OPEN: A few years back George Beane of Palmdale, California, stopped at a local Burger King and ordered 4 sandwiches at the drive-through window. Total cost of his bill: $4.33. However, when he handed the girl at the drive up window his debit card she absent mindedly punched in the numbers ... and then punched them in again without erasing the original ones - creating a total bill of $4,334.33.
He signed the slip without checking it... and the charge went through to George’s checking account leaving him penniless.
The newspapers got ahold of the story and billed the incident as "The most expensive meal in history."
(Alan Smith 6/4/06)
Now that’s probably not true. There have been "more expensive" meals in history than that one. I have read of rich people in New York and Los Angeles who’ve paid far more than that for an evening on the town. But no matter what meal a rich person might buy, the cost of what they’d purchase pales in comparison to one of the most expensive meal in history - the one we’re reading about today.
It cost more than Adam and Eve ever wanted to pay. And it literally bankrupted them.
And the sad thing is - it wasn’t even the best food on the menu. The Bible tells us that God gave Adam and Eve every tree to eat from except one, and Genesis tell us there were plenty of other GOOD trees to eat from.
“And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground— trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food." Genesis 2:9a
So if that was true (that they’d had all these other trees to eat from), then why did they do it?
It would be easy to say “The Devil made them do it”... but it’s more than that.
They picked the wrong item on the menu because they CHOSE to do so.
Eve CHOSE to disobey God.
Now Satan may have “talked her into it...” but SHE KNEW what God had said.
She knew God didn’t want her to eat of the tree.
She knew God had said that those who ate of the tree faced death.
But she CHOSE to eat of the tree anyway.
She made bad choices.
And her first choice occurred before Satan even spoke a word.
Satan said to the woman, "Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?"
The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’" Genesis 3:1b-3
What did God say she couldn’t do? (EAT of the fruit)
What does Eve say God said she couldn’t do? (EAT & TOUCH the fruit)
God didn’t say she couldn’t touch the tree, He just said they couldn’t eat.
But she CHOSE to add that little restriction.
She CHOSE to add to God’s commandments.
She CHOSE to improve on God’s will.
And that was all the wiggle room Satan needed to begin playing with her mind.
Why would that give Satan “wiggle room”?
Because once you get used to the idea that you can improve on God’s Word... when you believe you can change it when you want to... when you accept that you can tinker with God’s will for your life... then it gets easier to improve on other things God commanded.
Once you get used to “improving” on God’s word you can end up being the final arbiter/ the ultimate judge of what is acceptable and unacceptable in what God says. That’s just plain wrong.
Now how do I know that this is wrong? Because Jesus said so.
Jesus said: “in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:9 ESV
In other words – once you or I get used to accepting “improvements” on God’s commands (the commandments of men) our worship becomes vain. Another word for “vain” is “empty”, “worthless”. Adding to God’s Word can make our worship worthless!!
Now, why would God be so adamant about opposing these “improvements”? Because - the only way we can deal with the trials and temptations of this life is by clinging to the PURE and unadulterated word of God.
ILLUS: It’s like taking medicine.
If you go to your doctor and he gives you a prescription, you then take it to the pharmacist who will fill it and give you instructions on how that medicine should be taken. If you follow those instructions you should get satisfactory results. But if you add to his prescription you might end up with dangers.
Now, let’s say you don’t tell your doctor you’re taking another medicine. It’s dangerous to mix two kinds of medicine because they can end up canceling each other out, making them useless to you. Or even worse the two medicines can be dangerous and threaten your life.
A wise patient takes the medicine their physician prescribes... and no more nor less.
Years ago, my Dad’s physician told him to take one aspirin a day for his heart. My Dad was a very smart man, but he figured – if one aspirin is good - two would be better. So my dad “added’ to the word of his physician, and day after day my dad took 2 aspirin.
Everything went well until one day his nose began to bleed... and it bled, and bled, and bled. He panicked and rushed to the ER.
You know what the problem was? TWO aspirin.
Dad had added to the word of his physician... and it hurt him.
· You cannot add to God’s Word - with advice of horoscopes and psychics
· You can’t add to God’s teachings – the teachings of Discovery Channel or the History channel.
· You can’t mix the pure medicine of God with the advice of often ungodly psychologists, sociologists or teachers of evolution.
· And most importantly - you can’t mix the commandments of God with the man-made doctrines of various preachers, priests and church leaders.
You just CAN’T DO IT!!!
(pause)
Well... actually you CAN do all that.
You CAN add to God’s Word.
But sooner or later Satan will use it against you.... just like he used it against Eve.
So Eve started out by making a bad choice – she added to God’s Word.
And that’s the avenue Satan took to decieve her the rest of the way.
Notice how Satan tempts her:
"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." Genesis 3:4-5
She’d gotten used to not fully trusting in God’s commands so Satan just took her the rest of the way. Essentially Satan told her that God lied to her.
“You’re not going to die. You’re not even going to get sick!
There are no consequences to your choices.
You can dabble with this sin or that sin... and it won’t hurt you.
You can be as bitter, vengeful, hateful as you want.
You can be lustful and sexually active, look at pornography.
You can be proud and selfish and self-righteous and it’s not going to make a bit of difference. BECAUSE there’s no shame. There’s no guilt. There’s no judgement. There’s no hell. There’s no eternal regret.
Just do what you want to do it won’t damage your soul at all. It’ll be OK. Because God LIED to you!
And you know why God lied?
He lied because He knows that when you eat of this your eyes be opened and He doesn’t want that.
o He doesn’t want what’s best for you.
o He doesn’t want you to have fun.
o He doesn’t want you to enjoy life to the fullest.
o He wants to keep you fat, dumb and happy.
Because He knows that – once you eat of the fruit – you’ll be JUST LIKE HIM. And that’s not going to happen. He’s too jealous to allow you to do that. He wants to keep you under His thumb. He wants to control you.
Come on girl, do you really want to live your life controlled by an uncaring, spiteful, selfish God like that? Are you serious?
Throw off the shackles of those religious Dos and Don’ts.
Quit being a goody two shoes – live life to the fullest – you deserve better.”
So Eve begins to think about that...
And then she begins to look at the tree.
“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and ALSO desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.” Genesis 3:6a
Ø Was Eve hungry?
Probably not!
Ø Were there NO other trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food?
No. Genesis 2:9 says “the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground— trees that were PLEASING to the eye and GOOD for food." Genesis 2:9a
BUT – Satan’s lies had taken root.
What she really saw was that the tree was ALSO desirable for gaining wisdom. Wisdom that God had LIED to her about. And so she chose to disobey this God who had so unfairly denied her this blessing.
Eve chose to disobey God.
But at least Eve had an excuse – she was decieved
1 Timothy 2:14 tells us “... the woman (Eve) was deceived and became a sinner.”
Oh well, Adam and Eve were deceived. I can understand that.
Noooo. That’s not what it says.
Eve was deceived... But Adam wasn’t.
1 Timothy 2:14 says “And Adam was NOT the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.”
You look throughout the New Testament and you’ll never find Eve as being the bad guy/girl in the story. Who gets the blame? Adam.
Romans 5:12 “...sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin...”
Not ONE WOMAN... one man
And who was that man? Adam.
Romans 5:14 goes on to say “...death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam...”
Why does Adam get the blame?
Because he wasn’t decieved.
But it gets worse.
Genesis 3:6 says:
“(Eve) took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
Where was Adam at?
Was he in the house washing dishes?
Was he in the back 40 harvesting some crops?
Oh no... Adam was WITH Eve when Satan deceived her.
He was there when Satan accused God of lying.
He was there when Satan said they wouldn’t die.
He was there when Satan implied that they’d have all kinds of advantages... if they just ate that fruit.
And Adam was NOT deceived.
He didn’t believe a word of what Satan was saying.
SO... why on earth would eat this fruit?
Why would Adam (who wasn’t deceived) disobey God?
Well... because he CHOSE to.
Now, I don’t know precisely what Adam’s reasoning was (the Bible doesn’t tell us). But I’ve got a pretty good guess as to why Adam ate that fruit. And my guess is this:
He believed God. He just didn’t trust Him.
Think about it:
God said that the day they ate of the tree they’d die.
Eve eats of the tree.
What’s going to happen to her? (she’s going to die).
He’s going to lose Eve
He’s going to lose this woman whom he said was “... bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh...” Genesis 2:23
And I think that Adam reasoned in his heart:
“I don’t want to lose her.
But God will kill her for this.
God’s doesn’t UNDERSTAND how important this woman is to me.
And I can’t trust Him to take care of this the right way.
I can’t trust Him to fix the problem... so I’ve got to.”
So I think Adam reasoned:
“If I eat the fruit too... God won’t kill both of us. He might take one of us, but not both because He loves us too much to lose us both. So I’m going to force God to fix this problem on MY TERMS.”
And I think Adam reasoned this way because – while he BELIEVED God... he didn’t TRUST Him.
Hebrews 11:6 “...without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must BELIEVE that he exists...”
You see – believing in God is the core of being a Christian.
But believing God exists isn’t enough.
Verse 6 of Hebrews goes on to say that we not only believe He exists... but “... that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
In other words... we need to trust Him. Because if we don’t trust Him we’ll be tempted to FIX the problems in our lives on our terms. Or even worse, we’ll be tempted to try to FORCE God to do things your way. And that’s just not gonna work.
When faced with trials and temptations in our lives we need to BELIEVE AND TRUST. We need to believe that God not only exists but also to TRUST that He’ll take care of us... that He’ll reward us when we earnestly seek His will in our lives.
But Adam and Eve didn’t do that.
And that’s why they failed.
Eve failed because she didn’t trust God’s words.
Adam failed because He didn’t trust God’s faithfulness.
And they both ended up eating one of the most expensive meals in history.
CLOSE: But in all actually... they didn’t eat THE most expensive meal of history.
Do you know what the most expensive meal in history was?
(I walked down to the communion table and took the covers off the plates)
This was.
It doesn’t really seem like much.
It’s just unleavened bread and grape juice.
It costs the church just a few dollars a week to set this out.
It doesn’t cost our congregation very much to make this communion meal available... but it cost Jesus His blood. He paid for this meal with His life. And in purchasing this meal, Jesus undid the damage Adam and Eve brought on us by the meal they ate.
One man spoke of the contrast between these two meals by contrasting the trees from which each was harvested.
1. The first tree was planted by God.
But the second tree was planted by man.
2. God forbade man to eat the first tree.
But man is freely invited to draw near and eat of the fruit of the second tree.
3. The eating of the first tree brought sin and death.
But by eating of the second tree comes life and salvation.
4. Adam, by eating of the first tree, was turned out of Paradise,
while the repentant thief, by eating of the second Tree, entered Paradise.
(W. Pink, in his book Gleanings in Genesis)
Paradise has already been purchased by the blood of Jesus.
And we accept His free gift by:
1. Believing that Jesus it the Christ the Son of the Living God.
2. Accepting that have sinned and need to repent.
3. Confessing Jesus as our Lord – making Him the master and owner of our lives
4. Being buried in the waters of Christian baptism and rising up a new creature.
5. Living the rest of our lives for Him.
