Text: Genesis 3:1-5

1 Now the serpent was more subtle 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. 

Monday, 23^rd September 2024

THE SERPENT IS DECEITFUL

Text: Genesis 3:1-5

Memory verse:  Jeremiah 17: 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Here the serpent uses his deceptive skills on the first woman. His goal is to convince her to disobey God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He flatly called God a liar for His warning that Adam and Eve would die if they ate the fruit from that tree. Now Satan reveals what he wants Eve to believe: that God's true motive for His rule is selfishness. According to the Serpent, God just wants to scare you away so that you don't become like Him. God is competitive and jealous. He can't be trusted to give commands for their good. In fact, the serpent says, eating that fruit will open their eyes. They'll finally see the world as it really is, knowing all things: "good and evil," just like God. This deception contains a partial truth. Looking ahead a few verses, we see that mankind's eyes are opened. They do come to know good and evil. But that knowledge brings them neither God's power, nor His wisdom, nor His ability to love. Knowledge without corresponding maturity brings perversion. Humanity is not equipped for this knowledge, and so it brings them shame, fear, and pain. They come to know good by abandoning it. They gain the knowledge of evil by committing it for the first time in human history.

The power in the serpent's temptation was his attack on God's character and motivations: Don't obey God because He is neither good nor loving nor trustworthy. The Serpent says God wants to rob us of experiencing true power, from gaining full understanding. This assumes that mankind is able to judge the character of God. That lie continues to drive humans toward sin and away from the good God who loves us. The serpent uses many alterations and slides so cunningly that we cannot trace him. This was one of those four things which wise Agur could not find out, "the way of the serpent upon a rock," Proverbs 30:19. The serpent is a deceitful creature. We should not, in this sense, be like the serpent, deceitful. Naturally, we resemble the serpent for fraud and collusion. Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things." Satan’s first, deceit towards man was to pretend friendship, to cover malice with pretences of love, to commend and detest; to flatter and hate; to have a Judas' kiss and a Joab's sword. To pretend honesty and just dealings but with false weights.

Deceitful towards God to draw near to God with the lips, while the heart is far from Him. To serve God, and seek ourselves; to pretend to love God and yet be in union with sin. We should not in this sense, be like the serpent, deceitful and given to shifts. Oh, be upright! Be what you seem to be! God loves plainness of heart, Psalm 51:6. The plainer the diamond is, the more  sparkles; the plainer the heart is, the more it sparkles in God's eyes. What a commendation Christ gave Nathaniel in John 1:47, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit."

CGDS HYMN 54: SS&S 582: 

MORE HOLINESS GIVE ME, MORE STRIVINGS WITHIN

1. More holiness give me, more strivings within ;

More patience in suffering, more sorrow for sin ;

More faith in my Saviour, more

sense of His care ;  

More joy in His service, more purpose in prayer.

2. More gratitude give me, more trust in the Lord ;

More zeal for His glory, more hope in His Word ;

More tears for His sorrows, more

pain at His grief;

More meekness in trial, more praise for relief.

3. More purity give me, more strength

to o'ercome ;

More freedom from earth-stains,

more longings for home ;

More fit for the kingdom, more used

would I be;  

More blessed and holy, more, Saviour, like Thee.

 Prayers 

1.  Lord Jesus, help me to know You in my heart beyond my lips.

2.  LORD God Almighty, qualify me for commendation, purge me from every deceit of the serpent found in me in Jesus’ name. Amen.    

3.  Pray for others in this regard.