004 The Fall of Man – part 1

Genesis 3:1-24 (1-13)

November 24, 2013

As you know we have been studying the book of Genesis.

We have seen the awesome God of creation.

· A God so amazing that at His command all things came into being.

· A God so gracious that He chose to make man in His image and give him dominion over that creation.

And up to this point in the book of Genesis, it has been a fairy tale.

· 6 days and we have a perfect creation.

· So perfect in fact that God rested because it was finished and it was good

· Not only that but we have man living with his wife in a paradise garden

Everything is in perfect harmony

When Adam checks the weather every day says high of 72 low of 72

It is absolute perfection.

But you remember that Moses has written this book to the children of Israel whom he is presently leading out of the land of Egypt.

They are wondering in the wilderness and searching for a land of promise.

And all that Moses explained in the first two chapters

Must have seen a little hard to believe.

· Man with full dominion

· Man living at peace with all animals

· Man and his wife “naked and unashamed”

WHAT HAPPENED?

Well that is what Moses has set out to reveal.

I told you last week, but the key is found in Genesis 2:4

Genesis 2:4 “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven.”

After revealing creation in chapter 1.

Moses is now setting out to reveal: WHAT BECAME OF GOD’S CREATION

And he first set out to remind us that nothing here is God’s fault.

Adam started in the most advantageous position

That any man could have ever hoped to be in.

· His circumstances were perfect

· His economy was perfect

· His genetics were perfect

· His needs were met

· His spouse was wonderful

Adam has no reason whatsoever to ever break the one command of God.

And that leads us into chapter 3.

Have you ever had one of those “life changing moments” where you knew instantly life is now different?

(10 years ago when they handed me Zek)

And we have moments like that.

Some good – some bad

Well Adam and Eve are about to have a life changing moment

And the reason is because for the first time in all of God’s creation,

Sin is about to enter the equation.

And might I say from the outset that sin will change your life,

And it never changes your life for the better.

Moses is setting out to reveal what happened,

But again, it is more than just history.

There is a lesson to be learned here.

Sin is never the correct choice, it always ruins life.

And as Moses reveals the fate of Adam and Eve,

He is undoubtedly preaching a message to the children of Israel and to us

That sin should never be messed with.

There are 5 points to be seen in this chapter. (look at the first 2)

#1 THE CALL OF SIN

Genesis 3:1-7

This is the pinnacle passage for the truth about temptation.

People commonly blame their sin on someone or something else.

One of the plagues of our day has been the various “shootings”

We have had to endure.

Whether it be the Colorado movie theatre, Newtown, or any others.

And when it happens people go on a rampage to place blame.

· One group blames guns

· Another group blames mental illness

· Another group blames bullying

People are always looking for an excuse.

But listen, Eve had no such excuse.

You can’t blame the culture, you can’t blame the circumstances.

Adam and Eve are in the perfect environment and yet sin still finds them.

It reinforces what I told you last week,

That sin does not originate in the culture. Sin originates in the heart.

Matthew 15:19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”

Temptation found Eve, even in the garden.

While we may not be able to identify with the circumstances Eve was in,

We can identify with the call Eve heard.

It was the call of sin.

And might I say that this call hasn’t changed much in 8,000 years.

· In Matthew 4 we see the temptation of Jesus, it is the same thing.

· Even today, the call of sin is remarkably similar to the same call Eve faced in.

There is a reason for this.

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

God has promised that the temptation we face is common temptation.

Satan is not allowed to try new arguments or tactics.

That means that we can learn about temptation,

Even from studying the temptation Eve faced in the garden.

The temptations she faced are the same that you and I face.

And to her they came in the form of two accusations against God.

1) GOD IS STINGY

(1) “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

Pay close attention now the accusation of the devil here.

The best lies are 90% truth.

There WERE trees in the garden.

And the only command of God DID restrict eating from a tree.

But the key word of deception here is the word “any”

Satan asked if God had made ALL the trees off limits.

Genesis 2:9 “Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

All of the trees were for food, except one.

Genesis 2:16-17 “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."

Satan was twisting things around.

He painted God as stingy.

According to Satan, God was the tempter.

Because God had put all of these wonderful trees in the garden and then said, “Don’t touch!”

That’s like putting a boy in a room full of model cars.

(I always thought model cars were the dumbest idea when I was a kid)

But that is what Satan tries to pass off to Eve.

Here God has created this wonderful world full of fun and enjoyment

And then made it all off limits.

What kind of cruel trick is that?

Why won’t God just let you enjoy life?

And that argument hasn’t changed much has it?

Satan still uses the same argument with things like

Sex, possessions, experiences, etc.

Here God has all this stuff that is so fun and then He won’t let you enjoy any of it.

And so Satan constantly paints God as stingy and His commands as some sort of restraint against true happiness.

If God would just get His commands out of the way, we could be happy.

· (That is the cry of abortionists and same-sex marriage advocates)

· (That is the cry of the pornography industry)

· (That is the cry of the alcohol industry)

Now it is worth noting that Eve saw through this deception.

Like Jesus, many years later, Eve simply examined God’s word

And saw that Satan was lying. God had not said that.

And in verses 2 and 3 Eve uses God’s word to refute Satan’s logic.

(2-3) “The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”

Satan’s accusation was a half-truth.

God wasn’t withholding all the joys of life,

They were freely given for enjoyment.

Psalms 34:9-10 “O fear the LORD, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.”

Psalms 84:11 “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

Acts 17:25 “nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;”

James 1:13-17 “Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

Let’s be honest, you may have issue with God and choose to accuse Him of things, but calling Him stingy will never work.

God is anything but stingy.

God is generous

God is giving

In fact when Jesus asked us to be like God

One of the areas Jesus said we should imitate is generosity.

Luke 6:35 "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”

Accusing God of being stingy just doesn’t fly.

· Have we so quickly forgotten that it was God who made all this to begin with?

· Have we forgotten that it was God who planted the garden?

· Have we forgotten that it was God who put Adam in the garden?

· Have we forgotten that God refused to stop until Adam had everything he needed, including a suitable help-mate?

God is not stingy and Eve knew it.

Rather, God is a protector.

Adam and Eve could freely eat from any tree in the garden

(including the tree of life) except for that tree which would do them harm.

God wasn’t withholding good, God was protecting them from evil.

And God still operates that way today.

His Laws are not meant to cause you harm, but to protect you from harm.

Psalms 71:3 “Be to me a rock of habitation to which I may continually come; You have given commandment to save me, For You are my rock and my fortress.”

Adam had a beautiful wife in a beautiful garden and God was trying to preserve it.

2) GOD IS SELFISH

(4-5) “The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Eve had told the serpent that if they ate from the tree “you will die”

And Satan immediately jumps on that command.

“Eve, you’re taking it all too literally – you won’t die. In fact that was just an idle threat from God to try to keep you in the dark.”

God is just trying to keep you away from what He only wants for Himself.

· God just doesn’t want you to be like Him.

· God doesn’t want you to know what He knows.

· God is just selfish and wants to always stay above you.

Have we forgotten that God specifically made man in His image?

Have we overlooked the fact that being like God is precisely the goal?

Ephesians 5:1 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;”

Have we forgotten that God is tirelessly working to make us like His Son?

Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;”

Being like God is exactly what God wants.

But here Satan says, “No, God is selfish, He doesn’t want you to be like Him and know what He knows.”

Now is that true?

(Here is the tricky part)

To a degree that is true.

There were things that God did not want Adam and Eve to know.

· He didn’t want them to know what it felt like to dig the grave of their son.

· He didn’t want them to know what it felt like to hear the doctor say “Cancer”

God didn’t want them to have any knowledge of evil,

And Satan called Him selfish for it.

That was the call of sin.

Incidentally it was the same with Jesus in the garden.

Satan continually accusing God of being a bad provider.

Matthew 4:3 “And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."

Satan accusing God of being an inadequate protector.

Matthew 4:6 “and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, 'HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU'; and 'ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'"

Notice the “if you are the Son of God” part?

That was Satan’s way of saying, “Why would God subject You of all people to such harsh conditions?”

GOD IS NOT BEING FAIR.

And that is the very heart of temptation.

Satan convinces you that God’s plan is not in your best interest,

And God’s commands are only for His good at your expense.

John MacArthur once said, “Sin is what you do when you’re not satisfied with God.”

Temptation is the means by which Satan tries to make you dissatisfied.

It’s like advertising.

The whole point to advertising is to make you dissatisfied with what you have.

If I can convince you that you are missing out,

I can sell you the answer to your happiness.

That is what Satan is doing.

That is temptation.

That is the call of sin.

The real tragedy here is that Adam and Even both answered the call.

(6) “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

And please notice why they ate from the tree.

· It wasn’t a desire to be Godly

· It wasn’t a desire to serve one another

It was entirely sensual

“SAW that the tree was good”

“it was a delight to the EYES”

“the tree was DESIRABLE to make one wise”

That is all sensual stuff

That is at the very heart of temptation

They were craving to satisfy the flesh

And when you do that, you are open for deception

Adam and Eve ate the fruit.

But let’s be real clear here.

The issue wasn’t that the fruit had some sort of magical power.

The issue was that they broke the command of God.

They chose to do something God had specifically forbidden.

That was the issue.

(7) “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 loin coverings.”

All of a sudden Adam and Eve knew

What they now wished they had never known.

“they knew that they were naked”

All of a sudden shame entered their thinking.

Gone were the days of “naked and unashamed”

Gone were the days of perfect intimacy

Their world had changed and it was not a good change.

How sin does that.

It tempts us with false promises of bliss, and as soon as we try it,

Somehow we wish we could go back and undo it.

Proverbs 20:17 “Bread obtained by falsehood is sweet to a man, But afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.”

Adam and Even answered the call of sin.

Let me show you the next thing.

The Call of Sin

#2 THE CULPRIT OF SIN

Genesis 3:8-13

Anyone in here ever hear the phrase – “It’s not my fault”?

Well here is where it started.

(8) “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.”

Please notice that it wasn’t God who hid from man.

It was man who hid from God.

It was not God who chose to break the relationship,

It was man who made that decision.

In fact it is God who since that day has tried to repair the relationship.

Man started hiding from God.

(9-11) “Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself." And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

No, I don’t think God was just finding out about it.

· God knew what happened the second Adam did it.

· God knew it would happen when He created Adam.

This is God confronting Adam for his transgression

And making a very important point.

Why was Adam all of a sudden cloaked in shame?

(God is forcing Adam to admit the issue) – HOW’D THAT WORK OUT FOR YOU?

It was because he sinned.

God didn’t do it to him, sin did it to him.

And this is also foundational.

We live in a world of countless tragedy.

Every day we see things that just don’t make sense.

But repeatedly after one of those tragedies

Someone will wonder why God let this happen.

God didn’t do it

Sin did it

In fact God was adamant that Adam and Eve not sin.

Sin is the culprit - Sin is the problem

But man refuses to take responsibility for that.

Since the very beginning, the question has been the same:

Who can we find to blame?

Adam blamed Eve

(12) “The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”

Oh that was nice. - The woman did it.

Well, actually God it’s Your fault since you gave her to me.

Eve blamed the Serpent

(13) “Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Eve wants to make sure she doesn’t go down alone.

They all blame someone else

The reality is that all of them were guilty

Romans 7:17 “So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”

· The serpent was guilty of enmity towards God

· Eve was guilty of coveting what was clearly forbidden

· Adam was guilty of transgression wilfully overlooking the command of God

All sinned and yet all tried to blame it one someone else.

So we reiterate the point made last week.

Your sin is your fault.

Eve ate the fruit because she wanted it.

Adam ate the fruit because he wanted it.

And the same is true for sin in your life.

The Call of Sin The Culprit of Sin

#3 THE CURSE OF SIN

Genesis 3:14-19

(WE CAN ONLY BEGIN THIS ONE)

To those who heard of a good and glorious creation,

But now wondered how it could be so bad –

HERE COMES THE ANSWER.

Sin brought a curse.

And this message was definitely meant to shape the theology

And decision making of the children of Israel.

Moses would talk much about the curse to the children of Israel.

In Deuteronomy 27 Moses outlined 12 sins that bring a curse upon men.

Idolatry, dishonoring parents, stealing land, misleading the blind,

harming an alien, orphan, or widow, incest, bestiality, secretly striking your neighbor, taking bribes against the innocent, disobeying the Law.

In Deuteronomy 28 Moses spends 53 verses outlining exactly what it means to be cursed.

Just a portion of that text:

Deuteronomy 28:15-20 "But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: "Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. "Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. "Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. "Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. "The LORD will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me.”

And in Deuteronomy 30 Moses told them to choose blessing instead of the curse.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

Moses was trying to make the point that sin brings a curse.

The first sin brought them, and every sin since does as well.

And next week, we’ll get into the particulars of the curse announced here.

But I want to make sure and leave you with the main point.

Man lived in utter paradise.

He had everything he could ever want.

But he chose sin.

And sin ruined everything.

I don’t know of any other passage that does a better job

Of trying to convince you not to sin.

In our society sin is almost celebrated.

But nothing is worse than sin

And nothing could be worse than being a sinner.

Sin the root cause of every horrible thing that occurs in this world today.

· Sin is the root cause behind every natural disaster that kills thousands…

· Sin is the root cause behind every drought…

· Sin is the root cause behind every school shooting…

· Sin is the root cause behind every drunk driver…

· Sin is the root cause behind every terrorist act…

· Sin is the root cause behind every tumor, every disease…

· Sin is the root cause behind every death…

All of those things only exist because sin entered the world.

Nothing is worse than sin.

And nothing is worse in your life than when you choose sin.

You can’t do anything worse than sin.

It had enough power to wreck God’s perfect creation

And yet today people dabble with it and toy with it like it’s no big deal.

If you can read Genesis 1-3 and still find it no big deal to sin

Then you obviously didn’t pay attention to what you read.

Moses is begging with the children of Israel to leave sin alone.

Even in the Law there were two goats for the Day of Atonement.

(1 to die, and 1 to be sent away)

Sin had to be atoned for, and then send it away.

IT IS HORRIBLE

And that is the message to us.

This week, you will most certainly face temptation.

Satan will accuse God of being stingy and stealing all the fun.

Satan will accuse God of being selfish and keeping good from you.

And then he will offer what appears to be fulfilling.

DON’T DO IT

Sin is what you do when you are not satisfied with God.

AND IF YOU DO IT, YOU WON’T LIKE WHAT YOU GET.

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned”

SIN IS A BIG DEAL!

Just ask Adam and Eve

And if they don’t convince you, just ask Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Jesus knew the penalty of sin.

Trust Him with yours and then do your best to leave it behind.

We’ll finish this chapter up next week.