Topic: “The Fall of Man” (Pt.1) (KJV)

Text:  Genesis 3:1-5

Genesis 3:1: Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die”:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

This is dealing with the fall of man - man’s failure, temptation, and his fall.  We know that the LORD God had established an “Eden covenant” with man, and we know that that man was male and female  A covenant is a contract, agreement, an engagement that the LORD God made with man. 

Man was in the dispensation of innocence.  They were guiltless, blameless, incorruptible, faultless, sinless, stainless, spotless, unblemished, undefiled, walking in a place of perfection in God.  They had a favorable beginning, established in Genesis 1:26-28 with God. 

Genesis 1:26-28: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that moveth upon the earth.  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

“Man” (Adam) (male and female) had begun ruling even then, when God created them in His image and after His likeness and gave them dominion.  God had already put them in a place of dominion and power.

That’s why in Genesis 2:2: And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Because now God had some people (male & female) that could do what He was doing and had the command from God to do so.

 In Chapter 2, God could rest because the LORD God (male & female) was in charge of the creation.                                      
Now in Genesis 2:7 the LORD God forms man (aw-dawm’) of the dust of the ground. This wasn’t the LORD God scooping up dirt off the ground poking holes in it and breathing into it. These were people who were already in existence but in a state of death or darkness.  He (the LORD God / male and female) formed (squeezed or pressured) these people into shape and brought them out of darkness [ignorance, death, misery, and torment], and put them in a place of dominion, authority and power, with the understanding, knowledge, and wisdom of God in them! God is doing the same thing today with us.  It’s like a potter molding, making, and shaping the clay.

We were blindly walking in the religious system until God sent a light messenger to us to minister the truth to us, and it brought us out of the darkness.  We were walking around but we couldn’t see spiritually until God took the scales off of our eyes so that we could see Him as He is and ourselves as to who we really are in God!!! (1 John 4:17) As he is, so are we in this world!

Now I can understand better when it says in Romans 10:14-15: How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

That’s why David said (Psalm 121:1) I lift up mine eyes unto the hills (heels) from whence cometh my help! Because he was, and we are looking for a messenger whose feet are carrying them to preach the message of “life”!  One walking with the light of God with authority and power!  Their feet are beautiful because they are God’s feet!  “We” (the body of Christ) are those who have accepted the fullness of the gospel of the kingdom within ourselves.  Those are God’s beautiful feet carrying His message of life to His people!

The LORD God had formed (squeezed and pressured) “man” (male and female) and placed them in a place of dominion and power! So man had a favorable beginning.

Genesis 1:26-30: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Everything was perfect under man’s dominion.  God did not give him a job to do but He gave him a command.  All he had to do was obey God’s command.  That’s all he had to do. 

They were tested.  The test was for them to obey the LORD God and not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 

Genesis 2:16-17: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”.

We will see how the woman in this chapter saw that the tree was good for food and pleasant to the eyes.  The purpose was to see if man (aw-dawm’) (male & female) would remain innocent and true and trust the LORD God under perfect conditions.

 For God to accomplish His purpose, the tree of knowledge of good and evil was placed there as well as the tree of life, being in the midst.
There are two kingdoms within us, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, but which will we yield to?  We will see how man failed in his walk with God. 

Genesis 3:1: Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, “Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden”? 

The “serpent” (not a snake) but nachash’, meaning to hiss; whisperer; enchant [bewitch; conjure; charm]. This was a manifestation of Satan and the devil.  Satan in the Hebrew is satan – saw-tawn’, meaning an “opponent”; the arch enemy of good; adversary; withstand.  Devil from the Greek is daimonion, meaning a demonic being or spirit (of a bad nature).  Also from another word diabolos, meaning a traducer (betrayer); specifically Satan; false accuser; slanderer.

Revelation 12:9: And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 

The “great dragon” is the system, meaning the social order, which includes that which is political, economical, and ecclesiastical.  They are ideas, philosophies, vain deceit, traditions of men, rudiments of the world, even the things that Paul wrote of:

• Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

The “beast system” is the men running the systems. The wicked one causes the people to mourn.  Proverbs 29:2: When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

In Genesis, this enemy is called the serpent, but in Revelation, he is called the dragon.  It’s the same spirit of evil but he becomes more manipulative and cunning with his workings as a “dragon”. So he has grown from a serpent to a dragon!

Job 41:1: Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? Or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

This dragon can’t be pulled out with a fishing hook.  He has to be recognized and cast out.  Leviathan is just one of the manifestations of the dragon or the devil or Satan, because you have Satan, Lucifer, Belial, and Leviathan.  All four are crown princes of hell, but Leviathan is the most deadly because he works within the confines of religious order within “church walls”.

In Genesis 3:1: Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field.

The serpent is not a snake.  If you want to look at it as a snake, you want to look at the characteristics of it.  Only see it as what the snake contains which is poisonous venom.  And that is what the serpent (the liar; deceiver) injected into the woman (the church) not the man (Adam) (male & female).  It was the woman who was taken out of man (which became his “help meet” – “the church”) that was deceived.

 (1 Timothy 2:14): And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

 He (the serpent; the liar; deceiver) injected this “lie” (poison) into the woman who was actually the church, and when she presented it to Adam he accepted it which became the downfall of “mankind”! 

In the natural, once a snake bites an individual, the venom goes right into the bloodstream to circulate throughout the body.  In the spirit, the good thing about the poisonous venom going into the blood stream of the woman (the church) is that God had an antidote that works against the poison of the enemy which was the “blood of Jesus”! 

How stupid the devil was!  Please get this by revelation: If the snake (this enemy) (as a characteristic of snakes) had had any sense and wrapped himself around the woman and constricted (squeezed; compressed) her, he would have broken her bones.  Then he would have destroyed the structure of the church!

It is the “bones” that gives the body its “structure” (framework).

When they hung Jesus on the Cross, they couldn’t break his bones because His body had to stay intact.  But even though the enemy injected the poison (the lie) into the woman, God had an antidote that would counteract the workings of the devil, which was “the blood” of Jesus the Christ!!!

• Leviticus 17:11: For the life of the flesh is in the blood:  and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls:  for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul.

There is an antidote in the blood of Jesus for every sickness, disease, mental disorder, every situation that is opposite of what God is!

Hebrews 9:22: And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 

Jesus took the stripes, the beating, piercing, spit, and them slapping Him.  But if His blood had not been shed, we’d still be lost, because the payment for the penalty of sin had to be paid with “blood”!  It couldn’t be by just anyone’s blood because the sacrifice had to be a “perfect sacrifice” with “innocent (pure; clean) blood”. And God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ was the only one that could do it, and He did!!! God couldn’t let Jesus die without His blood being shed.  That’s where the life source is, it’s in the blood.  If a person is injured and loses too much blood, they cannot survive.  The life is in the blood!

Genesis 3:1: Serpent in Hebrew is to hiss or to whisper.  That same whisperer or liar is hissing today. He is still lying to the people of God that will listen to him.

• John 10:10: The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.

“Serpent” means an enchantment; to delight greatly, but this delight can be in a bad sense and for the “woman” it was. 

Revelation 12:9: And the great dragon was cast out, that "old serpent", called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. It’s the same devil in Revelation as was in Genesis.  “Old” is from the root word which means ancient, long ago, a former age, principality, first estate.  Remember what Jude wrote:

• Jude 6: And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

 Those were the “morning stars and sons of God” who were in power ruling and reigning on the earth between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2!  

There were principalities (powers) in place even then! A “principality” is a territory of a prince or the country which gives titles to a prince; it’s a position or office of a prince.

 A “prince” is the son of a king.  In Ezekiel 28:1-13, God spoke to the prince and the king of Tyrus.  It’s a sovereignty; a supreme power.  All this was going on even before Adam, between Genesis 1:1 & Genesis 1:2)!

If it had not been for Lucifer (“son of the morning” is the definition of his name) or the other morning stars and sons of God that Job 38:4-6 speaks of losing their position of power, dominion, and authority, because of pride, the chaos of the previous creation before Adam, may have been avoided.

But in any case God purposed the creation to fall so that Jesus the Christ as Savior of the world could be manifested.

• Romans 8:20-21: For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same, in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
  

Job 38:4-6: Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.

5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof.

If they (the sons of God and morning stars) had remained true to God, there would not have been a flood and chaos in Genesis 1:2, and God having to restore the earth to a habitable state. But God had a plan:

• Romans 8:19-20: For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.  For the creature, was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.

• (2 Corinthians 5:19): To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself! 
•  Revelation 13:8: Jesus is referred to as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”. 
  Jesus had to be manifested to redeem the creation and bring it back unto the Father, and did!!!

Creature in Romans 8:19, comes from the root word ktisis meaning “original formation; creation. So the “creation” was made subject to vanity (depravity, degeneracy, corruption, degradation, perversion, impurity, deterioration, emptiness, vain (meaning their means of communication had become devoid of truth), but God purposed it.  

• St. John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
• 1 John 3:8: He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the beginning.  For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Isaiah 45:7: I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. 

God created Himself an opponent. Satan is defined as an opponent or an arch enemy of that which is good; accuser or adversary; the devil.  God wins in every situation!!  As we obey God we remain winners in God!!

We don’t want to be turned over like those in Rome to a reprobate mind.  We want God’s mind operating in us! 

• Romans 12:2:  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
• 1 Corinthians 2:16:  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
• Philippians 2:5: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
• 1 Peter 1:13: Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

Luke 10:18: Jesus said I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

“Beheld” means that Jesus was a spectator of it, He discerned it, He acknowledged it.  He perceived it; looked on it.  When Lucifer fell in the beginning and the angels that followed him, Jesus saw it!

You can find how Satan fell.  Isaiah 14:12: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

God brought him down from the high place that he had been in because of his pride.  He was trying to usurp authority over God and God wasn’t going to have that.  Jesus saw all of this; beheld this; “he looked on it”; took a view of it; perceived it with his eyes; gazed at it.

 We know with that, Jesus has always been because He was “the beginning”.  The “beginning” was not a calendar date, but it was a person, the “Man” Jesus Christ!

• Colossians 1:18: And he is the head of the body, the church:  who is “the beginning”, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
•  (Revelation 3:14): These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

 Jesus saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven (Luke 10:18).  Why lightning?  It was because Lucifer was a star, a shining star, a light messenger, but his pride got the best of him.  Jesus saw that star fall! 

A star is a heavenly body. That’s what Lucifer was a “heavenly body”! A person that had been elevated to a high place of dominion, authority, and power in God!
 That’s what we are in God, “heavenly bodies”.  People that God has elevated or placed in a high place of dominion, authority, and power in Jesus Christ!

• (Ephesians 2:6): And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 

Jesus saw Lucifer with all of the light of God that he had in him.  Then He saw him fall from that place into a dark place because of his pride.

I stated that Lucifer was a “person” “a man” and that was not a mistake:

• (Isaiah 14:16): They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, “Is this the man, that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms”.

(Genesis 3:1): This serpent was more subtil; more cunning in a bad sense, prudent meaning discreet, crafty.  The characteristic of the temptation illustrates craftiness which is deception, trickery, guile, deceit. 

There was nothing said to the Woman at first to awaken suspicion or to shock the moral sense, but merely it was a sly insinuation and precise calculation on the part of the serpent to excite natural curiosity.  You’ve heard that saying “curiosity killed the cat”, well curiosity eventually killed the woman and eventually “the Adam” race of people as well.

Genesis 3:2-3: And the woman said unto the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch (contact; adjoin) it, lest ye die”.

[This “serpent” [the devil and Satan] was the tree of knowledge and good and evil not a physical tree of wood].  [The “tree of life” was Jesus the Christ]!  Prior to the fall of man, they were eating only of the “tree of life”.  But because of the acceptance of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (the devil) it brought on death and led to the fall of mankind].

 First of all, “the Woman” (the church) should not have been carrying on a conversation with the devil.  She already had orders from God not to eat of the fruit of the tree which was also in the midst of the garden, which was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Even knowing the consequences she still listened to the enemy.

• Romans 6:16: Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

• Romans 6:20-21: For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.  What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death.
• Romans 7:5: For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

Genesis 3:6:  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 

When the Woman “saw” that the tree was pleasant, it began to look good to her. 

There are lots of things in religious order that look good to us today.  People are hungry for church services - something that will excite the senses, like good preaching (hooping and running the aisles) and that’s alright if it’s your style, as long as you’re preaching the “truth” of the Word of God.  It may sound good, but when you examine it, it might be full of venom.  Years ago I use to run behind singings and preaching until God opened my spiritual eye to truth and taught me how to eat the fish and spit out the bones.  We must be careful what we listen to and eat spiritually.

There’s a song called “Highway to heaven”.  Yes there is a “high way to heaven”, but it is not paved with tar that one has to travel on by way of a hearse in a coffin carrying you to a grave yard.  Heaven is an elevated place one moves into by the “renewing of the mind”. We must put on Christ’s mind and be in Christ to be in this place!!

• Ephesians 2:6: And hath raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
• Philippians 2:5: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

(Genesis 3:1): After the serpent calculated this lie and made it sound good to the woman - after he got her attention, he gave her a direct lie with just enough plausibility that led to her transgressing the command of God.

Jesus said to the Jews in John 8:44 that were claiming to be “children of God”: Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 

He was talking to the Jews, His brethren - folks who knew the law.

 Evangelist Mary Perry said – religious people we talk to today are just like the Jews of Jesus’ day because the Jews knew every “jot and tittle” of the law, or the written word, but they did not have revelation of the Living Word that was ministering to them to recognize Him. 

With religious people and their beliefs today, their beliefs have become their law, and when the “living word” talks to them, they don’t recognize it.  They are so hung up on what they have believed for years, they are not willing to open their minds up to anything new or different from what they are used to.

When we give many this information, we know that God will take the covers off (like He did for us) so they can see the revelation of that information so that we all can see God as He is.  When I see you, I am seeing Him as He is.

• 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear (and He appears in His people), we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 
• God is Spirit, but we are able to see Him in the flesh in each other, because “we are members of his flesh and bones” or the body of Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:30)!!!
•  (1 Corinthians 12:12) For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body:  so also is CHRIST!!!
• 1 Corinthians 13:9: For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face (we have become God’s face): now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
• 2 Corinthians 3:18:  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
• 1 John 4:17 As he is, so are we, in this world.

Genesis 3:1: This enemy lied to the Woman.  He said “in the day that you do this, you’ll be as gods”, but they already were “gods”. The serpent was more subtil (crafty) than any beast of the field (scope of anything - medical field, science, whatever you want to attach to it; business; etcetera).

“Snakes” are legless; they crawl on their belly; if snakes were upright then, as I've heard preached, why isn’t there some walking up-right now? Ecclesiastes 1:9: "There's nothing new under the Sun". With technology to search the internet for information, there should have been some evidence of this.  In the natural, where are they?  Those that are walking up right are in the churches such as the one’s Jesus referred to as “vipers” and “serpents” in Matthew 12:34 and Matthew 23:33.

If the tree of knowledge of good and evil or tree of life is natural, where are they now?  If they are natural and are gone or can’t be found, where can we go to get that life, if we have to go to that tree to get it?  The “tree of life” was and is Jesus and the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” was and is the devil himself. 

They both are in existence even now but the tree of life has defeated the enemy of death and we have to keep him under our feet!

• Luke 10:19: Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy:  and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
• Acts 1:8: You shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:  and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
• 1 John 3:8: He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the beginning.  For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

In relation to “beast of the field”, this field is not where grass or bushes has grown, but it is an expanse, arena, realm, business, space, agriculture, etcetera.  “Beast” doesn’t just pertain to animals, but to people as well:

• 2 Peter 2:12:  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.  
• (1 Corinthians 15:32): If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus.

This word “beasts” is from the root word which means “vicious men”!  They exist today in every arena of life: political, Economical, ecclesiastical, socially, etc.

Paul himself fought with beasts at Ephesus.

This “serpent” (whisperer; liar; deceiver) could be any person who has become subject to Satan.

 What did Jesus say to Peter?  (Matthew 16:23): Get thee behind me, Satan:  thou art an offence unto me:  for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

 Peter was an apostle, but he had become “Satan” an opponent of Jesus at that moment.  Jesus wasn’t going to allow, and didn’t allow, anyone to interfere with His mission.

Isaiah 14:12-19: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!  For thou hast said in thine heart, “I” will ascend into heaven, “I” will exalt my throne above the stars of God: “I” will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:  “I” will ascend above the heights of the clouds; “I” will be like the most High.  Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.  They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man (iysh, which means the state that he had fallen into of mortality; corruption; a mortal) that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?  All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, everyone in his own house.  But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.

Ezekiel 27:36: The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more. 

There are those that are hissing at us today!  Religion is “hissing” at those that preach that we can have the fullness of the kingdom of God in us right here and right now!!!  They hiss at those that say Jesus is already here and you don’t have to wait for Him to come back!  They hiss at those that say you don’t have to die to go see Jesus or to be with Him because He is in you!

(Genesis 3:1): The “serpent” was more cunning than any beast of the field.

 Of all of God’s creations, “man” (Adam - male and female) was and is the crown (top; cap; head; crest; acme; apex) of His creation.  Man was created in the image and after the likeness of God! 

Luke 16:8: And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. 

Jesus said that because those in the system of the world are using the system to their benefit, but we have a system which is the kingdom of God but we are not using it to our advantage. If we were to walk totally in the Word of God we would see God perform miracles like we can’t even imagine!!!!

Job 5:12: He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. 

 God knows how to tear down the devil’s kingdom.

                                     

Job 15:5: For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

Genesis 3:1: Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, “Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden”?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden”:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die”.

Who was talking to the woman?  Remember, the “woman” is a group or body of people; an assembly. 

Those talking to the church were those who had caused the chaos in the beginning and brought about disorder; confusion; jumble; the abyss; void; formlessness between Genesis 1:1 & Genesis 1:2.  These were those who had lost their place of dominion, authority, and power that included Lucifer (son of the morning) and the angels that followed him.  That’s why Jesus said he beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven (Luke 10:18).

Jude 5-6:  I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.  And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day (the "great day" has already happened).

Now they (those who had power but had fallen) are trying to keep everyone else out of that place of power (just as the devil is trying to do today)!  He is trying to keep God’s people from all that God has in place for them through the tests and trials that we go through with other people that the devil is using against us to discourage us through philosophy, vain deceit, traditions of men, rudiments of the world (Colossians 2:8). 

Tell some people that they can live sin free.   They reply:  “As long as you are in this flesh body you will sin, and when you do you have an advocate”.  Yes we do have an Advocate (Jesus Christ), but we can live “free of sin” through the “new birth”!  (1 John 3:9) He that is born of God doth not commit sin because his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is “born” of God.

I don’t want to be amongst Goliath’s sons (with 6 fingers on each hand and 6 toes on each foot).  They are the ones who fight against those who say you can live sin free!  Those are the ones that “oppose God”!

These people, that had become bound by the devil, Satan or “the serpent”, those that fed "the lie" to the woman were those who had already been in that place of power, but they lost it.  Now they are trying to keep everyone else that they can from getting hold of the truth of the fullness of God in them right here and right now! 

There was no snake lying to the woman but these were people (vipers; serpents) who had gotten out of their “god-ship” position of ruling and reigning.

 Let’s take a look at what Jesus said to the Pharisees & scribes (those that knew the "written law"): 

• Matthew 12:34: O generation of “vipers”, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?  For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
•  (Matthew 23:33): Ye “serpents”, ye generation of “vipers”, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
• (Luke 3:7): Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of “vipers”, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 
  They were speaking to people not “snakes”. [Even John the Baptist said it].

Genesis 2:16-17: The LORD God told the man (Adam – male and female) to eat freely of every tree that was in the garden but not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  The “trees” he could eat of were the people that were connected to “the tree of life” speaking and producing “life” - (those connected to Christ):  and those connected to the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” (which was Satan) were producing “death”.

Eating of the tree of knowledge of “good and evil” caused man to be double-minded, and the woman (the church) began to be judgmental, and she fed it to her husband (Adam) and he did eat.

They were presented with two schools of thought, “what was good and what was evil”:  “what was life and what was death”:  “what was light and what was darkness”. 

They had become distracted from the tree of “life” which presented one picture to them which was “life” and that was by being obedient to the command of the LORD God, which was to “eat” meaning, only “appropriate” (that which is suitable; proper; or fitting) to yourselves that which pertains to “LIFE”!

Sometimes we think we know what is good for others and what is not, but we really don’t.  It doesn’t make any difference what my opinion is or your opinion is about what is going on in someone else’s life, but it is what God is doing and what He has to say about any given situation.  What we should do is just manifest the love of God to others.

God doesn’t want us to be judgmental but show forth love!  God judges righteously and if we judge we to should judge righteously by manifesting the love of God to others.

John 13:34-35: A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.

Pastor Gracie Perry