WEBVTT 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:29.679 To keep Genesis three open, that's where we're going to spend uh the next uh little while in uh thinking about a talking serpent, talking serpent. 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:32.159 Perhaps you're thinking, talking serpent, did that really happen? 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.960 Well, Christianity is a bit of a supernatural religion. 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:38.240 We believe in a guy that came back from the dead, so which is easier? 00:00:38.399 --> 00:00:42.240 Um is it easier to come back from the dead or for God to make a serpent talk? 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:45.840 So we're gonna take this uh that it is true, in fact. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:50.240 Um, but let's pray as we come to this passage. 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:57.520 Father, pray that you would soften our hearts to receive uh your truth, that by your spirit we might be changed by it. 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:06.799 Help us to see our need of you and your provision of a rescuer that would restore all things. 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:09.040 We ask it in Jesus' name. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:09.920 Amen. 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:15.519 How's your family uh at dealing with conflict? 00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:20.640 How does your family do apologies? 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:23.680 It doesn't, yeah, that's right. 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:28.319 Do people try and justify themselves? 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:32.719 Well, this happened to me, and if this hadn't happened, then that wouldn't happen. 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:37.439 Or if you hadn't done that, then I wouldn't have. 00:01:39.519 --> 00:01:42.640 Or perhaps people just refuse to apologize at all. 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:46.239 Or you get the politician's apology. 00:01:46.480 --> 00:02:00.959 They, well, I'm sorry if you were offended, which is basically saying, I'm so sorry that you are such a thin-skinned creature that you couldn't take what I'm doling out. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:02.159 I'm sorry if. 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:04.879 I'm sorry if I hurt you. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:08.479 People try to blame shift. 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:17.520 Well, the thing that happens in my family, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, is you just say nothing and you hope that it all goes away. 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:26.639 There's just a kind, there's an there's an uneasy, thick sort of silence for a few encounters and then everybody moves on. 00:02:26.879 --> 00:02:30.400 And that's how you deal with conflict. 00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:34.000 How are you at admitting? 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:42.560 So you've just kind of thrown your family mentally under the bus there, but how are you at admitting when you've done or said something wrong? 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:48.879 Do you refuse to acknowledge your mistakes? 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:53.039 Do you refuse to acknowledge the situation that you find yourself in? 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:57.360 Do you deny any sort of hurt? 00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:00.639 Are you unwilling to accept responsibility? 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:07.520 Uh Steve Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson is amazing. 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:14.080 Like this guy was simultaneously a genius and a jerk all at the same time. 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:19.520 If you've well read Walter Isaacson's autobiography, Well Done You, because it's about that thick. 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:22.240 Uh, I must confess that I I audibled it. 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:25.759 Uh so many a happy meal was cooked along to that. 00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:27.520 Not a happy meal, you know what I mean. 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:41.280 Uh one of the things that keeps on coming up in uh Jobs' uh biography is this idea that he had what his people around him began to call Jobs' reality distortion field, right? 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:46.560 Uh where he would set unrealistic deadlines and goals. 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:52.319 And then if they weren't met, he would blame shift, he would uh he would throw other people under the bus. 00:03:52.479 --> 00:04:01.599 And they called that jobs' reality distortion field, that he lived in an in his own little bubble that was separate to everyone else. 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:19.279 Genesis chapter three is the creation of the very first reality distortion field where things are no longer working the way that they should, and there are there's lies mixed into the situation. 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:28.000 Because in this passage, no one sees reality the way it's supposed to be except God. 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:35.040 No one is prepared to face up to the situation except God later on. 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:41.600 There's a reality distortion field at work from the moment that the serpent shows up. 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:47.279 And so what we're going to do is we're going to work through this passage looking at uh at each of the characters. 00:04:47.360 --> 00:05:04.399 We're going to look at the serpent, we're going to look at the woman, look at the man, and then finally we'll look at God and to see how each of those first three distorts reality to suit their own ends, essentially, and then how God creates reality and tells us what is true. 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:06.399 So that's where we're going. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:10.800 Look firstly at the serpent. 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:32.639 I'd like you to just look down at 225 and to note, first of all, the uh the quick transition, you know, two is idyllic, it's the first marriage, it's the first wedding ceremony, Adam's singing over his wife, and then we're reading, and the man and the woman were both naked together and they were not ashamed. 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:33.759 That's a good day. 00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:36.079 But then 3-1 straight away. 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:45.360 Now, the serpent, the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:48.560 It's a quick change in tone. 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:54.399 There's a sense of foreboding in the narrative, even before he speaks. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:56.800 And what do we know about the serpent? 00:05:56.959 --> 00:05:59.199 Well, we know that he's crafty. 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:01.839 Some translations say coming. 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:09.439 He's manipulative, deceitful, wormy. 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:12.959 You see people talk about worming their way in. 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:16.000 Can you have that kind of idiom in English? 00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:18.800 It's that sort of thing. 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:29.279 So the serpent is going to worm his way into and between the relationship between God and the man and the woman. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:36.160 To say nothing of the fact that serpents in the ancient mind were always a symbol of chaos. 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:41.360 Always a symbol that the things weren't quite right. 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:44.160 Chaos has entered into the garden. 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:48.160 And he speaks. 00:06:49.439 --> 00:07:02.079 Second half of verse 1, and he said to the woman, did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree that is in the garden? 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:05.199 Two things there. 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:08.639 How does he address God? 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:13.680 Well, it's simply, Did God actually say? 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:25.279 But if you look until now, it's even in the first part of uh of verse one, God is described as the Lord God all the way through chapter two. 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:26.800 I'm just scanning down. 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:28.160 Let's uh let's see. 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:31.839 Uh verse eight, the Lord God planted a garden. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:37.839 Verse nine, and out of the ground the Lord God uh uh put the man that he had formed. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:42.720 Verse 15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:47.279 Verse 18, the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. 00:07:47.439 --> 00:07:48.160 Verse 21. 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:55.360 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, verse 22, and the rib that the Lord God had taken. 00:07:55.759 --> 00:07:56.959 Here's the point. 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:08.240 The Lord God is the personal, relational title of God. 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:13.920 He is Yahweh Elohim, Yahweh, Lord God Elohim. 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:16.560 What's the serpent doing? 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:38.399 He's depersonalizing him, he's degrading God, he's taking this personal caring relationship aspect away and saying, God, this generic spirit being, not the Lord God who provided for you generously, just God. 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:42.960 Did God actually say? 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:48.799 The question is designed to cast God as a tyrant. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:51.600 Did he did he really? 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:53.360 Did he really do that? 00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:54.960 Did he really say that to you? 00:08:55.279 --> 00:08:57.039 That's unbelievable. 00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:01.840 Is God that much of a dictator? 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:04.240 That he doesn't let you eat. 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:07.759 You shall not eat of any tree that is in the garden. 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:16.000 The serpent begins to reinterpret and distort reality. 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:31.519 The sociologist Stephen Karpman has developed what he uh has called the uh the drama dynamics triangle. 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:35.120 I'm gonna show it to you now, if I could get the next slide. 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:36.720 See? 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:38.559 There we go. 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:41.759 Tech tech is working over time. 00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:51.519 Stephen Carbman has developed this triangle in terms of working out uh different relationships and how people operate in different contexts. 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:57.120 And he says that there are three main relationship roles that people occupy. 00:09:57.200 --> 00:09:59.519 And I think that you can probably identify with them. 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:09.279 There's the there's the perpetrator up there on the top left, uh, there is the victim down the bottom, and there is the rescuer. 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:15.200 Most people tend to adopt the role of victim. 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:16.799 Do you know those people? 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:22.799 Those people who like to cast themselves in that sort of light. 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:26.399 And let's be honest, it's really nice to see yourself as a victim. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:27.840 Do you know why? 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:34.960 Because if you're the victim, you never have to apologize and you never have to change. 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:37.519 What's not to like about that? 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:41.519 You never have to apologize and you never have to change. 00:10:42.879 --> 00:10:49.600 If you can't be the victim, the other one that people want to be is the rescuer. 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:51.120 We know those people as well. 00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:53.759 Those people are uh are the fixers. 00:10:55.360 --> 00:10:58.080 They want to come in and I'll help you. 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:00.799 Some women even marry men like that. 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:02.240 I can fix him. 00:11:04.559 --> 00:11:07.200 Some uneasy laughter going on in the room there. 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:08.960 What's a pastor? 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:12.399 A pastor's just a fixer with a Bible verse. 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:14.240 That's all I am. 00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:16.000 That's my bent. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:18.000 I like to be a fixer. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:27.679 What nobody wants to be, what nobody wants to admit to, is to be the perpetrator. 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:34.159 The one who has hurt, the one who has caused difficulty. 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:36.639 Sound familiar? 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:45.679 Can you think of relationship dynamics in your own life and in your own family where you see people running to those roles? 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:50.320 Victim, rescuer, perpetrator. 00:11:51.759 --> 00:11:58.960 And I think this is helpful because the serpent begins to interpret reality along these sorts of lines. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:02.240 Who's the perpetrator here? 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:04.879 Did God really say? 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:07.840 It's God, isn't it? 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:15.200 He's the tyrant, he's the dictator, he's the one who doesn't want good for you, Eve. 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:18.720 And so who's the victim? 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:20.240 The woman. 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:22.639 Humanity. 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:26.480 God's withholding something from you. 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:29.200 God doesn't want good for you. 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:31.519 You're a victim here, Eve. 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:38.240 And tragically, horribly, who's the rescuer? 00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:40.480 Well, it's Satan, isn't it? 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:45.759 It's the serpent coming along saying, let me tell you how it really is. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:47.919 Let me tell you what's really going on. 00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:50.960 And I'll fix it for you. 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:54.559 He reinterprets reality. 00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:57.279 And that's so appealing, isn't it? 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:08.080 For someone to come along and to put their arm around you and to stroke your head and to say, poor you. 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:10.480 You're the victim. 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:12.720 Let me help you. 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:18.799 God has given you a rule like this. 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:21.039 Let me liberate you. 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:27.919 And how often don't we operate like this in our relationship with God? 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:36.879 Especially when we perceive that God has denied us the things that we long for, the things that we want. 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:43.200 Particularly perhaps in the in the area of love and relationships. 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:57.200 We kind of implicitly say in our minds, God didn't, God hasn't, God won't, so I'll fill in the blank. 00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:05.279 Don't you find it so easy to justify your actions if you think that God is a tyrant? 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:14.879 If you think that God is bad, or at the very least, disinterested in you, withholding from you something good. 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:21.279 This is the reality distortion field of the serpent at play. 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:26.639 The woman then responds. 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:32.559 She responds in verse two and three. 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:48.879 The woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit that is in the tree of the uh in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. 00:14:53.519 --> 00:14:57.120 What should have been Eve's response? 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:06.559 Eve's response should have been to quote back to the serpent what God had actually said in 217. 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:13.679 But she embellishes it, she adds in the phrase, we're not even allowed, we're not even allowed to touch it. 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:15.279 Can you believe it? 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:18.000 God never said that. 00:15:22.080 --> 00:15:25.440 How does she identify God? 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:27.840 Start of verse 3. 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:34.080 But God said she's beginning to depersonalize God too. 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:38.879 She's beginning to depersonalize his good rule as well. 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:45.759 She picks up on the serpent's language and begins to use it herself. 00:15:48.320 --> 00:16:00.159 And the third thing that she does, so she embellishes what God has said, she depersonalizes the God who said it, and she weakens the injunction. 00:16:01.279 --> 00:16:07.679 God said in 2.17, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. 00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:16.639 But she says, the end of verse 3, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:17.919 You might die. 00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:26.080 Death has become, has gone from being a certain consequence to being a possibility. 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:35.200 And what this does is this makes the creator, this makes the Lord God, a nothing more than another expert. 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:44.000 Another expert suggesting possible outcomes rather than a creator declaring a command. 00:16:44.559 --> 00:17:04.000 It is so easy to ignore God if we just see him as another glorified expert in the pantheon of our lives, feeding in his opinion and his advice in a take it or leave it sort of way. 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:06.640 But that's not the way that God operates. 00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:12.160 This is the reality distortion field of the woman. 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:22.319 God is not merely an expert offering his advice, he is a good Lord ruling over his creation. 00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:35.680 Satan wants Eve to believe that God is restricting her, that her being a creature is constraining, and that she should aspire to more. 00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:48.960 And so when she says, we can't even touch it, she is demonstrating that she is aware of that restriction. 00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:53.039 You see, Eve's already on the hook. 00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:56.799 Eve's already on the hook. 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:00.799 So Satan begins to reel her in. 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:01.920 Verses four and five. 00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:09.519 The serpent said to the woman, So we move now from distortion of what God said to outright denial of it. 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:15.119 Verse 4, but the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:26.799 For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:31.200 He goes from questioning God to outright deceit. 00:18:31.519 --> 00:18:32.960 God's a liar. 00:18:33.519 --> 00:18:36.160 Because somebody has to be lying, right? 00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:39.359 Somebody has to be lying, somebody has to be telling the truth. 00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:44.400 And Satan's reality distortion field is always that God's the liar. 00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:55.039 And the woman then acts again in verse 6. 00:18:55.440 --> 00:19:08.160 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:13.119 And she also gave some to her husband who was with her. 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:15.119 And he ate. 00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:18.640 And the eyes of both were opened. 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:26.319 They knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:47.680 And so what the woman is doing is she said, hmm, I'll weigh up these options. 00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:51.119 It seems that I've got two to choose from. 00:19:52.400 --> 00:20:03.359 And I will objectively come and adjudicate, weigh them, and then decide which one to follow. 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:09.680 This is itself a lie. 00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:16.319 There is no objectivity. 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:20.640 Objectivity is a myth. 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:22.799 Why? 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:28.720 Because we were created by God in his image. 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:31.680 We owe him our allegiance. 00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:34.480 We owe him our trust. 00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:46.960 And so this feigning of neutrality, well, I see that it looks good, and I know that God said this, but I'm weighing this one up over and against it. 00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:49.519 That's a lie. 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:52.880 There is no neutrality. 00:20:53.039 --> 00:20:54.799 What should Aviv have done? 00:20:54.960 --> 00:21:00.000 She should have said, I am a created being in the image of the Lord God. 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:01.119 He is good. 00:21:01.359 --> 00:21:04.160 He has organized things for my flourishing. 00:21:04.319 --> 00:21:09.039 And what you are doing is you are trying to deceive me, serpent. 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:11.440 But no. 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:15.119 She feigns objectivity. 00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:22.799 You know, there are two stories in our world, two sermons, two narratives. 00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:28.880 The first is God and his truth. 00:21:29.920 --> 00:21:31.359 The second is the lie. 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:33.440 Everything else is the lie. 00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:40.480 Satan is telling the first alternative story. 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:46.160 Life without God, flourishing without him. 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:49.039 And she wants it. 00:21:50.240 --> 00:21:55.119 Because it says that she sees that it's desirable for making one wise. 00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:59.759 She wants to be like God, she wants that transformation. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:02.160 At the level of her being. 00:22:02.319 --> 00:22:05.200 She no longer wants to be a creature. 00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:08.640 She is aspiring to be like the Creator. 00:22:08.880 --> 00:22:12.720 She also wants transformation at the level of her knowledge. 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:20.720 She wants to be able to determine for herself what is good and evil. 00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:28.960 Taken together, these two desires are treasonous. 00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:32.079 They are treasonous. 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:34.400 It's what D.A. 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:38.079 Carson calls the de-godding of God. 00:22:40.559 --> 00:22:47.680 Of wishing that his throne was vacant so that we ourselves could sit upon it. 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:55.519 This is the essence of what the Bible calls sin. 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:03.599 Sin is sin is not just a little bit of adult naughtiness. 00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:18.720 No, sin is the settled determination that I will be God. 00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:23.359 That I will decide for myself how to rule my life. 00:23:23.519 --> 00:23:26.400 I will decide for myself what is true and false. 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:29.279 I will create my own identity. 00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:31.759 I will live my own way. 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:34.319 Like the poem Invictus. 00:23:35.119 --> 00:23:37.839 It matters not how straight the gate. 00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:49.119 It's the lie. 00:23:54.720 --> 00:23:56.160 And so they eat. 00:23:56.640 --> 00:23:57.440 Verse 7. 00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:00.799 Satan distorts reality successfully. 00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:05.519 And where was Adam? 00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:08.400 What do we read in verse 7? 00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:10.720 Sorry, end of verse 6. 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:16.400 And she also gives some to her husband who was with her, and he it. 00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:27.440 The Puritans used to have a phrase that said, While Adam was away, Eve went astray. 00:24:30.319 --> 00:24:32.000 But he's right there with her. 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:35.519 Doing nothing. 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:38.640 Saying nothing. 00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:46.559 Adam was the first guy in all of history ever to say, Happy wife, happy life. 00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:51.119 It's the lie. 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:59.440 This is this is what we do, gentlemen. 00:25:01.359 --> 00:25:05.440 Rather than taking responsibility, our preference is to abdicate. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:09.839 Our preference is not to deal with things head on. 00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:14.079 There's a snake in the garden. 00:25:15.839 --> 00:25:18.000 And it's speaking lies. 00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:26.640 It's challenging God's authority, and the man is there going, I I don't know. 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:28.880 Netflix. 00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:31.759 I've just ruined that. 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:34.079 This carpet slip. 00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:36.000 Sorry, can somebody come and plug that back in? 00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:37.599 Sorry, Ben's on it, Jacob. 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:38.400 Thank you. 00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:44.880 I broke it. 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:45.599 I'm sorry. 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:46.720 I'm gonna continue. 00:25:46.799 --> 00:25:48.720 And the buzzing will end momentarily. 00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:49.759 There we go. 00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:52.640 This is what the man does. 00:25:53.519 --> 00:25:56.799 Eve's sin is one of initiative. 00:25:57.119 --> 00:26:00.799 She's she's kind of looking at her husband, going, Are you gonna say something? 00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:02.319 Are you gonna are you gonna lead? 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:05.119 Are you gonna take response like the snakes talking? 00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:16.720 Are you gonna and so she goes, Well, somebody has to do something, somebody has to step up, somebody has to answer these questions, and so I will. 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:21.359 And Adam does nothing. 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:23.440 The result? 00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:25.519 What's the result? 00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:32.559 They know their nakedness, and so shame creeps in. 00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:38.480 That's why they sew fig leaves together and make themselves loincloths. 00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:40.480 Think back to 225 where we started. 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:44.160 The man and the woman were both naked together, and they were not ashamed. 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:50.559 It was a good and glorious thing, and now it is filled with shame. 00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:57.519 Sin always promises greater degrees of freedom. 00:26:57.759 --> 00:27:03.839 But what it delivers is shame and alienation. 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:05.599 Because what's the next thing that they do? 00:27:05.759 --> 00:27:19.119 Verse 8, 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. 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:27.039 Sometimes I am the Lord God in my household, and I know that my children have sinned. 00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:29.519 And what do they do? 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:36.079 They hear me walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they run and hide. 00:27:37.759 --> 00:27:41.359 Isn't it tragic that we don't need to teach our children to hide? 00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:43.920 That they do it anyway. 00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:48.000 It has always been thus. 00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:52.960 They hide not just from God, they hide from each other. 00:27:54.880 --> 00:28:01.359 Their attempt to cover their shame with fig leaves is the first attempt at self-rescue. 00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:07.440 I'll save myself, I'll fix this, I'll I'll lift myself up by my bootstraps. 00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:11.200 I can solve this situation, I can I can make it better. 00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:13.519 You ever say that? 00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:23.279 Or the uh Kings of Leon song, Cold Desert, the very last song on that perfect album, Only by the Night. 00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:25.200 He says, Jesus don't love me. 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:27.519 No one ever carried my load. 00:28:28.079 --> 00:28:31.599 Or Fun, the band Fun, say, I'll die for my own sins. 00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:32.799 Thanks a lot. 00:28:35.359 --> 00:28:36.640 But what is it? 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:38.400 It's pitiful, isn't it? 00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:41.039 It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic. 00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:43.359 It's pitifully inadequate. 00:28:45.839 --> 00:28:49.200 The man and the woman were made to have dominion over creation. 00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:52.480 They were supposed to be in charge of the snakes. 00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:55.119 But who's in charge now? 00:28:55.839 --> 00:28:57.119 The serpent. 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:00.240 And this is what sin does. 00:29:00.640 --> 00:29:14.400 Sin decreates us, it lessens our humanity, it distorts reality, it puts creation over us, it lessens us in terms of our image-buriedness. 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:24.160 And instead of becoming like God, we become separated from God and from one another. 00:29:24.319 --> 00:29:28.880 And what's the saddest irony of this aspiration to be like God? 00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:31.519 What's so tragic about it? 00:29:32.319 --> 00:29:35.920 They were already like God. 00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:37.759 127. 00:29:38.400 --> 00:29:39.519 128. 00:29:40.880 --> 00:29:42.960 So God made man in his own image. 00:29:43.039 --> 00:29:44.559 In the image of God, he created them. 00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:46.720 Male and female, he created them. 00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:49.440 They were already like God. 00:29:51.839 --> 00:29:54.640 But here's where the story begins to turn. 00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:57.759 Verse 8, the Lord God pursues them. 00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:04.079 See, even the narrative begins to place God back in his rightful place. 00:30:04.240 --> 00:30:06.720 The narrative doesn't call him God. 00:30:06.880 --> 00:30:09.039 The narrative calls him again the Lord God. 00:30:09.119 --> 00:30:11.440 He's reestablishing his position. 00:30:11.519 --> 00:30:12.559 And what does he do? 00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:13.839 He comes. 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:19.359 And verse 9, the Lord God called to the man and says, Where are you? 00:30:19.759 --> 00:30:21.680 He pursues us. 00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:31.920 He asks them questions, not because he doesn't know the answer, but in order to elicit repentance, in order that they might apologize. 00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:33.839 Back to our introduction. 00:30:34.799 --> 00:30:37.119 He's seeking to draw them back. 00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:41.680 But how does Adam respond, verse 10? 00:30:41.839 --> 00:30:48.160 I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. 00:30:55.519 --> 00:31:02.480 And this is where both the man and the woman begin to do their own reality distortion. 00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:05.279 Back to Stephen Carpenter's triangle. 00:31:05.519 --> 00:31:08.400 Let's look at Adam's reality distortion field. 00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:10.480 Who's the perpetrator? 00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:14.880 According to the man, verse 12. 00:31:15.200 --> 00:31:23.839 The man said, The woman you gave me, the woman you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate it. 00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:26.400 So who's the perpetrator? 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:29.279 The woman. 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:33.200 But more than that, the woman you gave me, God. 00:31:34.720 --> 00:31:35.680 Who's the victim? 00:31:35.759 --> 00:31:39.200 Oh like I was just I was just standing right there. 00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:43.759 And she gave me this fruit, and like I was hungry, and so I ate it. 00:31:46.079 --> 00:31:47.759 And who's the rescuer? 00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:51.119 It kind of goes unanswered. 00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:54.240 It's kind of his self-rescue from the fig leaves. 00:31:54.640 --> 00:31:57.359 What's Eve's reality distortion field? 00:31:57.440 --> 00:31:58.720 It's there in verse 13. 00:31:58.799 --> 00:32:02.160 So the Lord God turns to the woman and says, Why have you done this? 00:32:02.319 --> 00:32:03.599 Or what is this that you have done? 00:32:03.680 --> 00:32:08.000 And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ain't. 00:32:08.079 --> 00:32:09.440 So who's the perpetrator? 00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:10.880 The serpent. 00:32:11.119 --> 00:32:12.400 It wasn't me, God. 00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:22.079 If you hadn't made the snakes, if we'd been in Ireland, little uh St. 00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:23.519 Patrick's joke there. 00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:28.240 The serpent is the perpetrator. 00:32:28.319 --> 00:32:28.960 Who's the victim? 00:32:29.119 --> 00:32:29.839 Well, me. 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:32.319 Like I just kind of fell into this apple. 00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:34.240 Wasn't an apple. 00:32:35.200 --> 00:32:36.319 Who's the rescuer? 00:32:36.480 --> 00:32:38.000 It goes unanswered. 00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:46.160 In casting themselves like this, they are both casting themselves in the role of the victim, and neither is claiming responsibility. 00:32:46.319 --> 00:32:47.839 And so God has to respond. 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:53.920 God has to respond and begin to re-establish what is true and what is right. 00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:55.519 And so how does God respond? 00:32:55.680 --> 00:32:57.359 He responds in two ways. 00:32:57.599 --> 00:33:01.519 He responds both in judgment and in mercy. 00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:04.799 Judgment and mercy for Adam and Eve. 00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:14.640 They're not wiped out immediately, they're not killed instantly, though life will now be much harder. 00:33:16.799 --> 00:33:23.680 Blessed things like childbirth will be painful and sometimes tragic. 00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:26.799 And death will be the end. 00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:33.359 Dust you are, and to dust you shall return. 00:33:34.880 --> 00:33:38.400 That's why at every graveside that you have ever stood at. 00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:40.400 What is it they say? 00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:43.279 Ashes to ashes. 00:33:43.759 --> 00:33:45.759 Dust to dust. 00:33:47.359 --> 00:33:50.559 Sin always leads to death. 00:33:52.240 --> 00:33:56.960