Sermon Tone Analysis
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\\ “of the first kind”
/Scripture: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-24/
1 The Choice
It would be easier if God just removed the possibility of our “sinning”.
That however would be impossible to do if we were to remain “human”.
The same is true as we read about man’s first encounter with temptation in the garden.
If he just had not allowed the one forbidden tree to be there – the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil.
/He is gone, but his works survive.
His manuscript Temptation is one of the best I've ever read on the subject.
Bonhoeffer's vivid description of our tendency to turn off the warnings when sin's allurements wink at us needs to be declared to every generation: /
/ In our members there is a slumbering inclination towards desire which is both sudden and fierce.
With irresistible power desire seizes mastery over the flesh.
All at once a secret, smoldering fire is kindled.
The flesh burns and is in flames.
It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, or love of fame and power, or greed for money, or, finally, that strange desire for the beauty of the world, of nature.
Joy in God is... extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature.
/
/ At this moment God is quite unreal to us, he loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real; the only reality is the devil.
Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.
And now his falsehood is added to this proof of strength.
The lust thus aroused envelopes the mind and will of man in deepest darkness.
The powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us.
The questions present themselves: "Is what the flesh desires really sin in this case?"
"Is it really not permitted to me, yes -- expected of me, now, here, in my particular situation, to appease desire?"
The tempter puts me in a privileged position as he tried to put the hungry Son of God in a privileged position.
I boast of my privilege against God.
/
/ It is here that everything within me rises up against the Word of God./
/2:8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.
[9] And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.
In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil./
a) Two Trees
There were two trees in the garden that bore special recognition.
The tree of life and the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The tree of life was not off limits and Adam and Eve most likely partook of it on a regular basis.
The tree of life was symbolic of total unlimited access to God.
Without restriction
b) A Trust-Based Relationship.
Adam and Eve were entrusted with the care of the garden.
c) A Test.
The serpent tempted by innuendo, painting God in a different light by what he did not say as much as by the things he said.
He called God’s motives into question and the reliability of what he said relative to the forbidden fruit.
Illustration – “Into the log it is written . .
.”
It was true that God did not originally intend for man, while in fellowship with Him to have knowledge of good and evil.
The active, intimate relationship with Him was enough to guide and direct them.
The knowledge of good and evil is a strange thing when it come to determining the difference between right and wrong.
There are many times when our hearts tell us that something is right or wrong and our heads tell us differently.
We bend over backwards and tie ourselves in ethical and theological knots to deny what our hearts tells us, the heart being symbolic of our relationship with God.
I would admit that I find even in the course of preaching a pressure to be “politically correct” – what is that?
I’m short not vertically challenged.
Once upon a time, in a far away country, there lived a little girl called Red Riding Hood.
One day her mother asked her to take a basket of fruit to her grandmother, who had been ill and lived alone in a cottage in the forest.
It happened that a wolf was lurking in the bushes and overheard the conversation.
He decided to take a short-cut to the grandmother's house and get the goodies for himself.
The wolf killed the grandmother, then dressed in her nightgown and jumped into bed to await the little girl.
When she arrived, he made several nasty suggestions and then tried to grab her.
But by this time, the child was very frightened and ran screaming from the cottage.
A woodcutter, working nearby, heard her cries and rushed to the rescue.
He killed the wolf with his ax, thereby saving Red Riding Hood's life.
All the townspeople hurried to the scene and proclaimed the woodcutter a hero.
But at the inquest, several facts emerged:
~* The wolf had never been advised of his rights.
~* The woodcutter had made no warning swings before striking the fatal blow.
~* The Civil Liberties Union stressed the point that, although the act of eating Grandma may have been in bad taste, the wolf was only "doing his thing" and thus didn't deserve the death penalty.
~* The SDS contended that the killing of the grandmother should be considered self-defense since she was over 30 and, therefore, couldn't be taken seriously because the wolf was trying to make love, not war.
On the basis of these considerations, it was decided there was no valid basis for charges against the wolf.
Moreover, the woodcutter was indicted for unaggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Several nights later, the woodcutter's cottage was burned to the ground.
One year from the date of "The Incident at Grandma's," her cottage was made a shrine for the wolf who had bled and died there.
All the village officials spoke at the dedication, but it was Red Riding Hood who gave the most touching tribute.
She said that, while she had been selfishly grateful for the woodcutter's intervention, she realized in retrospect that he had over-reacted.
As she knelt and placed a wreath in honor of the brave wolf, there wasn't a dry eye in the whole forest.
(Perhaps the temptation to be good as opposed to dependent on Him.
The first thing that we want to do as “good” people is to establish our goodness and so determine that our place with him.)
Did they gain the knowledge of the difference between good and evil?
Did they suddenly become accountable with their knowledge?
We protect our children even from punishment for certain actions when we know that they do not realize that they are doing something wrong.
Once they realize however they become accountable.
The knowledge of evil would just as quickly lead a man away from God and perhaps even more so.
Evil has it’s allure as it appeals to our baser instincts.
Then we ultimately become “inventors” of evil.
/ /
/RO 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
[29] They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.
They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.
They are gossips, [30] slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; [31] they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
[32] Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
/
It is the knowledge of God that men /forsook or traded/ in the garden.
It is the knowledge of God that keeps men from sinning.
They knew God face to face, heart to heart on a daily basis it would seem – but it was not enough.
In your own struggle to overcome, it is not your efforts to beat a particular sin that will bring spiritual victory but your wholehearted, passionate pursuit of God and a relationship with Him that will bring you victory.
This is perhaps the essence of the message this morning.
Realize what it is that you are trading when you come face to face with temptation.
/James 4:4 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?
{Or that God jealously longs for the spirit that he made to live in us; or that the Spirit he caused to live in us longs jealously} 6 But he gives us more grace.
That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
{Prov.
3:34} 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Grieve, mourn and wail.
Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
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