She Took of its Fruit

Good morning, welcome, please open your Bibles to Genesis 3.

Recap of last week.

Questioning of Satan.

Eve’s response that begins to doubt the benevolence of God.

Satan’s contradiction to God’s Word.

How will Adam and Eve respond?

Read Genesis 3:6-7- 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.

Pray.

1. What is sin?

General question, but how do we see sin portrayed in Genesis 3?

Sin did enter here in our account- Romans 5:12- 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...

We must rightly understand sin because we must rightly understand our predicament.

From what must we be saved? What is sin and how might we recognize it within ourselves?

Sin is disobedience toward God.

Genesis 2:16-17- And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Disobedience is pretty acceptable if our reasoning is valid.

Rules were meant to be broken. It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

Not simply disobeying someone’s opinions, but disobeying the very purpose and direction of life that was given to us.

Adam and Eve were walking away from their very design…they were disobeying the One who created them and knew all of the intricacies of what it meant to be human and without sin.

Luke 6:46- “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”

At the heart of the text is right worship, right relationship with God through Christ.

Sin is dissatisfaction with what God has given and called good.

Why did God call things good? Two possibilities.

They were good in that they perfectly reflected the character and goodness of God.

They were good in that they were right for mankind.

No matter how good all of creation was, Adam and Eve wanted something outside of what God deemed good and right.

How does this play out in our own lives? In the life of a pastor?

Identifying with James and John in Mark 10.

Wanting to be at the right and left hand of Jesus.

Consider the irony in their request. They have been exposed to the Kingdom of God revealed in the ministry of Jesus.

Healing, casting out demons.

Zack Eswine- “Throughout the Gospels we consistently observe Jesus teaching theology in the midst of the psych ward. He sad his apprentices down in the emergency room, as it were. He introduced them to ghastly sights, grieved sounds, and rank aromas of actual human people in their diseases, their wrestling with demons, their disputes, their poverty, and their loss of spouses. He brought them near to ethnic prejudices, injustices, anxieties and traumas, not to mention the joys, pleasures, delights, and longings of ordinary human beings.”

In all of the ministry that is before them, their sight lies elsewhere, to their position in glory.

Jesus was showing them what was good, what was right, and they were seeking something else altogether. Is it possible that the same is true for us?

Doing things in public vs. private.

Eugene Peterson- “The fact is pastors are invisible six days a week…A great deal of our most important work is done behind the scenes.”

What God often calls the pastor to are those things that happen when no one is looking. That is what is good and right and transforming, and yet we only want what is more noticeable.

Zack Eswine- “It is easy to do a great thing for God so long as greatness does not require interior humility, practical love for the people right in front of us, or submission to the presence of Jesus in the place we already are.”

Again, sin is dissatisfaction with the good that God has already given to us.

Sin is seeking the ability to define good and evil apart from God.

Consider the words of Satan- V. 5- You will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Again, God is withholding something from you, something that you deserve.

And Eve, with Adam by her side, failed.

Fruit was good for food (purposeful, a means to an end), a delight to the eyes (appealing), makes one wise (expedient).

These were the justifications given for their sin.

Ever since, mankind has sought to define what is right and what is wrong. We look not to Scripture, but instead to our own hearts or desires, or our own societies.

We were never meant to define morality, but instead to seek God’s authority on the matter.

2. What is the fruit of sin?

What leads to and proceeds from sin?

Notice the progression- the woman saw, she took, she ate, she gave.

Saw- Looking at the fruit.

This is perhaps an area of life to which we do not give enough thought.

We are meant to guard our eyes.

Matthew 6:22-23- “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

Matthew 5:28-29- But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Took- holding something in your hand, taking interest in it, observing it.

Colossians 3:5-6- Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

Ate- Indulging yourself. No longer an exterior thing to be seen or held, but has been taken in.

Mark 7:20-23- And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Gave- We are rarely content to sin alone.

We delight in company and approval for our sins.

This is why we rationalize sin.

Paul speaking to the Ephesian elders.

Acts 20:28-30- Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

The ultimate fruit of sin- Romans 5:12- 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...

Why is this the case? Because they had been cut off from the source of life. Not only the tree of life, but the Giver of life.

3. What can be done?

What hope can we possibly have?

With whom do we identify? The First Adam or the Second?

1 Corinthians 15:21-22- For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Jesus was the better Adam, following a pattern of Adam’s life but succeeding where Adam struck out.

Do we identify with the Adam that failed or the Adam that prevailed?

Looking away from the first Adam to the second.

Many have our faith in Adam rather than in Jesus.

What does faith in Adam look like?

Faith in people, or the accomplishments of people.

Faith in self, or the accomplishment of self.

Romans 5:17- For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Your faith must be placed in Jesus. You stand guilty. The question before you- has Jesus paid the penalty for your sin or will you one day pay it yourself?