Naked and Afraid

Genesis chapter 3 verses 7 through 11. Genesis is the first book of the Bible so just turn

Genesis 3:7–11

a few pages. You'll find chapter 3 pretty quick. Genesis chapter 3 will start in verse

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

7. God had created all things. He had brought all things into existence and then He created

humanity and after He created Adam and Eve He told them that they could eat from any

tree in the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was the

only thing that they could not do. And like you and I, they gave into their temptations

to do what God told them not to do. Now we may be so bold as to say that if we would

have been there we wouldn't have eaten that but we would have because how many times were

you tempted in a day and in a week and how many times do you give in? So you would have

given in just the same as Eve and ultimately Adam did. And after they gave in and sinned

against God we see Genesis chapter 3 verse 7. Then the eyes of both of them were opened

Genesis 3:7

and they knew they were naked so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for

themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden

at the time of the evening breeze and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the

trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, where are

you? And he said, I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I

hid. Then he asked, who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that

I commanded you not to eat from? Let's pray. Father God we come to you today, we thank

you for your word, we thank you for the freedom to come here and hear your word and I pray

God that you would bless the time that we have together today. I pray dear Lord that

you would help your word to be front and center today dear Lord. That we would seek Jesus

Christ today. God that whatever we come in here with, with our worries and our distractions,

whatever it may be, I pray that you would free us of that today. God I pray that you

would keep me humble, I pray that you would take away any fear or nerves that I have today.

That I would preach and teach your word in a way that's going to draw us closer to you.

I pray dear Lord that your Holy Spirit just be among this place and lead every part of

this service. Let every word that's spoken be something that you want us to hear and

I pray that you would work in our hearts and work in our lives. In Jesus name I pray it,

amen. I want to tell you guys a short story this morning. Now it's a relatively short

story on its own but I will condense it even further for time's sake. This is an old story

that some of you may have heard before. It was a story that was written by Hans Christian

Anderson in 1837 and the title of the story is The Emperor's New Clothes. Well there once

was a king and well he really enjoyed dressing nicely. He wanted the finest of the finest

clothes and always wanted to be well dressed so that he could show himself off to his kingdom

and the people of his kingdom. And as such every time a new fashion trend came around

the king wanted the best of the best new clothes. One day two swindlers came into town. Perhaps

they had heard of the king's love of his clothes. And the swindlers began to make their way

around town and they began to talk about how good they were at weaving clothes together

and how they would take the finest and the nicest materials and they would make clothes

that were spectacular. Clothes that were so spectacular in fact that they were invisible

except for those who could see them. Now the only people who could see these wonderful

amazing clothes that they made were only those who were fit to serve in the position that

they held and only those who were not stupid. And so the town began to talk. They began

to murmur amongst themselves. These two men must be something special. We would love to

see these clothes. We would love to see this fabric. We would love to see what they make.

We want to see if we in fact are stupid, if we are unfit for our positions. And so the

king heard word of these swindlers and so he sent for them. And the king said, I want

you to make me these clothes. Whatever you need it's yours. I'll give it to you. These

two swindlers they were deceivers. They didn't really have any ability to make such clothes

at all. But nonetheless they told the king, well we need the finest fabrics in the kingdom

and whatever they asked for was brought to them and they stowed it away for themselves.

And they had looms brought in and these two deceivers began to work. And they began to

take their needles and they would sew through nothing but air. And they would work through

their looms and they would work night and day burning candle after candle and working

hard to make the most beautiful clothes that anyone would ever see. Now the king was intrigued.

His interest was piqued. He couldn't wait for these new clothes. He wanted to see them

and he wanted to know what they looked like. But he wasn't concerned about being able to

see these clothes because after all he was quite fit for his position. And he was not

a stupid man. But just to make sure that everything was on the up and up, he said, I'll send my

minister to check in on the progress of these men. My minister is a trusted man. He is certainly

fit for his office. He'll be able to tell me how the progress is going. And so the king's

minister went down and checked on the progress of these two deceivers. And he was amazed

when he walked into the room. His eyes got big and he looked very close. And he said

to himself, well these men are stitching into thin air. I don't see anything at all. But

he couldn't dare say a word. Because after all only those who were fit for their office

and only those who were not stupid would be able to see the fabric. Perhaps it was just

him. If he were to say that he couldn't see anything, then well he would be unfit to serve

the king and he would be a stupid man mocked in all of the kingdom. And so he looked at

the men and he said, oh gentlemen, what you have made is quite beautiful. The patterns

and the colors and the design, is it squiz it? Now the minister knew that he didn't say

anything, but he couldn't let it be known that he didn't see anything. And so the men

went back to work. And the minister went back to the king and reported to the king all that

he had seen. The king was pleased to know that the progress was being made. And so the

men continued to ask, we need more fabric. We need more of the finest threads and more

of the finest materials in the kingdom. And the king says, whatever you need, it is yours.

And it was taken to them and they would work tirelessly night and day, day after day. And

the king said, I'll send a couple of more of my servants to go and check the progress.

And so they go and see these two deceivers. And as they go into the room, the deceivers

hold up the clothes and say, look how beautiful this is. Now the king's servants thought to

themselves, well these men aren't holding up anything, but they too were afraid to say

anything, because they didn't want to be unfit for their position and they didn't want to

be viewed as stupid. So just like the minister before them, they said to the man, that is

beautiful work. How can you craft something so beautiful and so exquisite? And so they

returned to the king and they tell the king how beautiful the new clothes are. Well eventually

the day comes that the clothes are finished. And these two deceivers send word to the king

and the king makes his way into the room. And the king is shocked. The door is open

and the deceivers present the new clothes to the king. The king says to himself, well

I see nothing at all, but I can't say anything or else I may be viewed as unfit and too stupid

to serve as king. How would it look to all the people in my kingdom if I was the only

one who couldn't see the clothes? And surely they must be there. I've sent my most trusted

advisors and they have seen the beauty of these clothes. And so the two deceivers told

the king, would you like for us to help you put the clothes on? Oh yes, the king said.

And so there the king stood in front of his servants, in front of his court, and these

two deceivers began to remove the king's clothes. And before long the king was completely naked.

Now these deceivers took the clothes and said, king we're almost ready to put these on you.

There's only a few more things that need to be done. There are a few alterations that

need to be made. And so they got their scissors out and they began to cut through the air

and they got their needles and they began to sew and they began to tidy up and they

began to make the sleeves and the pants legs and everything just the way they needed to

be. And they said, king would you like us to dress you now? And the king said, well

certainly. They said, king these clothes are so unique and they're so beautiful and they're

so wonderful that they are as light as a cobweb. Some would even say it doesn't feel as though

you're wearing anything at all. And so the king stood there in front of his mirror and

the two deceivers began to put the clothes on him. The king stood and he grabbed a hold

of the jacket that wasn't there. They put the pants on. They put the shoes on. And the

king looked at himself in the mirror and admired himself. All the while the king's servant

and the king's court are there watching in a distance. No one wanted to say a single

thing. But finally someone spoke up and said, king you look beautiful. There's going to

be a procession that's going to go right down the street. A parade of sorts. And wouldn't

it be wonderful king if you showed off your new clothes to the whole kingdom for everyone

to see? Now the king, wanting to be one to show off his beautiful new clothes that he

had spent so much on getting made, was delighted. And so the king said, let it be as you say.

And so the king sends out word and the crowds begin to gather in the streets. All of the

kingdom is there because they want to find out if they are stupid. They want to find

out if they are unfit. Everybody wants to make sure that they can see these clothes

because no one wants to be stupid and unfit. And so everyone is gathered around and everyone

is looking to see when the king is going to come. And the king gets ready to leave his

room after he is dressed. And they're his servants. They get down and they grab the

train and they're walking behind him and they're toting this long beautiful train. And the

king makes his appearance and he begins to walk down the street as naked as can be. And

all of the kingdom looks at the king and they say, what a beautiful suit of clothes that

you have king. And as he makes his way down, everyone on the street, king, what a beautiful

suit of, I've never seen patterns so magnificent. I've never seen anything so wonderful. And

the king is walking with his chest out as proud as can be until soon when he makes his

way down the street, a small child looks up and says, well, the king is naked. He's not

wearing anything at all. Now the child's father was shocked at first and he didn't want to

admit it, but he knew his son was right. And soon whispers begin to make their way through

the crowd and all of the people began to express what was true. They had all been acknowledging

a lie and spreading a lie and living in a lie, but finally the truth had been revealed.

And finally it took a small child to realize and say that the king was naked. And upon

hearing this, the king continued to walk down the street as proud as ever and did nothing

about his nakedness. And so the story ends. Now there are a few things in this world that

are probably more scary to us than being naked. There are a few things in this world that

we probably dread more, that would be more embarrassing, that we would be more ashamed

of. There comes a certain point at a young age, we grow up and we're young and at some

point very young, we are aware of our nakedness and we don't want to be exposed to our parents

who have seen us naked for the first two, three years of our life. We don't want to

be exposed to anyone. We sometimes avoid going to doctor's appointments because sometimes

it involves exposing ourselves and that is something that we just do not feel comfortable

with that brings a certain amount of shame in our life. And so we are fearful and we

are ashamed and we are embarrassed when we are naked. And there are not many things that

we could probably think of that we would be more embarrassed about. The king in the story

had been deceived. The king in the story had been lied to. The king in the story had believed

the deceivers. The king in the story had chosen to overlook the truth and live a lie. And

as a result of that, the king in the story walked around in his nakedness and was unashamed.

But here we see in the story of Adam and Eve, the great deceiver at work here. The great

deceiver was at work and had convinced Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit that God had told

them not to eat from. And the moment that they ate from the fruit, their eyes were open

and they knew they were naked. Now praise the Lord that Adam and Eve had a better response

than the king in the story. It says earlier on that when God made Adam and Eve that they

were naked and felt no shame. But there was something that changed in their life that

made their nakedness known to them. And what happened in their life was sin. And sin reveals

our nakedness. And as you go through the pages of scripture from this point forward, you

see that nakedness is compared with sin. You see that nakedness is compared with something

that is unclean, something that is not good. When God gave His people the Ten Commandments

soon thereafter, when He gave instructions on how they were to go to the altar, even

there God said to His people, there aren't even to be any steps to go to the altar that

your nakedness may be exposed. It was so serious that God said, you aren't even to take steps

up in your long and flowing clothes in the event that the wind may blow and your nakedness

may be exposed. And we see sin compared to nakedness in scripture. In Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 47:3

47 verse 3, God says of Babylon, He said, your nakedness will be uncovered and your

shame will be exposed. And there He's talking about the sin of the Babylonians. And so we

see in scripture time and again, we see plenty of examples of nakedness being a bad thing,

of nakedness representing our sinfulness, that our sinfulness should not be exposed,

that we should not walk in our nakedness. We see that in a spiritual sense, most certainly.

But we also see it, I think, in our culture in a physical sense as well. Not only does

our nakedness represent our sin, but even in a physical sense, as our sin begins to

grow, we see nakedness begin to grow in our society, in our culture. We see men and women

selling their bodies. We see parades in the streets of our biggest cities where people

are walking as naked as they can be and they feel no shame. They have been deceived just

as the king in the story has been deceived. We have a deceiver in this world who is Satan,

a deceiver who has convinced us that sin is good. He has convinced us that what is good

is bad and what is bad is good. And even when people see the truth, oftentimes they are

too afraid to admit it. Or perhaps they just don't want to because they enjoy living in

the sin and living in their nakedness. But what we need to know today is that we need

to know that as sinners that we are naked. We are naked in our sin and we are exposed.

And the question is how do we feel of our sin today? How do we respond to our sin today?

Are we ashamed of our sin today? And there may be things in our life, sins in our life,

that the enemy has convinced us that we are as good as can be. That there is no sin there,

that there is no wrong there, that there is no evil there. And we are walking just as

naked as can be, as proud as we can be, right into a life of sin. And perhaps what we need

today is the Word of God. And we need someone like that child to tell us the simple truth

that we probably already know. And that is there are some things in our life that are

not good. There are some things in our life that are not right. There are some things

in our life that are sinful. And maybe we've avoided them. Maybe we pretended like they

weren't there. But it's time for us to acknowledge the truth. It's time for us to acknowledge

the truth of God's Word as individuals and as a nation that we would not turn a blind

eye to sin, but that we would recognize our sin, that we would recognize that we are naked

in our sin, and that we are exposed, and that we should desire to be clothed. In the same

way that if we were naked in this building today, how quickly would we grab for a blanket

to cover up? How much more quickly should we cover up our soul, knowing today that it

is stained with sin? How much more quickly should we reach for something that is going

to cover us up, that is going to cover our nakedness? Jesus says in Revelation chapter

Revelation 16:15

16 verse 15, look, I am coming like a thief, the one who is alert and remains clothed so

that he may not go around naked and people see his shame is blessed. In Isaiah 61 verse

Isaiah 61:10

10, a chapter that talks about the coming Messiah, it says this, it says, I greatly

rejoice in the Lord, I exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation

and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness. We are no better than Adam and Eve today.

We are sinners as they were. In the moment we sin, the moment we see God's Word, the

moment it begins to speak to us, the moment our sin is exposed and we realize just how

sinful we are and praise the Lord for the Word of God. That God does not leave us here

on this world alone to figure out our way, but he gives us a word to instruct us and

to guide us and to point out what is sinful and what his commands are and as we begin

to study the Word of God and listen to the Word of God, then hopefully the Holy Spirit

begins to work in our life and begins to convict us and begins to tell us the truth and that

is that we are sinners in need of a Savior. But the question is how will we respond to

that truth? When the king heard the truth of the small child, if he would have actually

been a wise king, he would have instantly grabbed for some clothes, but instead he continued

to walk in his nakedness. What about you and I today? There may be some sin in your life.

You probably already know it's there. You probably feel that conviction. When you say

that thing you shouldn't say and you do that thing you shouldn't do, you probably know

it doesn't feel right. So how do we respond when sin creeps up into our life? Do we continue

to live in it or do we repent in it? Do we repent of that sin? Do we seek Jesus Christ?

Are we those today that acknowledge that we are sinful naked human beings and we need the

salvation of Jesus Christ and the righteousness of Jesus Christ to wrap around us today to

cover us in our nakedness so that we will not be exposed. Now some of you probably have

had reoccurring dreams of being naked before. I used to have a dream all the time. I was

at school, I was in class, everything is going good. I got up to go to the bathroom and no

sooner than I get in the bathroom I realize I ain't got nothing on but a t-shirt. I had

this dream multiple times. And I get in there and I run in the stall and I'm like, alright,

everything is okay? Somehow I've made it through the whole morning and nobody has noticed that

I don't have any pants on. But what am I going to do? I've got to do something. So I always

in the dream, I always get to, I get to toilet paper and I'm standing there and I'm wrapping

it around me. I'm making like a little white skirt of toilet paper. And so I'm like, alright,

I'm covered. Now I can go. Where am I going to go? I don't know where I'm going to go.

I'm a kid. How am I going to get out of school? And it always is the best feeling in the world

to me when I wake up and I'm not naked in the bathroom at the school. It's like, praise

the Lord. I'm not exposed. I'm covered. I'm safe. One day you and I, every one of us,

we're going to fall asleep in this world and we're going to wake up in the presence of

God. And it wouldn't be a horrible thing if we wake up and we are exposed. Our nakedness

is before God. Our sinfulness is before God and it's not been covered up. What a horrible

day that would be. But I can tell you today that your nakedness can be covered. That your

sins that are now exposed can be washed away. That the shame that you feel from your sin

and the guilt that you feel from your sin, it can be covered today through Jesus Christ.

You might have come into this place naked today and not even known it. But as God said

to Adam and Eve, who told you that you were naked? Maybe today is the first time you've

ever heard it. Maybe today the Holy Spirit has told you that in your sin that you are

naked and exposed. And maybe today for the first time you know that you need Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He gave his life on a cross so that you could be forgiven

of your sins. We live in a world that accepts sins. We live in a world that has a deceiver

that is far greater than these swindlers that we saw in the story. We live in a world that

has convinced us that a lot of things are what they're not. That has convinced us that

a lot of things that are evil are good. But let us not be deceived today. That we will

not be so foolish as the king in the story. That we would not walk around in our nakedness

and rejoice, but that we would repent of our sinfulness and be covered by the righteous

and precious blood of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father God, we come to you today and

I pray, dear Lord, that you would help us to realize that we are no better than Adam

and Eve, dear Lord. They had the opportunity and the choice before them to sin and they

gave in to it. And dear Lord, we are no better than them today. We do it repeatedly. Far

more than we want God, far more than we want to admit, but dear Lord, we have sinned and

we feel the shame of that sin, dear Lord. Maybe there are some in here today and they

feel like Adam and Eve and they are naked and afraid, dear Lord. Their sinfulness and

the burden is on them today and it is heavy, God. And they feel so guilty and so ashamed

of what they've done. Maybe for some they've never accepted Jesus Christ. Maybe there are

some that are yours, dear Lord, and they are just ashamed that they have done it again,

dear Lord. But God, I pray today that as we come before you exposed in our sinfulness,

naked and afraid, dear Lord, that today we would come to you that we may be clothed,

God. We're not going to be clothed by our acts. We're not going to be clothed by anything

that we do, dear Lord. The only thing that can cover our sins and cover our sinfulness

and cover our nakedness so it's not exposed, dear Lord, is Jesus Christ. So I pray, God,

that we would be those who don't walk around exposed, but we would be those who are covered

by the precious blood of Jesus today. God, I pray that you help our eyes to be opened,

that we don't go along with everything that the world says, dear Lord, that we are not

deceived by the lies, God, but that we study your word, that we know the truth of your

word, the truth of Jesus Christ, and that we choose the truth over the lie, that we

don't bury it, dear Lord, that we don't pretend it doesn't exist, but that today, dear Lord,

we would repent of our sinfulness, repent of the lies, repent of the deception. Maybe

there are some we don't see. Open our eyes to see them, dear Lord, that we would see

the deception and that we would see the truth and that we would choose the right one. So,

God, I pray today that you'd be with us, that you would help us to seek you in everything.

And God, if we come in here today with our nakedness and our sinfulness ever before us,

I pray that we would give it to you this morning. I pray that we would repent. I pray that we

would seek you. I pray that we would ask you for forgiveness. And I pray, dear Lord, that

we can walk out of here with confidence today, that that old sin that we committed in the

past doesn't nag us, but that we can know without a shadow of a doubt that we are not

exposed if we have trusted in Jesus Christ, that we are clothed in righteousness, dear

Lord. So, I pray, dear Lord, that you just be with any today that do not know Jesus Christ,

that maybe today they would repent and put their faith in him. Maybe today, dear Lord,

there are many in here that know you, that realize that there is some sin that they need

to deal with. And God, the way we deal with our sin is by bringing it to you, because

Jesus has already dealt with it on the cross. So, I pray, dear Lord, that you just would

bless each one this morning and let us seek you to be clothed in Christ today. In Jesus'

name I pray it. Amen.