“AND GREAT WAS THE FALL” Genesis 3
INTRO – Where do I begin today? All across this nation, pastors stand in pulpits attempting to help their congregations and listeners make some sense out of the senseless events of this past week.
Headlines scream at us with words such as: “Terror”, “War”, “Attack”, “Agony”, “Sadness”, “Grief”, “Mourning.” Nonstop TV news coverage. An unprecedented grounding of all airline flights in the US. National Guard reservists activated, bringing this much closer to home. Many are calling this the “21st Century Pearl Harbor.” Thousands of people have lost their lives, snatched from this world to the next in one fiery instant. Images are burned into our mind’s eyes now that we will never forget. Our children and grandchildren are growing up in a world that seems to have gone completely crazy.
Questions abound:
• Who did this?
• How could someone be so evil?
• How did they do it?
• Will it happen again?
• Why did they do it?
• Where did they get the capability to do this?
• What will our response be?
But to go back even further with our questions, we must ask, “Where did this all begin?” For the answer to that question, we must go all the way back to the book of Genesis.
Genesis – In the Hebrew Scriptures, the first book was named with a Hebrew word that means, “in the beginning.” Common practice in ancient times to name a document after its opening word or words, much like hymns “Rock of Ages” and “Standing on the Promises.” Later, book was called “Genesis” from Greek word geneseos, which means “origin” or “history.”
In this incredible book, we can learn about the origins of a multitude of important things – the origins of the universe and world; the origin of man; the origin of God’s covenant promises. And in the chapter we will study today, we will consider the origin of sin.
As we have seen this week, our lives can change in a moment. Let’s look at some moments that happened long ago and still impact our lives still today.
I. THE MOMENT OF TEMPTATION – 3:1
A. The first 2 chapters of Genesis are filled with “good” things:
i. Find numerous times in first chapter the statement, “And God saw that it was good.”
ii. After God created everything, Scripture says, “And God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” (Gen. 1:31)
B. Eden was a great place to be!
i. Heb. word for “Eden” means, “delight.”
ii. “The man and woman whom God had placed in Eden had everything for their well-being and enjoyment.” – Stuart Briscoe
iii. Unending, unbroken fellowship with God.
C. We’re caught off-guard by the entrance of one into this wonderful place whose intentions are cruel and heartless.
i. Much like we were caught off-guard Tuesday morning by the sight of United Airlines Flight 175 crashing into the south tower of the WTC.
D. This one, this serpent, we know to be our archenemy, Satan. He enters the Garden with a heart filled with deceit and evil.
i. “Sin did not begin on earth; it began in heaven. The mystery of iniquity did not originate in the heart of a human being. It had its source in the breast of an angelic being of the highest order. It entered the Garden of Eden full grown, introduced there by Satan disguised as a serpent. Three chapters from the beginning of the Bible the serpent appears for the first time; three chapters from the end of the Bible he is seen for the last time. The results of his work are seen on every page between.” – John Phillips
E. And the moment he appears is the moment of temptation for Eve.
i. The temptation came in the form of a question, a question about God – “Did God really say…?”
1. It was a question about His goodness & His integrity.
2. It was a question about His motives& His truthfulness.
3. It was a question that raised a small doubt about God and His word.
II. THE MOMENT OF DECISION – 3:2-5
A. Eve found herself at a crossroad, a moment of decision.
i. For the first time in her life, she had to decide what she truly believed about God.
1. Frank Pollard – “Satan wanted Eve to have a casual, non-committal attitude toward God…Satan came to diminish our idea of God. Satan came to make Him smaller.”
2. Man at a prayer meeting started prayer with a long silence. Then when he spoke, said, “Lord…God…Sir…” He didn’t blunder into the presence of God. He didn’t diminish God.
3. When we diminish God, we diminish what He told us to do and how to live.
B. Satan still doing the same thing today. Still casting doubt on the goodness and faithfulness of God.
i. While there are many who are turning to God for strength and comfort during these difficult days in our nation, there will be some who will fall prey to Satan’s temptations and question God’s goodness, power, and wisdom.
1. They will decide, like H.G. Wells did, that faced with the world’s evil they must conclude that a good God either has the power but does not care, or cares but does not have the power. Or they will say that He does not exist.
2. They will give in to the temptation of Satan and diminish God.
C. But we must not give in. During this time when the words, “God bless America” are being shouted and sung and displayed more than ever before in history, we must hold Him up to the world as the one true God.
i. Not the God of the Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, or Mormons. He is not the God of Mohammed. Not even the God of America.
ii. He is the God who has always been and always will be, the Creator God, the covenant God, the Christian God. God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
iii. When we hear talk of military might and strength, we must proclaim as the psalmist did, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” (Ps. 20:7)
D. Not just national tragedies that bring us to moments of decision about what we believe about God. Every day, we are faced with temptations. Every day, we are faced with what we believe about God.
i. If He is the God that He says He is in His Word, then He will give us what we need when we need it to overcome temptation and sin.
ii. But if we diminish Him, then we will give in to temptation and sin and suffer the consequences.
III. THE MOMENT OF THE FALL – 3:6-7
A. Tuesday morning, watching with the rest of the world as the WTC towers burned.
i. As a firefighter, I knew that all over Manhattan, firefighters and rescue personnel were responding to do their jobs, to do what they were trained and ready to do. Knew that as hundreds were running out of those towers, hundreds were going in.
ii. And as I watched in horror as the first tower began to disintegrate and fall, I knew that at that moment, many firefighters’ lives were snuffed out.
B. But as horrible as the consequences of that moment were, the moment of the fall that we see here had even more grievous consequences. Man had fallen, sin had entered the world, and we are suffering the consequences still today.
i. Planes would not be crashing into buildings, armies would not be arming themselves, children would not be crying in fear and sleeping with their parents had it not been for this horrendous fall.
C. The results of the fall and the entrance of sin into the world are many:
i. Results affecting the relationship with God:
1. Divine disfavor – God hates sin. It angers Him.
2. Guilt – Sin and the sinner deserve and even need to be punished.
3. Punishment.
4. Death – physical, spiritual, and eternal.
ii. Effects on the sinner:
1. Enslavement
2. Unwillingness to face reality
3. Denial of sin
4. Self-deceit
5. Insensitivity
6. Self-centeredness
7. Restlessness
iii. Effect on the relationship with others:
1. Competition and covetousness
2. Inability to empathize
3. Rejection of authority
4. Inability to love
IV. THE MOMENT OF GRACE – 3:15
A. Man had fallen and great was the fall. But in the moments after the fall, we see that God already had a plan in place to give man the opportunity to be restored.
B. 3:15 – The protoevangelium – the “first Gospel.”
i. Shows the continuing conflict between Eve’s offspring and the enemy.
1. Terrorist attacks.
ii. Shows the climax of the conflict on the cross.
C. It was a moment of grace, a moment of God giving to Adam and Eve what they did not deserve.
i. They deserved death, as we do.
ii. But they received a message of grace, as we have.
CONCLUSION
Each of these moments – of temptation, of decision, of the Fall, and of grace – have brought us to this moment today, the moment of commitment and obedience for each of us. And while I want to be careful not to play on your emotions and fears, I must ask you if your relationship to God is all that it needs to be.
• What do you believe about God?
• Have you diminished Him in your life?
• Do you have a casual, non-committal toward Him?
