Lord may graciously help me. I do want to speak of the on the chapters that we read in Genesis but I want to take my text from the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 61 and middle clause of verse 10.

Isaiah 61 and read the whole verse and then I'll point out the bit that is a central clause. Isaiah 61 verse 10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

Isaiah 61 and verse 10, but particularly these words. For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.

What we read in Genesis chapter 2 is a picture of paradise, is what we refer to as paradise. It was Adam and Eve created in the image of God for the glory of God in their pre-fallen state. They were innocent. They had never sinned. They didn't know what evil was. They were holy. They had communion with God. God had created Adam and then Eve for Adam out of that rib. We read about it. And they were in that state of of righteousness. They had fellowship with God. They were not afraid of God. They had communion with God. They had that righteousness in that innocency.

And we read this particular verse in chapter 2, verse 25, and they were both naked, the man and his wife. and were not ashamed. They had nothing to hide. You see, we become self-conscious, we hide. But you see, they had no sin, there was no sin. And therefore, their nakedness was like a picture of their innocence. There was nothing evil, nothing sinful. a picture of the righteousness that Adam and Eve had. They had a standing and all the time they obeyed God, they had that standing. They had a righteousness that was mutable. That means able to change. We think of God as immutable, cannot change. But Adam and Eve had a mutable righteousness. It could change, and it did change. They lost it. There was a fragility, as it were, in paradise.

Yes, they'd been created in the image of God, but they were capable of disobeying God. God had given them this clear command, thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. But as we spoke at the beginning, this hymn picks up this point, which is hymn 94. He raised me from the depths of sin, the gates of gaping hell, and fixed my standing more secure than t'was before I fell.

And so, as we have set before us this paradise, we might think, oh, if only we could go back to that state. obviously there's many preciousness in that but actually Adam stood in his own righteousness and Eve did and that righteousness could fall and did there was a dangerousness about that righteousness in that sense in Eden and when the Lord is in that the whole rest of the Bible is involved with that redemption to buy back that which was lost with Adam in the fall.

But he is not putting Adam back in the state he was. There is a little sort of rhyme that goes along the lines that justification is just as if I never sinned. Well, it's partly true, but not altogether true. Adam And believers in Christ are not restored just as if they never sinned. They are forgiven, but they are still, they're those that have sinned. They're not innocent. And you see, if God was to turn us back into that state of paradise, we never read from this, the last time we read of this in verse 25, and they were both naked and the man and his wife and were not ashamed, we never read of nakedness again as being a positive thing. Because they'd lost their innocency. And once it was lost, it was forever lost. Yes, they gained forgiveness. Believers in Christ have been forgiven, they've been washed. But you look at all the references later on, they're always clothed. They're never naked. And nakedness then becomes a symbol of exposure and of emptiness.

But here you see in Innocency, they were totally open. There was nothing to hide. and they were totally unashamed, totally unselfconscious of any problem. But then as we see in chapter three, we see the effects of the fall. And as we have in mind that text, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. God is fixing, is going to restore, you see, his church to a state that is more secure than Adam and Eve in the garden of paradise.

You might think, oh, if only we could get back to paradise. But paradise was dangerous. Paradise relied on continual obedience, personal obedience. And if you fell, then paradise was lost. But you see, the standing more secure that Christ, we read of in this text, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, is being clothed with the righteousness of another. You see, Adam's righteousness was untested. It was, it had never been tested really. Yes, he was righteous, but he hadn't had time to show his obedience and as Soon as he did have an opportunity to show his obedience, he fell. We don't exactly know how long it was between him being set up in the garden, how quick it was before he fell. But it doesn't appear very long time. But he fell and he lost that state of righteousness.

But then we read in chapter 3, you see, how the serpent was involved, Satan, seeking to destroy the pinnacle of God's creation, man, created in the image of God, to destroy that and to twist God's Word. And this is always what Satan is seeking to do, is to twist and undermine God's Word. And all of us need to be careful of that. We take the Word of God and say, well, it doesn't really quite say that. Or we twist it a bit and think, oh, it doesn't really mean that. And that's what Satan was doing.

When he first of all questions, hath God said that you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Questioning what God had said. He knew, Satan knew what God had said but he questioned it. And then he opened the door as it were to what did he really say? And then Eve repeats it with some changes slightly. She makes it that neither shalt thou touch, you shouldn't even touch the fruit. Well that actually wasn't said. Lest ye die, well God had said you shall surely die. Weakening as it were the original words of God,

but then in verse 4 you see Satan came comes back with a Direct then a direct rebuffal rebuffal of what God had said ye shall not Surely die and then twists it right round that God's only saying that because he wants to keep you in a lower state he doesn't he wants to spoil your your enjoyment of being as gods and God doth know that in the day yet there will be your eyes shall be opened oh it'd be so much better if you knew about evil you knew all this knowledge your eyes will be opened

where their eyes were opened but oh it was a disastrous thing that happened when they when their eyes were opened What

did it give? Did it give happiness? No, we'll read that in a second. You should become as gods and know good and evil. It was presented, you see, as something attractive, and that's what Satan does. He'll take the word of God, the things that are forbidden in God's word, and he'll paint them up. He'll make them very attractive. This is what living is. This is how to live better, to enjoy life better and fuller, is break God's commandment. Forbidden pleasures. Break those commandments and you'll enjoy your life more. That's the message of Satan. He's a liar.

Well, in verse six, we have those words of the and 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's wise. And she took the fruit thereof and did eat and gave unto her husband with her. And he did eat. Here we have the four. We have that state of righteousness that Adam and Eve were in, lost. That state of innocency, lost, and lost forever. The whole human race is never innocent after that, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. But every other one is not innocent. Yes, we may be forgiven, but we're forgiven, but we've been washed, we were sinners.

But you see the great redemption is that God was going to bring those people who he's redeemed into a more blessed state than Adam was in, in the Garden of Eden. It's a wonder, isn't it? A wonder. When we see the world around us and the sin and all the trouble and fixed, outstanding, more secure, than t'was before we fell.

Well they eat of the fruit. And you might think as soon as they ate of the fruit immediately they would feel the judgment of God shouting at them for what they'd done. But that's not the case. Look at what we read in God's Word. Verse 7 of Genesis 3. And the eyes of them both were opened. Satan was was right, their eyes would be opened. He often says a half-truth. It's true that the eyes would be opened, but open to, he presented his open to something better. But what are they open to? And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. The opening of their eyes revealed themselves. made them self-conscious, they suddenly realised that they were naked before a holy God, that they were sinners, that they were guilty. All those fears of guilt and fear, that's what happened.

You might say, but their bodies didn't suddenly change. They were the same as in chapter two. They were naked and not ashamed. But now they know shame for the first time. Shame. And the eyes of them both were open and they knew that they were naked. They realized that they were exposed and suddenly their job was then to stop that exposure and to stop that. There was no other people in the world. It was only Eve and Adam. Wasn't loads of other people looking on. But immediately, as their eyes were open, as they sinned, they became consciously aware of their sin and their guilt.

And it's interesting, you see, the first thing they did, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves... God didn't tell them to do this. It was their conscience was working. And in a sense, it was a good thing. It was working. It was showing them, you need a covering. You're exposed. God can see right through you. You've lost your righteousness. And God is righteous. And their immediate reaction was to cover themselves. Well, it was good that they wanted to cover themselves. But here you see, they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron. You might think, well, that was good enough. It covered them, made them decent. But then we read on in verse eight, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden. They hid themselves. Why? They were guilty. They had that guilt on them. And guilt, you can read about it. When people have murdered other people, stolen things, they have such a deep sense of guilt. It can absolutely ruin them. The guilt of sin, and they felt it, and God's people feel it. We are guilty. We are verily guilty. We're not innocent. We were. We could be exposed to God and there was no sense of shame. But now there's a sense of shame. We have sinned against God.

But Adam and his wife, hid from the presence of God. You see, God comes to Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve didn't go to God, they run away from him. But God comes to Adam and Eve and they hide away. And it becomes very clear that these fig leaves aren't doing their job very well. And the Lord called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? Now, clearly God knew exactly where they were. But he's coming to cause them to consider their ways, cause them to answer. How often God asks us questions to draw us out, and he did with Adam and Eve. He brought them both to confess what they'd done. He never did with Satan. He just consigned him. You see there, Adam and Eve were objects of mercy. There was going to be mercy for Adam and Eve, but not for Satan.

And the Lord God called unto Adam and said, where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid. The first time we read of fear, fear is when you're really afraid. It's not a nice feeling, is it? You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Was it a good thing? No. It brought fear. It brought dread. It brought guilt. They felt exposed. And it's pictured with this idea of nakedness as we would know it today. I was afraid because I was naked.

But you say, but you've got the fig leaves. You've got your fig leaves. What's the problem? Clearly, Adam recognized that these fig leaves were not enough. They were not covering what they needed to. And I hid myself. And so Adam, you see, acknowledges his own sin to his maker.

And you see that this knowledge, you see, and then God asked the question, he said, who told thee that thou was naked? Who came and told you that? Well, it's clear that nobody told Adam and Eve that they were naked. It was the experience of guilt that led them to see, open their eyes. They lost innocency. And they felt then exposed. And there's a picture you see, and it's interesting as I say, this was never restored. That level of innocency was never restored again in the human race. We're sinners saved by grace. And that's something to remember, you see. Believers are not innocent. They're sinners. They've been forgiven. The Lord has clothed them as we have in our beautiful text. For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.

But what's underneath? We're sinners. We've sinned. We're unworthy. And we're always unworthy in ourselves. But that clothing, that coat, robe of righteousness is what makes us accepted. All in the righteousness of another. And that is going to be the theme throughout the rest of scripture. And yet it's set here, right in the third chapter of the Bible, the picture, sin and salvation, the need for covering, the need for returning that which is lost. And yet, how that God did not restore man to his state of innocency. He did something better in a sense. He gave them a finished righteousness, a complete righteousness. And Christ on the cross said, it is finished. It was a complete righteousness. It was an immutable righteousness. It was a righteousness that could not change. And that is the security of God's people.

Adam was not secure. Adam was only righteous all the time. He continued to perfectly obey. And as soon as he didn't, he lost that righteousness. But what a blessing that the Lord has provided a robe of righteousness by his only begotten son, who perfectly kept the law so that sinners, Adam and Eve's of this world can be clothed.

But you see, so Adam admits that his fig leaves were not really doing the job. I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told you that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the woman that thou gavest to me, she gave me to eat of the tree and I did eat. So here God confronts Adam, did you eat of that tree? And of course he had it, and he then blames his wife. But he's convicted, you see. Adam is convicted.

And then God moves on to Eve and asks, what is this that thou hast done? In verse 13, and the woman said, the serpent beguiled me. And here we have a fracture, you see, of human relationships. Husband and wife blaming one another, you see. And that's the picture of sin down through the ages. We all blame somebody else. I did this because somebody else did something else. rather than taking the blame ourselves and recognizing our own sin. And here you see the fracture of human relationships between one another and between God all stems from disobedience.

But you see the Lord Jesus is going to come and work out a perfect obedience. In this garden of paradise where everything was perfect, everything was congenial for Adam to obey, he disobeyed. But let's go to another garden. The garden of Gethsemane, where our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the last Adam, was in the garden. If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt, he obeyed. And with his obedience, we're clothed with that obedience, so that God's people, believers in Christ, have a righteousness not their own, that they can be clothed with, a righteousness which is immutable, unchanging, unable to change.

And the Lord said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. So both Adam and Eve have both been confronted with their sin. But you'll notice God doesn't do that to the serpent. In verse 14, and the Lord God said unto the serpent, he didn't ask the serpent why he did it, And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above all beasts of the field. And upon the belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat, and all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.

Genesis 3 verse 15 is referred to as the first gospel promise in the word of God. And yet when you look at it to start with, you say, gospel promise? I don't see much gospel there. I don't see much love. I don't see much of the things I associate with the gospel. And I will put enmity. You say, I thought the gospel was a gospel of peace, of love, of reconciliation. Yes, it is. But you've got to know which side you're on. You see, Adam and Eve had sided at the beginning of chapter three of Genesis with Satan. They were in a pact with Satan. Satan had encouraged them to sin and they had gone with him and they were in union with Satan, as it were, against the God, the creator of the universe.

And yet God says this first gospel promise in chapter, in verse 15, and I, this is what God will do, I will put enmity between thee and the woman. God is going to see that there is an enmity between God's people and Satan. That pact of unity is broken. And between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head. Calvary. Christ was going to going to bruise Satan's head at Calvary. First gospel promise. It was to put it was to deal with sin. It was to deal with Satan. It was to break up that pact of union.

And you see, I will put enmity. It will bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel." That was the effect it had on Christ. His life was crushed, wasn't it? He rose again, but what he laid down at Calvary. And then there was these curses given, or the punishment was given then to the woman and to Adam. But not before there was a hope, you see, of, and I will put enmity. I will break up this pact of unity you've got with Satan. Because if you've got a pact of unity with a terribly dangerous person, an evil person, that's a bad thing, you see, if you've got a pact of unity. Because if you continue with a pact of unity with Satan, you will go to be with Satan forevermore in a lake that burns with fire. It's not a good pact to be in.

But God says, I will put end to you. I'm going to break up this pact. What a mercy. Oh, they were in with Satan. But God is going to break that union. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed.

But then we read on, in verse 21, and unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins. and clothed them. You see, God didn't tell them off, as it were, for feeling guilty. In a sense, that was a good thing. They needed to feel guilty. Their consciences had been working. They felt self-conscious now. They recognised their exposure and their need of a covering.

But you see, the covering was going to have to be something not their own. You see, they'd made these fig leaves, sewed them together. It was something that they had done. It was their work. And it was totally inadequate. Adam still says, I was naked. It wasn't adequate. And you see, this is a picture of all forms of false religion. ways in which man can think that he can get right with God. Think that he can do this or do that. Make some fig leaf righteousness and then God will accept me.

But no, you see, God graciously, he doesn't mock them for being naked. He doesn't despise them for it. He says here in verse 21, unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin. Skins. Skins of animals, no doubt. You can't take the skin off an animal without killing the animal, can you? If an animal's lost its skin, he can't live. There must have been the death of animals. Animals were killed, one or more was killed, to provide the coat of skins for Adam and Eve.

And here we have in seed form the whole picture of redemption, substitution, the death of an animal, to give clothing, covering to God's people. Well we've stated for a text, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.

This is what God has done. He's clothed his people with a righteousness that was not their own. It was a righteousness that Christ himself had worked out. Yes, here it was coats of skins, this was animals death. Of course the whole ceremonial law and the ceremonial sacrifices were about animal sacrifices. But ultimately animals, the death of the animals we're told in Hebrews could never take away sin.

But we're told in Hebrews this great truth, for without the shedding of blood is no remission. Without bloodshed, there's no forgiveness, no fig leaves. You see, fig leaves, you don't have to kill anything to stitch together fig leaves, do you? There's no death. And it gave no covering. But this pointed to the need for substitution, the death of one. Of course, we know ultimately that it was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ himself that was to bear the sin of many so that he could clothe his people. with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.

You see, God does not put us back to a state of innocency. Once we've sinned, as we've sinned in Adam, none of us are innocent anymore. We have that sin. We know what sin is and sadly we are sinners. And yet we've got to keep on realising that we're sinners, believers are sinners saved by grace. But you see, Satan would come to a believer in Christ and say, but you're still sinners. You're not innocent. And we never will be. We're sinners. But we're to look to the provision that God has given me. He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. This is what God has done. Oh, they tried to do their fig leaf. And in a sense, they were trying to do the right thing in terms of covering themselves, but they were doing it in the wrong way. They were looking to the wrong place. And so often we do. We think we can make ends meet with our own good works. If we do this and that, then we'll gain enough to cancel our debt. But one of the great truths of the gospel is that we need a righteousness outside of ourselves. We need a perfect righteousness, an immutable righteousness. Otherwise, you see, we're only okay as long as we're sinless. But of course, we've already sinned, so we're already not innocent.

But you see, we need one. We need to stand in the righteousness of another. And you see, we become self-conscious. We can look at ourselves and there's some things about self-consciousness is positive and some is negative. So you can have some people that have some disability or some disfigurement and that can make them so self-conscious that they cannot seem to do anything. They couldn't bear to talk in front of people in case people saw their disfigurement as it is. And that stops them, you see. It stops them going forward, and it's really detrimental. It ruins them from any service. They're so looking at themselves and what they must appear to to others that they cannot go forward.

And that's ultimately like Judas Iscariot. Oh, he recognized himself. as a sinner, but he didn't see that there was any mercy in Christ for him. He didn't come. But you see, if we come with our self-consciousness, with the fact that we are sinners, and we come and ask God's mercy, and seek the blood that does for sin atone.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden. Oh, Adam wanted to keep away from God, but come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. O the fall and all its awful effects! O thou hideous monster sin! What a curse hast thou brought in! All creation groans through thee, pregnant cause of misery! But the Gospel fixes our standing more secure than t'was before we fell. Adam had a mutable righteousness, a righteousness that could change. But God has clothed his people in salvation with a righteousness, his own righteousness, that is perfect, that is complete. And then when conscience says, but you're still not innocent, you're still guilty. We need to take fresh views of Christ, don't we? We need to have another look at the Savior. Yes, Satan's right, the accused of the brethren. Yes, you're a sinner. And you always will be here below. The death that puts an end to life will put an end to sin. And all the time we're here below, we're sinners. We cannot stop sinning. But there is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins. and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. And yet the sense of it, David was a saved man, but he said, remember not the sins of my youth, didn't he? Oh, and how it comes back and again and again. And yet we need to look at this garment of salvation, clothed. You see in Revelation it says, These are they that came out of great tribulation and washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb. We never read of them back in their state of nakedness and innocence. They're always clothed. They're always clothed. Clothed with Christ's righteousness. But how was this robe of righteousness produced? It was produced by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. It was produced by him coming to this earth, as we recently celebrated, the coming to this earth to be flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. He came to this earth to work out a perfect righteousness, perfectly obeyed it. Adam, we don't know how long he lasted, but it wasn't long before he broke that commandment to to not eat of the fruit. But Christ, He endured the whole of His life. Perfect obedience. I always delight to do my Father's will. And yet that shame that Adam knew when he and Eve realised that they were naked before God. That shame needs to be dealt with. by Christ. How does he deal with it? Well, each of the crucifixion accounts makes it very clear, really, that the Lord Jesus was stripped of his clothing when he went to Calvary. He was shamed. The whole process of crucifixion was designed to be as shameful as possible. To mock and ridicule and shame and undignify the person being crucified. That was the intention. Christ went that way so that his people could be clothed and never be naked. He was exposed not for his own sin, for he was wholly harmless, undefiled, separate than sinners. He'd never sinned. In that sense, he had nothing to be ashamed of. And yet in his people's place, he hung there to the gaze of a mocking crowd, exposed, without any of his clothes. so that he could give a righteousness to his people. For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath clothed me with a robe of righteousness. It wasn't cheaply bought. It wasn't cheap. It was the Son of God the creator of the universe, ridiculed, mocked, exposed. We naturally know what shame is. We'd be ashamed if something happened to us, wouldn't we? Terribly ashamed. Christ bore that shame so that his people could be clothed with a righteousness not their own. And you see, as we've had that righteousness, You see, Paul says, where then is boasting? You see, if we have fig leaf righteousness ourselves, we can go around and we can boast about our fig leaves and how beautiful they are and how we are very righteous people. But if you've been clothed with the righteousness of another, you have nothing to boast of, apart from the one who gave you that robe. Where then is boasting, it is excluded. There's no boasting. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. and fix my standing more secure than it was before we fell. Amen.