Sean C. Capparuccia

19 July 2026

Sermon V in the Genesis sermon series

Genesis 3:1-13; Romans 5:12-21; Psalm 51; Luke 4:1-13

The first chapter of Genesis ends with, “And God saw all that He had made and, behold, it was very good.”  The second chapter ends with Adam and Eve, perfectly made and in a perfect environment, and it says, “and they were not ashamed.”  They had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.  I also said last week that “as we are now, is just as Adam and Eve were made there in the beginning,” meaning, of course, our physical attributes. If we should happen to see Adam or Eve walking down the street they would look the same as any other person, only they’d probably walk straighter, stand more erect, and look like anyone else who has no pain in their knees, or feet, or back.  But, as chapter three will tell us, as we are now is nothing like they were originally created to be in a spiritual sense.

Man Is Not As Man Was

            Because they were the original parents, the first people God had made, they were perfect. Both of them were without blemish. And this was true for all of the animals, too; the “kinds” of animals that God made in Genesis 1. The DNA blueprint for reproducing was absolutely perfect. Now we know, through scientific observation, that as all life-forms reproduce, there are variances in the offspring. We see that especially in our own children. I remember after seeing our first child and how there were some very distinct traits that came from me and some that very distinctly came from Lara, I said to her, “Let’s have a hundred more!”  And we know that while every single person is unique and has a few one-of-a-kind attributes, genetically, we are all products of those who have gone before. I can tell you the exact eight people from whom I am descended – my great-grandparents. And then the 16 great-great grandparents; and the 32 great-great-great grandparents. The number of genetic contributions doubles with each generation until we go back far enough when it begins to diminish as we approach our first parents, Adam and Eve. Now, if we take God at His Word, we will discover that somewhere between 160-170 generations have passed from them to us. And mind you, this whole business of people sending in their DNA to have it mapped out for genealogical reasons has only shown that our origins occurred somewhere in the Middle East, possibly North Africa (which is right where Scripture says it was), and even though these secular companies won’t give exact dates, ancient historians like to say that these ancient civilizations didn’t start keeping records until about 10,000 years ago (which is just a little longer than when Scripture says it was.) 

Dating rocks and fossils have proved to be a very inexact science and not generally considered reliable. (For more on this, see Answers in Genesis’ website and search for “dating rocks.”) So again I say to you, “science” has not disproved the Word of God and God’s Word –  with amazingly detailed chronologies and genealogies – places the creation of Adam and Eve at a little more than 6,000 years ago.[1]

            The third chapter of Genesis gives us not only the promise of the Savior, but the reason for His coming.  In this first half of the chapter which we will look at today, we have the reason.

            Let us then look in our Bibles at Genesis chapter 3…

:1(read 1)       We see here introduced to us the famous snake in the Garden. You will notice that nowhere in this passage, in fact, nowhere in Genesis, is the name “Satan” mentioned. We only have a snake that is “crafty.”  The KJV calls it a “subtle serpent.” [The ISV calls it “the Shining One” which has no basis in Hebrew, but is a back- translation from a passage in Ezekiel 28.[2]]  Thankfully, John tells us in his Revelation that this serpent was, in fact, Satan (Rev. 20:2)[3]  Well, obviously God did not create an evil serpent, but we can admit that He created a creature that was “crafty,” or very smart. Some claim that this serpent, or snake, had the ability to talk but there is nothing else in Scripture that indicates this. There are, of course, some species of animals that have the ability to mimic, even mimic human voices: aside from parrots and other birds, some species that can do this are bottlenose dolphins, harbor seals, killer whales, orangutangs, and the African savannah elephant. (One could definitely see the advantage of a killer whale being able to mimic the mother seal’s call to her little cub, though.)  Even so, for a snake to carry on a conversation with Eve is a little hard to understand.

We don’t know how much time had elapsed from the creation of Adam and Eve (on day 6) until this episode in Genesis 3. Theologian A.W. Pink writes, “Personally, we doubt if our first parents preserved their integrity for forty-eight hours, or even twenty-four.”[4] Puritan writer Thomas Manton said, “Adam, did not abide for a single night in his honor” (my paraphrase).[5]  Can you imagine? But then we, having lived on the other side of sin, could more easily say, I suppose, that we would last a whole lot longer than that! I mean think about it, if God put you there in Eden right now and said, “Eat whatever you like, make love as much as you like, just don’t eat from that tree,” how long would you keep it up?  Hard to say.  But to lose it in a single day or two? But then Adam had nothing to compare the Garden to.  Now imagine yourself in those shoes: you have lived your short life homeless and then someone places you in a nice house and says, “you can stay here in this house as long as you don’t use that one bathroom downstairs with the pretty door handle.” But you have never lived in a house before. You don’t know what other houses look like. You have no idea if what you are in is even top of the line. All you have is the command not to use the downstairs bathroom. I would definitely want to see what’s in that downstairs bathroom. It’s just an analogy, but what did Adam compare his Garden to?

            Back to the Bible – then, obviously Satan uses the animal, as intelligent as it is naturally, for his own ends. Now, a quick word on Satan. From elsewhere in Scripture we gather that he, like all the other angels, was created possibly on day 2, with other things in the heavenly realms. He was created as an extremely beautiful angel, surpassing all the others. In fact, he is called Lucifer, the angel of light. But he immediately sought to be in God’s place. He led a rebellion against the Most High, he was cast out of heaven to earth, and here he is striving to disrupt what God had done for Adam and Eve.

            Using the serpent, Satan waits for Eve to come near to the forbidden tree and asks her, “Is it true that God said not to eat from any tree in the garden?”

:2-3     And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’”  Somehow Eve was not alarmed that this serpent was talking to her. But then again, maybe it was because she had not been in the garden very long.  This was a clever move on Satan’s part: had he waited much longer, Eve would have known that the snakes don’t talk.

:4-5     “And the serpent said to the woman, “You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day that you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

            Notice that the serpent doesn’t waste any time. It immediately attacks the word of God or questions Eve’s knowledge of it. Is it true…? Beloved, Satan still uses this same tactic these many thousands of years later…. Is it true that….?  Did God really say….? Does the Bible really mean ……..?  One of the greatest weaknesses of the Church throughout the ages has been Biblical illiteracy.  People just don’t read it and study it enough. They think that pastors and theologians are the only ones who need to read it, so they can preach on it and write books about it.  Well, guess what? Satan is just as interested in taking out the laity as much as he’d like to take out the teachers and preachers. All who are Christians need to know God’s word.  Satan will always attack the Word. Let me say that again with a little more oomph: Satan will always attach the Word of God. But notice what Eve did.

            He said, “Is it true that God said not to eat from any tree in the garden?” She answered, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat.” God’s command was,  “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.” By omitting the word “every” she has minimized the generosity of God: they had every tree, except the one. So instead of thinking on the many,  she focused on the one that is denied them.  

And then, when she mentions the forbidden tree she call it “the tree in the middle of the garden,” not, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” which is what God called it. So she identifies it by its location, not by its meaning.

Then she goes so far as to add to God’s command by saying that they weren’t even allowed to touch it lest they die. I think that when she said that, Satan knew he had her. But at the same time, she lessens the penalty by saying “lest you die.” “Lest” means, “for fear that.” Or rather, she was saying, that they were not to touch the tree for fear that they might die, or in case they might die. God actually said, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die!” There wasn’t no maybe or might or probably about it. God said “you will die.”

And here’s another subtle and crafty thing the serpent did which maybe you picked up on. Remember last week we talked about how God was called Elohim until Adam was made. Then His name changed to Jehovah Elohim – Lord God – in accordance with the covenant He made with Adam. Well Satan says there in verse 1, “Did Elohim say….” and Eve, instead of correcting the serpent with the covenant name she knew Him as, Jehovah Elohim, she went right along with the serpent and used its name for God: Elohim. I think that this is significant.  We do this all the time. One place it happens a lot is when Christians are talking to Muslims. The Muslim says, Allah says… Well the Christian, not wanting to be offensive, uses the term Allah because, well, we’be been taught that “Allah” just means God, right?  Sure, Allah means god like “El” means god but, brothers and sisters, our God has a name: it is Jehovah, or Yahweh, or even Jesus Christ. When we allow ‘Allah’ to be the name of our God we have just lost the battle of religious superiority with the Muslim.  Satan’s tactics have never changed, folks.

:6-7     “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also unto her husband with her; and he ate. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves loin coverings.” 

            The first thing Eve saw here was that she didn’t die when she touched it. Whether Adam told her that or she made it up all by herself, we don’t know, but that’s what she was passing on to others. And now she touches it and nothing happens. Well, if God’s word wasn’t accurate in this, maybe it won’t hurt to eat it. And who wouldn’t want to be like God anyway?  According to the serpent, God was withholding something very special from Adam and Eve. After all,  if they ate this fruit, they could be just like Him, knowing good and evil.  

            We need to remember here that God created the angels and Adam and Eve with what we call “free will.” This was perfect “free will.” This is the kind of will which allows you to make a free choice; a choice that is not compelled by something else. It is not compelled by selfishness, or love – it is perfectly free.  This is one way in which man was made in God’s likeness, to be a free moral agent.  What we tend to forget is that when they ate the forbidden fruit, they lost their “free will.” No longer was the will of humanity “free,” it was constantly compelled toward selfishness, self-will, self, self, self. When given the choice, man will always choose what betters himself, or at least what will make him look good when he does this great thing for someone else. 

            There was a church a few years ago; big church in _________… they put up this thing on their website where parishioners could do a good deed and then put up there on the website what they had done.  I think they were trying to encourage the people to do good things, and what better incentive than to have your name – and deed – on the website. It makes you wonder.[6]

            So, what we call “free will” today is not really what “free will” was in the beginning. But deciding what color socks to wear is not “free will,” that  is just basic decision making. (We’ll do a sermon on free will in the future.)

            Now you may be wondering about Adam when it says, “and she gave also unto her husband with her; and he ate.”  Here’s the big question: was Adam watching this whole interchange or did he come onto the scene after Eve had already eaten?  If he was there the whole time, that would be really really bad. Just eating the fruit was bad enough, that cause the fall of the whole human race; but if he literally stood and watched his wife get deceived and used by the serpent is inexcusable.

            The Apostle Paul uses this very passage when he says to the church regarding worship, “I do not allow a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (I Tim. 2:12-14).  These sound like harsh words, but they need to be properly understood. The point for us today is that Adam was not deceived, he knew exactly what was going on. And he let it happen. He shirked his responsibility; he let his wife get used; in fact, in a way, he himself used his wife by letting her eat first of the tree that he wanted to taste, too. [7] It’s very sad, really. James 4:17 says, “Therefore, anyone who knows what is right but fails to do it is guilty of sin.”  And isn’t that exactly what Adam did?

Picking up in verse 8…

:8  And they heard the voice 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 Jehovah Elohim among the trees of the garden. 9  And Jehovah Elohim called unto Adam, and said unto him, “Where are you?”  :10  And Adam said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”  :11  And Jehovah Elohim said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” :12  And the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I did eat.” :13  And Jehovah Elohim said unto the woman, “What is this that you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 

            Next week we’ll talk about the results of what they had done but Adam, as the federal head of the human race, plunged all of humanity into darkness. The garden was lost; integrity was lost; “Free will” was lost; right standing before Jehovah Elohim was lost.              

Application

In her book, The Eve Factor, author Shirley Rose writes, “The very first woman gave in to the enticement of temptation, and women have been following in her footsteps ever after. Like Eve, we can duped into believing that we’ll gain something rewarding if we act on the temptation. All of us are susceptible.”[8]

The fact is, temptation offers us something we want, or something we don’t have. And there is always the temptation to compare what we do have to something/someone else.  We compare our car to that person’s car; we compare our spouse to others. Temptation is a tool of the devil and he knows how to wield this tool.

For one, it is subtle. Satan is crafty; he knows how we operate, he and his minions have been watching humanity for 600 years and us since the day we were born.

Temptation tests us, as it did Jesus in the wilderness. It tests our faith in God and our obedience to His word. It tests our own character and the way in which we respond to temptation. Temptation can wear us down, that’s what it is designed to do.

It also tends to escalate.[9] A few decades ago (yes, we’re getting old) Guns n’ Roses did a song about heroine addiction whose chorus ran like this: “A little used to do it, but the little wouldn’t do it, so the little got more and more; I just keep trying to get a little better, just a little better than before.”  The sins of drug and alcohol addictions are easy to pick on and to observe this escalation, but it is no less true for any addiction or sinful behavior to which we succumb. What starts as a little will soon enough get more and more until the devil has successfully pulled you away from your daily devotions, your daily prayers, your daily conversation with God.  We can probably think of many times when we got suckered into wasting what was supposed to be just a few minutes but turned into an hour or two or more chasing rabbits on the Internet.  And we say to ourselves, “Well, it’s not like I was watching anything bad.”  You know, the problem is not necessarily in what we were watching, or even learning, but in what we were not doing in those stretches of time.

            David says, “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”  Iniquity is the sinfulness that happens inside your heart and mind. Pride, selfishness, unbelief… they are what give root to the sinful actions that we know we must  confess. Notice that David is confessing his iniquity as well as his “big” sins.”

Yet all sin has a common denominator. C. S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, writes,

“There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time, I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. Here is no fault which makes [someone] more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. The vice I am talking about is Pride or Self-conceit: and the very opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility.[10]

            Beloved in Christ, because of Eve’s deception and Adam’s flat-out failure to protect his wife and his own integrity, all of humanity has been condemned. Not just condemned to despair, or hurt, or brokenness, but all those things and worse: condemned to hell. As we will see next week, Adam and his bride were kicked out of Eden because God could not stand to have their sinful selves in His presence. But just as death came upon all of humanity because of this one man’s sin, let us not forget that by Christ’s death and resurrection, grace and righteousness will be poured out on all those who can come call on Him in faith. He is the remedy. And not a remedy, but the only remedy. He tells us to bring our brokenness to Him; to bring our hurt to Him; to bring our pain, our suffering, our temptations, our addictions, our fears, anxieties, and all of our woes to Him. Satan stands ready to tell us, “Jesus doesn’t care one bit about your pain.” But Jesus stands ready to forgive our sin and make us whole.  No, we don’t have a will free enough to come to Him, but through Him, He can change our will and give us that ability. He can and He will. Let us pray, Come, Lord Jesus. Come, into our brokenness and heal us.

            Next week we’ll finish chapter 3 and talk more about the remedy to our awful situation.  Amen.

---

[1] For those of you who say, “I just can’t believe that!” I ask, do you believe Jesus walked on water? That He rose from the dead? That He healed people of their bonafide sicknesses including death? I assure you, dear reader, the One who can do that, can also create this universe in 6 days and have done only 6000 years ago. I think people tend to rate these miracles with some kind of “difficulty” rating where God can get by with a 6 or 7, but a 10? No way!  And, beloved, this same God can also forgive your sins and give you new life!! That’s the greatest miracle of all.

[2] Ezekiel 28:13-19, “You used to be in Eden—God’s paradise! You wore precious stones for clothing: ruby, topaz, diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and carbuncle. Your settings were crafted in gold, along with your engravings. On the day of your creation they had been prepared! :14 You were the anointed cherub; having been set in place on the holy mountain of God, you walked in the midst of fiery stones. 

:15  You were blameless in your behavior from the day you were created until wickedness was discovered in you. :16 Since your vast business dealings filled you with violent intent from top to bottom, you sinned, so I cast you away as defiled from the mountain of God. I destroyed you, you guardian cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. :17  Your heart grew arrogant because of your beauty; you annihilated your own wisdom because of your splendor. Then I threw you to the ground in the presence of kings, giving them a good look at you! :18  By all of your iniquity and unrighteous businesses you defiled your sanctuaries, so I’m going to bring out fire from within you and burn you to ashes on the earth before the whole watching world! :19  Everyone who knows you throughout all the nations will be appalled at your calamity and you will no longer exist forever.”

[3] Rev. 20:2, “He [the angel] captured the dragon, that ancient serpent, also known as the devil and Satan, and tied him up for a thousand years. See also, Rev 12:9, 12:15, 20:2.

[4] A. W. Pink, The Doctrine of Human Depravity (Pensacola: Chapel Library, 1998), 26 (reprint)

[5] Ibid., 27. The exact quote from Manton was, “Adam being in honor abideth not for a night.”

[6] Mat._6:3, “But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth…”

[7] In church tradition, the fruit has often been identified as an apple probably because the Latin word malum, “apple,” sounds like the word malus, “evil.”

[8] Shirley Rose, The Eve Factor (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2006), 11-12.

[9] Rose, Eve Factor.  Shirley Rose lays out these four characteristics of temptation: its reward, its subtlety, it tests, and it escalates. 

[10] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003), 121.