Turning once again to the Word of God and this third chapter of Genesis, I'll read at this time verse 8 and 9 and verse 21. We'll be looking especially at 8 through 15 and then also verse 21, just some lessons here in terms of how the Lord deals with Adam and also his wife Eve. Genesis 3, verse 8 and 9. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And then verse 21. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. Thus far, God's holy word. Well, in our series that we start tonight on various character studies in Old and New Testament, we start where the Bible starts, with Adam. And I wonder what you think of when you think of Adam. Children, you too, what do you think of when you think of Adam? Well, three things come to my mind. Adam was the first person who ever lived. He was created first. He was the first to see this wonderful world that the Lord had made. He was given the charge of naming the animals. His feet walked this earth first of all created beings, at least human beings. So he was the first person ever made. And he was placed under the covenant of works, a covenant in which the Lord said to him, Adam, do this and you will live forever. And Adam, if you disobey me, you will die forever. We call that the covenant of works with probationary command. You can eat from any tree in the garden. From this one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. In the day you eat of it, you will surely die. So Adam was the first person, and Adam was also the first sinner, of course with his wife Eve, but together they were the first sinners. Adam took the fruit and ate it, disobeying God, and casting himself and all his posterity into great ruin. into utter ruin in one moment. He was the first sinner. This man who had been created at such a height, he fell, didn't he, to such a depth. But, and this is what we want to especially see today. He was not only the first person and the first sinner, but he was also the first saved. Again, together with Eve, we may believe, and we hope to point that out and prove that to you from the Scriptures. And this Adam and his salvation is a pattern for all who would come after. Not in all the externals, not in all the measure perhaps, but as we go through this chapter, especially the middle section, you'll see how God has set a pattern of how he deals with sinners still today, so many thousands of years since Adam. This speaks, by the way, of the majesty and the beauty of the scriptures. The scriptures are one. They give us one message. You would expect if this was man's book, that what was written in Genesis by one person would be very different than what was written in another part. But it all comes together, it all coheres. Yes, there are minor differences, but the essential way of dealing with sinners is the same. And that's why we bring this to you tonight, because what Adam needed, you need. All of us, you children too, and the world needs. And this is the message that the Lord would have us know and believe and spread throughout the world. And so our theme very briefly tonight with the Lord's help is, The Almighty Deals With Adam. First of all, as a pursuing judge, summoning him to his bar, as a pursuing judge summoning him to his bar. And we see this especially in verses 8 through 13. Man has sinned, and as a result there is this great gulf between him and God. And not only a separation between him and God, but a separation between him and his wife. And immediately they are estranged. They are now strangers of God and strangers of each other. And they hide, don't they? They hide in the trees. And they sow for themselves fig leaves. They need some covering. They realize in an instant that they are no longer what they were. That great guilt has come upon them. And the curse is upon them. And they seek to shelter. And that's what we all do by nature, is we are born under this covenant of works. And as a result, we all have to some extent in our conscience, we have some sense that things aren't right, that we have sinned. And so even you children, when you sin in your family and you do something your parents say you shouldn't do, a lot of times you hide. When you take something, or you do something, and you hide behind closed doors, or under your bed, or under a blanket, you hide, you need some covering, and all of us are like that. I was like that, your minister was like that, we all have that. We want to cover ourselves, and we feel in our conscience that things aren't right, and they need to be made right, but we can't make them right, we've done something. And there's now a big gap, a big hole, a big separation. And down deep we don't even want it to be right, not by nature, no. And so there were Adam and Eve hiding. And none of this is a surprise. But what is a surprise is that there comes the Lord. in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.' And indeed man died spiritually, but he didn't die yet physically. The process of death was coming underway. And eternal death was there waiting man because of his sin. But that was held back. Man's heart was still beating. He was still On the earth, He was in the day of grace. And there, what's coming? Who's coming? It says here that the voice of the Lord God was walking in the garden. What that looked like, we don't know. But Adam and Eve, who had communed with their Maker, oftentimes before now, the voice of the Lord, which once had been so precious to them, so near and dear to them, now was a fearful thing. And they were hiding. The voice of the Lord was walking. The Word of the Lord was walking in the garden. This is none other than whom we know as the Lord Jesus Christ before His incarnation, the voice, the one of whom the Bible says that He was in the beginning with God, the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. And forth from the throne of God comes this voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. This means the evening of the day. when in the ancient Near East the wind begins to blow as a marker of night. It's a refreshing time normally, but it must have been an ominous time for Adam and Eve because the sun was going to set and darkness would come. And though in the created state that wouldn't have been a problem at all, the stars would have donned the firmament, this would have been glorious and majestic. But for the sinner, for Adam and Eve, the darkness of night would have been horrifying, right? Where you can't see a thing. And yet here in the cool of the day, in the evening, as the day is, as the dusk is falling, there comes the voice of the Lord. God's seeking, His fallen image-bearer. Called! Where art thou? And then comes this exchange between God and Adam, and Eve as well. and the serpent. But we'll focus especially on verse 8 and then verse 11 and verse 13. There are questions that the Lord is asking. After He has said where, He now in verse 11 says who? And in verse 13 He says what? There's an inquisition going on, isn't there? The Lord is summoning His image bearer to His bar, and He is pursuing Adam as a judge. Adam must give account before the Lord. He has sinned against the Lord. And it is before the Lord that he must give an account. That's what the Bible makes clear. We shall all one day give an account. for what we have done in the body, whether it be good or whether it be evil. In a certain sense you could say that in this moment God has set up his judgment bar and he calls Adam to appear before him and to give an account. But it's not yet the final day. It's not yet the last day, the day of judgment. He brings Adam to account still in the day of grace, even though Adam wouldn't have known that word. But something of that. He's still alive. He's still not in hell. And God says, answer these questions, where, who, and what? Well my friend, has the Lord ever done that to you? No, I asked that wrong. The Lord does that to you. Have you heard it? Because every time the Bible is opened, and every time your conscience speaks, if we don't sear it and dull it, the Lord is asking these penetrating questions of you and of me. Where? Who? What? It's inquisition time. It's judgment time. Now man by nature closes his ear to this. He won't hear this. He runs away from this. In fact, he puts God before his judgment bar. And he puts questions to God. Where? What? Who? But dear friends, that is folly. That is wicked. That is rebellious. That is wretched. If you unpack these questions, if you were to study this later, or on some other occasion, you'll see that the Lord does three things in these questions. He lays bare their sin against Him. What is this that thou hast done? Hast thou eaten from the tree of which I said, don't eat? He's pointing His finger on the transgression Did you do what I told you not to do? Did you disobey? And that's what the Lord does when He convicts us of our sin. He puts His finger on our sin. He lays bare our unrighteousness. And also He lays bare all our excuses. Notice how all of these questions are responded to by both Adam and Eve with excuses. Adam points to the woman. And the woman points to the serpent. And you and I, by nature, we point every direction except to ourselves. And the Lord, in His Word, He lays that bare. And when He works to convict us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, He makes us to see that everything that we bring against God, no matter what it is, It's all an excuse. It can't stand before Him. It's really a damnable excuse. It's such a miracle that the moment that Adam blames his wife Eve, that the Lord doesn't just wipe him off the earth and send him to hell forever. Has it ever become a miracle to you? For so long you made excuses. for your condition, for your sin. Or maybe you make resolves, or you determine within yourself, I'm going to do better. But it doesn't matter. It's all vain. And in the process, the Lord not only lays bare their unrighteousness and their excuses, but also their self-righteousness. course the symbol of this was the fig leaves, the aprons that they made. They thought they could cover themselves. It was a symbol of the fact that we can appear somewhat like we were. We can cover our shame. We can cover our sin. And like I said children, we all try to do that. when your parent finds out something that you've done wrong, then maybe you'll point to your brother or your sister or maybe you'll give excuses. I didn't know or I didn't mean or or resolves. I'm going to do better. I really am going to do better. But when God works in your heart, then He lays all these things bare, and they can't stand before His judgment seat. They are nothing but more guilt, and more guilt, and more guilt. So the Lord reveals Himself here, first of all, as a pursuing judge, delivering a summons summoning Adam to his bar. But dear friends, what happens next is utterly astounding, especially in light of what we just saw. The Lord God addresses Himself now to the serpent. And He really displays Him here, as I say in my second point, as a gospel warrior. making a declaration of war against Satan and sin. So the Lord moves here from being a judge, a pursuing judge, to summon man at his bar. He now shows himself to be a gospel warrior who issues a declaration of war. Where do you see that, you ask? Listen to the words even just a verse 14, the second half. Because thou hast done this, God says to Satan, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. Already there, the Lord makes clear that He is after Satan. Satan who has taken on the form of this serpent here, who has possessed the serpent, and guised himself in the serpent. The Lord addresses him here, and He says, as it were, Satan, don't think you're going to escape. Don't think you're going to get away with this. Cursed, Satan. On your belly you will go. Up to this point it's likely that this serpent could move differently, more freely than here. The Lord really gives him a visible curse, Satan. You're going to be limited to slithering around on the earth. You're going to be limited to going on your belly and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. So God gives here already a sense of a prospect that Satan won't escape. Satan will and is cursed. And Satan will suffer defeat. And the Lord goes on to speak more fully about this in verse 15, where He gives this glorious declaration, which I trust you know and probably know by heart, even you children. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now there's so much in this. I want you to see, first of all, that this is a glorious declaration of war against Satan. You know, children, when two nations go to battle against each other, they usually make some or other declaration of war. And they'll say something like, we declare you to be our enemy, and we will fight you till the bitter end. We'll do whatever it takes to put you down." And they might make that a public declaration of war, or they might just send planes and just visibly and physically make that declaration of war. In other words, you are to meet your end. Now, you'd expect that the Lord would do this to Adam and to Eve. The Lord says, not now against Adam and Eve, at least not carte blanche completely. He says, I will put enmity between you, Satan, and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. What you thought you could unite, namely you, Satan, and humanity, I'm going to I'm going to put enmity. I'm going to break up that union, that alliance, that coalition that you have made. Dear friends, when you listen to these words, you hear a declaration of peace to a lost humanity. Someone has put it like this. Adam and Eve were allowed to listen to the first gospel sermon. It wasn't preached in a certain sense to them. It was preached against Satan. But they could listen in. And they could hear about God's plan and purpose which was in His heart from all eternity. That He had devised a way. to take fallen man back into union with himself through the son of his love, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was to be born of a woman, born under the law, the seed of the woman, the descendant of Eve in the fullness of time, the second Adam. And he would bruise, that's crush, Satan's head. But he would pay for it. He would pay a price. And the first indication of the cross, dear friends, is in this verse. Thou shalt bruise his heel. Meaning the seed of the woman will come in the fullness of time, and he will do a complete work. He will execute what I am telling you, Satan, right now. Nothing will be left of you. You will go down into the bottomless pit forever, into outer darkness forever. But it will be at the price of the crushed heel. of My Son, the seed of the woman. As Isaiah says, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And here the Lord Jesus Christ, as it were, in this first gospel sermon that Adam and Eve could hear, He comes as the champion of a lost, hell-worthy people. Lost and utterly undone. The Lord will not allow Adam and Eve And all those throughout the whole of history, upon whom his hand would come, would believe in his Son, he would not allow them to perish. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." Dear friends, here was the first intimation of a blood-bought salvation, which those of you who believe in Christ, you have. You have because of Him, because of the champion. because of what was in the heart of the triune God from all eternity, and especially in the heart of this champion who said, Father, I go. Let my heel be bruised. Not just that. I give myself an offering for sin. What Adam could never do, what Eve nor any of my people could ever do, I will do. And I will do to the utmost and forever. Oh dear friends, do you see the miracle of God's dealings with fallen Adam and fallen Eve? He comes not only as a judge summoning them to his bar, but he comes also secondly as a gospel warrior, declaring the gospel in this declaration of war against Satan. But the Lord would be a perfect savior, and that's where verse 21 shows the Lord to be a perfect Savior. It's an amazing thing, you know. In all of this, Adam doesn't lift a finger. He doesn't do a thing. He can't do a thing. Everything Adam does just brings more sin upon himself. In this gospel sermon speaks about a righteousness outside of Adam, to which Adam cannot contribute. In fact, Adam's not even mentioned in this gospel sermon. The Lord in a certain sense sovereignly passes him by. I will put enmity between thee, Satan, and the woman, between thy seed, Satan, and the woman's seed. It shall bruise thy head, and he, that's the seed of the woman, thou shalt bruise his heel. Adam's not not part of that. Adam's not a contributor to that. The Lord passes Adam by, and Adam has to sit back and watch what the Lord will do. And to our flesh that is so hard. To Adam's flesh no doubt as well. But dear friends that's God's way, and it's the way of grace, and it's a beautiful way, and it's a way that we learn to approve. And we don't want it another way, do you? Would you want a salvation to which you had to contribute? The only thing that Adam does is in verse 17, is in verse 20. And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And what he was saying there was, he was giving a profession of faith. In saying in so many words that the Lord has promised a seed of the woman. The Lord is passing me by in terms of accomplishing this salvation. But in answer to the Lord's gospel sermon, her name shall be Eve. It's really a confession of faith that he believes the Lord's Word, and he submits to the Lord's way of saving sinners through the seed of the woman, Eve. This is faith of the operation of God. Faith that worketh not, but believeth in God and in His Word. But also this, in verse 21, the Lord does it all unto Adam also, and to his wife. Did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them? Dear friends, there's so much there. Coats of skins. Where do you think children, the Lord would have gotten these skins from? To get skin, you have to kill an animal, maybe a sheep, to lay down its life. The Lord there, Himself, The voice of the Lord there in the garden took a lamb, poured out its blood, and took the skins from off that lamb. Those blood filled skins, no doubt still dripping of blood. The Lord takes them and takes off the fig leaves, because you can't have that. He takes off the righteousness of the sinner himself or herself. It has to go, fig leaves. And there you stand in all your shame. But it's right, it's good. That thou mayest be justified in what thou speakest, and clear in what thou judgest. And then the Lord takes these bloody skins and puts it around Eve. puts it around Adam. And as they say, likely the blood's still dripping and covering them. But now they're hid. Now they're covered. Now atonement, at least typically speaking, has been signified. And as that blood drips down, Adam may well have thought, we don't know, but this should have been my blood. I should have paid everlastingly for my sin. But this lamb in my place, and I can be shielded, I can be sheltered, I can be covered in the blood bought garments of a righteousness not my own. Oh dear friends, Do you not see that the Lord coming in the cool of the day with such mercy, in the evening of that day, before the night Before you could say, as it were, the light would go out on that most horrific day, the Lord comes rushing into the garden. The voice of the Lord comes while it's still the cool of the day. And he doesn't let Adam go a night, or two nights, or a month, or a year, but he's there in the cool of the day. And he says, as it were, Adam, blood-bought righteousness. That's how it must be. And then dear friends, when I look backward and I hear the voice of the Lord coming in the cool of the day, and asking these searching questions, where, what, who, how, whatever it is, I don't see judgment. At least not pure, unmitigated judgment upon me. I see a pursuing God, a pursuing Creator, who is seeking His lost image bearer in order to show them mercy. These questions are all to draw them out from underneath their self-righteousness, to expose them, to make them to hear the gospel, to make them know they can contribute one iota to their salvation. But that it is all of God, and it is all of grace, a grace that was in the heart of God before the world began. Oh my dear friends, before this night settles, don't you hear the voice of the Lord walking calling, summoning, preaching. Oh, my friend, lose it then. Lose it to Him, and you'll forever gain. Dear friends, it's a blood-bought righteousness, freely available in Christ. that's who was there running after the fallen image bearer, after Adam. In his heart there was so much love. He wanted to deal with him in the blood of sprinkling. And so when I read this chapter from verse 8 on, I hear the heartbeat of divine love that seeks fallen sinners. to redeem them by His grace. It's all the heartbeat of love. And all the way to the end of the chapter, even to those cherubim that the Lord sets at the entrance of the garden with the sword that turned every which way, barring the gate. You might see threat. You might see judgment. But I see someone who already here says, I'll take the sword. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd. I'll take the sword in order that sinners can go with me. with me into paradise. Oh my friend, this is the Savior. You and I are sinners. Where are you? Where are you? Oh, to be found in Christ. Not having my own righteousness, my own fig leaves, nor anything of the law. but having his blood-bought righteousness. Oh dear friends, it's far better than sheepskins. It's the blood of the Son of God. It's a white robe that he's purchased. And he puts around me by faith. And he clothes me with an everlasting righteousness so that God sees no iniquity in his Jacob. Though I have oft sinned against him, still his grace and his love abide. Oh my friend, this is the Savior. This is the Redeemer. This is the King. This is the all and in all, Amen.