Genesis 3_8-13 – Hiding from God： Shame, Blame, and the Call to Confess
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Summary
In this episode, Pastor Ken teaches about the fall of the world, and why it was God's will for the world to fall into sin. God created a fallen world, but why did he allow it? Why did he create a world that would become evil? And how did he do so?
Transcript
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Well, it's good to be back in Genesis. If you're new here, I'm currently teaching through the
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first 20 chapters of Genesis. My last sermon on Genesis 1, 3 through 7 was titled, The Serpent,
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The Woman, and the Collapse of Order. Now, in that passage, we saw what theologians call the fall
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of man. The fall of man. And that really, if you broke it down, it would break down
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into about five phases. Number one was the introduction of the serpent. Number two was
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his dialogue with Eve. Number three was her rationalization to disobey God's commands.
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Number four was Adam following his wife into disobedience.
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And number five is the opening of their eyes to sin and to shame.
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Now today we pick back up in the moments right after this happened.
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Following Adam and Eve's sin and what was once now a peaceful moment has now turned into somewhat of a panic.
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And we're going to see the Lord's calling of Adam, the awareness of their nakedness and shame,
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their confession and their excuses and blame that followed their sin.
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Now, I believe an important question needs to be answered before we go further.
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So I'm going to do a little bit of a sidebar here.
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Because I think between last week and this week, some of you may be asking the question,
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If God is sovereign, if God is a control of all things, why did he allow the serpent to tempt Eve?
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In other words, why did God make humanity susceptible to temptation?
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Many scholars have struggled and wrestled with these questions.
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Without diving too far into this theological tangent,
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I believe the scriptures certainly require us to say,
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God has permitted the fall of man for the good of his glory.
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Scripture teaches in Romans 8, 28, that God causes all things.
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God causes all things to work together for good.
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We also know that Ephesians 1.11 says he works all things according to the counsel of his will.
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All things according to the counsel of his will.
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Again, why would such a good God create a world that would certainly become evil?
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This question is challenged again many scholars, and I want to explain why.
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God receives more glory in a world that requires redemption than in one that does not.
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God receives more glory in a world that requires redemption than in a world that does not.
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Just as a doctor's glory is not found in tending to the well, but he's tending to those who are sick.
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His glory is not seen in the untouched stone, but when he goes in and extracts the beauty from it.
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and so God's glory shines most brightly when he is redeeming a fallen world.
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Number two is that God cannot have attributes that do not have functions.
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God cannot have attributes that do not have functions,
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and what I mean by that is that God is just, and God is merciful, and God hates evil.
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There must be, as a result, circumstances in which those perfect attributes can be displayed.
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Without the fall, we cannot see the fullness of God revealed.
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Without the fall, you cannot see the fullness of God revealed.
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It was R.C. Sproul who said a very provocative statement.
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He says, evil is not good, but it's good that there is evil.
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Evil is not good, but it's good that there is evil.
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A few years earlier, John MacArthur actually made a similar statement.
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He said, quote, is God made more glorious because the evil exists?
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Or is he made less glorious because evil exists?
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in order to make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy,
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The fall didn't derail God's plan. It revealed it.
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The fall did not derail God's plan. It revealed it.
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it's where we have an opportunity to understand
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because throughout the scripture god uses tragedies to make triumphs
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in fact the greatest tragedy was not the fall of man but was the murder of the perfect man
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Just as a diamond shines against the black backdrop,
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we see that God's mercy and glory shine brightest against the blackness of evil.
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because you have to see the contextual, the theological reality behind the text that we are in.
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At the same time, we don't want to neglect the reality of our own sin,
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This is the great mystery of the scriptures, right?
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It's God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.
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That I'm still responsible to be obedient and I'm still responsible to be faithful.
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And so we're going to read in verse 8, it says,
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And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
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And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden.
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Now there's actually quite a debate over this phrase, the cool of the day.
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It's got the word, the pretext L in front of it.
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But we know that word means spirit or wind or breath.
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And so this could mean that the Lord God is walking in the windy portion of the day.
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It could mean that he's walking in the spirit of the day, the moment.
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It could mean that he's walking in some degree of anger and frustration
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because of the moment that the fall of man has occurred.
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But regardless, I've always focused on the fact that in Eden, man is in the presence of God.
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God is walking in the same place that man is located.
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And I think that truth is really central to the gospel.
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We know that light cannot coexist with darkness.
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That's why these bumper stickers that say coexist are ridiculous.
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And your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear you.
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For fellowship and unity with God to be restored
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You're going to see that the great narrative of the scripture is that we were one with Christ.
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some contrast I want you to pay attention look at your Bibles
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The second half of verse 8 is designed to show some contrast.
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If you flip over to chapter 2, verses 25, you're going to see what it's contrasted with.
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And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
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The man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed.
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Here it says, because of their nakedness, it says, quote,
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And the man and his wife hid themselves, not only from the Lord, but from each other.
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now before sin we know before sin had entered what happened adam and eve would eagerly have
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run to the presence of the lord but now they flee from his presence they hide from his presence
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we see this same pattern in our own lives especially in children it's just easier to see in
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kids. I once saw a home video, a parent telling their son, don't eat the cookies on the table.
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And then they walk out of the room. The camera's still rolling. A few minutes later,
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the cookies are gone. And so is the boy. The camera pans around the room a little bit.
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And there he is, just like Adam and Eve, not kidding, hiding behind a house plant.
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You have to laugh to keep yourself from crying because it's really our story.
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Guilt causes fear and fear causes us to run and hide.
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But the Lord God called to the man and said to him,
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and he said i heard the sound of you in the garden and i was afraid because i was naked and i hid
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myself now as you know over the past few weeks i've been emphasizing the port the importance of
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of god's order god's order and how satan intended to invert or bring disorder
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In the creation narrative, we know that the order is
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In the temptation narrative, we know that that order is
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reversed, that the serpent comes and tempts Eve
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It's a clear picture of Satan's desire to reverse or invert God's design.
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So even the structure of the text reinforces that God's order flows from Adam to Eve to creation.
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Now there's a group of heretics out there known as open theists.
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And because human choices haven't been made yet,
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and therefore the future cannot be fully known even by God.
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William Lane Craig is one of these individuals.
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In short, what it really is, is an attempt to theologically defend the idea of man's free will.
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And they do this at the expense of God's sovereignty and God's omniscience.
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Why are we talking about open theism in Genesis chapter 3?
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Well, if you pay attention to the text, God asks a question.
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Does this mean that God didn't know where Adam was or what happened?
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The very next verse says, your brother's blood is crying out from the ground.
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to me. No, God clearly knew that Abel was dead. So again, what's the reason for the
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questions? Well, God isn't seeking information. He's seeking confession. God's not seeking
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information. He's seeking confession. It's like the story I mentioned of the boy and
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the cookies. Well, the dad walks in and goes, where's the cookies? Does he not know where
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the cookies are at? No, he knows. He's not seeking for information. He's seeking for
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confession. Adam responds to God saying, I heard the sound of you in the garden and
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And I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.
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And we know that he hides himself behind plants and fig leaves.
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As much as we'd really like them to hide what we don't want to be seen,
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Because you and I might not grab literal fig leaves.
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We might not walk into a bush and hide ourselves that way.
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We find other ways to conceal our guilt and shame.
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The man who looks at pornography may hide behind a confident or cool appearance
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or an excuse like, my wife's coldness sent me here.
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The child who steals something from another person
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might hide behind the rationalization that I needed it more than them.
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the insubordinate wife may hide her rebellion behind the claim he's not leading so i'm going to
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every sinner hides it is the natural response of the fallen flesh to rationalize to justify to
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conceal, to get creative, to hide. And whatever we hide behind is never enough. Like the fig
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leaves, it's ridiculous. It cannot cover our guilt. It cannot block the eyes of the Lord.
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It won't help when God calls your name. The only sufficient covering for guilt and shame
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is Christ. It's repenting of our sin. It's trusting in the righteousness of Christ that's
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imputed to us by faith. I must be covered. But with what? Christ. It's all you have.
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And I've wrapped my own kids in a black blanket.
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And then I show them the robes of Christ's righteousness.
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And I say, through repentance and faith, Christ gives these robes to you and then covers you with these white robes.
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And your sin is covered and not seen by the Lord anymore.
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God responds in verse 11 saying, who told you that you were naked?
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Have you eaten of the tree at which I commended you not to eat?
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Again, we see God using rhetorical questions, offering opportunity for confession.
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The man said, the woman, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.
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And then the Lord God said to the woman, what is it that you have done?
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Just a few verses earlier, Adam was overflowing with praise for the woman that God had given him.
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Ah, this is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.
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but now he turns that gift into an accusation he blames not only god for giving her to him
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he blames also eve the woman whom you gave me she gave me the fruit what a shift oh
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It turns the people that we once cherished into enemies.
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the Lord said to the woman, what is this that you have done?
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The woman said, the serpent deceived me, and I ate.
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The emphasis here for the woman isn't on willful rebellion.
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And so it's not, the focus here is really on deception.
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Some people have even argued that Adam knew that Eve was going to die and loved her so much that he sinned with her to die with her.
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But there's lots of theories out there around this particular discussion.
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There's also another layer to notice that many people skip over.
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The harmony that once existed between humanity and animals has now been shattered.
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The serpent, this created thing, is now an enemy.
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sin. So, sin doesn't just divide man from God. It divides everything. It divides everything.
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It fractures peace on every level. So, if you're thinking about sinning,
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don't forget that it shatters peace everywhere. It'll divide you and your family and your
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marriage and your church and your kids. And when you sin, it
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affects me. It affects her and him. When you sin, it doesn't
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just affect you. It affects this congregation. It affects the
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church. If I had to sum up this sermon in one simple sentence,
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it would be this. You can't hide your sin from God. You
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can't hide your sin from God. You might as well confess it. When
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you sin, you get to go. When you lie, when you cheat, when you
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steal, when you lust, just go to the Lord. He already knows. He
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already watched it happen. Don't justify it. Don't hide. God
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sees. Respond as the tax collector did in Luke 18, 13. Oh God, be merciful to me, a
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sinner. Own it, confess it, recognize that you are unrighteous and you need the atonement
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of Christ. While preparing my sermon, I found this snippet and I'll close here in a second
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with this. It was a devotional entry, handwritten from the 1800s. It's a poem and it said,
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Lord, help me not excuse my sin and blame another person. For if I don't admit my wrong,
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my sin will only worsen. Proverbs 18 or Proverbs 28, 13 says,
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Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper.
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But he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
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Father, we thank you, Lord, that you have given us a path for mercy.