Emperor¡¦s New Clothes
How many of you kids know the story, ¡§The Emperor’s New Clothes¡¨ by Hans Christian Andersen
„X What¡¦s the story about?
„X The Emperor in the story was a vain man whose main focus in life was to dress in these elegant clothes and show them off to his people.
„X Two scoundrels exploited that vanity by offering to make for the Emperor an extraordinary garment made from cloth so light and fine that it looked invisible - invisible, that is, to anyone too stupid or incompetent to appreciate its quality
„X To make the clothes they required the best gold thread and silk which they promptly put into their bags
„X Then they set up an elaborate hoax of pretending to weave the kings clothes on their looms
„X When any of the kings officials came to inspect the work, they simply expressed admiration for the garments that didn’t really exist for fear of losing their position for being accused of being stupid or incompetent
„X Even the Emperor had to fake his response to the garments - lest he appear stupid and incompetent.
„X At this point, the scoundrels convinced the Emperor to appear before his subjects for the big parade, wearing only his magnificent new clothes.
„X So the scoundrels go through the pretense of pretending to put on the emperors clothes and the king marches out before the people under a canopy held up by servants
„X And, of course, the crowd cheered for the clothes that weren’t there - who wants to be thought of as stupid, right?
„X Until a little child did what little children do - tells it like it really is. He asks his mother why the king has no clothes on
„X Word spreads through the crowd and the king is highly embarrassed as he realizes he is not covered up at all and is butt-naked in front of his people
Surprisingly there is a similar story in the Bible about people who thought they were covered up but were really naked as well
„X Anyone know where that story is? Adam and Eve
„X God had created Adam and Eve, and given them everything they could ever want but he had one rule, not to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
„X How many of you have parents who have made some rules around your house?
„X How many of you always obey all those rules?
„X That¡¦s what happened here as well. Adam and Eve broke God¡¦s rule
Genesis 3:6-13 6 The woman was convinced. The fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it would make her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. Then he ate it, too. 7 At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness.
„X How does it make you feel when you break one of your parent¡¦s rules especially when you find out you are going to be punished?
„X This is exactly how Adam and Eve felt, they felt ashamed, embarrassed and guilty
„X Shame is something our society tries to avoid, but it is a good thing
„X Unfortunately as we grow older we develop all sorts of ways of coping with shame until our conscience become calloused to shame and embarrassment
„X So what did they try to do? They tried to cover things up
So they strung fig leaves together around their hips to cover themselves.
„X I know this feeling. When I was a kid, my brothers and I were fighting and we broke a glass pane in a door
„X We all went to bed even though it was only 6:00pm thinking we would avoid punishment
„X We thought we would be safe in bed covered up by our blankets but it didn¡¦t work, we got a whoopin¡¦ anyway
„X Adam and Eve tried the same trick
8 Toward evening they heard the Lord God walking about in the garden, so they hid themselves among the trees.
„X The fig leaves didn¡¦t take away the bad feeling of shame so they hid in the bushes as well
9 The Lord God called to Adam, ¡§Where are you?¡¨ 10 He replied, ¡§I heard you, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.¡¨
„X We kids were laying in our beds when we heard Mum coming up the stairs
„X She was surprised to find us in bed so early and it didn¡¦t take her long to figure out we had done something
„X ¡§What have you done?¡¨
11 ¡§Who told you that you were naked?¡¨ the Lord God asked. ¡§Have you eaten the fruit I commanded you not to eat?¡¨
„X Once you get found out, your only option as a kid to avoid punishment is to start blaming someone else
12 ¡§Yes,¡¨ Adam admitted, ¡§but it was the woman you gave me (You women have a lot to answer for) who brought me the fruit, and I ate it.¡¨ 13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, ¡§How could you do such a thing?¡¨ ¡§The serpent tricked me,¡¨ she replied. ¡§That¡¦s why I ate it.¡¨
„X When we got busted by my mum I tried to blame my brother because he was the one outside with his back up against the glass pane pushing
„X So Adam and Eve tried to cover up their sin, they sewed fig leaves together to hide their nakedness, they hid from God in the bushes, and they tried to shift the blame to someone else
Did all this covering up work though? No their sin was exposed
„X Just like the king in our story who thought he was coved up when in reality even a little child could see he was as naked as a jay-bird
„X All of Adam and Eve¡¦s covering up didn¡¦t undo the fact they had eaten the fruit
„X As kids, all our covering up didn¡¦t alter the fact the glass pane was broken
„X Mankind is still in the process of deceiving himself thinking we can fool God
„X We operate outside the boundaries ordained by God and deceive ourselves into thinking we are getting away with it
„X we play this game of hiding in the shadows of believing we are covered with beautiful clothes when in reality we are sinners, naked and exposed before a Holy God
But this Holy God is also a God of love and He comes looking for us
„X In the story of Adam and Eve, who did the hiding, God or Adam and Eve?
„X Its popular today when crisis strikes people for them to blame God for their problems
„X ¡§If God is really a God of ¡§love¡¨ why would he allow this to happen¡¨
„X So don¡¦t allow people to use the excuse God is to blame. We disobeyed Him and we hid from Him showing our intention we don¡¦t want Him interfering in our lives, with the exception of when He may be useful to us
„X In the story who does the seeking?
„X God comes looking for Adam and Eve even though they tried to hide from Him
„X So right from the very first sin, God signals his intention of restoring our relationship with Him
„X Notice what he does for the man and woman who are naked
Genesis 3:21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
„X Nakedness in this story is symbolic for sin ¡V Adam and Eve were now sinners
„X So God makes clothes out of animal skins to cover them up
„X What happened to the animals in order to make these clothes? They had to die
„X One of the animals Adam had just named had to be killed
„X How would you like one of your pet animals to be killed and its skin used to make clothes for you
„X This was meant to impress on them that sin required a death penalty and blood had to be shed in order for them to be covered up again
„X So who do you think this dead animal in our story represent for us? Who saves us from sin?
„X Unless we accept the clothes given to us by Jesus, we are never going to be acceptable to God, because they are the only ones that can cover up sin
„X Any others are like the King¡¦s clothes ¡V see-through and embarrassing
There are some interesting parallels for people today in the scheming Adam and Eve got up to in order to cover their sin
„X Some people think they will be okay with God because they do a lot of good things, they might even go to church, but that is trying to cover ourselves with ¡§fig leaves¡¨ like Adam and Eve made for themselves
„X Revelation 3:17-18 ¡§Because you say, ¡¥I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing¡¦¡Xand do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked¡X18 ¡§I counsel you to 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; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
„X God sees right through this charade
„X The best we can do is nowhere near enough to satisfy a Holy, perfect God
„X Only the white garments of the righteousness of Jesus Christ can cover our sins and make us acceptable to God
„X There are also those people who think ¡§Hiding in the bushes¡¨ is somehow going to make God irrelevant
„X Go through life ignoring God, putting Him off, and never really getting around to committing their lives to Him
„X but eventually they will stand before God and be exposed for the sinners they are
„X Then there are the people who like to make excuses why they never heed the call to repentance
„X Too busy to go to church, ¡§a guy¡¦s got to have some fun in life¡¨, ¡§Christians are just a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites anyway¡¨
„X None of these excuses are going to wash with a Holy God
One day all mankind is going to stand before God and be judged by the clothes they are wearing
„X On that day, we don¡¦t want to make the mistake of thinking like the king we are covered when in reality we are not
„X Some people will try to hide in the bushes like Adam and Eve did thinking that will save them
„X Some will show up wearing fig leaves of ¡§good works¡¨ thinking that will save them
„X Some will show up like the vain King wearing their imaginary clothes thinking that will save them
„X Some, and I hope it is everyone here will show up wearing the white garments provided by Jesus Christ
„X They are the ones God will accept as they are the only clothes that have the capacity to cover sins
„X Jesus is our only hope. He made the ultimate sacrifice so we could be covered
„X Let¡¦s make sure we are covered with the clothes provided by Jesus Christ
