Genesis Part 3 - The Fall

Genesis Part 3, 3:1-24 Such is the story of the center of the book. You might be thinking, “How can it be the center?” Isn’t the center of the Bible in Psalms somewhere? Well, yes, when it comes to the chapters and verses. I came across “the truth group.com” site, and these guys actually did the math. They said in the King James Bible there are 31,102 verses. They wrote that the exact center is in Psalm 103. But since 31,102 is an even number, there is no exact center. So, it ended in a tie: Psalm 103:1–2: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. They broke it down further. The truth group guys say that there are 3 words in the exact center of these verses, which are the exact center of the Bible: “his holy name”. How very appropriate that we see God as holy, whenever we approach him! But Genesis 3, in relation to God’s story, is the exact center. Chapters 1 and 2, paradise. God’s very good creation. God and humanity in perfect relationship with him and with each other. Then this chapter—we sinned. The world began to experience corruption because we opened the door to sin, death and destruction. The very center of God’s story is right here. Beginning next chapter and all the way through to the end of Revelation, we see the glorious last half of the Bible. This part is how God began, and will complete his redemption of his good, but now fallen creation. Like Genesis 1 and 2, how many of us have not heard this story? Two trees. A talking snake. The man and woman breaking God’s command. Adam and Eve covering themselves with fig leaves. God making good on his threat—they would die. But he didn’t stop there. God, as preacher, proclaimed the gospel, promising he would clean up the mess they made. In his mercy, God set the pattern for how things were to be done. He demonstrated what was needed to approach him—the blood of an innocent sacrifice, literally covering the guilt of the guilty. Then in another act of mercy, God prevented Adam and Eve from a forever state of sinfulness by not allowing them access to the tree of life. So, like what we have done the past 2 weeks, let’s go back through this inspired story. I want to point out the tragedy and the incredible hope that is found in the center of God’s story. We begin with the spotlight shining on the serpent—the craftiest creature on the scene. Now let me give you a little more cultural insight here. Many religions contain stories of serpents as objects of worship—think Egypt with Pharaoh with the figure of a cobra on his headpiece. Keep this in mind as we go through the story—and how the serpent stacks up against the Lord. Also, imagine how different things were before sin entered the world. Skeptics love to point out the issue of the talking snake and dismiss this story out of hand. But Genesis is part of the Law, literally, Torah. Jesus said, not one jot or tittle will pass away from the Torah until all is fulfilled. The Lord Jesus believed Genesis 3 to be true. We need to as well. With that said, let’s look at the drama. The very first utterance from the serpent came in the form of a challenge to God’s word. God commanded Adam and Eve not to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that was the very place the serpent went. As many of us know, the very first question recorded in the Bible was questioning God’s word—his authority: Genesis 3:1 “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Let me make 2 brief points here—for here is where it all began. First, notice the source of the temptation. It was from the serpent. The serpent did not appeal to Eve’s sinful nature. How do we know? Eve was sinless. God did not create her with a sinful nature. In this way, she, and Adam were like Jesus. But as we know, things were about to take a drastic turn south. Adam and Eve became corrupt; Jesus never did. Second, the serpent zeroed in like a laser on the very thing Eve could not have. This is the foundation for the root of all evil. Keep this in mind as we continue. Eve responded to the serpent when it struck up a conversation with her. Huge mistake. The story does not describe the serpent as the craftiest of God’s beasts for nothing. Notice how the serpent went on the attack. Eve made a feeble defense: “serpent, we can eat anything we want—except for the fruit from the forbidden tree. If we eat from that tree we will die.” Here’s battle defense #1. Do not reason or dialogue with the enemy. The serpent got her to talk about stuff. He opened her up to a conversation about God’s ways. What should have happened? Fingers in the ears, calling out, “not listening!” There is only one set of words we are to use when addressing the enemy: “in the name of Jesus, scram Satan!” We don’t dialogue. We don’t talk about stuff with him. In Jesus’ name we command the enemy to back off. But Eve didn’t do that. Because Eve was open to talking about stuff with the enemy, now it was time for the enemy to make his move. He found the chink in her armor—it was her innocence. Notice what happened next in Genesis 3:4–5: “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Notice what the serpent did next in v.6: 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. Where was the serpent? Not mentioned. Notice serpent’s strategy. From doubt, to dialogue, to the denial of God’s authority. Then he steps back. His job was done. Eve took it from there. But what exactly was it that Eve took? We know it was the fruit, but here’s the heart of the issue, and right here is the heart of all sin: discontentment. Eve was no longer satisfied with God’s provision. Before the serpent came, she delighted in all that God gave her to eat. The fruit of every tree, except 1. We don’t know how many fruit trees there were in the Garden. But the sense of the text is there was a whole bunch. But after the serpent introduced doubt, and dialogued with Eve for awhile, then confronted her with a denial of God’s authority, this produced in Eve discontentment. And now with a heart full of discontentment, the thing that she could not have all of a sudden became the thing she put her full attention on. Now of all the trees in the Garden, the knowledge of good and evil was the only one she had eyes for. Now, there was no other tree that was a delight to her eyes. And now, a new insight, albeit signed, sealed and delivered by the serpent, the forbidden fruit of this tree was better than all the rest. For this tree and no other could make somebody wise. But did you see it? Before there was disobedience, there was discontentment. And that is the heart of all sin. Think back to the last sin you committed. It can be traced back to your lack of contentment in who God is, what he has given you, or how God has made you. Whether it be coveting what someone else has—pretty obvious one there, or overreacted to the way somebody treated you—“how dare you treat me like this? You have no right!” you name it, the heart of the matter is discontentment ultimately with God. Now that the serpent planted the seed which led to Eve’s, and Adam’s discontentment, the world, changed through their disobedience: she took the forbidden fruit, gave some to her husband, and they shared in the world’s deadliest meal. Now with eyes open, guilt and shame flooded in. As a result, they experienced separation and fear. The first thing Adam and Eve did was to put their superintelligence to work as clothing makers, using what they had to cover up the most intimate parts about themselves. That was a physical covering but ever since that day, what have we been doing with one another? Guilt and shame produces separation between people. We cover up and conceal ourselves from others. It’s a scary thing when we make ourselves vulnerable, isn’t it? That’s why for example, people have such a hard time speaking in public. Every word is scrutinized. All eyes and ears are on the speaker. Those who do the studies say that many people would rather die than speak in public. That fear started in the Garden. The fear also extended to God. When they heard God’s voice, out of their new sense of guilt, shame and fear, they ran and hid. Of course, Adam and Eve did not know what God would do. He promised them that the day they disobeyed his command they would die. Did they ever experience anything dead before? So, what would death be like? They had no clue. And when God looked for Adam, calling his name, out of his abject fear, he readily admitted his condition. He told the Lord, “I heard your voice, and that filled me with fear. I was naked”—quite an admission, for the Lord had never informed neither Adam nor Eve they were naked—“and I hid myself.” God asked the questions: “How did you gain access to that information that you were naked?” “Did you eat the forbidden fruit?” After a short explanation—of blaming both God – “the woman you gave me” – and his wife – “she gave me the fruit” – he finally owned up to it – “I ate.” And Eve didn’t fare much better. She too admitted she ate the fruit, but only after excusing herself, like her husband did, said, “It was the serpent who deceived me” – implying that if the serpent, which God created and put there – “had not deceived me, I would not have sinned.” So what happened? Self preservation. It was not my fault that I did this. It was others. It was the environment. It was the devil! Ultimately it was your fault, God. You made me like this. I looked around and saw that I didn’t have the opportunity the serpent told me that I could have. Rare it is when a person is nailed to the wall of his own doing that he takes full responsibility for things. Somewhere along the line, we rationalize, we justify, we place the blame elsewhere. And how often do people ask what we think is the checkmate question: “God, if you are good, how can you allow this to happen to me?” See, none of us are complete victims. Certainly, not everything that happens to us is our fault. But we live in a fallen world. And violence occurs. And we get caught in the crossfire. Now if this story stopped here, it would be one of despair. Now, God goes to work and his character is now put on display. He demonstrates his holiness and faithfulness by cursing the serpent with eventual, eternal defeat. He curses the woman by giving her great pain in childbirth. But childbirth is a must. How else will humanity multiply? God curses man and the ground. He tells Adam that he must work very hard to even produce food. And because he was the leader, and sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, albeit given to him by his wife, physical death was the result: Genesis 3:19—“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.” And let’s not forget the marital strife that will be there in every marriage thereafter: woman, your desire shall be for your husband—a desire to control—and he shall rule over you. Not only is God’s holiness and faithfulness put on display, let’s see how he shows his mercy. Remember the warning God gave Adam and Eve: “Don’t eat the forbidden fruit. In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.” But did they die? No. Well that means we have a problem here. Was God wrong? Was God bluffing and hanging over their heads the threat of death to keep them in line? What is the answer to what seems to be a dilemma? Genesis 3:21: And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. The answer is substitutionary atonement. A long word which simply means this “somebody died in my place.” Did Adam and Eve die that day? No, but an innocent sacrifice did. God put at least one animal to death on account of the man’s and woman’s disobedience. The garments of skin did not appear out of thin air. The animals experienced what Adam and Eve deserved. This was the first time Adam and Eve witnessed death. And it goes to the heart of God’s declaration of war that we find in v.15: “I will put enmity between you, serpent, and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” How would the head of the serpent be bruised? It would be by sacrifice—one who was perfect paying the price for the guilty. Fast forward many centuries. Enter Jesus the Messiah. See the crowd with John the Baptist in the middle. Hear him cry out as he pointed to Jesus and said, “Look! the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Not only did Jesus take upon himself all of our sin, we see the death of Jesus described so often in the New Testament, but something else happened on the cross. The writer to the Hebrews tells what that something was: Hebrews 2:14: Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil. See, we talk about God’s love for sinners when we talk about the cross. We also talk about God’s hatred for sin and sinners when we talk about the cross. But we need to include here the fulfillment of a promise God made to the serpent, and the human race: that one of Adam’s and Eve’s descendants would bruise the serpent’s head. Now I don’t know about you, but I love it when I see a snake’s head crushed, don’t you? Especially when it is poisonous. A little while back I posted a picture of something I found in the crawlspace of my house when I was down there. It was about 5 feet long. Needless to say I was a little unnerved. I even called out a couple of guys to try to catch the snake. But they assured me it was a black snake and there should not be a problem. I was a little assured but I still didn’t like it! But when it’s all said and done, we know what will happen to the serpent. He will be doing a slow roast for eternity. And for that we can all say hallelujah! We can see a second demonstration of God’s mercy in vv.22-24 where God expels Adam and Eve and prevents them from having access to the tree of life. We might think that what God did was cruel—it was his punishment for their sin. But he tells why he did this: so that man would not be able to take the fruit of the tree of life and live forever in a sinful state. Man’s expulsion from the garden is quite a contrast from the end of chapter 1: “And God saw everything that he had made and it was very good.” And the end of chapter 2: “And the man and his wife were naked and they were not ashamed.” But not to despair, though. When it’s all said and done, Jesus will return one day. What a glorious word return is! The fact that Jesus will return means he came already. As we just saw, when Jesus died, he destroyed the devil. And when Jesus returns, he will make all things right. And Genesis 3:24 will no longer apply. There will be no cherubim guarding the way to the tree of life, for God’s people will have forever access to it! Revelation 22:1–3: 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. Amen and amen! But between then and now, we all have a battle to fight. And that battle is with three enemies. The first is the world, as in this system that hates all things true and living God. The second is the devil and his demons—spiritual forces. The enemy plays for keeps and he is relentless. But the promise to defeat him is found in 1 John 4:4: Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Paul also tells us in Romans 8 that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Hallelujah! The third enemy is the flesh. And this is where death resides. Not only is this body going to die, but we carry around this sin magnet—it’s called our sinful nature. It is that mechanism inside us that makes sin attractive. And what I find in Genesis 3 is a sobering description of death. I don’t know if you caught it but let me point out something astounding: God and the serpent agree about something. When the serpent tempted Eve, he described death, though Eve did not know what he was talking about: “you shall be like God, knowing good and evil.” And now notice what God said when he dispatched angels to guard the way to the tree of life in Genesis 3:22: “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.” God’s way of life is that we know what good and evil are by his revelation, his instruction, his Torah, not personal experience. See, in a very real sense, Adam and Eve did die that day. It was a death of their relationship with God, for now, instead of temptation being outside of them, it moved into their heart. Jeremiah correctly diagnoses the natural condition of our heart when he describes it as deceitful and desperately sick. And James tells us how sin works now that the source has moved to the inside of us in James 1:13–16: Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Because of our bent toward sin, and because each of us is unique that means there may be sins that don’t appeal to me that eat your lunch, and vice-versa. That’s why some of us are more strongly tempted toward lying than others. Or some of us have an issue with profanity and others don’t so much. Or pornography. Or gossip. Fill in the blank. Now with the sinful nature as a part of us, how can we deal with it? John Snyder, author of the Behold Your God series describes 3 root sins of our sinful nature: pride, unbelief, and selfishness. And you know me, how I love three letter acronyms! So put these together and you have PUS of the heart. Our pride toward God is “I know better than you how to run my life.” Our unbelief toward God is “I don’t believe what you tell me about yourself, about me, or about how things operate in life—this life or the next.” Selfishness toward God is “It is all about me. I will run my life with myself, not you, not anybody else as the center.” So the issue is how to deal with heart PUS. And I gave us a clue earlier in the message. And it has to do with the devil’s 4 D’s. First, comes doubt: the enemy loves to play this card. “Did God really say?”—fill in the blank. Did God really say that homosexual behavior is evil? Did he really say that abortion is sin? And on it goes. Next he wants us to have a dialogue, meaning we are open to changing our stance on things because we doubt his word, which means we doubt whether he really has any authority over my life in this area. And the longer we dialogue, the less sure we are about his authority. The third D is a direct assault on God’s authority. With that comes a denial of his authority. It goes from “I doubt it,” to “I will not.” The last D to set us up for disobedience is discontentment. We are not satisfied with what God has given us. Other things seem so much better, whether that means our jobs, our station in life, you name it. We compare our lives with others—Facebook is notorious for this! Same with marketing—“You need this” they tell us. And we say, “Ok”. Or my growing up years were a lot worse than others and it should not have been this way. All of this is an acknowledgement that I am not satisfied with what God has given me. And that discontentment leads me to desire that thing or relationship or whatever that I cannot or am not allowed to have. And if I am discontented enough, I will do what is necessary to get it. I remember when I came home on leave in my early days in the Air Force. I was standing in the middle of my mom’s living room, and all of a sudden I had this overwhelming desire to get my biological parents back together. The pull was extremely strong in my emotions. But my parents had been divorced at that time for at least 15 years. All of a sudden I wanted a normal family where my mom and dad loved one another and accepted me as their son. Together. But I forgot something. The very reason I was standing in my mom’s front room at that time was because I was in the Air Force. If it wasn’t for my parents divorcing when I was 6 and me amassing 5 other parents to include my foster parents and living with my foster brother I probably would not have gone into the Air Force in the first place. So, what is the key to overcoming temptation and sin? Knowing God and trusting his word. Resolve to never say along with the enemy, “Did God really say?” If you don’t adopt the first of the devil’s D’s you will go a long way to being satisfied in who God is and what he has given you. I took up the challenge my daughter ‘Becca gave me. She texted us a couple of weeks ago. Here’s the text: “Theology by 3 year old Hannah: “I just need to look at the instructions. I’m going to look in the Bible.” Ryan her dad says, “What are you looking for instructions for?” Hannah: “Um, for how to do granola cereal.” I told her there was a sermon illustration there! And the illustration is this: we may not be able to find a recipe for granola in the Bible, but we do have something far better: 2 Peter 1:3–4: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. Death means that we are like God, knowing good and evil. Life means we let God tell us what good and evil are and by his strength live the life he has designed for us to live in his presence. Jesus told his followers how to find life and rest. Here’s what he said, Matthew 11:28–30: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” What did he mean by this? The rest Jesus promised us is the ancient ways of God. For when Jesus told his followers where to find rest for their souls he was quoting Jeremiah 6:16: Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” May we find our rest in the Lord and his ways. May we come to the place where we can say with certainty and live with confidence these words: “Jesus is all I have. Jesus is all I need. Jesus is all I want.” Can you say that today? If not, what is holding you back from being satisfied in him alone? You will never be content in the Lord until you fully surrender to him. What area or areas are you withholding from him? Give that area or areas to him now.