The Temptation
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
There are some very vital questions which naturally tome to most minds. These we will seek to answer.
1. Did God know that man would sin when He created him? This question has been asked us on various occasions, and we have always replied, that God did know. Known unto God are all of His works from the creation. God knew that man would sin before He created him, because Jesus Christ was a Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, and was dedicated to His Calvary work as a part of God's eternal plan, both in creation and redemption.
God knew not only who would sin, but how many would sin. He knew also who and how many would be saved. In truth, God wrote the names of the redeemed in the Lamb's Book of Life, and He gave them unto Christ as the heritage of His Calvary work, before man was created.
God knew who would be saved, and whom He foreknew He foreordained to be conformed unto the image of His Son. He knew who and how many would be damned, but He did not foreordain their damnation.
God not only knew who and how many would be saved, but He knew every strategy of Satan which would be used in the wreckage of the race. He knew every avenue that sin would take. He bottled up, as it were, all of the tears, heard all of the cries, saw all of the woes, and weighed all of the carnage of sin, before He created man.
God, of course, knew the whole entail of the plan of redemptive grace. He knew and ordained the steps which would be taken for man's salvation, and He planned beforehand the Word of God which would give unto man the Divine revelation of the redemption.
2. If God knew that man would sin before He created him, then why did He create him? This is a second question, contingent upon the first. We find many questioning the wisdom of God in His creation, inasmuch as God is omniscient.
The difficulty with most of us is that we look at the creation while it is yet an unfinished picture. In spite of the tremendous wreckage of sin, and the innumerable host of the damned; in spite of the incomparable agonies of Christ's substitutionary work upon the Cross, yet, we read, "That Christ will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied."
Sometimes, we think that but few will be saved. The Bible, however, speaks of innumerable multitudes of the redeemed.
If we would answer the query, "Why did God make man?" let us take our journey into the eternal ages to come, and get the vista of the New Jerusalem, and the Bride, the Lamb's Wife, clearly before us. Let us then visit the new heaven and the new earth, and behold the nations of the saved who walk in the light of the City.
If we would know why God made man, we must first know the exceeding riches of His grace, which will be revealed in the ages to come.
I. THE APPROACH (Genesis 3:1)
1. Satan's sagacity. There is a little expression concerning Satan in the Book of Ezekiel which runs, "Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness." Satan was extremely wise in his approach to the woman. He spoke through the serpent who was more subtle than any beast of the field.
2. Satan's subtlety. Not only was Satan wise, but his sagacity was displayed in his subtlety.
(1) Satan covered up his real self. He did not tell the woman that he was the one who had been cast out of Heaven. He did not even let her know that he was anywhere in or about the Garden. God had given unto Adam a warning of Satan's possible approach, when He had commanded him to dress and to keep the Garden. The word "keep" carries with it the thought of "guard," or, "protect," suggesting a possible enemy.
(2) Satan's use of the highest forms of life. Satan used the serpent because of his supremacy, in those days, over every other beast of the field. Until this hour, Satan can far better press forward his deceptive work through the ministration of the great, and the wise, and the noble of earth, than through the outcast and the scum of humanity. If Satan can possibly find a religionist, a Pharisee, or, a Sadducee, or, a Judas, through whom he may speak, he is more than delighted.
3. Satan's fallacy. Satan began to speak unto the woman by asking a question which threw a question mark upon the character and honor of the Almighty. Satan thus was false to God, false to the woman. He is always false and undependable in what he does and says.
II. THE RESPONSE (Genesis 3:2-3)
1. God's gracious bounty. The woman said unto the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the Garden." In this admission from the woman, we see how gracious God had been in supplying to man enough, and to spare. God has given promise to every one who names His Name, that He will supply all their need according to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus.
A supply that is according to the riches of a king, would not be scant. Certainly, a supply according to the riches of the eternal God must be abundantly sufficient. The very earth is filled with every necessity of every kind for man's bounty. Not only this, but God causes His blessings to fall upon the poor and upon the rich; upon the saint and upon the sinner. God is gracious to the ungracious, and merciful to the unjust.
2. God's one restriction. The woman admitted, "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the Garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." The woman overstated God's restriction, because God had not said, "Neither shall ye touch it."
God's denials unto mankind, are always beneficent. There is a reason for every, "Thou shalt not."
When the Lord puts His veto on anything, let us abide by His command. If He says, "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men," let us not break through and try to taste forbidden sweets.
III. SATAN'S SECOND WORD (Genesis 3:4-5)
1. Impugning God's honesty. Satan, through the serpent, said unto the woman, "Ye shall not surely die." God had said, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," This spirit of Satan is abroad in this twentieth century of enlightenment. The Word of God is being set at naught, repudiated, and denounced by thousands of men who profess to be preachers, and leading laymen in our churches.
God says that, "Without shedding of blood is no remission," and His statement is reinforced by innumerable Scriptures. These men step forth and ridicule the Blood, announcing, withal, that men are saved by their own good deeds and lives. God states that Christ will reign on David's throne, and men deny and ridicule the statement.
2. Impugning God's motive. The devil said, "God doth know," etc. In other words, Satan is not only giving God the He, but he is saying that God is deceptive; and that He knows that He is misleading Adam and Eve.
This same spirit is also rampant today. Some men proclaim that God talks of hell, and of the lake of fire merely to scare men, when He, Himself, knows that there are no such places.
3. Promising better things. God said, that eating of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the Garden would bring death. The devil asserts that it would bring blessing, that their eyes would be opened, and that they themselves would be as gods knowing good and evil. In other words, Satan asserts that God is straining every nerve to keep man out of his best. How false is all of this, and yet how prevalent!
IV. EVE'S DISOBEDIENCE (Genesis 3:6)
1. The lust of the flesh. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, she did eat. Here you have the thought of the flesh, and its plea. Eve had plenty to satisfy her appetite without eating that which was forbidden.
God has said to the Christian, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." The "lust of the flesh" has a far deeper significance than foods which are for the stomach. The lusts of the flesh are made manifest, and include adultery, uncleanness, witchcraft, hatred, envying, murders, revellings, and many such like things.
2. The lust of the eye. The woman saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eye. It did not seem foreboding, but rather attractive.
There are many things today which appeal to the eye. These are beautiful without; they are alluring and enticing. David said, "I made a covenant with my eyes." God has taught us that we should not walk after the sight of our eyes.
3. The pride of life. The woman saw that the fruit of the tree was desired to make one wise. Not all sinners major in the lusts of the flesh, nor even in the lusts of the eye. Some may be fairly decent on these lines, and yet they may follow far from God in the realms of human wisdom and the pride of life.
The three things we have mentioned are all included in the Epistle of John as "The things of the world." Remember how Jesus Christ said, "I have chosen you out of the world."
V. SIN'S RESULT (Genesis 3:6-7)
1. She gave also unto her husband. The Bible plainly says, "No man liveth unto himself." Had the woman sinned alone, it would not have drawn the race into the awful chasm of darkness into which it fell. When, however, she gave unto her husband, and he did eat, then sin was passed on unto all who were born of Adam's line.
God has said, "As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all then, for that all have sinned." Again, the Bible says, "By one * * many were made sinners."
2. They knew they were naked. Satan had told them that their eyes would be opened; and their eyes were opened, alas, to the fact that they were sinners. This was not what Satan inferred. He spoke as though it would be a wonderful advantage to have opened eyes knowing good and evil. To this day men know that they are sinners, but that by no means makes their sin the less sinful. It increases, instead of diminishes sorrow.
3. They made themselves aprons. This was the effort of Adam and Eve to hide their sin. From that day on, the world of sinners has sought to clothe itself in order that it may cover up its shame. They that sin, sin in the night; they work their wreckage behind closed doors, and painted windows, and screens.
There is another truth here. The world tries to cover its sin with a bloodless robe. It seems to think that the robe of the slain Lamb is not necessary. There is a great deal of "fig-leaf preaching" these days, as though sin could be taken away by merely being hidden from sight. The heart, however, is still deceitful and desperately wicked, and no raiment of false profession can change the villainy of the human heart.
VI. THREE QUESTIONS (Genesis 3:9-12)
1. Where art thou? Some one has said that the first question of the Old Testament is, "Where art thou?" and that the first question of the New Testament is, "Where is He?"
God came walking in the Garden in the cool of the day. Adam and Eve were hiding from God in the midst of the trees. However, all things are open and naked to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. God called unto Adam and said, "Where art thou?" We wish that each unbeliever might ask himself the same question. If he answered truly, he would say: "I am far from God." "I am walking in the way that leads to death." "I am without hope, without God, and without Christ; an alien to the covenants of promise." Oh, lost one, where art thou? and where art thou going? What will be the end of thy rejection of Christ, and of thy sinful heart?
2. Who told thee? God went back of man's sin, to its source. Didst thou do this of thyself, or did another tell thee? God realized that the enemy in his power had swayed the man from the way of righteousness and of truth.
3. Hast thou eaten? In the third question is the very essence of all sin. Sin is the transgression of the Law. Sin is disobedience. God said, "Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?"
Man brought upon himself the havoc of sin. He suffered because he ate; he groaned because of his own transgression. When we turn to our own way, we must be willing to pay the price thereof.
Salvation brings man back into the place of obedience. Sin is a star unorbed swinging on its own maddened way, out of the will of God.
VII. THE GREATEST OF ALL QUESTIONS (Genesis 3:13)
1. The answer to the question before us reaches through the course of earthly time. In order to tell what the woman had done, we would have to encompass the story of the Adamic race, not alone in its beginning, but on down through the centuries, so long as the earth endures.
Every sinner who lives must have his part in this tale of woe. Every sigh and every sorrow, every tear and every tragedy, every heartache and every broken home all is a part of the answer to this question.
2. The answer to the question before us reaches beyond the shores of time into the eons of eternity. Hell and its terrors, sheol and its darkness, the lake of fire and its horrors, all have their part in the answer to the question, "What is this that thou hast done?"
3. The answer to this query shows the source from which all of sin's sorrow and punishment flow. It is childish to complain at God, and say that God damns the sinner. God does pronounce the curse, but death and hell are the wages of sin. It is sin, when it is finished, that bringeth forth death. We reap that which we sow.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Temptation is strikingly set forth in the following: "Fred Boone stood dumbfounded as he watched the twenty-foot python crush the unfortunate man. Gaining control of himself in another instant, he swung his rifle to his shoulder. There was but one chance of saving Sundu. With steady aim he drew bead on the head of the python. One, two, three times he fired, and then added two more. Each shot scored a bird's-eye. Five bullets penetrated the head of the python, and the coils slowly unfolded as the beast writhed in its death struggle.
"Cries of excitement burst from the natives as Fred fired, superseded by exclamations of joy as they recognized the missionary and saw the python writhing in death. The moment the folds loosened sufficiently, Sundu slipped from them and made his escape. Bowing before the white man, the black chief acknowledged his gratitude to the missionary. Now was Fred's opportunity, and he grasped it immediately.
"'Yes, Sundu, I saved your life that time. In return for it, I want permission to preach to your people. The evil one has bound them with sin, and they are fast in its coils, even as you were in the python's power. None can save from the serpent of sin but Jesus Christ, who crushed sin and freed its captives. I have freed you from the python, but a greater serpent has you In its power. Jesus Christ alone can save you. Do I have your permission to carry the Gospel of Christ to your people?'
"Sundu, grateful as he was, granted the request, and Fred accompanied him to the other side of the kopjies, where he carried on his warfare against another serpent, sin, and in the course of years he saw Sundu and many of his tribe accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. And thus the work of the Lord continues in every clime, under varying conditions, and in peculiar circumstances, and individual believers are added to the Body of our Lord," L. L. Wightman, in "Gospel Herald.