The Consequences of Rebellion and God's Grace

We started a study in a small group this morning about atonement. It means how is it that God brings together people who have been alienated or separated from him. And in the cover of it, it talks about the thread of atonement. And in the lesson, it talks about the scarlet-red ribbon or thread of atonement or the red thread of atonement throughout the Bible and starts with this passage. Well, when I looked at the text and what they're talking about, I didn't feel like that's really the direction I wanted to go with that text because I'm not sure that the idea of the blood sacrifice in the passage we had today was really a point that God wanted to make. The idea that he killed an animal and covered them with skins and the animal was a sacrifice is sort of read into that passage. It really doesn't mention blood in the passage at all. It doesn't indicate that there was a sacrifice made at all at that point. And Adam and Eve doesn't seem particularly repentant. And usually the sacrifice for a person's sin is given by the person who's been the sinner. In the Old Testament, you made a sacrifice, you put your hand on the animal, the animal was killed as a symbol of your own death. I think none of that's really present here in this situation. But what is found here is the reason why atonement is needed. There's a big disaster that takes place in this story, a disaster that all of us participate in. There's not any one way if he can be free from this. It's a story of Adam and Eve, but it's really the story of everybody who's ever lived in this world. The pattern of their life is a pattern that happens to all of us. God took them, put them in place, he'd prepared for them, gave them directions as to what they ought to do, and then disaster ensued. Beginning in chapter three, verse one of the book of Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve in the garden is told a story that's historical in terms of the people who are involved in it. And a story that's historical in the sense that you also participate in the very same things that took place in this scripture. For it's a story of how God has great intentions for people, but we turn our back on him in rebellion. And the result is there's a big wall built between us and God. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals and the Lord, the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat of any tree in the garden? 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'll die. You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman, for God knows when you eat evil, when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 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 gave some to her husband who was with her and she and he ate it. Then both of them, then the eyes of both of them were open and they realized that they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 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 God among the trees in the garden. But the Lord, but the Lord God called to the man, where are you? He answered, I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid. He said, who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? The man said, the woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is it that you've done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you've done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals, you'll crawl on your belly, you'll eat dust all the days of your life, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. To the woman, he said, I greatly increase your pain in childbearing, the pain you will give in pain, with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. To Adam, he said, because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat of it. The curse, cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil, you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you. You will eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your brow. You will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken for dust you are and to dust you will return. The Lord God most gift of verse 21, the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. The Lord God said the man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and live forever. So the Lord banished him from the Garden of Eden. To work the ground from which he had been taken and he drove the man out, placed him on the east side of the Garden of Eden, cherubim and flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. The great disaster that took place is a common one for all of us. Adam and Eve were placed in a place where God promised to care for them. He had a contract that he made with them. Here's the garden. Everything you need is right here. It's a safe place for you. No one can ever get to you or attack you. So you're safe. I'll tell you exactly what you ought to do. You can eat any of the trees you have in the garden. You can do in this garden anything that you want. It's yours. You can use it in any way you want. But there is one tree in the middle of the garden that I do not want you to eat the fruit from it. Simple instructions, what they were to do and what they were not to do. If you will do this, you will live in the garden. We don't know, maybe even forever. We're not told about the consequences of what that would be. A life where every single thing was provided for them. Protection was given to them, all the provision that they need, and they would be able to be a blessing to the world, everyone in it and everything in it. They were to name the animals. They were to have all the control of the whole world in which they were placed. Then something different happened. We don't know how long they lived in the garden. We know that there were trees there that they could walk under for shade. So the garden had to be pretty old. You plant a small tree to put a seed in the ground. It takes a while for it to be big enough to walk under. They may have been there 10 years, 100 years. We don't know. The Bible doesn't give us that information. But in the process of it, there came an event in which they were confronted with their relationship with God, the serpent. We look back on it and we know that it's Satan with his great temptation. He came to them and began to raise questions about the authority of God. He said to them, did God really say you must not eat from the trees in the garden, from any tree in the garden? He started by raising questions about what God really had to do and say, can you really find God dependable? Everyone in they live in this world confronted with what God says is right and wrong has that question at some time or another. Is it really important for me to tell the truth as a small child? Is it really important for me to make decisions that are that God says I should do not to take things that belong to other people, not to lie? All of us have questions sometime or other in our lives as we grow up. And the temptation comes from Satan. That's what the scripture is telling us. He raises in our mind the idea, maybe the things you hear about God and from God are not necessarily required. So they begin to think, is it what is it that God has said to me? The serpent said, the woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But God did say we must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not touch it or you will die. Satan said, you will not surely die. He raised in her mind whether or not the things of the Bible or the words of God are true. When God says that you're going to die now, this passage, the word that's used here for die is kind of a word like we would use not to mean a person's going to die immediately, but their death is inevitable. It's sort of like, you know, when you see the old Western movie and the hero is caught and his sidekick is caught and his friends are caught and they tie him up and then in front of him, they decide they're going to kill one of his followers. And he says to them, you are a dead man if you do this. He doesn't mean that the moment they do it, they're going to die, but he's promising them, I guarantee you that I am going to make sure that somewhere down the road you will die. That's the weight of this word. It's used throughout the Bible to make a promise to people that what they're doing is inevitably going to take their life. That's what he says to Adam and Eve. Satan says, certainly God won't do that to you. The beginning of all rebellion against God begins when we lose confidence that what he says is true is true. We see it around us all the time. You know, you grow up in church and you believe what the Bible has to say and you think God's going to punish sin. And the first time you do something's really wrong, steal or lie or whatever it is, you expect God to hit you with lightning and it doesn't happen. And you think, now I'm safe. I can go ahead and do that. You think that the postponement of punishment or consequence for what you've done allows you to continue doing it until one day. Then the accumulation of doing that brings its deadly weight to you. It could be finances, the loss of a relationship, all kinds of consequences that can come because of saying, God, I know that you say this is right and I know you say this is wrong, but I choose to do what I think is best. This act of rebellion against God is serious to him. He sees it as a way in which we reject his authority of the creator of the world. He sees it as a way where we say to God, I'm smarter than you are. We didn't make a rock. We didn't make an apple. We didn't make a tree. We can plant seed, but we can't make seed. God makes all the universe. And we look at him and say, I think I know better than you. If you've raised children, you know what it's like to raise children and you know what they should do and how they should act and have them look at you and say, I know better than you do what I should do. And they just do what they want. It infuriates us because we've been given a position of leadership and authority to raise our children and they simply throw it aside. God sees that in what happened to Adam and Eve. She begins to question this. God told us the truth. Is this really right and this really wrong? And once you begin to raise that question inside yourself, it's the beginning of the rejection of God's authority. In that moment, Eve was faced with a choice. The serpent said to her, God knows that when you eat this, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. The second thing that Eve did, which we all do sometime in our life, everyone in the world has ever lived, gone through this experience except Jesus. Then she began to say, why should God tell me what to do? Now, oftentimes people don't use that language. They say, well, why do I have to do what the Bible says? I don't accept the authority of the Bible. It's not written in our age and it doesn't understand our circumstances. And I don't think that these words really require me to be obedient to them. Well, we look at this and say it was old time stuff, you know, Adam and Eve, it was right with them that day. And so it is with us. God's word says this is what you should do and this is what you must not do. And she began to think, I can make my own choices, I know what to do. If you've raised children, you know that when they get to be about the age of two and they're getting ready to get dressed or put their shoes on and you try to help them, they say, I can do it myself. Now, you know, they can't do it themselves. You know, they're going to make a mess of it, but you cannot convince them that they're not going to be able to do it themselves. They have to learn that they are not nearly as smart and skilled as they think they are. The very same thing is true for us, we get to the place where we're able to make choices on our own teenage years, we listen to all the advice that people have around us and all of us have been through this. And we say, I think I know what's best for me. Who do my parents think they are telling me what to do? I have my own life and I can make my own choices. We do it also with God. We get to the place where we begin to hear what the Bible has to say about choices of adults, financially, sexually, relationships, work, all those things that we have to make choices about. And we get to thinking, I know best for myself. It's exactly what Eve was saying. She was saying, I don't think that I'm under God, I think I should be equal with him. I can make the same choices for myself. When God gives the people of Israel the Ten Commandments, the very first one is, you must respect the fact that I made the world. I set the rules by which the world ought to operate. You must accept the fact that the things I say that are right are really right. And the things that I say that are wrong will destroy you. You must accept that if you're going to have life in all of its fullness. Eve then began to think, is God really right? Can I make the choices on my own? And then she began to look at the temptation and what she was looking at. She looked at the fruit and she said, it looks good to me. She says, I think it will taste good. It will be a good experience for me. She begins to think in ways in which doing this will not bring a negative result, but instead will bring a positive result. No one steals money because they think they'll be worse off. They steal money because they think they're going to be richer. No one lies because they think they'll be worse off. A child lies because they think they'll avoid a punishment. Adults lie because they think it might get them a job. Adults lie because they think there will be some benefit to it. Every one of the 10 commandments that God gives us, we only violate them because we think that we will end up better off after we do. Whenever your parents say to you now, I want you to be home at six o'clock. And you're overplaying with your friends. And you're enjoying yourself so much, you think, if I stop right now, it's going to be bad and you just keep on playing, you keep on staying until you're late. You see, our own judgment we trust and we don't listen to the authority of people who say that they are people who have authority over us, whether it's our parents or teachers or the law or even God. And we justify it by thinking of ways in which it's going to be advantageous to us. She said, that fruit looks like it would taste great. It's very attractive to me. And after all, if I do this, then I will know everything. I will know everything, even the things that God knows. So she looked at this and she saw benefit to it. Every time we violate the teachings of God, we are saying to God, I am smarter than you are. I do not have to live by your rules. I can live by my own rules. So the story that's found here at the beginning of Genesis is not an isolated event. Every one of us knows that in times in our life, we've been exactly where Eve was. We knew what was right. We knew what we were supposed to do, but we did the wrong thing. We thought at the moment that we could get by with it. You always read stories of people that stole money and they all intended to pay it back. I wasn't really stealing it. I just had a cash crunch and I couldn't think of any way to solve it. And here I thought I can borrow some money here and then next month I'll pay it back. That story is so familiar. Adam and Eve faced the same situation and all of us do with regard to the Ten Commandments, with regard to the instructions that God gives us. We come to times in our life when we say, I know what you say, but this is an exception. I can't see anything wrong with this. I think that I can do this and it will work out well. Those are stories we've all said to God. It can be as little as reading the Bible or knowing you should pray about issues in your life. Knowing you should pray about issues in your life and failing to do so. It can be as big as killing someone or stealing something or beating someone up. All of us face the same things found here in this story. The consequences were severe. God came walking in the garden. We don't know how often he did that, but they heard him. Now they knew that something was wrong. Whenever you know that you've done something wrong and the person who's in charge comes by, whether it's your boss or your husband, your wife or your parents or whoever it is, there comes inside of you a great fear that you're going to be found out that this is done and you'll suffer the consequences for it. And when they heard God walking around in the garden, they ran and they hid. Before, when God came to the garden, they walked with him, talked with him, had a good time with him. But now something changed. No longer could they say, you are our Lord and we've obeyed you. Now they have to say, we did the opposite of what you told us to do. And so the consequence for eating, rebelling against God's authority, was they lost their relationship with God that they had. Once you do something to someone that you shouldn't have done, you never feel the same toward them. And that was true for God. When they thought of God, they wanted to hide. He was no longer their best friend. He was their enemy. Because he was the one who would judge them and punish them. And whenever you do violate what God wants, you do feel like running and hiding from them. A lady told me one time, she said, when I go across town, I never come down Harrison Street Church. The church is there. And every time I drive by the church, I feel bad. Guilt. Shame. Not because this building is going to do anything to her. Or anybody else in it is going to do anything to her. But God is saying, you and I have an issue between us. I don't know what her issue was. But she knew and God knew. Whenever you violate what God tells you to do, there is this feeling of alienation from him. And a feeling of fear. They ran and hid because they were afraid of God. They were afraid of the consequences that would come to them. I think a lot of people quit reading the Bible. They quit going to church because they have fear. They don't feel right when they come. They know that there is a sense of judgment from God toward them. That's what happens when we say to God, I know what you want, and I'm going to do what I choose to do, no matter what you say. The consequence for Adam and Eve was not only what happened in their relationship with God, but what happened between their relationship with each other. Adam and Eve suddenly realized when they did this, that they were naked. Now the Bible didn't tell us exactly why they felt that way, but what they knew was, this person that I've been with all this time, always in the past they did everything right. Today I realize for the first time, they don't do everything right. Can you always trust people that you know are not going to do things that are right? In a marriage relationship, you trust your spouse until one day you find out they've been unfaithful to you. And then there's always that element of uncertainty that comes. They do not live by the rules. They lie. They deceive me. And suddenly their relationship is broken. And they needed protection from each other, so they made themselves clothes, so that the nakedness that they had would not be tempting to the other. In the garden, their relationship with each other was broken, because the element of deceit and uncertainty now lived in that relationship. God said, no longer can you live in this garden that I've prepared for you. It was a place I gave you. Everything you had, you could do what you wanted with, but no longer can that be true, because I can't trust you. You don't do the things I tell you. And so the great divide between God and His people occurred. Now, the Bible talks about the influence that we have on one another. I don't think that in Adam and Eve, the sin that they had went into their bloodstream, and so every child that's born is guilty of the sin of Adam. Some different religious groups believe that that's true. I don't think it is. But all of us have sinned and fallen short of what God wants from us. How does that happen to us? I think children are born innocent of this. Adam and Eve didn't have this act happen to them until they were old enough to make a choice. I know what God wants, and I choose the opposite. That happens to every child that's born into the world. A time when they become accountable to God, because they know what God wants, and they choose the opposite. How is it that all of us do that, except Christ? Well, I think of it like this. If you're born in Germany, and everyone around you is from Germany, what language are you going to speak? German, right? Is it in your blood? No. If you take a child born in Germany, and move them to the United States, and place them in a house and home where they speak English, that German person, German blood, will speak English. You take an innocent child, and you plop that child down in a world where everyone around them ignores the authority of God, ignores what God says is right and what He says is wrong, and the first thing you know, they're going to be doing exactly what everyone around them is doing. We're surrounded by people who act like Adam and Eve. And so from the earliest days of our lives, we see people practicing deceit, lying, stealing. We see around us all kinds of violation of God's instruction. And from our earliest days, we're shaped to do the very same thing Adam and Eve did. That's why Paul, when he talks in the book of Romans about what's happened to us, we're all children of Adam, he says. I don't think he means it's in our bloodstream. We're all living under the influence of people who've rebelled against God. And so our earliest days, we're inclined to choose this very disastrous act for ourselves that Adam and Eve chose and bring on ourselves the curse that God gives to those who rebel against Him. From this time on in the Bible, God begins to develop a way to allow us to receive forgiveness and to turn our lives over to God again in a different way. When Jesus started His ministry, John the Baptist looked at Him as He came and he said, Look, here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus died on the cross and He said, I never did follow Eve nor Adam. There's not one ounce of rebellion in my life against God, but I have died and I paid the price for what you have done. If you will trust Me and give your life to Me, you can claim the sacrifice I've made for you and My blood, My death, My sacrifice can be in your place. I don't know what happened to Adam and Eve. It's hard in the Old Testament to determine whether people are going to heaven or not. They didn't seem very repentant. But God has given us an opportunity to change directions for ourselves. He simply asked that we acknowledge the reality. I grew up in my own Garden of Eden as a child. I got to the place where I knew the difference between right and wrong. And I can look back on those things and I can tell you the things I did that I knew were wrong. One day I realized I've rebelled against God. I was just a boy. But I knew that His way was better than what I was doing. And I came to Him and said, God, I want to live my life the way You tell me. Take control of my life. He forgave me of what I've done wrong. His rebellious spirit. He accepted my submissive spirit. And He's directed me all the days of my life to this day. Look, the Lamb of God who can take away your sin as if it never, ever happened. It's like someone embezzles money and someone comes in and says, Forgive this person. I'll pay for everything they stole. And if you keep them on the job, if they ever do this again, I'll still pay for whatever they take. You have no risk. That's what the forgiveness is. God takes us in our rebellious hearts. And He shapes us to live as He lives. And He takes care of us. So He gives us wisdom to make choices. He provides our needs. He protects us from the things that destroy us. And He makes our life, instead of a curse on the world as Adam and Eve's, a blessing to the world. Every one of us have stood where Eve stood, where Adam stood. The difference between that and what God wants is to stop and say, I believe that you are the Lord of the world. Today, I devote my life to live for you. Would you bow your heads, please, for a moment? I want to ask you if you feel guilt or shame because of your own lifestyle, choices you've made. You're not unique. Every person in the world has been there. This is the story where it started. Of course God's upset with you. But He wants to make it right. All He wants you to do is to acknowledge that you have lived contrary to what He wants. Admit it. That's what we want us to do as parents. We want our kids to admit they're wrong. Then we can begin to work with it. That's what God wants for us. He promises, if we do, that He will give us knowledge as to how to live right, that He will give us the ability to make the choices we need to make, that He'll walk with us day by day to guide us in all that we do, and He'll help us to grow in our obedience to Him. But He never does that unless we want it. So what He asks is for you to say, God, I admit that what I've done is wrong. I know I've violated your instructions. I ask you to forgive me. And I want to say from this moment on in my life, I'm going to say, God, my goal is to live in obedience to You. If I fail, I'll stop and apologize and start over. But I want to live in obedience to You because I believe that You alone have the words that bring life and fullness of life. If you've never done that, you could do it right now. Where you've set, God's with you. He's in your mind. He hears you. Don't be deceived by thinking, well, this is going to make my life miserable. Don't be deceived by thinking, when I get some things taken care of, I can do this. That's what He did. Do what you know is right. Father, I ask for each of us that You would confront us with Your presence. Walk in this building like Adam and Eve. Look in our minds and our hearts and expose the truth of who we are and who we aren't. You know us. The deed has been done for us. What we need is Your remedy. Give us the courage to acknowledge what we've done wrong and to receive You as the Lord who saves His people. I'm going to ask the pianist to play a song. I'm going to be here at the front and Debbie will be here. If you want to make that promise to God to change your life and turn it around, this is your opportunity to do so. And if you want to tell others that you've done it, it's your chance to do it. If you want to become a part of this church, it's an opportunity for you to do that, to say, I have given my life to the Lord. I am living for Him and God said to me, this is your place. This time is just a time in which you listen to what comes to your mind. That's God speaking to you. If anything good comes to your mind, He's telling you to do it. Will you do like Eve or will you do like Christ and obey Him? I'm going to ask the pianist to play a song. I'm going to ask the pianist to play a song. I'm going to ask the pianist to play a song. I'm going to ask the pianist to play a song. Would you stand please for a moment of prayer. Reception for our seniors out the back door, across the alley and the building behind us. You're welcome to come and greet them and participate in some little refreshments and encourage them. Join me in prayer. Father, I wanted to ask that you'd remind us that Adam and Eve in their great time of disaster, that you came and sought them out. Today we don't walk with you physically, but you seek us out by bringing to our mind the things that you want us to do. I ask all this week or all even the rest of our lives that you continue to come to us like you did to Adam and Eve with the message to say what have you been doing? Why have you been doing it? Grant us with the need we have for forgiveness that we might find life in all of its fullness. We live in a world that's painfully sinful, but you've asked us to be beacons of obedience to you and to live as you've directed us that the world might see the contrast between people who live doing what they think is best and people who live doing what you say is best. So make us, Father, obedient servants that the world might know what you intended people to be like all along. In the name of Christ we ask this. Amen.