The big idea. Failure to trust in the truthfulness of GOD’S word introduces sin and shame into the world.
I. Read the top and the tail.

How did we get from two people hiding and protecting nothing but being naked to the end of this passage where Adam and Eve are sewing fig leaves together?

The top is verse 2:25 and the tail is 3:7: naked and not ashamed to vs 3:7 naked and ashamed. How did they get there? What happened?

II. Be careful who you listen to.

Satan is not asking a weird question he is questioning the order of creation: instead of God, Adam, Eve, then creatures, it is upside down – a created being, the snake, telling humans that Go’ds word can’t be listened to or followed. It’s upside down.

Do we sit in judgement over the word, or does the word judge us? That is what is at stake here.

III. Stay on the line. Vv 2-3

Satan both goes above and below God’s plumb line of his word as well as he erases the line.

Gods word is diminished. Vv 2.

So what DID Gid say? 2:16-1. God gave Adam the run of all the garden. The one boundary was one tree off limits and would yield death.

Parents: do you put boundaries around things because you hate your kids? Of course not. It is not tyranny – it was loving protection in the rules and properties that God made in his world.

Gods word is added to. Vv 3a.

Satan misquotes God. Eve further misquotes this. The seed planted: God has it out for you and is withholding happiness from you in this tree. God must be holding things back that could make them more satisfied. That’s the lie.

That’s the lie we ultimately fall for too.

God’s word is softened. Probably not die.

The first Adam did not stay on the line but the second Adam, Jesus, walked it perfectly. When tempted in Luke 4 in the wilderness Jesus replies when tempted EXACTLY what God’s word says.

III. Is God trustworthy?

Lie. God does not want you to be like him. If God can’t be trusted, then he does not need to be obeyed.

The irony is when the serpant says they will be like God, snakes do not and Adam and Eve already are like God and bear his image.

IV. Paradise lost.

The you is plural. Satan says, “when you eat of it you all will all be like God.” This means that Adam is not off with dog and horse and Eve is alone talking to the serpant. He is mute next to his wife, abdicating his authority and responsibility while satan speaks.

Sin never delivers what it promises. You eat of a beautiful fruit and you wake up in shame, trying to hide in your nakedness.

Conclusion.

Do we see in ourselves this same mistrust of God? Do we think he is holding out on us what is really good even though it’s sin? Left to our own devices we will always do what Adam and Eve did.

What we need is not to try harder. We need not the disobedience of the first Adam but the obedience of the second Adam. Our perfect standing with Christ is not based on our record or resume but his! That is not good advice – that is great news!!!! Come and get it…

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