Chapter 3. And our text will be found in
verse 6. And when the woman saw the tree
was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree
to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof
and did eat, and gave it also unto her husband with her, and he did eat." Now, the title
of the message this morning is The Root of All Problems and
God's Remedy. The Root of All Problems, All
Troubles and God's Remedy. Now, in the first two chapters
before our text, the book of Genesis opens up and gives us
a history of the creation of the world. How God made all things
by the Word of His power. In chapter 1, in verses 3, 6,
9, 14, 20, and 24, we read these words. God said, let there be, and there was. God said, let
there be, and there was. This is God's creation. How simple
is it that? He leaves it to this simplification. God spoke and the worlds came
into existence. This is by the power of God. And in verses 10, 12, 18, 21,
25, you can read this later for yourself.
Everything after God said and made everything, you know what
He said? It was good. It was good. God made everything
by the Word of His power, and it was good. And then we come
to read that God made, last of all, man. He said in verse 26
of chapter 1, and God said, let us make man in our image after
our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and
over all the earth, and over every creeping thing upon the
earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of
God created He Him, male and female created He them. And we read in chapter 2 is how
He did this. God didn't say, let there be
man. He actually made man. In other words, He took such
care in this creation that He took the dust that He had already
made and fashioned man after the dust of the dust of the ground
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became
a living soul. See how special man was to his
Maker, that God blessed him to be in His own image. He didn't
do this for any other creature but man. Not even the angels
of heaven. He did this to man, only man. And he set Adam to be ruler over
all his creation. God blessed him with a loving
wife to be his helpmate. And at this time, God looked
over all his creation, and you know what he said? Behold, it
is very good. What could God do but what's
good? He did well in all his creation. Man has been given a job in the
garden, but it was not a burden. Man enjoyed his work. He enjoyed
the best of the earth's fruits. God made him perfect, sinless.
God gave him a good wife, and God furnished him with everything. Everything was at his fingertips. There was no sweat. Listen, there
was no trouble. When God made man, everything
was good. There was nothing wrong in the world that God made. There
was no trouble, no death, no tears, and no pain. Matter of
fact, God walked with man during this time of His creation. He
actually communed with His creature. Like I'm talking to you, God
spoke to Adam in the same way. He communed with him. There was
fellowship between God and man. There was perfect harmony in
the universe. No trouble. No trouble. Can you
imagine such a place? Isn't that what you all want? You want everything at your fingertips?
You want everything to come to you so easily? I imagine that
Adam would put out his hand and the fruit would just fall into
his hand from the tree. Everything God provided, everything
opened up for Adam. There was nothing in his way. No trouble, no pain, no sorrow,
no sickness, no separation, no death, nothing. Can you imagine
such a place where there was no evil? God gave this and God
gave only one command. One command to His creature. And look at this in chapter 2
and verse 16. God tells us the command He gave.
And the Lord God, after making everything good, and making everything
well, making Adam good and everything's right, the Lord God says, I'm
going to give you one commandment. He said, of every tree of the
garden you may freely eat. You may freely eat. Now, God
planted every tree. Thousands and thousands and I
would say even say millions of trees. Right now in this world
there are over 100,000 types of trees. 100,000 in the world today. That's
not including the ones that were extinct, that have went extinct
since. But imagine this place that every
tree was not just a shade tree. Every tree bore fruit. It was
a fruitful place and every tree bore fruit of different kinds. And yet God says, I have, I'm
going to tell you of, there are two trees that God puts out there
in the garden. One is the tree of life. That's
a specially named tree in this book. But there's another one.
God says, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. He said, Adam, of the millions
of trees that I've given you, every one of them bears fruit
that you can eat. They're different to the taste
and pleasant to the smell. He said, I give them all to you.
You can have every one of them. But there is one that belongs
to me. One tree. That's my tree. I've planted it, and I command
you not to eat it. And here's the consequence if
you do. In the day you eat it, you will
surely die. You will die. You will surely
die. This was not a if, perhaps. God said you will
surely die. And this command is not complicated. Did I say anything that complicated
you that muddied this water at all? This command is simple.
My tree, don't eat it. That's one command. The command
is not complicated and Adam was no ignorant caveman. He was the
most intelligent man that ever walked except for the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was made in the image of God.
He was given rule over all the earth. And this command was not
difficult for him to follow. Don't eat the fruit. One tree,
don't eat it. And the consequence was easy
to understand. Isn't it easy to understand?
You eat it, you will surely die. That's the consequence if you
disobey. Now all was well in the garden.
God and man were in communion. There was no pain, no trouble,
and man was happy. But now, in verse chapter 3,
in steps the antagonist. In steps Satan, the serpent.
Now, the serpent was created of God just as all the other
animals were created, but what was different about this one
was that he was not just an animal. A matter of fact, he was possessed,
this animal was possessed of a being that we call Satan, the
devil. And this man picked the most
subtle of beasts even because it typified his own character. He was a subtle, Satan is a subtle
creature. And this serpent, being Satan,
an angel created of God who himself rebelled against God, he comes
down to Eve as the serpent and tempts her to eat of the tree
that God commanded them not to eat. And we saw that as we read
in verses 1 through 6. Satan comes and he says, did
God say? Did God say you should not eat
of all the trees of the garden? I love the way he throws up the
softball question. It's just a simple question.
But he words it in such a way as to let her just knock this
out of the park. In chapter 1 and verse 29, God's
command is clear. He said this, Chapter 1 and verse
29, God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing
seed, which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree,
in which the fruit of the tree yielding seed to you it shall
be for meat. Is that not clear? He said you
can have any tree of the garden. Satan, did God say you couldn't
have those trees? And she said, Well, of course,
we can have any tree we want to, except Except the one that
God says was his he said she said but of the tree of the knowledge
of good need which in the midst of the garden Listen she said
you shall not eat of it neither. Shall you touch it? I don't know
if Adam gave her a little extra But that touch it part was not
in the command. She added that and She was overzealous
for this. She said, you know, I don't know
if Adam told her not to touch it. He said, don't you even touch
that. I don't even want you touching it. And so she used that as a
command. She said, neither touch it lest
you die. And notice what Satan said. God is a liar. That's what he said. You shall
not surely die. Flat out denies what God says.
How subtle. He begins, and then he just out
and out calls God a liar. But if you eat this, he said,
God knows that you'll be like God. In other words, what is
Satan's temptation always? God's holding something good
from you. Well, man, look at that. I can't be with who I want
to be outside of marriage. Well, God's just holding something
good back from me. Isn't that the temptation? No. God's not holding anything back
that's good. He calls God a liar. He said,
when you eat it, you'll become as gods. And notice this, when
she ate, and she saw it, she looked at it, she was tempted,
and she saw it was pleasant fruit, and it was a good-looking fruit,
and she took it, and she ate it, and what happened? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing happened when
she ate. Did she die? Nope. No, matter
of fact, she felt no change at all. So then she plucked the
fruit and gave it and took it to her husband. And he looks
at his wife whom he loved, knowing that she had eaten, knowing she
had broken the commandment of God. And you know what he did? He in rebellion against God ate. He in rebellion, in open rebellion,
knowing full well the commandment of God. Eve was deceived. Adam was not deceived. He knew full well what he was
doing and he took it and he ate. He rebelled against God. And what happened? What changed? Everything. Everything changed. Notice everything changed in
verse 7. And the eyes of them both were
opened. It wasn't until he ate that both
of their eyes were opened. And they knew they were naked.
When Eve ate, there was no shame, even because there was no sin.
Do you realize that? The commandment was not given
to Eve. It was given to Adam. Eve represented
no one. Adam was the federal head and
representative. It was to him the commandment
was gave. And when he ate, Everything changed. Their eyes, both of their eyes
were open. See then that the command was
given to Adam, and because Adam was the one that represented
Eve, he was the head, and because he ate, he was responsible to
obey God. And when Adam ate and sinned
against God, listen, the consequence of his sin was immediate. He
surely died. Well, he didn't die physically.
That process started when he rebelled. But he surely died
the day he ate of that fruit. His eyes were open to sin. Before this, there was no guilt,
even because there was no sin. But because of one man's sin,
Both Adam and Eve knew that they were naked, exposed before God. And if God were to see them,
He surely would destroy them. They for the first time ever
felt guilt and shame. They knew no shame before this.
But after this, everything changed. They knew guilt and shame. They
knew they were sinners. So what did they do? He and his
wife sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness. They
tried to cover their nakedness. They thought that if they could
conceal this, surely God wouldn't notice. Now Adam was an intelligent
man. Adam was an intelligent man.
He was made good and created well. And yet now he thinks that
fig leaves will do the trick. Will cover his nakedness before
God. And that worked. For a little bit. Until what? And then the Lord God called
unto Adam. He called the voice of the Lord
God walking in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife did
what? They hid themselves. Before they
had communion with God. But now they're running from
God. They're hiding. They say these fig leaves are
not enough. We need all of the leaves of the trees to cover
us. So they run into the forest to hide from God. Now the Lord
was not asking for information when He said, where are you?
The Lord knew where they were, and He knew what they did. The
Lord knew what they had done, and yet, they who once talked
with God and walked with Him ran from Him. And the first words,
listen, when God cornered Adam, what do you suppose his first
words should have been? How about, Have mercy. I've eaten. I'm guilty. I need mercy. No, that's not
what came out of his mouth. Notice this. The woman you gave
me. He blamed God. He blamed God. He blamed the woman. But he did
not confess his own guilt. It's God's fault. It's all your
fault, God. You gave me this woman. You made
her. And if you hadn't made that woman for me, I sure wouldn't
be in this mess. And he turns to the woman, and he said, what
have you done? And the woman said, the serpent.
Do you see? You see what they're doing? They're
deflecting. The blame is being shifted. I'm not to blame. It's his fault. It's that serpent you made, God.
It's your fault. You made that serpent. How many
people blame God today for Satan? Well, if you hadn't made Satan,
we wouldn't be in this mess. What are you doing? Doing the
same thing they do. Blaming God for your sin. And so God cursed
the serpent and told the woman of the consequence of their sin.
You know, the consequence of the woman was in conception,
was in childbearing, that it would be painful. It would be painful. That raising
children is a sorrow. for a woman, because they are,
I tell you, women are attached to their children more than a
man is. And when that child is hurt,
that woman is hurt. When that child is suffering,
the woman is suffering. See, this is all in link to the
curse. And you know what the woman's
desire will be? The woman's desire will be to rule over the man. Isn't that what's happened in
our culture? You can see it clearly. Women are always trying to rule
over men. Matter of fact, God said, you know how God punishes
a nation? He sends them children and women to rule over them.
Yeah. That's how God judges a nation.
You can read it in Isaiah if you want to later. I'm not going
to deal with that. But this is the curse. That she'll always
desire to have rule over her husband, but will not be able
to. This is how God made it. It's
an order of things. And it's part of the curse. And
you know what? He cursed man. He said, cursed is the ground
for your sake. You're going to sweat, whereas
before you worked without toil, without trouble, without difficulty,
but now the weeds and the thorns will grow faster than the fruit.
Can you not see that in your own yard, in your own garden
if you've got one? The weeds outnumber the fruit
ten to one. And they grow so fast and you
don't even need to plant them. You don't need to plant that.
Why the curse? Why is there toil? Why is there
trouble? Why is there difficulty? Why
is there murder and envy and hatred and destruction in our
world? What's wrong? The problem is
found here. Here's the root. This is the
root of all trouble. He did eat. Herein is the root problem. The root for all sorrow, death,
hunger, addiction, cheating, divorce, homosexuality, fornication,
adultery, false religion is found in this sin of this one man,
Adam. And listen, we are all His sons
and daughters. Every one of you. You can all
trace your heritage right back to this man, Adam. And listen, he was our representative. Just as he represented Eve, and
when he ate, both of their eyes were open. They both died when
he ate. I'll show it to you in the New
Testament Scripture. Go to Romans chapter 5. Paul discusses this
plainly for us to see. Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. The root cause for all trouble
is this right here. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon who? All men. For that all have sinned. Do you see that? You and I were
made sinners by the sin of one man. By this one man, not Satan,
but by man came sin. And by man came death. And that
death is passed to every one of us by nature. We are born
dead in trespasses and sins. David in his confession says,
in iniquity did my mother conceive me. It's not that his mother
was out of wedlock when she conceived David, but it was the fact that
he was the product of David's seed, of David's line. Now listen. God made all things good. He made man perfect and upright,
ruler over all things. He was perfect. He had a good
wife. He had everything he could long
for. But when he sinned, his soul died. And when he sinned, in his heart,
his heart was corrupt and defiled. Even so, we by nature are corrupt. This is who we are. You want
to know where the problem is of our world? Stop blaming it
on governments. Stop blaming it on your community.
Stop blaming it on this person and that person. You want to
know the problem for our troubles? Look inside of your own heart,
and there you find the problem. The problem is sin. Now, what if you had cancer in
your foot and I cut off your arm? Would that help you? No,
you have to find the root of the problem. You want to know
the remedy? If you want to know the remedy,
you've got to know the root. The root problem is you. The root problem is me. The root problem is I am a sinner,
and sin is all I do, and sin is all I can do. That's the problem. That's the problem. And what do we do with this problem?
Well, we do exactly what our father did. We try to cover it. Now what he did, took fig leaves,
tried to cover his nakedness. What do you do with your guilt
and sin? You try to justify it. You say, well, look at my circumstance.
I'm a sinner because of this circumstance, because of my mama,
because of my daddy, because of my grandma. I know it's all
their fault. And so you try to justify it,
and then you try to cover it up by your religious deeds. Look
how good I am. Look how, look, I went to church
today. Oh, one fig leaf. Hey, I actually, listen, two
fig leaves. You know, and you cover it up.
And you know what happens to fig leaves once you pull them
off the vine? They start to wither. And what do you need? You need
more. You see, religion always wants more, more, more. You didn't
do enough, you didn't do enough, you didn't do enough, gotta do
more. And what do you do? You grab these leaves, you keep
putting them on, they keep falling off, you keep putting them on,
they keep withering away. That's what you do by nature. And you
know what it does? It never solves a problem. Religion
never solves a problem. And so then, when you hear the
voice of God now, You hear the voice of God and you know what
God's Word says, Be ye holy even as I am holy. That's what God
says. If you are guilty of one of these commandments, you are
guilty of all. Do you get that? And it's not
just outward deeds, it's inward motives. Who among us has not
hated? Then you've killed. Who has not
lusted? You've committed adultery already.
You have sinned against God and not all the trees of self-righteousness
will cover you in the eyes of God. And so when God comes and
reveals His holiness and His perfect character to you, your
fig leaves and your trees fall off. You try then to run and
hide. Try to hide. You'll try to hide in
your busyness. If I just get busy in religion,
if I just get busy in this and this, surely God will overlook
my... No. No, he won't. You say, maybe God can't see
me. Maybe he doesn't know my heart. Now the scripture says
God knows your thoughts and your heart and your motive and God
sees every wicked thing you have ever done. You can hide it from
me, please do. I'm hiding mine from you. I don't
want you to see it. But I tell you this, God sees
it. And Isaiah chapter 1 verse 6
says, From the sole of your foot, even to the head, there is no
goodness in you. See the problem? See the problem? There is no goodness in you. There's no righteousness in you.
But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, your heart is a fountain
of filth and sin. Your heart continually spews
out sin and malice and hatred against God. Now these things
I'm telling you, God says to you. These aren't things I'm
coming up with by myself. Read Romans 3, Isaiah chapter
1. You read all over the scripture.
God says you are without righteousness in yourself. You have none. And
what does man do? He begins to blame. He begins
to deflect and chip the blame off of someone else. Man will try always to fix the
problem any way he can other than confessing. But listen, there is nothing,
nothing in this world you can do to fix this problem. I want to be as clear as I can.
This problem goes so deep that there's nothing you can do to
fix it. Go ahead and try. Go. You will
fail to fix this problem. It is impossible for you. The
disciples said when Jesus said it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle. Measure it. Camel. Needle. It is easier for that camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
into the glory of heaven. And the disciples said, who can
be saved? And Jesus said, with men it is
impossible. You got that? It's impossible. Then what's a remedy? Praise God He didn't leave Adam
and Eve without a remedy. So then He gives us the remedy
for this. The remedy is Christ. The remedy is Christ. Now, do you see your family resemblance
here? Have I just, have I, has the scripture hit that home to
you that this is you, this is your problem? Not just somebody
else's, it's yours? Then listen, there is a remedy.
There is a hope for such men. In verse 15, God speaks of two
seeds, two family lines, the line of Satan and the woman seed. If there's any hope, it's in
this. It is the seed of the woman. Now wait a second, if you don't
understand anything about biology, you know that man has the seed,
and the woman the egg. Anybody knows that, everybody
knows that. So how is it that the seed of the woman? Behold,
a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and thou shalt call
his name Immanuel, God with us. Behold, in the beginning, He
gives them the remedy, which is Jesus Christ. He confesses
that He's going to send a Savior, a Redeemer. And what is this
Redeemer going to do? He said, "...it shall bruise
or crush the head of the serpent, and you shall bruise his heel."
You see, the seed of the woman was to come in order to destroy
sin. to destroy the power of Satan. What is the power of Satan? It's
sin. He takes sin and he accuses you
before God with it. Look at that man. Look, he's
a sinner. Look, that man does not deserve
your mercy. You see, Christ came to shut
his mouth. That's what Christ came to do. He came to crush
His head and shut His mouth. And how did He do that? Jesus
Christ came into the world like Adam to be a representative man. Just as Adam represented us and
we fell, even so Jesus Christ is a representative man. And
He came to represent a people. He came to represent those that
were chosen of the Father before the foundation of the world.
He came to redeem them by His blood. He came to pay for their
sin debt and He came to give them a righteousness they could
not merit on their own. And notice God uses this picture.
Go over it in your text and look what God does to them in verse
21. And unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make
coats of skins and clothed them. What did God have to do to make
those skins? He had to kill an innocent animal. Blood must be shed. God's justice must be satisfied. And in order for anyone to be
forgiven of God, sin must be paid. And how did God picture that?
He said, by the death of the innocent, I'll cover the nakedness
of the guilty. What's the remedy for that heart,
that wicked heart of yours? Jesus said this, he said, if
the root is bad, the fruit is bad. Isn't that so? Just naturally
seen. You can see if the root's bad,
the tree's gonna be bad. What do you do? What's the remedy
for a corrupt tree? You dig it up and you put a new
one in. That's what God does. Jesus Christ
obtained righteousness for us. He died for our sins and now
He freely gives this righteousness to us. He gives it. And He covers our nakedness before
God. You see, the remedy is not my
works, but His. Not my sacrifice, but His sacrifice. Jesus said, Lo, I come to do
Thy will, O God, and He did. He obtained righteousness by
His obedience and destroyed the head of Satan and sin by His
death. God raised Him from the dead,
and now He sends His men into the world to tell you of the
root problem, sin, and the remedy, Christ. There it is. The root
problem is you. The remedy for you is Christ. Not you plus Christ. No, you're
the problem. He's the solution. He is everything in this matter
of salvation. Sinner, behold that Jesus Christ
is the only Savior for sinners. that by faith in Him alone is
the forgiveness of sins. And I tell you, listen, you should
come now. Don't wait till you're better.
Why? You don't get better. You know, as I've been a Christian
for a long time, I know this, my nature has not changed. The
old corrupt man has not changed at all. He is just as vile as
he ever was. But God has been gracious to
give me the remedy by giving me a new nature. One he made. One he fashioned. One He purposed
and one He gave to me. And this new nature, it embraces
God. It doesn't run from God. The
new nature loves and believes on Jesus Christ alone above all
things. And He is all my salvation. And what am I? I'm a sinner and
nothing at all. I'm a sinner and nothing at all. My, my, my, how that would change
everything if men just understood that. I tell you, you wouldn't be so
proud and arrogant, would you, if you knew that? I'm a sinner in nothing at all, but Jesus Christ He's my all
in all. Now that's one that God has fixed
the problem. So then, in this life, if you're
a believer in Jesus Christ, does that mean you're going to escape
trouble? Absolutely not. Why? You still got that old man
hanging on you like a rotten corpse, stinking up the place. I remember one guy, one preacher
said this, he said, your righteousness is about as worthless as a warm
bucket of spit. That's your best thing you got
to offer God. That's what you got. And it's
worthless. So nothing you can do can fix
this problem. The only one fix your problem
is Jesus Christ. Why do you think I spend all
my days preaching about him? I got none else. I can't tell
you how to fix this old rotten corpse. I can only show you who
can give you a new life. That's all I can do is point
you to him. And you know what? He's the only one to give it
to you. You can't demand it of him. You can't bargain with him. You can plead for mercy. One thing I love about this book,
I ain't ever found anybody who hadn't pled for mercy and hadn't
found it. I hadn't read one person. But you can't come with your
hand in the cookie jar, too. It's either all of you or it's
all of Christ. It's not a mixture. Man, that's a remedy. That takes
care of all my problems. Takes care of all my worries.
Because I have Christ. I have everything. And not you and not even myself
can take that away. I can't undo what he's already
done. He's already put away my sins. I ain't ever gonna undo
that. Nothing you can do to undo that. It's God that justified
me. It's Christ that died for me.
And it's him that loves me. Isn't that something? that he
would even be merciful to such a worm as I am. That's salvation. That's God's
remedy. May God even now apply it to
your heart. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.