Text: Genesis 3
Topic: A look at the consequences of sin, and the hope we have in Christ

• Illustration: An article in Time magazine, entitled "Adam Has Fallen Again," tells the story of a prized statue of Adam taking a fall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
• The first fall of Adam came in Genesis 3, and the Fall didn't stop there. We see it in the rampant sin of the world.
• We've got to take the problem of sin seriously. Why? Because the Word tells us that this flaw is fatal.
  • Illustration: Beukema shares a story about hearing the "thud" of an auto accident and then witnessing its aftermath to show how the thud of a great fall always changes everything.

• In Genesis 2, things are going great, but a thud comes along—and nothing is ever the same again.
• The serpent brings about the thud by slyly getting the man and the woman to sin.
• When the woman doubts God's command concerning the tree, it shows us how sin creeps into our lives when we doubt God's Word.
• When the woman exaggerates God's command concerning the tree, it shows us how sin creeps into our lives when we distort God's Word.
• In the end, Eve chooses to believe the serpent's lie, taking it more seriously than God's warning.
• But the point of Genesis 3 is not to show the how of sin or the why of sin as much as the what of sin—its consequences.

• Illustration: Beukema talks about the move his family made from a small town in New York to a big city. It robbed him of his innocence, because he began to view the world only as a dangerous place.
• After they ate of the fruit, Adam and Eve gained enough understanding to see they were sinful, and they began to look at themselves differently.
• This distorts their perception, their judgment. Even good things suddenly become suspect.

• Daily life in the Garden apparently was made up of time with God.
• Because of the sin of the man and the woman, they feel only fear toward God, where before they had wanted to be with God.
  • Isaiah 59:2
• The great fall of sin wrecks our intimacy, and that's when we start lying to the God who knows everything.

• Notice how the unwillingness to take responsibility starts right away for the man and the woman. Finger pointing is immediate.
• Adam burst into poetry when he first saw Eve. Now, because of their sin, Adam speaks negatively about "this woman you put here with me."
• Because of this, God curses the snake, and then he curses the man and the woman.
• Because of the curse and its consequences, the woman's sinful inclination will be to grasp and crave what God has given to the husband, and the man will want to dominate and trample over his wife.

• The woman will now suffer in her role as child bearer.
• The man will now suffer in his role as provider.
• The woman and man are driven from the Garden, their place of delight.

• As you can see, sin is costly. What a depressing thought! But God shines a little truth into the dismal, wretched scene of Genesis 3.
• In verse 15, God offers what the earliest church scholars called this the proto evangelium—the first gospel word.
• It's a word from God that says: Yeah, Satan, sin is in. You have brought it into this world as part of your plan. But there's another plan at work, and it's mine—and it's going to prevail. There's a Messiah coming. You're going to strike him in the heel. But I've got news for you, Satan. He's going to crush your head, and the ballgame will be over.
• Verse 21 offers another ray of hope: "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them."
• Apparently, animals had to die to cover the price of sin. Perhaps that prefigures the death of Christ, who died to take away the sin of the world.
• The message of these two verses is that sin is costly, but Christ is coming. Sin has a price; but Jesus paid it all. Adam has fallen, but Christ is on the horizon.

• Illustration: The Washington Post once posted this question: "Do you believe in the concept of sin?" Beukema shares a few views on sin from people who wrote responses.
• We're sinful, but Jesus has come.
• But even on the other side of forgiveness, we cannot use his mercy as an excuse to experiment with sin again. It's too deadly.
• Just when things seem so fine and good, just when things are all idyllic and delightful, there will be a thud and nothing will be the same again.