Implications of Disobeying God’s Design

Our lesson for this week is titled The Implications of Disobeying God's Design, and I just want to say that if the events of Genesis Chapter 3 did not exist, we wouldn't have a Bible. There would be no need for the next 1,184 chapters in the Bible. It wouldn't exist. But the events do exist, and it documents for us today—this is going to be a sad lesson today. I'm just warning you, because this documents for us the sad consequences of Adam's sin. But it does preface God's unfolding plan through the rest of the Bible—His plan of grace, forgiveness, and covering of sin. And it occurred to me this week while I was studying that Genesis Chapters 3 and 4 are like a really good thesis statement for the essay to come. If you think of the entire Bible as an essay—God's unfolding plan—these two chapters give us the thesis statement. They tell us why it's needed and what God is going to do. So it's a really good foundation for us. Last week we remembered that God is very relational. He had a relationship with Adam and Eve that was one of communion rather than commands. He walked with them in the cool of the day. He gave Adam the responsibility of working and keeping the garden and what he had created. He gave Eve the directive to help Adam, to complete him in ways that only she could. And God gave them great liberty. He said, you may surely eat of any fruit of the trees in the garden. And he gave them just one limitation, and that was of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. There was one keep-off sign that was posted in the garden, and that crafty serpent brought that one limitation to the attention of Eve, and he didn't come through the front door by mentioning it, but rather he baited Eve into contemplating it and mentioning it herself. And that's where the craftiness lies. Those of you who are into American history, you know the phrase, the shot heard around the world about the Battle of Lexington and Concord. These are the six verses that changed the world. So let's just start reading Genesis 3, verses 1 through 6.

And this woman said to the serpent, well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. And so Lord, we just ask you that as we settle on these particular verses and the rest of these chapters, Lord, would you just stir up in our hearts what you want us to know about you, what you want us to see, what you want to protect us from, just all those things, Lord, we ask that you would work among us in Jesus' name, amen. So what do we learn in those first verses? That Satan, in the form of a serpent, enticed Eve to question God's one limitation, to doubt therefore the goodness of the Lord, maybe the motives of God, and to consider the flattering concept that maybe she could act independently. And Satan promised some things to Eve. He promised your eyes will be opened, a whole new world of knowledge and experience would be opened. He promised you'll be like God. He assured her that she could be like her creator, and he promised knowing good and evil that she would look forward to deciding for herself now what was right and wrong, what was good and evil. And so after the enticement of the serpent and the promises, now Eve was faced with a choice. She had a decision to make at this point, and she based her decision on what she saw in front of her, what was a delight to her eyes, and probably what her emotions told her that maybe there was something to this idea that God was sort of concealing something from them, and she could possess for herself this knowledge. And so we read in that last verse six, she took the fruit and she ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who by the way was with her, and he ate. And so standing in the shadow land of these two trees in the garden, the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the woman was beguiled and enticed by the serpent to take into herself what she wrongly thought would enhance her life and liberate her from dependence on God. Because it seems reasonable that knowledge would liberate us, doesn't it? That does seem reasonable. Had the serpent not said, when you eat of it, your eyes will be open. You will be like God, knowing good and evil. And she thought she would become her own moral compass in that. And so she took the fruit, so did Adam, because they weren't satisfied with what God had given them. And they wanted to stretch out after that limitation. Now one thing we learn here is that Satan deliberately approached the woman, and she was deceived. But Adam was not deceived. He took the fruit in rebellion. Eve was deceived, but Adam rebelled. And Paul tells us this in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 11 3, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, 1 Timothy 2 14, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived. But Adam rebelled. He said in Romans 5 14, yet death reigned because of the transgression of Adam. And because of that, all mankind, all of their offspring now, carry that DNA of that transgression. And Paul explained that as well in Romans 5. He says, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, that's what we just read about, so death spread to all men because all sinned. So now the offspring of Adam and Eve would now physically return to the ground. We would be emotionally scarred, vulnerable to the lies of the serpent ourselves. But most importantly, separated from our creator. There has now become a separation from Jehovah Elohim, who has reached out in relationship. But God has a secret rescue plan, right? And we know this plan, and so that gives us hope. As we read on in verse 7, we see a stark contrast. Remember where we left off at the end of last week? That last verse said the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed. And now look at the contrast in verse 7.

They had gained knowledge, all right. And now they knew that they were naked, and they felt vulnerable because of that, and they felt shame because of that. They didn't like it. Now they were self-aware. Now they were self-focused in a way that they, I'm sure, did not expect to feel. And so the first thing they do was an attempt to cover themselves, to make their own coverings. Not only did they want to be covered between the two of them, to be not exposed between the two of them, but look at verse 8.

They even took cover from God. They hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. So the immediate result was a desire to hide from God, to be covered from God. And is that not how we feel in our lives when we sin? Is that not our immediate response to doing something that we realize God has stirred up in our heart, our conscience has told us it was wrong? Our first response is to take cover because we feel that separation from God. Now we don't want to pray. We don't want to talk to him. We want to take cover and go somewhere else. But in the next verse it says, but the Lord God, he pushed in. He was the one that initiated the contact. It says, he called to the man and said to him, where are you? Now obviously God knew exactly where he was. So that wasn't a question for God to gain knowledge, but it was a question to give Adam the opportunity right there to step out into the light. It was a question for Adam, but Adam answered. He goes, I heard you, but I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And God said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree which I commanded you not to eat? Again, God knew this isn't to gain knowledge. This is to give Adam a second opportunity to step out into the light and to admit and to say yes Yes, I did and to confess his sin and to admit it before God But instead of doing those things out of his mouth. He threw his wife under the bus and He said the woman you gave to be with me. Well, she gave me the fruit and I ate and And then the Lord God turned to the woman said what is this that you have done He's giving Eve an opportunity to step into the light to admit what she has done But she throws the serpent under the bus and she says the serpent deceived me and I ate So they lost their opportunity of stepping out into the light so the impact now the rest of this chapter explains to us the consequences of Original sin and since this is a women's Bible study I want to focus mostly in the few precious moments we have on the message to the woman But first I don't want to miss the gospel in verse 15 Because God had said that it would be we learned something about God's plan right away We learned that his plan is going to focus on the offspring of the woman and in verse 15 It says about that offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel See God started a plan right there and his plans been unfolding in his time ever since then But we learned that our redemption will not come through an angel or something like that Our redemption will come through the offspring of the woman And so we have the entire Bible now to give us a roadmap for God redeeming from this moment This is the opening of the essay And it says that the serpent will only be able to nip at his heel while the Savior will come and crush his head So we have the gospel right here. But what I want to do is focus on Genesis 3 16

And I want to spend a bit of time on this because we carry the same We are of the same gender as Eve and so it means something to us as well This verse may be really familiar to some of you to others. Maybe it's startling or it makes you angry but it's always sobering when God delineates consequences for sin and We've just experienced a crisis in humanity That is not going to be fully resolved until the new heaven and new earth These consequences don't go away until God sets everything, right So because we are self-aware and self-centered people now this blissful marriage that we enjoyed last week as we came together now, this is wrought with difficulty and our original design as the Helper to come alongside the man and complete him especially in the area of procreation is now frustrated It is frustrated in helping to multiply and fill the earth there's pain pain in pregnancy and birthing fear in pregnancy and childbirth There is pain of infertility and miscarriage and premature birth pain and childbearing But he also uses a different a phrase there to pain and bringing forth children We have pain in after once they're born we have pain with our children pain in birth defects pain in learning disabilities pain in childhood diseases pain in rebellious children pain in sibling rivalry pain in the rejection of children toward their parents bringing forth children is a painful proposition and This is just the world that we live in and why God came to redeem because it's a mess It is not to be this way Everything was frustrated what we talked about last week the design for men to work to be Occupational it is frustrated the desire for women to be nurturing to give life It is frustrated and yet we read that your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you now first I just want to say as a Parenthetical don't mistake this that male leadership in the family is a result of sin we learned last week that that was set in place before this so that's not what this is saying, but What is going on here? I have gone back and forth over this verse for 34 years Trying to decide this desire for your husband you will have a sexual Sensual desire for your husband, or you will have a leadership desire to rule over him So if we presume the first that we will have a sexually orientated Desire for our husband it is in context with the passage like raising kids is going to be really really filled with pain now however You will have a desire for a man to pursue you to be loved by a man and that sort of thing and we We see that right in innocent and not so innocent ways We see the little four-year-old in Sunday school saying I want to kiss and marry the boy across the table from her right like that Desire is right there all the way to the perversion of the adult woman. Just being addicted to physically attracting men to her Well or does it mean That leadership desire that your desire shall be for your husband's place as a leader That you will want to rule over him Since he was originally designed to rule over you that things have become upside down that you will want to as I like to say Rule over and over rule just about every idea Decision plan that he has that's what's going to come naturally and I'm telling you this morning after 34 years. I don't know But I think it's both of them. I Think our design in both of those areas is Frustrated and it's clear that as a result of the fall everything we enjoyed last week in God's design for men gender and marriage is now turned upside down and men are naturally now given To think of themselves and not love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that doesn't come naturally rather than that rather than to love and to lead it comes naturally to Be passive or to be aggressive women don't naturally take up our role to submit to our husbands and Respect him as the head of our home as Christ is head of the church that doesn't come natural to us Rather than submit it comes naturally to us to manipulate to overrule or to fear and so everyone has it tough now, but Before we just put our heads down and cry we have to remember all the chapters to come and That God sent his son for us New Testament Christians God sent his son to give us of his spirit to be victorious to say no to what comes Naturally and to buy his spirit walk in God in God's design Walk more closely with what God designed for us to do God's Jesus gives us not only coverage of our sin, but empowerment to do what God wants us to do so we are not without hope But in that moment right there in that garden that moment of loss God went to work to show Adam and Eve and drama of The what grace would look like and look at verse 21

so I want you to imagine that scene God Taking an animal an innocent animal that had done nothing wrong Slaying the animal they'd never seen that before But God slayed an animal blood was shed at that moment So that God could clean that skin maybe Adam had named this particular animal personally But God cleaned the skin and he fashioned for them this Covering to replace the covering that they had done and do you see the drama? Unfolding as he began to teach them now about sacrifice and about shedding of blood Something innocent would have to die to fully cover their sin remember, this is an opening thesis statement for all of redemption and so it gives us a clue to Everything that we're going to read throughout the rest of the Bible and this is a truth that Adam and his wife we're going to need to pass on to their children for generations to come a drama involving the sacrifice of innocent animals would remind People the hope was it would remind people of the proper covering that they would need Does it make sense now that we read so much sacrifice in the Old Testament? Because God set in motion the need Hebrews tells us without the shedding of blood. There is no remission of sin of sins. So, one application from Chapter 3, before we move into the next chapter, and I'm kind of digressing just a little bit here, excuse me, about what does this chapter about sin and deception, what can it mean to us? And you will discuss a lot in your groups, but I just want to point out that Eve's first mistake was not taking of the fruit. That was not her first mistake. Her first mistake was listening. And so, here is the progression. Listening to a lie, and I just want to apply it to one particular branch of our life. Listening to a lie of our culture, okay? Something our culture promotes and says, this is true. Listening to a lie. The next thing we do is we begin to engage with that lie. We roll it over in our minds. We think about it. We identify. We justify it. And suddenly, you know what happens? We believe it. We believe the lie over the truth, and then comes acting on it. That is when we act on it. And this is a consistent pattern of sin in our lives, because every sin begins with a lie, okay? Because every enticement comes from the evil one, and he is the father of lies. The best lies are the ones that look the most like the truth. The lie that I think, personally, that Eve listened to and rolled over most was when the serpent told her, you won't surely die. Because I'm thinking to myself, that would make sense to Eve. God just created us. Like, surely, now we're not going to die over a piece of fruit. See, that makes more sense to me than the word that proceeded from the mouth of God that said, in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Does it not make more sense? And so, as she listens to that lie and begins to roll it around in her mind, there's this idea of, yeah, yeah. God wouldn't. We wouldn't die now. So, either I misunderstood or psh, because this makes more sense. And isn't it easy for us to grab a lie that the culture tells us and just kind of go, yeah. Because we roll it around. We engage with the lie. Well, we believe some lies. I think one of the biggest lies in our culture today is that sin bears no consequences. There is no judgment. And this is a segue into our next week of study, because 10 generations from Adam, people are so wicked that God is going to send a global, a uniform judgment over the earth. We listen. Our culture tells us that there's no accounting for sin. And we listen to that. We roll it over. And we begin to agree with it. And then what happens is, then we have to change our God. Okay? If we agree with that, then we have to fashion a God, an idol God, in our image of agreement with the lie that we've believed. And so, we fashion a God who's all love, all compassion, all grandfatherly forbearance. And we've taken out any justice and righteousness and thrown it away, because it's not in agreement with the lie that we have believed and embraced. And so, we have a whole world running around, talking about a different kind of Christianity than what God has expressed to us. Well, we're not going to finish if I go on about that. So, we're going to turn the page to chapter 4. And we come face to face now with the prime example of, through Cain, of someone who walked out the knowledge of good and evil, and also a prime example of the pain experienced by Eve in bringing forth children. No childbirth can compare to the pain of one of your sons murdering the other son. It is a grave chapter. Cain is the firstborn of Adam and Eve, and Abel came next. And with these two sons, God begins to show us a rhythm that goes through the entire Bible. Paul put it this way. He said, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. So, we begin a rhythm of the natural coming first, and then the spiritual. And God keeps showing it to us over and over again. And it starts right here with the firstborn, Cain. It goes on to, I should say, Paul also told us, the first man, Adam, he became a living being, and the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The first man was of the earth, of the dust. The second man was of heaven. The first is always natural and flesh, and the next is spiritual, or life-giving. So, we see it in Cain, the firstborn, who gave full sway to the laws of his flesh, and murdered the secondborn, who had associated, we'll read here in just a minute, who had lined himself up with the proper sacrifice, the way God had expressed it. We're going to read it with Ishmael, the man of the flesh, and then Isaac, the one who came by promise. We'll read it with Esau, the firstborn who loved his natural cravings and cared not for the inheritance that was to come. And then Jacob, although not perfect, stretched out after the inheritance. We see it with Saul, the firstborn king of Israel, who not firstborn, I'm sorry, the first king of Israel, who followed his flesh in disobedience to God, and was replaced with David, again, although not perfect, a man after God's heart, who was stretching out after the things of the Lord. And we see it in general, with the law that came first, that could not save us, could not redeem us, and then the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who had the power to redeem us. So, I just want to say there's this rhythm that's going, that we can enjoy in God's Word, and it helps us to hang things better. But what I want to do is read Genesis 4, 3 to 5.

and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock. Do you see they're different offerings?

So, Cain was very angry, and his face fell. And we find out that Abel followed the pattern of the drama of sacrifice that God showed to Adam and Eve. He followed that in worshiping the Lord. He aligned himself, even if it didn't make sense to him that something innocent should die. Why should he take of his flock and offer that to the Lord? That was the drama that God showed, and so he grasped that, and he said, okay then, I'll believe it. I'll follow along with that. But Cain, on the other hand, look at what he did. He chose his own method of worship, which was a grain offering, something that he produced with his own hands. I'm sure you can be quite proud of what you produce yourself. And this is what he chose to bring to the Lord because it made more sense to him. And he did it in his own time. It says in the course of time. He did it when he wanted. He was in charge. He decided, and this is where I say, it gives us an example of one who has tasted the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. I decide. I know good. I know evil. I decide. I am my moral compass. If I want to bring a grain offering, I bring a grain offering. And so he gave full sway to the natural man. Cain wasn't rejected because of the offering. His offering was rejected because of Cain. And when God rejected Cain's self-righteous efforts in that offering, Cain became angry and depressed. It says his face fell. And so Cain rejected his creator. And he also rejected his brother who had aligned with his creator. And we get an understanding from the fourth chapter of the Bible of the persecution that happens to anyone who aligns themselves with their creator. Those that have rejected their creator will hate them as well. And so he took him out and in a premeditated way, he murdered his brother. And then I want you to go down to verse 9. Look at God's confrontation of grace. Again, he asks those same, which we translated in English, where and what. Look at this, verse 9.

He said. Oh, and Cain said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?

And again, just like God did to his parents, he gave Cain an opportunity to confess his sin and to receive forgiveness for that. Remember, God said to Adam, where are you? And Adam could have stepped into the light. He said to Eve, what have you done? She could have stepped into the light. Same thing for Cain. Where is your brother? What have you done? There was an opportunity. I just see in this the reminder that this is God's heart. He always gives that opportunity, but not forever. It doesn't last. I'm not saying it's just one time, but I'm just saying we don't want to think that God's just there forever. He gives us opportunity. But rather than admit his wrong and confess it to God, Cain lied. He walked in a agreement with the father of lies, rather than an agreement with his creator. And then later on, he complained. And so, we have this warning. We have this warning for us that not only do we, all us girls here, not only do we have the DNA of sin, we have the DNA of self-righteousness. This is how it can play itself out. This is one of the faces of sin, is self-righteousness. We too have a desire to pronounce what's good and evil, to decide for ourselves. And then to act upon what we decide is good, like bringing a grain offering, and to disregard what God has spoken is good, like a sacrifice, because a sacrifice is messier. Who wants to think about that? Grain offering is nice and neat and tidy. And in so many ways in our life, we would just as soon focus on something that is just a little nicer. Let's help people. Let's not tell them they're sinners. That's messy. But you know what? They gotta know that they're sinners if they're going to be redeemed. But it makes sense to us to just be nice, just play nice. So what do we do? Well, first of all, just the humility of just walking with God and saying, Lord, just show me. Help me understand. Help me to know more. The centering ourselves on the sacrifice of Jesus, the core, core of our being and of what we believe is the sacrifice of Jesus is what covers our sins. And then feeding on God's plan that we go through every time that we gather. But one last comment I want to make before you have discussion, and this is about back to the difficulty in bringing forth children. Do you think this murderous act on Cain's part was Eve's fault as the mother? Maybe he didn't get as much of Juana as his brother. You know, maybe that one time when she pretended to be taking a nap and he was stealing a cookie, she's going, if I'd arrested that rebellion when he was five, do you know what I'm saying? So many of you think, are tempted to think sometimes, that if your child does something bad or wrong or goes rebellious, what did I do wrong? Am I, all I'm saying here is I feel like somebody needs to hear this. I've always said in the same way that we can't take full credit for how awesome our kids have turned out, look what I did. We also cannot take full responsibility for their error because it pleased God to give us all a free choice. Look at these two brothers, diametrically opposed. Now young mamas, I am not saying don't do a good job. We do a good job. But God, let's just go through the logic here, okay? Because people ask the question, how can there be evil in the world if God is love? So let's go through the logic, right? God possesses, it's part of his character, the ability to choose. He has choice. He made us in his image, therefore we have choice. Choice requires both good and evil, otherwise there would not be a choice to make. Therefore that is what is in the world. Love requires a choice. So I think I'm just going to pray and I'm just going to let you guys discuss. Father, I just want to praise you and thank you that you've given it into all of our lives to be able to study this passage right now. Lord, every time we meet your word, there's something new, something that meets our life at a new season, at a new age, whatever's going on. And Lord, I thank you for that. I just thank you and praise you for that. In these areas, what we have inside of us that is a propensity to sin and a propensity to be self-righteous, Lord, would you work in your children's hearts? Would you show us, would you make level paths for our feet, Lord? Would you show us the way that is right? Would you help us to follow after every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord, even if it doesn't make sense after we roll it around? Lord, help us to hold on to your word, hold on to your commands, Lord. Hold on to your heart, knowing that you have given it for a good purpose. Lord, I pray that you would just bless these ladies as they discuss, and thank you for our time. In Jesus' name, amen.