Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Fall

Notes and Sermon by Stephen Weeks

 Summary of Genesis 1 and 2.


God

The subject of all the Scriptures – , Not Man, Not Animals. God.

“In the Beginning God”

God, Eternally existing, Always has been, Always will be.

We have to get this. The Bible is primarily a book about God. Does it speak to man and tell us much about ourselves, yes. But we have to see He is Primary.

Creation of all things for His pleasure.

This God we saw, is the Creator of All,

Think about His power. He simple Spoke and things came into existence.

Creation ex Nihilo- Creation out of Nothing,

And God Said….And there was.

And it was Good.


Creation reflecting his power, His awesomeness and Glory.

All things reflecting His goodness.

Everything was perfect- Reflecting His perfection

Everything was sinless- reflecting His holiness.



God, The giver and sustainer of Life.  Creator of Thoughts, Emotions, love, everything. Everything he created was good and for His pleasure.

Creation reflected His power, His beauty, His goodness, His perfection, His holiness.

Genesis 1:26

Man

The Pinnacle of all of His creation.

 He created us for Himself, For His pleasure.

 Different than everything else in Creation,

Gen 1:26 - created in his image,

Man has the capacity to know Him and walk with Him and have fellowship with God

Look at the Dominion mandate-

1:28- We saw that God placed man on the earth and tells him to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth

God desired the earth to be filled with Mankind bearing his image -The Result. The Whole earth would be full of worshippers and thus full of His glory.



This is an awesome command, be fruitful, Multiply, fill the earth- God’s Glory is throughout the Whole earth

This is an awesome command for us- Think about it.

            -Be fruitful, Fill the earth, Multiply,

            How you think that’s happening.

            God is promoting lots of God honoring Sex between Husbands and wives.



Implication

God is for Sex, He created it and encourages it, even commands it, but commands it in purity, in Marriage that we will see.



He goes on in the dominion mandate to say that man was to.

Subdue it and have dominion over it



And as God is the Creator of all things including man by His creative right He is our Ruler. We have all been created by Him and for Him.



Let’s pick up the story,

Genesis 2

God creates all, He rest,

He now expounds on in detail the creation of Man and the Garden,  The dwelling place of God and man.

Genesis 2:7-9

God Created man from the Dust, He breathed life into Him and placed Him in a Garden in Eden.

Two trees were in the Garden that it makes note of.

1.)  The tree of Life

2.)  The tree of the knowledge of good and Evil.

Genesis 2:10-17

Everything man needed, water, resources, work, food.  

Verse 16-17

You can eat of all the trees,

 Verse 17

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”



Verse 18

But man was lonely. God saw it wasn’t good he was alone.
God had the most amazing plan.

Stop and praise God for this. He did not make man marry some animal or another man.

He creates a Helper, fit for Him. God creates Woman.

 You know its good. -  Woe Man. 

And thus we see Marriage instituted.

V 24-

Naked and unashamed!

There is no sin, Everything is perfect. Man and God walk together in Relationship.

 We look at the World, What’s up? Something has gone wrong.

 We look out at creation

1.) Earthquakes and Floods,

2.) Tsunami’s and Hurricanes. Volcanoes and Tornadoes.

3.) Enormous forest fire blazing through Colorado

 Something has Gone wrong.



We look at Mankind

1.)Sandusky trial of Penn States assistant coach who has been accused of having sex with boys at a football camp.

2.)Rocky Mount –Greed, Racism, Pride, Hatred, Murder,

3.)Our own hearts – pride, selfishness, hate of God, desire to be God

Something has Gone wrong.



What happened to God’s good and perfect creation? This perfect fellowship they had with Him?

Why is the world the way it is today?

 And Why do we have to wear clothes, Weren’t Adam and eve created naked?



Genesis 3

Fall of Man.

Sin enters the World.

Glimpse of God’s great plan of redemption.

Read Genesis 3:1-5

 Temptation By Satan

Verse 1

The Serpent- Scripture makes clear Rev 20:2 - This is Satan

      -         We are not told here how the serpant became evil, We won’t talk tonight about how evil came into existence.

-         But the writer points out he is Crafty- We should be seeing potential danger.



Satan comes and talks with the woman- He has a plan.

Notice His question – V 1

Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the Garden”

-         Satan is getting her thinking about what God has said,

 He is tempting the woman to question God.

-         He should not be questioning His wisdom and commands, or Questioning His goodness.

-         God has given Adam and the woman everything they needed.

-         The women though plays right into his trap.

 This is where sin starts, Not in an action but first in the heart. For the Woman She put herself in the Place of God.  She wanted to be God.



verse 2-3

She corrects Him.

Notice her addition, “Neither shall you touch it”

She portrays that God’s command is stricter than it is. Giving her wisdom on His command.

Where Satan has previously had her questioning God, wanting her to assume His role. Now He speaks forth a Lie.

  Verse 4-5

Let’s examine what satan has said.

“You will not surely die.” – This is a clear contradiction of what God has said, God has lied to you, He has deceived you.

-         Satan calls into question the goodness and truthfulness of God. He wants her to question Him.  



Not only will you not die,

God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, you will be like Him, You will know Good and evil.



Satan now has her questioning the goodness of God.

God is Holding out on you.

You can be like Him. You can know good and evil.



Application thought

How many of yall have heard this lie from Satan?

God is holding out on you. He doesn’t want what is best for you.

Just try this, Just take a look, Just enjoy this.

Thus you question the goodness of God.

            You are desiring to Be God.



Satan is whispering

 Don’t listen to Him. You are in charge. You are God of your life.



As You read this you want to say, Wait, Woman,( She has no name yet, Watch when it is given) God has not held out on you. He has only bestowed blessing after blessing on You. Don’t listen, don’t go there. But she does.



The Fall, Sin enters the World.

Read V 6

She saw the food was good for food,

It was a delight to her eyes

It will make me wise, like God

She took it and ate.

 I can see this progression even take place in my daughter Charlotte at 10 months old



Implications in our own life

You see this progression of Sin,

Tempted, Questioned God’s goodness, Desired to be God,  Dwelled on temptation, pursued it, and fell.

 Again, this is noteworthy to us. Beware, when you are tempted. Stop immediately and turn to Christ, Repent, Cry out to God, Do not start down that path. It will lead to bondage, destruction, wrath.

Then it led her to get Adam to Join

 She gave some to her husband, Who was with her and he ate.

Thus we see, Where was Adam, right there with her. Failing to protect His family, participating in this rebellion as well.

 Men, there is no cop out. Adam Failed His family here. He was right there.

 You might be saying, “Big deal Stephen, They ate some fruit.”


No HUGE Deal!

 It’s not about the Fruit. It was not poisoned,  Look at their Heart! They have acted in the place of God and have set themselves up against God almighty.

Tim Keller states- They have tried to be their own God.

 They are declaring their judgment and wisdom to be greater than His.  

 They have questioned His goodness and disobeyed.

 They have sinned against the Holy God!!!!

This sin is like taking a revolver and pointing it in the face of God!- piper

The mouse has just tried to steal the dinner of the Lion, and as you will see, He has been caught. -chandler

 Well that’s just Adam and Eve, Not me.

No, Sin has spread to all of us, We all have this same desire. To Be our own God, to be our own Savior, To be our own Judge. We have all entered this rebellion.

 Sinful by nature

Romans 5: 12 makes clear- “Just as Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

We now have all received this sin nature.

 Example

My Daughters first phrase  "No, No, Daddy!!"

We are in this bondage to sin, death and in rebellion to God.

Sinful By Action too

Romans 3:23- states, that we have all sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.

 Man’s Response to their sin and guilt

Verses 7-13

      1.)  Tried to Cover their guilt,- V 7

            Man’s response to His sin, He tries to deal with it, He tries to cover it.

2.)  Tried to Hide Verses- 8-10

3.)  Tried to shift blame – 11-13

None of these responses work, Man is guilty and cannot do anything to mend what he has done.

Reflect

This is the state we find ourselves in today as well. We stand guilty before a Holy God and we know it. We have all sinned and rebelled against God.

We know something must be done, But we can’t do anything. We Hide or respond wrongly as well.



1.)  Some try to impose a new set of rules they could keep.

Well if I do more good than bad, that will cover it.

But we are not God.



2.)  Some try to say that God will just overlook sin.

But this would violate His holiness and justice. A just judge has to punish sin.



3.)  Some try to earn their salvation.

But they can’t. They can’t deal with their sin. We can’t actually do anything good.

Isaiah 64:6-states that are righteous acts are like filthy wrags.

None of these attempts to clean ourselves up will suffice.

 So what are the Results of this Sin seen here???

This is Terrible!

 Let’s see – V 7

1.)  Their eyes were opened.

Satan had promised, Their eyes would be opened. They were. He had promised they would know Good and evil. They did.
       

But here is the deal. They not only knew good and evil. They experienced evil. They know right, But now they are bent towards evil.

      2.)  The Serpent (Satan)- V 14-15

1.)  You will be destroyed.

a.     It may look like he has won, But God promises His triumph

      3.)  The Woman v 16

2.) Pain in Childbirth

3.) Marriage will be hard.


4.)  Man – 17-19

5.)  Your work will be hard

a.     Ground is cursed, thorns will come up.

6.)  You will return to the Ground

You will die physically.

Did Death Come???

            It appears at first glance No. They are still alive.



Yes, 2 Ways you see this.

1.)  But stop and think, What is true life. True life in the scriptures is pointed to as knowing God. This is only possible if one is in a peaceful relationship with Him.

a.     That Day they sinned, They were banished from the Garden. They died, they lost true life.

b.     John 17:3 - Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.



2.)  Spiritually man has died. He is now a slave to sin, and a dead man.



3.)  Physically he is heading towards death and judgment .







Another Result of Sin

Yall must leave the Garden! The Place where God and man walked together. This relationship has been broken. 22-24



If you look outside of Genesis to the whole of Scripture we see a few more Results of our sin.



Wrath

Romans 1:18- The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

We are all under God’s wrath. Rightly so, we have rebelled against Him.



Hell

We are all heading towards hell with no hope in ourselves.

How bad is this hell,

 It’s bad enough that Jesus says in Matthew 18:8-9

It would be better for you cut off your hand or foot and throw it out than to go there. HE goes on to say it would be better for you to gauge out your eye and throw it away than to go there.



Hell is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. A place of unending torment and burning.



Good grief, This is terrible news. A terrible story.

-        This is the story of Man and the state we are in.

Wait, As we read through Chapter 3 did you notice anything.



The Gospel is in here. Words of grace, and mercy and triumph. Words of a promised Messiah!



Genesis 3:8-10

1.)  God comes searching for His lost sheep.

Genesis 3:15



2.) Satan Crushed through coming Messiah

            -God is revealing Their will be hatred between Satan and His people and the and the people of faith who are God’s that will come through the woman.



Here is extremely good news.

It goes on to tell us that the woman’s seed, Offspring, Will bruise the serpents head,

And he shall bruise your heal.



This is a Messianic Prophecy,

Satan has blown a terrible blow to mankind. He has bruised his heal.

But God is announcing that through the Messiah, Jesus, Will bruise, or crush Satan’s head.



If this isn’t enough,

Look at V 20-

3.     Eve “Mother of the Living”

Though death has just entered, Now we see Adam name His wife Eve Mother of the Living. This is because Adam believes that God is going to bring life through her seed like God has promised.



And How will this be done?

Look at V 21-

4.)  Blood shed, Crucified Messiah

God took away the fig leaf which was insufficient. He killed and animal which would require shedding its blood and he covered man and woman with its skin.



This is revealing that Forgiveness and Salvation would come through the shed blood of a sacrifice. But we will see later. This animal’s blood isn’t sufficient. This is merely a picture of the blood of Jesus that will be shed on the Cross.



Conclusion.

1.)Where do you stand before God. How will the Holy God of the universe declare you forgiven and righteous. You are guilty.

Repent and Look to Christ. The Crucified lame of God who died for your sins and triumphed over sin and death in the Resurrection.



2.)If you are in Christ. Rejoice in Your salvation, Proclaim Him. Beware of the enemies lies, resist Him remembering Christ has defeated Him and His ultimate destruction is coming.



Here is where we are in the story, Man has fallen. Sin has come. All mankind is under his wrath. But God has promised to send a Savior through the seed of the Woman. Satan will be conquered. Victory will be won.




No comments:

Post a Comment