We are are now ready to complete our twenty second “Defense Mechanism” as well as entire subject this week.
(22) The final Defense Mechanism is found in the sexual desires for lust after the opposite sex of the male and female believer.
Because of one verse, ECC 7:26, we are ready to finish the subject, And I discovered more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.
Once the believer uses his own volition to allow bitterness, anger and jealousy to control him, he shatters his own life.
And so what better verse to explain this and the subject to use then the one verse that caused Solomon look at the subject of Bitterness.
So with that in mind we have begun the doctrine of bitterness.
The Doctrine of Bitterness.
Point 1. By way of definition and description the Greek noun marah and the Greek noun pikria is translated bitterness in the Bible.for bitterness refers to animosity, jealousy, hostility, and is actually a part of anger and harshness.
Point 2. Causes of bitterness are very interesting in the Bible.
The people were bitter therefore their spiritual lives were destroyed.
Point 3. Bitterness results from being rejected.
Point 4. The results of bitterness.
Point 5. Bitterness Destroys Marriages, Col 3:19.
Being rejected is a strong reason for bitterness in the lives of most believers, especially in marriage; Col 3:19.
COL 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be embittered against them.
Before a woman marries a man, she must be able to answer one critical question, "Will I submit to the authority of this man for the rest of my life?"
Does he demonstrate impersonal love toward all?
Is he manly, and yet still gentle?
Is he thoughtful, courteous?
What is his attitude in general and people in general?
If you say "yes" to the wrong man who is an emotional child, who is arrogant, jealous, your life and marriage will be intolerable slavery.
You cannot change the past, but as long as you are alive you can change the future.
The consequences of past sins and failures are in God's hands, but the future belongs to you under the principle of logistical grace. It isn't what we do that counts, but what God does that counts.
The sins of marriage and divorce are no different than the sins of any other category of living. Therefore, if you discover that you are living in adultery, rebound once, forget it, and keep moving in your current marriage.
Now, because of all this, I have decided to deal with marriage which caused bitterness in Solomon as we go back to the original language in the original marraige.
So we begin in GEN 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"
Notice that when Satan comes on the scene he says, “Is it really true that God has said You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?”
Genesis 3 tells the story of the paradise of marriage which was lost by the willfulness of human sin.
Humanity was originally given every perfect thing they could need or want, and virtually no restrictions.
Despite that, Adam and Eve needed only a bit of prompting from a talking serpent to disobey their perfect loveable Creator.
Immediately overcome by shame and quickly cursed by God, the painful story of human history begins with their exit from the Garden of Eden and the reasons why.
Created sinless, ''very good,'' and placed into a perfect environment by a fair and loving Creator, Adam and Eve choose to sin anyway.
They earn spiritual death and separation from God, as well as lives punctuated by pain, conflict, and frustration, ending in spiritual and physical death.
This is followed by God's response to human sin, tailored to each of the parties involved. The following chapter will tell the story of the beginning of human life apart from God and the garden.
GEN 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"
GEN 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
GEN 3:3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.' "
GEN 3:4 And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die!
GEN 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
GEN 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
Gen 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
After the conversation with Satan the woman became very lustful for the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
She thought that understanding good and evil could make her wise rather than understanding doctrine.
And so she begins to desire something that is negative toward God’s plan.
Remember that the tree of knowledge was forbidden to Adam and Ishshah his wife as a volitional test for the human race and as an extension of the pre-historic angelic conflict.
And the tree of life was grace blessing which was only available in the status of perfection in Gen 3:22.
GEN 3:22 Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"‑‑
And they chose to follow Satan's viewpoint by saying yes to the tree of knowledge of good and evil and no to the tree of life.
For in PRO 3:18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who hold her fast.
The Tree of life is also manifested in 1PE 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree or the cross.
Or Act 16:31 "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household."
In choosing the tree of knowledge of good and evil they said NO to the tree of life.
However, the tree of life still exists today.
It exists in the form of the cross of Jesus Christ.
Where Jesus Christ was judged for our sins and where he took our place and became our substitute and we are free to accept it or reject it.
And there is a very vital principle here once again.
God did not give up on His creation even though they failed Him and in the perfect marriage they failed but God did not give up on them.
The only solution for imperfect people involved in impefect marriage is the grace of God and the spiritual death there is only one tree of life, the cross, Act 16:31.
On that cross or that "tree of life" the sins of the entire world were judged by God the Father and this is the tree of life that can cause a marriage to be successful,...the cross of TLJC.
So essentially the solution to marriage is understanding the grace of God and rejecting the bitterness that would come out.
This includes toleration and the recognition that your spouse or loved one has an OSD and you have one too.
Therefore, when you understand grace and divine good you understand the infinite and eternal genius of God and how He has resolved everything that was corrupted at the fall.
The perfect state of mankind was corrupted.
The perfect state of environment was corrupted.
The perfect marriage of mankind was corrupted.
This means that the only solutions to marriage are the principles of Bible doctrine, not the environment, mot perfect people, but doctrine resident in the soul.
Now, the serpent’s voice is still around today telling us that God's way cannot make us happy and that he has a better way.
And many Christians are listening to that viewpoint today.
And they are going in the wrong direction for happiness and solution to their marriage.
They are striving in the wrong direction,
They are trying to improve their environment rather than improve their soul with doctrine.
GEN 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Note again the genius of Satan.
He didn't attack the woman gown with violence.
He attacked her with dialogue or with conversation.
Why?
Because Satan knows that the best way to get to a woman is through conversation not violence…….get them to talk.
Violence doesn't do anything for them.
The way to get to the woman is through conversation.
And Satan was a genius in his approach.
He didn't have to use violence.
He didn't intimidate.
He didn't threaten.
He just used conversation.
That idea that you have to communicate with your husband to solve the problem in your marriage is basically wrong.
Without talk, without conversation. is the best way to communicate as we have noted this past week in 1Pe 3:1.
1Pe 3:1 In the same way, you wives,be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word,they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives.
1PE 3:2 as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.
TIT 2:3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good.
Back in GEN 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
Now, when this woman entered into the sin of disobedience she made the most amazing discovery when her eyes were open.
She thought that she would be a smart as God.
She thought she knew what God was like from her conversation with Satan.
However, what was the woman's discovery?
She did not become like God as Satan tried to do, but she tried to discover what God was like.
She would have known what God was like if she had paid attention in Bible class.
Then. as we have noted, we have an elapse of time because after the conversation with Satan and after becoming the first human being to enter into spiritual death she had to go find her husband.
And when it says and she gave also to her husband with her and he ate,.....he wasn't with her during the dialogue with Satan.
He was a part of the marriage and that's what "with her" means.
And we noted that this all brings out this particular principle.
Such as the Amplified Bible and the Revised Standard Version and the Living Bible all bring out that she gave her conversation also to her husband with her and he ate.
He was a part of the marriage and that's what "with her" means.
Adam wasn't around, the listening is over, the dialogue is over,
the woman is now looking at the tree.
And this means for the moment she has departed from the serpent.
GEN 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"
GEN 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
The previous two chapters described God's creation of the universe and how fully He provided for the first two human beings.
Genesis chapter 3 turns to describing how they became separated from God.
In this verse, a new character is introduced: the serpent.
Who is he, and where did he come from?
We have no reason to assume that animals possessed the power of speech and reason at this time.
Still, some teachers remark that the woman—later named Eve; (Gen 3:20), seems oddly unsurprised when the serpent speaks to her.
Others point out that many conversations recorded in the Bible appear to be summaries, not word-for-word transcripts.
The actual discussion might well have taken longer than what's recorded here.
We are told the serpent is the most crafty or shrewd of all the wild animals.
This is from the Hebrew term ā'rum, which also means "prudent" or "sly." The term, itself, is not necessarily negative.
However, as with any gift or ability, how one chooses to use it makes the difference between sin and righteousness.
In this case, the serpent uses "craftiness" in order to ruin mankind and after the fall, God specifically curses the serpent (Gen 3:14-15).
As a result, conservative Bible teachers generally hold one of two interpretations, first, that Satan possessed and spoke through a serpent created by God, second, that Satan took on the form of a serpent for the purpose of tempting the woman to sin.
That seems consistent with what we know of Satan from other passages in the Bible.
First of all, Satan and the other demons are spiritual beings, not physical, but with the ability to take control of both people (Luke 22:3) and animals (Mark 5:11–13).
Jesus describes Satan as the Father of lies (John 8:44), and Genesis 3 describes the first recorded lies to be heard on earth.
Finally, Revelation refers to Satan as a dragon, the "ancient serpent" or "serpent of old" (Revelation 12:9; 20:2).
His first recorded words to the woman challenge God's commands with a simple question, casting doubt on God's words.
The serpent seems to either misstate or question God's restrictions about what she and the man could eat: "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?"
It will become clear the serpent knows exactly what God had commanded. His intent is to provoke Eve to judge God's fairness.
GEN 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
In the previous verse, the crafty serpent—most likely Satan in control of an animal, or taking on an animal form—began his temptation of the first woman.
This conversation is his attempt to convince her to disobey God.
He starts with a question he knows the answer to, one apparently intended to draw her into judging God's character.
This begins by encouraging her to consider, or even to doubt, God's command: Did God really say you can't eat from any tree in the garden?
Verses 2 and 3 describe the woman's response.
She immediately corrects the serpent: "We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden." This part of the response is all well and good.
Her answer is correct, but getting her to talk is part of the Devil's trap.
The end of her response, in the following verse, shows the woman doesn't have a clear understanding of God's command.
GEN 3:3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.' "
In verse 1, the serpent questions the commands of God by asking the woman a slanted question: Did God really say you could not eat fruit from any tree in the garden?
In verse 2, she begins to answer, and at first her answer seems solid. She correctly responds that no, they could eat fruit from trees in the garden.
She then concludes her answer with God's actual restriction.
However, she doesn't seem to quote it exactly right.
This reflects just enough doubt over God's words to give Satan an opportunity.
Here's what God said to Adam about what not to eat in Genesis 2:16–17: "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."
The woman, either by accident or out of sincerity, added an extra layer to God's statement.
The restriction that they were not even allowed to touch the tree wasn't part of God's actual command.
Either Eve, as the woman would later be known, did not fully understand the command, she misremembered it, or she intentionally misquoted it in an effort to be more emphatic.
Instead of bolstering her willingness to obey, this addition to the words of God actually makes Satan's strategy more effective.
In the context of this conversation, her error makes God appear even more restrictive than He is.
The serpent will quickly zero in on the issue of God's character, His honesty, and His fairness…….just as he does in the angelic conflict.
GEN 3:4 And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die!
GEN 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
GEN 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
In Gen 3:6, we read, When the woman saw
This is the Qal imperfect of the verb raah which portrays the lust of the eyes, and the imperfect tense tells us that she kept looking at it
Her eyes on now on that which has been forbidden.
And the lust causes her to concentrate on that which has been forbidden, Lust is always concentration.
Men often appear to be very attentive and caring toward women and it isn't attentiveness at all.
They are concentrating on the moment because of lust and it is not so much that it fools other people....it fools the man himself, lust always deceives us.
How does it deceive?
Well, lust does so by coming to us as our friend.
When the devil in his subtlety and his deceitfulness came to Eve, he flattered her.
Lust comes with a smile!
It always pays us compliments!
It plays on our pride
And so it deceives us by flattering us!
It is always attractive!
Lust discourages thought, and that is a part of its strategy of deceit!
Lust offers what it can never give – satisfaction, lust never satisfies.
It never satisfies although it is always offering satisfaction.
Now the woman is looking at the tree.
Her eyes are lusting.
And so the woman's change of mental attitude and her new mind set is going to cause her to go right to that tree with the forbidden fruit.
Now, in reality we have 4 categories of trees in the garden according to Gen 2:9.
GEN 2:9 And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
First, we have trees to stimulate the soul,.....they are called pleasing to the sight and that is the aesthetic part of their perfect environment.
Secondly, trees for the body, which of course have to do with food and sustaining life.
Thirdly, one tree for spiritual blessing, the tree of life.
And then, the fourth one for the extension of the angelic conflict,...the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Let's notice them some principles at this point;
(1) Divine provision is greater than anything that creatures can provide.
Satan is a creature.
(2) Divine provision is always more than sufficient.
Divine provision is based on grace.
(3) To become dissatisfied with divine provision means no capacity for life.
Boredom, NVTD, etc.
(4) Without Bible doctrine the perfect marriage collapsed.
(5) Doctrinal conceptualism is the secret to blessing in marriage.
For doctrinal conceptualism changes self not someone else.
(6) Not only does doctrine change self but there is toleration of the flaw and failures of others as well as the appreciation for whatever are the good or strong points
GEN 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
This is the mind-set, the mental attitude that the tree was desirable to make one wise or to gain wisdom.
The previous two chapters described God's creation of the universe and how fully He provided for the first two human beings. Genesis chapter 3 turns to describing how they became separated from God.
In this verse, a new character is introduced: the serpent.
Who is he, and where did he come from?
We have no reason to assume that animals possessed the power of speech and reason at this time.
Still, some commentators remark that the woman—later named Eve—seems oddly unsurprised when the serpent speaks to her.
Others point out that many conversations recorded in the Bible appear to be summaries, not word-for-word transcripts. The actual discussion might well have taken longer than what's recorded here.
We're told the serpent is the most crafty or shrewd of all the wild animals.
This is from the Hebrew term ā'rum, which also means "prudent" or "sly."
The term, itself, is not necessarily negative. However, as with any gift or ability, how one chooses to use it makes the difference between sin and righteousness.
In this case, the serpent uses "craftiness" in order to ruin mankind. After the fall God specifically curses the serpent (Genesis 3:14–15).
Not all Bible scholars agree, but most understand this speaking serpent to be Satan himself.
As a result, conservative Bible teachers generally hold one of two interpretations. First, that Satan possessed and spoke through a serpent created by God.
Second, that Satan took on the form of a serpent for the purpose of tempting the woman to sin.
That seems consistent with what we know of Satan from other passages in the Bible.
First of all, Satan and the other demons are spiritual beings, not physical, but with the ability to take control of both people (Luke 22:3) and animals (Mark 5:11–13).
Jesus describes Satan as the Father of lies (John 8:44), and Genesis 3 describes the first recorded lies to be heard on earth.
Finally, Revelation refers to Satan as a dragon, the "ancient serpent" or "serpent of old" (Revelation 12:9; 20:2).
His first recorded words to the woman challenge God's commands with a simple question, casting doubt on God's words.
The serpent seems to either misstate or question God's restrictions about what she and the man could eat: "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?"
It will become clear the serpent knows exactly what God had commanded. His intent is to provoke Eve to judge God's fairness.
The word desirable is the niphal participle from chamad which means
that it fed her concentration because of the lust pattern of desiring to be like God.
Remember that lust existed before the sin of disobedience.
And this is a niphal participle which is the passive voice stem in the Hebrew and in the passive voice, it means that she received this desire and that means that out of that dialogue or conversation with Satan this desire came into being.
There was no desire until the conversation with Satan.
After the conversation and the dialogue with Satan that which was forbidden has now become desireable to the woman.
So the tree of the knowledge of good and evil has become desireable.
Then next we have the hiphil infinitive construct from sakal which is translated wise in the hiphil stem which is causative active voice meaning to cause one to be wise.
So the tree now was desireable for gaining wisdom or being desireable to cause one to become wise and the niphal participle from chamad translated being desireable portrays the emotional revolt of the soul.
This is equivalent to scar tissue of the soul
Both are equivalent of course to christian degeneracy in our day in age
First of all, the emotional revolt of the soul and then scar tissue of the soul is the woman's original sin is revealed now in 2 verbs; the Qal imperfect of laqach translated "she took" which is an act of volition related to the temptation.
Temptation is not sin only but it is when volition comes into operation.
Now laqach means to take and in the imperfect tense it means that she had it in her hands for a while and she hasn't died by touching it.
So, she's no longer afraid of it.
And remember she thought that if you touch it you would die.
She added to the word of God and now her false doctrine will deceive her for the Lord never said you cannot touch it.
Now the listening is over.
The dialogue is over.
The woman is now looking at the tree.
She added to the Word of God and now her false doctrine will deceive her for the Lord never said you cannot touch it.
Now, Satan appears to be telling the truth, God has lied to her, so she thinks.
And so the next verb describes the first sin in human history
She took from its fruit and ate
This next verse is the Qal imperfect of akal which means that when she ate it of the fruit she entered in to the first sin of human history.
I’ve always had the question, what was the first sin, was it her thoughts at the tree when she was thinking evil or was it the actual act of eating itself?
I tend to lean toward the act of eating itself rather than the act of thinking.
Holding it in her hand. it was still temptation.
When she decided to eat the fruit it that was the act of volition that becomes the original sin ot the eating itself of the thinking of the fruit first.
Whatever it was, the original sis we are told was the woman who was now in the status of spiritual death while Adam her husband was still in the status quo of perfection.
The woman therefore;
Looked at the fruit….
Longed for the fruit….
Lay hold of the fruit….
Ate the fruit….
And became spiritually dead.
Now, the marriage has problems and it is collapsing.
Adams original sin now follows.
By this time, Adam has fallen.
So, in Gen.3:6......and she gave also to her husband with her;and he ate.
And, of course, Adam finds himself in the same status as his wife.
He is holding the fruit but he has not yet eaten any of it.
She gave it to him.
Adam had no conversation with Satan therefore his temptation is entirely different.
Adam is looking at the first sinner in the human race, his wife, who is now of course spiritually dead.
Adam must choose between Jesus Christ and the remaining in the status of perfection or his wife and enter into the status quo of spiritual death.
Now, I have heard preachers try and correlate Adam identifying with the woman and eating the fruit with TLJC identifying with sin and dying for the human race on the cross.
That is absolutely ridiculous.
Adam's act was not a noble act at all,
It was outright rebellion and disobedience whereas the cross was the most noble act in all of human history.
At this moment, Adam is still the ruler of the world.
He is still the authority in marriage.
The issue is....fellowship with God verses compatible relationship with the woman
He now must make a choice.
And so the woman who is spiritually dead gave him the fruit.
Nathan means to give.
The woman is now Satan's agent being spiritually dead.
And so here she is in a perfect marriage representing Satan.
And so we have the phrase....and he ate, he actually ate the fruit.
He decided to go with the woman rather than TLJC.
He should have been leading and he was led.
And this is his act of volition and his original sin
Now the two sins seem to be the same because each one eats from the tree
Each one was told not to eat and each one ate
But they are not the same as we will demonstrate
And that has a lot to do with the role of the woman in marriage and in life in general