The Effects of the Fall

The effects of the fall, since Genesis chapter 3, have run rampant down through the years. And today, we will look at the effects of the fall upon our lives.

By looking at three areas. Immediately, we're going to see the effects of the fall upon the environment. And then we're going to look at it subsequently, and see the effects of the fall upon man, in terms of his physical, and in terms of the relationships he has with other people.

And then lastly, ultimately, we're going to look at the effects of the fall upon man spiritually. Because that's the culmination of all things, when it comes to the consequences of sin. So if you have your Bible, Genesis chapter 3 is where we are at. And we're going to look, first of all, at verse number 17.

Because we're going to look at the immediate consequences. And that is the environmental consequences. It says in verse number 17, 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 shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. The immediate consequence of the fall on the environment, number one, is the ground was cursed.

The ground was cursed. Now you might be asking yourself, what did the ground do? Why does the ground have to bear the consequences of man's sin? We're going to talk about that in just a few seconds here. But you need to know something. One man's sin infected the entire environment. But the Bible tells us that the ground was affected because of man's sin. Now turn back with me, if you would, to Romans chapter 8, and I want to show you something. Because people are going to ask the question, what does the ground have to do with man's sin?

But Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8, verses 19 to 22, he says this, For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption, into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

The Bible says that the creation is in a groaning mode. That's a very interesting word. The verb stenazzo is a word that means to lament, to moan, to groan, to sigh. And it's a word that came to mean to groan as one trapped in an inescapable and undesirable circumstance. But the Bible says that's the way the creation is.

The plants, the animals, the rivers, the mountains, the trees, the stars, the lakes, the grass, the plants, all of creation laments. It moans for one specific day. It's a victim of man's sin. Creation faces a curse because of one man's sin. Go back with me if you would to Genesis chapter 3. The Bible tells us that number one, the ground was cursed.

And number two, the garden was closed. Go down to verse number 22. Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. And now lest he stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So he drove the man out. And at the east of the garden of Eden, he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword, which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

The Bible says that God drove man out of the garden. Man was reluctant to leave. He didn't want to leave the presence of God. He didn't want to leave the place that had brought him such great joy and fullness. But God had to drive him away from the tree of life because if man, get this now, in a sinful condition would partake of the tree of life, he would be damned forever without ever a possibility of being redeemed. God knew that. And so because God knew that, he protected man from being in an unredeemable state.

Even in God's curse, you see God's mercy. Even when God cursed the ground, you see how God provides for us an illustration on how we should be lamenting the day of Christ when he comes to take us home. Even when he closed off the garden, the place that symbolized perfect joy and blissfulness for these people, when he closed it off, he closed it off so that they would no longer have to suffer forever if they partook of the tree of life. But he knew there'd be a way for them to be redeemed. And therefore he would cast them out of that beautiful place.

And later on as you read through the book, and we'll talk about it on Wednesday night, the church of Ephesus able to partake once again of the tree of life, the garden of God and the paradise of God. We'll read about it in Revelation 22, verses 1 and 2. Why? Because that becomes representative of the presence of God and living in fullness of joy. And so what had happened before the fall can be restored to man even today if he understands how he might get into a right relationship with the living God through the process that he himself has designed for man.

You see that? So the ground was cursed and the garden was closed. It was J.B. Phillips who said that Adam and Eve would have become like fallen angels, incapable of death and forever locked into the guilt and penalty of their sin. It would have been impossible to renew them to repentance, end quote. But God protected them. And even in spite of their sinful condition, he would provide a new and living way through his own son. Jesus Christ would be the way, the truth, and the life. There would be no other name under heaven given among men whereby one could be saved, be reconciled to God, and have a relationship with him.

So immediately there was an environmental consequence upon the garden and upon the ground. But number two, subsequently.

I want you to notice two things about the woman and the man. A physical effect and a relational effect. Let's look first of all at the woman.

Go back up with me to verse number 16. To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you shall bring forth children. God says, women, this is the way it's going to be.

You're going to give birth to children and I am going to greatly multiply your pain. Now I don't have to go into a long dissertation about the pain you women have when you deliver children. All of you can speak very readily to that. So every time you go through pain upon giving birth to a child, it should remind you of the curse of God. But even in that painful experience, God has demonstrated his mercy once again, has he not? Because once that child comes out of your womb and you're able to hold that baby, it's almost as if the pain has subsided.

It's all gone. You don't remember it anymore because of the glorious reunion you have with that new baby. And because there is sorrow today, joy comes in the morning. There is new life. And God would provide for us another illustration, another example of what it means to lament the day in which he comes. That's the result of the fall physically upon the woman. But what about the man physically? What's the Bible say? He also experiences pain in his labor. But his isn't in childbearing, his is in his daily chores, in working.

The Bible says, in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Verse number 19, by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you are taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. For man, there's going to be the sweat of his brow. The work he does is going to be different than the work before the fall. Work inherently is good. There's nothing wrong with it. But now man is going to sweat. He's going to work very hard. He's going to toil to the point of exhaustion and reap very little benefits because of it.

For those of us who are not in an agricultural setting, we don't understand what farmers go through when they work by the sweat of their brow, trying to produce fruit, trying to produce food for people, and they can work long, hard hours and get very little fruit from their efforts. That's the result of the curse. Things are different than before the fall. But go beyond the physical to the relational. What's it say? Go back up to verse number 16, the latter part. It says to the woman, Yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

That's a very important phrase because we need to understand that because I'm going to tell you, I'm going to save you lots of money today. Now that I got everybody's attention. I'm going to save you lots of money. I'm going to tell you why you have problems in your marriage. You don't have to go to a marriage counselor. All you got to do is understand Genesis 3, 16b. If you understand that, you understand why you have problems in your marriage. Before the fall, God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply.

Subdue the earth. Fill the earth. There was a perfect relationship. Remember Genesis 2, verse number 18? God made Adam a suitable helper. A perfect helpmate. She was the perfect partner. Before the fall, there was a perfect understanding of submission and headship. There was no conflict. Adam and Eve worked perfectly together. They subdued the earth together. They filled the earth together. They ruled the earth together. It was perfect. So whatever that means, verse 16b, it must be the direct opposite of that.

Because this is a curse. This is a result of their sin. It says, that your husband shall rule over you. Whatever it meant before the fall, it means something differently after the fall. The word rule, masal in the Hebrew, means to elevate to an official position. As a result of the fall, man's headship would be changed. He would seek to dominate his wife. He would seek to, with tyranny, rule his wife. Dominate his wife. Suppress his wife. Why is that? Well, look earlier. It says, your desire shall be for your husband.

What does that mean? Does that mean that the husband, as he comes in and produces this domineering, authoritative headship in the home, that the woman just desires her husband and loves him and cooks meals for him and loves him anyway in spite of his sinful attitude? No, that's not what it means. In fact, just go across the page to Genesis chapter 4. And in Genesis chapter 4, verse number 6, it says, Then the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?

And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it. The only other time this word desire is used in the Pentateuch is in chapter 4, verse number 7. And the context helps you understand what this word desire means. It's a word that means to compel or to seek to control. God says to Cain that sin wants to have master over you.

It wants to control you. It desires to dominate you, and you must not let sin master you, Cain. The result of the curse, as it applies to the woman, is that the woman will desire to control her husband. She will desire to rule her husband. You see, at the fall, she took herself out from under his headship. She acted independently without him. And she was deceived, and she fell. And part of the curse is this. Eve, because you stepped out of the realm of headship, because you stepped out on your own to do your own thing, you will always desire to do that kind of thing now.

You will always seek to act independently of your husband, and you will seek to rule your husband and control your husband, because Adam abdicated his responsibility and followed Eve. Instead of being the leader he should have been, he now follows her. So God says, now the woman will seek to dominate her husband, and he will fight back, and he will rule, and he will dominate her.

Thus you have the battle of the sexes from Genesis chapter 3 to this very present day. You have women's liberation and male chauvinism. It happened in Genesis chapter 3. That's where it all began. And is that not the way it is? Sure it is. I mean, the women, boy, they do it all kinds of ways. Oh, they might not come out as real strong leaders, but they manipulate, and they coerce, and they try to run the family. They want to rule the family. They want to rule the kids. Now you women might be saying, no, I don't want to do that, but your heart's deceitful and desperately wicked.

Believe me, the Bible says, the result of the curse is that's what you want to do. Every woman wants to be a leader husband down the right path, because he's usually taking the family the wrong direction. So she's looking for ways to coerce him, manipulate him, get him to turn around. She'll call the pastor. She'll call the marriage counselor. She takes all the lead in doing all those things because he's not going to do it because somebody's got to turn this man around. She wants to control. And what's the man do?

He fights back. You led once in the garden. Woman, you ain't doing it again. I'm leading now. You follow me. And he seeks to dominate and rule and control. And sometimes it leads to physical abuse, and sometimes it leads to emotional abuse. And my friends, that's the problem. That's the curse. That's the relational effect upon your marriage is that woman will seek to dominate and control her husband, but he will rise up. He will elevate himself to an official position, and he will seek to rule her instead.

And there you have your battle. And that's your problem. That's our problem in marriage. And God says, that's the result of the curse.

That's the problem. You say, well, if that's the problem, if that's where we're at, well, how on earth are we ever going to solve that problem? How do I get around that? Only one way. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5.

We love to start with verse number 22 in Ephesians 5 when we talk about the marriage. But you can never begin with verse number 22 unless you understand verse number 21. That's why verse 21 comes before verse number 22. Doesn't take a Phi Beta Kappa to figure that out. But she understands that we love to read, Wives, be subject to your own husbands. We want to beat our wives over the head with that thing. But the phrase be subject is not there in the original text. It says, Wives, to your own husbands.

Well, what's that mean? Well, to understand that, you've got to go back to verse number 21. It says, And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Be subject to who? To one another in the fear of Christ. The only way I can learn submission is Ephesians 5, verse number 18. And be not drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be controlled, be filled with the Spirit of God. Folks, listen.

If you are controlled by God's Spirit, you don't desire to control your husband. And fellas, if you're controlled by God's Spirit, you don't desire to dominate and rule your wife because you want to be dominated by God and His work in you. And if you understand the ramifications of a Spirit-filled life, then you begin to understand that God is the most important thing in all the world to you. And if He is controlling you, you will lovingly lead your wife. And ladies, if God's Spirit is controlling you, you will willingly subject yourself to your husband's leadership because God is more important to you than the relationship you have with your husband.

And fellas, God is more important to you than the relationship you have with your wife. That's what it all comes down to. But also, we need to move on because time is fleeting. The physical results still upon man and woman is death. Is it not true? For He goes on to tell Adam in Genesis Chapter 3, these words, "'Til you return to the ground,' verse number 19, "'because from it you were taken, "'for you are dust, "'and to dust you shall return.'" This is going to lead us to our third point because this is the most important point, the ultimate consequences of the fall, which are spiritual.

And I will look with you at four things, man's condition, man's condemnation, man's consequences, and God's cure. First of all, man's condition.

You see, people die because of sin. They have a sin nature. See, we think that people become sinners when they sin. That's not what the Bible says.

You sin because you're a sinner. And you were born that way. Ephesians 2, 1 to 3 says that we are dead in our trespasses and sin. Ephesians 4, 17 says I am alienated from the life of God. That's man's condition. How did it happen? It happened because of the fall of man. And that sin nature now is passed down to every man from Adam on down, which leads us to point number two, man's condemnation.

He's guilty. Man is guilty. It says over in Romans 3, verse number 19, Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God or be guilty before God. The whole world is guilty before God. Why is that? Well, over in Romans 5, verse number 18, it says this, So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. Man is condemned because he is guilty. I got news for you. Everybody is guilty.

In our economy, man is innocent until proven guilty. In God's economy, man is guilty and can never be proven innocent. Why? Because he inherits a sin nature. Man is totally depraved. He is separated from God. He is unable to do anything himself because he is a corpse. He is a dead man walking. He can't do anything spiritually for himself. Therefore the Bible says he is condemned to death.

He is condemned to die because of one man's transgression. Which leads to number three, man's consequences.

What are man's consequences? The penalty is what? It's death. For the wages of sin is death. Right? Romans 6, 23. Romans 5, 12. For by one man's sin, death entered the world and death through sin. It says over in 1 Corinthians 15, 22 these words, in Adam, all die. You say, that's not fair. That's not right. How can God say, because one man sinned thousands of years ago in a garden that I wasn't even in and had nothing to do with but if I'd have been there I'd have stood for truth. I'd have lived truth.

I'd have been God's representative. No you wouldn't have. But we can say that all we want and after we're done arguing back and forth we're going to realize that every man is born in sin. And we can say that's not fair all we want but just take that statement set it aside and think of this. In Adam, all die. 1 Corinthians 15, 22. So also, in Christ, all shall be made alive. I don't see anybody arguing about that. But they would argue the fact that because of one man we're all guilty but through one man, the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, we can all be made alive.

That's not fair either. Talk about not being fair. That's not fair. But that's the way God designed it. We'll see the point number 4, God's cure. God's cure is the only victory, my friends. And go back with me to Genesis chapter 3 for a moment. And time is fleeting and I know that but just bear with me because you don't want to miss this. If you miss this then you miss the whole sermon. It says, verse number 21, And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Listen very carefully.

You need to understand this. Go back over to verse number 7 of Genesis chapter 3. It says, And 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. Man sins. So what does man do when he sins? He covers himself. But listen very carefully. His covering is not acceptable. His covering is not adequate. It does not fly. God has to do the covering. So what did God do? Are you ready for this? God killed animals. Now think about this for a moment.

Here's Adam and Eve. They've never seen bloodshed. They don't know what bloodshed is. They've never seen death. But they get themselves a very supreme illustration when God himself would kill an animal so that Adam would be cleansed or covered with the animal skin and that Eve herself would be covered with the animal skin. Now can you imagine the scene? A horrific kind of thing. A terrible kind of experience. The bloodshed, it's horrific. The deadliness. The nastiness of what took place. They've never seen that before.

And they could be saying, But they didn't do anything, God. They're innocent animals. All they are are just animals. They have not done anything. It's us who have sinned. But God provides a perfect illustration. Why? Because it's the innocent who must suffer for the guilty. See that? The innocent are the animals. They didn't do anything. They're just animals. They just do what animals do. They were innocent. But they bear the effects of the fall because of one man's sin. And God would use that animal as an illustration for that which one is innocent would pay the price for that which is guilty.

That animal would substitute. The payment for sin is what? It's death. Somebody has to die for your sin. Folks, this is so good. Because you see, God wants to clothe you with his righteousness. He doesn't give you animal skins to clothe yourself with. He clothes you in his righteousness. I ask you this question this morning. Have you been clothed in the righteousness of God? Do you wear his garments or do you still try to hide in your garments? Today, what clothes do you have on? Are the clothes of God or are you still clothed in your own garments?

Please, make sure you understand the truth of Genesis chapter 3 and God's provision for your eternal welfare. Let's pray together.