Genesis chapter 3 where we just read is, of course, the famous passage about Eve being tempted by the serpent in the garden of Eden.
The Bible starts out there 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?
Now let's back up to chapter 2 and actually get this command from God in chapter 2 verse 16.
The Bible reads, the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
Then the serpent comes along in chapter 3 verse 1 and he questions whether God really said that.
Yea, hath God said.
The first thing that I want to point out about the serpent is that the Bible says that he is more subtle than any beast of the field.
What does it mean to be subtle?
It means to be cunning, to be intelligent, maybe crafty, but it could be either a good or a bad thing
because it just has to do with being smart and knowing how to do things.
Now keep your finger here and go to Proverbs chapter number 1.
Proverbs chapter number 1, we're going to compare with Genesis chapter number 3 because it's interesting that in Genesis chapter 3 verse 1,
the serpent is the most subtle of all the beasts of the field.
But then if we were to jump down to verse 14 in Genesis 3, the Bible says,
The Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field.
So in verse number 1, it starts out telling us he's the most subtle of all the beasts of the field.
He's the cunningest, the smartest, the craftiest, but in the end he ends up being the most cursed of all the beasts of the field.
Look at Proverbs chapter number 1 where it uses this exact same word, subtle.
It starts out in verse 1, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction,
to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment and equity.
Of course these are all good things.
And then it says to give subtlety, right?
Same thing we saw in Genesis, to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion.
A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.
And jump down of course to verse number 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
And the thing I want to point out is that great knowledge, great intellect, being smart or cunning is a good thing, but it must be combined with the fear of the Lord.
If you don't have goodness to go with it, it's meaningless, it's nothing.
It doesn't matter how smart you are, the smarter you are, the worse it can end for you if you're wicked, if you don't have goodness, if you don't have the fear of the Lord.
Because the serpent was the most subtle, but he ends up being the most cursed.
Why? Because he did not obey the Lord, did not fear the Lord, did not respect the Lord.
So knowledge is good, but obedience to God is better, okay?
So it says in verse number 1, the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman,
Ye hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.
So he starts out by trying to get man to question the word of God, right?
Did God really say that?
And people will do the same thing today when you quote them the Bible, they'll say like, well yeah, but how do you know that God really said that?
Or is that really what God said?
And they try to get you to question scripture.
And what I'm going to be preaching about this morning is I'm going to be showing you that the temptations here that the devil uses and the downfall of Eve and Adam are the same type of things that we deal with today, every day, every week.
These are constantly the patterns that go on in our own lives.
The devil back then wanted people to question God's word.
Obviously he still got that same plan today to get people to question God's word and say, yea hath God said?
Did God really say that?
You should 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 has said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said to the woman, ye shall not surely die.
Now this is in direct contradiction to what God said because if you go back to verse number 17 of chapter 2, at the end of 2, 17, it says, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
And then in chapter 3, this is just the direct lie, ye shall not surely lie.
So the devil starts out just by questioning God's word, but then he takes it up a notch and just flat out denies the word of God and just says, you will not surely die, even though God said you would.
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as God's, knowing good and evil.
Now I want to apply this to our lives.
You know, if we know the word of God, well, this is one way that we can avoid temptations in our lives and avoid sin because the Bible says thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
So God's word in our heart can help keep us from sin.
And I want to show you here that actually Eve is very inaccurate here in what God actually said.
And in fact, I'm going to show you several aspects of what she says where the devil is more accurate than she is.
Like the devil actually quotes what God said much more accurately than what she does in several different areas.
So let's let's look at this very carefully.
She says 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.
So the first thing I want to point out about what she says is she says the tree that's prohibited is the one in the midst of the garden.
Everybody see that?
She says you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it.
There's no mention of not touching it in God's command in Chapter two, lest ye die.
Nothing about surely dying, just lest you die.
And watch what the serpent says.
The serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die.
So he brings back the surely from God's actual command, where God said in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die.
He brings back the surely that she left out.
For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, he brings back the in the day you eat thereof from Chapter two that she left out.
Then your eyes shall be open and you shall be as God's knowing good and evil.
He brings back the fact that it's actually about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
So in three different ways here, he is more accurate about what God said.
You know, it's a shame that he knows the Bible better than Eve, who ends up falling into sin.
And isn't it interesting how she is just taking a very loose quotation of what God actually said.
Now, whether that's because she got a loose quotation from Adam or whether she has turned it into this more loose interpretation where she's forgotten some of the details and mixed up some of the details.
Because back up to verse number nine of Chapter two, look at verse number nine of Chapter two.
Let's see which tree is in the midst of the garden.
It says and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the site and good for food.
The tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
So the tree that's actually specifically mentioned as being in the midst of the garden is the tree of life that's actually in the dead center there.
Okay, so she doesn't really get it as accurate even as Satan does.
So one of the points I'd like to draw from this is that if we're going to keep God's word, if we're going to follow God's word, if we're going to resist the temptation.
Thy word have I hidden my heart that I might not sin against thee.
We need to know God's word and we need to actually know what the commands are, understand them, know what they mean and be accurate about what they say.
This is why I'm not preaching out of the message this morning.
This is why I'm not preaching out of the living Bible.
This is why I'm not preaching out of a paraphrase up here.
You know, I'm preaching out of an actual translation of the Bible because man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God does man live.
So we want to make sure that we actually have a translation of the Bible, not a paraphrase or just kind of a loose idea because, you know, Eve's got the loose idea down.
You know, there's a certain tree we're not supposed to eat.
But of course she leaves out several details that the devil is careful to actually quote all those details and actually be more accurate.
But in the midst of all of his accurate-ness about God's command and he mixes in a lot of truth, there's that one glaring lie, ye shall not surely die.
But notice how this lie, ye shall not surely die, is surrounded by all these true statements.
You know, in the day you eat thereof, you're going to be as God's knowing good and evil.
That's actually true because we find out later in the chapter that's true.
Jump down to the end of chapter 3 and look what God says in verse 22.
And the Lord God said, behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil.
So notice, just as Satan said, you'll be as God's knowing good and evil, what does the Lord say?
Well, the man has become like unto one of us to know good and evil.
Now the us there, of course, God is the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
That's why he said in chapter 1, let us make man in our image after our likeness.
Here he says the man has become as one of us to know good and evil.
And now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.
Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden and so forth.
So we see that the devil surrounds the blatant, bold faced lie, you shall not surely die, which directly contradicts what God says.
We know that God always tells the truth.
We know that the devil's a liar from the beginning.
So the ye shall not surely die is the lie.
But surrounded by a lot of true statements, even correcting her on some of her inaccuracies and showing how accurate he can be with God's word.
But hiding in it, the lie, the thing that directly contradicts what God said.
No, he's very subtle, isn't he?
And it's not like the devil is getting senile as he gets older.
He's just as smart today in 2021 as he was in the Garden of Eden.
He's probably even smarter because he's had thousands and thousands of years to get smarter.
And so he knows how to mix the truth with a lie and to deny God's word.
First, get you to question God's word, confuse you a little bit, get you a little turned around, put doubts in your mind.
And then once he's planted that seed of doubt, then he can come at you with the bold faced lie.
And that's what he does here.
What's the solution?
How do we defend against this?
We need to know the word of God.
We need to actually know what God said that in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die.
I mean, we need to know what the scripture says.
She didn't really have a lot of scripture to memorize here.
OK, she had one job.
Now we've got the whole Bible.
You know, we were responsible for a lot more.
I'm not saying you're going to memorize the whole Bible, but you know what?
We need to memorize key portions of the Bible and at least know where to find things in the Bible.
Constantly be reading the Bible, understand the subject matter of the Bible so that when the devil comes at us with his cunning craftiness, whereby he lies in wait to deceive us, we will be ready.
You know, the Bible says in Ephesians Chapter four, that's why we have church.
That's why we have pastors.
That's why we have teachers so that we will not be any more children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
So according to Ephesians Chapter four, if we get the right doctrine and the right teaching, we're going to be less susceptible.
We're not going to be like a little kid that you could just fool with anything.
And here Eve is like a child here and she is susceptible to this deceit.
We don't want to be like that.
We want to know the word of God and not fall for all the wiles of the devil.