Turn with me to Genesis chapter
3, and I'll read verses 1 through
19. And I think the center of this
passage of Scripture is found in verse 6. That's where I'll
take my test and thought this morning. And I've titled this
message, The Fall of Man. Genesis chapter 3. Verse 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. He said, Is this what God said
to you? Is this not what He said? 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." You see, when Satan said unto her, and we'll call
the serpent Satan, I don't know what form he was in. I've read
everything I could find, everything I have, resource I have. And
really you go back to the scriptures and all we have that's substantial
is what the scriptures says. They have a lot of theories and
a lot of opinions and some of them make sense, some of them
doesn't make a bit of sense to me and I have my own. But the
fact is this was an evil being. This was Satan, this was the
devil, this is who the serpent is. We know that it is because
of his character, because of his prerogative. That was to deceive. That was
to cast doubt upon what God had said. His prerogative was to pervert
the very Word of God. And you'll notice in reading
this passage of Scripture that he just changed a few words here
and there, and before he was through, he had Eve changing
a few words here and there, which might seem mundane or unimportant
or not of any consequence. And the manner that he went about
it, evidently made it seem rational to Eve. This was indeed Satan. This was
a conversation between her and Satan, and she evidently was
not at all surprised that he should speak to her. Now I don't
know exactly how things were then and who spoke to who and
what manner they spoke and what communication they had, but she
didn't seem surprised that this serpent would talk to her because
she immediately responded and had a conversation with this
being, this one called the serpent. It was not anything that, you
know, it would seem that if a serpent started, I know if a serpent
snake started talking to me, I wouldn't talk to it, I'd run.
I'd run if it didn't talk to me, unless I had a gun. But usually
when I'm out, I have a gun, just for that purpose, to shoot the
serpents. And we rack up several. You know, if this really, this
was evidently something that was no surprise to her. And I don't
know how to explain that, but I think there's a significance
there. And a significance that I would bring over into our day
is this, that the serpent talks to us every day. And sometimes
we're not even able to distinguish that's who he is. We think He's so pleasant and
so common and so ordinary a thing, we're not even conscious that
that's Him. And we talk right back. And He's
just all around us and in us and so much a part of our life
that we just accept Him as being a part of our life. You know, that's how Jeremiah
said this, and I quote this so often, I know you can quote it
if you've not been asleep when I was talking to you. The heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, and who
can know it? Now, that's saying a mouthful. You know, we say, this is deceitful,
this is evil, this is wicked, this is bad, this is awful. But
all that old heart, God said that's the worst thing that there
is. There ain't nothing worse than
that. And a hard, cold, unbelieving heart. And you've got one. We always say he's got one. He's
got one. Boy, he's got a hard heart. Boy, he's got a hard heart. Something
bad wrong with him, he's got it. You see how sly this serpent
is? But that's not my message. I
don't want to talk, I don't want to spend too much time on the
serpent. I want to talk about Christ. Scripture says beware
of the serpent. Beware of Satan. Beware of evil
doers. Beware of them. These you beware. God said this, Satan said no,
God didn't say exactly that. He did, but he didn't mean it
like that. He didn't mean it exactly like
that. So I'm going to take my liberty to just tell you what
God meant. That's what he meant. You won't
really die. I know God said you would, but you know, he was just
saying that to keep you down. You're more important than that.
And besides, what kind of God would do you that way? And verse
4, the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die. What was it God said? He said,
you shall surely die. The serpent said, you shall surely
die, only he added the not. For God doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, You see, God's alright. He was
telling you some truth, but He was doing it just to cover Himself,
to make Himself look good. This is really the way it is. God knows that in the day ye
eat thereof that your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as
God's, knowing good and evil. He don't want you to be as wise
as Him, as smart as Him. He wants to keep you subdued
and under subjection. He don't want you to be like
Him. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, read one commentator said this, if
it's any interest to you, I had never thought about it, but it
makes sense, consider it. One commentator said, Satan probably,
the serpent probably, he took a bite. Said, yeah, see, I'm
okay. Here, you take a bite. That makes
sense. I've done it. See, I've done
this. God didn't kill me. I'm all right.
There's nothing wrong with that. See, God didn't mean that. You've
sinned all you want to, and I'm still living. You know, I'm not
in hell. God has not done any terrible
thing to me. I'm still well and healthy, and no great catastrophes
happened to me. I'm not damned and doomed. That's Satan's business. When
woman saw it was good for food, it was playing into the eyes,
Satan said, here, look at that. Ain't that pretty? Look at that. Whatever it was. Some folks say
it's an owl. I've always heard it's an apple. It don't make
a difference what it was. I believe it was a fig. But it
don't make any difference. The only thing we know is what
the Scripture says. Pleasant to the eyes, and the
tree desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he
did eat. 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 in the presence of the Lord,
among the Lord God, amongst the trees of the garden. 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 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? Now, one fellow years ago, I heard him expound on this
passage of Scripture, and he said, God didn't know that Adam
had eaten. He didn't know where Adam was
at until he hollered for him, and Adam said, Hey, oh, here
I am. You know, he was hid real good. You see, God knew where
Adam was. He knew where he was all the
time. He knew when Adam, when Eve took that fruit. He knew
when Adam and Eve ate. He knew all about it. He knew
when they sowed fig leaves together to try to hide themselves. He
knew where they went and hid. He knew all about it. He knows
where you're at. He knows of your stinking self-righteousness
and mine. He knows all about us. Nothing
hid from Him. All we're doing is fooling ourselves.
We're not fooling God. God knew. But He was saying this
for Adam's sake. You know, when God comes to you
in His call of electing grace, do you know what? Essentially, God is saying to
you, He's saying to you, Lonnie, where are you at? Pat, where are you at? And you know
where He finds us? So to speak, He finds us in our
self-righteousness. He finds us in our sin. He finds
us down in the hog pen. He finds us all wrapped up in
our self, in our sin. And He puts our finger on it.
And you know what we say? If it's His effectual call in
electing grace, we'll say, here I am. Here I am. He means for us to see where
we're at, who we are, what we've done, and our inability to do
anything about it. And that's exactly what he did
for Adam. He said, Adam, where are you? And he said, I heard thy voice
in the garden was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.
I heard the gospel. I heard of Christ and I saw myself.
I saw myself guilty. I saw myself short of the glory
of God. I saw myself a sinner. I was afraid. Because your law
says I must die. But God said, Adam, where art
thou? And hopefully in the future we'll
bring some messages on this. But you know what God did in
sovereign love and mercy and grace? God said, I see you, you
need something, and I'm going to provide it. And God Himself,
now picture this if you can, by God's grace and God's Spirit,
the eyes of faith, get a glimpse of this. God Almighty, in love,
mercy and grace, put His hands upon an innocent
sheep, or an animal, I think a sheep. And he slit his throat
right in the beginning and shed his blood. And he took the skin
of that innocent victim and he wrapped it around Adam and Eve. He said to her now, everything's
alright. You see what God demands He provides. What He requires,
He provides for His people. He said, God said, Did you eat
of that that I commanded you not to eat? And the man said,
The woman whom thou gavest me to be with me, she gave me of
the tree, and I did eat. Isn't that just like us? It wasn't my fault. It was her fault. She gave me and I ate. Blame her. But there's another picture here
greater than that, which we'll get to later. Here is a beautiful
picture of Christ's love for his church. Adam was willing to bear the
penalty of death and of sin because of his great love for his wife. He knew the consequences. He
did this with his eyes open. He knew a certain death. Eve had already eaten. And Adam
said, here give me that fruit. I'll eat it. I'll taste death
with you. I'll die with you. Because you're
mine. And I love you. I'll bear the consequences, the
penalty of God's law. This is a picture of Christ and
His love, His substitutionary death for His church. And the
Lord God, in verse 13, the Lord God said unto the woman, What
is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent
beguiled me, And I did eat. Adam said to woman, she gave
me and I ate. Woman said to serpent, serpent's
fault, he gave it to me and I ate. But do you know when all is said
and done, Adam and Eve sinned. It was them that sinned. It was
God that said don't eat. It was man that ate. And the
consequences of that Transgression is that it plunged the whole
human race, every tongue, every culture, every living human being
into total, absolute death. Spiritual death. The fall of
man. What happened in the fall? And
the Lord God said to the serpent, because thou hast done this,
Thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the
field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, thus shalt thou eat all the
days of thy life." This tends to make me believe that this
serpent, before this curse that God pronounced upon it here,
was already cursed. Don't get me wrong, but this
was a special curse because of what he had done. But this makes
me to believe that this serpent walked upright in some manner. Because he said, because you've
done this thing, go to your belly. You'll have no respect. You'll
be beneath the feet of all. You'll slither upon the ground.
You'll eat dust. all the days of your life. And
even more is pronounced in the next verse, which is a prophecy
of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His victory over
Satan. Verse 15, very, very familiar
verse. Genesis 3, 15, And I will put
enmity, hatred between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed, that Christ is her seed, and thy seed is all
of Adam's posterity, the fallen human race. And it shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." The Lord Jesus Christ, in His
vicarious death, was bruised but not destroyed. Satan's head
was destroyed, not his heel. And to the woman he said, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, and in sorrow
thou shalt bring forth children. What does that mean? Does it
mean necessarily the physical anguish and the travail of giving
natural birth? I don't think so. That might
be included, but I don't think so. What he's saying here is
that the fruit of every womb brings forth this same evil being,
a depraved, fallen creature. They come forth from the womb
speaking lies. Do you know why your children
are sinners? Because you are. And thy desire shall be to thy
husband, and he shall rule over thee. And to Adam he said, because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree. He didn't say, Adam, you hearkened
to the voice of the serpent. He said, you hearkened to the
voice of your wife. She was deceived, you weren't. Of which commanded
thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground
for thy sake, and in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of
thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread till thou return
to the ground. For out of it was thou taken,
for dust thou art, and of dust shalt thou return." I'll stop
reading there, but this sets the course for the human race. His days will be spent, no matter
what his occupation, his days will be spent in labor of mind
and of spirit and body. He's under a curse, this earth's
under a curse, and all of his labors will never be the satisfaction
and completeness of his desires. He'll labor and have not. He'll
toil and will not gain. But he'll lose as he gains. He'll lose. Because there is
nothing at the end but death. He'll lose everything he's gained
in the end. He'll lose his own soul were
it not for the grace of God. Genesis chapter 3 is one of the
most important books in all of the Bible. Now why do I say that? I say that because we're to understand
anything in all the rest of the Bible. God must reveal to us
what happened and what He has written to us in Genesis chapter
3. What has really been said here? What is the message? Someone has called this the three
R's of learning the gospel. You remember this old saying
in grammar school, the three R's, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Not arithmetic, but arithmetic.
This is the three essentials. Ruined by the fall, redeemed
by the blood, and regenerated by the Spirit. This is the theme
of the whole Bible that's set forth here in Genesis chapter
3. And it would be worth my while as a pastor and be worth your
while as believers, all of us, to study intensely and diligently
Genesis chapter 3, because the gospel is taught here in many
aspects, many aspects. This could be called the foundation
of the whole Scriptures, Genesis chapter 3, the whole gospel.
There is no understanding of the rest of the Bible until Genesis
3 is understood. Now, I'm not saying this. I'm
not saying Camp Haddon in Genesis chapter 3, and you'll understand
the whole Bible. I'm not saying that at all. But
I'm saying this, that no matter where in the Scriptures you go,
and you'll find it all through the Scriptures, the fall of man,
redemption by the blood of Christ, regeneration by the Spirit of
God, you'll find all of these taught in picture here in chapter
3 of Genesis. And if you understand the gospel,
you understand what is being taught here in Genesis chapter
3. If we go wrong here, we will err in all our interpretation
of all the rest of the Word of God. If by the Spirit of God
we can grasp the message in Genesis chapter 3, we'll not greatly
err anywhere else. That's saying a lot, isn't it?
But I believe it's so. And see if this doesn't bear
out to be the truth. There can be no understanding
of redemption unless there is an understanding of the fallen
ruin of man. Does that make sense? We can't
understand why Christ died. We can't understand the purpose
of His death, the accomplishment of His death, unless we understand
the fallen, ruined condition of man. It makes no sense. It will not make any spiritual
sense. Do we not understand the fall
and the run of man? Man can understand neither to
his prophet, maybe theoretically, apart from divine revelation.
What really happened to the fall is incomprehensible in any degree
apart from the assistance of God's divine revealing grace. Now what I'm saying here, and
listen carefully, is that you may understand this in concept. You may understand this in theory. You may understand this point
by point, and it add up and make sense to you. But you'll never understand it in the heart to your prophet
and to the glory of God apart from divine revelation. This
is true of all scripture. And all scripture interprets
scripture and teaches these three vital basic cardinal doctrines. All bound up in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Ruined by the fall, redeemed
by the blood, regenerated by the Spirit. All false religions,
listen, and you know, I never really thought of this, and I
wrote it down two or three different ways to try to get it to make,
I knew what I was saying, but I want you to understand this.
You know, words are vehicles of thought, and I'm not trying
to make it rational to an unbelieving heart, but a blessing to those
that do know Him. All false religions, without
exception, deny what really happened And what God clearly reveals
in this chapter concerning the fall of man. I want to say that
again. And see if this is not your experience,
if that's not so. All false religions, without
exception, deny what happened in the fall. The heart and the
core of all false religions denies total death and total ruin. Therefore they deny total redemption
by the blood. One cannot go without the other.
If you do not believe that man died in all respects toward God
spiritually, you will not believe that Christ died in all respects
to the salvation of your soul. It's just an impossibility. To put it plainly, God said that
man died spiritually and is cursed to die physically. Isn't that
what we just read? The only people on this earth. Now, listen. And this is a dogmatic,
I know that, statement. And I know you're listening to
Tommy Robbins, and I know I'm just a man, but the Scriptures
will bear this out and see if this is not absolutely true in
what God is saying. And if it is, it's important.
It's not something to be sniffed at and liked at and to be passed
over carelessly. The only people on this earth
that really believe in their hearts that this is true, are
those whom God has regenerated and given life in Christ. It's only the living that believes
that we're absolutely dead. Why is that? Because of the experience
of grace. He's brought us from death unto
life. From darkness to light. Does
that make sense? That's what the scriptures teach. Man has digressed, if you will,
until the contemporary consensus is that we are all God's little
boys and girls, and He loves us all, and we're all going to
heaven. That's what I'm hearing. That's
what I'm seeing. Nothing could be farther from
the truth. Man apart from the regenerating Spirit of God Almighty
is D-E-A-D. Dead. Now, are you dead? Or are you
alive? Does this mean anything to you
at all? Is it just a point of doctrine? Or can you look at your death
with horror? And see that darkness and death
in the Scriptures, in light of Christ. See that awful, awful
sentence of death that Christ brought you out from under. For
that tomb, that you were in. Stone roll
over the mouth of it. You couldn't get out in despair,
death, condemnation. Can you see that? Oh, it makes
you so thankful that God come to you. And He said, where are
you? Where are you? And He graciously
gave you life and clothed you. with an everlasting righteousness.
Only those that have life believe that in their heart. You may
believe it in your head. You may be an orthodox Calvinist
to the core. But do you love Him? Do you love Him? Do you stand in that light and
that life of the Lord Jesus Christ rejoicing in hope and the glory
of God? Thankful that He brought you
from darkness to light, from death to life. Here is what is
taught in Genesis chapter 3. Man is a fallen, depraved creature
under the wrath and curse of the Holy Lord God. in need of
redemption, regeneration and grace. That's where we're found. That's what Genesis chapter 3
teaches. There are four things set before us in this chapter. We won't be able to cover all
of these today, but it will give you something to think about
before next Sunday. Four things set before us in this chapter.
More than that, but four primary things Number one is the fall
of man. And that's where we must start
if we're to understand anything else. The fall of man. The subtlety
and power of Satan. The consequences of the fall.
Man failed, but what about the consequences? And the gracious
character of our God. Those four things are brought
to light. in Genesis chapter 3. And we'll deal first of all with
the first, second, and last. And then we'll touch on the subtlety
and power of Satan. Man is not, and this goes against
the grain, this goes against every false religion that there
is. And I, without apology, without
hesitation, and with boldness that God has given each one of
us, not just me, stand right here. Man is not an independent,
self-governing creature. He is not. You are not independent. Adam, before the fall, was not
independent. We are certainly not independent. Man did not make himself, God
made us. We owe our being, our very existence
to God. Man was made to serve God, glorify
his Creator by his obedience to Him. And as a symbol of God's
sovereignty, And of man's accountability and responsibility, a tree was
planted in the midst of the garden, which man was not permitted to
use for himself. And we know that that tree represents
the law of God, God's justice and His law, His holiness. We also know that this was put
there to remind Adam that God ruled over him. He didn't rule
over God, and that's where Satan entered in. The serpent entered
in and said, this is not right, that God should do this. The
holy restriction placed upon Adam's liberty was the fruit
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree represented
the relationship in which man stood to God. God is the sovereign. Man is a responsible creature,
the accountable creature. Adam was created as an intelligent,
responsible creature, subject to the rule of God, the Creator. But soon he became a self-seeking,
self-willed, self-centered, self-serving rebel. Now, I'm going to close
right here. It's twelve o'clock. I've got
to my first point. I wish I didn't do that. I wish
I could get through a message all the way, but I can't. That's
just me. Sorry. But listen, you know what I'm prone to do
when I phrase something like this, and I'm going to be first
admitted. When I think of someone that's
self-seeking, self-willed, self-centered, self-serving, and a rebel, I
always think of him, of her, of you. Anybody but me, I'm the last
on the list. Must be honest. But you know what? When God graciously
reveals the truth to us, reminds us, the Spirit of His grace overwhelms
us, and it must be that way. He must overwhelm us. Persuade us. When He does that,
do you know who fits this? Me. Me. That's who I am by nature. That is the result of my Father
and His actions toward God. I'm just like Him. And somehow or another, in our
warped Edgar Allen Poe mind, we conjured up this imaginary
person that is pretty good. This is amazing. And I wrestle with this every
day that God lets me live on this earth. And I think, I'm convinced that
every child of God does. God keeps telling me. Oh, He's
so gracious. He keeps telling me the truth.
He keeps reminding me. No. No, you're not good. I'm
good. No, you can't do anything. I
can do anything. No, you're helpless. I'll do
it all. Just be still and shut up and
bow. Man fell from his lofty heights
of communion and fellowship with his Creator to the abyss of darkness
and death of being cursed by his Creator. Boy, that's a long
distance, isn't it? Do you, do I, do you grasp any
of this? Just a little bit, maybe? Imagine, spiritually, May God
activate our spiritual imagination and thoughts to go to that place
that we were in our origination. Communion with God. Fellowship
with God. No sin. To the abyss, the depth to which
we fell. And to the great, great salvation
that Jesus Christ brought. To bring us up from that horrible
pit of death and condemnation and darkness to the glorious
light of His love, into His presence, into acceptance. This is too big for me. Someone said it's like looking
into the gospel and the great work of redemption is like looking
in a funnel. The little end. I've got one
of those long funnels that you put transmission fluid in with.
It's got a long thing. You can stick it way down in
there. I've got a long funnel. It gets
longer and longer and wider and wider I think. The more I look
into this, the more overwhelmed I am. You see, nothing makes any sense
if we don't understand in some degree the fall of man. We'll never understand the glory
and the beauty of the accomplishment of our Redeemer. The more we see of our death,
in our fall, the more we'll see of our salvation and the glory
of Christ in that salvation. This is what is taught in Genesis
chapter 3. It's taught throughout the scriptures. Man fell. We sing that song, and I repeat
this often, I'm sure dark the stain that soiled man's nature,
long the distance that he fell, far removed, far from open heaven, into deep despairing hell, far away. But God, there was a fountain opened.
And the blood of God's own Son purifies the soul and reaches
farther. And the stain is gone. We've got a great, great God
and a great salvation. I just don't want to go. I want
to stay here and think about this. No wonder the psalmist
said, how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together
in unity and peace. No wonder he said, I was glad
when they said, let us go to the house of the Lord. No wonder
he said, this is my hope, my desire, that I dwell in the house
of the Lord forever to learn of Him. I don't care what I accomplish
on this earth. I really don't. That's not important. Oh, but while I'm here, if I
can just know Him, if I can dwell in His house and learn of Him,
I think that's going to satisfy. I believe it is. Oh, I get sidetracked
like you do. But I'm always graciously brought
back to the old landmark. Brought back to the cross. Brought
back to the throne. We're all prodigals, aren't we? We sold all we had and went to
waste it. But the Lord ran, embraced us,
and brought us back. Let's bow our heads.