Adam and Eve were provided for perfectly, but yet they sinned.
We had little fun with our video earlier. In Genesis 3 and Genesis 4 we read about the very first man, the very first woman, the very first marriage, and the very first children. Adam and Eve would have had perfect DNA. Their sons Cain and Abel would've been on the glossy covers of "GQ Magazine". I'm not a reader of this....... I'm just saying!
They were perfectly provided with everything they needed for their enjoyment. They lived in an unpolluted, pristine garden, the kind of utopia men only dream about today. No colds. No flu. No disease. No infections. No cancer. No blemishes. No hunger, or sorrow, or pain, or hardship, or thorns, or thistles, or tears, or any loss. They had the perfect heavenly Father-- Elohim, Yahweh, the Lord. They had eternal life. They had perfect emotions, perfect minds, and perfect consciences. They had the opportunity to truly, never, ever, sin.
So as we read along, we're gripped by the utter goodness and perfection of everything God's created. But then we're absolutely horrified by the sudden turn of events as Eve eats the forbidden fruit and offers it to her husband. And then later, we are shocked as Cain kills his brother Abel. What happened? What were they thinking? Were they thinking? How were they capable of doing such evil? None of it makes any sense.
But that's not even the most troubling aspect of Genesis. What's troubling is how you and I, every single day, in a hundred different ways, in our marriages and in our families, keep following in the footsteps of Adam and Eve. Their tragedy is our tragedy. Their experience is our experience. Their sin is our sin. We have no business sitting in judgment on Adam and Eve, when as Paul says in Romans 2:1, we're doing the very same things!
My job today is to persuade you that you need God's redemption every bit as much as the first man and woman. Men, you are Adam! Women, you are Eve! You probably thought Genesis 3 and Genesis 4 was about someone else, but it's about you and me and how we are falling right in Adam and Eve's footsteps. Here are the realities of our sinful condition.
We engage in futile thinking.
Genesis 3:6 (NIV) begins, "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. "
So here is the deal. Eve nurtured a very foolish thought. She believed that she could find greater pleasure, greater wisdom, and a greater life than what could be found in God. Eve probably thought to herself, "I'll find pleasure in disobeying God. I'll find wisdom in making my own snap judgments. I'll find life apart from God."
Consider Job 36:11-12. There's option A in Job 36:11 (NIV). "If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment. "" And then there's option B in Job 36:12 (NIV). "But if they do not listen, they will perish by the sword and die without knowledge. "
Yet option B is often what we choose. We engage in futile thinking day in and day out. We entertain thoughts like, "My way is better than God's. My truth is better than God's. My life is better apart from God." We question, doubt, twist, and ultimately reject God's thoughts. And if that's not bad enough, we invite others along on the journey.
We become a corrupting influence.
Genesis 3:6 (NIV) continues, "She (Eve) also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. "
Isn't that exactly what happens? When Eve sinned, her first impulse was to invite Adam to sin! Every few years our students play mud volleyball out in front of the church. At first, it's kind of a thrill to wallow in the mud. But then the thrill becomes chasing down others and dragging them into the mud. Once we're muddy, the only way to feel good is to make others muddy.
This is what happens in marriages. See 1 Corinthians 7:33. Your behavior becomes your spouse's behavior. Your attitude becomes your spouse's attitude. Her thoughts become your thoughts. His words become your words. His misery becomes your misery. Likewise, a parent's behavior tends to be magnified in his children. Eve invited her husband to participate in her corruption, and he was more than willing to comply!
Our souls become bankrupt.
Genesis 3:7-10 (NIV) says, "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. 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. But the LORD God called to the man, 'Where are you?' He answered, 'I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.' ' "
One thing is for certain, Adam and Eve were ashamed of themselves. And no matter what they did, they couldn't cope with their shame. They sewed fig leaves together. They tried to hide in the trees. But when they heard the sound of God walking in the garden, they were terrified.
Isn't it interesting to think about all the funny things we do when we sin against God? We try to cover ourselves. We try to hide. We divert our eyes from God's glory. We numb our consciences with a little liquor or marijuana. We justify our behavior. We point at others as if to prove that sin is normal. We'll even go out of our way to suppress the truth. We generate political power to make it a hate crime to have our behavior denounced. But no matter how hard we try to hide, our guilt remains.
When you're bankrupt, you don't answer the phone, you don't return calls, and you avoid the one to whom you must give an account. But there is no escaping. God will always find us.
We adopt a victim mentality.
Notice all the triangulating that occurs in Genesis 3:11-13 (NIV). "And God said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?' The man said, 'The woman you put here with me-- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' Then the LORD God said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?' The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.' ' "
On the surface, Adam appears to blame Eve for his sin. But if you look a little closer, he is actually blaming God for his sin! "The woman you put here with me gave me some fruit." And of course, Eve blames Satan. "The devil made me do it."
I've been reading a leadership book lately called The Oz Principle. It's a secular book with huge spiritual ramifications. Rather than facing reality, first, victims begin ignoring what's going on around them. Adam stood by passively, as Eve took the fruit. Second, they pretend not to know or see anything. Third, they deny their responsibility to help others. Fourth, they blame others for their predicament. Fifth, they cite confusion as a reason for inaction. "Oh, that's the tree you were talking about." Sixth, they ask others to tell them what to do so they can deflect blame. "Well, you didn't clarify which one of us wasn't to eat from the tree." God sees through our excuses and deals with us accordingly.
Our children suffer spiritual attack.
In Genesis 3:14-15 (NIV) God punishes the serpent by saying, "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. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.' "
Notice the hostility that erupts between Satan's offspring and Eve's offspring. Satan launches an all out assault on Adam and Eve's children. In Genesis 4 Cain murders Abel. Even Revelation 12:17 describes the ongoing conflict between Satan and God's offspring.
Now I believe that Satan intensifies his attack against children, and that teenagers are particular vulnerable. Look at all the gadgets, gizmos, music, images, videos, substances, and desires Satan parades in front of our young people. Once he turns a child against her parents and against God, and toward her desires, his work is virtually complete. Our greatest priority is protecting the next generation while they undergo spiritual attack.
Men become oppressive.
Genesis 3:16 (NIV) tells us, "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.' "
It's interesting that sin tends to reap the greatest amount of destruction in husband-wife, male-female relationships. Later on in Genesis we read about a group of men known as Nephilim. Essentially, the Nephilim began having their way with women, anyway they chose. They were considered to be heroes of old and men of renown because of their size, strength, and violent ways. In the days of Noah, God wiped out the Nephilim for exploiting the daughters of men for their pleasures and gain.
This is the pattern we see with men today. Men want to have their way with the ladies, but they don't want any of the responsibilities of marriage, parenting, or providing. Men want to drink their booze, smoke their dope, play their video games, and let their wives provide for their household.
Domestic violence is epidemic. Men are hitting their wives, smacking them down emotionally and abusing them psychologically. Abortion is epidemic. Our culture is stupid about this stuff. Abortion isn't the solution. Godly men are the solution.
The ground is cursed.
In Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV) God admonishes Adam. "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. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 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.' ' "
Adam's days would be filled with continual disappointment, pain, and suffering. He would sweat and shed tears as he struggled against his environment. In the end, death would triumph and his body would be returned to dust.
This is exactly what we've seen across the United States, with hurricanes, fires, tornadoes, and flooding devastating our land. This is what we saw in Japan, where an earthquake, then a tsunami, and now several nuclear reactors are threatening the lives of millions. The ground itself has been cursed, so that no matter what we set our hearts to, moth and rust will destroy it and thieves will break in and steal it. 1 Peter 1:2 says that grass withers and flowers fall. The St. Louis Arch is deteriorating. Roadways and bridges are deteriorating. In our new park down the street from this church, the windmill still isn't working! It's a constant battle managing the weeds and geese. Nothing is easy.
Romans 8:20-21 (NIV) says, "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. "
God is trying to open our eyes to our sin.
All of this brings us back to where we started. You see your pattern of futile thinking. You see the corrupting influence you have on others. You sense the bankruptcy of your soul. You see how this victim mentality permeates our culture. You see our children under constant spiritual attack. You see how men are failing. You see how the ground is cursed.
In Genesis 3 God is trying open our eyes! Reality ought to make us humble and broken and repentant. It ought to make us turn to our creator God and cry out for redemption. It ought to have us asking God to cover our shame, to restore us, to heal us, to deliver us from evil, and to grant us eternal life,
As we look toward communion, we're reminded that Christ became the curse for us. See Galatians 3:13. He became a man of sorrows as noted in Isaiah 53:3. Isaiah 53:5 tells us that Christ was grieved, wounded, bruised, and chastised for us. He took our thorns and as a crown for his head in Mark 15:17. Luke 22:44 tells us that Christ's sweat became like drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane. He offered up prayers with crying and tears in Hebrews 5:7. Psalm 22:5 tells us that in death, God brought him down into the dust. This was all done for all of us. God's promise is that our former life will pass away and God make all things new in heaven. See Revelation 21:4 and 2 Peter 3:10.