I want to turn to Genesis chapter 3, Genesis chapter 3.
God made everything good.
He spoke, it appeared, and it was good.
And as we arrive in Genesis chapter 3, things are all good.
We come upon some bad.
For the man and the woman that God created are deceived.
They fall short of the glory of God that created them.
Over the next few weeks, we're going to look at their decisions there.
What we can learn from that.
And then delve into the ramifications of those decisions.
Of their wrong choices.
And our wrong choices.
Because not only did they sin and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3.23 says, we've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
There's a lot to learn.
But first, this morning I want us to understand the bad that's in the midst of such a perfect atmosphere.
There in the garden.
We'll begin in Genesis chapter 3.
With verse 1.
And it says this.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the tree in the garden.
But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden.
Neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die.
For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God.
Knowing good and evil.
I will tell you that there is a lot, I believe too much theological discussion about the identification of the snake in that passage.
Some theologians are quick to say that the serpent is not Satan.
Because it's not identified as Satan in that passage.
There's a Hebrew word for such theological understanding as that.
And that word is baloney.
The reality is the best interpreter of scripture is scripture.
The best interpreter of the Old Testament is the New Testament.
And so I want you to read the words of Jesus in the revelation of Jesus Christ.
In Revelation 12, 7 through 9, when it says,
Now war arose in heaven.
Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.
And the dragon and his angels fought back.
But he was defeated.
And there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
And the great dragon was thrown down that ancient serpent who is called devil and Satan.
The deceiver of the whole world.
He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him.
And how about Paul predicting his coming demise in Romans 16, 20,
when it says,
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
That alludes to a passage we'll look at in the coming days.
Genesis 3, 15.
That talks about our battle against evil.
This is the beginning of the influence of Satan upon us in this passage.
If God created all with such order and it was all good,
then where in the world did Satan come from?
We need to study in order to understand that a variety of scripture to get a better understanding.
But it becomes clear when we do that.
Job chapter 1 verse 6 puts Satan with this quote,
Sons of God.
That's an Old Testament term for angels.
Jesus also referred to him as one.
In Matthew 25 verse 41 when he talks about the parable of the sheep and the goats and the end time.
Ezekiel 28 paints a poetic picture of what went on with Satan
and prophesies of his coming demise.
Now it actually, in Ezekiel 28,
is giving a warning of the king of Tyre who is an enemy to Israel.
But when reading this description,
you begin to pick up on the fact that this king is simply a puppet of the real evil one.
For the king of Tyre is like a window, I believe,
into the true spiritual force that is behind him.
It says in Ezekiel 28 verse 12,
Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre
and say to him,
Thus says the Lord God,
You were the signet of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
In other words, Satan is attractive.
You were in Eden,
that's when we get a pure clue.
If signet of perfection and full of wisdom and perfect in beauty didn't give you a clue,
you were in Eden ought to give you a clue.
We're talking about more than just the king of Tyre.
Okay?
The garden of God.
Therefore, this description is,
and we'll look at another one like this,
but it's kind of intertwined.
It's speaking of Satan,
as well as one of his puppets,
being the king of Tyre.
Every precious stone was your covering.
And then it goes on to list those stones.
You were an anointed guardian cherub.
And let me tell you,
no earthly king is an angel.
And this is speaking more of the cherubim,
which the cherubim,
that I am on the end of that word makes it plural in the Hebrew.
It is the inner circle of angels.
They are the ones that's closest to the father,
guarding his holiness of sorts.
He said,
I placed you,
you were on the holy mountain of God,
in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
What does that mean?
Well, Zachariah gives us an indication.
Zachariah speaks of God protecting through a wall of fire
as a symbol of his holiness.
This seems related.
In other words,
what it means is he was close with the Lord.
It says,
you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created
till unrighteousness was found in you,
in the abundance of your trade.
You were filled with violence in your mist and you sinned.
So I cast you as a profound thing from the mountain of God
and I destroyed you,
O guardian cherub,
from the mist of the stones of fire.
Your heart was proud because of your beauty.
You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground.
I expose you before kings to the feast their eyes,
to feast their eyes on you.
By the multitude of your iniquities
in the unrighteousness of your trade,
you profane your sanctuaries.
Unrighteousness of trade talks about dealings.
And I will tell you in any dealing that the devil does,
don't deal with him.
Don't do a trade with him.
And then it talks about you profane your sanctuary,
which talks about worship.
For the king of Tyre,
it could talk about the gods that they worshiped.
For Satan,
it could talk about so many ways he disrupts worship.
Both of these things,
dealings and worship,
trade,
sanctuaries,
they both get tainted by the influence of the evil one.
It says,
so I brought fire out from your mist.
I'll tell you what this speaks of.
It speaks of the future demise of Satan.
As if it's already happened,
because it is settled of sorts.
Satan is already defeated.
I hope you know that.
And he knows that he's defeated.
It's kind of like a,
what we're living in now,
it's kind of like when a ball team is gonna lose.
And they know they're gonna lose.
There's not enough time in the game
to score enough points for them to win.
And so the coach grabs that guy that don't play
and says,
listen,
you see old number one out there?
Take his knee out,
all right?
Let's leave a mark on these folks.
We couldn't leave a mark with them cleanly,
so let's do it dirty.
Let's just throw them out there
and see what we can do.
An evil one's been taken out knees ever since
because he knows he won't win in the end.
So I brought fire out from the mist.
It consumed you.
And I turned you to ashes on the earth
in the sight of all who saw you.
All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you.
You've come to a dreadful end
and shall be no more forever.
So he was a top angel.
One of the cherubim
and placed on the pinnacle among them.
He was in the glory of heaven
and he was righteous at first,
but then pride took over.
Why?
Because he was pretty.
Because of his beauty.
Because he was smooth.
And violence followed that
and sin took over and God cast him out.
We have a similar description
in the fall of Satan in Isaiah.
Again, this passage speaks
of an earthly king,
the king of Babylon.
But Babylon itself
is a symbol of Satan's empire on the earth.
You see that much more clear in Revelation.
That the parallel cannot be mistaken.
Again, this king's life,
as described,
becomes a window
into the true spiritual force
that's behind him.
Isaiah 14, 12 through 15 says this,
How you are fallen from heaven,
O day star, son of dawn.
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low.
You said in your heart,
I will ascend to heaven.
Above the stars of God,
I will set my throne on high.
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
I will make myself like the most high.
But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.
Revelation 12 gives us
an even clearer understanding
of the havoc that he caused in heaven
when it says,
as I've read earlier,
but I'll read again.
Now, war arose in heaven,
Michael and his angels
fighting against the dragon,
and the dragon and his angels fought back,
but he was defeated,
and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
And the great dragon was thrown down,
that ancient serpent
who's called the devil and Satan,
the deceiver of the whole world.
He was thrown down to the earth,
and his angels were thrown down with him.
In other words,
he wanted to replace God.
He wanted to receive all the beauty,
all the glory,
all the wisdom,
all the power of God.
Revelation 12 calls him a dragon,
and it goes on to say
how his tail swept
down a third of the stars.
That is apocalyptic talk,
symbolic talk
for angels,
which become demons
when he swept them down.
It's illustrative talk
that gives us insight
into what started
this whole cosmic battle.
Now, besides a good conversation
about the origin of Satan,
why did I share all that?
Why is that important?
I mean, you come in here today,
as I do,
with stuff.
You want a word from God.
So why do we need to know those things?
Why do we need to know this
in view of what we face today?
I want to spend the rest of our time together
by putting it all in perspective,
because this serpent
was not only in the garden.
He's still lurking around.
1 Peter 5, 8 says,
He is a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour.
And I believe you need
to take him seriously,
and I believe you need
to properly assess the situation.
And I want to help you do that today
through God's word.
First thing,
just to put it simply,
he is not all that.
He pretends to be.
He's not what he makes himself out to be.
He is a created being
that went the wrong way.
Sometimes when people talk about him,
it's easy to get the impression
that it's Rocky versus Draco
or something from Russia.
And if you don't know
what I'm talking about,
I'm sorry.
You need to go home
and watch all six movies of Rocky
or seven or eight or nine or ten,
however many there are.
The reality is,
this is not an even battle.
We're warring out.
He's not equal with God.
He's not even close.
Satan's not omnipotent.
He does not have all power.
He cannot do anything he wants.
Job teaches us
that at least when dealing with believers,
he can only do what God allows him to do.
And when Jesus cast out demons,
they coward again and again and again.
Not only that,
but he's not omnipresent.
He can't be everywhere at one time.
He can only tempt one.
Now he has a lot of help
because scripture tells us
that he took a third of the stars
or a third of the angels out of heaven
and took them with him.
And they began to work in his evil empire,
spiritually, cosmically, around us.
But help me for a minute.
If he took a third of the stars,
which are synonymous for the angels there,
if he took a third with him,
how much was left?
Y'all get your pens out
and work on that a minute, all right?
Twice as many.
So if you have any question
about the power of God himself,
period, I want you to know
that the forces that fight with us
against evil
are twice as much
as what fight against us.
Not only that,
but if you're a believer today,
you have the Holy Spirit of God
working in you.
The same Holy Spirit
that was in the creation of the world,
the same Holy Spirit
that had the power
at the sound of his voice
to create all things
is the same one living in the believer.
The Christ that knows all things
and is at all places
at one time,
including in our lives.
What in the world
are we worried about?
I want you to understand something too.
Satan's not omniscient.
He does not know all things.
I hope I can explain this.
The demonic forces
that war against our souls
know a lot,
but they're not omniscient.
It is somewhat like
AI and algorithms,
and I'm a little out of my league here
when I say this,
but the best I understand
from my own experience,
if you search on your phone
for an item,
you go to Google
and you look up that item
on the internet,
when you go back
to Amazon,
you'll see ads for it.
Now, how's that?
But I didn't search on Amazon.
I searched on Google.
Let me go beyond that.
If you have a conversation
with somebody about a product,
when you have your phone on you,
not when you're on the phone,
but when your phone's on you,
you'll get ads
for the things you've talked about.
Some of you on Facebook.
And if you're on Facebook
and you have your phone
sitting on the table
in a restaurant
and you talk about somebody
and you're not on your phone,
what happens
when you go back to Facebook?
If they're not already your friend,
whoever you talked about,
there's a suggestion
that they ought to be your friend
and maybe you'd talk
a little nicer about them.
Now, does the phone
read the mind?
No, it does not.
Does it know all?
No.
But listen,
it picks up on the patterns.
It picks up on the things
that you say.
It picks up on the places
that you go.
My phone will suggest to me
how long it's going to take
for me to get home
from where I am.
Well, what if I ain't going home?
Just another voice in the car
telling me what to do.
The things you look at
and it suggests
what seems appropriate
and if you're not careful,
it'll suggest
what seems inappropriate.
That is so much
like the evil one
that it's almost as if
he uses this thing
to destroy lives.
But I want you to understand
he can't read your mind.
He can't control your decisions.
He can't make you do anything.
I don't want to freak you out
when I tell you this.
But I do want you
to understand it.
You're being watched.
You're being listened to.
You're being pursued.
Thank God the child of God
has all of heaven
rooting for us.
And not only that,
but the devil can't
make us do it.
And we're not near as alone
in it as we think we are.
1 Corinthians 10, 13.
If you don't know this verse,
you need to learn this verse
and rest your life on it
because it's one of those
kind of verses.
No temptation has overtaken you
that's not common to man.
Now, I'm going to tell you,
I'm tempted to pitch a tent here
and stay here a while
because one of the primary points
that Satan loves to point out
at people is,
you're the only one
that understands exactly
your circumstances.
Nobody's ever been there.
And if they were in the same
situation that you were in,
they'd all do the same thing.
But somehow,
yours is unique and different.
He loves doing that.
Thank God.
God is faithful.
And he will not let you
be tempted beyond your ability,
but with the temptation,
he will also provide
the way of escape.
The devil can't make you do a thing
that you may be able to endure it.
That teaches us a bunch of stuff.
One thing it teaches us
is we're not alone.
We're not alone.
We're not the only one
that's dealt with
what we're dealing with.
And if we think we're the only one,
the devil will try to convince us of that,
that you're somehow
an exception to God's rule,
that therefore it's okay for you.
That's as dumb as getting in a cargo van
that says free candy on the side of it.
Don't do it.
Don't fall for it.
Others have dealt with the same thing.
We are also not alone
because God is there, thank God.
If you're a child of God,
he walks with you,
he talks with you,
he lives within you,
and he will take your hand
and you'll just follow his lead
and he'll lead you out.
Trust the Lord and his word.
Don't trust your judgment.
It's tainted.
Proverbs 14, 12 says,
there's a way that seems right to a man,
but in the end,
it's the way of death.
So don't trust you.
Trust him.
He's not all that.
Not only that,
he's not looking out for us.
He's looking out for himself.
Pride comes from Satan.
He's eat up with it
and he loves to pass it on.
Ego is stoked by Satan.
I read Isaiah 14, 12 through 15
a little while ago.
It makes it so clear.
I just want you to see the I wills
in two verses of scripture.
I will ascend to heaven
above the stars of God.
He wanted to be equal with God.
He wanted to reach God's level.
Above the stars means above the angels.
I will set my throne on high.
In other words,
he's got to be number one.
I will set on the mount of assembly.
That's the authoritative position.
Verse 14,
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
The clouds are a symbol there
of the glory of God.
He will rise above the glory of God.
He wants the glory
that only God can receive.
I will make myself like the most high.
That's his goal.
Now listen,
Satan can't take the place of God.
He cannot defeat God.
He knows that.
Therefore,
he will try
to take the place of God
in individual lives.
He wants to sit on the throne of your life.
How does he do that?
He tries to convince us
to be our own gods
or to be like God.
That was his strategy in the garden
and it's still a strategy.
It's not that complex,
quite honestly.
It's all about pride.
Who's most important in your life?
Are we the ones most important in our lives?
Or is God what's most important in our lives?
Every time he says,
you can to us,
every time Satan says,
you can,
you can do that.
You can think that.
You can say that.
All of that is based on his I wills.
It all goes back to that.
He's looking out for his causes.
It's all about his pride
and every sin we involve ourselves in
comes from a base of our pride.
When we sin,
we put ourselves first before God.
When you sin,
you decide that your,
your action is more important
than what God would have you to do.
That's what sin is.
Period.
Putting yourself on the throne of your life.
It is prideful rebellion
that marked his fall.
The prophets tell us that.
Revelation tells us that.
And he still prides himself
on filling us full of pride
and rebelling against God.
He'll tell you
what you want to hear
to get you
to do
what he wants to do.
We'll look in the coming weeks
more at that.
But be clear about something.
Satan is not all he pretends to be.
He is not all he claims to be.
And he's not looking out
for you
or for me.
He's looking out for himself.
What does that mean for us?
Well, based upon that,
I'm going to give you
three homework assignments.
I don't like homework.
Never liked homework.
I don't like giving homework.
But I'm going to give you some today.
One is this.
Know that you are not alone.
Keep reminding yourself
you're not alone.
You're not the only one
that's been there.
Your circumstances,
although unique,
are not near as unique
as they feel.
Your circumstances
do not justify
wrong action.
Does not.
We're here to build
one another up.
You're not alone.
Let's encourage one another
before it gets ugly.
Let's.
Listen to me.
Let's encourage one another
when it gets ugly.
It's not time to kill the wounded.
It's time to love them.
And let's know
that it's not just us.
First John 4,
4 says,
He who is in you
is greater
than he who is in the world.
God will win
in you
and through you.
How does he do that?
Second,
I have to take home point.
Stand strong.
Satan's a bully.
You ever had a bully
in your life?
There's no boy
in one of my classes
and I was a freshman
in high school.
I'd like to meet him
in an alley.
Man,
I didn't want to meet him then.
I was scared to death of him
and he knew it.
So he'd pursue me
and mess with me
and pick on me.
I'm going to go look
him up.
The horror
that it gives you
most of the time
for nothing.
That's what Satan does.
He's a bully.
He's a bunch of fluff.
And you can sock him
in the nose
with the word of God.
You can put him out
if you'll just stick
to God's word.
No temptation
has seized you
except what's coming
to pass.
And God will provide
a way out.
James 4 verse 7 says
submit yourselves
therefore to God.
Resist the devil
and he'll flee from you.
That's a promise
of God's word
you better hold on to.
Resist him
and he'll run from you.
He'll run from you.
You give in
and he'll hang around.
Don't fall
for his bluffs
nor his horrible lies.
You have God
within you.
His army
is behind you.
Don't be conjured
into compromise.
Third thing is this.
Give thanks to God.
1 Corinthians 15
56 and 57
says this.
The sting of death
is sin
and the power
of sin
is the law
but thanks be to God
who gives us
the victory
through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
My friend,
we can live
holy for him.
We can have
victory over sin
and when God
gives you victory
thank God
for the victory.
Give him praise
and when you do
and you acknowledge
that he brought you out
victory will come
that much more often
and I promise you
if you got a habit
in your life
don't do it
the next time
you feel like doing it
and the next time
it'll get a little easier
not much easier
it'll get a little easier
and the next time
it'll get a little easier
and before long
you'll be habitually
following God
because you made it
a pattern in your life
because you resisted
the evil one
and because he flees
from you
he'll hit you
somewhere else
turn around
and face him
where he does
by the power
of the blood of Christ
you have victory
because of what Christ
did for you
not because of your bravado
not because y'all
so good looking
that's not where
the victory is
the victory
is in Jesus
and he's beat
Satan's beat
and he knows it
and so he's just
going to cause
a skirmish
afterwards
that's all
thank the Lord
for every victory
and victory
will come
more often
because I got news
for you
Satan's just a snake
in the grass
just a snake
in the grass
I have this
this phobia
of snakes
I do
I don't like them
now I'm fascinated
by them
it reminds me
a lot of sin
really
I mean you know
I'm fascinated
by them
when I go
to the
to the zoo
I go
to the
whatever
the serpitarium
whatever it's called
that's not what it's called
but man
I run to that thing
and look at them snakes
and I'm amazed by them
they are amazing to me
to watch them
it just sends chills
all over my mind
as long as that glass
is two inches thick
between me
and that 24
foot long
python
or boa
or whatever it is
going to wrap
his little love
and alarms around me
I want nothing to do with it
when I was a kid
there was a bush
that overhung a creek
in our neighborhood
and there was some type
of green snake
that would hang out
in that bush
I come up on it
I'd go around town
and pick up
or go around
my little community
and pick up
beer cans
and coke cans
and all that stuff
and I'd get different sponsors
for the boats
that I'd race down the creek
and I'd race some cans
down the creek
and when I got to that bush
I
there was a snake
in there
so I just kept
I hope you get
the spiritual principle
because I ain't got time
to share it
I just kept going back
to that bush
scared to death
barefooted
scared to death
but wanting to see
another one
they'd kind of wrap
around that old branch
on that bush
and I'd have to look
in there
because they're the same
color as the leaves
I'd see one
and I'd be you know
I just kept going back
kept going back
one day I left there
and I was disappointed
because I didn't see anything
and I took off walking
and when I looked down
there was a little
bitty brown snake
he wasn't bigger
than an elementary
pencil
I mean he was tiny
but he had his little
head raised up
he was just sunning there
and he let his little
tongue out at me
and I ran a quarter
of a mile home
afraid to look behind me
because he might be
coming down the road
after me
I was scared
to
death
let me tell you
what I did wrong
I kept going back
to the bush
I kept wanting
just to get a glimpse
I didn't want
to pick them up
didn't want them
to wrap around my arm
didn't want to love on them
I just wanted to go back
and get a hint of it
that's what I did wrong
what I did right
is when I saw one
I tucked tail and ran
there are parts
of your life today
that you need to
tuck tail
and run
scripture says
flee
away from
quit letting him
mess with you
and if he's got you
discouraged
and he's got you
beat down
and feeling
defeated
resist him
and he'll run
from you
trust the Lord
don't let a
snake in the grass
make you skittish
you live for the
Lord Jesus
with every head
bowed
and every eye
closed
I don't know
who needs to hear
what this morning
but I'm telling you
Genesis chapter 3
and I've just tried
to lay a foundation
for it
tells us so much
about the world
in which we live
today
explains so much
of the struggles
that we have
so many of those
are inward
but man
what's inward
ends up
becoming outward
if you're here
this morning
and you've never
given your heart
and life
to the Lord
Jesus Christ
I want you to
know
Jesus came
and died
for you
he took your
sin upon himself
he died
in your place
and if you'll
confess your sins
before God
if you'll agree
with God
on your sin
you'll ask him
to change your
life
and become the
Lord of your
life
and from this
day forward
you'll live
for him
I think God
he'll accept you
where you are
he'll save you
for all of
eternity
and empower you
to stand strong
against the evil
one
everyone who
calls upon the
name of the
Lord shall be
saved
he'll change
you today
if you even
feel an inkling
that way
I promise you
it didn't come
from you
it came from
God pursuing
you
you respond to
that in obedience
maybe you're here
this morning
and privately
you've made a
decision for Christ
you've surrendered
your life to him
but you've never
made that public
you've never told
anybody about it
I encourage you
to make that
public today
you're to follow
up that decision
with baptism
to let other
people know
it's what Jesus
showed us how to do
it's what Jesus
commanded us to do
I encourage you
to come
I'd love to guide
you in that process
maybe God's
drawing you to
this church
you're a believer
but you feel like
God's leading you
to this church
to be a part of
this church
you come
I'd love to guide
you in that
and maybe you
just got stuff
ah let's be honest
we got stuff
that we need to
take before the
Lord
don't sing through
this invitation
and fail to do
business with God
because it'd be
easy to do
you do business
with God
whether it's in
your place where
you are
whether it's at
this altar
you lay it down
before the Lord
and you commit
today
that you'll
resist the evil
one
you'll change
a pattern
in your life
with the hope
of the Holy Spirit
of God
leading you in that
for his cause
and for his kingdom
Lord Jesus
I love you
and I thank you
for the privilege
you give us
Lord
to be in this place
and God
I pray
Father
you'll work
and move
in our midst
right now
as only you can
in Jesus
precious name
Amen