We started last week and we are going to Genesis. You know what? Go to Hebrews 4 and keep your finger there and then go back to Genesis chapter 3 and we'll see why we're talking about what we're talking about. And go back to Genesis. Keep your finger in Hebrews. We're going right there. Just figuring we might as well start in Genesis. We're going kind of verse by verse through Genesis. And Genesis means beginnings. It's the beginning of everything. And it's the beginning of everything literally. I mean literally. Everything. There was nothing. Hi, Heather. I didn't know you were here. How are you? There was nothing until God spoke it into existence. The more science is kept, the more science is learning, and the more that telescope, whatever it's called, not the Hubble, the other one, telescope, the more they're seeing the universe and it's changing everything they've ever believed and it's changing everything they ever thought. And it's all conforming and adding up to what the Bible teaches. And, you know, that's why God says he makes the wise people fools because he gives us, and I'm calling us all nobodies, okay? We're nobodies. And he gives us all way more knowledge about everything than the people that are supposed to be somebodies. But I saw a thing yesterday. It was really neat. It was about sound waves. I know Brian's into that. And it said, it showed a picture of water. And it had sound waves go through the water. And these sound waves that went through the water started something to happen inside the water. And then all of a sudden, a bubble formed inside the water. And then all of a sudden, that bubble started spinning. And it spins so fast. And it lit up and became light. And it was a star inside of a beaker of water, all through sound waves. And all I kept thinking of was, and God said, let there be light. and the sound of God's voice in nothingness in the deep. there was light and it was just amazing when I'm looking at that and these are scientists performing these things and all this is coming to me I'm like yeah I know I knew I don't need that but I already know that it's great when you see people catching up to it amen so here in the book of Genesis while you become and I want you to please become a student of the word make sure you read your Bible all the time and to learn because there's so much to learn but in Genesis chapter 3 if you were there And look with me in, I guess we'll start in verse 17. And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and have eaten of the tree which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also, and thistles shalt bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. And in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. till thou return them to the ground. For out of it was thou taken, for thus thou art, and unto thus thou shall return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. And in verse 21 is where we're at. And to Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. And then we'll read 22. 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 he drove the man. So he drove out the man and he placed in 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. And we're looking at verse 21, unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. What we're talking about here is the atonement. What we're talking about here is the substitutionary atonement for their sin. Adam and Eve sinned and something had to pay. Something had to pay for their sin. God, being the righteous God, said that if you eat of that tree, you shall die. Now, spiritually, they died spiritually that day, and they will die physically. There's many things to learn, but one thing I'm just going to put out there, that the Bible tells us, Peter says, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years. And 1,000 years is as one day with God. So we know that no human being ever lived 1,000 years. So that's like one day with God. You have that. But also Adam and Eve both died before 1,000, of course. They died spiritually that day. Their glory that they had, their righteousness that they had was gone that day. They knew they were naked. They had shame. But God, something had to pay for them. Either they had to die that day, or something else was going to have to die. And that's where God brings in the whole sacrificial system right here in Genesis 3.21, where he killed two animals in the substitute then. Two innocent animals had to pay the debt for a guilty man. You understand what I'm saying? That's why we know, but no one else knew at the time, that God would give himself or make himself or offer himself a lamb, as it says in Genesis chapter 19, when Abraham was going to offer Isaac his son. And then the boy Isaac said, Father, here we have the fire, we have the knife, we have the wood, but where is the lamb for the offering? And I love the verse that says, God will provide himself a lamb. And that's where we know that he killed two lambs. And you might say, well, it doesn't say they were lambs. Well, that's where we have the next chapter, verse 4. And we talked about this already. What was Abel doing now? All of a sudden, he's tending sheep. He's keeping sheep. They didn't eat meat yet at this time. So therefore, the sheep, what were they for? They're for clothing. Because I want you to think of two things. Think of blood and covering. Because that's what we have here in chapter 3, verse 21. We have the shedding of blood, and we know, we read this last week, the Bible says without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin. So something has to pay. Just remember that. God is a righteous judge. Something has to pay. That's the way God is. No, God is not mocked. Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. But here we have God offering a sacrifice. He took the lambs. He skinned them alive. They saw the death, the horrible death, just like Jesus' death on the cross. People saw Him. He was skinned alive. You might not know that he was. The Bible says that his flesh was hanging from him, and it says you could see all his bones. So that means his flesh was so ripped off and you could see the bones and the ribcages and stuff. I mean, that's how horrible it was. And then the Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. But then not only was the blood shed, but now something had to cover them. to make them feel whole, to give them a covering, and we'll look at that maybe in depth a little bit more, but I don't want to get too deep in that, because the covering of God, God in Himself is always covered. Can you, anyone mention a couple things the Bible says God is covered in? Okay, He is, but that's not what the Bible says. He is literally covered in something. Things covered Him, huh? Close? Yes, he's covered in light. What else is he covered in? Clouds and thick darkness. He's covered in clouds. He's covered in glory, which is a light that shines. He's covered in darkness, it says. And so God is always covered. And I just want you to realize that nobody sees God at any time. And so therefore, God wants to cover us. And that's what he did there. He instituted clothing. And the clothing was sheepskin, lambskin. Now that said, turn with me please to Hebrews chapter Trying to see where I'm picking it up. I have so many verses. I don't know where I ended up. We talked about the curse last week. And in case you didn't know, this earth is still cursed. And there's still a curse out there. And families have a curse on them. And people have a curse on them. And that curse must be broken. And the only way it can be broken is if you die. Has anyone died in this room yet? I think everyone has. Because when you receive Christ, you're buried with him in baptism, where you are risen within the walk of newness, a new life. The old you is dead. The curse is over when you're born again. And you show that. by baptism, buried in baptism. I am just looking at some of my notes here, and I don't know if I want to go here yet. But if you would, verse 9, chapter 9. I don't want to go for you. Yeah, Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9.22. Look what it says in Hebrews 9.22, it says, And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood is no remission of sins. And it says in verse 23, It's curious, it says, and it was therefore necessary that the patterns of these things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Everything that God has showed Moses and did in the laws, there's a pattern of it in heaven. So there's so many things that when we get there, we're going to be kind of astonished that there's a pattern of those things seen there. Turn with me if you would, please, to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3. In Galatians 3, in verse 10, it says, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continues not in all the things which are written in the book of the law to do them. And then it goes on to say, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident for the just shall live by faith. Why am I saying that? We'll just read in the next two verses. And the law is not of faith. You should underline that. I'll tell you why, because there's a big debate out there that says that the Old Testament saints were saved the exact same way the New Testament saints were saved, and it's not so. The Old Testament saints were being saved, are continually being saved, by offering what the law said to do, offering lambs and animals on their behalf. And it says the law is not a faith. And the Bible says that we're saved by grace through what? Faith. It says, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Verse 13 says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." Now, when you read your Bible, you'll see that they'll call the cross a tree often. Why is that? Was it a tree or was it a cross? Which was it? What do you think? Why do you think they call it a tree? Any ideas? It's made of wood. Amen. Thank you very much. It's called common sense. That you took a big hunk out of a tree and made a cross out of it. And that's why it's still something that still had bark on it. And they knew where it came from. They didn't carve it down and make it look all pretty like the crosses that we see. It was an old rugged cross made out of a tree. Amen. And it's funny because Jesus hanging on a tree represents what? The tree of life, doesn't it? represents that the tree of life looks like something not very desirable. The tree of life looks like something that you wouldn't want to get closer to because it looks different than everything else. And that's what Christ is and that's what His atonement is. And that's what this Bible is. It's different than everything else. That's what our salvation is. It's different than everything else. It's different than everything on this planet. You have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right? That was beautiful. And when Eve saw it, she said it saw that it was good for food, pleasant to the eyes. It looked nice. Amen. But the tree of life, they didn't eat from that because I guarantee you the tree of life didn't look as pretty, didn't look as tempting, didn't look as wonderful in man's eyes. But in God's eyes, it was wonderful, especially on the cross. When we saw the cross, if you were there and you saw him dying on the cross and the blood and the you would have turned your heads away, the Bible says. We couldn't even look at it. But that is the tree of life, and that's the tree we have to come to. And that's the tree we have to eat from. And it isn't always easy, is it? But it's God's way. And I would like you to turn with me, please, to Revelation chapter 22. In verse 3, it says, and there shall be no more curse. Thank you, Jesus, for that. But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve them. It says in verse 4, and they shall see his face. and his name shall be in their foreheads. Look in verse 2, it says, in the midst of the street of it and on either side of the river was there a what? Tree of life. It's just funny when you see how these things connect together, that they did not eat of the tree of life, but then Jesus came down as the tree of life. Now he says, eat my flesh, drink my blood. and only those that get eternal life are those that eat his flesh, drink his blood, come to the sacrificial tree, come to where the lamb was slain, come to be covered in the blood, but more than that, covered in Christ himself. That's what I'm talking about. When he killed those lambs, the shedding of blood was for the remission of their sin, okay? But what kept them saved, so to speak. It was the covering. What kept them from their nakedness, what kept them from their shame, what kept them from them feeling so down about themselves was the covering. And what did they get covered in? They got covered in the skins of a lamb. And that's the whole thing about what we are. When you receive Christ, you get covered in Christ. You get saved by the shedding of blood. Does that make sense to you? But then you get covered. by the body of Christ. You get covered by the body of Christ. It enlightens me to think, and I want everyone to know, do you know what the body of Christ is? The church. You're covered. You're protected. in the church. Outside of the church, you're not protected. Outside the church, you're not covered. People don't put these things together. They think their own way. And people want to go to heaven their own way. And they want to make it their way when it's really God's way. There's only one way. And it tells us that in what I said, what verse was it? Oh, verse Revelation 22. Read it for me, please. just there my page yes yeah yeah It says, And there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun. For the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. And I want you to realize that this is, when they talk about Jesus at the very end of the book, we're in the beginning in Genesis and all the way end in Revelation, they still call him the Lamb. They still call him the Lamb of God. And that's where I want you to realize and think about this, about the Lamb of God, that it was only by the shedding of the blood of those lambs. And then, and then Abel was commanded or had to keep the lambs and he had to take care of the lambs and then we have from that very beginning in Genesis the lamb sacrifice all the way through and we know we talked about last week about Passover and the Passover lamb we read about those verses how that God started a new thing Passover he said when I see the blood of this lamb I will Passover you But where had the blood had to be? The blood had to be on your house. That means your tabernacle. The blood had to be on the upper and the side posts, which represents the cross. Amen? And that's where the blood is. Where? On the cross. Where is Jesus? On the cross. Where is the Lamb slain? On the cross. I want to just look at that for a brief, if I can. In Genesis chapter 3, and I'll turn there, man's covering will never work. And man's covering was, look at the two mothers running. Soon as they hear crying, both moms run out the door. In Genesis, we had man covering themselves in fig leaves. That's called religion. And man's religion trying to make themselves feel better. But look in John chapter 1, the book of John chapter 1, Look in verse 29 with me please. It says, And the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Now from Genesis all the way up to the resurrection or the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, they had to offer sacrificial lambs. And they had to do it daily sometimes, but every year on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, only the high priest, only one person out of all the world was elected by God, chosen by God, Moses' line and the line of Levites. Only one high priest could take the blood of the lamb that was slain and go into the Holy of Holies into where the Ark of the Covenant was, and sprinkle the blood of the Lamb on the mercy seat. And that blood, when God saw the blood, their sins were forgiven. All of Israel. The whole nation, all forgiven on the Day of Atonement because of the blood. But that had to be done every year, every year, every year, every year. Then Jesus shows up and John says, the Lamb of God does what? Takes away. to weigh the sin of the world. He didn't cover it over, He took it away. And that's where we have a whole new testament, a whole new and better way than the old way and the Old Testament. It's brand new testament that in His blood is the taking away of your sin. So how many of us have come to Jesus for the cleansing power, come to Jesus by the blood of the Lamb, amen? Well then your sins are taken away. They're gone. So in our head, we still hold on to them, but they are gone. And then if you come to God, you come to him naked, don't you? What does that mean? You know what I mean? Not these kind of clothes. You come to him open and say, Lord, I'm a sinner. Look at all that I've done. I'm filthy. I'm undone. I'm wicked. I need you to save me. And the sacrifice of Jesus, the blood, takes away your sin. Now you need to be covered. And what does he cover you in? The body of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. So how many people are covered by the blood of the Lamb of God? How many people are covered by the body of Jesus Christ? So if you're covered by the body of Jesus Christ, when God the Father looks at you, who does he see? You or his son? Exactly. He doesn't see you. He sees Jesus. That's why you're allowed in. That's why we have fellowship with Him. That's why He calls us sons and daughters. We're all in one in Christ. Amen? So I want you to think about that and let that just stick in your minds for a little bit. And if you look in 2 Corinthians with me, chapter 5, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, look in verse 21. It says, for he, means God, has made him, that's Jesus, to be sin for us, who knew no sin. Why? That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. How am I and how are you righteous? By the covering of the body of Jesus Christ. By the covering of the body of Jesus Christ, we are made righteous. Because God doesn't see you. He sees Christ. Amen? So that's why you have to make sure you are in Christ. The sacrifice of an innocent lamb is called a substitute. It's called substitutionary. Substitutionary sacrifice. somebody came in and Substituted themselves for you, and there's commercial out there about having you know What is it the backup or something when I'm one of them commercials if you've seen it It's had like having the backup quarterback you got the quarterback back there, and he's not doing a good job The coach blows whistle timeout. He says okay substitute come in and the substitute takes over. Well, Jesus is certainly no second string, that's for sure, but we do know that God stopped time and everything else and he sent his only begotten son to be a substitute of all the lambs that were slain and killed since Genesis. So the whole world, Jesus came in, now one lamb, one sacrifice, one blood shedding, one covering, no more. Amen? He's the substitute, the covering, physically and spiritually, that we might be made the righteousness of God, where? In Him. In Leviticus 17.11, you don't have to turn there. We read it before I read it to you. It says, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls. It is the blood that makes the atonement for your soul. Matthew 20, 28, and Matthew 26. Look over there with me. Matthew 28. I'm sorry, no, no, 20, 28. I like this verse because there's certain verses that just catches my eye. It says, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a what? A ransom for men. A ransom. That's what Jesus was. He was sent by God to pay the debt that we owe. We owe to God a giant debt. Adam and Eve owed to God a debt when they sinned. What did God do? Instead of killing them, he killed two innocent animals. And so now we owe a debt to God. What did God do instead of killing us? He killed his own son. I want that to sink in. Now, look with me if you would, please, in what I say, 26, Matthew 26, and in verse 28. Jesus said this. He said, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many, for what? For the remission of sins. That means your sins will no longer affect the Father. Your sins are gone. They're gone. They can no longer affect God. You literally, in the eyes of God, while you're in Christ, are sinless. It's amazing and blow your mind when you think about that, amen? Look in Romans 5, please. In Romans chapter 5 and verse 9, it says much, are you there? It says much more than being now justified by what? His blood. We shall be saved from wrath How? Through Him. See, the blood forgives us, and the covering saves us forever. Because when you're in Christ, you can't get out of Christ. When God puts you in, you can't get out. Do you understand what I'm saying? It was God that brought you. It was God that created you. It was God that bought you back and ransomed you. It was God that covered you in His own body. Amen? You can't get out of it. And look, if you would, look with, it was in verse 9. It says, much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him because of verse 8. Verse 8 says, but God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And in verse 12. It says, wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world. Who's that one man? Adam. And death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. who is the figure of him that was to come. Here we have Genesis talks about the Messiah coming. It talks about the sacrifice on the cross. It talks about the blood shed for everyone. It talks about the covering. It talks about the body. Genesis is the most amazing book. In Ephesians chapter 1, in Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1.7 says, in whom we have redemption through his blood. Look, what does that mean? The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. How rich is his grace? How expensive is his grace? You've been given grace through what? The blood of Jesus. You've been given grace through the sacrifice of Jesus. And that's why the Bible, and you'll read it, says, do not take this grace lightly and don't take it in vain. Oh, well, I'm okay. I can sin. I'll just say, I'm sorry. That's looking at grace as a cheap product. This grace is so expensive, so amazing that all the angels and powers of the creation wish they had it on them. Please don't take God's grace in vain. If you look at me in Ephesians chapter four, the sacrifice and the blood forgives us, and it's his body that gives us his righteousness, that covers us, that his body is our robe of righteousness. Okay, his body. That means when you're in Christ, Look in verse 24 with me. It says, in Ephesians 4, 24, it says, and that you put on the new man. Now who's this new man? Where do I put on a new man? The new man is Jesus. It says, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. We have to put it on. We have to get into it. And that's the whole point. It's so spiritual and deep sometimes, but yet it's so simple that anyone can understand it. You have to be in Christ. That's why he goes on, and I'm not gonna turn there, but he says in Hebrews chapter 10, he says, forsake not the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is. And so much more as you see the day approaching. You gotta be in Christ. Guess who's getting taken up? Those that are in Christ. Those that are in the body. And I think about it, people think they're in the body because they came to church once or twice. You know when you're in the body. You're in the body because you go where He goes. You listen to what He says. You're one with Christ. Are you one with Christ? It's pretty simple. If He covered me, He saved me, He loved me, He covered me, I'm in Him. Wherever He goes, I'm going. Pretty simple. We become the Son of God, like He is. God spoke to Jesus, Jesus did what the Father said. We are part of Jesus, aren't we, called the Body of Christ? God tells us what to do, we do it. It's not that hard. I don't know why people think it is. In Galatians 3.27, did we read that already? We might have. Go there. In Galatians 3.27, it says, Four, are you there? Galatians 3, verse 27. I'll wait. Say amen when you're there. It says, for as many of you as have put, I'm sorry, for as many of you as have been what? Baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Now, according to that verse, if you're not baptized, are you still in Him? I'm not, I'm not, I'm just asking a question like you are. I'm looking at that verse. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. I wonder why people don't get baptized scripturally. That's the first thing I did. I knew nothing about anything. I got saved and the Holy Spirit in me, I wanted to know, I wanted to learn, I wanted to grow. As soon as I heard, you're supposed to be baptized. Yes, sir. I was like, here I am, sir. Whatever you say, sir. Jesus, you say jump, I say hell high. You know what I mean? You saved me. I was going to hell. I'm going to heaven. Yes, sir. Whatever you want. That attitude I've always had. I don't understand how other people don't have it. And you got to sit there and beat them over the head. and get a hook in them, and like, here's money, and here's food, and here's clothing, and here's this, and oh, God, please, why don't you do what God says? You ought to jump, I'd run down the aisle and dive in this tank. If I fought for one second, God said, I'm not happy with you. Why, why? You won't even get baptized. The one thing I told you to do, one thing. I don't know, I'm not, you see what I'm saying? I don't get it. There's just things I don't get. How can people, didn't Paul say in Romans 1, 16, say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I guess people are ashamed. I don't get it. I don't get it. But it goes on to say, verse 27 says, I've put on Christ. Verse 28 says, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither bond nor free. There's neither male or female. For all are one in Christ. And if you'd be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. We need to be covered. I heard somebody ask a question, it was online, and they said, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, did that save you? And I never usually write back, I just had to. I said, yeah, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross saved you, forgave your sins, but the Holy Spirit of God sealed you. So if you just have, think about it, if you just have the blood of Christ, your sins are forgiven, but you're not covered. So that means your sins get back on you. You lose what you once had. But once this Holy Spirit comes in and seals you, you can never lose it. And that's why this little progression says, in whom you trusted, in Ephesians 1.13, in whom you trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, whom after that you believed, then you were sealed to the day of redemption. I just wonder if there's a lot of people in churches that aren't sealed yet. I'm just wondering. I'm wondering, there's a lot of people that won't get baptized, won't hand out a gospel tract. They're ashamed, they're afraid, they're not... What are you then? Because when you're in Christ, you go where He goes, you do what He says. You're part, you're one with God. Does that make sense, anybody? Is that really the time? Let's pray. Almighty God and Father, I thank you so much for this day. I pray those that we can get people to come in. Thank you for those that are here this morning. And I just pray, Lord, that we would, as Brian prayed, that we would receive from you instruction and wisdom today through your word. We love you and praise you. Thank you, Jesus, for dying on that cross. Thank you, Jesus, for rising again. Thank you, Jesus, for sending your spirit. Thank you, Jesus, for the church. We love you and praise you. In thy name, amen.