Sermon Tone Analysis

James 1:

Prayer

Introduction

We are continuing our study of the book Genesis in our study of the Pentateuch this morning.

These five books of the Bible are very important and foundational to the way we read, understand and interpret the rest of Scripture.

That is to say, they are important in how we relate to God.

You may recall that Genesis breaks down into two general sections, Chapters 1-11 deal with the beginnings of everything, and chapters 12-50 deal more with the beginnings of a nation through one family.

Last week, we saw that God created all that there is from nothing, and we spent some time looking at what the creation account tells us about God.

This morning, our focus will turn darker as we consider the Fall and the introduction of sin into the created order that God made ‘very good’.

Passage

Since we are looking at major themes through the book of Genesis, we will look to various passages, but will give us a good starting off point.

If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word.

We do this to show appreciation to God for His Word and in recognition that these words are the most important that we could hope to hear today.

says,

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’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 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.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

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.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

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.

But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

He said, “Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

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.”

Thank you, you may be seated.

Sermon

If you were to read Genesis chapters 1-3 for the first time, not knowing the story, you would likely read chapters 1 and 2 in awe amazed at how good things were and how awesome everything was going.

At the end of Genesis chapter 2, it seems that all is right in the world – because at the end of chapter 2, all is right in the world.

By the end of chapter 3, the creating, good, wise, powerful God who spoke creation into existence would be speaking again, but this time it would be a curse.

What could be so devastating to this good creation?

What could destroy and fracture it so completely?

Sin.

Sin is no small matter.

It reverberates throughout the millenniums, twisting and distorting everything it touches.

Adam and Eve were placed in the garden, given God honoring work to do.

To serve God and worship God through their labor and lives.

God blesses them with the abundance of the Garden, giving them everything they could possibly need.

But forbidding them to eat of one tree in the midst of the Garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Satan comes as a serpent and asks Eve an (oh so innocent sounding) question.

Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?”

This is no good faith question.

The serpent is not seeking to obey God, but rather to undermine Him.

Because the serpent goes on in verse 5 and proclaims that God has forbidden eating the fruit because He is not good – God is holding back good things from you – knowledge, power.

God is afraid you will be like Him.

Do we see what has happened in those few verses?

Lots.

Doubt has been introduced.

God’s Word is now under suspicion.

That was the first thing the Serpent attacked was God’s Word – has God really said?

Now that Eve is questioning God’s command, someone has to decide if what God has said is true!

In his book, Fool’s Talk, Os Guinness says this,

“Surely she needed to experiment in order to know, and so be able to decide between God’s Word and the serpent’s.”

Do you see the problem here?

God’s Word which brought everything into existence was not longer absolute.

I mean, it was still absolute, nothing about God or His Word changed, but Eve no longer viewed it as absolute.

Eve would stand as the judge over God’s Word and decide what was real and what was a lie.

Os Guinness goes on to say,

“Sin is the deliberate repudiation of God and the truth of His way of seeing things.

If my way of seeing things is decisive, anyone who differs from me is wrong by definition- including God.

No, especially God.”

Do you see? That’s what happened here.

Eve made herself the arbiter of truth, when God was and always has been the arbiter of truth, but there is also something else sinister happening in this.

Not only is she the decider, but necessarily, she has believed the lie, at least in part.

God has been put on trial.

The serpent questions God’s motives.

The accusation is that God is holding back good things from Adam and Eve.

That is blasphemy.

The serpent has accused God of being not good.

Of holding out.

Of being two faced.

Do you see what sin does?

It twists everything.

Everything that sin touches becomes twisted, and we can no longer see things for what they are.

Our view of God, others, creation of everything is twisted and marred, and distorted by sin.

How can Eve judge rightly between God and the serpent?

By tasting the evidence.

But by doing that, she has already believed the lie that God wasn’t trustworthy.

She no longer believed what God had said about the fruit, she had to decide for herself.

But she had already decided.

Look at verse .

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.

She had already decided it was good to eat before eating it.

Because she believed a lie, that which she once viewed as deadly – the fruit, she now viewed as delightful.

Sin changes our affections.

Sin twists and warps everything it touches.

We cannot and do not see the world as it is.

God as He is.

Truth as it is.

Instead, our affections are twisted.

We love that which is deadly, and we reject the truth.

We reject God.

We doubt Him and blaspheme Him by questioning His Word.

This is the Fall.

It wasn’t that Adam and Eve simply grabbed the wrong apple.

It was a repudiation of God and His Word.

It was the claim to self-governance.