Introduction
Luke 19:10 Jesus says “The son of man came to seek and save the lost.”
Main idea: Renounce sinful responses to guilt and humbly turn to God who pursues you.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)
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All right, turn your attention to Genesis chapter three. We're working our way through Genesis, And last week, we saw the first sin, and we diagnosed how temptation works. Today, we're going to diagnose what humans ever since have done with their guilt, which is not first to go to God, it's first to hide from it, cover it up and so on. We're going to take a look at that today. So stand with me for the reading of God's Word. Notice this, though you can't miss this. God comes after them. God pursues Adam and Eve after their sin. And so God has been doing ever since the first sin. He is gracious and merciful, 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 me to be with me. She gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. This is the word of the Lord our God. We look at this and we see what sinners, the first sinners, did in response to their sin and guilt, and how we have all fallen to this often. Ian, in this very week, I am grateful that you unpack what we do in the wrong way with sin by showing it to us here. But I also thank you even more for the solution to this in Christ, the very promises that are in seed form in Genesis three come true as we see the Scripture unfold. And I pray that we would look to the Lord Jesus more than ever, father. I pray that you would be at work among us. Help us. Help us be a humble, repentant people looking to you, Your Lordship, your glory and your mercy. I pray that you give us attentiveness. Help me. These are profound matters that could. Could change a marriage. They could change a set of relationships understood and applied in Christ. And I pray that that would be the case, that you would be at work, father. I pray for churches in our region. I pray for the so many of the rural churches that faithfully preach and teach onico, Bible Church in in Colfax and Pastor Nyholm there. I thank you for the guys up in in Newport, near Newport, so Peaceful Valley church with Mark Mark zert preaching and and pray that You would help their team and encourage them. We want the gospel to shine brightly and brilliantly, not only out of pulpits, but from the various people. And we're going to run into unbelieving family and different people this coming week, we want to talk most excitedly about Christ. So help us do that and be a testimony to a people who are often indifferent conservative, but indifferent to true spiritual things. How we want to talk liberal and indifferent whatever it is we want the gospel of Christ to be what is most precious to us in our conversations. Allow that to happen in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated Well, the overwhelming testimony of the Gospels is that God seeks and saves the lost. In Luke, 1910, you could have the purpose statement of the Gospel of Luke and a statement by Jesus, the Son of Man, came to seek and save the lost. The Creator King took on flesh to save the lost, and we see this disposition not first in the gospels, not first in the prophets, not first in the Psalms, but first. First on the first and saddest day of human sin in all of history, the saddest day of Earth history, Adam and Eve sinned, rebelled against God, plunging all mankind into sin. And the Creator, King of heaven and earth, is the very same king who pursues these sinners for repentance. For man's part, there are always two ways to deal with our sin and guilt, sinfully or humbly. We commit sin. We're aware of guilt, we can respond to that sinfully, which is what Adam and Eve do here, we could solve it humbly, which is what we see. The rest of Scripture help us to get to last week, we saw Eve and Adams first sins, and we learned how easily we fall to the same patterns of temptation. We're going to learn this week how easily we follow to the same patterns of cover up, denial. You're gonna go away from this, going, I do that, and then I do that. I double do that, and I do that one too. When you get caught, what do you do when you get caught? What do you do? The first sin provides the first case study of how humans deal with their guilt before God. That's what this is. It's a case study of how you deal with guilt before God. This is one of those passages of this is what not to do. So we're going to learn what to do in opposite of what they did. And so we will get to that in part two of this. Let's summarize the whole message, if we would, we want to renounce sinful responses to sin and guilt and humbly, turn to God who pursues us. Renounce sinful responses to sin and guilt and humbly, turn to God who pursues us so you sold something, you lied about something, to stay out of trouble. You belittled your spouse in anger, you cheated in a game, you committed a sexual sin, you broke the law at work. What do you do with your guilt and shame? What do you do with your guilt and shame? So there are sinful responses and there are humble, repentant responses. To unpack the diagnosis of this today, we have to start as really two major sections, renounce sinful responses to guilt and shame, and then we need to look at true responses, or humble responses to guilt and shame. So let's take this first heading, renounce sinful responses to guilt, and here in the passage, we've got four. I'm going to give you a fifth, little bonus, little bonus of ways that we respond. They're hardly the only responses in the Bible, but they come and set a paradigm for most of the responses for to sin and guilt. They've existed from the first moments of Adam and Eve sitting in the garden, Eve saw, I remember looking back verse five and six. Eve saw the fruit. She took it and she ate it, then she gave it to her husband. What do they do? Then notice in verse seven, then the eyes of both were opened and they knew they were naked. We said last week, what does this mean? Did they not know they were naked before? No, now, everything inside is as exposed as the outside. That's the point of the nakedness. I mean, you are who you are when you're naked, like that's you, good or bad, it's you now that's you goes all the way into the soul. That's you. They knew they were guilty. What do they do with this? First, they pretend it doesn't exist. And the most common thing humans do when they find themselves guilty is that they try to pretend like it doesn't exist. You see, they then the eyes of both were opened. They knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin cloths. I'm Adam and Eve immediately felt the consequences of sin. They were exposed the physical nakedness was immediately connected to their shameful spiritual condition. They felt profound personal humiliation and humiliation in the relationship. They knew they were going to be in trouble before God. So they said, I know what we'll do. We'll pretend like it doesn't exist. You. Anybody have some plant leaves? So they sew for themselves these leaves,
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this profound personal humiliation in the relationship was something they wanted to cover up. And here's the principle, it's universal. You sin. You know what's wrong, and you cover it up. You often want to pretend you're not really guilty. You want to pretend that you're not guilty in front of other people, and even in the garden, doesn't don't we look at this and go, seriously? You think the fig leaves are going to work, but I mean, we all see it when our children are very small, don't we, your preschooler takes a sibling's toy and the sibling says, Jimmy took my toy and Jimmy grabbed the toy and he puts it behind his back. He says, No, I didn't I that? Like they're literally standing like this, and sometimes the toy is huge. Don't eat that cake. It's not time. Did you eat the cake? Frosting everywhere? No, I didn't do that. I mean, it's, it's, it is human nature to pretend like there's no guilt. He's got red handed toys in his hand. All attempts to cover our sin and our guilt by our own devices, they're going to fail this pretending doesn't work, but let's just hold on before we jump to the next one. Why pretend go back up to Satan's offer. What was Satan's offer? If Adam and Eve took from the fruit, what's the offer? You will be like God, knowing good and evil, you will be like God. And it's not just deciding the rules for yourself, which is autonomy, but to be like God means you also get glory, worship, reputation. To be like God also means you get control. What happens if you have to admit your guilt, you have to admit that you're not glorious. You have to admit that you're not in control. You have to relinquish control. You
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and you have to admit that you're not really a beautiful person inside, your reputation goes, your control goes, your autonomy goes admitting guilt means I have to leave all of those things behind.
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Adam and Eve still want to be like God. Falling into sin and feeling shame didn't turn off the desire to be their own gods. In fact, it probably accelerated it. What do they do next? They resort to hiding from God. They resort to hiding from him. As we look in the rest of chapter three, we're going to see Yahweh God as an awesome judge and a careful, loving Shepherd, pursuing the first sinners, the first law, lost sheep. This is the problem that Adam and Eve have. They don't now have a category for judge and shepherd. You
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Ian watch carefully he's going to pursue while they hide verse eight, and they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And I want you to notice that the repeated phrase of the Lord God happens in verse eight, the sound of the Lord God. Verse nine, but the Lord God called to them. Verse 13, the Lord God said to them, that is Yahweh God, and that's always significant. When Yahweh is mentioned, it's always talking about the God who creates relationship, the God who builds covenant. Because Adam and Eve sinned didn't mean that Yahweh was done pursuing relationship. He comes walking in the garden the cool of the day, most think that it's in the cool evening breezes, like Sun's done being hot and the pleasant time to go for a walk. This is. The time to walk with his creatures. God stepped into the garden. They hear a noise. They hear the footsteps, and they're unmistakable. There are no other people. The footsteps belong to Yahweh God. You could circle that little verb, walking seems really simple. It's an intensive form. Some commentators notice it's almost like a pacing like a search. God is omnipotent and all knowing. He knows where Adam is. This is God who created for relationship now stepping into the garden, knowing what's going on, and he comes for them who's walking I think it's worth noticing. This a little theology of the whole Bible. This is the covenant keeping God. Listen to Jesus' words from John 858, I mean, when he said this, the religious leaders picked up stones to stone Him. They got what he was meaning John 858, Jesus said to this crowd of people who are not following Him or believing him, he says, Truly, truly. I say to you before Abraham was I AM ego AMI is the Greek translation of the name of Yahweh. I am this was Jesus in the garden. Jesus stepped into the garden. Pre incarnate, Jesus. You
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they hear him from Adam and Eve's perspective, it's the sound of judgment. Here comes the judge, and instantly, the fig leaves feel silly. This is not going to cover us up.
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Adam and Eve dive into the bushes, so to speak. Look at three eight and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God Yahweh God, the hide from the presence of the all seeing and all knowing God. Now, now follow through what's going on. They they had heard that God would kill them if they disobeyed the command. Here is God just surely in the day you eat it, you will die. It's the promise out of Genesis two, they're fearing death, and they hide themselves in the trees of the garden. But can you really hide from God? And this is, this is why it's it's almost as silly as fig leaves, and yet it's one of the most natural human tendencies. It's the most common impulse. After realizing we can't cover up our guilt, we try to hide. We won't admit our sin. We hide from God or others. We stop going to church so that nobody has to ask us any penetrating questions, or we don't have to feel any guilt from a sermon. We withdraw from our spouse, we withdraw from our friends. But does it work? Can you really hide from the all seeing, all knowing God? I mean, it's obvious that it's ridiculous,
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but God isn't pursuing them first to judge them, is he? He's not pursuing them to judge them. He's pursuing them to turn them to repentance. Notice, there's a sidebar about God's disposition here. It's a disposition we could all learn from when someone sins and we see it. Someone sins against us and we see it. Notice that there is a relational question. First, where are you? Every other time they walked in the garden, you have to imagine that Adam almost skips to Yahweh. Well, what were the meetings like the Lord's here? I can't wait to talk to him about sloths. Did you make those? Those are crazy. They move so slow, but they're so cute. Cute. I mean, like, who knows what they went on and talked about about all kinds of things in the garden. We planted this and look how it grew. There would have just been this excitement and exhilaration and joy at every meeting. And this time they hid in the trees. They ducked for cover. Ian,
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God was pacing, and Adam and Eve were still as stones in the thicket of the tree. God's pursuing, God's asking a question to draw them out. I thought you would come see me. Don't you come and see me? Why aren't you coming to see me? Where are you? He doesn't first ask, What have you done? He knows. Why have you disobeyed? He's seeking to open Adam's heart. Where are you? Adam says, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Adam had good reason to be afraid. He was just told, and the day you eat it, you will surely die. And here comes the Lord. He had disobeyed and God had promised death. So legitimate fear, but is that the only thing Adam could have felt now think where Adam is, Adam and Eve hid themselves in the tree. What did God give them? The trees for their food, fruit was hanging. I mean, Adam could have been ducking in the thick fruit. Why the fruit was whacking him on the head. Here is this illustration of God's effusive, generous goodness from the trees of which they could have eaten all but one, and they're hiding behind all this goodness. Could Adam have had one other thought? Indeed, perhaps there's something more to God than justice. Instantly you see what the right response would be, fall out into the path, fall on his face and say, I have sinned against you. Is there something more than justice to you? Yahweh. I am looking at the trees. I am looking at all you provide. And I wondering, is there something else I
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my reading a lot into it, they're hiding in the trees which were their good provision.
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Why does he not want to say this control autonomy and glory, keep sinners hiding. They keep sinners hiding. It's not all there is. They pretend which doesn't work. They hide which doesn't work. They blame shift. They blame shift. God asked two successive questions. He said, Who told you that you were naked? I mean, in verse seven, it says his eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked. And why would God ask that question that way? Because before they ate from the tree, somebody would have told them they were naked, and they would have gone whatever, like these are the clothes God gave me, no shame, no guilt. Now they themselves knew. It says they knew their guilt. They saw their guilt. They knew their guilt, and they have to immediately say, I I knew I was guilty. I mean, the obvious sign are the fig leaves. They even had to hide the figs leaves because they knew that would show that they were in denial.
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God wanted to expose the guilt, and he says this, have you eaten of the tree of which I have commanded you not to eat? And the. Obvious answers this, the trap is sprung. About their guilt. I knew myself, and I didn't come forward. Adam and Eve didn't meet God, stepping into the garden in the cool of day, on the ground, pleading for mercy. They hid from God. I
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it, they feared punishment, and they couldn't imagine goodness and mercy.
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There's an undeniable Yes we have. So watch the response. This is classic, classic response. You got blame shift, or you have the double blame shift. Here is the double blame shift. The man said, The woman, whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate. Somebody on my team sent me this this week. There's an old saying you're familiar with. It, to air is human and to forgive is divine. Somebody reworded it says To err is human and to blame someone else for it is even more human. It's the woman's fault. I'm not really guilty. I mean, what was I going to do? Let her be a sinner all by herself? Forever? I mean, you can imagine the justification that he would have tried to have. Second, it's your fault, God. I mean, you're the creator. You gave her to me. It's the woman you gave to me. It's her fault, and it's your it's your fault. So why do I feel guilty you did this? And he's correct. That's why the single and double blame shift seems so plausible when you're in the middle of covering your guilt, because the facts are there. It is a fact that if God had not given Adam the woman, he wouldn't have eaten from the fruit of the tree that way. It is a fact that if the woman didn't give it to him, he wouldn't have eaten it in that way. But why doesn't the double blame shift get us off the hook? Why is the person who is with us? Why is God not to blame because nobody made Adam eat. Adam made a choice. He didn't own his choice. I tell you most, most interpersonal conflict, especially among Christians who have the forgiveness of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, could evaporate if each side in the conflict owned their part. You know, I, I wouldn't go looking at those images, if she would supply my needs. Blame shift, I wouldn't be covetous. If he would work, I wouldn't want what all those other women have. I'd have it if he'd actually get a real job. Blame shift and on and on. It goes.
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From the beginning, it is true that no one makes us sin. We sin of our own choosing. James summarizes this well. James 114, 15 says, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. I mean, that's that's what Genesis three says it was desirable to make one wise says, Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown, brings forth death. It's almost like James read Genesis three. He knew the command he disobeyed anyway. We blame someone else for our sin, we blame God, and that draws us farther from God in His mercy, not nearer. He is running, not only from judgment, but he is also running for mercy and restoration. Uh, there's one more tactic, maybe two. I'll throw one an extra excuse making. Excuse making. So there's pretending, hiding, blame shifting and excuse making. God turns to Eve, the Lord. God said to the woman, what is this? It you have done? Notice the woman didn't blame shift, or did she the serpent deceived me and I ate? Well she she blamed the serpent. But here's what's really happening. I was too weak. It was too strong for me. I didn't have I couldn't help myself. She blames shifts in a way, but what she's really saying is, I this is just the way that I made I can't help it. Why doesn't excuse making work? When we do it, we are really thinking that it gets us out of our responsibility, but excuse does making doesn't work because we still made the choices of our own will and desire. There's one more I want to give you. It's the one probably that's pretty concerning. Just Just give a peek over to Genesis chapter four. There's one other pretty dangerous response to sin, Cain and Abel make offerings. Cain is not pleasing to the Lord. Something's corrupt in his heart about the offering. The Lord warns him, and he's saying, watch out sins crouching at the door, and you must master it. And Cain goes, hangs out with Abel and does what to Abel. He murders him. Another number five, and it's the most dangerous one is lashing out, getting called on sin. There are all kinds of forms of lashing out, lashing back, verbal. Keynes was physical. Do you get angrier when you get confronted,
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Cain did add to Adam and Eve Cain, you have a recipe for a very difficult world, and it will always make things worse, not better. Ian,
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what
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Adam and Eve were inexperienced at maybe. I mean, we were my wife and I were talking about this like, this is the first time anybody's been caught in the sin. So thinking about them being well practiced in proper repentance, that might be a lot to ask. Might be true, but you're pretty well practiced, so we don't have to run there. We have an opportunity. Does God give a remedy for this? And the answer is going to be yes, we've all sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. Let's follow God's remedy for this. What God did here in Genesis. He pursues us. Listen to Romans two, four says, God's kindness. He says, I mean, do you think lightly, because the kindness of God leads you to repentance? It's God's kindness. And here is God's kindness. He steps into the garden in the cool of the day to set Adam up for why is our relationship broken? Why are you hiding from me? Have you sinned? Yes, you have. And they turned against God, and they rejected it at each step. God, God's kindness is to lead us to repentance. How do we see God's kindness? One is he has given us conscience. He's given us conscience. You see it in verse seven, their eyes were opened and they knew they knew they had sinned and they knew their guilt. Romans 215, talks about this. Says he writes his law on every human heart which either condemns or acquits us in our actions. So every human experiences sin, guilt, shame because of conscience. You You know what God commands. You know you know it from the very nature of things, and you suppress it, you hide from it. And God's kindness here is pursuing Adam and Eve for their repentance. So listen, here's the point, if you sin, i. Don't add sin to your sin. You don't want to add sin to your sin by then pretending, hiding, blame shifting or excuse making. And here's one that's really hard for people to get. Don't assume that God only punishes and he doesn't forgive.
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I do want to insert something here. There's, there's two kinds of guilt. There's, there's a guilt given by culture, I think of the young moms in the child rearing era, you fed your baby formula that would that's not good. Formula is not good. Mom, guilt, I know I'm supposed to be breast feeding. I'm not so. Mom guilt, you gave your kids sugar. Sugar is terrible for kids. Mom guilt, you used disposable diapers, filling the landfills. Mom guilt, all kinds of mom guilt. I mean, there's a club of mom guilt, and there are all these like legalists online. You know, you can't use this. You can't do that to be a good mom. You got to do this to be a good mom. You got to do that. So I want to clear out two things. There's one thing where you don't know everything, and you find out new things, and you were doing some things wrong. That's just called Growing in knowledge. You don't need to feel guilty about that. You might feel bad because there might be some consequences you didn't know about, but you didn't sin. So make sure when you're thinking of guilt, that you're not applying guilt to some internal pressure that you have perform or to know. You want to be released from personal pressure to perform and look good. You want to release yourself from that kind of guilt, which is not the guilt from sin, it's not the shame from sin. You do want to deal with the shame and guilt that is from sin. That's what I want to talk about here. Is this guilt, or is this just cultural pressure? I
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God gives
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a solution for sin. First, trusting him. Trust God's solution to sin and guilt. As the Bible unfolds, it says all kinds of things about God's goodness connected to more than justice. God's goodness is connected to just justice. Psalm 86 verse five, for instance, says For You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love. To all who call upon you that calling upon God is a calling for rescue, a calling for deliverance, a calling for help of any kind, for any trouble that is beyond you, especially the trouble of Your sin and guilt. It's a manifestation of trust calling on God. It's It's realizing, because of all the providence that God surrounds you with, that there is more than punishment awaiting for you. I remember a counseling conversation person I was discipling counseling, just trying to get him to admit openly and honestly what the sin was. And he said, if, if I admit it, who would ever want to be my friend again? Feeling the shame was going to isolate him from all people.
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You need to remember that God is good. There may be consequences, real world consequences there are in the rest of the chapter, but there is restoration available in God, and it's right in the chapter, we have the two previews of what God's going to do in the rest of the Bible. To do this. One comes in 314 that there is going to be a seed, and offspring from the woman who is going to crush the Serpent, who is going to destroy satan, there is a Head Crusher coming, and he will have victory. He incited the sin guilt as a result. And Jesus is this Promised One who has come to both deal with our guilt, which in a sense. Decapitates the demons power, Satan's power. If Jesus has taken the guilt of the sinner, then there's nothing left for the serpent to hold on to. Eventually, he is going to do away with death itself, which the serpent enticed. Number one, we have the first direct promise of Jesus in 315 but there's another one that gives us a window in verse 21 in verse 21 it says, Then the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. They clothed themselves in plants. God closed them in skins. And here we have the first window of substitutionary atonement somebody dies to cover the sin of another. And here we have the first animal sacrifices for the covering of sin and guilt that is going to be unpacked throughout the Bible. Trust God's solution to sin and guilt. This has come in Jesus Christ, the fig leaf failed. Hiding fails, blame shifting, double fails, making excuses. Fails. God provides the solution that never fails. In Jesus Christ, you need to come to Him. Number two, come humbly into God's presence. When you sin, come out into the open to God. If you're guilty, you deserve punishment. Don't come to God acting like you don't deserve punishment. But you also know God is forgiving. How does First John one nine say it if you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness, come humbly to God. When you come humbly, admit your sins fully, admit sins fully. Yes, Eve sinned, but Adam needed to own his own part. Yes, Satan deceived, but Eve needed to own her own part.
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Instead of blaming your circumstances or blaming others, blame your own selfish desires and admit those sins fully. Three, cry out for mercy. Cry out for mercy. Psalm 51 is the road map for dealing with sin. You should write Psalm 51 if you're dealing with sin and guilt. This is an ideal place for you to go, because David unpacks this after a terrible sin against Bathsheba and the ordering of the execution of her husband in battle. It's a really serious sin. And David says this, have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love and according to Your abundant mercy, there is more to God's goodness than the mere provision. And you could just stop there. I just want you to stop as you head into Thanksgiving week and you have a feast and you have the warmth of family, or you have shelter and covering from the next wave of storms. Like if you're warm and you're fed, you have an ample sign of God's ongoing Grace to You. Remember there is more in His mercy and forgiveness. So he says, blot out my transgressions, Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. Not only cover it up, but wash it out, remove it from me. I know my transgressions, my sin is ever before me. I see it all against you and you only, which is to say, against you and you supremely. Have I sinned and done? What is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment, God, I don't blame you if you condemn me to hell. Right now, I know my sins, but I asking. I also know your mercy. Ian,
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for bear fruit and repentance. Bear fruit and repentance. John the Baptist, getting people ready for Messiah to come in. Luke, chapter three, sees a set of people coming to him, and he says, Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit. In keeping with repentance, what is that bearing fruit? He's using this fruit picture, whatever the sin was that you committed, true repentance will seek all the necessary steps not to repeat the sin. It is. As if God is saying, Stop lusting and trusting these other things that you think will satisfy your soul and renounce them and trust me. So he told the soldiers, don't extort people for money because you're a soldier with a club. Just Be content with your wages. And on he goes, What does repentance look like? It looks like, as we might hear in Ephesians chapter four, putting off sin, putting on righteousness. There needs to be a commitment on your face before God and a plea for the strength on your face before God to not keep going back to the sin. I mean, the American culture loves quick and forgiving Jesus as long as I can keep living my life how I want. But that is not real faith in a real Jesus. Ian,
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there's a double sin that I want you to hear. Some of you are newish to church, or you're finally back into church after a very long time, and there are really two serious things going on. There's the initial sin and there's there's sin with the sin. Notice what happens first, God doesn't first level the hammer. He first pursues for repentance. That means God's first disposition always has been toward the sinner, to call for their repentance, whether it's nature and conscience speaking, or whether it's the gospel call itself, God will not let you remain as your own God forever without consequence. If you reject His mercy, the only thing you're going to take from him is his judgment. The day you eat it, you will surely die. They did spiritually die. They were reconciled. God initiated the reconciliation path, and they resisted, keep resisting the reconciliation path of crying out for his mercy and repentance, and one day there will be a judgment. The prophet Amos describes Israel who would not leave. Listen to the pleas for repentance from their false gods. Listen to what the Prophet. Prophet Amos says, as Israel is trying to find all kinds of ways to hide from God. It's as if they dig into Sheol, that is, try to hide from God, even in death. From there, shall my hand take them? Suicide won't work. Death won't work. You're not going to be able to hide from your guilt and shame. If they climb up to heaven from there, I will bring them down if they hide themselves on the top of Carmel. From there, I will search them out that's that's up and out into the wilderness, and I will take them if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent. Wasn't a serpent, but I am reminded of a prophet near to Amos Jonah. Jonah ran from God, jumped into the sea, tried to die. Fish swallowed him, not a serpent. There will, he says, if they go into captivity before their enemies, there, I will command the sword and it shall kill them. I will fix upon my eyes, upon them for calamity and not for good.
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So let me say this first for the Christian, because the four moves, the four hiding, the four denials, are just common human flesh. That's common sinful responses for the Christian, a lack of humility, a lack of pursuit. God's going to pursue you with fatherly discipline, until he brings you to your senses. One of my favorite phrases I've used over the decades is the lesson of the two by four. God will teach you with the two by four, if you will not listen with His scripture, life will be hard for you. For the non Christian, he will one day bring you before the white Throne of Judgment, and you will be cast into the lake of fire. If you refuse his mercy, there will be destruction.
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But listen to this,
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if you do turn to God's offer of forgiveness in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ will give you new clothes. I. For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin, that we might be the righteousness of God. To be justified is be considered righteous. How is a person justified to be treated as righteous? Because our sin was placed on Jesus, and Jesus, righteousness was placed on us, and we live in decaying, fallen bodies. There is a future ahead for the believer. Second Corinthians five says this, For we know that if the tent that we that is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent, this body, we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on, we may not be found naked, exposed weak, guilty, for while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the spirit as a guarantee. There is a future clothing. We get Christ's righteousness. We get new, perfected bodies with no guilt and shame. That's why, in Romans 81 there's one of the promise promises, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus. When you hear that and you look at the fig leaf, you look at the hiding, you look at the blame shifting, you go, why am I so foolish? You
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we get to do something now in celebrating the Lord's Supper, to give thanks for what Jesus has done to clothe us in His righteousness. Let's pray, Father, this is an extraordinary gospel. In your scripture, not only Lord Jesus, have you paid our price. You came to Adam and Eve in the garden. You came in flesh. You died for us and you rose. You're going to come again, and we will be clothed with perfected bodies. Now we are in your righteousness, then we will be, in that end, transformed, actual righteous, actual righteousness. Oh, a day we look forward to. So for now, cultivate in us humble hearts. We all know the failings in it, and we would plead that you would help us put these steps into practice this very week, in the conversations, conflicts, failings that we have, may we grow to be more like Christ, it's in his name we pray. Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is teaching pastor and team leader at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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