The Sinfulness of Man

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

The Appeal of Sin and the Fall of Man

A pastor from the early 20th century once told a story or writes about an experience that he had when he visited the Niagara Falls. And this man is standing on the edge of this giant waterfall on this cold winter day in March.

He is clothed in warm winter clothes and he sees the sun reflecting of this crystal clear water of the falls, the birds descending to the water for getting their drink. And a man, a companion of his that was with him, begins to describe to this man as he stands on this edge and observes this natural spectacle how he had observed some of the birds being carried over the edge of the falls of the cliff.

And as they came down for a drink, the small droplets of water from the falls would form small specks of ice on the wings of these birds. And as they come back for more and for more, this ice would continue to build up until a point where they could not lift their wings anymore and they would fall and would die and perish in these rushing waters.

I'm afraid we are so much like these birds in this recounting when it comes to our own sin. We make such a big deal out of the most frivolous, meaningless things. Exaggeration has become the norm in our time.

Every little thing nowadays is awesome and magnificent and amazing and fantastic. All the while, sin in our own lives is minimized. If we see it at all, we often look at it as these small droplets of ice, if you will, that will do absolutely no harm until we're eventually fully covered in them and like the birds in this story, perish.

One Dutch theologian speaking on sin put it this way, the subject is a matter of the greatest importance. For the man who misconstrues the nature of his sin is engaged in an urgent peril. Sin is a very vicious and mortal enemy and persistent power which must certainly be known in order to be overcome.

We've all likely heard someone somewhere say something along the lines of, I made one small mistake after they have deeply fallen into sin. Brothers and sisters, there is no such thing. We minimize sin so much, if I can borrow again from this illustration, that like the birds, we keep coming back to the seemingly good, cold, thirst-quenching water to satisfy ourselves until the thing that we so desire will be death to us.

And so as we come now to Genesis 3, specifically verses 6 through 8, and as we study the fall of man into sin, I want us in a sense to come face to face with our own sinfulness. I want us to realize, I think we must realize how much we are like Adam and Eve, how much we have inherited this corruption.

It's not something for us to minimize, so that it'll one day out of the blue surprise us. But sin is something we'll see that we desire, that we've readily partaken, and most certainly so many times often respond to in the wrong way.

This is not a joyful topic to talk about, but I think we must. And my hope, in all honesty, my prayer is that we will be reminded of how truly sinful we are. But not to beat us up, to beat us down, but to encourage us to run to Christ, to dress for battle, to pick up the fight anew, to not surrender, to fight our evil desires, to not readily give in to our sin, to not neglect repentance and be content with a certain level of hardness of heart that we carry around with us.

The Desire for Forbidden Fruit

So let me tell you where we're going, and we'll get into the text. We'll see three things. First, the desire that we have for sin. And then we'll see that we have a certain readiness to partake in sin.

And then lastly, we'll see the wrong response to sin. So look with me, if you would, if you're not already there. Chapter 3, beginning in verse 6. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, 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. Genesis has been so much, even in our brief study of it, so much about God up until this point. And it's interesting that as soon as God, you'll notice He has disappeared from the narrative for these last few verses, and as soon as He's gone, we hone in on man, disaster ensues.

So the serpent now, as we've heard last week, has made his attempt at enticing Eve. He's enticed her to disobey the command of God, of not eating of the fruit of the tree, of the knowledge of good and evil.

He's gone through his spiel, he's said what he had to say. And by his manipulating of God's Word, as Shane Shorter's last week, and his questioning and denying and changing it, the trap has now been completely and fully set.

He's tried to stir Eve to this unbelief and distrust in the Word, and the very character of God. So now she has to respond to this temptation. God allows man to be tested, and as most of you know, the deception of Satan has worked.

She believes the lies and dives headfirst into the depths of sin and disobedience. Adam, of course, allowing it to happen before following suit. And so at the onset of this disaster, we notice it begins with the desire for the forbidden.

I want us to consider three sub-points, if you will, of how Eve is desiring this fruit. First, she sees that the tree was good for food. That's what the Apostle John, in his first epistle, in chapter 2, verse 16, calls the desire of the flesh.

Through the twisting of God's Word, she now sees the tree as the opposite of what it actually is. But she's not merely looking at it with her physical eyes, is she? She sees the forbidden as good and desires it for food to satisfy the needs of the body.

God strictly, so clearly commanded not to eat of it because it would bring death. The fruit of this tree was anything but good for food. There was no need for her to desire it either. Adam and Eve had been given every other tree in the garden for that very specific purpose.

They were to abstain from this one tree out of all the abundance that God had given and provided for them. But as if God was withholding something from her, not trusting in His provision, she desires the prohibited.

And from there, she goes straight into delighting in it. The tree became a delight to her eyes. The semantic range for the Hebrew word there for delight, it denotes a longing, a yearning, a wishing for something.

Eve became obsessed with this tree. It becomes so consuming that she cannot take her eyes off it. The desire of her eyes is satisfied only by this tree. It stood out to her more than any of the other plants and trees that God had made that were so pleasant to the sight.

And the variety of animal life and the grandeur of all of God's creation. She no longer delights in God and what He has provided, but in that which He has prohibited. And so now seeing this tree in a different light, the longing, the yearning for it, having it satisfy her senses, she thirdly now desires that which is said it would give her wisdom or to be wise.

As verse 5 shows us, our context meant to be like God to some degree. As if she was lacking anything in her current stage, she longs for more. Moses here uses the same word he uses for covet in Exodus chapter 20 when he speaks of the Ten Commandments, of the Tenth Commandment specifically.

This is a strong desire for the promise that the serpent had made. As Eve takes each of these steps, they get more and more dangerous. She makes a consistent descend into sin at a pace at which it is impossible to stop.

From wanting the fruit for food, to delighting in the tree, she fully desires the false reward that it was to bring her into being wise, to be like God. Being the glory of creation, occupying the seat of honor and the created order was simply not good enough.

To paraphrase Calvin, he said being made in the image of God wasn't as good as being equal with God. Brothers and sisters, do you see here this appeal of sin? Don't underestimate it. Don't be fooled by it.

The satisfaction of meeting your needs that it claims God is not meeting for you, the joy and delight it gives that apparently God is withholding from you, and the false promise that it makes of supplying what God does not want you to have.

When Eve saw this tree, when she began to see it the way she did, she should have turned and walked away. So what do we do with it? I would encourage you to be discerning with what you look at, with what you read, with what you listen to.

Too many of you honestly fall into sin and say, I don't know how I ended up here or why I did this. Let me ask you one thing, what have you been filling your heart with? So often the eyes are the window to a heart.

And so you desire sin, you delight in sin, you take this great pleasure in sin, you long for what it promises to give you because you've beheld it. King David is a prime example, isn't he? In 2 Samuel 11, many of you know this story so well.

David, of course, is on the roof of his house. He sees Bathsheba bathing just a few houses over. And what does he do? He sends messengers over there. She comes to him. It's the same pattern. David saw Bathsheba, delighted in her because she was beautiful, Scripture says, desires her and commits adultery with her.

You must understand that your evil desires are fueled by what you take into your heart through the lamp of the body that is the eyes. In Joshua 7, another example, Achan follows the same pattern. Achan's sin of taking the spoil.

It was the reason why Israel's army was defeated at the city of Ai in the fight against the Amorites. And so in answering to Joshua in verses 20 and 21, it says,. And Achan answered Joshua, Truly I have sinned against the Lord of God, Israel, and this is what I did.

When I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see they are hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath.

Don't say to yourself that what you look at, what you put in your mind does not affect your heart. I'm urging you, guard yourself against sexual images. Some of you have to guard yourselves against advertising because it leads you to coveting and desiring that which you do not have, you do not need, and you become obsessed with it until you have it.

If you keep filling your mind with things you shouldn't, whether it be these images, specific ads, books, movies you watch, podcasts you listen to, even the study of the Word and theology can become sinful if we do it for a hunger and thirst for knowledge that puffs up.

If you feed your evil desires this way, don't be surprised when you begin to find joy in them and desire them more and more, when your conscience softens and your heart hardens. If you want to fight your desires, your longing for sin, let me suggest to begin with something we can all do today.

Make a covenant with your eyes. It's what Job did. He said, I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze at a virgin? Or David, in Psalm 101, he says, I will walk with integrity of heart within my house.

How? He goes on. I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall be far from me. I will know nothing of evil.

Christian, don't be fooled by the appeal of sin that draws your heart after it. Fight against your desire for it, because when you give in to them, you almost certainly readily throw yourself fully into sin.

The Readiness to Sin

It's the very thing we see Adam and Eve doing. Look in the middle of verse 6, in our second point, the readiness to partake in sin, the unchecked beholding of sin, the delighting in it, the desiring it, will ultimately guarantee that we will sin.

It says, she took of its fruit and ate. This fostered delight and desire for this fruit had become so appealing to her that she now takes and eats. And what is so stunning and telling is the silence of the serpent.

It speaks volumes. He spoke all the way through verses 1 through 5, but he remains silent now. Later in verse 14, we see that it seems that he's still present as God addresses him when he pronounces the curse, but he's perfectly content to sit back and watch.

So what does that matter? It makes clear that it's the woman committing the sin. Satan does not make her do it. He tempts in his various crafty and deceitful ways. He tries to persuade, cast doubt and unbelief, but he does not make Eve take the fruit and eat it.

She's the one who takes and eats. One commentator said, Satan may tempt, but he cannot force, may persuade us to cast ourselves down, but he cannot cast us down. The devil tempts, but it's you, it's me, that willingly, readily commit our sin.

It is our sin. We throw ourselves into this filth. Eve's desire had conceived and given birth to sin, and she goes on to entice her own husband to do so as well. The second half of verse 6 says, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

1 Timothy 2 verse 14, Paul says, Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Adam was not deceived. Think about this for just a moment with me. Eve spoke with a serpent, believed the lies, desires, the fruit she takes and eats.

All the while, Adam, not being deceived, knowing full well the prohibition that God had given him and not eating of this tree, is standing next to his wife, watching her reach for the fruit, and what does he do?

Absolutely nothing. Instead of interfering, of holding her back, he allows her to take and eat. He watches the tragedy unfold in real time. And then the fruit is offered to him, and he eats himself. He knew exactly what his wife was doing, what he was doing, and he did it anyways.

Adam had the choice to sin or not to sin, and he chose to sin. Of course, as our federal representative, representing all mankind as the one who had been given the command of not eating of the tree. It was given to him and not to Eve.

It was given to him before Eve was created. He has catapulted humanity as a whole into sin and death. And that's why Paul, in Romans 5, verses 12 through 19, he can speak of sin coming into the world through one man.

And many having died through the one man's trespass, which of course led to condemnation for all men. And by this one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Adam took the fruit that Eve gave him.

We don't know the exact reasons for his taking it. Some theologians speculate. But what we do know is that he was not deceived, that he simply took and ate. That he willingly disobeyed God, rebelled against Him, not placing himself under God in obedience to Him, but opposite God in disobedience.

He did not subject himself to the will and command of the Lord. He made himself his own God. If we are to identify with one person in all of Scripture outside of Christ, it ought to be Adam. There are several aspects here of his behavior that we are so much alike.

We see a brother or a sister sin, perhaps or especially even your spouse. Adam and Eve were married after all. And instead of stopping them, of reminding them of the Word of God, trying to steer them back to the path of righteousness, we fully surrender and let them go on.

And perhaps in an attempt to justify our actions, we tell ourselves it's not a serious sin. We consider it a minor sin and we presume on the grace of God. Please, whether it is your spouse, a brother, a sister, a friend, do not idly stand by knowing what they are about to do and let them do it.

I think God has given you a spouse as a guardrail and He has designed the church to function in much of a similar fashion. We have people that we love and that we trust that watch out and care for us.

So run after them, not to condemn them, but to bring the Word of God to bear on their mind, to rebuke them if necessary, and they may turn from their sin before it's too late. But not only do we so often allow others to sin, we are so quick to sin ourselves and even join them in their sin.

It seems Adam immediately took the fruit and ate. There's no indication that he was deliberating or debating. He was ready to sin, knowing full well what he was about to do. Isn't there so much? Isn't there so much of Adam still left in us?

So much more than we would like? We full well know the command of God. Scripture tells us so clearly that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. It even tells us the works that the unrighteous do.

Idolatry, greed, drunkenness, lying, stealing, anger, murder of the heart, lust, which is adultery as Christ tells us. Bitterness, envy, strife, covetousness. We know all these things so well, don't we?

We know the passages. And we know, just like Adam did, that the fruit will bring death, that the wages of sin is death. We know it offends God, it displeases Him, that it kinsels His wrath against it.

We know it's the reason that Christ went to the cross. Yet so many times it is not enough to deter us. And so we go on sinning anyways. Depravity truly runs so deep in us. We are so ready to sin. And our resistance to sinning declines dramatically in the presence of other sinners.

Notice that it was Eve who offered the fruit to Adam. Of course, we cannot avoid contact with sinful men. And I'm not suggesting you leave your wife or your husband. But we can avoid the company of those who promote disobedience to God.

Brothers and sisters, be careful who you surround yourself with. There is a sense in which sin likes to travel. Sinners like the company of other sinners and would love for you to be part of it as well.

Remember and listen to some of the warnings Solomon gives to his own son in Proverbs 1.

He says,.

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say come with us, let us lie in wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Like Sheol, let us swallow them alive and whole. Like those who go down to the pits, we shall find all precious goods.

We shall fill our houses with plunder. Throw in your lot among us. We will all have one purse. If you find yourself enticed to go with them, what are you to do? In verse 15, Solomon continues. He says,.

My son, do not walk in the way with them. Hold back your foot from their path. Their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird. But these men lie in wait for their own blood.

They set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. It takes away the life of its possessors. If you want to begin to fight against your readiness to sin, consider who you hang around with when you find yourself in sin.

You must avoid the company of those who seek to draw you into their evil designs. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, he says,. Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. If you constantly surround yourself with people that so blatantly and openly live in and promote sin, you will gladly, readily, and willingly join them.

You'll begin to speak like them. You'll find joy in the same debaucherous behavior. You'll conform to their evil ways and end up committing the same sin. And you will pay the same penalty. Choose your company wisely.

Hiding from God and the Call to Repentance

We've seen a desire now, a man for sin, as well as a desire for that which it promises. And a readiness, a willingness of man to commit that sin. Thirdly, lastly, and briefly, we see man's wrong response to sin.

Beginning in verse 7,. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, when they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. The attack of the serpents was a success.

Eve was deceived. Adam took the fruit and ate. But the anticipated result does not match their realities. Their eyes now are opened. Not their physical eyes they were both able to see prior to the fall, but the eyes of their conscience.

Look, they were now ashamed of their nakedness. Earlier in verse 25, in chapter 2, we see that that was not the case. They just disobeyed God, broken His command, and this wisdom that the tree was supposed to give them opened their eyes to their utter shame.

And the first thing they do is count themselves up with fig leaves. Matthew, Henry, regarding this, he writes,. See here what is commonly the folly of those that have sinned. They have more care to save their credit before men than to obtain their pardon from God.

Believe Adam and Eve experienced the truth of Hebrews 4, verse 13. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account. They show now that the work of the law is written on their hearts and their conscience bears them witness.

They become aware of their fault. Their sin became known to them at once. They knew they had to give an account to God for what they had done. And so what do they do? What is their response? Look at verse 8,.

They hide themselves, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

This full-on assault that they had launched against God. Not just any God, but as we have heard over the last few weeks, this abundantly good, generous, loving God who had given them every tree that was good for food, had formed them out of the dust of the earth, was pleased to dwell and commune with His creature.

This assault, this craving, this longing for more, this desire for the things that the tree was to give them, the attempt at surpassing His authority and being like God, this ugly reaching for their own glory, immediately destroys this close, unhindered fellowship that they had with Him.

Moses uses this anthropomorphic language here. He describes human characteristics to God when he says that they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. He hints at this enjoyment, the closeness of the fellowship that they had with God.

And now all of that has changed so much so that they go into hiding. What a horror, what a tragedy. Rather than humbling themselves now before God, they cover their outward shame and then try to evade and hide from Him.

They wanted to be so much like God and now they're afraid of being in His very presence. Isn't it such a foolish scheme to attempt to hide from the Lord? The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Proverbs 15 says, keeping watch on the evil and on the good.

This is not at all the right response. Don't let the knowledge and the conviction of your sin drive you into hiding from God, to a place where you're more concerned with looking good on the outside, covering your sins from men because you're ashamed, because if anyone would know what goes on in your mind and your heart and the things you do in secret, you may succeed in hiding it from men for a while.

But you'll not for a second be able to hide it from God. Jeremiah says in verse 23 -24, Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him, declares the Lord? Do not fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord.

Listen, the Lord knows your sin. It is not hidden from Him. But some of you here, whether you are a Christian or not, this applies to all of us, are trying to hide sins not only from man but from God.

If hiding it is the wrong response, what is the right one? The right one is to bring it to Him. Maybe you've minimized your sin for way too long. Maybe you've grown cold and insensitive to it. You know full well in your heart that you have not dealt with some of it.

Maybe you're beginning to feel conviction for your sins for the first time. Wherever you are on this spectrum, confess your sins to the Lord. Yes, He cannot tolerate it. He will not tolerate it. He is grieved by it.

It is an offense to Him. It demands His justice and wrath to be poured out on it. And the unrighteous will most certainly not inherit the kingdom of God. But no matter how much you try, no matter how much we try, apart from Jesus Christ, we will remain naked and unrighteous before the Lord.

Let's not remain under the first Adam or try to go back to Him by not dealing with our sin. He's brought us nothing but death. Let's come to the last Adam, Jesus Christ. In Him, the gift of God's grace is so freely given to us.

Acknowledge your sin to Him. Don't cover your iniquities. Confess them to the Lord and He will forgive your transgressions. Christians, brothers and sisters, we so often still act like Adam. We desire sin.

We commit sin. Let us not respond like Adam too. Let us not respond like Adam by not willingly, openly, and readily bringing it before the Lord and allowing the hardness of our hearts to keep us from true repentance.

In Jesus Christ, the righteous, we have an advocate with the Father, the forgiveness of sins, and He will not turn away a broken and a contrite heart. Have you not already experienced the sweetness of coming to Him once?

When you first believed, He'll extend the same grace to you today. His mercies are new every morning. Come to Him. I'll close us with 1 John 1 verse 9. We quote it so often. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all, all unrighteousness.

Let's pray.

Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church. If you would like to keep up with us, you can find us at Facebook at Grace Fellowship Church or our Instagram at gracechurchyeg, all one word.

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