The Temptation of Discontentment (Genesis 2:25-3:7) [2026-4-19]

Let me invite you all to find your seat, and as you're finding

your seat, let me invite you to open your Bibles to the book of

Genesis. This morning.

We're going to be in chapter 2, verse 25, the very last verse of

chapter 2, and then we're going to be looking at chapter 3,

verses one to seven. So Genesis 2, 25, the very last

verse in chapter 2, and then going to chapter 3, verse 7.

So let me read the text, open us in a word of prayer, and then

we'll jump into the sermon this morning, Genesis 2, beginning in

verse 25. And the man and his wife, we're

both naked and we're not ashamed.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beasts 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? The woman said to the serpent,

We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God

said, You should not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the

midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will surely not die,

for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened,

and you will be like God, knowing good from evil.

So when the woman saw the tree was good for food, and that it

was a light to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired

to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he

ate. And then the eyes of both were

opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sew fig

leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Could you pray with me, Father? Pray that you would now awaken

our hearts, our minds, our affections unto you, Lord God,

help us to do what we are incapable of doing ourselves,

which is to see you, Lord. And so we pray that you take our

spiritual eyes that have been dulled this week from our sin

and, and just our weakness. And God make them open and alert

and alive unto you and your glory.

Now God through the, the preaching of your word, through

the the power of the Holy Spirit, through the blood of

Jesus Christ God, would you come and do this miracle this

morning? I pray in Jesus name, Amen.

I want to give the context we are starting in verse 25.

I was going to include this last week when I was a priest on

Genesis 2 and I wanted to do verse 25 because it it, it ties

into the sermon this morning. And so we're starting in verse

25 S. Let me give the context in case

you haven't been here last week or the week before.

God had made a man and he placed this man in the garden to work

it and keep it in this garden. God gives man all the trees in

the garden to eat from, trees that are pleasant to the site

and are good for food. But there is one tree that God

made that is different from all the other trees, the tree of

knowledge of good and evil. God explicitly told the man, You

may not eat from this tree because on the day that you eat

from it, you will surely die. As the man works and keeps this

garden, God looks down and he sees something, notices

something. It is not good for man to be

alone. So God decides to make a helper,

a helper that is fit for him. God first brings all the animals

to the man, but as the man begins to see these animals and

name them, there is no helper found that is fit for him.

So God takes action. God decides to create a helper

for him. He creates a helper out of the

man. He takes a piece of the man's

side and he makes a woman a helper fit for him.

God then presents this woman to the man as a gift to him.

And that's where we left off last week.

This morning as we look at the text verse by verse, Normally I

give exposition upfront and then application at the end.

Today I'm going to be weaving them together as we work through

it. So let's start in verse 25 where

it says the man and his wife were both naked and were not

ashamed. When God made man and woman, He

did not make them with clothes on, He made them naked.

The text says that the man and his wife were both naked.

Now, why does the narrator take the time to tell us this?

Why did he feel the need that we should know that this man and

this woman were existing in this garden as naked?

I think because in the Old Testament, nakedness is always

associated with some form of humiliation that is virtually

universal. In the Old Testament, nakedness

is always associated with some form of humiliation.

It's used to describe the poor. It's used as a metaphor for

shame and guilt. We will see it's shamefulness

with Noah when he gets drunk and his sons find him naked.

In Exodus 20, the priests were not allowed to go up to the

altar by means of stairs. So that God said so that your

nakedness will not be exposed to me.

Nakedness is always associated with a form of humiliation.

But notice here how the narrator describes their nakedness.

They were not ashamed. They were not ashamed.

This raises at least two questions.

Number one, what does it mean that they were not ashamed?

What does that mean? The Hebrew word for ashamed

occurs 124 times in the Old Testament.

Here's a definition of the Hebrew word that's used here to

have a painful feeling and emotional distress by having

done something wrong with an associative meaning of having

the disapproval of those around them.

Now, we all know what it feels like to feel ashamed.

We all know that when maybe we mess up or we make a mistake, we

that feeling when you mess up or make a mistake or do something

you're not supposed to do, or you're, you're at somewhere

you're not supposed to be, that that, that feeling that you feel

in that moment that that that's called shame.

We all know what that feels like.

But in this moment, they were not ashamed.

Which raises the second question, why?

Why were they not ashamed? Now, if we were to walk in this

room naked, we would feel ashamed or we should feel

ashamed. Maybe you wouldn't feel ashamed.

We should feel ashamed. If we were to walk in this room

without any clothes on, we would feel ashamed.

But the man and the woman have no clothes on.

They are completely naked and they feel no shame at all.

Why? I don't think it's because

they're husband and wife. I don't think that's the reason.

Here's why. Jumping ahead in our text for

just a moment in chapter 3, verse 7, the text says and they

knew that they were naked. It was only after that they knew

that they were naked, which seems to imply that before this

they didn't know that they were naked.

Now we may wonder, how can you not know you're naked?

Like what does that even mean? How can you not know?

This is just look down right? Like how can you?

I? I think it's this.

I think they don't know it the same way that a one year old

baby doesn't know it. When my boys were young, when

they were like age 1, they would run around the house butt naked.

Why? They weren't aware of it.

Even if somebody came in, if a neighbor came in the house or if

one of you guys came over, they were still naked.

They did not run. They, they, they weren't aware

of it. They, they don't discern it.

They don't know it. I imagine the same is true here.

I imagine prior to this, the man and the woman do not.

It's like nakedness doesn't have a context.

It doesn't have a a a framework for them.

The nakedness here is almost a metaphor of their innocence.

It's a metaphor of their innocence.

Brothers and sisters, there is a great freedom and living with a

lack of shame, not just positionally but also

practically. There is great freedom and

living with a lack of shame, not just positionally but also

practically. Positionally, if you are in

Christ, we never need feel shame.

If you are a Christian, you never need to feel shame

positionally. Even though we are on this side

of the fall, we are never naked. For the past 25 years, I've

never had a day in my life where I was naked because we have been

clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

He was made naked that we might be clothed.

But practically speaking, we all have reason from time to time to

feel shame. Practically speaking, because we

continue to sin, we continue to sin.

You ever had that dream where you go to school and you're

naked? I don't know.

I asked this question some of you before and you looked at me

like I was crazy. I was like, am I the only one

that has that dream? I've had that dream like 10

times in my life. You ever have that dream where

you go to school and you're naked?

You're walking around. I hate that dream.

I I hate it. I hate the way I feel it.

It, it, it, it feels so terrifying and and restrictive

and, and, and the same should be true when we sin.

When we sin, we hate the way we feel.

We hate it. I feel naked.

I feel exposed. I feel shame.

One of the reasons that we choose not to sin.

This is not the only reason. There are many motivations to

not sin. One of those reasons to not sin

is because we desire the feeling of freedom over the feeling of

shame. We say, I know if I do this,

this is how I'm going to feel, and I don't want to feel that

way. I want to feel freedom.

I don't want to feel shame. Look at chapter 3, verse one.

A Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beasts of

the field that the Lord God had made.

Now, up until this point in our story, we've only been

introduced to three characters. We've been introduced to God,

the man and the woman. That's it.

But now we are introduced to a fourth character, the serpent,

which raises an enormous question.

Who is this character? Who is this serpent?

Let's look at what the text says.

We're going to look at what the text says here in verse one, and

then we're going to look at some other text to see if we can

piece this together. We are told 4 pieces of

information in this verse about this character #1 this is a

beast. Now, the serpent was more crafty

than any other beast. Beast can simply mean animal.

It is an animal. I don't think it's a metaphor.

I think that there actually was a literal animal. 2 The animal

is a serpent, A snake. That's what a serpent is.

It's a snake. We're not told what kind.

Doesn't matter what kind it is #3 the serpent is made by God.

This character owes its existence to God, and #4 this

animal is crafty. The serpent was more crafty, the

Hebrew word for crafty. It's used 11 times in the Old

Testament. What's interesting is that eight

of the 11 times that this word occurs, it occurs in the book of

Proverbs and it's translated as wisdom or prudence.

It's a positive term. It's a good quality, but it can

also take the nuance of this crafty, clever, pertaining to

being tricky and cunning with a focus on evil treachery.

Now that's all we're told in Genesis.

We're told that there is an there is a an animal.

The animal is a snake. The the animal is made by God

and the animal is crafty. It's craftier than any other

animal. That's all we're told.

Now, one question that people often have is this Satan?

Is this serpent Satan? The Bible never explicitly

identifies the serpent with Satan.

We always just take that for granted.

But the Bible, nowhere in the entire Word of God explicitly

identifies this serpent with Satan.

But implicitly, we are led to believe that the Satan entered

the serpent and was speaking through it.

Implicitly, we are led to we. We know that Satan can enter

through people and speaks through them.

We know that Satan entered pigs, right?

Or demons entered pigs. Implicitly, we are led to

believe that Satan entered the serpent and was speaking through

it. Revelation 12/9 And the great

dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who was called

the devil and Satan, and the deceiver of the whole world.

Revelation 22 And he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent,

who is the devil and Satan. Now, for the purpose of the

sermon today and the next few weeks, I'm going to assume that

the serpent and Satan are one in the same.

I'm just going to assume that there's much more that we could

say about this character, but I want to focus on one description

that we are given here. We are given just one

description of the serpent, and here it is.

Crafty, crafty, clever, cunning. That's important.

Why? Brothers and sisters, let this

text be a reminder that Satan is far more clever than you and I

are. He is far more cunning and

clever and crafty than you and I are.

We have been around the block for 20 plus years.

He has been around for 20,000 years.

He been around for a long time. He knows what works on humans.

He knows he got David to fall. David was a man after God's own

heart. He got David to fall.

He got the apostle Peter to fall.

Be careful that we don't ever have the same mentality that

Peter had. I would never do that.

Do not ever think that we are above anything.

I would never do that. No matter how smart we think we

are, he is smarter. No matter how strong we may

feel, he is stronger. It is not uncommon for

Christians to put themselves in a position where they, as

Proverbs says, can a man hold fire next to his chest and not

be burned? And yet so often Christians will

walk around carrying fire, playing with fire, thinking, I

won't do this, I won't fall here.

There are a great many more godly and holy men of God and

women who have fallen than you. We cannot defeat him on our own.

We need someone who is wiser than him, because it's not us

and it's not me and it's not another human except the God

man. Look at 1B, He said to the

woman. Did God actually say you shall

not eat of any tree in the garden?

He said to the woman. Now just pause there for a

moment. Does anybody find it interesting

that the narrator just tells us that the serpent speaks without

any explanation? This is like something out of

Chronicles of Narnia, right? You know when, when, when Susan

gets to to Narnia, she, she can't believe that this Beavers

is speaking to her, right? Because animals don't speak.

But here the serpent could just talk and the narrator just just

says the serpent said there's no explanation given.

There's no, you know, like how how does this serpent speak?

The serpent asked the woman a question.

Now, before we look at the question, we have to ask a

question. Why did he approach the woman

and not the man? Ever wonder that?

Why did he approach the woman and not the man?

I have heard theories like, well the serpent knew that the woman

was an easier target or the serpent knew that the woman

would be deceived more easily than the man.

I am not convinced of those theories.

I think it has more to do with Satan's desire to undermine the

man's authority. That's my personal theory.

I I don't know the answer to that question, but that's my

theory. I think it has more to do with

Satan's desire to undermine the man's authority.

Adam is the spiritual head of his wife, and rather than

approach the spiritual head, the serpent bypasses the man and

goes to the woman. I don't think it's just it was

eenie meenie miney Moe. OK, I'll choose you.

I think he's intentional. I think everything Satan does is

intentional, and I think he intentionally chooses her to

bypass her spiritual head. Look at the question the serpent

ask. He says, did God actually say

you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

This is such a brilliantly wicked question and a wickedly

brilliant question. It's brilliant and it's wicked.

Why does he ask this question? I can think of at least two

reasons #1 because Satan loves to distort and twist and pervert

the words of God. He loves to distort and twist

and pervert the words of God. This is not what God said.

In fact, it is quite the opposite.

But this is what Satan does. He distorts.

He twist. He perverts the words of God.

Did God really say that you can't have sex before marriage

if you know you're going to get married?

Did God really say that? Did God really say that you

can't have a buzz so long as you don't get drunk?

Did God really say that life begins at conception?

Did he really say that? Did God really say that saving

millions for retirement is idolatry?

Did God really say that? Did God really say that you have

to go to church every week? Did God really say that this is

what Satan does, this is how he works #2 why?

It's brilliant. Satan is trying to get her to

see the one tree. Satan is trying to get her to

see the one tree. Now, if Sane wanted her to see

the one tree, why not just point it out?

Because he's clever. He's clever.

He is willing to play the long game if that will mean victory

for him. He starts by suggesting that God

is holding out everything on them.

That's what he's doing. He starts with the the, the

assumption that God is holding out everything on you guys.

Is God really not going to let you eat of any of these trees?

Look at all these trees and you can't eat of any of them.

Now, at this point, what should the woman have done?

The moment that he asked this question, what should the woman

have done? I can think of three good

options and one bad one. I can think of three good

options, one bad. 1A. She could go and get God and say

God, who is this creature and why is he talking to me?

Is he supposed to be here? Who is this?

She could do that B. She could go get her husband and

say, Will you talk to this animal?

This animal is like talking nonsense.

Will you talk to this animal? C She could just ignore him.

Those are three good options. There's one bad option.

Look at verse two to three. The woman said to the serpent,

We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God

said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the

midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it, lest

you die. What's the fourth option?

The fourth option is that she could independently talk to the

serpent. And the woman said to the

serpent, it is a mistake to engage this creature.

It is a major mistake for her to do it independently.

Brother, sisters, don't get into a dialogue with Satan.

Don't get into a dialogue with the world or your flesh.

Instead, preach the Word. Preach the Word.

Dialoguing leads to destruction. Preaching leads to production.

When Satan came to Jesus in the desert and tempted him in the

same way that he is tempting the woman right now, Jesus did not

get into a dialogue with him. What did He do?

He preached the Word. That's what he did.

There have been so many times in my life, I don't know if it's

true for you, but for me, that I can almost audibly hear the

voice of Satan or the world or my flesh tempting me.

Whether it is Satan, whether it is the world, what is my, it

doesn't really matter, doesn't matter.

I can almost audibly hear them tempting me, tempting me to do

this. And if I get into an inner

dialogue with this voice and I say, well, I mean, I can see

your point, actually, you know, I don't know if I have to do

that is I don't know if that's really a bad idea.

That's interesting. If I get into an inner dialogue

with this voice, I will often, if not always, lose.

What is far better is to preach the Word, to pull out the

ancient sword and slay the ancient serpent.

The woman says we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the

garden. Now that's true, that's true.

But God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is

in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest

you die. Now that's interesting, isn't

it? Because the woman adds a phrase

here, doesn't she? She says, neither shall you

touch it. Now, as far as we know, God

never said that. It's unclear if Adam told his

wife these instructions adding to God's instructions.

There's an age-old joke where you know, the husband's like,

all right, don't eat of this fruit.

Don't even touch it. All right.

It's unclear if Adam added this adding to God's instructions or

if the woman just made these instructions up.

You know, she just, Adam said don't eat this fruit and she was

like, well, we're not to eat of it and touch it.

It's not clear, but one of them added, one of them added to

God's instructions. Does that matter?

I think it does. I think it does in the same way

that the Israelites added to God's instructions.

The Israelites were known for creating a so-called fence

around God's law. God had given His law and then

they created what's known as a fence around this law.

I think Adam and or Eve are doing the very same thing here.

For example, in order to never take the Lord's name in vain.

That was one of the 10 commandments.

Don't take the Lord's name in vain.

What did they do? They created a fence.

What was that fence? Let's just not even say the

name. And they never said the Lord's

name. That's why we don't know how to

pronounce Yahweh. Yahweh is just a guess.

We have no idea how to pronounce it.

They just said let's just never say it.

In order to never break the Sabbath, God said, remember the

Sabbath, don't break it. What did they do?

They created a fence around it. They created all these rules

about how far you could carry your mat and, and, and how many

steps you could take and so forth, right.

They created this fence that you might think, is that a bad

practice? Is that a bad thing?

Is that a bad thing to like? Be extra cautious.

Is that a bad thing? It's not an effective practice.

It's not an effective practice. Making laws unto ourselves is of

no use. And stopping the indulgence of

the flesh. How do we know that?

Because it didn't stop her from sinning.

This extra law that she gave don't even touch.

It didn't stop her from sinning. Brothers and sisters, God's

commands are sufficient. We dare not take away from them.

And we don't need to add to them either.

They are sufficient in and of themselves.

Look at verse 4. But the serpent said to the

woman, you will not surely die. You will not surely die.

You know what's interesting about this statement?

The serpent uses the same word that God used.

Shirley. Did you catch that?

The woman didn't say Shirley. The woman just said we would

die. The woman did not say we will

surely die. Satan uses the same word that

God did. People often say that God, that

Satan knows God's word better than we do.

I imagine that's true. I imagine Satan does know God's

word better than we do. Now I want us to consider this

statement. God said to the man, And the day

that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

The serpent said you will not surely die, you will surely die,

you will not surely die. I don't know about you, but in

logic 101, something cannot be A and not A at the same time.

One of them is a liar, one of them is a liar.

Jesus says about Satan. He does not stand in the truth

because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a

liar and the father of lies. John 844 God clearly said you

will surely die. The serpent said you will surely

not die. Every day we are faced with this

scenario. We know the truth and we are fed

lies every day. We know the truth and we are fed

lies. This is why even though you may

know this book, you may even if you grew up in church and I'm

preaching on this, you're like, I mean, I know the creation

story. I've heard this so many times in

kids classes, right? Like, yeah, yeah.

They eat the fruit and they die and you know, it's like.

Even though you may know this book, you have to continuously

read it, memorize it, study it, sing it, pray it, preach it,

love it. Why?

Because every morning you wake up, you are a barrage of lies is

coming your way. That's what the world is

selling. It's selling lies.

Every billboard, every ad talk around the coffee break room,

it's selling you lies. You've got a barrage of lies

hitting you everyday and we need to be reminded, what did God

say? What did he say?

Do you know what he said? And guys, this, this is not

enough. I mean, this was such love,

guys. But, and I'm going to I'm going

to be careful because this is not scripted.

I get myself in trouble when I go off script.

There are some of you who have been a Christian for 10/15/20

years and you still don't know what this book says.

You need to know what did God say?

You need to know it better than you know your work or what level

you're on. You've got to know this inside

and out because you are fed lies every day and this is your only

hope to not believe those lies. Look at verse 5.

For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened

and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Notice this first phrase for God knows.

This phrase implies 2 things. A The serpent knows the mind of

God. He's implying that I know

something about God. He doesn't.

He doesn't know the mind of God. It be it implies that God knows

something and he doesn't want you to know it.

The serpent comes to her and he says, no, you can eat of this.

God just doesn't want you to eat of it because God knows

something and he doesn't want you to know it.

Again, we see his craftiness. We see his clever schemes Here

he gets the woman to believe that God is holding out on her.

That's what he's doing. God knows something He doesn't

want to know. He's holding out on you.

Now what does he accuse God of knowing?

What does he accuse God of holding out on?

That? When they eat of this tree, 2

results will follow. A your eyes will be opened.

Your eyes will be opened. How ironic that the New

Testament says that Satan blinds our eyes and that salvation is

God opening our eyes. But here the serpent is

suggesting that when you eat this fruit your eyes will be

opened, that disobedience will open your eyes.

And B, he says you will be like God, you will know good from

evil, that you'll be like God in this sense, you'll know good and

evil. A few weeks ago I asked the

question, what is the tree of knowledge of good and evil?

What? What is it?

I purposely tabled that question till now.

What is this tree of knowledge of good and evil?

It seems to me based on this, it is this.

It is a tree by which man gains moral autonomy.

It's a tree by which man gains moral autonomy.

Victor Hamilton writes this. What is forbidden to man is the

power to decide for himself what is in his best interest and what

is not. This is the decision that God is

not delegated to the earthling. In other words, God had said to

them, I will tell you what is right and what is wrong.

I will tell you. But to eat of this tree was

basically to say to God, thank you God.

But to be honest, I would like to decide this for myself.

I would like to be the one who decides what is right and what

is wrong. That's what this tree was.

Now I want to point out something here.

Satan does tell the woman truth, may think, well, these, these

are somewhat true. They are they're half truths.

They're half truths. You will not surely die.

That was 1/2 truth. She didn't physically die.

It was true. She did not physically die.

That was 1/2 truth. Your eyes will be open.

That's also half truth. Her eyes were opened.

They were opened. That's a half truth.

You will be like God, knowing good from evil.

That's a half truth. She did know good from evil.

That's a half truth. Satan tells her truths.

They are just half truths. Half truths are far more

dangerous than whole lies. They are sane.

Rarely comes to us and tells us a bold faced lie.

Rarely he tells us enough truth to make it believable.

Most people do not die from drinking poison.

They die from drinking dirty water.

Now I want you to notice Satan's modus operandum.

Don't miss this. This is his modus operandum.

Here it is. God is holding out on you.

God knows something and He doesn't want you to know it.

What is he doing there? What is Satan doing there?

He's doing this. He is planting a seed of

discontentment I have found in my life, and I believe the same

is true for everybody in this room.

That Satan's most effective strategy.

He's got many schemes, many strategies.

His most effective one, the one that he pulls out when other

things don't work. If, if, if, if this doesn't work

and that doesn't work, this one will work.

His most effective strategy is discontentment.

Jeremiah Burrow says this. The devil loves to fish in

troubled waters. When he sees men and women go up

and down discontented, he gets them alone.

Then he comes with his temptations.

Satan's most effective lie is to get you to believe I I need

something I do not currently have in order to be happy.

I need this. I need this money.

I need this relationship. I need this satisfaction.

I need this job. I need this validation.

I need it. I needed to be happy.

I won't be happy without it. It's the oldest lie in history.

It works on all of us, everybody in this room.

It works on What's trap so tragically ironic is that we are

given every indication that the man and woman they were already

happy. God had made them a beautiful

garden. You know, it's this is like the

contrast between Jesus. Jesus was in a desert wasteland

and he was content in the Lord. But but the man and the woman

were in this beautiful lush garden with four rivers flowing

out from it. God had given them every tree to

eat from every single one. They got a buffet of trees to

eat from. God had given them each other.

What? What else could they want?

And then along comes Satan, and he just plants a tiny little

seed of discontentment. True, but you don't have this

type of wisdom. Don't you want it?

It's there. All you have to do is just and

you'll have it. The verse 6A So when the woman

saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight

to the eyes and the tree was desired to make one wise.

Notice how the narrator's words at this So when the woman saw

the tree, did you catch that? There's a difference between

knowing that the tree is there and see that the tree is there.

She knew the tree was there, but now she sees it.

The serpent got her to see it. Now what did she see when she

looked upon the tree, What did she see?

3 descriptions. A.

It's good for food B. It's a delight to the eyes C Its

desire to make one wise. Now here's what's interesting

about these three descriptions for the 1st 2.

They're no different than the other trees.

Remember how God described all the other trees?

They're pleasant to the sight and they're good for food.

This tree is exactly the same. It's a pleasant to the site and

it's good for food. What's interesting is the Hebrew

word used for delight here in this passage, the Hebrew word

for delight. It's the same Hebrew word used

in Numbers 11. For now, the rabble that was

among them had a strong craving. That word craving is the same

Hebrew word as delight. The Hebrew word for desired here

is the same Hebrew word in Exodus 2017.

For thou shall not covet. Covet is the same Hebrew word as

desire. In other words, what?

What does that mean? This tree created a craving and

a coveting in this woman's heart.

Satan was able to create a craving and a coveting in her

heart. What does she crave?

What did she covet? This.

To be wise, to be wise. The Hebrew word there for wise

means to have insight, to gain wisdom, to gain understanding,

to be prudent, to be skilled, to have a capacity for

understanding. Cravings lead to coveting, and

coveting leads to compromise. Cravings lead to coveting, and

coveting leads to compromise. See, all the serpent had to do

was to get her to see the tree, and his mind is like, if I can

just get her to see it, she'll have a craving for it.

Once she has a craving for it, she'll covet it.

Once she covets it, she'll compromise.

And she did. You know what she should have

done the moment that she had a craving?

Know what she should have done. Go and eat from one of the other

trees and satisfy her craving. Go and feast on one of the other

trees and satisfy her craving. Look at 6B.

She took up its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her

husband who was with her, and he ate.

Now one could argue that the woman had already sinned when

she developed this craving, Covetine.

You could make an argument that she had already sent the moment

she developed this craving, Covetine.

She's ready to become a Sinner. That may be true, but she did

not transgress God's commands yet.

She did not transgress because God didn't say yet do not covet.

Paul says it's in Romans, right? She doesn't.

We don't. We would not know that we

shouldn't covet if God didn't say don't covet.

God did not say don't covet, yet she took of the fruit and ate

explicitly disobeying what God had told them not to do.

Now as bad as that sin was, it gets worse.

You ever heard the phrase misery loves company?

It's also true that sin loves company.

The woman gave some of the forbidden fruit to her husband

and he ate. This is bad for at least two

reasons. Number one, she brought him with

her into her sin. Do you know how we know that she

immediately became a Sinner? The moment she ate this?

She took it and ate it. She immediately became a Sinner.

Do you know how we know she immediately became a Sinner?

Because the very next thing she does is lead her husband into

sin. Only a Sinner would lead another

into sin. The serpent didn't even need to

tempt the man. She did the serpent's job for

him. Our sin always effects others.

If you remember Peter's hypocrisy at Antioch, it caused

Barnabas to be LED astray. Our sin can often embolden

others to sin likewise. I think that's what's going on

here and #2 why this is bad. The man eats with no words, no

resistance, no fight. He doesn't even say anything.

And it's not as though like he's naive like he does, you know,

she handed him a, a Peach or an apple or something and he's and

she's like, here you eaten. He's like, oh, no, no, like it

it. It's not like he knew what he

was doing. Paul says that the woman was

deceived, but the man was not. In Timothy, Paul says the woman

was deceived, but the man was not.

It's as if he willfully walks into the sin.

He wasn't deceived, he willfully walked into it.

The man was created to be her spiritual head or spiritual

leader, and yet here he is following her lead.

I cannot tell you how many times I have seen in church, this

church and other churches where men will passively let their

wives lead them into sin and to a certain lifestyle of sin and

will not step up and say, no, we are not going to do that in our

family. He passively follows her.

Adam is contrasted with Job who also had a wife who tempted him

to sin and yet Job maintained his integrity and said no, I

won't do that. That's what Adam should have

done. Look at verse 7.

Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew they were

naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves

loincloths. Satan promises the world and he

delivers hell. He promises the world and he

delivers hell. He did the same with Jesus.

He said to Jesus, bow down to me one time.

I will give you all the kingdoms of this world.

I will give you all their glory, all their authority, all their

power. It will all be yours.

Just bow down to me one time. He promised the world, but what

he would have delivered is eternal hell for all mankind had

Jesus done this. This is always the nature of

sin. Always sin is like putting a a

billion dollars in a minefield and saying it's shores.

If you want it you just go get it.

But this is not worth it. It's not worth it.

The serpent was right, their eyes were opened.

He said your eyes will be opened.

He was right, their eyes were opened, but they were not open

to wisdom. It would open to their

nakedness. Notice the narrator doesn't say

that they knew good from evil. It doesn't say that he says what

did they know? They knew they were naked.

What they wanted to know was wisdom.

Instead, what they knew was shame.

Sin makes us feel naked. It makes us feel exposed, makes

us feel ashamed. That's why sometimes you know

it, it. I see it as a pastor.

I know this because I'm a father.

Could see the look of shame on my boy's face.

I can see the the look of shame on your face.

Been doing this a long time. It makes us feel ashamed.

My wife's can sense it on my face.

She she, she can tell God has designed it this way.

This is not a bad thing. God has designed it this way.

It is. It is bad when we can walk

around and not feel naked, when we can feel no shame.

That's what's bad. That feeling of shame has a

purpose. And when you feel that shame,

you will do one of two things to alleviate that feeling.

When you feel shame, you will do one of two things to alleviate

that feeling. A You will either attempt to

self atone, which is what the man and the woman do.

They once again act independently of God.

They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Victor Hamilton writes this. They attempt to alleviate the

problem themselves rather than driving them back to God.

Their guilt leads them into a self atoning, self protecting

procedure. What they should have done is

gone to God and say God, we messed up, please forgive us.

And they said, you know, we, we, we got to hide this.

They attempt to cover up their shame and hide it from each

other and from God. We can, we will either attempt

to self atone or be what's the alternative?

We'll put on a robe. We'll put on a robe of

righteousness. That is a far better loincloth.

And fig leaves, brothers and sisters, fig leaves make a very

poor loincloth. You say what that could be

anything. Fig leaves can be anything that

we do to alleviate the feeling of guilt and shame.

Fig leaves can be busyness. I feel shame.

So I'm just going to stay busy. So I don't feel it could be

entertainment. Let me cathartically watch

others who have this shame drinking.

That's a big one. A lot of people drink away.

They're saying hobbies, religion.

Religion is not a a good substitute.

Could also be hardening. I feel this, but I'll just

harden my heart. Brother.

Sisters, you don't have to settle for fig leaves.

You don't have to settle for fig leaves.

Jesus does not just give us leaves, He gives us the entire

tree. He invites us to come and hide

ourselves behind His tree. He says step into my wardrobe

and put on this robe. I will cover you.

I will cover all of you. I pray you will hide yourself in

him. Let's pray.