Man's Fall

Genesis chapter 3, if you have your Bible, is where we are at today. Genesis chapter 3. It was A.W. Pink in his commentary on Genesis who says this particularly about the third chapter of Genesis.

He says, It is one of the most important in all the Word of God. It is a seed plot of the Bible. Here are the foundations upon which rest many of the cardinal doctrines of our faith. Here we find the divine explanation of the present fallen and ruined condition of our race. Here we learn of the subtle devices of our enemy, the devil. Here we behold the utter powerlessness of man to walk in the path of righteousness when divine grace is withheld from him. Here we discover the spiritual effects of sin, man seeking to flee from God.

Here we discern the attitude of God toward the guilty sinner. Here we mark the universal tendency of human nature to cover its own moral shame by a device of man's own handiwork. Here we are taught of the gracious provision which God has made to meet our great need. Here begins that marvelous stream of prophecy which runs all through the Holy Scriptures. Here we learn that man cannot approach God except through a mediator. Genesis chapter 3 is full of essential doctrine for your life and for mine.

And today as we look at the fall of man, we will see more of what the Word of God has to say as it pertains very practically to your life and to mine.

Genesis chapter 3 verse number 6. We're going to begin looking at the first of six points by looking at man's option.

Adam and Eve had an option that was to sin or not to sin, to obey or to disobey. But they had an option. The Bible says in Genesis 2 verse number 17 that God said that they could partake of any tree freely, but there was one restriction, one place they could not eat, and that was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God says, Here are my rules. You need to obey my rules. Adam and Eve had no sin nature. They were created perfect beings. They had not sinned yet. Although they had been tempted, they had not sinned yet. And yet they were volitional beings. That is, they were people with the opportunity to make a choice. They could choose to obey or choose to disobey. Every one of us here today has a choice. We either choose to obey what God says or we choose to disobey what God says.

You can call it whatever you want, but the bottom line in any man's life, any woman's life, is that you have a choice. You either choose to do what God says or you choose to disobey what God has said in His Word.

Those are man's options. But I wanted to set the tone for you because as we go through the rest of Genesis chapter 3 and the rest of our outline today, you're gonna see what takes place in the life of Adam and Eve. What God does. No matter what path you're on, what God does to bring you to the point of repentance. You see, if you're at the end of your rope, if you're down this path over here, the path of disobedience, and you're ending up in death and despair and destruction, you have one or two choices.

Either humble your heart, repent of your sin, get right with God, or harden your heart. You still got a choice. Every moment of every day you have a choice. When you experience a death-like existence, you either humble yourself before Almighty God and ask for His forgiveness or you harden your heart against His truth and say, I will not obey what He says and seek some other form of pleasure. I trust that you understand the life of obedience and responding to God in truth. Let's continue on with our outline in Genesis chapter 3 and look at point number 2, man's actions.

Man's actions. They chose to disobey. For this, go back with me to Romans chapter 5 for a moment. I want you to notice something very, very fascinating.

This is so good. It says in verse number 19, For as through the one man's disobedience the many, excuse me, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous. Romans 5 verses 12 to 21 is a power-packed passage of Scripture that helps us understand man's sinful nature in the fall of man. But you got to understand man's actions. There is an inward attitude before there ever is an outward act. We need to understand the inner attitude. Because that's where it all begins, right?

The phrase for as through the one man's disobedience, the word for disobedience, is a word, are you ready for this? That means a refusal to hear. A refusal to hear. Adam and Eve disobeyed because they refused to hear the command of God. Go through the Scriptures and how many times does God tell us be careful how you hear? Be careful what you hear. Blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy and do them. Adam and Eve refused to hear. They refused to believe. God said if you do this, you will die.

And they refused to believe that. They refused to hear any more of that. And through one man's disobedience, his refusal to hear on the inside, it led to an outer act. Through one man's disobedience, through one man's unwillingness to listen in his heart, so much so that he believed in his heart that his way was better than God's way, that he chose a different route. He chose the path of temporary pleasure that led to death instead of the path of temporary pain that would lead to delight and fellowship with God.

See that? And that's what happened to Adam. That's what happened to Eve. Inwardly, there was that refusal to listen.

There was that hard will. Outwardly then came the act. That's again in Romans chapter 5 verse number 14. It says, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who was a type of him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression. There was a transgression that Adam had. The word transgression means to step over the line. Adam stepped over the line after he refused to listen inwardly to what God said.

That's when he would step out in disobedience, cross over the parameter that God had set, and live the kind of life that he wanted to live, thinking that his way was better than God's way. And therefore, what happened on the inside? Reflected itself by taking a step over God's line. God sets the line, by the way. Man doesn't set the line for sin. God sets the line for sin. That's why Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ was so against what the Pharisees had done by setting up all these laws, over 600 of them, that people had to obey.

Only God sets up the standards for right and wrong, not man. And so Adam and Eve refused to listen in their heart, and that led to their stepping over the line. Let me just stop for a moment and say, you know, that's why it's so important for you to make sure your heart's right with God.

Make sure your heart is ready to listen to God when you come on Sundays, you come on Wednesdays. Make sure your heart is open to the the prompting of the Spirit of God moving you and and speaking to you through His Word. You've got to have your heart right with God. If not, you'll transgress the law of God. You'll step over the line. That's what Adam and Eve did. Now, this is the point number three, and that is man's recognition.

Look what happens. Verse number seven. 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. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. The first thing I want you to notice and to the recognition is their plight and number two, their flight.

First of all, what was their plight? They lost something. I want you to notice that as soon as they sin, something was wrong and they knew it.

Mark of a true believer, a true follower of God, when you sin, you know you've done something wrong and they knew it. They lost something. They lost fellowship with the living God. Their eyes were open. They were naked. They were ashamed. They were guilty and they felt guilt. Before they were naked and they were not ashamed because everything was above board. Everything was pure and everything was clean, but now because they transgressed the law of God, they were extremely ashamed and guilty and they lost something.

They lost their purity. They lost their holiness. Because they lost that, they lost their relationship with the living God. That's what happened next. That's their plight. You see that? Remember David over in Psalm 32? He had sinned with Bathsheba. He disobeyed truth. He experienced temporary pleasure because of that disobedience. It caused him to even remain in a disobedient state for a while. But notice what he says in Psalm 32, verse number three, when I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.

My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. David says, I knew as soon as I committed that sin with Bathsheba, I knew it because my life was groaning. I knew I had transgressed the law of God. And that's the way a believer is, right? Oh, he knows he has sinned. And from their plight, it led to their flight. What do you do? You run away from God. They flew, man. They tried to hide from God. Can you imagine trying to hide from God? God says, you can't hide from me.

If you make your bed in Sheol, behold, I am there. No matter where you're at, I am there. Read Psalm 139. God is everywhere. You can't get away from the eye of God. We talked about it Wednesday night, right? The vision of the glorified Christ, his eyes were like flame of fire as he stood among the seven golden lampstands, which represent the seven churches. His eyes were like lasers searching and penetrating all those churches to see what was all there. He knows everything. You can't get around God.

He sees it all. It says over in Proverbs 15 and 11, Sheol and destruction are before the Lord. So how much more the hearts of the sons of men. God sees your heart. He knows your heart. And so they went and they fled from the presence of God. They tried to hide themselves. They were guilty. People do that today. They stopped coming to church. They stopped reading their Bible. They stopped hanging around Christians because it's a reminder of God to them. It's a reminder of God calling them back and they don't want to do that.

And so they want to continue down the path of disobedience to experience some kind of semblance of pleasure. And so they stopped coming to church. They stopped associating with other believers for fear that something might come up about the Lord and their sin. They thought they could get away from the presence of God. Remember Proverbs 28? He says, He who covers his sin, he who covers his sin shall never find mercy from God. But he who confesses and forsakes his sin, that's the one who finds God's mercy.

How many times have we tried to cover our sin? Cover our tracks? Hide from the presence of God? Can't happen. God is everywhere. Which leads to God's questions. Look at these.

Verse 9, Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? Adam, where are you? As if he didn't know. Of course he knew. Whenever God asks a question, he doesn't ask it because he doesn't know something. He asks it for us to recognize something. He knows where he was. Of course he does. He's God. Where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of thee in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself. And he said, Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

This is so good, folks. Listen, two things. God's question focuses on a reminder and a reinforcement. Here's the reminder. Adam, where are you? I desire you. I miss you. I want you. That is so good. He was in sin. He wasn't cleaned up. He had transgressed the law of God and God came looking for him. And that's the way it is with you and me. When we sin against God, he comes looking for us. Luke 19 tells us that he came to seek and to save that which was lost. We're not going to go. We're going to hide from God.

We're not going to go seeking after him. We're ashamed. We're guilt ridden. We're afraid of him. And he comes after us in the cool of the day saying, Where are you? I want to have a relationship with you. I miss you. I desire to be with you. Where are you, Adam? He's longing for that relationship with this creature. Have you sinned? Are you living in sin today? God's reminder to you is, I want to be with you. He's coming after you in spite of your immorality, in spite of whatever sin you have committed.

He says, I'm here and I want you. That's how much he loves us. And then comes the reinforcement. Adam, who told you you were naked? I didn't tell you you were naked. Have you eaten from the tree? Of which I committed you not to eat? Here's the reinforcement. Adam? He disobeyed me. The reinforcement is this. Whenever you lose joy, whenever you're frustrated, it's all because of only one thing and one thing only. You did not listen to what I said. You disobeyed my command. You did not follow me. Because of that, there's no joy.

Because in the presence of God is fullness of joy. If you have sinned, you have kept yourself out of God's presence by virtue of the fact that you are an unholy person and he is the holy God. So you've got to confess your sin. You've got to get right with him in order to maintain a proper relationship with the living God. The reinforcement is you disobeyed. He had to get Adam to see Adam. You were wrong. You made the wrong choice. God says, if you are experiencing dissatisfaction in life, it's not because you have a relationship with me.

It's because you've disobeyed me. Now we don't like to look at it that way. We like to blame somebody else for the way things are and think of it that way. But the bottom line is, folks, you had a choice no matter what environment you are in, no matter what situation you are in. You had a choice. Paul says, I learned to be content even in prison. The circumstances are irrelevant. My relationship with God is that which is relevant. If I'm right with God, I can be exiled on the island of Patmos. I can be in prison.

I can go through the most devastating destruction of my family as Job did. If I'm right with God, there is joy in my heart. I can delight in obedience to God. It's when I disobey God that I forfeit that joy and delight because of His presence. So practical is God's holy word, which leads to man's justification. Look what it says, the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree and I ain't. Is it not true that when God opens His word and we get truth, we try to justify ourselves?

You don't understand God. You gave me this woman before she came into existence. There were no problems. Just me and the animals, man. We had a great time together. You gave me this woman, God, ultimately it's your fault, God. I mean, it's a sovereign will of God. It must be His fault. He put me in this circumstance. So God, you're at fault. I know that that happens to people in other parts of the country, not with you folks. I understand that. But just bear with me as we try to help you understand the other part of the country.

We want to shift blame and Adam's blame was to blame God. These trials and tribulations are from the Lord, God Almighty, I try to spiritualize everything. It's not God's fault you sinned, it's not God's fault you did what you did, it's your fault. Own up to it, be a man, speak truth and say, I did it. Adam didn't do that. He tried to justify himself. Eve, look at what Eve's blamed.

She didn't blame God. She didn't even blame her husband. Who'd she blame? She blamed the serpent. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. It's the serpent's fault. It's not my fault. If it wasn't for the serpent, I wouldn't have eaten. It wasn't my fault, Lord. I want you to know something. God asked the question of Adam and Eve and God doesn't respond to Adam nor does He respond to Eve. That's amazing to me. He didn't say anything to Adam.

He didn't say anything to Eve except ask them a question because He had a solution. He had a solution. He knew they tried to justify themselves and whatever they said was going to be wrong anyway. But God already had the solution because God is so concerned about having a relationship with you. He already had the answer and that's the last point, God's solution. And then the Lord God said to the serpent, notice He didn't ask the serpent any questions, did He?

He didn't ask him anything. He just told the serpent what He was going to do. Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly shall you go and thus shall you eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. We'll stop right there. The first thing you need to notice about God's solution is the curse and its cause.

The serpent was behind the temptation. We talked about that last week. He was behind the temptation. Adam and Eve sinned. They made the wrong choice. But the cause of temptation came because of the serpent and God cursed him. First of all, He cursed the animal.

Of course, animal lovers don't like this too much because, you know, why would God want to curse this animal that happened to be possessed by Satan? It's not the serpent's fault, but God cursed that serpent. You know why? So every time you see a snake, you'd be reminded of the sin of man. You're going to crawl on your belly the rest of your life, the rest of your days. And every time you see that serpent, it is a reminder of this fall of man and the deceitfulness of Satan. And God cursed that beast.

And then He cursed Satan. He said, I want to let you know something. I'm going to put in between you and the woman, between your seed, plural, and her seed, singular. And there is going to be in it a war, a battle between you, your fallen angels, your seed, Satan, and the one seed of the woman, the Messiah. And that has carried on throughout the days since Genesis chapter 3. He says, look, this is the way it's going to be. The moment you inflict a bruise upon the heel of the seed of the woman, it's at that point He will deal the crushing blow to your head, Satan.

Those who are into snake bites will tell you that if you are bitten on the heel, it's the best place to ever be bitten because you'll live the longest. It's the safest place to be bitten. Satan's attempt to destroy the Messiah was to hang him on a tree and to kill him, but it just bruised the heel of Almighty God. And it would be that one element at Calvary that would crush the serpent's head, would deal the fatal blow to Satan. Hebrews chapter 2 says it well, verse number 14, since then the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil.

He rendered Satan powerless. There is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. Satan wants to condemn you. You cannot be condemned. You cannot be eternally separated from God if you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Why? Because He has saved your soul. He dealt the death blow to Satan on the cross. And Paul would say over in Romans chapter 16, verse number 20, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Oh, the time is coming, Revelation 20, verse number 10, in which Satan's doom is finalized.

Oh, sure, now he runs around and we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and the forces of wickedness in the dark places. But Satan cannot prevail over us because we are more than conquerors to him who loved us because of the cross. God had a solution. From the very beginning, He had a solution. He mapped it out. This is the way it's going to be. Today, this very day, you can turn from your sin. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God says, where are you? Are you fleeing from my presence? Are you shamed? Are you guilty? I want to be with you. I want a relationship with you. Remember this one thing. It's you who disobeyed me. It's you who failed me. I didn't fail you. You come. You seek forgiveness. We will be restored and you will experience the delights of being in my presence. Do you experience that today? You can have it by coming to Christ on His terms and not yours. Let's pray.