If you would turn with me first
this morning to the book of Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. I find it very interesting and
very encouraging that no sooner had our first parents sinned,
the beginning pages of this glorious book show us a beautiful record
of divine grace. Look at verse nine here in Genesis
chapter three with me. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, where art thou? What words of mercy
and grace. Adam had disobeyed God. Adam
had hid himself. And God in mercy and grace says,
where art thou? God's question to Adam still
sounds in the ear of every sinner today. Where art thou? Where
art thou? If you're still without Christ,
this could be the call of divine justice, that holy justice of
God that cannot overlook sin. Without the righteousness that
God requires, God's justice will by no means clear you. If you have not yet bowed to
Christ as the only sacrifice for sin, and He is the only one,
I might add. If you have not bowed to Him
as your substitute for sin, you're still naked. And you have no
covering, you're void of the righteous covering that you require
and that God requires of you. Possibly this call could be a
call of divine patience. Could it be that the Lord is
once more exercising long-suffering and patience with you, urging
you through the preaching of the gospel with these words,
come ye and let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. And though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Could it be that God's call to
you, where art thou, is another beautiful expression of His patience
and longsuffering to you? If you're yet without Christ
and without God and without hope in this world, it could be That
this call is a call of divine love. That love for Christ that
God chose to bestow upon you before the foundation of the
world. And God is asking, where art
thou? This could be a call of divine
mercy and love. I know this much, if you've yet
to trust in Christ, God's justice will soon find you out. For you're
condemned already, the scripture says, and the soul that sins,
it shall die. We know that. I know this much. If you are yet without Christ,
it could be that God intends to show you mercy by once again
exercising his divine patience and longsuffering by not giving
you what you deserve. Wouldn't that be a glorious call?
God finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Did God
not ask the question, why will you die? Christ did say, come
unto me and I'll give you rest. O lost one, could it be that
today you will see that God has predestinated to save you by
His grace before the foundation of the world, that He has predetermined
to reveal Christ to you and in you and clothe you with His perfect
righteousness? I would have you to notice that
it was not Adam who sought God, but God that sought Adam. That
has always been the order of things since man sinned against
God. Since the fall, there's never
been a sinner that sought after God. We're told very plainly
in Romans chapter three, for there is none that seeketh after
God. And here in Genesis chapter three,
it was God that sought out Adam and asked, where art thou? It
was God who sought out and saved Noah by His grace. Noah found
grace. Where did he find it? In the
eyes of the Lord. In the eyes of the Lord. It was
God that sought out Abram as he made idols in the land of
Ur. God could have just left him
to himself and still been holy and just and right, but God had
mercy. It was God that sought out Moses
while a fugitive in the land of Midian. It was Christ who
sought out His disciples and said, you've not chosen me, but
I've chosen you. And it's God in Christ who came
to seek and to save that which was lost. Oh, isn't that wonderful
news to one who is lost? Christ came to seek and to save
such sinners as you. It's a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to
save sinners. Oh, there's something I qualify
for. Truly, we love Him because He first loved us. It's the shepherd
that seeks the sheep, not the sheep that seek the shepherd.
Can you see the marvelous condescension of God in stooping so low? as to care for and seek out such
worms as we are. And that's what the scripture
calls us. If we want to be more graphic, the word actually means
maggot. Well, brother, I'm a lot of things,
but I'm not a maggot. In the eyes of a holy God, you
are. Now look at verse 10. And he, Adam, said, I heard thy
voice in the garden, and I was afraid. Because I was naked,
And I hid myself. Oh, you who are yet without Christ,
do you see that you're naked without a covering? Do you see
that you have nothing that God will accept? We ought to be afraid
if we find ourselves in that condition. Verse 11, and he,
God said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten
of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not
eat? Now nobody had to tell Adam that
he was naked. But he was now conscious of his
sin nature. The serpent had promised that
they would become as God's knowing good and evil. He knew now that
he was guilty. He was ashamed of his nakedness. And he endeavored to cover himself
with his hand-sewn fig leaves of his own righteousness and
worth. And God wouldn't accept it. And God still won't accept
it. And that's the first thing a
fallen sinner will do. They'll endeavor and attempt
to cover themselves with a work of their own hands. And God won't
have it. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sin. There must be blood shed. And that's what God did. God
slew a lamb and He took the skin and He made it into a coat and
they were covered. That picture is the perfect righteousness
and robe of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice secondly what Adam did.
He blamed God. And he blamed God by blaming
his wife. Verse 12, And the man said, The
woman whom thou gavest to be with me, that's italicized, so
gavest me, In other words, this is your fault. She gave me of
the tree and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the
woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,
the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. She blames God by insinuating
that she would have never sinned if the serpent had not beguiled
and deceived her. Do you see what sin has done
to us? We think that our sin is everyone
else's fault but our own. And first and foremost, we blame
God with our sin. The first question out of men's
mouths when they're confronted with the sovereignty of God and
the salvation of sinners is to blame God. You might ask, how
so? Well, men and women say things
like, well, why does he yet find fault who resisted his will?
If God is sovereign and everybody's going to do what God ordains
them to do, then why does he yet find fault? You're blaming
God. Well, I'm the way you made me,
so how can you blame me? It has to be your fault. Do you
know what that is? That's enmity. It's hostility
toward God. I've given that word enmity a
great deal of thought lately. Look at 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.
And upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all
the days of thy life. And I will put enmity That word
means hostility, it means hatred. I'll put hostility, hatred between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, and it
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his head. Now, before
God acted in judgment, before God banished these guilty ones,
Adam and his bride, from Eden, He first displayed His mercy
and He gave them a blessed promise of hope. to the serpent, Satan,
who had orchestrated the downfall of man, it is announced that
one would come through this woman and bruise, and that word means
sever. It don't mean just a knot on
the head or a little cut on the eye like I've got. That means
it's gonna sever, gonna cut your head off. And God says in verse
15, and I will put enmity between thy seed. Speaking of Satan,
the serpent's seed. And I'll put that enmity between
your seed and her seed, the woman's seed. Now the woman whom the
promised seed would come pictures and typifies Israel or God's
people in so many ways. God's people are the chosen and
appointed channel through whom the Messiah would come. Notice
that there are two seeds spoken of here. Satan's seed and her
seed, the woman seed. Now in John chapter 8, the Lord
Jesus said to the Jews who claimed to be Abraham's seed and to be
God's children. He said, if God were your father,
you would love me. For I proceeded forth and came
from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent me. If you loved
God, you'd love me. But they didn't love God. They
hated him. They hated the Lord. They had enmity against him.
But the religious Jews hated him without a cause, and they
were full of enmity against him. And you know what he said to
them? He said, you are of your father the devil, and the lust
of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and he abode not in the truth, because there's no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. For he's a liar and
the father of it. And that describes this unbelieving
world in which we live. Men and women claim to belong
to God, and they say, oh, how they love Jesus. But they are
of their father, the devil. And the lust of their father
they'll do. Here you have the seed of the serpent. But then
there's another seed. The seed, capital S, here in
Genesis. the seed of the woman. Here we
have the first announcement and the first prophecy of the supernatural
birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Her seed, the woman's seed, that
seed is Christ. That's what Galatians 3.16 says. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made, he saith not, and to seeds, plural, as of many,
but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ." That's pretty
plain and simple, isn't it? Pretty direct. Christ was the
seed of the woman. Man had fallen. Man was dead. He was incapable of doing anything
for himself in the matter of redemption and salvation. And
that is why a virgin was with child some 4,000 years after
this initial prophecy of God sending forth his son made of
a woman. The seed that would redeem God's
people must be perfect. Got to be perfect. Now stay with
me. He could not come, this seed could not come from the loins
of fallen humanity. The Redeemer, the Messiah, must
come from the supernaturally planted seed of God Himself,
therefore a virgin. That's why the angel said to
Mary, the Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the
highest shall overshadow thee, and therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. Now in verse 15 here, we saw
that God put enmity between the seed of Satan and Christ himself.
Every man and woman by nature are enmity with God. This enmity came out of man's
rebellion and sin, his disobedience to God. In the day thou eat of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you're going to
die. And Adam died. And that's what
we see here. And because of this spiritual
death, man is at enmity with God. Man's hostile towards God. He will not have Him to rule
over him by nature. That's why men are the way they
are. Only God can reconcile this enmity between God and man. And there's only one way that
He can justly do it. There is one mediator, one reconciler,
that's what the word means, between God and man, and it's the man
Christ Jesus. And it is He that is the promised
seed of God. And that's exactly what Christ
and Him crucified does for us. It puts away the enmity between
the chosen sinner and their merciful God. It's got to be put away.
I could not help but to notice that no sentence here was pronounced
upon the two offenders, Adam and Eve. But the promise of the
gospel was given under the sentence pronounced to the serpent and
on the serpent. Not yet had the woman been condemned
to painful travail and childbirth. Not yet had the man been sentenced
to exhausting labor in the fields. Not yet had God cursed the soil
with thorns and thistles. But for all that, God promises
a Redeemer from the woman's seed who would save His people from
their sin. Before the fall, God had defined
the wages of sin. He said, In the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. And God is righteous and is judge
of all the earth. He must do right. His law had
been broken and His justice cried aloud for the enforcing of its
penalty. The wages of sin is death. But
is justice to override mercy? Is there no way by which grace
can reign through righteousness? Yes, there is. And it's through
the promised seed, the seed of the woman. Mercy desired to spare
the offender, and because justice demands death, another had to
be slain in the guilty person's place. And we're right back to
substitution. In this way was a covering provided
for the fallen and ruined sinner. The Lord clothed Adam and Eve
with skins, and in order to procure these skins, animals had to be
slain. They had to be taken, blood had
to be shed, and it provided for them a covering. Friends, the
application of the type is obvious. The death of the Son of God was
foreshadowed here. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
laid down His life for the sheep, God can now be just and justifier
of them who believeth in Jesus. Do you believe in Christ? It
was the Lord that furnished the skins, made them into coats,
and clothed our first parents. They did nothing. God did it
all. when the prodigal son returned
home and had taken his place. And that's what he did. He took
his place as a lost and undeserving creature, owning up to his sin. He said, I'm not worthy to be
your son. Just make me as one of your servants. And it was then, friends, that
the grace of his father's heart was displayed. The father said
to the servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him. He didn't have to furnish the
robe. He didn't have to put it on himself. All was done for
him and so it is with God's people. Why do men and women by nature
insist on trying to establish their own righteousness to satisfy
God when they can never provide the perfection that God requires? Would you be surprised to know
that the reason is enmity? It's enmity. Hostility toward
God. Men and women by nature are determined
to be their own savior. They're determined to provide
their own righteousness by claiming to have done many wonderful works. Lord have it, we have it, we
have it, we know you have it. You cannot do the perfect work
of righteousness that God requires in order to be reconciled in
Him. Now turn with me to Romans chapter 8, and I'll try to be
as brief as I can. In Romans chapter 8 and verse
6, Paul declares here that to be
carnally, and that word means fleshly, to be fleshly minded
is what? It's death. But to be spiritually
minded is what? It's life and it's peace. Now which would you prefer? Here
we have two lines drawn. The carnal fleshly minded and
the spiritually minded. those who are attempting to provide
their own righteousness by work that they do, and those that
are trusting alone in the perfect work and righteousness of Christ
and what He's done for them. To be carnally minded is death. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace. And if you and I are going to
have life and peace, we're going to have to be spiritually minded
and trust the only means and the only sacrifice and the only
substitute that God has provided to make us so. There's only one
way. We cannot be carnally minded,
fleshly minded, for that is death. Why is it death? Look at verse
7. Because the carnal, fleshly mind is enmity. And there's that
word again. Enmity. Hostile. Hatred against
God. And it's not subject to the law
of God, and neither indeed can be. I hear a lot about Reformation
today. Reformed churches, reformed believers,
reformed preachers. Reform means to make one better,
to become better. You cannot do it. Only God and
mercy and grace can make you a new creature, and that's in
Christ Jesus. The carnal mind will not be subject
to the law of God, and notice those last words, neither indeed
can it be. It doesn't have the ability to
be subject to God. The carnal mind wants to be its
own God. It wants to do its own work.
It wants to provide its own righteousness. It wants to save itself. In verse
8, the conclusion is drawn. So then, they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. You cannot please God by endeavoring
to do a work of righteousness of your own. You cannot be carnally
minded and please God. To be carnally minded is to be
at war with God. It's to be hostile toward God. And it always, always ends in
death. And in verse 7, did you notice
how Paul uses the word enmity in the text? He uses it as a
noun, not as an adjective. Now look at this. The carnal
mind is not at enmity with God. The carnal mind is enmity. The carnal mind itself is enmity. The carnal fleshly mind is not
rebellious. It is rebellion. That's what
the carnal mind is. The carnal mind is not just being
wicked. The carnal mind is wicked. It acts wickedly because it is
wicked. Notice that this enmity, this
hostility is not against the Bible, God's Word. The carnal
mind is enmity against God Himself, which includes His Word. This
enmity is against His being, against His existence, against
His character, against His person, against His Son, against His
salvation. Well, I don't know what you're
talking about, buddy. I love Jesus. Do you love Him in truth? Do you love Him as He's described
in this book? Do you love Him as the God who
will have mercy on whom He'll have mercy, and compassion upon
whom He'll have compassion, and He'll harden whom He would? Do
you love Him as He's described in the Scripture, as He is? Do
we see why the they that are in the flesh cannot please God?
Carnal fleshly mind is enmity against God and it cannot be
subject, subordinate, or submissive to the law of God. It neither
indeed can be. It can't be, it's impossible.
No sinner will ever be forced to love God. They'll love Him
willingly. They'll be made willing in the
day of His power to love Him. Now I'm endeavoring to show you
why you cannot be saved by a work of the flesh that you do. Your
mind, your heart, your will is enmity. It's hostile to the grace
and the mercy of God and Christ. You will not have the very one
that God ordained to be your substitute and your sacrifice
to reign over you. By nature, you will not bow to
the only one that is capable of putting your sin away and
putting it away justly. And it's enmity against God.
Hostility toward God who in and by and through the very one that
you naturally hate is made the only way that God can be just
and still justify the ungodly. It simply means that you hate
and are hostile to the only one that can save you. That's pretty
messed up. And we are messed up. Doesn't
that take our enmity to a whole nother level? No other way but
by Christ for sinners to justify, to justly fulfill the law of
God and satisfy the justice of God. There's no other way. As
we saw last week, it's for Christ's sake that God forgives a sinner
of their sin. No other reason. It pleased the
Lord to make you his people for his great name's sake. This enmity within you and I,
it has got to go. It's got to go. Now I've said
this and you know that it's so. The law was not given for us
to keep. The law was given to actually
show us our inability to keep it. This made the law our schoolmaster
to teach us some things and to what? Bring us to Christ. Look
up at verse 3 here in Romans 8. for what the law could not
do in that it was weak through the flesh. But look, God did
something. God sending his own son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the
flesh. That's the gospel. What's the
gospel? Well, the gospel first is a message about what the law
cannot do. You're gonna have to find out
what the law cannot do and what you cannot do by trying to keep
the law. You're gonna have to first learn that. And then you're
gonna have to learn that the gospel is a message about what
only God can do. Now here's what the law can never
do. The law can never ever cause righteousness to be fulfilled
in us. And it's because of the weakness of our flesh. That's
what it says. It's not because of the weakness
of God's law. It's because of the weakness
of our flesh and our inability to keep it. And here's what God
can do. He can cause the very righteousness
of the law to be fulfilled and completed in us. How? Look at
it. Verse 3, By sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, and my margin there
says by sacrifice for sin. Condemn sin in the flesh. This
is how enmity is put away. This is how God condemned and
put away the sin of the flesh. You read Romans chapter 8, well
I think the word flesh is used 8 times in the first 8 verses,
several times in the chapter. And do you know what the word
interpreted flesh means in the original Greek language? It means
stripped of skin. Or better understood, stripped
of a covering. That's what we are in and of
our own flesh. We're stripped of a covering. We have no righteousness to offer
God. We've been stripped. Sin stripped
us. That's what sin did to us. In
verse 1, we see that there's no condemnation to them that
walk not after the flesh. In verse 4, we see that the righteousness
of the law is fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. In verse 5 we see that those
that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but
they that are after the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit.
And in verse 8 we see that they that are in the flesh cannot,
cannot, cannot please God. So, why are we trying to please
God that way? Do you remember what Paul said
of himself? He said, For I know that in me That is, in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. Not in the flesh. In the flesh
is nothing but enmity against God and His Christ. Paul said,
I am carnal, fleshly, sold under sin. So the gospel has first
to do with what the law cannot do. And that word cannot is a
strong word. It's translated not possible.
It's not possible for the law to save us. It's translated impudent. Paul tells us what the law could
not do. But there are some things that
the law can do. The law can expose sin. The law
can make you feel guilty. The law can accuse you and condemn
you. But it cannot give you power
to obey. The law cannot forgive. The law cannot justify you. The
law cannot sanctify you. The law cannot glorify you. The
law cannot produce love in you. It cannot produce faith in you.
It can't give you a new heart. In other words, the law can't
save. If salvation is dependent upon
what you and I do, we will not be saved. The problem is not
with God's holy law. The problem is with you and me.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, and that's our flesh. Those that are in the flesh cannot,
not possible to please God. And even if I was able to keep
the whole law, and yet if I offend in one point, I'd be guilty of
the whole law. Oh, that's a burden we can't
bear. The law cannot cause God's righteousness to be filled in
us, then who or what can Again, verse three, God sending his
own son in the likeness of sinful flesh yet without sin and for
sin, substitution and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. So salvation is gonna require
a substitute and the law can do nothing but condemn. God is able to fulfill the law
in us one way, and that's by sending his own son, dying in
our room instead, and putting away our sin, condemning sin
in the flesh. Oh, trust in Christ. Trust in
Christ. He's the seed that God promised
in Genesis chapter three, and he's the lamb that every Old
Testament sacrifice pointed to and pictured. God sent His Son
to save. He shall save His people from
their sin. He really did take my sin and
make them His. God really did forsake Him. Christ
really cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? God
really did exact the payment of all the sin of all His people
throughout all time from Christ. And His holy justice was satisfied. Every jot and tittle of the law
was fulfilled. And Christ said, it's finished.
That's my hope. That's my confidence. What's
finished? Your enmity in the flesh toward
God. Your hostility and hatred for
God. Your sin that was against Him
and Him only is gone. Oh, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Are you in Christ? If not, are
you interested? in being in Christ? Well, let
me finish with this. Writing to the believing sinners
at the church of Rome, Paul says here in verse 9, But ye are not
in the flesh, but in the Spirit. So be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of His. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead, because of sin, but the Spirit is life because
of righteousness." Now whose righteousness is that speaking
of? The very righteousness of Christ.
But here's some good news. Even these vile bodies will one
day put on incorruption. And this mortality here is going
to put on immortality. And it's true that the sinner
that is justified will one day be glorified. Look at verse 11,
but if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall
also quicken, make alive your mortal bodies by His Spirit that
dwelleth in you. Let me give you something to
think about this afternoon. If you're a believer, When you
see Him, that day when He comes to take you to where He is, and
you'll be with Him, you shall be like Him. I mean exactly like
Him. Conformed perfectly to His image. Oh, your enmity will be turned
to love. Your unthankfulness will be turned
to gratitude. Your carnality will be made the
very righteousness of God in Him. And when God looks upon
you, dear sinner, He sees the perfection of Christ. For by
God's grace and substitution, you've been completely conformed
into the image of His Son, and you are accepted in the beloved
Jesus Christ the Lord. Now that's the only way. May
God enable you and I to trust in Him and Him alone.