I invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter three. If you are doing a Bible reading schedule that takes you through the Bible or even you've started this new year at the beginning of the Bible, you've probably already read this chapter. It's interesting when you see the number of questions that are asked in this chapter, and I want us to consider this evening the area of who told you, looking at one of the questions that is listed here. Almost 76 years ago, on April 4th of 1943, during World War II, At 3.10 in the afternoon, a nine-man crew boarded an American B-24 bomber named the Lady Be Good. They took off from an airbase in North Africa. Their assignment was to do a bombing raid over Naples, Italy. After flying over the site, the plane turned around and headed back to the base. A brief distress call was heard around midnight, but the plane never arrived. The result was really a baffling one. And it was an investigation that, in Air Force history, they wondered for a number of years. The plane had contained enough fuel to fly for 12 hours. The mission only required nine hours. It was thought for many years that the plane had run out of fuel and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. However, the plane had had plenty of fuel to fly back to the airfield. In fact, it had enough fuel to overfly the airbase by almost 450 miles. And it crash-landed in the Libyan desert, where it was found almost 16 years later. The plane was in good condition. It was found by a British oil exploration team in the Sahara, the Libyan desert, but an area of the Saharan desert. When it was discovered, they tested the instruments to see if there was some kind of a problem that had led the crew to overfly the base. But they found that everything was in working order. So what happened? Apparently, at the altitude the plane was flying on that fateful night in April of 1943, there was an unusually strong tailwind. And it caused the plane to reach its destination ahead of schedule. When the crew got to that area and saw the instruments, they thought they were acting strangely and figured something must be wrong. Maybe their instruments had been damaged. Possibly they thought they were malfunctioning, or maybe even being jammed by the enemy. Whatever took place, it appears that they lost faith in their guidance system. And they continued on, thinking they were still over the Mediterranean Sea, until they finally crashed in the desert. That decision cost the crew their lives. Where we get our information and where we look for direction and where we place our trust for life has tremendous impact, not just for this life, but also for our eternity. Genesis chapter 3 is one of the key passages in the Bible. It tells us, really, why things are the way they are, and we know this. A proper understanding of the first three chapters of Genesis is foundational to having an accurate view of life. The opening verses, as we are familiar with these, in Genesis chapter 1, sorry, I meant to show you the picture of where that plane crashed in the desert. In the opening verses of Genesis chapter 3, we find that the serpent was subtle. We find his craftiness as he approaches the woman in the garden, and he strikes up a conversation. In fact, it's interesting because he begins the conversation by asking a religious question. But his motives were not right. The result of that is the fall. And as a result of that, Adam and Eve hide themselves and God comes looking for them. And I want to pick it up in verse 8. That gives us the context. But I want to pick up our reading in verse 8 of Genesis chapter 3. Follow with me as I begin. It says, And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and he said, where are you? So he said, 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? Then the man said, the woman whom you gave to me to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate. And the Lord God said to the woman, what have you done? In this passage, we find some interesting questions. When God asks questions, it's not because he needs information. It's not because he lacks knowledge. There's other reasons, and the reasons are to challenge the person being asked, and then to instruct us to consider what is going on. Probably one of the most penetrating questions in the Bible is the one that is asked in verse 9. As God says, where are you? That question reveals several things. One, it reveals there's a separation. Up until this point, there would have been this great fellowship. And Adam and Eve delighted in that, but now all of a sudden there's a separation. It's a question that was to cause an examination. What is it that's going on? It's also a question that really reveals, it shows the heart of God in seeking sinners. As He's looking for them, they're not looking for God. But it's also a question that requires confession of sin, not excuses. And we see what we get are excuses. But it's a question that offered an invitation. So the first question in verse 9 really lays out a number of things about the character of God. God's dealings with Adam did not end though with that question. As Adam offers a reason why he didn't come. It didn't really get to the heart. Adam gave a superficial reason. So if the question in verse 9 is one of the most penetrating questions in the Bible, I think the question in verse 11 that I want us to consider this evening is probably one of the most important questions that we need to ponder. But the truth is it's probably one that we frequently overlook. But we know the story. We've read this chapter many times. We've focused on the fall and what took place. And then we're going to see, shortly after this, really the first gospel stated. And this question just kind of gets brushed over. But I want us to look at this question. Who told you that you were naked? I mean, what a question. You ever thought about how peculiar, almost bizarre that question is? That Adam, as God says, where are you? And he said, well, I didn't have anything to wear. I find it really embarrassing that the first person to ever say they didn't have something to wear was a guy. As Adam says, I would have come, but I didn't have anything to wear. And God says, who told you that you were naked? It's like, what brought this up? I mean, where did this come from? This is not new information. God's coming to Adam and saying, you've been naked since I made you. Why is this all of a sudden a concern? I mean, it's not like you have any neighbors. It's not like there's, I mean, you're the only two people on the planet. Why is this a problem? And really what we're seeing is that there's more than just the surface question about his wardrobe. Because the easy answer is nobody told him that. Nobody gave that. The real question though is to go to the heart of it. What led you to see this condition as shameful? If you look back at verse 25 of chapter 2, which I really think is the, it kind of bookends this section. Verse 25, the last verse of chapter 2 says, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. And now we read that Adam says, I hid myself because I was ashamed. The real question is, what brought this change of perspective? Who told you? The answer is nobody. There weren't any neighbors. We've already mentioned that. The animals didn't talk. Except for the serpent. And that should have indicated to Adam there's a problem. Because I believe that speech is part of the image of God in humans. Not in animals. And that should have been a red flag moment. That things are not the way they should be. But the real question is, so what brought about this change? What brought about the change from innocence to shame? And really the underlying question is, where did these ideas come from? It's almost like God is saying to Adam, okay, let's get past the nakedness. When did you first realize this? What brought this change of your perspective? And then the follow-up statement in that question is, have you eaten of the tree that I commanded you not to eat? This question is really one of what is it that informs our outlook on life? Where do we turn for information? What is it that gives us direction? What is our instrument panel? I mean, where do we get our information for life? The question, where do we get our ideas about right and wrong? I mean, where do we get our ideas for life? In the day in which we live with our children and with our young people, with our grandchildren, who's going to inform them? And the issue here is really one of worldview, the idea of what does it mean to be human? When does life begin? Who tells you? How do we determine right and wrong? The idea here that we're looking at, the foundational issue is really one of what we would look at as the outlook on life or what we would call worldview. It's the idea of our worldview. Somebody has put it this way, that the worldview is a set of beliefs and practices that shape a person's approach to the most important issues of life. Through our worldview, we determine priorities. We explain our relationship to God and fellow human beings. We assess the meaning of events and justify our actions. Our worldview even speaks of the most ordinary practices of everyday life, including the types of things we read, view, the types of entertainment and leisure activities we seek, our approach to work, and much, much more. What is it that informs our view of life? Where do we get our input? Someone else has said that a worldview consists of basic assumptions and images that provide a way of thinking about the world. is it really comes down to the vision of our heart. So Proverbs 4.23 says, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. God is coming to Adam and saying, Adam, where did this idea of shame come from? What happened that you lost your innocence and there was no going back? In our day, it's important that we ask these questions. Where are we getting our information? Where's the input that comes into our lives and into the lives of our kids coming from? I mean, what is it that directs their focus? There was a book written, it was about 15 years ago now, by Andreas Kostenberger. It was titled, God, Marriage, and Family. His opening line in the first chapter of the book says this, For the first time in the history of our Western civilization, we are confronted with the need to define the meaning of the terms marriage and family. That was 15 years ago. I mean, how many other issues are now on the table? So where do we answer these questions? Or, maybe not so much us, because hopefully we're thinking biblically, but it's worth asking, what is it that we decide? I mean, what makes a marriage? Well, you know, I think if two people love each other, I don't think it's right to discriminate. I think marriage ought to be open for everybody. There's plenty of examples of heterosexual marriages that aren't in such great shape. And studies have shown, and I feel if any of those are answers, we need to ask, who's telling us? Because responding along those lines indicates something about a person's underlying outlook on life. See, the Judeo-Christian view of marriage and family is rooted in Scripture. We go back to chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis. And it should not surprise us that the serpent attacked the authority of God's Word. Has God really said? And the authority of the structure in the garden and in the home, that he would also attack the institution established by God. of marriage and family. And we've seen that battle in our culture and now it's moved. We've gone from the sexual revolution to the homosexual revolution to gender confusion. Last fall I was in Washington, D.C. representing the college and was there for the American Association of Christian Colleges and Seminaries meetings and they set up a special briefing for us with a lawyer to talk about some of the issues facing higher education. And to look at it from a Christian perspective, and they said, one of the key issues that you're going to have to watch for are what are called SOGI laws. Sexual Orientation Gender Identity laws. Well, just last week, on January 1st, the state of New York had a law go into effect that you can legally change your birth certificate to have a new label, X. if you don't want to be male or female. And it's legal to do that. And understanding that, they said we're trying to move away from the binary, the male-female, the two choices, and open it up, that people, what do they want to identify with? And to realize that a while back, I think it was about four years ago, Facebook, in the United States, I think there were 54 choices for gender. In England, they had 71. I'm not sure why they got more than others, but, you know, when you're that confused, it really doesn't matter. So, well, there's lots of ideas. Yes, and all of those ideas come from a non-biblical worldview. Because Scripture is binary. The first mention of sexuality in scripture is in Genesis 127. And God created man in his own image. In the image of God created him. Male and female created he them. So where do we get our information? Where do our young people get our information? It shouldn't surprise us that the serpent attacked the institution of marriage to mar God's institution and now attacks sexual identity, really to mar the image of God in man. Because we're made in the image of God. And those are just two examples of a culture that really, these are the symptoms of greater concerns. I think it's important that we ask the question, what is it that informs our lives? Are we keeping our heart with all diligence? See, we need to, if we're going to think biblically, if we're going to have a biblical worldview, we need to consider, first of all, the input. Because not all questions and discussions are legitimate. So, you know, I just have a lot of questions. Satan started with questions. When you look back at verse 1, it says, 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? He comes saying, you know, I'd like to have a religious discussion. I have a question about what God said. But it wasn't an honest question. And he's looking to deny God's authority. That's really where it starts. And once Scripture is undermined, once God's authority is undermined, everything is open. And don't we see that in our culture as we move further and further away from a Judeo-Christian foundation? that we understand that this is what is taking place. I thought it was interesting if you may have seen some of the graphs with the new Congress being sworn in. And the number that claimed to be Protestant, and they were listing the religion of the various members of Congress and of the Senate. And the majority would claim to be Christian. And using that term very broadly, of course. We're talking the government here. But very broad. There were others in different, and there was one that would not declare a religion. Senator from Arizona. Would not swear in on the Bible, but on the Constitution. Because she rejects any religion. Well, what's going to influence her worldview? It's not going to be this book. And understanding that for many of us these things are very familiar, but my concern is for the next generation. For your children and our grandchildren. Because the voices in our culture are undermining God's authority. This is what we see taking place here, and once God's authority is denied, then everything else is arbitrary. It's all up for grabs, because it's really who can build the strongest argument, or get the most sympathy, or make the most articulate case, rather than what has God said? Who told us? Who's speaking into our lives? See, a biblically-minded person has to consider the input. Where is it coming from? And who's telling us? Because not every question is really worth hearing. It's fair to ask, who's asking the question? What is the source? If the serpent is asking the question, that's a problem. You know, where do we get our ideas? Who's asking? To consider the substance, what are they asking? This was not an innocent question when the serpent came. It was a setup. And Eve fell into the trap. She was deceived. Most of us have a hard time resisting correcting somebody when they're wrong. Has God said that you can eat of every tree? Well, no, you didn't get that quite right. Every tree except one. And now the dialogue is going. And the serpent had no desire for information. It was to make an accusation. And so it's fair to ask, okay, so what's the heart behind this? What is it that influences us? Social media? The news media? Who are the voices that speak into our lives? Who are the voices that speak into the lives of our children? Do we know how to deal with the philosophies of our day of humanism and materialism? Every commercial is promoting materialism. That what you have, even though you just bought it last year, is no longer good enough. And this is what our culture tells us. Or hedonism, or pragmatism. That is often permeating churches today. Well, if it works, it must be fine. Well, the question is, does it work God's way? Are we allowing God to speak into our lives? Or even post-relativism? I saw a statement the other day that I thought was rather insightful. They said, you know, for a culture that has said that all truth is relative, they sure seem very upset about fake news. I mean, how can something be fake if everything's relative? What they know in their heart is there is truth. Because even for the unsaved, their conscience is on God's side. Because they're made in the image of God. But where Adam received his input determined his decision. And then it determined his reaction. You know, as we just read, the first thing he did was he blamed his wife. Well, you know, it's not really my fault. It's the woman that you gave to be with me. And then she said, well, it was the serpent. So where did it come from? It came from Satan. And understanding, we have to look at where is the ultimate source of where our information is coming from. If they're casting doubt on, is God really good? Or is sin really bad? It's undermining God's authority. And it's going to cause great problems. The voices we listen to are going to have a profound effect on our lives. See, blessing or destruction depend on who we listen to. Proverbs 13.20 says, He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed. The verses that we have for memorizing next week in Psalm 1, and I'd already put these into my notes before I realized this was our next verse, but how important it is. Blessed, happy, joyful is the man that doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat with the scoffers. His delight is in the law of the Lord. In his law, he meditates day and night. The question is, what place does God's Word have in our lives? Because blessing and destruction are really going to depend on who we listen to. Unspiritual people are not a good source for biblical direction. And if we live in disobedience, it's going to hinder our spiritual understanding. Therefore, it's so important for all of us to be meditating upon the Word. I appreciate the challenge that we've heard the last two Sundays, that this ought to be a priority in our lives as we begin this year. Because if we leave our minds unguarded and undisciplined, we're opening ourselves up to trouble. In the book, Disciplines of a Godly Man, Arkent Hughes said this, you can never have a Christian mind without reading the scripture regularly. Because you can't be profoundly influenced by what you don't know. If you are filled with the word of God, your life can be informed and directed by God. How important it is that God's word is not just revered in our lives, but it's read. That we understand the importance of our decisions and recognize the influence that it will have. That a Christian mind is impossible if we are not students of the Word. Because the temptation in the garden was to appeal to the senses. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. The tree was desirable. It looked good for food and it would make one wise. Do we see the question, who told you? Is pushing Adam back to consider, do you understand where this came from? What brought the change in your perspective? I think this is especially important for us because we really live in an image-driven society. We're not simply word-based, though we should be, and we try to emphasize that, but we're in an image-driven society. A number of years ago, media critic Malcolm Muggeridge said, the one thing that television cannot do is express ideas. There is a danger in translating life into images. It is a falsifying of life. Kenneth Myers, the cultural critic, author of All God's Children, Blue Suede Shoes, said, a culture that is rooted more in images than in words will find it increasingly difficult to sustain any broad commitment to any truth, since truth is an abstraction requiring language. So the danger when we become a culture of just images, and do we not see that? Politicians know if they get the right pictures, the right images, they can influence. Because we see the pictures in an age of when we can get it on our phones. Do we understand we need to be aware of who's speaking into our lives? That we recognize the danger. Pastor's been preaching from Psalm 119, in Psalm 119 verse 128 it says, therefore all your precepts concerning all things I consider to be right, I hate every false way. Can we say that? Lord, everything you say concerning everything I consider right. And I will hate the false way. And sometimes the false way becomes attractive. Well, you know, it looks pretty good. I kind of like that. I'm interested in... Because we're driven by the images. But God has chosen to communicate to us in word. First the inspired word, and then in the incarnate word. As we have sung of Jesus this evening, See, knowing God's Word requires that we have an ability to think, to meditate, to ponder, and allow that to impact our lives. We talk about God's simple plan of salvation, and having simple faith to believe the truth is so true, but it's not for simple tons. The Scripture also says, come now and reason together, saith the Lord. It's not a simplistic truth. These are deep truths. Though it just requires a simple faith, the faith of a child. But do we take time to meditate? I mean, time when we come and we're willing to endure sound doctrine, and that takes endurance. It takes endurance to spend time thinking about justification and propitiation and regeneration and how all of them impacts our lives as believers. And scripture warns us there's coming a time when people won't want sound doctrine. They won't put up with it. Let that never be said of us. But if the TV or computer or our iPhone is the control center of our life or our home, it's going to have an influence on our worldview. And we can't be surprised when our children become desensitized with wrong if we're not putting up filters and barriers. When crudity is funny and violence becomes entertainment, Could God not say, who's told you that? Who's told you that's good entertainment? We have to guard ourselves. I'm speaking to me, that we guard ourselves, that we never question God's goodness or his grace, that we understand the challenges that we are facing. Because not only do we have to consider the influence, we have to consider the impact. What are the ramifications? What we see is the result in Genesis 3 is that Satan's counsel brought shame and defeat. He that walks with wise men will be wise. Companions of fools are going to face shame and defeat. They'll be destroyed. In this chapter and in these opening verses that we did not read, what we see is that sin had violated God's law. God was holy. It was an attack on his glory. Sin destroyed paradise. Sin really gave a certain amount of power to the enemy, who became the god of this age. The ruler of his world with a measure of control over fallen people. But understand that sin did not threaten God's sovereignty. God's still in control. It changed the model in which that sovereignty operated, but God was not wringing his hands. And as we see in this passage, and when it comes to verse 15, and really that proto-legomena, the first statement of the gospel in Genesis 3.15, the judgment, the spoken to the serpent, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. There's the message of hope. Her seed, and in our Bibles it's capitalized. It's speaking of Christ, the Messiah. That glimmer of hope. Can you imagine what Adam and Eve must have been thinking? They've disobeyed and destroyed the beauty of the garden. And I don't know how much they knew, but did they know about the rebellion of the angels? And how Lucifer was cast out? And thinking, there's no hope. And here's this glimmer of hope. That God's sovereignty was not threatened. And he pronounces judgment, really showing again that he's in control. But understand, secular people live daily. without an awareness of or a reference to Jesus Christ. We see that all around us. And if we're not careful, that begins to speak into our lives. I don't know about you, but I find the news very depressing. And if I start allowing that to speak to me, I become discouraged. I think, you know what encourages me is knowing that God's still in control. But I'm not going to get that from CNN or Fox News or MSNBC or any other place. We've got to be in God's Word. Who tells us? Who speaks into our lives? Do we understand the dangers of listening to the world? See, the real question is, does God's Word consistently impact our lives? Is He ruling our lives? Because the Bible reminds me what is true. God's Word is a commentary on the world in which we live. And it's an encouragement. And my desire this evening is really to kind of give us an additional encouragement to what pastor's been encouraging us to do on Sunday mornings. To remind us to make sure it's God's Word speaking into our lives. Because it will impact our destiny. You know, although the plane, Lady Be Good, was found in 1959, it took another year for them to find the bodies of the crew. They had parachuted the plane shortly before it went down in the desert. Desert survival experts had estimated that the crew could probably travel 25 to 30 miles, maybe at the most 50 miles, in the desert heat. But the bodies of five of the men were found nearly 80 miles from where the parachute harness was recovered. on the body of Lieutenant Robert Toner, they found a diary. And it recounted their courageous effort to survive. Eight of the nine crewmen survived the parachute jump. And they assumed that they had only slightly overflown their base, so they began heading northwest in the desert. They had only half a canteen of water for eight men. They pressed on for eight days. After eight days, five of the men could go no further, but three of them continued on. One man went another 26 miles. Another man traveled a total of 114 miles. And the body of the last crewman was never found. But you know, if the crew had had a map of the Libyan desert, They would have found that there was an oasis to their south at just slightly more than the distance that they traveled. And if they had gone south instead of north, they would have come across their plain where water was stored. They distrusted their instruments. They disregarded the guidance system. They were left without a map. And they died in the desert. We have an accurate guidance system for life. We have the Word of God. Do we know it? Do we trust it? Is this where we get our input for life and eternity, for decisions of marriage and family, of sexuality? Does it influence our decision-making process? Do we think differently than our unsaved co-workers or unsaved friends or unsaved family or unsaved neighbors? Does it impact our direction in our future? What about for our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren? Let us each strive to be biblically minded. That we would understand that a biblically minded person will consider and choose the input, the influence, and the impact that will direct their life, that they'll choose that from God. I trust that as we, those of us that have committed to make reading God's Word a priority for 30 days, we'll meditate upon how it is impacting our lives and our choices. That we would be Christians who think godly. Who's telling us what we believe? Let's pray together. Father, we thank You for Your Word.