Legends of the Fall

Sunday January 17, 2010

Shelby Wesleyan Church

Here's a little pop quiz that I thought might make this sermon a wee bit more interesting:

Q: What do we have that Adam never had?
A: Ancestors.

Q: Why was Adam created first?
A: To give him a chance to say something.

Q: When was the longest day in the Bible?
A: The day Adam was created because there was no Eve.

Q: Why did God create man before woman?
A: He didn't want any advice.

Q. Where is the first mention of insurance in the Bible?
A. When Adam and Eve needed more coverage.

(from www.juliantrubin.com/bible)

Last week our message had to do with the murderous affair of Cain killing Able because of a fit of jealousy and anger over acceptable and unacceptable sacrifices. The problem of the sins of the parents, Adam and Eve, was being exposed in their children, Cain and Able. We see Able as truly the first man of faith and Cain as a man of jealousy and anger.

Sin doesn't just happen. Sin was crouching at Cain's door and God called on him to master it. However, he couldn't- or most likely, wouldn't.

The apple didn't fall far from that family tree. Adam and Eve allowed sin to overcome them and the results proved to be far more disastrous than they expected.

The focus of this message from Genesis 3 is to show that in spite of the temptation and giving in to sin, God provides a means of deliverance.

How do you handle the temptation of sin? How do you overcome the feelings of going ahead and doing the wrong thing when you better enough to do the right thing?

I like what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians who were struggling with the whole mess of pagan sacrifices, sexual perversity and divisions within the church:

1 Corinthians 10:13- No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

I truly believe that God always makes a way out of sin through forgiveness, reconciliation with Him and most importantly, by the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Notice what grips our attention as we look at the Genesis 3 account of the legends of the fall: We see…

1. Disaster in the Making.
   

"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 gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate."

Whenever I seem to approach the temptation in the garden story I always seem to find myself hoping that somehow Adam and Eve would make a different choice. But instead they continue to make the same choice as the last time I read it.

But it made me think of something else. It is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. (Einstein is given credit for this- so I've heard.) So what is our excuse as human beings when we choose to make wrong choices- again and again and again? Our experience tells us how it will turn out but somehow we hope that it ends up differently.

Sin began, very simply, with unbelief. Eve chose to believe the serpent rather than God. Understand that she and Adam had complete access to the Tree of Life that stood nearby. But instead, we see them standing beneath the forbidden tree- the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

As you begin to read the Temptation account you see the process of sin take shape and that process could not start without the problem of unbelief. John Wesley wrote of this in one of his sermons ("The End of Christ's Coming") and describes it in three deliberate steps that began with unbelief.

a. Unbelief gives birth to pride.

They think that they are wiser than God. Any time we choose to not believe God we are choosing to believe something else. It's pretty hard to stand neutral when you reject God's way. This is called pride.

b. Pride gives birth to self-will.

They were determined to do their own will rather than God's will. Regardless of how tempting or justifying we can make of the sin temptation it is a deliberate choosing of going our direction rather than God's. Self-will says that "I did it my way." How many people do you know who live their entire lives like this? "I'm the captain of his soul." Wrong, wrong, wrong for the Christian to ever have this kind of spirit of self-will. Look at what happens next.

c. Self-will gives birth to evil desires.

They chose foolishly but willfully. And people who consider themselves self-made, captain of their own fate, are the ones who end up the most unhappy in life.

Most don't ever think of the consequences of sin. Adam and Eve never considered the wrong choice that they were going to make.

When God created humanity He gave us an absolute free will. He did not make us machines which can only turn according to His direction.

Adam and Eve could have very simply walked away and obeyed God. Or they could have stood there and disobeyed God. They chose to disobey God.

And the image of God created in mankind was tarnished forever.

As with most sins we commit, Adam and Eve were unaware of the true and…

2. Unintended Consequences of Sin.

Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loin cloths for themselves.

Adam and Eve could not have imagined the problems that sin would bring their way. I think of four consequences that perhaps we should keep in mind when we face temptation:

Results of disobedience: guilt and shame. Anytime sin is in charge there is very little room for grace. Instead, there is a constant sense of guilt and shame. Now if you don't have that perhaps you better pray for it! Adam and Eve experienced guilt and shame because of their wrong choice.

Loss of divine grace: unholy and unhappy. You will never be truly happy and truly fulfilled with sin in your life. You may not realize it at the time and live a sort of "ignorant state of bliss" but once you know true freedom in Christ you will look back and wonder why you lived in such a state.

Spiritual death: the loss of the life and image of God. Man no longer possessed the glory of his moral likeness to God. He lost the perfectness of humanity that was created in the image of God.

Enslavement to sin: they could never be who they were created to be. God's original goal was for man to receive and digest God's spiritual life with the truth and reality in this spiritual life. Instead, they did as so many have done who have followed in their path: they chose the bowl of pottage over the birthright and wanted their inheritance now rather than later.

(H. Orton Wiley, Paul T. Culbertson, Introduction to Christian Theology pp. 164-165; Watchman Nee The Spiritual Man, Volume 1 pp. 29-31)

What could they do? In that moment of the desire for what was forbidden, sin entered the heart. It was not merely the action that brought forth sin but the intent of the heart. And now they stand full of guilt and shame.

And then they hear the footsteps of the Lord God. We see them where we very easily could see ourselves when faced with a guilty conscience:

3. A Defenseless Standing before God.

Numbers 32:23- But if you do not do this, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out. (Moses' response to the Gadites and Reubenites who preferred to live on the east side of the Jordan. They were called on to go into the Promised Land first to aid the other tribes and then return- but not until they had helped the others to total victory.)

It's interesting how people act once their sin has found them out. They go to rehab centers for drug, alcohol or sex addictions. They live life up until confronted with their sin. I don't decry this because I see too many situations where people are confronted and refuse help.

In the perfect world of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve stand defenseless as the Lord God approaches.

What would you say? What could you say? I will give Adam credit, he did come out and face the consequences like a man.

And it was then that they received…

4. Divine Condemnation.

The New England Primer was the first and most basic textbook used in the American colonies for school children as well as the classrooms in Sabbath school. It was the most successful textbook because it was able to mingle education and moral teaching.

I have drawn from the public domain two samples of the New England Primer.

The first, "In Adam's fall, we sinned all." Not only do you learn as a little munchkin that Adam sinned and when he did we all sinned, but you also learned that "A" was the first letter of the alphabet.

The second, "Thy Life to mend, God's Book attend." Your little Johnny would not only learn that the second letter in the alphabet is "B" but he would also learn that if he wants to straighten out his life then he will be attending not neglecting the Bible.

Adam's sin ushered sin into a perfect world. The world that God had created became cursed because of sin. The Holy cannot tolerate the unholy. The New England Primer had it right: "In Adam's fall, we sinned all."

Punishment had to be meded out- God's holiness demands that there be justice and this justice results in wrath.

a. The Doom of Satan.

The serpent was forced to be on "his belly" all of his days of existence. No one knows for sure if the creature still exists in today's present form and it may or may not have been a snake. (William Barclay suggests that perhaps the "serpent" was a monkey.)

Beyond the serpent itself is the doom of Satan. Obviously the serpent was used by Satan in order to bring temptation. His punishment was that eventually his head would be crushed.

b. The Punishment of Humanity.

Humanity is punished but notice the difference:

1. The serpent is punished first. God did not choose to punish the humans first but the one bringing the temptation to start with. It tells us where ethical blame lies when someone causes "one of these little ones to stumble." However, this doesn't release someone from their legal obligation for the punishment of sin.
   
2. Eve's Sorrow. I know this bugs some women, but I didn't write the Bible. Women would be reminded of sin's consequences even in something as wonderful as birthing a child. However, 1 Timothy 2:15-16 speaks of a type of "salvation" through childbirth if the mother maintains a life of faith, love and holiness with propriety.
   
3. Adam's Labor. Life would not come easy. Even the richest kings can find life challenging. For Adam, picking fruit off of any tree anytime was a thing of the past. (And yet men find a certain satisfaction with hard work and earning bread by the sweat of their brow.)
   

The legends of the fall would be left to wallow in the misery of their wrong deeds. I have met those people who believe "if you build your nest then you must lie in it" and have no sense of mercy towards anyone who makes errors in life. It doesn't matter to them if a guy makes one mistake of numerous. They are all the same.

Well, I am glad that the most holy of any, the Lord God, is a God who is full of mercy and grace. Yes, God is holy. Yes, the sinner needs to be judged. But better yet, the sin can be atoned for.

And that is why the gospel message that Jesus saves is good news. And this message is good news because we don't end it with tragedy but with triumph. And what we see and can experience is the…

5. Revelation of Redeeming Love.

This should be the theme of every Christian's song and message: redeeming love. God's redeeming love for humanity. God loved Adam and Eve and the whole human race so much that He was making a way for them.

a. Jesus regained what Adam lost.

We all sinned in Adam. We would not have done any different. ¹⁵ But there is a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. ¹⁶ And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. (Romans 5:15-16 NLT)

b. Jesus provides a way out of sin.

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10 NKJV)

What Satan stole from humanity through the temptation of Adam and Eve, the spiritual death that resulted and the destruction of humanity, Jesus comes to defeat by His life. And what's more Jesus looks not to defeat sin by simply His death but that sin and Satan would be defeated through our lives of holiness. He comes to you right now to give you new life, not steal your life from you; to give you life, not death; to build you up, not destroy. And in receiving Christ or recommitting your life to Him today, you can have a life that is so much better and so much greater than the one without Christ.

That's a promise you can bank on and live with- forever!

c. Jesus gives us salvation by faith in him.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 NKJV)

Notice that Adam and Eve's greatest problem was unbelief. Because they chose to not believe a whole new world of unintended consequences overwhelmed them. BUT, belief is what overcomes unbelief. And this is the opportunity of a lifetime for you today.

Do you long for freedom from the sin that brings guilt and shame? Do you long for the kind of freedom that Jesus offers? A freedom that doesn't make you feel shameful or guilty or condemns you?

That freedom is found nowhere else than in Jesus Christ.

Conclusion: Our Freedom in Christ Jesus over sin and evil.

And now you have a choice: choose wisely through Jesus Christ or not. Choose to BELIEVE or choose to do as Adam and Eve did and not believe.

The choice is yours.

How sad it is that when men and women not much different than us hear the word but walk away determined to go their own direction.

But you don't have to do that today. Our Lord has graciously offers to you the opportunity to get on the right path and to seek Him. Not because you are so strong or so worthy or so wonderful- but because you are so privileged to have God's grace shine into your heart at this very moment.

Will you choose Christ- choose Life- rather than choose your own way and your own wisdom?

Do you believe that you are a sinner?

Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?

Do you believe that you can be forgiven for your sins?

Are you ready to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord?