God’s Way is Best

We want to take our Bibles for our Scripture reading this morning. If you'll turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3 this morning. Genesis chapter 3. I'd like to begin the reading this morning in verse number 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, 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. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. 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. 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. 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.

I pray this morning that God will bless the reading of his word to our hearts. God had told Adam and Eve that what they were permitted to do, and what they were prohibited from doing. He made it very clear. He did not speak in confusing words. He spoke plainly. Adam and Eve understood those instructions. It seems specifically that God gave those directions to Adam, and perhaps he's the one that communicated those to his wife, seeing that Adam walked with God first of all, and then Eve was formed from his own side. But obviously, whatever way that happened, we're not told explicitly, but we do know that Eve understood the prohibition. Eve understood it. In fact, she'll even add a little extra on to what God said when she says you're not even to touch it. We don't read that God said that. He just said you're not to eat of this fruit of the tree, of the knowledge of good and evil.

So Satan came to Eve in the form of the serpent. He questioned Eve's understanding of what was off limits for her, for them. Eve repeated God's instructions, didn't she? She repeated what God had told them. And I said she added that little extra part about not to touch it lest ye die. Of course, she didn't add the lest ye die part. That was obviously the end result of disobedience, but the touching part. And from her words in verse 3, as we look at verse 3, she recalled God saying that the result was to die. In verse 4, Satan, as he always does, he countered with, casting shade here, he countered by saying, you shall not surely die. Do you really believe that? Do you really believe you're going to die? Are you that simplistic to believe that you're actually going to die if you don't follow what God said? Do you really think that?

In verse 5, he actually says the opposite is going to happen. The opposite to what? The opposite to what? What do you think and what you've been told is going to happen. It's actually not that you're going to die. As he puts it here. Look in verse 5. What did he say in verse 5? 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. Call someone a liar without calling them a liar, right? That's what Satan is saying. That's what Satan is saying about God. And yet, he is the father of lies himself. He's the father of lies. He promised Adam and Eve here that they're going to be elevated. They're going to be enlightened. They're going to be empowered.

You know, actually, by sticking to this narrow obedience to God and His Word and following His promises and prohibitions, you are actually limiting the possibilities for your life. There's so much more you can experience. There's so much empowerment and enlightening and understanding you'll have if you just think outside the box God has created for you here. Think outside the box. And with his carefully crafted speech that he gives here, he causes Eve, he entices Eve to fall for the lies of God. To fall for this illusion. And that's all it is. That what things look like to her own understanding, apart from God's instructions, are actually going to be able to become a reality for her. It looks good. Well, it probably did look good. It probably tasted good, right? I mean, sin, there is pleasure in sin for a season. There's pleasure in sin.

Now, there was nothing. God did not make a sinful tree here. This tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there was nothing we would be attributing sin to God if we said that He created a sinful tree. Who knows what exact kind of fruit was on that tree? It's always depicted as like an apple. But we're not told it was an apple tree. I mean, it could be any kind of tree. It might have been a tree we've never seen before. I don't know what it was, but it was a tree that God was testing Adam and Eve. Are you going to obey me or are you going to disobey me? It's by one man's disobedience that sin passed upon all men in death through that sin. But by one man's obedience, life, eternal life, has been made available to all.

And so we notice that this creature God had made, Satan is a creation of God, not Satan, Lucifer. And yet in his fall, he became known as Satan. He's the slanderer. He's the whisperer, the liar, the cheater, the deceiver, all of those things. He is opposed to God. And yet we notice that Eve, through his crafty speech, is enticed into listening to a creature of God rather than God himself. She's enticed to believe or to follow or to fall for the words of someone who himself was created. He didn't create the world. In fact, all he's ever done since the fall, since his fall from heaven, is to pervert and make it look like he's creating something. To pervert what God is, as intended, and make it look like, hey, this was my idea. No, it was not your idea. It was that you took God's wonderful, beautiful design and you twisted it. And you made it into something that it wasn't supposed to be.

And that's why death, through sin, of course, man had to fall for it, but through sin, he empowers men in sin through the lust of the flesh, through the lust of the eye. That means the intense burning desire for what we see. I've got to have it. I see it. I want it. I've got to have it. I covet that thing. And once I have it, this is the pride of life. Look at what I have that you don't have. Look at what I can do that you can't do. Look at me. Look at the level of enlightenment and empowerment and understanding that I have achieved that you are not at. That's what man lives by. That's how man functions in his sin apart from God.

But we notice that, that Adam was responsible for reminding his wife, oh, honey, do you remember what God told us? He said, he said, do not eat of this fruit, of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Do we read Adam saying that? No. We don't read of him saying that. He did not love God or his neighbor, his wife enough to stand up and say, no. We're not going to do that. We're not going down that path. It is a path of a dead end. It's a dead end. But instead, he didn't want to rock the boat. Didn't want to ruffle feathers. Didn't want to upset his wife in any ways. Evidently, that's the only logical conclusion I can come to. And so he just went along with it.

It says, scripture tells us that he was not deceived in the transgression. He was not deceived. It's not, it's not that he was saying it. Oh, you know, that's right. That's a really nice looking fruit over there. I think we ought to eat it. He just kind of went along with it. He didn't want to be the stick in the mud. Didn't want to ruffle the feathers. And so he went along with the serpent's empty promise. And they found out very soon that indeed it was empty. Not only was it empty, but it was a deceit. It was a lie. It was a lie. They, Adam caved and he partook. And, oh, you know, after, after the pleasure of sin passes, then the reality of sin and the consequences of it begin to settle in.

And we notice that Adam and Eve, when they sin, the scripture tells us this morning, their eyes were opened. Their eyes were open. What do you mean? They're walking around with their eyes closed? No, that's not what it's talking about. Their eyes were open. They could, they could see. Obviously she said, it looks good. The, the, the, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of evil looks good. So she was seeing, they were seeing things obviously, but there's another understanding here that their eyes were open to something they had not been open to before. They perceived something they had not perceived before. They realized, obviously they were naked, which they had not really thought about before. They hadn't really given it the thought. It didn't mean anything. It did not mean anything sinful or shameful or anything to give any thought to particularly. It was just normal, right?

And yet now their eyes were open to this and they sewed themselves aprons and they covered themselves and they hid from the presence of God. And they heard the voice of God walking and coming and saying, where, where are you, Adam? Where, where'd you go? Where art thou? They realized they were naked. Their eyes were opened. And so their sin affected the way that they perceived reality. Before this, they had perceived everything and seen it in the light of God having created it. And it is good. No sin, nothing, nothing of lust and pride. And yet somehow, when they sin, God's allowed, and he knew this was going to happen, but their, their eyes to be open to things and seeing them from a sinful perspective. I don't think I can really go much further in describing that and, and, and explaining that than simply to say they looked at things differently.

Now they looked at it differently and God knew that that was what was going to happen. And Satan knew that that's what was going to happen, but he made it sound, very appealing and said, this is going to be really good. This is going to be really good. When in fact it was not really good at all. Another thing that was a side effect of this is not only did they perceive their own nakedness, but they did not, they did not have the sight of God that they had before. They did not, they did not, they, they, they lost out on that sight of God that they had. But remember, he was walking with them. He was fellowshipping with them, but now they were banished. They were banned from the tree of life. They were put out of the garden and they lost this paradise that they once had the privileged access to.

We notice in Ephesians, if you think with me, we'll turn over there to Ephesians chapter four, verse 18. I think of this wording in Ephesians, Ephesians 4, 18. It says, it describes well our sinful condition apart from God. And in verse 18 of chapter four, Ephesians four, verse number 18, Paul makes this statement. I'm going to, I'm going to read it here in verse number 18. It says, having the understanding darkened, but I want us to notice this right here. Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. This, this blindness that comes upon man through sin is a heart blindness that causes men to be alienated from the life of God. It is a heart blindness that produces an alien, or it is accompanied by, is, it is characterized by an alienation. What does it mean to be alienated? You're no longer in the, in, in fellowship. You're no longer together. You're, you're separated. You're alienated from that which we were once together with.

And so we see that even Romans three tells us this is man's condition. There is none that understand it. There is none. Verse 11 of Romans three says there's none to understand it. There is none that seeketh after God. It says in verse 18, there is no fear of, there is no fear of God before their eyes. You, you will remember what Jesus told Nicodemus over in John three and verse three. Remember where he said, and we just alluded to this last week as we were looking later on in John chapter three, I, I briefly gave the introduction to that passage where John Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. And what does Jesus tell him? He says, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He cannot see it. So if you're alienated from the life of God and you cannot see the kingdom of God, that's, that's because you are a son of Adam. That's because you are a sinner. I, we were all born in sin and shaven in iniquity, right? Apart from God. But that is not, thankfully, that's not the end of the story. That's not the end of the story, folks.

But from Adam's time on to see the invisible God, we sang this morning face to face with Christ, my savior. What will it be? When with rapture, I behold him, Jesus Christ who died for me. But now we see through a glass darkly dimly, but we see, how do we see him? We see him by faith, faith. We see him by, faith. We hear his word and faith comes by hearing the word of God. And we, him, whom having not seen, we love and rejoice. Even though we can't see him face to face yet, we rejoice, rejoice with joy, unspeakable and full of glory. Why? Because we know he loves us. He would never have done what he's done for us if he doesn't love us. Not only did he love us, but he was able, and he is able, able to save us. I mean, I could love you, but I have no ability to save you. I have no ability to give you renewed access to the tree of life. I can't do that. Only Jesus Christ, the son of God, come in flesh, can do that for us. And he has done that for us.

But because the natural man doesn't understand, seek God, doesn't see God, he tries to create a God. He tries to create something in the place of God. This is what Satan certainly wants. He wants man to create an image of God and not worship the true God himself. This is what man has done throughout history, and this is why man tends to worship the creature more than the creator. Sure. Is this not what Eve was essentially doing when she listened to the creature instead of the creator? She's listening to the creature. Well, the creature's appealing to something that I feel, felt need or a want or appealing to my desires, even though she didn't necessarily, she didn't have sinful desires at that point. But I'm going to lean to my own understanding in this, because even though I don't know, as much as God knows, I feel like, I feel like this is going to be a good way here. I mean, he just makes it sound so convincing. That's the reason why the Bible says, lean not to thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. So, be not wise, the scripture says. Don't be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord, depart from evil.

So, Paul spoke of a blindness on Israel. Paul spoke about a blindness upon Israel. He said, well, we can look at a lot of passages that talk about how Israel, God's intention was that for them and for Christ, as they receive, that they would receive the Messiah. And that through him, they would become, or he would become in the midst of them, a light to the Gentiles. Well, he still is the light to the Gentiles. But Israel has turned their back on God. They said, well, they said, crucify him, crucify him on Jesus Christ. Crucify him. The whole modern state of Israel, I'm not saying every single member or Jew is an unbeliever, but they're not. Thank God for that. But the modern state of Israel is in unbelief. They're in apostasy. They're anti-Gods. Anti-Gods. In fact, they're, some of the most, one of the most vocal anti-God nations that exist on the face of the earth today. They're on the cutting edge of technology trying to replace the need or the thought of God to the point that they're printing lab-grown meat and saying, look at how wise we've become.

They are doing things like developing, they're the, one of the biggest proponents, as the state of Israel is one of the biggest proponents of the LGBTQ plus agenda, which is the perversion of God's intention. We could go on down the list. There's some good technology, certainly that's come out of Israel, but much of what they're doing, even look back to the founding of the modern state of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister. He said the state of Israel exists solely due to the people of Israel and primarily due to the army. Chaim Wiseman, Israel's first president and scientist who founded the Wiseman Institute of Science said, I trust and feel sure in my heart that science will bring us to this land, will bring to this land both peace and a renewal of its youth, creating here the springs of a new spiritual and material life. Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister said, trust yourself, create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny inner sparks of possibility in flames of achievement. Moshe Dayan, the minister of defense, minister of agriculture, he was a former chief of staff of Israel's defense forces, said, our foremost duty is to live up to the vision of ourselves, to fashion a pioneering state, a creative society that flourishes from the fruits of its own, labor.

I'll just say one more thing, and I know this is representative of the spirit of Israel. Now, God is going to turn their hearts. It's coming. It hasn't come yet. The bones have come together, but there's no spirit in them, there's no life in them. Ezekiel 37. The time is coming when there will be a turning back to the Lord, at least of a remnant within Israel,

but we notice that it says, I was watching the inauguration recently of Donald Trump, and there was a rabbi that prayed in the inauguration. His name was Rabbi Ari Berman. He said in the conclusion of his, he was giving the benediction, he says, stir within us the confidence to rise to this moment, for while we trust in God, God's trust is in us. God's trust is in us.

I hate to break it to you, but God's trust is not in us. We are to trust in God. God's trust is not in us. I believe this is yet another indication of a Jew in unbelief toward God. I've never heard a Christian say, God's trust is in us. No, God's trust is not in us. In any way, shape, or form. I don't care how you spin that phrase. You can't make it biblical. You can't make it right. You cannot.

And just as Eve forgot the Lord, at least in this moment, we see that Israel has forgotten the Lord. The Lord warned them about this. He said, take heed unto yourselves. Deuteronomy 4.23. There's a number of passages in Deuteronomy that say this. Take heed unto yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and make you a graven image.

Well, in the old days, in the simple days of idols, if we can say it that way, they were just little stones, you know, little wood figurines. They cut out and carved out, and they made them, and they bowed down to them. We worship you, idol, deliver us from the, you know, all these things. We don't necessarily, generally speaking, in our modern world, we don't bow down before, you know, an idol of stone. I'm not saying that there aren't people that do that. But we bow down before the works of our own hands and say, this is going to save us. This creature is going to save us. This man is our hope. This thing right here, this technology is going to save us. It's going to fix all of our problems. It's going to create a world peace. No, it's not. It never can. There's only one who can fulfill the promises that He's made. There's only one who can satisfy the longing of the human soul. There's only one who can bring about the peace that has been promised, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our hope. He is the only one who can save.

We're pilgrims here, folks, on this earth. We're not here to set up shop forever. We're looking for a new heaven and a new earth. This is not our eternal home as it is now. This present world, we're looking for a new heaven. We're passing through it. We're pilgrims. We don't have the luxury of being in paradise like Adam and Eve were in the beginning. We're living in this veil of tears, this shadow we're passing through right now in the valley, and yet we have the word of the same God they served. We have the same word He's given to us. He's told us, Thou shalt not, but He's also given promises, precious promises. He's given us direction. His word, if any of you lack wisdom, let Him ask of God. He gives liberally. He will not rebuke us for asking for wisdom. His word is a lamp to our feet. His word is a light to our path to guide our feet. You know, David prayed, Order my steps according to thy word. Order my steps He didn't want to. He knew his own heart's tendencies, and yet he was called a man after God's own heart, David was. He knew where his heart would lead him because he had seen it happen, right? He knew where his heart, apart from God's word, would lead him. Well, it looks good, sounds good, smells good, must be good, right? No. God only alone knows what is good for us.

Speaking of David, let's turn to David. Let's turn to David. Let's turn to David. Let's turn to David. Let's turn to David. Let's turn to David. Let's turn to David. Let's turn over before we bring this to a conclusion this morning to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. It's there in Psalm 119, verse number 16, that I'd like to read a few verses beginning with that 16th verse. In verse 16 we read, I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word. All right, that's good. Sounds good. We don't want to forget the word of God, right? What else is he saying? Deal bountifully with thy servants that I may live and keep thy word. You know, I'm not going to forget your word, but Lord, I'm looking to you to help me to keep, keep your word. And then we notice it says, he says, Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I am a stranger in the earth. Hide not thy commandments from me. My soul breaketh for the longing it hath unto thy judgments at all times.

We see that David, to David, the word of God was more important than his daily bread, right? I need you to speak to me. I need you to guide me. I trust your words. He would say in Psalm 139, verse 23, Search me, O God. Know my heart and know and try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

The Lord rebuked, Jesus Christ rebuked the spirit of Laodicea. He said, you're rich and increased and have with goods and have need of nothing. That is the spirit that God hates. It's repulsive to him, to Christ. He says, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth. I hate it.

What are we to be? God gave you and me a mind to think with, didn't he? He gave us a tongue to speak. He gave us an imagination. An imagination where we can visualize things in our minds and we can produce those things by his enabling. He gave us eyes to see. He gave us ears with which we may hear.

We didn't fashion ourselves. We're creatures, right? Just like Adam and Eve were. We're creatures of God. And even our mama and daddy didn't fashion us. God. Formed. That's not to take away from our appreciation for our parents at all. It's just to say that God is the one who fashioned us. He formed us.

Why did he do that? No two of us in this room have the same fingerprint. You look at everyone's eyes in this room. Your eyes are all different. We're all unique. And that holds true throughout the creation. Even identical twins are different. It screams. There's a designer. There's a creator. This is not just random chance. There is unique design and detail. Our DNA is different. Even a mother and baby's DNA. I put something in the bulletin about the mother and baby this morning. But we are fearfully and wonderfully made by the creator. Each one of us.

I think of a little story that was told once about a boy. It's just an illustration. But a little boy lost a boat that he had made. He had made. He had built it himself. And so he was determined to go and get that boat back. And he ended up finding it in a second hand, you know, like a thrift store or whatever. And he went and took all of his money and he bought that boat with his money. That was an imperfect illustration. But at the same time, it kind of gives you a picture. We are twice. We are twice owned like that boat became. You and I were not only gods by creation, but we are gods by salvation. And now, for sure, everything we are and we have belongs completely to him.

We are not our own. We don't get to say, I'm going to do what I want with my body. No, I'm not going to do what I want with my mind, my ears, my eyes, all of this. No, God can tell me what to do in his word. And I'm going to obey what he says. I'm going to do what he says. No matter how good and fruitful and juicy and all these, you know, whatever the promises. If you'll just trust in this man or this artificial intelligence over here and it'll make you, it'll give you hope. No. My trust is in God.

I pray for my leaders and I trust in God. That's where my hope is. My hope is in him. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the kingdom. The counsel of the ungodly standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, doth he meditate day and night.

May God help us to keep our eyes of faith on him. Let's not lower our vision. I know we see the things that are going on around us. Some things excite us. Some things trouble us. All that kind of thing. Let's get our eyes on him. Let's keep our eyes on the Lord and let's keep them there because that's what we were designed for. We can't see him with the physical eye, no. We see him with the eye of faith. And how do we see him? We see him as we say, Lord, I want to behold wondrous things out of your law. I want you to talk to me and guide me and show me your way. And he'll do it. And he does it. So may we look ever to Jesus as the hymn says. He will carry you through.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for these reminders from your word this morning. We're thankful that our hope and our confidence is not in man. Not even in ourselves, Lord. It's so easy. We might say with the spirit that was brought out about Laodicea, how they said we're rich and increased with goods. I have a lot of money in the bank account. I have firearms. I have a lot of security at my house. I have money. I have a nice car. I have all these things. But Lord, in a moment, as with Job, you could take every bit of that away from us. We can create an idol out of anything. In fact, our own hearts tend to create those idols.

But Lord, help us to truly behold you as you are. In power. In your truthfulness. In your ability to fulfill your promises. Even though sometimes you tell us, wait. Wait. Be patient. To the coming of the Lord. Be patient. The husbandman has long patience. Waiting for the precious fruit of the earth. Help us in the waiting period to be obedient. And to be trusting and obeying your plan for our lives. We pray that you guide us this week, Lord. Guide our steps. Guide our thoughts and words. Help us to point out how good our God is to those around us. Help us not to be discouraged or enamored with all the inventions of man. But help us to be delighting in our God. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.