All right, if you'll open your
Bibles to Genesis 3. And no, I didn't declare this
casual Sunday. Not that it's an important issue,
but I came here and forgot my jacket. I came here about 6 o'clock
this morning. I forgot my jacket. And I also
forgot my cell phone, which made me unable to call my wife to
tell me to bring it. So, not that I think we think
it's important, it's just you probably wonder why. So now you
know. Oh, I have a warmer coat I put
on over. There you go. I put my little
leather jacket on. Alright, Genesis chapter 3. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You
for Your Word. We thank You for the truth contained in it. And
pray that You will minister this truth to us by Your Spirit. Help
me as I teach. As I try to play the song that
You play. May they not hear me, but may
they hear you. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
Now last week we saw the event of the fall, that is that initial
sin which Adam and Eve both participated in and which brought our entire
race into a state of sin, condemnation and death. You know the Apostle
Paul tells us quite plainly By one man's sin, by the transgression
of one, sin entered the world, and death by sin, and death passed
upon all men for that all sinned." Now it's interesting the way
Paul wrote that. In the King James it says, for
all have sinned. And you could kind of translate
it that way, but actually the NIV does better and gives us
the sense that Paul was teaching us when it says, for that all
sinned. Because he means not all only
that, and not even primarily does he mean that all of us have
committed sin. He means that when Adam sinned,
we all sinned. Adam stood as our representative.
We are a representative democracy. Our country is. And you know,
whatever our representatives do, we did it. Legally speaking. Now we may not like it, but we
did it. That's why Several men gathered there in Philadelphia
back in 1789, I believe it was, when they formed our Constitution,
and they said, we the people of the United States, Well, not
everybody in the United States was in favor of what they did.
Not everybody gave the amen to what they did. And certainly
not the entire population of the United States was there when
they put together our Constitution. However, the representatives
of the people were there. And whatever the representatives
did, the people did. And Adam was our representative. Now, this is why it's so important
that we believe what is written in these opening chapters of
Genesis. If Adam's not real, none of the rest of the Bible
is. If Adam is not a real individual, the first human being from which
all human beings come, then the whole system of the gospel falls
apart. But what he did, all of us did. And therefore, even before we
drew our first breath, you know the Bible says we came from the
womb speaking lies, and that's true, that's our nature, but
even before we came from the womb, yea, before we were ever
conceived in the womb, we were guilty in the sight of God, because
our representative sinned against God. And what he did is charge
to us. Now that doesn't mean that we
haven't given the hearty Amen to what Adam did. The only reason
it was Adam and not us is because Adam was there and we weren't.
And every one of us have not only had Adam's sin imputed to
us or charged to us, each one of us has had his nature imparted
to us. And we're just like him. And
the only reason that you and I have not eaten of the fruit
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is because it
doesn't exist anymore. But we have eaten, as it were,
from every transgression available to us in one way or another. Now here in two and a half chapters,
halfway, not even really halfway through chapter 3, we have gone
from nothing to everything. As we've gone from nothing existing
to the whole creation being brought into existence and now the creation
destroyed. I don't know how long in time
all this took. I know how long creation took. That took six
days. How long Adam and Eve lasted? Before they felt this temptation,
we have no way of knowing. It could have been a day. It
could have been a week. It might have been several years
for all we know. But in a rather short time, relatively short
time, creation has gone from not existing to perfect existence
to destruction. Now the effect of sin on man
and his environment is taught to us here beginning Actually,
clear back here in verse 6. Whoops, verse 7. Then the eyes
of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked.
So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Now the first thing that came
to them as a result of them eating of this tree of the knowledge
of good and evil was the knowledge of sin. Now, the Bible says the
law is good if a man uses it lawfully. If he uses it rightly,
there's a proper use of God's law. But when the law is used
as a way of life, it becomes a means of death. When God gave
the law, He said, don't touch the mountain I'm on. You tell
the people to back up. He was going to give them a law,
but He would not have those people draw near to Him by means of
that law. When men try to draw near to
God by means of the law, death comes upon them. You know, there's
been only one man that was ever able to do that. Only the Lord
Jesus Christ could draw near to God by the law of God. He
was born under the law that He might redeem those that are under
the law, and while He was under the law, He did always those
things which pleased His Father. He never did in any respect,
in any way, disobey God. Not in word, not in thought,
not in deed. And he was also what we would
call a believer. He believed everything God said.
In every aspect of human righteousness, he was perfect. And therefore
he could draw near to God through the law. But no other man has
ever been able to do that. And that's pictured for us when
Adam And Eve, they looked at that tree and said, it's good
for food. This is a way to stay alive. We can eat this and sustain
ourselves. And they picture that man who
tries to obtain life by the law. Now had Adam and Eve not touched
or tasted of that tree, they could have enjoyed its beauty.
Eve saw that it was a beautiful tree. And that's fine. And you
know what? We look at the law and it's beautiful,
isn't it? You see anything in there you
don't like? I look at it and I think, I wish I was like that.
There's great beauty in God's law, and it's just fine to look
at it. But you don't take from it, lest
it kill you. Instead, they tried to live by
it, and the consequence is they died by it. And their transgression
brought on them the knowledge of sin. Now, not just knowing
what sin is. They already knew what sin was.
I mean, they could give you the theology of sin probably better
than you and I could. Though I think my mother, when
she used to teach an after-school Bible class, she gave us kids
a good definition of sin. Anything that displeases God.
That's simply it. Another one would be transgression
of His law. I mean, if God says, do this, you know what sin is.
It's when you don't do that. And if He says, don't do this,
you know what sin is. It's if you do it. But there's
a difference between knowing what sin is and knowing what
it is to be a sinner. Now, you might know. Take our
human law. You might know what it is. What
sin and what a crime is. You break into a store late at
night and you take money out. I mean, that's a crime. You know
that, don't you? But you've never done it. At
least I hope you haven't. But if you ever do it, you not
only know what a crime is, you know what being a criminal is.
You suddenly know what it is to come under the weight of the
law of the land and to come under its threats and under its judgment. You know what it is to fear the
policeman and the judge. You know what it is to try to
keep secrets. You know what it is to be suspicious.
Because all those things will come upon you. And that's what
it means when they gain the knowledge of sin. They gain the knowledge
of what it is to be a sinner. Look over here at 2 Corinthians
chapter 5 verse 21. Second Corinthians chapter 5
verse 21. A very familiar passage I'm sure
to you but we're going to make one point from it. God made him who had no sin to
be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God. Now our translation They get it for the most part
but actually that word had is the word no to him who knew no
sin. Now I Lord knew what sin was.
He knew he could give you a better theology of sin than I could.
That's for sure. After all he was the God against
whom people said he knew what sin was. He knew no sin. He did not know what it was to
be a sinner because he'd never been one. And up until they ate the fruit
of that tree, Adam and Eve didn't know what it was to be a sinner,
but they found out. And what did they find out? What
came upon them that gave them this sense of sin and sinnerhood? Guilt, shame, fear, anger. Love is lost and understanding
is darkened. You know, men, us included, we
can go through our lives, if God leaves a person alone, he
can go through his life thinking he's a pretty good fellow. And man does not realize just
what a low state he's in because he has no understanding of how
far man fell. He's clueless. You see, while they were good,
while Adam and Eve were yet righteous, they did not have the knowledge
of sin. But once they sinned, they no longer had the knowledge
of good. They no longer knew what it was
like to be good, to be righteous. And you and I were born sinners,
and we've never known what it is to be good. We're pretty well
deceived about just how wretched we are. We don't talk about our sinfulness
and our wretchedness simply to pat ourselves on the back because
we understand how wretched we are, because we don't understand.
We don't go over this point time and again simply to make people
feel bad because we think that's a particularly religious feeling.
A man can have that sorrow which leads to death, says the scripture.
He can have a sense of sin and unworthiness that doesn't bring
him to repentance in life, but actually furthers his self-righteousness
and therefore his death. No, we're not just trying to
make people feel bad. Our purpose, when we try to convey
the wretchedness of our inborn nature and our actions. We're
trying to accomplish a couple of things. Number one, drive
people to the Lord Jesus Christ because men will lay hold of
anything but Christ until there's nothing else to lay hold of. It's just the nature of man until
all other hope is lost. Let's just put it this way. Christ
is the last thing any man ever hopes in. just simply so and
then secondly we repeated even the believers to keep them at
Christ you know storms come into our
lives and they go out of our lives and a lot of people get
religious in the middle of those storms don't they even we in
the midst of our trials tend to be more thoughtful of the
things of God but the thing is Generally speaking,
once the storm passes, we go back to what we were. That's
just our nature. It's sad, but that's the case
of it. However, when a man is taught about that never-ending
storm of his own wretchedness and guilt before God, he flees
to the safe haven of Christ Jesus and never leaves. Because no matter how often he
looks out to see, the sea of his own nature, the sea of his
own conduct, all he sees is wind and waves. It's never safe to
go back out, is it? So that's our purpose in speaking
of the sinfulness of man and emphasizing it. But from the
knowledge of sin comes the inability to do good. And the rest of the
Bible, after this, is a testimony of the wickedness of even the
best of men. You know, there is a certain
sadness in all the histories of Israel. Because it seems like
the greatest luminaries of Israel, in the end, prove faithless or
unfaithful. That would be the right word,
unfaithful. I mean Samson. You read through the book of
Judges. That's a sad book. I'll tell you that. The book of Judges
is a sad book. But there's Samson. God made him strong, miraculously
strong. It had nothing to do with his
size because if it did, cutting off his hair wouldn't have changed
his strength. The Spirit of God would come upon him and he did
things miraculous. Who knows, maybe he's even a
puny little guy for all I know. And he did great exploits for
the cause, shall we say, of God and truth. People like to say
the cause of God and truth. And he helped the people of God
in fighting their enemies. But in the end, where do you
find him? You find him in the palace or one of the temples
or something of the Philistines, chained to a couple of pillars. His eyes gouged out. He's a slave
to the enemy. Now even in that, God brings
a triumph, though it costs Samson his life. And many Philistines
are destroyed in his last effort. But what? How bad? That's just
awful. David. Oh, such a promising start. Young shepherd boy. Talented
man. I mean, he was valiant to the
fight, and he was good with the harp, and evidently could sing,
and he could write songs. What the world would call a Renaissance
man. Athlete and artist all rolled up into one. And we read his
Psalms and our hearts lifted up, but we read his history.
And by the time he's 40, he'd made another, an utter wreck
out of his life. And the rest of the remaining
30 years of his life, you never read of anything remarkable going
on. And his son Solomon, never was there such a wise man. or
such a powerful man to that day. He built an empire to rival all
the empires around him, wealthy beyond imagination. Yet for all his wisdom, he had
many wives and many more concubines. And what did that man do? He
built them temples and shrines to their false gods right in
Israel. And by the time Solomon is dead,
he has brought Israel into idolatry and sealed their doom. The Bible
is a testimony, if of nothing else, it's a testimony of the
weakness and wretchedness and sin of every man. No wonder Paul
could summarize, quoting the prophet Isaiah, There is none
good, no not one, none that doeth righteousness. They've all gone
out of the way. I wish I could remember that
on other days other than Sunday. I wish I could remember what
I am, that I might rejoice more in what He is. Because I'll tell
you, you appreciate medicine a whole lot more when you can
feel your sickness. And when I understand who I am,
oh, how precious he becomes. Brother Marvin Stoniker said
that when he and his first wife went to the doctor and they were
given the news that they weren't going to be able to cure her
cancer and that she had just a little while to live, he said
as they were going home that they began to talk. And he asked her, what are you
feeling right now? And you can imagine how hard
this day was on both Marvin and Linda. And Linda says, I have come to appreciate the
righteousness of God in Christ so much more than I ever did
before. and to see my own righteousness, for the filthy rags it is, more
than I ever have before." When we realize what sin has
done to us, then we start to appreciate more what Christ has
done for us. All right. They gained the knowledge
of sin, what it is to be a sinner. They became fools. Paul describes the unbelieving
world this way, professing themselves to be wise. They became fools.
Eve looked at that tree and said, it was good to make one wise.
That's what she discerned about that tree and she ate from it
and she became an idiot, a fool. How do I know they became fools?
They thought they could cover up their nakedness with fig leaves.
They thought they could hide from God. They came to believe
they could blame someone else for their sin and get a get out
of jail free card. Do you realize that in a moment,
I mean in a moment, they went from loving God, knowing God,
fellowshipping with God, to having no clue of what God was really
like. They became lovers of themselves
and haters of God. In a moment, they descended into
every form of religious silliness that we were ever involved in
or see going on. That fast. Why? Because spiritually they died.
Spiritually speaking, there was no life. It's like
if someone were to gouge out your eyes from that point on,
you couldn't see. You would be utterly ignorant
of the sights around you. And there'd be nothing you could
do about it. That's what happened to them. They became fools. Now we don't
know what sort of tree it was, but here's an interesting speculation.
Eric and I talked about it this week. We don't know what kind
of tree that was, but I think it's interesting that they tried
to cover themselves up with leaves from a tree. Maybe it was a fig
tree. And that certainly would point
out a pattern of what men do, that they try to clothe themselves
in the righteousness of the very law that stripped them bare.
By the law is the knowledge of sin, and yet men try to cover
their sin with the law. They try to cover their nakedness
in that which was designed to reveal their nakedness. I don't
know if it was a fig tree, but I'll tell you the picture sure
fits. Men, see, thou shalt not kill. And being utterly ignorant of
all that that means, that not only you are not to take up a
knife and unjustly murder your neighbor, it means, as our Lord
said, if you hate him, you've killed him in your heart. And
so they'll say, well, I never took up my hand against my neighbor. And they'll wrap themselves up
in the fact that they are not guilty in the sight of men of
murder. And yet by wrapping themselves
in that law, they expose themselves to the eye of God's judicial
authority and are made naked. And if it was not a fig tree,
well then I think the fact that they chose the leaves from a
fig tree might show us another principle, illustrate for us
another principle. That people will try to cover one sin with
others. You say, how's that? Well, realizing
that even the good that we do is nothing more than what, and
I can't remember his name, but one old preacher called splendid
sins. That's our good works. They're
just splendid sins. And no matter what we do to try
to cover up our sin, all we're doing is covering up one sin
with other sins. And so there they look. There's
that, you know, missing piece of fruit. from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. And it stands there as a testimony
of their sin. And I could just hear them talking,
let's go over here, let's get some leaves from this tree. This
is a better tree. This isn't a sinful tree. We'll
put some leaves together and we can make some clothes out
of them and cover our nakedness. The problem is the moment you
take a leaf from a tree, it begins to die. And it will not be able
to cover your nakedness. A fellow named Derek Webb wrote
a song called I Repent. A lot of good stuff in that song,
but I like one of his lines so well. It says, I repent of the
way I believe that I'm doing right by trading sins for others
that are easier to hide. Brethren, that's all that natural
repentance is, trading really bad sins for lesser sins. That's
all we can come up with. I'm all for people putting off
sins that are more destructive than others, but brethren, you
cannot become more righteous simply by trying a more diluted
version of sin. And that's what Adam and Eve
were trying to do. They came to know sin, they became
fools, and they came to experience the fear and alienation from
God that come from sin. It says here in verse 8, then the man and his
wife heard the sound of Jehovah God as he was walking in the
garden in the cool of the day. That word translated sound can
be translated sound or can be translated voice. I know I like
voice and that's what it says in the King James Version and
here's why I like it. Because somebody was walking
in the garden. It was Him who's called the Word
of God, the Voice of God. God, the uncreated One, cannot
communicate with us. He can't even speak a language
we'd recognize. But it says, in these last days
He's spoken to us by His Son. But you know what? He's been
speaking by that One from the very beginning. Everything, I
believe this is absolutely true, everything we know about God,
was taught to us by this one who was walking in the cool of
the evening in the Garden of Eden he who is the voice of Jehovah
God he who is the Word of God I assume he had a human like
appearance he took on an appearance that would enable him to communicate
with men and men be able to communicate with him and he comes walking
in the cool of the evening and I suppose that had been an established
pattern. Boy, wouldn't that be something
if every evening you had the opportunity to fellowship with
God like that? Whatever it was Adam and Eve
did for the day, and we know that they worked. Adam tilled,
he took care of the garden. I don't know what Eve was doing,
probably right alongside of him. And it was good work. It was
satisfying work and productive work. They didn't feel bad at
the end of the day, but there came a time to lay those tools
down and then just go and fellowship
with the Creator. It must have been wonderful. If you heard someone walking
in your backyard and you discovered it was the Lord Jesus Christ,
what would you do? Would you not run out the back
door? Would you not fly to Him as fast as you could? Would you
not say to everybody else, Yes, you would. You believers would.
Everybody that's a believer would love. You know, I think of that
scene there in the Garden of Eden, excuse me, in the garden
tomb there. And the Lord appears to Mary. And when she finds out it's the
Lord, what did Adam and Eve do? They
ran and hid. They hid from Him who was their
God. and who just moments ago had
been the joy and delight of their existence. Why? Well, because they knew their
sin. And that which is sinful cannot
stand in the presence of that which is holy, not comfortably. Secondly, they knew his holiness
and righteousness. They didn't know any longer what
it was to be holy and righteous, but they knew He was. And just
as they could not comfortably stand in His presence, His sinners,
they knew that He, as the Holy and Righteous One, could not
abide their presence. They were afraid, and they were
completely ignorant of a vital point. If you look over at Romans
chapter 10, Beginning at verse 1, Romans
10, Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites
is that they may be saved. They were in need of it. For
I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but
their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness
that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they
did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law
so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Now,
what is Paul saying here? He's saying these Jews, they
are a religious people. They've got the right God. They've
got the pattern for worship that he set out before them. And I
tell you, they are zealous. These are not just, you know,
go to church every little once in a while, whatever they did.
They were big on God. They were big on their religion.
He said, but they didn't understand something. They were still caught
up in pursuing their own righteousness, trying to establish a righteousness
before God, trying to render a righteousness to God because
they were utterly ignorant of that righteousness that comes
from God to man. And when Adam and Eve ran and
hid from God, they were just like every unbeliever in our
day. They knew that they were sinners
and could not appear in the presence of God as a gut-level feeling.
They knew God could not tolerate their existence. And they knew,
despite their efforts with those fig leaves, this ain't gonna
hide from God. What they didn't realize is that
the one they were hiding from, is the personification of God's
righteousness. And that He came, even at this
time, not to demand righteousness from them, but to give it to
them. And in that is the whole understanding
of the Gospel. That in Christ Jesus, God comes
not to demand a righteousness from you, but to bring one to
you. And that's a whole lot better.
And the only reason that you and I have gathered in the name
of Jesus Christ this morning, and the only reason that, as
I said, if Jesus Christ were walking in our backyard, we'd
bust down the screen door trying to get to Him, is because God
has taught us who Christ is and what He came to do. That He was
manifested to put away our sins. And as John says again, he was
manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Well, I got halfway through what
I thought I'd get. And you know what I'm going to
do? We're going to do the other half and the rest of the service
because it's going to be a very good preliminary, as it were,
to the Lord's table. So I'll see you all in a few
minutes upstairs.