Sin & Temptation

REFLECTION QUOTES

“…I believe that the whole universe, heaven and earth, air and seas…be full of images of divine things, as full as a language is of words…there is room for persons to be learning more and more of this language and seeing more of that which is declared in it to the end of the world without discovering all.”

-Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), American theologian and pastor

“Man’s grandeur is that he knows himself to be miserable.”

~Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French mathematician and philosopher

“The business of the poet and novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things, and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things.”

~Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), English novelist, poet, and short-story writer

“Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.”

~Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616)
Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

“Christianity is more cosmology than therapy. It tells us things about the world of space and time, of history and power, of beauty and justice, of concrete love and embodied action. Christianity offers an account of human nature and of how human life is to be well-lived. And many of the things it tells us about the shape and nature of creation are directly at odds with accepted wisdom of modern Western culture.”

~Ken Myers, contemporary social commentator

“The thing at bottom is this, that men have low thoughts of God, and high thoughts of themselves; and therefore it is that they look upon God as having so little right, and they so much.”

~Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

“In every part and corner of our life, to lose oneself is to be a gainer; to forget oneself is to be happy.”

~Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), Scottish novelist, poet and essayist

SERMON PASSAGE

Genesis 2:25-3:13 (NASB)

25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Chapter 3

1 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’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 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.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 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.” 6 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. 7 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.

8 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. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13 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.”