Now to Genesis chapter 3. I want you to see that the first
question that was ever asked, a fallen sinner by God, is found
in verse 9. Genesis 3 verse 9, And the Lord
God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where are Thou. This is the first call of God
to a sinner in the Scriptures. And this call is a call of grace. This call is a call of grace. I want you to see that. It's
an effectual call. It's a call of grace. Have you
heard the voice of the Lord God call you personally? And say your name. Call you personally. Have you heard Him ask you this
question personally? Where are you? Where are you? I hope God does that. I hope
He does that. I believe He's doing it for some
here. I do believe He is doing that.
I believe He has done that for some here. And when God has done
this, He doesn't stop doing this. He keeps calling us and making
us answer this question, where are you? Where are you? Let's look now and see. this
glorious message that God gives here. Now I want you to get this.
This is what I want you to get from the message. Every sinner
that God saves, he will be saved through the voice of the Lord
God. He's going to be saved through
the truth of the gospel. He's going to be brought by God
from the death of our sin. And we're going to see something
about what the death of our sin is here. We're going to be brought
by God from the death of our sin into life, into His Son,
by His Son. And He continues to do that.
He continues to save us. Faith comes by hearing, by the
Word of God. And that's just not in the first
hour when God saves, that's continually. We have to be kept believing
God and trusting His Son or we'll turn to ourselves. And that won't
get us anywhere but lost. I want you to see four
things here. I want to show you first a few
characteristics of this call of grace. I want to show you
secondly the good news of this call. Thirdly, I want you to
see what this call produces. And fourthly, I want you to see
where this call brings a sinner to rest. Alright, let's see first
some characteristics of this call of grace. In verse 8, we
read here, And they, this is Adam and Eve, they heard the
voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. Let's just stop
right here at this verse and look first of all. Here's the
first characteristic of this call of grace. It is the voice
of God. It is the voice of God. Look
at verse 8. They heard the voice of the Lord
God walking in the garden. This voice came to where they
were. This voice came and spoke to them. This voice came right
there and spoke to them. I just read John 1 to you. The
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Word. The voice. The voice walking was made flesh
and He dwelt among us. He walked in this garden among
us. The voice did. The Word of God. God in times past spoke in various
manners, but He's spoken in these last days through His Son. His Son has come and spoken in
person. His Son came and spoke in person.
Now God in sovereign power, look at 1 Corinthians 1.21. God in
sovereign power promised that he would give By His Word, this
was His Word. He promised in His Word that
He would give pastors after His own heart. He promised that. He'd raise them up and He would
give them. And if He doesn't, they won't be given. And here's
why He said He did that, verse 21. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, by God's own wisdom, 1 Corinthians 1.21, the world
by wisdom, the world by its own wisdom, didn't know God, knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness. And we're talking about that
which man regards as absolutely foolish. And it is, in and of
itself, a foolish thing. It's because the ones God chooses
are weak and empty and vessels and have no power themselves. And it's foolish to men that
God would do this. But God's showing that His wisdom's
stronger, wiser than men, and His foolishness is stronger than
men. the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe, to save them that believe. But make
no mistake about it. It is the voice of the Lord God,
the voice of the Lord God, by whom a man is called in an irresistible
grace. John said that. Look back at
John 1. John 1 again. Look back there. John said that. Look at John 1. 23. They heard
the voice of the Lord God walking. We read here that this Word that
was in the beginning was made flesh and dwelt among us. He
walked among us. And John said in John 1.15, John
bear witness of Him in Christ's sin. This is He of whom I spake.
He that come after me is preferred before me for He was before me. He was before me. Look down at
John 1.23. He said, I am the voice of one. Not just that he was a single,
solitary voice. John said, I'm the voice of one. I'm speaking on behalf of one.
I've been sent by one. I'm the voice of one. Crying
in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. He said,
this is the one I'm speaking of. This is the one who sent
me. This is the one of whom I speak. The voice of one, of the Lord. Look back at Isaiah 52, 6. Isaiah
52, 6. It's Christ who speaks. It's
Christ by whom God manifests Himself to sinners. He's the
mediator between God and men. He's the ladder between God and
men. He's the one to whom God entrusted
the work of grace before the world began. Look at Isaiah 52,
6. 52.6, before this prophecy speaks of
Christ coming into the earth at the end of 52 and end of 53,
he says this, verse 6, Therefore my people shall know my name.
Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth
speak. I'm the one that's speaking it.
Behold, it is I. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes salvation,
that saith undesigned, Thy God reigneth. Thy watchmen shall
lift up the voice. They shall. All His watchmen
shall lift up the voice. with the voice together. I don't have a voice if it isn't
the voice speaking. I don't have a voice. There's
no power in my voice. It's got to be the voice speaking. And all his children are going
to speak the same thing. They all have the same spirit.
But we got to be speaking by the voice of one together with
the voice, his voice speaking. And that's how we're going to
be made to sing. That's how we're going to be
made to see eye to eye with God. So first thing we see, this Lord
God walking in the garden, it's God Himself. It's showing us
here before there was ever a man to speak anything to a sinner.
It's shown us preeminently. Whenever God sends forth His
Word through an earthen vessel to speak the Gospel, it's going
to be the voice of the Lord God that's speaking. He is the voice
by whom God manifests Himself and still continues to speak.
And any man that says otherwise, he's not speaking by the voice.
He's not speaking of the voice. He's not bearing witness of the
Word, of the light, who alone is the one who can birth His
children into life. That's the first thing we see
here. The second thing we see here
is that this Word is a particular call, this call of Christ is
particular. Verse 9, it says, they hid themselves. And it says, verse 9, and the
Lord God called unto Adam. And He said unto him, where are
you? He called him, his name particularly, and said, where
are you? Now, I know somebody will say, well, there was only,
and he called the woman. Look, he said in verse 12, or
verse 13, and the Lord God said unto the woman, what's this thou
hast done? And I know somebody will say,
well, that was the only two sinners there were in the world. Of course,
he came to them particularly. But I'll tell you how this call,
how we know that this call is particular, and this call is
by the electing grace of God. It's because when God calls His
child, He produces a result, just like He did here. And He
doesn't call His child particularly. Who He calls particularly, He
produces this result in them. And He calls them so particularly,
it's like there is nobody else in the world but you and God. Just like it was when there was
nobody there but Adam and Eve. He calls you particularly. And
this call is effectual. It's irresistible. What does
that mean? It means it gets the job done. That's what it means. It gets the job done. Look at
verse 8. And Adam heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. They hid from God. Verse 9 says,
And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where
are you? He wasn't calling because he
didn't know where Adam was. He knew where Adam was. He knew
right where Adam was. But I want you to see how this
call is effectual. As soon as he called Adam and
said, where are you? Look at how verse 10 begins.
And he said, Adam answered him, didn't he? When God calls you,
you're going to answer. When He calls, we're going to
answer Him because He calls effectually. This is what He said in John
5, John 5.25. He said, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. And when God calls you, we've
got this, there's this show on television right now, you've
seen it, The Voice. the voice and everybody's listening
because everybody is wanting to hear the voice. They want
to identify the voice. This is the voice. We're talking
about the voice right here. And there is not another voice
that matters. When you hear the voice, you will answer the voice. He calls effectually. All right,
now let's see what he brings the sinner to do. He brings the
sinner to confess. This is characteristic of this
call. He's going to bring us to confess. our sin before God. He's going to bring us to confess
before Him exactly what we are, what we've done. Look at this.
He said in verse 9, Adam, where are you? Now we're either where
Adam was, right here as we see him when God came to him, or
we're where God put Adam. We're in one of those places. We're going to either be found
where Adam was here when God first called, or we're going
to be found where Adam ends up. We're going to be found in one
of those two places. Where was Adam? Look at verse 10. He said,
I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid. because I was
naked and I hid myself." Now, you've heard the voice go forth,
just like Adam at first heard the voice in the garden. He heard
the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden. But it wasn't
until that voice called him particularly and said, Adam, where are you?
That he answered and he said, I heard your voice before. And
I hid myself. You see, two voices here. He's
heard a voice going forth, walking. He heard the voice in the garden.
Just like you hear, right? You hear the gospel. A man hears
the gospel going forth. But it's when God speaks affectionately
in that heart and calls you personally and says your name personally
that then you're going to bring forth and you're going to answer
God. Now look what he said to him. Now this is where he was.
He heard the voice of God. You've heard with this ear. But
when you first hear this voice, it doesn't sound at first like
it's a voice of mercy. Not to the guilty. Not to the
guilty. It comes to us first and God's
going to make us see we're guilty first. He's going to make us
to see the judgment that we have earned for ourselves, that we
deserve ourselves. He's going to bring us to see
that. And Adam was afraid of God. He was afraid of Him. naked in sin, in guilt, in condemnation,
and he hid himself from God. He hid himself from God. Whenever
he ate of that fruit at first, the Scripture says here, go back
and look at it, verse 6, 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. And she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he
did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew
they were naked. They knew this nakedness consists
not only of the fact they were physically naked, but they knew
now they were guilty. They knew they were sinners.
They knew they were evil. They knew the evil. And they
sewed fig leaves together and made themselves a covering. Mainly
right there, they made themselves a covering to hide themselves
from each other. Because they were ashamed of each other. And
they hid themselves from each other. And that's what men try
to do. We try to hide ourselves from
each other. We try to hide ourselves from
each other by some leaf, some fig leaf. There's no blood in
a leaf. There's no blood in a leaf. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. And there's
no blood in a leaf. There's no blood in a sinner
mending his ways. There's no blood in a sinner
trying to make himself just before God. There's no blood in a sinner
trying to think he's made his heart right and he's produced
in himself a new man and he's now trying to bring forth something
by the work of his own hand and by his flesh. There's no blood
in that. There's no holiness in that. at all. And there they
were. And because he didn't have this
covering, and because he didn't, he tried to hide himself. When
he heard the voice of God, that covering wasn't enough. And he
hid himself, tried to hide himself in the garden. Look how ridiculous
sin is. I think this is the case here
about sin. He tried to hide, verse 8, Adam
and his wife hid themselves. Let me ask you this. Do you think,
I realize that like sinners will try to commend each other and
we'll try to call each other righteous and try to do that
for one another, but you know the real sadness of sin is, is
sin makes a man try to cover up himself. And when it says
they hid themselves here, I think Adam was hiding himself and Eve
was hiding herself. You're on your own. He tried
to hide himself and she tried to hide herself. And then you
see the foolishness of it in that they tried to hide themselves
from the presence of the Lord God. Is it possible to hide from
the presence of God? Is it possible? go into the depths of the sea,
He's there. If I ascend up to the heights,
He's there. If I go to the depths, He's there.
Wherever a man tries to hide himself, God's there. God's ever
present and He knows where His people are. He knows exactly
where His people are. We can't hide ourselves. We cannot
do anything to cover up. We can't do anything to make
ourselves acceptable with God. Now look at verse God's going
to press His child to confess what the real issue is. He's
going to confess. Look at verse 11. He answered. This is what He said. I'm sorry,
verse 10. He said, I was afraid because I was naked and I hid
myself. That's not the problem. That's not the problem. Yes,
He was naked. And yes, He was afraid and He
did hide Himself. But listen to what God asked
Him. Here's the second question. Who told you you were naked?
Who told you you were naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? Now that's a simple
question. When you stand before a judge
and he asks you a question, he's asking you for a yes or no answer. That's what he wants. A yes or
no answer. Are you guilty or are you innocent? That's what he's asking. Now
let me tell you something. You're not going to find this
in the law. You're not going to try to go to the law of God
and work up a righteousness to present yourself to God. It's
not going to happen. And if you want to know just
how, how, so that is, the law worketh wrath. The law worketh
wrath. We want, we want, we want judgment. We want justice when we're the
victim. We want that. We want justice and judgment
when we're the victim. But when we're the criminal,
we want mercy. That's what we want. You know
that so, a sinner can say, you can say, I delight in the law
of God after the inward man. And a believer does. We delight
in the law of God after the inward man. I'm telling you, you let
yourself personally, you, yourself, your son, your daughter, you
let them personally stand before a judge and let him say you're
guilty. And then we start saying, well, that's not fair. That's
not fair. The law is supposed to do one
thing. It's not supposed to give you
mercy. The law, it wasn't made to give a man mercy. The law
was made to say, to shut our mouths and make every sinner
stop in the dust before God and say, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. And it don't matter what excuses
we give. The just judge of heaven and
earth is not interested in that. Look at this in verse 11. Verse
11 and he this is how he answered. I'm sorry verse 12 the man said
the woman The woman he blamed her first This is this is now
listen to me. This is this is me and you believer.
This is our flesh It's still there and this is what the law
will stir up you you let you let you let You let somebody
be charged here. And I'm telling you, as long
as we talk about sin in a grand scope of things and it being
broad and being swept over everybody and all that, it's fine. You
let it come to you personally. And you'll find that old flesh
still saying, the woman, the woman. And then he said, we're
not going to be able to blame somebody else. We're not going
to be able to blame somebody else. He said, whom you gave
me. We're not going to be able to
blame God. Our sin is not God's fault. It's not his fault. He said, she gave me of the tree
and I did eat. And then the Lord God said unto
the woman, what's this thou hast done? And the woman said, the
serpent begot me and I did eat. But the Lord God, the law, the
judge, He's listening. And the judge of heaven and earth,
God Almighty, this is what He hears. This is what He hears,
right here. This is what He's listening for,
right here. These last little words at the
end of verse 12 and verse 13. I, I personally, nobody else
ate for me. I did eat. I did it. I did it. That's that's that's
that's where we got to be brought. I did it. I did it. Well, that's where we got. What's your plea? That's what
he's praying. What is your plea? And this is
where he brings us to. He brings us to plea. No contest. I did it. I'm guilty. I did it. Now, whenever God does this,
this is the amazing thing about God's grace. God is the only
one. He's the only one that can make,
you see, we're the criminal. We are the criminal. And He's
the only one who can execute strict justice upon us. And when
God says justice, He means the soul that sinneth, it shall surely
die. That's what he said, and the
day you eat that tree, of that tree, you shall surely die. That's
it. Our courts have got all kinds
of little extra things. And we need that in civil court. We need that. And God's given
that when he gave the civil law in Israel. He gave some of those
ways to show mercy. But God, in strict judgment,
poured out strict justice upon everyone, every criminal, every
elect child of God is a criminal and he poured out strict justice
and yet God's the only one at the same time can show perfect
mercy, and not do one at the expense of the other. I was talking
to Christine yesterday. She was talking about that judge
was so strict and everything, and was talking about how the
judge said he was being strict. He was doing what the law is
supposed to do. And he said he wouldn't hear anything. He wouldn't
hear anything. But that judge even said at the
end of his speaking, he even said, but now you can go and
you can work these points off and it won't show up on your
insurance. Well, strictly speaking, that's mercy at the expense of
justice. God can show strict justice and
mercy. and do it because He's God who
does it. Now look, as soon as He confessed what He had done,
you would expect now, don't get me, don't misunderstand here.
Let me show you, let me say this. Adam sinned against God. And
when Adam sinned against God, he's the federal head of all
mankind. And when he sinned against God, Condemnation came upon all
men. Sin entered in and death by sin
and death passed upon all men for all men have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. We're born of Adam and it's passed
on to us. But now we're looking here at
this call as it is a call of grace to Adam and to Eve. And
I want you to see this. As soon as, as soon as this man
said, I've seen now, We know that Adam was put out of the
garden, and we know that the Lord here shows how the curse
came upon the whole world, and the woman in sorrow would have
childbirth, and all these things that are the result of sin entering
in. But when Adam said this to God,
when he said, I did it, and Eve said, I did it, God didn't turn
to Adam and to Eve and say, you're cursed. He didn't. Look what
he did. Verse 14, And the Lord God said
unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed
above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy
belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of
thy life. He turned to another and said,
You're cursed. And that serpent, Satan, he's
cursed. The Lord didn't call him. You
notice that? The Lord didn't call him. He
was there the whole time all this was going on, but the Lord
didn't call him. The Lord called Adam and He called Eve. He didn't
call him. And He didn't say anything to
him except for, you're cursed. That's all. But He called Adam
and He called Eve. And when He brought them to confess
their sins, now He gives them a message of mercy. Watch this. Verse 15. And He said, And I
will put enmity between thee, Satan, and the woman, and between
thy seed and her seed, and it, her seed, shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel." This is what God does when He
brings His child to confess our sin. He makes known the mercy
of God is in Christ. You see here this seed of woman,
this seed woman is a his that's a that's a that's one it's it
it it shall bruise thy head that one see it shall bruise our head
and thou shalt bruise his heel and that see Galatians 3 tell
that seed is Christ let's go over there Galatians 3 13 she came through the Lord The
Lord Jesus came through. She had children and they had
children on down the line to marry. He came through, but she's
the only one who ever had a child without knowing a man. And that's
what the Lord is declaring here. There's coming forth a seed of
woman. This one who's perfect, spotless,
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. The Word that was
made flesh and dwelt among us. And God said, Judgment's your
deserve. Judgment's what you deserve.
You're guilty. But here's mercy. Here's where I'm going to be
just in pouring out judgment upon you and yet show you mercy
and do both in perfect harmony. Here's where it is. Galatians
3. Galatians 3. Let's look at verse 13. Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. This is what God promised. This is what God promised. Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Christ came. Look down at verse
16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He said, Not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one. and to thy seed, which is Christ."
This seed that was promised in the garden was Christ. Look at
Hebrews 2. I show you this quite often,
but look back there. Hebrews 2.14. Hebrews 2.14. For as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same. that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, that old serpent. He destroyed him through death,
his power, and he delivered them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. For he didn't take on
him the nature of angels, he took on him the nature of the
seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." And verse
18 says, And for he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is
able to comfort them that are tempted, succor and protect and
guide and and treat them. Now, if you're standing for a
judge, and he's pronounced you guilty, and this judge at the
same time tells you, I'm your advocate, I'm your, I'm your
judge, but I'm the one who is your advocate. I'm the one who
has made intercession for you. I'm the one who has satisfied
my judgment for you. I'm the one who is satisfied
judgment on your behalf. If you got a judge, yesterday,
John just stood before a judge, and he didn't have an advocate.
He didn't have somebody stand there with him. He didn't have
a lawyer there. He didn't have somebody to plead his case. I
told you this story a long time ago about a friend of mine back
in Franklin. He got charged with a crime,
and somebody showed up in between that time and his court date.
They showed up, and they said, a lawyer showed up. He said,
I'll represent you. And my friend said, I don't have
anything to give you. I don't have anything to pay
you. I don't have any way. I can't afford an advocate. I
can't afford a lawyer. And he said, you don't owe me
anything. I will represent you. And the court date came. The
day came, and one after another got up in front of the judge,
and the judge just Let the hammer down on the judge. I mean, they
got up, try to present himself. I'm going to present myself for
you, judge. And the judge said to each one
of them that came forward, you don't speak my language. You
can't speak my language. You can't speak law. You don't
know law. You can't present yourself to
me. And hit the gavel and sent them out of there. One after
another. My friend's sitting there, and
he's just sitting there. He don't see that advocate with
him anywhere. And when that judge called out
his name, that fellow stood up in the front.
He said, I'll represent him. I'll talk to you about him after
this. And the judge said, OK, next case. The next one came
up. That man had an advocate. That's
what we got to have to stand before God, because we can't
come to God and plead our case. We can't come to God and speak
his language. We got to have an advocate who
comes before us, Christ Jesus the righteous, and he says, I've
come forth and I've honored your law. I've come forth and I've
fulfilled it in holiness. Let me tell you what true holiness
is. The holiness of the law. The true holy character of God. It's this. It's fulfilled in
this. This is the holy character of God and this is the righteousness
that the law demands. Holiness has to do with the whole
heart. W-H-O-L-E. The whole heart. The wholeness. And righteousness has to do with
doing, doing everything commanded. This is the holiness of God and
this is the righteousness demanded of God's law. Love God and love
your neighbor as yourself. Now, there's only one that's
ever done that to the satisfaction in the holiness of God and in
the righteous fulfillment of God. There's only one that's
ever done that. And here's what it required. He came forth and
he did everything the law required. He walked honorably with his
whole heart. I came to do thy will, O God.
Thy law is within my heart. I came to do thy will." And he
came. And when men hated him and despised
him and mocked him and scoffed at him, never once arose up in
his heart an evil thought. Never once. And having fulfilled
the whole law of God, having proven himself holy before God,
he went to the cross and he He hath made him sin who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God. And I want
you to, in holy character, he not, he called on God to judge
in righteousness, even when it meant he's the one that's bearing
the wrath. He's the one that's bearing the
curse. And he never wants, in his holiness,
he never wants return from that faithful holiness. And yet at the same time, He
was made to be what His people are, that God might be just and
pour out wrath upon Him. I just can't enter into that. This
is where judgment met and mercy met. This is where truth met
and righteousness. This is where holiness and righteousness
all in one place. We see it right there. the judgment
of God, the justice of God, the holiness, the mercy, everything,
all right there. Because he loved God supremely
to the point of laying down his life for God. And he loved his
brethren supremely to the point of laying down his life for his
brethren without a hesitation ever. it even when it meant God withdrawing
and turning his back on him and leaving him there bearing this
thing in his own body on the tree so that God says I'm satisfied
justice is satisfied the loss fulfilled and here he is he's
all He's the sanctifier and He is the sanctification. He's the
holiness of His people. He is. Now look, when that happens,
when God makes you to know this, that you're guilty, you deserve
judgment, and then God says to you, I've done this in the seed,
I've done this in Christ Jesus, my Son, who was born of that
woman. When He makes you to see that
your judge is your advocate, and God's so well pleased with
Him, He committed all judgment to the Son. The judge is the
one who actually laid down his life for his people and will
stand when his people, we just put it in terms we can
try to enter into, but in that day of judgment, when his people's
name is called, he says, I've taken care of him. It's satisfying. It's satisfied. When God makes
that known in your heart, you want me to tell you what happens?
When he does that, here's what happens. That is how God kills
faith. That is the substance of faith.
That is what faith consists of, is seeing the Redeemer and knowing
God's done everything. And look at verse 20. I think
that's what we see here. And Adam called his wife's name
Eve because she was the mother of all the living. Adam believed
God. He believed what God said. God
said there's coming a seed through her. And this is where my people
are going to be born and they're going to live. And Adam called
her the mother of all living, the mother of the living one,
Christ the resurrection and the life. that one in whom all the
elect of God are preserved from the fall, that one in whom Christ
is a surety, justified and made righteous in Him because they
were put in Christ from the beginning, who came in a fullness of time
and put away their sin, that one in whom all the elect of
God are called, made new, resurrected in newness of life and given
life in Him and by Him. Abraham, the Scripture says,
Romans 4.3. Let me show you this. Romans 4.3. I got to hurry. Stay with me. Romans 4, 3. This
is what Scripture says about Abraham, about faith. What saith
the Scripture? Abraham believed God. This is
speaking of Abraham. Now, this is not speaking of
Adam. But Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness. Now to him that worketh is a
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. On him that justifies the ungodliness. His faith is counted for righteousness. And that's what we see Adam believe. It's like all the things God
said to him after he said about the curse entering in and all
that. It's like you and me believe.
We know we've got to pass through this life and bear the thorns
and the briars and all that. But when we hear this Gospel,
it's like Adam didn't hear anything. The rest of that he heard about
that seed. And he said, I'm calling this
woman Eve. She's going to bring forth the
living one. And Eve believed because when
she had came, she said, I brought forth a man child. She thought,
this is him. It wasn't him. It was a long
time before he came. But she knew what God was saying
too. And Adam, that's what he's saying.
And it said there, when Abraham believed, it was counted to him
for righteousness. That all he stood in Christ alone,
perfectly righteous. Look at the next verse, verse
21. That's what we see fourthly. The righteousness of Christ imputed
to the believer. Look here. And unto Adam and
to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe
them. God slew another in the place
of them. That's what God does when He
slew Christ, His own Son, in the place of His elect. And by
Him, He made a coat covering that's He strips his children
of all those fig leaves and brings us out into This is the condemnation
men love darkness rather than light. It won't come to the light.
I want to hide in the trees But God's going to bring His child
out to the light. And when He brings them out and
makes them to confess their sin and say, He makes them to see
Christ, and He makes them to believe on Christ, and He says,
now you're robed in all my righteousness. Perfect. Complete. All right? Turn over to Colossians. We'll
just go one place. Are you trying to hide yourself
in the nakedness of your sin, in your own shame, in your guilt,
in your rebellion? Self-wisdom is going to make
us deny God and it's going to make us deny our need of Christ
and blame everybody else. Self-righteousness, some kind
of self-righteousness by which we think we're justified, whereby
we think we've made ourselves just with God by His law, it's
going to damn us. self-sanctifying work, whereby
we imagine that we've begun in the Spirit and now we're made
perfect, fit, accepted of God by something we've done in our
flesh. That's not resting. The holiness we follow after,
without which no man shall see God, is the same holiness that
that thief on the cross had. He's one of those men without
which no man shall see God. He's one of those. And he followed
after that holiness with his feet and his hands nailed to
a cross. He followed after it in here.
He had the holiness without which no man should see God. He was
made a partaker of God's holiness, of his Son Christ Jesus. That's
where it's at. When we start looking at this
hand and his feet at one another, we'll break out that law and
we'll start saying, the woman made me, that woman made me,
this man made me, God did this, that. We'll start blaming everybody
else. This good news makes us rest. We're going to self-redemption,
trying to bribe God and men with corruptible silver and speaking
smooth things and freeing us from this just judgment. We can't
stand there. We're either there or we're truly
hid. We're either there hiding in
a fig leaf or we're truly hid. Look at Colossians. That's what
Paul said. He said, I count all things lost. I'm glad to give up all my leaves.
He said, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. And he said, and I want to be found. I want to be found. Adam was hiding. He said, I want
to be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness, which
is after the law, but that which is according to God, that which
is to the faith of Christ, his faithfulness. But I look here
at Colossians 3.1, we see the same thing. If ye then be risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things of the earth, because here's what God's made
us to know. You're dead. I've been crucified
with Christ, and here's where my life is. It's hidden, all
right. It's hidden. I'm hiding. I really
am hiding. I'm not hiding in my fig leaves,
and I'm not hiding in a tree. My life is hid with Christ in
God. That's where I'm hiding. And
when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall you also appear
with him in glory. That's how the flesh is mortified.
That's how the leaves are stripped. And that's how man is brought
to rest in Christ, brethren. All right.