How are you all doing today?
Awesome, I'm doing really well and we'd like to start by saying welcome to anybody that's here in our sanctuary new this morning
Or if you're joining us online, we just we're so glad you're here to worship with us today. And so welcome welcome. I
Am pastor Nathan and this morning we are going to be continuing our journey
Through the fall of mankind that we read about in Genesis chapter 3
This is the moment the big moment where mankind's perfect fellowship with God
their creator was
Destroyed beyond all human repair and we thank God that God was able to repair it
But in the garden we read last week that the serpent
Being used by Satan or filled with Satan or speaking through being spoken through by Satan
Spoke and deceived Eve into eating of the tree that they were forbidden from eating from and he did this by
questioning God's Word
He did this by questioning God's goodness and through those two things Satan tempted the very first couple into sin
He asked Eve did God really say a question that Satan is still whispering into everybody's minds today
Especially as we deal with some of the big social challenges and and you know
People wanting to live this way and live that way and the question still comes up. Did God really say
It's nothing new. It goes all the way back to the beginning
And then the other thing that Satan suggested in the very beginning was would a good God keep something from you
Right. Why would God say don't eat of that tree that it must be the best thing
And thus Eve then rationalized her disobedience by minimizing God's gracious abundant provision into a
diminished version of the truth of it
She inflated God's one and only prohibition far bigger and far more
Bigger and far more restrictive than God intended and then she softened the consequences of disobeying God's Word
Into well really something worth risking and in that it left her open to believe the outright
direct lie of Satan
Despite all of her experience of God's goodness and again, that's how Satan works today and
Much like Eve she saw
Then she took then she ate and then she gave it thinking she was doing something good
You see Eve was deceived even though she disobeyed God and even though she's guilty of the consequences of doing so
Still she was deceived but her husband Adam he took
He ate knowing full well that he was doing something bad
And then according to Romans 5 12 sin then entered the world through the one man
And death through sin and in this way death spread to all people because all have sinned
We all struggle with it
We all struggle with our obedience to God and the devil knows he knows how to tempt us and
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this in one of his books with irresistible power desire sees his mastery over the flesh
It makes no difference whether it's sexual desire or ambition or vanity
Or desire for revenge or love of fame and power or greed for money
Joy in God is extinguished in us as we seek all of our joy in the creature
At this moment this moment of temptation. God is quite unreal to us
He loses all reality and only desire for the creature is real
In this moment Satan does not hear fill us with hatred of God
But simply a forgetfulness of God the lust thus aroused envelops the mind and the will of man in deepest darkness
The powers of clear discrimination and a decision are taken away from us
And then the questions present themselves is what the flesh desires really sin in this case
Is it really not permitted to me? Yes even expected of me now here in my particular situation
to to appease my desire
And it is here in this moment that everything with that within me rises up against the word of God
That is exactly what happened to Eve in her treatment of God's word in her conversation with the serpent in the garden
And then Adam and Eve's very carefree physical nakedness. They're very carefree emotional nakedness
They're open transparent honesty. They're unrestricted
Harmony with God and with other dissolved they died right there
But it wasn't physically and that was something that the serpent capitalized on but they died spiritually
You see in God's word death is the opposite of life
Not the opposite of existence
Biblically dying doesn't mean to cease to exist as some cults teach in the world today
But dying is biblically called being cut off from the land of the living
And so Adam and Eve's lives would then be a diminished existence far less than what God intended
Far less than what it could have been and their existence would be one of death
The world around them would die the animals around them to die
Their families would die they would die
And it was a
existence of God's word
And it was a existence of complete and thorough sinfulness
but still
When God confronts them on their sin, he does so in a divinely gracious
and gentle
And even healing way
And from their confrontation with God we are going to be reminded today what to do and what not to do
When we sin against almighty God
But first we're going to worship because God is worthy
We like to start our days, you know, okay
This is what we're going to look at but but let's worship God first
It's a great way to start any day to praise him for who he is
For what he's done
What he's doing
We even read in the psalms that the best thing to do when we're down when we're in difficult difficult situations is to praise God
Because his goodness
is forever
His glory is forever and he is with you his child forever. Let's pray father
We thank you so much God for your word
We thank you God for who you are
And lord today as we look into your word continuing the story of the fall of mankind lord. May we be
both challenged and encouraged
At the reality of of how you confront your people in sin
Lord the world likes to paint a picture where they say if God
truly exists
Then he must be this mean vengeful spiteful God
Christians lord often live in fear that you're going to strike them down with a lightning bolt or or that you're angry with them
And lord, those are those are all lies from satan himself
Lord we know that you hate sin and we know that you will judge the sinner
But in all of that God you graciously you judge
You graciously you gently
Call us out of our sin
Call us from our hiding places that we would simply come to you in honesty
In confession and in that we receive forgiveness
so lord speak to us this morning teach us lord how to
How to deal with the confrontations that you have with us over our sin lord
Teach us how to do it right and not wrong. May we learn from the first couple lord
How to approach you and how to not approach you
When we inevitably drop the ball in sin
Lord, we love you so much. We praise you for your kindness and your goodness. We love you so much
It's in Jesus name. We pray amen
All right, so we are in genesis chapter three
And we are picking it up here in verse eight
As we continue to study through the fall of mankind
now
What has happened in the beginning of chapter three is in one single instant the very first couple went from life to death
They went from sinlessness
To sinfulness they went from harmony to separation
they went from trust and honesty to distrust and lying and
These are our original parents. These are our genetic ancestors
Yes, all of mankind that exists on the earth today came from two
came from two
Adam and eve
And they are a picture of every single man and woman since not just in their first sin
Not just in that disobedience, but in how they tried to deal with it
And so it's the same pattern with which we're all
tempted to deal with our sin today
And then the way god deals with adam and eve is again the wonderful picture of how he still deals with us
Today in our sin so read with me in verse eight
It says then the man and his wife heard the sound of the lord god walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze
And they hid from the lord god among the trees of the garden
So the lord god called out to the man and said to him. Where are you?
And he said I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked
So I hid
You see the garden of eden
was
Much like the holy of holies in the in the later tabernacle
And then the later temple and what I mean by that
Is it was the place of god's special presence?
We know that god is omnipresent. He is everywhere at all times simultaneously
But there's also many times we see throughout scripture where god himself appears in a very special way or a very tangible way
That seems to be unusual in that sense
Sometimes it's in a human form
Sometimes it's not in a human form, but it's always in ways that are tangible to the human senses that we are created with
For example in genesis chapter 12 chapter 18 and chapter 32
We're going to read that the lord appears to adam and he did it two times in a way where adam was able to
Perceive him and understand that it was god
We're going to read later on that jacob wrestled physically with god
In exodus chapter 3 chapter 24 and chapter 33 we read stories like god appearing in the burning bush
As he talked to moses
We also read a couple times in exodus where god himself spoke to moses to arren and to the 70 elders
And then we even see god appearing as a pillar of cloud during the day right and a pillar of fire at night
Leading and guiding his people through the wilderness
through the wilderness
Then in job's chapter job chapter 38 through 42
We read the story of god speaking to job. It says quote from out of the whirlwind
And so god appears and has appeared to his people
In different ways throughout history, you know in the old testament prior to god coming to this earth and clothed in flesh
As jesus christ he would take on these different forms at different times in a very special presence
And so his presence was in the garden with adam and eve. It was a part of the perfect fellowship that they had
But every time god took on a human form throughout the old testament. It was simply a foreshadowing
Of when he would show up to this earth god the son jesus christ the second person of the trinity
To live as a human and then to die in our place suffering the full wrath of god as a human while being fully god
At the same time and so in the old testament these appearances of god, they're commonly referred to as theophanies right an appearance
um of god in a in a tangible way to human senses
Genesis 3 8 here when it says that god was walking in the garden
It is likely one of those times right? It's where god appears in a way that ab and eve were able to perceive now
This comes from a few things here
And this is you know i'm dealing with this because people always ask was god actually walking in the garden
You know was he really there?
Well when it says they heard the sound of god walking in the garden that word sound in the hebrew is actually referring to a physical
Sound it's referring to the sound waves that hit the human eardrum and then which we perceive sound
So it says the same thing that the man and wife heard that's talking about the the sense of hearing the physical sense of hearing
Then when it says god was walking that word in the original hebrew means to physically go about
To move from place to place or we might say to go for a walk, right?
And then when it says that they hid from the lord god
Um that idea of from there means from his presence
It could also mean from his face
And so if it is face like his literal face because he was there in an appearance of a man or something
and um
just think about how sad that is this
this presence of god that they had enjoyed such perfect fellowship with and would walk and talk and
They're now hiding from that face. They're they're they're hiding themselves from that face that they regularly saw in the garden
But I point that out is because in revelation chapter two or chapter 22 verse four
It says that when all things are done and there's a new heaven and a new earth. It tells us that we will see his face
again
And so it kind of points that there was a time where we did see his face
And that the end is going to be much like the beginning as god restores all things and so
God's stroll through the garden here. I mean it tells us in the text that there was an audible sound
There was some sort of presence that adam neve were able to tangibly
Tangibly perceive and so there's there's a few different popular theories for this, you know, of course some say it is a theophany
It's god in a physical form
A lot of times in the old testament when god appears in a physical form
Some people say it's a christophany that it's a pre-incarnate
appearance of god the son because god the son
Is the only one who's appeared physically on earth and god is spirit and all that that's one of the theories
other people say it was a a cloud like like the pillar of
Cloud that was going to the wilderness
Or a strong wind that it was like this rushing wind that knew was they they knew that god was there when it happened, but
regardless, okay
The point here is that god himself is the one who shows up to confront sin
That god himself is the one who issues judgment in the garden
And the sad contrast to that is that the sound and the presence
That once brought such joy to adam and eve such contentment such peace now produced fear and dread
And so it tells us that they hid from the lord god among the trees, right?
We read last time that as soon as they were aware they were naked they sewed fig leaves together now suddenly their their their sad
fig leaves just aren't enough
And they knew it they knew it they didn't say god look at what we made how cute
Instead they knew the purpose of those coverings
Were because they were guilty and they were full of shame and they also knew that they were woefully
Inadequate and so that's why it said they hid themselves among the trees of the garden they tried to
Further cover themselves to hide from god because the fig leaves weren't enough
Now how ridiculous to think
then and today that anybody can hide from god almighty i
Mean it's it's it's a ridiculous notion
We we intrinsically know this when we when we come to understand that god is omnipotent
God is omnipresent and god is all knowing and god is the
And to think that oh i'm gonna hide from him a god that is everywhere at all times
It's just a silly thought but when we disobey god when we've sinned against god
I'm waiting on somebody to silence their phone or their alarm
No
Thank you so much appreciate it that was just gonna distract me like john do an announcement so
okay
Okay
I love you john. Love you brother
so
When we do sin against god
We do what they did we do what job did right in the book of job
It says that he got on a boat and tried to run from god's presence
right, it's just
What what eve did?
questioning god's word right as suggested by the serpent
And and and the whole idea of going did god really say that introduces doubt about god and his word into our thinking
And then it leads to the delusion
That we could possibly be where god is not right?
And that's why in sin, you know
We we will shut the door and turn off the lights and close the blinds because as if that keeps god out
We'll we'll set up anonymous accounts to to look at things
We shouldn't be looking at as if god is not aware who the anonymous account really is
And we think that our internal thoughts, right? It's like, okay. I'm not doing anything outward
But but internally i'm thinking things and we think that's private and secret but psalms 139 2 says
You know when I sit down and when I stand up
You understand my thoughts from far away
Right
Again, we think because we close off the lights and close the blinds that that nobody sees what website we're looking at
We think that you know
We can hide in some way
sin brings hiding
sin brings secrets sin brings lying
But the reality of god's word is is is that god sees us
He even sees our thoughts. He sees what you're thinking
And so you can't hide from god
It's it's a fruitless endeavor and what we're going to see today is instead of hiding what god really wants us to do
Is to be honest
To come into his presence and say god i've sinned
Can you please forgive me
He calls us to to believe his promises when he says, of course, i'll forgive you right but we'll get to that
They tried to hide anyway and god does what he what he does when we hide he finds right
So it says that god called out to them
He called out. He's really calling out to adam and we're going to talk about that in a little bit
But that that phrase called out means to summon
Right. It means to summon somebody. It's like like somebody's in the other room and you're going to be like
Come into my presence right now. It's the idea of of when he says he's going to come into my presence
Now it's the idea of of when he says he called out to adam. He's saying adam
Come out of your hiding place
I know you're hiding but come out and then he asked this very important question. He says where
Are you?
Now we read that and it sounds like it's a question of physical location, right?
But it's not it's not a question of physical location god is all-knowing
So god knew where adam was physically
He knew exactly where he was hiding. It's a it's a question of relation
It's a question of relation like
Like some of you may remember this married couples or or those of you that have dated at some point
Right and you start dating and you're hanging out and you know
And you're just like kind of going through the process getting to know each other
And then you reach that point in the relationship where one of you says
Where are we?
Right
You're not going what restaurant are we in? No, you're talking about the relationship. Where are we right?
And god is saying that to adam. Where are you?
As adam and enid had just sinned god is giving a graceful opportunity for both of them to simply be honest with god about what they did
To just be honest with them about what happened in the relationship
So adam
Where are you at right now?
Just please just be honest be honest with me
Now adam realizing the truth. He already knew
and you can't really hide from god despite the
Trying you can't hide anything from god
It it tells us that he you know
He rises up out of his hiding place with guilty face on wearing his ridiculous fig leaves
And and eve creeps out slowly behind them
But but I want to notice something I want to point out to all of us here the important note that I see in this is
God
Drew adam out of hiding. He didn't drive him out of hiding. You understand the difference
He didn't go in there and you know kick his butt and get out of here. What are you doing? You know?
He drew him out
He drew him out with his question when god asked him. Where are you? There wasn't any hint of accusation
It's not the what have you done kind of thing, right?
It was god gently nudging adam to simply tell the truth
And in that we see the grace of god the grace of almighty god
It's like a like a dad calling out to his kid, right?
Kid does something bad and then they're hiding behind the door in the other room and it's like the dad going. Hey bud
I'm not mad at you. Just just come out and tell me what happened
And this is what god is doing here. He says god does the same thing to us today
We sin we blow it we mess up and god's like i'm not mad at you
I just I just want you to be honest with me
And this is what we see in first john 1 9, right? It tells us if we confess our sins
He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
This is why satan works so hard to say no don't confess hide cover it up
Because satan wants us to be languishing under the guilt and the condemnation
And god's going just
Just confess just come to me. Tell me what happened be honest
Let me know what happened tell me and i'll forgive you
I'll cleanse you
Right. This is the relationship that they even had then it's the same relationship. We have today but
Sin the power of sin it focuses us focuses us on ourself
So completely right
Sin is is what spawns narcissistic
Sin is is what spawns narcissism. It's all about me. The focus is me. It's all there and so we default
We default to defensiveness
We default to excuses and and lame explanations, right? We we default to anything but taking responsibility
for our sin
We default to anything but confessing culpability and this is exactly what adam does look at verse 10
And he said I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid
Did adam admit any wrongdoing there
No
And on top of that he's dodging the real question
God asked a question of relation adam's answering the question of location
And what's interesting is in this moment. Here's god in the garden
gracefully gently, where are you
And what what adam says shows us that he's more aware of his own nakedness and shame than the fact that he sinned against god
Right. He's focused on this. Oh, I was naked. I'm afraid so I hid from you
He had changed
Sin had now muddled his perception and all he could do was express fear
and shame
Now, I believe of course adam knew that he had broken god's command, right?
That's what it tells us in the thing adam was deceived at our own will
That's what it tells us in the thing adam was deceived at or eve was deceived adam was not
And thus the hiding I knew I did something bad. That's why I'm hiding
but his new self-focused state was
Was far more concerned with his own feelings and how he felt than than how his affect his actions affected his relationship with god
and his relationship with his wife and and so
He answers the question without answering the real question
God's saying where where are you in relation to me right now?
Adam adam's like well i'm in the bushes. It's not what i'm asking you adam
You know that
If we remember before the fall right adam and eve were in this unashamed physical and emotional and spiritual
Nakedness with each other and before god, right?
It was this idea of just complete vulnerability and complete open honesty in every way
In that time we talked about that the focus for both adam and eve
The priority of their focus was god and the other
It was about god and their spouse
That was the priority that was the focus but now sin had entered in and now it's selfishness now. It's me first
And this this self-focus of sin in the resultant attempt to hide from god
It's it's still a big part of our fallen condition today
You know roman's chapter 3 verse 11. It says there is no one who understands
There is no one who seeks god all have turned away
That's what god's word tells us
It it's it's universal to our condition as a fallen mankind
And maybe god is speaking to you this morning maybe god is whispering into your heart right now
Where are you?
Where are you in relation to me?
when I was a
This wasn't in my note. So I hope it doesn't take up too much time
But I just felt like the lord wanted me to share it when I was a senior in high school. I was working this job
Driving to grocery stores stocking the shelves, right?
For a for a specialty company and so um one of the days
Actually before that job. I was working at target in the electronics department
And so I was walking around the department and I saw this this really sweet old lady standing in front of the vcrs
Just looked like she had no idea what she was looking at right? And so I walked over and I said, excuse me, ma'am. Do you need any help?
And
This is what she did. She's looking at the vcrs and she's like, oh my god
I'm like, excuse me
Then her head turns back and she goes
What's the difference between a two-head vcr and a four-head vcr?
That was spooky, right?
And uh, and you know, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go with the two-head vcr
And then she goes, okay
And uh, and you know went on with my life and stuff and then it was a couple years later
I was working at this specialty foods company and I was at a pavilion stocking the shelf and same situation
Sweet old lady different old lady, but she's you know looking up and down
I think it was in the paper towel toilet paper aisle
And you know, I just I was I liked helping people so I went up to her and I was like, excuse me, ma'am
Do you need help getting anything same thing?
Where's your relationship with god? And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go with the two-head vcr
I'm gonna go with god and I'm like, whoa hold the phone
What
Then she kind of blinks and she goes, uh, can you reach that one on the top shelf for me?
It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it
Because what I was living a life of was there's nothing supernatural. There's no god
And then I have these two occurrences where it's like like the horror movie right
Yeah, and it's like the scary thing and i'm like what?
It was really uh, yeah really creepy so anyways, where was I?
Yeah, I mean maybe maybe god is boom looking at you this morning you say where are you
Where is your relationship with me? Maybe he's saying look it's time to come out of your hiding place
It's time to to come out of your self-loathing and you're you're covering up and your secrets and your lies
Uh, you know and he's saying look like come out of your torment
Come out of the guilt come out of the shame
Come out of this darkness. You're trying to live in
I'm not mad at you
I just want you to be honest
And fear and shame and hiding that I mean that's all the the humanly incurable results of the fall
And really the the beginning of dealing with this incurable
Disease called sin is hearing god's voice when he says where are you?
And responding appropriately because this is god offering grace
This is god offering mercy. This is god offering forgiveness
And so as we move through the narrative here, we're going to see god
He he's going to address ultimately three different parties all three parties involved in in the sin here
But he addresses them in the order of responsibility, which is very interesting
He starts by addressing the man then he addresses the woman then the snake
What that tells us is adam as the husband
As the man in the situation. He was the one primarily
responsible
For the situation here and men, please please hear this
You
You hold primary responsibility in your families
You hold primarily respond primary responsibility in your marriages
You hold primary responsibility in your kids lives
You hold the responsibility
Now that doesn't mean like your spouse or your kids they do something wrong that god doesn't hold them accountable for their individual actions
But if god has raised you up to be head of that family, he's going to come to you first and go what happened
What happened you're supposed to be leading these people spiritually
You're supposed to be the priest of this home. What what happened?
He's going to come to you and ask and so it's your job
If you're a family man, it's your job to spiritually lead
and to and to
example and to teach
If you're a single man, it's your job
to be a reflection of almighty god
To everybody that comes across your path
But man's sinful nature it leads man to want to abdicate his role, right?
And then blame others when things aren't the way they should be
It's not my fault
All right, I don't handle the finances in my family my wife does
And then there's some issue or some problem. It's not me. It's her step up, dude
I'll jump off that soapbox real quick. All right verse 11
Then he asked who told you that you were naked
Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from
Right. The question here is who told you
That your condition your nakedness was shameful. Who told you that?
Who told you it was wrong who who told you you needed to cover up?
Or really who redefined
What I defined as perfectly normal and acceptable who redefined it as something wrong and shameful
The implication here is is of of the implication of adam now thinking nakedness is something shameful
Nakedness is something to be covered up the implication was clear
And so god asked the question. Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to?
All right, adam you're dodging the real question
So let me ask you straight out. Did you eat from the tree?
Grace of god, i'll give you another opportunity to answer honestly adam
Confess
See nakedness wasn't the issue
Fear wasn't the issue hiding wasn't the issue
What was the issue?
Hiding wasn't the issue. What was the issue?
Disobeying god that was the issue
One of the roots of spiritual growth and maturity is is understanding this point
You know a problem with our with our confrontations with god over sin, right?
When he comes and and we're talking to him about it
We we a lot of times want to focus on the activity of the sin rather than the god we've sinned against
That's what we're seeing here
He goes, where are you and you're like, oh man, I I cuss those people out and I shouldn't have done that
I looked at something I shouldn't have done. I said this to my spouse or my kids or you know, we we want to focus on the activity
Because when we do that we create a graded hierarchy of what is bad and not so bad, right?
We start to develop this list in my man in our minds that this is a bad sin and this is not such a bad sin
And so in our minds we might say, you know
something like, you know, uh
Harming my kids or my wife or cheating on your spouse or or you know
Abandoning people and and getting mixed up in drugs alcohol, whatever it might be
We might say well that that's a very bad sinful thing and god say what are you doing?
And you go, oh, yeah
I did this really horrible thing and i'm not going to do it anymore
And what happens is then we develop this whole idea that that because i'm not doing that i'm i'm good
I'm very proud because i'm not doing that big sin
Never mind that you sinned against god. No, it's just the the thing I I confessed i'm not doing that anymore, but
But you know what? We're not so concerned about lying
And so we keep lying to our spouse our friends our kids
But we don't really do anything about that one that one's not so bad, right?
This graded hierarchy and when we understand when we internalize when we believe and and live that that all sin
Whether it's stealing whether it's lying whether it's
The whole list the whole gambit all of it is sin against god
It's not about sin against other people that's bad
But the biggest issue is it's sin against god. It's disobedience
And when we understand it when we internalize this stuff when we when we get that it's all sin about sin against god
Then the door is open for us to to respond to god's confrontation on us properly
What I mean by this king david you guys remember the story about king david and basheba and uriah
Right sees the hot girl. She's showering outside. That's just how it was done in those days. So you know blame on her
And he's just like well, and why did you keep looking david anyways? He's just like wow, she's hot
Hey, go get her and then boom he sleeps with her. She gets pregnant. He's like, oh shoot
Cover it up cover it up how hey uh commander of the army
Yeah, I know her husband's out there fighting so put him in the front of the line
I want you to tell all the other soldiers to back up
Leave him out there alone so he gets killed
Right and you know, there's a whole thing where he brought the husband home
He's like hey sleep with her and the husband's like I can't do that. I'm uh, i'm working right now
I'm my brothers are out there on the battlefield fighting. He's like come sleep with your wife, dude
He's trying to cover it up trying to cover it up uriah gets killed
He takes basheba in then nathan the prophet shows up one day and is like
Let me tell you a story
I don't have time to get into all the details about that
But he confronts him about this sin with basheba and how he's going to deal with it
He's going to deal with this sin with basheba and how did david finally respond look at this in psalm 51 verse 4
He says against you
You alone speaking of god
Against you and you alone. I have sinned and done this evil in your sight
And what is his response now?
So you are right when you pass sentence. You are blameless when you judge
When we say god i've sinned against you and you were holy and you're almighty and you were perfect
And then when the consequences come we're not going to be like this is unfair
No, god, you are you are holy you are you are you are right when you pass sentence
And we're in that place of saying god if it's it's you i've sinned against it's disobedience to you
That's the big primary thing and so this question that god asked adam was a second offer of grace to him
It was a second opportunity to confess. It was a second opportunity to be forgiven
And all adam had to say at this point
Yes lord, i did i did eat from that tree
I'm, so sorry lord i knew it was wrong i knew it was wrong and i did it anyways
God, please forgive me i'm so sorry
I genuinely i'm so sorry please help me to help me to be stronger in the future. I need you god
He could have said all of that but he didn't
What does he say in verse 12 the man replied the woman you gave to be with me
She gave me some of the fruit from the tree and i ate
I don't think dinner that night was very peaceful
So he says this and then god goes oh
Well, that's all you had to say adam i mean yeah, right i mean of course it's not your fault
It's not your responsibility
No, that's not at all what god is gonna say
But adam's words here are the words of a self-centered spiritually dead person
This is the genesis pun intended of blame shifting
It's her fault god
She's the one who's to blame
It's her fault god
She made me do it
She violated my free will
I had no control
I mean come on god. She handed me the apple you've if i said no we would get in a big fight and you know so i
justify justify justify
But the blame didn't stop with eve because you'll notice her he says the woman you gave to be with me whoa what
I imagine god was like
Excuse me
Eve gave me the fruit. Yeah, but but but in fact god you gave me eve
So it's your fault
You did it this this is on you
Yeah, this this dangerous temptress you gave me this this conniving manipulator. How could you god?
I'm the victim here
I can't possibly be guilty because i'm two steps removed from guilt. It's you then her then me
But adam's accusation was ultimately the same as the serpent's
Right the serpent's accusation against god to eve as a better god wouldn't withhold anything from you
Adam is now saying a better god would not have given me such a poor helper
This is the genesis then of mankind's blasphemy against god
Let's question him let's question his word let's question his goodness
Now eve's excuse follows the same pattern right verse 13. So the lord god asked the woman
What have you done and the woman said the serpent deceived me and I ate
now I want to
Tell you guys something that's in the original language here
The emphasis on that phrase what have you done is not what have you done?
It's what have you done let me explain the difference here
God is asking eve to take responsibility for her own actions not adam's
Adam is being held to account for the family
And adam's like she gave me the fruit and dadada and adam god's like okay eve
What did you do?
What did you do? How about you be honest? How about you confess?
How about you tell me what really happened but
Like adam she just kind of gives this straightforward. It's not my response or not my fault response
She's like it's the serpent's fault. He deceived me
Wow adam what a great example you set for your wife blame shift
But she didn't go so far as to blame god for creating the serpent
You know, but still just because you think you're doing something right like eve was deceived
Just because you think it's right doesn't automatically make it right
See there's a culpability there that they both have individually there's an extra culpability adam has because he's the husband
But she is going to be still held account for what she did and so
But the big picture is neither adam or eve accept blame for their own individual decisions
And then nor at this time do we see either one of them showing any signs of remorse for disobeying god
And again blame shifting is common demand
You know, I read this thing where there's an insurance company
Listing some of the excuses that they got from clients for car accidents
One of them is an invisible car came out of nowhere struck my car and vanished
An invisible car came out of nowhere struck my car and vanished
The other car collided with mine without warning me of its intention
These are honest excuses they've gotten you know, we sometimes blame god for putting us in the circumstances that led to us
choosing sin
Right a student cheats on their their test and their coursework because well god gave me a professor. That's too difficult
A thief steals because well god didn't give me what I needed. He's the one that made my life so difficult
So I have to steal
And then just one of the epidemics today is people look at pornography. Well god, you know my weaknesses
I mean, why did you make it so easy to to to to get to it and we try and blame god. It's a victim mentality
Scripture teaches very plainly that no one from adam to the very last person on earth will
Ever get away with blame-shifting
James chapter 1 verse 13 it says no one undergoing a trial should say
I am being tempted by god since god is not tempted by evil and he himself doesn't tempt anyone
We we can never say or even entertain the thought that god is tempting me or god is the one responsible for this
for my sin
The bible says don't even think that
But the reality here in genesis and the reality that we see all the way through the new testament
Are the next two verses in james chapter 1 verse 14 it says but each person is tempted when he is drawn away
And enticed by his own evil desire
Then after desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and when sin is fully grown it gives birth to death
The biblical idea when it comes to us choosing sin is we can't blame anybody else
We can't blame god. We can't even blame the devil
The devil made me do it no he tempted you to do it you chose
You know we used to have a
a dv program here at the church for years where we would
counsel guys that are and even women too that got convicted and
One of the common things we would hear from our church is
Common things we would hear from both sides when we would do what's called an intake to kind of you know
Get an interview them find out what happened
Is they'd say well they pushed my buttons
And so that's why I beat the tar out of them
We used to say well, how about you don't have buttons to push them
I mean, how is that a reason?
How is that a justifiable excuse you chose to do something?
And so anyways, you know, we we still do that today and so a foundational truth that keeps us humble I believe
Helps us stay in radical dependence on god and his word is it's just to realize from the get-go
Every single one of us have fallen short of the glory of god
There's none righteous. No, not one the bible says right
We are not justified in in anything when we choose sin. We need to be like the tax collector in luke 18
Where it says he beat his chest and he said god have mercy on me a sinner
That's what should be coming out of our mouth. That's what we should be thinking when it comes to our sin
Not who can I blame?
Not god, you did it
Not anything, but god, please have mercy on me a sinner
Stop trying to convince yourself. You didn't sin
Because you did
We all sin
To not be like the Pharisees. We all sin
To not be like the Pharisees. Well, i'm not as bad as them
So what?
You're not being compared to them. You're being compared to the holiness of god
But the reality is we inherited this selfish prideful nature
from adam
And so we hide we dodge
We get defensive we blame shift when it comes to our own sin
We point to someone else's sin and magnify it so that we can minimize our own
And then we justify ourselves by blaming god for the temptation or the circumstances
All instead of simply coming clean
Answering honestly and confessing the truth
And the result of all of that is is because we're all born with this nature we're born in sin
Then by nature, we're all deserving of god's wrath
Because we're born with this nature we're on our own unable to please god and do right
Right. Nobody has to teach a child to lie
Nobody has to teach a child to lie
Nobody has to teach a a toddler
To be selfish. They're just selfish
mine
Mine
You're like I bought that that's mine, right? Okay. Anyways, but as adults we're not much better are we?
so
Much like he did with adam and eve god comes to us even today graciously and and gently and not in thundering anger
But in a still small voice and he says where are you?
Are you far from me?
Is your is your heart in a place it shouldn't be?
And when we're honest
When we're simply honest
We start to realize how sinful we really are gosh, we're not the good people we think
When we stop trying to blame shift and hide and all that we start to go
I'm really I am really a sinner
And when we acknowledge and admit and accept the truth of our condition
before a holy
Majestic god before this god who is almighty we realize standing before him and him alone that all of our excuses and all of our
Justifications are are pointless. They're useless. They mean nothing
No matter who we try to blame for our decision no matter who we um
You know matter how defensive we try to get about our decision to sin
Standing before god and god alone. We realized that we were utterly lost and utterly hopeless sinful people
desperately in need of a savior
And there was one man in history
Who never tried to blame shift anything?
He was a man without sin
He was a man without sin a man who had done nothing wrong ever
He had nothing that ever needed to be confessed. He had no sin. He ever had to take responsibility for
He was perfect
But then he hung on the cross blameless right in between two blame worthy men
And one of them had the presence of mind to stop blaming others to stop cursing god
And simply said in luke 23 42 jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom
It was during the darkness of the crucifixion that that man's well-deserved punishment
He was a criminal. He was a sinner
But that punishment was lifted from him and placed on jesus christ
Who died in his place and our place today?
He died in your place
The most gracious possible act that anybody has ever done in the history of mankind
And so again I close with the question are you hiding today?
Why are you hiding and you just thought about it you know why you're hiding
You know that you've done wrong. You know that you've sinned against almighty god. Are you dodging the real question?
Where are you in relationship to me? He's not asking where you're sitting right now
Where are you in relationship to me?
Are you in the path of judgment or are you in the path of forgiveness?
Are you in the family of god or you outside the family of god?
Yes, are you in the family of god or you outside the family of god? Have you accepted the truth that your sins are yours and yours alone?
Be honest
Stop the blame shifting
Take responsibility for your own sin
Confess the reality of your fallen condition
And ask god to forgive you
having faith
That jesus christ god the son did truly die in your place on the cross
And when you do that god promises in his word he promises that he will forgive you
But you have to come out of the hiding place
And not make excuses
And not blame others
You have to come out with honest acceptance of your own sin and the penalty that is due for it
Confess the sin
Repent
Ask god to forgive you
Ask god to change your heart
Ask god to strengthen you to live right and for him and he will do that
And then the hope you're going to have in your future
Is that restored paradise
That restored perfection
It's coming
But you're only going to get there if you know jesus is your lord and savior
Let's pray
Father
Lord the picture you give us in your word of us in our fallen state is
It's dismal
Lord it's so hard for us to take full responsibility for our own choices
Those choices lord that are selfish and sinful
Those choices to hurt ourselves or to hurt others
Those choices that are ultimately one thing disobedience to you god almighty
And lord quite honestly we're pretty good at making up excuses
That let us off the hook for that responsibility
We'll blame others
We'll blame you
We'll even matter of factly just say yep I did it but there's no contrition
There's no sorry
And lord that's us in our sinful state
But god you came to this earth to reveal yourself to us
To remind us that you truly are real and you are god almighty
And you came as jesus christ god the son
To live on this earth that lord we would learn who you really are
That you are gentle and gracious and loving
That you do desire to extend grace and mercy and forgiveness
And lord all you said is we have to come clean
To come to you in honesty
To confess our sin to repent
And to ask you to forgive us lord and the mind boggling truth is that you forgive us every time
Lord we don't deserve that
And yet you did it anyways
And so we thank you god so much
Lord we are so grateful and yet lord I ask you to increase our gratefulness lord
Because in many ways we live ungrateful
And lord we know that here on this earth our sin nature dwells with our newborn nature lord
When we put our faith in you we are born again but lord our sin is still there and we wrestle and we fight against it
And lord we ask you to help us in that that we would choose obedience instead of disobedience
That we would just come clean and even in the moment of sin to walk into your light and say god I'm so sorry
And that lord we would cling to the reality
That you atoned for all of our sin
That through faith in you we have paradise to look forward to heaven
Perfection perfect fellowship everything as it originally was
Lord we are so thankful that you as the second Adam Bible says did it right
And we thank you lord that you then give the results of that doing it right you give those to us in faith
And so lord I pray for anybody in here that doesn't know you god
Maybe today lord you have been speaking them and you are still a small voice just saying where are you
And lord today you have revealed to them how many excuses they have made and how often they blame shift and all of that lord
But at the end of all of that they still recognize that they have sinned against you and you alone
Lord may they come out of hiding and confess
And if you want to receive Jesus this morning I just want you to pray this prayer with me
Say father god I'm sorry I have broken your law I have sinned against you
I recognize that I deserve the punishment
But god I plead with you please forgive me forgive me of all of my sin
Save my soul change my heart help me to stop justifying sin but simply to understand
That I need to be honest to confess and to receive the gentle and gracious love that you have for me
Teach me how to live for you lord change my life
And for all of us that have sin in our lives we pray lord just forgive us
Forgive us for hiding forgive us for blaming forgive us for justifying
Help us lord to find the freedom that you have for us in honest confession
Lord your word even tells us we are healed when we confess
And so lord I pray through the confession of sin that forgiveness will be granted and extended grace would be extended and granted
Lord I pray that you would heal relationships and you would heal marriages and you would heal friendships
And lord you would just do a mighty work through the power of your holy spirit that none would be able to question
That is the power of a loving gracious god who saves his people who forgives his people who changes his people
Lord we love you and we thank you it's in Jesus name we pray amen
I pray God would bless all of you
We are going to close in worship and I just ask that you guys just think about your god
Think about who he is if you got to remember what he has forgiven you of remember that
And don't let it weigh you down but say thank you god for setting me free
And ask your god through just worship like help me to extend your grace and your forgiveness to others
Because he will do that it glorifies his name when that happens amen God bless you guys