Knowing God; God at work through History

First Baptist Church Leominster

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The Baptist Church, our scripture reading this morning, is found in the book of Romans, chapter 5, verses 12 through 21.

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Romans 5, 12 through 21. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned.

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For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

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Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is the type of him who was to come.

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But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man,

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Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.

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For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.

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For if by one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one,

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Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.

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For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.

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Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.

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So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our

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Lord. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time where we can gather and listen to the preaching of your word.

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We're so thankful, Lord, for its sufficiency. We're thankful for its authority. And we're thankful,

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Lord, that you have revealed yourself so clearly to us through it. And Lord, we thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ.

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We thank you for his sacrifice. And we thank you that because of his sacrifice, we have justification.

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We have salvation. We have a wonderful life because of Christ.

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And Lord, I pray that we would remember this truth, that we would always remember that we are to have abounding life in Christ Jesus, that our focus should never be on our circumstances, but it should always be on him, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

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And Lord, we ask that as we listen to this morning's sermon, we pray that we would be focused on what your word says.

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We pray that your spirit would teach us exactly what we need to know. Help us, Lord, to apply these truths to our lives so that we might live for your glory, your praise, and your honor.

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Help us this morning, Lord, worship you. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you,

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Pastor Jason. This is the, I believe, what, the fifth

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Lord's Day in which we're dealing with this coronavirus business, and we're standing here,

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Jason and I, in the last few weeks have been preaching to an all but empty sanctuary. There's a few folks here with us, but we're very grateful to our

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Lord that we had this medium of the internet and YouTube to be able to make the word known more broadly.

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God has created us for a wonderful purpose. We know that, and we confess that.

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And that it is his desire and design to glorify himself both to us and through us.

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And this purpose is realized in us by him revealing himself to us so that we might know him personally, intimately, and powerfully.

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God delights in revealing himself to his people. He takes pleasure in his people becoming knowledgeable of him.

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And that should be our primary concern and desire, to know our God through his son,

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Jesus Christ. Oftentimes, we turn to the Bible to look for instruction, how to correct our thinking and maybe improve our behavior and overcome difficulties and hardships.

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And it's right, it's good to use the Bible in that way. But the Bible is chiefly a book to reveal

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God to us. And that should be our principal desire and aim. And so God delights in revealing himself, and we should delight in seeking him, coming to know him.

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The Old Testament spoke of this lifelong desire and endeavor to know

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God. The prophet Jeremiah disclosed the words of God. Thus says the

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Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the

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Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these

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I delight, says the Lord, as Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24.

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Our Lord Jesus, of course, on one occasion declared the very nature and essence of eternal life is to know

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God. We read our Lord's words in his prayer in John 17, as he was praying to his father.

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Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, son also may glorify you.

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As you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.

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And then listen to this definition of what eternal life is, according to the

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Lord Jesus. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true

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God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. And so, eternal life itself is wrapped up in knowing

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God, having a relationship with God, and that should be our primary desire and delight in life.

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And of course, to know God in this way is only possible for those who are true disciples of Jesus Christ, those who believe in him as Lord and Savior.

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It's actually by the knowledge of God through Christ that God transfers and imparts his blessings to his people.

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Peter wrote in the introduction of his first epistle, grace and peace be multiplied to you.

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And then he tells us where that grace and peace is acquired.

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In the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, here it is again, through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

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And so, knowing God is the means by which grace and peace may be multiplied to us.

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Indeed, all things that we need in order to live before God in this life is imparted to us through the knowledge of him.

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The Lord Jesus spoke of his close companionship with his disciples, whom he regards as his friends.

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We read in John 15, 15 his words, no longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my father

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I have made known to you. And so, what was it that characterized these disciples as his friends?

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Well, it was through coming to know of him and his will, to know what he was doing through his ministry in this fallen world.

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And so, we would conclude it should be our desire and our delight, our lifelong effort to grow in our knowledge of God the

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Father and his son Jesus Christ, we should long for and we should delight in becoming his friends, friends of God, friends of his son.

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And this friendship with Christ is not simply through knowing who he is, although that certainly is important, it's foundational, but it's also by knowing what he, our master, is doing.

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That brings us into the closest possible fellowship that his people may enjoy with him. Know what he's like and know what he's doing within his world.

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And so, coming to know God in this enriching and rewarding personal relationship occurs within these two arenas of spiritual education.

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The first is coming to know what God is like, and this would perhaps be the study and meditation upon his attributes, what he's like.

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This involves how the Bible defines and describes for us who God is. But that is only one of two ways in which we come to know

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God relationally. The second aspect of our study of God is to learn and understand what he's doing in the history of the world.

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True knowledge of God lies in these two arenas. Again, first, what he is like, that is his attributes, and secondly, what he is doing in his world through history, which are his actions and accomplishments.

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Now, we know and affirm that God has revealed himself to us through his inspired word, the

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Holy Bible. The Bible is our complete canon, that is our rule for life, that governs what we believe about God and how he would have us live in the world.

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And the Bible is a closed canon, that is, it is a full and final complete record of God's will that he has imparted to us.

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But God has also revealed himself to his people through the unfolding events of history, as his people have interpreted events and teachings by his word.

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Because God has continually revealed himself through history, through understanding and applying his word, it would do us well to consider how and in what ways

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God has instructed and developed his people over the course of time.

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Through understanding better God's actions and accomplishments in history, we come to know him better.

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We've already read of God declaring through Jeremiah this very truth. Again, let me read this, these two verses from Jeremiah 9, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, and then listen to this next clause carefully, that I am the

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Lord exercising, he's not describing what he's like, he's describing what he does here, exercising loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth.

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In other words, in history, for in these I delight, says the Lord. And so God would have us understand and rejoice in knowing him, that he is the

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Lord of history, working to accomplish his purposes in exercising loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth.

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And so this morning, I would have us to consider the fact that God has revealed himself more fully to his people through his works within history.

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Today, I would like us to see that we stand as ones greatly privileged to be able to look back over the history of this world from our vantage point today in 2020.

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Looking back over this church age in particular, that we may rejoice in knowing the things that God has done, and to the degree that he has revealed himself and his ways to us.

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And so I thought that in order to do this, so that we might understand and appreciate this matter,

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I want us to consider this portion of scripture that Pastor Jason read for us, and that is

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Romans 5, verses 12 through 21. Here Paul compared and contrasted

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Adam with Jesus Christ. Paul declared that Adam had brought ruin and damnation to all the human race, which had descended from him, descended from Adam.

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But Paul also set forth Jesus Christ, who is typified by Adam. Adam was the type,

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Jesus Christ, the anti -type. And in addition, Paul contrasted the role of the law of God to reveal sin, and actually result in the increase of sin, with the grace of God and Jesus Christ to bring them out of sin, so that they may live in righteousness unto eternal life.

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Now Jason read this passage, but it's a difficult passage, and I want to read it again.

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Listen carefully. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.

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For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come.

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But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man,

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Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.

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For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.

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For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one

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Jesus Christ. Therefore, as to one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation.

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Even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.

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For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.

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And moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.

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So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our

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Lord. Now we affirm the inspiration and infallibility of all of Holy Scripture, both

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Old and New Testaments. The Bible is the sole source of all truth, respecting what we believe about God and how he would have us live within his world.

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And this conviction is absolute. And we know nothing of compromise or taking exception to this foundational conviction.

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The Bible is the complete full word of God. And yet we would affirm also that the understanding of what the

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Scriptures teach has undergone modification and development through history.

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This is not only due to the passing of time that enables us to better understand the truth of the

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Word of God itself as we read and study its pages, but we understand better the Word of God more fully when we consider what

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God has done through history since the days that the Holy Scriptures were first penned.

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And this is what we desire to emphasize before us today. That though the Scriptures are full, complete, and final, our understanding of the

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Scriptures improves and deepens over the course of church history.

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What caused me to want to give attention to this subject this morning was hearing a word about someone, a good

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Christian brother, that I've heard many, many times over the years. And this word was,

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I only read the Bible because it's the Word of God. I don't read any other books. And I thought to myself how impoverished the result of that kind of attitude and action will be upon the

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Christian life. For God has revealed himself through history as he has enhanced the understanding of the

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Word of God to people as they have interacted with and dealt with problems and difficulties and error and heresy down through church history.

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And so learning over the course of history is not only true for individuals who learn and grow with the passing of time as the

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Lord teaches and trains them by escorting them through their life experiences. But this is true collectively as the people have gone through history.

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For although God has given his people a complete and final canon in the Holy Scriptures, he's continued to work through history to reveal to his people more fully the truth and implications of the

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Scriptures for their faith and practice. Through this church age, great doctrines have been discovered and confirmed from the

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Scriptures that give expression to our understanding of the Word of God and the ways of God. God has most often done this by raising up godly men to confront error perpetrated by false teachers that had a corrupting influence on the people of God.

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And so these godly men were mighty in the Scriptures and they made known the truth of the Word of God in a way and form that the

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Lord used to correct his churches from their error and to strengthen and establish his churches in truth.

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And in doing so, the Lord has revealed himself more fully and more richly to his people down through church history and in this way he glorifies himself to and through his people.

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Now to illustrate this, we might liken the Bible to, say, a spiritual map by which the

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Lord has guided and directed his churches through history to their heavenly destination. By it, the

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Lord has led his people through history to address and correct error whereby he has developed and deepened the message of the

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Christian faith as he has defeated and overcome all obstacles and opposers of the gospel.

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And so the Scriptures, the Holy Bible, may be likened to the perfect and complete spiritual map that has directed our steps that we've already taken and it will continue to direct our course before us onto our promised end.

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But it's important not only to have a good quality map, which we have in our

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Bibles, that may assist us in understanding from whence we came and to where we are going, but it is equally important to know how to read and interpret the map rightly.

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Those whom God has raised up in history who are mature so as to assist and direct his people were adept at employing the word of God to conflict and confusion that arose before them.

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The writer to the Hebrews wrote of ones like these, he rebuked his readers for by this time you ought to be teachers, but you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God.

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You have come to need milk and not solid food for everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness.

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And that word of righteousness is a term to describe the Christian faith that God wants for all delivered to the saints.

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For he is a babe, but solid food belongs to those who are full of age and is mature.

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And here it is, that is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

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And so here these mature Christians because they know the word of righteousness, the substance and content of the

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Christian faith, and because over time they've employed that in assessing, evaluating what was before them, they had the ability to distinguish, to discern between good and evil.

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This is what Christian maturity is. But I would argue that sadly there are those who profess the

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Bible as the inerrant authoritative word of God, but may not be proficient in following this map rightly.

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Because of their ignorance of what God has taught others from the word of God through history, they tend to fall into errors that the

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Lord has corrected long ago. They may piously claim they are committed to read the scriptures only, not other books that have only been written by men.

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But they do not realize how they have limited themselves in their ability to understand his word because they do not read books or give regard to what

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God has done in history. Even the apostle Paul in his last epistle to Timothy shortly before his own execution gave this word of instruction, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and when you come, and the books, bring the books, especially the parchments.

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The parchments probably being copies of the scriptures, but he wanted his books also.

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The truth of the matter is that God has raised up many godly gifted men who, while interpreting and applying the

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Bible, have provided helpful and valuable matters for us to learn and understand. They have, by reason of use, again

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Hebrews 5, employed the scriptures to address issues and events that the churches have confronted through history.

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But because there are those who decry their value, who remain ignorant about matters of church history, they're incapable of recognizing and correcting error that may be presently plaguing them, that had already been addressed and corrected by others before them.

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They act as though the Bible dropped down out of heaven last week for them. They're completely uninformed and ignorant of what

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God has revealed regarding the scriptures through history. And because of this ignorance, they do not know how to address the problematic issues or errant persons that they encounter.

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Years ago, my friend from California had visited us in our home in Germany, and then he and I flew to the western region of modern

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Turkey. We flew into the city of Izmir. We desired to travel on our own to see the ruins of the ancient cities where in the ancient churches, the seven churches of Asia Minor were located that our

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Lord addressed in Revelation 2 and 3. I took a map with us, that was, those were the days before GPS.

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I took a map with us, such as it was. It was a map of modern Turkey, not ancient Turkey, but it was also in the

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German language. We were able to decipher somewhat the German names for the modern cities, and we then had to make some rather bold ventures in discerning the ancient names of the cities from their modern names in the map that were written in German.

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Thankfully, we were able to locate all seven cities over the course of the week we traveled, but our failure to know the modern day names for the ancient cities made it rather difficult for us.

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By way of application, we can say that there are many Christians who may read and affirm the holy scriptures who are nevertheless rather limited in their right understanding of those scriptures because they're unfamiliar with the formal doctrines that the

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Lord has revealed to his people through church history. In short, a knowledge of how our

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Lord has worked in history, knowing the major doctrines articulated in history, matters of historical theology, will better equip us to understand and better apply the word of God in our own lives and better enable us to engage others at this time in history in which the

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Lord has placed us and called us to make him known. And so we may know our

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God better by knowing his works in history, not just what he's like, his attributes, but understanding what he does and what he has done and what he will do.

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And this may be perceived by us as we consider the scriptures as they've been understood by men of God down through history.

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And so I would like us to take this passage that we read and rather than work into the details of the passage,

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Romans 5, 12 through 21, I would like us to consider how this passage has been used by the

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Lord to godly men to reveal and declare his truth to his people at different times through church history.

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And what we might first point out is how this passage, Romans 5, 12 through 21, was one of the central passages used in order to declare, define, and declare the doctrine of original sin that was proclaimed by the early church fathers in the first three or four, five centuries of the

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Christian era. It was well after the completed Bible is the word of God, a discovery and declaration was made regarding one of its teachings that had laid basically undiscovered and undeclared.

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This was the doctrine of original sin. And the passage before us,

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Romans 5, 12 through 21, played a significant role in the development of this Christian doctrine.

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What is the doctrine of original sin? Well when we speak of man's sinful nature, we're speaking of the doctrine of original sin.

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Here's the definition rendered by the Westminster Confession of Faith. Our first parents, speaking of Adam and Eve of course, being seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sin, and eating the forbidden fruit.

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This, their sin, God was pleased according to his wise and holy counsel to permit, having purpose to order it to his own glory.

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By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God and so became dead in sin, wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.

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They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed and the same death and sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity, that is all their descendants, descending from them by ordinary generation, by ordinary natural birth.

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And from this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.

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That is a good description of the biblical doctrine of original sin.

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And so the doctrine of original sin is not a direct reference to what

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Adam and Eve did, rather, it speaks of the result of Adam's sin upon the human race.

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Because of Adam's sin in the Garden of Eden, we're all born into this world as sinners. God had originally created mankind in his image, perfect in holiness in nature and free from sin.

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But Adam transgressed the command of God and fell, resulting in him and his posterity becoming sinful in nature, subjects to Satan, servants of sin, incurring the wrath of God whereby they suffer misery and death forever, incapable of recovery unless the

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Lord Jesus sets them free. This is what we mean by original sin.

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The doctrine of original sin, although clearly set forth in this passage, it's there in Romans 5, 12 through 21, nevertheless was first articulated in the 2nd century

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AD in a rudimentary form by Irenaeus, who was probably born around 125

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AD and died in 202 AD. Irenaeus was born in Smyrna, there in western

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Turkey, but he later served as the bishop of the church at Lyon in Gaul.

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Irenaeus rose to refute the Arab Gnosticism that had become a major heresy, threatening Christendom in the 2nd century, and so Irenaeus wrote his work entitled

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Against Heresies, and it was in this document, this book, where he first set forth this doctrine of original sin in its early formulation.

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But it was actually Augustine of Hippo who was born in AD 354 and died in AD 430.

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There in the 5th century, it was Augustine of Hippo that articulated the full development of the doctrine that has been espoused by Christians for the last 1 ,500 years.

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Augustine argued the doctrine of original sin from this passage, Romans 5, as well as from 1

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Corinthians 15, Psalm 51. Augustine set forth this doctrine in his refutation of a heresy that is commonly called

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Pelagianism, which was the teaching of its major promoter,

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Pelagius. Pelagianism advocated a very positive but unbiblical opinion of human nature, claiming that people were essentially good and capable of making all spiritual choices for themselves.

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He taught that sinful men were saved from their sin through their own free will, not due to the grace of God operating in and upon them.

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And Augustine set forth the doctrine of original sin, as taught in the scriptures, in order to prove that every human being was hopeless, helpless, hellbound, unless God saved him by his sovereign grace.

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And we have affirmed that doctrine of original sin ever since. Now more specifically, what is the teaching of original sin?

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What were the results of Adam's sin on the human race? Let's identify the results. First, Adam lost for humanity the original righteousness that he possessed.

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God had created man and woman as glorious creatures designed to live before God, to serve

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God, and enjoy God. Adam and Eve were the objects of God's delight and favor.

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They were the crown, the glory of his creation. They alone, of all creatures, were created in the image of God.

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And this means that they could think thoughts after God. They were morally upright before God.

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They were given dominion or rule on God's behalf over all that God had created.

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And further, God had given them the capacity for eternal life, to ever live before him.

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Adam and Eve were in a state of perfect peace and contentment. There were no failures to afflict their conscience.

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There were no trials to make their lives difficult or unpleasant. There were no troubles to unsettle their souls.

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Pure delight, undiminished joy characterized their existence. Truth, goodness, beauty, the things of abundant life were theirs, without delusion or diminishment.

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But this original state of righteousness was lost to the human race when Adam sinned.

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And thereafter, man's mind was darkened, so as to result in his ignorance. His heart was corrupted, so that he no longer loved the things of God, but rather the things of his own sinful flesh.

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His will became subject to his darkened reasoning and his corrupt heart. He became resistant, even defiant, toward God and toward any that would assert rule over him that was contrary to his own inclinations.

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He lost that original righteousness, not only to himself, but to the entire human race.

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That is an aspect of original sin. Secondly, when

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Adam sinned, he was declared to be guilty. And God imputed the guilt of his one sin to each and every one of the human race that came forth from him.

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You and I were standing there in Adam when God's sentence was pronounced.

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The condemnation was ours as much as it was his, because he was our representative.

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And third, when Adam sinned, his and our nature became corrupted, as we've already alluded to.

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We became sinners by nature. And that sinful nature is passed on by natural generation from father to children.

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That is probably why Jesus was virgin born, because he was not born a sinner.

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But we were born into this world as sinners. And then fourth, we became the servants of sin.

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Sin was our master. Sin ruled over us. Our values and desires and aspirations were controlled by our sinful nature.

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Fifth, in Adam's fall, we were made subject to all the consequences of sin in this life.

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Temporal punishments, sickness and death. Sixth, from Adam's original sin, it preceded all actual transgressions, that is sins that have ever been committed by man against God.

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It all flowed from that first sin of Adam. And seventh, our relationship with God was broken.

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We were barred from his presence and the blessings that flow from him. Adam and Eve's exclusion from the

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Garden of Eden shows the exclusion of fallen mankind from the blessing and presence of God.

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The curse of God came upon mankind. That is what original sin is.

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And so in summary, we may state that we do not become sinners because we sin. We sin because we're born sinners.

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We came into this world as sinners. Not innocent, not pure, but rather helpless, guilty with a nature toward independence from God and rebellion toward God.

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This is the doctrine of original sin. God must save sinners by a sovereign grace, otherwise they never would or could be saved from their sin.

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Now this doctrine of original sin is very humbling to us. It is not that man has a minor weakness and needs some assistance, some propping up.

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It's not that man is merely ignorant and simply needs educated. The scriptures teach that man is undone, lost, spiritually dead.

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And moreover, the Word of God declares that he's ignorant and unwilling to come to God for the remedy for his sin. He is, as Paul described him, without strength.

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He's incapable of changing his nature, his condition, or his direction. He's under the wrath of God.

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But most of the time, he's ignorant that he is so. He presumes upon God's love and mercy, viewing himself quite deserving of God's favor, either due to his perception of the value of things that he has done, or due to his thinking that he has done nothing to warrant

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God's displeasure or punishment. But the Word of God makes it abundantly clear that there's not a thing that fallen man can do to change his condition or to gain acceptance with God.

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Something has to be done for him and in him, for he can do nothing for himself.

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And so the doctrine of original sin is biblical teaching. Romans 5, 12 through 21 declares it quite clearly.

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But this doctrine, and this is what we're pressing upon us today, this doctrine was not derived or formulated from the scriptures fully until Augustine in the 5th century

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AD confronted and refuted Pelagius and Pelagianism.

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God had opened his word to his people that they might understand it more clearly and fully.

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God was revealing himself through the fullness of scripture to people within history.

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And this is just one way of many in which this passage in Romans 5 has been used of God to develop and instruct his people.

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Let us consider another example. Let's consider the doctrines of the Protestant reformers in the 16th century.

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Commonly, of course, the Protestant Reformation is dated to 1517 when Martin Luther hung those theses on that church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

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Our passage of Romans 5, 12 through 21 was not only central in the formation of the doctrine of original sin early in the

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Christian era, but it was also used in a significant way to argue for the doctrines of the Protestant reformers.

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The doctrines they advocated and promoted. Of course, Protestants were committed to expose and correct the error of Roman Catholicism.

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Augustine was exposing and correcting the error of Pelagianism. The Protestant reformers were acknowledging and correcting, refuting the errors of Roman Catholicism in the light of the

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Bible. Of course, Roman Catholicism had dominated the Western world for a thousand years.

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The Bible had become a lost book for many centuries. Christian belief and practice had undergone decay, departing from the pattern set forth in Scripture for the churches.

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But when the Bible was recovered and translated from the dead Latin language into the language of the people, the errors of Rome became clear.

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The early reformers had all been Roman Catholic to begin with, and their initial efforts were to reform the church, not to separate from it.

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But as the scriptures were read and understood as revealing the errors of Rome, the early

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Protestants also discovered the positive doctrines of the scriptures that had hitherto been veiled to the

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Christian world. These are the doctrines that Protestants have continued to proclaim to this day.

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What were some of these doctrines? Well, first there was, of course, the doctrine of the total depravity of man.

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Total depravity has the list of the doctrines known as Calvinism. The first of the five points of Calvinism.

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Total depravity is similar to the doctrine of original sin, but it makes the matter more extensive.

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The doctrine of total depravity may be stated this way. Man was created originally in the image of God, perfect in holiness in his nature, being free from sin, but he transgressed the command of God and fell, resulting in him and his posterity becoming sinful in nature, subjects to Satan, servants of sin, incurring the wrath of God, whereby they suffer misery and death forever, incapable of recovery unless the

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Lord Jesus sets them free. Now that sounds very similar to what

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Augustine said about original sin, and there are many similar, even identifying the same teachings or doctrines of scripture, and that's why

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Calvinism is sometimes referred to as Augustinianism, because Augustine had long before articulated this same matter.

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And so fallen man could not bring remedy to himself. God would have to intervene and save his people through Jesus Christ, and we, of course, read of this in verses 18 and 19 of Romans 5.

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Therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, that's what Adam did to the human race, resulting in condemnation.

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Even so, through one man, one man's righteous act, and that described Jesus Christ in his fullness, his entire life, including his death on the cross, his one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.

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Just as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so also by one man's disobedience, many will be made righteous.

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Total depravity is a doctrine that the Protestant reformers taught and proclaimed, and this is a doctrine that we embrace and proclaim today consistently without compromise, for it is the teaching of holy scripture, but it was first articulated in the form that we advocate today in the early days of the

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Protestant Reformation as godly men confronted and corrected the errant views of the

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Roman Catholic Church. Another reformed doctrine, another

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Protestant doctrine, the doctrine of solus Christus, the

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Latin phrase, of course, meaning that salvation is by and through Jesus Christ alone, solus

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Christus. This sola, which in Latin means alone or only, was set forth as a corrective and repudiation of another major teaching of Roman Catholicism.

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Although some Roman Catholics would deny that this is so, Rome teaches that there are persons in addition to Jesus Christ and practices performed by those persons that bring salvation to sinners.

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They do not believe salvation is through Jesus Christ alone. Rome teaches that infants are born again through baptism and that by sprinkling as performed by a priest of the church.

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They claim that dead saints contribute to bring salvation to those who venerate, those living who venerate those saints because those saints do now intercede for them and can help them to be saved based on the merit they attained in this world.

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They did not believe in solus Christus. Popes have claimed to be the source of salvation.

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The mass has been taught to be the means of salvation. The doctrine of solus Christus is the biblical teaching that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone.

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The principle teaches that knowledge of God is attainable only through Jesus Christ alone and that a relationship with God may be obtained only through Jesus Christ alone and that salvation from God's righteous judgment is through Jesus Christ alone due to his life and his substitutionary death upon the cross of Calvary.

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Solus Christus affirms that Jesus Christ is the only one who enables sinners to come before God forgiven and welcomed by the father.

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Christ alone is the only mediator between the human race and God the father. It's not the church that provides access nor a so -called priest or pope.

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Jesus Christ is the only one who is able to escort a sinner before God in a manner that that sinner will be accepted and welcomed by God.

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Scripture is clear about this. It's clear from our passage Romans 5, 12 through 21 that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation but it was the era of Catholicism that was addressed by the reformers through their use of the scriptures alone that God used to first articulate this biblical doctrine in the 16th century, the doctrine of Solus Christus.

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And then thirdly, we can consider the Protestant doctrines of sola gratia and sola fide, two more

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Latin phrases. Our passage of Romans 5, 12 through 21 underscores the

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Protestant doctrines of salvation by God's grace alone as sola gratia and the sinner's justification through faith in Christ alone sola fide.

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Five times in these verses, Paul uses the word grace. In verse 15, it reads, but the free gift is not like the offense for if by one man's offense many died much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man

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Jesus Christ abounded to many. And then in verse 17, we read, further forth by one man's offense death reigned through the one much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one

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Jesus Christ. And then verses 20 and 21, moreover the law entered that the offense might abound but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more so that as sin reigned to death even so grace might reign through righteousness.

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Sola gratia is taught in our passage in Romans 5. And similarly, this passage underscores that it's through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone that sinners may be saved from their sin.

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Now granted in these verses, Romans 5, 12 through 21, the word faith is not to be found.

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But Paul did write of the free imputation of the righteousness of Christ to the sinner as a gift.

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Here Paul wrote, and the gift, this is the gift of righteousness is not like that which came to the one who sinned which was of course the declaration of condemnation for the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift and this is what righteousness in Jesus Christ is which came from many offenses resulted in justification.

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In other words, coming into a right relationship with God being pardoned and declared to be righteous.

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For if by one man's offense, death reign to the one much more those who receive abundance of grace and here it is again, the gift of righteousness will reign in life through one

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Jesus Christ. And again, down in verse 18, therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation even so through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life.

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Of course, in many other places in the New Testament, we read that God uses the instrument of faith to impute righteousness of Jesus Christ to sinners.

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And so this passage was employed by the reformers that set forth their Protestant doctrines just as the early church fathers had employed this passage to substantiate their doctrines.

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But let us move onward in history. Our passage of Romans 5, 12 through 21 was employed by the

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English Puritans to develop and promote their understanding of covenant theology, which we continue to proclaim to this day.

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And so let us consider in the minutes that we have remaining this morning, the covenant theology of the

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English Puritans. We declare ourselves to be reformed in our conviction regarding biblical teaching.

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Now the word reformed may be understood both broadly and more narrowly.

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We prefer to hold to a more narrow understanding of what it means to be reformed. Some would say that they are reformed, but they're rather broad in that they only affirm the five solace of the reformation and the five doctrines of grace, which we identified somewhat above.

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And so these are reformed in their soteriology, that is their doctrine of salvation.

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However, their primary way of interpreting the Bible is through the lens of dispensationalism, not covenant theology.

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And we'll address that somewhat next week, Lord willing. But in addition to us affirming the five solace and the five doctrines of grace, those of us who claim to be reformed also understand the

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Holy Scriptures to teach doctrines that are consistent with what is called covenant theology.

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And so when we say we're reformed, we're saying that we're historically Protestant, the five solace, that we are

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Calvinistic, the five doctrines of grace, and that we hold to covenant theology.

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And in many quarters to espouse reformed theology is the same as claiming to hold to covenant theology, but not everywhere.

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Now, although the teachings that are consistent with covenant theology may be traced throughout different periods of church history, it was in the 17th century that covenant theology became the theological center and organizing principle for understanding the

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Christian faith. This was largely due to the influence of the English Puritans. What they were addressing in their day was the nature of the church and of the sacraments imposed by both

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Rome, Roman Catholicism, as well as the Church of England. In England, the state's church imposed its will and ways upon the populace.

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And the Puritans examined the scriptures in their assessment of the current belief and practice of the established churches.

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They first became Puritans attempting to purify the Church of England that had recently, at least in name, became

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Protestant. But when they realized that reform would not be conducted by the ecclesiastical powers, they increasingly became separatists, separating from the

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Church of England. And these Puritan separatists then became Presbyterians, reformed

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Congregationalists like John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, and Baptists. It was among these reformed

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Puritans that covenant theology was developed, which was determined to be the teaching of the Holy Scriptures.

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Our own Baptist Confession of 1689, again, 17th century, sets forth the nature and need for covenant theology in an article devoted to the subject, which is one of the one article out of 32 total articles of the

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Confession. So here is the initial statement of Article 7, entitled, Of God's Covenant.

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The distance between God and the creature is so great that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life by some voluntary, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he had been pleased to express by way of covenant.

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There's the declaration, all of God's dealings with human beings, particularly bringing salvation to them, is within the realm or the form of a covenant.

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In short, therefore, covenant theology came to be understood as the interpretive framework for understanding the entire story of the

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Bible. It describes the manner in which God has dealt with people in history. What may be said of covenant theology for our better understanding of its major teachings?

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First, recognize that covenant theology is sometimes referred to as federal theology or federalism.

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Federalism emphasizes the biblical teaching that God has frequently dealt with people through a human representative or federal head.

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And we have that here in Romans 5, don't we? Adam is the federal head of the human race.

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Jesus Christ is the federal head of his people, of Christians, of believers. The way that Jesus lived before God resulted in the manner in which

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God dealt with, pardon me, Jesus Christ is the federal head of the elect.

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The king of ancient Israel, like David, became a federal head of the nation of Israel. The way that the king lived before God, whether a good king or evil king, resulted in the manner in which

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God dealt with the nation under his headship. And again, our passage of Romans 5 clearly sets forth this idea of federalism or covenant theology.

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And then secondly, covenant theology, although acknowledging that the Bible records quite a number of covenants between God and mankind, emphasizes three major covenants that are given overarching attention.

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These include the covenant of redemption, secondly, the covenant of works, and thirdly, the covenant of grace.

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What is the covenant of redemption? This is not a covenant that God makes with mankind, but rather this is a

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God, this is a covenant made within the three persons, by the three persons of the Holy Trinity.

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It was established before creation, formulated in eternity. We believe it's mentioned in Hebrews 13, 20 and 21.

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It is the covenant that the three persons of the Holy Trinity established for the benefit of mankind, that is with this elect.

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God the Father elected those who would be saved, God the Son agreed to become one of them and atone for their sin, and the

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Holy Spirit agreed to apply the benefits of Christ's life and death to them. This is the covenant of redemption in eternity.

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But once history began, then God began to deal with the human race according to two different other covenants.

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First, there was the covenant of works. When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden of Eden, he established a relationship with them, a relationship based upon the terms of a covenant which he established with them.

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This first covenant has been commonly referred to as a covenant of works. Even though the expression itself is not found in scripture, it was devised in the 17th century.

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Nevertheless, the term covenant of works reflects the nature and terms of God's dealings with his creatures.

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It was a covenant in which God promised Adam and Eve that they would receive eternal life based upon their perfect and complete compliance or obedience to his law.

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Don't eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil and you'll be blessed. You eat of it, you'll surely die.

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It was based on what they did. It was a covenant of their works, based on their works. And the scriptures declare that quite clearly.

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But thankfully, even though Adam broke that covenant of works and the resulting damnation came upon all humanity,

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God purposed to employ another covenant, a different kind of covenant.

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And this is known as a covenant of grace. This covenant is described succinctly in our confession of faith.

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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 offers 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 to eternal life his

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Holy Spirit to make them willing and able to believe. This covenant is revealed in the gospel.

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First of all, to Adam and the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman. Afterwards, by farther steps until the full discovery thereof was completed in the

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New Testament. And it's founded in that eternal covenant transaction. This would be the covenant of redemption, which was between the father and the son about the redemption of the elect.

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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 blessed immortality.

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Man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which

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Adam stood in a state of innocency. And so God, his purpose to save us from the guilt and condemnation of our obligation to keep the covenant of works by bringing us to enjoy the benefits of the covenant of grace that he instituted through Jesus Christ.

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We'll have to explain more of this next Lord's day, Lord willing. But the point again that we want to emphasize is this, that the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, although not described specifically by those terms, is clearly set forth in the passage before us in Romans 5, 12 through 21.

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But it was only when the Puritans were addressing the error with regard to the nature of the church, the nature of baptism, how people are saved.

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It was only within the 17th century that these doctrines were articulated clearly and fully.

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And we as reformed Christians today affirm these doctrines because they're biblical doctrines.

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But God had revealed himself to godly men in history. We are greatly blessed standing at this time in history, receiving the benefit and of what has gone on before.

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And we should take advantage of where we are and we should employ the use of reading church history books and particularly historical theological books that tell us about these events and tell us about these biblical truths that God revealed to his people that we believe and embrace today.

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And so may the Lord help us to see all of life as an arena in which

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God reveals himself and glorifies Jesus Christ. Yes, the scriptures are full and final, but we use that as a foil to employ in order to interpret and understand the world in which we live.

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And to the degree we do and we're successful in doing so is the degree we'll know

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God and be blessed of God because this is at the very heart and center of what it is to have eternal life.

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Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your kindness to us and your mercy to us.

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And thank you, our Father, for your providence, working through history to reveal yourself to your people.

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We thank you, our God, for the privilege we have today to be able to stand on the shoulders of so many that have gone before us.

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And we pray, Lord, that we would be faithful to your scripture, to the word that you've given as we've come to understand it more clearly and fully through your work of grace in the lives of these people at times in history.

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Help us, our God, to be faithful to you and faithful to your word in declaring these very important and biblical doctrines in our day in the world in which you've placed us.

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And may you bless this, our God, for the furtherance of the knowledge of Jesus Christ among many.