Untitled Sermon (5)

Introduction:

[Small intro with Erik]

I have the blessing and privilege to continue the series you have started in Genesis. And when Erik told me the passage he would like me to preach, I realized why the had to get they guy from Northern Ireland to come preach. Because as you read Genesis 3, especially the section we will be reading today, it is very easy to read it and to really struggle. Not because it is for smart people, but because it will resonate with the very core of our sinfulness, the reality of a dark world and the challenge of wrestling with depressed, annoyed or even frustrated. It is one of two instances in Scripture where God directly issues a curse (and not in the fun harry potter way) but a decree that would have cosmic ramification and one that would that change the relationship, the order, by which our world operates. Yes, this will be the picture you will get if you only read this account superficially and with no depth. I think as we spend time in this passage this morning, yes we will see the severity of sin, we will see how it has corrupted the joy and purpose of our existence, BUT I think we will ultimately see God’s grace on display. I think we will see God’s grace caring, providing, sovereignly ruling over a time in which humanity deserted its creator, a time in which it seemed that all hope would be lost. So rather than being a passage that fills us with dread or fear, we see a loving gracious God who never abandoned us, a God’s who’s purposes will be accomplished, a God knows you in such a profound way that nothing will surprise him, a God we can turn to in surrender knowing we are nowhere safer.

If that doesn’t get you excited about this morning I don’t know what will.

So let’s turn to God’s word together and read Genesis 3:8-16

8 And 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. 9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 The LORD God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock

and above all beasts of the field;

on your belly you shall go,

and dust you shall eat

all the days of your life.

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;

in pain you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,

but he shall rule over you.”

17 And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

and have eaten of the tree

of which I commanded you,

‘You shall not eat of it,’

cursed is the ground because of you;

in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;

and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your face

you shall eat bread,

till you return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust,

and to dust you shall return.”

Amen, May God bless the reading of his word.

When I was 5-6 years old, my father took very ill. At the time we were living as a missionary family in Peru-South America and somehow my father had managed to burst his colon and required urgent medical help. However, being in Peru, in a small port town, lets just say that medical availability, knoeledge and facilities, wasn’t just quite up to do date. This kind of medical emergency was something that required the help of medical experts far away and there was nothing that could be done for him there. So we said our goodbyes and the took my dad on the irst available medical plane to the capital and then northern Ireland to get him the help he needed.

At point in my life, I was young, didn’t really understand what was going on. I knew was dad needed help and that I couldn’t do anything about it. I grew up going to Sunday school, hearing stories of the bible, but I can’t say I had much interest. I would prank my parents by praying for Jackson (the neighbors dog) when they would make me pray.

Yet, it was in this tense, life-changing moment, the God made me very aware of need for Jesus. I had heard stories of this Jesus that could heal people, this Jesus that could help in times of need, a Jesus who seemed to be the answer to the overwhelming load of questions that were going through my head. So with a childlike faith, I asked Jesus to take control, I asked him to forgive me and that now I wanted to live for him. In that moment, I probably didn’t know the grandiousness of what just happened, but a peace warmed and governed my heart like never before.

My dad to this day remembers the moment I called him with the news of the decision I made. His prayer in that moment was: “Lord, if this is what it takes for him to know you, it was totally worth it.”

Out of a life or death situation, out of circumstances that seemed all but hopeless, bound to end in catastrophe, in hurt, in pain, and grief; God received the glory. God was sovereign. God was accomplishing his purposes. So much so, that even if grief had come, God’s glory would’ve shined just as bright.

The narrative we find ourselves in today, accounts for a moment in history, our history, in which that thousands of years ago all seemed like it was lost but God showed us grace. God didn’t leave humanity.

Yet, God’s grace on display means that there were circumstances that required grace.

Adam and Eve, as they listened to the serpent, as they disobeyed God, as the openly defied God their creator, they ushers in a new age of humanities existence, and it wasn’t a pretty one.

After Adam and Eve sinned, everything changed… and that is the first thing I want to highlight today… there was

(1) A New Relationship (vv.8-13)

The moment sin enters the world, the relationship between God and created creatures changed drastically.

Verse 8 says…

“And 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…”

It is so picturesque, isn’t it, you can almost see it. Like toddlers that know they have done something wrong and they hide from their parents. The presence of the Lord’s instils fear in them.

And this is a big deal if we think about it! The garden of Eden was a place of harmony with God, it was a place where there were no barriers between God and humanity. There was shalom, it was peaceful, it was trusting, it was joyous!

Yet, what happened only a couple of verses earlier seems to have completely changed the dynamic of a previously beautiful free relationship.

But look at these verses, so many aspects of their relationship changed! As Adam and Eve sinned, their eyes were opened to the depravity of what they had done, their hearts were now corrupt, and the answer sin gave them was that they needed to run. To run from the very relationship their were created to take part in. Does that sound familiar somehow?

They try to foolishly hide themselves! Come on guys! this is the creator of the universe, these are his trees you are hiding in! Yet in their corrupted nature they are driven to hide in fear. A relationship of fear.

Yet, gracious calls to Adam “where are you”… How gracious right? God nudged Adam to his senses. God could have driven them out immediately, but he gives them a chance to come out…

Yet, Adam shows so admission of wrongdoing, he conceals the cause behind symptoms, it was now a one-relationship of deceit: “I was afraid” “I was fearful, so I hid” “ I felt shame, I was naked.” Adam was literally trying to shrink away from God, not telling Him wat actually happened.

BUT God isn’t falling for this, so he asks Adam “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” – They definition of being busted right?!

Notice that God didn’t just ask did they eat from the tree… it was the tree “of which I commanded you not to eat…” In others words, Adam – did you disobey! Did you do the very ting I asked you not to do.

But the relationship has been corrupted, Adam is now all about self-preservation. He says, “the woman made me, in fact it was the woman you gave me that gave me the fruit” – it was simply her fault and your fault God, nothing to do with me. And Eve’s answer wasn’t much better, “it was the serpent” nothing to do with me. The buck kept getting passed on.

Can we see how devastating sin is to our sin to our relationship with God?

Sin breaks harmony – what was once an open and free line of communication, is now one where God has to draw near.

Sin brings shame – literally trying to hide in the shaow of guilt

Sin brings fear – running away from our Creator

Sin brings self-centeredness – I need to protect myself, they can take the blame.

Sin brings disunity – the one who was Adam’s delight and joy, the one who he had the duty to protect and care for is now being thrown under the bus.

Sin brings deceit – the buck is passed on, the victim card is played, excuses are justifications are made.

A whole new relationship dynamic shows its ugly head, and it is so severe and so drastic, so violent, that they have turned against each other and more importantly against the one gifted them that relationship and every thing else they knew.

Suddenly our relationship with those around us and maybe even God start to make a lot of sense don’t they.

“But I didn’t do anything I was only watching… I didn’t put that stuff online, it was just there, so I lingered and looked a bit more… Everyone else was doing it so don’t look at me… It was only once, I am not the only one who does it… It was he or she, my mum and dad, my siblings, my partner, my circumstances, it was those things you gave me, that’s why I give in to the same sin constantly with taking responsibility…. If you removed these problems around me, I would be good… Surely I can hide, God has bigger things to deal with… I’m don’t have enough so I have to steal… I was never specifically told or taught well about it so it’s not my fault…”

All lies we can tell ourselves over and over again…

And I don’t which of these lies you are believing today, but as long as you live, one of the primary things sin is going to affect is your relationship with God and his created people. We can’t be ignorant to it. Sin here is being portrayed as absolutely devastating! The bible makes no small things of the effects of sin on our relationships…[look up verses] Eccle?

And again, this is the is the craftiness of the serpent, this is the ruthlessness of his attack – going after, trying to ruin, one of the primary reasons for our existence, to enjoy in relationship with God and creation. Of course the enemy is going to after anything that will taint those god-given relationships…

J.I. Packer puts it like this…

“The purpose in essence was, and is, the endless expression and enjoyment of love between God and his rational creatures – love shown in their worship, praise, thanks, honor glory, and service given to him, and in the fellowship, privileges, joys, and gifts that he gives to them.”

So before we any further, we have to stop and ask ourselves, are we are aware of the destruction sin my causing to our relationships with people?

Are we allowing the care for our partners, for our parents or children, for our family, for our friends, to be characterized by deceit? By self-centeredness? By disunity? By fear? by shame?

What tree is God gently calling you out from? How do we even respond to God confronting about our sin? What trees of failure, disobedience, stubbornness, grudge are we hiding behind – robbing ourselves from experience the a graceful God?

I ask these tough questions, because what we are going to read next highlights even more the severity of how God treats sin…

What happens next, just in case we you hadn’t seen enough of it, shows us the devastating consequences sin has and how God cannot and will not standby watch it God unchecked.

(2) A New Order (vv.16-19):

God declares a new order for how things are going to be. God is so holy and just that it would God against his character to deal with sin. And so he declares a curse on ther serpant, on Eve and then on Adam.

And whilst the serpent comes first, I want to leave him until the end, hopefully you’ll see why.

Let me read this new order for Adam and eve first…

16 To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;

in pain you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,

but he shall rule over you.”

17 And to Adam he said,

Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

and have eaten of the tree

of which I commanded you,

‘You shall not eat of it,’

cursed is the ground because of you;

in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;

and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your face

you shall eat bread,

till you return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust,

and to dust you shall return.”

Last week before I came here, we had a small harvest family gathering, and right now in my family there are quite a few young kids running around. And is it came to the end of the evening, we there was an enormous surplus of tasty, very good looking, sugar-saturated, diabetic inducing, desserts, sweets and chocolates that every child had their eyes on. But as it was bedtime, unfortunately for the kids, the mum and dads agreed that they could only have a bowl of fruit or nothing at all. So the first of them went to get their bowl of fruit, yet my older cousin how was in kitchen missed the memo and of course that first child chanced their arm and asked if he could have one treat, sweet or chocolate with his fruit. My cousin of course said yes, and as every other kid observed this, every single one of them asked and go the exact same thing.

What was meant to be something healthy for them to enjoy, was now something something they would really enjoy but that would not be healthy for them. In fact, that joy would even more be momentary as they experienced the sore tummies and tired grumpy faces that couldn’t sleep because of the sugar running through their bodies.

Something good that was now ruined. Something that was to bring health, joy, satisfaction, now consequences because it was corrupted.

Now that may be a very dramatic way of outlining the consequences of pumping your kids full of sugar, but you are welcome to come round to my next family gathering and you can watch the chaos unfold with tired but sugar infused kids…

And in Adam and Eve we have a similar story. In God’s declaration of a new order, a curse that reflects the cosmic change sin has, we see how sin has corrupted the good things God had blesses Adam and Eve with.

Starting with the Eve, we read that she will now have pain in childbearing and pain in childbirth. And whilst I am completely unqualified to speak on the severeness of this pain because I have never and will never experience this kind of pain, it is clear that sin corrupting what was an intrinsically joyous area of a woman life. It wasn’t a pain that came only on one day during childbirth, but in childbearing. From conception to birth was going to be a time of pain.

And for Adam it was the same, there was a physical breakdown, the same word for pain in Eve’s case was the same word used for Adam’s pain and toil towards the work of the ground. In the job as key resourcer and provider for his family, would be a job with pain, struggle, and frustration: “in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.”

In both cases there is a physical breakdown of what was, before sin, a joyous responsibility and calling.

One commentator puts it like this:

Whereas the pair had life, they now have death; where they had pleasure, they now have pain; where abundance, now a meager subsistence; and where perfect union and communion, now alienation and conflict. - (Ross & Oswalt, 2008, p. 54).

And if you think about the big picture here, it isn’t narrowed down to simply mothers and those who work the ground. Sin is corrupting the very thing God has blessed you with for joy. This doesn’t mean God’s blessing or joyless, it doesn’t mean that the the joy of having children doesn’t sometimes make you forget about the pain because it is such a happy and blessed moment, it doesn’t mean that you can’t experience joy in the blessing of jobs, school, day-to-day work, when you are using your God-given talents and abilities; BUT it does mean that these things will not bring ultimate satisfaction. As sin brews in us and in the world around us, these corruption of sin seeks to rob us and cloud us from of God-given joy. As Don was explaining last week, where sin attacked from the outside, this new order has create a natural disposition for sin overflow from within in a Christless life.

So whether in your calling as a mother/father, students/teachers; 9-5 workers or nightshift die-hards; because of sin we are in a economic-cultural breakdown…

Tim Keller says “Work is not a curse, but work has been cursed… we will be able to envision far more than we can accomplish… everything will be frustrating and difficult and will wear us down…”

Can we see the devastating, real far-reaching effect of sin?

God says to adam… “cursed is the ground because of you”

Everything has been corrupted. Both in big and small scale. We can easily identify see murder , adultery, theft, and heresy as results of the fall; but there is also pverty, mental illness, bad government, poor race relations…

Paul speaks of the “goraning of creation” as we wait upon the return of Christ…

“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

That even though we may be in the Spirit, even though we are in a post-Christ resurrection reality, we live in a world where the enemy will stop giving you a hard time, we live in a world that suffers from the effects of this corruption.

And the moment we limit sin to simply the big things, what you might of big sins, we will not see the need, the pain, the struggle, that those around us may be going through.

If you are living in a Christian bubble this morning and never spend time with non-Christians, I think you can easily lose the ability of being able to emphasize and draw near to those who live in a hopeless existence. We will limit our Christian outreach to evangelism and conversion and not care for the homeless, for those in need of counsel, for those practical love in action.

This doesn’t mean Christians don’t suffer, but the point I am making here is that sin painted everyone with the same brushstroke and can easily forget how devastating this existence can be without hope.

And whether you are a Christian or not here this morning, I know you are experiencing or will experience the pain and toil of this sin as described in Gensis. And my heart breaks for you if you are experiencing a particularly tough time at the moment. But I want to encourage you to see that this isn’t where the story ends…

You see, just before issued this new order, just after this new relationship was on full display, we read of a of sovereign God that has a already a plan of action. A God who is not surprised by any of this, a God who even though His grace is obvious in a throughout the rest of these verses in how he interacts with Adam and Eve in their shame, in how He doesn’t simply wipe them out, in fact, even before he issues this curse, he first gives them a hope, we see grace in full display in verses 14 & 15 as a certain hope for humanity is promised…

(3) A certain Hope:

14 The LORD God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock

and above all beasts of the field;

on your belly you shall go,

and dust you shall eat

all the days of your life.

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

God wastes no time with the serpent, did you notice?

With Adam and Eve he talks to them, he asks questions, he give them a chance to come clean… But the serpent? There nothing but curse and defeat.

This again highlights the severity of sin and the temper behind it all. God wants nothing to do with the serpent. Our Holy, just and perfect God, cannot let sin get away with anything.

The picture of Satan J.I. Packer paints is : “…one of unimaginable meanness, malice, fury and cruelty directed against God, against God’s truth, and against to whom God has extended his saving love.”

The very evil it represents means that for the serpent there is nothing but bad news. The serpent cursed to go on it belly and eat dust all the days of its life…

And if you are anything like me you probably imagining that this would mean that before the fall, snakes had tiny legs and tiny arms… but that’s not what this means at all.

This is a classic old testament reference that you find in other places and the crawling and eating dust is simply symbolic. It isn’t a new feature for snakes but a new meaning given to its already designed anatomy. It is a symbol that highlights the serpent being rendered to the lowest of places. Where the serpent tried to exalt itself above man, it is now driven to the ground, where it used the fruit to tempt eve, now only dust it shall eat.

Can we see the gracious difference between Adam and Eve and the serpent?

God deals so severely with the serpent

And if these symbols and curses weren’t enough, there is a final declaration which is our hope….

There will be enmity between the serpent offspring and the woman’s offspring, there is an outright war declared. There is war between seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. And this doesn’t mean that it will be your classic good versus bad because there won’t be a people who will be naturally good, but there will be a group of people that will see evil for what it is, and there is going to be enmity between them and seed of the serpent.

Yet, this won’t be a war with no end. In verse 15 we have the most glorious spoiler of the story has to end.

From the seed of the woman, there will be a serpent crusher that will have victory over the serpent. . Yes the serpent will bruise it’s heal but the serpent crusher would come and crush the serpents head.

A promise of God to intervene in every generation, each step of the way as the promised champion arrives to crush the serpents head.

How amazing is God’s grace right?

Before he gives Adam and Eve a very just, holy and challenging declaration, he promises a certain hope for them. And I am sure in that moment it was hard t see that, I am sure in that moment feelings where all over the places, I am sure fear, frustration and maybe even anger where running through their mind against each other, against God, yet makes a holy provision that cannot change, that cannot fail.

And we can get excited about this because there is a God who not only is aware of all, who knows the devastation sin can cause, who knows the corruption and chaos that will come as a result of sin, but He also guarantees a hope, He guarantees an end to all the pain, he guarantees that the serpents head will be crushed. He guarantees that he will have the final word.

The ultimate triumph over sin and the serpent will be carried out by a single induvial – And if I may spoil the end for you – this individual was Jesus.

THIS IS GRACE ON DISPLAY! Humanity in it’s worst moment, a moment when then serpent thought it had got away with it, the moment that rebellion and chaos entered there world and everything seemed lost forever; God had a plan all along. This wasn’t a plan B. This wasn’t God simply reacting. God had a plan to redeem, a plan to save, a plan to restore.

And in the rest of this beautiful holy book we get to read the full story. We see the serpent crusher come, we even see him die, we see him rise again. Jesus, the son who came to redeem and be the seed of the woman who would crush the serpents head died on a cross. A moment in which all hope had been lost, but three days later Jesus was raises from the dead, the serpent crusher would live so we could know that death could not hold him, so that we could know that death did not have the final say, so that we, as we believe, repent and ask him to reign over our life, we can join in his victory.

If there was ever a moment in your mind that you doubted whether God cared about you or not here is your answer!

Despite us being destined to physical and spiritual death, despite our rebellion against the holy of holy’s, despite new disposition to hate, shame, fear, chaos; God wanted to restore us to himself.

And I don’t know where stand today, whether you associate yourself with the same attitudes of fear, shame, rebellion, self-centeredness, deceit that Adam and Eve had; or whether don’t know where you are at, or your maybe angry with God you haven’t seen this grace on display…

Can I assure you that God has not abandoned you? That just like he didn’t leave Adam and eve, even though this was one of the darkest moments in history, God leave his creation. In fact, if we study the words of the psalmist, in psalm 139 we read, it was read a couple of weeks ago as well:

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

In the infinity of pre-creation existence, God knew exactly who you were. He knew every one of your mistakes, he knew every way you were going to rebel, who knew every way in which you were going to affirm your rebellion against him, yet he loves you so much that instead of running away he gives us his precious, holy, sinless, perfect son, he that he may carry the penalty for you.

The enemy will want you to believe so badly that God doesn’t care, like n the garden you might hear a whisper that says “Does he really love you? Is He actually interested in your wandering soul?” Please I beg you ignore this.

God has shown his faithfulness! He has shown he is absolutely sovereign over all! And if you are a Christian this morning, as you God’s grace in full display, as he absolutely sovereign over everything, as he clearly has everything worked out to finest detail, surrender yourself to him in those moments life seems unclear, bring it all to him in prayer, come to him in faith and boldness knowing that he has a plan and is not finished with you yet. While you still have breath in your lungs we cry can out in faith:

For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be[i] against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.[j] 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Your very real struggle

Could it be that can trust God in our daekest of moments? When the world is at its worst?