Don’t Listen to the Devil
By Tylor Cates:
Intro: (Gen. 2:16-17) " And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
I. Satan (Gen. 3:1-6)
A. Subtile
1. Mentioned 3 times in the Bible
a. in this verse
b. To talk about a guy that convinces someone to lay with his on sister Tamar.
c. In Proverbs 7 to talk about a harlot that convinces a man to lay with her.
2. Means someone who convinces someone else to do something they shouldn’t do.
3. The serpent was probably a very beautiful creature before his fall
4. (John 8:44) "For he is a liar, and the father of it."
B. Vs.1 "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"
1. He makes you question Gods word
a. Today people talk about this story could be a fairy tale.
b. Different versions of Bibles.
2. Makes God look harsher than he is
a. In the garden they had one rule don’t eat of that tree they might have had hundreds of trees to eat from but they passed them to get to this one and the other one’s were just as good maybe better.
b. That’s what a lot of preachers and other people do today. They tell you about works and sacraments when it’s really simple to get saved, but the Devil doesn’t want you to know about it.
C. Vs. 3 "God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."
1. Eve begins to make her conscience feel better.
a. Now she begins to make God seam harsher than he is by adding rules to Gods law.
b. He said eat of it he didn’t say not to touch it.
c. We do that today in our lives (ex. TV, Movies, etc.)
2. Do we sometimes make it easy for people to think negative about God?
a. We make it seem like a burden to follow God.
b. "I can’t do that my parents, my church, or God will not let me"
c. "Instead of saying that would not glorify God so that’s why I can’t do that."
D. Vs. 4. "And the said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:"
1. When subtlety stops working he flat out calls God a liar.
E. Vs. 5. "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
1. The Devil likes to show us half-truths.
a. He wasn’t lying he showed Eve the pleasure full things but left out the end results. (Sin is pleasure full for a season but the ends thereof are death.)
b. He’ll show you the volleyball playing models drinking but doesn’t show them setting over the toilet puking their guts out or rapped around a pole with your guts out.
F. Vs. 6 "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."
1. They make a moral decision based on physical instead of spiritual.
a. "If it feels good do it!!!"
b. A survey of High school teens found that 16% said they make moral decisions based upon what God or the Bible says they should do, but 45% said they make theirs based on their experience.
c. Deciding to make your own moral rules based on what you think and not God is like making yourself God. It’s sad to think how many of us do that today.
2. As human beings we have appetites.
a. For things like: food, sex, money, popularity, and power.
b. These appetites aren’t wrong to have but we must control them.
c. (ex. Every time I go into a restaurant I know I don’t need the dessert but I want it any way) now it’s up to us to control these appetites.
d. (1 Cor. 10:13) "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
II. Mans Cover up.
A. The Love of Adam pictures the Love of Christ.
1. (1 Tim. 2:14) " And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression."
a. Adam not willing to be separated from his wife took of the fruit dying that day.
b. Christ not willing to be separated from his bride willingly took of the bitter fruit of death and sin to take us
c. God turned his back on Adam that day and on His Son on the other because he couldn’t look upon sin.
B. Vs. 7 "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."
1. Covering up your sin may hide it from some but not God.
C. Vs.8 "hid amongst the trees of the garden."
1. They tried to hide behind things
a. Their clothes "well I’m saved it’s a license to sin"
b. The Trees "well I can hide my sins behind the good things I do.
c. That’s why God has to convict us when we here his voice in you daily devotions, at church, or just when you conscience is being pricked.
III. Gods convicting power and Love
A. Vs. 9 "And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, where art thou?"
1. Do you think God had no idea where he was?
2. No he wanted Adam to know where he was.
3. Now it was going to be hard for Adam to come out for a few reasons.
a. He would have been uncomfortable.
b. But if everyone had to be comfortable I wouldn’t be here today we’d all be setting in lazy boys at home.
c. (Ex. Moses in Exodus 4:1, 10 all the excuses he made not to go.)
d. (Ex. Going to friends house not knowing how to get there and calling him and the first question he asks is where are you. If you tell him correctly he’ll be able to tell you how to get to his house better.)
B. Vs. 12 " And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat."
1. He blamed the woman
2. (Ex. Passing the buck in cards)
3. He blamed God
a. Well if you God put it here he must want me to have it.
b. God made me this way.
C. Vs. 13 "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."
1. The Devil made me do it
2. My parents didn’t raise me right
3. Peer pressure
4. Every body else is doing it
IV. How we should Handle Responsibility
A. Responsibility to others
1. Today things get broken into in broad daylight and nobody says a thing, because they figure it’s not my problem.
2. Some people in church’s are like this today.
a. God has saved you and takes care of you but you don’t want to get involved in others lives because that would be to complicated.
b. You miss an important part of Christianity and that is to love thy neighbor as thyself.
c. After discussing the law with another lawyer he says who is my neighbor and Jesus tells him the story of the good Samaritan.
3. What a shame that many of Gods people turn their backs on the Lost
4. Our sin wasn’t Christ’s responsibility either but he made it his.
B. Responsibility for yourself.
1. To make sure you do the right things
2. God’s law wasn’t made to ruin our lives it’s there so he can help us have a better life.
3. To stand for the things we’ve done
a. (Ex. 32:21-24) Aaron tells Moses the people made me build the altar.
b. (Matt 27:24) Pilate washes his hands of the decision against Jesus.
c. In our sin it’s never about your gossiping tongue it’s about the horrible thing they did.
d. It’s never about that lie it’s about how you couldn’t trust that person with the truth.
e. People have affairs and blame it on the other person
f. In our text yes Eve started it but Adam was standing there when God said not to eat of that fruit he made a personal choice to disobey God.
g. (Gen 16:2-5) Sarah convinces Abram to sleep with Hagar and after he does Sarai blames Hagar for what happens.
4. We blame special circumstances
a. We always point out why it’s harder for us to do right than it is for someone else because we have tougher circumstances.
b. Homosexuals say they’re trapped in a woman’s body or blame it on their genes.
c. I can’t help it I have a violent temper it’s the way I was raised
Conclusion: (Gen.3: 14-19)
"You can shove off responsibility, push the blame on someone else… you can pass the buck, but you can’t pass the price!"
