Battle For The Truth (Part 18)
Notes
Transcript
8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11 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? 12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13 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.
Introduction
As a reminder, this series is entitled Battle For The Truth, and we have reached a pivotal portion of the historical narrative. Until the encounter with the serpent, life for Adam and Eve was a many splendid thing.
They lived in a utopian garden designed by God especially for them. Not only was the Garden of Eden abundant with food and beauty, but they had peace and perfect harmony with God, one another, and the animals. This is either true or not.
If you are just now joining this series, you may have some questions or doubts whether this description of the first estate of the first human family is true. If this is you, you would be better served to go back to the beginning of this series which addresses the underlying truth of this Battle For The Truth—Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
The refrain to this foundational truth is, “If you have a problem with Genesis 1:1, then you will struggle with everything else going forward.” Because the bottom line is this, since God is the Creator of heaven and earth, and all that is contained therein, He alone has the divine right and authority to impose obligation upon His creatures.
The obligation He imposed upon man was obedience to one command—not to eat of the tree of the knowledge good and evil. And God is so gracious that He even gave man the reason why he should not eat the fruit from the forbidden tree, because in eating its fruit man would “surely die.” Amen somebody.
Previously, the question was asked, “If things were so good then, how did they become so bad now?” That is still a good question and the answer lies within our text today. The origin of the problem started with the deception of a lie told by the crafty serpent and believed by the woman (Eve). As mentioned before, God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because if they ate of it, they would “surely die.”
Well, Eve being deceived by the serpent’s lie, that God was not telling the truth about surely dying from eating the forbidden fruit, but rather, eating the fruit would make her like God, knowing [independent of God] good and evil, yielded to temptation and ate the forbidden fruit. She then brought some to her husband (Adam) and influenced him to follow her in eating and he also ate.
V.7 says, “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” What a contrast to how they lived prior to their disobedience to God’s command. Genesis 2:24 says, “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
The word “not” in v.24, is the Hebrew word “lōʾ”, which is the primary Hebrew term for factual negation. Thus, factually speaking, they “were not ashamed.” However, the newfound knowledge of their nakedness was not viewed as something good but evil. Now, for the first time, they immediately knew shame, fear, and guilt.
So, did God tell the truth or not about the consequences of disobedience? The short answer is a resounding, yes. However, although physical death did not immediately occur, something immediately died within Adam and Eve. What died? Good question.
The answer: it was their innocence and righteousness that died. Hence, as partners in crime, they worked together to make aprons from fig leaves attempting to cover their shame. Webster’s dictionary defines shame as “a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety.”
Side note:
Here lies the origin and explanation for our personal shame and guilty consciences. We inherited it from Adam and Eve. Shame is a real part of the human experience. The guilt of shameful behavior and has caused many people to abandon family, friends, and church. It has even driven some to kill and/or commit suicide. Countless counselling hours, untold fortunes spent, and numerous medications prescribed to deal with the problems associated with shame and a guilty conscience. Nevertheless, despite man’s best effort, guilt remains deeply embedded in the human conscience. This indeed is sad, but true. But stay tuned, there is one and only one hope for man’s plight—the man Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul writes in I Timothy 2:5-6, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; (6) Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
V.8 – “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.”
As was customary, the Lord God came walking through the Garden in the cool of the day to commune with Adam and Eve. However, instead of running to meet Him, they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
You see hiding is the offspring of guilt and shame, and to this day, man is still trying to cover-up his sin and hide from God. However, because God is omniscient and omnipresent, it is foolish and futile to try and hide from His presence. David speaks to this in Psalm 139:1-12:
“« To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. » O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. (2) Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. (3) Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. (4) For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. (5) Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. (6) Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. (7) Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? (8) If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. (9) If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; (10) Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. (11) If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. (12) Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.”
V.9 – “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?”
What a simple yet profound question, “Where art thou?” The narrative reads as though it was a normal and daily occurrence for God to commune with Adam and Eve.
Apparently, God is in the same place where he usually met with them, but now something has changed, and it is not God. Since Adam and Eve are missing in action, God calls for Adam by asking “Where are you?” Now if you know anything about God you know that He already knew exactly where Adam was.
Furthermore, notice who God calls. He did not call the serpent who fathered the lie, nor did He call Eve who initiated the transgression. But rather, God called Adam, the one to whom He gave the responsibility of tending and watching over the Garden.
Side note:
To this day, God is still calling men. God asks, “Where are you?” In other words, you are not where you are supposed to be. You are missing from the assembly, from prayer, and from worship. “Where are you?” Some of us are at the house, some are on the golf course, at the park, or the beach. Some are at the bar or the dope house or at the ballgame. The question is, are you trying to hide from or ignore God? Are you taking the time to commune with God and fellowship with the saints in the place that God has appointed? Everybody must answer these questions for themselves. Amen somebody.
Vv.10-11, “And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. (11) 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?”
Here we discover by Adam’s own admission that he had an awareness of God’s presence and expectations, but for the first time because of his disobedience, he was overcome with fear and shame because of his nakedness. This prompted God to ask, “Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” The truth of Adam’s disobedience is now exposed.
Vv.12-13, “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. (13) 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.”
Instead of asking forgiveness for his disobedience Adam immediately placed the blame on Eve for seducing him and on God for giving her to him. In other words, Adam was saying, “I am not responsible. It is not my fault. In fact, if you would not have given this woman to be with me, I would not have disobeyed.”
At this point, I think it is safe to say that the first couple are not in harmony with one another. Instead of taking personal responsibility for his actions, Adam threw his wife Eve under the proverbial bus. I can only imagine the look on Eve’s face when her husband and protector accused her before God. I could hear her say, “Oh no he didn’t!”
God then turns to Eve and asked, “What is this that thou hast done?” She, like her husband, deflected the blame and pointed to the serpent and said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” Eve was correct. The serpent did indeed trick her, but that was no excuse for her disobedience. She was still accountable.
Conclusion
My brothers and sisters, we have just witnessed a monumental human tragedy of the first order. Man, the earthly creature whom God has made in His own image and likeness has rebelled against Him.
Despite the blessings of abundant living in a Garden of Paradise, man of his own freewill chose to gamble with his life on whether God tells the truth. Unfortunately, to this day, people are still gambling with their souls on whether God’s word is true or not. We do not have time to get cover all the consequences of man’s moral failure, but we will next time.
Thus far, we have seen the initial results of Adam and Eve’s sin—the death of innocence and the birth of shame, fear, and a guilty conscious. They tried to cover their shame and guilt, but quickly discovered that of themselves, they lacked the ability to overcome their newfound knowledge of evil. And of course, this remains the plight of humanity today. We are aware of evil but cannot rid ourselves of it.
Finally, at this point in the narrative, I pray that you take away at least five things:
God’s word is true.
God knows everything about everything
The devil is a liar.
You are responsible for your own behavior, and
Having a reason for one’s actions does not make it an excuse.
Next, we will see the consequences of man’s rebellion against God. The holiness, judgement, grace, mercy, and love of God will be on full display. All of which leads to God’s plan of salvation for fallen man through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me leave you with the first verse and refrain of Bro. Robert Lowry in his hymn, Nothing but the Blood, he wrote:
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Refrain:
Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
So, until next time, may God richly bless you my beloved.