What's the Matter With Us? | Genesis 3:1-7 | Darien Gabriel

Series: Chaos to Covenant

Title: “What's the matter with us?"

Scripture: Genesis 3:1-7; Matthew 4:1-10

Bottom line: When we forget or doubt that God is good and his word is trustworthy, we will give in to temptation and sin against our Creator.

INTRODUCTION
CONTEXT
SERMON OUTLINE
CONCLUSION
NOTES
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
OUTLINES
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
MAIN REFERENCES USED

INTRODUCTION

[Holding an apple while I talk]

In his book The Genesis Factor, David Helms says that Genesis answers many of life's questions.

He says or implies that Genesis 3 deals with at least 3 questions:

Is God really good? If God is good, why are there boundaries? (God's character)
Can you trust God's word no matter what? (The Bible)
What's the matter with us? (Humanity)

Who do you trust more than anyone in the world?

Now, imagine that that person is now also the most powerful person in America.They can do anything they want to. They are powerful and you trust them.

Now, imagine you're with them and they say to you, "I have a gift for you." They hand you what looks like a credit card. They tell you this card gives you unlimited access to every source of food in America. Restaurants, grocery stores, food trucks, farms...you name it...for free. This card also gives you access to any and every university, professor, expert, library or bookstore in America. Any source of wisdom you seek you have unlimited access to for free. Pretty amazing, huh?

They add that there's also a restaurant where you can find food that increases your health and extends your life. This super-restaurant is always open and you have unlimited access to it as well.

Now, they have one restriction. You cannot eat at the only 5 Star restaurant in town. The one in the middle of town. Let's say you drive by it every day too. This restaurant also has a supercomputer with the best AI on the planet. It has access to all knowledge in our world--good and evil. But if you order from there, if you partake from there, you will die.

So you enjoy the unlimited access you have to food, knowledge and wisdom all over town. But one day you notice the 5 Star restaurant you're restricted from eating at. You notice that the parking lot is full, though. You find yourself walking over. You can see people enjoying their food but not dying. So you walk in and the host welcomes you in. You ask why aren't people dying from the food? He answers, "Oh that's just to keep you from gaining the same power that your friend now has. You won't die if you eat this food or partake of this AI bar."

Forgetting what your trusted friend or family said, you find the host's words more believable the more he talks. You smell the food and see the expressions on everyone's faces. They all look like they're enjoying everything. You look around to see who's looking and then you go in and get a plate...and you eat.

What just happened?

You gave in to the temptation to ignore the one restriction you had from your most trusted person who gave you unlimited access to everything else. And you died.

CONTEXT

Adam and Eve have been created and married. They are in a blissful garden of existence where they have all that they need and their Creator, the Lord God, spends time walking and talking with them everyday. They have no relational distress with God or each other or creation. They are experiencing perfect peace and joy.

And yet they find themselves capable of being tempted to forget that God is good and doubt his trustworthiness.

SERMON

OUTLINE (GENESIS 3:1-24) by H. Willmington

This section describes the corruption of all things. In other words, it answers the question:

What's the matter with us?

I. THE TRANSGRESSION OF ADAM (3:1-24)

A. Adam's disobedience (3:1-6)

1. The treachery (3:1-5)

a. Satan begins by casting doubt on God's Word (3:1-3): "Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?"

b. Satan concludes by denying God's Word (3:4-5): "'You won't die!' The serpent hissed...'You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.'"

2. The tragedy (3:6): Both Eve and Adam disobey God and eat of the forbidden tree.

B. Adam's deceit (3:7-8): He attempts to cover his nakedness by making clothes from fig leaves. He then hides among the trees.

C. Adam's despair (3:9-11): He acknowledges his fear and nakedness before God.

D. Adam's defense (3:12-19): Adam blames Eve, but Eve blames the serpent.

E. Adam's discipline (3:14-19): God sets up his divine court in Eden and imposes the following sentences:

1. Upon the serpent (3:14-15): to be the most cursed of all creatures and to crawl on its belly, eating dust. Also, his head will be crushed by the offspring of the woman.

2. Upon the woman (3:16): to suffer pain in childbirth and to be ruled by her husband.

3. Upon the man (3:17-19): to endure wearisome labor as he grows food from unproductive soil and to eventually die physically.

4. Upon nature (3:18): to be infested with thorns and this-tles.

F. Adam's deliverance (3:15, 20-21)

1. The promise (3:15): Someday a Savior will defeat Satan, the serpent!

2. The provision (3:20-21): After Adam names his wife Eve, God clothes both of them with animal skins.

CONCLUSION

Bottom line: When we forget or doubt that God is good and his word is trustworthy, we will give in to temptation and sin against our Creator.

Read Matthew 4:1-10 and see how Jesus resisted temptation. Three times he is tempted and three times he responds with scripture. He remembers that God's word is true and authoritative and that the Father is good.

We must immerse ourselves in scripture with people and on our own getting a good grip on the Bible so that we'll not sin against God.

Ps 119:11 "I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." -David

Sinning against God leads to death.

When we die spiritually, it's because we have been infected. We've been infected by a spiritual virus that can only be cured by a blood transfusion that uses Christ's shed blood at the cross. This blood coupled with our belief that it saves is what saves us from sin and death, shame and guilt, and hell itself.

"But God demonstrates his love in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8

There's hope even in Genesis 3

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3‬:‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

““Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”” ‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭36‬-‭39‬ ‭NIV‬‬

How do we respond? Answer 2 questions:

Invitation

What is God saying to me right now?
What am I going to do about it? Write this down on a sheet of paper.

What I hear you saying, Lord, is ___________________.

[my name] is going to believe/do __________________________________________________ as a result.

Finally, share this with your Home or Mission group this week when you gather as a testimony about what God is doing in your life. You don’t have to get too specific to give him praise.

Pray

NOTES

"Who are we really? Genesis 2 replies:

We are divine dust.
We are to live under divine rule.
We are divinely created for relationship."

- David Helms, p. 59

"What Is God's Mission?

What is God's mission in the world? If we, as Christians, are supposed to love God and obey him, it would certainly help if we knew what he was up to. Fortunately, God has given us the Bible, a book that tells us exactly what he is up to!

If we are going to understand God's mission, the first thing we have to understand is that the Bible is not primarily a storehouse of random facts about God or Israel or the world.

Nor is it primarily a collection of rules. Instead, it is primarily a fascinating and powerful story about God. This story is told in four acts:

1. Creation: The first act is Creation. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1).

God created the world and everything in it, and he called it "very good" (1:31). God loved and enjoyed what he had created!

At the pinnacle of his creation are a man and woman. They were different from the rest of his creation because he created them in his image and likeness

(1:26-28). Unlike the animals, they could be entrusted with managing the world God created (1:28), making families (1:28), and working to enhance the garden

(2:15). Also, unlike the animals, they were moral and spiritual beings who were instructed not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A good way to summarize the uniqueness of human beings is to say that they are spiritual, moral, social, and cultural beings who were supposed to use the totality of their lives to please God. And at the time of creation, they did please God. In fact, everything in the garden was just the way it was supposed to be.

Adam and Eve had a right relationship with God, with each other, and with the rest of the world.

2. The Fall: The second act is the Fall. Just after God created the world, the Bible's story takes a dark turn.

Adam and Eve decided to rebel against their Creator

(3:1-7). Instead of loving him supremely and obeying him completely, they disobeyed him and sought to take his place on the throne of the world and the throne of their lives. They believed the lie of Satan that they could become gods. In response to their sin, God cast them out from the garden of Eden.

Being cast out from the garden of Eden represented the fact that things were no longer the way they were supposed to be. Adam and Eve no longer had a right relationship with God, with each other, or with God's world. Each of us, just like Adam and Eve, has sinned against God. Each of us, like Adam and Eve, experiences broken relationships with God, with oth-ers, and with the world around us. Our lives are characterized not only by God's goodness but by sin and its consequences. Even as we experience the beauty and goodness of life in God's creation, we also experience the ugliness and badness of sin and its consequences.

3. Redemption: The third act is Redemption. Immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, God promised to send a Redeemer, a Savior, to save them from their sins (3:15).

This promise represents our first "peek" at the gospel.

Throughout the Bible, God continues to reveal more and more about who this Redeemer would be until, finally, in the Gospels, we learn that he is Jesus!

Jesus—fully God in all of who he is-came to earth and took on full humanity. He was fully man and fully God. He lived a perfect life, but was crucified at the hands of sinful humans. When he died on the cross, was buried, and rose again, he was making atonement for our sins and providing salvation for the world. On the cross, he took the guilt for our sins upon his shoulders so that he could suffer the condemnation that we should suffer. When he rose from the dead, he rose as a victor, having paid fully for our sins and secured the future salvation of the world."

-Bruce Ashford, I Am Going, pp. 4-5

From Wilmington's Bible Handbook:

It's primeval history (universal world history) of the world (universe) made up of 5 stories with the same structure. (1-11)

The Fall
Cain
Sons of God marrying daughters of man
The Flood
Tower of Babel
They all follow this 4-fold pattern:
- Sin: the sin is described
- Speech: There is a speech by God announcing the penalty for the sin
- Grace: God brings grace to the situation to ease the misery due to sin
- Punishment: God punishes the sin

Patriarchal history (12-50) or the history of Israel's founding fathers. It continues to reveal the many graces of God based on the gracious promise God made to and through Abraham in Genesis 12:3.

Truths to note

God existed and exists eternally
God exists in plural unity as the Holy Trinity
God was in the beginning
God was before anything existed in our universe and the universe itself
God created everything that exists in the universe and the universe itself
God creates something from nothing Latin ex nihilo
- An atheist scientist came to God and said, “We’ve figured out how to make a man without you.” God said, “OK, let me see you do it.” So the atheist bent down to the ground and scooped up a handful. But God stopped him and said, “Oh, no you don’t. Get your own dirt!”
God creates with words. He spoke creation into existence. His words still have power.
God creates purposefully for his glory and our good.
God starts with light to display his creation and provide an essential ingredient for life.
God only creates things that are good. Together it was all very good and will be again.
God is a God of order and moves from chaos to order.
Elohim (gods) intensifies God's divine majesty, when used as a noun. When used as a verb, it's singular for there is only one true God.
God created all things. "Heavens and earth"
God created an "open" universe, not a "closed" one where he never interacts

Notes from Bible Project Videos

1-11 God and the world

12:3 Hinge verse

12-50 God and Abraham's family

"Blessing" is a key word here

Choice: Tree of knowledge of good and evil

Trust God's definition of good and evil, or
Seize autonomy and define good and evil for themselves?

Serpent (against God) tells a different story. He lies when he tells them that if they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they will be like God. Because they already are like God (made in his image).

The Pattern

See D. J. A. Clines, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, No. 38 (1976), pp. 487, 488. Clines explains that Gerhard Von Rad initially observed a pattern of sin, mitigation, and punishment. Then Claus Westermann discerned another element, that of divine speech. Though he did not include it in the pattern, Clines does. Thus the following chart:

II.

III.

IV.

SIN

SPEECH

GRACE

PUNISHMENT

FALL

3:6

3:14-19

3:21

3:22-24

CAIN

4:8

4:10-12

4:15

4:16

SONS OF GOD

6:2

6:3

6:8, 18ff

7:6-24

FLOOD

6:5, 11f

6:7, 13-21

6:8, 18ff

11:8

BABEL

11:4

11:6f

10:1-32

11:8

Preach the Word, Genesis, Kent Hughes, chapter 1, note 3, p. 625

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

Who is God?
What has he done/is he doing/is he going to do?
Who am I? (In light of 1 & 2)
What do I get to do? (In light of who I am)
How do I do it?

Let’s ask some summary sermon questions:

Q. What do I want them to know?

Q. Why do I want them to know it?

Q. What do I want them to do about it?

Q. Why do I want them to do it?

Q. How can they begin to do this?

OUTLINES

OUTLINE (GENESIS 3:1-24) by H. Willmington

This section describes the corruption of all things.