The Village Church
Inception of Consequences Part 3: What happened was... - Audio
Last week, you know, for the first time in Genesis 3, the Lord God appears on the scene, if you remember the sermon from last week. His presence was there in the garden, and our first parents, they still felt the shame and the guilt from their disobedience, and so they ran away from the presence of the Lord God in fear. Do you remember that? What did they do? They hid themselves from the Lord God, whether they hide, they hid them on the trees of the garden. They were hiding, hide and seek, and the Lord God sought them out, and here in our passages morning, we're going to be looking at God taking charge of the situation. He shows up and takes charge. He goes through different questions that he asked them, he asked them three questions, and I like the serpent, remember the serpent, when he showed up, he tried to entrap Adam and Eve through deception, and he had succeeded. He deceived them, but the Lord God had different intentions when he showed up, and as we walked through the text this morning, keep in mind that what the Lord God had a right to do, he didn't do, he could have stormed into the garden like a raging bull, break it off some branches off the tree, he could have used them on Adam and Eve where he would be justified to do so because of their rebellion, but notice he did not do that. How did he come into the garden? Did he remember what the verse says, walking in the garden in the cool of the day. You see, Adam and Eve, they're guilty as charge for what they did, but know that God, when he came into the garden that day, he did not charge them, he did not accuse them, instead he interrogates them, but he does it like a gentle father on a complete composure. His interrogation was graceful, you've got to see that, it was not ruthless, it wasn't bad cop, good cop, it was a gentle father, gracefully dealing with his two kids, Adam and Eve, but Adam and Eve totally missed that. You see, for each question he asked him, they gave in a response, their response revealed yet another consequence of their rebellion, they didn't respond rightly to the grace that was in those questions, their response revealed yet another consequence of their rebellion, so if you have your Bibles, open them to Genesis 3, you're going to look at verses 9-13. Here's the word of our God, "For the Lord God called to the man and said to him, 'Where are you?' The man said, 'I heard the sign of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.' He said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you not to eat?' The man said, 'The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me free of the tree, and I ate.' Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is this that you have done?' The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.' There's God's word, 'Please pray with me.' Then Lord, we come and ask for you to be glorified through the preaching of your word. These are your words, these are your scriptures, and Lord, I pray that your spirit will speak through me, and that your people here this morning will be encouraged, they will be convicted, they will be built up, they'll be better prepared to go out into the week that lies before us, strengthen in their faith. And I pray that your spirit along with your word will do that for them, and their hearts and in my heart. We all need Jesus, we all need your word, and especially me Lord, encourage all of us this morning. I pray for all this in Christ's name, amen. So the Lord God finally arrives on the scene to where Adam and Eve were in the garden, doesn't see them, so he asked the question, he calls out to the man, 'Where are you, Adam?' Notice that the question is particularly addressed to Adam, that you was referring to the man, and remember Genesis 3, it began with the question, right? It was a question posed by the serpent to Eve, what did the serpent ask Eve, did God actually say you could eat from no tree in the garden? But the Lord God, his question is not posed to Eve, it's posed to Adam, and why do you think that it is? Why does he go to Adam first? Because he brought greater responsibility for what happened in the garden, because of his God-given leadership role in the marriage with Eve. You see that, Adam brought greater responsibility because of the role that God has given him in the marriage relationship. Notice that he was dealt with Eve when she failed, he wasn't off gardening, working, he was there, passively there, and he never said a word, never stepped up to the plate, never manned up, never took charge, never fulfilled his leadership role at that given moment. But God calls him out, 'Where are you, Adam?' Does this mean the Lord was clueless to what he was walking into? No, God fully knew the situation he was walking into. He knew what had went down in the garden. He was not clueless. Pastor Legan Duncan says that God came asking questions, not because he needed answers, but because he was trying to draw Adam out of the situation he created for himself. The God's questions to him shows the very marks of grace as God gently attempts to draw Adam into an awareness of the magnitude, magnitude of what he had done. God was trying to draw him out, trying to get him to admit what he did, admit what he did, Adam, where are you, where are you, he's given Adam a chance to come clean. He didn't have to do that because he already knew what went down, but he's given him a chance to come clean, to take responsibility for what happened under his poor leadership and his poor diminution. The questions were a mark of grace, but Adam did not see that. He does not come clean. What does he do? He gives a response that does not show responsibility. His response reveals yet another consequence of his sin. It's the refusal to take responsibility, the refusal to admit wrong, that what I had done was wrong, the refusal to admit my fault. And you know the phrase that people use when they try to give an excuse, right? Well, what had happened was, what had happened was, God, I heard a sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. That's what happened. Oh, Adam, how far have you fallen? Do you know what is unique about his response? He does not admit what he did. He doesn't even acknowledge that he ate from the tree. Doesn't even acknowledge his disobedience. He's speaking to God as if he had done nothing wrong. Hey, Lord, I'm a victim here. That's the problem. I'm the one that's in the victim. I'm the victim. He's playing the victim here. I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Those three things, his fear, his shame or nakedness and his hiding are all consequences of his sin. You do know that, right? His fear, his nakedness and shame and his isolation are all consequences of sin. That not the sin itself, the consequences of it and his focus is totally on them. He doesn't even see, doesn't even acknowledge the fact that what caused those things was his disobedience, was him eating of the fruit, is what caused him to be fearful. It caused him to experience shame and nakedness and it caused him to hide from the Lord God's presence. It was Genesis 3, 6, eating of the fruit. He's more concerned about the consequences of his sin than the sin itself. Now, that should sound familiar to all of us. It should because as descendants of Adam, don't we do the same thing? I mean, what keeps you awake at night? Your sin against the Lord God or the fact or the consequence of your sin will bring into your life if you get called. What keeps you awake? Because you know if you get called doing certain things, consequences come. What are you more fearful of? The sin or what the sin brings into your life once it's revealed is this. This is what we fear the most, the consequences. If you cheat on your spouse, that's sin against God, but if you get caught, you lose everything. You lose your spouse, you lose your family and you're more concerned about that than the fact that your adultery is sin against God. This, what keeps us awake at night? Is it the consequences of our sin or is it the sin itself? Where are you? Where are you today at this moment? Adam's more concerned about the consequences of his sin. He told the Lord God, he hid out of fear because he realized he was naked. Is that the reason why he hid? Is that true? No. His fear was a response to God's presence because he didn't want to be seen. He didn't want to appear before the presence of a holy God in the condition that he was in. And Adam, he's like a spin doctor, you know what spin means? You know politicians use this sometimes when they try to spin a situation into their favor. And this is what Adam is doing here. He's trying to spin the situation into his favor and that's what Adam does here. I heard your verse in the garden Lord. I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself, but here I am now. It's all good, right? It's all good, right? It's not my fault. Remember, I'm the victim. I had no responsibility, no fault in the whole situation. But does the Lord God believe that? Would you believe it? Is Adam innocent here? Is he a victim here? Is he? He's spinning. He's spinning the situation. He's not been honest. And so God, he kinder's Adam's response with two more questions. As one commentator said, these two follow-up questions, they sharpen the fact of the crime. Verse 10, "The Lord God said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree, which I commanded you not to eat? Hit the Lord God.' He again gracefully goes right to the heart of the problem with those two questions. Who told Adam that he was naked, the Lord God asked? No one told him. We all know that Adam is experiencing real guilt, real shame for his violation of God's command. He knows for himself that he's naked. No one had to tell him because of his rebellion. The follow-up question, 'Have you eaten of the tree, which I commanded you not to eat?' Yes, he did. He did. He was the author of his own fear and shame. He was the creator of it because he rebelled. And as Calvin says to Adam, he says, "His excessive stupidity appears in this, that he fails to recognize the cause of shame in the sin. And therefore, he does not yet feel his punishment as to confess his fault. He doesn't recognize the cause of his shame in his sin and therefore show that he does not yet feel his punishment as to confess his fault." Doesn't see it. And those questions by the Lord God was yet another chance for him to come clean, admitted. Just admitted, admit what you did. Confess your guilt, confess your sin, but he still would not do it. Even when God just called the mind on it, 'Have you eaten from the tree?' Yeah, I ate from the tree, but he still would not admit it. You see what sin has done to him? He's caught red-handed, but still does not admit it. The first question, he said he was a victim. I'm a victim. And now with these two questions, he shifts the blame to someone else. He had another excuse. What did he tell the God? Well, God, what had happened was, you see, the woman whom you gave to be with me, well, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate, and I ate. You read Adam's excuse here, and you're like, 'Wow, man, how arrogant the prophet could a man be?' Do you see what his sin has done to him? It's taken over his whole person. He's under dominion of it now, so much so that he shifts the blame of his disobedience to the Lord God. He shifts the blame of his sin to the Lord God, and you mean it's like the Lord God had to be like, did he just say, 'Wow, thank he said, did he just blame me? Did he just say it was my fault that he failed, really? Can you say that again, Adam? Yes, sir. The woman whom you gave to be with me gave me the fruit and I ate, so it's not my fault. I'm good. I'm innocent. I'm a victim. Yes, Lord, he blamed you. And here, Adam is like, 'Lord, it was you who said it was not good for man to be alone. I didn't say that. You said that. I was fine by myself. I was enjoying being a bachelor. I didn't need a helper. You said I needed a helper fit for me. Those were your words, not mine. It was you, and look at where we are now. You said it's your fault that we're saying for things messed up. If you were just left me alone, me and the animals, I tend to the garden that will not be in the present situation that we're in. So it's your fault. You caused me to fall asleep. Now that wasn't me. That was you. You took my real and made it into a woman. That was not me. And now this woman that you gave me, she gave me the fruit and I ate. See? I'm good. It's not me. It's her. And it's you. Remember, Eve was given to Adam as a gift for his benefit, and he just cursed his blessing with that statement. Remember that when the Lord God brought Eve to Adam, he had a totally different response than the one he's given now. In Genesis 2, 22, it says, "And the real that the Lord took from the God man, he made it into the woman. He brought her to the man." And what does the man say? "This at last is the bone of my bone, flesh or my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man." How different is he is now? How different does he respond to the woman now? Difference. Sin. It changed. Everything. From bone of my bones to flesh or my flesh to throw her out of the bus. It's her fault. The woman. Is she just any woman? Is she just any woman? No. She's more than that. She is his wife, and he, by just calling her woman, that's disrespectful. The woman who you gave to be with you. How different has he changed? How different has sin affected him, it's so much so he throws his wife on the bus. We all know that Adam was the one to see. Yes, she failed. The serpent deceived her first, but Adam was silent in the garden. He failed her in the garden, too, because without stepping up to the plate, not taking charge of the situation, by being passive in that situation, he failed her, too. It would not just hurt her fault. He had a role in it as well, but he would not admit it. He would not admit it. So after the Lord God's, after Adam responded, the Lord turns to Eve, and he says to her, "What is this that you have done?" She said, "The serpent deceived me, and I eat." Her response, the same as Adam, shifts the blame. No one would take ownership of what happened in the garden. No one, neither one of them did. It's not my fault. It's somebody else's fault. It's their fault that I'm in the condition that I'm in. And what does this reveal about us today in 2010? We all shift blame. We all play the victim. It's always somebody else's fault from the condition that I'm in. It's not mine. She made me do it. The devil made me do it. I read an article this week about, I think it's in New Jersey, telling all his congregation to delete their Facebook page because it may cause them to commit adultery. It ain't the Facebook page that's going to cause a person to commit adultery if they don't sin. Facebook may tempt you, but it's your own desire that's going to lead you down. You've got to take responsibility. People, and what we should take from these verses, that people would not naturally admit that they're sinners. You realize that, right? People would not naturally admit that they're sinners. We don't naturally see our need of a Savior. We think we're okay. It has to be revealed to us. Every one of you, before you became a Christian, before you became a Christian, you didn't know you were a sinner. Did you? You've said, "Well, I'm a good person, but I do bad things, but my good things aren't my bad things. So I'm okay." People don't naturally see the depth of their sin. It has to be revealed to them. That's what the fall did, it blinded us, it blinded us to our need. So much so that we think, "Well, okay, we're okay, I'm good enough, I'm good enough." In the victim, shifting the blame are just excuses by Adam and Eve to not own up to what they did. One pastor come in and on his verse, he said, "When Adam sinned," listen to this, "when Adam sinned, he became lost with reference to God, loss. And all his descendants are born into that condition, loss. Therefore, you can be reconciled to God. You have to answer for yourself the question God asked Adam, "Where are you?" The answer is, "God, I'm lost." Where are you? I'm lost. Before God can save you, you have to admit to him that you're lost. If anyone ever shares a gospel with you, where you have to admit you're a sinner, right? I'm a sinner in need of grace. So we see there's a different need here. Something's going to have to happen that's going to be able to reveal to people that they're lost, because we don't have to see that we're lost. Someone has to show us, it has to be revealed to us. And fallen people don't know that they're lost. Man left to himself and to his own vices would never, ever bring himself to a state of repentance apart from outside hell. You won't ever come. You won't ever admit your sin without outside hell, because of what the fall has done to us. You see the power of sin? It's dominion over us? How it corrupts us so that we don't even know we lost. We don't even know I need until Christmas comes. What happens at Christmas, we get in there, the Savior comes, to reveal to us our need, to reveal to us our lostness, and once he reveals it to us we see that God has a plan for us. All out, as we work our way at the Genesis 3, we have seen different needs that the gospel is going to have to fulfill. We saw first that they lost their innocence, and so to try to cover up their shame. And so what we see is that they need a better covering, a better covering Christmas. We saw that they lost fellowship with the Lord God, and so we see that they need a reconciler Christmas. And as we see today, there's a need to show that they have a need, someone to show that they are lost, the gospel shows that to each and every one of us. Christmas is coming, Christmas is coming, and when Jesus came, he does all these things for us, fulfills every one of those needs, fulfills every one of those needs, let us pray. Again Father, there is still a need for us here, as we see, that we don't naturally see that we're lost, we think we're okay, we don't naturally see the fact that we are sinful. We're not born into that condition, it has to be revealed to us, and it is revealed to us in the gospel through Christ. And that's what we're working on toward the Lord, the gospel promise. The one who will come to make all things right, the reconciler, the one who covers us in his righteousness, the one who restores the broken relationship with God, and the one who reveals to us our need for the fact that we are lost. We are not just bad people, we are lost people without Christ, and that has to be revealed to each and every one of us. Now thank you that you are God who seeks out lost people. We don't leave us hide in among the trees, but you call out to each and every one of us, where are you? We are lost, apart from Christ. Now pray for all of this Lord in Christ's name, amen. [ Silence ]