The Fall of Man – pt. 2 (Genesis 3:14-24)
The Fall of Man – part 2
Genesis 3:1-24 (14-24)
December 2, 2013
Last time we met we began to look at one of
The most horrible days in the history of mankind.
(Where it not for the cross, it would be the worst)
We began to look at that day when sin entered the world.
Having studied Genesis 1 we know that God made a perfect creation.
• It was absolutely void of all flaws.
• It was perfect, it was complete, it was finished and God rested.
But obviously the Israelites knew the wilderness where they wandered
Was a far cry from the utopia Moses described.
The obvious question is “WHAT HAPPENED?”
That is a question Moses began answering in chapter 2.
Genesis 2:4 “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven.”
Moses actually began to show:
WHAT BECAME OF GOD’S CREATION
And after making sure that we all understood in chapter 2
That God had done everything necessary to ensure the success of man…
Moses then transitioned into chapter 3 to reveal exactly what happened.
And the answer was sin.
God had given one command to Adam.
The command not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, known as “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil”
That was the one command.
And God had made it clear.
And to further aid Adam, God had more than compensated
By giving Adam a garden he could freely eat from, including the tree of life.
It should have been an easy command to obey.
But the crafty serpent arrived and he began to go to work on Eve.
And last week we saw the first two points of this chapter,
But I want to quickly recap them to bring us all up to speed.
#1 THE CALL OF SIN
Genesis 3:1-7
This was the temptation of Eve.
But was a common temptation that we still face today.
Satan’s main goal in temptation is to make you dissatisfied with God.
And that is what he is seeking to do with Eve.
Satan accused God of being stingy – won’t let you eat from any tree
Satan accused God of being selfish – won’t let you know what He knows
And as a result Satan convinced Eve
That there was more out there than what God was letting on.
And when Even became dissatisfied with God’s garden,
She reached out for more, took the fruit and ate it.
She then gave some to Adam and he ate it.
And instantly their lives would never be the same again.
(7) “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”
• All of a sudden SHAME entered the world.
• All of a sudden SKEPTICISM entered the world.
Gone were the days of “naked and unashamed”
The relationship between Adam and Even was instantly scarred.
They no longer walked in perfect harmony, they no longer fully trusted the other.
They answered the call of sin.
And as we said, that call is the same today.
• Sin is what you do when you are dissatisfied with God.
• If Satan can make you dissatisfied he can offer you the fulfillment.
We then know the importance of being grateful and content.
This helps us not answer the call of sin.
We also saw:
#2 THE CULPRIT OF SIN
Genesis 3:8-13
Adam and Even were now caught in a whirlwind.
They were afraid, they were ashamed.
And they heard God walking in the garden and hid from Him.
• And remember, it wasn’t that God didn’t know what had happened.
• God was merely forcing Adam and Eve to acknowledge what they had done.
We said it is like when a child deliberately disobeys you and hurts themselves as a result. You may ask, “What happened?” “How’d that work out for you?”
That is what God is doing.
He is asking Adam to be honest about the wrong decision he just made.
He is asking Adam to fess up to the reality that he blew it.
And we reminded ourselves that we are the culprit of sin.
We can’t blame our sin on anyone else but ourselves.
We have to take responsibility for our sin.
Of course neither Adam nor Eve wanted to do that.
They each tried to blame someone else.
• Adam blamed Eve (and God for giving her to him)
• Eve blamed the Serpent
But neither wanted to take responsibility.
But we must.
Our sin is our fault
The Call of Sin, The Culprit of Sin
#3 THE CURSE OF SIN
Genesis 3:14-19
And we only introduced this one last week
Remembering how the issue of the sin curse was important to Moses.
He wrote quite extensively to the children of Israel about the curse of sin,
And about choosing obedience
So as not to bring further hardship upon their lives.
This whole section would be used heavily by Moses
To reiterate to the children of Israel that sin is always a bad idea.
It never brings anything good.
It always brings a curse.
STAY AWAY FROM SIN.
And the specifics of that can be easily seen here.
If you want to know what sin brought with it, look at these verses.
Here God pronounces three specific curses.
Eve blamed the serpent, and God starts with him.
1) From the serpent we learn ENMITY
(14-15) “The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
Now there are several things we recognize here.
• We see that from this point on Satan became the low of the low.
We are not confused about his rank.
And because of his use of the serpent,
The serpent was restricted to his belly and to eat dirt his whole life.
• We also see the Messianic prophecy and even recognize the
coming virgin birth of the Messiah.
As God promised “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed”
You and I know that women don’t have seed.
This was an obvious reference to the virgin birth.
And that Christ will one day crush Satan under his feet.
But the clearest issue of the curse here is that of “enmity”
And this isn’t just enmity with Satan,
But enmity with his “seed”
Before the fall this world was going to live in perfect peace and harmony,
But now we have introduced a trouble maker.
The seed of Satan is also going to be on this earth.
And we can expect a great deal of “enmity”
In fact that enmity shows up in the very next chapter
When Cain succumbs to sin and chooses to kill Abel.
The wicked killed the righteous.
“enmity” was born.
All the fighting, all the striving, all the disagreement
It all started in the garden when sin entered the world.
And now you have the children of the world and the children of God.
And there will forever be enmity between the two.
It has often times puzzled the Christian why he is so hated in the world.
• A Christian is one who loves his enemies…
• A Christian is one who cares for the poor…
• A Christian is one who turns the other cheek…
• A Christian is one who submits to the government…
• A Christian is one who doesn’t steal, or kill, or commit adultery…
And you have to wonder, if that is what a Christian is, why does the world hate them so much?
It seems to me that governments would want to fill their borders with Christians.
The reason for the enmity can be traced back to the garden.
There is enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of Christ.
And there will be until Christ returns.
If you hate the fighting, if you hate the arguing, if you hate the killing, then make sure you blame it on the right place.
It is the fault of sin.
But the serpent wasn’t the only one to get a curse
2) From the woman we learn PAIN
(16) To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”
There is one of my favorite words – “Pain”
Why do things have to hurt so much?
The answer is sin.
It is an evil that sprang upon us when sin entered the world.
Certainly physical pain.
And Scripture never pulls any punches when it wants to illustrate the climax of physical pain it always reverts back to one illustration, which is “childbirth”
While bearing children may be the biggest pain,
It certainly isn’t the only one.
Pain in general came in as a result of the fall.
But emotional pain also came in.
“In pain you will bring forth children”
That isn’t just the pain of birth,
But even the heartache of raising children.
Even didn’t know about it yet,
But by the end of chapter 4 she’ll have a good handle on it.
Children can be the source of great joy,
And they can be the source of great sorrow.
Emotional pain is also part of the curse.
That pain is also seen now in the relationship between husband and wife.
“Yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
There is the introduction of feminism and chauvinism into the world.
• You have a woman who from that day forward quit being a helpmate and
started being a usurper.
“he will rule over you.”
• You have a man who from that day forward quit being a loving provider
and started being a dominating boss.
When they were created Eve was the perfect help-mate
And Adam was the perfect loving leader.
But after the fall everything went haywire.
Pain entered the world
Physical pain and emotional pain
You can thank sin for both of those.
Enmity, Pain
3) From the man we learn TOIL
(17-19) “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
Why does everything always have to be so hard?
The answer is sin.
Life was easy before the fall.
God had appointed all the trees of the garden
To produce fruit for Adam whenever he wanted it.
Adam didn’t even have to plant them.
All Adam had to do was pick the fruit and eat it.
But after that day the ground quit producing fruit
And started producing thorns.
• How many of you have goatheads in your yard?
• How many of you planted them?
Why is it that we have to plant grace and spray weeds?
Sin
It cursed the ground.
Adam would still eat fruit from the tree, but only “the plants of the field.”
• Only after Adam would break the soil…
• Only after Adam would sow the seed…
• Only after Adam would pray for rain…
• Only after Adam would protect from weeds and varmints…
• Only after Adam would harvest the crop…
Adam’s job as keeper of the garden just got a whole lot tougher
If he wanted to eat bread, it would be “by the sweat of [his] face”
And the real depressing thought is that Adam would not win this fight.
The reward of all of Adam’s struggles would be that
Eventually the ground would win and Adam would return
To the dust from which he was taken.
How is that for futility?
You toil all your life and then return to the ground you fought.
It is the curse.
Enmity, Pain, Toil
All because sin entered the world.
Solomon had a pretty good bead on it:
Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 “For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun? Because all his days his task is painful and grievous; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity.”
And I don’t guess there is anything that Moses could have said which would better have explained the 430 year period of slavery to Israel.
Certainly more than 1 Israelite went through the period of slavery
And wondered why it had to be so hard.
Sin cursed this world and ruined it.
• Can we reiterated again that sin is a bad idea?
• Can we say again that you can’t do anything worse than sin?
This world was perfect before sin entered.
Peace, Comfort, and Rest
Were replaced with:
Enmity, Pain, and Toil
Stay away from sin
The Call of Sin, The Culprit of Sin, The Curse of Sin
#4 THE CLOTHING OF SIN
Genesis 3:20-21
Now we notice in verse 20 that Moses takes special account
To reveal that Adam named Eve.
“Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.”
“Eve” means “living”
And this is important because it reveals that Adam and Eve
Weren’t just succumbing to now lay down and die.
They realized they had made a mistake,
But they also realized that they were to live life.
It would be harder now, but they weren’t called to quit.
They were still called to live and make life.
There is a certain element of hope in the fact that coming out of the curse, Adam was still looking for life.
And I don’t think it’s hard to see where Adam’s hope came from.
(21) “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”
Before the fall clothing wasn’t necessary.
The man and his wife were innocent, they had nothing to hide.
After the fall, man needed a new character.
In Scripture garments always represent character,
And Adam and Eve are about to get new ones.
God provides for them new garments.
“garments of skin”
These garments indicate that an animal had to die
In order to provide Adam and Even with clothing.
This is a sacrifice.
This is an atoning offering.
Hebrews 9:22 “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
We saw God’s holiness in the curse He pronounced on Adam and Eve for their sin, here we see His mercy.
Adam and Eve sinned, but God didn’t kill them.
God forgave them.
God atoned for them.
God shed the blood of an animal to satisfy His wrath on them.
The animal, which days earlier had been Adam’s friend
Now became Adam’s atonement.
This animal was the first of millions that would be sacrificed in Israel’s history.
It was God’s merciful offer of forgiveness.
And now you see why Adam could have hope.
• He had sinned
• He had brought a curse
• But God was willing to forgive and cover Adam’s sin and shame.
This animal died so that Adam could live.
Adam could no longer boldly access God like he had done before,
Now he would come only through the blood.
But that blood is why Adam could live and move forward.
Of course you know that this animal, was the first picture of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ found in Scripture.
This animal shed blood for as in it did not commit,
Just as Christ thousands of years later
Would actually atone for Adam’s sin by shedding His own blood.
The Call of Sin, The Culprit of Sin, The Curse of Sin, The Clothing of Sin
#5 THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN
Genesis 3:22-24
At this point you could make a lot of arguments for the consequence of sin.
• The curse was certainly a consequence.
But as bad as enmity, pain, and toil are,
They are not the most severe consequence of sin.
The truest and greatest consequence of sin is death.
The blood of the animal had purchased forgiveness for Adam,
But the greatest consequence could not be removed.
Man had to die.
And that is why man could not stay in the garden.
“Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”
• Man was now fallen
• Man was now sinful
• God was not about to allow man to live forever in that sinful state
So God “drove the man out”
And God “stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Man would not be allowed to live forever in sin.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…”
Adam had to die.
Adam had to return to the dust from which he was taken.
Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned”
Man was stuck in sin and headed for death.
And now, the only hope for mankind would be found in One
Who not only could atone for sin, but could also conquer death.
From this day in the garden man began to need a Savior.
I think it’s obvious at this point in the story those Moses are preaching to must have sort of sunk back in silence.
It all made sense now.
• So that is why we spent all that time in slavery…
• So that is why life is so hard…
• So that is why everyone lives this life and yet dies…
It also pushed them to begin to look forward to the Savior
Who would come and save them from sin and reverse the curse.
Well, Moses preached this message and caused the Israelites
To look forward to the Messiah.
We preach this message and gratefully look back to Him.
• We are no longer waiting for the One who can crush Satan’s head…
• We are no longer waiting for the atoning sacrifice…
• We are no longer waiting for the One who can conquer death…
We know who He is.
That is Jesus Christ.
He was the 2nd Adam.
And His sacrifice can work in your life
In much the same way that Adam’s did.
It is called IMPUTATION
• If one man’s sin can be imputed to you.
• Then so can one man’s righteousness.
• If one man’s sin can wreck this world.
• Then one man’s righteousness can save it.
Romans 5:18-19 “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”
1 Corinthians 15:20-22 “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.”
1 Corinthians 15:45 “So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
And that is what we celebrate here this morning.
Adam came in and through his sin wrecked this entire creation.
He brought enmity, pain, toil, and death.
Christ came and through His righteousness redeemed us.
He brought peace, joy, rest, and life.
And that is what we remember this morning.
After seeing the curse that sin brought to this world,
It can only cause us to be all the more grateful
To the One who came to redeem us.
Galatians 3:13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us — for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”
• So while we learn to hate sin
• And while we learn to avoid it at all cost
We do know where to go when we do it.
We run to Jesus.
This morning we are celebrating the Lord’s Supper.
• We see the bread, which represents His body
• We see the juice, which represents His blood
Christ came in human form and then died.
He shed His blood to clothe us in His righteousness.
And this morning we remember that sacrifice and thank Him for it.
As always before we partake, we allow for a moment of preparation.
1 Corinthians 11:28 “But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
• So we’ll have a time of self-examination
• We’ll have a time of private gratitude
• And then we’ll partake of the table of the Lord
