The Fall
Sermon Notes
Intro:
Today we’re continuing our teaching series called The Story. We’re walking through the biblical narrative from the very beginning in Genesis 1, to the last amen in Revelation 22. Last week we studied Genesis 1 where we learned the story of creation, the story of human history and human civilization begins. It begins with God setting everything in motion for life to exist, and Genesis 1:31 says, “God saw everything he made and it was very good!” It wasn’t just good it was very good. There was no sin, sickness, sadness, or death. It was total peace, total paradise.
So in Genesis 1 life was enjoyable, it was very good. But here we are today living in a world that isn’t peace, paradise, enjoyable, or very good. In fact sometimes it’s very bad! Sometimes our world is messed up and full of brokenness. Henri Nouwen said, “Life is full of brokenness. It’s full of broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations.” Our life, our world is full of things like crime, relational conflicts, diseases like cancer and COVID. It’s full of pollution, hurricanes, earthquakes, erosion. It’s full of all kinds of brokenness, and so if God created a world that used to be very good, then why is it sometimes very bad?...Why did things go from being very good, to being very bad?...Let’s turn to Genesis 3 and find out. You’ll find Genesis 3 in the very front of the bible, and we’ll be in Genesis 3:1-19. Title of today’s message is The Fall, and the big idea is sin leads to the fall of humanity, but Jesus leads to the restoration of humanity...Sin leads to the fall of humanity, but Jesus leads to the restoration of humanity...
Context:
Here’s your context. In Genesis 1-2 all creation was in harmony with its Creator, and life was very enjoyable, it was very good. The world was full of beauty, the animals were playful, there was plenty of food for the first humans. Adam and Eve were fully blessed, fully provided for, fully free to enjoy the beauties of God and his creation. The one thing God tells them not to do, is to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He even warns them of what will happen if they do, which is that sin and death will come into their lives. They had no reason to doubt God, but they did, which is where the story takes a terrible turn. Now as we study the text we’ll learn the following 4 things: #1 The path of sin, #2 The response to sin, #3 The damage of sin, #4 The cure of sin. It’s the path, the response, the damage, the cure of sin. Let’s check it out.
The Word:
Genesis 3:1-24 states, “Now the serpent…” That’s Satan. The “serpent” is Satan.
Again vs. 1, “Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, you can’t eat from any tree in the garden?’ 2 The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, you must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ 4 ‘No! You will certainly not die,’ the serpent said to the woman. 5 ‘In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” Notice the primary focus is on what God said. In Genesis 1 the phrase God said is mentioned 10 times, in Genesis 3 it’s mentioned 6 times. So clearly there’s a primary focus on what God said, and in Genesis 1 we learned there’s power in God’s Word. We learned God said let there be light, and the properties of light were set in motion bringing light into the darkness of our lives and world. But here in Genesis 3 we’re learning what happens when God’s Word gets distorted. Both Satan and Eve are distorting God’s Word. Satan tells them God said don’t eat from any tree in the garden and that they wouldn’t die, but God said don’t eat from one tree or else they would die. Eve tells Satan that God said don’t eat or touch the tree, but God never said don’t touch the tree. They’re both distorting God’s Word, and when we distort God’s Word it’ll lead to darkness in our lives. It’ll lead to a path of sin and death, which we’ll see later in the text.
Vs. 6, “The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” I know a lot of men joke around saying the world is so jacked up because of women, because of Eve. But the reality is Adam was with her. He wasn’t hunting, he wasn’t killing and grilling, he wasn’t chilling in his man cave. He was with her, not fulfilling the responsibility God gave him in Genesis 2, to care for his wife’s heart, to guard his wife’s heart and their land. So it’s both their faults because both chose to trust what Satan said, instead of what God said. Both ate the fruit and sinned, which leads to our 1st point.
#1 The path of sin = We’re learning about the path of sin, and the path of sin entails 3 things. It entails doubt, desire, and decision. It entails doubting God’s Word like Adam and Eve did. They had no reason to doubt God, because God already gave them everything they could’ve ever needed. Then like an infomercial Satan said “But wait, there’s more!” Satan’s infomercial caused them to doubt God, to believe something was missing in their life, which led to a new desire in their life. Vs 6 says they now desired the fruit, which they never desired before. It’s what happens when we start doubting whether God and his provision are enough for us. We start thinking something is missing in our lives and start desiring other things. We start thinking we need something else to satisfy the joy void in our lives instead of God. We start thinking “But wait, there’s more,” and that desire leads to a decision. It’s a decision to replace God, to rebel against God, to make something else our God. It’s really a decision to be our own god, because we think we know what’s best for our lives. We think we know what will bring us the most joy in life, instead of trusting God knows what’s best since he created our lives. Every path of sin follows this pattern of doubt, desire, and decision. Every path of sin and temptation starts with doubting God, then leads to a desire for something else to satisfy us, which then leads to the decision to replace God. So what area in your life are you doubting God?...What are you desiring to fill that doubt with, to fill that joy void with?...What are you deciding to replace God with?
City Awakening don’t buy the infomercial Satan and our culture are selling you saying “But wait, there’s more! Just follow your heart! Just do whatever makes you happy, whatever makes you feel good...Leave your spouse for the person at work who makes you feel good. Offer your body up for casual sex because it makes you feel good. Pick whatever gender you want to be because it makes you feel good. Just follow your heart, just do whatever makes you feel good.” Don’t buy that foolish cultural infomercial, because not everything that feels good is good. Heroin is known for producing some of the greatest pleasures the human body can experience, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Sometimes my heart leads me to order dominos cheeseburger pizza at midnight, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for my heart. My point is your heart can deceive you into thinking something’s good when it isn’t. So the only way to avoid the path of sin is to follow the path of God. It’s to trust God, desire God, decide to follow God’s heart. Adam and Eve took the path of sin by doubting God, desiring other things over God, deciding to replace God to be their own gods. This is where things start unraveling in their lives.
Vs. 7, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ 10 And he said, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ 11 Then he asked, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’ 12 The man replied, ‘The woman you gave to be with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ 13 So the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What have you done?’ And the woman said, ‘The serpentdeceived me, and I ate.’” This leads to our 2nd point. We’ve learned about the path of sin, but now we’re learning...
#2 The response to sin = We’re learning about the response to sin, and there’s 2 ways Adam and Eve respond to their sin. They hide and blame. They hide just like we sometimes hide when we sin. Their sin is exposed and they’re feeling guilt, shame, the need to cover up and hide. But they also blame others for their sin. Adam’s like “She made me do it,” and Eve’s like “The serpent made me do it.” They’re blaming everybody else except themselves. Adam even blames God saying “The woman you gave me...If you didn’t give her to me I wouldn’t be in this mess. So technically it’s your fault God not mine.” Their response to sin is to hide and blame, just like our response is to sometimes hide and blame. Sometimes we try hiding our sin from God, and sometimes we try hiding it from others. Are you hiding sin from your spouse, from people in your church, from your close friends?...Are you trying to rationalize your sin by blaming others for your sin?...The one person you can’t hide from or blame is God. He wins the hide and seek game every time. He knows when you sin just like he knew when Adam and Eve sinned. He shows up immediately after they sinned, and it isn’t to scold them it’s to restore them. He asks where they are not because he can’t find them, it’s to give them a chance to come out of hiding and repent, so he can restore them from their sinful brokenness. Your relationship with God and others can’t be restored by hiding and blaming, they can be restored by admitting and repenting. They can be restored by admitting your sin, taking responsibility for your sin, and repenting for your sin. But instead of repenting they’re hiding, they’re blaming, and here’s what happens next.
Vs. 16 states, “God said to the woman, ‘I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you.’ 17 And he said to the man...The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.’”So we’ve learned about the path of sin, the response to sin, and now we’re learning...
#3 The damage of sin = We’re learning about the damage of sin, which is that life is painful. Life becomes painful for both Adam and Eve. But their sin doesn’t just cause life to be painful, it also damages 3 relationships, and the 1st is our relationship with God. Vs 8 says God was walking in the garden immediately after they sinned, and the word walking in Hebrew is an expression of relational friendship. Immediately after they sin God walks toward them instead of away from them. It’s such an incredible glimpse into God’s heart, and you need to remember this the next time you sin. You need to remember immediately after you sin God walks toward you, instead of away from you. He walks toward you to restore relational friendship with you. Sin is us walking away from the very God who wants to have relational friendship with us. It isn’t God who walks away from us, it’s us who walk away from God. God walks toward us in relational friendship, but like Adam and Eve we hide, blame, walk away from God. The hiding shows the damage, the wedge sin creates in our relational with God. It damages our relationship with God.
The 2nd relationship sin damages is our relationship with each other. We saw this when Adam starts blaming Eve to save his own neck. We also see this when they start trying to cover themselves up with fig leaves. They didn’t feel the need to cover up or hide anything from each other before. They didn’t feel the need to hide their bodies, their thoughts, their emotions. But as soon as they sin, they start covering up and hiding things from each other. Sin causes us to cover up, to hide, to produce fake fictional relationships instead of honest genuine loving relationships. Sin not only damages our relationship with God, it also damages our relationship with others.
The 3rd relationship sin damages is our relationship with the natural world. As George Whitefield once pointed out, even the animals now flee from us! Whitefield states, “Haven’t you ever noticed when you come near the animals they growl at us, they bark at us, the birds screech and fly away? Do you know why? They know we have a quarrel with their Master.” Vs 17 says “cursed is the ground” because of our sin, and we’ll now have to “painfully labor” for our food. The dust on the ground isn’t our friend anymore, instead we have to painfully labor until we’re buried 6 ft under into the very dust we were created from. Sin damaged our relationship with the natural world to where we now have natural disasters, disease, and death. Like a glowstick that fades and loses its glow, humanity and the world now fades and loses its glow. The human body and natural world are slowly fading and decaying. Humanity used to walk in the paradise of the garden, but now we’re walking in the land of the decaying. Now we’re the walking dead, with bodies prone to disaster, disease, and death. Sin always damages our relationship with God, each other, and our world. But buried in all this mess, God makes a promise...He says this to Satan in vs 15.
Vs. 15 states, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” This is a promise, it’s a foreshadow of God’s future plan to restore our messed up lives and world. He’s talking about Satan’s head being crushed by Jesus. The imagery we’re being given is similar to camping with your family, and suddenly a venomous rattle snake starts attacking your family. So you jump in to crush the snakes head and save your family, but as you crush the snakes head, it sinks it’s fangs in you. You were willing to give up your life, to save your family’s life, which is exactly what Jesus came to do for us. The promise we’re being given is that Jesus will come to do what Adam, Eve, you, me, and the rest of humanity couldn’t do. He’ll come to not only resist Satan, sin, and death, he’ll come to defeat Satan, sin, and death! This leads to our 4th and last point.
#4 The cure of sin = We’ve learned about the path of sin, the response to sin, the damage of sin, and now we’re learning about the cure of sin which is Jesus. The reality is human nature is so corrupted by sin that we can’t cure ourselves. Albert Einstein once said, “It’s easier to denature plutonium, than to denature the evil spirit of man.” There are some sins no matter how hard you try, you can’t conquer with your own will power! You need a better cure than your own will power. You need Jesus’ power, to do what your will power can’t do. Satan bit Jesus with a poisonous death on the cross, but Jesus crushed Satan’s head with the power of his resurrection. Jesus is the cure, the victor over Satan, sin, and death. The promise in vs 15 is we’ll share in that same victory if we put our faith and trust in Jesus. He’ll make sure we’re victorious over Satan, sin, and death. He’ll make sure our relational friendship with God is restored and secured. He’ll make sure in the end we’ll eternally rise again, never to live in hiding again. As Richard Sibbes states, “Thank God there is more mercy in Christ, than there is sin in us.” Jesus is the cure.
The Big Idea:
The big idea is sin leads to the fall of humanity, but Jesus leads to the restoration of humanity. It’s easy to blame God and others for the world being so messed up, but the reality is we’ve contributed to the world being messed up too. Every time we sin, lose our temper, ignore somebody’s cry for help, indulge in our desire to be in control, we contribute to the problem. I love what G.K. Chesterton said when he was asked by a news reporter “What’s wrong with the world?”He said “What’s wrong with the world?...I am...Yours truly, G.K. Chesterton.”
The reality is we’ve all sinned, we’ve all contributed and still contribute to the damaging effects of sin in our lives, our relationships, and our world. We have no right blaming God or others when we’re a part of the problem. There’s a path to sin, a response to sin, and damages that come with our sin. But there’s also a cure to sin, and Jesus is that cure. So don’t hide, don’t blame, instead admit your sins, and turn to Jesus for restoration from your sins. Let’s pray.