Desperate for a Covering

Genesis 3 and the Doctrine of Federal Headship

I want to invite you to take out your Bible and turn with me to Genesis chapter 3. And today we're going to be looking at Genesis 3. We're going to begin at verse 7, where we left off last week at verse 6.

And we're going to read verses 7 to 14, but then we're going to jump down to verse 21 because I'm going to be tying those verses together and showing the connection between what happens in those passages.

But before that, I want to remind you of what we learned last week because we are preaching verse by verse through this book and it's not as if it's independent sermons. One sermon is building on the things that we learned last time.

And so if you weren't here last week and you didn't hear these things, this may help you to understand. When Adam sinned, it affected more than just him. Adam sinned as the representative of all mankind.

That was the focus of last week's sermon. The doctrine typically is referred to as the doctrine of federal headship and the word federal means representative. We vote in our representatives and our representatives lead us and our representatives speak on our behalf and they represent us to the world.

And as I said last week, in the same way that our representatives can take us to war, Adam was our representative and Adam took us to war. Adam took us to war against God because when he sinned against God, he sinned against God on behalf of all of us and his sin has affected all of us.

And I got to thinking as I left last week, I got to thinking because I said this, I said some people get upset by that because they say, I didn't vote for Adam to be my representative. And I got to thinking on the way home because last week what I said to that, I did respond to that last week, I said, well, the issue is we don't get to vote because it's God who chose Adam, not us.

But at the same time, as I was thinking about my sermon, I said, you know what? There is one thing that we, that I forgot to mention and one thing that we need to understand is we do vote for Adam every time we sin.

Every time we sin against God, we give our yes and amen to Adam. Every time we break God's law, we look at Adam and say, yep, we're right. And every time we sin, we say to Adam, we're standing right there with you.

You represented us well because you did the very same thing that we have done. So no, God didn't wait for our vote, but we certainly do vote for Adam every time we sin against God. So we are all sinners before God.

We are all sinners by nature because of our relationship to Adam and we are sinners by choice because we love it so. Our flesh craves sin and before we were Christians, we were completely under the control of the power of sin and even now for those who are in Christ, we battle the daily temptations of sin.

Can anyone rightfully stand today and say, I haven't battled temptation to sin today. I didn't battle temptation to sin yesterday. I went the whole week without a battle to temptation to sin. If anyone wants to stand up and lie, I'll give you an opportunity because I do believe it would be a lie.

The Immediate Consequences of Adam's Sin

Well today, we are going to look at the immediate response to Adam's sin. What happened the very moment Adam ate of the tree that God had commanded, you shall not eat. What happened to him? What happened to Eve?

What was their immediate consequence? And we're going to look at that and we're going to see that even in the consequence, there is grace from God. Let's stand and read the scripture and we stand because this is God's word.

If you'd stand, you'd stand if the president came in the room, you'd stand if a dignitary came in the room, you should stand to hear the word of God. This is God and His word speaking to us and it says in Genesis chapter 3 beginning at verse 7.

Then the eyes of both were opened and 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 God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman whom you gave me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is it that you have done?

And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. Now we're going to end there and go down to verse 21. If you would just take your eye, go down to verse 21. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothed them.

Father in heaven, I thank you for your word. May it be that now as I preach it that you would first and foremost Lord keep me from error and cowardice. Lord that I might preach with accuracy, conviction and boldness.

And Lord God, if there are those who are here who do not know you, that they would be convicted unto belief and faith and eternal life. And for those who are in your kingdom, Lord that they would understand the value and the beauty of being covered.

Their sins having been covered by the blood of the lamb. We pray this in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. You may be seated. Now I'm going to do something that I don't normally do. And if you're brand new to this church, know that this is not something that happens every week.

And I hope that this would never be an offense to anyone, but I'm going to show a quick video clip. It's very rare that I do this in a message. But I am showing this clip because it is from the life of the late Dr. R .C. Sproul.

Dr. R .C. Sproul was once asked the question, why was God's punishment on Adam so severe? And I want you to hear, I was going to try to explain, I was here in the audience when he said this. And I was going to try to explain to you how it felt to be in the room when he said it.

But I didn't think I could do it justice, so I'm just going to let him say it. So if you would please play the video clip.

To anger and patient. Excuse me. Since God is slow to anger, we're always learning. Since God is slow to anger and patient, then why when man first sinned, was his wrath and punishment so severe and long-lasting?

SPROUL JR.: Didn't we just have that question a second ago? We did. Yeah. It's a little nuance. That God's punishment for Adam was so severe, this creature from the dirt defied the everlasting holy God.

After that, God had said, the day that you shall eat of it, you shall surely die. And instead of dying thanatos, that day, he lived another day and was clothed in his nakedness by pure grace, and had the consequences of a curse applied for quite some time.

But the worst curse would come upon the one who seduced him, whose head would be crushed by the seed of the woman. And the punishment was too severe? What's wrong with you people? I'm serious. I mean, this is what's wrong with the Christian church today.

We don't know who God is, and we don't know who we are. The question is, the question is, why wasn't it infinitely more severe? If we have any understanding of our sin and any understanding of who God is, that's the question, isn't it?

As I said, that was a powerful moment in Dr. Sproul's life and an opportunity for him to teach an important lesson, because I've heard that question before, too. All they did was eat a piece of fruit.

All they did was eat a piece of fruit. How could God condemn the whole world when all they did was eat a piece of fruit? How could God bring death into the world when all they did was eat a piece of fruit?

How could God bring justice upon man, death and destruction and pain and suffering when all they did was eat a piece of fruit? You see, when you think of it like that, you are thinking of it in the wrong category.

The focus of the story is not the fruit. The focus of the story is the God who was sinned against. You know, if I take a rock and I scratch a rock, no one's going to care. If I take a 1985 Chevrolet Chevette and I kick the bumper and leave a mark, very few people will care.

But if I nick the paint of a Lamborghini, if I take my key and I inscribe my name into the door of a Ferrari, the person who owns it is going to be utterly offended and angered because of the value of what is attacked.

A rock matters not. A 1985 Chevette, very little. The value of what is offended, the value of what is attacked, gives weight to the attack itself. And when Adam sinned, he did not sin against the tree, he did not sin against his wife, he didn't sin against the serpent, he sinned against the God of the universe who said on the day that you eat of this, you will die.

He knew the consequences. He knew what he was doing. And the Bible says he did it not because he was deceived, but because he was disobedient. He said to the God who created him, I am going to have my way.

You know, I do a lot of funerals and you know one of the songs that is often played at funerals for unbelievers, My Way, by Frank Sinatra. I did it my way. I always cringe when I hear that song played because I hope to heaven that my life is not done my way, I want to do it God's way.

But see that's Adam's national anthem. I did it my way. I did what I wanted to do, how I wanted to do it, when I wanted to do it, I sinned against God, I knew the consequences and I didn't care. I sinned against the one who made me and I knew the consequences.

So we should never for a moment think that the consequences were too severe. And so what I want to show you today is I want to show you that not only were the consequences not too severe, but that even in the midst of the consequence, there was grace.

There was grace in the garden. There was grace in the fall. That's what I want to show you from the text today. Now, in our last session, we got to verse 6 and in verse 6 we looked at three words and he ate.

That is the moment that Adam sinned. What should have happened at that very moment? He should have choked on the fruit and died right there. That's what should have happened. But he did not die immediately.

Now we can argue he did die spiritually. There was a spiritual separation between he and God at that very moment. The very moment the fruit entered into his body, the very moment that the juice of the fruit fell down upon his whiskers, at that very moment there was separation between him and God and therefore there was spiritual death that reigned in his mortal body at that very moment, but he did not die physically for another 930 years.

According to Genesis chapter 5 verse 5, he lived 930 years. And when we get to Genesis 5, I'll explain those long life spans and why they're different than now. But just know he lived another day and another and another as Dr. Sproul said.

He lived 930 years so what we see is we see God's grace extended to a sinner. God who had the right to squash him like a bug. God who had the right to destroy him and start over. God who had the right to do anything he wanted because this is his creature and remember what Romans 9 tells us, the potter has right over the clay to do what he wills.

And so God in his righteousness and in his grace chooses to demonstrate his grace. And every day that Adam lived is an extension of grace. You realize every day that you live is an extension of grace?

You realize every day that you are on this planet, your heart is beating at the command of Almighty God. The Bible says in him, we live and move and have our being. God is the one who sustains life. God is the one who controls life and death.

And Adam lived for 930 years in the grace of God because he could have died at that very moment. And what I want us to see, I want us to see how this passage unfolds. And I have four, I have an outline of four headings for you.

You can write them if you'd like, I put them on the board so that you don't have to try to keep up with me but if Ms. Pam, if you'll put them up on the board. These are the four headings of today's text.

We're going to look at the immediate consequence of Adam's sin. Then we're going to look at the inadequate covering that Adam tried to provide for himself. Then we're going to look at the interim consolation, what God provided for him.

And then we're going to see the imminent connection between the covering that God provided in the garden and the covering he would eventually provide in the cross. So that is the outline for today's lesson.

The Inadequate Covering of Fig Leaves

Let's look first at the immediate consequence. Verse 7 tells us of the immediate consequence. The very first words of verse 7, then the eyes of both were opened. This is what the serpent said would happen.

The serpent said, on the day that you eat of the fruit, your eyes will be opened. And he was right. Because up until this point, they did not understand good and evil. Up until this point, they understood it from the view of what we would say abstract.

Eve knew enough to say she didn't eat of the tree because there's consequences. So she understood the concept of cause and effect. She understood the idea of consequence. But she did not understand good and evil from the perspective of the actual.

She only understood it from the perspective of the abstract. But now she understood it in the actual. Now they understood it in the actual. The serpent said your eyes will be opened and he was not wrong.

Their eyes were opened. They now understood good and evil. They now understood right from wrong from the perspective of being involved in the wrong. But that's not all the serpent promised. The serpent promised they would be like God.

And that was a lie. Because what happened as soon as they sinned was not that they took control of their own lives. Was not that they became the heroes of their own story. Was not that they became the ones who sit upon their own throne.

What happened as soon as they ate was they experienced something they never experienced before. In fact, I would argue they experienced something that no one had ever experienced before. No creature had ever experienced it before.

And that is they experienced fear. This is the first time fear is in the world. Because up until this point there's nothing for which to be afraid. But now they eat of the fruit and they look at one another and they realize they're naked.

And the first thing that comes into their mind is, oh no, I'm afraid. I'm afraid to be seen. Moreover, I am afraid of God looking at me the way that I am. And this brought with it another feeling that had never been felt before.

And I really want you to get a hold of this because this is the key to today's lesson. The feeling that they got right after fear was the feeling that we call shame. They had never felt shame before. They never experienced shame before.

And so now they felt this feeling of fear and this feeling of shame, something they've never felt before. And I ask you, have you ever done something thinking it would make you feel good? Only after having done it that you feel like absolute garbage?

You do something because you think it's going to make you feel good in the moment and instead of feeling good, you felt a feeling of overwhelming guilt? I mean, I can't be the only one. Some of you guys are looking at me stone-faced and stoic like you've never done anything.

You've done things that you thought were going to be good, that you thought was going to be a benefit, that you thought was going to be a blessing. And then in that moment that you did it, the very moment that it happened, you felt fear and shame and guilt.

At that moment, that is Adam and Eve right here in the text. They have defied God. They have defied the only commandment of God that they had. They had only one command, do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And when they did, they experienced the shame of guilt and the fear of judgment for the first time. So it is at this moment, they say, we have to cover ourselves. We have to cover our shame because they noticed that they are exposed before God and in an attempt to hide that exposure, they produce a covering for themselves.

Look with me, this is the inadequate covering. Look at me at verse 7 again and the second part of verse 7. It says, and they sewed fig leaves together and they made themselves loincloths. Now, the text, I really put a lot of thought in this.

Maybe I thought too much about it. The text says they sewed them together. And that really jumped off the page to me because, you know, this could be just a rudimentary tying of knots, you know, kind of like very basic crocheting, very basic tying of knots of vines to create some type of a garment.

And that could be all that it's saying here. But I have to remind you, Adam was not unsophisticated. Adam was not a caveman. That's a wrong understanding of Adam. Adam was intelligent. Adam was sophisticated.

When he was created, he was created in the image of God. And therefore, when it says he made himself a garment, I like to think that this garment was rather elaborate. Adam may have been quite the tailor and done something amazing with what he had to work with.

He covered himself with this cloth. But then, even though he has his new fancy wardrobe of fig leaves, he hears something in the garden and he recognizes it. What does he hear? He hears the Lord. Now, this tells us that this had to have been not the first time this had ever happened.

Because Adam recognizes there's a third person in the garden. Because generally, there were two people, Adam and his wife. But now he hears the third person in the garden, he hears the walking in the garden, which makes me know that this is what we would call a pre-incarnate.

I think this is a pre-incarnate visitation of Christ because the Bible says no one has ever seen the Father. The Son is the one who reveals the Father. And therefore, I believe it's the Son who walked in the garden.

That's a theological discussion for another day. But the point is, there was a third person in the garden and Adam is now, at this moment, overwhelmed with fear and shame. And he knows the garment is not enough.

Even though I may be the most fancy tailor in all the world, and he had to have been because he's the only one, and even though he may have created the most elaborate garment ever created, because it had to have been because it was the first one, he said it's not enough.

So he runs into the trees with his wife and he takes her with him and they try to use this new fancy garment that they've created for themselves as a rudimentary camouflage. Maybe I'll blend into the trees.

I've made an outfit that looks like the tree. Maybe I'll hide from the gaze of God. And so they run to the trees, they try to hide from the gaze of God, and they did so because they were afraid. When I was a kid, I made a lot of mistakes.

I mean, that's an understatement. But I remember very vividly, when I was a kid, my parents bought me a set of model paints. And it had all the different colors of paints. And I've always been artistic and like to draw and like to paint.

And so they bought me this container of paints. And they had brand new carpet put in our house. Do I have to finish the story? You know where it's going. Because what happened was I knew I wasn't allowed to paint in my room.

I had to paint at the table. But it didn't matter because the table had, there was carpet there too. And I walked to, I was all by myself. Latchkey kid, you know, when I was a kid, both parents worked.

And so I had a couple hours to myself every afternoon when I come home from school. So I get ready to go paint. I take the paints and I toss it onto the table. And when it hits the table, it don't stop.

It slides, slides, slides and goes over the edge of the table. And the black model paint explodes. Mauve carpet, black paint, all hope is lost. At that moment, I was stunned. I was scared to death. I was afraid.

What am I going to do? So the first thing I did was I went and I got a rag. And I said, well, maybe I can clean it up. That was a joke. Because the more I wiped the paint, the worse the stain, it just widened.

And I'm, tears literally falling off my face because I'm scared to death. And I wasn't afraid that my parents would beat me. I wasn't afraid of that type of punishment. My parents were very loving and gentle.

But I knew I had really messed up. The brand new carpet, black paint. I knew that I was in trouble. And nothing I could do was an adequate fix. No matter how hard I cleaned. Nothing was going to fix this stain.

And this is where Adam finds himself. He has made a covering. And it's not enough. And he knows it's not enough. That's why he runs into the trees. The trees are not enough. God is not fooled. Now I want to, for a moment, with that picture in your mind of Adam quivering in the trees.

And we're not going to talk about his interaction with God today. We're going to talk about that next week. How he blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent. Because we're going to talk about that when we look at the judgment passage in verses 15 to 20.

But what I want you to recognize is that Adam was trying to cover himself. And while his covering was inadequate. Hear this, please hear this. While his covering was inadequate. It wasn't, the idea of covering wasn't wrong.

Adam's sin did need to be covered. Let me say it again. Adam's sin did need to be covered. The problem was the fig leaf was not enough. How many of you have ever heard the word atonement? It's a biblical word.

You've heard me talk about it. You've probably used it. You maybe have heard of it. But have you ever studied the idea of atonement? The idea of atonement is actually something that we find in the Old Testament.

More than we find, that word doesn't even show up in the English Standard New Testament. The only time we see the word atonement in the New Testament is it's a translation one time in the King James. Typically the word is translated reconciliation.

But it's the idea of atonement. But if you go back into the Old Testament and you look up the word atonement, it's the word kephar. And you say, well what is kephar? I'll give you the first time it's used.

When Noah is told to make the ark. And he's told to cover the ark with pitch. That's the word kephar. It means to cover over something. So later that idea of covering would become the foundation of the idea of atonement.

Our sins covered. Our sins hidden. Our sins taken care of. They're hidden. They're covered over. Guys, you're not getting this because I don't see. Please understand what I'm saying here. Adam covered himself because he knew that's what was necessary.

But he covered himself inadequately. Covering was needed. He wasn't wrong. He needed to be covered, but he couldn't do it himself. That's the point of all of this. When Adam tried to cover himself, it was wholly inadequate.

When Adam tried to cover his own shame. When Adam tried to cover his own guilt. When Adam tried to cover his own sin. It was not enough. And so this is what takes us to verse 21. And this is why I want to jump down to verse 21.

Because what we see in verse 21 is we see God telling Adam. Your fig leaves won't do it. Notice verse 21 again. It says in verse 21. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

You see, Adam's handmade garments, no matter how elaborate they were, were inadequate. Not just because they're made of substandard materials, but because they were made by the hand of Adam. You see, the fig leaves were Adam's attempt at self-covering.

And God instead puts a covering on Adam of animal skin. What does that tell us? By the way, what does that tell us? Adam being covered in animal skin tells us being covered is right. Because if the covering is not what Adam needed, God wouldn't have given him a covering.

You understand? So God providing a covering actually affirms that covering is what's needed. Because if covering was not what was needed, God wouldn't have done it. God provides a covering, but He does it out of skin.

And here we have the introduction of what would later become the foundation for the concept of sacrifice. You know, the Bible doesn't say He made them clothing out of nothing. The Bible doesn't say He spoke into existence their clothing.

He could have done that, right? God has the power to do that. God spoke the world into existence. God spoke all the animals into existence. God spoke Adam and Eve. He formed them from the dust of the ground.

God could have made them clothing out of anything. God could have given Adam a Brooks Brothers suit. Right? God could have given Eve a very fancy dress. But that's not what He did. God made for them coverings out of an animal.

And the text doesn't say it, but it is implied in the text that these animals were slain for the purpose of providing that covering. Because where do skins come from? Animals. What has to happen for the animal to provide its skin?

It has to give its life. And that's the whole idea of sacrifice. You have something that you have done that is wrong, and to make an atonement for that wrong, a life must be taken, because the wages of sin is death.

And though you deserve to die, something or someone else dies in your place. This would have been a vivid picture in the garden. God taking those animals and saying, Look Adam, look Eve, here, and I believe it was probably lambs.

But I can't prove that. Again, just because I know Jesus is the Lamb of God, I think there's a picture here. He takes from the animals, and He says, Here are these two animals, and I'm going to take these two animals, and I'm going to slay them, and I'm going to give you their skin to wear.

These animals become, for Adam and Eve, their covering. But only in their death do they become their covering. Only having been slain can they then be skinned, and the fashioning of the garment be made for the covering.

I want you to consider this for a moment. If you're taking notes, you can write this down, but don't turn in your Bibles, because it will take too long. Hebrews 9 .22 says this. It says, Under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. What was the first thing God did after He pronounced judgment? And again, we're going to go back next week, we're going to look at verses 15 -20, we're going to see the judgment, but what's the first thing God did after He leveled the judgment on Adam and Eve?

He gave them a covering made after a sacrifice. God demonstrated grace in the garden by covering Adam and Eve in a garment of flesh. And going back to the Hebrews passage, remember what it says. It says, Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

Do you know what the word forgiveness means? Do you know what the word forgiveness means? It means, in the most literal of terms, it means that your debt has been canceled, or another way of saying it, it's been covered.

Forgiveness. The debt is covered. It's paid. And that's why it says, Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood, there is no covering. So Adam is there, he's tried to cover himself, it's inadequate.

God says, Take off the fig leaves. Take off the garment of your own works. And here, I will provide you a garment. I will provide you a garment from the death of these animals that represents what you deserve, they receive.

And you will receive their skin to wear as a reminder of My grace. As a reminder of the covering that you needed. I provided. And this is where we can't end the story. Because this is the moment where we have to understand a very crucial truth.

And that is this. Even the skin God put on Adam and Eve was temporary. Even the skin God put on Adam and Eve was not the ultimate sacrifice. But it was a picture of the ultimate sacrifice. In Hebrews chapter 10 verse 4, understand this.

Hebrews tells us so much about atonement and about sacrifice. But Hebrews 10 verse 4 says this. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Now why does the writer of Hebrews say that?

Why does the writer of Hebrews say it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin? Because the whole sacrificial system. And by the way, the book of Hebrews is about the ending of the old sacrificial system.

And giving way to Christ who is the perfect and ultimate sacrifice. The whole book of Hebrews is about Christ being supreme to the old covenant system. Which is coming to an end. And now that it's come to an end, all of those sacrifices are done and over.

They have found their fullness in Christ. And Christ now is the perfect sacrifice, the Bible says. The Bible says that by one sacrifice He has perfected forever those who draw nigh to God through Him.

We have been perfected forever by one sacrifice. Not the sacrifice of those two animals in the Garden of Eden. And not by the sacrifice made by Abraham or Noah. And not by the sacrifice made by the Levitical priesthood that happened for hundreds of years.

We are made perfect once and for all by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Whose blood covers our sin. And those animals in the Garden looked forward to the work of Jesus. They were temporary holding places for the one who was to come.

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Turn in your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 5. And I want to show you, this is our last heading, the imminent connection. And when you get to Romans 5, turn back one chapter because I meant to say Romans 4.

In Romans chapter 4, the Apostle Paul had been teaching about the sin nature of man. The desperate condition he is in because of sin. And how he is saved by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone.

That's the first three chapters of Romans. It's all about our sin and how we are saved. And then you get to chapter 4. And in chapter 4, Paul looks back to Abraham and he says, You know what, Abraham was also saved by grace through faith.

Everybody who has ever been saved has been saved by grace through faith. No one has ever been saved by their works. No one has ever been saved by what they can do for themselves. It has always been by grace through faith.

And then Paul quotes from Psalm 32. Look at what he says. Verse 7, this is Romans 4, 7. He says this, Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are, what? Covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

I'll say it again. Blessed is the man whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Do you understand that's the key to today's lesson? Is that when we sin, we need our sins covered. And blessed is the man whose sins are covered.

And there is only one covering that God has made available for our sins. And that is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the priest would go into the temple once a year, he would take with him the blood of the animal that was sacrificed.

And he would take the blood of that animal and he would strike it on the mercy seat, which was the top of the Ark of the Covenant. And what he was doing is he was covering it with blood. What was inside of the Ark?

Do you remember? Staff of Aaron, a bowl of manna, and the tablets of the testimony, which was the Ten Commandments. So imagine for a moment a picture of God looking down at the tabernacle, looking down at the holy place, looking down into that Ark.

And he sees the Ten Commandments. And what do the Ten Commandments do for the people of God? They condemn. The Ten Commandments are the law of God. And the law of God condemns us. So the priest comes in and he takes the blood, and he covers the top of the Ark with the blood, so that instead of God looking down at our condemnation, he looks down at our substitute, and knows that a sacrifice has been made.

And now our sins are covered. Jesus, when he died on the cross, covered every single sin that we would do or will ever do. Every single one of us is steeped in sin and loaded with shame. Sometimes I think about my past.