Genesis Four: If Only We'd Trust Him

Many decades ago, when Nancy and I lived in Missouri, we met Sallee. She was such a sweet-spirited child of God, and we enjoyed our friendship. Not long before we met, she’d been diagnosed with cancer. I remember when I visited her in the hospital, the nauseating odor of death saturated every square foot of her room. The tumor had grown so large in her abdomen, it looked like a soccer ball. As soon as I opened her door and smelled her death, I wanted to turn around and step back into the hospital corridor. But I knew that would embarrass her, so I pulled a chair to her bedside and visited for a while.

 

Everyone familiar with the Scriptures knows that cancer, along with every other disease known to humanity, is a result of sin’s entrance into the human race. Please note this:  I AM NOT saying people contract cancer because of their sins. I AM NOT saying that. That would be like presuming like the Lord’s Twelve presumed when they asked Jesus about the man born blind: “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” ³ Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

 

In the Garden of Eden – as will be true in the final Garden described for us in the prophets and in Revelation – there was no sin and therefore there was no disease, or death, or pain, or sorrow. That’s why we read in Isaiah’s prophecy of the final Garden: “Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will behold a far-distant land . . . ²⁴ And no resident will say, “I am sick”; The people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.” (Isaiah 33:17, 24)

 

But that future Garden is still to come. The Genesis Garden was then – and we still live in its aftermath. And although Sallee’s body was being slowly eaten by that cancer, she had HOPE, because she knew her Savior would soon call her home. She knew in that place God would give her a new body which would be nothing like the one in this life. Sallee believed the promise God made through the prophet Jeremiah (29:11): “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Hope. If I can get anything across during this message is that God has given us HOPE. And the REASON for our hope is directly traceable to the Garden of Paradise – because God sent Adam and Eve away from it.

 

Last week I speculated that the reason Cain killed his brother had at its root his anger at God for having banished his parents from the garden. The ripple effect of their sins took root in Cain’s heart and eventually moved him to murder. I also believe that the root of his ANGER was a disbelief in God's trustworthiness, a disbelief that God REALLY wanted the best not only for his parents, but for him and the rest of the family. Cain lived under demonic disbelief because he chose to look only at what was seen and not at what was unseen.

Have you known people like that? Of course you have; People who suffer tragedy and scream at heaven - “WHY?” before they turn away from Him. Have you met people who lose loved ones to accident, or illnesses, or murders, and on and on and on. And Satan whispers in their ears – “See? What kind of a God of love is this One to whom you’ve given your life?”

 

Israel’s history – as well as the history of the Church – is replete with such examples. Not long after God rescued the nation from Egyptian slavery, they grumbled and said (Deuteronomy 1:27) ‘Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.” And at the other end of Israel’s Old Testament history, when God told them He loved them, they replied (Malachi 1:2) “How have you loved us?”

 

We need not give further examples of people turning from God in either the New Testament or the Church era. The point should be pretty clear by now – and that point is this: We ALL have a little – or a lot – of Cain inside us, quick to find fault with God, to blame God for whatever it is we don’t like, choosing to see with mortal eyes and not with eyes of faith which tell us  God is GOOD, regardless of how things look in the natural.

So, let me repeat what I said a minute ago because it helps to make the point I need to make in this message: I believe Cain’s murderous attitude toward Abel had at its root his anger at God. And hear this as well: The root of that anger was his refusal to believe what God did in that Garden was for everyone’s eternal welfare. When Cain focused on the banishment of his parents from Paradise and on his own labor in the fields, he could not recognize the wondrous love of God in the realm of the unseen.

I don’t believe God banished Adam and Eve from that Garden Paradise because He was angry with them. He banished them because of His inexplicable love and protection.

 

How is that? For the answer, let’s now look at today’s text in that third chapter of Genesis. We pick up the story after sin entered the human race and God was about to banish our parents from the garden: 

 

(Genesis 3:21ff) The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. ²² Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— ²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”

 

Like Sallee’s cancer, the stench of the sin which began in the garden has by now surely saturated every square inch of God's creation. No wonder St Paul tells us: (Romans 8:22-23) “²² For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. ²³ And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”

 

It doesn’t require a degree in rocket science to recognize that sin ALWAYS gives birth to more sin. God tells us through St James (1:14-15) “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”

 

Just think for a moment what heaven would be like if God had not sent our first parents away. Moses tells us: “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” If they’d eaten from the Tree of Life, they – AND WE who are their progeny – would live FOREVER in a hopeless, sin-suffused state.

 

Like an incurable gangrenous cancer, Salle and all of humanity – that includes you and me – could never know the unspeakable joy of an eternal intimacy with our holy God. And this promise of Revelation could NEVER come to pass. Listen to some of what St John saw waiting for the Christian – and only the Christian (Revelation 22:3ff):

 

There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.”

 

Which brings me to this additional point of my message: Oh, Holy Spirit, help us to trust God to ALWAYS do what is right for us – even when things seem to be going all wrong. Even when we do not understand what is happening in and around us. Even when we don’t LIKE what is happening in and around us.

 

Cain would NOT have been angry if he had trusted God to do right, even if he didn’t understand or LIKE what God had done – either to their parents or in the reception of his offerings. This point is exquisitely applicable to you and to me in 2024 because our anger blinds us to God's goodness.

 

Christian, please hear this: Faith that pleases God is all about trusting our Father – who Himself IS love – and who can NEVER do anything that is wrong, unjust, spiteful, or capricious. Surely that is likely one reason Scripture tells us from one end of the Book to the other, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (See Hebrews 11:6)

It was their unswerving trust in a trustworthy God that brought approval to those heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. It was their Romans 8:28 faith – unshakable confidence that God causes ALL THINGS to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

It was their Romans 8:28 faith that propelled those men and women forward with God – even those who “were tortured . . . ³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated ³⁸ . . . wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.” (Hebrews 11:35ff)

The biblical writer goes on to finish commending those ordinary men and women this way: ³⁹ And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

Did you catch that? I hope you did. Those whom God approved because of their faith DID NOT, in their lifetimes, received what He had promised them.

That is such an extraordinary statement, isn’t it? Like Job’s attitude centuries earlier, they also held fast to their faith, proclaiming in essence: “Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him.”

Oh, how I would love faith like that. And there was a time when I was SURE I had that kind of faith. For the better part of 45 YEARS, I silently prided myself, sort of like Peter prided himself, that I had a rock-solid faith.

And then Nancy had her hemorrhagic stroke in 2019 while we were visiting Florida. Some of you here today remember that time.

And in an instant my confidence in God collapsed. I still remember weeping out loud as I drove the interstate toward my friend’s home where I would spend the night. I’d just left Nancy at the Rehabilitation hospital for the evening, and I was begging God to help my unbelief.

I desperately wanted to trust Him with Nancy. And I was so ashamed of myself that I was not doing so in the same way I’d always urged others to trust Him when they struggled with devastating life-events.

I’ve told this story before. Some of you might remember it. I tell it again because it is so germane to my point. Suddenly God broke into my thoughts. I will never forget the two questions He asked me while I was driving. The first was this: “Richard, what do you know about Me?”

His question was so abrupt, it stopped my tears. I thought about the question for a few moments and then I said: “Lord, I know you cause all things, even nightmarish things, to work together for good. I also know You will never let me be tested above what I am able to bear. And I know you never leave me, never forsake me, that you are always with me, even in my nightmares.”

 

I was about to continue my litany of the things I knew about God when He interrupted me with this follow-on question: “Why do you know those things are true?”

 

I didn’t need to think about my response to that question. I answered, “Because the Bible tells me so.” And then the Holy Spirit suddenly connected the dots for me. All of my questions and my doubts and fears and uncertainties, they all find their answers in what I know to be true about God because God said those things are true of Himself and of His relationship with me through Christ Jesus.

 

Don’t misunderstand me, please. I do not mean to suggest God always heals or reunites or fixes everything that is broken. He clearly does not always fix it. But OH! How much better my experience would have been during those many months in 2019 after Nancy’s stroke if I’d been able to place myself, my wife, and our circumstances into the hands of our most loving Father – and leave them there.

“Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer” – and LEAVE them there.

 

So, let me try to summarize what I have tried to say in this message: Cain didn’t trust God's goodness. If he HAD, he would not have done what he did to his brother. But this message is not only about Cain. It’s about me. And you. And I suggest that our lack of complete, all-embracing, and undiluted faith and confidence in God's PERSONAL love for us is what always leads us to seek our own way, and not His. Our lack of confidence in His trustworthiness is the ROOT of all our disquiet and frustrations and fears.

 

Let me repeat that for emphasis: Our lack of confidence in His trustworthiness is the ROOT of all our disquiet and frustrations and fears.

 

So, Christian – whatever are your circumstances today – what do YOU know to be true?  And just as important, why do you know it to be true? 

 

If what you know about God and His relationship with you is NOT based on His infallible and eternal truth found throughout His holy Bible, if what you know about Him is not rooted and nurtured in God’s eternal truth, then your life – as is mine – is in grave danger of collapsing around you when life’s storms ravage across your life-journey like a three-mile-wide tornado.

 

Calvary reveals so many things about our God that we could spend a lifetime unpacking them, and still hardly be at the beginning. But this one thing floats to the top of my consciousness when I look at Calvary’s hill: God is so much more merciful to us than we can ever comprehend this side of eternity. When we are faithless, He remains faithful to His covenantal promise to us; He remains faithful to His unconditional promises to us. When we deserve nothing less than judgment, He instead wraps His arms around us and draws us close to His chest.

 

It is not possible to please God if we do not trust Him. Cain needed more than anything else to trust God's goodness, even as he worked the fields by the sweat of his forehead and the blisters on his hands. And I needed to better trust God's goodness even as Nancy was lying in an ICU bed surrounded by tubes and wires and high-tech machines.

 

And perhaps some of you might also need to better trust God's goodness as you struggle every day – every day – with things that seem on the surface to give you reason to question His never-failing, never-diminishing love and care and protection for you.

 

And we should also know this: Such confidence in God despite the tornados is supernaturally sourced. It is not anything anyone can gin up on our own. We might as well try to change the time the sun rises in the morning. But it IS something our supernatural God wants to give those who ask for it, to those who seek for it, to those who keep knocking on His door for it.

 

Will you join me then to keep asking for it, keep seeking for it, keep knocking for it? He tells us throughout Scripture as He told Jeremiah: (33:3)  ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

Genesis -- Ripple Effects

Sermon

Ripple Effects

 

The root cause of all our suffering, our loss, our heartaches . . .  It all started in the Garden, didn’t it? It all started with the one whom St Paul called the ‘first Adam” (see 1 Corinthians 15:45).  And, ever since the Garden of Eden, Man has been trying to fix what was broke there. Education. Politics. Money. We’ve tried it all over and over again. But we are today in the same sorry mess that we’ve ever been.

 

Death. Destruction. Devastation. That’s why God hates sin. It has perverted and destroyed everything our God made for us in the beginning when He created the heavens and the earth. As we’ve already seen, He created it all for the comfort of the crown of His creation – Mankind. And sin’s ruination of it all continues nearly unabated to this very moment in 2024.

 

Adam and Eve’s fall was never in God’s plan, although our omniscient God knew precisely what was to happen in that Garden before He even planted  it. Nevertheless, while sin was never in His plan, yet even before the first day of Creation, the Trinity had conferred among Himself as to when and how and where God the Son would become – as St Paul called Him – the “Last Adam,” (see 1 Corinthians 15:45) and reconcile all those trapped in the first Adam.

 

Listen – and this is important – at our ages, we are all very aware that sin is never merely private. It might be kept secret for a time, but no sin is ever private. Our sins always produce ripples that eventually wash over not only our lives, but also the lives of others – even the lives of strangers.

 

Such a truth is simply a spiritual LAW – a law stronger than the law of gravity. Listen to what Moses warned: (Numbers 32:23) “Be sure your sin will catch up with you.” And St Paul’s words to Timothy: (1 Timothy 5:24) “The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after.”

 

And yet, like Adam blamed his wife for his sin, and Eve blamed to serpent – so many of us, even in the pews and the pulpits – so many of us who SHOULD know better – so many of us still rather to rationalize and otherwise excuse our sins – or blame others for them.

 

And I cannot help but be reminded of this text in Scripture when Paul wrote: (Romans 2:4-5) “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

 

Before we get too much further into today’s message, let’s turn to our text for today. It’s from the third chapter of Genesis: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! ⁵ For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”

 

The next thing we read is of God walking in His Garden only to discover Adam and Eve trying to hide from Him. The man then confessed the obvious, that he’d eaten from the forbidden tree. And then, like two toddlers with their hands caught in the cookie jar, they start the blame game.

 

But now back to the text in this third chapter. God cursed the Serpent and then pronounced judgment on the women: “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

 

And to the man, God said: Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

 

Let’s now finish the chapter which reveals the utter mercy of the One who was about to judge their sin: The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”

 

We’ll look at this act of mercy in more detail next time, but for now let us never forget: Sin always, at all times and in all places carries with it Judgment. Sometimes that judgment is quick. Other times, it takes a while to manifest itself. But again, as Moses warned, “Be sure your sin will find you out.”

Adam and Eve experienced a quick judgment. But their sin also resulted in a long-range ripple effect, an effect that would cause them untold grief in their own immediate family.

 

The Garden God planted was not only beautiful to look at, but it was a beautiful place in which to live. The first couple didn’t have to endure the broiling sun beating down on them as they tended the plants. They didn’t need cool cloths to wipe the sweat dripping from their bodies. They didn’t need to fabricate a flyswatter to kill annoying flies and mosquitos. They were not frustrated by weeds and rodents decimating their crops – or any other things that are the bane of farmers and gardeners. All those were to come after the fall.

The Garden was – well – a Paradise. A kind of heaven on earth. And when they sinned, they immediately received the consequences: Banishment from the garden.

But like I just said, sometimes the results of our sins are delayed – as happened with their first two sons. Moses tells us: (Genesis 4:3-5) “In the course of time Cain presented some of the land’s produce as an offering to the Lord.  And Abel also presented an offering—some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious.” And the next thing we know, Cain murdered his brother.

Cain was angry because God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected his. I’ve read commentaries that give reasonable explanations for God's choice. They suggest Abel’s attitude was better than Cain’s as suggested by Abel’s offering of the FIRST fruits of the flock while Cain merely brought an offering. Some commentators add that Abel’s sacrifice was a ‘blood’ sacrifice, while Cain’s was not.

I won’t take the time to examine those theological positions. Instead, I want to try to focus on what might have been the REASON for Cain’s poor attitude – the reason which has application to you and me in 2024.

As I read this fourth chapter of Genesis in preparation for today’s message, I wondered if Cain’s murderous anger at his brother was a kind of psychological ‘transference’ of a long-held anger he’d dug deeply into his heart against God. I wonder if Cain had been nursing a grudge against God for sending his parents – and by extension, himself – out of that Paradise called the Garden of Eden.

He knew the story. He’d heard it often enough from his parents. And putting two and two together, Cain realized the reason they ALL now had to provide for themselves by the sweat of their brows and the blisters on their hands was because God had sent his parents from Paradise. And it was because of THAT exile that he had to fight day by day the ravages of plant blight and mildew. He had to daily battle rodents destroying his crops.

 

It was because God had sent them from Paradise that Cain had to put cobble together ointments to soothe his sunburned skin and the infected cuts on his hands and legs. It was because God sent his parents out of Paradise that each time Eve had another child, she writhed in pain – which was another part of the curse. And he knew when his own beloved wife had children, she also would writhe in pain.

 

With all that in his mind, perhaps – just perhaps – when God preferred his brother’s offering – well, that was just the last straw.

 

The ripple effects of one Adam and Eve’s sin washing over another is a common story open to anyone caring to look beyond our excuses and rationalizations. Not long ago I was talking to a woman who was leaving for a weekend vacation spot with her boyfriend. Besides their fornication, the overarching issue here is that she claims to be a Christian. She attends church each week with her 16-year-old daughter. And I do not have to wonder what this woman’s daughter is learning by her mother’s poor example of what it means to be a ‘Christian.’ The ripple effects of the mother’s sin will – unless God wonderfully intervenes – those effects will eventually bring a turbulent wave of sorrow over that teenager.

 

I do not doubt that most of us in this room have encountered similar situations where churchgoers routinely disobey God's moral laws. How many Christians do YOU know have become disillusioned with God and with the Church because they witnessed so-called Christians conduct themselves so poorly and nonchalantly about God's holiness? About His commandments?

 

Listen again to God's timeless truth as the apostle writes to the Christians at Rome: (Romans 2:21-24) “You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?  . . . You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.,”

 

Sin can result in immediate judgment. But sin can also fester for years, even decades before it manifests itself. Like what may have very well happened to Cain.

 

Jesus warned us about people who become stumbling blocks to us. Those blocks, He said, are inevitable. And then He added: (Matthew 18:6) “It would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” And that warning from the Lord Jesus ought to be very concerning to all of us because our sins are never merely a private matter. They always become public in some manner or form.

So, what is the remedy? Well, take a lesson from Satan’s playbook. He seduced Eve to doubt God’s TRUTHFULNESS. He tricked her into doubting God’s love for her, that her Creator did not want the best for her. And when she fell for those lies, it was a small step from there to her disobedience.

Christian – be ALERT. Do not let the sins of others become a stumbling block to your walk with Christ. And certainly, do not let YOUR sins be a stumbling block to others.

 

Take a lesson from GOD'S playbook, which are, of course, the Scriptures. Trust them, because every word, every letter from front to back is God's VOICE to us on the printed page. Follow the examples of those in Scripture who loved God. Who trusted God, despite the circumstances.

 

Let me remind you of Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers. When he became vice president of Egypt, he could have had his brothers killed. But throughout his time of slavery in Egypt and his eventual exaltation, he did not let their sin cause him to stumble. Even at the end of his life, he said to them: (Genesis 50:20) “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”

 

We find in Paul’s letter to the Christians at Philippi: (1:20) “I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” 

 

Did you catch that?  Despite his horrible experiences he’d endured at the hands of sinners – he wrote of them in his second letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 11) – Paul also wrote this to encourage the Christians at Philippi: (1:20) “I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”

 

He could have just as easily added Christ will be exalted by his life, death, sorrow, sickness, pain, and loss – even those caused by the sins of others.

 

The remedy to not letting our anger at God fester – as it seems Cain’s anger had festered – is to recognize from God’s inerrant and infallible playbook that NOTHING can separate us from God’s deep and abiding love for us – not even the sins of others.

 

Yes, WE can walk away, as Cain did. As Judas did. As Demas did, who was one of Paul’s missionary companions, and as so many others through Church history have done. And as so many as YOU and I have known in the years we’ve walked with the Lord. WE can walk away. But we do so only when we believe Satan’s lies – as did Eve and as did Cain.

 

So, what’s the remedy for sin that can cause others to stumble? The answer is easy: Don’t sin. But because that’s not going to happen on this side of the grave, then we MUST – and I urge you to do it daily – seek the Holy Spirit to help us sin less and less every day.

 

What might that look like when we slowly put away sin from our lives? For me – and maybe for you – it will mean no more gossip. No more making jokes about other people. No more watching things I shouldn’t be watching, or listening to things I shouldn’t be listening to, or saying things I shouldn’t be saying.

Sin is NOT a private matter, but – and here is the point on which I want to close this message: Sin is not a private matter, but neither is walking in righteousness a private matter. Walking with Christ also creates its own ripple effects. When we follow our Savior’s commandments, our walk will affect others for GOOD – even strangers, because they are watching us from the next table at meals, or at the game table, or during your entertainment in the Activities Room. Remember what the Lord once said: (Matthew 5:16) “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

 

God will help us – if we want help. God will change us – if we want to be changed. It is impossible to be unrighteous before Christ if we want to be righteous for Him. 

 

So, then – let’s make it our daily prayer, “Lord, keep me in the center of your will today. Put a guard on my tongue. Put a guard on my eyes and my ears. I desperately need you to help me. I don’t want to continue sinning in private or in public. I want to be righteous in private and in public.”

Everyone in this sanctuary knows it is impossible to keep perfectly from sin in thought, word, or action. But as Paul and ALL the godly men and women through Church history have discovered, with God’s help we can learn to sin less and less the longer we walk closely with Christ.

Oh, my brothers and sisters here, it will be our daily prayer that the Holy Spirit helps us at the end of each day to be able to say, as Paul said during his trial before the Roman governor Felix (Acts 24:16) “I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.”

 

No sin is private. Its ripple effects will affect those we know and even those we do not know. But a righteous life before Christ is also not a private thing. Its ripple effects will affect those we know and even those we do not know.

 

Abel died at the hands of his brother Cain because the sins of their parents rippled into Cain’s heart. But the righteousness of the godly men and women through the ages have also rippled for good in the lives of others. You all are examples of that truth. I know I certainly am here because of the good men and women of God who have influenced me and my walk with Jesus.

 

Be private and be public about your close and obedient walk with Jesus. The souls you touch for good will thank you when we all gather around the Lord’s throne in the New Paradise.

 

Beginning - Part Three

 As I continue my series of messages in Genesis, my focus today will be on the sixth day of creation, and specifically the creation of Man. But first, I need to start this message with a reference to a scene in Mark’s gospel:

 (Mark 12:18-23) “Some Sadducees – who say that there is no resurrection – came to Jesus and began questioning Him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves behind a wife and leaves no child, his brother should marry the wife and raise up children to his brother. There were seven brothers; and the first took a wife, and died leaving no children. The second one married her, and died leaving behind no children; and the third likewise; and so all seven left no children. Last of all the woman died also. In the resurrection, when they rise again, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven had married her.” 

 

And now, please pay attention to the Lord’s response (verse 24): “Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?” 

 

As I cite this text, I realize some might already be wondering what it at all to do with the message of Genesis and the creation of Adam and Eve. Please. Give me a few moments. I hope it will become clear.

 

The problem the Sadducees had was the same problem so many theologians and those in pews and pulpits across the globe have, and that is: When God tells us in His inerrant word things that do not fit with our intellectual expectations, then (they say) God's word must be re-interpreted.

 

And with that thought at the forefront of our minds, we now turn to today’s text. I can’t quote the entire section because of our limited time here. I apologize for that because I am forced by those time constraints to omit a LOT of God's Holy Word – AND to omit what I’d want to say about this section of God's word. So, I very much urge you to read and meditate on those first chapters of Genesis later today. So, here, then, is today’s text. I read only part of Genesis 1:26 through 1:31 -

 

(Genesis 1:26-31)  “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them . . . God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

 

Moving now into chapter two, Moses gives us more detail about Man’s creation. I start in 2:7 and will read portions through to verse through to verse 25 –

 

(Genesis 2:7-25) “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. . . .  The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him . . . So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Just as the Sadducees rejected – to their undoing – the idea of the miraculous works of God, so do many intellectuals (and those who parrot them) scoff today at the supernatural work of God. And they do so to their undoing.

 

What many of them like to do with these two chapters of Genesis – indeed, with all of the supernatural works of God, and we haven’t even gotten into the third chapter when the Serpent talks with Eve – what they like to do with things they don’t want to accept is find reasons that fit with their worldview and reject the supernatural.

 

For them, Adam and Eve were not literal and historical people. They are simply allegories to explain Man’s appearance on earth. To believe in a literal and historical Adam and Eve is simply unscientific, and therefore irrational.

 

Christian! Be careful. St Paul infallibly warned the Christians at Colossae – and his words stand as a warning for us even in 2024: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” (Colossians 2:8-9).

 

If Adam and Eve were not real people, then St Luke was lying when he traced the lineage of the Savior all the way back to them (Luke 3:23-38).

If Adam and Eve were not real people as described for us by Moses, then what could St. Paul have meant when he wrote: “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life”? (1 Corinthians 15:22).

 

We’ll find in chapter three that sin and death entered into the world through Adam’s sin. St Paul tells us: “Through one person sin entered the world, and through sin death.” (Romans 5:12) But the scriptures also tell us that Christ CONQUERED sin and death for all who are ‘IN Christ.

 

This simple, basic truth IS the very foundation of the gospel message. Remove a literal Adam and Eve from history and the foundation irreparably crumbles. As the psalmist warned: (Psalm 11:3) “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do”?

 

Christian, be careful. If Adam and Eve are mere allegories – fictional stories invented to make a moral point – if they were inventions of Moses, can we be certain that Jesus’ resurrection is not also an allegory, a story invented to illustrate life’s triumph over death? And perhaps even MORE germane to these questions is this one: If Adam and Eve did not exist as special and unique creations of God, then perhaps He who is called “God” is also not historical but is only another ancient and superstitious-laden allegory.

 

I know I am spending a lot of time on this point – as I have spent in the last two messages – but I believe God has embedded a critical principle in these first several chapters of Genesis – not only of the Creation Days, but of the talking serpent in chapter three, and Noah’s global flood in chapter 6.

 

And that principle is this: When people – regardless of their educational degrees and reputations – when people disagree with God and teach others to doubt His inerrant and infallible word – God always has the last word and always proves to be correct.

 

So, please, be careful. If we start to doubt the veracity of God's word about ANYTHING, then we have slipped onto that broad path that leads to destruction. Satan will have successfully deluded us – as he deluded Eve into doubting God's word – we will find ourselves WITHOUT an anchor – the ONLY anchor God has provided us to protect us from the swells of life and of false philosophies whose currents WILL pull us further and further out into treacherous waters.

 

Listen. You know the Bible well enough to know that we can be very religious – and still go to hell. We can receive the Sacraments every day – and still go to hell. We can be kind to our neighbors – and still go to hell. We can be leaders and teachers in our churches – and still go to hell.

 

The Lord Jesus said as much: (Luke 13:24ff) “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; Depart from Me, all you evildoers.”

 

Remember what Jesus said to the religious scholars of His day: “Is this not the reason you are mistaken,” Jesus said to the highly educated leaders of His day, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?” 

 

Christian, please. Take God seriously. Take His word seriously. For millennia scholars and those in the pews have tried to dilute God's truth – and yet here we are millennia later and God's word remains our firm foundation while the bones of those ‘scholars’ have turned to dust.

 

Okay, let’s turn again to today’s text and focus on God's instruction to Adam, whom Luke calls God's ‘son’ in his genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:38).

 

It’s important to remember God's relationship with Adam because Scripture ALSO calls those who are in Christ His son and daughter. St Paul is only one of the writers of New Testament scripture to call us God's children: (Galatians 3:26) “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

 

And Romans 8:15-16 - For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”

 

And the point of this ‘sonship’? It’s this: God gave Adam ONE commandment. In all the wealth of comfort and blessings in that Garden, Adam had to obey only one commandment. And look what he has wrought on himself and on humanity all these millennia later.

 

Now consider what happens to us AND to others when WE disobey God's simple commandments to us: Love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and to love others as ourselves.

 

But we are not done yet. I want us to focus on yet one more relationship that God confers on the Christian – a relationship He did not even confer on Adam and Eve.

 

Not only are we sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus, but we are ALSO given by the Father to Jesus in a marriage relationship. Listen to St Paul in his letter to the Christians at Corinth: (2 Corinthians 11:2-3) “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”

 

I want to focus the remainder of this message on the truth of our spiritual marital relationship with Jesus, for Holy Writ repeats the message throughout both testaments in allegorical form – comparing a human husband-wife relationship with the spiritual relationship of the Church with Jesus the Bridegroom. Perhaps one of the more well-known passages that speak to this relationship is in Ephesian 5. You can look at that text later on if you like.

 

But listen to what God said to faithless and adulteress Israel who went astray from Him. Speaking to the nation just prior to their Babylonian captivity in the 7^th century BC, God said: (Ezekiel 6:9, NRSV) "Those of you who escape shall remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I was crushed by their wanton heart that turned away from me, and their wanton eyes that turned after their idols."

 

Listen now to James in the New Testament: (James 4:4) – “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

 

Christian: YOU are the Bride of Christ. YOU are betrothed to Christ. And greater than the love of ANY human husband is our Savior’s love for YOU His bride. And so it is good to ask ourselves this question: Why do husbands stay faithful to their wives? Why do wives stay faithful to their husbands? We all know the answer. It’s because they love their spouse and would never do anything that would devastate their beloved.

 

Likewise, Christians strive to avoid a sinning – NOT because we’re afraid of judgment, although that certainly is a valid reason to keep from sin. But the PRIMARY reason – at least it SHOULD be the primary reason we want to avoid sin is because we don’t want to hurt our beloved God and Redeemer.

 

But if you’re human like me, you know how impossible it is to always avoid sin, whether in thought, word, or in action. A sinless life is just not part of our spiritual DNA that’s been passed on to us from Adam and Eve. We’d be more successful changing the color of our eyes or the color of our skin simply by wishing hard enough.

 

Until we really understand that we desperately need the Holy Spirit to change our mind and our will, we will continue a dizzying and disappointing roller coaster ride of ups and downs.

 

It should be no surprise then that even the great St Paul confessed this to the Christians at Rome: (7:18-20) “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”

 

Nor should it surprise anyone that long after Paul wrote those words to the Christians at Rome, he wrote this to the Christians at Philippi after reciting for them his religious resume: (Philippians 3:8-10):

 

“I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, ⁹ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

 

Oh, we have GOT to hear this: Even Paul struggled with his sin nature. And he did so until he died. As he told Timothy (2 Timothy 4:7) “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

 

Do not expect any easy methods to grow in our love for and in our obedience to Christ. There aren’t any. There have never been any. So, Christian, what is the counsel of Scripture? Keep doing as Paul and EVERY other faithful Christian has done through the millennia, day after day after day: Follow the TEDIOUS process of daily guarding our hearts against temptations to sin. Being diligently alert day by day to what we permit our eyes to gaze at, our ears to hear, and our tongues to say. It means being quick to repent when we stumble – repent to God and ALSO to the one against whom we have sinned. And then, day by day, get up and continue on that narrow road that leads to eternal life.

 

Adam and Eve passed on their sin nature to every person on this planet today. But when we were ‘born again’ we each became a new creation. The Holy Spirit entered our lives and became for us an omnipotent resident architect, working in us that we may live lives worthy of the Lord, to please him in every way, and to grow in our knowledge of – and our faithfulness – to our God.

 

Hang in there, my brothers and sisters. Our battles will soon be over. And what St Paul said to Timothy, he says also to you and me: In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”