A Sermon From Genesis 3:1-8 (Bait-and-Switch)

We all face temptations of one kind or another. How can we find victory over temptation?

Yesterday I preached the first message in our new series, "Filters: Temptation Is Never What It Seems." In this message, we examined the first temptation humanity ever faced. We discovered that all temptation follows the same strategy. We can learn from the fall of Adam and Eve how to see the temptation for what it is and realize that there is far more at stake than what we think. We also discovered that God provides grace when we have failed.

Here is the audio of the message, as well as the notes. 

Bait and Switch

Bait-and-Switch

Genesis 3:1–8 (ESV)

Like the first temptation in the Garden of Eden, all temptation is deceptive: it offers something good, but only leads to hurt, guilt, and death.

¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

²And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,

³but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

⁴But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

⁵For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶So 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 to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

⁷Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

⁸And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

 

In every temptation, there’s more at stake than what you think.

 

Life Application:

1. God’s Word: Are you standing firm on the truth of God’s Word? Or are you looking for loopholes, and doubting if God meant what He said? What does the Bible say about the area of temptation you are facing?

2. God’s Judgment: Do you believe God’s warnings that sin hurts and destroys? Have you thought beyond the immediate pleasures of sin to the lasting consequences if you give in to this temptation?

3. God’s Goodness: Do you really believe that God is good, and that He is enough? Or do you feel that God is holding out on you something that you really need or that will make you happy?