Mental Health And The Virus Of Sin Series

This is the second in our sermon series on Mental Health. Today I want to talk to you about the consequences of sin. I don’t want to talk necessarily about your sin or my sin — I just want to talk about the consequences of what happened when mankind fell into sin. So, I let’s look at Genesis Chapter 3, and we’ll start with verse 20.

So, the man named all the domestic animals — (that’s Chapter 2 by

the way) — all the animals, all the birds, and all the wild animals, but

the man found no helper who was right for him, so the Lord caused

him to fall into a deep sleep. And while he was sleeping, the Lord

took out of the man’s rib and closed the flesh of that place. And then

the Lord God formed a woman from the rib that He had taken from

the man and He brought her to the man. And the man said, “This is

now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called

woman, for she was taken from man.”

And that’s why a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked and they weren’t ashamed of it. I don’t know about you, but if I’m naked, I don’t even look in the mirror. But they didn’t have that problem at all. Their bodies were perfect at this point.

They functioned perfectly. Now, one of the age-old theological questions you get at the seminary is, “What if man had never sinned, would man die? Would man have…” No. There was no speaking of death. Everything was perfect, including the way their bodies functioned. They were fearfully and wonderfully made and they were in the image of God. What does it mean to be made in the image of God? It does not mean that this is how God looks. But instead, it is the fact that they were sinless; and they had this perfect relationship with Him. Chapter 3 continues,

“The snake was more clever than all the wild animals the

Lord had made.” Now, we know that it wasn’t a normal snake, but it was the

enemy. Let me just ask you this question: How did Satan end up being Satan?

Who was Satan before? We know he was an angel. He was in charge of worship,

wasn’t he?

And yet, he ends up Satan.

And, as Satan, he’s trying to pull

everybody away from the very thing that will bless them, and that’s worship, and a

focus of putting God first.

Why did God allow this? Why didn’t God cut him off? Because perfect love never controls. Perfect love does not manipulate. So, God knows what’s about to happen. The snake asked the woman, “Did God really say you must never eat of the fruit of any tree in the garden?” And, by the way, we don’t know that it was an apple — but just that it was a fruit. “The woman answered the snake, “We’re allowed to eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, except the tree in the middle of the garden. God said you must never eat it or touch it, or you will die.” “You

certainly won’t die,” the serpent told the woman, “God knows when you eat it, it will open your eyes, and you’ll be like God.”

That is the core of sin itself — the desire that we will be like God. That we know just as much as God. That we know just as much as to how things should and always will be, and we like to tell God how to do it.

The reality is that at the very core of every struggle you have, it is always that you believe that somehow you know how it’s supposed to be. So the enemy says, “You certainly won’t die; you’re not going to die.” No, not immediately. But, they will die.

“And the woman saw that the tree had fruit that was good to eat, nice to look at, and desirable for making someone wise, so she took some of the fruit, and ate it.” (I don’t know why, as a kid, I envisioned the serpent handing it to her until I realized a snake has no hands.) So, she took it. “She took some of that fruit and

she ate it. She also gave it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.”

“Then when their eyes were open, they both realized they were naked.” Now they had shame; now they had guilt. And in that instant, humanity forever changed. At that point, humanity was infected with a virus that was never intended to be. And that virus changed humanity forever.