A Critical Truth, and a preview of things to come
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 5 viewsNotes
Transcript
Good Morning church!
I hope and pray that you are doing well, and everyone is doing good! I don’t know about ya’ll but I ate something this week! Hopefully everyone had a great time of eating and fellowship with friends and family. It was a blessing to be able to see my mom and to be off quarantine I am thankful to Eddie Cotter for filling in and doing such an incredible job in my absence.
If you have your Bibles with you this morning please find your places with me in the book of Genesis 3 we will begin reading in verse 1. This morning I would like to speak to you on this subject A CRITICAL TRUTH AND A PREVIEW OF THINGS TO COME.
(Let’s Pray)
Our passage today begins with a scene which took place long ago, happening immediately after God created the heavens and the Earth. We see when we read in the first chapter of Genesis that God when he would create something He would speak His approval and satisfaction over what He had created.
The Bible teaches us that when God created the Heavens and the Earth He saw that they were good, He created all kinds of animals and saw that they were good. Everything that the Lord God did was created good because God is good amen! God cannot creat a thing without that thing being good simply because His hand was in it.
Everything that God made was good the Heavens were good the moon and stars were good the land animals and the creatures of the sea were good. But there was a difference in His last creation, in HIs last creation He looked and said it is very good. His last creation was the crowning jewel of all His creation.
The crowning jewel of all His creation was the human race.
They were very good, because God created them in His image male and female He created them! But I don’t know about you when I look at humanity I see all of the things that are not right with the world. So how did some thing that was supposed to be so good become so bad?
How could the crowning jewel of Gods creation, become the black stain of the creation of God?
I believe there are several reasons for this and that is what we are going to see here in our text this morning.
But before we get into our text I want to read you a couple of passages to you.
These are the records of the heavens and the earth, concerning their creation at the time that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
No shrub of the field had yet grown on the land, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground.
Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed.
Over and over and over again, we see the phrase THE LORD GOD, THE LORD GOD, THE LORD GOD This title implies authority, rulership! Soverign Kingship.
When the Bible says LORD God it translates in the Hebrew “YAHWEH ADONAI” OR KING GOD OR MASTER GOD
So this is a Critical Truth
A CRITICAL TRUTH
A CRITICAL TRUTH
We dont just serve God we serve the King God the one and Only God we serve the LORD God who is the one and only master of the universe! We serve the LORD God who created everything by a single breath!
So when someone asks you if you believe in God don’t you dare say yes I believe in God you better let em know real quick I believe in the one and only King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the only one worthy to be praise He is my my God and my king, my creator and my friend He alone has all authority to rule and reign and to Him belongs all the glory!
The name of God is supremely important! His name was so important that the people of Israle would not even utter His name for fear they would say it wrong or use it wrong and be guilty of taking His name in vain.
Do you know what teaching my kids these past two weeks did for me?
It brought me back to the basics, going over the 10 commandments with them teaching them what it meant to never use the name of the Lord your God in vain. To be quite honest it is something that I know but when I think about sin it is not something I think of as readily as I used to.
Sure when we think of sin we always go to the big ones, lust, or stealing, or pride, lying, but what about taking God’s name in vain?
What about forgetting just what His name means?
HE IS YAHWEH ADONAI THE MASTER GOD
Our God is the Lord and He ain’t running for office against anyone!
When we become Christians we receive Jesus payment for sin and he becomes Lord and master of our lives. He becomes our God and He is therefore our master. This idea of God as King or master is important because as Christians we have this tendency to kind of treat God as an add on. Yes we believe in Him and we might even want to do what is right and make Him happy, but can I just tell you this morning God doesn’t desire to be someone you believe in.
He desires that you follow Him and allow Him to be Lord over every area of your life.
I think far too often God becomes a concept to believe in rather than a master to lovingly follow.
You know it was about 6 months ago my daughter went outside to play and she she went out to our little RV barn where she came across a dog laying there looking rough. This dog was rough man we thought the dog had been hit by a car it was laying there looking pathetic, so I was concerned that since this dog was a pitt bull that my kids would go out there and mess with it and get bit.
So I was adamant that they stay away from the dog.
I was going to find a way to take it somewhere that might could help it.
a couple of days went by and I came home one day and I caught my daughter taking food out to the dog. I called out to her and said Grace what are you doing?
She said I am feeding Chole I said dont feed the dog! we dont want that thing staying around here!
Then it hit me, wait a minute what did you just call the dog?
Chloe DONT NAME THE DOG!!! WERE NOT KEEPING IT!
Well I think you know how that story went Chloe has been at our house ever since. She was riddled with mange, and would not move from one spot. But one day a couple of weeks later I came driving in the drive way and bouncing down the driveway came Chloe wagging her tail and jumping for joy because I was home.
I thought to myself how in the heck did I get here.
Many of you know this stray dog, starved and homeless, left for dead, with no home no training was pregnant and just gave birth to 13 puppies.
Lord help me
But through all of this my wife has had to ask me to please get Chloe to do this or that and so one day I looked and said why do I have to do it I didn’t even want the dog.
She said because she wont do it for anyone other than you. I thought thats crazy sure she will, but sure enough others can call out and command her but she wont listen always. But if I call her name she will follow whatever command I give.
DO YOU KNOW WHY?
I am her master now, she has been adopted into our family and she appreciates and loves us for taking her in.
Even this dog when she came to have a master knows that when the master speaks you listen, she doesn’t do whatever she wants to do when I am around because she knows I have the authority to get rid of her at anytime!
Then theres Chief, Chief is hard headed he is a rebellious dog and just does whatever he wants whether I ask him to or not, but we love that fella to death....
Marley
So it is very important here as the writer includes this over and over again time and time again right before the attack of the enemy. It is important to realize that whenever you begin to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ and allow Him to be Lord and master of your life there is an attack coming.
It is critical not just that you have head knowledge of God but that you allow Jesus to be the Lord over your life!
Let’s look at what happened
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Notice whats missing?
He didn’t give God the honor he deserved he simply calls Him god, not Lord God he subtracts the most important part of his Nature His Lordship.
This is exactly how he attacks you today, he begins to help you think that you dont need to pray, I mean God gave you brains right you can figure things out as long as you try to honor Him in what you do right?
Well yes honor Him but not only Honor Him INCLUDE HIM!!!!
Here Satan comes to Eve and attacks the very authority of Gods word!
He puts a question mark where God has put periods
I MEAN DID GOD REALLY SAY THAT YOU WOULD DIE IF YOU ATE OF THAT TREE?
Then to make matters worse notice that the woman displays that she does not really know Gods word that well at all!
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden.
But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
I want you to see this as an all out attack on the created order of the Lord God notice he takes away Lord from His name, and in the created order He is the top He is master, but now he goes around the man straight to the woman who God created second. Adam was supposed to lead His wife by making sure he protected His wife from the lies of the devil and that they knew Gods commands and walked in them.
the serpent tried to reverse the roles insitituted by God Himself so He attacked Gods created order. We see this taking place today in our world right now! There is an all out assault against the nature and created order of God!
The next tactic he uses is
HE MISREPRESENTS WHATS GOD SAYS!
“No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman.
“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Satan comes and says listen God is holding out on you! you could be more like him simply by eating this fruit! Notice Satan takes something good and turns it on its head and turns it into a bad thing.
He offers something worthy= BE LIKE GOD but what the woman fails to notice was that God had already created her just like Him!
LET US MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE”
This is a conversation between the Father Son and Spirit and this proves that at this moment mankind was already like God so he begins by trying to get Eve to question wether or not this is Gods best for her. Man if I could be like God!
BUt in order for her to “be liek God” Satans way she would have to completely ignore the word of the Lord Thats what he wants you and I to do ignore the word of the Lord ignore what God has said and do what is right in our own eyes!
HE wants us to make our own decisions without considering what our Master has said on the issue whatever the issue may be!
“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Notice Satans next strategy was to appeal to her eyes
Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
“LUST OF THE FLESH, LUST OF THE EYES, AND THE PRIDE OF LIFE”
This looks good it seems good and pleasing, and after all this is my life and I want wisdom I wanna be like God no matter what it cost!
Satan will take something good offer it up to you to get in the wrong way and then cause you to be disobedient
This also shows the passive lack of leadership by the husband what Adam should have said was heck no we are not supposed to eat this Gods word says so!
But instead he kept silent and allowed his wife to fall prey to Satans attack!
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
COVER UP!
It is amazing when we fall into sin the first reaction has always been to cover it up!
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Here comes the Lord and they hear him coming no doubt a sound they would have been overjoyed to hear in times past.
Now it has become a sound of dread!
isn’t this true in our life when we drift away from the Lord?
We used to love coming to church or hearing a sermon, but what was once a joy to us has become something we dont wanna hear because we know we are guilty before the Lord !
So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
(explain)
And he said, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
Now God knew the answers to these questions but notice he asks them anyways, kind of liek a dad when thier child does something wrong.
(Noah)
THE BLAME GAME
Then the man replied, “The woman You gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
Its the womans fault
So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?”
And the woman said, “It was the serpent. He deceived me, and I ate.”
Then the Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.
The curse ensues
There is always a penalty for sin our life.
Always a consequence
SIN WILL TAKE YOU FURTHER THAN YOU WANTED TO GO, KEEP YOU LONGER THAN YOU WANTED TO STAY AND COSTS YOU MORE THAN YOU WANTED TO PAY
It cost the serpent, the man and the woman and even the whole creation as a result!
(explain)
A PREVIEW OF THINGS TO COME
A PREVIEW OF THINGS TO COME
The next thing that happens here is called the protoevangelion
the first gospel
I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
(Preach the gospel)
So there really are a couple questions I want you to ask yourself this morning:
Are you a chief or Chloe? Are you someone who feels entitled and comfortable having always been in the house of the Lord but never appreciating where God found you? Are you someone who see your wretchedness and knows where the Lord found you and you love Him all the more?
Is GOD just God to you? OR IS HE YOUR LORD?
ARE YOU HIDING SOMETHING FROM OTHERS AND THE LORD?
GOD THROUGH JESUS HAS CRUSHED THE POWER OF SATAN AND SIN IN YOUR LIFE REPENT AND TURN TO HIM IN CONFESSION AND BE SET FREE