The Fig Leaf Life

The Fundamental Problem: Sin in the Human Heart

To the Ruled Church Podcast. This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas?

You see that one in Pechote, Mexico? Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

The church is not a democracy, it's a monarchy.

Christ is king. You can't be Christian without a local church.

You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, visible congregation.

Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast. My name is Allen Nelson. I am the host, one of the pastors, at Providence Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas. ProvidenceBaptistAR .com. And you're listening to our Summer Sermon Series, where we are featuring various sermons.

And each week, I'll just kind of give a little lead-in to what the sermon is. This week's sermon is The Fig Leaf Life, preaching from Genesis chapter three, after the fall, and Adam and Eve's running away and hiding from God, and how that is still done today.

But the sermon was preached October 20th, 2019, so before COVID, when the church was still called Second Baptist Church, it's one of my sermons. So I hope that you're edified, challenged, encouraged by it.

And here we go. Almost every worldview admits that there's something wrong with the world. The question is, what really is wrong with the world? Why are things the way that they are? Well, as we've walked through this third chapter of the book of Genesis, I invite you to turn there.

We've sought to explore that question. And today, we really begin to pin down an answer. That answer, though, isn't what many people wanna hear. Yes, the world is broken. Yes, there are droughts, there are floods, there are earthquakes.

But the fundamental problem with the world, this is important, is not external. It's internal. What's wrong with the world today is that sin reigns in the hearts of men. We saw last week how sin first entered humanity in Adam and Eve.

But today, we explore the consequences of Adam and Eve's rebellion. Because the garden was not an isolated incident. And so today, we're gonna consider together the results of the fall. And so the sermon title this morning is The Fig Leaf Life.

And I hope to show you why that is in just a moment. Genesis chapter three, beginning in verse seven. Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's word? Genesis chapter three, verse seven.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves lawn cloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Let's pray. Father, we pray as we explore this text today that you would show your grace, show your mercy, show the beauty of your word and its relevance to our life today.

We pray that even today, you would call some from death to life. We pray, Lord, that you would convict the hearts of believers in areas that we need that. Strengthen us in areas we need to be strengthened.

Encourage us in areas we need to be encouraged. Lord, we pray that your word would be preached rightly and held forth to rightly as a church. We would love sound doctrine. And God, we would seek to live it out in our community.

Lord, we pray that even through the preaching of your word and its impact, that you would bring many sons to glory. We pray for our county. And we wanna see every soul bowing the knee to Christ in Perry County.

And we pray, God, that you would be pleased to use us in that endeavor. And we pray it all in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. God is worthy of our trust. God's word is worthy of our attention. As we set out going through Genesis, it wasn't my initial thought to walk through so slowly in some areas, but I just think that God's word is worthy of our attention.

And when God is not trusted and when God's word is not heeded, we see terrible results. And what I wanna paint for you today is that the results of Genesis 3 are catastrophic. First of all, there's a lesson in Genesis 3 that was first to ancient Israel.

And that is that no matter what the surrounding nations say and no matter what the surrounding nations do, Israel was to trust God and to listen to his word. And ultimately they failed. But what I'm putting before us this morning is that the same lesson is here for us.

No matter what the contemporary culture says, God must be trusted and his word must be submitted to. And the reality is by and large, too many churches go the way of ancient Israel and have surrendered to the surrounding culture.

And the reason this is the case is the subject of our sermon this morning. As we examine our text, I want us to consider the immediate results of the fall for Adam and Eve, and then how these results continue to apply to modern man.

This is why I would argue an evolutionary understanding of the creation of this world will not do. Because any understanding of the world today that bypasses Genesis 3 will be deficient for dealing with the right solutions.

Like if you go to the doctor and you have the common cold, there's one solution for that. If you go to the doctor and you have cancer, there's quite another solution for that. You must treat the problems quite differently.

Information: The Knowledge of Shame

So this morning I want to consider some of the results of Adam's fall. The first is this. The first result of Adam's fall is information. Look at verse seven, information. In verse seven, the text says, then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked.

Adam and Eve gained information in the fall. Do you remember the false promise of Satan in verse five? In verse five, Satan says through the serpent, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Satan sold them a half truth, which of course is a whole lie. And that is if you eat this, you will have new knowledge. Guess what? That was true. Adam and Eve did gain new knowledge, but not the type of knowledge that they thought they would.

The word for know in verse five, where it says you will be like God, knowing good and evil, that word is the same word in verse seven, where it says they knew that they were naked. It's the same Hebrew word.

So their eyes are opened in the sense, notice what they come to know. Their eyes are open in the sense that they came to experience something that they had never experienced before. So God knows good and evil because of his holiness, okay?

But they, he doesn't know evil. In other words, he doesn't know evil because he has ever committed evil. Adam and Eve come to know evil experientially, meaning they come to know evil because they did evil.

They broke God's commandment. And so in breaking God's commandment comes the knowledge of shame. They knew. The eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed spig leaves together and made themselves loincloths, as they made themselves clothing.

What they had come to know is that they were naked and ashamed before God. Do you remember at the end of Genesis two, here's how Genesis two ends before we get into this predicament. Genesis two ends in verse 25, and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

But now this has changed. Adam and Eve move from a state of innocence before God to a state of guilt before God. They know now that they are exposed in a state of disobedience and deep within themselves, they feel shame.

Shame is now an innate part of the human being. It's a human existence. We feel shame because of sin. Have you ever looked at your child and known they've done something wrong? It's all over their face, right?

I think of the two-year-old or whatever. You look at their face. I give a lot of illustration of two-year-old because I'm living with one right now. And so just a lot of this is fresh. You look at their face.

No one was around when they committed this act, but you look at their face and you know that they're guilty. Why is that? Because they feel shame for what they have done. They feel guilt for what they have done, even though no one was around.

Who taught them that? Did we teach them? No, no one had to teach them that because it's part of the nature since the fall of man. And there's a lot of money spent every year for people to find a way out of shame.

And I do understand that sometimes shame can be misplaced. But what I'm trying to argue here is that ultimately medicine will not cure shame. And for the most part, shame is there because of sin. And various fig leaves are offered for alleviating shame, but none of that will ultimately solve the issue.

For example, you may feel more comfortable when the majority of society affirms you in your sin. But even then, when you get along, deep down, you know, shame is there because sin is there. Then the eyes of both of them were open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Society today attempts to get rid of shame. I once worked for a secular program that helped troubled children, children who were disobedient and had behavior issues. And one day we were in a group therapy session and one of the other adults that was there began to talk about how shame was evil.

And I understand that shame can be wrongly felt and wrongly applied, but this is my argument right now. Adam and Eve should have felt shame. Why? Because they broke God's law. And so what I'm arguing is, we should not try to alleviate shame when it's rightly there.

It should be rightly that when a person breaks God's laws, they should feel shame. It is a proper response to sin. The issue is that shame should lead us to seek mercy in Christ. You should feel shame and run to Christ who is merciful and kind and forgiving, but instead it leads us to alleviate our shame with denial or with covering it up or trying to atone for it with our own works.

What's going on today, in case you haven't noticed, what's going on today is we're shouting our shameful acts. And we think that shouting our shameful acts and being open and shaking our fist at God as a society and just being open about our shame, we think that that perhaps will fix us feeling ashamed, but it won't.

Expiration: Spiritual Death

So the first result of the fall for Adam and Eve is information. Next, expiration. They died. Oh, wait a second. What's going on here? Well, let's read it and let's talk about it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound, the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Now that doesn't sound like dead people, does it?

Now God said that Adam and Eve would surely die. In the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. And yet they ate and here they are. So is God wrong? Was the devil right in saying that you will not surely die?

God says you'll surely die. Satan says you'll not surely die. They ate. It doesn't look like they died. So what's going on here? Is God wrong? Well, of course, you know what the preacher is gonna say.

Of course, God is not wrong. And I would argue that in the words of Dan Phillips, they did die the moment they ate. It just took their bodies a few centuries to catch up. And then I would also add this.

I think it's pretty clear that they died spiritually as well. Something within them died. In other words, at one time, they had communion with God. But the moment of their lawlessness, they lost that.

And now instead of running to God, instead of it being the natural thing for a person to run to God, you know what the natural thing, which of course is unnatural, but what I mean is the common thing that we do now, we don't run to God.

We run away from God. Paul says in Colossians 2 .13, and you, talking to the church in Colossae, you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made alive with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.

What Paul is saying in the New Testament and what the Bible teaches is that unbelievers are dead in sin. And what he means is spiritually dead. This is a result of Adam's transgression. Being spiritually dead doesn't mean that people don't make religious choices.

People make religious choices all the time. Adam and Eve made religious choices, didn't they? What were their choices? They made choices. Their choices were they would cover up their sin with the fig leaves.

They would run away from God. Those were the choices that they made. They chose to cover and run away. Everyone wants to be rid of shame and guilt, but they don't want to go to God for the solution. And that's what I'm saying is the reality of being dead in sins.

Instead of running to God, people will shout their abortion or whatever. Or instead of running to God, people will compare themselves to others so they say, you know what? I'm a little better than that person.

Or maybe they try to hide their bad deeds with good deeds. But because of their being dead in sins, no person in and of himself runs to God. The default state of man since Genesis 3 is to run away from God.

Separation: Broken Fellowship with God and Others

Information, expiration. Thirdly, a third result of the fall for Adam and Eve, separation, separation. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Different interpreters think this means different times of the day.

Maybe in the late afternoon, early evening. Some think maybe it's in the morning. Regardless, it seems the Lord is coming here in this garden temple. His presence is there. And perhaps this is like a pattern.

At this certain time of day, the Lord kind of comes in and Adam and Eve have communion with the Lord. But here's there's something different. They're running. But what we need to notice first, before that, is that there's a separation even with Adam and Eve.

Right, like there's something going on here that's not present before the fall. In verse seven, there's a realization they both knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together. So there's a realization of one another's guilt.

There's a separation here. There's an alienation here. So I want to make this point that not only does sin alienate us from God, not only does sin separate us from God, but even sin separates us from one another.

Even in the most intimate of human relationships like that of a marriage, there is something lost in Genesis three that will never fully be regained in this life. And then as I said, Yahweh's presence, the Lord's presence enters the garden temple in a special way.

Maybe this was a regular pattern, as I said. And the phrase there, look at verse eight, that phrase, and the man and his wife, verse eight, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of day and the man and his wife.

The last time that phrase is used is in verse 25, we've already looked at, but let's just look at it again. Chapter two, verse 25, and the man and his wife. So the last time this phrase is used, they were both naked and were not ashamed.

The next time that this phrase is used, they've covered themselves and hid themselves in verse eight from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. They're guilty, scared, and in rebellion.

So what I'm arguing here is that because of the fall, there is now separation, there is now alienation between man and God. In Genesis two, there is sweet, unhindered communion with the Lord, and that is lost in Genesis three.

And what I'm saying in this sermon is that the separation between God and man cannot be solved with fig leaves, and it cannot be corrected by running away. Like some people think that their sins will be taken care of simply because a lot of time has passed, right?

So they did something at some point in their life, but now the rest of their life, now it was decades ago, and the rest of their life, they're really trying to live really, really good. And they think that perhaps that will take care of what they've done earlier in their life, but this isn't true.

There's no escaping God. There's no escaping God in a fig leaf covering, not in running away. All people one day will give an account before Him. Think of the travesty, think of the process going on in their mind here.

This is tragic. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They heard the Lord, and the fullness of the transgressions of their sins set in. And they thought, oh no.

And in that moment, their response was to flee. And so in order to avoid righteous judgment, they ran away. And since there is separation between God and man, what we need today is someone to represent both parties if there is to be any hope for reconciliation.

Now that a separation has happened between God and man, the only hope for reconciliation is if there is one who can represent both God and man. Well, good news, right? That's why Christ came. 100 God, 100 man.

Jesus, who did not flee God's judgment, but for the joy set before Him, Hebrews 12 says, He endured the cross, bearing God's wrath for our sins. And in Christ, reconciliation with God is found. By faith, we move from separation from God to union with God in Christ.

How crucial it is that we understand Genesis rightly. If we just try to erase Genesis from the Bible, and then try to dive in and talk about Jesus' work of redemption, we miss it because we don't understand the problem.

But when we understand the problem, we point to the glorious solution. So Adam gained information, expiration, separation. Fourthly, big word, but important theological concept, that is imputation. We don't say that word enough probably, but this is a crucial issue.

Imputation: Adam's Sin Counted as Ours

Let's start in verse six of chapter three. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened. And they knew that they were naked and they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. It's been a while, but remember several weeks ago, we talked about the covenant of works and how Adam is our representative.

Adam failed this covenant. He broke it. He was the best human representative. You think, well, if Adam was gonna fall, why didn't he give me a crack at it? Why didn't I get to try it? Because maybe if I tried it, it would have gone better.

No, no, no. If you would have tried it, it would have only gone worse than it is already. And since Adam is our representative, his sin is our sin. His sin has been imputed to us, is what I'm saying, as our federal head.

This is extremely important that we understand. This is what David says in Psalm 51. You remember when David sins with Bathsheba and then he has Uriah the Hittite killed? Psalm 51, you can read that later and it's in entirety.

Psalm 51 is David's confession and repentance. And David says this, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. This is what David is saying.

He's saying from his very conception, he was a sinner. Now, how is that possible? How is it possible that from conception, David was a sinner? Well, this is why all we've discussed this morning is not only true of Adam and Eve, but true for us because we know evil experientially because we have all participated in it.

When Adam sinned in the garden, you were there. When he sinned in the garden, I was there. When he sinned, we sinned, it's imputed to us. Apart from Christ, we are dead spiritually and separated from God.

All this is ours first by virtue of our relationship with Adam. His sin is ours and we are like our first father in so many ways, running from God and hiding under fig leaves. You see, we are not sinners because we sin.

We sin because we are sinners. All of this is crucial to understand the beauty and the remedy of the gospel. Folks, the reality is we're not sick in need of medicine. We aren't just a little disfigured in need of some surgery.

We aren't a little bad with everybody having some good deep down in there somewhere. No, no, no. Humanity has been left in a state of sin and misery because of the fall of our first father, Adam. And we are dead in our trespasses and sins and in need of new life.

And what we need, the hope of the world today, is that the God who said let there be light would shine His holy light in our hearts, exposing us for who we are and then turning our stony hearts to flesh so that we look upon Christ and run to Him joyfully in faith and repentance.

If we don't understand the disease, like if we just think that what's wrong with the world is that there's not enough education or there's not enough clean water or there's not enough gun laws. If we think that what's wrong with the world, if we get confused about what's wrong with the world, then we will apply the wrong solution.

We all need a different representative than Adam if we hope to have fellowship with the holy God. And guess what? That representative is Jesus. And you say, you know what, preacher? You're talking about me being guilty of Adam's sin.

And I don't really like that talk. Well, let me tell you, if you reject that, you've got a problem. Because guess what? There's another representative in the Bible and His name is Jesus. And by faith in Jesus, His righteousness is imputed to your account.

Just like Adam's sin is imputed to your account and then you freely choose to be a sinner in and of your own fallen nature, by faith in Christ, you get credit for Jesus' work. This is how it works. Because on the cross, we talk about another imputation, on the cross, Jesus was credited with your sin and rebellion.

This is how it works. Christ is our representative and through grace alone, by faith alone, in Jesus alone, we are justified before God. That is, for those who look to Him in faith. In Adam, all die. In Adam, all are held guilty and then choose to sin on their own as well.

But for those who look to Jesus in faith, His righteousness is credited to our account. By faith in Jesus, we're declared righteous. This is the Reformation doctrine of sola fide. Faith alone. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is the righteousness you need.

And it's available for those and only those who understand their rebellious and hopeless condition and will look to Christ by grace through saving faith. Imputation. One more result. Information, expiration, separation, imputation.

Fabrication: The Fig Leaf Life of Self-Deception

Fifthly, fabrication. Verse seven. Then the eyes of both were opened. They knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. When I say fabrication, I don't only mean fabrication of clothing here. Like they put on fabric. But I mean the fabrication of an entire worldview.

The fig leaf life, if you will. A false view of reality. Not merely the foolishness of running from God, but also the foolishness of an attempt to hide from God. You ever thought about how crazy verse eight is?

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife, here's a great idea, will hide from God. So they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Imagine this. Imagine Adam and Eve hiding from the sovereign, omniscient, omnipresent God of the universe. Have you ever played hide and seek with a kid? It's fun, right? And you see their little feet sticking out.

And you know where they are, right? Just kind of walk around, you play. You play their game though. Where are you? Oh, where are you? And you hear them giggling like, they are not hiding at all. Well, to a far worse extent, I see this in Adam and Eve.

They aren't fooling anyone. They're just as exposed as if they were out in the open. Let's hide behind these trees. Maybe the Lord won't see us. But God knows right where they are. But for a brief moment, He has allowed them to live in their illusion.

Sowing fig leaves, running from Him. Adam and Eve used fig leaves probably because they were easily accessible and they can be a bigger leaf. So sowing them together works better. But the point is they use what is available to them in order to fabricate a reality.

Because there's no getting back to pre disobedience. But here, maybe if we cover ourselves in fig leaves, that will cover it and we can pretend like everything is okay. Maybe God won't notice, right? Like, hey, maybe He won't notice that now we're clothed in fig leaves and we can pretend like everything is okay.

We can laugh at Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve did that. But here's the reality. Humanity has been doing that ever since. Fallen men and women, little boys and little girls suppress the truth of God. They simply ignore God.

Or sometimes, in the case of the Bible Belt, they pretend to have a relationship with God, but in reality, they just continue to live in rebellion. This is the essence of the fig leaf life. To take what is available to you, your own environment, and to construct for yourself a false narrative, a false reality that you're comfortable with and try to hide there.

A way of seeing and living in the world in your sin and shame that you are comfortable with. A fig leaf here and a fig leaf there to hide what you know to be true. But here's the reason it works. So we laugh at Adam and Eve, but the reason this works is because so many other people are doing it too.

It's kind of like the story, the story, what's the title? The Emperor's New Clothes. It's kind of like that story. Everybody is just pretending together. They all know the truth, but they're all pretending together because everybody else is doing it.

And so sin has collectively blinded us to the nature of our true condition. So when we look at Adam and Eve, we come in a context like this and we look at the scriptures, Adam and Eve are foolish, aren't they?

We see that. We can see that they're foolish. But one doesn't appear today irrational when they reject God. Or they don't appear foolish when they live for themselves instead of the glory of Christ. And the reason is, is because everybody is seemingly doing it.

But the reality is, secular humanism is a fig leaf life. Religious pluralism is a fig leaf life. Naturalistic evolution is a fig leaf worldview. Self-righteousness is a fig leaf life. Easy-believism is a fig leaf life.

False religions are fig leaves. All of these worldviews, what I'm trying to argue this morning is that they are absolute absurdity. They're absurd. They're not just wrong. They're absurd. When we examine them in the light of the scriptures, it's like the child playing hide and seek and we all know where they are.

Yet as adults, we've just created more sophisticated fig leaves. And we can talk about billions of years for humanity or whatever, right? And we can say, oh yeah, oh, this all makes sense. But there's absurdity.

They don't seem foolish because we're in the midst of a humanity robed in fig leaves. But let's be clear, this doesn't work. Like you and I may be fooled by one another's fig leaves, but they don't fool God.

We may think that we're hidden when we are exposed. We may think ourselves good when we are wretched. We may think ourselves free when we are in chains and bondage. Sin is a delusion. It is a fabrication.

We can attempt to hide or cover up our sins, but they are not hidden or covered with God. Not in our own power. And so not to oversimplify the issue, but really we can boil it down to mankind has two options.

Two Options: Fig Leaves or Christ

Option one, continue to wear fig leaves. Continue to attempt to suppress the truth and suppress the guilt and suppress the shame that we have as sinners. That's one option. We could suppress it. We can deny it.

We can say it's not my fault. Basically, secular psychology rolls with this. If you have an issue, it's because of your parents. It's because some traumatic problem in your past. It's because something else happened in your life.

It's not because of you. It's certainly not. It can't be your fault, right? That is what's pressed upon us. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. So one option is to continue in that way.

Continue to cut our own path. Continue to attempt to hide from God's gaze. Continue to try to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. In the end of this way is death and judgment. You can fool every single person around you.

But you can't fool God. So there's a second option. And that is, we can own our shame. We can own our guilt. We can say the reason I'm a sinner is not his fault or her fault. It's my fault. We can give up trying to cover our sins.

We can give up trying to hide from God. And we can rest in the finished work of Jesus by repenting of our sins and believing the Gospel. We can live in the reality of a fallen world, but one where Christ reigns as King of our hearts and we seek to follow Him in every area.

This is the way of life. And there's no third way. There's no third option. It's either fig leaves or run to Jesus for mercy. So we'll close with just a question. What about you today? Maybe there's some in here.

Have you been living a fig leaf life, if you will? If so, will you realize today the folly, the absurdity of such fabrication? Not to mention the wickedness and rebellion of such fabrication to live in God's world and act like it's not God's world.

If you're guilty of that, I implore you by the mercies of Christ to repent of your sins and believe the Gospel. To look to Jesus, right? To say, well, oh, well, maybe tomorrow I'll do that. Don't believe the foolishness of the devil.

Repent and believe the Gospel. And Christian, will you glory in Christ's redemption today? Oh, will you see the fullness of His work to rescue us from the depth of our depravity? This is why if we minimize our sin problem, then we minimize Christ's work.

But when we show the reality of our sin problem, then it exposes the beauty and the glory of what Christ has done to redeem us from our sins and the wrath of God. And then I want to say, well, we as a church hold an unwavering resolve to the truth of both the plight of man and the salvation available in Christ our King.

Doctrine matters. God is worthy of our trust. And His word is worthy of our allegiance. Let's pray. Father, as we thank you for life, as we thank you for breath and heartbeat, it's all an example of your mercy and mercy and mercy.

God, even sometimes as church members, perhaps we try to live a false reality. Help us to not do that. Help us to be open and honest with one another and build lasting community here. But Lord, I do want to specifically pray if there are any of those who would be living a false narrative, God, I pray today would be the day they would own their guilt and shame and look to Jesus who is full of mercy.

Whether that person is a child or an adult or a man or a woman. Lord, then I pray for us as a church, would you help us to stand boldly on sound doctrine, on the truth of your word. Lord, we live in days, it seems, of compromise, even compromise in what was once faithful denominations.

We are seeing compromise. So help us, God, not to compromise your truth and at the same time, declare your mercy to sinners.

If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what God's doing. This is his work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the poimos, the masterpiece of God.

How are you going to respond?