Our Shame and Blame, God’s Promise and Mercy - Genesis - February 22nd, 2026 (Sermon Transcript)

Well, this morning we are back in the book of Genesis in chapter 3, and we are looking at the fall, the great fall from grace that occurred in the Garden of Eden.

Last Sunday we went over six truths about sin, and this Sunday our focus will be on the aftermath. You see, sin always has consequences. A lot of times we don't see them.

We hope that it won't happen. We think we get away with it, but sin always has consequences. Economists like to say that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

There is always an economic cost whether you are the one paying for it or not. And the same is true for sin. There is always a moral cost.

There is always a spiritual price. And that's what our passage is about. It's about what happened after humans committed the first sin.

Like everything in the book of Genesis, this is foundational. It sets the pattern for the rest of human history.

That's one of the things that has impressed me the most as we've been spending time in Genesis these past nine weeks, is that everything we are reading about and learning about and seeing in these first few pages of the scriptures is so foundational

and so pattern setting. It's like this is what humans are, and this is what humans are going to be, and this is what animals are, and this is how it's supposed to work, and this is how God made the universe, and this is how He designed it to operate.

And we even see the pattern here with sin, and we'll see these universal truths about God and about human nature play out even with this first sin.

And the same truths are playing out today with my sin, with your sin, the way it affects us, and the way we think, and how we relate to God. Please stand for the reading of God's word. I'll read the text for us, Genesis 3, verses 8 through 15.

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 the 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.

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated, and please join me as I pray for us.

Father, what a privilege it is to have your word, to have truth from you, to have light from you, to be loved by you, God, enough that you would give us the opportunity to know the truth and see and understand the truth.

So many people are so lost in darkness, but we have an opportunity this morning to hear from you and to respond to you. So we thank you for your love and grace. We thank you for your mercy.

We thank you that our mistakes, our sin, it's not the end of the story. That there's grace, that there's forgiveness, that there's hope for us. So I pray that we would understand and cling to the hope that we have in you and in your son, Jesus.

Pray in his name, amen.

4:35

Shameʼs Purpose

As you read this passage, one thing that jumps off the page is just how ashamed they are of their sin. According to modern psychology, shame is a maladaptive behavior. In other words, it's bad.

Maybe it had some value in our evolutionary development, and I learned there are lots of theories out there from psychologists about how we evolved to feel shame and how important it was in the evolutionary process.

But for modern people, the psychologist will say, we should not be feeling shame. I've read many times that people who don't go to church will often cite shame or guilt as one of the reasons that they don't like to go to church.

They say, oh, well, it just makes you feel guilty or ashamed, and so I don't go. I don't want to feel that way. Psychologists say that if you feel shame, you should give yourself more compassion and you should love yourself more.

And apparently, if you don't do that, they theorize shame might make you feel small and powerless. In order to compensate, you might get really angry and try to show others how big and powerful you really are.

You could lash out in violence with words or physical violence. So, whatever you do, don't let yourself feel shame, and don't do anything that might lead other people to feel ashamed about themselves.

And yet, here we are, we have Adam and Eve, and you'll notice that they are quite ashamed of their sin. In verse 8, it says that they hid themselves from God when they heard him walking in the garden.

In verse 10, it says that, again, Adam explains how he was afraid because he was naked. He was ashamed, so he hid himself from God. Which brings up the question, where did their shame come from?

And what exactly is that shame? I think the Bible is telling us that their shame came from their sin. It was the natural consequence of their own sinful behavior.

What this means is that contrary to popular belief, their shame didn't come from some cultural expectations. They weren't ashamed because of some cultural expectations because there was no culture yet.

They weren't ashamed because of a bully at school who made fun of them because there were no bullies yet.

We have this tendency to assume that shame is a bad thing and we have a tendency to blame it on others, but the Bible never says that shame is a bad thing. I mean, we're here in the Book of Genesis with the first human beings.

This is how God created them. This is how God created the world to operate just like this. And so when they sin and they feel shame, we should assume that that was the right response to sin.

I think God created us to feel shame in order to teach us to live the way that he created us to live. Shame is like a set of guardrails designed to keep us on the path that God intended us to walk.

If your shame makes you feel bad about yourself, what do you do? If your shame makes you feel bad about yourself, should you say, no, I'm not going to believe that. I'm perfect.

I know it. I'm perfect just the way I am. And whoever made me feel that way will shame on them for making me feel like I'm anything less than perfect.

Just yesterday, I was walking around Costco and I saw a guy wearing a sweatshirt that said, the simple words on the front, you are enough. And the funny thing is I've seen that same sweatshirt at Costco no less than three times.

Twice in one day, a few months back when I was shopping there, I'm like, where does this thing come from? What is, is this like a brand or something? But it's such a quintessential modern message, isn't it?

This idea that you are enough, all by yourself, you are sufficient, there's nothing wrong with you, there's nothing bad about you. But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says you aren't enough.

That's why you need Jesus. The Bible says if you feel bad about yourself, it's probably because you did something bad. The Bible says that the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all else.

I always think of this professor I had in grad school telling us that the message of every Disney movie is don't listen to anybody else, just follow your heart.

And I've also noticed as a parent now that the message of every Disney movie is your parents are dead, but don't worry, you'll be fine. It's like their parents are, every kid's story, every Disney movie, it's like, why are the parents always dead?

Always an orphan. And the message is follow your heart. He'll be just fine.

But the Bible says the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all else. So if we feel shame, if we feel small and powerless, we actually are small. We are small and we are powerless on our own to overcome our sin.

That's why we need Jesus. The proper response to shame is not to deny it, but to see the truths that it is telling us, and to turn to Jesus to help us. Even if we are bad, even if we are small, even if we are powerless, we're loved anyways.

God loves us anyways. That's where our value comes from. Not from some, you know, not from being enough all on our own.

Our value comes from the fact that God loves us, even in spite of our failures.

10:42

Human Blame Shifting

Now, I know these are unpopular things to say. Nobody wants to admit that they're bad. Just look at Adam and Eve.

Notice how reluctant they are to admit that they had done anything wrong. In verse 11, God confronts Adam about his sin, and in verse 12, what does he do? He blames Eve for giving him the fruit to eat.

And ultimately, he blames God for giving him Eve in the first place. He says, the woman you gave me. And in verse 13, God confronts Eve, and she blames the serpent.

I think this is what psychologists call blame shifting. And it highlights a fundamental fact about human beings. We don't like to take responsibility for our sin.

In fact, we hate it. We don't even want to admit that we've sinned, let alone take responsibility for it. And we will even go as far as blaming God for our own rebellion against him.

That's what Adam does. He blames God for his own rebellion against God. Isn't that remarkable?

And I just want to highlight quickly the fact that the rebellion was utterly futile. It didn't work at all. This is human beings are giving this commandment from God to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And they decide they're not going to listen to God. They want to be like God. They want to know what he knows.

They want to go their own way. So they stage a rebellion. Eve eats, Adam eats, and what happens?

God calls him out on it, and he gives them the punishment. The rebellion gets absolutely nowhere at all. But the fact that they rebelled in the first place is just utterly astounding, isn't it?

Adam is here in this beautiful garden, and he has God to thank for everything. God has given him food. God has even given him a wife.

God has given him an entire world to cultivate and enjoy and rule over. God has given him the very breath in his lungs. Adam was just dust until God breathed life into him.

And here he is blaming God for his own sin. It's appalling. The Bible says this in James 1, verses 12 through 15.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he, when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin.

And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. You see, we all are responsible for our own sin. We can't blame God.

We can't blame our parents. We can't blame our spouses. We can't blame stress.

We can't blame a lack of education or resources or a lack of opportunity. The problem is our hearts, and we just don't want to admit it. We'd rather blame someone else.

This is true for all of us. How do you respond when somebody calls you out on something? Are there people in your life who can speak the truth directly to you about the things that you have done wrong or are doing wrong?

Are you the kind of person that is open to correction? I think the natural response for all of us is anger. It's anger that comes from pride.

Like, how dare you say that to me? Or it's some kind of like justification like, please don't bother me about that. I'm really stressed.

I'm overwhelmed. Don't you see all these things that I have to deal with? Why are you bringing that up?

Have some compassion. Have some sympathy.

We respond, when people call us out on things, the natural human response is to blame somebody else, is to get angry, to feel defensive, to feel prideful, to blame our circumstances, anything but taking accountability for our sin.

Blame shifting is so foundational and fundamental to human beings that it is literally the first response by the first human beings to the first sin. Let me say that again. That's what we see here.

Blame shifting is so foundational and so fundamental to human beings that it is literally the first response by the first human beings to the first sin. It's part of our spiritual DNA.

And therefore, because it is so fundamental and so foundational, the gospel gets right to the heart of it. This is one of those things that makes the gospel so offensive and powerful at the same time.

The gospel gets to the root of how we deal with our sin. 1 John chapter 1 verses 8 through 9 says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say, well, the woman you gave me, she gave me the fruit.

If we say, well, the serpent convinced me. If we say we have no sin, if we say it's somebody else's fault, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But look at verse 9.

Here's the hope of the gospel. If we confess our sins, that's it.

If we confess, if we confess our sins, not if we make up for them, not if we do more good so that it outweighs all the bad that we've done, not if we do a bunch of good religious stuff to earn God's favor, no, simply if we confess our sins, he is

faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We just have to admit it. In order to be saved, we just have to admit that we need saving. I don't know why that's so hard for people.

Sometimes I know why, sometimes I feel it, and sometimes it's just baffling. Why is it so hard for us to admit that we've done wrong? Or why is it so hard for us to admit that we can't save ourselves and we need somebody else to save us?

In order to be forgiven for our sins, we have to first confess that we have sin that needs forgiving. And God does not accept our attempts to shift blame to others.

The other day, I heard a story, a sadly common story about a man who cheated on his wife and abandoned his family. Just saying those words, it's like unthinkable.

As a husband and father, hearing stories like that, you just think like, how could somebody do that? But sadly, it's a pretty common story. So it's not all that shocking.

But here's the really shocking thing about it. This one particular man I heard about, he has never admitted to doing anything wrong at all. He's had many chances over the years being confronted by his son, by his daughter.

He's been confronted with the truth, but he absolutely refuses to admit any wrongdoing. In fact, he blames other people. This is a man who had an affair, who destroyed his family, and he blames other people for it.

He makes himself out to be the victim. In fact, I have known multiple men who have done the exact same thing. They've been unfaithful.

They've devastated their wives and families, but they've refused to admit any wrongdoing. They've refused to apologize. It just goes to show that human beings have an incredible capacity to deny the truth about themselves.

We have an incredible ability to fabricate stories to justify our own behavior in a remarkable propensity to shift blame to others. But God does not accept our attempts to shift blame to other people.

If you stop at verse 15, if you were to just stop right here at verse 15 and not read the rest of the chapter, you might think that he does accept our attempts. I mean, Adam blames Eve, then Eve blames the serpent, and so God curses the serpent.

End of the story, right? But if you go on to verse 16, which we will next week, we'll see it's not the end of the story. God then turns to Eve to explain the consequences for her sin.

And then finally, he turns to Adam to explain the consequences for his sin. After all that shifting of blame, they are held responsible in the end. The Bible promises, again, Genesis sets the pattern.

They're held responsible for their sin, and the Bible promises that all human beings, for all of human history, will be held responsible for all of their sins.

Second Corinthians 5 10 says, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

And I should add, we will all receive our due for what is done not only in the body, but also in the mind, also in the heart, every evil intention as well as every evil action, every evil thought, every evil desire, every single thought, feeling,

word, action. God sees it all, and he will hold us all accountable. But there's one hope. Here's the good news.

He will all hold us accountable, or he will hold Jesus accountable on our behalf.

21:41

First Gospel Promise

Sin always has consequences, but the good news of the gospel is that Jesus came to face the consequences for our sin. Somebody always has to pay the price for sin, but Jesus offers to pay the price for us. That's the mercy of God.

That's the promise of God. And we get the first hints of it here in verse 15. Theologians refer to this as the Proto Evangelium, which is Latin for first gospel.

It says, God declares to the serpent, 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. The word enmity is a very intense word.

It refers to extreme hostility and animosity, to a life and death struggle. So there's going to be this extreme hostility between the woman and the serpent, a life and death struggle between the woman and the serpent. And it's going to come to blows.

The Hebrew word for bruise is translated as strike or crush in other translations. For example, in the NIV, it says, he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.

So God is prophesying this life and death battle between Eve and the serpent, between her descendants and his. So from this moment forward, knowing what we do about the serpent, the serpent is Satan. Satan embodied in snake form.

So what this means is that from this moment forward, humans are going to be at war with Satan. That's what this boils down to. Humans are going to be at war with Satan.

But then the focus turns to one particular human. At first, God is talking about the descendants of Eve, but notice in the second half of verse 15, it switches from plural to singular.

It's talking about descendants, plural, but then God uses the singular he, as in one particular descendant. So there will come a day when one particular descendant of Eve will rise up and crush the head of Satan. Who do you think that's going to be?

Jesus. Satan will strike his heel, but he will crush Satan's head. When Jesus died on the cross, that was Satan striking his heel.

But when Jesus rose from the dead, that was the descendant of Eve crushing Satan's head. And like so many things in the Bible, this is already done but not yet complete. I remember doing my undergraduate degree in biblical studies.

My professors used this phrase like at least 15 times a week. They would say already not yet eschatological tension, which is a somewhat fancy way of saying, already done but not yet complete.

So many things in the Bible, all throughout the New Testament, including this, God has already done it, but it's not yet fully complete. Like God has already saved us. We are saved.

We are his, but he's still sanctifying us. He's still in the process of saving us until one day we are finally in heaven, completely free from sin, always and forever free from the penalty, power, and presence of sin.

Then our salvation will be complete. Already done, but not yet complete. And the same is true for so many other things, including this.

Jesus has defeated the enemy. Jesus, through his life, death, and resurrection, has defeated sin. He has defeated death, and he has defeated Satan.

And one day that victory will be complete. But right now, we live in this in-between time, where Satan is still active. He's still dangerous, but in the end, we know that he is a defeated foe.

26:01

Satanʼs Defeat

So what do we do now? How do we, as Christians, in this present age, think about Satan and his activities? I think one of the most important things to understand is what the Bible says, in that he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.

So the Holy Spirit that dwells in you as a Christian is greater, is infinitely greater and more powerful than the enemy who dwells or who is in the world, who the Bible even says, who rules this world.

The Bible calls Satan the ruler of this world, the ruler of this present age, and we can see it, can't we? You can see it in this world. Apart from Christ, this world truly is ruled by the enemy.

You can see it in the music. You can see it in the media. You can, I remember a few years ago, I feel like God rescued us from the world just spiraling into absolute evil and chaos and kind of, I don't know, slowed the tides for a bit.

But I just remember a few years ago when things were becoming more and more openly satanic.

There was an ad campaign by Nike in conjunction with this rapper, I forget his name, but he had done this famous song and then he came out with this ad campaign with Nike and Converse and came out with these new sneakers and the ads for it were just

openly satanic. Like it literally had 666 on the sneakers and there was dripping blood and it was just absolutely disgustingly, overtly satanic.

And then around the same time, there was an ad campaign for the luxury brand, I think it was Balenciaga, and they came out with an ad campaign featuring children in BDSM, just absolute sexually perverted stuff featuring kids.

And it was like, what are these people thinking? And yet they were getting away with it. And it's not quite as obvious today as it was a few years ago, but the world is an evil place.

The enemy is active, he is powerful, he is dangerous, but our hope as Christians is that he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.

But we should know, as the Bible teaches, 1 Peter 5.8, that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. He does not have the power to devour you.

Thankfully, if you are in Christ, he does not have the power to devour you, but he certainly has the power to harm you. He certainly has the power to tempt you into sin that will destroy your life.

We should also know as Christians, John 8.44, that Satan is a murderer and a liar. 2 Corinthians 4.4, he blinds people from seeing the truth of the gospel.

Have you ever talked with people and told them about the gospel, and it seems like no matter what, they just don't get it? Like, you can tell them 50 times in 50 different ways, but it will not compute.

I've had this experience dozens of times, maybe 100 plus times, where I've explained the gospel to people. Even people have been in church for years, and no matter what, they just can't get it.

That's because Satan blinds people from seeing the truth of the gospel. That is one of the things that he does in this world. Jesus said in John 10 10 that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

But then Jesus says, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. So Satan has a purpose, and he is very good at it. His purpose is to steal from you, to steal your joy, to steal your peace.

Ultimately, to steal your faith. His goal is to kill you, to destroy you, to destroy your life, to destroy your family. That means that Satan hates your marriage, he hates your kids, he hates your Bible reading, he hates your prayer life.

He wants to destroy you, body and soul, in hell. And he has millions of demons to help him do it. But Jesus came that we may have life.

All authority in heaven and on earth and under the earth has been given to Jesus. That's the promise of Genesis 3 15. That's the hope of the gospel, that Jesus is more powerful.

And one way that he obtains life for his people is by defeating the enemy, by defeating Satan. Listen to the way the author describes this in Hebrews chapter 2, verses 14 through 15.

It says, Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death

were subject to lifelong slavery. Through fear of death, we are subject to lifelong slavery. Through our own inability to defeat our sin, we are subject to lifelong slavery.

Apart from Christ, we live in slavery to sin and death, but Jesus came that through death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. When Jesus died and rose again, he defeated sin and Satan and death.

In Revelation 20, verses 7-10, it says this, When the thousand years are ended, before I read this, I just want to add it, Hebrews chapter 2 describes kind of the already.

We talked about the already, not yet, eschatological tension, the already done, but not yet complete. Hebrews chapter 2 describes the already, and Revelation chapter 20 looks forward to the not yet.

Satan is defeated through the death of Christ, and one day that defeat will be full and final and complete. And Revelation chapter 20 is describing that for us. It's describing the Battle of Armageddon after the thousand year millennial kingdom.

A lot of really interesting stuff in there. It says, when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth.

And the devil will come forth with Gog and Magog to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.

But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were. And they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever.

And that's how it will end. Genesis 3 records the origins of this war between humans and the devil. And Revelation 20 records the end.

Genesis 3 records the first sin, the first shame, the first blame, and the beginning of this war that will last until the end of the world. But we also see the first promise of victory in Christ.

The servant will strike his heel, and he will crush his head. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for obtaining this victory for us.

You are in no danger from Satan, but we are. You achieved this victory for us because you love us. I pray that we would understand that and believe that and hope in that and trust in that.

We thank you, Jesus, for all that you've done. We pray in your name. Amen.