“KNOWING TRUTH!”

Genesis 3:1-4                                                            (ESV)

“1 Now 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'?" 

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

3 but 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.'"

4 But the serpent said to the woman, "YOU WILL NOT surely die.”

Intimately “KNOWING TRUTH” can make the difference to between LIFE and DEATH, just ask Adam and Eve!  The great deceiver is very accomplished at twisting what GOD has said to convince us to do what he wants, which is to steal, kill, and destroy our lives.  We seem to think that we “know better than GOD” and our sins aren’t really that bad, but GOD’S HOLINESS is what we have to judge our sinfulness against, nothing less!  

A friend was saying this morning that he hated drugs, that drugs tore everything down that it touched!  That made me think of the fall of mankind.  Adam and Eve saw that what satan offered was PLEASING TO THE EYES (Genesis 3:6), and that it was good for food, they took of its fruit, AND ATE!  

GOD instructed them in Genesis 2:17 “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." HE didn’t say anything about touching it!  Eve either didn’t KNOW exactly what GOD had said, or she chose to willingly disobey what HE had said, but both she and her husband ATE and DIED THAT DAY!  I’m sure some will say that Adam and Eve DID NOT die that day, but lived a long life? 

John 4:24 says “GOD is SPIRIT, and those who worship HIM MUST worship in SPIRIT and truth."  Genesis 1:27 says “So GOD CREATED MAN in HIS OWN IMAGE, in the image of GOD HE created him; male and female HE created them.”  Since GOD IS SPIRIT and we are created in HIS IMAGE, our Spirit is the part of our being that is most important.  The great deceiver introduced himself to man by making man believe that our bodies were the most important.  When Adam and Eve’s Spirit died GOD had to make clothes from animal skins to cover their sin (physical), but their Spirits were dead! The only hope we have is to be BORN AGAIN!

Our sins cannot be covered by ANYTHING but the SACRIFICIAL BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST!  We can make all the fig leaf coverings we can dream up, but ONLY JESUS can atone for mankind’s failures.  The lies of the enemy will appear to be “good enough”, but ONLY JESUS CHRIST will satisfy our debt!  And that, my friend, is “KNOWING TRUTH”!!!