Brian Cole: 'Operation Mindcrime' – Part 2

Genesis 3:1-7 – “Operation Mindcrime” – Part 2

So, Satan starts to break down faith in the Word of God. He said to the woman: “Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (vs. 1). In vs. 2 she answers: “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say ‘you must not eat fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden, and YOU MUST NOT TOUCH IT, or you will die.”

Now, when we look back to what God ACTUALLY said in 2:16, we see this: “You are free to eat of any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you shall surely die.” God didn’t say anything about not touching it! Eve’s response shows us a pattern for all sinful humanity. She misapplied or misunderstood God’s Word. She added to it or took away from it! Eve subtracted the generosity of God by ignoring the liberty to freely eat of every tree in the garden except the one. Then she added an unusual interpretation about the restriction by suggesting that God even prohibited them from even touching the fruit! How many of us do this very same thing? We add to, take away, ignore or justify to make something ok for us to do!!!???

We start adding things and justifying to help what we want to do to seem right? We start making things up and adding to or taking away from Scripture. After all, Doesn’t the Bible talk about God repenting from a previous decision? Aren’t there times in the bible where God either changes His mind or delays His judgment? The God of Love wouldn’t punish me if I did this one thing...

Then Satan, in the serpent, followed with outright denial. “And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die: for God knows that when you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Notice here that Satan lied and deceived once again. There is a direct contradiction: God said: “In the day you eat, you shall die.” Satan said - “in the day you eat you will be like God.”

Others have said that Satan here brought the threefold temptation mentioned in 1 John 2:16 - “For everything in the world - (How many things?) {1}the lust of the flesh, {2}the lust of the eyes, and {3}the pride of life - comes NOT from the Father but from the world.” (Who rules the world???!!!)

When Satan got the woman to gazing upon the forbidden fruit, it says this: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

Now that she had opened herself to sin by looking longingly at the tree and fruit, her fleshly nature craves the taste - “The lust of the flesh.” And it appears to be good for food - “The lust of the eyes.” And the crowning touch of the temptation of Satan promises her that it will make her like God and she will know good and evil - “The pride of life.”

The last of the 10 Commandments is: Thou shalt not covet. After all the other external commandments are given, comes the commandment on which all the others rest. Coveting, wanting that which is not mine, as I stand as a creature before the law of God, is really the basis for ALL sin, because it is the internal attitude which leads to the external breaking of the other 9 Commandments.

This is what Paul was referring to in Romans 7:7 when he pointed out that the center of his own sin was coveting. “What shall we say then? Is the law sinful? Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what COVETING really was if the law had not said, “you shall not covet.”

Jesus also made this clear in Matthew 5:21-22. He said that it isn’t murder itself but the hatred that was in your heart first, ultimately leading to the murder, that stands at the heart of the issue. Likewise, He indicated in verses 27-28 that adultery is already there when it’s only in the mind. THE INTERNAL, LATER FLOWS OUT INTO THE EXTERNAL. SELF TALK!!! Eve stands exactly there - in the arena of the internal where choices are ALWAYS made.

Paul, in 2 Cor. 11:3 goes back to her situation at a point in history as he advises the Church of his own day: “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your MINDS may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

We live in our thought life. This is who I am. And for Eve the choice was this: whether to remain as a creature or to try in rebellion to have what the infinite creature can never have and to be what the infinite creature can never be. But she did eat! The flow was from internal to external; the sin began in the thought-world and flowed outward. The sin was committed in that moment she believed in Satan over God. At this point the whole matter was decided.

So, Satan led the woman to sin, and she gave the fruit to her husband, and he ate it. Then both found themselves naked before God, not only physically naked but far worse - with guilty conscience and perverted minds and now under the gaze of an angry God whose rule they had broken and whose command they had disobeyed and whose love they had betrayed.

I want you to walk away with this - SATAN AND THE WORLD WILL USE THE HOLIEST AND BEST IN YOUR LIFE TO LEAD YOU FROM GOD AND FROM THE RIGHT. SATAN AND THE WORLD USES THE GOOD TO LEAD YOU AWAY FROM THE BEST.

They will use patriotism and family and friends, or the love of your wife and children, or the appeal of learning or career or money and education, to lead us away from the Bible!

Satan and the world will have us do 3 things:

1. Doubt the Word
2. Deny the Word
3. Denigrate the Word (Deny the importance or validity)

They will deceive you. They will Make things physically attractive, mentally attractive or esthetically attractive. The Devil comes for only 3 reasons: To Kill, Steal and Destroy. But Jesus comes to give life, and life abundantly!

You can have that life today!!!! Jeremiah 33:3!