THE KING’S BUSINESS
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for his good; Satan tempts him to his ruin; God says, “Do it not”; Satan says, “Do it.”—b. Satan did it (John 8:44; Matt. 23:33; Rev. 20:1-4; Mark 5:11, 12) through the serpent (II Cor. 11:3), mys teriously his instrument; and a suitable symbol of sin and Satan; as subtle, fas cinating, insinuating, grovelling, crooked, crushing, venomous, deadly. (2) Its lure: —A. Immediate, the fruit, tempting: (a) bodily desires, “good for food," (the lust of the flesh”) ; (b) the esthetic desires, “Pleasant to the eyes” (“the lust of the eyes”) the adornments of life; (c) the intellectual ambitions, “to make one wise” (“the pride of life," I Jno. 2:16); b. Ultimate, TO BE “AS GOD,” (Gen. 3:5). This is "the head and front of the offense” to be independent of (to be one’s own) God. See Daniel 4:4-33; II Thess. 2:14; Rom. 1:21. The sin, then, was not mere “eating an apple,” it was deserving of death, by man’s own sentence (Jno. 10:33). (3) Thus we see that in tempta tion the world is the object, the flesh, the subject, the devil the meditator (1 Tim. 4:1; I Cor. 11:3). (3) Its process: —A. With the tempter (a) discounting God’s bounty, “Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the gar den,” v. 1. (b) discrediting God’s word, “Ye shall not surely die,” v. 4. (c) dis owning God’s sovereignty, “Ye shall be as gods (God),” (Dan. 3:15; Acts 12:21- 23; II Thess. 2:3, 4). This then, from the beginning, is the world-spirit: to de throne the good God from the world; the true God from the the Word; the Lord God from the will. b. With the tempted (a) discourse with evil, “the serpent said,” “the woman said,” “the woman saw,” (3:1, 2, 6; I Kgs. 13:14-19; Pro. 23:31; I Cor. 15:33; Jas. 4:7); (b) dis content with our portion; “when the woman saw she took” (3:6; Num. 21:5, 6; Heb. 13:5); (c) disbelief in God’s warnings, she put “lest ye die” for “sure ly die” (3:3; 2:17) and trusted the dev il’s lie (3:4); (d) disregard for God’s glory, which she should have defended (Matt. 4:6:33; Rom. 3:23); (e) disobedi ence to His commandment (3:6; Rom. 5:19). II. MAN UNDER CONDEMNATION. 1. Immediate —the parties present (1)
subjectively, “their conscience also bean ing witness” (Rom 3:15; Gen. 3:7-10; Rev. 6:15-17). They err who say man had no conscience before the Pall. Con science is the faculty of judging between right and wrong in moral qualities and acts. Adam knew that obedience was right and disobedience wrong. That knowledge was conscience, without which he could not be held responsible. The experience of sin was a cohsciousness of guilt—condemnation. (2) Objectively —“the Voice of the Lord God” (3:8) pronounced sentence,— a. on Satan, as represented by the serpent (3:14, 15; Rom. 16:20; Rev. 20:2);— b; on the woman, subjugation, sorrow, pain; his tory exemplifies this (Gen. 3:16; I Tim. 2:11-15); c. on the man, toil, struggle, death, the record of which IS history. (3:17-19); (3) Executively,—a. ex pulsion;— b. exclusion;— e. deprivation (Gen. 3:22-24). Evidently the Tree of Life had food virtue to prevent decrepti- tude and to prolong life indefinitely. 2. Meditate on the parties represent ed, viz. the Adamic race (Rom. 5:12-19; II Cor. 15:22; Eph. 2:2). 3. Its effects on character; (1) sin ners are ashamed of themselves (v.7); (2) they are hypocrites, fig leaves are masks, pretensions; all worldly shows, pride, vanity, pomp, conventions are “aprons of fig leaves”; (3) they are cow ards and sneaks (v.10); (4) they are mean and selfish, laying their follies on others (v.12, 13); (5) they are blasphe mers: even putting their blame on God (v.12). III. MAN UNDER GRACE. "The grace of God that bringeth sal vation” already appears (Tit. 2:11), set ting aside man’s poor subterfuges to hide his shame, his man-made, bloodless coverings, the Lord God covered him by sacrifice, and promised that victorious Blood whiqh “spake better things” than that shed to provide them coats of skins (3:15, 21), even that of “the LAMB slain (typically) from the foundation of the world.”
Note. Here we have solved the rid dle of the universe, how that wmch was “very good” became so very bad. Lesson IV. January 26—After the Fall: Cain and Abel. Gen. 4:1-15 GOLDEN T E X T .— “ W hosoever hateth his the Fall: moral chaos, re-creation. re brother .s a m urderer. - 1 John 3:15 s to r e d E d e n . T h e flrg t p a r a b le s t h e ’ se c . I. THE SITUATION. ond. Sin is no trifle. Sin is a seed. A 1. Chaos. (1) Before the Fall: ma- seed is no .trifle, the tiniest might sow terial chaos, creation, Eden; (2) After the universe. The world is so delicate-
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