Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The Fall (part 2)

The Fall (part 2)

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<< Genesis 3 >>
King James Version


8And 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. 9And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

16Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

20And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Sermon

So we carry on from where we left off. Adam and Eve have both eaten from the tree of the Knowledge of good and Evil, which God had commanded then not to do.

They are now aware that they are naked, and have made themselves clothes out of the fig leaves that they had sown together.

So we shall carry on from where we left off in our last session.

8And 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.

In the cool of the day, would probably be evening when it was starting to get cooler.

Adam and Eve hid from the voice of God. This is proof that they knew what they had done was wrong, they had not done it in ignorance but wilfully. Both the ignorant sinner and the wilful sinner are both guilty, yet the wilful sinner has the greater condemnation.

9And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

The Lord knew exactly where Adam was, for the Lord is all knowing and knows all things. But the Lord called to Adam because He wanted Adam to have a chance to confess his sins before the Lord. And what a mercy if the Lord doesn’t leave us in our sins, but asks us the same question that He asks Adam here, and the Question which He asked Elijah: “what doest thou here Elijah?”.

10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

And here it is; Adam’s confession. He realises that he has sins and realises that it is no use in hiding any longer from the Lord, and so he confesses his sins. What a mercy if we are brought to do likewise!

11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Again The Lord asks a soul searching question. Have you done that which I have told you not to do? Have you disobeyed my commands?

Think back to when the Lord convinced you of your sins. Where there these searching questions? Did the Lord make you feel very low and insignificant? This is really a mercy, because God cannot raise you to glory unless He sink you very low to start with.

12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Ahh, but now Adam’s starting to make excuses. He’s saying something like: God you gave me this woman, she told me to eat this fruit, so really it’s not my problem but yours. God you really should have chosen a better wife for me!

Isn’t it kind of like when we are professing Christians and we really want to do something bad, so to do that wicked thing we try and convince ourselves that we are doing it for God’s sake? For instance, we want to go out partying with our friends, and we try and reason that it must be right because God is the God of providence, so He must have given us these friends for a reason, besides I might even be able to witness to them when I’m drunk and out of my mind!

Although probably you wouldn’t go with the intention to get drunk in the first place. But it’s just so hard to try and run a separate way from the herd, and if your mates are drinking, you figure one drink can’t hurt, then you have another, and before you know it, you look worse than the Devil himself!

13And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

So here God hears what Adam says, and points to the woman and asks, Is this your fault? Will you take the blame?

And Eve answers and says, No it’s not my fault, it’s the snakes fault, he tricked me into eating it, I didn’t even realise I had done anything wrong!

So if you didn’t realise you had done anything wrong, why were you hiding from me?

You see, the only way to deal with sin is by first confessing that you are a sinner. It’s like me, I used to be quite fat, but I didn’t think I was really too bad. But once I realised that it was becoming a problem, and then I could go to the gym, and confess to my personal trainer that I had a problem and I really need to deal with it. Then and only then was I able to lose any fat. You will never be able to deal with your sins until you realise that it is a problem, and then you can come to God to help you!

14And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

So God turns to Satan and curses his incarnate form. And there’s Adam and Eve standing by clapping their hands that justice has been brought upon the one who “tricked” them into eating the fruit. This is great with the Devil gone, everything can go back to how there were before when they could just enjoy life in the Garden of Eden, and not be afraid of ever being tempted again.

If you read the following verses you will notice that Adam and Eve will stop clapping their hands and realise that they too will have similar curses pronounced upon them. God didn’t find the guilty one, He found the guilty ONES!

Before these occurrences, the snake would have had legs and probably look something like a very long lizard.

I’m going to have to stop there for now. If the Lord wills, we shall continue our study in our next session!

The Lord bless His word!

Amen!

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