THE FALL (Genesis 3 Sermon)
Preached on 9/21/25 at Cross of Christ Fellowship in Naperville
Intro: 3 Worldview questions: 1. What is the human condition? 2 What is wrong with the World? 3 What is the answer?
–Secular Humanism: 1 People are good; 2. Need more education, empathy, & programs; 3. We are: we can fix it together.
-Bible tells us the truth about reality and answers these 3 questions very differently.
-Today’s passage is absolutely foundation if we are to understand reality and the human condition.
CONTEXT: Genesis is the book of “Beginnings”, written by Moses to instruct Israel as they came out of Exodus
-Genesis 1: Creation of the World; Gen 2: Creation of Adam and Eve—in garden, work to do, law to obey
-TODAY: We learn about “The Fall”—the first human sin, which led to all the ruin, death and chaos.
2 Sections: 1. The Fall of Adam and Eve; 2. The Aftermath
I. The Fall of Adam and Eve into Sin (1-6)
Context: in the Garden enjoying God; working and keeping; God’s law and warning (2:17); No sin or death.
-1-5 Temptation to Sin
–Serpent enters in (1a)
-NT, this was Satan (Rev 12:9), a fallen angel who speaks through the snake.
–QUESTION: When did Satan fall? We don’t know, though hints in Isaiah 14, Ezek 28.
-“crafty”: uses this to try and lead Adam and Eve into sin.
–1st Question to Eve (1b): “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
-This is clearly not what God said, but Satan is trying to confuse and mislead Eve.
–Eve’s not quite accurate response (2-3)
-Expresses the freedom to eat from all but one tree, however, she adds to God’s Word “not touch”
–2nd Statement of Satan (4-5)
-Satan contradicts God (4), then questions God’s character (5)
APP: Satan does this today as well.
-Tempts us to disobey God; Tempts us to question God’s goodness and character
–Believer: Be on guard; spiritual battle is real and the Devil is “crafty” and he wants to ruin you.
–SCREWTAPE LETTERS: 2 opposite errors we can commit
3:6 The First Human Sin:
–Eve’s Sin
–Progression: useful (good for food); pretty (delight to the eyes); sensible/wise (make one wise)
-Sin if often like this. Example—sex before marriage: Biological need; attractive; good experience
-The Act: “she took of its fruit and ate”
–Adam’s Sin: “[Eve] gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate”
-Adam was RIGHT THERE! Instead of guarding her, he let he be deceived and joined in.
-Sin of passivity—which men still tend to struggle with.
-MEN: Let this be a lesson on what not to do with our spouse and families!
QUESTION: Men, are you leading your spouse and family spiritually?
II. The Aftermath: God’s Judgment AND Grace (7-24)
What would be the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin? How would God respond?
-God’s response to human sin is one of judgment—punishing evil—but amazingly, also grace.
SHAME (7)
–Original design: ‘naked and unashamed’ (2:25), but not making clothes for themselves from leaves
-Shame and alienation between each other.
ESTRANGEMENT FROM GOD (8)
-Alienation from God: Instead of rejoicing to be close to God, they were afraid and hid from him.
-Sin leads to alienation and estrangement from God: we are not right with God.
BLAME-SHIFTING [“Blame-game”] (9-13)
-God’s question was not out of lack of information, but interrogation (9)
–NOTE: God addresses Adam, because was the head of Eve and called to lead and care for her.
–MEN, today God has called you love, lead, and care for your wife.
-Adam’s Speech (10-12)
-Adam blames God ‘the whom YOU gave me’ and blames his wife ‘she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate’
-Eve’s Speech (13)
-Eve blames the serpent
APPLICATION: We often do this in sin—blame others instead of taking responsibility ourselves.
GOD’S JUDGMENT (14-19)
-Judgment upon the Serpent (14-15)
-Humbling of Satan and ultimately his destruction (15)
-Ongoing war in history: ‘her offspring and your seed’
-GOOD vs EVIL in history.
-God will achieve the victory: “he shall bruise your head”
-“protoevangelium”: Gospel first preached.
–NOTICE: We don’t fix this mess, but God in His grace does in the gospel!
-Judgment for the Woman (16)
-Pain in child-bearing
-Strife in marriage: “your desire shall be for your husband”=to rule over him; but ‘he will rule over you’
-Woman’s sinful tendency: rule over her husband and ‘wear the pants’ in the relationship
-Judgment for Man (17-19)
-Adam’s work is cursed—work will now be difficult
-Work is hard now, frustrating, difficult
-Adam will die (by God’s mercy, it was later at age 930)
REMOVAL FROM THE GARDEN (20-24)
-HOPE: Eve’s name= ‘Mother of the living’ (20)
-Hope that life would continue and more to come.
-GARMENTS: God shows kindness to Adam and Eve in making them clothes (21)
-Some think that an animal was sacrificed here, which died instead of Adam and Eve
-REMOVAL: removed from the Garden, so that they would not partake of fruit of tree of life (23-24)
-Merciful to prevent them from eating of this tree: their life would be hard, but temporary
-Removal from the garden is farness from God’s presence
WORLDVIEW SHAPING: Human Condition; Our Problem; The Solution
1. HUMAN CONDITION (SIN): The World is not as it should be, and this is because of SIN.
Calvin: “no part of us is sound; that the mind is smitten with blindness, and infected with innumerable errors; …all the affections of the heart are full of stubbornness and wickedness; …vile lusts, or other diseases equally fatal, reign there; … all the senses burst forth with many vices.”
–Believer: See the world this way=broken and corrupted because of sin.
–Implication: Don’t be shaken by sin and awful circumstances in the world (be surprised its not worse)
-Application: No place for self-righteousness: our own hearts and lives are plagued by sin
2. GREAT PROBLEM (JUDGMENT): The Fallen Human Race is under God’s Judgment= Romans 1:18-23
-Not only are our relationships with each other wrong, we are under God’s just judgment.
-Evangelism: Greatest need is to be delivered from the power and penalty of sin and be reconciled to God.
–Believer: Let this reshape how you think of others and loving your neighbor
3. THE SOLUTION (GOSPEL): The solution to our problem must come from God Himself
-We can’t fix our sin problem, but God can and lovingly does. This is the good news of the gospel.
NT: JESUS IS THE 2ND ADAM =Rom 5:12-21
*3-2-1 GOSPEL: Be one with Jesus!
CLOSE: The world is not the way it should be, we feel and experience the effects of sin and God’s judgment upon sin. But thank God that He sent Jesus to save us from the power and penalty of sin and bring us back to Him through the gospel!
