Send us Fan Mail GENESIS 3-5 We enter the portion of Scripture known as “The Fall of Man.” The fall was out of favor with God. When Adam and Eve were tempted they sinned and that brought about the wages of sin which is death. First spiritual death: they died to a relationship with God; then ultimately the second death which is hell, the lake of fire. Read the chapters yourself. God created Adam and Eve and put them in a paradise called Eden. He told them they could freely eat the fruit of every tree, but not of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God warned them that if they did eat, that very day they would die. With the prompting of Satan, disguised as a snake, they ate from the wrong tree and their spirits died to God. They became separated from God. Their disobedience brought all their descendants into disfavor with God. It’s called the doctrine of “Original Sin.” Their descendants are all born with a sin nature. Since we were all in Adam, what happened to him happened to us. “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” (Rm.5:19) We all died to God and now need to be born again and saved from sin. Faith in Jesus’ death, resurrection, and pouring out of the Holy Spirit delivers us from the penalty, power and ultimately the very presence of sin. There are four main things I want to bring to your attention as we look at these important chapters. I. The Devil The devil shows up disguised as a beautiful and cunning snake. Up to this point the Bible has told us nothing about the devil. Revelation 12:3-9; Ezekiel 28:12-19; and Isaiah 14:12-16 tell us much more about what was behind that snake. People ask why did God create the devil? He didn’t. He created Lucifer and this beautiful angel wanted to be God so he led a third of all the angels God created in a rebellion against the throne of God in heaven. The rebellion failed and Satan landed on earth seeking to destroy those who were in fact made in God’s image to have dominion on the earth. The devil, a fallen angel called Satan, came to Adam and Eve disguised as a snake, which because of the curse (Gen.3:14), looked nothing like snakes do today. Theology is simple: God – good, Satan – bad. Don’t make the mistake of accusing God of things the devil is responsible for. The devil makes people sick and die, not God. “The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy; but I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” (Jn.10:10) Jesus never made anyone sick. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38). God good, devil bad. The devil is very real and good at what he does, which is to tempt people to sin. He makes people sick and die. He is evil. So evil that there is no hope for him. Jesus will finally throw him into hell; but in the meantime we must defeat him in our lives through powerful spiritual weapons (Eph.6:10-18; 2Cor.10:3-5; Rev.12:7-9; Jas.4:7). His power is through deception and lies. Our weapon is the truth of the word of God, spoken with the authority of the name of Jesus. II. The Disobedience Think of all the suffering and sorrow, disease and death that has come from Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. God knew this would happen. Why didn’t He step between the snake and Eve, slap the fruit out of her hand, and run the devil out of Eden? He couldn’t, because God had previously given dominion of the earth and every creeping thing to Adam and Eve (Gen.1:26-27). It was Eve’s job to resist the devil and have him flee from her. Don’t ask God to get the devil out of your life, that’s your job. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (Jas.4:7) God is not going to do what He told you to do. God told them not to eat of that tree but they did. They disobeyed God. They did what He told them not to do. They sinned. The thing I want you to see is that sin is stupid. As the great philosopher Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does.” Sin is stupid. Think of it. Adam could eat of any and every tree in that paradise. There was only one tree they must not eat from. Only one tree! Apparently they could have eaten from the Tree of Life. But nooooooooo! They had to eat from the one tree the Creator told them not to eat from. And they did it with the threat of death from God Himself. “Don’t eat of it and you will live forever; eat of it and you won’t. You’ll die!” This is the ultimate punishment. Every sin carries the weight of capital punishment. What was this sin all about anyway? Why such devastating results from eating a piece of fruit from a fruit tree? This particular tree was put in the middle of the garden along with the Tree of Life. Apparently the couple had a choice. Eat from one tree and live forever; eat from the other and die. But what was it about this tree that brought death, other than the obvious disobedience to God? That tree would give them the right to choose what was good and what was evil. God gave the couple dominion over all the earth, except for one thing. He could not give them the authority to determine for themselves what was good and what was evil. He alone has the ability to do that because He alone knows right from wrong, based on His holy nature. Eve wanted to do that, and look what it has done to the human race. Left to themselves humans cannot determine right from wrong. Hitler thought he was right. Charles Manson thought he was right. Who’s to say they were not right? Nobody, if everyone has the right to decide for themselves. They could have eaten of one tree or the other, but once they ate of the wrong tree, they were kept from eating of the other. Life or death were set before them. They chose death. That’s still true of us today. People will say to excuse their sin, “God knows I have needs.” Yes He does, and that’s why He has provided solutions for all your needs. Don’t fornicate or commit adultery. But you have sexual needs. Yes, and God has provided marriage to meet that need. Eve was hungry. Yes, and God has provided fruit from every other tree in Eden. Sure that forbidden fruit looks good for food and I like to eat, but there are plenty of other trees to eat from! It looks pleasant to the eyes; like the other fruit looked horrible? Sin always looks, feels, and tastes great. There is pleasure in sin, but only for a season. But behind the delicious bait there’s a hook. Everyone wants to be smarter than the next guy, but there is a deadly demonic wisdom that leads to jealousy and selfish ambition, disorder, unrest, rebellion, and every evil thing and every morally degrading practice (Jas.3:15-16). To do what God said not to do is just plain stupid. Think about it. God has provided everything you need apart from sinning. Sin is a choice. Eve didn’t have to sin. We don’t either. You choose to sin and you can choose not to sin. Notice God said to Cain in Gen.4:7 that, “Sin lies at your door, but you should rule over it.” If you are a Christian, you have what Eve never had: the Holy Spirit within you, the blood of Jesus to cleanse you, not just forgive you (1Jn.1:9). The gospel and the love of God demonstrated at the cross to keep us from sin, to help us make the right choices. III. The Death Along comes God in the Garden and instead of running to meet Him, they ran from Him because they were ashamed of being naked and for what they had done. They had died to God. He dispelled them from paradise with curses that have continued to this day, and will continue until the second death at the end of time when sinners will be thrown into hell (Rev.20:14). The wages of sin is death. Eight times in Gen.5 we have these words: “And he died.” Sin is serious. “All have sinned and the wages of sin is death.” (Rm.3:23; 6:23) Graveyards fill the landscape of every countryside, showing us the result of sin. Sin is serious. Sin is stupid. God do anything stupid. IV. The Deliverance After the couple sinned they did not search for God; they ran from God. “No man seeks God.” (Rm.3:11) People say everyone is seeking God. They are seeking Him in the alcohol, the drugs, in sex, etc. Not so. They are hiding from God in those things. But the good news is - God comes seeking us. God comes into Eden and calls out for them. It’s called the doctrine of “Prevenient Grace.” God seeks us out to deliver us from our sin and stupidity. He replaces our leaves of self-righteousness with the skin of an animal. That covering speaks of blood being shed to cover the nakedness of our sin and shame. It foretells the coming of the Son of Man who shed His blood to not only cover but eliminate our sins. Stay Connected with Grace Church! Dive deeper into sermon notes and see how Christ is moving in our community by visiting our website: https://sites.google.com/view/gracehouseclinton/sermons If you feel led to support our ministry, you can give securely here: https://give.tithe.ly/?formId=674824c2-5d42-11ee-90fc-1260ab546d11 Thank you for being part of our ministry! #GraceChurch #FaithInAction #terrysimpson #terry #simpson #clintonar #sermons #pastor #ministry #discipleship
