Scrooge
Genesis/Advent • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Textual Intro
Textual Intro
There would be no Christmas without Genesis 3
Intro
Intro
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, “He was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, old sinner!”
When his nephew greeted him with, “A Merry Christmas, Uncle!” Scrooge replied, “Bah! Humbug! What right do you have to be merry? If I could work my will…every idiot who goes about with Merry Christmas on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”
This is how many people view God.
If we are not careful, we too can tempted to think of God as tight fisted, restrictive, joy-killing old Scrooge.
Scene #1 The Serpent and His Subtle Strategy 1-5
Scene #1 The Serpent and His Subtle Strategy 1-5
The Setting 1a
Who is this Serpent?
Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
Revelation 20:2 “And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,”
This is history and not myth- if you don’t believe in the devil you are in the minority, most of the world does.
He is Crafty= marked by skill in deception, cunning, with a focus on evil treachery
The Serpents Subtle Strategy 1b-5
The Serpent’s strategy to attack God’s Word 1b-4
He start’s by simply asking a theological question 1b
He smuggles in the assumption that God’s word is subject to our judgement
Did God really say?
He’s not using propositional arguments, but scoffing God’s Word
Today, You don’t really believe the Bible do you? The resurrection?
Note how he twist’s God’s command “You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?”
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.””
His strategy is to dismiss God’s goodness and highlight the restriction
Have you found yourself forgetting God’s goodness and only seeing what he hasn’t given you?
The first step toward disaster is to doubt God’s Word
Eve’s response 2-3
The Serpent’s poison is entering her system
She adds to the command “you must not touch it..”
The Serpent denies God’s Word 4
The first doctrine denied in Scripture is God’s judgement
The serpent tells a lie big enough to reinterpret life and turn the compass of the human heart in a new direction
This lie continues to poison the human heart
Is this not the spirit of our age?
Hell? If he’s going to judge sin where is he?
The Serpent’s strategy to attack God’s Character 5
Don’t you see Eve, God is, “a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, old sinner!”
He doesn’t love you, he’s holding you back, he’s not the benevolent Creator you though he was
Do you recognize his voice? How can he be good if you are suffering? If you follow him you’re going to miss out on so much! If you really want to get want you want, you can’t be completely devoted to him
Surely, Eve will recognize the Serpent’s blatant and bold blasphemy! All she has to do is look around and see the goodness and grace.
But her gaze is fixed on the forbidden fruit!
Scene #2 Paradise Lost through One Act Of Disobedience 6-7
Scene #2 Paradise Lost through One Act Of Disobedience 6-7
The Pattern of Sin 6
The pattern of sin runs through the act
The pattern: (more to come on this in another sermon)
Visual stimulation
Desire
Act
Adam’s Guilt
He’s there the whole time: 4-5“you” is plural
Adam was charged to protect the garden
James 1:15 “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
Kent Hughes, “Everything was upside down. Eve followed the snake, Adam followed Eve, and no one followed God.”
We must learn from Adam and Eve’s Fall into sin, so we don’t repeat it
ILL- Lucas blowing leaves, “Don’t pull a Ralston”
Satan has not changed his strategy-it works. Recognize the danger lest you fall
The Consequence of Sin 7
What happens as soon as Adam and Eve take the bite of this forbidden fruit…not what you think if you were reading for the first time
They didn’t die immediately- Adam lived to be 930 years old (5:5)
Their eyes were opened knowing good and evil- Genesis 3:22 “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—””
Satan, the father of lies, traffics in half-truths
They begin to die physically and die immediately spiritually
Their eyes are opened and they see their nakedness and shame, they realize they are guilty before a holy God and they are afraid and run/hide from his presence.
Satan doesn’t slither up with chains and say, “I’m here to enslave you” He doesn’t dangle a shiny hook and entice you to take a big bite. No, he offers immediate gratification and hides the chains, he dangles instant pleasure wrapped around a hook.
They had been deceived! The irony is that the Serpent is the Scrooge
Don’t be deceived! There is always a hook, always chains
They experience the evil Trinity
Shame
Guilt
Fear
The world is plunged into darkness the human race is poisoned with sin
The reason things are not the way they should be, the reason we need Christmas
Spiritual Death has spread to all the human race
Ever son and daughter of Eve is born with the Serpent’s poison coursing through their veins
All sin and fall short of the glory of God
All reject God’s rule and rebel
All hide from God and experience the pain inflicted by the evil trinity of shame, guilt, and fear
We all try to cover our shame
Recap The Strategy and the Fall
3. The Goodness of God on display at the Cross
The goodness of God displayed in the garden
If God’s goodness is demonstrated in the garden to sinless human beings, how much more is his goodness displayed at the cross?
We fight against temptation by focusing on God’s goodness and love displayed at the cross…The gospel is the shield of faith which can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.
He nails our guilt to the cross and declares us not guilty (When Satan…)
He covers our shame by robing us in his perfect righteousness (When you hear his condemning voice…)
He quiets our fears by promising to love us with an everlasting love (When he poisons your thoughts with the lie that God doesn’t love you…) This may be his biggest lie-I have you! You can’t go back after what you’ve done!
Conclusion
Conclusion
If you met a modern day scrooge tomorrow and after wishing him or her a merry Christmas. And they responded, Bah! Humbug! What right have you to be merry? How would you answer?
The Gospel...
So, Merry Christmas, and God save us all!