The Sin of Adam & Eve

I. Introduction
A. New series for the summer
B. Great sins? In other words, important sins
C. Numerous times in the NT we are told to avoid the sins someone in the OT fell into:
1. Heb.12:16 See to it that no one is...unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
2. Hebrews 4:11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
3. 1Corinthians 10:6–11 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
a. Here we’re even told that these things happened for us, that we might not fall into the same traps.
D. The point is, there are traps Satan uses. Eph.6:16 calls them, “the flaming darts of the evil one.”
1. And we’re much more likely to avoid them if we understand them.
2. And it’s important that we see that Satan has many tools which he uses, not just one.
a. We often are alerted to one snare, and we are on the watch for that snare, and we make ourselves vulnerable to another snare, because Satan has many snares he uses.
b. E.g. Satan got to the prodigal son and his older brother through very different means.
c. If you’re just afraid of being the prodigal son, then you are susceptible to being an older brother, a pharisee. If you’re just afraid of being an older brother pharisee, then you’re susceptible to being undisciplined and immoral.
3. We are much better off if we understand the devil’s arsenal.
4. So, we’ll be talking a lot about spiritual warfare, something we probably don’t talk enough about.
E. This morning’s great sin of the OT is very predictable: the sin of Adam and Eve.
1. How can you think about great sins in the OT and not think of Adam & Eve?
F. Genesis 2:15–17 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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.”
G. Genesis 3:1–7 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
II. So let’s review the story of Adam & Eve’s sin.
A. Adam and Eve are not alone in creation. Besides their creator God and all the animals, there is an enemy in the garden, who seeks their destruction.
1. But this enemy is shrewd. He pretends to be a friend, but then he goes on the attack.
2. Jesus said, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar & the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
3. First the serpent questions what God said, trying to confuse and stir up doubts — 1b He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
4. Then he flatly contradicts what God said — 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
a. Here, Satan suggests that God's threat of death is simply a scare tactic that has no real punch.
B. Of course, there is some truth to both of the statements that the serpent makes.
1. It was true in one sense that if they ate the fruit, they weren’t going to die.
2. And it was true that in eating the forbidden fruit, the eyes of their hearts would in a sense be opened and they would know good and evil (God Himself confirms this in Gen.3:22a).
3. And it was true God hadn’t given Adam and Eve everything, but had withheld some good things:
a. He withheld the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
b. He also seems to have withheld the fruit of the tree of life. (Presumably, it had no fruit on it yet, but that itself was a form of withholding.)
c. And though He graciously gave them many earthly blessings, He withheld heaven’s glories.
C. But we know that God withheld these things for their sake – because they needed to go through a process of learning and growing and proving themselves first.
1. So while there was some truth in what Satan said, it was also filled with lies, designed to deceive.
D. So why did he speak half-truths instead of out-and-out falsehoods? To add believability, to make them sound true, to make them sound like the inside scoop instead of accusing God of being a liar.
E. And what was the essence of Satan’s lie?
1. Satan was trying to get Adam and Eve to believe that God was depriving them of substantial blessing, basically accusing God of not being good or loving.
2. Satan tells them they don’t have to wait for the things God has withheld. They could have it now!
F. Eve took the bait, and Adam with her. — 6 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”
G. Adam and Eve bought into the lie that God is a deceiver who was cheating them, that He didn’t really love them, that He wasn’t truly interested in their welfare or happiness.
1. It wasn’t so much that they became convinced that the lie was true, it’s that they choose to believe the lie because they wanted to eat that delicious-looking fruit and obtain the knowledge of G&E.
H. And ever since Adam & Eve, mankind has been acting this way. Rm.1:19-32 tells us that they know about God & His eternal power, and even much about His law. But instead of honoring Him as God or giving thanks to Him, they choose the path of foolishness, exchanging the truth of God for a lie.
1. Now, man has become like God in that they’ve made themselves their own boss. Now they decide things for themselves instead of listening to God’s word.
III. And this is the world we are a part of. Because of Satan’s presence and activity there are alternative voices, alternative perspectives, alternative realities. And we get to pick which to live by! And there are lots of choices to pick from.
A. And, from the perspective of the world, the process of picking for yourself is considered the essence of human life. It’s all about listening to your own heart.
1. Adam and Eve trusted their own perception instead of trusting what God had said.
2. And their response, instead of being recognized for the dastardly and destructive deed it was, is today being heralded and celebrated as the very definition of being fully human.
B. And so we have two decisions to make:
1. Am I going to choose what I prefer, or am I willing to submit to the living God and His word, even though it will mean living in a world which is hostile to my God — and therefore to me and the way I think? If you want to follow Christ, you need to understand this!
2. For the Christian, the very way we look at reality is not only different from the world, it is opposed to the world, and offensive to the world.
IV. Application
A. But this choosing one’s own reality is not only the pattern of the world around us, it is our nature, inherited from our first parents. It is our natural desire to do our own thing, and not listen to God.
1. So, not only must Christians live lives in conflict with the world, we must live lives in conflict with our own sinful nature.
2. “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” – Galatians 5:17
B. This means that sometimes we will feel like we’ve been cheated by God, like the people who don’t listen to God get all the good stuff. (Look at Psalm 73 sometime.)
1. This is a form of coveting, condemned by the tenth commandment.
2. We’re not satisfied with what we have. We think we need more to be happy. It has many forms: house envy, spouse envy, job envy, looks envy, money envy, position envy, personality envy, confidence envy, popularity envy.
3. Sometimes it’s just impatience for things – even good things – which are not good for us to have yet: a girlfriend/boyfriend, a spouse, a baby, a house, a job, a promotion, a raise, adult freedoms, or just a thrill.
4. And just like with Adam and Eve, Satan uses discontentment with what we have to get us to go places we shouldn’t go, and do things we shouldn’t do, buy things we shouldn’t buy.
a. And so we are drowning in credit card debt.
b. And many experiment with drugs which induce euphoria.
c. And we live in a pornographic culture.
5. When it was announced earlier this spring that most tax-payers would receive a $1200 stimulus check, some loan companies sent out offers to loan people $1200 immediately interest free for a month. And many people took advantage of the offer, not reading the fine print which said that there was an $8/day fee. And when they paid the loan back a month later, they found they owed $240. So they ended up paying 240% annualized interest (if I’ve done my math right).
a. The people who initiated this scheme knew human nature. They knew about our impatience – we want things NOW. They knew how quick we are to trust people who tell us what we want to hear. They knew that we are too lazy to really examine things and think carefully before we act.
6. In the same way Satan is looking for opportunities to exploit these vulnerabilities.
7. He tried with Jesus: he offered the kingdoms of the world if only He would bow down to him.
a. But Jesus was different than the first Adam, and He saw right through Satan’s temptation.
8. And that’s why it’s so important that WE understand Satan’s tactics as well, so that we might be able to discern what he’s up to and resist him. And that’s why we’re doing this sermon series.
C. But being Adam & Eve’s children also means that sometimes we’ll be tempted to believe what appears to be right, not because that’s what God says in His word, but because it’s a much easier thing to believe.
1. There are always things which the Bible teaches which the world thinks are monstrous to believe.
2. Right now, hell is one of those things. Defining marriage as between a man & a woman is one of those things. Saying that sex outside of marriage is sinful is one of those things. Etc., etc., etc.
3. To the modern mind, believing in these things is despicable, grotesque, disgusting, and those who believe them are made to pay. There is more and more pressure to adapt those beliefs to something more compatible with the moral mindset of the present age.
4. But part of our Christian calling is that we must not trust our sense of what seems good (Prov.12:15; 14:12). We can’t trust what seems right to us, we can’t trust the consensus of what everyone else thinks, we can only trust God and His word.
5. Like our first parents, we are so prone to justify our preferences! E.g. say I am unhappy in my marriage, but there’s this person at work who makes me feel so happy. It’s amazing the gymnastics we’ll do in order to justify doing what we want.
a. We don’t stay with our spouses because it feels good at the moment, or because it feels like my spouse is the right one or because my marriage is working or prospering or helping me to grow.
b. We stay with our spouses in the hard times because we know that when God tells us to do so, it is not for our harm but for our good, for our best, even though at times we don’t feel it / can’t see it.
c. I know, this is the woman God gave me because He loves me. If there was a better women for me to have married, He would have had me marry that woman, because God doesn’t withhold any good thing from His children.
6. We must fight against the tendency that we inherited from Adam to decide on the basis of what seems right to us – or what we prefer to be true – instead of on the basis of God's word.
7. You see, Satan was able to convince Adam & Eve that God’s commands were hurting them.
a. But God’s laws are expressions of His love. They are for us, not against us.
D. If you’re looking for excuses to disobey God, you will always find them. They are plenty. Satan makes sure of that. He is a lie factory and an excuse factory.
1. He’s very clever, and he can always come up with some way to make our disobedience look good.
2. For instance, when my wife challenges me about something (and challenge me she does), I can always think of some way to defend myself. I CAN’T always think of something nice to say; I CAN’T always think of something to get my wife as a gift. But I can always think of a way to defend myself when I’m confronted.
a. BTW, if you are one of those Christians who think it’s wrong for a wife to challenge her husband, let me say that the opposite is true. If my wife were to stop challenging me, she would be being insubordinate. Like any husband who has a grain of humility, I want my wife to challenge me; I need my wife to challenge me. God didn’t give me a godly wife so I could not listen to her. If I refuse to listen to my wife, I am mocking God’s gift to me, and mocking the God who gave her.
E. Beloved, let's let God be God; let’s let God be the Judge; let’s allow God to tell us what is right/wrong and live according to His word. Lets trust that He knows best and that He will not give us what is harmful but only what is good, even if it hurts.
V. Conclusion: the truth which exposes the lie
A. A lot’s happened in the story since the incident recorded in Gen.3. Gen.3 is episode 3 of season 1. Now we’re in season 96.
1. Later in Genesis 3 God actually promises to undo the damage Adam and Eve did. In Genesis 3:15 He promises to send a child of the woman to crush Satan and rescue mankind, though He would be wounded in the process.
2. Eventually He does just that. He sends His Son, Jesus, born of a woman. And Jesus redeems His people by succeeding where Adam failed, obeying instead of disobeying, resisting Satan’s temptation instead of giving in, and then suffering the consequences of their rebellion by dying on the cross in their place.
3. And by so doing, Jesus proves once-and-for-all what was true all along, that God is FOR His people and will not withhold any good thing from them. By sending His Son to die for us to forgive our sins and claim us as His children, God proves that there is no limit to His love for His people. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” – Romans 8:32
4. Adam and Eve didn’t have this, but we do. Because of Christ, we know that the all-wise and all-knowing God loves us so greatly that He will do anything to work for our welfare.
5. And we know that sometimes this involves allowing painful things in our lives, not because He is uncaring or malicious, but because He loves us so much. And He knows exactly what we need.
B. And the fact is, if you have Christ, then you already have what you need. You don’t need your pain to be removed.
1. But the unhappiness which pain introduces in us shows us that our happiness is often not based on Christ, but on circumstances. I.e. it’s built on sand. And He wants to help us build our lives upon the Rock.
2. If you DON’T have Christ, then either Satan has fooled you into thinking that you can find what you need in yourself or here in the earth and you keep searching,
a. or you are wandering around with no hope in an empty world — with an empty heart and an empty soul.
b. But you don’t have to do so. Come to Christ. He is your only hope. And He is a friend of sinners.