Lessons of Life (1)the Fall of Man

**Fenny West** Thu 02 Jul 2009, 9:39 am

And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 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." Genesis 3

The Fall of Man

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'?"
² The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 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."
⁶ 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. 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.

Gen 2:16-17 3:1-8

Lessons

1. The idle mind is the devil’s workshop. They were meant to be taking care of the garden not loafing around. If you do not occupy yourself productively the devil will hire you, occupy you and destroy you. Gen.2:15

2. God provides where He presides. Ps23:1,

3. God provides generously. Phil4:19

4. God has boundaries. Rom.12:1-2

5. Boundaries are for our good. It is good to have boundaries. Without boundaries there will be chaos and anarchy .

6. Often once something is forbidden it has a special appeal for those who are live casually- indifferent, carnally.

7. Love gives choices. He made us as moral agent having a will to do what we want. Our choices can make us or break us. 1 Cor. 13

8. God tests our loyalty and obedience. Gen 2:16-17, Gen.22:2, 1Sam.15:1-3

9. We have an enemy lurking, cunning, who has set a trap, who has dug a hole and disguise as an angel of light, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, who wants to derail us. Ephe.4:27

10. This enemy is doomed and destined for hell and wants to take as many people as he can.

11. The strategy of the enemy is to portray God in bad light by twisting His word. Gen.3:1

⁴⁴You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. John8:44
The devil will not tell you the whole truth. He told them their eyes will be opened but he with held the truth that they will die spiritually-separated from God.

He knew what it was like to be separated from God because he was at that time.

12. We need to be wise and flee from the enemy. 2Tim2:22, 1Tim.6:11, 1 Cor10:14, Jam4:7

13. Our association is critical to our walk in obedience or disobedience to God. We need to flee every appearance of the devil, not having fellowship with him or his cohorts who may be so called friends with the mind of the world (unbelievers) or the devil.

³³Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."1Cor15:33

14. We need to watch our eye gate- one of the avenues of or temptation. Lust of the eyes is what it is called. The other is lust of the flesh our appetite- the desire to satisfy our flesh- legitimate needs in an illegitimate way. We need to pray like David ‘set a watch over my eyes’ we need to be rootless with any part of our body that wants to cause to sin not give it liberties. We must discipline all the parts of our bodies lest we fall and be cast away having preached to others.

¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.1John2:15-17

²⁴Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

²⁵Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. ²⁶Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. ²⁷No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.1Cor9:24-27

15. Adam was supposed to be protective of his wife but abdicated his responsibility. He should have intervened. He was not the leader he was meant to be. He was passive and permissive.

16. When Adam fell he died spiritually as God promised and we all inherited that faulty genes, called sin-sickness. We thank God that He made a way through Jesus Christ in Gen3:15.

17. Notice that when their eyes were opened they lost their innocence realised they were naked. They then tried to cover themselves with leaves- work of their hands. This is symbolic of self righteousness. All our righteousness is like filthy rags before God. Only God could clothe us rightly.

18. God clothe them by killing an innocent Lamb and clothing them with its skin- a pointer to Jesus Christ Whom he promised in Gen3:15

19. Notice also that the sweet fellowship, intimacy and communion they had with God were broken the moment they sinned. That was spiritual death- separation from God. They started hiding.

20. Fear set in. The sin was repellent. Rang the bell with sound: unclean! unclean!! Don’t come near us, unclean! We do not deserve to be in your presence. You are holy. We are unclean.

21. Man should be feeding his wife as the provider for the family and once there is a role reversal, trouble looms. He will lose his self-esteem and authority and the relationship will be fragile if not doomed.
22. Sin brings and breeds insecurity; triggers loss of confidence with God.

Pastor Fri 03 Jul 2009, 8:50 am

Thank you for explaining it so well.

Lessons of Life (1)the Fall of Man

Lessons of Life (1)the Fall of Man

Re: Lessons of Life (1)the Fall of Man