Last week we talked about the creation. God created all that we have, all that we see, everything that we experience. And God’s final conclusion was that it was "good." The culmination of God’s creation was a man and a woman, designed in such a way that they were able to rule His world. They were created in the image of God, with the ability to enjoy intimate fellowship with God. They were given ability to think, and will, and speak, and act, in order to accomplish their purpose. And it was "good."

What happened? We don’t see much that is "good." We don’t see mankind ruling and directing God’s creation. We see people attempting to rule, and warring, and stepping on one another, and generating general misery. Why do we live in such a contrast to the purposes of creation? Genesis three introduces us to the event which ruined it all, an event which interrupted the fellowship between God and His creations, and made the cross a necessity.

Adam and Eve brought sin into the world by eating an "apple." The rest of the Bible details for us the work of God in repairing the ruin brought in by their one act of sin. It took six days to create the world. It has taken more than 6000 years for God to accomplish His purposes in dealing with Adam’s sin. How did this awful stuff get into God’s beautiful creation?

I want to look at the fall from the perspective of the Garden of Eden. The Garden contained thousands of good things. But the fact that it also contained two other items, brought about the fall and its subsequent emptiness. Those two other items are the same items that make your garden empty.

I. The Garden of Eden had a TREE. It actually contained hundreds of trees. But there was one tree that was special. It was a "no" tree. Prohibition. It may have been an apple tree. Some think it was a pomegranate tree. Adam and Eve could eat of any tree in the garden except one. Just one. That’s not a very difficult restriction. But why would God put even one tree into His garden knowing all the pain it has brought into the world for the last 6 or 8000 years? Why would God allow something so deadly to grow in His garden when He could have eliminated it and kept the earth peaceful? Two reasons:

A. It was the path of moral growth. The tree was an integral part of God’s program which depended upon moral maturity. Without a tree there would be no moral choice. Without a choice there would be no growth in character; everyone would have remained a moral robot. There is a difference between innocence and righteousness. Both refer to someone who doesn’t do anything wrong. But innocence usually refers to someone who hasn’t done wrong because they haven’t had the chance – like a child. A righteous person, on the other hand, has had the chance, the temptation to do wrong, and has chosen to do right.

God’s purpose for the tree was to turn innocence into righteousness. A righteous person, by her choices, says to God, "I know I can do what I want to do; I know I can do wrong, but I want to obey You; I want to serve You." These are people who truly love God.

What is it that separates a human from animals? One of the differences is the choice between right and wrong. Animals lack a moral nature. And that moral part of our nature has to have a tree in it, with a "no" connected to the tree. You don’t grow when everything is "yes, yes." Growth is stunted when you can do anything you want to do. Character development depends on how you deal with what you cannot do.

For this reason your children need to hear the word "no." Their development depends on it. Not "no" in response to every request they make, but a clear "no" that prohibits certain things in the middle of their gardens. Adam and Eve probably had a thousand different choices of fruit to eat from a thousand different trees, but there was one tree that was a clear NO.

B. It was the path of freedom. People speak of God’s command prohibiting the fruit of one tree as limiting and restricting. "Why couldn’t they eat anything they wanted to?" implying that God sort of caused the problem by His own narrowness. But God’s desire was to liberate them from slavery to their own desires and make them truly free. Obedience to His authority would help them develop into what He wanted them to be. Obedience would develop communion with Him, and companionship, and teamwork.

Through NOT eating of the fruit of the tree, Adam and Eve would have had victory over temptation, and would have developed victory over their own desires, which would enable them to understand leadership over their world. In God’s design, the people who rule over His world, are those who rule over themselves. Thus His rulers develop out of servants, those who can listen and obey, who can say "no" to their desires in order to obey someone else’s.

Each victory over temptation would have developed their inner life. More and more they would have recognized the good and been able to see through the lie of evil, and would have grown out of their child-like innocence toward an adult hood of positive righteousness, with the attainment of a perception of good and evil like that possessed by God (Erich Sauer, The Dawn of World Redemption, 46).

Martin Luther said, "this tree of the knowledge of good and evil was to become Adam’s altar and pulpit, from which he was to render due obedience to God, recognize God’s word and will and give Him thanks; and had Adam not fallen this tree would have been like a temple and cathedral" (quoted from Sauer, 46).

Thus God was not limiting Adam and Eve with His "NO" tree; He wasn’t keeping them from the fun in life. The tree was the local "one trunk" schoolhouse, where they were to be educated in obedience, and thus transformed. Their personal transformation would enable them to transform the earth (Sauer, 47). In reality, God wished to give far more to Adam and Eve than He ever withheld from them.

Every person faces one or more "trees" in life. These are places where God has said, "no," like many of the 10 commandments. And unless we understand those trees properly, we may view them in the wrong way, as God taking something from us instead of giving something to us. They are the gates to growth, the doorways to new freedom.

Why did Adam and Eve fall? Why in the world was an apple so attractive when they had everything they needed, when there were hundreds of fruit trees they could taste? Why does a man go after another woman, acting like an idiot, when he has a beautiful, faithful wife? Why does a teenager give up his/her virginity for some stupid insignificant reason at a moment in time? Why do we disobey when obedience is so profitable? When God is so Good? When His plan for us is exceptionally unbelievable? And the answer is, "there is a serpent who speaks lies."

A. The Fall began with a LIE. That’s the answer, and that is what started all the evil and sin that we find in the world today – the lie spoken by the serpent.. Romans 5 says that all the sin in the world entered the world through one man, Adam, and all the death in the world came in because of that first sin. Pretty sick, isn’t it?

Adam and Eve should have been the happiest people in the world. All of their needs were met, they worked for and walked directly with God Himself. There was no fear or famine, or failure in their lives. They had it all! What went wrong? They listened to a lie. It wasn’t just that the serpent was speaking lies; he may have been blabbering for years. It was that they listened to it, they stopped what they were doing and heard the lie out. And the lie suggested that there was another world. And they were missing that world. It didn’t matter how GOOD God was. They were persuaded that it really wasn’t that good. What an amazing power resides in a lie.

All sin is built on lies. The serpent pictured eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as something that would be GOOD for Eve. It was the worst thing she could have ever done. If Satan had told her the truth, she would have run from him. If he told her that one bite of that apple would ruin her life, as well as the lives of every one of her children down thru history, that her firstborn son would kill her second born, that she would sow the seeds that would ruin the world in a flood, she would have been petrified at the thought of eating from that tree. But Satan lied. He said that eating of the tree would be GOOD. It is hard to believe that anyone would ever say that a move like that of disobeying God had anything good connected with it. It was awful. No one in their right mind would have ever tagged that kind of choice as a "good" choice.

But evil can’t tempt us when we see it accurately. The power of evil depends on disguise. It has to reconstitute itself as something "good." Satan comes as this cool serpent who understands our desires, wants our best, and offers a great enlargement of our life and joy. The nature of every temptation is to present itself as delightful, as a win/win situation. James Denny says that the human soul is born for good, and we won’t listen to any voice which does not promise to speak for good. This is why Satan is a liar from the beginning, and the father of lies. Lying is the one weapon with which he can consistently penetrate our hearts (Denny, 332-333).

Have you heard the serpent recently? He says things like, "Here drink this liquid. It’s GOOD for you; it will put hair on your chest." "Sniff this glue, or this power. It’ll give you a GOOD ride." "Here look at this pornography. You’ll love this. It’s GOOD stuff" "Yes, let it all hang out when you are angry. Ventilate. Throw everything you can get your hands on. Yell, scream, cuss, get all the psychological puss out of your system. It is GOOD for you." No one in his right mind, when he can see the effect of these lies, would ever put them in the category of GOOD. And yet, we listen to his lies repeatedly, that these kinds of actions are GOOD, and we will profit by doing them. In reality, all he offers is sin, loss, and despair.

I was struck this past Wednesday and Thursday during our visit to Atlantic City with how much the casino industry is built on the serpent’s lies. We stayed at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino. Their slogan which appeared right under their name was, "everything that is good." Now think about that: "EVERYTHING that is good." Good for who? Those with money? Those willing to lose their money? Those gullible enough to put their money into those slot machines? Does everything that is good include God? As far as I could tell, "everything that was good" included one thing – gambling – with the hope of winning big. The only part God played was when (if) He helped you win big. Other than that, He had no part in the system. I heard God’s name mentioned several times when people won. But I didn’t hear it any other times – at least in a positive way.

Almost everything was accompanied by huge boasts of "the best," or "winning big" or ultimate "happiness." We were given tickets to a Broadway type show that was billed as the "greatest show." I thought it was fairly mediocre, not having seen any shows like that except on TV. I was kind of sorry that we had missed AWANA.

As I saw it, the gambling industry was built on this lie that everybody who comes to Atlantic City and gambles, goes home happy. It is the greatest place for happiness in the world! Nothing is said about how many losers there are. Losers disappear. Are there any statistics on how many people go home losers? Is there any counseling provided for those who come and lose too much – you know, their life savings, for example? Why not use some of the casino income to help those who are most unhappy?

And that’s another question that came up. Nothing is said about the percentage of money the casino takes. Why not say to the bettors, "your chances of winning are about one in 27,500" or whatever it is, and "the Casino takes a tithe (or 10% or whatever) of everything you bet?" Instead, everything is "win," "win," "win," and yet I bet (my gambling term) that most of the people go home losers. The only real winners are the casino owners.

The answer we received in talking to six or eight table operators was that gambling was for the visitors, genuine "entertainment." It’s "fun" to go and gamble. And it may be. But I had trouble finding any happy looking people there. We did see one older woman jumping up and down for joy when she won 1000 nickels, collecting them in a large paper bucket, but most people looked pretty serious. We saw one guy in the high stakes poker room where you could watch the table through the window, with a NYY cap on and his pile of chips. He was there Wednesday evening when we first looked in the room. He was there most of the day Thursday when we passed by the room at least four or five times. And he was there Friday morning as we left. And he sure didn’t look very happy.

Here is a city, or at least a section of a city, built on the lie that it is GOOD for you to throw away your money into a slot machine, or at a table, or in any of the 100 other ways of tossing it. If casino owners were ever forced to face up to the truth of how many people are losers, they probably would create ads like the beer ads: BET RESPONSIBLY. But I’ll tell you one thing: you can’t support a casino as grand and glorious as the Tropicanna’s or the Showboat’s or Bally’s or Trump’s, or the Sand’s, or the Hilton’s, or the Taj Mahal’s, if people bet responsibly. They are hoping, they are even praying that people will believe their lie and bet irresponsibly – because that’s their livelihood.

B. Adam and Eve fell when they acted on the lie. It wasn’t hearing the lie that hurt them. People hear lies all the time. But it was when they believed the serpent enough to reach for the apple and take a bite. That bite was the serpent’s ultimate goal; he scored when they bit. Notice how he talks them up toward his goal.

In 3:1 he starts with a general question to get their attention: "has God eliminated all these nice fruit trees from your diet?" The question was simply suggesting that there might be the possibility that they weren’t getting all the balance into their diet that they "needed." Life in the Garden might contain a missing part.

Eve’s answer was, "no, no, we can eat anything. All trees fit our Garden beach diet; all are available to us – except one, just one, the tree in the middle of the garden. That’s a no-no. In fact, God says, eating from that tree will bring about our death."

Satan’s response was an immediate contradiction: "NO IT WON"T. You won’t die. There’s no way you will die from that tree." God said, "you will die." Satan said, "no you won’t" – a contradiction intended to upset their thinking. The serpent interjects these same kinds of contradictions into our lives every day. God says, "this is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Satan says, "don’t you dare, until you see what the day has in it." God says, "thank me when you fall into difficulties, because I will use them for your benefit." And Satan says, "why? It’s more pain than you want." God says, "speak up and let people know you are a Christian." And Satan says, "and get tagged as a religious nut; be sensible and shut up." The direct contradictions make you stop and think.

Then the serpent built on the upset in their thinking by suggesting a whole new world: "instead of being BAD, eating of that tree is something GOOD. They could become like God. They actually have the opportunity to enter a NEW LIFE, to WIN BIG. This is their one opportunity to GET IT ALL!!!"

Do you see the method? The serpent suggests that something is missing in Eve’s life. He is attempting to make her dissatisfied. She has the fruit from thousands of trees that she can eat. She is in the Garden of EDEN, for crying out loud! PARADISE! But Satan wants to get her mind off her incredible blessings and get her dissatisfied, so she will question God’s goodness.

"God is trying to keep you from developing. God is trying to keep you from becoming like Him, knowing good and evil. You eat of that tree, and you will become wise, like God," he said. The original temptation was not over the taste of an apple. It was over the truth of the claim that God was not good; that God was trying to keep Eve down. That tree contained something great and glorious that God didn’t want Adam and Eve to experience. Eve needed to move to protect herself from God! If she didn’t become proactive, God would keep her in ignorance all of her life, because the truth, according to Satan, was that He was a pretty slippery person.

Think of the absolute stupidity of Satan’s promise! You’re going to become like God by DISOBEYING GOD! You can turn away from God’s command (which is keeping you from real life), you can do what He prohibits, you can do your own thing, and YOU CAN BECOME LIKE GOD! What an incredible lie!

Don’t you hear that lie every day? Virtually every temptation you face is based on the question of whether God is really good. "Are you experiencing life the way you should? God has you locked into this family; God has you locked into this job; God is keeping you poor; He has given you all these heavy responsibilities. Wouldn’t it be great to just break away from everything and just go and enjoy life?"

To me it is so amazing that Satan could create dissatisfaction in people who lived in the Garden of Eden. Eve was in paradise – and became dissatisfied! That says to me that it doesn’t matter WHERE we are; Satan can get us focusing on what we are missing. Can you imagine being dissatisfied in PARADISE?!! Can you imagine being dissatisfied in AMERICA? Millions of people in the world would give their right arms to be in America. Just to BE in America. And to be at PEACE. Millions of people would give anything just to end the fighting going on around them. And to have FOOD. How many people will die in these 30 minutes that I am talking from malnutrition? We are SO blessed. Yet Satan wants to get you dissatisfied EVEN HERE in America! Is he succeeding?

Are you dissatisfied? If so, you are fair game for Satan’s lie. He will give you the wildest of lies when you are dissatisfied. And the strange thing is that you will actually consider that lie as a real possibility for your life!

I gave you the testimony 9 months ago from one of my Sunday School students 40 years ago who did just that. He left his wife and kids, took off, went to NH, shacked up with a woman, and basically did whatever he wanted for 10 years. He sat in my office last August and said, "it was misery." "It was worthless in comparison with the joy and wonder of walking with God and experiencing His marvelous presence."

He believed the lie. Satan wants you to believe the lie. He doesn’t want you to count your blessings; he doesn’t want you to live in thankfulness. He wants you to feel bad about where you are and what you have. Has he GOT YOU? Are you feeling bad and sad because things are so bad and sad? That’s temptation. That’s the lie. Be careful what choices you make when you are feeling bad and sad. They may lead you to the wrong apple.

III. The Garden of Eden became EMPTY. Humans were evicted.

A. Their choice opened their eyes. They immediately realized that they were naked. They didn’t die as they had expected, but they did suddenly have opened eyes. What was so bad about that? Isn’t that what they wanted – their eyes opened to see good and evil? No, not exactly that way. What happened was that the opening of their eyes changed their relationship with God. They hid from Him. That was the effect of their disobedience. Our disobedience makes us all hiders, hiders from God, even from one another. We are ashamed of our sin, of ourselves, and rather than bringing it out into the light where God can forgive it, we turn away and try to hide it (John 3:19-20).

But Satan did give them what he said he would, did he not? Actually Satan didn’t give them anything. He did say to them that they would come to know the knowledge of good and evil, and that is what happened did it not? No, not exactly. They came to know good and evil by choosing the evil and thus being able to see what good would have been like if they had chosen that. God wanted the reverse – for them to choose the good and to see what the evil would have been like. "According to God’s plan man through victory in temptation should have perceived what good is and what evil would be; but through sin he subsequently perceived what evil is and what good would have been" (Sauer, 47). The truth of the matter is that if they had resisted Satan’s temptation, their eyes would have been opened. Everything that Satan promised was a lie – a horrible, devastating lie. Yes their eyes were opened, but their relationship with God, the source of their life, was closed.

B. Their choice resulted in their eviction. Why would God treat the mere eating of an apple so severely? Doesn’t His action look a little harsh? Why kick them out of the garden, and place a guard at the entrance so they could never enter again? The truth was that God was acting, as He always does, for their GOOD. Because they are now sinners, the tree of life would have proved to be a curse for them. How could they have received a new, resurrected body, if their old, sinful bodies would never die? Sin brings death Romans 5:12 says. That’s what God promised to Adam and Eve. But suppose a sinner could get a hold of an apple from the tree of life? Then what? Perhaps it would make him an eternal sinner, never able to receive a new body because never able to die. No one knows. But the point is that God in His Grace, removed them from His Grace (the Garden), as an act of protection. Every move God made was with the good of Adam and Eve in mind. They didn’t understand it in the same way that our children often don’t understand our motives for doing what we do for them.

But think about how their eviction affected Adam and Eve. For the rest of their lives they could walk by the Garden of Eden and see what they could have had – if they had obeyed that simple command. Perhaps they could see the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden along with the tree of life, but they couldn’t get near either one. God didn’t remove the Garden or the Tree of life. He simply kept them from enjoying it. One choice, one move, and they suffered great loss.

Who knows how long the Garden remained, empty. No one after Adam and Eve could enter it. Did it become overgrown? Could people 1000 years later walk by and say, "that’s where our parents once lived; that’s what we lost because they couldn’t obey?" Is it still around today, maybe overgrown with weeds, hidden in a jungle somewhere? I tend to think that the Garden is not on the earth; it was destroyed in the flood.

But the point is that sin was and is a THIEF. It stole what was valuable to Adam and Eve. They had the blessing and presence of God, the plan of God for them to organize and extend the boundaries of the Garden over the entire earth. But they lost it, and even though Adam lived to be 930 years old, he never got it back again.

What’s it like to lose what you had never to get it back again. And only after you lost it did you realize its value? What’s it like to lose your virginity to some stupid person or in some stupid situation, and then never have a pure body to present to your mate when you get married? What’s it like to abort your baby and then realize you can never get that baby back again. He/she is gone. How do mothers with abortions cope with the pain? What’s it like to do something foolish and lose an arm or leg or something like that and live forever with it missing, and constantly a reminder of your foolishness?

Last Thursday evening, on TV there was an interview with a man who had fallen asleep as he was driving, veered off the road and hit a tree and killed his wife. He was on the program to emphasize how dangerous it was to drive when you are sleepy. He said that he didn’t think that he was that sleepy, and he was going to pull over soon and wake up his wife to drive, but went to sleep before he stopped. And he seemed devastated by the loss of his wife of about 30 years. Think of what it will be like for him to continually re-live that moment, or what he can remember of that moment when he decided to stay behind the wheel for another mile or two. He’ll probably re-live that moment hundreds of times.

That’s the effect of SIN – LOSS. And what brought about the sin and loss? Two simple objects in the garden – a tree and a lying serpent – and the Garden of Eden became vacant for thousands of years.

Worse than that, this experience of a FALL has been repeated in the life of every person born since Adam and Eve. We have all taken the bait supplied by the lying serpent and stumbled over the tree designed for our good.

The question is not whether you have fallen into sin. The question is what you are doing about it. Jesus Christ died on the cross to bear the horrible judgment of our sin. And Jesus Christ lives today to forgive us and give us strength and insight to recognize and turn away from the lies of the serpent. Have you come to Him?

05/23/04, BBC am