What Happened In The Garden?

I want you to turn in your Bibles
this morning to the book of Genesis, chapter 3. Now this is going
to be, I believe, an informative and interesting message on what
happened in the Garden. There are not many people who
know what happened in the Garden of Eden. There are not many people
who know what happened when man fell, when Adam ate the forbidden
fruit and fell, and death and judgment and condemnation came
upon the whole world. Will you take your Bible and
stay with me for a few moments and let me speak to you on the
subject, what happened in the garden. Turn to Genesis chapter
3. Now while you're finding the
scripture, Genesis 3, let me say this. In chapters 1 and 2
of Genesis, God gives us a full account of how he brought the
world into being, how he created the world. And a man cannot believe
God and believe evolution, there's no way. There's no way a man
can be a Christian and believe the evolutionary account of creation. He's got to believe what God
said about the creation of the world. And in Genesis 1 and 2,
God tells us how he brought the world into being, and especially
how he formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into
him the breath of life. In Genesis 1.26, and God said,
let us make man in our image. There was a council of the Trinity
called for the purpose of the formation of this lovely creature,
man, in the image of God. And God said, let us, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, let us make man in our image. And after the image of God created
he them, male and female. Now, Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes
7, verse 29, Lo, this have I found, that God created man. You see,
when you believe evolution, you deny the whole Word of God. You
deny not only what Moses wrote, but what Solomon wrote, and what
Isaiah wrote, and what Christ said, and what Paul wrote. The
whole Word of God is being denied when you deny creation. Solomon
said, God created man, upright, holy. without sin, but man sought
out many inventions. Now, how long Adam stood from
the time he was created to the time he fell, nobody knows. Some say he stood one day. Well,
nobody knows that for sure. He may have stood longer than
that. I believe he did, because, well, first of all, God created,
or rather God brought Eve from Adam. That took some time. And
then God brought all the animals before Adam that he might name
them one at a time, and that took some time. But how long
Adam stood is not really important. What is important in our study
this morning is this. How he came to fall, and the
consequences of that fall, and what God promised Adam after
he fell. Now that's what's important.
How he came to fall, the consequences of that fall. and what God promised
him after the fall. Now let's take your Bibles and
turn to Genesis 1, Genesis 3, verse 1. Now the serpent, now
the serpent, was more subtle than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Yea, hath
God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Now
there's been much written and said about the serpent which
tempted Eve. Some people say, when the Bible
says he was more subtle than any beast of the field, it means
that he was more naked than any beast of the field. He had less
hair than all the rest of them. He was different from all the
rest of the beasts, but he was a beast. And therefore, Eve listened
to him. Others say that he was more beautiful
in appearance than any other animal, but he was an animal.
That's what they say. But now, let's see some things
that we do know. First of all, we know this. Animals
do not talk. We know that animals do not talk.
They don't talk now, and they didn't talk then. And if an animal
had come up to Eve and started talking to her, she would have
been amazed. She would have been astounded. She probably would
have run and got her husband and told him, there's an animal
talking back there. Then secondly, we know this,
that animals were inferior to Adam and Eve. Totally inferior. When God made Adam, he gave him
dominion over the earth, over the fowls, and over the beasts
of the field, and over all the animals. He gave him dominion
over these things. And certainly, this animal inferior
to Eve could not have talked her into something she was talked
into in this particular account in the Word of God. And the next
thing we know this. We know that this was Satan who
spoke to her. That Satan was the one that tempted
her. That Satan was the one that spoke
to her. Now, the form he used, that's
what we're talking about. The form he used evidently didn't
startle her. The form in which he appeared
to her did not frighten her. Satan appeared to her, we know
this, in a beautiful form. Now, remember that Satan is called
in the book of Corinthians an angel of light. Keep that in
mind. He's called an angel of light.
a minister of righteousness, a messenger of righteousness.
Now then, it was there probable that angels appeared to Adam
and Eve in the garden and conversed with them. God had created the
angels long before he created man. And these angels, I'm sure
the angels appeared to Abraham in Genesis chapter 19, the angels
appeared to Lot In Genesis chapter 19, angels appeared all the way
through the Old Testament and all the way through the New Testament.
Angels appeared to the shepherds on the Judean hillside the night
that Christ was born. Satan was an angel. Before his
fall, he was an angel. The most superior of all the
angels, the most beautiful of all the angels, the most powerful
of all the angels, called the sun of the morning before the
fall. And after the fall, if you read the first chapter of
Job, verse 6, you'll find when the sons of God assembled in
the presence of the Lord, that Satan came with them. This was
in heaven. When the angels of God appeared,
this was long after the fall of man, that when these angels
appeared before the Heavenly Father, Satan came with them.
He was in their midst when they appeared before God. So here's
what I'm saying. that Satan appeared to Eve in
some sort of beautiful form. He appeared to Eve in some sort
of celestial form, probably in the form of a seraph, called
seraphims in the plural, but seraph. He appeared to her in
this beautiful form. And she was not shocked, she
was not amazed, she was not astounded, but when he spoke to her, it
was like an angel speaking to her. It was like a heavenly messenger
speaking to her. She had not encountered Satan
before. He had not talked to her before.
She evidently thought this was a messenger from heaven, one
in good favor with God. And Eve was evidently alone when
Satan appeared to her, for no mention is made of Adam at all.
No mention is made here of Adam. And Satan spoke to her. Now what
did he say? He said, is it true, is it true, Satan in this beautiful
form, subtle, crafty, cunning. Eve was not astounded, she was
not frightened, she was not startled. He appeared to her in this beautiful
form, and he said to her, is it true that you're not allowed
to eat of every tree in this garden? Is that true? Has God
said to you that you can't have all of the trees in this garden?
Now Eve, you are a superior creature, Eve, the whole earth, is supposed
to be in subjection to you and Adam, your husband, yet you're
not free to eat of any tree in the garden that you want. Is
that true, that you're not free to eat of any tree? Is it possible
that God has something that he'll not let you have? Is it possible
that there is a tree in this garden that God is keeping you
from eating? Is that true? Now keep in mind,
my friends, that Satan's fall recorded in Isaiah chapter 14
was pride. Satan's fall was pride, and this
is the very basis on which he is tempting Eve. Pride. This is the very direction in
which he's going in this temptation of Eve. Pride. You mean, Eve,
that there is a tree in this garden that you're not allowed
to eat, that you're not allowed to have God keeping something
from you. You're superior You are everything, you have dominion
over everything, it's in subjection to you. You're not superior. God's keeping something from
you. Now Eve answered, and she said, she knew the commandment,
she repeated it. She said, yea, we may eat of
every tree in the garden, but of the tree in the midst of the
garden we may not eat, neither shall we touch it, lest we surely
die. Now my friends, there's been
plenty of discussions about what this tree was in Genesis chapter
3. Look back there at that verse again. Eve said, we may eat of
any of the trees but one. And God said, you shall not eat
of it, neither shall you touch it lest you die. Now listen to
me. There have been many arguments and many discussions about what
this tree was. I had someone call me on the
phone just two or three weeks ago and told me they were discussing
this tree in the garden. Some say it was an apple. Now,
I took the concordance just this morning. And I sat down and I
went through the whole Bible to find how in the world anybody
ever determined that the tree of which Adam and Eve ate was
an apple tree, and I can't find one verse of Scripture in this
Bible anywhere that even hints that that is so, that it was
an apple tree. I don't know why. You know when
you have pictures of Eve and Adam in the garden and Satan
tempting, you have a snake wrapped around a tree holding an apple
out. Well, we don't know that it was an apple tree. And then
someone else suggests that this sin, this tree, was really figurative,
that it wasn't a tree at all, it was an act of sex. Well, now
this is totally ridiculous. It's more ridiculous than the
apple theory. God ordained a relationship between
a husband and wife before the fall ever took place. God said
to Adam and Eve when he first created them, you reproduce,
you replenish the earth. You bring forth sons and daughters.
This was before the fall ever happened. So sex had nothing
to do with the fall. What do we know? That's what
we have to establish in these things. What do we know? It's
just like who tempted Eve. We know Eve wouldn't talk to
an inferior animal. We know that a beast of the field
couldn't come up and reason with her because beasts don't talk.
We know it was Satan. That's who it was. It was Satan.
And Satan appeared in a powerful form, in a beautiful form, in
a celestial form to Eve, and she stood and talked to him because
she was used to talking to angels and heavenly beings. And seeing
cherubims and cherubims and things like that, she was used to it.
And so it was nothing unusual for her to talk to a heavenly
being. And Satan was certainly a heavenly being. At one time
he was the chief of God's creation. And here he is appealing to Eve
on the basis of pride. Why? God's keeping something
for you. God's keeping something for you.
Now let me tell you this. What was this tree? This tree
was a token. It represented something. And
it represented something mighty big. It was a representation
or a token of man's subjection to God. Of man's dependence upon
God. That man, while he was great,
God was greater. Man, while he was holy, God was
still king. Man, while he was powerful, God
was still all-powerful. That man was responsible to obey
God. God said, Adam, you can have
anything you want, but that one tree, leave it alone. That tree,
while it stands untouched, it reveals your obedience, it reveals
your dependence, it reveals your subjection to me. And that's
what Satan wanted man to take. He wanted man to throw off God's
sovereignty, throw off God's power, throw off his responsibility
to God, his dependence upon God, his subjection to God. That's
Satan's goal, to get you to do the same thing. We will not have
this man reign over us. What was his fall? He said, I
will be like God. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will not bow to God. I will
not worship God. That was Satan's sin, and that's
what he wanted Eve to do. And she said, well, we can't
eat of that one tree. And you know what he said? You
shall not die. You shall not die. Eve says,
God said, as soon as we eat of that tree, we die. He said, you
shall not die. This is a direct contradiction
of the divine word of God. This is only a threat, Satan
said to Eve. God knows this. God knows this,
that when you eat of that tree, you'll be like God. You'll not
die. You'll be like God. You'll not
die. Now, this is Satan's way today, to put a question mark
on the Word of God. This is the way of the liberal
churches, put a question mark on God's Word. This is the way
of liberal preachers and liberal schools and liberal colleges
and liberal universities and liberal seminaries, is to say,
God doesn't mean what he says. That's what Satan is saying to
Eve. Eve, as God said, you shall not eat of all the trees. We
may eat of all the trees, but one, if we eat of that tree,
we die. You shall not die. God does not mean that. This
is Satan's way today, to put a question mark on the word of
God. And let me tell you something, this is the beginning of the
end. I warn you, any preacher, any individual, any person listening
to my voice, once you put a question mark on this book, that's the
beginning of the end. If you can question Genesis 1,
you can question Genesis 2. If you can question Genesis 2,
you can question Genesis 3. If you can question Genesis 3,
you can question all the rest of it. If some of it's wrong,
all of it's wrong. Now listen to Satan as he goes
on, verse 5. He says, this is what God knows.
This is the truth. That's not true. You shall not
die. God knows that when you eat of this tree, your eyes will
be opened. He wasn't talking about her physical
eyes. She wasn't blind. She could see. He was talking
about the eyes of her understanding. He says, this is what will happen
if you'll eat of that tree. Your understanding will be enlightened
and you won't need God. Your understanding will be enlightened
and you won't be in subjection to God anymore. You'll be God
yourself. God knows if you eat of this
tree, you'll be like God. You'll know things that you don't
know now. You'll understand things that you've never understood.
You'll understand what good and evil is. You don't know what
evil is, Eve. You'll know what evil is. You'll
be like God. Eve, God's keeping you in the
dark. Eve, you don't know what evil is. You don't know what
good is. You'll be great. You'll be superior.
Eat of this tree. Throw off the yoke of God. Throw
off the scepter of God. Be God yourself. Bow to your
own will, not to God's will. Worship the flesh, not God. So look at verse 6. And when
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, now listen to
me a moment. Satan probably, I said probably,
Satan probably ate that fruit in her presence. He probably
said to her, while you will not die, watch Eve, and he reached
over and took the fruit, whatever it was. And he ate it, and he
didn't die. Nothing happened to him. He did
not die, he did not change, it did not affect him one bit. And
when she saw, she saw something, she saw that the tree was good
for food. That here was one who ate it, this beautiful being,
this superior being, this one who seems to know so much, and
speak so gibbly and crafty and cunningly, it didn't affect him,
she saw it was good for food. And it was pleasant to the eyes,
and it was a tree desired to make one wise. Those are the
three marks of the world. It was good for food. Christ
said, that's the lust of the flesh. It was pleasant to the
eyes. That was the lust of the eyes.
And it was desired to make one wise, superior, great. That's the pride of life. And
Christ said, these three things, the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life, these are the world. And
the Heavenly Father is not in these things. And the scripture
says, she saw that it was good for food, and she took the fruit
and ate it. Now hold on right here. She ate
it. And I say this, probably nothing
happened. That's right. Probably nothing
happened. When Eve ate of the tree, probably
nothing happened. It was upon Adam eating the fruit,
the forbidden fruit, that the fate of man depended. Eve was
not the federal head of the human race. Eve was not the representative
of the human race. Adam was. Adam was the head of
the human race. If Eve only ate of the fruit,
it would have affected her. Sure it would have affected her.
God would probably have made another woman. The Scripture
says, in Adam we died. The Scripture says, by one man
sin entered the world. The Scripture says in 1 Timothy
2, I suffer not a woman to teach, nor the use of authority. Adam
is the head of the woman, as Christ is the head of man. Adam
was the head. And so when Eve ate this fruit,
she was probably alone in this whole encounter, in this whole
deception, in this whole temptation. She ate of the fruit. No effect. It didn't bother her. So the
scripture says that she gave it to her husband. She found
Adam, wherever he was, she found him. And she gave it to him. And she told him she had already
eaten this forbidden fruit. And the scripture says, and Adam
ate it. Verse 6. Now look at verse 7.
And the eyes of them both were opened. Not when Eve ate it,
when Adam ate it. Adam wasn't deceived. He did
this willingly, deliberately. Eve was deceived. Eve was the
one that encountered the serpent. Eve was the one who was tricked
and deceived into eating the fruit. She took it and gave it
to Adam, and he willingly and intelligently, knowing what he
was doing, disobeying God, he ate that fruit. And when he did,
when he ate it, not when she ate it, when he ate it, Adam
is the head of the human race. Adam is the head of woman. Nothing
happened when Eve ate that fruit, but when Adam did, the scripture
says, their eyes were open. Oh yeah, their eyes were open,
but not to advance knowledge as they had been told, and not
to things pleasant as they had been promised, and not to things
beautiful as they had been told. and not to superior knowledge
as they had been promised, their eyes were opened to distress
and condemnation and damnation. They knew some things they never
knew before. Satan said they would. He said
they would. He said, you know some things
you don't know, and they did. First of all, they knew guilt.
They had never known guilt before. It's guilt that drives up the
soul, it's guilt that drives up the heart, it's guilt that
plagues men, it's guilt that fills the institution, it's guilt
that drives men and women mad, it's guilt, the guilt of sin,
the terrible, heavy burden of guilt. Adam said, the scripture
says, their eyes were opened, they saw they were naked. Naked. They knew fear, they hid themselves. They'd never run from God before.
They'd walked with God in the garden, they'd delighted in the
presence of God, they'd run to meet him, now they ran and hid.
Fear. They'd never known fear. They never knew shame. They began
to try to find some big leaves, the fig leaves, the big leaves
over in those oriental countries, and they got some fig leaves
and they tried to weave them together and make them some aprons
to cover their bodies because they were ashamed. They never
did know shame before. They never did know hate. When
God came and said, what have you done, Adam? Have you eaten
the tree that I told you not to eat of? He said, that woman.
He didn't say, my beloved wife. He said, that woman. He now hated
her. That woman that you made, she gave me that fruit. He didn't
stand and protect her and say, Lord, it's my fault. Against
thee and thee only have I sinned. I confess. Adam, it's confession
time now. Adam, you've always been honest
with me before. Adam, you've always spoke the
truth. Not now. He knows something he didn't
know before. He knows sin. He's a fallen creature now. He's
no longer honest. He's no longer truthful. He's
no longer bold to confess what he knows in his heart. That woman,
she did it. She did it. It's all her fault.
It's not my fault at all. And then he acted foolishly.
He tried to hide from God. My friends, their eyes were open.
Something happened. When Adam reached out and put
his hand on that tree of which God had commanded him, thou shalt
not eat, Adam died spiritually. Guilt, fear, shame, condemnation,
hate, foolishness came into his heart. He died. And that all
came on me and you at that very time. By one man's disobedience,
all of us were made sinners. By one man's sin, Adam, by one
man's sin, Adam's sin, death came upon all men. for all sin. And you and I, that's the plague
upon us now. Guilt, fear, shame, hate, foolishness. But I'll tell you this, everything
Adam lost in that garden, we have restored in Christ. In Christ
Jesus our Lord, we have been recovered from all these things.
Take guilt. Scripture says there's therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. In Christ
we are holy, unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight. In Christ our
record is clear, our hearts are clean, our hands are pure in
Christ. No guilt. And in fear, perfect
love casteth out fear. In Christ we can say, Father,
Father. We don't run hide from God anymore.
We come boldly into his presence through the veil, through that
blessed way opened for us by the blood of our Savior. No more
fear. No more fear. He's driven out the spirit of
fear and given us the spirit of adoption. Shame? Scripture
says, he that believeth on the Lord shall not be ashamed. No
more are we ashamed. We're naked creatures in his
sight. He sees not only our flesh, but our hearts. God looketh not
on the outward countenance, but on the heart. We're ashamed of
ourselves, but not in Christ. In Christ we're clean and pure. Hate? No more. We say with David,
against thee have I sinned. and done this evil. No more putting
the blame somewhere else. We say, Lord, I could wish myself
a curse from Christ for my brethren according to the flesh. Like
Moses, Lord, save them or brought me out of the book which thou
hast written. Foolishness? Adam taught foolishness. Adam
demonstrated foolishness. But in Christ, we have wisdom. We don't run from God. We don't
try to cover our sins with good works. He covers them with his
blood. We have everything that Adam
lost in that garden, the way to God, the truth of God, and
the life of God, we have regained in Christ Jesus. And then in
Genesis 3 here, you have the first promise of Christ's coming.
In Genesis 3, verse 15, God said to the serpent, to Satan, Satan,
I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed. He'll bruise your head, you'll
bruise his heel. That's Christ. The seed of woman
is Christ, the virgin-born Son of God. He was born of a virgin
that he might not partake of the sin of Adam, the fall of
Adam. The seed of woman shall crush
the power of Satan, destroy his government, but Satan will bruise
his heel, that is, his human nature. And then in verse 21,
you have the first picture of Christ. We have the first promise
of Christ in 15. 21, the picture of Christ. When
God said, Adam and Eve, those fig leaves won't cover your nakedness. So he killed an animal, there
you have the shedding of blood, substitution. And he covered
Adam and Eve with the coats of skin, there you have the robe
of Christ's righteousness. The shedding of blood and the
covering of our guilt with the righteousness of his Son. These
tapes are available on cassette recordings, if you'd like to
have them. They are for sale, you write to me, I'll send you
a list of tapes you may obtain. Until next Lord's Day at this
same time, God bless you, everyone.

What Happened In The Garden?

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What Happened In The Garden?

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