The Nine - The Fall

Intro

We are continuing tonight in our Nine series

Last week we talked about Creation and what it means to be a steward of God.

We talked about Denethor from Lord of the Rings and how he was supposed to steward the kingdom of Gondor UNTIL the rightful king returned.

He was given all the same roles and responsibilities as the king to rule on behalf of the king but he himself was not the true king of Gondor.

Denethor’s problem however was that he desired to be the king of Gondor so instead of stewarding creation he sought to destroy the true king of Gondor (Aragorn) and seize control of the throne.

This is what we have done as God’s creation.

We were not content with being stewards of God’s creation we wanted to be gods ourselves.

Romans 1:24–25 ESV

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

They exchanged for the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.

Tonight we are going to talk about the fall.

The fact that ALL have sinned

The face that our sin brings death

and how God would redeem our sin all the way back in Genesis 3.

PRAY

DYLAN

Genesis 3:4–7 ESV

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So 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 to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

So most of us know this story because it is one of the most notable stories not just in Christianity but also in human history.

Gen. 3:1 there appears a serpent (satan) in the garden where Adam and Eve are and he begins to question them about the truth behind God’s claims that they should not eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil because if they do they will surely die.

Satan tempts Eve but it was man’s own desire that led to our decent into sin.

How many times do we get caught in these same kinds of traps with our own sin.

Eve saw that the tree was good for food

Sometimes we take what God has made and we use it in a way He did not intend for us to use it.

God made the tree with fruit that could be eaten but he told Adam and Eve not to eat of it.

God designed sex to be in the confines of marriage and we take what God has made and we know what it’s proper use is and so we think it’s okay for us to then say well because it’s holy over here why can’t we have it over here outside of marriage.

This is where we have to understand that just because God has created something it doesn’t mean that we can use it however we want.

Eve saw that the tree was a delight to the eyes

Sometimes we just can’t help but be tempted by the allure of sin.

Lying gets us out of a situation that would have negative consequences for us, that’s tempting to look at

Lust preys on our sexual desires and people that catch our eye, literally that’s delightful to our eyes

Greed preys on our desire to look cool or rich or powerful, that’s delightful to our flesh

All sin in some way preys on our deepest desires and tempts us but we have to be reminded that just like the tree looks beautiful but actually brings death sin also looks beautiful but brings death.

Romans 6:23 ESV

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

Lastly Eve saw that the tree was desired to make one wise

This phrase make one wise was not simply Eve wanting to be wiser or smarter this was man’s desire to be like God and know good from evil.

Put it another way this was mans desire to be like God and be the judge of what is good and what is evil.

How many times have we sinned and then we try and justify our own sin to ourselves or to others.

We want to think that we are good people and that the bad things we do we have good reasons for doing

We are trying to judge for ourselves what is right and what is wrong.

In fact we will see this happen immediately in the next couple of verses here in Genesis 3.

Genesis 3:8–13 ESV

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.”

Adam and Eve after eating the fruit hear God walking in the garden and hide and when they are discovered and realize that God knows about their sin they immediately pass judgement on everything else accept themselves.

They begin judging who was right and who was wrong in this situation.

Adam blames both his wife, AND GOD

The woman YOU gave me GOD!

Eve blames the serpent

It was the serpent who deceived me!

There is this inability to recognize our own sin that can be so dangerous to us because it can prevent us from standing before a holy and righteous God and asking for forgiveness.

Notice Adam and Eve do not once ask God to forgive them for their sin.

They pass judgement on everyone else around them.

Students, it is true that we are forgiven and washed clean by the blood of Jesus in our lives but if we are unable to recognize that in order to be saved from our sins we first have to understand that we are in need of saving, then we will always walk around that many people do saying I’m a good person.

I don’t know how many of my friends blame other people for their sins or try and justify their own

Well their talking about me behind my back so I can do the same thing to them.

Well it’s their choice to post that kind of content on social media and cause ME to stumble

Well God only hates homosexual sin so whatever I do with my girlfriend is okay because we are gonna “get married”

We must first realize that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God

Once we understand this truth we must also understand that the wages of sin is death.

Genesis 3:14–19 ESV

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.”

God says a lot of things to Adam and Eve and the serpent here regarding the consequences of sin and I want to highlight a few of them first by starting with Adam

God tells Adam that the ground is cursed because of him

God says that thorns and thistles will be produced now

God tells him that he will sweat from his face just to eat bread

and in the end he will be returned to the ground when he dies.

To Eve He says that she will experience pain in child birth

And to the serpent He says that there will be constant war between him and the offspring of eve (humanity)

We still see this struggle today.

Satan’s whole goal is to get you to deny God and there is a very real spiritual battle for your soul taking place, one that you fight every single day.

God also tells Satan that one will come from Eve that will crush Satan’s head

The wages of sin is death.

Even at the end of the story of the fall we see God literally cutting Adam and Eve off from being able to access the tree of life.

Genesis 3:20–24 ESV

20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Cast out from the garden, cut off from the tree of life, entering a world full of pain is how this story would end for Adam and Eve and us who are now dead in our sins.

Let’s Pray

JKJKJK

That’s not how our story will end because all the way back in Gen. 3

God is a God of hope, not despair.

God had a plan for redemption for the whole world even in Gen. 3

In fact we get a small glimpse of it in verse 21 when God clothes Adam and Eve in skins made from an animal.

God will atone for the sins of many through the sacrifice of one.

Romans 5:12–15 ESV

12 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— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

Translation:

Sin comes through Adam and Grace comes through Jesus Christ who died for the sins of the world.

Now watch this:

To the Serpent God said that one man would come through Eve who would crush his head and destroy him forever

Through the pain of childbirth Jesus would enter this world fully God and fully man

Jesus will sweat out great drops of blood from His face in the garden of Gethsemane

Jesus will experience great pain during his trial as he is whipped and beaten

Jesus will have a crown of thorns placed into his skull before going to the cross

And when Jesus dies on the cross for the sins of many His body will be placed in the ground in a tomb for three days

Jesus will take on the curse of sin that we deserved on our behalf on the cross so that we can have eternal life.

AND THE MOST AMAZING PART OF THIS WHOLE STORY!!!

Jesus takes on this sin upon himself while hanging on a tree…

The cross is the tree that our savior chose to bring us life.

Now when you confess with your mouth and believer in your heart that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead you are changed you are transformed and you are no longer cut off from the tree of life but now you can run to that tree when your feeling attacked, when your in need of rescue, when your having a great day and when your having the worst day of your life you can run to the source of life any time.

We as christians are no longer cut off from the life that is found in Jesus Christ.

And all He’s seeking from you is that you would place your faith in Him.

Will you place your faith in Jesus, or will you continue to try and glorify yourself?

PRAY