This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Genesis 1-4” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 20, 1992.

Let’s return, first of all, this evening to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and we are beginning with verse 16 of the fourth chapter of 2 Corinthians. This is what the Apostle says, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we do not lose heart that though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal. but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed, in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we having put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Now, he who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.” Therefore, being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight, we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”

Father, we ask for that profit from your word which you have designed, and Lord, may that profit in us also have its propriety in your church, that as we are formed, so also your church. We are asking, Lord, there may be strength in us, but strength in your assembly which you have called. your own. To that end, Lord, may proper authority appear in us as well as proper service, but Lord, may it also appear in your church here in this congregation and throughout the world. Yes, that authority joined to office and also service, that too joined to office.

And Father, we ask that we might be conscious of your word and its relationship to office as well, that all things might be done as you have designed, that we might be a church in which we are governed according to the pattern that is found in your word, all things done decently and in order. We ask it in Jesus’ name.

Amen. Then the eyes of both of them were opened.” Genesis 3 verse 7. Then the eyes of both of them were opened. You may have a question at that point. Were not the eyes of both of them open before? Had not their eyes been open all along, after all they were created in righteousness, holiness, knowledge of the truth? After all, were not our first parents open-eyed as they surveyed everything around them? Did they not have clear vision?

As they looked upon the creation and all of its wonders, Had they not marveled at and delighted in the beauties they beheld in the garden? They also considered each other, did they not? Even in their state of nakedness, seeing nothing in the other that necessitated the cloaking of feelings on their part. Nothing that caused fear, nothing that caused suspicion or doubt, much less shame or guilt. Were not our first parents open-eyed in their created state of innocence? Were they not open-eyed when they saw God?

They saw Him, you know, for He did appear to them. He came to them, albeit clothed in a special glory which He had donned for that revelation of Himself to them. for those occasions of fellowship with them face to face. They saw all. They saw everything in light of that sweet fellowship that belonged to them with their so that even when the Lord was not visibly present to them, they lived as if seeing him.

So then our first parents did have their eyes open, did they not? Our first parents had their eyes open to behold the things of this world and even to behold the One who had made this world and entered it occasionally to visit them. And furthermore, their eyes were opened even in a spiritual sense, as they saw everything through eyes, as it were, that continually beheld Him, that One who dwells in the heavens.

Our first parents, therefore, neither literally nor spiritually had any visual impairment. There was no stigmatism, there wasn’t any blindness. But having established that fact, Having established the fact that our first parents in their innocence were clear-sighted, our first parents had their eyes clear and unimpaired, that is not to say that they were seeing all that there was to see. Even though it was true that our first parents were clear-sighted, that visually they were not impaired, even while that is true, it is also true to say that they were not seeing all that there was to see.

As a matter of fact, there was built within the very nature of their lives a testimony to this very thing. There was the testimony of their creatureliness, the testimony attached invariably to their creatureliness, which in and of itself communicated to them a sense of limitation.

For example, Adam and Eve were not omnipresent. That is to say, they could only be in one place at a time. And therefore, given the breadth and the scope of the creation, there was always something more to see. But no further in this regard, neither were Adam or Eve omniscient.

That is, they only knew so much. In fact, a portion of the limitation of their knowledge was because they simply could not be everywhere at once, so the problem of omnipresence in their This case is related to the problem of omniscience. You can’t be everywhere at once, so you can’t know everything.

The limitations that are worked into their created state—the fact that they are, in fact, creatures. Their knowledge then is limited in specific ways. By their location, by their observations. Their understanding is limited by location. It is limited by experience. by the fact that they have not seen or been everywhere.

In light of this, it is not difficult then to grasp the reason why we generally, and the scriptures specifically, relate seeing, that is, sight, with understanding, that is, knowledge and wisdom. It is not strange for us to say we see something, thereby meaning we understand it. For us to not understand is to fail to understand something that has been figuratively placed before us. That image, then, is continued throughout scriptures.

For instance, the Pharisees are blind to their misunderstanding and rejection of Jesus. Now, of course, this pejorative sense of the thing is not found in the case of Adam and Eve in their state of innocence. Nevertheless, these two were limited even in their understanding, and while not visually impaired, they had not seen all that there was to see, nor understood all that there was to understand. Now, there were other testimonies within the natural state of Adam and Eve that would speak to them about the fact that, yes, there is a sense in which, though not visually impaired, their eyes have a limit put upon them and are, in a sense, After all, our first parents, like we ourselves, naturally opened and closed their eyes. Even in the garden, in the state of innocence, Adam and Eve blinked. And with the blink, they missed something. They had to catch it another time. And even more to the point, Adam and Eve slept. They closed their eyes for a period of time.

They would open their eyes from their sleep, and by doing so be revived from a state of semi-consciousness, they would then look out upon their world with fresh eyes, even see their world anew. So you see, though they are not visually impaired, there is a sense in which Adam and Eve, when we consider them in their natural estate, move from a condition in which it seems their eyes are closed to one in which their eyes are opened. Genesis 2 provides a specific instance with respect to this matter of sleep. We are told specifically that God caused a sleep to overtake Adam. His eyes closed, even in his innocence, and when he awoke from that sleep, he did so, seeing his wife for the first time, and seeing her, now he looked upon his world with fresh eyes indeed. To open his eyes was to awaken to a new state of affairs, to see new things, to know and understand things more extensively and even more deeply than he had before.

Now, these natural experiences of our first parents with respect to their sight lead us to a further consideration. These experiences which we have spoken of thus far are natural experiences, but they are pointing us in the direction of something supernatural, as if the natural were parabolic, pointing us and driving us to something further and beyond.

Our first parents’ eyes then, though unimpaired, were in a sense closed with respect to what lay beyond the trees that stood in the garden’s midst. The trees of the knowledge of good and evil and of life. These trees are representative of a state of existence between God and man that stood beyond existence in the garden itself. Our parents first parents, even though their eyes are not impaired, they do not as yet see fully clearly that which lies beyond those trees and beyond the garden itself.

Beyond the tree of life there is the realm of pure life, the realm of living fellowship for man and God in eternity. The tree of life speaks about that fellowship that lies beyond. There is the tree of knowledge, and that tree speaks about the God-likeness. It speaks about conformity to God, a knowledge of good and evil in which we are comparable to God. A conformity to God then spoken of in that tree which must be the root, then, that leads to the fellowship and serves as a seal to that fellowship. The way to the tree of life, then, is through the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So it is only through conformity to God, through God-likeness, that we will be brought then finally into that ultimate and full living fellowship with Him. has set before him the promise of partaking of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil when his godlikeness has been confirmed and established through trial and probation.

But as yet, while in the state of probation, neither the man nor the woman see those things fully that pertain to what lies beyond in glory. And it will be purely for the sake of God Himself that they must make their choice. It will not be because they see the things that lie beyond. It will be purely and simply because they see God, and because of him and for him they choose to do the right and obey.

Had then our first parents persevered in righteousness, had they been successful in the probation and the trial, their eyes would have been opened to the glories of the eternal state of which those three spoke. And they would see that in that state they would be clothed with spiritual bodies, bodies made of the Spirit, made by the Spirit, from their dwelling in heaven, as is declared in 2 Corinthians 5. Now our first parents fell. And now, yes, their eyes are open.

Their eyes are open, and with the opening of their eyes, there comes not the testimony to the glories which lay beyond the trees. Rather, there comes the testimony to the dread deed of which they are guilty and its consequences. Their eyes are now opened to their guilt and the devastating seriousness of what they had done. Their nakedness, of which they formerly were ignorant, is now something they cannot avoid. It speaks to them as an exposure of their shame. To be sure, they have now a knowledge like God’s, discerning good and evil. But as those who have come to this knowledge through evil, they now stand before each other thoroughly ill at ease. and pathetically crippled internally by the unconfessed sin in them and between them.

And their response, seeing things now as they do, their eyes having been opened, their response is to cover up. I don’t think fig leaves are going to last long. What do you think? If their condition is pathetic, their covering is even more pathetic. And of course, having had their eyes opened now in evil, they know the truth about their nakedness. They really do. Their act of covering, however, is a deliberate act to suppress that truth in unrighteousness.

You see, in their innocence, their lack of shame with regard to their nakedness was related to the fact that they did not know they were naked. But now they do know they are naked. In what sense do they know that they are naked? They now know that they are naked, seeing as they do, even in their evil and wickedness, they now know they are naked in that they lack the goal for which they were created. Their nakedness is exposed in the fact that they now know that they lack the body for which they were destined, the body made by the Spirit that stood beyond the trees with which they would have been clothed had they been obedient to God. where eyes are open and oh, the tragedy, the sense of the tragedy. Having been ignorant of their nakedness previously, they now know they are naked, and they realize that they are naked in the ultimate sense.

That is, they no longer have access to the bodies for which they were destined by root of obedience. They no longer have access to the clothing for which they were originally created. And in keeping, now complicating things, compounding the evil, magnifying the significance and seriousness of the fall, amplifying the wickedness of their natures They persist in an unrepentant attitude. They will not go to God. They will not confess. They will not acknowledge. They refuse.

Will you consider the enormity of this thing, and will it not strike a responsive chord in you? Every time you find yourself in resolute sin, and you determine within yourself you will not confess it, you’d rather die. and all the time looking into the evident testimony of Scripture and the truth of God. Seeing that which you now are denied by your wickedness, you will not come to God to confess in order to be by grace clothed with that with which God is able to clothe you. You talk about the determination of evil, the triumph of wickedness in the human heart, We are talking about something here that approaches the heart of hell itself and the soul of Satan. So in keeping with their wicked natures, even though their eyes are open and they see it, they will not repent. that they actually conjure up some sort of earthly remedy.

Some sort of earthly fabrication. to rule on earth with fig leaves and to serve in heaven under God in the bodies that he has prepared for those who come to him. And Adam and Eve become the members of a church, and over the door of this church is inscribed the words, Salvation by works. I will save myself. For whatever salvation is worth talking about, in my estimation, in my eyes. Well then, my eyes were opened. But really, through willfulness and refusal to repent, they make themselves blind.

And we who have been blind, sons and daughters of them both, have now by grace had our eyes opened. that we might love that which lies beyond the trees, love that covering that shall resolve our nakedness, that for which we were destined originally and procured for us in the resurrection body of Jesus Christ our Savior. all to be clothed with him, that we be not found naked. Let’s pray. Teach us, Lord, even through the complicated matters of the story of the fall. But Lord, even though we might not grasp it all, may we grasp this much that we were blind but now we see. We see even that, Lord, which you have intended for us, and we see it, Lord, longing for it, not rejecting it, not hating it, not even denying it, but longing for it and loving it, that we might then be clothed with that body made by the Spirit, fitted for eternal fellowship with our God, being made conformable unto Him through Christ our Savior.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.