Did God Really Say? (CCA)

Introduction

Well, good afternoon! Listen, it feels so good to be here…to worship with you guys…I’m grateful for this school, for the staff, the students. And just thank you for allowing me to be here.

Alright, if you have your Bibles and I hope that you do, open ‘em up with me to Genesis chapter three…Genesis chapter three. This afternoon, I want us to look at a chapter that I think really goes along with what we’ve been covering on Fridays in our discipleship groups…looking at culture and how it impacts us.

Listen, for a lot of us…we might hear things, but that hearing, it doesn’t always really sink in like it should. It doesn’t always have the effect on us like the message was meant to have. And what happens, we leave that conservation or whatever, unchanged or unaware…and we end up doing the complete opposite of whatever we were warned against, right?

Listen, when I went to basic training…I was told a lot about what to expect from those that had been there before me. They warned me and they tried their very best to prepare me. But listen, I’ll never forget the first day with my unit. Our drill sergeant, he was outside the mess hall…we had just finished eating…we were still in what they call the red phase, they were trying to break us down mentally and so, of course, things were a lot harder at this point…but here he was, yelling a bunch of commands at us…telling us to hurry and do all these things…and it just didn’t sit well with me…I hated being told what to do…I hated being yelled at…and so, I just didn’t do what he said to do…and then when he continued to yell at me, I just laughed at him. Listen, I was a dumb kid. And so, anyways, he stopped…he kinda smiled at me…and he said, “Okay hotshot, you come up here and you smoke your battle buddies then.” Smoking, it was just another term for making them do pushups…it was like our punishment. And so, I started directing them, “Up…down…Up…down!” And listen, after about 10 minutes I start looking over at him, looking for direction on when I could stop…and he finally said, “Private, you can stop whenever you feel like they’ve had enough…you’ve been in charge this whole time!” Well, it hit me immediately…he just caused my entire platoon to hate me. He knew exactly what he needed to do in order to start breaking me down.

But here’s the reality…if I would’ve just listened to my family and friends who had been there…if I would’ve listened to their directions…if I would’ve believed what they actually said about basic training and what would happen…I guarantee you, it would’ve directed me a little bit differently. If I took it more serious at the start, I would’ve had a much more pleasant experience.

Guys, that’s exactly what we see happening in these accounts here in Genesis 3…Adam and Eve, they didn’t take God at his word, seriously! And because of that they didn’t truly know it, they didn’t believe it, and they didn’t allow it to direct their life…and because of that, they wound up in a pretty bad spot…A spot that would impact all of us!

And so, with that…let’s look this this account together. We’re gonna be digging into the first 7 verses. And as we do that, there’s three questions I wanna ask you as we look at this.

1.) Do you really know God’s Word? (vv. 1-4)

The first question…do you really know God’s Word?

Guys, the origin of sin…the story of the fall…it happened because ultimately, Adam and Eve, they didn’t know God’s Word. They heard it…but they didn’t truly know it.

Look at verse 1 with me. It says, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.”

Now listen, I know you’re thinking, “Wait a second…we got a talking snake here…things just got weird!” Listen, there’s a lot we could discuss about this guy…but for the sake of time (because this isn’t our purpose), Revelation 12:9 describes this serpent as Satan.

And listen, we have this nasty habit of blaming Satan for the fall of man and for our sin problem…this chapter’s very clear…sin is the result of man’s disobedience alone. We and we alone are responsible for our separation from God. We’re the ones made in image of God and we’re the ones that have freewill.

But look at what he says in verse 1, “He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Guys, he goes straight to the only command that God gave Adam…he goes straight for God’s Word. And listen, again, he’s crafty about this…he’s subtle…he wasn’t necessarily denying God’s Word…he was just introducing the idea that God’s Word is subject to our own judgment. It was enticing to the woman. Satan’s approach was so subtle that Eve didn’t even suspect God’s Word was being attacked. I mean, it was just an innocent question, right? But listen, a seed of doubt about God’s Word, it had been planted in Eve’s heart…and that would bear fruit immediately as we’ll see.

She responds in verse 2, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”

Listen, this is exactly what Satan was after…he was banking on the fact that Eve didn’t actually know God’s Word. I mean, just look at her response…she fails tremendously and just gives her own revision of God’s Word…She added to God’s Word…and because she added to His Word, it softened His Word.

If you guys know Genesis chapter 2, God gave Adam a very specific command in verses 16 and 17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

Guys, God clearly instructed Adam to not eat from the tree, right? He said nothing about touching it…it’s Eve’s new rendition of God’s Word here now that discounted His generosity. God never said, “neither shall you touch it!” Eve was magnifying God’s strictness here…almost making it look negative in a sense…like, “Yea, if you even touch the tree then zap - you’re dead!” Her comment it’s suggesting that God’s so harsh that even a slip would bring on death. Satan’s question here was causing the woman to begin distrusting the goodness of God’s Word.

And then on top of that…in chapter two…God told Adam, if you eat of this tree “you’ll CERTAINLY die.” But Eve says, “If I do this…lest I’ll die.” She’s softened God’s Word. She removed the certainty of death and she begins to justify her desires in her heart.

Sin always starts, especially with Christians…by first beginning to justify ourselves by distorting or softening or changing God’s Word.

And then of course, Satan jumps on the opportunity…He says in verse 4, “You will not surely die.” He goes back to a certainty. He takes Eve’s mistruth and he twists it even more…It’s now the serpent’s word against God’s Word. Satan had successfully trapped the woman because ultimately she was confused about God’s Word…She didn’t know it.

And so listen, here’s an easy question for you…do you really know God’s Word? Because guys, that’s what makes us prone to sin…that’s what causes us to fall out of God’s will…that’s what removes us from His presence…that’s how Satan still wins in our culture today…it’s when we don’t know God’s Word.

2.) Do you really believe God’s Word? (vv. 5-6)

Which leads us into question number two…do you really believe God’s Word?

Look at what Satan does in verse 5. He says, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Listen, Eve had already proved she didn’t know God’s Word…and so now, Satan tries to challenge the trustworthiness of His Word. And what he’s asking here is, “Do you really believe God’s Word?…Do you really believe God would allow that to happen to you?”

And so, how’s the woman respond? Verse 6, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”

Listen, here’s how I picture this story....the serpent, he comes…he gets the woman to question the goodness and the truthfulness of God’s Word…and then he kind of leaves her alone in the mist of the garden…she’s staring at this tree and she begins to realize, “I do desire this tree…I do desire to be like God…I do want more…God is oppressive…I’m gonna take things into my own hands.” And so, she finally grabs the fruit…and guess what happens? She doesn’t die…because again she got God’s Word all wrong…and so, why believe the rest of what she thinks God said? The tree, it looks good to the sight…it looks desirable…I wanna be wise…And so, she eats of the forbidden tree.

Listen, here’s the deal…Eve ate of the tree because ultimately she didn’t know God’s Word, and because of that she forgot who she was in comparison to God and it caused her to completely disregard His Word.

Guys, do you see how we ultimately do the same thing today? A lot of times, we fall into temptation and sin because if we’re honest, we really don’t believe God’s Word…And for a lot of us…we don’t believe it because we don’t know it. What happens is we place our faith and our trust in man or in our culture…and that sometimes leads us down the wrong path…or like Eve we twist and we distort and we soften God’s Word so that we chose to believe the good parts but leave the consequence parts out.

And so, what’s it mean for us? We have to devote ourselves to understanding God’s Word. We have to be digging into it constantly as believers. We have to learn more and more so that we’re not tossed to and fro…because guess how Satan attacks us today? Guess what he still goes after? God’s Word!

And so, do you really believe God’s Word?

3.) Do you really allow God’s Word to drive your life? (v. 7)

Which leads us into our last question…do you really allow God’s Word to drive your life? Because if you believe it, it’ll show. And listen, I’m not even talking about being a morally good person. If you’ve truly experienced the grace of God…if you’ve been changed by the power of the Holy Spirit, part of the reason you’re different…its because you now hold God to His Word. You believe He has the power to save…you believe without Him, you’ll be doomed to a eternal hell. You understand you’re in a separated state.

But guys, if you simply heard the gospel and didn’t truly understand it or know it…guys, there’s no way you believe it deep down in your core…and because of that, God’s Word’s not really driving your life. You’re like Eve, maybe you heard Adam give you God’s command to not eat…but you didn’t really know it…and because of that, you can’t believe it…and there’s no way it’s gonna define you.

That’s why Jesus says, “If you love me, obey my commandments.”

Look at this last verse in Genesis. Verse 7, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

Four things are happening here…They’re eyes are opened, they realize their nakedness, they sew fig leaves, and they make coverings for themselves. Listen, this opening of their eyes…it’s not a good thing…this opening, it made ‘em look at their nakedness with displeasure. They weren’t satisfied with how God made them anymore…they weren’t pleased with each other…and so they covered themselves. Their eyes being opened, it showed man’s separation from God. The knowledge they wanted so bad for themselves, it only brought them shame and it caused them to hide what God made perfectly in His image.

Their actions were contrary to God’s Word. Their actions didn’t demonstrate that they were made in God’s image, found in His favor, it didn’t demonstrate that they walked with God…that they were dependent on Him. And their actions, it causes them to hide from God.

Guys, they were separated…their freewill to choose life or death, it brought sin and wickedness into this perfectly crafted world and distorted it forevermore. And because of that, all of mankind would be separated from God.

That’s why Romans 3:23 says:

Romans 3:23 (ESV)

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

It’s our reason for the gospel…why we need it. Because we’re all hopelessly and desperately doomed to a fiery hell. And not because of God…but because we chose to rebel and go our own way. He’s allowed us, since the time of Adam and Eve to determine our future. And all of us, we all fall short of God’s glory, because we’ve all chosen sin…we’ve all chosen unrighteousness. And for that, we’ve all brought on punishment and death. And without something saving us from that outcome, that’s our destiny.

Listen, when we look at this passage…Eve didn’t know Scripture, and because of that, she didn’t believe it…and the result? Her life, Adam’s life…it wasn’t defined or directed by the Word of God. In fact, their actions, it just further proved they were separated.

Closing

And so, as we close this afternoon, I’ll ask you this question…is your life today, is it defined or directed by God’s Word? Is it relevant in your life. James says that our faith, or our salvation…the salvation won for us by Jesus Christ…it causes good fruit to pour out of us. It causes our lives to begin modeling the Word of God. As God’s people, we care about His Word because we’ve been changed and now we love Him. Do you really allow God’s Word to drive your life? Is it relevant for you? God’s Word, it’s the only thing that’ll teach you about salvation…that Jesus died in place of you…and that if you repent and believe, you can receive everlasting life…but it’s also the only thing that’ll prevent the culture around you from consuming you.

Is your life defined by God’s Word?

Let’s pray together.

[Prayer]