Good morning Green Hills!  If we have not yet met, my name is Steve Muncherian.  I am an Elder here at Green Hills and this morning it is my privilege to share God’s word with us.

This summer we have been exploring Systematic Theology.  Systematic Theology being about seeking to systematically categorize what the Bible teaches – seeking to understand from what’s in the Bible as the basis for what we believe.  And more to the point of what we’ve been looking at – how what we believe determines how we live.  Theology Matters is not only about systematic theological matters – but about why theology matters in the everyday reality of where we do life.

Since July we’ve been exploring God and how God reveals Himself to us and how God has created us and why.  And why all that matters to us in the day-to-day of our lives.

Today we are focusing on what theologians call Hamartiology. 

Can we all say that together?  Hamartiology.

Which is the study of… sin! 

Anybody here have no clue what sin is?  Like wow.  New concept.  Right? 

Personally I’m still trying to figure out why I was chosen for this topic.

God creates humanity in His image – puts Adam and Eve in a garden – paradise – with an unimaginable relationship with God – and then here we are – in the world we live in – experiencing tragedy and sorrow – heartache – misery – struggling with our addictions and failures – our deep-seated personal shame – looking at the disaster of human relations between peoples and nations – husbands and wives – within families – even in the natural disasters – all of that working against us despite our best efforts.

Question:  What went wrong?

The answer is… sin.

Which we get.  And more to the point of where we want to go this morning – what difference does knowing the answer make in how we do life?

And to explore that answer – the practical side of Hamartiology – were going back to the beginning to one of the most familiar accounts in the Bible – Genesis 3 – starting at verse 1.

Familiar because even people who may not know much else about the Bible know about Adam and Eve – the snake and the fruit. 

Meaning – we need to be careful not to take what’s here for granted and default to sermon snooze mode – like we got this.  What’s here in many ways is the most important chapter in God’s answer to what went wrong and why knowing the answer matters to each of us.

Together?  Follow as I read – I’m reading from the ESV.

Genesis 3:1: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”   

And the woman said to the serpent, “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 when 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. 

Let’s pause there.

Verse 1 introduces us to the serpent. 

Some people think the serpent was a real snake that talked – kind of like Narnia.  Some think the serpent is more like a symbol of evil impulses in the human heart. 

Genesis records what God has done in real time in a real place with real people so it makes sense that what we're seeing here is not a myth or some symbolic representation of spiritual ideals.

And verse 1 tells us that the serpent is a God created “beast of the field.”  Which identifies this serpent with all the other real time creatures that God created – and that God created good. 

Meaning that the real time serpent isn’t evil. 

But the intelligence – the craftiness and cleverness of the argument and discussion – the deception behind the temptation – tell us there’s more going on here than just a talking serpent.  What we’re being introduced to here is the person and character of Satan on display. 

The point is that Satan uses this snake for his evil purposes.  Satan, who we’re told in Scripture appears as an angel of light – attractive, reasonable, enticing – who Scripture tells us is the father of lies.

Satan’s strategy here is a study in temptation and the process of falling to temptation that we all know way too well.

Not too many years ago when I was a student at Biola – I drove two other students to a basketball game at Occidental College – up in LA.

After the game – as we were leaving I got lost driving off campus and ended up on a path that I thought was a road until we came to a stair case.  And of course the sensible – rational thinking – thing to do would have been to admit my mistake – turn around – and go back the way we came.

But my male ego was on the line and I really wanted to impress the girl sitting next to me – these were pre-Karen days – and from where we were there didn’t seem to be too many stairs and I thought, “We can make this.  No problem.  I got this.”  So I started down the stair case – in my ’72 Pinto.

After the first flight of stairs – this girl was looking at me with this kind of horrified look on her face – and I’m thinking maybe this wasn’t the best idea.  And at that point we could’ve gotten turned down another path.

But, nooo the temptation to prove I was right – I had it –I’m in total control – and my trying to impress this girl was way too strong and I literally launched us down the next flight of stairs.

And at the bottom – with my car making a really scary clanking sound – and my head pounding because I’d smashed up against the roof – and my two passengers very not impressed with my driving skills – I’m asking myself: “What kind of idiot would do this?  Why didn’t I turn back?”

Have you been there?  Temptation that overwhelms our doing what we know is the right thing to do.

We’re bombarded with temptation all day long.  Temptations to lust and envy and gluttony and pride and bitterness and on and on.  Ultimately a choice to trust ourselves verses trusting and surrendering to God.  It’s a universal struggle.

If God says “Don’t eat fruit from that tree” – the garden being pretty good size – if we’re Adam what is the one place we don’t go?  Anywhere near that tree.  Or this idea.  Get an ax.  God never said not to chop it down.  Whack.  Problem solved.

But no.  There we are at the tree.  Or alone with the internet.  Or alone with someone we know we shouldn’t be alone with.  Or listening to or watching what’s pulling us away from God.  Marinating in our anger and depression and pride and wondering why we’re so messed up.

For us, that’s just dumb.  Thinking we have the ability to resist temptation.  That we have such great self-control. 

Satan’s process – using the serpent – is pretty obvious and familiar.  Arouse desire for what God has forbidden.  Get us focused anywhere else but on God.  Thinking we’ve got control of what we’re getting ourselves into.  Trust yourself verses trusting God. 

It would be a good idea to turn around and not go there – down the stairs – but we rationalize the desire.  Adam eat the fruit.  Impress the girl.

The end result we know is sin. 

A basic definition of sin – sin is anything we think, say, or do that is contrary to the will of God.  That’s what happens here.  God said no and they did it anyway.

Eve acts on the lie.  Chooses to disobey the direct command of God.

Then the scene shifts to Adam.  There’s still hope for our race.  God had placed the responsibility for humanity on him – where Adam goes so goes the race. 

At the end of verse 6 – Eve gives the fruit to Adam “and he ate.”

Those ominous words are the beginning of the disaster of human history.  Our fall into sin and death.  The answer to the “What went wrong?” question.  Adam choosing to disobey God. 

Let’s go on.  Verse 7: Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.  And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 

And he – Adam – said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 

He – God – said, “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” 

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

“Naked” in Hebrew means… “naked”. 

Let’s think about that.  Before the fall they were naked.  Now they’re still naked but it’s like they’re looking at themselves and seeing themselves for the first time.

It’s a comparison. 

Before the fall they were focused on the garden – the work God gave them – God’s purposes for them – honoring each other – honoring God – their relationship with God there in the garden.

But now – after the fall – now they’re aware of themselves.  What is the birth of being self-conscious – not in a good way.  Which is something we all struggle with.  Being self-focused verses being God focused. 

Clothing is about security.  Aside from keeping warm or for physical protection – what we use clothing for is to cover ourselves because of our self-consciousness.  Or we use clothing to create an impression about ourselves.  How we want others to think of us. 

Hiding is a reaction to guilt – to shame.  They know they’ve messed up big time.  Epic failure.  Now they’ve got a conscience telling them, “You’re guilty.”

We get this because we live this.  As humans have a universal understanding that something is messed up with us.  Every culture on the planet seems to have some understanding of this.  We know we don’t measure up. 

Notice here how all that comes out in all the blame.  Adam blames Eve.  Adam blames God for giving him Eve.  Eve blames the snake.  All of which in a sense is true.  But it ducks the real issue of personal responsibility for our own sins.

It is rare today for someone to take up front personal responsibility for their own wrong doing.  Have you noticed that? 

It was someone else’s fault.  It was fate.  It was a set of unfortunate circumstances.  Dumb luck.  Beneath all that we blame God.  God is responsible for all the suffering in the world today and the breakdown of creation.

Notice the three come clean questions that God asks – that are aimed at cutting through the blame game and getting Adam and Eve to come clean about their sin – to get real with God and each other.

First: “Where are you?”  Which is not about location.  God knows where they are.  Right?

“Where are you?” is like asking, “How’s that going for you?”

“Since you decided to eat the fruit – now that you’re in control of your life – how’s that going for you?”  “How’s your relationship with Eve?”  “How’s your relationship with Me?” 

We could ask ourselves, “Where am I?”  Moving through the stuff of life – maybe we’re not so sure or maybe things are not so good – at least things are not where we’d like them to be.

Sin messes with us.  With our relationships.  Especially in our relationship with God.

Covered in fig leaves – hiding in the garden – having issues with Eve and God – Adam needs to come to grips with this: “I am not where I want to be.  I’m certainly not where I was.”

Second question: “Who told you that you were naked?” 

God never told them that.  They never knew that before – not in the way they know it now.  Something’s changed.  Meaning: “Who have you been listening to beside Me?”

We could ask ourselves the same question.  What voices are we listening to besides God’s?  Other people in our lives?  The media?  The latest post? 

Satan speaks to us through a whole lot of different channels – streaming services – blogs.

Any voice that’s not in sync with God is potentially going to tempt us to sin.

Any voice.  Ponder that.

Is our life lived under the authority of God’s word or being influenced – tempted – by something else?

God’s third question comes in two parts.  One addressed to the man: “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”  Part two is to the woman.  “What is this that you have done?” 

Notice that essentially both questions are the same.  “What did you do?” 

That’s personal.  There is no grey area here.  Either he or she ate the fruit or they didn’t.  It’s that simple.  There’s no wiggle room for pointing the finger at someone else and getting away with it.  Both of them tried.  But both of them still come to the same bottom line: “...and I ate.”   

Any thought, word, or deed of ours that is out of sync with God’s will is sin.  Disobedience is disobedience.  No matter how much we try to rationalize it – minimize it – avoid dealing with it.  Sin is sin. 

The questions God asks are focused on getting Adam and Eve to come clean – to knock off the covering and hiding and blaming and to take personal responsibility – where they are with each other – with God – what’s gone wrong – is because of their individual sin.

“I ate the fruit.  I sinned.”

Which is instructive for us – we need to do a reality check and not just blame Adam – or anyone else.  Adam may have been the head of the race – but every one of us has confirmed by our own sin that Adam made the same decision each of us would have made.  We can’t blame Adam.  We can’t blame God.

Let’s go on.  Verse 14:  The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 

We’ll skip verse 15 for now and come back to it.

Going on at verse 16: To the woman He said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.  Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

And to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Sin always results in CONSEQUENCES.

In verse 14 there are consequences for the serpent – which isn’t about the serpent but about Satan who uses the serpent.  God telling Satan what to go do with himself.  “Eat dirt.”

Words that describe humiliation and shame.  These words are there to remind us that Satan has been humiliated – is humiliated – will be humiliated.  Satan is a defeated adversary.  Amen?!!?

In verse 16 there are consequences for the woman.

First:  Pain in pregnancy and childbirth.  Every mother who’s gone through this gets this.  Physical pain. 

The word “pain” in Hebrew also has the idea of emotional sorrow.  Mothers know the world they’re bringing their children into.  And our struggle to protect and guide them through all that. 

Second consequence:  Pain in marriage.  Desire contrary to her husband’s and his ruling over you – there’s a leadership struggle in the partnership.

God creates Adam and Eve for each other – brings them together in marriage – in partnership – what God intended for us as a great blessing – for His glory. 

But our self-focused – selfish – I want to be God – sin just totally messes up the relationship between wives and husbands.  Between women and men, period. 

In verse 17 God speaks to the man.  More consequences.

First, we learn more about Adam’s sin.  He listened to his wife.

Talk about having the air sucked out of a room.

Let’s be careful.  There are times when the wisest thing we husbands can do is listen to our wives.

All the wives say… Amen!!

But here Adam is guilty because he listened to the voice of his wife instead of listening to the voice of God. 

Which is a huge problem in marriage today – a husband who abdicates leadership to his wife – who refuses to step up – emotionally engage – and lead, as he himself follows after God. 

And then – consequence – God says that the ground will be cursed.  “In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.” 

The word for “pain” here is the same word used to describe the pain of childbearing.  “In sorrow you shall eat of it…”

As men we find so much of our purpose – our value – our self-worth in our work.  It’s the way we are.

We’re together on this?  Work is not a curse.  Work is a blessing.

God creates a garden for man to steward and enjoy – that provides abundantly all of their needs.

And now, the land is not the way it was created to be.  Man is reduced to hard unending work and struggle accompanied by anxiety and stress and pressure – and sorrow that’s the consequence of sin.

Verse 19 tells us that that pain goes on until we return to the dust we came from.

Painful labor – stress – sorrow – death.  Sin and its consequences.

In Genesis, God creates… creation.  Everything out of nothing.  God creates Adam and Eve – humanity – us – in His image.  Then Adam – who represents all of us – yet to be born – humans – Adam disobeys God – sins – so that sin is brought into our humanity.

Meaning that each of us is born into sin and hopeless separation from God – forever.  And every one of us – by our own sin – has confirmed the choice Adam made.

Maybe sitting here on cushy grey colored chairs Sunday after Sunday – or rushing through the stuff of our lives – or maybe Genesis 3 is so familiar – maybe we can get a little detached or distracted from the depth of what that means.

“Total depravity” is a theological term.  It describes us before God.

Meaning that there’s nothing within us that’s worthy of God’s approval.  And every one of us displays our total depravity as thoroughly and completely as we can.  That is who we are individually and as a race since Adam sinned.

We live in a country that condones the murder of children.  That allows women and children to be enslaved.  That champions moral depravity.  That wages war for our own economic and political benefit.  Where justice is by common consensus – meaning right can be wrong and wrong can be right.

Where violence and fear are becoming ways of life.  Where our society and culture are unraveling at the seams and the future is deeply concerning.  Chaos is global and it’s local and it’s personal. 

Every day we glimpse our depravity in the places we do life. 

Poverty and heartbreak and disease and psychosis and pain and murder and abuse and addictions and broken homes – broken lives – people living in bondage – darkness – knowing no hope.

We experience the reality of that our homes and in our hearts and with what each of us personally struggles with.  Often that comes with a sense of alienation – from God – from others – from who we were created to be. 

Some sins seem so much a part of us – our language or thoughts or what we expose ourselves to – how we view ourselves or others – some sins are so familiar that we don’t even realize we’re sinning.  We’re so captivated – bound – by our sin.

Sin deludes us into thinking that we’re in control.  That we can play at sin – giving in to our little indulgences – and still remain in control of our lives.  And yet, the more we sin the more we long for more sin.  Still thinking we’re in control.  So sin always binds us in ways we aren’t even aware of.

Sin always comes with consequences.  Sin enslaves.  Sin shames.  Sin kills.  Sin estranges us from God… forever. 

Hamartiology is the study of what went wrong – our sin.

We get this because we cannot escape our sin.  No matter how hard we try.  Whatever resolutions we make.  Whatever effort we put in to changing our lives.  We’re sinners and we’re good at it.

Harsh.  But reality.  We’re together?

I’m not hearing a lot of “Amens”.

Thankfully – God does not leave Adam and Eve there in the midst of all those consequences.  And, God does not leave us there. 

Look back with me at verse 15 – in the midst of all these consequences – God speaking – to Satan: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

In the midst of all these consequences verse 15 is one of the most astounding statements in the Bible.  The early church fathers called it the “Protevangelium” – meaning “the first gospel.” 

The first gospel because it predicts enmity – hostility – between the offspring of Satan and the offspring of the woman.  An ongoing spiritual conflict we experience in the flesh and blood of our humanity between those living under the influence and authority of Satan and those living under the influence and authority of God. 

And the first gospel because verse 15 gives us hope.

Here – the offspring of the woman is the focus.  Specifically – notice that God moves from “offspring” – meaning generations of many descendants to one descendant: “he shall” – masculine singular – descendant of the woman.

We get this because we’re about 20 centuries on the other side of Bethlehem. 

The virgin birth of Jesus.  Jesus – by an act of the Holy Spirit – the offspring of a woman.

And Jesus’ crucifixion.  What God describes here as the bruising of his – masculine singular – heal. 

To “bruise” has the idea of crushing or overwhelming an opponent.  The total destruction of an opponent. 

But notice the limits.  The serpent can only bruise the heal of the man who walks upright.  But the man can crush the head of the serpent who crawls in the dust.

There are limits to the destruction by the serpent and an overwhelming finality to the victory of the – singular – man. 

In verse 15 God puts Satan on notice of what will be future history – the crushing victory of the cross and the reality of the resurrection – the promised certain victory of Christ. 

In the midst of the consequences of sin – God holds out a promise to Adam and Eve.  What went wrong God will make right.

So, bottom line – why does all this matter?

The end point of Hamartiology is not about wallowing in the depths of our depravity and brokenness and separation from God.  The study of our sin should point us to the salvation of God in Christ.

This morning we have the opportunity – as we do each first Sunday of the month – we have the opportunity to share communion together – the Lord’s Table. 

In 1 Corinthians 11 – Paul reminds the church at Corinth that Jesus on the night He was betrayed Jesus took the bread of the Passover meal and broke it and said, “This is my body which is for you.” 

And then Jesus took the cup after supper – the cup representing salvation – and Jesus applied it to Himself saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”

Jesus using the symbols of the Passover meal to point forward to what will happen on the cross – what has happened on the cross – the bruising crushing defeat of Satan.

As horrendous and all-encompassing the consequences of our sin – in Christ sin does not have mastery over us – in Christ we are set free – in Christ we triumph over sin and death – in Christ we have life and victory.  In Christ what went wrong is made right by God… forever.

So, coming to communion – God being brutally honest with us about our sin – this is our opportunity to come clean with God about our sin – to take ownership for the sin in our life – agreeing with God – “I ate the fruit.”

As the servers are passing the cups with bread and juice…

If you are disciple of Jesus – trusting Him as your Savior and Lord – as the bread and juice are passed – take advantage of the time to come clean with God about where you are in your relationship with Him – to confess sin – to cry out for forgiveness – to repent of sin and turn from it – to choose to get rid of stuff or cancel subscriptions – to seek accountability or reconciliation – whatever it takes.  

And to thank God for Christ’s victory on the cross and the life He gives us by grace through faith in Jesus.

If you’re not yet a follower of Jesus – trusting Him as your Savior – then no pressure – no shame – feel free to let the cups pass by.

But also – if you’re not yet a follower of Jesus – take advantage of the time here to talk with God about where you are in your relationship with Him.  If you talk – even if that’s thoughts in your head – He’ll hear you.

Coming clean means agreeing with God that you – like all of us – are a sinner and that you – like all of us – need to trust in Jesus as your Savior.  Ask God for forgiveness and turn your life over to Him.

If you’d like to talk with someone about that – after the service I’m up front or there are people on the back patio by the connect carts and prayer table who would love to talk with you.

I’m going to stop talking for a bit and give each of us some alone time with God.  After everyone has received the bread and the juice I will lead us in prayer as we take the bread and juice together.

_________________________

As a general reference for this message I used the sermon series by Ray Stedman, “Understanding Man” (12.16.1967-03.24.1968)

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.