https://youtu.be/bh9NT7tfS4M
Genesis 3:8-15 They heard the voice of the LORD God, who
was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees
of the garden. 9 The LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are
you?” 10The man said, “I heard your
voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”
11God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree
from which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman you gave to
be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13The LORD God said
to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me,
and I ate.” 14The LORD God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you
are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal. You
shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her
seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.
The Biggest Mess The World Has Ever
Seen
I.
With Damage Mankind Could Never See
II.
With A Fix Only God Could See
I’ve seen some messes in my day. Like the time I ran out of dishwasher
detergent and thought dishwashing soap
was the same thing or maybe the time when the Christmas tree fell over or the
time the clothes washer overflowed two days before the confirmation gathering
at our house. I’ve seen pictures of
messes too. Like the tornado that went
through Oakfield in 1996 or Hurricane Katrina that flooded New Orleans in
2005. This week, on the anniversary of D
Day, we were reminded of the carnage on the beaches in Normandy. As bad as all of those messes were, the Bible
takes us today to “The Biggest Mess The World Has Ever Seen.” I.
With Damage Mankind Could Never See
II. With A Fix Only God Could
See.
“They heard the voice of the LORD God, who
was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees
of the garden.” When I’ve gone to the
zoo or walk through Whitnall Park I’ve often thought of how cool it would have
been to walk through the Garden of Eden with God “during the cooler part of the
day”- to hear God give fun facts about all the animals and the plants in the
garden. But there would be none of that
when God came into the Garden after the first sin. Adam and Eve had disobeyed God and brought on
the biggest mess the world had ever seen.
There was more damage than mankind could ever see.
I wonder how obvious the
change from perfect world to sinful world was to Adam and Eve. Did sharp thistle weeds shoot out of the
ground for their bare feet to step on?
Did the mosquitoes suddenly become biting pests in the garden? Could they suddenly feel their bodies lurch
toward the day of their death? Even it
wasn’t obvious yet to Adam and Eve’s eyes right away, it’s clear that that
there was terrible damage in God’s perfect world-damage that went beyond what
they could see. Sin brought damage on
the inside. It was the biggest mess the
world has ever seen.
I don’t know how much of the damage was
clear to Adam and Eve, but looking through the camera of God’s Word we can see
some of that inside damage. When Adam
and Eve heard God in the garden, rather than running toward God they ran
away. They tried to hide from God. The Bible says, “Your iniquities have
separated you from your God.” The wall
was up. There was a separation from God
on the inside. Their first thought was
not, “Let’s run to God” but rather “let’s run away from God.”
Part of the big mess is that sin is not
smart. In the cartoons sometimes the
characters try to hide behind a tree but it’s always obvious where they are.
Did Adam and Eve really think that God would not be able to see where they
were? “The LORD God called to the man and said to
him, “Where are you?” The man said, “I
heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid
myself.” Sin is not smart. The best that Adam could come up with was a
lie? What a mess! And now Adam was lying to God to whom all
hearts are open.
It gets worse. Now in the middle of this mess with sin and
guilt all over, the blame game starts. “God
said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from
which I commanded you not to eat?” God
gives Adam a chance to at least admit what he had done. But instead from the mud and muck of sin,
Adam spits in God’s face. “The man said,
“The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate
it.” At first it seems like Adam is
blaming Eve. He could be blaming “anyone
but him.” But listen again, “The woman you gave to be with me.” Adam was blaming God. According to Adam, this whole big mess was
God’s fault. If he had created Eve, this
whole mess would not have happened. So
it was God’s fault. Sin is not
smart. What a mess!
Adam wasn’t the only one affected by
sin. Eve plays the blame game too. “The LORD God said to the woman, “What have
you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” What a mess!
With more damage than Adam and Eve could have seen at the time. The
damage sin went beyond Adam and Eve could see that day. Wars, disease, suffering hatred, famine would
make their mess through the ages. Sin had spread from Adam to Eve and would be
spread to all people. In their immediate family there would be a murder. Their oldest son Cain killed his
brother. That sin disease passed to all
of us. When we are little no one has to
teach us to be naughty. It comes from
inside. That trait of blaming others for one’s own sin
would be passed on to future generations.
The Bible tells us that even though Adam and Eve were created holy and
perfect, since that day of disobedience in the Garden “the wickedness of
mankind was great on the earth and that all of the thoughts and plans formed in
their hearts were only evil every day. Have
you noticed how when we are confronted by our own sin, the very first thought
that goes through our mind is to deny our sin, lie about it, blame someone else
or minimize the wrong we have down?
Some might wonder how eating a piece of
fruit could cause such a mess. But
remember what was behind eating that fruit- disobedience. By doing what God had told them not to do,
Adam and Eve were saying that they knew better than God- that they were going
to listen to the devil rather than their loving creator. The wages of sin is death. That disobedience brought sin and death pouring
into God’s perfect world. That first
mess brought all of the other messes into the world through the ages. More damage than Adam and Eve could ever have
seen.
God had the ability to destroy the
whole world from a distance. He could
have fried Adam and Eve with a lightning bolt from miles away. But yet the Holy God trudged through the
sinful mess of his broken world to go looking for the selfish disobedient
people who had made all of this mess. He
didn’t go hunting for Adam and Eve to destroy them nor close the distance in a
millisecond to get right in Adam’s face as he had every right to do. Instead he walks into the garden. He doesn’t break Adam and Eve’s eardrums with
a God scream. He speaks in measured
tones, about the greatest mess the world had ever seen. He speaks about the fix only God could
see.
“The LORD God said to the
serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the
livestock, and more than every wild animal. You shall crawl on your belly, and
you shall eat dust all the days of your life.”
It sure might have seemed like Satan in a snake’s costume won that
day. But the Lord gave some permanent
reminders for people that Satan did not win the war that day. Satan’s defeat was sure. Rather than being admired for its smarts, the
snake who was more crafty than all of the other animals the Lord God had made,
would bring a reaction of disgust.
Because the devil had used a snake to deceive and tempt, the serpent would spend all of its days with
its face in the dust.
“I
will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her
seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.” The root word for hostility is a wedge. God saw that the people were on the same side
as the devil against him, but God would send the Savior, the wedge who would
put the people back on God’s side. Only
God could see a fix for the mess of sin.
Only God could bring the fix for the biggest mess the world had ever
seen. God would come himself. The devil who
looked so scary and so smug there in the garden would have His head
crushed. Jesus, the God man lived
perfectly in our place and had his heel
crushed paying for sins on the cross.
But his death was not a head crushing blow, Jesus rose again. The relationship would God was perfectly
restored.
Can you see the huge mess sin has made
in our world? In our life? Jesus is the one the Bible points to and says, “Behold the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” Those who push
him away in unbelief have only that separation from God Adam and Eve felt a
taste of in the garden to look forward
to. But those who trust that Savior will
live in paradise with him. Those who
push him away in unbelief It was a fix only God could see.
Have you made a huge mess out of your
life? Is there a huge mess facing you in
your life right now? Come again and look
what God can do. He showed his love for
you in the Garden and at the cross. He
can fix things no one else can fix.
Trust in Him, His love, His power. Amen.
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