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Sermon Date:	January 20, 2008 (Redeemer, Sanford)
Sermon Text:	Genesis 3:1-24
Church Calendar:	TKC Week 3
Delivered By:	Rev. Brian Roberts

"Are You Living the Lie or the Love?"

I have a little game or shall I say “congregational participation exercise” I want to involve you in. I am going to begin a sentence and you fill in the last word. Okay? I will pause, and you just go ahead and call out the answer, if you know it.

I am ready to throw in the _____. (towel)
I am at the end of my _____. (rope)
I am just a bundle of _____. (nerves)
I am at my wit’s _____. (end)
I feel like resigning from the human _____. (race)
I am in over my _____. (head)

Congratulations! You answered every single one correctly – 100%. You are definitely fallen, sinful human creatures. You clearly know all about stress and worry.

Why is it – do you think – that you did so well? Because it is a universal human condition that we don’t have peace. There is always something picking at us. There is always something nagging at us. There is always something causing us pain. The perfect love, and peace, and security that we had in the Garden of Eden is definitely gone, isn’t it?

Satan stepped into God’s wonderful creation and tried to spoil God’s world. And in Genesis, chapter 3, we see that he succeeded in doing just that. He turned Adam and Eve against God, and their sin introduced evil into God’s perfect world.

As we continue in our “Thy Kingdom Come” preaching series, this story in Genesis may be one of the most difficult for us to understand. So much about this story is so far removed from us. What was it like to live in a perfect world? None of us know. What was it like to BE perfect, ourselves? None of us know. What was it like to stroll alongside God, chatting about this and that, as He walked in the cool breezes of the evening? None of us know.

And while there is no way to know for sure, perhaps angels were also interacting with Adam and Eve in this holy world. And perhaps, they appeared as animals, who could walk and talk with them – since angels have no bodies themselves. And perhaps that is why Eve seemed not to be surprised when Satan – in the form of a serpent – began speaking to her.

What were those wonderful and delightful things that went on in the Garden of Eden? We no longer know. All we have are shadowy images and comments from the Book of Genesis. For example: the serpent, mentioned in verse one, was an exceptionally intelligent creature. Apparently, the serpent had legs, and we can presume it was a beautiful animal.

We presume this, because later, God curses the serpent to slither on its belly from that moment on. God curses the serpent to be the frightening and threatening creature we now know.

But, you see, the purpose of the first three chapters of Genesis is not to tell us what God’s perfect creation was like. The purpose is to tell us what HAPPENED to a perfect creation and humanity that are no longer perfect. The purpose is to set the stage and explain the necessity for – Jesus.

When Satan tempted Eve, the first thing he did was attack God’s Word. “Did God really say…” is how Satan introduced himself to Eve. And the seeds of doubt were planted in Eve’s thoughts. Satan did not come roaring in and try to frighten or overpower Eve. He just gently and even pleasantly began to speak, and started to drive a wedge between Eve and God’s Word.

Now, had Eve resisted Satan’s temptation by standing on God’s Word, she – WE – would have been fine. But she began to question God’s Word, and then she began to distrust His motives, and ultimately His love. And THAT is where she – and then Adam – fell. The sin was already committed before they ate the fruit.

Standing on and trusting in the Words and Promises of God, Adam and Eve were undefeatable. But when Satan was able to get them to step away from God’s Word – in other words, to distrust God’s Word – they had no chance. Apart from the strength of God’s Word, they were putty in His hands.

And this has always been Satan’s trick. Satan doesn’t come into our lives with roaring power – that doesn’t work. What works is when he approaches us looking as genuine, and loving, and God-like as he can.

Last Monday, Fox News reported that mysterious $100 ‘Supernote’ counterfeit bills are popping up worldwide. The article says, “An underground counterfeiting operation appears to continue with $100 ‘supernote’ bills popping up worldwide… The ‘supernote’ appears to be made from the same cotton and linen mix that distinguishes U.S. currency from other currency. It even has watermarks visible from the other side of the bill, colored microfibers woven into the substrate of the banknote and an embedded strip, barely visible, that reads USA 100 and glows red under ultraviolet light.

"The secret operation, stumping officials worldwide, could be the 'most sophisticated counterfeiting operation in the world," said former congressman James Kolbe. "We are not certain as to how this is being done or how it's happening," Kolbe said… Meanwhile, banks continue seizing the supernotes, with about $50 million worth found so far."

Satan's temptation counterfeited God's Word. Satan twisted and counterfeited God's Word just enough to make it look real and safe. And then he passed it off to Adam and Eve, who accepted it, who believed the lie. Satan offered the lie that God did not fully love them, that God was not genuinely caring for them - and Adam and Eve believed it.

Humanity has been living the lie ever since. Do you know someone who is living in a lie - something they believe to be true but you know it's not? There are people who have been living a lie since they were little, believing things about themselves or about God that are not true.

There was a woman in our congregation a few years back, who was living the lie that she was not lovable. This poor woman was not loved as a child. And then she married a man who abused her emotionally. He constantly degraded her. He repeatedly told her how stupid and unattractive she was, which was not true.

She was very intelligent, and she was quite pretty. But, she was living the lie. She believed herself to be unlovable and not very bright. Her self-esteem was as low as it could go. When she came to our church, it was because she had just left her husband.

And through God's Word and new friends, she began to believe that she was loved by God, that she was valuable and important to the people around her AND loved by them. She began to lift her head again and started to smile more and more.

But then she made a terrible mistake. She moved out of state. By doing this, she cut herself off from her church, and her friends, and her support. Her former husband began harassing her and abusing her with phone calls and letters. And she began to believe the lie again. Sadly, about a year ago, she bought a gun and killed herself.

Satan's lies always lead to death, just like they did for Adam and Eve. They died spiritually that day in the Garden, and eventually they died physically. Humanity has suffered the same fate ever since.

Satan counterfeits love. He counterfeits happiness. He counterfeits contentment and peace. And he tempts us to find love in our lusts, happiness in our greed, contentment in our selfishness, and peace in our sinful hearts. And it never works.

So how do we know genuine love, genuine happiness, genuine contentment and peace? How do you tell the difference between what's real and what is counterfeit? By looking at what is missing. Banks determine that money is counterfeit by discovering what's missing from the real bills. So it is with the Christian faith.

God makes a promise in verse 15, after Adam and Eve's sin. He promises to provide genuine love, forgiveness, happiness, contentment, and peace through a Savior that will crush the head of Satan. The Christian faith has always been all about Jesus. The whole Old Testament from this moment in Genesis on has always been all about Jesus, Who is coming to fulfill the promise of verse 15.

In His suffering and death and resurrection, Christ is, metaphorically, struck on the heel, because He is not destroyed. In His death and resurrection, our salvation from our fall back in the Garden of Eden is accomplished. Our sins are punished in Christ, and taken away from us. And then, through faith, we are given new lives in Christ. The perfection of the Garden of Eden has been reborn in us.

The return to God's true love, and happiness, and contentment, and peace has always been all about Jesus. It can't be found anywhere else. Jesus says, Himself, in John 14, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

From Adam and Eve's point of view, what happened to them was unexpected. It was a terrible surprise. I'm sure that when they woke up on the morning of the FALL, they were not planning on ruining creation. They did not think they were going to rebel and die. But, I think GOD'S reaction was not expected, either. I'm sure they were wonderfully surprised that God was going to provide a way out.

There are all kinds of things that are going to happen to you this year that are unexpected. Some will be good. Some will not be good. I hope most are good, but we know what living in a sinful world is like, don't we?

There are some hard things headed our way. BUT, God continues to overpower the sin and the effects of sin with His Promises. He continues to flood our lives with His love and His presence.

Standing on the Word and Promises of God, there is nothing in all creation - not even Satan himself - that can defeat us. But we need to understand that God doesn't make all the hurt and sin go away automatically in our lives right now - just like He did not make it all go away with Adam and Eve.

But that's because, within this sinful world we have created, God is going to demonstrate over and over again in our sorrows and struggles the power of our faith in Jesus Christ. He is going to demonstrate in our sin and troubles that Christ's love, and grace, and forgiveness will always be there, and will always overpower the sin and evil of this world. He is going to demonstrate that ultimately and finally - He never lets us down.

Temptations and conflicts come so that we might see that the power of God's Word and Sacraments and His Church will prevail in the face of any attack.

And God allows temptations and conflicts to come into our lives so that we can learn this by our own experiences - and grow more confident and assured that Christ and His Word is more powerful than everything else in our lives - and that we can relax into God's loving hands.

People of God, we are saved! We are more than saved; we have the power of God to conquer sin, death, and Satan, himself! How blessed we are to know this, and live it.

Amen.

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