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Hook or by crook, in this particular session, we must try to examine the third of the creation stories that stand at the beginning of the book of Genesis. But unfortunately, we have a little unfinished business to transact before we get to the third story, and that is we ought to consider, uh, some of the leading points of the remaining two chapters that constitute the second. Yesterday, if you can remember, in chapter two, we saw how the historian, under the inspiration of God, gives us a detailed description of what human life is and means. Now we must follow the story on into chapter three, which relates the rebellion of man against God and the consequent judgment pronounced upon him, and then into chapter four, where Cain defied God and the curse that was pronounced upon him. So to come to Genesis chapter three, the story of the fall. I wish to pick out simply the, uh, principle involved, the tactics that the serpent used to deceive the woman. Coming to her, according to chapter three, he said, Yea, hath God said, you shall not eat of any of the trees of the garden. Deliberately exaggerating a prohibition for tactical reasons. And Eve replied, oh no, you've got it wrong there. We may eat of all the trees of the garden except one. Yes, that's the point, said the serpent, isn't it? That one, yes. You see, that's God all over, said he. Puts these lovely things in front of your noses with all their promise of enjoyment, and then tantalizes you and says you can't have them. Do see. Well, little woman said, he's told us straightly we we we we mustn't eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if we eat of it, we shall die. Oh, come off it, said the serpent. You don't believe that old stuff, do you? Not nowadays in this modern world. The actual fact is that God wants to keep you down, that's what the truth is. You see, he knows that in the day thereof, you eat thereof, you shall be as God, knowing good and evil, and you won't be tied to your mummy's apron strings anymore. You can make up your own mind about things. You shall be as God. God wants to keep you down. This is the lie. And as you see, it's an attack on the character of God, a misrepresentation of what God is like. It's a lie that has been swallowed by multi-millions of our fellow human beings, and a little bit of it sometimes resides in our own hearts and will come out in times of testing. Die, said the serpent, my dear good woman, of course not. Just look at the tree. So he had another look at it, and she saw that it was good for food. Mm-hmm. Stomachs are important, and so is the palate. And then she saw, do you see, it was beautiful to look at. That's our aesthetic sense, isn't it? And it was desirable to make you wise. Intellectual. Three satisfactions the tree offered. Physical satisfaction in its food, aesthetic satisfaction in its beauty, and intellectual satisfaction desirable to make one wise. That is life, said Satan, woman. Take it. What about God's word? Oh, come off it. We don't accept it these days, God's word. That's irrelevant. Life, go in for life, woman. Physical satisfaction, aesthetic satisfaction, intellectual satisfaction. That is life. That also was a lie, wasn't it, all mixed up with the truth. These satisfactions were beautiful things designed by God himself. But you see, put all three together, and they do not spell the sum total of life. As God through Moses told Israel, as one day the Son of God incarnate told Satan himself, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. That is not God being stingy. It is God stating the truth that if we are to have life to the full, then we cannot live without God. These lovely things, these lovely satisfactions, God-designed satisfactions, were designed to lead us to him. Who is the life. That we might form with him a fellowship that will outlast all the pleasures of earth. But to grasp at those satisfactions without God is the way to ultimate dissatisfaction and eternal hunger. Let me tell you a parable. So one of these days, you're the office manager, are you? One of these days, your secretary will come in to bring you your morning coffee that is part of the necessary qualifications of the business manager. And you'll see her, when she hands you the cup of coffee, a cup of coffee, you'll see her sort of doing like that. You'll say, what's wrong with her this morning? Got crippled or something? And then you will notice she hands you the letter. There you are, sir. Oh, didn't notice it at first. There's a ring on the dear lady's finger, and you're meant to notice it, of course. Who says that's a ring? Yes. Ah. Wouldn't be an engagement ring, would it? Yes. Oh, let me see it, you say, don't you? What, what is that? Is, is that gold? No, that's platinum. Oh, really? That was expensive. And oh, how beautifully shaped it is. And what are they, amethysts? No, no, they're diamonds. I see. That's an absolute work of art. That is marvelous. You must be very pleased with that ring. Yes, I am. Yes. And then you say, and who, my dear, is the, uh, is the very fortunate young man? She says, what young man? Well, the young man that gave you the ring. No, I don't believe in young men, she says. Don't want any young men. As far as I'm concerned, there is no young man. What do you say next? Oh, I see. Well, it is a nice ring. Will you get on with, uh, taking down this letter? There are millions like it. They take God's engagement ring, so to speak. All the lovely delights of life that were meant to lead us to him. And the serpent has persuaded them not to believe in the God that gave the ring. Which ultimately makes a meaningless nonsense of life. And if people persist in it, when the ring has gone forever, they will be left in darkness, in an existence where music never comes, nor art is ever enjoyed. This is the original lie, then, on the part of Satan. Love not the world, says John. We have to use it, of course. Love not the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are not of the Father. You'll see if a rich man, when his son comes of age at twenty one or eighteen or sixteen, whatever it is these days, I've forgotten. And he takes the boy out onto the Lord in front of his mansion and says, there, my boy, is my present to you for your twenty first birthday, and there stands a super jet. The young man is delighted and climbs aboard and puts on the helmet and everything else, and through the cockpit screen waves hand, bye-bye, father, takes off and never comes back again. And And the the father would curse that plane, wouldn't he? And, uh, when we take all the lovely things that God gives, and instead of drawing our hearts to God, they draw them away from God. Then that is the essence of one form of worldliness. The great tragedy is that drawing our hearts from God, they draw us from him, who is the chiefest satisfaction, the very goal and meaning of life. To know him is, of course, life eternal. And the tragedy is, says John, this world passes away. Then who'll try to enjoy it without God, what shall happen to them then? God's pronouncement, therefore, on the serpent and on the guilty couple. Judgment, yes. Now imposing a discipline. Life will never again be so satisfying as it could have been. Work will now be mixed with hard labor, childbirth with excessive pain, human relationships somewhat maladjusted. The marvelous thing is, God didn't wipe the whole planet clear of humanity. But in his mercy to Eve, who was deceived by the super intelligence of the serpent. And in mercy even to Adam, who re- who thus rebelled against God. God pronounced his salvation. It would rejoice the heart, wouldn't it? And turning to the serpent, he talked in these terms. The seed of the woman, said he, shall crush the serpent's head. Thou serpent shall bruise his heel. They will crush your head. And Adam picked up his ears. When he got a chance, eventually to speak, it shows he had grasped the point, and he called his wife's name Eve. Says he, she's the mother of all living. Why did he say it just there, and not when he first met the woman? Because he had grasped the implication of the gospel God that God was now telling him, and the wonderful story of redemption. Aware of all Satan's strategies in advance, God had so made the human race. Let me tell you what you've heard many times, that your heart may wonder at it again. God had so made the human race that God himself could get inside the human race, and the seed of the woman would eventually prove to be the second person of the Trinity incarnate. Who at Calvary, in his burial and ascension, and in his second coming, will eventually put the serpent where he ought to be. But already he became part one of us, because the children partook of flesh and blood, he himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might put out of action him that has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death, were all their living time subject to bondage. Shout hallelujah do. And when you next read the book of the Revelation, I'm sure you read it constantly, but when you next read it, you'll come, of course, to chapter thirteen, which describes the great harvest that one day shall be reaped from this initial lie. By the impulse and strategy of the old serpent, there shall come a world dictator. Who will convince the world that there is no God out there. The atheist evolutionists have gone a long way already to, uh, promote the argument. And when people have shouted hurrah, for now we're free! This dictator will suggest that to get the world to cohere together, I must have some form of religion. I must worship some universally accepted ideal. And what shall that be? The second beast, the false prophet, will support- will suggest that they make an image to the beast and worship that. And in their, their frenzy, they shall cry, who is like to the beast? The term who is like is the Old Testament way of saying, who is like God? There is none like God. And the crowd then throughout the world will shout, who is like the beast? Who can resist him? Satan's final tempt, a attempt to get man to try to be God. Ha. What a disaster it will be. But just before chapter thirteen comes chapter twelve, as you might expect. And in chapter twelve, you are given a flashback in history, and a very brief summary of history that will put the beast into its context. For there John sees a great sign in heaven, a woman with child waiting to be delivered. And the dragon there to devour the child as soon as it is born. And should you ask, what child is that that the woman is carrying? The answer comes back, it is he that shall rule the nations with a rod of iron. Which is none other than the seed of the woman, our blessed Lord Jesus. Now, pray, see the significance of the context. Here on earth is man trying to be God, and God's answer? Well, if man wants to be God, says he, I- I- I- I'll be that God becoming man. Marvelous. God is a marvelous tactician, wouldn't you agree? The child was taken up to the throne of God before the dragon had t- time to devour him. He sits today at the right hand of God. One day the serpent shall be finally crushed. And to Adam, the discipline of work. And then the both of them expelled from the garden, lest they should put forth their hand and eat of the tree of life and live forever. Some people are of the view that up to that point, neither Adam nor Eve had, had got the thought of eating the tree of life, and they hadn't ate it yet. And when they fell, God said, how fortunate. Let's bundle them out of the garden before they think of eating of the tree of life, because one bite of that and they'd live forever. Well, that may be true. Very able expositors, uh, hold it. For my part, I think it is slightly different. It raises the question whether human beings, even from the start, have had inherent physical immortality. Did they? Did Adam and Eve, as they came from the hand of God, had inside them, independently of God, physical immortality? I rather think not. The Bible says only God has immortality. For Adam and Eve, to live forever, demanded that they should eat and continue to eat of the tree of life. When therefore they fell, God excluded them from the garden that they should not continue to eat of the tree of life. Thereby began the degenerative stages of human life on this earth. Oh, shout hallelujah again, or don't if you can stop doing it. Uh, ha, the promise is given, isn't it, by our risen Lord himself to the church at Ephesus, to him that overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. God speed the day, for we already have eternal life, but one day that eternal life shall irradiate our very bodies, and we shall have a body incorruptible and immortal, like our Lord. That story and the gospel that came out of it is followed by a very sad story, that of Cain and Abel and Cain's defiance of God. You will know the story, so I come to its heart. First of all, what was wrong with Cain, and what was wrong with his offering? The traditional view has been that whereas Abel came bringing a lamb, shedding its blood, which was the God-given way to God for fallen men and women, Cain brought simply an offering of the fruit of the ground that he he wouldn't come the way of redemption. In more modern times, expositors have departed from that view, and they have said that what Cain brought to God was, in the technical terms, not a sin offering, but what Hebrew calls a minkah, that is a meal offering. He was a farmer, he brought of the fruits of the ground. And what was wrong with it was not that such offerings were out of place, they could be brought in the later Levitical law. What was wrong with it, they say, was that Cain was evil. So the Apostle John remarks in one John chapter five, chapter three. He was evil, he was of the very devil, his works were evil. And bringing an offering to God was merely an outward veneer, hiding an evil heart and evil life. Many folks have thus abused religion, have they not? Be- appearing religious externally as a kind of a cover for their iniquitous practices in everyday life. But it does seem to me that that more modern view itself is not quite satisfactory. For when the Epistle to the Hebrews comments upon the offering brought by Abel, it says as follows, by faith. Now you notice it doesn't say by faith Abel did a lot better works than Cain did. No, no. By faith Ca- uh Ca- uh Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Now, when we read of faith in the Bible, faith, true faith, is always a response to God's word. And therefore, when it says that by faith Abel offered the better sacrifice, it must mean that he did it in response to God's word and brought the sacrifice that God had ordained. Surely by, certainly by offering that sacrifice in faith according to God's declared will, Abel received testimony from God that he was accepted and that he was a righteous man. Of that righteousness which he had from God, his works were an evidence. When God spoke to Cain, therefore, God first reasoned with him. No, Cain, not that way. Bring an offering such as is available to you, and shall you not be forgiven? Shall you not be accepted, that is, in the sense of being forgiven? But Cain wouldn't. Not only would he not bring the offering God asked, he murdered the man that would. That's like saying to God, if you don't have what I like to bring, you won't have what Abel Abel brings brings either. Isaac. God's reply to that. The curse on Cain was more serious than the curse on Abel, was it not? Uh, the, the, the curse on Adam, was it not? Man, suppose you had a gardener. Well, perhaps you do, for all I know. And you are proposing to go for away for a winter's cruise, uh, you'll see, eh, in the South Pacific or somewhere, to get away from the winter snows. And before you leave, you say to your gardener, now here, my good man, in the, uh, my wonderful glass house here, I want you to fill it with cucumbers and dahlias. Mm-hmm. Not tomatoes. I don't like tomatoes. I want cucumbers and dahlias. And off you go on your cruise, cabin on the top deck and all that. And, uh, at last, when summer has come here, you come back, and you go to meet the gardener and view the glass house, and uh, not a dahlia in sight, nor yet a cucumber. The place is coming down with tomatoes. You say, gardener, come here, my good man. I thought I told you that I wanted cucumbers and dahlias, didn't I? Yes, ma'am. I thought I told you I didn't like tomatoes. Yes, ma'am. What have you filled the place with tomatoes for? And the gardener replies, well, I like tomatoes. And if you don't have what I like, you won't have the other things either. What would you say? We'll say, here are your cards, my dear good man, get going. And when Cain would not bring the sacrifice God ordained as a way of forgiveness, and then murdered the man who did bring it, God, so to speak, gave Cain his cards. He said, when you till the ground, it shall no longer yield to you her strength. You might as well get out. Cain, like Adam, was made to till the ground. That was the prime reason for his existence. Now he lost the very reason for which he was made. He saw in that moment the seriousness of the curse pronounced upon him. My punishment is greater than I can bear, said he. Everyone that finds me would kill me. No, they won't, says God. I put a mark on you so they don't. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, there's something worth than worse than death, you know. As they who come to the lake of fire will find eternally. Something worse than death is to lose the very reason for which you were made. And yet, to continue to exist. Creation, the living creatures that surround the throne cry in the ears of the Creator. Thou art worthy to receive the honor, for thou hast made all things, and for thy will they were made and were created. When rebel man was offered the way back, he had broken the will of God. When he was offered the way back, that was gospel indeed. When Cain def- rejected God and defied it. Then he met the curse appropriate to it and went out from the presence of the Lord. Some shall do that eternally, shall they not? To find God turn his back on them for all eternity. To exist. Meaninglessly. Mm. But a civilization arose amongst Cain's descendants. Does not mean that that civilization was altogether ruinously bad, of course not. Music, the arts, and metalwork, technology grew up, and right grateful we are to them even to our present day. There were aspects of that society that were exceedingly questionable. There were certain lamek who wrote lyrics, and they were number one of the pops. And if you examine the words of the lyrics, they were a glorification of violence. Violence of retaliation, unrestrained, that degrades the value of life. Beware, young folks, and us old ones too, of the tendencies that have appeared in civilizations. They appeared in Rome, people not content with the plays of Sophocles and Euripides, nor even the comedies of Plautus, but for their entertainment invented, uh, the gladiatorial shows and rejoiced in seeing actual violence and killing in the Colosseum. Mark the progress of modern Western society rejecting God and the values that come from God, and watch how much is a glorification of violence and the titivation of people's senses by having it produced in front of their eyes on the screen. That's human life losing its value, and under the general supervision of the god of this world, on its way to disintegration and perishing.