Consequences of Sin

The owner of an RV in Seattle was shocked one day to come out and see a man who was trying to steal gasoline from his motor home by attaching a siphoning hose to the vehicle, he was hard at work with it but quickly ran off; police found him shortly afterward writhing in agony in the street. Seems he had attached the hose, not to the gasoline tank, but to the motor home’s sewage tank! The owner declined to press charges; he was too busy laughing.

While that may be funny… our sin and its consequences are no laughing matter.

Genesis 3 records for us man’s sin… last week we briefly looked at Sin and its contradiction to the very nature and being of God.

QUICKLY… we see mankind hiding in guilt, attempting to cover up their sin and hide from God.

God however knowing they have sinned… SEEKS MAN OUT!!!

Throughout scripture we see a God who seeks out man

He is the one striving to have the relationship

It is our sin and guilt that keeps us running from a God who cares so deeply

In today’s passage we will see a God who delivers consequences to our sin, YET we will also see His grace lavished upon mankind… Genesis 3:14-4:1

Genesis 3:14–4:1 NASB95

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.” Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.”

God Deals With Sin

Three individuals are dealt with here… Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. (We are accountable for our sin individually)

Serpent/Satan

Crawl on its belly

Eat dust of the earth

There is a promise of destruction… we will look at that in a minute

The Woman / Eve

Multiplied birth pain

Side note pain is a gift… it was present prior to the fall

You will desire your husband

He will rule over you

the relationship changed after sin

there would be struggle in the marriage due to sin

The Man / Adam

Listened to the voice of his wife over the voice of God

God stated “do not eat” … but Adam ate

Adams consequence deals with eating…

Toil you will eat, thorns , there is difficulty, sweat in the labors just to eat and survive

DEATH… “dust you are, and dust you will return”

Many attempt to be gods but in the end they are but mortal man! They are but dust!

Satan lied, consequences come with sin and they all lead to death in the end.

The Depravity of Man

It would be one thing if they sinned and that was that. But I want you to notice… SIN WILL ALWAYS IMPACTS OTHERS!

Mankind / Sin Impacts Others

Verse 14 “cursed are you more than all the cattle”

Verse 17 “Cursed is the ground”

Mankind is born into sin…

Depravity of Man = A state of being depraved, perverted. Marked by corruption or evil.

Our sin has corrupted the relationship with God.

The Total Depravity of Man

We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam's sin the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; and that man is totally depraved and, of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition (Genesis 1:26,27; Romans 3:22,23; 5:12; Ephesians 2:1-3, 12).

You and I are NOT sinners because we sinned… We sin because we are sinners! Romans 3:10-12; Romans 3:23

Romans 3:10–12 NASB95

as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.”

Romans 3:23 NASB95

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

Consider Cain and Abel

The first generation to follow Adam and Eve and we see a brother murder his own brother

Sin from the very beginning had fully depraved mankind!

Grace Abounds

REMEMBER… God knew Adam and Eve had sinned. And God sought them out. Even in our sin God seeks you and I out! Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8 NASB95

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Even while delivering the consequences He is lavishing His Grace upon them as well...

Verse 20 they would not be exterminated

Verse 21 God provided covering

They saw that death came at another’s cost

Blood was shed for their sin

Verse 23 death… they would not remain in sin; God protected man from the tree of life

Verse 15 a promise of a redeemer, an offspring (seed) who would crush Satan (conquer sin )

This promised One would be Jesus Christ (the Messiah)

Eve mistaken Cain for the promise at first realizing that the promise would come through the seed of woman

Adam the father of all the living, through him all are born into sin

Jesus born of a woman… conceived of the Holy Spirit, whose Father is God Almighty… NOT ADAM!

1st Adam vs 2nd Adam

The sin you and I are born with comes from Adam… we are born into sin. Romans 5:12

Romans 5:12 NASB95

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—

But consider the Grace God lavishes on us through His Son Jesus Christ!!! Paul describes it beautifully in the following verses… Romans 5:15-19 !!!

Romans 5:15–19 NASB95

But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.

The Promise Fulfilled

Look at the things we see come about due to Adam’s sin in Genesis 3 ...

death, toil, sweat, thorns, the tree, the struggle, and the seed—

ALL were later traced to Christ.

He is the other Adam,

He became the curse,

He sweat great drops of blood in bitter agony,

He wore a crown of thorns,

He was hanged on a tree until He was dead,

…and He was placed in the dust of death

BUT GOD… Death could not win, sin had been paid once for all and Jesus Christ AROSE FROM THE DEAD VICTORIOUS!!!!

Church that is why when we look at Genesis 3 we can proclaim Romans 6:23 with passion...

Romans 6:23 NASB95

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I want Mark to come up here now and lead us in the first verse of Amazing Grace.... let’s allow the melody of our hearts praise to be lifted up to our wonderful, powerful Savior Jesus Christ!