Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
What it means to be initiated into the secret of the mystery, Part 54. The deception from the god of this world.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
The serpent was the agent or the vehicle that Satan used to try to deceive the woman.
When it comes to lust, all members of the human race are swimming in the same pool.
If you are human, normal or abnormal, you have lust problems.
Two categories of lust: lust related to both your personal areas of weakness and your personal areas of strength in your old sin nature.
Our areas of strength are very deceiving, and we often build a false self-esteem on our areas of strength.
One person’s weakness is another person’s strength, which is the basis for our arrogance, self-justification, and rationalization about inferiority and superiority.
a. Power lust is the worst of all, for almost all other lusts are related to this one, especially if you have any inferiority problems.
b. Approbation lust is merely one of the extensions of power lust, and it is separate because some people do want approbation without power.
c. Stimulation lust has many parts, in which we cater to the nerve centers and functions of our body in the name of pleasure.
1. Sexual lust, or lasciviousness.
2. Drunkenness.
3. Drug addiction.
4. Mental stimulation or intellectual arrogance.
d. Killer lust - the problem-solving device of the weak.
e. There is also anger lust or cruelty.
This lust is the evil desire to hurt others - the object of one’s love, the object of one’s hatred, or anyone who causes you a problem.
Some people by nature are kind; some people by nature are cruel.
f. Money lust is called by the Scripture the “root of all kinds of evil.”
One’s attitude toward money very clearly delineates one’s overall philosophy of life or one’s spiritual condition or lack of spiritual life.
1TI 6:10 For you see the love of money keeps on being a root of all sorts of evil through which [love for money]certain ones by intensively desiring it [money] have gone astray from the doctrine and pierced themselves with many types of pain.
HEB 13:5 Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”
What we are going to see in this passage is an attack on the mentality of the soul, and this will come through a conversation with the serpent.
Here is Satan getting ready to outsmart two of the most beautiful and perfect people who ever lived on the face of the earth.
His policy of evil, get people to begin to doubt.
With his evil policy, he is trying to make the woman conscious of that which is forbidden.
He tries to make her focus in on the divine prohibition rather than the divine provisions.
Satan’s first and most brilliant weapon has always been conversation.
Satan’s greatest weapon was his own genius.
Violence and intimidation would have alarmed Adam and the woman, and driven the woman into the protective custody of her husband.
The first category, the human authority of Adam as her husband.
The second authority, the divine authority of TLJC, her God.
1. Every tree being desirable to the sight is the first category which is designed for the prosperity of the soul.
2. The second category of trees was the category called “good for food” - man had physical happiness or happiness of body.
The stimulation of the taste buds was a reminder of God’s grace before man sinned, just as eating the bread of communion is a reminder of God’s grace after man sins.
The third category was the tree of life - both the capacity for perfect happiness and blessing, and total appreciation of God’s grace.
Man was designed for happiness, blessing, capacity, and pleasure unless he went negative to God’s plan.
The first sin involved no morality or immorality at all, but simply rejection of the perfect happiness provided by God.
For the first time she calls TLJC “God” instead of the Lord God.
She adds to the word of God which is forbidden, REV 22:18.
She was so occupied with the sin of disobedience and not eating the fruit that evil crept in.
Satan’s plan, get the believer so occupied with sin that he can sneak evil in.
Sin was not the issue in the garden.
Sin was the result of those who thought evil.
Evil came first, not sin.
1. He out-rightly contradicts the word of God when he says, “Has God said?” and then, “You surely shall not die.”
2. As a part of his policy of evil he distorts and misquotes the word of God.
3. He adds to and subtracts from the word of God.
4. He ridicules, mocks, and attacks those into doctrine.
All of a sudden the tree looks inviting - why?
She now has “evil thinking” as her frame of reference. She is now occupied with the natural and not the spiritual.
Her desires are now negative toward God’s plan and positive toward evil.
What is the first thing she wanted that God had already provided for her? Intelligence.
The O.S.N. resulted, not from sin, but from “thinking evil.”
Now that they think evil, knowing evil leads to performing good, so what do they do?
The first thing they try to do is improve and correct their own condition - operation fig-leaves.
The eyes, MAT 6:22, represent the perception of the soul.
EPH 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
It was the woman who “rationalized” in her contact with her little pet serpent, which was actually Satan indwelling the serpent.