Alpha and Omega, Part 8
A simple choice: Sin or Obedience?
Genesis 3:1-13
Introduction
- We’ve begun 2023 with “one purpose”: Knowing there is a God!
-- Continuing our series, “Alpha and Omega”; examining the beginning to the end
- Last week’s big ideas:
- 1. Our purpose in the Garden was simple: to care for what God created
- 2. God’s plan for woman was because man was incomplete
-- We needed a partner, someone to walk with us and share responsibility
-- Woman was planned as a counterpart to man; to compliment and comfort
- 3. She was to become one flesh with matching natures (intelligence & biology)
-- They were to value and cherish one another by being brought together
-- They were given a blameless life, filled with everything we would need …
- A note of personal observation as we dive in today …
-- We need to see God for who He is (holy), and see ourselves for we truly are …
-- Right now, there is a movement of God happening in this country
- Biblical revival has tangible results, and it looks like this:
-- A resurfacing of a love for God, an appreciation of God’s holiness, a passion for His Word and His church, a convicting awareness of personal and corporate sin, a spirit of humility, and a desire for repentance and growth in righteousness
- FACT: from Asbury to Georgia, Minnesota to Texas Tech, Oklahoma Univ, Wisconsin, Iowa State, North Dakota, Cedarville, & Samford … God is moving
-- WHY? I think the reason is clear: This generation has realized who they are, and how much they need God in their lives … and I wonder if we’d do the same?
-- I wonder if we would seek God in the same manner, and need Him also?
-- Truth: Even in our sin, God still loves us – and we need to grasp that today
- Let’s dive into our passage for today … Read Genesis 3:1-13 / Pray
- OPEN CHALLENGE: I want us to see most importantly, our role/response in all of this!
Point 1 – The serpent uses doubt to divert our eyes from God
- Key things to remember … man was:
• Created deliberately
• He received life by the ‘breath of God’
• Was given dominion over everything God created
• He was also innocent of sin (there was nothing to keep him from God)
- This is critical in our understanding today - must know who we are
-- Innocence is different than righteousness and they are not interchangeable
-- Righteousness can only be given by a just (sinless) God (it is His to give)
- It is only God who has the power to redeem us … because we are His creation
-- APP: We must live like we value what God offers more than this world does
- This is why Jesus is called righteous - He maintained His innocence (sinless)
-- His life that demonstrates for us how much God wants us to be His
-- His death on the cross took on our punishment - for the sins we would commit
-- Face it: We fail at temptation daily … it is the reason we need a Savior
- KEY: Temptation has the capacity to strengthen us or the ability to tear us apart
-- Working through (avoiding) temptation is how we develop character (strength)
- This is a critical point to grasp: when tempted we often fail ... why?
-- APP: It is because of the war of the flesh that rages within us day and night
-- Being created with the “ability to choose” is where we get to choose Him
- But we choose to sin - we choose to disobey (God nor the devil makes us sin)
-- Life App Here: Don’t give the devil this much credit, especially as a believer
- Comedian Flip Wilson used to say “The devil made me do it” ... untrue!
-- The devil simply put the idea out there - the choice to do it is ours!
- In Gen 2:16-17 God gives man very clear instructions (condition) on how to live
-- Read: We can eat anything in the Garden; but avoid tree of knowledge good/evil
- Satan is introduced (v1), and his ability to utilize any creature is exposed
-- Now, don’t glance over this … because Satan is more crafty than we realize
-- Also, the fact that we have a talking snake here is NOT the key issue
-- APP: Have to get past this else we will get hung up on what doesn’t matter
- FACT: Satan has ability to change his appearance; even appear appealing to us
-- EX: Speaking of false prophets and how dangerous they are, Paul reminds us that in 2 Cor 11:14, “… even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”
- We must realize: Who is the enemy of man? What are his intentions?
-- He is a violent creature bent on the destruction of man and God’s first love
-- Rev 12:9, “This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.”
- Must see this: Satan is a pro football star playing on a pee-wee football team
-- REF: William ‘Refrigerator’ Perry playing defensive tackle against 10-yr-olds
- Being cunning and capable, he does something that no other creature can do
-- He gets us to take our eyes off God and focus on our own personal wants
-- Asks: “Why would you not have that? It looks pretty good, right?”
- TR: Church, if you want to get serious about God, take heed of this …
Point 2 – Denying the Word of God is HOW we fall into sin!
- Key Question: Why does Satan approach the woman?
-- Personal: I believe it is because she got her information ‘second hand’
- Man heard God’s voice and God’s instruction; and I’m sure he relayed it to her
-- But Satan went after the one who didn’t have direct instruction from God
-- Big thing to see here: It’s why you and I need to be in the Word for ourselves!
- Do we have any evidence that she did not receive direct instruction from God?
-- When God gave Adam instruction (2:16), he didn’t say not to touch it (v3)
-- So, right off the bat we have a change to God’s word (ref: whispering game)
- But look at what’s happening … man is right there with her! (Read v6)
-- Two words: Hebrew: enosh; man Hebrew: im; with
-- APP: Really? He said nothing but stood by and let this happen? (sigh)
- But see this: What Satan does here is very crafty ...
-- He doesn’t tear God down; make fun of him; poke jokes at Him, etc.
-- He doesn’t post an opinion poll on social media and get others to side with him
-- All that he does is cast doubt … and then leaves the interpretation up to us
- Why? It plays right into our ego, pride & selfishness & leads to our destruction
-- We must see this: our wickedness is what brings us to the lowest places
-- When we assume that we know better than God we become VERY dangerous
-- Not dangerous to God, but dangerous to ourselves because we stop listening
- Now watch what Satan does with this information (re-read v4-5)
-- Meaning: “If you do this, God knows you’ll be like Him – sounds good, eh?”
- Eve twisted the Word and changed its meaning, and Satan pounced on it
-- FACT: This is all the weakness (vulnerability) that Satan needs to attack us
- Let me ask if you’ve ever heard some of this before:
-- “You don’t have to listen to this, you & God are ok, that preacher doesn’t know”
-- “You know the Bible, and God loves you, so don’t worry about repenting of sin”
-- “This scripture doesn’t apply; your sins aren’t as bad what so-and-so does”
- What the devil implies is simple: “Your life won’t end if you do this …”
-- One of the greatest fears we naturally have is death; it is the great unknown
-- But it is the revelation of our sinfulness that must come into focus here
-- FACT: Our instruction is clear, but the choice to follow is now on us
- TR: Therefore, when it comes to knowing our enemy …
Point 3 – Choosing disobedience is what the enemy is counting on!
- See this: It is the “appeal” of disobedience that Satan uses to offer the fruit
-- Satan says: “the tree is good” – which agrees with our natural rebellion
-- Our rebellion says, “I want it now!” Said another way …
-- God tells us not to ‘fill in the blank’ (sin) - and then we have a choice to make
- BIG: It’s where we can see the Spirit at work within us; drawing us to God
-- Need to know: this isn’t a new concept for humanity … even Jesus faced this
- (margin) Matt 4 discusses, in vivid detail, the choices Jesus was presented with
• v3: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”
• v6: “If you are the Son of God, jump off! Angels will protect you …”
• v9: “I will give it all to you … if you will kneel down and worship me.”
-- Responses? Focus on God, lean on what God has said, worship God’s glory!!
-- He demonstrates how His righteousness was earned: He was faithful to God!
- APP: But we run into trouble when we think we can “handle it”
-- RE: Jesus answered quickly, “It is written ...”, and that should settle it for us!
- 1 John 2:16 shows us the trouble we get into when we take our eyes off Jesus
-- “For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.” (EX: “Take a look at that yummy tree”)
-- Pride EX: Look at my awesome car, my house, my job, etc. …
- So living the perfect life in the perfect place … disobedience wins the day
-- The consequence of sin is a stark contrast to the utopia of the Garden of Eden
- Understanding what they’ve done is the result of the conscious God gives (v7)
-- BIG: The revelation is one of shame, the knowledge that we’ve done wrong
-- CHALL: We can’t separate our conscious any more than we can remove our leg
- Sadly, they were not ready to admit their sin - so they tried to cover it up (v8)
-- This is a direct reflection of what we do today; we try to cover our sin (mask it)
-- And we live hoping that no one notices, but ignore that God already knows!
- Man’s solution for sin, by the way, is not even close to being helpful … (chat)
-- What we do is get religion, join churches, we try to become good through acts
-- And we think that God is grading us on some imaginary list of chores to do
-- FACT: God is not scoring us to see if we’ve ‘earned’ our weekly allowance
- “Religion” misses main thing: We needed a Savior and must repent of our sin
-- This is what Adam and Eve miss, they don’t realize their depravity (natural)
-- It truly is what the Gospel reveals: there is ‘good news’ for our disobedience!
- See: What the devil did is simple: he inserted himself between man & God
-- He didn’t do anything other than apply a little pressure and suggest an idea
-- Satan works on the outside (ex: looks like it’s good food …)
- God looks at the heart – BIG - He is more concerned about what’s inside
-- What is inside is what makes up our character, our integrity, who we are
-- Jeremiah 17:9-10, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”
- Now, here is my favorite part: (v8-9) … God still comes to spend time with us!
-- CLEAR: Yes, God knew that man has already sinned (this is not a surprise)
-- God comes looking for Adam - as He does you & I for one reason: to fellowship
- And in our response … to a Holy God … they (we) do the absolute worst thing!
-- (v10-12) first thing man does is try to hide from God
-- Then, he tries to excuse his behavior by blaming others (Eve)
-- And finally, (v13) he tries to pass the buck to deflect admitting sin (fault)
-- It is a miserable picture of humanity’s condition – church, we need to see this!
- If you get nothing else today get this about the fall of man …
-- It is not about being religious; it never was … Christianity is not about religion
-- Proverbs 21:2, “People may be right in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their heart.”
- God desires for us to WANT to grow closer to Him, through our obedience
-- He desires that we would come, with all of our sin, to know Him more
- Look how he pursued them– still came to meet with them – still desired us
-- He even loved us so much that He was willing to rescue us with death of His son
-- Why? B/C He created us for Himself & He still desires for us to be close to Him
- THANK GOD! He had a plan for mankind even though we turned away …
- THANK GOD! He did not give up on us and let the human race die out …
- THANK GOD! He is still a God who calls out to us to be near Him right now …
- What are YOU thanking Him for today? Where is grace needed in your life?
- Do you see YOUR need to repent yet? Are you willing to come to Him?
- Pray for:
• Repentance and grace to come, just as we are, to God’s side
• Salvation & Commitment leads to peace and receiving of Grace
