Hiding Among the Trees
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· 107 viewsFebruary 6, 2022 Morning Worship
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome back!
This morning we are going to be looking at the subject of Hiding Among the Trees.
And we are going to be looking at it from the perspective of Adam and Eve, all the way back in Genesis 3.
What we commonly know as the “Fall of Humanity.”
And looking back at this subject, I actually preached from this same passage in 2012.
And just like the Bible says there is nothing new under the sun, sometimes the best messages are ones repeated.
But to set things up a bit we are dealing here with Satan and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
And the passage here in Genesis actually starts out with . . .
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
So, here’s the Serpent, that old Satan and he is going to do his best to tempt Adam and Eve to sin against God.
And the first thing he does is go to Eve and question what God “really” said to her.
And the Serpent is smart here, because he knows that God told Adam and Adam relayed the information to Eve, meaning that it’s much easier to convince someone of something if they heard it second-hand.
Because the Serpent knew that if he had went directly to Adam with this, Adam would have said, “No, this is what God told me, so go away.”
So, the Serpent does an end around and goes to Eve.
And I also firmly believe that if God had told Eve directly, then the Serpent would have went to Adam instead, and the outcome would have been exactly the same.
But at any rate, he goes to Eve, and asks her “Did God REALLY say you must neat from any tree in the garden.”
“Is that what God REALLY said?”
Which is exactly what he does to us.
He is constantly trying to get us to question what God has told us through the Holy Spirit or through His Word.
And it usually comes with “Is that REALLY what the Bible means?”
And Eve of course offers him up an answer . . .
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
So, she rightly corrects the Serpent, “no God didn’t say we couldn’t eat from any tree—just not that one, because if we do, we will die.”
Poison in her mind.
But see, now the Serpent has her.
He has already got her questioning God and now he knows that the tree of knowledge of good and evil, she thinks if she eats from it, she will drop dead instantly from poison.
However, the Serpent knows that God’s intention was for them to understand that eating from this tree would bring about knowledge that would introduce sin, which would also introduce death—something they had never seen before.
So, the Serpent uses this to his advantage, because he knows what is going to happen when she eats from it.
“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
No, you won’t die—look at it, it’s just a tree with some fruit on it.
It’s fine, take a bite, eat away.
The REAL reason God don’t want you to eat it is because if you do, YOU will be JUST LIKE GOD.
You will know good and evil and be JUST AS POWERFUL AS GOD.
And God can’t tell you what to do anymore.
And that God her prideful juices flowing and set things into motion that would change humanity for all times.
Which is where our passage this morning picks up in verse 6.
The Bible tells us . . .
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Hiding Among the Trees
Hiding Among the Trees
So, we see here first thing the outcome of Eve’s temptation by the Serpent . . .
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
She eats the fruit, decides—Hmm...., this is pretty good, and also instantly knows the difference between good and evil.
And she reasons in her own mind that this new knowledge is wisdom and makes her just as powerful as God.
Which in itself is also a mistake.
Just knowing something does not make you wise.
We have a lot of people running around with a lot of knowledge, but absolutely no wisdom whatsoever.
Most of the time they are prideful and full of themselves and have no understanding of the truth of God’s nature or the truth of their own spiritual condition.
So, don’t confuse smarts with wisdom, the two are completely different things.
But she perceiving that she is now wise, takes this fruit and gives it to Adam and tells him everything she has experienced.
And he says, “Okay...” Even though God had told him firsthand to leave that stuff alone, he eats it and bam . . .
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Now they’ve done it.
They wanted wisdom, well know they have knowledge.
They wanted to be like God, well now they know what God was trying to protect them from.
They instantly realize what good and evil is, what sin is.
And they also immediately realize that they have sinned against God.
And they also now realize that they are standing around butt naked.
Which before wasn’t a problem, but now because of sin, lust of the eyes has also been introduced.
So, they made them some clothes out of leaves, so they would at least be decent.
But they still have a very big problem.
They have sinned against God and guess what God would be there pretty soon.
In verse 8 . . .
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Now, this wasn’t out of the ordinary.
The garden and the trees among the garden was a place where the Lord would walk and the Lord could communion and fellowship with man.
Because before sin, man and God could interact face to face in this intimate relationship.
And I want to point that out because the Church is a type of the garden as well.
This place is where we can commune and fellowship together with God.
Our heart is also a representation of the garden.
It is where we, personally can commune and fellowship with God.
But both have to be clean and sin free.
And guess what, Adam and Eve were not clean and sin free, so when they heard God drawing close, the Bible says they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
They said, no way, we are out of here.
We’re going to hide behind these trees until God is gone.
We ain’t gonna deal with that mess.
Now, what does that have to do with us, here in 2022?
Everything—the Church today, and the people in the Church are hiding.
Pretending to be the people of God.
Pretending to be Christians.
They are hiding behind things like religion, doctrine, personal preferences, power, money, and the list goes on and on.
Those, are the trees the Church is hiding behind today.
Those are the trees that we are trying to hide our heart from God behind.
And guess what—It won’t work for us no better than it worked for Adam and Eve.
But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
Now, why would God call out and ask them where they were?
Did God not already know?
Of course He did—by the way He also already knew what they had done also.
But His purpose here was to confront them of their sin and to draw them out of their hiding.
To let them know that you can’t hide from God.
Verse 10 . . .
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
Now we are getting somewhere, confronted Adam begins to explain to God why he did what he did.
I was afraid because I was naked so I hid.
2022 translation: I was afraid because my sin had been exposed, so I hid from you God.n
And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
God continues to confront him.
He wasn’t letting Adam off the hook.
Who told you this Adam?
How do you know what it means to be naked?
Did you do what I told you not to do?
Spill the beans Adam—own up to what you did.
And Adam makes a second critical mistake, he starts to play the blame game . . .
The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
He started blaming everybody.
First, he blames the woman for giving him the fruit and second he blamed God for giving him the woman.
So, God let’s it play out and turns to Eve and she does the same thing . . .
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The Devil made me do it.
The oldest excuse in the book.
Folks, the Devil don’t make us do anything.
He presented us with temptation, but we made a choice based on our free will as to whether we would sin or not.
But, this is what we do.
Instead of owning up and taking responsibility for our actions, we want to blame someone else.
We want to blame our parents.
Blame the preacher.
Blame the Church.
Blame the Government.
Yes, all of these people and things are flawed by the sin of the world.
And all of these people and things have influenced us and shaped us to think a certain way.
But when your eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit to the sin in your life.
Grow up and take responsibility for yourself.
Grow up and and take responsibility for your sin.
Because guess what, God is going to hold you accountable for your sin.
Just like God is going to hold those other people, who have sinned against you accountable, God is also going to hold you responsible.
Because as a competent person that understands the difference between good and evil, you are responsible for your own actions or inaction.
Yes, society is a sinful mess, but the choices you make are your choices and they are own you.
Which is exactly what the tree of knowledge of good and evil was there to begin with.
It was there so that humanity would have free will to choose whatever we want.
It was there so that instead of God creating robots, God created living beings with souls, who can choose to love God or choose to reject God, freely.
But that also comes with being responsible for our choices.
We can’t have it both ways, free to do what we want but God controlling and dictating everything in our lives that we don’t like.
When sin was introduced through the knowledge of good and evil, free will was opened up to allow evil to be evil, not because God wants it but because free will allows it.
Because free will applies to all things, not just the good ones.
Consequences of Sin/God’s Mercy
Consequences of Sin/God’s Mercy
However, there are also consequences of sin as well.
So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
And even though we continue to suffer from those consequences today, we also don’t want to forget God’s mercy and grace.
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
So, even though God drove them out of the garden and all of these consequences were put in place, God still cared for them.
God make them appropriate clothes.
And we also know later on that God continued to bless them with children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and on and on.
Altar/Challenge
Altar/Challenge
And the point is, that even though we sin and we fall away from God, God is still willing to lift us back up.
God is still willing to restore us and care for us.
God does not just cast us out and forget about us.
God loves us and cares for us, but we have to be willing to stand before God and admit our sin.
We have to be willing to make things right with God.
And I wonder how many of us have been hiding in the trees, acting like we are something we are not?
How many of us are backslidden trying to cover our own nakedness from the presence of God?
Folks, we will never know the redemptive power and full Love of God, until we quit hiding our sin and deceiving ourselves and come clean with God.
He is waiting to redeem, waiting to save, waiting on us to come back to Him.
Let’s pray . . .