PowerPoint

Jack Graham: The Bible talks about this mystery of iniquity. There is no other rational explanation of what has gone wrong apart from what we read here in the Bible.

Guest (Male): On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how God had plans for your salvation before time began. Now here's Dr. Graham with his message, The First Gospel.

Jack Graham: Take God's Word and turn with me to the third chapter of the book of Genesis. Now when we look at our world, we know that something is desperately wrong. And we wonder what happened because life doesn't seem to be as it was meant to be.

When you stand by the side of the grave of a family member or a friend, you realize that this is not as it was meant to be. When a family is fractured, when a marriage is dissolved, you realize this was not as it was meant to be. When you find yourself in an emergency room and someone that you care about very deeply is hanging between life and death, you realize this is not as it was meant to be.

When the doctor looks at you and says, you have this disease, you have cancer, or you have this illness, and you wonder how and why, you realize this is not as it was meant to be. When you see hatred and violence and another war exploding somewhere across the globe, when you see famine and children dying of AIDS and orphaned babies and boys and girls, you realize this is not as it was intended to be.

When billions and billions of dollars are spent on pornography and immorality, you realize this is not as it was intended to be. On and on I could go. On the other hand, we look around us in the world and we see so much good, don't we?

Whether it's a beautiful sunset or sunrise in God's creation, a majestic mountain, an ocean, whether it's the smile on a child's face or the courageous response of a soldier to defend freedom or the courageous and faithful response of someone who is dealing with suffering in some way, you see so much good in the world side by side. On the one hand there is evil and suffering and pain. On the other side there is good and right.

How do we explain this? This message I'm calling The First Gospel. And this first gospel is in the third chapter of Genesis, which is one of the most important chapters in all of the Bible. It is a pivotal passage of scripture. Without Genesis chapter three, we wouldn't understand John chapter three. We wouldn't understand the rest of the Bible.

The whole story of the Bible, there would be a major piece missing without Genesis chapter three because this is in the first gospel, the foundation of everything that follows after. What happened in the garden at the dawn of creation explains so much of what we see happening to us even today. It explains the source of evil and suffering and pain and consequences of the wrong actions.

It also explains something of the goodness and the greatness that can be mankind's. The Bible talks about this mystery of lawlessness, this mystery of iniquity that is in the world. There is no other reasonable or rational explanation of what has gone wrong apart from what we read here in Genesis three and in the Bible.

Now let me remind you: God the Creator made man in His own image, placed him in the garden to experience life to the full. Paradise, where there was shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. They were content in the peace of God. They had peace with God. They had peace with one another and they had peace with the creation of God. They were made in the image of God, thus the potential and possibility for good.

They were made in the image of God to know God, to love God, to experience His presence. You have this same capacity for God, for good. But something happened that literally became ground zero of the human race. Who could forget 9/11? Those terrorist planes taking down the World Trade Center buildings and our portion of our Pentagon.

And when you watched those buildings crumble, I remember thinking as you saw the rubble on the ground that this is really a picture of the result of sin and terror in the world, the powers of evil that are dominant in the world. It was a devastating blow to America and to the world. It was then called ground zero. Well, ground zero really is found here in Genesis chapter three.

Ground zero of the human race and the result of what happened there is the destruction and the pain and the sin and the sorrow and the death that terrorizes the earth and every person in it from that day until this day. From that day until this day, mankind, womankind, has lived with a fretful and fearful future. So what happened in Genesis chapter three?

The first scene in the garden is what we're going to call Satan seduces. Look at the first five verses of Genesis three. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?"

And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die." But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

From Genesis three all the way to the last chapter of the Bible in the book of Revelation, when Satan is destroyed, actually in chapter 21 of Revelation when Satan is forever banned into eternity into the pit of hell. From that day and even in eternity past, there has been an insidious war, an invisible war, a supernatural war behind the scenes as the forces of evil attack the forces of good and of God.

You see Satan, Lucifer, was a created being of God, a part of the angelic host of God. You can read about this in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28. But there in heaven the archangel Lucifer, which means son of the morning, the shining one, rose up in rebellion against holy God. And while we don't understand all of this mystery of what takes place behind the scenes, we do know that before there was rebellion on earth, there was revolt in heaven.

And Satan said, "I will exalt myself above the throne of God." He thought he could be like the most high God. He thought he was greater than God, more wonderful than God, more beautiful than God. And when God saw the rebellion, He banned Satan from heaven and with him one-third of the heavenly host who followed them, and these became the demonic hellish forces that we know today in this spiritual war.

The fact is, this war is engaged every day since before time began. And Satan is very real. He is not a cartoon character. He is not a caricature. He is not down in hell with a pitchfork waiting for people to bend over to shovel coal. But he's loose on the earth. As a matter of fact, the Bible says he's the god of this age. He's the god of the world.

So he is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Jesus called Satan in John chapter eight and verse 44 a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Here we see him manifesting himself as a serpent. Satan comes seductively. And temptation is the solicitation, the seduction, the temptation for us to fulfill a God-given desire in a God-forbidden way.

That's really all sin, all temptation I should say. To fulfill a God-given desire in a God-forbidden way. And that's how Eve was tempted. This is how Adam was tempted and all of us since that day. God gave them the delicious foods of the garden, everything in it, said you may enjoy it, experience life to the full. He gave them one rule, one restriction to protect them lest they die. But Satan came along with these words. "Did God actually say that?"

Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, The First Gospel. Be sure to sign up to receive Dr. Graham's daily video devotional on the Seven Words from the Cross. This powerful study will remind you of the sacrifice Jesus made so that we can be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God.

Dr. Graham will share a short devotional about the final words that Jesus spoke from the cross and what they mean to us today. To sign up, text CROSS to 59789. It's absolutely free to join, so text CROSS to 59789. Right now you have an incredible opportunity to help someone experience the hope and truth of Jesus Christ.

And thanks to an exciting $150,000 matching grant, your gifts this month will be doubled to help proclaim God's Word even farther through PowerPoint Ministries. And as our way of saying thanks, we'd love to send you Dr. Graham's book, Help, a powerful resource showing you how Jesus meets you in your struggles with strength, comfort, and hope.

Text MAR to 59789 to give today. Again, that's MAR, M-A-R, to 59789. Now let's get back to today's message, The First Gospel.

Jack Graham: And as this beautiful being in the garden manifested himself, Satan manifested himself through this being, Satan is an impostor, a deceiver. He shows up sometimes as an angel of light in pulpits. Satan has his own false prophets. He has his own false religions. He has his own false gospels.

And he said, "Did God actually say?" He attacks the mind of Eve. In fact we're told in Second Corinthians 11:3, "But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a pure and sincere devotion to Christ." Beware the battle of the mind because Satan attacks the mind. Satan targeted Eve's mind with lies and she begins to entertain these lies.

Satan questions God's Word. That's where he always starts. Has God said? Is that really true? But then he questions God's goodness. There are only three times that Satan speaks in the Bible. Here in Genesis chapter three Satan speaks as we're hearing him now and he accuses—Satan is the accuser, the adversary—he accuses God to man.

He says, "God's holding out on you. God's depriving you. God's not really a good God. He knows your eyes are going to be open." He accuses God to man. Later on in the book of Job chapter one, another famous chapter of the Bible, Satan accuses man to God. He says, "Has Job served You for naught? You take away everything he has, God, and Job will deny You to Your face."

You see, he slandered the man. He accused this man of being a phony. And then in the fourth chapter of Matthew, the temptation of Jesus, Satan accuses, attacks the God-man. Three times he speaks and we learn so much about Satan and who he is every time he opens his mouth. Of course his guise, his guile is to cover himself under the cloak of darkness.

Here he questions God's goodness. God doesn't want you to be happy. He's denying you pleasure. He's denying you power. He knows if you eat of this fruit that He has told you not to eat, you'll not die but you will be as God Himself. That's the oldest lie and the original temptation. The fact is God did give Adam and Eve all they needed to enjoy life, to live life to the max for their own good.

God gave them one law, one rule in this relationship to protect them. Genesis 2:15 to 17, "The Lord God took the man, put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, 'You shall surely eat of every tree of the garden.'" Notice Satan said, "Did God tell you not to eat of any of the trees?"

Eve at least knew, "No, he said we could eat of everything but this one tree." "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in that day you shall eat of it, you shall surely die." And here Satan not only distorts God's Word and puts a question mark, but here he flat out denies the word of God. Verse four of chapter three again, "You will not die."

God said you will die. Satan says you won't die. And so the second scene then is man sins. Look at verses six and seven. "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food," notice the process here. She saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

Here we see as John tells us in the New Testament, the lust of the flesh. She desired it. The lust of the eyes. She saw it with her eyes. And the love of the world. This ambition to make one wise. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. "And she gave also to her husband who was with her and he ate." What was Adam doing for goodness' sake?

He's standing there watching and ultimately participating. Adam sinned with his eyes wide open. The Bible tells us that Eve was deceived but that Adam deliberately disobeyed God. So Adam became the human father of sin and his sin brought failure and spiritual death to the entire human race including you and me. And we have inherited this sinful nature. This is the original sin.

Man has fallen. Woman has fallen. And we are spiritually dead. To be spiritually dead means that we are separated now from God. This relationship, now no longer are Adam and Eve are they walking in fellowship and friendship in the fatherhood of God, but now as we're about to see, they run and they hide from God. Spiritually dead. Sin brings shame.

It brings guilt. It brings fear. It brings grief, lying and deceit and selfishness and separation and emptiness and restlessness. Sin promises pleasure but delivers pain. Sin promises freedom but delivers bondage. Sin promises life but delivers death. Now there is one sense in which we ought to thank God for the shame and the guilt of sin because it is this shame and this guilt that drives us to grace.

And that's what we see in verses seven and following. God seeks. "Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths." This ridiculous effort to cover up their own sin with the works of their own hands. But isn't that what man does? Isn't that what all religion does is to try to cover our sin with our own human efforts and works?

"And then they 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 from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." What a tragedy. This first couple that had walked with God so beautifully are now running from God, hiding. "But the Lord God, but the Lord God called to the man and said, 'Where are you?'"

Not asking for information. God knew exactly where they were. But in one sense saying, "Where are you now spiritually? What have you done? Why have you done this?" The man said, "I was afraid because I was naked. I hid myself." Now man doesn't repent. He starts making excuses. He said, "Who told you you were naked?"

And the man said in verse 12, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit and I ate." He took his troubles like a man and blamed it on his wife. He's rationalizing, excusing himself. "What have you done Eve?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me and I ate." Sin robs the couple of their innocence and of their intimacy with God.

They're no longer walking with Him. They're running from Him, which is the condition of the human race. We're all running from God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We hide from God in all kinds of ways, cover our sin various ways. Cop out. Maybe with alcohol and drugs. That emptiness, that restlessness, we try to fill it with other things.

You know you can even run and hide from God in church. You're not being honest with God. You're not living as God intended. You've broken God's command and you're running from God. Some blame others. "I couldn't help it, they just tempted me." Some blame circumstances. "It just happened, I don't know why it happened." Others blame their lack of opportunity.

"I didn't have the right education. I wasn't raised in the right environment." And it's this whole victimization kind of attitude that it's not my fault. But God says, your fault. We've all sinned. But in our sin God seeks. And this is an act of grace. God could have obliterated them in the moment, but He came looking for them just as God in Christ, the Bible says Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost.

This is the gospel, which is the final mark here, the final scene which is Jesus saves. Just as man was trying to pass the buck on his sin, Jesus said, "Okay, if you're going to pass the buck, pass the buck to Me." And in verse 15 of Genesis chapter three, there is this first gospel, this first promise, this first blush of the bright and glorious gospel of Christ.

Satan and sin had their day, but God saved the day. Sin doesn't win. God is still in control and He speaks this promise of life and love and hope. And here it is in verse 15. "I will put enmity," that's war, "between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He," who is He? Jesus. "He, the offspring of the woman, shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel."

This is a prophecy of the fact that the child who would come, the Savior who would come would be born of a woman. Every seventh, eighth-grade biology student knows that the seed belongs to the man. But here the seed belongs to the woman, the offspring of the woman. This alludes to the virgin birth of Christ. And then it speaks of the cross. The fact that Satan will bruise His heel.

But He, this Savior, shall crush, shall crush his head. And Romans 16:20 says, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." The gospel declares grace in the garden to a fallen, broken race. God illustrated it vividly for the first couple and for us when He stripped them of their human efforts to cover their sin, their shame, their nakedness.

And He killed an animal. And with the squeal of that animal and the death gurgle of that innocent animal and the blood flowing on the ground for the first time, man understood that the wages of sin is death and blood and that it would take a sacrifice to cover our sins. Not the sacrifice of goats and bulls and doves, but the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus, who takes away the sin of the world. What a promise. What a Savior. What a salvation.

Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, The First Gospel. I want you to know that right now your support goes even further to help share the hope of Jesus with people around the world. Thanks to a generous $150,000 matching grant, every gift this month will be doubled to help proclaim God's Word through PowerPoint Ministries.

That means you'll help reach even more people who desperately need truth, encouragement, and the gospel. And as a heartfelt thank you for your generous gift this month, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, Help, to remind you that you are not alone, your pain is not unseen, and God's peace is real. Text MAR to 59789 to have your gift doubled and request your copy today.

Again text MAR, M-A-R, to 59789. Be sure to sign up to receive Dr. Graham's daily video devotional on the Seven Words from the Cross. This powerful study will remind you of the sacrifice Jesus made so that we can be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God. Dr. Graham will share a short devotional about the final words that Jesus spoke from the cross and what they mean to us today.

To sign up, just text CROSS to 59789. It's absolutely free to join, so text CROSS to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

Jack Graham: Genesis three reveals what went terribly wrong when sin entered our world through the sin of Adam and Eve. And if we fail to recognize this ground zero for the human race, then we can't really understand or start to explain the reason for evil and suffering and pain in our world today or the need of salvation.

Now to fully understand the impact of rebellion on mankind, it's vital that we see Adam and Eve as the real people that they were. They're not just representative of mankind as some might have you believe, but these are real human beings. They lived in a perfect world, a peaceful paradise created by God especially for them, where they walked in a perfect relationship with God.

But something happened that day, the day that Adam and Eve sinned, that changed their existence and changed the world for all of history. Satan, appearing as a serpent, seduced Adam and Eve and tempted them to rebel against God, and their sin then became ground zero for the human race. So this is what we're seeing in Genesis three.

We're witnessing that point in human history where sin entered the heart of mankind and every destruction since, every pain, every sin, every sorrow, all death can be traced back to that moment in the garden. But ground zero isn't the only thing we find in Genesis three. We also discover hope. For the scripture foretells one who will crush the head of the serpent.

That's right, way back at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis three, we hear for the first time the good news and the gospel that makes it so very good. This is the first gospel in which sin and sorrow and death are forever destroyed by the power of Jesus Christ. What an incredible prophecy. Sin entered the heart of mankind, but God in His infinite mercy gave us the Savior, Jesus.

And that's why I hope that you'll call on Jesus today if you don't already know Him. Admit and repent of your sins and He will cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Let this day be the beginning of a brand-new life in Christ.

Guest (Male): And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, Help. Just text MAR to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how God's heart beats passionately for you. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.