FAMOUS FAILURES - Part 2 - Adam: He Defied the Command of God

Genesis 2-3-6

He was intelligent, gifted and well-adjusted. He bean his career with every advantage imaginable. He did not have a single physical or moral defect that inflict so many of us. He could blame neither his heredity nor his environment if he made unwise decisions. Yet, for all this, the word attached to him is failure.

With all the cards stacked in his favor, he blew an unprecedented opportunity. He could have gone down in history as a hero; but he is remembered primarily for his colossal mistake. Generation of his descendants have felt the repercussions of his sin. He was the original failure.

The man's name is Adam.

Turn in your Bible to Genesis 2 & 3 for his story.

Adam was created perfect by a direct act of God Almighty. He was placed in a beautiful garden and given a beautiful wife. When Eve asked him, "Honey, do you love me?" he could answer, "Who else?" She was the right one because she was the only one. Furthermore, Adam had direct communication with God—one on One. There was never any static on the line. God never had to ask, "Can you hear me now?" Adam lived in a perfect place. But Adam failed. Boy, did he ever fail!

Adam was created to have relationships on three levels.

First, he was made to be in relationship with his Creator. The first being Adam saw when he took his first breath was his Creator. The first conscious thought Adam had was staring intoHe was face to face in his first moment with his Creator. "God breathed into his nostrils the breathe of life, and he became a living soul." Adam would personally know his Creator and be under orders from Him. In this way, Adam would be fulfilling the chief purpose of his existence.

Second, Adam was made to be in relationship with his Companion. Adam's Creator had declared, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him," Genesis 2:18. And what a companion she was! When Adam's was awaken for the sleep of his divine surgery he enthusiastically said, "This is now bone of my one, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man," Genesis 2:23. Adam said, "Wow man! Thank you God!" This was a married literally made in heaven, with maintenance to be done on earth.

Third, Adam was made to be in relation to his Culture—the cosmos. He was given a garden to cultivate and keep, Genesis 2:15. Taking care of this responsibility was one way of showing his appreciation to God and the means of caring for the needs of his companion.

My brother-in-law, Larry Robbins, has just gotten a new job. He is overseeing the ranch of the CEO of Southland Corporation --- the "O Thank Heaven Ranch" in east Texas. Larry understands his job. He is very careful to carry out his orders. He is caring for everything on this ranch, but none of it is his own. If it were his own, he could do as he pleased. But Larry is directly responsible to this family, because the ranch is their ranch. Similarly, Adam was to take care of God's garden, trees, and animals. He was to submit to God's authority over all creation.

Adam was given a job with explicit instructions; he could discuss his work with God; he had a wife that was custom-made for him. But he failed.

What was his failure? Adam defied the command of God.

God has given Adam access to everything, but one --- a single tree in the middle of the Garden.

"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat thereof: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die, " Genesis 2:16-17.

It was a single command. Adam didn't have a long list of things. There was only one thing Adam had to keep in mind.

It was a simple command. This was not a complicated matter. It was simple. God told Adam and Eve, "Leave that one tree alone." This was reminding them that He was the Owner of all things and Adam was not.

The Destroyer. Behind every act of defiance is the enemy of God, the enemy of our souls, the devil. "Now the serpent was more subtle than any best of the field which the Lord God had made." This "serpent" is identified in Revelation 12:9 and 20:2 as Satan. The serpent, which was a manifestation of Satan, appears here before the fall of man.

The Doubt, vs. 1b-4. "And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" The first question mark in human history was spoken by the devil. When anyone asked you if the Bible is God's Word he is echoing the devil's first question. You're not taking God serious, are you? Satan was the first, but not the last, to punctuate the Bible with a question mark instead of an exclamation mark. This was the first question. Sin begins when people doubt and deny and distort the word of God.

The Deception, vs. 5-6a. Actually, Adam was not the first to sin; Eve was the first. But God held Adam accountable. Eve was deceived by the invader who came into the garden in the guise of a serpent with the express purpose of infecting the human race with the virus of sin. He found Eve alone, deceived her, and left her naked and ashamed. And when Adam found her, lost and alone, standing before the tree of knowledge of good and evil, holding the forbidden fruit, he knew what she had done. No one had to tell him. Eve was disturbingly different. Her pure beauty now had a sensual quality. When she held out the fruit to him, there was an allurement to the act. Eve was now both a sinner and a seducer.

Satan deceived Eve about three things. She was deceived about . . .

· God's truthfulness. Don't take God seriously.

· God's firmness. "Ye shall not surely die."

· God's goodness. He's holding out on you. "Ye shall be as gods."

Instead of carrying on a conversation with Satan, Eve should have not spoken a word to the devil and should have run immediately to her husband . . . her spiritual head on the earth. This is not about inferiority. This is about God's established authority.

Eve "gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."

The Defiance. Eve was deceived, but Adam was defiant! Adam was not deceived. The Bible clearly states that in 1 Timothy 2:14. "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." Adam knew what he was doing. He weighed all the factors. He considered all the consequences. Adam loved Eve. His logic said, "No! A thousand times No!" His love said, "Yes, a thousand times Yes!" Even follower her head into sin. Adam followed his heart into sin.

Together they touched, took, and were tainted!

The Death, 2:17, 3:3. The Bible says you reap what you sow. In this situation the crop came up immediately. Romans 5:12 says, "Wherefore as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin…" James 1:15 says, "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

Life was changed to death. God had said, "In the day ye eat thereof ye shall surely die." Did Adam die? Actually, Adam live for more than 900 years.

What kind of death was this?

· Immediately, a spiritual death...separation from God.

· Progressively, a physical death...deterioration of body.

· Ultimately, an eternal death...condemnation of God.

Let me give you this illustration. In December of every year people decorate their homes with Christmas trees. When does the Christmas tree die? When it was cut off from the source of life. When you buy a Christmas tree you are buying something that is absolutely dead. You can decorate it and its looks better in many ways than it did in the woods. That's how it is with people. Many people decorate themselves, making themselves look pretty good, but they are really dead because they are cut off from the source of life, Jesus Christ.

Did God provide a remedy for the original failure? Long before Adam and Eve were created, God planned to turn our failure into success. God provided a remedy that would not fail—if it was seriously applied.

What did God use to reclaim this failure? God used a SYMBOL --- a Bible type that would foreshadow our Savior.

Genesis 3: 21. God "made coats of skins to clothe them." This is the first fur coat in history. How do you get a coat from an animal? An innocent animal had to be slain to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve. The innocent gave up his life for the guilty. It is a picture, a symbol of the cross. Jesus is "the lamb slain from the foundation of the world," Revelation 13:8. Jesus is "the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," John 1:29. And the coats were a picture of the righteousness of Jesus Christ which covers those whom God saves. This is the third covering for Adam and Eve in this chapter.

· Before sin they were covered in their innocence "with glory."

· In sin they were covered with "aprons of fig leaves." "Fig leaves" represent man's own failing efforts to cover himself.

· After sin they were covered with "coats of skins." "Coats of skins" represent God's successful work in covering men through the shedding of blood.

What we lost by the failure of the first Adam we have now regained by the last Adam.