Sermons

The Gospel According To Genesis 3 (Genesis 3:1-24, Romans 5:15-17)

Mr. Jeremiah Mooney, January 20, 2019
Part of the Morning Worship at North Greenville Church series, preached at a Sunday Morning service

The philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote that if you accept the truth of the Fall and original sin, then the entire redemptive history and prophecy of the Bible makes perfect sense. The fruits of original sin are easy to see around us and in our own lives. We make New Year’s resolutions to do better, and we always fail. We kid ourselves that we are really pretty good, and much better certainly than the average man. We can be always improving. Yet, down deep, we know we are born, not taught, sinners and rebels against God. To the natural man, original sin offends reason and our own pride. If we are honest, we are not naturally good, and we need saving. The Fall is bad news for us, but there is also good news connected to it. Within the curse is the good news of deliverance through a Messiah to come. There are three parts to the Fall narrative in Genesis 3: the lie, the curse and the promise. Man’s original condition was one of unique blessing. Man as created, male and female, bore God’s image; His knowledge, righteousness and holiness. Mankind lived in a garden paradise, with authority and dominion over God’s creation. The serpent lied; he assassinated the character of God, portraying Him as cruel and not good. There were at least two lies in his deception, and he even tricked Eve into adding to God’s commands. The Fall began a rapid descent of actions for mankind. In Adam, all of his descendants sin and rebel against God. Our affections are toward some kind of idol, and we remain in bondage to that idolatry. The natural man has left his King and denies His glory and goodness. The idolatrous lies we believe over-promise and under-deliver and leave us ever worse than before.
The curse opens us up to shame, guilt and bad conscience, pain, toil and frustration, and finally to death. The good news proclaimed in Genesis 3 is that the woman’s seed will crush the serpent, bringing an end to the curse. The Apostle Paul tells us that this Messiah to come, this ultimate seed of the woman, is the second Adam, who will defeat the lies of Satan. Remember Jesus answering the deception of Satan in the wilderness quoting the words of Scripture. Isaiah prophesies that this Messiah will be bruised for us. We must give thanks for this promise, and put our own sin to death in Christ. Freedom from sin and death comes by grace, making us able to trust in Christ as Lord and Savior. God didn’t give Adam and Eve a list of things to do to regain paradise with Him. He killed an animal and made a covering for them. This blood sacrifice pictures the final Atonement in Christ. Thanks be to God.

Tags: Atonement, Covenant, Faith, Original Sin, Promise, Trust

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Genesis 3 (Listen)

3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 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 not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

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?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 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.”

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 dust you shall eat
    all the days of your life.
15   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.”

16 To the woman he said,

  “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children.
  Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
    but he shall rule over you.”

17 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 it all the days of your life;
18   thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19   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.”

20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 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.

(ESV)

Romans 5:15–17 (Listen)

15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

(ESV)

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