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, November 8, 1992.

Tonight we are reading from Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. We are beginning at verse 8. We read through verse 13. This is Genesis 3 verse 8. Listen to the word of God. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the spirit of the day.

And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself. And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. Turning over to Romans chapter 5, reading that passage one more time, beginning with verse 12.

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed where there was no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses. even over those who have not sinned in the likeness of Adam’s offense, who is a type of him who is to come.

But the free gift is not like the transgression, for if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For on the one hand, the judgment arose from the one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. So then, as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous. And the law came in that the transgression might increase. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Lord, strengthen your people in their grasp of your word and its doctrines of truth, and Father, may it also please you to strengthen your church through that word so that your church would understand even the structure and the order that is to prevail within it.

O Lord, bless then your church with strong pastors and teachers of your word. May it please you, Father, to raise up many who will preach without compromise the word of your grace. May our prayer reach heaven through Christ in the interests of your church worldwide. But be pleased also, Father, to grant to your church many who will rule wisely and for our good. May we have elders in your church who understand your word and labor in light of that word’s truth. Bless us with deacons, Father, who are exceptional in their devotion to you, demonstrating it in compassion and mercy. So build your church so that it would understand better itself the call which is laid upon for the same exercise of mercy and compassion.

Lord, we ask for our own congregation as well as for others. May you hear us, Lord. We praise you that you have granted us strength, Lord, and may it please you, Father, to grant your church strength through Christ, who is the head of the church, You must understand now that the Lord God enters the garden after the fall. for more than the purpose of a leisurely stroll with our first parents in the pool of the day. We must understand that the Lord God enters the garden after the fall for more than the purpose of a leisurely stroll with our first parents in the pool of the day. is an eruption.

His coming rips things apart. There is the sound of a tearing. His sound, that of his coming, is a cacophony. He is indicative of the terrifying intrusion made by him upon sinners caught red-handed and red-faced. That is why we do well to retranslate what we find in that third chapter, the eighth They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, not in the cool of the day, but in the spirit of the day. The coming of God, then, is nothing less than terrifying, as he makes his appearance in theophonic glory. and rushes on his shrine-like garden with the clamor of the great day of retribution, the day of judgment. It is as if the day of the Lord itself has arrived as God comes on to his first creatures, to our first parents.

It is not only Adam’s and Eve’s shame, then, that sends them scurrying for cover in the garden’s underbrush. No, it is the sure and certain intensity going on before God, the very breath of His wrath and indignation. There is that shame experienced by them, but not so much generated by their physical nakedness, which they, through their feeble efforts, have tried to cover. Rather, it is generated by something deep within them, a sense, a lingering sense of their true spiritual capability. and the fact that now they lack the appropriate spiritual body, that body spiritualized through the work of the Holy Spirit himself, in which they were to greet the Lord on the day of his consummate visitation.

The Lord God then comes. as a warrior into this abode for man. He comes thundering and lightning after the man, for the man, directing his address first of all to him, since it is the man who holds chief office in the present order of the church. convened in the garden, and it is the man who is chiefly responsible for what has occurred in that garden. The Lord’s thunder, however, mingles with entreaty. The Lord calls, but not without a note of pathos.

Where are you? Where are you? With that question, the Lord God plays the fool in his inquiry. To be sure, he has broken in upon this couple as if with fire and thunder, but strangely, oddly, as a parent fully cognizant of the enormity of a child’s disastrous behavior, With nothing less than a plea resonating in his voice, God moves toward these whom he loves as if he were the one who had lost them, and now desperately seeks them. as if he doesn’t know where they are. We have then the collateral presentation of the figure of God coming in all of his power and might yet approaching as if in weakness, almost as if his voice were cracking, indicating that his heart is breaking. Where are you? Of course, God knows where man is, does he not?

His question then is meant to be pastoral. Even in the midst of his judgment and wrath, his question is meant to be pastoral. It is meant to draw the man into an honest assessment of himself and his predicament. But this man, who now has descended into sin, thinking all the while he was ascending to deity itself, This man who has descended into sin without realizing it provides, contrary to his own intention, an honest assessment of precisely where he is and what his predicament is. In his sin now, he cannot, he will not open his mouth without betraying himself. And the words that he speaks are in a sense a confession of his own lostness and his own loss.

This man is now tragically naked in the world. And in his present condition, without recourse to that spiritual clothing that he needs for his appearance, in the day of God’s consummate visitation. This then is where Adam is. He is naked in the world.

He says as much to God, and by saying so much to God, He indicts himself, for in so saying he gives indication of confession of the fact, inadvertently, to be sure that he has eaten the forbidden fruit. Since such knowledge, knowledge of his nakedness, can only come by way of partaking of the fruit of that tree of knowledge, in disobedience. Unless of course it comes by way of eating of that tree and its fruit in obedience and as reward for success in the probation that has been assigned him. And we all know But had he been successful, God would have been there to celebrate the event with him.

If man in his sin now see the enormity and the seriousness of the sin, man in his sin doesn’t even understand what he’s saying, although every word as he speaks to his creator exposes him. The Lord comes, yes, in pastoral mode. He comes also making interrogation. He drives deep And in his method and mode, he implores Adam for an honest assessment of himself and his predicament.

For as if God was saying, come Adam, won’t you confess? Won’t you throw yourself on my mercy? Will you not plead before me as I here am pleading with you for your confession? Will you not humble yourself before me as I am humbling myself before you even in making this entreaty to you? Will you not show me, Adam, That my fellowship with you means as much to you as it does to me. That so thorough are the ravages of sin. Do you see the enormity? Do you see the enormity of it?

So thorough are the ravages of sin. that Adam will not even confess. He will not confess even as he is being confronted by a God who seemingly prostrates himself before his creature. Even that will not move him. He will not. He does not. humble himself, he only becomes more defensive, entrenched in his pride, even defiant and accusatory.

Do you see? Do you see why it comes so naturally for you? When you are face to face with your own sin and the enormity of it, why you respond the way you do? You are a child of your parents. You’re playing out the role. That’s the way sin behaves. It will not own up. It will not humble itself. It will only become more defensive, entrenched in pride, even to the point of defiance. and making accusations against those who bring righteous judgment against us. The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, you feel the force of that?

What a guy! What a guy! Now, lest you’re thinking a lot about yourselves, and highly of yourselves, gentlemen, you would have done the very same thing. Oh yes, there is that sense in which Adam is telling the truth. It was the woman. She had been given to Adam by God. She had given the fruit to Adam. But Adam’s interest isn’t in the truth, it is in escaping blame. Having taken the fruit from the woman in order to share sin with her, he now abandons her to stand alone, and that in order to save his own neck.

He saw what she became. He was yet righteous when she had become sin. There were options before Adam. Seeing what she had become, what do you think he should have done? He should have pled with God for her. He should have pled for God for her, he should have even offered his life for her, if he loved her. But no, he liked what she had become. What she had become was as tempting to him as the fruit that she offered him. And having taken her up on her offer, He now abandons her.

That’s what sin does. That’s what sin does. As I said, what a guy. But Adam’s remark is even more malicious than this. Because you see, he doesn’t merely abandon the woman, he implements, he implicates God. His wicked act was everybody else’s fault but his own, including God’s. So God here, in making entreaty, in pleading with Adam, is answered by nothing less than blasphemy.

You gave her to me, Lord. Why don’t you own up? Why don’t you confess? God turns to the woman and again with entreaty seeks for confession from her. He asks her, what have you done? Now the question that God directs towards the woman is a little less abstract than the question that he had directed toward Adam. You might well say that the one directed toward Adam sought a comprehensive theological assessment of exactly where Adam had placed himself. The question to Eve was direct. Just tell me what you did.

She, in her sin, finds herself incapable of responding as she should. And as she had first beckoned Adam to follow her into her sin, now she follows Adam into his. Now, she too tells the truth, sort of. But by telling the story as she does, in fact, telling it like Adam told his, she too makes accusation. She makes accusation against the creature, the serpent, but as well against God.

In other words, it’s not my fault. Listen, God, it’s the serpent’s fault, and won’t you own up to it? Won’t you confess it? It’s your fault, is it not, for making the serpent? Again, God, in His kindness, in His entreaty, is answered by blasphemy. And insofar as the serpent touches the deceiver, Satan himself, the woman’s cutting remark is the cruelest cut of all. One taken up by the chorus of unbelief ever since. God, you made the serpent and the evil that stands behind the serpent. Therefore, God, you are the author of sin.

God does not interrogate the serpent. His interrogation of the one who stands behind the serpent has already transpired other places. But presently the Lord perceives behind the beady eyes of that snake the shadow of a triumphant smirk. So here God stands in the garden before his creatures, rejected by them. rejected by man, and not only that, subjected to blasphemous ridicule as accusation is thrown in his face despite his pastoral approach. The bottom line of it, in keeping with the theme of this section in scripture, is this.

The fellowship enjoyed by our first parents with God is now something about which they could care less. Now I ask you, why doesn’t God simply obliterate them there? Why doesn’t he just wipe them off the face of the earth? Will you not admit, as you look at this text, as we’ve endeavored to open it up tonight, there is absolutely nothing in the responses of Adam and Eve even vaguely suggestive of any good in them whatsoever?

Sin, in its enormity, in its pervasiveness, has driven all virtue from them so that in their arrogance and pride, they literally spit in the face of God. Sin, it seems, has abounded. in a perfect sense in a complete sense we are staring into the face of perfect human evil as we look at this account but staring directly into the face of perfect human evil, the question that has to be on our mind is, why does God not obliterate them? For where sin abounded, given in its perfect human expression, Grace did much more about it. Can it be made any clearer to us?

There is nothing good in them. Sin has ravaged them. There is no reason seemingly within them. to constrain God’s action now, to save them, to show mercy, to show kindness, to display His grace. But God in them is purposing to multiply the praise of the glory of His grace.

We, then, who see the enormity of the sin, and own the enormity of the sin, not walking away from it, not saying, it was someone else’s sin, it was Adam’s sin, it was Eve’s sin. No, it is our sin. We’re bound to them. We, acknowledging that and seeing the perfection of human evil, even within ourselves, now are constrained all the more to enter into the multiplication of that praise of the glory of God’s grace.

There is no other reason but that grace for God’s action. None. Enduring such abuse, being rejected out of hand by His creatures, in fact, being held in contempt and even being hated by them. There is no explanation for his action short of his grace and the intention that in the end the praise for the glory of his grace would abound. God saves those who are unworthy, who in no sense can merit his consideration, because of the great love with which he has loved them, even from eternity in the beloved.

Let us pray. O Lord, we then would be melted, seeing, Lord, your Spirit’s work in us. But what our first parents could not acknowledge, we by your grace have acknowledged. And in the acknowledgement, we have joined in the praise of your grace. For Lord is inexplicable, beyond our comprehension. Truly, you have extended towards us love that we do not merit, nor can merit. Father, we also glory in the one who is set forth finally to bear our sins, knowing that he too, in keeping with what transpired in the garden, was rejected of men. He too was subjected to blasphemous ridicule. that again your pastoral intent might be perfected and your grace appear all the more glorious. We thank you for him and rejoice in this grace.

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.