OK, right. Well, having had lots
of snags and issues, and still not having sorted them, nevertheless,
we'll try and make a start. So, I hope you can see me. I'm trying to record it on the
normal camera we use as well, so that if we ever get it back
it can be posted on the YouTube stream. But anyway, for now,
Let's look at God's Word. Last week we looked at Exodus
chapter 3, the gospel in the burning bush, and that's triggered
a thought in my mind that really we ought to do a series on the
gospel in various Old Testament incidents, because the gospel
is everywhere. All of the Bible is God's declaration
of saving grace to the multitude of sinners. We've been singing
about them in that hymn just now, what a sinner really is.
All are sinners, of course, but only those whom God, the Holy
Spirit, gives that sense to of sin are ones who are sinners
on the road to eternal glory, on the road to salvation by grace. The whole of Scripture is God's
declaration of saving grace to that multitude of sinners that
before the beginning of time He loved with an everlasting
love. And why did He love them? Not
because they were any better or any different from anybody
else. He loved them because He is a God of grace. It is not
of Him that wills, nor of Him that runs, but of God that shows
mercy. And the Gospel, the good news,
is throughout the Scripture because the Gospel is Christ crucified. That's the Gospel, is Christ. God become man to die, to die
in the place of men and women, to die in the place of His people
that He loved. Why? Because only in that way
is the offended justice of God satisfied. The justice of God
against the sin of man is absolute. It's strict. It cannot be changed. But in Christ, that justice is
satisfied. In him crucified is that justice
satisfied. He says, I am he that liveth
and was dead, and am alive for evermore. The one that lives
who was dead. If it wasn't for him coming to
die, there is no salvation. If he didn't come and die, if
he didn't come and submit to the curse of the law in the place
of his people, there is no redemption from the curse of the law. There
is no release from the curse of the law. There is no recovery
from the curse of the law. But in Christ crucified, salvation
is accomplished. The world, you know, that we
observe today is exactly a reflection of the message
of Scripture. The message of Scripture is true,
and the world that we see today, in its height of confusion at
the moment, but it absolutely reflects the message of Scripture. And that message is of conflict
between two kingdoms. I keep trying to stress this,
it is so important to understand this, for your view of how things
are. The conflict of two kingdoms,
it's the story of history, which is the kingdom of this world,
the kingdom, singular, I know it's made up of kingdoms, but
basically, it's the kingdom of Satan, it's the kingdom of Antichrist,
it's the kingdom of everything that opposes God. And that kingdom
of this world is striving in futility for unity, constantly. I'm not making this up, I was
just reading just the other day in a non-religious publication,
the moves that there are for worldwide economic unity. You
know, various aspects of the United Nations, the European
Union, and all of this, they're all striving for a unity. They're all striving for peace.
And you say, well, what a wonderful objective. Peace on Earth, peace
in our time. What a wonderful objective. They're
all striving for the conformity of peoples, one to another, all
in mutual support. But you know what? It's all in
the absence of divine justice. It's all without the righteousness
of God. It's all ignoring the justice
of God. and God cannot ignore his justice. It is completely contrary to
his character. It's also without the truth of
God is this kingdom of this world. Listen to what Ecclesiastes says,
Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and verse 29. You know there are so many
words of wisdom of Solomon in Ecclesiastes. Lo, this only have
I found, that God hath made man upright, but they, man, have
sought out many inventions." Sin. Sin. Sin of denying God. Sin of saying there is no God.
Sin of saying the justice of God doesn't matter. Sin of saying
we can sin and get away with it. It's many inventions. The fool, says the Psalms, the
fool, twice, Psalm 14 and 54, something like that, the fool
has said in his heart, there is no God, or no God for me. That's what the natural man says. That's what the kingdom of this
world says. It says that professing themselves
to be wise, this world in which we live, this world, they became
fools. They said, there is no God, or
no God for me. They've said there is no creation.
They've said there is no intelligent design. It just all put itself
together. They've said there is no such thing as divine righteousness.
Don't bother about divine righteousness. Live as you want. There's no
such thing as divine righteousness. There's no accountability to
God. You know, it's appointed to man
to die once, then the judgment. No, no, no, they say. There's
none of that. No. There's no judgment. No. There's
no heaven. There's no hell. There's nothing
other than a nice warm utopia of us all supporting one another.
There's no heaven, there's no hell, there's no hope. There's
no hope. You look at the philosophers
and the suicides of despair when they realize how futile and empty
is life without God. They invent impossible ideas
of godless, materialistic evolution to avoid God. And I mean impossible,
I'm not going to spend any time now, but their ideas are just
absolutely impossible. So phenomenally implausible as
to be practically impossible. It's a futile situation. The
truth of God stands firm. The truth of God stands firm. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Man's unbelief challenges Genesis
chapters 1 to 3, but man's unbelief and man's ignorance and foolishness
cannot negate it. It remains true. It is true.
Man is created in the image of God. Man is created unique among
the creation. Man is created in the image of
God, a thinking being, a sentient being, a moral being, knowing
right from wrong, an upright being. God created man upright,
but they've sought out many inventions. Rebellion against God has polluted
and corrupted every aspect of man. How? How has it done that? Why has it done that? Genesis
3 shows us, in the fall, Genesis 3 shows us. What is it about? What is it all about? How does
it set the battle lines of eternity? How does it show us God's triumph? Because God's kingdom will triumph. God's kingdom is triumphant.
How does it show us God's triumph stamped on creation right from
the start, even in this which looks like the biggest catastrophe,
the fall, the triumph of Satan? In that, God's triumph is stamped
on creation right from the start. Remember, Creation is the canvas
on which God paints the picture of saving grace. That's it. It's a canvas. He paints the
picture of saving grace on the canvas of creation. In this account
in Genesis chapter 3, there are four characters. We have God,
We have Adam, we have Eve, and we have Satan. Let's think about
Satan to start with. He is the creation of God. Satan
is the creation of God. Satan is God's devil. Satan is
the leader of rebellion in heaven against God. But he is now fallen
down. If you look in Isaiah chapter
14 and verse 12, listen to this. This is clearly under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. In Isaiah 14 verse 12, how art
thou fallen from heaven? O Lucifer, son of the morning,
Lucifer, that's the devil, that's Satan, Lucifer, light, speaking
of light, Lucifer, son of the morning, clearly beautiful creature,
how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the
nations? Why was he cut down? For thou
hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt
my throne above the stars, the angels of God. I will also sit
upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like
the Most High. There's only one who can be like
the Most High, and that's the Most High himself. He will not
share his glory with another. God is above all else, in all
things that Christ, who is our God, should have the preeminence.
Yet, verse 15, thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the
sides of the pit. And that is echoed in Luke chapter
10, in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In Luke
chapter 10 and verse 17, the 70 disciples came back saying,
even the devils are subject to us through thy name. And Jesus
said to them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
He saw him, he saw this downfall of Satan in heaven, in his rebellion
against God. You can read in various places,
you could read in Ezekiel, there's an account in Ezekiel, and again
it must be the Holy Spirit, because you see in verse 11 of Ezekiel
chapter 28, it's talking about the king of Tyrus, but all the
words that follow fit nobody other than the devil. Listen
to this. Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sun,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden,
the garden of God. Every precious stone was Thy
covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the
onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, the carbuncle, and
the gold. The workmanship of Thy tabrets
and of Thy pipes was prepared in Thee in the day that Thou
wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub
that covereth, and I have set thee so. Thou wast upon the holy
mountain of God. Thou hast walked up and down
in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy
ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found
in thee. by the multitude of thy merchandise. They have filled the midst of
thee with violence, and thou hast sinned. Therefore I will
cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy
thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because
of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom
by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground,
I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou
hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities,
by the iniquity of thy traffic. Therefore will I bring forth
a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will
bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them
that behold thee. So, you see there, Scripture
is quite clear, Satan is brought down because of his rebellion
against God. And of course, we read about
it too in Revelation, again and again, but in Revelation chapter
12, we read about Satan being cast out of heaven. And the thing
that brings him down and destroys him in his ability to be the
accuser of the brethren, what's he accusing them of? The Old
Testament saints, he's accusing them of being in heaven without
being justified. They're sinners, why are they
in heaven? And the child comes from the woman, Christ. and accomplishes
redemption, and he's disarmed, and he's cast out of heaven.
And how is he cast out of heaven? How did they overcome him? It
says there in Revelation 12, by the blood of the Lamb they
overcame him. By the redemption that Christ
accomplished when he was made a curse for his people on the
cursed tree of Calvary. This is the evil of sin in the
world, with its roots in Satan, working its way out in mankind.
This rebellion against God's righteousness and justice. And
Satan is cast out of heaven, and he's cast out with swathes
of rebellious angels. It says in Revelation 12 verse
4, he swept a third of the stars of heaven down with his tail,
down to hell. They're the demons, they're the
angels that rebelled with him and became the demons of hell. And his mission is to overthrow
the rule of God. And his mission is to defile
the height of God's creation. Man, Adam and Eve, the height
of God's creation. His mission is to defile them.
To Adam, God had delegated rule over creation. He'd given it
to him. You name the things, you name
them, you govern it, it's yours, you tend the garden. He gave
it to Adam. Adam was God's viceroy, vice,
deputy, roi from the French for king, roi, le roi. He was God's
vice king over creation. And Adam and Eve were there in
perfect harmony, sinless perfect harmony with God. We're not told
for how long. We don't know, and does it really
matter if we do know? But to Satan, The worst damage
he could inflict on God, in his rebellion against God, was to
capture God's kingdom, the kingdom of creation, and make it his
own. But how is he going to do it?
How is he going to do it? Answer? If he's to capture the
kingdom of God, he must capture the viceroy that God has placed
over that kingdom. He must capture God's viceroy. He must get Adam to take his
side. And so how does he do it? He
does it in the deception of the woman that God gave to Adam. The deception of Eve. Eve was
made from Adam. Look back in chapter 2 of Genesis,
verse 22, and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made
he a woman out of that rib and brought her to the man. In other
words, exactly how, I don't know, whether it's talking about genetics
and Chromosomes, it could well be, I don't know. That's not
the point. The point is that the woman was
made by God from man. And that woman was made meat
for him, a help meat for him, a help fitting for him, appropriate
for him, utterly complementary to him, to Adam. Imagine Adam's
delight when God brought the woman to him. He caused him to
go into a deep sleep and He brought the woman Eve to Adam. And can you imagine Adam's delight?
One formed by God from him. Bone of my bone, says Adam, and
flesh of my flesh, entirely suited to him. What pure, sinless love
there must have been. Pure, sinless love. How Adam
must have treasured Eve. How Eve must have loved and honoured
Adam. How glorious must this situation
have been! No sin there! If Satan is to
capture God's viceroy, he must deceive the viceroy's wife. That's
his plan. In 1st Timothy chapter 2 and
verses 13 and 14, Paul writes, For Adam was first formed, then
Eve. And Adam was not deceived. He was a lot harder to deceive.
So Satan knew the way to get at him was through the woman.
Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the
transgression. God had given creation to Adam,
and he'd given creation to Eve with him, to enjoy all. Look
at verse 9 of chapter 2. Out of the ground made the Lord
God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good
for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and
the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life speaks
of God himself, that life of which he is the source. In the
Paradise of God in eternity, in Revelation 22, we see the
tree of life there, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
This is God. This is everything that God is,
the tree of life. It's God himself, the source
of endless life. But there is one restraint in
this paradise of God, in this state of perfection, into which
Adam and Eve were placed on probation. They were placed there with one
restraint, and it was that other tree in the midst, the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. There is good and evil, and there
is the knowledge of good and evil. And Adam and Eve were forbidden
to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because that
would give them knowledge of good and evil. And in the moment
that they ate thereof, they would put themselves at odds with the
eternal holy God, and therefore bring down upon them His promised
punishment, His promised wrath. If Satan could get them to disobey
God, then he's captured God's viceroy, and with it he's captured
God's creation and his kingdom. So he comes in the form of a
serpent. What that was like then, I don't
know. It was only after the curse that
the serpent was told that he would crawl on his stomach, on
his belly, shall you go, and eat the dust of the ground all
the days of your life. He was, I'm sure, some beguiling
creature. Lucifer was the sun of the morning.
Lucifer was a beautiful creature. But he came in the form of a
serpent, whether that's anything to do with the smoothness of
his skin without the fur of other animals. He comes in the form
of a serpent and he speaks, not to Adam, because he's a hard
nut to crack. He comes to Eve. and he speaks
to her, for he finds that she'll be more easily deceived. And
he questions God's word. In verse 1 he says, Eve, God
hasn't said this, no he doesn't say that, he says, has God said,
you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? So Eve responds,
misquoting God. She says, we may eat of the fruit
of the trees of the garden, no we can eat of every tree, but
of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden,
Which tree, Eve? There's the tree of life and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She means the
one of good and evil. Of the tree which is in the midst
of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, neither
shall you touch it, lest ye die. God didn't say that. God said,
if you do, you shall surely die. Not it might be that you will
die, you shall surely die. In the day that you eat thereof,
you shall surely die. He says, of course you won't
die. No. In verse 5 he says, God was just
scaring you to prevent you from knowing what God knows. All these
things about the way things really are with good and evil, God knows
them and He's alright as God knowing them, and if you know
them as well, you'll be like God. If you eat, you will be
on such a higher plane. You must eat of this tree. It's
only God trying to scare you, to stop you from doing that which
He knows you really need to do to be exalted to the same plane
that He is on. This is, you know, this is the
thing that God is trying to keep from you, and so perhaps, we
don't read it, but perhaps it seems plausible, that as she's
looking, Satan takes a fruit of that tree, and he eats it,
and he doesn't die. And there he says, look, I've
eaten of it and I don't die. And Eve thinks, well, it does
look good. And what you're saying does sound so good. And we could
be up on a higher plane altogether where God is. And she's deceived
into thinking that it would make her wise. She thought it would
make her wise. You know, she saw, verse six,
that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make
one wise. There's only one wisdom to pursue
in relation to God, and that's to be made wise unto salvation. And the thing that does that
is the scriptures, with the Holy Spirit's application to make
us wise unto salvation. But she thought it would make
her wise, so she ate. And Adam was not deceived, so
why did Adam eat of the fruit when Eve gave it to him? Adam
knew what the penalty was. Adam knew that the penalty was
death. In the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.
But so much did he love the woman that God had given to him. He
didn't want to lose her, so he said he might as well go with
her. So he ate the fruit himself. And in that moment, he cast both
of them and the whole of the human race that would come from
them into sin and into rebellion against God, and handed over
the kingship of the kingdom of God to Satan, the rebel against
God. They knew instantly that they
were sinners. They knew that that was the case.
They knew that they were naked, verse 7. The eyes of both of
them were open. They weren't enlightened. Their
eyes were open to see what they were. They knew that they were
sinners. They knew, as we've been singing
in one of the hymns, you know, a sinner is a sacred thing, the
Holy Ghost has made him so. So many people, all are sinners,
but so few actually know that they're sinners. It is the Holy
Ghost that brings that knowledge of sin, and that need to repent,
and to cry for recovery to God, save me from my sins. They knew
that they were sinners, and they immediately knew that they were
naked. This is not just talking about the condition of not having
clothing covering you. It's not talking about just that.
It's talking about what it symbolized. which is that their sinful souls,
in rebellion against the absolutely pure and holy God, are laid bare
as those that have rebelled against the source of all life, God himself. And they sewed fig leaves together.
This is all they had. They could only find fig leaves.
They sewed coverings together of their own making and made
themselves aprons trying to cover their nakedness. But their nakedness
was perfectly visible to all, especially to God. Their aprons
couldn't cover their nakedness. and they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Again,
this is symbolical language. It's picturing the situation.
What the actual, physical, literal truth is, I don't know, but it
doesn't matter. The fact is that God came looking for them. God came looking for them. They
were fleeing away from God, hiding away from God. They knew they
were sinners. They knew they were defiled. They knew that
they were shameful before God. What they did was what all of
Adam's race does, by nature. You see, we all have Adam's DNA,
his code of life. It comes down from him. And as
he sinned, as in Adam, all die. As in Adam, all die, all have
sinned in him. When he sinned, we all as a race
sinned, and all of us put ourselves at enmity with God. We were all
made like that in the fall at that time, and now Satan has
his prize. Now he is viceroy, but with malicious
intent. God's creation, the kingdom of
the world, is now set in opposition to God. You know when Satan comes
to the Lord Jesus Christ in the temptation in Matthew chapter
4, and one of the things he does is he takes him up to an exceedingly
high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world and
he says, if you will bow down and worship me, I will give you
all these, because what he's saying is, these are all mine.
They have been mine since the day that Adam handed over that
viceroyship, if that's the right word, to me. And all men now
are in Satan's thrall, all are in his clutches, all are under
his control, all are removed from the fellowship of God, all
are disqualified from the kingdom of God for, to be holy, to be
acceptable to God, to be qualified for His kingdom, you must be
as perfect as God is. You must be that perfect. But
all are disqualified for His kingdom by nature, because of
sin. And so, as I say, verses 7 to 9, they flee from justice. The reality of sin became clear,
and they knew what the sentence was. In the day that you eat
thereof you shall surely die. It's there in verse 17 of chapter
2 at the end of it. You must not eat of it. In the
day that you eat you shall surely die. They knew what the score
was. They had sinned. It had not made
them wise. It had not shown them extra things
concerning the life of God. It hadn't shown them that. They
tried to cover their guilt. They hid from God instead of
seeking God. What should a sinner do? A sinner
should seek God. Seek him while he may be found.
But God came looking for them. The Lord God called unto them,
Adam, where are you? God came looking for them. God
came looking for the first sinners. Doesn't it say that God is of
purer eyes than to behold iniquity and cannot look upon sin? and
yet God came looking for them. Is that not a display of sovereign
grace? Is that not a display of the
grace of God in redemption, right there at the start, that God,
in grace and love, came looking for those who had just rebelled
against Him? The death penalty was executed
later on, but not for many years. It wasn't an instant death. They
had died spiritually, and they would die physically in years
to come. But at this moment they didn't.
God came looking for them in grace. In grace He came. And
so what is it you've done? Well, then we have the litany
of excuses. And Adam says, yes, he's eaten
of the fruit. But why did you eat of the fruit?
because the woman that you gave me gave it to me and I did eat. I was deceived by this woman
that you gave me. Do you see the excuses right
there? The woman, what did you do? Oh,
it wasn't me, it was the serpent that beguiled me. The serpent
beguiled me. And then the curse is pronounced
on the serpent. God's pronouncement on Satan. In verse 15, this is where we
see the gospel. The gospel in the fall, in the
midst of the fall that separates us from God, there and then is
the gospel that unites sinners with their God. The woman and
her seed shall not be yours, says God, in rebellion against
me. Verse 15, I will put enmity Between
thee and the woman, Satan, I will put enmity between you, Satan,
and the woman, and between your seed, those that come from you,
and her seed, the one that comes from her. It, her seed, he shall
bruise your head. That's a fatal wound. And you
shall bruise his heel. Conflict, he talks about. Conflict. And eventually that Satan, the
serpent, would be destroyed by the seed of the woman. God is
saying that a man shall come and fatally wound you, Satan.
A man shall come who shall frustrate your plans and recover the kingdom
to God. And this is what Christ did when
he came. When Christ came, the Son of God, God in human flesh,
God to die the death of the cross, He will come and he will utterly
frustrate the plans of Satan, that God should not have a kingdom,
that God should not have a people, that the only kingdom and the
only people should be those belonging to Satan. But no, the seed of
the woman is coming to frustrate your plans. In John chapter 12
and verse 31, just before the crucifixion, days or so before,
Jesus himself says this, now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. He knew what
he was doing. He was going to the cross. That
dreadful experience, my God, my God, why have you forsaken
me? But in going there he knew that the prince of this world,
who is Satan, would be cast out. His head would be bruised. mortally. Matthew chapter 12 verse 29,
Jesus says also this, He says, How can one enter into a strong
man's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong
man? Then he will spoil his house.
Christ came into the strong man's house, this world, to spoil his
goods, to take back his people, his church, the people that God
loved in sovereign grace before the beginning of time, to spoil
his goods. And how does he do it? He binds
the strong man. You say, hold on, wasn't it Christ
who was bound on the cross? Yes, he was bound on the cross.
But in being bound on the cross and dying the death of Calvary,
which is the curse of the law, in doing that, he satisfied justice
for the sins of his people. And in doing that, he disarmed
Satan. He took away every accusation
that Satan can bring against the people of God. Satan was
justly accusing them of being sinners, unfit for heaven. But
on the cross, Christ took away his accusations. He took away
all of his weapons, and in the process, he has spoiled his house. He has saved his people from
their sins. The seed of the woman, seed,
it says in Galatians, not seeds as of many, but the seed which
is Christ. The seed of the woman, Christ,
bound the strong man, Satan, on the cross and disarmed him.
Satan's head was bruised at the cost of Christ's heel being bruised. Thus by death of the seed, Adam
and Eve are redeemed from the curse of the law. Cursed is everyone
that continues not in all things that are written in the book
of the law to do them, and that curse is the curse of death.
But Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being
made that curse for us, substitute, in our place, so that God remains
exactly God as He is. God remains just and holy and
absolutely perfect in His judgment of sin, and yet, by judging it
in His Son, in His own self, in Him made man for us, He is
the justifier of those who are sinners. Look at some well-known
scriptures. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and
verse 21. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. By Adam came death. In the day you eat thereof you
shall surely die, but by man came also the resurrection from
the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all, that means all his people, be made
alive. Everyone dies in Adam as the
children of Adam, but those who are Christ's, the second Adam,
they're made alive in the second Adam. Job asks the question,
he says, if a man die, shall he live again? Is that not a
good question? You think about it, you lot bursting
with life. If a man die, shall he live again? John 11 verse 25, at the tomb
of Lazarus, his friend, Jesus says this to his sisters, I am
the resurrection and the life. Now listen to this, he that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. though he were
dead, yet shall he live. Yet shall he, though he be dead
in trespasses and sins and disqualified, yet shall he live and be qualified
for the kingdom of God. He shall be suitably clothed.
Look at verse 21 of chapter 3. Verse 21, unto Adam also and
to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed
them, animal skins. Blood was shed. the blood of
a sacrifice was shed. It wasn't the sacrifice that
accomplished the redemption of them, it wasn't that, it was
what it pointed to, which was the death of the seed, the bruising
of the heel of the seed of the woman, so that he might crush
the head of the serpent. In that, His life. God clothed Adam and Eve. He
redeemed Adam and Eve. There and then, immediately after
the fall, God redeems them. What else could it mean? An animal
has died, pointing to Christ who would come and die, that
they might be made the righteousness of God. They who had just sinned,
and that sin is all sin bound up in one, for everything flows
from it. They had sinned, and yet, He
kills an animal, He covers their nakedness, blood is shed, all
pointing to what the seed of the woman, Christ, would do.
And their sinful nakedness, their sinful guilt and shame before
the justice of God, is removed, is covered. And God doesn't see
it. Isaiah 61 verse 10, I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, and
he's covered me with the robe of righteousness. Isn't that
so clear? God clothes his people. You could
go on to the wedding garment, the parable of the wedding garment,
and the man that turns up there without a garment and he's cast
into outer darkness. Everybody there who is invited
and welcomed is clothed by God, clothed with the garments of
salvation. In the gospel, In the death of
Christ, God has recovered his kingdom from Satan. Here we have
the gospel in the fall, right there, at the very moment where
the sin of man and everything that we see as confusion and
evil in the world today, all stems from that fall in the Garden
of Eden. And yet, right there, God has
accomplished redemption. God has preached the gospel in
the fall of man. The ones that were immediately
captured by Satan, God redeems them. God redeems them looking
to the seed that would come. And that kingdom of God, it's
described in the New Testament in Romans chapter 12, that kingdom
is described as righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Does your soul thirst for this?
Any out there who do not know this, who do not of a certainty
know that they are Christ's, does your soul thirst for this? Isaiah 55 verse 1 says this,
ho, everyone that thirsts. You know, this isn't an invitation
to everybody without exception. Don't think that. It's an invitation
to those that thirst. And those that thirst are those
that God implants in a sense of their sin and of the need
for that water of Christ to come and wash that sin away. Ho, everyone
that thirsts for righteousness, blessed are they that hunger
and thirst for righteousness. They shall be filled. How much
is it going to cost? Come and buy without money and
without price here and your soul shall live. That's the message
throughout this book. What a glorious message. I hope
to come back and to see in other accounts in the Old Testament,
the gospel in different events. Amen.