Genesis 3

At the end of the second chapter, I want you to back up just a couple of verses.

We spent quite a bit of time on the first marriage last Sunday night.

Chapter 2, verse 24, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.

Now that is Moses' commentary on the historical narrative that took place up to verse 23.

Now you talk about a cool setup.

Adam and Eve, they're in the Garden of Eden.

They can eat of any of the trees of the garden they are hearts desire.

It was only one tree that God said that you cannot eat of that tree.

The day that you eat of that tree, you shall surely die.

They had dominion over all of the animals.

They lived in harmony and peace with the animals.

And it was Adam and Eve, and there was this unity, there was this harmony, there was this love, there was innocence.

And you think, man, that is just so cool.

Adam and Eve walking in fellowship with God.

But now we find what brought all of the problems, sin and death and the curse and all of the problems into this world of ours.

All of the sorrow, all of the sadness, all of the heartache, all of the misery, all of the pain came into the world as recorded for us here in Genesis chapter three.

When we think of Adam and Eve, one flesh, living in harmony and love, we think, man, you know, what has gone wrong with marriage today?

And we're gonna see that it's sin that came into the world.

Now, first of all, we see what went wrong and the corruption of Satan, verses one to 13.

Now, the serpent was more subtle than the beast of the fields, Genesis 3, one, which the Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said that you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Notice the question mark.

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 has said you shall not eat of it.

And then she adds a little something here that is fascinating, we'll talk about in just a moment.

Neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Now, the serpent said unto the woman, verse four, you will not surely die, for God does know that in the day that you eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods, uses the word Elohim, knowing good and evil.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and she did eat, and she gave also to her husband, and he did eat also.

And the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and they made themselves aprons.

And they heard the voice, or in the Hebrew, it's the sound of the Lord walking in the garden.

In the cool of the day, and Adam said unto his wife, or Adam and his wife, excuse me, hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among 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 I was afraid because I was naked, and so I hid myself.

And he said, who told thee that thou wast naked?

Hast thou eaten of the tree which I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

And the man said, the woman.

There's the passing of the dinosaur, there's the passing of the buffalo, and there's the passing of the buck.

This is the book of beginnings, and this is the first time it was done.

And look at the context, a man blaming his wife, and in reality, blaming God.

The woman thou gavest me to be with me.

She gave of me and I did eat.

And the Lord said, verse 13, unto the woman, what is this which thou hast done?

And the woman said, the serpent.

He beguiled me and I did eat.

So she passes the buck as well.

Here the serpent hasn't got anyone to pass the buck to, you know, he takes this responsibility.

Now let me say something lest I forget, and I think it's a given, I don't know that I need to say this.

What we have just read actually happened just the way we read it.

This is not Asaph's fables.

This is history.

And I think that it is a very, very foolish thing to try to deny the historicity of the book of Genesis.

Oh, Adam and Eve never really existed, and this whole idea about a talking snake, you know, and the forbidden apple, you know, and sin, all this stuff that people put down.

I believe, now you can do whatever you want.

I can't, you know, tell you what to believe, but I believe that this is history.

That what we're actually reading is a historical, I do know that Jesus made reference to God making them in the beginning male and female.

And he quoted from this chapter, and referred to Adam and Eve.

And I have no problem with believing that what we're reading here is a historical narrative.

If you encounter some liberal that tries to allegorize this, or spiritualize this, or explain it away, you need to run for your life.

Just get away from that.

It's just poison.

Because what we have here is foundational for the need of a redeemer.

If what we read didn't happen, we don't need a Savior.

If what we just read never happened, then Adam didn't sin, he didn't bring sin into the world.

Sin is just a figment of your imagination.

And there's no need for a Savior, who is Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins.

And when Paul goes into the book of Romans, and he talks about Adam bringing sin and death, and we're born in Adam, and that when we're born again, we're placed in Christ, and that Jesus Christ brought life by His obedience and His death, and so forth, then none of that makes any sense.

There's really no basis for that at all.

But the truth is, what we're reading is a historical account.

Now let's go back and look at some of these verses.

Number one, or verse one, now the serpent was more subtle, or shrewd, than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

Now there's a lot of information that we're not given.

The book of Genesis, as well as other books of the Bible, are the story of redemption.

And the thrust and the theme of these stories is to show us that sin came into the world, and the need for a Redeemer.

There's not a lot of detailed explanations about a lot of things that we question, or we wonder about.

Now again, I would recommend Henry Morris's book, Genesis Record, for a both scientific and devotional approach to the text.

But even Dr.

Morris has to admit that there's a lot of questions that remain unanswered because the Bible doesn't really go into them.

Now the serpents, it is believed that the serpent was a creature created by God, originally having legs and the ability to walk.

Some speculate, and there's a lot of hypothesis, that the serpent, unlike other animals, was actually able to stand upright and be able to somehow communicate with man.

I'll talk more about, just in a moment, the idea that this so-called snake taught.

Now when the serpent came to Eve, it wasn't like a rattlesnake, or a cobra, or a slithering snake.

It was a creature created by God, probably the most intelligent of all creation.

The Bible is clear that in verse one, that the serpent creature was more subtle or shrewd, which indicates its intelligence, than any beast of the field.

Now I don't wanna get sidetracked, but the serpent, of course, is being used by Satan.

This animal, this creature, is being used by the devil.

The serpent image is used throughout the Bible, consistently, for a picture of Satan, when Moses took the serpent and put it on the pole, and lifted it up, and whoever looked at the serpent was healed from the bite.

That was a reference to Satan being defeated at the cross.

In the book of Revelation, he's the great red dragon, and so forth.

So it's consistent with an image of Satan, but there really was a creature, and it was a very intelligent creature, and it was able, in some way, to communicate here with Eve, and quite an amazing thing.

But Satan is using this creature.

We do know that Satan was created.

Ezekiel chapter, I think it's like 23 or 28, somewhere around there, that he was created an angel, and he was perhaps the most beautiful, and powerful, and intelligent, angelic being that God created.

And that Lucifer was filled with pride, and tried to exalt himself, Isaiah 14, above God.

And that he was expelled from heaven.

When that happened, the Bible doesn't say.

It could have been pre-Genesis 1.

1.

It could have been perhaps after that.

My theory is it was prior to Genesis 1.

1, or at least at that moment when God created the angels.

We don't really know.

The Bible doesn't say when God created the angels.

But Satan, an angel, was created by God, and he fell.

And he took other angels with him in his rebellion.

Those are what we know as demons.

And we do know that demons seek to inhabit bodies, whether a human being, or whether an animal.

In the New Testament, there's the case when the demons came out of a man, and they entered into a herd of swine.

And so it seems that demons can enter into animals.

You go, well, that's what's wrong with my dog.

I wondered why that thing wouldn't mind me, you know?

It's like I got a demon-possessed beagle or something.

You know, I don't know.

Not necessarily so, but it's true that demons can inhabit animals.

And I think, and this is of course just my theory, because it's not really said so in the text, that Satan inhabited the serpent.

Now, the serpent could have looked like more what we know as a dragon today, with legs and could have stood upright and so forth.

There's all these theories about maybe that this is the origin of dragons and so forth.

And many believe, and I think rightly so, based on the Ezekiel passage, that Satan, of course, being an angel, was a beautiful, beautiful angel.

And then he uses this highly intelligent being known as this serpent here.

Now, what freaks people out is that he said unto the woman, a couple of different theories.

And I don't personally freak out over this.

One theory is, is that prior to the fall, animals could actually communicate with human beings.

That's Henry Morris's view.

I don't necessarily believe that, but it doesn't mean it's right or doesn't mean it's wrong.

Some feel that prior to the fall, that animals could actually talk to people.

But there's no indication in the scripture that the curse reversed the animal's ability to talk.

Whatever the animals were prior to the curse continued into the time after the curse.

So I tend to believe that it couldn't really talk.

You say, well, then what's the deal here?

The serpent is talking to Eve.

I believe the serpent was demon possessed.

Or satanically possessed, or that Satan used this serpent creature.

And in this case, the serpent actually talked.

Now you might say, well, why didn't Eve just freak out?

Ah!

A talking serpent, ah!

You gotta remember that Adam and Eve had just been created.

And Adam had just named all the animals.

And we don't know from the text how involved Eve was with the animals.

We don't know how involved she was.

Adam's the one that gave names to all the animals.

Adam might've had more contact with the animals.

And the woman was deceived here.

The Bible's very clear about that.

One theory is, and I tend to think that it's a good one, is that she was just caught off guard.

She hadn't really met all the animals, or talked to all the animals, or been around all the animals.

That's Adam's department.

He was busy throwing garden fresh salads and things together for her husband, or whatever, tossed salad, or whatever.

And she wasn't out hanging out with the animals.

And so when the serpent came, began to talk to her, it wasn't like she, wow, she was shocked, or that she was freaked out, or that she might've just been caught off guard and not really, for all she knew, other animals perhaps out there talked.

Some feel that there were certain animals that were more intelligent than others, which the Scripture would indicate here, that he was more subtle than that, and that just a few elite animals had the ability to speak.

We do know that in the animal kingdom today that animals have degrees of intelligence.

Some more intelligent than others are trying to train chimpanzees to talk, and they're talking to pilot whales, and dolphins, and things like that.

I don't know why any scientist would want to devote their entire life to trying to communicate with a pilot whale.

Years ago, I couldn't believe it, I found out one guy that had devoted his whole life to the study of cockroach behavioral patterns to try to predict earthquakes.

Rather bizarre, you know, can you imagine doing this funeral, our dear brother studied cockroaches his whole life.

Oh, wonderful.

But maybe there were a few elite animals that did communicate.

Actually, it doesn't bother me, because I just believe that he was a creature used by Satan to communicate with Eve.

Why she didn't freak out, I don't know, ask her when you get to heaven.

You can ask her when you get to heaven.

Now, the woman, and upon, what, notice what the serpent said.

Yea, hath God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden, hath not God said that you shall eat of every tree of the garden?

Now, what Satan is trying to do here is question God's Word.

And he's been doing that since this time in the garden.

Yea, hath God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Question mark.

He's always trying to throw doubt in people's minds.

So what did God really say?

It's possible that the command not to eat the one forbidden tree was given by God directly to Adam.

And that then Adam explained it to Eve.

That's why she went on to say, yea, we can't even touch it, you know.

It's kind of like she heard from Adam and she didn't really get it clear that it was handed down.

We don't really know.

But what Satan does, and we learn a lot about the devil and his tactics from this chapter, is that he tries to get you and I, as he did with Eve, to question what God has truly said.

Did God really say that adultery's wrong?

Did God really say, you know, thou shalt not steal or lie?

Did God really say this and that?

And he tries to throw doubt in your mind as to what God has really said.

How do we know the Bible's really the Word of God?

How do we know that it's really reliable?

How do we know that it's really trustworthy?

You don't have to be a rogue scholar or a Greek or Hebrew scholar to understand some of the reasons to believe the Bible is the Word of God.

But I challenge every Christian to do at least a little research and study as to why they believe the Bible is the Word of God.

If someone asks you, do you believe the Bible's the Word of God?

And you tell them yes.

And they say why?

You should have more of an answer than, well, because my pastor said so.

You need to do a little study, a little research as to why you believe and have a firm conviction in your own heart and mind that this book is reliable and understanding those things.

You can get good books on the subject.

I did a little tape series on it.

You can get those.

And just at least understand some of the reasons we believe the Bible is the Word of God.

Yea, hath God said that you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

So, then in verse 2, 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 has said you shall not eat of it.

Neither shall you touch it lest ye die.

Not a good idea to really add to God's Word either.

And Eve kind of did that here.

There's no record of God saying that you should not touch the tree.

But then the serpent goes in verse 4 and says unto the woman, you will not surely die.

First thing he does is cast doubt.

The second thing he does is actually deny.

First he cast doubt, then he flat out denies.

You shall not surely die.

He denies God's Word.

God will not judge you.

You're not going to die.

This is a lie from Satan.

You shall not surely die.

You know, reincarnation is really an extension of this idea.

You're not going to die.

You'll just come back in another form.

You'll just come back as another person.

You'll just come back in another life.

You shall not surely die.

Reincarnation is a lie from the pit of hell.

The Bible says it's appointed unto every man once to die.

And after this, to judgment.

One of Satan's biggest lies.

You don't need to fear death.

You don't need to worry.

You shall not.

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Judgment?

Oh, what a foolish idea that God would judge you for your sin.

That God would send you to hell.

You will not surely go to hell.

God of love, He would send no one to hell.

That's not true.

God is also holy.

God is also just.

God is also righteous.

As a matter of fact, for God to be consistent with His nature, which He is, He never will contradict His own nature, He must judge sin.

For God to maintain His righteousness.

The truth is you will surely die.

God said the day that you eat thereof, you will die.

Death literally means separation.

And the moment they ate the fruit, they were separated from God.

And it wasn't the act of eating the fruit, it was the act of disobedience.

It wasn't because intrinsically it was something evil about the fruit.

It was because God said not to do it.

That's where the sin lie.

It was rebellion against God.

And that's the essence of sin to this very day.

Disobedience, rebellion against God's rule.

I'll not have God to rule over me.

And the natural heart of man is bent on rebellion against the rule and the kingdom of God.

That's where it lies.

People say, that's insane!

What's the big deal?

Eating a little apple.

Number one, we don't know it was an apple.

It might have been a kiwi fruit.

Might have been a banana.

Might have been a pomegranate, who knows?

The issue was disobedience.

God gave man free will created in God's image.

Man had a choice to either love and obey God or disobey God and rebel against God.

Man chose to rebel against God.

And man has been choosing that ever since.

So he denies God's Word for the day.

God knows the day, verse 5, that you eat thereof.

Your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Now, it is true that they would know evil, but it is not true that they would become God or be as gods in this sense.

They were made in the image and likeness of God.

But you must underline the word made.

It's a little phrase that a lot of people miss.

Made in the image of God.

We are not God.

We will never be God.

We will never transition into Godhood or deity.

We are made in the image and likeness of God, but in essence, we are not divine.

And we will never be divine.

Now here's another one of Satan's age-old lies.

You shall be as God.

And so the new age movement so-called, which is actually the old lie from Satan.

I like what Harry Ironside used to say, if it's new, it's not true.

If it's true, it's not new.

Come on the scene with, oh, did you know that you're God?

Really?

And you come to the seminar every day, 99, 95 to discover you're God.

Years ago, there were these seminars people were paying to go to to find out that you are God.

You are divine.

Now what kind of a God must you be if you have to pay to find out you are one?

Pretty stupid God.

I found out I'm God.

It only cost me $100.

Wow, cool.

That's the lie from Satan.

You will be as God.

Isn't it interesting that the Mormons, the church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, actually teach that we will become gods.

Where did that idea come from?

Well, it's right here in the book of Genesis.

It came from the mouth of Satan.

You will be a God.

You will be as God.

It's just an old lie that came from Satan himself.

The Mormon actually called this here in verse 5 the big lie.

Or the lie, the big one.

And it has been deceiving man ever since.

Now, there are three things in verse 6 that you need to know.

First, as the woman saw, temptation came through the eye gate.

She was walking by sight and not by faith.

She wasn't walking in obedience to God's command.

That the tree was good for food.

Secondly, that the tree was pleasant to the eyes.

It wouldn't have been a temptation if it was ugly-looking fruit.

I have a hard time eating things that are gross-looking.

Even if they're good.

You almost have to close your eyes and eat them or something.

I mean, if it looks weird, no thank you.

This was good to the eyes.

It was pleasant to look upon.

And it was desirous to make one wise.

Oh, I want to be as God.

I want to know good from evil.

Satan in reality as well was accusing God of not being good.

You know, if God really loved you, He'd let you eat everything.

If God really loved you, why would He put restrictions on you?

If God really loved you, He's really a good God.

Don't you think He'd let you chow down on any food and any tree and any fruit you want in the garden?

You know, Satan comes along.

You know, if God was really a good God, I mean, you could do what you wanted.

You could live however you wanted and still get to go to Heaven.

You know, God isn't fair.

And we buy this lie that God's restrictions are born out of a lack of love.

And that's not true.

Many times little kids will say, if you really loved me, you'd let me play on the freeway.

If you really loved me, you'd let me play up on the roof.

Even though they could fall off and break their neck.

And the truth is it's because as parents we love our children.

We put restrictions on them.

And so God says, look, I'm going to give you an opportunity to be obedient, to demonstrate your love for Me.

You're not to eat this one tree.

That was the one tree that they did partake of.

They disobeyed God.

Satan suggesting that God is not good.

But these three areas, and I don't want to tarry on them, nor can I really tarry on them, are the three strings on Satan's guitar.

Forgive me those of you that play the guitar.

It's not a satanic instrument or anything.

It's a figure of speech.

And these three strings are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

There you have it.

When Eve looked at it, lust of the flesh, it was good for food.

It was pleasant to the eyes.

Lust of the eyes.

Pride of life, it was desires to make you wise.

Don't you remember when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness?

A lot of interesting contrast between the temptation of the first Adam and the last Adam.

One tempted in a beautiful garden.

The other tempted in the wilderness.

What were the three temptations that Satan came and tempted Jesus with?

He said, since you are the Son of God, you should take these stones and turn them into bread.

You know, if your father really loved you, he'd provide for you, but he hasn't.

So take things into your own hands and use your power to turn this stone into bread.

Lust of the flesh.

And then the devil took Jesus into a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and said, they're mine and I can give them to whomever I want.

You fall down and worship me, I'll give them to you.

Lust of the eyes.

Then he took Him up to the pinnacle of the temple.

It was 450 feet down to the Kidron Valley below.

And he said, you know, if you threw yourself off here, the devil got real sneaky.

He started quoting from the Psalms.

You know, the devil knows the Bible.

He starts quoting Scripture.

But whenever he quotes Scripture, he always takes it out of context and he always adds or deletes from it.

He says, ".

.

.

is it not written that the angels will bear thee up lest thou dash thy foot against the stone?

" Throw yourself down, Jesus.

Everyone will see your miraculous deliverance and they'll all follow You and hail You the Messiah.

It'll be on the front page of the Jerusalem Post.

You fall off the pinnacle and everyone goes, whoa!

And then the angels come and pick you up and lay you down.

And they're like, wow!

That'd be awesome!

The pride of life.

Now how did Jesus deal with the temptations that Satan brought?

Of course, in each one of these cases, Jesus answered the devil with the Bible.

And each one of His quotes, by the way, was from the book of Deuteronomy.

Did you know that Jesus quoted from the book of Deuteronomy more than any other Old Testament book?

It was the Staber book.

And when He was tempted to turn stones into bread, He said it is written, thou shalt.

.

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man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth.

When He took Him up to the mountain and showed Him all the kings of the world, you know, fall down, worship Me, I'll give them to you.

Jesus said, you know what?

It's written in the Bible, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God.

Give Him all that is self-sufficient.

When He told Him to throw Himself down off the pinnacle of the temple and angels would catch Him off and everyone would follow Him, He said, it is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God or put God to a foolish test.

This is not the ways of God.

He answered each one of the temptations with the Scripture.

What does that tell us?

It tells us that when the devil comes knocking on the door, get your Bible ready.

And when you have to deal with the devil, share the Scriptures with him.

And when he comes with his lies, this is the truth of God's Word.

Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee, said the psalmist.

So what we need to do is we need to know the Word, the truth of God, to be able to come against Satan's lies.

Oh, if God really loved you, He'd do this for you, and He hasn't, so do it yourself.

Go out and take matters into your own hands.

And we need to reply with the Scriptures.

We need to answer the devil with the Word of God.

And what does Paul say in Ephesians 6?

Taking the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

That's how we stand against the wiles of the devil.

So these are three areas that even today, Satan will tempt you on which summarize the world.

Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Lust of the flesh are our passions.

Lust of the eyes are our possessions.

And the pride of life is our position.

Someone once said, I found it interesting, lust of the flesh is the sins of youth.

Lust of the eyes, the sins of middle age.

And the pride of life, the sins of the latter years.

Proud of all of the things that we have accomplished in life.

Now, she took of the fruit, verse 6, and she ate of it.

And she gave it unto her husband, and he did eat.

He probably ate it and thought, hey, I haven't died.

I'm still alive.

God said the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.

I haven't died.

Hey, Adam!

Hey, Adam, I got some new food for you.

So Adam comes in and finds out she's eaten of the fruit.

Now, there's a lot of questions I have that aren't answered here, you know?

Some feel that Adam, and the Bible indicates that Adam was not in deception.

She was deceived.

And yet, Adam ate the fruit with his eyes wide open.

He knew that what she had done was wrong and that God had commanded him not to do.

But some feel that they try to give a magnanimous motive to Adam for eating the fruit, that he loved Eve so tremendously that he couldn't bear to be separated from her and see her die in her sin, so he ate with her to die together.

It turns into a love story.

You know, that kind of gives us a little goose bumps, and it may be pretty, but the Bible doesn't say that.

We don't really know why Adam ate of the fruit as well.

We just don't know why.

It's possible that he was motivated like that, but we just really don't know.

But I don't want to make a big deal about it, and I probably shouldn't even mention it because it kind of opens a can of worms.

You know that I do that a lot.

In the New Testament, when Paul is talking about a woman's role in the church, he said, I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man.

And he gives us a reason why.

He said first of all, Adam was created first.

And then the woman.

And he said then secondly, the woman was the one who was deceived.

She was the one that was actually deceived by the devil.

And he gives us that as a basis for men being the spiritual leaders in the church.

And then he goes into the chapter we're studying on Thursday night with the men.

1 Timothy 3 that if a man desires the office of a bishop or an elder, that he desires a good work.

And then it lists the qualifications for that.

And it mentions though at the end of that chapter that a woman will be saved in childbearing if she continues in faith and love and sobriety.

So it kind of, I believe, does give her primary purpose and fulfillment in that of being a mother.

There are a lot of different views to that verse.

That's mine in a quick little nutshell there.

But what you find there in Timothy is going back to Genesis 2-3 to give us a basis for the woman's relationship to the man in the church and the leadership of the church, which is interesting.

Now let's move on through our text here.

Obviously, we won't get through the passage tonight.

So, the eyes of them were both open.

Verse 7.

And they knew that they were naked.

Sin brings guilt and shame.

So they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

This is the big cover-up.

You have the big lie and you have the big cover-up.

You see them walking around in a little fig leaf garment.

You know, you've seen all the pictures and the drawings and so forth.

And at the end of chapter 2, they were both naked.

They're not ashamed, but now they sense their nakedness.

They sense their guilt.

And what we have is the loss of innocence.

And so they heard the voice, and as I pointed out, the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden the cool of the day.

And what did they do?

They hid themselves.

Man tries to run from God.

What a foolish thing to do.

You can't hide.

Oh, it's God.

Let's hide.

How do you hide from God?

Jonah tried to run and hide from God.

It didn't work.

They felt this guilt and they covered their nakedness.

And now God shows up and they run for their lives and they hide.

And so the Lord called unto Adam and said unto him, where are you?

It's always been funny to me to think here's the omniscient God asking a question.

God knew where they were.

You think God didn't know?

You think God said, oh, I just made them and now I can't find them.

Just created these two and now they've gotten lost.

Where are they?

God wanted Adam to know where He was.

Whenever Jesus asks questions in the Gospels, it's quite interesting.

Because obviously, He was God in the flesh.

If you were God, would you ask somebody a question?

God said, Adam, where are you?

And I like what Chuck Smith said so many, many years ago.

He said this is not the cry of an arresting policeman.

This is the cry of a broken-hearted father.

Adam, where are you?

God is not angry, ticked off.

Adam, where are you?

It's the cry of a broken-hearted father.

And He wanted Adam to be able to confess his sin.

And Adam said, I heard thy voice in the garden.

I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

A man has been trying to run and hide from God ever since.

And he said, who told you I was naked?

And He said, have you eaten of the tree that I commanded you not to eat of?

And again, we've already read it.

Verse 12, He said, the woman you gave Me to be with Me, she gave Me the fruit and I did eat.

Adam, blaming God.

You gave her to Me.

It was your idea, God.

You gave Me this woman.

She gave Me the fruit and I did eat.

She should have confessed his sin and repented.

So the Lord God said to the woman, what have you done?

And she said, the serpent beguiled Me.

So her line was, the devil made Me do it.

The old Flip Wilson line.

The devil made Me do it.

It's not my fault.

Sin here enters the human race.

So the Lord God said, and by the way, we have now the curse.

Verse 14 to 19.

The Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field, and upon thy belly thou shalt go and thus thou shalt eat all the days of thy life.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed, and it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.

And to the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, and sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be unto thy husband, and he shall rule over you.

Now He turns to Adam.

And unto Adam He said, because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and you have eaten of the tree which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow thou shalt eat of it all of the days of thy life.

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.

Thou shalt eat of the herbs of the field, and the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken.

From dust thou art, and unto dust you shall return.

Sad day.

So He explains to the serpent, you're going to crawl upon your belly.

Evidently, he was able to walk or stand up before.

And now, you shall eat the dust of the earth.

And now I will put enmity between thee and the woman.

Now again, as so often happens to me on Sunday night, I've run out of time.

But this verse, we'll come back to some of these next Sunday night.

This is one of the greatest verses in the Bible.

Verse 15.

Because it is very clearly the first prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ.

And the prediction that Jesus Christ would come and that He would defeat Satan.

When He speaks there to the woman, He said, I will put enmity between thee and the woman.

I'm speaking to Satan.

And between thy seed and her seed.

And it, that is, the seed of the woman, shall bruise thy head, that is, His authority or power.

And thou shalt bruise His heel.

That is a reference to the cross.

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

At the cross, Jesus defeated Satan.

The cross of Jesus Christ was a conquest.

It was the defeat of Satan.

He bruised His head, His power or His authority.

But in the cross, Satan did indeed bruise His heel.

And that's a reference to the crucifixion.

So this is indeed a prediction of the fact that the woman's seed and it's singular and masculine in the Hebrew.

That that woman's seed being Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, He would ultimately destroy Satan's power.

So, this is the first Messianic prophecy that God gives.

As we celebrate communion tonight, we can remember that immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, God already foretold, God already predicted that He would send the Savior.

That He would send the Deliverer.

That He would send the Redeemer.

That He would be crucified, but He would bruise Satan's power.

He would destroy him at the cross.

Under the woman, she would have sorrow in conception and giving birth to children.

So ladies, when you have children and you go through contractions and you have all the pain, I can thank you for that.

And to the man, you've hearkened to the voice of your wife, you've eaten the fruit I told you.

Cursed be the ground.

In sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of your life.

It will grow thorns and thistles.

For the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread till thou return to the ground.

So guys, when you go out and you're sweating and pulling weeds, you can thank Adam.

When you prick your finger on a rosebush, thanks, Adam.

Thorns and thistles.

All of it the production of Adam's sin.

Now, the earth is under the curse.

As well as now what happens is the world comes under the influence of Satan.

God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the earth.

And they forfeited that over to Satan.

In the New Testament, Satan is called the Prince and the Power of the Air.

And 1 John says the whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one.

So now the devil becomes the god of this world or this age.

And the earth itself is under the curse, but in God's redemptive purposes with Jesus Christ, in what we know as the Millennium, the Kingdom Age, when Christ comes back in His Second Coming, the world will be restored.

He will reverse the curse.

As beautiful as nature and creation is today, it is marred by the curse.

Can you imagine how awesome it's going to be during the Kingdom Age?

During the Millennium, it will be just marvelous.

Now let's read these verses and then we'll conclude.

And Adam called his wife's name Eve.

Verse 20, because she was the mother of all living.

I don't believe in a pre-Adamic race.

I believe Adam and Eve were the first human beings to ever walk on the earth.

And Adam also said to his wife, unto Adam also and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins?

Now, they tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves.

God provided clothing.

And many will point out that blood had to be shed to cover man's sin.

They see a symbol or reminder of the cross.

And so the Lord God said, behold, man has become as one of us, good and evil.

Now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken.

So He drove out the man, verse 24, and He placed him at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.

Paradise is lost.

Man is driven from the garden.

Adam has to go out and till the soil.

Before, he'd just walk around, picking fruit, hanging out, playing with the animals.

Now he's driven from the garden.

And God put an angel there with a flaming sword lest man would come back.

That doesn't explain all of the reasons why that he could eat the tree of life.

We conclude that if he ate the tree of life, he would live forever in his sins.

I don't know that that's necessarily true, but God in His mercy drove Adam and Eve from the garden.

But God in His love also would one day send His Son, Jesus Christ, into this cursed world.

And He would come in the form of a man.

And He would suffer and die on the cross to reverse the curse so that He could actually regain paradise.

So all that Adam lost in his sin and disobedience, Jesus would regain.

And Jesus would restore through His death and through His resurrection.

And when you go to the last book of the Bible, you find that there's no more curse.

There's no more sin.

There's no more death.

And paradise is regained.

Now, sin and death came into the world.

Now, we'll develop that more as we go on into the next chapter and we find that Adam and Eve have Cain and Abel.

And Cain slays his brother and murders him.

But you know, Satan's corruption of the marriage relationship, we find through the book of Genesis that after the curse and the fall of man, that in chapter 4 of Genesis, we find polygamy.

In chapter 16 of Genesis, we find adultery.

In chapter 19 of Genesis, we find homosexuality.

In chapter 34, we find fornication and rape.

In chapter 38 of Genesis, we find incest.

In chapter 38 of Genesis, we find prostitution.

Not to mention today, pornography, which is all a perversion of God's original intent and design for the marriage relationship.

All come into the world because of the curse.

Thank God for Jesus Christ.

Thank God that Jesus died on the cross to save us from sin.

Adam's sin brought death upon the whole human race.

But Christ's resurrection brought life to all.