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"Sin, You are Not My Friend"

Last week I didn’t really take the time to introduce this series as thoroughly as I could have. We are trekking this summer through the Old Testament. We will spend a fair amount of time in Genesis but we will progress through a few of the great stories and hopefully walk away with a better biblical foundation to understand Christianity and Christ following. You and I will never fully understand the New Testament if we don’t have a grasp of the Old Testament.

Most people in this room would say they believe the Bible to be the uniquely inspired authoritative word of God a lot of you have never read it. It would be incredibly embarrassing to be in heaven some day and have Zephaniah come by and ask you how you like his book. You would have to say, “Oops, I never actually read it. You had a bad location there after Habakkuk and all and I just never got to it.”

I am hoping and praying that we will learn more about the scripture this summer than any summer we have been together in this church. We had a good start in the series out of the first six chapters of Mark and I believe that many of us are going to grow through this series as well.

Why the Old Testament? These are the stories that Jesus grew up on. These are the stories He heard at bed time as a little boy. These are the psalms that He read and prayed and these are the words He quoted during His ministry. From the temptation to the last words on the cross Jesus was quoting the Old Testament. These are the books that shaped Jesus. We want to come to serve the Father as Jesus came to serve the Father.

Pentateuch

The first five books of the Bible are called the Pentateuch. This word comes from two words: penta, which means “five” (as in the Pentagon), and teuch, which means “scroll.” The word Pentateuch means the five scrolls, because these are the first five books of the Old Testament. The Jews call these books the Torah and the New Testament refers to them as the law. These are essentially the work of Moses. Scholars believe that Moses wrote most of the Pentateuch but are confident that he did not write all of it. Deuteronomy records the death of Moses and we can be sure he didn’t write that In Numbers 12:3 we read, “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” I think we can safely assume that Moses did not write that about himself.

God’s plan was for community. His desire was for human beings to live in harmonious and loving relationship with him and with each other. God did his part. He made us and gave us a wonderful place to meet with him and enter into rich and life-giving relationship with each other.

Sometimes the best of plans go bad. In Genesis 3—11 we see the downward spiral of sin in four distinct scenes. As we watch the drama unfold we see things go from bad to worse. Sin goes deep and spreads wider. We also learn from God’s response to the sinful choices made by his children.

In this message we will look into the mirror of God’s Word and see ourselves. We will face the reality of our sin and be reminded of the depth of God’s grace for His beloved children.

This is a message that will invite the Holy Spirit to come and lay every heart bare before the Father. We will look deeply into Scripture and also intently into the mirror to see ourselves as God sees us. This reflection is not always attractive!

Last week we looked at the good news of creation and how that God created from community (Trinity) and did it so that we would experience community with Him and others. This week we are going to survey four scenes from Genesis 3-11 that chart the downward spiral of the human race into sin and separation from God. We are also going to look at God’s response. Let’s begin.

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Genesis 2:15-17

Some people want to know why God didn’t just fix it so that Adam and Eve could have eaten whatever they wanted. They wonder why God didn’t want them to know the difference between good and evil (moral discernment). Knowing the difference between good and evil is important but if they ate from this tree it would mean forever that humanity would be deciding the difference between good and evil on their own completely apart from God. Remember He is our creator and I think He knows what is best for us. God is allowing the man to chose or reject community.

Scene One: Adam and Eve Genesis 3:1-7

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'?" Within the story of Adam and Eve we find some very important lessons about how we are tempted. The enemy comes into the picture early in human history. He is not called Satan but the Christian church came to identify the serpent with the evil one. What follows here is an incredibly brilliant exposition of how temptation works.

Tactics of the Enemy

  1. He twists the truth.

    God is being misquoted. The serpent wants to plant doubt in the woman’s mind that God really has her best interest at heart. These are the seeds of doubt that he was planting: If I truly follow God I am going to miss out on something really special. I am going to have to watch out for myself because God can’t be trusted. I guess I better be prepared to set aside what God says if it is really necessary. The decision to sin always incorporates this kind of reasoning. There is always a doubt of God’s goodness.

    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.' " 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 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."

    Do you see how the woman is adding to what God said? He did not say if you touch it you will die.
  2. 2. He wants us to see God as more severe than he is.

    Did God say that? No. Notice also that he attacks us when we are most vulnerable.
  3. 3. He attacks our vulnerable spots and isolates us.

    Who was present in verse 16? Was the man and the woman there or just the man? It was just the man. Where does the woman have to get her information? From the man. Here are a couple of questions for just the ladies. Have you ever known a man? How many have ever known a man to have communication difficulties...not to always get things exactly right...or fully detailed accounts of their conversations? The serpent goes after the one who was not present to hear what God said. Notice another thing. She does not involve the man. She did this in isolation and when we do sin without talking to someone else about it or God we are most vulnerable. She is on her own.
  4. 4. He wants us to fixate on sin.

    6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

    The implication is that she couldn’t quit thinking about what she couldn’t have. She is obsessing over it. She has no one to challenge her thinking about it. She is focused completely on the one thing she couldn’t have. The next step is inevitable.
  5. 5. He entices us to invite others into our sin.

    Don’t you think Adam is kind of passive here? He just goes along and doesn’t even question her. It’s like a little child that you ask why they did something wrong and their answer will generally be the same, “I don’t know.” It’s the nature of sin. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

    “One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake.” Billy Sunday

    Their eyes were opened which is what they wanted. The imago Dei or image of God was horribly twisted and marred. They knew shame for the first time. This is a critical moment in the history of man. If you don’t get this you will miss a total understanding of human history. The old theological reference to what happened in the fall of man is depravity. It is the birth of shame and guilt. In the fall something happened to human nature that we call depravity. What are the odds that if you tell a two year old to share a toy that they will offer to share their blankey as well?

“Depravity is a spiritual condition that involves our readiness to harm others or at least let harm come to them if that will help us reach our goals of security, ego-gratification, or the satisfaction of our deep desires. Depravity is this: We would like to do what’s right, but we’re prepared to do what’s wrong if we feel it’s necessary for our survival or well-being.” Paraphrase of Dallas Willard in The Spirit of the Disciplines.

We now have a pre-disposition to sin. We are born with it and we can not fix it on our own.

The Consequences of Sin:

  1. The imago Dei is marred.
  2. Shame
  3. Alienation
  4. Fear
  5. Blame
  6. Pain

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. We will see this in the old testament. Walking is a picture of intimate communion with God. Sin destroyed their desire for that but God still wanted it.

9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" Why is God asking questions? He is giving Adam as He does you and I the freedom to choose to freely confess his sin. God is inviting Adam to do that.

10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." There had never been fear before. 11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"


Adam carefully reflects on taking responsibility for his actions. He summons up all his courage and says, 12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Blaming now enters human history. God now pronounces judgment on them and their sin. Look at verse 16. You might think it kind of cool if you are a guy that it says men will rule over women but do you realize this is part of the curse? The tension and problems that are often caused in our homes is directly linked back to this moment in history.

Death reigns. Spiritual and physical death. God also gives the first prophetic mention of the coming Messiah in verse 15. God also made them clothes. They were running around in fig leaves and looked very fashionably challenged. Notice for the first time in history blood is shed. Innocent blood is shed so that human shame might be covered and human fellowship with God might be restored. God is setting the stage for coming of Jesus much later in history. In verses 23 and 24 God drives them out or Eden and He drives them out to the East. Remember that and we will revisit it later.

13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
        The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
        "Cursed are you above all the livestock
        and all the wild animals!
        You will crawl on your belly
        and you will eat dust
        all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
        between you and the woman,
        and between your offspring [a] and hers;
        he will crush [b] your head,
        and you will strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said,
        "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
        with pain you will give birth to children.
        Your desire will be for your husband,
        and he will rule over you."
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
        "Cursed is the ground because of you;
        through painful toil you will eat of it
        all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
        and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
        you will eat your food
        until you return to the ground,
        since from it you were taken;
        for dust you are
        and to dust you will return."
20 Adam [c] named his wife Eve, [d] because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side [e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.


I am sure Adam and Eve are wondering if they are going to be the only two people on earth until they die but one day something happens to Eve. She starts feeling a little nauseous. She starts feeling a little moody. She has strange cravings. Adam looks at her one day and says, “hey looks like your gaining a little weight.” “looks like we’ll have to get you some bigger animal skins.” This is all new. In nine months new life enters the world. Cain is born and then later his brother Abel is born.

Scene Two: Cain and Abel

1 Adam [a] lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. [b] She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth [c] a man." 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

The law of first fruits.

You may wonder why God was more accepting of Abel’s offering and not Cain’s. This has to do with the law of first fruits. There is a principle in the Bible about offering God the first of things. We offer Him our tithe off the top. We give Him our best not second rate. (By the way that should really be seen in how we do our ministry especially around the church.) We give first and trust God to provide. God gives him a wake up call.

Notice that Cain doesn’t envy wealth or success. He envies his spiritual status. Envy can strike anywhere and anyone. This should be a clear warning for teachers, small group leaders, pastors, church board members, and anyone who serves God.

6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." [d] And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Now murder has entered the world. God is asking questions again. He is playing counselor. He is inviting Cain to confess and to acknowledge the condition of his heart, to make it right.

9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"


Now deceit has entered the world. Sin always takes more sin to cover it up. God pronounces judgment. He tells him that he will be driven from community and become a restless wanderer. God knows that if Cain stays in community he will bring continual destruction to His creation. God place on him a mark of severe mercy. (ver. 15)

10 The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

13 Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." 15 But the LORD said to him, "Not so [e] ; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.


There are some things that are very different about these two stories. Eve had an external tempter and Cain had none. Adam and Eve were tempted to eat fruit. Cain was temped to murder. Adam and Eve accepted God’s judgment without protest but Cain complains. This is not just a rerun. Sin is becoming more entrenched on the earth. This is the downward spiral of sin in the history of human kind. 16 So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, [f] east of Eden. From this point on for the most part man spiral’s out of control. Enoch is a bright spot because the word says he walked with God. He is an example of what might have been. The world is going from bad to worse.

Scene Three: The Days of Noah

Look with me at verse 11. With Cain sin went deeper now it is getting wider. Verse nine says that.

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.” God sees Noah as a bright spot and uses him to be a part of the ultimate reboot. God starts the world over again with an all encompassing flood but Noah and his family are saved in the ark that God instructed Noah to build.

“Noah did everything just as God command. Genesis 6:22

And in Genesis 9:1 we read, “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” In verse eight and nine God says, “I will establish my covenant with you.” It was a rainbow. All of a sudden this great moment is spoiled by sin once again. In short, Noah comes out of the ark and gets drunk. One of his sons shows disrespect and Noah curses one of his grandchildren. Can you spell dysfunctional family? Sin is a downward spiral. Things go from bad to worse. In chapter 11 we read about the tower of Babel. We are back to an example of the folly of sin. Look at verse 3 of chapter 11.

Scene Four: The Tower of Babel

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, [a] they found a plain in Shinar [b] and settled there. 3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

Let me give you some quick observations: “Brick instead of stone.” Look at verse five. God comes down to see the tower. It is the folly and flawed nature of human thinking. We think we can become like God. We try to live our life and make our own plans. We do our own thing. If we want something we get it because we deserve it. It is human arrogance. God has to check their folly so they don’t destroy themselves. It kind of funny. One man asked to borrow a hammer and the guy says, “No hablo ingles!”

Look at verse one: Which way were they moving? Eastward. The human race keeps moving further and further away from God and the garden.

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel [c] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.


In all of these horrible stories God keeps trying to help mankind get it right. He never gives up.

Use chair illustration: We were invited into community and by our sin we threaten to destroy that community.

In Genesis 6 we learn that God’s heart is filled with pain because of human sin. This is not trivial. Even though sin has been trivialized in our society, it still matters to God. Just think about it. Outside the church, the only place where you see the word “sin” is on dessert menus in restaurants. It is time for followers of Christ to take personal inventory and be sure they are taking sin seriously.

The enemy who was in the garden, whispers to you and me just as he did to the people back in Genesis. Sin still crouches at the door of the human heart. We might be tempted to gloss over it, deny it, blame it on someone else, or compare ourselves to somebody we think is worse, but we still need to face sin head-on.

“To yield and give in to our sinful desires is the lowest form of slavery. To rule over such desires is the only true freedom.” Justin Martyr (Second Century)

Drama:

I want to talk with you quite personally for a moment. All of us in this room have struggled in our lives at one time or another with sin. Now we know why. Jump ahead to the advent of Christ into our world and you will see He came as our Savior. This is the ultimate Father’s day gift. You want to know what it is? Listen to these words:

16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.[g] 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." John 3:16-21

Dallas Willard in his book, Renovation of the Heart, writes, “But we must also recognize a second factor that leads many to think that spiritual formation to Christ likeness is impossible. This is the widely held view that the low level of spiritual living among professing Christians is to be regarded as “only natural,” only what is to be expected—lamentable as that may be. According to this view, human nature, flesh, life, and its world are essentially vile, rotten, and worthless, and especially on the inside. Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Hitler, as examples, were equally vile in their hearts, this view would say. But for various constraints in which God had placed her, Mother Teresa could have behaved just as wickedly throughout her life as Hitler did.” (pg. 79)

Willard says this is often referred to as “miserable sinner” Christianity.

When we come to accept Christ in our lives there is a great exchange that takes place. We give Him our sinful lives and He gives us salvation. For many people it seems to end right there. When people who accept God’s gift of salvation seem to be interested in going no further with Him in this life there is something wrong with the picture. Some have suggested that these people are only interested in fire insurance. Believing that somehow they can live however they want because they have accepted Christ as their Savior.

He wants to save you really save you from the sin that is destroying your life.

Old Testament Challenge – God is With Us (Session 2)



2006/06/18