THE ORIGINAL BAD DECISION (GEN 3:1-13)
SERIES: GOOD CALL/BAD CALL, PART 1
GCEFC: JUNE 6, 2010
A. THE IMPORTANCE OF DECISIONS
1. If you’ve been around Grace Church very long, you’ve heard me say how
important it is to make wise decisions. That we make our decisions—then our
decisions make us.
2. We might all agree. But I’m not just saying it’s important that we make
wise decisions. I’m saying it’s deeply and profoundly critical.
3. The process of making personal decisions is so important—you cannot overstate
its importance. The decisions we make are literally life-determining.
4. Virtually everything that happens in life is the result of a decision.
Your very existence is the result of a decision. As was the existence of your
own parents—and theirs.
5. What you are, where you are, and who you are today is the result of
decisions you’ve made over the course of your lifetime.
a. You decided whether you would graduate from high school. Whether you
would go to college. What college you would attend. Whether you would stay and
graduate.
b. You decided whether you would marry. Who you would marry. When you
would marry. Whether you would stay married.
c. You decided where you would live. Whether you would buy a house. How
much you would pay for it. Whether you would pay the mortgage each month.
d. You decided whether you would work. Whether you would take the job you
were offered. Whether you would remain at that job. Whether you would do good
work.
6. We make hundreds of decisions every single day. Even sleeping is a
decision.
7. Even if you decided today you weren’t going to make any more
decisions—you’d still have to make that decision every time a decision
presented itself—still a decision.
8. I’m not suggesting all decisions are equally important. Some decisions
have greater ramifications than others. But the huge importance of decision
making is undeniable.
9. We’re not victims of circumstance—we’re products of our choices. Even
when things happen beyond our control—the decisions we make from that point are
critical.
10. That’s why someone said: What
lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies
within us.
11. What lies within us is the freedom to make wise and godly
decisions. In the long run—though other things matter—this is what matters
most.
12. By studying the Word of God, we see the components of good
decisions—and why they’re good. And we see the components of bad decisions—and
why they’re bad.
13. So as we begin with Part 1, we go to GEN 3, where we find
possibly the worst bad decision in all of human history—the original bad
decision.
B. THE SETTING
1.
GEN 3:1: Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord
God had made.
2.
We know the serpent was one of the wild
animals God made because it says so. There’s no need to make the serpent some
abstract idea or principle.
3.
The serpent was simply one of God’s
created animals—a snake. And it says the serpent was crafty—which should
surprise no one. It means shrewd, cunning, deceitful.
4.
This is all fine and well. Anyone who’s watched
a snake in captivity or in the wild has observed that they’re kind of sneaky
and sly creatures.
5.
But the plot thickens in the next
sentence when this serpent begins to talk! I’ve never seen even a snake that
clever!
6.
But Eve doesn’t seem shocked that the
snake can speak—maybe no one has told her yet that snakes don’t talk.
7.
Elsewhere in the Bible we’re told this
was not just any old snake—this snake was the embodiment of Satan. Somehow
Satan was speaking through the serpent. I don’t know how, exactly. Nor do I
need to know how exactly.
8.
I don’t know how God spoke to the prophet
Balaam through his donkey either. Or what form Satan used to speak to Christ
after 40 days in the wilderness.
C. THE CONVERSATION
1.
So what does the talking serpent say? V1:
Did God really say, ‘You must not eat
from any tree in the garden’? Just a friendly little chat begun by a simple
little question.
2.
So what’s the answer? Did God actually
say that? Let’s look back at 2:16 and see: And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘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…’
3.
So it turns out God didn’t say
what the serpent asks. God said they could freely eat from any tree in
the garden—except for one tree.
4.
So how does Eve answer? She seems to
clarify what God said. V2: We may
eat fruit from the trees in the garden. God actually said: You are free to eat from any tree in
the garden.
5.
They’re similar. But one implies greater
freedom than the other. God gave nearly unlimited freedom to Adam/Eve. They
could freely eat from any tree—except one.
6.
God was very gracious and very kind. He
wasn’t stingy or restrictive—he was generous.
7.
But the serpent wanted Eve to think otherwise
about God. So in the question he plants a seed thought. He implied that God
was holding back.
8.
Did God say you can’t eat from every
tree? That’s what I thought. He doesn’t really want you to share in what
he’s made. It’s very subtle.
D. THE DECEPTION
1.
Eve continues to misquote God. V2: 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.’
2.
So is this what God said? Not exactly.
God said nothing about touching the fruit. So now Eve minimizes God’s
generosity—while increasing his restriction.
3.
God only commanded that they not eat
the fruit. There was no restriction in touching it. Now she’s
creating doubt in her own mind.
4.
She’s also lessened the consequences
of disobedience. Again, it’s subtle. God didn’t just say Adam/Eve would die
if they ate the forbidden fruit—he said you will surely die! That sounds
very clear, very specific, and very final.
5.
But Eve still knew enough not to eat the
fruit even if she missed some details. She knew that eating the fruit was
forbidden. She knew that eating it would result in her death. She was quite
certain that eating the fruit would be a bad decision.
6.
So in V4 the serpent throws
subtlety to the wind and blatantly calls God a liar! You will not surely die
the serpent says to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes
will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
7.
Wake up Eve! Here’s the chance to have
what you want. To have what you need. To have what will make you happy and fulfilled.
Here it is—just take it!
E. THE RESPONSE
1.
So the temptation has come. Eve has
doubts about God’s Word. She’s not convinced God has her best interest at
heart. She’s not sure God knows what’s best for her.
2.
The opportunity is there to obey or
disobey. She has a very important decision to make. She has no idea how
important.
3.
V6: 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.
4.
So the seeds of doubt have been sown. The
opportunity is presented. The fruit looks good (it appeals to her eyes). The
fruit is good for food (it appeals to her taste/hunger). The fruit will bring
wisdom (it appeals to her mind/emotions).
5.
None of these are bad. Food is good.
Beauty is good. Wisdom is good. There’s just one problem—God said don’t eat the
fruit from this tree.
6.
Eat from any other tree you choose—but
not from this one. But they ate the fruit anyway. They disobeyed. They sinned.
It was an extremely bad decision.
F. WHAT WE LEARN FROM THEIR BAD DECISION
1.
So what do you and I learn from Adam and
Eve’s bad decision?
2.
First we learn that God gives us
incredible freedom—but freedom has boundaries.
a. There’s a huge difference between freedom and license. Freedom has
boundaries, parameters, and accountability—license does not.
b. Adam and Eve were deceived into believing they could do whatever they
pleased. That they were free to exercise freedom without restrictions.
c. But they were not free to do whatever they pleased. They were free to
do what pleased God. Free to do what he commanded and free to avoid what he
forbid.
d. Almost anything they might have done would have been pleasing to
God—with one exception. It was that one exception they chose.
3.
The second thing we learn is that the sin
of Adam and Eve was not in what they thought about doing—but in what
they thought about and did.
a. Note that the fall did not occur when Eve recognized that the fruit was
good for food.
b. Nor when she recognized that the sight of it was pleasing to the eye.
Nor when she entertained the idea that eating the fruit could make her wise.
c. Their sin was not in looking at the fruit and evaluating the benefits
of the fruit.
d. They sinned when they exercised their will in defiance of God’s
will.
e. We may not find a clearer scenario for sin than JA 1: But each one of us is tempted when, by his
own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has
conceived, it gives birth to sin.
f.
First comes the temptation. Then the
desire. Then the enticement. Then the recognition that it’s sinful. Then the
decision to act. Then the sin. It’s a process.
g. We don’t fall into sin—we decide to sin. Sinners aren’t victims of
what’s beyond their control—they’re willing participants in what they choose. I
wish it was not so.
4.
The third thing we learn is that at the
root of sin is doubt about what God has said.
a. Eve was not ignorant of what God said. She was fully aware of what was
forbidden.
b. Where she lost her way was when she doubted the truth of what
God said. Once she doubted what God said, it was a small step in deciding to
disobey what he had commanded. Does this sound familiar?
5.
A fourth thing we learn from this passage
is that blaming someone else for our sin does not remove its impact.
a. Notice the pattern starting in V11: God said: Have you eaten from the tree that I
commanded you not to eat from? The man said, ‘The woman you put her with me—she
gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’
b. When confronted on his sin—Adam blames his wife. God, it was the woman you put here with me. It wasn’t my
fault—it was her fault. She was a bad influence.
c. Indirectly Adam blames God. God,
it was YOU who put the woman here in the first place. So it’s either
your fault or the woman’s fault. It’s clearly not my fault!
d. But notice those 3 little words in V11—and I ate. It was Adam who decided to eat.
e. V13: Then the Lord God
said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent
deceived me, and I ate.’
f.
So
Lord, it’s not my fault—it’s that doggone serpent. He deceived me into
eating—so it’s really not my fault. It’s the serpent’s fault or your
fault for putting it here!
g. But notice the 3 little words in V13: and I ate.
6.
Blaming other people and circumstances
for our own sin is nothing new. But it does not remove sin’s impact—it merely
delays the recovery from it.
7.
The quickest and surest way to recovery
from sin is unequivocal confession, repentance, and resolution to avoid it in
the future.
8.
We don’t learn this from this couple,
because it wasn’t the pattern they followed. Their pattern was all too typical.
They shifted the blame away from themselves.
9.
It’s no more effective for us than
it was for them.
10.
This is the first recorded bad decision
in the Bible. There will be more to come. But there will also be some good
decisions to explore. We can learn from both. I trust we will.