The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Oh, friends, open your eyes! May God, the Holy Spirit, open our eyes that we will see what the devil is doing to us. We can get out of the trap because we have a Savior to rescue us.

Announcer: Temptation often comes disguised in ways that appear attractive, reasonable, and harmless. Today on The Healing Word, Pastor Jack Morris shares "The Serpent and the Woman." We'll revisit the Garden of Eden and discover how Satan works to deceive and how God's Word protects us from spiritual destruction.

Pastor Jack Morris: It's difficult to imagine a time in human history where there was only perennial good: no evil, no sin, no selfishness, no avarice, no crime, no violence. What a place it must have been. I could live in a place like that. It was called Paradise; it was called the Garden of Eden. Now, how long that existed, none of us know, but it was here. It was a beautiful time. But then something tragic happened, something very, very terrible, and it was all lost. All lost.

Sometimes when we lose something that is good, it's difficult to get it back in exactly the same way that it was in the very beginning. So, we need to lay hold and hold fast to this great gift of salvation that the Lord has given to us—the love of the church, the communion of the saints, the relationship with God.

Thank God Jesus Christ came and is now in the process of restoring what was all lost back in Paradise. He is in the process of giving it back. Now, it'll never be like it was exactly then, to the exact extent that it was then. And in our lifetime, it will never be a geographical location that we will be able to give someone an address and say, "Go there on your next vacation; that's Eden restored. That's the Garden of Eden. That's Paradise." It'll never again be a geographical location in human history.

But the good news is that the Garden of Eden, or the Paradise experience, can be restored to the heart. You can have it inside, and wherever you are, there you will experience the fellowship and the presence of God and the wonderful peace that the Lord had in Paradise; now He will have it within you.

Let's look at the Scripture and see how the Lord Jesus Christ is giving it all back and the process that we are in with Him in the restoration of Paradise. We're in Genesis chapter 3, verse 1: "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made." Now, the serpent—who was the serpent? To find out, we must turn to Revelation chapter 12, verse 9. If you want to turn over there very quickly, you'll find out exactly who the serpent was. Revelation 12, verse 9, it says: "Now the great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray."

Now, that's his business. That's his job. That's his great focus: to lead people astray, people who are now not astray. He wants to lead them astray. We know who the serpent is: the devil, Satan, the dragon. But Jesus Christ has come to help us to discover a relationship with God and to bring us back into the way that is right, the way of righteousness.

The serpent. What happened? There was a beautiful garden. And then some strange character moves into the garden. That character is called the serpent. We know him from Revelation 12:9 to be the devil. Somehow this beautiful creature, this "shining one"—that's what the word "serpent" means in Hebrew, "the shining one." Say that with me: "the shining one." The shining one. He does not come with corruption. He does not come to lead us astray or to tempt us with evil, with sleaziness, with filth. No, he comes with beautiful shining glory.

He is crafty, the Scripture says. Now, the Lord has given us His Word to help us to be more crafty than he is. And so my prayer is that God will come and enlighten us and help us that we will not be ignorant, illiterate Christians, but that we will know the will of God, we will know the Word of God, and we will see his craftiness when he comes to try to dupe us into doing his will.

Why else is this written? We can be wiser than we are, more filled with Christ's glory than we are. We can have more power in prayer than we have. We can have a closer relationship with God than we have. But friends, only as we desire it and hunger for it will we have it. There are so many of God's people who have taken an attitude of, "I'm a Christian, I'm enjoying life, why get fanatic about it? Let's not get too involved; let's just stay so involved." But there is a devil, there is a Satan, who in his craftiness is out to deceive and to destroy you and your happiness.

The shining one. The crafty one. More crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman—notice, are you following? The devil knows how to put thoughts in your mind. He spoke to the woman and he said, "Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?" Did God really say that? Yes, Satan, God really did say that.

Why do we want to question the Word of God, debate it, and try to understand it from where we are and our humanness? We need to say, "Yes, this is the Word of God. This is what God said." When you start questioning the Word, at that moment you stop obeying the Word. And when you are obeying the Word, you are not questioning the Word. This is the Word of God.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but this Word will stand forever. And in that great day, you and I will stand before God, and God's going to open it and say, "You had it. It was plain. It was in your possession. Why did you choose, deliberately choose, not to know it, to question it, to ignore it, to disobey it?" Did God really say I should do that? Did God really say that I shouldn't do this? Yes, Satan, God really did say that.

But notice how she begins to act, what she begins to say. Look at verse 2. The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it."

Where did she get that? "You must not touch it." You see, she did not have a precise knowledge of what God expected. And she begins now to paraphrase and put her thinking into it. And when she did that, she exposed herself. And when she added those words to God's clear statement, when she added "must not touch it" or you will die...

Immediately Satan knew that she did not have a precise knowledge of the Word, and he said, "Aha, I'm going to eat you alive." And he moved in. Look what he did in verse 4. He was never so bold, but look at his boldness. He said in verse 4, "You will not surely die." When he realized that she was not a student of the Word, a flat-out lie.

Now, he wouldn't have done that, he couldn't have done that, if she had known that she was a child of God, that she had the Word of God, and that she knew what the Word of God was. But when—you see, the devil knows where you are spiritually. He's taking your spiritual temperature. He knows exactly where you stand on the Word and on scriptural matters. He took her spiritual temperature and he knew that this woman did not measure up theologically and biblically, and that's when he moved in with his lie.

He said, "You will not surely die." The serpent said to the woman, verse 5, "For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." She thought about that and she said, "That sounds pretty good." Again, he's the shining one, and he makes it look pretty good, and he makes it sound pretty good.

You see, this woman thought at that moment, "I'll be like God. My husband Adam will be like God. When we have children, they will be wise. We would like to have wisdom also. We would like to be like God." Isn't that something? God tempting a person not with adultery, but tempting them with wisdom, with beauty, with shining beauty. And she thought, "Well, look, if I eat of that tree, why Adam by this afternoon will have a college education."

She was doing this for her husband and her family. "We're going to be wise. We're going to be intelligent. We're going to be smart. Would God want to hold back wisdom and intelligence from us?" You see how logical and reasonable it sounds? And here's where a woman is weak, but this is also where a woman is strong. Ladies, here's your strength.

You are relational in your thinking, in your disposition. Your life is built around relationships. You relate to your environment, you relate to your home, you relate to your children much more strongly than your husband. Here's a husband's weakness also: we're much more analytical. That's why a husband can up and say, "Oh, I got a new job out here in California." He can sell the house and move out of the neighborhood and move the kids to a new school and move the wife. The wife, she's attached to her neighborhood. She's attached to her neighbors. She's attached to the school. She gets attached. She's relational.

The devil will take your strong point and move in to tempt you in that particular area. She was so related to Adam, she thought she was doing him something good. "I'm going to make him so wise. I'm going to elevate him. God's been holding us back. God's holding something back. God's restricting us. But I'm going to free Adam to be the wisest of the wise. He will be just like God."

Now the Scripture says the woman was deceived. It says this in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 14: "The woman was deceived, not the man." Now, why was that? Is it because she's inferior? Because she isn't quite as smart as men? No, not at all. Not at all. The reason the woman was deceived and not the man was this—now men, I want you to listen to this.

She was deceived because she did not have the Word of God right from the mouth of God. Adam had the Word of God. Adam was told, "In the day you eat thereof, you will die." Adam was told that before God put him to sleep and took a rib from his side. He got it straight from the Lord.

His wife got it from Adam. It was second-handed. And when you begin to try to pass your religion on to your family and you say, "Well, my mother and dad were such good Christians and I know the Lord will take me to heaven because my mother and dad or my grandparents," listen, it doesn't work that way. Every man, every woman, every young person relates to God for himself or herself.

So when you try to pass it on, you can't inherit somebody else's salvation. And so here is this woman talking to the devil, giving her words that God gave to Adam. Adam knew; he had it straight from the mouth of God. He was there when God breathed it. She hadn't even been born yet when He said that.

But where was Adam when all this was going on? There's something here that is shrouded in mystery, and we'll never really know the full depths of this great catastrophe that took place. But why didn't he speak up? Was he somewhere else? Was he away? He knew. When she ate, she handed to him. She didn't know better, but he knew better. He sinned knowingly. She sinned in ignorance.

But learn it quickly: ignorance is no excuse because the condemnation and the judgment that came on Adam who knew also came upon the wife who didn't know. There's no excuse for being an ignorant, lukewarm, indifferent, lethargic Christian. There's no excuse for that at all. She said, "Oh, I didn't know, I didn't know." God said, "That's too bad. You now need salvation; now you've sinned just like your husband has sinned, basically."

But look at the Scripture. It says verse 6: "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for wisdom..." here it is. The same way he tempts everybody throughout all history: good, pleasing, and desirable. Nothing sleazy, nothing corrupt, nothing ugly, nothing detestable. It's good for food—something that is physically good. It's pleasing to the eye—something that you can see, something that you can desire. And desirable for the gaining of wisdom. Nothing wrong with that, only when you go against God's plain Word.

She took some and ate and also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and the poor dummy, he ate also. Now, one thing—well, women have a lot of things that are valuable and important—but one thing that a woman has that she uses repeatedly and she started using from the very beginning of time and that was the power of influence.

Ladies, I'll tell you the truth: you have a power in your home. Yes, you can hear all you want that the man is the head of the house, but there is an influence from the very beginning of time. Open your eyes, women! You can help your husband be a better man of God. And man, you can help your wives by standing for the truth that you know is true. God deliver us from spiritual weakness and cowardice.

Adam also went ahead and he ate. And look what happened in verse 7: "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." They knew in a moment of time that they were exposed before God. Stripped. They had lost their dependency upon the Lord. They had never been independent before, but now they're out there on their own.

And I drive down the streets and I see the houses—and you need to read the Vision Pastor's Pen column; it'll be coming out very shortly—how my heart aches because I see all of those people and all of those families on their own trying to solve problems in the marriage, parent-child conflict problems, conflict, hurt, pain, divorce. They're on their own. They're naked. They're exposed to Satan, to sin, and the world.

It's a terrible place. They're sewing their fig leaves trying to cover themselves, trying to get a handle on it, trying to correct the situation, but they have no one but their own power, wit, to depend upon. And they're completely exposed.

Now look at verse 8 through 10. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said, "Where are you?" He, Adam, answered, "I heard You in the garden and I was afraid."

Man had never known fear before. Never had he experienced fear. Never had he experienced shame. Never had he experienced guilt. But here are three perennial sins of the emotion and the spirit that were put upon man, and you and I have inherited them. We too know fear, shame, and guilt. Man had never known that. All the animals that God had created were his friends. God was his friend. But now he was exposed. He was naked to his environment. "I was afraid." Well, what do people who are afraid do? Look at the rest of the verse. What do they do? You tell me, friend. "So I hid." I was afraid, so I tried to run away. I tried to hide. I looked for a covering. I looked for a place.

But you know, you can run from God, but you cannot hide from God. Here was man so exposed. You see what had happened? The Pandora's box was opened. Catastrophe had taken place. There's no going back. He set a course for all humankind, and you and I are serving our emotions today and often the will of Satan today simply because we do not know God and we are following our first father Adam. "So I hid myself."

Now look what it says in verse 11: "And He said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat?'" The man said—what did he say? No, this is how he said it. This is how he said it. He said, "The woman *You* gave me. *You*." That's how he said it. "It's what *You* gave me. Why did You give me a bad one?"

A lot of men and women think they need a better spouse and they're out looking, and, "You know, if I had just had a different spouse, we'd have happiness in the home." It's the old blame game. "We'd have a great family life if it weren't for my wife. I'd have a great family life if it weren't for my husband." And there it goes again. You know, few people take responsibility for their own actions. Few people do that. They just start blaming.

Well, may God help us, dear friends. We need to know His will, and here it is in the book. And if we follow it, we will know power. We will go all the way back to Eden. God will take us back there and we will know joy. I must close because we need to come to the communion table.

But I want you to look at Genesis chapter 3, verse 6. Satan did something at that time. He said, "Take, eat." In Matthew chapter 26, Jesus broke the bread and poured out the fruit of the vine, and Jesus says, "Take, eat." You see what Satan offered, "Take and eat," were the verbs of destruction.

He showed Jesus all of the glory of the kingdoms of the world. He's going to show you things that are going to look good to you, that will perhaps be a blessing to you physically, a blessing to you emotionally, a blessing to you spiritually, and he's going to say, "Look at all of this that I can give you. Take it. Appropriate it." Jesus knew who Satan was. He recognized him. Oh friends, open your eyes! May God, the Holy Spirit, open our eyes that we will see what the devil is doing to us. We can get out of the trap because we have a Savior to rescue us—Jesus Christ. But you can't get out of the trap without Jesus.

Take it. Come on, eat it. But Jesus Christ comes. He goes to the cross. His body is broken, His blood is shed. And here it is. Here's the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus Christ that imparts life, eternal life, if we take it. If we take this in like you take food in and eat it, we will live forever.

Announcer: Though sin entered the world through deception, God has not left us without hope. Through Jesus Christ, we can experience forgiveness, restoration, and victory over the enemy. Visit The Healing Word online and explore the prayer wall where believers from around the world join together in prayer and encouragement. And if you would like to help this ministry continue proclaiming the truth of God's Word, we invite you to support The Healing Word with your prayers and financial gifts. Thank you for joining us today on The Healing Word. Next time, Pastor Morris continues with "Judgment and Hope," revealing both the consequences of sin and the mercy of God.