WHO SAID YOU WERE NAKED
We are looking at Life Changing Questions.
Last week we saw 2 questions. One is from the Devil and one is from God.
“Did God really say?” and “Where are you”
There was a young man that got his first apartment. His parents visiting him noticed a large GONG and Hammer. The parents asked what that is for.
The young man said that is a talking clock. They asked “How does it work” the young man picked up the hammer and struck the gong with a ear splitting sound.
Suddenly someone from the other side of the wall shouted “Knock it off you idiot it is 9 o’clock in the morning.”
Sometimes things are not as they seem.
We saw last week how the devil asked a question and Eve thought she knew the answer. Then temptation overwhelmed her as she contemplated the fruit and enticed Adam into the sin.
SIN CAUSES US TO TRY TO HIDE FROM GOD.
Sin will also cause us to COVER UP
I. THE COVER UP (Gen. 3:9-13)
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
(v 7)Covering up your sin may hide it from others but not from God…(v 8) “Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden…”
They tried to hide behind things:
a. The fig leaves: covered their sin
That’s why God has to expose and convict us when we when try to Cover Up…
When we hear His voice in our daily prayer, at church, or just when our conscience is being pricked… So God says, (v 9) “Adam…Where are you?” It wasn’t because God had no idea where he was… It was because He wanted Adam to know where He was… And because his SIN Set Up has caused him to run, hide and Cover Up, it’s now going to be hard for Adam to come out...
God must expose your Cover Up to bring you back into the place that you need to be in Him…
But instead of coming clean, Adam did what we all do; he began to blame others for his mistake… (v 12) “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate…”
He blamed the woman… He blamed God… He said, “Well if you God put it here he must want me to have it…”
Understand that Cover Up is nothing more than an excuse for your actions…
“It’s not my fault,” should become our national Motto because, not only are we expert at shuffling off our responsibilities, but we like to pass off our blame as well.
It seems like people are always telling me why they can’t serve God, why they can’t get victory over their sin, why they have to live in defeat.
Rather than dealing with the problem and changing, it’s much easier to simply blame the problem on someone else!
1. The Devil made me do it…
2. My parents didn’t raise me right…
3. I’ve got so much peer pressure…
your sin will drive you to blame others.
"The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." Adam took it like a man. He blamed his wife.
She’s the problem.”
And from that day until now, every divorce attorney has had a job.
Adam goes a step further and blames God. He said, “It’s the woman who You gave me.” “This is your fault God.” “Everything was great when it was just me and the animals.”
Verse 13 "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." She is saying, “I did it all right. But the devil made me do it.
It’s been said, “To err is human; to blame it on somebody else is even more human.”.
You see it’s never about your gossiping tongue it’s about the horrible thing they did… It’s never about that lie it’s about how you couldn’t trust that person with the truth…
We want to explain away why we can’t live up to our calling…
But, my husband/wife…
Why we can’t be faithful… But, my boss… Why we can’t give… But, my kids…
In our sin, we always point to the other party.
We dabble with sin but it’s never our fault. We fail to live up to God’s call on our lives, but it’s not my failure, it’s somebody else’s fault! Pass the blame!
B. MY SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
Maybe you’re not blaming another person… maybe it’s your special circumstances, or influences, or situation…
We always want to point out why harder for us to do right …
No one said righteousness was easy.
That’s why we needed the blood of Jesus in the first place and the Holy Spirit to keep going. Just because it’s harder for you doesn’t give you license to sin!
Alcoholism, drug addiction… the world wants to label it a disease. The blood of Jesus is the cure!
I can’t help my violent temper… It’s the way I was raised…
You can live with the curse as long as you want… or give it to God and see it broken!
Eve started it but Adam was standing there when God said not to eat of that fruit… He made a personal choice to disobey God… (And the Set Up will lead to you the Cover Up… But for every Set Up and every Cover Up… There will always be…
III. THE PAY UP (Gen 3:14-19)
14 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 dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
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.
16 Unto the woman he said I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee saying Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return
Nothing in this life comes without a consequence…
Your sin affects others.
Maybe you’ve heard about the greedy and deceitful corporate executives who mishandled and lost their employees’ life savings. The list could go on and on. Sin is costly and it not only costs you, it costs all of us.
(Gal 6:7-8) “7 Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
As result of your Set Up, you’ll find yourself in the midst of a Cover Up to hide what you’ve done… But the day will surely come when it’s time to Pay Up…!
Aren’t you glad that God provided a way of escape for us…
Aren’t you glad that God provided what it took for us to be delivered from the price of the Set Up and the Cover Up…
Isn’t it amazing, that God seeks out Adam and Eve when they are hiding from him?– you never need to hide from God.
When you have sinned, you will be tempted to hide from God. Maybe stay away from his Word. Stay away from church.
When you have sinned, you will be tempted to blame other people and hide from responsibility.
After you have sinned, and God comes looking for you, just as he came looking for Adam and Eve, you will want to run because you will think that god has come to punish you. You will want to argue, hoping that you can convince God that it’s not your fault.
But then God surprises you, as he surprised Adam and Eve. He surprises you by coming to you not to punish you, but to forgive. “But how can that be?” you wonder. “How can God forgive me, when I haven’t done anything to earn that forgiveness?”
Romans 5:8-10), 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled we shall be saved by his life.
I don’t know about you, but I’m glad that God sent His Son to pay the price and the penalty…
This is what Jesus Christ has done for you.
He came into the world and save the human race from the power of the Devil. He came face to face with Satan, and crushed him.
The human race was saved, but during the process, the Devil struck Jesus’ heal – the Devil inflicted a bruise on the Messiah.
This happened at the cross, when the Devil worked through people to kill the Messiah.
But in the end Christ rose. He could not be defeated. He rose to prove to the world that he had defeated the Devil.
We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled we shall be saved by his life
You can shove off responsibility, push the blame on somebody else… you can pass the buck, but you can’t pass the price!
The PRICE HAS BEEN PAID.
Conclusion
There are great and horrible consequences to sin. But there is a remedy to sin that can be found in Jesus Christ.
Today I want you to recognize the high price of your sin. Your sin will cost you. It will cost you in guilt, shame, and fear. There will also be a price to be paid by the other people in your life. Even the people you love the most. But instead of blaming others for your sin or trying to cover it up, you need to recognize God’s remedy. Come clean today. Acknowledge your sin, turn from it and turn to Jesus Christ. He shed his blood for you so that you can be forgiven now
