Last week we left Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden just after creation. Everything that God had created was good, and in fact when it came to creating humans, you and I, He said it was very good. Looking around, the world was paradise. Everything was created perfectly. Mankind had everything that we could have ever wanted.
Genesis 2 tells us that there was no rain, which sounds really nice right about now. Springs came up form underground to water the land. Trees and plants produced fruits and foods of all different kinds that were just waiting to be picked and eaten. The animals were under the domain of man as Adam named each animal and lived in complete peace and without fear of all the beats, birds, and sea creatures.
Think about the life that Adam and Eve had to “put up with.” They had to watch over the garden, but yet didn’t have to do work to make things grow. They hung out with the animals and played with lion and puppies alike. They took walks with God in the garden and talked with Him face to face as a loving Father. They didn’t have to worry about death, or sickness, or pain! And then they had each other as they sat around naked all the time, talking, taking walks and making love. It was an amazing life that no one would complain about.
In all that was going on and in all that God gave to Adam and Eve in the garden there was one, only one, warning that God expressed to his creation. He said to them, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden – except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you are sure to die.” There are two important things to notice about God’s warning to Adam and Eve.
First, notice God doesn’t prevent them from eating of the tree of good and evil, he doesn’t chain the tree up and do everything he can to control the situation. Being God, if had wanted to, He could have forced Adam and Eve to obey but instead he just warns and leaves it in their hands to decide for themselves. It is here that we see the gift of free will and choice being given to us.
Second, think about why God is warning Adam and Eve. God tells them, “Don’t eat the fruit of this tree because you will surely die!” God is trying to protect Adam and Eve from something bad, to be more specific, he is trying to protect them from knowing evil. Until this point, they only knew God, goodness, and truth. God knew that knowing evil would bring about death.
This warning is much like a father telling his little girl to not touch the hot stove or to look both ways before crossing the street. The father is not trying to hide or keep something from his daughter but trying to protect her from knowing pain or hurt.
This Fatherly warning and gift of free will is really where sin begins in all of our lives. We all have a number of things that God warns us about or asks us to do in the Bible. These things or perceived “rules” are not to be a jerk or keep fun things from us but instead to protect us from the knowledge of evil, death, and dangerous things that are not good for us. These things are not forcefully kept from us, instead we are given a choice to be able ignore the warning or to accept it.
Having laid the foundation and background for our text tonight, let’s open our Bibles to Genesis 3:1-13 and read the all too familiar story about how Adam and Eve handle this warning from God. As we do so, let’s explore this thing called sin and how it plays out in our own lives. I would encourage you to keep your Bibles open as we walk through the text together.
***Read Genesis 3:1-5***
So this snake, which is actually Satan in disguise, approaches Eve in the Garden of Eden and challenges her to question what God told her. “Did God reeealy say you can’t eat fruit from the trees?” He even distorts what God really said just to get a response out of Eve. “No, it’s just the big tree in the middle we can’t touch or eat from. If we do, we will die.”
“You won’t die!” Satan snaps quickly with a laugh. “God is just holding back from you. He knows that if you ate from the tree you would be like Him. You’re not gunna let Him keep that from you, are you?”
What we see here is the beginning of temptation. Satan gets Eve to question the warning that God has given her and Adam. This process takes part in all of our lives in a number of different ways. Mostly it is the little voice in our heads that makes us question, challenge or justify something that goes against what God asks of us. “No one is looking, you can do it.” “Everybody does it, go for it.” “Just a little won’t hurt you.” “Just once isn’t going to kill you.” We all have had many, many thoughts just like this.
Temptation in itself is not a bad thing as Jesus himself was tempted but yet never sinned. To a point, questioning and challenging is a good thing because it makes us own what we believe. We need to be careful though because temptation is one small step away from sin and we shouldn’t mess around with it for long. It is our responsibility to trust God and turn in the other direction and walk away, and actually there is a few passages in the Bible that suggest we run away.
Let’s look at verse 6 to see what Eve does. “The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too.”
There is a process that happens here with Eve as she is tempted by Satan. First she looks. Rather than running in the opposite direction Eve stands there licking her lips going, “Hmmm, it looks good. It sounds good. Hmmm.” Let me ask you a question, if there is something you shouldn’t be doing or looking at, does it help to stand there and think about it or look at? No! If someone says, “Don’t think about a purple camel. Really, don’t think about a purple camel. No purple camels.” What are you going to be thinking about? A purple camel.
Second, she gives in and takes. Eve reaches up and grabs the fruit off of the tree bringing herself even closer to it instead of farther away. Again, it’s a matter of playing with fire. If you are struggling with smoking than it would be best to not have them on you. If you are struggling with pornography, don’t open the e-mails you get or take the magazines someone tries to give you.
Third she eats. Now that she has the fruit in her hand, it is irresistible and there is no turning back now. She takes a bite of the fruit and disobeys the main thing that God had asked her to do.
I want to take a quick side step her because I’m sure at least a couple of you are sitting there going, “Sin is all woman’s fault! She looked, took, and ate and then brought it to Adam. He probably didn’t even know what he was eating. Stupid woman messed it up for everyone.” Well, hold those thoughts for just one minute. Notice what verse 6 says when eve gives some to Adam. “She gives some to her husband, who was with her.”
Adam stood by for this whole conversation between Eve and Satan and just watched. Adam wasn’t taking care of his wife or protecting her at all. He sinned and disobeyed just as much as Eve did! So men, sorry to break it to you, but we aren’t the perfect creation living in a fallen world.
Let’s pick up at verse 7.
***Read Genesis 3:7- 13***
What we see here is a good ol’ classic version of pointing the finger at someone else. Rather than taking ownership for their sin they simply blame it one someone else. God asks Adam why he ate the fruit and he exclaims, “It was the woman’s fault!” So God turns to Eve and asks her, “What have you done?” Eve exclaims, “The snake made me do it!”
We live in a culture today where no one does anything wrong. It’s always someone or something else’s fault that made us break the rules or disobey God. Whose fault was it that Adam disobeyed God? His own! He sat and listened to Satan, then he looked, took and ate! Whose fault was it that Eve disobeyed God? Her own! She sat and listened to Satan, then she looked, took and ate! Having said that, whose fault is it when we sin and disobey God? Our own!
We are the pinnacle of God’s creation, an amazing self portrait of God but we are a masterpiece that has flaws. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We give into temptation, then we look, take and eat of sin everyday and we need to take ownership of that and not point the finger and give excuses. We are a broken creation and because of that disobedience we deserve death! Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death.”
This warning of death sits before all of us tonight. God has provided a way out of the death that awaits us but until we truly understand and take ownership of our brokenness and sinful nature we can not fully understand God’s gift of life.
