God, Our Savior, Genesis 3 Adapted from a K. Edward Skidmore sermon http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?ContributorID=&SermonID=104872

1. God, Our Savior
Genesis 3
Adapted from a
K. Edward Skidmore sermon
http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly
.asp?ContributorID=&SermonID=104872

2. Last week we started our study of the
3:16s of the Bible’s in 2 Timothy 3:16.
The ground work has been laid on the
fact that; Every scripture is inspired by
God and useful for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the person
dedicated to God may be capable and
equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy
3:16,17 NET

3. This being the truth, we now journey
back to the very beginning.
Genesis 3:16 NIV To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your pains in
childbearing; with pain you will give
birth to children. Your desire will be for
your husband, and he will rule over
you.”

4. I’m sure we all are very aware of why
God said these words to Eve. Have you
ever worried you’ll never live up to God’s
expectations? We search The Bible to
learn what pleases & displeases God.
God’s people, the Israelites, were given
just 10 Commandments to direct how
they were to live. The Old Testament is
full of stories about just how hard it was
for them to stay on the “straight &
narrow.”

5. Let’s look at God’s expectations of the
first humans. Genesis 2:15 NIV Three
DO’S; The LORD God took the man and
put him in the Garden of Eden to work it
and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God
commanded the man, “You are free to
eat from any tree in the garden; ONE
DON’T; 17 but you must not eat from the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
for when you eat of it you will surely
die.”

6. Do you think you could keep the one &
only DON’T? How was it they were
unable to obey that rule? I think it’s
obvious! They had no idea, no
knowledge of good and evil! It’s hard for
me to imagine two functioning adult
people working & caring for the greatest
garden ever. Wise Adam had already
named all the creatures on earth. And
still they have no clue what right &
wrong is.

7. Can you imagine The Creator God
specifically telling you not to do
something & not understanding it’s
wrong, evil, to do what you’ve been told
not to do?
Adam and Eve were living the kind of life
people can only dream about, enjoying
perfect weather, perfect health, the
perfect marriage, and everything that
money could buy without even needing a
bank account.

8. I think that’s the kind of dream that
makes a show like “Deal or No Deal” so
popular. Surely you’ve seen it, there are
26 suitcases up on stage and the
Contestant must choose the ONE they
think is worth a million dollars. Then
there’s all kinds of suspense as they
pick from the suitcases one by one to
eliminate them, hoping for the best. Well,
Adam and Eve had the “Deal or No Deal”
set up, with a twist.

9. Picture yourself playing the Garden of
Eden Game Show. In The Garden of
Eden Game, ALL the suitcases except
one are winners. Not only that, but the
Game Show Host calls you aside and
gives you inside information. He tells
you, “You can pick ANY of these
suitcases and you’ll win it all, but don’t
pick number 26 over there. That one will
wipe out your winnings and you’ll be out
of the game forever.”

10. What a set up! Only one wrong suitcase
and the Host TELLS you which one it is.
You can’t lose! Right?
Well, that’s the way it seemed when God
told Adam and Eve: “You can eat from
ANY tree in the Garden, except this one.”
Then, a new Player entered the scene.

11. The Entrance of Satan
Genesis 3:1 NIV Now the serpent was
more crafty than any of the wild animals
the LORD God had made. He said to the
woman, “Did God really say, „You must
not eat from any tree in the garden‟?” 2
The woman said to the serpent, “We may
eat fruit from the trees in the garden,

12. 3 but God did say, „You must not eat fruit
from the tree that is in the middle of the
garden, and you must not touch it, or
you will die.‟ ” 4 “You will not surely die,”
the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For
God knows that when you eat of it your
eyes will be opened, and you will be like
God, knowing good and evil.”

13. In Genesis 3 we find out the Creator of
this beautiful world has an enemy. He is
called “the serpent,” and the entrance of
this mysterious creature will change
everything.
The great deceiver clothed himself as a
serpent, one of God’s good creatures.
He insinuated a falsehood and portrayed
rebellion as clever, but essentially
innocent, self-interest.

14. Therefore “the devil, or Satan,” is later
referred to as “that ancient serpent”
(Rev 12:9; 20:2). (NIV Study Bible)
The only reason I can come up with as to
why God allowed him into the garden in
the first place is because God, at His
core, wants mankind to have freewill. He
wants humans to make a decision, make
up their own mind, to be near Him,
communicate with Him, love Him &
submit willfully to his guidance.

15. Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more
crafty than any of the wild animals the
LORD God had made. He said to the
woman, “Did God really say, „You must
not eat from any tree in the garden‟?”
We don’t read about Adam and Eve
talking to any other animals. Do you
wonder if all the other animals were able
to talk as well since there’s no indication
Eve was scared when the serpent
talked?

16. Commentators have various ideas about
why this talking serpent didn’t frighten
Eve. One idea is Adam & Eve frequently
talked with Spirits & Angels that took the
form or inhabited animals.
Case & point is Balaam’s donkey. Also
with Abraham, Lot & others angels took
the form of another animal, humans.

17. A visitor to India stayed with a friend at
his home. The friend made a point of
asking the visitor to wake him if he
needed to visit the outhouse in the night.
Well, the host slept so soundly, and the
visitor had his own flashlight so he went
outside on his own in the night to tend to
things.

18. The next time he came to visit there, the
friend explained to him that he wanted to
help him in the night because they had a
cobra living in the wall of their
compound that roamed at night, and the
friend wanted to protect him from his
serpent night watchman. The visitor was
sure glad he hadn’t encountered this
cobra in the former visit.

19. Genesis 3 gives the first introduction to
an Evil Being that we call Satan.
A Barna survey reported on April 10,
2009; Four out of ten Christians (40%)
strongly agreed that Satan “is not a
living being but is a symbol of evil.”
http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-
faithspirituality/260-most-american-christians-do-
not-believe-that-satan-or-the-holy-spirit-exis

20. That is NOT the way the Bible presents
Satan. Scripture describes a literal being
who is intelligent, clever, crafty and
shrewd. He is able to communicate and
to influence us, and his desire is for our
destruction.
Certainly, the serpent of Genesis 3
represented Satan’s interests. He
provided the occasion for the first
couple to hear an alternate voice
besides the voice of God.

21. His purpose was to inject doubt into the
situation. We only notice two statements
he made to Eve. The first Satan took
God's positive command (You are free to
eat from any tree in the garden; but you
must not eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil) and
rephrased it in a negative way: "God
won't let you eat of every tree." (Guzik)

22. The second flatly contradicted God’s
words. “You will not surely die,” His
purpose was to drive a wedge between
the Creator and His Creation. His
methodology is always predictable. He
always tells Lies. In fact, Jesus called
Satan “the father of lies.” John 8:44
Satan’s lies are usually cleverly
disguised. In this case, he mixed partial
truth with his lies.

23. Now, for all the bad things we could say
about Satan, all he actually did was
introduce a TEMPTATION. He did not
hold the proverbial gun to their heads.
Eve could have ignored him. She could
have run from him. She and Adam could
have “told God on him” later that
evening. But instead Eve hung on his
every word, the way someone might
listen to a “hot stock tip.”

24. The Entrance of Sin
Genesis 3:6 NIV When the woman saw
that the fruit of the tree was good for
food and pleasing to the eye, and also
desirable for gaining wisdom, she took
some and ate it. She also gave some to
her husband, who was with her, and he
ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them
were opened, and they realized they
were naked; so they sewed fig leaves
together and made coverings for
themselves.

25. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the
sound of the LORD God as he was
walking in the garden in the cool of the
day, and they hid from the LORD God
among the trees of the garden. 9 But the
LORD God called to the man, “Where are
you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in
the garden, and I was afraid because I
was naked; so I hid.”

26. 11 And he said, “Who told you that you
were naked? Have you eaten from the
tree that I commanded you not to eat
from? ” 12 The man said, “The woman
you put here with me—she gave me
some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13
Then the LORD God said to the woman,
“What is this you have done?” The
woman said, “The serpent deceived me,
and I ate.”

27. 14 So the LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, “Cursed
are you above all the livestock and all
the wild animals! You will crawl on your
belly and you will eat dust all the days of
your life. 15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman, and
between your offspring and hers; he will
crush your head, and you will strike his
heel.”

28. 16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly
increase your pains in childbearing; with
pain you will give birth to children. Your
desire will be for your husband, and he
will rule over you.” 17 To Adam he said,
“Because you listened to your wife and
ate from the tree about which I
commanded you, „You must not eat of it,‟
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it all
the days of your life.

29. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for
you, and you will eat the plants of the
field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you
will eat your food until you return to the
ground, since from it you were taken; for
dust you are and to dust you will return.”

30. Going back to the “Game Show”
illustration. If there’s only ONE wrong
choice and the Host tells you which
suitcase not to choose, there is only one
reason you would lose, that reason is if
you don’t trust the Host.

31. And that’s the tragedy of Adam and
Eve’s sin. There was nothing special
about the fruit they ate. It wasn’t
poisonous, it didn’t hold some magical
power. But the act of eating it showed
that way down in their deepest hearts,
they did not trust their Creator. How that
must have broken God’s heart!

32. We could say a lot about sin, what
causes sin, why people are drawn to sin,
how people rationalize their sin. But the
bottom line is: Sin means we don’t trust
our Creator. Sin proves that we DOUBT
God and that we are willing to act on the
doubt. In its essence, sin is always
REBELLION. And rebellion results in
inevitable consequences. The first
consequences hit right at the heart and
soul of Adam and Eve.

33. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were
opened, and they realized they were
naked; so they sewed fig leaves together
and made coverings for themselves. It
only took one taste of Rebellion for
Adam and Even to go from naked and
NOT ashamed to naked and ashamed.
Nothing changed about the shape of
their bodies. The only change came in
the shape of their minds.

34. Their darkened minds twisted what was
Perfect into something Perverted. The
result was a feeling they had never
experienced before: the feeling of
SHAME.

35. Sin brought on another emotion that is
familiar to all of us, but was unknown to
Adam and Eve until that moment. God
asked Adam why he was hiding among
the trees, and He answered, “I heard you
in the garden, and I was afraid because I
was naked; so I hid.” Genesis 3:10 NIV

36. Sin is the author of Shame and Fear.
When we sin, the first thing we fear is
“getting caught.” We can even become
paranoid, constantly “looking over our
shoulder” to see if we’ve been found out.
It’s that kind of fear that usually gets
Criminals caught. They draw attention to
themselves by driving away like a
maniac or some other guilty behavior.

37. In the case of Adam and Eve, their fear
and shame led them to hide from God.
For the first time, they wanted to avoid
fellowship with God. Their relationship
with the Creator was broken, just as
their relationship with each other was
broken. The same thing happens to all of
us when we sin. We find ourselves
wanting to avoid God. And we build up
barriers between ourselves and the
people closest to us.

38. The minute they sinned, Adam and Eve
experienced inward death, the death of
innocence and the death of
relationships. But other consequences
of Sin would follow. The whole world
would now suffer corruption and death.
People sometimes ask, “If there really is
a God, why is there so much suffering
and pain in the world? Why do we have
war sickness and death?” The answer is
found here in Genesis.

39. Now that Sin had entered the world, God
explained there would be PAIN in
childbirth and in our work. You have to
wonder what it would have been like if
Eve had not sinned before she had her
firstborn. Maybe she would have come
up to Adam one day and said, “Well,
honey, today I bent down to pick up
something, and, well, here is our new
son. I didn’t even know he was coming.”

40. Genesis 3 may not be anyone’s favorite
part of the Bible. It seems like a real
downer. But even in this tragic passage,
we find a thread of hope. With God, even
the Curse holds hidden Blessing. As
unwelcome as it is, we understand that
pain actually protects us. A person who
cannot feel pain will probably not
survive long. It turns out that pain is
actually a blessing that allows us to
survive in this fallen world.

41. Even the ultimate consequence of sin,
DEATH itself holds an element of
blessing. Without death we could never
escape the confines of this tainted
world. God has another place in mind for
us, a place where we can live forever.
The place He is preparing for us has no
pain, no corruption, and no death.

42. The Entrance of
the Savior
At the end of Genesis 3, God, the great
Creator and Provider of Genesis 1 and 2
would take on a new role. Because of
our sin, God reached down in Mercy and
became our Savior.

43. In verse 15 God said to Satan: And I will
put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers; he
will crush your head, and you will strike
his heel.” From the very beginning, God
knew that one day he would put on flesh
and come to the earth as the seed of
woman to save the people He created
from the penalty of sin.

44. Genesis 3:20 NIV Adam named his wife
Eve, because she would become the
mother of all the living. God did one
more thing for Adam and Eve before he
sent them out of the Garden. 21 The
LORD God made garments of skin for
Adam and his wife and clothed them.

45. This action may seem incidental until
you stop to realize that the only way to
provide animal skin, was for an animal to
die. This is the first time physical death
is recorded.
Adam and Eve must have known that
animal died because of their sin.

46. This was the beginning of the sacrificial
system that would eventually become
part of the Jewish law. It was a picture of
God’s plan to save us from our sins. In
the same way that God provided the
animal skins, He would one day provide
his beloved Son as the sacrificial Lamb
that takes away the sins of the world.

47. That is the amazing offer of Salvation
that God offers you and me. Do you
realize God will still clothe us with the
sacrificial Lamb? Galatians 3:27 NET For
all of you who were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ.

48. 22 And the LORD God said, “The man
has now become like one of us, knowing
good and evil. He must not be allowed to
reach out his hand and take also from
the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
23 So the LORD God banished him from
the Garden of Eden to work the ground
from which he had been taken.

49. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed
on the east side of the Garden of Eden
cherubim and a flaming sword flashing
back and forth to guard the way to the
tree of life.
This is interesting to me. They were free
to eat from the tree of life. It was not
forbidden! They could eat, and live
forever! Evidently they had not ate from
it yet or they had to continually eat from
it to live forever.

50. Q. Why did God prevent Adam and Eve
from eating from the tree of life
anymore?
A: There are three aspects to this.
Discipline: This would show to Adam
and Eve, and to us, the seriousness of
disobeying God. Judicial punishment:
God promised them that the day they ate
the forbidden fruit they would die.

51. They died spiritually that day, and
access to the tree of life was taken away
from them so that they would die
physically.
Mercy and blessing: If they could still eat
of the tree of life, they would carry
around the guilt and curse of their sin
forever. So be allowed to die, and start
everything off, culminating in Christ
coming and bringing salvation for all
was a mercy. (Bible Query)

52. We still have the opportunity to eat & live
forever.
John 6:53 NET Jesus said to them, "I tell
you the solemn truth, unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54
The one who eats my flesh and drinks
my blood has eternal life, and I will raise
him up on the last day.

53. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my
blood is true drink. 56 The one who eats
my flesh and drinks my blood resides in
me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living
Father sent me, and I live because of the
Father, so the one who consumes me
will live because of me. 58 This is the
bread that came down from heaven; it is
not like the bread your ancestors ate,
but then later died. The one who eats
this bread will live forever."

54. Yes, there is still an opportunity to eat
from the Tree of Life. We get a glimpse of
it in Heaven.
Revelation 22:1 NET Then the angel
showed me the river of the water of life
— water as clear as crystal — pouring
out from the throne of God and of the
Lamb, 2 flowing down the middle of the
city's main street.

55. On each side of the river is the tree of
life producing twelve kinds of fruit,
yielding its fruit every month of the year.
Its leaves are for the healing of the
nations.
Revelation 22:14 NET Blessed are those
who wash their robes so they can have
access to the tree of life and can enter
into the city by the gates.

56. In the first 3 chapters of the Bible, we
find a brief account of Creation and The
Fall that is so simple a child can
understand it. But it’s so profound that
we could spend a lifetime studying it. We
would never run out of things to learn
about our God, our Creator, our Provider
and our Savior.

57. 2 Timothy 3:16 NET Every scripture is
inspired by God and useful for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, and for
training in righteousness, 17 that the
person dedicated to God may be capable
and equipped for every good work.
Having established this, it is because of
what we’ve read in Genesis 3 we can
understand why the Scriptures, God’s
Word, is necessary.

58. Humans now, knowing good and evil,
need God’s plan of redemption to bring
us back to him through the sacrificial
Lamb, God The Son, Jesus.
John 14:6 NET Jesus replied, "I am the
way, and the truth, and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through me.

59. It’s very possible that some of us here
today are actually trying to hide from
God. Maybe there is a “hidden” sin in
your life that makes you want to avoid
fellowship with God.
Well, you may be able to hide your sins
from the people around you, but, take it
from Adam and Eve, you can’t hide from
God.

60. God is calling your name like he did to
Adam in the Garden. God has already
provided a covering for your sin. Will
you answer His call today?