[0:00] said it's genesis chapter 3 verses 8 through 13. and they heard the sound of the lord god walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord god among the trees of the garden but the lord god called to the man and said to him where are you and he said i heard the sound 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 the fruit me fruit 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 this is the word of the lord thanks be to god good morning everyone good morning everyone at home it's a real privilege to uh open god's word up for you this morning before i begin let me just offer a brief prayer to the lord for our time in his word father we thank you for giving us the bible for giving us your word and this revelation of yourself i pray now that you would speak through me that you would speak your word to all those listening that we would be shaped and changed that we would grow in our love for you i ask all this in jesus name amen on june 28 1914 members of the black hand a serbian secret society he assassinated the archduke franz ferdinand the archduke of austria-hungary now the assassination in and of itself is fairly interesting but perhaps what's more interesting were the after effects of the ascest assassination as you might expect austria-hungary eventually declared war on serbia
[2:19] But then, in the weeks that followed, more and more European nations were pulled into the conflict due to various pre-existing treaties and alliances.
[2:33] Pretty soon, fighting had broke out on multiple continents involving numerous countries, nations, and colonies, expanding far beyond the borders of Europe.
[2:45] World War I. The Great War. It didn't start with some grand event.
[2:55] It wasn't even instigated by the major world powers of the day. No, it began with an assassination in one corner of Europe.
[3:08] But the fallout carried across the globe. One man's death led to worldwide ramifications.
[3:21] Last week, we looked at the first seven verses of Genesis chapter 3, what people commonly refer to as the fall. Well, if last week was the fall, then this week is the fallout.
[3:33] Adam and Eve, they disobeyed God's command. And, you know, I wonder if as we read it, as we thought through it, I wonder if it seemed a bit anticlimactic.
[3:44] You know, they didn't die immediately. They really, the only thing that happened to them last week was that their eyes were opened. And yet, as we will see this morning, as the narrative continues, it becomes clear.
[4:00] The consequences of their disobedience are far more serious than we could ever imagine. This morning, we're going to see the after effects, the fallout, as I said, of Adam and Eve's sin, all of which really stems from their shame.
[4:16] You know, in the previous passage, Adam and Eve, they covered themselves up out of shame. And in our passage, we see what that shame causes them to do. I'll sum up the passage like this.
[4:29] If you're a note taker, you'll want to write this sentence down. The shame of sin ruptures our relationship with God. The shame of sin ruptures our relationship with God.
[4:42] In order to consider this passage this morning and what it has to say to us, we're going to see two ways Adam and Eve react to really the shame of their sin. First, in verses 8 to 10, we'll see them hiding.
[4:56] And then, in 11 to 13, we'll see them blaming. In both cases, we'll see the negative effects that their sin has on their relationship with God.
[5:08] And in doing so, I hope that we can actually see how our sin, even for those of us who are Christians, how it might affect our relationships with God. So, with this roadmap in mind, let's first see how the shame of sin ruptures our relationship with God.
[5:26] By considering Adam and Eve's act of hiding in verses 8 to 10. As I said a moment ago, after their act of disobedience, Adam and Eve, they covered themselves.
[5:39] That was back in verse 7. No longer are they naked and not ashamed, but feeling shame, they fashion clothes for themselves. And so, as our passage starts, they actually take this act of covering to a whole different level.
[5:55] They're not hiding behind leaves any longer. No, they're hiding from the Lord among the trees. We see that right there in verse 8. You can take a look. Adam and Eve, they hear the Lord walking in the garden, presumably toward them, and so they hide.
[6:11] And I think this sort of reaction, it makes sense to us, right? Like, maybe your child at some point has done something bad, and they went and hid. Or maybe you or a friend had done something, like, really embarrassing, and just needed to go kind of hide in the bathroom or hide in your car, right?
[6:31] When we feel a sense of shame as humans, we tend to hide, even from a young age. We want to escape that feeling.
[6:42] We don't want others to see us in our shameful state. And that's exactly what's going on here. Adam and Eve hide from God among the trees.
[6:56] Well, God responds to their hiding, maybe like a parent would. Right there in verse 9, he asks, where are you? It's amazing that instead of like an accusatory tone or something like that, God, he calls to them to come out, to reveal themselves.
[7:16] And surely the all-knowing God knew where they were. Surely the all-knowing God knew what had happened. But instead of initial condemnation, instead of something more like a command, Adam, get out here, get over here.
[7:34] God, he calls out, where are you? Adam, he doesn't answer God's question directly, but he does reveal himself in verse 10.
[7:46] He doesn't say where he is. Instead, he gives the reason for his act of hiding. He was afraid of God because of his nakedness, and so he hid. And here we see firsthand how the shame of sin ruptures our relationship with God.
[8:05] Adam, who had dwelled in perfect harmony in the garden under the gracious rule of God, is now afraid of his creator.
[8:19] It would be easy to miss this little detail. It would be easy to kind of just read past it and read over this fact. But because of the shame of his sin, because his eyes have been opened to his nakedness, Adam, the one who was with God near the beginning, is now hiding out of fear.
[8:43] The seemingly small act of sin, the seemingly kind of simple, minor act of disobedience, it has completely and utterly changed how Adam and Eve relate to God.
[8:56] Just as other countries were pulled into World War I by association, so too every human who's existed since has been pulled into this broken relationship between humanity and God.
[9:15] Romans 5.12, it says, Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way, death spread to all people, because all sinned.
[9:29] The shame of sin, it ruptures our relationship with God, and it does so in this sort of like macro sense, this large scale, earth shattering way that started in the garden and has extended till today.
[9:45] Mankind and God have a rift between them, because all humanity has sinned against God. It doesn't take long looking around to see this reality, does it?
[9:59] But the shame of sin, it doesn't just rupture our relationship with God in kind of this like cosmic scale. But just as shame can harm any human relationship, so too does it rupture our relationship with God in smaller and more subtle ways.
[10:19] You know, I think we have this notion in kind of like our relationships or friendships that if we truly reveal ourselves, if we truly own up to who we really are, then others won't like us.
[10:34] Others won't want to be friends with us. Others might reject us. But the reality is, it's only when we let ourselves be known and truly known that our relationships and friendships really begin to flourish.
[10:51] And it's the same with God. I think for many of us, this is where we need to actually start thinking about how to apply this text to ourselves.
[11:01] You know, I don't know about you, but I don't find myself hiding from God, at least not in the way we see here. You know, most of us are probably not literally hiding from God, like under our bed or running out into the forest to hide behind trees.
[11:19] And yet I wonder if even for those of us who are Christians, even for those of us who would say, you know what, I think me and God are doing okay.
[11:33] I wonder if we don't still hide from Him because of the shame surrounding our sin. Of course, intellectually we know, well, we can't hide from an omnipresent God.
[11:45] We can't hide from a God who sees everything and is everywhere. And so instead of literally covering ourselves, we hide from Him spiritually.
[11:57] We act as though He's just not there. And we do this, I think, because in the shame of our sin, we just assume that He doesn't want to hear from us.
[12:09] And we fall into the same sinful action or attitude again and again. And each time we think, is God really going to forgive me? Does God really want me to talk to Him, to pray to Him after my millionth mistake?
[12:30] You know, we say to ourselves, oh man, I messed up again. You know, God's probably upset. I'll just call Him in a day or two. I'll give Him some time to cool off.
[12:43] We know we should pray to Him. We know we should confess to Him, but we just assume that He's similar enough to us that He probably doesn't want to hear it. You know, we might not feel afraid of God in the same way as Adam and Eve did.
[13:00] We might not hide from God in the same way that Adam and Eve did. But the ruptured relationship between humanity and God and the shame of our sin, it continues to drive a wedge between us.
[13:16] And spiritual hiding is just a symptom of this disease. Well, in these first three verses, we see Adam and Eve hiding from God because of their shame.
[13:34] But hiding isn't the only way we see Adam and Eve react to the shame of sin. No, we also see this in their blaming in verses 11 to 13. And their act of blaming is one more symptom of their ruptured relationship with God.
[13:49] Listen as I read these three verses again for us since it's been a moment since we heard them. He, being God, said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?
[14:03] The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate.
[14:18] Well, here God asks two follow-up questions. You can see them right there in verse 11. Who told you that you were naked? And did you eat from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?
[14:30] Adam, though, doesn't answer the first question as if he could. No one told them they were naked. They just had their eyes open and knew they were naked back in verse 7 after they ate the fruit.
[14:44] Adam does answer the second question, though. But I wonder, did you notice how Adam answered the second question? Did you notice how much he says before he admits to eating the fruit?
[15:00] Take a look again at verse 12. The woman whom you gave me, she gave me fruit, and I ate.
[15:14] In one fell swoop, Adam manages to shift the blame for his actions off of himself and onto both God and Eve. And then when God turns to Eve in verse 13, she makes a similar move.
[15:28] She blames the serpent for his deception. Now, to be fair, Adam and Eve aren't making false claims.
[15:41] Eve did eat first and gave Adam some fruit, and the serpent did deceive Eve. And yet, are they not still responsible for their individual actions?
[15:55] When I was a kid, I went over to a friend's house, and this friend wanted to throw snowballs at cars. This is not a good idea, and I didn't want to at first, but my friend, he was like, it's fine, it's no big deal, it'll be okay, it's super fun, let's just do it.
[16:14] So guess what? We threw snowballs at cars. And, this should come as no surprise to you, someone circled back and yelled at us, which we totally deserved.
[16:26] Now, I could have been like, whoa, whoa, whoa, it's not my fault. He told me it was okay. But the reality is, I threw snowballs.
[16:38] I was still responsible. I could plead innocence all I want, but I wouldn't have been kidding anyone. And that's exactly what we see here.
[16:51] Adam and Eve's relationship with God has been ruptured. So, in order to kind of try to make it right, they begin pointing fingers every which way, in order to try and exonerate themselves.
[17:02] I think what we need to understand about this blame shifting, though, is that it's fueled by shame. If shame causes us to hide, if shame causes us to cover ourselves up so that others can't see us for who we really are, then blame is just another mechanism we use to accomplish this.
[17:26] You know, it's like hiding, but instead of kind of like tucking ourselves away, we just point the finger elsewhere. We take the eyes off of ourselves and put them somewhere else.
[17:40] You know what blaming is? It's hiding in plain sight. The chain of blame in this passage, it begins with Adam, it goes through Eve, and it ends on the serpent.
[17:54] It just keeps getting past the wall. You know, there's a sense in which through blaming, the humans, they seem to try to act like nothing really happened.
[18:06] Like, you know, if it's not our fault, then like we didn't really do anything wrong. If we can say it's someone else's fault, then like, well, we didn't really mess up. But I think this just goes to show just how bad their relationship with God has gotten.
[18:25] You know, the very fact that Adam and Eve felt the need to shift blame off of themselves, it attests to the ruptured relationship they have with their Creator.
[18:37] Just as they went from harmony to hiding, here in these three verses, we see them go from bliss to blaming. Their initial sin, it's created a rift between them and God, and now, through any means necessary, they're trying to take the crosshairs off of themselves, point them somewhere else.
[18:59] So if, as we saw before, Adam and Eve's reactions to their sin are ways we might actually act the same in relation to the shame of our sin, then what does blaming look like in our lives?
[19:22] Perhaps it's easy to think of times maybe you've blamed someone else, or someone's blamed you, but what does it look like for us to blame kind of in relation to this passage?
[19:35] Because in the passage, we see Adam and Eve, they shift blame for their sin onto something else. And I wonder if there's not a lesson for us here when it comes to our own sin.
[19:48] I wonder if we don't tend to blame our own sin, maybe sometimes on other people, maybe sometimes on other things, in order to try to minimize it before God, or at least minimize it in our own minds.
[20:05] We say things like, well, you know, God, my kids, they were just so difficult today, and so that's why I got angry.
[20:17] Well, God, I only clicked that link because it's just been so boring in my dorm room or at home. Come on, God, you know how difficult so-and-so is to work with.
[20:31] I mean, that's why I said those mean things to them. We feel convicted of our greed, and we just blame it on things being tight, even when they aren't.
[20:42] We feel like perhaps we're becoming unloving, but there's just so many causes to care about, but it's hard to keep track. We're not prideful.
[20:53] We just blame our work culture or our school culture on those moments of arrogance. All too often when we think about our sin, it's so hard to just go before the Lord and admit to Him that we are sinful, that we acted wrongly with no strings attached.
[21:15] It can be so difficult to just lay our sin out before the Lord without hiding behind excuses or peripheral things. But here's the thing, friends.
[21:31] We don't need to be forgiven for a little bit of our sin, but not the other parts of it that were caused by others. We need to be forgiven for all of our sin.
[21:44] It can be so easy to let the shame we feel at our sin allow us to try to reason with God for all the things that caused us to sin in the first place, but to blame other things.
[21:58] Instead of owning up to our sin, it only serves to minimize our sin, to make light of our sin. Now to be sure, our context, our surroundings, these things, they do affect us.
[22:13] They do. But they aren't ultimately what causes us to sin. No, the sin in our hearts, even for those of us who are Christians, that's what causes us to sin.
[22:27] When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they brought sin into the world, and this extends to today. Our biggest problem is not other people or other things.
[22:38] Our biggest problem is our own sin. And so when we blame other things for it, it gives us the false sense that if we could just remove some of these exterior things, then we wouldn't have a sin problem.
[22:52] It gives us the false sense that it's not my fault I'm sinning. It's someone or something else out there. But friends, these are lies.
[23:06] And they are insidious. Because by blaming our own sin on other things, we begin to think our sin isn't that big of a deal. We neglect doing the hard work of fighting sin.
[23:22] We let sin fester. We let sin live rent-free in our minds and in our hearts. And you know what this does.
[23:34] It ruptures our relationship with God. Our passage has shown us two major problems.
[23:47] On one hand, the shame of sin, it has ruptured the relationship between humanity and God beginning with Adam and Eve and extending till today.
[23:57] It raises the questions, how in the world can we be made right with God? How can we fix this broken relationship between mankind and God?
[24:12] Then on the other hand, the other problem we've seen is how the shame of sin, it continues to cause wedges between us and God.
[24:23] because it leads us to act similarly to Adam and Eve in the passage by hiding and blaming. We keep God at arm's length and our relationship with Him can either become or remain shallow.
[24:39] or we want God to accept us, but we feel the weight of our sin, the shame that surrounds it, and we wonder, is God really going to forgive me?
[24:54] perhaps you are not a Christian, you're here this morning, you're watching from home, and you're asking some of these questions. Perhaps you're a discouraged Christian, and you're asking some of these questions.
[25:13] Maybe you're neither of these, but you're still wondering, fondant, is there any hope in Genesis 3, 8-13? Well, whoever you are, I have good news for you, and I have hope for you this morning, even in a passage as sad and hopeless as this one.
[25:36] The shame of sin, it ruptured Adam and Eve's relationship with God. It began with that first sin, and as we've seen, we still feel the reverberations of their disobedience today.
[25:51] If all we had were these six verses, we would be in trouble. Oh, but praise God, our Bibles are much bigger, and there is much more story to be told.
[26:04] In fact, there's echoes of the story of God's mercy, even in our passage. I wonder if you noticed it. All the way back there in verse 8.
[26:15] God walks toward Adam and Eve and calls out to them. Even in their disobedience, God approaches them.
[26:29] It's reminiscent of a future time in which God would approach a sinful and disobedient people calling out to them. Of course, I'm talking about Jesus Christ, who came from heaven to earth, and when He got to earth, when He began His earthly ministry, He called out, repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is here.
[26:53] the broken relationship between God and humanity. It begins to be rebuilt when Jesus came from heaven to earth to die for our sins.
[27:05] We can't fix our relationship with God on our own, but God in His mercy does the work. God takes initiative. God approaches us in the person of Jesus Christ and fixes the relationship Himself.
[27:18] How does He do it? He sends His Son to die on a Roman cross in order to bring forgiveness of sins to us.
[27:30] Earlier, we went to Romans 5.12, but a few verses later in 5.19, this is what Paul writes, Just as through one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so also through the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.
[27:49] Adam and Eve's sin, it had universal repercussions for all of mankind, casting us into a spiral of sin and death, but the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has repercussions as well, but for our good and for our salvation.
[28:09] Those who were stained with the shame of sin, those who were enemies of God, are precisely those whom Jesus died for. In order that anyone who turns away from their sin and believes in Jesus' death and resurrection can be made right with God.
[28:30] Oh, if you're here or at home this morning and you are not a believer in Jesus, today is a good day to begin a relationship with God, to be made right with God.
[28:44] I'd love to talk with you more about that. If you're watching with someone, I'm sure they would love to talk with you about that. Today's a great day. Well, the relationship with God that was utterly severed, it begins to be mended through Jesus.
[29:01] This takes care of that first problem, that big problem I mentioned, but what about the smaller one? What about our personal relationships with God that can sometimes be ruptured by our sin?
[29:13] Oh, friends, if we know that all of our sins are forgiven, if all of our sins are nailed to the cross, then we no longer need to hide.
[29:26] We no longer need to blame other things. We can go straight to God, trusting that by doing so, we aren't impeding our relationship with Him.
[29:36] No, we're growing in our relationship with Him. And we can trust that He will continue to forgive us, even when we sin. The Gospel, it extends hope into our lives.
[29:50] It means we can have a right relationship with God, just as there's hope for today, there's hope for the future as well. In our passage this morning, Adam and Eve, they hid from the presence of God.
[30:03] They literally hid from the face of God. Friends, if you are in Christ, if you have turned to Him in faith, then one day, you will no longer need to hide from God.
[30:16] As it says in Revelation 22, 4, you will see God face to face and live with Him forever. Well, we should conclude.
[30:28] In this fallen world, the shame of sin, it has left our relationship with God all too often ruptured. But the message of the Gospel, it gives us hope that the broken relationship we once had with God has been fixed by Jesus' blood.
[30:48] Furthermore, because of the Gospel, we no longer need to feed our tendencies to hide or blame, but rather, we can take our sin to God trusting that it has all been paid for on the cross.
[31:02] In our sin, we may feel like we need to hide from God by avoiding Him. In our sin, we may feel like we need to blame other things to rid ourselves of the shame we feel.
[31:13] We may feel like we might reach a point where God will just be done with us. But though the shame of sin ruptured our relationship with God in the garden, the mercy of God in Christ reconstructs our relationship with Him.
[31:34] So as I close, let me leave you with a quote from a book called Gentle and Lowly. Dane Ortlund, the author, he writes this, that God is rich in mercy means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which divine mercy passes, but homes in which divine mercy abides.
[31:55] It means our haunting shame is not a problem for Him, but the very thing He loves most to work with. It means our sins do not cause His love to take a hit.
[32:07] Our sins cause His love to surge forward all the more. It means on that day when we stand before Him quietly, unhurriedly, we will weep with relief, shocked at how impoverished a view of His mercy-rich heart we had.
[32:29] Let's go to Him now in prayer. Father, we confess that all too often our relationships with You are ruptured through our sin, through our shame, through the ways in which we hide or blame or try to avoid You.
[32:49] We read a passage like this, we're reminded of the devastating consequences of sin, of our sin, and we lament at the broken relationship between You and Your creation.
[33:03] Oh, but Father, we also give You praise. Because though we are helpless to fix this relationship on our own, You sent Your Son to live and die and rise again so that anyone who believes in Him can be made right with You.
[33:19] Oh, what a wonderful reconciliation. What a wonderful hope. God, we praise You for Your boundless mercy. We thank You that You don't cast sinners like us away, but instead You call us to Yourself to be forgiven at the cross.
[33:37] Thank You, Father, for this good news. May we rest in it today. May we rest in it all of our days. We ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.