Intro:
1. Sailhammer, "The centerpiece of the story is the question of the knowledge of the "good." [God alone determined what was good, 1:10,12, 18, 21,25, 31/ 2:9,12,18].
The Serpent then implied by his questions that God was keeping this knowledge from them (3:5). [The truth is, it was there's for the asking!] So Satan's statement through the snake is a direct challenge to the central theme of the narrative of chapters 1 and 2, which declared that God would provide the "good" for human beings if they will only trust and obey Him.
The narrative states that the woman "saw that the tree was good..." (3:6). Up until now that expression "saw that it was good" had been used only of God. Now it is the woman who is determining what is good! They now begin a quest for that which is "good" apart from God. [A quest that can only lead to sorrow and judgment."
2. Oh, if we would only learn that God alone knows what is for our good.
3. Knowledge of good and evil meant, Self, Determining what is good.
Trans: Gen. 3:4-6
I. FIRST, THE PROMISE.
3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' " 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." - Satan is a liar! His promises are all lies!
"You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it." John 8:44 (NKJV)
G.B. Robeson tells of a common thing that people experience in the Rain Forest of Central and South America. A person gets lost out in the jungle. He begins to hears a bell ringing and thus heads in the direction of the sound.
But he only goes deeper into the jungle, becomes more lost, and eventually loses his life. That bell is not the sound of a near village - it is actually made by what is called a Bell Bird. A bird that sounds out a promise of freedom but brings only bondage.
Satan is sounding his bell in the Garden, and is still sounding it today.
"9 Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, "O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?" Acts 13:9-10 (NKJV)
"9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved." 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 (NKJV)
Reminds me of a 42 year old woman from South Bend, Indiana. She called the police after being sold, what she thought was, a flat-screen TV.
She was approached by a man who offered her a great deal on the TV, a new flat-screen TV for only $5oo dollars. She admitted it was a great deal, but did not have the money. So he lowered the price to $300 dollars. She gave him the money.
The set was bubble wrapped; had Wal-Mart stickers on it; came with a remote control - but when she unwrapped it, she discovered it was an oven door!"
Satan has all kinds of good things like that for us, all we have to do is pay the price of disobeying God! Eve rejected God's Word for Satans.
"To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah 8:20 (NKJV)
II. FURTHERMORE THE PRONOUNCEMENT.
When the woman saw that it was good - what arrogance! This is the essence of sin, man determining what is good apart from God.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." Proverbs 14:12 (NKJV)
"There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
Most of us can identify with Tony Evans:
"I HAD a speaking engagement once that required about a 45 minute drive. So I got my directions. I left my house with plenty of time to spare, put the directions beside me in the seat, glanced at them, and then got on the freeway headed to the breakfast.
After driving for about 40 minutes, when I came upon my exit, I made a left turn. I began driving past the mall, past the light, past another light, and I wasn't seeing anything I thought I was supposed to see. I figured I hadn't gone far enough, so I kept driving.
Things were getting worse, not better. I figured that I ought to pull over and ask somebody. So I pulled over to a convenience store, thinking that I could trust the people who worked there to give me directions. A clerk told me that I hadn't gone far enough. So I got into my car and keept going.
Before long I started seeing cows and realized that I was now in the country. So I figured I'd asked the wrong person. I needed to talk to somebody else. So I stopped and asked another guy.
Time was getting late. I was supposed to start speaking at 7:30 a.m. I'd given myself plenty of time, but now it was 7:15 and I didn't know where I was. I was in a bad situation.
The guy I asked said they'd never heard of the church. It was now 7:20 and I was getting a little nervous because I hate being late to anything. I started winding down my window at stoplights, asking random people to help me find my way. It was 7:25 p.m., then 7:30.
I decided to read the directions one more time. I picked it up and looked at it closely. Originally, I had only glanced at it. I soon discovered my mistake, when I exited the freeway, I should have turned RIGHT!
I listened to myself and then to everybody else, if only I had pay such attention to my instructions!
I had lost time; I had lost patience. I was sweating, frustrated, mad, and irritated because I had gone the wrong way."
Eve had been given clear instructions, but she had deliberately choosen her way and Satans way - and soon life would be frustrating and fearful.
III. FINALLY, THE PROCESS.
A. Saw...mind.
This is where sin always begins, we look where we should not be looking. Like Samson, we get to close to Dellilah.
One wrote, "Never underestimate the power of temptation. Never overestimate your own strength to resist it. When the red apple is there is your open hand and you are already playing with the idea - you don't have a chance! Unless you say no, early in the game, you are in for a fall.
The problem with most of us is that we get as close to it as we can, we keep running the idea over and over in our minds, until we reach the point of no return."
Butler, "Experts tell us that 85% of our learning comes through the eyes. Therefore, what our eyes dwell upon have a great effect upon us. The vile effects of many TV programs and movies attests to this influence of the eyes. If you want to keep pure, keep your eyes from beholding evil."
The step to the road of sin is Looking in the wrong direction!
"If you don't want the devil to tempt you with forbidden fruit, you had better keep out of his orchard." Doug Barnett
"Better shun the bait than struggle in the snare." John Dryden
"If you don't want to trade with the devil, stay out of his shops." Vance Havner
"Those that would be kept from harm must keep out of harm's way." Matthew Henry
"What makes resisting temptation difficult for many people is that they don't want to discourage it completely." Franklin Jones
B. Desire...emotion.
If you look long enough at sin, you will deisre it. We desire it because we do not see sin for what it really is!
"One reason that sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream-puff instead of a rattle-snake." Billy Sunday
We all have an inward emotional beast!
Dietrick Bonhoeffer writes with stunning insight:
"In our members there is a slumbering inclination towards desire which is both sudden and fierce. With irresistable power, deisre seizes mastery over the flesh. All at once a secret, smouldering fire is kindled. It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire; or ambition; or vainity; or desire for revenge; or love of fame and power; or greed for money.
At that moment God is quite unreal to us; He loses all reality, and desire for the forbidden fruit is real; the only reality is the devil. Satan does not fill us with hatred for God, but with forgetfulness of God."
C. Took...will.
Spurgeon, "Learn to say 'NO'; it will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin."
Lets me clear - it is not sin to be tempted; it becomes sin when we yield. But looing and desiring weakens our will!
Trans: We must see this Process if we are going to have victory.
"that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. Genesis 6:2 (NKJV)
"20 And Achan answered Joshua and said, "Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I have done: 21 "When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it." Joshua 7:20-21 (NKJV)
"2 Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, "I am with child." 2 Samuel 11:2-5 (NKJV)
"13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren." James 1:13-16 (NKJV)
Satan's greatest lie is "I can handle it!" I can play around with sin without yielding to it!
According to one report, the end of German’s famous "Red Baron," Manfred von Richthofen, came because he pursued an Allied airplane "too long, too far, and too low into enemy territory."
On April 21, 1918, von Richthofen, the celebrated World War I pilot who was responsible for shooting down 80 enemy aircraft, began chasing a British plane that was trying to escape the battle. As the Red Baron pursued his quarry behind Allied lines, gunfire from either machine-gun nests on the ground or another British pilot who had come to help killed von Richthofen.
Con:
1. Sinful man Determines what is good.
2. If only we would remind ourselves often, that it is God not us, who is good.
3. Lie-beer-re-ah is a country of western Africa on the Atlantic Ocean. Since 1980, Li-ber-i-a [Lie-beer-re-ah] has been through a cycle of bloody civil war and unstable governments.
In 1989, a seven-year civil war broke out claiming 200,000 lives and forcing 1 million people to become refugees. But out of this struggle, the church has grown.
Many of those who became refugees also became missionaries in the Ivory Coastland in Guin-ea. When the people became refugees and had to flee the country, they started faith communities in other parts of the world, in the countries around them.
It was during these dark times that the church developed a call to worship whereby the pastor would declare, "God Is Good," and the people would respond, "All the Time." The pastor then would affirm "All the time," and the congregation would echo "God is Good."
Pastor Tim Dias from Illinois visited Lie-beer-re-ah] and reflected on why the Li-ber-i-an church could declare God is good all the time:
He said, "The people of Li-be-ri-a, and that church particularly, did not gather out of comfort and convenience. They gathered to remember a commitment. It was not their commitment to God.
They gathered to remember God's commitment to them. That regardless of what their situation or circumstance; regardless of whatever they were going through; they had a Good God working on their behalf. Every time they gathered together, they reminded themselves of that."
I say, "Good is good."
You say, "All the time."
I say, "All the time."
You say, "God is good."
Johnny Palmer Jr
StrugglingThruScriptures.ning.com
