Temptation, Sin & Consequence

Have you ever been tempted? I think it’s easy to admit that we have all been tempted. I know that I can be tempted by a nice big bowl of ice cream or a warm piece of apple pie! But we are also tempted by more serious things in our lives. The Bible is full of verses about temptation. We are not promised a life of ease and no temptations - but we are promised to have the power to overcome temptation by the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us. Today, we are going to discuss temptation, the results of temptation, and how we can overcome. Let us pray.

Genesis 3:1–13 CSB

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Temptation can be subtle (Verses 1-7)

Verse 1 says that the serpent was cunning or some translations may say subtle. The serpent makes it clear really fast that he is an enemy of God saying,

Genesis 3:1 CSB

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

He is subtly trying to cast doubt upon God’s goodness and direction by implying that the Lord is being too strict.

Instead of turning away, Eve responds back to the serpent. If she had realized that the serpent was an enemy of hers - do you think she would have responded and had a conversation with him? No. At this point, Eve isn’t aware that the serpent is an enemy because the serpent was cunning and subtle. Eve has now opened the door for temptation and sin to enter her life and ultimately all of our lives.

In the next verse, Satan directly denies God’s word in an attempt to continue to persuade and tempt Eve...

Genesis 3:4–5 CSB

“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Eve must now choose - is she going to believe in her Creator and Lord, or is she going to believe in Satan the serpent? There is no half way - she will choose one or the other. We cannot play middle man, there is no grey area…it’s either right or wrong, it’s either Jesus or Sin! WE must choose just like Eve did in the garden.

Satan is condemning the idea of absolute authority. In verse 5, he questions God’s motives and makes Eve doubt the motives of God. Satan implies that Eve is confined by her position of trusting God. He is trying to make it clear to Eve that God is not good, but instead is jealous. The serpent indicates that the path to knowledge is to bypass God’s word.

Satan lead with being subtle and not obvious about his true intentions, then after he got her attention - he made her doubt God and think that the “sin” wasn’t bad but actually good. Our world is doing that same thing today - thinking that sin is actually good and that good is actually bad. Or that it’s no big deal - it’s just a little white lie right? It wont hurt anybody or anything...

Now, look at verse 6 with me

Genesis 3:6 CSB

The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Her actions here in verse 6 on the surface don’t look bad do they? It looks like she was just eating some delightful food…what is the harm in that? There are lots of things we can learn about sin from just this verse.

What can we learn about sin from Verse 6?

The pathway to sin can begin with sight

Sin can cause us to desire something that is not for us.

The sight of sin itself is not a sin, but it can be the pathway that leads us to sin. This is why we need to pay attention to what we see and look upon. An innocent sight of something can quickly turn into a lustful desire. Here Eve saw something that looked beautiful then that sight turned into lust when she wanted something that was not intended for her…in fact, it was forbidden.

What can we learn about sin from Verse 6?

3. Lusting can lead to indulgence

4. Sin often leads us to include others in our sin.

The sin deepened when Eve acted on her lust and desire by taking the fruit and eating it. Sin can quickly continue to grow when we least expect it. Think of how fast she went from totally sinless to sinning…it can happen very quickly. Not only did she indulge in her sin, she continued to deepen the sin by offering it to her husband.

Has this ever happened to you? I’ll give you an example. We were watching TV and it was a family friendly movie so you would think that you’re ok. But then the commercial came on and it was not a family friendly commercial at all. It seems like commercials become more and more ungodly every day. But that just shows how quickly our eyes can go from something innocent, to something potentially sinful in just a second.

OR, have you been in a conversation with a close friend. Maybe you two are discussing what has been going on in your lives when suddenly the conversation turns to a complain session about somebody else and how you both just can’t stand that person, or maybe the conversation quickly turns to a gossip session. The point is - sin can happen in the blink of an eye when we don’t have our eyes focused on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Responses to sin (Vs 8-13)

Now that we have discussed how easy it is to be tempted, what does the Bible say in these verses about the consequences of our sins?

1. Sin tells me to run away from God

Genesis 3:8 CSB

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Just think about how silly this is in a way - can you hide from God? NO

Psalm 139:7–8 CSB

Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

We might be able to hide our sins from our family, our friends, or our fellow church members - but WE CANNOT hide our sin from the Lord God almighty.

But God loves us and actually instead of hiding, he wants us to run back to him.

Acts 3:19 CSB

Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out,

He knows we are going to sin - instead of automatically condemning us God shows us love and mercy by wanting us to turn back to Him and repent of our wrongdoing. Sin tells us to run away from God - but God wants us to run to him.

This is true in our personal lives. There have been times when our children have done wrong. In times where we know what they did but they aren’t aware of that yet - we will tell them to simply tell the truth and that the punishment will be worse if they lie to us about it. Our nature is to run away and hide or lie about it…but our heavenly Father is so good and faithful that we can have peace of mind and can find comfort that only He can give if we will simply turn to Him and confess/repent.

2. Sin leads to guilt

Genesis 3:7 CSB

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

When their eyes were opened here in the text, it wasn’t a physical opening of the eyes but instead an opening of their conscience. They now see from a perverted position.

When they realized what they had done - they felt guilt. We too feel guilt after we have done wrong. We often times try to hide that guilt. Unfortunately, sometimes we let that guilt build up inside as we hold onto it for way too long.

But God wants to free us from that guilt.

Romans 8:1–2 KJV

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Only God through Christ Jesus can set us free.

3. Sin wants me to blame somebody else (9-13)

Genesis 3:10 CSB

And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

Here Adam is not straightforward and open. Sin makes man a coward and an evader; it leads us to seek refuge in half-truths, deceit, and evasion. What Adam says is partly true - but he is more concerned with the consequences of his sin than with the heinousness of what he had done. The awareness of his nakedness was more on his mind than the fact that he had broken God’s command. Sin causes us to think more of what happens and will happen to us rather than the fact that we have disobeyed God.

And now for the blame game!

Genesis 3:11–12 CSB

Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

God gave him an opportunity to be honest. But instead, not only does Adam try to shift the blame to Eve but even on to God! Can anybody say, Whoa! That’s pretty daring to blame God…the Bible is clear that God is not in the temptation business.

James 1:13–15 ESV

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 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.

Adam was basically saying in his answer...”well, of coarse I ate of the tree…the woman YOU gave me caused me to eat. So how did Eve respond?

Genesis 3:13 CSB

So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Here too…God knew the answer. Eve also had the opportunity to be honest but instead, decided to play the blame game and blamed the serpent. Unfortunately - blaming somebody else is often easy…but it’s not right. We are responsible for our own actions…period.

I’m sure a lot of people can relate to this if you’ve been around children very long. Often times, I’ll hear a child complaining or arguing with their sibling. Once we get involved to settle the problem…the response is often, “but he or she made me!”

This is true for children but it’s also true for adults today. Are we not also guilty of blaming others for our own decisions, mistakes, and sins? How often do we say, “I’m mad because of what YOU did” or “I did this because YOU did that.” Folks - bottom line, we are responsible for our own actions. God knows the cause of our sin and He’s not interested in our excuses. We should take responsibility for our own actions, confess those sins, and repent.

And Finally, we’re going to discuss the consequences of our sin and what we see here in Genesis 3.

The consequences of sin (14-24)

Genesis 3:14–24 CSB

So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you. And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.” The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them. The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

There’s a lot of different things that God did as a result of Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden. He made it harder for them to get along, harder for him to work the land, more painful for her, etc. But the ultimate punishment in this passage is found from the last 2 verses of this text.

1. Separation from God (Vs 23-24)

Where sin is, God cannot be. In this passage, man became somewhat like God in the fact that they now know good and evil. Their eyes had been opened to see all things in the light of their own sinfulness.

Isaiah 59:2 CSB

But your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not listen.

They knew good, but they were unable to do it; the knew evil, but the were unable to resist it.

This is total depravity. We are still like this today…we need Jesus!

2. Death

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:12 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Romans 3:10 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

The consequence for our sins is separation from God, and ultimately death and eternity in Hell. That is what we deserve. A wage is something you earn. When you work a job, you earn a wage. When we sin, we earn death.

BUT - brothers and sisters this leads me to the ultimate goodness of the Gospel message. We are not doomed to an eternity spent in hell. Instead, we have a hope!

Jesus paved the way for us to return to God!

John 1:29 ESV

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

2 Corinthians 5:18 ESV

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

Ephesians 2:13–14 ESV

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

Jesus broke down all barriers between us and God. We can now be rejoined with God in Heaven thanks to the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ!

God created man to walk in love and fellowship with Him and to worship Him…however, mankind sinned and became imperfect. Imperfect and sinful people are unable to be in the presence of a holy God; therefore, our sin resulted in separation from God. Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, died for our sins on the cross in order to pave the way for us to again come into God’s presence in a loving relationship. Jesus died to make us righteous

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.