The Origin of Wrong Society

The Book of Genesis is a book about beginnings. In fact, that's basically what the word refers to. It actually establishes patterns. It shows us certain things and why they occur the way they do. Let's go over to Genesis 1 and verse 1. We read a couple of scriptures here, Genesis 1 and verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The word for created here is borer in the Hebrew, and it implies a creation. It's not a re-creation, it's a creation.

The implication here is, as the book of Hebrews tells us, that God created the heavens and the earth, not out of anything seen. God created it from the spiritual energy and power that he has. Verse 1 seems to be talking about the original creation. Yet it appears that something occurred between verses 1 and 2. Because in verse 2, it says, The earth was without form and void.

Hebrew word, tohu and bohu, chaos and confusion. Darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then we find God said, let there be light, and there was light. Now, did God create the earth originally in chaos and confusion, in waste and destruction? I think the answer is very clearly, no, he didn't. Now, how do we know that? Well, let's go over to Isaiah 45.18. We will come back here, but Isaiah 45, and we will begin to read here in verse 18.

It says, For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth, who made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, did not create it in tohu. So God said he did not create the earth originally that way. And who formed it to be inhabited. So something happened, and I think the Bible is very clear about what happened. God before he created the physical universe created angels. When the earth was created, the Bible says that they rejoiced before God. God placed some of the angels on the earth, and he was going to use them in helping him carry out the plan of salvation concerning humankind.

And yet something happened because the leader of that band, that group, rebelled against God. In Ezekiel 28, let's turn over to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 28, verse 13, we discover here that there was a great angelic being. Verse 13. It starts out by talking about the king of Tyre, then it blends up into talking about this spirit being, whom in Isaiah 14 we find out was called Lucifer. It says, "'You were to Eden, the garden of God, and every precious stone was your covering.'" So here was a being who was back in the garden of Eden. Verse 14. "'You were the anointed carob who covers.'" So it's talking about a carob. At one time he had covered God's throne.

Here are two angels covering the throne. It says, "'I established you, and you were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones, and you were perfect in your ways.'" So God didn't create the angels imperfect, he created them perfect. But they lacked something. They had to make a choice. Even though they were perfect, meaning God created them, they went the right way. When they were confronted with a wrong way, they had to choose to go God's way. So he was perfect in his way from the day that you were created. But it says, "'Till iniquity was found in you, till sin or rebellion was found in you.

And by the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within. So he became a violent being. When you sinned, therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God. And I destroyed you, O covering carob.'" Word doesn't really mean destroyed here. God nullified what he was doing. He cast him back down to the earth. And verse 17 says, "'Your heart was lifted up. He became proud or vain.'" Why? "'Because of his beauty.'" If you've ever known anybody become proud, vain over their good looks or their beauty.

Well, it happens all the time, doesn't it? People become vain over looks, over wealth, over power, over position, over any number of things. People can be puffed up. But in this case, it was because of his beauty. You corrupted your wisdom. So he had wisdom but became corrupt, for the sake of your splendor. And I cast you to the ground, laid you before kings." And then it blends back into the king of Tyre here.

So there was a rebellion that took place. Lucifer, as Revelation 12, verse 4, states, took one-third of the angels with him in rebellion. And there was a war that took place, apparently, between the faithful angels and those who rebelled. Let's go back to 2 Peter. Second Peter, chapter 2, verse 4, where you get a glimpse of this. Second Peter 2, verse 4 says, "...for if God did not spare the angels who sinned..." So it wasn't only Lucifer who sinned, but all of the third of the angels sinned. "...but you cast them down to hell," or to Tartarus, "...and delivered them into chains, of darkness to be reserved for judgment." And so they were cast back down to this earth.

Now let's go over to Revelation, chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12 describes a future war that's going to take place. This is not describing what happened back here, but in the future here, sometimes shortly, in the next few years, perhaps. Satan is going to try to do the same thing again. He's going to rebel against God again. He's going to try to throw God off of his throne.

Somehow in his twisted mentality and reasoning, he thinks he can do this. So notice verse 7. The only reason I read this is to give an idea of possibly what might have happened back at this time. Because notice it says, "...a war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels..." That's a demon's fault. "...but did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, the serpent of old, called the devil..." Notice he's called a serpent.

"...and Satan, who deceived the whole world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." What happens when this occurs? Well, he comes down to the earth and he begins to persecute the church. He attacks the true Christians, so much so that God has to deliver us by taking those who are faithful to a place of safety. Some are left behind, and then he persecutes them.

So it gives you an idea of what might have occurred back at this time when he and his angels rebelled. One of the things that he wanted to do was to replace God. He must have thought because of his beauty, his wisdom, that he was just as good as God and felt that he could kick God off of his throne. But that didn't work out. Now let's go on back to Genesis chapter 1 again. Verses 1 and 2. Now let's notice specifically verse 2. The earth was without form and void.

The word was can be either was or became in the Hebrew. It is a primitive root. It's translated to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out. So it can be either to be or was, as far as something that was past tense.

Basically, we have felt, as in a number of places in the Old Testament, this word would be more properly translated, became, that the earth had become or the earth became without form and void. That's not the way God created it originally. God is not the author of confusion. And yet, Tohu and Bohu refer to confusion. The word form here in the Hebrew is tohu. And the word means, comes from an unused root meaning to lie waste. God doesn't create things waste and confusion. It means formless, confusion, a place of chaos, of vanity, emptiness, nothingness. And so you find in verse 2 that the earth became that way. And then it also refers to confusion.

And then you find that Bohu simply means emptiness, void, and waste. So verse 2 indicates that the earth became or had become without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. So Genesis chapter 1, verse 2 forward describes actually a recreation of the earth, a restoration of the earth, that in six days God took the earth, which could be, and we don't argue with scientists over this, the earth could be millions of years old or billions of years old. But when God set his hand to place man on the earth, he recreates it in six days, restores it, makes it fit for humankind to dwell on, as well as animals.

Apparently, when God first created the earth, the angels dwelt here. But again, they rebelled against God. War took place, the atmosphere and the surface of the earth were destroyed in the surrounding part of the solar system. So Genesis chapter 1 shows how God made it suitable for mankind. Now the pinnacle of God's creation in chapter 1 was mankind, the human race.

Let's notice that. In Genesis chapter 1, verse 26, God said, Let us, now notice the plural, let us, not let me. There is more than one being here. We know at this time, from the very beginning, that the one who we know as the Father and the Word, where co-eternal had co-existed, from the very beginning, they've always been there.

But they've always in eternity co-existed. It says, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. That means that man was made in God's shape and form with some of the proclivities that God has with a mind, the ability to reason, to think, to come to decisions, have a personality, character, and so on. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, the cattle, and all over the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man. I want you to notice man here, or mankind, as it can be, in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female. He created them, and God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, birds of the air, every living thing that moves on the earth. So God created man to have dominion, to learn to rule, to take care of this earth and the life on the earth.

Now it's interesting that the word man here is the exact same Hebrew word that's translated Adam when you come over to chapter 2. It says, you know, God spoke to Adam. It's the same Hebrew word, and it can have three different meanings. It can mean, and it's translated in the American version, 408 times as man, 121 times as men, plural, and 13 times as Adam. So Adam is definitely in the minority, as far as a translation, and refers to Adam as the first man, and also to a city in Jordan Valley. There was an Adam in the Jordan Valley.

So when it's talking here about creating man, you could say God created Adam. But what God did was to create mankind, and I think that's the implication here. In verse 27, God created man or mankind in his own image, both male and female. Now in Genesis 2, you put it this way, Genesis 1 gives an overview of how God recreates the earth and puts life and makes it suitable for mankind to live on. Genesis 2, when you come to Genesis 2, gives more detail about what God did on the sixth day here, when he created man, and the animals, and how he created the woman.

So it goes into more detail. They're not contradictory. There are those who think that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are contradictory. One is describing one event, and Genesis 2 is describing another.

Now they're both describing the same thing.

Genesis 2 just gives more detail about the creation of Adam and Eve and the animals. In fact, chapter 5 demonstrates that. If you go over to chapter 5 and verse 1 of the book of Genesis, it says, this is the book of the genealogy of Adam. So we're going to find out about Adam, the one in Genesis 2, his genealogy, and the day that God created man or mankind. He made him in the likeness of God. Well, where do we read that?

Read that in Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. He created them male and female.

Genesis 1, 27. And blessed them and called them mankind in the day they were created.

So he lived 130 years, got a son in his own likeness after his image, and named him Seth.

You can go through the genealogies here. It's amazing how long these individuals lived and how they started overlapping one another, who might have been alive when the flood occurred.

Now, let's go back to chapter 3 here in the book of Genesis.

And I want you to notice, as we start through chapter 3, how the patterns of culture, of society, and relationships were established in chapter 3 that have been promulgated for 6,000 years on this earth.

As I stated, the book of Genesis is a book of beginnings, and it shows the beginning of so many of these patterns. Let's begin here in chapter 1.

It says, Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God made.

I think that's very interesting when you read it, because obviously the serpent was more cunning. He's Satan the devil, and he's speaking, we'll speak to the woman here.

And so he was obviously more cunning than any beast that God had created on the earth.

Now he either appeared as the serpent, he's called back in Revelation, that serpent of old, or he possessed and spoke through a snake in whichever way.

This is how he appeared.

He obviously was more cunning than the animals. Animals don't speak.

They don't have the capacity, as we do, to have minds and thinking and reasoning, vocabulary, writing books and all those kinds of things.

And I want you to notice how he approaches the woman here. So the serpent was more cunning, and he said to the woman, Has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Is that what God said? Of course, you know, God said that. But he knew that.

There are several lessons that you learn immediately from this, and one of them is you can never reason with Satan. So don't try. He's more cunning than you and I are.

And this is what mankind has been doing for thousands of years now, without realizing it.

Two things God allowed in the garden that people wonder about.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the serpent.

Why were they allowed to be in the garden of Eden?

Wouldn't it have been much better if the serpent was, nope, you can't go in there, and keep him out, door shut? And why would God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

Just put the tree of life, tell him, go eat that. But God didn't do it that way, did he?

God did not restrain the serpent from talking to the couple. He didn't prevent him from doing that.

And the answer to the question is they had to make a choice. They had to choose life or death. They had to choose God's way or another way.

There were two paths set before them, and they had to choose. Because, you see, character is not developed without choice. You develop character, not just without learning to choose. You have to resist one way and go the other way. So how do you make that choice? How did they make the choice? Well, we'll see that as we go on. We'll find that the serpent questioned God.

So he right away got her attention. Has God indeed said, you should not eat of every tree of the garden. So, you know, that seemed very innocent to her. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. Yeah, we can do that. But of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you should not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. And verse 4, the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die.

Now, this is the first time in recorded human history that mankind ever heard a contrary opinion to God. See, up to this time, God said, do this, name the animals, name the animals.

God, you would give a command, don't do this. Up to this time, they hadn't touched that tree, hadn't gone near it. But now, you know, here the serpent comes along and he contradicts God.

He says, well, what God told you is not right. And so he presents to them an alternate perspective, an alternate viewpoint. The same is true today, isn't it? There are many contrary opinions out there to what God has told us in his Word. We have the Word of God, we have the Bible, the scriptures to live by. And there are a lot of people who will tell you that this is nothing but myth, that you shouldn't follow the Bible. Now, the difference in our day to day, in their day, there were two of them. Today, there are billions of people, hundreds of nations, thousands of churches, all kinds of different ideas that are contrary to God's revealed Word.

Just take a look at any number of things that you could think of right off the top of your head.

That man has to wrestle with, is it right or wrong? And we have to make choices. And we're still making choices today. Is it wrong to kill? Some people will say no, but what about going to wars? Is it wrong to go to war? Is it wrong to worship God on Sunday as opposed to Saturday?

Is it wrong to keep certain days such as Christmas and Easter and Halloween and all of those?

Is it wrong to eat pork? You'll tell people, well, pork is unclean. They'll say, well, I always wash my pork for our eaters, not unclean. You take care of it. Is it wrong to have an abortion?

Is evolution right or wrong? Should we be involved in politics or not involved in politics? Is premarital sex wrong? Is lesbianism wrong? Is homosexuality wrong?

Hundreds and thousands of questions come up on how we should live, and choices have to be made. How can you make those choices? What do you predicate those decisions on?

The only word that we can rely upon is the Word of God, the Bible. Where else do you go to find the truth? John 1717, thy Word is truth. Where are the standards laid out?

Well, they're laid out in the scriptures, right and wrong, commandments, direction.

So God's Word is revealed knowledge. And so society today has been following the pattern that was established back at this time. People believe lies. They believe what they hear, and they follow that. Let's notice verse 5 here in Genesis 3.

The serpent said to the woman, you should not surely die. Again, as I said, that's the first time contrary opinion as far as human history is concerned. He says, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, see this is something God knows, but he's not telling you this. He's hiding something from you. That your eyes will be open. Everybody wants his eyes open. Your eyes will be open, he said. And you'll be like God. So you're going to be just like him, knowing good and evil.

So notice appealing to them. One thing he implied is that God was unfair.

God's not fair. He was imputing motives to God. God's hiding something from you. He's not telling you everything. Now, when it says here, knowing good and evil, knowing here would also carry the connotation of experiencing good and evil. And so, they were open to wrong knowledge.

They would become a receiver of wrong information, listening to the wrong source of information.

Don't we see that true today? What about, you know, children growing up today in society?

Who do they pay attention more to? Peers? Media around them? And their friends? Their friends or to their parents? Do they, you know, tell their peers all the time, you know, I can't do that. My parents tell me to do this. You'll find that many will simply listen to those who they're friends and peers, you know, they're afraid of getting out of step with them.

We have false education today, false religion, false information being disseminated.

So, verse 5 has to do with knowledge, but from this perspective, what source will you obtain your knowledge from? Where do you get your guidance on how to live, what to do? Well, if you don't get it from God, then you're left to your own reasoning and you're left to other people, and you set them up as the source. You might remember later on, God clarified this with Israel.

He told Israel to choose. He said either life or death, good or evil. Let's go back to I's... excuse me, Deuteronomy 30, verse 15. Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 15.

Moses wrote here what God said. He said, See, I've set before you today life and good. So, on one hand, there's life and there's good, death and evil. In that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, keep His commandments, His statutes, His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you go to possess. But if your heart turns away that you do not hear and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. That's what God was telling them. You take of this, you'll die. So, I tell you today that you should surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land when you cross over this Jordan. I call heaven and earth to witness against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life. All human beings, starting with Adam and Eve, us today, if God calls us, and eventually every human being will have to choose between God's way and Satan's way. There are only two broad ways. The way of give, the way of get, as Mr. Armstrong used to say. So, brethren, the idea that Adam and Eve were put in the garden, they had to choose to go God's way. They were influenced to go in a different way. And you'll notice here, through this whole section, that God's way is based upon His law, His commandments. You know, these are the values and the principles that God has laid down. So, we have to choose life. Okay, let's back up again to chapter 3, in Genesis chapter 3. And notice here, verse 6. Let's see how she came to the conclusion, Eve did, on what to do. And it set the pattern on how people come to decisions today and make their choices. Verse 6, so when the woman, notice, went to God and asked Him if this is okay.

Is that what she did? No, it doesn't say that, does it? Now, it says, when the woman saw, she saw that the tree was good for food. Now, how can you look at something and tell that it's good for food? If you look at, let's say, a dog, is that good for food? Well, most of us would, you know, say, absolutely not. Yet, there are cultures in this world where they eat dog and it's a delicacy. What about eating a rattlesnake or something that climbs from slime? You know, whatever it might be. Maybe it looks good, but is it good? How can you just eyeball it and say, that's good? Well, you can't, but that's what she did. She saw the tree and it was good for food.

And that it was pleasant to the eye. Oh, it was beautiful, pretty, whatever it was. It was just, you know, something that appealed to the eyes. So, what do we have here? It's appealing to her senses, to her reasoning. And it was a tree desirable to make one wise. Now, how was she going to become wise? Well, she was going to be wise because her eyes would be open. She'd be like God. She would no good and evil. So, you know, the devil had gotten through to her. She took a bit of the fruit and ate and she also gave her a husband with her and he ate. So, it shows their reasoning process and went by their own senses, their own physical reasoning. So, how do people today make decisions when they're confronted with right or wrong? Or two different approaches in teaching or in knowledge? Or they have multiple choices to make? Well, generally, most people today use human reasoning. They look at it. What they see, their own intellectual vanity, their own reasoning, because spiritual knowledge is revealed knowledge. You don't understand spiritual knowledge unless it's revealed. So, they were going to be wise in what way? Well, they'd have additional knowledge, something that God had hidden from them that they didn't know. And on how to live, in other words, say this quote-unquote additional knowledge they were going to have, was it going to lead them to God? Was it going to show them how to relate to God better? Was it going to show them how to worship God in a more effective manner? Well, absolutely not! An enmity against God began to develop, even at this point. We know that true wisdom comes from God. True wisdom is from Him. 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians in the New Testament tell us that. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 6 to refresh our memory here. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 6.

The approach that they followed is the same approach that human beings follow today.

In verse 6, Paul writes here, 1 Corinthians 2, 6, However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, those who are growing towards perfection, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory.

So God's wisdom is hidden from mankind. Why did Christ speak in parables? So that seeing, they would not see, hearing, they would not hear, they would not understand, they would not be converted. So unless God reveals it to you, you opened your eyes, you won't understand. As verse 9 says, but as it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard, she looked at it with her eye and she observed it, eyes not seen nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him. So God has to reveal that. As verse 10 says, but God revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, just the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man, which is in him. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. So the things of God are revealed. And verse 14 says, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.

Nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Have to be spiritually discerned. So civilizations in society have been built on human wisdom, human reasoning, cut off from God. Intellectually, mankind is vain, puffed up, thinks he can solve his own problems. So this is just simply the way that man operates today.

Man doesn't realize the result of his own actions. Let's go back again to the book of Genesis chapter 3. And let's pick up the story here in verse 7. Genesis 3 verse 7.

They looked at the fruit, handled it, make one wise. Then the eyes of them both, the eyes of them both, were open, and they knew something. They knew they were naked.

And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

Why would they do that? Earlier it says they were naked and they were not ashamed. But now, apparently, there's some guilt or some shame that has entered into the picture.

But man doesn't realize the result of his actions too often. How many people, when they're making decisions, think, well, if I do this, what's going to be the ultimate result of what I do? What's the outcome of this? Am I going to be blessed for doing this, or will I be cursed? Most people don't do that. But Deuteronomy 28, Leviticus 26, what we call the blessing and cursing chapters, show you obey God, you're blessed, you disobey your curse. They knew something now. They knew that they were naked. And they tried to hide the result of the rebellion or disobedience to cover it up. And so, you know, they they sold these leaves together. We always want to say fig leaves. It doesn't necessarily, well, it says sold fig leaves, so I guess it was fig leaves, and made themselves coverings. So they had another choice they could have made. How were they going to respond to what they did wrong? You see, they had a choice here.

They could have gone to God and said, God, we know that you told us not to take of that tree, but we did. Boy, are we sorry. We shouldn't have done that. We disobeyed you. We didn't follow your words. What do you want us to do now? Please tell us how to proceed from here. Well, instead of doing that, how were they going to respond to sin?

Were they going to repent? Ask God, what must we do? Would they admit that they were not following God's instructions? What do most humans do today when they sin or do something wrong? Make a mistake Don't most of us try to cover it up or hide it? Don't want anybody else to know about it?

This is what the human race has done ever since.

Mankind hides, and he doesn't want to admit what he's done wrong, as they did here in verse 8.

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 among the trees.

And so they're hiding from God now. Man is the first one to separate from God. He's hiding from God here. You and I can't really hide our faults and mistakes from God, can we? I mean, you can go to the bottom of a cave, you can go hide out in a forest, you can go hide on the top of a mountain somewhere. You can't get away from God. God knows what's in the heart. He knows what's in the mind. He knows what our actions are. So you can't hide from God. As Isaiah 58 in verse 2 tells us, Isaiah 58 too, your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face. And so the same principle still applies today. They sinned, they disobeyed, they did not take the right course of action. Here was the second choice they had to make. They failed the first. The second choice they failed also because they didn't repent, or they didn't go ask for instruction or direction. What should we do? And so the same thing occurs today. The same pattern is followed in the world and society around us today. In verses 9 and 10, notice they come up with excuses. The Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you? And verse 10, he said, well, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. Now notice, afraid, naked, hide. Before this, talk, reason, friend, still naked, and not hiding. All at once something has changed, has it not? They didn't admit their mistake, but they came up with this excuse. And in verse 11, he said, who told you? You were naked. See, Satan told them more than what is recorded here in chapter 3. He must have talked to them more. And, well, you're naked.

And, you know, so, you know, they go ahead and sow these fig leaves, and have you eaten from the tree of which I command you, you should not eat? See, God went straight to the problem.

You disobeyed. Have you disobeyed me? And, you see, you and I have a problem with that on occasion, don't we? When somebody nails us, we've done something wrong, and they say, you did such and such. Well, you need to understand. We try to reason. We try to get around it. And God did not let them off the hook. He told them, you sinned. So, he went straight to the problem. They had disobeyed. And then they began what every human being has done ever since. They began to place the blame on somebody else. Verse 12, the man said, the woman. See, it's not my problem. It's the woman whom you gave to be with me. See, now the problem is yours, God. If you hadn't given me this woman, I wouldn't have done this. But you gave her to me, and she did it, and she got me involved. She gave me of the tree, and I ate. So, it's her fault. And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said, well, the serpent deceived me, and I ate. So, she understood that she had been misled, that she had been deceived.

So, they began to play the blame game, and we all again do that. We point the finger at somebody else. Look at the politicians today. Do politicians admit when they're wrong? They're very good at this. The Democrats say, well, it's the Republicans' fault. The Republicans say, it's the Democrats' fault. And so, politicians are always pointing the finger at one another, and they're not accepting their responsibility for what they do.

Then, in verse 14, as a result of all of this, there are penalties.

You cannot sin. You cannot disobey God. You cannot go contrary to His law, His standard, without penalties. Conversely, if you obey them, they're blessings.

So, the Lord God said to the serpent, because you've done this, you're cursed more than all the cattle, and more than every beast of the field, on your belly you should go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman. Okay, the serpent here, if you want to just take this literally, okay, women don't like snakes. I'm not sure who necessarily likes snakes. But it's talking about Satan and the woman, or the church. So, there would be an enmity between the two. And between your seed, talking here again about the serpent, your seed and her seed. Who is her seed? Well, that would be Jesus Christ, because He goes on to show, here's the first prophecy of what Christ was going to do. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. That Christ would triumph over Him. And so, let's notice your seed and her seed. John 8 44 tells us who the seed of Satan is. John 8 44, Christ talking to the Jews of His day, said, you are of your Father the devil, and the desires of your Father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and so on, and so on. There's no truth in Him. He lies. He's a liar. He's the Father of it.

So, Satan the devil, as it says here, has children, has seed. And that's all those who are unconverted, who disobey God, that He's able to influence them. You and I, once we receive God's Spirit, we then become His children. But here it says, between your seed and her seed, referring to Christ. Then to the woman, He said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception and pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you. And to Adam, He said, because you've heeded the voice of your wife, eaten from the tree that I commanded you, saying you shall not eat of it, curse be the ground.

So, there was a curse pronounced on the ground here.

There are penalties for disobedience. Sin can affect other people, too, can it not?

The ground was cursed, and so everyone else, after this, who became a farmer and tried to farm, had thorns and thistles. Now, if this curse is removed in the millennium, would it not be nice to be able to farm without thorns and thistles, without all of the baggage and weeds and so on that you see out there? And the same thing being true of the woman. Now, I want you to notice the leaven of sin. Sin was introduced at this time. They were driven out of the garden, and human beings from that time cut off from God. Sin. It became so bad that we read over here in Genesis chapter 6, beginning in verse 5, that the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth.

Now, notice this is the strongest form of emphasis of any verse in the Bible that I know of.

Notice, every intent, so the intention of the thoughts of his heart, talking about mankind, was only evil continually. That's a pretty strong statement. 1656 years after creation, the flood came, and you find by that period of time, mankind had become so degenerate in his his approach that every intent of the thought of his heart was only evil continually, and man became so wicked that the earth was filled with violence.

The Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart.

When God saw what man had sunk down to, he became very sorry. God said, I'll destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I'm sorry.

I had made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, found favor.

Why? Well, he was a just man, imperfect in his generation, and Noah walked with God.

So there was one man that we know of at this point who walked with God, and as a result, God saved human life and brought them through the flood.

So, brethren, with sin, sin can affect other people, and it's like leavening. It does spread, and it begins to affect, it can affect a person, a family, a community, a nation, the whole world.

Let's back up to chapter 3 and verse 22 again. Chapter 3 and verse 22.

The Lord God said, Behold, the man is become like one of us, to no good and evil.

The words, He was exposed to evil now. God had exposed him to good.

The serpent came along and exposed him to evil, to disobedience, and to going the wrong way.

Now lest he put out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever.

Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, he placed care of him. At the east of the Garden of Eden, a flaming sword turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life. They now only had one tree to sit under. When they were in the Garden, they had two trees.

Tree of life, tree of knowledge, good and evil. They could have chosen either one.

They made the wrong choice. They chose the wrong tree. As a result, they're driven out of the Garden. They're cut off from the tree of life, no longer have access to the tree of life.

They're sitting under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, symbolically.

So how were they going to judge right and wrong? God said, they've become like one of us to know good and evil. How are you going to judge right and wrong? How are you going to know what is good and what is evil? See, there's a big difference between God because God is not tempted by evil.

You know, God can't be tempted, so He knows what's right. He knows what's wrong, but human beings don't. So when something comes along, human beings lean to their own understanding. That's why some people might think something is wrong. I mean, look at our society today. How many people think abortion is wrong?

Well, I hope we do, but people say, well, abortion is not wrong, and then they give all kinds of reasons. They'll say premarital sex or living with somebody before you get married.

Live in, that type of thing. That's not wrong. And people lean to their own understanding.

So how was the human race supposed to judge right and wrong? Well, cut off from the Holy Spirit.

People relied on their own reasoning, and to the degree that a people rely upon the Word of God to guide them, then they will do what's right according to their understanding.

There are people today who read the Bible and try to do what it says, but they don't have full understanding because they don't have God's Spirit. But they're better off than those who are just totally cut off and refuse to accept the Bible or any direction from it.

Many interpret what God says in the Bible. And so mankind was cut off from the tree of life, was not guided by the Holy Spirit to have the right attitude, the right approach, right knowledge.

And so today, this world operates under the spirit of this world. There is a spirit in this world. It's the spirit of Satan the devil, the influence of Satan and his demons. And so they have influenced mankind. So here we have a chapter that set the pattern for the last 6,000 years down to our day to day, that the pattern has been set for society. And in case you didn't catch it, let me enumerate what that pattern was and still is. Man still partakes of the tree of the knowledge good and evil. That's the tree, symbolically, that all human beings are sitting under. Access to the tree of life is protected. Mankind as a whole is cut off from that tree of life. Only those that God calls now in this age and draws have access through the tree of life today. The vast majority of human beings who've ever lived have been cut off from it.

Man uses his own reasoning, cut off from God, to decide right and wrong. Good and evil, to make choices. And so that's why if you've got 7 billion people plus on the earth today, you have 7 billion different ideas on how to live. No two people think exactly alike, or will react exactly alike.

But people are influenced by the spirit of this world, not by the spirit of God.

Choices are not based upon the Word of God, which is the foundation of knowledge. But when you begin to look at sources, all that we've read here in the book of Genesis revolves around knowledge and sources. What is the source of our information? Who is our authority? Where do we go to look for direction? And mankind, especially those who reject the Bible, reject revealed revelation, don't have a source to rely upon. You and I do, because we have the Word of God.

We have the Scriptures. God still allows the serpent to influence man and to broadcast his wavelength today. We live in a world that is Satan's world, this present evil age it's called.

Not only does he influence man, but he influences the animals. And so a lot of the animals in the world today are violent in their approach because of a wrong influence. Humans still excuse themselves and blame others for their problems. Violence in man's way of corrupting evil and living in evil way will continue to increase to the point that just as it was before the flood, man would commit cosmocide. Man would come to the point he would destroy all life off the face of the earth. God had to send a flood to, in a sense, to wipe out that whole generation, start all over.

And it's going to come the time of the end. There are only eight souls who live through the flood. In the future, billions will die. Billions of human beings will die before God stops man's insanity, man's inhumanity to man. See, God has given man 6,000 years to try everything, try every government, every religion, every philosophy, everything, to try to work out and solve his own problems. It's finally going to come to the point that man will have to admit we do not know the right way. Only God's way works. And man will finally admit that.

And so God will cut it short, and then will come the millennium and the white throne judgment.

So the pattern has been set for society, but what will be the pattern in the future?

Well, in the millennium, Satan and his demons will be locked up, as we know. They will not be free to influence mankind for a thousand years. So the world tomorrow will not have the spirit of this present evil world there to influence them.

His spirit will not permeate the earth at that time. The Word of God will be the foundation of knowledge. It won't be the only knowledge, but it will form the foundation of right knowledge.

And so all humanity, all nations, will be taught one law, one standard, one way of life. Man will still have to make a choice between right and wrong, but the deck will not be stacked against him at that time. It won't have society geared in such a way as to be so tempting to man.

You won't have the devil out there broadcasting. Basically, you'll just have human nature to wrestle and to contend with. All mankind at that time will have access to the tree of life.

See, at that time, we're going to go back to more what it was like in Eden. Man will have access to the tree of life. They will have the help they need to think correctly and make right choices. Society will be geared in such a way as to direct man in the right way. There will be a thousand years of peace, prosperity, until the devil is loosed after the thousand years is over.

You'll be locked up again, and then comes the great white throne judgment.

And all mankind, again at that time, will have their opportunity to be resurrected.

God will say, okay, you lived once. You see the result of how you lived then.

Try my way. And so mankind will be exposed to God's way. Satan will be bound.

And so God will give every man an opportunity to come and sit under the tree of life and to go the right way. Now, what about eternity?

We've talked about the millennium, the white throne judgment, but what about eternity?

Will the pattern be set for eternity? Well, let's go back to Revelation 22.

And if I could summarize it, Revelation chapter 22.

The devil and his rebellious angels, from everything we understand, will be cut off from the family of God and be cast into outer darkness forever.

Revelation chapter 22 talks about the future. And verse 2 says, In the middle of the street and on either side of the river was the tree of life.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil will not be present in eternity, but the tree of life will. Verse 14, Bless are those who do his commandments that they may have right the tree of life. That's what God will offer during the millennium, white throne judgment.

We will have eternal life. The family of God, those who will live forever, will have eternal life.

From God, there will only be one way permitted. The way of God. Only those who agree with God, who obey him, who submit to him, will God give eternal life. The family of God will have learned its lessons, will have made the right choices. We have to make the choice when we're wrong, we repent, and we try to change with God's help. We will choose life. We will choose the right way. We will choose the blessings. Those who refuse to obey God and choose death will cease to live forever. They will be burned up in the lake of fire and just simply cease to live. And there will be an eternity of peace and the development of God's kingdom. There will be no end. Let's finish by Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6. Isaiah 9 and verse 6, talking about the future and the way that it's going to be. Notice it's talking about the Messiah. Unto us a child is born, a son is given, the government shall be upon his shoulders. He shall be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God. Now notice verse 7. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.

So there will be no end to the government of God and of peace upon the throne of David. And over his kingdom, you and I will be a part of that kingdom of that time. To order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. So forever into the future, the kingdom of God will rest upon judgment and justice. So, brethren, God is consistent. He is going to complete his plan and God will eventually offer everyone the opportunity to sit under the right tree. So you and I need to be very thankful that God has given us the opportunity now.

And realize, when you go back to the book of Genesis, it's the beginning. It shows how the patterns that we see around us, even in society today, were established.

And how God is breaking that mold with us. And we will be able to teach others in the future how to do the same thing. So, brethren, we're looking forward to the time of peace and prosperity of God's government forever.