John Cross Examined

Covered

This evenings sermon is titled

Covered

Our main text of the evening will be

Genesis 3:21 “The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.”

as we have been working our way

through chapter 5 of John

one thing that has stuck out

is that Jesus

testified that he has been there since the beginning

and that the scriptures testified about Him

I mentioned last week

and briefly this week

that Jesus has been front and center in scripture

since day 1

page 1

so this evening we are going to start

on page 1

and work through the first 2 chapters of Genesis

to see just how Jesus was foreshadowed

But first.. I have one question for you?

what is the worst trouble you ever got into?

we really don’t have to admit it

but lets think of it

I hope I am not bringing about a traumatic time

but I want to use this as an illustration as we move forward

Got it?

I know someone that may have a

.22 gun example of what could have been a pretty bad situation

No,

I bet I have have done way worse

in fact we have all probably done worse

and there’s a chance that

some of us in here are going through

or know someone going through

a pretty tough situation

or time, right now

you or they may have and probably didn’t

intend to be in this or that situation

but none the less it happened

and when we get into bad times

tough times

it’s easy to wonder if there is any hope

sometimes after these tough or rough times

we may even wonder if God could ever love me again

or does He even love me at all

is there anyway I can come back from this?

is there any way God can forgive me

or accept me

or restore me

after what has happened

and the answer to that is Yes

of course there is

and we are going to walk though

the first part of Genesis

just to show you

that there is

So lets go again to Genesis

Genesis tells us how everything began right?

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Over 6 days God created everyting that exists

And he culminated the week

by creating Adam and Eve

Chapter 1 gives us a broad

overview if you will of God creating

then chapter 2 if you will

kind of zooms in

chapter 2 zooms in and gives

us a more detailed version of God creating Adam and Even

we learn that God created

Adam by blowing His breath

his spirit of life

into Adam

That he placed Adam in

the most perfect place on earth

the Garden of Eden

Then he placed Adam over everything

else he created

and Adam’s job was to take care of God’s

creation

then.. as you probably heard me say

a couple of times now

God really out did himself

and made Adams life even more perfect

God created a woman

Eve, to share life with Adam

To get a glimpse of the perfection Adam and Eve had lets look at

Genesis 2:25 “Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.”

There was no shame

there was no reason for it!

Adam and Eve were perfectly

innocent

nakedness wasn’t bad for them

or or shaming

because nothing was bad for them

they literally lived in perfection

But! There was one thing God told them not to do. And we see that in

Genesis 2:16–17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.””

So they had not a single care in the world

but there was just one little thing

one small detail that they should avoid

and the perfection they enjoyed

would last forever!

now unfortunately

we know exactly what happed

Adam and Eve did did the one

thing they were commanded

or told not to do

and those consequences are with us even to today

Then after they ate the fruit

the forbidden fruit

and

God came looking for them

Genesis 3:8–9 “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?””

Then what did they do?

they tried to hide

really?

they tried to hide from God?

I bet if anyone is the world champion

of hide and seek

its God

but, none the less

the finally came out

and told God what happened

of course the man blamed it on the woman

saying, she made me do it!

lol

but what came of it was the fact that

they lost their innocence

and were ashamed to face God

Now, because of what they did

they had to bear the consequences

and what were those consequences?

Work would become labor

childbearing would become labor

the perfect garden they lived in was lost

and a new thing, a thing they had never heard or of seen entered the scene

and that was death

so with one big swoop

Adam and Eve made a huge mess of things

for everyone! for the rest of time!

see they blatantly disobeyed God

He specifically told them

to avid the tree

yet the disregarded God

and did it anyway

Their sin brought about the fall of everything

Humans were born into the curse

of what Adam and Eve did

of what they brought on

we all have struggles

we all will do bad things

and bad things will be done to us

honestly thanks to Adam and Eve

See all creation suffers because of the sin of Adam and Eve

The earth is no longer the perfect place

it once was

we now have storms

and earthquakes

and droughts and thorns

everything is constantly deteriorating

and decaying

and in chaos around us

the very universe itself

is slowly falling apart

due to sin

And in addition to that

Because of Adam and Eve, everything dies

People die

loved ones die

trees die

animals die

death exists because

Adam and Eve failed to

obey God and do as he said

they were unwilling to follow his command

if I can make a shameless plug to this mornings sermon

Now let me ask you something?

Have you ever heard of a single sin bringing more destruction than theirs?

with all the terrible things that

have been done

through out all of history

think of Hitler

of Stalin

of Mao

was their sin worse?

the sin of adam and eve i mean?

their sin brought the end

of human innocence

Their sin ruined a perfect world

their sin brought death to all of the billions

of people who were to follow them

So what do you think? How does our sin rank with theirs?

well, honestly its kind of a trick questions

because it really doesn't matter how our

sin ranks with theirs

because sin still

earns us the same consequences

and every sin has consequences

So when we sit back and think about it

we are in the same boat as

Adam and Eve

we have terribly failed God with our sin

Albiet

Adam and Eve’s sin appears worse

but the truth is that any sin is bad

sin is a complete disregard of God

and it is a rebellion of Him

Now…

Lets go back to the questions I asked as we kicked things off

where we ask our selves either during or after

these tough or rough times

remember

we may even wonder if God could ever love me again

or does He even love me at all

is there anyway I can come back from this?

is there any way God can forgive me

or accept me

or restore me

after what has happened

and if we compare that

with what we just talked about

as far as sin

as far as how our sin can be compared with that of

Adam and Eve

If we look at it from that context

all indications would be no

right..

Adam and Eve failed God

we have failed God

their sin had consequences

and so does our

at this point

everything would scream

No

why would God love us after what we

have done

why would he restore us

Well, lets look at Genesis 3:21

Because it tells us a lot about God

“The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.”

Now, that may sound simple, that may sound insignificant, but it’s implications are huge!

Lets dig a little

see Adam and eve lost their innocence because of

their sin

They were ashamed of who they found themselves to be

so what did God do?

He made them some clothes

From animal skins

now what does that mean?

the obvious answer is that in order for

them to get the skins of an

animal

that animal had to die

see there was a sacrifice of

innocent life

in order to cover the shame

of the one that was guilty

and no matter how bad Adam and Eve’s

sin was

God was able to cover it

by the death of something else

What does that remind you of? How about another innocent life that was sacrificed to cover shame

And that life was Jesus Christ

He came to give His life to cover

the shame of our sin

He gave up His life so that we could be

covered and accepted by God

See our sin may be terrible

our sin may at times seen too big

the troubles we go through

the sin of our relatives

the troubles that they go through

no matter how big or significant it was

Jesus paid for it on the cross

And if we ever wonder, could God ever love me again?

if we are ever in a situation where we wonder

is there any way to come back from that

is there anyway that my loved one

who is hurting can come out of that

is there any way that I or we

or they can be accepted by God after what

has happened

The answer is Yes

See earlier when we only knew of the sin

then yea, there is no way I could be forgiven for that

but now that we know God

now that we know His heart

as seen here in verse 21

we know the answer is yes

See just like God did with Adam and Eve,

he comes looking for us despite our sin

he calls out for us

and he gives us life

and that life comes from His son

Jesus Christ

And Jesus has been the plan from the very beginning

as we just saw,

the covering of sin with blood was established in those first days

foreshadowing the one that would come

just as Moses spoke about

Let us pray!