Sin: Gen 3:1-15 Final

Catechism Questions

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Q. 13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?

A. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.

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Q. 14. What is sin?

A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

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Q. 15. What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?

A. The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created was their eating the forbidden fruit.

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Q. 16. Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression?

A. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.

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Q. 17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?

A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

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Q. 18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?

A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

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Q. 19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?

A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever. Genesis 3 (ESV)

I won’t spend too much time on explaining these, as I will refer to them throughout my talk so let's dive in. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

Genesis 3:1-15

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 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.

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.”

Amen,

INTRO:

Alright, I have a question for y’all

Q: When you see someone strung out on drugs, who is at fault?

‌ANSWER: We live in a world where there are both people who have sinned against others and have been sinned against. Additionally, we live in a world where people put too much emphasis on the ways that others sin against us, while neglecting or justifying the ways that we sin. Christianity says that yes it's true that others sin against us, but we are also responsible for the sin that we commit. We must have compassion for the effects that sin has on people, but understand that our biggest problem is our own sin.

But, what is sin? What are the effects of sin? and how does the Lord respond to our sin? That's what we’ll be talking about today. So first:

1. What is sin?

I’d like to break down sin into three main categories, the first of which is that.

Sin is a violation of God’s law

At its simplest form, sin is a violation of God’s law. God gave Adam and Eve a clear commandment not to eat the fruit of the tree. We see in Genesis 3:3 that Eve quotes God’s initial command in Genesis 2 to the serpent by saying that:

“You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”

By the way she actually gets it wrong. God never said she couldn't touch it. God gave a clear command and drew a line in the sand, yet Adam and Eve’s ultimate rebellion led them to breaking it, which was the first sin of this world, and has been the premise every sin after. Adam and Eve had liberty and freedom in the beginning. They could either choose the path of righteousness or the path of sin and death. And which path did they choose? The path of death.

Ultimately, the heart wants what it wants, yet it cannot change what it wants. Only God can change our hearts. So, we need to ask God to change our hearts. Ask him to send his holy spirit to transform your heart to direct your desire towards him and not sin.

So we have established that sin is a violation of God’s law, but how does sin fester? The answer to this question leads me to my second sub point that:

Sin is a process

Sin is not necessarily one action, but a series of actions. Genesis 3:6 shows this when it explains how Eve was led to sin. Let's read it together:

“6So 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.”

We see from this passage that Eve desired the fruit, took the fruit, ate the fruit, and then gave the fruit to her husband. This is how sin works. It starts as a sinful desire of the heart, festers into a seeking of the sin with the mind, enacting the sin with your body, and then spreads to affect not only yourself but others around you. Alright now let me show you an analogous image:

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Q: What happens if the rock gets here? - point to the middle. It will be incredibly more difficult to halt and not be crushed by it. Because of momentum.

Q: At which point is this rock the easiest to stop? - Right at the beginning.

When you have inappropriate sexual thoughts in your head do not say to yourselves that “Oh I can just enjoy these thoughts and not take any action with them”, No. If sexual thoughts, or any other thought of sin comes in your head, strangle it. Do not let it grow, or else it will grow into a poison that kills you. Which leads me to my last point on sin, that:

Sin is a poison

Alright I have another question for y’all:

Q: What killed Adam and Eve?

What killed them was not the fruit, it was violating God’s law and eating the fruit too soon. God was going to let them eat the fruit eventually but their rebelliousness led them to eat it.

Romans 3:23 says that “the wages for sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Genesis 3:3 says that “neither shall you touch it, lest you die”

What killed Adam and Eve was not the fruit, it was sin. Sin leads to death. Satan cannot make anything, he can only distort and lie. He poisons good things and makes them sinful. He poisons fellowship to encourage negative influences on you, poisons music to normalize inappropriate language and the sexualization of women, and poisons technology by making it a gateway to sin. All of these sins lead to death. But God’s law, and your parents' restrictions protect you from the poison of sin.

Now not only does sin poison God’s gifts, but it also poisons you, which leads me to my next main question and that is:

‌2. What are the effects of sin?

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So first let's review the catechism question “17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind? Answer. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.” So that's two parts, that the fall of mankind brought mankind into a state of sin, and misery. Let's talk about those two dynamics. So first:

Sin makes you sinful

Sin ultimately makes you a sinful person. Sin creates other sins and sin makes you frankly an unlikable person. I mean Adam and Eve are blaming one another, and they begin to fight. I know for me that when I have sinned against my wife, whether I speak harshly or am resilient to do the dishes, I find myself becoming more selfish, critical, and unlikable. The initial sin of me speaking harshly leads me to sin in other ways. Or often, if people commit a sin, it leads them to lie to cover it up, which leads to more sin and makes things worse.

So we have talked about the external effects of sin by hurting others, by making you sinful but what are the internal consequences of sin?

It makes you miserable

As we see in the passage in Ge 3:8–9. “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.” Adam and Eve were hiding in the cool of the day.

Now I went to Arizona a few weeks ago, and it was well over 100 degrees there. Sounds nice right? But I couldn’t go outside midday, it was miserable, I had to go in the cool afternoon. Adam and Eve’s shame of their sin, made them hide in the most beautiful time of the day. They were sad, ashamed, and joyless as they hid in the garden. That's what sin does to you. It brings you into sadness. But I want you to know that Satan wants you in despair, God does not want you in despair.

Proverbs 17:22 says “22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

When you sin, rest in God’s grace and mercy, do not rest in your despair. Because a core and necessary realization of a Christian is to see how deep your own sin is and that you cannot fix it.

So, we have looked at what sin is, that it is a violation of God’s law, it’s a process, and that its a poison, we have looked at what the effects of sin are, that they make you sinful, and they make you miserable, now let’s look at how God responds to our sin.

3. How does God respond to our sin?

We’ll look at this through two quick points. First:

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God invites us to confession

Let's read Genesis 3:8-13 “ 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.”

Q: What do you notice about God’s posture in this story? He asks them questions and invites them to confession.

He does not yell at them in anger, but gently asks them what they have done. God does the same for us. Every week we come to church and we confess our sins to our father. In this liturgy God invites us to confession. Instead of hiding in our sin we need a posture of confession, and God invites us into that. Not only does God invite us to confess, but also:

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God Sends us a savior

Genesis 3:15 is God’s promise that he will send us a savior, he says:

“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.”

Raise of hands, who here has seen the movie I AM LEGEND? It might be my favorite movie of all time by the way. Be warned I will give some spoilers, but it came out in 2007 so you’ve had enough time. The main character is named Robert, who is played by Will Smith (this was before he slapped Chris Rock), and he is in a post-apocalyptic New York. A virus spread through the world, and infected people and turned them into vampire zombies.

However, Robert is somehow immune to this, and with his background as a medical scientist, he seeks a cure. Along the way he finds another family and takes them into the protection of his home. At the very end of the movie, he sacrifices himself for the family, dies for them, and gives them the cure for them to spread and heal the vampire zombies. Not only was Robert immune to the virus, but he created the cure. He reflects Jesus in this story.

In Gen 3:15 God promised that there will be a son that will undo the damage of the serpent

Adam and Eve could not save themselves, and neither can we. We have been poisoned by sin, and it has taken over our lives; just as the virus turned people into zombies. God deals with our sin by sending his Son to save us from it by dying on the cross. Jesus saves his family with his sacrificial blood, yet unlike Robert, his own blood was the cure, and Jesus lives today and forevermore reigning in heaven and on earth as your king, and your savior. And through Jesus, if you confess your sins to him and put your faith in him, you can be cleansed from your sins and be with him forevermore. Let's pray.

Possible Small Group Questions;

Chase said that “When you sin, rest in God’s grace and mercy, do not rest in your despair.” How are we to balance that, and make sure that we do not use God’s grace as an excuse to sin because you know that you will be forgiven?