Sin

Big Idea

Big Idea: God is restoring man and creation to its original glory by reestablishing Himself as man’s chief desire and delight.

The Structure of the Sermon

Sin’s Entrance

Sin’s Definition

Sin’s Five Effects

Sin’s Remedy

Introduction: Sin’s Entrance

So far we have seen two truths that our fundamental to understanding our present world.

God acts to display and enjoy His glory.

God created man to participate in displaying and enjoying His glory as image bearers.

These two truth remain just as true today as they were in the garden of Eden. God is still acting to display and enjoy His glory, and man still exists to join Him in His work and joy.

Sadly, these two truths do not fully explain our current situation. So often we look around and find the glory of God hidden. So often our joy and the joy of our fellow man is replaced with misery, pain, sadness, and displeasure. Why is it that if God acts to display and enjoy His glory and man was created to participate does it seem like so much of this life lacks glory and so much of our experience lacks joy?

The answer is found in Genesis 3, but before we turn there I want to turn your attention to Romans 5:12-14

Romans 5:12–14 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

In these verses, we get the apostle Paul’s commentary on the events of Genesis, and he helps us understand what is going on here. It is the story of sin entering the world. God, the Holy Trinity, shared their glory and joy with man. Man and God lived in joy filled fellowship. The aim of their relationship was glory, the fruit of their relationship was joy, and the location of their relationship was the earth. All was perfect in every way until sin entered. Sin is the new element presented in this text, and if we will understand this world in which the first two truths remain alongside the presence of sin, we must understand sin and its presence in our midst.

Sin’s Definition

To define sin I will give you a couple of passages that say it pretty clearly.

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Do you see how “all have sinned” is parallel to “Fall short of the glory of God?” Sin is falling short of the glory of God. It is failing to display and enjoy the nature of God as God does! It is failing to bear His image as we are created to do.

Another text that helps us understand the essence of sin is Jer. 2:12-13

Jeremiah 2:12–13 ESV

Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Do you see what God says were the evils the Israelites commited? 1) They forsook God the fountain of living water, and 2) they went and found their own source of water which cannot satisfy. God had done so much good for His people, but even after experiencing His goodness they desired something else. Driven by their desire they turned to delight in something other than Him. John Piper’s comments on this passage helps us define sin and evil...

They put God’s perfections to the tongue of their souls and disliked what they tasted; then they turned and craved the suicidal cisterns of the world. That double insult to God is the essence of what evil is.

Piper, J. (2004). When I don’t desire God: how to fight for joy (p. 34). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

This is exactly what we see in the garden in Genesis 3:6-7...

Genesis 3:6–7 ESV

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.

Adam and Eve commit the evil, sinful act of rejecting God for something they deemed more desirable and more delightful. The saw the tree was good, delightful, and able to give what they desired - that is to be like God. They - as have all their descendants - chose to turn from the life giving, soul satisfying glory of God, to seek life and joy in something else.

Sin’s Enduring Effects

Sin’s Enduring Effects

Longing (Gen. 3:7a)

Shame (Gen. 3:7b)

Fear (Gen. 3:8-13)

Conflict (Gen. 3:14-19a)

Death (Gen. 3:19b-24)

Longing (Gen. 3:7a). The moment Adam and Eve sinned they knew something was wronged. Genesis 3:7a says:

Genesis 3:7a ESV

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

They had disobeyed God and reached out and ate the forbidden fruit. As a result, they knew something they had not previously known. They knew evil. This know is not a factual one. It is one of experience. Until this point, they knew only good. They knew the goodness of God and His creation. But now with their sin came an experiential knowledge of evil. For the first time they knew tragedy, brokenness, and trouble. Immediately they knew something was off. The good they had known seemed in a moment now far off in the distance. This verse speaks powerfully to their experience in sin. They immediately know something is wrong and they quickly take steps to get back what they had lost. We see this in their knowledge of their nakedness and their quick work to prepare clothes and cover themselves.

The knowledge of evil created an immediate longing for the way things used to be. They lived now with their sorrow multiplied because they knew, they knew what they had lost. One of the effects of sin is that man is left knowing that there is something wrong with this world and there is something good that exist. We are left longing for renewal. We are longing for improvement. We are long for heaven. We are longing for utopia. Many individuals and groups have identified the good man longs for differently, but what is common in all men is an acknowledgement that this world is broken, there is something wrong and we long together to fix it, to restore it back to goodness.

Shame (Gen. 3:7b). This story is so simple yet so profound. Adam and Eve sin and immediately they experience their “nakedness.” Until this time, Adam and Eve walked naked before each other without any sense of shame (Gen. 2:24). It is amazing then that once sin enters the garden so does shame. Do you see what they do? They both go and hide themselves from each other. Look at Genesis 3:7 again:

Genesis 3:7b ESV

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Sin has had this effect not only on Adam and Eve, but all their descendants. Have we not given in to this same impulse? We hide ourselves from each other. Oh we long for intimacy. We long for the joy of community. We long to be truly known by others and to truly know them. What stands as the giant obstacle is this sense of shame, this impulse to run and hide ourselves. See, you and I know our sin. We know our faults. You and I know our mess better than anyone else. And we try to maintain or produce a sense of community by hiding our mess rather than exposing it. We think, how can love exist between us if we all are truly known.

I experience this impulse to hide in my marriage. How often I put a muzzle on my heart. I think, “I want my wife’s respect. I want her trust. I want her love. How can she respect me if I expose to her the thoughts going through my head? How can she trust me if she knew the mistakes I made with the money? How could she love me if she knew what is really going on inside?”

I experience the same with my Cell Group - the group of men I meet with regularly. I am ok when the questions and discussions focus on the text. When we wrestle with theology I am comfortable, and I can really engage in the conversation. But as soon as the questions turn personal. As soon as you ask me, “Hey, what sin has God exposed in your life this week?” a sense of awkwardness descends on my bench at Molinas. My flesh wants to run and hide. The truth is the sin is there. I cannot deny it. But, I prefer it stay covered up. I prefer to remain clothed.

This shame is one of the effects of sin, and it touches each of us.

Fear (Gen. 3:8-13). Sin not only introduced shame into the human experience, but it also left Adam and Eve in fear. Read Genesis 3:8-14:

Genesis 3:8–13 ESV

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.”

This may be the saddest set of verses in the narrative. God their Creator comes walking through the garden. This was not the first time. He had walked with them before, so much so that the sound of Him walking near them was familiar to them. In the past they ran to greet Him, to fellowship with Him, to enjoy His presence. But, now that sin has entered fear defines their relationship. They run and hide in the trees. They take cover. No longer was God’s presence a blessing, it was cause for deep concern for their safety.

This fear was rooted in their sense of guilt. They knew that they had disobeyed. They were guilty and God was coming. They knew that those who disobeyed deserved death. They knew they were helpless.

This fear led to attempts to self-justify. Do you see what both of them do? They blame others. Adam blames Eve, and even God himself for giving him Eve. Eve in turn blames the serpent. As we might expect, they could not rid themselves of their guilt. They had sinned. God was coming. Death would be their end. Their fear though sad was warranted.

Even to this day, Adam and Eve’s descendents are plagued with fear toward God. We act just as our parents. Do we not? We know we are guilty, and we know that we deserve death. Like our parents, we attempt to alleviate our fears by blaming our sins on others or the environment in which we grew up. Like our parents, our guilt often drives us to survive the judgement by covering our sins or by shifting the blame. But, deep down we know we are rotten. We know that if we had to stand before God this afternoon we would collapse in fear. We even get a little sense of this when we are exposed to people. How much more will our fear be multiplied when we are exposed to the Creator?

If you are like me, you find thinking about the judgement to come to be disturbing. But, our putting it out of our thoughts does not delay it one moment. You and I will stand before God. The sense of fear we may quiet and shove back down into a small inner place in our hearts can only be ignored for so long. One day, we will hear the mighty sound of God approaching us from a distance. Trust me my friend, you will know fear.

Conflict (Gen. 3:14-19). It pains me to have to deal with these six verses so briefly, but I will have to be content to simply show you the main theme of this section. These verses contain God’s response to Adam and Eve’s sin. He speaks first to the serpent, then to Eve, and then to Adam. In each case, He declares a curse. Each curse introduces a level of conflict that will be a continual mark of the human experience. Let us look at each one in turn.

Serpent’s Offspring vs. Eve’s Offspring (Gen. 3:14-15)

Genesis 3:14–15 ESV

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

First we see that the serpent whom find out later in Scripture to be Satan himself, will war with the offspring of Eve. This offspring is not plural but singular. We see that when the resolution of this conflict is mentioned in Gen. 3:15. The serpent will inflict wounds and bruise the offspring of Eve’s heel, but he, the offspring of Eve will crush His head. The serpents curse in short is a long term battle with the offspring of Eve in which he will suffer defeat and destruction. We can even flip to the end of the Bible and read the apostle John’s telling of the Serpent’s defeat in Rev. 20:1-3.

Revelation 20:1–3 ESV

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

Eve vs. Adam (Gen. 3:16)

The second level of conflict is found in God’s curse on Eve in Gen. 3:16.

Genesis 3:16 ESV

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

Here we see the conflict between man and woman introduced. The height of human relationship - marriage, is now inflicted with conflict. Notice the nature of this conflict. Eve will “desire to be contrary to Adam.” This may seem like a weird phrase. If not weird, at least confusing or ambiguous. Great help for our understanding is found in t next chapter, where God confronts Cain - the oldest son of Eve. He was full of jealousy toward his brother Abel, for Abel’s sacrifice not his had been accepted with favor by God. In a conversation between God and Cain, God warned him, “Sin’s desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

This helps us see that Eve’s new desire to be contrary to her husband is a desire to rule him. A desire to control and manipulate and dominate him. Just as sin desired to master Cain, so Eve has been cursed with a desire to master Adam. But, despite her desire, Adam will rule her. Do you see the conflict that has been introduced? It is a conflict for control. A conflict for power. A conflict to rule one another. No longer were they peacefully one. Now their relationship would always know conflict.

This conflict did not stay contained between the two of them, but it has touched all of humanity. Humanity is at war. Each member of mankind desiring to rule over the other. Each one striving for power. We are not marked by unity but by conflict.

Adam vs. Earth (Gen. 3:17-19)

Genesis 3:17–19 ESV

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

God had given the earth as a gift to Adam. It was a blessing. But now that sin has entered, God set man and earth against each other. His work will be hard. Just to eat will leave him tired, sweaty, and with a back ache. He will toil and toil and never rest. His work will be hard and it will not let up until finally the earth wins and swallows him up in the grave.

Even to this day, man’s relationship with work is one of hardship. We do not like work because work is frustrating, not as productive as it should be, and full of sorrow.

Death (Gen. 3:19b-24). The final enduring effect of sin is death which is seen the final verses of chapter 3.

Genesis 3:19b–24 ESV

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Before they sinned, Adam and Eve lived in Eden where the tree of life could be eaten freely. They lived in the garden in which God was presently giving and sustaining life. But, because of sin, God removed them from the garden. He cut them off from the source of their life. Like a limb broken off from the trunk of tree and fallen to the ground, so Adam and Eve were lopped off from the source of life. Although they did not collapse to the ground immediately, death became inevitable. They would eventually wither up and die. They and all their descendents would return to the dust, for the wages of sin is death.

Sin’s Remedy (The Gospel)

God restores our right desires

Time nor words are adequate this morning to paint the true sense of tragedy we find in Genesis 3. The depths of sin’s effects have only been hinted at this morning, but I am praying and have been praying that God by his grace might use the the words to produce in you a sense of desperation. I pray that as we consider sin and our condition as sinners, that we might be left prepared for a solution. That we would reject the notion that we are ok on our own. That God might use His word to wake us up to the real danger and tragedy that is sin. I pray that he would bring us to a place of neediness, so that we might be ready to cry out for help! May we see our condition so clearly that we are left asking for a remedy, because thankfully there is a remedy.

The remedy to sin is hinted at in our text with the promise in Genesis 3:15.

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

As the story of Scripture unfolds, we find that this son - the offspring of Eve - is Jesus. He through his perfect life and sacrificial death defeated Satan, the serpent. He was raised from death by the power of God, and by God the Father He was seated in all authority and power over all things, so that even now He is working to bring all things into submission to him. If we turn all the way to the end of the Scriptures we will find that when His work is complete, He will uproot and expel all sin and evil from creation as He cast away the Serpent and all who remain deceived by Him. With evil and sin removed, the creation’s restoration will be restored, and God’s people once again will be welcomed into the presence and joy of God where they may eat of the tree of life once again.

Listen to the apostle John describes this in Revelation 22:1-5

Revelation 22:1–5 ESV

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Now all of this is exciting I must admit, but I must warn you that there is a major mistake God’s people have historically made when thinking about the good news of God’s saving and restoring work. All throughout the history of “Christianity” men and women have had a tendency to see the work of God in salvation as an external work. They see God defeating Satan, throwing down evil empires, and casting into hell the wicked. They think of God fighting on their side to bring about a change in their environment. They see the world as the problem. They see the wicked Republicans or the evil Democrats. They see pain and suffering. They see rebellious and callous rioters. They see cold white religious folks who ignore the history of racism in the U.S.A. They see all the evils in the world. They see all the problems and the suffering, and they long for change. They long for renewal. They long for salvation!

Sadly, I am afraid that many fail to grasp that restoration completed in Revelation 22 is being implemented right now. And to the surprise of many, God’s work of transformation is not primarily external but internal. You see our external problems are only symptoms - serious symptoms - but symptoms none-the-less. The real issue lies in our hearts. The news about Christ is good not because he changes that which is external to us but that which is internal. God by His power reaches down to our hearts and changes it. He regenerates it. He fixes what broke in the garden. God reboots our hearts so that we once again desire and delight in His glory. The heart that used to turn in disgust from the glory of God to taste the things of this world, now see and beholds God with great joy and delight!

Amazingly, when God gives us a new heart a heart hat loves and delights in Him, all the effects of sin begin to reverse! For in the gospel the following happens...

Our longing for paradise for utopia is secured in the power and grace of God!

Our shame is removed as the blood of Christ washes way every sin and leaves us pure white and clean!

Our fear is removed for Jesus Christ has absorbed our judgement. When God moves toward us as He did with Adam and Eve, we do not have to run and hide in fear. Instead, we can stand confident that Christ has already stood before God in our sin on our behalf!

Our conflicts are resolved for in Christ we are reconciled to God and to each other. No longer do our various passions set us against each other. Instead, He unites all who are his with the single desire and delight in the glory of God.

Our death is swallowed up in victory. Life is ours even now! Yes our bodies will go into the ground and return to dust, but with Christ we to shall rise! Those whose hearts have been changed have already drank from the fountain of life and they shall never lose it again!

For these reasons I get to stand up here and declare to you in the midst of your pain, suffering, discouragement, brokenness, shame, that there is good news! Christ is now restoring His creation by working at the level of our hearts to fix what is broken.

Instruction

This leads me to urge you in three directions.

Ask God to change you! Has he given you a new heart? Can you examine your life and say, “Yes, I am different than I used to be. I am different than the world. By God’s grace I desire and delight in Jesus!” If this has not occured in you, if there is no joy in your soul over the glory of Christ, the effects of sin remain on you both now and forever. Cry out to Him for rescue, for a change of your heart, and He will respond.

Ask God to change people! In the political climate we are in, it is easy to look for physical people to provide physical solutions. However, the answer to the real issues of our day - violence, hatred, rebellion, racism on every side, injustice - all will remain until hearts are miraculously transformed by the power of God’s Spirit! Oh how we must spend more time praying and less time debating political positions!

Make War against Sin