From Garden to Courtroom (Genesis 3:8-24)

Please take your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter 3 and hold your place at verse 8.

While you're turning there I want to make a few preliminary comments.

In 2015 an article was put out by the Wall Street Journal that stated that hundreds of churches in Europe have closed because attendance in those churches had plunged to near nothing.

And this has caused many folks to ask, well what do we do with these giant buildings that once housed worship services for God? Well many of those buildings are being turned into well all kinds of things.

They're being converted into nightclubs.

Some of them are being converted into warehouses.

Some are even being converted into mosques.

And one in the Netherlands was converted into a skateboard park.

It's now an indoor skateboard park.

And this is also happening in the United States.

According to NPR a centuries-old Methodist church was purchased recently so it could be repurposed as a bed and breakfast.

It's called adaptive reuse.

They take an old church building, they gut the inside and turn it into something else but it still looks like a church on the outside.

So in both Europe and in the United States where once beautiful houses of worship stood now stand as I said nightclubs, warehouses, beds and breakfasts and mosques.

And what this is, is this is a visible reminder of a very important truth.

Sin has the power to take something beautiful and make it ugly.

Sin has the power to take something that is intended to glorify God and use it for another purpose.

And I think that that's what we actually see in the garden.

What we're going to see today is what once was a beautiful place of communion between God and man is now going to become a courtroom.

Sin is going to take that beautiful place, that beautiful sanctuary and turn it into a court of law.

So with our attention on the text let us stand and read.

We're going to read verse 8 all the way to the end to see this take place.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman who you gave me to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.

Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate.

The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this curse it are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field and on your belly you shall go and on the and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing.

In pain you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.

And to Adam he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground because of you and in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return.

The man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living and the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them.

Then the Lord God said, behold the man has become like one of us and knowing good and evil lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.

Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

He drove out the man and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Father in heaven may you grant me mercy as I preach.

Keep me from error.

Give me boldness.

Keep me from cowardice and bless your people and Lord if there are those here who do not know the Lord may this be a day of reckoning for them in Christ's name.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Now you know as well as I do I don't normally read that much text because I don't normally preach that much text but you also know if you've been here we've been going through Genesis verse by verse and I have already preached verses 8 to 13 however I felt the desire to remind you that what we see beginning in verse 14 is based on what happened in verses 8 to 13 and I felt like just jumping into verse 14 would be somewhat of a little premature.

Remember this what we have seen so far in Genesis is three primary scenes.

We have seen the scene of creation and that is God creating the world that's chapter 1.

Then we've seen the scene which we might call the domestic scene.

God creates the family he creates man, he creates woman, he marries the couple and that's what we see in chapter 2.

He gives them a place to live, he gives them a job to do and he gives them one another to live together in the estate of matrimony.

So we see creation in chapter 1, we see if you will domestication in chapter 2 but then in chapter 3 we see failure.

In chapter 3 there's the introduction of failure, corruption because of sin.

Now I want you to think of this and I want you to keep this in your mind today because this is important not only for the theme of the sermon but this is actually an important truth regarding the whole of scripture sin is a legal matter.

People often think of sin as a moral thing and it is but sin is a legal matter God has given a command and he has given a punishment that goes along with that command therefore God has created a form of a judicial system.

If you do this you will receive this.

This is the punishment that will accompany this act of transgression and the act has occurred and so we see as I said in my introduction we see the garden turn into a courtroom and the judge walks onto the scene and everything now changes I have a four part outline today if you'll throw that up for me Miss Pam what we see in verses 8 to 24 is we see the realization of guilt we see the interrogation of the guilty we see the condemnation of the guilty but then we see the provision for the guilty and that's the part I hope to get to because as I was preaching this sermon to myself I said wow I don't think I'm gonna be able to get there but I don't wanna not get to the provision part so what I'm gonna do because I spent the last several weeks looking at the first two I'm gonna speed through those so that I can get to the third one so you guys ready? You buckled in? Because really we've already looked at the realization of guilt that's verses 7 and 8.

In verses 7 and 8 we see the realization they realize they were guilty and they felt shame they realize they had done wrong and they felt that they had done wrong and they have this shame and so they decide to cover themselves they retreat from the presence of God first by trying to cover their nakedness and then when they realize that covering won't do they run into the trees hoping that somehow the trees will block them from the gaze of Almighty God and they run into the trees and they try to find themselves somehow hidden and they heard the voice of the Lord or they heard rather the the sound of the Lord coming in the cool of the day as we talked about last week they ran for cover because they knew their coverings were inadequate I wanna just mention one thing about guilt guilt and shame are not the same guilt is forensic meaning it is legal you're either guilty or you're not somebody would say I feel guilty no you feel shame.

Shame is the experience guilt is actual it's legal it's forensic when you sin you are guilty whether you feel guilty or not see God gives us shame to accompany our guilt so that we will recognize that we are guilty and hopefully turn to Him you see shame is not a bad thing we always tell people you need to release your shame get rid of your shame in one sense shame can be bad if we if we are forgiven and we continue to live in shame that's not good but shame is a check on our conscience when we are guilty and we feel shame that's a good thing if you're guilty and you don't feel shame something wrong so Adam and Eve are guilty and they feel the shame of their guilt and so they try to hide from God and that's what we see the realization of guilt in Jim Boyce's commentary James Montgomery Boyce he said this is like the arraignment what what's the purpose of the arraignment in a courtroom to identify what's happened what you know you arraign to declare the charges well the charges have been declared they have a command that they have broken so God has come the judge now comes on to the scene what's next the interrogation the first question what does God ask where are you now you would think if Adam were trying to hide from God he would have not answered you ever think about that God says where are you and Adam says I hid because I was naked you think if he was really trying to hide he wouldn't have answered but he did answer you understand one thing and this is important when God calls us to his judgment bar we will not be able to stay hidden when God calls us to judgment we will not be able to stay in the trees here I am I hid because I'm naked and the second question of interrogation how do you know that you're naked did you eat of the tree of which I told you not to eat God gives Adam an opportunity for confession Adam instead uses it as a moment of self-justification this was last week's sermon Adam said the woman whom thou hast given me she gave me the fruit to eat and I ate of it remember who he's really pointing the finger at he's pointing the finger at God you gave me this woman she was supposed to be a helper she was supposed to be my help meet she was supposed to meet my every need instead she gave me the fruit of the tree it was her fault but it was really your fault God and that doesn't work with God God looks at the woman she says oh the devil made me do it so at this moment God turns his attention to the guilty trio and God lays down three statements of judgment on these three guilty parties and I have to think this if you notice I talked about the pattern of judgment last week first he talked to Adam then he talked to Eve then he judged the serpent then he judged Eve then he judged Adam and there's that sort of pattern there I think that when God judged the serpent I think Adam and Eve were going like like you know okay we passed the puck right because Adam points to Eve, Eve points to the serpent and God says to the serpent here's your judgment and this is Eve's okay and then he turns it to the woman and at that moment I imagine Adam is still kinda going okay alright I'm still not I'm still oh and to the man he says he didn't get out of it it started with questioning him and it ends with judging him and what we're gonna look at today is we're gonna look at the three judgments that are given this is really the heart of the sermon this is where I spent most of my time in preparation and I want to say this is probably the most difficult portion of this chapter maybe even the most difficult portion of Genesis that we've come to so far because there are some there is some language here and there are some things that happen here that are difficult to really understand exactly what is saying so I'm gonna I'm gonna help to try to give you the understanding that I've come to but there are times when I'm gonna say I'm not necessarily dogmatic because I do think that this does provide a few difficult statements but overall we can't miss the main part of the narrative and that is that God the judge is standing before these three guilty parties and no one gets away from their responsibilities they all bear the punishment for their guilt don't miss that part don't miss the forest for the trees this is God the judge see how many people do you know that will tell you God is too good to judge it's the very fact that God is good that he does judge it is the goodness of God that should cause us to truly be to truly shudder before him because it is the goodness of God that reminds us that he will judge right he will not simply wink at sin but he will judge sin as it deserves I don't know how anybody can read the Bible and say God won't judge sin it's right here in the very third chapter the first time sin is introduced God doesn't say oh you guys get a mulligan you know you get a you get a you get a you get a that was your one that was your one mistake you know it was okay we'll start again no there's no there's no do-over there's no second chance God brings judgment and we begin with the judgment on the serpent look at verse 14 the Lord God said to the serpent because you have done this cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field on your belly you shall go and thus you shall eat all the days of your life I will put him to tea between you and the woman between your offspring her offspring he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel what we see here in the judgment the serpent is we see a physical judgment on the physical serpent but we also have to be reminded that there is a spiritual being who is behind this Satan himself we know this from Genesis 12 Genesis 21 it tells us that Satan was actually the one who possessed the serpent and so there is a physical judgment and then there is a spiritual judgment and this is where I say it starts to get a little bit complicated because I do think that there is some there is some of it that that we can at least see is there sort of a not a mixing over but sort of a a blending of the judgment I'll explain what I mean notice first that the serpent is now going to take on a a different characteristic a different physical characteristic it says that because you have done this cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field on your belly you shall go you know the snake is the only animal that that slithers it doesn't have legs and it doesn't stand up because it doesn't have any legs upon which to stand and so when we see a snake don't you do snakes creep y'all out isn't one of the reasons and I know some you guys like snakes and and God bless you I'm just gonna pray for you because that's just but the snake has the oddest method of mobility it doesn't reach out it doesn't step out it it it's coils and expands and it coils and expands and that's how it moves it's got this very odd mode of of moving from place to place and we look at that and we say how strange an animal this is but this text seems to indicate that that's not the way it was created the text seems to indicate that there was some kind of mode of transportation that the snake had prior to the fall now some people try to argue that the snake maybe had legs and I've even seen some scientists Christian scientists try to argue that there's actually places among the snakes vertebrae where legs could have existed at one point some some people of course use that as a evolutionary argument some people use that as a creationary argument my answer is I don't know brother Mike and I have talked about this text at length and I love brother Mike as we spend so much time on the phone I'm glad we don't have to pay for minutes anymore you know cell phones we used to have to pay for minutes because we would both be way out of money but we talk about this text and he mentioned like a skink has sort of a slithering way but it still has legs and perhaps the snake had legs and part of the judgment was the removing of that now you're just going to slither like on your belly that's possible I've also heard some who say well perhaps the perhaps the serpent never had legs but what it had was the ability to be upright like a cobra you've seen a cobra when it goes to strike it comes up onto its tail and it pushes off and some people say maybe it wasn't that it had legs and had removed legs maybe it was a maybe it had a stronger rear and a stronger tail and it was able to move with a certain still serpentine but yet upright form what's the answer I know this when the judgment came it was prostrate face down on your belly you're going to be now on your belly and that's how you're gonna move that's part of the judgment and we say okay that makes sense but what about this whole eating dust thing it says dust you shall eat if there's one thing I know pastor I've been to the zoo and I have snakes eat mice and snakes eat other snakes the snakes don't eat dirt snakes don't eat dust this is a scientific inaccuracy in the Bible well this is where I think we have to interpret the Bible according to what's known as the phenomenological language or the language of appearance and the language of appearance is like when we say the sun comes up well the sun doesn't actually come up the earth rotates and you know that's that's why the sun looks like it comes up and I think that what we have here is the judgment on the serpent is you're gonna have your face in the dirt all the time not that you're literally digesting dust all the time but you're literally gonna have your face in it all the time and this term to eat dust is actually found throughout the scripture as a statement of defeat to eat dust was a statement of being the defeated one we still use this today eat my dust right when we go run or we say oh man he bit the dust and there's another one bites the dust right it means he's defeated so it can have that sort of understanding of it's not that he's really eating the dust but by having his face down in the dust it's showing his defeat now here's where the big question comes in the big question is this why punish the snake he was a vessel it'd be like you driving too fast in your car and the police officer takes a bat and just beats your car up like the car didn't do anything I'm the one who chose to drive fast the car was just the vessel I'm not gonna ask if you ever thought about doing that Adam but but you know the vessel itself we don't punish we punish the the mind behind the vessel right a snake is an unintelligent creature even in the garden they didn't have intellect and emotion and will like like what would take to have this conversation we know this this the serpent is possessed by the devil and so here we have the devil why why punish the snake I must tell you it's a difficult question and and the best answer I have come up with is that when Satan took on the the serpent and possessed the serpent there were consequences for the vessel that accompanied it as a reminder I'll give you the I'll give you a good thought on this later we're gonna see that when Adam sinned the ground was cursed ground didn't do anything wrong but the ground is cursed as a reminder of the spiritual curse and so I think the curse on the serpent stands as a reminder of the spiritual curse that came upon the devil so every time you see a snake you're reminded Satan used this tool as his weapon against mankind and God brought judgment upon the serpent as a picture of the of the ultimate judgment which was on Satan and the ultimate judgment on Satan is actually in verse 15 the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent that's not just talking about stomping the heads of snakes even though that's a figurative way of understanding it that's talking about when Jesus Christ came on the cross and crushed the head of the serpent and turned over the work that he had done in the garden and next week that's going to be the sermon because next week we're gonna stop everything and just look at verse 15 verse 15 is what's known as the proto evangelium or Latin for the first proclamation of the gospel the first proclamation the gospel is this the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent and we're gonna see that more next week so let's move on so we've seen the judgment on the serpent is both physical and spiritual now we see the judgment on the woman and we see that it regards relationships first the relationship to childbearing that's a physical judgment and then the relationship to husband which is an emotional judgment let's look first at the the relationship to childbearing I have to take a sip of water, excuse me.

I've got a lot to say today.