Well, go back with me then to
Genesis chapter 3. Last Wednesday, we began a study
in Genesis chapter 3. You know, when I started in Genesis,
I said I'm going to try not to get bogged down, and I don't
really think I'm getting bogged down in Genesis chapter 3, because
this is a portion of Scripture that deserves very close In fact, I would venture to say
this, if we're going to understand anything about the grace of God,
if we're going to understand the work of God in salvation,
we must understand some things about Genesis chapter three.
We've got to understand some things about the fall of man.
And in that regard, it's one of the most vital chapters in
all of the word of God. Here's the foundation. Here's
the foundation right here in Genesis chapter three, upon which
all gospel truth is built. And all the doctrinal rivers
of the Word of God, really they all come forth out of Genesis
chapter 3. And if God would be so pleased
to give us an understanding of that which is before us this
evening, and we'll be looking also at Genesis chapter three
again next Wednesday night, the Lord willing, if He would give
us an understanding of this, then we would really begin to
perceive the greatness of God's salvation. Somebody said this
is the seed plot of all the Bible, Genesis chapter 3 is. Right here
is our fault. Here's the reason we're in the
condition we're in. You say, Jim, look at our nation. Look at our world. And I mention
this in seeking God's face in prayer. The sinfulness of our
world and the rottenness of it, the corruption of it, the immorality
of it, the meanness of it, where did it all come from? From? Well,
right here in Genesis chapter 3. This is the origin of all
of it. But what about Satan? What about
the devices of Satan? The deceitfulness of Satan? How he masquerades himself as
an angel of light. Where does all this begin as
far as Satan's dealing with men in very subtle ways? It starts right here in Genesis
chapter three. What about our inability as sinners? Our disinterest in the things
of God and our lack of desire, lack of willingness to come to
Christ for salvation? Where can that be traced to?
Well, it's traced right here to Genesis chapter 3. Our Lord
said in John 5 and 39, and you will not come to me that you
might have life, And then in John chapter 6 he says, no man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me drawing. Well,
what's the reason for the lack of willingness and what is the
reason for the lack of ability to come to the Lord? Well, it's
to be found here in Genesis chapter 3. Here the effects of man's
sin are set forth. and the devastating results of
this sin are still being felt today within you as well as outside
of you. What's the reason for old age?
What's the reason for aches and diseases? What's the reason for
the COVID-19 virus? What's the reason for all of
our difficulties? physical, mental, emotional,
spiritual. What's the reason for it? Well,
trace it all back right here to Genesis chapter three. And
here in this one chapter, we see God's attitude toward fallen
sinners. He seeks the lost. He goes after
Adam and Eve. They had sinned and they hide
from God or attempt to hide from God. Such a foolish thing. Adam,
we see how far you've fallen because you try to hide from
God. And men have been trying to hide from God ever since.
And yet here we see the pursuit of God in mercy and in love. It's all to be traced back to
Genesis chapter 3. Here we see God's gracious provision
for sinful men. And that provision is indeed
the seed of the woman, because the Lord Himself announced His
coming. and that he would bruise the
head of the serpent. And in doing that, he himself,
his heel would be bruised. And then, of course, the Lord
shows the reason the world, the earth is in the shape it's in.
God pronounced a curse upon the earth. It brings forth thorns
and briars and things of that nature. Now we know the reason
why some of the beasts are fierce against man. It's like much of
creation has risen up against us. Because in Adam we raised
up our hands of rebellion and defiance against God, and as
a result of that, it's like most of creation has raised up its
hands against us. And it's against us. In fact,
we read in Romans chapter 8 that all of creation groans, waiting
for the redemption. waiting for that day when God
will make all things new. And then we see here in Genesis
chapter 3, that way by which God saves sinners, by substitution. And at the very end of the chapter,
we see God taking animals and He kills them. And then he robes
our fallen mom and dad. And even so, he killed his son. The innocent died for the guilty.
And he robes us in his righteousness. Well, God put man in the garden,
put him in this paradise. He put one tree in the middle
of the garden as a reminder to Adam that Adam was not an independent
man. He was dependent upon God and
he was responsible to God and he answered to God. The Lord
had said to Adam, you've got dominion over all the earth,
but is one tree right here will remind you, you are responsible
and you answer to me. You are indeed, you have dominion
over all the animals, but I have dominion over you, God said,
and therefore I put this particular tree, the tree of knowledge of
good and evil, I put it there, it has fruit on it that will
be, it'll bear fruit all year round, But you must not eat of
it, do not eat of it, for in the day ye eat thereof ye will
surely die." That's the only restriction that God put upon
man's liberty. Don't eat of the fruit of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, here's the fall
when we get to Genesis chapter three. And I may shock you by
what I'm going to say now, but I really believe it. I'm thankful
for Adam's fall. I am thankful for Adam's fall. Martin Luther made this statement,
oh, blessed fall. You say, well, I don't even understand
how you can say that, Pastor Jim. Well, I'll tell you this,
if there had not been the fall of Adam, if he had not fallen
then, there was always that possibility that he would fall. There could
never be any certainty that he wouldn't fall. And then this, had there been
no fall, there would be no way for God to set forth His greatest
glory. You can't know the grace of God
and the mercy of God unless the grace of God and the mercy of
God are necessary. You see, with Adam, grace wasn't
necessary. He hadn't fallen. Mercy wasn't
necessary. He hadn't sinned. And the only
way we're going to know, in reality, the redeeming grace and love
of God, the glory of His salvation by saving men and women and boys
and girls through a suitable substitute, the only way that
could ever happen was through the fall. And understand this, since we
fell by representative, which we did. This man Adam, he was
the representative of the whole human race. Like it or not, you
became a sinful person due to your relationship to Adam. That is just a fact. Doesn't
matter whether you like it or not. Doesn't matter whether you
believe it or not as far as that goes. It's still a fact. You see, the angels, when they
fell, they fell individually. They did not all fall in Lucifer. Now, one third of the angels,
they said, we're going with Lucifer. And they followed Lucifer. But
they fell individually, not through a representative, Therefore,
there was no mercy, there was no grace, there was no forgiveness
for any of the fallen angels which we call demons. And the reason there's no grace
for them, the reason there's no mercy for them is because
they did not fall through a representative. We fell through Adam. That gives
us great hope. but that through another representative,
we'll be saved. Through another representative,
even the Lord Jesus. In Adam, we fail. Oh, we have
hope, though, that in another representative, we'll rise. We'll rise up from the ashes. We'll rise up from death. We'll
rise up from corruption. will rise up from immortality
to inherit the glory of the kingdom of God in through and by Christ
Jesus. So I say the fall is a good thing.
It's a good thing. Well, I was thinking today about
the happiness of our first parents in the garden of paradise. It
had to be more glorious than we could ever possibly conceive. Adam was formed in the image
of God. He walked and talked with God.
He had reverence for the Lord, but he spoke freely with the
Lord. He had no desire, he had no thought
of even remotely doing anything against the will of God. And for this man, God was determined
to make a bride. God gave him a wife. Scripture
says, a help mate. That is one who is worthy to
be his bride. And her worthiness, get this
now. Her worthiness was that she was
brought forth by God out of the man who was made in the image
of God. He's her worthiness. He's her
fitness. And Adam was a figure of him
who was to come, according to Romans chapter five, the God-man. the God-man. And as Eve came
forth from Adam according to the purpose of God, so the Lord
Jesus, His bride, it comes forth from Him according to God's purpose. And the bride of our Lord Jesus,
His redeemed people, His church, we find our fitness and our worthiness
in our husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. Eve found her fitness
in Adam. We find our fitness in Christ
Jesus. Now this delightful happiness
of Adam and Eve conversing with and spending much time with God,
it was unspeakably delightful. And we don't know how long they
stayed in that in that state of perfection. And it's useless
to speculate. But we know, as we studied last
Wednesday, that Satan entered into the garden. He watched what
happened. And he saw God make this crowning
creation of man. Right out of the dust of the
ground. And then God breathed into him the breath of life.
And here's this marvelous man. Brilliant. Brilliant. No flaw. No sin. This is God's crowning glory
of the things that He had made. And then he watched as God put
Adam in a sleep and took a rib from him and made a woman. And
the serpent being brilliant himself with a brilliance above man,
he saw that Eve was the weaker vessel. Now his desire is to
cause Adam to fall because he knew Adam was the representative
of everybody else who's going to live. But he dared not go
after Adam who was created in the image of God. He's going
to go after the weaker vessel. And she is called the weaker
vessel in 1 Timothy chapter 2. And so he seduces Eve to commit this grave
sin against God. He says this to her in verses
four and five, the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely
die. Why, the woman had said to him,
well, we can eat of the fruit of any of the trees of the garden,
but of this fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, God said, don't touch it, don't eat of it, for in the day
you eat of it, you'll surely die. And the serpent, he just outright
lied. Ye shall not surely die. And let me tell you this, fallen
man has ever since readily believed Satan's lies rather than believe
the word of God. Believe the devil's lies. And he says to her in verse five,
God knows that in the day ye eat thereof, your eyes will be
opened. He said, God's keeping something
from you. He knows that if you eat of that
fruit that He told you not to eat, that you'll be just like
God is. And you will be absolutely independent
and free. That's what all men say they
want. I want to be free. And they say, I have a free will.
I have a free will. This is the temptation of the
serpent to Eve. You don't have a free will. You
won't answer to God anymore. You'll be the master of your
own fate. And that lie still goes on, especially in churches. Especially in churches. You don't
have a free will. 2 Timothy 2 says, Satan holds
you captive by his will. You think your will is stronger
than Satan's? It's like one of the old writers
said, free will can't cure a toothache. You think it can save your soul? Free will can't cure you of your
ailments. Oh, I've got this COVID-19. Well,
just exercise your free will and get over it. Well, I can't
do that. And yet you think you can exercise
your free will and get over your depravity? Get over your spiritual
death? Get over your alienation from
God Almighty? You think your free will has
that kind of power? You have drunk Satan's Kool-Aid,
that's your problem. That's what you've done. He says, God does know that in
the day you eat, you'll be as God's knowing good and evil,
you'll be free. And you'll have, your knowledge
will have no restrictions. God's keeping things from you,
Eve. And then we get to verse six.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, had she seen it was good for
food, I think that the serpent ate of it, then I think she ate
of it. And she didn't drop dead. She didn't drop dead because
she isn't the representative. And when she ate of it, it sure
enough didn't have any effect on Adam. She saw as good for food, pleasant
to the eyes. Eve, aren't there lots of pleasant
things to your eyes in the garden? In fact, isn't everything in
the garden pleasant to your eyes? Why are you now so taken up with
that one tree and that one fruit? It's like that she's just preoccupied
with this tree now. A tree desired to make one wise. She took the fruit thereof and
did eat. She also gave unto her husband
with her, and he did eat. He willed to eat. And then the eyes of them both,
and I drew your attention to that last week, because her eyes
weren't open to see that she was naked when she ate. Her eyes and his eyes were opened
only when he ate." Now here's the thing. You see, Satan will
make some truth in his error. Because He has said, go back
up here to verse 5, For God doth know that in the day ye thereof,
then your eyes shall be opened. And we read there in verse 7,
And the eyes of them both were opened. But they didn't like what they
saw. It wasn't at all what they expected. Now they see they're in a mess. Now they see that they're aliens
from God. Now they see they're trespassers
in God's garden. Now they see they're in trouble. Oh, they ate of the fruit, the
tree of knowledge of good and evil, and now they know good. They know what goodness is, but
they don't know how to do it. And the scripture says, there's
none that doeth good, no, not one. And we will say about each
one of us, it's a good man right here, there's a good woman right
there, there's a good man right there. Well, good as we define
good, but not good as God defines good. Because God looked down
from heaven, Psalm 14, God looked down from heaven to see if there
were any that did understand, if there were any that did seek
God. He said, they're all gone out
of the way. They're all stinking. He said, there's none that doeth
good, no, not one. Not your mama, not your daddy,
not your grandma, not your grandpa. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. That's what God said. He's right,
we're wrong. Oh, this had a devastating effect
upon them. Their eyes are open and they
didn't like what they saw. And I thought about this this
morning while I was working on this message. They had, I put
it this way, a blissful blindness before this. A blissful blindness. Everything was beautiful. They
didn't see any evil. They didn't see any corruption.
They didn't see any death. And now, their eyes are opened,
and it's a sad, sad sight. Because they have committed a
A very high, high crime against God. And this man, Adam, he was a
representative man. And when he raised up his fist
against God and put his fist in God's face, so did we. God help us and God forgive us. That's what we did. So their eyes were open, open
to things distressing, open to things troubling, open to give
themselves heartache. Oh, we're in trouble now. Oh,
Eve, what have we done? Oh, what have we done? But they
never sought mercy from God. Did you ever notice that? They didn't say, Oh Lord, forgive
us. We have messed up big time. No, no. They're going to run from God.
That's what they're going to do. It says in verse 7, the eyes
of them both were open and they knew they were naked. Well, wait a minute, there's
naked yesterday and it didn't bother them. Weren't they? Sure. The last
verse of chapter two, and they were both naked, the man and
his wife, and were not ashamed. Anything to be ashamed of. But
now they're naked, and they're gonna try to cover
up that nakedness. Remember this, the real nakedness is not the nakedness of the body. See, there are a lot of preachers,
I remember back in Bible college, One preacher preached on this,
and he talked about women ought not to wear miniskirts, and back
when I was coming in, you know, and stuff like that. He said,
because Adam and Eve, Eve was with, the Lord said, you're naked.
We need to cover up the body. That's not what this is about.
Now listen, you'll learn something. Say, well, we believe in the
literal interpretation of the Word of God. I know they were
literally naked, that's true, but this is talking about a nakedness
of the soul. That's what you got to understand.
Their souls are naked. Their souls were covered in purity. Not anymore. They don't have
any. Been stripped of it. Their souls were covered in innocence. Not anymore. Innocence gone. They're naked. They don't have
any innocence. And their souls were covered, listen, with righteousness. Now, not the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ, but nevertheless, the righteousness of the man,
Adam. And now, they lost that righteousness. They're naked. You see, learn
from this. Our problem is not an outward
problem. Our problem is an inward problem. It's an inward nakedness that
we can't do anything about. And there's further understanding
of this when we see that they sewed fig leaves together and
made themselves aprons. Aprons? You know what an apron was? You
ladies have aprons. I used an apron yesterday. I
grilled out. Susanna had gotten me an apron
for Father's Day. But this apron is no more than
a loincloth. That's all it is. Our nakedness
we'll cover with a loincloth. But God said that's not good
enough. That's of your provision, and
it's far, far too inadequate. So look what God did. Turn over
to verse 21. God didn't make them aprons.
He's not gonna make them loincloths just to cover up the vital parts. Verse 21, and unto Adam also
unto his wife did the Lord God make coats, coats of skin, full
clothing, top to bottom, not just a little loincloth. But I tell you, men and women
have been going after little loincloths for long fig leaf
aprons. That's what they go for. And
in every city and in every town, there are an abundance of fig
leaf apron stores that they call churches. They'll fix you up with a fig
leaf apron. Join up, get an apron. Start
tithing, get an apron. Make your decision for Jesus
and get an apron. God says that won't do. There's
nothing you can do to cover the nakedness of your soul. It's
a soul nakedness. You can't do anything about the
inside. Oh, you can do something about
the outside. You can quit cussing and quit getting drunk and things
like that. If you're doing stuff like that,
you ought to quit stuff like that. You can do stuff for the
outside, but you can't do anything for the inside. That's God's
business there. And this is what's wrong with
so much of religion today. It's you do this and you do that
and you do something other. Let me tell you something. The
only one who can get inside of us and go where the real issue
is, is God Almighty by His free and sovereign grace. And he says, David says, thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. That's why salvation's got to
be of the Lord, don't you see? It's not of you. You can't do
anything on the inside. Oh, you can answer a few questions
asked to you by a slick-talking soul winner. You don't want to
go to hell, do you? No, I don't want to go to hell.
You want to go to heaven, don't you? Yeah, I want to go to heaven.
All you got to do is accept Jesus, believe on Jesus, and confess
Jesus. A-B-C. That's all there is to
it. You go ahead and do that, all you've got is something on
the exterior. It's just a veneer. That's all
it is. Only one who can do a heart work
is God Almighty. And this religious generation
knows very little about that. I hope you know something about
it. Something awful happened. There's
naked on the inside. It's a nakedness of the soul. Outwardly, very little, if anything,
changed. But inwardly, devastation, crushing. They're ashamed because their
souls are naked. Is this Adam the wise man? Look what he does in verse eight. 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 among
the trees of the garden. Is this brilliant Adam? Is this
the man who named all the animals as God brought them to? Name
whatever you want to, and yet we still call them by those names
today, 6,000 years later. Is this brilliant, Adam? Eve,
you hide behind that tree and I'll take this one over here. What in the world has happened? He was wise. You know what sin
made out of him? And you know what sin has made
out of us? Fools. We're absolute fools. Try to hide from God. And verse 8, and they heard the
voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day. They heard his voice walking. Not in a rush. Not coming in on wings of an
eagle to devour. Not coming forth with a sword
of justice. Coming forth in love after two
prodigals. And that's when they hid themselves.
And the Lord God called unto Adam and said, Where are you? Where are you? It's time for
you, Adam, to take some inventory. What kind of mess have you got
yourself into? And Adam said, I heard thy voice in the garden.
I was afraid. Well, you weren't afraid of the
voice of God yesterday when you walked with him. When you talked
with him, he reverenced God, but before the fall, he wasn't
afraid of God. But he's afraid now. He said,
I hid myself. And the Lord said, who told you
you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree where
have I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And of course,
God never asks a question for information. It's to bring to
the person he's talking to a realization of their condition. And here are evidences of the
fall. The man said, the woman whom
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree. We would
put it this way today, he threw his wife under the bus. That's
what he did. It's her fault! But then he went out on a limb
even further. The woman whom thou gavest me, now he throws God under the bus. If you hadn't given me a wife,
wouldn't be in this mess. And man has been blaming God
and blaming others for their ills, for their troubles ever
since. It's always somebody else's fault. I probably told you this story.
I know I have, but bears telling again. My dear friend, Jack Shanks,
I sure miss him a lot. But one time, several years ago,
he decided he'd resign his pastorate and move to Memphis, Tennessee
to be the headmaster of a school. He said the biggest mistake of
his life. And he said, these kids and their parents, he said,
man, He said, they did all kinds of stuff, and they're always
blaming on somebody else. And one of them got in so much
trouble, he finally called his mother in. And we'll say the
boy's name was Johnny. In fact, Jack told me, he said,
I'll just call him Johnny. And he had the mother sitting
there and said, you know, little Johnny, he's a terror. She said, oh, Johnny has fallen
in with the wrong crowd. And Jack said, honey, Johnny
is the wrong crowd. Blame it on somebody else. That's
what people do. Blame it on your environment.
Blame it on who raised you. Blame it on where you grew up.
Blame it on anything except don't blame it on yourself. Don't say you're guilty. You see, it seems the whole human
race is willing to go to hell rather than say, I'm the one,
it's my fault, I'm guilty. And the law of God was given
to us Romans chapter 3 says this, to stop our mouths that all the
world may become guilty before God. Can you say you're guilty
and mean it? People who understand and realize
and admit their guilt before a holy God will find mercy and
grace and forgiveness. Oh, but we're stubborn. It's always somebody else. Somebody else's fault. And then,
of course, a woman said, when the Lord said,
what is this that thou hast done? The woman said, the serpent begot
me, and I did eat. Oh, man's in a mess. Let me just
give you something real quick. And I won't take long to give
it to you. I can give it to you pretty fast here. Let me show
you several results of the fall of Adam. Number one, he became
a sinner. He became what he wasn't before.
Oh, the devastating results of this transgression. Every faculty
of man is infected by sin. All of creation is infected with
the virus of sin. Like I said, sickness, weakness,
disease, and the biggest thing is cut off from God, alienated
from God. The affections are ruined, partakers
of an evil nature. Number one, we became sinners.
Number two, we became ashamed. Adam and Eve weren't ashamed
before, but now they're They're ashamed. Their eyes are open. Something bad's happened. They've been robbed of the uprightness
of their souls. Number three, they became afraid.
They weren't afraid of God before. God's still the same. It's man
who's fallen and now he's afraid. He's afraid of his maker. He's afraid of sickness. He's
afraid of the unknown. He's afraid of death. He didn't
have any fears before. Now we're afraid of our own shadow.
We're afraid of spiders. Our fears are nearly endless.
We're afraid. Afraid of the dark? I'll tell you number four, they
became guilty and they hid. They didn't have any guilt before,
they only had innocence. But now they're guilty because
they've been stripped of the glory and the honor in which
God made them. They became blamers of others and they died. They're going
to die. They're gonna die. Now, let me
ask you this. How would you like to be freed
from those results? We became sinners in Adam, but
in Christ, we're forgiven and we're made the righteousness
of God in Him. God sees no sin in His people. Not as far as His justice is
concerned, because our sins were borne away by our Savior to the
cross of Calvary, and He died for them. They're drowned in
the blood of the Lord Jesus. We became sinners in Adam, but
we became saints in Christ Jesus. In Adam, we became ashamed. In
Christ, there is no shame. He that believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. You'll never be put to shame.
Isn't that wonderful? And in Adam, we became afraid.
In Christ, fear thou not, for I'm with thee. You won't be afraid
of anything. And John says in 1 John, perfect
love casts out fear. In Adam, we became guilty. In
Christ, we don't have any guilt. There is therefore now no condemnation
of them who are in Christ Jesus. In Adam, we became blamers of
others. When Christ comes to us, we say,
like David, Lord, against thee, thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight. And in Adam, we died. But in Christ, we're made alive. We're made spiritually alive.
We're given everlasting life, a life that'll never end. And
we have eternal life, which is a knowledge of God. A knowledge of God. Next week,
I'm going to spend some time on the seed of the woman. Right
there in verse 15. Oh boy. Thank God for His grace. Grace for the guilty. That's
who grace is for. Mercy for sinners. That's who
mercy is for. That's why the Savior said, I
came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I
say, Lord, right here's one. Here's one right here. Wash me
and I shall be clean. Lord, rip that little fig leaf
apron off of me and put a full length coat on me. What's that? The righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Clothe me in the garments of
your salvation and I really will be clothed then. And he's got
to do it. Bless, Father, the words that
have been spoken tonight. Oh, something terrible happened
in the garden, and yet something that wound up being wonderful,
because here we see a revelation of man's wickedness, but of your
free and sovereign grace. Oh, thank you, Father. Thank
you for the fall, which gave opportunity to you to manifest
the greatness of your wonderful saving grace and glory in giving
us your Son to be our Savior and to be our substitute. And
we thank you that we have an inward clothing. All the body,
oh, it's sinful. It's gonna be sinful till we
die. And may we understand the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus, it's not a righteousness in which our bodies are clothed.
Otherwise, the bodies wouldn't die. No, the bodies are gonna
die. Our souls are clothed with the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. In fact, we're made the righteousness
of Christ through his substitutionary death. And we stand forever accepted
in the beloved. Bless your dear people, give
encouragement to all of us in Christ, in whose name we ask
these things. Amen.