Sin and Temptation

Please take your Bibles and open them up to Genesis chapter 3, and this morning we're

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

coming to one of the most infamous chapters of the entire Bible.

If you're just now joining us for the first time, we've been walking through the book

of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, and up to this point things have been great.

But now this morning what we see is this good creation that we've seen up to this point

is about to be drastically changed for the worse with the entrance of sin into the world.

So Genesis chapter 3, our passage this morning is verses 1 through 13, and when you found

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

that in the Bible, then let's stand in honor of the reading of God's Word, Genesis 3, 1

through 13.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but

God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden,

neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you

eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the

eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and

ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig

leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the

man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you?

And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked,

and I hid myself.

He said, who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

The man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree,

and I ate.

Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done?

And the woman said, the serpent deceived me, and I ate.

And Father God, as we open up your word, we pray that we would see clearly here our sin,

our separation from you.

Lord, this is the root cause of all evil in the world and all evil in us.

And so Lord, we pray that we would see it clearly and that it would drive us to Christ in faith.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

You may be seated.

I got lunch with somebody this week who was new to the area, and because it had warmed up just a little bit,

the tiniest bit, we sat outside.

But because we live where we live, we weren't out there long before we were absolutely eaten up by no-see-ums,

and they are back with a vengeance.

I don't know if you noticed.

And as we sat there, he wondered out loud, well, why in the world are these things so bad here?

And I didn't have a scientific explanation to give him.

I'm sure there is one.

But the only explanation I could give him was because all the way back here in Genesis chapter 3,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Adam and Eve disobeyed the word of the Lord and plunged God's perfect creation and all of us in it into something called sin.

I don't want to be overly simplistic this morning, but sin is the fundamental explanation for everything that is bad and broken in the world.

All the way from minor inconveniences and things that annoy us like no-see-ums and mosquitoes and poison ivy and things like that,

all the way to the most difficult and terrible things that face all of us in this life.

Questions like, why is my marriage so difficult?

Questions like, well, why do I feel so alone and depressed?

Questions like, well, why do we deal with things like cancer?

Why do we have to face things like death?

And of course, as we think about this on a spiritual level this morning, it's the answer to questions like,

well, why does the Bible say that each and every one of us are by nature separated from God?

Enemies of God.

And why are all of us by nature enemies and under his wrath?

Why does anybody die?

And why does anybody go to this place called hell?

All of these terribly unpopular topics that no one really wants to think about and talk about.

The most basic answer and explanation that we can give for all of these questions is found right here in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

With the entrance of sin into the world.

So let's look here at this passage together.

And what we're going to see here this morning is the entrance and the effects of sin.

And this will be our outline this morning.

If you're taking notes, that might help you to follow along.

We'll see the entrance of sin and the effects of sin this morning.

First, we see here the entrance of sin.

Look there with me starting in verse 1.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

The tone kind of shifts here in chapter 3, doesn't it?

We've had God's good, perfect paradise up to this point.

And now the presence of this crafty serpent comes onto the scene.

And I'll just go ahead and tell you that there are questions that we have that Genesis simply does not answer.

And it doesn't intend to answer questions like about the origins of evil itself.

Or questions about maybe the fall of Satan.

Genesis doesn't intend to answer these questions.

It puts us after all of that.

And by the time we meet this serpent in the garden, he is already wicked.

And he's already bent on twisting God's good creation.

The focus here is on humanity and how humanity first sinned.

And the effects of that sin on all of creation and on all of us.

So this crafty serpent who we know is Satan, he comes to disrupt this perfect garden paradise.

And he comes with this tried and true playbook of temptation.

And I want you to look with me starting in verse 2.

And I want you to notice four tactics that Satan uses here in the garden.

And I want you to pay attention to this because these are tactics that he still uses today on each and every one of us.

I know we're talking about the very first sin.

But unfortunately, the first sin is not the last sin, is it?

This first temptation is not the last temptation.

What we see here is a mirror-like representation of something that each and every one of us faces in our day-to-day life.

Tactic number one, Satan attacks God's good design.

We've seen over the past several weeks, haven't we, how God ordered and structured his creation in Genesis 1 and 2.

It all began with God.

He is at the top.

He's at the center of all things.

His word is ultimate.

And then God creates Adam and he gives his word to Adam.

And then God creates Eve to be Adam's helper.

And Adam and Eve together are called to rule over the animal kingdom.

You see that structure and that order.

But here's what happens.

It's all completely reversed, isn't it?

The animal comes to the person.

The serpent comes up to the woman.

The woman takes her cues from an animal.

And then Adam takes his cues from the woman.

And nobody's listening to God at all.

Satan is disrupting, upending God's good design from the very beginning.

And he absolutely loves to do this.

Anywhere you see sin present, you will see an attack on God's good design.

We saw last week how we see the effects of this in marriages.

Husbands struggle to lead and to love their wives as they were designed to do.

Wives struggle to help and submit to their husbands as they were designed to do.

Sin comes in and jumbles up and confuses the whole thing.

We see it in churches.

Women stepping into roles of teaching and authority that are reserved for biblically qualified men.

Scripture is not unclear about this.

But again, sin comes in and disrupts God's good design.

But most often, you know where we see this most clearly?

You know where we see this order and this design of God attacked most often?

It's in our own sinful personal rebellion against God.

And we see it in our own lives.

When you and I walk in sin, what we are doing is we're saying to God that you're not the authority here.

I am.

That's what sin is.

Sin isn't just some minor little mistake, a little slip up here and there, doing something that we shouldn't do.

R.C. Sproul, he says that sin is cosmic treason.

Every sin, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is an act of rebellion against the sovereign God who reigns and rules over us.

And as such, is an act of treason against the cosmic king.

Sin always attacks and confuses God's design.

Always.

Wherever you see that order disrupted, you can trace it all the way back right here to the garden.

Tactic number two.

He questions the word of God.

He questions the word of God.

We see that plainly enough here, I think.

But it's so interesting to me.

When you slow down and pay attention to the dialogue here in this account,

you'll begin to notice that this temptation ultimately is a battle over the word of the Lord.

Look at this, verse one.

He says, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

Now stop there.

Okay, this is a test.

Everybody look up.

Eyes on me.

Don't look at the book.

Okay, I don't tell you to do that often.

Look up at me.

Is that what God said?

Did God actually say you may not eat of any tree?

Is that what God said?

Yes or no?

What God said, you can look back down,

was that they could eat freely of every tree in the garden.

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

they should not eat of it.

For in the day that they eat of it,

they will surely die.

From the beginning here,

the enemy completely misrepresents the word of the Lord, doesn't he?

Now look at how Eve responds.

Which by the way, first of all,

that's mistake number one.

Because she shouldn't have responded at all.

Okay, word of wisdom to you.

If a talking serpent comes up and starts speaking to you,

you don't have to have a dialogue with it.

You just run away and pray.

And that's what Eve should have done here.

That's what we should do when we face temptation.

You know, you don't have to engage it.

You don't have to have a dialogue with it.

You don't have to enter into a conversation.

With it, you are well within your rights

to simply say no and run away.

But Eve speaks.

And to her credit, she does correct him, doesn't she?

She says,

We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,

but now look what she says.

God said,

You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree

that is in the midst of the garden,

neither shall you touch it,

lest you die.

Stop there.

Is that what God said?

This is like one of those pictures in the magazine

where you have side by side

and you got to spot the differences here.

It's subtle.

Do you spot the differences?

God never said,

Don't touch the tree.

She added that herself.

She adds to the word of the Lord.

And on top of that,

this is a little bit harder to see in the English,

but what she also does is

she minimizes the consequence of disobedience.

Hebrew language does this thing

where when they want to emphasize something,

they'll sometimes say it twice.

And so when God gave this command,

what it says is,

In the day that you eat of it,

you shall surely die.

In the Hebrew, that is,

you will die, die.

That's serious.

You're going to die, die.

It's for emphasis.

Don't eat it or you will surely die.

But what does Eve say?

Don't eat it.

Don't touch it.

Or you'll die.

She adds to his word.

She takes away from his word.

She adds to it

to make it sound more restrictive than it is.

And then she minimizes the consequence

and makes it sound less severe

and less serious than it is.

You see, this temptation is a battle

over the word of the Lord.

And she is losing.

Church, if you want to guard yourself from sin,

get yourself in the word of the Lord.

If you expect to fight against the temptation of the enemy,

you must know the word of the Lord.

So that if somebody says,

Did God really say this?

You can look at him and say,

Well, no, he didn't.

And actually feel like you know what you're talking about

because you know the word of the Lord.

Or you could say,

Well, yes, he did.

And here's where he says it.

And here's why he says it.

And here's what it means.

Because I'm so immersed in the word of the Lord

that I can't be led astray by these subtle lies.

If we would fight against temptation,

we'd better be armed with the word of God.

Not the word as we want it to be,

but the word as it is.

No additions,

no subtractions.

The enemy here questions the word of God.

But he doesn't stop there, does he?

Tactic number three.

He outright lies to your face.

Look at how Satan responds.

Verse four.

You will not surely die.

You will not die.

Die, he says.

The serpent quotes the word of God.

He knows it more accurately than Eve does.

And he denies it completely.

Surely, you will not surely die.

That's an absolute lie.

And of course, it doesn't seem like it at first.

Adam and Eve, they don't immediately die, do they?

No, not physically at least.

But we know that this death,

this consequence of the sin here

is much more than just physical death.

The apostle Paul says in Romans chapter five

that sin came into the world through one man,

that's Adam,

and death through sin.

So death spread to all men

because all sinned.

They will die physically eventually,

and we die physically because of sin.

Church, death is a terrible enemy.

The more I see it,

the closer I get to it,

the more I experience it,

the more I hate it.

Death is a terrible enemy.

The devil lies here.

They will die.

But an even bigger issue here

is that sin brings spiritual death.

Adam and Eve are about to be banished

from the presence of God.

And for the first time,

that close, intimate communion with the Lord

that they've enjoyed

and God's perfect paradise

is about to be broken.

They may be alive, technically,

but they are dead.

You know, to be physically alive,

but spiritually dead,

that's not much of a life at all, is it?

It's a mirage.

It's a lie.

To be physically alive,

but spiritually dead,

sadly, that's the natural state

of every single person

that's born of Adam.

You realize,

it is possible for you

to be physically alive,

breathing, thinking, acting,

walking, sitting here,

listening,

sitting here,

singing the songs,

and hearing the word.

It's possible for you

to be physically alive,

but spiritually dead.

And this is our natural state

because of sin,

which is why Jesus says,

you must be born again

to enter the kingdom of God.

The devil lies.

You will not surely die.

He tells him another lie in verse 5.

God knows that when you eat of it,

your eyes will be opened

and you will be like God,

knowing good and evil.

Just zoom out

and think about how ridiculous this is.

Adam and Eve

are made in the image of God,

are they not?

They are the only creatures

in the world

that are made in the image of God.

No one else,

no creature in all of creation

is more like God than them.

They don't need to take cues

from a talking snake

on how to be made like God.

It's a lie.

Church, we should know

that the devil was a liar

from the beginning.

And everywhere he exerts his influence,

he does it through lies.

And you see what he does here.

He oversells the benefits

and he undersells

the consequence of sin.

You see that?

You'll be like God.

You'll be wise.

Think about how it'll benefit you.

And don't worry about the consequence.

You won't die.

He oversells the benefits

and he undersells the consequence.

And church,

isn't that always how it is

when we face temptation?

You think about whatever that is for you.

Whatever you tend to be led astray by,

be that pride,

or lust,

greed,

or anger,

or selfishness,

sins of the tongue

and of speech

like we spoke about this morning

in Sunday school.

In that moment of temptation,

you're not talking,

you're not thinking about consequence.

You're thinking about benefit.

How can this serve me?

Take a step back

and you realize

it's always a lie.

Sins,

pleasures,

are never worth it.

The enemy baits the hook.

He doesn't want you to see the hook.

He covers it up

with this delicious,

appealing bait.

Whatever it is

that appeals to us,

which is what we see

in this fourth tactic here.

Number four,

the enemy plays

to our desires.

This is how temptation works.

Look at verse six.

When the woman saw

that the tree was good for food

and that it was a delight

to the eyes

and that the tree

was to be desired

to make one wise,

she took of its fruit

and ate.

And she also gave some

to her husband

who was with her

and he ate.

First of all,

can we talk about Adam

here for a minute?

Where was Adam

the whole time

this was going on?

Where was Adam

the leader?

Where was Adam

the head?

Where was Adam

the husband?

Where was the guardian there?

The man in the garden?

He's supposed to be

the godly authority,

the protector.

Where was Adam

this whole time?

He was right there

with her.

He just stands by

and lets it all happen.

Passive Adam

stands by

and watches

as this snake

lies about God

and then tricks his wife.

But both of them here

make this fatal mistake.

This is what they do.

Listen to this.

They make this fatal mistake

of trusting their desires.

others.

You know we live

in a culture

that will tell you

things like

follow your heart.

Right?

If it feels good,

it's okay.

If I want to do something

or like something

or be something,

if it's what I desire,

nobody can say no to me

or it's not affirming to me.

It's not loving to me

to deny me

of my desire.

Listen,

our desires

cannot always be trusted.

Our feelings

cannot always be trusted.

Our emotions,

how we feel about something

cannot always be trusted.

Feelings

and desires

and emotions

are wonderful things

when they follow

the truth.

Only

when they follow

the truth.

Otherwise,

don't trust them.

James tells us

each person

is tempted

when he is

lured

and enticed

by his own desire.

Then desire,

when it has conceived,

gives birth to sin

and sin,

when it is fully grown,

brings forth

death.

Here we see

Eve is

tempted

by the lust

of the flesh.

She sees

that it's good

for food.

She's tempted

by the lust

of the eyes.

It looks

good.

And she's tempted

by the lust

of pride.

It's desired

to make me wise,

make me like God.

And all of it

is too much.

So we see

that she saw

it was good

to be desired.

She took it,

she ate it,

and her husband

who was with her

who should have

stopped the whole thing

took

and he ate.

And now,

second,

we see the tragic

effects

of sin.

Look there with me

starting in verse 7.

We see these

effects of sin.

We'll see this

throughout the rest

of the chapter.

I had to stop

somewhere.

We're going to stop

at verse 13.

Well, for one,

they felt shame.

Verse 7,

Then the eyes

of both

were opened

and they knew

that they were naked.

And they sewed

fig leaves together

and made themselves

loincloths.

for the first time,

mankind,

they felt this

awareness

and the shame

of their nakedness.

You know,

we have all felt

this with our sin.

Have we not?

Even non-believers,

you know deep down

that your rebellion

against the Lord

is wrong.

And when the temporary

pleasure of that sin

washes away

and passes away,

often what we're left

with at the end

is shame.

And notice what

they do with it.

Look how they try

to handle it.

They go and they try

and cover themselves up.

They grab whatever

they can find.

They sew fig leaves

together.

They make themselves

loincloths.

They try by their own

efforts to cover up

their shame.

Every single one of us

does this,

don't we?

We feel shame.

We sin and we feel

that shame.

And instead of running

to the Lord

as we ought,

we try some man-made

method of covering

it up.

Sometimes this is just

how sin works.

Sometimes the very thing

that brings us shame

is the same thing

that we turn to

to try and cover it up

and make us feel better.

It's this tragic,

endless cycle.

We self-medicate

with drugs

or with alcohol

or with pornography.

It's this endless

depressing cycle.

Or on the other end

of the spectrum,

maybe we try and cover

ourselves up

with good things,

things that we think

will please God

with religion

or good works.

Maybe if I just try harder.

Maybe if I just do more.

Maybe if I'm just

a little bit better

next time.

Listen,

that's not the answer either.

All of these

are feeble attempts

to cover up

our fundamental problem,

which is this.

We are all sinners.

We are naked

and exposed

and guilty

in the sight of God

and the answer for us

isn't just to try

and do something

to cover it up

as much as we want to.

We can't do anything

to cover up our shame.

The answer

is come to Christ.

Only Jesus

can cover our shame.

He bore our shame.

They experience shame

in the garden.

We also see that

because of their sin

for the first time

they experience

separation

from the Lord.

Verse 8

They heard the sound

of the Lord

walking in the garden

in the cool of the day

and the man and his wife

hid themselves

from the presence

of the Lord God

among the trees

of the garden.

For the first time

there is now

distance

separation

between them

and God.

For the first time

they are afraid

of the Lord

and they try

and hide themselves

away from them

and what a foolish

thing that is.

Can you imagine?

The Lord God

who owns all

and sees all

and knows all

you cannot hide

yourself from God

but what a tragedy

it is that they even

thought of this

for the very first time

sin has entered in

and severed

the relationship

between man and God

and they are afraid.

I know this has never

happened to you

but it's kind of like

when you're driving

down Highway 17

going about 25-30 miles

an hour

too fast

and you hear a siren

behind you

and what do you do?

Well you

you just kind of

inch over

to the right hand lane

and hope maybe

just maybe

they'll just pass

right by you

and show you

some mercy

maybe they won't

see you

maybe they're not

they're not coming

for you

you hide

but you know

in your heart

that they have

every right

to pull you over

and write you a ticket

you know that you're guilty

you just hope

that he passes you by

you know there's an echo

of this account

here in Genesis

with Adam and Eve

hiding amongst the

trees of the garden

hiding because of

their sin

there's an echo

of this all the way

at the end of the book

in Revelation

the return of the Lord

the day of the Lord

the wicked hide themselves

in rocks

and in caves

and they beg

that the rocks

might cover them up

that they might be hidden

from the wrath

of the Lord

but for them

it's too late

here God

we see he doesn't

pass them by

and God certainly

could have come

in wrath

right away

that very minute

but instead

look how he

look how he approaches them

he comes

gently

and graciously

asking these

these probing

rhetorical questions

he's like a parent

with a disobedient

child

son what were you

thinking

son why did you

do this

where

where are you

who told you

not to eat

of the tree

who told you

who told you

that you were naked

have you eaten

of the tree

which I commanded

you not to eat

and we know

that the day

of God's wrath

is coming

but here

we see

this is

this is the Lord

graciously

pursuing

sinners

but even so

the effect

of their sin

is obvious

their sin

has brought

separation

between them

and God

and so it is

with each

and every

one

of us

our sin

has earned

us

separation

from God

and we

cannot hide

ourselves

from him

Hebrews chapter 4

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

says no creature

is hidden

from his sight

but all

are naked

and exposed

to the eyes

of him

to whom

we must

give

an account

but instead

of coming

to him

and owning

their sin

and repenting

to him

look what they do

here in verse 12

we see another

effect here

of their sin

look what they do

they blame

shift

they shift

the blame

onto anybody

and everybody

else besides

themselves

look how quickly

Adam goes

from rejoicing

over his bride

here in chapter 2

to throwing her

right under the bus

here in chapter 3

this woman

not just this woman

but this woman

that you

gave me

she gave me

the fruit

and I ate

y'all the honeymoon

is over

he blames

his wife

and essentially

he blames

God

this defective

helper

that you

gave me

that's the

problem

it's her fault

the Lord

turns his

attention

to the woman

and he says

what is this

that you

have done

what does

she do

well she

turns and

points the

finger at the

serpent

the serpent

deceived me

and I ate

Adam points

his finger

at his wife

he says

it's her fault

he points

his finger

at God

he says

it's your fault

she points

the finger

at the serpent

says it's his fault

no one

here is owning

their sin

before the Lord

no one

confesses

no one

repents

no one

takes full

responsibility

for their

own sin

I wonder

when was

the last

time that

you

simply

fully

completely

owned

your

sinfulness

before the

Lord

you didn't

blame

shift

point the

finger

at someone

else

you didn't

say I'm

sorry

but

you didn't

give any

excuse

any extra

explanation

you simply

before the

Lord

said I

am a

sinner

you see

my sin

I know

my guilt

and I

bring it

before you

would you

have mercy

on me

a sinner

let me

ask it like

this

when's the

last time

you really

practiced

repentance

and faith

those are

two pretty

key terms

that we

need to

understand

church

repentance

and faith

because this

is what it

means to

be a

Christian

to be

a Christian

you must

repent

of your

sin

and put

your faith

in Christ

Jesus

if you

have not

done this

you are

not a

Christian

and if you

are a

Christian

then you

start to

realize

this

this is a

whole

lifetime

worth of

faith

and repentance

I need

to repent

every day

I need

to remind

myself

to trust

in the

Lord

every

single

day

but it

happens

it starts

now

it starts

once

have you

have you

repented

and believed

the gospel

repentance

begins

with

fully

owning

your

sin

confess

it

own

it

I am

a sinner

I blew

it

I'm totally

powerless

to defeat

it

I can't

cover

myself

up

I can't

hide

it

from

you

you see

me

for exactly

who I

am

and so

what can

I do

but lay

myself

out

before

you

and ask

you

to

completely

just have

mercy

on a

sinner

like

me

that's

repentance

and then

faith

is

completely

trusting

Jesus

Christ

in

your

place

say I

failed

I'm a

sinner

I

cannot

come back

into the

presence of

God

on my

own

account

and so

I

trust

what

Jesus

has

done

is

sufficient

that's

faith

I

trust

what

Jesus

has

done

he

has

done

it

for

me

I

trust

that

Jesus

is

the

true

and

better

Adam

and I

want

to be

counted

in

him

have

you

trusted

in

Jesus

are

you

trusting

him

right

now

we

just

sang

the

words

to

this

new

song

new

to

us

anyway

let

me

let

me

remind

you

of

what

we

just

sang

Christ

the

true

and

better

Adam

son

of

God

and

son

of

man

who

when

tempted

in

the

garden

never

yielded

never

sinned

he

who

makes

the

many

righteous

brings

us

back

to

life

again

dying

he

reversed

the

curse

and

rising

crushed

the

serpent's

head

Christians

are those

who

trust

by

faith

that

Christ

Jesus

is

the

true

and

better

Adam

who

succeeded

in

my

place

where

the

first

Adam

failed

you

think

about

the

passage

that

we

just

read

earlier

this

morning

from

Matthew

chapter

four

did

you

make

the

connection

where

the

devil

comes

and

he

takes

Jesus

up

to

the

mountaintop

you

remember

how

Jesus

has

been

fasting

in

the

wilderness

for

40

days

at

this

point

he

is

worn

out

he

not

well

fed

he

is

not

in

a

paradise

like

Adam

was

he

is

out

in

the

desert

about

as

tired

and

hungry

as

a

person

can

be

and

right

in

the

midst

of

his

vulnerability

here

comes

that

snake

again

the

devil

we're

meant

to

read

this

story

right

alongside

the

story

here

in

Genesis

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

chapter

3

the

devil

comes

and he

tempts

Jesus

with the

same

old

tired

playbook

the

exact

same

way

he

tempted

Adam

and

Eve

in

the

same

way

that

he

tempts

us

the

tempter

came

to

him

and

said

if

you

are

the

son

of

God

command

these

stones

to

become

loaves

of

bread

take

and

eat

he's

tempted

with a

lust

of

the

flesh

but

he

answered

it

is

written

man

shall

not

live

by

bread

alone

but

by

every

word

that

comes

from

the

mouth

of

God

how

does

Jesus

battle

the

enemy

is

with

the

word

of

the

Lord

the

devil

comes

and he

tries

another

tactic

he

tries

the

lust

of

pride

he

took

him

to

the

holy

city

and

set

him

on

the

pinnacle

of

the

temple

and

said

to

him

if

you

are

the

son

of

God

throw

yourself

down

for

it

is

written

he

will

command

his

angels

concerning

you

and

on

their

hands

they

will

bear

you

up

lest

you

strike

your

foot

against

a

stone

and

now

the

devil

is

quoting

scripture

last

tactic

the

devil

took

him

up

to

the

very

high

mountain

and

showed

him

all

the

kingdoms

of

the

world

and

their

glory

that's

the

lust

of

sight

and

he

said

to

him

all

these

I

will

give

you

if

you

will

fall

down

and

worship

me

Jesus

said

to

him

be

gone

Satan

for

it

is

written

you

shall

worship

the

Lord

your

God

and

him

!

only

shall

you

serve

Jesus

succeeds

where the

first Adam

failed

the

first Adam

failed

in the

garden

Jesus

here

he

perfectly

resists

all

temptation

Jesus

perfectly

obeys

the

word

of the

Lord

not

just

here

in

this

one

instance

but

a

whole

lifetime

of

perfect

obedience

and

by

doing

so

Jesus

secures

what

the

first

Adam

lost

Jesus

secures

for

himself

and

all

who

are

included

in

him

eternal

life

in

paradise

in

perfect

relationship

with

the

Lord

for

all

who

are

included

in

him

by

faith

he

goes

even

further

than

that

doesn't

he

in

a

shocking

display

of

love

he

lays

down

his

own

life

to

save

his

bride

to

protect

her

from

the

attack

of

the

enemy

the

first

Adam

blamed

his

bride

the

second

Adam

takes

the

blame

in

her

place

the

first

Adam

let

the

serpent

win

the

second

Adam

crushes

the

head

of

the

serpent

the

first

Adam

brought

sin

into

the

world

and

with

it

death

the

second

Adam

paid

for

the

sins

of

the

world

and

gives

those

who

are

in

him

eternal

life

the

first

Adam

brought

in

shame

the

second

Adam

bore

our

shame

should I

keep

going?

The

first

Adam

descended

into

death

the

second

Adam

descended

into

death

as well

but

death

couldn't

hold

him

the

second

Adam

rose

from

the

grave

never

to

die

again

listen

to

this

the

first

Adam

heard

take

and

eat

and

it

led

to

death

but

now

the

second

Adam

he

says

take

and

eat

this

is

my

body

which

is

broken

for

you

take

and

eat

and

it

leads

to

life

I

love

how

in

God's

providence

we

get to

come

to

the

Lord's

table

today

do

you

see

the

connection

here

at

the

table

we

see

visibly

and

tangibly

portrayed

for

us

held

out

to

us

the

broken

body

and

the

shed

blood

of

Christ

it's

an

opportunity

for

us

again

for

repentance

and

for

faith

and

for

turning

and

for

trusting

would

you

this

morning

behold