Genesis chapter 3, please. Genesis chapter 3. This is the very foundation of
all of our theology. That's the fall of man in the
garden. If a man doesn't understand the
fall, then he doesn't understand anything. If he doesn't understand
the fall, then he doesn't understand the Restorer, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Chapter 3 and verse 1, Now the
serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea,
hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the
trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in
the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of
it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent
said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth
know that in the day you eat thereof your eyes shall be opened,
you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, She took the fruit thereof and did eat, gave also
unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the moment he
ate, we stood in at him, we fell in at him. And the moment that
he ate, the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they
were naked. They sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves aprons, trying to hide themselves, cover themselves. 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 God amongst the
trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, where art thou? And he said, I heard
thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked,
and I hid myself. And he said, who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee thou shouldst not eat? The man said, the woman
whom thou gavest be with me. She gave me of the tree, and
I did eat. The Lord God said unto the woman,
What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the
serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all
cattle, above every beast of the field, and upon thy belly
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, and it shall
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now turn over
to one other verse, verse 21. And Adam also and his wife, unto
Adam also and his wife, The Lord God made coats of skins and clothed
them, and they were no longer naked and afraid before God. I want to talk to you this morning
about being clothed of the Lord. The gospel message is a declaration
of how God clothes naked sinners making them acceptable in His
sight. That's the gospel message. Proclaiming
that message. And that's what I want to look
at this morning. Maybe, just maybe, God will clothe
somebody here this very morning. Wouldn't that be wonderful? expose
their nakedness and then clothe them in the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus. There are several important truths
in this third chapter. Several important truths. But
they all come under two heads. The fall of man and the free
mercy and grace of God. given unto sinners in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those two chief headings, The
Fall of Man, we read about it, and The Restoration of Man, in
Christ, the seed of the woman, the restorer. And I want to look
at these two things just briefly this morning. Simple truths,
but truths hardly understood by the masses in our day. What
happened in the garden? Very few understand, very few
know. So let's look at it. First of
all, the fall. Adam and Eve, I thought about
this and wondered at it, and even in a sense rejoiced in it,
how they lived before God, before the fall. And not only lived
before God, not only of conscious of the presence of God, they
lived on God. They lived on God. They knew
that He was their God, their Creator, their Sustainer, their
Benefactor. Everything they had came from
God. Everything around them that they partook of belonged to God.
They belonged to God. The trees belonged to God. The
garden belonged to God. Everything belonged to God. And
they lived on God. Without sin. Perfect holiness. Perfect happiness. And I thought
about that scene. Tried to imagine it. I can't
hardly do it. But it's something to think about. Something to desire. To live
on God. Without sin. And that's what
they did. God talked to them in the cool
of the day, in the garden. They lived on God. So God-conscious. Everything around them reminded
them of God. They looked at each other, they
reminded of God. They lived on God. That's amazing. That's what we're supposed to
do, live before God, live on God. But anyway, God gave them
the only commandment I know of here. One commandment, do not
eat of all these trees out here, beautiful, wonderful, good fruit,
all of the trees of the garden freely. Freely! Take them and
eat them. But the tree in the midst of
the garden thou shalt not eat. In the day, in the day that you
partake of this tree, you will surely die. One prohibition. One tree not to touch. And Satan
came along in his subtlety. God really said that? I said,
what did He say? Well, He knew that if you took of it, you'd
be gods, you know, you'd be as smart as Him. And she looked at that tree again.
Man, that's pleasant to the eyes. And it looks juicy and sweet,
something I'd like to eat." And so she reached out her little
hand and she took it. Reached out her little hand and
she took it. And she ate it. And she gave it to Adam to eat.
Because he loved the woman, he knew what he was doing. His eyes
were wide open. He took her that fruit. And He
died right there on the spot. In the day you eat thereof, you
die. And He ate and He died. And we were in Him. And we died
when He died. We died in Him. Satan, he deceived Eve and she
disobeyed God. She talked her husband into disobeying
God. And they immediately, both of
them and the whole human race, died. Not physically, they lived
a long number of years, but spiritually. To die physically is when the
soul leaves the body. You put the body in a hole in
the ground some place and it goes back to the dust from which
it was made. To die spiritually is the soul
to be separated from God. That's what happened in the garden.
The soul of man was separated from God. That's what God told
Isaiah. God's arms are not shortened.
He can't save it. Your sins have separated between
you and your God. That's what happened to us in
the garden. Separated us from God. Romans 5.12, Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into this world, and death by sin,
so death passed upon all men, and that all have sinned. We
sinned in Adam. We became guilty in Adam. We
died in Adam. He was our representative, our
federal head. And when he died, we died. Died. Souls separated from God. No more walking with God in the
cool of the evening. Now Adam trying to hide himself,
get away from God, cover his nakedness in fear. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
1. You hath he quickened. And this
is what God must do to us if we're going to be saved. You
hath he quickened. That means literally simply made
alive. You God made alive who were dead. You were dead in trespasses and
in sin. And God passed by and said, live. And you lived. You hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and in sins. Ephesians chapter 2 also, it
talks about the Gentiles. They were separated. They weren't
part of the covenant God made with Israel. And it says this,
and this is an awful description, without Christ, without God,
without hope, dead. That's what we were by nature.
Without Christ, without God, without hope, dead, spiritually
dead. Alive to this world, dead to
God. Alive to the things of this world,
dead to the things of God. I want to show you something. I don't know whether you'll be
able to understand it or not, but I can show it to you. Look
at 1 Corinthians just a moment. 1 Corinthians. And this is not the only place.
It's throughout the Scriptures. The natural man, 1 Corinthians
2.14, the natural man, that's you and me. That's us when we
were born into this world by nature. By nature we were dead
in trespasses and in sins. By nature we were children of
wrath, God's wrath. And here's a characteristic of
that nature. The natural man. Receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness to him, neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Back
up to verse 9. As it is written, I have not
seen nor ear heard Neither have entered into the heart of a man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. And how
can we ever know them? But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. He gives us life. He gives us
understanding. He gives us a new nature. And
we see the things of God, rejoice in the things of God, no longer
separated from God, reconciled unto God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Dead to God by nature because
of trespasses and sins. but alive unto the world and
all the attractions of the world. Now look just a moment at the
mercy. That's our condition before God. That's our condition by
nature. No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. You can't do it. That means anybody
can say the words. That means submit to it. Submit
to it. No man can do it but by the Holy
Ghost. Nature has to be changed. It
has to be given a new nature. Now let's look just a moment
at this other truth taught here. Adam fell in the garden. And Eve fell. And we fell. And we're all in one ship. We're
all dead. All dead. We don't understand
the things of the Spirit of God. We cannot know them because they're
spiritually discerned and we no longer have the Spirit of
God. We understand natural things but not spiritual things. Now
the next point is God in sovereign, free, mercy and
grace. Came to Adam where he was. Didn't have to, did he? He didn't
come to the angels that fell, but cast them into hell. More
noble than we. And yet he came to them. He did
not immediately cast them into hell like the fallen angels.
Man was no better than the angels. Man was a sinner. Man deserved
it like the angels, but God didn't do it. He withheld his anger
and his wrath and he was forbearing. Forbearing. Forbearing. As it says in Romans chapter
9, only God's purpose of grace prevented their immediate destruction. To die physically and spiritually God gave them a conscience. Oh,
what a blessing. What a blessing. God gave them
a conscience. To know right from wrong. For
the first time, to be aware of their nakedness. How they stood
before God. They hurriedly ran into the trees, tried to
hide themselves, got fig leaves, sewed them together, and tried
to cover themselves to hide their nakedness from God. But you can't
do it. We're born into this world naked. Naked. We have no righteousness. We have no garment of salvation.
We have no clothing to make us acceptable to God. We're naked. Spiritually speaking, naked. But God did not leave them in
the fig leaves. There might be someplace in this
Bible that gives free willers an idea that they saved themselves.
I don't know how they come up with it. But it's not found in
this first account of the Gospel, the first prophecy in the Scripture,
Genesis chapter 3. God did it all. As old Barnard used to say, I
did the sinning and God did the saving. God went where they were. Do
you remember the leper in the Old Testament and Leviticus,
a type of sin? The priest went out where they
were, called them to himself, and healed
them, and healed them. God went where they were. Adam,
where are you? And healed him. Healed him. Salvations of the Lord, from
first to last, beginning to end. He found them in their guilt,
and in their shame, and in their fear, And knowing that condition never
helped them. Knowing that condition never
saved them. Knowing that condition, having
an inkling of that condition, they ran from God. Men and women
in hell have been there for years and years and years and they
know themselves even as they are known of God. But they have
no inclination to repent. They have no inclination to love
God. To turn to God. They don't have a new nature.
They're not born of God. They haven't been clothed of
God. Their fig leaves never gave their
souls peace before the Lord. Adam, where art thou? Well, right
over here. No, he tried to hide himself.
Those fig leaves didn't work. It didn't work. And the Bible says in verse 21,
And God made skeins, and God brought the skeins where they
were, and God clothed them. That's salvation. To be clothed
of God. God had gave them the promise
of Christ, who would overcome Satan, by
His work. That was man's only and sure
hope. That's the only hope God set
before them, the seed of the woman. And that's the only hope
set before us today, the seed of the woman. God's Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, Mary's Son, the God-Man. That's the only
hope. There is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. That's the
only name God ever set before us. The only way of salvation
ever set before us, Christ. When He came, He said, I'm the
way, and I'm the truth, and I'm the life. And He's our Passover
Lamb. He's our Sabbath. He's our rest.
He's our peace. He's our salvation. There's no
other hope that God ever set before man. And it's all in Christ. Not in what we do, but in what
Christ has done. What Christ has done. God did
the whole thing. God came up with the skins. God
clothed. He put them on. He put them on.
Adam and Eve. Verse 21. For by grace are you
saved through faith. And that out of yourselves. That
faith, that saving faith, that justifying faith is a gift of
God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Salvation is of the Lord. I like
saying that. I like believing Him. I like
trusting Him. Because there's nothing else,
no one else worthy of trust. God had to do something for Himself
before He could do anything for Adam. Now think about that. Before God could save us, He
had to do something for Himself. And when He had done something
for Himself, Salvation was provided. Before he could do anything for
Adam, before he could do anything for me, you, God, had to do something
for himself. And that's the answer of the
gospel. His law had been broken. He said,
the day that you eat thereof, you surely die. You're going
to die. Somebody had to die if we're
going to live. The law had to be satisfied if
we're going to live. His character had been violated. His throne had been rebelled
against. Justice called for death. God's law had to be satisfied.
God's justice had to be satisfied or no sinner is ever going to
be saved. Let me show you something in
Genesis 22, just a moment. I've always liked this. passage
of Scripture. Genesis 23. You remember when
God appeared unto Abraham and said, Abraham, take thy son,
thine only son, the one you love so much, and take him three days'
journey where I'll show you, and offer him up unto me a sacrifice
on top of the mountain. The Bible said Abraham arose
early in the morning and took off. Little old Isaac was young. I
don't know how old he was at this time. But in verse 6, Abraham took
the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son,
took the fire in his hand, took a knife, and they started up
the mountain, started up the hill. Isaac was a bright young man. He knew
something about sacrifices, something about the worship of God. And
Isaac spake to Abraham, his father, and said, my father. And he said,
here am I, my son. And he said, behold the fire
and the wood. Where's the lamb? You've got
to have a lamb. You can't offer a sacrifice to
God. You can't worship God without a lamb. cannot worship God without
a lamb. And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. They had stopped
and they talked a while about this matter. And then they went,
both of them together, on up the mountain. Isaac willingly
held out his hands to be bound, willing to lay himself down on
that altar. Amazing story. You can't worship
God without a lamb. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verses
18 through 21, all things are of God. who hath reconciled us
unto himself by Jesus Christ, not imputing our sins unto us,
but charging them all to him. And then in verse 21, God made
him who knew no sin to be sin for us. that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. God did it all. All things are
of God. God did it all. We don't make
peace with God. Make peace with God. That's what
everybody cried. Make peace with God. Give your
heart to God. If you ever save, God will give you a new heart.
Christ already made peace with God. He is our peace. The only
peace we'll ever have is in Christ. As I said before, He's the Passover
lamb. He's the sacrifice. He's our Sabbath, our rest, Hebrews
4. He's our peace. He's our salvation. He that hath the Son hath life. Hath life. And so, Christ is
our peace. Christ made peace for us. Peace
with God was established by the work of Christ. By the work of
Christ. God is the seeker. God is the
finder. God is the provider. God did
it all. He came where we were and became
what we were, sin accepted, and redeemed us under God by His
own blood. And what we do through the preaching,
the declaration of the gospel of peace, by the grace of God,
and the only way it can happen, by the grace of God we recognize
and acknowledge by faith what God has done for sinners in Christ. And we hear that good news, and
we believe it. We lay hold of Christ by faith.
We wrap our arms around Christ and trust in Him. Faith in Him. Look at Isaiah 61 just a moment. Isaiah chapter 61. Wonderful
passage of Scripture. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God. Can we do that? Here's a reason. For he hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation. He clothed me like Adam and Eve. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness. As a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels,
the Lord hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. The Lord Jesus in the Scriptures,
Jeremiah is called Jehovah tisidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. And a few chapters later, we're
called the same thing. The church is called the same
thing. Jehovah t'sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. We're
the righteousness of God in Christ. We are the righteousness of God
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse
8, you remember the naked child thrown out into the field? Lying
there in his blood, nobody to help. And God said it was a time
of love. I came by and I said, live. And that's what's happened to
each of us if we're saved. God gave us life. Salvation is
not just making a decision. Salvation is eternal life. Salvation is a new life, a spiritual
life. And only God can give it. Only
God can give it. Only God can give it. Let me
read you something beautiful. Look at Luke just a moment. Luke
chapter 15. This is great. You remember the prodigal son
ran off from home with his inheritance. Tired of living under daddy's
roof. Tired of living by daddy's rules. He took off and his father
gave him the money. Never saw him anymore for some
time. And he went and he waxed worse and worse and worse until
he was looking for something to eat where the pigs eat. Looking
to eat with the pigs. And then somehow, by the amazing
grace of God, in verse 17, chapter 15, and when He came to Himself,
oh, that's a good day, when we come to see what we are before
God. When He came to Himself, He said, how many hired servants
of my Father's house? Our fathers have bread enough
and to spare, and I'm perishing you, I'm dying you, I'm starving
to death! I will arise and go to my Father.
And I say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, I have
sinned before thee, and am no more worthy to be called your
son. Make me as one of your hired servants, that will be fine with
me. I just want to come home. And
he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way
off, his father saw him and had compassion. Had compassion. and ran, and fell on his neck,
and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father,
I have sinned against heaven in thy sight. No more worthy
to be called thy son but the Father, as if he ignored it. The father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, the
best robe, put it on him. Put a ring on
his hand and shoes on his feet. Bring forth a fatted calf and
kill it. Let us eat and be merry. Let
us have a feast. For this my son was D-E-A-D dead and he's alive again. And he was lost. L-O-S-T. Plum lost. And he's found. And they began to have a feast
of celebration. They began to have a feast of
celebration. The father hugged him and kissed
him and said, bring forth the best robe, clothing. The Bible says this in our clothes,
with the heart, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. How are men made righteous? By
believing from the heart. Truly believing. Sincerely believing. Heart faith. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. The Bible said Abraham believed
God and God clothed him. Romans chapter 4, God clothed
him. And without works, through faith,
he was justified. And his sins, none of his sins,
were ever charged against him anymore. That's the gospel. Saved by Christ. Reconcile to God in Christ. Peace
with God in Christ. Accepted in the Beloved, the
Lord Jesus Christ. May everyone here be found in
Christ in that day.