Genesis chapter 3 verses 1 through 5. Let us now hear God's Word. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word tonight. Your word is very pure, and therefore your servant loves it. Help us to see the purity of your word yet again, and help us to love it a little bit more than we did before we walked in the door tonight. Help us to see that it is tried and tested. It is like silver that's been purified in a furnace seven times over, and therefore we ought to love it. And especially as we come to this story, Lord, we need reminder and encouragement of the centrality of your word and of the need we have to embrace it in faith and love. And we ask for your help to do that. We pray your blessing on this time in Jesus name. Amen. Edmund Pevensey is in trouble. He doesn't know it yet, but he is in trouble. You know, Edmund Pevensey, the four Pevensies, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, the four kids who go through the wardrobe and enter the land of Narnia. Well, Lucy and Edmund go in at one point early on in the story, and Lucy goes with Mr. Tumnus, but Edmund runs into the white witch. She is the tempter. He will be the tempted. and he will experience temptation. Now, Edmund is ripe for temptation. He's irritated with his older siblings. He chafes against being told what to do by them. And so when Edmund meets the White Witch, he's ready, unfortunately, to be tempted and to fall. And so he meets the witch. He's cold. It's always winter in Narnia, never Christmas. It's really cold. And so the witch, after sizing him up, offers him a drink, something warm, something that warms him down to his toes. And then she puts before him two temptations. The first of which is Turkish delight. Anybody ever had Turkish delight before? I ate it one time, I wasn't all that impressed, but Edmund loved Turkish delight. And so the witch told him, after giving him some, told him, I've got a whole house full of it. That was temptation number one. Temptation number two, and going right along with that, is the witch saying to Edmund, I have no children of my own and I would like to leave this kingdom to someone just like you. A clever, handsome boy like yourself. Well, the witch has the hook in Edmund's jaw. And if you know the rest of the story, you know that he does indeed succumb to the temptation. You and I know what temptation is like. We have experienced it in our lives and we experience it on a regular basis. What we have before us in Genesis chapter three is the original temptation. the original temptation of Satan and our first parents. We're here in Genesis 3, and that's what we're thinking about. We're thinking about the temptation. And we began by looking at the tempter, and that is Satan himself. So we spent a good deal of time talking about his identity. Who is this snake in the garden? And we concluded after a good deal of you know, information kind of backing this up, that this is indeed Satan. This is the devil who is using the snake, this intelligent creature that God made that is identified as one of the beasts of the field. He uses this creature in order to approach and do what to Eve? To tempt her. Now that's where we want to pick it up again this evening. And we want to think about two other areas. We want to think, as we began with the tempter, now we want to think tonight about the tempted. Who is the person that he is tempting? And then number three, we really need to examine the temptation itself. There is a lot here that we really need to think about. We need to slow down, pay attention to, and think through what's actually going on in this temptation. that the serpent is seeking to seduce Eve with. So that's where we're headed. But let's start with the tempted. Who is it that the serpent tempts? Verse one. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, who does he approach in the garden? Who does he go to with his temptation? He goes to the woman. And it is the woman who will respond to him and enter into this dialogue with the snake. Now, where is Adam? That's the first question, right? Where is the man? Where is Adam as the serpent has approached Eve and has entered into this conversation with her? Well, we do get a clue, although we should be careful with this clue, and I'll give you some tentative conclusions about some of these things, because I'm not absolutely certain. But it is possible that Adam is there with her. Why would we say that? We'll drop down to verse six. Verse six says, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. It appears that the key words there are with her. Now, We shouldn't be too dogmatic about this because this may simply mean that Adam came up afterwards or something like that. We don't know for sure, but it is possible that Adam was there and that Adam was silent through this interaction and was not there to defend, protect, and help his wife. But be that as it may, why do you think the serpent approached the woman? Why not go for the man? Why not go directly to Adam? Well, I think, first of all, it shows the cunning of the snake. Remember what we're told at the top of verse 1. The serpent was more cunning. He's shrewd. He's calculating. He's wise in the worst sense of the term. And so he realizes, I think, that what he wants to do is not go for the jugular, if you will, with the man, but what he wants to do is take the indirect route and get to the man through the woman. Now, the New Testament tells us that the woman is the weaker vessel. 1 Peter 3, 7. Husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel. And as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. Now there is one of the modern day feminists favorite Bible verses right there. Everybody gets all bent out of shape sometimes about that phrase, the weaker vessel. And we're not going to go into all that that means. But I think that the serpent realizes that the way to go about doing this is to attack the weaker vessel, who is the woman, and that's what he does. He goes after her. Plus, in addition to that, the New Testament indicates that there's a distinction between what happened with Eve and what happened with Adam. Listen to Paul's words in 1 Timothy 2. Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. There's another favorite feminist verse. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. Here we go. For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived. But the woman being deceived fell into transgression. You see the distinction that Paul makes there between the man and the woman? It is the woman who was seduced or tricked or deceived by the serpent. In addition to that, I think we ought to note the intimate relationship that exists between the man and the woman. We just finished chapter 2, right? And look at how chapter 2 ends. Verse 22, 2, Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." There's this intimate relationship between the man and the woman, right? And so you have this close, very close relationship between the two. And I think it right to say that the serpent realizes the way to get at the man is to go through the woman. And we can see that in everyday life in so many different cases where you go to the woman, you deal with the woman and you ultimately get at the man as well. But at any rate, The serpent approaches the woman and engages the woman in this temptation. Now let's turn to the temptation itself. Let's look at the anatomy of it. How does it work? What strategy does the serpent pursue? What mistakes does Eve make? So on and so forth. Verse number, end of verse one. He said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? What is that? Number one, it is a question. That is how the temptation begins. It starts with a question. verse 2, And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it lest you die. There's the response that Eve gives to the initial question. Verse four, then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. There is the denial that the serpent gives to God's word. And fourth, verse five, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. There's the reason behind the denial that the serpent gave in verse four. So those are the four areas that we're going to look at as we walk through this temptation, the question, the response, the denial and the reason behind it. Now, why would we spend the time to really try to dig into this passage and think about temptation and how Satan goes about tempting Eve and what happens in this story? One of the reasons why we need to do that is because in order to understand our own temptations to sin in our own day and time, we need to understand the original. This is the blueprint. This is the original temptation. And if you have eyes to see it, you can see that your temptations to sin often follow the same pattern or a very similar pattern. And we want to be prepared and ready for the temptations that come our way. We want to be equipped, right, and ready to deal with Satan tempting us in our own time and in our own lives. If we understand better what's going on here, I think it will help us understand better what's going on in our lives and how to deal with it. The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2.11, Lest Satan should take advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices or his schemes So Paul Says of the church. We're not ignorant Paul says of himself and his companions. We we understand the schemes of the devil and so we don't want him or won't let him take advantage of us because we understand these things and So we want to understand original temptation so that we can be in the same position. This also reminds us of the basic work of Satan in this world. What does he do? He is a tempter. He is the ultimate tempter. This is what he comes to Eve with, and this is what he comes to you with. This is what he's going to seek to do in your life as well, to tempt you, to lead you astray, to seduce you away from the Lord. This is what he is called. This is his title in the New Testament with the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Matthew 4.3. Now, when the tempter came to him, he said, if you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread. Of course, the tempter there is none other than Satan himself. Now, the devil is many things, but one of the primary things that he is, is he is the tempter. And this is what his work is about. Now, as we said a few moments ago, we all know about temptation, don't we? You know about temptation. You've experienced temptations in your life. Can you remember times of temptation when the temptation was so strong and so powerful? It was just like overwhelming and you knew you shouldn't do it. You knew you shouldn't look at that thing or you knew you shouldn't take that thing or whatever it was, but there was just this powerful force going on. I can look back on my life at various times and see experiencing temptation like that. So we know what this is like, but we wanna be ready for it. We wanna be better prepared for it. So now let's look at it. How does the serpent go about tempting Eve? The temptation begins with a question. The serpent asks, has God indeed said? You shall not eat of every tree of the garden. Now, it's interesting that this begins with a question, right? The question might, on the face of it, sound innocent enough. People ask all sorts of questions in life. And sometimes you realize if you're discerning that there's actually something behind the question. And obviously that's the case here, but this is how he begins. And I think this shows his cunning. We were told that he was cunning or shrewd or crafty, and you can see it in how he begins. He does not start with a full-on direct assault, but he starts with a question. Now, if you Google search, If you google search for Satan, say, do you do that? I don't exactly recommend it. But if you did and you type Satan in the search box and you hit enter and you go to images, now you should be careful. You'll see all sorts of pictures of the evil one. And guess what theme they all kind of have. They all have that horror movie vibe, right? They all have the big, bad, scary guy vibe. I mean, you know the devil because he's red in color, he's got horns protruding from his head or something like that. You know, that's how many people think of the devil. And he's like the creature in the Fellowship of the Ring in that movie. In the Fellowship of the Ring when Gandalf and company are running through Moria trying to escape and the monster comes out, right? The Balrog. And he comes out in all of his fiery evil glory with the horns and all of that. That's how many people think of the devil. But that's not how the devil is. How does the devil present himself? Well, you see here, he presents himself innocently enough as one who's simply asking questions. Did God really say what you think he said? And this tells us something about his strategy. And his strategy is to present himself in such a way as you see him to be the angel of light rather than the prince of darkness. That's why we read it in the scripture reading tonight. What does Satan do? He seduces, he deceives, he tempts, and he goes about it by transforming himself into an angel of light. Listen to it again, 2 Corinthians 11. For such are false apostles, Paul says, deceitful workers transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. And so we have to be on our guard. We have to be on our guard when someone comes around who looks good, talks good, and seems good. You need to be especially discerning and be ready. You know, someone might say, well, they seem like a Christian. They seem like they were teaching the truth. I mean, they said things out of the Bible, but we must not be gullible. We must be ready and prepared and remember how the tempter goes about tempting human beings. And he does it many times under the guise of goodness, righteousness, and things like that. Now, let's note something interesting here in the dialogue between the serpent and the woman. Notice what word Satan uses to refer to God. Has God indeed said? Now Eve, when she responds, she does the same thing, verse three, but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God has said. You say, well, why is that important? you go back to chapter 2 verse 4 for a moment, go back there with me, in chapter 2 verse 4 a new title for the Lord was introduced. 2 verse 4 says, Now prior to this there was only one word used to describe God and that is Elohim in Hebrew which is translated in our English translations as Elohim. But starting in chapter 2 verse 4 we have this title Yahweh Elohim or Lord God as you have it in your English translation. Now this starts in chapter 2 verse 4 and it goes all the way to chapter 3 verse 23. The only exception to the rule is the dialogue between the serpent and the woman. Instead, just Elohim is used in the mouth of the serpent and with the woman. Now, if you remember, we said that Yahweh was the special covenantal name for God with his people. That name is omitted now. and is not used in the dialogue. And some commentators see that as kind of a way of abstracting God from Eve, so that he's not the personal covenantal God known as Yahweh, but simply as Elohim, the abstract creator. And now it's hard to prove that for sure, but a detail worth noting. Now, what specifically is the serpent questioning here? Again, verse one, has God indeed what? Said. Did God really say? He questions God's word. He questions what God said. In fact, notice that little word indeed. Has God indeed said? Or we might say, did God really say? Did God actually say? So you see the serpent questioning the reality of what God supposedly said to them. Did God really say to you what you think he said? What is he trying to accomplish here? What is the serpent trying to do? I think he's trying to introduce doubt. He's trying to introduce doubt into the mind of Eve. He's trying to put her in a position where she's now got some confusion with what God actually stated and what their relationship to it should be. Now, this reminds us of the importance of the word of God. The word of God is one of the primary themes here of the opening portion of the Bible. Think about how we started. We started with, and God said, let there be light. And there was light. How did everything come into being in Genesis chapter one? God spoke it, right? It was his word that brought things creatively into existence. And then it was God's word that he spoke to Adam about the trees of the garden and forbidding him from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was God's word that was governing all of these things. So it is no mistake that the devil has gone right for it. Satan has gone right to the word of God. That's what he's going to attack. That's what he's going to challenge. And he starts by questioning it. This is a reminder of the absolute fundamental importance of the Bible. Why? Because the Bible is the word of God. It is the word of God written. And it's vital for us. This is why the Bible should have pride of place in your life and in mine and in our church, because it is absolutely fundamental. If the devil can get you to doubt it, he's got you. If the devil can get you on the ropes where you are beginning to question the Bible, then he has you right where he wants you to be. We will be prey for the tempter if we don't have a strong knowledge of and understanding of what the Bible is and what the Bible teaches. If you say, Pastor Nick, of all the subjects to pick for Wednesday night, to go through on a Wednesday night. Why did you pick bibliology? After all, I can't even spell that. Much less pronounce it. Bibliology, practice it. Bibliology, it's not that difficult. It's because it's so absolutely fundamental. to understand every aspect of the Bible that we can possibly understand. Why? Because in each area, whether it is inspiration, inerrancy, authority, the transmission of the Bible, how it got from here to here, his trustworthiness, all of those things. Guess what the serpent does? He attacks. He attacks and he tempts people in all of those different areas. Why? What is his aim? His aim is to draw you away from the Word of God. to draw you away from adhering to the word of the living God. In the 20th century, we had the fundamentalist modernist controversy. And at the heart of that controversy in church history was what? It was the Bible. It was the Bible. Is the Bible the word of God or not? Can we trust it or not? Has God spoken or has he not? And so there's this great battle that went on in the 20th century, and we still see the remnants of the battle around us. For example, when we went to the mountains, we stayed in a United Methodist Church. Now, why would I never recommend to you that you go to a United Methodist Church? Why would you never get from me, yes, you ought to go try it? You say, there's probably a number of reasons. Yes, but one of the primary, if not the fundamental reason is this. What is your position on this? Does this book have mistakes in it? Does this book contain errors? Is it untrustworthy when it comes to history, science, ethics, religion, whatever it is? And the answer you're going to get in a neck of the woods like that is a lot of hemming and hawing. You know what that is, don't you? A lot of qualifying, rather than a strong, bold statement about the trustworthiness of Holy Scripture. Someone asked me one time, who was a member of United Methodist Church, and I'm not just picking on United Methodist, by the way. Unfortunately, this is a disease that has affected many. professing Christian denominations and churches, but one of them asked me, you don't believe everything in the Bible, do you? Well, there's a provocative question. What's the answer to that question? The answer to that question is yes, absolutely. Why? Because the Bible is the word of God. But see what happened was, in that controversy, and not just in that controversy, maybe you don't know much about it, maybe you don't know much about church history, you don't sit around reading history books, fine. But what you do know, is you do know the relentless questioning of the Bible. Whether it's on the National Geographic, or the History Channel, or you're talking to your neighbor, or whoever it may be. This may be one of the good places to start with people, when you're witnessing to them, what do you think about the Bible? and see what they say. I'm gonna start doing that. I'm gonna start making that my question, because I think that might help us get to where we need to get to, because I think what you're gonna get from a lot of people is, well, I believe in Jesus, but I don't know about this. I don't know about this Bible stuff. Wasn't that just written by men? Isn't that just the words of men? I think that's a pretty common response. I think you'll hear it from people here in Sanford. It's because it is something that has been happening for a long, long time, and it has been happening from the beginning, questioning the Bible, challenging it. What does that trace back to? It traces all the way back to here, because this is the first thing the snake does. He questions the word of God. And if they can get you to question it, If they can get you to start asking questions, now I'm not talking about honest questions like you want to understand better what the Bible says or what it teaches, okay? So it's not that it's always inappropriate to ask questions. There are appropriate questions for us to ask so that we can understand what scripture is and what we should believe about it. However, there are so many times when the questions that are being asked about the Bible indicate that apostasy is already afoot. For example, When the denomination of the church puts together a study committee in order to question traditional doctrines, you got a problem. You got a big problem. Why? Because inevitably in so many cases, where they're going is from questioning the Bible, to doubting the Bible, to eventually denying the Bible. That's what the serpent wants Eve to do. He starts by introducing doubt, He's going to lead her through these questions by which he introduces doubt to lead her to the place where she disobeys the word of God. Now let's notice the second half of the serpent's question in which he cites God's word itself. Okay, so now let's look at the last portion of it. Has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Do you notice anything different about that? Let's compare, we need to compare don't we? Let's go back and let's look at what God originally said and let's compare it to how the serpent cites it. Go back to chapter 2 and verses 16 and 17. Verse 16, the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Now, what came first in verse 16? Remember this? We talked about this. What came first was freedom, was liberty. You may eat of every tree in the garden and freely. It is emphasized. You may freely eat. You remember your Hebrew, right? That's the Hebrew verb repeated twice, one right after the other. And we translate it as you may freely eat, eating you may eat, we might say literally. And so there's an emphasis right off the bat of God's generosity, of the freedom he gives them to enjoy that generosity. And then he gives the prohibition and the prohibition is for only one of the trees. All of the others, and presumably the tree of life as well, is free to them, is open to them. What does the serpent do with this? Notice the twist. The twist is, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? You see what he just did there? He just put a negative spin on that. Instead of the original positive statement of God, with one exception, now the serpent says, did God really say that you can't have everything? Did God really say that you can't eat from every tree in the garden. You see how he puts a negative slant on things. God's word to Adam, his original word, accents his freedom. Satan's word incredulously asks if God really forbade them. from eating of all the trees of the garden, including the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Matthew Henry puts it this way, quote, by aggravating the exception, he endeavors to invalidate the concession, end quote. It's like the serpent focuses on the exception. It says, did God really say you couldn't have that? Hmm. Perhaps you've seen that sort of thing in your own heart and your own life. You know, maybe your mom and dad forbid you from doing something. You remember that? Four or 500 years ago when you were young and mom said, no, you can't do that. And dad said, no, you can't go to that house. You can't go to that party, whatever it is. I remember when I was young, which was just the other day, wasn't it? when I was younger and I wanted to go to a friend's house and spend the night. And my mom said, no. And I sat out in the driveway crying, angrily crying about how I had been forbidden from doing this thing that I wanted to do. Instead of saying, wow, look at all this. Look at everything my mom and dad have provided for me. Look at all the food we have to eat, the clothes we have to wear, the home we live in, all the other wonderful things my parents have allowed me and permitted me to do. No, what do we do? We focus on the exception and we get mad about it. How could you forbid me this? This is what the serpent is doing. He is accenting that in order to lead this woman astray. And moreover, notice, that he's happy to use the word of God to do it. Satan is not averse to citing the word of God. He does it here. He twists it. He perverts it. He doesn't do it properly, but he does do it. And you see this elsewhere in his temptation of Jesus, right? He tempts Jesus initially with turning the stones into bread and Jesus cites the scriptures to him. What does the devil do right after that? The devil says, okay, you want to cite the scriptures? I'll cite the scriptures. And he does. He cites the Psalms, Matthew chapter four. And said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written. He shall give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone." Now, glory to God, Jesus knew exactly what to do with that. But the devil is happy to use the Bible and twist it and pervert it. Why? To get you to succumb to temptation and sin. The devil knows the Bible. He demonstrates his knowledge of the Bible in his temptation of Jesus. And he demonstrates here his knowledge of what God said to Adam. But he uses it to his own advantage. This brings us now to the response of the woman to the question of the serpent. How will Eve respond to this opening blow? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden. Now, the first thing we can say here is the woman does not appear to be alarmed by the talking snake. She does not know that she is in danger. She does not realize the malevolent intent of the talking serpent. She is after all, only a few days old. She's pretty young. We've already been told she's innocent. That was at the end of chapter two. She's innocent, but she is unaware of the mortal danger that she is in. And what does she do first? She offers a bit of correction to the serpent. The woman says to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden. She affirms God's original free grant. to the various trees of the garden. In a moment, she'll cite the exception, but she starts with the grant that God gave to eat of the trees of the garden. But all is not quite well here. Why would we say that? Well, when Eve cites the word of God, she does it imprecisely. She doesn't do it quite accurately. Notice how she puts it. We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden. What did God originally say? Again, look at verse 16 of chapter two. Of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat. Again, notice the difference in language there. When God says it originally to Adam, he emphasizes the freedom, the freedom to eat of all of the trees in the garden save one. When Eve recites God's word, She doesn't state it in the same way. It doesn't have the same emphasis on the freedom that God provided. Instead, it is simply a watered down version, if you will, of what God originally said to them. Yes, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden. Now in verse three, she continues. But of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it lest you die. What does she do here? Now she recites the prohibition. She doesn't cite the tree of the knowledge of good and evil specifically, but she does say the tree in the midst of the garden, we are not allowed to eat from it. She adds something to that, which we'll talk about in just a second. But Eve does cite the prohibition. Say, what's wrong with that? Again, we have imprecision from Eve. She does not completely accurately recite what God says. For example, notice what Eve says about the penalty. You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. What did God say originally? Chapter two, verse 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Now again, if you remember, the emphasis God puts there, He puts on both ends. In verse 16 He emphasizes their freedom to eat, you may freely eat. At the end, he emphasizes the penalty of death. You shall surely die. Eve does not cite God's word accurately or precisely. Instead, she merely says, lest you die. What do you think that indicates? I think that indicates that Eve does not have a firm handle, a good grasp on the word of God. She is reciting it, rehearsing it with the serpent, but it's not coming out quite right. It's not coming out as precisely with the same emphasis that the original had. And what does that remind you and I to do? Hopefully that reminds you of the need that we have, that we all have, to have a firm handle on the word of God. to have a real strong grip on the scriptures. Why? Because that is our weapon in temptation. That is the sword of the spirit, Ephesians chapter six. And we need the word of God and we need an accurate understanding of it. Have you ever been in a situation where maybe you were experiencing a temptation and you're just like, where's that scripture? What's the Bible say? What was that passage? Where was it found? Now that's how most of us operate, unfortunately, because we lack a real strong handle on the word. And so we want to improve that so that we can be ready and prepared for this temptation. Eve is on the ropes here and the serpent has her where he wants her. And one of the reasons is she doesn't have a real firm handle on the word. And so we need to have that. We need to be diligent students of Holy Scripture. We should be reading, studying, listening to, and memorizing Scripture so that we're ready. We're ready. I hope that's frustrating to you. It's frustrating to me sometimes when I'm in a situation, just the other day, I was sitting listening to people, and I'm thinking, I'm hearing them talk, and I'm thinking, hmm, there's Scripture that speaks to that. What is it? Couldn't remember it. Oh, there's Bible for that. What is it? What is it I can't think of it Well, what should you do with that? Well, I'll just watch more TV. Oh, well, nobody's perfect That's what many do well, I'm no preacher I'm too old to memorize the Bible. I That's sometimes the excuses that we make. Don't make those excuses, brethren. Get in your Bible and know the word better and better and better so that you're ready. Take that situation in which you experience a temptation or some inability to respond accurately with the word of God and go back and study that thing. Maybe memorize that verse of scripture or that passage. So we quit fumbling around like, where is that found? I don't know. Who knows? No, fix it. fix it and get a firmer grip on the word of God. We're out of time. I know you wanna know about Eve's statement about not touching the tree, but you'll have to wait for next time. I hope you see just how important the word of God is in all of this. Here in the original temptation, the word is central. And so our first lesson here of many, is that the word be central in our lives. There's a reason for you to come to church more. There's a reason for you to get in your Bible more. There's a reason for you to be a man or a woman who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates in it day and night. Then and only then will you be like that tree planted by the rivers of water. May God help us to be and do that. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word tonight. We thank you for giving us this in the pages of scripture so that we can understand, so that we can be ready and better prepared to deal with the temptations that Satan brings our way. And how many times we have been caught unawares and unprepared. And so we ask Father that you would help us. Oh, please help us to take our spiritual lives more seriously. and help us to take your word more seriously. Help us to be students of Holy Scripture. Bring it to mind when we are in the midst of a situation where your word is being questioned or challenged or where we're experiencing temptation. We ask that you would help us. Help us to hide your word in our hearts so that we might not sin against you. Father, we thank you for this time that you've given us today. We hope and pray that we have spent this Lord's Day well, and we ask that the things we have heard today, that you would make them fruitful in our lives this week and in the days ahead. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. As you leave tonight, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.