The Woman & The Dragon (Genesis Chapter Three - Part 2)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

The Serpent’s Strategy of Doubt and Distortion

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. You notice what she did. She adds a little something to it. So God said one thing. The serpent says something a little different.

Now Eve is saying what God said and that's just a little different. What does she do? She adds that you're not even supposed to touch the tree lest you die. Now did God say that? No. I mean it might stand to reason if you shouldn't eat it, you shouldn't touch it.

I mean it makes sense, but that's technically not what God said. So hopefully you can see it's just kind of getting a little more cloudy, right? It's not as clear. And keep in mind that Eve didn't actually hear God say this.

God gave the commandment to who? To Adam. God said this to Adam before Eve was even created. So Eve is receiving this second hand and it's all meant to get her right where the serpent wants her. And the serpent still doing this type of thing today.

How many times have you heard people quote the Bible and they're not even doing it intentionally, but they don't quite quote it accurately. I mean we all do this probably and you know we're not trying to.

Some people do do that intentionally. People take the Bible out of context. Something gets repeated that isn't quite right, but it's repeated so often. You've heard it so often it seems true, but it's not quite the truth.

Or critics of the Bible will say because we didn't receive this revelation directly from God. We received it second hand or third hand. So you've heard people say that the Bible you know something is lost in translation.

Or it's a copy of a copy of a copy. And Satan has all these different angles to create doubt in your mind. That's what he wants to do. Satan wants to create doubt in your mind. Is everything in this book true?

That's his strategy. I remember when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. What did the devil come to him? Hey let's let's just do a bunch of horrible stuff to get no. I mean he came quoting scripture.

The devil came to Jesus in the wilderness quoting scripture. But what did he do? He quoted it out of context. And Satan pit he would pit one verse against another. So here Eve is in a bad place. She's having a conversation with the devil, which not wise thing to do.

As soon as the serpent approached her and said that she should have ran back to Adam. I mean this is not a good idea. You can't get into a conversation with the devil and win. Don't even talk to the devil.

Don't even consider what the devil is saying. What does the scripture say? Resist the devil. Don't argue with him. Don't debate him. Resist him and he will flee from you. So she's in a bad place. The devil has already framed this in such a way where he's making God seem like he's holding something back.

I mean why would a good God create this good fruit and not allow you to eat it? God wants you to be happy. I think we hear this today as well. God just wants you to be happy. So if something brings you pleasure, it must be of God.

That's the devil's lie. So Eve says no, no. God said if we eat it, we will die. Look at verse 4. Then the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Don't miss this. If you take notes, write this down because you need to know the devil's plot, his plan. It starts with a conversation. Then it moves to half-truths. And then finally out comes the blatant lie.

What's the half-truth? That their eyes would be what?

Opened.

That they would become like God. Now is that true? Were their eyes opened?

Yeah.

They were in a sense like God, knowing good and evil, just not in the way that they had hoped for. So in a sense, what Satan is saying is, you know, it's at least half-true. And what does Satan offer?

He offers them knowledge. Now is knowledge a good thing? Well, I mean, for the most part, we would say knowledge is good. It's not always good, though. Here's another trick of the devil. Satan continues to offer people knowledge.

And it's tempting. Like, oh, yeah, that sounds interesting. I want to know about this. But some knowledge, especially when it's something that you learn through experience, honestly, there are some things you'd be better off not knowing.

Let's face it. There are some things that you know. And there are some things that you remember that you would rather forget. And I think the scripture indicates that in the new heaven and the new earth, there will be things that we no longer remember.

The Fall, Suffering, and the Entrance of Sin

There will be things that we no longer are aware of. And that's a blessing. Revelation 22, verse 4 says,. So what's the title of the message? Befall, but why do people suffer? That's the question we're looking at.

Why do people suffer? Well, for the one who knows Christ, suffering, while it's part of this world, it's not part of the world to come. So for the one who believes in Christ, suffering is only temporary.

But for the one who does not believe in Christ, suffering will last forever and ever and ever. And the reason suffering is part of this world is because of what happens right here. Look at verse 6. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. So this part is important. Eve was what? New Testament talks about this. Eve was deceived, right? Adam just flat out disobeyed what God said. By an act, we would say of his own free will.

And at this time, we've talked about sovereignty of God and free will before. At this moment, Adam truly has free will in the ultimate sense. There is no sin nature. Adam was perfectly free to and he was able to obey God perfectly or he was able to disobey God.

Adam had a free will. And what did Adam do with free? Everyone loves free will, free will. Yeah, you know what people do with their free will? They sin against God, okay? And that's exactly what he did.

And as our representative, Adam is the head of the human race. The race fell into sin because of this intentional decision. And immediately, what takes place? Their eyes are opened, which is what Satan said would happen.

But the part that he left out is now, yeah, your eyes are open. But now you're aware of the whole bunch of things you weren't aware of before. You have that knowledge of evil. And Satan didn't tell them the part that now you're going to experience fear.

And now you're going to experience shame. Look at verse 8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves. That's the first thing they do.

They run from God. They hide from God. They hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. Where can you go to hide from God? There's a lot of people that are trying to hide from God.

You know, that doesn't work. What does the scripture say? Psalm 139, 7 and 8. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, what? You are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.

You can't run from God. Don't try. Don't try. So they attempt to hide from God. They couldn't. Verse 9, then the Lord God called to Adam and said to them, where are you? Of course, God knows where they are, right?

So he said, well, I heard the voice, your voice in the garden. And I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And the Lord said to him, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?

God knew where he was. God knows the answer to these questions. What's God trying to do? He's trying to walk Adam through it. He's trying to get a response from Adam. Now, what should have been the response?

I'm sorry.

Yes, I did the wrong thing.

I'm sorry.

Please forgive me. That's always the right response. And what would have God done? He would have forgiven him. That's not what he did, though. He makes excuses. He blames other people. So why do people suffer?

Genesis chapter 3. This is the reason. I know this answer might not satisfy people because I know, again, people think that God should be in heaven. He should be fixing all of our problems. Why isn't he doing that?

It might not be a satisfactory answer to you, but it is the answer. Why do people suffer? Genesis 3. Why do people experience marital problems? When did that begin? Genesis chapter 3. When did people start blaming God for everything?

Genesis chapter 3. What does Adam do? He blames his wife. And not just that. Don't miss this. Adam blames God. It would be easy to kind of not see that. But look at verse 12. So God asks him the question.

And what does Adam say?

Well, the woman.

So he's blaming her, but the woman that you gave me. The woman who you gave to be with me. She gave me of the tree and I ate. This has played out throughout history. This is the way it is. People blame God.

They blame each other. And, again, the proper response is you're right, God.

I'm wrong.

Please forgive me.

It's that simple.

And that's not what people do. Now, here's a question. Why was it Adam's fault? Because God really, he goes to Adam first. He's calling Adam to account. Some of you have read this and probably asked this.

Eve, who ate first? Eve did, right? Eve ate first. She then gave it to Adam. I mean, it would seem as though Eve is really the one responsible. And yet God calls Adam on the carpet.

Why?

Because Adam has headship. Adam has headship. This is an unpopular thing today. People complain about it and they call it the patriarchy. It doesn't matter what they say. That's what the Bible says. Adam has headship.

He's the head of the wife and he's the head of the human race. God gave the commandment, again, to who? He gave it to Adam, not Eve. Of course, with that comes responsibility. If you want to call this a covenant, God made it with Adam and not Eve.

So God calls Adam to account. But instead of confessing his sin, he makes excuses. You know, it's always somebody else's fault. And isn't this the way? All the time, all the things that are going on. No, it's always someone else's fault.

Let's get the focus off of me and someone else. When someone brings something up, yeah, but what about this? Yeah, what about that person? No, what about you and what you did? It's the common human experience.

The Curse on the Serpent and the Dragon Imagery

So God then turns to Eve. Eve was wrong. Eve did do something wrong. So now God is calling her to account. And he asked, what is this that you have done? And again, instead of confessing to God, she keeps the blame game going, doesn't she?

And the woman said, well, the serpent. The serpent deceived me and I ate. So verse 14, the Lord God said to the serpent. Now the joke is the serpent didn't have a leg to stand on, right? So that's really not true.

He did have a leg to stand on because as of this moment, the serpent walked upright. It's part of the curse that he would go on his belly and eat the dust of the earth. Just spend a moment on that. How does that work?

How would a serpent walk upright? And people have this in their mind of a snake just kind of, I don't know, just walking. I don't think that's the way it was, has been suggested that a serpent with legs or a reptile with legs is called a dragon.

The Bible talks about dragons and it's not the Walt Disney type of a dragon that you think of in your mind. Some people, this might've been the dinosaurs or what people would call the dinosaurs, but a serpent that walks upright is a dragon.

You know, this makes sense because in those passages from Revelation that call the devil, the serpent of old, those same passages call him what?

The dragon.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com.

We'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.