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How Satan Corrupted It

Genesis 3:1-19 • September 16, 2015 • w1119

Pastor John Miller continues our series “Marriage and the Bible” with an expository message through Genesis 3:1-19 titled, “How Satan Corrupted It.”

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Pastor John Miller

September 16, 2015

Sermon Scripture Reference

We are looking together at the subject of marriage and the Bible. I pointed out that I chose that title very carefully, Marriage and the Bible, because what I wanted to do is simply focus on what the Bible says about marriage. Last Wednesday night we looked at how God created it. For a review, go back with me to Genesis 2:24-25 for Moses’ commentary on the narrative of God creating marriage, creating man and woman, and putting the two together. Moses actually puts this in verses 24-25. He says, “Therefore…” this is the conclusion, “…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 were not ashamed.” On those two foundational verses, we learn five things (I won’t go into them since we talked about them last week), that marriage involves severance, verse 24, a man leaves father and mother; it involves permanence, verse 24, cleave unto his wife. In the Hebrew that phrase means to be glued together. You don’t get married with the idea that I’ll give it a try and if it doesn’t work out I can always get divorced. The third point we saw was unity, verse 24. It says that they were one flesh. The two shall become one. It’s interesting the first recorded words in the Bible that come out of mankind is Adam saying, “She is now bone of my bone. She is flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.” It is Adam’s way of saying, “You fulfill the void in my life. You meet my needs. You are a helper that is suitable for me.” The unity then moves into intimacy, verse 25. “They were both naked, the man and his wife…,” and again all through this we see man and his wife, man and his wife, “…and were not ashamed.” So now we have intimacy. The man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed. Sexual intimacy is designed by God within the bounds of marriage. The bounds of sexual involvement is a marriage covenant, a marriage commitment. Marriage is not a consumer ideal, it is a covenant that you make before God. Anything outside of marriage that involves sexual relationships is out of the design of God, is out of the will of God, has crossed the boundaries of God, and therefore is sinful behavior.

Then we have mystery, Ephesians 5:32. Marriage is a mystery, and that mystery is that it speaks of the relationship of Christ and His church. It is to reflect the glory of God and the relationship of Christ and His church. Intimacy and mystery. There is a book called The Mystery of Marriage by Mike Mason, and he says these words, “To be naked with another person is sort of a picture of symbolic demonstration of perfect honesty, perfect trust, perfect giving, perfect commitment, and if the heart is not naked with the body, then the whole action becomes a lie and a mockery. It becomes an involvement in an absurd and tragic contradiction; the giving of the body but the withholding of the self. Exposure of the body in a personal encounter is like the telling of one’s deepest secrets. Afterward there is no going back. No pretending that the secret is still one’s own or that the other does not know. It is, in effect, the very last step in human relations and therefore never one to be taken lightly. It is not a step that establishes deep intimacy, but one which presupposes it as a gesture of symbolic or perfect trust and surrender. It requires the setting or structure of perfect surrender into which takes place. It requires the security of the most perfect resources and commitment into which two people can enter which is none other than the loving contract of marriage.” It seems so basic and so fundamental. It’s so basic and so elementary, yet so far from the understanding and comprehension of our culture. Just turn the television set on some evening and look through the channels—sex, sex, sex, sex, sex. Ninety-nine percent of the sex on television is outside the covenant relationship of marriage, and it’s all okay. It isn’t condemned or looked at in a bad light or even frowned upon. We are so promiscuous. And now we even have same sex relationships getting the hearty approval of our culture today. And so, we have marriage the way God designed it; severance, permanence, unity, intimacy and mystery.

I have another quote. I love what R. Kent Hughes said, “Adam and Eve are living in unparalleled splendor amidst the crystal waters of green forests in Eden in delightful concert with one another and with the animals God has placed in the garden. The magnificent couple shared the same bones and same flesh in naked majesty. Their one-flesh relationship reflected the eternal intimacy and order of the holy trinity and foreshadowed the intimacy and order of Christ and His bride, the church.” Marriage is no little thing. Marriage is something that God has ordained and God has sanctified. We have lost the sanctity of marriage.

This was a marriage, Adam and Eve, created in the garden of Eden. You might say a marriage created in Eden or in heaven, but something has gone wrong between Genesis 2 and our present experience today. Why is it that marriage is so difficult? Why is marriage so hard? It was General Douglas MacArthur who once told his soldiers, “Men, never get married until you have mastered the art of warfare.” People get the idea that, “Oh, man! It’s wedlock!” You know, we emphasize the “lock” and it’s bondage. “Why would you want to do that? You want to stay free.” So many marriages are struggling today. It’s hard and it’s difficult. Why? One answer—the corruption of Satan. Satan is real. Satan is the enemy of God, and Satan is doing all he can to destroy marriage, a divine institution. As goes marriage, so goes our culture, so goes our nation. The United States is built upon our families. It is built upon our homes. We are only as strong as our marriages, our families and our homes. I don’t believe that marriage, the family and the home has ever been in greater danger in America and throughout the world than it is at this time.

So Adam and Eve are living in paradise, Genesis 2, but then we come to Genesis 3—paradise lost. Genesis 3 is one of the most important chapters in the entire Bible. I can’t overemphasize that. Without understanding sin and the fall of man, we can’t understand what is going on in the world today or even see the need for a redeemer or the Savior, Jesus Christ. So this is a very very important passage. I believe that it is historically true and accurate and is cited in the New Testament; that Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and because of their sin there was a curse brought upon both man and the woman and upon the earth. There are three things that I would say make marriage so difficult today. The first is the attack of Satan or the corruption of Satan, and the second is the curse of God. That may surprise some of you to hear me say that, but the curse, as to the result of Adam and Eve’s fall, has actually affected marriage. We do marriage today in a fallen, broken world. The third is the characteristics of the last days. So the corruption of Satan, the curse of God, and the characteristics of the last days that we live in before the coming again of Jesus Christ.

Now, I want to start with the corruption of Satan. Follow me in Genesis 3:1-3, “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 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 hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” Now, I don’t know where she got that, because God didn’t really say that. She’s actually adding to the Word of God. Then in verses 4-5, “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food…,” notice these categories of Satan’s temptation, “… and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” So she cooked apple pie for him or some baked apples, and he did eat. We don’t know, by the way, that they were apples. We don’t know what kind of fruit this was. The poor apple has gotten the bad rap for this over the years. But in verses 7-8, “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…,” either early morning or late afternoon, “…and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.” How foolish can that be to think that you can hide from God. “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 I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded the that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me…,” thanks God. That’s not in that verse, I just threw that in there. It’s in the wide space. It’s the woman you gave me Lord. “…she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” I wouldn’t call that a confession, I would call that a copout. The curse hasn’t even been pronounced and already they aren’t getting along here. This is the same guy that when he saw Eve he said, “This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh! Wow man! Woman!” And now he’s saying, “It’s her fault! You gave her to me.” “And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” Now, that’s where the buck stops because the poor snake didn’t have anybody to accuse here. So the woman passes the buck and says, “The devil made me do it. It was his fault.”

Now, your marriage has an enemy, and here he’s called the serpent in verse 1. Now we can take some time talking about a talking snake. How does this snake talk? I don’t know, but it’s possible the word serpent there means bright one or brilliant one. Some Bible scholars feel that maybe when Satan initially came, he didn’t come in the form of a snake, that came later with the curse and he had to crawl on his belly. Maybe he came as an angel of light. The New Testament says that he comes as an angel of light to deceive people. Also, before the fall it could be that animals could communicate in ways that they couldn’t after the fall. We don’t know. The important point is that it was Satan, the serpent represented Satan, who came. Notice he came with subtlety and begins to speak.

So your marriage has an enemy. Make this an important point. This is where we begin to apply it to marriage. If your married, there really is a devil and he really doesn’t want you to stay married. Satan wants your marriage to fail. You got that? Don’t let it happen. Satan wants to destroy your marriage. There really is a devil out there, and he really hates God, he really hates you, and he hates marriage. Why do we see such an attack on marriage today? Let me say this lest I forget. Gay marriage, homosexual marriage, same-sex marriage is an attack on marriage. It is an attack on marriage. Don’t buy the rhetoric and the stuff you’re hearing in the media, “We don’t want to hurt marriage or change marriage, we just want to expand it.” It is an attack on marriage.

I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’m going to say it anyway. It started years ago with the women’s liberation movement, which was an attack on marriage. Women want liberation—you’ll find it in Jesus Christ. You won’t find it in changing the roles or the order that God created, He created male and female. You’ll find freedom, you’ll find fulfillment, you’ll find completeness in being who God made you, being what God made you, a male or a female, and following God’s precepts and God’s guidelines for masculinity and femininity. Even that is being blurred today. We have same-sex bathrooms, same-sex clothes. Recently Target Stores is eliminating pink areas of girls’ toys. They are no longer going to have pink shelves and blue shelves anymore. They will all be unisex shelves, because they no longer want to offend anybody. What kind of insanity is that? It is an attack on marriage, which is an attack on God the maker of marriage. It is an attack on God’s created order and created design. A lot of people don’t realize or see that.

In verses 1-5, Satan comes with subtlety. I want you to notice that. He comes with subtlety in verse 1. What does he do? The first thing out of Satan’s mouth, “Did God really say that?” I don’t know if he had a hissing sound with his speech. “Did God really ssssssay that?” She should’ve said, “I know, you’re the devil because you’re hissing!” and ran for her life. The first recorded words in the Bible out of the mouth of the devil were an attack on God’s Word and it hasn’t stopped. The first words out of his mouth were an attack on the Word of God. "Is the Bible really the word of God? Did God really say that? Does the Bible really condemn sex outside of marriage? Does God really say that Jesus is the only way to heaven?" God’s Word is under attack. "It’s not historically true or scientifically accurate. It can’t be relied upon. There are errors in the Bible. You can’t trust the Bible. Did God really say that?" Keep in mind who it is that questions God’s Word. It comes from Satan himself.

Satan comes with subtlety. He comes to your marriage and says, “You know, God doesn’t really want you to be unhappy. God doesn’t want you to be unfulfilled.” What Satan is subtly saying to Eve is, “You know, God is holding something back from you. Did God really say you can’t eat of all the trees in the Garden? God’s not good. God’s not really giving you everything.” What you do in your marriage is to begin to question the Word of God. You begin to question the will of God. I can’t tell you how many couples I have counseled that said, “I don’t believe God is going to judge me,” or “God doesn’t care” or “God wants me happy.” I’ve heard that a thousand times. “So, I’m just going to get a divorce,” or “I’m just going to dump her or dump him,” “I’ve fallen in love with somebody else. God won’t condemn me. God will forgive me.” There is total disregard for the Word of the Lord. Satan comes with subtlety, and then he questions God’s Word. You begin to drift away from God’s Word. Then, he denies God’s Word. The woman said to the serpent, “We can eat of all the fruit of the trees in the garden, but the tree which is in the midst of the garden God said you shall not eat. If we touch it, we will die.” The serpent then speaks up again in verse 4 and said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die…” So the first thing he does is he questions God’s Word. The second thing he does is actually denying God’s Word. You need God’s Word to have a healthy, successful and a blessed marriage. You need to follow the manufacturer’s instructions. If you reject God’s Word or you don’t believe or obey God’s Word, then your marriage will be destroyed.

So Satan comes with subtlety, he comes to question God’s Word, he comes to deny God’s Word, and then he wants you to doubt God’s goodness, for in verse 5 the devil says, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” “God is trying to keep something from you.” This is so prevalent in marriages today. “Well, God would want me to be happy. God doesn’t want me to be bummed out. God doesn’t want me to be sad. God doesn’t want me to go through this, so I’m just going to get a divorce.” We’re going to spend a whole night talking about divorce and what the Bible teaches about that, but just to willy nilly say, “Well, we don’t get along,” or “I don’t like him anymore,” or “I don’t like her anymore,” is Satan’s lie. It was an attack on the goodness of God even though God had given them so much. All the blessings that they had came from God. Don’t believe the Devil’s lies, you got that? He is a liar and the father of it.

It reminds me of a story of a woman who was walking out of the house one day. She had a very stingy husband that never wanted her to spend money. He said, “Where you going?” She said, “I’m just going to the mall.” He said, “Well, don’t buy anything. Just don’t buy anything.” She said, “I’m not. I’m just going to window shop. All I’m going to do is just look.” Women like to look, you know. “So, I’m just going to go window shopping.” He said, “Okay. Don’t buy anything.” So she takes off. Several hours later she comes back and sure enough she has a bag with a dress in it. He was so angry and said, “I thought I told you not to buy anything. What did you do?” She said, “I wasn’t going to buy anything, but I went there and there was this dress. I tried it on, and the devil was there. The devil said, “That dress looks so good on you!” And her husband said, “Well, why didn’t you tell the devil, ‘Get behind me, Satan?’” She said, “I did, and when he got behind me he said, ‘It looks good from behind too!’ So I bought it.” Don’t listen to the devil. Be careful of Satan and his lies.

I want you to notice the categories of this temptation (verse 6), “…was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and…make one wise…” Three strings on the devil’s guitar, and he’s been plucking them ever since. Good for food, lust of the flesh; pleasant to the eyes, lust of the eyes; and then make you wise, pride of life. In 1 John 2:15-17, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” This is where Satan will attack your marriage. This picture is not just for a general understanding of the areas that Satan will attack you, in the area of your passions or your possessions or your position; you want to do what’s good for you, you want to follow something that is pleasant to the eyes, you think it’s going to make you happy, but Satan will attack your marriage in these areas. Now his target is your mind, his weapon are lies, and his purpose is to make you ignorant of God’s will and disobedient to God’s Word. So guard your mind. Your defense is the Word of God. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He answered all the temptations with, ‘It is written…’ So the stronger you are in the Word of God, the stronger your marriage will be, Amen? The stronger you are, the more grounded you are in the truth of God’s Word, the less you’re going to buy into the lies that Satan will bring along to tempt you.

Then we have the tragedy, verses 6-7, they disobey. This is the saddest day in the history of mankind. It says that she took of the fruit and she did eat. She gave unto her husband with her, and he did eat. This is what is called sin, s-i-n. Every human being from this point on has had the sin virus, the s-i-n virus. We are all infected with the s-i-n virus. One of the problems today as we view marriage is you won’t be able to understand why marriage is so convoluted and such a struggle unless you realize that sin has entered into the world. What you have to constantly combat in your marriage relationship is that sin nature that you inherited from Adam. When you get married, I don’t care who you are, you are a sinner marrying another sinner. You put two sinners in one house and what do you have? You have problems. The essence of sin is “me, myself and I” and “me first.” And so, sin enters the world and death by sin came upon all mankind. It’s called the sin nature or the Adamic nature, the fall of man, and the need for a redeemer.

Secondly, you have shame. You have the big coverup in verse 7. It says, “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked..;” You mean to tell me that they didn’t know that they were naked before? No. There wasn’t any guilt or shame. They knew they were naked, but there wasn’t any guilt or shame before this. Then they tried to cover their nakedness by sewing fig leaves together. That’s bad news. Man trying to cover his own sin, it won’t work. It’s was going to require the death of an animal and blood be shed for God to cover their sin prefiguring the cross of Jesus Christ. The big coverup. What a contrast to chapter 2:25, “They were both naked…and were not ashamed.”

Thirdly, you have the discovery that sin separates us from God. In verse 8 they tried to hide from God. Now, Eve was listening to the devil, Adam was listening to Eve, and no one was listening to God. That’s why we have problems in marriage. We’re listening to the devil, we’re listening to ourselves, and we’re not listening to God or obeying God. So, they learned that sin separated them from God and from man. I believe that the key to having harmony in your marriage is that you be born again and filled with the Holy Spirit walking in obedience to God’s Word. That’s simple, but it’s simply profound. You get born again, you get the Holy Spirit, you yield to the Holy Spirit, you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, and then you can find victory over the sin nature. Talk to Christians who have been married for some time. They will all admit that they’d never survive if it weren’t for God. We would never have made it if it weren’t for God’s help. Amen? So we need to rely upon the Holy Spirit.

Lastly, you have God looking for them. I love it in verse 9, “Adam, where at thou?” God knew where Adam was. You think God had actually lost Adam? He made the dude in the garden and now he’s lost? A naked man running around on the loose, and I can’t find him? “Adam, where are you?” God wanted Adam to know where he was, so God comes seeking him. There is fear and guilt in verse 10, and then there’s blame shifting. Oh how this applies to marriage! “It’s the woman you gave me! Everything would be fine if she’d get her act together! Everything would be fine if she would just workout a little bit, lose some weight, be a little sweeter and kinder, or more responsive, and cook a little better and do the laundry and clean the house, jump over a building in a single bound, be faster than a speeding bullet. Everything would be fine, it’s just this wife! That’s what’s causing the problems!” Maybe you’re blaming your husband or your circumstances or your upbringing, shifting the blame. Blame shifting. It is so common today. Or maybe it’s the victimhood mentality. “It’s just because of what happened to me when I was young,” or “It’s what happened to me in a previous marriage,” or “It’s what happened to me in my life.” Satan corrupts marriage by getting us to shift the blame and by not taking the responsibility for ourselves.

Now, I want to list for you some of the ways that Satan corrupted the marriage relationship. In Genesis 4, polygamy starts up. It is not God’s design. God made them male and female and it said for this cause shall a man, singular, a man, leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, not wives, and the two, not three, four, five, six, seven, eight or nine or ten or thirteen, shall become one flesh. You don’t think polygamy is a problem? Read your Bible! It’s a problem! You don’t think there’s jealousy and strife and difficulty come into that home and relationship? There certainly is! The two become one. Polygamy was never God’s design, and never God’s intent. Satan’s attempt to corrupt marriage was polygamy.

In Genesis 16, we have adultery. Adultery is an attack on marriage. I have never seen greater pain in a person’s life than when an innocent party in a marriage discovers that their spouse has been unfaithful. It is worse than finding out that your marriage partner has died in a tragic automobile accident. You violate trust, and you break something that is not only very hard to ever restore, it’s pretty much impossible. There’s a scar and a wound and there’s a hurt that will never ever ever completely and fully go away. One of the things I emphasize in premarital counseling is never ever ever ever…did I make it clear enough…violate your spouse’s trust. Never! That is the most precious gift that you have, and it’s the foundation of your relationship. Once that trust is violated, it’s almost impossible to ever regain or ever restore. So we have polygamy, adultery and now homosexuality.

In Genesis 19, we have homosexuality. Let me say a few things about homosexuality. First of all, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, homosexuality, brought about its destruction. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. There is a movement today to say that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not homosexuality or what has been called in the past sodomy, but it is the lack of hospitality. The lack of hospitality?! This is insane because Lot took the angels into his home and was showing them that very thing, hospitality. There is no indication in the Genesis 19 story that it was a lack of hospitality. In Genesis 19:5 and 8, twice, the men of the city who were pounding on the door of Lot’s house said, “Bring them out…” referring to the angels in the form of men who came to Lot’s house, “Bring them out that we may know them.” In the Hebrew, the phrase “know them” means that we may have sex with them. That is exactly what it is saying. They said it twice, and the angels inside whom they wanted to have sex with, opened the door and struck them with blindness. The whole crowd of men outside of Lot’s house were struck with blindness. After being struck with blindness, they kept trying to find the door to get into the house! You talk about insane! Their passion and their perversion were so great that even after being struck with blindness they continued to pursue their lustful desires. God rained down fire and brimstone upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their homosexuality. Read the book of Jude, we’ll get there on Sunday mornings in a couple of weeks.

In Leviticus 18:22, it says, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” It is very, very clear. God says it’s an abomination. In Romans 1:18, homosexuality is considered to be against nature here and an example of a reprobate mind. Notice beginning in verse 18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven…” in the Greek this would read ‘is being revealed.’ So what we’re going to read about here is actually God letting men follow their own sinful passions which is in a sovereign sense as God pouring out His wrath upon sinful man. So the wrath of God is presently being revealed from heaven “…against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who…” suppress or “hold” down “the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that…” catch this phrase, “…they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” So their minds became empty, and they were futile or foolish in their thinking. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” This is the de-evolution of man as a result of the fall. Here it is in verse 24, “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness…,” so the wrath of God being revealed in that God lets them have their lustful, sinful desires. The worst thing that God can do in punishing you is to let you do what you want to do, let you follow your own sinful passions. So in verse 24, “God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts…,” this is sexual immorality. Then notice in verse 24, “…to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie…,” drawing from Genesis 3, “…and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” Attack on marriage is an attack on God the creator, the designer, and an attack and an affront on God Himself. Verse 26, “For this cause…,” again the repeated phrase “…God gave them up unto vile affections..:” or shameful lusts, they “…changed the natural use into that which is against nature…” I don’t need to even comment on these verses, they are very clear. You can consult other translations. They changed the natural use into that which is against nature. “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers. Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; Who knowing the judgment of God…,” notice that, the judgement of God, “…that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” In the Greek it is giving their hearty approval to those that do them. So the world stands by and they clap for them. They think it’s awesome. They commend them. They congratulate them. They applaud them. The give them their hearty approval. So this is the consequence of rejecting God. This is the consequence of rejecting God’s Word. God gave them over to their own simple lusts resulting in a reprobate mind. Go back with me to Genesis 3. So homosexuality is considered to be against nature and an example of a reprobate mind.

Fourthly, homosexuality that is unrepented of will result in eternal destruction and condemnation. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Paul says, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” It’s interesting the other sins listed there with the sexual sins, but if repented of homosexuality can be forgiven and a life can be changed. Amen? No sin so great but with God’s grace is greater still, and the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse and forgive all sins. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” I believe that when the Holy Spirit controls our lives that we can be free from the bondage of sin.

I have two more sins that Satan has used to corrupt marriage; pornography and divorce. Now some people say pornography is just a harmless adult pleasure and that we ought to be free to be able to look at whatever we want. Jesus said this, “If you look lustfully, longingly upon someone else, you have committed adultery in your heart.” He said, “If you have anger in your heart towards somebody, you have murdered them.” If you look lustfully, longingly then you have committed adultery in you heart. When the Bible says that we avoid sexual immorality in the New Testament, it uses the word “pornea,” where we get our word pornographic. It says that you abstain from pornea. In my mind, that’s a direct command that it is sinful behavior that we should avoid. It is also detrimental and addictive bringing you into bondage. Whether you’re a woman or a man, you don’t need to do that, go there or view that. Sometimes married couples bring it into the relationship thinking it will foster their intimacy. It brings them into bondage. As I said, we are going to spend a whole night on the subject of divorce. In Matthew 19 Jesus said, “From the beginning, it was not God’s will." Think of all the problems that have come into our world because of the hardness of men’s hearts. Jesus said Moses allowed you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. He allowed you because of the hardness of your hearts. That’s why we need to repent, we need to turn to God, we need the Holy Spirit to soften our hearts.

I want to close with this second point. I won’t tarry on these points, but will save point three, the condition of the last days for next week, an entire message. That is, you move from the corruption of Satan to the curse of God. Go back to Genesis 3:14, “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed…” the seed of the serpent, Satan, that is the unregenerate sinful wicked men, “…and her seed…;” a reference to Jesus Christ, not only to the godly, but to the ultimate savior Jesus Christ. This is the first messianic prophecy in the Bible. It’s a prophecy of the cross. God is already prophesying of the redeemer. “… it shall bruise thy head…,” that is the seed of the woman, “…and thou shalt bruise his heel.” That is the head of the serpent at the cross, he will defy and destroy your authority. “Unto the woman he said…,” this is what I wanted to get to, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” This is not a woman’s favorite verse in the Bible. A lot of women don’t memorize that verse. “And unto Adam he said, (verse 17) Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

The result of the curse (verse 16) to the woman, He says, will have sorrow in childbearing. The point I want to make is that your desire shall be to thy husband, but he is going to rule over you. As a result of the curse, there is now war, strife, and tension between the sexes. It’s carried into the marriage. This is exactly what this verse is saying, “Thy desire shall be to thy husband…,” Let me tell you what that doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean that you’re just going to love to submit to him or that you’re going to love to have him as your head; that you’re going to do his laundry, cook him food, do everything he says and your favorite phrase will be “Yes, dear.” That’s all in that little phrase that your desire shall be to the husband. No. It actually means the opposite. That little phrase in the Hebrew actually means that you’re going to try to control your husband. You’re going to try to dominate your husband. You’re going to try to overrule your husband. You’re going to try to control your husband. So the only thing that can reverse the curse is the Holy Spirit. The only thing that can set you free is the Holy Spirit. He shall rule over thee, or the man becomes the head of the woman (verse 16). Headship is never intended by God to be dictatorship, but these are the other verses that support this concept that the man was first created and then the woman, and that the woman was the one being deceived. Adam went into the disobedience with his eyes wide open. So, it’s not cultural, it’s creation, the idea that the man is the head of the woman. You’ve heard people say, “Well, I’m the head and she’s the neck and she turns me whatever way she wants me to go. I wear the pants in the family, but she tells me which ones to put on.” The battle of the sexes and the struggle in the marriage is all part of the Adamic nature. We have to walk in the Spirit, and if we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

There are three ways that Satan tries to attack your marriage. I know I’ve gone long the last couple of weeks and I’m sorry, but I’ve got to get these points across. Let me make them: First, he seeks to reverse the headship in the home. Do you know how Satan corrupts marriage? He reverses the headship in the home. Ephesians 5:23, “For the husband is the head of the wife.” In 1 Timothy 2:13-14, “For Adam was first formed, and Eve was in deception, not the man.” So this is why the man is the head of the woman. Tell me that isn’t contrary to our culture today or unpopular. Can you imagine if I went on the Oprah Winfrey show and taught that? I would be ripped up and my arms and legs would be flying all over the studio. I wouldn’t survive. Whenever I do weddings, there are lots of unsaved, non-Christian people come into the church. I figure they are on my turf, you know, and I’m reading the Bible. I’m not going to compromise what God’s Word says, but if looks could kill. When I read from Ephesians 5, “Wives submit!” Whew, I say that word! If looks could kill, I would’ve been dead years ago! “Did he just say that?” “What cave did he just crawl out of?” You could see the hair standing up on the back of their necks. “Did he just say submit?” “Did he just say the woman is to submit to the man? I can’t believe he said that!” There’s fire coming out of their eyes. I have to go right out the back door, get in my car and split right afterwards. They are going to kill me. “I’m going to kill that preacher!” It’s amazing how angry people get. I’m just telling you, don’t shoot the delivery boy. I’m just delivering the message here. One of the ways that Satan wants to destroy marriage is not only polygamy, adultery, divorce, homosexuality, incest, beastiality, the list could go on to where we’d get sick to our stomachs, but also switching the headship in the home, reversing headship.

The second thing he does is seek to lead husbands and wives into sexual impurity. That is the attack of Satan. In 1 Corinthians 7:5, (I will spend a whole night on sexual intimacy in marriage), but this is what it says; that you come back together again, husband and wife, after a time of abstinence, that Satan tempt you not for your lack self control. You know, I talk to single people who say, “I gotta get married. I just gotta get married.” They’re thinking sex, sex, sex. It’s not going to solve all your problems, so cool your jets. Calm down. It’s not going to solve your problem once you get married. You have to bring those passions under the control, guidance and guidelines of God’s Word. The only place that sexual desire can be satisfied is in the covenant relationship of marriage—heterosexual, monogamous marriage.

Here’s the third and last point, and I’m giving this third and last point this late, (my preaching has opened up a major can of worms but I’m going to make it) that is, he seeks to get the wife too busy outside the home. Now, when I make a point like that even Christians look at me like they want to kill me. I didn’t say a wife can’t work outside the home. I didn’t say that a wife can’t have an occupation outside the home, read Proverbs 31, but whether it be a husband or a wife, ask yourself, "Do I get up in the morning and can’t wait to get out of the home to get away from my marriage? Do I linger after the job not wanting to go home because I don’t want to go home and face my marriage?" “I’m going to stop at the Fuzzy Frog and have a few beers with the guys. I gotta get liquored up to go home and look at her.” I love what Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer said, “You should have a marriage…,” speaking to the wife, “…so that when your husband is home you don’t want him to leave. You never want him to leave.” Spurgeon said, “If the home were ruled according to God’s Word, angels could be invited to live with us and they wouldn’t feel out of their element.” I love that. So many times when the husband gets home it’s like, “Don’t you have something better to do?” or “Can’t you stay a little longer?” Or, the wife working outside the home, let me tell you from practical ministerial experience and counseling for forty years, it can be a place that you become susceptible to temptations that you would not be otherwise. If you’re in a work environment where people are flirting with you, you’re attracted to them and you’re being tempted, and you’re going out to lunch with people who aren’t your spouse, you’re vulnerable. Get a new job. Quit your job. Get out of there. Say no. Put up a wall. Create defenses and buffer zones. Satan wants you to get occupied outside the home. In 1 Timothy 5:14-15 Paul says, “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some have already turned aside after Satan.” Be careful. Watch out. Ask yourself, “Is outside the home more inviting and exciting than inside the home?” because we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. So, we are doing marriage in a broken world, cursed and fallen. We are sinners married to sinners. We need to be careful not to listen to Satan’s lies. We need to be obedient to God’s Word, and we need to know that God forgives our sins and we need to forgive those who sin against us. Amen?

There is nothing more important than your marriage, so learn to be forgiving toward those who sin against us. Remember, we’re doing marriage in a broken and fallen world, and there is a real enemy of your soul and of your marriage. It is Satan. Put up defenses. Guard your mind and heart. Don’t listen to Satan’s lies. "Well, you’d be happier if…” “You’d be happier if you had that guy or this gal or that one,” or “If you got a divorce you’d be happier if you were free,” or whatever it might be. Maybe you’re single, “You’d be happier if you were married.” Satisfaction, fulfillment, contentment comes from knowing God, when you fellowship with God. You can be in a marriage relationship and be very lonely and very distant if you’re not walking in fellowship with God.

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About Pastor John Miller

Pastor John Miller is the Senior Pastor of Revival Christian Fellowship in Menifee, California. He began his pastoral ministry in 1973 by leading a Bible study of six people. God eventually grew that study into Calvary Chapel of San Bernardino, and after pastoring there for 39 years, Pastor John became the Senior Pastor of Revival in June of 2012. Learn more about Pastor John

Sermon Summary

Pastor John Miller continues our series “Marriage and the Bible” with an expository message through Genesis 3:1-19 titled, “How Satan Corrupted It.”

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Pastor John Miller

September 16, 2015