IS IT TOO LATE TO REMEMBER?
By
JERRY FALWELL
As I think about the Twin Tower tragedy and our loss of peace and safety, I thought about Adam and Eve losing the peace and safety of the Garden. Then I began to put together some comparisons why Adam and Eve lost their peace and safety, and why we may lose our peace and safety.
FOUR REASONS WHY PEACE
AND SAFE WERE LOST
1. They forgot the good things they had.
2. They turned away from the One who gave them everything.
3. They focused on the Tempter rather than on the Creator.
4. Adam and Eve didn’t remember the commands God gave them.
FIRST REASON
A. THEY FORGOT THE GOOD THINGS THEY HAD.
1. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had everything they could ever want or desire.
A good God had given them a perfect environment, a wise God had taken care of all their needs, and a kind God made sure they had no needs.
2. They had any and everything to eat they could ever want.
“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which [is] the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat” (Genesis 1:29). God had made every tree available to them. In another place He said, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat” (Genesis 2:16). God didn’t say you may eat of a few of the trees . . . half of the trees . . . or a lot of the trees. They could eat of all of the trees except one. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it” (Genesis 2:17).
3. They had everything they needed.
The Garden had perfect weather, perfect water for growth and drink, perfect conditions; there were no such things as wild animals (predators), poisonous food, tick-borne diseases, or dangerous black widow spiders.
4. America seems to have forgotten what good things we had.
a. We have had peace and security for approximately 200 years. Of course we were bombed in a U. S. possession in 1941, i.e., Pearl Harbor, and England invaded the United States in the War of 1812. But for the most part, America has enjoyed peace, safety, security, and we’ve enjoyed freedom and liberty.
No other nation has given its people freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of the people to peaceably assemble. In addition we had the freedom to petition our Government for a redress of grievances.
America is so free, we let people freely criticize our nation that makes them free.
b. America has gotten its peace and security from God. Two years ago I preached a sermon from the Declaration of Independence, pointing out four things our forefathers included in the Declaration of Independence that bases this nation upon Almighty God:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
1. They believed in a Creator.
2. They believed God created them in His own image.
3. They believed that God’s supernatural act (i.e., miracle) to create mankind should continue to be extended to every person.
4. They believed in absolute truth which they call inalienable rights or self-evident truths.
SECOND REASON
B. THEY TURNED AWAY FROM THE ONE WHO GAVE THEM EVERYTHING.
1. Adam and Eve had been given everything, but when they listened to the Serpent’s temptation, they turned their back on the Creator.
Notice the first thing that the Devil said, “Yea, hath God said” (Genesis 3:1). The first thing the enemy does is to get us to doubt. When Satan got Eve to doubt, he had her in his clutches. The very fact that Eve was listening to the Serpent meant that she had tuned God out.
2. What happened when God showed up?
After Adam and Eve sinned, “They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden” (Genesis 3:8). Because they had turned away from God to listen to Satan, now they ran away from God, rather than running to God.
One good thing I have seen in the past month: America seems to have turned to God. I have seen people praying, I have heard national leaders ask us to pray. America has confessed her need of a Savior. Our new prayer is “God bless America.”
However, I have not seen America repent of her sin. We are scared, but we are not scared enough to tell God we are sorry for taking Him out of the public schools where we can’t read the Bible or pray. Are we sorry for ridiculing God in Hollywood and television? Are we sorry for allowing media, entertainers, musicians, and politicians to take His name in vain? Are we sorry for the young lives that have been killed through abortions? Are we sorry for all the ugly ways we have violated the Word of God?
Just as Adam and Eve turned away from God who gave them everything, so America seems to be turning away from God who has given this nation everything.
THIRD REASON
C. THEY FOCUSED ON THE TEMPTER RATHER THAN THE CREATOR.
1. When Satan gets in “our face,” we can’t get him out of our mind.
When the Serpent came to the woman, he first planted a doubt in her mind, “Yea, hath God said” (Genesis 3:1).
Next the Serpent told the woman, “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). Eve had told the Serpent that if she so much as touched the forbidden fruit, she would die.
The Serpent had her full attention. Eve was discussing his agenda, his temptation and what he wanted to do.
2. Adam was not innocent.
When the Serpent was talking to Eve, what about Adam? The Bible says, “She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Genesis 3:6) When I see the phrase, “her husband with her,” it makes me believe that Adam was standing there watching Eve being tempted by Satan and did nothing.
Two things you have to remember:
a. The Bible says Eve didn’t realize what she was doing, “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Timothy 2:14). That means Satan had deceived Eve so that she wasn’t thinking properly, she wasn’t thinking at all.
b. But not Adam. The Bible says, “Adam was not deceived” (1 Timothy 2:14). That means that Adam stood there and watched his wife being deceived, but said nothing.
The sin of silence. Adam committed one of the worse sins of all; he let his wife commit sin, and he did nothing to stop her. I want to accuse many husbands of the sin of silence. They let their wife become tempted, they do nothing, they say nothing, because they probably don’t know what to do. If husbands truly loved their wives as Jesus loved the Body, husbands would not be guilty of the sin of silence.
The husband’s sin of silence also includes the way husbands ignore their children. Too often the husband says to the wife, “You raise the children, I’ll earn the money.” When a husband does that, he is no different than Adam who let Eve fall into the temptation of Satan.
3. Satan hit Eve with a full broad-side attack.
The Bible speaks about the three weaknesses of man, i.e., the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The Serpent said to her, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2: 15, 16).
Notice how these three areas of temptation apply to Eve:
a. The lust of the flesh, “The woman saw that the tree was good for food” (Genesis 2:6).
b. The lust of the eyes, “The woman saw . . . that it was pleasant to the eyes” (Genesis 3:6).
c. The pride of life, “The woman saw . . . a tree to be desired to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6).
America has been focused on the Tempter rather than God.
4. What has been the predominant temptation that has drawn America away from God?
a. America has been tempted by the lust of the flesh. We have been tempted by gratuitous sex on the Internet, X-rated films from Hollywood and theaters, more explicit sex on television, and magazines such as Penthouse and Hustler. We see sex advertising almost every item on television, and our young people watch explicit sex and listen to rock music. As a matter of fact, there is so much sex everywhere you turn; it is almost impossible to stay pure and clean before God.
b. America is guilty of the lust of the eyes. This is the desire for things. One of the greatest blessings of America is her financial wealth, but it is also one of her greatest weaknesses. We seem to be a nation that has got to have the latest toy, the latest car, a bigger house, the latest wrinkle in television systems, and the latest electronic toy that has been manufactured. We’ve got to have bigger vacations, and take more trips that are more expensive. We are a nation that is consumed with making more money, spending more money, enjoying more money, saving more money and loving more money. We are a nation that lives for money. What does the Bible say, “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).
c. America is focused on the pride of life. And how is this America’s sin? We teach our young people, “I’m OK, you’re OK.” We teach them to find themselves, to be strong, to look out for Number One.
Very little is said today in our churches about denying yourself, humbling yourself, meekness and humility.
FOURTH REASON
D. ADAM AND EVE DIDN’T REMEMBER THE COMMANDS GOD GAVE THEM.
1. What had Adam and Eve forgotten?
“The Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15). When I study the Bible, Adam seemed to have a two-fold job. First, he was “to dress it,” which meant he was to prune the trees so that they would grow, pick the fruit, and do everything he could to nurture the garden God had given him.
In the second place, Adam was to “keep it.” The commentaries are not sure what this word “keep” means. There were no weeds, so it doesn’t mean he had to dig away thorns, thistles, and weeds from the garden. Also, there were no predators, so he didn’t have to keep dangerous animals away from destroying the young plants. Did “keep it” mean he was to keep the animals away from eating the fruit so that he would have enough? I don’t think so.
God who knows all things, knew that there was a Lucifer in the universe. Lucifer, also known as Satan and the Devil, had rebelled in Heaven against God. God had cast him out of Heaven. God who knows everything knew that just as Satan tried to rule Heaven, he would want to come down and rule the Garden. So I think that the phrase “keep it” meant that Adam was to keep the Garden safe from spiritual danger.
When Satan came in the form of a serpent, Adam didn’t take the initiative to “keep the Garden.” If you don’t keep your garden safe from the enemy, you will lose the garden. That’s what happened to Adam and Eve.
2. Adam did nothing to keep his garden safe.
There is no record of Adam giving any resistance to Satan as he entered the Garden. There is no record of Adam giving any resistance when Satan spoke to Eve. There is no record that Adam did anything to obey God’s command to “keep it” the way God had commanded him to do.
What has my generation done? At the end of World War II when my generation entered adulthood, we were probably given one of the greatest nations to have ever been conceived on earth. We lived when the United States was at her greatest pinnacle. We had fought the greatest enemies--Germany, Japan and Italy--and won. We had invented more technology to give us a better way of life than ever. We made more money and gave more to missions than any previous generation in the history of Christianity. We gave our young people the best education in the history of the world. We had the best highways, the best airplanes, the best kitchens for our wives, the best entertainment/communication vehicles, i.e., radio and television. We had the best of everything, but we didn’t protect it.
3. Satan seemed to corrupt every good thing we had.
God gave us music to praise Him, but rock ‘n roll has corrupted the character and virtue of a generation.
God gave us media to communicate the Gospel, but it has been used to communicate sin, corruption, and destroy the Christian way of life. God gave us money, a wonderful life, and ease of working conditions. But we have become soft; the Church has become powerless, and the nation seems to have lost her bearings.
When we had everything we could desire, we left God out of the equation.
1. We forgot the good things God gave us.
2. We turned away from the One who gave us everything.
3. We focused on the Tempter, rather than on the Creator.
4. We didn’t remember the commands God gave us.
WHAT MUST WE DO?
A few blocks from the World Trade Center, there is a small Assembly of God church. When the people were running for their lives from the Trade Center, this young Pentecostal preacher grabbed a bullhorn, charged out into the streets of New York, and began preaching through a bullhorn -- “turn to God!” He filled his church with the medically needy. He filled his credit card to buy supplies for the needy. Not only his credit card, but all the members who were at the church spent everything they had just to buy necessities for the needy. What he did is what we must do. We must give all to God. We must call everyone to “turn to God.”
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
If you have never really accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, would you do it right now? Do not delay or put it off. If you would like to receive Christ by faith, pray this simple prayer in your heart:
Dear Lord, I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and rose again the third day. I repent of my sins. By faith I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You promised to save me, and I believe You, because You are God and cannot lie. I believe right now that the Lord Jesus is my personal Savior, and that all my sins are forgiven through His precious blood. I thank You, dear Lord, for saving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, God heard you and saved you. I personally want to welcome you to the family of God. Contact us and ask for a copy of The How To Book or use The How To Book Online (Falwell.com). It is a booklet that will answer many of the questions you are sure to have about living the Christian life. And when you contact us, tell us about your salvation experience so that we can rejoice with you.
