The Fall of Man -- 5/18/08

Sunday, May 18, 2008

THE FALL OF MAN
Gen. 3:1-8

[Young kid comes in and walks along the narrow edge of a two by four. Then he leaves and the board is removed. When all is done, begin to speak.]

Did you see that? What did you think? You think I’m crazy. Well, let me put things in perspective. Picture that same young man walking the narrow edge of that same two by four, but now put that two by four 40 feet up in the air. Would you have reacted differently than you did? I guarantee you would have. There would have been gasps. Some of you would have done everything in your power to dissuade the boy from attempting it. Some of you would have hidden your eyes.

Why the difference? Because of the height of the board. In the first case, if he fell, no big deal. It wasn’t far to fall. In the second case, a fall would have had great consequences. How far you have to fall makes a big difference.

And that brings us to our passage for this morning. We have worked our way through Genesis 1 and 2. Obviously, there was much more we could have said about those two chapters, but we did learn some very key principles from that portion of God’s Word. This morning we come to chapter 3.

Before we read, remember the situation. God has created everything. Man was the pinnacle of His creation. After He had created everything else, He made man in His own image. Because it was not good for the man to be alone, God created a helper for man. Adam called her woman. And now God has put the man and the woman, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, a place of great beauty. It was their privilege to care for the garden. There was only one thing God told Adam not to do. He told him not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Not only did God tell him not to eat from it, but He also told him what would happen if he did. We read it in Gen. 2:17, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

Now we’re ready for chapter 3. Read Gen. 3:1-24…
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12. And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14. And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 20. And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 22. And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23. Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

From the context of this passage and other biblical passages, we know that the serpent was none other than Satan himself. Could Satan disguise himself as a snake? Indeed, he could. As a matter of fact, Paul tells us that Satan can even disguise himself as an angel of light (II Cor. 11:14). One of the chief characteristics of Satan is his craftiness, his trickiness. Though he is powerful as a roaring lion, it seems that he most often works through deception. That was certainly the case here in the Garden of Eden.

Notice how the conversation went…
Satan... “Did God really say that you must refrain from eating of every tree of the garden?”
Already he is twisting what God said. God said only that they couldn’t eat from the one tree, not every tree.

Eve…. “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. The only tree we can’t eat from is the tree in the middle of the garden. Of it, God said, ‘You must not eat from it nor touch it, or you will die.’”
At first, we think the woman has it right, when she reminds the serpent
that it is only the one tree in the middle of the garden whose fruit is
forbidden. But she doesn’t stop there. She then says that God told them
not to touch that tree. Where did she get that? God said no such thing.
It seems that Satan has successfully caused her to question God. Now she
is making God out to be more strict than he is. There may be the slightest
thought that God is a hard taskmaster after all.

Satan... “You won’t die. God knows that when you eat the fruit, your eyes will be opened and you will be like Him. You yourself will know the difference between good and evil.”
Do you catch what he is saying? "God has an ulterior motive. He knows you
won’t die. He is just saying that so that you won’t go ahead and eat from the
tree, because He doesn’t want you to become like Him. God is working hard to
keep you in your place." Notice that while he is still very tricky, he has boldly
called God a liar by saying, “You won’t die.” But by the time Satan gets through,
he is the hero and God is the bad guy.

That’s the end of the conversation. Satan had the last word. Now we read in verse 6, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” She noticed three things about the tree: it was good for food; it was pleasant to look at; it was able to make her wise. But didn’t she know it was good for food before? Hadn’t she seen the beauty of the tree before? Apparently not. Why? Was it not because she had no reason to study the tree? God had told them not to eat from it. But now that Satan brought it to her attention, she looked at it much more closely and found it attractive in every way.

Isn’t that the way it is with temptation? If we give in and begin to study the pleasures of what is forbidden by God, Satan will always make it attractive. He’s an expert at that. He will always paint a one-sided picture, emphasiz-ing how pleasant it is but never mentioning the consequences.

And what about Adam? I grew up always thinking that Adam was in another part of the garden and Eve took the fruit to him. However, we are not told that. Why wouldn’t Adam be right there by Eve’s side? She was a helper suitable to him. As a matter of fact, notice what the text actually says: “…she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” She gave unto her husband with her. The text actually says that Adam was with her. He could have restrained her, but he did not.

So what happened as a result of them eating the fruit? Verse 7, "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Satan had already told them what would happen, in that he had said their eyes would be opened. What he didn’t tell them was what they would see when their eyes were opened. He made it sound like a very positive thing, but it wasn’t. They saw they were naked and they were filled with guilt? Why? Because they were naked? No. It was because their eyes were opened.

Satan had said that when their eyes were opened, they would be like God, knowing good and evil. He told the truth, but not the whole truth. They did become like God in that they now knew good and evil. They not only knew what evil was, but they themselves were guilty of committing the evil. On the other hand, they were like God in that they knew good and evil, but that is the only way they became like God. They definitely weren’t expecting what they got.

Isn’t that the way it always is with temptation and sin? The forbidden sin holds great promise. That is why it is so tempting. Satan has to convince us that it will be worth it. But what do we find from the Word and experience? It’s never worth it… never! Has anyone here ever yielded to temptation and found that it was worth it? It you think it was, you are still deceived.

Now verse 8, "And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden." Here we see the great consequences of their sin. Not only were they full of guilt and shame, but they were cut off from God. The way in which this is stated suggests that in the past they had walked and talked with God in the garden, but now we see them actually hiding from God. Something had fundamentally changed. Their sin had separated them from God.

We are not going to deal with the rest of chapter 3 this morning. Rather, let’s focus on what we have already seen. There is no better title for Gen. 3:1-8 than “The Fall of Man.” What we must understand is that it is no small thing. When Satan was talking with Eve in the garden, Adam and Eve seemed to regard it like you did when our young man was walking on the board. They should have seen it like a tiny boy walking on a board hundreds of feet in the air. They should have realized that flirting with disobedience was no small thing.

Mankind hasn’t learned very much since that time. In general, the world sees the fall of man as no big thing, but that viewpoint doesn’t come from God. Let’s come to the New Testament and read from Rom. 5:12-14,18-19…
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13. (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come… 18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

So we’re thinking about the fall of man. When someone falls, it may not be any big deal. It depends on what he falls into. When I was a kid, we were visiting relatives out in west Texas. They had a little pony that I and my cousins had been riding. It was great fun. We left for home, but we forgot something. When we went back to their house to get it, I jumped out and ran for the pony. I had to have one more ride. Unfortunately for the rider, the pony wasn’t interested in one more ride. He bucked me off. That’s right; I fell. No, I didn’t break any bones. The fall itself wasn’t that big a deal. The key was what I fell into, and what I fell into was a patch of grass burrs.

Adam and Eve fell that day in the Garden of Eden. Not only did they fall, but we fell with them. When they sinned, we sinned. What happened to them happened to us, as this passage in Romans 5 points out so clearly. So what is it that they and we fell into? Verse 12 tells us. We fell into sin and death. Verse 19 summarizes: “…by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” David said, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5). David understood that the sin in his life went deeper than the adultery and murder he had committed. He was a sinner from birth. That was the root of the problem.

Adam and Eve fell into sin (or dove in headfirst), and we experience the consequences of that fall. We are fallen creatures when we are born into this world. Yes, we are sinners from birth. We prove we are sinners by sinning. That’s why we don’t have to teach our kids to sin. We don’t have to teach them to be selfish. The concepts of “my” and “mine” come very naturally, because that’s the way sinners think.

Isaiah had it right when he said, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” As Adam and Eve forsook trust in God and turned to their own way, so we have all turned to our own way. What that means is that we are locked into self-sufficiency. Instead of trusting God, we come into this world trusting self. Though we may find many ways to disguise it, the fact is that we depend on self.

Not only have we fallen into sin, but we have fallen into death, because death is the consequence of sin. What did God say would happen, if Adam ate from the tree in the middle of the garden? Gen. 2:17, “…for in the day you eat from it, you will surely die.” Was God telling the truth? Did Adam die the day he ate from the tree? Indeed, he did. Though he would live to be 930 years old, he died the day he ate the fruit. This is what demonstrates for us that death is deeper than the physical. Though physical death would be delayed, spiritual death was immediate. When they ate the fruit, they were cut off from God, as is demonstrated by the fact that they hid from Him.

When we come back again to Paul’s letter to the Romans, we read these words in Rom. 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death…” Sin earns a wage, and that wage is death. But again, it goes much deeper than physical death. Death has three aspects…
1. Spiritual death – spiritual separation from God. That’s the way we come into this
world. Paul says to believers that God has made us alive, because we were dead
in our trespasses and sins. That is, we were separated from God.
2. Physical death – when the body is separated from the spirit
3. Eternal death – when spiritual separation from God becomes eternal separation in
hell. There is no remedy for this death; it is final separation.

Trey and Paola, I didn’t necessarily preach a graduation message for you, but I do want to speak specifically to you and to all the young people here this morning. The biblical truth of the fall of man, rooted here in Genesis 3, is a truth that you must grasp. It is crucial.

I. Know It for Yourself

If you don’t understand this truth, you will never progress any farther than the sin of self-sufficiency. And I tell you that self-sufficiency is a curse. There is nothing worse than being left to your own resources. Please allow me to read a rather lengthy passage of scripture from Prov. 1. Please listen very carefully… Prov. 1:20-33
Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: 21. She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, 22. How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? 23. Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. 24. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25. But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27. When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: 30. They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. 31. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. 32. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 33. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Did you hear that? Those who refuse the truth of the Lord, even His correction, will have to eat the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices. In other words, they will be left to themselves and what they can do for themselves. Ultimately, that means such a person will have to stand before God and have nothing to lean on but himself. If that doesn’t strike fear into the heart of every unbeliever, it is because he or she is absolutely blind.

Understand, young people, that we come into this world as fallen creatures. We have already fallen into sin and death, separated from the God who created us. Know and understand this truth.

II. Guard This Truth in the World

You are living in a world that increasingly sees the fall of man as no big deal. As a matter of fact, much of the world doesn’t even believe that man is a fallen creature. Much of our world sees the sin of self-sufficiency as a good thing. Man is the measure of all things. The world will tell you there is nothing you can’t do, if you just set your mind to it. That is a lie. You cannot conquer sin and death, no matter what the world tells you.

Even many religious people in our country have failed to grasp the truth of the fall of man. The idea has become: “Yes, we are sinners, but all we need is a little help from God. We have been blessed with many things; now we will just add Jesus and everything will be fine.” That lie will condemn millions to hell. A little help from God will never raise a single person from death to life. Only when all hope in self and others is renounced and Jesus Christ becomes the only hope will there be life from death.

Guard this truth, because if you don’t, the world will squeeze you into its mold and you will swallow the lie.

III. Proclaim It for the Glory of God

I was talking to a brother the other day. I was asking him about a young man for whom he has asked us to pray. He said something like this: “The biggest challenge will be getting him lost.” Do you understand what he is saying? His young friend thinks like the world because he is part of the world. He doesn’t see any need for a Savior, because he doesn’t understand he is dead. He thinks he is alive and life is just pretty good. Until he realizes that he has fallen into sin and death, there is no hope for him.

What is true of that young man is true for every human being on this earth. When the Pharisees asked why He hung around with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus answered like this: “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Lk. 5:31-32). If you don’t think you’re sick, you won’t go to the doctor. Jesus is the great doctor of the soul. He didn’t come for people who think they are all right spiritually, for people who think they just need a little help from God. Jesus came for those who realize they are sick and lost and dead. They are the only ones who can respond to Jesus call to repentance and faith.

If you aren’t willing to confront people with the truth of sin and death, you can’t help them. I’m not saying it’s wrong to tell people that God loves them, but they will never understand that love until they understand they are dead sinners. For the glory of God and the good of others, may God give all of us the grace to speak the truth in love, even the truth about sin and death.

Conclusion

Let me ask one other question. Adam and Eve fell into death and sin, but what did they fall out of? Come back to Gen. 3:8, “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…” We are not given the details, but I don’t believe we have to do much reading between the lines to grasp what is going on here. They heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They recognized the voice immediately because they had heard it many times before. Adam and Eve had the privilege of walking and talking with God. The God who created the entire universe out of nothing condescended to have fellowship with the man and woman He had made. Adam and Eve walked with God. Surely the cool of the day emphasizes the sweet, refreshing nature of that fellowship.

But this time things are different. Instead of running to the God who created them and lovingly put them in this beautiful garden, they hid themselves. We read it so easily, but do we grasp the tragedy here? Suppose a young man takes a young lady to be his bride. This young man truly gives himself to his bride. He prepares everything for their life together. The wedding day comes and they are married. They have a wonderful honeymoon, come back, and settle into their new home. Then one day he comes home from work and says, “I’m home, sweetheart.” No response. He finally finds his wife in the kitchen, dutifully cooking his supper. When he speaks to her, she responds, but something is different. Her face no longer lights up at his presence. He hasn’t changed one bit. He loves her with all his heart. But there has been a change. For no good reason, she has broken her marriage vow on this day, giving herself to another man. There is no explanation as to why she would do it. She had everything a wife could want. She had a husband who loved her and cherished her, but she has disrupted that loving relationship.

That is a graphic picture, but it is nothing compared to what happened in the garden. Even the closeness between a man and his wife is a pale picture of the privilege Adam and Eve had in relating so closely to the living God. It is impossible for us to get hold of how far they fell they day, when they fell out of fellowship with the living God.

Now for the good news. We have focused on the message of three passages – Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12-19; Rom. 6:23. You may have noticed that we either didn’t read the rest of the passage or we didn’t give attention to it. Well, now it’s time to do so.

In Genesis 3, we see man separated from God, but we also see something else. There wasn’t anything Adam and Eve could do for themselves. They covered up with fig leaves, but they were still ashamed and hid from God. But in verse 15 we find a wonderful promise from God. Even though the words were spoken to Satan as part of a curse, they are indeed a blessed promise. Gen 3:15, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." We won’t go into the details this morning, but understand that this is the first promise of the coming Savior. Jesus would be the seed of Eve and at the cross He would bruise the head of Satan himself. There He would win the victory over sin and death.

Then we read these words in verse 21, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” This may seem like a small thing, but it’s bigger than we might think. First of all, God did for them what they could not do for themselves. They tried to cover up, but God adequately clothed them. What a beautiful picture of what God can do for us spiritually. We can try to cover up, to pretend that everything is okay. Or we can do all in our power to try to fix things, only to find out that we are still spiritually naked. But God and God alone can clothe us with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, His Son. And that is exactly what we see pictured here. What did God use for clothing? He used the skins of animals. An animal had to die in order for Adam and Eve to be clothed. It wasn’t fair. They are the ones who disobeyed God; they should have died. Instead, an animal served as their substitute. In the same way, Jesus Christ served as our substitute when He went to the cross. We are the ones who sinned; we should have died. But Jesus died in our place. Praise God!

Then we come back to the passage in Romans 5. Let’s read the summary again in verse 19, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Tragic that through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, but glorious that through the obedience of one many are made righteous. The obedience of Jesus has overcome the disobedience of Adam.

And finally, we come back to Rom. 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Through Adam, we all fell into sin and death. Through Christ, we can have life, for God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (Jn. 3:17). When a person is willing to face up to His sinful and dead condition, admitting that there is not a thing he can do about it, then he knows he needs a savior. Jesus is that Savior.

We noted the tragedy of Adam and Eve falling out of fellowship with the living God. Can
we catch a glimpse of what eternal life means? It means having that fellowship restored. It means walking and talking with the living God.

Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, commanding them not to be yoked together with unbelievers. In that context, let’s read II Cor. 6:16-18…
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Those of us who are in Christ are included in that description – He is our God, and we are His people. He is our Father; we are His sons and daughters. The more completely we are conformed to the image of Christ, the more intense our fellowship with Him. When we come to the end of the book, we find the glorious end (really, the beginning) of the story. Rev. 21:1-3…
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

This is that unhindered divine presence Jesus promised when He said… (Jn. 14:1-3)
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.