Let me invite you all to find your seat, and as you're finding
your seat, let me invite you to open your Bibles to the book of
Genesis. This morning.
We're going to be in chapter 2, verse 25, the very last verse of
chapter 2, and then we're going to be looking at chapter 3,
verses one to seven. So Genesis 2, 25, the very last
verse in chapter 2, and then going to chapter 3, verse 7.
So let me read the text, open us in a word of prayer, and then
we'll jump into the sermon this morning, Genesis 2, beginning in
verse 25. And the man and his wife, we're
both naked and we're not ashamed.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beasts 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? The woman said to the serpent,
We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God
said, You should 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 surely not die,
for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good from evil.
So when the woman saw the tree was good for food, and that it
was a light to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired
to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.
She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he
ate. And then the eyes of both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sew fig
leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Could you pray with me, Father? Pray that you would now awaken
our hearts, our minds, our affections unto you, Lord God,
help us to do what we are incapable of doing ourselves,
which is to see you, Lord. And so we pray that you take our
spiritual eyes that have been dulled this week from our sin
and, and just our weakness. And God make them open and alert
and alive unto you and your glory.
Now God through the, the preaching of your word, through
the the power of the Holy Spirit, through the blood of
Jesus Christ God, would you come and do this miracle this
morning? I pray in Jesus name, Amen.
I want to give the context we are starting in verse 25.
I was going to include this last week when I was a priest on
Genesis 2 and I wanted to do verse 25 because it it, it ties
into the sermon this morning. And so we're starting in verse
25 S. Let me give the context in case
you haven't been here last week or the week before.
God had made a man and he placed this man in the garden to work
it and keep it in this garden. God gives man all the trees in
the garden to eat from, trees that are pleasant to the site
and are good for food. But there is one tree that God
made that is different from all the other trees, the tree of
knowledge of good and evil. God explicitly told the man, You
may not eat from this tree because on the day that you eat
from it, you will surely die. As the man works and keeps this
garden, God looks down and he sees something, notices
something. It is not good for man to be
alone. So God decides to make a helper,
a helper that is fit for him. God first brings all the animals
to the man, but as the man begins to see these animals and
name them, there is no helper found that is fit for him.
So God takes action. God decides to create a helper
for him. He creates a helper out of the
man. He takes a piece of the man's
side and he makes a woman a helper fit for him.
God then presents this woman to the man as a gift to him.
And that's where we left off last week.
This morning as we look at the text verse by verse, Normally I
give exposition upfront and then application at the end.
Today I'm going to be weaving them together as we work through
it. So let's start in verse 25 where
it says the man and his wife were both naked and were not
ashamed. When God made man and woman, He
did not make them with clothes on, He made them naked.
The text says that the man and his wife were both naked.
Now, why does the narrator take the time to tell us this?
Why did he feel the need that we should know that this man and
this woman were existing in this garden as naked?
I think because in the Old Testament, nakedness is always
associated with some form of humiliation that is virtually
universal. In the Old Testament, nakedness
is always associated with some form of humiliation.
It's used to describe the poor. It's used as a metaphor for
shame and guilt. We will see it's shamefulness
with Noah when he gets drunk and his sons find him naked.
In Exodus 20, the priests were not allowed to go up to the
altar by means of stairs. So that God said so that your
nakedness will not be exposed to me.
Nakedness is always associated with a form of humiliation.
But notice here how the narrator describes their nakedness.
They were not ashamed. They were not ashamed.
This raises at least two questions.
Number one, what does it mean that they were not ashamed?
What does that mean? The Hebrew word for ashamed
occurs 124 times in the Old Testament.
Here's a definition of the Hebrew word that's used here to
have a painful feeling and emotional distress by having
done something wrong with an associative meaning of having
the disapproval of those around them.
Now, we all know what it feels like to feel ashamed.
We all know that when maybe we mess up or we make a mistake, we
that feeling when you mess up or make a mistake or do something
you're not supposed to do, or you're, you're at somewhere
you're not supposed to be, that that, that feeling that you feel
in that moment that that that's called shame.
We all know what that feels like.
But in this moment, they were not ashamed.
Which raises the second question, why?
Why were they not ashamed? Now, if we were to walk in this
room naked, we would feel ashamed or we should feel
ashamed. Maybe you wouldn't feel ashamed.
We should feel ashamed. If we were to walk in this room
without any clothes on, we would feel ashamed.
But the man and the woman have no clothes on.
They are completely naked and they feel no shame at all.
Why? I don't think it's because
they're husband and wife. I don't think that's the reason.
Here's why. Jumping ahead in our text for
just a moment in chapter 3, verse 7, the text says and they
knew that they were naked. It was only after that they knew
that they were naked, which seems to imply that before this
they didn't know that they were naked.
Now we may wonder, how can you not know you're naked?
Like what does that even mean? How can you not know?
This is just look down right? Like how can you?
I? I think it's this.
I think they don't know it the same way that a one year old
baby doesn't know it. When my boys were young, when
they were like age 1, they would run around the house butt naked.
Why? They weren't aware of it.
Even if somebody came in, if a neighbor came in the house or if
one of you guys came over, they were still naked.
They did not run. They, they, they weren't aware
of it. They, they don't discern it.
They don't know it. I imagine the same is true here.
I imagine prior to this, the man and the woman do not.
It's like nakedness doesn't have a context.
It doesn't have a a a framework for them.
The nakedness here is almost a metaphor of their innocence.
It's a metaphor of their innocence.
Brothers and sisters, there is a great freedom and living with a
lack of shame, not just positionally but also
practically. There is great freedom and
living with a lack of shame, not just positionally but also
practically. Positionally, if you are in
Christ, we never need feel shame.
If you are a Christian, you never need to feel shame
positionally. Even though we are on this side
of the fall, we are never naked. For the past 25 years, I've
never had a day in my life where I was naked because we have been
clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
He was made naked that we might be clothed.
But practically speaking, we all have reason from time to time to
feel shame. Practically speaking, because we
continue to sin, we continue to sin.
You ever had that dream where you go to school and you're
naked? I don't know.
I asked this question some of you before and you looked at me
like I was crazy. I was like, am I the only one
that has that dream? I've had that dream like 10
times in my life. You ever have that dream where
you go to school and you're naked?
You're walking around. I hate that dream.
I I hate it. I hate the way I feel it.
It, it, it, it feels so terrifying and and restrictive
and, and, and the same should be true when we sin.
When we sin, we hate the way we feel.
We hate it. I feel naked.
I feel exposed. I feel shame.
One of the reasons that we choose not to sin.
This is not the only reason. There are many motivations to
not sin. One of those reasons to not sin
is because we desire the feeling of freedom over the feeling of
shame. We say, I know if I do this,
this is how I'm going to feel, and I don't want to feel that
way. I want to feel freedom.
I don't want to feel shame. Look at chapter 3, verse one.
A Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beasts of
the field that the Lord God had made.
Now, up until this point in our story, we've only been
introduced to three characters. We've been introduced to God,
the man and the woman. That's it.
But now we are introduced to a fourth character, the serpent,
which raises an enormous question.
Who is this character? Who is this serpent?
Let's look at what the text says.
We're going to look at what the text says here in verse one, and
then we're going to look at some other text to see if we can
piece this together. We are told 4 pieces of
information in this verse about this character #1 this is a
beast. Now, the serpent was more crafty
than any other beast. Beast can simply mean animal.
It is an animal. I don't think it's a metaphor.
I think that there actually was a literal animal. 2 The animal
is a serpent, A snake. That's what a serpent is.
It's a snake. We're not told what kind.
Doesn't matter what kind it is #3 the serpent is made by God.
This character owes its existence to God, and #4 this
animal is crafty. The serpent was more crafty, the
Hebrew word for crafty. It's used 11 times in the Old
Testament. What's interesting is that eight
of the 11 times that this word occurs, it occurs in the book of
Proverbs and it's translated as wisdom or prudence.
It's a positive term. It's a good quality, but it can
also take the nuance of this crafty, clever, pertaining to
being tricky and cunning with a focus on evil treachery.
Now that's all we're told in Genesis.
We're told that there is an there is a an animal.
The animal is a snake. The the animal is made by God
and the animal is crafty. It's craftier than any other
animal. That's all we're told.
Now, one question that people often have is this Satan?
Is this serpent Satan? The Bible never explicitly
identifies the serpent with Satan.
We always just take that for granted.
But the Bible, nowhere in the entire Word of God explicitly
identifies this serpent with Satan.
But implicitly, we are led to believe that the Satan entered
the serpent and was speaking through it.
Implicitly, we are led to we. We know that Satan can enter
through people and speaks through them.
We know that Satan entered pigs, right?
Or demons entered pigs. Implicitly, we are led to
believe that Satan entered the serpent and was speaking through
it. Revelation 12/9 And the great
dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who was called
the devil and Satan, and the deceiver of the whole world.
Revelation 22 And he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent,
who is the devil and Satan. Now, for the purpose of the
sermon today and the next few weeks, I'm going to assume that
the serpent and Satan are one in the same.
I'm just going to assume that there's much more that we could
say about this character, but I want to focus on one description
that we are given here. We are given just one
description of the serpent, and here it is.
Crafty, crafty, clever, cunning. That's important.
Why? Brothers and sisters, let this
text be a reminder that Satan is far more clever than you and I
are. He is far more cunning and
clever and crafty than you and I are.
We have been around the block for 20 plus years.
He has been around for 20,000 years.
He been around for a long time. He knows what works on humans.
He knows he got David to fall. David was a man after God's own
heart. He got David to fall.
He got the apostle Peter to fall.
Be careful that we don't ever have the same mentality that
Peter had. I would never do that.
Do not ever think that we are above anything.
I would never do that. No matter how smart we think we
are, he is smarter. No matter how strong we may
feel, he is stronger. It is not uncommon for
Christians to put themselves in a position where they, as
Proverbs says, can a man hold fire next to his chest and not
be burned? And yet so often Christians will
walk around carrying fire, playing with fire, thinking, I
won't do this, I won't fall here.
There are a great many more godly and holy men of God and
women who have fallen than you. We cannot defeat him on our own.
We need someone who is wiser than him, because it's not us
and it's not me and it's not another human except the God
man. Look at 1B, He said to the
woman. Did God actually say you shall
not eat of any tree in the garden?
He said to the woman. Now just pause there for a
moment. Does anybody find it interesting
that the narrator just tells us that the serpent speaks without
any explanation? This is like something out of
Chronicles of Narnia, right? You know when, when, when Susan
gets to to Narnia, she, she can't believe that this Beavers
is speaking to her, right? Because animals don't speak.
But here the serpent could just talk and the narrator just just
says the serpent said there's no explanation given.
There's no, you know, like how how does this serpent speak?
The serpent asked the woman a question.
Now, before we look at the question, we have to ask a
question. Why did he approach the woman
and not the man? Ever wonder that?
Why did he approach the woman and not the man?
I have heard theories like, well the serpent knew that the woman
was an easier target or the serpent knew that the woman
would be deceived more easily than the man.
I am not convinced of those theories.
I think it has more to do with Satan's desire to undermine the
man's authority. That's my personal theory.
I I don't know the answer to that question, but that's my
theory. I think it has more to do with
Satan's desire to undermine the man's authority.
Adam is the spiritual head of his wife, and rather than
approach the spiritual head, the serpent bypasses the man and
goes to the woman. I don't think it's just it was
eenie meenie miney Moe. OK, I'll choose you.
I think he's intentional. I think everything Satan does is
intentional, and I think he intentionally chooses her to
bypass her spiritual head. Look at the question the serpent
ask. He says, did God actually say
you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
This is such a brilliantly wicked question and a wickedly
brilliant question. It's brilliant and it's wicked.
Why does he ask this question? I can think of at least two
reasons #1 because Satan loves to distort and twist and pervert
the words of God. He loves to distort and twist
and pervert the words of God. This is not what God said.
In fact, it is quite the opposite.
But this is what Satan does. He distorts.
He twist. He perverts the words of God.
Did God really say that you can't have sex before marriage
if you know you're going to get married?
Did God really say that? Did God really say that you
can't have a buzz so long as you don't get drunk?
Did God really say that life begins at conception?
Did he really say that? Did God really say that saving
millions for retirement is idolatry?
Did God really say that? Did God really say that you have
to go to church every week? Did God really say that this is
what Satan does, this is how he works #2 why?
It's brilliant. Satan is trying to get her to
see the one tree. Satan is trying to get her to
see the one tree. Now, if Sane wanted her to see
the one tree, why not just point it out?
Because he's clever. He's clever.
He is willing to play the long game if that will mean victory
for him. He starts by suggesting that God
is holding out everything on them.
That's what he's doing. He starts with the the, the
assumption that God is holding out everything on you guys.
Is God really not going to let you eat of any of these trees?
Look at all these trees and you can't eat of any of them.
Now, at this point, what should the woman have done?
The moment that he asked this question, what should the woman
have done? I can think of three good
options and one bad one. I can think of three good
options, one bad. 1A. She could go and get God and say
God, who is this creature and why is he talking to me?
Is he supposed to be here? Who is this?
She could do that B. She could go get her husband and
say, Will you talk to this animal?
This animal is like talking nonsense.
Will you talk to this animal? C She could just ignore him.
Those are three good options. There's one bad option.
Look at verse two to three. 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. What's the fourth option?
The fourth option is that she could independently talk to the
serpent. And the woman said to the
serpent, it is a mistake to engage this creature.
It is a major mistake for her to do it independently.
Brother, sisters, don't get into a dialogue with Satan.
Don't get into a dialogue with the world or your flesh.
Instead, preach the Word. Preach the Word.
Dialoguing leads to destruction. Preaching leads to production.
When Satan came to Jesus in the desert and tempted him in the
same way that he is tempting the woman right now, Jesus did not
get into a dialogue with him. What did He do?
He preached the Word. That's what he did.
There have been so many times in my life, I don't know if it's
true for you, but for me, that I can almost audibly hear the
voice of Satan or the world or my flesh tempting me.
Whether it is Satan, whether it is the world, what is my, it
doesn't really matter, doesn't matter.
I can almost audibly hear them tempting me, tempting me to do
this. And if I get into an inner
dialogue with this voice and I say, well, I mean, I can see
your point, actually, you know, I don't know if I have to do
that is I don't know if that's really a bad idea.
That's interesting. If I get into an inner dialogue
with this voice, I will often, if not always, lose.
What is far better is to preach the Word, to pull out the
ancient sword and slay the ancient serpent.
The woman says we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the
garden. Now that's true, that's true.
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. Now that's interesting, isn't
it? Because the woman adds a phrase
here, doesn't she? She says, neither shall you
touch it. Now, as far as we know, God
never said that. It's unclear if Adam told his
wife these instructions adding to God's instructions.
There's an age-old joke where you know, the husband's like,
all right, don't eat of this fruit.
Don't even touch it. All right.
It's unclear if Adam added this adding to God's instructions or
if the woman just made these instructions up.
You know, she just, Adam said don't eat this fruit and she was
like, well, we're not to eat of it and touch it.
It's not clear, but one of them added, one of them added to
God's instructions. Does that matter?
I think it does. I think it does in the same way
that the Israelites added to God's instructions.
The Israelites were known for creating a so-called fence
around God's law. God had given His law and then
they created what's known as a fence around this law.
I think Adam and or Eve are doing the very same thing here.
For example, in order to never take the Lord's name in vain.
That was one of the 10 commandments.
Don't take the Lord's name in vain.
What did they do? They created a fence.
What was that fence? Let's just not even say the
name. And they never said the Lord's
name. That's why we don't know how to
pronounce Yahweh. Yahweh is just a guess.
We have no idea how to pronounce it.
They just said let's just never say it.
In order to never break the Sabbath, God said, remember the
Sabbath, don't break it. What did they do?
They created a fence around it. They created all these rules
about how far you could carry your mat and, and, and how many
steps you could take and so forth, right.
They created this fence that you might think, is that a bad
practice? Is that a bad thing?
Is that a bad thing to like? Be extra cautious.
Is that a bad thing? It's not an effective practice.
Making laws unto ourselves is of
no use. And stopping the indulgence of
the flesh. How do we know that?
Because it didn't stop her from sinning.
This extra law that she gave don't even touch.
It didn't stop her from sinning. Brothers and sisters, God's
commands are sufficient. We dare not take away from them.
And we don't need to add to them either.
They are sufficient in and of themselves.
Look at verse 4. But the serpent said to the
woman, you will not surely die. You will not surely die.
You know what's interesting about this statement?
The serpent uses the same word that God used.
Shirley. Did you catch that?
The woman didn't say Shirley. The woman just said we would
die. The woman did not say we will
surely die. Satan uses the same word that
God did. People often say that God, that
Satan knows God's word better than we do.
I imagine that's true. I imagine Satan does know God's
word better than we do. Now I want us to consider this
statement. God said to the man, And the day
that you eat of it, you shall surely die.
The serpent said you will not surely die, you will surely die,
you will not surely die. I don't know about you, but in
logic 101, something cannot be A and not A at the same time.
One of them is a liar, one of them is a liar.
Jesus says about Satan. He does not stand in the truth
because there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a
liar and the father of lies. John 844 God clearly said you
will surely die. The serpent said you will surely
not die. Every day we are faced with this
scenario. We know the truth and we are fed
lies every day. We know the truth and we are fed
lies. This is why even though you may
know this book, you may even if you grew up in church and I'm
preaching on this, you're like, I mean, I know the creation
story. I've heard this so many times in
kids classes, right? Like, yeah, yeah.
They eat the fruit and they die and you know, it's like.
Even though you may know this book, you have to continuously
read it, memorize it, study it, sing it, pray it, preach it,
love it. Why?
Because every morning you wake up, you are a barrage of lies is
coming your way. That's what the world is
selling. It's selling lies.
Every billboard, every ad talk around the coffee break room,
it's selling you lies. You've got a barrage of lies
hitting you everyday and we need to be reminded, what did God
say? What did he say?
Do you know what he said? And guys, this, this is not
enough. I mean, this was such love,
guys. But, and I'm going to I'm going
to be careful because this is not scripted.
I get myself in trouble when I go off script.
There are some of you who have been a Christian for 10/15/20
years and you still don't know what this book says.
You need to know what did God say?
You need to know it better than you know your work or what level
you're on. You've got to know this inside
and out because you are fed lies every day and this is your only
hope to not believe those lies. Look at verse 5.
For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Notice this first phrase for God knows.
This phrase implies 2 things. A The serpent knows the mind of
God. He's implying that I know
something about God. He doesn't.
He doesn't know the mind of God. It be it implies that God knows
something and he doesn't want you to know it.
The serpent comes to her and he says, no, you can eat of this.
God just doesn't want you to eat of it because God knows
something and he doesn't want you to know it.
Again, we see his craftiness. We see his clever schemes Here
he gets the woman to believe that God is holding out on her.
That's what he's doing. God knows something He doesn't
want to know. He's holding out on you.
Now what does he accuse God of knowing?
What does he accuse God of holding out on?
That? When they eat of this tree, 2
results will follow. A your eyes will be opened.
Your eyes will be opened. How ironic that the New
Testament says that Satan blinds our eyes and that salvation is
God opening our eyes. But here the serpent is
suggesting that when you eat this fruit your eyes will be
opened, that disobedience will open your eyes.
And B, he says you will be like God, you will know good from
evil, that you'll be like God in this sense, you'll know good and
evil. A few weeks ago I asked the
question, what is the tree of knowledge of good and evil?
What? What is it?
I purposely tabled that question till now.
What is this tree of knowledge of good and evil?
It seems to me based on this, it is this.
It is a tree by which man gains moral autonomy.
It's a tree by which man gains moral autonomy.
Victor Hamilton writes this. What is forbidden to man is the
power to decide for himself what is in his best interest and what
is not. This is the decision that God is
not delegated to the earthling. In other words, God had said to
them, I will tell you what is right and what is wrong.
I will tell you. But to eat of this tree was
basically to say to God, thank you God.
But to be honest, I would like to decide this for myself.
I would like to be the one who decides what is right and what
is wrong. That's what this tree was.
Now I want to point out something here.
Satan does tell the woman truth, may think, well, these, these
are somewhat true. They are they're half truths.
They're half truths. You will not surely die.
That was 1/2 truth. She didn't physically die.
It was true. She did not physically die.
That was 1/2 truth. Your eyes will be open.
That's also half truth. Her eyes were opened.
They were opened. That's a half truth.
You will be like God, knowing good from evil.
That's a half truth. She did know good from evil.
That's a half truth. Satan tells her truths.
They are just half truths. Half truths are far more
dangerous than whole lies. They are sane.
Rarely comes to us and tells us a bold faced lie.
Rarely he tells us enough truth to make it believable.
Most people do not die from drinking poison.
They die from drinking dirty water.
Now I want you to notice Satan's modus operandum.
Don't miss this. This is his modus operandum.
Here it is. God is holding out on you.
God knows something and He doesn't want you to know it.
What is he doing there? What is Satan doing there?
He's doing this. He is planting a seed of
discontentment I have found in my life, and I believe the same
is true for everybody in this room.
That Satan's most effective strategy.
He's got many schemes, many strategies.
His most effective one, the one that he pulls out when other
things don't work. If, if, if, if this doesn't work
and that doesn't work, this one will work.
His most effective strategy is discontentment.
Jeremiah Burrow says this. The devil loves to fish in
troubled waters. When he sees men and women go up
and down discontented, he gets them alone.
Then he comes with his temptations.
Satan's most effective lie is to get you to believe I I need
something I do not currently have in order to be happy.
I need this. I need this money.
I need this relationship. I need this satisfaction.
I need this job. I need this validation.
I need it. I needed to be happy.
I won't be happy without it. It's the oldest lie in history.
It works on all of us, everybody in this room.
It works on What's trap so tragically ironic is that we are
given every indication that the man and woman they were already
happy. God had made them a beautiful
garden. You know, it's this is like the
contrast between Jesus. Jesus was in a desert wasteland
and he was content in the Lord. But but the man and the woman
were in this beautiful lush garden with four rivers flowing
out from it. God had given them every tree to
eat from every single one. They got a buffet of trees to
eat from. God had given them each other.
What? What else could they want?
And then along comes Satan, and he just plants a tiny little
seed of discontentment. True, but you don't have this
type of wisdom. Don't you want it?
It's there. All you have to do is just and
you'll have it. The verse 6A So when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight
to the eyes and the tree was desired to make one wise.
Notice how the narrator's words at this So when the woman saw
the tree, did you catch that? There's a difference between
knowing that the tree is there and see that the tree is there.
She knew the tree was there, but now she sees it.
The serpent got her to see it. Now what did she see when she
looked upon the tree, What did she see?
3 descriptions. A.
It's good for food B. It's a delight to the eyes C Its
desire to make one wise. Now here's what's interesting
about these three descriptions for the 1st 2.
They're no different than the other trees.
Remember how God described all the other trees?
They're pleasant to the sight and they're good for food.
This tree is exactly the same. It's a pleasant to the site and
it's good for food. What's interesting is the Hebrew
word used for delight here in this passage, the Hebrew word
for delight. It's the same Hebrew word used
in Numbers 11. For now, the rabble that was
among them had a strong craving. That word craving is the same
Hebrew word as delight. The Hebrew word for desired here
is the same Hebrew word in Exodus 2017.
For thou shall not covet. Covet is the same Hebrew word as
desire. In other words, what?
What does that mean? This tree created a craving and
a coveting in this woman's heart.
Satan was able to create a craving and a coveting in her
heart. What does she crave?
What did she covet? This.
To be wise, to be wise. The Hebrew word there for wise
means to have insight, to gain wisdom, to gain understanding,
to be prudent, to be skilled, to have a capacity for
understanding. Cravings lead to coveting, and
coveting leads to compromise. Cravings lead to coveting, and
coveting leads to compromise. See, all the serpent had to do
was to get her to see the tree, and his mind is like, if I can
just get her to see it, she'll have a craving for it.
Once she has a craving for it, she'll covet it.
Once she covets it, she'll compromise.
And she did. You know what she should have
done the moment that she had a craving?
Know what she should have done. Go and eat from one of the other
trees and satisfy her craving. Go and feast on one of the other
trees and satisfy her craving. Look at 6B.
She took up its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her
husband who was with her, and he ate.
Now one could argue that the woman had already sinned when
she developed this craving, Covetine.
You could make an argument that she had already sent the moment
she developed this craving, Covetine.
She's ready to become a Sinner. That may be true, but she did
not transgress God's commands yet.
She did not transgress because God didn't say yet do not covet.
Paul says it's in Romans, right? She doesn't.
We don't. We would not know that we
shouldn't covet if God didn't say don't covet.
God did not say don't covet, yet she took of the fruit and ate
explicitly disobeying what God had told them not to do.
Now as bad as that sin was, it gets worse.
You ever heard the phrase misery loves company?
It's also true that sin loves company.
The woman gave some of the forbidden fruit to her husband
and he ate. This is bad for at least two
reasons. Number one, she brought him with
her into her sin. Do you know how we know that she
immediately became a Sinner? The moment she ate this?
She took it and ate it. She immediately became a Sinner.
Do you know how we know she immediately became a Sinner?
Because the very next thing she does is lead her husband into
sin. Only a Sinner would lead another
into sin. The serpent didn't even need to
tempt the man. She did the serpent's job for
him. Our sin always effects others.
If you remember Peter's hypocrisy at Antioch, it caused
Barnabas to be LED astray. Our sin can often embolden
others to sin likewise. I think that's what's going on
here and #2 why this is bad. The man eats with no words, no
resistance, no fight. He doesn't even say anything.
And it's not as though like he's naive like he does, you know,
she handed him a, a Peach or an apple or something and he's and
she's like, here you eaten. He's like, oh, no, no, like it
it. It's not like he knew what he
was doing. Paul says that the woman was
deceived, but the man was not. In Timothy, Paul says the woman
was deceived, but the man was not.
It's as if he willfully walks into the sin.
He wasn't deceived, he willfully walked into it.
The man was created to be her spiritual head or spiritual
leader, and yet here he is following her lead.
I cannot tell you how many times I have seen in church, this
church and other churches where men will passively let their
wives lead them into sin and to a certain lifestyle of sin and
will not step up and say, no, we are not going to do that in our
family. He passively follows her.
Adam is contrasted with Job who also had a wife who tempted him
to sin and yet Job maintained his integrity and said no, I
won't do that. That's what Adam should have
done. Look at verse 7.
Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew they were
naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves
loincloths. Satan promises the world and he
delivers hell. He promises the world and he
delivers hell. He did the same with Jesus.
He said to Jesus, bow down to me one time.
I will give you all the kingdoms of this world.
I will give you all their glory, all their authority, all their
power. It will all be yours.
Just bow down to me one time. He promised the world, but what
he would have delivered is eternal hell for all mankind had
Jesus done this. This is always the nature of
sin. Always sin is like putting a a
billion dollars in a minefield and saying it's shores.
If you want it you just go get it.
But this is not worth it. It's not worth it.
The serpent was right, their eyes were opened.
He said your eyes will be opened.
He was right, their eyes were opened, but they were not open
to wisdom. It would open to their
nakedness. Notice the narrator doesn't say
that they knew good from evil. It doesn't say that he says what
did they know? They knew they were naked.
What they wanted to know was wisdom.
Instead, what they knew was shame.
Sin makes us feel naked. It makes us feel exposed, makes
us feel ashamed. That's why sometimes you know
it, it. I see it as a pastor.
I know this because I'm a father.
Could see the look of shame on my boy's face.
I can see the the look of shame on your face.
Been doing this a long time. It makes us feel ashamed.
My wife's can sense it on my face.
She she, she can tell God has designed it this way.
This is not a bad thing. God has designed it this way.
It is. It is bad when we can walk
around and not feel naked, when we can feel no shame.
That's what's bad. That feeling of shame has a
purpose. And when you feel that shame,
you will do one of two things to alleviate that feeling.
When you feel shame, you will do one of two things to alleviate
that feeling. A You will either attempt to
self atone, which is what the man and the woman do.
They once again act independently of God.
They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Victor Hamilton writes this. They attempt to alleviate the
problem themselves rather than driving them back to God.
Their guilt leads them into a self atoning, self protecting
procedure. What they should have done is
gone to God and say God, we messed up, please forgive us.
And they said, you know, we, we, we got to hide this.
They attempt to cover up their shame and hide it from each
other and from God. We can, we will either attempt
to self atone or be what's the alternative?
We'll put on a robe. We'll put on a robe of
righteousness. That is a far better loincloth.
And fig leaves, brothers and sisters, fig leaves make a very
poor loincloth. You say what that could be
anything. Fig leaves can be anything that
we do to alleviate the feeling of guilt and shame.
Fig leaves can be busyness. I feel shame.
So I'm just going to stay busy. So I don't feel it could be
entertainment. Let me cathartically watch
others who have this shame drinking.
That's a big one. A lot of people drink away.
They're saying hobbies, religion.
Religion is not a a good substitute.
Could also be hardening. I feel this, but I'll just
harden my heart. Brother.
Sisters, you don't have to settle for fig leaves.
You don't have to settle for fig leaves.
Jesus does not just give us leaves, He gives us the entire
tree. He invites us to come and hide
ourselves behind His tree. He says step into my wardrobe
and put on this robe. I will cover you.
I will cover all of you. I pray you will hide yourself in
him. Let's pray.