So a result of shame is we conceal who we are. We put on a mask so no one really knows us because we're not happy about what we're like and what they'll do if they see what we're like. We put on a mask and then we hide ourselves, so we get busy. Some people get busy in their work and they pour themselves into the work, never stopping to realise that maybe all the rest of their life is totally out of balance and not as God intended. The work has now become a covering for the insecurities and other things in their life - or we pour ourself into our children. It's right to work, it's right to invest in your children, but some people, some women, their life and identity is in the children. Life is not to be found there, life is to be found - my identity is I'm a representative of God. If your life is found in the children how can you train them? How can you correct them? How can you endure them being disapproving of you? How can you stand up to them as teenagers and correct them and they go angry and it doesn't affect you too much? You have to be secure in your identity, in who you are in Christ, see?
So what God did is God came to him - notice this - first thing is God demonstrated He's still a good God: I still love you. I see there you've got fig leaves on - well I don't know, I made caterpillars and caterpillars eat fig leaves so that's not a good thing to have on. [Laughter] I've got something better for you, you know? So this is what He said, notice what it is: He made tunics or He made clothing. God made clothing for him. How did He do it, did He go [unclear 00.11.22] there they are, some designer Armani! [Laughter] He didn't do it that way did He? How did He do it? Some innocent animals had to lose their life to provide the clothing, so right now God is foreseeing - centuries ahead of time He's foreseeing the tragedy that would be in the earth as a result of this sin and He's picturing and prophetically foretelling that He is going to make a provision that will break the power of sin and shame and enable people to live free again.
So an innocent animal is going to lose its life. It's a prophetic picture here of Christ. The second thing you notice, that He made tunics. God created something from that innocent animal's death. He created something of value that could be used to clothe them. The third thing was they had to remove the clothing they had - it's not comfortable to wear fig leaves underneath sheepskins. Fig leaves don't make good underwear. [Laughter] See, they had to remove what they'd provided for themselves and they had to receive and apply God's provision. Now in that you begin to start to see that in spite of all the impact of sin God's heart is still good, God still loves Adam and Eve, He now has provided for them and this is the prophetic picture of something that Christ would do for us at Calvary, something He would provide for us. So we want to have a look now what happened at Calvary.
I'm going to have a look at a brief part of it. I want to show you something dramatic that happened at Calvary and then we're going to look at just some key truths you need to put on in your life if you want to walk free of shame, okay? So let's go and have a look in Matthew, Chapter 27, Verse 50. We're looking at the death of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. We'll read it from about Verse 45 through to about Verse 54, okay. Now it was the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was a darkness all over the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice - notice that, a loud voice. I'm going to come back to that in a moment - saying Eli, Eli, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? And some of those who stood there, when they heard that said this Man is calling for Elijah! Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come and save Him.
And then Jesus cried out again - notice here a second time, a loud voice - and then He yielded or He gave up His spirit. Then - now I want you to see something here. Jesus has been taken, He's been unjustly accused, He's been mocked, He's been shamed, He's been ridiculed. They stripped Him of His clothing. They beat Him, they cut Him with the whips, they put the crown of thorns on Him and all of this, He endured the shame and humiliation of this so He can provide a powerful remedy for sin and shame in our lives. Now notice this, it says Jesus cried with a loud voice and then something happened the moment He yielded up or He gave up His spirit. Now Jesus had power to do something we didn't have power to do; He had power to yield up His life at the time He was ready and the Bible says He yielded up or He surrendered His life at that point.