Well, we're going to continue in our series, marriage series, in Genesis. So if you'd open up with me to Genesis 3. I have two more messages that we're going to go through this afternoon and then next week afternoon as well. Our texts are this afternoon. is towards the end of Genesis 3, verses 20 and 21. Let's give our attention to the reading of God's Word. The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. This message is entitled, Image-Bearing Allies, Merciful and Gracious companions. We have been working through Genesis 1, 2, and 3, looking at the beginning and what God had created in his design. And really, as we think about it, there's really three worlds that we have, or two worlds at this point, that we have encountered Paul Tripp in his marriage series, What Did You Expect, refers to the three worlds that our marriages find themselves in. And the first world is the world in Genesis 2, the way it was created. And we went through Genesis, the end of one and chapter two, talking about us as image bearers, that we are handcrafted, uniquely handcrafted as embodied souls with gender and purpose, a home created to abide with God in the garden, in this temple context. We were created with honor as vice-regents, crowned with glory and honor. We'd been given unique capacities, incredible rational minds, emotions, language, and wills. We'd been given a purpose as dominion mandate and stewards over this creation. We were created in holiness so that we could abide with God. in holiness and righteousness and a heart that really sought after, loved this God and received this love from Him. And last, we were filled with happiness, just an abiding sense of God's blessing to us as we enjoyed and encountered His creation. This really then led to the formation of marriage in Genesis 2, where we see that we were created to be companions, oriented fully fully giving ourselves freely, purely towards one another in love, forming a one-flesh relationship, naked and without shame. That is the first world that we have to consider when we think of relationships, especially our marital relationships. The second world we see begin in chapter 3, where sin is introduced. The serpent came, tempted Eve to cast a dark face on God. She believed this false narrative that God was not good, that she would be better off served by taking of the fruit and eating it. And as she did, sin entered in. And now the second world is a world filled with sin and shame and guilt. We are now by nature sinners, self-lovers, filled with delighting ourselves, serving ourselves, driven by the passions of our flesh. We see that sin breaks companionship. Then, immediately after that, we see God entering into the scene and issuing a curse. And out of that curse comes this cosmic conflict. We also see this curse on the woman in all aspects of reproduction. The curse on the woman in relationship to her marriage, and the curse to the man in the futility of labor. And today we start talking about the third world that we see in Genesis. And this is a world of mercy and grace. This week and next we will be providing some help to our marriage relationships and families and workplaces and churches. Everywhere we have to interact with each other by exploring this critical foundation for relationships. in this sin-cursed context, and that world or that context is one of mercy and grace. So I hope to pull out of Genesis 3 the beauty of what we see here as God deals mercifully and graciously with Adam and Eve. We're going to cover this under four headings this afternoon. Mercy and Grace Defined, Mercy and Grace Declared, Mercy and Grace Denied, Mercy and Grace Displayed. Today is a foundational message that really sets the stage for next week. We're going to talk more specifically about how we live out mercy and grace in the context of our marriages. First, mercy and grace defined. Well, mercy and grace are hard to define individually. They're really different sides of the same coin. We look at one side and we can talk about mercy, but then we can roll it over immediately and we can talk about grace, but they're so intimately connected. They are one. They are of one thing. Paul Tripp defines mercy as mercy is the kind, sympathetic, and forgiving treatment of others that works to relieve their distress and to cancel their debt. Mercy is both an attitude and an action. A more basic definition that is simpler for us to remember is mercy is withholding something that I deserve. Mercy is withholding something. God is withholding His wrath and His condemnation, which I so rightly deserve. He is withholding that. It's the context. of withholding something. If I am merciful to you, I'm withholding my condemnation and my wrath and my anger and my judgment of you. I'm withholding it so I can be kind. In the garden, the context for our existence was one of love. Outside of the garden, as soon as sin enters and the curse, love has a new flavor, a new aspect to it. And because of sin, we find out that love is best defined as me being patient and kind, which would be merciful, withholding my judgment based on your sin and your impact and your affliction of me, and extending kindness to you. So the larger context is still one of love, but because of sin, now it takes on this different aspect of mercy and grace. Mercy is an attitude of kindness and compassion for another. Mercy would be the counter to condemnation and punishment. Where I might rightly feel that you need my condemnation or my judgment, mercy says I will withhold that. Mercy is the offer of help to someone who can't help themselves. Mercy is moving towards someone with benevolence. The kind and sympathetic, forgiving treatment of others is mercy. Mercy recognizes the dire predicament of another person or another situation. For some reason, probably your own sin or an affliction, my flesh is determined that you deserve my wrath or unforgiveness or payback or retribution or punishment. But mercy drives me to move forward to you with compassion. Moving forward towards you to rescue you. moving forward to help you in light of your sin. Mercy is me not giving you what my flesh thinks would be a deserved and justifiable response. Mercy withholds. Grace, on the other hand, is the other side of that coin. Grace is giving you something that you don't deserve. Giving to you something that you haven't earned, you haven't merited. It is a gift not earned or deserved or merited or expected. Mercy withholds and grace gives. Grace is unmerited favor. In the case of the gospel and the grace that we receive from Christ, it is demerited favor. We have actually resisted it and fought against it. It is demerited favor. Grace is compassion which leads to a gracious action. Mercy provides the context for the grace to be extended. Mercy withholds condemnation so grace can cover. Mercy withholds judgment so the grace of forgiveness can be extended. Every blessing and every kindness that we have ever received is grace. It is far more than we ever deserved. What we deserved was the eternal wrath and judgment of God. But what we have received is blessing upon blessing and in our salvation, even greater grace given to us through our forgiveness and being cleansed from our sins and reconciled to the Holy God. Mercy is compassion for the need and grace is the act of service that mercy affords. We use terms. Sometimes we don't even realize the context we're using. We'll say, Lord, have mercy. And what are we really saying? We're saying, Lord, withhold your judgment. Lord, withhold your wrath. Lord, withhold the right, necessary response in this situation based on my fault and my failure, my sin. Lord, have mercy. And indeed, God is a merciful God. Mercy defined. Next, mercy and grace declared. In Exodus 33 and 34, we see Moses coming up the second time to receive the law. And he is asked to behold the glory of God. And in chapter 34, verse 5, the Lord descends in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And this is what the name of the Lord is. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. And we find this is the very essence of God in the sin, curse, broken world. He is a God filled with mercy and grace, extending his love, still lavishing his love on us. But it looks different because of our sin. Now it's more clearly seen as mercy and grace, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. God declares himself to be merciful and gracious. It is who he is. This particular Hebrew word always describes God. Deuteronomy 4, for the Lord your God is a merciful God. 2 Chronicles, for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful. Psalm 78, yet he being compassionate. That's the same word. At times though, in the ESV in particular, it's translated rather than mercy as compassion, because mercy is compassion. Yet he being compassionate, atoned for your iniquity. Psalm 86. But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious. Psalm 103. The Lord is merciful and gracious. Psalm 111. He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and merciful. Psalm 112. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious, merciful and righteous. Psalm 145, the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Most often, though this word is not used to describe God, it is it is used as a verb or an action of God, something that God is doing. Exodus 33, verses 18 and 19. Moses said, Please show me your glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I'm gracious and will show mercy to whom I show mercy. This action of mercy and grace. Usually God is having compassion or is being compassionate to his people. And as this term is used another 50 some times, it is always an action. It's always a verb, it's something God is doing as he's coming to rescue, or he's engaging with his people in a compassionate way. One of my favorite verses, and there's, like I said, there's bunches of them in Psalm 103. It says, as a father shows, that's this word, this movement, right, this action. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. Mercy and grace are on display throughout history. And we see beginning in Genesis three, and I'm going to pull out in a minute the evidence of this mercy and grace on display from the very beginning. But the countenance of God that we see in Genesis two, where he says, I have created something good for food. I mean, pleasant to the eyes and good for food. And we see the countenance of God for his people, wanting them to be blessed, wanting them to be delighted, wanting them to know his love and blessing in favor for them. That countenance has not changed. God is immutable. He does not change. The countenance we see of God in the garden remains. Because of sin, it looks differently at times, but we see this God continually acting towards his people in a compassionate way. Some large things we would look at are just the establishment of the tabernacle in the temple, where God provided a means where they could come and make an offering and be reconciled to God and abide with Him, just as He wanted to abide with His people, for them to experience the blessings, providing a way to be reconciled and abide with God. We see later in the New Testament, we start understanding our salvation. It is mercy that moves God towards sinners and salvation. In Ephesians 2, verses 4 and 5, we read, being rich in mercy. Well, that's the context. That's the heart motive. Rich in mercy. This nature being demonstrated. Because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. It is the mercy that moved God that created the context so that we could be saved by grace. And now we see both mercy and grace, him withholding his wrath and extending to us this gift that we could have never earned. Mercy is the kindness or goodwill toward the miserable and the afflicted, joined with the desire to help them. As you've seen in the declaration of God's mercy, it is never alone. Mercy is the context for grace. Mercy sets the stage for some kind of action. God, being rich in mercy, saved us. Mercy is the context for grace. We are the recipients of mercy and grace. In Luke 6, We read and we'll talk more about this verse next week. But the command to love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your father is merciful. This kindness and this mercy are synonyms. He is kind. To the ungrateful, that's us. and the evil, and that's us. We are the recipients of this mercy and grace. His mercy and grace are also what leads us to repentance in Romans 2. For do you not suppose on the riches of his kindness and his forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. God is merciful and gracious. God acts towards us in a merciful and gracious manner. So we see mercy defined, mercy declared, mercy denied. I just wanted to highlight this as a foundation so we can see this denial of mercy. You can turn with me if you want to Matthew 9. I'm going to read Matthew 9, I mean, verse 10 through 13. As we see Jesus interacting with the Pharisees, Behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick go and learn what it means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." The Pharisees were legalists. They were trusting in their own works and their own righteousness in order to maintain or to earn their relationship with God. And it drove them to have contempt for others. They were quick to point out their own righteousness. and others' failures and faults and unrighteousness. They had no compassion on those weak sinners, those ones that were coming to Christ that he was receiving, and they looked down on him. They trusted in their own righteousness and treated others with contempt. They asked, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? How could he associate with them? Not understanding, it was the mercy The love of God displayed in mercy and grace that was drawing them to Him. Jesus rebukes them for their desire to sacrifice. to act righteously, to perform righteous or religious acts, to maintain their righteousness, to demonstrate their righteousness, to use their performance to earn or maintain their relationship with God. And he said, that is not what we're called to. We're not called to sacrifice. We're called to mercy. We're not called to do religious things or act religiously or righteously without mercy. He says, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And a Pharisee who is trusting in their own righteousness cannot muster up mercy. Only the saving work of God can create within us a heart where we will extend the same mercy and grace that we have received. A Pharisee, a legalist, cannot extend mercy. In another situation, Jesus condemns the Pharisees after the disciples plucked heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath. He said, and if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. And again, in Matthew 23, when he's going through the great woes against the Pharisees, in chapter 23, verse 23 says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrite, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. It is the Pharisees who denied mercy, which received the strongest rebuke from Jesus. So we've seen mercy defined, declared, denied, and now mercy on display. This takes us back to Genesis 3. We read through Genesis 3, and probably as I read it to you over the last couple of weeks, you were not astounded at the beauty of God's mercy in Genesis 3. It's just kind of in the context. It's not really highlighted, but it is the context and it's beautiful. It should astound us as we consider the mercy of God that's on display in Genesis 3. He just created a perfect ideal situation, right? Complete. perfect in every possible way. Then he had created these humans and he put them right in the middle of it to enjoy it all, to be the recipients of all the blessings that God had provided for them. And then they turn from that, they turn from God and that context to their own good, to their own sin. And how does God respond to them? Well, Genesis 3, 8. It's the first time we see God. encountering these now sinful people. Verse 8, And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Why is it that God would come to them in the cool of the day? How should have God arrived on the scene? with great torment, with great anger and wrath, coming in to engage with these people that He just created to receive all the blessings that had just destroyed it all. And yet, we don't see Him showing up like that. We should be overwhelmed by that. It should startle us. God did not come back on the scene in justice and wrath. He did not come back storming into the garden to create fear. His holy presence did create fear, but His countenance did not change. He came back in, walking in the garden in the cool of the day. He was already displaying mercy, withholding this that they so rightly deserve. The only right and fitting response would have been His eternal wrath. But He's already displaying mercies, He comes in and encounters them. Now some say that they heard this sound, or this voice, and it was a sound of wrath and anger. But from the text, I don't think that's what we see here. I think we see God showing up with grace and mercy. You see, for the first time, God, now loving these people, but in the context of their sin and the sin-cursed world, and does come into the context with holding that wrath in mercy and engaging with them. Genesis 3, verses 9-11, But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and hid myself. And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? Well, God knew exactly what had happened. He was not surprised in any way. Yet he still approaches Adam with mercy. He should have unleashed his eternal wrath, but he came to Adam. He approached Adam as a sinner. And he was gentle with Adam. He did not minimize or diminish Adam's sin, and there definitely were consequences for it, but he came displaying mercy. He did let Adam feel the effects of his sin, and as Adam felt these things for the first time, this sense of guilt, being in the presence of a holy God, and God interacting with him, Adam did hide, but he wasn't hiding because God came in his wrath and fury. God came in gentleness. This picture is a little like Nathan and David when Nathan approached David and David's sin. And he tells him that story that begins to convict David and draws out David's sin. And David is convicted. But it wasn't because Nathan came in in rage and pointing out his sin and condemnation. David came in as a friend. David came in as one extending mercy and grace, and saying, listen, this is who you are, this is what you've done. And David responded with repentance. Genesis 3.15, which we talked a little bit about last week. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Here is the reality of the human struggle that we currently reside in, this cosmic conflict. Satan shall bruise the heel. Jesus shall bruise Satan's head. And we can see, though, the promise of the gospel being preached here in Genesis three. This is much better than what we deserve. Rather than this cosmic conflict that we find ourselves in, where we struggle and we're in the middle of this conflict, and we have hope in the victory in Christ, and we have hope in this Messiah that was to come, and now we look back and we have hope in the finished work of Christ. We deserved His eternal wrath, but He put us in this cosmic conflict, which was mercy in and of itself. But in that, He didn't just leave us in that cosmic conflict. He gave a promise that there is victory and hope and rescue. That Jesus will be the victor. And withholding wrath and giving hope and rescue and promise. And then to our text today in Genesis 3.21. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. This may be one of the most ridiculous things we read in the entire Bible. I mean, we just have to make sure we understand the context. Adam and Eve had been given everything. First of all, the relationship with God, abiding with Him, and in creation, put there as vice regents, filled with glory and honor, with this dominion mandate, and they had destroyed it all. They had broken it all. They had turned from God. They had sinned against Him. They had gone their own way. And even after the curse, God is still interacting with them with mercy. Mercy. Why would He care how they were clothed when He kicked them out of the garden? Why would He care? They deserve every possible torment and hardship and affliction that they could ever experience. And yet God does something so beautiful and so profound, He displays mercy first. He's still abiding with them. He's still interacting with them. Then God pours out His grace on them. He knew their frailty and their condition. Obviously, they had started to cover themselves in Genesis 3-7, but had done so poorly because when God found them in the hiding, they still felt they were naked. And yet God did not despise their weakness. He pours out His grace on him. He says, you are poorly covered. You are unprepared. You are naive to what you're going to experience when you leave this garden. You cannot leave like this. And he made garments of skins and covered them. Why would a God take this kind of care and kindness and interact with them in such a merciful and gracious way before he moved him out of the garden. Mercy upon mercy, grace upon grace. He created a durable covering, a covering fit for them. He sacrificed an animal, which they had no concept of any of that resource and all the things that encompass in the sacrifice of this animal and taking the skins and making garments. And he reminded them his countenance for them had not changed. He still loved them. He still wanted to abide with them, but it was all broken and it was going to take a long time before he was able to do that again. Even more importantly than the actual physical covering that they receive is this glorious picture of the gospel. Now this is the first sacrifice that points to the final sacrifice. In this sacrifice God takes one of his animals and sacrifices it, takes the skin, the covering, and crafts for Adam and Eve coverings to send them out of the garden. in the final sacrifice. It is Jesus that God sacrifices on our behalf and takes from Jesus the most critical thing that we need. His covering of righteousness. His covering of His blood. And He takes it from His Son and He puts it on us and He gives us His final, full, fit covering. It is the most essential thing that we will ever need. And this sacrifice in the garden points to the final sacrifice. Again, filled with hope. that this God knows our need, knows our circumstance, knows what desperate situation we're in, and He will provide. He doesn't leave us to our own crafty ways. He says, I will move toward you, I will withhold my wrath, and I will extend to you grace, a covering in mercy and grace, a covering fit for ones who deserve wrath, but instead receive mercy and grace. This is the context for relational life outside of the garden. Mercy and grace. Next week we will talk more about mercy and grace. But it is the display of love. When we're called to love one another, what is the substance of that love for one another? It is, essentially, mercy and grace to one another. And a marriage without mercy and grace is one that will really devour itself. So next week we will cover what this looks like in our marriages. But today, from Genesis, may we see this God who from the very beginning was a merciful and gracious God to us who were in desperate need for it. Father, thank you for this display of grace and mercy that you would not just annihilate your people or extend your wrath to them immediately, but you come to them. Yes, there's consequences. Yes, there is justice and judgment. But Father, you did so in such a merciful way. Such a kind, gentle way. a way that provided for us in need, that rescued us from our need. It came, putting on display Your mercy and grace. We praise You for it. May we live in gratitude to this that we've received from You. And may we delight that we are the recipients, not of skins from animals, but the very covering that You took from Your Son, His righteousness, to cover us so that we could be in your presence for all eternity. We praise you for this, Father. Stir within us a growing love for you. And out of that, help us to be merciful and gracious people. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.