I'm sure everyone knows what a disclaimer is, it's bacically a refusal to accept responsibility. We buy things all the time that have disclaimers like— "Will not work underwater" or, "If you do this with our product we will not accept responsibility for what happens".
My experience has been that most people have their own "disclaimer", it may not be written down but you know it’s there because they will not accept responsibility for their actions. We inherited this trait from Adam. When God came searching for him in the garden, he was hiding. God’s first words after man had sinned was "where are you?". First of all God knew where they were, He’s omnipresent, and he knew what they had done, He’s omniscient, his question was designed to get Adam and Eve to face up to what they had done.
I can remember as a child if I had done something wrong, I didn’t want to be around when my Dad got home. This didn’t just happen in childhood but even as an adult when I was living in rebellion, strung out on drugs and alcohol, I didn’t want to face my Dad, I was hiding. I have seen it happen with my own children and after many years of pastoring I have talked to many people who were in hiding, not wanting to face up to what they had done.
Adam answered God "I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid". Have you ever dreamed that you were somewhere in public and you realized you were naked? That’s a bad dream.
God answers, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?" Here comes the first disclaimer— "The woman you put here with me, she gave some fruit from the tree and I ate it".
Adam refused to take responsibility, he passed the blame to Eve, she blamed the devil, the devil said, "who me?". Sin is progressive, I heard a preacher put it this way, "Sin will take you further than you wanted to go, sin will keep you longer than you wanted to stay and sin will cost you more than you wanted to pay".
Adam should have said, "Lord I have sinned", but he accuses God of sin— "It’s not my fault it was the women you gave me!". Whenever we attempt to deny our guilt by blaming circumstances, we are ultimately blaming one of two possible individuals: God or the devil.
Are you hiding from God? Are you blaming God or someone else for what has happened in your life? More on this tomorrow.
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