Genesis 3:7-10

Sin ruins

But in the passage we just read, a watershed moment has taken place. Adam had just eaten of the tree that God commanded him not to. And with that one act, Adam and all mankind with him were swept down into the fall, down the other side of the watershed, as it were. So how does God respond to the fall of man? What solution does he bring? Our passage tonight gives us this answer. God comes to call us out of our sin and shame. God comes to call us out of our sin and shame. Now that's the main point of our text and we'll walk through it in three movements. So point number one, sin ruins. Sin ruins. When Adam and Eve bit into that fruit, it was no innocent mistake.

It was their declaration of rebellion against the very God who loved them and made them. We must recognize that is what every act of sin really is. Sin is cosmic treason against the sovereign Lord. Sin is refusing to obey and worship the one who is infinitely worthy. It's trying to exalt ourselves and take God's throne, saying that we creatures know better than him, that we should be Lord of our lives. That's why sin is so evil and offensive to God. But not only that, sin is also harmful for us. Brothers and sisters, we must never believe the lie that sin has no consequences. Sin is never harmless. It always brings ruin. We can see its consequences even here in the lives of Adam and Eve.

If we go back to chapter 2, verse 25, we read that

the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Before the fall, Adam and Eve were completely innocent. Between them there is no sin, no distrust, no lack of love. They could be around each other without fearing any kind of mistreatment or harm. They could delight in one another without any feeling of discomfort or vulnerability. They were not sinners. But oh how that changes here in verse 7.

Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked.

How sad is this? Their innocence is forever gone.

Now they're lawbreakers, covenant violators. And they know it. And so they sow fig leaves to try and cover themselves up. Even between the two of them, they feel vulnerable around each other now. In a place of intimacy, there is now shame and sin. But this one sin did not just ruin their relationship with one another, it ruined them. Adam and Eve were created as glorious image bearers to reflect God. Now they had become more like broken mirrors.

In trying to exalt themselves to become like God, they only corrupted themselves and became lesser. They went from ruling over the garden to now hiding within it. and eventually being cast out of it. At one time, they would have run to God eagerly to be in His presence. Now He comes, and they run away from Him in cower and fear. Instead of unending delight and joy, now they experience guilt and shame.

Because of their sin, they would even suffer pain and childbearing and toil. Instead of a world filled with the glory of God, today we look around and this world is filled with brokenness and evil and conflict. It's all because of sin. This is all that we have lost because of sin. And so this passage presents us with a warning. Sin always brings ruin.

Never believe Satan's lie that sin pays off. In verse 5, he promised Adam and Eve that their eyes would be opened. That did happen, but they did not like what they saw. It's often the case that Satan's lies come with a mix of the truth. So what makes them deceptive? What Satan does is he takes truth and he twists it. He takes God's word and he corrupts it.

He whispers. Does God's word really say that? Doesn't God want you to be happy? Wouldn't God forgive you anyways? When Satan tempts you to sin, remember who God is. God is maximally good. He is always for you. He is our creator who made us and designed us to live under his good rule. So don't think that you can see better. Don't think that you can experience something better than what God has for you. Learn from the mistake of Adam and Eve. The root of Satan's lie was that God was withholding something good from them. They doubted God's love and goodness, and the consequences were devastating.

Man hides

So we've seen that sin leads to ruin, it pollutes us, it corrupts us. We see also here in our passage that it leads man to hide. So that brings us to point number two, man hides. Man hides.

And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 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.

" Adam and Eve's attempt to hide from God here is utter foolishness. They think that somehow they can hide from the all-powerful creator behind fig leaves and trees.

It's like a child trying to hide behind a see-through curtain that doesn't even cover their feet. Sin makes you foolish. It makes you senseless. But Adam and Eve were desperate. They immediately realized that what they did was wrong, so they tried to hide their sin. They tried to cover up their shame. To us, this story of them hiding may sound silly, but we need to realize that we are all no different.

In our sin, hiding from God is our instinct too. Every one of us has inherited Adam's fallen nature. We have a heart that is bent on hiding and running away from God. We fear the presence of a holy God because his light will expose and reveal our sin. We don't want to come to God because doing so means acknowledging our sin and giving it up. And so just like our first parents, we too try to cover up our sin. That's why Adam sowed fig leaves. He thought he could fix his problem by the efforts of his hands. And ever since the fall, we have all been doing the same exact thing.

Maybe you try to cover up your sin by doing good deeds. You think if you can just clean yourself up a bit, then you'll be acceptable before God? Maybe you try to cover up your sin by minimizing it. You say, sure, that was wrong, but it wasn't that bad. I make some mistakes here and there, just like everyone else, but I'm still an okay person.

Maybe you try to cover up your sin by blaming others for it. That's what we see Adam and Eve doing here. If you look down at verse 12, Adam says,

the woman you gave to me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate.

And then the blame gets pushed further down the line in verse 13. Eve says,

the serpent deceived me and I ate.

Not much has changed since then. Don't we often say things like, of course I did this because you did that first. Or I only said that because I had a stressful day. how quick we are to blame our circumstances or others, even God, instead of taking responsibility for our own sin.

All these things that we do are fig leaves. Every way that we try to deal with our sin and cover it up, it's all fig leaves. We cannot hide our sin from the God who sees and knows all things. And nothing we do can ever cover up our sin, because the problem is deep within us. What we need is someone else to come and fix it for us. Our help must come from outside. And so that brings us to point number three.

God calls

God calls. God calls.

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.

What does God do when his people have brought ruin upon themselves and hidden away?

He comes to them and calls to them. He does not leave his people in the mess that they have made. Instead, he mercifully invites them out of it. Notice here that God comes walking to them. He doesn't ride on the clouds with glory and power. He doesn't descend with thunder and fire like at Sinai. No, he comes walking to them in the cool of the day, not to immediately declare judgment, not to threaten punishment, but to ask this simple question, where are you? Where are you?

It's not as if God couldn't find Adam and Eve. Of course, he knew where they were. But he asked this question to show that he is merciful. He asked this question to call them out, to invite them out of their sin and their shame, to come to him and confess what they have done. Where are you? This is a question filled with grace. And we see that Adam responds in verse 10.

I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.

You can almost hear there the stutter, the fear in his voice. He knows what God said.

In the day that you eat of the tree, you will surely die.

So we get why Adam's hiding. And yet look what God does.

He comes to him. He walks to him. He goes to him in mercy and kindness. He takes the initiative, not man. He doesn't wait for man to come to him because that would never happen. God goes and he seeks out man, even when he is running and hiding from him.

Oh, how gracious and good is our God. We see that God's question succeeds in drawing Adam out of his hiding. Now, Adam's response is far from a perfect confession, but it's the beginning of restoration. Yes, his sin will have consequences, but God is not done with him. God will not abandon his people to their sin. What is God's solution to sin?

Promise and provision

Well, we see two displays of hope here in chapter three. First, God makes a promise. Verse 15 is what theologians call the first gospel. In God's mercy, he allows mankind to live on. They will continue to have offspring. And one day there will even come a seed of the woman who will crush the head of Satan. Death and defeat are not the final word. Rather, victory and life are. This is the wonderful promise that God makes. But second, God also makes provision. Look with me at verse 21.

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

God prepares garments of skins for them through the death of an animal. He takes their useless fig leaves and clothes them with the garments he makes. He says to them, you cannot cover your sin and your shame, but I can.

How wonderful is our God to make these promises and to give them his provision. And the New Testament declares that this promise and this provision are ultimately fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the promised seed of the woman who died on the cross and rose from the dead to crush the serpent's head. Jesus is the Lamb of God who gave himself for the sins of all those who would trust in him so that our guilt might be taken away and so that we might receive his robes of righteousness. The good news of the gospel is that Christ has come to bring us back into the presence of God. Through him we can draw near and stand unashamed before the Father as his precious children.

So if you're here today and you don't have this reconciliation with God, come to Christ. Even now, God calls to you with his voice, through his word, with the same question he once asked Adam, where are you? Don't hide from God in your sin and in your shame. Don't think that your fig leaves will do. God has a better way.

He invites you to come to Christ, to trust in him, to receive his righteousness that can cover your sin and shame. Brothers and sisters, those of us who have trusted in Christ, May we not hide from God. May we not delay in repenting when we sin. May we rejoice that Christ has come to call us out of our sin and shame. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you because you are God full of mercy and kindness and grace. Thank you that our sin is not the final word, but thank you that you have come to call us out of it. We pray that we would be quick to come to you. In Jesus' name, amen.