Thank you, Jesus, that you bid us come. Thank you that you never cast out those who come to you. Let us not have faint hearts, but hearts with overflowing joy and thanks and confidence for the day of Christ. Knowing that we are covered and we are victors. So thank you for our victory. We share in. It’s yours. Lord, we pray you would bless our tithe and our offering. And we would joyfully, gladly give, Lord, the first and the best of the harvest you continually give us. Lord, let us joyfully live sacrificially for you. Lord, bless all that we do, every part of Providence. Lord, every relationship, every ministry. Lord, we just pray you would have your way here. Lord, you would speak to us. You would speak to us this evening through the power of your word. We pray that in Christ’s name. Amen.

Thank you, Pastor. If you have your Bibles with you, we’re going to be in Genesis chapter 3.

If not, it’ll be up here on the screen.

Here’s the word of God. Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden? The woman said to the serpent, From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said you shall not eat from it or touch it or you will die. The serpent said to the woman, You surely will not die. For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. And when the woman went, When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate. And she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Here in Genesis, we’re going to look deeper into the details leading to the fall of man, the sin in the garden that brought death, sorrow, and suffering to all of us. But before we get into the text, I want to begin by focusing your mind on the subject of this sermon. It’s God and His Word. God and His Word. Earlier in the Genesis account, God had spoken directly to Adam. It may sound obvious, but I feel it’s necessary and it’s worth stating that God had communicated Himself to Adam in a way that was necessary. In a way that was intelligible. It was understandable. Comprehendable. It was logical. This implies something twofold. That Adam was able to receive and enjoy God’s relation to him. And two, that Adam was accountable to this experience and to this acknowledge. Especially when it comes to the promise of death where he had to disobey God’s command to not eat of the forbidden tree. Church, we, like Adam, also have received direct communication from God. He at times has spoken as by mouth, like He did to Adam or to Moses. He’s spoken to us through messengers, through the angels and prophets or apostles. God has even spoken through a mule. In these last days, He’s spoken to us finally through His Son. And all that God has said and desired for us to know have been preserved for us in Scripture. I desire for you to have a high view of Scripture and know with great confidence that they are in fact God’s Word. This is God’s literal Word. It’s an amazing thought. Something to ponder. In these words, God has shown us, who He is and what He desires. They testify of themselves that they’re true. The Holy Spirit testifies in us that they’re true. Jesus Himself testifies that they are true. That Word become flesh, testifying of the Word preserved in text. Jesus both holds men accountable to what God had said in the written Word. You can find that in the New Testament. And He also appeals to them as a source of truth and authority when tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Like Adam, we are both able to receive the blessing of all the Scripture’s promise to us. And we’re also accountable to all that they command. God has spoken. Jesus says that His sheep will hear His voice. We’ll see in our text, that God has spoken. We’ll see in our text, both God and His Word being called into question and warred against. Just like we witness every day in our own lives. You can open any news media outlet. You can scroll anyone’s timeline on Facebook. You can eavesdrop on a conversation outside of the market. You could even search your own heart. And you’re bound to find snake talk. Be prepared then. As the snake talks, be prepared to stand firm on the Word as your source of truth and means of salvation and godliness. It is sufficient to inform your life on these matters. Be ready to give an account. Be prepared to defend it against those who will most certainly challenge you. There are challengers. There have been since the first man, we see in our passage. And there will continue to be until Jesus cuts off the last enemy. Until then, take up the sword of the Spirit. Prepare yourself for battle. And let your battle cry be that God has said. Rest your heart and your mind and your body and your soul on God and His Word. Believe God and His Word. So come now to the beginning where Moses gives an account of a serpent that God had made having dialogue with the woman, with Adam’s wife. And he tells us a bit of the nature of the creature, namely that it was the most crafty beast of the field. The serpent, as God had made it, had a way of dealing that exceeded all other animals. It was discerning, sensible, judicious, capable of assessing, situations, and the actors in them. And quickly, we’re told that the serpent began speaking with the woman. I take that to be literal speech. We’ll find out exactly what was said in the speaking. But first, I need you to know a little bit more about the serpent. The text simply says serpent. There are no proper names given to him. But you know the story. This is Satan. Right? Satan deceived Eve in the garden. But nowhere in the passage is Moses going to tell you that. So why do we assume that it’s Satan? Well, God has spoken in the whole of the Scriptures. And we let the Scriptures interpret the Scriptures. If you’ll go to Revelation 12, verse 9, it says, The great dragon was thrown down, and the serpent of old, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth. And his angels were thrown down with him. In Revelation 20, verse 2, it says, He laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And then in John chapter 8, verse 44, it tells us a little bit of the nature of the serpent, the old dragon. He says, You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning. And does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature. For he is a liar, and the father of lies.

So the serpent is, in fact, being used as an instrument of Satan. And it makes sense of why the one who is the deceiver, the father of lies, would choose a creature with a nature like a snake. Lastly, I want you to know the meaning of the name Satan. It means adversary or opponent. Satan is disguising himself as one of God’s good creatures. And he begins to make war with the image bearers of God. And so he begins to make war with God himself. I shouldn’t say he begins, because he had already began that. But he continues making war with God himself. This is his aim. This is his aim. When he poses that seemingly innocent question, did God really say? He wasn’t calling into question whether God had spoken or not. Satan knew God spoke. And Satan knew that Eve knew God spoke. He wasn’t calling into question what he actually said. As in, did Eve hear exactly what God said or not? No, Satan is using this to build an argument that will tempt Eve to question her. belief in the character and the authority of God and in what he had said the motive of God so Satan strings up his war bow and he fires the first flaming arrow that’s the temptation to disbelieve the goodness of God Satan attempts this by addressing the fact that God had given a restriction in the garden did God really say you couldn’t eat from any tree you wanted he wants Eve to doubt the goodness and the liberality of God because he had placed some limit on them but what’s the truth in chapter 2 Moses tells us of the great blessings and the abundance that God had lavished them with when God created Adam and he breathed in him life and caused him to become a living soul he then caused every tree that is not only good to look at but it’s good for the body to grow up out of the ground he didn’t place him in the wilderness or in a tundra or in the desert or any other wild and dangerous place he put him in a garden he brought every animal to him to give a name to as he saw fit and he charged him to rule over the creation he not only saw the need for Adam to have a companion suitable for him but he fulfilled it and gave him a wife to whom Adam exclaimed this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man the woman wasn’t deprived of any of these benefits she had the same generous provisions of God she’d been given to the man who was to rule over the creation and to care for it and to also care for her and she answers the serpent in a way that gives us reason to believe that she knew this in her heart as well as in her head she said she could eat from all the trees except just the one she also acknowledged the penalty of disobedience some commentators on that say that eve adds you shall not touch it that may be true what if she did isn’t it wise and prudent if god commands us to abstain from something that we wouldn’t go rubbing on it and standing as close to it as possible just to see what might happen and we’re not technically crossing the line so they may be right she may have added that but i think eve demonstrated wisdom and saying we’re not even going to touch it because god commanded us not to eat from it so don’t tempt yourself you got enough temptation she said that we could eat from all the trees except for one and by saying this she said that we could eat from all the trees except for one she put in the right perspective the level of freedom that god had given them compared to the one rule hasn’t god been good to us even in our fallen state even though we’ve rebelled we’ve been haters of god hasn’t he been good to us consider your own life sure you got some struggles some pain heartache loss hardship trials that you can’t find a reason for it seems meaningless for that we can look to our first parents and how they disbelieve the goodness of god and then we can look to ourselves and acknowledge our own guilt

but in that don’t we now have more reason to boast in and magnify our own guilt and praise the glorious goodness of god who even though we were dead in our sins he made us alive and he works even all those results of fallen man to our good every good thing that we have is from him our father though we were rebels and we cast him off to go out and squander our inheritance and fast living he welcomes us back home and he brings out the fattened calf and he clothes us and he restores us to his house hasn’t he been good

away then with the suggestion know the lie that god has treated us unfairly are god’s laws burdensome to you or do you delight in them first john five three says, but this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. That doesn’t mean that they’re not hard. It doesn’t mean that it’s easy to follow them. It means that we delight in them because they’re from God. A simple illustration can be had in a parent giving their child permission to play anywhere on the property that you would like, but stay away from the highway. Why? Because there’s great danger for a child on the highway. They’re not fit as a child to be near the highway. So for the good of the child, you give the restriction. And as a parent, you’re qualified to do that. But at the same time, you’ve also allowed great freedom in giving them free roam across the whole property.

So it is with God. Have you been convinced of God’s goodness found even in the commandment itself? Or do you think that God has placed restrictions on us for some reason other than for our good? God is to be trusted because he is God. He is trustworthy. Jesus said there is none good but God. So I ask you to take whatever that burden is on your mind, whatever it is that you feel like a boundary has been set on you and limitations have been given to you. Whether it’s by universal command, there’s something in the scripture that you just don’t like. Or there’s something in your life that God has prevented from happening or calls to happen. And Satan is tempting you to impugn God with unfairness over it. Take it to God and to his word and see. What becomes of it? You must admit that he has dealt extremely generous with us.

In his commentary on this passage, Calvin says that it’s at this juncture that Adam and Eve had neglected to punish the creature for his apostasy. And he was right. Standing in allegiance to the word of God, the sword should have been sharpened and the serpent’s head slashed. And the serpent’s head slashed. And the serpent’s head slashed. And the serpent’s head severed off. But it wasn’t. And so, the serpent remains. And if you’ve held your confession thus far, know that Satan is not done and you’ve got some standing left to do. But thanks be to God, you don’t stand alone. His word stands for us. And even though we’re sure to have trouble in this world, take heart because he’s overcome this world. And as Peter learned that Satan was seeking to sift him like wheat, he also learned that Jesus had prayed for him. Take heart. Satan will surely continue seeking to destroy your faith. But Jesus is praying for you. And Jesus is keeping you. And he’ll not let your soul be lost. And as the song says, he’ll never cast you out. He’ll never cast you out.

Satan, he speaks again to rebut Eve’s objection to an absurd insinuation of God’s dealing with them. In direct opposition now to the clear declaration of God, the opposer spews out venom. You surely will not die. He strings up another flaming arrow and fires it. The temptation to disbelieve the righteousness of God. God said in Genesis 2, 16 and 17, the Lord God commanded the man saying from any tree of the garden, you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat it. For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. He clearly stated the consequences of violating his law. You will surely die. He clearly stated the consequences of violating his law. You will die. Not just you will die, but you will surely die. In case you didn’t catch the weight of just plain die. Satan is so bold to say that God has lied. Were Satan’s claim to be true, it would mean that God isn’t God. For one, God cannot lie. He is truth. And two, the meat of what he had said was that disobedience requires consequences. Because he is just. He cannot allow sin to go unpunished. Or he is no longer God. Sin must be punished. Some of the kids will know this. Spurgeon’s Catechism. The question is, what is sin? The answer is sin is any lack of conformity to or transgression of the law of God. And it’s wages are death. It’s truly amazing when that fact is stated or when that scripture is quoted. When you’re sharing the gospel at the park or with a friend, how often it has zero effect on one who hears it. It must be that they’re deaf and they didn’t really hear you, right? Because surely one who hears something like that is shaken within themselves and driven by it. And so it’s truly amazing when that fact is stated or when that scripture is quoted. It’s driven to ask if there was any way out, if there was some backdoor escape. At the very least, at the risk of looking foolish, ask, what is death? But no, it’s because there’s no fear of God before their eyes. They’re calloused and unconcerned with the answer that’s going to be required of them. Satan has planted his claim deep within their hearts. There are still other people who believe that there is no fear of God. There are still other people who believe that they might give an account to God, but they’re going to make it in because they’re a pretty good dude or something like that. I’m a pretty good guy. I’ve done some good service in my life. But we know that all have fallen short of God’s glory. None measure up. There is none good. All have gone astray. And that’s demonstrated by the fact that all have been under the rule and the reign of death and made its entrance through Adam not long after the snake stopped flicking his tongue. What about you? How often have you parroted Satan’s claim that you surely will not die to yourself? Or how many times have you led someone else to take that position and you’ve minimized sin and its penalty?

Have you lived your life at times with an appetite? Have you lived an absent doctrine of God’s justice? Have you erased hell? Have you proved your unbelief in God’s judgment because you just won’t open your mouth to preach the good news and call to repentance those who are swiftly running to death? How have you excused yourself in violating what you clearly see in Scripture?

You surely will not die.

In the church, we take a stance against abortion, the profaning of marriage, adultery and racism and all sorts of filthy lifestyles, and rightfully so. We should stand on God’s word on those issues. We should also preach the gospel in the sense that we call people to repent and be forgiven of their sin because there’s forgiveness to be found in the gospel. There’s forgiveness to be found even for those sins. The blood of Jesus covers all sin.

But have we allowed the loudness and the mainstreamness of those sins in our culture and around the world to shadow out our own inward rebellion? Have we allowed such things to mask our own sin? Do not gossip. Do not lust. Do not be drunk. Do not be prideful. Do not covet. Or what about the positive commands? Be kind. Be gentle. Be generous with your wealth. Be sacrificial. Be patient in suffering. Be faithful to gather with the church. Be humble. Be humble. Are these not covetous? Are these not commanded of us? So, shall we not receive condemnation for disobedience of them? We most certainly shall. But again, I have good news. Because God is just, but he is also the justifier. You see, you need not look any further than the cross of Christ to see this on display. Sin was dealt with there. See the severity of God’s wrath. God’s judgment on our sins. They were by no means excused. They were expiated. Or atonement was made for them. Or they were covered in the blood. The righteous was given for the unrighteous. And the just was crushed for the just. The unjust. Forgive me. In Romans 3, 25, Jesus Christ, whom God publicly displayed as a propitiator, in his blood, through faith, this was to demonstrate his righteousness. Because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. What he’s saying is that God passed over these sins, but they were by no means going to be excused forever, swept under the rug. They were paid for by Christ on the cross. God is just, and he cannot allow them to go unpunished. Death is absolutely not a sin. It is absolutely required for disobedience. Praise be to Christ that he swallowed up death, but not first without dying himself. So take a long, a long, sober look at the cross and see Jesus, the very Son of God, hanging bloody on it. And then dare to utter those blasphemous words again, you shall not, surely. You shall not die.

Without further objection from the woman, the serpent continues on in his hatred of God and his word.

That third flaming arrow, the temptation to disbelieve the supremacy of God. He’s now tempting her, to throw off all authority of God. He wanted her to believe that she could know more than what God had shown to her and to assault God himself in seeking to be what only he can be. God knows that you’ll be like him. My mom has an old home video when I was a kid, probably eight or nine. She’s recording. We’re out in the middle of this dirt field. She’s filming me. And I was making revving motorcycle sounds. And I was kicking dirt behind me with some cleats or something that I was wearing. And in the video, you hear her say, Chase, stop it. So I asked, why? She responds, because I said so. We’ve laughed about that so many times. She doesn’t know why she said that. She thinks that maybe she was, I don’t know, her dad. My grandpa was with us. She doesn’t know why she said it. She thinks it’s funny and probably wouldn’t have said it. But, however silly it might seem for my mom to command me to stop kicking dirt in the middle of a dirt field, the heart of it is that my mom, an authoritative figure over me, gave me a command. And because I said so is enough solely based on that reason. The correct response would have been, yes, ma’am. And we can sit and say, well, you know, if we do that, we’re missing the point. When someone in authority gives you a command, the response is to obey. How much more than should we simply obey when God gives his command? There are times when we can ask why. It might be necessary to really understand the substance of the command. But when we ask why and then proceed to make our own judgment on whether it’s a sufficient answer or not and make our next decision based on the conclusion that we’ve made, we demonstrate that we don’t believe in the supreme authority of the one giving the command. And now we’re in great danger.

God gave the command. And in it, he desired to show this. I am God and you are man. Trust me and obey me. God decides what he reveals to us. God determines what is right and good. God determines the time and the bounds of people and nations. God builds up and God tears down. God establishes kings. God determines the number of days that are written for you. God gives and God takes away. God knows the past and the future and why they happen the way they do. God determines what are the times to weep and what are the times to sing. God determines what are the times to feast and what are the times to fast. God determines what is a man and what is a woman. God says what it is to love. God is the beginning and the end. And God does what he pleases in the heavens and on earth. And none can prevent God’s hand. God is altogether set apart. And there is none like him. Why then do we so often reject the supremacy of God? We do it in our daily lives. Why do we put God on trial for the things in our lives that we’re not content with?

Why do we seek knowledge past what he’s revealed to us?

One man said that where God has made an end to speaking, so should you. We sit here and conjecture and build these whole doctrines on things that we know nothing about because God hasn’t said anything about them.

Why do we want to be someone that God hasn’t made us to be? Or look like God hasn’t made us to look? Why do we want the gifts and talents of God to be? Why do we want the talents of others that we don’t possess? Why do we excuse ourselves and what we know to be against the will of God for the sake of comfort and pleasure and gain? Why will we twist clear commands and prohibitions in scripture to suit our desired lifestyles?

Why do we worship ourselves?

Because we believe the lie that we can be like God. Because of our unbelief in the goodness, righteousness, and authority of God and his word. When we don’t believe, we don’t submit. And the fruit of disbelief is disobedience resulting in death. The woman saw that the tree was good for the taste buds and it was pleasing to the eye, and once fidelity to God and his word were replaced by the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the idolatry of worshiping ourselves will no longer yield in obedience to the good, just, and supreme lawgiver. She saw that the tree was desirable to make one wise. But we know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So if wisdom is sought outside of the fear of God, it is no wisdom at all. It’s destruction. And the woman ate and gave to her husband and he ate. And so being led away in unbelief, pride, and arrogance, our parents fell and it resulted in death. Look around. Death is all around us.

No quarter of your mind or your heart or your body or this world that we live in is untouched by the curse of death. And we’ve not even tasted the fullness of it. Because there will come a time when unbelievers will be cast into outer darkness to suffer for eternity.

I thought we were preaching the gospel. Is there any hope? Is there any good news? As the fruit of disbelief is disobedience resulting in death, the fruit of belief is righteousness resulting in life. Romans 5, 15-17 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For on the one hand, the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation. But on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.

Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God’s great grace. Grace that is greater than all our sin. Because of Adam’s one sin, we’re all slaves to sin. But because of God’s one sin, because of grace and the righteousness of one, Jesus Christ, all who believe him are alive and free. Unbelief gave birth to sin and then came death. But belief in the one, Jesus Christ, gives righteousness and life. Back in the garden, right after the fall, God promised the seed would prevail. And through the ages, he proclaimed it. And today, the blood of Jesus does in fact speak a better word for you and for me.

God so loved the world that he gave his one and his only son that whoever believes in him will not die, surely, but have eternal life.

Ephesians 6, 16 says this, taking up the shield of faith. Take up the shield of believing God and what he has promised in his word. And you’ll be able to extinguish all those flaming arrows that Satan has been firing at you. Church, go home with this. Believe God and his word and you will live. Father, I thank you for your word. And I thank you that though we have sinned and fallen short, your grace has shone much brighter than that. And you’ve redeemed for yourself a people through the blood of your son.

We thank you, Lord, that the offer is to all. And if we would just believe in what you say and who you are, we’ll live. Thank you for that simple gospel, Lord. I pray that you would keep us in belief, that you would draw many to belief through our efforts and evangelism. That you would preserve us until the day of Christ and be with him forever. We thank you, Lord. We believe, Lord, for your word. In Jesus’ name.