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Call to worship: Psalm 13

Text: Genesis 3:1-13

Summary:

The heavenly honeymoon is swiftly disturbed and interrupted by a creature of sinful craft. Hating God, and those bearing and promoting His image and glory, he poses as an advantageous friend, an angel of light. Desiring to poison the foundations of divine design, he approaches, not Adam, but the godly wife. Instead of protecting his wife, as honoring of her dignity and the call to love her, he stands idly by. Instead of taking recourse to God or her husband, as honoring of his guardian office, she takes it upon herself to engage the enemy and answer his inquisition. The details suggest that, with Adam’s guard down, her guard is susceptible also to his arrows of deception. Positing demonic curiosity, doubt, self-sufficiency, and falsehood, all while impugning God's character, the serpent supplies a sight that blinds, a benefit in sin, a lying word in which she truly trusts. Thus, she takes and eats. She sins. And her sin spreads. Adam also eats. They're both sinners. And sin never satisfies. They realize their grave transgression but, dead in sin, they know not how to cover it unto life again. In what's meant to surprise, God draws near to them in their sin and, though they hide, proving the futility of their covering, His ministry persists. Enduring their self-righteousness, He works them to the true source of their sin, preparing their souls for the grand reveal: grace greater than all their sin. Grace will have the last word over their grave. God comforts the undone that they're not done-for. Their sin will be undone by the finished work of Christ.

Sermon Outline:

1. Grieving the details of our death. (3:1-7)
2. Meeting the God of all grace. (3:8-13)

Prepare

Discussion Questions:

1. Read Genesis 3:1-13.
2. In the flow of Genesis, what's just happened before the entrance of the serpent? How is the serpent described? Does he appear threatening to the woman? Is he a final threat to God and His purposes? How can you tell from v. 1?
3. Who does the serpent approach with his inquiry? Why might he approach the woman and not Adam? Why is his deceptive presence in the garden a slip in the wrong direction by Adam? See 2:15. In his first words, what moves does the serpent make in his attempt to deceive and kill? How should the woman have reacted to what he asked? How does she respond, and does her response give any indication of her guard being lowered? To her initial defense, what does the serpent say and/or teach? By his word, what is she brought to see? How is that sight actually blindness? What does Satan actually attack and want them to believe in its place?
4. In her passing along the serpent's deception, how do we see the insatiable appetite of sin? By their response, how do we see the futility of sin's promises? How is their loss of spiritual innocence and life immediately visible? How are we to understand the idea of death in these early chapters of the Bible? Given all that's preceded in Genesis, how might you summarize the tragedy of our Fall?
5. Should we expect what happens next? What happens next? How is their spiritual condition further proven in 3:8-13? What marks the darkness of sin and unbelief? How does their sin set the stage for God's grand revelation, and what is it? How does their sin, and God's grace, promote our call to any sinner? What comfort can we draw from the fact that God draws near to them in their sin, precisely to share: it's not done for the undone? How does this passage direct our hearts to Jesus?