Amen. You may be seated. I must confess, I prayed rather selfishly this morning for my kids in France. Much of it is because I got a text right before, they're six hours ahead of us, they've already been to church, and when they came home, they found their house ransacked. And Carissa signed it. So much fun. Only just some weird things that have been taken. One was a watch that Cindy had given to Genevieve. It was her birthday this week. She didn't give it to her for her birthday. She had it long before that, but it was very dear to her. And she was very sad about that. But then her passports were stolen. So you just wonder what on earth is going on. So will you pray for them today as they try to unravel all this and try to figure out how is God at work and what is God doing in the middle of all of this? We trust God. You get to trust him for your own children. And it's part of growing up. You guys that have young children, you're sitting there going like, oh my goodness. I'm going like, yeah. It's part of life and we point our souls, even when we're hurting, we point our souls to the realities of Jesus. Only Jesus can fix this kind of stuff. Someday, there will be a day when this will be gone. and we'll be able to rejoice perfectly and do so with joy and gladness. All right. What else? Please come tonight, 5.30. If you're here today, this morning, you need to be here tonight. This is a family meeting. We're going to talk about wonderful things. It's not a business meeting. We won't be voting on anything, but you need to come and hear what God is doing and how God is at work and how God's been at work and then what we see for 2024. It'll be a time of rejoicing. It'll also be a time of awe. As we, and everyone's invited. If you're visiting today, you can come back. We are a transparent church. And so what you hear tonight is the life of the church in the raw, so to speak. We seek to hide nothing but talk about it. So I covet your prayers. as well. I will be leaving soon as I'm done preaching. I will be ministering down in the Hispanic church this morning, so continue to pray for them as well. All right. Genesis, if you would, turn to the book of Genesis, and Genesis, it says chapter three, but I actually want you to, just to keep the last verse of chapter two right there, and then we'll look down to verse 14 of chapter three. All right? Some of you have been like, what is this Advent series about dealing with the clothing of the king? And I just wanna say, I can't wait, all right? I hope today you'll see why we've chosen this pathway and what are the things that we can learn from the clothing of the king. Will you look with me, verse 25 of chapter two, and then we'll shoot right down to verse 14 of chapter three. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Now verse 14. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock. And above all beasts of the field, on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 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. To the woman, God said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire will be contrary to your husband and he shall rule over you. And to Adam he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you. You shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and thistles that shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread. Till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you were dust, and to dust you return. The man called his wife's name Eve. because she was the mother of all living. The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Every morning the sun rises, whether we see it or not. It rose this morning, trust me, it did. The alarm clocks sound, if you use alarm clocks. I have a theology of alarm clocks. I don't like alarm clocks, but we use them. Our sleepy eyes open, and then at some point we get dressed. We don't even think about it. Socks, pants, shirts, shoes. We wear clothing that rightly corresponds to our vocations, how we're working, or whether we're going to school, and it responds to our culture, and even to the weather that's outside. Our clothing serves as the marker that sets us apart as a species and indicates our connection to society and even individual values. We will wear clothing. Mark Twain said this. He said, clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. Now he may have been right on the first part, but his statement excludes the first people in history. and they had considerable influence in our world. And we begin to learn that clothing in the Bible is more than just a lost detail. In fact, clothing has significant implications for revealing God's plan of redemption. Our creator is a master tailor. He's a master designer, a seamstress beyond measure, a cobbler beyond worth. And despite the rebellion of Adam and Eve, God covers their shame and their nakedness. And later, he even designs and instructed the Israelites on the priestly garments of the tabernacle. And they all have intricately thought out purpose and intent for the people to fellowship with their God. The Bible authors use descriptions of priestly and royal garments to point us to the one true high priest, Jesus himself. But all of this points us to the king. The royal garments points us to that there's coming a king. Even the first king as he was born was wrapped in swaddling clothes. And later he hangs naked on the cross. and the riches of his righteousness. We are urged to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul tells us. as if we can put on his robes. So our Advent series tells of some of the stories of the clothing of the king, stories that describe a wardrobe at once splendid, now sin-stained and made with fabrics that reveal both who we are and graciously covers us up. The clothing of the king, though, is tattered and worn, and yet is glorious in its incorruptibility. It isn't rightfully ours, yet God gives it to us freely. Clothing tells us a story. Details about clothing in scripture can seem at first glance insignificant and perhaps easy to overlook, but as with so many other parts of God's word, these elements are not accidental. Indeed, mentions of clothing and coverings and robes and coats are full of meaning. And we're going to learn throughout this Advent season that all these clothes point us to the King himself, Jesus Christ. We will first step back to the very beginning of time where truly all is calm and all is bright. And then something very dark, something very sinister, something very devastating took place. Chapter 2, in my opinion, is the saddest chapter in all of man's history. And we will look, as God unfolds to us, the realities that man had disregarded God's word and chose to go his own way. And Adam and Eve knew that God had promised death if they ate the tree of life. And they had no way of knowing what all of that meant. And immediately, man's greatest need was revealed. It is a need so great, so disturbing that at any movement on man's part to attempt to meet that need himself is met with immediate failure. Sin-filled humanity is exposed and it lays naked. And so we begin to understand man's greatest need really is to be clothed. but it wouldn't be as man first thought, which is so typical of God. Man has his own ideas of what clothing should look like, and God goes, no, that's not it. So let's learn of man's need for clothing. Let's look, first of all, where our need began, and this is why I wanted us to read verse 25, because it really sets the stage for the need of clothing. This verse is not accidental, or it's not even incidental. It's there, bright and clear, on purpose, for a purpose. And from the beginning, the relationship between male and female was one that needed no clothing. No covering. They were naked and they were unashamed. It is a difficult thing for us to grasp in our world of self, of self-affirmation and self-glory. Sin has so corrupted us in every way possible. So here it is where it began. There were no clothes and there was no shame. But what did that mean? Well, let's look. First of all, they were unclothed. Their nakedness revealed the reality of their hearts. I thought of that this week, and it just took me a while to try to figure out what it meant to actually be there, unclothed, and it didn't even register. But it revealed their hearts. They were in a condition of pure innocence. It meant that their operating system for living was the divine will of the Creator. And they did it. It's a condition that we know really nothing of outside of God's Word. If God doesn't tell us about this, we would never understand it. They were made in the image of God and in His likeness of holiness, without blemish, without one bit of real need. And as you read the text, Adam exhibits knowledge, great knowledge, as he gives names to the animals. If you can imagine what that would have been like. But he had great ability to take and look at an animal and go that's a giraffe and it wasn't in english i don't know what giraffe is do you know what draft isn't yeah i don't either so i should have looked that up because i'm like that would be interesting to know i don't even know is it possible to look up i'm sure it is right dictionaries i would say that but He had knowledge of this. He exhibited godlike holiness and humility as he found satisfaction and the gratification in his daily fellowship with God. He exhibited righteous thoughts as he acknowledged what a right marriage would be between the relationship between him as a man and her as a woman. So there was this transparency physically that indicated a transparency of heart and mind toward God and toward each other. They were secure in their relationship to each other and to God. And in every way possible, they pleased God and they pleased each other. Stop for a moment and think about that. Here's what it meant. There was nothing for which they needed to ask forgiveness for. There was no fear. There was no regret. There was nothing at all to be embarrassed about. Can't even imagine that. There was nothing there to criticize. They were totally in God's will and were totally secure in His divine plan of sovereignty without any hesitation. I mean, I fumbled for words how to explain what that would have been like. But that's how it was. Unclothed, naked. But with that, I think it's something even greater, is that they were unashamed. And this is the second part. It also is an indication of the heart. Sin had not marred their very existence. And what that meant was that God's word had a powerful effect in the way they lived their lives before each other, and most importantly, how they lived their lives before God. And notice all that God had given to them. Stop and think for a moment all that God had given them. A beautiful world of everything good and right. When the holy just creator of the ends of the earth says, this is very good, and it's yours. It was theirs. It was a cultivated paradise, filled with endless blessing, full dominion over everything that God had made, and God's glory that manifested itself in their hearts and lives as wisdom, power, and goodness, it was all very good. And he gave them each other, male and female, and they had one job. Go. make many people. That's what they were to do together. They were to make many people. And at first, the shame of nakedness is noticeably absent. But then if you continue to read in chapter three, it's almost as if the page was turned. And you look carefully at the contrast that's indicated here in Scripture, and you'll see there's what we call an inclusio. We've talked about this before. Remember, an inclusio is a little sandwich? and you have bread on the outside and in the bottom, and then you have stuff in the middle. All right, look if you would, the last verse of 25, and you see both were naked and were not ashamed. That's the first top part of the bread. Look at the bottom part of the bread in verse seven of chapter three. Then the eyes of them were both open and they knew that they were what? Naked. And then everything in between tells a story. Tells a story. It's a very sad story of humanity shedding its godliness for sin, for evil, for lust, and for pride. And here's where our need for clothing began. Shame floods into their own soul. Sin rears its ugly head and reveals two things, the nakedness of their bodies, and now it's revealed the nakedness of their souls. And for the first time ever, they had need. There was this physical need. But more importantly, there was a spiritual need, a soul need. Up until then, there was no such thing as a need because the Creator had given them everything, including Himself. God had revealed to them His glory, and He even set aside a Sabbath day so that they would do nothing but serve and revel in the glory of God What a life that would have been. But they gave it up. So that's where we begin. But then let's look at where this took us. And we see this verse three, verse 14 and 16 through 19, and we're gonna take this just a little bit at a time, because I want this to kind of settle into your own heart this morning. The only world Adam and Eve knew The man and the woman knew at this point was turned upside down and inside out. Verse seven, scripture says, their eyes were opened. Listen to what Matthew Henry says about this opening of the eyes. He says this, quote, now when it was too late, they saw the folly of eating the forbidden fruit. When it was too late. They saw the happiness they had fallen from and the misery they had fallen into. They saw a loving God provoked, His grace and favor forfeited, His likeness and image lost, and dominion over the creatures gone. They saw their natures corrupted and depraved and felt a disorder in their own spirits of which they had never before been conscious. They saw Elah and their members warring against the law of their minds and captivating them both to sin and to wrath. They saw themselves disrobed of all their ornaments and ensigns of honor, degraded from their dignity and disgraced in the highest degree, laid bare to the contempt and reproach of heaven and earth and their own consciences. It's a pitiful reality, isn't it? And what follows in our text is God exposing the naked truth about sin and death. And I think it's very helpful for us as we end this year and looking forward to the new year to look at this and go, what is the naked truth about sin and death? Well, there's two things that I want you to grab hold of and let the word of God work it into your own heart. First of all, man's complete insufficiency. And we see this in verse seven. Look at verse seven. Then the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Adam and Eve's reaction was immediate and even reflexive. It was like, we must cover ourselves. And so they quickly take what is right at their disposal, what they can provide for themselves, disregarding that God is the ultimate giver of all things. They take fig leaves and they make loincloths of fig leaves. They also had already sought to cover their sin through denial. We didn't read about that, but as you read through the text of chapters two and chapter three, they began to pretend that sin and its consequences wouldn't faze them, and so they hid. And then they tried flight. They ran an attempt to hide from God, and finally the most obvious way in which they tried to fix their predicament is they grabbed hold of fig leaves. These leaves would only cover the outside, and even then it was a limited covering. But what I want you to see is that their conclusions were godless. It excluded God. It excluded the creator. It was a way in which they manipulated the creation in order to transpose themselves into a world that they were completely unaware of. These leaves were lifeless and they no longer were connected to the vine. They would be woefully insufficient and entirely inadequate, not to mention grossly uncomfortable. I always chuckle when I see this. Here's humanity trying to figure out life and they grab on fig leaves and they put it in the place where we're most vulnerable and they're wearing them trying to walk and trying to go through life and pretending that, oh, this is normal, this is fine, this is good. With leaves. I would think there were bugs on those leaves. causing all kinds of discomfort. And in their ignorance, they would present themselves to God in their covering, all while assuming that God wouldn't notice. I mean, if you and I showed up in fig leaves, I think everyone would notice. Don't you? It's always the impulse of unregenerate man to endeavor by some means to address his sin problem on his own. This is why we have so many religions in our world today. This is why we have so many people grasping for so many things. They're grasping for some mechanism in place in life that I can control to cover my own sinfulness. You see, man's addiction to life according to himself drives him to seek, to atone for, to cover, or to remove his own guilt. And Adam and Eve made an apron that would seek to cover their nakedness, but they found that to be futile and insufficient. And in doing this, it actually added to their sin. None can ever solve the sin problems themselves. Isaiah 64, six, Isaiah understood this. He says, but as we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we, he understood this. I never saw this until this week. He says this, we do fade as a leaf. What do you think he's talking about? I think he's pointing back to Genesis going like, oh, that would have been bad. Their fig leaves were insufficient. You see, the problem of sin could not be addressed by millions of years of damnation. Do you understand that? The gravity and the enormity of sin can only be addressed by endless, eternal damnation called death. You see, one cannot atone properly for their sin. And it's only addressed properly by eternity in hell. How does one imagine that during this life, by doing some deeds of his own, he might address sin by stitching together some fig leaves? How could that possibly, logically, be something that mankind would determine? These fig leaves were lifeless and powerless to cover the guilt, and it left them only with a physical covering. This is what I want you to see. It's insufficient. And they didn't realize the nakedness of their soul also needed covering. Insufficient. As you look at your own life, you cannot do enough righteousness to solve your guilt. But second, I want you to see, and this is where we live, man's hopelessness. And you see this in verse 14 and then 16 through 19. I mean, it's glaring. It's like this piece of an orchestra that's playing grossly out of where it was. It reminded me of this week. I kind of chuckled to myself. We were in a very small high school band. I played drums. My brother played bass clarinet. And one of the things that, we were bad, I'm just telling you, when I was in high school, you would not have wanted me ever to be your pastor. And my brother was playing the bass clarinet, and there was a line in one of John Philip Seuss's marches that went, dum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. And my brother and a friend of his that sat next to him playing the baritone, would just during a normal, easy song, all of a sudden, if you were paying attention, you could hear in the background, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, against all, everything else that the rest of the band was playing. And I'd look over at my brother and his friend and they were just cracking up laughing because they were playing something that just never fit. And this is what you see here. You see that this whole area of sin did not fit in the realm of God's glory. And what it did is it left them with hopelessness and the nakedness of their soul. And this nakedness identified, it demonstrated this hopelessness. Because sin had made its bed in the core of their very souls. And it's just like in everything in life, if you listen quietly in our souls, you hear this bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, and we go like, oh, it's there, it's there, it's just there, it's there, it's there. All the things that God had created for them was designed for a glorious revelation of the nature and the character of God. And now, there's only pain, sorrow, sweat, and toil. But notice, what I want you to notice is God doesn't relieve them of their duty. You will give birth, you will give birth to people, but it's going to be painful. Some of you ladies are very familiar with that pain. And there would be this struggle for man to work. He would work and work and work, but that work would be coupled with frustration and disappointment called thistles and thorns. Today we don't have necessarily, although we have ways of fixing it, but we don't deal with true thistles and thorns, but every one of you deal with frustration and disappointment and discouragement at work, and you did this week. And God says this is how it'll be. It will come with great sweat, and eventually it will culminate in their death. Look down at the bottom. of this text where you begin to see what this looked like. Trying to find out where it is. I missed it. I lost it. Sorry. Hang on. I'm gonna skip it. I thought I had it in there. I don't have it in there. But basically it says to dust you were made, to dust you will end. And basically what God is saying is you're not God. You don't control this. You thought you were. You thought in that moment where you could take the fruit, you were God, you can control it. And he goes like, no, you're not. And this is the real crux. This is the hopelessness. They cannot do anything about this. The condition that they're now in, they're in that condition because this is how God has set it up in the character of His holiness and His design. And this is where sin takes you. My friend, life is hopeless. And this hopelessness is brought to humanity as a promise from God. Living without hope is perhaps the center point for all of pain. Cancer has its sharpest point, perhaps, in the fact that it's hopeless, because in all reality, even if there is a cure, it's only for a short period of time. It brings death. And here's, listen carefully, here's where hope can actually aggravate us. We don't think of this much, but hope can sometimes really aggravate us. I'm a bit tired of hope. Those of us who like football, you know where I'm going, had our hopes dashed yet again last week, didn't we? And if you're from Michigan, don't say a word right now. You see, we don't want hope, do we? We want the real thing. We all had hope going into it, like, oh yes, We don't want hope. You don't want hope. You want the real thing. And that's the point of hopelessness. Yet sin has thrown us into this genuine hopelessness because we chose to go our own way. You see, the hope you hook your life into to control you will control your thoughts, will control your desires, your choices, your actions, and your words. And God's real peace is hopelessly lost unless he steps in. Do you understand that? When you take and you remove God out of your life, you are left with hopelessness. So absolutely everything about life is tainted with sin and the curse, and it brings us all to a real sense of hopelessness. And notice God's rule in these verses because of all this. You will see this. And God says, because you have done all of this, look at verse 14. Or verse 16, to the woman, I will surely multiply your pain. I will. Your desire will be contrary, but he will have rule to Adam. He says, because you've listened to the voice of your wife, you have eaten of that which I've commanded you. You shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In your pain, you shall eat of it all your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring. It's this constant mantra of this will happen, and this will happen, and this will happen, and this will happen. You thought you had control, but it's not in your control. And so man is left with hopelessness. It's the way it is. You see, whenever we deviate from God's divine promises, whenever we pretend his promises aren't true, it leaves us with nothing but hopelessness. And hope says, here's the real thing. But our sin goes, nope, I will create my own thing. And God says, you can't create, because you're not God. And we are left naked, desperate, and nowhere to turn. And this is where Adam and Eve were left. Thirdly, I want you to see, the scriptures don't end there. And woven literally into the fabric of this is what God does. And this is what makes this so stunningly beautiful. Notice what God did. Notice the first two words in verse 15, will you? Notice those words? What are those two words? I will. I will. This is God. Now look at verse 21. What's it say? And the Lord God made, You see, my friend, the Creator steps into our hopelessness not with a word of hope, but the promise of the real thing. Verse 15 is what theologians call the Proto-Evangelium, or the first pronunciation of the gospel. And Adam and Eve would struggle to connect the dots, just like you and I struggle to connect the dots. But he does, Adam does connect some of the dots that I'll see this, I'll show you this in just a moment. But here's what I want you to see. In the middle of all this hopelessness, there's first of all the promise of a virgin birth. This is what verse 15's all about. Let me read this again. 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. God speaking to the serpent, Satan, promises an enmity between the offspring or the seed of Satan and the seed of the woman. And any doctor will tell you that the seed of an offspring comes from the man. So essentially God doesn't reveal what woman will give an offspring, but just that a woman will give birth to a seed. Just look at this and you go like, okay, that's odd, if you're listening. And they wouldn't have been able to pick up on that. They wouldn't have been able to necessarily know all that. But I want you to also see that not only is it a woman, but this seed also meant the death of Satan. Because this seed, this person who would come from this woman will crush the serpent's head. And this is where the reality of everything began to set in. And Luther writes this, the promise and threat are both clear and obscure. It left the devil in the dark about what woman should give birth to the seed of the woman, so that Satan had to think that every woman as possibly becoming the mother of the blessed seed. On the other hand, that gave our first parents so great faith that from that very hour they expected the prophecy, they expected the Savior. And Isaiah would later add clarity to the promise by saying, quote, a version shall what? Conceive. And this prophecy made it clear that the Savior was not to be the offspring of the union of a man and a woman. And in the New Testament, this was revealed still more clearly by the angel in Luke chapter one, verses 26 through 38. You say, so how does this work? Well, you see, in hope, we want the real thing, don't we? We don't want a maybe, we don't want a might, we want the real thing, and here it is. God's provision of the only person who could remedy man's hopeless condition. But at this juncture in scripture, it's only a glimmer, it's only a flicker of hope, but notice it is God who is making the promise. Now stop for a moment and notice verse 20. Will you see verse 20 with me? Look down at the verse. He says, then the man called his wife Eve. Up until then, it was woman. It was just woman. Eve didn't have a name. God's promise, Adam heard. Adam heard God's word. Adam heard God's promise, and what does he do? He changes the woman's name. He calls her Eve, and this is very significant. Why? Who does he say she is? Well, what does Eve mean? The mother of the life giver. Adam gets it. He doesn't get everything, but it is obvious that he understands that in sin, He, Adam, has taken on death for himself and for all humanity. But in God's unbelievable kindness and grace and mercy, there is a life giver that is coming through the woman. And so to remind himself of God's kindness and mercy, he calls his wife Eve. You see, the curse reverser is coming through a woman, and Eve will be the mother, but it all comes from God, so hang on in faith. Satan doesn't know when, Satan doesn't know who, but at this point, the only link that Adam has is this woman standing next to him, and so he goes, this is the one who will give birth to the life giver. That's all he could think. And so later, Cain and Abel were born, right? If you remember in our study of Ecclesiastes, Abel gives this slight impression that his name means life. This is him. And every one that was born that came out a male, this is him. Maybe this is the woman. Maybe this is the seed. And time, after time, after time, after time, after time, after time, God said, nope, not yet. Nope, not yet. You see, my friend, this is breathtaking. This is Eve having to be able to put things together, and he's sitting there going like, this is her. All right, this could be her. And what a gift that would have been to those people in this hopeless condition. The point is, the flicker of hope, the dim candle in a dark cave that sin brought into the world, is only vanquished by Jesus. Not some conniving, not some man or woman trying to make things right. It only comes by Jesus, and Jesus is given to us by God. Because he is God. So God comes and brings this virgin birth story. They can't figure it out, they don't know how it's gonna work, but we know now, because we have the story, we have the full story. But this is why we have Christmas. But notice secondly, God brings them new clothes. You see this in verse 21? God does something very extraordinary. God gives Adam and Eve the gift of new clothes. This could be the first Christmas. I love getting clothes at Christmas, don't you? They got new clothes. Why? Because it's what they would need for the very near future that was staring them down. They don't know this yet, but God is about ready to expel them out of the garden. And they're gonna need something more than flimsy fig leaves to endure. And so God cares for them in this gift because these clothes are not from L.L. Bean or they're not from REI. They're not something from living out into the world of trees and hiking. No, my friend, this is living life. These are clothes from the skins of animals. And my friend, every single part of this new garment is pointing us to the Redeemer, the promised seed, the giver of life. You say, how? Two ways. One, it's the skin of an innocent animal. This meant that an animal had to be killed and Adam and Eve had been warned that eating of the fruit that was forbidden would result in death, but they didn't know what death looked like. They had not seen death. There had not been any death, only life. They did not give any experience conceptually of how death would look like. They had no hook to hang death on in their thinking. They thought then of putting an animal to death, the thought of that would have been hard for them to grasp, and I'll be honest with you, it's hard for me to grasp. I can't, I know you guys that are out there slicing up those deer and all this kind of stuff, I'm going like more power to you, I can't pull the trigger on that. I'm thinking of Tater, I'm thinking of Bambi, you know, that's just me. And I can imagine Adam and Eve, they wouldn't be thinking of Bambi, but they would be thinking like, what in the world is this? I mean, the thought of having to peel its skin away from the dead carcass in order to make a covering for them was something they could not have conceived. And the only way that the skin of an animal can be transformed into clothing for them is another one who knows the science of that, who enters the scene in order to take that skin and make that clothing. This is God. This is exactly what God did for them and does for you and for me today. No man knows anything on how in his own effort he can address the problem of sin, but there has never been a man save Christ himself who had any notion of how sin could be atoned for, but Christ did come and he was the only one who could make atonement for sin. So only God could hand unto man the remedy for his spiritual nakedness and shame. So God on that day hands them their only hope. in new clothes. Amazing grace. And secondly, it's a plan of atonement. Try to imagine what it must have been for them as they saw this take place. They'd never seen blood before, probably. I doubt very much that they had. There'd been no injury that would cause bloodshed. I mean, what is blood? They will see it for the first time as they witness the death of this animal. And as Adam and Eve doubtless stood by and observed this very first death ever to stain this planet. I mean, we've all seen dead animals. Perhaps we've been involved in the slaughter of animals, but it's not a pleasant circumstance. Even if it's a matter of slaughtering an animal in order that you might put food on your table, it's still not pleasant. I always think of this, I do. The animal must be domesticated enough to trust you as you lead it to the place of slaughter. That's why they tell you never to name a cow or a pig. It's there beside you and it's trusting you. And it is somewhat disconcerting as you proceed because you must put the animal down. There must be this bleeding of the animal. So the blood courses out and if you've cut the correct artery to release the blood, so I've been told, it comes streaming out and the beast grows weaker and weaker. And you can imagine Adam and Eve, they stand in there naked watching as a pitiful animal succumbs to the curse of their sin to provide for their covering. And this was God's plan. And as time goes by, this would happen over and over and over and over and over again for hundreds of years until one day, a strange man emerges from the wilderness, preaching faith and repentance and points to Jesus and says, behold, the Lamb of God. That would take the sins of the world. What a day that was. The promise of Genesis 3.15 is revealed. This is Him. This is Him. Can you imagine if you were in tune at all with the Old Testament going like, oh, did you hear what He said? This is Him. But Scripture says He came into His own and His own did what? It can't be Him. Look at Him. This is not a king. Where's he from? Nazareth? Those hillbillies, those people up there, they can't possibly be any good. That's what they said. Couldn't be Jesus. Not of faith. But of figs, leaves, once again. Trusting in fig leaves, once again. A woman gives birth to the giver of life. Genesis doesn't tell us all of this, and Adam and Eve would hang onto God's promises, and every day as they put their clothes on, it was a reminder of their need, a reminder of what they lost, a reminder of all that God would do only through Christ. So today, we sit here this morning in our clothes as a reminder, we not only need external covering, to face this world, but most importantly, we need the internal covering of His righteousness. And my friend, that only comes through Jesus. You will not find this at Penny's. So three lessons from clothing this morning. One, the lesson of complete dependency upon Christ. This is why we say over and over and over, in Christ alone. My friend, you will not succeed in the Christian life until you grasp that little word alone. It's not Christ and my degree. It's not Christ and my intellect. It's not Christ and my gifts. No, no, no. In Christ alone. All through church history, the church has veered off course because they refused to believe the promises of God as seen through Jesus Christ. And my friend, you and I struggle every day because we refuse to believe that Christ is enough. Secondly, the lesson of mercy. Sin means man needs a covering for the nakedness of the guilty soul. 1 John 2 says, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he goes on to say, and he is the propitiation for our sins. Beautiful words. The Greek word for propitiation is the same word that is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for mercy seat. And the Holy of Holies, the blood of the slain animals were poured upon the mercy seat to remove the guilt of sinners on the day of atonement. And this was finished when Christ poured out his blood as the final innocent lamb gave of his blood for the atonement of our sins. Our sins are propitiated fully today and we are clothed in his perfect righteousness because he is merciful. And every day, God knowing us intimately, we wake up and we have breath. It's because he is merciful. Learn the lesson of mercy. And thirdly, The lesson of faith. Adam and Eve couldn't put it all together in their minds. I mean, I applaud Adam. He got it. Parts of it. How should they live? How can we endure? We're leaving the garden. How do we endure? Trust the promises of God, the promise that God had just given them. And what that means is that God is God, and that what God says is exactly what he means. To listen to God's word this season, my friend, Jesus is clothing you with his perfect righteousness. You need nothing else. and He will fill your journey towards this Christmas with great peace. Rejoice in Him alone. You are wrapped in the oldest and most famous fashion, the best fashion you could ever wear, and that is His divine forgiveness. Wear it proudly. Wear it humbly. Wear it in worship. bow at the feet of the Lamb of God who took away your sin. You see, my friend, we need clothing. We need it externally, for sure, but most importantly, the righteousness of Christ that he gives freely to us. Will you pray with me this morning? Father in heaven, what an absolute gift you've given to us. What a Christmas. We don't need snowmans, we don't need reindeer. We need to bow before the lamb who spilled his blood. Father, be our God, cause our hearts to rejoice in the virgin birth of our Savior, cause our hearts to rejoice that this gift that has been promised through Genesis 3.15, this plan of atonement that you put into place, and it was all done through Christ, and may we stand firm today because of the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. And Father, let our hearts rejoice. Turn our hearts away from discouragement, the thorns, the thistles. Turn our hearts from the abhorrent pain that we've been writhing through all year, and cause our hearts to look at the Christ, at the cross, pouring out His blood, make an atonement for our sin, and cause our hearts to rejoice. May we smile. the smile of forgiveness. May we know the weightlessness of forgiveness. God, you be our God. Let us rejoice in you, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.