Genesis 2:25 NKJV  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

• We are now in our second week in a row of going through just one verse…
  • At the rate of one verse a week we will get through Genesis in just 23 and a half more years!
    • But of course it won’t always be like this, there are going to be Sundays where we go through very large swaths of Genesis… but I got to tell you guys…
      • Whenever my spirit leads me to preach on just one verse, I pray about it and the answer from God is always the same “It’s not a race”.
        • So, are you guys enjoying Genesis? Are you getting good things out of it?!
        • Praise God, then be it 120 sermon or 1,236 we are going to be edified by the Word of God, amen?!
        • So let’s get into it this morning… Today’s verse is very straightforward, but packed with truth and application.
          • Because it deals with two things, or the absence there off, that we face nearly daily in our lives…
        • You see Adam and eve did not have something we all have today…

Genesis 2:25 NKJV  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

• You read this verse and maybe you think, oh, they didn’t have clothes…
  • While that is true, that’s not the take away here…
    • It is not that they had no clothes, it is that they had no need for clothes, no desire for clothes.
      • Of course there was no frostbite or sunburn to worry about, no need for Adam and Eve to wear clothing to protect themselves from the elements.
        • So clothing wasn’t needed in that regard…
      • But there is another reason we wear clothing… it is to cover our bodies because we are ashamed.
  • What Adam and Eve lacked was not clothing, what they lacked was sin and shame, because where there is no sin, there is no shame.

• Where there is no Sin, there is no Shame.

• Where there is no sin, there is no shame…
  • Point one this morning is that shame is relational.

Point One – Shame is Relational

Genesis 2:25 NKJV  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

• Shame is relational…
  • You know the one time that I never feel ashamed to be naked?
    • THE SHOWER.
      • Why? Because I know that no one can see me.
    • What is phenomenal about the fact that Adam and Eve were naked is that they were naked, TOGETHER, with God.
      • They were just hanging out together, with Jesus… and their bits were just flopping around for all to see… and yet they were unashamed.
    • This verse would not be extraordinary if it was “And Adam was alone, by himself in the shower, and he was naked and not ashamed”.
    • No, that wouldn’t be of note at all… what’s phenomenal about this verse… what is extraordinary about this verse is that they were TOGETHER and naked and still had no shame, because shame is relational…
• Remember the title of this sermon is where there is no sin there is no shame.
  • But to understand this statement, we need to define a couple of words.

(put this on one slide all together if you can)

• Sin: Breaking of God’s Law

1 John 3:4 NKJV  Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

• Shame: the fear of judgment, dishonor, or ostracization (humiliation) from others because of perceived or actual flaws in yourself or your actions.

Proverbs 19:26 NKJV  He who mistreats his father and chases away his mother Is a son who causes shame and brings reproach.

• So sin is very easy to define, because scripture defines it. Sin is breaking God’s law. If you God says to do something and you don’t do it, you broke His law, that is sin. If God says to not do something and you do it, that is sin, you broke God’s law.
  • If you break an American law, that is called a crime.
    • American law says stop at a stop sign and you don’t stop, that is a crime.
    • American law says not to steal from stores, if you do steal that is a crime.
  • If you break God’s law that is a sin.
    • God’s law says to forgive others, if you don’t forgive that is a sin.
    • God’s says not to lust in your heart, if you do lust that is a sin.
• So sin is straightforward, it is breaking God’s law. Sin is heavenly crime.
• But shame is something people get confused with sometime.
  • Shame is RELATIONAL. Shame has to do with your relationship with God and with other people.
  • Sin produces both guilt and shame… but they are not the same thing.
    • Guilt is the fact of the matter. If you sin, then you are guilty of breaking God’s law. Guilt is factual, it has to do with the reality of the situation, you sinned, you are guilty.
    • Shame, on the other hand, is relational.
      • Guilt is factual, shame is relational.
      • Because of my sin my relationship with God has changed.
      • Because of my sin my relationship with others has changed.
      • Shame is the feeling that “Because of what I have done, others are going to look down on me, they are going to humiliate me, I am disgraced in front of others.”
    • Sometimes Shame is perceived “If they knew what I did they would think I am a monster!”
    • Sometimes Shame is a reality “Because of my sin, God will be angry with me”.
      • I used this verse in proverbs in my definition of sin because I think it is an example we can all understand.
        • Show of hands… who has children? Most of us…
        • Ok, who was ONCE a child? ALL OF US…
          • So we can all understand this example…

Proverbs 19:26 NKJV  He who mistreats his father and chases away his mother Is a son who causes shame and brings reproach.

• When your child does something that is awesome, you are proud of your child… you are happy for others to know about that achievement.
  • When they get saved and baptized.
  • When they graduate high school.
  • When they get married or have kids.
• These are moments that make you proud of them, they are doing good things, you want others to see your kids doing these good things so you post pictures on social media, you throw graduation parties, you tell your friends, you help them put on a big wedding, you show all your friends the pictures of your grand babies…
• When your kids do good, you have feelings of pride “I want others to know my kids are doing well.
• But when they do something that is embarrassing… something shameful, something you are not proud of… then you want to hide it.
  • When your kids dishonor you…
  • when they disobey…
  • when they go out into the world and make horrible life decisions…You don’t share that with others…
• There is not a lot of Facebook posts of “Look at my oldest son, here is a picture of him smoking pot”.
  • You don’t pull out your phone to show your friends pictures of your child’s mugshot from when they got arrested for a DUI… like “I really like the lighting of this one… and the orange jumpsuit really makes my daughters eye’s pop don’t you think?”
  • No, when your children do something that you think will make others look down on you as their parent, you don’t show it off. Because you don’t want other people thinking your children are bad kids, and you don’t want other people thinking you are a bad parent… so you have this feeling of shame… this inert desire to hide the bad from other people.
• Shame is the feeling that others will look down on you, will hate you, will be angry with you, will disapprove of you… Shame is the FEAR that others will dislike you because of something you did, or something you said, or just because of just who you are.
  • And the big word here is FEAR. Sometimes the fear is well founded, and sometimes it is not, but the fear of others is there.
• You see, before there was sin, there was nothing to be ashamed of… they had no reason to be afraid of what God might think or say or do… but when sin came in, shame came in.
  • This brings me to my second point, “Where There is Sin, There is Shame”

Point Two – Where there is Sin, There is Shame

Genesis 2:25 NKJV  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

• So this point is kind of the anti-point… it helps prove the sermon title “Where there is no sin, there is no shame”… well if that is the case, then it should also be true that “Where there is sin, there is shame”.
  • So we see in our key verse this morning, a sinless Adam and a sinless eve, have no need for clothing because they have no shame… but what happens when sin enters the picture…
  • Well in the very next chapter that is exactly what happened… they sinned, then they realized they were naked, and they tried to hide their nakedness, and then tried to hide from God:

Genesis 3:7-10 NKJV  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.  (8)  And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.  (9)  Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”  (10)  So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

• You see shame is the FEAR of what others might think…
  • When sin entered the picture, shame entered the picture.
    • All of the sudden Adam and Eve were afraid of God… they were afraid “What is God going to think… what is He going to say… I can’t let Him see me like this… maybe if I just hide it… no one needs to know… let me just hide behind these trees… and… oh hi God… what… uh… what are you doing here…?”
  • Adam and Eve KNEW that they had committed evil, and they were filled with feelings of shame and fear.
    • And rightfully so… God is just after all.
• When sin enters the picture, church, shame enters the picture.
  • And church I don’t want you guys to struggle with feelings of shame…
  • And I don’t want to struggle with feelings of shame…
    • But to find the antidote for shame we must realize that shame is a natural reaction to sin.
    • Where there is sin, there is shame.
    • Where there is no sin, there is no shame.
• If we could but live sin free lives, we could also live shame free lives.
• But the reality is, we live in a wicked, evil, fallen, and cursed world.
  • It is why I am wearing a suit today, and it is not my birthday suit, because sin exists in this place.
  • How many of you guys know Bill Nye the Science Guy?
    • He is a staunch atheist, he hates God and the idea of God… and he once went to the creation museum to debate Ken Ham, who is the founder of the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter.
    • Before the debate Ken is giving Bill a tour of the museum and they are kind of talking and debating as they go.
      • And at one point, while surrounded by children, Bill Nye goes “I can’t believe you teach these kids that we were clothes because of sin”.
      • Now, I was a bit disappointed with Ken because he handled it differently then I would have, Ken just moved on…
      • I would have asked him “Well why do we wear clothes, Bill?”
      • “Well because we evolved to use tools like clothing to help us fend off the environment and protect ourselves… as we got better at using clothing we evolved out of needing fur”.
      • “Oh, ok Bill… well we are in a climate controlled building here, there are no predators to attack you… why don’t you prove that you believe what you just said and get naked in front of all these kids… go ahead and take of your clothes”.
      • “Well… uh I couldn’t do that… uh…”
      • “Well why not, Bill, we are just monkeys, aren’t we, they don’t have a problem being naked all day. In zoos they are naked and thousands of children come by and look at them… so what’s the problem”.
    • I guarantee you Bill would not get naked in front of those kids, and if he did he would go to jail… why?
      • Because as a society we understand that it is shameful to be naked.
      • There is FAR to much sin in this world… far to much sexual sin, and child trafficking, and rape, and lust, and pornography, and fornication for us humans to be ok with being naked around others.
      • There is a law against indecent exposure… and it HAS NOTHING to do with protecting against the elements.
• Every culture in the world understands this and has some kind of standard for clothing. EVERY ONE. Because as humans we instinctively understand the sinful nature of man, and that brings us shame.
• Because where there is sin, there is shame.
  • And where there is shame, our natural instinct is to hide and to cover up… that is what makes point three such a hard point for many Christians to accept.
• Point three this morning – There is No Shame in Repentance.

Point Three – There is No Shame in Repentance

Genesis 2:25 NKJV  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Psalms 34:4-5 NKJV  I sought the LORD, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.  (5)  They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed.

1 John 1:9 NKJV  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

• You see there is a problem that you and I have… and it is that we sin.
  • We break God’s law.
    • Hopefully not nearly as much as we did before we were born again.
    • But it still happens.
  • So what are we to do… are we to hide amongst the trees, and try to cover up and hide our sin?
    • How well did that work for Adam and Eve?
      • The idea of hiding from God is so LUDACRISLY STUPID… yet we do it.
        • We hide, we hide our sin from others.
        • We hide our sin from our discipler.
        • We hide our sin from our brothers and sisters in Christ.
        • We hide our sin from the church.
      • Well what does that produce? That only produces more fear… more shame…
        • IF THEY KNEW WHO I WAS… IF THEY KNEW WHAT I DID…  THEY WOULD HATE ME… THEY WOULD KICK ME OUT OF THE CHURCH… THEY WOULD TAKE ME OUT AND STONE ME.
    • But these feelings are lies… Adam and Eve should have RAN to God and said “I am sorry Lord, I am sorry… I listened to the snake but He was a liar… please forgive me Father… I am a sinner, but I trust you… whatever you decide!”
    • I wonder what would have happened if that was the case…
      • And you say “Well that wouldn’t have changed anything… God would still have to punish them” yeah, maybe…
      • But the Old Testament is FULL of times where God shows up in wrath, ready to destroy sinners… but one man rises up and says “God please, I admit, we are sinners… please don’t destroy us… I take responsibility, I am sorry… I will take whatever you give, but spare your people”
      • And in these examples, God’s wrath is always cooled… Discipline still comes, but it looks different, it is full of grace.
    • And then the Cross comes in the New Testament… and the wrath of God is completely satisfied.
      • And now we have salvation and forgiveness if we would just ask for it…

Ephesians 1:7 NKJV  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

• We have forgiveness of sins through Christ.
  • When we pray the Lord’s prayer we ask for forgiveness of our sins…
  • “Forgive us our debts” that word “Debt” means sin… it means “forgive us our sins and the consequences of our sin, as we forgive others who have sinned against us”.
• In the story of the unforgiving debtor… the king forgave the debt only when the man confessed the debt, confessed his inability to pay the debt, and asked forgiveness for it.
• In 1 John we are told to confess our sins, and if we do God will forgive us.
• Proverbs, even before the Cross, proverbs shows us this spiritual truth.

Proverbs 28:13 NKJV  He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

• So according to proverbs when we sin we have to options… we can be like Adam and Eve and try to cover up our sins and hide… or we can confess and forsake our sin.
  • If we cover it up, we will utterly fail.
  • But if we confess and repent, we find mercy.
• Let’s look at that 1 John verse again:

1 John 1:9 NKJV  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

• If you confess and repent… if you turn from your sins… God will forgive you. THAT IS A PROMISE FROM GOD.
  • The only “IF” in this verse is “If you confess”… it is not “If you confess and if you are a good person.
  • Not “if you confess and if you pay proper penance”
  • Not “if you are a good person and if you have not sinned TOO much this week…then He will forgive you.
  • No, just “If you confess, they ours ins will be forgiven”.
• And how does God forgive? Well, God forgives and forgets…

Isaiah 43:25 NKJV  “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.

• He blots out your sins, He forgets them… as if they never happened.
  • Your ashamed of your sin, that is natural.
  • Your ashamed of your sin and you don’t want God to know about it…
    • Well there is a way for God to forget your sin… and it is not by hiding and pretending it didn’t happen… it is through confession and repentance… if you would humble yourself, confess, and repent… God will forgive you and will forget your sin, and you will have nothing to be ashamed of.
    • Because as far as God is concerned after you have confessed and repented, there is no more sin… and where there is no sin, there is no shame.
• There is shame in sin, yes.
  • But the sin has already happened, the shame is already there… hiding from it doesn’t help… God is all knowing… hiding your sin is just as dumb as trying to hide from God behind a tree… The sin has already happened, the shame is already there… if you want to be shame free, then all you need to do is confess and repent and He is faithful and just to forgive your sins.
• So never feel ashamed to come to the altar, to cry out to God… never feel ashamed to say “Yes I have sinned and need forgiveness”.
  • The devil doesn’t want you to be forgiven, so he will lie to you… he will say run and hide… he will say “Don’t you know you are naked… clothe yourself with lies and deceit that people won’t know who you really are…”
  • But you must resist the devil “No! I will not hide, I will confess, and I will let God cleanse me and forgive me, He will remove my shame and remove my guilt.”
• Church, there is no shame in repentance… never be ashamed to repent. Be ashamed of your sin, yes, but let that shame drive you to repentance, because in repentance and confession there is forgiveness and cleansing.
• And that brings me to our conclusion this morning… to conclude this message let me just be very clear. THERE IS NO SHAME IN CHRIST.

Conclusion – There is No Shame in Christ

Turn On Children’s Class Lamps

Genesis 2:25 NKJV  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

• There was no sin in the Garden, and so there was no shame.
  • And if you are in Christ Jesus, then He separates your sin as far as the east is from the west.
  • He forgives your sin.
  • He forgets your sin.
  • The Bible says that when you are forgiven that God takes out the record book, find your sin, and He erases it from the record, as if it never happened.
    • There was no sin in the garden and so there was no shame.
  • And if you live a life of confession and repentance… if you are living a life in Christ… then as far as God is concerned there is no sin in your life, and thus there is no shame.

Romans 8:1 NKJV  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

• So this morning, if you are not born again, and you are living in shame… let’s fix that.
  • I am going to give you a chance to make it right this morning, to be forgiven, to be free of that shame…
  • And if you are born again, but you are hiding like Adam and Eve do in chapter three… let’s bring you back to a sin free place a place without shame.