All right. Turn back, if you
would, to that third chapter of Genesis. Genesis chapter 3. I want you to look back at that 21st verse. where it says, And unto Adam
also, and to his wife did the Lord
God make coats of skins and clothe them. I've called this message
this morning, Are You Covered? I thought about it, I could also
have called it something like this, lessons learned from the
garden. But if you stop and think about
it, what the Bible shows us here is that all lies come from the
devil who is always transformed into
an angel of light. Now, we don't really know what
kind of creature this was that the devil spoke through. But we read in Scripture that
the serpent, whatever he was, was the most beautiful of the
creation. And yet the Scriptures say that
through him came the first lie. If you remember when he is speaking
to Eve here in the verses that we read, he immediately puts
to the lie what God has said. And he tells Adam and Eve that
it will not be as God has told them. As a matter of fact, Eve
herself did not get what God said right. Because God had told
them that in the day that they ate of that tree, one tree in
the midst of the garden, that they would surely die. The devil said to them, you will
not surely die. And so it began in that very
opening stage of this world, the means by which every lie
has come into being, And as it pertains to God and life, it
is always by one who is transformed into an angel of light. That's what the Apostle Paul
tells us. He says Satan and his ministers,
rather than being that which appears outwardly evil and bad,
they are transformed into angels of light. And so it is by this
beautiful, outwardly appealing creature that the first lie is
brought into being. But just the opposite of that
is this. And that is that all truth and
even all good news must come from God Himself. And what we find is that the
truth of how things really are, or how God really is, and how
man really is, can only be known by what God
says. Think about this. We can only
know God as being who and how He Himself says that He is. You see, it doesn't really matter
who you think He is or I think He is, He is only as He says
that He is. And not only that, but also you
and I, we are, as Scripture says, so blind and so spiritually dead
as a result of what happened in this very account that the
only way that we can know how we are is to believe what God
says about who that we are. And the only way that we can
ever know the gospel, which is the good news from God, is to
hear what He says about what is good news. And so, in this
very opening book of the Bible, what we have is not only the
gospel or the only good news that there is for sinners, such
as we are, not only spoken by God, but also given to us in
a picture or an illustration by God. So what we find here,
given to us by God, if anyone's gospel, or you could say if anyone's
religion or thoughts about God and salvation, if they do not
conform, to what God has set forth in the very beginning by
Himself, then they are not in conformity with God, and therefore
they cannot be of God. The Apostle Paul, writing in
Romans 1, makes this statement. He said, I am not ashamed of
the gospel. He said, I am ready so far as
God enables me, I am ready to preach the gospel to both Jew
and Gentile, whoever they are. He says, for in the gospel, he
says, therein is the righteousness of God revealed." In other words,
God in the Gospel reveals how He can save a sinner and at the
same time do right. In other words, righteousness
has to do with God doing right, doing that which is just and
right as He saves His people from their sins. And what we find in these verses,
this has been on my mind for a number of days now, what we
find in these verses are three main things. And unless we have
some understanding as to these three main things that are shown
to us and pictured for us in these verses, unless we have
some understanding of them, we miss the whole message of the
Bible. And we are left without any hope
in ourselves, but these three things we will find stated and
repeated and pictured again and again all the way from Genesis
to the last book of the Revelation. And the first thing that we find
in this book is the consequence of what Adam did in the garden. In other words, in this book,
in the very verses that we have read this morning, what Adam
did in that garden, the first man that ever lived on this earth,
what he did had a consequence on every person that has ever
lived in this world that came out from Adam. And that's why
the Apostle Paul said again and again to the Corinthians, on
the one hand, he said, in Adam all die. In other words, Adam
was not simply a man unto himself, but he was a man who represented
all our race before God, and what he did had a bearing and
a consequence on all his offspring. When Adam on this occasion ate
of that fruit, which as was said in the prayer that was prayed,
was not merely an eating of a particular fruit that had the power to kill. But that fruit and that tree
in the midst of the garden was simply representative of God's
right to be God and His right to govern and rule and command
His creatures to do what He would have them to do. In other words,
think about all that He gave to our race. He gave Adam every
other tree in the garden. He gave him control over every
other living creature. And all that was said to him,
govern it, dress it, Do all that you will. Eat all that you will. But there is one tree which represents
God's sovereignty or His right to be God, and you are not to
touch that tree or eat of that tree. And so here is the serpent. Here is the devil in this creature
speaking to them and telling her it's okay to do that. God has not said to not do that. God is trying simply to keep
good things from you. And so they ate of that tree. And in doing so, they defied
God. And when they did, when Adam
ate of that tree, he did not die physically. Some people would imagine that
things had not happened as God would have said that they had
happened. He did not die physically, although
He did die physically later as a result of it, but He died spiritually. He was immediately separated
from God. He immediately turned his back
on God, and he went and hid from God. But more than that, something
took place, and all of his race in him died spiritually because
all had sinned in Adam. Hold your place right there and
turn over to the book of Romans. where in Romans chapter 5, the
Apostle Paul, in speaking of this very event, this very thing,
tells us the extent of what happened. Romans chapter 5, and look down
in verse 12 and listen to what he says. He says, Wherefore,
as by one man." Romans 5 and verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world. Now, that's not just my doctrine
or Baptist doctrine or anybody else's doctrine. This is what
God says. For by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men. Spiritual death. This same new
attitude toward God. Running from God. Hiding from
God. Sinning against God. Hating God
by nature. He says, for that all have sinned. That says, for all sinned. That means that not one of us
come into this world innocent as is said. And the very fact
that we die physically is because we died spiritually in Adam when
he sinned and he says, For until the law, sin was in the world,
but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure
of him that was to come." What is he saying there? He says that
when that command was given to Adam, And that command was defied
by Adam, and Adam sinned, and all who came forth from Adam
and Eve after that, although another command was not given
until God gave the law to Moses. But what still happened? All
those people born of Adam and Eve Even though they had not
been given a command like Adam and Eve had been given until
all that time passed to Moses' day and the law was given, they
still died. They hadn't even had a law to
defy. Why did they die? They died because
they were sinners. But how were they sinners? They
were sinners. Because when their father Adam
died, they all sinned when he sinned. Look on down a little
bit farther at verse 17. He says, for if by one man's
offense death reigned by one, it ruled over every person that
has ever lived from Adam's day to this, everyone is therefore
said in the Scriptures to be born in sin and shapen in iniquity. He says in verse 18, Therefore,
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. He's saying the same thing over
and again. Look at verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners. So what does that mean? That
means that every one of us, since every one of us are from Adam,
Somebody in the scientific world came up with this brilliant discovery
not long ago as they began to determine this DNA and that DNA
and trace back the common ancestor of man. And they arrived at this
conclusion that all people in this world were derived from
a common ancestor. Isn't that amazing? Because that's
what God says in the very opening chapters of this book. And as
a result of that, all sinned in Him. That's the first thing. That means you. That means me. That means my children. Because
like always begets like. You can't bring a clean thing
out of an unclean thing. And while we may be all different,
male and female, young or old, from this place or that place,
he says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But now here's the second thing.
And the second thing is, not only did Adam and Eve sin, And
not only did we all fall in Adam, but I want you to notice how
man in his fallen state now always reacts toward God. He's naked. God asked Adam, although God
surely knew all these things and He only gives such information
for you and I to see it. But He said, He said, Adam, why
did you go do these things? Are you now naked? Well, yes. Well, wasn't he naked before?
Absolutely. But if you notice, look back
in verse 7, I believe it is, of Genesis chapter 3. It says, And the eyes of them
both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, which was
absolutely true, and they sewed fig leaves together and made
themselves aprons. You see, Even if man knows something
about the problem in his blindness, he knows nothing
about the cure. And when Adam and Eve violated
the command of God, when they defied His sovereignty and His
right to be God and command His creatures, when they sinned,
they realized that they were naked and they responded in the
one way that fallen man always responds in this condition that
it finds itself in. What did they do? They got busy. They got busy. And the Bible
says that they took the fig leaves of these trees all around them,
and they sewed them together, and they made themselves aprons
to cover and to hide their nakedness. And my friends, that's what men
and women have been doing every day, every generation from that
day forward. But what did God do? Did He look
at Adam and Eve and their nice fig leaf aprons that they had
made? Did He say, I'm so proud of you,
you've done such a good job? Absolutely not, because he viewed
them still in his sight as naked. And the very first thing that
God does after the fall is He shows us something that is essential
for us to learn And that is that He, as this thrice holy God,
cannot receive anything that is done or made or touched by
us. I've used this illustration a
lot of times, but it always comes to my mind. And it has to do
with whenever I would have to change the toner cartridge in
this coffee machine I've had for many years. And I've tried
as hard as I could to be as delicate and as precise and to be as clean
as I can, but try as I will, when I try to change that cartridge,
I always get some on my hand and everything I touch It's got my fingerprints on it. And that's the way a sinner is.
You see, everything you and I do, everything that we say, everything
we try to do is sin. That's what this book teaches.
And yet religion, as it is in this world, which is simply false
religion, because it's not according to what is said in this book,
religion, because Men know that that's our natural tendency to
want to do something to try to redeem ourselves or to save ourselves
or do something that God will have and accept us on that basis
because men know that's our natural tendency. That's why religion
is always telling men, do something for God. You need to give your money to
God. You need to get busy in the church. You need to quit doing this. You need to quit smoking. You
need to quit your cussing. You need to quit your drinking.
You need to quit something. Do this for God. But because of what we became
in this fall, this sinner that we are by nature, Everything
that we do is tainted by sin and polluted by sin, so that
just as God would not accept the covering that Adam and Eve
made for Himself, He won't accept the one that you and I make for
ourselves. You say, well, we don't make
fig leaves. We don't make aprons and all.
Oh, yes, we do. Oh, yes, we do. We entertain
in our fallen minds the notion that God will somehow, someway
accept us, forgive our sins, and receive us into His holy
presence based on something that we do or don't do. Well, I'll tell you this, I don't
cuss. Or I'll tell you this, I don't
drink. Or I don't do this. Well, I may
not be this, or I may not be this, but I'll tell you this,
I don't do this. I don't lie, and I don't cheat,
and I don't steal from people. I'm not an adulterer. Whatever we aren't, now listen
to me, whatever we aren't, outwardly and openly, we are inwardly. And if we haven't been that outwardly,
it's only by God's restraining grace. If God were to turn me
loose, and leave me to the intents of my fallen nature and heart
as a sinner, I'd be the worst criminal, the most mass murderer,
the worst thief, the worst liar, the worst adulterer, whatever
it is, because that's what we are by
nature. You say, well, preacher, you
surely can't be talking about me. I'm talking about us. Christ said out is not what goes
into a man that defiles him. It's what comes out of the man. It's because of our hearts, the
heart that people say, oh, well, she may be a little rough around
it, but she's got a good heart. No, she doesn't. He doesn't.
We none do. The heart, he says, is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And the greatest evidence of
this is that we would try, as sinners, to offer up to God or
to do something for God, just like Adam and Eve did, that he
and somehow could accept. Well, I'll tell you, I was baptized,
or I went out and I helped so-and-so. Well, you ought to help so-and-so. But the Bible says this, that
man at his best state Not on his worst day. He said,
man at his best state is altogether vanity. And you can turn to Romans
3 and read what the Spirit of God leads the Apostle to write
about every one of us. And it says that in ourselves
there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that doeth
good. There is none that seeketh after
God. Not one. Paul. in writing about his own
people, the Jews. He says this in Romans 10. He
said, they have a zeal toward God. He came out from a people who
were so enthusiastic, so zealous. He, himself, he describes as
a Pharisee, a Hebrew, a keeper of the law. He was a teacher. He was a man who, in our day,
if he lived amongst us in this world, people would look at him
and say, well, I'll tell you this, I know this, if anybody's
going to heaven, so shall Tarshish. But you know what he said when
the Lord revealed the truth to him? He said, I was before a
blasphemer. A blasphemer. That means the
highest rebellion against God, defiance
against God. Why? He said, because I was just
like all the people that I came out of. And he said, they have
a zeal concerning God. They're enthusiastic. They're
religious acting. They're devout people, seemingly. He says they've got a zeal toward
God, but it's not according to knowledge. Well, how do you know that, Paul?
He said, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, they're
going about to establish their own righteousness. They're going about, and that's
what religion is in our day, going about. You know, what's your hope of
heaven? Well, I'm a member of such and
such at the church. You know, I don't do any of these
things. I'm going about. That's just what Adam and Eve
were doing. They got busy. And they started sewing those
fig leaf aprons together. Well, don't you imagine that
they wilted and dried pretty fast? What did they have to do?
They had to go about and make them some more. And you see, that's what it is
in this world without Christ. that you can never do enough.
It's always failing. You can never be satisfied. You
can never have peace in your heart. You can never satisfy
God. You just keep going about and
doing more and doing more. And religion's right there waiting
for you, telling you more to do. Give us more. Do more for
us. Get busy. Build bigger buildings. Go farther places. Paul says
that the Pharisees, of which he's a part, Christ also, they
encompass land and sea. to make a proselyte. What's that? That means to win a person over
to what they believe, what they teach. But he said, when they
do, they make that person two-fold more the child of hell than they
already were. Man's way. Man's works. God will not accept. I don't know how many times people
that I love, I mean, family and friends and all, they've offered
this one thing as their hope of salvation in heaven. Well, I'm doing the best I can. I don't doubt that. But that's
not good enough. Doing the best that I can will
never please God. Doing the best that I can will
never put away one of my sins. And I've got a multitude of them.
Adam and Eve were doing the best that they could, but God wouldn't
accept it. The Scriptures say this over
and again, by the deeds of the flesh, by the works of the law,
shall no flesh be justified. Why don't people open this book
and read what it says for themselves instead of listening to blithering
idiots tell them exactly the opposite of what it says? by the deeds of the flesh shall
no flesh be justified." Turn over to Ephesians, chapter 2,
and listen to just two verses of Scripture which are quoted
again and again, and yet nobody seems to believe what it says.
Ephesians chapter 2, Paul writing to the church at Ephesus says
this concerning them and everyone that is saved. He says in Ephesians
2 and verse 8, For by grace are ye saved. Actually what that says in the
original Greek is this, For by grace are you being saved. Now, what is grace? Grace is
absolutely unmerited, unworked for, undeserved favor, for by
grace. And grace is set by the apostle
as just the exact opposite of works. Did you know there's only two
gospels in this world? Man's gospel, God's gospel. To a fallen, blind sinner, to
hear man's gospel sounds so appealing. That's the way Israel was. They
said to Moses, just tell us what God wants us to do, we'll do
it. Guess what? They never did. They never received
one blessing from God based on their fulfillment to something
God commanded them to do. Somebody says this, well, I'll
tell you this, I just try to live by the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments can only pronounce death to you, to me. He says, the person who continues
not to do all the things of the law. They're guilty of breaking
the whole. He says, for by grace are ye
saved through faith. Somebody says, oh, that's it
right there. You've got to have faith. Look
at the next line. and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God." Even the faith by which one is
enabled to believe on Christ they didn't have of themselves
is the gift of God. If you can believe the truth,
When I first believed the truth, it wasn't because of anything
I decided to do. The Lord gave me faith and enabled
me to believe what He said. But look at that next verse.
Not of works, lest any man should boast. and boast all do who seek to
come before God by their works." That's right. Paul writes to
Titus, he says this, "...not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." God said to Israel, He said,
when you raise up an altar to worship Me, He said, you do not
take any kind of a tool or instrument and strike that stone and put
it into any shape and do not make any steps to go up to that
altar. Because they said, when you do,
you pollute it. Well, you say, what would they
do? They would just pick up the stones that God had provided,
put them in a little stack, put that sacrifice on it, slay it,
because of what it pictured. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Well, if man is in this awful
condition through our fallen Adam, and we became sinners in
him, separated from God, separated just like he was kicked out of
the garden, and all that we do, such as Adam sewing the fig leaf
aprons together, all our works and efforts to please God never
ever please Him, what's our hope? Verse 21. Verse 21, what does it say? But unto Adam also and to his
wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. God provided their covering. And the only way, the only way
that they could be covered, it was not by the fig leaf aprons
of their own efforts, it was by those skins that came from
the animals, none of which had ever died on the earth at that
point. But their blood had to be shed
as a sacrifice for the sins of Adam and Eve to show the one
way that sin can be put away, that a sinner can be covered
before God. And all that was, There was no
efficacy, you might say, in that animal blood or in that covering
of skin. It says literally that God made
tunics or coats for them. And He covered them. But that was just a typical picture
of the cross death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lamb of
God that takes away sin. Had he not took on himself human
flesh and come into this world to die a death for guilty sinners,
everyone would perish. He has some sheep. He describes them in John 10.
He has a people that the Father has given him, and he says, I
lay down my life for the sheep. He dies, the innocent, sinless,
harmless, holy God-man for sinners. It's not what I do, it's what
He did. God had said over and over in
so many sacrifices that were offered under the Old Testament
law amongst the people of Israel, why did He have them going every
day in some way offering a sacrifice? He said, because without the
shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Because, he
said, the soul that sinneth shall surely die. Because, he says,
the wages of sin is death. So how could Adam and Eve's sin
be put away? How could they be covered in
the nakedness of their sin before God? By only that which God provided. But they could have peace. They
could now have rest in their conscience. Because that sacrifice
that was offered, that garment that they had put on, they could
know that they would be accepted by God and that they were favored
by God because they had covering them that which He had provided. They had as a means of putting away their
sin, a sacrifice that God had made. And all it did was it was
picturing the coming and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
for sins, till He come. I don't know how many times How
many pictures? You see, there are in Scripture
of an innocent victim and sacrifice dying in the place of a sinner. He said, in the day that you
eat, you will surely die. Why didn't he die? Why didn't
Adam die? Why didn't he die eternally?
Why doesn't every sinner die eternally? Because God has come in the person
of His holy and perfect Son and died in their place. If I go to heaven, will that
mean that I didn't sin? Will that mean that I weren't
a sinner? No, it'll mean that Christ died. The Lamb of God laid His life
down in my place, and He covered me with His righteousness. The Bible
says, blessed is that person that the Lord imputes or charges
righteousness without works. You say, what have you ever done
to deserve heaven? I'll tell you, nothing. And I've
done everything to deserve hell. My hope is in that sacrifice
that God Himself provided, who hung on that cross outside of
Jerusalem and paid all of my debt, and whose work is the one
work that's called the work of righteousness that God will accept. And I'll tell you what, sinners that have been saved
by grace, You won't find them walking around
with their noses up in the air and condemning every person for
everything that's done. You'll find them thankful for
God's grace and mercy to them. You see, the truth is, if you're
a good person, I really don't have any good news for you. The gospel is for sinners. And
Paul said, this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all exhortation,
that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. You know what the next thing
he said was? He said, of whom I am chief. I'm the chief of them. Well, I don't really think he
was. But he felt like he was. He might have been until I came
along. And then I surely took that title. If you're a sinner, and in truth,
only God can ever show you that you really are, because you'll
still be strutting around here like a peacock, telling God and telling yourself
why He ought to accept you. But if you're a real sinner,
this is the good news of the gospel. Just throw away your fig leaf
apron. Do you know the first two men in this world that were
born, actually born into this world, which were the two sons
first born of Adam and Eve? They're like two different pictures. Cain left to himself. What does
he do? He goes to worship God, and what does he bring? It says
that he brought the fruit of his field, his own labors. Somebody
said he sure gave the best he had. He did, I'm sure, but it
wasn't good enough. Well, what did Abel do? The Bible
says that God was angry at Cain's sacrifice and didn't accept it. He came and He offered that lamb. And the Bible says God accepted
His sacrifice because of what it represented. God provided will certainly be God accepted. And if there's any other way
to save you or me from our sin, Christ would not have had to
come into this world and die. That's the price of my sin, death. But you see, in death, even in
natural death, I can't satisfy God's justice because He's an
infinite God. That's why hell is forever. But the perfect Son of God, when
God laid on Him the sins of His people, He bore them in His own body.
You say, well, who are His people? I just told you. He came into
the world to save sinners. There are a whole lot of religious
people around here. They're like little peacocks
strutting around, and they'll just condemn you if you look
cross-eyed at them. They do this, and they do...
Well, just go ahead. But He came into the world to
save sinners. To save His people from their
sins. And there are none covered before
God. except those who are covered
in Christ, His blood, His righteousness. Our Father, this day we give
You thanks for Your mercy and Your grace to such wretched and
vile sinners as we are. We have no hope in ourselves. We say, like the old hymn writers,
Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. We plead as our only standing,
our only hope before you. The precious blood shed is the
payment for sins. And you're making us to be the
very righteousness of God in one outside of ourselves. We
look to Christ and Him crucified. Cause us to see. Give us the
eyes of faith, hearts to believe, and to trust Christ and only
Christ. But we ask all these things in
His name. Amen.