Genesis 3:1-24

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Genesis 3:1-24

“Now the serpent was more subtle 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 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. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, 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. 7 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. 8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said, unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13 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. 14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast 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: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16 Unto the woman he said, 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. 17 And unto Adam he said, 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; 18 thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 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. 20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: 23 therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed 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.”

Introduction

[Audio version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED518]

“Genesis chapter 3 is the seedbed for the truths that run through the rest of the Scripture. Genesis chapter 3 is the seedbed for 6,000 years of human history. Genesis chapter 3 is the seedbed, as we see the devices of our enemy the devil, in the way that he functions. Genesis chapter 3 is the entrance of sin into this world. Genesis chapter 3 is the seedbed of prophecy, all prophecy begins here as God says there would be enmity between the seed, singular, of the woman, and the seed of the serpent, it is the story of the rest of prophecy. It is the seedbed of blood atonement, bloodshed for the first time on earth in this chapter, substitutionary atonement brought to the fore, God’s grace brought before us in light of sinning man. Genesis chapter 3 is the seedbed for all that we believe, that develops through the Scripture. God put man in Paradise, chapters 1 and 2, everything was ok. Man messed up in chapter 3, and the rest of the Bible is about God fixing that problem.

The First Time We Hear Satan’s Voice, He’s Slandering God To Man

It begins by telling us 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. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:” (verses 1-4) So this picture brought before us. The problem doesn’t begin on earth, it begins in heaven. Isaiah chapter 14, Ezekiel 28 tell us about the fall of Lucifer, who was a cherub, evidently of the order of the Cherubim. It describes him in Eden in his unfallen state. Chapter 1, verse 31 says ‘God saw everything he had made, and it was exceedingly good,’ so evidently Lucifer had not yet fallen at that point in time, because God then rested, and we know that he can’t rest during the beginning of the Millennium until Satan is bound (cf. Revelation 20:1-3). So he’s resting on the seventh day, saying, at that point everything is good. [Some interpret this Eden spoken of in Isaiah and Ezekiel as some heavenly Eden, not the Eden on earth, which would allow for the fall of Lucifer to have occurred in the great antiquity of time, perhaps before the creation of earth, we just don’t know. The stones of fire spoken of in Ezekiel 28:14, and Isaiah 14:12-15 speak of God’s throne where Lucifer was cast down from, becoming Satan. Jesus speaking of Satan’s fall, said he saw Satan cast down to earth, as like lightning falling to the earth, in Luke 10:18. Personally, I believe the fall of Lucifer was way before Genesis chapter 1, verse 31, and Genesis 3. So understand, that within the greater Body of Christ, there is room for different interpretations here, and all the way through Genesis chapter 11.] There is no doubt in my mind, that Lucifer envied man’s position, because in his fall man is a little lower than the angels, in our original creation, clothed with light, what we were before the fall, evidently was higher than the angelic realms [that’s debatable, this being clothed in light interpretation], and Satan said ‘I will be like the Most High,’ I think he envied man, because the only one like the Most High was man, and in his fall, the thing he does is he immediately comes after man. There is no long term war, in the sense that we understand war, between good and evil, God and Satan, where we’re hoping that in the last chapter that the Bible is right, and in the final analysis God wins out, that’s foolishness, the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world, the devil even entering into Eden is by God’s predetermined counsel and foreknowledge, God is sovereign. Satan’s war is with you and I, he hates us, because we are the apple of God’s eye. When we get to the 15^th and 16^th verse of the 3^rd chapter, God will curse the serpent, but there’s already been a curse pronounced on Lucifer, Ezekiel chapter 28, verses 16 to 19, when he sinned in the heavenly realms, and he’s been cast down, he’s been subjugated to a degree, he has lost some of his original principality and power, and no doubt there are angels that have been led in this rebellion [cf. Revelation 12:3-4]. We don’t have a whole lot of information about that, he’s in a fallen condition when he comes here [so, yes, that fall could have taken place in the antiquity of time, we don’t know when]. It says, “the serpent” “nachash” [Strongs #5175 nachash, from 5172, [hiss, whisper, enchanter…] a snake—serpent] used 30 times in the Old Testament of a serpent, but the root of the word means “hissing, enchantment,” it’s used for sorcery. It tells us in 2^nd Corinthians, Paul says “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” So I don’t think this is just a snake the way we understand it. Ladies, how many of you would have a conversation with a snake? This serpent, this “nachash” is Satan disguised, and that’s the way he always comes, he still comes that way today. When he comes into your mind and into your life, to suggest, to tempt, and there’s some definite things he does, ‘Yea, hath God said? Is the Word of God authoritative?’ he has not stopped that, we see it all across the media today. He denigrates the authority of the Word, he denigrates the accuracy of the Word, he adds to the Word, he takes away from the Word. You and I are the ones in this culture, now they’re coming up with long names to describe our problems, narcissistic activist personality disorder, I saw it in the paper, if you and I believe in traditional marriage, that’s what they call us now, Christians who believe that marriage is between a man and a woman and is sacred, the newspapers say we have a narcissistic activist personality disorder. [Comment: I’ve known real narcissists, one a good friend of the family, and we all loved her, but we understood what she was, and another gal I know. A narcissist by true definition is someone who thinks they’re god, want everyone to worship the ground they walk on. Satan was the first narcissist, in reality. In most cases, I think a real narcissist has become that way as a defense mechanism in response to some childhood trauma. But it is essentially the undue worship and love of self over the love we have for others.] Well, looks like we have a good case of it. . [As far as America going against traditional marriage, it’s worse now in 2023, see: White House Apostasy (Jonathan Cahn) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqCdG-TEtvI. And don’t think the evil is just on the Democratic side of American politics, the Right-wing Evangelical Christian Nationalism is just as evil, racist, and hate-mongering as the left. This brings up a vital question, should Christians be involved in American politics, since we’re ambassadors of Christ? A real ambassador cannot participate in the political process or vote in any elections in his or her host country they’re residing in. see: https://unityinchrist.com/topical%20studies/America-ModernRomans6.htm All the governments of man are governments of Satan, under Satan’s authority and direct influence. We are Jesus Christ’s direct representatives, ambassadors for the Kingdom of Heaven, his soon-coming Government.] But Satan [or the demon he’s assigned to bother you] comes the same way, disguising himself, he doesn’t just come up with a black cape and go ‘Ya, aah, aah,’ he is subtle, he’s subtle here. Now I want to say this, he is no match for Eve, if she would have stood on the Word of God. He would have been no match for her, if she’d have stood on God’s Word. She was in her unfallen state, he comes with subtlety. Had he come to Adam first we don’t know, but he comes to Eve. Subtly it says, the serpent, and he’s more subtle 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?” (verse 1b) Now we’re going to find that all the way throughout here, Satan says “Hath God said,” he never says “Hath the LORD God said,” because it tells us in chapter 2, the LORD, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D Jehovah [Yahweh] God, the Covenant God hath said. He just says ‘Hath God said? Is this what the Word of God is? You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’ That’s not what God said, he said there’s one tree that you shouldn’t eat of. ‘Hath not God said ye shall eat of every tree?’ Satan adding to the Word? “And the woman said unto the serpent,” so I’m assuming now he’s come as an angel of light, he’s come in some form where she’s comfortable to speak to him, they go back and forth, “And the woman said unto the serpent,” notice “We” she acknowledges her place with her husband, “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.” “Neither shall ye touch it,” we don’t have any record of the LORD God saying that. And look at the serpent in verse 4, “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:” well that’s what God had said to her, ‘You shall surely die,’ she dulls the sword of God’s Word by saying ‘God has said you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die,’ he didn’t say ‘lest you die,’ he said ‘You shall surely die,’ that’s what he said. Satan has been tampering with God’s Word ever since, it begins right in the beginning. And today, more than ever, God’s Word, the authority of God’s Word, the accuracy of God’s Word, that fact that God both inspires his Word and preserves his Word, it is under attack, to take away from the Word of God, and I mean in the Church [greater Body of Christ]. And how many Christians are there today, they own the accuracy and authority of God’s Word, and at the same time they’re living in sin against the Word they own, how many Christians say ‘Ya, I believe the Word’s authoritative, Oh ya, I believe the Word’s accurate, Oh ya actually I believe it’s the Word of God.’ Well then why are you living together with your boyfriend? Then why are you living the way you’re living with drugs, or with money or with one thing or another? You see, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was conspicuous by it’s position, it was in the midst of the Garden, and it’s still in the midst of every struggle on this planet. Every human still has to struggle in the midst with the knowledge of good and evil. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would come into the world, to convict the world of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment. Eve enters into this dialogue. I want to tell you this, if Satan comes [through one of his demons, as Satan is only really concerned with people like Putin, and all our other world leaders], don’t enter into a dialogue with him, Jesus says he’s the father of lies, you can’t believe anything he says. And some day, when we’re at the temptation of Jesus Christ in the wilderness, we see Christ three times answer him “It is written,” three times, “It is written,” In fact, he says to the devil, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone,” he says ‘Satan, I don’t have to be deity to whup you, I just have to be a man filled with the Holy Spirit, standing on the Word of God.’ Eve here enters into this dialogue, taking away from the Word of God, detracting from the accuracy and the authority of the Word of God, losing the focus and what it really said. Now, ‘you shall not touch it,’ now I don’t know if she is with Adam when God said ‘This is it, I don’t want you to eat of it,’ was she asking ‘How close can we get? We can’t eat it, can we look at it? Can we smell it?’ Adam may have said ‘Don’t touch it! we don’t know, husbands do that. The serpent, verse 4, out and out calls God a liar. “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:” Listen, this has to be the first time in her existence that this concept is even brought to her, that God is not being honest, that what he says, he doesn’t mean what he says, that he said something that wasn’t above board, ‘that we’re really not gonna die.’ Imagine how she’s having to process this. “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.” (verse 5) the very same thing that caused his, Lucifer’s fall, and the same temptation he came to. Now he is accusing the very nature of God. Listen, three times in the Bible, you know, if you have a red letter Bible the words of Jesus are in red, if you had a, I don’t know what colors are good for the words of the devil, gray, I don’t know. There’s three times in the Bible where he actually speaks, once is here in Genesis chapter 3, the other place is Job chapter 1, where God says ‘Hath you observed my servant Job?’ and Satan says ‘Ya, I’ve been watching him, scrutinizing him. Let me touch him, he only worships you because of how you’ve blessed him, let me put my hand on him, he’ll curse you.’ And then the third time we hear his voice is with the temptation of Jesus Christ in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). Take note of it, because he hasn’t changed. First time we hear the devil here, he’s slandering God to man. And maybe you’re here this evening and you’re struggling with something, and you know God’s Word says you should do it a certain way, and you constantly feel ‘Well if I do it that way it’s never gonna work out.’ ‘If I do it the way God says to do it, I’ll never get married, or if I do it the way God says to do it, I’ll always be married, or if I do it the way God says to do it, this will never work out.’ Listen, oldest trick in the book, literally, the first time we hear Satan’s voice, he’s slandering God to man, trying to get man to believe God’s character is other than it is. The second time we hear his voice, in Job, he’s slandering man to God. ‘he only worships you because you bless him, let me put my hand to him, you’ll see what he’s really made of.’ Third time we hear his voice, he has a huge problem, because he’s face to face with the God-man, God and man in one person, and he gets whupped royally…he’s slandering God to man, oldest trick in the Book.

The Lust Of The Flesh, The Lust Of The Eyes, The Pride Of Life--How The Enemy Works Throughout The Scripture

Please take note of how he does this, in verse 6, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, 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.” Man, once desire gets in, “it was to be desired” notice, “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.” Verse 6 sets the stage for the way the enemy works throughout the Scripture. Once she saw that it was good to the taste, that’s the lust of the flesh. It was good to look upon, that’s the lust of the eyes. It was there to make one wise, that’s the pride of life. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. When he comes to Jesus in the wilderness, he says ‘Turn these stones into bread,’ lust of the flesh. He shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, ‘If you bow down to me, I’ll give them to you,’ lust of the eyes. ‘Cast yourself down and let them know you’re the Messiah, and his angels shall bear thee up,’ pride of life. Now if those are the same three avenues that he approaches Jesus with, if from Genesis chapter 3 to Matthew chapter 4, to the Gospels, he hasn’t improved of his methodology, that tells us that he pulls out his best weapons right off the bat, that’s the way he operates. When God says to Satan in Job chapter 1, ‘Go on, you can test him, but don’t kill him,’ look what he does. He slaughters his children, he slaughters his herds, he burns down his houses, destroys everything, he leaves his wife there saying ‘Curse God and die.’ You know, if God said you can tempt someone, what would you do? He pulls out all of the stops, he does it here in the beginning of the Bible, by the time we get to the Gospels has not improved his methods. And if those are the methods he uses on the Son of God, in person, he doesn’t have anything better in his arsenal. But he’ll come at you the same way, it’s how he comes at Eve, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. John tells us, as he writes 1^st John, “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,” it doesn’t find room in him. If our heart is occupied with the things of this world, the love of God doesn’t find a place in him. You remember Jesus said, that even when the Word of God is sown where the soil is decent, but the thorns grow up and the thistles, and they choke it. And he says, they are the cares and the riches of this life, that choke out the Word. And what Jesus is telling us is the human heart is not infinite, the heart of God is infinite. In the heart of God, in this room tonight, he looks at every one of our faces, he knows every one of our stories, he knows those that are ducking in trying to get away, he knows those that are here with a broken heart, he knows those that are here doubting him, he knows those that are here that are rejoicing and praising him, he knows those that are here that are living in sin. In the heart of God, because it’s infinite, there’s room in his heart for all of us, and he knows all of us individually. But the heart of man is different. And if Satan can get our heart to be crowded, there’s not enough room then for the things of God. And Jesus says as he tells the parable of sowing his Word into human hearts, that often the cares and the riches of this life choke the Word of God out, so that it becomes unfruitful, something that had been fruitful, that we can let it become unfruitful, the Word of God in our lives. John writing here says, that if you love the world, ‘there’s not room for the love of the Father, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of this world.’ Satan comes, Eve’s there, ‘Hey man, you’re right, it’s really sweet, huh? Tastes good, tastes good.’ The issue is, God’s going to say to Adam, ‘Did you eat of what I commanded you not to eat of?’ See people only say ‘Well I wonder what was in that fruit? Was there some toxin in there, was there a virus in there, to start to wear down mankind?’ No, that’s not the issue. People think it was an apple, Eve is always next to a tree with a snake and an apple tree, people talk about Adam’s Apple. We don’t know what kind of fruit it was, it didn’t matter. What mattered was the commandment of God was broken when she took it and it was sin. It was sweet, sin is sweet, sin is not bitter [until afterwards, it’s fruit is bitter]. It tells us Moses finally made up his mind, it took him until he was 40 to make up his mind. No excuses for anybody in this room, please. It took Moses until he was 40 to make up his mind, ‘that he’d rather suffer the reproaches with God’s people and suffer, than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.’ (Hebrews 11:24-26) Sin is sweet, lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, it’s good to look upon, it was there to make one wise, appealed to her pride, the pride of life. And then it says ‘and she took it.’ Notice Satan didn’t grab her hand and say ‘OK, do it!’ he’s not forcing her. He can’t to that to us. She took it. He can’t force us. He can’t wrestle you to the ground, pull your mouth open, jam the apple down your throat, mash your jaw around, he can’t do that. And people always say that, ‘Why’d you do that?’ ‘The devil made me do it.’ He did not! He suggested it, he put it in front of you, he tempted you, it says every man is drawn away of his own lusts, then when lust has conceived it brings forth sin, and sin when it comes to the full, brings forth death. We are all part of that process. She saw it, and she finally took it, she acted. ‘She took of the fruit thereof, she ate it, and then she gave it also unto her husband who was with her, and he did eat it.’ (verse 6b) Now we’re told this, in Timothy, it says ‘And Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived was in transgression.’ Adam sinned willfully, death enters into the entire human race through Adam, the woman it says, was deceived. God’s making a different point there through Timothy. But Adam, you know Eve comes to him, in a fallen state, her light evidently has gone out. How long after creation does this happen? We don’t know. [You don’t even know if she and Adam were lit up, that’s a Calvary Chapel interpretation of Genesis 2 and 3 about “light-clothing,” none of us were there.] But his love towards her was a perfect love, it was a more remarkable love than anybody, than any husband in this room will ever have for his wife. And what was it like when she comes to Adam holding a piece of that fruit, but darkened, fallen? And people then try to take Adam and make him like Christ, that he did a noble thing, he decided he’d rather, he loved his wife so much he’d rather enter into her sin with her and become like her, than lose her. No, there wasn’t anything noble in this at all, he sinned against God’s commandment. There’s nothing noble about it. Adam took also, and he ate. And look at verse 7, “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.” Now that’s a terrible thing to discover the first time your eyes are opened. They knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves coverings, aprons, the first thing they realize is they’re naked. It tells us before that, when God brought them together and they were both naked, and they were not ashamed. It says God clothes himself in light, in the Psalms. We know that the saints, again, in Revelation chapter 19 are clothed in fine linen, bright and white, and it says that’s the righteousness of the saints. Evidently they had been clothed in something divine before the fall. When they fall that light goes out, and immediately they’re aware of their nakedness. And what do they do? They sew fig leaves together. The trees were bigger then, I don’t know if it was one leaf per customer, but they take these fig leaves and they make their own religion, they make some way to cover themselves, they make some way to make themselves acceptable to God. Their light’s gone out, so they’re making their own, the church of the holy fig leaf, they’re making their own religion, their own covering. Religion is from the Latin word religari, and it means to “re-link,” and it’s man’s attempt to relink. Christianity is not religion, it is God re-linking, coming to earth in human form and dying on the cross for us. Man, having religion, is his attempt, crawling on his knees to a crucifix, it’s man’s attempt to patronize God, to relink, and here is the first attempt at it, they cover themselves with fig leaves. Doesn’t even sound comfortable to me, I don’t know. “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.” (verse 8) Now you can really tell they’re fallen, here was a guy a day before who was a genius, created in the image and likeness of God. Now he thinks he can hide from God behind a tree. This is really bad, you’re laughing, but there’s lots of people in this world that think they can hide from God if they do something in the dark, if they do something when no one’s around, if they have somebody in the back seat of car [and don’t forget, that somebody usually wants to be there too], if they do something when they’re not around any other believers. You know, David would finally say “Before thee and thee only have I sinned and done this great evil in thy sight, O LORD.” This is part of the fall, they actually hide themselves. Now God comes in the cool of the day, he doesn’t come at noon when the sun is blazing, to give the impression they’re in hot water now. He waits till the cool of the day, the most comfortable part of the day for Adam and Eve, he comes, as he had come to fellowship with them. They had never known fear until this point. Fear is based on a sense of loss. Anybody in this room that is dealing with fear, whether it’s in regards to a loved one, a job, whatever it might be, all fear is anchored in the sense of loss. I might lose my help, I might lose my job, I might lose my child, I might lose this, I might lose that. They had a sense of loss, their light had gone out, they covered themselves. And when God came, as he had come every day to fellowship with them, that was the delight of their day, to walk with him in the garden, to look into his face, to talk with him. And instead now, they’re hiding themselves, they hid themselves. Now Adam’s the leader of the home, ‘You go behind that tree, I’ll go behind this tree.’ “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said, unto him, Where art thou?” (verse 9) Now this is God’s grace, God initiates. He could have just from heaven, he could have just smote the Garden of Eden, he could have just smote the planet and started over [like he allowed when the asteroid hit 66 million years ago, taking out the epoch of the dinosaurs, which were not conducive to the creation of mankind]. But he comes and he walks, and he calls out to Adam, “Where art thou?” Now this is the first genuine question in the Bible. In chapter 3 at the beginning, Satan said ‘Yea, hath God said,” that wasn’t a real question, that was an insinuation. The first real question that we have in the Bible is here, ‘Where are you?’ First question in the New Testament, Matthew 2:2 is ‘Where is he, the one they call the King of the Jews?’ First question in the Old Testament, God to man, ‘where are you?’ Now look, are they really hid behind the trees, and God’s scratching his head saying ‘Marko, Polo? I give up, where are you?’ Is he actually asking for information here? He’s not, he asks this question for illumination. Where are you? Because Adam is going to say, ‘I hid myself. I knew I was naked, I was ashamed,’ and God’s going to say ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ He’s going to say to Adam ‘You knew it inside.’ But God asks the same question today, he asks it to me, how many times in a month or a week does God say to me ‘Joe, where are you? Where are you with all this stuff?’ How many times might he ask you, if you’re here tonight and you don’t know Christ as your Saviour, I encourage you to listen. You’re gonna be sitting somewhere stoned or drunk or doing something stupid, but if you listen, you may hear God say to you ‘Where are you?’ Not because he’s looking for information, but he wants you to say ‘You know what, I’m nowhere. I am empty, I’m tired of the emptiness, I’m tired of playing games, I got everybody else fooled, and I don’t have myself fooled, and if that’s you talking to me, I know I don’t have you fooled. Where are you?’ And he said, first real words of sinful man, “And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (verse 10) fig leaves didn’t do any good at all. He was afraid. Was that because of God? Did God come rushing in on a fiery chariot and roar at him, ‘That’s it, I can’t stands it no more!’ I mean, there’s none of that. God doesn’t show up on the scene like an arresting officer, he doesn’t show up on the scene to destroy, he comes as a heartbroken parent. He comes as a heartbroken father. And the tenderness in his question must have been immeasurable, ‘Where are you, where are you?’ Adam was not afraid because of God’s question, he was afraid because he knew he was naked, ‘and I hid myself.’ Now that’s a half truth, typical of all men, he should have said ‘I hid myself because I ate the fruit I shouldn’t have ate, and everything was downhill from there.’

The Blame Game, And The First Prophecy About The Coming Messiah

Now look at what God does, “And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree,” please take note “whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” (verse 11) that is what introduces the fall, the breaking of the commandment of God, whatever kind of fruit it was is an aside to the central issue, ‘did you eat a fruit I commanded you not to eat of?’ “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” (verse 12) Now this is what we do when we get caught, ok? I’m going to read through this, and remember this is our gene-pool, ok. [laughter] Oh it gets worse, listen, ‘Did you do what I asked you not to do?’ ‘Ya, but,’ verse 12, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” ‘Ya, I ate, but look, it was you and me in Paradise, no problem, you made her, she gave me the fruit, you and her need to work this out, I was here before there was a problem,’ I mean he’s insinuating that God, and you know what, we’re laughing, but I’m telling you, I’ve heard from so many people in the church, our church, they’ll do something, they’ll sin, end up with AIDS, end up with a venereal disease, end up with their marriage falling apart, or there’s something terrible going on, and then they’ll say to me ‘How could God let this happen!?’ The same exact thing, it’s not God, he told you a million times in his Word not to do it, he told you all day, every day through the conviction of his Spirit not to do it, all the pastors on staff told you not to do it, and you did it, and now you’re blaming somebody else. Adam’s doing the same thing, passing the buck, this is where it begins. ‘LORD, the woman, that you gave me,’ that’s the answer you’re looking for, ‘she gave it to me, and I did eat.’ So “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.” (verse 13) Now look, we live in a world, Democrats blame Republicans, Republicans blame the Democrats, Muslims blame the Jews, the Jews blame the Muslims, Blacks blame the Whites, the Whites blame the Blacks, the cats blame the dogs, the dogs blame the cats, Croats blame the Serbs, the Serbs blame the Croats, staff accuses the faculty, the faculty accuses the staff. I mean, you can go down the list, it’s non-ending, it doesn’t stop, the root of it is sin, it’s sin. When you get in an argument with your wife, and I know no one has ever done this, but I’m just saying it because other Christians listening to the radio might do that once in a while, you get in an argument with your wife. What you’re doing is you’re confessing her sins to her and she’s confessing your sins to you. Instead of you both getting alone and confessing your own sins to the Lord. He said to the woman, ‘What did you do?’ ‘The serpent, he beguiled me,’ (verse 14) and he doesn’t say to the serpent, What did you do? because he’s already dealt with him at some time in the past, he says to the serpent, now evidently “the beast” here, this is hard in some ways, “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast 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:” (verse 14) Now, “upon thy belly” insinuates that whatever this creature was, was not on his belly before this, it was upright. This species is cursed, and then he speaks to the devil himself in verse 15, and says “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Now look, we don’t know whether Satan at this point in time thought ‘That’s it, I got man away from God, and reproduction is going to be in my hands, and not only do I have a third of the angels who rebelled [cf. Revelation 12:3-4], I’m going to raise up an army now on this ball of dirt that’s going to be in rebellion against God too.’ We don’t know that, but God steps right in and says to him, ‘This is what’s gonna happen, there’s going to be enmity between you and the woman.’ Nobody on this planet is gonna like snakes. There’s a few sick people, I have some friends who do, but most, you get the idea. ‘I’m gonna put enmity, the devil, between you and the woman, you’re not gonna be a team,’ “and between thy seed” he says to Satan, “and her seed” singular. King James says “it shall bruise thy head” speaking of the woman’s seed. That’s not what the Hebrew says, the Hebrew says “He, he shall crush your head,” the woman’s seed, he goes to a masculine personal pronoun, “he,” and then he repeats it “he” to make it emphatic, “he, he shall crush your head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” But he says this evidently in front of Adam and Eve. The fall has taken place, God in his grace entered the garden, he has begun the dialogue, he has called them to himself, and now he says in front of them, there is still a plan. In fact, it was enacted before the world was formed, the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world, and he says here [to Satan], ‘whatever you thought was going to happen is not going to happen, because I’m going to put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, and her seed, he, he shall crush your head.’ Jesus Christ is not in a struggle with the enemy, he is going, finally, he’s already defeated him on the cross, spoiled principalities and powers, it tells us in Colossians, but the day’s coming, when he’s going to crush his head. ‘he’s [Satan’s] going to bruise his heel, he was crucified, he’s going to crush your head.’ I like that, I like that, in the midst of this dark, discouraging chapter, God says ‘I’m going to have the victory, there is a plan, and your head is due for the heel of the Lord of lords and King of kings, that’s what your head is due for.’

Consequences For Sin Come Onto Mankind--A Struggle Between Men & Women Begins

“Unto the woman he said, 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.” (verse 16) Now, interesting question, what would childbirth, what would it have been like if there hadn’t been a fall? He says now because of the fall, conception, pregnancy, childbirth, the whole process is going to be a labour, there’s going to be sorrow. If Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned, God had said be fruitful, fill the earth, what would it have been like? Imagine that ladies. We may have had drive-thru delivery stations. [laughter] Or just something you bought at the drugstore. Or just pop ‘em out. But now, because of sin, is it supposed to be speaking to them? Conception, pregnancy, childbirth, there’s a sorrow to it, there’s a lesson, something that’s supposed to speak to them, of what’s happened to mankind, in the process. “thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” is the exact same Hebrew phrase that we have in chapter 4, verse 7, when God is talking to Cain when God was refusing his sacrifice, he said “If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted, if thou doest not well, sin liest at the door,” here’s our phrase, “and unto thee shall be his desire” the desire of sin, “and thou shalt rule over him.” What God says there, sin is going to want to rule over you, you’re going to rule over it. God is saying in the marriage relationship, there’s going to be a problem now, you’re desire will be to rule over your husband, but your husband’s going to rule over you. And even in a perfect marriage, and I know you think you have one, there’s difficulty, there’s struggle, there’s vying for position. God tells us in his Word what our relationship is supposed to be, but because we’re sinners saved by grace, certainly we’re growing, certainly we want to do things as best we can. Let me tell you something, the Scripture says to me that I should love my wife the way Christ loves the Church. I have never accomplished the fullness of that, it doesn’t lower the standard. I’m still shooting for the goal. I just have this feeling that before the Rapture I’m not gonna make it. I’m not giving up, I just want to encourage my wife. But before the fall, there was no problem between them, there was no struggle in marriage, there was no war over headship or roles, none of those things. You have to understand, if you study cultures throughout the world, anthropologists tell us culture after culture after culture, women were demeaned, they were put to death, they were treated like the offscouring of the world, there were cultures where everybody came to the birth, to celebrate, have a party, if a boy was born, they’d have a big party. But if a girl was born they threw it in the river and everybody went home. The demeaning, it enters in with sin, not God’s original plan. [Can you blame women for their women’s rights movements, their Me-Too movements, Feminist movements, understanding the put-downs and persecution women have had to endure over the past 6,000 years of man’s written history?] And he says part of the problem now is going to be in this sense, because of your sinful nature you’re going to struggle, you’re going to want to rule over your husband, and he’s going to rule over you.

A Change Takes Place In The Biosphere

“And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife,” instead of the voice of God. Men, there isn’t anything wrong with hearkening to the voice of your wife, throughout the Old Testament wisdom is always in the feminine gender, always. My wife, it just gets under my skin how many times she’s right. Wisdom’s always in the feminine gender. But here the idea is, because you hearkened unto the voice of your wife instead of the commandment of God “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;” what happened to the ground at that point?--a curse comes on the ground, you know it tells us in Romans chapter 8, even creation is groaning and travailing, waiting for the manifestations of the sons of God. What did the soil produce before it fell? [And as I pointed out in my study of Genesis chapter 1, God is the Master bio-geneticist, all he had to do is tweak the plant kingdom, to produce thorns and thistles, and change the soil and plant-based creation on earth.] Now the soil itself, the earth itself, it says is cursed, “thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee;” what did it bring forth before? I mean, is a thorn something that before the fall, as that plant developed, you read folks who say where that thorn was, a rose would have come, before the fall, now because the ground is cursed, nothing comes to fruition, the earth bringing forth thorns, ‘thus 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.” (verses 17-19) So there’s like some lesson to Adam, all of his days he’s going to eek his living out of the ground, and as he’s doing it, he’s going to remember ‘I’m returning there, I was made of that stuff, and I’m going back to it,’ as he’s eeking his living out of it, being reminded. Now look, there’s going to be a backdrop to this that’s going to cause Adam and Eve to lift their hearts and look to heaven again, in childbirth and in sorrow, there’s always going to be a hope. Women in Israel who were barren were considered cursed because they were all hoping to give birth to the Messiah. Men as they worked the land that produced, they looked to heaven and thanked God, because they realized God can still bless, and they were waiting for the one who would come, to fulfill the type of substitutionary atonement. So there’s lessons in this, it isn’t just ‘This is drudgery, enjoy it, take this bitter pill and swallow it,’ there are things for man to learn in this, ‘but you’re going to return to the dust of the ground.’ And look what it says in verse 20, “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” Now in chapter 2 he named her “woman,” now he calls her Eve, which means “living.” He calls his wife’s name Eve because she was the mother of all the living. ‘I will put enmity between thy seed and the seed of the serpent, and he, he shall crush the serpent’s head,’ there was a promise of redemption there, and Adam believed God, and in faith he changes his wife’s name to Eve, Living, because he says ‘You’re going to be the mother of the living.’ Yes, death has entered in. But God has spoken to our hearts, and he’s given us something to hold onto. And in faith, he gives his wife this beautiful name.

The LORD God Clothes Them And Sends Them Away

“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” (verse 21) very strange construct in the language. First time blood is shed on the earth, here, God does it. Imagine this, Adam had never seen anything like this. Before the fall, Adam wouldn’t have died, it seems the animals wouldn’t have died. [Comment: I think maybe way too much is being read into “the Fall” where nothing can die. I think maybe death was not coming onto mankind, Adam and Eve, maybe that applied to them before they partook of “the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” but death itself is part of the living environment God created, bacteria and microbes, living and dying in the soil. Just imagine insects, what the pyramid of life on earth is based on, the bottom 2/3rds of life is insect and microbic, just imagine all reproducing insects and microbes never dying, the rest of life on earth would be crowded out by insects. No, this doctrine of the Fall, carried down to all living creatures to the very insect and microbic level would not work, it would bury the earth in insects and microbes. The religious folk, wonderful as they are, haven’t thought things out enough when they formulate their doctrinal interpretation of Scripture. Sometimes it’s better to say ‘We just don’t know how all this worked, we weren’t there. We’ll find out at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb (cf. Revelation 19:7-9).’ If the herbivores, reproducing at their normal rates had no one to cull their herds, even in the wild, by way of carnivores, they would have crowded themselves off the planet, used up their food sources, just the way we know with herds of wild deer. No, just better to say “We don’t know,” than to try to interpret every single verse in the Bible and end up being wrong.] Now God takes some animal, animals, and he slaughters them, and he skins them, and it says “he,” he then clothed Adam. Adam doesn’t do it himself, Eve doesn’t do it herself. Has God taken off the fig leaves, have they fallen off? God is teaching them, it’s only through the shedding of blood that where there is covering. God is teaching them now something about substitutionary atonement, he’s teaching them to look forward to. In the next chapter we’re going to see Cain and Abel, we see Abel take a lamb from his flock and go and offer it on the alter. He’s communicating something to Adam and Eve about Jesus Christ, about substitutionary atonement. And what was it like for them to see blood for the first time, at the hands of God? And then for God to bring these skins and clothe them, and teach them, it’s not going to be through fig leaves, it’s going to be through the death of someone else that you’re going to be covered. “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever:” “one of us” we have the trinity here in a conversation, “therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.” (verses 22-23) God says ‘I have a concern, he’s fallen, he knows good and evil.’ God knew good, because of his own nature, and new evil in distain and hatred, God. Adam knew good in what he had experienced, and evil in what he had become in his fall. God had not participated in that. He says, but man has fallen, and now, if he goes and eats, he ate of the knowledge of good and evil which he asked him not to eat of, now if he goes and eats of the tree of life, he’ll live forever in a fallen state, imagine that. You know it says when we get to heaven [enter into immortality at the 1^st Resurrection, cf. 1^st Corinthians 15:49-54] in Revelation chapter 2 it tells us we’ll have the right to the Tree of Life. But imagine, you look at this planet, you go home and turn on the news, all of the war, all of the rape, all of the killing, children being abused, look at the insanity, and imagine if man just kept living, in the unfallen state. First of all it would be a really, really crowded ball of dirt by now, if everybody from Adam on had lived. But it would be really, really, really dark and insane. And imagine living eternally, fallen, suffering, pain, sickness, disease, hatred, lust, forever. God says, ‘Well, lest he go now and partake of the tree of life and live forever,’ “therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.” (verse 23) then it changes words, and it says “So he drove out the man; and he placed 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.” (verse 24) Isn’t it interesting, first he sent Adam and Eve, he said ‘You’re gonna have to go now,’ there must have been a conversation, ‘I’ve never known anything like this, what do you mean Go? We’ve only known your presence, we’ve only known this garden, we’ve only known Eden. Can’t we fix this? Can’t we stay here until this One you’ve promised comes? Please, there must be a way, we know we were wrong, we didn’t mean to do it, we did it, we were wrong, we were deceived,’ and God saying, ‘No, you have to go, this has to happen, this has to happen now.’ And then finally it changes and says ‘And God drove them out,’ no doubt with a broken heart. And this is unimaginable to me, he drives them out into an empty earth, there are only two people on the planet. And he drives them out of Eden, to where? To a fallen world, to barrenness, to unimaginable, unending miles of emptiness. Imagine. Wildersmith says he believes at this point that God drives him out of eternity into time. He said that “I think the question of why is there suffering begins here, because it is suffering that turns the heart of man back towards his Creator, towards his Redeemer.” What if he had left Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, no problems, in their fallen state? What if they had eaten the tree of life and lived forever, God drives man out, maybe out of eternity into Time, drives him out into the world, where there’s sorrow, where there’s labour, where there are things that make us fall on our knees and call out to the Living God and ask his forgiveness, and own Christ as our Saviour. Where we grab something in our heart that gives us hope beyond this present world. It says he puts then at the east of Eden Cherubims, guarding the way to the tree of life, a flaming sword, what was that like? We know the Cherubim have the face of a lion, the face of an ox, the face of a man, and the face of an eagle, they’re described to us [a Cherubim has four faces each facing in a different direction, imagine that!]. Very interesting, these heavenly beings, creatures, standing at the entrance to Eden. How many times did Adam and Eve come back to the entrance, was it still visible, could they see the Cherubims? There’s a Jewish tradition that these Cherubims stood over the Ark of the Covenant, it’s a Jewish tradition, I’m just telling you this, that when Adam would come to pour out blood, that it would be there, at the gateway to Eden. Of course there’s Biblical basis for that. As we see the Ark of the Covenant though, we see the Cherubims over the top of it, where the blood is poured out on the Mercy Seat. You look at the camp of Israel, with the flags on the four sides of it with the tribes, Judah and so forth, the face of a man, the face of an ox, the face of a lion, the face of an eagle around the camp of Israel. [And Britain has the Royal Lion [some feel the Royal Lion of Judah], the United States of America has an eagle on it’s Presidential Seal] The faces on the four Gospels, Matthew of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Mark represents Christ the Servant, the Ox, Luke represents Christ the man, his humanness, certainly John the deity of the Eagle. In the Book of Revelation you find them. So they’re introduced now, interesting, these Cherubims, of the order that Lucifer had been of it would seem, guarding the way to the Tree of Life.

In closing

Now look, read ahead, chapter 4 amazing, we come to some amazing things. And everybody whose got this question, ‘Where did Cain get his wife?’ [I’m not gonna answer my speculation on that one, not going near that one, and I have some definite theories.] People ask me that question, ‘Oh ya, where did Cain get his wife,’ well the first good answer I give is, I’m always suspicious of somebody interested in another man’s wife. That’s the answer you get. We’ll give a good answer as we come to that, so I encourage you to read ahead, Cain, Abel. Look, take this into consideration as you read through, what God is saying to us, because the flow of religion and the flow of God’s order comes from here. Abel offers a lamb, that’s substitutionary atonement. Cain, he offers the works of his hands, genuine, sincere, but that’s the fountainhead of religion. Were they influenced by the friends that came, hanging around with a bad group? There were no friends. There were no kids in high school that got him in trouble. Eve is made from Adam’s side, same genes, same chromosomes, Cain and Abel are more alike than any identical twins that have ever been born. And God holds them up to show to us. You probably couldn’t have told them apart by looking at them. Same influences, only one mom, one dad on the planet, no MTV, no movies, no violence, none of the stuff, just the fall, the human heart, the commandment of God broken, and it’s interesting to see what flows from this. So I encourage you, read ahead. Look, as you go out these doors tonight, take note of this ‘Well if I was there,’ because you know the chapter, ‘I’d have never eaten of that tree, I know that chapter, if I was there I wouldn’t have eaten of that, Honey, when that snake comes and starts talking to you, and if you eat, I ain’t eating, you’re going to be alone, God’s going to make a new, take something from my side, you die, he’ll make a new one.’ Listen, let me tell you something, in that arena there was one tree, forbidden, of the knowledge of good and evil, there was no pornography, there was no gambling, there was no drunkenness, there was no drugs, there are many trees today, they’re all different in only one respect, in another respect they’re all the same. Because the problem wasn’t the fruit that was on the tree, the problem was when that fruit was partaken of, the commandment of God was broken. And his Word abides, it’s the same. And when you and I go out the door and we face temptation, look, different trees, same command, same God, same Word, we face the same temptations. And God’s given us his Word. If you spent every day, every morning, before you get started you fall on your knees and say ‘Lord, fill me with your Spirit today, I don’t want to be a Spirit-filled Christian by title, I want to be a Spirit-filled Christian by experience. Let your Word be real to me today. Keep your hand on my life today.’ There hath no temptation overtaken you except that which is common to all mankind, and God with it makes a way of escape. There isn’t one of us in this room that can say ‘The devil made me do it.’ ‘Well Pastor Joe, it wasn’t just the devil, it was that woman that God gave me, and the devil.’ Look, these things are given to us in seed form, and it’s the picture of all of our struggles, all of our lives, we have so much more light than Adam and Eve this evening. My encouragement to you is, take a stand, take a stand. If you’re saying ‘Pastor Joe, why are you preaching to me, I’m mature, I’m a mature Christian, I don’t even need to hear this.’ Then you pray for me, ok? I need it…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Genesis 3:1-24 given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]