Temptation & Fall

So tonight we'll be in Genesis 3, so you can go ahead and open your Bibles with me there. Last week we kind of paused a little bit to look at marriage, and now this week we'll be looking at Genesis 3 verses 1 through 13.

How many of you have a smartphone? You all need to show me your phone, just raise your hand. How many of you have ever cracked a screen before? Ah, yeah, stinks. Has anyone ever cracked a screen so badly that it stops working?

Anyone? Okay, yeah, and you've got to do something, get a new phone or get a new screen. So when your phone cracks, obviously your screen is not what it used to be, but it still can work.

Sometimes you crack it so badly, I don't know what you did to do it, you dropped something on it, ran over it with your car or whatever. It's broken so badly that it stops working.

You'll cut your fingers on it using it, or it doesn't turn on anymore or whatever. Is it still a phone at that point? Yes, it is still by nature a phone.

Is it the same as it used to be? Obviously, no. And when we look at the fall, what's called the fall, the fall into sin, we as human beings are the same way.

God created Adam and Eve in his image in the beginning, in perfection, without sin or defect. And when they rebel against him, they're still said to be made in his image, but they don't reflect it as clearly.

They're not as useful to God's glory and his plan now that sin has infested them and broken them. So what we learn is the presence of sin distorts the image of God in us as human beings.

And we'll see the action, we'll see the event that caused the image of God to be fractured in us tonight as we look through the first part of Genesis chapter 3.

And this is called, if you have an ESV, this section is just labeled the fall. And that's not the fall like pumpkin spice lattes and cool boots and all this stuff.

It's also not a fall like, you know, falling to the ground like Clint did and broke his radius. Sorry, Clint. It's not a literal physical fall like that.

We're metaphorically talking about humanity falling from grace. Falling from their innocent and pure standing before God.

And we use this word fall this way, like she fell from stardom or popularity like we wish Taylor Swift would. This fall from grace is a metaphorical loss of standing before God.

And what we see from the text tonight is that this fall took place as a direct result of Satan's temptation. As a direct result of Satan's interaction with this first couple.

And we need to pay careful attention tonight. And that's true every Wednesday night. That's true every time someone opens the word of God. But we need to pay careful attention tonight. Because what's described here in this passage explains why our world is the way that it is.

Someone was giving me a summary of the debate last night. And it seems like nothing productive happened. Why is our world like this? Because of sin. Because of this passage. Sin entered the world through Satan's temptation and through Adam's rebellion.

And we need to pay careful attention as well because Satan still uses the same tactics to this day. And so we will be looking at how Satan tempted Eve.

And how Adam just willingly rebelled against God. And we will see how Satan works. We will see what his method is to distract us and divert our eyes away from the God who made us.

And so we need to pay careful attention tonight. Chapter 3 verse 1 begins, Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that Yahweh God had made.

And in the original language, This word for crafty sounds almost exactly like the word for naked in chapter 25.

And so the serpent is crafty. He's almost assigned a human-like quality here of this intelligence. What we learn is that Satan is actually the one in this serpent.

Tempting them. Speaking to them. And so at this point, we can say that Satan has fallen. Satan was created in the beginning as an angel. As one of God's chief angels.

And through pride, he rebelled against the Lord. And was cast out. He fell from his position. And he brought some angels with him.

And so we now call those fallen angels demons. But what's fascinating is that all of this happens. And we don't know exactly when Satan fell. But we do know here that he is fallen.

And he's using that fallenness to tempt Eve. But Moses doesn't even mention it. Because this is an account of who we are. And how we got here. And how we're called to relate to God.

And so there are questions we don't have answers to. But we wisely should stick with what God has given us in his word. Now why a serpent?

What is this serpent? Are serpents just evil from the beginning? And some of you are like, yes. But no, this was a part of God's very good creation in the beginning.

And so what we have here is that Satan has possessed this snake. He has taken over this snake and is using its physical body in order to tempt Adam and Eve.

And we know this because in other places like Revelation 12 it says, Satan, that ancient serpent. And as we get into the text, we'll see that this is not just any creature that Eve is speaking with.

This is a superhuman, supernatural evil intelligence that is slowly enticing her away from her maker.

And because of this text, serpents have been a symbol of evil for centuries. And so you think about Pharaoh. He's got that little weird like hairnet thing.

What does he look like when he's wearing that? He looks like a cobra. And what is it that the little ornament on the front of it? It was a cobra. And so serpents have become a sign of evil and representation of evil throughout history because of what takes place here in the garden.

Evil has now entered paradise. And if we think back to chapter 2, what is Adam's task? What is Adam given to do? He is called to work and to keep the garden.

He's called to cultivate it and to protect it. So how will this man that God made step up? How will he fulfill what he was created for? How will he do his job?

And the serpent said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And we need to step back here because this is a snake that's talking to them. This is an animal that's talking to them. Could all of the animals talk? Could they interact with the animals? I don't think so.

I think this is a result of Satan possessing this serpent in order to tempt Eve. And so the question is, if not all animals could talk, then wouldn't Eve have thought this was strange?

Like, okay, I need to get away from this thing. It's talking to me. That's creepy. Well, they were discovering new things every day. She was not there when Adam named all of the animals. And so she would have been encountering new animals each day that she was alive.

And so this talking serpent may have been even more alluring and tempting to her as it drags her into a conversation. And notice his first words.

Did God actually say? And he's speaking to the woman here. And when God speaks to this couple, he always speaks to Adam.

He speaks to the man as the leader. But here Satan is trying to reverse the order that God created in the beginning. He is going to the woman first to try to tempt her.

And so we'll see several words tonight of how Satan is working. So if you're taking notes, I want you to write these down. Number one is doubt. Doubt. Satan begins his attack by trying to get Eve to doubt what God has said.

Satan knows that the only way the forbidden fruit will be enticing is if she stops trusting God's word. The only way this will be alluring to her is if she forgets what God has said and refuses to remember what God has said.

Because Satan knows that doubt leads ultimately to disobedience. And we can imagine how this conversation would have gone. Eve wasn't even there when God gave these commands.

And so he could be saying, Eve, you weren't even there when God commanded this. Did God really say this? How do you know that's what God said? You weren't there. And so he's beginning to try to attack her trust in God's word.

And so if you're doubting God's word, if you were doubting the Bible, you're in danger of ultimately completely disobeying the Lord. And now if you're here tonight and you're like, okay, I don't doubt God's word.

Oof, that was close. We're not off the hook. Ignorance to God's word, not knowing God's word is more dangerous than having doubts about it. And so don't think that just because you don't have doubts about God's word, if you don't know it well enough, you are liable to being tempted.

You're liable to walking away from the Lord and disobeying him as Eve does here. And so Satan initiates this attack. And if we think of Satan attacking, it's not how we would typically describe it.

He's not using this invading army. He's not doing spooky stuff. He's just trying to whisper doubt into the woman's mind.

He's just trying to get her thinking, maybe God's word isn't trustworthy. This serpent is crafty.

He's dark and deceptive. And this is how Satan wages his warfare. This clash between two kingdoms, this kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, it is not necessarily a war between militaries.

This is a war of words. How was it that God created in the beginning? It was through his word. How does Satan try to undo that creation and introduce chaos into it?

Through his words. And what we see here is all of life is an issue of our relationship with God.

Satan wants God to become small to us. Satan wants God to become nothing to us. And so all of his temptations are an issue of who we think God is and what we think about his word.

But notice how he begins here. He doesn't make a complete claim. He doesn't directly contradict God's word. All he does is ask a question. Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden.

But now as we see how crafty he is, he's just asking a question, but in the midst of that question, he is twisting God's word. And so the second word I want you to write down is distortion.

Distortion. He is twisting God's word. He says, Did God really say, Can you trust that he said this?

And then he misquotes what God said. You shall not eat of any tree in the garden. Is that what God said? Did God anywhere say that? No, he said, Eat from every tree of the garden except for this one.

And now Satan is trying to make God seem super restrictive. Did God really say you can't enjoy these trees?

Did God really say you can't do what you want? Did God actually say these things? And the woman responds to him.

In verse 2 it says, 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. Now Eve responds to the serpent and initially when we read her response we might think, Good job Eve, you did it.

Like you answered correctly, but her answer is a little strange. She says we may eat, but what did God say?

You may surely eat. Enjoy yourself. Take part in any of these trees. Go satisfy yourself with all of these trees.

And now she's saying, We can. And she says, Neither shall you touch it. Well, God didn't command that.

So she's kind of going beyond the bounds of what God actually did say. And then at the end of verse 3 she says, Lest you die. And so just based on Eve's response here in verse 3, it's like she's saying, You know, if we eat of this tree or touch it, there's a chance that we could die.

But what did God say in Genesis chapter 2? And the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. You will certainly die. And so Satan has already gotten into Eve's mind and she's twisting God's word.

She's not understanding it properly. She's engaged in this conversation and he's already manipulating her even just with one question in which he twists God's word.

And once Eve responds to the serpent, once she starts talking back to him, she turns this question into a full-blown conversation.

Now her and the serpent are having a full-on conversation. And then the third word is denial.

Satan sees now that he's gotten his foot in the door or his tail in the door, whatever. He sees an opening.

He sees a weakness. She's engaging him in conversation and she's misunderstanding God's word. And so Satan now pounces. Satan now comes in stronger than he did.

He started with just a question. Now he makes a full-on denial. Verse 4, But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die.

God was wrong. God told you this and it's not true. That's what Satan is saying in the beginning of verse 4.

Now he explains the reason. So he's saying God was wrong. God didn't get this right. But let me tell you why he lied to you. Let me tell you why he told you this thing that wasn't true.

Verse 5, For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

And so Satan is telling them the reason God told you this isn't because you'll actually die. It's just because you'll receive this enlightenment. Your eyes will be opened. You'll be able to see.

You'll be able to know. And you'll be too powerful. And so God isn't giving you this word to bless you. He's giving you this word as a barrier to your progress.

He's not giving you this word to help you and to keep you safe and healthy and holy. He's giving you this command because he doesn't want his power to be threatened. So not only is he denying God's word, he's saying that God has evil intentions.

God has evil and selfish motives. He's trying to hold humanity back from their true potential. And it's interesting that the very first denial of God's word in the history of the world is a denial that God will judge sinners.

The very first denial Satan makes of God's word, he's saying, you won't be accountable for your sin. You can disobey him. There's nothing wrong going to happen to you. There's nothing bad that's going to happen to you.

And we can still hear Satan's voice whispering these words all throughout our world and all throughout history. God is too loving to send someone to hell.

God understands if you sin against him, you're going through a lot. It's okay. He doesn't expect perfection from you. These are lies in line with how Satan first denied God's word.

You will not surely die. There won't be consequences for your sin. And this was a lie big enough to reinterpret Eve's entire existence.

This was a lie big enough to boggle Eve's mind where she can't even see what reality is anymore. Whose story will she believe?

Will she believe the story of how God created and how God commanded them to act in a certain way? Or will she believe the serpent's lies about who God is?

And the question for us today is the same. Whose story will we believe? Will we stick with God's word, the God who was there, the God who created in the beginning, or will we believe what the world says about God?

Will we believe what the world says about the church or about the Bible? Whose story will you go along with? He makes God out to be against their joy, against their satisfaction, against their fun, against their life.

He says, disobeying isn't going to blind you. Disobeying isn't going to hurt you. It's going to truly set you free. You'll see things and know things you didn't know before. You can make your own truth.

You can challenge God for His throne. And the fourth word is disobedience. All of these things ultimately lead to disobedience.

Verse 6, 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 desired to make one wise, she took its fruit, and ate.

She saw that the tree was good for food. This wasn't a temptation for her until she started to doubt God's word, until God's word was distorted in her mind, and then she couldn't see the world as God intended her to see it.

She couldn't see this garden in the same way anymore. She was transfixed by this tree. But what's significant about this?

God made everything that was pleasing to the eyes. Everything in the garden of Eden was pleasing to the eyes, and everything in the garden was good for food, and He had given everything to them besides this tree.

And so God was not holding out on them, but now Eve is fixed on this one thing that she cannot have. And you see this slow progress that she makes towards sin.

Satan wants Eve to take her good desires and satisfy them in a sinful way. He planted this seed of doubt, and her mind is racing.

And notice her slow drift towards sin. She's thinking about it. She's talking to Satan about it. She considers it. She takes it off the tree and is holding it in her hands, and then she eats it.

She was slowly drifting towards sin. And I was with my son in my office the other day, Charlie, and he had had a piece of candy in my office.

I've always got candy in my office, for my kids. So if you want a piece of candy, just stop by. And he ate a piece of candy, and he's like, I want another one. I'm like, no, you can't have one.

He's like, I just want to hold it. I know how that's going to end. You're going to be walking around with this Tootsie Roll, and it's going to be gone. And you're just going to be like, oh, I don't know. Like, you're not going to be able to just hold it and resist the urge to eat its deliciousness.

But Eve is flirting with sin. She's flirting with what God has told her to stay away from. And so for us, we cannot flirt with sin.

But we should flee it. We should stay away from it. Our God is to be worshipped through His Word. And so when His Word is cast aside, when His Word is not understood, all respect for Him goes with it.

And now we need to be alert to Satan's schemes. And Paul uses this story to talk to the church in Corinth. In 2 Corinthians 2.11, he says we're not ignorant of Satan's schemes.

We're not idiots about how Satan works. And he says in 2 Corinthians 11 that some of you have been deceived by Satan just as Eve was in the garden. And so Satan still works in the same way today, so we must be alert to him and resist these schemes.

And when we look at verse 6, Eve is ultimately trusting what her eyes can see more than what God has said.

She thinks that what she experiences, what she sees, is more reliable than what God has told her. And almost every day we will be tempted to evaluate things based on how they look or how they sound, rather than what God has said about them.

And so we need to know God's word so that we can resist Satan with his temptations. And this verse is really kind of an anatomy of sin.

She saw it, she delighted in it, she desired in it, and she took it. And these words all appear in two other Old Testament passages.

passages. One of them is in the story of David and Bathsheba, where David rebels against the Lord in committing adultery, and his kingdom is taken from him.

Same words show up, he saw, he delighted, he desired, and he took. And so this is how sin works, it starts off with just a whisper of temptation, a whisper of doubt, and it slowly takes us deeper, it holds on to us longer than we had intended, and Eve sees that this tree is desired to make her wise, and she wants this wisdom, she wants this insight, but the problem was she wasn't pursuing wisdom in the way that God had commanded her to pursue it.

So there's a way to get knowledge that's pleasing to the Lord, and there's a way to get knowledge that is unpleasing to the Lord. So if your teacher assigns a book for you to read, I don't know if books exist anymore, but if they assign a book for you to read, you're like, the big thing when I was in school, when we had real books, was spark notes.

Anyone heard of spark notes? Anyone? Okay. It's like, you don't have to read a 60 page chapter, you can read this 500 word summary. So great.

But you're obtaining the knowledge through an illegitimate way. You're obtaining this knowledge your teacher wants you to have through a way that's kind of cheating. Hey, my wife uses spark notes a lot, but I'm not going to call her out.

And so there's a way to gain knowledge that is pleasing to the Lord, and God has set that out for Adam and Eve, and she is tempted and enticed away from that.

Now notice the end of verse 6. So she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate.

What? Adam was with her this whole time. Adam was standing next to her as she's being tempted, as this conversation is unfolding. Adam was there when God spoke to him.

Adam knew firsthand what God had said and he's listening to this serpent lie to his wife and deceive her and pull her away from the God who made her.

Why didn't Adam step up and say something? Why didn't Adam work and keep the garden? Why didn't Adam protect his wife as he was created to? Adam listened to Satan's lies and did not speak up.

Adam listened and watched while his wife was being lured and enticed away from the commandments of God and he stayed silent. He chose his wife over God.

He chose identifying and being connected with what his wife was doing over aligning himself with God. He would have had to correct his wife. He would have had to speak directly to the serpent and he just stays so silent.

And you might have a footnote in your Bible but starting in verse 1 when he says did God actually say you shall not eat. The pronouns Satan uses when he speaks are in the plural.

And so he's saying y'all he's from Oklahoma y'all won't surely die. And so he's speaking to both of them Adam is there with her Adam is standing beside her and he just takes the fruit and he eats it.

And so when the New Testament talks about this it says Eve was deceived but Adam was not. Adam wasn't tricked by Satan's lies.

He was just rebelling against God. He was just straight up disobeying what the Lord had told them. And I had said that earlier Satan was trying to flip the order of God's creation and he does completely.

God designed humanity to submit to him to rule the earth under his authority. He created Eve to submit to Adam's leadership and he made creation to submit to mankind.

He made creation to be under the work and dominion of man. But in one swift decision everything changes.

this whole thing probably took five minutes. This conversation isn't super wordy but in this one brief moment everything in the world changes.

So I tore my Achilles this summer. I'm not just wearing this boot for fashion even though it is fashionable. It took me like .2 seconds to snap that thing and now we're 10, 11 weeks after I'm still healing.

sin. The effects of this are far longer lasting than what took place in that moment and the same is true of sin. This quick decision, this five minute conversation changes the course of history and the world forever.

forever. And we usually only realize too late how disastrous our choices are. I never would have done that if it led to this.

I never would have made that decision if I could have seen the outcomes of it. And so the order of creation is completely reversed. The woman submits to an animal, the man submits to his wife, and no one submits to God.

This breakdown of the marriage relationship is the thing that broke everything, and the fallout of this is enormous. It will affect creation for the rest of time until Jesus recreates it.

And when you think about fallout, you think about nuclear bombs, if you're morbid like me. But in World War II, the United States dropped a couple of bombs on Japan.

And the initial explosions were completely devastating. But the initial explosions were limited. There were people that were unaffected by the initial destruction.

But as the radiation from those bombs spread out over the coming days and weeks, the effects were widespread, and people died these horrible and slow deaths.

And so the fallout from those things was far outweighed just even the initial disaster. And this is true of this decision that Adam and Eve make.

The fallout is enormous. It still affects us today. And the effects of this sin aren't compartmentalized. We can't just say, okay, I'm sinning in this area of my life. Sin will stay there and not affect the rest of my life.

We see that sin isn't containable. Sin doesn't stay in this one spot. It affects the entire creation. creation. This is why the ice cream machine at McDonald's never works.

It's always broken because of sin. And so sin in any area of our lives, sin in any aspect of our life, will affect everything about our life.

Sin sparkles and glistens with promise and joy. But it bites like a serpent in ways that we could not have seen.

Sin always disappoints and it never satisfies. So what should Adam have done? Adam and Eve were designed to love God and interpret the world from his perspective as he designed it, as he set it up, but sin acts independently of him and seeks to dethrone him.

And ironically, what Satan tempted Eve with was becoming more like God. When you eat this, your eyes will be opened, you'll have this knowledge that God has.

But after she ate, she became less like God than she ever had been before. Her relationship with God was broken. She wasn't more similar to God.

She was less like him. Instead of being fulfilled, she was hollowed. Instead of discovering new contentment and joy, she only experienced guilt and shame that gave the rulership of earth over to Satan.

And so in the New Testament, Satan is called the ruler of this world because of sin reigning through death. And as we look at this, it's easy maybe to laugh at Adam and Eve or to think they were foolish and short-sighted, but if Adam fell in paradise, what can we expect from ourselves in this broken and fallen world?

We cannot read this account with pride as if we wouldn't have done the same thing. We can't look back at Adam without remembering our own sin. We are sinners by nature.

We are sinners by choice. The only way we can overcome this sin is through an act of God. God. But sin is not the end of this story.

Sin leads to shame. A disgust over disobedience. And so Satan moves from seducing to shaming. And verse 7 says, then the eyes of both were opened.

So in a sense, Satan was correct. He said, your eyes will be opened and they were, but not to become more like God, but they recognized their shameful condition.

the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Now hiding from God might make sense in this situation, but why are they trying to hide from each other? Well, you can understand this. You, my spouse, rebelled against God.

You were unfaithful to God. What's to prevent you from being unfaithful to me? They now no longer trust each other in this intimate marriage. And so they're not only hiding from God, they're hiding from each other.

And this shame has marked humanity. And so there are a lot of people who will say, you need to get rid of your shame. You need to just either own that, because that's how you were created to be, and so glory in your shame, brag about your shame, or you need to repress it somehow.

You need to get rid of it. This isn't an accurate view of who you are. You're a rock star. But C.S. Lewis once said, when we feel shame, that's the truest picture of who we truly are.

We are sinners before God. We should feel shame. We should be ashamed of ourselves in our sin. sin. So how do we handle it?

Well, they try to manage the results of their sin. They try to hide from each other. And we do the same thing today of trying to minimize the effects of our sin, trying to cover it up.

And ultimately, this leads to death. That's the fifth word, death. Verse 8, they heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden.

in the cool of the day. Now, if we pause here, God was referred to as Yahweh God or Lord God all throughout chapter 2, emphasizing his covenant nature, his nearness to this couple, his loving kindness, his steadfastness, his abounding love for them.

But how does Satan talk about God? God. He does not want Eve and Adam to feel close to God and he refers to him in this kind of impersonal way.

And he gets Eve to even start talking back to him like this, God said this. But here's who God truly is. They hear the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. They run from God's presence because they recognize he is holy, he is pure, and we no longer are.

They're now afraid of God. They're now running from God. Their consciences are testifying that they are guilty before him. And they're hiding among the things that God has provided for them.

He made these trees for their enjoyment and now they're using them as covered to try to evade God's holy gaze. Now the only way to overcome sin is to run to God.

To come to Christ in repentance seeking forgiveness. Yet our tendency, just like Adam and Eve, is to run away from him and to hide ourselves and try to cover our own sins.

And even as Christians we feel ashamed for the way we behave. We know how we're supposed to live. We know that we're intended to be holy.

If you're a believer you've been recreated in Christ to bear his image, to bear much fruit. And we fail to live up to that. And so what do you do as a Christian when you feel shame?

We must go to Jesus. We must look to him. Why? him. Because he himself has carried our shame.

He has taken the shame of his people on himself. And so Hebrews 12 2 says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.

And now he's seated at the right hand of the throne of God. And so Jesus has carried our shame and so we can go to him with our sin and confess to him and find forgiveness.

But Adam and Eve run from him. And God's been mysteriously silent in chapter 3. Chapter 1 was carried by the steady drumbeat of and God said, and God said, and God said.

In Genesis 2, God is speaking and conversing with Adam. And here in chapter 3, he's gone completely silent. Why? This was a test.

This was a test of their allegiance. Where does their loyalty lie? He's provided them with everything they could need and now man must obey him or be judged.

And now God speaks again. Yahweh God called to the man and said to him, where are you? Now God knows everything.

God's not seeking information here. He's trying to draw this confession out of Adam. He's trying to get Adam to confess. And Adam says, and I can't imagine how trembly and weak his voice was, but I heard the sound of you in the garden.

And I was afraid. Because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? He's trying to get Adam to recognize his sin. He's trying to get Adam to confess his sin.

He's trying to bring the truth out of Adam that what took place in the garden was sinful and wrong. But instead Adam just blames his wife.

The man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. And so this leader that God created, this man who was intended to protect the garden, stands in front of God and is like, kill her.

I didn't do it. She gave it to me. What was I supposed to do? He completely just throws his wife under the bus. And husbands still today, because of their shame and their sin will blame their wives or attack their wives.

And it all has its roots here in what Adam does. And he even blames God. He's like, I went to bed single. You gave her to me. Like, I didn't ask for her.

And now look what she's done. She's just ruined our entire lives. And God turns to the woman and says, what is this that you've done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate.

She doesn't take responsibility either, but her statement is true. The serpent deceived her and she ate. Now we need to step back and why would God even allow this?

Why would he create Satan? Why would he even create this tree in the garden that's like a self-destruct button? If you've seen Phineas and Ferb, Dr. Dufenshmirtz always does that. Why did God do this?

But think about how much more we know of God because of sin in the world. Because of sin in the world, he has sent his one and only son.

And we have four books about who he was. We see a glimpse, a revelation of what our God is like all because sin entered the world.

And so we cannot answer all of the questions that we have from this text. But what we do know is we know so much more of who God is. We see his mercy, which we wouldn't have needed if sin had never entered the world.

We see so much more of God's loving nature than we would have if sin had not entered the world. But what happens here in this story is the beginning of a universal and cosmic battle that is still raging to this day.

This war is fought through words. And this battle rages on all throughout the storyline of scripture until someone coming from Adam's line will be able to go head to head with this serpent.

And the serpent appears over and over again in the storyline of scripture. In Revelation, like I referenced earlier, he's referenced as that ancient serpent. But Jesus found himself in a very similar situation to Adam.

And if you go with me to Matthew chapter four, I'll show you. Turn to Matthew chapter four. At the end of Matthew chapter three, Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist.

And we see the Holy Spirit descend upon him like a dove. And so the picture we get at the end of Matthew chapter three is that the Holy Spirit is hovering above this body of water.

The other place we see that is in Genesis one, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And Jesus comes out of these baptismal waters. And verse one of chapter four says, Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness.

Why? To be tempted by the devil. The serpent shows up again. And Jesus' temptation doesn't happen in a well-stocked garden, a place of paradise.

It happens in a desert. And Satan once again is whispering, trying to get this man to indulge his appetites.

Jesus hasn't eaten for forty days and hasn't drank anything for forty days or forty nights. And at the end of chapter two says he was hungry. And if I was that hungry, I'd be really cranky.

So, I don't know how Jesus did it. He was perfect. And the tempter came and said, if you are the Son of God, if you're actually the Son of God, you can command these stones to turn into bread and you can eat, you can be satisfied.

And then he takes him for the next temptation, he takes him up to a high place and says, look at what your eyes see. You can have power over all of this if you'll bow down and follow my wisdom.

And then he says to Jesus, if you throw yourself down from the top of the temple in verse five, the angels will come and rescue you.

And you'll get this glory and this heroism of accomplishing this miracle. miracle. But Jesus does not budge. Jesus stands where Adam fell.

Satan tries to get Jesus to doubt. But Jesus quoted God's word to resist temptation and every instance where Satan was appealing to his appetites, where Satan was trying to get him to fall, Jesus spoke God's word.

This is how Adam should have responded to the serpent. This is how Adam should have gone about this battle. Jesus speaks directly to the serpent, quotes God's word, and in verse 10 says, be gone Satan.

Satan was trying to twist God's word and Jesus says, be gone Satan for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.

doubt leads to disobedience, but Jesus never for a moment failed to trust. And ultimately Jesus would remain faithful all the way to the cross where he would not hide among the trees like Adam and Eve did, but he would be nailed to a tree where he would receive the shame and the sin of all humanity.

Jesus was perfect and that's why he was able to pay for sin. He resisted temptation all the way through his life. And so 2 Corinthians 5 21 says that God made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

He would pay for the sin of all of his people beginning with the first sin of Adam and Eve. And so will you repent and run to him?

Will you turn from your sin and trust in him or will you follow the way of Satan? Will you follow the example of Adam and try to hide from God?

And Jesus says in John 3 that the reason we hide from God is because our works are evil and we don't want to be exposed to the light. But if you choose that path, if you choose trying to hide from God and cover up your sin and not make it known, it will still be made known in the end of time but it will be too late to repent.

It will be too late to respond to God. So I would encourage you as painful as it is, as difficult as it is, confess your sin to the Lord. He knows you. He sees you.

He sees where all of the atoms in the world are hiding. So you're not telling him anything he doesn't know. But he would desire that you would turn from your sin and come to him.

And through Jesus' death on the cross, he can pay for your sin and forgive your sin. Our Father, we thank you for this time we have together to reflect on your word.

Lord, I pray that we would receive wisdom from you. I pray that we would not be ignorant of how Satan operates, of how Satan schemes and deceives.

Father, help us to trust your word. Help us to look to Jesus who is your word made flesh, who died on a tree that he had made in the beginning.

Father, help us look to him and help us follow his example of knowing your word, being clear on your word, and using it to combat Satan's lies that are all around us and tempting us to walk away from or contrary to your will for us.

Father, I pray for these students as they go to school tomorrow, that you keep them safe, that you'd help them to be wise, that you'd help them to know your word and apply it to their lives and to situations they find themselves in.

It's for your glory we pray. Amen. Amen.