant
of works
changing
these humans,
these image bearers?
man is afraid.
Man feels naked.
He's working
himself
to cover up
his own shame.
And he feels like
he's got to
get out of here
and hide somehow,
somewhere,
from this glory
presence
of God.
Well,
east of Eden,
God still makes
the weight
of his glory
known.
Without God,
we know
we are lost.
we know
we need to hide
when we encounter
him,
the sacred creator,
without a mediator
to stand between us.
We can look at
our own lives,
our own past,
and many buildings
that call themselves
churches of all
different,
you know,
sects that are
working to make
things right
for themselves
with God.
It's a religion
based on man's
work,
man trying to
cover up
the shame
of sin.
2 Corinthians
4.17
says that this
light,
momentary
affliction
that Christians
in this world
east of Eden
experienced,
it prepares us
for an eternal
weight of glory
beyond all
comparison.
sin.
This first point
is that God's
holy presence
filled Eden,
leaving no room
for sin.
The best
illustration I've
ever heard
is from
Newton's first
law of motion.
To paraphrase it,
it says that a
greater external
force will move
in to set
lesser things
in motion.
So let's
try to
visualize this.
If we had a
big cylinder
right here
full of water,
let's put
something of
lesser weight
in there.
Let's put
petals,
flower petals
in there.
And then we
took something
a little bit
heavier like
raisins.
We dropped
raisins in.
As that
raisin goes
down,
you'd be able
to see those
petals being
put in motion
because the
raisin is a
little bit
more weighty
and it sets
those lesser
things in motion.
Now picture
a great boulder,
rock of ages,
cleft for me
dropped in here.
That rock,
the weight of
God's glory,
as it pushes
down,
it sets
everything into
upheaval and
into motion.
And then when
it's settling,
it's the
weightiest thing
upon which
everything else
will find its
rest.
So here's the
temple,
Garden of Eden.
And as the
glory presence
of God moves
in,
Adam and Eve
are like those
petals and those
raisins set in
motion trying to
cover themselves
and hide
wherever they
can,
the weight
of God's
glory so
fills His
dwelling place
that there's no
room for sin.
It's going to be
drawn up and
stirred and
pushed out.
So when you
and I as
saved sinners,
if you're a
believer,
when we encounter
the Holy God,
it's that same
weight of God's
glory filling
His temple,
leaving no room
for sin in us
His people.
Praise God,
right?
It's slow and
gradual,
but we want
the weight of
God's glory to
push everything
else into its
proper place.
Number two,
in Eden,
Adam broke
God's moral
law that was
written on his
heart.
We're trying to
understand what it
is to be east
of Eden, in this
world, east of
Eden, but we
got to start back
in Eden.
And what was it
that was in the
conscience and the
heart that so
stirred up Adam?
Well, let's shed
some light on this
shadowy part of the
Bible from Romans
chapter 2, verses
14 and 15, which
say,
lawless pagans, so
those east of
Eden that know
nothing about God,
they do by nature
what the law
requires.
You got to stop
right there and ask
yourself, what law
is this?
What law is it that
pagans do by nature?
It's not the
ceremonial law of
killing a lamb on
a Passover or
something like that.
And it's not
necessarily the
civil law.
It's referring to
what the church has
called over time
the moral law.
It's the law that
is attached to the
character and the
attributes of God
himself.
It's what has
always pleased God
and always will
please him.
It's the moral law
of God.
And this shows,
says Romans
chapter 2, that
the work of the
law is written
on their hearts.
while their
conscience also
bears witness.
So in the inner
man, the heart
and the conscience,
God has written
his moral law.
Well, we can take
that truth and we
can try to make
more sense now of
what was it on
Adam's heart that
was written.
The church has
wrestled with it.
I think there was a
really helpful clarity
in the 1800s in
Scotland.
It was called the
Marrow Controversy.
And in this little
book on law and
gospel, one author,
showed how this
could be true.
And Romans chapter
2 could be true of
Adam.
How was it that
Adam broke the
moral law as they
were expressed and
codified in the
Ten Commandments
given later in
redemptive history?
And here's what the
Marrow of Modern
Divinity, that little
book from the 1800s
in Scotland, said.
Let's walk through
the Ten Commandments
with Adam in mind.
Number one is to
have no other gods.
Well, Adam obeyed
the servant's word
instead of the
Lord's word.
And instead of his
creator, he chose
Satan as his God.
Number two is have
no idols before God.
Philippians 3.19 says
that man has made
his belly his God.
So Adam's lust to
eat the forbidden
fruit was an idol.
It was idolatry.
Number three is the
name of the Lord.
By taking Satan's
bait, which was
did God really say,
Adam took the name
of the Lord in vain,
undermining God's
goodness attached to
his name.
That's who God is.
Number four is to
keep the Sabbath day
as a day of rest
made for man to
worship the Lord.
And Adam did not
keep the rest in
which God had set
him.
Number five is to
honor your father.
Adam dishonored his
heavenly father and
therefore his days
were not prolonged
in that land, Eden,
that the Lord had
given him.
Number six is don't
kill.
But Adam murdered
himself and all his
posterity.
Number seven is don't
commit adultery.
And both in his eyes
and his mind, Adam
committed spiritual
adultery against his
Lord with whom he was
in the covenant of
works.
Number eight is don't
steal.
Well, Adam trespassed
the boundary God gave
him and he unlawfully
stole that one thing
that God said was not
his to take.
Number nine is false
witness.
In obeying Satan, Adam
bore witness against
God.
And number ten, don't
covet.
Adam coveted that one
thing God said he may
not have.
So in the words of
Romans chapter three
verse 19, we know
that what the law
says it saith to them
who are under the law
that every mouth may be
stopped and all the
world may become
guilty before God.
So we ask the question,
how is it that the
whole world could become
guilty before God?
How is it that the
world deserves the wrath
of God?
It's because in Adam's
fall sinned we all.
We are born under the
curses of the broken
covenant of works.
But that moral law,
those ten commandments,
God has still put in the
heart and the conscience
of all mankind east of
Eden.
So in Eden, Adam broke
God's moral law that was
written on his heart.
Number three, the weight
of God's glory in Eden,
it exposed the sins of
both the body and the
soul.
My point here is that this
is so pervasive.
It affects every aspect of
a human being, this fallen
sinful nature.
Well, we know that Adam
and Eve, they sinned with
their bodies.
They saw the fruit with
their eyes.
They saw that it was
pleasing to the eye.
They ate the fruit with
their teeth, their mouth.
And then they saw that
they were naked.
So their bodies are
exposed as being sinful.
But notice where God's
three questions to Adam
go.
God uses his three
questions to deal not
with the outer man.
God gets always.
He's getting at the heart.
God goes after the inner
man.
Look at verse nine.
Here's the first question.
The Lord God called to the
man and said to him.
Notice who the Lord is
addressing here.
He's going to the federal
head.
He's going to Adam, who
represents that type of a
federal head who, you know,
his works, obedience or
disobedience, will affect all
of his posterity.
And the first question is,
where are you?
Where are you?
The second question is in
verse 11.
God said, who told you that
you were naked?
And the third question, have
you eaten of the tree in
which I commanded you to
eat?
We saw in Sunday school,
referring back to last week
as well, there are three
offices in the Old Testament
that are anointed.
You know what they are.
prophet, priest, and king.
I think there's a connection
between those three offices
and these questions that the
Lord is asking.
See, Adam was the viceroy.
He was the first king of
mankind.
And the Lord asks him, where
are you?
In other words, Adam, you
forgot.
You were in God's kingdom.
I made you the first king of
mankind, but you're a
vassal servant.
God himself is your
covenant lord.
Where are you, Adam?
You're trying to hide in the
temple behind the trees
inside of Eden?
This is my garden, says the
glory of God.
And the presence filling up
the whole temple.
Where are you?
You're in my temple.
You're in my kingdom.
Adam had received the word
of God directly from God.
Adam did not Eve.
So Adam was a prophet to Eve
and his family and his
posterity.
He was the one to declare
the truth of God.
God asked him, Adam, who
told you otherwise?
You failed as a prophet.
Who told you?
You know what I told you,
Adam.
So you failed as a king,
Adam.
You failed as a prophet.
In Luke chapter 3, verse 38,
we're given the reverse
genealogy that goes all the
way back to Adam.
And then Adam is described
as the son of God.
And Adam, as God's son,
did not love God with all of
his heart, soul, mind, and
strength.
Nor did he love his neighbor,
which is his wife, and all
mankind as himself.
So Adam broke God's positive
law.
He failed to represent well his
posterity.
And the Lord asks him,
who told you you were naked?
So he's exposed now.
He's laid bare before God.
I don't want to force this too
much, but it made me wonder,
like, the role of a priest,
you know, of all those
anointed offices, that was the
only one that was clothed in
special garments.
And we know that in the New
Testament, we are clothed with
the righteousness of Christ.
And Christ is depicted in
Revelation as being that great
high priest whose, you know,
whose robes shine like precious
jewels adorning him.
And that's the picture we're
given in the Old Covenant with
the ceremonial law, the high
priest, those from the line of
Aaron, they had to wear these
jewels representing all the
tribes.
But Adam is not clothed like a
glorious high priest.
There's no glory bouncing off and
radiating the beauty of God to
the people.
Instead, he's naked.
He's failed as a priest.
He's exposed.
And God's justice requires that
the first federal head and
all those under him received the
curses of breaking this
covenant of works.
Adam had been put in the Garden
of Eden as a probationary period
of testing.
And instead, he failed in his
appointed office, prophet,
priest, and king, transgressing
the whole moral law that God had
put in his heart.
So the consequence we read in
verses 23 and 24.
Therefore, the Lord God sent him
out of the Garden of Eden to work
the ground from which he was
taken.
He drove the man out at the east
of the Garden of Eden and placed
the cherubim with a flaming sword
that turned in every way to guard the
way to the tree of life.
And that's the world we are born into,
the world east of Eden.
You picture a glass of water that has
just one drop of something else.
And that something else is poison.
The whole cup is poisoned.
So all of us born east of Eden are
under these effects of sin.
We're not as wicked as we could be
because God is showing preserving
mercies.
But every aspect of us has the taint or
the poison of the original sin.
So number three, the weight of God's
glory in Eden, it exposed sin,
both in the body and in the soul of
man and mankind.
Number four, east of Eden is a world
under this curse of sin, but it's also
under the providence of a merciful
covenant Lord.
And if you pay attention to the
language that comes next, you get on
almost every verse you get both.
You get, here's the effects of the
curse and here's some preserving
mercy.
You get that all the way through.
Let me give you some examples.
Look at Genesis chapter 3 verse 17.
God says, cursed is the ground
because of you.
In pain, there's the curses part, but
now look at the preserving mercy.
You shall eat of it all the days of
your life.
Now the curse of covenant breaking is
death, but God's still giving them
some days of life and he's still
giving them food to eat to preserve
them longer.
You see both there?
Curses of the sin, but also preserving
mercy.
They shall eat, but it shall be in pain.
Now look at verse 18.
Thorns and thistles it shall bring
forth to you.
In other words, your work will bring
forth bread.
You'll be able to survive, but only with
thorns and thistles.
You shall eat of the plants of the
field, but only, verse 19, by the sweat
of your face shall you eat bread.
So you will live on for some days in
life, but only until you return to the
ground.
You are dust and to dust you shall
return.
What does this mean for all of us now?
East of Eden, under the curses of the
covenant of works.
Because of Adam's breach of the covenant
of works, all people are doomed to
perish in the state of sin and misery
into which Adam fell.
We are born spiritually dead, spiritually
detached from God.
Adam fell out of communion with God into
a depraved, defaced, and enslaved
nature.
And that's what we're born into.
We're not as corrupt as we possibly
could be.
The imago Dei, the image of God is
still on all people, but it's defaced,
it's scratched.
Picture taking a penny, you can see
Abraham Lincoln's silhouette, and then
you scratch it with rocks.
That's what we are, born under the
curses of sin.
There's no part of us in the state that
we're born into that is untainted.
He says that you will die and you will
return to dust, but I will mercifully
allow you to work and to eat and so
live on.
So that's the providence of God over all
of mankind.
The days of man are numbered.
Every single soul, the Lord knows how
many more days he will give them.
Then we read in Genesis chapter 4 verse
1 that Adam knew his wife and she
conceived and bore Cain, saying,
I have gotten a man with the help of the
Lord.
There's God's preserving mercy.
We deserve death.
We deserve for our line to be cut off.
But the Lord, with his help, has given us
children.
This fulfills and shows us what Romans
chapter 2 verse 4 describes as the
riches of God's kindness, forbearance, and
patience.
His kindness, the kindness of God in
dealing with them in the curse this way,
Romans chapter 2 says, is meant to lead
you to repentance.
All of the curses are in effect, but God
is patient and kind.
Why?
So that man will repent and see God's
goodness.
Turn to Genesis chapter 5.
I want you to see something really cool with
the genealogy.
Genesis chapter 5.
We're given the line of Adam's descendants
all the way to Noah, which is important for a
few reasons, but what I want to point out to
you is this pattern and the way that it's
recorded.
Look at verse 5.
Genesis 5 verse 5 says,
So in all the days that Adam lived, there's
God's preserving mercy, giving him many days.
They were 930 years.
God is patient for man to repent.
But then what does it say next?
And he died.
So the curses are still in effect.
Now look at verse 8.
So all the days of Seth were 912 years.
God is patient for man to repent.
And he died.
The curses are in effect.
Verse 11.
So all the days of Enosh were 905 years.
Because God is patient for man to repent.
But he died.
Because the curses are still in effect.
Last one, verse 14.
So all the days of Kenan were 910.
Because God is patient for man to repent.
And he died.
Because the curses are still in effect.
So dear friends.
In our 18 months or so as a church plant here.
We haven't had to do a single funeral.
But the day is coming.
And it will be heartbreaking.
Let's think about that.
Each one of us.
We don't know our days.
You will live blank more days.
On earth.
Every day is a gift from the Lord.
Because God is patient.
For you and me to repent.
To behold his kindness.
Then you and I one day will die.
Because the curses are in effect.
Don't be found on that day.
Under the curses of the covenant of works.
There's more good news coming.
Let's look at number five.
So to recap.
Number four is that east of Eden is a world.
Under the curse of sin.
But also under the providence.
Of a merciful covenant Lord.
Number five.
East of Eden man must work hard to survive.
But no amount of work will earn your return to the tree of life.
East of Eden man must work hard to survive.
But no amount of work will earn your right to the tree of life.
We see in verse 23.
Chapter 3.
Therefore the Lord God sent them out from the garden of Eden.
To work the ground from which he was taken.
He drove out the man.
And at the east of the garden of Eden.
He placed the cherubim.
With the flaming sword.
Lord.
We cannot earn God's favor.
We cannot earn eternal life.
By keeping the moral law.
Even though it's written on our heart.
New Testament makes this very clear.
No man is saved by his own works.
That none should boast.
We are saved by grace alone.
For the glory of God.
Then we have to ask the question.
If the moral law of God is written on all of man's heart.
Even after we've been banished from God's presence.
We're living east of Eden.
What purpose does it serve to have the moral law?
The ten commandments known in our conscience and our heart.
The Westminster Larger Catechism answers it this way.
What use of it is?
The moral law is of use to all men to inform you.
Of the holy nature and will of God.
And of your duty to walk accordingly.
To convince you of your inability to keep God's law.
It exposes the sinful pollution of your nature as Adam's heir.
And God's law humbles you.
To sense how real your sin and misery is.
The law of God is put on our hearts.
Even before we're saved.
To drive us to the cross.
To show us that we cannot merit life for ourselves.
And this is good because it helps us to get a sight of our need for God to condescend.
To come to us in mercy and in saving grace.
We need the perfect obedience of Christ in our place.
So East David and man must work to survive.
But it's never going to be saving work.
Isaiah 24 5 says the earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof.
Because they have transgressed the laws.
They have changed the ordinance.
Broken the everlasting covenant.
Romans 2 2 says the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.
For God shows no partiality.
And Romans 2 6 says God will render to each one according to his works.
So the covenant of works was between God and Adam as the first federal head.
But the effects of the covenant of works are for all of us.
And God will render now to us our works.
However much good you do.
Is that going to be enough to save you?
And under the curse of Adam there is no access to the tree of life.
Our works cannot save us.
We have fallen.
We have been too far broken.
We are hopeless unless God himself will save us.
Number six.
East of Eden all God's image bearers still owe their creator right worship.
Our bookends where it's described as being east of Eden.
It starts with Adam but it doesn't stop there.
It includes that next generation.
That has to be for a reason.
What are we supposed to learn from this contrast between Cain and Abel?
Well there's a lot to learn from Abel but that's not our focus on the covenant of works.
Let's stick with Cain for today.
Cain knew God exists as the ruler over all creation.
And how would Cain and Abel both have learned to bring offerings and give a sacrifice to God?
How would they have learned that?
It would have been from their parents.
So Adam and Eve knew what pleases the Lord and they taught their children that.
But each child has to respond for themselves.
So Cain knew that he owed worship to God because his parents had trained him.
We can infer this.
And also because Romans 1 chapter 20 says,
For God's invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature,
have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world.
In the things that have been made.
So they are without excuse.
Cain had no excuse.
You and I have no excuse.
God has made himself known since the creation.
So we read in chapter 4 verse 2 that Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground.
Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground.
In verse 4, Abel brought a blood sacrifice.
A lamb, the firstborn of the flock.
As their parents had taught them that God requires.
And the Lord had regard for Abel in his offering.
But Cain in his offering God had no regard.
I have questions about this.
I'm sure you probably do too.
John Milton in a classic book.
He was also a Puritan.
It's called Paradise Lost.
He wrote,
Neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible except to God alone.
And when the Lord did not accept Cain's offering, Cain was very angry and his face fell.
Galatians 3.10 says that all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.
For it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law.
And do them.
Your own works, the work of your hands, cannot please God.
You must obey everything, the entire moral law, in order to merit any favor for yourself.
And the Lord was merciful.
He said to Cain, look in verse 7,
Cain, if you do well, will you not be accepted?
Cain knew what was pleasing to God.
He knew what it was to do well.
As Aldous Huxley mocked, he said,
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.
And so Cain gets mad.
He knows the truth.
Do well, and God will be pleased.
Romans 1.28 says,
Since we did not see fit to acknowledge God,
and this is Cain's sin,
God gave us up to a debased mind to disobey the law of God.
And that's exactly how it pans out.
Cain kills Abel.
East of Eden, sin inside man is deadly.
The world is dark and dangerous.
The world east of Eden is a scary place.
Amen?
And that's the world we are born into.
East of Eden, though,
all of God's image bearers still owe the Lord God, their creator,
right worship.
We owe that to him.
Let me see if I can pull this together.
Covenant of works for today.
Our only hope of life rests in a new federal head
who can fulfill the covenant of works now,
east of Eden, on our behalf.
We need a federal head
to come into this fallen, dark, scary world,
east of Eden.
And we need him to fulfill this covenant of works
that the righteous and just God requires.
Not because he lacks anything,
because we need that
to be done for us
on our behalf.
The Son of God himself
must enter this cursed world
east of Eden.
His whole life,
he would delight in good,
and he would never know evil.
As prophet,
the Son of God would preach God's word truthfully.
As priest,
he would be clothed in true righteousness.
And as king,
he will rule with true peace
within his kingdom
on this broken world.
God the Son, the Creator,
would submit himself
to the corrupt judgment
and unjust condemnation of man
in the manly temple.
And he would be driven out
east of the temple.
He would be sent out
away from this earthly temple.
He would have to exit
those courts.
And he would have to go stand
in the cursed land,
the hill of the skull.
He would be surrounded by
bones and flames.
Golgotha,
with the valley behind,
east of the temple in Jerusalem,
a picture of death,
corruption,
and curse.
It's the polar opposite
of the Garden of Eden,
the temple garden.
John Milton again wrote,
long is the way
and hard
that out of hell
leads up
to light.
And so the Son of God
would bear the curse
of covenant breakers,
the full wrath
of the Holy God
on the tree
of death.
death.
And so God
himself
would fulfill
the demands
of his own justice
to inaugurate
his new creation,
he himself
becoming
the tree
of life.
Brothers and sisters,
we were born
east
of Eden
in a restless
world.
Augustine
of Hippo,
he had chased
pleasure in his life,
he had chased money,
and he had chased fame.
But as an old man
writing to the church,
he confessed,
Lord,
you created me
for yourself,
and my heart
was restless
until it found
its rest
in you.
So the good news
for us
is that Jesus Christ
fulfilled that
covenant of works
east of Eden
on our behalf.
And he says,
come unto me
all you
who are tired
and heavy laden.
And I was born
east of Eden
for this purpose,
to give you rest
in God.
Let's pray.
From Romans 6, 12.
Lord, we find
our rest
in you.
We are no longer
in this perishing
world
as slaves.
We are now here
as adopted children.
We belong
to the kingdom
of heaven.
And we ask,
Lord,
by the power
of your Holy Spirit,
therefore,
for sin to not
reign
in our mortal body
so that we
obey its lusts
and to not go
on presenting
the parts
of our body
to sin
as instruments
of unrighteousness.
But help us,
Father,
to present ourselves
to you,
God,
as those who are
alive from the dead
and your body parts
as instruments
of righteousness
for God.
We thank you
that sin
shall no longer
be master
over those
who you purchased
and adopted.
We are no longer
under the covenant
and the curses
of law-breaking,
but now in Christ,
by faith alone,
through grace,
we are under
the covenant
of redemption.
We belong to you
because you loved us
before the foundation
of the world
in Jesus Christ,
our Savior.
To him be all glory
and honor,
now and forevermore.
Amen.