Skip to content Sin’s Death Trap Oct 14 · 43 min ...more
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Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.
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0:00 There are great academic discussions today about the causes of evil. You will hear people discuss all the reasons0:11 why evil exists and, of course, how it needs to be addressed. There have been many myths that have been established over history0:23 about where evil came from and why evil exists. Probably 1 of the most well known Greek myths about the origin of evil is Pandora's0:35 box. Zeus, as the myth goes, was offended by 2 brothers, the god Zeus in Greek0:46 mythology, was offended by 2 brothers. And in reaction to how they had offended the gods, he created a woman, the myth says,0:58 a very beautiful beautiful woman. He took clay and made this lovely lady, and 1 of the 2 brothers that had offended Zeus married the lady.1:12 Zeus then created this spectacular box as a wedding present for Pandora, the lady, and her new husband, 1 of the1:24 brothers who had offended him. There was only 1 instruction given to Pandora, you are not to open this box. You can enjoy it, you can look at1:35 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 box1:47 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 don't use it.1:59 But after she couldn't take it anymore, she took the key, she opened the box, thus2:10 Pandora's box, And out of the box, as the myth goes, all manner of evil emerged. Death, disease,2:22 destruction, illness, murder, envy, all manner of evil just erupted out of the box. When all of this evil2:34 came out, she just collapsed and wept because she had opened up a door for evil to enter the world. She closed the box.2:46 Her husband came in and saw her weeping because she had let loose evil in the world. Well, that's a2:58 myth. It's a Greek myth. There is no Zeus. There were no 2 brothers before the first woman. But 13:10 thing is consistent and that is that a human being unleashed something that expanded to the world.3:23 There is a cloud cover that covers the human race. A cloud cover of destruction and we we look at it and we say, how could he3:35 do that, she do that or I do that? Because there's this covering. And God said, as we've studied, in chapter 23:47 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 gonna3:59 die. So the cloud cover that covers the human race can be summed up in 1 word and that is the word death. That's the cloud4:10 cover. 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.4:23 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, the4:35 soul leaves. The soul is separated from the body. So the body can no longer function because the life has been separated, thus death. So4:47 any illegitimate separation equals death. Okay. Remember that now for where we're going. Any illegitimate separation is the definition4:59 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,5:12 there will be a separation that will occur and you will die. Our purpose today is for you to understand the categories of5:23 death. Because I can assure you that most here today, if not all, have died,5:36 are dying, or will soon be dead because of the definition of death. The bible says over and over5:47 again that sin and death go together. The 2 cannot be separated. Ezekiel 18 4, the soul that sinneth shall die. Romans 65:59 23, the wages of sin is death. James 1 15, sin results in death. So the 2 are always put together.6:11 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 bible6:23 defines it, that a separation occurs. Now with that in mind, let's see what happened to Adam and Eve when they sinned against God6:35 and what happens to us when we do likewise. Now I know some are already saying, well, you know, I came here to be lifted6:47 up. I came to church to be lifted up. And that's a good thing that you wanna be lifted up. So verse 76:59 of Genesis chapter 3, they have eaten of the fruit under the tutelage of Satan. Then the eyes of both of them were opened,7:11 and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden7:23 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 day7:35 you eat, you will die. They did, but not physically. They didn't die for hundreds of years physically. What happened that day was they7:46 died spiritually because a separation occurred between them and God. So the first kind of death is spiritual death, where your7:58 relationship with God is broken. It says, when they ate, their eyes were opened.8:10 Oh, wait a minute. They could already see. All the trees of the garden, you may freely eat. They could see the trees. They could see the fruit on the trees that they could eat from. They were not physically blind. What8:20 does he mean on the day they ate? Their eyes would be open. Their conscience would for the first time be exposed to evil. They8:32 would become, let's change the word, aware of something they were never aware of before. And that is the consequence8:44 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's8:56 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 our9:07 lives where we look back and say, I wish I didn't know that. Because now that I know it, it has messed me up. That's why we try to protect our children from9:19 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't9:31 want you to become aware. I do not want you to become a decipher of good and evil. So if you stick with me, your conscience will be protected9:43 from illegitimate exposure. But because they disobey God, they were exposed to something. And now, watch9:54 this, they are hiding from God. It says that when they got exposed to evil, it affected their relationship with God,10:06 and they sold 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 as10:18 modest or immodest because the exposure is now viewed as something inappropriate. And so they are now10:30 exposed and they don't want God to see. They don't want God to see their exposure. And so they do what10:42 we all do when we're exposed, we cover up. It says, they hid behind the trees. Oh, wait a minute now.10:55 Those are good trees. All the trees are good because everything God made was good. They sowed their loincloths with leaves from the trees. So they11:07 not only hide from God, they hide from God in his blessings. They use the goodness of God as their hiding place.11:19 How many folk here this morning are hiding in church? You're in the place that God created, but you hidden. And you got your good looking lawn cloths on.11:34 He's hiding in the place of blessing. So God has to come looking for them because they have run from God.11:45 Spiritual death is where there is an illegitimate separation from fellowship with the living God. And sin produces an illegitimate,11:58 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 are12:10 dead in your trespasses and in your sins. Talking about spiritual death. That this unsaved world walks around12:21 spiritually disconnected from God, and the worst part about it is they don't even know it. You know why? Because they're wearing fig leaves. Fig leaves of religion, fig leaves are trying to be12:33 a nice person. Fig leaves of popularity, fig leaves, they they wanna look like it's okay while they hide. Hide behind using the name God, hide behind being religious.12:45 They hide. They hide. But there's a spiritual disconnect because of disobedience to the revealed will of God. We've all felt the sting of that.12:58 That's why first John 1 talks about our fellowship with God when we sin because the fellowship is broken. He he goes so far and says in first John 1, and if you say you haven't sinned, when I know you've13:10 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 around13:22 disconnected from the true and living God because we're hiding. And so there is this spiritual separation.13:35 Notice their lawn cloths are made of leaves. The leaves are on the trees. So they gotta break the13:47 leaves off the trees in order to make the lawncloths. Because what was supposed to be fine is no longer fine anymore in light of their disobedience.13:59 In other words, they patched together a solution. Let's let's let's do a little patchwork. Because if we can patch it up good enough,14:11 we can be covered. Only problem is an omniscient God knows. So14:23 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.14:35 The weather's nice. The trees are nice. And they hear the rustling of the Lord God in the garden. The14:46 God that they used to walk with, they now run from. They used to hang out with God. They they would be kicking it with the Lord. And all14:58 of a sudden, then then they'll hide because they're exposed. God asked 3 questions. Verse 9, where?15:12 Adam, where you at? Verse 11, who? Who told you you were naked? Verse 13, what?15:24 What is this you have done? Now let me explain something. God doesn't ask questions so he can find out answers he's not aware15:36 of. K? Let's get that straight. He's not asking questions so you can give him data that he does not know. The reason God asked questions is to15:47 promote self examination. He wants to ask you the question so you can answer it for you. He wants to see whether you're gonna tell you the truth. Stay with me15:59 here. Because he already knows the truth, but whether you what is see, because what we what we wanna do is because we can't handle the truth.16:11 What is this you've done? I made a mistake. No. I think it's a little bit deeper than that. We don't wanna answer the question outright for what it is. Sinful16:23 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 know16:34 some of us are raising the question. All this over some fruit? Come on now. Come on now. We gotta go through all this over some fruit. No. No. No. If you if you get stuck on the fruit,16:46 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 God16:58 knows, and you can be your own God. You can be independent from God. You can be autonomous from God. So it wasn't just about fruit. It was about claiming my own deity.17:10 I don't need to do what you say, God. I'm my own God. I have to answer to no God. You're looking at him. So it was a God issue and a deity17:22 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 a believer, we've17:34 died. We're not communicating or we're hidden. We're God and us are not on the same page no matter how how well your fig leaves have been17:46 sewn together. Something else happened. He didn't just die spiritually. He died emotionally, and she died emotionally. Notice what he17:57 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.18:10 He's now living a life of fear. Fear is an emotion. Because I was naked, he's now living a life of shame. He's now18:22 knowing what it feels like to feel guilty for disobeying. So his emotions have been turned inside out, upside down because there has been a18:34 death. Why? Because there has been a separation from well-being. You know how it is when you're feeling well emotionally, and you're happy, and you're excited, and you're18:46 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 you've been stable in your soul. But when something happens, when18:57 you've broken a law or 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.19:11 And so they sell fig leaves. We go to the entertainment to help us to forget this gnawing in our soul that something is awry. We pop19:23 pills, Prozac and Valium and to help me to get over this disruption in my well-being.19:36 We connect with people because maybe they'll help me to to forget. We get on drugs to to give me some kind of ecstasy in the19:47 misery that I'm feeling with sowing fig leaves. Oh, yeah. The emotions have gone awry. We have died in our emotional19:59 well-being. He says, was terrified of you. The God I used to kick it with in the cool of the day, in the in the pleasantness of the atmosphere. I I am an emotional20:11 wreck. So I ran. I ran from God. Emotions went to shambles.20:24 Oh, but that's not the only kind of death. Because remember death is separation. Yeah. They spiritually died, which led to emotional death, and that led to20:35 relational death. He says in verse 16, to the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.20:48 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.21:06 Your desire shall be for your husband and he will rule over you. Are there any men here married to a controlling wife? You21:22 better keep your hand down, I know that. Because you used21:34 your role to entice him into eating the fruit, talk about that in a moment, because you use your position to entice21:46 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 of21:58 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 and22:10 it's here it is. Desire is for you. What sins desire? To control you. So when he uses it up the wife, he's using the same thing. Your desire to22:22 control him is gonna be magnified. So if you are married to a controlling woman, it is the curse at work.22:37 If she wants to be your boss, if she wants 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 wanted22:49 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. He23:01 will rule over you. So now the question is, are there any women married to any domineering men? Any men who who say, well, you you ain't my23:13 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're a cook, a bottle washer, and you you have no say so. You you23:25 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 the23:37 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 it23:48 cold. Likes it hot. And she go to bed early. You go to bed late. Everything turns into World War 3. Why? Because a death has occurred in the relationship.24:01 There's a death because death means separation. So now we wanna separate, now we wanna get a divorce, now we wanna do all that. Why? We can't live together anymore. Why? Because there's a curse.24:14 It didn't start with an argument between the 2 of them. It started with rebellion against God. It just showed up in the argument alone.24:27 That's why when you sow the fig leaves of going on a vacation, you sow the fig leaves of buying an anniversary gift. You sow the fig leaves of24:38 let's talk. You sow the fig leaves. You we've been trying to deal with this thing when all you've you're sowing is fruit, not root.24:52 I'm trying. Notice what he says. I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.25:05 Still talking about relationships. In pain, you will bring forth your children. 1 lady was in labor pain. She was starting25:17 to moan a little bit. Okay. Now the contractions are getting closer together. They're getting closer together. So she's feeling it more. And then then when it just got25:28 unbearable, she screamed out, I hate you, Eve. Every time a woman feels labor25:40 pains, it is the reminder of rebellion against God and the pain it brings. But he says, not only will you have labor in childbirth, but you will25:52 bring them forth in pain. You will have problems in child rearing. And how many of us have had the pain of raising a26:04 child that rebelled starting at 2? Terrible twos. Or living with a teenager who rebels,26:18 or 4 of them. But he talks about the pain of26:29 relationship that this thing was going to manifest itself and spin out into all directions that would be deaths of relationships.26:41 Many of you know that. Many of who know the pain of the rebellion that started spiritually, but it wind up showing up relationally.26:55 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 a27:07 misdefinition of manhood in this, That he will define manhood by the street, no longer by God. Why why27:19 are you gonna do this? Well, look look at what he says. He says to Adam, he says in verse 17, because you listen to the voice of your wife. Oh, wait a minute. I'm supposed I'm not27:30 supposed to listen to my wife. Isn't she my helpmate? Yeah. Till she disagrees with me. The closest person in your life is never to Trump God. Okay. How27:42 much you love him? I know you love her. I know you didn't wanna lose her. But when it come to me, it trumps her. That the closest person to you is not27:54 to overrule me. Now, I know why he got overruled, man got sympathetic. See, come blinking them them eyelashes.28:09 Hey, baby. I I took a little bite of this fruit, and I don't wanna go down by myself. So will you will you help a sister out and join me28:22 in my rebellion? Adam don't wanna lose his wife. He don't want he don't want her to be judged. Yeah. Because you listen to your here's28:33 the basic principle. Adam was responsible. See the definition of a kingdom man is he's responsible. He28:46 didn't say Adam and Eve, where are y'all? He said, Adam, where are you? Because I commanded you. And you were supposed to deal with it. By the way,28:59 Numbers chapter 30 says that a man is responsible for the vows of his wife. Couple of them is getting ready to get married. And so so I was counseling them and for their marriage. And so I said,29:10 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 let me29:22 ask you a question. Are you willing to own them? Oh, no. We we got that straight. When when we get married, she got to pay her own bills. So I looked at her and I said, don't marry him.29:35 Don't marry not now. Because 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.29:49 You supposed to own that thing because you are the 1 responsible. And so he says to him that there will be this clash30:01 relationally, marital conflict. That was not the only kind of death. That would be an economic death. Notice,30:13 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 the30:25 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 till you return to30:37 the ground. There will be physical repercussions economically for you, because death is a separation. Right now, before30:49 you rebelled against me, all this stuff grew for you. You I mean, you you developed it, but I I made it all available for you. The ground was plenteous. You're gonna have plenty of fruit, plenty of vegetables,31:01 and all that. And it's just gonna just naturally happen without you breaking a sweat. Oh, how we would long for the day when you don't have to break a sweat. While31:13 you don't have to make ends meet. He says, because now your rebellion against me has created thorns and thistles. In other words,31:24 your productivity is gonna be interrupted. It's gonna be interrupted by this death growth, thorns and thistles that stick you and irritate31:36 you. You're trying to you're trying to pick berries and you're getting stuck. Because thorns and thistles, with your rebellion against me has affected your ability to provide31:48 livelihood without pain. There is an economic cost to this disobedience, and many of us know it. Many of us are32:00 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 against32:12 God, it shows up over and over and over again. We gotta deal with the thorns and thistles of the people we gotta work with. The thorns and thistles, we have people we gotta work for. We gotta32:24 deal with all these attitudes. They gotta deal with us. I wanna change jobs and find something better so I can be at peace because my career is thorns and32:35 thistles, even though I get a green paycheck. He says, because you didn't listen to me and you let a human being,32:47 even your wife, overrule me, it's gonna affect your career. Oh, but that's not all. I know all of us32:59 tired of dying by now, but stay with me. That's not all. The 1 we know about most,33:11 it would be physical death. He said at the end of verse 19, till you return to the ground because from it you were taken33:23 for you are dust. Until you return to the ground. That means buried. Okay. Stay with me here. Because you are33:34 dust. Okay. I don't want you to miss that. You are going back to the ground because that's what you are. You are dust.33:46 You're dirt. Look at the person next to you. Let's look at them. Both sides, look at them. You know what you just looked33:58 at? Dirt. Dirt. You may be good looking dirt. You34:12 may be rich dirt. You may be sophisticated dirt. You may be well known dirt. You may be poor dirt. But on34:24 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 matter34:36 how much Botox you take, how much cosmetic surgery you get, or how many weaves you have, you are going back to dirt.34:50 See, that's why that's why you can't get too overly impressed with folk. You you can't you can't get too overly impressed with35:02 folk who look like they got it going on, because all they are are dirt. They they they may have achieved something so it don't look dirty, but all they are are dirt. Because35:15 they are going back. We're all going back to the grave. So much for the divinity of man.35:30 He says, you're 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 of35:42 death, eternal death. Eternal death. That's where the soul is separated from35:54 God forever. We call it hell. That's eternal death. That is where for 1000000001 zillion, 1 quad zillion years,36:06 you get to live in your sinfulness forever. Have mercy. Have mercy. Turn with that.36:18 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 which36:30 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.36:42 A separation from God. But eternal death is forever. When36:53 Pandora's husband came in, he saw her keeled over in pain because of the evil she had unleashed by opening the box.37:06 Pandora's husband opened the box, and there was 1 little thing at the bottom of the box. And when he37:18 opened the box, the 1 little thing flitted out of the box, And it had written on it 1 word, hope. All37:31 this evil had come out when she opened the box. But when he came afterwards and opened it, 1 little thing fluttered out called hope. With all this death,37:44 is there any hope? Verse 15, I will put conflict, enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He37:56 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 gonna38:08 crush the head of the serpent. So I wanna close by introducing you to the hope because it's gonna take a long time38:20 to unfold this, so to apply it to all the stuff we've talked about. But to understand history, all of history, from Adam till today and all the deaths that we all are38:32 dealing with, you only have to understand 1 name given to 2 men. Let's close with Romans chapter38:43 5, beginning with verse 15. Romans chapter 5.38:55 Beginning with verse 15. I'm gonna read this whole section and then give you a closing thought. But the free gift is not like the transgression.39:07 For if by the transgression of the 1, the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the 139:19 man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many, the many who had died. The gift is not like that which came through the 1 who sinned, Adam. But39:30 on the 1 hand, the judgment arose from the 1 transgression resulting in condemnation. But on the other hand, the free gift arose from many39:42 transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the 1 death reigned through the 1, much more those who receive the abundance39:53 of grace of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the 1 Jesus Christ. So then as through 1 transgression, there resulted condemnation40:05 to all men, even so 1 act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the 1 man's40:17 disobedience, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the 1, the many will be made righteous. The law came in so that theShow more
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