Sept. 13, 2020 - The Fall of Man

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

The reason that the end of verse 6 is a big deal here in chapter 3 (she took of its fruit and ate...) is because of

Genesis 2:15-17:

Genesis 2:15–17 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 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.”

• The reason that eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a big deal was because doing so was in direct disobedience to God.

• Adam and Eve were allowed to eat of every other tree...

•...there was one tree that they couldn't eat of...that's it.

• And so - - satan goes to work.

And we need to know this - because this is how satan works today...

SLIDE: Satan Attacks the Command of God: Placing Doubt in the Mind

Satan Attacks the Command of God

• Satan tries to deceive them and says, "Did God really say that you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?"

• Did you hear what satan did there?

"Did God REALLY say that you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?"

He exaggerated the command - - any tree in the garden?

• NOW - It shouldn't be surprising that satan was almost right...yet completely wrong.

• Satan's goal here was to confuse Eve.

• And by her response, it seemed to have worked.

Genesis 3:2–3 ESV

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

Do you see what happened? 

Where satan exaggerated God's command, Eve then responds with - an exaggerated command.

• ..."neither shall you touch it, lest you die".

• Did God say they couldn't touch it?

• No, He didn't, and so Eve's response reveals that satan had gotten in her head.

She was confused.

But Satan wasn’t done...

SLIDE: Satan Attacks the Result of Disobedience: Placing Doubt in the Mind

Satan Attacks the Result of Disobedience

What does Satan say…How does he respond to Eve…?

Genesis 3:4 ESV

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

Remember being younger - and CONTEMPLATING doing something stupid...

And thinking - What’s mom and dad gonna do - Have me thrown in jail??

What were we doing? We were DOWNPLAYING the result of disobedience...

This is what satan does here...

“You will not surely DIE!”

And THEN - his next move is this...

SLIDE: Satan Elevates Mankind: Fanning the Flame of Pride

Satan Elevates Mankind

Genesis 3:5 ESV

5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

How does Satan operate??

SLIDE:

Attacks the Command of God

Attacks the Result of Disobedience

Elevates Mankind

And ALL of these things together, seek to remove God as the one worshipped,

and put man in His place. 

We’ve talked about it before - how we as fallen men and women - have a worship problem. .. a JOY problem!

And we see the ROOT of this problem in Romans...

Romans 1:18–25 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

This is what played out in Genesis chapter 3...

the Fall of Mankind.

Adam and Eve exchanged the truth of God for the lie of satan,

and worshipped and served themselves rather than the Creator. 

Did satan make Eve disobey?

No, he just did his best to deceive her, and then let her own desires take over.

Eve on the other hand, would tell you it played out differently.

When God asked her what she had done... ...she said - "The serpent deceived me, and I ate".

Passin the buck!

 It's his fault!

 Blame him!

Men, we're no better...we're actually worse.

• Who does God question first about the disobedience in the garden?

• He questions Adam first...why?

• Adam was meant to lead...

• Men, we're called to be the Spiritual leaders of our homes.

• Is this something that we're living out,

or are we passively walking thru life, just as Adam was passively walking with Eve when satan deceived her.

• Adam had actually been given dominion over the serpent...didn't play out that way.

What was Adams' response to God?

Genesis 3:12 ESV

12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

Again...passing the buck. 

No one wants to own their actions. 

We know this to be true don't we?

What do they do instead? 

They hide from God.

The world as they knew it had been shattered... ...and God then goes into laying out for them the consequences of what they had done. 

See, everything that satan had promised, never happened.

I mean that's really satan's M.O. right? 

He's always going to try to get you to worship yourself...(if you're a Christian...your old self).

• Where there was life, there now was death.

• Where there was pleasure, there now was pain.

• Where there was provided abundance, there now was G.Y.O.G (get your own grub).

• Where there was perfect fellowship, there now was alienation and conflict.

NOW - we’re going to walk thru these...

and look at the state of the world after the Fall...

…AND AS WE DO - it will even moreso point to how things were before the Fall.

SLIDE: The Fall of Mankind: From Life to Death

The Fall of Mankind

NOW - PRE-Fall = Eternal Life

BUT Gen 2:17 shows us that God implemented DEATH as a result of disobedience...

Genesis 2:17 ESV

17 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.”

• What kind of death?

• I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say - well, God said that if they ate of the tree they would die, but they didn't die...see the Bible is full of errors.

• When God said, "if you eat of it, you shall surely die", He was referring to physical death and spiritual death.

• BUT - He wasn't saying, you'll drop dead right at that moment.

• How do we know that's not what He meant?

• Because that's not what happened.

• Physical Death was now a reality.

Genesis 3:19 ESV

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.”

• Because of sin...to dust we shall return.

• ...And with sin and death came fatigue, sickness, disease, depression, fear, doubt, anxiety, stress...

• Anyone been able to avoid all of these? ANY?

• Spiritual Death now had life in the world...

• ...and it became a part of who we are.

Romans 6:23 ESV

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

Romans 5:12 ESV

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—

• Ok, so there's a lot going on in this verse.

• Sin comes into the world, through Adam, and death through sin...

• ...so we have sin...and death.

• There's a couple things implied in this verse but not mentioned directly...a couple things between sin and death.

• Judgment and Wrath

• God Himself being Holy and Righteous has all authority to judge.

Psalm 50:6 ESV

6 The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah

James 4:12 ESV

12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

• There are an estimated 15-20,000 judges in the USA...

• ...Many have made just decisions, and many have made horrible decisions.

• YET there has only ever been One judge who is able to save and destroy the soul.

• And here's the thing...God's wrath is NOT partial.

John 3:36 ESV

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

• Every unbelieving soul on this planet, has the weight of God's wrath on them, at this very moment.

• ..."the wrath of God remains on them".

• We start out in this game of life with a big problem...a God-sized problem (God's wrath).

• It's on us (reserved for us) from the very beginning...

Psalm 51:5 ESV

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

• Sin is apart of our nature...it's who we are.

• You've heard it before -

• do we have to teach our kids to lie?

• to be greedy?

• to covet?

• No, it's apart of us...

• ...and all because a decision made in a garden many years ago.

• A decision to disobey God.

• A decision to worship 'self'.

WHERE THERE WAS LIFE, THERE WAS NOW DEATH

But that’s not all...

SLIDE: The Fall of Mankind: From Pleasure to Pain

The Fall of Mankind

• For Eve, this meant God turning up the "pain" dial on child bearing. 

• For Adam, this meant having to work the land for food.

• No longer was God working the drive-thru 24/7.

• And this was even more of a problem now because the ground was cursed because of sin.

• So God is saying:

• You wanna have kids?

Good luck...i just made it more difficult for you.

• You wanna eat? - Go get it yourself...and good luck...I just made it more difficult for you.

• Where once they lived in a pain-free world, they now looked pain in the face.

WHERE THERE WAS PLEASURE, THERE WAS NOW PAIN

But that’s not all...

SLIDE: The Fall of Mankind: From Perfect Fellowship to Alienation

The Fall of Mankind

• To be in perfect fellowship with God is something we can only imagine (at this point).

• But if we break it down, we can start to get an idea of this reality.

• When we look at all the things that came along as a result of sin...

• judgment  

• wrath

 • death 

• toil

 • pain 

• depression

• disease

 • anxiety

• greed

• lust

• When we understand that these things came as a RESULT of sin,

we realize that these things weren't present before sin.

• And so there was no: • judgment  • wrath • death • toil • pain • depression • disease  • anxiety • greed • lust

• None of these things hindered fellowship with God.

• It was a perfect communion.

• The key word is "was".

• It was a perfect fellowship.

But no more.

INSTEAD - ALIENATION!!

Genesis 3:8 ESV

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

• What's this a picture of?

• It's a picture of mankind, in a fallen state, not seeking after God.

• It's almost as if they had forgotten who God is.

• They had just experienced perfect fellowship with God...

• ...Love and Joy flowing from God to man, and man to God, without any hinderance.

• But now...they run and hide from God.

• This is the power of sin.

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

• So you might be thinking - "ok, so they messed up, let's move on...they'll do better next time".

Will they?

Romans 8:7–8 ESV

7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

• Unregenerate people (unsaved people) CANNOT please God.

• They are unable to.

• THE RICH YOUNG RULER - comes to Jesus...walks away sad...

• The apostles ask - "who then can be saved?"

• Jesus says - "with man it is impossible"

• Do you see the problem here?

• Do you see the seriousness of this problem?

• We're hopeless on our own. We couldn't BE more hopeless!

• This is the fruit of sin - Hopelessness.

• Sin has put a great divide between us and God...

Sin has blinded our eyes to His truth, and hardened our hearts to His love.

• ...to the degree that Spiritual things are foolishness to the natural man.

1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

How often have you tried to talk to someone about Christ,

and they just think you're crazy for believing in the flying spaghetti monster?

 It's complete foolishness to them? 

Silly mythological fiction.

Where does that mindset come from? ...

- Complete alienation from God...in a state of hopelessness and hostility toward God

What these people don't understand is that when they display this mindest (this hostility toward God, they're actually fulfilling Scripture and proving its validity).

And so looking at the Fall of mankind, we have sin entering the world... ...bringing with it:

• God's judgment and God's wrath

• eternal death

• eternal toil

• eternal pain

• eternal depression

• ...disease

• ...anxiety

• ...greed

• ...lust

• and on and on and on...

• AND our inability to escape all of these things.

We SAW TODAY - that REGARDING the Fall of Mankind...

SLIDE:

From Life to Death

From Pleasure to Pain

From Perfect Fellowship to Alienation

Where there was life, there was now death

Where there was pleasure, there was now pain

Where there was perfect fellowship with God, there was now complete alienation from God.

• What we'll see moving forward from here, is God setting in motion His plan to fix this problem...

• His plan to restore us to how this all was originally designed to be (Genesis 1 and 2).

• I'm going to keep emphasizing this - God wants us back to the original design.

• He wants us back to the place where there is no longer a worship problem.

• Every unsaved person on this planet...God wants from them, their worship...their joy.

• Because it's FOR THEIR JOY that they would give Him their worship and joy.

And it's for our joy that we would find our satisfaction in our Creator…and not ultimately in creation...