Sunday, January 24, 2021

God’s Timeline – Part 11 Crime and Punishment

 

God’s Timeline – Part 11

Crime and Punishment

Pastor Bruce A. Shields

House of Faith Church | www.PS127.org | www.TruthDigest.org

Online Audio Files | HOF Church Facebook | Truth Digest Facebook

 

This Document is a Sermon Outline, you may hear the full audio of the actual sermon by following the link Online Audio Files located above for this, and other Full Sermon Audios.  For a complete list of Sermon Outlines, visit TruthDigest.org or Truth Digest on facebook; for our Official Church website, visit PS127.org, or find us on Facebook at House of Faith Church

 

Crime and Punishment



SERMON INTRODUCTION

So far, we have read of the creation of everything that is, or would ever be created, all taking place during the first week.

 

Creation Week - Days 1-6 took place

 

Part 9 on the series we were still on day 6 because on day 7 God rests from all the work of creating, and we know that He creates Eve in chapter 2

 

How much time passes between the end of Chapter 2 and the beginning of Chapter 3?

 

We are not told.

 

We know on the sixth day “God saw ALL that He had made, and it was very good.” Genesis 1:31

 

And in Genesis 2:1-3 “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

 

2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”

 

So, Genesis 2:4-25 took place on the 6th day, because God CREATED Eve.

 

6th day, God saw ALL He created, and it was good. 7th day He rested because He was FINISHED creating.

 

Enter, last weeks sermon. Genesis 3 The Serpent & Eve

 

We can only guess how much time passed, but reading from Genesis 1 to this point, it sounds like when God rested on the seventh day, this took place.

 

God showed up in the garden after Adam and Eve ate the fruit, making it appear as if this took place while He was resting. Genesis 3:8 we read God returning and asking Adam where he was.

 

So perhaps this was the 8th day? I could have been. We just don’t know.

 

But to me this makes sense.

 

On the seventh day, God rested, and the moment we (humankind) are left to ourselves, Satan steps in, deceives us and we start breaking God’s commands.

 

So, I believe God declared the seventh day holy, and rested. Therefore Satan also chose the seventh day to deceive Eve, because Satan wanted Adam and Eve to break God’s command on the holy day.

 

Enter Day 8, God returns to the garden and discovers Adam and Eve hiding from their guilt and shame caused by sin.

 

Therefore, I believe the breaking of God’s command took place on the 7th day, and God reveals their sin on the 8th.

 

 

Genesis 3:14 - 24

“So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

 

“Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

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.”

 

16 To the woman he said,

 

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children.

Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

 

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

 

“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.

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.”

 

20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

 

21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 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. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

 

  

 

                                          I.            Adam and Eve Broke God’s Command

a.      God first gives Adam the opportunity to confess/repent/be forgiven

                                                                                                i.      Instead of confession, Adam blames God for giving him Eve

                                                                                             ii.      Adam had the opportunity to redeem all of humankind if he would have confessed and repented. He would have received forgiveness.

 

                                                                                          iii.      Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—”

 

                                                                                           iv.      I Corinthians 15:21-22 “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”

 

                                                                                              v.      This is why Christ is called the second Adam.

 

 

b.     God then gives Eve the opportunity

                                                                                                i.      Instead of confession, Eve blames the Satan, the serpent in the Garden

 

                                                                                             ii.      The command and word of God was given to Adam

 

                                                                                          iii.      It was Adam’s responsibility to ensure Eve understood the Word of God

 

                                                                                           iv.      We know Adam did tell Eve, because she repeated it to Satan

 

                                                                                              v.      Although Adam is held to a higher accountability, Eve is still responsible for her actions and for breaking God’s Command

 

 

c.      To Satan, God immediately condemns and punishes

                                                                                                i.      We see in Genesis 3:11 God offers confession to Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree?”

 

                                                                                             ii.      In Genesis 3:13 God offers it to Eve, “What is this you have done?”

                                                                                          iii.      In Genesis 3:14 God immediately condemns the serpent Satan for his role, “Because you have done this…”

 

 

                                      II.            God Disciplines and Punishes

a.      God punishes Satan first

                                                                                                i.      Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals

1.      Satan is an angel, but cursed above all other created things

 

                                                                                             ii.      You will crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life

1.      Symbolic speech here, shows us the serpent is not a “snake”, because they don’t eat dust.

2.      However, eating dust could mean the serpent Satan would never taste of the living waters again because of his sin against God.

3.      Crawling on his belly could be symbolic of being the lowliest of low, beneath all of creation.

 

                                                                                          iii.      I will put enmity between you and the woman

1.      Prophetic/symbolic of hatred between Satan and the woman (Israel)

 

                                                                                           iv.      Between your offspring and hers

1.      Those belonging to Satan’s kingdom and Jesus

 

                                                                                              v.      He will crush your head (Jesus destroys all of Satan’s authority “head”)

 

                                                                                           vi.      And you will strike his heel (a minor wound “the cross” compared to the damage done to Satan’s kingdom)

 

 

b.     God punishes Eve secondly

                                                                                                i.      I will make your pains in childbearing very severe

                                                                                             ii.      With painful labor you will give birth to children

                                                                                          iii.      Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you

 

 

 

 

c.      God punishes Adam lastly

                                                                                                i.      Cursed is the ground because of you

                                                                                             ii.      Through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life

                                                                                          iii.      It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field

                                                                                           iv.      By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food

                                                                                              v.      Until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken

                                                                                           vi.      For dust you are and to dust you will return

 

 

In verse 20, seemingly out of place, Adam names his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all the living.

 

However, this is not out of place, but revealing something to us.

·        Until the punishment for sin, Eve was not said to be the mother of all the living

·        It is only after Adam names her Eve

·        They really didn’t have names, Adam literally means man, Eve means mother of man

 

 

                                   III.            God Reveals His Plan for Salvation

a.      The Lord God made garments of skin (sacrifice for covering)

                                                                                                i.      Vs 21 “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”

 

                                                                                             ii.      James 1:14-15 “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

 

                                                                                          iii.      The Lord God reveals to us in Genesis, immediately after humankind broke God’s command and sin was introduced, God made a way

 

                                                                                           iv.      The Lord God sacrificed an animal…sin brings death

 

                                                                                              v.      Blood was shed for a covering of their sin

1.      Their admitted nakedness is symbolic of their sin, guilt and shame. Their desire to hide from God because of it.

2.      The Lord God sacrificed an offering, blood was shed and their sin, guilt and shame were “covered” so they could once again stand before God

 

                                                                                           vi.      This was only a covering though. A foreshadowing of the great work that the Lord God would do by going to the cross, as a substitutional sacrifice, shedding His blood, not for the covering of our sin, but the removal.

 

                                                                                         vii.      God’s plan of complete redemption of mankind began in Genesis 3

 

  

b.     God banishes man from the Tree of Life and the Garden

                                                                                                i.      Now that humankind knew they could choose whether or not to obey God’s commands, “knowing good and evil”, God limited our lifespan, which is part of the punishment, death.

 

                                                                                             ii.      So the Tree of Life had to be taken away from us so our flesh could not exist everlasting.

 

                                                                                          iii.      Vs 23 says, “So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.”

 

 

1.      God took Adam and placed him “in” the garden in Genesis 2:8

 

2.      Genesis 3:23 Adam is banished and returned to the land from where he was taken

 

 

c.      After He drove man out He placed guards

                                                                                                i.      Interesting words in vs 24

                                                                                             ii.      “After he drove the man out…”

1.      From the sounds of it, Adam didn’t want to leave, and may have even resisted the Lord God.

2.      So the Lord God “drove” (pushed, shoved, steered) him out

 

                                                                                          iii.      I am certain Adam did not want to go.

                                                                                           iv.      I am certain he was “sorry” for what happened, but when it comes to breaking God’s commands, it takes more than, “I’m sorry”

 

                                                                                              v.      It takes confession, repentance!

 

                                                                                           vi.      Acts 3:19 “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,”

 

                                                                                         vii.      1 John 1:6-9

1.      Must repent “If we claim to have fellowship with God and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth…”;

 

2.      Must confess “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

 

                                                                                      viii.      Matthew 3:8 “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

1.      Our lives we live must reflect our repentance, the turning away from the sin we confessed!

 

 

 

CONCLUSION –

 

Acts 3:19 “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that He will forgive your sins.”

 

Acts 2:38 ““Each one of you must turn away from your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven; and you will receive God’s gift, the Holy Spirit.”

 

 

 

 

Next week we will read of the judgment and punishment handed out to the serpent for his participation, and to Adam and Eve for not confessing their sin

 

 

 

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