Introduction:

        1.God made everything and He said that it was very good

        2. Gen 3 shows us how we got into the mess that we are in

                a. The devil does not want people to understand Gen 3

                b. He certainly does not want people to take it literally

                c. His doom is pronounced and he doesn’t want people to know that

                d. Some say that Adam and Eve weren’t real people. The account in Gen 3 is a made up story explaining how evil got here

                     1. Come on – a talking snake

                     2. This is a story to illustrate how we all make wrong choices

        3. If Gen 3 is a myth, then Jn 3 makes no sense at all

                a. If Gen 3 is a myth, then tear the book of Romans out of the Bible                          

                b. No one truly appreciates the gospel until they realize what happened here in Gen 3

                c. Gen 3 is one of the most important chapters of the Bible

        4. In Gen 3 man is not seen evolving – he is not going upward

                a. He is seen going down – devolving

                b. At the beginning of Gen 3 – there is harmony, no chaos, no conflict, no struggles, no pain, no death

                c. At the end of Gen 3, we see man on a downward slide – disorder, chaos, conflict, struggle, pain, death

        5. The story of man is the story of moral and spiritual decline

                a. In Gen 4, the first murder is recorded

                b. We see the first polygamy – a perversion of marriage

                c. By the time we get to Gen 6 we find out that man was so evil and wicked that God saw that the thoughts of man’s heart were only evil continually.

                d. It was so bad that only 8 people were saved and the rest of humanity was destroyed in the flood

                e. Those 8 had within them the seeds of sin

                f. Drunkenness is seen after Noah departs the ark

                g. Homosexuality is seen in Gen 19

                h. We see idolatry in Gen 31

                i. We see rape in Gen 34 and mass murder at the end of Gen 34

                j. In Gen 38 we see prostitution

        6. Let’s pick up 2:16-17 that we skipped last week

I.    The Statutes – 2:16-17

·    The Garden of Eden had laws or statutes.

·    All the universe is under laws.

·    The stars, moon, sun etc. all operate under laws. If they broke these laws it would be chaos.

·    We speak of the "law of gravity."

·    Laws do not have to be evil. When made by good people, they are for the good of mankind as were God's laws.

A.  The Positive of the Statutes – vs 16

     16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

1.     Many are critical of God and say His commandments restrict pleasure, take a good look at the positive in the statutes for Eden.

2.     They were liberal and blessed.

3.     God's laws are not to kill joy but to provide for it and protect it.

4.     And the positive compensates for any negative statute that is given.

B.  2. The Prohibition in the Statutes – vs 17

        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.

1.     The smallness of the prohibition.

a)    Just one tree of a great multitude is prohibited.

b)    The smallness of the restriction counters the lie that would have us believe that God's laws are too restrictive and take away all our pleasures.

c)    It has always been human nature to exaggerate Divine restrictions.

d)    One of the statues was negative, but was for the good of the residents.

e)    Do no despise God's negative statutes.

2.     The sentence in the prohibition

a)    Death is the sentence.

b)    And it is executed the moment ("day") of the transgression.

c)    Some argue that Adam and Eve did not "die" the moment they ate the forbidden fruit. But they did.

d)    Not physically, but spiritually.

e)    They immediately became "dead in trespasses and sin" (Ephesians 2:1).

f)      That is worse than physical death which came later to Adam and Eve as a result of their sin.

3.     We don’t know much about this tree

a)    We don’t know what the fruit was

b)    It is often called an apple

II.  The Serpent – vs 1a

        1a Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made…

A.  Satan Inhabits the Serpent

1.     Comparing scripture /scripture we know Satan was in the serpent

2.     Satan takes the form of a serpent or inhabits a serpent

3.     Re 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, 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.

4.     It shows that he is cunning or subtle – he was a smooth operator

5.     In 2 Cor we are told that the serpent can transform himself into an angel of light so it is no surprise that he could transform himself into a serpent

B.  What is Satan’s Origin?

1.     This verse does not say anything about the origin of Satan

2.     If God created Satan then God would be responsible for creating evil and that is a problem

3.     A good and holy God could not originate evil and He didn’t

4.     The name “Satan” means “adversary”

a)    He is called in the Bible “the accuser of the brethren”

b)    We see him in Job 1-2 doing just that

5.     His goal is to render man ineffective at giving glory to God

6.     Whenever we see Satan in the Bible, we see him acting consistently with the way he acts here

7.     When God created him – his name was Lucifer, bearer of light, shining one

a)    The shining one became the accuser

b)    The Bible does not tell us when – Ezek 28:11 ß

c)    Satan was active in leading praise to God in heaven at one time

d)    There was no defect in the way God created him – he was perfect – vs 15

e)    Iniquity was found in him – it was not from God

f)      His sin was pride – Isa 14:12-15  ß

g)    He wanted to be like God – he wanted God’s throne

h)    Instead of leading the worship he wanted to receive the worship due to God

i)     A third of the angels fell into sin with Satan and they became his demons

III. The Strategy – vs 1b-3

        1b …And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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.

A.  Mistake 1 – Beginning a Dialogue with the Devil

1.     Devil said to the woman – the woman said to the serpent

2.     She knew this was not the Lord speaking - she should have left

3.     He still seeks to deceive us…

B.  The First Question in the Bible

1.     “Yea, hath God said….?”

2.     Everything has been certain up to this point

3.     Satan comes along and starts questioning things

4.     This question was designed to cause Eve to distrust God and to doubt His goodness

5.     Satan makes God’s minimal prohibition a repressive prohibition

a)    Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden

b)    Eve corrected Satan, but the seeds of doubt were already planted

c)    Satan wants to portray God as being strict, narrow, repressive as being unreasonable -- He is still doing that today

6.     Eve adds something about touching the tree

a)    We can’t even touch the tree – what is wrong with touching it

b)    God is mean, God is unreasonable

c)    God didn’t say anything about touching the tree

d)    Beware when anyone questions God’s Word and goodness - they are a mouthpiece of the devil

7.     When you are going through problems and you begin to doubt God’s goodness, that is from the devil

IV. The Seduction – vs 4,5 ß

A.  Satan Proclaims His False Gospel

1.     “You will not surely die!”

2.     Satan moves in for the kill – he goes for the jugular vein

3.     There are no consequences for sin

4.     Disobey God – He is mean anyway

5.     Disobey God and you will be free from His unreasonable restrictions

B.  Satan Wants Us to Be Our Own God

1.     “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil”

2.     This is what Satan did in heaven - He wanted to be like God

V.   The Sin – vs 6

A.  There was Sin in Her Mind

1.     Eve had begun to doubt the goodness of God

2.     She doubted the Word of God

3.     Doubted sincerity of God when He said He would deal with sin

B.  There Was Sin in Her Emotions

1.     The sin in her mind captured here emotions

2.     She saw that the tree was good for food

3.     It was pleasant to the eyes

C.  The Sin in Her Mind and Emotions Captured Her Will

1.     The sin got into her mind - She took the fruit

2.     It captured her emotions

3.     Her mind and emotions captured here will

4.     She decided to take the fruit and eat it

5.     Satan won the battle long before you get to vs 6

D.  The Steps in Her Sin

1.     There was an appeal to her physical appetite

a)    She saw that the fruit was good for food

b)    This was a perverted appetite since there was plenty of other good food available

c)    This perverted appetite was provoked by her distrust of God and her suspicion that God was keeping something from her

2.     Then Satan appealed to her emotional appetite

a)    It was pleasant to the eyes

b)    There were plenty of other things in the garden to satisfy her desire for beauty

c)    Because of what Satan had planted in her mind, she was drawn to the beauty of this fruit

d)    It probably was not any more attractive than any of the other fruit in the garden – it was perfect

3.     Satan appealed to her intellectual appetite

a)    It was a tree to make one wise

4.     By now it was a small step to take the fruit and ate it

5.     Satan has not changed – he still uses these same steps today

a)    He still casts doubt on God’s goodness - God’s Word

b)    He still wants you to be your own god - disobey God

c)    He wants you to think that there are no consequences to sin

d)    He is still a liar

6.     Don’t fall for the same old line