Fellowship's beginnings

Every day Adam would hear God’s voice in the Garden and the two would walk together in the cool of the day while God taught Adam His Word.

Amos 3:3 says, ‘[3] Can two walk together, except they be agreed?’ The fellowship was broken when Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, which was a grape, and sinned.

Genesis 3:8 says, “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.” They decided to put on an “apron” of fig leaves to cover their nakedness.

“Fig leaves are really prickly and they’ll cut you and you don’t want to pick them out of the tree with a naked arm,” says Jordan. “It would be the most uncomfortable garment that I can imagine covering yourself with. It wouldn’t work so great, either, because they’d shrivel up and not to do their job.

“Man’s covering didn’t work and Operation Fig Leaf was a failure, so what God does is He takes an animal and sheds its blood, makes a sacrifice, takes the skin and covers man with the coat that was gained and offers new fellowship.

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“Genesis 3:24 says, [24] So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

“There was that tree of life and in the next chapter you’ll see Cain and Abel knew the time to bring sacrifices had come. They knew what to bring, where to bring it and how to do it. Abel did it right and Cain did it wrong.

“God made a place where He could restore fellowship with them. He put the cherubim there to protect that place from Satan and the fallen angels destroying it. That place was on the earth until the Flood and when Noah gets off the Ark, burnt offerings arrive for the first time.

“They go and offer the offering but they can’t go to where the presence of God is between the cherubim at the tree of life because that had all been eradicated from the earth through the judgment of the Flood.

“Now they offer the burnt offerings that ascend up to God, who is now in heaven. God was always in the business of seeking to restore the fellowship that sin broke. He formed a nation in the earth specifically for that purpose. You remember we studied in Ephesians 2 that in time past He made a distinction, a division between the circumcision and the uncircumcision?

“If you were on the circumcision side, you were inside the fellowship. If you were with the uncircumcision, you were outside and there was a wall that partitioned you out of the fellowship.

“Exodus 19:5 says, [5] Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

“God set up a method and gave a way for man to have fellowship with Him and for the nation Israel to be His people. The Gentiles, out there on the wrong side of that, could come through Israel and get back in fellowship with Him.

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“When Noah gets out of the Ark, he replaces Adam (Genesis 9). God gives Noah exactly the same commission he gave Adam, so you’ve got a renewed situation here. However, Noah goes out and has a problem with the grape, just like Adam and Eve had a problem with the grape.

“Genesis 9:20-21 says, 20] And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
[21] And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

“Every time you see nakedness in the Scripture, the Bible wants it to be covered up. So when we’re talking about the issue of clothing, it has to do with covering up. The animal creation has its own built-in clothing but man doesn’t, and since we lost the original covering we have to devise our own garments.

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“Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. The old Geneva Bible said they made themselves britches and that’s why it’s called ‘The Britches Bible.’

“The apron is like the one the priests had in Exodus and so forth—it’s not like when you think about a little apron to wear in the kitchen. It was a covering garment and there are some doctrinal issues about the apron and the priesthood, etc.

“They were going about to establish their own righteousness. They were attempting to make a religion; make themselves acceptable to God. But the point is they knew they needed a covering.”