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Rebellion

Rodney Gehman – December 15, 2024

[ 000 ] Good morning, River City!

We’re just 10 days away from Christmas now, and as you drive around the cities and countryside of Washington & Johnson County or wherever you’re coming from, you’re seeing Christmas trees twinkling in the living room windows, lights in the yard, lights on the houses… and inflatable stuff, and all that.

Let’s just do this, [ 001 ] how many Buddy the Elf’s do we have – You live for Christmas, it’s all gumdrops and rainbows – you put up your Christmas tree the day after school starts. Come on how many, show of hands? And maybe [ 002 ] you’re not a Scrooge, but you think Christmas should at least wait until you’re done with turkey, and they should keep the Christmas songs to a minimum until Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? I gotta admit, that’s often me.

But I do enjoy seeing how differently people decorate for Christmas. There’s so much personality that comes out in whether the house is covered in colored, blinking lights or plain white, some people keep things minimal and neat, other places it looks like Hobby Lobby threw up on the front lawn. But the one that always gets me is driving around and seeing the [ 003 ] nativity scene in someone’s front yard next to the inflatable Santa, or Rudolph and the boys. And if that’s you and you’re squirming in your seat right now, I did not drive around looking at your houses before I said that, so if you feel attacked right now, I promise you I’m not picking on you.

But those two stories of Santa and Jesus are opposed to each other. They can’t be in the same yard, because they don’t fit together.

The backstory of Santa starts with a 3rd century Christian bishop named St Nicholas, and has morphed over time. The legend of Santa now is generally one of kindness, giving gifts, rosy red cheeks, a red suit and happiness through toys and presents. And as long as you’re good, he’ll be good to you.

But what’s the story of the nativity set? What’s the backstory there? Well, that’s where we’re headed here this morning. You could say it starts with Mary and Joseph, and the trip to Bethlehem, no room in the inn, being born in a manger, angels, shepherds, and all of that. But like we saw last week, the manger actually wasn’t the backstory of Jesus. The backstory of Jesus starts in Genesis 1 and 2, with Jesus being a major part of creating the world – both the natural world we can see, and the supernatural world we can’t. And we looked at that last week. The last thing we saw, though, in Genesis chapter 2 is the man and his wife in a beautiful garden home where the presence of God lived, and when we left them, there was no shame, no guilt, no baggage, no sadness or anxiety or fear – it wasn’t perfect yet, they had work to do, but God declared it very, very good.

[ 004-1 ] Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. [ 004-2 ] He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

If you recall last week, we explored the fact that God relates to creation by his word, and what does the serpent take aim at? God’s word. So something anti-God, anti-God’s word has entered the picture. Whoever or whatever the serpent is, it is attempting to undermine God’s word.

‌So why are Adam and Eve even entertaining this thing? Why isn’t he saying, hold up – when I was naming all the wild animals, and you came through the line – I gave you the name “serpent”, you didn’t talk to me then. Why are you talking now? Something isn’t right, honey, get in the house. Genesis 3 doesn’t come right out and tell us when, why, or how, but it implies: [ 005 ]

1. Evil did not originate with humans

‌The book of Job tells us that the spiritual realm was created before the physical realm. Job 38:7 says the heavenly creatures all sang for joy when God brought light and land and sky and trees and animals all into being. Genesis 3:1 is clear – this is a creature God has made. This is not a co-eternal, equally powerful being – the yin to God’s yang. God is Creator, this serpent is created. But sometime after God saw everything and called it very good, somehow, this serpent or whatever inhabits it, became a rebel to God’s purposes for him.

You have to go a little further into the Bible to figure out what is happening here. There’s a scripture in Isaiah that reads like this. (Read Isaiah 14:12-15) In context, this describes the fall of a powerful king. And yet the description seems to be almost too exaggerated to simply refer to an earthly king. Then, in Luke 10:18, Jesus points out that he watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning, and it pulls us right back to this scripture. Could he be talking about this? Is Isaiah pointing at an earthly king AND the fall of Satan? Both Jude and Peter write in the NT about angels leaving their proper position, being cast down, and restrained until the end of time.‌ But that doesn’t help us understand the serpent in the garden.

It’s not until almost the very end of the Bible, Revelation 12:9, that we find out this serpent is inhabited by the devil, called Satan. So this rebellion had to have happened sometime before Genesis 3:1.

Apparently the authors of Genesis and the rest of scripture do not think it’s necessary for us to understand how or why this serpent got into the garden, where it came from, or what the rebellion specifically was. Which means that is probably a question we don’t need to know the answer to.

But some may say, well, since God let the devil get into the garden in the first place, and created Adam and Eve anyway knowing they would rebel, then God must be at least partially responsible for bringing sin into the world. But wouldn’t that be like blaming Hitler’s mother for all of his evil, simply because she gave birth to him?

Obviously God creating us to have free will instead of creating us as robots opens the door for sin to enter the world. But that doesn’t make him responsible for it. [ 007 ]

‌2. God cannot be the author of sin

Job 34:10 “Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding. It is impossible for God to do wrong, and for the Almighty to act unjustly.” Isaiah 6:3 “And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth.” Deuteronomy 32:4 “The Rock—his work is perfect; all his ways are just. A faithful God, without bias, he is righteous and true.” Psalm 92:15 “...“The Lord is just; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.” James 1:13 “No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone.” Psalm 5:4 “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil cannot dwell with you.”

But that just leads to another major question, why did God not just kill Satan and all the angels the moment they rebelled against him? Humans would never have known the difference. Revelation 20 says he’s going to throw them all in hell eventually anyway. Why not do it right away, then humans can go about their business in the garden without a serpent, temper, an accuser, a word-twister, trying to deceive them their whole lives?

Obviously, I don’t know the mind of God, so I can’t definitively answer that question. One pastor offers a partial answer: “What if God permits Satan to go on living and working because he intends to crush Satan in a million smaller acts instead of in one big sweeping act? What if every time God shows his glory through healing, through exposing sin and hypocrisy, through showing compassion to the weak, through bringing sinners to repentance – Satan is defeated. When Jesus suffered on the cross, he disarmed rulers and authorities by triumphing over them. God daily defeats Satan by using his own efforts against him. Paul’s thorn. Judas’ betrayal. The cross of Christ. Redeeming our suffering. Every time someone savors Jesus more than anything the world, the flesh or the devil can offer, Satan is defeated.” Whether that’s the answer or there’s more to it:

[ 008 ] ‌3. God is sovereign over Satan and evil.

Satan can only do what God allows him to do, and that is a great comfort to me. I have no reason to fear what the devil may do to me or my family, because I know, based on the first 2 chapters of Job, based on Jesus’ words to Peter in Luke 22, based on Paul’s thorn in the flesh in 2 Cor 12, that Satan cannot operate outside of God’s sovereign will for my life or my children.

And if God, who is perfect in every way, never tempted by sin, never delighting in wickedness, allows Satan to continue to inflict all kinds of horror on the world, I believe it is because somehow more of God’s glory will shine in our battle against Satan than if God would take him out yesterday or today (Piper, 332). That too comforts me, because it means that when Romans 8 says He is able to work all things together for good to those who love him – those he is making into the image of his Son. It is comforting to know that God is working out the fruits of the Spirit, making me more like Jesus, even as I battle Satan.

And this battle begins right here in Genesis 3, [ 009 ] as the serpent finds Eve in the garden. Did God really say you can’t eat fruit from any of the trees in the garden? Seems extreme. Eve says, oh no, no, not at all. Just the one in the middle. If we eat that one we die.

The serpent said, really? God really said that? Well, let me fill you in on some details God has left out. [ 010 ] You’re not going to die. In fact, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God. Now Eve is faced with a choice, isn’t she? Whose words will she trust? God’s or the serpent’s?

[ 011 ] 4. All Sin is rooted in Unbelief

I want to point out two major deceptions from the serpent that still work on us to this day, and I’ll show you what I mean:

a) The serpent begins with, “God said you would die? Oh, you won’t die.” Look at me, I rebelled, and I’m still here. I didn’t die. So you can take that fruit off the tree. God’s not going to kill you just for eating some of the good food that’s right in front of you – aren’t you hungry? And in that is deception #1: There are no consequences for disobeying God.

‌You can take some cash off your parent’s night stand – God’s not going to kill you over $20, is he? That’s kind of petty. God’s not going to kill you just for sleeping with your boyfriend or girlfriend, I mean it’s not like you hired a prostitute or you’re sleeping around. You’re committed to each other. God’s not going to kill you for cheating on your time card – it was like 7 minutes, 15 minutes, come on. God’s not going to kill you for exploding in anger at your wife, your kids, your employees – it was a long day, things didn’t go well, and hey, nobody’s perfect. What does he expect?

Do you recognize that lie? Have you heard it before? Have you fallen for it? The serpent hissed, “You’re going to die over a piece of fruit? Really? God said that? Hmm.” [ 012-1 ] Which leads to lie #2:

b) Not only will God not kill you, in fact (Notice, now it’s the serpent positioning himself as the wise one who knows the ACTUAL truth), in fact, he knows that when you eat the fruit, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. You’ll be divine. His “no” is where your “yes” should be. Where he says step down is exactly where you should level up. His boundaries are robbing you of the freedom to really be who he’s created you to be! He is purposely keeping you in the dark. What kind of God is that!? You have a desire to be wise, he put a tree right here – and yet he says don’t touch it? And here’s deception #2 [ 012-2 ]: Can God really be trusted for anything else then? Is he really good? Or maybe it plays out for you in something like, God works in other people’s life, but not mine.

Do you recognize that one? Have you fallen for it? We all have. We fall for both of them. It’s why we continue to sin. At the bottom of sin is unbelief: Either we’ve stopped believing God is good and has our best interest at heart, or we stop believing he is holy and that he punishes sin.

The serpent has done his work. Now he shuts up and waits. Verse 6 – The woman stared at the tree a little longer. It did look like it would taste good. It was a very beautiful tree. And then it moved from her eyes to her heart. She was happy with the way God had made her up to this point. She was made in his image, but being the same as God was definitely a level up, and the fruit was the ticket. The promise of being wise with just a bite or two – she had to have it. So she takes a bite.

[ 013 ] Romans 1:25 explains what really happened in this moment: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever.”

But here’s where we learn that our battle isn’t only against the serpent. The serpent didn’t hand her the fruit. He isn’t forcing her to bite into it. Look over in Genesis 3:13 – she doesn’t say “the serpent made me do it,” she says “he deceived me!” The text is clear, Satan and his angels are not our biggest enemy. [ 014 ]

5. Our biggest enemy is our own desires.

You will notice that humans did not face any curse with the fall of angels. God did not show up to Adam and Eve, and say, friends, I’m so, so, so sorry, but there was a rebellion in heaven and now you will begin to die. Death didn’t enter the world when the angels sinned… it entered the world because Adam sinned. [ 014.5-1 ] James 1:14 - Each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.

In Genesis 4, the Lord says to Adam and Eve’s own rebellious son – Sin is crouching at your door, and its desire is for you – you must rule over it. Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

Eve’s own desire to be wise apart from God’s words was the fatal blow. Adam’s disregard for God’s word was the fatal blow. It plunged all of human history into instant depravity and death, and would require the death of the Son of God to make things right again. James 1:15 goes on [ 014.5-2 ]– …Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.

[ 015 ] 6. Sin Brings Death

With this one action, the gavel came down in heaven. Guilty of all charges. Sentence: Execution at the appointed time. ‌Physically, they would die, though not immediately. Relationally, they died immediately. You can tell, because they now hide their bodies from each other in shame. Spiritually they die, because they are hiding from God.

Ephesians 2:1–3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins... disobedient…[living]... in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and … are by nature children under wrath...” John Piper points out that this is a very active deadness. You are dead, but you are disobedient, doing whatever you convince yourself feels good and is right to do, living lock-step with the devil (Piper, 2020).

The Bible teaches that death is a result of sin. Not just human death, but all creatures now die. Trees die. Your yard dies. So if you believe the evolutionary process of survival of the fittest, you have to believe that death, sickness, disease, cancer, and so on were here before sin. That leaves you with a much, much bigger problem.

‌If death is just part of the natural process, and not the penalty for sin, then the cross of Christ – instead of being a place where he died for sinners, where his death paid the bill for our sin – is meaningless. If you believe death existed before humans, you give up the cross, which means you lose the resurrection, you lose redemption, you lose forgiveness, you lose Jesus on his throne above all powers of evil right now, you lose his intercession for you, you lose the Holy Spirit being given as a gift to all who believe – death wins, and that’s the end of it.

God was right. Sin brings all kinds of death. Death physically, relationally, spiritually. Sickness, disease, war, affliction, and trouble are now part of human existence. Sin corrupts us all the way down – mind, will, emotions, desires, leaving us completely depraved and unable to please God. By the time you get to the end of Genesis 6, one of Adam and Eve’s sons has killed the other; people are bragging about sex and murder, and as Moriah read this morning, “When the Lord saw that ... every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.” That’s an active deadness. It’s pretty grim, and is followed by the worldwide flood in chapters 7-9, another round of rebellion in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel.

Genesis leads into Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, where God’s people rebel in unbelief over and over again, from the golden calf at Mt Sinai, to openly sleeping with women from other nations, to rejecting the Promised Land, believing the giants there were bigger than Yahweh. Numbers gives way to the book of Joshua, where God’s people rebel again and make covenants with enemy nations, and don’t follow through on God’s commands; Joshua gives way to the book of Judges, which ends with a gruesome story of rape, murder, revenge, kidnapping and grief – all performed not by pagans, but by God’s people – followed by the startling statement: In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him. We’re only seven books into the Bible and we are such a long way from Eden. And we haven’t even gotten to the worst part yet.

‌But we are not hopeless. I know I said this would be a downer of a message, but even in his most blistering prophetic rebukes throughout scripture, God himself doesn’t just dump on us without giving us handholds to give us hope.

7. We’re never without Hope

There are a couple of those handholds here in Genesis 3:

In Genesis 3:8, God moves toward sinners, not in rage but in mercy. He doesn’t wait for them to come out of hiding – he moves SO THAT THEY DO come out of hiding.

In Genesis 3:15, God said there will always be war between the serpent and the woman, generation after generation after generation. Spiritual warfare will be an ongoing part of life here on planet earth. But God promises that one day, a child of Eve will deliver the fatal blow to the serpent, which implies these days of deception and lies and murder will not last forever. The day is coming when the liar will be dealt with justly.

Secondly, at the end of chapter 3, there in verse 22, God doesn’t want the man and woman to now run back to the Tree of Life in an attempted do-over, and end up living forever in this unredeemed, rebellious, fallen state. So he forces them out of the Garden and stations an angel there to make sure redemption stays on the table. Grace is now an option. Restoration can happen. The day is coming when the sinner will be given a way to be restored. Back to Eden? In our story, we don’t know yet. More on that in the weeks to come.

[ 017 ] So when you put the nativity scene up in your house or you see one in someone’s yard, remember this isn’t a story of generosity and kindness that runs parallel to Santa. The message of Santa is be good or you won’t get what you want. The message of the nativity is that we are so corrupted by sin, so alienated from our Creator, so far removed from Eden that we couldn’t be good if we tried. But that baby in the manger reminds us God didn’t leave us helpless – he sent help. More on that in the next couple of Sundays.

[ 018 ] As we go to prayer, How would you answer God’s question, “where are you?”

Maybe for some of you, the Holy Spirit has pierced your heart to show you that you’ve been blaming someone else for your own sin, or hiding behind some fig leaves of your own – maybe hiding behind religious activity. It all looks good on the outside, but the inside is pretty dark, and I don’t smile much when I’m not around church people. Maybe you’re hiding behind your past, blaming that or your family’s sins for your own; maybe you’re hiding behind your personality “Well, that’s just the way I am”, hiding behind your own doubts instead of owning your own unbelief or taking responsibility for your own sin, talking to someone about what’s really going on.

Maybe you’re living in discontentment and jealousy today, always looking at what someone else has. You got a new thing today, and a week later you’re already looking for the next one. You’re discontent with the spouse God has given you or hasn’t given you, looking at someone else thinking that’s what God should have done for you. Discontent with your home, your car, your stuff, your relationships, thinking you deserve better, or that you’ll know you’ve been successful when you have this or that because those people who are successful have this or that.

Maybe you’re just straight out living in Judges 21:25 – just doing whatever seems right in your own eyes. No one can tell you you’re wrong, I live by my own truth. You don’t need the Bible, you have common sense, and God’s not going to kill me just for this or that little thing. And I warn you today, that mindset ends in destruction and death unless you repent.

And finally – maybe, if you’re in Christ, filled and strengthened daily by the Holy Spirit, maybe today was again a reminder of just how much you’ve been forgiven. It’s like looking at your own baby picture, where you say, yep that’s me in the picture, but it’s not me. Yes, from time to time, I revert back to acting like that child, but that’s not me today, by God’s grace! I’ve been rescued, redeemed, ransomed, forgiven, and set free.

So as the band comes to lead us out, I’m going to leave this question up here for a minute and let the Holy Spirit help you answer it.

BENEDICTION

Psalm 51:1-4, 10-12

The Lord bless you and sustain you this week; May his grace and his peace be with you as you steward the truth of the gospel this week in your workplace, at school, in your homes, in your celebrations and in your sorrows. And when our Lord Jesus returns, may he find us faithful. Amen.

Sources

L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938)

‌Tony Reinke and John Piper, Ask Pastor John: 750 Bible Answers to Life’s Most Important Questions (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024)

John Piper, How Much Joy Did The Curse Cost Me? (May 25, 2020; accessed December 12, 2024) https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/how-much-joy-did-the-curse-cost-me

‌Why is there so Much Confusion Regarding the Teachings of the Bible? https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-confusion.html