Get Rid of the Fig Leaves

One of the many wonderful and amazing things about God is that He sees you and me and every other human being. God created this vast universe. If you can wrap your mind in the vastness of this universe, I can't. But if you can try, just think about what God has done and what's out there. And yet, Scripture tells us He sees us and He is aware of what each person is doing. Look at Psalm 33 with me, please. Psalm 33, verses 13-15. This is God's Word. This is the Word of Truth. Psalm 33, verses 13-15, here the Psalmist explains. He explains that God knows our hearts and He knows our actions. Psalm 33, verse 13, He says, the Lord looks from heaven, the third heavens up above. He sees all the sons of men, all of them. And from the place of His dwelling, He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashions their hearts individually. He considers all their works. My footnote says He understands all their works. Of course, that would be both the good and the not good works. Hebrews 4, verse 13, as we develop this introduction here, Hebrews 4.13 echoes the meaning of these verses. And as we expect in the New Testament, it also amplifies what we just read in the Old Testament. Hebrews 4.13, here we read, And there is no creature hidden from his, from God's sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him, to whom we must give account. And so that also tells us something important. God just isn't looking and watching. He's weighing our actions. He's weighing our motivations. And so we quickly understand that God truly sees us. He sees inside us, meaning our hearts and our minds, our motivations, and He sees the outside. He sees what we do. And along with that, He also notices what we don't do. Under God's scrutiny, every human being who you're told is naked or laid bare. Our most secret thoughts, then, our most secret thoughts, our fears, our motives, and yes, our sins are known to God. What we do, what we do not do, God is aware of, and, as we just read in Hebrews 4.13, God holds us accountable. Now, these facts, and these are facts, these are spiritual facts, they should not frighten us. They should not frighten us one bit, unless we're trying to hide something from God, unless we're trying to hide our sin. And if we're trying to hide our sin from God, I hope you would agree with me that would be a rather futile and foolish thing. In fact, it'd be like trying to cover ourselves with a fig leaf.

There are some big fig leaves. I was going to ask the bakers if I could come raid their fig trees, and I thought, no, I better not. But there are different sized fig leaves. Some are quite big, some are not. But we know that would be a rather foolish and futile ten. A little bit more about that here in a minute. What we need to do, instead of trying to hide, we need to respond to sin as God prescribes.

God tells us how to respond to sin in our lives. And so what do we mean by fig leaves? We're going to talk a little bit about fig leaves today. Fig leaves are on trees, but the fig leaves we're going to talk about are these symbolic fig leaves. Fig leaves can symbolize our futile efforts in trying to cover up our sins, trying to cover ourselves and ourselves from God if it were possible. We're going to talk about why should we put away our fig leaves? Because I suggest we all have a few. Why do we want to put away our fig leaves?

It's because hiding or ignoring our sin does us no good. It does us no good, and it does no good to our neighbor, to our brethren. Fig leaves, you see, do not allow us to see ourselves better. Fig leaves do not allow us to see ourselves better even as God sees us. And that is really how we should want to see ourselves.

We really want to see ourselves as God sees us, so that we can be motivated to make those important changes. And so the title of today's sermon is, Get Rid of the Fig Leaves. Get Rid of the Fig Leaves. Now, no human being has or ever will succeed in hiding from God. Would you agree with me on that? Yes, very good. I think that's correct from Scripture. Our motivations and the things we do and don't do can never be kept secret from God.

But as we know, that does not mean that people won't try. People will still try to hide and pretend that their sins really aren't there. Now, if you turn with me, fig leaves probably puts you in mind of something that happened back in Genesis. So let's turn back to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. Here we find described narrative form how the serpent, aka Satan, deceived Eve into disobeying God.

Satan led Eve to question God's instructions. As we've heard many a time, that is Satan's MO, and that is the modus operandi, the way he does, and it's the way of the world now, too. Satan's world is to end our mind, our faith, and trust by asking questions, by sowing doubt.

Let's read verse 1. Genesis 3 verse 1. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Maybe saying that incredulously or somehow. I don't know. Verse 2. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.

So he's sowing doubt. He's making her pause and wonder a little bit about what she had been taught. And then Satan just flat-out lied to her. Let's read on verse 4. And then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Well, to Eve's defense, I wonder, but she had probably never before heard a deceitful and untrue statement. She's going to trust what she hears. Even though she had maybe thought that maybe she shouldn't, but we do read, she admits it, she was deceived. And so, as Satan's coaxing, Eve applied her own reasoning, little human reasoning, and then she made that terrible choice, followed up by an action.

Verse 6, So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, it's pretty, and it's a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. And so Adam and Eve sinned. That's simply. That's simply in this case. How did they sin? They sinned because they disobeyed God's clear instruction. They were not to eat of that fruit, of that tree. And they chose their own way to being wise. They chose what James, later on in James 3.15, you can just jot that down, but later on James 3.15 would call that earthly wisdom.

They followed the wisdom of the earth, of the world, and of human reasoning. They did not follow God's way, God's word. And something else that strikes me about this, and maybe you've noticed it too, it is tragically ironic, is it not, that until that very moment when they dissipated God, Adam and Eve had been wise because they had been obeying God. Instead, Satan got them to think they weren't wise. But they were wise because they had been following God. Job 28, 28 tells us that the fear of the Lord, reverence, respect for God, that is wisdom.

That's the true eternal wisdom we all want to strive for. And then what happened after the ate the fruit, verse 8, when the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked. Suddenly, being in their own skins, all-natural suddenly seemed different. Something had changed. Something within them had changed. And they sewed fig leaves together, there they are, the fig leaves. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

They made themselves coverings. And so after eating this fruit, but it was actually their action of disobedience, that sin, they immediately gained new thoughts. They had new feelings. Things they had not expected suddenly must have come rushing into their hearts and minds. And their actions, as we read here, the actions that followed, suggest that they must have had feelings of shame and guilt.

Suddenly, they felt very weak and insecure. And because they covered their loins, it suggests that they felt vulnerable. That's a natural thing to do for human beings. When we're under attack, we protect those vital parts, those tender parts of our bodies. They made aprons. It says in the King James Version, they made aprons. It really just means belts.

They made belts. They wove together belts of fig leaves around their waist to cover their private parts. But I have to stress, they did not do it because that somehow sex was the sin they had committed. Some theologians have taught that for centuries. The sin that they committed was not sex. Sex is a blessing in marriage. That's how God created it to be. Their sin was in disobeying God. That was the sin. It was not sex.

It strikes me that they must have felt exposed. They must have felt vulnerable. They felt weak. We have it from Scripture that fig leaves were humanity's first clothing. Think about that. As I do, you could say it was the first cover-up. It was the first cover-up, wasn't it? You think about that word a little bit, and it really does kind of fit what they were doing. A cover-up of what they had actually done wrong. Of course, that was very miserable clothing, I can't imagine. It was very comfortable, nor very fashionable. That's another topic as I heard everybody's ears.

Now, what else happened? Let's look on verse 8. God came near. The one who is Jesus Christ would become as Jesus Christ. He came near to them in the garden. And when He came near, they did what people typically do when they're confronted with wrongdoing, when they're feeling guilty. And if you read this, it probably seemed rather natural to us that this is what they did. Verse 8, And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So they hid. What did you do as a little kid when you got in trouble with mom and dad? You hide. You try to hide. I can always be found. I wasn't a very good hider, I guess. And then the Lord, verse 9, said, He called to Adam and said to them, Where are you? Of course, God knew where they were at, but He was wanting to know their response. He's a very loving father, and He wants to know what His children are going to say. Are they going to cough up the truth? Are they going to do something different? He said, Where are you? And so then He, Adam, said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid myself.

And the Lord said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?

Now, what did we just review at the very beginning of the sermon?

God's up there in the third heaven, but what does He do? He sees all that we do. He saw what Adam and Eve did. He knew perfectly well what they had done.

And yet He wanted to know how they would respond.

It seems He wanted, He would have known what they did. He would have known their motivation. And yet, God doesn't know 100% perfectly everything we might do. He allows us the opportunity to surprise Him by maybe doing the right thing. Maybe it stacked up against us. He did that with Abraham, remember. Abraham offered his son. And Isaac, and God said after He stopped him, He said, Now I know that you would not withhold even your own son from me. And that was the statement of His faith. God was doing the same thing here with Adam and Eve. He wanted to know. And so we too, we'd like to know. Did they express any sorrow? Did they express any regret for their actions? Verse 12. And then the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, in case you forgot, she gave me of the tree and I ate. And then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me and I ate. Well, of course, between the two, we get a sense of who's probably being a little more honest here. Eve. She was deceived. And Adam, we learn later, was not deceived. But when confronted by God, I think it's fair to say that Adam and Eve, I don't see it here. They did not express contrition. They did not express sorrow or regret. I do not see them saying, I'm sorry. They didn't do that. They did not do that. It's not recorded here. And what's really sad is Adam indirectly blamed God. It's the woman's fault. And you gave her. You made her out of me. And so rather than following God, what do we find? Rather than following God, Adam and Eve established the pattern of following themselves, their own wisdom, something other than God. And they established a pattern of foolish and futile behavior that we human beings still follow today. What is that? Well, to this day, people typically do what they did.

They hide their sin. They try to avoid mentioning it. They don't actually come out and say they did wrong. Rather than dealing with sin in a repentant, humble way, like Adam and Eve did, people do today, they try to hide, they try to cover up, cover themselves with various sorts of fig leaves. Not necessarily in the literal sense, but certainly in the figurative sense. So let me ask us a question. Notice I said, us. What fig leaves might we use? What fig leaves might we use? Let's offer a few. Do we shift the cause for our sins away from ourselves?

Do we try to shift blame to somebody else or something else, perhaps? Do we blame our sins? I've been around a little while. I've been human for quite a long time. Do we try to blame our sins on our parents? Maybe on our upbringing? Perhaps we blame our sins on our children. It can go both ways. Perhaps we blame our sins or troubles on our friends or peer group.

Do we shift blame to influences on our society? If society didn't do that, I wouldn't be such a sinner. I don't really think that's the way it works. Do we blame our sin on our DNA? Some people do. There are life choices, for example. Do we blame it on poor health? Do we blame our sins on unfair circumstances in life, such as poverty or riches? I've heard it go both ways.

Do we blame it on good looks? Do we blame it on the cat and the dog? It gets ridiculous sometimes what we do. Do we blame our sins on bad luck? To be clear, there's no such thing as luck. But people say that. I hope we don't say that. I hope we don't do any of this.

What's another fig leaf we might use? Do we tell ourselves that that sin isn't really that bad? It's just a little sin. It's really no big deal. Do we ever say something like that? Do we sometimes ignore our sin? Do we choose to forget it? Just kind of blow it off and not bring it back up to mind, and by not dealing with it, it sort of evaporates through time.

Well, it doesn't. It does not. That's a fig leaf. Do we assure ourselves that God won't mind? God is so loving. God is so kind. He won't mind if we sin just a little bit. Because He knows we're human and weak. God won't mind if we sin a little bit. That's a fig leaf. You're trying to cover up. Finally, I have one here. Do we ever blame God? Do we ever blame God for our bad choices and their consequences?

Do we ever blame God for our bad choices and their consequences? Now, again, these are just a few fig leaves. There's trees with many more leaves than that, but I only got, what, five today. We might find these fig leaves in our hearts and minds. And when we come to know God and His way of life and the actual way of dealing with sin correctly, we should recognize, if we don't yet, then work on it.

We should recognize that what I've just listed here, these are rather foolish and futile things. Because, again, none of these so-called fig leaves deal with sin correctly. None of those wrong ways of dealing with sin lead to repentance. None of it leads to repentance and forgiveness through Jesus Christ or Savior. Those won't get us there. That won't get us to being ready for salvation. Now, we might not even be aware at times, it's my life experience, we might not even be aware that we are covering up and hiding from God, and hiding from ourselves our responsibility to deal with sin correctly.

But we won't know our sin unless we take a good hard look into our hearts. And so, seasonally, every year, during the time of Passover, we are told to evaluate ourselves. But I think we understand that that is not something we only do once a year. That's something we should be doing every day, all the time. We want to be doing that. We need to take a good hard look into our hearts. We need to be brutally honest with ourselves, and to do that, we have to ask God to see ourselves as he sees us.

Otherwise, we're going to overlook something very terrible in our lives, and we need God's help to see it. We need to get rid of those fig leaves, and only God can help us do that. And so, we must not hide from our sin or ignore it. We need God's help to see it. We must not make excuses for our sins.

Instead, we must have a willingness to learn from God with a teachable attitude, and then choose and be determined to do what God says. I would throw this in. I would say we even need to be scared in the right way that there is a sin in us that we're not dealing with. That will get into this idea of complacency. Sometimes we can think, we're okay. I'm okay.

You're okay. We're going to be in the kingdom. Maybe you're not okay, and maybe I'm not okay. We only know if we keep evaluating deeply with God's help what's going on in our hearts. Those sins that are not easily seen, or some sins we don't want to see. Those are the bad ones. The ones we don't want to see. The others may be suggesting we have, but in our pride, we refuse to consider the possibility. Let's look at 1 John 1.

In 1 John chapter 1 verses 8 through 9, John conveys to us the correct way of dealing with sin. It requires that we be humble and, again, painfully honest with ourselves. 1 John chapter 1 verses 8 through 9. It says, if we say, if we say, you could say if we think, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. In other words, we're lying to ourselves. If we confess our sins, though, in verse 9, that requires that we investigate, we evaluate ourselves. And if we confess our sins, he, God, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. No matter how bad the sin is, no matter how bad we think it is, there's nothing God cannot forgive if we sincerely repent, humble ourselves, and seek his aid through Jesus Christ that we might be forgiven.

If we would do that, then God will forgive us and he will help us to overcome that sin. But how can we confess a sin that we do not see? That, again, is why we need God's help on this. In verse 10, continuing on, verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and his word is not in us.

So, brethren, God makes very clear we have sinned. We have sin in our lives even now, and it'll likely be a part of our lives until Jesus Christ comes, and we're transformed in those Holy Spirit beings. And so, while we have breath, we must be diligent to find sin in our lives because it's there, and we need to confess it. We need to confess it so we can begin to fix things. We can begin to heal that way spiritually. There's an author that has written a series of books having to do with boundaries. That author is John Townsend. John Townsend writes a lot about relationships and reconciliation, and how to get your relationships right. And he makes a powerful point about how we need to confess our wrongs. Confessing wrongs. Wrongs with God, wrongs with people. How confessing our wrongs is a vital key to fixing broken relationships. It's a vital key to forgiveness. And here's the quote he has, and when I read it, it's like, why didn't I think of that? But it's very great, because I don't have a great mind. He says, you can never fix what you don't confess. Now, isn't that something? He said, you can never fix what you don't confess.

Is your car broken? If you don't admit it, can you fix it? No. Is that screen door still slamming hard? Is it not working right? Well, if you don't admit it, you don't recognize it, you're not going to fix it. Is there something wrong in you? Probably more than one, if you're like me. Well, if you don't admit it, and in this case, referring to sin, if we don't admit it to God, how are we going to begin the process of fixing sin in our lives? And so I thought his quote was rather insightful. You can never fix what you don't confess. You have to get it out in the open and start working with it. And so it is in our relationship with God. Let's look at verse 9 again. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all righteousness. But we have to confess it first. So again, we begin to see a process here, don't we? We don't have to be hopeless in our sins. We don't have to feel like, oh, we'll never conquer whatever problem we are facing. Yes, you can. It's very encouraging news, actually. It starts with recognizing what's wrong and going to God and admitting it. Whew! And that'll feel good when you can do that because then you can begin the fixing process. Now again, God already knows when we've committed a sin because our lives are naked before him. So again, it's reasonable, is it not? It's reasonable that we confess our sin. Admit it to ourselves, admit it to God, and even those times we better be admitting it to those people. We've hurt those people we've offended. Through faith in Christ, repenting of sin, and determining never doing it again, God will forgive us. God will forgive us. And he is faithful to believe, excuse me, he is faithful to forgive us. We must believe it. And if you have a hard time believing it, you can also go to God for that and help you to believe it and to live it. And so we must always know that God will hold us accountable. We must also know that God will hold all humanity accountable. Let's look at Acts 17, verse 30-31. I mention this first because we spent some time, part of the fig leaves, part of the fig leaves is trying to push off blame for our sins onto other people, other things. Perhaps just circumstances. But God says, no, we are accountable for our sins. In Acts 17, verse 30-31, let's read here a little bit. Paul is preaching to the Athenians, and he said, truly these times of ignorance God overlooked. So God's, this tells us God is willing to overlook ignorance for a while. But once you begin to hear the truth, once you begin to hear the gospel and the need to repent, he holds us accountable. But God now commands all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. Of course, that man is Jesus Christ. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead.

And so we are accountable. All humanity will be accountable. But let's go a little bit deeper. Let's look at 1 Peter 4, 17. 1 Peter 4, 17. And we've heard this point made many times, but perhaps hearing it again today in the context of being rid of fig leaves, it'll come home a little more deeply, maybe motivate us to better action. Yes, everyone's going to have to put away sin, and we're going to be, all are going to be held accountable. But 1 Peter 4, 17. 1 Peter 4, 17. Peter declared nearly 2,000 years ago now that God is judging the church. He's judging us. The church is not a building. The church is the body of Christ, the body in whom those individuals in whom God's Spirit dwells. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. It's the church of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And so you see that the judgment is based on how are we responding to the gospel, how are we responding to the gospel of repentance, this gospel of salvation. And so for us, while we draw breath, God is judging us as first fruits. If we have been baptized and received God's Holy Spirit in us through the laying on of hands, Scripture says God is evaluating us. And so we really need to be evaluating ourselves and seeking God's help and getting sin out. We are His spiritually begotten children. And we are to be striving to live our lives in total submission to Him. And so again, I make the case to you, we need to be getting rid of the fig leaves. We need to be getting rid of the fig leaves. Now, knowing that our lives and hearts lay bare before God and that God is judging us as first fruits now, what should be our attitude? What should be our response to God? And I hope this would be an easy answer for us. We've been in the church for quite a while, a lot of us. Well, what should be our attitude and response to God? It should be one of humility. It should be one of being teachable, wanting to learn, wanting to improve, wanting to become more like God. Let's turn to an example of a right attitude and response to God. Let's turn to Job 42. Job 42. If you spend time in Job, you're going to find yourself coming back to the book of Job more and more. There's a richness and depth here that just keeps drawing you. But we're just going to look at Job's response. Job had a terrible rough time. God allowed it because God was making Job into a better human being, a better servant of God. What we learned from Job 42, verse 1 through 6, is that we must allow ourselves to be corrected by God. And even while being corrected, we must remain faithful to God, knowing that correction has to be for our good because it's coming from God. Job's faithful and repentant attitude toward God here really is a powerful example of what our response to God might be. So verses 1 through 6, here Job contritely confesses. He confesses his sin to God. He gets it. By the end of the book, he's getting it. He says, verse 1, That's a very powerful understanding to come to. Verse 3, Sounds like a fig leaf issue.

There are things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. It takes humility for a man to say he was ignorant.

He says, verse 4, Listen, please, please, and let me speak. You said I will question you, and you will answer me. Well, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I abhor myself, and repent, and dust, and ashes. What a powerful, powerful confession. He did something most people do not want to admit.

He did not know. He didn't understand. He was stupid. He was ignorant. Most people want to act, most of us. Let's talk about people in general, okay? We won't point fingers even at myself. We like to know that we know everything. We like to think we're really smart. Jove seems to have been one of those. Here, he admits what human beings typically don't like to admit, that they did not know. They are ignorant. But God is very loving and patient, isn't he? Do you notice how Jove makes no excuses for his sin? Claiming ignorance is not an excuse. For Jove, it was a fact. Probably it is for us sometimes. Jove had come to see himself as God sees him. He saw a little bit more of himself, that's for sure. He had come to see himself as God sees him. In the process, he acknowledges God's omnipotence and authority. He confesses God's greatness, and he confesses his own foolishness, his own shortcomings.

Jove offers no lame fig leaves. He offers no lame fig leaves to hide behind. His attitude is humble, it's of humility, it's a heartfelt confession. And this is a great example for us of how we need to approach God. How we need to approach God for the forgiveness of our sins. Now let's turn to the New Testament. Let's turn to Philippians 3, verse 5 through 8. And again, such rich examples, such rich, deep lessons for us to draw from, lessons preserved for us for thousands and thousands of years, and the truth is eternal. The truth is still truth. We're going to look at the example, consider what the Apostle Paul says. Philippians 3, verse 5 through 8. Again, we see another powerful example. Here's a powerful example of Paul. He's someone who willingly submitted to God with sincere repentance and with humble, profound confession of sins.

And he did all this because he was faithful. He believed that Jesus Christ lived and died for his sins. And he preached that gospel, and he lived that gospel of repentance in his own life. And again, what we're going to read here, there is no fig leaf excuse of self-justification here, anything like that.

Philippians 3, 5 through 8. Paul describes himself and his life prior to being called by God.

Prior to being called by God, prior to that time when Jesus Christ confronted him, on the road to Damascus. We're not going to read about how he is pushed down, cast down on the road to Damascus. You can read that on your own. It's in Acts 9, verse 1 through 19. I'm just going to refer to it today. But Acts 9, verse 1 through 19. Let's pay attention here in verse 5. Paul's describing what he was like before that road to Damascus moment. Breaking into his explanation, verse 5, Paul says, I was circumcised on the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Concerning the law, a Pharisee. They're conservative and very zealous in keeping God's law. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness, which is in the law, I was blameless. And the law here would tend to refer to the ritual law as well. Notice what he says next on verse 7. So he had great reason to be proud of himself, great reason to feel confident that he was righteous before God.

But then something happened on the road to Damascus. Look what he says, verse 7. But what things were gained to me, these I have counted lost for Christ. And a little bit more into verse 8. And I count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. All that I thought was so important, so great, so wonderful about me and my life and all that, my accomplishments and what I was doing, it was trash. It's garbage compared to what I have now.

You see, on the road to Damascus, God struck Paul down, and he blinded him for three days. He must have been somewhat tough, a tough nut to crack, we might say. He cast him down and blinded him for three days. But during those three days of blindness, while he also fasted, Paul came to see, you see. He came to see himself with God's sight. He came to see himself as God saw him. He came to see Scripture. He came to see everything he had been taught from a different perspective, from God's perspective. Things changed. He came to see himself as he truly was. And you can imagine, as he describes here, he was not a pretty picture. And rather than, and again, though, but rather than hiding behind his Hebrew pedigree, he was telling us about, rather than hiding behind his education or training, behind his reputation, rather than hiding behind his devotion to Pharisaical traditions and the laws, these are all fig leaves.

These are all fig leaves which he used in ignorance. And they became ways, looking back, they became ways to excuse his sins that he had been committing against God and church in his ignorance. He didn't know it then, but he came to know it. What Paul came to do, he humbled himself. He sought God's help. He confessed to God his sins. Are we seeing the pattern? There's the pattern of dealing with sin the right way. Paul had thought that he was righteous before God, but God revealed that he was actually wretched, miserable, poor, blind to the truth, and naked. Naked before God. He thought he was clothed in righteousness. Perhaps he might say he was covered up by a bunch of fig leaves. And now, we know that Paul confessed his sins the way he was to God because he just confesses it to the church we just read here in Philippians. But let's also read in 1 Timothy chapter 1. Let's read in 1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1, 12-13. OK.

A little too exuberant in my page turning. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 12-13. Paul confessed these very sins to God because we see that he also confessed them to the church. He is also confessing them, it would seem, to the very people he persecuted at one time in a previous lifetime, it might be said. He says in verse 12, And I thank Jesus Christ our Lord, who has enabled me. He didn't do it. Christ enabled him to do it, just as Christ enabled us to repent.

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. And although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

And so he's not making an excuse here. Again, he's stating the fact. He did not know. He did not know. He didn't see his sin until God helped him to see it. He had persecuted the church in ignorance. It's not an excuse. He's hiding behind. It's a fact. He simply did not then know God's truth, nor understand how he was sinning against God, against church, against man, until Jesus Christ, in his mercy, showed him. God helps us in the same way today, if we let him. And so Paul demonstrates God's love and forgiveness. God extends to all who believe and obey him now, and the same forgiveness he's going to extend to all humanity in due time. And so then Paul also adds, here, verse 14 through 16, continuing on, he says, And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, so abundant that it is extended to us now, two thousand years later, and to all those who will have that opportunity extended to them. Our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are on Christ Jesus, and this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief, Paul says. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern, pay attention, as a pattern, an example to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. And Paul might add, who are going to believe on him because of what Jesus Christ is doing through me, and saving my life and sending me out as an evangelist, preacher of the gospel of salvation, the gospel of repentance.

If we continue to be led by God's Holy Spirit, just like Paul and many others before us, then we'll receive eternal life at Christ's return. But we have to keep rooting out sin. We have to keep asking God's help to get it out. We've got to get rid of the fig leaves.

And so, like Job, Paul, and all men and women of faith, God expects you and me to be totally committed to him through repentance, through faith and obedience. And with Christ's help, we can and must keep battling and overcoming sin. And the good news from the Scripture is we are shown how. It's obvious if we have God's help to see it, and he has given us that sight. Remember, we have light now. We have light that wasn't there before. That light is Jesus Christ. You can't see anything in a dark room because there's no light. The light has come, the darkness has been dispelled, and we can see what we need to be doing. So we can and must be getting rid of the fig leaves. We must be clothing ourselves with God's righteousness. Not these crummy, flimsy, old, itchy fig leaves of sin and excuses. But we won't overcome sin if we don't treat sin seriously. And that's something you need to put in your notes because that's something I have to remember. We all have to remember. We won't overcome sin if we don't treat sin seriously. If we fail to repent seriously, if we fail to take sin to heart and reject it. That requires we fight complacency. One last place I want to take you to here in the Bible today. Let's go to Revelation 3, verse 14-19. Revelation 3, 14-19.

Revelation 3, verse 14-19 is Christ's warning. All this originated from the Father. This is God's warning to the church. It's a warning to the church. It's addressed to the church in Laodicea. And it's possible one might read these scriptures, Revelation 3, 14-19, to the Laodicean church with an attitude that says, that's the Laodiceans. We're not Laodiceans. I'm not a Laodicean. This isn't for me. What am I doing? I'm showing you a fig leaf. That's not meant for me. I'm okay. You're okay. Are we sure?

I would say we better not be so sure, because that becomes an attitude of complacency, you see. So let's read. This is what's often called the Laodicean attitude. Revelation 3, 14, and to the angel of the church of Laodiceans, write, These things say the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works. Imagine God's talking to you. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot, so then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. That's not a pleasant picture, is it? Verse 17, Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing. It's an attitude of complacency. And you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich. He's talking about spiritual gold, spiritual riches. Buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed. That's the good, the best cover-up of our sins. It's the righteousness of God through faith in Christ. And I recommend you anoint your eyes with eyesab that you may see.

Do we want to see the way we see? No. We want to see the way God sees, the way God sees us. As many as I love, and so don't take this as a harsh criticism, although if it fits, wear it. As many as I love, God says, I rebuke and chasten, therefore be zealous and repent. ZELOUS and repent.

The Laodiceans had become complacent. These were brethren. These are brethren of ours, almost 2,000 years ago. They had become lukewarm in their zeal for God. They had become lukewarm in their repentance. And that means they weren't treating sin the way they needed to be treating it. And so Christ warns them, and He warns us, that some in the church will believe that they are clothed in righteousness, but in fact, they are naked. Brethren, I don't want that to be you. I do not want that to be me.

And I don't want to be wrapping around a bunch of fig leaves in my spiritual life. I want to deal with reality as it is. And you do too. And for that, we have to ask God to help us see with His sight, and then to deal with sin in the way He prescribes.

And so if we are zealous to repent, we will not suffer devastating disappointment at Christ's return. We will meet Him in the clouds at His return. But we must get rid of the fig leaves, and we must deal vigorously with our sins. We cannot be lukewarm about sin in our lives. And so as we conclude, I encourage us to be doing two things. I encourage us to be doing two things. Number one, in case you didn't get it yet, Number one, confess our sins to God. Confess our sins to God. God already sees and knows our sins, so why would we even try to hide them or to ignore them and pretend they don't exist? Recall also, I said, we can't fix what we don't confess. We can't fix what we don't confess. And number two, seek God's help in overcoming sin. Seek God's help in overcoming sin. God, over and over again, tells us that He will always help us to repent. He will be faithful to forgive us when we confess. He requires us to be faithful to Him in believing what He says and doing it to the best of our ability. At that time, we can always do better, but He wants us to be seeking His help. And again, He is faithful to forgive us. So, brethren, I hope this message is helpful. I hope you'll take it to heart. I'm going to take it to heart myself, because we all want to be there in Christ's returns. So, brethren, let's get rid of the fig leaves and be clothed instead with the righteousness of God.