God Calls Us Out of the Shadows (Genesis 3:8-15) [2026-4-26]

And as you find your seat, if you would open your Bibles to

the book of Genesis chapter 3. I apologize if my giant Band-Aid

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

on my nose is distracting. Some of you have asked and I

guess I should just let you know.

Friday night I've been sick all week and Friday night after

church wasn't feeling well and went to the the bathroom and I

was feeling nauseated and was trying to go throw up.

All I remember is closing the door and locking it and that's

all I remember. I passed out and face planted on

the bathroom tub and broke my nose and so Lauren took me to

the ER or the ambulance took me to the ER and they ran test.

Everything was fine. I just have a broken nose.

I've broken it like 3 or 4 times playing basketball.

So it's, it's, he told me how to get surgery done.

And I was like, man, you can't fix this thing.

It's, it's, it's already messed up.

So, but yeah, thankfully Lauren heard the thud.

It was so loud. Thankfully she heard it up

because I would have been sitting there for a while.

So, so yeah, I'm grateful to be able to be here this morning.

The Lord has sustained and feeling a lot better and so I'm

thankful to to be here with you and to be able to preach and so

I'm I'm excited to look at God's word this morning.

Genesis chapter 3, verses 8 to 15.

Genesis 3:8–15

So as you turn there, type that in if you'll read along with me

and your copy of God's Word Genesis chapter 3, beginning in

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

verse 8. 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 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.

The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done

this cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts

of the field. On your belly you shall go, and

dust you shall eat. All the days of your life I will

put enmity between you and the woman, and between your

offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and

you shall bruise his heel. Let's pray Lord, I pray God,

that You would give us understanding into Your word

this morning. You got to pray that You would

help me and sustain me to preach this message.

I pray that you would help all the listeners sustain their

ears, their hearts and minds to receive the implanted word that

your Spirit is speaking to them. God would you conform us and

teach us, make us more like Christ this morning.

God that is our hearts desire is that we would we would look like

Christ. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.

John Calvin writes this. As soon as the voice of God

sounds, Adam and Eve perceive that the leaves by which they

thought themselves well protected are of no avail.

The Sinner thinks himself well fenced until God's voice strikes

his conscience. Left to ourselves, we can grow

fairly comfortable with our self-made fig leaves.

Left to ourselves, we can grow quite comfortable living in the

so-called shadows. But God won't let us settle for

fig leaves. He won't let us settle for

living in the shadows. He calls us out of the shadows.

That's what the sermon is about this morning.

I'm going to start by giving you context.

If you haven't been here with with us the past few weeks, I'm

going to give the context and then be giving us exposition,

application woven together this morning.

So here's the context of of where we are.

Last week we were introduced to a new character, a serpent.

We are told that this serpent is crafty and we see that to be

true. He comes to the woman and he

asked her a question that is essentially a lie.

Did God actually say that you shall not eat of any tree in the

garden? The woman says, Oh no, we we can

eat of of all the trees except for one, for if we eat of that

one, we will die. And the server replies, you will

not surely die. God doesn't want you to eat of

it because God knows that the day that you eat of this tree,

you will be like him. You will know good and evil.

The serpent's crappy scheme works.

She takes the fruit and she eats of it.

And then to make matters worse, she gives some to her husband.

Their eyes are immediately opened and they knew they were

naked. And that's where we left off

last week. So let's jump into our text here

this morning. I'm going to, as I mentioned,

I'm going to be doing expedition application woven together.

Let's start in verse 8. Then 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.

The text tells us that that Adam and the woman heard the Lord God

walking in the garden. Now we know that God is a

spirit. So what is being described here

is either anthropomorphic language or God took a physical

form in the garden, that there was some kind of theophany that

God took and he is actually walking around.

Either way, we learned that God would walk among them.

I want to pause and just consider that for a moment.

When God made this earth and the man and the woman that he placed

in the garden, it wasn't as though God made it.

And then he says, OK, I'll be in heaven, you guys, you know, call

on me if you need me. That's not the case at all.

The text says that God, when he made the earth and he made the

garden, he would come to the earth and walk among them in the

garden. Now just stop and think about

that for a moment. What made this garden special

wasn't just that it was filled with fruit trees or that it was

some blissful paradise. What made this garden special

was that God would come and walk among them.

What an unspeakable privilege to have Almighty God walk among

you, to have uninhibited fellowship with God.

Church family, there is nothing more precious than unbroken

fellowship with God. We don't know how many times God

has taken a stroll in this garden, but on this particular

day, something was different. They hear God walking in the

cool of the day. Now, normally when a child hears

their father's voice, they run to him.

You know that when dad comes home from work, he walks through

the door. The child hears their their

dad's voice. They they run to their father.

Daddy, Daddy, you're home. But this time, the man and wife,

they don't run to God, they run away from him.

How ironic that what they wanted was to be like God.

The whole reason they ate this fruit was to be like God.

And now they are hiding from the one that they wanted to be like.

Now I want to point out how pitiful it is that the man and

woman attempt to hide from the presence of God.

They attempt to hide behind the very same trees that God had

made. It's a pitiful attempt of

hiding. This reminds me of when my boys

were really young. We used to love to play hide and

seek. We used, you know, it's, it's

Seattle, so we have to play in the house.

We, they would go and hide and it was always somewhere where I

could see an arm sticking out or a leg sticking out.

Young children are poor hiders, and so are sinners.

How illogical it is anytime we believe that God doesn't see us.

They have not yet learned what the psalmist teaches in Psalm

139. Where shall I go from your

spirit? Where shall I flee from your

presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are

there. If I make my bed and she'll, you

are there. Church family, we cannot hide

from God. He sees everything.

He sees your thoughts right now. He knows what you're thinking.

Are your thoughts on Him or are they something else?

He sees everything. He sees our emotions.

He sees our secret sins. He sees it all.

If you need to hide, hide in Him, not from Him.

Look at verse 9. But the Lord God called to the

man and said to him, where are you?

You know what's interesting is that in this passage, God asks 4

questions. Initially, God, initially God

doesn't make any statements to the man and the woman.

In this passage, He makes 0 statements to the man and woman,

but he does ask them four questions.

Why does God only ask them questions?

Because God wants them to be accountable, as Derek Kidner

writes, God must draw rather than drive them out of hiding.

God wants to draw them out of hiding, not drive them out of

hiding. These questions are intended to

draw Adam out of the shadows. This is a strategy that God uses

all throughout Scripture. God asked Elijah the same

question twice. What are you doing here, Elijah?

God asked Jonah the same question twice.

Do you do well to be angry? God asked Cain.

Where is your brother Abel? Jesus asked Peter the same

question three times. Do you love me?

Brothers and sisters, if you are still, you will hear the voice

of God asking you questions. You will.

You will hear the Holy Spirit asking you, why are you doing

this, Why are you doing this? Why are you here?

What is your motive? Why do you feel like you need

this? God's questions are always

intended to reveal the truth of our hearts.

They are designed to bring our hearts out of the emotional

shadows. The man and the woman are hiding

among the trees in the garden. But it's not as though God is

going to look for them. And after he spends a few

minutes, you're looking for them, he says, oh, well, I don't

know where they're at. I guess I'll go back to heaven.

No, like a Good Shepherd, he stays and he calls out for his

sheep. The Lord God called to the man.

I want to pause there and mention what tremendous grace

this is. God is omniscient.

He knows what has happened. You know, he could just say,

fine, you don't want to do what I tell you to do, fine, go to

Burger King, have it your way. You are on your own now.

But God in his mercy and grace calls to the man.

Sometimes we wish that God would just leave us alone, don't we?

And we sometimes wish, like God, just just let me have my cake

and eat it too, for this season, Like for just this one decision,

just this one thing, just let me have my cake and eat it too.

But God will not let us go. He won't let us go.

He comes to us, He calls to us, He draws us out of the shadows.

Now notice who did God call to? Not the woman.

Not the man and the woman, just the man.

He only called to the man. Why Paul writes for the husband

is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the

church. God calls to Adam because Adam

is the spiritual head. He is the spiritual authority

and therefore he holds a greater accountability than the woman

does. Look at the first question that

God asked. He says where are you, you?

There is singular meaning. He is specifically asking Adam.

He calls to Adam and he ask Adam where are you Adam?

Now obviously God knows where Adam is, but this question has a

purpose. This is such a simple question

and yet a profound one at the same time.

Where are you? Trust family of God were to come

to you today and ask the same question.

How would you answer Where are you?

Where are you spiritually? How would you answer that if God

asked you? Where are you spiritually?

Where are you salvifically? Where are you in your walk with

God? Where are you in your commitment

to killing your sin church family?

Where are you in verse 10? And he said, I heard the sound

of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I

hid myself. Now what's interesting is that

Adam doesn't answer the Lord's question.

He doesn't. We would expect him to say I'm

over here behind these trees. That's not what he says.

He feels the need to explain himself.

He says I heard the sound of you in the garden.

And what he says next is pivotal.

And I was afraid. This is the first instance in

history of fear. We are already seeing the

effects of sin upon mankind. Fear has now forever entered the

world. We are given the indication that

prior to this the man and woman enjoyed unbroken fellowship with

the Lord, but now that sin has entered the world, so has fear.

One of the most difficult doctrines to understand is the

fear of God. The Bible tells us that we are

the fear of God. The fear of the Lord is the

beginning of wisdom. However, there is a wrong type

of fear of God. The proper fear of God causes us

to run to God. We we know His power and His

love, and we we fear being separated from it.

So we run to God. We desire to stay close to Him.

In other words, my fear of God actually keeps me close to him

because I fear being away from Him.

I fear his displeasure. I fear not being under his

protection. But the improper type of fear

causes us to run away from God. We forget who God is.

We assume that God will meet us with condemnation.

Isn't that why Adam hides? If he trusted that God was

merciful and gracious and slow to anger, he would have gone to

God and confessed his sin. Notice the reason that Adam

gives her why he was afraid. He says I was afraid because I

was naked. If you remember from last week,

originally the man and the woman, they were created naked

and and and they lived that way unashamed.

And the reason they weren't ashamed is because they don't

have a framework for it. They have no paradigm for

nakedness. But the moment that they ate the

fruit, their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked

and that. And this feeling of nakedness

produces a feeling of shame. And that feeling of shame pushes

them into the shadows. Church family, if any of you are

engaged in secret sins, I understand you might, you feel

like maybe I could never confess this to anybody.

And I get it. Like as a pastor of, you know,

people will confess things to me that they never tell anybody

things, that if I were them, I don't know that I would ever be

able to admit it. I understand there there may be

things in your life you feel like I could never confess this

to anybody, like confessing this struggle would be as difficult

as walking through those doors naked.

But I'm here to tell you, you don't have to hide.

You don't have to be afraid of God.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus. You are free to come out of the

shadows. Look at verse 11.

He said, Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten at the tree of which I commanded you not to eat

God? Second question is this, Who

told you that you were naked? Now why does God ask this?

It seems to imply that both the man and the woman that they

would have never realized they were naked on their own.

They they just would have lived in, in in, in this naked bliss.

They would have never known any, any any different.

They didn't have this knowledge on their own.

But now that they have this knowledge, it means it came from

somewhere. They know they're naked.

And God says, if you have this knowledge, this knowledge came

from somewhere. Which is why God then asked his

third question. The only way that you would have

gained this knowledge is if you did something I told you not to

do. Have you eaten of the tree of

which I commanded you not to eat?

Now again, God knows good and well what they have done, but

God is once again calling them out of the shadows.

God asked Adam a point blank question.

Have you eaten of the tree that I commanded you not to eat?

This is an opportunity for Adam to come clean and confess his

sin. To say yes Lord, I have eaten of

the tree that you commanded me not to eat.

I did so. Will Adam confess his sin to

God? Look at verse 12.

The man said the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me

fruit of the tree and I ate. Notice Adam doesn't answer God's

question. God asked a very simple

question. Have you eaten up the tree of

which I commanded you not to eat?

A simple question warrants a simple answer.

Yes or no. The correct answer is yes.

Yes, I have eaten of the tree that you commanded me not to

eat. That's the correct answer.

But that's not how Adam answers. Instead, he deflects his blame.

Church family, there is great freedom of being able to confess

our sin humbly, directly, immediately, with no deflection,

no explanation, no justification.

Isn't it our tendency that when we confess our sin, we say, yes,

I did this, but here's why I did it?

Or you don't understand, like the is there.

There is a great freedom in confessing.

No deflection, no explanation, no justification, just an

acknowledgement that we have sinned.

But that's not what Adam does. Look at how he responds.

The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of

the tree and I ate. This is such a tragic response

because Adam had the opportunity to own up to his sin, to take

responsibility for his actions, and instead he deflects the

blame not just to one person, but to two people.

Look at who Adam blames #1 God. He says, the woman whom you gave

to be with me, the woman whom you gave.

It's almost as if Adam is blaming God for giving him this

woman. Adam initially received the

woman as a gift from God. Now he thinks of her as a

liability. Satan will tempt us to blame God

for our sin. He will.

I have met many people through the years who have blamed God

for their sin. God gave me the same sex

attraction. I didn't choose it.

It's not my fault I have it. God gave me such strong

heterosexual attraction. It's not my fault that I lost.

God didn't want me to lost. Why did he make it so difficult?

God gave me this disability or infirmity.

How am I not supposed to be bitter?

God made me this way, therefore it's his fault.

God allows so much evil in this world.

How can I not doubt Satan will attempt to convince you that God

is the one to blame for your sin?

The second person Adam blames is the woman she gave me fruit of

the tree. The woman who you gave to me,

she gave it to me. Now this excuse sounds a lot

like Aaron's excuse when he made the golden calf.

Remember when Aaron made the golden calf, Moses came down the

mountain and he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

And when he confronted Aaron, this is what Aaron said.

You know the people, they are set on evil.

So I said to them, let any web gold take it off.

So they gave it to me and I threw it in the fire and out

came this calf. He just threw gold in the fire

and out came a calf. Adam is like he ate of the fruit

because she gave it to him. Like, like you didn't have any

choice in the matter. You didn't eat it.

You ate because she gave it to you.

That's why you ate. You didn't eat because you made

a willful choice to eat it. Brothers and sisters, there are

always factors that play into our sin.

There are always external factors that are playing into

our sin. But there is always just one

person who is responsible for my sin, and that is the man in the

mirror. No one is ever to blame except

me. Let me say that again, because

inevitably you and I both will blame somebody else.

No one is to blame or is responsible for our sin except

us. Look at verse 13.

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. God asked His fourth and final

question and this time He asked it to the woman.

This is the first recorded words that God speaks to the woman and

they are piercing ones. What is this that you have done?

This question is meant to express shock.

It's it's similar to our statement.

What in the world have you done? The question is designed to

bring a a healthy level of shame and remorse.

It reminds us that that our sin grieves the heart of God.

God is not a robot who remains unaffected by our choices.

God is a person, God is a father, and he is grieved by our

sin. Now how might the woman answer

God's question when he said, What is this you have done?

How might she have answered God's question?

Well, she could have said, I took from the tree that you

commanded us not to eat from, and I ate from it.

Or my eyes saw the forbidden fruit and I coveted it, and so I

ate. Or I have sinned against you.

O God, those would be appropriate responses.

But just as Adam knows how to play the blame game, so does the

woman. Look at what she says.

The serpent deceived me and I ate.

Now is her statement true? Is her statement true?

In content yes, in content, yes. We know that the woman was

deceived. Second Corinthians 11/3 But I am

afraid that is the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning.

Your thoughts will be LED astray from a seer, sincere and pure

devotion to Christ. First Timothy 214 And Adam was

not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a

transgressor. Her statement is true and

content. But truth is not merely measured

by content, it's also measured by implications.

What does her statement imply? It implies this because the

serpent deceived me. It's not my fault that I ate.

That's what it implies, and that is not a true implication.

Being deceived is not an excuse for sin.

That is why four times in the New Testament we are commanded

do not be deceived. Being deceived is not something

that just happens to us and we have no control over it.

Being deceived is something that we let happen to us because we

didn't fill our minds with the word of God.

The woman knew the truth. God clearly said you will surely

die. It wasn't as though God, you

know, said something kind of ambiguous and she wasn't sure.

And then Satan played on that ambiguity.

No, she knew the truth. God said unequivocally, you will

surely die. She failed to fill her mind with

these words and instead let her mind be taken hostage by the

words of a serpent Church family.

Make it a priority in your life to not be deceived.

Let the truth of God's Word be tattooed all over your mind so

that there is no space left for Satan's ink.

Look at verses 14 to 15, our last section.

The Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done

this, cursed are you, above all livestock and above all beasts

of the field. On your belly you shall go, and

dust you shall eat. All the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, in between your

offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and

you shall bruise his heel. Now what's interesting is that

God asked the man and the woman for questions.

He asked them four questions. But God asked the serpent no

questions. Nor does he ask the the serpent

for a confession of any kind. God knows the serpent is beyond

redemption. For the first time in history,

God is going to hand out punishment.

Before God addresses the man and the woman, he's going to punish

the serpent. He doles out three pieces of

punishment #1 cursed. Are you above all livestock and

above all beasts of the field? We often talk about being under

the curse. Sin brought in a curse upon this

world. It's why we have death and

sickness and famine and, and every unimaginable tragedy in

this life. And the curse starts with the

serpent. God pronounces a curse upon this

serpent. Two.

He says on your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat.

Now, of course, people always want to ask this question.

Does does this mean the serpent originally had legs?

I don't think so. I don't think that's what that

means. Serpents don't eat dust.

So I think this is metaphorical language.

I think this is a way of saying that the serpent will now be

humiliated. Three, there will be enmity

between you and the woman. This enmity will last throughout

all generations. Look at what God says.

He says He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his

heel. And what does that mean?

This verse is highly debatable. Not everybody agrees on this,

but some scholars see here the earliest foreshadowing of

Christ. The offspring of the woman,

thousands of years later, came down to this earth to bruise the

serpent's head. The serpent will bruise his

heel, meaning he will get first bite, but the victory will

belong to the woman's offspring. This is good news for us all

because there are still serpent out there.

He is a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

He is a poisonous serpent that still strikes at our heels.

He is a slander attempter, an accuser, a liar, an adversary, A

deceiver. But we need not fall for his

schemes because Jesus has taken away his power of deception.

This serpent can wound us, but he can no longer keep us in the

shadows. Jesus has bruised his head.

It is a decisive blow, and now he invites us to walk freely in

the light. Church family, do you hear God

calling to you? Do you hear him come out of the

shadows into the light? Let's pray.