All right, here it is, Genesis
3, 1 through 11. Now, the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, that is, the serpent, Yea, hath God said,
ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman
said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the tree
of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst
of the garden, God has said, ye shall not eat of it, neither
shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open, ye shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eye,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took up the fruit
thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her,
and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were
open, and they knew that they were naked. and they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons. 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? And he, that is Adam, said, I
heard thy voice in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked
and I hid myself. And he, that is the Lord God,
said, Who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of
the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not
eat? Now, eventually, we settle on
the subject in verse 9. Adam, where art thou? First, let's work our way with
a little introduction and preparation for our study of this text of
the day. Genesis is a word or a name that
means origin, or it means beginning, and we have it here in the beginning
in chapter 1 and verse 1. And here in this book, and along
in here, we have the inspired record of the beginning of all
things. Genesis recording the beginning
or the origin, the origin of the world, of man and of woman,
of the fall, of the worship of God, of sacrifices, of marriage,
of sin, and all those things are recorded for us here in this
book of beginning. Now, there are many liberals,
there are many skeptics today, many so-called higher critics
are upon the scene who criticize and reject basically the book
of Genesis and particularly the first 11 chapters. They say much
of this is nothing more than myths and stories, not literal
and actual happening. They reject creation of the earth
in favor of evolution. And they reject and deny the
fall of man in Adam in deference unto some kind of mental illness
that needs their treating. Taking the serpent to be a myth,
a made-up story, and not literal. But the Christian, for the Christian,
the matter is settled exactly as it is written. One reason
that's so is because the New Testament writers accept the
account the book of Genesis they accept the count of Eve and of
a serpent and of Adam and of his fall. For example Paul in
2nd Corinthians chapter 11 And verse 13 speaks of the serpent
beguiling Eve through his subtlety, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety. So Paul puts his stamp of truth
and approval upon that account. You have it again in 1 Timothy
chapter 2. verse 13 through verse 15. The woman was deceived. It was Paul who said in Romans
chapter 5 and verse 12, by one man sin entered into the world
and death by sin and so death passed upon all men. And he mentions Adam by name
in Romans chapter 5 and verse 14. 1 Corinthians 15 and 22,
Paul writes again, for in Adam all die. In Acts 17 and verse
26, Paul tells the Athenian that God has made of one blood all
nations of men for to dwell upon the face of the earth and to
set the bounds of their habitation. Also, it is Paul who gives us
that comparison or contrast found in 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
verse 45 through verse 47, where he speaks of a first Adam and
a last or a second Adam, one a living soul and the other a
quickening spirit, one earthly and the other heavenly. one natural
and the other spiritually. And even the Lord himself endorsed
the Genesis account of the creation of our first parent, quoting
Genesis 1 and verse 27, male and female created he them in
the beginning. And that's in Matthew 19 and
4 and again in Mark chapter 10 and verse 6. Our Lord speaking
of the creation of the male and the female by God. Now before
we get to our text today, let's consider something about this
first pair. and how they are brought before
us in the early part of Genesis. First, they are said to be created
male and female. As to gender, they were male
and they were female. a male and a female. And then they are referred to
several times in these early chapters of Genesis. She as wife,
Genesis 2, 25, and husband, and that is Genesis 3, 6, and 16. So that they're not just friends,
and they're not just neighbors, and they're not just casual acquaintances,
who happened to meet in the garden. They are a couple, male and female,
husband and wife. They are an intimate couple,
if I may add, husband and wife, under the commission of God after
this order. It says under them, be fruitful
and multiply and replenish, that is, fill up the earth. And you
have that in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 28. Be fruitful,
multiply, and replenish the earth. That establishes them as an intimate
couple, as a husband and a wife. We also notice something else,
and that is that multiple times they are referred to simply by
or after their gender. We read the man. And we read
the woman, and that's several times in this account. As if
nameless, God put them in the garden, the man and the woman,
Genesis 2.8 and 2.15. While there, a deep sleep fell
upon Adam. God opened him up, took out a
rib, and he builded the man a woman. Likewise, in Genesis 3 and verse
1, the serpent said to the woman, not calling her by name, but
he said unto the woman. In verse 3, the last part, the
woman gave the fruit unto her husband. and he did eat. Genesis
3 and 13, God said to the woman, and 3 and 13, the woman you gave
me was the reply of Adam. Now Adam named her Eve, E-V-E. Genesis 3 and verse 20. Why? Because she is the mother of
all living. And Paul calls her by that name
in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 13. Not as he deceived
the woman, but as the serpent deceived Eve. Now the man is
first called Adam in Genesis chapter 2 verse 19 and 20. And
the woman is first called Eve in that passage in chapter 3
and verse 20. Now Eve means life giver or living. And in Genesis 5 and verse 2,
they are both of them called Adam. and he made them male and
female Adam, which means a man, as it were, or the husband as
to the name. So we look at Genesis 2 and verse
23 and the margin there, and we find that man is the word
ish, I-S-H, and the woman is the word isha, I-S-H-A. A female man, if we may say it,
taken out of the man and was the first woman to live and exist
upon the earth. Now, we know the sad account
in Genesis chapter 3, how the serpent came and how he beguiled
the woman by questioning in her mind and by denying the Word
of God, by promising her, not only will you not die if you
eat of the tree, but your eyes will be opened and you shall
know the difference between good and evil. And he promised her
you would advance. You will be like a God. And when she looked and saw that
the tree was pleasant to the eye, that it was good for food,
and that it was desired to make one wise as a source of wisdom,
Now, no doubt Satan used the serpent to deceive and to beguile
our mother Eve. Could it be that the serpent
at the first was not a slithering, threatening reptile crawling
about upon the ground? Paul says, 2 Corinthians 11 and
verse 14, Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. And the Lord counseled his own
in a very strange way, be wise as serpents in Matthew chapter
10 and verse 16. So we give the serpent its due. It is or was a cunning creature
as it appeared in the garden unto Eve. Now, as we know, Eve
had her heart now inclined to evil before she put her hand
and took the fruit off of the tree. Before she ever touched
that fruit, her heart had become evilly inclined to do so against
the commandment of Almighty God. What's more, she also gave of
that fruit unto her husband with her, and he did eat in Genesis
chapter 3 and verse 6. And then we notice in verse 7
that the results were immediate. There were immediate results,
and yet they were not for the better. She was not a god. She had not advanced in her wisdom
and in her knowledge. And let's see that in chapter
3 and verse 7. And it follows the end of verse
6. She did eat. She did eat. The
eyes of them both were open. When they had eaten, or after
the man had eaten of the forbidden fruit. So soon as both of them
ate, and as a result of their eating, what the serpent had
promised came to pass. Their eyes were opened, only
with a different result than he had counseled her or had promised
her. I like Matthew Henry's commentary
on the words of the serpent, your eyes shall be opened. Here's what Matthew Henry wrote,
quote, you shall have much more of the power and the pleasure
of contemplation than you now have. You shall fetch a larger
compass in your intellectual view and see further into the
things of God than you do now." That's how Henry paraphrased
the word of the serpent. Now obviously this is not restricted
to their two physical eyes in their head. They were not blind
moles before Eve ate and gave unto Adam. She saw before that
that the tree was pleasant unto the eye. Gil called it, and I
agree, the eyes of the understanding or the eyes of the heart, as
if they would have increased in knowledge and see things in
a much clearer light than they had before when they were upright. But alas, the devil is a liar
from the beginning, and the opening of their eyes plunged them into
guilt, into conviction, and into shame. All of those immediately
seized upon them. Not only that, but I believe
that it activated in them an accusing conscience, a condemning
conscience for what they had done. It made spiritual cowards
out of both of them, and they fled from God and sought to hide
themselves. They had not advanced, they were
not wiser, they were not as God, but woefully now corrupted and
depraved." Now, let's look at the first consequence of their
eyes being open. You might not expect that, but
the first thing recorded when their eyes were open, the eyes
of their understanding, they knew that they were naked. They became aware of their nakedness. Now, compare this or contrast
this back in chapter 2 and verse 25, where it said, And they were
both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. They were not uncomfortable with
it at all. They were not ashamed. They had
no conviction or no guilt about it at all. They were husband
and wife. They were one flesh. And yet,
this is not the first reason why, being unclothed, they were
not ashamed. Nor was it because they're the
only human beings around and no one else to see them, no others
to see them. Their being so, naked, without
shame, was owing to their being upright at that particular time,
Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and verse 29. And before they sought out
many inventions, in their first day, they needed no clothes. They needed no clothes relative
to the weather, whether heat or cold. They needed no clothes
for fashion, for style, or for decoration. That was not the
need at all. Nor even for modesty or decency
were they in need of clothes at that time. But then they ate. And the first startling thing,
they knew that they were naked. And now it is a shameful and
an embarrassing thing unto them. And so they set about to make
aprons or perhaps a loincloth to gird themselves round about,
even before the Lord appeared unto them in the garden. And
not content to meet God, in their handmade garments, we read, that
they fled in among the thicker trees of the garden as if to
hide themselves from the presence of the Lord that he could not
see or find them. Sometimes a little child is cute
when they imagine to hide themselves from the monster and the booger
bear simply by covering themselves up with a blanket or a sheet. But then comes the time of reckoning
in Genesis chapter 3 and 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 amongst
the trees of the garden. Now there's a lot of mystery
in all of this, but the Lord, either by sound or visible manifestation,
gave some evidence of his approaching and coming into the garden. Perhaps
they had experienced it before. The Lord had come unto them. In verse 10, I heard, Adam said,
thy voice in the garden. It was as the wind of the day,
as we read in the margin wind. And our first parents fled themselves
in among the trees of the garden." And verse 8 said, they hid themselves. Verse 9 said, God calls unto
the man, Adam, where are you? And he answered, not like Abraham
in Genesis 22 and 1, behold Lord, here I am. He answered, not like
Jacob in Genesis 31, 11. Or Moses in Exodus 3, And verse 4, here I am, O Lord,
in answer to the call. Adam's answer confirms his sin
and his corruption. Look at verse 10, I heard thy
voice, I was afraid. I was naked. I hid myself. All four of those things. I heard
thy voice. I was afraid. I was naked. I
hid myself. And when the Lord says unto the
man, where are you? It is not because the Lord could
not see him. It is not because the Lord could
not find him. It is not because the Lord did
not know where he was. Not because Adam had managed
to hide himself completely from the eye of the Lord. Now compare
this with a question unto Cain. In Genesis chapter 4 and verse
9, when God came and said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? Well, Cain had killed him. Where
is Abel thy brother? This was not for God's information.
God saw it every bit, for his blood cried unto God from the
ground. It was not for God's information. This was to bring the heinousness
of Cain's sin before him and upon his conscience. For the
voice of your brother's blood cries unto me from the ground. It cries out for justice and
for vengeance. It comes up before me. is or
was righteous blood that Cain had shed, Matthew chapter 23
and verse 35, the blood of righteous Abel. And that blood cried out
from the ground. Whether he buried Abel, I do
not know. But it was not that the Lord
did not know that Abel was dead. It did not mean that God did
not know where Abel's carcass lay. Now concerning this hiding
of Adam and of Eve, they hid themselves, verse 8, I hid myself,
verse 10. Remember something, Jeremiah
wrote well upon it, chapter 23, verse 23 and verse 24. The prophet
asked, in the name of God, Am I God at hand, saith the Lord,
and not a God afar off? Shall any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth,
saith the Lord? Who can run and hide where God
shall not see? There's that wonderful passage
in Psalm 139, and the question in verse 7 of that chapter. Here in this chapter is a declaration
of the omnipresence the omniscience of God. He is
everywhere present and he knows all that there is to know. He
sees all, he hears all, and he knows all. Proverbs 15 verse
3, the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the good
and the evil. He sees it all, nothing that
he does not know or see. So when the Lord asked Adam,
where are you? Where art thou, Adam? Does he
ask, and listen to this, does he ask concerning Adam's location
or his condition? Or both. Does he ask concerning
where his location is or where his condition? What have you
done? Seems to be the essence of the
question. And the Lord does not ask for
his sake, but to press upon Adam the effect of his sin and the
result it has had upon him, and the condition that it has brought
him to, notwithstanding the promise of the serpent. Whereas he was
not afraid, not ashamed before, Now he has imagined to hide himself
from the all-seeing eye of God in the trees of the garden to
cover his shame by fig leaf aprons that they have put together.
not content with the cover provided by the few large leaves, then
they seek a forest that it might hide and cover them from God. Now they're not hiding from another
man or from another person or an avenger of blood that might
have seized upon him as a hiding place. but from the all-seeing,
all-knowing, holy, eternal, almighty God." Could the question also
include, Adam, why are you hiding? Where are you? What have you
done? Why are you hiding? And why here
among the tree of the garden? Look at the answer of Adam in
verse 10 again. I heard thy voice, I was afraid,
I was naked, and I hid myself. This seems more a justification
of his action than effacing the fact that his actions were the
result of his sin and disobedience, that his fear and his shame was
a result or a fruit of his sin, because he had become a sinner. He no longer was that man as
he left the hand of God. He had become a sinner. In other words, Adam does not
make the proper connection between his disobedience and present
condition as yet. Although he should have, because
as soon as he ate, a great change come over them both, and they
beheld it. Both of them saw it. in themselves
and in each other. Now, they not only saw it, but
they felt it. They felt it. They had to. They
felt it within. Instead, we notice that Adam
attributes his fear to the voice or the words or the speech of
God and his nakedness, which came the shame and the fear of
being unclothed when once they were without aprons, And were
not ashamed at all either before God or before each other. Genesis 2, 25 again. So after driving them from the
garden, God then clothed them with the skins of animals. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 21. He clothed them, God did, with
the clothes or the skin of animals. Now, even among the most barbarous
and the most savage and the most idolaters who have inhabited
this earth, they for the most part have covered themselves,
covered what we call or Paul called the uncommonly parts in
the Corinthian letter. They were ashamed of complete,
absolute nudity, even the worst barbarian he them which is not
true by the way of the beast of the world for they have no
sense awareness or guilt or shame but let's go back to the question
why the lack of shame before they were corrupted by sin and
why did their perception change after they ate the forbidden
fruit now God created them after his image and in his likeness
Genesis 1 26 and 27 now this image evidently was not physical
for God is spirit having no corporal body as did the man still Adam
was not God and he was not a god he was not an angel and but a
man, and if holy, yet not immutably holy, as seen in the fact that
sin entered into him and he fell. And in spite of being given his
being by God directly and placed in a perfect environment, Adam
and Eve yet sinned and fell in the garden. Human nature corrupted. Now, let me say real quick, human
nature is capable of existing in four states. We see them all
in the Bible. In their original state, in their
fallen state, in a state of grace and regeneration, and a state
of glory, or as it might be, of torment. But back to the question,
why their perception changed? And it altered their perception
and their action when it occurred. And it came when the man ate
and the eyes of them both were open. T'was then that they perceived
that they were naked and they got out the sewing machine. This
before the Lord came and confronted them. Now the fact that they
hid proves that they stood guilty in their conscience before God. They stood condemned by their
own heart and by their own conscience. These fears arise in them spontaneously,
from within, not from without, at the first. God has not yet
confronted them and laid it to their charge. No prophet has
come to rebuke them, and no angel has come to cry out against their
sin. The devil does not return to
mock them and derail against them, nor do we read that they
accused each other at that time, and yet we read in Genesis chapter
3, verse 6 through verse 8, They both ate, the eyes of them both
were open, they both knew, and they, plural, knew that they
were naked. Now that came to pass as soon
as they ate. And they, both of them, sowed
fig leaves together. They made themselves apron and
both hid themselves because they dreaded the voice and the presence
of God. Both of them are now corrupted.
Human nature is corrupted in this first pair. The fountain
of humanity is corrupted, which is Adam and Eve. It is poisoned
with sin and so the stream flows out into the world among mankind. Now concerning something, the
command in Genesis chapter 1 verse 27 and verse 28, multiply and
replenish the earth. You have that again in chapter
9 and verse 7 to Noah and his son. He made them male and female. One of each male and female is
the ordained natural union of marriage. Two of either of the
same gender cannot multiply and cannot replenish the earth. It please God that the multiplication
and replenishing of the earth and the human family should no
longer be by direct creation, but by procreation, husband and
wife, man and woman. Anyway, note God's response to
Adam's explanation in Genesis 3 and verse 11, who told you
that you were naked. How did you find this out? How
did you come to this conclusion? What made you think or assume
that? And he takes Adam back to the
prohibition. You have eaten of that tree that
I commanded you not to eat of upon the threat of death. Now, there were good trees. There
were trees in the garden that were good for food. There was
a tree of life. There was a tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. And of all of them, They were
freely to eat except the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. This tree they were forbidden
to eat of ever. The result would be immediate
death. Quote, in the day you eat of
it, you shall surely die. And if you look at the margin,
You might find it like this, dying you shall die. Some say the Hebrew is after
that order. Dying you shall die. And that tells us that death
is both a process and a termination of life. Death is both a long
process and also the termination of life. And death began its
reign in Adam as soon as he ate of that tree. Death reigned,
or rather, sin reigned unto death. Romans chapter 5 and verse 21. Moral and spiritual death. And at that moment, death seized
upon Adam as soon as he took that fruit and put it in his
mouth. Now, he lived from then on. in what Paul calls a body of
death in Romans 7 and verse 24. But at the age of 930 years,
Adam, as to his body, died, as we read in Genesis. His human
body died, not simply from old age, but by the consequences
of his sin and death entering in. He was driven out of the
garden and he was barred access ever again to the tree of life,
lest he imagine that he might regain his state or status by
eating of the tree of life. Now here in Genesis 3 is the
record of the sin and the fall of our first parent, Adam and
Eve. Their fall is in reality the
fall of us all, since we partake of our nature by and from them. And that nature was corrupted
them if the root be corrupt so are the branches and so are the
fruit that while we was a while upright Adam was then fell we
on the other hand are born in sin and shapen in iniquity called
transgressor from the womb Psalm 51 and Isaiah 48 so now In closing, let's make some spiritual
application from this unto our self and unto everyone. That though we physically, as
to the body, come into the world naked, Job 121, Ecclesiastes
5 and 15, But the greatest nakedness is
the spiritual nakedness. In Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse
7, where as ye were naked and bare, God said to that little
infant that he found cast out in the open field, a picture
of Israel cast out at birth. The word to the church at Laodicea,
Revelation 3, 17. While they thought themselves
in need of nothing, the messenger said, they were wretched, miserable,
poor, blind, and naked. That church at Laodicea was naked. It was in need of white raiment. not blue jeans and such as that,
but they were in need of white raiment, that they might be clothed,
that the shame of their nakedness might not appear. You're blind,
miserable, and naked. Seek God, if perhaps you might
be clothed with white linen, that the shame of your nakedness
not appear. Now that church prospered materially. They had much good. They were
rich. And they said unto themselves, we have need of nothing like
the rich food. We're set. We have all we need. And knowest not that you are
wretched and spiritually naked. Well has Isaiah described our
case. You're familiar with Isaiah 64
and verse 6, we're all as an unclean thing and our righteousnesses,
plural, are as filthy rags. Now, self-righteousness, law-righteousness,
is a putrid rag, as it were, in the sight of God. We read
of garments spotted by the flesh in Jude verse 23. Sinners are
by birth and by nature spiritually naked before God. Nothing do
they have to cover their shame and their nakedness. But they
try, like Adam and Eve, to hide themselves in a flurry of religion
or something of that sort, hide themselves in a big megachurch
wrapped up in social work or other things that they might,
say, hide them, shield them, make them immune from the judgment
of God and the fall of man. Yes, we are spiritually naked
until God clothes us with that robe of righteousness imputed
by and through Jesus Christ. There is only one approved wedding
garment that we read about in the scripture. What is it? It's
the righteousness of Christ. The bride had clothed herself
in white linen, clean and righteous we read. Let me read to you from
Hebrews chapter 4 and just a couple of verses,
verse 12 and verse 13. For the word of God is quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
through the dividing of the soul and the spirit, of the joints
and the marra, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight. All things are naked and open
under the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Nothing can clothe
you and hide you from the presence of God except that robe of righteousness. Now I close by asking, where
are you? Are you afraid of God? Are you
afraid to come out from among the stuff? and face God as you
are, may be repentant, asking mercy and grace and help of his
own hand. Nothing you can cover yourself
with will avail, no place you can hide, not even in the grave. are the Father's seed that God
is there, God knows, and God sees. So the question is to all
of us, where are we? Thank God for that. May it be
a blessing and a good use to our heart.