Did God Say

Good morning, Happy Fathers Day, please open your Bibles to Genesis 3.

The end of a vacation.

Ali pregnant with Aletheia- Oxygen mask. What did I miss?

2:25 to 3:7. From naked to naked. What has happened?

Arom- naked

Arum- crafty

Nakedness is more than merely physical. The shame that we find with nakedness is found in every facet of our lives.

We are not what we want ourselves to be. We fall short in every area of life. What has gone wrong?

Joseph Parker- “Evidently something has disagreed with the world. We do not trust, love, honour, and help one another; we are selfish, mean, irascible, unforgiving; we know that our respectability is the thinnest part about us and that the faintest scratch will touch the wolf.”

Don’t we know this to be true? The very best that we have to offer is oftentimes a mask.

What has gone wrong? These next two weeks seek to answer that very question.

Read Genesis 3:1-5- Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 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.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Pray.

Don’t move too quickly through a text.

What happens when we slow down and ask questions?

We begin to know God rightly, to understand our own selves more accurately, and to see how Satan works.

First question to ask- What is the first glimpse of something gone wrong in our text?

1. Satan attacks God’s created design.

How does Satan attack? How does he tempt?

Doesn’t just tell her to eat and she does it. Remember, the serpent is crafty- prudent. Successful in accomplishment.

Consider the roles that have been mentioned for both the man and the woman.

Man- Working and keeping creation- serving and guarding.

Woman- Created as a helper, a partner.

You- plural. Eve- We. Gave to her husband who was with her. Adam is present and Satan speaks to Eve.

There was a failure from both man and woman in what God had created them for and tasked them with.

No guarding and serving from the man, no thought of helping from the woman.

In Satan’s conversation, he casts doubt on God’s created design and order. Let’s start from scratch.

Consider the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness- Jesus acting in obedience to the Father.

Satan- You don’t need to listen to him.

Paul reminds- Ephesians 5:33- However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Men- lead and love, serve and guard.

Women- respect, honor.

Perhaps we see more confusion than ever before. Do men in the church rightly lead in their marriages and homes through service and protection?

Do women in the church rightly seek opportunities to partner with their husband in a way that encourages holiness within them both?

2. Eve’s view of God takes a turn.

Satan introduces the idea that God might be stingy.

Yahweh to Elohim. Eve follows the serpents lead.

You can see this for yourself in the text- switch from LORD God to merely God.

Satan floats the idea that God’s word is subject to our own judgement.

Eve diminished God’s word.

Notice what was taken from God’s words to Adam in Eve’s retelling.

God- You may eat of every tree of the garden.

Eve- We may eat of the fruit of the trees.

Eve, in the smallest of ways, began to portray God in miserly ways. He is keeping something from me.

We often diminish God’s Word by selectively editing what is said.

We give some of the words of God while avoiding altogether other words.

Recognizing certain sins.

When we diminish God’s Word, we create an incomplete idol of God.

Eve added to God’s word.

God- Of the tree of knowledge you shall not eat.

Eve- You shall not eat of the tree, neither shall you touch it.

We often add to God’s words, attributing to God what He has not said.

Don’t have to spend long in the gospels to see this as a recurring theme, especially with the religious leaders.

They’ve added to God’s Word.

Matthew 23:1-4- Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

In adding to God’s clear words the words of our own, we create again an incomplete idol of God.

Eve softened God’s word.

God- In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

Eve- Neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

Here is perhaps our greatest temptation today. Let’s soften what God says.

Seems to harsh for our culture, for the people that I know who need the gospel.

What does Satan do with all of these?

Look at the end of his attack. You will not surely die. Direct contradiction to God’s Word.

God has told you that you will die. But you will not.

The doubt was planted and now God’s word could be done away with.

Note what Satan is doing.

You will not surely die. There is truth, but how deceitful is this truth.

One pastor- Satan paints sin in virtuous colors.

You will not die, you will know things, you will be like God.

Joseph Parker- “Observe how the word ‘die’ is played upon. It is used by the serpent in the sense of dropping down dead, or violently departing out of this world, whereas the meaning, as we all know by bitter experience, is infinitely deeper. We lose our life when we lose our innocence; we are dead when we are guilty; we are in hell when we are in shame. Death does not take a long time to come upon us; it comes in the very day of our sin.”

Next week, how did Adam and Eve respond, but for now, don’t we know this method of attack?

We can be talked into nearly anything so long as we receive only one side of it.

Telling Azariah not to do something. Tiny told me to do it. This is his defense, and it is often ours.

3. A return to the truth.

We need to know God, and we need to know God rightly.

Paul Knipmeyer studying to become a pilot.

My hope is that he is learning everything as accurately as possible.

Safety for himself and for others.

But there is a safety for Paul and the others with whom he will interact that is far greater.

This safety is found in rightly knowing who God is and what God says.

Knowing God is even more important. And we must know God rightly.