Madison Reformed Church Madison Reformed Church

What rings true to most people about Genesis 3 is the description of a painful and toilsome life. You can put so much thought and work into something, only for it to backfire. So that part of the story of Genesis 3 checks out immediately in our experience. But what about the rest of it? Today’s passage teaches us that even though we all live our lives in the wilderness outside of Eden, Christ makes us to taste of the tree of life. He keeps us going, nourished along the way, while we toil outside the Garden.

Exod. 24
Neh. 1:7–11
Jn 1:14–18
Heb. 9:18–26
The phrase “the old covenant” shows up in the NT in 2 Corinthians 3 and Hebrews 8. It’s important to remember that the Old Covenant actually began at Mount Sinai. It’s an agreement between God and the Israelites, with Moses as the go-between, where God promised a people, place, and his presence if the people obeyed his commandments. This whole set-up showed what perfect righteousness looks like, and therefore, pointed them to Christ. In other words, the Old Covenant (also sometimes called the Mosaic or Sinai Covenant) shows that God’s blessings come only through his righteous Son. In this message, we remember that the Old Covenant was one administration of the greater Covenant of Grace, but that it was unique: It was distinct from Abraham; it was strict; it was shadowy.

Genesis 15 is one of the most important chapters in the whole Old Testament, but it’s not really in children’s storybook Bibles and many lifelong Christians hardly know about it. Why is that? It's an ancient Near Eastern covenant. But by looking into it, we see the glories of our redemption. In this message on the Abrahamic covenant, we learn that God's promise of a  people, a place, and the presence of God belong also to us.

In this passage, the curses that God pronounces against the serpent, woman, and Adam bring us back to the original callings he placed upon image-bearers. We are to be fruitful, but sin now twists this calling. Ecclesiastes calls the result “vanity, and a chasing after the wind.” Paul in Romans calls it “futility.” We try to work, and produce, and live—but the curse brings toil, pain, and eventually death. And yet Christ has overcome and is overcoming this curse. Because of his obedience and his death, we are freed to pursue God’s callings in our lives with all our might—whatever those callings might be.

Gen. 8:20–9:17
Jer. 33:19–26
Matt. 5:43–48
1 Pet. 2:13–17
In this sermon in our series on the Biblical covenants, we turn to a different kind of covenant—not saving and redemptive, but common and applying to everyone. It was made just after the flood, and so it is sometimes called the Noahic Covenant, which is uninterrupted, universal, and useful to every part of common life.

This passage is in two parts: God confronts Adam and Eve (vv. 8–13) and God judges them and the serpent (vv. 14–19), but it’s all held together especially by the promise in v. 15: God’s original gospel promise. This passage teaches us that sin not only brings judgment, but leads us to think that we don’t deserve it. But brothers and sisters, Christ has been bruised for our sins. And when we recognize that, it not only takes away our fear of judgment; it enables to us acknowledge our sins.