Category Archives: Bible

Insights, reflections and messages from Scripture

Living in a dying world

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Text: Gen 9 Preached at Werribee Church of Christ 19/9/04

Introduction

In a world of scams – property scams, get-rich-quick scams, internet scams, software piracy, insurance scams .. – certain sayings have become strikingly familiar to us. Sayings like “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”, or “Things are not quite as they seem”. But there are other situations where that could be said as well. It could even be said when you read the bible, especially if you miss the context. For instance, if you’re reading anything in the OT after Gen 2, you’re reading about a world under the power of sin; and if life looks a bed of roses, you may not have read carefully enough. And things may indeed not be quite as good as they seem.

Gen 9 is a good example. The flood is over, and the Lord makes a covenant with Noah. He says “I will never forget the earth. Every time you see a rainbow, that is your reminder – and my reminder – that I have promised never again to bring a destroying flood. This is my covenant with every living creature on earth for all time.” Now you wouldn’t think it could get much better than that, would you. That sounds like unqualified, unlimited life. But – as the saying goes – “things are not quite as they seem”.

A dying world

Let’s backtrack a chapter or two to remind ourselves of the context, and tune in to the flow of the narrative. As we noted last week, the story of the world might have ended with Gen 7. Gen 7, if you like, could have been the last chapter of the Bible. But it isn’t .. simply because out of a whole race whose wickedness grieved God to the core one man named Noah found favour with God, and lived in fellowship with him. So the human race continued after the flood, because (8:1) the Lord remembered Noah.

Life begins again with a man who pleases God, another Adam placed under God’s commission to rule and care for the earth. A fresh start for the creation and for mankind. The same solemn commission given to the first humans, God now speaks to Noah and his descendants: 1 God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.. The very words first spoken by God to the first human beings at the creation 1:28. Now spoken again here after the flood to Noah in Gen 9:1, and repeated in v7 .. the start and the end of God’s charge to man. That’s the core business of being human on God’s earth. Populate the earth, manage the earth, and enjoy it’s fruits as food .. All of that is in the last few verses of Gen 1 .. and here it is restated, offered afresh after the flood in Gen 9. The same world, the same humanity, the same God, the same commission .. Only it’s not quite the same .. something quite literally “vital” is missing.

Can you remember what happens at the end of chap 3, after the first act of man’s disobedience? 24 [The Lord God] drove out the man [from the garden]; and … he placed the cherubim, [as sentries] to guard the way to the tree of life. .. From that moment, mankind leaves the presence of God, the way to life is barred, and death becomes the destiny of every man and woman .. and so it remains until the very end of God’s dealing with human history, foreshadowed at the very end of the Biblical story in Rev 22 .. where there’s a city .. and in the city a river .. and growing along its banks is the tree of life .. and anyone who worships Christ the Lamb, whose throne is in the centre of the city, may reach out and eat from the tree if life and live forever.

That stands in Scripture as God’s promise in Christ. The world as first created by God was a world without death .. God’s promise for the future when he completes his purposes in human history is also a world without death, the original creation beautifully restored .. That’s the world God holds out to us as our hope through Christ, but we’ve not yet received it .. and importantly for us this morning, it was not the world Noah received either. It might look like it at first .. but “things are not quite as they seem”.

If you have a bible, please turn again to chap 5. That chapter, if you remember from a few weeks ago, is an account of the generations descending from Adam & Eve – and it’s a litany of death, a gruesome history of a once perfect world blighted by sin: Adam lived ‘x’ years and he died, Seth lived ‘x’ years and he died, Enosh lived ‘x’ years and he died, and so goes the morbid litany .. and he died .. and he died .. and he died .. Well glance down to the last few verses: there’s the temporary pause in morbidity with the reference to Enoch who “walked with God” – but don’t get comfortable too soon, because then the litany continues with Enoch’s son Methuselah (5:26f) “and he died” .. then Lamech “and he died” .. so this is still a world of death .. one extraordinarily righteous life doesn’t change that .. man is still a dying race .. but Lamech had a son called Noah .. the hope rises again ..

Except that when we get into chapter 6, we hear God’s chilling verdict on this world of sin and death, and following that the sentence of judgement executed by God himself .. 3 chapters about the judgement of the flood – where apart from the people and animals on the ark, all life is blotted out .. But then the scene looks brighter, doesn’t it. At the end of chap 8 the flood recedes, dry land reappears and life begins again .. and we’re relieved, and if this was on at the cinema we’d sit back in our seats and start breathing again .. alive after all! .. it’s a whole new day .. a glorious new chapter in the history of mankind .. and you could easily conclude that as chap 8 drifts into chap 9, and as God binds himself to the human race in a covenant of life – never again will he blot out all living creatures .. you could easily conclude that we’ve heard the last of the horror of death..

But if you thought that you’d be very mistaken .. Yes there is a covenant .. yes the Lord has sworn that he will never again cut off all life by a destroying flood (that’s there in black and white in 9:11) .. but then you get down to v28: 28 After the flood Noah lived three hundred fifty years. 29 All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years; and he died. .. Now wouldn’t that spoil the Sunday roast! .. You had all your hopes pinned on Noah – the good guy, one of God’s finest – the one who’s going to put everything back to right .. and he died like all the rest. He’s in the same position as his ancestors, and the haunting litany of death is still playing on. ..

That means sin still reigns on planet earth .. the sentence of judgement in chap 3 is still in place .. the way is still barred to the tree of life .. still a sign across the gate saying “No Entry” .. the world is still under a sentence of death .. And if Noah died – just like his father Lamech, and his father Methuselah, and apart from the exceptional case of Enoch like every one of Noah’s other ancestors back to Adam .. then that means no amount of good living, not even the most righteous of human characters will escape the sentence of death that hangs over everyone living, on account of the sin inherited from Adam. .. All of Noah’s descendants are living in a dying world .. until Christ. The final chapter of the Bible tells us the secret plainly: It’s only the Lamb of God by his blood shed for the sins of the world, who can open the way to the tree of life.

It’s a new start, but it’s still the same world of decay. So the last verse of Gen 9 gives us a vital clue for reading the whole of Gen 9. It says to us: Read with care – This is not a glossy holiday brochure about life in paradise .. It’s an introduction to the art of living in a dying world. And I think its core teaching – for Noah, and all his descendants, ourselves included – is that ultimately there’s..

The only One you can trust and depend on

If you’ve been to Sunday School, you may have been led to believe that the Bible is a book full of hero stories. Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, Peter, Paul .. all heroes of the faith, who glorified God in every way and did great things for him. Now, that’s not entirely false. Heb 11 is a whole chapter that recounts the ways in which a long list of characters in the history of God’s dealings with his people acted by faith. But the writer also says that whilst they were rewarded .. their rewards were imperfect and incomplete, because their real reward was heavenly, whereas their lives were only earthly.

That’s the wisdom you need to walk through the minefield of a sin-affected planet. And it begins here in Gen 9. The first three verses .. simply glorious – a 5-star resort – it’s all there, it’s all beautiful, it’s all yours for your enjoyment, pleasure and blessing .. But keep reading the contract, folks. .. And when you read just a few more lines, you learn that it’s also a world of decay in which human life is not universally valued. The sin of Cain who first killed his brother has not departed from the world of men and women. There need to be laws to deal with the taking of life, because like it or not, lives will be taken. God says: (v6) innocent people have a right not to be killed – because people bear God’s image. You need laws, because the world is populated by rebellious hearts; and if people will not worship God, they will not respect his image in one another.[ ]

So much for the glory of humanity [dreams evaporated] .. But imagine, as we did a moment ago, that you’re watching this on the screen. You’ve witnessed God’s dealings with Noah; you’ve seen the destruction of the flood .. but you’ve also seen God’s mercy in the light of Noah’s righteous character. He found favour with God, walked with God, blameless in his generation. You’d imagine, wouldn’t you, that Noah will save the day yet again. .. Well if you want Noah to be your Australian Idol, you’d better stop reading at verse 19. Just before the part where he’s caught blind drunk, with his pants down in the beer tent.

As Jesus said: “Those with ears to hear, let them hear.” .. If we have listening ears as we open God’s word this morning, what will we hear? .. That if you want to rely on human achievement to mend the society .. if you look to self-help books to order your world and fix your love life .. you may as well pull the trigger now.

And as you read further into the Scriptures, that’s the message again, and again.

• Abraham: the father of the faithful. To save his neck, passed his wife of as his sister and let the king of Egypt marry her.

• Jacob: conspired with his mother to deceive his father, and steal his brother’s birthright.

• Judah: son of Jacob, ancestor of David & Jesus. Distinguished himself by raping his sister.

• David: Israel’s greatest king, described by God himself as “a man after [his] own heart”. Looked out his window, saw a woman named Bathsheba bathing on her rooftop, slept with her, and used his power to get her husband killed

• Solomon: gifted by God with wisdom and wealth like no other ruler anywhere. Married hundreds of foreign women, worshipped their gods, and drafted thousands of God’s own people as slaves for his building projects.

• Peter: leader of the apostles, preacher to thousands. Denied his Lord 3 times.

And just a few samples from the pages of Scripture. Many, many stories of men and women of faith .. but God is the only hero.

Conclusion

This text we’ve read together today speaks into our lives, and tells us some unattractive truths about life on this planet. It addresses us and says, “Be wise .. have discernment .. things are not quite as they seem. Don’t be fooled .. don’t just look at life’s shining surface .. look beneath the surface .. be wise.” And then God speaks to us and says this: “The world is not as good as it looks .. and people are not as dependable as they appear.”

God has warned us today, through the frailty of man. The best man on earth in his time was not good enough to save the world. The Bible is full of people of faith .. with clay feet, fickle wills, and frail hearts. Paul reflected on that in 2 Cor 4. He said God has blessed this desperate world with a treasure of grace, a gospel that saves restores and reconciles. .. But it comes through frail, failing human messengers like us (“jars of clay”). And he says God has chosen to convey the gospel treasure in that way, so that people will recognise that God himself is the only one with the power to save their lives and heal the world. … Don’t expect the world to make sense; don’t expect life to add up; don’t expect your life to work and have true ultimate meaning .. if you venture all your trust in people just like you .. if you finally depend on anyone but God, the creator and designer of the universe to save your life from death, decay and futility.

There’s only truly one hero .. Trust anyone else, worship anyone else, trust any political or economic philosophy, trust any self-help strategy .. and you’ll be disappointed, and life will not make sense. It’s God’s world. But until the Lord comes, it’s a perishing world of dying people. So live in it, manage it, look after it, enjoy it .. but worship the Lord, and place your ultimate trust only in him.

No, he isn’t joking

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Text: Gen 6:9-8:22 Preached at Werribee of Church of Christ 12/9/04

Introduction

Last Sunday while we were reflecting together on the escalating nightmare of what sin can produce on planet earth, the horror of the school siege at Beslan in Russia, was unfolding before the media cameras and beginning to be splashed on our TV screens.

One evening this past week, I watched a current affairs segment in which a seasoned journalist, accompanied by a cameraman, was talking us through some of the gruesome details of what happened in that school. When he reached the point of indicating the blood marks on the ledge of the window where people’s bodies were dragged to be thrown to the ground below after being lined up against the opposite wall and shot .. it was clear that no amount of training or experience in front-line reporting could prepare anyone for that ..

Stock phrases like “man’s inhumanity to man” barely even cover it, do they. “How”, we all ask, “could it possibly get to this, especially with the lives of children at a school?” And yet if we’ve been soaking up the Scriptures as we’ve read them over this past month, it shouldn’t really be a surprise. How bad can humanity get? .. So bad, so corrupt that the One who made man as the climax of his creative masterpiece could regret the very act of that creation, and be grieved to the depths of his being. Last Sunday morning we read it in our bibles .. that evening we watched it on our television screens.

Our focus today is the flood which God brought on the earth, as the ultimate consequence of the cancerous spread of sin.

Life withdrawn, life restored

What God foreshadows in 6:7, he announces to Noah in 6:13, and brings about just as he said in chap 7. We all know the story of Noah’s ark; we learnt it backwards in Sunday School .. we draw pictures of it .. we make cute models of it .. and we tells lots of jokes about it. Our focus is what was happening on top of the water .. we hardly notice what was happening under the water.

7:19 The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; … 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; 22 everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. .. What’s that about? .. It’s creation in reverse, the dismantling of creation if you like .. In Gen 1, God spoke the creation into being .. 1:9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. .. God brings form to the formless, by separating the mass of waters and causing dry land to appear .. and from there he brings life, and he says its good. .. But now we’re in chap 7 in a world under judgement – and even the highest mountains are being reclaimed by the waters of chaos from which the creation was formed. When God said he was grieved to the heart, and that he was going to put an end to all life .. he was not joking.

Come back again to 2:7 then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. .. Set that beside 7:22 everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. .. God is serious about the offence of sin .. he isn’t joking. God is withdrawing the life he has created .. almost .. except for Noah and his family, and the creatures on the ark. And so at the end of chap 8 the waters recede, land appears again .. and there’s life again. Life withdrawn .. life restored .. and if we are listening, and if we receive this as the word of God – then we will ask why.

The story has been preserved for us in Scripture. How foolish we would be not to heed its warning.

Sin, judgement

21 All flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; 22 everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. .. The whole creation is condemned by man’s choice to sin. Rom 8 says the whole of creation is longing for release from bondage.

That’s how serious sin is .. that’s how seriously sin offends God’s character .. If you’re ever tempted to doubt that, if you’re ever tempted to buy the relativistic morality of our society – which says that there really is no sin, that anything’s fine as long as you’re sincere and good to your mates .. if you’re ever tempted to believe that or to think and live as if it were true .. Or if you hardly ever confess your sins to God and plead for his forgiveness on the basis of Jesus’ death .. if you rarely think of yourself as a sinner .. if repentance is part of your history but not of your daily walk now .. Or if it never crosses your mind that your friends and neighbours to whom Christ means nothing are on a path to annihilation ….. then it’s time to read again (and again and …) the stark words of Gen 6:6 (the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.) and these last few verses of Gen 7.

Together, these words should tell you exactly where you would stand with God – were it not for the atoning blood of his Son which cleanses you from all sin. If it were not for Jesus, the only mediator, who took your penalty on the Cross .. if not for that your life would grieve God so much that you would be destroyed. That would be the only possible outcome. Don’t be fooled: This account of the great flood is not a children’s bedtime story about giraffes and elephants .. it has been preserved in Scripture to tell us how grievous our sin is to God, how real his judgement is, and how desperately we depend on his grace, on the blood of Jesus for every single day we continue to draw breath.

Is that morbid? The answer is Yes .. if you do as the writer to the Hebrews warns against, and neglect the great salvation that’s ours in Christ, if you fall from following Jesus or cease praising him for his mercy .. But the answer is a resounding No – it is the very opposite of morbid .. if you allow the confronting starkness of these early chapters of the bible to lead you to humble joy and gratitude for the gift of life that’s yours eternally through the Son of God. .. Read about the destroying flood, reflect on it .. hear the truth and gaze at the horror of what sin is .. and rejoice with all your heart in the beauty of the Gospel.

Grace

Yet as surely as these chapters confront us with the full horror of sin, and the certainty and necessity of judgement in order for God to be God .. they also introduce us to the grace at the heart of his character .. The more rampant sin becomes, the more lavish the kindness that God pours out, the more grace he brings to bear .. Which is really just what Paul said in writing to the Romans: 5:20 … where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Sin is intolerable to God’s holy character .. but yet even still today he is patient for people to repent – he is gracious beyond all we can imagine.

Let me remind you again of the three recurring elements in this unfolding account of the beginnings of history: SIN – JUDGEMENT – GRACE:

1. Adam & Eve disobeyed God – judgement = death – yet in grace God comes searching (“Where are you?”);

2. Cain murdered his brother – judgement = expelled from the land – but God who’s still gracious toward sinners puts a mark of protection on him;

3. Sin spins out of control in God’s world, causing more and more disorder, to the point where it even crosses the boundaries between heaven and earth (6:1ff) – God is so grieved by the corrupt state of the world, that he says “that’s enough, no more” .. the judgement of the flood ..

Yet there’s grace even there as we saw last week in a person .. a man named Noah, who Gen 6:9 tells us was “righteous” in his character (that means his character was in step with the character of God) .. and blameless in his generation – the same generation whose sin-sick corruption had pierced God’s heart with grief .. in the middle of that worst of human degradation, someone was actually “blameless”

Grace in a person – and not quite for the first time. Remember, last time we met someone else toward the end of chap 5 – a chapter full of the judgement of death – a man named Enoch. We’re not told a lot about Enoch, but there is a phrase that’s mentioned to describe both Enoch & Noah: “he walked with God”. That’s grace – that in the midst of a generation so corrupted by sin that God is grieved to the core .. that even there, there could be two people who please God. Noah (6:8) found favour with God. That’s grace. Now, we’re also not told directly what’s meant by Enoch/ Noah “walked with God” .. but I think the clue to that comes from the context of chap 3:

Adam & Eve disobeyed God .. and then they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden (3:8), and they hid. They knew what they’d heard, it was a familiar sound, the sound of the one who had formed them for intimate open fellowship with himself .. but now their relationship with God was fractured .. so they couldn’t look God in the eye .. they couldn’t walk with him .. they could only hide from him, in their shame. Then came God’s final words to Adam & Eve – words of judgement .. before the curtain closes, as in 3:24 man is shut out of the garden, barred from the presence of God, cut off from the way to the tree of life ..

And never again does God speak with Adam & Eve, never again does a person enjoy the presence of God .. almost never – but a man called Enoch walks with God .. and one called Noah walks with God, and speaks with God .. We read today in 6:13 that God told Noah his plans – the briefest insight I believe into the walk Adam enjoyed with God before the tragedy of disobedience … There was sin .. judgement .. death .. but there was grace in the person of Noah who walked in fellowship with God, with no need to hide in shame, enjoying God’s favour and friendship.

.. Which is why the history of the human race doesn’t end with Gen 7. .. Instead there are many more chapters in the story of sinful man’s walk with God .. and our lives today are a part of it still .. Because after God had wiped out all life on the earth, revealing the truth about sin that we’d rather not know, Gen 8:1 tells us that God remembered Noah .. he remembered a man who out of a whole wicked generation walked with him .. and for Noah’s sake, the rains stopped .. the waters subsided .. dry land appeared once again .. and life was restored.

And that’s only the start of what these dark chapters of history tell us about the extent of God’s gracious character. .. At the end of chapter 8 (v21), God speaks to himself a binding word of grace: “Never again .. no more” 8:21 … The LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. 22 As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” .. Despite the worst excesses of evil that rebellious human hearts may ever devise .. never again will God destroy all life.

Conclusion

And we’re left with two inescapable conclusions: 1. The sin that lurks darkly in every human heart is a thing of unspeakable horror to God, and deserves only death; 2. despite that, God is committed to the human race, God is determined to be gracious toward people. .. But that leaves us with a question: How can that be .. How can God condemn human wickedness as he must if his character means anything .. and yet at the same time bind himself to being gracious with people ..?

The solution must involve God coming among people, because people are cut off from God and far from his presence, and corrupt at heart .. it must happen through a person because people are at the centre of the problem and at the heart of God’s purposes .. it must involve the penalty of death .. and it must offer life. That’s the dilemma presented by these foundations of the story of God’s involvement with human history. And it begs a question which is asked but never quite answered throughout the OT story of God’s covenant dealings with the nation of Israel. Israel was given a Law to live by, and a sacrificial system to atone for the ever-present horror of sin .. and yet it all only pointed to a solution yet to come .. until the day it found its fulfilment in Christ, and his death on the Cross, and his resurrection to life.

Make no mistake: If God had not come calling you in your sin saying “Where are you?” .. If he had not determined to treat mankind with mercy .. If he had not provided a way for your sin to be dealt with completely .. then you would die .. That’s how ugly sin is .. that’s how precious Jesus is. He is life .. everywhere else is death .. trust him .. yield everything to him .. cling to him with all of your heart.

And if God’s word has shaken you to the core in these weeks with the knowledge of how serious sin is, and how terrible it is to be in its grip – then will you please cry out to God .. will you please plead his mercy, for the people all around you each day who still face the prospect of judgement with no mediator, no Christ to stand before God on their behalf, nothing between them and destruction .. In that light I ask you, please pray for Festival Victoria with Franklin Graham; please begin now to consider people around you for whom you will pray consistently in these coming months as the festival approaches. Let me repeat again: Our aim in digging deeply into the truth of Scripture Sunday by Sunday must not be to fill our minds with knowledge, but to fill Wyndham with Christ, which means seeing our streets and neighbourhoods filled with people alive and satisfied in him.

It gets worse

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Text: Gen 4:1 – 6:8 Preached at Werribee Church of Christ 5/9/04

Introduction

Last week, the technology of the 1960s got the better of me .. which doesn’t offer much hope for the 21st century. An overhead slide I was going to use to illustrate the core of last week’s message was ruined 5 minutes before the service when I wrote what was meant to be a temporary squiggle over it .. and it wouldn’t come off! My best attempts to fix it only made it worse .. which might after all be a sort of parable of the tragedy in the garden that Gen 3 describes.

So I’d like to start this week with a few slides (which I haven’t squiggled on) to reinforce what I said last week, and also to lead us into the bigger picture of Gen 1-11. [Sorry, dear reader; I lack the technology to get the slides on the page.] So first to recap: In ch 1 & 2, God creates a perfect world centred on a series of perfect, mutual relationships – .. a world in which at the very core people lived in perfect fellowship with God, as supreme objects of his love and blessing, and submitting gladly to his sovereign rule .. a world in which people lived in perfect trust and harmony with eachother (“I will make a helper suitable”) .. a world in which people managed and cared for the earth selflessly under God and were freely and abundantly blessed with all the earth’s harvest.

But then there was tragedy in paradise. The entire order of God’s created universe begins to unravel, when the first humans choose to step out of alignment with the plans and purposes of God, and reject his loving authority, in favour of Satan’s deception. What then happens is this (a fracturing in the once perfect relationship between God and man) .. And flowing out from that, God’s world comes apart. The next casualty in paradise is the once perfect harmony between people and eachother – the blame game .. Then the next tragedy: instead of a source of only blessing, the earth becomes hard and produces its fruit only grudgingly, so no longer is there harmony between man and the earth as God first designed it .. decay .. brokenness .. disintegration .. Tragedy in paradise.

But what’s also happened is the beginning of a pattern we see throughout Gen 1-11 especially .. and more broadly throughout the entire sweep of the Bible’s story. SIN – JUDGEMENT – GRACE … And if by mid-October when we finish this series you remember nothing else, let this be it … Gen 1 – 11 describes four series of events, all of which follow the same deep structure of sin, then judgement, then grace.

The prelude is God’s goodness, resulting in the Creation (Chap 1). Then comes the first stage in the disintegration of God’s world: Adam & Eve’s disobedience (sin) .. the punishment, including death (judgement) .. but also God’s search for man and his provision of covering (grace) (Chaps 2, 3). That’s the pattern, and it’s repeated:

The second stage: Cain murders Abel (sin) .. Cain is expelled from the land (judgement) .. God places a mark of protection on him (grace) (Chap 4(-6))

The third stage: the boundaries of heaven and earth are transgressed with the marriage of the “sons of God” to the “daughters of men” (sin) .. God sends the Flood (judgement) .. Noah pleases God and survives (grace) (Chaps 6-9)

The fourth stage: the tower of Babel (sin) .. Man scattered across the earth (judgement) .. God raises up Abraham (grace) (Chaps 10-12)

So last week, it was where the trouble started – Tragedy in Paradise in chap 3. And this week “It gets worse” – as the impact of sin widens and deepens.

The further from God, the further from people

When you read Gen 4, and especially when you line it up with the immediate context of Gen 3, one of the core truths it highlights to us is that the further you are from God, the further you drift from people.

1 Jn 5:11 And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. .. Jesus is the entry point to life, eternal life in loving fellowship with God. So, if you’re in fellowship with Christ through faith in his blood (1 Jn 1), then you’re spiritually alive; if you’re outside of fellowship with Christ, then spiritually you’re dead. And, as John makes clear also in chap 1, if you’re alive through Christ then sin’s power over you is broken – sin is not your master .. but if you’re still in spiritual death, then sin rules – and you are in its power.

That’s the glory of the new covenant in the blood of Christ. But in Gen 4 – and then snowballing further in the following chapters – there is yet no Saviour, and no covenant .. and it’s like being on the set of a horror movie .. only it’s all too frighteningly real. The tiger has just been let out of the cage .. sin in all its ugliness has just been let loose on the planet .. and we’re left in no doubt of the chilling consequences of Adam & Eve’s decision to turn from God, and equally in no doubt of sin’s power for destruction. Remember the final verse of chap 3: Man has been driven out from the garden – shut out from the fellowship of God .. and so sin is unleashed upon him like a hurricane .. and there’s no escape.

And in the next scene we’ve zoomed in on two brothers, Cain and Abel; and we see worked out in their relationship a second sign of what sin can do in human relationships, when man’s primary relationship with God has fractured. And, it’s worse, more horrifying than the first .. and yet it’s simply a natural development from it. With shame in 3:8 and the blame game in 3:12, enmity, distrust and resentment have already crept into the relationship of the first man and his wife – who I believe also represent the foundation of human relationships generally .. And from the destructive spirit of enmity, distrust and resentment, it’s not so very far to jealousy .. and from there to something even more destructive

… Sin, we are being graphically told, is serious, ugly, destructive .. it scars every human relationship .. and it lurks darkly in every human heart .. This is simply chap 3 all over again, except with more horror. Please notice the parallels:

1. Cain is out of step with God – that’s the starting point .. he has made a choice not to honour God with the best of his produce. If you read the text carefully, you notice a qualitative difference in Cain’s offering to God, as distinct from Abel’s. Abel offers God the best, the firstborm of his flock; Cain simply offers some part of his produce. He has chosen something less than the best to honour the God of heaven. In v7, God diagnoses his spiritual condition “if you do not do [right], sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”. .. Different backdrop, new actors .. but the same drama .. Think back: 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, .. [and] 4 “You will not die”. Here it comes again: sin is lurking at the door, and you are in its sights.

2. But sin has already taken up residence in the human heart .. and so it plays out again: Cain turns from the voice of his God, and plots and carries out his brother’s death .. and humanity has slipped a quantum leap further from God and from eachother .. the cancer of sin ravages God’s creation further, and the once perfect relationships crumble yet more ..

3. And just as in the garden, so now in the field, God comes searching and asking: “What have you done?” (Eve 3:13 .. Cain 4:10)

4. Again, as before, there’s a curse on the ground on account of Cain’s sin .. again the fracturing of the relationship between people and the earth .. Same rebellion, same consequences .. and finally the same chilling conclusion:

5. 3:24 the man is driven out from the garden/ 4:16 Cain went away from the Lord’s presence .. Sin separates people from God; and the further people drift from God, the further they drift from eachother, and from life, and all that life was meant to be in the loving plan of God.

From bad to worse

And from there it goes from bad to worse, like a truck careering downhill with no brakes:

• In the 2nd half of chap 4, we get a potted summary of Cain’s descendants. One of them is called Lamech, who in 4:23 boasts to his wives of his exploits: “I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. 24 If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”. The same spirit as his ancestor Cain .. but with more venom, and a more violent encounter.

• Chap 5 is a genealogy of several generations down to Noah. It’s not exciting reading. It’s the chapter where most people who just try to read the Bible like a novel generally give up; they conclude that all that those people did in those days was “begat”. It’s a list of names, who fathered whom, and how long they all lived .. but it’s a litany of death, in ghastly contrast to chapters 1 & 2 which sing of life: God said .. God saw .. God created .. God made .. God formed the man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life – then man breaks fellowship with God, sin reigns – and then instead of life it’s all death: Adam lived x years, and he died; Seth lived x years, and he died; Enosh lived x years, and he died; .. and so it goes down the generations: and he died .. and he died .. and he died …..

• And so we come to chap 6, which starts with one of the more perplexing references in Scripture, about what seem to be some heavenly beings called “the sons of God” becoming sexually intimate with the daughters of human parents, and having children by them. I won’t spend time on that, except to say that it seems to be telling us about some kind of fracturing of the proper relationship between heaven and earth. So somehow the ravages of sin have caused the transgressing of a proper boundary between heaven and earth – yet another dimension of the fracturing of relationships in God’s once perfect cosmos.

• But what is plain in chap 6, is verses 5 – 7, which are among the closest we get in all of Scripture to a really frank, direct indication of just how God views sin. You can read some other parts of Scripture, and imagine that sin isn’t really all that bad .. just an oversight, or miscalculation. But you can’t read Gen 6 that way! The core perhaps is: 6 And the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.. Soak up those words .. Even though man was the very pinnacle of God’s creative work, the bearers of God’s own image, so grand that God looked and saw that it was VERY good .. Despite that, in just a few chapters, the point has been reached where God is stricken to the core of his being by the very existence of mankind. .. that’s how serious my and your innate rebellion is to the One who created us for himself in love… when you tell God you can run your life better than he can .. when you ignore his voice .. when you break his law … his heart is pierced with the deepest grief

… but there’s grace

These are dark chapters of scripture, aren’t they. Hard to read .. depress us with what they tell us about the awfulness of sin and the horror of judgement. It would be far more pleasant to curl up with a good novel by the fire than to read this .. But yet out of that gloom, they introduce us to the gracious character of God. They tell us that grace isn’t something God thought up down the track, to sort out the mess .. it was in his heart for us, despite our sin, from the very first

We saw it last week in chap 3 in God’s call to Adam from the moment he’d sinned: “Where are you?” .. mark of protection on Cain (4:15) .. and strangely and wonderfully we see it in people! People are the ones who’ve made the mess; wouldn’t you imagine after all that that God would just wipe people out and start again with something else? That’s what any bureaucrat would do! Yet, even while sin is ravaging the human race, the last verse of chap 4 tells us that “At that time people began to invoke the name of the LORD.” .. broken hearts were longing for home. Augustine in the fourth century wrote a profound theological statement (which he expressed as a prayer), in which he said “Lord, you have made us for yourself; and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” In the human there is a sort of homing beacon (like on a lifevest), which calls out for God. Even in the depravity of sin, people – or some people at least – were calling out for God – broken hearts longing for home .. that’s grace at work

It’s there again in a very brief reference in 5:24 to the life of Enoch, who we’re simply told “walked with God” .. And the best news since the end of chap 2 is in 6:8. Sin has reached just about the worst excess possible, it seems. God has just revealed the truth we’d rather not know – that human wickedness had sunk so far, that man’s very existence grieved him to his heart.. .. But then out of that, there’s someone – a member of the human race – who finds favour with God: a man called Noah (and we’ll pick up Noah’s story next week). And we have in all of those human signs – especially Noah – a hint that despite the deepest grief that sin causes to the heart of God .. not only will he not completely give up on people .. he will use a person to save the world .. and that thread of grace works its way through Scripture: Noah .. Abraham .. Moses .. David .. prophets .. Jesus

Conclusion

Let’s return to Cain & Abel in chap 4, set alongside chap 3. The parallels between the first sin and the next are stark, clear, frightening .. And they serve to underline the truth that no one wants to believe for comfort, but that everyone must accept if there’s to be any change of heart or any lasting hope. The message is this: The world is real .. God is real .. what God says is real .. real relationships are at stake .. there’s real good .. real evil .. a real devil .. real sin .. real choices .. real consequences .. real life .. real death. You can’t imagine it away; you won’t wake up in the morning and find it was all a dream .. you can’t fix your own mess .. sin is here to stay .. there’s no cure .. no earthly hope …. but there’s the grace of God .. cling to it .. or you’ll die.

That’s the foundation on which the gospel is built. The world upon which sin caste its ugly stain is the same world into which John spoke when he said: 1 Jn 5:11 … God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.. There’s sin .. judgement .. grace: cling to Christ for life & hope.

To the eye of the casual reader, these few chapters could seem to be full of darkness and despair – depressing reading! But if you never gaze into darkness, you never realise or appreciate how bright and glorious light is. If you don’t look long and hard at how dark sin is, at what darkness the world is in, you won’t recognise how simply splendid and beautiful Jesus is – that he is the light of the world, that he shines so brightly in the darkness that the darkness has never put him out. And that, friends, is why Christians through history have grown to maturity in Jesus by feasting on the whole of Scripture, and sensing how Jesus satisfies the deepest longings of a covenant nation (Israel) falling ever short of God’s glory .. in the midst of a world ravaged by sin, desperate for a saviour, and longing for home in God.

That in part is why I make it my discipline to preach through parts of the OT regularly – and why I urge you to treasure it as well. (Don’t just start at Matthew; start with Genesis.) Because unless and until you grasp how dark sin is, and how far from God you are or were because of it .. if you don’t grasp the horror of that, you’ll never appreciate the half of how precious and beautiful it is to stand by grace unashamed in the presence of God, clothed in the righteousness of his Son. So may God open his word to you today like never before, convict you of your sin like never before, terrify you of his judgement like never before .. and out of that, overwhelm you with his grace and fill you with the joy of salvation.

Where the trouble started

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Text: Gen 3. Preached at Werribee Church of Christ 29/8/04

Introduction

It’s human nature to resist change, and opt for the status quo. Anyone who’s ever tried to bring about any kind of new direction in a nation, a company knows all about that! And if you’ve ever tried to shift anything in a church, you’ll certainly know about it!! But someone once said that “Status quo” is Latin for “the mess we is in”. i.e. the life we now have may be familiar .. but it is a long way from perfect

How often have you heard someone say that ever since the day “x” happened, the world has been changed for ever. In the last 3 years, it’s been said about the events of 9/11 .. but before that it was said about the bomb on Hiroshima .. WW1 (‘the war to end all wars’) .. technological advances throughout history .. But the Bible says the trouble started before any technology .. any wars .. even before any breakdown in any human relationships .. It started when the first people stepped out of alignment with the plans and purposes of God, who had formed them for himself, for his glory, and for his fellowship.

So far this month we’ve spent 3 weeks getting a picture of the world as God planned and created it at the beginning (Gen 1, 2). If we were to try to represent that world graphically, it could look something like this image [OHT image] .. What God created was a world centred on relationships – perfect relationships of mutuality .. a world in which people lived in perfect fellowship with God, as supreme objects of his love and blessing, and submitting gladly to his sovereign rule .. a world in which people lived in perfect trust and harmony with eachother (“I will make a helper suitable”) .. a world in which people managed and cared for the earth selflessly under God and were freely and abundantly blessed with all the earth’s harvest.

Just soak up that image .. A perfect world of perfect relationships. How do we know that? .. God stepped back and looked at his creative masterpiece and saw that it was (very) good. That’s the image conveyed in chap 1. Then in chap 2 the writer zooms in for a closeup on God’s creation of mankind .. and the chapter ends with a very moving statement of the total trust between people and God, and people and eachother: 25 the man and his wife were both naked, and unashamed. .. which I believe carries at least two layers of meaning – It means that man and wife enjoyed a sexual relationship of 100% delight and openness .. But more deeply, it also means that in God’s perfect world the relationships between people and God, and between people and eachother were relationships of utter joy and trust. People could stand in the very presence of God, and of one another, with no shame .. no guilt .. no sense of unworthiness .. just freely, openly, joyfully.

A perfect world of perfect relationships .. but then the trouble started .. when the voice of a rival, a pretender, a deceiver spoke a different word to humanity .. a word which promised freedom .. but delivered just the opposite 1 “Did God say, … 4 “You will not die;.

Man turns from God

I could spend some time digging into the significance of the image of the serpent as we read it here in Gen 3. But the subject of Satan, or the devil, in the Bible is really another sermon or two in itself. So to cut to the chase, I’ll simply ask Scripture to interpret Scripture to us. And we can do that today by jumping forward to Rev 12:9 The great dragon …, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. In other words whatever angles we could take up in exploring what the image of the serpent or snake would have conveyed to the first readers of Gen in the ancient world – and it would have conveyed a rich tapestry of meaning – it’s clear from Revelation that the Christians of the first century AD understood very clearly that it meant Satan himself.

So Satan himself appears in the garden, and he presents a very attractive offer, based on a subtle perversion of the truth. 1 … “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman gets it right, to begin with. She gives the correct version of God’s words in v2 … “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” But now he’s got her thinking: 4 … “You will not die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”. i.e. God isn’t as good as he says he is .. he hasn’t told you the whole story .. he’s holding back the best bit .. Just try it, and you’ll see. .. Tantalising ..

The Devil’s strategy has never changed. His strategy is always to convince us that we could have just that bit more of the abundance we already enjoy, if we just listen more carefully to his seductive offer. That’s what he attempted with Jesus in the desert – “You could have even more power than you already have, if you just worship me.” .. And it’s the same here. Food delights us – and it’s meant to. God has said that all the fruit of the earth is ours for food, except for one. Satan wants to say “Why not that as well? Why miss any of it?” And he says it to you and me today, every day, in a myriad of ways: “You could have more money, if you just leave a few boxes empty on your tax return. .. more pleasure if you just have an extra fling with that woman at the next desk, or if you just glance at that magazine again .. you could have a better job if you just fiddle your resume a bit. .. Did God really say ‘You can’t have it?’ What a killjoy! .. Why be short-changed? Why settle for some of it with God – when I could give you the lot?”

The test .. And it’s as if all of heaven and earth waits in suspense. Will mankind trust their Creator and submit to his loving plan & rule? Or will they gamble the lot on a stranger’s seductive promise? .. And verse 7 is the saddest word in all history: They trust the promise of someone less than God .. they’re eyes are opened (the devil was right with that bit – a good half-truth there!) .. but instead of wisdom they get shame. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. .. And did they remember, I wonder, with deep pain the final words of Creation, complete in its beauty, from 2:25 the man and his wife were both naked, and unashamed. .. If this were reported in a tabloid newspaper, the headline might read “Tragedy in Paradise!” No wonder Rev 12 describes the serpent – Satan – as the deceiver. It was all a lie. They were conned. Man has not, man has never, become like God in wisdom .. Instead, they cannot even face God, or eachother, out of utter shame. So in v7 they hastily cover themselves, and in v8 they hide from the God who loved them and made them for himself. “Tragedy in Paradise!”

The world comes apart

And that’s only the beginning of it. What happens from here on, and escalating on through to chap 11, is the disintegration of every relationship in God’s once perfect world. If you’ve ever been a boy – or a parent of a boy – you’ll know well what inquisitive creatures boys generally are. I remember something I once tried was an investigation into the construction of a golf ball. I got my pocket knife, and peeled off the outer plastic covering, to find a tightly compacted core of thin layers of rubber. And if you break the top layer of rubber, the next one snaps, then the next one .. and bit by bit the whole thing comes apart .. until there’s not a great deal left, just disintegrates. That’s what happens to the world in Gen 3 – 11.

Have a look again at the image we looked at earlier [OHT image] .. The people who are standing completely unashamed before God in 2:25 are hiding from God in shame in 3:8 – a fracturing in the relationship between God and humanity ..

That’s not all .. Gone as well is the perfect oneness that first existed between people. We’ve gone from 2:23 “this at last is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh!” – to 3:12 (the blame game) “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” .. And right there is the beginning of all hatred of women, all wife abuse, all rape, all marriage breakdown, all adultery, all divorce .. And as we’ll see next week, it only gets worse from there … as the relationship between people and eachother fractures further

And we still haven’t seen it all .. From chapters 1 and 2 where the entire created world is there for man to manage under God and enjoy .. where all the fruit is theirs as food to be freely enjoyed – we move to the tragedy of 3:17b cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground. … the third once perfect relationship of creation is also broken ..

Why is the world the way it is? Why is there bitterness and enmity and violence between people and nations? Why is there pain and breakdown in human relationships? Why is there sickness of body and mind and heart? Why is pollution of the planet and the atmosphere spinning out of control? Why are there floods and droughts and disasters? .. God’s word tells us that the answer to all those questions and others like them is fundamentally the same … Man has rejected God’s authority, and fractured the core relationship in the universe, the one on which every other relationship depends – man’s relationship with his God .. and when the core relationship is damaged, the shockwaves affect every other relationship in the cosmos, and the entire creation is “out of whack”.

… and it was so

Now let’s try to tie all that together, and shine the spotlight on God and me and you: 2:17 [the day you eat the fruit from] the tree of the knowledge of good and evil … you shall die.” … 3:4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; … 24 He drove out the man; and … he placed the cherubim, [as sentries] to guard the way to the tree of life. What God said happened! Which shouldn’t have been a surprise, since he spoke the entire universe into being. (Gen 1: “God said .. and it was so.”) Well the same God said: “If you eat from that tree you will die.” .. And it was so – they ate .. and they died.

This isn’t just the story of the life of a man called Adam and a woman called Eve; it’s the story of your life and my life. And it begs some honest questions: When will you recognise that God was right .. that God really does know how to live your life far better than you will ever know .. that his word, his voice is the one you should have trusted .. that what you decide in regard to God and his authority over you really does have consequences .. that some of those consequences are spiritually deadly?

But that’s not the end of the story. It’s not for nothing that Christians speak of something called “good news” (gospel). The NT writers wrote because they were convinced that that was so. The end of Gen 3 looks like the news is very bleak indeed. There’s only one road leading to the tree of life, but (it’s as if) there’s a locked gate across that road, and the sign says “No Entry” .. and if you’re cut off from life, there’s only one alternative. ..

Except that God has already come personally searching, and has mounted a rescue mission. .. Now that’s incredibly generous isn’t it? You have spat in God’s face .. you have told him you know better than he does .. you have treated his word lightly .. and you have suffered the cruel consequences of your choice – you’re cut off from the life of perfect relationships for which you were created, and the future is only death .. you only got what you deserved .. And yet he comes searching for you .. and even though you’re hiding from him, too ashamed to look in his face – he calls to you and says “Where are you?” (And that is a statement of God’s regard for you today .. If you are hiding from him today .. if you are ashamed today, so ashamed that you cannot look God in the eye .. Then he is calling you today, and saying “Where are you? .. Won’t you come?”)

And that rescue story begins in Gen 3:9 .. and it doesn’t end until the closing chapters of Revelation. And there, at the start of chap 22, there’s a river that flows right through the centre of the city. Note that: It all starts in a garden with 2 people; and it ends in a city with a multitude of people. Now, the river of life flows right through the centre of the city, and it flows out from the throne of God and the Lamb (And if you’ve read Rev 5 you know that the Lamb is Christ crucified and risen, who by his blood shed on the Cross, has defeated death) – the river of life flows out from his throne .. and on its banks is none other than the tree of life .. and there’s no gate .. no sign .. no guard .. no sword to keep you back .. Anyone who wishes can reach out and take the fruit of that tree, and live forever.

… which means there’s one more honest question still to be asked: When will you admit to God how desperately you need his Son to readmit you to life – the way it was meant to be?

Ezr 8:21-23

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Is our lack of experience of God’s power and intervention simply indicative of our laziness and half-heartedness in prayer? Surely a word of rebuke to the western church. We expect lavish blessing for meagre seeking. Perhaps we don’t appreciate God’s grace enough, nor appreciate how much we depend on it.