Hide No More

And this is the word of the Lord.

Then the eyes of both Adam and Eve were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

And they sewed fig leaves together, and they made themselves loincloths.

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.

And then the Lord God said to the woman,

What is this that you have done?

And the woman said,

The serpent deceived me, and I ate.

And the Lord God said to the serpent,

Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock,

and above all the 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.

This is God's holy word.

Let's pray.

Father, we come today, all of us in different places emotionally,

different places and circumstances in our lives right now.

Some of us here or watching having lost a loved one.

Some of us facing losing people in our lives.

Some of us dealing with long-term disease.

Some of us dealing with the weight of emotional and mental strife.

Some of us with decisions that are coming this week that are difficult.

Some of us celebrating good news, recent news.

All of us from different places, Lord, you know every one of us.

You know what we need today.

So we pray now, Holy Spirit, living breath of God,

open our hearts to receive your word in exactly the way we need it.

Exactly the way you come to speak through it to us, each of us.

And we pray that now, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

We're in a five-week series looking at Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

So five weeks, one chapter, because Genesis 3 is so foundational and so important.

And Genesis 3 is all about what broke the world.

And the answer so far that we've seen is that we broke the world.

Humanity broke the world.

So we did not trust in the Lord.

God gave a command in the beginning of human history,

don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And it was a lack of trust that God is good, that God loves us,

that brought humanity to this breaking point here in the beginning.

And Milton, John Milton, in Paradise Lost, I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago,

he talks about how this scene, he described this scene,

where Eve takes from the tree the fruit and she bows before the fruit.

And C.S. Lewis commenting on that says,

in the beginning humanity bowed before a vegetable.

And that's what broke the world.

And it's a cheeky thing to say, but what he's saying there is that we as human beings always choose,

our hearts choose to worship creatures rather than the Creator.

We bow before vegetables.

We bow before anything in this world that God made.

And we turn things into God.

We flip the world upside down in that way.

And that is called sin.

So sin is what Genesis 3 is all about.

And there are people in our modern city, a city like Edinburgh,

that will come and say sin, it's just this puritanical, old traditionalist concept.

But sin is real.

And I think every single one of us knows that.

We feel that down in the bottom of our souls.

No matter what you might believe in today,

I think probably there's some sense at the bottom of your heart

where you wrestle with the sense of guilt that I am not who God made me to be.

And that's all that we mean by sin.

And so Adam and Eve, in this moment, you know, they light a match,

they set the world on fire.

They open the floodgates, the waters come pouring in, the world breaks.

If you pick up an old clock, you know it has lots of different gears in it.

And if one of the teeth on one of the gear wheels breaks,

it throws that entire gear wheel off its circuit.

And the whole clock stops.

And in the same way, the teeth, the image of God,

we, the gear that God made to be the pinnacle of His creation, humanity,

we broke.

And so with that, the whole world got messed up.

The whole clock got messed up.

And that's called sin.

And last time we were looking at verse 7,

we were looking at the same set of verses,

and we focused on verse 7 and 14 in particular,

and this concept of nakedness.

That nakedness is not just physical nakedness.

It's spiritual as well.

It's exposure.

It's that we know from the beginning of history that we are not who we should be.

We feel that guilt and shame.

And we looked at how the serpent was so crafty and deceiving us.

Verse 14.

And so last time we said,

because of our sin,

there is alienation in our lives in all sorts of ways.

We are alienated from ourselves.

We don't really know ourselves.

We're alienated from other people.

You know, Adam blamed Eve

and broke marriage in a way in that moment.

But today we come to learn that the greatest cost of sin

is our alienation from God.

The greatest cost is that we are separated.

We're alienated from God.

We hide when God shows up.

And that's what we read about here in this passage today.

Our greatest problem,

we hide from God.

And God's tender solution

is the seed.

So let's think about those two things.

Our great problem is that we hide from God.

God's tender solution

is what we learn here is called,

in verse 15,

the seed.

So first,

hiding from God.

If you look down at the passage with me,

in verse 8,

God shows up into the Garden of Eden

and it says here

that they, Adam and Eve,

they heard the sound of the Lord God

walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

That's how it's translated here.

Now there are two big interpretations

of this moment.

And it's okay to be on either side of this,

let me say up front.

The way it's translated here

that God came walking in the garden

in the cool of the day

is translating it

the way the King James Version did.

And the King James Version

translated the way

a very old translation did,

the Latin translation,

many, many centuries ago.

And it took

what is sort of a metaphor in Hebrew,

the cool of the day,

it literally says

the wind of the day,

and translated it

understanding that

it's talking about something

like the evening breeze,

the cool part of the day.

And so in the first interpretation

of this moment,

it says,

God walked into the garden

and you could hear His sound.

And He came in the evening breeze,

the cool of the day.

And you get the sense

that there's sort of

a gentleness about this.

There's a calmness about this.

God breezing in,

walking in in a gentle way.

The other interpretation

is almost the exact opposite.

Okay?

And it's because these words in Hebrew

can mean multiple things.

And so the other interpretation

is that when it says

God walked in the garden,

sometimes the word

to walk for God

is used in other parts

of the Old Testament

where God the judge

walks into the space,

the courtroom,

temple,

the courtroom,

temple,

garden,

perhaps.

And the word sound

is sometimes used

for those moments

to talk also about thunder.

And the literal translation

of the cool of the day

is,

there's a footnote

in your ESV Bible,

the wind of the day.

And wind has already been used

in Genesis 1

as a word,

a metaphor for the Holy Spirit.

And if you've read

much of the rest

of the Old Testament,

you might know that

the day,

the word the day,

is often used to describe

the day of judgment,

the day of justice.

So Zephaniah 2.2,

the day of the Lord,

the day of judgment.

And so some commentators,

especially now,

come and say,

actually what's happening here

is they heard

the thunder of God

coming in the day

of the Lord,

the wind of the day,

the spirit of God

coming in the day,

the day of judgment.

And so they hid themselves away.

Now let me say this.

There are gospel-believing folks

and good commentators

on both sides

of those interpretations.

And it's okay,

it's okay that we're not

totally sure which one it is

because the outcome

is exactly the same

no matter what way

you go with it.

And the outcome is this.

that just after that

when God says

to Adam and Eve,

when they're hiding,

they're shaking in their boots

in fear,

God says,

where are you?

Who told you

that you were naked?

That moment

is an interrogation,

a questioning,

a line of questioning

full of mercy.

No matter which way

you go with it,

whether God comes in thunder

or God comes gently,

when he says,

where are you,

that is a question

of mercy.

That is a question

where Adam and Eve

are immediately not getting

what they deserve

in the very beginning

of human history.

And let me show that to you.

In verse 14,

we looked at this

a couple weeks ago.

Verse 14,

when God curses the serpent,

is there an interrogation

in that moment?

When God turns to the serpent,

is there a line of questioning?

Does God say to the serpent,

where are you, serpent?

Where are you, Satan?

Not at all.

There's no questions.

Instead, God comes to the serpent

and says,

you shall eat the dust.

In other words,

he's saying,

there is no hope for you.

Redemption is closed off to you.

Death,

the only thing you can taste

is death.

And that means that

when he comes to Adam and Eve,

even if he comes in thunder,

when he says,

where are you,

he's giving them

an opportunity.

He's giving them

an opportunity

to come out

from behind the fig leaf,

the tree,

and to come clean

and to run.

He's coming.

This is what Moses

wants you to see

as he writes this.

He wants you to see

that when God comes

in this moment,

he's drawing

and he's wooing

and he's inviting

and he's saying,

come close.

Even in the midst of sin,

even in the midst

of deserved judgment,

real guilt,

this is God.

The questioning

is invitation.

It's drawing and wooing.

There's a very similar moment

in the next chapter,

chapter 4, verse 9,

where Cain murders

his brother Abel

and God comes to Cain

and says,

where is Abel,

your brother?

Just like he came

to Ab and Eve

and said,

where are you?

He comes to Cain

and says,

where is your brother?

Now, God knows

where Abel is.

God knows Abel is dead

and God knows

where Adam and Eve are.

Where are you?

He knows that they're

shaking in their boots

behind the tree over there.

He sees that, right?

And in the same way,

what is he asking Cain?

He's asking Cain

the same thing

he asked Adam and Eve.

Where are you?

Where are you is

what is going on

in your heart?

Will you not come out

and come to me

and tell me

what has happened?

And I'm ready.

I'm ready to deal with this.

I'm ready to receive you

if you would just come out

and come and meet with me.

Guilt

and shame

is present

in every one of our hearts.

We all feel that.

And God is also present

in every one of our lives.

We learn in the New Testament

God is not far

from every one of us.

In him we live

and we move

and we have our being.

He is always revealing himself

to us.

Always.

And because of guilt

and shame,

because of our sin,

our sin drives us

into more sin.

Our sin drives us

to run

and to hide

from God

over and over

and over again.

And to get behind

the fig leaves

and the trees

and never come out

and say

to the Lord

when he says,

where are you?

What's going on

in your heart?

And he's drawing you

and he's wooing you

and he's inviting you.

The human being,

our hearts,

we run from tree

to tree to tree,

fig leaf to fig leaf

to fig leaf,

hiding

and staying away from him.

And we want him.

Do you know that?

That the deep truth

about our souls

is that you want God.

You want to be with him.

You want to know him.

And yet at the same time,

your heart wants

to suppress him

and push him down

in unrighteousness.

We are Jonah,

you know,

running to Tarshish

every time God

shows up in our lives.

And here in verse 8,

God shows up

to Adam and Eve

and they go

and they get behind

the tree

and he longs

for them to come out

and to meet with him.

Parents in the room,

you parents in the room,

or if you've ever

worked with children

or if you've ever

been a kid.

See, this is an

all-inclusive illustration.

I think I can capture

just about everybody.

If you've ever

worked with children,

if you've been a parent,

if you've been a child,

you know that children

feel guilt and shame

faster, quicker,

a little more.

They're smitten

and struck by it

quicker than we

hard-hearted adults

often are.

Our consciences

get seared

over the years

and we don't feel

guilt quite as quick

as kids do.

And so what do kids

do when they steal,

they lie,

they hit their sibling,

they first,

they run and they

hide quite often

and then they do what?

Then when they're

exposed,

they're naked,

that sin is naked,

they blame shift

and, you know,

he made me do it,

she did it.

And when a good parent,

what does a good parent,

a good teacher,

a good leader,

what do they do?

What do mom and dad

want?

Mom and dad,

mom and dad

do not want

to punish.

You know,

there's no desire.

I don't enjoy punishment.

None of us

want punishment.

Instead,

what we want is

we want them

to come out

and to say,

I lied,

I cheated,

I stole.

And in tears,

to put their heads

into the shoulder

of dad,

right?

For dad to get

down on his knees,

open arms,

and in tears

to have the little

one say,

I lied.

And you say what?

You say,

come here.

And you put

a tearful shoulder

on,

a head on the shoulder

and you say,

we will fix this,

we will reconcile,

we will bring justice,

but I want you to know

that I do not love you less

because of the bad

things you do.

Right?

And you got to understand

that in the beginning

of human history,

when we broke the world,

God the Father

came in thunder,

perhaps,

yeah,

as a judge,

yes.

Guilty?

Do we have guilt?

Yes, we do.

We feel that.

But he came into the garden,

he got on his knee

and he said,

where are you?

Come out from hiding,

put your tearful head

on my shoulder

and I will bring you home.

That's what's happening here

in the beginning

of world history.

Now friends,

you can hide

from yourself,

the truth about yourself

from yourself,

you can hide

from each other,

but you can't hide

from God.

And when we try

to hide from God,

the truth about

what's going on

in our lives,

we hide it from God.

Have you ever played

hide and go seek

with a toddler?

You know,

they can be standing

in the middle

of the living room

and you say,

now you go hide

and what do they do?

They put their hands,

if you're only listening

to this,

I just put my hands

on my eyes.

They put their hands

on their eyes

as if they've hidden

because they think,

if you can't,

if I can't see you,

you can't see me.

And if I think,

and my heart says,

if I can't see God

right now,

God can't see me.

And we hide from God

and it doesn't work

and it doesn't need

to work

because God

is on his knee

with open arms

saying,

come home,

come back to me.

A tender father

is the God

that made you.

So how can you hide?

Let me run through

these really quickly

and we have to move on.

Number one,

we learn here

that you can hide

from God today

by convincing yourself

that there is no such thing

as sin at all.

So here,

we learn,

well,

in the next passage,

God comes to Cain

after he murders

his brother

and says,

where are you,

where's your brother?

And Cain says,

am I my brother's keeper?

And then,

I've come from

the southern U.S.

and in the southern U.S.,

we have a way of saying that.

We say,

I ain't done nothing.

That's what he's saying.

And he's saying,

look,

there's nothing wrong with me.

I am morally upright.

Or perhaps even

you intellectually,

you use your brain,

to try to convince your heart

that there's no such thing

as sin at all.

That it's just a construct.

A traditionalist idea.

A puritanical idea.

That there is no such thing

as sin.

And yet,

your heart,

the heart knows

what the heart knows.

The heart knows

that that is not true.

That sin is the concept

that makes most sense

of this world,

in fact.

And so you can,

modern person,

you can be hiding

from God

by trying to tell yourself

by way of

quote-unquote

science

that there's no such thing

as sin.

Or you can hide

from God

secondly,

by doing what Adam

does here

in verse 11,

by blame shifting.

And so,

God comes to Adam

and says,

where are you?

Who told you

that you were naked?

And Adam says,

she did it.

She gave it to me.

It's not my fault.

But it's not really,

we looked at this

a couple weeks ago,

but it's not really

a blame shift at Eve.

Instead,

what does he say?

The woman you made

made me do it.

And you see who

he's actually blaming there?

You can hide from God

by actually turning things around

and blaming God.

That's what Adam does.

The woman you made

made me do it.

And if you wouldn't

have created me like this,

if you wouldn't have

given me these circumstances,

you can hide from God

by blame shifting

and anger

at God himself.

And God is saying

in this moment,

all he's saying

in these questions

to Adam and to every single

one of us today is,

where are you?

Where is your heart?

Will you come out

and just,

what does he want?

He wants confession of sin,

sorrow and tears,

repentance,

and to put your tearful

head in his shoulder

and to come home again.

That's all.

That's all God's

looking for here.

Time does not allow us

to explore all the ways

that we can be hiding

from God today.

But if you'll let me,

I just want to,

and you have to let me,

right?

But I'll just rattle off

a few more

that may be true

of us right now.

Some of us have

old sins,

sins from our past,

where we are saying

right now in our hearts,

I could never be forgiven

for that.

I am too far gone.

And that is hiding

from God in regret.

You can hide from God

in regret,

never coming to him

because you feel like

you're too far gone.

And some of us

are hiding,

instead of that,

we're hiding

in new sins,

new patterns of sin

that we're currently

walking in.

And we're like

toddlers covering our eyes

pretending that God

doesn't know that.

And we're not,

we're hiding behind trees

not yet willing

to come out

and confess

in tears

over what we're up to

right now in our lives.

And some of us

might be hiding

and I think this is

probably the most

dangerous place to be

hiding in distraction,

hiding in,

from God

in the normal,

normalcy of life,

just getting on with it

and therefore

never actually

coming to the Lord,

never taking

Christianity seriously,

never taking the claim

that your heart,

that check engine light

is on in your heart

and you say,

I know there's

something wrong,

but you're never willing

to take the step

of coming to the Lord,

hiding by normalcy,

hiding by distraction.

And some of us

maybe are struggling

with hiding

in a fear of vulnerability,

hiding inside stoicism

where you're not willing

to let your heart

be as broken

as it should be

over your sins.

And so you're hiding

from being vulnerable.

You know that you would

have to become like Isaiah

in Isaiah 6

when he says,

before the Lord,

woe is me,

I am a person

of unclean lips.

And you're afraid

of vulnerability,

hiding in stoicism

from the Lord.

Or you could be hiding

a fear of commitment.

What would this cost me?

This is what Simon

was preaching about

last week.

You could be hiding

from God,

hiding from God

in philosophy,

thinking,

if I can't work out

every jot and tittle

of the claims

of Christianity

and make sure I know

beyond all shadow

of a doubt

I'm not willing

to step towards God

before the Lord,

hiding in philosophy.

You can be hiding

today as a Christian

in your doctrine,

you can know

a lot about God

but never come to Him,

never come to Him

in prayer.

Right?

And there's a wonderful

moment in Flannery O'Connor,

one of her stories,

about a character

named Hazel Motes.

And she writes

this about him.

He learned that

the best way

to stay away

from Jesus

was just to avoid sin.

You can be hiding

within your decency

and your goodness

and your religion

but let me say

that this applies

not only to everybody

in this room

that's not standing

on the platform

but to every person

who comes and stands

right here too.

And, you know,

a good preacher

can hide behind

a microphone.

A talented speaker

can hide behind

a microphone

and be an absentee dad,

an absentee husband,

can be a prayerless minister,

a thousand ways

we could be hiding

from the Lord today.

And I just want to say

where are you?

God is saying to you

right now on his knee

where are you?

Come home.

Come and confess your sins

and repent

and reconcile

and God is ready

to receive you.

God is speaking

to you today.

He's a tender father.

Now,

what does God do here

secondly and finally?

Look,

our great problem

is we hide from God.

The great solution

is Genesis 3.15.

Finally,

and here's what happens.

We learn here

about the seed.

So in verse 14,

the curse of the serpent

is total.

There is no hope

for Satan.

But when you come

to verse 15,

notice that

what God says,

I will put enmity

between the offspring

of the woman

and the offspring

of the serpent.

Notice that

that is not

a direct curse

aimed at Adam and Eve

or humanity.

Not at all.

What is going on here?

Some modern commentators

since the 19th century

have come to this moment

and said,

this is an ancient mythology

that helps explain

or simply gives a myth

for the reasons

why human beings

hate snakes.

Why snakes and humans

have never done well together.

And look,

that is in the commentary

sometimes.

And let me say

that that is so superficial,

so facile,

so silly

of an interpretation.

And that is the kind

of interpretation

you come to

when you deny

that God is the ultimate

author of scripture.

You have to say

something like that.

But that is not at all

what we get here.

Instead,

what does God do?

Understand that

when God comes to Adam and Eve

and Adam and Eve

hide from God,

they are in that moment

on team serpent.

They are hiding from God.

They refuse to come out.

They are fighting

for team serpent.

They are on team devil.

And they never change that

in that moment.

Not at all.

And what does God do

in verse 15?

It's God who then comes

and says,

I, God,

will put enmity

between you and the serpent.

In other words,

it's saying that

God is the one

who comes and drives

the wedge

between evil and humanity.

God is the one

who comes and says,

you refuse to come to me

so I will come

and save you.

I will come and rescue you

despite yourself.

I will get you off

team serpent

despite your desires.

And so here's how

he does it.

He says,

I,

I,

will put enmity

between the seed

of the woman

and the seed

of the serpent.

The seed

of the woman

will crush,

bruise the head

of the serpent

and the serpent

shall bruise the heel

of the offspring

of the woman.

Now,

Sinclair Ferguson

says that

the rest of the Old Testament

is a footnote

to Genesis 315.

And that's exactly right.

You see,

what we call here,

this is called,

often called seed theology

and the reason for that

is the word offspring here

is literally the Hebrew word

seed.

And in this promise,

the seed of the woman

will come and crush

the seed of the serpent

is a,

a little,

a literal

and metaphorical seed

in the sense that

in the very promise

of Genesis 315,

you have the seed

that will unfold

the rest of the story

of the Bible.

And at the same time,

you have seed

being referred to

in a singular masculine noun,

a boy,

a male son,

a child.

That's what's being

talked about here.

You know that,

I'm told this

by the people

who know these things,

that a seed

contains a plant

already fully encased

within it.

So the DNA

of an entire oak tree

is already contained

in the seed

when it's sown.

And so all that needs

to happen

is water and soil

and it will bud up

into the full tree.

And in this moment,

Genesis 315,

you have the seed

of the entire story

of the Bible

and you have the seed

at the very same time

of redemption itself.

All encased

in this one word,

seed.

It's right here.

And what does it say?

And Jonathan Gibson

points this out.

He says this,

number one,

let me give you

six things it says

in 90 seconds.

Number one,

this is what we learn.

Whoever this offspring

is,

this seed is,

he would be a son

because the word offspring,

the offspring of Eve

is used in the singular

masculine,

a child.

And as the seed

begins to unfold

this idea,

we come to places

like Isaiah 714

that says,

the virgin shall conceive

and bear a son.

We learn that the seed

is unfolding there.

Number two,

there is no mention

of a father here,

not at all.

In an age

where genealogies

were always written

according to the male,

the male heir,

the men.

Here,

we're being told

something very uncommon

in the ancient Near East.

Look for mothers

and their sons.

Read the Bible

with an eye

to mothers

and their sons.

And so when you flip

to Matthew chapter one,

very unusual

for the Greco-Roman culture.

In Matthew chapter one,

there's a genealogy

and there are five women,

five mothers in it.

Very unusual.

Number three,

we learn whoever

this young man is,

this boy,

this child,

he would represent many

when he came.

How do we know that?

Because this word seed

is like the word fish.

All right?

So in English,

fish is both singular

and plural

at the same time.

And in Hebrew,

the word seed

is singular and plural

at the same time.

So when you look

at a fishbowl,

there might be one fish

and you say,

there's a fish.

And you look at a fishbowl

and there's ten

and you say,

there are the fish.

Singular,

but plural.

And the word seed

is like that.

And so in this,

the seed is also

the offspring,

the seed of the seed,

the many.

That whoever this one is

would also represent many.

Number four,

he will be a warrior.

So notice the order.

It says,

he will come and crush

the head of the serpent

while the serpent

bruises his heel.

And you see the order of that.

The order of that's so important.

Whoever this child is,

he will come on the hunt

to crush the serpent.

He will be hunting.

And number six,

something about us.

And that's this.

In the ancient Near East,

sorry,

I should say,

A and E.

Adam and Eve

is what I meant to say.

Adam and Eve,

as soon as they deserve judgment,

as soon as they deserve judgment,

as soon as we see them

on Team Satan,

God comes in

with Genesis 3.15

and drives the wedge,

plants the promise.

And this is called

the Proto-Evangelion,

the first gospel.

That's just a Greek

for saying first gospel.

And let me say two things to you.

Number one,

if you want to read the Bible rightly,

if you want to read the Bible

for all it's worth,

you've got to see

Genesis 3.15

for all it's worth.

Here we have

the opening

of the full story,

the flower of redemption

in this very moment.

But number two,

more importantly,

if you today come

as we all do

in guilt and shame,

covering your eyes

like a toddler from God,

hiding from God

in any way,

shape, or form,

you've got to look here

and see that

in Genesis 2.17

God said,

if you eat of the tree

of the knowledge

of good and evil,

you shall die, die.

That's what it says in Hebrew.

And as one commentator puts it,

Adam and Eve

in this moment

live three times,

four times,

ten times as long

as any of us

could ever imagine.

They don't get

what they deserve.

They get hope.

They get promise.

They get a tender father

inviting them home.

We have never gotten

what we deserve.

Never, none of us.

If you're breathing today,

we've never gotten

what we deserve.

And still even more,

we have a tender father

coming today

and saying,

come home

through the seed

of the woman.

Who is the seed?

Who is the seed

of the woman?

In the second century,

Justin Martyr

and Irenaeus,

two of the early church fathers,

they said that

this promise

is the promise,

the promise of Eve

and her boy

is the promise

fulfilled

in Mary

and her boy.

And you can go

to places

like Galatians 4.4

where Paul says,

when the fullness

of time had come,

God sent his son

born of woman.

What is Paul quoting

from?

Genesis 3.15,

the son

born of woman.

And I have lists here

of passages

from the New Testament

speaking of the one

born of woman.

And the moment

that Jesus Christ

hung on the cross,

Jesus Christ suffered

at the hand

of an ancient foe,

the serpent.

The serpent came

and bit his heel.

The poison ran

through his body.

He bore our sin,

our injustice,

our shame,

our guilt

in that moment.

And it crushed him.

But you've got to understand

that this is saying

at the very same time

the son of God came,

Jesus Christ,

and in that moment

the shock,

the scandal of the gospel

is that he was stomping

upon the head

of the serpent.

All evil.

He came on the hunt.

He first came on the hunt

for the serpent

and secondly,

in that moment

he came on the hunt

seeking you,

drawing you,

come out from hiding,

come and put your

teary eyes

in the shoulder

of the father

through the son

by the spirit

this morning.

The first Adam

blamed his wife

and he blamed God.

The second Adam

took the blame.

And so,

as we close,

don't forget

that at the moment

of the cross

there was Mother Mary.

Mary,

sometimes as Protestants

we forget.

There was Mother Mary

standing there

looking up

at her son.

There she was.

Mary,

the new Eve

with her eyes

gazing upon her son

and her savior,

Jesus Christ

hanging upon the cross.

The seed of the woman

right there

in that moment.

And that means

that just like Mary

looked at him today,

you've got to look at him.

Don't hide.

Look, friends,

whatever's going on,

do not hide your heart

from God today.

He's telling you

by the power

of the cross

come out

from behind that tree.

Be repentant,

tearfully repentant.

Put your head

in the shoulder

of the Father

through the power

of the Son

and come home.

Come home today

as we come to the table

of our Lord.

Let's pray.

Father,

we thank you

for the proto-euangelion,

the first gospel.

and we ask,

Lord,

that you would bring

sinners home today.

We thank you

for a tender Father,

a Father full of mercy

and so we ask,

Lord,

we ask,

Lord,

right now

that you would show up

and give us your mercy

as we come to the table.

We pray this

in Jesus' name.

Amen.