Satan's Strategy Against Eve - Genesis Part 6

We are involved in a verse-by-verse study of the book of Genesis and last week we looked at Genesis chapter 3 where Adam and Eve disobeyed God and spiritually polluted the entire human race. And we looked last week at how God in His mercy remedied this by creating an entirely new race headed not by Adam but by the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

And we saw last week that anybody can transfer into this new race who wants to. Now if you missed last week, I urge you to pick up the CD out at our bookstore after the service or to go online to our website and listen for free or download the message for free. It's a critical message for us all to understand. But today what we want to do is go back to Genesis chapter 3 and look at the strategy that Satan used so successfully against Adam and Eve.

And then we want to bring all of that forward and we want to talk about, okay, so then what difference does that make for you and me? So here we go, Genesis chapter 3, Satan's strategy, verse 1. Now the Bible says the serpent was more crafty than any of the animals that the Lord God had made. The word serpent here in Hebrew literally means a snake. But the Bible tells us that the real tempter here in the Garden of Eden was not some snake. It was rather the devil, Satan, Lucifer himself. And we see that in Revelation chapter 12, verse 9, where the Bible says the great dragon was cast out of heaven, that old serpent called the devil and Satan. And so the point is that Satan was merely using the serpent as the disguise so that he could get near Adam and Eve.

You say, La, la, la, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait, stop right there. Do you really believe that there's an actual being called the devil? I mean, you know, with the little pointy ears and the long pointy tail and the pitchfork in red. Do you really believe this?

Well, friends, I don't have any idea whether he's got pointed ears or whether his color is red and he's got a pitchfork. But yes, I absolutely do believe there is a real being called the devil, as real as you and I. And the reason I believe this is very simply because the Bible tells me that he's real. The Bible does not tell us a ton of information about the devil, but we do know a little bit.

Let me tell you what we do know. In Isaiah chapter 14, the Bible tells us that Satan was God's greatest angel, but that something went desperately wrong in his heart. Listen, Isaiah 14, 13, talking about Satan, God says, but you said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. Satan, you said, I will make myself like the most high God. Ezekiel 28 continues in our understanding of what happened with Satan.

Verse 13, you were in Eden, God says, the Garden of God, I ordained you as a guardian cherub, as an angel. You were blameless in all your ways until unrighteousness was found in you. Your heart became proud because of your beauty and you sinned. Folks, if anybody ever asked you who committed the first sin in the universe, it was not Eve, it was not Adam. It was Satan.

And so in disgrace, God says, I drove you out of heaven and I threw you down to the earth. And once here on earth, the Bible tells us that Lucifer became God's mortal enemy. He also became the mortal enemy of everything created in the image of God, meaning you and me and all of mankind. And the Bible tells us that disguised as the serpent, it was Satan who put the events of Genesis chapter 3 into motion. And his strategy was a masterpiece of deception.

Let's look at it. Genesis chapter 3 verse 1 continues. And the serpent said to the woman, did God really say you shall not eat from the trees of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, oh, she said, we may eat from the trees of the garden, but the tree that's in the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat from it or touch it or you will surely die. And the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. Who else wanted to be like God? Satan himself.

Yeah. And you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Now, let's look at the strategy here that Satan uses against Eve. There are four parts of it.

Let me show you what they are. Part number one is that Satan caught Eve alone when Adam wasn't around. You see, Satan knew that only Adam had actually heard God's command not to eat of the tree with his own ears.

You say, well, how do you know that for sure? Well, I know it, number one, because when God gave Adam that command originally, Genesis 2 verse 17, Eve wasn't even created yet. And also, number two, I know it because when God confronted Adam and Eve about having done what they did, God said, Genesis 3.11, have you, masculine singular, you Adam, eaten from the tree that I commanded you, masculine singular in the Hebrew, Adam, not to eat from. The reason that God directed his comment so specifically at Adam is because God had never given this command directly to Eve. Eve had only heard about it secondhand from Adam. And that's why she said to the serpent, we're not even allowed to touch the tree.

Friends, God never said anything about touching the tree. She kind of embellished it because she didn't hear God say it originally. And Satan knew that this made her more vulnerable if Adam wasn't around to reiterate and remind her of what God had actually said to him. Furthermore, Satan also knew that if he approached Adam and Eve together, they would be in a position to mutually support one another, to speak spiritual truth to one another, to hold one another accountable for obedience to God, and to help one another counteract Satan's lies, whereas on her own, isolated, apart from biblical community with Adam for that moment in time, Satan knew Eve would be more vulnerable to attack. So number one, part one of Satan's strategy with Eve is he was out to find her and go after her when she was spiritually isolated.

Part two is Satan tried to get Eve's focus onto what she didn't have and off of what she did have. I mean, think of it. Eve had everything in the entire world but one thing.

That's it. Can you imagine that? How would you like to have that situation today, huh? God gives you everything in the whole world but one thing. I mean, how much difference could that one thing possibly make? So what if you're not the President of the United States? So what if you don't have a Ferrari?

So what if you don't wear Jimmy Choo shoes? Who cares if that's the only thing in the whole world that you don't get to do? My gosh, couldn't you get along without that one thing? Well, folks, that's exactly the situation Eve had and yet look what Satan does. He says, hey, Eve, let's talk about the one thing you don't have, huh? Let's talk about that tree in the middle of the garden and Eve listens to him. Part 3 of his strategy now is that he now suggests, urges Eve to doubt God's goodness to her. Verse 5 of chapter 3, for God knows, said the serpent, that in the day you eat from the tree your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.

He gets close to Eve and he goes, come here, Eve, I want to tell you something. God's holding out on you, Eve. God doesn't want you to be like him. God doesn't want to share being God with you.

God doesn't want you to know good from evil. God is being unfair to you, Eve. God is trying to keep you down, Eve. God is not doing what's best for you, Eve. He's not giving you what you deserve and you need to take matters in your own hands and go get that fruit, even though it's disobeying God, don't worry, go get that fruit. And Eve starts thinking, yeah, that's right. Who does God think he is to tell me I can't have that fruit?

How dare him keep that fruit from me? And now here comes spiritual checkmate. Part four in the fourth part of his strategy is that Satan now denies that disobeying God is going to bring the consequences God said it would. Genesis chapter three, verse four. And the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die. Did God tell you, Eve, that if you eat from that tree, you're going to die? Ha!

Ha! It's not true. It's all a big lie. He's pulling your leg, Eve. You shall not surely die.

Girl, don't worry about it. And by doing all of this, Satan gets Eve to ignore God's clear warning about sin and its consequences. So can we summarize Satan's strategy?

Remember, here it is. Number one, he got Eve spiritually isolated. Number two, he got Eve to focus on what God hadn't given her. Number three, he got Eve to believe that God was holding out on her. And number four, he got Eve to ignore God's warnings about the consequences of sin. And friends, once Satan got Eve to this point, she was a dead duck.

Watch. Verse 6, chapter 3, and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from the fruit and she ate. Ah, but you know, getting Eve to disobey God was not mission accomplished for Satan. No, Satan had to get Adam to eat. Adam was the federal head of the human race, not Eve. Eve came from Adam, just like all of us come from Adam. It was only by spiritually polluting Adam that Satan could spiritually pollute the entire human race. And if you were here last week, you understand this whole doctrine about federal headship. And if you weren't here last week, you need to get the CD or go online and listen and understand that important biblical doctrine of federal headship. Well, verse 6 of chapter 3, then Eve gave some of the fruit to her husband, Adam, and he ate.

You say long. Wait a minute. Why did Adam do this? Well, I don't know. How am I supposed to know why he didn't? I mean, you would think that he could, when she came to him with the fruit, he could have gone, ah, what are you doing?

What are you doing? And then he could have said to God, hey, God, hey, God, listen, the first woman you gave me, look at this. She messed up. I got other ribs. Take one of them and make another one, and we'll start over. And if she messes up, I got more ribs. You say, well, why didn't he do that?

He did have a lot of ribs. I don't know. I don't know. But what happened is this, exactly what God said would happen. Adam and Eve died. You say, no, they didn't.

No, they didn't. They were just as alive the next moment as they were when they ate from the tree. Well, wait a minute. The Bible tells us there are two kinds of death. First of all, there's physical death. That is when our bodies die, we become physically lifeless, physical corpses, and there's also another kind of death the Bible tells about, and that's spiritual death, where our spirits die, we become spiritually lifeless, spiritual corpses in our relationship with God.

Now, it's true. Adam and Eve did not experience immediate physical death. The process of physical death began to work in them immediately, and eventually they would die physically, but in his mercy, God didn't make their physical death instantaneous.

Why? Because he wanted to give them time to repent and to be forgiven first. However, friends, Adam and Eve did experience immediate spiritual death. Immediately, their intimacy with God was shattered. Immediately, they became alienated and separated in their relationship with God.

You say, how do you know that? Well, just look what happens next. Verse 8, then Adam and Eve heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves among the trees of the garden from the presence of the Lord. Verse 9, then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And Adam said, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself. Folks, Adam and Eve had never run away from God before. Adam and Eve had never hidden from God before. Adam and Eve had never been afraid of God before. Something sinister had taken place in the relationship between Adam and Eve and God, and what had happened is that Adam and Eve had become spiritual corpses. They became dead in their relationship to God, and instead of confidence, they felt fear.

Instead of love, they ran away and they hid. Listen, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 says that this was a curse that the entire human race inherited, that we are all born dead, the Bible says, spiritually dead in our trespasses and our sins because we're in Adam's race. You say, well, Lon, what's the point of all this?

Hey, the point of all of this is that Satan lied to Eve, just like he loves to lie to you and me, and this is why the Lord Jesus said of Lucifer, John 844, there is no truth in him, for he is a liar and the father of lies, and because Adam and Eve, here's the point, listened to his lies, they polluted the entire human race with both physical and spiritual death. Now, as we saw last week, God loves us so much that he made a way out of all of this death for us, a way out that was purchased by Jesus on the cross, and if you weren't here last week, you're going to say, I know, I know, I know, go get the CD, or listen to it on the Internet, right, right, right. We covered so much ground last week, you really need to hear it. Now, this is as far as we're going to go today, because we're going to stop now and ask our most important question.

So, all of you at Loudon, and all of you at Prince William, and all of you at Bethesda, and everybody on the Internet campus, and down in the Edge community, and everybody here, are we ready? You sure? Okay, let's see, one, two, three.

It's good. You say, Lon, they're very interesting, moderately so, but listen, what difference does any of this make to me? I mean, I don't like snakes, I don't have a snake, and I don't talk to snakes, so what difference does any of this make to me? I don't get it. Well, let's see if we can make a connection for you, okay? You know, Satan is still alive and well on planet Earth, my friends, and he is still God's sworn eternal enemy, and he's still your enemy and my enemy, and Satan today has two primary goals.

Let me tell you what they are. Goal number one is to destroy people's souls by getting them to reject Jesus Christ and stay spiritually dead. Remember we mentioned Ephesians 2, 1, says everybody enters this life spiritually dead because they're members of Adam's race.

Remember that a minute ago? All right, Satan's goal is to get us not to accept Christ and leave this life spiritually dead, and if we do, I'm telling you, in eternity, the ramifications of that are ugly, whoo, hell and punishment and everything bad the Bible says about hell, ugly. That's his goal, destroy your soul. Well, praise the Lord, sometimes he fails in goal number one. Praise the Lord. Sometimes people come to Christ. Hey, praise the Lord. Sometimes people get saved and come spiritually alive to God. Hey, praise the Lord, huh? Yeah?

Okay. So sometimes he fails, but you know what? If he fails with goal number one, he says that's okay, I'll move on to goal number two, and goal number two for the enemy is to deceive Christians into disobeying God and bringing disaster on themselves just the way Adam and Eve did.

And in the little bit of time I've got left, I want to talk to us about this second goal of the enemy that is deceiving us as followers of Christ and trying to get us to disobey God and bring disaster on our lives. And you know, here's the really interesting thing. Satan is still using the exact same strategy on you and me today that he used on Eve thousands of years ago. And you know the most amazing thing? It still works.

It's still effective. He's trying to do it to you and me every single day. So let's go back and remind ourselves what it is he's trying to do to you and me. Number one, and he does it through television, through radio, through magazines, through ungodly friends giving us ungodly advice.

He does it every sneaky way he can think of. Number one, the first thing he does is just as with Eve, Satan tries to get us spiritually isolated. He tries to convince us that we don't need to be in biblical community with other believers. We can make it on our own that we can be the Christian Lone Ranger and we don't even need Tonto.

No, we can do it all by ourselves. He whispers in our ear, hey, you don't need to join a small group at church. Hey, you don't need to have believers as your closest friends. Hey, you don't need to be in an accountable relationship with fellow godly people. Friends, it wasn't by accident that Satan got Eve when she was alone and isolated. He knew that if she was in biblical community with Adam, she would have been much harder to lure into sin.

And the same is true for us. You know all these Christian leaders lately who've gone into the ditch, I mean, I don't have to name them. You know who they are. It was interesting, I read an article by a psychologist at one of the Ivy League colleges who did a study on all of these Christian leaders trying to find out what did they have in common that caused them to end up in the ditch. I mean, they all came from different geographical areas. They had different educational backgrounds. They had different kinds of ministries. But they must have had something in common was the theory of this psychologist. And you know what he found?

It's very interesting. He found that one of the key things all these leaders who went into the ditch had in common is every one of them was living in spiritual isolation. They did not have fellow believers around them who were speaking biblical truth in their life. They did not have fellow believers around them who were asking them the hard questions. They did not have other believers around them who were there to counteract Satan's lies and talk to them when they got weak or they had a tough day. And as followers of Christ, let me say to you here today and to myself, friends, outside of biblical community, we are sitting ducks for the enemy, just like Eve was. And Satan is a good shot.

He doesn't miss sitting ducks. And that's why here at McLean Bible Church, we are always appealing to you to get in a small group, to get into biblical community with fellow believers around you. Listen, we do not get a commission for how many people we get into small groups here. We are doing this because we care about you. We are doing this because we know this protects you. We are doing this to try to help you. It's like Jerry Maguire, help us help you.

Please, we're trying to help you. Because in biblical community, it is much harder for the enemy to get us to disobey God. Number two, the next strategy he uses on us is just like with Eve. He tries to breed discontent in our life, discontent about what we don't have, discontent over what God hasn't given us. Maybe we've asked God for it and He said no. Maybe we haven't even specifically asked God for it, but it's something we really want and God hasn't given it to us.

You mean like what? Well, I mean like a husband or a wife, a boyfriend or a girlfriend, a different job or a better car or a higher salary or a nicer house or a child of our own or a physical healing for us or somebody we love, more power, more fame, more advancement, more notoriety, whatever it may be. Satan's strategy is to get our focus onto what God has not given us instead of what God has given us. Number three, just as with Eve, Satan then tries to get us to question God's love for us. He whispers in our ear, hey, psst, if God really loved you, if God really cared about you, He'd have given you that thing you wanted. God doesn't really love and care about you or else you'd have it.

Does that sound familiar? Well, it should. That's exactly what he hissed into Eve's ear and then Satan whispers in our ear just like he did Eve, hey, you know what, you don't need to accept this kind of treatment from God. You need to get out there and get what you want. You need to take matters in your own hands and even if it means you've got to disobey God, oh, it's just a little, a little disobeying God.

I mean, it's not like murder or anything or embezzlement or anything. It's a little one. So go on out there and get that husband or wife, even if they're not walking with Christ the way you know they should be. It's OK. Go on out there and get into that dating relationship where things are going on that you know shouldn't be going on. But it's OK. Go on out there and get that new car that you can't afford. It's OK. Go on out there and do whatever you need to do, even if it's a little unethical to get where you need to get to and get what you want. It's OK. God's holding out on you.

So you need to take matters in your own hands. And finally, number four, while he's telling us this, Satan assures us that God really doesn't mean what he says, just like he did with Eve, about the consequences of sin. He says, oh, you know what? Jesus went to the cross for you. He died on the cross for you. He loves you so much, he would never punish you. Jesus said in the Bible, he would always forgive you.

So you don't have anything to worry about. Go do whatever you want to do. He'll forgive you. You shall not surely die. And friends, you know what happens too often is that we believe him. And we take the bait.

And just like with Eve, he sinks the hook deep into our flesh and we regret it the rest of our life, just like Eve did. You say, well, Lon, I'm totally depressed now. Why did I come today?

So you could depress me? No, wait a minute, I'm not done. Friends, I'm not going to leave you like this, because we need to answer a final question, and that is how do we repulse Satan's schemes? How do we resist them?

How do we outwit his schemes against us? Well, the Bible tells us, and that's what we want to end with, how can we rise above this so we don't get dragged into it like Eve did? And here's what the Bible says, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 5. It says we must take, if we're going to outwit Satan's schemes, we must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. In other words, the battle the Bible is telling us between us and Satan is in our mind.

It's in our thought life. So we must discipline our minds to think biblically, to run everything through the filter of biblical truth. We have to praise God for what we do have. We have to be like Psalm 103, verse 1, that says, Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits. The verse doesn't say, and remember everything He hasn't given you. That isn't what it says. It says forget none of His benefits.

Our mindset, listen to me now, has to be no. I refuse to focus on what God hasn't given me, on what God has chosen not to give me. I'm not going to focus on that. And it's because I know the Bible. I know the Bible teaches me that God loves me more than I love myself. And I know the Bible teaches me that in His wisdom, if God really felt this thing I wanted was best for me, He'd have given it to me. And since He didn't give it to me, I have to assume that in His wisdom, He knows it would harm me. And I'm willing to trust God.

He knows more than I know. And furthermore, I must remember that God is not kidding about the consequences of disobedience and sin when I take matters into my own fleshly hands and I go out and disobey God to get what I want. I am going to regret it. The Bible tells me I'm going to regret it.

And it's going to be true. Numbers 32, 23, be sure your sin will find you out, God says. And we need to say, you know what, God's not lying to me.

He's telling me the truth. It found out Adam and it found out Eve and it will find out me. Now this is what it means to think biblically. This is what it means to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And this is how we fight the enemy, by not listening to his lies, but running them through the sieve of biblical truth.

And once we do it, they come out looking like what they really are, lies. And when we teeter, when we get a little shaky, that's when we need fellow believers around us who can see that we're teetering and who can exhort us with biblical truth and can hold us accountable for obeying God. Folks, this is the approach to life that will enable you and me to pull our ship safely into the harbor of heaven without Satan having punched holes all through the hull. We've got to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We've got to know the Word of God. We've got to believe the Word of God. And then we have to compare every thought that comes at us from television, from radio, from magazines, from our friends.

Every thought goes through the filter of the truths of the Word of God. That's how we defend ourselves. Now, let me conclude and say, Satan is alive and well on planet earth and he's out to get you. He's out to get me.

And he's ruthless. And what he wants to do, my friends, is he wants to take you and me down the same path that he took Eve down. And I'm here to tell you we can repulse him. But the way to do it is we have to praise God for what we do have. We have to rejoice in what God has given us instead of focusing on what we don't have. And we have to assume in God's wisdom that we don't have it because it wouldn't be best. And we need to remember if we disobey God, even a little, you don't have to commit genocide. If we go out and disobey God even a little to get what we want, it will bite us and we will regret it every time. You say, well, Lon, we're all human.

I know. And you say, don't you ever, I mean, don't you ever get weak on this? Don't you ever like get a little shaky on this yourself? All the time. All the time.

I'm no different than you. And many times I'll be lying in my bed at night and I'll be thinking about things I don't have, things I wished I had, things I'd been with somebody today that had something I don't have that I would like. Yeah, that happens to me all the time. But you know what I've learned? I've learned how to fight. And it really helps me to fight like this.

Now I hope maybe it'll help you if I tell you about this. I lay there in bed and here's what I do. I sing a song to myself. I sing a song.

Here's what I sing. When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed. When you are discouraged thinking all is lost. Count your many blessings angels will attend. Help and comfort give you to your journey's end. And then what I do is I start laying there in bed and saying, God, let me start, let me just start naming off all the blessings you have given me. You've given me an amazing wife for 36 years who has put up with me. Praise God. I usually can stop right there.

And say that's all I need. I've got wonderful children and grandchildren. My daughter Jill's doing better than I ever thought that she would do. I've got this wonderful privilege to lead this wonderful church and these people love me in spite of myself.

Lord, this is wonderful. You know what, when you start naming off all these things that the Lord has done for you. I've got good health.

I love what I do. I've got a nice house. And you start going through this, I'm telling you what you were laying in bed worrying about just seems to kind of not matter. So what if I don't have a Ferrari? So what if I don't wear a Jimmy Choo? You say, Lon, I'm a little worried about you.

No, no, no. So what? What difference does it make, Lord, in light of all the blessings you've given me? It is an amazing, amazing therapy that works. Why? Because it's biblical and forget none of his benefits. I hope it will work for you.

It does for me. And you know what? I love that hymn. And because I love it, we're going to all stand and sing it. Come on, up you go. Let's go. And listen, we're going to sing an acapella. And when it comes to leading, I'm the best you got today. Sorry, right now. This is it.

You got me. So are you ready? First verse.

Here we go. Sing with me. When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed.

When you are discouraged thinking all is lost. Count your many blessings angels will attend. Help and comfort give you to your journeys.

And come on, sing. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one.

Count your many blessings, see what God has done. Hey, give yourselves a hand. That was good.

Okay. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for reminding us of biblical truth today. And indeed, Lord Jesus, bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, knowing the word of God, thinking the word of God, and running everything that gets whispered in our ear through the sieve of the word of God and its truths.

That is the way we repulse the attacks of the enemy. That is the way that we keep ourself on the straight and narrow. And that is the way we stay right in the center of God's will and God's blessing for our life. And so, Father, make us men and women who are mentally disciplined. Men and women who know the word of God because we've taken time to study it.

Men and women who believe the word of God and men and women who run every thought through the word of God. That's the greatest protection that we can possibly have. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to implement that protective system in our lives. Thank you for talking to us today, Father. Change the way we live, even the way we fall asleep at night, because we were here and sat under the teaching of your word. And we pray this in Jesus' name.

And what do God's people say? Amen. Have a wonderful week. Count your blessings. Amen.