Well, good morning, everyone.
It'd be great if you could keep your Bibles open there.
I'm actually going to be going through to verse 9 this morning,
so you'll need it in front of you when I look at that.
But also the St. Paul's app has got an outline.
Four points this morning, and that's our journey
as we continue on into Genesis.
This is, if you're new with us today,
we are looking at the beginning of all things.
It's just a framework, the foundation of the Christian faith,
and in particularly, not just the beginning of creation,
but the beginning of our knowledge of God.
Genesis fundamentally is about who God is,
and they're from that how we come to understand ourselves.
So let me pray as we launch in.
Gracious God, we are grateful for what we have been engaging with
in your word.
In a world that looks at all the details around us
and causes elements of anxiety to arise in us
with a great deal of uncertainty about the future
of the world in which we live,
there are so many things that trouble us.
You're a God who exists outside of your creation.
You never had a beginning.
You never had an end.
You're everlasting to everlasting.
You are God, and you're a God who sovereignly rules
and ordains and controls all things,
even if we don't understand it.
Help us to lean into you,
the majestic, beautiful, good God.
And so today, as we open this word,
change our hearts and our minds,
help us to see the issues that are fundamental
in each one of our lives,
but help us to see you a good and a great God as well
and how you've resolved those issues for us.
For those of us who have taken this journey,
been following you for many years,
we come to texts like this
knowing how it all plays out.
Lord, break through that rut now
so that we might see you in newer ways,
in clearer ways, in majestic ways.
Amen.
On the 21st of April, 1970,
Leonard Casey, a Western Australian farmer,
withdrew from Australia and set up his own micronation.
His 75 square kilometre farm,
517 kilometres north of Perth,
became known as Hutt River Province.
He withdrew from Australia
because of an ongoing dispute about wheat production,
particularly with the Western Australian government
about wheat production.
So Leonard Casey became known as His Majesty,
Prince Leonard I of Hutt,
and then granted royal titles
to the rest of his farming family.
It produced, over time,
it produced its own currency,
its stamps and its passport,
none of which was recognised
by any government in the world.
In fact, someone was arrested in Germany
in the 1980s
using a Hutt River Province passport
for entry into Germany.
Now, what followed for Leonard, Leo,
was years and years of legal disputes
until, on the 2nd of December, 1977,
Casey had had enough
and he declared war on Australia.
Baffling, really.
But he notified the authorities of Australia
three days later
that he was ceasing hostilities against Australia.
He withdrew his declaration of war
because, frankly, no one turned up.
And so he moved on.
In 2017, after 45 years,
sitting on his self-styled throne,
Prince Leonard stepped down as ruler.
His youngest son, Graham,
took the throne as the new ruler,
inherited Hutt River Province,
as well as his dad's $2.5 million of debt
to the Australian Taxation Office.
On the 3rd of August, 2020,
the Principality of Hutt River Province
was formally dissolved.
The Principality's land was sold off
in 2021 to settle an ongoing legal debt
of more than $2.7 million.
So Hutt River Province was this...
It, in fact, became quite a popular tourist attraction
mainly because they wanted to visit the nutjob who did this.
And so it was a spurious attempt by Leonard Casey
to evade laws and responsibilities
that he did not agree with,
primarily with the Australian government
but ultimately with the federal government.
From the moment he declared independence,
his life started to decline.
Ongoing legal battles,
mounting debts, conflicts.
And now Hutt River Province
doesn't even exist.
Doesn't even exist.
The core problem that saw the creation
of Hutt River Province,
the core problem for Leonard Casey
and the core problem for you and me
and all the humanity
finds its origin in what was just read out to us by Anne
in Genesis chapter 3.
The issues of our world
are very obvious.
I don't need to unpack that for you at all.
I mean, open the newspaper, turn on the TV
or just spend a quiet half an hour or so
with your own heart and mind.
Every worldview has to account for the world
in which we live in some way.
And this is the Christian account.
This is a Christian account.
Does it fit with our experience of the world?
So, if you've got the St. Paul's app,
you'll see four points there.
The first point is the mock.
Genesis 3 starts with a mock,
hidden as a question.
Verse 1,
So here, the rest of the Bible tells us
what we have here is we have Satan
speaking through the serpent.
Now, we've got probably a heap of bunch of questions
about that.
But this text is primarily about us
and how we got to be the way we are.
The fall of the human race
does not start with an action.
It starts with an attitude.
It starts with a desire.
It starts with a scoff.
It starts with a mock.
It starts with a roll of the eyes.
The key to understanding what this verse is about
is the word really.
It's a word that in actual fact
is translated as indeed.
Did God indeed say?
The serpent is not so much denying
what God has said,
he's in fact rolling his eyes
at what God has said.
He's mocking what God has said.
He isn't saying God didn't say it.
He's saying,
I can't believe God said that.
It's a joke.
Surely God did not really say that.
It's a statement.
It's not a question.
Come on, Eve.
Come on.
Get with the times, Eve.
This is the year one.
I mean, get with the modern times.
Surely you don't believe that stuff anymore.
He's trying to change, ultimately,
Adam and Eve's attitude towards God's word.
The fall of the human race
starts with an attitude of the heart.
This happens more often than not in our modern world.
Very rarely does anyone lose God
through an argument.
They lose him through an attitude
or through an atmosphere.
An atmosphere.
When the consistent voice of culture across every platform says that
Christianity is not reasonable,
it's not relevant for a modern era or even dangerous,
then there's an atmosphere that we breathe each day.
It's subtle.
Very rarely do you ever engage with a full frontal attack
on the Christian faith in terms of its logic.
What we're confronted with consistently
from children's TV through to comedians and in the media
and is the mock, the joke, the pithy one-liners
that seem reasonable but actually make no sense at all
if you spend time unpacking them.
And it is overwhelming the atmosphere that we breathe.
For every argument against the Christian faith,
there would have to be more than 99 mocks, scoffs, sneers.
None of those 99 mocks and sneers and scoffs
are themselves an argument in any way whatsoever.
However, they're not rational in any way whatsoever.
A mock is a mere assertion trying to create
an atmosphere of doubt and defence.
It is not an argument in itself.
They need to give an argument as to why they think
the Christian faith is not reasonable, relevant and good
and very rarely do you ever hear it.
Even the great secular debaters of this era,
very rarely will any of them endure an entire debate
without getting personal, without scoffing in some way,
without taking, ridiculing their opponent,
their Christian opponent in some way.
Be careful, Christian, not to fight fire with fire
and use the same techniques back.
Now, we're not told here how long Adam and Eve deliberated
after being targeted by the serpent.
But surely the atmosphere was created.
They were torn.
They were confused.
They were disorientated.
I wonder when the mocking of the serpent started to prompt in them
quiet whispers of worthlessness,
of alienation, of questioning, of confusion,
of disorientation, of purposelessness.
I wonder how long it took for fear and desperation
to start setting in.
It started with just a mock.
Just a mock.
Then comes the lie.
What follows the attitude of the heart is a lie for the mind.
Chapter 3, verse 2.
The woman said to the serpent,
We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree
that is in the middle of the garden,
and you must not touch it or you will die.
And then here comes the lie, verse 4.
You will not certainly die,
for God knows that when you eat from it,
your eyes will be opened.
You see, the serpent's message here,
the undercurrent of the message is,
if you will obey God,
it will truly ruin your life.
He doesn't want you to eat of the tree
because it will open up for you
a whole new avenue of looking at the world,
whole new opportunities for you.
Satan is trying to get into Adam and Eve's mind and heart
and our mind and heart
that if you obey God,
you will ruin your life.
You will miss out on life.
If you obey God, you will not be happy.
If you obey God, you'll be held back.
You will not realise yourself.
You will be oppressed.
You will be miserable.
You see, Satan knows just how to destroy.
Notice in the arguments here,
notice he does not start with,
get a platform up,
let's have a debate about the existence of God.
That's not where he's starting at all.
Doesn't start with the existence of God.
It's pretty obvious.
I mean, they actually were walking with him yesterday.
He doesn't go after the word of God,
the will of God,
the perfection of God.
What he goes after is the goodness of God.
The very first lie is about the goodness of God.
And the love and the grace and the goodwill behind
every single one of the commands of God.
He is getting them here to doubt God's goodwill.
He is getting them to distrust God.
And that lie went in deep.
Adam and Eve were targeted.
They were deceived.
They were gaslit.
And they were harmed.
And in targeting God's goodness,
the serpent also targeted their own glory
as bearers of the image of God.
didn't just attack God from outside.
He attacked them from the inside.
And that lie of the serpent is deep
in the heart of every human being.
It's a lie that causes us to question
the goodness of God.
And his goodness
behind every single one of his commands.
You see,
this gets worked out in various ways for us.
The religious moralist lives a life
of legalistic restraint
in order to earn salvation
through their upright life and good deeds.
Ultimately, they do not trust
the grace and the goodness of God
to do it for them.
The religious moralist
does not trust
in the goodness of God.
The rebel liberalist
pursues a life of free abandon
because they do not trust
the goodness
and the grace of God
and that following him
is in fact the best life.
Totally different ways
to respond
to the exact same lie.
The lie that God is not good.
That he's holding out on you.
That he wants to
ruin your life.
And humanity's life
has been ruined
by embracing the lie.
Going to impact next week
more of how we see that
in every sphere of life.
So that brings us to...
First, there's an attitude of the heart.
Then there's a life of the mind.
And this leads to the tree
and the act of the will.
Have a look at verse 6.
When the woman saw
that the fruit of the tree
was good for food
and pleasing to the eye
and also desirable
for gaining wisdom,
she took some
and ate it.
She also gave some
to her husband
who was with her
and he ate it.
I'm not unpacking this
but just in the last week
I've been reflecting
what...
what was happening
in the heart,
the emotions
of both Adam and Eve
that they would look at that tree
and they would want that more
than the God
that they walked with day by day.
How destroyed internally were they
to actually reach out
and grab at that point?
Just the thought
that I'm reflecting on.
They're in paradise.
It's perfect.
They can do anything
except eat from the tree,
this particular tree.
So what's the big deal
about the tree
and what kind of fruit was it?
You know,
as you're walking through
Harris Farm.
Hmm.
You know,
it could be a choco.
My experience is
it probably was a choco
if you've ever eaten
one of those things.
But the point here is,
I say that as a joke,
don't take that as a note
by the way.
There's no Hebrew translation
of choco here at all.
Let me just...
What's the big deal
about the tree?
What's so bad
about the fruit?
What if God
had given Adam and Eve
an explanation
so he knew
which fruit not to order
on Woolworths
or Coles?
If he had some...
What if God
had said to them...
What if God
had said to them
that if you
from this tree...
If you eat
from this tree,
you'll be suffering
hardship
and broken
relationships
and disease
for the rest
of human history?
What if he had said that?
What if he had said
that if you do eat
for the tree,
your life in every sphere
will be ruined?
They might have
walked away.
They might have
walked away.
Here's a taste for you.
Let me just show you.
They might have
walked away.
The reason why God
didn't give them
an explanation
is absolutely crucial
to why this command
is so important.
The reason why
we know nothing
about what is
significant about
this tree
or what kind
Fruto is,
it helps us
understand why
this command
is so significant.
If he had
given them
an explanation
and they
walked away,
they'd be
walking away
because it would
be cost-benefit
analysis.
That's the reason
they'd walk away.
It's not worth
my time.
It's not worth
my future.
It's not worth
ruining my life
to eat of this
tree.
That's not
obedience.
That's religion.
It's cost-benefit
analysis.
And that would be
they would not
eat of the tree
out of self-interest.
And they would
still be in the
driver's seat
of their life.
God wanted
Adam and Eve
to live as if
he was God.
They were made
in his image.
They'd been given
the gift of life
was spoilt.
And I use that
term in a positive
way, spoilt with
the abundance of
Eden.
And he wanted
them to live by
his power and
under his
authority.
Their lives,
the world that
they inhabited,
was all a
gift.
None of it was
a possession for
them to do as
they pleased.
And so God
simply said,
do not eat
of the tree.
That one.
Don't eat of that
one.
And with that
command,
they can
choose to
live with
God as
God or
themselves as
God.
It's just as
simple as that.
The serpent
knows this
because he
suggests that
they take the
tree and you
will be like
God.
It is so
essential that
we look beyond
the rules like
the Ten
Commandments and
others that we
see and see
that there is a
key reason for
every single
one of them.
And the key
is this.
God is God
and you are
not.
Do not put
yourself in the
place of God.
Obey him
simply because
he is God.
God.
Every single
thing that is
wrong with us
in this world
is linked to
the root issue
of putting
ourselves in
the place of
God.
Now that's
pretty obvious
the big stuff
like murder.
It's me playing
God over another
human being.
It's me taking
a life.
But what about
all the other
things?
What about
anxiety?
Some of us
are eaten up
by worry in
life.
Why?
For me
personally
that is
I have an
idea of
how my
relationship
should go.
I have an
idea of
how church
should go.
How my
health should
go.
How my
plans should
go.
And there
are times
I'm not
fully confident
that the
sovereign God
who brought
everything into
being is
over it all.
Because the
lie runs deep
in my heart.
God you
know if
you're good
I think you
do it this
way not
that way.
I put myself
in the place
of God.
Mistrust
puts me in
the place of
God.
What about
grudges?
If you don't
forgive someone
it's because you
are taking God's
place again.
We think we
know what a
person deserves.
We think we
have the right
to ensure that
they get what
they deserve.
That's me on
the throne of
my life
again.
How is it
possible that I
could ever
know the
depths of
another person's
mind and
heart when I
don't even
know my
own?
All of our
problems stem
from us taking
God's place.
And this
fundamentally is
just choosing to
obey or not.
choosing to
obey God or
not on the
basis of
whether I
think it
makes sense
or not.
William W.
Borden was
the heir of a
wealthy Chicago
family.
I've mentioned
him, this
guy, in the
past.
In 1904 and
1905 at the
age of 16 he
travelled the
world.
And this
was followed
by a brilliant
career at Yale
and then Princeton
Seminary where
he committed his
life to seeking
to win
Muslims in
China to
Jesus.
In 1903,
sorry, 1913,
sorry, at the
age of 25 he
left for Egypt
and he never
looked back.
Before he
left, Borden
gave away
$800,000
in his
day, which
is equivalent
to over $20
million today.
That was his
own portion
that he'd
accumulated in
the vast
family wealth.
He gave it
away to
charitable
missions
everywhere
and he
went to
Egypt.
He did
not know
at that
point, at
the age of
25, it
was the
final year
of his
life.
In
Cairo, he
contracted
cerebral
meningitis
and died.
His mother
was on her
way to
Cairo to
have a
holiday with
him, but
instead she
arrived just
in time to
bury him.
It is
said that
she found
his Bible
as she
cleaned up
his things
and in
his Bible
were the
words,
no reserve,
written,
no reserve.
And the
date he
wrote it,
it suggests
that he's
been written
shortly after
he renounced
his fortune
and gave
it away to
missions.
Later, he
was said to
have written,
no retreat.
retreat.
And the
date of
that no
retreat was
after his
father told
him that he
would never
hold a
position in
the family
business from
here on
in.
And finally,
shortly before
he died in
Egypt, and
it's believed
to be the
last words he
ever wrote,
no regrets.
No regrets.
Why did he
not write,
what are you
doing, God?
I mean,
can't you see
everything I've
done for you?
Here I am in
Egypt looking
to go into
the mission
field to
extend your
kingdom.
What are you
doing after
everything I've
done for you?
Why did he
not write
that?
It's because
he didn't
obey God
for reputation.
He did not
obey God
for results.
He did not
obey God
for impact.
He obeyed
God because
God is
God.
And he
wasn't.
At least
in this
instance,
Borden
disbelieved
the lie
that you
cannot trust
God.
Let me
say as a
side point,
he ended
up inspiring
thousands of
people to
become
missionaries
in the
generations
that followed.
He never
knew that
on his
deathbed.
Through
his death,
he's had
significant
impact in
the lives
of thousands,
if not
millions.
So Adam
and Eve
took the
fruit,
setting
course of
human history
a distrust
of God.
So friends,
hear this.
what your
and mine,
what our
hearts
desire,
the mind
justifies
and our
will's
action.
In the
final verses
of this
section,
we see the
rest of
humanity
and human
history in
summary form.
Verses
eight and
nine.
Then the
man and
his wife
heard the
sound of
the Lord
God as
he was
walking in
the garden
in the
cool of
the day,
and they
hid from
the Lord
among the
trees of
the garden.
But the
Lord God,
called out
to the
man,
where are
you?
There's a
couple of
things I
want to
point out
here.
The first
thing is
Adam and
Eve went
into hiding
the moment
they rejected
God.
They went
into hiding.
The consequence
of not
trusting in
the goodness
of God
is we
hide.
And I'm
going to
unpack this
a little bit
more next
week.
We hide
from our
true selves.
We can't
stand an
honest review
of ourselves.
If it
wasn't for
verse eight,
therapy in
our world
would not
exist.
We need
therapy because
we're constantly
hiding from
ourselves.
Most
significantly
though here
is we
hide from
God.
In the
presence of
God,
we cannot
hide who
we truly
are.
And so
we must
hide.
It's not
just hiding
from consequences,
it's hiding
from ourselves
and God
reveals who
we truly
are.
We hide
from our
true selves,
we hide
from God
and we
hide from
others.
The second
thing to
notice and
the most
remarkable
thing is
that while
we are
running and
hiding,
God is
searching.
He's calling
out to
us.
It is our
nature to
hide from
God and
God's
nature is
to seek
us.
God calls
it out.
Where are
you?
Is God
like literally
right,
but can't
find Adam
and Eve?
Where are
they?
You know,
we're playing
hide and
seek.
How is it
possible that
an all-knowing,
sovereign,
omniscient God
who knows
every blade of
grass that
grows and
every bird,
how does he
not know
where they
are?
Of course
he knows
where they
are.
He's
pursuing them
is what
he's doing.
He's telling
Adam and
Eve, I'm
coming for
you.
I'm here
still.
he's
calling out
to them.
He's
engaging
them.
He's
reconnecting
with them.
He's
pursuing
them.
What we
need to
realize is
that if
we ever
find God,
in fact,
one of the
first things
you discover
is that
it's because
he was
becoming
after me.
He had
already
found me.
He found
me first.
And we
see this
in the
Bible from
beginning to
end.
He is
so, so
good.
Despite
our
rejection
of him,
he comes
after us.
And we
see the
ultimate
expression of
God coming
after us,
reconnecting
with us,
pursuing us,
engaging with
us, is
when God
the Son
himself took
on human
flesh and
descended into
our world to
come after
us.
We're going
to see this
in the coming
weeks, but
ultimately it
is Jesus
Christ who
stomps on
the head
of the
serpent and
crushes the
lie, gets
rid of the
mock.
He is the
one who
defeats the
serpent.
So reading
back into
these verses,
we see how
Jesus turns
it all around.
in the
Garden of
Eden, the
serpent lured
Adam and
Eve to
ignore the
command of
God about
the tree.
Centuries
later, Jesus
is in the
Garden of
Gethsemane
struggling with
the command of
God about
another tree,
a wooden
cross, a
cross cut
from a
tree.
Adam and
Eve were
told not to
take of the
tree.
Jesus is
commanded here
to embrace
the tree.
Get nailed
to the
tree.
Adam and
Eve ignored
the command
in the
hope of a
blessed life
but instead
got cursed.
Jesus Christ
obeyed the
command knowing
that he would
receive our
curse for
ignoring God's
command about
the tree.
The curse of
separation from
God so that
we could receive
the blessing of
being brought
back into
relationship with
God.
Adam and
Eve were in a
beautiful
garden and
God said,
if you
obey me
about the
tree, you
would live
and live
but they
didn't.
Jesus is in
the darkness
of the
garden and
his father
said to him,
if you
obey me
about the
tree, you
will die.
You will
die.
You will be
crushed.
You will be
cursed.
and he
did.
He did.
He obeyed
and he
obeyed for
you and
for me
who deserve
to be
crushed,
who deserve
to be
destroyed,
who deserve
to be
cursed.
He embraced
the tree
of death
and turned
it into a
tree of
life for
us.
Jesus is
the one who
reverses the
sin of the
tree.
The sin
of us
where only
God deserves
to be.
That's the
Christian
gospel.
That's the
core of
the Christian
faith.
The tree
of salvation
is God
putting himself
where only
we deserve
to be
on a cross
of condemnation
and curse.
So when
Jesus obeyed
the father
about the
tree,
he also
crushed the
lie of
Satan.
He crushed
the lie
that we
cannot trust
God.
You want
to look
at the
goodness
of God?
See him
hanging on
a cross
for you.
No more
evidence is
required than
that.
The only
way to
overcome
the lie
that God
is not
trustworthy
is to
see this
God
descending
into his
world,
climbing the
tree of
death and
turning that
into a
tree of
life for
us.
It's the
only way
to overcome
the lie.
this is
the only
thing that
will day
by day
take the
poison of
the lie
out of
our hearts,
out of
our minds
and our
attitudes that
God is not
good and
that trusting
in him is
unreasonable
and it's
irrelevant for
our day
or that God
is not
good.
Jesus on
the cross
deals with
the mock,
the lie
and the
lie about
the tree.
Amen.