Let's turn to the book of Luke,
Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5, we'll read down
through verse 32. And it came to pass that as the
people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by
the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake. But the fishermen were gone out
of them and were washing their nets. And he entered into one
of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would
thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught
the people out of the ship. And when he had left speaking,
he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your
nets for a drought. And Simon answering said unto
him, Master, we have tolled all the night, and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I
will let down the net. And when they had this done,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break.
And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other
ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and
filled both ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter
saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me,
for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished in all
that were with him at the drought of the fishes which they had
taken. And so was also James and John,
the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus
said unto Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their
ships to land, they forsook all and followed him. And it came
to pass when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy,
who seeing Jesus fell on his face and besought him saying,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth
his hand and touched him saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately
the leprosy departed from him and he charged him to tell no
man but go and show thyself to the priest and offer for thy
cleansing according as Moses commanded for a testimony unto
them. But so much the more went there
a fame abroad of him and great multitudes came together to hear
and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And he withdrew
himself into the wilderness and prayed. And it came to pass on
a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and
doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every
town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the
Lord was present to heal them. And, behold, men brought in a
bed a man which was taken with a palsy, and they sought means
to bring him in. and to lay him before him. And
when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because
of the multitude, they went upon the housetop and let him down
through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.
And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, man, thy sins
are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees
began to reason saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies?
Who can forgive sins but God alone? What a question. The word
was nigh unto them even in their mouth, because that's true. No
one can forgive sins but God. But when Jesus perceived their
thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your
hearts, whether it is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven
thee, or to say, Rise up and walk? But that ye may know, that
the Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sins. He said
unto the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise and take up
thy couch and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before
them and took up that whereon he lay and departed to his own
house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed and
they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, we have seen
strange things today. And after these things, he went
forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at their seat of
custom. And he said unto him, follow
me. And he left all, rose up and followed him. And Levi made
a great feast in his own house. And there was a great multitude
of publicans and of others that sat down with him, them. But
their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples saying,
why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus
answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Thank you very much. Genesis
3. It says here in verse, well let
me read verses 1 through 9. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent,
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, ye shall not surely die. God's not that way. He's not
going to punish you. For God doeth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open, and you shall
be as God's, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took 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 that they were naked. And they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons. 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
God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called
unto Adam and said unto him, Where are you? Adam, where are
you? Where are you? The Bible, this
blessed book, God's word here is the revelation of God's salvation.
We wouldn't know anything about salvation had not God revealed
it to us in his book, in his word. And the truth taught in
this verse of scripture, when the Lord God came walking in
the cool of the day, Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord and the Lord God said Adam who art thou? This
text is absolutely essential to understanding the rest of
the Word of God Genesis is called the seed plot of the Bible everything
that starts here in germ grows out and grows into full Force
throughout the rest of the scriptures, but it starts here in seed form
So if you understand this, you learn what's in the book of Genesis,
then the scriptures unfold and doctrine unfolds throughout the
scriptures. But the message here in Genesis 3 is the one above
all others, which tells us why the world is the way it is. Every
generation seems to think the third world, the world's worse
off than they live in than any other world that's ever been.
But it's always been an awful world. It's always been a sinful
world. But the message here in Genesis
3 is the one above all others, which tells us why the world
is the way it is. It tells us why salvation is
absolutely necessary. Why men need to be saved. And salvation is necessary. It
tells us why Christ came into this world. And what he came
to do here. And all of it starts here in
Genesis 3. And men often ask the question,
why is the world the way it is? People, you know, they want to
preach on prophecy, but we need to find out what mess we're in,
how to get out of it. And then why is the world the
way it is? How did we get to here? How did we get where we
are now? And the politicians, they all
tell us, oh, they all tell us, oh, we've got the remedy. I know
we know exactly how to get us out of the mess we're in. And
philosophers, they write great books and they teach in the great
universities and tell people how to get out of the mess that
we're in. And if folks would just find the answer to certain
philosophies and listen to certain men, that they'd be okay. And
the psychologists and the psychiatrists, they go and give us pills and
give us all the answers that we need to get us out of the
condition that we're in. And then preachers come along
and they seek to answer these questions and all they tell you
is, is that, listen, Jesus wants to save you if you'll let him.
God would like to do something for you if you'd let him, but
they don't know how to get out of the condition we're in. The
problems, the problems that we face in this, in this world and
in this first question, the problems faced in this first question
recorded in God's word, Adam, where are you? Problem recorded
in this that we face in this first question asked Adam. Where
are you will tell us? Where we're at and how to get
out of it You know there's two views it said there in verse
9 the Lord God called unto Adam Adam where art thou spoke to
him. There's two views that men have
they either believe God's Word the Bible Or else they believe
in evolution There's no middle ground. And there's some men
that now they've devised a way that you can believe in genus
and evolution at the same time. That you believe God's Word when
it started in God's creation, but everything that happened
up that time was evolution. I don't know how they come to
that conclusion, but you know, it's nowhere in the scripture.
But as you know, it's either you believe God's Word or you
believe in evolution. And here's the thing, if you
believe in evolution, is man better? Is there a more perfect
man somewhere? Is man elevated himself to the
position where he is really special? Is there a genius? Is there a
perfect man somewhere? No, I don't think so. What about
man, how he is now? And the Bible here tells us that
God made man and then He made a woman. and put them in, he
called it paradise, the garden of Eden, paradise. And this is
where they lived. We don't live in paradise now.
We ain't even close to paradise. But they lived, this is where
they lived. They got up every morning and
they lived in paradise and they went into the paradise of God
and the garden that God put them in and said, now you dress it
and you take care of it. This is where they lived. You
think, what would you and I do like to live in paradise? Huh? And oh, they lived there and
they communed with God, had fellowship with God. God would come down
and walk with them and talk with them and told them what they
could do and what they couldn't do. And he had communion with
them. And oh, what a beautiful picture
of God and Adam and Eve communing together and fellowshipping together.
And then we come to verse 8. The Lord God. They heard the
voice. They heard a voice. Oh my. We see life as it was, fellowship
with God, communion with God. And then it shows all of a sudden,
Adam and Eve hiding in their misery, in their wretchedness,
and in their miserable condition. They heard a voice, 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 in the garden. And oh my, here they went having
fellowship and union and communion with God, living in paradise,
and now they're trying to avoid God? Get away from that voice
that followed them? Get away from that voice that
talked with them and communed with them? And then this same
thing that happened after this desire to avoid God, get out
away from God, it caused God to announce a curse that came
upon the earth. Look what he said in verse 17.
And unto Adam he said, because you've hearkened unto the voice
of your wife, not my voice, but the voice of your wife, and hast
eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not
eat it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. And in sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life. How much sorrow do
we experience in our lives? How much grief do we experience
in our lives? How much heartache do we experience
in our lives? and have to get up and go to
work every day in spite of thorns also in thistle shall it bring
forth to thee and thou shall eat the herb of the field in
the sweat of thy face thou shall eat bread till thou return under
the ground for out of it was thou taken and that for out of
it was thou taken for under dust for dust out and under dust shalt
thou return oh my because they avoided the voice of god and
god had adam where he was Here we find that now the earth brings
thorns and thistles. I've got a thing in my thumb right now.
You ever get these thorns in your skin and these splinters
and things in your skin? If it hadn't been for Adam, we
wouldn't have that. And that's what he said, thorns and thistles
are going to bring forth. Disease and death came into this
world. Disease and death came to us. And there's two things I want
us to see tonight, if I can deal with them, and hopefully I can
get through them. Two things for us to see. Life as God made
it, and life as it became. And we see the first, life as
God had made it, and how that became the second, life as it
is now. And here's where we see sin introduced,
man, certain things because of man, certain things changed and
everything changed from there. And why we're all in the state
we're in now. Here's the first thing I want to say when God
asked Adam, where art thou? Man's trouble, man's trouble
is in himself. It's in himself, not in his environment
at all. Here's this man, he's in paradise. He's fellowshiping with God,
he's communing with God, he's got the life of God in him. God
put the life, his soul in him. And he's in this perfect environment,
he's in this place called paradise. And men say now if you can just
change man's environment, you can change the man. That proves
that that's a lie. That's a lie. Adam was in paradise,
in a perfect environment. Huh? And look what happened to
him, he's hiding from God. They heard the voice and went
to hide. You know, you take children.
And oh, I've told you this before, you mothers and fathers that's
got children that are converted, oh, you bless God for it every
days of your life. Every day of your life, you thank
God for that. And if your mother and daddy
loved you and prayed for you and cared for you, and you believe
the gospel now, you thank God for that. Thank God for it. Because there's a multitude of
people, I mean raised in godly homes, and yet they go so bad
and go so far off. And so man's troubles, not in
his condition, not in his circumstances, man's troubles in himself, his
problems himself. And what causes these problems
in ourselves, it causes our troubles due to a wrong relationship with
God. That's why man's in trouble, that's why we're in the condition
we're in. Man's troubles, he's due to having a wrong relationship
with God. Here he started out in fellowship
with God, with communion with God, and God was his creator,
and he enjoyed God, and they delighted in God, and God delighted
in them. No, listen, now everything's
wrong. What happened? What happened?
Adam, where are you? Adam, where are you? Huh? Where
are you? Here's a man. Here's a woman.
Walking with God. Fellowship with God. Communion
with God. Created of God. Now they're miserable. They're unhappy. They're ashamed. They're afraid. Things they never
experienced before. Didn't even know what it was.
And they know something vitally wrong. And they heard a voice.
They heard a voice. And when they heard that voice,
when they heard that voice, they went looking for a hiding place.
We're looking for a place to hide from that voice, from that
presence, just that voice. God came walking in the cool
of the day. Adam, where are you? And they're
over here cowering. They're over here trembling.
They're over here afraid. They're over here ashamed. They're
over here naked. They're over here miserable. They're over
here just heard God's voice and they went over here and hid among
the trees of the woods. And oh my. wrong relationship
with God. What's the reasons that brought
him to this place before God? I'm going to tell you. Man has
a fatal, fatal belief in himself. Man really, really believes in
himself. He believes that he knows what's
best for himself, regardless of what God says. That's a fatal
belief. How many people do you know that's
that way? They believe so much in themselves
and their abilities and their rights that they know what's
best for themselves. And God took man here and made
him upright, put him in a perfect place. Why didn't he continue
in that perfect place? Why didn't he continue walking
upright before God? Why did he continue in this blessed
place? And they didn't, so why is he
hiding? Why is he hiding? I'll tell you why. Because Adam,
man believed that he knew better than God how to manage his own
life. He knew better than God how to
manage his own life. God wants you to go this way,
I'm going that way. God said I want you to do this,
I said I'm going to do that. And man's been doing that ever
since. Since the first man Adam, when
he hid himself, that's exactly what man's been doing ever since.
And then God gave him great, great liberty. Look over here
in chapter 2 and verse 15. God gave him great liberty. A
good, holy God and a blessed God gave him a good, holy life
to live. Just live it. And the Lord God
said here in verse 15, And the Lord God took the man, put him
into the garden of Eden to dress him to keep it. And the Lord
God commanded the man, said, Eat of every tree of the garden.
Oh, what a blessed thing! There's more than he could deal
with and more than he could ever want. Just eat it. Just make yourself at home. You're
in this wonderful place. You may as freely eat. Such liberty. God gave him such liberty. Eat! Eat! I gave you all the things
you need to eat. You need what you need. I gave
it to you. but of the tree of knowledge, of good and evil.
Thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. God gave him this great liberty.
Here's this whole garden before you, or everything you could
possibly want. I'm here with you, I'm for you. God gave him a good holy life
to live, just live it. And one prohibition, one thing
don't do. And Satan come along and said,
listen, you know what? God don't really mean what he
says. He really don't mean that. He don't. He said, you're not
going to die. He's not going to die. God's
holding back from you. God's keeping you from all your
potential. God's keeping you from this greatness
that you've got this in you, this great ability that you've
got in you, this great gifts that you've got, this wonderful,
he's keeping you blinded to some things that's so needful for
you to know. And he lied to him, said, oh,
he said, and you know good and well that God's not gonna punish
you. You know you're not gonna die.
You're not gonna die. How many, I've said this so many
times, how many funerals you've been to where people never, never
heard the gospel, never darkened the church house door, or believed
the lie, and when they died, they was the best people that
you ever met on the earth. Best people ever was. They're
at rest now, they're at peace now. You know why? Because they
believe the devil's lie, you shall not surely die. And they
refused God's truth, they refused God's word because they knew
what was best for them. They didn't care if it was God's
will or in God's word. They put their thoughts, their
feelings, their emotions, their understanding, against God and
against His law and against what He said. They put their will
in the place of God's will, their feelings in the place of God's
word. Have you ever done this? Have you ever done this? Put
your opinion, your feelings, your philosophy, your understanding
before God's? Do you have any shame? We live
in an age where people just are not embarrassed about anything.
They're not ashamed of nothing. Are you happy? Or do you long
for something better? Do you put your will against
God's? Your ideas against God's word? And people do that. And you know what they're doing?
They're just repeating what Adam did and repeating what Eve did. And so here's a second reason.
The old man's trouble started. He's in trouble with himself.
He has the troubles inside him and having a wrong relationship
with God. And here's a second reason, man's refusal to face
seriously the fact of judgment. Face seriously the fact of judgment.
Now, beloved, I wish, I would love to be able
to make people understand how awful judgment's gonna be outside
of Christ. The judgment outside of Christ
is gonna be worse than you and I could ever begin to imagine.
And that's why that serpent told Eve, he said, you shall not surely
die. God's not that mean. God's not
that cruel. God's not got no wrath. He's
got no justice. And he's telling you a lie. He
ain't going to punish you. But oh, to face the judgment.
But God told Adam plainly. The day you eat of that fruit
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you're going
to die. God told him plainly, looked him in the face and told
him that. God did that. God looked him square in the
eye and said, the day you eat thereof, you're going to die.
Huh? So he's left without excuse. We're met face-to-face with the
gospel, met face-to-face with the Word, met face-to-face with
ourselves, face-to-face with Christ, face-to-face with God's
Word. So God told him plainly. So he's
left without excuse. God told him at the very beginning
that he'd hold him responsible. Adam, you're a responsible being.
You're welcome to anything in this world except that one thing. That one thing. God hold him
responsible and told him of the judgment. How is he now found
in such misery? You know what? He didn't take
the judgment of God seriously. He didn't take it seriously.
Didn't take it seriously. I remember hearing a woman say
one time, she got very, very, very ill. Very ill. On her way home from the hospital,
after a long time in the hospital, on her way home from the hospital,
She said this, the doctors told me what to do for years and years
and years. If I'd have just done it, I wouldn't
be like I am now. I wouldn't be like I am. And
that's the way it is. God says it over and over and
over and over and man keeps telling himself, well, The judgment can't
be that serious. I've done enough good in my life
that God's surely going to reward me for that. I've helped too
many people. I've gave too much money away.
I've visited the sick. I've visited the hospital when
people say, oh, they found a thousand reasons why God's going to let
them get by. But here's Adam in a perfect
environment, and he, God just told him not one thing. Now he's
over here found in misery. He's a wretch. He's hiding, and
he's covering his neck, and he's ashamed, and he's afraid and
hiding from the very presence of God that made him. Why? He didn't take the judgment seriously. And man keeps on doing the same
thing. He just keeps on doing the same thing. In hardly no time at all, God
looked down at man. He said, man's thoughts are only
evil continually. He said, Noah, he found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Make you an ark, because I'm
going to cause a flood to fall, and I'm going to destroy every
living thing on the face of this earth. Man just keeps on doing
the same thing. Doing the same thing. Every nail
that he put in that ark, every day, every board he put in that
ark, says God's saying, judgment's coming, judgment's coming. And
then, sure enough, it started raining one day. And then what
about Sodom? Man keeps on doing the same thing.
Keeps on doing the same thing. Now, there ain't gonna be no
judgment. And John the Baptist came preaching repentance, telling
the men of his day, said, flee from the wrath to come. flee
from the wrath to come. And then God said he put out
a vineyard. He locked the kingdom of heaven of putting out a vineyard.
And he sent men to get what was coming to him and sent preachers
and sent prophets. Give him the glory, give him
the honor due unto his name. And then the last of all, he
says, you know, they'll ascend to my son and they'll reverence
my son. And you know what? When he got
there, they said, this is the heir. Let us kill him. Oh my. Man, don't change. And I tell
you, beloved, the time is swiftly, swiftly coming. Swiftly coming. When you'll hear that voice,
where are you? Where are you? Are you hiding
from me? There's two places to be found.
Two places in this world, God's gonna find you. He's gonna find
you in Christ, or he's gonna find you in Adam. And the only
place where He can find you is a safe hiding place. They had
a hiding place. But the only safe hiding place
that there is, is to hide in God Himself. And where do you
hide in God? In His Son. There's not a better place to
hide from God than hiding in God Himself. Hiding in God Himself. Oh my. He says, He asked me where
I am. I'm saying, I'm in your Son.
I'm in your Son. My life is dead and hid with
Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall
appear, then shall you also appear with Him. That's why Paul said,
I want to be found in Christ. He knows where Adam was. And
he knows where he was. And he found a place where God
would accept him. And he said, I want to be found
in Him. I want to know Him. I want to
be someplace where God looks at me. He can look on me with
approval. And I won't be carrying shame
and guilt and wretchedness and miserableness and naked hiding
from God. And man's nature, too, when he
hears the voice, is to get away from it, to hide and make an
excuse. It's the woman you gave me. The
woman said, it's the serpent. And oh, my. But look what God
did. God made a promise. Look here
in verse 15. He made him a promise. And I'll
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his ego. Oh, who's gonna put man back
right? Where's he gonna put man, that
man's back in the right relationship with God? Well, God came down
in pity. Came down in pity. Came after
him. God called out to him, not just
to condemn him, but to give him this gracious promise. I'm going
to send a man. I'm going to send the seed of
the woman. When the fullness of time comes, I'm going to send
the seed of the woman. And when he's come, he's going
to meet every enemy of God, every enemy of Christ. He's going to
meet this enemy that Adam brought into this world, sin and death.
He's going to meet them head on. And he's going to whip that
serpent. He's going to whip that disease.
He's going to whip everything that's against us. And I'll tell
you what, and he's the conqueror. And this salvation is promised.
It's denounced. And oh, let me show you. Bless
his holy name. God came to him not to condemn
him. He brought him out. And God himself
clothed him. And just like God clothes us
in Christ with his righteousness, God clothed him. This will be
my message next week. And look what it says in verse
21. And unto Adam also, and to his wife, listen to this now,
did the Lord God make coats of skins, and listen to this, and
clothed them. Over here there's making afraid.
Now God himself, how did he clothe them? Well, there had to be a
death. If he clothed them with the coats of skins, there had
to be a death. There had to be a bloodshedding.
There had to be a death inflicted for their sin, for their transgression,
for their nakedness. And there had to be a bloodshedding.
Oh, justice has been satisfied. Sin's been atoned for. Now God
puts the clothes on them. Oh my. And I tell you what, the
only place, the only place, I remember what it's like to be afraid like
that. I remember what it was like. I remember what it's like
to be miserable. I remember what it was to try
to justify my righteousness in the sight of God, my works in
the sight of God, my giving in the sight of God, until God came
to where I was. and called to me, and he called
to me in grace, and he called to me in mercy, and he called
to me in his gospel, and called to me in his son. And he taught
me that he took my sin and put my sin on his blessed son. And
when my sin was put on him, his blood flowed out of his body.
And then our Lord Jesus Christ, he went into the wrath of God
and the justice of God and the judgment of God that was my due
and your due. And he took his own blood, took
his own blood and went into the presence of God with it. And
he came out and he got up early Sunday morning and he ever lives
now, sin's been put away, death has been conquered, judgment's
been afflicted, wrath has been poured out and exists no more,
and sin exists no more for those who've been died. Bless his holy
name. God clothed us in Christ. And that's why when we take this
bread, he said, when you do this, he said, this is my body. That's
broken for you. My body is bread. My body, I'm
broken. It's broken, beaten, bloody. And every time you eat it, you
remember me. Remember my love. Commend my
compassion. Remember my sacrifice. Remember
my sin offering. Remember my love for you. And
he said, and when you take this cup, this is my blood in the
New Testament, which is shed for many. He said, when you take
it, when you take it, he said, you remember me, remember me
and bless his holy name. I remember him every day. And
I thank him every day for what he did for me. It's still as
amazing after all these years, it's still as amazing for me
as it ever was. Still as precious and delightful
to me and heart-reaching to me as it ever was. And oh my, the
closer I get, the more precious it becomes. Amen. Amen. Oh, bless His Holy Name. Houston and Brad is going to
come serve the Lord's Table tonight. Let me tell you now, the Lord's
Table is for believers. It's for those who believe. You
know, if you believe on Christ and you trust Christ, that's
when you take the break. If you've been washed in his
blood and you know that you remember that blood shed for you, then
you take the wine. You brethren come.