[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
[0:14] Well, tonight we will be in the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 3. It's an honor to preach to you. I don't know if you guys knew I was preaching tonight, unless you guys wouldn't have been here.
[0:27] But it's an honor. I love being part of this church. I love being able just to pick up right where the pastor left off. And we can continue in the book.
[0:42] Before we can do that, let's hold your position right there. I just want to go to Romans chapter 5 real quick. Romans chapter 5. This is just because Bo, I mean Bo, this is because Ed left me here at 6.12 and I have 48 minutes to preach.
[0:58] And he usually leaves me here at 6.20. So you're going to get a little extra tonight. No charge. But this is something that we've learned in my Sunday school class, the singles, young singles class. In Romans chapter 5.
[1:11] It's pretty heavy stuff that was preached tonight. And it's going to be pretty heavy stuff that's going to, or this morning, it's pretty heavy stuff that's going to preach tonight. But I want to leave you on something today that, I mean, that we could be excited about.
[1:23] In Genesis, or Romans chapter 5, in verse 1, we'll read verse 1 and 2. The Bible says, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[1:37] In verse 2, the Bible says, By whom also we have access, by faith, into this grace wherein we stand, and we rejoice, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
[1:55] Tonight, we're going to learn about the beginning of sin. This morning, we heard about the wrath of God. Can I tell you something just tonight? If you are here and born again, what you have?
[2:06] Just in these two verses. I'll be really quick. I'll be brief. But I always get excited when I think about this. Do you realize that we have peace with God? Do you realize at one time we were enemies of God?
[2:22] Do you realize in Nahum 1, 2, he said that he is a furious God. The Lord will take revenge. The Lord, he will, he reserveth his wrath for his enemies.
[2:34] Do you realize that? And right now, through the offering and the sacrifice and the blood atonement of Jesus Christ, we have peace.
[2:46] And it wasn't anything that we did. It was all what Christ did. At one time, we were enemies. Now we're children. At one time, he would close his ear to us. Now he can say, come cry to me, cry Abba Father.
[2:59] We have peace with God. If you have faith in him. If you have faith, therefore being justified by faith. If you are trusting in Jesus, you have peace with God.
[3:11] And he just doesn't say that you have peace with God. But he also says this in verse 2. And this is what gets me excited. He says, by whom also we have access. Think about this.
[3:21] We're going to talk about Genesis chapter 3. And God prepared for them a garden. And he placed them in the garden. And as soon as they sinned, what happened?
[3:33] They were kicked out of the garden. And God sent a cherub in there. And the relationship with Adam and God was broken. And in Exodus, if we keep on going down the story, we think about Exodus.
[3:47] When Moses was getting the law, he goes on top of Mount Sinai. And the Lord says, make sure no one touches this mountain. And when someone does, I want you to have them killed.
[4:01] And so Moses looks down at the people and he's speaking. He says, we're going to sit up guards. And when God's on this mountain, no one touches it. No one touches it.
[4:13] Think about this. In Hebrews chapter 9, he describes, the Lord describes the tabernacle. And there was two parts. There was one part where priests would come in there daily. And they would do their service daily.
[4:24] But then there was the Holy of Holies. And that was only reserved for one man. You get that? Just one man. And I don't know your background, but I'm not Jewish.
[4:36] I would be considered a Gentile. But that man had to come from the line of the Jewish race. He had to be an Israelite. And not only that, he had to be a certain spot.
[4:47] He had to be out of the tribe. Well, not out of the tribe. But he had to be from the lineage of Aaron. He had to be one of Aaron's sons. And one time a year, one time a year, he was allowed to come in there with blood.
[5:03] Only with blood. And he could come in there. And he could come and he could have access to God just one time to make atonement for the sins. But the Bible says this. Listen up. If you have faith in Jesus Christ, you are justified.
[5:14] And now you have access to him by faith. That should excite you. Something that the majority of history has never had.
[5:25] We have it. And the Bible says that we have access to this grace. And you know what else he says? We can stand in it. We can be established in it. We can come boldly before the throne of grace.
[5:39] And we can ask God whatever we want. And that's all but what Jesus did. That's exciting. I don't know about you. And then at the end of that verse, he says, and you guys can rejoice.
[5:53] Rejoice in what? What are you going to rejoice in? You're going to rejoice in the hope, the expectation of God being glorified.
[6:05] Brother Gardner preached this morning. And he was in Romans chapter 1. And what did those people do? They glorified God not. But you know what children of God do?
[6:16] They rejoice in the fact that God will get glory. We rejoice that one day every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We rejoice that one day we will sing, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.
[6:32] And we will worship Him, and we will glorify Him, and we praise Him. And that's what we rejoice in. We don't rejoice in our circumstances. We rejoice in one day He will get what He deserves. And that all comes by faith in Christ.
[6:47] And that's just something I wanted to talk about. I just thought it was exciting. I thought it was exciting when I talked to my Sunday school class about it. I don't know about you, but I just love it. I just love the thought that we have access to God. I love the thought that I have peace with God.
[6:58] I love the fact that I can rejoice in one day knowing that He will be glorified. Because He is worth it. He is worthy. He is worthy. Before we get to Genesis chapter 3 and read our portion of Scripture, I'd just like to recap what Pastor Gardner said.
[7:17] These past couple sermons that we talked about in Genesis, I think you can sum it up in this one verse. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And we'll take that literally, okay? Let's just sum it up there, okay?
[7:29] But in Genesis chapter 1, God gives the account of His creation. He created the heavens and the earth. And He talks about the trees and the grass and the beast and the fowls and the fishes and man.
[7:42] And at the end of Genesis chapter 1, God says this word. God says this in Genesis chapter 1, verses 31. The Bible says this. And God saw everything that He made.
[7:53] And behold, say these four words with me. It was very good. And the last sermon Brother Gardner preached, and he preached through Genesis chapter 2, he said it was just like a magnifying glass, where we could just look in a little bit further and see what God did, how He created man and what He did with man and how He positioned Adam.
[8:14] But that end of that verse is pretty amazing, that God says that He looked at everything and He says, it's very good. Because if you go to Genesis chapter 4, we see that there is a rivalry between Cain and Abel.
[8:29] And we see that one's brother's sacrifice was accepted in God's sight, and the other one was rejected. And this caused Cain, the one to be rejected, to turn up jealousy in his heart.
[8:42] And one day they were in a field, and Cain rose up against Abel, and he slew him, the Bible said. And in Genesis chapter 4, verses 23, the Bible says that Lamech, one of the descendants from Adam, he killed a man because of vengeance.
[8:55] And in Genesis chapter 6, we see that God was so grieved with the world that He decided to destroy everything with the worldwide flood except Noah and his family.
[9:09] In Genesis chapter 6, verses 5, this is what God says. He says, every imagination of the thoughts of His hearts was only evil continually. In Genesis 11 and 12, the Bible says, and the earth was corrupt before God, and earth was filled with violence.
[9:25] And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth. And God destroys the world. In Genesis chapter 9, after Noah gets off the ark, you guys know the story, he goes out and he makes himself a husband, he makes himself a vineyard, he makes himself a grape thing, and he gets drunk, and he falls asleep there, and what does Ham do?
[9:49] He dishonors his father. And Noah wakes up, and he curses his son. In Genesis chapter 11, man's so wicked, they want to lift their name up, and they want to glorify themselves, that they decide to build a huge tower.
[10:05] And in Genesis chapter 12, we see the story of Abram, when he's in Egypt, and he was so afraid for his life, that he told his wife, he said, act like you're my sister. In Genesis chapter 4, we see the first war.
[10:20] The five kings, and the four kings, and the ones that took Lot, remember, and Abraham had to take his servants. We see the first account of war in the Bible. In Genesis chapter 16, we see an account of adultery.
[10:34] We see Abraham waiting for the promise, and then Sarah taking her handmaid, and Hagar, and saying, lay with her, Abraham, lay with her. And Abraham commits adultery. In Genesis chapter 19, we see a city that's so consumed with sin, that when God tries to rescue the righteous, that the homosexuals try to rape the angels that were trying to save the righteous people, and so God decides to destroy the entire city.
[11:05] Later on in that chapter, we see incest happen. I could tell you of the rapes. I could tell you of the mass killings. I could tell you brothers selling their own brothers into slavery.
[11:18] I could tell you about fornication. I could tell you about the harlotry, and many other things that would make you uncomfortable to sit right here and listen to this stuff. I could tell you story after story after story, and that's just the first book of the Bible, and we got 65 more to go.
[11:36] Evil is everywhere. What in the world happened? I thought the end of Genesis chapter 1, verse 31, God looks and says, it's very good. What happened? What happened that would cause brothers to rise up against brothers and kill each other?
[11:50] What happened that war would come into the thing? What happened that disease would come? What happened that people would dishonor God so much that he would have to destroy it?
[12:02] Genesis 3 happened. Genesis 3 happened. And from that, it affects, the effects that Genesis 3 has made upon, it's made history what it is today.
[12:18] Full of death, hatred, killing, disease, jealousy, fornication, and many other sinful acts. And today, we're going through a series called Origin or the Beginnings, and I'd like to talk to you about the beginning of sin.
[12:31] In Genesis chapter 3, verses 1, the Bible says this, Now the serpent was more subtle than any other beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
[12:44] And he said unto the woman, or Eve, he said, Yea, hath God said, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.
[13:00] But the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, which God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die.
[13:15] For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And then the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that the tree was desired to make one wise, and she took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and she gave also unto her husband with her.
[13:41] And he did eat. And the eyes of them were both opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons, and they heard the voice of the Lord walking, the voice of the Lord of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
[14:01] And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And God, and the Lord God said unto Adam, he said unto him, where art thou, Adam?
[14:14] Adam, where art thou? And this is Adam. He said, he said, I heard thy voice in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked. And God said, who told thee that thou wast naked?
[14:27] Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave of the tree.
[14:39] She gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, what is this thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
[14:54] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as I come to you in prayer, Lord, thank you for what you've made me through faith in your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for the peace that I now have. Thank you for the access I have with you to come boldly to you, God.
[15:08] And today, right now, I ask that you would empower me, Lord God. Help my words to be speaking, be as the oracles of God, as your words, Lord God. Bless me. Please bless our pastor right now as he preaches. Lord God, I ask you to just be honored and glorified in everything we said and do.
[15:22] In Jesus' name, amen. Before we get into this text, I just want to go over some background. I just want to go over the environment that Adam and Eve had before the fall.
[15:34] Because if you were going to college, or you were going to many, I don't know, psychology classes or whatever, many men have come to the conclusions that we are products of our environment.
[15:46] The reason why this person acts that way is because they had a bad upbringing. They had a bad family life. Well, I would just like to, just to show you the environment that Adam and Eve had while they sinned, okay?
[15:58] Just so we can get this in our mind. The first thing I want you to realize is that God, God prepared the garden for Adam himself. In Genesis chapter 2, verses 8, the Bible says this, And the Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put man whom he had formed.
[16:17] And in this garden, Adam had everything he could ever want. You see, God gave him food from the trees. In Genesis chapter 2, verses 9, the Bible says, And out of the ground the Lord God, made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
[16:32] In verse 16, chapter 2, verses 16, the Lord God commanded man saying, Of the tree of the garden, thou mayest eat freely. I'm providing you an environment where you don't have to worry about food.
[16:47] You don't have to worry about going to the grocery. I got it right there on a tree right there for you, and I'm putting you right there, and I'm placing it right there. Not only did God give him food, but God also gave him water. Think about this, the essentials of life, food and water.
[17:00] That's all we need, right? And raiment. Well, they were naked, and they weren't ashamed, so they didn't really need any raiment. But the Bible says, in Genesis chapter 2, verses 10, it says that there was a river that went out of Eden, and a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it parted and became into four heads.
[17:18] You see, God had not only provided food, he provided water, not only he provided water, but God also provided Adam a job. It's amazing how bored we get with life unless we have something to do, but God gave Adam a job, and this is something Brother Gardner hit on last, was it last Thursday?
[17:33] In Genesis chapter 2, verse 15, the Bible says, and the Lord God took the man, and he put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. And not only did God give him a job, but I want you guys to notice this.
[17:46] God looked down on Adam, and he noticed that he was alone. And God cared enough about him. He says, I'm going to prepare you a helpmeet. I'm going to give you somebody that you can have companionship with.
[17:58] I want to give you somebody that you can talk with. I want to give you somebody that you can communicate with. In verse 18 of chapter 2, the Bible says, and the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone.
[18:09] I will make him a helpmeet. God had provided everything in this environment, food, water, a job, a wife, companionship. He provided everything that Adam could possibly need in this environment.
[18:22] And he gave him one commandment. God placed a tree in the garden, and he says, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For when you eat it, you shall surely die.
[18:36] Adam was given everything by God. God gave him everything. Think about this. No worries. No bills. No tax collectors. No bank that has a mortgage on it.
[18:49] God provided everything that Adam needed. Can you imagine with no worries? All he had to do was go out there and pick fruit. All he had to go out there and do is dress the thing.
[19:00] And not only that, dress the garden. Adam was innocent. In Genesis chapter 2, verses 25, they said that they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. No perverted thoughts in his head.
[19:12] There was no shame. He was in a perfect environment. And sin still came. Notice where it came from. The temptation.
[19:23] There was temptation in Genesis chapter 3, verses 1. But before we go there, I want to tell you a biblical truth that hasn't been discussed to this point in the Bible. Can I say this?
[19:34] God did not tempt Adam. It was not God that tempted Adam. Because we know this. Because James chapter 1, verses 13, he says, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God.
[19:45] For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. So it wasn't God that was doing the temptation. It was somebody else. And I want you to notice that tempter. And I want you to notice his tricks.
[19:57] Because the same, we're going to learn in 2 Corinthians, Paul says, the same way Eve was beguiled in the garden, same way it's happening right now. He's trying to take, Satan's trying to take simplicity and he's twisting.
[20:10] Well, let's just listen to this. The scripture makes it clear that the serpent, that the serpent in this story, in Genesis chapter 3, verses 1, it says, Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the field which the Lord God hath made.
[20:24] And he said unto the woman, that serpent, scripture makes it clear that that serpent is Satan. In Revelations chapter 12, verses 9, the Bible says it was a great dragon that was cast out, the old serpent, which is called the devil, and Satan.
[20:38] In Revelations chapter 20, verses 2, he says, and he laid hold on that dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan. And he bound him for a thousand years. Satan's role in this story was he was a deceiver.
[20:53] Can I remind you of the character, characteristic of Satan? Satan is the father of lies. In John chapter 8, verses 44, the Bible says, Are ye, this is Jesus speaking, Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do.
[21:06] He was a murderer from the beginning and he abode not in truth because there was no truth in him. When he speaketh, he speaketh, when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. For he is a liar and the father of it.
[21:20] And I want you to notice his tricks. In this story, we all know this, this is so simple. We know this from, from the time we were in Sunday school. That the serpent came up to Eve and said, Yea, hath God said, thou shalt not eat of the tree?
[21:35] I want you to notice what Satan does. Because the Satan of yesterday is the Satan today. He still does the same tricks. Notice what he did. The first thing that he did was he brought doubt to the word of God.
[21:48] He brought doubt to the word of God. The Bible says that he was a subtle, that the serpent was subtle. That means he was cunning and clever about his deception. I think a lot of times when we think about Satan and the way he works, we think about Hollywood and we think about some vampire, we think about some demon that's coming out and is going to attack us and take our blood or that we need some type of silver cross or we need garlic or we need a steak or whatever we need, we need holy water or something.
[22:16] But no, no, no. Can I tell you when Satan attacks, he attacks clever. He attacks cunning. And he brings doubt to God's word. Notice what he did. He didn't force Eve, but he did cause Eve to doubt what God said.
[22:29] Look in chapter 3, verses 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
[22:46] And in Genesis chapter 3, verses 4, this is what the serpent said unto the woman too. He says, ye shall not surely die. Satan comes into our life Satan came into Eve's life and he simply did this.
[23:02] What God said wasn't true, is it? God said, I know what God said is not true though, right? Isn't that what he does in our lives?
[23:14] Don't we doubt the Bible sometimes? When I find myself breaking communion, fellowship with God, I can never break a relationship.
[23:26] But when I find myself breaking away from God, it usually starts when I start doubting his word. That he loves me, that he cares for me. And that's what he did with Eve. But he didn't only just bring doubt to the word of God, but he also deceived Eve into thinking that God was hoarding out on him.
[23:42] That God was hoarding out on them. In Genesis chapter 3 verses 5, this is what Satan says, For God doth know in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
[24:01] Satan came up to Eve and can I remind you of the environment that they were in? God had provided everything for them. Anything they needed. Adam, you don't need to be alone.
[24:11] I'm going to provide you a help me. Adam, you need food? I got you a garden. Adam, you don't need to go out and take buckets out to the ocean and bring it back. I provided a river through the garden.
[24:22] Adam, I gave you everything you needed. And Satan comes along and he says, Don't you think God's holding out on you? Because the day you eat that tree, you're going to be just like God.
[24:33] God's holding out on you. Isn't that how Satan works with us today? This is like spiritual battle 101. He brings doubt to his word.
[24:46] Man, God doesn't really mean that. Is there really a heaven? Come on. Can we really rejoice in tribulation when we go through junk in our life? Can we really rejoice in tribulation?
[24:58] That's not true. Is he really going to come back someday? I don't think so. He makes us doubt God's word. Not only does he make us doubt God's word, but he makes us think that God's withholding something from us.
[25:12] And that wasn't true in that situation. God gave everything Adam would ever need, and then some. And he caused doubt, and he caused Eve to think that God was withholding him.
[25:29] Satan made the temptation sound wonderful by making an offer unto her, You will be like God's. The tricks haven't changed, folks.
[25:40] The way Satan dealt with Eve is the same way he was dealing with the church in the New Testament, and it's the same way he deals with you. In 2 Corinthians 11, verses 3, the Bible says this, But I fear, lest by any means, that as the serpent beguiled Eve through subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity of Christ.
[26:02] The same way that Satan tricked and deceived Eve, it's the same way he tricked and deceived the New Testament church, and it's the same way that he tricks and deceives you, caused doubt on God's word, caused doubt that God loves you.
[26:16] How do we face these temptations? Well, this is one thing and it's truth. As long as your minds holds to God's truth, Satan cannot win.
[26:30] But once your mind or once you start thinking and you start doubting God's word, then that leaves room for Satan to come in with his lies and move in. Satan questioned God's word in verse 1.
[26:43] He denied God's word in verse 4, and then he substituted with his own lies in verse 5. Hold on to the truth.
[26:54] Hold on to the truth. Hold on to the truth. That's why pastors spent four messages on Genesis 1 and 2 saying this is the word of God. This is the word of God. This is the word of God. This is the word of God.
[27:04] This is the word of God. Because as soon as you start doubting it, lies will come in and take its place. But not only do you doubt the word, but what else should we do when temptation comes like that?
[27:17] When we question God's goodness and doubt his love, know this, you are playing right into the hands of Satan. You get that? When you question God's goodness and you doubt his love.
[27:32] I know tons of you guys have probably been through a lot of junk. And it's human. I'll never forget the day that it was before I moved down here. And I was just a young 20 year old punk kid.
[27:46] And I was out there walking down this dirt road and I said, God, why don't you speak to me like you speak to Abraham? Why don't you speak to me like you speak to Jacob? Why don't you, why don't you love me like you love them?
[27:59] And I was a fool for saying that. I was given doubt to God's goodness and his love. He has spoke to me. He spoke in 66 books and he preserved it.
[28:13] Note that Satan seeks to undermine our faith and undermine our faith in the goodness of God. He suggested to Eve that God was holding out on them by keeping them from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
[28:27] But not only was there a temptation, but from that temptation they're led into a transgression. They're led into sin. I want you to notice the progression as Eve took the fruit and ate it.
[28:39] Notice it. In verse 6, the Bible says, and when the woman saw the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and the tree to be desired to make one wise, she took the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also to her husband with her and he did eat.
[29:01] We see in verse 6 a tragic operation of what 1 John warns us in chapter 2 verses 15 through 17. We see the lust of the flesh. It was good for food.
[29:13] Then we see the lust of the eyes. It was pleasant to the eyes. And then we see the pride of life desired to make one wise. We see that progression.
[29:25] That's what all sin starts with. But after she ate the fruit, what did she do? She gave it to her husband. Isn't it hard for us in sin to do it alone?
[29:38] Don't we need somebody else to help accomplish us? It's difficult to sit alone. Something in us wants to make us share the sin with others. And we see that when she took the fruit thereof and ate and gave to her husband and he did it.
[29:52] But I want you to notice something from the Bible that when Eve took that fruit she was deceived. But Adam he was not deceived.
[30:04] He disobeyed knowing what it was going to cost. How do I know that? 1 Timothy 2 verses 14 the Bible says this And Adam was not deceived.
[30:19] Think about this. Adam loved Eve more than he loved God. Adam loved the creation more than he loved the creator.
[30:33] Adam deliberately sinned and plunged the world into judgment. Don't say that Satan caused you to do it.
[30:50] He might have tempted you but you made a decision to do it. You made a decision Adam to reject God's word. Adam you made a decision to not trust in God's word.
[31:03] Adam you made a decision to choose the creation over the creator. And after they both ate immediately immediately there came a loss of innocence and a sense of guilt came on them.
[31:21] At the end of Genesis chapter 2 in verse 25 or yeah 2 in verse 25 the Bible says that they were both naked the man and his wife and they were not ashamed.
[31:35] And in Genesis chapter 3 verses 7 after they both ate it the Bible says this and the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked. They lost their innocence and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
[31:52] They tried to cover up their mistake with their own works. Garments that Lord willing Thursday that God wouldn't accept.
[32:06] But it was not only the guilt that was brought with sin but notice what they did after they sinned. What happens? They sinned. Oh junk we get in a mess. What do you do when you get in a mess?
[32:19] I don't know about you but I want to go back to the person that helps me fix it right? But what did they do? As soon as they heard God's voice what did they do? They ran they hid themselves.
[32:33] Don't you know that darkness doesn't like light? That darkness runs from light? That darkness runs from light? In Genesis chapter 3 verses 8 and they heard the voice of the Lord walking through the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of God amongst the trees in the garden.
[32:57] Darkness does not seek after light but rather it hides from the light. In this portion of scripture we see a loss of a desire for fellowship with God when they heard his voice approaching.
[33:10] They hid. Guilt, fear, and shame broke the fellowship with God that they had enjoyed once before but now because of their disobedience it was broken.
[33:21] they were ashamed. They lost their innocence. I just want to let you know that light and darkness it doesn't mix and at the end of this story God's going to kick them out.
[33:35] At the end of this story God's going to say curse, punishment, punishment is coming on everyone. At the end of this story we're going to see that woman is cursed and she's given something that she has to bear throughout all history.
[33:52] She's going to have to have children and have labor pains and man's going to have to break sweat and he's going to have to work and the earth is going to be cursed and it's going to be caused forth to bring up briars and thorns and even to this day the earth groans.
[34:08] It groans with labor pains like Lord come back redeem us we're under this curse get back do something. and it was all because of the sin. It was all because man thought that they knew better than what God was saying.
[34:25] It was all because man didn't take God at his word and obey it. It was all because man thought that God was withholding on them.
[34:38] In conclusion to this I just want to say something in Genesis chapter 5 verses 12 the Bible says this wherefore as one man as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for all that have sinned for that all have sinned.
[34:57] That means if you're here today and you were born and you have a mother and you have a father that you're a sinner. It means that you will die one day.
[35:11] It means that you will see that punishment come to fruition. It means that your father is Adam and you will die. But can I say something?
[35:25] In that story when God came down to the garden he knew what already happened. He knew what already I mean he's omniscient. He knows everything.
[35:36] He knew that Adam and Adam and Eve sinned. But when he came down he wasn't condemning. He asked a question. Where are you at? Did you break my law?
[35:50] At the end of it he ends up killing an innocent being and clothing them. We serve a merciful God. In my devotions this morning I was reading through Judges.
[36:04] And if you know anything about Judges is simply this. God has this group of people called the Israelites and as long as they have a man of God in their life they're serving God and they're obeying him.
[36:18] But as soon as that guy dies they go and they go serving and worshipping other false gods. And so God has to bring in some oppressor some guy that comes in or some kingdom comes in and they swoop in and they capture Israel and they oppress him and they enslave him to the point that Israel is like okay we can't take it God we give we give please deliver us and God raises up another man and he comes in and he delivers Israel and this whole circle starts again.
[36:48] And in my devotions Israel cries out to God and said God save us and God says this he says why don't you cry out your own gods why don't you start praying to them why don't you start seeing if they hear your cries and they said you're right God we deserve whatever you give us we deserve it but we're asking you would you please deliver us would you please deliver us but you're right to do whatever you do and they went out and they said we're going to take all our idols and we're going to throw them away and we're going to start serving God and they start doing that and you know what happens to God in my devotions what happened this morning it said the heart of God was grieved because he saw down and he saw his people and he said I got to do something and he delivers them you know what happens in Genesis chapter 3 God looks down and he says man's messed up I got to deliver them and so because me and you were both all born into Adam and we have this curse and we have this punishment that's going to come upon us and it's progressively getting worse and we got this line we needed somebody to break through this line and we needed another father and about 2,000 years ago that happened when the
[38:13] Virgin Mary not born of any man but Jesus Christ came from the Virgin Mary broke through that line and now offers us another father by faith and delivers us from sin punishment and that curse that's coming so tonight the question is are you trusting in that and if you are trusting in it can I say that this is a simple story but Satan's tricks are still the same Satan's tricks are still the same as long as you hold God's truth hold to God's truth Satan cannot win but as soon as your mind starts doubting Satan's lies will come in don't doubt God's word don't doubt God's word don't doubt
[39:14] God's word that's what Adam and Eve did and look what happened to them and never question Christian never question God's goodness nor his love because when we do that we're playing right into his hand of Satan Christian tonight it's simple trust in God's word realize he loves you and he cares for you he's going to take care of you lost person trust in Jesus he's the only one he's the only one that can save you let's pray heavenly father as we come to you in prayer Lord thank you for this passage of scripture Lord thank you for what you've done on the cross Lord we I am truly sorry for why I failed you but Lord help me not to doubt your word Lord help me to trust and believe that you are good and you are merciful and you care about me and help me never to doubt that and Lord if there's somebody here tonight that's never trusted in you
[40:21] Lord God please let them get this right in Jesus name Amen this message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred Georgia for more information log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times location contact information and more audio and video recordings