Part 2, The Fall of Humanity

It’ll be Genesis chapter 3. This point Genesis chapter 3, the points will be correct, Genesis chapter 3. And when you get there, if you’re able, would you stand with me as we honor God and the reading of his word.

Genesis chapter 3. Going to be reading verses 1-2 and then picking up at verse 22. Genesis chapter 3.

Now hear the word of the Lord.

And now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say you can’t eat from any tree in the garden?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden, but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, “You must not eat it or touch it or you’ll die.”

No. No, you will not die. The serpent said to the woman. In fact, God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. And then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, the time of the evening breeze. And they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

And he said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The woman replied that the man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me. She gave me some fruit from the tree and so I ate it.” Continue to verse 13. So the Lord God asked the woman. What is this you’ve done? And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”

Go to verse 22 if you will.

The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubam and the flaming whirling s sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw swordord east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

May God is add his blessing to the reading, the preaching, and now your hearing to understand his holy word. May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ forever be praised. And all of God’s people say amen. You may be seated.

Great stories, eternal truths is the title of our series.

Great stories can capture our hearts. How many of you know that to be true? Great stories stick with you. Great stories are things that are memorable. Great stories are things that make great movies that make millions of dollars. Great stories do capture our hearts.

But the great stories that have eternal truths change our lives. It can be a great story capture your heart and not change your life. But because there is eternal truth, it can not only capture your heart, it can change you eternally.

The story that we explore today is one of the most important in all of scripture. It’s the fall of humanity, the fall of mankind.

The late were any of y’all followers of Dr. John MacArthur? You know, he recently passed. Great great expositor of the word, great giant of the faith. Well, the late Reverend Dr. John MacArthur said, Genesis 3 is one of the most vitally important chapters in all the Bible. It explains why the world has so many problems. It explains why we need a savior. Close quote.

Folks, this chapter that we’re in this morning explains the brokenness in our world. And do you know the world is broken? This explains it. It explains the struggles in our lives. And there’s no one here who doesn’t have struggles. Amen. It explains why every human heart longs for redemption.

Today’s entire truth in this entire chapter can be summed up like this. Sin separates, but God seeks, saves, and restores.

Folks, this is not just an ancient story. This is our story. And I want you to realize that this is not just a fairy tale. This is not just a myth. This is not just a moral that you can learn a lesson from. This is our story. We are in it.

The brokenness that you feel is here. The evil that you see in your life, in your world, in your school, on your school bus, in your workplace, in your social club, the evil that you see there is here. The death that we all dread is here. This is our story.

And so we began as all of these sermons will be with these three points. Number one, a retelling of the story.

Some of you, and I’m not going to ask for a show of hands because some of you may not remember it. Some of you may have read John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Just look around. Just nod at me. Don’t raise hands. Paradise Lost in high school or college literature. Wrote in the 1600s. It is the epic poem that tells the story of humanity’s fall into sin. It tells Genesis chapter 3. It just tells a lot more words.

He wrote, remember this is in the 1600s. This is at the same time that the King James version of the Bible is being translated. So in that language of man’s first obedience and the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all our woe with loss of Eden till one greater man restore us and regain the blissful seat. Paradise is lost.

Last week, Genesis chapter 2, we left Adam and Eve in perfect innocence, in a perfect world, in a perfect garden, in a perfect perfect relationship, perfect everything. The Bible says they were naked and unashamed. Now, somebody says, “I’m so glad that we got all that behind us. I need some clothes. I don’t know. I told the kids, this isn’t in the sermon. I don’t have time, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I told the kids yesterday on the kayaking trip because let me tell you something. There were there were some people there who were a lot less modest than our young people. I told the kids, I said, “Look, the amount of clothes you wear is directly proportional to how much you love Jesus.”

Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed. They were innocent. But folks, innocence is not the same as righteousness. Realize that innocence, they were innocent, but they were not righteous. Because innocence and righteousness, though related, are different. Righteousness is innocence that has been tested by temptation. They had not been tempted yet.

Enter the serpent. Genesis 3:1 says, “The serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, and Satan, the adversary, was speaking through had inhabited that serpent to speak to Eve.” And this serpent with the voice of the devil comes in and he first of all, he questions God’s word. He says, “Did God really say?” And folks, the devil’s still saying that today. He’s still questioning God’s word today. He’s still pl planting seeds of doubt about God’s word in people’s hearts and minds. He’s still saying, “Did God really say?”

He questioned God’s word. Then he denied God’s word. He said, “Oh, it may say that, but you will not surely die.” questioned God’s word, had contempt for God’s word.

Eve, by the way, was somewhere she shouldn’t have been. Hey, young people, listen to me. Eve would have never gotten in this trouble if she had not been where that forbidden tree was. If there are things and place, if there are places where you know there’s a good chance for you to get in big trouble, don’t go there.

Eve saw. Eve desired what she saw. She took, she ate, she gave to Adam. He ate, too. And in that moment, that was the moment. Yes, their eyes were open, but that wasn’t a good thing because their innocence was gone forever. They knew they were naked. They felt ashamed. They sought out a covering for their shame in the form of fig leaves, fruit of the loom underwear. But shame and fear were there that could not be covered by fig leaves and it drove them into hiding.

Then comes one of the most powerful moments in all of scripture. Genesis 3:9. God calls out and and God knows where they are, folks. All these questions are for their benefit, not for God’s benefit. God already knows the answers to this these questions. When God asks you a question, God already knows the answers. It’s sort of like you being a parent and you ask a child a question. You already know the answer. Amen. But you want them to say it.

God calls out to them and he says, “Where are you?” It’s one word. That’s one word in the Hebrew language. A yea. God called out a where are you? And this one word, this one phrase, this one question that God asks of the hiding Adam and the hiding Eve. Ashamed Adam and Eve. It reveals so much about God that is still true today. So listen to this. Acca, where are you?

That question God asks reveals that it is God who is seeking the lost sinner. The lost sinner was hiding from God, but God was seeking the lost sinner. Amen.

Acka, where are you?

It shows that God welcomes the lost sinner to confession. God wanted the sinner to be found. Amen.

What have you done? It reveals that God restores. God desires restoration.

If God God had every right in the world to say Adam and Eve did, they didn’t have the whole Bible. I know they didn’t have the Ten Commandments. They didn’t have a whole chapter. They didn’t have a whole book. They barely had a whole sentence. They didn’t have ten commandments to keep. They had one. Don’t eat out of this one tree. And they did it. I’m done with them. I’m through. I told them if you do that, you’re going to die.

And God could have just killed him right then and been done with it, recreated, and he’d have been justified in doing so. But he didn’t. And praise God, he still does it today. He desires restoration with those he has made. He desires for you to be restored to him. He is still calling out today, “Ayaka, where are you?”

It’s a great truth. Amen.

But judgment came. The serpent is cursed. Pain enters the world. Death begins its reign. Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden. And paradise was lost.

Yet even here in the last verses we read, grace shines forth. God clothed them not with fig leaves. God clothed them with skin of an animal. A sacrifice was made. Get this. A sacrifice was made. Blood had to be shed to cover their shame. It was a picture of the lamb that would come. Jesus the lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.

So we retell the story moving quickly. I got to move faster.

Number two, remembering the truths.

Remembering the truths. What eternal truths do we learn? First of all, we learn that sin always begins, folks. Sin always begins with questioning God’s word. Did God really say? That’s folks, that’s why I want you to know God’s word. That’s why I tell you to read it for yourselves. That’s why we’re striving for these young people, these ch children and teenagers who don’t want to be studying God’s word. You have to make them do it. Look, you know why? Because they’re kids. That’s why we’re trying to drill God’s word into God’s people because the devil’s going to come and question God’s word. Amen. Sin begins with questioning God’s word. Did God really say?

Sin always looks good before it looks bad. I’m gonna say it again. Sin always looks good before it looks bad and before it destroys. Eve saw it said Eve saw the fruit and desired the fruit. She took it and ate it.

Sin always brings shame or fear, but it always brings separation. It can sin can bring separation between people. Amen. Sin separates families. Sin separates spouses. Sin separates friends. It’s sin that does that. Amen. But ultimately, sin separates us from God. Adam and Eve, when they had sinned, they ran from God and hid from God. That’s what sin does.

But folks, God always seeks the sinner. Where are you? That cry is the first missionary cry of the Bible. Where are you?

Remembering the truths.

Redemption. Redemption always comes through sacrifice. The animal that was slain in Eden and the Jewish scholars in the Tanaka, this is not in our scripture, but the Jewish scholars say that this animal in the Garden of Eden, that first animal that God himself sacrificed, that God himself killed, that was the first bloodshed in the whole time of human history. We don’t know. We don’t know how long Adam and Eve had been in that garden before they went to the We don’t know if it that the sixth day, the seventh day and this happened on that. We don’t know that.

All that we know is that when it happened that God had to shed the first blood that had ever been shed to cover their sin because the Bible commands that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. The Bible commands the cost of sin is death. Redemption of our sin always comes through sacrifice.

Remember those truths.

Number three, respond with faith.

How do we respond today? Number one, we admit. Admit where you are.

Think about Adam and Eve, where they had been. Think about Adam and Eve, where they had been. Think about Adam and Eve where they had been. They had been in perfect fellowship and communion with God. God comes walking in the garden in the cool of the day because every day God, Adam and Eve had walked together at that time. Are you with me, folks? Think about where they had been.

Think about where you are. Think about where they ended up. They started out in perfect fellowship with God and now they’re hiding in the woods wrapped up in old scratchy fig leaves trying to avoid God.

How do you respond? First of all, you’ve got to admit where you are. Where are you today? Where are you on that path just waiting? Are you on that path just waiting for the Lord to show up so you can walk with him again like you do every day? Are you on that path like Aban used to be on? Waiting just for the Lord just to show up because when he shows up, you’re ready for him.

Or are you afraid the Lord’s going to show up and you’re over in the bushes hiding?

Where are you? That’s the step first step. Admit where you are, folks. God is still asking where are you?

How do we respond? Admit where you are.

How do we respond? Stop trying to cover yourself. Fig leaves of good works, fig leaves of religion, fig leaves of your family reputation will never save you. A fig leaf has never saved fig leaves of any kind.

The only way that you can be saved is by the shedding of blood. And praise God, it happened 2,000 years ago on the old rugged cross, Mount Calvary. And Jesus, God’s son, shed his own precious blood for our sins. Amen.

So, how do we respond? Admit where you are. Stop trying to cover yourself. And then come to the cross. Jesus is the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. Come to the cross. Come to Jesus. Set it all aside and come to him. That’s how you respond with faith today.

Folks, Genesis 3 is not just a story of sin. It’s the story of salvation in its very infancy. The serpent would bruise the heel of the woman’s seed, but the seed of the woman, that’s Jesus. It’s a prophecy of Jesus being born of Mary, would crush the serpent’s head.

On that cross, he bore our shame. In his blood, he covered our sin. And through his resurrection, he opened the way back to paradise. Paradise regained.

If you’re far away from God today, hear his voice crying out to you. Where are you? Ayaka, where are you? He’s seeking you. He wants to forgive you. He wants to restore you. He wants to redeem you. Come to him by faith in Christ.

Let me close by again quoting Milton. Oh goodness infinite, goodness immense, that all this good of evil shall produce, and evil turned to good more wonderful than that which creation first brought forth, light out of darkness.