If you have kept up with the latest news, we live in a messy and upside-down world. What was good is now evil, and what was evil, is now good. Additionally, you may have noticed the world we live in could be a lot better place. Our world is a mess because we sinned against God. However, in the beginning, God created a sinless, spectacular world for us to enjoy. God was specific in his instructions to Adam and Eve. He told Adam; You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, from when you hear from it, you will certainly die (Genesis 2:16-17). Nevertheless, Adam and Eve ignored God's instructions for living, and sin entered the world. Satan and Eve strike up a conversation. The Bible said that Satan appears as a serpent. What was this serpent-like? I don’t know. We also don’t know if this is the entire conversation or if there was some small talk that existed before this encounter.
Nonetheless, we can discover and see the two-fold nature of Satan’s attack. First, cast doubt on God’s Word. Satan begins, “Has God indeed said you shall eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1). He takes God's positive instruction and seeks to paint it as something restrictive. Eve answers correctly. She said, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and YOU MUST NOT TOUCH IT, or you will die. This is the opening that Satan needed.
Second, Satan wants us to trust ourselves rather than God. Satan seeks to replace God as the authority with other things. When Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (v. 6) Do you see what happened? Eve trusted her eyes and desires more than God’s word. And then she trusted her reason “It was desirable for gaining wisdom”. We must not trust even our eyes, our mind, or our desires over the Word of God!
This was not a one-time affair. Satan is still using the same “bag of tricks”. He wants to get us to trust our systems, our traditions, our feelings, our “steps to powerful living”, and our programs. He’ll encourage us to place our trust in our goodness, our bank account, our friendships, our appearance, and our personality. He takes different approaches, but it is always the same goal: trust yourself rather than promise. He may try to keep us from reading and studying the Word or He may seek to distort the Word, but the goal is the same: trust ourselves or something other than God’s Word.
Adam blames Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. Adam even tried to blame God. Adam and Eve played the blame game. Sin always devastates. Our condition is nobody’s fault but our own. We should point our fingers at ourselves. As we look around our world today, we see an eroding moral standard, a cancerous disregard for human life, and a sad lack of virtue in the people who should be our role models. Things are still “a mess”. Genesis three tells us how we went from “It is good, very good” to “What a mess!” We ruined a perfect relationship with God through our sin.
However, there is a PROMISE. Even while the stench of that first sin is fresh, God is beginning the process of redemption. In Genesis 3:15 we read the first promise of the Messiah. God is speaking to Satan and says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” There is coming a day when a descendant of Eve’s will be attacked by Satan in a powerful way. Satan will succeed in “striking his heel”. However, this descendant will “crush” Satan’s head. This descendant is Jesus. So, even during this initial rebellion, God points to a Redeemer. Even in the Garden, God is pointing to a coming Savior. They were spiritually dead but there was no one who would come who would give them their spiritual life back. Even when man is engaging in rebellion God is planning redemption.
So, how do you start? It takes an act of faith. God must awaken you and you must respond. That response would come in the form of an honest prayer like this: Father, I don’t come with any excuses. I acknowledge that like Adam, and Eve I have often turned from You. I am a sinner and I have made a mess of my life. Today I received the offer of salvation you extend. Today I declare my faith and confidence that Jesus died in my place, for my sin, and that His resurrection opened the door for anyone who would believe, including me. Today I place my trust and confidence in Christ. I want Him to lead and direct my life. Thank you, Father, for your grace. Amen.
Things are a mess, but they don’t have to stay that way. May the Lord bless you and keep you always.
Pastor Dimas.
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