Forbidden, Fallen, and Futile Fruit

Get your motor runnin’…head out on the highway.
Lookin’ for adventure…and what ever comes our way.
Yeah Darlin’ go make it happen…take the world in a love embrace.
Fire all of your guns at once and…explode into space!
Like a true nature’s child…we were born, born to be wild.
We can climb so high…I never wanna die.
Born to be wild…Born to be wild.

These lyrics to a popular song of the sixties and seventies are still rolling around in my head. Amazing what I used to allow in there! The song is called Born to Be Wild and the band was named Steppenwolf. The band took its name from a German novel of the same title about a man who struggled with his nature as a human being. The author had in mind the motif of the lone wolf who lived among the steppes, hence the name, Der Steppenwolf. The main character is portrayed in a crisis of identity where he was torn between his humanity, trying to understand his higher spiritual potential on the one hand, and his animalistic aggression and sense of homelessness on the other. Sounds like the human condition to me.
Seeing news images and hearing news reports on a daily basis remind me of a recurring question: What is wrong with humanity? Why do we think what we think, say what we say, and do what we do? Why is it that human beings often feel alone, even among their families and in the midst of a crowd? Why do we despair and barely exist in the hopelessness of our humanity? At times, humans are incredibly kind and merciful and yet can be arrogantly prideful in their accomplishments, savagely independent, disavowing the need for anything or anyone outside of themselves. When we observe human behavior, we learn that that humans can engage in unselfish acts of sacrifice one minute and be inhumanly cruel in the next, doing things animals will not naturally do. Humanity seems to be bearing the wrong fruit by their very nature. Born to be wild, so to speak. But the first humans were not born at all. And they were not wild, but lived under authority. They were made in the image and likeness of God.
Human creatures were created to worship. Last week we learned that human beings had a great need for the Person of God and His revelation. Their purpose to live in their perfectly created world in perfect companionship with their Perfect Creator was given to them through the word of God. God’s revelation was given to the creatures He uniquely created to receive it. They could not live forever in harmony with Him, with one another, and in this world without His counsel. They not only needed the Breath of Life…they needed the Word of God. Genesis 1 and 2 teaches us today that in order to become Fruit-Bearing Disciples in a Kingdom Culture we must gain a fresh understanding of who God is and learn to interpret life in the context of this truth: God is sovereign, He is good, and He is wise. Because of this truth, only He, and He alone, is worthy of worship. When we rightly worship Him we learn that we fulfill the purpose for which humans were created. To fill the earth with worshippers of the Living God is to bear good fruit. Real wisdom is the good fruit of true worship.
Let us hear once again the Word of the Lord from Genesis 3:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’”?
The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
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.
Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you will go, And dust you will eat all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.”
To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children; yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about 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 will eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.
The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”-- therefore 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 the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:1-24)

Life and death was the reality that was set before the man in Genesis 2. What could Adam have known about the horrors of death? After all, nothing had ever died in the world he occupied. But he did know God. And the LORD God had provided everything the man needed in order to live. Food for his body and His revelation for his soul. All Adam needed to know came from the fact that God spoke to him. Everything depended upon man’s obedience to God’s wise counsel. The man needed no other knowledge than what God revealed. He must trust that God knows best and some things belong in the realm that belongs to God and God alone.
God outlined one prohibition that required faith in the Word of God. He must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Life was found in the goodness of good. To be fruitful was to learn to live as God intended, to learn to be good. Being good results from trusting and believing the word of a good God. In the day that this trust was not enough for Adam, in the day that he would seek knowledge outside of these limitations, this is the day that death would begin its process, the day that he would begin to bear bad fruit instead of good fruit. Death would come, not in the eating of the fruit, but in the disobedience of the Word of God. It is in this day of disobedience that the process begins the bearing of wrong fruit…doing the word of another rather than doing the Word of God. For in listening and bringing the will of another into the reality man begins to worship the wrong god. Only God bears good fruit.
Genesis 3 introduces the voice of another counselor. It is instructive to see that this creature has the capacity to communicate with the man. And the human creature is able to receive this communication and respond to it. The human being, the meaning maker is put to the test. Would the woman rightly interpret what she was hearing in light of what God had said? The key for humanity’s ability to bear good fruit is found in this event. The test is a contest of the human will in opposition to the will of God. Would the woman interpret her meaning and purpose to serve God from God’s revelation or would she do the will of another?
Forbidden fruit is found in the fruition of a human’s disobedient intention. In Genesis 3:1-7 lies the answer to the question What is wrong with humanity?. A right understanding of what happened here is crucial to understanding the nature of humanity and the nature of God. We cannot begin here and try to comprehend God. We must begin with the majesty and goodness of the Creator and understand from there. The span of time that humanity enjoyed perfect communion with the LORD God is unknown to us. But it didn’t take long for us to see how long it took to lose that privilege. Immediately they were aware of a new reality. Genesis 2:25 states that the man and his wife were naked and unashamed. And Genesis 3:7 finds them frantically trying to cover their condition as the eyes of both of them were opened. They had seen more than they ever needed to see. God comes to them conducting a “fruit inspection”.

I. FOUR QUESTIONS FROM GOD DEFINED HUMANITY’S CONDITION.

The first question is Where are you? The LORD God is not unaware of Adam’s location. He is not lacking in knowledge about his condition. The LORD knows exactly where he is. The question here is not only a question about physical location but also one of philosophical orientation. Adam is lost. God knows it. And man knows it. The question of Where are you? may be asked of us by someone in authority such as Where are you in the process of completing that latest job order? In other words, where are you in the process? Have you done what was asked of you? God is asking Adam, Where are you in the process of bearing fruit, in the process of worship? For God was inspecting the fruit-bearing process…and He was not pleased with its fruit.
The man and his wife had hidden themselves from the Creator among the creation. Here is the lost condition of humanity. To fear and flee the Presence of the LORD God among the created order and the things of this world systems. If we can get lost in the constant noise and commotion of creation disorder, then perhaps we do not have to think about God and where we are in relation to Him.
The second question is Who told you that you were naked? In Genesis 2:25, the man and his wife were both naked and unashamed. Now they were hiding in fear and covering their shameful condition. There is a world of difference between being naked and unashamed and being naked, and having no shame. The human condition has degenerated in our day to a condition of where those who display evil are doing it with delight. Wickedness is on display and celebrated. The question God is asking the man can be paraphrased to Who have you listened to about your condition? Implied here is the awareness that no one else truly knows the condition of man. Only God knows the truth of the human condition.
The third question is Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? God certainly knew what Adam had done. The question was one that Adam needed to answer. One clear meaning seems to be Will you take responsibility for your sin? Humanity was deliberately disobedient. Adam heard and heeded a voice other than God. There was no one else standing before God but him. And he needed to own the sin. Adam knew exactly what God had said. Their was no misunderstanding. God had given him instruction before sin could interfere in the reception. His answer is characteristically human. He assigns the blame. Deflects the question. Here is Adam’s problem that had resulted from his condition. Adam had listened to the voice of another. The voice of his wife had more influence in his life than the voice of God. He responded to her counsel and surrendered his will to his own emotion…his desire to please his wife. Remember when the woman was presented to Adam and he had a Wow moment. He had begun to think of her counsel as having more value than the word of God. He had begun to worship her. Emotion is a powerful influence and motivator of human behavior…to disobey God…before, during and after the fall.
The fourth question is What is this you have done? This question is directed to the woman. Her response is also characteristically human. She doesn’t directly answer the question.
The woman answers the question of what with a why. She says she was deceived. And she was right. The woman heard and heeded a voice other than God. Some commentators say that the serpent was not the dreadful snake in its original presentation to Eve. The word for serpent can also be translated shining one. What Eve was listening to was something that she would be attracted toward…pleasing to the eye. She was attracted to the fruit in the same way. She could not see clearly because she was hearing a distorted view of not only the LORD God’s command, but her condition. The bearer of bad fruit is a planter of bad seed…he had planted the “seed” of doubt in the mind. And the seed came to fruition. Humanity was intellectually deceived. What she knew about what God said guided her and the man for everything they would need to live. Rejecting the wisdom of God, she believed the wrong counsel. Believing the wrong counsel would deliver her to death.
Real wisdom is the good fruit of true worship. The woman had believed that there was some hidden wisdom that God was withholding from her. She and the man had believed that she could have the goodness of the garden without the goodness of God. This is the condition that humanity is born into. The fear of God, or worship of God, is the beginning of wisdom and the fool has said in his heart there is no God.

II. ONE TIMELESS TRUTH CONTINUES TO DEFINE MAN’S DILEMMA.

When a human being believes the wrong counsel, they will bear the wrong fruit.
Humans bear the fruit of fallen humanity. It is our natural condition. And we continue along this path always influenced by the voices of many counselors. Let’s ask ourselves the question: Who told us about our condition? Is it the person who influenced our early lives by telling us we would never amount to anything or that we could have anything we wanted because we were so special? Is it our own mind and emotion that speaks to us and conditions us to respond to life according to what we think we know? Is it the latest trend in society or the Hollywood façade that shaping our culture.
Who’s telling us about life? How much does the humanist know about humanity if there is no voice of God informing the discussion? Are we better off in our generation where many are seeking counsel from secular psychology about the human condition? I once spoke to a lady who had a rebellious daughter and had sought counseling for the problem. The problem was that the counselor did not see the problem. She instructed the mother to sit quietly while the child openly expressed herself and all of her pent up emotions to her mother. So for more than a half hour, the teenager screamed obscenities and spewed her hatred for her mother while her mother was instructed to silently endure that. After all, in the counselor’s view, the mother was responsible for the rebellion. I asked the lady, who professed to be a Christian, how does this counsel lined up with the word of God. What do the cultural voices apart from being a part of the Kingdom Culture know about authority ordained by the word of God? What do these cultural voices know of eternity? John MacArthur’s got it right when he says that the word psychology literally means knowledge of the soul. What do psychologists know about the soul? What do they really know about humanity? Or God, the Maker and Lover of our souls?
What information are we processing to make meaning out of life? When we surrender our will to act upon good, but godless, desires, we must ask ourselves is anything truly good for us without the informative counsel of the word of God, who is truly good? No one is good except God alone. The words Jesus tells the rich young ruler in Luke 18 is useful today. He was responding to the man calling Him Good Teacher. In effect, Jesus is saying you can only call Me good when you call Me God. When the man went away grieved it was symbolic of people who reject the counsel of the Word of God. They live out the result of gaining the wisdom of God, benefiting from the goodness of God, without obedience to His counsel and surrender to His word. In our day we are counseled to trust our heart, listen to it and follow it. I would commend to you that if Adam couldn’t trust his heart before the fall, we can guarantee that we cannot trust our hearts after the fall. Today we have many who are worshipping a higher power or the god of their own understanding and do not know Jesus as God. They have not the counsel of God without heeding the Word of Jesus…the Word of God. Though they worship, they worship wrongly. And bear much, much worthless fruit.

III. ONE TIMELY ACT OF GOD DECLARES GOD’S FINAL ANSWER TO MAN’S FUTILITY TO BEAR GOOD FRUIT.

Only God knows the truth of the human condition. Fig leaves cannot conceal the heart condition. This foolish attempt to hide the human condition from God and each other demonstrates the futility of false worship. Doing the will of another other than God is sin. And sin must be covered to have access to God.

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

God provides a merciful sacrifice for mankind. The garments of skin to cover their shame would come at great cost. The life of something innocent tells us of God’s great provision for the problem. God is willing for something to die so these creatures can live. The sacrifice is God’s merciful solution to man’s shameful reality. Death would be their domain. That was the word of God. They begin to realize the awful implications of the fruit of sin. Death is coming. And it will touch everything that had been given to them by God. They could have immediately died…but God had mercy on them.
God gives us a promise based on His provision.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.

God promises the Victorious Man. God promises Himself.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.

Man is no match for the serpent’s craftiness. But God Himself is the source of true wisdom…it is not a fair contest. God is not a beast of the field. He is the LORD God Almighty…Sovereign, Good and Wise. His wisdom is superior to the serpent’s craftiness.

We come today to our So What moment. What does this message mean? Why do we, looking backwards in time to this ancient story, fail to learn the lessons that the first humans learned? Why do we live the same way, fruitlessly worshipping as many idols as we can conceive? What is wrong with humanity? Some thoughts to think:

Interpreting, or making meaning out of life is never morally neutral…it always has an agenda. We make choices based on our interpretations. The choice is a choice of who or what we will worship. The problem is sin…a worship disorder…we bear bad fruit.
Humanity’s children are not born children of God but children of Fallen Humanity. Genesis 4 introduces us to the children of Adam and Eve…children of the fall. Both come before the LORD in a worship experience. God accepts Abel’s offering of worship. But for Cain and his offering, it had no value to God. Why? Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the ground…and Genesis 3 tells us that …Cursed is the ground because of you…Cain brought a worship offering to God that was of the curse…the curse of sin. He brought God an offering of a heart that had the wrong motivation. He would not listen to the word of the LORD and after murdering his brother, wandered aimlessly in this world, worshipping uselessly, bearing bad fruit…Without hearing God’s counsel, we are destined to bear the fruit of Cain. We are born with a will under bondage. We serve sin…worship worthlessly…and bear futile fruit. We will choose to worship meaningfully or uselessly. Consider the most meaningful worship experience in all of humanity’s experience. The ultimate worship experience, the one that God is most pleased about is on the Cross of Christ.
On the cross is where God offered the final sacrifice…Someone innocent died so the guilty could live. He was naked and wore our shame…so our sin…our shame… would be covered forever. The Victorious Man, the Last Adam, has come. God has provided for Himself the Sacrifice.

God wants to cover you today…set you free to worship Him rightly.
God sets us free from the influence of all other voices to hear His word.
God sets us free to surrender our will to His will
God has told you today that you are naked…you are the sinner. That is the problem.
Christ is the solution...Worship Him...bear good fruit.