The Fall
Notes
Transcript
This morning we get right to where it all went wrong
Things were going great creation had just happened
Good fellowship was happening
When you start to look at different problems you always want to get back to where it started or what happened
The reason you and I have a sin nature is in Genesis 3. but it should be noted the reason you are a sinner that is completely on you and no one else
So things were going well
25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
This were going as planned
Life was good
This was how it was intended to be
They were given instructions in what to do in the garden
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
These were the instruction
They were clear and concise
There isn’t much to complicate
Or to get confused
Man was to live in the Garden and to cultivate it to work the land
God commanded them to eat freely from any tree but to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and if they ate from it they would die
Ok that seems clear to me
But
See how that word sort of changes things
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Church we get a front row seat to watching the fall of mankind
And what is crazy is not much has changed since the beginning
We still fall like this today I believe
The Bible defines the serpent as more crafty than other beast of the field
And He starts off the conversation with Has God said?
Satan or the serpent is already starting to plant the deception into her brain
A seed of doubt will grow
This is not about women or men and who is weaker but it is about a seed of doubt left unchecked will grow
Notice what Eve does with the seed of doubt she goes ahead and sort of waters it with entering into a conversation with the serpent
Now she is listening to the serpent the devil about what God really meant by His command rather than God
And because the seed was planted and now watered by entertaining a conversation with the serpent
she is left trying to figure out what did God really mean when He said this
Not to mention the obvious to us that she is talking to a snake
I would hope that if a snake came up and started asking me questions I would no something is not right but that aside
The serpent questions what God says planting the seed of doubt
She waters it by entertaining the conversation with the serpent
I said I believe we still fall like this because we do the same thing
A lot of us like to sit around and argue with the devil or entertain his thoughts and words and start to listen to his trash
We don’t have to sit around and listen to the devil church
Later on in scripture we are called to FLEE from sin to FLEE from satan
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he tells them to flee immorality
18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
We don’t entertain conversations with the devil
as one commentary puts it
“One glaring problem in the Genesis 3 scene is that Eve is talking to Satan about her problems with God instead of talking to God about her problems with Satan.”
See her problem was trying to remember and understand what God really meant
Instead of going right to God she instead listens to the serpent
Church we do the same thing
We listen to this person or that person instead of honestly spending time seeking God in prayer and reading our Bibles
which is why we must be students of God’s word
When we are challenged with those same questions church our first response should be to run back to Scripture
Should be to call our group of brothers and sisters in Christ and ask for prayer
Should be to fall on our faces and seek God through prayer
And church this is only just the beginning
There’s more
She goes away left wondering because she staying and entertained a conversation with the serpent
She watered the seed of doubt
6 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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
She not only is doubting God and not talking to Him about it
Now she is being deceived and ultimately becomes disobedient
She is deceived because she looks at the fruit and is told from the snake about the fruit rather than going to the truth Himself
She is conned into thinking it will help her
Nothing wrong with wanting to be wiser
But she is going about it the wrong way
She is sort of cheating her way to get to the wisdom
She is using forbidden sinful ways to get the wisdom
because the serpent has told her its ok
Then she is disobedient by eating the fruit
But you have heard the song from Casting Crowns SLOW FADE
Think of all the red flags she passed to the point of eating the fruit
She listened to a serpent, and then even talked to the serpent
She responded when she could have walked away
She then goes to the tree and starts to look it over and sees that it looks good
Of course it looks good God made it Himself
Then she has done all this before she even touches it
Then she picks it up and holds it
This is flirting with sin and death and destruction at this point
This is the how close can I get to sin without crossing it
When it all actuality she should have stomped the serpents head when he started to talk
But church we do the same thing
We flirt with sin
We doubt and are deceived and become disobedient the exact same way
She holds the fruit long before she eats it and then gives to her husband and he eats of it
immediately their eyes are opened
The shock they have done something wrong
and they know it
It is easy to sit back and think well she should have known
You are right
But now look at your own life and say the same thing
Think of all the red flags you passed by
8 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 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
Their response to realizing them messed up and have done something wrong
Church I have long said what would it have been like to hear the footsteps of God would have been amazing
And at this moments it leads to fear because they understand they are in the wrong
This is probably the first time they have experienced fear
I see this from a parents point of view
God is looking to see if they will come clean and be honest
New flash they don’t
Because they are so disgusted with themselves because they know they have done wrong
Instead of running to God with it
They run the opposite direction
Another News flash we do the same thing when we sin
We hear God coming and we are quick to run and hide and try to cover it ourselves
Just like Adam and Eve do
They try to cover their sin with some leaves
They are so disgusted with themselves they attempt to use some leaves to cover their sin
We attempt to use some many things to cover our sin
When church God is there waiting for us to return to Him
Even in our doubt, deception, disobedience, and disgust
God is waiting for His prized creation the apple of His eye to run back to Him
And church He is waiting even today if you will run to Him
He doesn’t need to take care of anything accept to run to Him and He will deal with everything
So church the question is to you this morning
Would you run to Jesus with your doubt, your disgust or disobedience at the end of our service you will have the opportunity to respond to that
God has questions for Adam and Eve
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from 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 from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
These questions are summed up with what happened
Again God knows the answer but is asking I think to see if they will be honest
And again they miss the mark
Church much like we do
Not only do we attempt to cover our own sin up
We see the blame game begin to start
One quote from commentary
Exalting Jesus in Genesis Destruction (3:9–13)
The effects of sin don’t stay compartmentalized to one area of life; rather, sin affects everything.
But rather we see things start to spiral out of control
And might I note this church
Its not a issue of hoping and praying you don’t encounter sin
Because you will
But seeing the many many red flags where you could have stopped and turned away
We know the rest of the store punishment is passed out because they have sinned
All because they went past all those opportunities to turn back
And church that seems to be the first step
Instead of blaming everyone else coming clean and admitting to what you have done
IE Confession
Church we are to confess our sins
Now please hear me this is not a confess your problems or sins or junk in your life to people
But rather we are to confess our sins to God
Then after we have admitted and told God we acknowledge what we have done and agree with God that it is wrong
Then we repent from it
We turn away from it
We sort of see the opposite played out in Genesis 3.
Sort of like how to go about the sin problem
This is not how you and I are to handle
And we know that
We know when confronted with sin in our life we are to confess it and repent from it
Then we are also to learn from so as not to get stuck again with the same old
So church put that to practice
Begin to confess our sins to God and God is faithful to forgive those sins
Because also during the fall as we call it
God then pours our punishment for sin
And after God covers their sin
Both physical and spiritual
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
We see from day 1 that because of sin death was the punishment
Something had to die to appease the penalty of sin
before the cross is was the animal
And at the cross it was Jesus that took our penalty for sin
And in the garden it physically covered our sin and at the grave it 100% washes our sin away
We also see what God does that sometimes we miss
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
We see the character of God
He loved us so much that His grace and mercy our seen
He kicks us out of the garden so that we wouldn’t eat of the tree and live forever in a sinful state
God loved us so much that He said I don’t want you to like this forever I want to be in fellowship with you
So I will set my plan in motion for salvation
The first step was to kick us out of the garden so that we wouldn’t live in a sinful state forever
Praise the Lord church for being kicked out of the garden
It gives us the opportunity to turn from sin and trust Jesus
As we come to a close this morning
We will call the band up
If you are here this morning and do not know Christ personally
And you are ready to confess your sin to God and to agree with God that your sin is bad
And repent which is to turn from your sinful ways and trust in Jesus
If you are ready for that I would invite you to come to the front and speak with someone at the front
Or maybe you already have a personal relationship with Jesus but sin has reared its ugly head in your life and you need to spend time in prayer repenting and running back to Jesus you are encouraged to come the altar and do that
Or maybe there is a decision you need to make this morning
Maybe it is to join the church or some other decision
You are encouraged to come up and say yes I want to join this church
What ever you need to you would you be obedient in how you respond to the word of God this morning
The altar is open
We see the character of God
Genesis 3:22-
Ideas
Be obedient to God
KNOW the Word of God
Memorize it
Surround yourself with other believers who know the Word
We also see Gods grace and mercy in kicking us out of the garden
God is gracious and merciful
