[0:00] Seeking God's blessing, can we turn back to our reading in Genesis 3, and we can read the verses 7 to 11 and maybe the verse 21.
[0:15] Genesis 3 and at verse 7, And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
[0:27] And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
[0:40] And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.
[0:51] And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And so on, and to the verse 21.
[1:03] And to Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. The Garden of Eden must have been a wonderful place and an idyllic place.
[1:27] It was a place that God had created that was perfectly suited to the man that he had created when that man was in his unfallen state.
[1:42] Man's nature was perfect, and so was the environment into which God had placed him. The environment was perfect, and the man himself was perfect.
[1:56] And it is when you put these two perfections together, the perfect nature of the man and the perfect environment into which God had placed him.
[2:09] When you put these two things together, it makes the fall of man in the Garden of Eden seem even more dreadful than we actually see it at times to be.
[2:22] I'm sure man could have claimed some kind of excuse for his sin. If the man, when he was created, if he had been created in some way imperfect, or if God had placed the perfect man into an imperfect environment, into a sinful environment, then maybe, just maybe, just maybe, the man might have had some excuse for his fall.
[2:53] But neither was the case, my friends. It was a perfect man, and he was in a perfect environment. His nature was perfect.
[3:05] Absolutely perfect. His environment into which God had placed him, it was perfect. So when the man sinned in Eden, it was not because of some deficiency either of nature, or a deficiency of environment for which God himself, who created the environment and who created the man, could be held responsible.
[3:34] God could not be held responsible for the fall of man. Perfect environment, perfect environment, perfect nature, a perfect nature, placed in the perfect environment.
[3:46] And so there was no deficiency on the side of what God had done. Everything was perfect. And the man and the woman had dominion over all of this perfection.
[4:01] Man and the woman, man was to care for the garden and for the animals that God had created. And you know, there is a sense too, maybe, in which you could say that not only did man have dominion over the perfect environment into which he had been placed, but that he had dominion over his own perfect nature as well.
[4:26] When you think of Adam, he was created with a peccable nature. And so therefore, he must in some way have been given freedom and dominion over his perfect nature as well as the perfect environment into which God had placed him.
[4:45] But the man was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil.
[4:55] He was not to eat of it. For if he ate of that tree, God told him that he would surely die. If thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
[5:09] Now, I suppose that there is a question that arises in all of this. And maybe two questions. Why was the tree put there in the first place?
[5:24] Why was it put there? Was the man to learn anything from the presence of this tree in the garden? Or maybe we could put that in some other way.
[5:37] Was the man to learn anything from the command that accompanied the tree that God had put in the garden? Well, surely, my friends, if they were to learn anything, if they were to learn anything from the command that accompanied that tree in the garden, surely it was there to show that although the man, although he had maximum freedom and dominion in the earth, that that freedom and dominion that he had was all a gift from God himself.
[6:16] A gift that was given to him by God. And surely that tree in the midst of the garden with the command that came with that tree, surely that was a restraint upon them to remind Adam and to remind Eve that they themselves were not God, that they themselves were not the Creator, but that they were the created, and that they were responsible to the Creator and to the Word and to the command that was explicitly given to them by the one who had created them.
[6:56] This is the tree, Thou shalt not eat thereof, otherwise you will die. A restraint upon them. To remind them that they were not God, but that they were responsible to the Creator.
[7:19] We tonight, my friends who are in the Lord, we are free in Christ. We are free from the bondage of sin and of death. But there is a tree in our lives too.
[7:34] There is the Word of God in our lives too. And no matter what freedom we have. Do you know a lot of the theology that you hear today is, come to Jesus and believe in Jesus and do as you please.
[7:46] Where do you find that in the Bible? It is nowhere. In every Christian life, in every Christian who is free in Christ, there is a tree and there is a command.
[7:57] There are parameters there. And there are lines there. And our freedom is only as wide as the Word of God and the commands of God. That is as wide as our freedom ever can be.
[8:14] And so they were reminded with this tree, and the command that came with the tree, that they were within these parameters as well. But as we all know, under the temptation of the evil one, Eve was fooled, wasn't she, into believing that the fruit of this tree would, in her own words, she said, that it would make one wise.
[8:41] That it would bring some kind of knowledge and some kind of wisdom to her if she partook thereof. Little did she understand the kind of knowledge that she was going to gain when she partook of this tree.
[8:56] She had no idea. If only she had been content with growing in knowledge of God rather than in partaking of that tree and deciding the knowledge that partaking of that tree was going to bring to her experience.
[9:13] If only she had been content to learn of Him and to get to know God more. If only we were content ourselves with that one. With learning more of God.
[9:27] But know the fruit, my friends. You see, it was pleasant to the eye. The fruit was pleasant to the eye. And so, since the fruit was pleasant to the eye, oh, it must be good.
[9:40] There must be some good in it. It must be good because it looks good to the eye. And so she took of it and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat.
[9:55] How often, even as God's people, are we attracted to that which is forbidden by God. And we are attracted to it just because it looks pleasing to the eye.
[10:10] And we are living in a day, I put it to you, where we take sin lightly. And if we want to see the seriousness of sin, all we need to do is look at what happened here and we see the seriousness of sin.
[10:30] And all we need to do is look at Calvary and we see what sin costs in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, as God's people so often, we take sin so lightly.
[10:46] I just want to look at two or three things within this chapter and what has happened here in the Garden of Eden.
[10:59] And I want to look first of all at Adam and Eve's new knowledge in the Garden. Their new knowledge. Verse 7 says, And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
[11:25] Their eyes, after the committing of the sin, and the partaking of the free of knowledge of good and evil, now their eyes are opened.
[11:36] Now when it is too late, Adam and Eve see the happiness that they had fallen from, and they can see too, and they had learned of the misery that they had fallen into, and the misery that sin had brought them into.
[11:56] What have they learned? What have they seen? What is it that they are beholding now with their eyes open after having committed this sin? What do they see?
[12:07] They see, they see, my friends, and they are aware of a loving God who is provoked. His grace and His favor is forfeited.
[12:19] His likeness and His image in which they were created, it is lost, it is gone. They could quite clearly see, and they knew now that their natures were corrupted, and that their natures were depraved.
[12:38] They felt, and they understood, that there was a complete and utter disorder in their spirits of which they had never been conscious before. There was no disorder before.
[12:50] There is disorder now. And they could see that the robe of perfection with which they had been clothed, that now it was dirty, that it was stained, and that it was degraded.
[13:06] And they had disgraced, and they had degraded the image in which they had been created. All of a sudden, they realize that the fruit of the free to be decided to make one wise has brought a condition and has brought a knowledge to them that is painful.
[13:29] They are in pain. And so often, we take sin lightly. And they have come to know what sin is.
[13:46] And they have learned that sin produces shame, and that sin produces guilt. And both of these make the sinner want to hide.
[13:58] Adam and Eve felt ashamed because of what they were. What were they? They were naked.
[14:11] And they felt guilty because of what they had done. What had they done? They had disobeyed God. From a place of peace and a place of safety and a place of satisfaction and innocence to a place of shame, to a place of guilt, and to a place of fear.
[14:36] And it was all so painful for them that they took steps, my friends, there. Took steps to deny it.
[14:49] Or at least took steps to try and to cover it all up. They try to cover it up with denial. They try to cover it up with fleeing away from God.
[15:02] They try to cover it up with the fig leaves and the works of their own hands. They try every means that is available to them of their own, but to no avail.
[15:13] From thy spirit whither shall I go, or from thy presence fly? I send thy heaven over there and there. If in hell I lie, there is nowhere to go.
[15:23] There is no way to hide it. And nowhere to hide from God. And I want you to notice one thing here. In all of the experience of Adam and Eve here, and all that is written about them in this chapter, there is no confession of what they have done, and there seems to be no repentance.
[15:46] No going to the Lord to confess what they have done. No going on their knees before God to confess it and to repent of it.
[16:00] And their awareness of their shame and their awareness of their guilt, it made them hide rather than coming to God to confess it. Yes, they had learned that they had sinned.
[16:15] Yes, they had learned that they had disobeyed God. Yes, they had learned that their condition that it was poor. And they had learned so well that they had changed.
[16:29] They learned it. They knew it. They knew they were different. They knew things had changed. But there was one thing that they failed to learn. They failed to learn that the God who created them hadn't changed.
[16:42] He was still the same. They had changed but the God of heaven was still the same. And as we prepare and as you prepare to come once again to the Lord's table come in confession and come in repentance in your preparation and in your examining of yourselves as is commanded in the word of God.
[17:13] Whatever you might have done whatever might have been in your experience since the last time you sat at the Lord's table whatever sin it is that you may have committed and whatever effect these sins in your life may have upon you the God who redeemed you is still the same God.
[17:37] God is still the same. If only they had come in confession and in repentance before God but they didn't they run away their guilt and their shame and their pain made them hide behind the trees.
[18:01] The first Adam hid behind the trees The second Adam was hung on the trees And we need to go to the tree that we might find Christ and peace for our souls and forgiveness for our sins.
[18:29] the first Adam behind it the second Adam on it and us who are the sons of Adam we need to come to the tree and behold the Lord who hung upon the tree.
[18:49] There are new knowledge in the garden Secondly I want to say this They hear God in the garden They hear him in the garden Verse 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him Where art thou?
[19:21] And he said I heard thy voice in the garden And I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself I want you to notice there in that verse 8 that it doesn't say that they saw him in the garden and that then they hid That's not what it says What it says is that they heard him in the garden And when they heard him in the garden they went to hide away from him And here is the question How did they know that it was God that was in the garden if they were hidden behind the trees How did they know that it was God in the garden?
[20:10] Well I put it to you that the noise of God's movements And the noise of God's voice or the voice of God and the movements of God were something with which Adam and Eve were all too familiar They had heard him before and they had heard him move in the garden before From the moment of their creation From the moment in which God breathed life into their nostrils They had walked with God and they had communed with God God had spoken to them and God had walked with them and they had walked with God and they had spoken to God And before now that communion and that fellowship it was unbroken and it was unhindered And when they heard God's voice before the fall
[21:11] And when they heard God in the garden before the fall the first thing that they would do would be to run to God Not run away and hide from God Sin must now cause a great chasm to come between God and Adam and Eve And I want to say this tonight that sin that is undealt with that it will always put a distance between us and God It always will And if there is sin in my life tonight and in your life that is undealt with we will find ourselves as well walking away from God rather than walking with God Are you walking with God?
[22:06] Am I walking with God? Through me in your heart you answer that question from the pulpit to the pew Are you walking with God? Sin that is undealt with before the Lord will always hinder our communion and our fellowship with the Lord And I would say to you ask for the grace of God to help you to deal with your sin as you prepare yourselves to go to the Lord's table otherwise there will be a casting between you and the fellowship of the Lord God Don't try and hide your sin Don't try and kid on tonight that your sin is not there or that it's really not that serious Don't do that my friends Take it to the God who is merciful and the God who does not change I said earlier that although
[23:12] Adam and Eve had changed that God had not changed in all that happened that he was still merciful and that God was still loving But how can we say that and how can we draw that from these verses here and his dealings with our first parents Well I would suggest that there are one or two things that point to this even before he covered them with the skins even before God drew blood to cover their shame and their guilt There are one or two other things here within these verses that teach us that God was still loving and that God was still merciful towards our first parents The first thing I want to say in relation to that is I want you to notice when God came to the garden it tells us that God came to the garden in the cool of the day He didn't come into the garden in the heat of the day
[24:17] He didn't come into the garden in the dead of the night when the fear of Adam and Eve would be even more pronounced than it was as they hid behind the trees You know yourself what fear is like in the night It seems a lot worse than it is in the day And so God came into the garden in the cool of the day He came in the cool of the day to deal with Adam and Eve And I want you to notice something else about this as well He didn't descend from heaven into the garden in a blaze of wrath to execute His judgment You shall surely die He didn't come in all that splendor and in all that fierceness with which He could have come into the garden He didn't even run into the garden to deal with them as if He was in a great hurry to deal with these two disobedient people
[25:23] He walked into the garden and He called out Adam where art thou One commentator says of this God came by degrees calling as He came You see my friends it was not the manner or the voice of God that was terrifying Adam and Eve at this point That is not what was terrifying them It was the fact that they had sinned that was terrifying them And when one has sinned against God and when one is aware of it and when one knows it it is frightening isn't it Look at what He said in verse 10 and He said I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked I hid myself But fearful as his sin and disobedience made him feel his place was before
[26:35] God not behind the trees God is that not what our place should be as well before God in submission in confession and in repentance God is but as well as being merciful and as well as being loving God is also just and God must deal with sin and God must punish sin it's still the same He must punish it in the sinner or He must punish our sin in His own Son but God must punish sin and so He calls Adam and Eve to the bar of His own justice and see the call with which He calls them is an effectual call in the
[27:36] Garden of Eden and there is nothing to hide behind when this call comes in a sense every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord on that last day they will come and they did come they came to the bar of God's justice and you know my friends even then there is still no confession and there is still no repentance and the blame for their shame and for their sin and for their guilt it was being passed on to others they were blaming others for their own problems for their own sins Eve blamed the serpent didn't she Adam blamed Eve for his sin do you know if there is one thing that we can see here
[28:42] I believe when you look at God dealing with Adam and Eve and their lack of confession and their lack of repentance does it not speak of the patience of God the patience of God wasn't God patient with ourselves too even while we were yet sinners Christ died for us God is patient here even although he is judging them and passing judgment upon them he is patient with Adam and with Eve the patience of God and then we will see that God covered them in the garden after the sentence was pronounced upon them
[29:48] God shed blood to make garments to cover their shame and to Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothes them I wonder what animals it was God slew for this purpose of covering the shame of Adam and Eve for myself I believe that they were lambs they were lambs from God's own garden they were lambs from this perfect environment that God had created and I believe that these lambs were still untainted there was no need for them to be examined like the lambs had to be examined for three days in the Hebrew homes in
[30:48] Egypt there was no need for these lambs to be examined to see if they had spot or blemish by any priest as they would in the tabernacle because these lambs were not provided God himself God chose them God provided them a great picture of the ultimate lamb that God himself would provide in the fullness of time the lamb who would be without spot and without blemish the lamb that would come from the very bosom of God himself the lamb who would die on Calvary tree so that our filthy coverings and our filthy robes and our filthy rags could be replaced with the glorious robe and the glorious covering of his sinless and his spotless life he would bear the justice of
[31:53] God and the punishment of God against sin on our behalf he would go to the bar of God's justice and he would bear our sins in his own body on the tree God made a provision of perfect lambs in Eden to cover the shame and the sin of Adam and Eve and the spotless lamb of which these lambs spoke and which they pictured the Lord Jesus Christ wouldn't he not himself wear the emblem of the curse of the fallen Eden thorns also and fisters shall it bring forth unto thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field thorns an emblem and a mark of the curse of the fall and these very thorns these thorns that were the emblem of sin and an emblem of the curse of the fall would be the very thing that would pierce the very brow of the perfect lamb of
[33:12] God when he wore that crown of thorns and from these piercings would flow forth the very cure for the curse and for sin the blood and not only that but in Gethsemane there is another curse of the fall there you see it there look at it verse 19 in the sweat of your face shall you eat bread and the sweat of his brow the sweat of his brow was a curse and an emblem of the sin into which he had fallen and all of these things and there in Gethsemane when his sweat as it were great drops of blood what do you see you see the emblem of the curse mixed with the cure the blood he sweat as it were great drops of blood
[34:13] God moved to provide a covering for the sin and for the shame of Adam and Eve and all of this was a great picture of the great movement of God to cover the shame and sin of all of his own elect through the land that he himself would provide the lamb in whom our sin would be judged and the lamb whose spotless glorious sinless life would be imputed to us it must be a glorious sight tonight for God himself if I may say this respectfully when we feel our own unworthiness and our own sinfulness we feel our sin we know our sin we know that our hearts are so corrupted by sin and we feel so unworthy imagine if we could for a moment see tonight the glorious sight that
[35:24] God sees when he looks on this gathering and he sees the beauty of his own son is seized in his own people who are robed with that beauty and robed in the robes of his spotless and sinless life life do you realize tonight how beautiful and how glorious you look in the sight of God and worthy as you feel I just want to say as we close let us never have anything less my friends than a serious view of sin and a serious view of what it cost to redeem us from that sin let us prepare to go to the Lord's table by examining ourselves by coming to
[36:26] God with our sins by confessing our sins before God by repenting of our sins before God and with the help of God's grace forsaking them and leaving them behind by examining ourselves before we come to the Lord's table so that when we come that there will not be a great chasm between us and the Lord and so that we can have communion and fellowship with the
[37:31] Lord at the Lord's table Adam and Eve got new knowledge in the garden they heard God in the garden and they were covered by God in the garden what a glorious thing it is tonight to be in Christ what a glorious thing it is to know that we have been given imputed to us the robes of his righteousness and his spotless and his sinless life that all sins have been judged in him that he has paid the price and that now we are free from the bondage of sin and of death he died for us somebody once said he died for me
[38:38] I know no other argument I know no other plea it is enough that he died and that he died for me let us pray thank you thank you準備