Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/harold-paisley/creation-genesis-3/
And then the fellowship we have together as servants of Christ as we pass through the scriptures, even in difficulties, that we are able to have fellowship one with another in all the scriptures read.
I would like to read in the New Testament, first of all, and I hope the brethren will be happy about that, Romans chapter 5. I think it is necessary to read these scriptures as we think of Genesis 3. Verse 12,.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, or passed through a river of ruin, for that all sinned. What we are reading here is that in Adam all men enter sinners into the world, even in the womb of their mother.
Now we will read the next reading in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Still going back to Genesis 3. Now verse 3, Paul's fear for the Corinthian assembly, I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguile thee through his subtlety, so your minds, the word subtlety here is craftiness, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is toward Christ.
What a thing to know that Satan is still crafty and seeking to take away the purity of thought that is towards our Lord Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 15, verse 21,. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the first Brits, afterward they their Christ had his coming. Now look down please. Verse 44,. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body and so it is written. The first man Adam was made or became a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit, albeit that was not first which is spiritual but that which is natural and afterward that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthy, the second man of the Lord from heaven. The last reading in these portions is in Timothy's, Paul's letter to Timothy. Chapter 2, 1 Timothy, verse 12, I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing if the continuing faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
Some see Christ here, personally I believe it's through the ordinary duties of a mother looking after children and her home will be saved from the public deception of public speaking etc. That's how I view that, maybe you all won't agree without a here and away man's.
So we'll turn to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3, the Lord helped us to read this solemn portion of his word. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. The revised reading says all the trees of the garden. And the woman said unto 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 of the garden, God has said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. 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.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool, or the wind of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.
And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field.
Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seat and her seat. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, curse it as the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken.
For thus thou art, and unto thus shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand, and take also the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden a cherry of them, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. Now the Lord will bless the reading.
Always believed the reading of the scriptures is more important than the exposition of it. When the Lord Jesus stood up at Nazareth, he opened a book, and the place to be read on that occasion, which would never be read for many years, he found the appointed place that was to be read as we have done the appointed place today.
And as he read the scriptures, the eyes of all them that were in the place were fastened on him. They marveled at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth before he ever gave an exposition at all.
They were touched by the reading of the scriptures. And I trust that we have, as we have read these two days, been touched with the reading of God's infallible, holy, precious word. Thank God we believe in the plenary inspiration of scripture from cover to cover.
This chapter is a chapter denied today in religious circles, a chapter that is not mentioned in some evangelical circles, but is basic to our understanding of the scriptures. One of the most important chapters in all the Bible, a key to learn the ruin of mankind.
The Apostle Paul commenced in the great gospel epistle, and our brother reminds us of the gospel in the song we sang. He opened that epistle by showing beyond all doubt the utter ruin, depravity, and wretchedness of mankind on the downward plunge without hope apart from Christ.
You know, in all our preaching of the gospel, we need to go back to the most serious of all preaching, which is not the telling of sad stories to play upon the emotions. But the greatest ministry we could give in the gospel, first of all, is to preach the ruin of man, totally depraved.
In the womb of his mother, conceived in sin, all of us started on the wrong road to hell itself and deserved to be there. If any of us have been saved, we can only say, it was grace that wrote my name in life's eternal book.
Grace of God amongst us. Man is ruined, totally. Nothing there. And when we read the ruin, then the remedy becomes precious to a human heart. A sinner that learns his ruin and is crying out, what must I do to be saved?
His eyes are turned to the remedy, Christ himself. The remedy is in this chapter, we're singing the gospel of thy grace. The first one to ever hear the gospel was the serpent himself. Imagine, beyond our conception, the marvel of the word of God.
The first note of the gospel in the ears of the deceiver himself, who would never know its joy and would hate it. When the gospel is preached, then cometh the devil and snatcheth away the seed of the word.
Why? He knows that that seed will produce life. And Satan hates and alters and changes, as we see here, the word of God. May we all preach the ruin and the remedy and man's responsibility, a free will agent.
And so this is the basic chapter that we're going to consider, the chapter of ruin. I divide it into two, very simply. The first is the Edenic fall. There's the garden. It was eastward in Eden, but it's the fall of man in Eden, the Edenic fall.
And then at the end, the Edenic promise. Oh, what a promise it is, the promise of a Savior, the seed of the woman, coming into humanity that he might bruise the head of the serpent finally forever, and we might be with him in the glory.
So we have the Edenic fall and the Edenic promise. Now to gather up the substance of the chapter simply, I'm going to give a very brief opening here, so there'll be time for conversation. I've divided it into four parts for study, and the first is, the first verse is, we have the subtle day of the serpent.
Four parties are introduced, or four people are introduced here. First of all, the personality of the devil in the guise of the serpent, using that subtle creature above all cattle that God had made, and we have the subtle day of Satan in the guise of the serpent, and the words that he speak, altering, adding to, changing the word of God.
And then we have the woman, the weaker vessel. The second phase of this chapter is the serpent and the woman. I've often written over these opening verses, two are company. That's a common saying, two is company, but three is not.
And while Adam and Eve walked together in the garden, she wasn't Eve, but while they walked together in the garden, man and woman, and their love to one another continued, likely over a period of time, we have no idea how long they were in the garden.
I'm sure they were in the garden quite a while before the serpent came. They enjoyed its pleasure, they walked together, and I've written over this, thou didst leave thy first love. She was away from her first love.
She had got backslidden from Adam, and she was alone in the serpent cave, three as a crowd in the garden. You know, that's a lesson we can all learn. We're subject to temptation when we leave our first love, turn away from Christ, and failing to enjoy his presence.
She was away from the serpent cave. We're going to look at the beguiling influence of the serpent upon the woman. The subtlety of the serpent, and then the seduction of the woman, and how she sinned against God.
And the sad thing about it was that the subtlety of the serpent was produced in one who had bowed to the serpent, and she seduced her husband. She came with the same guile of the serpent to her husband, and presented the food to him of that which had been refused by God.
The prohibition was around it. She came and seduced her husband, and he took it. He was not deceived, he understood what he was doing. But he had left his love for God, as she had left the first love of her husband, he had left his first devotion to the Lord God himself, turned away.
And we're going to study how the seriousness of sin entered through Adam. In Adam, all die. Adam, the head, the federal head of the race, has brought disaster into the human family. And here's how it happened.
In this solemn passage, it's a true record. Men are scoffing it. It's amazing how theologians are beginning to take the penknife to this chapter. We believe in the subtlety of Satan, the seduction of the woman, the seriousness of Adam's sin.
But then when we come to the end, we have Yahweh, Yahweh Jehovah, Jehovah Elohim. We're going to see how, that at the beginning, the serpent left out Elohim, left out Yahweh. The Lord God was in the garden, Lord God had made it, and then we read, Yea, hath God said.
I wrote over this years ago, James 2 and 19, The Devils Believe and Tremble. Satan acknowledges God, but he's the enemy of Yahweh. He's the enemy of Jehovah, the enemy of the Son. And so the woman followed in that and said, God hath said, not the Lord God.
She followed Satan, and the Lord God's title is left. Now when we come to the end, we have this wonderful promise. This touches my heart more than anything in the whole of the Old Testament. The promise of the promised seed, the bruising of the head, and in bruising the head, he was bruised himself, wounded for me on the cross.
Here's the first indication of the virgin birth and the vicarious atonement of the Savior. And we have here, and we'll be looking at it, the sorrows of the tree. Because all these sorrows that were coming upon Adam, we can see seven of them at least, that the Savior bore himself.
He bore the curse, the thorns, the tears himself when he went to the tree. And then at the end here, we have, as it were, mercy before us. The salvation of God in this promise, the end. Then we have a very beautiful thing here, I think.
He drove out the man who was unwilling to go, and placed at the east of the garden, cherubim. And wherever we get the cherubim is the thought of mercy. Cherubim, the wings spread over the mercy seat. I think the cherubim speaks of mercy, and the flaming sword speaks of judgment.
Mercy here at the garden gate, because one has approached that flaming sword. We were singing the other morning, the flaming sword, the flaming blade, his blood must slake that we might be saved. He approached the flaming sword.
Away goes sword against the shepherd. And so here we have judgment and mercy at the gate. May the Lord bless his word and help us as we go down these four sections and examine them together for his name's sake.
Brother Paisley, I've noticed in the creation of the animals of chapter one that they seem to be put into three categories. There is the cattle, the creeping thing, and the beasts of the earth after his kind.
Uh, is there some evidence here that seeing in verse 14 of our chapter, God says to the serpent that the serpent is cursed above all cattle, that it was not a creeping thing when it came first to Eve?
Yeah, I think it stood upright. Yeah, there are some people have tried to find out what serpent it is, classification of serpents, and there's only one serpent that has a backbone, the boa constrictor.
I remember Mr. Harry Bell teaching this, that it was the boa constrictor, that because on his belly thou shall go. And of course, even in the millennium, the visitors to Jerusalem will see the actual serpent on his belly never changed.
There's no change in the serpent. His belly thou shall go. Now, it's interesting that Satan uses a serpent because the serpent was more subtle, more crafty than a beast of the field. I think there are four ideas with Satan, the serpent, and then in 1 Peter 5, the lion.
And we have the angel of light in Corinthians 11, and we have the dragon. The dragon speaks of his cruelty, the subtlety of the serpent, and the fear that fills the heart with the lion, and the beguiling character of an angel of light, and then the cruelty of the dragon.
These are the descriptions, would you say? Yes, yes. These are the figures that are used of the serpent. This is an actual animal serpent that Satan used, and speaking through that serpent, beguiled Eve.
So he would have come down as a beauty, probably a beautiful creature. Oh, yes. In fact, that word subtlety bears in it the thought, as you've said, Mr. Paisley, of craftiness, but it was a craftiness that could deceive by beauty.
So it was a creature of beautiful color, and I don't know, this is very important to us, but we have been told by experts in this field that there are vestigial evidences of serpents having limbs. So it maybe walked and was a beautiful creature.
I think it walked upright. It appealed to Eve, even because of its beauty. That's part of the subtlety of it.
Yeah, the beauty of it. Would you see Satan here usurping man's authority? Man was given dominion over the animals. Satan now is using the serpent. Man was given the place of headship. Satan's going to move in now and talk to the woman from the standpoint of headship.
You know, suggesting what needs to be done.
Is there a parallel there? Oh, I believe that's exactly what it is here. She had got away from Adam. You know, I think I pointed that out, that it's leaving first love, and therefore she was open for the seduction of Satan.
It's the same as in Corinthians 11, where we read that if they get away from their first love, they're beguiled from Christ by the serpent is able to usurp a place. And it's interesting in that passage that the assembly at Corinth is spoken of as a chaste virgin, so you can see the parts that are being played.
Some people have difficulty with the animal speaking, the serpent speaking. We have other occasions, the donkey in Numbers, Balaam's ass, speak with a man's voice. And I think in Revelation 10, in all probability, it is an eagle.
The word is angel, but it's an eagle that actually speaks from the heavens and cries woo-woo-woo to the earth dwellers. So a bird is spoken, and a donkey is spoken, and a serpent is speaking. Satan is using it with beguiling words, likely colorful words as well.
His speech is colorful. And maybe there's something to learn in this about the true meaning of incarnation. I'm looking at it from a positive side. You see, Satan could not incarnate himself as a serpent.
He can enter into the serpent and speak through it. He'll do that with the man of sin in the coming day, or the first beast of Revelation 13. So we need to understand this. Satan cannot incarnate himself.
Incarnation is one tremendous miracle that is beyond our comprehension. The Lord Jesus just didn't come into a body. Because Satan comes into bodies. He did it with Judas. But the Lord Jesus actually became man, as we sang in your hymn.
So there's something to learn, even on the negative side of the positive truth, that incarnation is not taking a body. Incarnation is taking humanity. Yes. Even Satan can use our lips as believers. Did Peter, didn't he?
That's what I'm thinking about. Does he get behind me, Satan? It's solemn that he can't indwell a believer, but he could use us. You know, Satan's words were put into the mind of a man. But here, it's the actual words of Satan himself speaking through the serpent.
Just a whole other kind of point. That's good. I was just going to say that where you have it brought in here, where you have the serpent introduced, is it not interesting that it's in the background of what God has set up in chapter 2?
What was lovely, what was beautiful, what was for his glory. And you always get that principle running right through. What God sets up for his glory, there's always going to be an attack. And I thought this is where you have the serpent introduced to attack what God had set up in the garden.
I've always thought that there's a great link between the first three chapters of Genesis and the last three chapters of the Revelation. And one of the things in the last three chapters is altering the word of God.
Add not to the word, take not away from the word of God. And this is the tactics of Satan in Genesis 3, are the same tactics that he has used in deception all down the age. And that is, hath God said.
Is the Bible true? The questioning of the absolute veracity of God. And I noticed, as I pointed out, that it's not Lord God here. He leaves out Yahweh. The devil believed, devils believe and tremble. They believe there's a God, but they deny the Jehovah character of God.
And they had no right to use it anyway. No right to use it. Couldn't use it.
Couldn't own Lordship. That's really the first question of the Bible. Sometimes we say the first question is where are we? But that's really the first question. Unfortunately, it's Satan's questioning.
And another sad thing is that apart from headship, they both had dominion. Pro-dominion over that serpent. They both were given dominion. Both of them. Isn't that correct? And the sad thing is that we have the power to resist evil.
Right? Right. But if we succumb and alter that word of God, or don't pay attention to it, then we're defeated as well.
When Adam fell from his position of headship, there seems powerful evidence in the Bible that Satan actually took over that position. It's interesting to me, and I'm not sure the full import of it, but the Lord Jesus calls him the prince of this earth, as well as the God of this age.
I understand the God of this age better than I do the prince of this earth. But I've often noticed this, and I'm sure Christians have noticed this many times. We know more about Satan by his names and titles than anything else.
He's the enemy. He's the adversary. He's the deceiver. He's the accuser. He's the father of lies. You know, he's the God of this age. All those, he's that old serpent, the devil and Satan. That final exposure of him in Revelation chapter 12, that's quite amazing.
That old serpent, the devil and Satan who deceiveth the whole world. The word there is ancient. Yeah. The ancient serpent. The ancient serpent, yes. Goes back to his very beginning in subtlety.
Would it be right then, the only place you can go and identify this serpent is to that mention in the book of the Revelation? Right? I'm questioning that now. In my mind, as I go through the Bible, I think that you would come to the book of the Revelation and you would identify the serpent.
It's the revelation of the serpent as well as the revelation of Christ.
It's identifying what we got here. And our brother Paisley has been pointing out, don't add, don't take away in that last chapter of the book of the Revelation, and don't seal it. Well, right there again in that chapter 12, he's identified as to who he is here, lest we make any mistake.
No, it's a real serpent here, and Satan has taken control.
So the doubt was sowed in the mind of the woman. And he said, half God said, you shall not eat of all the trees of the garden. Adding to the word of God. And the woman said, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it.
She added two. Yes. Add not to his words, lest they reprove thee. I like that very much, what you said, Mr. Paisley, about the revelation closing where Genesis begins. I think it has been traced a number of times that there are about 21 of those circles, and the circle is eternal.
So the circle begins here, but it never ends, because in Revelation, you have the completion of the circle. And that's quite amazing that the word of God should be so perfect, and we find a true ending to all that began.
Good. We have that concerning Christ, but as you say, we have it here concerning Satan. Well, there are many, many things that in the last three chapters you can bring here. Yes. If you have time to do it.
Could you say that Satan here distorts the word of God, as you've said already? He distorts the will of God, he shall not surely die, and he distorts the wisdom of God when he says here, God doth know that the day, you know, he's just refuting, taking away from all of that, and that's what he does today.
And you can see he even attacks the goodness of God. He attacks God's character. He makes out to Eve that God is trying to keep something from her that is for her good, and Satan is working just like that still.
But what you're saying is true, that he didn't immediately say the word of the Lord is not true, and he doesn't say today right off the Bible is not true. He sows doubt, and he has been so successful in that, and then steps on and on and on into an absolute rejection of God's word.
We need to assert among the Lord's people and the young man too, all of us, that all scripture is God breathed. All scripture. No mistakes in the Bible. There are difficulties, some we cannot reconcile, but we accept it all as it is.
Everything in the Bible is, in the original documents, divinely given, and the statements of man are preserved. We may not agree with all the statements in the Bible, but they're preserved. Even lies are rightly preserved.
Yes, God doesn't approve of the lies, but it is inspired, the record of them. The record is inspired. We must always believe in that plenary divine verbal inspiration. Otherwise we have nothing to build on.
So that one would be careful of some of the versions. I trust the revised version, not wholly, but it has been a help. But there are some versions today, if you went in a Bible shop there, it's very dangerous to begin to tamper with the original documents.
Will you allow me to say this, brother, that the new international version can be deceptive for this reason. If you read the forward to it, what these men attempted to do, at times they give what is called translation, which would be the closest language to the original language as is possible to give in English.
That's translation. But they also do something else. They do what is called dynamic equivalence. Dynamic equivalence means that they understand the meaning. They even understand the depth of the meaning, and they're going to give you the full meaning in dynamic equivalence.
You know what that does? That cuts off the meaning of the word of God at the level of their understanding. And if they were going to do that, if they should have made it crystal clear in the text, what was translation and what was dynamic equivalence?
That is not, let me say this, and I'm saying it very bluntly, and I'm not saying it off the top of my head. That is not a good version for Bible study. Whereas some of the translations that are available are literal, and where you have a literal translation, word for word has been brought from the one language into the other.
It's a different thing. Mr. Darby is a literal translation. And an excellent one. And an excellent one. But for the preaching of the gospel and our ordinary ministry among the Lord's people, it's good in a Bible reading to see a difference in a verse and meaning of a word.
But all these versions, a brother said to me, why do you prefer the King James version? Because it lends itself to gospel preaching. John 3 and 16 and some of these versions is not the sweet John 3 .16 that I preach.
When I'm along with men and they start preaching that, I tell them, I said, please don't do that when I'm here. Preach the word. You know, there's a sweetness about the King James version that isn't in any of the versions, even the Revised version.
No, and it also lends itself to memorization. Memorization. Always the good, the King James version. Plenary verbal inspiration is an expression that has been used several times. I think we all know that the plenary means all verbal means words.
I recently went through the Bible to find how many times God speaks about the words, not word. This is the word in its entirety, but words. The words of the Bible came from God. Listen to the Lord Jesus in Matthew four, the words that proceed out of the mouth of God.
So what we have in our Bible are in the original, in the original autograph, what we have are actually the words of God. And we're saying this, and I think all these brethren here will agree that you can read the King James version with absolute confidence.
There are places, but we know where they are and what they are. But we can read it with confidence. We are reading the word of God in our own mother tongue. Words were by him. Yeah, yes. And just on that matter, before you leave it, as we know, but maybe not everybody understands that in the epistles of the Galatians, Paul shows the difference between seeds and seed, which shows that down to the very letter of a word was divinely inspired.
If the S was not there, the whole sense is different. That's right.
The Lord said of a letter that you got in the middle of a very T and crossing the T and a dot around the dot. So he's careful. I was thinking of the, in comparison to this deception, the second man, the last man, he used the word of God.
It is written. It is written. He used it exactly. He didn't take away from it. In his temptation. That's, that's what I'm saying. So that in his temptation, Satan fled from him.
Which is similar in character to this temptation. Exactly. The, his temptation is similar in character. The only thing is he could not sin. But isn't it wonderful that he, he gave to us the tremendous pattern as to how to defeat the lies of the devil.
He appealed to the authority of the word of God. He could have used his own authority of this, but he wanted to give us the great example of how Satan can be defeated. It's the word of God. See, some people say it couldn't be a temptation to him, but the words in Hebrews 3, 17, I think I'm right. Says he suffered being tempted.
So that temptation of the Lord Jesus and the wilderness was a suffering through which he passed. His holy soul shrank from. We don't, we don't very often suffer from temptation because we've got something in us that delights in it.
But you see with him, with his holy nature, it would be like suggesting to a moral mother, a mother of little babies. It'd be like suggesting to the mother that she'd kill her baby. What, what, what suffering that would give to that mother's heart.
If you suggested such a thing, well, the Lord Jesus was absolutely holy. And so when he was tempted, the very lies of Satan were so contrary to his nature that he suffered from the very lies that Satan told.
And of course, in the epistle of the Hebrews, we read, he was tempted in all points, like we are, sin apart. That's the literal. Now, the only other time it's used in the epistle, he shall appear the second time without sin unto shall sin apart.
The next day he came the first time to deal with sin. The next time he comes, it'll have nothing to do with sin. So his temptation had nothing to do with sin. Now, would you brethren say that in this temptation, we have what is in 1st John 2, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life?
Yes, definitely. Would you be satisfied with that? And in his temptation, it was the same, wasn't it? It was. He is presented with all the kingdoms of the earth. And as a hungry man, he's presented with bread.
And he's presented with the public exposure by casting himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. So could you show us in the verse where those three are? Yes. Would you agree that the tree was good for food?
That's the lust of the flesh. Yes. And it was pleasant to the eyes. There's the lust of the eye. And it was a tree to be desired. There's the pride of life. You shall be as God. And you shall be as God.
You'll be as God really was. You'll be like unto God himself, if you take it. So we have the three things.
Mr. Paisley, would you see body, soul, and spirit? Yes. I do. All right. Lust of the flesh, that's the first part of man. And then the lust of the eye, the window to the soul, that's me. And then the pride of life or intelligence, that caters to my spirit, human spirit.
The temptation of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels, there's no temptation in John, is that right? That's right. But in Matthew, it's the sovereign being tempted. And in Mark 1, it's the servant. And in Luke, it's the man.
And the temptation here resulted in the fall of the sovereign. It resulted in the casting away of the service that he was entrusted with. He lost his service. And a man has sinned, bringing sin into the world.
So I think those three Gospels and the corresponding temptation, how Christ, the sovereign has prevailed, he's able to reign. But Adam loses his sovereignty. Would you also say, as far as the Matthew one is concerned, Israel had been in the wilderness, he was in the wilderness.
And Israel was tempted in the wilderness, he was tempted in the wilderness. So the king is going to pass through the experiences of the nation for which he's going to lead as the Messiah. That's the idea.
That's the whole idea. But the sovereign is there the same as in the garden. Oh yes, as the sovereign. But it's not a garden he's suffering in, but it's a desert. Surrounded by wild beasts. There's no wild beasts in the garden up to this point.
There's a teaching today, I want to ask you what you think of it. I don't. Anyway, it is that Adam saw his wife had eaten of the tree and had fallen. And in love to her, knowing well what he was doing, it was a sacrifice on his part to partake of the fruit so he wouldn't be separated from his wife.
They're making Adam out to be like a savior. I don't think he was there when it happened, really. I think he wasn't present when Eve sinned. Well, that's very likely, but then she gave him, it doesn't seem to be any resistance on his part, whatever.
She gave to him the fruit and he did eat it, the cloves there of verse 6. She acted as Satan had with her. Yeah, but he was not deceived, was he? He was not deceived. He knew it would be too good that the consequences were severe.
I just don't like the idea, I know you're not saying that, but I don't like the idea of saying that it was kind of an unselfish sacrifice on Adam's part. It was rebellion. Let's not make any mistake about it.
It was rebellion against God and his word. Well, her eyes were blinded to the fact of the judgment that would befall her.
Well, Romans 5 says, by one act of disobedience. I mean, when his act of disobedience affected all mankind, but it was his act. So when it comes to affecting mankind, his act is the federal head. Now, where you read in Timothy, is that all right to bring that in a bit?
The difference there is very simple. Eve's act affected womankind, and that's the context there. So it affected womankind in charlotte bearing and so on. But when Adam sinned in his act of disobedience, it passed upon all that sentence of death.
So it was an act of disobedience.
It wasn't a hero's act. No, no. And Adam is actually legally charged with that transgression. Yes. In the Roman epistle. He's legally charged with the transgression. He had to be driven out. That's right.
Mr. Paisley, would it be right to use James 1 and 14 in connection with Eve? Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed, and then sin when it is finished. Lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
The pattern of sinning never changes. Satan's tactics are headline tactics here, which are observed through every temptation in the Bible. Akin, the very same thing. Same thing. Now, verse 7 must move on.
The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Now, it's been said that these aprons were to present themselves to God, but I rather think that these aprons were to cover their nakedness, which hitherto had not affected them.
Here we have self-consciousness, and the knowledge of the difference in the sex is really coming to their mind. And so they covered themselves so that they would be acceptable one to another, rather than to God, in this passage.
It was suggested yesterday that they were clothed in light. Yes, that's right. That light would be gone now, wouldn't it? Yes. So they see themselves now in a way that they're ashamed.
This is the awakening of conscience, you see. The conscience now awakens, as we see in the case of Adam and his judgment. But conscience awakened them to see that it was not becoming for them to be in one another's company in that way.
And this is a principle now that we could observe in the day of immorality that we live in, that God requires us to be properly covered and dressed properly. And the thing that impresses me very much about their shame, the word shame is not used here, but there obviously was shame.
Adam was ashamed. What about today? What about sin today? Are people ashamed? They boast of it. They're proud of it. They think it's wonderful exploits. See, what's the difference? Man was depraved in his fall.
How much worse now? Yes, that's it. And it isn't. The idea of him walking is slow to judge, but quick to see. Good. The father running to meet the prodigal. But here he's walking because he's slow to anger and of great mercy.
And the wind of the day, I think the wind always speaks of the spirit of God anywhere in the scriptures. In these opening verses, you have the spirit moving, and you have a river of water, and you have various pictures of the Holy Spirit in these opening verses of Genesis.
What way, could I ask the question here, what way did Adam understand that walking? He came down to walk with Adam in the cool of the day. In what sense? Like no man has seen God at any time. What way would you give us a little help?
Well, I'm not a man that believes in theophany. You know that, don't you? Maybe you don't. No, I don't. But no, I don't believe the Lord was ever in a body here as an angel until he came into the world.
Otherwise, if he came in angelic form, then the incarnation loses its mystery. But many think it was a theophany. But the way I look at it was that day by day, they went likely to the garden eastward in the garden to hold sweet communion with God.
They enjoyed communion with God, and his voice was pleasing to them. But now they heard his voice in the cool of the day, and sin has raised this barrier, and they're afraid, and they hide themselves from the presence of Yahweh Jehovah, Yahweh Elohim, amongst the trees of the garden.
They hide from the voice. Their conscience is awakened. Sin has caused a fear of meeting God. And you know, in every man's heart, even the most ungodly man, there's that fear of meeting God and his conscience.
I've met men that didn't believe there was anything, but when it drew near the end, they wanted to speak about destiny. One of my neighbors the other day spoke to me, and he said, I'm taking my chance.
I said, well, what if you find at the end that you've made a mistake, and that God is to be met? And it made them swallow three times and look heavenward. You know, when people are face to face with the reality of sin and judgment, the fear of God is in every man's heart.
When you believe. Oh, definitely. Connection with the point Brother Hull raised, too. Yes. Remember Moses. He said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he was hidden in the rock. And all the attributes of God passed by.
He saw his goodness, his mercy, his peace, his soul. And God is revealed in his attributes. Now, there could be something of that in the garden. Yes, that's part of the wind. You see, the wind, the wind blows where it misses.
There's the work of the Spirit of God in John 3. And here's a word that's the same. The cool is the wind. The voice is heard. And we didn't mention anything about the apron. But would this be the very first attempt at religion?
And is not all religion an attempt to hide from God? I think when the fig is used, it would suggest that. Yeah. Fig leaves. Yeah. You know. But I think the first idea of them having those aprons was to, they were ashamed.
Yeah. Conscience had awakened. They obviously, as our brother Frank has said, they were obviously no covering from God, whatever, because God describes them still as being naked, even with the apron. So it didn't cover them.
And the Lord God called and said, Where art thou? The first question from God to man called unto the man, not to Eve, called to the man and said, Where art thou? God seeking man. But in Matthew 2 is, Where is he?
As born King of the Jews. Different thing altogether in the New Testament, isn't it? It is. And isn't it true that God knew where he was, but he wanted Adam to know where he was? That's it. That's why we preach.
Yes. The first thing when we preach are the ruinous to get men to understand where they stand. Exactly. In light of eternity. Yeah. You see, man must know he's lost and away from God's position. Vital things in the preaching of the gospel.
I tell young men, preach the word, preach the ruin, the remedy, God's salvation. They will say, How are you successful in this place? And so few people saved that have lived to prove it, which really matters.
A profession is of little appeal, but genuine people that will live for God and be a testimony in their day. Ruin and remedy. Would you agree with that? Absolutely. Yes. You've heard me preach a long time.
Ruin and remedy. It's interesting here. It's just that I'm on there long ago, too. Ruin and remedy. Isn't that right, brother?
It's interesting here. The result is fear, isn't it? Yes. There was no fear prior to this. No. No fear, no shame. No attempt to hide. All that came in with sin. You are correlating this with the end of the revelation.
And I've enjoyed the fact that the first recorded words of Adam was, I was afraid. The last recorded words of man is, even so come Lord Jesus. And what makes the difference? The cross is between good.
Is John 3 a commentary on this? He that practices evil hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be detected, reproved or detected. And so Adam heard the voice, but he was afraid.
There's a thought in the question here, Mr. Paisley. It's the thought God's seeking man while he wants him to come out in confession of his sin and nakedness and disobedience. Yet behind that first question is a heart that yearns for him.
Absolutely. So you get it in the New Testament, the son of man has come to seek. I believe that with all my heart that he was seeking them, that they might be brought out into the open, confess their sin and have it dealt with and get to know God in a new way.
That is, we can't miss that. God is the seeker here.
That's a good verse there. And the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost, that everything that was lost by Adam himself and everything and bring it all back. So without the Lord Jesus, nothing would come back.
There is in human nature something so akin to what we have here, though. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. And in a sense, Adam blamed God, didn't he? The woman which thou gavest unto me, he doesn't say my Eve.
He said the woman thou gavest unto me. So are we somebody else to blame? Well, this is the trial. What we're looking at now is the trial, because the time is going on. The conscience is awakened. He was afraid and he hid himself and a woman with him.
And then the Lord asked the question, the trial has come. Who told thee that thou wast naked? And before he answered, he said, hast thou eaten of the tree? Whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat.
And the man said, the woman. He passed the blame to another. And the Lord said to the woman, what is this that thou hast done? And she said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. And the Lord asked, they said to the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and so on.
And here the serpent doesn't answer. That's the point I want to make here. Adam had an excuse and the woman had an excuse, but the serpent did not have any excuse. You notice that? Because he's reprobating.
He's reprobating. You see, that was the idea. There's no hope for him at any time. And then we have this beautiful verse 15. Probably the greatest promise in all the Bible concerning the coming of the Redeemer.
I put enmity between thee and the woman. And we know that that enmity, the seeds, the enmity between the seeds, on one occasion it was reduced to one. Little boy, wasn't it? That Jehoshipa took and hid in there.
There was only one left. That was a low ebb, wasn't it? The seed was reduced to one. The days of Athali, you see, you've got a lot of that running through the scriptures. Yeah, and when she, when the finally was brought out, we have the voice of joy, God saved the king.
And that's the only place in the Bible where we have the expression, the Lord's people. Interesting, that. The Lord's people. The seed was preserved and the Lord's people rejoiced. And we often speak of the Lord's people, but it's not a New Testament statement.
It's the statement when the seed was at its lowest ebb, that it was the Lord's people rejoiced. And so the seed of the woman was preserved. It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. A wounded savior, but the head being wounded is final.
Not that God shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. Romans, yes. Now, why the difference there? Is it the fact that in that coming day, the sense in association with Christ, well, of course, only he could do it at the cross, but it's being seen in its outcome in the final outcome.
Shared by us to see him bruise. That's it. Yes. And as you have suggested, brother, we need to see beyond this, the head of Satan bruised. We need to see beyond the head of a snake. Yes. This is actually Satan who has usurped the headship that rightly belonged to man.
And the Lord Jesus is going to crush that headship. It's called Satan, not the serpent, the bruising. Yes, the bruising. And of course, the word bruise, really, you know, this is so solemn. Men bruised the Lord Jesus.
And the word bruise is one of the strongest words in the Hebrew language to describe suffering. So not only did men bruise him, but Satan bruised him. But wonder of wonders, Isaiah 53, pleased the Lord to bruise him.
What would you make the bruising of the heel, brother Paisley?
Well, the sufferings of Christ are in the bruising of the heel. He was bruised, but not, he was bruised in victory. But this final bruising of the head is the final triumph, triumph of Christ.
Would you see, would you see in that, that Satan really, and for want of a better word, I know I'm not going to use dog this foot, but moved always after him in every place he went. Lying in wait for us.
Yeah, that's that. Yeah, I'm getting that line. So there along the whole pathway of the stage, he left him for a season after the temptation, just for a season. Then he came again and finally comes in Judas.
So it's a constant. The whole pathway of the Lord was under constant attack. Yeah, that's it.
That's it, right. That's actually when he withdrew from him for a season. The proper rendering of that is for an opportunity. Yeah, that's looking for an opportunity. Mr. Paisley, is this referring, just help me in this, is this bruising and this crushing, is this referring to Calvary exclusively or do you?
Oh no, it refers to the whole enmity between Satan and Christ all down the age until the final bruising comes of that head. Then Hebrews 2. For now, he's received a deadly wound according to Romans 6.
Yes, and Hebrews 2. And Hebrews 2. But the final thing is in Romans where we have the bruising of him forever. Is that what Romans 16 is then, Mr. Paisley? Yes. That's the final aspect of this bruising.
Final aspect. I believe Satan shall be bruised onto your feet shortly. Now, it's interesting that while the trial took place with Adam and Eve and the serpent, that the judgment passes on the serpent first and then on the woman.
But in the woman, there is the thought of bringing forth the child, isn't it? There's a hope in it. Thy seed and her seed. Thy seed and her seed. And so her sorrows will be greatly multiplied in her conception, and thou shalt bring forth children.
There is the idea of the birth of Christ in this chapter. That's why I would see at least something of that in 1 Timothy 2. Yes. You know, I'm not saying that she shall be saved in burying the Christ child.
No. I'm not saying that. But I do believe that the woman was to be the channel through which her seed coming into the world would correct all that Adam's sin had wronged. I wouldn't be against that. No.
But I think that really it's if she keeps her place that's in the context. If she keeps her place owning the headship of the man, she shall be saved through childbearing. That is through the ordinary.
The sphere of childbearing. The sphere of it. Do you think it's the sphere of childbearing? What do you suggest about the childbearing? I'd be happy about that too. I wouldn't be as happy. I wouldn't say it's the main.
I like my own idea better because it's the context. Well, I personally believe that what you said in your introduction is the interpretation of that Timothy 5. I know we're not here to discuss 1 Timothy, but I believe that it is.
It's in the sphere and it links to the statements in chapter 5, if she had four children and so on. Well, we have to respect our brother's thoughts too.
Eve understood that. Now, I'm not going to say anything, but in the next chapter that Mr. Baker has, Eve understood what this was. When she got Cain, isn't that true?
And I think maybe we underrate the particular role that Mary was chosen. I think we have a tendency to go to the other extreme. And certainly it was a wonderful saying that through this woman, a man was first brought into transgression, but through a woman, redemption by God.
The desire of every godly woman. I have linked Daniel 11 with that. That the desire of women was to be the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes. And I think as our brother Frankie T has pointed out there, that you can see that desire.
The very first expression of it is in the next chapter. That's right. You're looking at it. Now, we must look at the things that befell Adam. And thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground, in sorrow thou shalt eat of it.
Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth in the sweat of thy face. Verse 19, until thou return to the dust. And then the flaming sword turning every way to keep the way and been driven out. You know, those seven things there, I link those with the Lord Jesus.
The last Adam, cursed. He bore the curse, Galatians 3 tells us. Cursed is everyone that hangeth on the tree. In sorrow, we are reminded today, was the man of sorrows. Thorns. Brother Crawford reminds us of the cruelty of the thorns placed upon him.
In the sweat of thy face would remind us of the garden and the dust. Our brother read Psalm 22. Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. And then we have the driven out. He was driven out, but the Lord was led out.
Led out. And the flaming sword would remind us of that flaming sword of Jehovah in the hand of God. To smite the sun. So, I see here in the curse that Adam has indicted upon himself, is borne by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Glimpses of Calvary. It often amazes me that Roman soldiers chose thorns out of which to wreath a crown and put on his head. Had they any understanding of the significance of thorns at all? I wouldn't think so.
But there were three ways in which the curse is seen at the cross. The thorns on his head. The cross on which he hung. And the amazing statement of Deuteronomy, chapter 21, is it? The amazing statement is, he that is hanged is accursed of God.
So, the cross itself. And then, of course, the darkness and the fact that Galatians 3 tells us. Accursed of everyone. Now, by Galatians 3, I'm thinking of the curse of the law. Yes. He was made, he became a curse.
Not he was made, he became a curse. And because of the curse of the broken law. So, there's three ways. The sweat in the Bible is mentioned very little. The sweat of thy face. Thou shalt eat bread. But the sweating in the garden is there.
But it was, it's linked with, as you're saying, it's linked with the curse. And even the priest, you see, the. Sweat rag. That's right. Yeah. Sweat rag of a priest. So, you've read your Bible a little, brother.
We've read a little. Mr. Paisley, is, if, can I move just a little bit now? I'd like to ask. Is Adam calling his wife's name Eve? A statement of faith? It's a statement of faith. If I were asked, when did Adam trust the Lord?
You see, in Hebrews 11, all the worthies of faith are mentioned. But Adam is not mentioned. And that begins with Abel.
Isn't that right? Did you see that? Why is that, brother, do you think? You're asking me? I'm asking my brother that asked me the question.
But I think that the reason he's not there is that he walked by sight. And not by faith. He walked by sight. Is that right, brother? Would you think? Yes. And the thing is, in verse 20, as I think our brother Art is suggesting, that when he called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living, that he was by faith resting on the promise that had been made that she would be the mother.
Yeah. He was the father of all the women. He was the father of all that sinned, but she was the mother of all that believed. That would live, yes. Would live, isn't it? So that Eve means the mother of the living.
And I think that he has accepted the promise of the coming Redeemer. And he called his wife the living one, life, because she was the mother of the living one, the one that would yet come. And unto Adam, also, and his wife, did he make coats of skins and clothed them.
Now, I would believe in my mind that it was a lamb that died. So in the next chapter, I'm taking that from your context. That's why I'm using that. I know. Evil. Well, is it true then, don't we see here that the first sacrifice that was ever made for sin was made by God?
Yeah. And the last one was by God. He provided the sacrifice. He provided. And it was likely that it was one animal with two coats. Yes. I think I like that as the type better, you know, one animal for the two coats.
There's enough skin on it to make two coats. And it was the first death. That's good. It was the first death that ever was ever was enacted. Regarding thorns, brother, there's no scripture in the Old Testament about thorns to be on the brow of Christ.
Now, all the other things, the smiting, the spitting, the cheeks given to the smiters, the back scourge, we never read of thorns on his brow. But here's the first mention of thorn. Ring to the cast. Ring to the curse.
But in Genesis 22, without reading anything into it, he lifted up his eyes and he saw a ram caught in a thorny thistle, in a bush, a thorn bush. And it was caught by the horns. I believe that when he took that ram out of the thicket, the thorns were on his head.
Don't tell me. Nobody would change my mind on that. It would spoil my enjoyment. We're not going to try. I like it. So it must be true. I heard you say it a long time ago. You still believe in me. Thank you.
Now, here we have this. I like this 22. Here we have mercy. You know, it's a scene of severe judgment here in verse 22. The man has become as one of us. And we were reminded yesterday by our brother, the God speaking to the other persons of the Godhead.
This is one of the times he did. The man has become as one of us. How sad that must have been in the eyes of God to know good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand and take the tree of life and eat and live forever was the mercy.
When we look at them going out of the garden, we say, oh, what judgment that was to be placed outside the door. But it was really a merciful thing. That's a nice point, isn't it? Another point. Oh, it's very important.
If he had remained in the garden and eaten that, he would have lived in sin forever. That's right. Never had been delivered. So he drove him out in mercy. And that's why I said about the cherry of them being there, because the cherry of them through the scriptures, as some of you have studied the cherry of them, you always find it's associated with mercy.
The cherry of them that overshadowed the mercy seed. The cherry of them is mercy. And would you also say it's also linked to the guardianship of the holiness of God? That's right. After all, Satan himself was the anointed cherub.
He was the one who was nearest to the throne of God. That's the whole. He was above it. Above it. You know, when he was cast down. He was cast down from that lofty place. One of the things that will give us great interest when we arrive in the glory.
When I tell you this, we'll all be expecting it. And that is that we'll see four cherubim around the throne. I believe those four living creatures are cherubim around the throne. But the anointed cherub that covered, that was over the throne is not there.
Satan was the highest of the cherubim, so he was over the throne. But he's down. He's cast out of heaven in another place by that. That is it, you see. And so it would be amazing grace to think that we who deserve worse than him.
Of that nearness. That nearness, that we're near there. Do you see a difference then, Brother Paisley, between the cherubim and the flaming sword? The natural conclusion that we came to years ago was that the cherubim was wielding the sword, but it doesn't say that.
No. The sword turned every way of itself. Like a propeller. So actually, I could see the thought of the cherubim being the evidence of God's mercy. And I'm looking at it in mercy in this way, to keep him from living in a state of ruin forever.
That's the mercy. The cherubim guarded the weight of the tree of life, lest he live forever in that ruined, fallen state. But the flaming sword itself, is that not justice? Yeah, that's the holy character of God.
I wonder if when they brought... Later, I'm jumping into your chapter, Brother, forgive me, but was that then the place? Oh, I think so, yes.
We'll be able to discuss that. Is there an association there with the Shekinah? Yeah, I think so. The flaming?
Yeah. Yeah. They brought the... We'll hear in the next chapter where they brought the sacrifice was to this spot, wasn't it? Exactly, that's the whole point. That's the point of it. It is. It's introducing us to your part.
There's a time, there's a place there, you see. Well, we appreciate very much the holy scriptures of truth.