Well, I do invite you tonight to turn in the Scriptures to Genesis, if you have a Bible with you, Genesis chapter 3, Genesis chapter 3, and then there are three question answers there we'll be reflecting on tonight as we're working through what we confess and what we believe, continuing our reflections in the Heidelberg Catechism. And so Genesis chapter 3 really does present to us the fall and what happened right at the beginning. And Lord's Day 3 helps to explain exactly what happened to us. And that's why this is such an important section of Scripture here in Genesis 3 to understand. Beginning at verse 1, Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden. But God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, The woman you gave me to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. The Lord God said to the serpent, Because you've done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. To the woman, he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing. In pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you. And to Adam, he said, because you've listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles, it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. And there is the reading of God's Word. And if you open up that bulletin insert there, there's three question answers we'll say together. I'll ask the question, and please respond with the answer. Did God, should be create, create man so wicked and perverse? No. God created man good and in his own image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that he might truly know God, his creator, love him with all his heart, and live with God in eternal happiness for his praise and glory. Then where does this corrupt nature come from? From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve in paradise. This fall has so poisoned our nature that we are all conceived and born in sin. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil? Yes, unless we are born again by the Spirit of God. Well, we can never properly appreciate the good news of the gospel, the good news of God's love to us in Christ, and all that has been done for us until we have some conception, and I just say some, I'll come back to that thought, of how bad the human heart is. And you know that when I say that I'm running up against everything contrary to what the culture and the world tells you as it is a common theme and a common message that your heart is generally good, that you should listen to it, that you should follow it. But we have to have some kind of conception of sin as God sees it, even though we could never handle it if we understood and saw sin as God sees it. It would utterly destroy us. We would be horrified to see things as God does. And this is important because oftentimes I hear people say, well, I just can't even watch the news anymore because it's too depressing. Think about that for a moment. It's too depressing. Why is it so depressing? Because it's one awful story after another of how sin has destroyed and is destroying the human race. And at some point, you put up your arms and you say, I can't handle hearing the reports all the time. Well, this is important that we have a good biblical understanding of what's happened that's created that effect because this is important for us. Any appreciation of the weight of what Jesus came here to do and the beauty of what Jesus did in saving us from our sins will never be appreciated until we have some kind of sense of the sinfulness of sin in our lives, how horrific it is in our lives, how utterly terrible it is in our lives if we can see our hearts at all in the way as God has assessed it. You'll remember in John chapter 2, this was the great problem that Jesus had come, and right from the beginning John has been teaching us this, but remember all these people believed in Jesus when they saw the signs, but Jesus didn't believe in their belief. Why? Because he knew what was in man. Nothing surprised him about the human heart. Nothing caught him off guard. He knew exactly what he was up against. Didn't you see that this morning? And that's what we're looking at tonight, a study and a reflection on what we believe and what we confess. And I have to say up front that at least for me, this has always been the truth of Christianity that for me establishes much of its credibility. In other words, there's many things in the Christian life that we're taught that we don't sort of experience, right? I mean, I wasn't there in AD 30 when Jesus made the atonement and said it's finished. I didn't experience that. I receive these truths by faith, but I'll tell you one thing that I really do experience because my eyes have been opened, and it's how bad the human heart is and what I'm capable of and what I've seen people are capable of. And that, to me, is so helpful to say, because actually that's the assessment of Scripture. If you have some conception of that, and I've said this before, that in our day, most people are starting to agree, yeah, you know, the heart probably isn't that good anymore. Who's running around singing that song anymore? So we have something here that we can work with. God's assessment is so proving of the accuracy of his word about the human heart. naturally we wouldn't make it about ourselves but when we see it and our eyes have been open to see it we say only God could have assessed things this way and just perfectly nailed what is wrong with us well that's what we're looking at tonight uh sin wickedness rebellion all the ways that the scriptures uh capture it for us uh that we would have a good understanding of what this is all about and what our problem is so then we would relish in the solution and then thank God for all that he has done to save us from it. But you run up against different ideas right at the front of this. You'll know that there was a certain man named Pelagius years ago who taught that Adam's fall did not pollute his descendants. So that was one of the views that people were really sinful by imitation and sinful from the environment that they experienced. And so that's been much of the challenge today when we hear the talk about systemic problems in society and systems and systemic sins and systemic issues that really we may agree that these things happen in systems. If you have a bad human heart and things filter into systems, that can be so, but that's not the root of the problem. That's not the root of any problem. The root of the problem is the human heart. And what Pelagius said is that every person just kind of imitates Adam. They're born into this environment permeated by sin. But you know, how does he really take on the sinful nature of Adam? How does that happen? So he taught that each person in life starts with complete innocence and by his own free will, then sins and results in their condemnation by God. Well, we don't believe that. We just don't believe that. We have a far different assessment of what went wrong at the fall and what happened to us and who is to blame for this problem and how bad the problem is. So that's kind of the way we're looking at it tonight is who is to blame for this problem, Where does this problem come from, and how bad really is the problem? That's really the outline there that's given in those question and answers that we read and confessed together. But you'll notice in Lord's Day 3, the question comes out, Did God create people like this? Is this God's fault that we're like this? See, that's a really important question, isn't it? It's a really important question to think about for a little bit, because at some point we're all going to get the nagging challenge of somebody who comes along and says, if God is perfect and God knows all things and God created all things, then how in the world could God have created something faulty like this? Or couldn't God have stopped this? Or couldn't God have prevented all of this from the beginning? And is he not the one that created evil? And ultimately, is he not the one to blame for this mess? if he's God? And those are challenging questions for us to defend our faith, aren't they? Those are questions we need to be acquainted with and familiar with. I remember in college, that was the big hang-up for one of my roommate friends next door when I would talk to him about these things, and that this is right where he would go, and he would ask this very question of the Heidelberg Catechism. And the Heidelberg Catechism knew that this was the struggle of people from the beginning. And we've always understood that some of the greatest errors have come from questioning things that God has not revealed or said to us in his word. That's why we begin with what he said in Genesis chapter 3. And what is the thing that was said before the fall in God's creation of all that he made? The thing that was said was, and it was all very good. it was good. God didn't create it faulty. The Bible maintains the goodness of God's creative work, of his handiwork, the goodness of what he made in the world, and then the goodness of what he made, taking delight in forming creatures in his own image. He had delight in that, and he said, I'm pleased with what I have made. God doesn't make anything faulty. So that's the answer that you'll notice is given here. It's so helpful to begin with and that God in his created work adorned Adam with all kinds of wonderful gifts. You'll notice this here that man was, this is what the canons say, originally created in the image of God and was furnished in his mind with a true knowledge of his creator and things spiritual, in his will and heart with righteousness, in his emotions with purity. Indeed, the whole man was holy. However, rebelling against God at the devil's instigation and by his own free will, he deprived himself of all these outstanding gifts. That's the testimony of Scripture, that when God created Adam, he created him good and in his own image. And those qualities there in that narrow or definition of the image of God, true righteousness and holiness, which by the way, in the new creation is what he is making you back and he's forming you into true righteousness and holiness to look like Jesus. Far beyond. It's just beautiful. It's wonderful. But you notice that Adam had enjoyed in the original garden arrangement a freedom to being able not to sin. None of us have that. We sin. Adam had the ability not to sin. And you'll notice here that this first question is so important. I love the Heidelberg's emphasis when it asks this question, did God create men so wicked and perverse? No, God created them good in his own image and true righteousness and holiness. Listen, listen to the purpose in the original arrangement in the garden. So that he might truly know God. His creator loved him with all his heart. There's the law, by the way. The summary statement of the law is that Adam would love God with all his heart and live with God in eternal happiness for his praise and his glory. Isn't that just a great statement? You know, Eden, when you go back to chapter two, is described as this beautiful sanctuary. It's actually described as a garden. Its place means luxurious. It was a luxurious garden fenced in where Adam had beautiful intimacy with the Lord. He could walk and approach the Lord. He could worship the Lord unhindered. He was there visibly in presence. It was beautiful. He came here into the presence of the Lord, and there was no violation. There was no sin. He had open access right into the holiest holy place, and Genesis chapter 2 describes all the beauty of the original garden scene. Which, by the way, is what's recaptured for us in the new heavens and the new earth that Jesus will give us back, the last Adam. But it was beautiful vegetation and rivers and everything you could ever imagine that was ever wonderful about what you're longing for one day in glory, the beauty of God's wonderful handiwork, delighting absolutely in the Lord and all that he made. This was the way that God had made and the purpose. You'll notice there that he might love him, know him, and live with him in happiness. Which makes what is about to happen so incredibly sad, doesn't it? When the fall happened, remember what happened? The first thing that began to happen was? Adam began to blame Adam and Eve. God comes and says, have you eaten of the tree of the knowledge? Have you eaten from that tree that I've commanded you not to eat of? And Adam says, the woman you made caused me to do this. And he looks at Eve, and Eve says, the serpent you made caused me to do this. You see, what was happening there was a blame shifting to blame God for this. happened right in the garden. This is the big issue that is right there. And it's an important issue in our day. Why do I think we have to be really clear on this first question and answer? Because if we never get by this starting point, we'll never make any progress in helping people with the human heart and why they need Jesus. What does society say about sin today? What does society say about the issue? We blame our problems on our circumstances. We blame our choices on our pressures that we face. We say, this issue in life has made me do this. That's why I'm acting this way. That's why I'm behaving this way. I'll never forget a man who left his wife and his children and went and remarried and abandoned them all. And he said, that's what my dad did. How could I do any different? I mean, this is the challenge that we have today. The system made me do it. Many people don't speak of sin anymore. So when I was in college, the New Reformation was the self-esteem movement. To get rid of thinking this way at all anymore and have self-esteem to be the goal of helping people. People today can get away with the most heinous of crimes and the answer that always comes back is this is a condition that I have. This is how I was born and therefore I'm not accountable for it. They can't help the way that they are. We hear that all the time about this. I was listening to a secular counselor the other day who said in our victimhood culture, even if people have been wronged in our victimhood culture, in all my years of counseling, nobody made any positive steps out of any of their misery until they took ownership for their own failures. And when they finally took ownership of their own failures and their own problems in life, I saw progress. Well, that's interesting on the secular level. You'll notice this first question is so important. Did God do this? And the answer is no. God did not, did not create us this way. It is not his fault. God's creation was good. God's creation was right. He was happy. He gave us the best gifts in creation, you'll notice that, of these gifts that are talked about in the canons. And here, you'll notice here, to live with God in eternal happiness. And in that original covenant arrangement, we'll come back to more of that later. Adam and Eve threw it away. And that's important because anytime we see anyone in the Scriptures making any progress in the faith, you always have statements like this, against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. God, you made it good. I chose this. I chose this. We have to own that. Now the question that comes out, and the next point here is really important. Then how did this all happen? How bad is the problem? And where did it all begin? And that's why I read Genesis chapter 3 tonight. You'll notice here that the answer tonight from the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve in paradise, this fall has done something to us. This fall has absolutely poisoned your nature, the human nature. And from very conception, and think about conception, all that surrounds the talk about conception today in our culture, God's assessment is from conception, we are all evil and born in sin. From conception. So that's where we are in Genesis 3, where the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, that it was desirable to make one wise, and she took of its fruit and ate, and she gave to her husband with her, and he ate also. God had warned that in the day that they ate of it, they would surely die. Satan comes in, and Satan works on the will. Satan works on the heart and presses hard. And you'll notice here that the things that 1 John says, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are all mentioned right in Genesis chapter three. That he went after these things and tempted and seduced Adam and Eve to these things, which then from the heart, in the will, in the desires, birthed this rebellion. As one pastor said, they would make themselves like God in the sense that they would position themselves outside and above the law, and like God, determine and judge for themselves what good and evil was. Satan offered emancipation from God. Our Heidelberg helps us understand tonight how bad the poison of the nature was. As soon as Adam ate, as others have said, he began to experience certain things. As soon as Adam and Eve ate, they began to experience certain things. Guilt, pollution, suffering, death, all of it because of this rebellion called sin. God's creative masterpiece had become guilty and then was desperately trying to cover it all himself. Hasn't that been all of society? Hasn't that been everyone from the beginning trying to cover this misery? So you'll notice here how important in Genesis chapter 3 this is to explain this problem. And this would be God's assessment of the human race over and over and over to help us understand this. The heavenly image was completely destroyed. You'll notice this. Not in the sense that nobody could never do sort of civic righteousness and good things that way, but that this pollution came to all of nature, every part of who we are. I think of God's assessment before the flood event. Remember this? God assessed the human heart this way and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. That's not an assessment that comes and goes at certain times that's better, certain times that's worse. God put a spotlight and dealt with the problem with the flood to teach all of humanity how serious the problem of sin is. In Genesis 8, God would tell Noah that the imagination of man's heart is evil from youth. Jeremiah would tell Israel that the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know it? Isaiah would say our righteousness is as filthy rags. It's graphic language he's using. Jesus would come along and say, you guys have missed it all. What you don't understand about the human heart, it's not what goes in. you Pharisees. You've tried to externalize religion. You've tried to approach God on your own terms, but it's what's coming out of your heart that is the problem. Out of the heart proceeds murder, adultery, fornication, evil thought, sexual morality, theft, false witness, slander. That's what's constantly flowing out of the human heart. What an assessment by Jesus. Sin is not merely learned by imitation. Sin is something that was passed to us from Adam, that sinful nature, right to us from conception. That's why I don't have to tell my kids to be bad. It's really a remarkable thing, you know? I have never come along and had to say, you know, And it's just remarkable, all the things that I've had to deal with with my own kids. I don't want to say too much here right now. But you get the point. They come out fighting. They come out in conflict. Oh, they're cute. They cry a lot. Don't they? This is the problem. The problem is so bad that in Isaiah 58, God tells us that the wicked go estranged from the womb. We've all been taught this age of accountability in society. We've all been taught that until I have this awareness of sin, then there's the problem. Well, then why do infants die? Because the wages of sin is death. in that original sin of Adam, we're all guilty. We all have a polluted nature. We all come out this way. And we learn and practice this our whole lives. If God takes the lid off and lets us go, you could run into the absolute worst things. Unimaginable, we might say today. We could do it. Ted Bundy is a perfect example. Raised in the church. Raised in Christianity. And he'll tell you whether it's true or not, whether he was blaming or not, I don't know. But he'll tell you it was pornography that wrecked him. That's no justification for anything he did. That's the human heart. It's capable of the worst of things and God's restraining hand is always holding this stuff down until like the flood, he says, I'm not restraining it. It's time to judge it. And this is the message that comes from the Scriptures constantly about us, all summarized with the wages of sin is death. That's why we die. That's why we're under the sentence of it. And you see why this is so important tonight. I don't know why the church has moved away from the message of talking about this. Maybe it was because it was easy to pound on sin and never give any answer. We're all good at doing that. But for some way along the line, we got embarrassed of this doctrine. And we lightened the load and lightened the assessment. And then nobody took very seriously the need for a Savior. And that's a big problem. The Bible is not silent on sin. If you want to have a great consideration of it, open up Isaiah 6. And there Isaiah sees just a glimpse of the holiness of God. And by the way, we have no conception of God's holiness like we should. And he sees the angels. And he sees just a train of his robe filling the temple. And what happens to him? As he hears holy, holy, holy, he falls down. And remember what he said? Woe is me. I am coming apart. I'm disintegrating in the presence of God. For I am a man of unclean lips and that's who I dwell with. David said it this way, For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity. You destroy those who seek falsehood. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. We're used to saying that God hates the sin, Not the sinner. But we don't separate his nature from who he is. We are sinners. And apart from Jesus, we're under a just condemnation that we chose. And I think that's why the third question and answer tonight is so helpful as it's giving the assessment. Are we as bad as we possibly could be? Well, no. Sin has polluted every part of who we are. Augustine used to say that the reason we're not running into every sin is because all of us have one sin in our lives that we really devote ourselves to, usually. But we are inclined in a saving sense toward all, think about this, in any sense of doing anything that pleases God, we are inclined toward all evil unless we are born again by the Spirit of God. It's a corrupt nature issue. What we like to say is, what we would like to say is, here's bad stuff, sin, here's Jesus, and here's me in the autonomous middle. And that's not the assessment. Assessment is one line, Jesus, sin, and I'm over here in this category, and it's like handing a child Brussels sprouts or chocolate cake. You're going to take the cake every time, aren't they? That's what's attractive to the sinful nature. unless you are regenerated and given life by the Spirit of God, you remain under that darkness and that cloud. You remain dead in trespasses and sins. You remain under that condemnation. And that's why the gospel is so important tonight, isn't it? Remember the rich young ruler? We looked at the law last time. The rich young ruler comes up to Jesus and two verbs, what must I do to inherit eternal life? what did Jesus do? I'm so glad you came. Sign on the dotted line here, say the prayer, and you're in. No, he threw the law at him, threw the books. I tell you what, if you want to be saved, actually, he didn't even ask for salvation, by the way. He asked for eternal life. In Acts, they asked for salvation, so that's an important distinction. If you want eternal life, here's what you should do. And he throws the second table of the law. Go do this, this, this, this. I've done it. Problem. What's the problem? He doesn't see sin. And then Jesus probes right deeply into that heart. Okay. Well, there's one sin, one thing you should go do. You should go sell everything that you have. And you should give to the poor. And then come and follow me. and at that, the man was greatly confused, because he walks away sad, because he knew he couldn't do that. How could a man who loves his possessions, a man who's deeply covetous, sell everything and follow Jesus? And the point is, he can't. Until there's a knowledge of sin, until there's the knowledge of what Paul said. I did not know what covetousness is until the law says, thou shall not covet. See, that's why we looked at the law last time. How do you come to know your sin and misery? The law of God shows me. Until I have that, I didn't know the sinfulness of sin. I thought I was doing fine. And God uses this tool. As the law comes to us, it opens up the heart and it says it's polluted everywhere. And then we're starting to be ready to have the answer. Well, how am I saved? How do I escape this condemnation? How do I find relief? How do I find forgiveness? And then we're ready for John 6. I am the bread of life who has come down from heaven. I am the one who came to give life to the world. I am the one that came to deal with your sin, everyone who believes in me will not face condemnation. See, these are the basic truths of the Christian faith, but always so important because the culture is constantly trying to rip away from us any understanding of these categories that God gives. But God's assessment is clear. The wages of sin is death, and tomorrow we could enter into that box and go six feet down because of it. And that's why we need Jesus who not only promises to forgive our sins but to get us out of that box. We're going to be, we're going to rise. We're going to rise again and that's what the gospel is all about. So we take baby steps in understanding the first part of the catechism tonight. How do you, what must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort? three things, how great my sin and misery are. It's important because then we're going to see how great our Savior is, and then we're going to really desire to want to thank him with godly living in our lives. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for helping us to understand this tonight and for giving us clarity on this issue and for teaching us about the sinful nature, how bad the problem is, how much we need a Savior. And thank you that you care to assess these things and make them clear to us, for we would never see these things or accept these things on our own apart from the regenerating work of your Spirit. And we're thankful that you care to do that and to show us so great a salvation. In Jesus' name, we pray these things. Amen.