Sermon Title .
Man Rejected Gods Lordship
. . . The Choice that Separates
Sermon Text. . Gen 3:1-24
Invocation Scripture. . Romans 3:23
Main Idea :
Sin separates... It separates us from
God... it separates us from one
another, it separates us from clear
thinking and right action.
Objective : To help members understand why it is so
important to share our faith and to make
sin very clear, so the Holy Spirit can bring
conviction that leads to repentance.
Man Rejected Gods Lordship
The Choice that Separates
Gen 3:1-24
Point I :
Sin Leads
Gen 3:1
Point II :
Sin Lies
Gen 3:4
Point III:
Sin Deceives
Gen 3:5
Point IV:
Sin Separates
. . . From Each Other
. . . From God
. . . From Gods Creation
. . . From Gods Plan
Gen 3:7
Gen 3:7
Gen 3:8
Gen 3:17
Gen 3:22
Man Rejected Gods Lordship
The Choice that Separates
Gen 3:1-24
Slide 1: Childrens Church Dismissal Slide
Slide 2 :
Introduction
We continue in our study today with our G.R.A.C.E.
Gospel Presentation. You should have in your bulletin
this morning a complete copy of the presentation from
which you can work.
As you may recall, the G.R.A.C.E. Gospel
Presentation is founded on Ephesians 2:8-10, verses that
Slide 3 (Eph 2:8-10 NASB) For by grace you have been
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God; {9} not as a result of works, that no
one should boast. {10} For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
I hope you would consider memorizing, because of how
important they are, but it is not a requirement of the
GRACE gospel presentation.
Soooo... Our Homework last week was to memorize
our introductory statement and our first verse.
Slide 4 Is everyone ready?... We will do this all together
like a responsive reading.
What is the introductory phrase. Lets say it together.
God loves you and wants you to have a full and
meaningful life!
Alright!! Excellent!!
OK.. So the Bible verse to support this statement is?
John 3:16. Lets quote the verse
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
20150531M23 The Choice That Separates.
Sin Leads, Sin Lies, Sin Deceives,
Sin Separates
perish, but have eternal life.
Wonderful!! Now, this coming week we will do our 2nd
phrase and 2nd verse.
Slide 5
R- Rejected/Rebelled
We Rebelled against God and Rejected Gods
leadership. The Bible calls this sin. The penalty for
Sin is death.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God, (NASB)
Now, when you practice this, I want you to practice them
both together...
Slide 6
G - God
God loves you and wants you to have a full and meaningful life.
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but
have eternal life. (NASB)
R- Rebelled/ Rejected
We Rebelled against God and Rejected Gods leadership. The Bible
calls this sin. The penalty for Sin is death.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God, (NASB)
OK... with that completed, let us consider this 2nd
concept today Man has rebelled against God and
Rejected Gods Leadership. The Bible calls this sin.
The penalty for Sin is death.
So... believe it or not, we need to go back to Genesis!
We seem to be doing that a lot as we walk through this
key foundational concepts of the Faith!!
20150531M23 The Choice That Separates.
Sin Leads, Sin Lies, Sin Deceives,
Sin Separates
So take your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis and
scan to Chapter 3. We will look at the whole chapter
today. While you turn there, let me read an excerpt from
The Orlando Sentinel, March 11, 1995.
The title... What's Happened To Sin?
It doesn't take much more than a quick read of the
daily newspaper to see that sin is alive and well on
planet earth. But stop in a typical church on a Sunday
morning and you're not likely to hear much about it.
There is an upsurge of interest in religion these days
but the market for morality appears to be slight. Self
congratulatory spirituality and celebrations of
personal salvation are in, however, guilt is a sickness
to be cured, and on the subject of sin, very little is
said. Sinful is a word, more likely to describe deserts
on a restaurant menu than to be applied to human
behavior. And heinous crime has become
entertainment, the subject of a blockbuster movie or a
televised trial.
I find it interesting, that even the secular world some 20
years ago, recognized something that the Church has
somehow forgot, that Man is a Sinner and seemingly
very happy to be so, with no desire to change!
But if in fact man is a sinner, and we know he is, just
look at yourself or look around you and you will KNOW
that it is true! And yet... many people today dont want
to acknowledge that sin exists and that THEY are
sinners. Many Christians and even pastors today, just
believe that somehow, everything is just going to work
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Sin Separates
out and most people are going to go to heaven.
George Barnas research shows that of Seminarians
headed to full time Christian ministry. 35% denied the
fact that faith in Christ is absolutely necessary to
salvation...
We also find that 77% of people in evangelical churches
in America said that they believe that man is basically
Good!!!
You see, most people just want to believe and choose
to believe that God will receive all good people when
they die regardless of whether they have trusted Christ.
We understand the sentiment behind that, and the
tender heart that wants to believe that, but there is
nothing upon which to base this faulty idea! In fact, the
Holy Bible teaches us something VERY Different!!!
So not only do people need to know that God loves
them (which many are eager to accept and believe) they
also need to fully understand the truth of our supporting
verse for this 2nd letter of the Word Grace, that THEY are
IN FACT a Sinner and thus in need of a Savior!! ...
Romans 3:23, for ALL have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God!
So turn with me to Genesis 3 and lets see what we can
learn about this whole issue of sin so that we can present
a clear and compelling witness that the Holy Spirit can
use to bring conviction of sin that leads to repentance!
Slide 7
< < < Read: Gen 3:1-24 > > >
This is an incredible scene, and the fate of mankinds
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Sin Separates
entire future rests in the hands of Adam in this moment,
and tragically... tragically... he chose poorly. The first
thing that I want you to see today my friends, is that Sin
Leads... Look back at vs 1...
Slide 8
Point I :
Sin Leads
Gen 3:1
(Gen 3 NASB) {1} Now the serpent was more
crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD
God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed,
has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of
the garden'?"
Do you see that friends... Sin always seeks to Lead you
astray... Sin always seeks to lead you from what you
know is true... what you have been told is right!
Sin strives to lead you away from Truth by
questioning Truth, even when there is ABSOLUTELY
NO REASON to question it!!
Consider that this is the technique that has been used
to bring on the sexual revolution... it was so successful
their the homosexual community adopted it and look
where they are today!! And now the push to redefine the
family uses the same fundamental methodology.
Couple that with a media that finds every bleeding
heart scenario that it can to further degrade your
immediate and adverse repulsion to this movement and
you have brain washing in its fullest and most powerful
form!!
Listen beloved... You will meet many people who
have believed the lies... lies that death is not the penalty
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Sin Separates
for sin, the lies that there really IS NO SIN.... The World
says.... everything you do and all the choices that you
make depend on the circumstances or the situation.
There can be no absolutes... everything is conditional
But you hear me my friends... Thats not what the
Bible says... The Bible says that
ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
The Bible is clear Old and New Testament that Man is
a sinner!!! We are reminded by the Psalmist....
(Psa 14:3 NASB) They have all turned aside;
together they have become corrupt; There is no one
who does good, not even one.
The prophet Ezekiel took his words directly from the
Mouth of the God of the Universe!
Ezekiel 18:4 "Behold, all souls are Mine;... The soul
who sins will die."
But you hear me beloved... Sin is not just content to try
and lead you astray... Sin will out right LIE to you and
do so with NO remorse!! Look back at vs 4
{4} And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely
shall not die!
Slide 9
Point II : Sin Lies
Gen 3:4
Did you catch that?.... Satan tells Eve a Direct and
out right lie!!! Let me just say to you beloved.... Sin has
NO PROBLEM with Lying!!
Satan directly lied to Eve!! I dont know which is
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worse the direct outright lie of Satan or Adam hearing
this dialogue and remaining silent!!
I guess he was operating on the philosophy of our
day... O... Im not going to push this God stuff on my
wife... I have told her what God said to me... Im just
going to let her figure it and come at her own pace!
Wham BAM!! The World is plunged into Sin and
man is now under its domain and power!! Only Faith in
Jesus Christ can set you free from this intolerable
bondage!
Sin lies!! The Bible is clear, in fact, it was Jesus
Christ Himself that said that Satan was a liar from the
beginning!!!
John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and you
want to do the desires of your father. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in
the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever
he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for
he is a liar and the father of lies.
Let me ask you beloved?... Has Sin ever lied to you??
YOU KNOW IT HAS!!! It has lied to all of us!! And
the tragic thing, is that many times... more than we would
dare to even admit, like Eve, we have believed the lies
and we have stepped headlong into sin, Rebelling
against God and Rejecting Gods Leadership!!
How many people have listened to the lie of drugs...
How many people have listened to the lie of alcohol...
how many people have listened to the lie of Romance
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Novels, or pornography.... How many have listened to
the lies of Euthanasia or Abortion?
Sins promises everything and usually gives nothing...
actually, thats not true... what it gives is pain, regret,
remorse, guilt, shame and any other negative word or
terrible long term emotion you can figure out.
Listen to me and hear me well beloved... LISTEN...
The best place to stop this, is before it ever gets started!!
Stop it back at step one...
Dont question Biblical Truth!!
The Bible is the final and full authority on all matters of
life and practice on all maters of family relationships,
government setup, involvement and role.
Anything that doesnt square with the Bible should
not be accepted, indorsed or embraced in any way,
shape or form!! PERIOD!!!
But like the media today, Satan is tricky!! Before you
have time to even realize that he has lied to you, he
Diverts your thinking with Deception! Thats the third
thing I want you to understand today about Sin... Sin
Deceives! Look back at vs 5
< < < Read: Genesis 3:5 > > >
{5} "For God knows that in the day you eat from it
your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil."
Slide 10
Point III: Sin Deceives
Gen 3:5
Not only did Satan blatantly lie, but he now mixes that
lie with truth and in so doing paints God out to be the
bad guy...
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Sin Separates
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Its not enough for Satan that he gets a foothold... he
wants to make God and what is good and right and true
look bad! Satan paints it such that somehow God is
afraid of us, afraid that this supposed freedom that
Satan is offering, the supposed knowledge is being
hidden to our demise!
Nothing could be further from the truth!!! And yet...
this is what Sin does... It deceives so that we WILL
Believe the lie that it tells!!! and in so doing, we are torn
from what is good and right and true and we are plunged
into the abyss and a labyrinth of deception that literally
leads to our own destruction!
I remember as a kid, the Marlboro man... A strong
viral man on a horse out on the Western Plains of
America, smoking a cigarette, painted as the picture of
strength, ruggedness, independence and freedom... Only
to see a 60 minutes special some years ago, an interview
with the Marlboro man, still on his horse, but now, not
so strong, not so rugged as he has a little green tank
hanging off the horn of his saddle now... Not so free
now, as he cant be more than a few miles away from the
house where he can get another tank and refill the one he
currently uses... O... and not able to talk because of the
loss of his larynx from cancer, brought on by... O ya...
those glamorous little white sticks, that he realizes now
were just nails in his coffin...
Or how about the alcohol commercials... Everybody
drinking and having a good time, all smiles, and
laughter, women in glamorous dresses, men in perfectly
fitted suits.... No pictures of the drunken stupor that
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many come to, no pictures of the tragic accident scenes
where a whole family, dad, mom and 3 children were
killed by the drunk driver, who staggers to the patrol car
in hand cuffs, no pictures of the battered wife and
mortified children hiding in the closet of their bedroom
when daddy comes home in a drunken stupor that they
know can erupt in hostile aggression in moments with
the wrong word, look are action. No... No... we dont
want to show the truth... And WHY? Because Sin Lies
and Sin uses Deception to justify its lie.
Listen friends... Sin is so insidious that it messes
with our mind and not only leads us to death and
destruction, it takes us their filling our minds with
doubt, fear, anger, and hurt!!
Listen beloved and hear me... Sin Leads us, and
always in the wrong way... Sin Lies to us and then seeks
to justify its lie with Deception, but the worst thing that
sin does is Separates Look at vs 7-10...
< < < Read: Gen 3:7-10 > > >
Slide 12
Point IV: Sin Separates
Gen 3:7
. . . From Each Other
Gen 3:7
. . . From God
Gen 3:8
. . . From Gods Creation
Gen 3:17
. . . From Gods Plan
Gen 3:22
Tragedy upon Tragedy.... Sin Separates... Sin separates
us from each other... Isnt that what vs 7 shows?
Where as once Adam and Eve walked together in total
openness and freedom, now they are self-conscious, now
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Sin Separates
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they are separated, now they fear... Now they cover...
now they hide...
And so began for mankind, the erosion of TRUE
intimacy... The loss of TRUE oneness of heart, oneness
of thought... what an EXACTING and Incalculable price
was paid for that sin!!
And so what was an incredible gift from God, the
intimacy of heart and mind and soul and body of two
separate and distinct beings, a relationship that the NT
speaks of as being representative of the relationship of
Christ and the Church, was now reduced to an act that
over time has become self-seeking and self-serving.
As far back as the Greeks, we see this deception...
Where God is clear in His Holy Word that we are to be
modest and covered, the Greeks took it all off and
worshiped in many ways the FORM of man... This
preoccupation with sports and the human body and its
form and beauty, moved man to what the Bible calls in
Romans 1, vile affections...
As far back as Exo 20:26 we see God warning man to
treat his body with modesty and caution
'And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that
your nakedness will not be exposed on it.'
God knows our propensity for perverting everything
that He made that was good! He knows that Sin warps
and contorts, and ruins that which He HIMSELF
created for us, gave to us, that gives us not only the
propensity for pleasure beyond description, but the
possibility of sensing a oneness, a closeness that gives us
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a hint of heavens future where we will know as we are
known, where we will experience a oneness with our
God that defies mans understanding and is beyond our
capacity to fully grasp...
And so what did this deception bring to the Greek
culture? It led to deviant sexual practices that weakened
and eventually destroyed the nation.
The pornography industry has capitalized on this
deception even in our day. And so we have been
deceived into believing that its OK to view and use this
material... in fact, so deluded are we, that we have
actually come to believe that pornography and vulgarity
are covered today by freedom of speech that our
constitutions bill of rights guarantees!! Our founding
fathers would be appalled beloved!!!
And what has this unleashed in our culture? A tidal
wave of trouble, obscenity, perversion, depravity and
wickedness. You cant tell me you havent seen the
news stories, seemingly several each year now
surrounding partially clothed or even naked selfies by
individuals from every strata of society, actors and
actresses, government officials and leaders... It is
appalling..
And I guess I am going to go ahead and get in real
trouble and remind us that the fashion industry designs
clothing that well... sometimes has very little to do with
clothing us and everything to do with exposing
enticing and inciting!
And then we sit back and WONDER at the problem of
rape on our college campuses, and we have had to make
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Sin Separates
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a veritable mountain of laws, rules and regulations about
what is appropriate and inappropriate...
But the group that has probably capitalize on this, and
has been the MOST successful in making what is good
and right and true look bad, look wrong, and those who
support what is good and right and true look evil and
wicked, mean spirited, prejudiced and any other negative
word you can think of is the Homosexual movement.
Somehow, they have managed to take activity that is
clearly and blatantly against natural order and practice,
and make it seem right, and at the same time, turning
those who would maintain what is clearly the natural
order as somehow wicked, mean-spirited, hostile and
even cruel, to dare condemn their actions choices and
behaviors.
And so we have in our world today the most important
and foundational institution in our culture, that of
marriage which makes possible the most basic building
block of society, culture and government, the FAMILY
under attack like never before, and perhaps on the verge
of obliteration...
What a terrible, terrible price we pay... I have read in
several books by noted marriage and family therapist that
for most couples, the happiest years of their marriage are
the first few years... Time and the relentless attack of
Satan and the medias assistance given him today, cause
the vast majority of couples to live lives of quiet
desperation... lives of separation and isolation... lives of
fighting, bickering... or perhaps the worst thing... lives of
silent, hostile contempt for one another.
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Sin Separates
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Listen beloved... Sin Separates! It separates us from
each other... but even worse, it separates us from God!
Isnt that what we read in vs 8.... go back... look at it...
< < < Read: Gen 3:8 > > >
{8} 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.
Notice immediately two things.... God came down to
fellowship with His creation... Adam and Eve... But
Adam and Eve hid from God. Like a child who gets
caught with his hand in the cookie jar, we now try to
hide... We CHOOSE separation... we choose
alienation...
And so we are separated and detached and ROBBED
of one of the most important, therapeutic and healing
things... human touch... a hand gently touch, a tender
embrace, a kiss on the forehead...
Care givers cant hug those for whom the care any
more, for fear of being sued... Spontaneous moments of
success, or grief can not be celebrated because we cant
touch any more!
THIS IS THE SEPARATION THAT SIN BRINGS!
Separation from each other and worst of all,
separation from God! O my friends... You hear me and
hear me well this morning....
Tragically, Sin is alive and well, and it is proliferating
in our world and culture today beyond the scope of our
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Sin Leads, Sin Lies, Sin Deceives,
Sin Separates
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comprehension.
For you see....
Sin will take you farther
than you ever thought youd go,
Sin will keep you longer
than you ever thought youd stay,
and Sin will cost you more
than you ever thought youd pay.
That my dear friends, is why the GRACE Gospel
Presentation is so important!!
It points out Gods Love, It Reveals mans Rebellious
spirit and His Rejection of Gods loving Leadership...
Without conviction of Sin, there is nothing to draw us
the need for Christs Forgiveness of Sin, without this
knowledge, there will be no repentance, without
repentance there is no possibility of restoration of
relationship with God.
It moves us to realize that we have a choice to make,
and that choice is between Christ and our selves...
Eternal life is Gods gift to those who believe and
Evangelism, the sharing of the Gospel is the desire of
those whom He saves!
R... Man has rebelled against God and Rejected His
leadership!
For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God!
20150531M23 The Choice That Separates.
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Act 1:8 but you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My
witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the
earth."
Will we?... Will we?....
Let us pray
