God’s Broken Heart
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Sin breaks the heart of God because it kills His creation.
Many people think of God as a terror but He is love; patience; kindness; goodness.
The problem of evil in the world doesn’t come from God, but it breaks God’s heart.
I. The Cause
I. The Cause
The cause of God’s broken heart is sin and the destruction of His creation.
A. The Temptation
A. The Temptation
He didn’t “slither up”, he came strutting up on his feet. This was a literal serpent, and it was satan who had taken on the form of a serpent. The Bible often describes satan this way. In the Revelation he is pictured as a dragon. Here in the opening chapters, we see him taking on the form of a serpent.
Consider the serpent…when Adam named the animals, he didn’t just name them on a whim, but he named them according to their nature.
A serpent, even now, is a very cryptic animal. Alone, cold-blooded, mysterious in many ways. And it was so in the garden, except for they didn’t slither around, they walked. In our minds, it’s odd that Eve would trust a serpent. But at this time, we have to understand that everything God made was good. Everything was peaceful and tranquil, and everything was new and precious to Eve.
But what about a talking serpent? Some commentators suggest that since Eve may have never seen this type of serpent before that she just naturally assumed it could talk.
Eve is in this lush and beautiful garden, and here comes the serpent. “Hello”, he says. “You can talk?”, asked Eve. “Yes! God may have told you that you are His special creation, but God doesn’t know everything!”
Eve exclaimed, “Really?”
“Really, really!” Satan responds. “Say, I’ve heard a rumor going around and I want to ask your advice…Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’”
This would have been a good time for Eve to stop the conversation! Even in this initial question, satan has already begun to pervert God’s word. He wants to make God’s instruction restrictive instead of liberating.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Here are the words of satan.
“Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Immediately, satan has fixated Eve’s mind on what she cannot have instead of all that God has given her.
With her eye, she moves past all the blessings of God and fixates on that tree that she cannot eat from. There it is, standing majestically in the garden.
Here is her reply
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;
but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
There she is, her eyes no longer in contact with the serpent, but fixated on that tree, and the word of God comes to her mind. The conviction begins to pulsate and in her heart she knows the truth…but she, just like satan, perverts God’s instruction.
Where God says, “you may freely eat of every tree.” Eve says, “We may eat the fruit of the trees.” Where God says, “you may not eat of the tree.” Eve says, “We can neither eat it or touch it.” When God says “you will for sure die.” Eve says, “Lest we die.”
Now Satan has her, because in her heart she is beginning to slip…
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
He says, “No! NO! You won’t die! What will happen is you will be like God and He won’t be able to control you anymore.”
B. The Sin
B. The Sin
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
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 coverings.
Such is the case of sin.
We, in our hearts begin to bypass all the blessings of God! And slowly we begin to look at things that we have no business looking at. Then, we begin to feel ways that we have no business feeling. Then, we begin to touch that which we have no business touching. Finally, we eat of the fruit of sin.
The Little Boy and the Purple Martins
There was a little boy, and his dad bought that boy his first pellet gun. This dad sat with his son and taught him how to care for it, how to load it, how to cock it, and how to shoot it.
They shot squirrels and birds and they had the best time fellowshipping together over the joy that hunting brought this little boy.
Now, there in the center of the yard was a bird house for a beautiful bird called a purple martin.
Now a purple martin is a highly social, graceful bird. When they make a nest, they return year after year, just like they did in this family’s yard. They are not a game bird, they are a bird that people enjoy for viewing. If you’ve ever seen a nest for these birds in someone’s yard, it’s usually a little house atop a flag pole!
The dad of that boy said this, “Son, there’s a difference between a bird we hunt for food and bird we get to enjoy viewing. Do you see that bird house up there? That’s the house for our purple marlins. You can shoot just about any bird that lands out here, just don’t shoot at my marlins, please.”
“Yes sir! I promise I won’t.”
What happens?
The little boy goes out on his own to hunt…and he keeps shooting those birds and squirrels but it just doesn’t feel like it’s enough. He turns his eyes up at those purple marlins, and in his heart he says, “I shouldn’t!” But, then again, he says, “how will anyone know?”
“Ready, aim, fire!” Marlin down!
What happens?
He doesn’t get caught.
He goes out the next day, and kills another marlin, then another, then another. He takes all the ones he kills and throws them in the woods so they won’t be found.
He comes home, trying to act normal, but inside he’s filled with so much joy…until his dad asks, “Son, have you been shooting those marlins?”
“No sir.”
With tears in his eyes, the father says, “Well, I don’t understand it, then. Just before your mother died, she asked me to put that house up there. And in her final moments we’d just sit and watch those marlins. Now that they’re gone, it’s like those memories have been ripped from my heart.”
Sin and rebellion is so sweet at it’s beginning! It is so sweet until we learn the truth about what sin brings. And once we sober up from the sin that we’ve committed, we do everything in our power to cover up and hide from our shame. That’s why that little boy threw those marlins in the woods, and that why Adam and Eve covered themselves after they ate that fruit.
C. Questions About Sin
C. Questions About Sin
1. What is Sin?
1. What is Sin?
Sin is any failure to do what God has asked us to do.
We typically think of sin in the opposite way. We think of sin as a list of things we’re not supposed to do instead of the failure to do what we are supposed to do.
God says, “Keep yourself pure”. We sin when we fail to be pure.
God says, “Obey my commands.” We sin when we fail to obey His commands.
God says, “Abstain from eating of that tree.” We sin when we fail to abstain from eating of that tree.
Why are there so many do nots in the Bible?
The do nots in the Bible are the explanations of His commands.
Therefore, God says, “If you want to be pure…do not, do not, do not.”
God says, “If you want to be obedient…do not, do not, do not.”
Why is it important to understand sin this way?
One of satan’s lies is that God is restricting us by telling us what we cannot do. When in reality God wants to free us by telling us what we are supposed to do.
The Ten Commandments say, “Do no murder.” Well, that’s a call to be free from hatred. They say, “Do not have any other gods before me.” That’s a call to worship God and God alone.
So, the sin is the failure to be free of hatred and the failure to worship God and God alone.
2. Why Does God Allow Sin?
2. Why Does God Allow Sin?
This is that problem of evil that so many wonder about. God allows sin for a time for one reason and one reason only, so that people have a chance to do what is right.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
God will destroy sin, and He will judge satan, and He will destroy death…but not before everyone has had a chance for repentance.
Satan has sold the lie that God allows evil because He is powerless, but God has allowed evil to show His mercy and His grace.
Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,
so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
God allows sin, not because He is powerless, but because He is compassionate and just, giving every sinner a chance for repentance. At the final day, the Bible says that no one will have an excuse or be able to accuse God because He has revealed Himself, and they have chosen to reject Him.
The sin that sends someone to Hell is this: the failure to accept Jesus as the Lord.
3. Why did God Create Sin?
3. Why did God Create Sin?
God did not create sin.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
God cannot have created sin because He is good, and there is no evil in Him. He is light and there is no darkness in Him.
Why create us if He knew we’d sin?
We have children of our own, knowing full well they will mess up and be exposed to sin. But our hope is that they will overcome their sin by trusting in Jesus.
God cannot receive love from His creation unless choice is involved. Forcing someone to love you is not love, it’s perversion and coercion. Therefore, God made us with freedom to choose.
We tend to think so temporal. From the fall of creation, God established redemption. Everyone throughout the course of history has had the free choice to accept God or not to accept God. In the Old Testament, they had the choice to worship God and God alone. In the New, they have the chance to worship the Lord Jesus.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
God did not create sin, but sin breaks His heart. He does not delight in sin and He does not want people to be punished for sin, He wants people to be set free from sin!
The cause of God’s broken heart is sin…
II. The Confrontation
II. The Confrontation
God will confront sin. We cannot hid it from Him, we cannot explain it away.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
At one time, when they heard the footsteps of the Lord walking through the lush grass of Eden, they ran to Him like children running to their father after he’s been working all day
A. We Find Them Hiding
A. We Find Them Hiding
They know they’re guilty, and the first tactic to escape judgement is to hide.
Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?” says the Lord; “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.
Some of you are trying to hide even now. Some of you are living a double life. Some of you have your family fooled, your church fooled, but you cannot fool God. You cannot hide from His presence. There will be a day where God will shine a light in the dark places. And when others think that you are right with God, God will know.
B. We Find Them Making Excuses
B. We Find Them Making Excuses
Adam is not prepared to confess his sin, so he blames Eve, the person he was tasked to care for, and then he blames God.
Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
Neither is Eve prepared to accept the blame.
And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Many have said that the reason they aren’t Christians is because Christians are hypocrites. They want to hide behind the flaws of others as an excuse to sin.
So many blame the economy, society, or their upbringing and use that as an excuse to sin.
We see this with racism.
Some have said to me, “I guess I was just raised in a different generation” as if that makes racism ok.
We see this with Critical Race Theory.
Some feel like they are cheated by “the system” and that they have an excuse to loot and set fire whenever they want. That they can take from others and feel no guilt because they say everything was taken from them.
We see this in marriages.
When a husband or wife is acting inappropriately with money, sex, or how they use their words, there’s usually some kind of excuse like, “I work hard” or “I didn’t have a good example of marriage growing up” or “I have emotional baggage.”
It really doesn’t matter what the situation is, we don’t have any excuse for failing to do what God has clearly told us to do.
You might can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig!
We can cover up with fig leaves, we can hide behind God’s creation, and we can blame others or our circumstances, but the person accountable for our sin is us.
There was a friend that I had in school, and he was very poor. He’d never been to a restaurant or to a movie, and so a few of us decided we’d chip in and bring him to the waffle house and then to see a movie.
It was the movie October Baby, a pro-life movie.
I went and picked him up from his house, and met my friends at the church and we rode there and back together.
When we got back to the church, he was sitting in the front seat, and another of my friends was driving his car.
When we go to get out of the car, my friend rips the door handle out of the door, and while it’s still in his hand and we are sitting there in shock and in silence, he says, “It wasn’t me!”
When we stand before God, we can say with a resounding confidence, “It wasn’t me Lord, it was their fault!” But the sin will be in our hands, and we will have to answer for it.
There was no cure for that door handle, it had to be thrown away!
III. The Cure
III. The Cure
Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
Do you know what this pictures?
When they were in sin, they were clothed with fig leaves. But when God got involved, they were clothed with flesh of an animal.
This was made to picture a future where we would be clothed with the forgiveness of God.
A. The Life Required
A. The Life Required
This animal was a living creature.
Sin is so serious to God that it requires a life. For Adam and Eve to be forgiven, an animal had to be slain.
B. The Blood Spilled
B. The Blood Spilled
It wasn’t just that this animal was killed, but it was drained of it’s blood.
Skinned, tanned, and made into garments to cover the shame of Adam and Eve’s sin.
C. Our Salvation Pictured
C. Our Salvation Pictured
In all of this, God pictured what Jesus Christ came to do.
That Jesus Christ came to live a perfect and sinless life. That He spilled His blood on the Cross. And that He clothes us in His righteousness if we will trust on His Holy Name.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Conclusion
Conclusion
