Transcript

Sermon Transcript: The Fall of Mankind

10/4/2020 Jeff Schwarzentraub 43 min read

- Lord Jesus, we give you all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise for who you are. Lord, we love you. And, Lord, in preparing this message this week, I know how many times my heart was saddened and sickened as I watch this story and then saw it in my own life unveiled. Lord, I pray today that you would give us a picture of what we need to know from this story, Lord, so that we can best represent you. So, Lord, for what you're gonna do for how you're gonna do it, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise. And now for all who are gathered to hear the word of the Lord, who desire to believe his word, and put into practice by faith what he shows you, will you agree with me this morning by very loudly saying the word--

- [All] Amen.

- Amen. When life deals us painful stories, they're often the situations or stories we don't like to revisit. When things happen to us in life that are exceedingly painful, we tend to wanna put them in the ground and move on. When we go through a broken engagement, you have a relationship that ends, maybe you've been through a divorce, maybe there's been tragedy in your family, when it happens, it's like it happened. didn't want it to happen, but let's just stuff it over here. Let's move on. The last thing I wanna do is go back and revisit what just happened. And yet, oftentimes some of the most painful experiences in our life are some of the areas where we can learn the most valuable lessons. And for many of us, we need to reflect on some of those things so that we're not doomed to repeat what happened the first time, but it's hard to do, isn't it?

My grandfather was born in Germany and was a teenager in the 1930s, full-blooded Jew, and happened to get out. And his parents met him in New York a year later. He never saw the rest of his family or extended family. So when I grew up, I met concentration camp survivors and would interview my grandfather and would write on my term papers on the Holocaust, and have been to concentration camps before even being in eighth grade where I'd weep seeing what had happened there. So I remember when the movie "Schindler's List" came out, I remember seeing that movie, I think it was around 1993 thinking it was a fantastic movie but when I got done, I was in tears and it was so sobering. I've never watched it again and I have no plans to ever see it anymore. I mean, I'm not the kind of person who would invite you and say, hey, watching "Schindler's List" again. We watch it every Friday night at my house. It's awesome. It's such a good film, all right? Same thing happens when it comes to things like 9/11. We remember it, but it's not like we'd wanna watch a video on it all day long, every single day, right? That's why for sports teams or athletes, many times they review film whether they win or lose. Sometimes even when they lose, because they wanna take out, hey, what could we have done different and how could we have made this better? And sometimes it's really, really painful to watch those things. I happened to play on a very successful football team in high school. We were 27 and one, my junior and senior year. We lost the state championship by one point, my junior year in a game I was never able to play and I broke my arm. It's 33 years ago. I still have not watched that game since. I have no desire to ever go back and see it. But the one that we won the following year, I've wore that DVD. If you wanna come over to my house, we'll talk about it. We'll eat popcorn and watch it, right? Because going back and revisiting stories that are painful are very hard. And all of us in our life have had stories that are very painful. And if you haven't keep breathing, it's gonna happen. And when they happen, there's this tendency to say, okay, it happened, just don't, let's never talk about it again. Let's never bring it up.

What I'm about to teach to you today from God's word is the most tragic story in the entire Bible. Genesis chapter three. The more you understand the story, the more you understand that every tragedy that we ever experienced in this world comes out of what took place in Genesis chapter three. So today we're gonna look at the first seven verses: Genesis chapter three, verses one through seven. And while you're turning there, just keep in mind, everything that's been going on so far, we have addressed that in one week, seven days, God created everything and He not only created everything good, He created it very good. Last week, we dialed in on day number six and how God not only revealed himself as Elohim, the strong, powerful God, but as the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim or Jehovah Elohim. He's the personal revealed God. And He created human beings in His image for His glory, and gave us dominion in a way He gave no one else dominion. And then He created the institution of marriage 'cause He creates Eve out of Adam's rib and brings them together. And they have perfect oneness. And the chapter ends after their marriage by saying this, and they were both naked and they felt no shame. Everything in the world is perfect. It can't get any better until we get to Genesis three.

And so in Genesis three, verses one through seven, I wanna read those and then let's unpack them together. And let's see what lessons God would have for us. It says now the serpent was much more crafty than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed has God said "you shall not eat from any tree of the garden." The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden, we may eat. "But from the fruit of the tree, which is in the middle "of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, "eat from it or touch it or you will die." The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die, for God knows "that in the day that you eat from it, "your eyes will be open "and you will be like God knowing good and evil." 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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Now, just by show of hands, how many have heard this story before? I mean, we're so familiar with this story. What we tend to say is, I got it. Let's just move on to the next one. Okay, so everything was good. A serpent shows up, talks to Eve, Eve eats a fruit, gives some to Adam, sin enters the world. They're both naked, they're ashamed, and they covered themselves, and let's move on. Guys, this is the most important foundational understanding to the Gospel of Jesus Christ of any other texts in the entire Bible. This is where it gets started. So I wanna highlight a few things for you that we need to understand.

First of all is this, it says, now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed has God said, "you shall not eat from any tree of the garden." So sometimes when people get to this part of scripture, they're like, ah, see the Bible is not true. You got a talking snake. Snakes don't talk, right? Fair, I've never seen a snake talk. So that's our understanding. Did snakes talk prior to the fall? I don't know. What we do know from God's word is if you fast forward to the Book of Revelation and we're like, well, who's this serpent and who's this snake? In Revelation chapter 12 and verse nine, which we'll get to when we go through the series in Revelation next. In Revelation chapter 12 and verse nine, it says this, and the great dragon was thrown down the serpent of old, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. Revelation chapter 20 in verse two says something very similar. The apostle Paul, not just John, but the Apostle Paul saw this as true biblical history because he writes that Eve was deceived by the serpent in Genesis one. So we have this understanding that Satan was working through the serpent. Somehow, some way, he's speaking through the serpent and who's he addressing? Most people have a picture of Genesis chapter three of a serpent on a tree. And then here's Eve, and where's Adam? He's probably tilling the field or doing something. He's over there. And Eve's gonna eat the fruit and then bring it to him. But I'm gonna tell you, that's not the picture that the Bible wants you to have. Look at the end of verse six. It's the most damning verse for any male in the world. It says this at the end, she ate and she gave also to her husband with her and he ate. Where is Adam? You have the serpent. You have Eve, where do you have Adam? He's about right here. He's watching the whole thing. You need to know that as we get into this text. Because who's coming after? The image bearers of God and they are one and they're together, okay?

Now talking to animals, this is not the only time we see this. I mean, in the Old Testament God used a talking, a donkey to talk to Balaam when he was going down a certain road and both Peter and Jude in the New Testament referred to that as actual truth. We get to Jonah. We have a fish that swallows Jonah. That's actually biblical truth. Jesus said that it was. I don't have a problem with the serpent talking, because all of the New Testament highlights as well that that was Satan himself talking to Eve, right? So here's what we have. We have a serpent who's talking to Adam, he's talking to Eve. And here's what's really interesting. You won't see it in English, but you'll see it in the original Hebrew. When he, every time he uses the word you, you shall not eat from any tree and all this kind of stuff, you will certainly not surely die, that you is plural. He's talking to y'all. So understand this. He's directing it to Eve 'cause he said, he said to the woman, but Adam's right there. And he's saying it to both of them while Eve is there. It's plural. He's trying to get both of them. So you need to understand that. And here's what happens. He offers her something. He gets her to think that what God has given her is not good enough, and so she needs something else that she can't have and so she goes for that. Can you imagine that? I mean, can you imagine believing that what God gives you is not good enough and so you've got to look elsewhere for it and then you go somewhere else for it, and you find out that you've sinned in the process. That's exactly what happened here.

So I wanna unpack this by talking to us about four elements of the story that we need to revisit that we need to be clearly aware of as we set all this up. And the first is this, the strategy of Satan. You need to understand the strategy of Satan. First of all, where did he come from? How do we have this being, Satan? Some people believe that he was created millions or billions of years before and that he's always been here and he's always been bad, and he's been evil. That's hard to align with the biblical texts, because keep in mind, we read in Genesis one and two, that God created the universe, the heavens and the earth in six literal days and rested on the seventh, right? We learned in Colossians what He created. All things, thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities. All things were created by Him and for Him. So was Satan created during creation week? According to the Bible, he was. Moreover, when you get to Genesis 1:31, after God creates everything, notice this, God saw all that He had created and it was, what? Very good. So Satan is created at some point during creation week. When the creation is completed, God sees everything visible and invisible. So he sees Satan, He sees humankind, He sees all of He's created and He said, very good. Satan was not created bad, he had a choice. He was created good. So then what happened? Well, he rebelled against God. In Isaiah chapter 14 and Ezekiel 28, you can read a little bit about it. We won't cover all of it today because of time, so we'll look at a few verses.

If you wanna open your Bible to Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 12, we'll begin to walk through this just so you can see the pride that was in the heart of Satan. He says, "This is the heart of Satan. "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. "I will make myself like the most high. "Nevertheless, you will be thrust down to Sheol," which is hell, "to the recesses of the pit. "Those who see you will gaze at you. "They will ponder over you saying, "'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, "'who shook kingdoms?'" And this is what we learn from this text, that the heart of Satan is one that wanted pride. So God is to be worshiped. God's the creator God. God's the personally revealed God. And what does God want? God wants the worship of all of His creation. What was Satan's heart? Sometime after creation week, shortly after creation week, and before this story, Satan decided no, no, no. How come I'm leading worship? How come I'm giving worship? How come I'm not receiving worship? I wanna be like God, I want people to worship me. And it's really interesting because in Isaiah's texts here, it says that one day, when people see him, they'll look at him like, "This was the one "that was causing other problems? "This was the one that was shaking all the kingdoms?" Let me tell you what this is trying to say. You and I are image bearers of the most high God. We're different than He is. God is omnipresent. God is everywhere. There's nowhere you can go where God is not. Satan is a created being. He can only be in one place at one time. So we'll use language when we talk to people, because I believe in spiritual oppression, I believe in spiritual attack. I believe that Satan is up to no good, but sometimes we'll say things like this, like Satan is all over me right now, or Satan's doing this. Likely, he's not. Because he can only be in one place at one time. So some of his helpers, his minions, I mean, he's working, but Satan's not on me and on you and whispering at you, and whispering. He can't do that, he's Satan. He doesn't have the power that God has. And one day, I'm telling you, one day, the New Testament talks about this. We'll get to it in the Book of Revelation where he'll be putting the abyss for a thousand years and then be thrown into the lake of fire. When you see him thrown into like a fire, not only will you be cheering and be like, that was the one? Satan? I thought you were so much bigger than that. I thought you were so much more powerful than that. Why do we think that? Because he's a liar.

Now think about how the chapter two ended. Think about how chapter one ended. You have been given dominion. Satan never was given dominion, okay? So understand where he comes from. In Ezekiel chapter 28, I'll just point out one or two verses in Ezekiel 28 as well. You can read this. In verse 15 or 14 and 15, it says, "You were the anointed cherub who covers, "and I placed you there. "You were on the holy mountain of God; "You walked in the midst of the stones of fire." And notice what it says in verse 15, "You were blameless "in your ways from the day you were created "until unrighteousness was found in you." Satan made a conscious choice to rebel against God by desiring worship for himself. So now understand this, what's a strategy? What is Satan's strategy? When Satan sinned, he didn't sin as an image bearer. He sinned as a created being, so his sin has consequences for himself. It had consequences in his relationship with God, but he didn't sin like us. We're gonna talk about that in a minute, but what Satan's desire because he hates God? What's his desire? It's to go after those that God loves the most. Because the one way to hurt somebody is to hurt what they love the most. Satan knows this. So who does he go after? He goes after the image bearers of God. John chapter 10, in verse 10, Jesus said the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that you might have life and have it to the full. So what does he do? Satan knows that he's a created being. He has different powers than we have at this time. And he was created in a way that we weren't. And he understood that God created man from the dirt of the earth and from man took a rib out of him and created woman. So he created that which was lower than him and God put his image on them. And he is going to one day crown them with glory and honor. So God took that which is less and is going to make it more. Do you think that makes Satan upset? He hates it and he hates you. And the reason he hates you is because you bear the image of the God he hates. That's why he goes after you. Another way of saying it: he goes after you, 'cause you're so special to God, right? That's his heart. And what does he do? He comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He comes to take away all the good things that God has for you. He comes so you don't enjoy the privileges that God gives. He comes to weaken the penalty.

And as I've said from this pulpit several times, especially when over the, when we went over the power of God's word. What's he trying to get you to do? Doubt God's word. Indeed has God said, did God really say that? Did he really say that? That's a strategy for every person on planet earth to doubt that God's word is true. And if you doubt God's word is true, the next thing you'll doubt, you'll doubt God's goodness. He's not really a good God. Then you'll ultimately doubt God's justice that God, you know, He probably, He'll give a grace here. He's not gonna care too much. And you'll doubt His authority to actually act on His justice. That's Satan's strategy in your life. That's why it's so important that we believe that the word of God is the revealed person of Jesus Christ. That's why we spend time in the word. That's why we study the word. And how does Satan do this? Most of us have a picture of Satan like this: wearing a red cape or a black cape with horns and a trident. And he's sitting down doing some big habitat for humanity, hot work project where everybody's sweating by their brows, 'cause it's like 107. Never been so hot. That's not Satan. Just so you know, he didn't have dominion in hell either. He's not ruling hell, he's not ruling anything. He's gonna be put into the lake of fire by himself. Who is he? Like, why do you follow him? Because he dresses up and he placates himself. Notice what Paul says about his character in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 14. It says, "No wonder for even Satan disguises himself "as an angel of light." How does Satan appeal to us? Satan appeals to us in such a way so that we'll think the things that he's lying to us about are actually good. Satan doesn't come to his young kid and say, I am Satan, worship me, hate God. Do drugs, do that. No, he comes and appeals to you. He makes it look attractive. He makes you want what he's telling you God's holding out of and what you don't have. And he allures you. It's like a good fisherman that's putting out good bait. He knows if you bite on the bait, the bait may be okay, but once you get the hook, I got you. That's what he does. He's a, he imitates himself. He's not an angel of light, but he pretends that he is.

How does Jesus describe him? In John chapter 18, verse 44, Jesus uses three words to describe him. And I want you to see if you can pick these three words out. I'll read you John 8:44. It's important we understand our enemy. 'cause if we don't know our enemy, we don't know how to battle. Jesus, in talking to the religious leaders of the day, here's what he said to them. "You are of your father, the devil, "and you want to do the desires of your father. "He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand "in the truth because there is no truth in him. "Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature "for he is a liar and the father of lies." What do you learn about him? Number one, he's a liar. That's his native tongue. I speak English. You speak a little Spanish, not much. Some people speak Spanish as a primary language. Some people speak Italian as a primary language, right? Some people speak Arabic as a primary language. You know the devil's primary language is? Lie. Every time he's speaking, he's lying and deceiving you every single time. There's not a little truth with a lie. That's called deception, that's a lie too. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." There's truth and then there's error. He speaks his lie. So Jesus said, he's a liar. What else was he? He's a murderer. He's a murderer. Well, how do you know that? Because God told Adam the day you eat of the fruit, surely you will die. In the Hebrew, just so you know what it says is when you eat it of the fruit you will die, die. I mean, it said it twice. It's saying this. When you eat the fruit dying, you will die. God told Adam you're gonna die that day. God said you eat of that fruit dying, you will die. You will begin the process of death. 930 years later, Adam's gone. He didn't die that day. God didn't tell him he was gonna die that day. He said dying you will die. What was Satan? He was a murderer. He wanted to see humankind die. Now keep this in mind, we have no record of what death would have looked like prior to this. God didn't create us to die. The reason you hate funerals, reason you hate hearing about tragedy. It's not what we were intended for. Why do people die? Sin. Sin: it's the number one killer. Now you'll hear things, it's heart disease, it's this, it's that. No, it's sin. It's the number one killer. Everybody that dies realizes when they stand before God, yeah, it was my sin. That's why I'm here, right? It's sin. So he was a liar. He was a murderer.

And what else is he? He's a father to all unbelievers. He's a father to all unbelievers. Anybody that doesn't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The devil is your father, 'cause you desire to do what he wants. And notice what Jesus said. It was this way from the where? Beginning. What's Jesus saying? Right back at the beginning, I believe in a creation week. I believe in the beginning I believe he was a murderer from the beginning. If the world had already been 14 billion years old, then Jesus is not telling us the truth. He wouldn't have said you are a murderer from the beginning. He said you were a murderer kind of like 14 billion years after the world was created. No, from the beginning, 'cause it was a creation week. You see how everything in the Bible is consistent and it aligns. In Revelation 12:10, he's referred to as the accuser of the brethren. It's why when he gets you to sin, then he accuses you and makes you feel bad about the sin that he got you to sin in the first place. I mean, it's a crazy scheme. If we saw him, if you were a superhero, it'd be like, well, what's his power. Well, he just sits in a chair. Well, what does he do? Nothing. All he can do is speak lies. Well, that doesn't sound like a big deal. It's a big deal because he deceives us into thinking that what God has for us is not true and what God has for us is not good. And God has no right to do those things in our lives. That's his strategy. And it's been his strategy from the beginning. It's been his strategy all along.

And he, notice this, I was thinking like, why did he choose the serpent? Here's why, because Satan will always choose that whatever or whoever is closest to get to you. Where was the serpent? Right by Adam and Eve. I think that's why he chose the serpent, right? When you think about your own life and who is it that tempts you, right? If Satan can't get to you personally, who will he use? Your friends, those around you. If you're married, I mean, if you ever had Satanically-inspired thought in your head, that sometimes comes out of your mouth before you think it through, you're not laughing with me, it's true. Satan will always use those closest to us. He'll use our kids. He'll use it, why? Because he wants to do what? Steal, kill, and destroy. Just so you know, people will ask, should we pray for Satan? No. No, you will rejoice when he's thrown into the Lake of fire. Don't pray for him. He hates God and he hates you. And he's never going to repent. Don't pray for him. 1 Peter 5:8 says it this way: "Be on guard and alert, you have an enemy, the devil, "prowling around like a roaring lion "looking for someone to devour." If you knew in your neighborhood today, I was called by my neighbor this morning, texted. He's like, did you see the bear that was in our backyard last night? And I said, no, but we probably should talk this afternoon. If I knew there was a lion in my backyard, I'd probably go home a little more gingerly today, right? There's a lion that's on the prowl, and who does the lion go after? The one that gets singled out, right? That's his strategy. And why does he go after you? Because you're an image bearer of God. And he knows by getting you to sin, you mar the glory of the Lord. So be aware of this strategy. Number two is this: Let's talk about the seriousness of the situation. Like, like big deal. 'Cause I'll hear people say stuff like, I heard the story but if I had been there, I wouldn't have sinned. I don't know what Eve was thinking. Why didn't Adam, hell, I wouldn't have done that. Everything in your life in your track record dictates you would have done the exact same thing. And every text in the Bible says you would have done the exact same thing. That's why we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were a model for everything we do. We adopt it through heredity and then we experience it experientially.

And the seriousness of the situation is this: if you die in your sin apart from Christ, you will be separated from God for all eternity. There's no way that you can know Him. There's no way you can be with Him. You will be by yourself in isolation, in a place of outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's what the Bible teaches. That's why this is so serious. That's why we've got to talk about this because the sin of Adam and Eve, it affects you too. So notice what happens. Satan comes to Eve and here's what he says: "Indeed as God said, "you shall not eat from any tree of the garden." I mean, do you see the deceptiveness there? I mean, look back. I've asked people all week, what did God command? What was the command in the garden that God gave Adam? And 100% of people I asked this week said, he said not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That's not the command God gave. You know what the command God gave was? We read it. We studied it. Genesis chapter two, verse 16: "The Lord God commanded man saying, "'From any tree of the garden, you may eat freely.'" What did God command? This perfect world I created, would you please enjoy it. You can have it all. I'm good. I'm very good. I made a very good world. Here's my command. Enjoy it. Be fruitful and multiply. Bear my image all over the place. That's His command. Now He gives a warning in conjunction with it. But from the knowledge of the tree of good and evil you shall not eat from the day that you eat from it. Dying you will begin to die. That's what he says. And that's what we remember.

'Cause notice what happens here. He comes to them and he puts it in the plural. So he says, as indeed, God told you all that you can't eat from any of the trees? I mean, you see how he's shifted it? God said you can eat from any of 'em. Satan's like, you really can't eat from any of these, can you? And he engages who? Eve, he goes to the woman. Now keep in mind, Adam's standing right there. We'll talk about that in a minute. And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden, we may eat, "but from the fruit of the tree, "which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, "'You shall not eat from it or touch it or you will die.'" Was that God's warning? That God say you shouldn't eat from it or touch it? I don't see that. God said you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you will surely die. I mean, they could have played baseball or football with the fruit. They could have, you know, thrown it around. I mean, they could do anything with the fruit, just don't eat the fruit. That's the only command. What do we have in the Bible here? We have the first legalism in all the Bible. God says, enjoy everything. Adam, his job is to pass down God's authority and command and leadership to his wife. And how does his wife understand God? Eve understands God as a God that's holding back. We can't touch it, we can't eat it, don't do this. That's called legalism. Legalism doesn't build you. It just gives you a construct to choose certain things that you've chosen not to do while forsaking all the other ones that you're not supposed to do. God is a God that says go and do all the things that bring Me glory. But if there's things that don't bring Me glory, don't do that 'cause it's actually gonna hurt you. The only thing they could've done wrong, the only thing they could have done wrong is eat the fruit. So why? Because there's a seriousness of the situation.

Also see what the serpent did next. The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die." Now it's interesting 'cause Eve says, she doesn't use the word die, die. God said, "The day you eat of it, dying you will die." Eve says not only we can't touch it, we can't eat it, but the day we eat of it, we're gonna die that day. And Satan says using God's word, "Dying, you will not die." He totally contradicts God's word. That's what he does. So what happens here? For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. Did they know evil at this time? Were they aware of evil? Have they experienced evil? No, but was it a good thing that they would experience evil or a bad thing they would experience evil? 'Cause it's not rhetorical. Would it be a good thing to experience evil or a bad thing to experience evil? Bad, Satan makes it feel good. God's holding out on you. You'll be like God, you'll know both good and evil. There were gonna be nothing like God. None of us are ever anything like God. God as in a being and an entity all into himself. Nothing you can do will make you like God. You're not gonna become a God. You're gonna worship God. God is God. We get tricked into thinking we're gonna be like God. And Eve starts thinking about this, well, I can be like God, I can know good and evil. And what does she notice? When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and she ate and she gave it to her husband with her and he ate. Now, notice this. She saw that it was good for food and was a delight to the eyes. Was this anything new? I mean, you go back to Genesis chapter two and verse nine. It said, out of the ground, the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food. Everything God made was pleasing to the sight and good for food. What about the tree in the middle of the garden? It was pleasing to the sight and good for food. She thought, but why did she go after that tree? Because it had the potential of making her like God and was desirable to make her wise. Wisdom never comes through sin. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Had Adam and Eve feared the Lord instead of listening to the serpent, they would have gained the wisdom that they needed. Sinning never gives you wisdom. Fearing God gives you wisdom.

And here's something else that's pretty interesting in this story because in chapter one, all the way down through verse 2:4, we talked about 35 times God uses His name Elohim as the strong creator God. And then we get into chapter two, we see Yahweh Elohim or Jehovah Elohim, how he's the personal revealed, loving covenant keeping God. But how does Satan refer to God? He just refers to him as Elohim. He doesn't refer to God as the Lord God. The Lord is not, I mean, God's not his Lord. Has God said, do you know that Satan doesn't care that you have a belief that there's God. He just doesn't want you to submit to the Lord God, the Lord Jesus Christ. In our culture, there's a lot of people, I believe in God. I totally believe in God. God's good. I'm good with your belief in God. Everybody's got a belief in, Satan doesn't care that you have a belief in God. Satan just doesn't want you to trust the Lord God, that's why he comes to Adam and Eve and says to the woman, "Has God said?" And how does Eve respond? Yeah, God said. She doesn't say the Lord God. He's got her. She's just going through religious motions. She's going through her rituals. She's going through her routine. She's going through her legalism. What she's supposed to do, what she's not supposed to do. And he's got her because once she sees that that tree could give her something that all the other trees couldn't, she takes it, eats it, gives it to her husband who's with her, he ate it and then both of their eyes were open.

Now, why is this so serious? Because Satan works this way all the time in all of our lives. Think about this. What does Satan appeal to you? I'll give you three things he appeals to. First, he appeals to our physical appetites. He appeals to our physical appetites. It's always physical. It could be comfort. It could be sexuality. It could be drugs. It could be laziness. I mean, Satan appeals to whatever's, ah, I want that, that's good. Your way right away, right? Second, he appeals to personal protection. Personal protection is kind of where Satan lies and twists and says, don't worry, nobody's gonna find this out. I know a lot of people don't get away with this, but you'll get away with it. You can cheat, lie, and steal. Nobody's gonna know. I mean, it's a big deal for some people. People make a big deal about this. It's not a big deal. You can do this, it's not... He kind of promises his own personal protection plan for you. And then third, what's the appeal to? He appeals to power or glory. It's an appeal to our pride that we can be in a different spot than we once were. Do you see that play out here? How does he appeal to Adam and Eve? Looks desirable for food, but this tree is different than all the other trees. You eat of this one? You can't eat of this one? God told you can't eat of, oh, this one will make you like God. that's why He's holding out on you. Appeals to physical appetite. Number two, he appeals to personal protection. God says, in the day you eat it, dying you will die. What did Satan say? Dying you will not die. I promise you that. You could trust me. Then what's he say? When Eve saw that it was a delight to the eyes and it was desirable to make one wise, she ate. What was she appealing to? I can be like God. I'll know things the way God does. I mean, it's gonna put me in a new status. That's what happened.

And I wish I could tell you that only happened to Adam and Eve. It doesn't work anymore. I mean, we walk through the Bible, do you see it with King David and Bathsheba? When David should have been out at war and he sees about Bathsheba taking a bath, and what does he think? Physical appetite. She looks good. That'd be great. And he hears the lie of the enemy. Like, hey, don't worry. Nobody will find out about this, man. And, oh, by the way, does it appeal to his pride? Yeah, "I'm the King, I can do whatever I want, "and I can always get away with it because I'm King David." How well did that work for him? It didn't work out well because we've got this little problem with her husband Uriah. So then God appeals to his desires again, "Hey, you can kill him." We're saying appeals to him rather, "You can have him kill killed. "Just wipe him off. "That way nobody will really ever know about this. "And then you're really, you can do this "'cause you're the King." And David thought he had it all done right. But here's the truth. The Bible makes it clear, your sin will find you out. You may be able to keep it secret. I'm gonna take that one to the grave. Well, good luck, 'cause the day you close your eyes you're standing in front of Jesus and he already saw it. You can't hide your sin from God. He knows it, amen? So this is what we see happen. And I wish I could tell you, man, it's just the biblical characters. I mean, all those guys, what were they thinking? My life has a resume and track record just like yours of doing these same things. And I hate it.

But the seriousness of the situation is this. The seriousness of the situation tells me that if we don't deal with this, God's gonna deal with us in a unique way. We're always going for comfort. So there's sexuality, drugs, your tongue, your attitude, finances, power, whatever it is. Those are things of the world that Satan uses to get us to stumble. In 1 John chapter two and verse 16, he says, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, "the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life "is not from the Father, but it is from the world." You see these three things all the time and we have an unholy trinity against us. You have Satan, who's tempting us; we have our flesh that loves it, right? And then we have the world which says, that's what it's all about, right? That's our situation. And the problem is, here's the problem. The wages of sin is death. Dying you will die, okay? If you've ever had kids or grandkids and you get to hold them when they're coming right out or just minutes old or hours old or days old, and you're holding them, here's the truth: dying they will die. Whether they die in five minutes or whether they die in 105 years, dying they will die. We know that. Because what happens here is you get Eve and you get Adam and they conceive and you get sinlings and the heredity just spreads. So in your DNA, you have it. And then for the rest of your life, you choose to experience it. And there's nothing you can do about it. 'Cause even if you're here today, so I don't want that. From now on, from this moment on, Pastor Jeff, I'm going forward. I will never ever sin again. Well, you will, first of all but even if you didn't, you're still guilty before God. And you can't change that because God will only take those into His presence who are completely perfect. And if you're not perfect, how do you expect to stand before a perfect God who holds you accountable for all your sin, who will throw you into hell and say, here I am. It's bad. There's no hope. I mean, this is the most tragic story in all the Bible.

And here's the severity of sin. That's my third point. Look at how severe this is. Some people say, well, why isn't blamed like we are? How come Satan's wasn't the first sin? Because he clearly sinned before he tempted us. Here's why: Satan is not an image bearer of God, you are. You understand that? So when Satan sinned, his rebellion is sin, his punishment will be the lake of fire, but he sinned against God and himself. He didn't sin against the image bearing of God in all creation, so it's different, right? But what about this? What about the severity of sin here? 'Cause notice what happens in verse seven? I mean, in verse 24 and 25, we have the first marriage and the chapter ends with both of them being naked and unashamed. And we don't even make it seven verses until it says, then the eyes of both of them were open and they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together, and they made themselves loin coverings. Like, what happened? Sin. Sin happened. Sin affects everything. It affects everything. Adam and Eve go from being in this oneness marriage bliss, beautiful, awesome. It's the way God made it. We're image bearers, let's procreate. Let's have a great life. Let's do everything that God wants us to do. Seven verses later they're diving into bushes starting a clothing company to cover themselves up. Why? Because they were dealing with the consequences of sin. Not only did they know they were guilty, they were feeling shame. And when you feel shame, what do you do? You cover up your differences? I mean, think about how it affects the mind.

Think about how sin affects the mind. I mean think for Eve, okay? How did Eve experience sin? Well, Eve was told by Adam what she should do, and so she was trying to engage with Adam and the serpent, like, I don't know, is it sin, is it not? You ever had those situations in your life? I don't know if it's sin. I don't know if it's not, but I'm gonna try it. Yeah, it was sin. I have a lot of those in my life, but what about for Adam? Adam knew it was wrong and still did it anyway. You ever had anything like that in your life where you knew it was wrong, I'm gonna do it anyway. We all do. Not just you. I mean, we've all done it. Thanks for saying amen. We've all done it, right? So it affects our mind. It affects our emotions.

Can you imagine waking up every single day where your dominating emotion is love. Love for God, love for people, love for how He made me, love, love love. I mean, can you imagine that? You'd never have a thought or emotion, negative. There'll never be anger. There'll never be fear. There'll never be doubt. They'll never be worry. When you think about other people, you'd only be for them. When you think about yourself, you'd never say anything negative in your head about who you are. Imagine a world like that? How does it affect our relationships? Our community? Adam and Eve were one. What's the first thing they do when they sin? They separate. They separate from God and they separate from each other. That's what sin does. That's why a church is hard to build. You know why? Because we'll all admit here that we're sinners. Pastor included, really good at it. All of us will admit it, but you know what? When it comes to one-on-one relationships and really getting to know each other, I don't want you to know the depth of my depravity because I don't wanna be judged by you. And so what I'd rather do is build a network of friends that have kind of sinned the way I have and see the world the way I do so that we can be comfortable, but I can't be comfortable with everybody. No, Jesus Christ created the church for us to be able to say, no, without Christ, I'm nothing; with Christ, I'm everything. I'm totally free in him. You can ask me whatever you want, I can be completely transparent with you because Christ has forgiven my everything, amen?

And then how does sin ultimately affect us physically? Well, dying you will die. I mean, you're as close to death right now as you've ever been in your whole life even if you didn't think about it today. I mean, I promise you you're gonna die. I know that. I mean, so that's the world that we live in, where spiritually we're out of touch with God. We feel like God's distant. He's separate from us. Like, how come I don't know God? How come I can't experience Him? 'Cause sin has impacted your life. Now let's take a look at this, how this came in the world, 'cause we have to address this. Because most people will say, well, if Satan didn't bring sin into the world, then it had to be Eve, right? 'Cause she ate first, 'cause her sin proceeded Adam sin, 'cause she ate and then she gave. So Eve clearly ate first. But it's really interesting in the text. It says this at the end of verse six, "And she gave some to her husband and he ate." Verse seven, notice what the word is. It says then, then the eyes of both of them were open. You have no picture in the Bible that Eve ate the apple and was like, oh no, what do we do? Adam, don't do that. Eve ate and didn't even think about it. You ever sinned before and just been oblivious that wasn't even sin. even eats and say, hey, take some. Adam eats, and guess what? When Adam eats because they're what, they're one, both their eye were like , oh no, what do we do, right?

Now, it's really interesting 'cause when you fast forward to the New Testament in the Book of Romans and other places, Paul makes it crystal clear through the Holy Spirit, Romans 5:12, "Therefore, just as through one man, "sin entered into the world and death through sin, "and so death spread to all men because all sin." So what's God's statement here? Who did sin come through? Adam. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ is the last Adam. How come sin came through the man and not the woman if she's the one that sinned first? I'm so glad you asked. Here's why. See we have a real hard time. I'm gonna read you a couple, I'm gonna read you a scripture and I'm gonna tell you how I think he gets misinterpreted many different times. In 1 Timothy chapter two and verse 14, Paul talked about why he didn't allow women to teach men. And he used the order of creation. He said, "But I do not allow a woman to teach "or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet." Why? For it was Adam who was first created and then Eve. All throughout the New Testament we see, women are just as equal as men, just as valuable to men, but men teach. Women don't teach men. That's just the clear teaching of the scripture and having authority over men. But notice this. And it was not Adam who was deceived but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. So I've heard this taught many times. Yep, Eve was deceived; Adam wasn't deceived. Eve was totally deceived. And you know why? This is what people say falsely, because women are just more emotional and they're more trusting. And that's why you can't have a woman lead because she's not as good as a man, and blah, blah, blah, blah. No, that's not what happened. Why was Eve deceived and Adam not deceived? Can I tell you why? Where did Eve get her information from? Who was given the direct command? Eve wasn't even created when God gave the command to eat and to what not to eat. Adam wasn't deceived because Adam clearly knew everything that he was supposed to and not supposed to do. Why was Eve deceived? Because she's getting her information from a husband that's doing a very poor job of it. And so when Eve is hearing the serpent, she's saying, well, this is kinda what my husband said. This is kind of what the serpent said. And while the serpent's talking my husband's standing here doing absolutely nothing, so the serpent must be right. That's why she was deceived. She wasn't deceived because she's a woman. She was deceived because she had a bad man.

Listen to me. Men, you are the spiritual leaders of your home and your community. Spiritual leadership does not mean boss or bully. Spiritual leader means you are living with Christ in such a way that your wife, your families in your communities recognize that you've been spending time with Jesus. Sometimes women think be the spiritual leader, lead devotions, do this, sing kumbaya with our family. It's not that. It's that you know as a wife that your husband is the one who is leading your family spiritually, who is praying for you, who's praying for your kids, who's leading in such a way, why? 'Cause men, the first sin in the Bible is the passivity of men to stand up for the glory of God. Do you see that? That's why sin entered through a man, because God gave Adam a direct command. And I don't know what Adam's doing. I mean, I just think about myself, and yes, I would sinned the same way Adam did 'cause the Bible tells me that I would have. And I'm totally that way. But I think like when I read the story I think if I'm sitting there with my wife and some snake comes up and starts talking to her and says, "Have y'all considered," I'd get an axe, a hammer, something, and go, bam! You snake ain't talking to my wife. Like, what was he doing? And if he would have done that, the Bible would be four chapters long. Because what would have happened is, "And as the serpent was talking, Adam cut off its head "and God's glory remained." And chapter four, "And we all lived happily ever after."

But why did sin enter the world? Because God gave a direct command about how He was to be glorified, and Adam blew it. Man, I'm just telling you, we have a high responsibility and I don't talk about social issues a lot just because when I do, I get pitted on one side of the fence and then people think I'm trying to be political; I'm not being political. But you look at anything going on in our culture right now, if you see a problem stirring where there's tension between different groups or a problem in education or a problem in politics, you can take it all the way back to Genesis three at a tree. And I'll tell you right now, the reasons we have all these problems in our culture right now is 'cause for a long period of time, there haven't been enough men standing up for the glory of God living and proclaiming His word, amen? That's why we have it. I see all the same stuff on the news that you do. I just take a different take. I'm like, what's the spiritual root of this? I'm like, there's a bunch of dudes and girls out there that have no daddies that love Jesus. So I don't wanna get political. I just wanna share the gospel. Because Jesus is a restorer, amen? See, Adam did not use his authority to honor God's image. God had him name the animals just right before as if to say you have dominion over all this. And what did he do? He gave his dominion away to a snake that was trying to hurt them.

I mean, just keep in mind, you are created in God's image, not Satan. You're the crown of creation, not Satan. You have dominion. You were given dominion over the world, not Satan. He lies to you and lets you think that he has dominion. And even for those of you who have trusted Christ, he has no dominion over your life. So you say those lies into your head, like, yeah, I always struggle with this. It's always been there. It's a lie. He has no dominion over your life unless you give it to him. No dominion over your life. When you live in relationship with God, when you are repentant before God, when you forgive other people, when you're walking with God, not only does God have the ability to save you, God has the ability to redeem and walk out in your life, new fresh ways where you can enjoy the glory of God on this planet. That's what He has for you.

Which leads me to my final point. If you get anything out of this story, we have to understand if we truly understand this that we're dead in our transgressions and sins, that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, then you need to understand the satisfaction of our Savior. See, the gospel is not about getting religion. Coming to church is not about creating a bunch of new habits that you're going to do. Coming to church is not about, I'll be a better person. I'll be a better version of myself. That's not the Gospel. The Gospel is you need to understand you're dead and you're separated from God. And the reason that you experience shame and the reason you experience distance is because you don't know God. And much like the story, Satan had no problem referring to God in general, just not the Lord God. Some of you have no problem referring to God in general, but not the Lord Jesus Christ. See, Jesus wants to have a relationship with you. Jesus wants to have a relationship with you. Now, here's the question I get asked a lot. You've ever thought about this one? I know you have. Like, why would God create a world like this? Why put the stinkin' tree in the middle of the garden? Like why do that? I mean, if the tree wasn't there, it'd be great. What was God thinking?

Let me give you four choices that God had, okay? God creates this beautiful world and all this stuff. He had a choice, because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in perfect bliss. So there was a choice of no world. God didn't need to create anything, okay? He had another choice. He could create an amoral world or an immoral world, where just do whatever you want. He just creates a world and throws people in it and whatever they wanna do anytime, that's what they do. So He can create no world, He can create a immoral world, or He can create a world, number three, where there's no choice. So God could've created you where all you knew how to do was love God. And that may sound good. But guys, let me tell you, I talked to a lot of young guys that are getting ready to get engaged or just gotten engaged. And I'll ask them the question, hey, if I could give you a pill, if there was such a thing, and you could take that pill and if you could slip it into your wife's drink one night on your date. As she was drinking that, as soon as she drink it, she would always love you and respond to you and do whatever you wanted to do anytime you wanted to do it. Do you want the pill? And guys are like, no. Now some of the older men are like, it depends on the day, but you know... But it's no, and the answer is no. And here's the reason no. The reason no is that I would know that she doesn't really love me. You see, no world, no morality, no choice means this: no love.

So God created a world where love could exist. God wanted his subjects and his image bearers to respond to Him in love. And guess what? The Bible says, all of us are like sheep that have gone away. We haven't responded to God in love. We've turned our back and we've done what's wrong. So where's the love, Jeff? Here's the love. God the Father sent His Son to be the savior of the world. Now keep in mind in this story you have heredity passing down sin and passing down sin, so everybody's a sinner. So everybody dying they will die. How did Jesus come into the world? He was born of a virgin. So he doesn't have sinful DNA. So what? Jesus is not dying nor will he die. So why did he die on the cross? What had to happen on the cross? It wasn't like he got aged. It wasn't like he got beat so much. He just couldn't take it anymore. What'd he do? He gave up his life in your place 'cause you dying would die. He died for you to restore glory to his dad so that you could have relationship with him. And you would know this. This is not that, this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins. That's the gospel. And the good news this morning is this. I'm not inviting you into BRAVE Church. I'm not inviting you into religion. I'm not telling you how you need to live your life. What I am saying is if you've never responded to the Lord Jesus Christ, please make today your day. Please know that you're dead in your sins and you're separated from him, and it's not because God doesn't love you. God already knew that you were gonna sin when He created the whole world. And in His sovereign design, He had a plan to come and rescue you. He loves you. He is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and there is no other. He said, I am the way; I am the truth; I am the life. Do you have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Has there been a time in your life where you've repented or turned from your sin and you knew I don't want this anymore. I want the freedom I can have in Jesus. Because when he came, that's exactly what he came to restore. He came to restore your life with him and with his Father. And that's what he wants you to do today.

So I think a beautiful way for us to close out today, in knowin' that we revisit a story that none of us like because there's a lot of you here today, and the reason that you live in shame is because of sin. There's places in your life that I don't wanna go there. I don't wanna revisit that. I don't even know how I got here. Some of you right now are so steeped in sin you're saying, I don't think there's any way out. Do you know why you think that? Because there's a liar and an accuser of the brethren that tells you there's no way out. I'm here to tell you on the authority of God's word, Jesus Christ came to set you free. He came to set you free today. He came for you to give your life to him today. So whether you're online or you're participating in one of our services, I wanna take the opportunity for you to stand. And I wanna pray over you. And as I pray over you, I want you to respond any way that the Lord would have you respond to him. 'Cause this is a special moment. See, knowing that we're sinners is not enough, knowing that we're sinners and what Christ has done on our behalf is. And we'll see promise next week in Genesis three as we traverse on, but I'm fast forwarding all the way to the cross for you to know that the Lord Jesus Christ came for you.

Would you pray with me. Lord God, we just bow before You. Lord, we just thank You. Lord, thank you that the gospel is not about us measuring up or trying to get your approval. But that you came for us, that, Jesus, you had the approval of your Father because you're the perfect Son of God. Thank you for dying on the cross and rising from the dead. And if you're here today and you've never trusted Christ, here's a simple way that you could pray. Dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, there's no doubt. But I believe that you came for me in your love, that you died on a cross as a perfect God in my place, that you were buried and that you were resurrected, and that you offer life to me. So, Lord, right now, my desire I may not know a whole lot about religion or church or anything, but my desire is to take my sin and give it to you and an exchange receive all of your life. Lord Jesus, I wanna turn from my sins and turn to you. Be the Lord of my life. Lord, for all those that have prayed that prayer, we pray that not only the work you start, we just pray, that you would continue and complete. And, Lord, for all of us here that are gathered, we are so grateful. So grateful that for those of us who know you, one day we will stand in your presence, hear you say, well done, good and faithful servant. Present us perfect with exceedingly great joy before your Father. And it has nothing, nothing to do with us. Thank you for your Gospel, Lord. We look forward to the day that we behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world and worship you and only you. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Can we give God praise this morning?