Bible Study Genesis Part 36-Without Faith

The moment Adam and Eve eat the fruit, the story doesn’t turn into enlightenment, it turns into fear. Shame rushes in, covering becomes urgent, and hiding from God suddenly makes sense to them. That’s why we camp out in Genesis 3 and refuse to rush it, because this isn’t trivia. This is the turning point that explains what’s broken in us, what’s broken around us, and why we still reach for the one thing God says will harm us. 

We read the text closely and then pull the camera back to look at how temptation actually works. The serpent doesn’t win with a blatant lie. He gains trust with a slice of truth and then slips in the real poison: “you will be like gods.” We talk about discernment, why messages that contradict Scripture can sound popular and persuasive, and how pride still shows up when someone tells you you’re basically fine and just need more self-belief. 

Then we take on the big question: what was the sin of the first humans? Disobedience is real, but we also explore greed in a garden of abundance, pride in the hunger for promotion, and the haunting idea that humanity’s “dominion” over creation no longer feels like dominion at all. Finally, we land in Hebrews 11:6 and argue that beneath every category sits the root: unbelief, the refusal to take God at His Word and trust His goodness. If you want Bible study that’s direct, serious, and practical, press play, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the study.

Transcript

Welcome And Why Scripture Matters

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Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel. God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries. We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God. We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day. The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold. And we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture. Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible. It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision. Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us. It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word. We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death. In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death. Never treat what God has said lightly. There's truly nothing more important to you. Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

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More Bible study, more fun learning what God has to say to us. Listen, this is the most important thing you'll ever learn. We have to understand that what's going to happen to us in all of eternity is captured right here in this book. For some reason, we don't, we aren't told these things. We aren't told how important they are as we're raised in our religious lives. Even those of us that went to church all of our lives, we're not told that we should be focusing on the things that God Himself has said. Lots of people compare Jesus to the Word. When John said, and the Word was with God, they think that means scripture. It doesn't mean scripture, it means something else. Nonetheless, people come people compare Jesus and the Word together because it's that important. The Word of God is important to us. It is the most tangible thing we have in our relationship with Him. We should be diving into it all of the time. That's all we do around here is study God's

Why Genesis 3 Deserves Patience

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Word. We are still in the third chapter of the book of Genesis. We are still in the first seven or eight verses. We're kind of stuck in the mud here because these things are so important. We're chewing on them. We're making sure we understand. As I told you at the beginning of chapter three, this is probably the most important event that has ever happened to human beings. This is something we have to understand. That's why we're taking our time getting through it. So why don't we get started by reading a little bit?

Eating The Fruit And Hiding

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We're going to start at verse six. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed figlies together and made aprons. Verse 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? By the way, whenever God asks someone a question, it's not as if he doesn't already know the answer. Of course he does. He knows all. Keep that in mind, not only in your own life, but all the way through the Bible. Verse 9. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. By the way, that's a good answer. Not all of Adam's answers are going to be good, but that's a good one. Adam didn't hem and haw. He told God, he didn't try to lie, he told God as

How The Devil Wraps Lies

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it was. Now we're going to come back to some of this, but I want you to notice that the devil's lie is immediately exposed right here. This knowledge of good and evil did indeed come after taking of the tree as the serpent said it would. He was right about that, but is that really a big deal? I mean, it's right there in the name. It's called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So the devil isn't actually laying down any exclusive or private truth there. So yeah, he was right about that. But he kind of cheated, didn't he? However, he told Eve that this knowledge of good and evil was going to do more than just open their eyes. Now, what did the serpent say this knowledge would do? He said it would make them like gods. What are we doing here, John? I'm telling you it's a bad idea to trust the devil. It's a bad idea to trust anyone that represents the devil. Now, nobody's going to come up to you and say, hi, I represent the devil and I have something to say to you. No one's going to do that. You have to be able to discern it. Let me tell you, if it's a popular opinion, it probably comes from the devil. If it's an opinion that goes against God's word, it is from the devil. Whether the devil is saying it to you directly or not, it's coming from him. Never trust the devil. Never trust anyone that tells you, don't trust what God has to say. Now we want you to remember the devil is more subtle than any of the other feast beasts of the field. He's smarter than you and I, and he knows a straight-up lie isn't going to do him any good. So he's going to wrap his lies in a little truth to get you off the scent. He's gonna try and gain your confidence with a little honesty and then ruin you with a lie. Don't fall for it. Here's the lying part. He was right about the knowledge of good and evil. But then he said, going back to verse five, in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. But they weren't like gods at all, were they? The first thing that the knowledge of good and evil revealed to them was that what they just did was evil. And then in a very ungodlike manner, they ran and hid. In fact, it's obvious they're ashamed. Gods don't get ashamed. These reactions, these emotions are very human. Fear and shame are not associated with the gods, but people like you and me and Adam and Eve, we're quite familiar with those, aren't

The Big Question About The Fall

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we? Now, before going on, as a sort of conclusion to this section, I want to interject some philosophy here. This isn't something I normally do, but I think this is one of those rare exceptions where we're going to step outside of the biblical exposition. We're keeping it within biblical truth, but I'm going to step outside biblical exposition for a little while and do some preaching. Listen, as I said at the beginning of this chapter, this is the event in human history. What we've described here has shaped an entire species, cursed an entire planet, and caused a king to have to choose to give up his throne, albeit temporarily. This pivotal moment demands a bit more of an intense scrutinizing, in my opinion. Now, this section leaves us with an important question. What exactly was the sin of our first two parents? Now, be prepared because we're going to be trying to work this through for the next couple of weeks. This is important for us to know, but not so easy to figure out. Now, you would assume that the answer would be obvious, but not so much when you sit down and think about it. Now, don't worry. We'll cover what happened after their transgression. But I thought we should take this quick-ish side trip. So, what was it that caused the fall of man? As I said, it's not really easy to answer, and especially as what we may initially think. There are actually a lot of things going on in this one little act. Let's see if we can break this down. First of all,

Disobedience As The Obvious Charge

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I suppose the most obvious sin is that of disobedience. Simple disobedience. Now, in my opinion, disobedience, though reprehensible, is probably not enough to condemn an entire race. We'll come back to that in a moment.

Greed In A Garden Of Plenty

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Secondly, one could argue that greed was at the core of their failure. I think the Bible makes clear, and our own common sense tells us that Adam and Eve had everything they could have ever wanted. All their needs were met, they were well taken care of, and then some. Listen, God put them in a garden. In the Bible, a garden always represents a place of security in every sense of the word. That's why God makes it very obvious that it's a garden that He placed them in, because everyone reading the idea that they're in a garden will understand that it is a safe place and a place where they will be provided for. A garden, I will repeat, is a place of provision and protection. And God built that garden ahead of time just so he could keep them there in everlasting plenty, comfort, and safety. The garden wasn't an afterthought. It wasn't an adjustment to changing conditions. Listen to me, God had always planned to keep his loved ones in that garden for their good. Now we made it a point when going over the process of creation to emphasize the obvious intent of God's actions. Everything God did clearly indicated that he had a purpose in mind. We could see throughout that he had a plan. It was apparent that he was creating something wonderful for someone. As you remember, we said that repeatedly.

Dominion Lost And Life Now

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Genesis 1, 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea. By the way, you notice that's in the plural. It's not just Adam who was to have dominion. All of us were. The entire mankind, the entire race of man was to have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And by the way, that's all gone. That's all gone. We no longer have dominion over anything, not even ourselves. We lost all of that when Adam sinned. I don't think we fully understand the impact of what has happened. Now, the original word makes clear that mankind was to be the ruler of all things. Now, most of us seem to think that means, I don't know, humans are smarter than or somehow have more rights to the resources of this earth than other creatures do. Well, how's that working out for you? Ever go camping and try to keep the bugs out of the tent? They don't seem to respect our place in creation when we're trying, we're trying to get some sleep. And to be honest, you don't have to go all the way out into the woods to see that nature wants to get inside with us and not to hang out because we're fun. They want what we have and they'll do what they can to get it. Not a very respectful way to treat their overlords, I think. When I lived in South Florida, I had to make sure everything in our pantry was completely sealed, or we'd find ourselves sharing the peanut butter with some very ugly, winged, or otherwise creepy, crawly creatures. They didn't ask permission from me to share anything, and I sure didn't give it to them. They seemed to think, listen to me, they seem to act as if they had as much right to my stuff as I do. Well, what's your point? If we were really still in charge, if we still had dominion over stuff, then brother, it sure doesn't feel like it. If we're still the kings of the earth, no one seemed to tell the sharks or the alligators or the scorpions or the mosquitoes. Look around you now. Do you get any sense that you have dominion over anything outside the front door? Of course not. Something had to have changed since that moment that God gave us dominion because what we have now feels more like subjection than dominance. There are some who argue that Adam's position and power in nature was so respected that he could, for example, tell a nearby squirrel to go over to a strawberry bush and bring him a lovely, sweet treat, and it would do it. What are we doing here, John? Well, two things now. I'm trying to get you to realize that something really bad happened to us. Our status has completely changed. We just don't realize what Adam did to us. We just don't know the impact sin has had. And just as a side, your sins and my sins have had just as much impact as Adam's. Ours may be more behind the scenes and local than his, but we're not getting away with it just like Adam didn't. Now that's sort of a secondary goal, pointing out how much sin has changed mankind's standing in creation. But the primary thing I'm trying to point out, at least in this section, is that Adam and Eve didn't need anything. They had everything a human could require, I'll say it again, and then some. And they had control over almost everything. When you control everything, you couldn't, you when you control everything in a place of abundance, we made it clear. Nothing. So I go back to what I said. The sin that the first humans could be accused of is greed. Greed is wanting it all. They didn't have it all. Well, statistically, scientifically, you could say they had it all. You know, in science, my son-in-law is a brilliant scientist. He knows that if an exception is of such a small percentage, it's considered statistically insignificant. What Adam and Eve didn't have, the only thing they weren't allowed access to was that frickin' tree, as Gene Scott once put it. That frickin' tree was so inconsequential numerically compared to what they had, it shouldn't have mattered to them. But it did. And let me warn you, you know what I'm going to say. Don't judge because nothing has changed. You knew I'd say that, so let's keep moving. So the nature of their sin could be categorized as greed. It could be called greed. It could be disobedience. It could be greed.

Pride And The Promise Of Godhood

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One could even say that pride was the cause of the downfall. The serpent awakened in them a distaste for their assigned station in life. It's very obvious. I mean, they were really only, at least as far as they knew, just a single step from the top. The way things were presented to Adam and Eve was first, there's God, next down the list is them. But they, and by the way, this is the same thing that got the serpent cast out of heaven. Adam and Eve wanted to be promoted. There was only one job in front of them. They fell for that whole you'll be as god shtick. And to be honest, it wasn't even all that arm twisting, was it? All the serpent did was merely suggest the possibility. And I'm sitting here as I'm teaching this, thinking about the way the world treats each other. Ever met a backslapper? Boy, I tell you, you got a lot of potential. If you just, you know, all you have to do is love enough and be good enough. And you know, you have to work hard, and if you do all of those things, God's got a smile on you. If you go out to the mission fields and you and you make sure that you teach all those poor savages how to read a Bible and how to dig a toilet and all those things, God's got to be so impressed with you. I mean, you'll be acting like a God for God's sake. That's the kind of God I serve as someone who's gonna say, Great job, I really love you. I've got nothing against you. Forget the whole original sin things. Come on, because you're such a great guy. You know, your buddy's right, that backslabber's right. You're such a great guy. Doesn't matter what I said, it doesn't matter. You've done enough. No people like that. People that want to pump you up, they don't they want to pump everyone up. Inside you is a giant. You have a great destiny inside of you. Don't let anyone stop you. Don't let surely don't tell someone, let someone tell you you're a sinner. Oh my god, how dare they? Don't they know who you are? God created you to be a God. People say that in church. God created you to be like him. You're made in his image. If you get a chance to talk to Adam, ask how that went for him. Listen, one could argue, again like Lucifer, that Adam and Eve wanted to be at least equal with the one that created them. They jumped at the chance. They jumped at the possibility. There was no hesitation, no request for verification. Can you prove that to me, serpent? Not even a pursuit of clarification. Now, when you say I'm a God, is that a big G or a little G? None of that. They said, Oh, that's a great, that sounds good to me. They were told the tree would move them up, and to them, there was really only one position above them, and that was held by God Himself. Did they secretly want God's job? Well, all I can say is that it didn't seem like it took much temptation for them to at least consider the fact that they deserved more. So, yes, pride was another possible category candidate for their sin. Was their sin the sin of disobedience? Was it greed? Was it pride? Does it matter? Does it really matter? Well, maybe not, but I think for something that's caused such universal suffering, for something that has upset the entire creative process, doomed a people, cursed a planet, through out of balance the perfect acts of God. For something like that, we should meditate on it, if nothing else, so we can look inside and make sure we're pursuing only that which pleases God. After all, shouldn't that be our aim? Shouldn't we want to make him happy? Look what he's been through for you. Look what he's had to do to reconcile us to himself. Look at what it took to erase what happened in that brief moment in the garden. You and I may not think it's a big deal, but it cost God his son. Nothing that followed, nothing, not the murder of Abel, not the building of the Tower of Babel, not the crazy Jews out in the desert worshiping a golden calf. None of those things brought Jesus off the throne. It was this moment. This is the moment that stained the human race and caused all those other things. What is it that makes God happy? We should be asking that question if for no other reason than we love him. Well, it turns out we don't have to think too hard about the answer.

Unbelief And Why Faith Pleases God

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Hebrews 11, 6. Listen to this. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, number one, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. The sin of Adam and Eve was disbelief. Now let me be clear. I'm not arguing that they weren't also disobedient, greedy, or prideful. They obviously failed in those ways and others. But at the heart of it all is the fact that they did not take God at his word. They did not trust that God knew what was best for them, and they didn't believe that God had their best interests close to his heart. Now we could add foolishness to their list of sinful weaknesses because they didn't even take God at his word when he declared that he would relieve them of life if they disobeyed him. I mean, they must have witnessed God's power many times, even if their time with him was limited. I mean, come on, how long does it take to realize that God can do anything that he said he can do? If you walk with God in the cool of the day on a regular basis, if this is why, as a side note, I tell you to commune with God every day so you get to know him. If you peacefully reside in a perfect, magnificent garden made by him for you, if you receive directly from his hand anything you ask, then chances are you have a front seat to the awesome abilities of someone who calls himself El El Yon, God Most High. As you walk together, he no doubt would have told you about making everything you see and probably proving it to you by how he said it. But Adam and Eve, for some reason, chose to doubt that God would do what he said he would do if they disobeyed him, which is amazing because everything God ever said he would do up to that point and since he did. Including, if you believe not on my son, I will condemn you. There's millions and millions and millions of people who don't believe that either. They'll laugh at Adam and E's foolishness, but they will not believe that Jesus was the Son of God who died on the cross for their sins. And God said, if you don't believe that, then you are condemned already. That's what God's word says. You're condemned already. The sin of Adam at its most basic, the sin of John Tomasi at its most basic. The sin of fill your name in here at its most basic is unbelief. That's why, in my opinion, faith is of utmost value to God even now. Throughout the rest of Scripture, God is trying to drive his people toward that one thing that really matters to him: our trust. And that's probably what we'll do next time. See you then.

Final Encouragement And Next Steps

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We hope this study has blessed you. God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption. It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners. Please join us again soon. New content is being added all the time, so make sure you check back often. For more information on Chapel Ministries, including our YouTube channel and podcasts, please visit www.chapelontheweb.com. And if God has laid it upon your heart to share materially with us, we encourage you to follow the links to our secure giving page. Please note, Chapel Ministries is not an IRS registered nonprofit organization, and your donations to this program are not tax deductible. It's our hope that you do not rely on taxing authorities to decide for you who is worthy of your generosity.