All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Genesis chapter 3. Genesis
chapter 3. We all hear and we admit the
reality of the fall of Adam in the garden. A fall that was the
most devastating of all the events as it pertains to mankind. Devastating. The scripture says
in Romans 5.12, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the
world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for
that all have sinned. Now, in this passage of scripture
that we're going to consider for a little bit, we're going
to behold how sin entered this world, the avenue by which sin
came in. We're going to behold the penalty,
the universal penalty that it sustained on mankind, and we're
going to behold the view of that which Almighty God has everlastingly
been pleased to do, save a people from their sins. I'm going to
go ahead and say, for the benefit of all that are listening, this
is going to be probably a few different messages. In this book,
I'm just going to look at the first five verses right now. But Lord willing, I'd like to
look at all the verses in chapter 3 over a series of messages. And let's consider, I want to
look at today, in the fall, the lie, the l-i-e, the lie in the
garden. And so we're going to behold
what happened, what happened in the garden. We talk about
it, but what does the scripture, I want to be very, very careful
that we look and see exactly what happened in that fall. Now the scripture begins and
it says in verse 1, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast
of the field which the Lord God had made. Now, first of all,
let me say this, we know who this serpent is. It's the devil. And I know I've seen pictures,
and you have too, and people did paintings of Adam and Eve
in the garden, and there's a snake. And I'm not saying that it wasn't
a snake. It might have been a snake that
he actually inhabited. I'm not saying that it wasn't,
but if it was a snake, and that was the case, well, that was
the way that the Lord allowed him And let's not forget that
Almighty God is in control. God rules in the army of heaven
among the inhabitants of the earth. And so nothing in the
garden was outside of the permissive will of Almighty God. But if
it was, that's the way it was. But nonetheless, when it says
here, now the serpent, it's not talking about necessarily a snake,
though it may have been, but actually it's describing the
character of Satan. Listen to Revelation 12.9. And
the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent. Now does that
mean that he was a snake? Well, no. It means that his person,
his being, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world. He was cast out into the earth
and his angels were cast out with him. The Lord told the ministers
that he had sent out, the 70 ministers that he had sent out
to preach the gospel, and they came back and they talked about
the devils being in subjection to them. And the Lord said in
Luke chapter 10, he said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from
heaven. So we know that Satan is who
is being spoken of. Snake, that's not the issue. It's the one that's being cast
out, that was cast out into the earth and his angels. It's the
adversary of the sheep who right now as a lion is walking about
seeking whom he may devour. That's what 1 Peter 5, 8 says. And the scripture declares concerning
this devil, Satan. Now the serpent, Satan himself,
was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God
had made." Now, the word subtle there is a word that can have
a good meaning or a bad meaning. If it's a good meaning, it's
a word that means sensible or prudent. If it's a word describing
a bad character, it means shrewd and crafty, and obviously here
it's talking about the serpent being shrewd and crafty. And his craftiness, the scripture
declares concerning Satan himself, was more cunning, smoother, and
more alluring than any other beast that Almighty God had ever
created. And it's still that way today. And the way that we behold the
cunningness and the craftiness of the serpent himself is through
false preachers. If you want to know how cunning
and smooth and crafty he is, listen to his ministers. How
they portray, I mean, just smoothness and love. We're all in this together. The Apostle Paul declared to
the church at Corinth, 2 Corinthians 11, 2 and 3, I'm jealous over
you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, his trickery, his
craftiness. So your minds should be corrupted
from the simplicity, from the oneness, from the singleness
that is in Christ. He declared that he was jealous
for their knowledge of the Lord. His warmth and affection for
the Corinthians was a godly jealousy. He loved them for Christ's sake. And he said, I'm concerned, I'm
concerned that the simplicity of Christ to you, beholding Him,
only longing to hear Him could be drawn away, beguiled like
the serpent beguiled Eve. So when he said that in his jealousy
he had espoused them to one husband, he meant that he was the means
by which God used to call them to Christ, the instrument by
which they were preached to that they might believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and be joined to Him openly in regenerating grace. So Paul, according to the revelation
of God's Spirit, desired to present them as a chaste virgin. Again, now, to be the medium
by which they would be presented Christ. No preacher ever claims
the power to be able to cleanse God's people, present them. The
Scripture says in Ephesians 5, 25, 27, Husbands, love your wives. even as Christ also loved the
church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present
it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So whenever Paul speaks of being
the one that he said to present you, to be the means of, God
sends a pastor. And they are the means by which
God's spirit calls out the Lord's people. But he feared, he feared
lest they like Eve would be corrupted or led away by deceivers. I can
enter into a certain extent of what he was saying here. Those
that sit here at Katie and other places, I know other pastors
are like this, they're jealous. They're jealous over God's heritage.
They're overseers. God calls pastors to be overseers.
And they watch for the souls of God's people and they long
that they might be presented, that they might be the means
by which the Lord has been pleased to use, that they might be presented
by Christ, a chaste virgin, cleansed by the Lord Himself. So they're
jealous. want them to be drawn away by
the crafty ministers that preach another Jesus, another Christ. And Paul even warned the church
at Colossae, Colossae chapter two, verse one, I'll read this
for you. If you have your Bible, you can
turn there, but if not, the scripture says in Colossians chapter two
and verses one to four, for I would that you knew what great conflict
I have for you. And for them it lay out a sea,
for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their
hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and into
all riches the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of Christ and of the Father and of Christ,
in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And
this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words."
So Paul warned the church. about being deceived or led away
by unsound preaching. He said in 2 Corinthians 11 verse
4, If he that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we have not
preached, or if you receive another spirit which you have not received,
or another gospel which you have not accepted, you might bear
well with him. Actually in the margin it says
with me, but here Robert Hawker made a comment on this. He said
this, Paul was saying that if you hear another preacher that
can hold forth another Jesus that is more divine, more lovely,
more powerful to save than the Lord of glory that I've preached
is what Paul was saying. If there's another spirit that's
more effectual to regenerate your fallen nature, another spirit
that can lead you to Christ and the blessed Holy Spirit that
I preach. If there's another gospel that
contains more glad tidings of hope, than the one that I've
set forth. He said, then you do well to
suspend your attention to me and listen to them. But he said,
there's not. There's not another. Isaiah 44,
6 says, Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer,
the Lord of hosts, I am the first, I am the last, and beside me
there is no God. There's not another gospel. Not another true gospel. There's
one gospel. So Paul said, I'm jealous for
you. I'm jealous for you because Satan,
again as I said a moment ago, is as a roaring lion and he is
seeking whom he may devour and this is his purpose. He's coming
after God's people because he knows God's got a sheep. And
so Paul said in Galatians 1.18, though we are an angel from heaven,
Preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached
unto you. Let him be accursed. Let God
send him to hell. If any other man preaches another
gospel and dies, believe in that gospel. Woe unto him. So the
subtlety of Satan is discovered every time a man stands in a
pulpit and preaches a false gospel. That's the subtlety. In Genesis
chapter 3, the serpent was more subtle than any other beast of
the field which God has made. That's the way he did it then,
and that's the way he's doing it now. So he does it in a way
that he's going to set forth a distorted gospel, and doing
it to deceive, to try to and beguile. So the Spirit of God
gave us some instructions, 2 Corinthians 11 verses 13 to 15, 2 Corinthians
11. 13 to 15 it says, for such are false
apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ and no marvel, for Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great
thing if they also be transformed as the
ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their
works." Now, let me say this. Satan has no power. to be able
to transform himself into an angel of light. He has no power
to do that. He puts himself forth, though,
through his ministers as one who is a preacher of the true
gospel. He sets himself forth through
these preachers as one that only desires to do good. That's what
he's training. His actions, through a false
gospel are only evil. That's the only desire that he
had, only to beguile men who are the vessels of God's mercy
and affection. He got the others. But he wants
to get to God's people because he hates God. He wants to be
God. He was cast out because he wanted
to be God. And so now he's the beguiler,
he's the liar, so he comes to Eve. He was more subtle, and
the scripture says in the latter part of verse one, and he said
unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every
tree of the garden. Now, here's the cunningness. He came to the woman and not
to the man. God had set forth that the woman
was the weaker vessel. Satan knew that Adam loved his
wife. And he knew that the way to Adam
was to get to the woman. Now I'll tell you this, any husband
that loves his wife, he might take something that somebody
says to him, he might take it and walk away. But if you say something to his
wife, you say something to my wife, then he takes it personally. Isn't that right, Chuck? You talk to my wife like that,
and you talk to me like that now. And so he came to the woman,
and he said in this very cunning way. Let me tell you, I just
went to my mind here. A lot of times, you get a place
where they want to have a big bus ministry. And I don't have
a problem with buses. If it's someplace where they're
preaching the gospel or something like that, and people can't get
there, that's OK. But whenever you start busing people, especially
I've noticed when you start busing children, they'll get up. They've
got a children's ministry. We're going to get the kids,
and we're going to get them over. You know why? Because what they're
thinking is, if I can get the kids, I can get the adults. You
think that's not subtle? That's what we'll do. So what
he's going to do is he's going to get to his wife and he asks
her, and here's my first point, the question of deception. Hath God said, you shall not
eat of every tree of the garden? Now John Calvin said it like
this, he paraphrased it and he said, did God really say? You must not eat of any tree
of the garden. Did God say that? That's what
he said. Did God say that you must not
eat of any tree of the garden? That's a question that was set
forth to cause some doubt, some confusion. And today, is that
tactic not right? Let me ask you something. Now,
today, from today's point of view, We know that God is sovereign,
but... I know that election is in the
Bible, but... I know that Christ died on the
tree, and I know that it says that He laid down His life for
the sheep. But now, once you start stating something, and
you put it forth to cause a doubt, or cause a... a distraction,
a beguilement, that you're trying to do something to draw people
away. The gospel is to be preached
boldly, set forth. God Almighty is sovereign. Do
you mean to tell me that God Almighty has a people that He's
loved everlasting? Yes, I do. Do you mean to tell
me they're the only ones that's going to be saved? Yes, I do.
Do you mean Christ died only for the elect? Yes, I do. That's
exactly what I believe because that's what God said. But don't
you think? No, I don't think anything. I
think what God said is right. Outside of that, I don't have
anything else to say. This is the gospel. This is the way it
is. Hath God said? You really? And the woman, verse
2 and 3, 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 has said, you shall
not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die." Now,
let me just make a statement here concerning her answer. This is before the fall. Man has not fallen yet. could not, and she did not, plea
ignorance to what God had said. Now, let me make this statement.
You can go back and just read the account of what God had said
to Adam concerning the eating of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil. And it was after God spoke to
Adam about not eating that Eve was created. Eve was not created
until after. This is before the fall. She
was not created until after God had spoken to Adam about that. And so everything that Eve knew
Obviously, Adam had to teach her because there was nobody
else there that would speak to her. It's not recorded that God
ever spoke to Eve in particular up to this point right here.
And so therefore, what Adam told her is what Eve knew. And she's
not lying. I've heard people, I've said
this myself, so I'm gonna go ahead and just put that out there.
And it said what she did was she added to the word of God.
Man hadn't fallen yet. They hadn't started lying yet.
She said what she knew. In fact, the more I think about
it, what she actually said would have been consistent with the
spirit of what the Lord had said. Let me hold you place right there
and turn to Proverbs 6. I'll show you what I mean. Proverbs
chapter 6 and in verses Well, let's see. I'll say like Brother
Scott. Somebody move Proverbs out of
my Bible. Proverbs chapter six and verse
23 to 29. Listen to this scripture. For
the commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs
of instruction are the way of light to keep thee from the evil
woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Now
of course we could naturally speaking or spiritually speaking
of the natural woman or even false religion. Lust not after
her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids,
for by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of
bread and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can
a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?
Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned? So he
that goeth in to his neighbor's wife, whosoever toucheth her
shall not be innocent." The spirit of what Eve was saying, I can
see, and like I said, I'm basing this totally on man had not fallen
yet. So before we start putting Eve
in a position to where she's starting to embellish and rebel
and Stuff like this, man hadn't fallen. So we've got to be careful
when we start saying what she's doing here. Adam had told her
what God said and I don't doubt for one second what Adam explained
to her concerning the eating of that fruit very likely told
her exactly what she said. God said don't eat it, don't
even touch it. Proverbs chapter 6 talks about
don't go in to the whorish woman, don't touch her. Whenever the
Lord said concerning adultery, the Lord said, if you look on
her to lust after her, you committed adultery in your heart. So what
Eve is saying, the spirit of it, I can tell you, I can just
imagine, God said, don't eat it. Because I'm telling you,
the moment actually you'd reach out there and touch it, you've
already eaten it in your heart. She said what her husband told
her to say because God didn't tell her that. God told Adam
that. But then the devil again continued
his craftiness toward the woman. He spoke in a way to give her
a false hope back in Genesis chapter 3. It says in verse 4,
And the serpent said unto the woman, You know, when she had
just said, God said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall
you touch it, lest you die. Now just imagine, you think,
Adam told her. He said, Eve, let me tell you
something. There's two trees in this garden. There's a tree
of life, God showed it to me, and there's a tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, God showed it to me. And God said, don't
you eat of it. And I'm telling you right now,
don't you eat of it, and don't you touch it. You hear what I'm
saying? Okay. God said don't eat of it
and don't touch it. So the serpent said unto the
woman, you shall not surely die. Now
here's my second point. The boldness of the deception
in the garden. I want you to look at the cunning
progress of Satan's lie. He had up to this point been
working to get Eve to question God's word. Are you sure? Are
you sure that that's what God said? And now he's accusing God
of deception. He said, you shall not die. Now I want you to notice all
he did, he added one word. When God told in chapter two, Verse 17, when God was speaking
to Adam, Genesis 2, 17, but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Satan added one word
to exactly what God said. God said, thou shalt surely die. And Satan said, thou shalt not. Oh my. You know, isn't it amazing
how just a little leaven leavens the whole lump. He says, Eve,
listen to me. This is what Satan's saying. God has lied to you. He can't be depended upon and
therefore you have no need to fear Him. You're not going to
die. You're not going to die. He's
telling Eve that the Lord is holding back truth from her that
He has forbidden that which would actually be to her benefit. And
so arrogant is his approach to deceive. He actually uses the
exact words of the Lord, except he added that word. He said in verse 17 again, it
says, God doth note that in the day thou eatest thereof. Verse 5 over here, he says, God
doth know that in the day thou eatest thereof. See, I mean,
man, he's a master at using scripture. And he did the same thing to
the Lord in the wilderness. He quoted scripture to try to
tempt and deceive the Lord. God doth know that in the day
you eat thereof, your eyes will be opened. Now listen, here's
what he's saying. Verse five, God doth know, and
here's my last point right here, the bait. Here's the bait. First,
it's the question of deception that God said. Secondly, the
boldness of deception. God's a liar. You're not gonna
die. You're not gonna die. You're
not gonna die. And here's the bait. Here's the bait. God doth
know that in the day your eyes will be open. What flattery. What an appeal to a human being. What he said was this, if you
eat of the fruit that God has forbidden you to eat, the eyes of your understanding,
that's what he's talking about, your eyes will be opened, the
eyes of your understanding, which obviously now Eve must be holding
because you don't see it yet, You're gonna be able to perceive
things that you can't possibly perceive without eating of that
fruit. You're gonna partake of God's
glory. And the fear of punishment of
God saying that you're gonna die is needless. Eating is the only thing holding
you back. Eating that fruit, I'm telling
you, is not only completely harmless, and God knows it, but it's necessary. It's necessary for you. He said,
ye, in verse 5, God doth know in the day that ye eat thereof,
then your eyes will be open, you and your husband, and ye
shall be as gods. Now let me tell you what he said
to her. In verse five, it says, for God,
Elohim, Elohim. That's what that word is. And
do you see that word gods? He's talking to her and surely
about her and Adam. In the day that you eat, you
shall be as gods. That word gods right there is
interpreted Elohim. In the day that you eat, you're
gonna be like God. You're gonna be just like God.
John Calvin said on this particular portion of scripture, that Satan
promised her that she and Adam would be divine. They would be
as God, knowing the difference between good and evil, blessing
and calamity. What he's saying is this, you
will be omniscient. As God is omniscient, you're
going to know everything. Now I want you to notice that
Satan referred to exactly that which God did forbid. Back again
in Genesis 2.17. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. Satan said in verse
5 of chapter 3 God doth know in the day, then your eyes will
be open and you will be as God's knowing good and evil. Now there was a tree that was
in the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Two
trees, the tree of life. Look at Genesis chapter 2 verses
8 and 9. And the Lord God planted a garden
eastward in Eden. And there he put the man whom
he had formed. And out of the ground made the
Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, good
for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, we've heard
about these two trees. But what do they set forth? There's
got to be something so significant about those two trees for Satan
to come to Eve, to beguile her, to fool her, to lie to her, to
boastfully tell her that she would be as God and that God
was a liar and that for him to do that to this woman getting
to her husband to get to God, because God had created these. They were made in the image of
God. And here Satan's desire is to destroy them and to tell
them all of this. What was the significance of
the two trees? The whole scope of God's revelation
concerning salvation. Now listen to what I'm saying. Here's the difference in the
two trees. The whole scope, they were pictures. Those two trees
were pictures. But the whole scope of God's
revelation concerning salvation, either by trusting Christ, looking
to Him, believing on Him, the tree of life, or salvation by
the keeping of the law and salvation by works was what was set forth
in those two trees. The tree of life, that tree that
declared salvation by grace in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want you to hold your place right there and turn with
me to Revelation 2.7. Here's how Satan believes that
he's going to destroy mankind. Revelation 2-7. He's going to
rob God of God's glory. He's going to rob God of His
honor set forth in the person of the Christ. He's going to
rob God. Revelation 2-7. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh
will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst
of the paradise of God. Now here's that tree of life. What does that tree of life set
forth? It means concerning Christ to
those who overcome and are victorious in Christ. To those who are more
than conquerors through him who has conquered all things, over
all that opposes them, sin, Satan, self, the world, to those that
overcome in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ shall eat of
the tree of life. The tree that is the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. Believers eat right now by faith
of Him who is their life, Scripture declares that they shall partake
of him as he is the author, finisher of their faith, and is the God
of their life, even I'm the way, the truth, and the life. That's
the tree of life. But that other tree that God
told Adam, in the day that you eat of that tree, you're going
to die. That tree of the knowledge of
good and evil is the tree that sets forth the demand of God's
law for righteousness. Now here's one tree, here's the
tree of life, here's Christ, the accomplisher, the finisher
of our faith, the one who stood before God as our surety, who
has everlastingly loved us, fulfilled the law of God and paid its debt
in His own shed blood and earned our righteousness and imputes
righteousness without the deeds of the law, that's the tree of
life, their salvation. This other tree, the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, it's the tree that sets forth
the demand of God's law. Good and evil. as it was set
forth at Sinai when God gave his law to Moses. Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God, thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt, thou shalt
not. This is good, this is evil. This
is what you will do, this is what you won't do. And those
two trees, set forth this glorious truth that God never intended
that salvation to His people would ever be through the keeping
of the law. For by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in His sight. Salvation is by grace
alone through faith in His Son. So God declared His sovereignty
over all mankind by forbidding Adam to eat of one fruit. Here's what he was saying, Adam,
in the day that you come and think, and you think that you
have the right and the ability to take of that fruit, and you
understand it, and you say, I have the ability to eat of this fruit
and fulfill what this tree sets forth as the demands of God's
law. I can do it. He said, in the
day you eat of that, you're gonna die. You're gonna die. And the scripture sets forth
that Satan told Eve, he said, by eating of that fruit, You're going to be like God.
You're going to have life that you would know the demands of
the law and you'll be able to perform it. You'll know good
and evil. You'll know it experientially
and be able to handle it. You'll be saved by your works. There was nothing wrong with
that tree. God made that tree. The law is
holy and just and good. There's nothing wrong with that
tree. The problem is with man. Man is not able. God never made man to be able
to earn his own salvation by his works. We'll get into this
later. I'm going to make this statement
and Lord willing we'll go into it later. Remember when God banished,
this will be at the end of this chapter. God banished him. Out
he ate. He fell. God had to cover him
with skins. And God sent him out of the garden.
Lest he come and eat of the tree of life in that state. Man to
think that he can earn his own salvation by keeping the law
and also come to the tree of life by his own ability, God
said it ain't gonna happen. God kicked him out. I won't say
anything else. I'll deal with it later. Like
I said, there was nothing wrong with the tree. The problem was
with man. God was gonna honor his son. His son's gonna be exalted. This
is my beloved son. You hear him. God's gonna be
exalted in the tree of life. For man to come, And to eat of
that tree, he said, the day you eat of it, you're going to die.
When we think that we can take of God's law and eat it and please
God, we're doing just exactly what was manifested in the summation
of man, when God saw in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5, when God
saw that the thoughts and the imaginations was only evil, God
said, that's what's going to be the end result, and it was.
In the fall, and I'm going to close right here, I wanted to
deal this time with the lie in the garden. Where did this all
start? It started with a lie. In the
fall, We beheld how Satan beguiled Eve. And again, I want to be
very careful that we all understand this. This was all according
to God's permissive will. Somebody say, I don't see how
in the world could God stop that? Well, sure he could have. But
it pleased God that in man's fall, Christ is going to be glorified.
You know that. You know that. But this shows
you the inability of man in his own nature. Man was never created. to be able to provide his own
salvation. God has always demanded that
the works of the law is not going to be the way that man's going
to come to God. He's not going to come on his own ability. He's
not going to be like God. God is God and man is not. Man
is the vessels of his mercy and Satan coming to her. He came
and he beguiled her. He lied to her. He lied on God. And in the next time we deal
with this, Lord willing, we're gonna see the effects of what
happened. When they ate, here again, don't
wanna go too far. But when they ate, as soon as
they ate, there was a certain amount of truth in what Satan
said. He said, in the day you eat,
you're gonna know good and evil. And buddy, the moment they did,
they knew. the good that they could not
accomplish, and the evil that they could not escape. They knew
it, they knew it then, but they couldn't do anything about it.
I pray that this might be a blessing for the beginning of this blessed
chapter, and that the Lord might be pleased to teach us something
of the fall, what happened in the fall. What's wrong with man
right now? What's wrong with man? What's
wrong with mankind? Here it is right here. This is
the problem, right here. Man is a sinner against God,
creature and Almighty God is going to set forth in this glorious
chapter here I hear the blessed revelation of redemption and
mercy and compassion to creatures such as us for God's glory and
our good.