A young boy came home from his first day of school and confessed to his
father that he told a lie. The father asked why he did it and the boy said,
"Well, dad, when they asked me where I was born it seemed so sissy to say
The Woman's Hospital, so I said the Yankee Stadium." So often the truth
seems sissy in comparison to fiction, and so there is a tendency to ignore facts
and interpret life to fit ones wishes. This is a common attitude when it comes
to the account of Adam and Eve. It is alright for fun and light hearted conversation,
but it would seem too sissy to take it as a serious account of the
origin of man and sin, and so people have pushed it aside, and filled up books
with speculation which has no foundation, but does seem more dignified.
It is true that the story is simple, for it was written for people with simple
and unscientific views of life. If the revelation was given in our day God
would, no doubt, give us more information, but since He gave it in the day of
Moses it is natural that it should be in a form fitting the need of that age. In
spite of its simplicity, there is no other source through which we can gain so
much information about origins, life, sin, death, and God's purpose in the
world. Gen. 3 tells us what no philosopher or scientist could ever tell us
concerning why man is the way he is.
It is the story of the most fantastic of all failures. Nobody ever had a
better start than Adam and Eve. They had a great start, but they didn't
continue, and so they fell. One of the basic truths we learned from the account
of the fall is that it is not a good start, but a good ending, that is most
important. It is not the seed that quickly sprouts and gets a good start in
growth, but which then withers in the sun for lack of depth that counts for
anything. It is the seed that however poor a start it gets arrives at the point of
bearing fruit that really counts. It is he who endures to the end that shall be
saved, and not just he who gets off to a good start.
A golfer writes, "A long drive, straight down the middle of the fairway,
does give a man a tremendous advantage, but it is not decisive. One can have
an impressive beginning and end up very badly, and one can have a miserable
start and a thrilling finish. As one golfer exultingly reported to me, I was in
the rough all the way, and then pared the hole." A good start doesn't count
because you don't add the scored until you finish. This is a principle that
applies to all of life.
Benjamin Robert Haydon was a painter in London in the early part of the
19th century. His first painting was accepted by the Academy, and then
followed a succession of large historical painting that gained for him the
reputation of being one of the greatest painters for centuries. The art critic
raved about him. Wordsworth said of his painting "Christ Entering
Jerusalem," that it was worth waiting half of century to complete. The whole
of Piccadilly was blocked by the carriages of those who came to see this
marvelous painting. Leigh Hunt said of one of his works, "It is a bit of
embodied lightening."
What a start he had on the road to fame, wealth, and influence. But
Halford Luccock says that by the turn of the century his name was not even
known in the world of art. His rapid success in the beginning filled his heart
with pride and he wanted to be the king of painters. He began to write abusive
and bitter letters of satire about his rivals and critics. This caused him to lose
his popularity as quickly as he gained it. He was soon friendless and
bankrupt. His terrific success was reversed to a tragic struggle just to survive.
Finally, in despair he ended his own life. This poor ending destroyed
everything gained by the good start. Better to be like those who start was
miserable, but who had a glorious ending. Just as it is true-
That lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
So it is also true-
Lives of brilliant failures all remind us
A good start is not enough.
We must forget the road behind us,
And press on however rough.
As we examine the account of the most tragic of all brilliant failures I trust
that none of us will fail to grasp this truth that when all is going well we must
be humble, and we must be constantly looking to Christ knowing that he who
stands must beware lest he fall. And when all is going poorly we must be
hopeful and press on still looking to Christ, who delights in bringing a tragic
beginning to a triumphant finish.
No matter how bogged down a runner is in a race of life, if he truly looks
to Christ he will be enabled to cross the finish line and wear the victor's
crown. Because of this great hope we have in Christ, those who know him can
approach Gen. 3, which Leupold calls, "The most tragic chapter in the Bible,"
with a sense of relief, for we know however great and complex are the
problems concerning the origin of sin, we have the remedy for it.
If we only knew of man's ruin without God's remedy, it would be an awful
account of study, but with the good news bound together with it, we can study
it with great profit. All who have a good start are in danger from the same
source that brought the fall of Adam and Eve. Our concern should be to
examine the sources of danger and be aware of them so as to avoid them or
overcome them. The first source of danger is what we want to focus on in this
message.
External persuasion is what we see in verse 1. One of the primary truths
we gain from this account is that sin did not originate within man, but it was
external in origin. This fits the whole biblical pattern, for salvation likewise
does not originate within man, but is external in origin. Man is not the cause
of his fall, or of his salvation. But in both he plays a major role. There is
profound truth in the old western preachers explanation of the doctrine of
election. He said, "The devil votes against me, and God votes for me, and I
cast the deciding vote." The Calvinist would be more at ease if we said, "The
devil votes against me, and I vote for me, and God cast the deciding vote."
This is probably more correct, but the point we want to see is that external
powers plays a decisive role in both the fall and salvation of man.
It is man's response to the external that makes him, as Pascal said, "Both
the glory and scum of the universe." The serpent is the source of the first
temptation to evil, and from the context alone it would appear that the serpent
is to be taken as strictly just that-an animal like all the others that God
created, but superior in gifts. It is only by means of the rest of Scripture that
we can see that the serpent is only a means being used by Satan. Satan was the
real source of evil and not the serpent. Jesus called Satan a liar from the
beginning and the father of lies, and it is obvious he is referring to this event of
the fall. In Rom. 16:20 Paul says to the Christians, "The God of peace will
soon crush Satan under your feet." There can be no doubt that he is referring
to the promise of Gen. 3:15 that the serpent's head would be crushed by the
seed of Eve. In Rev. 12:9 we read, "And the great dragon was thrown down,
that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the
world." The serpent and Satan are one.
The Old Testament pictures God's great enemy in the form of a serpent.
In Isa. 27:1 we read, "In that day the Lord will punish with His sword, His
fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the
coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea." The lesson we are to learn
is not just to beware of snakes, but to beware of any external source of clever
and cunning evil. Someone has said that one of the best proofs of the reality of
Satan is the cleverness of evil. It seems to have so many resources to insure its
success. The serpent here in Gen. 3:1 represents any means, which Satan
might use to entice us to fall from the path of obedience to God. Joanna Baillie
wrote-
Think'st thou there are no serpents in the world
But those that slide along the grassy sod,
And sting the luckless foot that passes them?
These are who in the path of social life
Do bask their spotted skins in fortune's sun,
And sting the soul.
An evil and deception person is called a snake in the grass because he is an
example of the serpent, who by deception brought sin into the world.
If external persuasion could deceive man in Eden where all was perfect and
where man was pure and off to such a good start, then let us not fall into the
greatest deception of all, which is to believe we cannot be deceived. Some poet
put it-
Satan desires us great and small, As wheat to sift us, and we all are tempted,
Not one, however rich or great, Is by his station or estate exempted.
No house so safely guarded is, But he, by some device of his can enter.
No heart hath armor so complete, But he can pierce with arrows fleet its center.
We are ever in danger of being deceived and made to fall. God made
provision so that we can withstand the fiery darts of Satan. We have the whole
armor of God, and we can with the sword of faith even slay the dragon in one
area of life after another. But the battle is never done, and we must persist to
the end, and never be content with a good start. We will be targets of
temptation as long as we live. Paul wrote in II Cor. 11:3, "Abut I am afraid
that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thought will be led
astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." Believers are still subject
to external forces that can lead astray. Otto Harback said, "Fro we're only
poor weak mortals after all; Sons of apple-eating Adam, prone to fall." We are
open to the serpent's sting whenever we dream that we are self-sufficient.
We are to be ever aware that we must be faithful to the end and not count
on a good start. The prize is at the finish line, and we must press on forgetting
what lies behind. Walt Mason said, "You may be lustrous as a star, with all
the virtues in you canned, but if you fool around with tar you'll blacken up to
beat the band." We need to flee from external forces of temptation, for they
have led many a believer to fall just like Adam and Eve. Why are we still in
this danger? It is because God will never take from us the freedom to choose,
and so we can choose to disobey him at any time, and be enticed into evil.
Emerson wrote,
"For he that ruleth high and wise, Nor pauseth in His plan,
Will tear the sun out of the skies Ere freedom out of man."
God made it possible for us to sin and choose the path of disobedience, but
he does not will that we ever go that way. Only by having the choice can we
truly choose to be obedient and faithful to our commitment to God and His
ways. We need to have external sources of evil enticing us in order for us to be
loyal to God. If we were protected from this kind of temptation we would not
be choosing to be obedient, for we would not have a choice. Do not fear
temptation, for it is an opportunity for you to choose the way of God and be
pleasing to Him, and this is the goal of life. It is not how we start, but how we
finish life that counts, and so all the temptations along the way are
opportunities for us to press on to the finish line where we will hear, "Well
done thou good and faithful servant."
