Advent | Week 1

What's a happy December to you? Merry Christmas.

I hope that you are entering this month with some Joy.

Some excitements because it's a, it's a good month.

It's good. Time to be alive.

My name is Kyle served as lead Pastor here.

I want to say thank you for being here today.

If you have your Bibles with you, you can kind of open to two

places. Second Corinthians 4 is where

I'll start. You'll read several verses and

the first few chapters of Genesis as well.

Genesis 1 through 3, I'll be hitting some different verses

there here in a moment also so maybe second Corinthians 4 and

Genesis 1 would be a good place to start.

As you're doing that it's want to talk to you about our the

series Advent for a moment. Advents just simply means

coming. It's a way of describing.

Something has come is coming. And so as we think about advents

we think about One on one hand, we think about the first

Advance, right? We think about the Advent of

Christ, and his initial coming to this earth.

His Incarnation being born of a Virgin, Mary living, a sinless,

life dying on a cross for our sins, raising being raised to

life on the third day. And now he resides in heaven,

King of Kings, Lord of lords, and we await now, A second

Advent a time where Christ will descend to the earth once again.

But this time, it won't be as a babe in a Manger, it will be as

the King of Kings and the Lord of lords, the one who has

triumphed over death and he'll and the grave, the one who will

come to judge, both the living, and the dead, and all of those

who are found outside of Faith, outside of Christ, those are

found unbelieving. Will be condemned.

And all of those who are found believing in Christ, trusting in

Him for their salvation, looking only to Christ, they will be

rewarded with eternal life. And so we await that we are

caught in between the first and second comings of Christ.

And so Advent. And one way it means coming, But

we celebrate Advent because we're waiting.

So it makes sense, we are waiting on the return of Christ

and so Advent is a time that a set aside on the church calendar

each year for the purpose of reflecting on the first coming

of Christ while we look to the second coming of Christ.

And so today I just want to look at in the scriptures creation

and the fall of Man and salvation through the gospel of

Christ. We are going to look at light

and darkness. We're going to see the, the

structure of those things and why do we live in a world that

is marked by such grave darkness and yet, we were able to see it

times, great lights. What what's got us here?

I think most of us are probably as Christians are aware of the

fall of Man aware of what things were like and then fall happens.

And now the gospel saves. But how does that inform the way

we live each day and so if you would, would you stand with me

as we read second Corinthians 4. I'm just going to read verses 1

through 6. When I finish that reading, I'll

say this is the word of the Lord and I would ask that you

respond. Thanks be to God.

Let's read, second Corinthians 4 1 through 6.

Therefore, having this ministry, by the mercy of God, we do not

lose Hearts, but we have renounced disgraceful

underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or

to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the

truth, we would commend Ourselves to everyone's

conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled

it is veiled to those who are perishing and their case, the

God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to

keep them from. Seeing the light of the Gospel

of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, for what we

Proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord with

ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake.

For God who said let light shine out of Darkness as shown in our

hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in

the face of Jesus Christ. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks, be to God. Let me pray and then you can be

seated. Heavenly Father, we thank you

for your word. We ask that you be with us.

Now, as we open it up, as we have read from it.

Lord, would you open our hearts and Minds to see Christ?

Today to see your word to understand the gospel?

Lord, I ask for your strength today.

I ask that you help me to Proclaim Christ today.

As Paul says, here is not myself that I hope to Proclaim today.

I hope to proclaim the glory of Christ.

And so Lord help us to see that today.

So in Christ's name, we pray. Amen.

Man. You may have a seat.

In 2nd Corinthians 4, Paul is explaining his ministry.

The book begins with encouragement for suffering,

There's a lot of suffering that's been going on.

It talks about Paul gets into chapter 3, talks about how we're

Ministers of a new covenants and what he's laying out is the the

New Covenant of Grace received in Christ, versus that Covenant

of works, we might call it that you see in the Old Testament,

where you had to abide by the law, there was some opponents to

this message, in the early church, some Jews, who wanted to

keep things the way they were largely.

We because the way they were, was an easier way to control

people just to be frank, there was a lot of power that these

early Jews held, and so there were Jews.

And then there were judaizers. Also, who would just say?

Well, let's mix some of the things to appease the Jews, as

well as Christians. And so, you know, they would try

to Institute things like circumcision and certain days

that you would observe, and things like that.

Hear what Paul is saying is the ministry that we've received as

a Ministry by the mercy of God, that this ministry is come to us

because of the grace and the mercy of the Lord, he has saved

us. He has given us this ministry,

and which we preach, and then in chapter 5, he's going to go on

to say that this ministry we have is a Ministry of

reconciliation. This ministry of reconciliation

is a Ministry, not just that's ours but it's the ministry of

all believers that we would Preach and Proclaim peace with

God through Jesus Christ alone and that as a result of that,

and and later in 5:17, he's going to say that all people,

who believe, old, man passes away, behold All Things become

new. And so there's a new creation

work that takes place and that's what Paul's getting at here as

he directly relates the gospel, to the same.

God who said, let there be light and there was was lies. he's

saying that that creation work, the very first words, I love

that he brings up the very first words of God in our Bibles in

Genesis, 1:3 or God says, let there be light It's creation

work. It's a work that only God can

accomplish you and I cannot say to the darkness.

Let there be light, and there be light and less your home is

programmed to your voice and yada yada.

But that's not the same thing, right?

It doesn't count. We don't think you're powerful

because you're you know, your Amazon device, will help turn

your lights on for you, right? So But what God did is he calls

light into being out of nothing, read there that the Earth was

formless and void that it's dark.

And he says, let there be light. And there was light, the amazing

thing about that is, it's not till a couple of days later that

he creates the Sun, the moon, and the stars and so light was

just lights. And he separates the light from

the darkness and he calls the light day and the Darkness

night. And then he creates the lights

that we see in the heavens today to signify those things.

But what Paul is saying here is he saying this ministry is come

to us, we preach a gospel that saves sinners from their sins,

we preach a gospel that brings new life to those who are damned

to Hell. Otherwise, we preach a gospel

that redeems centers from the curse of the law and gives them

life in Christ Jesus. And we do this, not because

we're preaching ourselves. We do this because God has saved

us and And given us this ministry of Mercy, he's been

merciful to us. All right.

And then he says, we don't preach this message with

cunning. You know, there was there is

today even people who want to preach the message with cunning,

they want to do, what they can to try to make it more memorable

or more meaningful. It says we've renounced.

Disgraceful underhanded ways, we refuse to practice cunning or to

tamper with God's word. And so Paul saying, listen, we

preach the unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ, and him

crucified and nothing else. And it's by this word that God

will. As he said, let there be light.

He will say Let There Be The Light of Christ and the gospel

shine forth and their hearts God will do that through his word be

nothing else. Got saying we're going to pulse

clearly saying we're not adding anything else to this.

When I didn't Works to it, we're not adding you know you name it.

All right. We're not, we're not adding

anything that is, we're going to preach Christ and him crucified.

And so he deals with the reality though, in saying that the

gospel is veiled for some. He says and even if our gospel

is veiled, a topic that he picked up on in chapter 3 and

he's just returning to it here. He says, even if our gospel is

veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing and their

case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of them.

The unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the

Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, it's

Paul acknowledges. Look, we preach this gospel and

we know that this gospel is powerful to save and Romans 1

chapter 16, Paul writes very clearly.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the

power of God unto salvation. And so, he deals with this, that

there are times where you will preach the gospel and that will

fall on deaf ears. People who are blinded by the

God of this world will not. Be able to see it.

And yet for others, the same God who said let light shine of the

darkness has shown in our hearts, he says to give a lot of

the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And so for others, what the veil is removed.

And they are now able to behold Christ.

Something he literally says, in 318, he says, we all with

unveiled face beholding, the glory of the Lord are being

transformed into the same image from one degree of Glory to

another. For this comes from the Lord,

who is the spirit So in saying the work of unveiling a heart,

the work of unveiling, our eyes to be able to see Christ.

Comes from the spirit of God. It happens, according to the

power of God happens because of his word, amen.

And so with this Paul announces, that salvation is a creation

work. The center becomes a new

creation by the saving power of God through Jesus Christ.

In this, we see the Redemption of Sinners.

We have the beginnings of the restoration for what the fall of

mankind has caused in the world. I'm so let's go back to the

beginning and our Bibles and let's look and see in Genesis

Genesis 1:1

1:1, we read this in the beginning.

God, created the heavens and the Earth.

Sorry, I know it's like page 1, but I didn't give you any time

to get their data. We give you a second and we'll

do it again. Genesis 1 verse 1 In the

Genesis 1:1

beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.

The Earth was without form and void and darkness was over the

face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the

face of the waters. And God said, let there be light

and there was light and God saw that the light was good and God

separated the light from the darkness, God called the light

day and the Darkness he called night, and there was evening,

and there was morning the first each day.

And so you see this go on for the next five days.

God speaking something coming into being And then he ends with

it is good. On day, six.

He creates living creatures, and with those living creatures, he

creates humans. And in verse 26, we read this.

You know, this is one verse 26. Then God said, let us make man

in our own image, or in our image, after our likeness and

let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the

birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the

Earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the Earth.

So God created, man in his own image in the image of God, he

created him male and female, he created them and God blessed

them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply fill the

Earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the

sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living

thing that moves on the earth. And God said, behold.

I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the

face of all the Earth and every tree With seed in its fruit, you

shall have them for food and every beast of the earth and to

every bird of the heavens and everything that creeps on the

earth, everything that has the breath of life.

I have given every green plant for food and it was so and then

in verse 31 and God saw everything that he had made.

So from day one through day, 6 and behold, it was very good and

there was morning, are there was evening and there was morning

the sixth day. And so God says he looks at all

of creation. A creation before the fall of

Creation in Perfection perfectly orchestrated, according to the

command of God, according to the word of God, everything is come

into being everything has its sustenance.

It has its life in the things that it's that are created

around it. God has taken care of all

things. And he looks at it and he says

it is very good. It is very good.

One of the most beautiful things about this early creation for

the man and the woman whom he created.

In Chapter 2, you get a zoomed-in.

Look at creation and 2:8. It says in the Lord, God planted

a garden in Eden, in the East. And there.

He put the man, whom he had formed and out of the ground.

The Lord God made to spring up every tree.

That is Pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree

of knowledge of Good and Evil. So the man whom God had created

the woman doesn't yet exist. Again this is a zoomed in view

of what happened in chapter 17 chapter 1, we read that he

created them male and female in the image of God.

He created them in chapter two. What you're getting is a

play-by-play, all right? So he creates the Man Out of the

Dust of the ground. And then he takes him, and he

puts him in some picking him up. He takes him, and he puts him

into the garden. And this is a special habitat

that the Lord had given to Adam. One it was for Fellowship.

God has always meant for his people to dwell with him in his

place always So we put some here for there's Fellowship.

But then there's work to do. There's there's a creation

mandate that we saw a moment ago to be fruitful and multiply to

subdue the Earth to fill it to exercise Dominion.

And so the man is placed into this Garden to begin this work.

Look at verses fit, look at verse 15 there in Chapter 2.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden,

to work it, and keep it. And the Lord.

God commanded. The man saying you may surely

eat of every tree of the garden but of the tree of the knowledge

of Good and Evil. You shall not eat from the day

that you eat of it. You shall surely die.

And so there's a covenant here that God has made now with Adam,

he's taken him, he's put him into the garden, he's in his

place. He's dwelling with the Lord,

there's relationship here and then there's again.

There's a command one, the command has blessing.

I've given you every tree with good fruit for you to eat.

But that tree the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil.

You shall not eat of it for the day that you do.

You will surely die. And so, Adam is placed in the

garden to work it, and keep it to work.

It means to cultivate it to till the ground, to spread the

goodness of the garden into all the Earth, What God wanted was

for the garden. through the multiplication of the man, both

his work and through his offspring was to spread into all

the Earth and that fruitfulness would have been enjoyed across

the globe. Had it worked out. but that

Command right, that Covenant that God makes the man's going

to struggle with that. Look at verse 21.

The Lord sees the man in the garden.

He says it's not good that he should be alone.

I'm going to make a helper fit for him.

And so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man

and while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up its

place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from

the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Then the man said this at last is bone of my bones and Flesh of

My Flesh. She shall be called woman

because she was taken out of, man.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold

fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh and the man and

his wife were both naked and we're not ashamed.

There's a lot Happening Here. One of the things that's worth

pointing out is just the The intimacy of the relationship

that the man knew with the woman immediately, and Adam, what he

does literally is here East. He calls her woman, but he's

restating his own name, man, in her name and it's the declare,

the greatest amount of intimacy that he could think of.

He knew that this. Just like it says, this is bone

of my bones and Flesh of My Flesh.

And as a result what we see is marriage is instituted.

A man, shall leave his father and his mother hold fast to his

wife and they shall become one flesh.

The sermons not about the cultural climate of today, but

this text is where we begin with marriage.

This text is why we believe that marriage is between one man, and

one woman, and then it's meant to be for Life word willing.

Amen. This is what we hold to us.

What we cling to this is not as clinging to some ancient

document that has no bearing on today.

This is us cleaning to nothing less than the command of God.

But the command of God is always tied to his bless.

If you'll live your life, according to the commands of

God, you will reap the blessings of God.

If you live your life. Opposite, the commands of God.

You will reap the condemnation of God.

That's what this that is. What Advent teaches us.

And so the man and the woman are here and they're naked and

they're not ashamed again. They are there are physically

naked but the point stands that they are able to be who they

truly are with one another and feel no shame.

No, shame. Because why?

It's a perfect world. There's no sin.

I haven't done anything wrong yet.

There's no knowledge of Good and Evil.

Why? Because they haven't yet eaten

of it. And then in Genesis chapter 3,

Genesis 3:1

Verse 1 now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast

of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman did God actually say you shall not eat

of any tree in the garden and the woman said to the serpent.

We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden but God said

You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst

of the garden. Neither shall you?

Touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the

woman, you will not surely die for God knows that.

When you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be

like God knowing Good and Evil. Have a serpent as it says, Is

Crafty. He's conning.

This is the kind of cunning that Paul's talking about we aren't

using as we proclaim the gospel of Christ.

The serpent takes the word of God and totally twist it.

He sounds like he knows what he's talking about and so he's

believable but when you look at the content of what he's saying

he's getting it all wrong purposefully so he wants to

trick Eve. And so he says that, listen, he

if the point of the command is to keep you down, the point of

the command is to keep you from, knowing what real life is.

Like the point of the command is to keep you from being like God,

but you can bypass all of that. If you can not, you don't have

to live your life and submission to God.

You can live your life and submission to yourself.

You can be like, God, The same Temptation exists today, and all

of our Temptations does not. This is this is the pride of

life being presented to Eve. You can be your own God, you can

have your own truth, you can do your own way, you can pave your

own path, you can be an individualist.

It's all yours. If you'll just go eat of that

fruit. The problem was is that Eve

would not know good and evil in the way that God knows Good and

Evil. You see, God knows good and evil

but God is not evil. All right, God is not evil.

God has only ever good. He has purposes for things that

are evil, but he is not evil himself.

He does not create evil, he's not behind, he's not behind evil

in the world. But Eve was going to know, good

and evil experientially. She was going to now.

No evil because her heart was going to be full of evil.

She's rebelling against God right here.

Look at verses 6 and 7. So when the woman saw that the

tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and

that this tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of

its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was

there with her, and he ate, and the eyes of both were opened.

So I thought they were blind before and they knew that they

were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made

themselves loin cloths. So at the end of chapter 2, it's

a beautiful thing. They're naked and unashamed Now

there's naked - and there's shame.

They're making coverings for themselves.

The Shame of sin, The Shame of the knowledge of evil

experientially. So is now a burden on their

conscience? It's a burden on their heart.

They have rebelled against God. And so they could do whatever

they can to hide it. It's so fig leaves.

It's a start, a kiss, it gets worse, and they heard the sound

of the Lord. God walking in the garden verse

8, in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid

themselves from the presence of the Lord.

So are they 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 of which I commanded you not to eat

the man said the woman whom you gave to be with me.

She gave me fruit of the tree and I ate then the Lord God said

to the woman? What is this?

That you have done? The woman said, the serpent

deceived me and I ate So, you know, you have the beginnings of

it's the fracture of all relationship, but you have blame

here. There's a fracture in the

relationship with God. I'm hiding from the one who

created me. Now, I don't want to be in his

presence. His presence is going to remind

me that I've rebelled against him.

That I've sinned against his commands that I've decided that

it's best for me to decide how I should live my life and not have

to listen to God. And so that relationship is

completely and utterly fractured, it's broken.

And then there's the relationship with my wife, which

was once really great, we were able to be naked and unashamed

with one another. We were able to know one another

in these ways and not feel shame.

I could know, all of who she was and she wasn't ashamed of that.

She didn't have to hide herself, she didn't have to cover things

up, same for Adam, he wasn't having to be pretentious or to

pretend that he was something that he wasn't.

They were living in Perfect Harmony in the garden of God,

but now blame Creeps in Adam blames his wife.

His wife blames the serpent, their relationship with God is

broken. Look at it.

You can see it in verses 14, the Lord God said to the serpent

because you have done this cursed, are you above all

livestock and above all Beasts of the field on your belly?

You shall go and dust. You shall eat all All the days

of your life, I will put enmity between you and the woman and

between your Offspring and her Offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

You may Circle verse 15. If you don't mind writing in

your Bible to the woman, he said, I will surely multiply

your pain. And childbearing in pain you

shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to

your husband but he shall rule over you.

And to Adam, he said because you have listened to the voice of

your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you,

you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of

you in pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life thorns

and thistles it shall bring forth for you.

And you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your

face. You shall eat bread till you

return to the ground for out of it.

You were taken for. You are dust, and to dust you

shall return. Hmm.

So again, we see the relationship with God is broken.

Relationship with one another broken.

Creation. Which was once meant to be only

fruitful. Is now going to be marked by

thorns and thistles. You will work by the sweat of

your brow. He was always going to work,

right? He was put in the garden to work

it and keep it. But now work is going to be much

harder. Childbearing for women, probably

always going to be painful but now it's multiplied.

Relationship of husband and wife a woman will now desire to be

the head of her home rather than to submit to her husband's

leadership. The result of sin is

destruction, its Decay and it's death for all creation has been

subjected to Darkness because of Mankind's sin.

Even now we feel this every single day, that the destruction

of the world affects our work. It affects our health It affects

our well-being and it affects our relationships.

It affects absolutely everything, we don't work with

these anymore. We live.

We work. We return to the Dust.

Relationships are broken, we are selfish, we operate with guilt

and shame. We hurt one another, we lead

others to sin against God at times, we follow others into

their sin against God, we cover ourselves, so that no one truly

knows us. And that's no way, no way to

have true meaningful friendships or gospel inspired communities

or marriages. quick note on marriages, you do see that the

marriage relationship is fractured here, but I have been

able to see this in many marriages and also experienced

it in my own marriage that the gospel.

Redeems. But the Brokenness that we bring

into marriages and after some years together and maybe for

others, it's quicker. But it's taken Patrician, Iowa a

while. But I was thinking through this

this week that we are able to dwell together in marriage

unashamedly. There's nothing that she hides

for me. There's nothing that I hide from

her. We're able to walk together and

strong unity. And I've seen this in other

marriages to. I just think it takes time and

so marriage is worth. I only say that the same

marriage is worth fighting for gospel marriage.

Christian Heritage committing yourself to Christ building, a

relationship on that is worth the work.

That's work. You can ask Patricia, it's hard

work, being married to me, And it's real easy work.

Being married to her, I won't lie but it's a lot of work.

And it's And it's totally worth it.

Just kind of as a side, their relationships are broken but the

gospel brings sweet redemption. Rings reconciliation where there

was once nothing but Brokenness Genesis 3:22 through 24.

Genesis 3:22–24

We have an interaction here. That's, that's really

incredible. The Lord God said, behold the

man has become like one of us and knowing good and evil.

Now let's T reach out his hand and take also of the tree of

life and eat and live forever. And that just stops doesn't,

this is therefore. The Lord God sent him out from

the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

And he drove out the man and at the east of the Garden of Eden,

he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword and turned every

way that turned, every way to guard, the way to the tree of

life. And so the thought actually ends

there without completion, less, the man eat of the tree of life

and become like one of us live forever.

The thought of mankind living forever in his Brokenness was so

disturbing to God, that he doesn't even finish his thought.

He just waste no time in removing them from the garden so

that it cannot happen. That's really incredible.

There's so much that's happened in this passage that gives Adam

and Eve a lot of Hope and Genesis 3:15, if you've been

Genesis 3:15

coming here very long, you've heard me talk about this, but

this is It's the protoevangelium, which just

simply means the first announcement of the good news

the Proto right. First of its kind, it's the

first announcement of good news. And God says to the serpent, I

will put enmity between you and the woman and between your

Offspring and her Offspring. He shall bruise your head and

you shall bruise his heel. The rest of the Old Testament.

Is about tracking the seed of the woman to Jesus Christ.

Everything in your Old Testament, screams shouts with a

loud voice sometimes. It's louder than others.

The name of Jesus Christ, the hope of Jesus Christ.

The fact that one day, there would come one who would crush

the head of the serpent? and this is, In a moment, the

light of the gospel of Christ outshining the darkness of

Mankind's sin and you'll see this over and over again

throughout the New Testament. We're going to look in the next

couple of weeks. I'll just go look at some

different couple of different prophecies that are pointing us

to Christ that are giving us their that happen at different

times in history, according to Israel's life, you know their

life cycle. But today I want you to see that

the light of the gospel of Christ outshines, the darkness

of Mankind's sin just as in second Corinthians 4:6.

2 Corinthians 4:6

We have hear God speaking light into an otherwise very dark

situation. The light of the gospel of

Christ is shining here in the Darkness.

He is saying that God's promise here and he's promising in a

curse to the serpent to Satan. He's promising in a curse to

Satan something for the man in the woman and we know that they

take note of it because Adam calls his wife I'll get to that.

But God's promise. Is that a head?

Crusher is coming. There's a bright shining light

of redemption. In the midst of the darkness of

Mankind's sin things won't be broken forever.

And so we see this Illustrated for us in Genesis 3:21 that says

Genesis 3:21

in the Lord God made for a demand for his wife, garments of

skins and clothed them. He made for them, garments of

skin. And verse 20, we read this, the

man called his wife's name, Eve, because she was the mother of

all living verse 21. And the Lord God Made For Adam

and for his wife, garments of skins and clothed them.

So, a couple of things are happening here.

One the man calling his wife Eve now because she is the mother of

all living is directly, tied to the seed, that's promised to

come from her that will bring about life for mankind again.

And so, he's saying that she is the mother of all living.

From her will come the one who will crush the serpent?

It's incredible. And then in the very next verse,

you have God doing something that is at the very least, a

foreshadowing. Of what the righteousness of

Christ will mean for us before. Sending them out, he closed them

and animal skins how to get these skins and animal had to

die. Hides death is now a part of the

creative order or the Brokenness of what was originally created,

I should say God not only makes a promise that the serpent will

be crushed by the seed of the woman, but he foreshadows a

clothing that will not remove the shame of.

In Forever. And that clothing is the

righteousness of Christ. Advent is not just about the

Glorious baby. Jesus Christ coming into the

world, through a Manger in Bethlehem.

Advent is about the promise of God being fulfilled.

That I will send one through the woman who will crush the head of

the serpent. A glorious savior, has been

born. And the birth is wonderful.

But this this babe in a Manger was born to die.

Not to live and he was born to die so that you might be reborn

unto New Life. A head Crusher has come through

the seed of Eve. Jesus Christ is the Fulfillment

of the long-awaited promise, the light shines in the darkness.

The darkness will not overcome it.

Second Corinthians. 5:21, I mentioned, second Corinthians

2 Corinthians 5:21

five. So this is just a chapter.

After the verses we've read already this morning, He made

the one who did not know sin to be sin for us.

So that in him in Christ, we might become the righteousness

of God. And so on the cross Christ,

takes your sin on himself. He is clothed with your sin

there on the cross. And in his death.

Sin is dealt a death, blow the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God, is eternal life through Jesus Christ, Our

Lord, and so, in his death, he takes on your sin, and his

resurrection death and sin are defeated and all of those who

will place their faith in Christ.

May now have their sin removed from them, and be clothed in the

righteousness of Christ, just as Adam and Eve were clothed in an

animal skin, just as Tanner earlier.

Went down into the water and comes out.

You and I by belief in Christ go down into the waters and go down

into the grave with Christ by faith.

In Christ we come out of the waters, a new creation.

Behold, all things have become new.

Why? Because God made him Christ.

Who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we might in Christ.

No, no sins. It's incredible.

It's an exchange that were utterly.

Unworthy of The perfect righteous Son of God would come

to Earth. To give up.

The glories of Heaven to be numbered among men.

To be like us and his flesh yet 100% fully God. 100% fully man.

And to die on a cross for our sins that we might be saved.

It's incredible and so Paul's reference to Genesis 1:3 where

Genesis 1:3

he says the same God who spoke let there be lights Shows that

the work of God. And revealing the light of the

Gospel in our hearts is a new creational Act.

We have become New Creations by the word of God.

It is, the means by which the veil is removed from our eyes.

It's the power of God. It's the means by which we are

transferred from Darkness Into His Marvelous Light.

This new creation will work is bound up with Christ's death and

Resurrection. Jesus, who is the light of the

world? Endures the power of darkness in

order to absorb and to rescue us.

From Eternal outer Darkness. and it is through his being that he

was the first to rise from the dead that he now, proclaims

light, as we read about in Acts 26, The results is Christ, is

proclaiming light, is that our minds are no longer blinded by

unbelief. The veil is removed instead, we

are now creatures who were called to walk as children of

light. You see, the gospel is the

ultimate source of lights and it puts all of life into proper

perspective. Because we view life, according

to how we are seeing in the sight of God.

Now, we are free to abandon underhanded ways.

We don't have to be cunning anymore.

We can abandon those ways in favor of a transparent, Grace

dependent life, don't have to walk in the darkness.

Any longer you see all other ways of seeing or so, they may

be called Only lead to blindness.

Other light sources. Represent Darkness.

There is only one True Lies. Jesus Christ said himself, I am

the light of the world. I am the light of the world.

But he warns that we're warned in his word, that Satan comes as

an angel of Light. Just as he did, the eve, God

didn't say that he said this her God's not doing that because he

wants you to do this. And so, a life that is submitted

to Christ submits itself to his word, submits itself to his

commands. And where it falls short, it is

quick to repent and to exercise faith in the death and

resurrection of Jesus Christ. See we celebrated today, with

Tanner is repentance and faith. but you and I as you know,

whether you've been following the Lord for 20 years, 30 years,

40 years, five years, five days, You never outgrow a life of

repentance and faith. You never move Beyond

repentance. You never move route Beyond

needing to repent of your sins and exercise faith in Christ.

This is why again, in 3:18 of second Corinthians, he says the

veil has been removed. Now we're beholding the glory of

Christ. And as we Behold Him, we are

transformed from one degree of Glory to another Well, the

transforming from one degree of Glory to another happens.

As you see the Perfection of Christ.

You see your imperfections and you say, oh, Lord, this cannot

stay in me. I Repent in dust.

Help me to live a life worthy of your name.

Give me new desires. And you just exercise Faith.

You Proclaim in those moments. I am a sinner but I praise you.

Father for the gift of your son Christ, who died for my sins.

But I might dwell with you, I might live with you that I might

not have to run and hide myself with fig leaves but I might step

out into the open. I thank you, Father, that you

pursue me as you pursue that Adam.

Help me to stand before you in the righteousness of Christ.

You just plead that. That's what faith is pleading

the righteousness of Christ So God graciously, exposes this

Darkness he empowers us to live as children of light who are

being transformed by the work of the spirit.

So we have new life. We have eternal life and part

but we will know it in full at the second Advent, when Christ

returns. And so we wait for it.

Eagerly, we wait for an expectantly, we wait for it

patiently. Even though.

The road seems long. even though the darkness seems really dark

at times, you can say, with the psalmist In Psalm 139 David

Wright's, there. He says the darkness is as light

to you. And so even when you find

yourself overwhelmed by Darkness, maybe it's the

darkness of suffering. The darkness of your sin and

darkness of some pain. You by faith, can look to Christ

and say the darkness is as light to you.

I'm submitting myself to you, amen?

and so that day when Christ returns, we got a glimpse of it

in Revelation, 21 1 through 5, He says then I saw this is the

Apostle John writing of his vision, he said that I saw a new

Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven.

And the first Earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of

Heaven, from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband,

and I heard a loud voice from the throne.

Throne saying, Behold The Dwelling Place of God is with

man He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God

himself will be with them as their God.

It's a it's a restoration of Eden but in an even more

glorious work of it. And then in verse 4, some of my

personal favorite these days. My personal favorite words of

the Lord, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

I thought I was going to make it.

And Death Shall be no more. Neither shall there be Mourning.

Nor crying nor pain anymore. For the former things have

passed away. He who was Seated on the throne

Christ, Our Lord. Sure.

It says, behold I am making all things new and also, he said,

Write this down. For these words are trustworthy

and true. Who made it?

God wants said of his world. The hold.

It is very good. And then mankind Rebels.

And he promises. He could have done away with the

whole lot but he promises to restore.

What has been broken? And then, as we read about these

last days, these this ushering in of the New Jerusalem, which

is just the bride of Christ, you don't have to get weird about

that, it's just the, the people of God Dorn.

Does a bride for Christ. It says in these last what we

read about it in these last days and the days of Glory he says,

behold I am making all things new It's incredible the way the

word of God has these bookends in it for us to.

So clearly see And then in the very next chapter, the angel

showed me the river of the Water of Life bright, as Crystal

flowing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb, through the

middle of the street of the city.

Also on either side of the river the Tree of Life.

With its 12 kinds of fruit yielding, its fruit.

Each month, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the

nation's, no longer will there be anything occurs, but the

Throne of God, and of the Lamb will be in it.

And his servants will worship Him, and they will see his face.

And his name will be on their foreheads.

And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp

or sun for the Lord. God will be there light and they

will reign forever and ever. it sounds like when God said let

there be light and there was light few verses later.

He says, blessed are those who wash their robes so that they

may have the right to the tree of life and they may enter the

city by the gates outside or the dogs, and Sorcerers and the

sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters.

And everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the

right to the Tree of Life. We wash our robes and the blood

of the Lamb. Amen.

We wash our robes by the one. Who was slain for our

wickedness. We do that by placing our faith

in the lamb, a placing our face, our faith in Christ by fixing

our Gaze, on him. By his righteousness clothing

us, we have been washed and we will live forever with him.

Just as God meant for it to be. I want to leave you today with

this word from Christ in John 3 Verses 18 through 21.

John 3:18–21

Whoever believes in me is not condemned, but whoever does not

believe is condemned already. Because he has not believed in

the name of the only son of God. And this is the Judgment, the

light has come into the world and the people loved the

darkness rather than the light because their Works were evil.

For anyone. Sorry for everyone who does the

wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light,

lest his work should be exposed but whoever does when it's true

comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his

Works have been carried out in God.

Brothers and sisters, friends, visitors, I beg of you to come

to the light of Christ today. Let me pray for you.

Heavenly Father, we praise you for your word.

Today, we thank you for the promises, they're in it.

God, we thank you for the light of the Gospel seeing in the

glory of Christ. Lord, I ask that you help us to

believe in the one and only son of God to believe in your son

Christ, Jesus, with all of our heart and all of our mind and

all of our strengths, Help us to love him.

God would you call us out of Darkness?

And into your Marvelous Light. Help us to know a new life help

us to be New Creations, remove the veil from our eyes that we

might see Christ and see him more, clearly more vividly.

Lord help us to desire him more than we desire.

The things of this world. And Lord as we grow weary.

In this world. As we get tired.

As we end our suffering. Because we experience pain, help

us to see Lord. That we are not without a savior

who endured all of those things for us in his Incarnation.

There's no temptation that he did not himself.

Inder There's no pain in which he cannot sympathize with us.

We have a perfect high priest in heaven.

We can approach today. This high priest doesn't stand

back behind some altar scowling at us.

But he says to us, just as he said in Matthew 11, come to me.

All of you who are weary and heavy-laden And I will give you

rest. Take my yoke upon you for.

I am gentle and lowly at heart. Father, would you help us?

To see the Savior this way. Help us to remove fig leaves.

And blame. And pride.

Help us to repent in dust. And to hide ourselves behind the

Cross of Christ. Lord, would you also help us

endure this race to run it? Well, every day?

The live everyday, as the servant who prepares his home

for his master's return knowing that he could return any

moments. Help us to live like that.

Father help us to purge Sin from our lives.

Help us to not toy with it to not play with it.

Help us to take seriously the mortification of sin.

And purity. Or today, help us to be those

who are found in the light. We love the light who run to the

lights. And we need your power in us to

do that. We need you father.

The one who said, let there be light, we need you to do that in

our hearts today. We're hopeless without you.

And so we call on you. Now in Christ's name, I pray.

Amen. And so we call on you.

Now in Christ's name, I pray. Amen.