Genesis: Part 3
Genesis 3:1-24
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
We're going to continue in our series and we are going to be jumping in. We've got a lot to cover today, so I want to get going. I'm so excited for our sermon this morning. We are in our patterns, Genesis series, where we look at different themes and patterns that repeat throughout Scripture that begin here in Genesis. And as we've mentioned each week, we're looking at how biblical authors were intentional in the way they wrote the Bible, where readers could pick up on some of the deeper currents moving in the story that are beyond the surface. And so these patterns and themes clue us into maybe the tone of the story, they remind us of who God is and what He does, or maybe if the people involved in the story are prone to follow God or to rebel against Him. And something that we're covering each week is how these patterns that we see not just in Scripture, but also pertain to our lives and how these patterns might still be around today. That's certainly going to be the case in our sermon this morning.
So far in our series we've covered in the first week in Genesis 1 in the Creation account how God's words have power, and we saw how He, with His words, created order out of chaos. Last week, Pastor Lauren talked about the imago Dei, the dignity of human life being made in God's image, and our responsibility to share God's image accurately with the world around us, and also the desire we should have to better reflect that image, to be as close to God's image as possible. Today we're going to continue in Genesis, and we're looking again in Genesis 3, and after creation, after God has given order to the world and set up structure, including who is to co-rule with Him, which is Adam and Eve, things quickly change. And they change forever, and they change for the worse.
So in Genesis 3, this is the story of when sin enters the world. It's one of the darkest moments in history, where humanity, after God again had set up everything for the better, humanity invites chaos and darkness back into the picture, a moment where they ignored the imago Dei within them, and they chose rebellion instead of obedience to God. So the pattern we'll see here in Genesis 3, I want to tell you up front, is the fall and humanity's need to be rescued. We're going to see over and over again in Scripture this pattern. I think we have a slide here. So the first one is humanity chooses their own way. This is the first step of the pattern. Humanity thinks that they know better, that they know enough, that they can do it on their own. They think that they have what it takes to be God, in a sense, as God is the one with the perfect wisdom, who knows right from evil, who can discern and decide what is evil and what is good. Humanity thinks, "I can do the same." Then we have the subsequent fallout and the consequence of those actions. That's the next part of this pattern, is God often says, "Okay, if you want to do that, go ahead and do that," and then it doesn't work out. And then the third part of our pattern is God rescuing humanity. He continues to give grace. So this happens over, just keep that up there for a bit, this happens over and over again. Humanity's rebellion, constantly thinking they know better, and then God's provision of grace, where he continues to love and rescue and redeem. You can almost flip page by page in the Bible and just see another example of another person in history thinking, "I got this. God, thank you for getting me this far, but I got it from here," or whatever it is, that whisper that they have, that they hear of, "I'm going to do this my way." And then we see, again, just the fallout of that and them getting themselves into trouble and the consequences they have to face, and then God continuing to rescue, continuing to redeem whatever situation it is. So this morning, I want us to see how this theme plays out and where it really begins.
So if you want to open your Bibles or you can follow along on the screen, look for this pattern as I walk through this dark, dark moment. And just to recap us, if you haven't been here yet, in Genesis 1 and chapters 1 and chapter 2, we have God creating the world, and he created Adam and Eve, and he gave them purpose and he gave them opportunity. He gave them purpose in ruling over the earth with him, and he gave them some parameters, but it was very much set up for success. And it's this place, this Garden of Eden is this place where God dwells on earth with his creation until chapter 3, verse 1, which reads, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?'" I'm going to stop right there. I'm going to be reading and just expounding as we go along. Satan gets crafty immediately. There's no polite introduction. He just automatically, right from the beginning, is starting to twist some things that God had told Adam and Eve. In chapter 2, verse 16, God says, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die." And we hear Satan say, "Did God really say you must not eat from any tree?" So you just notice the subtle difference there. And he's just priming the pump. He's softening the ground so that his lies can get further and further in.
Verse 2, it says, "The woman said to the serpent, 'You may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, so far so good, and you must not touch it.'" Huh. Don't know where that came from. "Or you will die." The woman corrects Satan, but not precisely. And instead of echoing God's words specifically, she kind of generalizes what God said. Not just that, but she adds to God's words. That's not today's pattern, but that is a pattern that repeats throughout Scripture of adding to God's words, thinking, again, this kind of ties into our pattern, that, "God, you kind of said it, but I have some better things to add. So I'm going to add some words to what you say." One of the most famous people that we see in the Bible, an example of people adding to God's words, are the Pharisees. The Pharisees in the New Testament, Jesus has explained that, "You have added so much to my commandments that you've lost track of the heart of God." And so already we see Eve kind of adding to God's words. She says, "If you touch it, you die." God has not said that. Galatians 4-5, "You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman, "for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Satan continues to twist, continues to turn, the lies, God's words. And he's using this ambiguity of the penalty, his warning, to make the woman less fearful and more prone to follow where Satan is leading. This phrase, "knowing good and evil," this does not mean choosing right and wrong, choosing what is good and choosing, because as we'll see, they already have that power. Eve demonstrates that that is already in existence. Rather, it speaks to this idea of becoming like God in His divine wisdom. A lot of the phrase in the Old Testament, you see someone is wise or someone, God is described as having divine wisdom. It's this ability to discern and to decide what is good and what is evil. So Satan is saying, "You will certainly be able to do this," meaning you will certainly be like God, thinking that they will be able to know enough to define what is right and wrong in the world. He's saying like, "Hey, I know God said you wanted to rule, and He's ruling with you, but I think you can pretty much rule by yourselves. You'll be able to do this without God." He hasn't said that explicitly, but you can see that that's in the background of what he's saying, and that's what's turning in Eve's mind.
Verse 6, "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom," she's like, "Wow, this is a win-win-win," "she took some and ate it, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it." Hold on, let's just stop right there. Did we catch that? I know that Eve catches a lot of flack for being the one who was like, "Ah, she made the decision, and Adam was off doing his cool thing, and she's the one." She gave some to her husband who was with her. So we can deduce from this that Adam was there the whole time. He was there the whole time. He heard the conversation, and he did nothing. He didn't do anything to stop it. So Eve, you're not off the hook because you still sin, but it's definitely Adam and Eve who are sinning in this moment. Verse 7, "Then the eyes of both of them were open, and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." They experience now this new knowledge of rebellion and the reality of sin. This phrase "eyes being open," we still use that today, right? Seeing the truth now, or the new reality. And this is the step in the undoing of the order that God had brought about. This is a step backwards towards darkness and disorder and chaos.
Verse 8, "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord as he was walking in the garden the cool of the day." That is just such a cool, awesome phrase. Walking in the garden, the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord among the trees of the garden, hiding after sin. That's a natural thing. I think we can all relate to that. You've done something wrong, and immediately you do not want to be seen. Maybe you see that in your kids right now, or your grandkids. When they do something wrong, and you come across a scene of something broken or something that was not supposed to be touched, and it's there, and the kid is nowhere to be found because they are hiding. And they know that what they did is wrong, and so they are ashamed. And it's right here from the very first moment that sin entered the world. Hiding because of your sin is natural. It's not good, but it's what we do. It could be something as simple as avoiding eye contact. We don't want to be seen by the person who is in authority. We just had, I'm not going to call on any kids specifically, but we just had a family fun night at our house this last Friday, and all the kids were there, and there was someone who was like, "Hey, can you not do that?" And immediately they didn't want to look me in the eye. They were just like, "No, okay, yeah. No, I didn't do anything. That wasn't me. That wasn't me. That wasn't me." The avoidance of being seen by the person who has the authority to decide what is right and wrong, it's very real. Also what we see in this verse, I just want to point out, it says, "Heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day." The Hebrew word here for the cool of the day is translated for spirit or wind, and the words for Hebrew spirit and wind are also often associated with God, the Holy Spirit. And so we lose kind of some of the scene that makes sense to us in English, but in the Hebrew, what they would hear is that the undeniable presence of God was in the garden. That's what that is saying, is that God was right there, and the whole garden knew it. Adam and Eve felt it. They were hiding, but they knew God was there. And already we begin to understand that sin and God do not mix, like water and oil. God shows up, and all of a sudden the people who are sinful are gone. Adam and Eve are finding this out live as it's happening to them. Verse 9 says, "But the Lord called to the man, 'Where are you?' And he answered, 'I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.'" I just want to note here that nakedness is not the sin here. It's the recognition that they are naked, their awareness of that, and the shame they feel that exposes their guilt from the sin that they did of eating from the tree. Before their disobedience, Adam and Eve had no reason to be ashamed, but now they feel that shame. Their innocence is gone.
Verse 11 says, "And he said," God speaking, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" I love this. This is so good. First of all, if we were reading the story again in Hebrew, God is right there. The way that it is written and the way the story unfolds is meant to convey that God, in far as proximity, he was close. He already knew what happened. And so God isn't asking because he doesn't know, "Hey, did this exact thing happen?" He's asking to elicit a confession. Right? I'm sure we've all been in that situation. Again, I think so much of parenting right now, of God with his firstborn, Adam and Eve. And we've all been in that situation, whether on the receiving end where someone has asked us a question or we've been the one asking the questions to someone, but it's cool to see here where this parenting strategy originated, right here in Genesis 3 with the first sin, asking the question, "Hey, did you do that exact thing that happened?" I already know, but I want to hear it from you. By the way, this is another repeating pattern in Scripture, not ours today, but I'm just going to give you these clues as like if you are liking this series and you like seeing these patterns, this is another one where God or Jesus asked a question they already know the answer to and just look at how people respond. See if their guilt drives them to confess or whether they keep going down their path of a lie and hiding from God.
All right, verse 12 says, "The man said, 'The woman,'" oh, this is good, guys, "'The woman that you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.'" Again, Adam is not looking good, right? Like we always think that it's all Eve. He was there and he blames God. God, it was, you put her here. You are the one that's not, you can't say that to God. Bold attempt, Adam, and it does not pay off. He blames the woman and he blames God. Verse 13, "Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is this that you have done?' And the woman said, 'The serpent deceived me and I ate it.'" Eve now blames the serpent. I want to pause here to address this common question. Who is the serpent? Which also leads to who is Satan? Because we know that this is the enemy, this is Satan. And so I just want to explain, Satan is this creature whose entire existence is a state of rebellion against God's creation, against the good of God's creation. Satan is on a mission to ruin God's good world for everyone, for all creatures. And Satan, we know this from other passages in the Bible, he did not want to live under God's wisdom and authority. And if anything, he wanted to be God. And that's the very temptation that he puts in front of Adam and Eve. I want to be like God and I have rebelled. Do you, Adam and Eve, also want to rebel? He doesn't say it that way because that would be too obvious. So he says, "Hey, I think you guys are pretty good. I think you can do this on your own. I don't think you need God." When we read this passage, I want to encourage us to think less about like the zoological, there's probably a more official word for that, but less about the snake and the details of like what kind of snake it is and are snakes inherently evil because they're always associated with Satan? Not the case. The story is describing Satan as a snake. And just focus more on what's happening for creation, what's happening to Satan. Because as we'll find out in the verses to come, God is taming Satan, the enemy. He's making the snake more docile. That's the big takeaway is that God is the one whose power is supreme over everything, even those in rebellion against him. God is more powerful. There's a lot of ancient Eastern context that the story is written into. And so it may sound fanciful. If you're reading the Bible for the first time, you're like, "Wow, there's a snake talking to humans. What is this?" It's meant to sound like that. The snake is talking to people, but to the ancient listener, these implications would have come through vibrantly that the snake always represents something sly, something evil. So just keep that in mind.
Verses 14 through 15, "The Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offsprings and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.'" So the serpent's offspring that he's talking about are those that will follow in rebelling against God. And the woman's offspring is very specific. It's the people of God, but also it says, "He will strike you on the head." And that is specifically talking about Jesus. So guys, already on what is page four of my Bible, chapter three, we have the hope of Jesus entering the story. As soon as sin enters the story, God has a plan and God has hope. And he gives that hope to humanity. I love it. It's amazing. God has a plan to deal with Satan. And that promise is still alive. And as mentioned again throughout the Bible, Romans 16, 20 says, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you." Revelation also talks about this, of what God is going to do, the final steps of his plan. So again, God from this very moment promises an answer to the problem of sin. And his grace, remember our pattern, we've seen humanity rebel, think that they can do it on their own. We see the fallout of those consequences of their actions. They're facing that right now. They're getting explained those consequences. But we also have God providing grace.
And now he talks to the woman and the man in verses 16 through 18. To the woman, he said, "I will make your pains and childbearing very severe. With painful labor, 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 fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat from it." God's clarifying, by the way. He's like, "I know you tried to blame me, but I definitely told you the rules. You definitely did not listen. Cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil, you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you. And you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food." Oh, we'll stop right there. Hold on. So again, the original task that has been given to Adam and Eve from Genesis 1, Genesis 2, to tend the garden, to be fruitful and to multiply, those commands are still there, but now it is so much more difficult. It is now true labor that they are going to have to partake in. God says to Eve, having kids, what was going to be just a blessing for you, this gift that I was giving you and this part of reigning with me to multiply, now it's going to include a lot of pain. It's going to be very severe. And to Adam, he says, the work that you will have to do for food and survival, it's going to be brutal. It means serious effort and overcoming of obstacles will be necessary to make the earth produce what humanity needs it to produce, to live, and just to do what they were created to do. And he's emphasizing what once was freely given to them, the food that was available for them at any point, at any time, they didn't have to do anything, it was just there, God created it for them, now it's going to be backbreaking work. This reality is something that we still live with. If you live in Rocklin, you know why it is called Rocklin. And if you've ever had to dig and plant a tree, you come to a certain layer and it is so hard and the shovels that you have may not, I mean, I've broken tips of shovels trying to get through that hard pan. And if you've gone through walks and you've gone off the paved trail and you walk around, you will have thistles and thorns in your socks and your shoes, and you can, next time you do that, you can be like, thank you Adam and Eve for bringing that about.
Verse 19 says, 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. You might have heard that before, from dust you are, and to dust you will return. It's a line that, in some context, provides a little comfort, but in this moment it's absolutely devastating. Because it's not what God intended for his creation. It's not what he intended for his co-rulers, Adam and Eve, and what he had envisioned would be an eternity in the Garden of Eden with his creation in the way that he intended it to be. So we have this consequence of sin, which is lifelong toil and then death. And death is unique. Only death is the release from the lifelong toil that he will have to do, but also death is a natural consequence of their sin. And so you just see this bleak outlook for humanity now, juxtaposed to what God created, which is something full of life, holy opportunities, and good work to the world that Adam and Eve brought about, which is full of pain and life-dependent toil and death. And it's just so saddening to see, just for a few moments in the Bible, two chapters, the Garden, to now the reality that we are all a part of and we're born into. But in verse 20, "Adam named his Eve wife because she would become the mother of all the living." In 21, "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." Even now, in just that small verse, God is being gracious to Adam and Eve, and he's meeting them where they're at, and he's giving and providing and sustaining them. And he's saying, "You're going to need this from now on, and I'm going to give it to you. Here's something for you." But things do have to change.
In verse 22, "And 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 eat and live forever.' So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken." This is the dilemma. Adam and Eve, if they were to stay in the Garden, now knowing good and evil, meaning they can rebel and they can choose to continue to rebel, they can also take from the tree of eternity, of eternal life, never facing the penalty for their transgressions, never facing death. So God says that we can't have that. And unfortunately, we have to banish you from the Garden. So they are cut off from the full presence of God, and immortality was made unavailable. They would eventually die. Something that doesn't seem to be intended when God created the world. I think that's why death is so hard for us. Whether accepting it for ourselves when we come to that point, or watching someone we love pass away, there's something in us, in our imago Dei, that pushes back against the idea of death. I think from that and from this verse, we can deduce that it's not what God intended. It's the result of sin.
Verse 24 says, "After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword, flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." So that's a lot. That was a lot. We covered how sin entered the world. Honestly, we could do a whole series on Genesis 3. I spent a whole semester in the first three chapters of Genesis in seminary, and that felt really quick, so I can imagine in your seats right now. This was like a flyby at jet speed, but I want to remind us to focus on the pattern. And if you also want to encourage you in your own time to go back, read Genesis 3 and over and over again and just see what plays out here, see what Adam and Eve chose to do, the lies that Satan said. But our purpose today is to see the origin of this pattern. Can we put that pattern back up on the screen really quick? Again, humanity choosing their own way, thinking they can be God, the consequence of that decision, and God being gracious and redeeming and rescuing them, despite the fact that they rebelled against him. And so, in this scene, we saw that Satan tempted Adam and Eve that they can define good and evil, which we know is a God task, not a human task, but Satan says, "You guys can do it." He's tempting them to be in the place of God, to live in a garden and rule without God. And Adam and Eve succumb to that temptation. They give in, they rebel. And sin enters the world and it now plagues humanity.
Every single person from that point forward is born into sin. Romans 3:10 says that no one is without sin. And then we see the fallout, the sadder, new devastating reality that humanity and the world now exist in. Because of sin, there is now devastation and death, broken relationships, battles and violence, disease, slavery, power struggles, selfish perversion, where there was once beauty, nothing but beauty within us. Now there is some ugliness within us. But we also see God be gracious, letting them live, clothing them, and even giving a clue to a major redeeming moment in the future, where the enemy will be defeated. That's our pattern right here. The authors were intentional. They wanted us to see, this is how it starts, but as I said, you just flip page after page, you're going to see it over and over again. And always, the last part of that pattern is God rescuing. God having the final say, saying I know that you keep straying from me. You keep going in your own direction. And it's almost like he picks us up and says, all right, back to your spot where you're supposed to go. Now see if you can go in a straight line. And then eventually humanity wanders off and he's always picking us up and saying, no, right back here. I've got a plan for you. It doesn't take long for us to see the pattern over and over again. The Bible Project, by the way, has some really cool videos on making this connection. But the next culminating moment is the Tower of Babel. I'll just quickly touch on how this is seen throughout the Bible. And the Tower of Babel, if you don't know, is a story of all of humanity, which speaks the same language, coming together and saying, let's be God. Let's try this again. And so they build this tower to literally be at the height, the same height as God. They say, God's up there. We'll go be up there too. And we're going to build this tower and we're going to decide we're going to be the rulers. We're going to say this is what's right, this is what's wrong. And God has to intervene and he scatters them as we know, and he gives us different languages. And so there's mass confusion. But he still is redeeming. And we get, we know this because even in Revelation at the end of the Bible, it says there's a promise that people from every nation, tongue, tribe, and language will be praising God in heaven. So God is going to use what humanity was trying to do for their own selfishness. He's going to, that's still a part of his plan. He's like, don't worry, you guys did that, but I still have you as a part of what I'm doing. I'm going to redeem you. There's more. We can go, Abraham has his own story. He tries to have a child by his own methods. God says, hey, I have promises for you. You are going to be the father of many nations. And it's not happening. Abraham is very old. And he says, you know what, God, I got this. I'm going to choose my own way. I think I figured it out. The first part of the pattern is right there with Abraham and Sarah thinking, okay, we'll take control. And as you may know, they have Ishmael instead of waiting for Isaac. And it causes a bunch of messy division in the family. But God still blesses them. He blesses Ishmael and he provides Isaac as the son who would be the father of many nations. We can also go to the Israelites. They are in the desert and they begin worshiping a golden calf. God has brought them out of slavery into the desert. He's bringing them to a promised land. But in the midst of that, they say, God, I think we got a better idea of this golden calf, which we hear now are like, that's ridiculous. But in the moment, Israel was thinking, this is great. We have gold. We have, we can make up our own God and we're going to define what is right and wrong. They end up having to wander for 40 years, but God still redeems and still rescues and he brings them to the promised land.
You can get to the book of Judges in the Old Testament. And this is story after story of literally God's people. This is what it says in the Bible, doing what is right in their own eyes. That is exactly the language from the garden story right here. Doing what is right in their own eyes, defining what is good and evil. And the nation, all of Israel would get into trouble with other nations and God would provide a judge, a kind of hero or a leader to bring them back out of that and say, no, come back to where you're supposed to be and there's a peaceful time. And then the next chapter you read again and they were doing what is right in their own eyes. So this over and over again, you get to the Kings, Saul and Kings, the people wanted their own King, even though God was their King. And they said, no, God, I think we have a better idea. We want an earthly King. And again, we read this and we're like, Israel, you are so dumb. But we make the same choices. So be careful on who you're judging. But they come up and God says, this is not going to work out. And they say, no, we want it. We really want an earthly King. He says, fine, I'll give you an earthly King, but it will not work out. It will lead to your own destruction. He says that at the very beginning, but he gives them Saul. And besides a few Kings like David, and there's a few others that are good, the rest of the Kings are terrible and they lead Israel farther and farther away from God until they are in captivity. Last one in the Old Testament that I'll mention is Jonah, thinking that he knows better than God. God has called him and said, hey, I want you to go reach the people of Nineveh. And he says to God, again, bold move, kind of like Adam, it's not good. God, they're not worthy of being saved. You should just destroy them. You should just judge them. They're terrible. They're terrible, terrible people. I think I know better than you. I think I know your ways better than you know your own ways. There's a lot of interesting, bold things that Jonah says to God. And then, as we know, Jonah gets swallowed up by the near-death experience. He is in that storm where he thinks his life is over. But then God redeems and he rescues and he says, and Jonah goes and the people of Nineveh hear the gospel and for a time they believe in God. So there are many, there are so many, those are just some of the major ones, but there are all these mini episodes of a fall and redemption within the bigger story.
But then we come to the New Testament, and this is where the main theme comes to the forefront again. In all of humanity's sin, and the fall is addressed. Excuse me. And salvation arrives in the form of Jesus Christ. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus brings eternal life and undoes the effect of sin. We see Jesus live the perfect life. He is the perfect Adam, the Son of Man. He resists all the temptation. He has his own moment with Satan, where Satan tempts him in the desert. But Jesus succeeds. And through his death on the cross and his ascension to heaven, he defeats sin and death, and he provides a way for eternal relationship with God. A way for us to be in the full presence of God again. What was taken away at the garden is now restored. So through Christ, we know that the pattern of rebellion against God will come to an end. But we still struggle with this pattern today in our own lives. We still encounter the same temptation that Abam Eve faced, thinking that we might be able to live this life better without God. We think, "I got this. I can do this on my own. What I'm doing is working. I'll decide what's best for my life, for me and my family." And it's never really that bold. We don't think, "God, I got this." But our actions say that. Our heart, what's really in our hearts, reveals that that's what we're thinking. And Satan doesn't often mention God when he's whispering things to us. He's like, "Hey, you're better than God." Because we'd be like, "Absolutely not. I'm not better than God." But he likes to twist the truth. "Hey, you're really good. Hey, you've got this." He's trying to fill us with this false sense of confidence to then make steps on our own that are apart from God. And so he, again, he's twisting the truth. It's never really at first a flat-out lie. It's something that we can believe in to some extent. And then after a few of those decisions, we see that we are really truly far apart from Jesus. And we have to face the consequence of our actions. And we are, just as we began, in need of rescuing. And Jesus rescues and he forgives and his mercies are new every morning.
So I want to quickly just mention three lessons from the fall, from Genesis 3. And the first is to live with humility. Humility is this proper view of self, which begins with a proper understanding of God. It's why we preach so much here at Spring Valley, who God is and what he does. When we better understand that, when we better understand God, we better understand ourselves. So once we understand God and his place, not just in our own lives but over the entire world, we better understand in a good way how small we are. That we don't know everything. That God does. And so we should really follow his ways and his wisdom and plan for our lives. This is counter to what the world often says. We often hear that knowing more will lead to more power and influence and opportunity. Knowledge equals power. Have you guys heard that before? There is truth to that. But where it gets dangerous is more knowledge and less reliance on God. More knowledge and you become independent and you don't need God. And that's not good. Pastor Matthew McCleary, he's a pastor in Sacramento, says, "Rarely do we see in Scripture someone get more knowledge and it works out for good. In fact, it's mostly the opposite." What he's talking about is living with humility. Recognizing and acknowledging that we need Jesus to live the best life here on earth. So I invite you to reflect in your own heart and mind, are you living with humility?
Secondly, live on guard. We know from our passage in Genesis 3 that in all the other passages throughout Bible we see this pattern that the temptation to rebel against God is always lurking. We must live intentionally and fervently to fight to live aligned with God's heart. It won't happen by accident, it won't happen passively, just like, "God, I hope that I live according to your ways." No, it doesn't happen like that. We need to be on guard for temptation, to be on guard for when Satan will want to whisper in your ear, "You don't need God." "You have a better plan. You have it figured out. Just go ahead and act with what your gut is telling you." Again, Satan will twist and turn the truth ever so slightly at first before you realize you are living in complete rebellion against God. So be on guard, be vigilant, be ready. Know that Satan is trying, he's desperate for God's creation to rebel against God. He's out there trying to ruin God's good creation and the order and beauty that God is trying to bring, and as co-rulers, we are also trying to bring into the world. And as we are intentional, as Pastor Lauren preached last week, to model the image of God, to reflect the image of God, that means that Satan is out to ruin us too. Be ready to fight, arm yourselves with the truth of God's Word. Jesus showed us when he went to the desert and defeated Satan in that moment and overcame the temptation, he showed us how. With every twisting temptation that Satan threw at Jesus, Jesus threw back at him with the truth of God's Word, properly interpreted and saying, "This is what God said. This is truly what God meant." And that's the blueprint for us. That's how we are to live, to knowing God's truth, and so that when we are faced with temptation, we can speak the truth of God right back at that temptation. So ask yourselves, are you living intentionally and ready to fight against the temptation of the enemy? And do you know God's truth?
Thirdly, live in God's grace. God showed us in Genesis 3, from the moment that sin entered the world, that God's grace is more. His grace covers all that he continues to love and provide for us. He reaches across the divide that sin puts between us and him, and he wants us to live with him. We must choose to accept God's free gift of grace. As Christians, those of you who are in this room who believe in Jesus, we still struggle with sin. We know this. None of us are living perfectly. But if we want the pattern of sin to stop in our lives, we need to live into God's gift of grace. We need his love that endures all, his mercies that are new every morning, his grace that covers all, his forgiveness that forgives all sin, his salvation that rescues us from sin and death and gives us eternal life with him in heaven. So are you living in God's grace every day? Are you choosing God's grace? Are you accepting that? Are you wanting it, desiring it? If you call yourself a Christian and believe that Jesus is your savior, again, you're still going to be struggling with some of these patterns in your life. But I pray that today's sermon is a reminder of the life that God has called you to, that the Spirit would use it to speak to you and make apparent things that might need to change in your life, patterns that might need to be addressed. And if you haven't yet made that decision to follow Jesus, to surrender your heart and control of your life over to him, to confess your sins, I want to invite you to do that right now.
So we're going to go ahead and bow our heads and close our eyes. We're going to pray. And if that's you and you realize you don't want to go another moment without Jesus in your life, without his love and grace, and you want to accept his salvation, I'd encourage you to do just that. With everyone's eyes closed and heads bowed, just silently to yourself, if you want to pray this prayer, "Lord, I believe Jesus is the Son of God, that he died for my sins and rose again. I receive him as my Lord and Savior today and ask for the forgiveness of my sins." Let's all pray. God, thank you so much for your Word. And even though we live in this reality of sin, we have hope. From the very moment that sin entered the world, you were good and gracious and loving. You continue to reach out and rescue us daily. God, without you, there is no hope. But in you, there's more than hope. There is salvation. And with that hope and promise of eternity with you, thank you for sending your Son Jesus as the answer to the problem of sin. And God, I pray that for us who are fallen, we be encouraged in our faith, that we be renewed in our fight against the enemy, that we would live on guard, that we live with humility, that we would live in your grace. And God, I pray for those who are not yet believers, God, that you would continue to soften their heart, open their eyes to see their need for you. God, I pray that you would help us to be able to see the patterns in our lives that are unhealthy, moments and areas in our life where we are choosing our own wisdom. We may not even see it that way, but God, I pray that you would reveal that to us through your Spirit, that you would convict where conviction is needed. And you would say, "Look, you're choosing your own way." And God, I pray that our hearts would be softened to say, "God, I'm sorry. Please guide me and show me the way to live." God, we cannot do this life without you. We need you. We're thankful for you. And we give you all the glory and praise. Amen.