Where Are You? -- 5/25/08

Sunday, May 25, 2008

WHERE ARE YOU?
Gen. 3:7-13

Consider a hardened criminal. He is 57 years old and has been in and out of prison since he was 20. If you want to read his rap sheet, you better sit down in a comfortable chair; you’re going to be there for a while. This man is bad news. He has been convicted of just about everything except murder, and you figure he’s done that too, just didn’t get caught.

Now let’s suppose you had the opportunity to ask our convict about his crimes and why he did all those things. To your great surprise, this man would look you right in the eye and tell you that he is not guilty. Not guilty of which ones? Not guilty of any of them. So why has he spent all this time in prison? According to his version, because of people who framed him, crooked judges, etc. He is the picture of innocence.

If you ask someone in the social sciences what the problem is, he or she will be quick to point out that this man never had a chance. He grew up in a very dysfunctional family. Furthermore, the family lived in a terrible part of a large city. The handwriting was on the wall; this is exactly what you would expect from a man who had none of the advantages that most of us enjoy.

Let’s ask one other question about our convict friend. Is he repentant? Does he at least demonstrate some sorrow for the things he has done? None. Again, he won’t even admit he has done anything wrong. He is so convincing that you begin to wonder if he believes his own lies.

As we come to the Bible this morning, keep this man in mind, and ask the question: “How much sin does it take for a person to become proud and unrepentant?”

Now let’s read again from Gen. 3. Last week we read the entire chapter; this morning let’s read Gen. 3:1-13…
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7. 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. 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.

I. Looking at the Genesis Account

Last week we focused on the first 7 or 8 verses. Today we want to focus on verses 7-13. We talked about verse 8, about how the voice of the LORD God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day. That word translated “voice” is in some other places translated “sound.” Perhaps that is the idea here, as it’s hard to conceive of a voice walking, but we can certainly imagine the sound of the Lord walking in the garden. Very likely, this is one of those cases where the Lord took on human form in His fellowship with man. God is spirit. Nevertheless, throughout the Old Testament we find times when He did indeed appear in human form.

What do we make of the fact that it was in the cool of the day that the Lord came to them. Literally, “God came walking in the garden in the wind of the day.” Most would equate this with the evening, when the sun is setting. The point is this – it was later in the day. We don’t know what time of day it was when Adam and Eve sinned, but this gives us the impression that there had definitely been some time between when they sinned and when God came looking for them. This idea is supported by the fact that they needed some time to sew the fig leaves together in an attempt to cover themselves.

Let’s be reminded of the situation that has occurred. The way verse 8 is written implies that the walking of God in the garden was not something new. This must have been what He did on a regular basis, as He had close fellowship with Adam and Eve. Imagine that. This man and woman were in close relationship to the God who created the entire universe out of nothing. Yes, the Lord God condescended to their level and walked among them. Think of the most important person in the world and what it would be like to walk up and shake hands with him or her just once. That was nothing. Adam and Eve walked and talked on a daily basis with the God who made them and who made all the important people in the world. We cannot understand this passage, if we don’t get a grasp on the glory of being in God’s presence.

Now let me ask you a question. When God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day, was He surprised that He didn’t find Adam and Eve? Remember, they were hiding from Him. Was God upset that He didn’t find them? Let’s read verse 8 again, "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." Was God wondering what had happened to Adam and Eve?

Let’s look at how God responded to the fact that they were hiding, that they did not appear in His presence. verse 9, “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” Did you hear that? God called out, “Where are you?” Isn’t that interesting. God lovingly placed them in that beautiful, fruitful garden, and now they are using it to hide from Him.

It doesn’t take a genius to discover the truth of the situation. They thought they were hidden from God, but they weren’t. God knew exactly where they were. Then why did God say, “Where are you?” Was He really trying to discover where they were? Remember who we are talking about. This is God, the Creator of the universe. David wrote about the omnipresence of God in Ps. 139:1-12…
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.

It does no good to hide from God. He made the hiding place. If God knows even the thoughts of our minds, surely He has no trouble keeping track of our physical location.

If that is true, then why does the Lord say, “Where are you?” Think about it for a bit. Why would the Almighty God who knows everything ask a question of one of His creatures? He can never ask a question to which He does not know the answer. So why even ask? While you’re thinking about that, let me give you another question to ponder. What might God have said to Adam and Eve? He could have said, “You have disobeyed my commandment; now you must die.” That would make a lot more sense than, “Where are you?” After all, the Lord had already told them what would happen if they ate of the fruit – “In the day you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). No doubt, they feared that very prediction. Surely they wouldn’t have been surprised if the Lord had showed up and said, “Because of your disobedience, prepare to die.” But instead, He called to Adam, “Where are you?”

Do you think maybe God had in mind something far deeper than their physical location? The physical location was not even an issue. Then what was the issue? Their spiritual condition. Wasn’t God saying, “Adam, now that you have disobeyed me and tried to cover yourself, where are you now? How are you doing now? What is the current state of your experience?

By asking a question, the Lord was giving Adam an opportunity to speak the truth. The Lord was gently probing. Rather than thundering in judgment, the Lord comes and gently asks this probing question. “Adam, tell me where you really are. Really, Adam, what’s going on?” What an opportunity for Adam to come out of his hiding place, fall on his face before God, and say through his tears, “Lord, I disobeyed your command. After all you’ve done for me, I refused to trust you. I did what I wanted to do instead of what you told me to do. I have no excuse.” That seems like such a natural and reasonable response, doesn’t it? I believe that is why the Lord came with such a gentle question.

So how did Adam respond? We find the answer in verse 10, “And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” We quickly see that Adam didn’t take the opportunity God gave him to come clean with everything. Adam didn’t go back to eating the forbidden fruit. Instead, he began with hearing the voice of the Lord. Adam was truthful in that he said, “I was afraid.” He was indeed afraid, afraid that the Lord was going to pronounce judgment and then carry out that judgment. But that is where the truth ends. Adam said, “I was afraid, because I was naked.” That was a half truth at best. He was naked, but that wasn’t the reason for his fear.

Now the Lord probes deeper in verse 11, “And he said, Who told you that you were naked?” You get the picture, don’t you? They had been naked since God created them, but they had felt no guilt or shame. It was only after their disobedience that they were shamed and sewed fig leaves to cover themselves.

Listen to me. This is what sin does. It not only cuts us off from God, but it corrupts our relationship with the people around us. Not only were Adam and Eve hiding from God, but they were also hiding from one another. Disobedience toward God opened the door for impure thoughts toward one another. This is no small thing. There was only one explanation for their shame in being naked and it was their sin against God.

I don’t know how long the Lord paused between the question and the answer, which God Himself provided. If He did pause, Adam had no answer. No one had told them they were naked. There was no one else there to speak. This knowledge came about through their sin. Let’s go back to Satan’s promise. He told Eve that eating the fruit would make her wise and that she would know good and evil. I’m not sure how much she learned about good, but she learned plenty about evil. Both Adam and Eve knew evil by committing evil. Before they knew anything mentally, they experience evil at the core of their being.

Since Adam had no answer, God Himself provided the answer. Again, verse 11, “And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded you that you should not eat?” To ask the question is to give the answer. Yes, Adam had eaten of the forbidden fruit, and it was that act of disobedience that not only revealed their nakedness, but which filled them with guilt and shame.

Please understand that knowledge is not always a good thing. We live in a society that praises knowledge, enticing us to believe that knowledge is the answer to all our problems. We are often told that lack of knowledge will create all kinds of problems. The world tells parents, “If you shield your kids from the world, you will mess them up. No, instead let them experiment for themselves. If you tell them that homosexuality is wrong, what you will likely do is cause them to want to adopt that very lifestyle. And when it comes to religion, don’t restrict your children to your own beliefs. Give them knowledge of many different religious persuasions and then they can make a healthy choice about what they believe.” That kind of thinking finds no basis in the scriptures. That is Satan’s way, not God’s way. As knowledge tempted Eve, it still tempts mankind today.

So instead of coming to God and confessing his sin, Adam only confessed the consequences of his sin. He admitted that he was afraid and that he had hidden himself. By not confessing his own disobedience, he begins to lay the blame on God. Can you hear what Adam is saying? “God, I was afraid because you said I would die. I had to hide myself, because you are overbearing. What else could I do in light of your power and your judgment?”

But Adam isn’t through yet. Now verse12, “And the man said, The woman whom you gave me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” This is the classic response that even many in the world know about. “Eve made me do it.” But it goes much deeper than that. We might read it with this emphasis: The woman whom you gave me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Or we might read it with this emphasis: The woman whom you gave me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. If he was simply saying, “Eve made me do it,” there would be no reason for those additional words “whom you gave me to be with me.” Ultimately, Adam is placing the blame on God. Not only is God overbearing in His judgment upon their sin, but He is the blame for what Adam did. God should have left Adam alone, or He should have made him a more suitable helper.

So the Lord then turned to Eve. Verse 13, “And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that you have done?” Again, notice that the Lord asks her a question. He could have said, “Because you have misled your husband, you must die.” The Lord certainly had the right to say that. Instead, He asks the question. As with Adam, He gives her the opportunity to come clean. Surely Eve should have said, “I blew it. I knew you didn’t want us to eat from that one tree, but I did it anyway. I disobeyed you, Lord, and then I gave the fruit to Adam as well.” But that is not the way she responded. Her response is at the end of verse 13, “And the woman said, The serpent tricked me, and I did eat.” She admitted that she ate the fruit, but surely it wasn’t her fault. How could God expect her to stand up against the crafty snake? Surely she didn’t bear any responsibility.

II. A New Testament Commentary on Genesis 3

My purpose in focusing on this passage is to emphasize that sin not only cuts us off from God, but it also keeps us there. Sin separates us from God, and then sin sees to it that we don’t come to Him for reconciliation. We see it in this story. Adam and Eve not only disobeyed God, but then they refused every opportunity to humble themselves and repent. We don’t see them bowing down before Him. Rather, we see them bowing up to maintain their dignity and rights, refusing to take responsibility for what they had done.

Now come back to our 57-year-old convict. We understand that a life of crime has hardened him. Certainly, it’s no one’s fault but his own, but still this is a hardening that has taken place over the years. We aren’t surprised that he has become a good liar, as he has had years of practice. What could we expect from such a man?

Now come back to Adam and Eve. Why were they so evasive and unwilling to face the truth? Why were they so proud that they refused to fall down before the Almighty? Why did they refuse to repent and fall upon the mercy of their Creator? There is only one answer – sin. But it was only one sin. They did not have a history of sin. They had not made a long practice of lying. Until this particular day (however long it had been), they had never told a lie. They had never disobeyed. They had never thought an evil thought. They were completely innocent. But now, after one act of disobedience, they are so steeped in pride that they refuse to acknowledge their wrongdoing. That is the power of sin! I repeat – that is the power of sin.

Please come with me to John 3. Now let’s read John 3:14-21…
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

The one who does not believe is condemned already. Why? Because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. And why does that condemn him? Because he is under the wrath of God, as we read in Jn. 3:36, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Until there is life through believing on the Son, we are under the wrath of God. That is the condemnation we read about here in verse 18.

So that should be a simple matter. If a person is under God’s wrath and has not believed on the Son, then just turn to the Son. Surely any person in his right mind will turn from his own sin and throw himself on the Savior. So it would seem. But now come again to verse 19, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” This verse is an accurate commentary on what we see in the Garden of Eden. Light came into the garden that day, because “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). Why didn’t Adam and Eve fall at His feet and confess their sin through tears of sorrow? Because men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. The first example of this truth is in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve are living illustrations of this truth. And it only took them one sin to get there. Isn’t that amazaing!

Even stronger are the words of verse 20, “For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” Those who continually practice evil hate the light and refuse to come to the light. Why? Because they don’t want their evil deeds to be exposed for what they are. Light exposes darkness. And so was with Adam and Eve. They hid from the light, so that there deeds would not be brought to light, exposed as evil.

So right at the beginning we learn about the power of sin to harden the heart and to make a person unrepentant. We see that sin defies all reason, keeping a person from the only One who can do him any good. We find the same thing when we come to the end of the Bible and the end of this age. Rev. 16:8-11…
And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 9. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. 10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, 11. And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

That is unbelievable. They were scorched with great heat. It was so bad that they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. I don’t know about you, but pain does something to me. I would like to think that I would be true to the Lord, no matter what happens to me, but when I read of some of the tortures that believers in other parts of the world experience, I have to say, “Lord, you know.” I’m not going to willingly endure great pain, unless there is a very, very good reason. Yet these people are so proud, they would rather endure excruciating pain than humble themselves before God. They refuse to repent of their evil deeds, all the while blaspheming God. Sin defies all reason, and this sin began in the garden, when Adam and Eve refused to repent of their deeds.

III. Repentance as a Gift from God (see Acts 5:31; 11:18; II Tim. 2:25)

Is it any wonder that the New Testament refers to repentance as a gift? Reason will not cause a person to repent. All we have to do is look at Adam and Eve. They had enjoyed sweet fellowship with God. They knew what it was to experience the tender love of the Almighty. When they sinned, everything in all the universe dictated that they should humble themselves before the Lord, confess their sin, and cry out for mercy. If not for their own benefit, they should have done it for the glory of God. They knew who God was. They knew that He was holy and righteous, worthy of all praise and honor. There is not a single hint that they cared the least for his glory and honor after they disobeyed him. They refused to repent, and that’s the way it has been ever since.

No one repents unless God grants him that supernatural gift. There is a sense in which a man will not repent and cannot repent. Sin has hardened his heart and he cannot make it soft again. As we read in Jer. 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” As we read in John 3, men (and women) love darkness and refuse to come to the light, lest their deeds be exposed. Quoting from the Psalms, Paul put it like this: “There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God” (Rom. 3:10-11). No one seeks God. People turn away from God, not toward Him. Why? Because God is light, and men love darkness.

Now I ask you, have we not given a very accurate description of the world in which we live? And we’re not just talking about the United States of America. There are those who still believe that our society is corrupt, but there are pure societies, if we are just willing to seek them out. They believe that deep in the jungles of Africa there are people who have not been corrupted by such sinful attitudes. Paris Reidhead was such a man. He became a missionary and went to the jungles of Africa, seeking to bring the gospel to people who were eager to hear about Jesus. As he put it, “I didn’t think it was right for anyone to go to hell without a chance to be saved. So I went to give poor sinners a chance to go to heaven.” This is the way he later described his experience there…

And when I got to Africa, I discovered that they weren’t poor little heathen running around in the woods, waiting for someone to tell them how to go to heaven. But they were monsters of iniquity. They were living in utter and total defiance of far more knowledge of God than I ever dreamed they had. They deserved hell, because they utterly refused to walk in the light of their conscience and the light of the law written upon their heart and the testimony of nature and the truth they knew… When I got there, I found out they knew about heaven and didn’t want to go there, that they loved their sin and wanted to stay in it.

You may think it harsh that he says they deserved hell. Friends, every person on the face of this earth deserves hell because he or she cares nothing about the glory of God but lives only for self. And if it doesn’t appear that way to us, it’s because we are easily deceived. If you want to know what mankind is like, look at those descriptions we gave earlier from Gen. 3 and Rev. 16. Start in the beginning and go to the end, and you will find the same thing – people who live in sin and refuse to repent.

God doesn’t deceive us. He tells us the story from the very beginning. Do you believe that Genesis 1-11 is a part of God’s Word, that it is truth from God? Then believe what it says. Agree that even the one sin buried man so deep that he cannot claw his way out of a life (death) of sin and unrepentance.

Conclusion

We could stop there and do no violence to the truth of God, but there is something in us that always wants the rest of the story. Surely someone will say, “But look around. There are people who come to the light. There are those who are zealous for the glory of God. How does that square with what we have read from the scripture this morning?” There is only one way to square things. There is only one solution, and that solution is Jesus Christ. Outside of the life and work of Jesus, there would be no more rest of the story. Without Him, we would have to close the book with the hard facts we have outlined this morning.

But praise God that “God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Though men loved darkness, there was a man who came into this world, and He was the light of men (Jn. 1:4). Come again to John 3:20, "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” But now let’s read verse 21, “But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." You say, “See there. There are some who come to the light.” That’s right, but the context of scripture makes it clear that they come to the light for one reason – because God grants them the gift of repentance, because God the Father draws them to His Son, because where sin abounded, grace did much more abound in Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:20).

We read earlier from Rom. 3 that no one seeks after God. Then how do we explain it when a person does seek after God? We explain it by realizing that God has intervened and given that person a heart to seek him. So who receives the glory? God and God alone. When you see a person seeking the Lord, know that our God is at work and come alongside Him and enter into that work through prayer, love, encouragement, and the sharing of the truth.

So let me ask you this morning, “Where are you?” You can be sitting here this morning and still be in sin and unrepentance. Though you admit outwardly that you are a sinner, you can still defend sin in your heart, refusing to repent of that which God has convicted you. Where are you? Are you trying to hide?

Because of who Jesus is and what He has done, you can come clean this morning. You can fall down before Him and admit that you are undone and have no hope outside of Him.