Open your Bibles to John chapter
17, our Lord's Prayer. To know the only true God is
not merely just to know some things about Him, but to receive
Him, believe Him, love Him as He reveals Himself to you in
Christ. The obedience and death of Christ effectually redeemed
all believers, every single one of them. In these verses here,
He prays not only for those apostles and present disciples, but for
all who will receive and believe the gospel. He did not pray for
people who would die in unbelief. He prayed for those who were
not yet believing, but who would believe. Faith comes by hearing
the word. For Christ prays for those who
would believe through their word. Let's look here in John 17, verse
1. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son
also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given
unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received
them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they
have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. All mine
are thine, and thine are mine. And I am glorified in them. And
now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. And
I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. While
I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those
that thou gavest me, I have kept, but none of them is lost. But
the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled."
That's Judas. And now come I to thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou should take
them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the
evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast
sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into
the world. And for their sakes I sanctify
myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth."
And in the margin it says, truly sanctified. Neither pray I for
these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word, that they may all be one as thou, Father, art in
me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the
world may believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory which
thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one even as
we are one, I in them, and thou in me. that they may be made
perfect in one, and that the world may know that Thou hast
sent me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved me. Father,
I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me,
for Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous
Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee,
and these have known that Thou hast sent me. And I have declared
unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith
thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. Whom the
Father chose, the Son redeemed, and the Holy Spirit calls. Let's
pray. Open with me to Genesis chapter
3. If you will, Genesis chapter
3. I want to The title of my message this
evening is, The First Gospel Message. The first time the gospel was
ever preached. I want to bring a message on
that. The first time the gospel was ever preached. And it is
preached here in the book of Genesis. In the very beginning. Look what is said here in verse
15. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He's talking
about Satan and the Lord Jesus Christ. And it shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And unto the woman, he
said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desire shall
be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam,
he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou
shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life. Thorns also, and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return
unto the ground. For out of it wast thou taken,
for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And Adam called
his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living.
And unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats
of skins and clothed them. And that's where I want to get
my subject from. There in verse 21. Unto Adam
also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins
and clothed them. Genesis, the book of Genesis.
Genesis means beginning. And some call it the seed plot
of the Bible. The seed plot of the Bible. Everything
we find here in seed form, germ form in seed, the great doctrines
of the Bible and they start here and then they unfold throughout
the scriptures. You find election and it gets
greater throughout the scriptures. You find the fall and you learn
more and more about it. And we learn about God. And I
tell you, in Genesis, God is revealed as the Creator, then
He's also later revealed as the Covenant God, and then He's revealed
as the Almighty God, the Most High Possessor of Heaven and
Earth. And the first mention of the Blessed Trinity is in
Genesis, when God said, let us make man in our own image. And then man, first mention of
man, the first place we find man. He comes from God. He's God's creation. God created
him. God put a soul in him. God communed
with him. And then that man fell from his
standing before God. And he lost his standing before
God. And he was not able to get himself
back up. He hid himself from the presence
of the Lord. And then God restored him. God
restored man, and that's where we find the gospel. And then
the first thing you find in Genesis 6-8, where the word grace is
mentioned, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And then
we see sovereign election. We're confronted with sovereign
election. God chose Noah. Then God chose Seth. Then God
chose Abraham. Then God chose Isaac. Then God
chose Jacob. And you can go down through the
scriptures where God chose. And why did he do that? Cause
he's God. He can choose who he want to.
You read in John 17. He said, those that thou hast given me.
He said, I ain't praying for the world. I have no business
praying for the world. I'm not of the world. They're
not of the world. And Father, I tell you through the word that
these men preached, I pray for them that's going to believe
the gospel through what these men preach. And oh my. And I tell you, then we first
thing we find a mention of justification by faith. The scripture says
Abraham, it didn't say that Abraham obeyed God. It didn't say Abraham
served God, Abraham loved God, Abraham, the scripture said believed
God. And it was accounted unto him
for righteousness. Why was it accounted unto him
for righteousness? Because Abraham didn't have one until God gave
him one. That's why it's called that. And then the believer's
security is first seen in the scripture. The first mention
of a believer's security and his sure salvation by the justice
of God, by the wrath of God, and by God's providing. When
God was getting ready to throw the world, you know the only
people that he saved was Noah and his family. Cause they found
grace. How did he save them? Saved them
in an ark. And that ark was pitched within
and without with pits. That's the same word for atonement.
And so when God, there was one door into that way. And that
Christ, you read it tonight, there's only one door and that's
Christ. And there was one door in and
God said to Noah, said when he got in there, said come thou
into the ark. He didn't say go into it, come
into it. I'm in here with you. And then
when the judgment fell and the rain fell on that, it fell on
everybody but the people in the ark. It fell on that ark. It fell on Christ. And everybody
in Christ was secure. And they came out on a new earth.
And one of these days we're gonna come out on a new earth. So you
know, I tell you, beloved, there's just so much in here, the incarnation. Genesis 3.15, the seed of the
woman. And where do we find the fulfillment
of that at? In Galatians 4.4, it says, when
the pleased God, at the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son
made of a woman, made of a woman. And oh my, and then we have the
first mention, the first type of the death and resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Abraham took Isaac, his
son, upon the mountain, The Scriptures tells us that He said, ìI and
the lad will go yonder and worship, and weíll return again.î And
Abraham was going to go up there to slay his son Isaac. But he
knew that God had made a promise that in him and in his seed,
all the nations of the earth would be blessed. So he knowed
that God, that God if he slew that boy, God would raise him
again from the dead. And that's what it says in Hebrews
11, that God, that Abraham received him as if he was from the dead. And our Lord, as the father taking
the son, and slaying him and then bringing him back to life
and him coming out of the tomb and he come off a mountain and
they worshiped and we worshiped what Christ did on that mountain
huh and oh my then our Lord's exaltation Joseph when he was
brought up out of the dungeon and the first mention of our
Lord's eternal priesthoods in Genesis when it says after the
order of Melchizedek He'll be a priest forever. And then there's
the judgment. First place we find the judgment.
We find it in Genesis. Find it in Genesis. Cain, first
man to be judged. The next thing you know, you've
got the flood. The next thing you know, you've
got Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain. Oh my. Lot's wife. But there
was a preacher. Augustine was his name. He says
the new, the New Testament is in the old concealed, and the
old is in the new revealed. And so you can take everything
that you find in the New Testament and go back to the Old Testament. See, that's where it started.
The new is in this old book, in the Old Testament. It's concealed
in there. And then when you get to the
new, the old is revealed. So let me, let me see that what
I'm saying is this. So the gospel we preach and believe
is not new. It's not new. It's not somebody's
fancy or imagination, but it's clearly, clearly taught all the
way through the scriptures. You know, when you first find
Genesis, I mean, Galatians 3.8, you know what it says? It says
that the gospel was first preached unto Abraham. And what did he
mean by that? The gospel was first preached
unto Abraham. Because he said, in thee shall
all nations of the earth be blessed. So the gospel wasn't preached
just in some story. It started here in Genesis. And
there's the law first mentioned, but I wanted to say, I want to
preach on five, I wanted to mention five things, five things this
evening about this first gospel message ever preached in Genesis
321. Genesis 321, unto Adam also and
to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed
them. Well, who preached the first gospel message? God did. God did it. God did it. And why
did he do it? Why did he seek these people
out? Why did he clothe them? It pleased him to do it. He says,
you know, it pleased God who separated me from my mother's
womb. It pleased God to make you his people. And man needed
salvation. Man needed the gospel. He didn't
seek the gospel, he didn't seek God, he didn't seek Christ, and
he didn't desire it. And this gospel, this gospel,
or the gospel, was preached after Adam fell. Because it was after
Adam fell, after Adam fell into sin, him and his wife, they didn't
need the gospel until after they fell. And a man who's not a sinner,
and who is without God, without Christ, he don't need the gospel.
It's only people that's without God, without Christ, and hiding
from God need the gospel. And God's got to find you where
you're at. That's why I said, Adam, where are you? And then
how was it preached? Let me show you something. Let
me show you just what I'm talking about, about man ain't seeking
the Lord. Look in Psalm 14. Man doesn't seek the Lord. People
say, oh, I hear preachers say this, and I've heard it for years.
The world out there is dying for the truth, and we need to
take them the truth. The world ain't dying for the
truth. They love a lie and believe a lie, and the only way they'll
ever believe the truth is if God breaks in on them and teaches
it to them. Oh my, people ain't out here just hungering and thirsting
after the truth. If they did, this building wouldn't
hold all the people tonight. If there was only five people
out here in Cumberland County besides the folks that here was
actually interested in knowing God and seeking God and seeking
Christ, they'd be here to listen. I believe that. I believe that,
but listen, look what he said in Psalm 14. The fool hath said
in his heart, there's no God. I don't need a God. Why do I
need God? And notice how that's capitalized.
That's not a little God. There's no God. And look what
he says. They're corrupt. They have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good.
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men. God
looked down now on the children of men. And he looked down to
see if there were any that did understand. Anybody understand
me? Anybody understand the self?
Anybody understand sin? Anybody understand righteousness? Anybody understand salvation? Anybody understand grace? Anybody
understand imputed righteousness? That's why I said, what do you
understand about God in his word? And he goes on to say this. And
who seeks God? They're all going to side. They're
all together become filthy. And there's none that do it good. No, not one. That was the condition
of man. That was the condition that why
man needs salvation. Man needs it. And then how was
this gospel preached? It was preached by type. By type. By clothing Adam and Eve, our
first parents, God taught us five, five lessons. And here's
the first lesson. Before a guilty sinner could
approach a holy God, he had to have a suitable covering. He
had to be covered with something other than he had on. Ain't that
right? It says, look what it says. The first Adam and Eve
back up in verse seven, the eyes of them both were open and they
were naked and they sewed fig leaves together then made themselves
aprons. They didn't have a suitable cover.
But how in the world are you going to approach God if you
don't have a suitable covering, if you don't have the right covering?
Their nakedness was covered up. You know, nobody could see them
anymore, but God could. And God's the high and lofty
one that inhabits eternity. And He dwells with those that
are of a humble and contrite spirit. Holy and reverend is
His name. And how in the world is anybody
going to find out and approach God who is holy and reverend
and just and righteous? And he says, you know, in Hebrews
10, if we're gonna approach God, we gotta approach him with blood,
without the shedding of blood, no remission. And I tell you,
beloved, man cannot approach God in his nakedness. And they
were, you know, they said, and you know, and God said, what
are you doing, Adam? He said, we're naked. Well, he had on fig leaves. He had on fig leaves. Man can't
approach God in his nakedness. The eyes of the Lord, everything
is open and naked before him. And how do they become naked?
By a fall, by disobedience. And oh listen, this is what's
getting me. You know I mentioned it this
morning, we was talking about it at lunch today. You know why
preachers, when they try to get folks to come to services wherever
they're at, come to the church or whatever they call it, you
know why they don't never mention Christ? You know why they don't
mention that? It's because they don't know
anything about, all they know is a fig leaf religion. And they
can, you come, you know, and they don't know nothing about
God. And here they became naked by a fall. But David said, blessed
is the man. Blessed is the man whose sins
are not imputed to him. Blessed is the man whose sins
are covered. And oh, gotta have a covering.
Gotta have, you're gonna come in God's presence. You gotta
have a, you know, you remember that story where they, they was
having a wedding. And they had all these people
come into this wedding. And the man who was the father
who was throwing the wedding, he walked around in there and
seen everybody had to have on a wedding garment. Y'all been
to weddings where, you know, everybody had on the, all the
girls had on the same thing and all the men had on, that's what
he, he said, you gotta have on a wedding garment. He was looking
around there and he said, how come it's dying here without
a wedding garment? You ain't got, you're not supposed to be
in here, you ain't got a wedding garment. You know what they said?
Bind him hand and foot and take him out of here. If you're gonna
go to this wedding of Christ, you got to have the right clothes
on. You got to have the right clothes on. Here's the second
thing that he teaches us there. That the clothing that Adam and
Eve made was not acceptable. Their clothes, it says they sewed
fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. The clothing
that they had was not acceptable. And I'll tell you something,
this is so obvious. They still, even after they was
clothed, they still did not want the presence of God, even though
they were covered. In fact, God's presence made
them know that they were naked even while they was clothed with
fig leaves. Ain't that what he said? Let's
look in verse seven through eight through 10. Eight through 10,
excuse me. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. And you know, how long did we
hide ourselves from God and from the presence of the Lord? How
did we hide ourselves? They had on clothes. We had on
clothes. We had our fundamentalism. We
had our legalism. We had our self-righteousness.
We had our alters. We had our tears. We had our
repentance. We had our faith. We had our
works. We had our tithe paying. And all of those was trying to
make us acceptable in God's presence. And if we ever failed in one
of those ways, we automatically had to get right again so we
could go back in God's presence. Always felt like you couldn't
feel comfortable in God's presence unless you met a certain criteria.
And these people here, they had clothes on, but they still didn't
want God's presence. Still didn't want any presence.
And oh my, and he goes on down to say there, and the Lord God
called unto Adam and said, where are you? God knew where he was.
He wanted Adam to know where he was. He wanted Adam to know,
Adam, what in the world is wrong with you that you're hiding from
me? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was
afraid because I was naked and hid myself. And God asked him,
said, who told thee thou was naked? Who told you? I didn't
tell you. I didn't tell you. Oh, beloved,
I'm telling you, the Scriptures teaches us plainly. And here's
the sad, sad part about it. That man will be so content,
and this is the thing, man has got so far, far, far, far, way
on down through history, that Paul said, my heart's desire
in prayer for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
record of them. I go on record before God for
them. For they don't know the righteousness of God. They've
not submitted to the righteousness of God. They have not submitted
to the clothing that God provides. Well, how do you know, Paul?
Because they're going about to establish their own righteousness.
And the Pharisees, and this is the thing about it, man, he'll
hide himself from God in religion, he'll hide himself in prayers,
he'll hide himself in all these ways. And that's why Paul also
says this, he says, If me, he said, there are those that preach
another gospel, which is not another gospel. There's no other
gospel. And he says, though we or an angel from heaven bring
any other gospel than that we've already preached to you, let
him be accursed. And if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Let me tell you something
about your covering. Our clothing, if we want to come
into the presence of God, And believe me, we're all going into
His presence one of these days, saved or lost, saved or lost,
we're all going into His presence. In fact, we're in His presence
right now, saved or lost, we're always in His presence. And I
do know this, if we're gonna face God and be accepted of God,
we got to have a covering that's only acceptable to Him. Oh my,
if righteousness, if a covering come by anything we did, Christ
is dead in vain. Do you reckon He died in vain? No. And Paul learned this. Paul learned that his covering
was not acceptable. Not acceptable. And that's why
he said, I want to be found in Christ. I want to be found in
Him. And here's the thing, your covering,
your covering must be perfect to be accepted. must be perfect
to be accepted. And you got all the ways that
men tried to get accepted of God. The first ones you find
in the scriptures, Cain. Hey, Cain wanted to be accepted
of God. He wanted to worship God. He wanted to be accepted
of God. What did he do? He went out here
and raised him one of the best, probably the best gardens ever
been on the face of the earth. There was no curse, you know.
Here's this first garden ever raised by anyone. Can you imagine
what kind of garden it was? You think you've all raised some
good gardens in your lifetime? He had a garden that would have
put any garden that's ever been raised to shame. But that's the
thing about it. He brought what he did with his
own hands. He brought what he did with his
own words. He brought what he did from a
ground that God had already cursed. And he brought that to God and
he said, lookie here! Lookie here, oh my, you ever
seen anything like this? And God said, get it out of my
sight. I don't want it. I ain't gonna
have it. And you know what he did to Cain? Why wouldn't God curse a man
if he tries to come in God's presence with something of his
own works? Something of his own doing? Why
wouldn't God curse him? Huh? After he sent his son into
this world? After his son come to live and
die and shed his blood and suffer for us? Why wouldn't God curse
a man? Try to come on some other ground
other than the blood and righteousness of Christ? Oh my! That's why our Lord Jesus Christ,
that's why he said, that's why he talked about the works of
man's cursed. Man's works are cursed. And what
it was, it's will worship. Oh, it's will worship. I'll come
worship the way I want to. And will worship is coming by
what your will desires and what your ideas are and your conceptions
are instead of God's appointed way. And beloved, fig religion
is of the order of the day. And here's what's so sad about
fig leaf religion. I've had it. I know what I'm
talking about. I've had this fig leaf religion. I had it. I had lots of it for
a long time. That's what I had when I come
to Tennessee. I had a fig leaf religion. And you know what I
did? I made everybody else, they ended up having a fig leaf religion. And oh, listen, that's the order
of the day. And here's what's the matter with the fig leaf
religion. The leaf withers and dies, and it's necessary that
you make you another one. You got to just keep on, it's
just a temporary covering, and that's what people do, just keep
on trying to cover up, cover up. They'll do a ceremony, they'll
do a ritual, they'll hold on to their traditions, their church
membership, their baptism, their works, anything to try to quieten
their conscience. And man, where did man get this
front fig leaf? He got it from his father Adam,
and they all been doing it ever since. If God don't have mercy
on them. And here's the third lesson.
First of all, that God requires a covering. And man's covering
that he made for himself is not suitable. And the third lesson
is this, that God Himself, God Himself must provide the covering. Look what it says there in verse
21. Genesis 3 unto Adam also and his wife did the Lord God
make Coats of skins and clothed them. Oh God himself's got to
be the one to do it, huh? And this is I know Scott Richardson.
I tell you what I heard him say this so many times God will only
accept what he himself provides and If he don't provide it, he
won't accept it. Whatever God provides, that's
what he accepts. He provide the lamb, that's what
he accepts. He provide his son, that's all
he'll accept. He provide the blood, that's
all he'll accept. He provided a curving for Adam
and Eve, and he provided for him, and he made the coats for
him, and so beloved only he accepts what he himself provides. And
oh, bless His name. Bless His holy name. If you take
what He provides and what He gives, and everything He gives,
and everything we have He gives, and if you provide, accept, if
He gives you what He provides for you, that's all He'll accept.
And if you only come with what He gives you, you'll always be
accepted. Never have to, I don't, I've
never worried since I've heard the gospel, learned the gospel,
never ever been concerned that I wouldn't be accepted in the
presence of God. In fact, we come with boldness
and liberty and confidence and assurance. Why? Because we're
covered with what God covered us with, His righteousness of
His blessed Son. Huh? Oh, I'll tell you, that's
like Abraham. Let's look over here in Genesis
22. Let's look in Genesis 22. Let's look at this a minute. Here's your perfect example of
God providing something. In Genesis 22. Genesis 22. Look what it says in verse six. And Abraham took the wood of
the burnt offering, laid it upon Isaac, his son. He took the fire
in his hand and a knife. And they went both of them together.
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, my father.
And he said, here I am, my son. And he said, behold, we got the
fire, we got the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? We got everything but something
to put on the altar to burn. And listen to what Abraham says.
And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself A lamb. He'll provide himself as the
lamb. And he provided himself a lamb
in his blessed son, the lamb of God. Watch this. God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering so that both of them
went together. Now look down verse 13. And Abraham is fixing to slay
his son. And it said in verse 13, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him A ram caught
in a thicket by his horns and Abraham went and took the ram.
Who put that ram in that thicket? How'd that ram get there? What
was that ram doing there out in the wilderness? Up on that
mountainside where Abraham took his son. And oh, I told you,
Abraham told him, said, God's gonna provide it, son. God's
gonna provide it. And it caught a thicket by his
horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up. And this is what God did for
us. Offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. Oh, God provided it. And God
accepted it. God accepted it. And oh my. And it's only God himself. He provided the coats of skin.
Salvations of the Lord. You know, God must be just. He
must be just. He has to punish sin. He must
punish sin. But all at the same time, He's
a justifier. How can He be just and justifies
it at the same time? by us providing for us what we
need. We needed a covering. God gave
us a covering in His Son. God made Him, Christ, to be sin
for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Huh? And that's why John said
when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ he said, Behold the Lamb of God. There's the Lamb of God. And
oh my, that's why God would not accept the fig leaf for Cain's
sacrifice because it wasn't of blood. There had to be shedding
of blood. And God had justly passed the
sentence of death on Adam and Eve and yet closed them and communed
with them. And how did he do it? Through
death. And that's the fourth lesson.
That necessary covering could only be obtained through death. What did it say? It said the
Lord God did unto Adam also and his wife did the Lord God make
coats of skins and clothed them. Oh my, He provided the coats.
And how in the world is He going to make these coats of skin?
Somebody's got to die. Who dies? Adam and Eve didn't
die. Well, who died? That animal that
God provided. That lamb that God provided.
That sacrifice that God provided. Who slew it? God slew it. Who
provided the blood? God provided the blood. Look
in John 12, 24. This is it here. This is what
our Lord, this is it. Oh my. John 12, 24. You know
the substitute. You know it's necessary that
the covering could only be obtained through death. And that's why
it's so awful. It's so awful. Once God teaches
you the gospel and teaches you that a man can only be saved
through the death of someone else. The innocent must die in
order to cover the the shame and nakedness of the guilty.
And look what He said here in our Lord Jesus Christ said in
verse 23. And our Lord answered them saying,
The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily,
verily, or truly, truly, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die. It abides alone. Until it dies,
it abides by itself. Christ living by Himself on this
earth. Listen, it takes death to save
a sinner. Except it die, it abideth alone. But listen here. But if it die,
out of that one seed comes much fruit. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
God said he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised
for our iniquity. The Lord laid on him the iniquity
of us all. You take the sins of Adam, the
sins of Abel, the first sins ever committed in the garden.
And you take all the sins of God's elect until the last sinner
is saved by the grace of God. You take all the sins of all
of God's elect and God took all of those sins, all of those sins,
all of those sins from everyone whom Christ died for. took all
the sins of the beginning until the end of all his elect, and
put every single one of them on his son. Mine was enough. Mine was enough. And what happened
when he did that? He said, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. If there any other way, if it
be possible. And oh, and it pleased the Lord
to make his soul and offering for sin. God looked at the travail,
the burden, the agony of His soul and the travail of it and
He said, I'm satisfied. And I tell you what, beloved,
here's what has to happen. Christ knew no sin. It's hard for us to grasp this,
that the Lord Jesus Christ, for 33 and a half years on this earth,
was sinless in every single way there was to be sinless. He was
perfect, but yet he died for sin. He died for sin. God judged him for sin. He died because sin was found
on him. He was punished for sin. He said
the soul that sinneth it shall die. I sinned so I have to die. I must die for my sin. God demands
my death for my sin. God must punish me for my sin.
He can't let me get by with my sin and stay God. Well then how in the world can
he punish me for my sin and at the same time make me righteous
and give me life? Because his son was sinless and
perfect. And he willingly, you read it
back there tonight. He says, no man takes my life
from me. I have the power to lay it down. I have the power to take it up
again. This commandment have I received of my father. Herein
doth my father love me. Christ had no sin of his own.
Well, how in the world was he judged for sin? Mine, yours. And I died for my sin, Joe. I
died for my sin. I was punished for my sin. The
wrath of God fell on me for my sin. And I died for my sin. I died for my sin. You died for
yours if you believe on Christ. God was just to do us that way. And then He takes that sinless,
holy, righteous life of Christ and He turns around and He puts
that on us. He took our sin and died and
rose again. You know why He rose again? for
our justification, to show that we were justified in God's sight,
that we had no more sin. How do I know I don't have no
sin? I'm accepted with God. There's accepted God's right
hand. He bore our offenses, but He was raised again for our justification. And I often ask this question.
What would justify God accepting you or accepting me? How could
God justly accept you or me the way we are right now? Through
His blessings, sir. He's just. Oh, He punished us
and we died. I've died for my sins. I've done
been judged. I've done been in the grave.
I've done been in the grave and I've done been raised up from
the dead. been raised up in Christ. And He's also the justifier of
who? Him that believes. That believes,
not works, believes on Him who raised up Christ from the dead. I'm going to be like that old
blind man again, Lord. I believe. I believe. I believe. Oh, I believe. I believe. Oh, I believe. My
beam cries out, I believe. My soul cries out, I believe. Don't yours? Right now, this
moment, ain't you saying, yes, I believe, I believe, I believe?
And that's what happened, it's through death. And oh, Christ
bore in His own body our sins. And on the tree, He was the just
for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, that we might
approach God. And oh, listen, in that covering
that God provided us, was the Lord Jesus Christ and His blessed,
blessed righteousness. That's the gospel. Our covering
is not good enough. Not good enough. And we won't
know it's not good enough until God comes and says, where are
you? And then when He comes and says, where are you? And you
say, oh, I'm afraid, Lord. I'm afraid. And then He'll come. We are. He slayed, He done slayed
His blessed Son. And He'll cover you. And you
know what? It'll be perfect. It's perfect.
And then here's my last lesson. My last lesson. The only way
that animal could be slain was through shedding of blood. The
innocent for the guilty. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. You say, boy, that don't seem
right. I tell you what. It seems perfect to me. It seems
wonderful to me. It seems blessed to me. And here's
the fifth thing. That salvation of sinners is
all of grace. All of grace. What did Adam and
Eve do to get God to find them? To get God to slay the offering? Cover their nakedness? What did
they do to get God to do any of that? What did they do? Huh? God came
where they were. And you know what they was? They
thought they was hid. But the eyes of the Lord run
to and fro, beholding everything on the earth. And oh, they thought
they was hid. God came to them. Came to where
they were. And God spoke to them where they
were. And God brought them to confess
their sins. And let me tell you this. Fear
or their conscience never made them seek the Lord. But God came
to them where they were. God sought them where they were.
God brought them to confess their sin. And God Himself slew the
animals. He clothed Adam and Eve. He did
it. They were covered with animal
skins, but we are covered with the righteousness of Christ. They were eventually, God drove
them out from His presence. And we're brought nigh by the
blood of Christ, by a new and living way. And oh my, we're
brought to by the blood and righteousness of Christ. And I'm telling you,
and look what it says down here in verse 24. Just look what happens
here. Salvation's all of grace. God
did it all. God did it, absolutely did it
all. So he drove out the man and he
placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming
sword which turned every way to keep the way to the tree of
life. And you know the way to the tree
of life now? The Lord Jesus Christ. He is
life itself. And there's not a soul in this
building, not a soul in this building that knows Christ and
knows the gospel. that didn't understand what I
said. Everybody understood. And they every single one of
us know that if God hadn't sought us, we'd have never sought Him.
If He hadn't come to where we were, we'd have never come to
Him. If He hadn't clothed us, we'd still be covered with our
own works. We'd have been like the Pharisee.
I thank the old Lord that I'm not like the rest of them fools
out there. All of grace. God did it all. All to Him I
owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it. He washed it. He washed it. White as snow. Our Father, in the blessed, glorious,
holy, righteous name of Your Son, our Lord, our Savior, our
Redeemer, the very lover of our soul, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you for allowing us to speak of him and talk about his
blessed righteousness and talk about your grace, the work that
you did, the work that you provided. You was the one that made your
soul, your son's soul, an offering for sin. It pleased you to bruise
him. It satisfied you. The only way
you could be satisfied the only way we could be made righteous,
and our Holy, Holy Father, blessed be your name, that we stand in
your presence tonight as righteous as we'll ever be, accepted as
we'll ever be, as holy as we'll ever be, without any sin, without
spot, without blemish, because of our Lord Jesus Christ and
your salvation that you provided us in him. Thank you, Lord. Blessed be your name. Cause this
gospel to become alive and real and vital in people's hearts
and minds and lives and souls. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.