Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter
3. Look in verse 8. 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. And the Lord God called unto
him and said unto him, Where art thou? Where art thou? The Bible, the Bible, God's Word,
is the revelation of God's salvation. That's what this Bible's about.
Showing us how God saves sinners. Starting here in this text that
I've read. God's Word is the revelation
of God's salvation. And the truth taught here in
what I read this morning is absolutely essential to understanding the
rest of the Word of God. The old timers said if you miss
the fall, you miss it all. If you don't understand what
took place here, You'll never understand the rest of the Bible.
It's absolutely essential that you understand what happened
here between God and Adam. The message here in Genesis 3
is one above all others, which tells us why the world's in the
shape it's in. Tells us why man's in his condition,
why the world's in his condition, It all tells us how this world
got to be the way it is here starting in Genesis 3. It tells
us why salvation is necessary. When we see what took place here
in Genesis 3 between God and Satan, between Adam and his wife
Eve, and between God and Adam, you'll see why it's absolutely
necessary for salvation to be of the Lord. If you understand
what happened here in Genesis 3, you'll understand why Christ
came. Why Christ came. And what He
came to do. But it all starts here in Genesis
3, what I read to you already this morning. People ask the
question all the time, and I did for years when I was a rebel.
Oh, what a rebel I was. How bitter I was. The question
is often asked. Why is the world the way it is?
Why is the world so sinful? Why are men so mean? Why is there
so much murder and wars and rumors of wars? Why is there so much
divorce? Why do people abuse children?
Why is disease? Why is we sick? Why is all these
questions? How did we get to where we are
now? How did we get here? Politicians
tell us all the time, oh you vote for me and I'll get you
out of the mess we're in. They've been saying that ever
since I've been a politician. We're still in a mess. Philosophers
said if you'll just read my philosophy. Lots of philosophers. If you'll
read my philosophy and follow my philosophy, we'll get you
out of the mess we're in. Joel Osteen tell you, you know,
all you got to do is think positive. Norman Benson Peale, you know,
and they write books about how to better yourself. Psychologists,
preachers, they've all over the years and for centuries been
sought to answer all these questions. They promise remedies. Promise remedies. If you'll just
follow my propositions, and you'll all get out of the mess that
we're in. But the problems we face, it's in this very first
question, recorded in God's Word. And God said to Adam, Where art
thou? Where art thou? And there's two
views in this Word. Either you believe the Bible,
you take the Bible, and you believe it, and if you say you believe
it, and you don't follow it, then you don't believe it. And the second view is evolution. There's no middle ground between
the two. And I think evolution has been hell myself. Let me
ask you something. If man, we've been here for Man,
6,000 years. Have you found anybody got better
than anybody else in all those years? Is there a perfect man
somewhere? Even Superman, when they make
that movie, Kryptonite will get him. You know, everybody's got
a weakness. But have you ever found anybody
that's evolved above the rest of us? I know there's some people
who think they are. They think because of their education.
They think because of their views. They think because of their opinions.
They think because of how high they've attained in life. But
they are better than everybody else and ought to know what's
best for everybody else. But have you seen anybody get
any better? Is there any man any more perfect
now? Then where we are right now,
and that's why I say, if He is, where is He? God made man here, He made woman. And He put them in the Garden
of Eden. Paradise. Paradise. And they lived here in this paradise. And God came down and communed
with them, and walked with them, and talked with them. A beautiful
picture. Here they are in paradise. Adam,
the most intelligent man ever lived on the face of the earth,
he named every animal. You know why we call the things
that we call them now? Because Adam said that this is
what we'll call them. You know why trees are called
certain kinds of trees now? Adam named the trees. He named
the birds. Adam, you're talking about a
brain. before the fall. And then we come down here, this
beautiful picture, and there they are. And they heard the
voice of the Lord God. And God's only ever spoke one
way, through one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they heard
that voice. And our Lord Jesus Christ says
the hour is coming and now is when they will hear the voice
of the Son of God They that hear my voice shall live, even those
that are dead shall now live by hearing that voice. And beloved,
and then we see life as it was. There they were walking with
God, communion with God, naked and was not concerned about it,
just the way God made them. They loved one another, enjoyed
one another and enjoyed God. Beautiful paradise, and I mean
whatever, everything around there they could eat, but there was
one thing they couldn't eat. There we see life as it was.
Walking and talking, communing with God. And then it shows,
turns around, it shows Adam and Eve hiding in their misery, hiding
in their wretchedness. Hiding. And what do they do? One day they're commuting with
God, the next day they're, what does it say? They hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord. Hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord. The next time you hear about
somebody going out from the presence of the Lord, the scripture says
Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. One done it willingly
and the other done it because God sent him off. And oh beloved,
we see here God was desiring to, they desired to avoid God
giving away from His voice that followed Him. They didn't want
to hear it anymore. And then God comes down and announces
a curse that's going to come on the earth. He says, you know,
because you've said, you've hearkened unto the voice of your wife,
in verse 17, and you've eaten of the tree which I commanded
thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat. Cursing is the ground for
thy sake. curses, curbed grounds of curses and I'll tell you what you'll
see the effects of the curse everyone plant a garden and you'll
fight weeds you'll fight bugs right? get married love one another
intensely but there's going to be some awful intense fights
too You know why? I'm telling you the truth. Why is that? Why is that? Because we're under a curse. And that ground ain't going to
do nothing for us. Everything you get out of it,
you're going to have to toil to get it out of it. You're going
to have to work to get it out of it. I've got some fields and
I'm trying my best to keep them clean and I've went out and pulled
old horse nettles out by the truckload and hauled them off.
And every time every year I've got to go back and do the same
thing. Every year. They steam, they stick. And then he says they'll bring
forth and then you're going to eat out of the bread of it and
thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and you'll
eat of the herb of the field. And then beloved, disease and
dissent came into this world and came upon us just because
of what this man and woman did. Don't be surprised. There's no
reason for us to be surprised. When things don't go good, when
things are not well, when we have to struggle for everything,
when we can't remember nothing, When we work till we get so tired
so quick and so easy. Well I'm not worried when we
ain't able to sleep because we're all under that curse. And the
effects of that curse gonna follow us till the day we go back to
the dust. Till we go back to the ground.
And look what he says, I want two things for us to see. Life
as God made it. Life as God made it. And life
as it has become. First, we see life as God made
it. Life as God made it. And the
second is life as it is now. Here what we see in Genesis 3
is sin introduced into this world. We see that man has changed and
he's changed dramatically. Things change and everything's
changed. And we understand why we're in
the state we're in now. Now let me tell you something
about man's trouble is in himself. Man's trouble is in himself.
It's not in his environment. Is that not right? You know you
can change man's environment. That's what the politicians tell
us. Build us some houses and we'll put people in houses and
they won't have to worry about it. They'll be nice people, good
people. If we'll buy their food for them.
Man, they'll be so grateful, so thankful. Let's send them
and just take care of them. Let's just don't let them worry
about it. Let's educate them. Change the environment. We say
it will change the man. But what happened here in Genesis
proves that that's a lie fed up that just will not work, never
has worked, and won't work. This man was in paradise, in
perfection, a place they call perfect. And I tell you why,
he started out in a perfect environment. He started out with God and ended
up in sin. Huh? Oh my soul. Oh listen. That's why we talk
about Adam. Man sees no children raised in
homes where there's prayer. Godly homes. Raised where there's
prayer and Bibles are read. Mothers and fathers are at peace
and in love and they enjoy the enjoyment of worshiping God. They enjoy, listen to the, you
know, prayer at the dinner table. Prayer, hearing their mother
and daddy all praying. And they tell their children,
they hear their mother and father pray for them. And then they
get up and they go mad, they become drunks, they become drug
addicts. They become murders, they become
everything that you would not for them to be, but they do that. Man's troubles not in his condition,
in his circumstances, but it's in himself. It's in himself. And our troubles are due to,
listen, this is why our troubles start. Here's where troubles
start. Listen to me now. If you're interested in your
soul at all, our troubles are due to a wrong relationship with
God. Here's this man. He started out
in fellowship and communion with his Creator. Oh, God made Adam, and look what
it says there in Genesis 2. it says there in verse 7 Genesis
2 and the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and right
then and there man became a living soul and the Lord God planted a garden
eastward at Eden and there he put the man whom he formed and
oh listen he made everything good for him And a river went
through the name of it. And look at what he says here
in verse 15. And the Lord God took the man
and put him into the garden of Eden to dress him to keep it.
Here's the one that God put over all of His creation. All of His
creation. He started out in fellowship
and communion with His Creator. Now everything's wrong. Everything's
wrong. Adam, God made him. Look here.
See all this? I made all this for you. Enjoy
it. Delight yourself in it. Look
at all this good food you got. Look at all this enjoyment you
got. You look at all these animals around you. Lions, tigers, elephants,
bulls, tigers, snakes. Everything's around them. He
just lay down to sleep and they lay down to sleep with him. Nothing's
wrong. Nothing's wrong. But now everything's
wrong. Now what does it say? He went
to hide? Adam and Eve hid themselves from
the presence of the Lord. Why? Because of sin. Now we come to a man and a woman
miserable, unhappy and ashamed and they know something is vitally,
vitally wrong. They hear this voice, God walking
in the cool of the day and He said, Adam, who are you? And they cower and they hide. Now look what it says back over
here. I'll tell you, this is astounding,
astounding thing. And this says here, and that's
just, he took of that fruit there in the last part of verse 6.
And unto her husband he gave it, and he did eat. And look
what happened, and the eyes of them both were opened. You mean
to tell me they couldn't see before? Of course they could see. But they
were open to something they had never seen before. They was open
to something that they never had thought of before. Never
entered their mind before. And oh, and there's something
else, and not only were their eyes open, and they knew that they
were naked. Oh, now, what do they mean about
knowing that they're naked now? They don't understand. Man, I'm
ashamed. I'm ashamed now. I don't want
my husband to see my body. And they started covering themselves
up. And they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves aprons, made themselves to hang around it.
It must have been some awful big fig leaves. I tell you what,
that's before the fall. This is rather you know, and
I tell you these great big, covered them all the way around. And
they heard the Lord God walking, and they went and hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord amongst the gardens of the tree. And they said, What? Where are
you Adam? He said, I hid myself. Why? Because I heard your voice,
and I'm afraid. He had never been afraid of Him
before. Never had bothered Him before. The voice of God don't
bother me now, does it you? But there was a time He did. Oh, listen now. They heard this,
men and women, miserable, unhappy, ashamed, afraid. They know something's
vitally wrong. And what are the reasons? What
are the reasons that brought them to this place before God? Where they're hiding before God,
cowering before God, hid amongst the trees in the garden. I'll
tell you what it is. I'm going to tell you what happened.
Man has a fatal belief and that fatal belief is that he knows
what's best for himself. Adam said, I know what's best
for myself. God made him upright. God made
him holy. God, he had a righteousness of
his own. God put him in a perfect place.
Why didn't he continue in that perfect place with that upright
condition and that righteousness and holiness that he had? Now,
why didn't he continue in that? Now, instead of being like that,
he's over here hiding. Cowered down among the trees. Him and his wife. And they tried
to cover their nakedness with pig leaves. You see, Adam What it is, and he's like every
one of us, he's like every man unregenerated. Man believe he
knows more, knows better than God how to manage his own life.
I know how to manage my life better than God does. I know how to run my life better
than God does. God made me and gave me a mind,
gave me the breath that I breathe, gave me the body that I have.
Gave me everything of everything I've got, God gave it to me and
yet he says, listen, I know what's best for me. Preacher, don't
tell me what I need to do. Don't tell me what I need to
believe. Don't tell me what's wrong with me. I'm not telling
you, God's telling you. I'm just telling you what God
says. And God gave him great, great
liberty. God gave him great, great liberty
and freedom. He was good. He had a holy life
to live. He was just. And all he had to
do was live it. But God gave him one thing not
to do. One thing not to do. Look what
he said over here in verse 17. Verse 16 and 17 of chapter 2. And I tell you this, you've got
to understand this. You've got to understand this here. If you
don't understand what happened here, There's three things. I heard Henry Manion preach one
time and I went through the, we was here at a meeting and
the lights went out and I remembered this outline right off the top
of my head and I began to preach it while the lights was out.
He said there's three things a man's got to know. First of
all, you've got to know what took place in the garden, what took place in the cross,
and what takes place in a man's heart when God regenerates. That's
three things. You've got to know what happened
in the garden. You've got to know what happened on the cross.
And what happens in a man's heart when God regenerates. And this is where you've got
to throw this here first. You won't even care about what
took place at the cross. But here God made this man upright
and He gave him one prohibition. Look what He said in verse 16.
Genesis 2. And the Lord God commanded the
man. saying of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat. Oh what liberty, what liberty. And you notice God didn't ask
him, he commanded him. God don't want, don't desire,
don't decide, he does. And look what he says. But of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Thou shalt not
eat of it, for in the days that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die, dying thou shalt die. That's what happened. Well, how in the world did they
get in this condition? Let me go, let's go back through
these first six verses, just a minute. Look back up here now
in verse one of chapter three. Here's Satan's gospel. Satan
has a gospel. You know, he's more subtle. You
know, Satan is called subtle. And when he talks about the serpent
here, and of course, this serpent was upright. God, from then on,
after he'd done that, he said, you're going to crawl on the
dust. But Satan is called the great serpent, the great dragon.
And Satan come into here, and he used this serpent to deceive
our mother and father. Now, the serpent was more subtle
than any beast. That means he was crafty, sneaky,
conniving, manipulative. than any beast of the field which
the Lord God hath made. And he said unto the woman, Yea,
hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.
The first thing he says is, you know, all these trees are out
here and God don't want you to eat any of them. But that's not
true. The first thing he says, God
will keep everything from you. He don't want you to have any
enjoyment. He don't want you to eat good things. He don't
want you to enjoy life. He don't want you to do anything.
Yeah, God said, that's the first lie told. God didn't say that.
He told them, said, eat of every tree. Just one you don't eat
of. Take every, eat all of it. 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, right in the middle of
it, God has said you shall not eat it. That's what he said. Neither shall you touch it. God
didn't say you couldn't touch it. Unless you die. You can touch it all you want
to. He said don't eat it. Don't eat it. She got this Satan
serpent got her all shook up. And the serpent said to another
woman, here's his second point of view. You shall not surely
die. God's not just. God's not righteous. You're too
good for God to punish you for your sin. You're too holy for
God to punish you for your sin. You're too righteous for God
to punish you for your sin. God ain't gonna put nobody in
hell. God's too good to punish men
for their sin. You'll not really die. You really
want to die? God ain't going to inflict His
justice on you. God ain't going to... There ain't
going to be no judgment for you. There ain't going to be no payment
for your sin. You're not really going to die. God's just telling
you that. Trying to scare you. Trying to
make you live good. Like Mark said, religion's opium
for the people. Well, I'll tell you one. Gospel.
Though what we need, Christ is the only one we need. And I tell
you, I heard a fella, one time he got up and said, Oh Rick,
Jesus is only for people this week. And I said, Amen. I said,
Amen. You got that exactly right. I'm
the weakest person in the building, and I need Christ more than anybody
else in the building. And I tell you what, look what
else he said now. He said, oh, you'll not do that. Look what
else he did. He goes on with his message.
For God does know in the day that you eat thereof, your eyes
will be opened. Oh, you'll see things clearly
then. And look what he said, you'll be like gods. You'll be
like gods. Oh my, to be a god. To be like
a God. You'll be as God yourself. And
guess what? You'll know what good is and
you'll know what evil is. And boy, I tell you what, that
takes an awful intelligent person to know what good and evil is. Oh, you'll be like God. See what
it is? It's that God don't want you to do that because He knows
that you'll be a God. He wants all the glory to Himself.
He wants you to do what he says so he can rule over you and reign
over you and you don't want that to happen to you. You want to
revere God yourself and that's why you don't want God to do
that. And look what happens. This is the three parts of the
world. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, that's the lust of the eyes. And that
it was pleasant to the eyes. And a tree decided to make one
wise, proud of life, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes. She took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave unto her husband also. Has Satan never
told you that? God's staff said you shall not? Oh, listen, you're talking about
liberty in Christ. What liberty we have in Christ. Now you know a lot of people
say, well I don't want to give up, what do you mean you don't want
to give up sin? You don't want to live up eating in a hog lot.
You don't want to give up eating slop. You don't want to give
up your rebellion. You don't want to give up your
life of sin and self-righteousness. You're still a dog to yourself. And oh, and what's happened here
is this man and this woman, They refused God's truth. They refused
God's Word. And they did it because they
knew what was best for them. And you know what was best for
them? It wasn't God's will. That wasn't what was best for
them. It wasn't God's Word. They put
their thoughts, their will, their intentions, and everything that
they had in them, that God made them to be, and went against
God Himself. They put their will in the place
of God's will, their feelings in the place of God's Word. They
put Satan's lies in the place of God's blessed truth. Have
you ever done this? Has Satan ever talked to you
like that and said, you know, I've got it. There's no way God
would... I just can't believe that God would punish me for
my sin. I just can't believe it. Don't. I just can't believe that God
would put me in hell. What have I done? Well, you submitted
to Christ. Have you gave up your righteousness
for the righteousness of Christ? People say, well, I'm pretty
good. Do you know how good you got to be? As good as God Himself. He won't settle for anything
less. Listen, have you done this in the past? Put your opinions,
put your feelings, put your philosophy in the place of God. Do you have
any shame? That's one thing that's really,
really awful about this generation. It's always been this way. There's
always been people that have no shame about anything that
they do. No shame whatsoever. Do you have any shame? Are you happy? Are you well? Are you looking for something
better? Do you put your will against God's will? Do you put
your ideas against His word? If you do, all you're doing is
just repeating what Adam and Eve did over and over and over. Man has always done that. And
let me give you a second reason here. Man refused to face seriously
the fact of judgment. We refuse to face seriously the
fact of judgment. God told Adam plainly, don't
you eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
in day you eat thereof, in dying you shall surely die. You'll
start dying then and you'll die and die and die and die until
you're back to the dust. So he's left without excuse.
Adam's left without excuse. And God told him at the beginning
that he'd hold him responsible. And God told him of the judgment.
And here he is now, he's found in such misery, such fear, such
nakedness, such shame that he's over here, hid among the trees
of the garden. And let me tell you something,
man just keeps on doing the same thing over and over and over. Why does he do it? Because of
what Adam did. It's his nature. You look at
how man got, man hasn't been on the earth very long. And God looked down on the earth
and it repented him that he had made man. He said because he
looked and he says the thoughts of man is only evil continually. He can't think nothing but evil. He thinks evil about God, thinks
evil of himself, thinks evil about the world, thinks evil
about everything. He is an evil being. God said, Noah, I'm going to give you grace,
and you're going to build your own ark, And it's going to rain
and they had never, nobody had even heard of rain before. Nobody
had ever seen rain before. And God destroyed the whole world
and saved 8 souls. That's all He saved, 8 souls.
That's why the Lord said, when the Son of Man cometh, will He
find faith on the earth? Will He find somebody that believes?
Will He find somebody that actually has faith? God-given faith? And
then Solomon. It wasn't very long that men
went even worse than that. Men started going with men. Women
started going with women. The first of the children that
were born from Lot was the incestuous children. They was Moabites. And God said, listen, I have
all this generation, I'm going to stand, I'm going to destroy
Sodom and Gomorrah, I'm going to destroy them. I'm going to
destroy them men that love men more than they love women. I'm
going to destroy them women that want women more than they want
men. I'm going to destroy them. Fire and brimstone come down
on them now. And we're quickly heading to
the time that if somebody hears me say something like that, that
the law will come in here and take me out, calling it hate
speech. That's where we're headed. Would you go with me to jail
if they come in here and pick me up for saying that homosexuality
is an abomination in the sight of God? That God said man leaving
the natural use of the man? It's reprobation? It's worse
than sin, it's reprobation. And now they want to marry him. God told Adam and Eve to multiply
and replenish the earth. Two men can't replenish the earth.
Two women can't replenish the earth. And then God said, I'll destroy
it. Iron rims don't come down. You know how many people are
saved out of that place? Lot, and God had to drag him
out. Did you know that? Lot had to,
God had to drag Lot out of there. And his two daughters went with
him. And oh, John come and preach in repentance, flee from the
wrath to come. And then if you look in Matthew
21, Our Lord Jesus Christ has put forth this parable. He said
a man's got a vein here. And he lets it out to husbands.
He lets it out to men. He lets it out. He's got this
kingdom and he leaves people in charge of it. And then he
starts sending his servants, preachers, prophets. And they
stole them and they killed them and they run them off. And he
sends some more and they've done the same thing. They killed them,
put them in dungeons. Isaiah was sawed asunder. He
said, I'll send my son. He's the heir. Surely, surely
they'll reverence him. And they said, here's the heir.
Let's kill him. Let's kill the Son of God. And
that's what they did. And man just keeps on doing the
same thing over and over and over again. And the time is coming. And it's swiftly coming. When
you'll hear the voice, where are you? Where are you? Where are you? Adam, where are
you? James, where are you? Bruce,
where are you? Where are you? There's only two
places for you to be. You can be in that head amongst
the trees of the garden in the fig leaf, or you can be like
Paul found in Christ. God says, Donnie, where are you?
I'm in Christ. Christ who is my life. That's
where I've been. Man's nature is when he hears
the voice of God. His nature is to get away from
it, to hide. His reaction is to hide and make
an excuse. Make an excuse. Well, who can put man back in
a better condition than he was when he was 40 pounds? Who can put man back, huh? Where
he doesn't hide anymore. Puts him back in a right relationship
with God. Well, I believe I can show you
that here. Man's guilty. Yet God, being just, is also
gracious. And God had pity. God is merciful. And not only when he asked Adam
where he was, he wanted Adam to know where he was. God knew
exactly where he was. but God went after him, God called
out to him not only to condemn him and make him condemn himself
but to give him first of all a gracious promise look what
it says in verse 15 and I'll put enmity between thee and the
woman about the serpent between thy seed and her seed it shall
bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his here you'll bruise
you'll bruise his Christ is going to bruise or crush your hand,
but you're going to bruise His heel and that's going to take
place at the cross. God's going to face this evil.
God's going to face this sin and God's going to conquer this
sin. God's going to do it. God announced
salvation through his Redeemer. God announced salvation through
the seed of the woman. And God, when the fullness of
time was come, made of His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, made of a woman, made under the law. God sent Him made of
a woman. And then look what happens. I'm going to show you what happens
here. And this is the first gospel that you'll see. Look in verse
21. Again, this is chapter 3. And the Lord unto Adam also,
and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins, and
clothed them. Now how in the world is he going
to get skins? Somebody's got to die. Some blood's
got to be shed. God says you're naked, I'm going
to close your nakedness. I'm going to close you with clothes
that I'll make myself. that I provide myself. And God
gives man a righteousness in Christ. God made Christ to be
sin. Though he knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. And then God,
He said, I, I, He made Lord, He made top coats of skin. Now
He had to shed some animals blood. And He clothed their nakedness.
He shows here that only He Himself could clothe. And it was only
after the shedding of blood. It was only after justice had
been sought. It's that only after sin had
been atoned. And I tell you, you're talking
about justice and grace, seeing both. God came to them. They said, oh, I'm naked. They
went and hid. And God Himself said, I'm coming. I see you naked. But I'm going
to clothe you. God sees me naked, you naked,
and He's going to clothe us. What's He going to clothe us
with? The righteousness of God Himself in Christ. They were
having a wedding feast and there was a bunch of people came in
there and you had to have on certain garments when you got
in the wedding. And everybody was in there and they looked
around and said, there's a fellow that didn't have a wedding garment. How did
you get in here without that wedding garment? And they took
him and put him out. And beloved, you've got to have
a wedding garment. And only God can provide that. And you know,
he provided it in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. He takes,
he took his son, put him on a tree, and like we sung in that song
put him on a tree that he himself made the wood that which he hung
made the nails made the men intelligent to make the nails that put him
in his own hands and our Lord Jesus Christ there he shed his
blood God nailed him to a tree and we sinned so grievously we
murdered the Son of God And there He was there, beloved,
bearing sin in His own body on the tree. And for those who come
to the Lord Jesus Christ, believing on Him, trusting Him, God will
take that obedience of Christ, that righteousness of Christ,
and He'll put that on your account. He'll regard you that way and
treat you that way. and will never ever come after
you for sin because Christ done paid for it. God paid for Adam
and Eve's sin in slaying that animal. God covered their nakedness. They didn't cover themselves.
God found them and did for them what only God can do. God do
for you what only He can do. Our Father, In the blessed, blessed
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we bring before you this
congregation, myself. Lord, you know our hearts, you
know our minds, you know where we are. You can ask us where we are,
but you know where we are. You know our thoughts, the intents
of our thoughts, the intents of our heart, You know our thoughts
are far off. Before we think, Lord, you know
what we're thinking. Before we speak, Lord, you know
what we're going to say. If we say an idle word, if we
say a word to your glory, oh God, you know all things. And
Lord, make us all to understand that we're open and naked before
you, right here, right now. Nothing is hid. Nothing is hid. Everything is open. Everything
is visible. Everything is known. Of every soul in this building.
Every soul in this world. Because you're God. And you know
all things. And oh Father, bring these people
to trust Christ. Bring us all. Work in us to love
you more. Need you more. Trust you more.
Lean on you more. Desire you more. bow to you more,
worship you more. Oh, God, work in us to do these
things. In Christ's name, amen. Amen.