The Faith Walk

Guest (Male): Today, with Jonathan Evans.

Jonathan Evans: What are the clothes that tells you in scripture? Isaiah 61:10 says, and he clothed us in garments of righteousness and garments of salvation. Revelation 19:8 says, and the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Your clothing is your life. And so the Bible tells us over and over again, Romans 13:14 it says, put on Christ. Galatians 3:27 it says, clothe yourself in Christ. He's telling you you need to wear the garments of salvation. How can we receive the grace of God with the lamb slaughtered?

Guest (Male): You're listening to the faith walk with Jonathan Evans. In a moment, Jonathan will continue today's message. But first, to thank you for your support of this ministry, Jonathan has two gifts for you. The first is the audio series that you're currently hearing called All Eyes on Jesus, helping you refocus on the one who changes everything. The second part of this gift is a book by Dr. Tony Evans called The Power of Jesus Names. Discover how the names of Jesus reveal his character, his purpose, and his power in your life today. How can knowing him more deeply transform your faith?

I'll tell you more about these later in today's program, or you can call right now at 1-800-800-3222 or visit tonyevans.org to learn more. Now, here's Jonathan with part two of his message, What Do You Have On?

Jonathan Evans: The devil will try to get you to sin, to go claim stuff you already got. When you eat this, you going to be like God. Genesis 1:26 says, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. They were already like God. He did the same thing that Jesus bowed down and worshiped me, Matthew 4, and I will give you the kingdoms of this world. Jesus like, that's my whole inheritance. What are you talking about? I'm already the king. You're trying to give me You're trying to make me sin to go get something I already got.

That's why the enemy will confuse you to look at another woman like you ain't got one at home. And vice versa. Look at the ladies. Talk about it. I'm talking about you, too. He got us running around trying to claim stuff that's already in our spiritual pocket. And he told that to Adam and Eve. And they decided to eat the fruit. And what they realized is that they were actually much different from each other than they previously knew. So what they did was Watch this. They hid what was private that they had shame about. What they did was is take the culture and take what I'm shamed about and make it private and cover it up.

So at least they would no longer see what we're shamed about that we want to hide. Okay. What they were trying to do is avoid transactional human judgment. So now you won't judge me and I won't judge you because I was able to hide what's private in my life that I'm ashamed of. The church has become a master at this. To take the culture and we're able to smile with the best of. Meanwhile, some of the people that dress up the best have the dirtiest closet. And they're so good. We're so good at fooling other people because the goal for us has been to dress up to avoid human judgment.

But you're dressing up for the wrong judgment. So we have become professional hiders. That's why we're not getting healed. This doesn't mean that you're supposed to go about and tell everybody your business. Let me make that clear. But there are some of us that don't tell nobody our business. Meaning we avoid a biblical principle of accountability because we don't want to be accountable. We just want to avoid judgment. So we are professionals at looking good while being messed up. Somebody told me the other day she they said uh man I got to tell you something mean.

I know you going to be shocked at this. And then they told me and I said I ain't shocked. I may be disappointed. I may be Yes, I pray for you or if I tell somebody and all that kind of stuff, I'm not shocked. Because you may have been able to hide it and look good for a while. But I know Okay, let me just help you all understand something. Including me, everybody in here whack. Let me let me tell you how offensive the gospel is. God from up there had to come way down. He had to descend a long way to come down here and allow himself to be beatily beaten and mocked and nailed to a cross and killed in order for you to be saved.

Do you know how sinful that means you are? And we be walking around here like let me help you know already. I know that me and you got garbage in our lives. See, we done got that out the way. Because many of us have become professionals at coming in the church smelling good and smelling like weed in the culture. Many of us have become professionals coming in here with crystals in your ear, looking pretty, but you also have satanic crystals at your house. Many of us have been professionals at looking good with one another. Meanwhile, you mean as all get out when you come into this parking lot and the way you treat your husband and your wife and the way you raise your kids.

And God knows the closet. Just because you got fig leaves out in front, you may look good to me and get my top set of teeth, but to him he doing You mean to tell me that's what you're wearing? This is a sermon on be real as a Christian. Many of us are dressing up for the wrong judgment. We playing games like they thought if they were okay to one another, that simultaneously meant that they were okay in the eyes of God. And by the time you get to verse 21, he had to change their clothes.

That was not going to work for my kingdom. And time is running out. There is a a judgment that's coming. And he's going to be looking at your outfit. And he wants to know if you're properly dressed. And every day I live my life not in fear, but by grace. I fear the Lord, but the word fear has to do with a mixture of yes trembling, but also taking God seriously. It's fear tremble, but it's also living in awe. So when you take the tremble and the awe of God and you put it in a pot and you stir it up, you come with This is a person who takes God seriously in their life.

They are not playing dress up. And here they are playing dress up in the garden, thinking they're okay because they're now have hidden what's private and shameful to them from one another. Now, they found out they were naked after they sinned. But before they sinned, they were already naked. So they were in the same skin, but they were not comfortable in the skin they were in. The outfit didn't change, but the perspective of the outfit did. Which tells me there is a covering that exists in obedience that evaporates in disobedience. There is a covering church that exists in obedience, the protection of God, the covering of God.

Isn't it nice to live your life not having to look over your shoulder or try to figure out who's going to catch you in your lie? Because once you start moving into disobedience, the covering of God that is natural evaporates and now you are left realizing you're naked. They went from naked and unashamed to naked and ashamed. Because through disobedience, that covering is gone. You can look the same but not feel the same about how you look. And Adam and Eve experienced what it was to no longer be covered through the context of obedience. There is a covering church in obedience that doesn't exist when you go your own way.

Okay. Okay. Watch what they did. Let me go figure out how to be covered and righteous again. Okay. I have to go figure out how to return to what I had. Before sin, they did not know what righteousness was. Cuz you can't know what it was because you were created for it and you were living in it. So you didn't know not to to know what it was. If you feel purposelessness, that is evidence that purpose exists. That the purposeless, the hopelessness that you feel is the evidence that hope exists. If you were created for darkness and you were living in darkness, you wouldn't know what darkness was.

Darkness only has meaning because you understand light. In other words, it takes the opposite for you to understand what you're dealing with. Fish don't know they're wet. They don't know what wet is. But we do because we were created to be So when we get wet, we come and we start trying to return, dry off with a towel to the state that we're supposed to be in. Their attempt was to through the knowledge of their sin. Now they knew what righteousness is. So now they made the effort to return to a righteousness that they previously didn't know what it was.

So when you're doing this and you're chasing after things to portray yourself as okay and righteous and all of these things, that is evidence to you that that's the real life you're supposed to be living and the life you were created for. Otherwise, you wouldn't even do it. If raggity was what you were created for, you would just step out the closet raggity.

Guest (Male): More of the faith walk with Pastor Jonathan Evans in a moment. When life leaves you feeling spiritually dry, pressured by culture or unsure of your purpose, all eyes on Jesus will help you refocus on the one who changes everything. Today, with a gift to support the ministry of the Urban Alternative, Jonathan wants to give you a copy of his eight-part audio series All Eyes on Jesus. What could happen if you fixed your eyes on Jesus in every area of your life? Also included with your gift is a book by Dr. Tony Evans The Power of Jesus Names.

Discover how the names of Jesus reveal his character, his purpose, and his power in your life today. Both the book The Power of Jesus Names and the eight-part audio series All Eyes on Jesus are a gift for you to thank you, to show our appreciation for your continued support. It is listeners like you who make this program possible. Our 24-hour resource request line is open at 1-800-800-3222. Let one of our team members help you. 1-800-800-3222 or get all the details at tonyevans.org. How can knowing him more deeply transform your faith? Now, let's get back to Jonathan with the rest of today's message.

Jonathan Evans: So when you're doing this and you 're chasing after things to portray yourself as okay and righteous and all of these things, that is evidence to you that that's the real life you're supposed to be living and the life you were created for. Otherwise, you wouldn't even do it. If raggity was what you were created for, you would just step out the closet raggity. Okay, y'all y'all wait wait me uh Ducks desire water. And water exist. Man and woman desire food. And food exists. Men and women desire relationships. And relationships exist. Um a monkey desires a tree.

And guess what? And trees exist. Humans desire righteousness and justice. That means it must exist, just not in this world. It's in the next one. Until you get there, you are called to be the very desire you have from your homeland. You are not called to just live a cover up. You are called to actually be covered up in the clothing that God has designed for you. Okay. So what did God do when he saw Adam and Eve? Notice they were covered up and hiding from God. Genesis 3:8 says that they they were hiding from God.

It says in Genesis 3:8 they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day and man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees and the garden. So they were covered up for the world, which automatically means you're hiding from God. And God found them. And he said is that what you're wearing? That 's not going to work. So what did he do? God made means tailored garments of skins for Adam and his wife. Okay. Let me tell you why this is beast mode.

Because you have to ask yourself the question, where did he get the skins? There is a clue in verse 20. Verse 20 says, now the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all the living. Wait a minute. Genesis 2:17 says, the day you eat from this, you will surely die. Where did Adam get the hope to call his wife's name to live? Mother of the living. Why does he have the hope enough? Cuz you know his job was to name things. And whatever he called them, that's what they Now he calls his wife, I'm going to call you Eve.

You know why? Because your name means to live. Wait a minute, Adam. You supposed to die. He said the day you eat from this. Now what people do is they'll say, well, yeah, he's talking about spiritual death, separation from God. No, no, no, no. We know that the wages of sin is yet that that's that's physical too. You supposed to die. Adam said her name is now Eve. Okay. Let's track through the Bible, shall we? Abraham was walking his son up Isaac to sacrifice him. Isaac was supposed to die. But then there was a ram in the bush.

The ram died. Isaac lived. In Exodus 12, you have the Israelites, they killed the lambs and they put the blood on the door posts. And because the lamb died and the blood was on the door posts, when the death angel came, it passed over them. So they didn't die. They lived. Leviticus 1:3 says, you have to get a male who is perfect from your livestock and you have to kill it in order to have a burnt offering which is atonement so that the wrath of God will not be on the people. Second Chronicles 29, King Hezekiah said, we must kill the livestock in order to atone from sin so God's wrath will be off the people of Israel.

That's just a few clues from the Old Testament. In the New Testament, John 1:29 it says, behold the lamb of God that comes to take away the sins of the world. First John 2:2 says, Jesus Christ is the propitiation of our sins, satisfying the wrath of God so that we don't die. We live because he died for us. Ephesians 2:4 and 5 says, we were dead in our transgressions and sins, but God made us alive with him through Christ Jesus. So maybe just maybe just really. Based on the Bible as a whole and Jesus Christ as our sacrifice that atones for our sin and the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through and in Christ Jesus.

Where do you think he got them skins from? In the garden. Between Genesis 3:1 and Genesis 3:21 was the first sacrifice. The Bible starts with perfection, sin, atonement. So Adam and Eve can live. God stripped the skins off the perfect lamb that was in the garden and made Adam and Eve walk in it to always remember that the only reason you live is because that lamb died. This means that the son is in the garden. And he said now I want you to walk forever more in the atoning work of the lamb on your behalf.

Your life should be a visible representation of the salvation you received that has you living even though you are supposed to die. That lamb, Jesus Christ, is the propitiation of your sins that satisfied my requirement, Adam and Eve, so that you and your wife can go forward, which is why Adam said, thank you, Lord. I'm going to call my wife to live because a lamb has already died. I don't know if there's anybody in here who knows that on Friday they put him in the earth. But three days later, he rose from the grave with all power.

And you mean to tell me he lived for me, he died for me, he rose for me, and I'm going to wear fig leaves? What does it look like for Adam and Eve to just stay in their fig leaves after they get to live because a lamb was slaughtered? Now, we just going to stay culture. And you wonder why at the judgment he not going to let you walk up there with anything? You don't think he loves his son, is going to honor his son? And you just going to walk up to the judgment seat of Christ wearing anything?

Wearing any old kind of life? What are the clothes that tells you in scripture? Isaiah 61:10 says, and he clothed us in garments of righteousness and garments of salvation. Revelation 19:8 says, and the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Your clothing is your life. And so the Bible tells us over and over again, Romans 13:14 it says, put on Christ. Galatians 3:27 it says, clothe yourself in Christ. Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10 it says, put on the new self. He's telling you you need to wear the garments of salvation. How can we receive the grace of God with the lamb slaughtered and continue to walk around in the fig leaves of the culture?

If we as Christians want to a strong statement, but kind of real, spit in the face of God, we'll accept salvation and not put on Christ. We kind of get one shot at this. Get one shot at this life. God has done the work. He has saved us. He's allowed his son to be slaughtered. Certainly we can wear the right clothes, the life of righteousness that he has called us to. Certainly you can, too. Because we want to put on Christ.

Guest (Male): That was Pastor Jonathan Evans. Before you go today, I want to remind you that we have a couple of gifts for you. An eight-part audio series All Eyes on Jesus and a book The Power of Jesus Names. How can knowing him more deeply transform your faith through Dr. Evans' book The Power of Jesus Names? You'll discover how the name of Jesus reveals his character, his purpose, and his power in your life today. We are also including Jonathan Evans' All Eyes on Jesus audio series helping you refocus on the one who changes everything. Discover how to deepen your faith, stand firm in difficult times, and live with confidence in God's calling.

What could happen if you fixed your eyes on Jesus in every area of your life? Both resources are a gift to you to thank you for your donation to help support the ministry of the Urban Alternative. It's our way of showing appreciation for the continued support of listeners like you who make this program possible. Call 1-800-800-3222 anytime or get all the details online at tonyevans.org. Again, that's tonyevans.org or you can call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Thank you for listening to the faith walk with Jonathan Evans.

The faith walk is produced as a part of the Urban Alternative, a ministry of Dr. Tony Evans.