Take your Bibles and turn with
me to the book of Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter three is the
account of man's fall man's total ruin in the Garden of Eden. And
when I say total ruin, that's exactly what happened, total
ruin. And sadly, this is where false
Christianity and false preachers go wrong. The majority of people
do not believe that the ruin was total as the scripture says
it is. but it was total. And as I began to prepare this
message, this book, this book, I looked
it up, this book is comprised of 1,189 chapters. 1,189 chapters,
and it took just three simple chapters for man to totally ruin
himself and his posterity. And I thought,
my oh my, what's that say? So let's look at this. I wanna
look at this passage because in this passage is also the gospel
preached. And if it wasn't there, then
we would really be in bad shape. But here the fall, the ruin is
declared and the gospel is preached to us. So let's take this this
morning, just look at some verses, starting with verse one. It says, 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? Notice in this passage, in this
verse, Satan's device. He never makes a direct He didn't
come to even say, well, why don't you eat of that tree in the midst
of the garden? Oh no, uh-uh. No, she might have
suspected that something was going on, but so he just kind
of generates a conversation. Didn't God say you could eat
of every tree in the garden? That's essentially what he said
to her. And he got her to talk. That's what he was wanting to
do. And the scripture says he often appears as an angel of
light, so she didn't think really anything of it. And look what
she says in verse two. And the woman said unto the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, 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. And here was Eve's first mistake. She took up the conversation.
She started to talk to him. What's the scripture tell us?
Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. You remember the Lord
when he went up into the wilderness to be tempted. Says he was there
40 days and he come back down and he was hungry. And Satan
came to him and said, Why don't you make these stones bread?
Well, there's nothing wrong with that. He could have made them
bread. There was no sin in him making them bread. He fed the
5,000 with a few fishes and loaves. But he was not going to be tempted
of Satan. So what did he say? He quoted
scripture. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And
Satan attempted in that instance to tempted him two more times,
and both times he again answered with the quoting of Scripture. We would do well to do the same.
We have weaknesses in us. Now, remember this, Eve was innocent. We are not. We're sinners. And when Satan comes to tempt
us, He's probably studied us. He knows our weaknesses. There
was no weakness in Eve. He had to ply something out of
her. He was going to, he subtly, the Bible talks about the wiles
of the devil. That means trickery. He tricked
her. He don't have to trick us. He
just needs to ply his trade to our weakness. And we all have
weaknesses. And he'll search those weaknesses
out if If he's gonna tempt you, he'll find your weakness, and
that's where he'll attack you. And so it would be good for all
of us, including myself and you, that we study ourselves our weakness
and be on the guard for that weakness. There's nothing wrong
with that introspection in yourself, looking for where your trials
and troubles are, what you are weak in, because that's where
Satan is going to attack us. So like I said, we do well to
do the same to study our own weaknesses. And in verse four,
and the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die.
There's where he presents the big lie. He questioned God. And she's still listening. That's
the sad part. She's still carrying on a conversation. For brevity, in this passage,
we don't see all that was said, and the Holy Spirit doesn't reveal
to us all that was said, and we'll see here in a minute what
I'm talking about. But for brevity, he tells us
essentially what it took for Satan to deceive Eve. In verse
five it says, 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 word, it's a little
G. The sad part about this verse
is Satan spoke the truth. He spoke the truth, every man. from Adam on down, thinks he's
his own little G, God. I'll make up my own mind about
what's right and wrong. That's born in all of us. That's
born in all of us. Every man doeth right, the scripture
says, in his own eyes. He doeth right in his own eyes.
I'm right. I am my own God. And we know that's true. That
old nature in us, you just, the old saying goes, just push the
right button and watch that old nature come out of you. It will
come out. It will. It will. That old nature
is there, it's not changed. It's never gonna change until
death. And we all have these ideas of we're God. We're little gods. You shall
be as gods. He didn't say you'll be like
God himself. You'll be as a little G God,
knowing good and evil. Don't tell me what's wrong. What
may be wrong for you is not wrong for me, I've heard people say.
I can make up my own mind about what's right and wrong. Don't
tell me what I can do and what I can't do. Genesis 3, 6, 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. Satan's deception was accomplished. But here's a question, when I
read this, I said, how did she know, how did she know that it
was good for food? As I said earlier, there had
to be some additional conversation there in persuading her of eating
of this fruit. She didn't know, he told her,
you know, you'll be as God's, knowing good and evil. She saw She saw that the tree was good
for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and we know that,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise. Well, how would she
know that? Well, there was, as I said, there was some additional
conversation going on there that the Holy Spirit didn't see the
necessity of telling us that. Now, Satan has engaged not only
her ears, what he's talking about, but her eyes, her taste, her
intellect, and so forth. And all her affections and senses
were aroused to sin. And that's where sin comes in
to us, who are naturally born to it. The sin, Paul says, that
so easily besets us. We see it through the eyes, we
see things in this world that are pleasant to the eyes, We
hear things, we taste things. Gluttony, for instance, the Bible
says is a sin. Well, what's that? That's from
the tasting. Here's the issue, and here's
the issue with all of us. Instant gratification was at
hand. Death, and that promise of death
was not. What are you gonna take? I'll just take that. She didn't
see that death, but boy, she saw that fruit, and she saw the
goodness of it. Instant gratification, and we're
all like that. We want it now, we want it now.
Well, that's not too bad of a sin. That's not really a sin. Well,
it may not be bad, but it's like the Lord when making the stones
bread. When Satan tempted him, he said,
you make these stones, make these stones bread. That was instant
gratification, but the Lord wasn't gonna do that, because that's
giving in to Satan. We give in to Satan when we do
that. The wiles of the devil. Beware,
brothers and sisters, beware. And I speak to myself about that.
I condemn myself. Be on your guard, be on your
guard. Verse seven 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. Here,
conscience entered. All of a sudden, conscience told
them that they were naked. And it told them more of that,
as we shall see. And so in doing that, they've
put themselves in bondage. to evil and we are in bondage.
Even now, even for believers, as I said earlier in Hebrews,
the sin that so easily besets us. We're in bondage to this
sin and we always will be. Why there's a struggle with that
new nature that God's given against that old nature. That bondage
grieves the believer. It really does. It grieves the
believer, and it's a constant battle. It's a constant battle
with that conscience. And that conscience comes and
tells us, well, you've done wrong, and Lord, have mercy on us, help
us to repent. That's what the believer says.
Verse eight says, 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. There's that conscience. They knew they had done wrong.
Adam knew he had done wrong. He hid himself. That's the natural
response of every person born in this world, to hide themselves
from God. Romans 1 says, by nature, We
do not want to think about God, and that's true. There's an enmity,
and the carnal mind, the scripture says, is enmity against God. For he is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. So what happened in the garden
was far, far, far worse than even we, the believer, can see. We don't see this thing called
sin and rebellion for what it is. Why? Because it's so close
to us. It's part of us. It's within
us. And that's sad, that's sad. I
think every day, I look back at my life, my and
Sandy's life together. The Lord has been good to me. He's been good, and he's been
good to all of you. I see a group of people here this morning that look well. God has enabled
us to gather together. God's goodness, scripture says,
leads us to repentance. And we look at the goodness of
God, we know the goodness of God. The world doesn't see that,
but there is a goodness in God that ought to cause us to repent,
repent constantly, repent every hour of the day. Lord, forgive
me for what I am. But this old nature, this old
nature doesn't do that. It doesn't do that. It doesn't
want to do that. That's the worst part. There are times that, And
this is most of the time for me that I just feel cold. I just feel like the Lord has
left me. I'm just cold and I think, oh
my soul, what a sinner. What a terrible sinner I must
be that I don't realize just how cold I am. Lord, forgive me because he's
good. He is good. And this, You think
about this story here. God prepared this
earth for those two people. He put everything here that they
needed, supplied everything they needed. He only gave them one
law, one law, don't eat of that tree in the midst of the garden. And being innocent, they did,
and now naturally, were naturally prone to break God's law. So they hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord. That's a sad, sad, sad, sad state
of affairs for men. All men do that. Want nothing
to do. We're not having this man to
rule over us. We want nothing to do with him. In verse nine,
And the Lord God called unto Adam and said, where art thou?
Adam was hiding and here comes God, the Father, the Holy God,
in mercy calling. This is what he does to every
sinner, but especially to his saints, he calls them. Where
are you? Where are you, Neil? Where are
you, Gary? Where are you Fred, Charlie?
God comes looking for us. We're hiding. We want nothing
to do with him. We're in hiding. He's looking
for us. Oh, what a blessed, what a blessed thing it is to
think that this good God didn't just destroy Adam and Eve just
to start with. Why didn't he just destroy them
and start over? But instead he shows them mercy.
He didn't do that for Satan. Although Satan raised himself
up, I will be like the most high, he said. I'll exalt my throne
in the heavens. And God prepared a hell for him. No hope for the devil and his
angels. And why would he do it to men?
Why? Why? Why? Why didn't he just
start over? That is pure grace. Verse 10. And he said, I heard thy voice
in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid
myself. Here sin brings shame in the
conscience. I was listening to a message
on YouTube by Spurgeon, and I've heard people say the conscience
is God's watchdog, and it's always, I don't know where the word would
be right, but it's always, you can always count on it, more
or less, to tell you when sin happens. Spurgeon says he doesn't
believe that. He says he believes The conscience itself, like the
scripture says, can be seared with a hot iron to where it's
weakened. And it becomes hardened. And
I think he's right on that. The conscience convicts us, but
it doesn't convict us fully. It might convict us for a while,
but then tomorrow it's all forgotten. We've forgotten about the sin.
but sin does bring shame to the, especially to the believer. You
know, and I know when we sin. You and I know when we do wrong.
David knew in his great sin that he'd done wrong. Here's a man
after God's own heart. You think about that. He was
after God's own heart and he willfully took another man's
wife and had that man murdered. You think, you think that's a,
my, that's a great sin. Well, that's where we're all
at. We're all guilty of that. And so what was delightful, what
was delightful to Adam and Eve? Game of curse. How many times? There was a, there's an example
in the, In the Bible, David had two children, but different mothers,
had a daughter and he had a son. And the son fell in love with David's daughter. Like I said,
they were from different mothers, and he wanted her. And he went towards, Scripture
says he forced himself on her, but before that she said, wait
a minute, wait a minute. She says, you go tell, go ask
David if it's okay, he'll give me to you as a wife. But he didn't
listen, so he took her and ravaged her. And then after he had done
that, after all the love he had for her, the scripture says he
hated her. He hated her. That's what sin
does. It's good on the front side,
but coming out of it, it reminds us that, oh no, why did I do
that? Why, why, why? Conscience says
this is not right. Verse 11. The Lord says, and
he said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of
the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldst not
eat? God knew he had sinned. He knew
where it come from, he wanted Adam to confess. Here we was
telling Adam, you confess, don't lie to me, don't lie to me. You have to excuse me, my mouth
gets dry in the morning every morning, I have to wet my lips.
In verse 12, And the man said, the woman whom
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did
eat. And look what he does. First
off, he blames Eve. Eve did that. And look how, this
is something here, look how he phrased it. The woman. He didn't
say my wife. That woman. He was divorced himself from
his wife. That woman, the woman you gave me. Then he blames God. He blames his wife first, then
he blames God. But he says, the woman, the woman
you gave me, how disrespectful. Willing to sell out somebody
to cover your sin, even your very wife. James 1.13 says, let no man say
when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Now this, I want you to look
back at this verse 12 here. Notice this, it says, the woman
whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I
did eat. 19 words in that phrase. 19 words in that phrase. But when you look at it, 15 words
of that 19 he uses to blame others. And he only takes four for himself. And I did eat four. He took responsibility after
he blamed everybody. Blamed everybody else before,
and I did eat. I'm not really that much of false
what he was saying. And as I said earlier, how prone
we are to blame others. circumstances and so forth. I
was watching that trial on TV for that fellow that killed all
those people in that school in Parkland, Florida. Killed 17
people. Should have received a death
penalty, but they didn't. They gave him life in prison. And the defense, from what I
understand, from what I saw, They made every excuse in a book
for his bringing up, as though that somehow that negates what
he did, that justifies what he did. But I'll just point that
out. We're prone in what we do to
blame others when it comes to sin. And we see that all the
time, especially in criminals. You see that there's all kind
of reasons they've done it. In Genesis 3.13, verse 13, and
the Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent
beguiled me, that is, he led me astray, that's what beguiled
means, and I did eat. And so Eve, like her husband,
confesses only after blaming another. And when God says, what is it
thou hast done? She didn't know. And she probably
didn't fully realize what she had done. She probably didn't
realize the full effect of it until her first son killed his
younger brother. Imagine that. What is this thing
that happened in the Garden of Eden? Sin was full blown then,
we got the real picture then, when the firstborn son of Adam
and Eve killed his younger brother. What is this sin? Verse 14. And the Lord God said
unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed
above all cattle, and above every beast of the field, and upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust thou eat all the days of
thy life. And so we have there the full
effect of what happened in the garden, and it's been passed
down to each one of us. I have in me original sin. Now a lot of people, and I'm
talking about false Christianity, they don't believe in original
sin. You cannot believe in original
sin and believe in free will. Free will is I have the ability.
Well, then you don't believe that you've fallen in Adam, but
we know that we have. and it is called original sin. And then in verse 15, we come
to the blessed gospel. Here's the gospel in its fullness,
preached, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and
thou shalt bruise his heel. That enmity, and we wonder why
people are afraid of serpents, snakes, of all the creatures
that we see, you'll find probably more people afraid of snakes
than any other creature. Why is that? Well, it has to
do with something right here. I don't understand it. I wouldn't
stand here and try to explain it, but there's something there
that comes to us naturally through our DNA. But here, here in this
verse, is the graciousness and love of God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ. Instead of destroying these two
people, he immediately declares the gospel to them. And I want
you to notice, look how matter of fact that statement is. This was no surprise to God,
this sin, no. Not whatsoever. This was foreordained
before the world ever began. God in his sovereignty. God brought this about. Did he
cause this sin? No. He's sovereign and man's
responsible. Well, Neil, I don't understand
that. Well, guess what? I don't understand it either.
I heard Spurgeon say in a sermon, he said this thing of God's sovereignty
and man's responsibility is two parallel lines. And they're growing
closer and closer all the time up through our life. But we'll
never see them come together until eternity. And that's true. They're two
separate things. We can't join them. No point
in trying to join them. No trying to work it out in your
mind. You just let it go. I just gotta let it go. That's
what God says. They sinned, not the Lord. Yet
he was sovereign in all this. Because this statement in 15
is a sovereign statement. Ordained before the foundation
of the world. I want you to notice in that
passage, it says, It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his heel. Why does it not say, he shall
bruise thy head, and he, and it shall bruise his heel, since
his, we know it's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'll
talk about that in a minute, but what's this, it shall bruise
thy head? Well, that is the preaching of
the gospel. The gospel itself turned the
world upside down. I watched a documentary one night by some
Christian organization, and they were talking about all the things
that happened to the world itself upon the death and life of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and there was a great turnaround. That
gospel went up into Eastern Europe, it went all through Europe, Italy,
Spain, England. It lessened the gospel in spreading,
lessened the power of Satan in the world itself. Didn't completely
eliminate it, he still has power, but it bruised his head, it says,
that's what the scripture says. And when it says, thou shalt
bruise his heel, it's speaking there of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. He was bruised, and Isaiah 53
says, for our iniquities. He was bruised for our iniquities. Bruised his heel, that is his
walk. He suffered in this life. He was despised and afflicted
by men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. He was tempted in the wilderness. In Gethsemane, he sweated great
drops of blood. And on that blessed cross, where
he nailed the sins of his people, on that cross and took them upon
himself, he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? What agony! The bruising of the
heel is kind of a mild statement,
I would say, but nonetheless, that's what he says. He suffered. He suffered from the time he
was born till the time he died. And on that cross, he hung alone. No man, even his disciples, forsook
him. He tread the winepress of God's
wrath alone. Imagine him doing that for you
and I. What goodness that God would
take upon himself flesh to save sinful men. Oh, what graciousness
and what mercy. Now, in 1 Corinthians, the scripture
refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as the last Adam. There was the
first Adam, in the last Adam, no second Adam. Because if we
say he's the second Adam, then that leaves a possibility for
a third Adam, no, no, no. He was the last Adam. The first Adam brought sin, the
last Adam made restitution. Psalm 69, four says this. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. Who would do that? Who would
do that except for God himself, none other? What grace that God
would come down and take upon flesh to such sinners as we are. Is that not mercy? That's mercy.
Not so with Satan and his devils. They're assigned to hell. There
is no mercy for them. Hebrews 2.6 says this. But one in a certain place testified,
saying, what is man that thou art mindful of him? or the son
of man that thou visitest him. Thou hast created him a little
lower than the angels and crowned him with honor and glory. I've often studied this verse
and given a lot of thought to it. It says, but one in a certain
place. He doesn't say in Isaiah or Jeremiah,
Or David said this, but he says, but one in a certain place testified. Now that word testified, I looked
it up, and it means protest earnestly. But one in a certain place protested
earnestly, saying, what is man that you're mindful of him? Who
would say that? Who would protest earnestly?
none other than Satan himself. Satan tried to elevate his throne
into heaven and became very jealous of man, that God had bestowed
such mercy and grace upon man. And he doesn't understand, what's
man? He says, what's man that you're so mindful of? You've
created him lower than me. I'm an angel. But he did. And we have to say,
why did he do it? Because it pleased him to do
so, that he would come down and save sinful men. And that's hard for Satan. He
doesn't understand that. I mean, he sinned too, just like
we did. We're no different. When it comes
to sin, we're cut from the same piece of cloth that he is. No different. Outside of Christ,
every man is nothing more than a small Satan. Same thoughts,
no different. First John 3.1 says this, behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bespowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. Isn't that something? Think
about that. Sons of God, scripture says we
are called, we are joint heirs with Christ. Oh, what glory is
in store for the believer. It starts here on this earth
right now. But then, when we see him, oh my, we have no idea. I hath not seen nor e'er heard
the things that God hath prepared for them that love him. Bless
God, thankful, thankful that he would take upon himself flesh, take upon himself sin, and be
our substitute. And it's all done, all done,
for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. This life is not about you and
I. Let's get that through our understanding right now. I am
not the important one. False religion says we are. Gods that are beckon and call
out here, that's what they teach. But no, no, no, no, uh-uh. It's
all for Christ's sake. We were made, we were created
for the honor and glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
It is Jesus Christ that sits on the throne. It is Jesus Christ,
our Lord, that's gonna judge this world. He is to receive
all the honor and glory, both now and forever. Wind this down. Hebrews 2, 9 says, but we see
Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, just as
we are, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and
honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death, for every
man. And we know there that when it
talks about every man, it's talking about his people. The call has
gone out to every man in this world. Repent and believe the
gospel. But without, without an action
of the Holy Spirit, it never happens. That's it. There's no free will. There's
no making a decision. That's a big lie of Satan. That's
a lie, just like he told Eve. There is a great price owed by
me and each one of you this morning. We owe big time, brothers and
sisters, and we don't have any idea. Only when we stand before
the Lord and we see what's happening to men and women who reject the
gospel, But we begin to realize fully that great price that is
owed by us. I can't pay it. There's no way. I have nothing in me to pay it. I look inside of me and I'm dead. I see no life in me. And Marvin
points this out every once in a while, he'll say, you know,
the scripture says that the He is born of God, sinneth not.
I don't see that. I don't see that in me. I can't. This thing of sin is so much
a part of me that I just can't get free from it. So there is
a great price owed, I can't pay it, but the Lord Jesus Christ
did. And he did it all for his honor
and for his glory, that's it. And that's our mission in this
life, is to honor and glorify God the Father through Jesus
Christ. And I pray this morning that
he would give me a heart, he would give me a right heart,
and he would give you a right heart that we might worship him
rightly, that we might pay unto him that which is due, which
is his honor and his glory. Amen.