Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20080406.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Genesis: Explaining The Foundations Of History
Part II: Explaining The Fall Of Man Into Sin, Genesis 3:1-24
B. Explaining Sin's Dreadful Effects And God's Marvelous Solutions
(Genesis 3:7-24)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

A vast difference of opinion exists today on whether sin really exists, and thus if Christ's redemption is even necessary (as follows):

(1) On the one hand, Chris, a talk show host on the "Talk of Connecticut" radio program on am 610 in Torrington last Monday relayed his strong conviction that sin is real! He reported how a felon with a long rap sheet of offenses had been released from prison just three weeks before only to invade a Connecticut private home last Sunday and kill a 62-year-old cancer patient named Maryellen Welsh! Chris had known Maryellen since he was a boy, and he was controlled but clearly very angry! He also voiced strong opposition to the State Legislature leadership's recent failure to present a bill to the assembly that, if passed, would keep such repeat offenders in prison! When he interviewed a sympathetic legislator on the show and heard from him that the felon had been imprisoned for eight years for a crime against a five year old child, Chris was beside himself with frustration! Both men agreed that the felon was so evil that he should be executed!

(2) On the other hand, supporting the view that denies the very existence of sin and its consequent need for atonement, TV talk show hostess, Oprah Winfrey, who has a huge following, is promoting the book, A Course in Miracles on her XM Satellite Radio program. (www.crossroad.to/articles2/007/smith-oprah) [Her official web site, www.oprah.com, offers 1830 listings that extol this course if the words, "A Course In Miracles" is typed into its search engine.] The book is a collection of sayings by Columbia University Professor of Medical Psychology, Helen Schucman, who wrote them down as an "'inner voice'" calling himself "'Jesus'" dictated them to her! Some of the book's sayings are: "'There is no sin . . .'" (Ibid., citing A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume, (Workbook), p. 183); "A 'slain Christ has no meaning'" (Ibid., (Text), p. 425) and "'The atonement is the final lesson he [man] need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation.'" (Loc. cit., p. 237).



One may then ask, "DOES EVIL EXIST, and IS there a NEED for Christ's ATONEMENT?! HOW can we KNOW this?!"



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "ARE the ideas of SIN and ATONEMENT REAL or NOT?!"
  1. Genesis 3 reveals that SIN is REAL, and that SIN is the CAUSE of ALL the LACK of PEACE down through WORLD HISTORY:
    1. Man sinned, producing a painful sense of guilt and shame, Gen. 3:6-7.
    2. For relief, the first man and woman vainly created fig leaf aprons to ease the their sense of shame over their nakedness, Genesis 3:7b-8.
    3. This effort to handle sin's guilt has led to psychological disorders as man seeks to ease his discomfort by deceiving others or himself to think he is guiltless, M. Scott Peck, M. D., People of the Lie, 1983, p. 69-72; Jay E. Adams, Competent To Counsel, 1970, p. xv-xviii.
    4. Man's failure to handle his sin and guilt well has led to history's woes:
      1. Man's sin and its guilt ruined his fellowship with God, Gen. 3:8-11.
      2. Adam's sin and guilt led him to neglect taking responsibility for his sin as he blamed his wife for giving him the banned fruit, Gn. 3:12.
      3. His sin led Adam to shirk his responsibility for it, for he blamed God for giving him the wife who had given him the fruit, 3:12a.
      4. His wife's guilt via her sin led her also to shirk taking responsibility for her sin by blaming the serpent for deceiving her, Genesis 3:13.
      5. So, failing to face and handle his sin and guilt well has led man to lovelessness toward God and others, the violation of God's entire Law (Matthew 22:37-40), and that has yielded the woes of history!
  2. However, God TEMPORARILY checked the GROWTH of SIN and its CHAOTIC RESULTS in SHORT-TERM JUDGMENTS:
    1. As Satan used the serpent to lure the woman to sin, God countered its appeal, making it crawl in the dust, Genesis 3:1, 14.
    2. The woman was enticed in her rapport with the serpent, so God put enmity between man and serpents, ending such temptations, 3:1-5, 15.
    3. The woman was lured by beauty, fame and food in the forbidden fruit, so God judged her own fruit-bearing events, the bearing of children, to include hardship and pain to counter such lusts, Ge n. 3:6a, 16a,b.
    4. She had also insubordinately given her husband the fruit, so God gave the woman an insatiable desire for her husband, making her rely on him and have him rule her to hinder her leading him, Gen. 3:6b, 16c.
    5. Since Adam had sinned by heeding rather than leading his wife, the ground would produce fruit for him only as he had to toil against its lack of productivity and competing thorns and weeds, forcing the man to take initiative to curb irresponsibility in leading, Gen. 3:6b, 17-19a.
    6. Since Adam had eaten of the tree in open disobedience to God rather than being merely deceived as had his wife (Gen. 3:6b; 1 Tim. 2:14), humanity would physically die as he had spiritually died in Adam's sin, and his body would return to the dust from which man's body had been formed, Genesis 3:19; 2:16-17. This curbed sin's growth, for evil men would live a short time, limiting their impact on others!
  3. Yet, in GRACE, God SUPPLIED LONG-TERM SALVATION from SIN and its EFFECTS via CHRIST'S ATONEMENT:
    1. Genesis 3:15b claims an individual ("he", from the word hu) would crush the serpent's head, H. C. Leupold, Exp. of Gen., 1974, v. I, 166.
    2. In contrast to this lethal blow by the woman's individual descendant, the serpent would only bruise the heel of the individual, Ibid.
    3. Thus, early Jewish and Christian scholars held this verse predicted the Messiah, the individual descendant of the woman, would defeat Satan (Ibid., p. 170), and Colossians 2:13-15 reveals this prophecy was fulfilled by Christ when He died on the cross to atone for man's sin!
    4. As the result of this welcome promise by God that followed Adam's Fall into sin and God's pronouncement of judgments, Adam THEN named his wife, "Eve," meaning "Life," in faith that God would fulfill this promise of bringing victory over the effects of sin in the seed of his wife, Genesis 3:20; Ibid., p. 177-178!
    5. God also substitutionally slew some animals to provide their skins for Adam and Eve to replace their hapless fig leaf coverings; this typified Christ's coming substitutionary atonement that would clothe believers in God's righteousness as opposed to the hapless efforts of man to the contrary to handle his sin and guilt, Gen. 3:21; John 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:21.
    6. God also guarded the Tree of Life from man's access lest he eat of it in his fallen state and live forever that way, Gen. 3:22-24. Today, God graciously reserves the tree in heaven for man when believers will be saved from all sin and its effects, Revelation 22:1-2.
  4. [We supply evidence of the truth of Genesis 3 in our conclusion.]
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ's atonement for salvation from sin (John 3:16, and (2) live by the power of His indwelling Holy Spirit for victory over sin in life, Galatians 5:16. (3) Then, may we hope for the day we reach heaven and eat of the Tree of Life that God is reserving for His saved people, Revelation 22:1-2!

Lesson: Man's sin yielded guilt and shame that led to history's woes, but God curbs sin's advance, and saves man by faith in Christ's atonement!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 This sermon out of Genesis 3:7-24 teaches that the Bible would affirm that denying the existence of evil and guilt is erroneous, and that the atonement of Christ on the cross is both necessary and effective to save man from his sin.

However, as beliefs that oppose this view of Scripture are promoted by very influential people like Oprah Winfrey, it is edifying to offer practical evidence for the validity of the Genesis 3:7-24 record, and such evidence was supplied to me in my 1969-1970 school year.

I was attending a secular college in California, having enrolled in a psychology class to obtain my bachelor's degree. Our professor presented himself as an easygoing man: he told us he had gone into psychology to discern why some soldiers in South Vietnam came back from foot patrols very disturbed while others were relaxed! He wanted to see what made the difference and so help people relax regarding the crises they faced.

However, his bearing changed when a student happened to ask him after a class one day about man's fear of snakes! He had bristled at it, so in our next class, he announced: "I want to answer a question someone raised, and, I don't want to hear it again! Yes, psychologists have found that infants born in every people group on earth are afraid of snakes, and nobody knows why. Now, don't bring this up again!"

His unusual hostility, and the fact he tried to suppress discussion on the matter versus the touted claims of higher education leaders to the contrary told me a lot: he obviously knew Genesis 3:15 taught God had put enmity between man and serpents, and he was opposed to letting this idea from the Bible out in his psychology class!

That in turn told me a lot about Genesis 3:15: since an unwilling admission of a fact by a hostile, informed witness like this otherwise docile psychology professor had proved to be, is highly credible testimony, his clearly reluctant admission of the scientifically inexplicable enmity between all human infants and serpents evidences God has truly put enmity between man and serpents due to man's sin just like Genesis 3 reports! That also suggests that the atonement of Christ promised in that Genesis 3 chapter is equally necessary and true!



May TRUST in Christ and his atonement for salvation, and hope in Him for the eternal state that is to come!