The Fall

Genesis Chapter 3

 

Read v.1- 7

 

Account of the fall of man

 

Note first who Satan went after to deceive - It was the woman

A) Paul 1Tim .2 ref to why women are not called to be pastors - reason is more easily deceived

 

B) Which totally makes sense - emotional in make up - approach to spiritual things is more emotional

 

C) Men are less emotional - more pragmatic - but both are needed !

 

 

 

Notice when Eve was deceived - When she was away from her husband

A) Warning to all the husbands here not to leave wives uncovered

 

B) Many wives that have fallen into sin - because Husband left them in a vulnerable place

1)  Work - gone a lot

2)  Her work -

3)   Down at the gym     Wisdom

 

 

3rd thing to note is Satan’s approach to Eve

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"

 

A) Satan comes questioning the word of God  Has God said -

 

B) Key tactic - question the word

 

C) Now Satan was trying to get Eve to doubt God’s love & provision

          God holding something back from you

 

D) Tries to get us to doubt Christ suff. / Plus God’s Love & provision

1)  Side track us into thinking we are missing out

 

 

Notice Eve’s response 2  And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;

3  "but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"

 

A) Satan questions God’s word - but Eve adds to God’s word - nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"

 

B) God didn’t say that / so we see here Eve getting into a dialogue w/ satan but she is misquoting the word

1)  Exhortation of our need to rightly divide the word of God -

 

C) if we are going to be victorious in spiritual battle we need to know how to use our weapons

 

 

Next thing we see is Satan goes from Questioning the Word of God to Denying it all together v.4,5 4  Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.   5  "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

 

A) You won’t die but really - you are going to be like God

 

B) Height of his deception - listen Eve - God doesn’t have your best interest at heart - He is denying you

1)  Tries to get us side tracked on false truth

Next notice how Satan appealed to Eve -

1st It was a spiritual thing - Be like God - worth noting

 

A) But He appealed to her physical senses V. 6, 6  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

 

B) Appealed to her physical senses - appealed to her flesh - 3 areas common

 

1John 2: 15  Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16  For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of the world.

 

Lust of flesh / lust of eyes / pride of life

 

In V.16 John point out how Satan partners w/ the world in using  3 devices to try and trap us!

A.)    Lust of flesh; lust of eyes and the pride of life! v.16

          1.)     same devices he used to tempt Eve in garden / Doubt  God

 

B.)     Satan's ultimate plan centered around getting Eve to question God's love and provision/  make her feel like God was holding something back from her

 

C.)     But he appealed to her senses - lust of flesh. "Look at that food!"          Great piece of fruit ?    Woman saw it was desirable for food!

          1.)     Lust of eyes -Best fruit ever seen  "It was pleasant to the eyes"

           Pride of life - desirable "It would make her wise"/ Like God !

 

 

Satan & the world use that same scheme on us! His ways haven't changed he tempts us w/ those 3 things to doubt Gods love & Provision

A.)    Lust of the flesh includes everything that appeals to our fallen nature/ speaks of the gratification of our natural desires

 

B.)Flesh doesn't mean - the physical body alone but anything that appeals to our natural man / our sin nature- born w/  who's chief desire is to please self!

 

C.) God has given man certain desires - these desires are good. Hunger, thirst, Sleep sex /    those things are not evil in and of themselves

 

D.)    But when our flesh controls them they can  become sinful/ example  hunger isn't evil - normal function / necessary signal /  but gluttony is a sin!

          1.)     Thirst isn't evil but drunkenness is a sin / Sleep is a gift from God -                   but laziness is shameful

 

E.)     Sex is wonderful - but practiced outside of marriage it becomes    immorality  very damaging & destructive

 

 

The enemy & the world will come & tempt us to take one of our God given natural desires to go out of Control w/ it / indulge it

A.)    We are bombarded everyday w/ temptations to satisfy that sinful    nature

 

B.)     But we have been given a new nature in Christ - spirit of God in us

 

C.) Gal 5 - Paul said the flesh and spirit war w/ one another! War w/in .           Two dogs - who wins one feed the most

 

D) Feed the Spirit & the flesh is weakened / vice versa

A old pastor was asked by one of the young men he was discipling

, "Sir, do you finally reach a point in your Christian life where you are no longer enticed or have problems with lust?"  The wise old Pastor  smiled and answered, "My boy, the flesh never gets better, it just gets deader!"

 

 

The 2nd device that the world uses to trap us is the lust of the eyes!

A.)Involves what we take in w/ our mind!  As well as what we see w/ our eyes!

          TV. Mags / Internet / conversations

B) World comes & says Look at that look what missing - look what he has /

 

C) Illustrate how this works / a while back Denise made a tray of brownies / I came home 1st place I go is kitchen / saw this tray of  brownies ate one /

1)  She comes in & says don’t eat any more of those they are not for us they were some function

 

D) But every time I walked through the kitchen calling out my name Rob / so I took another & another /   moving around on tray / out of control

 

Now Eating brownies is  not wrong but it illustrates how lust of eyes works  pulls you in calls out your name / need get  out of sight /

 

E) Fine once Denise left !  2Tim. 2:22 Flee youthful lust How ? By pursuing righteousness faith love peace w/ those who call on  the Lord pure heart

1)  How do we gain victory over the lust of the eyes / by placing our eyes on that which is righteous lovely

 

Phil. 4:8 8  Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy; meditate on these things.

 

 

3rd Device - Pride of Life! the Greek word for “pride” was used to describe a braggart who was trying to impress people with his importance.

A.)    Thinking that tempts us to want to be somebody/  promotes ourselves

 

B.) Tempts us to portray a certain image - success/ tempts to buy things - project an image to impress others

1)  People have always tried to outdo others in their spending and getting

 

 

 

C) Why is it that so many folks buy houses, cars, appliances, or wardrobes that they really cannot afford?

1)  Why do they succumb to the “travel now, pay later” advertising and get themselves into hopeless debt taking vacations far beyond their means?

 

D) Often it is because they want to impress other people—because of their “pride of life/  they want people think doing better than really are !

 

 

 

Note - Adam & Eve’s Sin affected their intimacy w/ each other v.7

7  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 coverings.

 

A) Ch. 2 :25   And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

 

B) After sinned they were ashamed sin brings shame - destroys intimacy in marriage - divorce ok adultery - sometimes never recover

 

 

Also affected their intimacy w/ God V.8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

 

A) Adam was once close to God now hiding from God - sin destroys intimacy

w/ God

 

V.9   Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"

 

A) Told that Adam and God walked together in the cool of the day - special time - so here we see God coming to meet Adam & he isn’t there

B) Do you have a special time set aside each day to meet w/ God?

 

 

C) God is not coming as arresting cop - but as a heart broken father

 

V10  So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."

 

D) Sin brings fear - makes us afraid of God - ( diff. From a fear of God - beg. Of wisdom )

 

V.11 11  And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"

 

A) Why God ask ? didn’t he know - Man needed to confess

 

B) Adam responds by passing the buck - making excuses 12  Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."

 

C) Lord it is not my fault / great out cry in our society today

 

 

Eve does the same : V.13 13  And the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

A) Eve’s plea not my fault either the devil made me do it -

 

B) Demon of Choc. Cake etc

 

C) Now the bible does tell us that Eve was deceived / but Adam ate willingly

          Why did he do that ?

 

D) Been suggested that His love for his wife began to supercede his love  for the Lord  why live eternally w/ out her -

E) always a danger of getting out of balance

 

F) Love Lord w/ all heart………. Proper love for your wife will be the outflow of that

 

 

In V. 14-19 The Judgment upon sin

 

Serpent - Satan used - diff. Then from today

 

Satan Enmity  - War w/ woman's seed - Hope

 

Woman - Pain in Child birth - problem w/ submission

 

 

Man Toil - ground cursed sweat - also death return to the ground

 

V.20,21 20  And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21  Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

 

A) Animal skins God broke His Sabbath - Sacrifice -

 

B) Jesus Broke the Sabbath to heal & restore

 

Ch. 3 ends w/ man being driven out of the garden 22  Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever";

23  therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

24  So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Protection