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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Some creature in the garden that could speak that was attractive, the Hebrew word nachash, sometimes translated shining one rather than snake or serpent. So the serpent spoke, and he comes in to further his agenda. He has failed in heaven in usurping authority with the stars or the angels of God, so now he's cast to the earth. And he quickly tries to advance his agenda with people on earth by immediately going to Adam and Eve, the first man and woman in the garden. Now, something I want you to pick up on.
You'll see it. Up to this point, God's word has been very important. God said, let there be light, and there was light.
God said, let there be on and on and on. God's word was what he used to create. He spoke it into existence.
Hebrews 11 tells us, by faith, we believe the worlds were frame by the word of God. So just as the word of God was important in chapters one and two, it's also important in chapter three in that his word is challenged. All that he has said is now challenged by this being the serpent, now that we know he is Satan or the devil. He said to the woman, has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Notice how that's worded. It's a wrong quote. And the woman said to the serpent, she's going to engage in a nice little friendly conversation. Just trying to be friendly.
Let's just talk this out. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die.
Then the serpent, I already read that, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. Okay, the first thing we notice as the serpent comes to the woman is he challenges God's word. It's the first question mark in the Bible. The first question mark in the Bible. Has God indeed said, now if you know your Hebrew, you know that in the original Hebrew, there are no punctuation marks in the original text.
When I say this is the first question mark, it's implied by the nature of the wording that it's a question. So it's safe to say this is the first question mark in the Bible. It's a question raised by Satan, challenging God's word.
Now, what has changed? He still challenges God's word. Did God really say that?
Number one. Number two, he challenges God's love. He challenges God's love. What he is implying by the question is, would a good God, a God of love, keep something from you, his creation? Now, did you notice how it's worded?
Notice how it's worded. This is not what God said. Satan asked the question, has God said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? God didn't say that. What God said is you shall freely eat of all the trees of the garden, except one. So notice what Satan does. He turns a positive invitation into a negative prohibition by changing the wording. Again, implying that God must not love you because God is so strict and prohibitive and he doesn't want you to have any fun or any enjoyment. Look what he said. The third thing Satan does is flat out denies God's word.
You won't surely die. So that whole approach is something we can still see happening today. We're not ignorant, Paul said, of Satan's devices. Now, in questioning God's word, in questioning God's love, and in denying God's word, we get to the core issue that Satan is trying to get at with Eve. Can God be trusted?
Can you really rely upon God for anything that he would say as being full of veracity and truth and you can have confidence in? That's really the heart of it. Now the verse two, the woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, which is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, nor shall you touch lest you die. There's a lot of foolish explanations as to what this tree was. Let me just flat out say, I don't know exactly what species of tree it is, but some have tried to say it's an apple tree, thus the forbidden fruit is an apple. That's how it's often depicted in art. Others say the fruit was grapes and that God was, the sin was making wine.
That's legalists really stretching their point. Others go a step further and say, well, the fruit really was emblematic of sexual activity and God was looking down upon that. I doubt that since God told the man and the woman, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
Hard to do it without sexual activity. And within the bonds of the marital union that God calls them to, that permanent marital union in chapter two, that's hardly what it could be. Whatever it was exactly is not important.
This is what's important. God had given man freedom and dominion, but that freedom and that dominion had a limitation. They were still responsible to God.
They couldn't do whatever they want, whenever they want it. Hence the restraint. You can eat anything you want, except that, except that. Now you're still responsible to me.
You're still accountable to me. There's something you can't do. And that's what you can't do is eat the fruit of that tree. Verse six. So when the woman saw, that's the first step she took. She looked at it and she saw that the tree was good for food. It was pleasant to the eyes. A tree desirable to make one wise. Boy, that sounds a lot like first John chapter two, doesn't it?
Lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Here's the second step she took. So she saw, number one. Number two, she took of its fruit. Number three, she ate. And number four, she also gave to her husband with her and he ate. Eve takes four steps.
Adam takes one step. She engages in a conversation. She's being social with the serpent. Well, this is what I remember God saying. She's talking it out. Adam just sort of comes in, grunts and eats.
One step. Unfortunately, women, woman, Eve gets the wrap for the fall. If you've heard of the popular jokes that go on in Christian circles or even in secular circles, that it was really all Eve's fault, she got us into this mess. No, she didn't. The Bible lays the blame squarely upon Adam.
And here's why. Paul says in first Timothy chapter two, he says, for Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. Eve was deceived. She had the right intention. She just sort of was talked into it and she started to believe what Satan said was true.
Now it wasn't true and she's not off the hook, but it was deception. With Adam, it was just flat disobedience. So you can't lay the blame on women. The Bible lays the blame on Adam. First Corinthians chapter 15, Paul says, for in Adam, all die. It came by Adam. And so he took and he ate.
And the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Now we have come to the darkest period of history because every bad thing that happens after this, the following week and month and year and millennium, et cetera, et cetera, can go all the way back here. Now, everything after chapter three verse six throughout the Bible is a result of the fall.
Everything after is the result and the consequences of the fall and God's rescue operation as a result of the fall. This is the darkest day in human history. Now into the bloodstream of the human race, a hidden virus that would infect everyone has been introduced worse, far worse than any virus known to man, far worse than even HIV. This is the S I N virus.
It is absolutely fatal. It separates people forever from God unless they take the cure. Sin is introduced. You're listening to connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, some people think that Jesus was nothing more than a prophet or a good teacher.
These misconceptions existed 2000 years ago and Jesus is still misunderstood today. Discover who Jesus really is with Skip Heitzig's riveting nine part series, Who Is This Jesus?, which examines Christ's humanity and deity to equip you to confidently answer questions about Jesus. This resource, along with Skip's life change booklet designed to help new Christians embrace their transformed life in Christ, is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copies when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip.
I want you now, we have to do this. I told you this last Sunday that these chapters are foundational so let's just get a bit more of foundation. Don't worry, we will cover chapter three. But go to New Testament book of Romans chapter five.
This will help you. Romans chapter five. There's a reason we call it a Bible study. We're now comparing text with text. Romans chapter five.
It succinctly puts it all together for you. Verse 12. Romans 5 verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man, the context here is Adam, sin entered the world and death through sin thus death spread to all man because all sin for until the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam who is a type of him who is to come. Did you notice the four stages? Sin entered, death entered, death spread, death reigned.
Those are the four stages. When Adam sinned, get this, Adam acted as the representative, the federal head for all of humanity. That's why Jesus is called the last Adam. Everything Adam messed up, Jesus came to undo. The rest of the chapter addresses Jesus as the Adam, the man who fixed things that Adam messed up. Adam blew it.
He willingly transgressed. When I was a boy, I'll never forget a vacation. My dad, I love the fact that he took us to the national parks of the United States to see this wonderful country. On one of the trips one summer, we stopped at Jackson Lake up in Wyoming, the Grand Tetons. Early in the morning, there's nothing like that clear, pristine, glass-like mirrored lake that reflects the still snowpeaked mountains even in the summer like a mirror image. It was so perfect but I was one of four boys and little boys can't resist calm lakes and so we picked up a nice little smooth flat stone and I don't know if it was one of my brothers, I had three older brothers or myself, we picked up a stone and threw it at the lake and it skipped across that stone but it did something to that beautiful image. The image was now marred by ripples. It was no longer a beautiful mirrored image. The image was there but it was a marred image, a flawed image. Get where I'm going with that. We're created in the image of God. Adam picked up the stone that marred the image of God in man and it spread and death reigned because of it.
How serious are the consequences of the fall? Well, now listen to this. They're so serious that we by and large are blinded to the fact how serious they really are.
I don't know if you got that or not. They're so serious that we have been blinded to how serious the consequences really are. Just listen to how we talk about sin. We even hate to use the word sin.
It's so brutish and nasty, so base, so coarse. Let's use a different term. Let's call it a hang-up. Let's call it a personal baggage. Let's not call it sin. Call it what it is.
Let's give it another name. I know what. I'll call it my Irish temperament.
It's because of my Irish temperament or it's because of my German strictness or my Italian or Hispanic hot-bloodedness. That's the reason for whatever I did. Well, the Bible calls it sin, but we're so blinded to how bad our condition is, we don't even see it. That's the reason we have such problems with things like God's judgment and eternal hell because we don't understand how bad sin is that it's bad enough to separate us forever from God because it's around us all the time. But you'll never go to a doctor unless you admit you're sick. You'll never seek a savior unless you realize you're a sinner.
Only the person who can say, I have sinned will seek a savior to cleanse them from their sin. We have to admit it. Man has fallen as a result of it. Now, beyond just being sick, it's worse than that.
Ready? This is our condition. We're not just sick. We're dead. We're dead. We're dead. I just want you to know that we're dead.
That's why I keep repeating it. Dead people can't respond on their own, right? They lack the capability unless some miraculous quickening by God. That's why Paul writes in Ephesians 2, and you hath he quickened or you has he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. When you and I were born, we were born D.O.A., dead on arrival. Separated from God, the virus of Adam in our bloodstream separated from God needing a savior because as we read here, death reigned.
Those are the results. And everything after Genesis chapter 3 verse 6 are the results throughout scripture. Verse 7, Genesis 3, then the eyes of both of them were opened. They knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves covering. And they heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. When it says that God came in the cool of the day, the literal translation, a better translation, in the breeze of the day, probably the cool afternoon when the breezes would blow, God came and the language implies that this was customary, that God would take his daily walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, in the breeze of the day, in the afternoon. Everything's done.
They're winding down. God shows up. The word for walk is hanach in Hebrew, and hanach means to move amongst, to be at ease, or to be conversant with.
Isn't that beautiful? It's as if God had a special time to do what he created man for, to fellowship with man and woman, to have a special time to meet where they could just unload, ask questions, talk to him. I've always loved this concept of God walking with man. Loved it.
Did a series on it. God walking with man. What does it mean to walk with God these days? So there's God, and he comes in the garden, and Adam and Eve hide themselves. Why were they hiding themselves? Well, God did say back in chapter 2, verse 17, in the day that you eat thereof, you'll surely die. They're hearing God coming and going, uh-oh, we're dead meat. Eve, why did you do that? Well, you ate too, Adam.
All I know is we're dead. God's coming. They were hiding. They were hiding? They were hiding from God?
How absurd is that? How do you hide from God? Didn't David say, and I know this is way before David, the Bible says in Psalm 139, David says, where shall I go from your spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, behold, you're there. If I make my bed in hell, you're there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your right hand shall guide me. I've always been puzzled when I read Jonah chapter 1 about a prophet who decided to flee from the presence of the Lord.
What was he thinking? I'm going to get on a boat and run away from God. Oh, really?
You're a what? Oh, you're a prophet. Now, you know the Hebrew scripture, right, Jonah? Because you'll quote it in chapter 2 when you're in the belly of the whale quite prolifically.
Lots of different Psalms. You were obviously steeped in knowing the Bible. You surely must have known you can't flee from God or hide from him.
Yet people still do it, don't they? Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord called to Adam and said, where are you? Now, did God lack the knowledge? Was God really looking for a GPS setting?
What are your coordinates? It's a much deeper question. It's a self-revelatory concern. It's a question that speaks to the condition of man.
Where are you? So he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And look at what God says. Who told you you were naked? It's interesting that it seems to be instinctive that when we do something wrong, we hide.
Where did we get that from? This guy. I remember when my son Nate came home, he was just a little tyke and he came home with a bad report card, a bad report card. And he hid his report card.
That was his solution. I got bad grades. I'm going to hide this record from my dad and my mom. He hid his report card as if we're never going to think about report cards or ever asked for it.
Just kind of let the year go on. So I did ask for it. Nate, I know that today you got your report card.
I got a letter from the school saying today was the day and to anticipate seeing your report card. Where is it? I don't know. He was hiding. Where did he learn that? From Adam.
That's where he got it from. It's part of our makeup now. Now he says, oh, I was naked. You mean all of this time you didn't know you were naked? You've been naked since chapter two. You didn't realize you were naked until now?
Actually no. Up till this point, they weren't self-conscious. They didn't have a self-consciousness. They were selfless.
They weren't thinking about themselves. Now, after the fall, there's this deep self-conscious awareness of who they are. It's still a part of who we are. It's why we do what we do to make ourselves presentable.
It's why we worry about what we're going to wear or how we look in it or if we've gained too much weight. That self-absorption that Adam and Eve are now even ashamed to be in God's presence. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you confidently answer questions about who Jesus is and understand the new life you have as a believer in Him. Pastor Skip's nine-message series, Who Is This Jesus?, and his Life Change booklet are our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copies when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. And did you know that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox? Simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
