Genesis 3:8-24, How Bad Is It?, Dr. John Carpenter

chapter 3 starting in verse 8 verses 8 to 24 here the word of the Lord 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 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 whom you gave to be with me. She gave me fruit of the tree and I ate

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

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 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 in pain You shall eat of 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 skins and clothed them

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

Therefore the Lord God sent him out from 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

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Carpe diem

Seize the day It's a kind of more sophisticated way of just saying go for it or the

Nike slogan. Just do it Go for the gusto Grasp the brass ring

Reach out your hands and grab whatever it is. You want don't be shy

Don't hold back and don't let anything or anyone hold you back Take hold of what you want, even if you have to push others aside

Recognize our culture and all of this the attitudes promoted in our day recognize yourself

After all ours is the culture in which the motto to a popular TV show Survivor is outwit outlast outplay

You can win a million dollars if you can lie and manipulate and betray and connive your way over others

Apparently that's what we like because the show is so popular. The 43rd season is premiering this

Wednesday Another reality show called combat missions accidentally turned out to be very different And it was produced by the same people who produced survivors a sort of a spin -off from that after survivor was so successful But it was different in that it was gonna have a military theme and a very different kind of people

Ex -military men they were given war games kind of missions and put in teams and war games kind of missions

To compete against other teams and the team that lost Would have to select one man to kick off the team just like in survivor if you've ever seen it.

However strange things happened Every time I watched one of those shows and saw a team lose

Instead of their team meeting when they have the team meeting and survivor They call a tribal meeting and everyone is desperately trying to hold on to their position trying to outwit outlast outplay

Refusing to take responsibility to try to get someone else voted out to shift the blame to someone else

Instead of all that grasping for self -preservation the leaders of the losing team

Imbued with a military ethic that ethic was the individual has to sacrifice for the sake of the group the leaders of the losing team would always personally take responsibility for their team losing refused to blame anyone else and voluntarily quit

Predictably the show only lasted one season So you got 43 seasons versus one and this passage our first parents are much more like survivor

Thinking they can outwit outlast outplay even the Lord God himself. They desperately don't want to be voted out of the garden instead they want to stretch out their hands one more time and dodge death

We see that here in two scenes first seeing one four verses 8 to 13 is about God's interrogation of our first parents and their prevarication and then seeing two from verses 14 to 24 is about condemnation and Eviction and seen one

God interrogates our first parents and they Prevaricate and was try to dodge try to avoid the responsibility.

They try to hide and this is the first cover -up In first is the crime and then there's the cover -up first.

They try to hide from God in verse 8 This is humanity in sin instead of trying to run to God When their eyes are open so their eyes were opened instead of trying to run to God when that happened

They sought to avoid them hiding in the trees They were afraid of the Lord because they had grasped for equality with God Remember the temptation you shall become like God they grasped for that And so when

God comes seeking Walking in the garden in the cool of the day They hide

Then God asked questions and the first this is the interrogation to Adam specifically God called to the man in verse 9

Since he's the head God's question is simple but penetrating. Where are you? Now this is not suggesting that God didn't know where the

Lord God didn't know where Adam was rather the Lord God was asking Why aren't you in my presence?

Think about it. Why are you hiding? Why aren't you happily coming to me?

Like you used to consider why you're hiding Where was Adam? hiding from God Sinners hide

God calls So God calls and asks, where are you? God's call has a way of Bringing Adam out of hiding and notice

Adam's reply in verse 10 I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid

Because I was naked and I hid myself He was afraid and so he thought he hoped

That he could make God someone who could be avoided There's a new term for that now

Ghosting just don't respond to someone's text messages calls disappear like a ghost They were trying to ghost

God Like I said, God's call has a way of bringing bringing them out well

Now they had reached out their hands and grasped their own will and they were afraid of the one who had reminded them that they

Weren't made for that Christians should be interested in dealing with our guilt not hiding

We should have a longing in our hearts to be right with God to be cleansed to have our sins dealt with even if that Means we have to humble ourselves to receive correction and rebuke and discipline

We're willing to undergo the sting of being held accountable for our sins because we eagerly desire to be made, right?

We don't just want to hide try to cover up Our sins to conspire with other people to pretend that our sins aren't really there that they're not really sins

Unlike our first parents were willing to face God's wrath toward our sins because we desire him

More than we love our sins But sinners don't really care about their guilt

And nowhere in this passage. Is there any remorse expressed for their sin?

Now, they're ashamed but they're not repentant a truly repentant person a

Burdened with a sense of guilt for his sins Runs to the Lord seeking cleansing pleads to God for mercy and forgiveness

But sinners do not left to ourselves have a have a tender God -driven conscience sinners are not seekers

They're hiders That's a new style of organizing the church. Maybe it's not really so new

The philosophy is not really new but this some of the style is but called seeker sensitive The idea is that we should structure the church everything we do from the way we dress to this music

We use to the Bible translations around the sensitivities of people in the world

Because they really are seekers Seek a God that's the philosophy.

That's the assumption now. Yes We should be willing to lay aside every unnecessary Obstacle to the gospel like old -fashioned ways of dress or styles of music or Bible versions that people don't understand anymore but real seekers

Aren't hiding from God because God has given them a heart to seek him.

That's not their natural condition That's something God has done in them to make them into seekers

They're portrayed by John Bunyan and Pilgrim's Progress as people going through the recall I guess it's the old English word the slaw the swamp the slaw of despond

The swamp of conviction as the Spirit is wakens them from spiritual death true seekers

Feel to the bottom of their heart Their sinfulness like a man trudging through a swamp feels the muck and the mire the the mud the vines and the thorns the

Danger from snakes and alligators all around him He feels that the sinner under conviction has been awakened and now really is a seeker

Feels that sin and his need for cleansing now to those kind of people Sure We should be sensitive

But that is not man in his natural condition left to himself Left to ourselves We hide

We don't seek How bad is it? Well, the Bible tells us that no one not even one seeks after God as sinners

We may we may like a little religion in our life like they wanted fig leaves But unless God draws us first We don't want

God. We're not seeking him religion is not always not even usually a good faith effort

As in other words a sincere effort to find God Religion is usually a way of hiding from God a way of covering up our shame without real repentance religion whether it be the false religion of the cults or other false religions or even a

Moralized version of Christianity all about how what you should do be good little boys and girls it that's like these pathetic fig leaves here flimsy clothing

It's a way of trying to cover ourselves Without God's provision And this is part of what makes the gospel so offensive to some the cross says people are

Sinful they're hiders and even religion rather than being a misguided but sincere attempt to follow

God is really a self -willed attempt to hide to cover ourselves The first step to the gospel is to see how bad the situation is

How bad is it? We are not only dead in our sins But left to ourselves

We rather like it that way We prefer that we try to avoid

God We're not seeking God. We're hiding and the gospel Exposes that it strips away the fig leaves and says that you can't be truly covered

You can't be shame -free Unless God covers you So it is

God who comes seeking God who calls out for Adam who calls that for us God is not sitting passively by Waiting for us to go find him for us to seek him as sinners.

We hide God comes and God calls God then asked two more questions the first round about the second direct

Who told you that you were naked in verse 11? Of course, no one told them the point of the question isn't to elicit information

God's not, you know ignorant of what happened. God doesn't even wait for reply here He is getting

Adam to focus in on what he did He's trying to make him think and Adam should think no one told me.

How did I come to know I was naked? No one told me I realized it when I Said my eyes were open.

I realized shame Adam should take responsibility. He should confess. He should seek to be made right instead

Adam Prevaricates he refuses to confess and repent of his sin and verse 12.

He blames his sin on his wife and The next verse the woman does the same she prevaricates she blames her said on the serpent

We hate to take responsibility If we can't successfully hide from God, we'll try to dodge the blame

Someone else made me do it. It was my a bad upbringing was my environment It was my friends or my family is because I was too poor.

It was Whatever something done to my ancestors. It's the chemicals in my brain. Whatever. It's not my fault

The devil made me do it How bad is it? The sinner cannot take responsibility for his sin because he has put himself in the center of the universe

He judges good by what's good for me and bad. What's what's bad for me? It's declared that what he wants what he does is right if someone tells the sinner

He is wrong. Then something must be wrong with that other person They must be oppressive or repressive or primitive or unenlightened intolerant

Insensitive uncaring or whatever a favorite term in our day for sinners to avoid responsibility is to accuse the other person of being

Judgmental Right. How many times you see that any standards that make some sinner feel ashamed for his sins

No matter how well -rooted in the Bible are quote judgmental The sinner cannot stand to be questioned to be rebuked

That's why one of the best indicators of true godliness with your heart is really seeking the

Lord Whether the Holy Spirit is genuinely work in your heart and you are reaching to be made new by him.

One of the best signs is How you respond? to rebuke whether you accept correction if you don't think you need rebuke or discipline like Adam and his wife here you immediately attack the one who gives it you prevaricate you try to avoid it

You dodge it change the subject maybe turn the tables of the corrector blame shift Those are signs that we're still reaching out to grasp what we want not laying our out our hands openly before the

Lord Receiving what he's giving But notice that Adam goes beyond just passing the buck to Eve He slips in this line about the woman

Whom you God Gave me in verse 12

In other words, he's telling the Lord God. It's her fault and your fault

God since you gave her to me You should have known better. You should have known it would happen.

It's your fault God. You did it He makes a sin worse. He blasphemes by blaming God the sinner not only hides from God, but when confronted he attacks

God You gave my tempter to me it's your fault such hard -hearted self -centered people cannot be brought to God by just sweet words

Being a sinner is a terrible desperate condition

How bad is it? Our condition is so bad that even after we've been cornered even after we've been caught in our sin

We'll do anything in our pride and our willful insistence that we are

God To avoid confessing our sins to avoid taking the blame Will desperately look for an excuse will demand that others help pretend that we're not responsible

Some religious people will even hire preachers to tell them that they're all okay I'm okay.

You're okay. Everything is fine Hirelings who help them hide from conviction will hide from a seeking

God and when cornered Attack that God and if we could only get our hands on him, we'd nail that God to a cross so seen one ends

With our first parents trying to avoid their responsibility hiding defiant and angry at the only one who can give us any hope now sinners try to dodge the blame but God makes it stick and then the true

God Passes his verdict on the three wannabe gods standing before him seen to Condemnation and eviction

First the serpent Though all were condemned only the serpent was cursed he who tempted this woman to eat

Himself will now eat Dust in verse 14. In other words, the slithering of snakes is symbolic of God's judgment on the tempter

So when we see a snake today, we can be reminded as Martin Luther wrote the Prince of Darkness grim

We trembled out for him his rage we can endure For lo his doom is sure

His doom is sure a revelation the back of the book portrays that the ultimate judgment on Satan But his doom is not just sure

Because we've read the back of the book it's sure because we've read now the front of the book

Right from the beginning God shows that he has no real rival. Satan is not his rival

Satan is condemned from the very start. God says in verse 15. I will put to the serpent to Satan I will put enmity of a strife conflict hatred between you

Satan and the woman God can do that between your offspring Satan has offspring or the seed

The sons of the daughters of the devil between that and her offspring

The seed of the woman the one who comes from the woman alone. Yes. Yes, the serpent will will get to bruise

The heel it says of the one who will come from the woman He will inflict a wound on him.

See the woman will be wounded But that one will he says crush Satan's head his doom is sure

How bad is it? Well, the woman is condemned to pain and conflict in verse 16 I will multiply your pain or toil or labor in in childbearing or the word there could be or conception

Maybe the whole process of giving birth we even now call birthing labor, but here it's the whole process of conception and pregnancy and birth

It is more difficult more fraught more worrisome especially for women

Then was intended and then in pain it's a different word for hurt you shall bring forth children to the very process by which the woman is the mother of all living is now sharply marked by Pain a reminder of that original sin the pride of life

Even the original purpose for which she was made to be a helper for husband is Disrupted remember she was made to be helper fit for him now marital strife

You know the battle of the sexes is another poisonous fruit of sin in verse 16 your desire

Shall be contrary to our perhaps could be to rule over to dominate the man, but he shall rule over you otherwise

God's saying there's gonna be a battle of the sexes and you're gonna lose and Even though both men and women suffer from it.

Haven't women suffered the most throughout history and still today From broken marriages from abuse all that comes from that.

How bad is it? Well, the man is condemned to hard labor and verse 17 because two things he listened to his wife rather than God remember he loved the benefits of going along with her rather than being faithful to God and because he ate from the tree that God told

Him not to eat he grasped for equality with God disregarding

God's command as if he could do such a thing and He took the fruit of his work.

He was a gardener as a gardener He took fruit that he's not supposed to take and so his work is cursed

Work is was originally a blessing from God. It was all satisfaction now toil pain is added to it

Now the word there for toil and at the end of verse 17 is the same word used for the woman

Having pain in labor He gets pain in work

The drudgery the obstacles the thorns of verse 18 all the the pains that often make work something we dread

Are the result of sin and then there's physical death

They've already died spiritually Separated from God trying to hide Trying to keep separate from God and now their bodies will die

They were made from the ground So they'll go back to the ground in verse 19

For you are dust and to dust you shall return Now right here.

It seems odd reading along Seems almost out of order in the way we might think because it didn't

I don't think says that you are dust and the dust you Shall return in verse 20 right after being sentenced to death

We're told finally the woman's name You know, he paid attention up to now

There's Adam and his wife or the woman and now only now After their sentence to death you will die.

You will go down to back to dust back to the ground Now we're told the woman's name is

Eve mother of all living lives their lives will end but human lives will continue through Eve And then

God makes the suitable covering for them not flimsy fig leaves but animal skins God can cover our shame

But there's a problem Our first parents are sentenced to death but the tree of life is

There in Eden and so behold look at this. God says the first 22 pay attention to this

This is important man has become like one of us knowing good and evil. He's no longer innocent he's dead and sin is condemned to physical death, but now in verse 22 last

Numbers numbers to avoid the risk of something. We must avoid Some we must do nothing something that's necessary to prevent this evil lest He reach out his hand again

Reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever

Notice it's an incomplete sentence The sentence is like interrupted in the middle. There's no object or does it finish?

It's like the danger is so urgent God has to act before finishing the sentence because to be an immortal sinner would be

Unbearable, it would be unbearable for there to be sinners human beings sinful human beings

Who are eternal who are immortal If our first parents had stretched out their hand and aided the tree the tree of life

They would have been saved from death and they've asserted themselves once already just telling them not to do it Obviously not gonna work.

They've asserted themselves once already They've stretched out their hands and grasped that forbidden fruit.

And now all they have to do is reach out one more time But God will not let them

God will not casually excuse Sin he will not let defiant sinners

Have eternal life He wants to make sure that sinners know How bad it is?

How bad is it? Well, our first parents had two trees one to give life and one to give death

They've already seized the fruit for death and now they want to get life without salvation

They will live eternally while dead in their sins If they would have believed and loved and submitted to God first they wouldn't have reached out for that wrong fruit and then they could reach out and eat from the tree of life and live forever and They would not have to taste death

But they failed And so have we all How bad is it?

It's so bad that something great did die that day our first parents ate of the wrong fruit in our modern language

We can call it relationship with God Intimacy with God in the Bible.

It's called righteousness eternal life Whatever you want to call it

It's dead and now our bodies will follow Every tombstone every graveyard is a monument to that sin

How bad is it? It's so bad We're evicted from paradise No, since then we've been yearning for paradise

We've been wanting to return to paradise to a utopia where everything is perfect The communists promise a workers paradise

If only we'd be free of the oppression of the aristocrats and of the capitalists the capitalists promise a consumers paradise

But the invisible hand of the market leading everyone to greater prosperity If only they'll each reach out and grasp for whatever it is that makes them happy Religious sects often promise a utopia in their communes

If only we'll follow their rules poets write a paradise and Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree

Politicians promise each election year that all the ills of society will be solved there will be paradise

If only they are elected now, they're promising no cure cancer if only they're elected we might each think

With enough money only you had enough money only the family was cooperative Only the kids would do what they're supposed to do.

The spouse would come around that we could have paradise on earth That's all we need right? But here we see it is so bad.

We have only paradise Lost it's so bad

We were evicted We weren't just kind of politely shown the door the verb there in verse 24, you know drive out they were driven out

Expelled there was some violence. There was some wrath in this eviction. It was forceful and angry

Get out Sinners could not live in God's paradise to ensure that they would not return

God had the entrance sternly guarded Cherubim always protecting the glory of God were posted there as guards a

Flaming sword was with them to kill any human being who tried to enter the lost utopia

Never again, would we be able to enter the paradise we were made for? Until someone is killed

How bad is it? Someone would have to die Before we could enter into Eden through a new and living way that How bad it is?

How bad is it? It's so bad the sons and daughters of Adam are now offspring of the serpent

God told the serpent back at verse 15 remember that he will make enemies God himself will make enemies of The seed of the serpent and the offspring are the seed of the woman.

They'll be in conflict It's so bad there will be an ongoing war between the offspring of Satan and the offspring of Eve on The one side are those who are the offspring of Satan?

Jesus told one group of people that they were sons of Satan He said in John chapter 8 verse 44 you belong to your father

The devil and you want to carry out your father's desire He was a murderer from the beginning and not holding to the truth for there is no truth in him when he lies he speaks his native language for he is a liar and the father of lies and Jesus is saying to these people

He's your father So the offspring of Satan are those who decide they will believe lies instead of the truth

Especially the truth about Jesus. That's exactly what our first parents did in their sin. They believed a lie about God He was just trying to keep them down.

He's trying to oppress them That the way to happiness the fulfillment is some other way that God's way they are sinners and so are the offspring of The serpent that's how bad it is.

That's how bad we are to be a sinner To believe the lie that we can be in the center of the universe.

We can be like God Is to be a child of Satan So then who are these other people or this perhaps this other person

Those opposed to the offspring of the Satan the who's this seed of the woman

We don't that's a very strange phrase and all of the Bible I was always always probably always in the

Bible someone's the see or the offspring of the man This one time someone is a seed offspring of the woman now.

We know just from this chapter that they or he cannot be sinners Offspring of the world because sinners are our hiders and their offspring of the serpent

So this offspring of the woman who will crush Satan's head He's not a sinner

He will never stretch out his hand and take what God said not to take he will not count equality with God a thing to be grasped

But he is born of the woman. So he's a human being He's an offspring of Eve of the woman

But not of Adam How is that possible? But this suggests he won't be born of a man like what would happen in a virgin birth

He's the offspring the seed promise who will triumph. So here it is in Genesis chapter 3 the gospel

The good news that God will deal with the guilt that would sink us down to hell and we don't really want to deal with It we just want to look good

We want to cover up and not be reminded of our sins because we're hiders but God comes seeking us

Anyway, right in the very first chapter in which sin appears the gospel appears immediately the good news

That God will provide a perfect one who will lay aside all but love and bleed for Adams helpless race amazing love

How bad is it It's too bad for us to handle

It takes the one who was God born of a woman letting go of what we tried to grasp rather than stretching out his hands and Grasping for equality with God.

He stretched out his hands and had a spike driven through them Won't you stretch out your hands now?