The Serpent’s Temptations
Notes
Transcript
WELCOME:
Good morning everyone!
Shoebox things due Nov 11th!
Don’t forget clean up day next SATURDAY at 8:00!
SCRIPTURE READING:
And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. “For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”
LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!
“The Goodness of God”
Words and Music by Hillsong’
PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS
Lord, thank you for your constancy. For never turning Your back on us, for never getting frustrated with us, for forgiving our sins, for allowing us to be part of Your plan. We ask that You would look down upon this gathering of people and fill our hearts with great joy today as we focus on You. Amen!
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS
Lord, give us ears to hear Your voice and eyes to see Your glory. Would you this morning illuminate Your Word and make it known to us? Help us no to make application to others peoples’ lives, but to apply every Word to our own lives. Amen
SERMON
INTRODUCTION: BEGIN WITH PRAYER!
Genesis chapter 3 this morning and we are going to read about the historical moment that changed God’s perfect world forever.
Up until now, the world was “very good”. No sin, no sickness, no suffering, no death, absolute paradise. Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world…one that we will never know (at least on this side of heaven) but it was short lived.
When we come to Genesis chapter 3, and we read about the fall of mankind. Adam and Eve disobey God’s one command and bring a curse into the world that we have been living under ever since.
And the rest of the entire Bible moves toward God redeeming His creation and removing the curse through the person of Jesus Christ. And we see that completely fulfilled in Revelation chapter 21-22.
How did two perfect people who knew God, who only had one command to follow, break that command and curse the entire world? Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
A new person enters the story, a serpent. But not just any serpent, a talking crafty serpent.
I was teaching a lesson at VBS a few years ago and my teaching session was on this passage in Gen 3. And I remember telling the kids that this talking serpent that caused the fall of the human race was Satan in the form of a serpent. And one boy in there piped right up and told me that was not Satan, but nothing more than a talking snake.
Is this Satan?
Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
Revelation 12:15 “And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.”
Revelation 20:2 “And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;”
2 Corinthians 11:3 “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
Over and over in the Bible, Satan is referred to as the serpent of old and even Ezekiel mentions him being “in Eden, the garden of God” (Ezek 28:13).
And in Matthew 4:3 Satan is referred to as the “tempter” which is exactly what he is doing here with Eve.
I think from Scripture as a whole, the Bible is very clear, that this serpent is Satan himself in God’s garden.
Notice how he is described: he is a crafty serpent
That word means “cleaver”, “cunning”, or “skillfully wise”.
Paul says this about Satan:
Ephesians 6:11 “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”
A scheme is a “methods” or “strategies”
Satan is a mastermind, a leader of a great army made up of vile demons. They follow his orders, they carry out his schemes, and will go as far as they can to bring someone down.
Satan does walk haphazardly walk around the earth hoping to randomly trick somebody into sinning. He has a plan! He has a strategy. He has perfected methods that he uses and he will wait months or even years to execute them if that is what it takes.
And we must not not think Satan does not know us, or our weaknesses, or our areas that we are prone to fail. It is there he will bring the attack against us
Think of it like a nation going to war with another nation. No one loads up everything they have and unload them on foreign soil without careful study, planning, and timing.
There is a systematic approach to warfare and there is a systematic approach to Satan’s warfare on our lives.
Loyalty to Jesus makes you Satan’s primary target
He didn’t go after the ox or the giraffe. He went after Eve because she was loyal to God. And the same is true for us. He’s not so much interested in the people who live for this world. He’s already got them! He is after the people who follow Jesus.
So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Satan hates God, and because he hates God, he also hates anyone who keeps the commandments of God. But its not just keeping the commandments of God, but those who hold to the testimony of Jesus. The testimony of Jesus is just another way to describe the gospel: the saving work of Jesus.
Why the testimony of Jesus? Because apart from Jesus, our faith and our attempts to keep God’s commandments are in vain.
It’s only Jesus that makes a relationship with God possible.
Here is what I’m trying to say to us today: church this is your enemy
He is not a harmless snake…he is a powerful, wise, crafty being who wants nothing more than to pull you away and will go to great lengths to get you away from God and back into the world!
He will use people that you love and respect
He will use material things that attract our flesh
He will use fear and manipulation
He will give you just about anything you want to keep you from the great treasure of Christ…
He does not care if you are a new believer or a seasoned Christian who has been walking with the Lord for 50 years.
I think he does far more damage to the kingdom of God when he entangles someone in sin who has been in church for many years
He is ruthless, he is persistent, he is patient, and he does it all through carefully planned and executed methods tailor fitted to our lives..
Let’s walk through these first few verses so we can become familiar with some of these tactics and gain some wisdom
Let’s walk through these first few verses so we can become familiar with some of these tactics and gain some wisdom
He begins by questioning what God has said:
Genesis 3:1 (NASB95)
And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
God told Adam (and by extension Eve) that they had one rule to obey (JUST ONE) and that they were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they would die.
That is a prohibition with a promise. If you do this, then this will happen. Straight forward and simple. God’s authority with a promise
And that is the very place Satan began his plot to lead Eve astray.
Indeed, “has God said?”
The NIV says, “did God really say?”
I doubt there is a single soul in this room that has not heard that same phrase in their ear, from another’s mouth, or in the privacy of their own thoughts many times in their life
Does God really expect me to make these extreme sacrifices in my life? I mean I don’t see anyone else doing this.
Is God really going to do what He promised to do? It certainly doesn’t look like God is keeping His promise from the way things are going..
Did God really speak the world into existence? The whole world seems to doubt it, even some Christians seem to put science over what God has said
OR…Did God really mean it that way? I mean this kind of life is ridiculous and I just don’t see the point in it…
One of the primary ways Satan tempts us to rebel against God is to question the Word of God.
To doubt it
To disbelieve it
To reject it
To reason around it
And to trust our own evaluation over God’s declaration.
Let me give you some advice here:
You take God’s word at face value and STAND UPON IT!
There would be so much less suffering and foolish decisions made if God’s people would take the Word of God at face value and be unwilling to budge!
We would make better decisions if we would make them according to God’s principles!
Don’t question what God said! Stand on it! Embrace it!
“Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You”
“Your word is a lamp to my feet, And a light to my path”
“Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.”
Do not question what God says…stand upon it with everything you have in you!
Satan tells Eve a half truth
The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!
“You surely will not die!”
Now we need to pay attention here because Satan isn’t flat out lying. Nor is he telling the whole truth. He’s only giving Eve half of the truth.
He knows something Eve does not know: that sin will bring about death…just not immediately
But it is an absolute fact that it will come as a result of sin:
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
Paul says here the evidence that everyone has sinned is that everyone dies. “Death spread to all men”.
And we know that Adam and Eve died, because Adam’s obituary is written in Genesis 5:5 “So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.”
So technically, the serpent did not outright lie…he just withheld all the information about death..
Half-truths are one of the methods of the devil
Half truths are dangerous because sound almost right!
Half-truths often appeal to one’s desires while still sounding biblical to some degree
Half-truths are far more dangerous than flat out lies because they are much harder to detect!
Half-truths are very effective because they accomplish their purpose of leading us into sin
And thats exactly what happened here: Eve ate because she only believed this half truth and Satan accomplished his purpose
Satan leads us to believe there will be no consequences for sin: “You surely will not die”
In other words, all those fears God has put into you about the consequences of sin are ridiculous. Nothing is going to happen to you Eve if you eat that fruit!
God is saying all these things but look around you Eve! Do you see this happening to anyone else?
Have you ever seen anyone die before?
Nothing is going to happen if you eat of that tree. You have nothing to worry about
And we hear those same whispers today
There will be no consequences for our sin. And often when we do give into temptation, there are no immediate consequences…and thats because they come later on.
But we musty not be deceived:
Galatians 6:7–8 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
Satan loves to minimize the consequences,a nd maximize the appeal of sin. He always puts forth the appealing aspects of sin and conceals the destructive nature and consequences of sin.
Satan entices Eve to believe that God is keeping something good from her
“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Do you hear that accusation against God in this?? The tree is really good and not bad….and God knows if you eat it then your going to get something good from it…therefore God is trying to keep something good from you
It may sound something more like this:
“Eve, God doesn’t want you to eat from that tree, because God isn’t as good and nice as you think He is.
There’s nothing wrong with that tree, just look it…doesn’t it look good to eat? Doesn’t it look like it would nourish your body. Don’t you think it would make your life better??
The truth is Eve, God just has ridiculous rules….and part of Him being your Lord is to keep certain “good” things from you that are really no harm at all.
And those same lines, lure people today deep into sin and take them places they never want to go.
We see a relationship that we really want and God says don’t do it and then we hear the whispers of Satan: God is trying to keep something good from you and you’ll die a miserable person if you pass on this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Or on a job offer that will take us away from our family and church
Or to buy that new car or that house or take that vacation that we cannot afford,
At the heart of every rebellious act is the temptation to believe: God is trying to keep something good from me…BUT the truth is God’s restrictions protect us from things that will harm us!
God does not restrict us to keep good from us, but to give us the best life we could possibly have!
And the call to us church is to trust God in this matter!!
If God says no, it is for our good! It is so that we may have life, and have it abundantly! It is so that we have fulfilment in things that truly matter and last!!
The enticing outward appearance of sin
(v 6) “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”
The woman saw that it was good for food…it was a delight to the eyes…it was desirable to make one wise
The narrator now gives into the mid of a person who considering the temptation. Eve is evaluating the situation
On one hand you’ve got the simple straight forward command of God. Do not eat from the tree or you will die.
And then Satan brings another perspective: you will not die. You will become wise like God. And God only wants you to not eat that fruit, because he knows if you do you will be like Him.
From every outward evaluation that Eve could make, everything seemed just right.
See Eve was walking by sight, not by faith
She was living her life by what things looked like around her, not by what she knew to be true because God had said it.
When we walk by faith, our eyes override our convictions and that is a very dangerous place to be.
Because even though we may have the Spirit of God living inside of us, we still have this body of flesh that desires things that are pleasing to the eyes, yet sinful in the eyes of God.
Once sin has been committed, irreversible consequences follow
Once sin has been committed, irreversible consequences follow
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
Just as quickly as as Adam and Eve ate the fruit, the consequences were immediate.
“the eyes of both of them were opened”
“They knew that they were naked”
“they sewed fig leaves together” to cover themselves
Now want you to see that everything they thought they were gaining was not good for them. Eve wanted that knowledge to know good and evil. But once she had it, it wasn’t what she thought it would be
Its like a kid whose mother told him not to touch the stove because it was hot. He’d never touched the stove, so he had no knowledge of it. And he was curious.
So guess what he did, he went up and touched the stove. But after he touched the stove, he got burned. He now had knowledge that he didn’t want. THAT STOVE HURTS!
There’s always consequences to sin
And without Jesus, those consequences are eternal. Yes we suffer some in this life because of foolish decisions, but without Christ those sins bring eternal consequences
Eve was deceived but Adam willfully transgressed against God
And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
There is a difference between willful sin and deceived into sin.
Neither one of them are excusable. We will see next week that both Adam and Eve reaped consequences of their sin and were banished from the garden and the tree of life.
But to Adam, who knew what he was doing, and did it anyway has the greater sin.
You and I are like Adam. We sinned against God willfully and transgressed knowing what we were doing. We have broken God’s commandments, and sinned against God, and we will die because of that…
BUT SATAN DOES NOT HAVE TO HAVE THE FINAL VICTORY OVER US:
“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
We overcome him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb
Thats it! Apart from that blood we are toast! But with that blood covering us, Satan has no power over our soul
~PRAYER~
