Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Wages of Sin is Death (Gen 2:16-17)*

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on September 30, 2007/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

/ /

There are a lot of firsts just in these two verses 16-17:

-         First time God speaks audibly where a human hears

-         First command, if not covenant.

Aalthough not all the formal language of a covenant is here, Hosea 6:7 may allude to this in comparing Israel to Adam:[1] “Like Adam they transgressed the covenant” (ESV, NAS, etc.)

-         The first prohibition is in the style of the Hebrew law given in the Ten Commandments (Heb.

/lo /+ imperfect = “thou shalt /never /…” stronger than merely “not” in English)

-         The first law is simple: if you eat from that one tree, you’ll die; and the implication is if you don’t eat of that tree, you’ll live.

Obey -> Live; Disobey -> Die.

-         First words from God to man reveal His great goodness, grace and kindness (“from any tree of the garden you may eat freely”).

This is not harsh, the original language emphasizes the abundant provision God has given man – the world is yours, but there is just one tree on the planet that’s off-limits.

Along with this provision, there is one prohibition.

-         First words from God also reveal His righteous standard, character, holiness and justice and how serious one sin is to God

-         First mention of “evil” in chapter 2 to mankind (10x in chapter 1 we have heard that all God made is good – for first time we hear of “good and evil” a scriptural theme which will continue from these first 2 chapters of the Bible all the way until the last 2 Bible chapters)

-         First mention of death in the Bible is found in these verses

 

/What does v. 17 mean “you will surely die”?

/

 

To “die” has the basic idea of separation.

It can mean spiritual separation, physical separation (body and soul~/spirit), and eternal separation from God, and they occur in that order.

Adam and every human being since his fall is spiritually dead, and destined for both physical and eternal death unless God’s grace intervenes.

And Adam and every human being instantly deserves both physical and eternal death the moment he sins, unless God’s grace intervenes and allows us to live a little longer (which He did undeservedly for both Adam and Eve in chapter 3 and Cain in chapter 4 when He would have been just to execute them on the spot)

 

There was instant death or separation spiritually when Adam and Eve sinned – rather than the close communion and fellowship they earlier enjoyed, we will see them now hiding from God, covering their sin and cowering in their shame.

There was not only separation from God that very day, but sin caused separation between man and wife – the fellowship and union of marriage was impacted by sin in chapter 3 where they turn against each other and blame shift

 

The very day that Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually and morally, their sins separated them from God as Isaiah 59:2 says, they were dead in their sins as Ephesians 2:1 says.

That very same day they also came under the judicial death sentence of both physical and eternal death and deserved both that day as well.

The same is true of every human being that has ever lived since, who has inherited guilt and sinful nature and is spiritually dead without God’s regenerating grace.

It’s not that unbelievers /will /come under death or condemnation or wrath in the future, it’s that they already are in that state

 

John 3:18 “he is condemned already”

John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him”

John 3:16 of course contrasts “perish” with “everlasting life” – to perish, or to die, is clearly not limited to the physical

 

A number of passages make clear there’s more than one type of death in the Bible – Revelation 20:14 says “the second death” is when [physical] “death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire” which is the final event in the history of this universe before God makes a new heavens and a new earth

 

All who are still in spiritual death (separation from God) when they experience physical death, all will experience eternal separation in the lake of fire, a place of continual conscious torment

 

Romans 6:23 (NASB95) \\ 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Notice that “death” is contrasted with eternal life here, just like “perishing” is contrasted with everlasting life in John 3:16.

So the death here is more than just spiritual or physical death, the penalty also includes eternal death – the wages or payment due for Adam’s sin and our sin is everlasting separation from God.

One of the prime lessons we see unfolded in Genesis is that the wages of sin is death as Romans 6:23 says.

And one chapter earlier, Paul develops His argument this way:

 

Romans 5:12-14 (NASB95) \\ 12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— \\ 13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

\\ 14 Nevertheless *death reigned from Adam until Moses* …

 

The passage goes on to describe how both condemnation and judgment are for all, which of course Paul has thoroughly argued in chapters 1-3 about the requirements of God’s justice and wrath.

\\ \\

I want to look at that phrase “/death reigned from Adam until Moses/” and see how this develops in Genesis as well as in the lives of the original readers of Genesis in biblical history.

One way that death reigns is that even though God graciously allows some to live longer than others, and He allows all of us to live longer than we deserve, still the scripture says “it is appointed to man once to die and after that to face judgment” (Heb.

9:27).

Both death and eternal judgment are the destiny or doom of us all.

But I want to look at how “death reigned from Adam to Moses” in particular by God’s judgment like in Genesis 6, the flood.

I want to look with you not at occasions where people died of natural causes, I want to look at some examples where death reigned by /supernatural/ causes.

There are times from Adam to Moses where God in His justice intervened and God Himself carried out a divine execution by a unilateral supernatural judgment on human beings.

In Luke 17, Jesus Himself surveys some of the significant judgments of this nature that were revealed and carried out by God Himself in executing individuals, or consuming entire cities in His wrath, and even destroying the entire world.

The reality of past judgments makes the future judgment of our Lord all the more imminent and urgent because we could be taken out at any time or Jesus could return at any time.

Luke 17:26-36 (NASB95) \\ 26 “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: \\ 27 they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, *until the day* that Noah entered the ark, and *the flood came and destroyed them all.*

\\ 28 “It was the same as happened *in the days of Lot*: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; \\ 29 but *on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.*

\\ 30 “It will be just the same *on the day that the Son of Man is revealed*.

\\ 31 “On that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field *must not turn back.*

\\ 32 “*Remember Lot’s wife.*

\\ 33 “Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

\\ 34 “I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; *one will be taken* *and the other will be left.*

\\ 35 “There will be two women grinding at the same place; *one will be taken and the other will be left.*

\\ 36 [“Two men will be in the field; *one will be taken and the other will be left*.”]

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Why are some taken in judgment and others spared judgment?

It’s not because some are sinners and some are not – all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, all deserve the justice of death that fell on the city of Sodom and that fell on the world in Noah’s day, and all of us deserve the instant judgment on individuals like Lot’s wife.

Is that fair – I use the word in the sense of what is deserved – is it fair that some are not taken but others are?

No! All of us deserve to be taken out.

/Was it grace that any were spared?

Yes!/

 

Were Noah’s sons especially righteous?

No, we learn in the chapter after the flood of serious sin done by one of his sons.

Was it fair that God spared Noah’s sons when many who died in the flood were guilty of similar sins?

Was that fair that Ham, Shem, and Japeth lived?

No! They deserved to be drowned in the floodwaters.

/Was it grace?

Yes!/

 

We are to remember Lot’s wife who disobeyed and she instantly was turned into a pillar of salt.

God takes her out like that instantly.

This almost doesn’t seem real to some of us.

This seems more like Chronicles of Narnia, and someone being turned into stone.

It seems more like a fairytale, because we don’t often think of God’s instant judgment, or we make jokes about it like God striking people with lightning.

It’s hard to relate to these stories, but what /should be hard to believe /is the fact that God hasn’t taken us out!   

God’s justice not only falls on the pagan city, but the judgment of death also falls on those in the believing community who disregard the details of God’s commands.

Is that fair that two entire cities and all the area around them would be destroyed?

Is it just, that Lot’s wife was instantly pulverized into salt just for partial obedience?

I mean, after all, she obeyed the other parts of the command and only looked back once.

It was fair if we use the word fair for what is deserved.

Justice was served – this is what all sinners deserve.

This is what you deserve and what I deserve.

Was Lot and the rest of his family such a virtuous and holy and righteous bunch?

Is it because of their merits or superior character or goodness that God saved them?

Read Genesis 19 and how Lot offers to give his own daughters to the sexual desires of those outside his house.

/Was it fair they lived?

No. Was it grace?

Yes./

 

Remember anytime you bring up the “fair card” that fair is for all of us to die this very day and go to hell.

Genesis 19:29 suggests this grace had more to do with God than Lot.

Were Job’s daughters virtuous women and is that why they were spared?

No. Right after God’s judgment falls, in the very next passage, verses 30 and following, both the two oldest daughters get their dad drunk and conceived children by incest.

/Was the fact that this family was spared a totally undeserved grace by God? Yes./

 

Incest was a sin in the O.T. that called for the death penalty just like homosexuality.

Did they not deserve to die for this, as much as those in Sodom deserved to die?

Absolutely.

Is it fair that they were spared while other sinners perished?

No – fire and brimstone for them too would have been fair and deserved.