Now I'm going to preach this
morning on the subject of the first revelation of grace. The very first revelation of
grace. And I'm going to do that from
Genesis chapter 3 that Brother Randy just read. But before we
go to Genesis 3, I want you to turn to the book of 2 Timothy.
2 Timothy chapter 1. Now the reason I had this message
on my mind is because I've been reading quite a bit concerning
the issue of the old covenant, Israel as a nation under the
old covenant, what that meant and what it means for us today.
And I'm certainly not going to go into all that because I don't
have time this morning, but it's common that today we'll hear
religious philosophers and religious students, and even some so-called
self-proclaimed theologians, talk about Christianity as being,
as they say, 2,000 years old. In fact, I heard one several
months ago talk about it's one of the youngest of the major
religions because it's only 2,000 years ago. years old and of course
what they're referring to is the coming actual coming in time
of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world in the fullness of
the time Paul wrote by inspiration of the Spirit in Galatians 4
in the fullness of the time God sent forth his son made of a
woman that's his incarnation and made under the law, that's
the covenant that Christ made with the Father to save his people
based upon his obedience unto death, salvation conditioned
on Christ to establish righteousness for his people. And of course
all that took place around 2,000 years ago. But it's certainly
not true that Christianity is only 2,000 years old. Another
thing that got me thinking about this, and I mentioned this last
week, you know, that I've heard several people, they'll make
this statement. They'll say that Christianity was born out of
Judaism. And that is certainly not so.
In fact, if you want to say it this way, Judaism is a perversion
of Christianity. And certainly true Christianity
predates Judaism. And this is what I want to deal
with this morning by showing you the first revelation of grace.
But look at second Timothy chapter one. What I want us to understand
is that God's God's message God's way of salvation by his free
and sovereign grace in and through and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
based upon his blood and righteousness alone, is the oldest message. It is an eternal message. It's the oldest truth, the oldest
religion. I even hate to put it in the
category of religion because when people think of religion,
you know what they think of. But it's certainly not man's
religion. It's the true religion of God. But it's the oldest message. It is a timeless message. The
gospel is the product, is the preaching of the terms of an
everlasting covenant, but not just everlasting, an eternal
covenant made before the foundation of the world, wherein God chose
his people in Christ. We have a hard time understanding
these issues of eternity because we don't know anything really
about eternity. I mean, we know about lengths
of time. We think about salvation by God's grace means that we'll
live forever and ever. That this physical death will
not be the end for us, but that we'll live forever in God's glory. But to speak in terms of eternity,
we just don't have the language. Everything we know and everything
we say is time bound in some way. But we do understand something
that God is an eternal being, has no beginning and no end.
And then, chew on this a little, while God is immutable, he never
changes. That's just something we can't
even conceive of. We know it's so because he reveals
it. But that tells us something about the message of salvation.
Salvation by grace, older than creation. I think about the book
of Proverbs chapter 8 where I believe wisdom, which is a personification
of Christ who is the wisdom of God, makes this statement. This
is Christ in Proverbs 8, 23. He says, I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, wherever the earth was. That's the wisdom
of God in Christ. Well, look at 2 Timothy chapter
1 and verse 8. Now let me introduce what I'm
going to say from Genesis 3 with this passage as we go down through
it. Look at verse 8. Paul writing
to Timothy here, he says, Be not thou therefore ashamed of
the testimony of our Lord, that's the gospel, nor of me his prisoner. But be thou a partaker, a fellowshiper
of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
Don't be ashamed of this message. Don't be ashamed of the messenger,
but enter into this fellowship. We believe the same. I'm with
Paul. Don't be ashamed to say that. Not just because he's Paul,
not because he has some reputation, but because he preaches the glory
of God in Christ. And we stand with one another.
So he says it's the power of God, verse 9, who hath saved
us and called us with an holy calling. And that's the new birth. You must be born again. That's
conversion, regeneration, conversion. And this is not according to
our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now, how was
it given us in Christ Jesus? Well, Christ is the representative
of a people. In the Bible, they're called
God's elect. There's several names. I've been working on some
messages on what is a Christian? What does the Bible say about
that? Well, there's several names. They're the church of the living
God. They're the sheep of the pastor. Christ is the shepherd.
The good shepherd gave his life for the sheep. They're the brethren. The Beloved. I mean, we could
go on and on with that. There's so many. But one of the
ways they are identified is as the elect of God. Chosen of God. Chosen by God before the foundation
of the world. Now we're going to see in Genesis
3, and we see it throughout the Bible, that even though chosen
by God in Christ before the foundation of the world, we fell in Adam.
Ruined by the fall, we fell into sin and death. And as a result,
Adam being the representative of the human family, as a result
of Adam's fall, we're born dead in trespasses and sins. And that's
the total depravity of man. And I've said this so many times,
but I don't mind repeating myself, even if you don't like it. But
the total depravity of man is wrapped up in three things. Number
one, we don't have righteousness. We don't have it, the righteousness
that God requires. Number two, we can't work righteousness
by our best efforts to obey God. It's not by works of righteousness
which we've done or do or promise to do or try to do. And number
three, and this is the one that most people will not accept today,
we don't want righteousness God's way. Now that's total depravity. Men will try to make themselves
righteous by their works, their efforts, their religion, their
ceremonies, because they think they can. That's self-righteousness.
That's pride. But by nature, we want to be
righteous. We want salvation. We want to
live forever. But we want it our way, not God's
way. Because our way gives us glory.
Our way leaves us room to boast. But God's way leaves us no room
to glory or to boast. but in Christ. God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross. And so men and women will by
nature seek to attain righteousness by their works. But that's a
product of, listen, that's just as much a product of the total
depravity of man, the sinnerhood of man, as if they were going
out and trying to break every law of the land. Now, I don't
want anybody to go out and try to break every law of the land.
I love a law-abiding citizen. I want peace and safety for us
all. But that's not going to make
you or me righteous before God. That's the key. And that's why
salvation is by grace. Well, so it was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. That is, that's a covenant blessing
between the Father and the Son and the Spirit before this world
was ever created, before Adam fell, That's what the scripture
teaches. I know people don't like that,
you know. People say, well, I want to stand on my own two feet.
Well, you know, another way of saying that is, well, I would
do better than Adam did. And that's, there's not a more
self-righteous statement that a person can make. Now, we fell
in Adam, but we, who are the people of God, were given salvation. That's what he's saying, according
to God's purpose and God's grace. God didn't look down through
a telescope in time and foresee Frank Jones and say, well, I
know Frank's gonna cooperate with me, therefore I'll choose.
No, that's not the way, it's according to his purpose and
his grace and was given us in Christ Jesus. God having in his
eternal mind the glorious person and finished work of Christ from
the beginning. And that's how he saved the Old
Testament saints. That's how he did it. It was
by promise. A promise from God. And you understand
now, a promise from God is a sure thing. And the reason it's a
sure thing is because he's God, and he never goes back on his
promise. Great is thy faithfulness, the
scripture says. He's faithful. There's no obstacle
that could hinder God fulfilling his promise. There's no requirement
or condition that he couldn't meet. And all of that is found
in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians
1.20 says, for all the promises of God in him are yea, and in
him, amen. So there you have it. Now, look
at verse 10. Of all of this, you see, this
whole issue It just, it shows that salvation for sinners has
always been, always is, always will be by the free, sovereign
grace of God. It's never been different. Even
under the old covenant law, salvation was no different. Sinners could
not have been saved by the old covenant law, conditional covenant. That law was given to show them
their sin and drive them to where? Christ. for salvation by the
grace of God. That law was given to show them
the impossibility of salvation by their works. That's why it
was given. Now look at verse 10. Now he
says, this salvation that's preached out in this gospel, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but he says
in verse 10, but is now made manifest. All right? Now, how was it made manifest?
What does it mean to make manifest? It means it's made clear and
evident to the eye of the understanding. It's shown forth plainly. It's
the process of bringing what God purposed before the world
began and promised into actual existence in time. That's what
manifest means. Now, how was it made manifest?
Well, by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, when he
came. All that God had purposed before
time, all that God was accomplishing by promise in the Old Testament
was made manifest in the appearing of Christ Jesus. Christ had to
come in time. He had to be made of a woman. He had to take upon him human
flesh without sin, a body and soul without sin. He had to become
incarnate. The Word had to be made flesh.
The Word that was with God and was God from the beginning had
to come into this world and unite His glorious deity with humanity
in that person. He's God-man. Now why did He
have to do that? Because He had to die for the
sins of His people. You can read that all over Scripture.
But Hebrews 2 is one of the passages that comes to mind. And so it
says, by the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
who hath abolished death. Now how did he abolish death?
By his death. I remember one of the first gospel
books that I ever got hold of to read was one called The Death
of Death in the Death of Christ. By his death, he conquered death. How do you know that? Because
in his death, he established all that God required in his
obedience unto death. He put away sin. He established
righteousness. Daniel put it this way, that
he made an end of sin. He finished the transgression.
He brought in everlasting righteousness. Now, and we know that so, the
proof of that was his resurrection on the third day. He arose again
from the dead. So he abolished death by his
death. He took our condemnation. He was made sin. Christ had the
sins of his people imputed, charged, accounted to him. Our debt. And
he paid the debt with his death. And it worked. Because look at
the rest of it, verse 10. And hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. Now out of his death comes life
and immortality. And that's the key. You see? Already a fact. Already worked
out to the justification of his people. But he came, and that
which God determined before the world began, that which God promised
from the beginning, he accomplished in time. And we have to realize
that it was always sure and certain. That's why it's called the surety
of the covenant. But how does God bring sinners
who deserve death to life and immortality. The wages of sin
is death. That's what we earn. That's what
we deserve. How does God bring such people
as we are by nature, by practice, even at our best, who deserve
death, how does he bring life and immortality? Well, it's brought
to light, he says, revealed, made known through the gospel.
Now here's the question. When did God first bring this
to light? When did He first bring this
message into the world by His word and His revelation? And what I want us to use, this
is a scriptural rule of interpretation and it's called the Law of First
Mention. You may have heard that. Turn back to Genesis 3 now. Now
the Law of First Mention means this. And like I said, it's one
of the rules of scriptural interpretation. It's a principle that requires
us to go back to that portion of scripture where a doctrine
or a concept, a truth, is mentioned for the first time and studied
the first occurrence of the same in order to get the fundamental,
inherent meaning of it. What's he talking about? Now
this first revelation of grace, this first revelation of salvation
comes in Genesis chapter 3. This is the first mention. And
when we see the first appearance, which is usually the simplest
form of it, we can examine that doctrine, that truth, that revelation,
and other portions of the Word of God as they come along, as
they're given later. And you'll find it never changes.
In other words, the way God did it at the beginning, that's the
way God does it always. He never changes. And the fundamental
concept in the first occurrence remains the dominant rule all
the way through scripture. Well, here's the first mention
of God's grace. The first revelation of grace.
Let me say this, I've heard preachers use that law of first mention
to define words. You can't do that. Don't do that. That'll mess you up. You can't
say, well, the way a word was used first in the book of Genesis
is the way it's necessarily going to be used in the book of Malachi.
Because words are so subject to context, and they change meanings. So you have to be careful there.
Don't use that to do word studies. But when it comes to the truths
of the scripture, the concepts, the doctrines of Christ, the
law of first mention comes in play. When did God first reveal
His grace? And the answer is after the fall
of man in Adam. Now Randy read about it. I'm
not going to go all through it verse by verse because we don't
have time. But you understand, you've read
this many times in Genesis chapter 3, how that man fell. Eve was
deceived, Adam knew full well what he was doing, and he took
sides with Satan and his wife against God. That's what he did.
Adam was the representative of the whole human race. He brought
the whole human race down into sin and death. That's what he
did. Romans 5 and verse 12, we go to other scriptures. It talks
about, for as by one man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin, for that all sin, death passed upon all men, for that
all have sinned, all sin, literally, is what that verse says. Verse
Corinthians 15, as in Adam, all die. Adam brought spiritual death
because he took sides with Satan against God. And if you look
over at verse six, or verse seven, rather, of Genesis chapter three, When Adam and Eve fell, here's
what happened, it says in verse 7, and the eyes of them both
were open. And it's not that they were physically
blind before then, because over in Genesis chapter 2 and verse
25, it says that, or yeah, Genesis 2 chapter 25, it says in verse
25, they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not
ashamed. There was no shame, there was no guilt. But here
in Genesis 3-7 it says, the eyes of them both were open, and they
knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together
and made aprons, and made themselves aprons, something to cover their
nakedness. Now, as you know, and Randy mentioned
this when he read it, nakedness in the Bible, and you can read
this all the way through, especially in the Old Testament, but nakedness
in the Bible symbolizes something. It's a lesson. It's an object
lesson. We know something about physical
nakedness and the shame that it brings and the embarrassment
that it brings. But what the issue that gets
to the heart of the matter for us is that this nakedness symbolizes
lack of righteousness. No righteousness before God,
like what we've been talking about. Man has no righteousness. We don't have what God requires,
and therefore, as Randy said when he read it, subject to God's
wrath. We're exposed, in other words. Man by nature is exposed to the
wrath of God. That's what we deserve. That's
the only thing we can earn. That's what nakedness means.
And you can see it in the parables. You can see it all over the scripture
where sinners have tried to cover their nakedness. And he's not
talking about physical nakedness, he's talking about spiritual
nakedness. With what? With religion. With works. I think about the vision that
Zechariah had of the high priest Joshua standing before the Lord
in filthy rags. Filthy rags. And the Lord, the
advocate, stood up And said, take those rags off of him. Put
this new coat on him. You see, there's a spiritual
lesson there. The filthy rags are like Adam's fig leaf. The
fig leaf here symbolizes man's attempt to hide himself, cover
himself from the wrath of God that he deserves. And that's
what man's religion is all about. It's just a covering. It's a
human works, human will covering. But he's still naked. He has
no righteousness before God. It's the shame and the guilt
of sin and condemnation. Our nakedness is described all
through the scripture. Our nakedness by nature. Isaiah
said that our righteousnesses are as what? Filthy rags. In
Romans chapter 3 and verse 9 when The Apostle Paul, after having
brought in the Gentile world and the Jewish world before the
bar of God's justice, and he said in verse 9, which means
we're all by nature, even the best of us, naked before God.
We have no righteousness. We have nothing to wash away
our sins. Our tears can't do it. Our religion
can't do it. Baptism can't do it. We try,
but it doesn't work. Naked before God. And that's
when he said in Romans 3.10, there's none righteous, no, not
one. He goes on, there's none that doeth good. There's none
that seeketh after God. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified. By the works of man, no nakedness
shall be covered. And it's in light of that when
God comes along and He says, Adam, where art thou? God wasn't
asking a question there for information. He wasn't asking like we do out
of ignorance. He was making a statement. Adam,
where are you? Look at where you were and look
at where you are now. You're naked. You're in sin. Remember God said, In the day
that you eat thereof, dying thou shalt die. You're in death now. And so then God begins to pronounce
the curse. The curses, rather. Three. Three
curses. The first curse that he pronounces
is upon the serpent, Satan. And he's speaking to Satan. And
I want you to notice here, he's not speaking to Adam. Now, I
believe you can surmise here that he's speaking within Adam's
hearing. But when he pronounces what we're
about to read, he is not speaking to Adam. He's not making a deal with Adam
here. He's not cutting some sort of contract with Adam. He's talking
to the serpent. And listen what he says in verse
14. He says, 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, upon thy belly shalt thou go,
and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And then here
is the first revelation of God's grace in verse 15. And I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed, it, that seed of woman, shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel. Now you know who that's speaking
of, the seed of woman. who is none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. It speaks of His person. Who
is Jesus Christ? He's God in human flesh, the
seed of woman. And again, understand, and I
emphasize this, the promise here is not made to man. It concerns
two beings, the serpent, who is the devil, and the seed of
woman. And Christ, Jesus the Lord, is the seed of woman. The
woman represents humanity as the objects of divine grace and
mercy. You can read about that in Revelation
chapter 12, where the serpent makes war on the woman and her
seed. That's Christ. And then those
who proceed from him, which is his church, You see, Christ is
the seed of woman and Christ was not born of man as man but
of the woman as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit in his holy
humanity. We read about it or I quoted
it in Galatians chapter 4, in the fullness of the time God
sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law. The scripture
tells us, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.
For his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
which being interpreted as God with us. That's Christ, that's
the seed of woman, he's the seed of woman. But it also speaks
of his work of redemption. It speaks of his work of overturning
the work of Satan. And he says, I'll put enmity,
that's hatred. make you enemies between thy
seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, deal the death wound
to Satan, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Now, in other words,
what the symbolism is talking about there is that Satan, the
death blow to the head is eternal damnation and death. There is
a death blow to the woman's seed, to the heel, which means that
He won't stay dead. He's going to do a work. And
it's going to be successful. Oh, he'll die. He'll suffer.
He'll bleed. He'll die. That's what the law
requires. Sin demands death. The wages of sin is death. Who
earned that wage? You did. I did. Who's going to
take that wage? Christ is for his people. the
wages of sin. He's going to die but he's not
going to stay dead. He's going to rise from the dead. Righteousness
is going to be established by him and it's the fruit of the
death of another. Listen, what's he saying? Salvation
is not by what Adam or any of his descendants will do or try
to do. Salvation is totally conditioned
on, based upon what the seed of woman will do. The Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, from then on he pronounces
the curse upon the woman. Then he pronounces the curse
upon man. And look at verse 20 of Genesis
3. It says, and Adam called his wife's name Eve. Now, you notice
there that this is the first time in the Bible that Eve is
called Eve. She wasn't called Eve before
the fall. You know what she was called
before the fall? Woman. That's what she was called. That
was her name. Esha would be the Hebrew. But now she's called
Eve. Now why is she called Eve? Because
she was the mother of all living. Now how can that be? Adam just
brought the whole human race into sin and what? Death. And
we're all born dead in trespasses and sin. How can Eve be called
the mother of all the living now? Why isn't she called the
mother of all the dead? I'll tell you exactly why. Because
of the first promise of grace, the first revelation of grace.
Genesis 3.15, Christ will be made of woman, made under the
law. And all in him who dies for their
sins shall live. That's the only way that Eve
could be called the mother of all the living. But look on,
look at verse 21. Now look what happens. Out of that seed of woman, Comes what? Well look at verse
21. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord make coats
of skin, and he clothed them. Now how did he get coats? Where
does skin come from? It comes from an animal, doesn't
it? A living animal. How do you make a coat of skin?
You've got to kill the animal. Blood has to be shed. Death has
to come. And as a result of that comes
the coat that covers them. Now, what's happening here? First
of all, there's a type, a picture, a symbol here of how God, through
the seed of woman, would make sinners righteous before him.
How would it be? Through the death of a substitute,
a sacrifice, a sin-bearer. And out of that death would come
what? Righteousness that's imputed,
charged, accounted to his people. That's the coat that we wear.
It's not a literal coat like this coat, but it's a literal
righteousness and it's literally charged to the account of God's
people. And it came not by our death
or our suffering or our works. It came by the death of a substitute
pictured in this sacrifice that God Himself made. I believe actually
that God is establishing here in Genesis 3.21 the whole sacrificial
system that you see throughout the Old Testament that pictures
and typifies Christ as our representative, Christ as our substitute, Christ
as our surety, Christ as our sin-bearer, having our sins imputed,
accounted to Him, and the righteousness which He brought forth that's
imputed to us. That's the only ground of salvation.
That's the overturning and death blow given to Satan. Christ said
that in John chapter 12, we talked about it last week. He said,
if I be lifted up, will draw all unto me. Remember what he
said before that? Now is the prince of this world
cast out. That's the first revelation of
grace. That's the first mention of substitution, of satisfaction,
of imputation. This is how God required the
Old Testament saints to approach him to seek Him, to find acceptance
with Him, to be justified by Him, not literally on the blood
of animals, the blood of bulls and goats can never take away
sin, but the one whom they pictured and prophesied and typified as
in the gospel message, the revelation of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ
who would come and put away their sins. Now don't get scared, I'm
about to quit. But I'm going to go through some
scripture with you just to show you what I'm talking about, this
law of first mention. So I'm not going to start at
Genesis and go all the way up through Malachi. But I do want
you to see something here. The reason that I believe that
this is the establishment of the sacrificial system is in
Genesis 4, the example of Cain and Abel. You remember that. I was listening to Mark's message
on Sermon Audio last week on the righteousness of God, and
he brought this out. Remember how Cain came, bringing
the fruit of the cursed ground, the best that he could have,
he could work for, to God for salvation, for blessing, for
acceptance. And he was rejected. And then Abel brought what? The
blood of a lamb. What was all that about? You
know, I know growing up as a kid, what I heard, well, that means
that Cain wasn't sincere, you know, but Abel, he was sincere.
No, it was all about the sacrifice. It was all about the offering.
God had already established it. The only way that a sinner is
going to be saved is by the blood of another, the righteousness
of another. Cain rejected it. God said, if
you do well, Cain, you'll be accepted. What is it to do well?
Plead Christ. And that's what he said. And
you know the story. Cain rose up and he slew Abel. Because he couldn't accept that
his deeds were evil. And Abel's was good. But look
at Genesis chapter 6. Or I mean Genesis, I'm sorry,
Genesis chapter 8. You know the story of Noah. Noah
built an ark. The wrath of God fell upon the
ark. That's a picture of Christ. The wrath of God for my sins
fell upon Christ so that I don't have to experience that wrath.
I have salvation by the grace of God. Noah got off the ark. And what was one of the first
things he did? Look at verse 20 of Genesis chapter
8. It says, and Noah built an altar unto the Lord. Now, why
do you build an altar? Because there's a sacrifice.
And it says that he took of every clean beast and of every clean
fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Noah knew that's
the way God had to be worshipped. That's a picture of Christ crucified. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And Noah was saved on that day.
And then one more, I'll just show you one more. Look at Genesis
chapter 12. This is Abraham. You know, the Bible says, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's right.
There's no doubt there. But first of all, what is the
name of the Lord? That means who is he? How do
you identify him and distinguish him from idols? Well, as he reveals
himself. What is it to call upon the name
of the Lord? Does that mean we just look up
into the sky and say, Lord? No. Does that mean we get down
and grovel and pray? No. One of the first Examples
of a sinner calling on the name of the Lord is right here in
Genesis chapter 12. Look at verse 7. This is Abraham.
And listen to it. It says, The Lord appeared unto
Abraham, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there
builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.
And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel,
and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Haon
on the east. And there he built an altar unto the Lord, And look
what it says, he called upon the name of the Lord. He knew
that the only way that a sinner can call upon the name of the
Lord and be saved is through sacrifice, through Christ, through
his righteousness alone. Now, do you want salvation? Well,
it comes by grace, based on the righteousness of God freely imputed
and received by God-given faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Call upon his name. Yes, that's true. No sinner will
do that by nature. This is where God brings his
people. Do you want to worship and serve the Lord? It's done
acceptably upon the ground motivated by grace, gratitude, and love
as we come pleading Christ in his righteousness alone. And
that's the first revelation of grace. Let me tell you something.
That's how God reveals his grace all through the scriptures. Amen. All right. Winston's gonna come
and lead us in a closing in hymn number one. Isn't that right?
I worship the king, hymn number one.