Satan deceived Adam and Eve in the garden, and he is still hard at work trying to trap us in sin today. The good news is that God has made a way for us to find victory over Satan, sin and death itself.

there are great academic discussions

today about the causes of evil you will

hear people discuss all the reasons why

evil exists and of course how it needs

to be addressed there have been many

myths that have been established over

history about where evil came from and

why evil exists probably one of the most

well known Greek myths about the origin

of evil is Pandora’s Box Zeus as the

myth goes was offended by two brothers

the god Zeus in Greek mythology was

offended by two brothers and in reaction

to how they had offended the gods he

created a woman the myth says a very

beautiful beautiful woman he took clay

and made this lovely lady and one of the

two brothers that had offended Zeus

married the lady

Zeus then created this spectacular box

as a wedding present for Pandora the

lady and her new husband one of the

brothers who had offended him there was

only one instruction given to Pandora

you are not to open this box you can

enjoy it you can look at it you can

admire it but under no circumstances do

you take this key and open the box well

as the myth goes Pandora is passing this

box every day and she is dying to know

what’s in it it’s interesting that Zeus

gave her a box and gave her a key and

told her no you sir

but after she couldn’t take it anymore

she took the key she opened the box

thus Pandora’s box and out of the box as

the myth goes all manner of evil emerged

death disease destruction illness murder

in the all manner of evil just erupted

out of the box and when all of this evil

came out she just collapsed and wept

because she had opened up a door for

evil to enter the world she closed the

box her husband came in and saw her

weeping because she had let loose evil

in the world well that’s a myth it’s a

Greek myth there is no Zeus they were no

two brothers before the first woman but

one thing is consistent and that is that

a human being unleashed something that

expanded to the world there is a cloud

cover that covers the human race a cloud

cover of destruction we we look at it

and we say how could he do that she do

that or I do that because there’s this

covering and God said as we’ve studied

in chapter 2 verse 17 every tree of the

garden you may freely eat but the tree

in the midst of the garden do not eat it

or you’re going to die you’re gonna die

so the cloud cover that covers the human

race can be summed up in one word and

that is the word death

that’s the cloud cover

it it no matter what you try to do with

it it just covers stuff it just keeps

coming up and he says you shall surely

die but as we’ve already explained the

word death in the Bible means separation

so forget the word death for a moment

and just think of the word separation

when a physical body dies the soul

leaves the soul is separated from the

body so the body can no longer function

because the life has been separated thus

death so any illegitimate separation

equals death okay remember that now for

where’re we going any illegitimate

separation is the definition biblically

of death death does not mean something

ends it means something has separated so

God says on the day you eat of this

fruit there will be a separation that

will occur and you will die our purpose

today is for you to understand the

categories of death because I can assure

you that most here today if not all have

died are dying or will soon be dead

because of the definition of death the

Bible says over and over again that sin

and death go together

the two cannot be separated ezekiel 18:4

the soul that sinneth shall die Romans

6:23 the wages of sin is death

James 1:15 sin results in death so the

two are always put together you cannot

sin and not die every time there is a

sin at that moment

there is a death but we’re defining

death as the Bible defines it that a

separation occurs now with that in mind

let’s see what happened to Adam and Eve

when they sinned against God and what

happens to us when we do likewise now I

know some men already saying well you

know I came here to be lifted up I came

to church to be lifted up verse 7 of

Genesis chapter 3 they have eaten of the

fruit under the tutelage of Satan then

the eyes of both of them were opened and

they knew that they were naked

they sold fig leaves together and made

themselves loin coverings they heard the

voice 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

in the garden he said on the day you eat

you will die they did but not physically

they didn’t die for hundreds of years

physically what happened that day was

they died spiritually because a

separation occurred between them and God

so the first kind of death is spiritual

death where your relationship with God

is broken it says when they ate their

eyes were opened the way meant they

could already see all the trees of the

garden you may freely eat they could see

the tree they could see the fruit on the

tree that they could eat from they were

not physically blind what does he mean

on the day they ate their eyes would be

open their conscience would for the

first time be exposed to evil they would

become let’s change the word Oh

well of something they were never aware

of before and that is the consequence of

evil they had not known evil till this

point they had only known good because

everything God made was good but once

they obeyed the conscience which is

God’s regulatory system of the soul

became aware of something it was never

supposed to become aware of and I bet

you all of us have had experiences in

our lives where we look back and say I

wish I didn’t know that cuz man and I

know it it has messed me up that’s why

we just we try to protect our children

from seeing certain things or being

exposed to certain things so that they

don’t become aware of the evil for as

long as we can God says I don’t want you

to eat because I don’t want you to

become aware I do not want you to become

a Decipherer

of good and evil so if you stick with me

your conscience will be protected from

illegitimate exposure but because they

disobey God they were exposed to

something and now watch this

they are hiding from God it says that

when they got exposed to evil it

affected their relationship with God and

they sewed fig leaves around themselves

to cover themselves because what was

supposed to be natural now became

immodest that’s why when you wear

clothes people describe you as modest or

immodest because the exposure is now

viewed as something inappropriate and so

they are now exposed and they don’t want

God to see they don’t want God to see

their exposure and so they do what we

all do when we’re exposed weak

it says they hid behind the trees or

women now those are good trees all the

trees are good because everything God

made was good they sold their loin cloth

wood leaves from the trees so they not

only had from God they hide from God in

his blessings they use the goodness of

God as their hiding place how many folk

here this morning a hiding in church

you’re in the place that God created but

you hidden and you got your good looking

lawn claws on he’s hiding in the place

of blessing so God has to come looking

for them because they have run from God

spiritual death is where there is an

illegitimate separation from fellowship

with the Living God and sin produces an

illegitimate something God does not want

separation from God and the Bible says

this separation has affected and

infected the whole human race Ephesians

chapter 2 you are dead in your

trespasses and in your sins tell my

spiritual death that the unsaved world

walks around spiritually disconnected

from God and the worst part about it is

they don’t even know it you know why

because they wearing fig leaves fig

leaves of religion fig leaves are trying

to be a nice person fig leaves a

popularity fig leaves that they want to

look like it’s okay while they hide hide

behind using the name God hide behind

being religious say huh they had but but

there’s a spiritual disconnect because

of disobedience to the revealed will of

God we’ve all felt the sting of that

that’s why first John one talks about

our fellowship with God when we sin

because the fellowship is broken he goes

so far and says in first John 1 and if

you say you haven’t sinned when I know

you’ve sinned just let me tell you you

and I are not on the same page so

unfortunately even many of God’s

children are walking around disconnected

from the true and living God because

we’re hiding and so there is this

spiritual separation notice there long

cloths are made of leaves the leaves on

the trees so they got to break the

leaves off the trees in order to make

the lawn cloth because what was supposed

to be fine is no longer fine anymore in

light of their disobedience in other

words think they patched together a

solution let’s let’s let’s do a little

patchwork because if we can patch it up

good enough we can be covered only

problem is an admission God knows so god

they heard the sound of the Lord God

verse 9 walking in the garden so that’s

probably Jesus Christ the second member

of the Trinity walking in the garden in

the cool of the day they’ll get it the

weather’s nice trees are nice and they

hear the rustling of the Lord God in the

garden the God that they used to walk

with they now run from they used to hang

out with God they would be kicking it

with the Lord

and all of a sudden and then they’re

hiding because exposed God asks three

questions verse 9 where Adam where yeah

verse 11 who who told you you were naked

verse 13 what what is this you have done

let me explain something

God doesn’t ask questions so he can find

our answers he’s not aware of okay

that’s good that’s true

he’s not asking questions so you can

give him data that he does not know the

reason God asked questions is to promote

self-examination he wants to ask you the

question so you can answer it for you he

wants to see whether you gonna tell you

the truth I say with me here cuz he

already knows the truth but whether you

ordered see coz what we what we want to

do is because we can’t handle the truth

what is this you’ve done I made a

mistake

no I think it’s a little bit deeper than

man we don’t want to answer the question

outright for what it is sinful rebellion

against the holy God against his

commandment and his instruction and so

there was a spiritual death what is this

you have done I know some of us are

raising the question when all this over

some fruit come on man come on man we

got to go through all this over some

fruit no no if you if you get stuck on

the fruit you’ve missed it Satan said to

her in verse 5 of chapter 3 if you eat

the fruit you can be like God and you

can know what God knows and you can be

your own God you can be independent from

God you can be autonomous from God so it

went just about fruit it was about

claiming

my own diggity I don’t need to do what

you say god I’m my own God

I’ll have to answer to no God you’re

looking at him so it was a god issue and

a deity issue and a defining issue no

longer a dependent issue and so there

was spiritual death and whenever we have

broken fellowship with God due to sin

even if we’re believer we’ve died we’re

not communicating or were hidden we’re

we’re not a good God and us are not on

the same page no matter how how well

your fig leaves have been sewn together

something else happened he didn’t just

die spiritually he died emotionally and

she died emotionally notice what he says

verse 10 I heard the sound of you in the

garden and I was afraid because I was

naked so I hid myself wait a minute he’s

now living a life of fear fears and

emotion because I was naked he’s now

living a life of shame

he’s now knowing what it feels like to

feel guilty for disobeying so his

emotions have been turned inside out

upside down because there has been a

death why because there has been a

separation from well-being you know it

is when you’re feeling well emotionally

and you’re happy and you’re excited and

you’re no longer nervous and things are

calm and you are in control of your

emotions and they’re not taking you

every which way but loose because

because you’ve been stable in your soul

but when something happens when you’ve

broken a law of the law you know how it

is to feel guilt and shame and to be

terrified of what could happen they’re

now living like this and so

so fig leaves some of us go to fig leaf

counselors paying fig leaf money to get

fig leaf relief we we go to

entertainment to help us to forget this

knowing in our soul that something is

awry we pop pills Prozac and volumen to

help me to get over this disruption in

my well-being we connect with people

because maybe they’ll help me too to

forget we get on drugs to give me some

kind of ecstasy in the misery that I’m

feeling with sewing fig leaves because

the emotions have gone awry we have died

in our emotional well-being he says I

was terrified of you the god I used to

kick it with in the cool of the day and

in the pleasantness of the atmosphere I

am I am an emotional wreck

so I ran I ran from God emotions went to

shambles oh but that’s not the only kind

of death because remember death of

separation

yeah they spiritually died which led to

emotional death and that led to

relational death he says in verse 16 to

the woman he said I will greatly

multiply your pain and childbirth in

pain you will bring forth children I’ll

talk about that in a moment yet your

desire will be for your husband and he

will rule over you

your desire shall be for your husband

and he will rule over you are there any

men here married to a control and wife

you better keep your hand down I know

that because you used your role to

entice him into eating the fruit how

about at the moment because you use your

position to entice him I am going to

amplify your desire to be the head of

this house how do I know that’s what he

means by desire because of chapter 4

verse 7 he says to Cain if you will do

well will not your countenance be lifted

up and if you do not do well sin is

crouching at the door and it’s here this

desire is for you what sins desire to

control him so when he uses it of the

wife he’s using the same thing your

desire to control him is going to be

magnified so if you are married to a

controlling woman it is the curse at

work

if she wants to be your boss and she

wants to to you to submit to her if she

wants to and she may have come from a

controlling a matriarchal household but

he says because you wanted to take the

role and take his role illegitimately

well we’re gonna let you see where that

gets you and I’ll tell you where it will

get you he will rule over you so now the

question is are there any women married

to any domineering many men who are

verbally abusive or emotionally abusive

or physically abusive who who say well

you ain’t my mama and you ain’t telling

me what to do I don’t have to listen to

your advice I’m the King here I’m in

charge here and as far as you’re

concerned you’ll cook a bottle-washer

and you you have no say-so you you being

a helpmate is totally rejected because

he reacts to your domineering and you

react to his rule and what you have as a

curse

is the battle of the sexes in the home

so you wind up fighting for everything

ham and eggs and you wind up you wind up

fighting for everything he likes it cold

: she likes it hot in and and she go to

be an early you go to bed late

everything turns into World War 3 why

because a death has occurred in the

relationship there’s a death because

definitely separation so now we want to

separate now I want to get a divorce now

undo all that why we can’t live together

anymore why because there’s a curse it

didn’t start with an argument between

the two of them it started what

rebellion against God he just showed up

and the argument at all that’s why when

you saw the fig leaves of going on a

vacation and you saw the fig leaves of

buying an anniversary gift you saw the

fig leaves

well let’s talk you saw the fig leaves

we try not we tryna they trying to deal

with this thing when all you you saw in

his fruit not root he says notice what

he says I will greatly multiply your

pain in childbirth still tell my

relationships in pain you will bring

forth your children one lady was in

labor pain she was starting to moan a

little bit mmm-hmm

okay now the contractions are getting

closer together they’re getting closer

together so she’s feeling it more mmm

and then when I just got unbearable she

screamed out I hate you even every time

a woman feels labor pains

it is the reminder of rebellion against

God and the painted bricks but he says

not only will you have labor in

childbirth but you will bring them forth

in pain you will have problems in child

rearing how many of us have had the pain

of raising a child that rebelled

starting at two

terrible twos living with the teenager

who rebelled but he talks about the pain

a relationship that this thing was going

to manifest itself and spin out into all

directions that would be deaths of

relationships many of you know that many

who know the pain of the rebellion that

started spiritually but it wind up

showing up relationally Adam he says he

will rule over you he will he will

become this domineering person because

of the sin and so there will be a Mis

definition of manhood eNOS that he will

define manhood by the street no longer

by God

why why are you gonna do this why are

you gonna do this well look at what he

says he says to Adam he says in verse 17

because you listen to the voice of your

wife

ooh I’m supposed

I’m not supposed to listen to my wife

isn’t she might help me yes she

disagrees with me the closest person in

your life is never to Trump God okay how

much you love them I know you love her I

know you didn’t want to lose her but

when it come to me it Trump’s her that’s

the closest person to you is not to

overrule me now I know why I’m nobody

got over wound man got sympathetic see

she cook she come she come blinking them

eyelashes I took a little bite of this

fruit I don’t want to go down by myself

so will you help a sister out join me

because you listen to your mom so here’s

the basic principle Adam was responsible

see the definition of a kingdom man is

he’s responsible he didn’t say Adam and

Eve where y’all you said Adam where are

you cuz I commanded you and you was

supposed to deal with it by the way man

numbers chapter 30 says that a man is

responsible for the vowels of his wife

so I had this with a couple of us get

married get married and so so I was

counseling them and for their marriage

so I said okay what are some of the

challenges he said well she’s made all

this debt you know she’s made all this

debt so she’s got all these bills that’s

that’s gonna be a challenge so I said

well let me ask you a question are you

willing to own them oh no we got that

straight when when we get married she

got to pay our own bills so I looked at

her and I said don’t marry him

don’t marry not now cuz he don’t get it

when he marries you he takes that as his

responsibility you can help with it but

he gotta own it make a man won’t stay

single right there make it me I won’t

stay single cuz you you suppose own that

thing cuz you are the one responsible so

he says to him that there will be this

clash relationally marital conflict that

was not the only kind of death that

would be an economic death

notice because you’ve listened to the

voice of your wife and have eaten from

the tree verse 17 which I commanded you

saying you shall not eat from it cursed

is the ground because of you

in toil you will eat of it all the days

of your life

both thorns and thistles it shall grow

for you and you shall eat the plants of

the field but by the sweat of your face

you will eat bread tell the you return

to the ground there will be physical

repercussions economically for you

because death is a separation right now

before you rebelled against me all this

stuff grew for you you developed it but

but but I made it all available for you

the ground was plenteous you gonna have

plenty of fruit and plenty of vegetables

and all that and it’s just naturally

happen without you breaking a sweat o

for the day when you don’t have to break

a sweat well you don’t have to make ends

meet he says because now your rebellion

against me has created thorns and

thistles in other words your

productivity is going to be interrupted

it’s going to be interrupted by this

death growth thorns and thistles that

stick to you and irritate you you’re

trying to you’re trying to pick berries

and you getting stuck because thorns and

thistles with your rebellion against me

has affected your ability to provide

livelihood without pain there is an

economic cost to this no disobedience

and many of us know it many of us are so

in debt with the thorns and thistles of

disobedience that we’ll have to die

before we could pay it off with

insurance because we’ve rebelled against

God it shows up over and over and over

again we got to deal with the thorns and

thistles of the people we got to work

the thorns and thistles we have people

got to work for we got to deal with all

these attitudes they got to deal with us

I want to change jobs and find something

better

so I can be at peace because my career

is thorns and thistles even though I get

a green paycheck he says because you

didn’t listen to me

and you let a human being even your wife

overrule me it’s gonna affect your

career but that’s not all I know all of

us tired of dying by now but stay with

me that’s not all the one we know about

most it would be physical death he said

at the end of verse 19 tell you return

to the ground because from it you were

taken for you are dust until you return

to the ground that means buried okay

stay with me here because you are dust

okay I don’t want you miss that you are

going back to the ground cuz that’s what

you are you are dust you’re dirt okay

look at the person next to you let’s

look at both sides look

you know what you just look at dirt yeah

okay you may be good-looking dirt

you may be rich dirt you may be

sophisticated dirt you may be well-known

dirt you may be poor dirt but on your

best day you are dirt and the proof you

are dirt is that you are going to get

dirty at the point of your demise

because you will go back to the ground

and no matter how much Botox you take

how much cosmetic surgery you get or how

many weeds you have you are going back

to Garrett

[Applause]

see that’s why that’s why you can’t get

too overly impressed with folk you can’t

get too overly impressed with folks who

look like they got it old you got it

going on cuz all they are they are dirt

they say they may have achieved

something so so don’t look dirty but all

they are are dirt because they are going

back we’re all going back to the grave

so much for the divinity of man he says

you going to go back to dust because

when you want to be independent from me

there are repercussions and then there’s

the worst kind of death eternal death

eternal death that’s where the soul is

separated from God forever we call it

hell that’s eternal death that is where

for 1 billion one zillion 1 quadrillion

years you get to live in your sinfulness

that’s why he had to put Adam and Eve

out of the garden God says therefore

verse 23 the Lord God sent him out from

the Garden of Eden to cultivate the

ground from which he was taken so he

drove the man out and at the east of the

Garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim

and flaming swords which turned every

direction to guard the way to the Tree

of Life a separation from God but

eternal death is forever

when pandora’s husband came in he saw

her keeled over in pain because of the

evo she had unleashed by opening the box

Pandora’s husband opened the box and

there was one little thing at the bottom

of the box and when he opened the box

the one little thing flitted out of the

box and it had written on it one word

hope

all this evil had come out when she

opened the box but when he came

afterwards and open it one little thing

fluttered out called what all this death

is there any hope verse 15 I will put

conflict enmity between you and the

woman and between your seed and her seed

he shall bruise your head and you shall

bruise his heel this woman is gonna have

a baby and when this baby comes along

he’s gonna crush the head of the serpent

so I want to close by introducing you to

the hope because it’s gonna take a long

time unfold so be good to apply it to

all the stuff we’ve talked about but to

understand history all of history from

Adam to today and all the deaths that we

all are dealing with you only have to

understand one name given to two men

Romans chapter 5 beginning with verse 15

I’m gonna read them read this whole

section and then give you a closing

thought but the free gift is not like

the transgression for if by the

transgression of the one the many died

mature did the grace of God and the gift

by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ

abound to the many the middie who had

died

the gift is not like that which came

through the one who sinned but on the

one hand the judgment arose from the one

transgression resulting in condemnation

but on the other hand the free gift

arose from many transgressions resulting

in justification for if by the

aggression of the one death reigned

through the one much more those who

receive the abundance of grace of the

gift of righteousness will reign in life

through the one Jesus Christ so then as

through one transgression there resulted

condemnation to all men even so one act

of righteousness there resulted

justification of life to all men for as

through the one man’s disobedience the

many were made sinners even so through

the obedience of the one the many will

be made righteous the law came in so

that the transgressions would increase

but where sin increased grace abounded

all the much more so that as sin reigned

in death even so grace would reign

through righteousness to the eternal

life through Jesus Christ our Lord so

let me give you a word of hope through

the one Adam the infection of sin and

death was transferred to all men for all

time everywhere but first Corinthians 15

says Jesus is the last Adam so if you

want to get it all you need a two names

your attachment to the first Adam bring

sin and death but your attachment to the

last Adam allows you watch this he said

to reign in life what does it mean to

reign in life it means to no longer be

controlled by the graveyard of your

existence no longer to allow sin to be

your boss and Satan to be your God but

once Jesus takes over control the Bible

says he said I’ve come to give you life

and to give it to you more abundantly

so Jesus Christ wants to give you the

life back

that Satan has ripped off from you in

your spiritual relationship your

emotional relationships your economic

relationships your personal

relationships your physical

relationships he wants to wipe that

thing so clean that once you’re a right

relationship to him you don’t even get

to die because he says you immediately

go to be with the Lord so he is

reversing that thing I love the phrase

he doesn’t just want you to live he

wants you to reign in life he wants you

to tell your emotions what to do tell

your circumstances what to do tell the

evil one what to do and when you get

hooked up right with him death no longer

controls you