Welcome to Sabbath School Study Hour, coming to you from the Seventh-day Adventist Church here in - we're actually in Rocklin, but it's the Granite Bay Seventh-day Adventist church. And we're so glad that you are tuning in like you do every week from across the country and around the world. We have Michael dunbar, who is president of fountainview academy, with us and - Michael, we want to know who are all of these lovely young people behind us? Where are you from and why are you here? Other than we love fountainview. Amen. We are from fountainview academy, located in southern british columbia.
All these kids - this is our entire student body - 87 young people dedicated to serving the Lord through music and through ministry. And if you have a young person that's academy age, how can we get more information about your school? You can visit our website at www.fountainview.ca or speak, if you're here and you're interested, speak to any one of us that are here. We'd love to talk to you about fountainview academy. Thank you, Michael. And we're so excited to listen to your students right now as they do two songs for us.
Welcome fountainview. Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah (for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth) hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth (hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah) the Kingdom of this world; is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever and he shall reign forever and ever and he shall reign forever and ever and he shall reign forever and ever king of Kings forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah and Lord of Lords forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah king of Kings forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah and Lord of Lords forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah king of Kings forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah and Lord of Lords king of Kings and Lord of Lords and he shall reign and he shall reign and he shall reign he shall reign and he shall reign forever and ever king of Kings forever and ever and Lord of Lords hallelujah hallelujah and he shall reign forever and ever king of Kings and Lord of Lords king of Kings and Lord of Lords and he shall reign forever and ever forever and ever and ever and ever (king of Kings and Lord of Lords) hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah. Amen. Angels From the Realms of Glory wing your flight o'er all the earth ye who sang creation's story now proclaim Messiah's birth come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn king. Shepherds, in the fields abiding watching o'er your flocks by night God with man is now residing yonder shines the infant light come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn king.
(Instrumental) sages, leave your contemplations, brighter visions beam afar; seek the great desire of nations; ye have seen his natal star; come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn king. (Instrumental) saints before the altar bending, watching long in hope and fear, suddenly the Lord, descending, in his temple shall appear: come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn king! Amen. Want to welcome our friends who are studying with us. We have people who are students who watch from all over the world, as well as some of you who are part of the extended Amazing Facts Granite Bay study hour church. And something I meant to mention today that we don't always share is that you may notice that I usually print out a few notes that go along with the lesson.
Some of these, of course, you've got your notes in your lesson. Some of these are the thoughts of the teachers. And almost every week, we post these online and so if you're ever interested - some of you teach - you might be interested in our notes as well as the notes that are in the lesson book. You can find those, such as they are, will be at the Amazing Facts website under the Sabbath school section. And our study today - we're continuing with a brand-new quarter's lesson dealing with rebellion and redemption.
And in our study today it's talking about the crisis in eden. It's going to be talking a little bit about the serpent. And so, our free offer for today is a book called the Savior and the serpent - I wrote this a few years ago because I just saw a pattern all the way from Genesis to Revelation, about this battle between the Savior and the serpent. And you can find it in one of the first prophecies in the Bible - Genesis 3:15 - and it goes all the way to Revelation chapter 12. And so, if you want to understand something about the battle between good and evil going on behind the scenes, we'll give you a free copy of that - offer #798 - and call 866-788-3966 - that's -study-more - and we'll send you that for free.
You could also go to the Amazing Facts website. Alright, and so we're dealing with a crisis in eden. We talked about, last week, a crisis in heaven. Where did sin come from? How did this - this whole terrible experiment with good and evil begin? And we have a memory verse. And the memory verse is that one I just referenced in Genesis 3:15 and if you have your Bibles, if you want to follow along and say this out loud with me - Genesis 3:15 - it's from the new king James version - ready? "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
" It's talking about a battle between the seed of the woman and the serpent. There's this battle about the dragon makes war with the woman - the serpent - it talks about in Revelation chapter 12. And so, something obviously went wrong. God's creation originally was a blessing. Everything was good, good, very good.
Matter of fact, in the first section on Sunday it talks about three blessings and - here are the three blessings that are mentioned: first blessing: he blessed the sea creatures and the birds and he encouraged them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters and the seas and let all the birds multiply on the earth. So that's the first blessing. That, by the way, is Genesis 1:22. The second blessing is when God tells adam and eve and they're blessed and he blesses them with a similar encouragement - be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Then you've got - the third blessing is given at the creation story when God blessed the seventh day.
And that's there in Genesis chapter 2, the first few verses. So there's no death or pain. If you look in psalm 84 - still talking about things being good. Psalm 84:11, "for the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly." So when the Lord tells us he doesn't want us to do something, is that because God doesn't want Christians to have fun? Is there ever anything good that God withholds? So when people look down and they see all the misery in the world today, and there's a lot of pain and war and suffering and disease and things we can't explain and innocent people suffering and children born with debilitating disease and pain and - and you say, 'if God is good, then why is he allowing all of this?' Genesis explains what happens. These are the verses we're considering today.
God made a paradise. Does God want people to be happy? Yes. If you ever want to know what God's plan is for man, go back to Genesis chapter 1 and 2. Chapter 3, things go south, but up until then God made everything good. He made man and put man and woman in a paradise.
God wants you to have a happy life. He wants you to have pleasures at his right hand forevermore - psalm 16 tells us - but sin came in. It says, 'no good thing will he withhold.' So when God wants you to turn from sin, is he wanting you to turn from something bad or something good? Something bad. God'll withhold how many good things? No good thing. The only thing he withholds are bad things because he loves you and he wants your eternal good.
So when God tries to steer us away from something, it's because he knows it will ultimately hurt. No good thing will he withhold. Alright, if you look in Mark - just tie off this thought about goodness of God. Mark 10:17 - after Jesus blessed the children, he's going down the road and this rich young ruler goes chasing after him. He saw something different about Jesus and, "now as he was going down the road, one came running, knelt before him, and asked him, 'good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?'" And so, instead of Jesus immediately answering his initial question, he addresses how he was addressed.
He said, "'why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is, God.'" Only one is sinless. Only one is perfectly good. Now was Jesus denying his goodness or was he helping the ruler understand his Godness? He wasn't saying, 'I'm not good.' He was saying, 'there's really only one good. You're calling me good. Only God is good.
Maybe I'm God. I'm not just a teacher. I'm not just a good master - a good rabbi.' So he wanted him to understand that. He says, 'you're asking me 'what do you have for everlasting life?' You really want to know? You've got to put everything on the line. If you want eternal life, go sell all that you have' - he was in love with his riches - 'go sell all that you have.
Give it to the poor. Give the proceeds to the poor. You'll have treasure in heaven. Take up your cross and follow me.' Now, does Jesus ask us to give up something without offering us something better? He said, 'go sell all that you have and you will have treasure in heaven. What's worth more? That man and his treasure - his bank account - is all gone - been gone for thousands of years - but we don't know if he ever stored anything in heaven.
That's the only thing that would last. In the resurrection, the only thing that's going to matter to him is what did you store in heaven. Alright, second section: test at the tree. So then everything was good and - can you imagine being in a garden - not only does it tell us about the paradise, it talks about the river and the air and - but God made some distinctions. He made some separations.
He said, for instance, you read in Genesis 1:3, God said, 'let there be light' and there was light. And God saw the light and it was good and God divided the light from the darkness. Now is darkness sometimes a symbol of evil? Paul talks about 'you are children of the day, not children of the night.' We're supposed to be sons of light, not sons of darkness. God made a separation between the light and the darkness. It's symbolic that there's a separation between good and evil.
And God later makes a separation between the waters above and the waters below. And he makes a separation between the domain of the fish and the domain of the birds. And there's a bunch of separations that are made and then, finally, when he says, 'look, I also made one other separation' - someone's going to read for me 2 Chronicles 32:31 in a minute. Okay alberto, you'll do that. He made this other separation.
You read about this in Genesis 2, verse 8. "the Lord God planted a garden eastward in eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The Tree of Life was also" - you notice it doesn't say trees - there was a particular tree. And you needed to eat from that tree probably once every two or three hundred years.
Adam lived 930 years because he didn't eat it. He finally dried up and died. And everybody wishes they could figure out what was in that tree that we're missing because they'd sell it as a food supplement and make a lot of money, right? They don't know why our cells - while we're young they repair themselves - and something starts to die. They're starting to figure out what it is. That's why I think the Lord's coming soon.
And they think, 'oh, if we could just prolong our mortal lives.' Can you imagine what that garden looked like? Have any of you seen some beautiful gardens in the world? I've been to some countries and you go look at all the tulips they plant there in the netherlands. And I've seen some gardens in the world and - you go to japan and different places - just beautiful gardens. They've got trails. There's usually water in some of these beautiful gardens. There's flowers and beaches - there's some interesting rocks.
The japanese say, 'in order to have a good garden you need to have rock, you need to have vegetation, you need to have water, and - can you imagine the garden that God planted? All the exotic flowers - flowers, you know, bigger than an elephant's ear. I don't know why I picked that analogy but just, you know, big flowers and vines and fruit - every different kind - everything was just - it's like, you ever organize a flower arrangement? You cut them and you try and get them all symmetrical and you turn the little flowers in the vase so that just, from any angle it's beautiful. Can you imagine God doing a garden arrangement? What that must have looked like - what it must have smelled like - the creatures that he stocked it with. The little beautiful birds and butterflies flitting from flower to flower and the majestic perfect fur on the creatures and just - oh, adam and eve never forgot that - God's garden. By the way, you can get to see that someday.
There are conditions for admittance to that garden, but the tree is going to be in the midst. In New York city - the middle of New York city - it's unique - they set aside a big area called central park. And in the new Jerusalem, based on what we read, central park is going to be the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life is going to be there again. And, out of the middle of it, flows the river of God and the river of life runs underneath the tree. Evidently, the branches grow together above it and the roots below it and the tree - river sort of runs through it.
It must have been beautiful. So God makes these divisions - divides the light - plants a garden, and then he tests them. Why did he test them? Why make a tree of good and evil they're not supposed to eat from? Chronicles - go ahead, read for us - 2 Chronicles 32:31. "However, regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew from him, in order to test him, that he might know all that was in his heart." Some of you remember the story where king hezekiah. He was sick.
He prayed. God healed him - said, 'I'm going to give you another 15 years' - and a wonderful thing happened. He created this astronomical wonder where the sun went - didn't just stop, like Joshua, it went backwards. Everything stopped and went in reverse. And, you know, when you pray and God makes the sun goes backwards and God heals you and you're blessed on every side, even the Godly can be tempted.
And the Lord withdrew from hezekiah. Hezekiah thought, 'I'm just good - I'm inherently good. I don't need God, I'm good on my own.' And God withdrew from him to show him, 'no, without me you can do nothing.' And when the ambassadors came later, hezekiah revealed how utterly proud he was. They came to find out about his God and all he could talk about was - he says, 'here's my treasure and here's my clothes, and here's my armory, and here's my fragrance, and here's - me, me, me, my, my, my. And here's a Godly king.
If hezekiah did that, you wonder where we stand. God tested him. Did God test him so God could find out what was in him? Or does God know everything? Did God test him so he could find out what was in him? So Genesis 2:15, "then the Lord God took that man" - meaning man and woman - "and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it." - He gave them a work to do - a wonderful work - a delightful work - "and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;'" - I've given you everything you need for your abundant happiness. But one restriction - "'but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in that day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'" You can, you know, walk through a garden with your 5-year-old - 7-year-old - and you can say, 'you can pick and you can touch every flower in this garden except one.' Which one will they go to? The one - if you draw a line and you say to him, 'you can go anywhere in this room just don't walk across that line.' They'll go right up to the line, they'll look at you, and then they'll put the foot over it. And eve was so curious about 'why not that tree? You've got all these other trees you can eat from and she starts getting closer and closer and looking at it - and the devil saw his opportunity.
Why does God test us? Deuteronomy 8:2, God said, "and you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart" - so God would know or so they could know? I think it's more for them to know. God knows everything - "whether you would keep his commandments or not." - And, obviously, they failed. He wanted them to enter the promised land realizing their weakness - utterly depending on him. Well, adam and eve had an opportunity to demonstrate loyalty. Now, when the devil rebelled - we talked about this last week - and he went through the universe - he was kicked out of heaven but he wasn't cast to the earth yet.
The devil could go to various worlds and he would try to recruit leaders of various worlds to buy into he and the other angels. The devil had a third of the angels that followed him. But God did not want the devil - he said, 'look' - the devil was saying, 'it's not fair, you know, you've shared your idea of what's right. I need to be able to share my idea. God said, 'alright, I'm going to let you share, but I'm not going to let you harass these other creatures all the time anywhere.
There's one place where you can talk to them. If they want to listen to you, they can. If they want to walk away, they can. And you can talk to them at this tree.' And there was probably some similar test in other worlds and all the other unfallen creatures, they would not listen to lucifer. Resist the devil and what happens? He flees from you.
So he left them, but when he came to this planet - this new planet - these creatures made in God's image - he especially hated them. You know why? One of the things the devil wants about God is the devil cannot create life. The devil can manipulate the life God's created, but he can't create life and the devil wanted that ability. And he heard now God makes creatures in his own image that have this ability to procreate in their own image. And that really bothered him that they could create.
And he gives them dominion of the world and the devil wanted dominion. The Bible said, 'whoever you obey, that's whose servants you are.' Some people think if you turn your back on God you'll have freedom. No, you're free - Jesus said, 'you know the truth and the truth makes you free.' You turn from God and you become a slave. And so, he met eve at the tree. Why don't we turn - let's read that right out of our Bibles - Genesis chapter 3, 'the serpent was more cunning, crafty, subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
" - Some serpents have beautiful coloring. They're vivid. They're bright. They can move in hypnotic ways. Something else about serpents, they do not have eyelids - they do not blink - they're always staring.
You've never had a snake wink at you, right? And so, for this and other reasons, it was just a - it was a mesmerizing creature - and here it is coiled with its beautiful wings up in the branches of this tree and it's eating the fruit. The devil manipulated the serpent. Can the devil manipulate pigs? Can God speak through a donkey? And so good and evil influences can affect animals. I think more cats are demon-possessed than dogs. That's just a theory.
I can't prove it. Don't you agree? We'll find out who the cat lovers are out there. No one ever says a dog is bad luck. Dog is man's friend. Anyway, so the serpent, he says, "hath God indeed said, 'you shall not eat of every tree in the garden'?" - Now did God say that? What is the first question asked in the Bible? Well, the first question you hear is the devil questioning the Word of God - the devil casting doubt on the truth of God's Word.
All the sin came into our world from the devil casting doubt on the truth of God's Word. Do we see, even in the church today, that there are some who are casting doubt on the truth of God's Word? Or they're trying to misconstrue it? Or they're misquoting it? It happens in our institutions of learning - 'well, the Bible doesn't really mean that.' 'Hath God said?' And look at all the misery and the suffering in the world today from doubting. Does God really mean what he says? Amen. And so he began to cast doubt on it - 'has God said 'you shall not eat from every tree?' The devil knew he didn't say that. There was only one tree, but he's trying to engage eve and his greeting is something like, 'greetings, hi there.
' And he's - it's - he probably - there's more in the text that we don't read. He may have said, 'boy, you are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen.' He still uses that today, in case you didn't know. 'Well, I have never seen someone so beautiful.' And she says, 'well, you're not bad looking yourself.' And 'wow, I had no idea that there were other creatures in the garden that could talk.' 'Well, I couldn't talk until I ate this fruit.' But I guess God told you, you can't eat from all the trees in the garden.' 'Oh no, he didn't say that' - she goes to God's defense - 'he just said we're not to eat from that tree. We're not even to touch it, lest we die.' Now she adds something that God didn't specifically say, but maybe he had given them further instruction not to touch it, either. You know, it's a good idea, if you're not supposed to eat something, don't fondle it or you may end up getting in trouble.
And we've got a lot of young people here - I'm not going to miss my opportunity. How far should you go on a date? Well, if you're going to spend time with somebody of the opposite sex and you're not married, and you want to be careful how much touching you do, because touching can lead to taking the forbidden fruit. You can start flipping switches and pushing buttons that activate mother nature and processes are set in motion you can't reverse. Do I need to say any more or was that clear? (Laughter) okay. He said, 'don't even touch it.
' In the book Patriarchs and Prophets p. 53 It says there, "the tree of knowledge had been made a test of their obedience and their love to God. the Lord had seen fit to lay upon them but one prohibition as to the use of all that was in the garden; but if they should disregard his will in this particular, they would incur the guilt of transgression." - And the penalty for sin is death. That's a very expensive piece of fruit. You know, sometimes when I preach the health message people say, 'Pastor Doug, you make such a big deal about what you eat and what you drink.
It doesn't matter what you eat and what you drink.' And I think, 'oh, it doesn't matter? All of the sin in the world today is the result of people eating something they weren't supposed to eat.' And will we be tested in the last days on this front? Is the devil going to get it where people cannot buy or sell unless they get the Mark of the beast? And where do you think they're going to feel that the most? Paying for their internet service or not being able to eat? One of the basics of life - and so, yeah, that needs to be under control. So he says, 'has God said?' Now I'm going to - I'm going to have someone read psalm 91:13. Okay, you'll - we'll get to you in just a minute. The angels - now this is from the book conflict and courage p. - The angels had cautioned eve to beware of separating herself from her husband while occupied in their daily labor in the garden;" - why was eve - and adam - cautioned? Was there a rebel in the universe that was looking to recruit and he used deception? And the angels say - said, 'you guys'll be stronger together.
' Why did Jesus send the disciples out witnessing two by two? You're safer against temptation if you travel with somebody. You're more effective in your witnessing with somebody else. "...beware of separating herself from her husband while occupied in their daily labor in the garden; with him she would be in less danger from temptation than if she were alone. But absorbed in her pleasing task, she unconsciously wandered from his side." - It wasn't intentional - "she soon found herself gazing with mingled curiosity and admiration upon the forbidden tree." - Now, all the trees in the garden were beautiful except there was one ugly tree? Is that what it says? It looked like, you know, some half-dead oak in a graveyard. No, it was a beautiful tree.
It was beautiful to look at. And, you know, in the pictures, they always make the fruit look like an apple or a pear, but I've traveled around the world and I've seen some incredibly exotic-looking fruit. There's even a fruit in the south pacific, they call it snakeskin fruit - any of you ever eaten snakeskin fruit? Any of you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, the skin looks just like scales. It's actually very good. Starfruit - they've got fruit that grows on trees - looks like strawberries.
And they've got fruits that got all the points and shapes and geometric designs, and pineapple, but they always put the fruit on the tree to look like a pear. It's really boring. Or they say it was an apple. The word 'apple' is sort of a generic word for fruit in old english and so they called this the adam's apple because it got stuck halfway down, I guess. But the serpent - "the fruit was very beautiful, and she questioned with herself why God had withheld it from them.
" And right when she was thinking that the tempter took his opportunity. As if he were able to discern the worKings of her mind, he addressed her: "yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree?" So the devil took possession of the serpent and the serpent, from then on, has become a symbol of what? The devil - satan - right? In the Bible. Go ahead read for us psalm 91:13. Psalm 91:13, "you shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot." Now what does it mean when it says you'll trample the young lion and the serpent? Is the lion another symbol? 'The devil goes around as a roaring - lion. Lion.
And if you read here in - oh, you read in Romans 16:20 - "and the God of peace will crush satan under your feet." - It says you'll trample the serpent - "and the God of peace will crush satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." Jesus said, in John 8:44, "you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and The Father of it." So he lied. He deceived eve.
She said, 'no, we're not to eat it or touch it or we'll die.' And what did the devil say? 'You're not really going to die. God is keeping something from you. Have you talked to any other Gods? There's a lot of other Gods out there and the way they became Gods is they ate from this tree. God doesn't want to share his divinity with you. He knows if you find out about that - you eat from this tree - you're going to be a God too.
You'll have the same power as him. You won't have to be afraid of him killing you because you'll be like God yourself.' The devil superimposed, in eve, his own desire. What did the devil want? He wanted to be God. And, you know, there's really only two worships in the world. There's a worship of God and the worship of yourself.
All false worship is, at its core, if it's righteousness by works, you're worshiping yourself because of the work you've done. If you say, 'I don't believe in any God.' Yes you do. You are your God. You're either worshiping God or you have made yourself your God. There's only two Gods.
The devil wanted to be God. He implanted that desire in eve. You will be as God and others will worship you.' Is what hollywood teaches. 'God knows, in the day you eat, your eyes will be opened. He doesn't want you to see.
You'll be like God, knowing good and evil. And evil - there's wonderful things about evil.' "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food," - the serpent was eating it. He looked fine. Smelled great - "that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate." Now, there are three areas of sin: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. There were three areas where Jesus was tempted: food - turn these stones into bread - showed him all the Kingdoms.
It was pleasant to the eyes. And then the pride of life - fall down and worship me. I'll give you everything. Those are the same three areas where adam and eve fell. She ate it and then it says she gave to her husband with her" - now some people say, 'see, adam was right there with her when the devil was talking to her.
' No, it means he was with her in the garden. There were only two people in the garden and he wasn't with her at her side when this happened. It means he gave it to her to eat along with her. She ate it and she gave it to her husband to eat it along with her. A lot of people have made a big deal of saying, 'see, adam was standing right there through this whole discourse.
' No, that's not true - "then the eyes of both of them were opened," - at first it probably felt exhilarating. There may have been the temporary pleasures of sin, and there's something about the taste, and they thought, 'yeah, we're entering into this new sphere. Something's changing. I feel a change coming over me. Matter of fact, I feel a draft.
Wow, you're naked!' 'No, you're naked too!' They had these robes of light that kept them warm and then - yeah, they felt the difference. Their light went out. They felt shame. And did it make their lives better or what was the result of that? This is under the section the fall part 2. Immediately, God goes to them.
They heard the voice. Their eyes were opened - verse 7, "and they knew that they were naked;" - yeah, they had a new Revelation. They had - now, you might be saying, 'Pastor Doug, how do you know they had robes of light before?' When Moses talked to God on the mountain, what does the Bible say happened to his face? It was shiny. It was glowing - so much so - he was glowing so brightly that the children of Israel said, 'can you please cover your face? We can't even look at you.' So if adam and eve talked to God all the time, and they talked to angels, they had these robes of light. And the robes of light - the white robes that God gives the redeemed, that's the same light.
So - but when they sinned, the light went out. Their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked and what did they do? They sewed together fig leaves to make themselves coverings. Now how well would that last? Had anything died before? They didn't realize the wither effect. They had never seen the wither effect. And if they sewed these fig leaves together - they thought, 'oh, this'll work great.
' But you know what else it says? It says they made aprons for themselves. So they were very small. They were just trying to do something as an emergency. "And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day," - they heard his voice - "and adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord" - did God separate from man or did man separate from God? They hid themselves from the presence of the Lord - "then the Lord God called to adam and said to him, 'where are you?'" - Now, did God know where they were? Of course. God knows all things.
He was wanting adam to think, what has this done? Where has this taken you? Sometimes we disobey God and God says, 'where are you?' 'Where did this take - he said, 'how did I get here?' You're like the prodigal son in a pigpen in some far country starving to death craving what the pigs are eating and God says, 'where are you?' 'Oh, I was going to run away from home and I was going to just - I got this inheritance and I was going to have a great time and now I'm friendless, foodless, in a pig pen. God says, 'where are you?' And they were afraid. "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.' And he said, 'who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?'" Where did all the problems come from? 'I commanded you not to do this.' They disobeyed the command and things went bad. And so, adam - you know, why did adam eat the fruit? Was he deceived by the devil? No. Why did he eat the fruit? Was he deceived by eve? Adam ate the fruit because he loved eve.
He couldn't bear the thought that he would lose her and so he loved her so much he said, 'I'm going to share her fate.' And now, after he's eaten the forbidden fruit, he throws her under the bus. 'Oh Lord, it's that woman you made. She made me do it. It's your fault, God. I was okay and then, after naming the animals, you thought I had to have someone else.
The woman, who you gave me...' So what does - isn't it the devil who always gets us to blame God for all the sin in the world? You know how many people are atheists and when I talk to them about God they say, 'if there's a God, look at what he did to the world. All this misery, it's his fault.' And they don't understand God made everything good. He made everything perfect. 'The woman you gave me.' And so then God says to the woman, 'okay, he says it's your fault. What have you got to say?' I'm paraphrasing - 'what have you done?' And the woman said, 'the serpent! He gave it to me.
It's your fault. You made the serpent.' All of a sudden, after sin, instead of having enlightenment, they have shame and blame. And now, the serpent, he suddenly can't talk anymore and he doesn't have a leg to stand on. Get it? Serpent gets cursed. And then he declares the curses.
Now we're dealing with the final section that talks about the consequences. "So the Lord God said to the serpent:" - he starts with the serpent. It's where they ended - "because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life." Now there's something interesting about the serpent. You can find snakes that still glide through the air in indonesia. They flatten their ribcage and they glide between trees.
You can find snakes that live in the ocean - sea snakes - I've seen them there before. You can find snakes that live up in Alaska and down in the tropics. Snakes are on just about every continent. I don't think they're in antarctica, but they're a reminder of the curse wherever you go. And when the people sinned and they didn't want God's bread - you know, when they were going through the wilderness they got tired of God's bread? A plague of serpents came.
When the devil questioned the Word of God, what is that bread a symbol of? When the devil questioned the Word of God with eve, she got bit by the serpent. All the children of Israel got bit by a serpent. What did Moses tell them to do? Put a serpent up on a pole and whoever looks in faith - that serpent on a pole represented the serpent would be defeated. Shepherds used to kill snakes and they'd carry it off on their staff because they didn't want - you know, even after a snake's bit they're still dangerous. You can step on it and fangs can hurt you and other animals can eat them and get sick from doing that, so they carry them off and they bury them.
So if you would look at that serpent on the pole, a symbol of what? Christ said, 'as Moses lifted up the serpent, even so The Son of man must be lifted up that whoever believes in him must not perish. Isn't that interesting? This correlation was made between when the serpent was lifted up and Jesus. You think they would be an antithesis. The cross, instead of being a tree of good and evil, becomes a Tree of Life. Because, when you see Jesus, through his death, he neutralized the venom of the serpent.
Jesus, through his death, sealed the defeat of the serpent - the devil. That's why the devil wanted to get Jesus to sin on the cross - do something - get discouraged and give up. And so, then you've got the curse that came. And then adam and eve trying to cover their own nakedness with fig leaves is self-righteousness - man-made covering - God said that's not going to work. You know, Jesus cursed the fig tree once, didn't he? Symbol of self-righteousness because it had its leaves and no fruit.
And God said, 'you're going to need skins.' And so he gave them robes of skin. Now, he didn't use vinyl. I'm pretty sure he didn't use naugahyde or man-made materials. You know, when I go buy shoes, it's so hard to find good leather shoes anymore because they have so many good counterfeit leathers. I call them counterfeit.
God didn't use counterfeit. He gave them skin. In order to get skin, what does that usually mean? Something has to die. This is the introduction of the sacrificial system. Don't miss this point: to cover their nakedness, a lamb had to die.
To cover our nakedness, God's son needed to die. And it also says they made aprons out of fig leaves. God gave them tunics - robes - of skin. Not only did they have the wrong material, they did not have enough material. What God gave them was more modest as well.
And then the consequences of sin - he goes on, he talked about the serpent - "and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head," - the seed of the serpent will bruise the head - the seed of the woman, I'm sorry, would bruise the head of the serpent - "and you shall bruise his heel." There would be a constant enmity - battle - going on between Christ and the devil. "To the woman he said: 'I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;" - some have wondered was this an allusion to morning sickness. Even in conception there was sorrow. And, obviously, I don't think there was supposed to be the kind of pain in labor that women experience now when they give birth. I don't know exactly what it would have been like.
It's hard to imagine that she would just elbow adam in the morning and say, 'you're never going to believe what happened last night.' (Laughs) 'look, a baby!' But, you know, we've probably seen - there's some animals that seem to give birth that it doesn't look like it's so laborious. But what does a woman represent? Church. 'In sorrow you'll bring forth.' For a church to grow, doesn't it require labor? And sometimes it's heartbreaking and there's pain. People come so close to accepting Jesus and then they walk away and it breaks your heart. And doing mission work, is there sometimes persecution when you're out working for the Lord - laboring for the Lord - bringing forth - "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.
' Then to adam he said, 'because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'you shall not eat of it: cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.'" - Vegetables were added to the diet - "'in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.'" He gave them the skins and then he drove them from the garden, and they experienced the curse. So this is the story of the transition. The devil now said, 'since they've recognized me, I am the prince of this world.' And right away and in our next study, you'll begin to see that two classes of people begin to develop. And this study is going to take us all the way down to the rebellion restored at the end.
But we've run out of time for today. I do want to remind you that we do have a free offer: it's that book about the plan of salvation called the Savior and the serpent and I know people don't want to read about serpents, but you'll find it encouraging - some Amazing Facts in there as well. It's offer #798 or you can get it by calling -788-3966. Thank you very much, friends, God willing we'll study His Word together again next week. Hi friends, this is Pastor Doug Batchelor.
Would you like to hear an amazing fact? More and more of the world is turning, now, to natural forms of energy to try and find their power and they're resorting to things like the wind farm that we have here in jamaica at wigton. You know, I remember years ago, my wife and I going to visit the big island of Hawaii and we were amazed at all the potential there for natural power, but they weren't using it. There at the south part of the island there was volcanic activity. You can make geothermal power there. If you went to waimea, the wind was constantly blowing, but they had no windmills there.
If you went over to kona, sun always shines - solar electric - but they didn't have very much solar electric there. And if you went to hilo, it was always raining - hydroelectric. And in spite of all that potential for power there on the big island of Hawaii, they were powering the island back then with dirty diesel generators. It made me think about how we sometimes waste the power of God's Spirit that he's making available to us. And each of us can have that spirit if we simply ask.
You can read in Zechariah chapter 10 - what do we do? 'Ask of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain and he will send flashing clouds.' Jesus also said, in the book of Luke, 'if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask?' When you look in the book of acts, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, it says there was a sound of a mighty rushing wind. And that power that launched the church back then can still power your life today, friends. So why don't you ask him? Friends, if you enjoyed what you've just seen, we'd like to invite you to subscribe to the Amazing Facts channel. Can't get enough Amazing Facts Bible study? You don't have to wait until next week to enjoy more truth-filled programming, visit the Amazing Facts media library at 'aftv.org'. At 'aftv.
org' you can enjoy video and audio presentations as well as printed material all free of charge, 24 hours a day 7 days a week, right from your computer or mobile device. Visit 'aftv.org'. Amazing Facts changed lives. I'm tlingit indian from sitka, Alaska. My tlingit name is wish dusty cloud.
It was a very depressing time for the people of Alaska. A lot of alcohol abuse was taking place and, unfortunately, my mother got caught up in the alcohol. It made myself and my siblings grow up in a pretty horrible environment. It was really hard to understand God. It was really hard to understand what love was.
I ended up having a child in my twelfth grade and leaving home when I was fifteen years old, but somehow, someway, we made it and I became a loner. I became a hermit. So I went up to the biggest marijuana county to humboldt county and started my new career. Things weren't right though. No matter how nice I kept thinking life was living up on top of the mountain, not having to worry about wearing clothing, just waking up and watching the plants grow - searching, still, for more and more.
I went to the post office and I was standing there by myself. I looked down and here was this what is called a handbill - a postcard - and the letters on it grabbed my attention and it said, 'Revelation' - I'd never heard Revelation taught before and I thought, 'gosh, that would have been so good.' I looked at the time and the date and I said, 'wow, that's today.' And for six weeks I sat there in the front seat of that building and could not believe the things that I heard and I found this hunger that I had in my heart for decades being filled. I was actually like a starving child, you know, wanting to get in to learn more about Revelation. And I chose to be baptized on April 3rd. Even though I chose to serve God, I kept falling.
I was going to Bible studies all - four times a week and just so hungry to learn as much as possible. God just overnight had me studying the Word of God through afcoe and the miracles that happened through afcoe is so incredible. The only preacher I was listening to was Pastor Doug Batchelor, who I didn't even call by his name. I called him 'the caveman' and then here, all of a sudden, I'm sitting in front of him in his classroom, learning from him. On October 11, I sat there, though, in my room saying, 'Lord, here I am studying Your Word, but what - what am I doing here? What do I need to do? What is it you want me to do?' And that night, about one in the morning, God spoke to me and he said, 'I want you to write a note to Pastor Doug and tell him what you do.
' I sat there and I said, 'no, I'm not going to write a note. I'm not going to write a note.' And I said, 'okay.' So I ripped off a piece of paper and I wrote on the note and I said, 'I'm an experienced fashion designer. I can sew anything. I can make any patterns. If there's any way that I can be of any service to you, God told me to be bold and tell you.
' And I walked up and I handed him the note and he didn't know what it was, but he said, 'thank you.' And four hours later I got a phone call from Amazing Facts. Pastor Doug told me that I was an answer to their prayers. They had been looking for a wardrobe stylist for their new film that they're producing. Action! Two! Three! Amazing Facts has changed my life in the direction that God wants me to go. And now, out of all the knowledge that was taught to me, I'm able to go out into this world and share the Gospel and finish the work for Jesus Christ.
Friends, it's because of God's blessing and your support that thousands of others, like nita, have found Jesus and everlasting life. In six days God created the heavens and the earth. For thousands of years man has worshiped God on the seventh day of the week. Now, each week, millions of people worship on the first day. What happened? Why did God create a day of rest? Does it really matter what day we worship? Who was behind this great shift? Discover the truth behind God's law and how it was changed.
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