Come Thou clouds of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon
it, Mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, Hither
by thy help I'm come, And I hope by thy good pleasure, Safely
to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God. He, to rescue me from danger,
interposed His precious blood. Oh, to grace how great a debtor,
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a feather,
bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal
it, seal it for thy courts above. Please be seated. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal
it, seal it for thy courts above. That's our prayer tonight, is
that the Lord would meet with us, keep us from wondering, cause
us to look unto him. If you have your Bibles and you'd
like to read along with me, turn to Romans chapter eight. Got a good report that our pastor
seems to be enjoying himself and thankful for that. Pray that
the Lord would give them safe travels as they come back. And I'm very thankful he has
this opportunity. Romans chapter eight and verse
one tells us there is therefore now no condemnation, not that
there's going to be, not that there might be, not that there
can be or could be, but there is now. Therefore, no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit,
the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death. but to be spiritually minded as life and peace. The wording used here, carnally
minded, and also when it's speaking, who walked not after the flesh,
is the same exact word. And what that means by definition,
it means no thought of depravity. That's what carnally minded means.
No thought of depravity. We gathered here tonight praying
that the Lord would cause us to be spiritually minded, to
set our affections on things above. That's our prayer. I received
word just a few moments ago that Megan Tobbenheim, her due date
is tomorrow, and I believe she's experiencing the possibility
of maybe having the children even this evening. So we'll ask
the Lord to be with them in prayer. Would you like to pray with me?
Father, we've come into your house pleading the blood of Christ
alone, asking for you to send your spirit to this place that
we may worship you. Father, we pray for Megan this
hour, right now, as you have purposed, Lord, for travail to
take place. We ask that you would be with
her and the baby and you would keep them. You would be with
the doctors and their hand as they perform the medicine that
you have been so gracious to allow man to learn. We pray that
you would get all the glory for all things accomplished in that.
We pray for our pastor, that he would have safe travels. and
you would allow him to be able to rest his physical body and
enjoy the time that he has. We ask that you would give our
minds clarity this evening to worship you. We're completely
dependent upon you, Lord, even for the air that we're breathing
at this moment. Let our minds focus only on you and bring back
to memory that which you've given, that we may proclaim your gospel
clearly. For it's in Christ's name, amen. Let's turn to hymn number 62
in the Hartbeck hymnal. Let's all stand together. Crown hymn with many crowns.
? Crown Him with many crowns ?
? The Lamb upon His throne ? ? Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns
? ? All music but its own ? ? Awake my soul and sing of Him who died
? and hail him as thy bachelors
king through all eternity crown him the lord of love Hold his hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
In beauty glorified. No angel in the sky Can fully
bear that sign But down would dance his wandering eye At mysteries
so bright Crown him Lord of Light Who triumphed o'er the grave,
Who rose victorious to the strife, For those He came to save. His glories now we sing, Who
died and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring them this
sadness may die. Ground Him, the Lord of Heaven,
one with the Father, One with the Spirit, through Him, Him,
from on earth, glorious throne, to Thee be endless praise, for
Thou for us hast died, Please be seated. When Greg asked me to stand in
his absence. He asked, did I have any messages
that I haven't brought here that maybe I've preached somewhere
else? And I told him yes, but I had actually been studying
something that the Lord had laid on my heart for some time. I
hadn't, wasn't able to put it into message form if I could
say it that way, but it was something that I was encouraged and excited
about. And I believe the Lord has given
me a message tonight specifically for us. If you'd like to follow
along and turn to Genesis chapter three, Genesis chapter three. I titled this message, the truth
and the lie, the truth and the lie, and in Genesis chapter three,
we find where the fall of man takes place. And he says in verse
one, 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 you touch it, lest you die. The
serpent said to the woman, ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and
ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave to her husband
with her, and he did eat. The eyes of them both were opened
and they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves apron. There is and always have been
since this moment, only two things that I want to speak to us about
tonight. And it's the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and the
finished work that he wrought in salvation and the lie fabricated
by our adversary, the devil, whose name is Satan. The lie
is very simple here. The first lie he tells them is
you shall not surely die. Now Satan did not change a bunch
of words in this passage, did he? He added one word to what
God had said in order to make it a lie. God said, ye shall
surely die. But Satan said, ye shall not
surely die. He just added one word. That
tells us that you can be very close to the truth. and it be
100% a lie. The lie that he tells them is
that they would be gods. He says to them, and that's the
root of all of our sin, that every man wants to be God in
and of himself. He tells them, you shall be gods.
That is the lie, that man can be God. In verse five, this is
the root where all of our unbelief is fabricated from. Everything
that proceeds out of our heart, heart of man that's deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. It comes from this one
thing that man wants to be God himself. He tells them here that
ye shall be gods. He first says God knows and that
word is Elohim. He says God or Elohim knows that
you shall be gods or Elohim. God knows that if you eat of
that, you're gonna be God. That's what Satan tempted Eve
with right here. The lie always begins in unbelief and it always
ends in self-exaltation. It always begins in unbelief. This is where the lie begins,
in unbelief, and it always ends in self-exaltation. By nature, men, all men everywhere,
want to be God. They want to dethrone God and
put themselves upon the throne. All religions are the same in
the fabrication of how they please God or how they go about becoming
God. They say, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Give
me a work to do so that I can make what Christ did effectual
or make it work for me. Man wants the glory for his work,
but where there is a work that man produces, there is no gospel. The gospel is not a work that
man can perform. or that man does, the gospel
is, it is finished. Christ fulfilled the covenant
that he made with his father. Christ successfully redeemed.
If there is something, if there is one thing that is required
of me to do in myself, if there's one thing required of you to
do in yourself, then Christ failed in redeeming his people. Everything
that the Father required for the salvation of his elect people,
Christ Jesus fulfilled it, Christ Jesus performed it, and Christ
Jesus bestows it upon you. It's his faith bestowed upon
you, the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone told me recently
that everyone is given a measure of faith. And they're, they're
referring to a verse that doesn't say the Lord gives all men a
measure of faith that says the measure of faith. You see how
that one word change changes everything. The measure is whatsoever. The Lord has purposed what, how
much faith the Lord has purpose to give to some people that measures
zero. He doesn't give all men faith. It's the faith of the
son of God. And if he gives you faith, you
will believe you will come to him. You will repent. It's that
the Lord Jesus Christ said, I will and you shall. It's not that
we choose or we think that we can choose. So where does this
faith come from? We could ask these questions
to find out whether we have saving faith or whether we understand
what saving faith is. Where does the faith come from?
Who gets all the glory for it? And who does it point to always?
If the answer to those questions is Christ, then that's saving
faith. But if faith is something that we can produce, we get the
glory for it. Do we see that? If I can produce
it, then I'm going to get the glory for it, just as Eve wanted
the glory here. She wanted to be God. It's his faith. For by grace,
you are saved through faith. It's his faith that's given.
And it was his faith that the father saw, the faith that the
Lord Jesus Christ produced. It's his faith that the father
was satisfied with his obedience. He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. It's his righteousness. He is
the righteousness of God at first Corinthians one verse 30. But
of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Titus three five
says it's not by works of righteousness, which we have done. but according
to His mercy hath He saved us. God will not share His glory
with a man. God will not share His glory
with man. He exalted the Lord Jesus Christ,
the God-man, and they that are His people see Him as holy, exalted,
sovereign. We see Him as He reigns. He reigneth
continually, and we would have it no other way. Psalm 50, verse
21 says, These things hast thou done, and I kept silence. Thou
thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself, but I
will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes."
If we think that God is likened to a man, that he has thoughts
that we think, and he has fears that we have, we don't understand
who God really is. The only time that the Lord felt
fear, if I can say it that way, was upon the cross when the terrors
of the Lord can pass him about. That's the wording that the scripture
uses. When he became sin for his people, the terrors of God
can pass him about. But he does not fear man as we
fear man. The Lord Jesus Christ has shown us throughout the scripture
that either we believe the truth or we believe the lie. He told
the Pharisees, you believe not because you cannot believe. You're
not of my sheep. That's what he told the Pharisees.
You cannot believe. You will not come to me, but
you may have everlasting life. We either believe the truth or
we believe the lie, and God gets all the glory for it, and his
people rejoice in him getting all the glory for it. Notice
verse one again. Satan says unto her, yea, hath
God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? I want
you to notice that he's enticing her by questioning God's word. He's enticing her by questioning
what did God really say? He knew what God had said already,
but he was only asking this to cause doubt or to cause, to encourage
unbelief in Eve. Most men ask questions to cause
doubt in religion. Think about this. They do it
to convince you to agree with them that they're right. Have
I done enough in order to be saved? That's a question I've
been asked before. Have I done enough to be saved?
We were in false religion, but even then we, the Lord had given
me some light. If I could say it that way, I'd
heard the gospel and I knew it wasn't about what we did. It
was about what he has done. And that's the difference between
the truth and the lie right there. The lie says do the truth says
done it's finished. It's that simple. But these churches publish themselves
and what they're doing for their communities, or they publish
themselves on their signs and they say, we're going to do this
and we're going to do that and look at what we've done for Jesus.
And they put Jesus name on it in order to try to get another
crown or to try to get another jewel in their crown, to try
to get some kind of praise of man, some form of popularity.
These men have, in all religion, they have moral reformations
to ensure their dedication of their fabricated God. But do
you know what it means if you fabricate God? You've made God,
that means you're God. That's what that means. But the
Lord's people, they see him high and lifted up, just like Isaiah
did. The Lord reveals himself to his
people and we see him as holy and we just say truth, Lord.
Whatever you say, truth, Lord. False religion always tries to
find common grounds as well, doesn't it? I have family members
that each time we are in each other's presence, somehow, some
way, the Bible's brought up and that always leads me to talk
about the gospel. And they try to find a common
ground. It's like putting a You remember those toys that kids
have where you have the different size pegs, they have a circle
and a square and you can't put the circle in the square hole
or the triangle in the, in the, Sarah's nodding her head. She
knows exactly what I'm talking about. She has a toddler right now. That's what
they're trying to do is they're trying to fabricate God and say,
well, we can take your God and we can fit him here. And so,
yeah, we can agree on that. It doesn't work that way. There
is no compromise when it comes to the gospel. There is no common
ground that we stand upon. This ground is holy. And man
has to come naked, shoeless before the Lord on holy ground, on his
terms, only in the covering of the Lord Jesus Christ and his
righteousness. He does this by his electing sovereign grace.
We had no part in it. The transaction happened long
before we were ever even thought of. It was fulfilled in time,
but the covenant of grace was ordered and sure before the foundation
of the world. We were seen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, hid in him. There is only the truth and the
lie. When Satan asked Eve this question,
Eve's confession was a little different than what God had actually
said, but we know that she couldn't be lying because sin had not
entered in yet. She had not taken to the fruit
at this time. She said, God never did say don't touch it. God just
said, the day that you eat of the tree, you shall surely die.
But she said, God said, don't touch it and don't eat it. The day that you eat of it, you'll
surely die. So why did she add touching it to the list? As I
began to pray about this, I thought of something and I'm gonna tell
you. And I hesitate in doing so, but Most likely, this is
what Adam told her. In verse 17 of chapter 2, this
is when the Lord appeared unto Adam and said, of all the trees
of the midst of the garden, you can eat, but not of the tree
of knowledge of good and evil. For the day that you eat of that
tree, you shall surely die. And then in verse 18, he says,
the Lord God spoke and said, it's not good for man to be alone.
And then he made Eve after that. So it was Adam's responsibility
to convey the message unto Eve that had taken place. I have
four daughters. I do have four daughters, but
I have three that's with me now, and I have a wife. And every
time that we go to a store, especially if something's shiny, they have
to touch it. Now, I'm not saying that's limited
only to women, so don't get upset with me at what I'm describing.
I'm just telling you my personal experience with my family. They
have to touch everything. Adam looked at her and said,
Eve, don't even touch it. Don't even touch it, because
if you touch it, you're going to be tempted to eat it. And
that's because Adam knew it himself. If I touch it, I'm going to eat
it. He knew that. We know when the Lord reveals himself, we
know somewhat of our depraved heart, somewhat of our depravity.
Not like we ought to, but we know some. Either way, Eve knew
the truth, didn't she? She knew that if she ate it,
she would die. That's clear and simple right here. She knew the
truth and believed the lie. If left to ourself, that's what
we will do. We will believe the lie. Eve had seen God. She had seen
the Lord Jesus Christ. We find in chapter three, verse
eight, this same exact chapter, that the Lord would come down
in the cool of the evening and walk in the garden. They saw
God. She counted the cost. She knew
the cost. She knew what was going to happen.
Yet she chose to take of the fruit and eat. Satan is still
trying to plant these seeds of unbelief in our heart. And brethren,
we don't need any help from him to have unbelief. If you've been
made to know you're a sinner, you know that's true. Our unbelief
and depravity goes far beyond. We can't comprehend the depths
of our unbelief. Our Lord Jesus Christ did though,
didn't he? He felt the fullness of our sin in his body. He took
our sin, our unbelief into himself. He who knew no sin became sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Satan was continually asking
questions, continually questioning God so that Eve would begin asking
the wrong questions. And in religion, that's exactly
what men are doing. They're still asking the wrong questions. What
must I do to be saved? As I was studying for this message,
I was using a website. I like different websites, Bible
websites that you go to, but they always have advertisements
on the side that pop up for whatever reason. And one of them popped
up and it literally said, how do I get saved? And my curiosity
just got the best of me. I already knew the answer, but
I wanted to know what it said. I clicked on it. And at the very top of
it, it starts out and it says, experience, peace of mind, forgiveness
of sin and deliverance from fear and death. Have perfect peace,
have health and healing. Chat now and know you're saved.
There has never been a day in my life, even since the Lord
has called me, that I knew that I was saved. The only time that
I have peace and comfort is whenever I'm sitting under the sound of
the gospel, able to see him. And even then, the amount of
unbelief in me, as much as my mind wander around, I still doubt. I don't doubt that he could save
me. I don't doubt that he did save
all of his people, but I don't, there's no way you can look at
yourself and see evidence of that salvation, is there? And
we don't, we just need Christ to cause us to look to Him. His
finished work, the faith that He gives us, that's all the evidence,
just believing on Him. Men believe and ask these questions,
what do I need to do to make God do what I need Him to do? What do I need to do to make
God do what I need Him to do? What do I need to do to make
the work that Jesus Christ did effectual for me? These are the
same questions that Satan was encouraging Eve to ask. And because
she desired to be God, John said it like this. John called Satan
in Revelation chapter 12 and verse 9, the great dragon. And
he was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world. Now, just to clarify this, when
he says deceiveth the whole world, The scripture never contradicts
itself, does it? So if he deceived the whole world, that means you
and I are deceived, right? But the Lord spoke in Matthew
24, 24 and said, and there shall arise false Christ and false
prophets and shall show great signs and wonders in so much
that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
It's not possible for the elect of God to be deceived. The last
time I stood here, I preached a message on a double-minded
man. And the truth of that matter is a double-minded man is someone
that mixes law, and mixes grace. It's the same thing as the truth
and the lie. And I was able to bring a text from that and explain
to you that believers are double-minded in the sense of having a new
nature and an old nature. That's really not what James is talking
about there. James is talking about law and grace and trying
to mix the two. A double-minded man is unstable
in all of his ways and you are not. If as believers, we are
not unstable in all of our ways because we believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. That means we have one constant.
that the Lord causes that no matter what happens, a believer
will never confess that Jesus Christ is not God. Peter denied
the Lord. He didn't deny who he was. He
denied having any relationship with him. Do we see that? Peter
did not confess that Christ was not God. He just says, I don't
know him out of fear. There's a big difference. A believer
will not deny who Jesus Christ is because they are not double-minded
concerning law and grace. The lie is very simple, brethren.
You have a choice to make. That's the lie. You have a choice
to make. The elect know the truth that
God does the choosing and they want it that way. We love it
that way, don't we? We love that God does the choosing
and gets all the glory for it. The lie is that God wants to
save you, but can't. You have to let him. That's the
lie. The elect know that it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. And he gets all the glory for
the mercy that he shows. The true believer believes the
truth, Jesus Christ himself. This is why we've come here tonight,
to hear. We have come, H-E-R-E, here,
to hear, H-E-A-R, the truth. That's why we've come here, to
hear the truth. We can do neither, We can neither
hear nor see without the Lord Jesus Christ causing us to do
so. Greg mentioned on Sunday, blind Bartimaeus, he stood, maybe
he was sitting, I'm not sure, but he was away off from the
Lord and heard that Jesus was passing by. And he began to cry out,
Jesus, thou son of David have mercy upon me. And they hushed
him, didn't they? He was embarrassing to look at.
He was in dirty robes. He was blind. He wasn't able
to keep up his... There's no way that a man would
be able to know how he looks, whether he looks good, he has
dirt on his face. There's no way that he would have known
any of that stuff. So he had to look patrocious, probably. Gruesome,
I would imagine, in some ways. I don't know how the hygiene
was back then, but everybody just kept hushing him. Don't bother the
master. Don't leave him alone. You have no business talking
to him. Look at you. And he cried a louder. No, I have a need. I have a need. I need to see. I need to see. And as the Lord
Jesus Christ passed by, he called him unto himself, didn't he?
And what did Bartimaeus do? He dropped his raiment. He dropped
his righteousness right there and he ran to Christ. And the
Lord said, what would you have me do for you? He said, my sight.
I want to receive my sight. So many of these stories, and
when the Lord calls a man by name, most of the time in the
scripture, that man is elect. The Lord saves him too. He said,
your sins are forgiven you. He got to see double that day,
didn't he? Physically and spiritually. That's what the Lord does for
his people, is he causes us to see Christ and bow to him. Adam and Eve, when they found
out that they had what sin what sin is. When they became sinners,
when they became guilty, their conscience bothered them, didn't
it? They knew they were naked. That's what that means. Their
conscience bothered them. And they made fig leaves to hide
their nakedness. Now, what does fig leaves represent
there? That's a work, isn't it? A work of covering for themselves,
something that they fabricated in order for them not to be naked
before God anymore. A work to offer themselves up
rather than having the righteousness of Christ. But God had to provide
the covering, not them. That's the first thing that the
Lord does to his people. He gives them sight. And just
like that one, they asked him, he said, how is it that you see?
He says, I know not. All I know is I can see now. Whereas I was blind, but now
I can see. That's our confession, isn't
it? I don't, the Bible rewrote itself overnight for me. If I
can say it that way, I picked it up one day and it completely
read different than it ever had before. The Lord gave me sight
to see. That's what he does for his people.
I don't know what happened and I don't know how it happened.
I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. All that I know is whereas I
was blind and now I see. The Lord gives his people sight,
gives the robe of his righteousness unto his people. The gospel strips
man of all other fig leaves. He leaves a man naked. and then close him in his righteousness.
That's what the Lord does for his people. The gospel will cost
you everything. Your confession about who God
is, your knowledge about who you are and what you are and
what you've done, where you're going, your self-righteousness,
Paul put it like this in Philippians chapter three, verse eight, yea,
doubtless, I count all things, but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and do count them, but dung that I may
win Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith. Men believe
that they have a righteousness by keeping God's law. There is
no salvation in keeping the law of God. We love the Lord's law.
David put it like this. He delighted, he delighted in
the law of the Lord, but there is no salvation in the law. There's salvation in the Lord
Jesus Christ who kept the law for his people. The law is holy
and we are not. It's perfect and we are nothing
but sin. The law was given to show us
we need the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to show us how
utterly sinful we truly are. It exposes that we are sinners,
that we are naked, that we are undone, and that we need a covering,
a righteousness that can only be found in Christ Jesus. This
is the glorious truth of the gospel. It reveals to us, the
Lord does, by preaching, the Lord reveals to us that we are
nothing but sinners, but the good news is the Lord saves sinners. Romans chapter five, verse 19,
for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. God makes
every believer a sinner before he saves them. And only believers
are sinners because the Lord has made them thus. There'll
be men that'll talk to you and women that'll tell you they believe
they're sinners, but they don't really believe they're sinners.
Continue to talk to them and you'll find out that they've
sown fig leaves together, which they really don't believe they're
sinners. When the Lord reveals to you, the Lord reveals to me,
his people, that you're a sinner, the only thing that you can do
is cry out for mercy and say, truth, Lord, whatever you say,
truth, Lord. The Lord shuts us up to Christ.
and gives us repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now notice with me in verse six,
the temptation that was brought to Eve. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and
a tree to be desired to make one wise, that's when she took
of it. That's when she took of it. Here
we have the exact same three temptations that the Lord Jesus
Christ was tempted with by Satan. We have the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. We have power,
popularity, and pleasure, all derived from an unbelieving heart,
all derived and fabricated because we want to be God. We want that
power. We want to have all the pleasures
that we choose to indulge in. We want to make the rules for
ourself. We want the power. We want the popularity with man.
Man's approval. We even want God's approval,
truth be told. That's why Cain became so wroth with Abel, is
God gave Abel the approval, but he didn't give Cain approval.
God told him, if you'll just do what I told you to do, but
in his pride, he wouldn't do that, would he? He couldn't kill
God, so he killed Abel. That's what happened. And man,
as the only opportunity man has ever had, we've seen how they
treated the Lord Jesus Christ. When they had a chance to worship
him, when they had a chance to magnify him, they said, crucify
him. We will not have this man to
reign over us. Man hasn't changed in any way. They want to be God. The scripture is full of these
men that want to be God or to get God's glory. I've already
mentioned Cain. Belshazzar was one, wasn't he? His father was
uh, Nebuchadnezzar, he knew he had heard of who God was, but
he refused to bow as his father did. They brought the children
of Israel into captivity. And they brought the sanctified
things of the temple, the golden cups and the things that the
priests would use for their ceremony. They brought it in and he said,
go get those cups. If it's good enough for their
God, it's good enough for me. He believed himself to be God. Do
we see that? He said, if it's holy, I'm gonna
drink out of it. Had no regard for who God is. And what happened? The Lord said
that night, he wrote on the wall with a finger, didn't he? Now
I've been weighed in the balance and been found wanting. And that
is every man by nature. We've been weighed in the balance
and been found wanting. And the kingdom was rent. He
died that night. Lord killed him that night. What of Judas? Judas saw himself
equal with Christ, didn't he? But how do you know that? Well,
because he didn't bow into Christ, did he? He didn't walk up to
Christ in the garden and bow before him. He kissed him on
the face as an equal eyeball to eyeball. He kissed the face
of God and went to hell. Think about that. This tells
us that salvation is by divine revelation only and only by whosoever
the Lord chooses to reveal it to. He saw himself equal with
God. And when he found out the wrong
that he had done, did Judas repent? No, the scripture says God didn't
give him a space of repentance. He didn't change his mind. So
what did he do? He took matters into his own hands and he went
out and hung himself. He offered himself up unto God. That's what men do. They offer
themselves. Now he did it. He did it by committing
suicide. And we understand that, but that's
what men are doing all the time. Committing spiritual suicide.
If I could say it that way, they're already dead and trespassers
in sin. So that doesn't exactly compute, but you understand what
I mean by that? They're constantly making a work, sowing fig leaves
and all they're doing is damning themselves. And then when they
bring others in, they're making them the two fold child of hell that
they are. That's what the Lord told the Pharisees. You're going
out all the time trying to make a proselyte Jew. That's exactly
what that means. We know it really all started
with Lucifer in heaven. The Lord tells us about Lucifer.
He said, I will ascend above the heavens. I will become as
the most high. I will. Rebellion always starts
with I will. Man wants to believe. Man wants
to think that they are in control of this life and in the life
to come. They want to think that they
have the power to control their eternal destiny. That is the
lie. Faith doesn't say, I will. Faith says, truth Lord, it is
finished. Faith believes God and doesn't
need any explanation for what God does. Faith just looks to
Christ. Faith bows to the sovereign,
successful Savior of sinners. Some men hearing this interject
by saying, but Lord, we've done all these wonderful works in
your name. Paul said, I count on but done that I may win Christ. Aren't you glad that God saves
his people by interjecting? A man that's not a believer will
interject and give their claim, give their testimony unto God
by saying, but God, comma, I've done all of this. But the interjection of the gospel
is, but God who is rich in mercy, wherein he loved us. Either we
are interjecting or God has interjected, and that's salvation. Salvation
is when the Lord interjects Now quickly look at verse eight with
me. I want us to notice something
here that I've never seen before. They heard the voice of the Lord
God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They heard
the voice of the Lord God walking. There's not a comma there. There's
not a comma there. that tells us that they heard
the voice of God walking. Well, who's the voice of God?
That's the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? At this time, they
had already became sinners. At this time, they had already
became self-righteous by sowing fig leaves together. So if the
father would have been there, he would have executed them on
the spot. Man cannot see God and live. Isn't that what the
scripture says? But Jesus Christ, the God man, is the only one
that can touch God and not be destroyed and touch man and not
be defiled. The Lord Jesus Christ was the
one in the garden. When God required of them an
answer, he said, did you eat of the tree that I told you not
to eat of? Did you eat of it? And if you
notice Adam's response, and you already know it, but it says
the woman you gave unto me, he blamed God. He blamed God for
giving him the woman. That's exactly what was happening
right there. We're no different than that, are we? No different. Every circumstance that we have,
think about how often, and maybe you're not the same as me. And
scripture says, confess your faults one to another and your
sin unto God. As soon as something happens, my first instinctive
response is not, Lord, I need you to help me because this guy
just cut me off in traffic. That's not what happens with
me. I become increasingly angry instantly, and I try to take
matters into my own hand. Maybe I want to cut them back
off. Or if something in my life circumstantially happens that
causes distress, most of the time, it's when the Lord leaves
me alone just for a brief moment. That's when I cry out, Lord,
save me. That's when I cry out for mercy, but it's not normally
instant. I wish that every time something
bad was to happen in our mind, nothing bad happens to the Lord's
people. Did you know that? I have to correct myself instantly.
Nothing bad happens. It's all providential. It's all purpose.
And it's all to cause us to see Christ. And it's all to save,
it's all to save his people. It's all in love. But when something
that I consider bad, And that goes right back to the whole
point. If I'm saying that it's bad, then I'm thinking different
than the way the Lord has said. That means I'm taking matters
into my own hands again. It's wrong of me even to think
that way. How do we, how, oh, we need a savior, a substitute.
Lord, cause me to think better. Cause me to look to you. Cause
me to rest in you. Not get so distracted so easily. Adam blamed God. Then Eve blamed
the serpent, didn't she? Well, the serpent beguiled me.
Your creation that you made, the serpent, the creature. No
one can take blame for their sin except God gives you the
faith to take the blame and say, Lord, I am the man. When Nathan
appeared unto David, he told him the story about a man having
many flocks and herds. And another man that didn't have
but one ewe lamb, that's a female, a small female. He treated her
like a daughter, a small female sheep. He treated her like a
daughter, brought him into his house, brought her into his house
and fed her at his table, treated her, the scripture says, like
a daughter. And when the rich man had a feast, they took that
ewe lamb and killed it. When David heard that, David
was wroth. David was wroth and said, surely
this man, he's going to die. This man's going to be put to
death. Surely. Nathan looked at him and said, David, you're
the man. You are the man. When the gospel comes forth and
the Holy Spirit, the Lord sends his spirit and blesses his word
as he promised he would to his people. You are convicted and
know that you are the man. You are the one that's found
guilty. You are the one weighed in the balance and been found
wanting. You are the one that needs a substitute. And the Lord
Jesus Christ is that substitute. He loves his people with an everlasting
love, everlasting love. Now the truth of the gospel is
found in verse 21. Unto Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord make coats of skins and clothed them. God became
a man to fulfill the covenant promise made to his father before
time ever began. The father trusted Christ would
fulfill that promise. The father trusted Christ first. We trust and believe that Christ
is successful, that he is the successful Savior, but the father
trusted him first. Christ trusted his father that
he would not let him see corruption. The Lord slew a lamb here and
covered their nakedness, covered their nakedness. And the Lord
slew the lamb of God. Scripture says he was the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. He slew the lamb of
God and made a covering for his elect. Hebrews chapter nine,
verse 12 says, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but
by his own blood, He entered once into the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption for us. And the children of Israel
were in Egyptian bondage. The final plague came and the
Lord told them, take a lamb and kill it and put its blood upon
the lintel and the doorposts. And as the death angel came,
he said, when I see the blood, I will pass by you. Christ Jesus
is our Passover lamb. who were slain for his people.
No wonder the scripture says, behold, what manner of love the
father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. Jesus said in John chapter 14,
verse six, I am the way. There's only one way and it's
Christ. He didn't make a way, he is the way. He is the truth. This message is the truth and
the lie. Christ Jesus is the truth and the life. No man cometh to the father,
but by me, he is the truth whereby his people are saved. The lie
says, do the lie says, do the truth says done. It is finished. John one 17 for the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Only the
elect understand what it means to know the truth. When he talked
in John 8, 22, he says, you shall know the truth. The truth is
a person. And we know the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's been revealed to our heart through the preaching of his
gospel. And he says, the truth shall make you free, free from
the penalty of our sin. Free from condemnation, we read
opening up this morning in Romans chapter eight, there is now therefore
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Well, how
did you get in Christ Jesus? God puts you there before the
foundation of the world. When Christ died, we died in
him. And we are now free from the
law of sin and death. When he was raised, we were raised
in him for our justification. As he lives, so are we. Our life
is hid in Christ Jesus. God sees nothing but the blood
of the lamb and the righteousness of our substitute Savior, Jesus
Christ. He doesn't see our unbelief.
He doesn't see our wavering. He only sees the perfect obedience
of his precious son. The lie says do. The truth says
it is finished. This is the truth of God's gospel.
It is finished. It's that simple. This is the
truth. Although men would turn the truth of God into a lie,
into the lie, and worship and serve the creature more than
the creator, you know what the creature is there? This is the
creature. They would serve the creature
more than the creator and change the truth of God into a lie.
Although men would try to do that, there remaineth a rest
to the people of God in the person of the truth, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Beloved, rest in the truth. our substitute, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. Father, bless your word. Cause us to rest in your finished
work. Cause us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and leave
us not to ourself. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. Let's stand together in our spiral
hymnal. Turn to page 23, pass me not. O gracious Father, sinful, wretched
though I be, though you might in truth condemn me, Love of God so everlasting Blood
of Christ so rich and free Grace of God so strong and saving Magnified
them all in me Pass me not, O blessed Savior, let me hear your gracious
call. I'm a giver. ? I'm all love of God so everlasting
? ? Blood of Christ so rich and free ? ? Grace of God so strong
and saving ? ? Magnify Him all in me ? ? Cast me not, O mighty
stream ? You can cause the dead to live. Speak the word of saving
power. Give me faith and make me live. ? Love of God so everlasting
? ? Blood of Christ so rich and free ? ? Grace of God so strong
and sacred ? ? Magnified in all that is near ? ? Christ be not
a home of sinners ? and save me. Reach down with
your hand of mercy, saving others, Lord, save me. Love of God so
everlasting, blood of Christ so rich and free, grace of God
so strong and sacred,