Sermon Tone Analysis

*Dealing with Sin in a Fallen World (Genesis 3:6-13)*

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Dietrich Bonfoeffer describes how temptation works:

‘With irresistible power desires seizes mastery over the flesh … It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, or love of fame and power, or greed for money … Joy in God is … extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature.

At this moment God is quite unreal to us, he loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real … Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God … It is here that everything within me rises up against the Word of God.’[1]

 

*1 John 2:14* “I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning.

I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and *the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”*

May I suggest that those phrases are intentionally put together – the reason they overcome the evil one is because the Word of God abides in them, they are strong in the Word, it remains deeply in their heart, hidden, memorized, meditated upon, treasured, it is a delight

 

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

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All that is in the world, this sinful world system, can be summarized under those 3 headings, according to John: “lust of flesh, lust of eyes, pride of life.”

Turn to Genesis 3, because I want you to notice that those 3 phrases are not only the 3 ways sin is manifested in our world today, the 3 broad categories of sin, they are precisely the 3 steps through which sin was originally brought into the world when the evil one tempted Eve.

Genesis 3:6 (NASB95) \\ 6 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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

*3 Temptations We All Deal With*

 

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*Lust of the flesh – v. 6a “good for food”*

The first temptation has to do with fleshly desires, appetites man seeks to fulfill.

The N.T. speaks of those “whose god is their belly” and “whose appetite is destruction”

 

James 1:13 speaks of “being carried away and enticed by our own lust, and when lust has conceived it brings forth sin, and when sin is accomplished it brings forth death.

Do not be deceived …”

 

The conception of sin has already lodged in her flesh and mind

 

This pattern in verse 6 is the same pattern we see temptation following in other familiar stories of OT: “saw … desired … took”

Achan says in Joshua 7:21 “when I *saw* among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted [literally *desired*] them and *took* them”

 

King David in 2 Samuel 11 “saw” Bathsheba (v. 2), then desired (v.

3), and took (v.

4)

 

This pattern of men who “saw” beautiful women and “took” them unlawfully and immorally appears several times in Genesis (6:2; Shechem in 34:2; Judah in 38:2)

 

There’s an important lesson for us all – to keep our eyes and our mind and our thoughts on whatsoever is pure, noble, good, praiseworthy – dwell on these things, lest we fall to this pattern.

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*Lust of the eyes – v. 6b “delight to the eyes”*

 

When King David saw a woman bathing from his rooftop that was not sin yet, but he continued to look, it was a delight to his eyes – sin was conceived in his mind, heart adultery would give birth to physical adultery, and as James says “sin brought forth death.”

In his tragic case, the birth of his child brought forth physical death.

Lust in the Bible is a broad term for desires, good or bad - covet is perhaps a more helpful synonym.

The root words for “pleasant” and “desirable” here are used in the Ten Commandments for the command against coveting (Deut.

5:21 uses both verbs).

The essence of covetousness has been described as the attitude that says I need something I do not know have in order to be happy.

Something is an unbiblical lust or idol when you are willing to sin in order to get it, or you’re willing to sin when you don’t get it.

This is a literal tree in the garden, nowhere does it say it was an apple tree.

I know most of your story books have an apple – some think that tradition was started because of the widespread Latin translation which has the similar-sounding word “malus” (evil) and “malum” (apple) and someone suggested that Adam choked on the fruit and that’s why we call it the “Adam’s apple.”

Whatever fruit it was, the reason man would die upon eating from the tree is not because of some chemical or biological element in the fruit, it was not poisonous or carcinogenic, the reason man would die is because of sin and the penalty or wages of disobeying the LORD God.

This was a test.

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*Pride of life – v. 6c “desirable to make one wise”*

Our modern psychological world would say the reason people fall into destructive patterns is they don’t think highly enough of themselves.

But as I read the Word of God, it seems that the very root of sin is thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought, and not thinking highly enough of God.

We are never commanded in the Bible to focus on us and lift up our thoughts and esteem of ourselves, but we are instead to stop looking at ourselves and to focus on God and lift up our thoughts about Him, esteem His glorious worthy value, name, and honor.

When we sin, it’s because of our low thoughts about God.

A. W. Tozer summarizes what we learned last week:

‘Satan's first attack upon the human race was his sly effort to destroy Eve's confidence in the kindness of God.

Unfortunately for her and for us he succeeded too well.

From that day, men have had a false conception of God, and it is exactly this that has cut out from under them the ground of righteousness and driven them to reckless and destructive living.

Nothing twists and deforms the soul more than a low or unworthy conception of God.... our notion of God must always determine the quality of our religion ... It is most important to our spiritual welfare that we hold in our minds always a right conception of God.[2]

 

Luke 4 tells us how Jesus overcame a very similar temptation:

v. 3 – “make bread for yourself from these stones” (lust of flesh)

v. 5 – showed him the world if he would worship him (lust of eyes)

v. 9 – show off your power, prove yourself (pride of life)

 

Adam fell in the best of circumstances (paradise garden), but Christ prevailed in the worst of circumstances (wilderness).

Adam failed at his strongest point, Christ prevailed at his weakest point.

Christ is called the Second Adam who came and was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin.

It is very instructive that even Jesus the all-wise all-powerful Son of God did not respond to Satan with anything except the Word of God.

Satan couldn’t handle the truth memorized and hidden in the heart of someone who loves God more than promises of sin, so Satan had to leave.

The Scriptures say if you resist the devil in this way, he will flee.

James Boice has said it well: ‘our only hope is in that grace of God by which He sends a Redeemer, who instead of being faithless was faithful, instead of being rebellious was obedient, and instead of being filled with pride was one who actually humbled himself to “even death on a cross” (Phil.

2:8).

God promises that Redeemer in this chapter.’[3]

Back to Genesis 3 - when it says in v. 6 that Eve “took and ate” it is just a few words, but those words for “take” and “eat” had profound and far-reaching consequences to the entire world and all of history and mankind.

The fall was so devastating that it would never be undone until God the Son comes to taste death and tells his disciples “take and eat” of His Passover as He prepared to give of His body and blood on our behalf.

Our first parents partook of a tree that brought death to all their descendants, and Jesus hung on a tree that brought life to all of His descendants who partake of Him wholly by faith.

Because of man’s failure in the Garden of Eden, the Son of Man had to go through the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood to think of the alienation from God He would suffer and the consequences of sin and wrath poured out on Him, the wrath that Adam and Eve instantly deserved and that you and I deserved.

Also, there may be a parallel with Adam and Eve naked in their shame and guilt, and the Lord Jesus, the last Adam, hanging naked on the cross in shame, bearing guilt for His children.

*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 loin coverings.*

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*3 Ways Sinners Deal with Sin*

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*/First, they Cover – v. 7/*

 

Fig leaves are not very comfortable, especially as undergarments.

Pain is now present for the first time.

Their futile attempts to cover oneself and hide from God are worthless but are indicative of all of our pathetic and painfully shameful attempts to evade God’s gaze and voice.

‘such aprons would hardly suffice to hide the guilt of their rebellion against God.

Neither will the “filthy rags” of our own self-made “righteousnesses” serve to cover our sinful hearts today (Isaiah 64:6).

We need rather the “garments of salvation,” the “robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10) with which only God can clothe us (Genesis 3:21).

We can never escape God’s eye of judgment by anything that we ourselves can fashion or accomplish[4]

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Hebrews 4:13 /And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account./

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Adam and Eve are not hidden from his sight but are shamefully naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

They can /try /to cover up the outward appearance, but God can see right through all that to our inward guilt and depravity.

Sinners may try alleviate sinful consequences by covering in many ways, defending self, protecting self, covering self with rationalization or inebriation or anything to try and make the feelings go away.

But whatever temporary superficial remedies man can come up with, the inescapable inevitable fact it that all must give account to God.

It is only God who can provide a sufficient covering, as we will see later in this chapter

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*/2nd way sinners deal with sin: Hide – v. 8-11/*

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*Genesis 3:8 **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.*

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Moses, the author of Genesis, knew something about hiding.

He spent 40 years of his life hiding from Pharaoh after he fled Egypt to Midian.

After the exodus, Moses saw the presence of the Lord in His blazing glory and holiness cause the people to fall on their faces and seek refuge and safety from God.

 

There’s another interesting mention of hiding and fig trees and the presence of the Lord:

 

/Revelation 6:13 //and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, *as a fig tree* casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.

// \\ Revelation 6:14 //The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.//

\\ Revelation 6:15 //Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man *hid themselves* in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;// \\ Revelation 6:16 //and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and *hide us from the presence* of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;// \\ Revelation 6:17 //for the great day of their wrath has come, and *who is able to stand?*”/ \\ \\

The Bible says that no man has seen God at any time, but that Jesus reveals Him.

No human can see God the Father and live, so whenever in Scripture we see the Lord appearing in bodily form that man can see, it is not God the Father, it is God the Son.

The Second Person of the Trinity was very active in the O.T., He didn’t start getting involved with mankind when Jesus was born in a manger.

He often appears as the Angel of the LORD in the O.T., and here I believe in Genesis 3:8 is same Lord – who we would later learn is Christ – Christ the Lord in pre-incarnate form is walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

The Bible teaches us elsewhere that the only hope for sinful man is to hide in Christ, but here we see Adam and Eve hiding /from /Christ.

Man will not come to Christ, so Christ must come to man, not only in the New Testament, but in the Old.

For some reason, I always thought Adam and Eve were hiding in a bush – but all the English versions say they hid “among the trees of the garden.”

They ate from a tree and now they’re trying to hide behind a tree in their guilt, awaiting curses and death.

The author of Genesis would later write “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” and this same Lord would hang on a tree, receiving the guilt, the curses, the punishment, the death that all fallen men deserve – and all who run to Christ rather than away from Him, all who trust in Jesus alone and His work on the Cross as their only hope and hiding place, like the thief on the cross, Jesus promises “you will be with me in paradise.”

Paradise was lost for Adam and Eve, but the heavenly paradise according to Revelation will have the tree of life replanted there, all who found refuge in Christ will never die.

‘Whereas Adam and Eve had life, they now will have death; where they had pleasure, they now will have pain; where abundance, now a meager sustenance by toil; where perfect harmony with God and with each other, now alienation and conflict.’[5]

They went from sinlessness to sin, from trust to distrust, from ease to disease, but most importantly, from life to death.