well we're turning to genesis chapter 3 this morning continuing our study in the book of genesis and we come to verses 8 through 19 of genesis chapter 3 in the heart of the section on the fall the fall of man into sin and you'll note in the bulletins that i have titled the sermon judgment day and we will see how this day was so important for understanding this day is so important for understanding what will happen and what did happen in the future at the cross and then at the very end. And so let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. We'll read verses 8 through 19. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden but the Lord God called to the man and said to him where are you and he said I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself he said who told you that you were naked have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat the man said the woman whom you gave to be with me she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate and the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing. In pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. And to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles, it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return may the lord bless the hearing of his word this morning one of the more amazing in my estimation episodes of the calvin and Hobbes comic strips years ago was their characterization of our culture of victimhood. Calvin says, nothing that happens is my fault. My family is dysfunctional and my parents won't empower me. Consequently, I'm self-actualized. I need holistic healing and wellness before I'll accept any responsibility for my actions. Hobbes replies, one of us needs to stick his head in a bucket of ice water. Calvin marches on proclaiming, I love the culture of victimhood. I love it. I don't know if you realize how bad this culture has gotten in that respect. I was reading another article of a woman crying out living in this culture that nobody takes responsibility for their actions. The writer says, I hate to be a Scrooge, but really, is the best use of our tax dollars paying a woman $400,000 because she had a fall? Don't get me wrong. My heart goes out to the woman. It's no fun falling down and seriously getting hurt. Trust me, I know. A few years ago, I was rollerblading, tripped over a bad pothole on Newell Avenue, suffered a minor concussion, some serious lacerations and a sprained wrist i also had problems with short-term memory for at least six months but it never occurred to me to sue the city it did occur to me to pay better attention next time i rollerblade to the potholes it makes me wonder what happened to the idea she says that not everything is somebody else's fault and this is really important isn't it for our day this is the challenge the movement away from personal responsibility can be seen in every aspect of life from the child who does not practice soccer and then blames the coach for getting cut to the neighbor who lets her dog off the leash and denies that it keeps peeing on the other neighbor's lawn this is our day this is our day and i don't know if you think about the challenge that this brings for gospel ministry i don't know if that that makes us think through how hard this is to do what we do in our day but when the heart of what the pastor does is diagnose sickness with the goal of giving the remedy it's getting really really hard to do that when everyone's getting offended by the least little thing that touches too close to home disney just pulled one of its main shows last week because parents wrote in offended that children were being hurt by their basically what they viewed as an attack on gluten-free diets this is how bad it's gotten everyone offended by everything so bad that i'm now getting offended that people are getting offended and we've got a whole society of people who are offended all of this today i say with the point that no one wants to admit they're the problem we made this mess and that's why going back to genesis is is so important this morning going back to genesis is so important let me ask you what is god after in all of this why is god taking us through this and why is the lord setting all of this in front of us what kind of heart is he after and what does he want from you what does adam and eve's response this morning teach us what do we learn from this why is genesis 3 so important my goal this morning and looking at genesis 3 is that we would see our story here and openly confess number one caused this i caused this you caused this and don't blame anyone else for all the sorrow that followed afterward. Because the Lord doesn't want a heart like that. The Lord's offended by a heart like that. And so the Lord wants us to come this morning without excuses and without blaming and asking Him to deliver us. Well, that's a wonderful thing. I'll deliver you. But don't do what Calvin and Hobbes are doing. Last week, we studied Adam and Eve's fall into sin. The devil had twisted the word of God and instead presented himself as the one, himself as God, offering something much better for Adam and Eve. That he was out for their best interest. That he had something better for them. And he tried to take the place of God. And so, remember how the whole scene unfolded. That he offered them access to all of the trees. And the whole goal in doing that was to present God as being binding and restrictive. And remember how he twisted God's word. As he said, you can't eat from all of the trees in the garden. And he immediately attacked the goodness of God. God had said you can eat freely from all of the trees except one. And then in the next breath, the devil took away the threat of judgment. Listen, Eve, you won't die if you eat this. That's pretty attractive, isn't it? There'll be no consequence for actions. Did God say you will die? It isn't going to happen. There's no judgment. No judgment. You don't have to fear that. And so the devil raises up the temptation. Not only will you not die, he knows that in the day that you eat of it, you will become like God. You'll become like Him from good from evil. You're going to be able to act independently. You're going to be able to define and get knowledge for yourself. You're going to be able to define reality yourself. You don't have to live under the way that He has defined it. You can do it yourself and become your own God. Acting independently. Choosing what's best for you. doing what makes you feel good. Sound familiar? And Adam had completely abandoned his responsibility there as the head of his home. Remember last time? He was given the responsibility to guard the garden and to tend the garden, but guard, he should have rose up and crushed the head of the serpent. He should have defended the good name of the Lord. He should have defended his wife. but completely passive there they were eating the fruit together and we left off last time that their eyes were opened right then and there in a millisecond they understood they were naked they understood the marriage relationship was shattered clothes went on to tell that they were now separated from one another but not just separated from one another they were separated from god and they tried to cover with their own fig leaves now i want you to think for a minute what's in front of us today when the devil had said the first doctrine remember we looked at last time the very first doctrine in scripture that he blatantly denied was the doctrine of a divine judgment didn't he and i want you to think about now the scene that is set in front of us what we have essentially is the first judgment day the very first judgment day in other words what is here spelled out in genesis 3 is the exact thing that we understand throughout history as we have seen this unfold and we have seen this talked about over and over christ spoke of it spoke of it coming at the end of the world here's the first scene of it and it's in the midst of this though that we find one of the most shocking verses in scripture that comes and essentially suspends if you will this scene for thousands of years that god might demonstrate his mercy and show forth his plan to save a people and bring them out that their loyalties and their love and their affections would be for him. So let's look at this morning, beginning at verse 8 of Genesis chapter 3. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. This verse is often read as if, I would imagine if I surveyed this morning and ask, how do you read this particular verse? You've been a little puzzled by this verse. It doesn't seem to fit because it seems like God is taking a stroll through the garden, cool breeze hitting him, and then he accidentally discovers that Adam and Eve have sinned. And I am making the case this morning that that is not the way we should read this verse. The tree of life was in the Garden of Eden, remember, and we haven't talked a lot about this tree, yet but in the in this very section at the very end the lord will raise the issue of the tree of life and he will bar adam from the tree of life saying i don't want him to partake of the tree lest he live lives forever so it seems to me that this tree was held out as the reward for adam and that's how the new testament portrays it as the work of the second adam for us achieving us the right to eat freely of this tree but what we have here is in verse 8 a description of the first judgment day scene and god is setting before us himself coming in judgment with the single issue of adam did you obey did you obey and so notice how how it how it reads there they heard the the sound it's the same word for voice or noise that i um there we had you sing out in in psalm 29 they heard the voice of the lord god going forth in the garden and it's that last word that's you'll notice a little number by in your in your bibles uh it's that last word cool that's an interesting word what does that mean he went forth in the cool of the day well it's the word spirit it's the same word for the spirit that was used in genesis 1 who was hovering over the face of the water so i heard the voice of the lord god going forth in the garden in the spirit of the day what day judgment day doctrines become clearer for us as time goes on that's a principle of interpretation and we see them unfold and the new testament shows us this over and over that god has always appointed days and times and even boundaries of dwellings and he has told us over and over that there is a day known to him there is a day appointed by him that he will come and he will send his son and he will judge the living and the dead it is appointed for man to die once and then the judgment and every time judgment is presented in the bible how do we see what kind of response do we see unfold it's absolutely terrifying and that's exactly what happens here notice in the very next statement that after they they heard this noise of the lord god coming forth in the garden what is the first thing they did and man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord god among the trees of the garden and adam will even say in verse 10 i heard the sound of you in the garden and i was afraid because i was naked and i hid myself naked they had attempted to sew fig leaves together and think of everything that the new testament describes to us about this day that is coming this day that will unfold that we don't hear a lot about today but a day we have to consider in revelation chapter 6 the same imagery is used the sky vanished like a scroll that is being up that is being rolled up and every mountain and island was removed from its place then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slave and free hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains calling to the rocks and mountains fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the land for the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand for this was the question that the writers in scripture we see it come out with the men of best shemesh in samuel who can stand before the lord this holy god and this is the issue that we're seeing come up right at the beginning in genesis chapter 3 when we have the first revelation of him coming forth and adam is now a sinner and what a scene isn't it what a scene to think about the first thing that happens is he runs he runs remember psalm 29 the voice of jehovah the god of all glory it thunders boys and girls when you hear thunder when you hear the rolling powerful thunder the scriptures have you think about using that and thinking about that as the powerful voice of the lord and even that does not describe how powerful it is it shatters the cedars of lebanon to bits it makes them skip like a calf the mountains before his presence a dreadful consuming fire and so notice that what then unfolds here is a kind of arrangement arraignment and a court scene god calls god calls to adam and the lord god verse 9 called to the man and said where are you adam scared to death here was one created upright to know god to enjoy him to love him to live with him in eternal happiness had everything imaginable had everything that he could to enjoy communion and in reckless disobedience at the instigation of the devil he threw it all away and so he takes these fig leaves and he tries to cover himself his nakedness and the whole imagery here the thing that genesis chapter 3 is showing us is that all of that original righteousness, as we see this here in Genesis 3, it's showing us what had happened because of the fall into sin. The leaves are a picture here of Adam trying to cover himself. Cover himself from his shame. This should be one of the most dreadful scenes in the Bible to us. It's hard to make it a nice scene, is it? It's not that. It's a dreadful scene. And Revelation 20 comes along at the very end of the Bible, like two bookends, and it raises this scene again. And it says, Then I saw a white throne, and Him who was seated on it. From His presence, earth and the sky fled away. Everything ducked and covered. And no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And books were opened. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. A book. A book with every single thing written down. Every thought. Think of all the thoughts. Every word. Every deed. Written in the book. And on that day, that book's going to be opened. And someone's going to stand before the Lord and their life will be there. And it's a dreadful scene. Adam, are you naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I told you that you should not eat? See the book? The Lord knows. Adam, it's time to give an account. The day of accounting has come. It's the worst thing to be caught without garments, isn't it? His garments. So this examination begins. Courts in session. The book is opened. Who told you that you're naked, Adam? And have you eaten from this tree which I commanded you? And everyone thinks about this kind of evangelistic question that has been thrown out in our day. This is the evangelistic question that everyone asks when God comes to you on that day and asks you, if you're a sinner, why should I let you into my heaven? that's been used over and over and over. And here's a case study in what not to do. Have you eaten that woman you gave me? She made me do it. Now, what is so shocking about this is the betrayal, isn't it? He just threw his wife under the bus. This is dog eat dog, isn't it? I mean, at that point, this is what's going on. God's bride for him. And think of last chapter. Wow! Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She is beautiful. God had made this beautiful bride. Sheer goodness, he creates a helper because something was not good. Remember, God saw everything that was good and then this is not good. He's not good to be alone. And so here he creates a helper and Adam looks at her and he is overwhelmed with joy and excitement about his bride. And then we come to Genesis 3. Do you see her? This woman you gave me, she caused me to do this. How could he say that? You know, when the golden calf event happened, I've always been amazed by that event. When Moses comes down off the mountain and Moses confronts Aaron, he goes to the head there, he goes to Aaron, and Moses lays the charge. It's another kind of judgment scene, isn't it? What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them? Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord burn hot. In other words, Moses, calm down. You know the people. They are set on evil. he threw the whole nation under the bus they said to me make us gods which shall go before us so i said to them let any who have gold take it off so they gave it to me and i threw it into the fire and out came this calf i guess it just popped right on out on aaron is anyone going to confess so god turns to eve what is this you have done the serpent the serpent did it the serpent deceived to be an IA you know what's the worst about this unless you've picked I'm sure maybe some of you picked up on it already they're not also ultimately blaming one another who are they blaming this woman you gave me the serpent you made and ultimately what's happened here is they are saying, Lord, this is your fault. This mess we're in, this disaster that has happened, it's a defective woman because you made a defective woman. Had you given me a better woman, this would have never happened. Someone more reliable, someone who didn't step out of her role. It's part of your faulty creation, says Eve. This serpent, all of it, remember, was created good. had the serpent not come into the garden? What had Satan tempted them with in the garden? Satan had tempted them with the lie that he had said that God was holding you back. The temptation was an attack on the goodness of the Lord, that God was withholding something and you will become like God if knowing good from evil. And there's something that kind of came true about this. In other words, they, because of buying into that temptation, it had launched throughout history. It launched throughout history, the human race beginning a long history of attacking the goodness of God. Of questioning Him. And assuming that all this mess that we're in is His fault. Because He could have stopped it. And we heard it. we've heard it all the time if a good god created all of this and allowed this it could not be my fault i'm not at fault with this faulty creature that you made that induced me to do this and this is why i began with the culture of victimhood this really is not new we're just seeing it gone wild we blame everything on our circumstances and i'm under such pressure and i'm under such stress i i was exposed to this as a child and i was exposed to that and we blame anyone and everyone else and one pastor said consider the adulterous man who blames god for the ingredients that led to his adultery his depression his poor self-image the woman that god gave him not meeting his expectations his loneliness etc etc etc this is my disposition i'm just prone to the sin you see it's in my fabric for some reason i i've got this sin warped up in me lord you've done this you could have stopped it but you didn't and everyone's feeling this right now because you've done it you've done it see how hard ministry is by the way what what is the pastor called to do pull off your fig leaves. And that's a fight. That's a fight. You know, Dietrich Bonhoeffer came across the fairy tale of the emperor's new clothes. And I'm sure the boys and girls have read the emperor's new clothes. It's a story, a tale that's been around for years and years. And the emperor was obsessed with clothes. Remember this? And these crafty weavers came in and they made clothes for the emperor. And they said, they told him that these clothes were so special that only the intelligent can see them. And so the emperor goes out on the street and he prays before all the subjects with his new clothes on and a child, a little boy cries out, but he isn't wearing anything at all. And Bonhoeffer says, I recently read that fairy tale, which is relevant for our time. All we lack today is the child who speaks up at the end. Does anyone tell people you're naked before a holy god with no covering you did it everyone's in denial and i i think it should jump off the page at us when god puts david's life before us and exposes this giant in the faith who got caught in some of the worst sins that we would really struggle with even in the life of the church today, wouldn't we? And he puts that on the pages of Scripture after adultery, after murder. And then he puts Psalm 51. And what's the first thing that David says? Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. And that you may be found just when you speak. And blameless when you judge. Lord, I have sinned. I'm not blaming anyone else. I did it, and if you put me in hell, I deserve it. Why did God put that there? Lord, why did you allow me to stand up on the roof when Bathsheba was down there bathing? Come on. You were sovereign? Uh-uh. It's your fault. God didn't do that. I made this mess. I made this mess with my family. I made this mess with my children. I've sinned. I didn't emphasize enough the truth and now they don't value it today like they should. It's my fault. Tough stuff. It's a defining mark of a Christian though that he has come to grips with James 1 that each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed and when desire is fully conceived what does it do it gives birth to sin and sin fully grown brings forth death and so genesis challenges us to ask have we stopped the blame game and what we have in genesis 3 is the response of sinners dead and trespasses and sin it's not my fault it's not my fault and so what happens in Genesis well we're going to go through the curses next time but God said something from the beginning that in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die and God says to Adam in verse 19 this is exactly what happened you know like it or not this is what happened in the day that you eat of it you will surely die and so God says from dust you were taken and to dust you shall return all of us the wages of sin is death all of us know our bodies are going into the grave and so right at that moment adam died spiritually and in the process then of physical death had begun and he was withering away and that's essentially what's happened everyone knows that the moment you're born you're already starting to die and so we go into the ground and the Lord here shows us this expelling the greatest problem being we're expelled from the presence of God because flaming swords go up and no one can now come back into the presence of God and that's the issue of the Bible how can anyone come back how can anyone get home they're wandering east of Eden and they're trying to get back with another tower that God says that's not it you can't climb up to me and you say well this is really discouraging and it should be if i didn't make it discouraging and you don't feel the weight of this and i failed as a pastor but then i can give this big butt in the middle of all of this the lord does something absolutely shocking speaking to the serpent and he works backwards It's how this whole thing happened when Adam and Eve, and he starts with the serpent. And we come to one of the most glorious verses in all of the Bible. Just when you think it's over, just when you think, you know, we've lost it. God says something, and we have the very first announcement of the gospel. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring, He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And you say, what is that? It doesn't fit. What? Who's going to do that? And in one statement, in the midst of such darkness and rebellion, God makes a gospel announcement. Who expected this? Can you imagine if this had never been said? End of the story, Genesis 3, that's your Bible. but he didn't. I am going to separate out a people to myself. There are going to be two seeds that develop in the earth. There are going to be two seeds that develop. Those who remain in the darkness and stay on the side of Satan and unite it and do his will. Jesus talked about this all the time. But in sovereign grace, I'm going to pull out of that multitude of people a people to myself. No man can number. And in sovereign grace, I will save them. And these two seeds are going to be in great conflict throughout the history of the world. It's a battle of champions, if you will. From the seed of the woman, somebody's going to come and he's going to be a warrior. Satan, you know what's going to happen? You're going to strike his heel. But this champion, he is going to deliver a death blow to you. He will crush you. And his people will be victorious, his seed. And you see, now you understand throughout the history of Israel, what you have pictured is a warfare to bring forth the Messiah. What did the, if you come to Exodus 1, what is the first thing that's happening? They're killing all the firstborn. Satan throughout history has tried to kill the firstborn. He's tried to stop this from happening. And you see this with Herod right at the beginning in the gospels but in the fullness of time what happened what do we stand here and celebrate today that every prophet wanted to see in the fullness of time god sent his son we can say that born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who were under its curse and that seed is christ galatians says it's him this is who was promised to abraham this is who would fill the stars of heaven fill the heavens like the sand of the seashore with people who would not be in allegiance with the devil whose affection and love will be for him and so you know that there was another judgment day in history everybody knows there was another judgment day in history of a man who went into the cursed garden, if you will. He's stripped naked. His clothing comes off. Exposed shame in front of God. Not his shame, of course, but ours. And Pilate says he's guilty. He's guilty. Naked in his soul, he carries every single thought word and deed that you've ever done. He's bearing it. And he comes to a place called Golgotha, which is called Place of the Skull. And this champion, at that moment, the devil strikes his heel. But a surprising statement is made. It's finished. And he conquers death. And he triumphs over the grave. And in his resurrection, he is announced freely to this sad world, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. You see how much it offends him when we run around, everyone running around acting like a victim? See how much it offends him when everyone runs around saying we shouldn't offend? The Lord loves the honest and the broken and the contrite heart. He's told us, I won't despise these. God has said whoever believes in him and says, I'm a sinner. I need a savior. I'm at the bottom of the barrel. Pull me out. He'll do it. But sometimes the sons in the house don't want to realize they're at the bottom of the barrel. And the Lord declares to the world today that whoever comes and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, he's going to clothe them. I've got a robe of many colors for you. I close with this this morning. I close with this. Listen to these two stories you know well. Go, therefore, to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had on no wedding garment. And he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Second story. But while one was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe. Put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And all of you coming here today who've looked to Jesus Christ, you have that robe on. Do you realize that? Praise God. Look what He's done. On that day, you don't have to fear. You don't have to run. You don't have to duck and cover. Perfect love is casted out. And John reminds us that His love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness in the day of judgment and so i say to you christians today who believed and trusted in christ be bold be bold you have a savior who is worthy and we today have overcome by his blood amen gracious heavenly father where do we begin to say thank you for so rich a gift only we begin by confessing our sins and saying that we are sinners and that we have sinned against you and that the mess that we've created in this life is our fault. Remove the victim mentality from all of us. Let us stop any blaming and we come today confessing we're poor, blind, naked, cold and that we need you to cover us with your robes. As we see what you've done in the blood and the righteousness of your Son, may today we walk out of here praising you, desiring to be in your courts and worshiping you. Because the greatest lie in history is not true. We have tasted and seen that you are good. And because of that, we have boldness for this day of judgment that's coming. We pray these things and thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.