Sin Always Leads To A Breakdown In Relationships Series

18.1.09

INTRO

Computer virus analogy:

Story this week – Trojan virus. Had to deal with it.

The worm – infects everything

Best cure is a reformat = wipe clean and start again

POINT

A very good comparison to the origin and the effects of sin.

One of the most damaging computer viruses written was released in the year 2000. An email message was found on a computer which simply said, "I love you".

It looked innocent and romantic so the lady opened up the message and the so-called "Love Bug" was born.

It had the ability to replicate itself through the email address book and rapidly infected millions of computers including government and business software and caused millions of computer software programmes to crash.

POINT

How alike that is to the first single virus-like sin of much deadlier proportions that came through the sin and disobedience to God by the world’s first human inhabitants, Adam and Eve.

RECAP: The Drama of Scripture: The opening scene

Let’s read the ACCOUNT in

READING: Genesis 3:1-24

CREATION

God made Adam and Eve. He put them in a beautiful garden. Everything was perfect. It was paradise. And God walked with them in the garden each day.

They were not robots. God gave them the power of choice. I suppose if God had made robots instead of people who could choose then God would not have had the pleasure of seeing them choose to love Him. THIS WAS THE ONE THING THEY HAD TO DO FOR THEMSELVES. God could not make them love him. They had to choose to love God, trust God and to obey God.

OHP

POINT

God gave them Paradise. God did not make them as robots. There was only one thing they had to do = to choose to Love, trust and obey God. – We could call that worship.

It was only possible to choose to love God when at the same time it was possible not to = to sin instead.

The highpoint of the day was when God would come to meet Adam "in the cool of the evening" and have fellowship with him.

What would they choose to do once real temptation came along?

TEMPTATION

The Serpent

There now appears a new character in the human story - the serpent. This reptile was the agent or the tool of Satan. The serpent was Satan incarnate, the Devil.

Scripture declares him to be a real personality. He is described as "the god of this world" (2 Cor 4:4), "the prince of the power of the air" (Eph 2:2). He is the powerful being who lives in a world of lies and deceit, aggression and retaliation. He is still alive and well on planet Earth.

POINT

A serpent is a suitable disguise for Satan.

Snakes are very sly:

ILLUSTR –[ Poisonous snake in dressing gown]

When we were in Africa a snake entered our home and disappeared into the bathroom. It hid inside the dressing gown hanging on the back of the door. I searched the bathroom but did not search the dressing gown. Later on we heard it drop and saw it slither away.

But this serpent was far more sinister and dangerous.

APPLIC

The fundamental nature of sin revealed in chapter 3 of Genesis is that:

SIN LEADS TO THE BREAKDOWN OF RELATIONSHIPS

Satan didn’t offer them freedom from rules. He just gave them a new authority to obey – himself!

The voice of temptation was saying: "Where is your freedom when God has prohibited the fruit of a particular tree? What is God hiding from you?" It’s typical of Satan to focus upon the single prohibition and ignore the bountiful provision that God had made.

Satan keeps up the pressure, distorting what God has said to the point that both Eve and Adam, in defiance of God, disobey the command.

Immediately they feel their shame. They seek to hide from God. They bring forth God’s curse on all that was good. Paradise is lost, and they are banished from the garden.

THE NATURE OF SIN

What was the temptation? And why was it sin?

They were tempted to automony (self law)

They could obey or defy God

Rather than rely on God’s word for direction they chose to determine what was right and wrong for themselves.

APPLIC

SIN is rebellion.

• It is also idolatry. We were made to worship.

• If God is not the focus of our worship we will worship something else – not just material things, but we will make ideologies our religion and our passion – whether it is vegetarianism, animal rights, green issues, the planet or spirituality without God.

• It is also an attempt to achieve autonomy – to find freedom outside of God’s good order.

• Sin twists and distorts creation rather than destroying it.