Your Bible's pleased at Genesis,
the third chapter. We do verses of scripture tonight.
The title of my message is Covering, Hiding. Genesis chapter 3, verse
7 and 8. And the eyes of them both were
open, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord,
the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. Let us pray. Father,
we come to you with thankful hearts full of praise for who
you are and what you have done. For your great work of salvation,
wherein your son, God himself, came down to this world, laid
aside his glory, took upon himself the fashion of man, and being
found in the fashion of man was obedient even to the death of
the cross. And because of that you have glorified him and given
him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the
glory of the Father. We thank you, Father, that we
can come into your presence. The thought of it would be beyond
human comprehension were it not for the grace that you have bestowed
upon us and the faith you have given us to believe your word,
wherein you say, come boldly to the throne of grace to find
help in our time of need. Father, we pray for those of
our company who are sick. Pray for Robert. We pray for
Wayne, for Peggy Lambert, for Ethel Conley, those who can't
be here. For those who are away, we pray
you'd bring them safely home to us. Help us, Lord, to remember
that our King sits at the right hand of the Father. And no matter
what comes to this world and comes our way, whether good or
bad, whether joyous or sorrowful, that they indeed all these things
work together for good to them that love God, to them that call
according to his purpose. Help us now to worship you. Give
us eyes to see and ears to hear the gospel of God's grace. We
pray in the precious name of Jesus Christ, amen. As we've seen last week, as we
begin to look at the fall, sin has entered into the world. As our natural father, our federal
head, our representative has disobeyed God and plunged all
that proceed from his loins into utter depravity and ruin. Death
has followed and that death was first natural death revealed
in the chief cause of death among humanity, fear and stress. These things began to shut down
the uncomely but most important parts of the body And the merry
heart that maketh like good medicine becomes the troubled, diseased,
and wicked heart that makes for all manner of terminal maladies
that result in death. And there was also spiritual
death. This does not mean that Adam was spiritual before this
sin, that he was spiritually alive and then died at the point
of his disobedience. The spiritual death he acquired
was the inability to grasp that what he did had spiritual consequences,
namely any possibility of a relationship with God that was not adversarial
from this point on. Adam became an enemy of God.
His heart was at enmity with God, and he no longer wanted
anything to do with God, as is clearly seen in this passage
of scripture. spirituality, was outside the realm of his ability,
outside the realm of his interest, and he was not able to discern
it. He was a natural man. He was a carnal man that could
not discern the things of the spirit because they were foolishness
to him, neither could he know them nor discern them. He has
gone from innocence and happiness to a state of guilt and shame,
and as seen here, despair. Innocence is not righteousness.
It is not righteousness. In truth, innocence is the breeding
ground and playground for all manner of temptation to evil.
Having no experience of evil, it carries no more weight than
good for the innocent person. Thus, a restriction or a law
may well prove more provocative to the disobedient to disobedience
than obedience, as was the case in here. And Paul verifies that
type of thinking and that truth over in Romans chapter seven
and verse five, he says, for when we were in the flesh, the
motions or the passions of sins, which were by the law, which
were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit
unto death. And in the same chapter in verse
eight, he says, but sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought
in me all manner of concupiscence, for without the law, sin was
dead. Without the law, sin was dead.
So the very fact that this tree was put in the Garden of Eden,
this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then was restricted,
though it was a tree that was pleasant to the eyes, a tree
that could make one wise, it was restricted and that restriction
if you know anything about human nature the minute a thing is
restricted that's when it becomes most desirable to natural man
and so the so the scene was set here in in the genesis chapter
three now in these two verses that I've just read to you we
see the carnal bent of sinful man to deal with the accusation
of his newly acquired conscience He and his wife's eyes have been
opened, and that which has been good has become evil to them.
They were naked, and what that means is they were exposed, they
were disclosed, and they were ashamed, and it is clear that
they were afraid. What must that have been like
to experience the darkness that can be felt, to realize in the
mind, in the innermost being, that suddenly a Paul was hanging
over all that had been delightful and good, to suddenly feel a
necessity to cover up yourself, this is the record before us.
When the knowledge of good and evil entered into the heart of
man, they acted in a way that is intrinsic to all carnal humanity,
and that is by the works of their hands, they planned to cover
their sin and their guilt. They took leaves from a fig tree,
from a tree that was cursed by sin, but still living. They plucked
those leaves, which killed the leaves, made a covering of that
which would soon fade away, dry up, and would need to be continually
replaced Was this in the mind of Isaiah when considering his
own righteousness said, we do all fade as a leaf and our iniquities
like the wind have taken us away. Adam's act of rebellion was an
act of self-righteousness. It was an act of self-righteousness.
All self-righteousness begins with the singular act of unbelief. And all unbelief is simply refusing
to believe the word of God. That's what unbelief is, refusing
to believe the word of God. Unbelief does believe, it believes
that one must cover his own sin to be righteous. That's what
unbelief believes. That's why religion is so popular
because people are so busy. and kept busy with the carrot
of reward held out in front of them that they might produce
a merit that God will accept. This fig leaf apron or girdle
was a display of human merit. That's what it was. I've invented
something to cover my guilt and know well that it was a visible
thing. It was a visible thing, recordable
display, not for the eyes of God, but for the eyes of the
carnal pair. They could see that they had
covered up their guilt. Our Lord said of the Pharisee
that he did what he did and does what he does to be seen of men. And the Pharisee in his life
is the exemplar in scripture of what self-righteousness is.
And as a dead leaf is bound to fade, so goes the carnal doings
to achieve human merit. They always fade. The conscience
says, do this. And when after it's done that,
the conscience says, it's not enough. When the voice of God
is introduced into the mix, the conscience cries, it's not enough. It's not enough. Hide, the conscience
says, lest you be found out. They did. They heard the voice
of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. What
is it to hear the voice of the Lord? The Lord God, Jehovah Elohim,
the Lord Jesus Christ. What is it to hear the voice
of God? The Lord said, my sheep hear my voice. The voice is the
preaching of the gospel. The voice of Christ is the preaching
of the gospel. And he said the end result of
hearing the gospel was that they will follow him and receive eternal
life. But that is not always the initial
response of the elect to the gospel. Saul of Tarsus first
heard the gospel from Stephen as he was tied to a stump and
being stoned to death. Saul of Tarsus was holding the
coats of those who stoned to death the first martyr for the
cause of Christ. What was his response? Was it
brokenheartedness? No. His response was to make
his career the destruction and elimination of all who followed
the Lord Jesus Christ. That was his initial response
to the gospel. Stephen preached the gospel.
Read it in Acts chapter 10. He preached the gospel clearly.
And Paul was standing there, holding the coats of those that
were stoning him, and he was listening to what Stephen was saying. He
heard, and his initial response was to run. To go the exact opposite
way. The demoniac of Gadara. when
hearing of Christ ran and hid because of fear and shame and
embarrassment to be in the presence of the Lord. He knew he was not
worthy to be in the presence of the Lord. He ran. He did not
come to Christ. He ran from the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the voice of the Lord,
however, never returns to him void. Saul of Tarsus became the
chief apostle. The demoniac of Gadara found
himself in his right mind and clothes, seeking to follow Christ
wherever he went. The Lord God in this passage
is Christ, and that's the voice they heard, the voice of the
Lord God, capital L-O-R-D, capital G-O-D. This is his voice as he
walks in the garden. We know this because the next
phrase is a revelation. Look at verse 8. And they heard
the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day. In the cool of the day. That's
an interesting phrase. If you notice, and your Bible
has a marginal reading, you probably have a number beside this phrase,
in the cool of the day. And the marginal reading is simply
one word. Wind. Wind. This is the meaning of the word
in this original. If you look it up, you don't
have anything to do with temperature whatsoever in the meaning of
this word. The cool of the day probably refers to the approach
of the evening when the change of the temperature is often attended
by stirrings of a gentle breeze. We know that's case, that case.
Sometimes in the morning when you get up and the sun rises,
all of a sudden there's a nice breeze blowing for a few minutes.
And when the sun goes down, often it's attended with a gentle breeze.
And probably that's the metaphorical meaning of what they're talking
about. But the wind in scripture is important. It's often applied
to the Holy Spirit. often applied to the Holy Spirit,
in the preaching of the gospel, in the declaration of the things
of Christ, and also in the new birth. These things are attended
by the wind. Look at a few passages of scripture.
Turn to John chapter three, as the Lord is speaking to Nicodemus,
telling him that he must be born again in order to see or to understand
the kingdom of heaven. And Nicodemus is troubled and
doesn't understand, thinks he has to go back to his mother's
womb and be born again, and the Lord straightens him out. In
John chapter three and verse seven and eight, it says, Marvel
not that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind bloweth
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot
tell whence it cometh and whither it's going. So is every one that
is born of the Spirit. And then we go to the book of
Acts at Pentecost, in Acts chapter 2 in Acts chapter 2 it says and
when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with
one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven
as of a mighty rushing wind And it filled all the house where
they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues,
like as the fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were
all filled with what? The Holy Ghost, that's the wind.
And began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance. So the Holy Ghost, so here you have the voice of
the Lord God, the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the
preaching of the gospel, attended by the wind here in the Garden
of Eden. Take the Word of God and add
to it the work of the Spirit and you have the destruction
and the fading of the leaf apron of self-righteousness completely.
Look over at Isaiah chapter 40. We've studied in our studies
in Isaiah, we found that it was all about the salvation of God's
remnant according to the election of grace. In Isaiah 40, the prophet
is told to cry unto the people, to cry unto the people. In verse
6 it says, the voice said, cry. And I said, the prophet said,
what shall I cry? Tell them this, all flesh is
grass, and all the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field.
That's natural things. All flesh is grass, and the goodness
or the brightness or the beauty of it is like the flower of the
field. The grass, however, withereth. and the flower fadeth, because
the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is
grass. The grass witherth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Here's a
picture of what happened in the Garden of Eden. The voice of
the Lord came, attended by the Holy Spirit, and the fig leaf
apron that was supposed to cover them faded like a leaf. It dried
up. Suddenly they realized that the
covering they had wasn't much of a covering at all if you read
first Peter You find that in the very first chapter of first
Peter That he refers to the preaching of the gospel in this way recoding
from Isaiah Chapter 40 First Peter chapter 1 in verse 23 being
born again we know that's by the spirit that which is born
of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit the blend
when when both were listed and so forth being born again not
of corruptible seed but incorruptible by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever for all flesh is grass and All the glory of
man as the flower of grass the grass withers and the flower
thereof fall of the way but the word of the Lord endureth forever
and this is the word which by the gospel is is preached unto
you first Peter chapter 1 verses 23 through 25 and as the works
of their hands proves no covering at all they made this big leaf
aviary and all of a sudden they don't feel like it's covering
them the word of the Lord God attended by the Spirit has blown
that covering away it's blown away that immediate confidence
they had in their own righteousness is now beginning to fade beginning
to go away and they don't have it anymore. The fear of true
discovery and full disclosure grips the soul in fear and terror. How many times have men and women
heard the gospel and it has driven them away to hide from the assembly
of the saints, to hide from God, to say I'll never hear you again.
I had a fellow tell me that after I preached the gospel at his
house one night. He called me the next day and said I'll never
hear you again. Well, he was hiding. His fig
leaf apron began to wither and he realized he wasn't covered
up at all. And they hide, thinking that they can avoid God, but
the light has shined. You see, when the gospel is preached,
something happens. God doesn't speak and it goes
out into the ether without doing anything. God says, my word will
not return unto me void, but will accomplish where I send
it and accomplish the thing I intended to do. You see, light has shined
now. Light has shined. The voice of
God has come. The spirit of God is moving.
All of a sudden, light has exposed Adam and Eve in their self-righteousness. And they can't hide. They can't
find a dark enough place. And the darkness will not hide
them. Look at a few verses of scripture.
Ephesians chapter 5. Just as Christ is the Word of
God, Christ is also the Light of God. In Ephesians chapter
5, in verse 13, he says, But all things that were repooved,
or discovered, or disclosed, are made manifest by the Light.
For whatsoever doth make manifest, manifest is Light. That's what's
manifest. What have they seen now? What
are they feeling now? Why are they running to hide
now? They see that when God spoke,
their covering wasn't a real covering. It was a false hope
they had. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12
and 13. You're familiar with this passage of scripture. Let's
read it anyway. Hebrews chapter 4 and verses
12 and 13. For the word of God is quick,
or quickening, powerful, resurrecting, and powerful, and sharper than
a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the
soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and as a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart, when the Lord God
spoke by His Spirit. There was some discernment there. It was fleshly discernment, but
they were discerned that their covering was not enough. It says,
neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight,
but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with
whom we have to do. Adam and Eve hid themselves from
the presence of God. That's what it said. They hid
themselves from the presence of God. That word presence is
also an interesting word. The word presence, the original
and first definition of that word in the Hebrew language is
face. They hid themselves from the
face of God. They could not face God over
in 2 Corinthians chapter four. Paul says this. He says in verse
three, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid from them that are
lost. in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
But we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord, and
ourselves your servant for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, where? In the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. They hid from the face of the
Word of God that was walking in that garden that day. They
hid themselves among the trees of the garden. People will find
just about any hiding place, but they hid themselves among
the trees of the garden, but the trees are no hiding place.
The fact is, and it's a lesson we all ought to learn and practice
in our minds, nothing of this cursed earth or in This cursed
earth affords a place to hide from God. Nothing, nothing whatsoever. Over in the Psalms, David said
this in the Psalm of the congregation's praise for the Lord God. In Psalm
29, verse 4 and 5, it says, the voice of the Lord
is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh
the cedars. Breaketh the cedars. Yea, the
Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. They could not hide from the
voice of God. As we'll see in our next study, the voice of
God found them. Where can we hide from God? Not
in this world. Do you know there's only one
place you can hide from God? There is somewhere where you
can hide from God. You know where it is? It's to
hide in God. That's the only way you can hide
from God is to hide in God. Hide in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at a few verses of scripture and we'll close. Psalm 32. In verse 7, David said, Thou
art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.
Thou shalt compass about me with songs of deliverance. Then in Psalm 119, the great
Psalm about the Word of God. In verse 114, it says, Thou art
my hiding place and my shield, I will hope in thee. Then over
in Isaiah, chapter 32 and verse
2, a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert
from the tempest as the rivers of water in a dry place, as a
shadow of a great rock in a weary land. That man is the king described
in verse one. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. Self-righteousness. The bane of the child of God. The plague of the flesh. will
make you believe that you can undo your situation. And sew
a fig leaf apron together and cover your sin. But when the
gospel is preached, you'll know. Those leaves are fading. The
Spirit's blowing them away. If God don't do something for
you, you'll run and you'll hide. Much better to hide in God. Much
better to hide in Christ. Father, bless us through our
understanding in Christ's name. Amen.