Temptation In The Garden
Download MP3I'm gonna read from Genesis 3:1 through 7. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say to you, shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, serpent, midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.
Speaker 1:So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Speaker 2:This comes from Romans 5 7 3 through 19. For if by the trespass of 1 the one man, death reigned through that one man, How much more were those who received God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many who were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous. This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Thanks be to God. If you would pray with me. Lord, we are here to recognize that you are the author of light life, that when you speak, your word goes forth and accomplishes its purpose. None of us here have that power, but you do. Lord, I cannot speak anything into existence.
Joel Brooks:I cannot change hearts. My words are death. And we need life. So, God, I pray that my words now would fall to the ground and would blow away. But Lord, let your words remain, and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:May they breathe life into us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Yesterday, I was at the Davila News house for Christian Davila News birthday. I was there with my whole family, and my 2 year old Georgia, just heard her say, I not date till 30.
Joel Brooks:I not date till 30. Seriously, she said that. I'm not sure why exactly she said that. I did see Christian was nearby, and I'm not sure if Christian was asking her out or or what was going on. But she said that, to which my response was, maybe.
Joel Brooks:If daddy approves, we'll see at 30. As parents, we try to keep evil away from our kids. Every parent feels like their child is God's precious little angel. You know, that that they are perfect, and the whole world out there is full of all these evil people trying to corrupt your precious little angel. When it comes to our own children, most parents agree with the philosopher John Locke, who suggested that people are born with no tendencies at all.
Joel Brooks:That they're born innocent. That their minds are blank slates, just waiting to have information written on them. This is why new parents are always shocked, absolutely shocked when they have their first play date with with other kids, and they they see their child interacting with another child for the first time. And and and their child might pick up a wooden block and just absolutely clock the other kid across the head, to which the other kid will retaliate. And and his parents are just you can't believe what's going on.
Joel Brooks:And you separate the kids, and as you look in their eyes, you realize the only thing that keeps them from killing one another is strength. It is not will. Because they have the will, they have the anger. And you're shocked. And so you you start trying to explain this.
Joel Brooks:You know what? The trouble is, my child has bad influences in their life. And so you start trying to make a list of other kids that they can't be around because other children are bad influences on your children. I don't know if you've noticed, but any parent who has a really rebellious child, they always say, he's just with the wrong crowd. He's just with the wrong crowd.
Joel Brooks:It never crosses their mind that he might be the wrong crowd. That that he might actually be the bad influence. It it's always somebody else. Their child is innocent. It's other people forcing their child to do those things.
Joel Brooks:And so as a parent, you you think for a while, you're like, you know what? I'm just gonna lock my kid up in the room, maybe lock them in the closet until they're 20. That way, they'll be normal. That way, they won't be influenced by sin. There's a lot of problems with that.
Joel Brooks:Don't don't leave doing that. The problem with all of that, is that your child doesn't have to learn from others to be selfish. They don't have to learn the word mine. No. They they come instinctively to a child.
Joel Brooks:They are they are in the children. It does not matter if you were raised in a palace, isolated from people, only had the best tutors. You still are selfish. It it doesn't matter if you were raised, on the mission field, you know, and your parents were the godliest people in the world and you're raised in this simple hut. You, you are still going to be selfish.
Joel Brooks:Everyone has that in them. AW Pink rightly says that there is no empire, no nation, no family tree that is free from this awful disease. And sin is universal because we all share a common ancestor. In Adam, we just read about in Adam, all of us die. So the biblical record of what we call the fall of man is found here in Genesis chapter 3.
Joel Brooks:And it explains, it alone explains why we are the way we are. It's not because of other people, it's not because of other influences, it's because we're born this way. We are fallen individuals. There is original sin in our lives. Some of you might remember, that I preached on the fall and original sin about a year and a half ago.
Joel Brooks:I'm sure you all remember every word of that. And so I decided whether I was gonna preach on this again or not, and I decided to go ahead and do it. And, and this time, it would take 2 weeks, and and to really unpack it. So for the next 2 weeks, we're going to look at Genesis 3, and the fall, and the next week, the implications of this fall. The reason I wanna take a couple of weeks is because it is crucial to understand the nature of the fall, to understand your sin nature, because if you don't understand your problem, you're gonna go to different things to find a solution.
Joel Brooks:If you don't under understand original sin, you are going to make the mistake when you look at the world and think, what's wrong with this world is we need better government, or we need more money, or we need better educators, or we need a better justice system. And and you're gonna be thinking of all these things of what's wrong with the world, and you're gonna look for something else to fix it, other than what's really needed, which is Jesus Christ. The reality is, all of these systems, educational systems, government systems, they're all broken, and they're not the cause of evil, but they're the result of evil. Evil that is within us. Now, I'm sure when the Israelites heard this for the first time, it's probably shocked them a little bit.
Joel Brooks:Remember, Genesis is written to those Israelites who were wandering around in the desert. You know, they've just escaped from Egypt. Moses is writing Genesis for them, and they have only known a world of evil, suffering. Certainly, they're looking around going, what and what is wrong with this world? And they're they're they're wanting to point fingers, and God tells them through Moses, no no.
Joel Brooks:This is what's wrong with the world. And so they have to turn and point the fingers at themselves. We're fallen. We're sinful. I mean the problem is man has sinned against his creator.
Joel Brooks:And and when Adam and Eve sinned, and when they fell, we fell with them. Adam and Eve, they could not blame their bad parents. They could not blame bad influences. They couldn't blame, hey, we were it was a harsh environment. Hey, we came from a broken home.
Joel Brooks:Adam and Eve couldn't blame any of that. They were in paradise and yet they still fell. And they pass that down to us like one would pass a bad gene that we've all inherited. Before we we get into the details of the fall, we need to look at what builds up to it. So go back to chapter 2, and look at verse 15.
Joel Brooks:The lord god took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the lord god commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. So god places Adam in the midst of this beautiful garden. And once Eve is given to him, he has everything he needs.
Joel Brooks:Everything's provided for him. He has meaningful work. He has adventures, an an entire world to explore. He's got fellowship with God, perfect fellowship with his spouse. He's got this bounty of pleasures and and fruits before him.
Joel Brooks:He has everything. They have everything. And God gives them one restriction. They are not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when they eat of that tree, they shall surely die. Which which begs a question, what why in the world did God plant a tree like this in the middle of the garden?
Joel Brooks:I mean, if the tree is dangerous, if the tree is poisonous or something like that, why why did he plant it there? It's it's like, you know, we have a garden in our backyard. It's like me planting poison ivy in the backyard, along with our tomatoes and stuff. But but the poison ivy would really look like candy. It would look really enticing, and for me to tell my children, don't get near that, don't touch that.
Joel Brooks:I mean, you have here god putting this tree in the middle of the garden, and there's no ropes around it, there's no fence around it. The only thing is his word. Don't eat it. Which makes you think at first that, okay. God's testing them.
Joel Brooks:That's what this is. This is a this is a test. You need to throw that out. Do do not think of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as a test. No.
Joel Brooks:God is actually giving Adam and Eve a way to worship him. That's what he's doing. He's providing a way to worship him. This was how they could show that they actually trusted God. They actually trusted him.
Joel Brooks:They actually delighted him. Not just in the things he gave them. I mean, everything else they would do naturally at this point. Of course they're going to work a garden, of course they're going to eat its fruits, of course they're going to procreate, of course they're going to do all these things. But here's the one thing that's not natural.
Joel Brooks:Here's the one way, the only reason they would not do this is because God told them. And so they can show God, you above all else are are our delight. We trust you above all else. This is their opportunity to worship. You could actually, consider the first these two trees, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, is the first sacraments in the bible.
Joel Brooks:In the sense that they are these physical realities here in which what you do with these physical realities brings spiritual implications. You can eat of the tree of life, and spiritually you're you're alive. Physically and spiritually alive. But if you were to partake tree of knowledge of good and evil, you would die. And so here in the garden, God gives man the opportunity to simply worship him, apart from his gifts.
Joel Brooks:So this is the one time he's going to withhold this wonderful gift. He's gonna withhold it and say, trust me. And he appeals only to his character, saying, Do you trust I'm good? Do you trust that I'm loving? Do you trust that I have your best interest?
Joel Brooks:Trust me and obey. Believe me when I say that obedience to me is better than the most satisfying fruit. Back to the Israelites, this story and hearing this story would have given them a lot of understanding into either the tabernacle they were making or had just made at this point. If you remember, when we went through Exodus, you've got about 10 chapters or so of endless details about building this tabernacle. I mean, it goes into all the minutia, how the curtains need to be woven, all of this endless details about this, because every detail is important.
Joel Brooks:Because if you look at the design of this tabernacle, it's actually made to resemble the Garden of Eden. And that's what they're building out there, in a sense, is this new garden. And you could go through a lot of the intricacies of design and see that, but the the main elements are, once again, you have the presence of god coming and being in their midst. 2nd, you have this lamp stand, which is, shaped like a decorative tree. In which, when you light the lamp stand, it it shows the light on the, the presence, the bread of presence, which symbolizes God's provision, God taking care of them, God's bounty to them.
Joel Brooks:And so that's the tree of life. You have this tree and god's provision. And then you have the law of god and the ark, which is similar to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And if they keep the law, they're blessed. If they don't keep the law, they are cursed.
Joel Brooks:And so they have with them this whole time, this kind of miniature garden. And they're beginning to see this as they hear this story, that that now the Israelites can worship God once again by keeping this law. So what we have to do, we have to trust him. We have to realize, even though we don't understand all of this law, god is good. Can we trust him?
Joel Brooks:Let's delight in his goodness. Well, everything's great until a serpent comes on the scene at the beginning of Genesis 3. We don't know really anything about this serpent. We don't know where he has come from. The fact that he's talking is just a little freaky.
Joel Brooks:It doesn't explain how there's a serpent, how he's talking, why he's there at this moment. We really don't know anything about the serpent, and the author is not interested in telling us that. What's important is what the serpent does, what he says to the woman. And what she says in verse 1, did god actually say, you shall not eat of any tree of the garden? Now this statement's obviously false, but the serpent shrewd.
Joel Brooks:And what he's doing here is he's just trying to begin a conversation with temptation. That's all he's trying to do is just creep open the door, get a conversation going. A conversation about the restrictiveness of god. That's where he wants to steer this, and sure enough, it it works. She she had no business this was just somebody that should have been subordinate to her.
Joel Brooks:Verse 2, it says, and the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden. But god said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. I want you to notice 4 things about her response. And they are little things, but at the same time, they're really big things. They're very subtle, but they're big.
Joel Brooks:First, notice that she took out the word every. God had said that they could eat of every fruit. But she says in verse 2 that they may eat of the fruit. Just a little simple thing, but it it shows that remind us already beginning to put restrictions on god. Earth saying that god is being restrictive.
Joel Brooks:2nd, she uses the serpent's name for god, instead of calling God the Lord God. Verse 3 says, but god says. In verse 3, that's what she says, but god says. But up to this point in the story, it's always the Lord God says. Now in your Bibles, when you have Lord, and it's all capitals, that's the divine name.
Joel Brooks:That's Yahweh. And that's how your bible translates it and puts it there. It's Yahweh. This is the personal, covenantal name of God there. And by dropping that personal, covenantal name of God, notice she's already beginning to distance herself from him.
Joel Brooks:3rd, she adds a restriction. At the end of verse 3, she says that they are not allowed to even touch it. Well, God never said that. But once again, she's seeing god as more and more restrictive. And then, finally, she softens the penalty for disobedience.
Joel Brooks:She says at the end of verse 3, lest you die. Lest you die. God had said, you shall surely die. And so she softens it. So so these are just little subtle things here you you can see, but it shows already that she's beginning to see god as more distant.
Joel Brooks:She is beginning to see God as more restrictive. And she's beginning to see that God's punishments are less than severe. And these are the thoughts, I don't know about you, but these are the thoughts that I still have today. I think we all still struggle with this. We often think of God as being way up there, and we're down here, and there's there's not that close relational God.
Joel Brooks:And then we reduce our relationship to God as being nothing more than restrictions, nothing more than rules. God telling us all the things he wants us to do. And And then, of course, we know from the times that we've broken those rules, nothing really happened. So we think that God's punishment is really not that severe. Well, after hearing Eve's response, the serpent seizes opening.
Joel Brooks:And by the way, we have no clue really how long this temptation went. This could this could be just, you know, cliff notes or, in a sense, just the summary of the conversation, because otherwise the the temptation to fall happens in span of about 20 seconds. This could have gone on for days. This could have gone gone for weeks. We don't know how long this temptation went on.
Joel Brooks:But once Satan sees his opportunity, he goes for it. Look at verse 4. Says the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So Satan, or the serpent here, just straight out attacks God's goodness.
Joel Brooks:Notice what he does not attack. He does not attack God's power. He doesn't attack God's holiness. He does not attack God's beauty, or his rights that he has over his creation. He doesn't, you know, try to to say god doesn't exist.
Joel Brooks:It would have been a foolish argument to try to say, well, god doesn't even exist. You know, yes, he exists. And so he goes after God's goodness. He's not a god that you can really trust. God, the serpent still does this, you know.
Joel Brooks:How often have you heard the question, a good God would not allow this to happen? It's one of the first attacks that Christians get. It's the same argument right here. God's not good. And so he calls God a liar who cannot be trusted.
Joel Brooks:Allen Ross, in his commentary on Genesis, he says that Satan continually brings before us the idea that God is holding us back. Continually brings before us the idea that God is holding us back, and that's the lie that we believe. And that's the lie that leads to almost every sin. All I need to do is just start thinking through your sins, and, you know, I I can almost hear the serpent say, you know, as we give money, it's like, you're gonna give money away to people who don't deserve it? I mean, why why would you do something like that?
Joel Brooks:You worked hard for that money. You deserve it. God's asking you to do that. He doesn't have your best interest in mind. Or we feel that maybe when we're looking for jobs, and we want to just exaggerate a little bit on our resume.
Joel Brooks:Like, well, you know, everybody does that. There's not gonna be really any punishment for this. It's not really even a sin. God wants certainly what's best for me. This rule or this restriction is just holding me back from this job.
Joel Brooks:Or did God really say that sex is to be confined within marriage? Really? And that's for my good? Come on. That's that's like archaic religious stuff.
Joel Brooks:And so we still believe God holds us back. God's a killjoy. I guess I should say we we believe those lies at the moment of temptation. But how many of you, the moment you've given into temptation, had your eyes opened? How many times has that happened?
Joel Brooks:You've given into this sin, you've tasted of its fruit, and your eyes were opened, and all you felt was shame. We go through the same experience. Look at verse 6. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband.
Joel Brooks:The temptation comes to a head here. Eve looks at the fruit. She begins to fixate on this fruit. The word desired there means to overly desire. It means that you were really fixating on something.
Joel Brooks:It's she's coveting the fruit. Does that happen to you all that you or is it just me that you fixate on things at times? Just this, you always are convinced there's this one thing that's gonna make you happy. Just just this one. It could be something like huge, I've, you know, it'll be a spouse.
Joel Brooks:I've got to have spouse to be happy, or I've got to have a child and then I'll be happy. But it could also be small things. At one point I was convinced I needed the perfect coffee mug. I went over a year looking for the perfect coffee mug because everything else was like, no, no, no, God, you're not being good to me. You know, I need the the perfect coffee mug.
Joel Brooks:But my personality is to fixate on something. You know, you could Something you fixate on could be, I've I've gotta lose £10. If I don't lose £10, then I'm nothing. You begin to forget all about God's abundant goodness to you. His overflowing blessings to you, and you begin to fixate on that one thing.
Joel Brooks:Often a stupid thing, and you can't get past it. This is how temptation comes to us. Eve took, and she ate, and she gave. Look how fast it all happens. We've got this great build up, this great drama.
Joel Brooks:Then as she took, she ate, she gave. It's like, boom boom boom. Just like that, paradise lost. Just like that, sin comes into the world. The world becomes cursed.
Joel Brooks:All these things we're gonna look at next week. Man's relationship with God destroyed. All because that one little act of disobedience. The question I have as I was going through this is, where the heck is Adam in all of this? I mean, he's apparently standing right next to her because she takes the fruit, eats it, and she gives it to him.
Joel Brooks:So Adam is just standing there. He's just sitting there in silence, watching all this happen. I mean, the, the middle picture I have is like Adam and a lounge kit, you know, with a bud and just kind of just, you know, just a useless lump. You know why why the wife comes and says, man, I'm really struggling with things at work. And he's here, whomp, whomp, whomp.
Joel Brooks:You know, he just he's not engaged. He doesn't care. He's letting it unfold. There's no correcting his wife when she misquotes god. Actually, we're we're not even sure if she's really misquoting.
Joel Brooks:Maybe she's quoting exactly what Adam had originally told her. She did not get the command from God. She got it from Adam. So maybe Adam wasn't careful in the way he communicated it to her. But either way, he should have stepped up to the plate now.
Joel Brooks:And besides that, where is god? I mean, god's got a lot at stake here. Created this whole world. It's about to fall. Created people, their their lives are about to be ruined.
Joel Brooks:And certainly, you've got to think he cares about what's going on, so you would think he would come in. I mean, come, there's a serpent, step. End of it. You know, it's over. But god, where is he?
Joel Brooks:He's not there. And actually, god is there. He is there. If you remember, Adam and Eve were created in his image. They were created to reflect him, to represent him to the world, to be his ambassador, to rule over the world as he would, to lead all of creation into worship.
Joel Brooks:That was their role. And so he should have been reflected in Adam. Yet, Eve received no encouraging word from Adam. There's no, hey, don't listen to the serpent. Hey, Eve.
Joel Brooks:No. No. No. Let's let's trust god in this. Re remember all of god's other commands?
Joel Brooks:He says, light, boom. There's light. He says, land, boom. There's land. He says, animals, boom.
Joel Brooks:There's lit there's animals. Let's not be the first of His creation to disobey Him. Everything He has created has been good, and He is blessed. Let's not run it. You don't hear that from Adam.
Joel Brooks:He absolutely fails as his duty and his duty as God's image bearer. He also failed in his role of just being a good husband. And so, Eve falls. She fails in her role as a helpmate, in giving the fruit to her husband, and he takes and eats. Derek Kidner, in his commentary on Genesis, says this about this verse, She took and ate.
Joel Brooks:So simple the act, so hard its undoing. God will taste poverty and death before take and eat become verbs of We have to ask, what's wrong really with eating the fruit of this tree? I mean, what happens here? Is this Is this when they discover good and evil? That's not the case, because if so, then God's commandment for them to not do it would not make any sense.
Joel Brooks:They they know good and evil. They they're in a state of what I would call moral innocence, but not moral ignorance at this point. There's a temptation to give a real mystical answer for what the fruit represents, what the tree represents, but but I think the answer is actually pretty simple and straightforward. When Adam and Eve took the fruit, and they ate it, they're saying, God, you do not tell me what is right or wrong. I tell myself what is right or wrong.
Joel Brooks:I am my own moral authority. Now we do what we want, when we want. Death entered their bodies. Had to, because God's commandments are life. God's presence is life, and they have broken communion at that point.
Joel Brooks:The apostle Paul says in Romans 5, which we heard at the beginning of this message, that Adam was a type of a later man to come, who is Jesus. He says this, If because of one man's trespass in Adam, death reigned and through reign through that one man. Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness righteousness leads to justification in life, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. And so, through the trespass of Adam, all die. But through the one act of righteousness in Jesus, there's now life for all men.
Joel Brooks:But what is this act of righteousness? To answer that, you've gotta go 1,000 of years ahead from Adam. You've got to go to another garden and to another temptation. You know, on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he went into a garden. He went into the Garden of Gethsemane, and he was tempted beyond what we can even comprehend.
Joel Brooks:And the temptation also was concerning a tree. The cross was before him. The cross was before him. And, and God has told him, you've got to go to this tree. But unlike Adam, if you're faithful about the tree, you're not going to be blessed.
Joel Brooks:You're going to be cursed. And the wrath of god is going to fall on you. You're going to be punished. And just like Eve, he did not get any encouragement from anybody. I mean, he looks around and his best friends are sleeping.
Joel Brooks:He's hearing nothing at the most anxious point in his life. He's sweating drops of blood. He's saying, I really don't want to get go through with this. I really don't. And yet he does.
Joel Brooks:The only reason he obeys is because his father asked him. There's no other reasons around him. And it meant his death, and it meant receiving the curse, and it meant our salvation. Through this one act of righteousness, the curse of God is lifted for us. We're going to sing about that as we close in just a second.
Joel Brooks:That the mighty cross has become a tree of life to us, through Jesus Christ. Pray with me. God, we are prone to believe lies. Lies just fill our heads. We are bombarded with lies.
Joel Brooks:Temptation comes day after day, And we're no longer even in a garden. We're no longer in paradise. We don't have to be tempted with, you could become like God. We just have to be tempted with, you could become rich like your neighbor. And it's enough for us.
Joel Brooks:We fall so easily. God have mercy. Jesus, we praise you. That under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, beyond what we could comprehend, in the garden, you were faithful where we were not. Thank you for taking the curse, for appeasing the wrath of god.
Joel Brooks:Thank you simply is not enough, but it's all we can say. And we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
