I want us to look again at what
it is for the fields to be white under harvest. True Christianity begins where
religion finishes. Most people in religion think
that they have to get themselves polished and more polished and
eventually like a piece of ripe fruit, they are ready to be plucked and taken into the kingdom of
heaven. God's children begin. They begin
perfect and complete in Him. They were made so before the
foundation of the world because of their union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. I do love thinking of eternal
things. If we're gonna think of eternity
in the future, we have to think of eternity in the past. And
I love what God says. I'll just read it to you in Isaiah
chapter 46, verse 10. He declares the end from the
beginning. He declares the end and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, my council shall stand at the end of the scriptures.
It speaks of this new heaven and new earth, verse one of Revelation
21. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle, the dwelling place
of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall
be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their
God. And God shall wipe all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write,
for these words are true and faithful. We live in a world
where there's just so much that's fake, isn't it? We've got to
the stage where, I don't know whether Mr. Trump invented it
or not, but this notion of fake news, every time I, almost every
time I read something or listen to something in this world now,
I think, oh dear, oh dear, is that true? And most of the time
I think, well it's probably not, and there's some other truth
there, but we actually in the scriptures have something which
is true. God has written it, he's written
it a long time ago, and it's sealed and signed in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's sealed and signed in
the histories, and it's sealed and signed to the hearts of all
of God's people. And the dying testimony of the
saints of God is the dying testimony of David. In 2 Samuel 23 verse
five, he says, although my house be not so with God. His house
was a mess. David had a completely dysfunctional
family. Sons murdering other sons, one
son wanting to take over the kingdom, one of his other sons
murdering, I mean, sleeping with his daughter, raping his daughter. My house be not so with God.
He's talking personally about himself. He's talking about nation
Israel. It was a mess, Riven, with factions and things. And
then he says, yet. It's a great gospel word, isn't
it? Yet. It's but. He hath made with me, God made
it, and God made it with me, an everlasting covenant, an eternal
covenant, and it's ordered. These are David's last words
when he was on his deathbed and about to meet God in glory. He has made with me, not what
David did with him, what he has done with me. It's exactly what
we saw in John chapter four and what we see throughout the scriptures.
He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things
and sure. And he says, because of four,
this is all my salvation. All of David's salvation was
tied up in a promise that God had made with him before the
foundation of the world, not on David's performance. And David's
performances were quite remarkable, weren't they? The sweet psalmist
of Israel, the one who pictured the Lord Jesus Christ in the
most profound ways. He's made with him everlasting
covenants ordered in all things. And it's sure And it's all my
salvation and it's all my desire. Although he make it not to grow. This eternal unchanging covenant
doesn't grow. It was fixed before the foundation
of the world. Everything that God does is purposed
in eternity. It is this everlasting covenant. to be ripe unto harvest, to be
ready. And God's servants in this world
are proclaiming a God who is absolutely sovereign. You cannot
worship a God who is not absolutely sovereign. There is no worship
of God who is manipulated by men, who is at the beck and call
of men. Our God sits on his throne. He sits on his throne, having
achieved all that he ever set out to do. He says in Hebrews
13, 20, speaking of this same covenant, he says, now the God
of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the
great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. the blood of the everlasting
covenant. The great shepherd came and he
laid his life down for his sheep. He didn't lay his life down for
the goats. He came as a perfectly successful sovereign saviour.
He came as a substitute. He came as a representative of
all of his people, the ones that God had given to him, that covenant
that David died rejoicing in. It's all his salvation was tied
up, not in what David had done, all his salvation is tied up
in what the Lord Jesus Christ had done. And all of that is
done because of a promise. And listen to what the scriptures
go on to say. Don't you like that? I'm so thankful that God has
written those things, because I wander around trying to work
out what I'm doing and wondering. how on earth all of this is going
to come to pass, and God says it's all been done and sorted.
It's been done long, long ago, brothers and sisters. Make you
perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that
which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to
whom be glory forever and ever. I want for you, my brothers and
sisters, to look up and to look back to eternity and look forward
into eternity and look at the God of all glory and look at
the way he gathers his people, look at how he comes to his people. I want us to just spend a few
minutes looking at Genesis chapter 3 and you know the story of the
fall and we don't have long. I just want to spend a little
bit of time looking You know the story, and Lord
willing we might look at it in more detail last week, but I
want us to, you know that the serpent deceived Eve because
of his subtlety and his deception began, didn't it, with hath God
said? Did God really say? The start
of all deception, the start of all evil in this world came with
a question. And it came with an invitation
to Eve to discuss the word of God, as if it was an opinion
that could be tossed around by men. The longer I go on, the
more I find myself extraordinarily uncomfortable in the listening
and hearing people doing apologetics, as if somehow, somehow we have
to, This debate, the opinions of men regarding God. Don't you
do it, brothers and sisters. Don't join with them in that
nonsense. It's dishonoring to God. That's
exactly what Satan did in the garden. Let's have a discussion
about the word of God. Let's have a discussion about
the commands of God. Let's have a discussion about
the character of God and his faithfulness to his character.
Let's have a discussion about the judgment of God. And over
all of our unbelief hangs those words, isn't it? Hath God really
said? Did he really say? We've read
lots of scripture and we want to read lots of scripture every
time we meet. I want you to hear from God. And if you're going
to hear from God, you're going to hear because of the gospel
preached. The gospel is a declaration of
the person and the work and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the redemption of his people. And man fell. Lord willing we'll
look at it next week, but you know the fall, you know something
of it, we know it by personal experience if God has worked
in our hearts. And there was a curse brought
upon this world and a curse brought upon Satan. But I want us to look at the
glory of the gospel in the light of all of that darkness of the
fall. He says to Adam that this earth which is cursed in verse
18, thorns also and thistles shall bring forth to thee, and
yet thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the ground. For
out of it thou wast taken, for dust thou art, and under dust
shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's name
Eve. mother of all living. Adam, in
changing his wife's name, was declaring that he believed the
promise that God had made in verse 15, that he will put enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed,
and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Adam was looking forward to God's redemptive purposes. in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But I want us to look at the
covering. The story of all salvation is pictured here in this, isn't
it? It's God who came to them. They
were hiding. We know what they were doing,
weren't they? When their eyes were open, what were they doing? They
were doing what every one of Adam's children have ever done
ever since. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves
aprons. They were doing the first thing
that man does. is he wants to work out his own
righteousness. 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. of the garden. You see where
God has to find you, brothers and sisters, where he finds all
of his sheep. They're all in the same situation, aren't they? Whether it's the woman at the
well or all the other stories of salvation, we see throughout
the scriptures men are going about to establish their own
righteousness, making a covering of their own activities to cover
the shame that they have. from God. And God comes to them
and speaks to them and exposes them for what they are and reveals
to them yet again who he is and he brings them to himself. And
here, before they are sent out into this world, I want us to
look at this covering. Verse 21 is just an amazing verse. So the picture is that they come
called by God. God comes to them and finds them
hiding. God comes to them with their
fig leaves on. Fig leaves are like 60 grit sandpaper. They're extraordinary. They're
about the most unsatisfactory thing you can think of in all
creation to cover yourself with. And they fall apart in no time
at all, become just a pile of dust. And they have to be replaced
all the time, which is exactly what all the works that men do.
As soon as you start doing works, you never get to the end of works. But God finds them. God reveals
them to themselves now that they're fallen, as he did to the woman
at the well. And God brings them, and before
he sends them out, He causes them, listen to what it says,
unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of
skins and clothed them. Adam and Eve in the garden had
to witness the blood being shed for the very first time in paradise. Adam and Eve had to witness death.
It's all the picture of the Lamb of God. And for them to be clothed,
there had to be a death. For them to be clothed, they
had to be stripped naked of their fig leaves. And God, the Lord
God, made coats of skins. In fact, in the original, he
made two coats of one skin. There is one robe that fits all
of the children of God, and it's the very robe of the righteousness
of God. There is one thing that covers
the shame of our nakedness, the reflection of our sin before
God. God comes to his people. He strips them of all of their
righteousness and all of their works and all of their efforts
to get right with God, and He clothes them. He provides a covering,
brothers and sisters, for all of their sin and for all of their
shame. Such is the glory of our God,
which is why the Lord could say in John chapter four, the fields
are white under harvest, because all of his people are robed in
the very righteousness of God. Their shame before God is covered. And in the preaching and the
gospel and in the manifestation of the Lord to his people, they
have revealed to them what God did in eternity. They have revealed
to them the power and the wonder of the promises of God. They
have revealed to them what happened on Calvary's cross. that in that
extraordinary transaction, the Lord Jesus Christ was made sin
for all of his people, and God, finding all of the sin of all
of God's people upon the Lord Jesus Christ, in holiness and
justice, he took out the sword of his justice and he plunged
it into the very heart of his son. And their sins are gone. Their sins are gone. And that's
what the resurrection's all about. Their sins are gone. They now, like Adam and Eve,
are robed in a covering that God has provided. Who did all
the work? Who did all the finding? Who
did all the searching? Who did all the gathering? Who
did all the slaying? Who did all of it? We have, brothers
and sisters, the wonder of knowing and I trust believing a gospel
that's grace full and works empty. A gospel that declares the wonder
and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. A gospel where he comes
to us when we're hiding and he comes to us and brings us to
himself. And if he brings us to himself,
he'll strip us. He'll strip us of all of our righteousness.
He'll strip us of all of our deeds. He'll strip us of all
of our wisdom. And then he'll clothe us. And he'll gather us
and we'll go on rejoicing. The works, according to God,
were finished from the foundation of the world. a sovereign, successful, satisfied,
substitutionary saviour. But we have a gospel of a rejoicing
saviour. We have a gospel of a saviour
who now has joy in the midst and in the company of his people.
He promises to inhabit the praises of his people. He promises to
be in the very midst of where he gathers his people together.
And God's children get to see through the eyes of faith and
get to rejoice through the hearts, the new hearts that he gives
to his people, gets to rejoice in things that the world could
never see nor understand. What a Gospel to proclaim. It was successful before the
foundation of the world. It's always going to be perfectly
successful. The Church of God is always perfectly
fit and ripe for His harvesting. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you for your word and we pray heavenly father that
we would be led of you to come to it and see it as it truly
is, the very And we praise you, Heavenly Father, for recording
it and preserving it, and we praise you especially for preaching
the Gospel, which declares the wonder and the glory and the
finished work of your dear and precious Son, by which your word
can only be understood. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
that as with Adam and Eve and as with the woman at the well,
you are the one who comes and seeks. You sent your Son to seek
and to save the lost, and we all, like sheep, have gone astray,
Heavenly Father, and each of us have turned to his own way,
but you have laid on him the iniquity of us all, and he's
borne it all away, Heavenly Father. We pray that you'd cause us to
honour and rejoice in his shed blood and that broken body, and
that we, like David, might find the eternal covenant that you've
made with us in his blood, all of our salvation, all of our
desire. and all of our comfort and all
of our peace. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
for the glory of your dear and precious Son, and pray that you'd
send us out, Heavenly Father, where you provide opportunity
to proclaim the wonders of his glory in this world. We pray
in Jesus' name and for his glory, our Father. Amen.