Latest / HBCWestminster / 7.18.21 Genesis 3:1b-19 Pastor Nathan Anderson

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7.18.21 Genesis 3:1b-19 Pastor Nathan Anderson · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, hello and what a joy it is to be with you now for this time of studying God's Word and especially to have the opportunity to serve alongside my wife Carla. Thank you so much for leading us in worship and excited to dig in with you guys into God's Word this morning as we are in our fifth week in this six-week series called Origins, a study into the first three chapters.
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  of Genesis and as we have studied these first four weeks I pray that our eyes have been opened to see the foundational truths of which our church and the global church stand upon. Truths which when understood correctly build towards a right theology which in turn pushes us, pulls us toward God and God glorifying.
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  living, which is really the ultimate goal, is it not, church? As the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, what is the chief end of man but to glorify God and enjoy Him forever? Our time today, we will be looking at...
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  What I think I would say is one of the most foundational truths revealed in the Bible because a right understanding of this doctrine and truth leads to a right understanding of our need for a Savior. On the flip side, an incorrect understanding of our topic for today will lead us down all kinds of roads which lead to destruction as our souls deconstruct
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  right understanding of God and the human condition. Our topic is the origin of sin and our main passage for today will be Genesis chapter 3 verses 1b through verse 7. We will look at all of 3, 1b through 19, but our main focus will be those first verses.
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  And I just want to thank Pastor Danny for this tremendous opportunity to bring this very poignant and pregnant topic to us all this morning. And as we open our Bibles now and begin to read, would you stand with me in honor of the reading of God's Word? Chapter 3, verse 1b says this, He said to the woman, Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
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  And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, You will surely not die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,
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  and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves.
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  Loin Claws, allow me to pray. God in heaven, we ask now that you would guide our minds, you would guide our hearts, direct us to truth. May we be guided solely by your spirit and your word. God, may these moments of study be impactful on our lives. God, may you build a continual firm foundation for which we can stand in the midst of chaos and turmoil.
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  God, we love you. We thank you for your word. Be honored now in the study of it. We pray these things in your name. Amen. Amen. Well, a few years back, my cousin and I kind of have become to come to have a tradition where we do a bigger hike or maybe.
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  two-night backpacking trip together once a year. Generally speaking, we do this and have been doing this for a little while and a few years back we decided, he asked me if I wanted to do a 14er and we decided that we would do Long's Peak. He really wanted to do Long's Peak. I agreed. I did no research. I didn't really think about this at all. In fact, I didn't even really train for it. You can tell how smart I am by the fact that I'm confessing this to you all, but
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  We decided we were going to hike Longs. I did know enough about Longs that I decided that I wasn't going to tell Carla until the night before exactly what hike we were going to do. And this is because Longs Peak is one of the harder 14ers and one of the more dangerous 14ers that you can do in the state of Colorado. Get up early the...
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  the morning of, we drive up there, we begin to hike, and if you've ever done Long's Peak or done any reading about it, you know that the first five and a half or so miles of the 12 and a half mile round trip is really just a grueling long hike. It's not exceptionally technical, it's not exceptionally dangerous.
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  You get above treeline, you get to this boulder field and you begin to traverse and go through and pick your way through this boulder field. Again, it's not exceptionally, it's very, it's fairly flat. So the boulder field isn't exceptionally hard or anything like that. But at the end of that boulder field, you see this thing called the keyhole.
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  The keyhole is what you're going to have to pass through and you're going to go from one side to the other. When you get to this keyhole, my cousin and I looked through, Steve and I looked through and peered around the other side and it was at this point we realized that things change on this hike. And it goes from a fairly simple and easy hike to one with a bit more danger.
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  In fact, it's a bit breathtaking as you look through and you see this ledge and these ledges that you're going to have to traverse across with drop-offs, with places where you can slide and slide for a very long time and you will not survive. It's not a pure fall, but it's not something you're going to come back from.
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  As we looked at that, we had to make the choice and we decided to move forward, go on this. As we make our way through that, we come to one of my least favorite things to hike on and that is shale. If you have ever hiked on shale, you know how horrible it is.
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  It is usually piles of rock, usually slick rock that give way every time you step on it. If you are going down, you sink. If you're trying to go up, your foot slips back down. It is just the worst. And it is actually one of the more dangerous things that you can hike on because it's always shifting. You can slip and fall and it's usually pretty sharp and so you can cut yourself on it. But you can also, as you're climbing up,
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  begin to knock stones down on people who are below you if you are not careful. And as we are taking steps, we're at about 13.5 and every step is a struggle as the oxygen in the air is thin and your legs are burning, your lungs are burning and you take a step and it slips and it comes back down and it slips. It's just awful. Shale is just the worst and really is one of the more dangerous things.
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  on a hike and in fact it was so busy that day that we were on it there was people who were not paying attention we're literally knocking stones down we decided to actually go to a more dangerous part of the shale to climb up where nobody else was because it felt safer than being on this loose and dangerous rock with a bunch of other people.
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  Shale can be one of the most dangerous things on a hike and no matter how much you might want to act as though it does not exist or the effects of it do not come upon you as we desired to get up to the 14,000 foot summit, we had to go through and experience the full repercussions of hiking on the shale.
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  The reality is, as you stand on there, you will lose your footing. Shale, much like quicksand, I believe is a perfect illustration of sin. Stand still and you sink deeper. Ignore it and its effects are still present. Denying the reality and destructive power of sin will never provide stability, but will only lead.
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  destruction throughout history and into our current time and cultures peoples and even within our own selves I believe we can see a natural desire to remove the feeling and guilt from sin by seeking to redefine truth deny the reality of sin and deny God's definition of what is
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  This is in essence exchanging the truth for a lie as Romans 1.25 says, My goal, my purpose for this morning is not though to rail against the non-believer. Rather it is to speak to us believers whom have had the lights turned on to preach to us so as to pull our eyes, our focus onto the foundational truth in a way in which helps us understand it so that we can discern truth.
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  from error and speak with compassion and care to those whom are blinded by the god of this age the enemy of our souls the devil i'm going to seek to do this by asking and answering three specific questions first where did sin come from did it come from god did it come from satan did it come from eve did it come from adam and what is sin and what are its effects and then what
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  Should our reaction be to those above questions as they are answered? From these questions, I pray we all walk away this morning standing on firm footing so that we might be spurred on toward right living and right gospel conversations with our families, with our friends, with our coworkers, with our neighbors. So, here we go. Where did sin...
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  come from to answer this question is no small feat brothers and sisters in fact it is this question question which has led many to question their faith in god this question of the origin of sin could seem to raise a conflict because if god created everything and god is good how can sin also exist however when we search deeply with hearts and minds dedicated to the hard and fruitful study of
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  As we seek to answer this question, where did sin come from? Let us notice a couple things from verses 1b through verse 7. First,
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  There is a choice presented or an opportunity presented to Eve as Satan presents her with this question. Did God actually? Did God actually say? Within this question we must notice a couple things which are revealed in chapter 2. This question presented to Eve is only possible because God in chapter 2 verse 9 is the creator of these
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  trees. In creating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life, God is creating a choice. By commanding them to abstain from them, God is actually giving Adam and Eve the tremendous gift of relationship with him. They can choose to love and obey God, and they can choose their own way.
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  As Satan asks that question, did God actually say Satan is calling Eve to make a choice? He is seeking to entice her away from God and to choose destruction. In these small words, did God actually say the enemy of our souls is calling for humankind to choose the rejection of a relationship with God by being enticed to treasure something other than God?
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  First, we notice there is a choice, an opportunity presented to Eve. Second, we notice here that the enemy is crafty. As we saw and learned last week, he is crafty. Satan does not ask this question of Adam. Why?
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  Why does he not ask Adam this question? Well, I would argue that Genesis chapter 2 verses 16 through 18 give us the answer. Let's read those now. Verse 16 says this, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but the tree of the knowledge of the good and evil you shall not eat, for in that day you eat of it you shall surely die. Then the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone.
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  I will make for him a helper fit for him. Fit for him. What did you notice there? Adam received the instructions concerning the trees directly from God, but at the time this command was given, Eve was not yet created. We see that in verse 18. We notice if we look at Romans chapter 5 verse 12, I believe this is the reason why Adam is charged with bringing sin into the world because
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  It was he who had received the commands directly from God and thus he was ultimately held accountable. Thus, I do not think it too far-fetched to read this as meaning Adam was the one who conveyed to Eve the command God had given him concerning the trees. We notice she even adds to the commands in verse 2 of chapter 3, and guys,
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  husbands and wives can i just stop for a moment and remind us the importance of clear communication without it we can be led down all kinds of horrible paths that are destructive to our relationships
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  But anyway, I believe Satan comes to Eve directly as she received the instruction from Adam and entices her to make a choice in this statement. Did God actually say? And in verse 6 we see Eve making her choice. She took of its fruit and ate and gave some to her husband. So the question now becomes, is this the moment where sin is born? Is this the origin of sin?
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  We see the creation of choice. We see the crafty temptation of Eve as she has secondhand information, but where can we trace sin's true origins? Well last week Pastor Danny had to let the cat out of the bag a little bit as he taught through the origin of Satan. We saw last week that Satan and his fall described in Isaiah and Ezekiel were the origin of sin. Satan's
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  fall was the first. As he and his pride sought to be like God and take worship and place of God, we see he in that moment instigated the origin of sin. Our question to the origin of sin today is asked as it relates to the entry of sin into our world. And how did sin come to affect mankind?
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  chapter 3. But as I said earlier, to answer this question of where did sin come from is no small feat and has tripped up many in their theology. This topic is central in many people's assertion against the existence of God, or at least the existence of the Christian God as revealed in the Bible. George Carlin, a famous comedian and famous
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  atheist has said this religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do every minute of every day and the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do and if you do any of these ten things he has a special place full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish where you will he will send you to live and suffer
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  and burn, and choke, and scream, and cry forever and ever till the end of time. But he loves you. This quote reveals the argument against a good God and the existence of sin. Namely, how can a loving God have created sin and hell? How could a loving God create such a thing as sin? The above statement from Mr. Car-
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  Carlin is a common thought. This approach is meant to disarm and put the opposing ideals on our heels. But we must and can answer this assertion, this seeming conflict. But how? To answer Mr. Carlin's assertion, we must think deeply on two things. First, what is sin? Or better yet, is sin a created thing?
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  How does God's worth and greatness impact our view of sin? So first, as we consider Mr. Carlin's assertion and how we answer it, first, sin is not a created thing but the absence of good. Thus, God looks at his creation and says, as Mr. Henry Salia might, it's all good. And it was and is true. All of God's creation was good. Sin is not a creation.
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  created thing, but sin is the absence of good. God in His Word tells us this as He equates sin, evil, with darkness. Darkness is simply the absence of light. Light in the Bible is equated to good. In the physical world, light has matter and substance, while darkness is defined as the absence of that reality. Darkness is the removal or absence of those things. Sin is the absence.
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  good just as Satan was cast out of light so sin causes Adam and Eve to be cast out of the garden and the presence of God's light when Adam and Eve fall into Satan's trap the goodness is removed and they become aware of their sin their shame as they chose to treasure another small G God over the one true God they exchanged the truth of
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  for a lie. This helps us in some way to understand the complexity of this question. Since God is the author of all things, he must have created sin. Sin is the absence of good, and thus not a created thing, but the absence of the things, the good things created by God.
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  Second, how does God's worthiness impact our view of sin? Psalm 145 verse 3 says this, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. What does it mean that God is worthy, that God is great and worthy of praise? And what does it have to do with our current conversation?
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  Statements like Mr. Carlin's reveal something of the world's understanding or opinion of God. You see, what we think about God has huge impact on how we act and how and what we believe. In fact, A.W. Tozer says it this way, what comes to mind when we think of God is the most important thing.
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  About us and he does he says this because he knows it will have deep impact on our actions and beliefs Mr. Carlin almost believed God to be something of a child immature and narcissistic Desiring to squash all who might question him Angry and petulant is the way he views him however this type of view of God is only possible when we have a very small view of God's worth
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  Allow me to bring this back to our topic. When we look at Genesis chapter 1 through 3, and especially the creation of mankind and the trees of which Adam and Eve were not to eat from, we see the creation of choice. We see the creation of the opportunity to choose to love and be in relationship with God or to disobey and reject this relationship. In short, we see the opportunity to place a high value on God and his worth as more worthy than all things.
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  On one hand, some would say the creation of choice is an unloving act as God being omniscient knew they would fail. This would be in line with top thinkers, atheists as Richard Dawkins and George Carlin.
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  On the other hand, when we view this act as it relates to the worthiness of God, one finds an immensely loving creator who chose mankind to be image bearers of himself and to give the opportunity to be in relationship with the very source of goodness and love. To see the creation of choice as unloving is to have a stunted view of the worth and worthiness of God.
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  What is the origin of sin? It is the absence of good. As Satan pridefully calls for worship of himself, the first sin is committed as he treasured himself over God. Then Adam and Eve disobey God's command and the origin of sin on earth is marked, is stamped. And allow me to walk us through this using some scriptures from Romans that I think depict this beautifully and very succinctly.
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  Romans chapter 1 verse 18 says we suppress the truth about God. Namely, he is great and worthy of devotion and praise. We suppress that truth. Romans 1.21, we don't glorify him or thank him. Romans 1.23, we exchange his glory for images. Romans 1.25, thus we exchange the truth about God for a lie. We worship, we stand in awe of what God made, rather.
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  God Romans 1 28 we disapprove of having the true God in our knowledge we don't want him we prefer other things other persons more than God he is not our supreme treasure we come short of this knowing cherishing prizing loving treasuring God above all things
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  This is the essence of our sinful condition, and this is the root of all sinful action. This is the bottom. This is the origin of sin, treasuring anything higher than God. Is this a simple topic? No. Do the above arguments I presented answer all questions as they relate to the origin of sin? No.
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  but they do give us enough to chew on, think on, ponder on, as we consider the truth that a good, great, and unsearchable God wants us to know him personally and thus created a world where that was even possible. Sin is indeed real. Sin has its ultimate origins from Satan, but it was Adam who brought it into the earthly realm and marred humanity. Next week, we will talk more about God's remedy for sin and his action.
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  in the world to bring all people back to himself. But this week, no spoilers. So for today, let's continue on to discuss the side effects of sin. If sin is the absence of good, what are its immediate and eternal effects? We'll see this from verses 6 through 19. The short answer to this question are several things. What are sin's effects? Shame, fear.
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  Broken relationships and loss. Broken relationships both earthly and spiritual. We see first shame as verse 7 tells us, their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked. They seek to cover their shame and I think in verses 7 through 19 we see this really clear progression of sin and its effects. First, sin looks good.
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  At first glance, sin looks good. Verse 6 tells us it was good for food and a delight to the eye. That is Eve's response to sin. Second, the sinful act is committed. Remember, sin is the absence of good. Thus here, Eve and Adam are committing sin by removing their obedience to God and rejecting the choice of what was good. They exchange obedience to God for obeying or listening to the God.
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  of this age they are treasuring the promise of becoming like god over the promise and current reality of a close relationship with the god sinful act is committed after it looks good then post removal of good obedience shame comes in then forth after shame comes fear because we are afraid someone will find out about our act of disobedience we see this in verse 10
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  After shame and fear, we hide away. Verse 8, see sixth, the blame game begins. He said, she said begins. And last, seventh, there are consequences to sin. And a little note for all of you as parents, does this sequence not almost assuredly directly reflect your conversations with your kids as you dissect and discern?
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  sin in their life? And second, for all of us, does this not also so very closely and directly connect with each of our behavior when we sin? A really vivid and shameful, I believe, example of this is I remember back to times in a few times in Carla and my marriage as we begin and would begin to argue.
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  As we would progress through those arguments, I can recall coming to the horrible realization that I was in fact wrong, that the topic of which we were arguing over was indeed my fault, and that it was my need to repent. It was going to be up to me. I needed to ask and seek forgiveness because I had brought us to the point of arguing over something which I was wrong for.
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  The really terrible thing is I can remember on several occasions coming to this reality, coming to this realization that I was the one who was wrong and in the middle of the argument making an active choice to push forward with the argument rather than accept the fact that I was wrong and seek forgiveness in my pride. I did not want to admit my sin.
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  Adam, when questioned by God on his actions, actually blames God for his sin because after all, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree. Brothers and sisters, this is the same woman that when Adam first laid eyes on her said, whoo, man, couldn't believe what he was blessed with and also said this.
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  At last, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Therefore, a man shall leave his mother and father and hold fast to his wife. We see the effect of sin. Not only it breaks the relationship with God and mankind, but it breaks our earthly relationships. How sad to see Adam depart from...
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  speaking a sigh of relief and joy at Eve's creation. At last, at last, after all of this searching, at last she is here, my wife. Eve in Adam's mind goes from being a blessing to being a curse. Sin has broken that tightly knit relationship between them. Sin's effects are shame, fear, broken relationships, and loss. For me as a parent,
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  One of the most heart-wrenching things I have to do is to follow through on the consequences for sin in my kids life I don't like it To let them know if you do not listen to my instructions, then there will be this room there will be consequences there will be this removal of reward To tell them that and then to watch them walk forward with disobedience and have to say to them because you disobeyed
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  You can no longer do this thing that you wanted to do. It breaks my heart. But sin creates loss. Here in Genesis, as sin enters the world, we see the effects touch Adam and Eve's relationship both with God and with one another. We see also it affect their opportunity to enjoy the lush and fruitful garden in which
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  they had been placed. There is loss of closeness with God and with the ease in which they would enjoy the nourishment of their bodies. God says a direct consequence of sin for humankind is that there will be pain. Verses 16 and 17 tell us that God tells Adam and Eve, he tells her that her pain will be great in childbearing.
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  And to Adam, he says, because he listened to the voice of his wife rather than the voice of God, that he shall eat of the ground with great pain. He curses the ground and causes pain and turmoil to be present in order to eat of the nourishment of the ground. It will be with pain and sweat that they produce offspring and physical nourishment because of their sin.
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  As sin is the absence of good, so its consequences are the removal of good. This ultimately is fulfilled in eternity as we either reject this reality of sin and its effects and enter eternity in the absence of the goodness of God, which is hell, or as we are restored by the grace of God through the accepting the sacrifice of his son, Jesus.
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  Christ. Our current efforts in culture are evidence of how many would want to handle on their own the reality of sin and its effects. We see this so vividly as our culture says, you are your source.
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  your own source of happiness and truth and anyone or anything which threatens that is your enemy. You get to define good and you get to define evil and you get to accept or reject the consequences of your choices.
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  You know, recently our oldest turned 12, 12 years old. She celebrated her birthday last Saturday. And this week in the mail, Carla and I received a letter from our health care provider outlining several different vaccines, four of which they wanted to give to our daughter, four of which are purely designed and needed only if you are sexually active with many partners.
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  According to the world and our culture, our oldest can now, rather than abstaining, receive medicine designed to stave off possible negative effects from living outside the design her loving Heavenly Father has laid out for her. Sin's ultimate origin happened with a choice to reject what is good. The effects of that were and still are shame, fear,
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  broken relationships, and loss. And we do not accept these effects willingly. We do not want these consequences. In fact, human history and present reality show us we would do whatever we can to hide from sin's consequences. So what should our reaction be to the reality of sin?
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  As we go through this study of the first three chapters of Genesis, our ultimate goal is to seek to move ourselves off shale and onto firm foundations, solid foundations of truth defined solely and revealed solely in the Word of God.
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  We see this week that sin exists We see sins effects and we see a culture and a world desperately seeking to push away the consequences of sin So what should we do? What should my reaction be as we ponder that question? May we consider words written by a man whom scripture says was a man after God's own
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  David in Psalm 139 says this, David sets the example, and this example is in direct contrast, I believe, with the world's response to the same question. Something I think which was very easily observable over this last year and a half.
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  As we watched others lash out, seeking to act out against others with riots and violence and chaos as people were said they were fighting against oppression. We see how many of us handle injustice, whether perceived or real. We saw how people handle oppression, whether perceived or real.
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  The non-believer's reaction is quite literally to cast stones, to blame others, to call for action from everyone else. This is in contrast to the Christian response of which I believe David expresses so very clearly in Psalm 139. What is a Christian response to sin and its effects on us and the ones we love and our culture and the world around us? What is the Christian response? It is to pray.
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  earnestly ask the Lord to reveal what part we might be playing in it to deal with and allow God to deal with sin in us and to continually be asking God to search our hearts
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  Allow me to give us some questions which can help us in this process as we consider what should my response be. And we consider that in relation to David's prayer in Psalm 139. Here are some questions that can help us in this process, I believe. The first is, do I know my condition? The condition of my heart and how it relates to this situation or that event. Do I know my condition?
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  Do I have a grasp of what it is about me that required the death of the God-man for me to be saved? Let me say that again. Do I have a grasp of what it is about me that required the death of the God-man for me to be saved? Third, do I have any suitable notion of my own evil, my own depravity?
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  and that this is somehow proportionate to what it costs to save me. The root, the origin is this, church. Sin hates the truth of God. It suppresses it and exchanges it for what sin loves and worships, namely self. Sin loves to worship and serve the creature, not the creator.
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  That's the root of sinning. That's the origin of sin the treasuring of anything above the Creator God Psalm 145 3 again says this great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is Unsearchable if we allow this verse to sink deep in our souls We will I believe struggle to cherish anything above the Creator God and will thus walked
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  towards Him and away from the sinful passions of treasuring self above Him. Anything, church, anything other than this is standing on shale, a sifting and dangerous ground which will lead to our injury, to the injury of those we love, and if ignored, to our ultimate destruction. May it not be true of us.
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  Let's pray. God in heaven, thank you for your revelation and your word. God, thank you for revealing truth to us. God, thank you for making it possible for us to have a relationship with you, the most worthy thing on earth and in heaven. There is no one greater than you.
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  You are truly unsearchable in your greatness, beyond comprehension, and because of that, God, we are grateful for the opportunity you have given us and gifted to us to have a relationship with you. Lord, as we contemplate this reality of sin and its effects on us, I pray that you would help us to be compassionate, that we would, with care and gentleness and humility, search our own hearts, that we might
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  find where there is wickedness in us, that you might reveal it, you might search it out, you might dig it out of us, that you might lead us in the way everlasting, that we might be people who are after your own heart, that we do not cast judgment on others but rather seek to extend grace as you have extended grace to us, to speak truth as you have spoken truth to us, that those might be
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  awakened to the reality of sin and their need for a Savior. God, we love you. Thank you for this time in your word. We pray these things in your name. Amen.