This will probably be a two-part
message. I hope to be here next week if
we're able, but this evening I will look at Eve being deceived.
We can learn a lot from that. We need to pay close attention
to that. Adam's willful fall, his willingness
to eat of that fruit, the curse that the Lord pronounces to the
woman, to Adam, to the serpent, And then we see the first promise
of Christ since man's been on earth. And then we see the first
picture of Christ since man's on earth. We spend a whole lot
of time, we spend more time outside of this church than we do in
it. And as we walk around all day, or as we lived our life,
our whole existence up until the Lord came and revealed Himself
to us, we spend more time with the old man than we do Rejoicing
in a new man. I want to look at this week, Adam,
our representative. Our federal head. Our representative. And then next week, we'll see
more closely Christ, our representative. And Paul has the best commentary
in Romans 5 on what Genesis 3 is about. Out of all the commentaries
there are, that's the best there is. I hope we can see that. Robert
Hawker said, I know not whether we ought to consider this chapter,
this chapter of Genesis chapter 3, as the most melancholy or
the most pleasing in the whole Bible. I don't know if we ought
to consider this the scariest, most dreadful thing we can come
across or the most pleasing thing we can come across. He said it
certainly contains the substance of what forms both. Maybe the
Lord will expose our sin, our nakedness this week, and He may
just let us only hear that, only see that, and make us dwell on
that for a whole seven days until we can see Christ more clearly
next week. And if He does so, it's right.
The Lord made Adam the first person ever in His image, after
His likeness, and He gave Adam a commandment. He gave him instruction,
gave him a commandment. It says here in Genesis 2 verse
15, And the Lord God took the man
and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep
it. And the Lord God commanded the
man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." This commandment
was given to Adam before Eve was brought out of his wounded
side. That's before Eve was created from man, before that first surgery
took place. And we'll see this more clearly
by the end, but that commandment and that promise of the Lord
that was to Adam, it was before Eve was even created. What a
picture! That covenant of grace that the Father and the Son entered
into, what transpired there, that all took place. It was signed,
sealed, and delivered before we would come out of His side,
before we were given life, before we were given our spiritual birth
in Christ. Now the Lord that created the
heavens and the earth and all the things in it, He looked on
it and He said, it is good. Everything he created. And now
he's got a man and a woman in front of him. Morally innocent.
They had never sinned. Sin had never been on this earth.
But a problem arose, didn't it? Sin entered in. All of mankind
are trying their best to figure out why men and women do things
wrong. They put a lot of time and energy
into that, don't they? They try to figure out why do
men and women get sick? Why do men and women die? And
they've got a multitude of theories as to why all this is in our
society. What we can do to improve on
it. What we can do to change it. Where does it come from?
Why do we do these things? Chapter 3 gives us the answer.
The reason why this entire world is full of sin. Paul told us,
he said, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made
sinners. Where does this come from? By
one man's disobedience. That's what we're going to see.
This is our story. There's no other reason for mankind's
sinfulness. It is the inward and the outward
fall of Adam. That's the root cause of it.
of what happened in our head, Adam. All of science, they'd
have us to believe that we're just evolving into something
just so much better. A friend of mine said that one
time. He said, if this is better, you
have a twisted sense of improvement. Look around you. Walk out in
the world. Listen to folks. Look at what's
happening. All the death, all the sickness, all the fighting,
all the sin, all the pride. Everywhere we turn, everywhere
we look, especially in the mirror, It's getting worse all around
us, isn't it? Those who have not been given faith in Christ,
the faith of Christ, those who haven't been circumcised in the
heart, they hear this doctrine of representation. Adam fell,
we fell in Adam. And boy, they get mad. They oppose
it as hard as they can. God's people don't. In one man's disobedience, all
represented by him fell. They died spiritually, and now
we die physically because of it. Our lives come to an end.
But by one man's obedience, in that same manner, after that
similitude, after the same way, by one man's obedience, all that
he represented, Adam represented, everybody born of his loins.
Everybody had an earthly father that came from an earthly father.
That's who Adam represented. That's why Christ was born of
a virgin. It's a four-legged man, but he didn't have that
corruptible seed that Adam has. born of the Holy Spirit. By that
one man's obedience, all that were in him, that he represented,
they were made holy, and they'll never perish. All that sin was
removed, a holy nature was put into them, and that death that
once was has been conquered. They'll never perish. They will
physically shed these bodies, but that spirit will never die.
It's eternal. Be with him for eternity. That's good news. The
natural man hates that, because it offends our will. The Lord
ain't gonna give us a new heart. If He isn't gonna work in us,
our will's offended. Well, I get a choice. Everybody's
fighting about it now, isn't it? I want a choice. Isn't that
nature? That's my will. That's where
our problem is. We have a will problem. Instead
of bowing to what the Lord's will is, Lord, your will be done.
I want my will to be done. The Lord told those Pharisees,
he said, you will, that's their will, you will not come to me
that you may have life. I want to exercise my freedom.
I don't. The Lord shows me what my freedom is, what my desire,
my heart is. Lord, reign me. Rule over me. Satan got Eve right where he
wanted her, here in chapter 3. She wasn't, as far as she's concerned,
she wasn't in the physical presence of God. He's omniscient, omnipresent. He knows everything. He's right
there with her. But she didn't see Him. She wasn't in the presence
of God. She wasn't in the presence of her husband, her head, in
that home and her representative, the one that instructed her.
And she was having a conversation, a discussion, a debate, about
the words of the Lord with the devil himself. That's what happened. The two of them, they were telling
their opinion. They were discussing the discernment that they'd been
given. They were going back and forth offering ideas about God's
Word. What a dangerous place to be.
What a dangerous place to be. It says in verse 1, Now the serpent
was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God
had made. At this point, that serpent,
it wasn't going around on the ground on its belly. We don't
know. So many people get stumbled up on this and they spend their
lives trying to determine what this serpent was, what it looked
like, what it sounded like. We know what the Lord told us
about it. He spoke. He spoke to her. My pastor told
me growing up, he said whenever he spoke to Eve, she didn't fear,
nor did she find it odd, and then stop and then go talk to
her husband. Like, you know what just happened? Them cows ain't
coming up talking to me. Right? A squirrel don't talk
to you. And whatever this serpent was
at the time, he came up and spoke to her. She had carried on the
conversation. Just right as rain, isn't it? Many of the old writers
stated, and I agree with them, it was very likely that many
of the angels would come and speak to Adam and Eve. The Lord
came in their presence. He conversed with them. They
had a better understanding than we do. They could see what's
around us, what's on these hillsides and chariots of fire and things
like that. They probably came and talked to them. But this
one was subtle. That word subtle means clever,
and I just thought how appropriate. It means delicate. Delicate. You think of a big old copperhead
or a rattlesnake out here. That's violent, isn't it? He
was subtle. He was clever. He's wise. But
he was delicate. Delicate. Tender. He spoke smoothly
to Eve. He didn't come in in a red suit
and a pitchfork like we see in all them cartoons. Just like
all those that are contrary to the gospel are subtle. Delicate. Clever. They ease in and they
ease out. Paul wrote to that church at
Colossae and said, For such are false prophets, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, and no
marvel. Don't be surprised at that. For Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no great thing
if his ministers also transform as the ministers of righteousness.
And then he says, whose end shall be according to their works.
What they preach is what they'll be judged by. Boy, it's subtle. It's dangerous. First thing the
devil does in this slick, delicate, clever manner is attack the Word
of God. It's the first thing he does.
Look here in Genesis 3 verse 1. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, Yea, not nay, yea, Hath God said, Ye shall
not eat of every tree of the garden? The Lord said back in
chapter 2, He said, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest
freely eat. That's what He said, wasn't it? He starts off on common
ground. What do we have in common? What's
some foundations that we can agree upon? He didn't lead off
some wild, crazy, ludicrous idea. Some newfangled thing. He began
with truth. He began with an agreement. Subtle.
But this was a leading question. It was leaving out the part that
he actually wanted to talk about. He was starting out with the
fodder. With the foundation to get things rolling. Satan quotes
the Lord, but then he sows doubt and discord. He doesn't edify. He doesn't build up. He doesn't
care in love. He's so in discord. It says, God's letting you eat
of every other tree, but he's holding back from you. Didn't
he tell you you could eat of every tree? He said that, didn't
he? Put a question mark on it. Eve
had never even considered this. Did you know that? She's morally
innocent. She didn't know what sin was. She wouldn't even think
that her creator would keep something good from her. Something better
than she already had it. It hadn't entered her mind before.
She had dwelled on these things. And he puts a question mark on
the Word of the Lord. You know what that does? That
opens up the floor for discussion and debate. Don't you ever debate the Lord's
Word. He wouldn't declare in the Gospel of Christ. He wouldn't
declare in what God says in His Word. He was opening up for debate. Don't entertain those things.
You declare the Word. Now, we question mankind, don't
we? I question myself. I question
my thoughts. I question my motives, my experience. But we declare the Word of God.
We don't question the Word of God. And sadly, Eve took the
bait. That hook was out in front of her and it was baited. Something
flashy on it. It's a big old question mark.
And she replied to the enemy of God, the accuser of the brethren. We ought not do that. If someone
give you good advice, if somebody has a disagreement with the gospel,
be like those apostles. Those apostles. Hard enough to
come and see. Don't debate them. Don't debate
them. Michael, that archangel. You
think you winning a fist fight with Michael? I don't think so. He's stronger than I am, more
powerful than I am, isn't he? Michael didn't enter into that
open forum with the devil over that body of Moses. He turned
Satan to the Lord, our defender. Oh, what wisdom. Jude told us,
he said, yet Michael, the archangel, when he was contending with the
devil, he disputed about the body of Moses. You don't get
it, I do. But he durst not bring against
him a railing accusation. He didn't get into a debate.
He didn't get into a name-calling match. Didn't bring up any accusation. He knows who he is. Anybody can
tell you that. but said, the Lord rebuke thee. Not I'm going to rebuke you,
the Lord rebuke you. But Eve being deceived, Satan
came to Adam through her, that weaker vessel. That's really
offensive to a lot of people in our day. He's the head of
the home. That's a picture of Christ, the
head of the church. He's accountable. She may be
responsible, but it's on his head. And she's the weaker vessel. Kevin, that ain't right. Lord
rebuke him. I ain't arguing with you. It's
what he says. It says in Genesis 3 verse 2, And the woman said
unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of
the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst
of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither
shall ye touch it, lest ye die. Eve fell into the trap laid by
Satan. When she got into it, she started adding words to the
Lord's words, didn't she? He didn't say anything about
touching it. She'd come up with that. She added to it. Try to
make yourself a little more holy than God, don't you? He said,
don't eat it. She said, don't eat it, don't
touch it. But Eve also changed the wording. She added to it,
but she changed it. It says, lest ye die. Look that word up. It means, peradventure. Maybe. Likely. There's a really good
chance if you touch or eat that fruit, you might die. That's
what she's saying. But not certain. The Lord spoke to Adam. He said,
for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. That wasn't
wishy-washy. That was definite. That was a
declaration. That was a commandment one. It
says in verse 4, And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall
not surely die. Ye shall not surely die. At that
very time, just after saying this, it's likely, we don't know,
he could have been sitting there eating that fruit. That ain't
gonna kill you. She witnessed some things with
this fruit. Could have been him eating it, right? Wouldn't have
hurt him any. Commandment wasn't to him. He's
already fallen. Won't go change anything outwardly.
And she was thinking physical death, not spiritual death. But
whether that happened or not, in action or not, his tongue
was what was denying the Word of God. He ain't gonna surely
die. My whole life I've been told
Satan isn't in the barstool, he's in the pulpit. I've heard
that from a very young age. And I see that to be more and
more true as the days go on. Our nature is to lie, to cheat,
to steal, to seek after adultery, to seek after drunkenness. We
do that all by ourselves because of what happened to Adam. That's
what was given to us when we were born. We don't need Satan
to move us to do those things. It's natural. It's instinctive.
But where does he get his greatest work done? In religion. In twisting
the words of God. Oh, ever so slightly. And he
does it in places of like the arena of morality. Now we know
these things to be true. We started with truth, didn't
we? Now, you better be doing this. You can see a whole lot
better if you do that. Oh, you need to do this. You
can gain more knowledge if you do this. If you refrain from
that. He does it in that arena of self-righteousness. More righteous. Oh, God made
you holy, but you can get more holy. You can mature and progress
and grow in all these great things. All the way until it exceeds
the righteousness of Christ is what they're saying. He's made
you holy, but made plum holy. Not part holy, that ain't holy.
His goal through this subtle craftiness is to keep men and
women from looking to the Lord, Trusting God's Word, standing
on His promises, looking to His Savior, His land that He provided,
and in any way, shape, form, or fashion, even out of the corner
of our eye, to look to ourselves or look to something around us.
That's His goal. That's a frightening thing. What
an adversary. It blows my mind every time people
say, I want to go to war with the devil. I don't want to go
to war with the devil. You ain't going to make it. better
and lower than you are, crafter than you are, smarter than you
are, more powerful than you are. Could I distinguish those subtleties? Am I sharp enough to pay attention
to commas and question marks and inflection on a word? Can
I distinguish all those things? No, the Lord must hedge me about.
He must hedge His people about. He must protect His people and
must defend His people. And thanks be to God, He promises
that He does. Did you know that? This is frightening to me. You
study these things, read these things, I don't want no part
of it. I'm in trouble. He said in Matthew 24, for there
shall arise false Christs and false prophets and show you great
signs and wonders. This ain't something piddly.
In so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. That's how powerful it is. but
for His very elect, those put in Him, and that covenant before
we came about, it ain't possible. It ain't possible. He must keep
us. He says here in verse 5, For
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes
shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil. What's he saying here? God is
the God of knowledge. He knows all things, doesn't
he? He's still agreeing on some truth. He has a little bit of
truth there. But he's holding something back from you. You
can have discernment. You can have power. You can have
understanding. She had physical eyes that were
open. She wasn't blind. She physically saw him, physically
looked at that tree. He said, boy, there's something
better than that. You can have spiritual eyes opened up. And
so she considers She investigates the falsehood.
Really? Let me look a little deeper into
that. What did Paul say about them false brethren that preach
lies? Mark them. Get you a big old sharpie. And then avoid them. Go that
way. Don't pay no attention to it. That ain't right. Look on
the good things. Don't look on the bad things. Mark it and avoid
it. Let's investigate. Let me look
at this. Let me see. I'm going to make sure that you
tell me the truth. It says in verse 6, And when
the woman saw the tree, it was good for food, and it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took the fruit thereof and did eat it. When she examined it,
when she investigated it, she ate the fruit and disobeyed God. Just what John was talking about
in 1 John 2. He said, for all that is in the
world. What's this world? What's death and sin and not
God? Not godly. What is it? The lust
of the flesh. You know what? I'm a little hungry.
This is good for food. Especially if that serpent was
sitting there eating it. Somebody that's kind and gentle and nice
looking. Healthy. He's eating it. Nothing's happening
to him. He must know something I don't
know. This would be good for the body, isn't it? He says,
for all that in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes. That looks good. That's appealing.
It's so shiny. It looks so tasty and juicy. The lust of the eyes and the
pride of life. I want to be wise. I don't want
to have Christ as my wisdom. There's something better than
that. But I want to have my very own wisdom. I want something
special, something more just for me. And John says, this is
not of the Father, but it's of the world. The lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, that's of the
world. She looked at this tree and she said, it's good for food,
it's pleasant to the eyes, it can make somebody wise. I want
some wisdom. Give me that fruit and I'm going
to eat it. What would make Eve think that
this forbidden fruit was good? What would make her think that?
Solomon tells us in Proverbs 9, he said, stolen waters are
sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. That's the truth. I had a young man say one time
when I was in high school, he said, the only thing better than
free beer is stolen beer. And I thought, huh? Twenty years
later I read Proverbs and I was like, eh. He wasn't lying, he
was just telling the truth, wasn't he? That's what made her think
it was so good she wasn't supposed to have it. Pleasant to the eyes. You think of all the money it's
spent on advertising in our nation and around this world. I mean,
multi-million dollars. It's been billions of dollars
on what color something ought to be just to attract our eye.
To get us to look at it. And it works. They got buildings
a whole lot higher than mine. It's working, isn't it? Playing
on branding, making things attractive, getting you used to them at a
young age, getting you hooked to them. We see it all around us,
don't we? Isaiah said, for he shall grow
up before Him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground.
He hath no form nor come in us, that when we shall see Him, there
is no beauty in Him that we should desire Him. Boy, look at that
fruit. What's the tree of life? Christ. Are we looking to Him or are
we trying to find something shinier? There's no form of commonness
in these old sinful eyes, are there? Until He reveals Himself,
until He shows Himself to us, until He convicts us of this
sin that we are. Oh, then He's precious. And she said, it's
a desire to make one wise. Paul told the church at Corinth,
he said, knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. I want
to know some stuff. Without grace, without the love
of God, knowledge lifts men up in that pride of life. Now He
instructs us in His love and His chastening and His wisdom
and knowledge teaches us some things. Boy, then we grow in
grace. We grow in humbleness. But knowledge by itself is a
dangerous thing. This wasn't the fault. That's a sad lead
up, isn't it? I'll read this and I'll think
of how frail I am, how weak I am, how needy I am. But this wasn't even the fault.
This was the means that were used on the bride of Adam. on his bride. Look here at verse
6 again. It says, And when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the
eyes, and the tree to be desired to make one wise, she took the
fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with
her, and he did eat. Adam's dilemma. Boy, what a problem
he had on his hand in a short sentence. Eve had ate it. He knew the Word of the Lord.
The Lord spoke to him before he made Eve. He probably thought,
she's a goner. She's done. The Lord might kill
her and make me another wife. I don't know what He's going
to do. I won't be with her no more. And she may have pressed
Him. She may have argued with Him. She may have persuaded Him.
We don't know. But he could either listen to
her, eat the fruit that she offered him, and stay on her side, have
a happy home, keep his wife with him, or he could lose his wife
and obey God. He chose to go ahead and eat
the fruit. And they died. Both of them. The Lord said in
Matthew 10, He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not
worthy of Me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me
is not worthy of Me. He speaks of wives too in Mark
10.29. He says, Verily I say unto you,
there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters,
or father, or mother, or wife, or children or lands for my sake
in the Gospels, that He shall receive a hundredfold now in
this time, all those things, and in the world to come He'll
receive everlasting life, eternal life. In Matthew 4, what a great
tempting, isn't it? And we think, here's Adam that
didn't know what sin was, only had one commandment to keep.
What a great temptation. Anybody ever been tempted like
that? Our Lord was. That's what 2nd
Adam was. We read about it in Matthew 4.
Our Lord was tempted with the same things that Adam was tempted
with. Satan said, you see these stones
here? You make them into bread, you ain't going to be hungry.
He said, we're up on top of this roof. You cast yourself off.
You can watch God save you. Why don't you do that?" And he
said, worship me. Satan told the Lord, worship
me and I'll give you all the land you seek. See all them hills
out there? They can all be yours. You just bow down to me. And
Christ resisted him correctly. Correctly. With the Word of God. No debating. No discussion. Do
not let me talk for a little while. He gave him the Word of
God on each point. When Eve ate, her eyes were not
opened. She ate that fruit and nothing
happened. She didn't know she was naked. But when Adam ate,
now their eyes were open. Now they knew they were naked.
The fall had happened. Guilt had entered in. Sin had
entered in. Eve was deceived, but not Adam. Paul told us that
in Timothy. He said, Adam was not deceived,
but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. What
does he get in that? Adam knew exactly what he was
doing. Adam knew exactly what he was doing. He loved the creature
more than he loved the Creator. And that's who he went with.
It says in verse 7 there, Genesis 3, 7, "...the eyes of them both
were opened, and they knew that they were naked." Their eyes
were open before. They weren't blind, but now their
eyes are open to guilt, to nakedness, that lack of covering between
them and God. Now, all of a sudden, we see
we need a covering. They lost their innocence. And once it's
gone, once that innocence is gone, you can't get it back by
yourself. Ain't nothing you can do to recover it. Did they cry
for mercy? I'm naked. I'm ashamed. Lord, forgive me. We don't know
how long, people argue a rat too. How long was it since Lord
made Adam until he fell? I don't know. A while, I guess.
He named all them animals. That probably took more than
a day. Made Eve from him. He tended to the garden. It could
have been a long time. He knew the Lord. Walked with
Him, talked with Him, saw Him. He didn't cry for mercy, did
He? It says there in verse 7, the eyes of them both were opened
and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves
together and made themselves aprons. Adam was a genius. I mean more than we've ever seen.
He knew more than all of us put together and ends up. He was
brilliant. Eve was too. And the first thing
they did, we know God. We've offended a holy God. We've
sinned against a holy God. Let's take some leaves off of
a tree and knit it together and cover ourselves. Isn't that ridiculous?
That's foolish, isn't it? What does mankind do all day
every day? Well, I'm going to do something good to cover me.
I'm going to give to the poor. I'm going to go down to the soup
kitchen. I'm going to do anything other than cry for mercy. I said,
you've got to scoop all the water out of that lake and move it
over to another lake. People would get buckets and start running,
wouldn't they? Submit to God. Bow to Him and cry for mercy.
Now I'm going to sow some leaves together. That's the best we
can come up with. They weren't hiding their nakedness
between the two of them. They were husband and wife, but
they were hiding it from God. He came into the garden before
and they knew He was coming again. He'd come often. And the first
thing they did was try to cover themselves with the works of
their hands before God. Why? Our conscience knows we're
guilty before God. A man can drink it away, try
to snuff it out, ignore it, go skydiving, get adrenaline, do
anything they can to get away from that. But you get by yourself,
you know there's a holy God coming to this garden. We're going to
meet Him. And we're naked before Him. We've
done something wrong, and our nature is to get religion in
it. That's what our sin nature goes to. People go to church,
they'll clean up the outside of the cup the best they can,
but none of that's going to benefit until we're made to know Christ.
Christ our covering, our atonement, until we see Him. Adam fell,
we fell in Him, and we willingly fall in our own bodies the same
as He did. We willingly fall. But God. If the Lord never went back to
that garden, would that be right? Would He be just to do so? I
fell. I fell in Adam. I fell in my
mother's womb. I was conceived in sin. I come
in this world speaking lies. I lived my whole life willingly
sinning against God. Would He be right not to come
to me? But God, the Lord was pleased to come. He comes to
seek after His lost sheep, and He finds them, and He takes them
home. Look here in 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. He come walking, not running. He wasn't charging towards
them, was He? He come walking in the cool of
the day, and He spoke to them. Not yelling and screaming, What did you do? Adam patiently
comes to his children. Walking, not running, speaking
and not yelling. And they hid themselves. The
problem, where's the problem at? The problem is in man. Why
would you go hide? The Lord ain't coming running
at you. He's not screaming at you. They hid themselves in those
trees. Now there was fear for the first
time. Fear had never been on earth. A bee had never stung
nobody. A dog had never bit nobody. A
lion had never ate a lamb before. It hadn't happened. Fear came
in. Just like we were talking earlier. Now I'm scared of bumblebees.
Why? Right here is where it comes
from. It won't be like that in eternity.
We see what we come from. We see what it is now, don't
we? That's where we're at. They tried hiding, covering,
and resisting. It says in verse 9, And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? He called and He said. He found Adam. He spoke to him
effectually. And He asked him a question.
Where art thou? He called and He said. He knew
where Adam was. This wasn't a question of information, but it was a
voice of pity. A voice of pity. Where are you,
Adam? Look at where you are, Adam.
How's that working out for you? Isn't that what he asked Jonah?
Does it do you good to be angry? Adam, does it do you good to
hide? Does it do you good to cover yourself in fig leaves?
What tenderness. That's what Isaiah wrote about
when he said the Lord spoke, said, Come now, let us reason
together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be like wool. The time it takes in our lives
to travel from that comma between, though your sins be as scarlet,
that shall be white as snow. Well, sometimes that's seconds,
sometimes that's hours, that's days, that's years, that's decades.
First thing that's going to happen, we're going to know that our
sins are like scarlet. as the Lord speaks to us. And then,
when He's pleased, He'll make us to know we've been washed
white as the snow. He said that in Psalm 103, as
a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear Him. I'm thankful. I'm thankful. Here's Adam's response when the
Lord came to him. wretched man that I am." It occurred
in Genesis 3.10. And he said, I heard thy voice
in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid
myself. And the Lord said, who told you
you was naked? You were naked before and that
wasn't the issue. Who told you you were naked? You know what
it takes for a man to know he's naked before God? It takes Almighty
God to reveal to us, to make us know and understand that our
souls are exposed before Him. Through His providence, through
His wisdom and His will, He brings His child just to know that,
right to us, that we're guilty, that we're guilty. And we'll
cry for mercy when He sees fit to bring us that far. He says,
"...Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee, that
thou shouldst not eat?" He wasn't asking for information. He was
exposing Adam's sin to Adam. Just like that woman at the well,
the Lord's going to make us confess our sin. He's going to bring
it out of us. Just as Adam hurried to make that covering, instead
of confessing his sin, at Christ's mercy, he blame shifted. He blames
you. Verse 12, He said, And the man
said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of
the tree, and I did eat. Sin had entered in. Sin divides. It doesn't heal and mend and
grow together and make one with Christ and make one with our
brethren. It divides. It splits. It devours. Adam didn't
say, My beloved wife. Oh, my bride. She gave it to
me. He said, that woman that you
gave me, come out of you, Adam. She's come from your rib. Blamed
the Lord, didn't he? This is her fault. A man and
woman will never be saved until they're made to just confess
guilty. Guilty. Until you stop bringing
up somebody else. Until you stop bringing up something
else. And just like David said, against
thee and thee only have I sinned. That would be the only time the
Lord would be pleased to save somebody, wouldn't it? Then Eve
blames the serpent. It says in verse 13, The Lord
God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?
And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Now
this ain't my fault. It's his fault. Then verse 14
through 19, The Lord declares a curse on the serpent, on the
woman, her childbirth, and on Adam. Sweat of his brow, he's
going to get his bread out of this earth. But He also declares
the remedy for the curse. He also shows us that great physician
for the sickness that we have. All this sin has been exposed.
This nakedness has been exposed. This is every one of us. The
Lord does this in His children. He shows us these things. There
in verse 15, we see the first promise of Christ in man's presence. He speaks to that serpent. He
says, I will put in the tea between thee and the woman. And between
thy seed, everything is going to come out of you and her seed. It shall bruise thy head and
thou shalt bruise his heel. The God-man is going to come
out of that woman's lineage. He's going to be born of a virgin,
born of a woman. And you're going to bruise his
heel. You're going to bruise his physical body. He's going to
hang on that tree because of his people's transgressions,
because of their sin. But in doing so, he's going to
crush your head. defeat sin, death, and the grave,
and Satan, and hell, and everything else that we just so eagerly
went to investigate and check out on our own. We couldn't defend
ourselves. He's our defender, and our secure,
and our redeemer, and our conqueror. That's the first promise. He
promised Satan that, and He promises us that. We've got to hear it.
It's recorded for us. Oh, He's coming. He came. He
came. He's coming again. He said to
Satan, use that woman, that weaker vessel, to get to Adam. And now, I'm going to use that
woman to get to you. And in verse 21, we see the first
bloodshed, the first picture of Christ. We see the first promise
of Christ. He promised, and as soon as He promised him, He's
going to come with a woman. He's going to crush your head.
You're going to bruise His heel. He's going to crush your head.
He's going to conquer everything. And as soon as He gives that
promise, He makes good on it by giving us a picture of Him.
It says in verse 21, Unto Adam also and to his wife did the
Lord God make coats of skin and clothed them. Now, I don't know
if that was a lamb. I think it was. That's what Abel
brought, wasn't it? Why? You think his daddy told
him that story? So they had to pass over. The
Lord said, whenever you do this, because when your children ask
you at the dinner table, why are you all doing this, Daddy?
You tell them I brought you out of Egypt. The Lord did this work
for Adam. He slew a lamb, took its hide,
and covered them. Gave them a covering. The blood
of the lamb is what will protect them, cover them, and keep them
through the cold nights and time to come. He declared how he was going
to be just and the justifier. Then he shed the blood, making
a covering for their nakedness. And you know what? He didn't
tell Adam and Eve, go get an animal and I want you to kill
it and I'm going to show you how to cut it up. I'm going to
tell you and then you do it yourself. He did it. Salvation to the Lord. Then Adam was cast out there
in verse 24. So he drove out the man. and
placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims with a flaming
sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of
life. That was so Adam and his race
could never come to that tree in themselves again. He drove
them out. He didn't request they leave.
He didn't give them an eviction notice. He drove them out. And
that tree of life, so that tree of life could come through the
seat of woman. born of a virgin, to be slain, to wash our sins
away, and to be our eternal covering of righteousness. To be our federal
head. Be our representative. That doctrine
of representation. Because we fell in Adam, God
provided Himself a land. And now we have a representative.
We have a head to this body of His, to this church. We died
in one, and we live in the other. And that's something. Lord willing,
next week we'll go through this and spend most of our time here
in Romans 5, and I think it'll be a blessing then, too.