I trust you've seen, as we've quoted previously, seems to be really in a practical way the dividing point of the scriptures. Everything is up to the fall, chapter three of Genesis, then everything after that in its own category. God demonstrating how he would retrieve mankind. Today we're going to be looking at verse 20 and 21, but we're going to read verse 20 through verse 24 to give the context. So Genesis chapter 3 beginning at verse 20. And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. 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 is 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 for ever? Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. And so he 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. So previously we looked at the cursing of the ground, and then we looked at the sentencing of the woman, and last time we were considering Genesis chapter three, we saw the man was sentenced, and we looked at three component parts of that sentencing. We looked at the worshiping of God, working the ground, and walking with Eve. Today we're going to be looking at being sent forth from the garden, and this will only be part of this idea, but Adam and the woman now being sent forth from the garden, and the focus today will be on God's preparation of Adam and the woman. God's preparation, we could say, for the rest of the ages, based on what he did here. So now Adam and the woman are at the threshold of paradise on one end and the wilderness on the other. And for Adam and the woman to be sent out of the garden into the wilderness by itself would be a very scary proposition, I believe. The scripture is silent as to, do they have any tools, any fire making ability? Do they know how to tie knots? Do they have a tent? all of the type of things that we would think of, we needed survival skills to go into the wilderness, uninhabited wilderness, that in and of itself would be scary. But then add to that, of course, this unthinkable idea that they've broken covenant with God and they had fallen in sin. And the sentences that God gave both to the woman and to the man display the fact that they were going into to a fallen world, and that they were at enmity with God, and everything that was going to fall out of that, not the least of which was death. Again, the Scripture is silent as to what, if any, preparation physically God had provided for them. But the Scripture is not silent as far as the spiritual preparation that He bestowed upon mankind, Adam and the woman, for them to be thrust out. It's marvelous that God does not simply thrust them out without some knowledge of what God is thinking or some plan as far as to what God is going to do in their life and then through subsequent generations. The Lord was going to prepare them, sinful as they were now, he was gonna prepare them to live and function in a fallen world. And more importantly, he was going to inform them and inform us how it is we can get back to the garden, back to paradise. Now, by way of introduction, let me just mention a few things. Let me repeat a quote that I had quoted from John Owen several months ago, I think it bears repeating, and it's gonna set our mindset, I think, in the right direction. It's not what we're accustomed to thinking of when we think of the fall, but I think it goes right to the genesis of God's heart. John Owen said this, why the fall? God decreed the fall by sovereign design so that recovered man, that is the believer, will be brought into such an estate that in fact is infinitely above what at first appeared. And it puts sinners into conceivably a better condition than they were before the entrance of sin. In other words, God decreed the fall so that we can be brought into a relationship with God that is infinitely better and incredibly higher, better than if we had never even sinned in the garden. That is a tremendous truth and not one that I'm going to suggest most cannot grasp. But God has within himself by his nature a desire to reveal himself as the glorious Redeemer. We will be more fully established as a believer, of course, in God's favor because of this new relationship that we now have with his son, with the redeemer. We are welded to his son. We are inextricably joined to his son in union and communion. One other quote from John Murray. There was no election of the father apart from Christ. Those who were saved were not even contemplated by the Father in the ultimate counsel of his predestinating love apart from Christ. In other words, when God thought about you before time began, he thought about you as a believer. He could not think about you apart from his Son Christ, because you were chosen in him from before the foundation of the world. I mean, the mindset to see what God is gonna develop in Genesis 3, that there might be a gathering unto himself, his people, under the glorious headship of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is a tremendous part, a piece of holy ground. It's unbelievable. So as we begin to think about the preparation that God is now going to do here As Adam and Eve are expelled from the garden, we need to realize that there is this mercy and love, and God has a plan, and God is doing preparation for his own. The scripture says in 2 Samuel, a wise woman telling David something. She said, we must needs die. and are as water that is spilt on the ground. You can imagine having a cup or a carafe of water and spilling it on the ground. We're like water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Neither does God respect any persons, yet he does divine means whereby his banished be not permanently expelled from him. She's speaking about Absalom. And she said, it's entirely impossible for him to be brought back. And yet God can devise a means where he can do the impossible, right? He can do what we can't even imagine. And that's what is unfolding, I think, here. Even though it's a very sad day, it's a day of judgment. Verse 23, he sent him forth. Verse 24, he drove out the man. That is, he cast him out. Adam and Eve, driven out. They were not simply driven out or expelled from this beautiful garden where everything was just wonderful and easy and they had safety and security. They were just being driven out from the most beautiful lifestyle they could imagine. They were driven out in judgment because of sin. They were being shut out from the direct presence of God. Remember, they walked with God. They're being shut out from that. They're being sent into the wilderness where they will die. The wages of sin is death. And now the world is marked by judgment. And the world is under condemnation. And whereas in the garden they had happiness and joy and fellowship, they're gonna go into this veil of tears where there's grief and pain and sadness and toil. and insecurity and vanity and all of those negative things you can imagine. What is the New Testament association of being driven out of the presence of God? Isn't it weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth? That's the New Testament association that I think of when I think being driven out of the presence of God. weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And so I think here there's something of that here. But again, we will see God's preparation. God has a plan. He has a strategic plan. We're gonna see his love. And again, he's preparing not just Adam and Eve, but he's preparing for those who trust and believe in him, that one day there will be this restoration of eternity in this paradise where we will be forever joined to the Lord. That is gonna be so much higher, so much more better than Eden was. So we have three things we wanna look at. We're gonna begin today to look at these. Next time we're gonna look at more. But three ways where God is preparing mankind for the gospel, for the believer, for the Redeemer's work and love. First of all, we're gonna look at the, pardon the word, the irretrievability of human life. Then secondly, we're gonna look at the naming of the woman. And thirdly, the clothing that God provides. First of all, the irretraceability or irretrievability of human life. We know what it means to retrieve something, to get it back. And what the scripture suggests to us, I think what we intuitively know, although we fight against it, is that we can't go back. We cannot regain, in and of ourselves, we cannot regain what we have lost. The Puritans spoke of this in Genesis chapter three, talking about man cannot go back. He cannot go back and get the good times. the old life when things were really, really good. Adam and Eve, of course, with direct access to God and joy and bliss and happiness. And in a nutshell, what this means is Adam and the woman can now accept and work with, if you will, God's plan for them to go out into the wilderness. Or they can whine and complain about the good old days when they walked with God. how it was so much better back then. Oh, we wish we could go back there. They can either go forward, mindful that God has prepared for them a way. Believers can go forward, understanding that God has outfitted us to function and survive in a lost world. And we can go forward mindful that God has determined a path for the believer whereby we can be saved and we will one day be with the Lord. or we can get lost in our mind. Always wishing, and as it were paralyzed with thoughts of the past, paralyzed to the point we make no forward progress in grace. Adam and the woman could not go back. They could not retrace their steps. Like us, have you ever wished, oh, I wish I was, you know that period of my life where I was in physical good condition so I felt well? or those social circles that I ran with where I had those friends that were so important in my life. When I was younger and I had those mental abilities that I could really think really well and my mind was sharp. I remember, so going back 20 years when I was helping out preaching at the church here, My wife could tell you, I would stay up till three o'clock in the morning, getting my sermons done. Now I'm in bed by 10 o'clock. I can't stay up late because my mind is not as sharp and as keen. I say, oh Lord, it would be for your kingdom, Lord, if I could just stay up that late and just have more time to spend in your word. Those times where we had physical strength to spend on the Lord, those spiritual times that we had with God, longing, looking back for whatever it was financially, friends and family, that church life that I once had. Oh, if I could only go back. Very often in a prison ministry, and it was probably with some of you that would minister at the prisons, I would come across inmates and they would always tell me, I remember back then when my mother took me to Sunday school, or my aunt took me to Sunday school and church, and everything was so, well with me, and here I am in prison, and I'm in a church service, which is good, but oh, I wish I could go back. And I would tell them, you cannot retrieve the past, and that is paralyzing you. You're in church, God has put you back on the path, you need to move forward. Just like the Israelites at the Red Sea. They kept looking back at the enemy coming, and they were looking back at Egypt, oh, so wonderful, and what did God say? Tell the people to move forward. God has something ahead of them. Lost man wants to look back. Part of the fall. We read God has guarded the gate. They can't go back. There's cherubim there. There's a flaming sword there. And God's plan, God's revealed will is now that they will go out. Of course, I think it's safe to say they certainly had a desire to stay there. Otherwise, why would God have to drive them out? Unredeemed time. Wasted opportunities. We all have those. Squandered time. And I think we need to re-evaluate God's plan and God's purpose for us, where we are today, and have the understanding and the realization so we can accept, if I could use a human term, accept God's preparation for moving forward in grace. And believe in God and trust in God. This is what, of all people who wish they could have gone back and fixed old things, it was the Apostle Paul who persecuted the church, who hailed people into prison. He said, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but there's one thing I do. Only one thing. I forget those things which are behind. and I reach forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. No matter the past, nothing can compare to reaching forth for the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, Adam and the woman are going to find God in the wilderness. We find God in our trials. We find God in the desert. God is not absenting himself from their situation. We know, I think intuitively, that we can never go back, but do we not reminisce or do we not think about those positively, those things that we had that we've lost, or those things that were undone that we wish we could have done? I think if we can Understand and accept God's preparation of moving forward, of mindful that God has not forsaken us. Adam and the woman, God is not forsaking you, even though he is removing you from the garden. Life lies beyond. We have time to be sanctified. We have time to grow in grace. Lord willing, we have a day. We have this church service today. Part of the preparation, I think, for Adam and the woman is to come to grips with we, in and of ourselves, cannot retrieve what was already lost. And we need to trust in God and move forward. And I think if I could give you a couple of applications here before we close this point. We have to take care and protect those little replicas of Eden that we have. I trust you have these little replicas of Eden, whether it's just reading the word, you and the Lord, or it's private worship, or it's a church service, or a sermon, or whatever, where we feel God is drawing us in to this special place where I'm understanding God's purpose for me, or I'm able to worship him, or he's answered this prayer, or he's given me his burden, or whatever it might be. When we get there, we have to be careful to protect it. The enemy will, that's just a choice time for the enemy to throw that dart, to discredit God, what God's doing in your life. We have to protect that because we can't always go back. We all have those replicas, I think, of Eden, and we need to protect those and realize where we are then and not start trifling with temptation or going someplace else, legal, legitimate, good, staying there. But secondly, by way of application, there's really a blessing here if we think about the fact that the old life is gone. Paul said, reckon yourself dead to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I mean, that's the other side of the same coin, right? What a blessing that the old life, when I was running away from God with my fig leaf apron and hiding in the trees, the old life is gone, right? Reckoning yourself dead to sin, but now alive unto God. The believer cannot go back, they should not want to go back to their old life. Lot's wife, the Israelites who yearned for Egypt just for the comfort food that they had there. Human life is irretraceable. Human times, irretrievable. Adam and the woman, no matter what they would try to do at this juncture, they can't go back. But what they can do is under that sentencing of God that they received, under the promise that God gave them, they could go forward now, empowered by God to function now as he wants them to function in a fallen world and believe God. Secondly, the naming of the woman. Verse 20, Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Adam now names his wife. Up to this point, and I think we've had like 15 messages on Genesis chapter three, I've tried to stay away from using the name Eve. I've always tried to say Adam and the woman. And that's not degrading the woman. As a matter of fact, woman is a name. Remember, Adam gave his wife's name a woman. He was Ish. She was Ishi, taken out of the man. So it was actually a very good name. But now, she is being given another name. And as you read this, you might pass by it quickly, or you should ask yourself questions. This begs a couple of questions, at least in my mind. For example, why didn't God give Eve her name, like he did to Adam? He did not let Adam name himself, even when Adam was in the state of innocence. Now Adam has fallen, And God is entrusting him to name Eve, name the woman, which he does with Eve. Why does he do that? How does Adam naming his wife, how does this illustrate God's preparing them? How does this illustrate something that God is doing in Adam's life? Let me point out three characteristics that demonstrate either a grace that God has bestowed upon them, or a substantiation that God's work is moving forward. Number one, God wanted Adam to name his wife Eve because this is showing that God's whole idea of headship is still in place. He was still to be the head of the woman. Even in the fall, it's up to Adam to name his wife. In a fallen world, society can either have chaos and everyone is doing what's right in their own mind, their own eyes, or mankind, society, whatever, its family, its church, its government, can choose to follow God's hierarchy of an established order. God has an order. God has a hierarchy. Today we have anarchy, chaos, everything is upside down, lawlessness, broken relationships and families because God's structure has been disregarded. God's structure has been actually ridiculed for the wife to submit to her husband is considered to be archaic. obsolete. But those societies, whether it's family or community or church or government, those societies that endeavor to follow God's ways, God's structure, God's hierarchy, they will be blessed because they're doing it God's way. And here, even though this is post-fall, this is after the fall, this whole idea of headship is still in place. Secondly, We see, I think, the fact that marital love survived the fall. Marital love and commitment survived the fall. The book of Proverbs, the book of Ecclesiastes, principally gives us glimpses into the blessings of a marriage union, a marriage relationship, as we live out our life. Though there was the blame game earlier, yet now we are seeing that Eve is still bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. They were companions in guilt, but now they're gonna be companions in the joy and the sorrow of living under this new condition. They were still joined to each other. The whole idea of marital love survives. And thirdly, in naming of Eve, we understand that Adam had faith in God. And he demonstrates that he had faith in the promise of God. Where does faith come from? Faith is a gift of God, is it not? Especially here, we have to say faith had to be a gift of God. And Adam is looking to that promise of verse 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise the heel. Previously, we had looked at the progression of the seed of the woman down through the ages to get to the point where the Son of Man would be incarnate. And this is showing Adam's thoughts were running after the Lord. They were manifesting that he understood that God's promises were as good as gold. Adam's feelings, Adam's belief, he understood. He prized this whole idea. that Eve, the mother of all living, directly related to the seed of the woman that would crush the serpent's head. He's standing here as a believing man. And if I could quote Horatius Bonar here, he said that Adam is standing as a believing man so that we could say of him, not only by faith he went out, not knowing where he was going, like Abram, but by faith Adam called his wife's name Eve. He was showing that he believed the promise of God. And faith in God is probably one of the most elementary principles that we need to live godly in a fallen world. Faith in the Lord is the divine preparation for the believer to function in this world and this life and the life to come. Most, as they would read this, Adam names his wife, would dismiss it as something that's inconsequential. The Holy Spirit inserts it here because there is much here. This is showing the divine equipping has already started for our parents. What if you, this is really hypothetical, I almost don't want to say it, but what if you could go back in time before you were born and you knew that both of your parents were believers in Christ, they were redeemed, they loved the Lord, even before you were born, would you not have some comfort to realize, I'm gonna be raised in a Christian family. I'm gonna go to church, I'm gonna have family devotions, my parents are gonna pray for me. Our first parents, God outfitted so in the same way the seed of the woman would come down through the ages. So believing faith starts there at the threshold of paradise. It didn't wait until thousands of years later when Christ came. It started then, God passed it down. These three, God is already working in our first parents. The structure of headship remains intact. The gift of marital love, which, by the way, God is going to later use as a metaphor for his love for the believer, the marriage relationship, Ephesians 5. This marital love was not hurt by the fall. It was hurt, but it survived the fall. And Adam is demonstrating that he has a living faith in the living God. And so he can go out, not knowing where he is going. Thirdly, the clothing that God provides. Verse 21, unto Adam also unto his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. Adam and his wife needed to be clothed before a righteous and a holy God. Spiritually speaking, it was their sin that needed to be covered, lest God, who hates sin, destroy them. I believe there's this action of a blood sacrifice and clothing Adam and Eve. It's not only this metaphor and the spiritual picture of what the coming Messiah would do, I think we see that Adam and Eve were in fact saved as God clothes them. But this change of arraignment to cover their sin, this clothing, the spiritual clothing that God provides is related to justification and other reasons as well. Man's covering of his sin as we know is worthless. We previously talked about fig leaf religion where they sewed fig leaves together and they made for themselves aprons and then they have fear and they run away because intuitively they know God looks on the heart. And this was just foolish and even sin to cover it up. The fig leaves an inadequate covering, a poor covering, an insufficient shelter for the thorns and the thistles, let alone an insufficient shelter for sin. And we, at that time, when we talked about fig leaf religion, we were talking about outward things where it's only outward, even under the guise of spiritual or religious things, tithing, ministry, church going, religious services, self-denial. We could go down the list. When those are all done in an outward way to appear before men, they ultimately, as we know, do not. provide sufficient covering for God. It might cover the outward, but it does not cover the soul. Isaiah said, woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me, and they cover with a covering, but it's not of my spirit, so they are adding sin to sin. So God is even saying, if you try to hide your sin, That's a sin. Or if you do this kind of work, we noticed also that it says they made for themselves coverings. They didn't make the coverings for Ada, for God. They made the coverings for themselves. They were doing that which was pragmatic, that which was easy, that which they had control over. God has to do something else. I'm thinking that Isaiah 64, verse 6, we all know this, we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy rags. And we all do fade as a leaf. I can't prove this, but I think that's hearkening back to the garden, the fig leaves. As soon as they cut down those fig leaves to make aprons, those leaves started to die, did they not? We fade as a leaf, and our iniquities are like the wind, taken away. Works of iniquity, Isaiah said in another place. Haggai said, you try to clothe yourselves, but you're not warm, because you're not seeking my kingdom. Man's coverings, of course, are worthless. God needs a covering that is accepted by him. There's a righteousness, there's a positive righteousness. And as we think about God preparing mankind to live in a fallen world and be accepted by God, we understand that the principal thing that God is worried about, that we should be worried about, is spiritual things, spiritual truth, being reconciled to God. How many times have you heard our pastor quote that verse and say, what is the profit of man if he gains the whole world? but he loses his soul. What if Adam and Eve had gone out into the world and they were aces at survival skills and they could conquer the wilderness, but they didn't have faith in God? What does it profit them? God does the one thing needful in their hearts right away. These coats of skin were obviously significant. The beasts had to be slain. There had to be a blood sacrifice. The sacrifice was not slain for food. It was to typify the great sacrifice, which at the latter end of the world, as Hebrews 10 says, the Lord Jesus Christ would be offered once for sin and open up a way for the believer, the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. The sacrifice was divided. This was undoubtedly a burnt sacrifice, the flesh offered to God, the skins given to man. There's this dividing, signifying that Christ offered himself as a word to man and to God. He's gonna become the expiation for our sins. He's gonna become pleasing in God's sight. Adam and the woman made for themselves aprons, rags of their own righteousness. God made tunics. Clothing clothed them from the neck all the way down to the feet. It was a tunic. It was a complete covering. And again, similar to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is why very often the scripture in the New Testament you read, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Be clothed with humility. There's many, many metaphors that are talking about being wrapped up in those provisions of God, righteousness key, and then all the other ones. The unbeliever, of course, doesn't understand why the righteousness of Christ has to be imputed to them. And it's very interesting, they very often go to the Sermon on the Mount, and they will say things like, well, you know, the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount, that's what I try to do. and they don't read the Sermon on the Mount in its completeness. Jesus, after the Beatitudes, says, you must be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect. That's in the center of the Beatitudes. And then Jesus goes on a little bit longer and he corrects their thinking. They misunderstood the law. And he said, your righteousness has to even exceed and be different than the righteousness of the Pharisees who were experts in the law. And then he goes even further than that. And he just radically redefines the law. He opens it up and he talks about The traditions of the Pharisees, you've heard it said such and such, but I say unto you, he talks about murder is not just a physical act of killing somebody. If you have hatred in your heart towards someone, if you lust after a woman, you've committed adultery. He opens up the law, the intent, the motives in all of these things. And then people say, well, nobody's perfect. And I was reminded that this past week or a couple of weeks ago, I think it was Bishop, someone named Bishop Radcliffe, who I do not know. But I was reminded of this quote when they say nobody's perfect. He said, that is the unbeliever's couch of ease and the believer's bed of thorns. To say, well, no one's perfect. I'm not perfect. That's the unbeliever's couch of ease. They could rest there. But when the believer thinks about that, it's his bed of thorns. That's right, nobody's perfect. Jesus said, you shall love the Lord thy God with all of thy heart, all of thy soul, all of thy strength, and all of thy mind. And if that were not enough, you have to love your neighbor as yourself. This law of love. The truth of the matter is, not a single one of us ever has or ever would be able to fulfill that. And yet that's what the believer is striving for because we know with a redeemed heart, that's what we want. And we know that is what pleases God. Sin has radically infected and affected every man and woman who's ever been born. I think we covered roughly 19 or 20 effects of that single sin in one of our first messages. Sin worked death, decay, and unrighteousness in our physical being, our emotions, our intellect, everything about us, which is why, of course, we need the Lord Jesus Christ. His active obedience in fulfilling all of the law and imputing it to us, his passive obedience where he fell under the righteous judgment of God to pay for our sins. And again, Romans, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. The law itself pointed to a righteousness that was not intrinsic within people. The righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all of those that believe, for there is no difference. Imputed righteousness, righteousness given to us, something that was outside of ourselves and yet ascribed to us. He that is God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. We hear these two words, imputed righteousness and imparted righteousness. Imputed righteousness is that which is credited to our account. It's given to us that it's ours by faith in justification. And then imparted righteousness, generally speaking, we can think of that which God gives to us at justification, but it's kind of synonymous with sanctification. It comes along with us along the way. We have previously heard about sanctification being definitive and positional and progressive, those three aspects of our life with him. God needed, Adam and Eve needed to have this covering. God had to show them, God took the initiative, God did it, God did all of it. God killed the sacrifice. God made the coats. God clothed them. And then, I think, then they saw the reality. From what they did, the wages of sin is death, and a death was now needed. A sacrificial death on their behalf, so that one day, they can actually get back to paradise. It's a tremendous thought. God's covering and God's alone. God's covering was not put under the fig leaves, nor was it put over the fig leaves. Mark says, no man sews a piece of a new cloth on an old garment. or else the new piece fills up and takes away and breaks and the rent is made worse. So there's not this mixture of the fig leaves and the tunics that God makes. He says the same thing. No man puts new wine into old bottles, else the wine bursts the bottles and the wine is spilled and the bottles will be marred. But new wine has to be put into new bottles. It's the same truth. Just like Bartimaeus, when God called him. What is the first thing the scripture says he does? He takes his cloth and he casts it away from himself. That's hindering him from getting to Christ. It's like the prodigal son. The prodigal son was clothed with the best robe that could be given to him. God's covering and God's alone. It's not put over our fig leaves. It's not put under our fig leaves. It has to be God's covering alone. Someone said relative to man's garments, they are original, but not sufficient. They are natural, but not clean. They are smart, but useless. And they are mended, but made worse. This righteousness of Christ, this righteousness of God is the principal thing that Adam and the woman need as God prepares them. the righteousness which is so perfect, so unbreakable. It's like the clothes that the Israelites wore in the wilderness for 40 years. Never wore out, the shoes never wore out. We can't imagine wearing a shirt, although my wife would say I do, wear the same shirt day after day and it's got holes and tears and I keep wearing it. But for 40 years, it probably won't be around. The righteousness of God, nothing will wear it out. It's stellar, it's perfect, it's glorious. It abides the fire. My mind went to all these places where God's people had these clothes and there's some significant, by way of application about it. Remember when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came forth from the fire? And the scripture says there wasn't even the smell of smoke on their clothes. That's impossible. But that's similar to the robes of righteousness that we wear. They abide the fire. They will last forever. They are impenetrable. They are perfect. And it's the only clothing that is accepted by a righteous God. This abiding, this enduring righteousness of God. And this is the clothing that God provided Adam and Eve as he is preparing them for the wilderness life, and as he is preparing them to get back to him. Let me just mention a couple other, by way of applications before we close, thinking about this idea of this spiritual clothing that we need. besides obviously the righteousness of Christ, which we need to be clothed upon. We need to be clothed with, if I could put it this way, clothed with the spirit of God when we desire to minister to others. Recall that Elisha needed the mantle of Elijah so he could carry on that ministry. You recall that story where he wanted a double portion of Elijah's spirit, of God's spirit, to fulfill that ministry. And that mantle, as Elijah was taken up, that mantle fell. And what does Elisha do? He rips his clothes and he puts Elijah's mantle on him. We have to be very careful and discerning that when we want to minister to others, in whatever sphere that is. We have to be clothed with the Spirit of God so that the ministry is His and not ours. The Bible talks about we need to be clothed upon with priestly garments when we go in to pray. Remember the Old Testament priest? There was this whole thing of washing and putting off of garments and putting on priestly garments. We just don't rush in to pray. I trust you took notice as our pastor prayed in congregational prayer today, how he prepared us to enter into that holy place to pray. In the same way that the Old Testament priest had this priestly garment and made preparation to go in to pray, as believers, we're not just given this place, spiritual driver's license where we go here, there, and everywhere without thinking about what we are doing. We have to have to be spiritually prepared even just to pray. Well, that's what I want to share this morning. There's more that we'll see next time, but these three component parts are part of God's ultimate plan to provide that the relationship then and the way back to him as God is developing, God is unfolding his glorious purpose. Next time we'll see this continuing of this development. And what we're gonna see, as I mentioned earlier, I believe, what we're gonna see is though Eden is now closed, heaven is open. God has a plan. God is gonna order their steps. God is gonna work everything out so that we'll get back to the place that's even gonna be better than innocence in the garden. We have a great God. We have a wonderful God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, so often we feel as if we're first grade students trying to grasp some of these just tremendous great spiritual principles in thy word. We thank you, our Father, that as you lay out this plan for humanity, as you provide a righteousness that we need that overcomes those sins at the fall, those sins that were passed on, and those sins that we commit, making that provision that we can be accepted in the Beloved, of course, at the expense of your dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, help us to grow in grace and knowledge. Help us to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Help us, Father, to go from faith to faith and from that one degree of glory to another. Thank you, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.