God has You Covered

God’s Got You Covered!

Intro: What do you do when someone sins against you or wrongs you. What kind of punishment did you devise for your children or grandchildren because they disobeyed your wishes?

Is it fair that God threw Adam and Eve out of the Garden when they sinned? Is God someone who just wants everything his way? Is it fair that Jesus died on the cross for the sins that you commited?

Why is it important for us to know God’s word?

Read Verses:

MP: God has already covered you for your sins.

I. God Allows Temptation (1-7)

God garden was perfect and man and woman were there enjoying everything that God had made. But one day the crafty serpent, who is an embodiment of Satan, spoke to Eve and asked her a few questions.

The Serpent asks the woman, He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”

Now is that what God said in ? 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

Notice that Eve adds “or touch it” to the command of eating from the Tre of knowledge. And so she admits on one level her desire perhaps to just want to touch the fruit. And so we get caught in a fight with ourselves and what we know and what we want. And so we open the door just a crack; we tweak God’s command to fit our needs and wants so we think we are not really breaking the rules.

And so the serpent replies, “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when

you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God,[b] knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Have you ever been inveigled? Adam and Eve just were. Inveigle means to entice, lure, or ensnare by flattery or artful talk or inducements. I learned this word this week too.

Maybe you were talked into buying a car you didn’t really want or need. Maybe you invite the vacuum salesman in because your floors are dirty and it is the perfect time to have someone else do the work, but then you bought that canister vacuum from the door to door salesman because he was smooth talking.

We see Satan here talking Eve into sinning, going against God’s command, to eat the fruit of the tree.

How does Satan do it? Why does God let it happen?

Satan wanted to overthrow God, so anytime he can upset God’s creation or needle God, he will take the opportunity, especially because Man is God’s greatest creation. Which means we are greater than the angels. Satan is presumably jealous and goes after Eve. Eve desired to have knowledge and as Satan said “to be like God.”

Eve’s own desires lower her guard just enough to fall prey to the tricks that happen that make it seem like you are not disobeying God at all. In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, which details the Fall, he says that Satan compliments Eve on her beauty and her godliness.

Satan tells her that she too can become like God, knowing everything. So, that sounds like a deal that everyone wants, and Oh I won’t die? That stands in direct contradiction to what God said so we start to justify it in our heads, maybe god is wrong. This talking snake seems to say so? Right. My friend who is not god says something contrary to God so they must be more right than God

The question you might ask is why didn’t God do a better job of protecting Adam and Eve, and why even let Satan have access to the garden at all? All good questions.

Application Point 1: The application point and the answer is that God allows the Temptation to happen.

This is not the same thing as God is causing it to happen. “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed." ()

tells us that the temptations we face are meant to produce fruit in us:

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

Here’s what we must remember when we are face with Temptation:

God is in control of it. We must be like Job in our resistance to giving in to the temptation.

Our resistance can be made stronger by knowing unequivocally knowing what God’s word is. God’s word is like a vaccination against the disease of sin.

Adam and Eve only had one rule. Don’t eat the fruit from that tree. All other things you can eat.

Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness and he tried the same tactics with Jesus. He quoted half scripture or half-truths. But Jesus gave the full response and context back to Satan.

In 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

4 But Jesus answered him, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone.”

5 So he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 The devil said to him, “I will give you their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. 7 If you, then, will worship me, all will be yours.”

8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”

9 So he took him to Jerusalem, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:

He will give his angels orders concerning you, to protect you, 11 and they will support you with their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said: Do not test the Lord your God.”

13 After the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

Satan knew he could not tempt Jesus because Jesus knew what was what.

We can do the same thing and if we don’t know the response,. We rely on God to get us through. We pray to God to see us through the test.

says 12 So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall.13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide a way out so that you may be able to bear it.

We have two rules. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind, strength and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. So everything we do falls into one of those categories.

Another way to protect us from sin is to have someone with you.

If you read it the way it is written, Adam must have been standing next to Eve. And he did nothing to help her. He did not say stop while she talked to the serpent. And he didn’t not eat it when she offered the fruit to him. Adam is ultimately to blame because he knew better as Paul says in .

TS: But Adam and Eve eat he fruit and now as verse 7 says Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Sin has been introduced into the world for everyone. The original sin as it were. Now what?

II. God Gives you Realization

Adam and Eve suddenly know what they had done was wrong. Why? Because they now had the knowledge of good and evil. And now in verse 8-13 is the conversation that basically goes like this, God is looking for Adam , Adam and Eve hide because they know they did something wrong. God knows exactly what happened but he needs Adam and eve to realize it and admit it.

How many of you have been caught eating cookies in the middle of the night because you knock something over in the kitchen that of course is made of metal and sounds like a cymbal when it falls?

My dog skippy had a habit of eating loaves of bread and he would get the loaf off of the counter somehow and then he would tear a hole in the bag and eat some f the bread and then stuff it under either my or my parents pillows. Of course he knew when we found the evidence of his crime. He would cower and skulk and get low and try to make up for what he did.

Skippy didn’t understand English but he knew what he did when we caught him. The same thing happens with us. When we are caught in committing a sin, we act differently to try and cover it up. We run away. Maybe we get defensive, we get secretive, and we have to work to hide cover the lies and maintain our story. But all the while the Holy Spirit is convicting us to admit what we have done.

All of a sudden the man and woman knew they were exposed, naked. But God is patient with them as he lets them admit their guilt.

Application Point 2 God the Holy Spirit helps us realize that we either are about to or have sinned against God.

Jesus tells the disciples in But I tell you the truth, it is for your benefit that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8And when He comes, He will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because they do not believe in Me;…

The holy spirit convicts the world of its guilt for not believing who Jesus is and what he did. If you are not saved you are part of the world and that is why you don’t believe. The Holy spirit opens our eyes to God’s truth. It is as if the Holy Spirit is reversing the Curse that Adam and Eve committed

We see Adam blame both Eve and God in the same sentence. The woman you gave me, or put here with me she gave me some fruit and I ate it.

Adam with his newly acquired knowledge knows shame because of his nakedness, but also because he knows that he violated God’s command.

When we sin, we must own up to what we have done. We must admit our guilt properly before God. We have to repent. We can believe in Jesus because he has actually taken away our stain.

Transition: Even though Jesus takes away our guilt if we believe in His work on the cross, there are still consequences that we endure on earth.

III. God Enforces the Consequences

God pronounces Judgments on all three participants. First the serpent, then the woman and then the man. The key theme in all of their punishments is defeat.

He curses the snake, and then in verse 15 he pronounces the protoevangelium, first telling of the good news. and announces the coming messiah to save the world, Jesus, that the woman’s seed will crush the offspring of the serpent or Satan. Satan will lose to the messiah. God calls him out and says because you have done this.

For the woman childbirth will be harder. And she will strive against her husband—she will be defeated in her conflict with her husband.

The man will have to work harder and he will lose to the ground. From dust you were taken and to dust you shall return.

Application #3 There will always be consequences for our sins

Adam brought death into the world, he brought pain into the world he brought strife and disharmony as well. These are the things that are found in contrasts to perfection and holiness.

It is difficult to say what our world would be like if Adam did not sin, perhaps it would have been easier, but we would not truly appreciate god and his glory.

When we sin, we have to endure certain ramifications.

When Saul disobeyed God’s command to defeat the Amalekites, he lost his kingship. When David cheated with Bathsheba and got her pregnant, that child died. Jeff Allen who is a Christian comedian was living a life without god and spending money he didn’t have, went through bouts of addiction with alcohol and drugs and a few times his wife was going to leave him because that is a consequence of his actions. He found God and through God’s power and grace he stopped doing all of those things and is now very successful.

This is what he said in an interview I read on Fox news this week. “I thought if it’s God, then I’ll seek God. I found him through the Bible and eventually I got to “,” which was in the beginning, God created… and I realized that I believe that. I knew there was a God, I just didn’t know what his nature was. Then, I got to Christ and like a child, I eventually got on my knees and said, ‘If you truly are who you claim to be – and he made some audacious claims – then my life is yours.’ And I honestly can tell you, 24 hours later – whatever it was, that lightness of beam or whatever that burden was – it was lifted.”

says God disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.

So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD, and do not loathe His rebuke;

We are being made in the image of Christ and sometimes tearing away the old flesh is painful to us.

TS: After this scene, the serpent is not heard from anymore. But God even though he removes Adam and Eve from His presence, which is another consequence of the fall, continues to care for Adam and Eve.

IV. God Provides the Restoration

There is hope though. Adam, now realizes that God is god and should be obeyed and does an about face and gives his wife a name, Eve, or Zoe in Greek which means life or mother of all living. He reconciles with her in a sense after blaming her for giving him the fruit.

Adam has learned to accept God’s word in faithful obedience. He now accepts his fate and punishment. He has essentially repented of his actions.

God does one more thing that is important for us and that is verse 21 where it says and the Lord God made Adam and his wife garment of animal skin and clothed them.

Adam and Eve do not die immediately. That is the first thing, but here is verse 21 we see the first sacrifice enacted to save someone else. God could have been wrathful and killed them on the spot, like Adam and Eve feared would happen. But instead, we get this picture of God making the clothes for the people. God did not create the clothing out of thin air, he did not speak the new material into existence for the people. He made it. This requires work in a sense from God to make this happen. It is the same word when he made everything. He made the woman and he made the animals. It is an act of creation.

But know he using his power to make something cover the people.

Why? Because this demonstrates God’s immense love for His creation. There was only two of them at this point. He could have started over a lot easier and said, Ok well that didn’t work out. Let me try again. But he did not. God shows his character here even though it would be really talked about until The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands,[a] forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Application point #4 God is a patient and Loving God who’s loving kindness is beyond words.

The Hebrew word for that is used is hesed. It has no real definition because it is really inexpressible. Hesed is God’s very nature, when John says God is Love. Truth, mercy, compassion, covenant, justice, faithfulness, goodness, favor and righteousness all go into making up this concept of God’s character.

God has this immense love for his people. For you, for me. He demonstrates it here with sacrificing the animals to clothe Adam and Eve.

He demonstrated it again on the Cross with Jesus. For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son. He did that so you could be let back into the gates, to make it past the guardian Angel with the flaming sword.

What dies it feel to love someone like that? Honestly we probably can’t really fathom it because we are stuck in our mortal bodies and minds. But we can try. When we lovesome one, we can not only say it, but demonstrate it.

Imaging how God must have been in the garden How angry he was perhaps, but he was not caught off guard, he know what had happened. But what does he do, he sets about making the problem right for Adam and Eve. Now they cannot live in His presence anymore, but he already made the way through Jesus to come at the right time to reconcile the world.

Conclusion

We have seen sin enter the world and How God solved it. We know that it will be a few thousand years before it truly is fixed through Jesus.

What do we do with the lesson of Sin. One man brought sin into the world and one man took it away. God shows us infinite, hesed love that is patient, kind, longsuffering, compassionate and good.

Are you loving your spouse that way? Are you loving your parents that way if they are still alive, are you loving your children that way? are you loving your coworkers, and the stranger and your neighbor and the homeless person with the same kind of generous love? If not have you asked for forgiveness from them and from God?

Don’t just tell them you love them. Show them you do, with your actions, your tone of voice, your attention when you listen to them.