I can read the context in 2 Timothy
chapter 1. He speaks of God in verse 9 of
2 Timothy chapter 1. God who has saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to
his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and hath
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Why would you want to do anything else than preach the gospel?
Why would you want to believe anything else than believe the
gospel? Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a
teacher of the Gentiles, for the which cause I also suffer
these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed,
for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Let's sing number two. I know not why God's wondrous
grace to me he hath made known, nor why unworthy Christ in love
redeemed me for his own. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not how this saving faith
to me he did impart, nor how believing in his word brought
peace within my heart. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not how the Spirit moves,
convincing man of sin, revealing Jesus through the Word, creating
faith in Him. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not what of good or ill
may be reserved for me. Of weary ways or golden days
before his face I see. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not when my Lord may come
at night or noonday fair, nor if I'll walk the vale with Him
or meet Him in the air. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. Heavenly Father, thank you for
your sign. Thank you that you have looked
upon us in mercy and grace. Thank you that this whole world
is here designed to bring glory and honor to your name and the
salvation of your people. Thank you that our Saviour is
a full Saviour, a complete and absolute Saviour. Thank you that
he knows that heaven and hell are among us for the neverlasting.
We do praise You for the work of Your Spirit amongst us and
amongst this world, and we pray that You continue to work upon
our hearts, Heavenly Father, to grow us in the grace and the
knowledge of our great King. I thank you for church, Father.
I thank you for opportunities to encourage one another and
pray. And in your mercy, you will just
grow love in our hearts and forgive us for what we've done, and unite
us, and strengthen us, and cause us to continue to stand in your
glory and in our salvation. I pray your mercy on the message,
and I pray as we look especially at Genesis 3, that you would
just to remind us, Heavenly Father, of the great lengths You've gone
to to bring us to this day. And I pray that that might be
a great encouragement for us through the week, that we might
look upon Your promises, remember Your Son, and rejoice, Heavenly
Father, in spite of the circumstances of our lives. I'll turn back
in your scriptures to Genesis chapter 3. Of course, one of the great dangers
with us looking at passages of scripture and knowing theology
and things is that it can become a theoretical exercise, but I'm
looking and speaking to you as a sinner. Sinner, that qualifies
me in some way to speak to you. But the reality of these things
are the cause and the reality of the pain that all of God's
people suffer in this world. And I don't need to but look
at you who are there in front of me to know something of the
pain of all of your lives. And the pain of God's people
is an extenuated pain because the people of this world don't
feel the pains that we feel. They don't know the struggles
that we have. They share in so many of them. But all of the sin and all of
the heartbreak that occurs in this world impacts all of Adam's
people. But those who are blinded and
kept in darkness by a foe who is much stronger than them know
none of the things that the children of God know. There is a generation
says God, Proverbs 30, there is a generation that is pure
in their own eyes, yet not washed from their filthiness. The pride
of your heart has deceived you. I want you to recall what we saw
last week in the fall of Adam and Eve, the fall of Adam as
our representative head, as our seminal head, All of Adam's children
fell in him. There are just two groups of
people in all of humanity. There are just two groups of
people in all of time. There are the children of Adam
who remain the children of Adam by flesh and there are the children
of God who were his children from before the foundation of
the world. and always remain His children. They were the ones
that the Father gave to His Son and they are united to Him in
an everlasting covenant that's ordered in sure in every detail. But nevertheless, God's people
live in this world and we live in our Adam flesh in the unbelief
that occurred to Adam and Eve in the garden. This is our Adam
flesh that rises up against us in unbelief and keeps saying
to us, has God really said? Has God really said? Did he tell the truth? Is he
telling the truth about me when he declares me to be a sinner?
Or am I? Am I like the Obadiah says, that
there is those people whose pride has deceived them? So I actually
think I'm a little bit better. I can look around this world
and think, well, I'm not as bad as those people over there. And
I can look at the people that are struggling in all sorts of
ways and say, well, I'm not like that because I've done something.
All of the notions of the pride of man come from these words
in Genesis, that you shall be as gods. I'll be able to stand
in judgment. I know good and evil and I have
the free will to choose the good over the evil. I can stand in judgment of the
word of God and I can be the one that discerns whether it's
true or not. God says every word of God is
pure. He is a shield under them that put
their trust in Him. He's speaking, of course, of
the Word of God, who is the written Word, but it is the living Word
of our Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder Satan wanted to challenge
them about how God really said. All of this has brought humanity,
with their eyes opened, with the promise of Satan in their
hearts, in Genesis 3.5, you shall be as gods. Now they have eyes
open. The woman saw, verse six, that
the tree was good to food and pleasant to the eye, and the
tree desired to make one wise. The pride of the flesh, the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
She took the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her
husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of both of
them were opened. And they knew they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves aprons. There is in Genesis 3, as I alluded
to earlier, there are two makings, aren't there? There is the making
of man. They made themselves. They made themselves. They made themselves covering. That is what every human being,
every child of Adam is doing in this world all the time. They're
making themselves. They make themselves. God, made man upright, says the
wise man in Ecclesiastes 7.29. But they have sought out many
inventions. That is what man's doing all
the time. Romans 1 describes the problem
of all of humanity in this fallen state. Describes you and I, today, because
that which was maybe known of God is manifested in them, for
God has showed it unto them. For in the invisible world, Romans
1.24, the invisible things of him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen being understood by the things that
are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are
without See, the wrath of God, verse 18, is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down the truth
in unrighteousness. They're continually suppressing
the truth. You can imagine being in a swimming
pool with two or three beach balls or soccer balls, and you're
trying to hold them down, and they continually pop up, and
you spend your life trying to hold them down. Because when they knew God, they
glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain
in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible
God into an image made like unto corruptible man and to birds
and four-footed beasts and creeping things. So why is this darkened
world like it is? It is for many reasons that the
glory of God might shine against that darkness with all that,
the wonder of saving power. That a light from heaven might
come to God's people and that we might actually see that that
is what the world is like. Now we might say that behind
all of the things that cause so much trouble and grief in
this world, there is a God who is in judgment, as Romans 1.24
says, God gave them up. God gave them up. Some of the
most terrifying words in the scriptures, aren't they? God
gave them up. God gave them over. All God has
to do for this world to fall into utter chaos is to leave
them alone. God gave them up, God gave them
up, God gave them up. There is, there is a darkness
and there is a captivity of all of the people of this world until
the strong man comes. Turn with me to Luke chapter
11 and let's look at the work of the strong man for a second.
Because this is what's involved, isn't it, in God saving his people
out of this strong man. They now have taken Satan's bait. They now have taken Satan's reward. They now have Satan's, you shall
be his gods, cursing through their veins. They now have their
eyes open to Satan and his temptations and deceit. He says, our Lord Jesus Christ,
but if I, with the finger of God, cast out devils, no doubt
the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man, this
is speaking of Satan, armed, he's armed, he's armed with deceit
and he's armed with lies. He's armed with the very pride
that's in the nature of a fallen man. When a strong man arm keepeth
his palace, his goods are in peace, but when a stronger than
he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his
armour, wherein he trusted, and he divideth his spoils. It's a great picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ, isn't it? But if we read on, we see that
Satan's great activity in this world is a religious activity.
These men, this Adam and Eve, the first thing they did was
cover themselves. This was a religious activity.
They were trying to hide the shame that they felt. They felt
no shame before the fall. Now their nakedness brings shame
on them. And the very first thing that people do is get religious. And the most dangerous thing
that people can be involved in and the most dangerous of all
of the captivities of Satan in this world is for men to have
many inventions and have those inventions in religion. The Lord
goes on to say, he that is not with me, verse 23 of Luke 11, is against me, and he that gathereth
not with me scattereth. When an unclean spirit has gone
out of a man, when an unclean spirit leaves a man, when an
unclean spirit of drunkenness and debauchery and all sorts
of, think of all the moral problems of the world, when that unclean
spirit has gone out, he's not being cast out by God, he's gone
out of a man. He walketh through dry places
seeking rest and finding none. He saith, I will return unto
my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth
it swept and garnished. When he goeth, he taketh to him
seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter
in and dwell there. And the last day to that man
is worse than the first. Seven spirits, seven is the number
of completeness. the religious people of this
world were the darkest people. If you want to see the darkness
of humanity in this world, you don't go to the brothels and
the bars, and you don't go to the dens of iniquity, you don't
go to the depravity and the sadness that we see in this world. You
go to religion. You have a look, because this
was a religious activity. They came before the Lord Jesus
Christ They came in verse 8, just come back to Genesis 3 with
me for a minute. They heard the voice of the Lord God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day. And this is all of humanity. This is Adam and his seed. And
Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
amongst the trees of the garden. So there's man, there's religious
man. He hears the voice of God. And he hides. He hides from it. That voice of God came into this
world in its loudest and clearest personification when our Lord
Jesus Christ came into this world. And he came to his own. He came
to a religious people. It was a religious nation. They
were all zealous for their various religions. And what did he say? He says in John 8, he says, you,
John 8, 44, you are of your father the devil. And the lusts of your
father you do, you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning
and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar
and the father of it. Listen to the judgment of God
upon these people in verse 45. And because I tell you the truth,
you believe me not. He speaks. He says he acknowledged
them. He acknowledged the fact that
they were Abraham's seed and they were boasting in the fact
that they were Abraham's seed. They were boasting in the fact
that they were of that lineage of the patriarchs. They could
look back in their history and they could see that they were
the chosen ones. And they were the ones that had survived and
come out of Egypt. They were the ones that had gone
into Babylonian captivity and come back again. They were the
ones that now stood as religious as you could get. They had seen,
they had seen the zeal that they needed to withhold and withstand
the Romans. They had stood, these people,
these Jewish people. against Antiochus' fourth epiphany
170 years beforehand before these events. They had stood and prepared
to die for the glory of God. The Pharisees were the separated
ones. They separated themselves from the world. They separated
themselves from all that's immoral in this world. He says, I know your Abraham's
seed, verse 37 of Acts, I want us to hold some of those thoughts
about the captivity and the power of Satan to hold people in his
grasp. and contemplate the solution
to the darkness of that problem. See, men make themselves a covering. Adam and Eve changed under Satan's
delusion and Satan's deception. They changed the nature of God
and they changed the character of God and they doubted the Word
of God. And that's exactly what religious
people are doing throughout time. They created God in their own
image. You think that I am altogether
like you, says God, that we actually reduce him down, the sovereign
omnipotent God, we reduce him down to something that is manageable
by man, ultimately something, a being that has the name of
God and is yet a pathetic wimp. that he comes up against the
mighty free will of man and he's stymied, that he tries his level
best. I was looking at a pamphlet,
I don't know, I think it was given to Brad, but it's a pamphlet
about modern religion. It speaks so well of modern religion. It is exactly, it says God loves
you and he desires a relationship with you, but he can't do it,
he can't achieve it. He doesn't wish for any of you
to die in your sins. Jesus Christ came to earth to
die on the cross to save you from your sins. But you have
to do it. They finish by saying, your decision
determines your destiny for eternity. What did Satan say to man? You
shall be as gods. You shall be as gods. You're
no good and evil. Just like in marriage, says these
people, God has made his choice. He said, I love you, I do. I love you and I want to be in
committed eternal relationship with you. Now it's up to you
to respond to his love and say, I love you, I do. Let's complete
the marriage. That, in one way or another,
is the gospel that's universally presented in this world, isn't
it? Whether it is two ways to live, whether it is the Roman
roads to salvation, whether it is all the other things we have
today, all of them, all of modern religion, my word has no place
in you. It's very interesting if you
think about the very first words that the apostles said to the
people of Israel. Remember Peter's first words?
Hearken unto me. Will you hear what God says? Hearken unto me. They heard,
verse, let's go back to Genesis chapter three and look through
this. 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
among the trees of the garden. That's what every man is doing.
Every child of Adam until the Lord comes along and strips him
and breaks him and kills him, wounds him and heals him. That's
what they'll be doing, they'll be hiding. And God and the Lord God, verse
nine, called unto Adam. This is how salvation begins,
doesn't it? With God coming and calling unto
Adam and saying unto him, it's not us going to God and not us
making a decision for God, it's God, the Lord Jesus Christ coming
to us. And he called unto him and said
unto him, where art thou? He wasn't looking for information.
He was looking for Adam to come reveal who he was and he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was
naked and I hid myself. When God calls you to himself
through the preaching of the gospel, through the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel, you will realise when
you stand before him that your covering, the covering that you
made is absolutely useless. He still said, didn't he? I was
naked and I was afraid. Here I am standing before you.
I'm still afraid and I'm still hiding. The wonder of God calling is
the fact that God comes and God's always finding his people. They're
never lost, are they? We're lost in this world and
they're lost from the sight of other believers and they're never
lost from the sight of God. He knew where to go and get them.
He knew what to say to get them. And he said, verse 11, who told
thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, the
woman thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree,
and I did eat. The very first words out of Adam's
mouth when he's confronted is to tell a lie and to blame God
and to criticise the character of God and to doubt the word
of God. All of what Satan had said to
Eve in beguiling her in his presence is now the part of his being. And isn't that exactly what you
do? And I do all the time. I can earn it for myself. Every
time I'm put under serious pressure, the first thing I want to do,
you can ask Lisa, is I want to find someone else to blame. And
even though I know it's wrong, the next time I'm put under pressure
and caught by surprise, I'll be blaming someone else. We are sinners. We are helpless,
hopeless sinners. The woman thou gavest to be,
she gave me an ididit. And the Lord God said unto the
woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,
the serpent beguiled me, an ididit. See, she was honest. Adam's our
representative head, brothers and sisters. But Eve was actually
telling the truth. She was blaming someone else
as well. But at least she was telling
the truth, and she wasn't criticizing and carrying on about the character
of God. Verse 14 and I want to go through
these verses fairly quickly because I want to get down to verse 21
because our time is limited and I trust as you you will find
as I have found as I studied Genesis 3 the more you study
Genesis 3 the more it says. The more you study Genesis 3
the bigger the pictures get and the clearer the pictures again
and the more they speak of what's going on right now in all of
this world. I trust that you'll go back and
study it again and the Lord will lead you into things and you'll
say, well he missed that and he missed that and he missed that. I know,
the Word of God is living and active. I'm going to miss it
again. So that's why we can go back
to Genesis 3 on another occasion. Okay, let's go and look at the
cursing of God upon the serpent and this earth. And the Lord
God said unto the serpent, verse 14, because thou hast done this,
thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the
field. And upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou
eat all the days of thy life. It's a picture of the fact that
the best Satan can achieve in this world is to eat dust. We
are but dust. He has before the eyes of God
a place to crawl. Verse 15 is the first glorious
promise of the gospel. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman. See, there is an enmity that
God puts between the woman and Satan, between thy seed and her
seed. There are, as I said earlier,
there are only two groups of people in this world and I don't
claim to know which is. Neither should you. We don't know. And it's not our
job. It's not our job to root them
up. You might recall that parable the Lord gave of the tares and
the wheat. And the servants come along in Matthew 13 and say,
well, you've planted good seed in your ground. Where did all
these tares come from? Tares and wheat look exactly
the same as they're growing. Except when they ripen. And when
they ripen, the tares head stands up proud. And the more ripe a
head of wheat is, the more it bends down. It's a great picture
of the children of the evil one and the children of God. God's
children become more bowed down. They become more humble in time. Expect it. I promise you it's
going to happen to you children of God. He said, what should
we do? They go and say, what are we
going to do? What do we do? And the Lord says to them in
verse 29 of Matthew 13, he says, no, you're not to gather them
up. You leave them growing together, lest while gathering up the tares,
you root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together. It's not my job. It's not my
job to find the goats and find the tares. It's my job to proclaim
the gospel. And if you have opportunity,
proclaim the gospel to each other. Let both grow together. In this
world, both are going to grow together. And in this world,
both are going to grow together in the very presence of the church until the harvest. And I will
say to the reapers, gather. ye together first to tears, and
bind them in bundles, and burn them, and gather the wheat into
my barn. There will be an enmity between
thee and the woman, between her seed. And this is the glorious
description of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the seed, isn't
he? He was the seed that she was looking for. She says when
she has Cain, she said, I've got a man from God. Here he is. Look what he turned out to be. It shall bruise thy head. Satan's head will be bruised. He will receive a fatal wound. He received a fatal wound at
the cross. He has been wounded fatally. When I was a young fellow, My
dad killed a snake, a tiger snake, and he just hid it behind the
head. And I was carrying it across the road to school to show my
friends. And I looked down at this snake, and there was this
thing trying to bite my shin. I was carrying it along. There
was a man who got bitten by a headless snake. Someone had chopped the
head off. He might have chopped the head off the snake. And it
latched onto him. The head latched onto him and
killed him. The point simply is, as the old farmers used to
say, the snake's not dead until sunset. In fact, they seem to
take a long time to die. He's bruised, but he's still
alive and active. And as we read in Revelation
12, he knows his time is short and he's enraged, and he's enraged
against the church. But what a great promise. You
shall bruise his heel. He'll give you a fatal wound.
The Lord Jesus Christ will wound you fatally. The Lord Jesus Christ
will come as a strong man and take all of his people free. His who were captives will be
set free. He'll take captivity captive.
But in the process, he'll have his heel bruised. The Lord Jesus
Christ will be wounded. He'll be wounded as he bruises
the serpent's head. "'Unto the woman,' he said, verse
16, "'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.'" I
don't have time to look into that in any great detail, but
the closest and most intimate and most loving relationship
on this earth between a husband and wife is now a marred relationship. And what Genesis 3.16 is saying
is that he shall rule over you in brutality and she will have
a desire to rule over him and so there will be a tension in
all the marriages of this world. I don't need to remind you of
the pain of the fulfilment of that promise from God, that that's
the world we live in. I want us to see, as we look
in terms of our passage in Acts 26, the power of Satan and the
darkness that people live in, to show us the glory of the gospel. And unto Adam he said, because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, instead of
hearing the voice of God, he listened to the voice of his
wife and has eaten of the tree which I commanded thee, saying,
Thou shalt not eat it. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake. Man is spending so much of his energy these days trying
to save the planet. God says it's cursed. God says
it's cursed. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake. In sorrow shall you eat of it all the days of your life. The life for mankind in this
world is not going to be one of endless joy and happiness.
Seeking happiness is seeking the wrong thing. You should seek
to do the right thing and happiness will flow in all sorts of wonderful
ways. Thorns also and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee. Thou shalt eat the herb of the
field. That crown of thorns which is a mark of the curse upon this
creation is the crown that the Lord Jesus Christ wore as he
went to Calvary's tree. He had to be made a curse for
us. He had to bear the curse of God's broken law. In the sweat
of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread, till thou return unto
the ground, for out of it thou wast 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. They made themselves. The eyes
of them were open. They knew. They sowed. They made
themselves. All of mankind is making itself
something all the time. The famous philosopher, I suppose,
Carl Jung, says, I am what I choose to be. I am what I choose to
become. What a load of rubbish. Man says
follow your heart. God says your heart is deceitfully
wicked and beyond cure. A fool follows the dictates of
his heart. They make themselves. They are
building, as the Lord says. You builders, this stone that
you builders have rejected. I love quoting that verse from
Romans 10. They go about They go about to
establish their own righteousness. That's what men in religion are
doing, aren't they? They go about. They're ignorant
of God's righteousness. They're ignorant of the holiness
of God. They go about. They say that
the Holy Spirit is now given so that we can grow in our holiness. We've begun our work by our activity
of faith and now we continue our work by us growing in our
holiness. Romans 10, God says, they being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. There is a bowing in accepting. Adam and Eve were brought, weren't
they? Adam and Eve were brought before God. The depths of their
sin was exposed. The futility of their man-made
works religion, their free will and their works and their worth,
that was exposed as futile, as empty. God calls it vanity. It is as nothing. It's just like
the air. It's like the chaff that is just
blown away by the wind. all of the so-called righteousness
of man. There is only one righteousness.
There is only one righteousness. It's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But I want us to see the pictures
of grace here. Our God reveals himself to a
hiding couple, ashamed of themselves. A hiding couple ashamed of themselves,
working hard to make a covering He reveals the wonder of sovereign,
electing, calling, powerful, saving, redeeming, and keeping
grace. See, the Lord called unto Adam. He called unto Adam. There is one seeker in this world. God's children are thee called. That's our name, we are thee
called according to his purpose. And he comes to his people and
says, where are you? Well, I'm hidden in religion. I'm hidden
in my own works. I'm hiding myself. He calls. And God, when he comes, he calls
with a voice that brings these hiding people in this darkness
and under the power of Satan. He brings them to himself. and
then he can talk to them. As God says, let us reason together. Let us reason together, even
though your sins be as scarlet. What a remarkable thing that
God would say to fallen humanity who lives in rebellion with him
and who is nothing but putrefying sores. Let us reason together. You can read about it in Isaiah
chapter one. Let us reason together. And see what happened to Adam.
I heard I heard thy voice in the garden. God speaks through
creation and he speaks through conscious, our consciousness. We are being convicted all the
time of something of our sins and then we try and cover it
up all the time. Every time we find ourselves
caught in some sort of wickedness, immediately we're trying to stitch
together some more fig leaves. God calls his people to himself.
He calls them to his presence. He caused them to realise what
they were. I was naked. His nakedness was an emblem of
his purity before God. It was an emblem of his freedom. You can read it in Genesis 2.25.
They were naked and they felt no shame. What I really was,
and I felt no shame, Now what I really am, when it's exposed,
all I do is hide. I feel shame. The Lord goes to
his chosen people. The Lord calls his chosen people
to himself. The Lord causes his people to
see what they are. The Lord causes his people to
hear his voice. You see they have made themselves.
You can put that over all of humanity. They have made themselves.
Isn't it remarkable now that man in his great wisdom has reached
the pinnacle of all of his powers in this world and they have made
themselves and now A virus has made them all look like they're
silly and captured to something they can't see. And every expert
becomes a fool in a couple of weeks, isn't it? Because it's
such an unchanging situation. All of the expert... They don't
have a clue. I promise you they don't have
a clue. I did honours economics at university. They don't have
a clue what's happening next week. They don't have a clue. They think that they have light
and they think that they have wisdom and they're proud in their
own eyes. God has humbled this world. I trust that it's a genuine humbling
from him. All we know is that his people
will be humbled before him and say, this is all too big and
too great for me, and I'm so thankful that there's a sovereign
God who's got these things under control. And he sits on a throne
of this universe. But I want us to spend a little
bit of time as we close to look at what the Lord God does. There's
a glory and a beauty. They made themselves. They made
themselves in their religion. They made themselves in their
self-righteousness. They made themselves in their
covering and their hiding. They made themselves. But God
made coats of skin. And there's no question that
this first death in this whole creation is but a picture of
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He made the coats
of skin. He made it. He made it. See, there is no protest from
Adam and not a word is said. God brought them to himself and
he made them coats of skin and he clothed them. He clothed them. See, God doesn't just make. are covering for our shame, brothers
and sisters. God doesn't just come and call
us and bring us to himself and reveal to us what we are, what
he'd known all along what we are. He reveals something of
that to us that he calls himself. He calls us to himself and he
strips us of those big leaves of our own righteousness. And
he makes coats and he clothes them. There's no question about
what that clothing is. In Revelation, Revelation 3 and Revelation 7,
it is the righteousness of the saints. He that overcometh, Revelation
3, to the church in Sardis, the same shall be clothed in white
raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book
of life. Clothed in white raiment. Chapter 7 of Revelation. Behold, after this I beheld and
lo, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations
and kindreds and peoples and tongues stood before the throne
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and with palms
in their hands, and cried with a loud voice saying, salvation
to our God which sits on the throne and the Lamb. And one
of the elders, verse 13, John asked, White robes, what are these white
robes? The angel asks, I'm sorry, the elder asks, what are these
white robes? Whence came they? And I said unto him, sir, thou
knowest. And he said unto me, these are
they which came out of the great tribulation and have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. God doesn't just make. his salvation and bring his salvation. He clothes his people with the
garments of salvation. See, salvation is complete and
sufficient in every aspect, brothers and sisters. The Lord will bring
it to his people. I want to just close by reading
some verses and looking at them in 1 John chapter 3. You might recall how wonderfully
this chapter begins. It says, behold, what manner
of love the Father has bestowed on us. See, we didn't earn it
and we weren't seeking it. It's what he does, it's what
he closes his people with. He's bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. And as a result of us being
called the sons of God, the world doesn't know us. Don't expect
the people of this world to understand who you are and what motivates
you and what causes you to live the way you do and believe the
way you do in this world. Because it knew him not. Beloved,
now we are, now are we the sons of God. Not into the future,
we're right now. Right now there is no condemnation
for those in Christ Jesus. Yet it does not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that
has his hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Whoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law. For sin is a transgression
of the law. This darkness came because there
was a transgression of a law in the garden. And you know that
he was manifested, the Lord Jesus Christ, to take away our sins
and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not. Whosoever sinneth has not seen
him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of
the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him. He cannot sin
because he is born of God. In this the children of God are
manifest, and the children of the devil Whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. What's doing righteousness? What's
doing righteousness? Doing righteousness is really
simple. It is perfect obedience to the law of God, such as the
law of God looks over you in everything that you've ever thought
and done, past, present, and future. and says, perfect. It's a great description of what
it is to be justified. It's a great description of what
it is to be justified. Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth
not. Clothed with that robe, of righteousness,
those pure white robes of the Lord Jesus Christ. God sees no
sin in his people because there is no sin in his people. He has not beheld iniquity in
Jacob. Such is the clothing of God's
children in this world. It's the robe not of our doing. It's not of my making. It's the
very robe of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
new man created in righteousness and true holiness can never ever
sin. And God has taken away all the
sin of all of Adam's children who were given
to him. That's what happened on Calvary's tree when a just
and holy God, when that sword, that flaming sword that turned
every which way outside the garden and kept the way of the tree
of life. The way to the tree of life is now open to all of
God's children because that sword, that flaming sword that kept
that way was plunged into the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ
because of the sins of all of God's people were his sins, he
owned them. People say that justification
is just if I have never sinned. That's not good enough. It's
not good enough for me because I have sinned and I am sinning.
And if sinning is falling short of the glory of God, all of us
are doing it right now. God doesn't play let's pretend
with his words. Hath God really said? This is
what God says. And the only way to understand
it is that glorious picture of the fact that we have two natures.
I have Adam. Adam living in me. Adam in constant
battle with the new man. And it's only the new man in
you that ever sees what the old man is. Those who only have one
nature never know how depraved that nature is. It doesn't matter
how much evidence you give them. It doesn't matter how much you
teach them. It doesn't matter how much education you give them.
It doesn't matter what environment you put them in. They'll never
understand. It's only the children who are
born of God, the love that is bestowed on us. pictured so gloriously
in the garden. That God makes a covering. The
Lord Jesus Christ made a coat of covering. And it's perfect. And it's holy. And it's what
I am. And my Adam flesh deserved death. And because of my perfect unioning,
the perfect union of all of his people with him, that Adam flesh
suffered under the wrath of God, under the holy broken law of
God. on Calgary Street 2,000 years
ago, my Adam Flesch suffered exactly as it deserved to suffer.
Until God's justice cries out, it is finished. The justified
people have never sinned. Our sins were put on him, they
belong to him and they've been put away and they're gone forever. And in glorious resurrection,
He who made those coats of skin clothes his whole church with
the glorious resurrected body of our Lord Jesus Christ will
be like him. He says, beloved, now we are
the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.
It doesn't look like it, does it? I look like I look out on
a bunch of sinners. And I can readily say that I
can see them all as more righteous than I am in the eyes of this
world. But one day, one day, one glorious day, we shall be. We know that when
we shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall seem as
he is. Turn over to verse chapter four. Herein, verse 17, herein is our
love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment,
because as he is, so are we in this world. Is he holy right
now? So are we in this world. Is he
perfectly pleasing to the Father? So are we in this world. Is he accepted by the father? So are we in this world. Is it possible for him to sin? So are we in this world. See God not only makes, but he
clothes. How does he clothes? by giving
us faith and causing us to look to Him and giving us brethren that we
can love. In this, to go back to chapter
three of 1 John, in this the children of God are manifest
and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God. If you don't do righteousness,
If you don't obey the law of God perfectly, by faith, by faith,
we observe and obey the law if the law has been fulfilled in
us. Neither he that loveth not his
brother. That's what brethren are. Brethren are children of the
same womb, children of the same mother, that Jerusalem above
is the mother of us all. The question is not do we understand
all of that, but do we believe it? Do we just believe what God
says about the fact that all of his children are now robed
in a righteousness, the very righteousness of God? Did his
blood achieve what he said it would achieve? to purify us from
all sin. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do ask that you might grant us the simple faith that you
give to children, that we might trust what you say, trust who
you are, find rest for our souls in what you have promised and
what you have done. Oh, our Father, we thank you
that your word is pure. and your word is holy and your
word speaks truth to us. We thank you most of all, Heavenly
Father, that the blessed Holy Spirit takes the perfect things,
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he reveals
it to us. That we might hold on to what
you have promised and hold on to him who has promised. That
we might walk in this world with all of the trials and the turmoils
that having two natures have, Heavenly Father. that continually
know the grace of you coming to us and calling us to yourself
and reminding us of who you are and what you have done. Heavenly
Father, cause us to see your son's blood as precious. Cause us to see that it has washed
our sins away and they are gone forever. What a precious saviour
we have. Cause us to be clothed again
with the robe of his righteousness that we might honour your dear
and precious son by simply living in this world believing what
you have said, our father. We pray in his name and for the
glory of your dear and precious son. Amen. Thank you for joining us.