Genesis 2:8,9
Vs. 8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Vs. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
The History continues… Genesis 2:15-25
2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 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.
18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Genesis 3:1-4
3:1 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?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
The Enemy (the serpent) used some important tactics to deceive and convince Eve to disobey the Authority of Adam (husband), and God the Supreme Authority:
1) He first gave a half-truth to test Eve. Gen 3:1b. (see above)
2) Upon Eve’s response He directly contradicted God. And in that contradiction ALL that the enemy wants for YOU to DO is IN THERE. Why? Because it contains HIS FALL!
3) He said God lied…
- This is an attack on the Nature of God, on His Holiness, His Truthfulness, His Faithfulness.
- Satan rejected God’s Authority, His Law, His Rule over his affairs. And that is what he wanted Eve to do.
- He stated that God knows something you don’t. (which is true) But what he tells Eve that is (this hidden knowledge) is a distortion of what that truth is.
4) The Enemy then uses 3 nonverbal influences to encourage Eve to rebel from God’s Authority. Why am I using rebellion and authority so much? Because our entire relationship with God, our serving Him comes under submitting to His Authority and not to the authority of the rebel, Satan.
- Lust of the Flesh. Genesis 3:6a
- Lust of the Eye. Genesis 3:6b
- Pride of Life. Genesis 3:6c
Eve did not know the scripture in I John 2:15-17. (a scripture that we should all memorize!)
2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
But she did not need to, if she stayed under the covering of the Almighty, under His Authority.
Adam and Eve’s Right and Wrong, Good and Bad, their Sense of Good and Evil was IN God.
They did not possess a self-knowledge of right and wrong because their conscience (the sense/organ of right and wrong) was in God.
Adam and Eve’s sense/intuition/unction of right and wrong proceeded directly from God. By rejecting what God said, His authority and their God conscience, that told them THIS WAS WRONG, they rebelled. And the result of the rebellion was spiritual death, eventual physical death. The Sin Nature in man rejects any authority, rule or law. It has a self rationalization/realization of right and wrong.
Genesis 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
The eyes of the Both were opened. Why both? Why not Eve first, then Adam? Because Eve who was deceived, still could have said no, and not brought it to Adam. Adam could have said no and not received the fruit. But Adam received the fruit knowingly and directly against the authority of God and all that was under Adam’s authority was affected by his action. (Eve and the earth)
Genesis 3:7
3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
What does verse 7 mean? “Eyes Opened” Well, we know from their actions. They “knew” they were naked and felt that was wrong. In verse 8, they heard God and hid themselves. In verse 10, they said they were afraid of God because of their condition. God asked, “Who told you?” No one did, they were SELF AWARE of Right and Wrong and decided for themselves what was Right and Wrong.
With this self-conscience of right and wrong comes a realization of the difference between God’s right and wrong and ours. Only in His presence do we have His conscience of right and wrong over power ours.
We call it conviction.
It is God’s Holiness, His righteousness that shows our rightness (righteousness) to be a sham and not measure up to God’s.
Fallen man’s sense of knowledge of good and evil is distorted by his fallen nature. It can justify all forms of perversion, sin and murder. This sense of knowledge of good and evil can make some believe by exercising control over their urges and following a set of beliefs (man appointed rules) to control this sense, is good enough to get God’s favor. That is why we have so many philosophies and religions today, they are an attempt to control this fruit, this sense of good and evil.
Because man could not establish any set of rules on what was good or bad. God gave man the law, so fallen man could see what God proclaims is good and evil. And within these laws, God made great provision for the protection of the health of man. He established laws to prevent man from eating diseased meat, so man would not work him self to death, the protection of pregnant women, personal hygiene and others. Notice what Paul said in Romans about the law…
Romans 7:7-18
7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
This is the struggle of man dealing with Gods rules, although his nature will not allow him to fulfill the law. The holiness of God is displayed in the law, and this manifestation of God convicts us, as we recognize that it is a right, greater than our own sense of right and wrong. But when unregenerated, un-spiritual man attempts to walk in the law, he fails, revealing the sin nature, and the corrupted sense of good and evil. Remember, Adam only had 2 laws. His sense of right and wrong came directly from God.
Fallen Adam could not be permitted to live eternally.
Genesis 3:22-24
3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is 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 for ever:
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
This self-sense of good and evil apart from God cannot operate with the principle of eternal life. God already said if man would eat of the forbidden tree he must die. They died that day spiritually and died physically within a thousand years of their actions.
Genesis 5:5
And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
II Peter 3:8
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Jesus is the Last Adam, the Tree of Life and God in the Flesh. By His Holy Spirit we are made alive spiritually. And the Holy Spirit within us, gives us God’s sense of right and wrong, good and bad, holy and evil. Unlike Adam before the fall, Christians have both natures.
The scripture calls following the conscience of the Holy Spirit, “walking in the Spirit”.
Following the conscience of the fallen nature of man is “walking after the flesh”. This fallen conscience justifies the lack of obedience to God, the acceptance of small and large sins, the love of this world, and is clearly outlined in Galatians…
Galatians 5:16-25
5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
This shows the battle between the sinful nature, that resulted from our receiving the fruit of the tree, and the Holy Spirit within Christians.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Because the finished work of Jesus Christ, we are free from, and not under the law, but this only applies to Christians, the whole world will be judged by God’s sense of holiness and the truth of the law. In the next verse the “works of the flesh are manifest” or revealed by the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Born-Again Christians (there aren’t any other kind) do not practice these works of the flesh. They are a sign of the sinful nature ruling the heart of man. Christians are ruled by the authority of God the Father, in the humility of Jesus, by obedience to the conviction and leading of the Holy Spirit. If these three are not present, then as James said, “2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”
Galatians 5:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
These two consciences; God in our spirit speaking to our mind, passions and will. And the our sense of right and wrong, corrupted by sinful nature, manipulated by our bodily urges, affecting our minds, that have been trained by this corrupt world, and influenced by our spiritual enemy, the devil. These two we choose from daily, moment by moment, we can corrupt our conscience and justify our sin to accept the deeds of the flesh listed in Galatians 5:19-21 (see above) or we can walk in the Spirit. Allowing all of our right and wrong to come from the conscience of God through His Holy Spirit. We must reject the self-sense of right and wrong and submit to the leading of the conscience of the Holy Spirit. We must reject the fruit of the tree.
One is the acceptance of God’s authority and leads to life everlasting. The other to death everlasting; forever corrupt and knowing it, forever separated from the holiness of God, given to us by Jesus Christ.
We all know the results of man’s first sin. We all have the Scars and Sin Nature that resulted from Adam`s rebellion from the Authority of God. But do we understand what was on that tree? And that we must reject it`s fruit today?
Minister Franklin Mayfield,
Director of trueGOD Television Networks
