Paradise Lost

Well, good morning, everyone.

It'd be great if you could keep your Bibles open there.

I'm actually going to be going through to verse 9 this morning,

so you'll need it in front of you when I look at that.

But also the St. Paul's app has got an outline.

Four points this morning, and that's our journey

as we continue on into Genesis.

This is, if you're new with us today,

we are looking at the beginning of all things.

It's just a framework, the foundation of the Christian faith,

and in particularly, not just the beginning of creation,

but the beginning of our knowledge of God.

Genesis fundamentally is about who God is,

and they're from that how we come to understand ourselves.

So let me pray as we launch in.

Gracious God, we are grateful for what we have been engaging with

in your word.

In a world that looks at all the details around us

and causes elements of anxiety to arise in us

with a great deal of uncertainty about the future

of the world in which we live,

there are so many things that trouble us.

You're a God who exists outside of your creation.

You never had a beginning.

You never had an end.

You're everlasting to everlasting.

You are God, and you're a God who sovereignly rules

and ordains and controls all things,

even if we don't understand it.

Help us to lean into you,

the majestic, beautiful, good God.

And so today, as we open this word,

change our hearts and our minds,

help us to see the issues that are fundamental

in each one of our lives,

but help us to see you a good and a great God as well

and how you've resolved those issues for us.

For those of us who have taken this journey,

been following you for many years,

we come to texts like this

knowing how it all plays out.

Lord, break through that rut now

so that we might see you in newer ways,

in clearer ways, in majestic ways.

Amen.

On the 21st of April, 1970,

Leonard Casey, a Western Australian farmer,

withdrew from Australia and set up his own micronation.

His 75 square kilometre farm,

517 kilometres north of Perth,

became known as Hutt River Province.

He withdrew from Australia

because of an ongoing dispute about wheat production,

particularly with the Western Australian government

about wheat production.

So Leonard Casey became known as His Majesty,

Prince Leonard I of Hutt,

and then granted royal titles

to the rest of his farming family.

It produced, over time,

it produced its own currency,

its stamps and its passport,

none of which was recognised

by any government in the world.

In fact, someone was arrested in Germany

in the 1980s

using a Hutt River Province passport

for entry into Germany.

Now, what followed for Leonard, Leo,

was years and years of legal disputes

until, on the 2nd of December, 1977,

Casey had had enough

and he declared war on Australia.

Baffling, really.

But he notified the authorities of Australia

three days later

that he was ceasing hostilities against Australia.

He withdrew his declaration of war

because, frankly, no one turned up.

And so he moved on.

In 2017, after 45 years,

sitting on his self-styled throne,

Prince Leonard stepped down as ruler.

His youngest son, Graham,

took the throne as the new ruler,

inherited Hutt River Province,

as well as his dad's $2.5 million of debt

to the Australian Taxation Office.

On the 3rd of August, 2020,

the Principality of Hutt River Province

was formally dissolved.

The Principality's land was sold off

in 2021 to settle an ongoing legal debt

of more than $2.7 million.

So Hutt River Province was this...

It, in fact, became quite a popular tourist attraction

mainly because they wanted to visit the nutjob who did this.

And so it was a spurious attempt by Leonard Casey

to evade laws and responsibilities

that he did not agree with,

primarily with the Australian government

but ultimately with the federal government.

From the moment he declared independence,

his life started to decline.

Ongoing legal battles,

mounting debts, conflicts.

And now Hutt River Province

doesn't even exist.

Doesn't even exist.

The core problem that saw the creation

of Hutt River Province,

the core problem for Leonard Casey

and the core problem for you and me

and all the humanity

finds its origin in what was just read out to us by Anne

in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

The issues of our world

are very obvious.

I don't need to unpack that for you at all.

I mean, open the newspaper, turn on the TV

or just spend a quiet half an hour or so

with your own heart and mind.

Every worldview has to account for the world

in which we live in some way.

And this is the Christian account.

This is a Christian account.

Does it fit with our experience of the world?

So, if you've got the St. Paul's app,

you'll see four points there.

The first point is the mock.

Genesis 3 starts with a mock,

hidden as a question.

Verse 1,

So here, the rest of the Bible tells us

what we have here is we have Satan

speaking through the serpent.

Now, we've got probably a heap of bunch of questions

about that.

But this text is primarily about us

and how we got to be the way we are.

The fall of the human race

does not start with an action.

It starts with an attitude.

It starts with a desire.

It starts with a scoff.

It starts with a mock.

It starts with a roll of the eyes.

The key to understanding what this verse is about

is the word really.

It's a word that in actual fact

is translated as indeed.

Did God indeed say?

The serpent is not so much denying

what God has said,

he's in fact rolling his eyes

at what God has said.

He's mocking what God has said.

He isn't saying God didn't say it.

He's saying,

I can't believe God said that.

It's a joke.

Surely God did not really say that.

It's a statement.

It's not a question.

Come on, Eve.

Come on.

Get with the times, Eve.

This is the year one.

I mean, get with the modern times.

Surely you don't believe that stuff anymore.

He's trying to change, ultimately,

Adam and Eve's attitude towards God's word.

The fall of the human race

starts with an attitude of the heart.

This happens more often than not in our modern world.

Very rarely does anyone lose God

through an argument.

They lose him through an attitude

or through an atmosphere.

An atmosphere.

When the consistent voice of culture across every platform says that

Christianity is not reasonable,

it's not relevant for a modern era or even dangerous,

then there's an atmosphere that we breathe each day.

It's subtle.

Very rarely do you ever engage with a full frontal attack

on the Christian faith in terms of its logic.

What we're confronted with consistently

from children's TV through to comedians and in the media

and is the mock, the joke, the pithy one-liners

that seem reasonable but actually make no sense at all

if you spend time unpacking them.

And it is overwhelming the atmosphere that we breathe.

For every argument against the Christian faith,

there would have to be more than 99 mocks, scoffs, sneers.

None of those 99 mocks and sneers and scoffs

are themselves an argument in any way whatsoever.

However, they're not rational in any way whatsoever.

A mock is a mere assertion trying to create

an atmosphere of doubt and defence.

It is not an argument in itself.

They need to give an argument as to why they think

the Christian faith is not reasonable, relevant and good

and very rarely do you ever hear it.

Even the great secular debaters of this era,

very rarely will any of them endure an entire debate

without getting personal, without scoffing in some way,

without taking, ridiculing their opponent,

their Christian opponent in some way.

Be careful, Christian, not to fight fire with fire

and use the same techniques back.

Now, we're not told here how long Adam and Eve deliberated

after being targeted by the serpent.

But surely the atmosphere was created.

They were torn.

They were confused.

They were disorientated.

I wonder when the mocking of the serpent started to prompt in them

quiet whispers of worthlessness,

of alienation, of questioning, of confusion,

of disorientation, of purposelessness.

I wonder how long it took for fear and desperation

to start setting in.

It started with just a mock.

Just a mock.

Then comes the lie.

What follows the attitude of the heart is a lie for the mind.

Chapter 3, verse 2.

The woman said to the serpent,

We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,

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.

And then here comes the lie, verse 4.

You will not certainly die,

for God knows that when you eat from it,

your eyes will be opened.

You see, the serpent's message here,

the undercurrent of the message is,

if you will obey God,

it will truly ruin your life.

He doesn't want you to eat of the tree

because it will open up for you

a whole new avenue of looking at the world,

whole new opportunities for you.

Satan is trying to get into Adam and Eve's mind and heart

and our mind and heart

that if you obey God,

you will ruin your life.

You will miss out on life.

If you obey God, you will not be happy.

If you obey God, you'll be held back.

You will not realise yourself.

You will be oppressed.

You will be miserable.

You see, Satan knows just how to destroy.

Notice in the arguments here,

notice he does not start with,

get a platform up,

let's have a debate about the existence of God.

That's not where he's starting at all.

Doesn't start with the existence of God.

It's pretty obvious.

I mean, they actually were walking with him yesterday.

He doesn't go after the word of God,

the will of God,

the perfection of God.

What he goes after is the goodness of God.

The very first lie is about the goodness of God.

And the love and the grace and the goodwill behind

every single one of the commands of God.

He is getting them here to doubt God's goodwill.

He is getting them to distrust God.

And that lie went in deep.

Adam and Eve were targeted.

They were deceived.

They were gaslit.

And they were harmed.

And in targeting God's goodness,

the serpent also targeted their own glory

as bearers of the image of God.

didn't just attack God from outside.

He attacked them from the inside.

And that lie of the serpent is deep

in the heart of every human being.

It's a lie that causes us to question

the goodness of God.

And his goodness

behind every single one of his commands.

You see,

this gets worked out in various ways for us.

The religious moralist lives a life

of legalistic restraint

in order to earn salvation

through their upright life and good deeds.

Ultimately, they do not trust

the grace and the goodness of God

to do it for them.

The religious moralist

does not trust

in the goodness of God.

The rebel liberalist

pursues a life of free abandon

because they do not trust

the goodness

and the grace of God

and that following him

is in fact the best life.

Totally different ways

to respond

to the exact same lie.

The lie that God is not good.

That he's holding out on you.

That he wants to

ruin your life.

And humanity's life

has been ruined

by embracing the lie.

Going to impact next week

more of how we see that

in every sphere of life.

So that brings us to...

First, there's an attitude of the heart.

Then there's a life of the mind.

And this leads to the tree

and the act of the will.

Have a look at verse 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.

I'm not unpacking this

but just in the last week

I've been reflecting

what...

what was happening

in the heart,

the emotions

of both Adam and Eve

that they would look at that tree

and they would want that more

than the God

that they walked with day by day.

How destroyed internally were they

to actually reach out

and grab at that point?

Just the thought

that I'm reflecting on.

They're in paradise.

It's perfect.

They can do anything

except eat from the tree,

this particular tree.

So what's the big deal

about the tree

and what kind of fruit was it?

You know,

as you're walking through

Harris Farm.

Hmm.

You know,

it could be a choco.

My experience is

it probably was a choco

if you've ever eaten

one of those things.

But the point here is,

I say that as a joke,

don't take that as a note

by the way.

There's no Hebrew translation

of choco here at all.

Let me just...

What's the big deal

about the tree?

What's so bad

about the fruit?

What if God

had given Adam and Eve

an explanation

so he knew

which fruit not to order

on Woolworths

or Coles?

If he had some...

What if God

had said to them...

What if God

had said to them

that if you

from this tree...

If you eat

from this tree,

you'll be suffering

hardship

and broken

relationships

and disease

for the rest

of human history?

What if he had said that?

What if he had said

that if you do eat

for the tree,

your life in every sphere

will be ruined?

They might have

walked away.

They might have

walked away.

Here's a taste for you.

Let me just show you.

They might have

walked away.

The reason why God

didn't give them

an explanation

is absolutely crucial

to why this command

is so important.

The reason why

we know nothing

about what is

significant about

this tree

or what kind

Fruto is,

it helps us

understand why

this command

is so significant.

If he had

given them

an explanation

and they

walked away,

they'd be

walking away

because it would

be cost-benefit

analysis.

That's the reason

they'd walk away.

It's not worth

my time.

It's not worth

my future.

It's not worth

ruining my life

to eat of this

tree.

That's not

obedience.

That's religion.

It's cost-benefit

analysis.

And that would be

they would not

eat of the tree

out of self-interest.

And they would

still be in the

driver's seat

of their life.

God wanted

Adam and Eve

to live as if

he was God.

They were made

in his image.

They'd been given

the gift of life

was spoilt.

And I use that

term in a positive

way, spoilt with

the abundance of

Eden.

And he wanted

them to live by

his power and

under his

authority.

Their lives,

the world that

they inhabited,

was all a

gift.

None of it was

a possession for

them to do as

they pleased.

And so God

simply said,

do not eat

of the tree.

That one.

Don't eat of that

one.

And with that

command,

they can

choose to

live with

God as

God or

themselves as

God.

It's just as

simple as that.

The serpent

knows this

because he

suggests that

they take the

tree and you

will be like

God.

It is so

essential that

we look beyond

the rules like

the Ten

Commandments and

others that we

see and see

that there is a

key reason for

every single

one of them.

And the key

is this.

God is God

and you are

not.

Do not put

yourself in the

place of God.

Obey him

simply because

he is God.

God.

Every single

thing that is

wrong with us

in this world

is linked to

the root issue

of putting

ourselves in

the place of

God.

Now that's

pretty obvious

the big stuff

like murder.

It's me playing

God over another

human being.

It's me taking

a life.

But what about

all the other

things?

What about

anxiety?

Some of us

are eaten up

by worry in

life.

Why?

For me

personally

that is

I have an

idea of

how my

relationship

should go.

I have an

idea of

how church

should go.

How my

health should

go.

How my

plans should

go.

And there

are times

I'm not

fully confident

that the

sovereign God

who brought

everything into

being is

over it all.

Because the

lie runs deep

in my heart.

God you

know if

you're good

I think you

do it this

way not

that way.

I put myself

in the place

of God.

Mistrust

puts me in

the place of

God.

What about

grudges?

If you don't

forgive someone

it's because you

are taking God's

place again.

We think we

know what a

person deserves.

We think we

have the right

to ensure that

they get what

they deserve.

That's me on

the throne of

my life

again.

How is it

possible that I

could ever

know the

depths of

another person's

mind and

heart when I

don't even

know my

own?

All of our

problems stem

from us taking

God's place.

And this

fundamentally is

just choosing to

obey or not.

choosing to

obey God or

not on the

basis of

whether I

think it

makes sense

or not.

William W.

Borden was

the heir of a

wealthy Chicago

family.

I've mentioned

him, this

guy, in the

past.

In 1904 and

1905 at the

age of 16 he

travelled the

world.

And this

was followed

by a brilliant

career at Yale

and then Princeton

Seminary where

he committed his

life to seeking

to win

Muslims in

China to

Jesus.

In 1903,

sorry, 1913,

sorry, at the

age of 25 he

left for Egypt

and he never

looked back.

Before he

left, Borden

gave away

$800,000

in his

day, which

is equivalent

to over $20

million today.

That was his

own portion

that he'd

accumulated in

the vast

family wealth.

He gave it

away to

charitable

missions

everywhere

and he

went to

Egypt.

Egypt.

He did

not know

at that

point, at

the age of

25, it

was the

final year

of his

life.

In

Cairo, he

contracted

cerebral

meningitis

and died.

His mother

was on her

way to

Cairo to

have a

holiday with

him, but

instead she

arrived just

in time to

bury him.

It is

said that

she found

his Bible

as she

cleaned up

his things

and in

his Bible

were the

words,

no reserve,

written,

no reserve.

And the

date he

wrote it,

it suggests

that he's

been written

shortly after

he renounced

his fortune

and gave

it away to

missions.

Later, he

was said to

have written,

no retreat.

retreat.

And the

date of

that no

retreat was

after his

father told

him that he

would never

hold a

position in

the family

business from

here on

in.

And finally,

shortly before

he died in

Egypt, and

it's believed

to be the

last words he

ever wrote,

no regrets.

No regrets.

Why did he

not write,

what are you

doing, God?

I mean,

can't you see

everything I've

done for you?

Here I am in

Egypt looking

to go into

the mission

field to

extend your

kingdom.

What are you

doing after

everything I've

done for you?

Why did he

not write

that?

It's because

he didn't

obey God

for reputation.

He did not

obey God

for results.

He did not

obey God

for impact.

He obeyed

God because

God is

God.

And he

wasn't.

At least

in this

instance,

Borden

disbelieved

the lie

that you

cannot trust

God.

Let me

say as a

side point,

he ended

up inspiring

thousands of

people to

become

missionaries

in the

generations

that followed.

He never

knew that

on his

deathbed.

Through

his death,

he's had

significant

impact in

the lives

of thousands,

if not

millions.

So Adam

and Eve

took the

fruit,

setting

course of

human history

a distrust

of God.

So friends,

hear this.

what your

and mine,

what our

hearts

desire,

the mind

justifies

and our

will's

action.

In the

final verses

of this

section,

we see the

rest of

humanity

and human

history in

summary form.

Verses

eight and

nine.

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

among the

trees of

the garden.

But the

Lord God,

called out

to the

man,

where are

you?

There's a

couple of

things I

want to

point out

here.

The first

thing is

Adam and

Eve went

into hiding

the moment

they rejected

God.

They went

into hiding.

The consequence

of not

trusting in

the goodness

of God

is we

hide.

And I'm

going to

unpack this

a little bit

more next

week.

We hide

from our

true selves.

We can't

stand an

honest review

of ourselves.

If it

wasn't for

verse eight,

therapy in

our world

would not

exist.

We need

therapy because

we're constantly

hiding from

ourselves.

Most

significantly

though here

is we

hide from

God.

In the

presence of

God,

we cannot

hide who

we truly

are.

And so

we must

hide.

It's not

just hiding

from consequences,

it's hiding

from ourselves

and God

reveals who

we truly

are.

We hide

from our

true selves,

we hide

from God

and we

hide from

others.

The second

thing to

notice and

the most

remarkable

thing is

that while

we are

running and

hiding,

God is

searching.

He's calling

out to

us.

It is our

nature to

hide from

God and

God's

nature is

to seek

us.

God calls

it out.

Where are

you?

Is God

like literally

right,

but can't

find Adam

and Eve?

Where are

they?

You know,

we're playing

hide and

seek.

How is it

possible that

an all-knowing,

sovereign,

omniscient God

who knows

every blade of

grass that

grows and

every bird,

how does he

not know

where they

are?

Of course

he knows

where they

are.

He's

pursuing them

is what

he's doing.

He's telling

Adam and

Eve, I'm

coming for

you.

I'm here

still.

he's

calling out

to them.

He's

engaging

them.

He's

reconnecting

with them.

He's

pursuing

them.

What we

need to

realize is

that if

we ever

find God,

in fact,

one of the

first things

you discover

is that

it's because

he was

becoming

after me.

He had

already

found me.

He found

me first.

And we

see this

in the

Bible from

beginning to

end.

He is

so, so

good.

Despite

our

rejection

of him,

he comes

after us.

And we

see the

ultimate

expression of

God coming

after us,

reconnecting

with us,

pursuing us,

engaging with

us, is

when God

the Son

himself took

on human

flesh and

descended into

our world to

come after

us.

We're going

to see this

in the coming

weeks, but

ultimately it

is Jesus

Christ who

stomps on

the head

of the

serpent and

crushes the

lie, gets

rid of the

mock.

He is the

one who

defeats the

serpent.

So reading

back into

these verses,

we see how

Jesus turns

it all around.

in the

Garden of

Eden, the

serpent lured

Adam and

Eve to

ignore the

command of

God about

the tree.

Centuries

later, Jesus

is in the

Garden of

Gethsemane

struggling with

the command of

God about

another tree,

a wooden

cross, a

cross cut

from a

tree.

Adam and

Eve were

told not to

take of the

tree.

Jesus is

commanded here

to embrace

the tree.

Get nailed

to the

tree.

Adam and

Eve ignored

the command

in the

hope of a

blessed life

but instead

got cursed.

Jesus Christ

obeyed the

command knowing

that he would

receive our

curse for

ignoring God's

command about

the tree.

The curse of

separation from

God so that

we could receive

the blessing of

being brought

back into

relationship with

God.

Adam and

Eve were in a

beautiful

garden and

God said,

if you

obey me

about the

tree, you

would live

and live

and live

but they

didn't.

Jesus is in

the darkness

of the

garden and

his father

said to him,

if you

obey me

about the

tree, you

will die.

You will

die.

You will be

crushed.

You will be

cursed.

and he

did.

He did.

He obeyed

and he

obeyed for

you and

for me

who deserve

to be

crushed,

who deserve

to be

destroyed,

who deserve

to be

cursed.

He embraced

the tree

of death

and turned

it into a

tree of

life for

us.

Jesus is

the one who

reverses the

sin of the

tree.

The sin

of us

where only

God deserves

to be.

That's the

Christian

gospel.

That's the

core of

the Christian

faith.

The tree

of salvation

is God

putting himself

where only

we deserve

to be

on a cross

of condemnation

and curse.

So when

Jesus obeyed

the father

about the

tree,

he also

crushed the

lie of

Satan.

He crushed

the lie

that we

cannot trust

God.

You want

to look

at the

goodness

of God?

See him

hanging on

a cross

for you.

No more

evidence is

required than

that.

The only

way to

overcome

the lie

that God

is not

trustworthy

is to

see this

God

descending

into his

world,

climbing the

tree of

death and

turning that

into a

tree of

life for

us.

It's the

only way

to overcome

the lie.

this is

the only

thing that

will day

by day

take the

poison of

the lie

out of

our hearts,

out of

our minds

and our

attitudes that

God is not

good and

that trusting

in him is

unreasonable

and it's

irrelevant for

our day

or that God

is not

good.

Jesus on

the cross

deals with

the mock,

the lie

and the

lie about

the tree.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.