All right, would you open your
Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 3. Now, that's different
than what you see in the bulletin for what our message will be
on this morning. I came over this morning to write
the notes for the Sunday school class and for the morning message.
And as I wrote down notes for the Sunday school class, I kept
thinking I wish that I were preaching this. in the regular morning
service, because the things that were contained here in Genesis
chapter 3 fit so well into our observance of the Lord's table
this morning. And as it turned out, I only got about halfway
through the lesson in the Sunday school hour, so we're going to
finish up in this passage from Genesis chapter 3. Now we begin reading in verse 7. Then,
what does it mean by then? It means after Adam and Eve had
both eaten from that tree of which the Lord God had said,
don't eat of that tree, for in the day you eat of it, you shall
die. Then the eyes of both of them
were opened, and they realized that they were naked. So they
sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as
he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And they
hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the
Lord God called to the man, Where are you? He answered, I heard
you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid. And he, that is God, said, Who
told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree
that I commanded you not to eat from? The man said, The woman
you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree,
and I ate it. And the Lord God said to the
woman, What is this you have done? The woman said, The serpent
deceived me, and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent,
Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals. You will crawl on your belly,
and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will
put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring
and hers. He will crush your head, and
you will strike his heel." Actually, the words crush and strike are
from the same Hebrew word. To the woman, God said, I will
greatly increase your pains in childbearing. With pain you will
give birth to children. Your desire will be for your
husband and he will rule over you. To Adam he said, because
you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which
I commanded you, you must not eat of it. Cursed is the ground
because of you. Through painful toil you will
eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns
and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you
return to the ground, since from it you were taken. For dust you
are." And that's all. That's it. That's what a natural
man is. He's just so much organized dirt. For dust you are, and to dust
you will return. Adam named his wife Eve because
she would become the mother of all the living. The Lord God
made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
And the Lord God said, The man has now become like one of us,
knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach
out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and
live forever. So the Lord God banished him
from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had
been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east
side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing
back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Let me bring
everybody up to speed with a short review. The Apostle Paul teaches
us the theological meaning of this story when he said, As by
the sin of one, sin entered the world, and death by sin, and
so death passed upon all, for that all sinned. Now, people
may, if they want, talk about their own righteousness. They
may try to be very good. They may try to do all of those
things which they believe will put them in a good standing with
God. But here is the truth of the
Scriptures, that before you and I ever drew a breath, yea, before
we were even conceived within the womb of our mothers, We were
already guilty and condemned because when Adam sinned, Paul
says, we all sinned. He stood as our representative
and whatever he did was charged to us as though we ourselves
did it. Now we can stand and compare
ourselves one against another if we want to. We can say, like
the Pharisee did, I'm thankful I'm not like other men, and we
can think that we're better than other men. And we can say, at
least I'm not like this person or that person, and we can pick
whatever form of sin we think is the most despicable, say that
we have not committed it, therefore we are better, and therefore
God is going to bless us, in a higher degree than he blesses
that person. In fact, probably he's going
to punish that person with hell because he did such and such,
but he's going to take me to heaven because I didn't. We can
say that if we want to. We can look down our self-righteous
nose at those whom the songwriters said cannot hide the scars of
the curse that we all bear. There are some whose sins are
more notable than the sins of others, some whose sins are more
destructive than the sins of others, and we may try to look
on them and think that therefore they are more sinful than us,
but that's simply not the case, and here's why. because the sin
issue as to whether we are sinful or righteous was decided here
in Genesis chapter 3 when Eve being deceived and Adam in rebellion
reached out and took that fruit and it says, by the deed of one
man the many, that's you and me, were made sinners, designated
sinners. That's what that word made means
there, designated. And therefore, quite frankly
folks, it doesn't matter what you and I do. Even if we came
into this world and by some means or another managed to live without
ever transgressing God's law once, it wouldn't have made any
difference because we came into this world already guilty. When your parents made you When
you were conceived within the womb of your mother, you were
conceived a sinner in the sight of God. That's what the Bible
teaches. That's why it's just silly for
us, in the context of trying to find salvation, it's silly
for us to think about what we've done. Because we came in already
guilty, condemned, dead in the sight of the Lord. Before the race ever started
for us, it was already lost. Now it seemed to be, doesn't
it? Just think of this humanly. Does it not seem that it was
a rather minor thing to eat a piece of fruit? I mean, after all,
it didn't kill anybody. We're not talking about adultery
here, of course that wasn't even possible then, there was only
Adam and Eve. None of the sins that the religious
world rails against is involved here. There were no abortion clinics
to protest, no homosexuals to curse. And that's the two big ones today.
No rock and roll singers to talk bad about. There was one man and one woman
with a piece of forbidden fruit in their hands and a bite in
their bellies. And from that came every bit
of wickedness that you and I experience or see in the world. And what does that teach us about
God? He's not someone to trifle with. People think that morals change.
People think that what's right and wrong changes. Well, if God
is going to condemn an entire race because one person, actually
the whole thing falls upon Adam. Eve's sin only affected her.
Adam's sin affected everybody. But if he's going to condemn
the entire race because one man took a bite of fruit he wasn't
supposed to, what does that say about other sin? And what happened to them when
they sinned like this? Well, immediately they came to
know sin. That is, not only they knew what
sin is, but they knew what it was to be a sinner. They were
naked before, but it says they were naked and unashamed. But
all at once they realized they were naked. What do you mean? It suddenly dawned on them they
weren't wearing clothes? No. It suddenly became shameful to
them to be naked. I don't know what change may
have occurred in their appearance. I have my theories about it.
But suddenly they became aware of the shamefulness of what they
were. They came to know sin. That's why I believe that this
tree of the knowledge of good and evil stands for us as an
illustration of the law of God. While the tree itself was a good
thing, you partake of it, it kills you. It says, by the law
is the knowledge of sin. And Adam and Eve, by partaking
of that tree, gained the knowledge of sin. Secondly, they became
fools. Eve saw that tree and it says
she saw it as something that would make a man wise. But what
happened? She became a fool. They became
spiritual idiots. That's the only way to put it.
You say, why did they become idiots? Well, first of all, they
thought they could sow fig leaves together and cover their nakedness.
Now here's one thing I know about leaves. You pull them from the
tree, they aren't going to last long. And you make yourself clothing
out of leaves. You wrap yourself up in those
leaves. Well, it'll look good for a little while, but you let
the sun come out. And they're going to wither up and fall off. And you're going to be there
without your fig leaf. But that's what they thought.
They thought that that night, maybe when God come walking in
the cool of the evening, they'd have those fig leaf aprons on.
He wouldn't notice. How stupid can you get about
God? They thought they could hide from God, and they hid themselves. Quick, Eve, behind this tree.
Think you can hide from God? You know something? You might
be hiding right now. Easiest place, the most comfortable
place to hide from God is in church, because you feel good
while you're there. You cover yourself up in a religious
profession. So that tomorrow you can go out
and you can tell your friends, I was in church yesterday. God won't find
me. You wouldn't say that part, but
that's what you... God won't see my sin, because I was in
church. I got up, I got dressed, I came to church. I stayed awake
for the whole message. Hiding. Tried to hide from God. And you
know what else happened to him? They gained fear, anxiety, a sense of judgment. They lost love. You know, I believe that Adam...
I say, I believe. I tend this way. I believe that
the reason that Adam listened to what Eve said is because he
loved her. And he'd just seen her eat from
that tree, he knew what was going to happen. He knew that the wrath
of God would fall on her and he could not bear the thought
of being separated from her. And out of a misplaced love,
He came to love Eve more than he did God. Out of a misplaced
love, he followed Eve in her sin. And you know what the result
was? He quit loving Eve. Say, how do you know? Because
when God confronted him about his sin, he blamed it on Eve.
Hey, don't blame me. You gave me this woman. She's
the one that did it. She's at fault. He went from loving her so much
he was willing to sacrifice his relationship with God to be with
her. And the moment he did, he despised
her and was ready to dump the blame on her and let her bear
not only her own sin, but his too. You see all the wars going on?
They started right there. You hear men abusing their wives
and wives despising their husbands? It all started right here. Right there. They lost love. They lost fellowship with God.
They became nothing more than the highest animal on the ladder. And when God came into the garden
that evening, and it says that they heard the sound of the Lord
God, or this is verse 8, or the voice of the Lord God, and I
do firmly believe that that was our Lord Jesus Christ, not as
a man, that is, not born as a man. He evidently took on the form
of a human, but he would walk in the cool of the evening. He
is the one that is called the Word of God, the one who brought
the worlds into existence. He is the one that breathed into
Adam the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul. This
same one comes walking in the cool of the evening as the breeze
begins to blow. And we take it from this that
that was His custom. And what a delightful time that
must have been for Adam and Eve, that they could walk and talk
and fellowship with the God who had made them. That's why they
were created. Do you realize that? You say,
what's the purpose of man? To love God. That's what it is. My son, being in the first school
he went to for any length of time, he went to a school that
was associated with a church, but they used to sing a song,
We were made to love the Lord. And it went on through what other
animals were made to do. I remember God made foxes to
be real tricky. I always liked this one. God
made foxes to be real tricky. God made worms to be real sticky,
and God made spiders to be real icky, but we were made to love
the Lord. And man lost the ability to do
what he was made to do, to love God. A man can be religious,
can't he? We see it all around. A man can
be devout. A man can be zealous for God,
but he can't love God. It can't be done. But God come there in the cool
of the evening, walking, and He asked a rhetorical question,
not because He didn't know, because He needed Adam to fess up. He
said, Adam, where are you? Where are you? And Adam says,
I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked,
so I hid. And we read the conversation
that went on between him and God. Blame gets passed down until
it gets to the serpent. And he was the root cause of
it, no question there. And so God cursed the serpent. He was cast down to the ground.
Evidently the serpent was a very intelligent, at that time, whatever
a serpent was, there in the Garden of Eden, a very intelligent and
crafty creature. But he lost his legs, and I assume
at the same time lost his craftiness, lost his ability to speak. You say, well, it wasn't really
the snake that did it. I know. It was the devil in him.
But God cursed the snake anyway and made him into what you and
I see as a snake. And God made a promise. And this
is one of the wonderful things about God. Even as He's cursing,
He'll wrap a blessing in that curse. And I tell you this, when
you read the Scriptures, now it's natural for us, isn't it,
when we open the Bible, and boy, those curses will just jump right
out at you. And if you're honest at all with what the Scripture's
saying and honest at all about who you are and what you've done,
you read the Bible and all these curses will jump out at you.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. That's true. That's true. And God's here. He's cursing
the snake. He's cursing the serpent. But right in the middle of this
curse, notice what He says, I will put enmity between you and a
woman. I had a preacher say, to this
day, women are afraid of snakes. I don't think that's what it's
about, because I'll be honest, I don't care for snakes either. And I'm
not a woman. I don't think it had anything
to do with women being jittery about snakes. He explains what
he means here. That's the way Hebrews often
talk. They'd say it and then they'd say it again with a little
bit more qualification to it. It says, I'll put enmity between
you and the woman, yea, between your offspring and her offspring. He will crush your head and you
will crush his heel. Now here is the word of God speaking. He who is from the beginning
and who is with God and who is God. And he's walking in the
garden, finds Adam in his sin. Blaine gets passed all the way
down to the serpent. And so God starts talking about
how he's going to deal with it. And he deals with the serpent's
sin by cursing him. But while he curses the serpent,
he said, but I tell you what's going to happen. There are going
to be two seeds in this world. There's going to be the seed
of man, which he calls the seed of the serpent. And there's going
to be the seed of woman. And there was that seed of the
serpent, which is in every one of us. Every one of us by nature
come from him, in a sense. He's speaking of a metaphorical
seed, shall we say, about a metaphorical descendant when he's talking
about the snake. But he's talking about one particular
person when he talks about the seed of the woman. Just like
when God said to Abraham, to you and to your seed, will I
give this land? Paul says, and I was not to Abraham
and to his seeds, meaning many, but his seed, meaning one, even
Christ. And when he speaks here and to
the seed of the woman, He's not saying there's going to be constant
warfare between mankind and the devil. Because my friends, there
is not warfare between mankind and the devil. They are working
hand in hand. We come into this world decidedly
on the side of Satan. And we don't have to wear a black
robe, a hooded robe, and light candles in the dark, and recite
mysterious incantations in a foreign language to worship the devil. There may be some of you here
this morning worshipping the devil here at Grace Community
Church. Because anybody that is not wholly
trusting the Lord Jesus Christ is in league with the devil.
It's that simple. And anybody who is trying to
produce his own righteousness to give it to God and say, God,
because I did this good thing or avoided such and such bad
thing, why don't you bless me according to that? Anyone with
that attitude in their hearts is just like those Pharisees
of old of whom the Lord Jesus Christ says, you are of your
father the devil and the works of your father you will do. And
brethren, don't you feel that in your own self? Don't you feel
that? I do. That constant tendency
to try to be good so that God will bless you, that's not a
heavenly thought, that's a satanic thought. To bring up my own righteousness
to God and say, God, because of what I am and what I've done,
bless me! That's satanic, that's hellish. God says that this seed, this
one man, in 1 John chapter 3, 8, it speaks of him this way,
and we know that he appeared, that he was revealed to destroy
the works of the devil. You know, the devil thought he
won the day in the Garden of Eden. He said, I got him. I got Adam, he's mine. I got
Eve too. I got Adam by getting Eve. And
they're mine. And God's crowning creation is
now destroyed. He that bears the image of God
now bears the image of me. I'm better than God. Because
I destroyed God's work. And he who is the Word says,
just a minute. The story's not over. In time to come, I will
come. Born of a woman, made under the
law. And I will destroy what you have
done here this day. I will crush your head. From this time forward, he was
after Christ. I mean, he tried to destroy the
line through whom Christ would come. And even there in the Garden
of Gethsemane, isn't it interesting that the battle between Christ
and Satan begins in the Garden of Eden and ends in the Garden
of Gethsemane? Always in a garden. But there is our Lord, sweat
as it were, great drops of blood. You can count on it. The devil was already entered
the heart of Judas to betray him. And I cannot help but believe
that he whispered in our Lord's ear, this isn't going to work. One man cannot bear the sins
of the whole world. Do you have any idea what you're
about to suffer? Because you see, it was prophesied
that he would crush the Lord's heel, but he was going for the head.
He wanted to destroy Christ, but he struck at our Lord's heel,
and when he did, our Lord stomped him. Now I don't know about you,
but if I find a snake and I want to kill him, I go find an instrument
with a long handle on it, like a hoe, and I stand back as far
as I can and try to chop his head off. I don't go after him
with my foot, but that's just what our Lord did. It said he must reign until he
makes all his enemies a footstool for his feet, and the first footstool
was Satan himself. And yes, it hurt the Lord. Yes,
He felt within Him the poison of the serpent, so to speak.
But He survived it. And when He did that, you know
something? Satan's hold on God's people was broken. You say, how
was that? How did our Lord Jesus Christ
die? How did that break the devil's
hold on His people? Well, what was the devil's hold
on God's people? This may surprise you. It was
the Law of God. Just like the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil was the way that the devil brought man into
sin, so by the law of God does he keep people in sin. You say,
by something good like the law? Yeah. That's the best way to
destroy people is by using something they think will be to their good.
The law of God is a wonderful and glorious thing, but it is
not a way of life. And anyone who tries to use the
law to gain life finds instead they get death by it. And now
I'm not the one that said that. Look over here in Colossians. I'm kind of venturing out here
a second, but I think I can find it quick for you. There you go. Verse 13 of chapter
2. Colossians. When you were dead in your sins,
Colossians chapter 2 verse 13, When you were dead in your sins,
and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, your flesh,
God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having
cancelled out the written code. Let's see, talk about the law.
Having cancelled out the written code with its regulations that
was against us and that opposed us, He took it away, nailing
it to His cross. Now notice this, and having disarmed
the powers and authorities. Who are the powers and authorities?
He's talking about Satan and all his minions. By taking the
law and nailing it to the cross, and what is it to nail the law
to the cross? When they crucified those people
back then, they would take a piece of paper or a piece of wood or
something and they'd write their crimes. on it and they'd nail
it up to the cross. And if you went by and there's
a man crucified, you'd know why. For treason against Rome, for
murder of such and such, whatever it was, it'd be written up there.
Here's what it says that God did. That the whole law of which
you and I are guilty, every point of it, God took that law and
that's what was nailed to the cross of Christ. He was charged
with the entire law as a lawbreaker. And he was charged that way for
a chosen people. My law-breaking was charged to
Christ. And when God nailed that law
to the cross, He disarmed Satan because it is by the law that
Satan makes people keep trying to be good enough to please God. They read that law over and over
again and people hear about, oh, do not kill, do not commit
adultery, do not steal. I got to quit doing that. And
so they try to quit doing those things. I better not cuss. I better make sure I'm in church
on Sunday. I got to keep Saturday holy and get all the idols out
of my gut. And they're busy, busy, busy, working, working,
working, trying to be good enough to get God's blessing and the
whole while. They're in bondage to Satan.
And he's pulling them right along. So Jesus Christ here in this
promise in Genesis chapter 3 speaks of how he'll destroy Satan. And
he goes on and he pronounces judgment on the woman. And we'll
not detail that. And the same with the man. You
can read that and know what he's talking about. Death passed on
all men that day. And Adam lived a long time, but
he eventually died. But after all that is said, God
did something absolutely horrible. And I mean that in its old sense,
horrifying, shocking. something that had never happened
up to that point, something that nobody would have ever thought
him capable of doing. I'm sure it shocked Adam and
Eve, and to whatever degree animals
can be shocked, they were shocked at what God did next. He who is life, He who is the
Creator of all that is, called several animals to Himself, His
animals, animals He made. As I studied this, I realized
it did not involve just one animal, because one animal wouldn't have
accomplished what He did. He called several of His precious
animals to Himself. Animals who had nothing to do
with the sin that had been committed. Animals who from the time of
their creation had only done that which they were designed
to do. And evidently, God, in the form
of the Word of God, drew out a knife and killed them. Probably began by slitting their
throat and draining the blood from the animal. Now imagine
for the first animal there was no fear. After all, he didn't
know what was about to happen. But there were more than one
animal involved in this because now while ours says that God
made garments of skin, in King James it says he made garments
of skins and he'd take an awful big animal that one skin of it
would cover two people. I suppose it was probably a lamb or lambs. But when he cut the
throat of that first animal And I admit I'm doing a little speculation
here, but I'm picturing what had to happen here. All the other
animals, for the first time in their lives,
smelled something they'd never smelled before. Blood. Have you ever noticed what animals
do when they smell blood? Most of them. They become very
afraid. It's the smell of death. Blood's
supposed to be on the inside, not the outside. And you can imagine now, these
animals and whatever animal understanding they had of God, and this God
in human form before them, He had called them and they had
obediently come, and now He kills one of them, and the smell of
blood fills them with an emotion they've never had before because
they've never had any need for it. Something kicks in to them
that they've never had the need of, the fight or flight mechanism.
You've seen that in those pictures on the When you watch shows about
Africa and stuff, and as soon as those herd animals catch wind
of one of the predators, man, they just all run. Suddenly they're shocked with
fear, and you can imagine in whatever animal-like way they'd
be able to express something like this from their own minds.
Our God, our God, why are you killing us? There had never been death before. The only thing that ever died
in the Garden of Eden was plants, which didn't make any difference
to plants. They just regrow. Animals didn't die. You didn't have predator and
prey in the Garden of Eden. This was all new. And you can
imagine Adam and Eve standing there watching this. Oh, the scene of their sin seemed
rather innocent. Just take some fruit. And now
look what God's doing. And there's blood everywhere.
But He's not done. After He has killed sufficient
animals, He reaches down with that knife and He begins to cut.
And He strips the hide off of them. You know, even this day, we don't
like the sight of the muscles and guts of a dead animal. It's
repulsive to us. Imagine what that looked like
in the Garden of Eden. And God took those skins from
those innocent, helpless animals, slaughtered without mercy, and
from those skins He made clothes. And He didn't hang them up on
a tree and say, all right, Adam and Eve, if you want to wear
them, there they are. It says, He made garments of
skin, this is verse 21, for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. Now friends, this story isn't
told to us just so we'll know what happened several thousand
years ago over in the land that is now called Iraq, where the
Garden of Eden was. He who is the Word showed us
by this horrible example what was going to happen to Him to
remedy this problem of sin that we got into. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the only human being who ever lived perfectly, And he did so
because he is not just a human being. He is God in a human form. He is the human expression of
this very same God who walked in the cool of the evening in
the Garden of Eden. And he was born of a woman conceived
within her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he grew
up before God as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground.
And even though there was no form or comeliness about him,
that he would be attractive to humanity, yet God found in him
everything pleasing and delightful. And the only record we have of
God ever speaking from heaven, it happened on two occasions,
at our Lord's baptism and then at His transfiguration, He said,
this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. He never said
that about anybody else. And yet there came a day, a dreadful day, in which God did something horrible. It was just, it was right, because
the Lord Jesus Christ consented for it to be done. But it was
horrible nonetheless. You know, when we get together
for church, we usually dress up. I pointed out to the folks,
I forgot to bring my jacket. I'm not dressed up as much as
I usually am. But we try to make church look so pretty. And that's
okay. I'm not saying that we shouldn't
do it. I don't think it matters one way or the other, quite frankly.
But it is in our nature. to try to avoid the horrible. And we come to church so often,
everybody putting on their Sunday best clothes, and everybody putting
on their Sunday best attitude, and their Sunday best outward
activities, and we all try to be good little Christians. I
say all, I know me. And I figure you're probably
somewhat the same. But what we try to do is sanitize what happened. We'll put together the Lord's
table, and we use pretty cups and trays. Some even make a big pageant
out of it. Friends, what happened that day was horrible to look
at. Horrible to look at in just the
scene of a crucified man. More horrible yet when we can
peel back the veil of flesh and see what God did that day. Horrible
enough that a Roman soldier should nail his hands to a cross. Horrible
enough that they pressed a crown of thorns into his head. Horrible
enough that men gathered round his cross and mocked him and
made fun of a man in such agony. Horrible to see that. Horrible to hear a man cry out
like our Lord did. Horrible to watch him die. But that doesn't begin to tell
what happened. Because that's just what man did. Do you realize that God was as
involved in the killing of Christ as He was involved in the killing
of those animals in the Garden of Eden? That God drew forth
the knife of justice? Pilate could never punish a man
for your sin. Pilate could never do enough
to a man that God would be satisfied with the sufferings of that man. The prophet, speaking for Christ
a long time before Christ ever showed up, speaking in the words
of Christ, you that pass by, is it nothing to you? Look upon
me and see if there is any suffering like unto my suffering, which
is afflicted upon me in the day of the Lord's wrath. And the
prophet goes on to describe the sufferings of Christ, not in
terms of what men did to Him, but what God did to Him. He said,
you've wrapped my sins around my neck. You've taken the crown
off my head. God pursued him to death. God
drew forth the knife of divine justice and slit his throat. The life of our Lord Jesus Christ
poured upon the ground. He poured out his soul unto death. God made his soul an offering
for sin. Now spiritually speaking, and
yet the physical image will give us a little bit of an understanding,
just like God did in the Garden of Eden with those poor dead
animals. God took the knife of justice
and skinned the Lord Jesus Christ as it were, took from Him His
righteousness, took from Him His glory, took from Him all
of His acceptance before the Father, And He put it on wretches like
you and me. Am I righteous? I'm as righteous as the Lord
Jesus Christ, for I'm clothed in Him. Adam and Eve were sent out of
that garden. But you know, they sent out of that garden wearing
the clothes of innocent animals. And when you looked at Adam and
Eve, what did you see? Innocence. Sinlessness. And when God looks upon one of
His chosen in the Lord Jesus Christ, do you know what He sees?
He sees the Lord Jesus Christ because they're covered in Him.
He sees the innocence and righteousness and glory of His Son because
they're clothed in Him. A horrible sight how it was done. So horrible we try to dress it
up in fancy religion so we don't have to face the horribleness
of it. We're going to celebrate the
Lord's death. What do we show by that? Do we show that we're
Christians? Do we show everybody that we
know how to celebrate the Lord's table better than other people
do? The apostle says, for as often
as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth the
Lord's death till he come. The death that was died at the
hand of God. The death that he died and stripped
him of his own glory, stripped him of his own righteousness,
stripped him of his fellowship with God. and put it on us. It may be hard for us to think.
We don't want to think that we're so bad that nothing less than a spiritual
version of cutting an animal's throat and skinning his hide off, nothing
less than that would make us right with God. Brethren, that's
exactly what does it. And blessed be the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, unlike those other animals in the Garden of
Eden who, once they realized what was being done, may have
been so filled with terror as to run, not the Lord. In the hour of his greatest anxiety,
in his agony in the garden, knowing full well what lay ahead, he
said, Father, if there's any other way, any other way that
we can save my bride other than what was prophesied so long ago,
nevertheless, I won't run. I'll stand right here, and if
it is your will, to kill me and to strip me spiritually. Not my will, but your will be
done. Blessed be the name of the Lord.