So this is our second lesson on God's plan for marriage. And today's lesson is going to be entitled, How Man's Fall into Sin Affects Marriage. That's pretty good, some people preach with music. I could get used to that. Last week we considered the creation of mankind and saw that marriage was God's design from the very beginning. Not only did he create marriage, but we discussed that the manner in which God created man and woman, put them together and defined their roles was a pattern to be followed for all subsequent marriages. So his design had something to do with all marriages and not just Adam and Eve. Just as the manner in which God created the world in six days and rested one was to be a pattern for mankind in the cycle of work and rest, so was his deliberate manner for mankind. or in creating a man and woman to serve as a creational ordinance for all marriages to come. Adam, in fact, interpreted this pattern and applied it into the future when he said, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. He didn't miss the significance of the way God created and he understood that the purpose of marriage and the roles within it applied to all marriages. This was all well and good, and marriage would be a harmonious and fulfilling relationship, as this verse implies. God would be glorified, the earth would be subdued, and mankind would worship the Lord in every habitable place on the earth, except for one problem, sin entered into the world. Until we understand the impact of sin upon the marriage relationship and deal with those realities biblically, Marriage will prove to be fraught with disharmony and struggle. So let's turn our attention to the fall of man and discover what this means for the marriage relationship. If you have your Bibles, turn to Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter three. As we read this, we'll focus our attention on the interplay between Adam and Eve as they fall into the first sin. Let's begin reading in verse 1. Genesis 3, 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Here we are introduced for the first time to the serpent. Some have supposed that all the animals could talk in the pre-fall world. We know from subsequent scripture that the serpent here is the devil. Revelation 12.9 labels him who is the great dragon of revelation, that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world. There's no doubt that the serpent here is the devil. It is likely that the serpent being able to speak with Eve was a singular phenomenon and not the norm, just as Balaam's donkey that rebuked him by speaking was a one-off. Donkeys don't go around speaking, and serpents don't go around speaking either. In the case of the serpent, he was able to speak because he was being animated by the devil. So the serpent bypassed the one who was given charge of the garden. and targeted his helper with the first temptation. Perhaps he thought he could affect Adam's fall by getting at him through Eve. This tactic of utilizing the women who are close to a man to influence him is a common device. It has been a common device since Satan used this device. The Philistines got to Samson through Delilah. Adonijah used Solomon's mother to ask him for one of his father's concubines. James and John used their mother to ask Jesus for highest positions of prominence. Herod executed John the Baptist because of his wife's daughter. The serpent, through his subtlety, knew his chances of getting Adam to fall would be greater if the temptation came through his wife, whom he loved. And so the serpent addresses Eve. He may have perceived more vulnerability in her as the weaker vessel, and so he aimed his enticement at her. Now, being crafty, he didn't just come out and contradict God in this first sentence. His question was designed to cause doubt in the mind of Eve. He said, yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Did God really say this? Are you sure God said this? Notice that in the question, he intentionally gets the facts wrong by exaggerating the prohibition to all the trees of the garden. Remember, God had only prohibited one. There's also a hint of scorn in the devil's words. In this question, God's goodness is cast in a doubt. What are you going to eat if God won't allow you to eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden? God has some ulterior motive in withholding the fruit of trees from you. Eve, in her simplicity, enters into dialogue with the devil rather than rebuking him and seeks to set him straight as to the facts of the matter. It's always dangerous to enter into a dialogue with the devil. Look at verses two and three. And the woman said under the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. She corrects him. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. If the devil misrepresented the command by exaggerating the scope of trees that were forbidden, Eve exaggerated the command by adding the prohibition to not even touch it, lest they die. This may have been offense that she put up herself so as to keep far away from eating its fruit. Nevertheless, God's command is being misrepresented. Now that Satan has introduced doubt into Eve's mind, he now flatly contradicts God's word and further impugns God's good character. Verse four, and the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Notice that the serpent moves from the command to its consequence. He concedes that God commanded them not to eat of the fruit of this tree, but he denies that any negative thing will follow. In fact, he claims that if they eat the fruit, they will be as gods. And God knows this, which is why he is keeping them from eating the fruit. Eve is moved from doubt to accept the premise that God is keeping something good from them by forbidding this fruit. So she began by doubting God and now she has moved from doubting to believing that God did not have a good intention. The allurement to be a God is too much for her and the deception is complete. Verse 6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Adam has been conspicuously absent from this situation, which is why some have suggested that he was not close to Eve and didn't enter into this dialogue with the devil until the end of the temptation. I'm not sure if that's true or not. If he was there listening to this dialogue, he failed to act to protect his wife from Satan's lie. Remember, God had commissioned Adam to dress and keep the garden. The word translated keep has the idea of protecting or guarding. Adam had the responsibility to say to the serpent, as Jesus did, get thee hence, Satan. Adam was the ruler of the earth and had legitimate authority to cast Satan out, but this isn't what Adam did. Instead, he succumbed readily to his wife and ate the forbidden fruit at her hand. 1 Timothy 2.14 tells us that Eve ate the fruit under a deception, but not Adam. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. This verse is not saying that Adam wasn't responsible for his sin, but that the nature of their sin was different. Eve defied God by believing the devil's slander about him. Adam was not deceived by the devil, whether he heard him or not. He was allured by his wife and preferred to follow her into sin than to obey God. Already we see an inversion of God's order. Eve took the leadership into sin and Adam, rather than protecting, followed her lead. Observe how united Adam and Eve are in their sin and treason against God. Adam didn't seem to deliberate long and ate the fruit with surprising ease. He seemed content to follow Eve into sin with little internal struggle. How easy it is to allow our wives to replace God as the most important person in our lives. We should take note of this. Perhaps Adam watched as Eve ate the fruit and determined rather quickly that no harm was done. But sin would soon bear its deadly fruit and turn their unity and blessedness as a couple into disharmony and struggle. Let's pick up in verse 7. It says, And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. The first thing we see after Adam and Eve sinned is that they did indeed obtain the knowledge of good and evil, but not in a righteous way of knowing or gaining knowledge. They received the knowledge of good and evil by plunging into evil. They became aware of their exposure to God's displeasure. The nakedness they became aware of was not just their bodies being unclothed but the nakedness of their soul which caused fear and shame. Matthew Henry's comments on this are good. He writes, the eyes of them both were opened. It is not meant of the eyes of the body. These were opened before as appears by this that the sin came in at them. Jonathan's eyes were enlightened by eating forbidden fruit in 1st Samuel 14.27. That is, he was refreshed and revived by it, but theirs were not so. Nor is it meant of any advances made hereby in true knowledge, but the eyes of their consciences were opened and their hearts smote them for what they had done. Now, when it was too late, they saw the folly of eating forbidden fruit. They saw the happiness they had fallen from and the misery they had fallen into. They saw a loving God provoked, His grace and favor forfeited, His likeness and image lost, dominion over the creatures gone. They saw their natures corrupted and depraved and felt a disorder in their own spirits of which they had never before been conscious. They saw a law in their members warring against the law of their minds. and captivating them both to sin and wrath. They saw as Balaam, when his eyes were opened, the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his sword drawn in his hand. And perhaps they saw the serpent that had abused them insulting over them. The text tells us that they saw that they were naked, that is, that they were stripped. deprived of all the honors and joys of their paradise state, and exposed to all the miseries that might justly be expected from an angry God. They were disarmed. Their defense had departed from them, that they were forever shamed before God and angels. They saw themselves disrobed of all their ornaments in an incense of honor, degraded from their dignity and disgraced in the highest degree, laid open to the contempt and reproach of heaven, and earth and their own consciences. Now see here first what a dishonor and disquietment sin is. It makes mischief wherever it is admitted, sets men against themselves, disturbs their peace, and destroys all their comforts. Sooner or later, it will have shame, either the shame of true repentance, which ends in glory, or that shame and everlasting contempt to which the wicked shall rise at the great day. Sin is a reproach, Matthew Henry says, quoting scripture, to any people. I know that was a long quote, but I thought it was worth reading. So the fall into sin occurred. They find themselves naked and ashamed. Adam and Eve went into hiding, and now they were being called to account. Let's pay close attention to the next section because Here is where the struggle begins to manifest between a husband and his wife. Verse 9, And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Now Adam, as the leader, is spoken to first. What has occurred in the garden is his responsibility. Yet Adam doesn't directly take the responsibility, but transfers it to his wife, and by implication to God himself, the woman that you gave to me. She gave me of the tree. So he's shirking his responsibility as the one in authority. Adam is scapegoating here. He doesn't want to bear the responsibility for what he's done. He has abdicated his authority, and with that, his responsibility. But this isn't how God's world works, as we shall see. Adam is the leader with the authority and responsibility, whether or not he accepts that fact. Husbands, this is a temptation when things go wrong in your family. You are the head and are responsible for the family. Don't blame your wife for the state of the family. Sometimes things happen that obviously are outside of your control, obviously. But don't put off onto your wife the burden that you were given to bear. Accept your role as leader and accept the responsibility that goes with it. Even though it was true that Eve gave the fruit to Adam, it wasn't her fault that he ate it. Perhaps if he had taken his role as keeper of the garden more seriously, he would have cast the devil out when he saw him talking to Eve, possibly preventing her deception in the first place. But not to be outdone, Eve continues the blame shifting and puts the responsibility of her sin on the serpent. But in the consideration of time, let's skip down to verse 16 and get to the heart of how sin and its curse has affected the relationship between husbands and wives. Now this is God speaking in verse 16. Under the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. I want to focus on the second part of this verse, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. In our last lesson, we saw that the woman was created in a subordinate role to her husband. But it was a blessed position because without sin, Adam's leadership would have been with wisdom and love, and Eve's submission would have been of like kind. There wouldn't have been a conflict here. So it isn't as if in the unfallen state, there was an egalitarian setup. There was still a hierarchy. There was and always will be a hierarchy in God's order. Nevertheless, sin makes this hierarchical order oppressive. This is the meaning of the phrase, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. This is a parallel statement. The last clause reiterates and explains the first. It determines what is meant by thy desire shall be to thy husband. Albert Barnes says it this way, thy determination of thy will shall be yielded to thy husband. and accordingly he shall rule over thee. Matthew Henry says this, this sentence amounts only to that command, wives be in subjection to your own husbands. But the entrance of sin has made that duty a punishment, which otherwise it would not have been. If man had not sinned, he would always have ruled with wisdom and love. And if the woman had not sinned, she would always have obeyed with humility and meekness. And then the dominion would have been no grievance, but our own sin and folly make our yoke heavy. If Eve had not eaten forbidden fruit herself and tempted her husband to eat it, she would never have complained of her subjection. This curse brought on by sin is the fountainhead of marital problems. We are constantly butting up against the motions of sin and its consequences in the marriage relationship. Selfishness is at the root, and as Albert Barnes says again, under fallen man, woman has been more or less a slave. In fact, under the rule of selfishness, the weaker must serve the stronger. Only a spiritual resurrection will restore her to her true place as the helpmeet for man. The pagan and unchristianized world is a testimony to this fact. The curse has teeth. God issued no empty threat. Sin has wrought great destruction and the woman has suffered greatly in this way. But Barnes hit upon the remedy for this wretched condition in the spiritual regeneration of man and woman. Just as there is a duty for wives to be in subjection to their husbands, there is a duty for husbands to lead in the proper manner. Jesus led the way in teaching us how, us men, us husbands, how to exercise authority and wives, how to be in submission as regenerated people. He was in both of those kinds of relationships. His whole life was a testimony to the fact that submission need not be degrading and authority need not be negative and oppressive. Now, we're going to talk more about this in a future lesson. We don't have time today. But for now, let's listen as he teaches the way in which godly leaders are to behave. Matthew 20, 25 through 28 says this, but Jesus called unto them and said, that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. Now this is in response to James and John asking Jesus if they could sit at his right hand and his left hand. But it shall not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. So James and John here were looking for positions of great authority and greater jurisdiction than they may have had otherwise. They were asking Jesus to be rulers, to be the top dogs right under him. And Jesus then taught them all, because of this, what godly leadership looks like. This principle applies across the board in all authority submission relationships, not just in the relationships among the disciples or relationships in the church. Don't miss what he's teaching here. He is not undermining the roles of authority and submission. He's the one that created those roles. He was at that very moment when He said this, their Lord and Master. Rather, He is defining how those in authority should rule. This is demonstrated clearly when Jesus washed His disciples' feet. John 13, 12 through 15. So after He had washed their feet and had taken His garments and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say, well, for so I am. He's not eliminating his distinction as their Lord and Master. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example. that ye should do as I have done to you. This is what true leadership looks like. And if we apply this to marriage, this is how a husband should treat his wife. This isn't taking away from his authority, this isn't taking away from his role as the head, but he's to lead in this way. not in the way that the kings of the Gentiles rule with violence and force, but with love and understanding and care, taking the responsibility for their well-being upon himself. We are, in fact, it says, to wash our wives with the water of the word, or to cleanse them were to be their servant in that way. We don't have time to get into a lot of application here. I'm trying to build in these first few lessons a theology of marriage and why marriages have trouble. So let's take a moment and recap our lesson, How Man's Fall into Sin Affects Marriage. First we looked at The temptation of Eve by the serpent and how she fell through his deception. And we focused on Adam and how he was enticed into sin by his wife. The devil being crafty knew the vulnerabilities of man and woman and exploited them. Next, we saw the resulting guilt and fear that came upon the first couple because of their sins and they recognized themselves as being naked and ashamed. God then calls them to account and they respond by blame shifting. And isn't this what we often do? God holds each of them responsible for their particular sin and places an appropriate curse on each of them that affects them in very particular ways. We looked at the curse on the woman and focused on the second part as it relates to the marriage relationship directly. The wife's duty of submission became a punishment as her husband would rule over her in his sinful state. Implied in this is that his leadership would be harsh and difficult for her as he would be, as a sinner, self-serving. We know this is true. We know this is the case in the world. It's not easy. In contrast to the sin-cursed world, We briefly looked at the fact that regeneration is needed for the marriage relationship to become what God designed it to be. We can't expect marriages to be harmonious if people are still bound up in their sins. The reason I'm taking some time to go back to Genesis and look at the marriage relationship is that unless we see marriage as God designed it, and then marriage under the fall, we will likely misdiagnose the root of the problems we see in marriage and will be unable to properly remedy them. In the coming lessons, I want to use scripture as our guide as we work through some of the problems that we have in our marriages and the solutions that God has so graciously given to us. Marriage is not a hopeless state. I know that there's many marriages that break down, there's many divorces, there's a lot of trouble, there's a lot of strife, even among Christians. But it doesn't have to be that way. Lord, I pray that you would bless the marriages in this congregation. I pray as we do this study through marriage, Lord, that we would examine ourselves and consider what our responsibilities are, what our roles in the marriage relationship. And you would build us up, Lord. as strong families and strong marriages that we may give glory unto you. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.