Genesis 3: The Day the Earth Got a Fourth Voice

(upbeat music) - Welcome to chapter by chapter four year journey through the greatest book, the greatest gift given to the human race, the Word of God, the Bible. And we get to go through it chapter by chapter seven minutes a day, seven days a week. Join us each day and share it with others so that they can join this journey that will change all of our lives. We will stop at unexpected places on the journey, we'll be challenged. Some verses will create awe and wonder, we're even gonna have chapters that will be instructive and in others we'll find joy and even comfort. We will occasionally be convinced and want to change, but all in all the journey will be worth it. The best way to get the most from this podcast is read the chapter we are discussing before or after the podcast. It's his word that transforms. You will find more and see more than I could ever articulate. Welcome to chapter by chapter. And today's chapter is Genesis three. I believe that there are two books of the Bible that the devil absolutely hates. Satan hates the book of Genesis and the book of Revelation. The first book and the last book of the Bible. Why? In Genesis his destruction is announced and in Revelation it's carried out. Satan would want you to think Genesis is a myth and Revelation is a mystery and to stay away from these two books. He wants you to think that there is no devil in the first few chapters or the last few chapters of the Bible. That's all about the change as we start on Genesis chapter three and dispel the slime. A fourth voice is introduced shortly after the creation of man. Remember, before we read Genesis three, there has only been three voices on the entire planet. God, Adam and Eve. In Genesis three, a fourth voice speaks out of nowhere. The fourth voice is the voice of hell. It is another counselor in the Garden of Eden. Genesis three is the Garden of Eden. My friend, RT Kendall says it well. The Genesis three is a date on the calendar and a place on the map. That is what the Bible says in Genesis three one. Listen to these verses. Now, the serpent was more crafting than any of the beasts of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, indeed, as God said, you should not eat from any tree of the Garden. The woman said to the serpent, from the fruit of the trees of the Garden, we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree, which is in the middle of the Garden, God has said, you shall not eat from it or touch it or you will die. The serpent said to the woman, you surely will not die for God knows that in the day that you eat from it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit in eight. She gave it also to her husband with her and he ate. Notice the content of his counsel, Satan's counsel to Eve. The devil takes the very things that God said to Adam and Eve and reinterprets God. The fourth voice questions God. It's interesting. When Jesus has a conversation about the devil, he goes back to the beginning, back to this Genesis three moment. John 844 is about the fourth voice. It says this. You are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it. Jesus says his motive is to murder. His method is the lie. So we see here in Genesis three that there was the lie and the murder that Jesus talked about. You have the biggest liar, the devil, and he is lying about the greatest subject that's God. The fourth voice in Genesis three contains three accusations against God. Christian devotional writer A.W. Tozer tells us why this conversation is critical to understand. He said what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. That fourth voice is going to reinterpret God that hasn't changed today. As Jesus went back to Genesis three, I think also of the Apostle Paul. He does the same. When the Apostle Paul speaks about the chaos of society and the destruction of society's values, listen to what he says happens. I believe he's recounting Genesis three, speaking about the fourth voice. When Paul speaks about the lie, he ascending us back into the lie of Genesis three, the conversation in Eden. He says in Romans one, 22 through 25, professing to be wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like a corruptible man, and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who's blessed forever. It's interesting that Jesus at Satan will speak the lie. Paul says the same thing, the lie, this is no accident. The lie means there is a common thread of hell's diabolical deception about God. Genesis three is a truth exchange about God. Here is what Eve is told. Here is the lie. God is not truthful, God is not good, and God is not righteous. I believe when the Bible says in 2 Corinthians to 11, and we're not ignorant of Satan's devices, it means Satan's lying is not innovative. It is predictable. Satan is crafty, but he's not creative. It's always the same. Or another way to say it, Satan's lies will get us to think negatively about God, skeptically about God, and lightly about God. Eve now stands in one of the most important points of history. Can you imagine how deathly silent creation is? At this moment, as it awaits Eve's response to the lie, maybe somehow creation knows this decision can send all of creation into a spiral. Will Eve follow the counsel of the creator, or the counsel of the serpent? Will Eve listen to the fourth voice or the first voice? Satan says God is not truthful. This is what he said. Has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden? Has God said it's so diabolical? Another way to say it is God's word true. Remember, the devil is not innovative, but predictable. It happened to Jesus when he was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Matthew 4.3 says, and the tempter came and said, "If you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread." Remember what came just before those Satanic words? It was Jesus' water baptism. And what did the fathers say out loud to him in Matthew 3.17? And behold, the voice out of the heaven said, "This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased." Jesus heard, "This is my beloved son." And then the lie of Satan, if you're the son of God. Satan is always questioning what God said. That's what Satan did to Jesus. And that's what Satan did to Eve. And honestly, that's what Satan does to all of us. He's putting down in our heart the people having put their trust in God. Now he's questioning God's word to us because we need God's word to live and thrive. God will get his word to us so we can always respond to his word. Some time ago, at our church here in New York City, I was told a story that caught my attention. The former gang member, Nikki Cruz, was speaking at our church. His life-transforming conversion is told about the book, "The Cross on the Switch Plate." Here's the story that happened here at this church. I was told that while Nikki was speaking, they wrote these words to me. We were sitting in the balcony during Nikki Cruz's sermon. And my friend noticed two girls sitting in front of us that were trying to translate the sermon using Google Translate. They were from another nation. We reached out to them and tried to connect them to our translation link, but couldn't get them connected. My friend had the idea of finding someone who spoke Spanish and asking if they wouldn't mind translating. So we reached out to the TSC staff member. She came all the way up to the balcony, set next to this girl, and she translated for her the entire sermon. Then at the end of the service, when Nikki Cruz did an altar call, the girl was crying, and she responded and went down to the altar to be saved. Before the fourth voice could come and discourage these two girls, God sent to servants so they could hear the word of God. The Bible is called God's Word, but we live in a time that tries to say you don't need the Bible. The fourth voice will give four lies about the Bible. The Bible is too big to bother. The Bible is too old to matter. The Bible is too boring to enjoy, and the Bible is too confusing to care. Why the Bible is important? Because the less time you spend with truth, they're easier it is to believe the lies. Also remember the lie. God is not good. God is not good rest on verse one, an emphasis by the serpent to Eve. Listen to it. He said, indeed, as God said, you should not eat from any tree of the garden. The woman said, from the fruit of the trees of the garden, we may eat, but from the tree which is in the middle, God has said, you should not eat from it, touch it, or you will die. The emphasis is on the boundary. Listen to this. Satan took the focus off the garden and put it on a tree. The off-limit tree. Satan didn't emphasize the goodness of God, which is the entire garden. Satan redefined God from God's restrictions or boundaries. Satan's lie was that God was not good because he put a limitation on one tree. Here's what blows me away. Botanists say that there are 60,000 different species of trees in the world. Using that number for Genesis 3, God says to Adam and Eve, you can eat from 59,999 trees except one. This to me is unbelievable. The human race judges the goodness of God as if he is holding something from us. When he has given us 59,999 things gifts to us, and we're told God is not good. God is good, and God is generous. And there are times that God will put limitations to protect us. How about sex outside of the covenant of marriage? It goes like this from the fourth voice. The Bible is old and outdated. God is not good because he said you have to wait for a wedding. So the enemy focuses on the one thing you can do and leaves out the 59,000 trees you can eat from and will tell us you will not surely die. The fourth voice removes the consequences about sabotaging that relationship. Let me explain that like this. Satan was not trying to get Eve to be a devil but trying to get Eve to be a God. That's what he says. The serpent said, you will surely not die. For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God. What is the result of sin? It produces rebellion. Rebellion is not just breaking the rules. It's wanting autonomy and believing in self-sufficiency. We want to make up the rules and change them. And essentially, we want to be God. Sin produces foolishness. We believe that there is no insight or perspective more reliable than mine and what I know. It buys into the lie that we know better, especially for ourselves. Sin produces paralysis, renders us incapable of obeying God. Sin makes us morally paralyzed. We fundamentally cannot do what is right. We do what is selfish, we'll benefit us. We need God's voice to come back and speak to us. The goodness of God is that He did not leave us voiceless. He spoke to us the good news of the kingdom and that that someone has come to rescue me for myself. The final lie of Satan is that God is not righteous. Genesis 3, 4, he says, you surely will not die. The serpent was questioning the judgment of God. The great verse in the Bible, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Love is such a big word, but the word that gets often overlooked is the word perish. Perish is a serious reality that has to be addressed and solved. Perish means the suffering eternal consequence, called hell as the penalty for our sin. Hell means God is righteous. Hell means God punishes sin. Perish is an eternal sentence. Hebrews 9, 27, everyone must die once and after that be judged by God. We get one chance at this life. We don't know if we have another week and another month and another year, even another day. No one knows how long they have. People are slow to embrace the brevity of life. If you were to go to the doctor and say, doctor, am I going to die? His response should be yes. It's only a question of when. When Eve said to the fourth voice, what God said, you will die. The question is this, did they die? We know our old Adam and Eve were when they died. 930 years old, Genesis 5.5. The first couple lived 800 years after talking with the serpent, the fourth voice. So the question, did Adam and Eve die? Yes, physically and spiritually. Jesus divides for us the meaning of the word death in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Listen to these words in verse 24, for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found. Dead to the Father in this parable means that he was separated from the Father's love. Unaware of it, untouched by it, and even unresponsive to it. Trying to find his existence far away from it. For him to come alive was to become aware of that Father's love again. To be dead while physically, mentally, and emotionally alive is a story of humanity. Someone said Jesus did not come into the world to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live. The mission of God is to make us alive. Everyone is faced with a default setting to listen to the counsel of the serpent, the fourth voice. We can do it ourselves. We are told we don't need God. We are fed constantly. The fourth voice is always calling. We are created with the need of truth outside of ourselves. That is why God spoke to His creation before man listened to the serpent. To create God had to speak. To redeem God had to die. He made man by his breath, but he saved man by his blood. The first voice is speaking to you today. That's the voice to listen to. Thank you for joining chapter by chapter. Every chapter from the greatest book, the Bible, the Word of God, seven minutes a day, seven days a week, we'll see you tomorrow.