170521 Did God Actually Say?

Genesis 3:1-3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

At the end of the six creation days God saw everything that he had made and announced that it was very good. We do not know how much time passed between Genesis 1:31 and the events in Genesis chapter 3. During that time, which may have lasted much longer than we would assume from reading the text, there must have been a rebellion in the angelic world with many angels turning against God and becoming evil. With regard to the human race the first sin was rebellion against God. Their sin struck at the basis for knowledge when Eve chose to doubt God’s word.

Today we live in a world that, by and large, no longer accepts the first few chapters of Genesis as historically accurate. Many biblical scholars believe that they can do away with the accuracy of these events without losing Christianity. It can’t be done! The importance of the events in chapters 1 through eight is much greater than most people realize. As we move forward through the message today I want to give you the information you need to understand the complications of Adam’s and Eve’s sin. This story cannot be a myth for all of salvation history depends upon it!

Eve’s sin, followed by Adam’s, was to replace God. Let’s look at Genesis 3:4-5. But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

In response to Satan’s question, “Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? ” Eve was not careful to quote God correctly. Her reply was, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, (so far so good) neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” So far as we know God did not say that they should not touch the tree. Eve’s response gave an opening to Satan who said to her, “You will not surely die.” And then he added, “you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The knowledge of good and evil does not cause us to be like God, instead, it causes us to feel guilty. “Knowing good and evil” does not characterize God in any way. The prophet Habakkuk speaks to God with these words, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,” (Habakkuk 1:13) God is the author of everything good.

We do not know how long the man and the woman were in the Garden of Eden together. They were naked and not ashamed, nor afraid. The knowledge of good and evil comes from being tempted and falling for the temptation! James, our Lord’s brother, pointed out: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” (James 1:13) After that, for the first time, humankind felt a sense of shame. Until then the magnificence of the human form in its perfect condition surrounded them and they never sensed any reason to reject it.

When God called out to Adam, “Where are you?”, He was not seeking information. And when he calls to you and I, he knows exactly where we are and what we need to do to be conformed to the image of his will — that we could be born again.

It is very important that we insist on the historical truthfulness of the fall. If these things did not happen as reported we are still in our sins and we will never be able to pay the price. Remember…

These events were very real and they affect us personally. Let’s look at Romans 5:12. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned —

Eve used her own judgment rather than trusting in God. She saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, beautiful to look at, and was a shortcut to reach their life’s goals. After all, God must have wanted them to be like him since the Bible is very clear that through faith we become the children of God. After all, isn’t that exactly what God wanted?

I can’t imagine the level of admiration these two people felt for the God who walked with them in the Garden! To be like Jesus! It surely seems that should be our goal!

Satan’s promise was a shortcut to God’s intended goal for them. That tactic of his continues to plague us today. New Christians are not usually taught that Christianity did not begin with them. In witnessing to an unbeliever Christians often say, “That’s all you have to do.” I submit to you that becoming a Christian is never a simple matter. And having come to faith in Christ there is no shortcut to godly living. The master of deception is still at work in our world. People are being deceived today just as…

Eve was deceived. Let’s look at Jeremiah 17:9-10. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? ¹⁰ “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

God’s word to Jeremiah spells out the condition of Eve when she stood before Satan in the Garden. When sin entered the world through deception it causes everyone to be born subject to being deceived while looking for a shortcut to heaven.

God will not leave us in our condition. He will surround us with grace and truth. God does not anywhere deny that unbelievers can do good in many ways. God simply denies that they can do any spiritual good or be good in relation to God. Without the work of Christ in our lives we, like all unbelievers, are darkened in our understanding and alienated from the life of God due to our hardness of heart. (Ephesians 4:18). Every person is born with a hard heart and in desperate need for God to replace that heart of stone with a heart of flesh. We should make this to be our prayer for our unsaved friends that God would soften their hearts. Opening them up to allow their actions to change from being totally unable to please God (Romans 8:8) to being children of God — rather than slaves to sin.

When mother Eve sinned…

God held Adam accountable. Let’s look at Genesis 3:9. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

From the very beginning of the human race God has looked to men as being responsible for spiritual leadership. I would guess that most men think that this is an option they can turn down. Many men sing the old hymn, “Take my wife and let her be consecrated Lord to thee.” When they should be crying out, “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee”

I’ve been very pleased with most of the men in our church who are stepping up to lead their families to trust in God. In recent months there has been spiritual and numerical growth in the men in this church.

When Eve sinned God required the man to admit his condition. When God asked, “Where are you?” He was not seeking information for himself. God was seeking the heart of the man that included a confession of his condition. When the story of the Fall is told there seems to be an assumption by most people that Satan caught Eve alone and deceived her. The Bible is very clear, “she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6)

He was with her, she wasn’t alone. Throughout the ages men have shirked their responsibility to be the spiritual leaders of the home. It could be said that many men stood aside and watched their wife be deceived into sin. Guys pay attention when it comes to a time of reckoning you will not be standing aside while your wife pays the price. God will speak to you as being responsible for her. You don’t have to act responsibly to be responsible. In God’s eyes men are to lead their home in spiritual matters. This truth is maintained from the Garden of Eden to the end of the world. It seems very difficult for us to understand that this man and woman could walk and talk with God every day and still fall into Satan’s trap! These events very likely had happened after several months not the couple of days it looks like in the Bible. Think about all the things that had happened. God had built a man out of mud and breathed life into him. He had brought thousands of animals to the man to see what he would call them. God had allowed the man to experience aloneness. This whole process would have taken a long time. Adam experienced a personal relationship with God unlike any other in history except that of Jesus Christ. Twice in the entire history of the human race an absolutely perfect man existed. Adam, until the sinned, and Jesus all his life.

When Adam was presented with the woman that was taken out of his side he recognized her relationship to him and now the two of them could walk with God. How long? I don’t know but it wasn’t just a few days. These people were not subject to forgetting their relationship with God after all they did want to be like him.

I’m reminded of Peter who spent about three years following Jesus from place to place only to tell a serving girl “Woman, I do not know him” when Jesus was being tried.  How could he do that! Jesus had even told him it would happen! There are some encouraging words in Jesus’ warning. He said to Peter, “when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:32) Jesus certainly knew that Peter would repent and be restored to a right relationship with God. Following after Jesus or walking with God in the garden should have led to a strong faith.

We don’t recognize that the sin in our life is rebellion against God. In fact we usually don’t even consider sin to be sin. In Wayne Grudem’s, Systematic Theology, sin is defined: “Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.” (page 490). Such failure is always an act of rebellion and…

Rebellion against God is foolish. Let’s turn to Psalm 14:1. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.

This must be an important passage of Scripture because it is repeated in total in Psalm 53. All sin is foolish nothing good can come of it. Throughout the book of Proverbs it is always “the fool” who indulges in sin. People will often persuade themselves that they have good reasons for sinning. A careful examination of our actions will show that in every case sin just does not make sense.

Adam and Eve exercised the highest level of foolishness in listening to Satan, and then letting him deceive them. The consequences of their sin reaches down through the ages because…

When Adam fell into sin he condemned mankind. Let’s look at Ephesians 2:1-3. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Thinking back to Romans 5:12 we are reminded that sin came into the world through one man — and that man was Adam. If Adam did not exist then the initial sin of mankind does not exist and Jesus’ death on the cross means nothing! If there was no original sin then there is no inherited guilt. If there is no inherited guilt there can be no inherited righteousness.

If it is not fair for us to be represented by Adam it is equally unfair to be represented by Christ and to have his righteous given to us by God. Think about that!

When King David committed the sickening sin of adultery, followed by murder, he was confronted by Nathan the prophet. A part of David’s repentance is shown in Psalm 51. There he said that he was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin his mother conceived him. So we see that Adam, the perfect man and David the king, a man after God’s heart, had a lot in common. They both suffered the consequences of their sin and paid the price ordained by God. In each of our lives there comes a time when we must choose to believe God, and therefore obey God, or we choose to rebel against God and suffer the negative consequences. When we do rebel against God we must come to him in repentance. Of first importance is the need to be a child of God. We must receive Jesus and believe in his name and submit ourselves to him as Lord. This can be your day of being freed from the bondage of sin.

All scriptures quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society

170514 What Was Not Good?

Genesis 2:18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

At the end of the sixth day of creation the Bible reports that God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And then, 19 verses later, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone”! Is this a conflict? God made Adam as the head of a new part of creation. We need to note that Genesis 1:27 ends with the words “male and female he created them”. So in the original creation, though we can’t see her yet, Adam contained Eve and all who would descend from her. Let’s look at this whole process from the beginning.

First, let’s consider what the world of science has to say. Actually there is a lot of disagreement among scientists concerning the beginning of the universe. The theory that currently seems to be most popular is the “Big Bang” theory. According to this theory several billion years ago matter spontaneously appeared compressed into a very small pebble of rock. This compressed matter exploded into all that we see around us. The various galaxies came into being and are still moving away from each other. Over a period of billions of years the earth, sun and moon along with all the other billions of stars came into being.

I don’t think there’s any advantage in our going on with this discussion. I am certainly convinced that this did not happen, but if it had, the question is still nagging, “Who made the pebble?” The Big Bang Theory requires a lot of blind faith. It certainly does not answer the questions that are raised by the theory. There is no evidence that anything ever burst into being from nothing! Unlike most of the world’s religions the Bible is very simple and easy to understand.

The Bible opens with creation. Let’s look at Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Throughout the Bible there is a running theme that is worth looking at. In Isaiah chapter 42 God is described as the one who created the heavens and stretched them out. God is the one who gives breath to the people and spirit to those who walk on the earth. In Paul’s letter to the Colossians Jesus is described as the image of the invisible God. By him all things were created whatever they might be. The biblical examples are much easier to understand than the scientific attempt to get rid of God. Beginning with creation

Each day afterward produced a different part of the plan..

On the first day God spoke light into existence. So far as we know, everything was dark before that moment. Many have argued that this could not be the proper sequence of events because, according to Genesis, the sun and the moon was not in place yet! If we look ahead in the Bible to Revelation 21 we see the new heaven and the new earth. Just as in the beginning there was no need of sun or moon. Because the glory of God gives it light! On day one of the creation God gave his glory as light.

On the second day of creation God divided the water, which covered the earth, into rivers, lakes and oceans I believe this happened by raising the ground above the water, and separating the clouds and humidity from the water on the earth.

On the third day, God finished establishing the separation between earth and water and called vegetation into being.

On the fourth day God spoke lights into being that we call stars. Along with the other stars God created our sun and moon both of which are essential to life on earth.

On the fifth day God called forth all the living beings in the oceans and filled the sky with birds. God instructed all these creatures to be fruitful and multiply.

On the sixth day God called for all animal life. And then to top off his creation God called mankind into existence and…

Like God — mankind is plural! Let’s look at Genesis 1:26. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

The first word that is translated “God” in the Hebrew is “Elohim” which is a plural word. We know that God is identified in the Bible as Trinity. This use of a plural name for God occures here and later in chapter 3 verse 22 and chapter 11 verse seven. When God spoke to Isaiah, in the year that King Uzziah died, and said “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” This is just a small sample of the many ways that God is shown as a plural being in the Old Testament as well as in the New.

Since mankind is created in the image of God it’s important for us to consider what that means. Some cult groups, like the Mormons, believe that God the Father has a physical body like ours. But that is taught nowhere in the Bible. What the Bible does teach is that God is spirit. When God made Adam God breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living being. Adam is a unified person having a body and a soul. Throughout the Bible, human beings are described as either “body and soul” or “body and spirit”. We are a soul who lives in a body.

In Genesis chapter 1 verse 27 we see that being created in the image of God included the concept of being male and female. The Bible does not tell us how long Adam existed before Eve was brought forth. It seems to me that…

Adam needed to realize his aloneness. Let’s look at Genesis 2:19-22. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

The Lord God was not caught by surprise when he observed that the man should not be alone. The lonely isolation of Adam needed to be brought to his attention in a very strong way. So God placed the man in the Garden of Eden and then brought by him every one of the animals he had created. Adam was told that he should give names to all the creatures. Now this wasn’t done for God’s enlightenment it was done for Adam’s understanding. If indeed all the animals God created were brought by him many days would’ve passed in that project. There must’ve been many thousands of these creatures.

As the animals came by for Adam’s inspection there would have been two, or more, of each. Perhaps by the time they came by him there were already little ones following behind. In most cases there would have been a larger animal accompanied by smaller one. Male and female would have paraded by Adam. The Bible tells us that, “for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.” This was no news to God so it must’ve been Adam who came to this realization. During the time of examining all the animals Adam would have slowly began to wonder why he was alone and what could he do about it?

At the end of the naming ceremony we are not told anything about Adam’s realization or what kind of feelings he may have had. I believe that he might have been very disappointed even to the point of depression.

The first anesthesia was given by God that night. A deep sleep came upon Adam. Once he was totally sedated God took something out of his side. Even though many Bibles translate the word as “rib” it could just as easily be translated as “something”. The word “rib” is a plural feminine noun. As it should be because the “something” taken from Adam was constructed into a woman.

Let’s use our imaginations a little. Adam awoke from a very deep sleep and he found a change had happened to him! Perhaps the scar on his side was tender to touch. I suspect it was not stitched and certainly not stapled but instead was probably glued shut. As Adam came awake feeling his side suddenly he is aware that another person is there. The only other person he had ever known was God himself! Now instead he sees something like him. For several days now he had been in the process of naming all the other creatures. This one didn’t fit into any of the categories he had already seen. I think we can assume that Adam did not have a mirror. He would possibly have seen himself reflected in a pool of water but his understanding of what he looks like might have been limited. So it could have taken him a little time to realize what had happened.

Now let’s look and see how the Bible treated this encounter.

Adam reacted and it was recorded as poetry. Let’s look at Genesis 2:23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

I respect the integrity of Scripture and certainly don’t want to show any irreverence or lack of respect but I believe that Adam’s first reaction is not recorded. It would’ve gone something like this, “Wow what’s this?” But first, I suspect there would’ve been a reasonable period of time of bated-breath silence. The first view of woman would have had a profound effect on this man. I do believe they were both absolutely perfect in their physical makeup. You see, all of the genetic makeup of mankind existed in those two creatures. I believe that Eve, like Adam, was beautiful beyond description! There certainly is no room here for millions of years of evolution. God did not begin with minerals, water and lightning to create a living organism. He simply spoke them into existence as part of his perfect plan.

The historicity of the special creation of Eve from Adam is shown in the New Testament. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11, verses eight through 12, Paul says that man was not made from woman, but woman from man, and man is born of woman therefore neither is independent of the other.

It seems that it would have been easy for Adam to model the role of a perfect husband. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians chapter 5, beginning with verse 28, we have the instruction that, “husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.” There is no doubt that Adam understood that this woman represented his own body. After all she was always with him and she had been taken out of his side.

Let’s leave Adam and Eve to their courting and look at the root of their fall.

There were two “special trees” in the garden. Let’s look at Genesis 2:9. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

These two trees were placed there as a part of God’s plan for human existence. One tree was forbidden to them because they should not ever feel the burden of guilt from sin. From the very beginning of creation sin pays its wage — DEATH! Not an instant death but an absolutely inescapable death.

The other special tree was the tree of life. When God observed that the man had committed the crime of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he immediately took action to prevent the man and woman from eating of the tree of life. The only thing worse than eating of the tree of knowledge would have been then to eat from the tree of life and live forever in their sinful condition. Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden and placed a flaming sword in front of the gate.

There is no longer a Garden of Eden on earth. It was wiped out in the worldwide flood in Noah’s day if not before. But we should not despair. We might not be able to find the Garden now but in the future the tree will be made available to us. Not just the tree but 12 trees of life each bearing its fruit in a different month. According to John’s vision of Revelation, chapter 22, the curse will be lifted and the water of life will flow from under the throne of God and along its banks the tree will flourish.

God revealed that part of his plan was that man should recognize that it was not good for him to be alone. Simply telling that to the man would not have pressed the truth into his mind. Bringing all the animals before the man made him see that all these creatures came in two versions while he was the only one of his kind. God has a mate for most of his people. At the same time some may have the gift of celibacy, as Paul did, but for most there is a partner to stand side by side in the service of the Lord. The second most important event in a person’s life is the choice of a mate. The most important event is a response to the call of God to salvation. To confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead is essential to salvation.

All scriptures quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society