If you wish to follow along,
turn to Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter three. I'm going to read the whole chapter,
because I have something to say, not necessarily of every verse,
of course, but I have something to say concerning the whole context
of Genesis chapter three. And as we read this, remember, approach this chapter that it
means exactly what it says. It may have some illustrations,
it does have illustrations, but it's also a real account of what
actually happened. And I will preface that by there
are those who become amazed when they consider this chapter this
way, well the serpent could actually speak? Yes, the serpent did actually
speak. So enough of that, that's not
the important part. Genesis chapter three, now the
serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. Question, who made the serpent? The Lord God made the serpent.
Period. There's a period right after
that. I said I don't mean period, period. And he said unto the
woman, that is this subtle serpent, and he said unto the woman, 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
trees 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 you touch it lest you die. And notice God
put the tree right in the middle of the garden. not out in the
far corner somewhere, hid back in behind the brush, stood right
in the middle of the garden. Just think, that's not even a
message, just think about that. 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 opened and ye shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil. And here Satan has just
enough fact to make this tempting to Eve, but he distorts even
the facts with his lies. Because when they ate, as we
will see, their eyes were opened. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
notice there's two things, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, there's a third thing. She took the fruit thereof, and
did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did
eat. So he was standing right there with her. He's standing right there with
her. They both ate together. The eyes of them both were opened,
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 Adam, where art thou? And God did not
do that because he couldn't find Adam. And he said, I heard thy voice
in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid
myself. 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? Again, God was not inquiring
to find out. There's reasons why God does
what he does. It's never so that God might
learn something. Never so that God might learn
something. And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to
be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. There's something
to say about that a little more. And 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. And the Lord God said unto
the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above
all cattle, and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly
shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman
he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desire shall
be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. That is not God
telling what might come to pass, it is what did come to pass.
And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the
voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded
thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground
for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of
thy life. Thorns also, and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return
into the dust. For out of it wast thou taken,
for dust thou art, and into dust shalt thou return. And Adam called
his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also, and to his wife,
did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. And
the Lord God said, Behold, man is become as one of us. One of
us. Here is the one true living God
calling himself an us. Think about that for a little
while. He's become of one of us to know good and evil and
now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of
life and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him
forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence
he was taken. So he drove out the man and placed at the east
of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword to which
turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. And men still think, are still
trying to find that garden today. How unwise man is. Because while I will not say
a lot about this, in my present state, I don't want to eat of
that tree. Because it is a tree of life.
When you eat it, you would be exactly as you are for eternity. And Adam had already eaten the
fruit and fallen. And you don't want to stay that
way forever. Now what our text says, that
he, Adam, did eat. Right there, at that moment,
Adam acted as our federal head. When Adam failed, we fail in
Adam. That one act, now there's more
than one act of disobedience in Genesis chapter 3, but it's
in that one singular act that Adam acted as our federal head. And when he fail, we fail in
him. This is the way the Apostle Paul
put it. I know there are many who don't like this, but this
is just the way it is. May God bow us to this truth. Romans chapter five, verse 17,
the verse part, for if by one man's offense, and if you look
at the passage, I have the right to say this is a singular offense,
because it goes on to talk about many offenses. So when he says
offense singular, it means offense singular. For if by one man's
offense, death reigned by one. And look at verse 19. For as
by one man's disobedience, singular again, for as by one man's disobedience,
many were what? Made sinners. I was made a sinner
before I was ever conceived. Thus when I was conceived, and
when I was born, I was conceived and born a sinner. And Adam made me that by his
disobedience. The subsequent sins, however,
the subsequent sins, however, of Adam, which are seen in our
text, Genesis chapter three, were not federal head acts. But
they were the natural results of the state into which Adam
fell. You understand what I'm saying? That is, when Adam tried
to make himself fig leaves, aprons, he wasn't doing it, acting as
federal head for us. He was doing that because that's
where he fell into. That's the state into which he had fallen
by taking that bite of that fruit. Now think about it. Because the
divine order and the divine decree of God at that time still stood
and still stands today of this truth, everything will bring
forth after his kind. Thus, we act today as Adam acted
after the fall. That is, we conduct ourselves
today in the same way Adam conducted himself after he fell. And we are judged by God if any
man does ever perish, and some shall. It will not be because
they were made sinners. They're made sinners because
Adam ate as our federal head. But we will perish in the judgment
and wrath of God because we conduct ourselves in the same sinful
acts in which Adam conducted himself after the fall. God does
not damn men just for damning sake. God damns because of personal,
individual sin. And never misunderstand that.
We believe in the absolute sovereignty of God and the predestination
of all things, but God doesn't predestinate men to damnation
just for damnation's sake. When men perish, they perish
because of their own personal rebellion. In other words, we are without
excuse personally. Because we act just like Adam
acted after he fell. The only difference with us is
we weren't where Adam was to start with, and we did not fall.
We fell in Adam. We were conceived and born fallen. And thus we conduct ourselves
just like Adam did. Why? Because we are after his
kind. Remember, they had no children
in the garden. They had no children before Adam
fell. They had children only after they had been driven out
of the garden and Adam had already fallen. So therefore, every human
being that comes into this world is born after that kind. born
into that state into which Adam originally fell. That's the original
sin. Everything else, all other sins,
are a consequence of that original fall. And men are individually
and personally judged because of those consequential sins that
we all are guilty of. There are three sins Adam committed.
And you even see him hinted at when you see Eve being deceived.
There's three things, right? Three things that call her attention
about that tree, right? And I'm not gonna deal with that.
Because we fell in Adam. And then we conduct ourselves
like Adam conducted himself after he fell. There are three sins
that Adam committed And I'm talking about sins now because we're
made sinners when Adam sinned. But we commit these three individual
sins, all of us, because of our natural state in this world.
Here they are. And I put them this way to just
maybe catch your attention, to help you maybe remember them.
I don't mean remember them tomorrow. I may not remember some of these
words tomorrow. That's not the point. I'm talking about remember
them right now. Here's what we do. We excuse, we enshroud, and
we evade. That's what we do. These are
the three sins Adam committed after he fell. He had an excuse,
that is he sought to justify himself. He covered himself by his own
actions, verse seven. Do you see it? Either of them
both were open, they knew that they were naked, and they sewed
fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Why? To try
to cover their own nakedness. It is self-justification. It is human effort. It is seeking
to solve a problem of sin by an act of my own hands. and the acts of my own hands
comes out of the state of my own heart by nature. Excuse? Yes, we try to justify
or cover ourselves. The word even atonement is used
in the scriptures as a covering, a covering. In other words, we're
trying to atone for our sin, but it's really nothing more
than self-excuse. Self-excuse, but we also do this, we enshroud.
To enshroud means to cover or to hide. Not cover as in making
the fig leaves aprons, but to cover as in to hide. They hid
amongst the trees of the garden. And man, you and I by nature
have been trying to hide ourselves amongst God's creation since
the get-go. Since the get-go. And notice,
it's not just hide, but to hide from the voice of the Lord God. We're afraid of what God might
say. But rather than bow down and
cry out for mercy, we will hide, we will hide ourselves from God. And look at it, verse eight,
there it is. And they heard the voice of the Lord God. Now who
do you think that is? That's Jesus Christ, because
he is the voice of the Lord God. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Isn't
that amazing? Mason, here is Jesus Christ pre-incarnate. I can't explain how or what,
but here he is. And he's walking in that garden.
And they heard him. And you'd think, we fouled up.
We messed this thing up. We realize something about ourselves
we did not see before. And you'd think they'd say, Lord,
oh voice, forgive us. Is that what they did? No. And
Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God amongst the trees of the garden. There's the second sin
we're all always guilty of. We'd rather try to hide from
God. Hide from his presence, hide from his voice, hide from
his word, rather than bow down in open, naked shame before him. But there was a third sin Adam
committed that we're all guilty of by nature all the time. That's
evade. You know this phrase, you'll
probably get to pass the buck. to pass the buck, to either minimize
or deny our responsibility. Look at what it says, chapter
three, verse 12. Did you eat of the tree, God
said. Why did God put these questions to Adam? Not to inform God, but
to force Adam to confess. And the problem is, by nature,
we always confess the wrong thing. By nature, we always are excusing,
enshrouding, and evading. And here's what he said, and
the man said, and his words are fact. His words are fact, but it was
the attitude with which he said them that's the problem. And
the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, did
God not give her to be with him? Yes, to be a helpmate, to be
one flesh with him. Right? And the man said, the
woman who thou gavest me to be with me, she gave me of the tree
and I did eat. I see through his ruse now, when
I did not at one time. I know now, Now that God Almighty
has opened my eyes in a spiritual way through regeneration by his
spirit and conversion by the preaching of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, because I used to make the same excuse, blame something
or someone else, and eventually what we're really trying to do
is blame God. And let me tell you something.
Yeah, God gave Eve, I mean he gave her to him. Her body was Adam's. And Adam's
body was hers. He gave her to him. But now Adam's
trying to blame God. Trying to either minimize or
deny his responsibility. And that's the same thing we
always do today. We're all guilty of these three
sins all the time in our Adamic nature. This is us all by nature, and
it is a three-fold rebellion. Isn't it amazing how John writes
these words? You don't have to necessarily
turn to them, but 1 John, now think about these words. 1 John
chapter two, verse 16. For all that is in the world,
all. In other words, John's gonna
give us something that explains all. You'd think that's gonna
take books and books and weeks and weeks and months, right?
But look at how he puts it. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, there's one. The lust of the eyes, there's
two. The pride of life, there's the
third one. Is not of the father, but is
of the world. And all of these three things
are connected to the three sins that Adam committed, consequential
to his fall, and which we commit because we are fallen when we're
conceived and born. Now consider these opposites.
A gutter drunk, a gutter drunk now, I'm not talking about just
a guy who has a beer or two or this or that, I'm talking about
a gutter drunk, guy you see laying underneath the bridge. on that
old dirty thing with all these wine bottles laying around. A
gutter drunk or a great humanitarian gives millions to help less fortunate,
that's what we say today, less fortunate folks than himself.
But both are guilty of these three sins. Especially when it
comes to God and his truth. And that's the whole problem
with Adam. Adam never denied God was the creator. That wasn't
his sin, was it? And yet, that's what most preachers
are preaching against. Oh, you don't believe God's,
you don't believe in creation. You believe in evolution. That's
not your real problem. Your problem and my problem is
excuse, enshroud, and evade. That's our problem. Here's another
opposite. A street prostitute or a fearless,
virtuous, battlefield nurse. Two different opposite ends of
the poles, right? but both are guilty of these
three sins. All will come to, when it comes
to God's truth, and his Christ, and his gospel, and God's right
to reign over men, both of them will equally, you're right Mason,
excuse, enshroud, and evade. Somebody says not me, yeah you. Here's a third illustration.
Consider these opposites. A drug addict with a dirty needle
or a neurosurgeon with a scalpel. Total opposite ends of the pole
as far as humanity is concerned, right? But they're both guilty
of excuse, enshroud, and evade when it comes to the truth of
God's sovereign right in this universe. Here's a fourth opposite. A sexual pervert or a priest. Oh, wait a minute, that's not
opposite in some cases, is it? Sorry. Just had to lighten the load
a little. All this sin business is tough and draining, isn't
it? But am I not telling you the truth? And let me tell you,
it don't have to be a Roman Catholic priest, it may be a Baptist minister
too. But be that as it may, you and
I, all of us, Not just these people that I've pushed out there
before you. All of us, by nature, by what
we are when we're conceived and born, when it comes to God's
gospel, we excuse, enshroud, and evade. That's what we are. And I'm gonna tell ya, we can't
help it. But we're still responsible before God. We are all guilty
of excusing, enshrouding, and evading. And if you don't believe
me, that's fine, but God's word in Romans three verses nine through
20, I won't read it all, but it says Jews and Gentiles alike,
that's two opposite ends of the spectrum, you could say. He said
they're all under sin. In bondage to it. and we cannot
free ourselves from it. The very sins we do manifest
the very depravity into which we fail. Because it's always,
in some way, to some degree or another, excusing, enshrouding,
and evading. But God be thanked and praised.
That's not where Genesis chapter three leaves us, is it? Is it? Is it? Now, we are guilty. Yes, sir. We do the same things
our daddy Adam did after he fell. Oh, but our text shows someone
else acting too. Yes, sir. Does it not? That's
right. Our text shows someone else acting too, and here's my
subject and my title. All of that was just preliminary
introduction. No, I won't be too much longer. Here's my subject, here's my
title. The Opposing Acts of Genesis chapter three. Adam had three
subsequential sins because of his fall. And because we're like
Adam, when we come into this world, we commit those sins too. We can't help it. It's our nature. But we're responsible before
God. Why? Because God says so. And that's all that counts. That's
all the case. But somebody says, but if God
ordained it after his own kind, how can I be responsible? You're
trying to excuse, enshroud, and evade, and blame God in the process. So basically, Paul says when
it comes to God's sovereign purpose to shut up, what God does is
right. He's the potter, we're the clay.
We're all of the same lump. We're all the same lump. So that's
my subject of talk, the opposing acts of Genesis chapter three.
Thank God there are three opposing acts by God in our text. Three sins committed, but God
acts to make sure those sins don't damn the human race forever. Look at it. When man runs to
hide, to enshroud, even before he does, God is the one seeking
him. Isn't that amazing? Now does
anybody here think God didn't know what Adam was going to do
when he heard him come walking through the goal today? Of course
he knew what he was going to do. God approaches and calls
out, calls us out, makes us confess, even though in the beginning
we may confess many things wrongly. But God makes some people. Do you hear what I said? Thank
God for that. God approaches some people, and
God calls these people in spite of their enshrouding. Look at
it, chapter three, verse eight and nine, and the Lord, and they
heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day,
and Adam and his wife hid themselves, and God called unto Adam and
said, Adam, where are you at? And that's what God first does
when he starts to convert a sinner, he's gonna make you confess where
you're at. He gonna make you confess where
you're at. You think Adam could have withstood
the voice of the Lord God? No. No, if you think he could,
you don't have a high estimation of Adam, you got a low estimation
of God. Way too low estimation of God. But there's another one. Look
at the second act by God. God announces covenant promise
in spite of our evasion. We're passing the buck. But then
God promises that the serpent and all that happened because
of the serpent. He goes serpent will have his
head what? And the actual reading in the old Hebrew is crushed.
Crushed. Look at what it says. Chapter
three, verse 14, of the Lord God said unto the serpent, because
thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle, beast,
belly shall you go. And here it is, this is the promise
of, this is Jesus Christ promising himself. Ain't that something? This is Jesus Christ promising
himself. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, singular,
singular, It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel. Amen. This seed of the woman
would suffer. Yes, sir. But the very act of
his suffering would be the very thing which would crush the serpent's
head. Now, I don't know what kind of
serpent beast this really was. People think of snake. I don't
know. That's not the debate. But you ever had a snake? How's
the best way to kill him? You crush his head. You can chop
him in two. Guess what, Joe? He still bite
the devil out of you. And he can still kill you. Cut
his tail off, you just make him mad. You chop his head off. Chop his head off. He can still
poison you. If there is that poison still
in those sacks, and he's a poisonous snake, and you reach down to
grab that chopped off head, he still bite you. He still kill
you. But you crush him. You crush him. And let me tell you something,
Jesus Christ, on behalf of his people, his elect, his church,
everyone who would eventually believe because of the preaching
of this word, on their behalf, he crushed the serpent's head. And here's the third act of God.
God clothes in spite of our excuse, in spite of our attempts to self-justify. in spite of us trying to clothe
ourselves. What did God do for Adam and
Eve? He clothed them. Isn't that what it says? Look
at it, chapter three, verse 21. Unto Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skins and ask them to put them
on. Offered it to them if they would
will to have it. No! He made the coats of skins. and he did everything it took
to make those coats of skin. I take it that something suffered,
died, the meat and blood and internal organs was removed,
the skin was removed from all that, and God clothed them with
these skins. As I've said before, as I've
heard other preachers say, if that don't float your boat, you
ain't got a boat. Of course, folks, that's the
gospel. And it's right here in Genesis chapter three. And this
is not a symbol. This really happened, Joe. This
really happened. And somebody says, well, did
he put the coats of skins over the fig leaves? I don't know,
but it don't matter. What God seen was the coats of skins.
Because God was the one concerned about the coats of skins. Did
not the fig leaf aprons cover their nakedness just like the
coats of skins? But God demands blood when there's rebellion
against him. And just a fig leaf apron, the
efforts of our own hands won't cut it. It has to be an act of
God. and the death of Jesus Christ
was an act of God. And God clothes the people with
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Take note of these five things
in closing. The sinful acts are all ours. These three sins under
which every other sin falls, they're all ours. The sinful
acts are all ours. We can't blame God for them. All the righteous acts are all
God's. You don't see Adam helping, cooperating
with, or whatever. God purposed to do it, bless
God it was done. That's the gospel. There's a
second thing to take note of. God's order of deliverance always
differs from our acts of sins. Doesn't it? It's the totally
opposite, Joe. However a man thinks by nature
salvation is, that's not going to be the way it is. God said
my thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. Because God intends to get all
the glory. And man, because of our excusing,
enshrouding, invading, we become refined. You know, Adam was kind
of caught like that. We've become refined, we've been
taught, we got books to read, we got all these things. Our
excusing and shrouding and invading is probably even more subtle
than the serpents was. Huh? Yeah, we say, well God,
we don't mind if you do the most of it, just give us a little
taste of the glory. Huh? That's more excusing and
shrouding and invading. Because God says, my glory I
will not share with another. Third thing to take note of,
Christ received by an act of God is protected by God. Now look at it, and the Lord
God said, behold, man's be like one of us. But what if he, there's
that tree of life. Now here's man, look at the state
he's in. Look at the state man's in. But notice God says, lest
he put forth his hand. God's not gonna give us any of
the glory. It ain't about what we do. Even
after being clothed, then we reach out and eat the tree of
life. No sir, God drove us out of the garden. To ensure that
all the acts of redemption and salvation and all the glory goes
to him. Even if they could have said,
okay, God's clothed us now. Adam believed God because he
knew he died that day. But God told him, you're gonna
go to the dust. But he had enough faith to know God was gonna keep
him alive till his wife had some kids. You tell what I said? But
all of that, God said, now you're not, even though you're standing
there clothed in these garments, it's not gonna be about you reaching
forth and getting the tree of life. All the glory, folks, goes
to God. You hear me? All the glory goes
to God. He gets all the glory. He drove
us out of the garden for our good. For our good, because when
God gets all the glory, you can be assured if you're one of those
God's gonna show mercy on, you gonna have it. Isn't that good? Glory, here's the fourth one.
Glory be to Christ the Redeemer from all sin. even our most righteous
sins, if that's not an oxymoron to you. Because the scripture
says that even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God's sight. Adam reaching for the tree of
life. What if that fruit was, Mason? To eat of that would have
been Adam acting to keep himself alive. Adam acting to give himself
life. Oh, I'll give God the credit,
he made the trees. Huh? God says no. We don't cooperate
in this. God says I get all the glory
because I do all the work. That's what it is. Even our good
works as believers were ordained by God before the world began. I don't even get no rewards from
God because I do some good works. Our good works are the outflow
of the sovereign, free, mighty grace of God. So here's my fifth
thing to take note of. Any sinners in the house this
morning? Anybody see yourself here when you see Adam? When
you see Eve, do you see yourself? I ask you, do you believe God? Just do you believe God? Just
let go. Quit doing. Don't even look to
your believin', just believe God. Father, may these words
be of benefit to us. May they be taught us by your
spirit and not by just this clay pot. I ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Let's stand and sing number 247.