Genesis 3 this evening, and we're going to finish off Genesis 3 tonight, and then we'll take a break, and we'll pick it up in Genesis 4, God willing, in the new year. But Genesis 3 in our series, where did it all go wrong? And we've been in this series, I think this is about the 17th or 18th study in Genesis that we've been looking at. So Genesis chapter 3 this evening, and we're going to pick up where we left off last time. Just before we do that, we want to read verse number 7 of Genesis 3 before coming to verse 16. Genesis 3 and 7, the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves Aprons. Verse 16. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, curse it, it is the ground For thy sake sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shalt it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For thus thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. And unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden. to till the ground from whence he was taken. So we drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. Let's just pause and pray together and ask for God's help as we come to his word. Father, we want to thank you for your word. We believe it to be inerrant and inspired. We believe it to have come directly from your mouth and out of your mind, our Father. And Lord, we thank you that you placed it into the hearts of men who wrote it down, Father, as you instructed. And Lord, we want to thank you for what we have before us, Lord, is these primitive chapters of our Bible. And Lord, these are really the foundation for where it all went wrong. But Father, we thank you in the midst of that destructive disobedience. We thank you there was a wonderful plan of redemption put in place. And as we consider that this evening, may the Spirit of God take these thoughts and apply them to each of our hearts. In the name of the Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen. Last week we looked at how the Lord promised to provide a savior for that time when Adam and Eve sinned, and he promised that he would provide a savior who would come and bruise the head or crush the head of the serpent. And really, last time we looked at how God would deal with the devil, we looked at how God would deal with sin, and we looked at that great foreshadowing of the cross, and really that is the first glimpse of the gospel. Genesis 3 and 15 is that very first glimpse that God gives us of His wonderful good news of the gospel. As you come down the rest of Genesis chapter 3, there's various angles and various looks that we could take as we go on down through the chapter. We could look at how God reveals to us the effects of sin. And the consequences of sin, not only eternally, but physically in our world today. You see, the world we live in today is a world apart from the world that God created in Genesis 1 and Genesis chapter 2. We're a world apart from that because there was consequences that came with the fall. We could look at how that for ladies there would be pain in pregnancy. The Lord said as a result of sin, there would be sorrow and pain when ladies would give birth to children. It would not be a pleasant experience. It would be something that would be very painful and would leave a lasting mark in their minds. And that was a result of the consequences of sin. There would be pain in pregnancy. But also for Adam, the Lord said there would be toil and work. Before, Adam never had to work for anything. God had given him dominion. God had given him everything that he needed. God had provided the food and all that Adam needed for life. But now, God said, because of your sin, you're no longer going to have everything just provided for you, but there's going to be work involved. You're going to have to provide for yourself. There's going to be that time when you'll have to get up in the morning and go to work. And today, we still have to go to work. And that's as a result of sin. And then we have the creational change, because in verse 18 we read of thorns and thistles that would now pluck the hands of Adam as he would intermingle with the garden. And thorns and thistles came with the curse. They would do damage. They would be deterrents. And we often look at how the Lord Jesus wore that crown of thorns on the cross. It was a symbol of the curse. We could look at the end of the chapter when God drove man out of the garden and placed that flaming cherubim at the gate of Eden guarding the tree of life. And how that we could look at the picture of separation. You see, sin separates. But I want to just take our minds to verse number 21, and very simply tonight, I want to look at when God covers up. That's the title of the meeting tonight, when God covers up, because it says, unto Adam also and his wife, Did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them? Of course, Genesis 3 and verse number 21 is in direct contrast to Genesis 3 and 7, as we'll come back to in a moment. Now please, pardon me for this. I haven't lost my mind when I used this illustration to start, but if I was to ask each of you to quote me a memorable nursery rhyme, without doubt the familiar tale of the egg who takes an unfortunate tumble would come to the fore. And of course, we all know the nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again. The reason I quote that is because according to those who know about such things, this piece of wisdom is actually a relic that's thousands of years old, versions appeared in numerous European language. And in its early years, Humpty Dumpty actually started life as a riddle. And it asks the question, what, when broken, can never be repaired, not even by strong or wise individuals? And of course, the answer is an egg. Regardless how much we try, and no matter how careful we are when we drop an egg and we try to put it back together again, a broken egg can never be put back to its original state, ever. And one preacher used that illustration as he introduced Genesis chapter 3, and he describes this passage as the Humpty Dumpty story in the Bible, or what we have been considering as the fall. Specifically tonight, we want to deal with the day when Adam and Eve, so to speak, tried to put the egg back together again, when they tried to undo what they had done, when they tried to cover up. And yet, as we will see, they couldn't put their perfect life together again. They were broken. They couldn't even cover their cracks. man has done something that he could never fix. He dropped the egg, so to speak, and it's impossible to put it back to what it was. Detrimental damage has been done. And even though they tried to cover the cracks, they failed. However, we do read about the time in verse number 21 when God covers up. I want to just leave three things with you this evening as we consider this verse together. Number one, I want you to see the source. of the covering. It says, "'Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make.'" You see, it's vitally important for all of us this evening to grasp the source of this verse covering for sin. It came from God. It was God who both originated and orchestrated their covering for their shame. Neither Adam or Eve played any part in it. Of course, when we look at verse number seven, we read immediately following their sin, they tried to make their own covering. They tried to cover up their sin. They tried to cover up their shame. They wanted to hide their nakedness. And so they took leaves, sewed them together, and produced the best coverings they could make. Oh, how times have never changed! You know, as soon as a child does something wrong, what does it do? It tries to cover up so his mommy or daddy doesn't see. How you and I, so often when we do something, we try to hide it from other people because we don't want to bear the shame. for all their hard work and all their diligence in making these items, it was futile. You see, God saw right through it. They couldn't hide their sin from God. They couldn't cover up their shame themselves. Their own efforts were wasted efforts. How well that Him puts it, not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands. Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow all for sin? Could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone." And friends, tonight, when it comes to our sin and our salvation, we can neither pardon ourselves or provide for it. All of us by nature are not only sinners, for the Bible makes it clear that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but worse than that, we are all born dead in trespasses and sins. I know it's not a pleasant image, but as you think about someone who is dead, what can they do for themselves? Nothing. Their life is no longer within them. They can no longer walk, they can no longer talk, they can no longer do anything. They're just a corpse that is dead. Likewise, when sin came into the world, it brought with it death. Yes, it brought physical death, but worse than that, it brought spiritual death. It brought spiritual separation. You know, you and I are all born separated from God. We are unable to get right with God through our own efforts. There's nothing any of us can do. And yes, I know that perhaps you can kid yourself. And you can try to pretend that you're not a sinner or that you're not as bad as you think, but the truth is the truth. Here's the thing. We cannot, through our own efforts, get ourselves right with God. We can cover up our sin all we like. We can endeavor to be the best Christian on the face of the earth, live a good life, be a good person, do good deeds, be a good husband, be a good wife, be a good grandparent, be a good Samaritan. Be a faithful friend, a law-abiding citizen, a church-going member. You can be a good payer, a good prayer, and even be a good preacher, but none of these things will draw you any closer to God nor get you any closer into heaven. And all those things are good to do, but they're not good enough. You see, every effort we try to make is no different to the aprons Adam and Eve tried to make. God saw right through them. You see, when it comes to our souls, the Bible says that salvation is not by works of righteousness which we have done or can do or are doing. Rather, as the prophet Jonah put it so simply and so succinctly, salvation is of the Lord. And any church or preacher that tells you that salvation comes from any other avenue other than the Lord, they're lying. Your baptism can't cover your sin. Your confirmation can't cover your sin. Your membership in a church cannot cover your sin. We are dead sinners, and because we are dead sinners, the living God has reached down and provided salvation. Here's the truth tonight. The gospel is God's good news. The story of salvation has its source in God. Romans 6 and 23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 3 and 16, for God. so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life," Ephesians 2 and 8, for by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It has nothing to do with you. It has nothing to do with me. It has nothing to do with a church. You see, the reason for that is because above all else and everyone else, primarily, it is against God and God only have each of us sinned. You see, Adam and Eve, though ashamed of their nakedness, before each other they had directly disobeyed God. They had to face up to God. But knowing they had no chance of pleading their innocence or persuading God to change their guilt, oh, God took matters into his own hands. You see, our salvation originates with God because it is him who has been offended. knowing that there's nothing in us that can appease His wrath, He decided to provide a person, a satisfactory person, who could come and go to the altar of Calvary to shed His blood and die for sinners. We know that person was none other than His one and only begotten Son, His sinless Son, His perfect Son, His eternal Son, the One who was in the beginning with God and the One who is God, and yet the Bible says that God spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all. which takes us then as we move from the source of the covering to the sacrifice of the covering. For it says in verse number 21, and unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make, there's the source, coats of skins, there's the sacrifice. You see, the Bible here gives us no indication or explanation as to how God made these coats or the process he employed to make them into skins. There's something to get you thinking. There's people that's come to me throughout this series and have said, Pastor, how did the Lord do it? And I say, I don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us. But there's something to get you thinking how the Lord did this. We aren't told. However, one thing we do know is that a great cost was involved in making these coverings. You see, anybody who works with livestock or knows anything about them or how they're slaughtered, to obtain animal skin, you have to first go through animal sacrifice. When we were in Canada, we met friends of Rachel's family who were big into their hunting. And of course, anybody who knows anything about hunting knows that the great trophy that you get in hunting is the hide of the animal. And that's all they really want, and that's what they're looking for. And they take the skin, but do you ever get the prize? Do you ever get the skin to set up as a trophy? They have to first kill the animal. And that's what we have here. What a cost was involved in making these coverings. Animals had to be sacrificed. Now, we aren't told here, but it was most probable that two innocent animals had to give up their lives in order to provide a covering for both Adam and Eve. Two animals that were born innocent. Two animals that played no part in the fall. Animals that had no direct involvement in sin. And how immediately Hebrews 9 and 22 springs to mind that tells us plainly, without the shedding of blood is no remission. The Bible commentator Henry Morris says they, that's Adam and Eve, learned in type that an atonement or covering could only be provided by God. and through the shedding of blood on the altar. But you know, folks, something that surely will touch every heart tonight is that while here we have a scene of great sacrifice, beyond that we have a scene of great mercy. Do you ever think about it? The wages of sin is death. That's what God says. If you add that formula And you take it and you apply it to Genesis chapter 3, the wages of sin is death. That means the first physical deaths in history should have been Adam and Eve. They should have been the first to die, but instead it was an innocent animal or animals. That's the first deaths in recorded history. And what a picture this presents for us. For over this scene falls a shadow of the Savior, God's Son, who would come from heaven to earth to one day be slain by His Father as the substitute Redeemer for all sinners. He would be slain so we could have a chance to be saved. He would die so that we might never be damned. In grace, God provided what we didn't deserve, a Savior, and in mercy, God withheld the punishment. We all deserve a sinner. Should have been me upon that cross. Should have been you upon that cross. You know, I often think of that verse, and you know what I mean when I say this, we're not to change the Word of God by any way, but I always think about that verse when it says that He went forth bearing His cross. And I often read of it and think, no, no. He went forth bearing my cross, my cross. He went forth bearing your cross. You see, in grace, God provided what we don't deserve, a Savior. And in mercy, God withheld the punishment we all deserve as sinners. Why? Because God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Dear friend, tonight, if you're watching on the internet or you're here in this meeting, God wants you to be saved. He longs for you to be saved. And that longing is motivated by his love for your soul. And while indeed our salvation has come from God as a free gift, it is by no means a cheap gift, for our covering came at a great cost. The apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5 and 21 how that God hath made him, that's the Jesus Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Being made to be sin for us involved Him, taking our place on the altar of Calvary. Being made to be sin for us involved Him, taking our pain upon the altar of Calvary. Being made to be sin for us involved Him, taking our punishment on the altar of Calvary. With the wages or the reward or the payment of sin being death, Jesus had to take that payment upon Himself. And just like this innocent animal in the Garden of Eden, the innocent Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who knew no sin, He had to be slaughtered for sinners. And I know that's gruesome terms to be talking in, but that's what happened. That's what the Bible says. The apostle Peter says, for Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. And I see a prophet Isaiah who painted that prophetic portrait of the slaughter scene for he says of the coming Messiah, among many other things, how that he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, and he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." He was the Lamb of God that was slain from before the foundation of the world. Again, any of you who work with livestock will know what the slaughter scene is like. You'll know what it is for animals to be led to the abattoir. But nothing compares to the scene of Calvary. You see, when dumb animals are loaded up into a trailer and taken off to that place, they know nothing about it. They don't know what's before them. But the Lord Jesus Christ, for all eternity, knew what He would face. Just think about that. You and I don't know what we'll face tomorrow. We think we do. We don't know about our emotions. We don't know how we'll react to certain situations. But the Lord Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God, slain from before the foundation of the world. He always knew what would be. And as the Lamb of God, He was led, just like that lowly lamb, and silently to be slaughtered by the hands of wicked men, how they would take Him and taunt Him. They would encircle Him like a pack of animals encircling their prey. They would abuse and torture Him. They would slap His face. They would scourge His back. They would pluck His hair. They would mock His majesty. And yet, for all their slander and wickedness, they face no retaliation. The Lord Jesus Christ simply stood as best as He could and took it. Took it for you, took it for me. What a Savior. Dear friend, does that not melt your heart tonight as you think about that? And yet this was all before he even got to the cross, and finally arriving at the hillside of Golgotha, the place of the skull, they threw him to the ground and nailed him to a cross, drew spikes through his hands and feet. And then they lifted him up in shame before the world, and as they put the cross down into its socket high, they jaunt. must have ripped those wounds and caused such agony. And there he offered himself without spot to God. What a sacrifice. There he allowed himself to be the sacrifice for sinners, all for what? All so that we might be covered by his righteousness, all so that our sins might be covered by his shed blood. Oh, remember, dear friend, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. There's no other way you can get rid of your guilt, no other way you can get rid of your sin except by the blood of Jesus Christ. None of us can be redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. We can only be redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Oh, we see the source of his covering. The Lord God did make We see the sacrifice of his covering, coats of skins. But thirdly, we see the sufficiency of the covering, and it says, and he clothed them. You see, God did not just provide a set of skins. He gave this couple their first clothes. When we look back at verse number seven and consider the feeble attempts that Adam and Eve made to cover themselves, the best they could manage was an apron made from sewn fig leaves. Now, this was little more than what we would know to be a loincloth. They would have been enough only to have covered their intimate parts, but wouldn't have done much to cover their nakedness. And from that moment, it was a shame for a person to be naked in public. Nakedness was now something God reserved for private. How fitting that is in today's world. However, when God intervened and when God provided a covering, it says that it was something that clothed them. This was no apron. From the original, this phrase suggests that it was a complete piece of clothing. Something that would have completely covered them. Something that would not just satisfy God's holiness, but something that would completely cover their nakedness. And what they had provided was insufficient, but what God provided was absolutely sufficient. And again, we have a wonderful foreshadowing of the sufficiency of the Lamb of God, the sufficiency of the Savior. You see, following on from this first fateful fall, thousands of animals would be slain on Jewish altars, but it would only be to appease man's sin. But not one could ever atone for man's sin. Every time an animal was sacrificed, it served as a reminder of a person's sin, and as such it could never remove that person's sin. And every time you came with your lamb and you offered it, you would be reminded again and again that you're a sinner and that you can never have your sins removed by this futile offering. But in Hebrews 10, we read of that sacrificial system, and we learn of the Jewish priest offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which could never take away sins. We read clearly how that was not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away all those offerings pointed forward to the One who would come, the Son of God and the Savior of mankind, to offer one sacrifice for sins forever. Oh, He wouldn't come to offer an animal on an altar, but He came to offer Himself fully and finally for all sin and sinners. Here's the wonderful truth of the gospel tonight. Once was sufficient, once was efficient, once was enough. There's no more need for sacrifices today. In fact, God takes no pleasure in sacrifices. Jesus doesn't need crucified time. And again, we don't need to do anything to add to what he's already done. We don't need to put ourselves through penance or pilgrimages or perform other religious rituals. Rather, by faith, we need to rest on Jesus Christ alone who has come and done it all. You see, after hanging in agony for six hours when all was accomplished, Jesus shouted from the cross, And after lying dead for three days in the tomb, when all was accomplished, Jesus showed from the tomb, it is finished by rising again, that He had fully finished the work that God had given Him to do. Oh, the great and glorious truth of the gospel is the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleansed us from all sin. Not some sin, not the majority of our sin, but all sin, every sin we have done and are doing and will do has been put under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. That means you, no matter how deep-dyed or dark in sin you are, no matter how messed up your life is, God has laid it on the Lord. Therefore, God has promised that when we come to him by faith and accept Christ as our Savior, oh, what a wonder, he says, there's sins and iniquities I'll remember no more. When we come to Christ and get saved, he takes those old garments of sin and gives us a new garment of salvation. takes off those old garments of self-righteousness, which are as filthy rags in God's sight, and He gives us the garments of Christ's righteousness. And that means when God looks at us, He no longer sees our sin and shame, but He sees us in Christ. God sees His perfection and His pardon. When God looks at us, He sees Christ's righteousness and His royalty. You know, in Isaiah 61, we read, how for the person that trusts in Christ, that he will give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. It's wonderful to be able to say, as it does on further down in that chapter in Isaiah 61 and 10, He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels. You know, it's an amazing thing when God covers up. when God covers a life of ruin, a life of rebellion, a life of sin and shame and self-inflicted sorrow. You know, we can't hide from God. We can't hide from Him who we are. We cannot hide from Him what we've done. We can't cover up what we've done. But He can do both. Oh, He can cover up. The question is, will you let them? God says to you tonight, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. I wonder tonight, you've maybe heard the gospel umpteen times. I wonder, will you come for the first time, let God cover up your life and cleanse you from your sin? I wonder tonight, will you simply take the step of faith and come to Christ? Will you trust Him as your Savior? You know, you must be born again. You need to get saved, but you cannot save yourself. We cannot save you. Only God can save, but He never saves anyone against their will. And you're maybe here tonight and you say, you know, I don't understand this fully. We're not asking you to fully understand it. But if God has been speaking to you, don't harden your heart. Don't delay. Don't procrastinate. Don't wait until tomorrow, for tomorrow might not come. Don't wait until you're home, for you might just not get there. Dear friend, the only time you are promised is now. Why not come and accept Christ tonight? Oh, you've heard of the source of this covering. It's all of God. You've heard of the sacrifice of this covering that Christ has given Himself. But you've heard of the sufficiency of this covering. It will completely clothe you, nothing left exposed. Why not bring your soul to the Savior tonight, and by, as Paul told the children this morning, just in simplicity and from your heart like a child, cry to the Lord just to save you? You can be saved when you sit tonight. Ask yourself the question, am I saved? If not, why not? Why not come and trust Christ tonight? He is sufficient, and He's able to save you to the uttermost. give you a new beginning, or why not come and accept Christ tonight? Let's just pray.