invite you now to turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3. I'm going to read verses 20 through 24. And here we see that Adam and Eve are making a transition, a transition to living by faith, faith in God's promise of a Savior. So Genesis chapter 3, verses 20 through 24. Our sermon this morning will focus on 20 and 21. This is the Word of God. 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. Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us and knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. he drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." Well, for our New Testament reading, I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 1. You can find that on page 807 of your Pew Bibles. I read Matthew 1, verses 18 through 23, and we see the promise of Genesis 3.15. We see this promise now fulfilled in the birth of our Lord Jesus. So Matthew 1, verses 18 through 23, this is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, just being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son. and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from the sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord endures forever and ever. Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, as we have now heard your holy word, we ask that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit. Soften our hearts so that we might delight at this time, sitting at your feet, listen to Christ preach to us, sharpen our minds that we may discern your truth, and shape our wills that we may desire your ways. Amen. Now, there's a very famous book in our household that's been there for many years. I'm not sure it's there anymore, but there for years and years, and it's called The Bug Book. If memory serves, the real name of The Bug Book is Phonics Pathways, and it's a book that teaches kids how to read. And there's this cute little bug. It looks like a little caterpillar. It's probably supposed to be a bookworm, but it has legs and stuff. So this caterpillar bookworm shows up all over the place. So we called it the bug book. It's time for school. Go get your bug book. Well, at least Gwen said that. I didn't really do much. I helped plan. I was the planner, she was the executor, okay? So, but as expected, you know, thinking about a book that would teach children how to read, first it starts with identifying the letters of the alphabet and then the sounds, and then after you get the letters and the sounds, then it would start to put two you know, a consonant and a vowel together that's called a blend. So, B-A becomes B-A, then eventually you get a T on the end there, so it's B-A-T, and they're going B-A-T, you know, B-A-T, and they're putting this together, and then slowly, after many blends and these things, it starts with more, it goes on to more difficult words, and it breaks up the syllables, and after you take a couple years going through the book, your kids can read at about a fifth grade level. It's a pretty amazing tool and Gwen taught all of our kids how to read. So you can ask her about that later now if you want that homeschool resource. But the point here is that learning to read begins with something very simple. Simple letter identification. then it moves on to the sounds those letters make, then blends, then very short words, and then multiple syllable words, and so on. And as human beings, this is how we learn and grow. The very simplest of foundation is laid, and that forms a scaffolding or a structure, and then as we learn more, that scaffolding and structure gets filled in, and it gets more detailed, and it gets more complex. But all those ideas and skills, they build on a simple foundation. Well, this is also how God helps his church to grow and mature in love and knowledge of God throughout the ages. After the fall, God promises a savior. Well, this was brand new to Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve had to learn something that they didn't know about before. They didn't know that they needed a Savior before the fall. They had to begin to learn what it means to live by faith. Faith in the promised Savior King. And this is where Israel needed to start as well. They knew a bit more in some ways than Adam and Eve, but they just spent 400 years breathing the air of idolatrous Egypt. And they also needed to go back to the very beginning. In fact, that's where all of us need to start, and that's with the basics. So what we have in Genesis 1 through 3, what we've been going through, this is really the alphabet of redemption, especially our verses we're focusing on, Genesis chapter 3, verses 20 and 21. It's the alphabet. It's the basics. It's the foundation of faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ. So as we continue to look specifically at this early lesson in redemption, it's going to encourage us to see that immediately after the fall, God begins executing his plan of redemption. And we'll see that the way of salvation for the people of God has always been faith alone in the person and work of Christ alone. So our main idea this morning is salvation is by faith alone and is accomplished by God alone. We have two points, new name and new clothes. So in our first point, we see that Adam is learning how to live by faith as he gives Eve a new name. In verse 20, we read, the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. So we have two observations to make about verse 20. First, we do see that Adam continues to exercise his authority over God's creation. He's now fallen, but his pre-fall role as God's vice regent over creation continues. He named the animals before the fall, and now he names his wife, literally in Hebrew, it doesn't say his wife, it says his woman, after the fall. So we see that Adam's role of head of the household and our covenant head, that remains for those that are still in Adam. And I guess before this event, we might kind of wonder they were together for at least a day here, or maybe this is all happened on one day, or maybe this is day two, but probably day one. Before this event, what did he call her? Well, He called her, I don't know, woman, wifey-poo, bone of my bones. But I just got some ideas here for you, gentlemen. So, the Hebrew word for woman is isha, all right? So, when it says his woman, that's ishtu. Well, that's his woman. So, I was thinking this morning, well, what's my woman? Well, I think, and someone, a better Hebrew scholar than me could correct me, but I think that ish, ish, Ish two would be his woman, and Ish me, I think it would be Ish me, or something like that. I can think of the vowels that go in there. But something like Ish me might be my woman. So you guys might wanna start trying that. I tried it out this morning. Gwen said it was a no-go. But so Adam names his beloved woman and his wife Eve, and we see that right after the fall, another thing we notice is that the marriage union continues. The marriage union continues after the fall. They're not divorced because they just can't get along. In naming his wife, what we see here is a reference or perhaps even a proof text for what our Lord Jesus says about marriage in Matthew 19. What therefore God has joined together, let man not separate. Now, later on, and because of serious sin, God will establish legitimate reasons for a divorce. But here, we see that the bond of marriage is sacred, and it's important, and it should not be easily broken. And we need to be reminded of this because we live in a culture that's often very quick to divorce. And we have some evidence here that God's intention, even after the fall, that it's pleasing to God to work through the difficulties of marriage. We can think of the difficulties that they would have had, or how often they may have recalled what happened in the garden that day, and yet they continue as husband and wife. So it is something for us to note here. So the name Eve, though, has its roots in a Hebrew word, hayah, which means living thing, or some of us might know of the Jewish toast to life, l'chaim, right? Some of us might be familiar with that, especially if you've seen Fiddler on the Roof. So Adam named Eve a derivative from the word for living things. because she would be the mother of all humanity. All men and women that would ever live on the earth would have Eve as their mother. We'll make another observation here. This is a proof text, so to speak, against evolution that people evolved from animals. And increasingly, and actually not so surprisingly, science is actually starting to get on the board with us having one common mother. Some of the new science teaches, they analyze what they call mitochondrial DNA. And by the way, mitochondrial, it has the word mitochondria in it. If you remember your sixth grade science, Right, everyone remembers that? I was a sixth grade science teacher for a while. Mitochondria are small organelles found within the cytoplasm of most animal cells, primarily responsible for generating the chemical energy needed to power the cell's biochemical reactions. In other words, in sixth grade, what that is, is these are the powerhouses of the cell. And when I taught it, I had a little lightning bolt for the mitochondria. So mitochondria are part of a cell. And so now modern science is starting to see the connection of all human beings through researching this mitochondrial DNA and tracing it back to one mother, one woman. and they still don't look to the Eve of the Bible, because that can't be the answer, right? But they refer to this unknown person as mitochondrial Eve. So what we see here is just, this is just another blast from the things that God made, his natural revelation, general revelation, that kind of take a canon and blow the theory of evolution apart. as even modern science now points the existence of Eve as the mother of all human beings. There's another homeschool lesson for you. So we've had a reading lesson, we've had a science lesson already, but there's something that's much more important going on here. There's something much more important about Adam's naming of Eve as the mother of all the living. And this is what it is. Adam and naming his wife Eve, this is proof that Adam believes God's promise given to him in Genesis 3.15. In Genesis 3.15, we saw God pronounce judgment upon the serpent. And by doing so, he pronounced hope for Adam and Eve with these words. I will put enmity, remember that's conflict, war, kids. I will put enmity between you and the woman. between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." So by naming Eve the mother of all the living, Adam shows evidence that he's learning to live by faith in the promises of God. He believed that life on earth would continue and that his dear bride, his Ishti, would one day give birth to the serpent-crushing Savior. Now, in our call to worship, we read from Hebrews 11, the Bible's description of faith. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, and without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. So Adam did not have one child yet, but he believed that children were coming. He believed that one day a son of Eve would be victorious over the serpent. That evil serpent who deceived and conquered Adam in the garden would be crushed by one of Eve's future sons. Adam believed this. This was his hope. we see that Adam quickly learns how to live by faith. Even before Abraham, we see that Adam believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. So here we begin to learn that from the beginning, salvation is by faith alone, in and through Christ alone. Even right after the fall, Adam learned to live by faith. Israel would need to learn by faith, and we also need to learn to live by faith. Because without faith, it is impossible to please God. Now we also know that faith is a gift. Faith is a work of God the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and it's by grace that we are saved, and this is a gift of grace. Paul reminds us of this in Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God. Faith is the gift of God. And this saving faith also has an object. It's not just an undefined faith. It's not an optimism or a confidence or a general, you know, glasses is half full sort of faith, even though I really like the band and like the song. It's not just journeys don't stop believing. That's not what it is. This saving faith has an object. It's faith in Jesus Christ. Christ that was promised and Christ that has come as we read of in Matthew chapter 1. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. This reminds all of us here this morning that the only way of salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ. This is how Adam was saved. This is how Abraham was saved. Faith in Christ is the only way of salvation. We're reminded of this in John 14, 6, where Jesus himself says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And in Acts chapter 4, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke tells us, And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. If you trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior even this morning, then rejoice, your sins are forgiven, and even now you have new resurrection life. What Adam and Eve and the Old Testament saints looked forward to, what they saw dimly and in shadows and was fuzzy for them, we now see in the full light of New Testament day. And we sang of God's marvelous grace earlier in the service, praising our God that we've received it. There's another stanza to that song in some hymnals. It's marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe, all who are longing to see His face. Will you this moment His grace receive? If you have received this grace, praise the Savior, now and you will forever. But if you've still not received this grace, You can see that from the very beginning, there's only one way of salvation. And that is the way of the Son of Eve. It is the way of Christ. So I pray that you stop trying every other way to please God. Come to Him. By faith alone, come to Christ alone, without faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone, it is impossible to please God. Let's keep going to the next verse. Along with Adam and Eve, in the next verse, we see that, well, we saw that Christ is the promised Savior, and now in verse 21, we learn a little bit more about this Savior's work. In verse 21, we read of Adam and Eve's new clothes. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Now the explanation for this is pretty simple. It's a simple verse to explain and understand. Adam and Eve, we know that they attempted to cover their own sin and their own shame with some leaves. And we know that that attempt would be inadequate. It would be a sorry attempt. And as those leaves died, they would get itchy, and they would shrink, and they wouldn't serve their purpose anymore, and they would be making these new sorry attempts at clothing every single day to hide their shame. They needed something better. Well, God puts his tailor hat on, so to speak. He must find a nice-sized animal. He has to kill that animal to get the skins. He finds a nice, good-sized animal that's durable, that's soft, and he makes some custom leather clothing for Adam and for Eve. I suppose moccasins might be the oldest footwear in the world. So this is what happens in this verse. And there's a lot that we can learn about salvation and the work of Christ from this. We learn that God alone is the author of salvation. Adam's efforts in covering his own shame are inadequate. God alone can provide a covering for sin and shame. God provides clothing and he does it through the shedding of blood. This is the first sacrifice that we see here. Adam and Eve's sin and shame is covered by the death and blood of another. So we see this is where the idea and the concept of sacrifice comes into the mind of man. You wonder, why do all the religions of the world, especially the ancient ones, have some sense of sacrifice? Well, this is why. it traces back to Adam. But Adam, or what God is doing here, He's teaching Adam and Eve the ABCs of redemption. He's teaching them, giving them the theological category that sacrifice and the shedding of blood is needed to cover sin and shame. just as the writer to the Hebrews reminds us in chapter 9. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Well, in this case, it's an animal, and even this covering is going to wear out, but it points to that greater once-and-for-all covering for our sin and shame. It points us to the bloodshed and the death of Jesus Christ for us to cover all of our sins. And not only are our sins covered, but because of Christ's perfect obedience, we're also provided with new clothes. Robes of His righteousness are now ours. This is all here in basic form in verse 20 and 21. Now, if this is a brand new thought for you and you're wondering, how do we see this here? I haven't seen Christ prefigured in these verses before. Well, when you hear something brand new, it's okay to wonder about it. What you want to do is then look to other scriptures and say, well, can I see that in other places? Well, we see this concept of sacrifice and all pointing to Christ. We see that throughout the scriptures. Something else that you do. is that you consult other wise Christians in church history. We're not the first folks to read the Bible. So one of the wisest theologians that America has ever produced is Jonathan Edwards. So this quote is a bit longer than you're supposed to read as a pastor. Take note of that, our young seminarian. but since I've been doing this for almost a decade now, I'll read a longer quote. I thought you'd hear. Listen to what Jonathan Edwards says about this, and this is probably around 1740-something. He says, God made them coats of skin and clothed them. These skins that Adam and Eve were clothed with were the skins of their sacrifices. God's clothing with them in these was a lively figure of their being clothed with the righteousness of Christ. This clothing was no clothing of their own obtaining. It was God who gave it to them. It said, God made them coats of skins and clothed them. As the righteousness of our naked souls are clothed with is not our own righteousness, but the righteousness of God. It is he only that clothes the soul. Our first parents who were naked were clothed at the expense of life. Beasts were slain and resigned up their lives as sacrifice to God to afford clothing to them to cover their nakedness. So doth Christ to afford clothing to our naked souls. Thus, our first parents were covered with the skins of sacrifices to signify that Christ's righteousness was wrought out through the pains of death under which he shed his precious blood." Now, Sounds better because it's Edwards. Ours' explanation is even a bit more clearer. But Edwards saw these things in these verses and earlier he mentioned that this is the common view of the divines, the Puritans of his day and that came before him. So there are multiple pictures of sacrifice that we have in the Bible, that sacrifice is needed to cover sin throughout Israel's history. This is the first sacrifice. We know that there are tons of, that's why we get stuck in Leviticus, what's that about? Here's what it's about, it's teaching you about the necessity of the blood of Jesus Christ. There's the Passover lamb, there's the priestly requirements for the tabernacle, and so on, and so on. And all these things lay the foundation for the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ. Through these sacrifices, God teaches His people that salvation is by faith alone in the work of Eve's Son, Christ alone. And that the covering of sin involves death and the shedding of blood. And it shows us our need for a righteousness that is not our own. We need a righteousness that we cannot earn, that someone earns for us and gives us and that's ours forever and ever. This is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And now, as New Testament Christians. We can see in Genesis chapter 3, verses 20 and 21, this is an early picture of salvation by faith alone, through Christ alone. Even back in Genesis here in general, through the first Adam, second Adam structure, we see it, through Adam's headship and then pointing to Christ as our covenant head, through the promise of the gospel, the promise of a son who would crush the head of the serpent. And now we see Adam's faith in this promise and God making a way to cover sin and shame through the shedding of blood. Here we have an early picture of that most blessed teaching of the church of justification, our justification. The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks what is justification and summarizes it in this way. Justification is an act of God's free grace wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. And we see the seeds of this glorious justification even here in our passage. Westminster Confession of Faith 11.6 adds this, the justification of believers under the Old Testament was in all respects one and the same with the justification of believers under the New Testament. So what do we do with this this morning as New Testament Christians? What we see is that we see that our salvation by faith alone, through the person of Christ alone, is not something that the Reformation invented. It has always been God's plan for salvation for his people. This means that we can be confident that when John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world, that we're included in that, that those are our sins. If you trust in Christ alone, you can rejoice that salvation of Adam and Eve is yours, that the faith of Abraham is yours, that you are heirs of everlasting life with believing Israel, and that you have fellowship with Jesus Christ and all the saints of God that have gone before you around the world and even today this morning. Our confidence is old. as creation itself. Our confidence is not in our own works, it is in the work of Christ for us. And we are not alone, and this is how God has been saving His people ever since the fall. Ever since the fall. And we're gonna have a reminder of this in just a moment as we dine together at the Lord's table. As we dine at the marriage supper of the Lamb, we get another visible reminder of what we say here. So as we conclude and we also prepare our hearts to come to this table. Let us remember that we get a visible sermon here. We get another clear picture of the person and work of Jesus Christ, of his body broken for us, of his blood shed to forgive us our sins, and that he was perfectly obedient to the will of God and gives us his righteousness, and that he continues to feed us. This is a visible sermon. We'll be reminded of these things. As we do, let us praise God that our salvation is unchanged from before. the foundation of the world. Let's pray. Our God and Father, we give you thanks for the comfort of our salvation that it is by faith alone through the work of Christ alone. For we know, Lord, that if our salvation was up to us to discover on our own or to earn on our own, we would fail. We would fail and we would never be saved. But Lord, since salvation is all grace, all the work of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we can now be confident, confident knowing that our salvation is secure, that you keep us, and that you're continuing to prepare us for that time that will come soon, when we will no longer live by faith, but by sight. Praise God, in Jesus' name, amen.