Sermon Tone Analysis

! Genesis 3: What is so wrong with the world?

*Theme:  The problems of the world all come from sin.*

*Aim:       To help people grasp the reality of sin, repent and trust in the true king of the universe.*

*Intro*

 

How did it all go so wrong?

That is the question we want to answer today.

As we have surveyed the world as it was originally made, in all its beauty, we are left asking ourselves, “how could it possibly have got to the state where it is today?”

Down through the ages people have had lots of different ideas about what is wrong with the world:

Left wing: too many rich people in power.

Right wing: too many left wing people in power.

Feminism: too many men in power.

Buddhism says that we suffer because we think we exist! to escape suffering you must escape all your desires.

Atheism says that nothing is wrong at all.

We’re just molecules bouncing around in an otherwise empty universe.

But Christianity makes this claim: that the world’s problems are real and can be traced to one thing - *sin*.

Sin is the cause of all the suffering in the world.

*The importance of properly understanding sin*

 

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Most difficulties to do with the Christian faith come from a refusal to acknowledge the sin as it truly is.

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Sin is not that bad

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Sin is not my fault

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Sin won’t have serious consequences

 

But because they have not understood the Bible’s teaching at this point, the rest of what the Bible has to say seems like nonsense.

Why would God send anyone to hell?

It seems so harsh, until you understand sin.

Why would God send his son to die on the cross to save people?

It seems so unnecessary, until you understand sin.

Why would God save only some people from the world and not others?

It seems so unfair, until you understand sin.

In fact, almost everyone person I have spoken to who has either left or rejected Christianity has done so because, in the end, they could not accept the teaching that they were sinful.

It was simply too offensive to them.

For that reason, we need to ask God to give us a clear view of sin.

To help us to see it as it really is.

That is a dangerous prayer, isn’t it?

Are you ready to hear the truth?

/The blue pill and the red pill - The Matrix/

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#. */Sin is a personal attack on God/*

 

Here’s our first point then: *Sin is a personal attack on God*

 

Here in Genesis 3 is a record of the first sin, and a pattern of all sin that comes after it.

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disbelieving the word of God (Gen 1)

 

And we can see that the temptation to sin first came when the serpent raised a question about the word of God.

 

*3:1* *Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made.

He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"*

See the way that he has twisted the original command to Adam by putting it as a negative, a restriction.

God told Adam that he was free to eat of all the trees of the garden but one, but the serpent puts it this way, “aren’t you allowed to eat from any in the garden?”

Now the woman responds in a way that looks initially very positive.

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

The problem here is that she has made the command of God more restrictive than it actually was.

She’s added the notion that she should not touch the tree, which God didn’t say.

So the word of God is being twisted to make it sound like the boundaries that God has set are more restrictive than they actually are.

And now, sufficient doubt has been sown into the woman’s mind for the serpent to be able to make a flat out contradiction of the word of God – he tells her in verse 4, “you will not surely die”, he says which is the exact opposite of what God said to Adam in chapter 2 when he warned him, “in the day that you eat of it, you *will* surely die.”

So sin begins this way, with an attack on the word of God.

It’s rejecting what God says it true.

And when you cast your mind back to chapter one, as God created the world by speaking it into existence, this ought to seem to us to be utterly incredible.

When God commanded light it just came into being.

When God commanded the stars into existence, they were.

But now the serpent challenges the word of God – “come on, don’t believe what God says.

You won’t surely die.”

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distrusting the goodness of God (Gen 2)  

And after calling the word of God into question, he proceeds to call the goodness of God into question.

Why has God forbidden you to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

 

*5** "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."*

He’s holding you back.

He’s really only protecting his own interests and not yours.

He’s restricting your potential and your freedom.

And doesn’t that sound familiar?

The idea that God is out to spoil our enjoyment of life is the oldest lie in the book.

Here are Adam in Eve living in a perfect world that God has made for them and enjoying perfect harmonious relationship with each other.

Made in the image of God who has lavished on them gracious gift after gracious gift and they begin to think that God is holding back from them.

Ultimately, when sufficient doubt has been lodged in their minds about the authority of God’s word and the goodness of his intentions, they decide to disobey him.

So Eve reaches out and does what looks like a very simple thing.

She takes some fruit from the tree.

And she gives some to Adam, who appears to have been sitting here silently watching his wife fall into temptation rather than supporting her.

But is it such a small thing that Eve has done?

At this moment you can see that the order of relationships in God’s world has turned upside down.

God rules over man, who is responsible for his wife and together they rule over the creation.

But in this moment, the serpent has taken leadership over the woman who has taken leadership over her husband and together they have tried to usurp the position of God in the universe.

The very order of the universe has been turned upside down.

And Adam and Eve are now part of a rebellious coo to try and grasp the authority of God for themselves.

Let us be the ones who decide what is good and evil.

Let us take of the tree and exercise our independence from God.

Let us be like God.

Let us be the rulers of our own life.

And all that tells us a lot about sin.

What is sin?

it’s disbelieving the word of God.

it’s distrusting the goodness of God.

it’s trying to take the place of God.

 

 

 

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*Illustrate – Spiderman 3*  

Peter has been tainted by a mysterious black goo—a shadow crossing over him.

It has attached to Peter, clinging to him like a dark, new Spider-Man suit.

It causes jealousy, rage, and retribution to grow.

Dr. Curt Connors identifies this black goo as a symbiote, calling it, “A parasite that amplifies characteristics of its host, especially aggression.”

Peter’s aggression comes out in how he treats his friends and co-workers.

As a black suited Spider-Man, Peter attacks Harry with ugly truths

about his father, Norman.

Peter also argues with Brock, his competition at the Daily Bugle.

He even hurts the one he loves, M.J.

The act of Peter wearing the suit later on in the movie shows his ‘bad characteristics’

 

And that is what is going on here with Adam and Eve.

A simple act of eating fruit, but it represents an act of defiance that causes rift between all relationships and against God himself.