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Bro. Otis Fisher
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. Bill, what's the word subtle mean? What's subterfuge mean? He was that way more than any other beast. They calls him a beast of the field and the Lord God had made him.
Of course, he made all of the beasts. Now we're going to listen to a conversation between this animal and Eve and from a study of what is recorded here and a little bit of research, we come to the conclusion that we arrived after the conversation started and we kind of pick it up someplace near the middle and Satan is using this animal now and he said unto the woman, yea hath God said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden.
Now pay close attention to the conversation and the way that it unfolds. First of all, Satan would not have come to Eve if Adam had been present, so he caught the woman by herself and she being more easily led astray than the man and he knew that.
He approaches her and he starts in the conversation, he just casually mentions that God said you couldn't eat of any tree. Well, he knew that that was wrong, but that was where he decided to start. That's the way Satan does.
Very, very unnoticeable. Now if God had disclosed to Adam, had made him to understand that sin was going to enter into the world through him, then Adam would not have been held responsible. Do you understand that?
If he had told Adam that sin's going to come through you, then Adam would not have been held responsible for what he did, but he didn't tell Adam that. That's a true statement, only he didn't tell Adam, he didn't enlighten him as to what was going to occur.
Neither does he us, except what we have written in the Bible, but on a personal day-by-day situation as we live, we do not know what the next day is going to bring. In fact, we do not know what the next moment is going to bring.
So we are held responsible for our thoughts and actions. Something else I'd like for you to know is that God does not have a permissive will. This is a man-made statement, and man has concocted it to give himself an excuse, but God does not have a permissive will.
He does have a revealed will and an unrevealed will. Now we're held responsible only for the revealed will, and I rather suspect that there is far more that has not been revealed than there has been revealed.
He decreed sin to enter the universe, though he hates sin. Yet, well let me ask, why then did he decree that sin would enter the universe when he hates sin? It just doesn't make good sense to me. You cannot really know good unless you know bad.
There'd be no comparison. Everything we know is based on comparisons. Sin is one of the means by which he has appointed the end that he intends to reach with us, and it does now exist. But please understand, God himself did not sin.
From where did sin come? What, of Adam? Did it come from this universe? Then from where did it come? It come from outside of his creation someplace. There is a place, the God's domain, and it's outside of this creation.
Because you'll notice every time it states about our Lord coming, he came into the world. Always into, not in. So now we have one of the means by which our salvation is going to come, one of the means by which God's end is going to be achieved, but God himself did not sin.
You hate to punish your child because of their disobedience. You really would rather not do that, but as Brother David pointed out this morning, it's absolutely necessary. So you do because you know that in the long run it'll be best.
God's revealed will is the measure of our responsibility. It also is a determiner of our duty. With God's secret will, we have nothing to do. That's his concern, the unrevealed will. Now we get back to the conversation and the woman answers.
Now get the picture. Here's Eve, a beautiful garden, and here's Satan represented by this animal, whatever it is. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst or center of the garden, God has said you shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it lest ye die.
Now David, why did she add that last part? So it started from the very beginning. Well, no, because she'd never experienced it. She knew about it. She knew there was such a thing. She knew it was good to not eat of the tree and as bad to eat of the tree, but that's as far as her knowledge of good and evil extended.
Same way with anything else. She did not understand physical death, and of course that's not what he's talking about here. Sir? Well, she added a little bit to what the original message had been from God to Adam.
Remember, Eve's information is secondhand. It comes from Adam. We don't know but what he added something. We're not given that. Sounds very reasonable. So I think up to this time, and how much time? I have no earthly idea or heavenly either.
It could have been two days. It could have been eons of time. We don't know. We're not given a hint. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat.
I don't get the idea that he was standing there because he was not. Satan would not come in the presence of Adam and Eve both to work on the woman. I think he's off to cattle market and when he got home, she said, guess what I found out today.
Now what should she have done? Right. She said, you just hold that thought and let me go talk to my husband. But she didn't. And she ate it. Now we know that this is a physical eating of something. Everybody lays it onto an apple.
Might be, I don't know. But it was some kind of fruit that she ate that was forbidden. It is not the eating of the fruit that was the sin. What was the sin? Well, before disobedience, what was it? Unbelief.
She unbelieved God and believed Satan. That's going to come back to haunt Adam. Now the question, and if you know, don't answer. If you do know, or if you don't, if you know, don't answer. If you don't know, give me an answer.
It says that when the woman saw that the tree was good for food. Now Roger, this little word saw, explain that. Well, had she not done that before? Could she not have done that before? But she didn't see it was good for food then.
Something was occurring that caused her to understand. Verge? Well, it takes a long time for my words to get back there. All right, let's go back a little bit further. Did I not read five? I guess I didn't.
But she ate of it and her eyes were not open. Well, you all are trying to make it real hard. You know, I don't know. He gave them everything to eat because they were vegetarian, but this tree she could not eat, so I would think they had been eating of everything else.
All right, let me ask you this. Who was the order given to to not eat of it? And he gave it to who? This subtle beast that was standing there had no restrictions put on him, did he? Then he was standing there eating one, and she saw that it was good for food.
He didn't die. He, there was no difference. Everything contributing to what he had said, and she saw that it is good for food. Yeah, especially if you know you're not supposed to, you'll want it. Now, something else we must learn while we're right here.
Why didn't Satan work on her mind from the inside? Well, why didn't he? He could have done that from a great distance. Important point. He has to come to us through one of our carnal senses, and he will every time.
Even though it seems like you thought of that evil thought, it was because something triggered that thought, and you may never know what it was, but if something you saw, heard, smelled, touched, or something down the string of that, you might have touched something that made you think of something, or made you think of something else, and it deteriorated.
He cannot attack you from the inside, because the Holy Spirit and Satan cannot occupy the same place. Just like Eve, he could not get inside of her, so he had to come from the outside. Great lesson. She was righteous.
Seven, and the eyes of them both were opened. When were they opened? After Adam ate of it. Another important point. Now, Bill, why was it after Adam ate? All right. Well, he has in that he made the woman as a helper for him.
Yes, yes. So the fact now we have proof that the Adam, that the Adam, that Adam, or the husband, is the head of the family. He is the one held responsible for that family, not only spiritually, but physically also, and the woman is to help him, and support him, and everything that is legal and Christian.
So, after he ate, their eyes were opened. An interesting side point. Do you know what I mean when I talk about a mole of the ground, a little burrowing animal under the ground? First, did you know that they never open their eyes until they die?
They have eyes, but they're never opened until they die. Now, when we die, physically, our eyes will be open to see things that we've never seen before. The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.
Now, up to this point, they were like a little baby. In fact, a lot of them preferred to not have clothes on. We had one of her nephews with us when he was, how old was Rick? Two weeks, and he had the most terrible case of infantigo, and the hospital wouldn't keep him.
Her sister wanted her sister here to take care of him, so we had him in a basket on the drain board thing, and I made a light to go over it. We spread a towel or something over that because he couldn't wear clothes, and the doctor come out to make a call to see him, and it was the most awful thing he'd ever seen, and he went away, and about four or five hours later, there was a knock on the door, and he said, could I see that baby again?
That's how bad it was. Well, all of that to say this, when finally he was cured and could wear clothes again, believe you me, it was a fight to get them on him because he didn't want them. So, they had no clothes up to this point.
Another thing I want you to watch as we go through the scripture, we begin in the garden. We begin with adults, but they represent infancy. They were innocent as a child, and then comes time in their life that they are driven out of that state of innocency and go out then under a law, and we'll get to that law later.
All right, they now know something happened. Let me explain the best I can what took place. Adam, and I'll just talk about him, man, we can say it's made up of three parts, body, soul, and spirit. The spirit is the image of God that is in every human being.
If the spirit were not there in a human, the human could never be saved. Neither would the human be responsible for things he did that was wrong because he could not sin. Unless the human had the image of God, he could not sin.
The animals have a body, and we call it life, but life and soul are the same. So, the animals have a body and a soul. They do not have the image of God. That's why, in spite of a dog I had once, they cannot sin.
Now, before sin, all three of those were identical, but the Lord told him in the day that you eat of it, if you eat of it, knowing that he would, you'll die. Death is nothing but separation. Our body dies, and our life is separated from it.
So, death is just a separation. What occurred, Greg, was that the body and life were separated from the image of God. Now, the unsaved in the world today are just like that. They still have the image of God.
And if you go to Ecclesiastes 12 .7, I believe that's it. It'll help us understand a little bit. Is that it, Diane? Now, that's not just in the redeemed. That's in everybody. The spirit that is in every human being makes them what they are and makes them responsible for their life, makes us able to be saved, because when we become saved, he gives us not the old life.
He gives us a new life that is welded to his image, his spirit. When we die, we now have separated from the old body. That old body will die and go to dirt. But what about the spirit? It goes back to God that gave it.
So, the spirit out of every human being returns to God. If you have the new life that's welded to it, you'll go. If you don't, you won't. It's just that simple. If he has given you a new life, he gave you his life.
It is him. That's part of his spirit. And when the spirit goes home, the new life goes home at death. With the old body, there's no redemption for it. It goes back to dust. Any questions? Yes, you would recognize it, and it also made it possible for what you do to be counted a sin.
When an animal acts a certain way, you don't say they sinned, because they can't. But when a human does, they can, because that image of God is in them. Well, it certainly, when we're born again, it makes that possible so we know when we sin.
The other people are in sin continually. They're born in sin, stay in sin, whether they recognize it, whether they don't. But at the same time, he has put into the heart of every human being the fact that he is, and they know good from bad.
Everybody knows good from bad because Adam ate of the tree. Also, he put it into their hearts to know that what they're doing is evil. Now, they can do it so long that they sear their conscience, and it is as though they have no conscience.
Therefore, they wouldn't know what you're talking about was sin. I think I didn't get everything you said, but that you could recognize sin. But the fact that the image is there holds every human being responsible for their life, whether they recognize him or they don't.
That's just the way he made it. That's right. That's right. So, the presence of the image of God is an all-important aspect of the human. Sets him apart from the animals. Yes. Russell's not here. Okay, any questions on the three-finger exercise?
Does everybody understand or understand enough to think about it? Death is just separation. The image of God never deteriorates. It never goes away until death comes to the body, and it goes back home.
The new life will go home if you have the new life. If you don't have the new life, you'll go to hell. God said it. I didn't. Absolutely. Everybody will have a new body. Those in hell will have a new one that will not be consumed.
We'll have a new one that is righteous, but it is a bodily resurrection. Now, there's a school that teaches it's a spiritual resurrection, and the very word resurrect means a standing up. How are you going to stand up a ghost?
Or a spirit? You can't. It has to be a body that stands up. So, the resurrection will be a bodily resurrection. Yes, it will be a new body of some kind. It will be like the one he had after his resurrection.
No, but only after he revealed himself. And he revealed himself only to his people, not to the world, after his resurrection. Because some of them did not recognize him. You remember Mary didn't recognize him.
And the mind plays a big part in that, because she knew he was dead, and she knew what bodies do when they die. Even though he had said that he was going to rise again, not having experienced it, she didn't fully believe it.
But she did recognize him when he called her by name, and so shall we. Yes, yes. He appeared in a room and disappeared. He didn't travel through walls, he just appeared. Yes. We'll be like him, not in intelligence, but in bodily form.
All right. Here's a quote from Luther. Do you remember Luther that come out of the Catholic Church? This is one thing he said, God is a being whose will acknowledges no cause. He has neither superior or equal.
His will is the rule of all things. Doesn't sound much like the Lutherans I know today. They would not support that at all. Eight. And they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden. David, how can a voice walk?
And how could they hear the voice walking? Yes, it was Jesus, wasn't it? Jesus the Christ pre-incarnate. They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Now, Roger, there was a little bit difference.
Even though we didn't have night, there was a difference somehow. Cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So we know there were trees in the garden.
Now, Greg, the big question is what made them hide? How did they know? They'd never known this before. Well, I'm not either. No, the fact that they recognized guilt, shame, everything goes along with it, means that they were definitely separated from the Spirit.
And they saw these things for the first time. While they were in the Spirit, they didn't see it. Now they hid when they heard him coming. And the Lord God, another thing, they didn't have to learn how to they instinctively knew that.
You don't have to choose. Sure do. That's right. Same exact thing. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where are you? Well, Roger, how come he didn't know where they were? He did. Well, they knew where they were.
They were hiding. He was giving them an opportunity to confess. And it's always good therapy to have the guilty party to speak his transgression out loud so he can hear himself talking. If and when you next sin, speak your sin out loud.
Don't just say, Lord, you know what I did. Forgive me of it. It isn't to inform him. It's to inform ourself. Same way with study that I mentioned this morning. Well, Adam answers him and he says, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.
How did he know what being naked was? Well, there's just some things instinctively known because we're in a state of sin and that's the blessing of God. And it also says that they were afraid. That comes along with sin also.
And he said, who told you that that was naked? It didn't give him time to answer. He says, have you eaten of the tree whereof I commanded you that you should not eat? But Fred, he doesn't give them time to answer the first question, but he asks a second one.
He says, have you been eating of that tree that I told you not to? He knew the answer to that too. Another opportunity to confess. And the man said, a famous statement, the woman that you gave me, she gave me of the tree and I ate.
So he's saying, Lord, it's not my fault. It's really your fault. If you had given me a smarter woman, that would have never happened. If you'd have given me one that was more obedient, one that didn't want to be the first member of the women's lib movement.
I'll get it. Yes. But he didn't take all of that in consideration. Neither do we when we're giving excuses. Well, it's the woman you gave me. So it's really your fault. If she'd been a better production of yours, it wouldn't have happened.
The Lord God said unto the woman, notice he didn't rebuke Adam. What is this that you have done? Again, he knew the answer. And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. Now, David, is that a true statement?
Yes. First truthful one we've had. She said, the serpent tricked me, beguiled me. So we at last learned that man has from the very beginning always blamed someone or something for his mistakes. Well, Eve should have told Satan that she'd need to check with her husband before she ate.
But then, as in now, in too many cases, the woman thought surely she could handle this small item by herself. It was just a small apple. Fourteen, and the Lord God said to the serpent, here comes the first curse.
Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly, the Hebrew literally says, upon all fours shall thou go. And thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
What the Hebrew is telling us then is that you'll go on all fours now, you've been standing erect, but now you'll go down on all fours and you'll eat your food off the ground. And I, who is the I? The Lord God said, I will put enmity between you and the woman.
Enmity. Clarence, what's that mean? All right, it's a war. A literal, all-out war between thee and the woman. And please underline this, talking to Satan, and between thy seed, Satan, and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Now, there is no other place in the Bible where it is called or mentioned the seed of the woman, because that's not normal. So the seed of the woman here is referring to the virgin birth of Jesus. The seed is always carried by the man.
The sin nature is transmitted by the man, not the woman. This is why Jesus had to be virgin born, so he would not have a sin nature. But back up, he says, between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.
Her seed is Jesus. Between thy seed refers to who, David? Well, the seed. Satan's seed. No, Satan's seed. He's talking to Satan. That's right. It's very important that we understand this, because of what's coming.
Now, he makes it very clear that there's going to be a state of war exist between Satan and Jesus and between the offspring of Satan and Jesus. Seed means offspring, descendants, children, whatever you want to call it.
So Satan's seed is in the world today. We all have experience running into some of it. Between thy Satan's seed, Zerah, carnal, child, fruitful, and her seed, Zerah, carnal, child, fruitful, the seed of the woman is in reference to the virgin birth of Jesus and subsequently all of those that belong to him.
So you see, the war does not exist between you and I and Satan. It's between Satan's spirit and that of the Lord's spirit. Now, we'll go through this one and I'll leave you to think. 16. He turns to the woman and he says, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
Most people read that I will multiply your sorrow in conception. That's not what it says. The little word and. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, meaning that it would not have been prior, and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee.
The Hebrew literally says it like this. By multiplying, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and I will greatly multiply thy conception. Now, why do you suppose that conception had to be multiplied? There had to be provision made for the seed of Satan to be born into this world.
But here he didn't come to save everybody, just his people. So he's going to greatly multiply thy sorrow, and that pertains to primarily to birth and thy conception, meaning this. Roger, if there had never been any sin, perhaps the woman would have given birth only once.
I have no idea how many, but certainly not as many times as they do now. There had to be a multiplication factor in order for Satan's seed to be born into this world, and they're here. They got here from a woman, but they have the nature of Satan.
Now, if you're asking yourself the question, well, how many would have been born had there never been sin? Wait till you get to heaven and count them, because that's the only ones going to be there. Those that would have been born if sin had never been, but sin was and is, and the world is starving to death because of it.
That's right. Well, it certainly is. It's the seed of Satan that is in the church, in the world, every place. Go today, if you learn nothing else, and I hope you do learn other things, but know this, that there is two seeds in this world, Satan and God.
Let's stand. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this brief time that we can spend together in your holy word. It is so rich, so informative, and it so much affects our life. Help us to each understand that portion that we should, and in such a way that we can apply it to our life each and every day.
We thank you for it again in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.