Sermon Tone Analysis

The fall and the depravity of man started with a choice; one simple choice that changed the eternal fate for the rest of the posterity of mankind.

This choice had to do with choosing to do right or choosing to do wrong.

Most people today who are outside of the grace of God will most times do wrong—they will always do wrong when it comes to spiritual matters.

Most today find themselves faced with a number of choices that seem almost impossible for them to decide which is right and which is wrong; and no thanks to society who tell people that it is okay for them to follow the wicked desires of their own evil natures.

But what if the choices were clear cut and direct?

What if all the choices were dwindled down to only one command?

/“You shall not eat.”/

This was the very circumstance that Adam was placed in.

He only had one command that needed to be obeyed.

There were no other prohibitions that might have skewed his thoughts or caused him to think that maybe it was wrong, but maybe it was right.

There were no other choices that had to be made; no other laws to be considered.

It was just this one!

God had clearly laid the commandment, as well as the consequences, before Adam and his bride:

/And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

(Gen 2:16-17)./

Now, one might be tempted to think it easy to keep just one commandment.

But our human natures are evil and the very thing that is forbidden will be that one thing that will be most tempting to us.

Tell a child he cannot have a cookie until he eats his vegetables and see which one he will cram in his mouth first.

For that matter, tell an adult what he can and cannot do and that rebellious nature will most assuredly come to life and override all other common sense; and all this just to prove that he can do as he pleases and no one, not even the proper authority will stop him if this be his real desire.

Grant it that Adam did not have the depraved nature until after the fall we see that with a little coaxing from an outside force that the prohibited desires spring to life.

It takes very little convince a person that he really needs something.

Even if the consequences are dire our natures will tell us to gratify ourselves now and worry about the due penalty later.

The interesting thing about this situation is that one can be almost certain that disobeying God may have never even crossed the minds of the first parents until the serpent arrived on the scene to twist and corrupt the minds of his enemy.

This is the very character of Satan.

In John 8:44 Jesus attributes to Satan three different characteristics: /(1) Lies are his very character, or as the NIV translates, “His native language.”/

Every time Satan speaks he lies.

He cannot tell the truth about anything for that is who he is.

/(2) He is a murderer./

Satan has been planning the murder of the human race ever since his defeat and his being cast from God’s presence.

He hates God, God’s people, and the human race in general.

He will do everything in his power to kill and destroy us.

/(3) He has been this way from the beginning./

By the time Jesus became incarnate and spoke these words it had been several thousand years since the Fall.

Jesus was speaking to a group of Pharisees in this text but His main point was that if Satan had not changed his tactics in several thousand years he would certainly not change them now.

His only goal was to lie, kill, and steal.

The same was true in Jesus’ time and the same is true today.

Satan entered the Garden with the purpose of defeating God.

But little did Satan know that he was a defeated foe long before God ever created him.

This is where we pick up the text of Genesis 3.

In Genesis 3 there exist for the first time a choice of obeying the voice of God and obeying the voice of Satan.

We obviously know the outcome for all one needs to do is look out his front window and see the results of that choice.

The pain, the death, and the diseases that plague all mankind is a horrible reality and we are told that the entire earth groans in expectation of being redeemed.

Adam’s choice not only brought a curse to man himself but to the earth as well.

I would like to focus attention, not so much on the curse, but on the parallels of the two trees that were present as well as the third tree, which was only present in promise but not yet made a reality.

*A.The Tree of knowledge of good and evil / The Tree of Life*

In the second chapter it is revealed that there were actually two trees in the middle of the Garden.

The second being the Tree of life:

/And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.(Gen

2:9)/

It is interesting indeed that God would place the two trees before them.

Here, they would directly be placed with the choice of eating that which held eternal life or that which would cause death.

God had purposely placed this choice right in front of their faces.

What conclusions then can we draw from this?

There are two parallels that I would like to point to.

/First, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represents man’s wisdom and the Tree of Life represents God’s wisdom./

Man has always been endowed with intelligence from his Creator.

But it is when he allows this intelligence to be the guiding factor in all areas of life that problems arise.

Romans 1 records for us what happens when man becomes the ultimate authority of his own fate:

/Claiming to be wise, they became fools (Ro 1:22)/

Within this context we see that man though himself so wise and intelligent that he no longer needed to worship God.

He decided to give up worship of God for the worship of four-footed creatures.

He sough wisdom but instead became a fool.

It is interesting to note that the word ‘fool’ is the Greek word from which we derive our word ‘moron.’

A moron is someone who, despite knowing truth, refuses to believe or act upon that truth.

These morons in Romans 1 were the same way.

They changed the truth of God for a lie, and they did it gladly and without a second thought.

Man’s wisdom is really no wisdom at all and we are told so from Scripture in a number of different ways.

There are two that would suffice for the illustration:

#. /Man’s wisest thoughts are God’s lowest thoughts./

/For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

(1Co 1:25)/

Paul is not obviously stating that God is foolish.

He is using a metaphor to these Gentile believers that no matter how wise they think they can become God is always wiser.

In fact, God is so wise that His lowest of thoughts (which would be considered foolishness to the Greeks) was even more wise than their highest thoughts (‘high’ being things such as philosophy and the like).

The Gentiles seemed to have a real problem, as do we that nothing could be done as to obtain salvation on their own.

They were looking for something that had the appearance of wisdom, but Paul plainly explains to them that it is the very foolish things to which God makes known His salvation.

This salvation came through the cross.

But the cross is a stumbling block.

It is a stumbling block because it represents the worst of deaths, and no one could possibly choose this way as a way of salvation.

Yet we are commanded to “Look and live,” just as Moses commanded the children of Israel to look up to the bronze serpent upon the pole so that God might heal the wound received from the plague of serpents He had brought upon them.

If it is this simple why do we always seek another way?

Why do we constantly strive to “help” God in our salvation?

We have in mind to do as much good as we possibly can so that God will be pleased with us.

We wear ourselves thin trying to impress God with our own righteousness.

But is all foolishness!

The only thing that needs to be done is to look to the cross for our salvation for we are told firmly in Scripture, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!

#./ Man’ wisdom produces selfish ambition and is called demonic./

/But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

(Jas 3:14-15)/

James describes that wisdom which is from man in one word: demonic!

How is it that something like wisdom be demonic?

It is because it has its source from Satan himself.

Think back to the tree and remember the words Satan used to deceive Eve: “God knows your eyes will be opened.”

Eve’s eyes were certainly open, only not the way that Satan had told her they would be opened.

Eve came to know what good and evil was experientially.

This was not at all God’s intention for them to come to this knowledge.

Yet Satan was crafty and knew where to strike.

His wisdom caused death to all.

Today, Satan tempts sore those who rely on their own wisdom.