Genesis 3:13 NKJV And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Genesis 3:13 (LSV) 13 And YHWH God says to the woman, “What [is] this you have done?” And the woman says, “The serpent has caused me to forget, and I eat.”
Deceive by forgetting
- Forgetting what the Lord has said
2 Corinthians 11:3 The serpent deceived Eve from the simplicity in that [is] in the Christ;
- With Subtlety. “Subtle” means not obvious, difficult to detect, often referring to something sophisticated or cleverly indirect.
- The Devil’s secret plan, his crafty program is to take advantage of us by bringing guilt and shame
But 2 Corinthians 2:11 says we are not ignorant of his devices.
- Satan wants to rob you of your faith in the reconciliatory work that Jesus did
- This will cause us to be filled with guilt and condemnation.
Romans 8:1, no condemnation
Psalm 119:176 NKJV I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek Your servant, For I do not forget Your commandments.
There are times when the voice of the world and the pull of the flesh causes us to forget God’s word.
- We all have our momentary lapse of faith
- There are times we fall into “transgression”
- Adam Romans 5:14 transgression of Adam’s disobedience Romans 5:19
- Eve 1 Timothy 2:14 woman, having been deceived, came into transgression,
- Where we know we have done wrong by God
- Not cheap grace
Don’t stay lost
Psalm 23:4 NKJV Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
- walk through the valley
Psalm 78:7 NKJV That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments;
- Metaphysical personalism is similar to the eschatology of Hinduism or Buddhism, where the goal is the mystical merging of all things into the Absolute.
- But the Christian worldview is not like that. Faith is neither spooky nor blind.
- Christ did actions, being born sinless, and committing no sin to fulfill all the obligations of the Mosaic law.
- So now the part of the works of God we are concerned with is the reconciliatory work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
- That they may set their hope in God.
- If we forget that, then we lose hope,
James 1:23-25 NKJV For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; [24] for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. [25] But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
- he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and
- continues in it
- If you do not constantly look to the perfect law of liberty
- you will forget it and what kind of human Christ has set you free to be.
- This is deceiving yourselves
Psalm 103:2 NKJV Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:
- God did all the work, so that we can benefit.
- Not Metaphysical personalism.
- Be active in not forgetting the benefits of Christ’s work.
- Thankfulness
Luke 22:31–32 (LSV) 31 And the LORD said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked for himself to sift you as the wheat, 32 and I implored for you that your faith may not fail; and you, when you turned, strengthen your brothers.”
- Key is faith – that your faith may not fail
- The author of faith is our advocate 1 John 2:1
As long as we continue looking to Jesus,
- not cheap grace but by not forgetting His commandments
- by renewing our mind,
- Even though we are not perfect
- Even though we are a total wretch in our own eyes,
- there is no condemnation
Romans 1:16 KJV For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
In the Bible, most old English words that end with the suffix “-eth” carry the idea of an act or process that continues.
- So, the person that “believeth” is a person who has believed and is continuing to believe.
- The Scriptures present true Bible faith as an ongoing experience, not a one-time action.
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, the word which was translated “gospel” “EUAGGELION,” really means the nearly-too-good-to-be-true news.
- This Greek word was so seldom used because there is little outside of the news of what Jesus did for us that is nearly-too-good-to-be-true news.
- But when God came down,
- When Jesus took all of our sin and paid the debt we owed and then gave us new life, that was nearly too good to be true.
Let us never forget that.
Never let the serpent cause us to forget.
Like how the serpent deceived Eve in his subtlety,
Let our minds never be corrupted from the simplicity that is in the Christ.