Genesis 3:1-13 - "The Deception in Eden: How Satan's Doubts Lead to Humanity's Downfall"
James Long, Jr. - https://jameslongjr.org/
Dive deep into Genesis 3:1-13 as we explore Satan's cunning tactics that led Eve to question God's Word, Character, and Authority. Understand the recurring pattern of sin through 'saw, desired, took' and see its parallels in the stories of Achan and David. Discover the immediate consequences: shame, fear, and guilt that resonate in our lives today.
Message: Genesis 3:1-13 - "The Deception in Eden: How Satan's Doubts Lead to Humanity's Downfall"
Saw - The allure and attraction of sin (parallels with Achan & David).
Desired - Internal battle and justification of sin.
Took - The act of committing the sin.
3. Panic: The Consequences of Disobedience (Genesis 3:7-10)
Shame – The immediate realization and self-awareness (v. 7)
The instinct to Cover Up – Making of fig leaves.
Fear – The dread of facing God (v. 8-10)
The instinct to Run and Hide – Hiding from God's presence.
4. Pursuit: God Pursue, Prods, and Probes (Genesis 3:9-11)
God pursues Adam (and Eve)
God prods
God probes
The instinct to Blameshift and avoid responsibility.
5. Prelude to God's response and hope for redemption.
Application # 1: Know God’s Word
Application # 2: Understanding the Word
Application # 3: Trust in God's Character
ABOUT JAMES AND LESSONS FOR LIFE
Are you longing to find answers to the deeper issues of life? Join Dr. James Long, Jr., a pastor, counselor, and university professor with over 30 years of experience. Hear James as he tackles some of life’s biggest questions and helps us find God’s solutions to life’s struggles. Learn the power of living by God’s grace and for His glory. Experience the joy of forgiveness and freedom found in Jesus Christ alone. If you are in search of freedom, you will love being part of this conversation. Subscribe, and enjoy the show!
Links Website – https://jameslongjr.org/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/drjameslongjr Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/drjameslongjr/ Apple Podcast – https://jameslongjr.org/applepodcast Google Podcast – https://jameslongjr.org/googlepodcast
Genesis 3:1-13 - "The Deception in Eden: How Satan's Doubts Lead to Humanity's Downfall"
James Long, Jr. - https://jameslongjr.org/
Dive deep into Genesis 3:1-13 as we explore Satan's cunning tactics that led Eve to question God's Word, Character, and Authority. Understand the recurring pattern of sin through 'saw, desired, took' and see its parallels in the stories of Achan and David. Discover the immediate consequences: shame, fear, and guilt that resonate in our lives today.
Message: Genesis 3:1-13 - "The Deception in Eden: How Satan's Doubts Lead to Humanity's Downfall"
Saw - The allure and attraction of sin (parallels with Achan & David).
Desired - Internal battle and justification of sin.
Took - The act of committing the sin.
3. Panic: The Consequences of Disobedience (Genesis 3:7-10)
Shame – The immediate realization and self-awareness (v. 7)
The instinct to Cover Up – Making of fig leaves.
Fear – The dread of facing God (v. 8-10)
The instinct to Run and Hide – Hiding from God's presence.
4. Pursuit: God Pursue, Prods, and Probes (Genesis 3:9-11)
God pursues Adam (and Eve)
God prods
God probes
The instinct to Blameshift and avoid responsibility.
5. Prelude to God's response and hope for redemption.
Application # 1: Know God’s Word
Application # 2: Understanding the Word
Application # 3: Trust in God's Character
ABOUT JAMES AND LESSONS FOR LIFE
Are you longing to find answers to the deeper issues of life? Join Dr. James Long, Jr., a pastor, counselor, and university professor with over 30 years of experience. Hear James as he tackles some of life’s biggest questions and helps us find God’s solutions to life’s struggles. Learn the power of living by God’s grace and for His glory. Experience the joy of forgiveness and freedom found in Jesus Christ alone. If you are in search of freedom, you will love being part of this conversation. Subscribe, and enjoy the show!
Links Website – https://jameslongjr.org/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/drjameslongjr Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/drjameslongjr/ Apple Podcast – https://jameslongjr.org/applepodcast Google Podcast – https://jameslongjr.org/googlepodcast
James:
Well, the reason why you have to have a workshop like that is because we struggle with change and we struggle with relationships and we struggle with burdens. And all of that is a by product of what we are going to be studying, Lord willing, over the next two weeks from Genesis chapter 3. Now, my fellow brothers got a chance to preach to you over the last... four weeks, um, beautiful passages from Genesis one and two and taking it throughout scripture of how God created and how he led, um, this world, how we created this world out of nothing. God spoke this world into existence and all the beauty that was there in the garden. The garden was beautiful in the fact of, uh, and the world was beautiful. The universe was beautiful before Genesis chapter three. And what we have is this, uh, beauty of creation. The highest of creation is humanity. Humanity has been created as the highest and we, we get to represent him and we have his image stamped in our hearts and in our lives. Every single one of us have that image stamped in us and, and such a beautiful thing. And then the last. two weeks, we got the beauty of marriage and how God was not only the officiant at the marriage ceremony because he brought these two people together. He was also the father that brought the bride to, uh, to Adam. And so he played both roles as a father, bringing the bride to the Uh, to the groom and then he also officiated that first wedding ceremony and all the beauty that is there. And in the end of Genesis chapter two, we say, we see that they were naked and not ashamed and, and this, this relationship where there was complete ultimate, um, openness, uh, complete vulnerability with one another. And there was nothing to fear in that relationship. Genesis 3 starts off with a very interesting phrase. It says, Now. And it talks about a serpent. Now, I should say that as we look at this passage of scripture, there are probably some of you that have heard the story of Adam and Eve, and you think of it as just an allegory or figurative. And a lot of people in this world tend to think that way. They tend to think of it just as a story. It's a fable. It's not. true. But I will say this, that if you look in the New Testament, Jesus Christ spoke as though this was true. Jesus Christ, when he talks about marriage, he takes the principles that are driven right out of Genesis chapter 2. That when God joins them together, no one should separate them. And he talks Principles right here from Genesis one. So Jesus, when he's talking about Adam and Eve, he talks about them literally, uh, when we hear Paul, right? And Paul will write, and we'll spend some time over the next two weeks in Romans chapter five, and he will speak of a literal Adam. And that all of us have fallen in this literal Adam. So when Paul speaks and when Jesus speaks, they speak as though this is true. And the passage that actually we just walked, worked through in Jude, if you remember in Jude, there was a passage of Enoch, the seventh of, you remember who it was? Of Adam. So, multiple New Testament books speak of this Adam, and Eve, and speak of them as literal historic people. And so I want you to keep that in mind. This is not just a fable, this is not just an allegory, this is truth. And so this is so important for us to keep in mind. Now, I want you to think about all of the struggles that we have in this world, all the difficulties, all the pain, all the troubles, all the suffering, all the trials that you have in this life, physically, emotionally, relationally, spiritually, whatever the struggle may be that you are going through privately that maybe no one else knows except for you and God, it is a byproduct of what happened post death. I should tell you this one thing, that when God created us, Genesis 1, and then the expansion of it in Genesis 2, when God created us, he created us dependent. Every single one of us has been dependent, has been under the dependency of God. God started by saying in Genesis 1, God created the heavens and the earth. So everything under that is subordinate to God. So that's important to keep in mind, that every single one of us... is dependent. Second, you will find that we were dependent upon counsel. We needed to be counseled. We needed to be told what to do. Jesus, God told us, be fruitful and multiply. He talked about ruling over the world. And then he also gave a command, do not eat from this tree. Everything in this world, you cannot have this tree, this root from this tree. So, so they needed to be counseled. So God created us dependent. God created us dependent upon counsel and that we will be molded and shaped and changed by the counsel that we listen to keep that in mind. So, so whoever I say this before, whoever has your ear, has your mind, whoever has your mind can affect your heart and whoever affects your heart. can influence your life. And so, so, Genesis 1 and 2, everything's good because they are dependent creatures, they're dependent upon the counsel of God, they're following the counsel of God, and they're being molded and shaped and changed into the image of God. Genesis 3 changes because there's a new counselor that comes in. And these dependent creatures start to listen to a new counselor. And now they're going to be molded and shaped and changed by that counselor. And that counselor is radically different than God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit. So let's, let's look here. I call this the deception in Eden. So it's, it's deception and Satan's doubts, his, the doubts that he's going to sow, he's going to sow seeds of doubt here. What he's trying to do is trying to create some level of doubt, and that's going to lead to humanity's downfall. Our two parents, our four parents are going to now plunge us. Adam ultimately is going to plunge us into the downfall that we have. And it's not just a downfall horizontally with humanity. It's a downfall even with the earth and in relationships. Let's start with this in Genesis three, verse one, it says this. Now the serpent. was more crafty than any other beast in the field that the Lord God had made. It's interesting, and I want to start with this idea of perversion. There was a perversion that happens. It's this crafty deception that happens. And Satan is described as crafty. Craftier than all of the other beasts in the field. Now, and Doug's gonna know this better, uh, there's a Hebrew word and that Hebrew word talks about craft, it comes out as crafty. But there's a wordplay that seems to be happening here because just between the end of He, um, Genesis 2 where it talks about they were naked and that wordplay that connects to this craftiness, similar words in Hebrew, and they're flipping it. What, what he's saying is this, is that this, this vulnerability between humanity is there, but now there's. person that comes in and sneaks in and is trying to create something different. Men and women were naked and they were absolutely innocent. And the serpent is crafty, deceptive and dangerous. And it's interesting that he's going to use a threefold strategy to try to downplay them, to destroy them. And it's the same threefold strategy that he uses with you and me. The first strategy is he wants to sow seeds of doubt. He wants you to doubt the Word of God. Watch what he says here. Now the servant was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Did God actually say? It's interesting that Satan's seemingly innocent question, did God really say this? And it's an innocent question, you think, right? But sometimes you can ask a question and there's a motive that's behind it. You're trying to lead a person in a certain way, and that's clearly what Satan is trying to do here. He's, this tactic is, he's questioning the generosity of God. He says, did God say? That you shall not eat of any tree that's in the garden. And so, he's saying, you shall not eat of any tree that's in the garden. That's not what God said. God says you can have the abundance of the trees in the garden. He says you just can't have this one tree. But, but Satan has turned it in such a way that it makes it sound as though God is not a generous God. Not a great God. And it implies that we, in essence, should be judging God's word and questioning God's word when we are clearly not supposed to do that. Look here what it says in Genesis 3, 2. It says, And the woman said to the servant, Now, I want you to see how, how she distorted his word. I hadn't caught this. I had always caught this last point, which we'll get to, but this week, spending time looking at this passage, she distorted his word in a number of ways. Um, so, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it. Lest you die. Well, she, once again, is understating God's generosity. God is, and one person gave me the illustration that God has given you an ocean's worth of blessing, and he said this little Dixie cup, if you remember Dixie cups, on the shore, you can't have that Dixie cup, but I'm giving you an ocean. That's in essence what God has given you. The generosity of God, he said, I'm giving you all of this. You just can't have this. But she underplays His generosity. She understates it. She makes it sound as though something is there. And the original in Genesis 2. 16, turn back there with me for a second. In Genesis 2. 16, and you may not even have to flip a page, it says that, and the Lord God commanded who? The man saying that you sure you may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and we evil you shall not eat for in that day that you eat it. You shall surely die. Okay, so she is now making it sound as though he's saying, God says you can have everything and she's making it sound as though, you know, it's really not as much. And in essence, I was thinking about this, this probably shows a level of ingratitude. And Paul and Romans said that part of our sin issue is that we fail to glorify God and fail to be grateful to him. And if we can think about all the blessings that God has given us in this world and we we find ourselves focusing on that Dixie cup, we could find ourselves being ungrateful for all the blessings he's given us. We focus on that thing that I desperately need, I think, rather than focusing on all the things that God has given us. Well, that's our humanity's problem. And so then she adds. Neither shall you touch it not only is she minimizing the generosity of God But then she adds this neither shall you touch it God didn't say that and so I wonder if that's not a form of Adding to God's law, which humanity has had the tendency to do from the beginning of time Legalism is there we make these rules are man centered rules. In fact, God gave 10 commandments, but then it got up to 613 of them in the Old Testament. I, I wonder if at times we have a tendency to add our own laws to God when God says, here's the standard. So, he starts by trying to get her to doubt the word of God. And really, honestly, that is all of us. When Jesus was tempted, you remember, God says, This is my beloved son. And then, Satan's very first word to Jesus, if you remember in Matthew 4, His very first word to Jesus is, If you are the son of God, so he's questioning God's word. He's getting us. He wants to sow seeds of doubt. Well, the second thing he does is he wants to sow doubt, uh, seeds of doubt of God's authority, not only of his word, but his authority. Watch what it says in verse four, but the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die direct contradiction of what God said. God said in that day, you will surely die. He says. You will not surely die. And the reality is, is that all of us struggle with humanity and with sin. And when we struggle with sin, we are questioning God's word, and we actually question whether God is going to fulfill what he says he will fulfill. We don't really believe God's authority. See, God has created us dependent, dependent upon him, and that we will be molded and shaped by him. But when we don't, Follow his word. When we're not following independence, we're not following his counsel. We don't really believe that he's going to follow through on what he says. And very, very honestly, I don't think most of us believe in an eternal hell. We just don't. We look at the beauty of this world, as beautiful as it seems from our viewpoint, and we don't really think about that person. that will take their last breath and go to an eternity in hell. We do not consider it because we do not count his consequences. So he wants to sow seeds of doubt of God's word. He wants to sow seeds of doubt of God's authority. The third thing he wants to do is sow seeds of doubt of God's goodness. Look here in verse five, it says, for God knows when you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good from evil. See, Eve, it's not bad enough that you can't really trust God's word. It's not bad enough that God is really yelling and screaming, but he doesn't really mean what he says. No, it's, guess what? God is holding out on you, Eve. That this is, this is such a blessing. This will make you so happy. This will give you peace, hope, and joy in your life. You desperately need it. And when you are like God, see, God has that, but he's holding it out for just himself. That's what sin does. Sin questions God's word. Sin questions God's authority, but sin questions God's character as goodness. That's exactly what Eve is being tempted right now. And, and if you notice, Satan started with Levels of distortion, just a couple of questions and distortion. Now it's outright denial. He has now moved to denial. He says, it will not happen though. God says it will happen. That's what happens with temptation. Temptation is, is really subtle. And Temptation starts with the contradicting of God's word. It's the subtle level of distrust, denial, ultimately disobedience. It's going to follow that pattern in our lives. It's the age old problem that you and I have with the issue of truth and the issue of trust. What is truth? Somebody brought that up in our Bible study this morning. What is truth? And I really like this quote by R. C. Sproul. It goes, Truth is reality. As God sees it. It's really great. I mean, boiled down truth. Of course, that's what RC could do. You could boil down these big things and bring it down to something that stupid me can understand. It's reality. It's God sees it. That's truth. And then trust. Trust is a huge issue. It comes down to do you trust God? And the doubts that he is sowing, it is questioning her doubt from God. And the fall has already started here. It's already started to occur because these things are happening inside her heart. The fall doesn't happen when she eats the fruit. The fall is, it's confirmed when she eats the fruit. The things are already happening in life. She's misrepresenting God's commands. This woman in this conversation, she misquotes God's word, then she, it's a slight alteration. But even that slight alteration is not truly God's word. It diminishes God's glory. And when she alters the possibility, she takes the certainty of God's judgment and makes it a possibility she is offending God and she's creating problems. So, sowing seeds of doubt, that's what Satan was looking to do, he was sowing seeds of doubt in her heart, in her life. And what was happening was this, she was dismin she was displaying Romans chapter 3 verse 18. Romans 3 verse 18 is, there is no fear of God before their eyes. She, she's representing, I don't fear you God, I can question your word, I can question your character, I can question your authority, I can even add to your word, she has no fear. That's what sin is, sin for all of us is the fact that we fail to have fear of God. You know, God created all of us as worshipers. Uh, Paul Tripp talks about the fact that all of us are worshipers and, and a lot of us tend to focus on the fact that it's like these four or five major events in our lives. It's not really four or five major events, it's, it's minuscule event versus minuscule event versus minuscule event, the smallest event, just the thought. Just the distraction, just the addition, that small little thing has now become a major thing in life because that is what we are. We are born to be worshipers. God has created every single one of you to worship Him. And when you get distracted from the worship of Him, you will add something else to the piece of puzzle. Something else will take over in your life, and that's what happened with Eve. Eve has gotten distracted and now she's gotten deceived. And she's now down this path where she is going to fall. Well, now, he moves to this motivation. Now, he talks about the fact that you will be like God. Very honestly, if we're being honest, if we're looking in the mirror, all of us kind of want to be like God, right? We want to make the rules. We want people to serve us. The distortion of who God is in our minds. That is what we want, right? We want, we want people to serve us. We want people to bow to us. We want people to do the things for us. That is the distortion of who God is. That's not really who God is because God is an amazing gift, gracious God. But this temptation to be autonomous rules and attacks Genesis 1. 1. It attacks the fact that you are dependent people. You want to be autonomous, so do I. And that autonomy, that rule making. That leadership is really at the heart of this thing and it's questions God's goodness. So this perfect storm has happened, the distortion of God's commands, the allurement of this forbidden power, the doubt cast upon God's word and his character. It is a perfect storm for sin. So we move from perversion to pretense. In verse six, the pretense, the human response. So we move from that perversion to pretense. It says in verse six, So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate it. And she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. You'll see this repeated pattern, and once again, I don't know if you're opposed to this, but there's these three words, saw, desire, or my version says coveted, and took. Okay, saw, coveted, and took. This pattern is a pattern of sin in life. We see something, we desire it in our hearts, and then we take it. Well, same three patterns have been there multiple times in scripture in Aiken, in Joshua chapter seven, they, they went into Jericho and God says, do not take any of the spoils of Jericho. And what did Aiken do? Aiken went in and he saw the spoils. He saw it, he desired it, and he took it. Crazy thing about it's, he took it and it hidden in his, in his tent. I mean, he couldn't even do anything with it. It's hidden in his tent. And then it ended at the destruction of his whole family. Or David in, in second Samuel, you remember he saw Bathsheba, he coveted her. He desired her in his heart and he took her. And that pattern is true for you and for me as well as in throughout scripture. We see things and what you put your mind on, your eyes on is so important. And what you think about deep in your heart is so important because if you are not careful, you will end up acting out and committing sin. because you're following and looking at the wrong things. So they were distrusting God's word. She's evaluating this fruit and she's evaluating the fruit outside of God's command, outside of God's goodness, outside of God's authority. She's looking at that fruit and it says that she sees this and she sees that it's good. I think it was almost seven times in the first chapter, and when Pastor Doug was preaching it was, it was good, it was good, it was good, it was good, it was good, over and over and over again. In fact, when he created humanity, it was very good. It's good, good, good, good, good. And what he said was bad was, do not eat from that fruit of the tree. But what, what she is now in pretense, her human response is, she's looking at what God says no to, she says yes. And so she, she sees what is good, but God says, not, and she says that this food and God says, I've given you everything. I'm not giving that for you for food. She sees this as a nutritional value. She sees it as a moral value. She sees it as passionate. She says, this is going to make me happy. And then she looks at it intellectually. She says, Hey, this is going to really make me wise, but isn't, isn't that sin. We look at something. We think it's going to make us feel good. We think it's going to make us wise, we think it's going to advance us, and it doesn't. It's distressing God's word, it's shifting from God's evaluation to human judgment, and it is at the heart of all sin. So the serpent tries to convince the man and the woman to distrust God's relevance of his word, he tries to get them to be autonomous rather than submitting to God's authority, and he is even echoing creation. In a perverted way, by saying good when God says it's not. I find it interesting though here about Adam's role. I don't want to surmise any more than what the passive says. The end of verse 6 it says to her husband who was with her and he ate it. I think I've told you, I had always had in my mind that Adam was out in the garden doing something and Satan had come to Eve alone. Maybe it was. Maybe Adam just has come onto the scene now. But whatever it is, he is now on the scene when she is ready to go and grab this fruit and he does what? Nothing. And in fact, when God gave the commandment in Genesis 2, he gave it to who? Remember, I said to the man. He gave it to Adam. Eve wasn't even created at the point. That doesn't make Eve less culpable. Well, it doesn't make her not culpable. She's culpable because she knew what God's law was. She chose not to follow it. But it makes him even more so because he was the one that received the commandment. He was set up as the authority. Theologians called it the federal head. He is our leader, and whatever he did, it transcends down to all of us. And his role as the watchman of the garden, his role as a protector of his wife, his role as a person who's speaking truth, he has abandoned that role in passivity. So the perversion, the Satan's craftiness, the pretense, the human response, leads to the third thing I want you to consider, panic, the consequences of disobedience. In verse 7 it says this, Then the eyes of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves lawncloths. Now does that mean that they He didn't know that she was naked and that she didn't know that he was naked. That's not, that's not what's happening here. There, there's something that happens with this nakedness that is different than the nakedness before. I, I talked to you about the fact that they were naked and not ashamed. There was a level of vulnerability. There was a security that they had with one another. They didn't have to be separated. I didn't have to fear you. I could be naked before you in every way and I don't have to fear. But that all of a sudden changed. As soon as they ate the fruit. I should say this. Some people think it's an apple. Have you ever heard that it's, the reason why men have an ap Adam's apple is because we ate the apple and it got stuck in our throat. They come up with some ridiculous things, right? Nobody knows whether it's an apple or not. It was a fruit. Um, I like apples. I don't know if I would give up my life for an apple. Maybe a steak. Um, I'm kidding. Um, but the nakedness that they had post disobedience was now filled with shame. The emotional, the psychological transformation that had occurred, I am absolutely secure with you, God, and with my spouse, has now turned, I am turning my back on my spouse. And the shame that they felt, because the natural instinct for humanity when you feel shame, is to do what? Is to cover up. That's the natural instinct, and that's what they did. They, they sowed these fig leaves, and they thought that if I can cover up some private parts, that will make me less vulnerable. It's a lie. Because the insecurity is happening from within, it's not from outside. And so this sowing of fig leaves reflects our natural human response to try to cover something up. And rather than confessing the wrong, rather than going immediately to God, God, I failed, what do we do? We try to hide it. And they tried to hide from each other with shame. The second form of panic that occurred was fear. So shame they tried to cover up, then fear in verse 8, it says, Then they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man, I wonder what that cool of the day is. I never actually went into that. It's interesting. The man said to his wife. The man and the wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. So once again, they have distorted who God is. They distorted his word, they distorted his character, they distorted his authority. They've distorted the fact that this is an omnipresent, omniscient, God, he knows everything and he's everywhere present and they're hiding behind that little tree over there trying to hide and they think that they, Oh, did he see us? Did he see us? But isn't that what we do with panic? When we're ashamed, we try to cover it up. And when we're afraid we run and hide. I would say that I wouldn't have a counseling practice if it weren't for those first two things. Shame, vast majority of people that's in my office struggle with shame and a vast majority of my office that struggle with fear. What I love about this is the next one. Yeah, there's perversion, there's pretense, there's panic, but there is pursuit. I love this about God. In Genesis 3, 9 11, God pursues Adam. He says, but the Lord God called to Adam and said, where are you? It's kind of like when the kids were small, you know, it's like playing hide and go seek. You know, they're right there. It's like, where are you? It's like, we're here. But there's something deeply theological about this. We don't run to God. None of us do. God runs towards us. God pursued Adam and Eve, but specifically Adam. And it wasn't that Eve was invaluable in God's eyes, infinitely valuable. He stamped his image in her. He breathed life into her. He, he, he, she is, he'll, he'll send his son to die for her. Eve is, infinitely valuable in his eyes, but Adam is set up as the leader, the federal head. Adam, where are you? I love the fact that God pursues, but then God prods. Adam said this in verse 10. He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. So Adam is giving some level of confession, not deeply, but enough. Uh, not enough, I should say. But not only does God pursue, God prods. He doesn't stop there. He says, Who told you you were naked? Now once again, this all knowing God knows. How they got naked or how they see this, but he's, he's pursuing them. He's prodding Adam who told you, and then he probes even deeper and he probes. He says, have you eaten from the tree, which I commanded you not to? He is pursuing him. He's prodding him, but he is probing Adam confess. So important. That moves us to our next selection section projection blame. So. Adam and Eve felt shame, which they covered up, fear, they ran and hid, and then this last one, guilt, the burden of the wrong. They knew that they had done wrong, and it says in verse 12, then the woman, the man said, The woman ate the fruit, and when she ate the fruit, I knew it was wrong and I knew your word says she was going to die. God, do me a favor, please. Let me bear your wrath for my wife's sin. Let me die, let her live. I will bear your wrath for her sin. Let me sacrifice my life for you. For her. That's what he said, right? No. He went horizontal and then he went vertical. The woman. Which you gave to me. So he's throwing everything, he's throwing everything against the wall. He's throwing, it's the woman. And then it's even you God. Well, you know. And so he's directly attacking her. And he's, I guess, indirectly attacking God. But it's still an attack. God looks to the woman and the woman doesn't really do much better. She says, well, the serpent deceived me. That is true. But once again, she didn't say that I lacked trust in you, God, I didn't fulfill your word. I didn't trust your character. So neither one of them were owning it. And it's our society today. Our society struggles with taking personal responsibility. Somebody shoots up a place and immediately we have to go back to what kind of parents do they have? What kind of diagnosis do they have? We have to go through all of these things because we do not want to hold a person responsible today. Carl Menninger, um, back in the sixties, wrote a book, whatever became a sin. He was a, is not a Christian. He was a psychiatrist and he says, whatever became of sin, powerful book because they, in the sixties, he saw people were just immediately shifting blame and responsibility to everything. And now it's 60 years later and guess what we're doing. We do it even more so. And Adam, one finger out, he didn't realize three fingers were pointing back. And when he did that, he marred his relationship with God. He lost his, he's hindering his relationship with his wife. He has lost Eden's purity. Sin is interesting because sin has consequences. Sin disturbs every relationship. Sin affects your relationship with God. Sin affects your relationship with nature. Sin affects your relationship with humanity. Everything of it. Sin attacks every single person at birth. It degrades, it debases, it destroys. It's like this cancer that just doesn't stop. Uh, what was the name of the book? It's not the way it's supposed to be and I can't remember the author. But he used the idea of sin being like a parasite and like a malignancy. And those are two, it just sucks life and it just spreads. That's what happens. Sin's makeup is deep. It's deceptive. It's destructive. But sin is intentional. But sin is ultimately irrational. You had the blessing of Eden and you've given it up. Every single one of us do that. So what do we do? Because. Sin puts us as a huge consequence in our lives. We are under guilt, we are under God's punishment, and we are going to be separated from Him. What in the world can we do? We have nothing we can do to fix this. Adam and Eve were sitting there and next week we will learn about the curse that God is going to lay upon Adam and Eve. It's the Satan, and then Adam and Eve, this curse, 1, 2, 3, and then he gives a great promise. The huge blessing. That before this world was ever created, before you ever fell, Adam, I knew you were going to do it, and that God had already planned what we were going to do to rescue you. Sin is deep, sin is deceptive, sin is destructive. So I don't know if you're sitting here today, and you're feeling great guilt. Because you're just overwhelmed with guilt in your life. Maybe you're burdened with sin. Maybe you know it. It's like, I know. I've been doubting God's word. I've been doubting God's goodness. I've been doubting God's authority. I've been seeing things I should not see. I've been desiring them. I've been taking them. And I feel just great levels of shame. And I try to cover up that shame with a ton of different things. Or maybe I am feeling great fear in my life. And I just want to run and hide and avoid. Or maybe you're sitting here knowing you feel guilt and you have this natural tendency to go horizontal, but also vertical. If you're struggling with, with that, I want you to know that the great prelude here, I want you to see right from the garden that God is saying. I got this. Where sin is great, God's grace is even greater. God, God already has a plan to deal with your guilt, your punishment, and your corruption. His, his plan is justification. I'm going to send one who's going to keep my law perfectly. For your Punishment. I'm going to adopt you into my family. You're going to become part of my family, no longer separated. And for the corruption that you have, I'm going to give you a new heart. I'm going to put a new spirit in you. I'm going to create something new because of my son. And the unrighteousness now becomes righteousness. The lack of goodness now becomes goodness. The holiness, the unholiness that's there in your life, I want to make you holy. I'm going to give you a position of holiness, and then I'm going to help you practically become holy. Eden has been lost, but Eden can be regained. Pastor Doug, I think, took us to, in he, in, uh, Revelation, the last book. Another tree. Hope, joy, peace, because of one. The precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So whether it's perversion, crafty, whether it's pretense, your human reasoning, whether it's panic that you're feeling, whether it's the fact that you are not realizing God's pursuing you because you are finding yourself blaming other people. I don't know what it is, but I do know this. There is one that you, Christ. Today, I pray, is the day that you would look. Unlike Adam and say that I was wrong and turn to him, you know, when I gave you the story of that Adam, the Adam who saw his wife do something wrong and that God's anger and wrath was going to be poured out and that Adam says, I will be willing to die in their place that wasn't the first Adam that was the second one, the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ says, I never sinned. He lived a perfect and righteous wife. All the way through, he followed God's law, all whatever of them, perfectly, not only out of his actions, but his attitudes of his heart, he was perfect. He fulfilled the law perfectly for you and for me. And he lived that perfect life and he died a substitutionary death. The anger and the wrath that God wants to pour upon you or could pour upon you. Jesus says, I will take that. I'll take that for my bride. I'll die in her place. I'll bear your wrath. Let that cup pour upon me. And when he finished his work on the cross, he said, it is what finished and that Christ death provided you forgiveness of your sins. Christ's death provided you. a future. Christ's death provided you a family, but Christ's death has provided you freedom. I pray today is the day that you stop getting distracted by the world's allurements, focus heavily on God and let him be the one that is going to transform you from the inside out by his grace and for his glory. Let's pray. Father, all the pain and the misery that we have in this world is a by product of, um, humanity's fault. Father, Eve was deceived, but scripture tells us Adam was rebellious. Father, many of us get deceived, but... Every one of us has that rebel within us. We, we don't want to submit to your authority. We want to be autonomous. We don't want to see ourselves a dependent. We don't want to be dependent upon your counsel and by doing so we open ourselves up to being molded and shaped and changed by anything but you. Lord, please forgive us. Lord, please forgive us for doubting your word and doubting your character and doubting your authority. Please forgive us for focusing our attention and our gaze on something other than your son. Father, I pray that you would take those same three words, saw, coven, and took and turn them to Christ to help us to turn our eyes upon Jesus and to look full in his wonderful face. And then the things of this earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of his glory and grace. There's some here today that desperately need to turn their gaze away from the world and towards Christ. I pray that they would do that this morning. Lord, help us to trust your word. Help us to obey the one who wrote it. And help us to honor you. In Jesus matchless, holy, and powerful name we pray. Amen.