To have your Bibles turned, we'll
read you the third chapter of Genesis. We'll look at verses 9 through
15 tonight. Genesis chapter 3. And the Lord God called unto
Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard
thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked,
and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that
thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded
thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman
whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and
I did eat. 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 him between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. Let us pray. Father in heaven,
we praise you and thank you for mercy and grace through Jesus
Christ. We thank you for this great example of your mercy and
grace and the promise of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. To this fallen pair, to Adam,
our representative head who plunged the human race into sin, to his
wife who was tempted of Satan, to the serpent himself, to each
of these characters that played out these parts in the grand
scheme of salvation. We praise you, Lord, for who
you are and what you have done. We can't begin to understand
your providential works, and it's best, I think, that we don't
know. We know that thou art God. There is none beside thee and
none like unto thee. You declare the end from the
beginning, and things that have not yet happened to come to pass.
What you speak shall stand. What you purpose shall not be
disallowed. Father, we thank you that we
can approach into your presence by the blood of Jesus Christ
because of that perfect death he offered on our behalf, offered
to you, and you accepted that and accepted us in him. Father,
we pray for those of our company who are sick. We pray you'll
watch over them. For those who are away, we pray you'll bring
them back safely to us. For those who have returned,
we thank you for their safe return. Pray for ourselves, Father, tonight
as we gather here that you might be pleased in your great purpose
and plan to bow our hearts down, to make us consider the things
that are before us, to see what we are in nature, and be thankful
for what we are by grace. We praise you in Christ's name,
amen. And on this passage of scripture,
we find Adam and Eve hiding from the Lord. They had transgressed
the law of Eden and gained an accusing conscience in their
bosom. And their newly acquired accuser had caused them to be
ashamed because they were naked and has directed them to put
on an outward covering to hide their sin. This is a picture,
if you will, of what our Lord said in the very first chapter
of this book. When he said, In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void.
This is when it became without form and void. And darkness was
upon the face of the deep. This is when it happened, when
Adam fell. And we are thankful to read that
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, as it
did in this episode, or this one we looked at last time. And
God said, Let there be light, and there was light, speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ. When they heard the voice of
the Lord walking in the garden, which pictures the preaching
of the gospel with the Holy Ghost, come down from heaven for we
know that it was the Lord God who spoke the Lord God is Elohim
Jehovah which pictures the Lord Jesus Christ which is the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ and he did it in the evening time
when the wind was stirred in fact the language in the first
chapter said it was the wind and that picture is the Holy
Ghost when they heard this voice walking in the garden they saw
the insufficiency of the covering that they had manufactured for
themselves with the work of their own hands And it caused them
to hide from God. To hide from God. Because they
didn't want to be discovered for their sin. They knew they
were sinners. Must have been quite an awakening. Everything
was fine up to this point. They saw that this fig leaf apron
didn't do the job. Their fig leaf apron, which was
symbolic of personal merit and self-righteousness by the work
of men's hands. did fade as a leaf when the spirit
blowed upon it and their immediate reaction was to hide from the
voice of God with fear and trembling. The making of that apron to Adam
was a righteous act. He believed it to be a righteous
act. Being myself a legalist in recovery,
I remember well those many efforts in religion to cover my sin,
to undo my plight. And inwardly, I believed that
I was doing it for God, because I was doing it in the realm of
religion, fixing my problem, rather than crying out for mercy.
What I really didn't believe was that my sin was that bad.
And neither did Adam. Neither did Adam. It is the lie
of self-righteousness, but it fits to assuage my guilt until
I heard the gospel. When I heard the gospel, I found
that I was yet naked and exposed for what I am, a ruined, wretched,
unclean sinner by nature. This knowledge often caused me
to absent the church and hide from God many times. but praise his name he seeks
for his sheep until he finds them this is why we preach the
gospel because at the appointed time the sheep will hear his
voice and they will follow him and this is the beginning if
you will of that scenario they heard the voice of the Lord in
the garden set forth in this passage in verse nine it says
this It says, and God blessed them, excuse me, verse nine says,
and the Lord called, the Lord God called unto Abram and said
unto him, where art thou? He called Adam. Now Adam was
not seeking the Lord, was he? He wasn't coming down front.
He wasn't convicted of sin. None of those things had happened
yet. He wasn't, you know, crying out for mercy and grace. He was
hiding. He was hiding from the Lord God. He didn't seek Him.
He was hiding in the bushes. He wanted nothing to do with
God. And so it was when the Lord God began to act toward His elect.
It's often that case. The Lord God acts toward His
elect sometimes a long time before they come to believe the gospel.
And a lot of times all they do is hide from God. They don't
want to hear anything about it. It is the Lord God remembering
you, the Lord God. This is a different name that
starts out in Genesis chapter one. It doesn't show up until
Genesis chapter two. Before that, it's God. God created
the heavens and the earth. God created all things. And that
term, that name is Elohim, the all-sufficient, all-powerful
God. But in chapter two, when he begins to interact or have
an action with his creation, before he just created it and
there it was now in verse chapter two he's interacting with it
he becomes the Lord God capital L-O-R-D Jehovah Elohim and that's
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ the name our God began to use
when he interacted with Adam in creation like I said his name
was Elohim but in in action he's Jehovah Savior Jehovah God That's
when he began a personal dialogue and a relationship with the creatures
he had formed of the dust. And in that capacity we see the
first representation of Christ Jesus as the Savior. This wasn't
God Elohim that walked in the garden, this was the Lord God,
Jesus Christ. He's the one with hands and can
actually mold clay into a human being and breathe the air into
his nostrils. the Lord said we shall call his
name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin and
this is the beginning of that transaction this is the beginning
of that scenario this is the beginning of the opening up and
the revelation of the purpose of God and the salvation of his
people according to the scripture those whom God predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his son those he called those
are the ones he called and he's the one who calls he has called
though seemingly an inquiry here where art thou was in fact a
confrontation. He knew where Adam was. He knows
all things. The words he spoke are recorded
as where art thou, but in the original it's just one word.
An interesting word we don't even use much anymore, but an
old English word, whence. That's all he said. Whence. Whence. This word adds more depth
and color to the call. because it aligns perfectly with
Adam's response that he made. The word whence does not mean
where, but it means from where. It means from where, or from
what origin or source. The call could well be read,
what is the cause for you hiding in the bushes? Whence comest thou? Or what brings
you from bliss to shame? One writer interpreted these
words, alas, for thee alas for thee another one said interpreted
these words as into what miserable plight has thou brought thyself
that's what this word wins intimates this call was a confrontation
for Adam to own up to his transgression that brought him from innocence
to guilt from rejoicing in his nakedness without shame to now
being ashamed of himself and hiding from the Lord God. The Lord did not kill Adam immediately. He called him. Think about that. Adam Wentz. He called him. This call was a revelation of
mercy. One man said, I wonder what the
angels thought as they looked over the banishers of heaven
down at this parish. They had sinned and transgressed
against the holy God who cannot behold sin, whose eyes are too
pure to behold evil. Why didn't he just kill him and
put him in hell? But he didn't, did he? He called him the Lord
God. And Adam's response in verse
10 reveals that he understood what the Lord meant when he called,
when he said, whence, or where art thou? Verse 10, it says,
he said, I heard thy voice in the garden. I heard thy voice
in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked
and I hid myself. If the call had actually been,
where are you? Adam could have said, I'm here in the trees.
I'm hiding in the bushes. But his answer proved that he
understood what was required here. 1st Adam says that he heard
the Lord's voice in the garden. This is the grand disclosure
after all. The word of God is what discloses
the thoughts and intents of the heart. No man knows anything
of sin. Or that sin is even sin until
he hears the voice of the Lord through the preached word of
the gospel. That's when sin becomes exceedingly sinful. That's when
you see what it does. In Isaiah chapter 45, verse 21,
our Lord said, assemble yourselves together, come together. Where'd
you hear this? Where'd you hear about this? People say, well,
I don't believe in hell. Let's ask them, where'd you hear
about that? I don't believe God is a God
of wrath. Where did you hear about it? Nobody knows about
anything about what God says unless it comes from this book.
This is the word of the Lord. This is the exposure. This is the one that sheds lights
on all things. All things are disclosed by light
or disclosed by light according to Ephesians 5. Note the words
of Adam. I was afraid, he said, and I
was afraid because I was naked. Darkness had descended on Adam
and made his innocence turn to guilt and shame. That's what
the gospel does to the elect. It pricks their heart. It moves
them. It does something to them inside.
You remember those at Acts, when after they heard Peter preach,
they were pricked in their heart and said, men and brethren, what
must we do? We're in a fix. What caused them to be in a fix?
Just moments before, they weren't in a fix. But Peter had preached
the gospel and now they were in a fix because he was ashamed
and afraid. Because he was naked, he hid.
He cowered from the Lord God. the one who made him, the one
who fed him, the one who supplied him, the one who gave him the
breath that was in his lung, the one who gave him his next
heartbeat. The Lord God's response to Adam's confession was a further
requirement to address the cause from whence he had come. The
Lord says, who told you that you were naked? Who did? Did the Lord tell him? No, the Lord didn't tell him
he was naked. Did the serpent tell him? Did Eve tell him? Who told him? Here the Lord God
personifies the law, but does not blame the law. He blames
the sin to the sinner. Paul said, the law is good and
holy, but I was carnal, sold under sin. The Lord said, if
you eat of that tree, if you eat of that tree, whereof I commanded
thee, thou shouldest not eat. And in a fact, Adam had told
himself. He had told himself. when conscience began to accuse. Remember, conscience was formed
after the creation in the Garden of Eden. There was no evidence
of conscience before that. This is proven by his actions
and attitude. After he had sinned, what did
he do? He covered himself, he was afraid because he was naked,
and he ran and he hid from God. Now the response to this call
to God is this call of conviction, this call to admit unbelief is
the flip side of the coin of self-righteousness. To cover
yourself and think that works, to cover yourself with the work
of your hands and think somehow that pleases God, that honors
God, that somehow that fixes your problem is self-righteousness.
That's vanity, the vanity of self-righteousness. But the flip
side of that is self-justification. or justification of what you've
done. Finding a justification for your sin. People do that
all the time. I do it. Don't you? We be honest
with ourselves, we do it too. Here's the source of the rampant
concept of victimization that permeates society in this day.
Right here. This is where it all began. It's
not my fault. That's what he said. It's not
my fault. That is the psychobabble of the
guilty. That's what it is. The guilty
sinful mind. It has created the pseudo-apology
that supposedly absolves men and women and keeps them from
admitting guilt. People apologize in a way today. They don't say,
I did it, I'm sorry. They don't say it like that.
Rather they say, if, if I've offended someone, I apologize. That's not an apology. But that's
what people say. I don't care politicians, preachers,
people, if I offended you, wait a minute, that's not an apology.
If I've offended you, what I should say is, not if I offended you,
I should say, I'm sorry. I've wronged you. I'm sorry. I'm guilty. That's what an apology
is. But you see, when you use that
kind of language, the if negates responsibility and actually begins
to blame the offended. for misunderstanding what was
actually meant that's what when you say or somebody precede an
apology with the word if they're blaming the offended for it they're
blaming the offended for it it all began right here we ain't
changed a bit God said there's nothing new under the sun there's
no change we're all the same we excuse our actions justify
our sin and that's what Adam did Adam blamed two people for
his sin. He blamed God and he blamed Eve. He blamed God and he blamed Eve.
The woman that thou gavest me, it's not my fault. He is saying,
I would not have sinned if you had not given me this woman. It's called the great blame shift. The great blame shift. He blames
God for his sin. What does the Lord say about
the man who does that in Romans chapter 9? Old man, when you
say, why is God offended? He made me the way that I am.
He says, you don't even have any right to say that. Because
God's the potter who makes one vessel an honor and another a
dishonor. He blames God for his sin, and so if God's to blame,
and if Eve's to blame, he's not to blame. That's self-justification,
justification of your own sin. Eve's response to the Lord confronting
her in verse 13 is the same self-justifying, self-justifying, sin-justifying
babble. She blamed God also for making
the serpent who tricked her. So she said, verse 13, and the
Lord said unto the woman, what is it that thou hast done? And
the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and I did it. The serpent
beguiled me, and I did it. It's your fault, God. You made
the serpent, you're allowed to crawl around the garden, or however
he appeared. I don't think he appeared as
a serpent then, because his name means the bright shining one,
so he's probably kind of a preacher, more than likely. See, you can
blame God for making the servant a trickster. It's not my fault.
You see, religion without Christ must find a source to blame some. They must find a source. They
must find a mitigating factor to sin. Religion really never
calls for someone to actually stand before its religion and
say, I am the sinner. I deserve hell. I deserve to
die for what I've done. I have rebelled against God.
I've spit in God's eye. I wish to take him off. I want
to kill God. I'm at enmity with God. Religion
don't want to hear that. They want mitigating factors.
They want mitigating factors. They blame a box, or a bottle,
or the internet, or society, or mom and dad, or the devil,
somebody. as the mitigating factor in their sin. That's why you
have all these people at these great big Bible doohickeys where
they meet in coliseums and have people come up and tell about
their experience. And they're always ex-people,
an ex-prostitute, or an ex-drunk, or an ex-thief, or an ex-murderer. What is that? That's reformation,
not regeneration. Not regeneration. I used to be
a sinner, but I ain't a sinner no more. That's what they're
saying. I used to be bad, but I'm not
bad no more. One of the shows I love on TV
is a crime show on CID, I think it's called. They have all these
different crimes. And everybody talks about the
murderers and the rapists, and the pedophiles and all these
horrible people that are put in jail and they say, well, they're
really a good person. How can that be? When there is
none good, no not one, there is none righteous, there is none
to seek after God. There is no mitigating factor
for sin. Listen very carefully, there is no excuse for sin. You
say, well, we sin. Don't try to excuse it. Just
admit it. Admit what you are. Don't try
to excuse sin. Don't say there's a mitigating
factor. Don't do the Flip Wilson defense, the devil made me do
it. The devil didn't make you do it. There's no excuse for
sin. Some people even pray in the
grace of God for sin. That's terrible, but they do. Sin is the personal act of the
person who sinned. and nothing else, and no one
else. The personal act. It's born,
according to Mark 7, of a sinful heart, a rebellion against God,
and is the innate something in us, by nature, that responds
to temptation. The reason we're tempted as human
beings is because we have something in us that responds to whatever
tempts us. If there was nothing there, it
would be like what Christ said about the devil trying to tempt
Him. He said, He found nothing in me. Well, the devil finds
something in me all the time and finds something in you too.
The temptation to sin is there. That's why we do it. If the temptation
wasn't there, we wouldn't do it. James makes that clear in
James chapter 1. If you'll turn there. In James chapter 1. In verse
13 it says this, now let no man say when he is tempted that I'm
tempted of the Lord, for God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when
he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath
conceived it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it's finished bringeth
forth death. Where's the problem at? in our
lusts, in our minds, and our willingness to be tempted. Adam
didn't confess his sin. He blamed somebody else. That's
probably how we started to, we first began to hear the gospel.
We was blaming other people for what was going on. The believer
confesses that it's his fault. The believer does. The believer
never does this. He does this. Never points his
finger at someone else, he points his finger at himself. Remember
the story of David when he took Bathsheba and he did murder?
He did adultery, got a woman pregnant, did all those things.
Then Nathan the prophet come to him and told him a story.
Nathan said, you know King, I got to tell you about this guy down
the street. He had this little lamb and he just loved that lamb.
It's like a pet to him. It's like his favorite creature
in the world. He loved that lamb. He fed that
lamb. He hugged that lamb. He took care of that lamb. It's
the only thing he had. It's his only possession in the
world. Well, this other fellow down the street, he was a rich
man. He had flocks and flocks and flocks of lamb. Anyone he
wanted to choose, he'd go out there and take a lamb. He was
going to have a feast. He didn't have to kill a lamb for a feast. And instead
of taking one out of his flock, he went and took that one lamb
that that man had. That lamb he loved, and he killed
that lamb and fed his friends with it. And David got vexed. He said, that man ought to pay
fourfold for what he's done. That's the most awful thing I
ever heard. Nathan said, you're the man. You had all these women in Israel,
beautiful young virgins, beautiful women. You could have taken any
one of them to be my wife, and they'd say, yes, ma'am. Yes,
sir. I'll be your wife. He said, well, no, there was this man
named Uriah who had just one life. Oh, and he loved her. And she was precious to him.
He loved Bathsheba. And of all those women you could
have had, you took his lamb, the one he loved, for yourself. Thou art the man. What did David
do? Well, you know, some stinuating
circumstances here. You know, they were all out at
war. I was kind of lonely in the palace. You know, she's really
a good looking woman. She's out there bathing on the rooftop
and all that, you know. What did David say? I've sinned. I have sinned. What did Nathan say? Thy sins
are forgiven thee. He owned it, didn't he? Adam
didn't, and neither did Eve. Then we have the serpent. It's
interesting that the serpent was the only one of the three
that did not blame God. He kept his mouth shut as he
knew he must. He had tempted Eve and he didn't
deny it. He didn't know that unwittingly he was a pawn in
the glorious plan and purpose of God's salvation. God didn't
kill Adam. He called him. God revealed this
great plan in the words that followed. He says this, verse
14 of the Lord said unto the serpent, because thou hast done
this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast
of the field. For thy belly shalt thou go,
and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. This was the
curse that was placed upon him. And that's what he's doing today,
he's eating dust. What are we? Dust. It says several places that that's
what he does. First Peter chapter 5 says he's a roaring lion going
about seeking whom he may devour. What does he devour? God said
you could eat dust. That's what we are. God made
Adam of the dust. He's after us. He's after people. He's after people, devouring
them. That's his course. That's how
he plays in God's scheme. He's not out there doing what
he wants to do. He thinks he is, but he's out there doing
what God commands him to do, what God suffers him to do. He
might suffer him to sift Peter like wheat and cause Peter, that
strong, powerful apostle, to deny the Lord three times right
there before the concrete. He might do that. He might visit
Job, if the Lord allows, and take everything Job has, all
his family, all his money, and then finally even take his health.
He might allow that, but the end will always be the same.
Peter wept bitter tears in confession for what he had done. Job prayed
for his friends, and God gave him his release. Job was restored
two-fold what he had before. Job didn't shed against God. Satan would be allowed, and he
was allowed here. I've studied I can't tell you
how many authors about how come that serpent was in the garden.
Because evidently it didn't take very long for him to get there.
One verse of scripture, I can't remember where it's at, it uses
the word that we use for like an inn where you stay overnight.
It said that man was not in honor, not for the night. So this may
all have happened in one day, I don't know how. But why was
the serpent there? He was there because he was part
of the plan. part of the purpose because God
didn't kill Adam he called him and it was an act of mercy then
the plan is revealed here we have it the serpent has deceived
Eve tempted her and she fell for his deception Adam openly
and covertly or overtly ate the fruit and rebelled against God
but here the plan is revealed God says this to the serpent
verse 15 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
where did that take place? on Calvary that's when Satan's
head was bruised and Christ was wounded This is called, by theologians
who use big words, the Proto-Evangelium, or the first mention of the coming
of the Savior. And did he say, Adam, your seed
is gonna bring forth the Savior? No. He said, Eve, your seed is
gonna bring forth the one that stomps on the serpent's head.
Your seed. What does he mean by that? What
does he mean by that? He will not come to the seat
of Adam. Why? Because by and through Adam is sin imputed. Through Adam. You remember Eve
didn't fall when she ate of the fruit. And evidently Adam didn't
see no difference in her. He knew that she didn't die.
She didn't drop over dead. The Lord said He's going to kill
them if they ate the fruit. And He did. He killed them in
a substitute many years later. Many years later. But he didn't
see no difference in her so he ate of the fruit. And when he
ate the fruit, she fell. They both fell. Humanity fell
into sin and was ruined because of what Adam did. Sin is imputed
through the man, not the woman. Now the woman is a sinner, but
her seed, her seed was united with one who was not tainted
with sin. You see, Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. The angel said, that holy thing
born of thee, that holy thing shall be called the Son of God.
Great is the mystery of godliness. God manifest in the flesh. That's
without controversy. He's the seed of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ is. He's the seed of woman. And it
says that in Scripture, in many places in Scripture. But particularly
in Galatians chapter 4 and verses 4 and 5 it says that Jesus Christ
was born of a woman, born under the law to redeem them that are
under the law. Born of a woman. Born of a woman. Christ was the seed of God. He
was God's Son. He was Emmanuel which is God
with us. He's the impeccable sacrifice
that bruised the serpent heads and saved the elect and redeemed
them. This is a great promise. You
see how much mercy is here? Hear this sinful pair hiding from
God, covering their sin, justifying themselves. God says, out of
her, go come the Messiah. He gonna save you. He gonna save
you. As we'll see as these lessons
progress. Adam was one of the elect, and
so was Eve. She has that firstborn baby.
He wasn't the Savior, he was a murderer. And she thought he
was the Savior. She said, I've gotten the man. She didn't say a man, child.
She said, I have gave birth to the Messiah. He wasn't. But she
believed what God had said. Out of her, the seed of woman,
was going to come the man, Christ Jesus. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.