The below sermon on the fall takes a verse by verse look at Genesis 3. These free inductive notes are intended as supplement to your own study, not a replacement. Feel free to copy, print, or share them. These notes can be helpful for individual study of the Word or for small group Bible studies.
The Fall – Genesis 3 – Sermon Part 2
See part 1 of this inductive study on the fall.
The Excuses – Man’s Justification
9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
· God took the initiative and sought out the sinners and He continues to do so today.
John 6:44
44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,
10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
· Adam’s happiness and contentment was replaced by fear.
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
· God, of course, knew exactly what they had done, so why does He ask Adam if he had eaten the forbidden fruit?
· God gives them and everyone else the opportunity to confess and repent
12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
1. Justify/Blame
So the first response is to rationalize, justify or blame others for our sin. We say it’s not so bad, other people are doing the same thing, no harm has come from it. I’ve got it under control. Another way we defend ourselves is to attack others. We think that if we can tear them down, that somehow we won’t look so bad.
· The sinner uses many methods to avoid taking responsibility for his sin
o At first glance, it seems that Adam is blaming Eve for his sin. He is, in fact, blaming Eve, but it goes deeper than that. If you look at his reply, he is really blaming God for giving him the woman that led him into sin.
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
· Eve plays the blame game too and is unwilling to take responsibility for her actions.
The Consequences – 8. Grief & Despair
14 The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life;
15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
2. Grief & Despair
On the front end, the temptation looks very attractive and exciting, but the attraction is fleeting and soon it gets a hold on us and hopelessness sets in. We have been taken captive by the activity or object that had initially been so appealing. We are ashamed, feel defeated and that there is no way out. Sin is an unmerciful master.
Yes, Satan wants us to feel like there is no way out, that our situation is truly hopeless. But God promises a way out.
16 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.
18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;
19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
20 Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.
Sin is an ugly, destructive thing. It is a downward spiral if it is left unchecked in our life. I’ve got good news though. Even though this is the natural path for sin to take in our life, it is not the inevitable path! God promises that we can have victory over it.
1 Cor 10:13
13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
I’ll give you the references of a couple of other passages for further study that also clearly demonstrate this downward spiral of sin. We won’t have time this morning to go over them, but they are excellent examples for us to learn from.
Jos 7:19-21 – Achan takes some banned items following a great military victory.
The second example is in 2 Sa 11:1-8 – King David takes Bathsheba, the wife of one of his best warriors, and commits adultery with her. When a pregnancy results, David murders Urriah, Bathsheba’s husband to cover up his sin.
Please examine these two passages on your own. Both of them provide keen insight into the downward spiral of sin in our lives
The Grace
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
· God made the covering – contrast this with the covering that man made for himself
· A sacrifice was required
Ps 85:2
2 You forgave the iniquity of Your people; You covered all their sin.
Mic 7:18
18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love.
22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” —
· The “Us” is God referring to Himself and is a clear reference to the Trinity.
23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
· This was God’s compassion to prevent man from eating from the tree of life and remaining in that sinful fallen state forever.
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