Genesis 2 and 3 Sermon

Genesis 2 and 3

Sermon Notes

Listen

Good and Evil

March 11, 2018

Lynchburg, Virginia

EXHORDIUM

         In this passage, God sets before us good and evil, life and death, sickness and health, heaven and hell. It is astonishing to us that the first man and the first woman chose so poorly. Of course, we can never know until the Resurrection what it would be like to be in an estate of pre-sinful knowledge and righteousness. We can only think of their plight in terms of our own plight, where we have in our bodies a battle between the flesh and the spirit. But we do get a sense of their failure in our own failure.

         We have the Spirit of God. We have been made new. We have the promises of God to us in Jesus Christ, and yet we find ourselves often siding with the devil rather than with the Father. We hear that subtle voice, Hath God said? And we succumb and we run away and we hide. And this in a condition of grace and mercy.

         But we have learned to run to the Father rather than away from Him. Because we do not come to Him to plead our righteousness but the righteousness of another, we come into His throne room with boldness. Not the boldness of a brazen sinner, like Simon Magus, who was in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity, but the boldness of a humble suppliant, like Queen Esther, who reached out and touched the scepter of peace of her lord.

         And our scepter of peace is the Lord Jesus. In Him, the Father holds out to us, peace and righteousness, good will and the food of life. Take and eat.

EXEGESIS

Gen. 2:1-3   Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ² And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. ³ And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

The day of rest is a creation ordinance. To sanctify is to make holy, to set it apart. It existed in the beginning. Man was created on the sixth day and rested his first full day. The Sabbath was the seventh day from creation until the Resurrection and the first day of the week since then.

         God’s rest is an example to us. The Bible tells us that we should call the Sabbath a delight. God delighted in his creation on the Sabbath day. The best way to delight in something is to be thankful. God looked upon His creation and saw that it was very good.

         Do you do that? Do you take the time to look upon all that God has given you and delight in it? That is rest. We are to take this sort of rest on the Lord’s Day. You cannot do that when you are doing your regular job. You cannot even do this when you have yourself so busy you are not stepping back and delighting at all. This day is not a burden but ought to be delight. But you have to rest your brain enough to delight in the Lord and all His works.

Gen. 2:16-25   And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: ¹⁷ But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

God gave the command to Adam before Eve was made. This is a key point. Adam obviously taught Eve because she tells the devil what God told Adam. But something was lost in the translation. Adam did not enforce this truth with his wife.

When the devil speaks to Eve, he directly contradicts God. There is no subtlety in his speech. God said you shall not eat of it and the day you do you shall die. The devil says, “Did God tell you not to eat of the trees of the garden? That is tricky. But then he says, “You shall not die but live.”

Now Eve is in a spot. In order to believe the devil here, she has to call God a liar, and she does so.

Gen. 2:18   And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. ¹⁹ And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. ²⁰ And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

God made the animals and Adam named them. Naming is a dominion taking occupation.

Gen. 2:21   And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; ²² And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. ²³ And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. ²⁴ Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. ²⁵ And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

God put Adam to sleep and did an operation on him. He made a wife out of the very same stuff as Adam. Because of this Adam recognized the unity that and his wife were and that their outward unity should represent the reality that they are of the same substance.

Sons leave and cleave.

They were naked and unashamed. Unashamed is the place of a clear conscience. Where there is no sin, there is no guilt or shame. But as soon as sin enters in, so does confusion of face.

Gen. 3:1   Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Subtil devil- Has God said?

Is that not the great question from the devil? The world, the flesh and the devil all ask this question. Has God said? Does the Bible actually teach, God’s creation ex nihilo? A real Adam and Eve? A worldwide flood? Job was a real person? Real miracles in Egypt? Jonah and the whale? The Virgin birth? Jesus healing lepers fingers back on? The Resurrection of Jesus Christ? Male leadership in the church? The headship of the husband? The universal reign of Jesus over all the Earth? That children are children in the womb and therefore may not be murdered? Demands absolute purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage? That marriage is to be one man to one woman for life? That God made them male and female in the beginning and those are the only two choices of gender and they are decided by God on your birthday?

Hath God said all that? Yes, with a megaphone, in writing, sealed with the notary of His Holy Spirit.

When God speaks clearly in the Bible, it is devil’s work to speak subtely. Let us not do that.

Hath God said is the great question. For Christians, when we hear that voice, we should know the answer immediately. If we do not know the answer, we need to flip open our Bibles and say, “Well, let me see, here in Genesis it says, and over there in Psalms it says, and back here in Romans it says, and therefore, “Yes, God has said.” Be gone, devil!

² And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: ³ But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Eve answers appropriately. Some say that she added to God’s prohibition here. I am not at all certain of that. Maybe her own fancy carried her away or maybe Adam mistaught her, or maybe it was true, that to touch was paramount to eating. But it is clear that Eve knew God’s prohibition and tells the devil. But it is also clear that knowing the prohibition was not enough to save her.

Was she only motivated by fear? Fear of God and fear of punishment? She does not say, “My father will be angry if I disobey him, or I love my Father too much to disappoint Him, or I am not exactly sure what you mean, let me ask the Lord when he walks with us in the cool of the day.” No, she talks to the devil and is bedeviled by his wormtongue.

⁴ And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: ⁵ For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

The devil warms up to the great renunciation. God said “You shall surely die.” The devil now says, “You shall not surely die.” The devil has no openly declared himself against God. At this point, Eve is not contemplating eating forbidden fruit. She is contemplating treachery, insubordination, high treason, rebellion. She is contemplating all of this against God and against her husband.

Gen. 3:6   And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Eve saw that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and could make one wise. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. She was greedy for herself. She was the mother of all living and through her greed and selfishness become the mother of all dying. She took and ate.

It is almost an aside that she gave to her husband and he ate. What was Adam doing? Did he not know his wife? Did he not know that she needed to be protected? Did he not know that he was the head of his wife and had specific duties to protect her and that if he failed to do so there were huge ramifications? Did he not know that he could nullify her decision? What was going on with Adam? Why did he listen to his wife when she was deceived by the devil?

Men, learn the lesson here! Know what God says. If your wife contradicts God, then you must contradict your wife!

⁷ And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

The devil said they would know good and evil. That prophecy comes true. They now know they have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. Where they previously looked upon one another’s nakedness in complete innocency, there is now the taint of sin, of lust, of shame.

They cover their nakedness, their reproductive organs, an intimation of the shame of guilt and sin that will now pass on to their offspring.

They make fig leave aprons. That is the best they could do? At best, these are woefully inadequate and temporary covering. The fig leaves do not fully cover them and they will have to remake the covering regularly, maybe even daily. They cannot cover up their shame and guilt.

⁸ And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

This line can be read with weeping. They hid from Father. Children, do you know this? Do you hide your heart and maybe even yourelf from God and from your own earthly father when you have sinned? Or, when you are stuck in sins? Or, when you want to continue in sins? Or, when you are too ashamed to confess your sins? What do you think he will do when he comes from work in the cool of the day? Will he be angry and ask what you have done? Will he reveal your sins? But what will he do then?

Will he kill you? You might say, “My dad is going to kill me.” But do you really mean that? No, you mean he is going to be mad and deservedly so. But what then will he do? Will there be consequences for your sin? Maybe a spanking? Maybe some lost privilege? Maybe a rift in your relationship because you hid yourself instead of going to him exposed? Yes, probably all of that. But what then? What will he do after you are exposed and confessed?

Will he not cover you in the blood of Jesus? Will he not speak forgiveness, peace and restoration to you? Will there not be healing in your heart and body? In your family?

Yes, I say. So, not hide yourself and your shame. Let it be exposed before your Father in Heaven and your father and mother on the Earth. That is the place for forgiveness to start.

EXHORTATION

Gen. 3:9   And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

How do you answer God’s question?

I am here Lord. I have sinned. Forgive me.

Or, do you start with the blame game, but Lord…, my wife, the devil, my parents, my boss, the pastor, my husband, the culture, the school, my education.

Don’t blame, own up.

Here I am Lord. I have sinned. Please forgive me.

Devil’s Advocate

         Let me play devil’s advocate here for a moment, though it seem blasphemous for a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ to do so.

         Hath God said, “You are a sinner?” Hath God said, “Jesus is the only way to deal with those sins?” Hath God said, “Jesus paid for all your sins on the cross?” Has God said, “The Bible is the very word of God.” Has God said, “Jesus rose from the dead?” Has God said, “All those who call upon Jesus shall be saved?” Has God said, “You shall be My people and I will be Your God?” Has God said, “I will send you My Spirit and He will never leave you?” Hath God said, “I go to prepare a place for you, that Jesus prays for you, that all things work together for good for His beloved?” Has God said all of these things?

         And I will answer these questions as Jesus’s Advocate, the Holy Spirit. “Yes, God has said all of these things. You know it to be true. Remember His words. Remember Him. Love Him. Come and confess your fidelity to Him and rest in His grace and peace to you through His Son, Jesus Christ.” Amen and Amen.