The below sermon takes a verse by verse look at Genesis 3. These free inductive notes are intended as supplement to your own study, not a replacement. Feel free to copy, print, or share them. These notes can be helpful for individual study of the Word or for small group Bible studies. We hope your understanding of God’s Word is deeper from them.
Verse by Verse Bible Study of Genesis 3:1-24
Text: Genesis 3:1-24
Brief background before the fall
Gen 1:31
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day.
God created the universe and all that is in it in six days. When He had completed it, He looked over it and pronounced it all, including man and woman, very good. At this point Adam and Eve were innocent. Though they were sinless, God had made them with the capacity to make moral decisions and choose between right and wrong.
Even from the very beginning, God has always required the complete devotion of His people. He put Adam and Eve’s devotion to Him to the test to see if they would obey Him.
Gen 2:9
9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground — trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Open with Prayer
The Temptation
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’?”
Rv 12:9
9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
·       Crafty – ill-natured and shrewd
·       One of Satan’s favorite tactics is to cast doubt on the Word of God, i.e. to undermine one’s faith in Him. He is the liar and the father of lies and he is continually trying to cast doubt on God’s Word and undermine it.
Heb 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
We cannot please God when we do not believe Him, but when we don’t believe God, Satan is very pleased.
God wants us to trust Him.
2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
·       She recognized God as the authority and acknowledged that God permitted them to eat.
·       But she engaged in conversation with the enemy opening herself up to attack.
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.'”
·       God put the tree there to test their obedience.
·       Adam had taught her about the commandment
Gen 2:16-17
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
·       She adds the prohibition not to touch it. Perhaps this was a further instruction from Adam for a safeguard for Eve.
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!
·       He blatantly calls God a liar while reassuring her of its safety
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.”
·       He is suggesting that God wants to withhold something desirable and good from them or maybe that Eve has misunderstood God’s previous instruction.
·       Satan’s lies are always empty promises
John 8:44b
He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The Downward Spiral of Sin
The Fall – 1. Saw  2. Gazed  3. Coveted  4. Took
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.
·       It seems very probable that Adam was not present when Eve was tempted, but arrived immediately after she ate the fruit.
·       Notice that as soon as Eve gave in to the temptation and sinned, she became a temptress and tempted Adam like Satan had tempted her.
·       Adam and Eve weren’t totally committed to obeying the Lord and this left them open to Satan’s attack.
·       Because they didn’t completely trust the Lord, they ended up disobeying His direct command.
1.    See
Matt 6:22-23
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
                                           Â
2.    Gaze/Listen                     Â
Some people may say that there is no harm in looking. It’s OK as long as you stop there!
Job 31:1
1 “I made a covenant with my eyes
not to look lustfully at a girl.
3.    Covet/Lust                       Â
a.     Matt 5:27-28
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’Â Â 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
b.     BTW, it’s OK to want some things really badly, so long as it is something God wants you to have.
Psalms 119:40
How I long for your precepts!
Preserve my life in your righteousness.
4.    Take                                  Â
This might not necessarily mean to physically take it, but simply to take it in your heart. This could take the form of buying the item, entering into a wrong relationship, or in some other way wrongfully acquiring something God doesn’t want us to have.
5. Guilty & Ashamed, 6. Hid (from sight)
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.
      1 Ti 2:14
14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. She was tricked into it, but Adam knew what he was doing.
5.    Guilt/Shame                     (not a bad thing!)
Psychiatrists will try to blame our sin on someone else in our life – a parent, a sibling, a spouse, a teacher, a coworker, etc. They do this to try to remove the guilt that we feel because of our sin. But, the truth is feeling guilty is not a bad thing. It is constructive and good. We feel guilty because we actually are guilty!
6.    Hide                                  Â
· With the fig leaves, they immediately tried to hide their sin and we do the same thing.
· We go where nobody knows us.
· We lie about our behavior.
· We hide incriminating evidence.
· We seek out privacy or darkness.
· But eventually we are found out. To be found out is also a good thing. It’s better for us to reveal our sin ourselves than for someone to discover it, but someone discovering it is better than it being kept a secret!
6. Hid (from God)
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.
·       It was futile for them to try to hide from God who is omnipresent.
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