It’s Not My Fault – It’s Yours, It’s Hers – It’s . . .
(Genesis 3:8, 11, 12, 13)
I. Concentration: on pinning the blame
1. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (v.8)
2. And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (v.11)
3. The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” (v.12)
4. Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.” (v.13)
II. Meditation: on “it’s not my fault”
1. The serpent told the woman the reason God didn’t want her to eat from the tree in the garden was because her eyes would be open – she would be God-like; God was walking among them – in the garden – because He wanted a relationship with them.
2. Their eyes were opened; they could see they were naked; He asked where they were (He already knew); they were afraid and hid; they were caught because . . . they ate!
3. The man wants no accountability for his sin – after all – it was God who gave him the woman in the first place – had he not . . . perhaps he wouldn’t have sinned AND it was the woman who picked the fruit and gave it to him – “it’s not my fault!”.
4. The woman wants no accountability for her sin – after all – it wasn’t her idea, it was the serpent who tricked me – I just ate the fruit – “it’s not my fault!”
III. Revelation: on owning your sin
1. Satan will always be lurking and slithering around every corner trying to tempt us and trip us up – trying to convince us we don’t need God and we can be smarter than Him; God will always be present in our lives – He desires a relationship with us.
2. Almost all the time when we sin we are doing it with our eyes wide open; we can pretend we didn’t know better, we can hide from the truth, but it won’t change it.
3. “It’s not my fault (!!!) - If you didn’t do such and such . . . I wouldn’t have done this”
4. Blaming others for our sins does not make them someone else’s sins; regardless of how we got involved – knowingly or unknowingly – we need to own our sins.
IV. Application: As a Christian, I need to:
1. Be on guard for Satan – never doubt that he is lurking about; send him off with the Word – the last thing he wants to do is hang around a bunch of Christians!
2. Make sure that my eyes are always open and focused on Jesus.
3. Be accountable when I have sinned – denying it doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen.
4. Make sure that I am becoming spiritually rich; develop a relationship with a spiritual mentor.