Discontentment: the devil's tool

I would like to speak today about one tool that Satan uses against us. It is a mighty, powerful tool. It wears many masks.

It's wrapped in many different ways. But he's used it throughout all eternity. And that's discontentment.

So I'd like to read in Genesis 2, verse 8. Genesis 2, verse 8. Down to verse 15. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in a day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Chapter 3, verse 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, or as the triune God, knowing good and evil.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, 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 fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Now, I've got three things that I'd like to speak on.

Distrust the virtue of God. Why? Because Eve was discontent with her perception. Then I'd like to speak how she discredited the value of God because she was discontent with her place.

And then how she disregarded the vow of God or the word of God because she was discontent with the promise. Satan goes for the weak spot. In verse 1, he went for the serpent.

And in verse 2, for the woman. Now, Satan's goal also is to cause disorder amongst God's order. To cause disorder amongst God's order.

From the text, it would seem that the woman didn't talk to God directly. At least not at this point. Not only that, but God placed man, the head.

So Adam directly talked with God because he was placed at the head. And because he was placed at the head, Satan went straight to Eve. He's very deceitful.

Eve, because she did not talk directly to God, I would say in this sense makes her the weaker vessel. Not that women are weaker than men. But not only that, to cause disorder amidst God's order because he placed Adam as the head.

In verse 2, Satan asks a question, causing Eve to doubt. Though she doesn't realize it at this point. It put Eve on the defensive.

It would have been better if Eve, Satan's asking these questions, or asked this question. It would have been better if Eve would have said, talk to God. But she was being deceived.

But that's what she should have done. At this point, Eve didn't realize who she was dealing with. I want you to notice how she answered.

We may eat of the trees of the garden. But God said, thou mayest freely eat. In other words, you can eat to your heart's content.

Thou mayest freely eat. There's already a shadow of doubt in Eve's statement. Eve says, of the trees.

But God said, of every tree. Of every tree. So Eve leaves out every and freely, leaving an opening for Satan to cause discontent.

Thou mayest freely eat of every tree. That was the emphasis of God. Of every and freely.

But Eve, as she's talking, she emphasizes the fruit of the trees. And Satan's getting awful excited. Because he sees the opening, opening, bigger and bigger and wider.

God does not mention the fruit, because obviously it's the fruit that you would eat. Again, the emphasis is not on the fruit, but the result of eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So Eve is opening herself up further and further for attack.

God emphasizes the tree of life in the midst of the garden. Eve, again, emphasizes the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But doesn't mention the name of the tree, but the fruit.

See, Satan's getting her focus upon the food. The temporal, rather than the result. And the lasting effects.

Upon eating. These are her thoughts. She doesn't realize it.

She mentions it as being in the midst. But God is emphasizing the tree of life being in the midst. The tree of life represents Christ in our midst.

Satan has her focused on something fleeting of this earth. But listen to what Eve says. Lest ye die.

I don't know why Eve says to not touch it. There's many reasons that people can come up with why she said that, but I don't know why she said it, because God did not say that. But in a moment we'll see that it reinforces the attack of Satan.

Eve uses the word lest, meaning peradventure, or possibly you could die. I don't know why Eve used a less forceful, serious word than God, but it was playing right into Satan's hands. I'm sure by this time, Satan had an evil smile tasting the victory that was coming.

What was that victory? To cause disorder in God's order? But it was something more serious than that. He was going to commit murder. Thou shalt surely die.

In verse 4, Satan then uses God's language, except he adds one word. Thou shalt not surely die. Of which Eve should have picked up on.

But instead it causes her further doubt. There it is. The first lie.

The very first lie. And man has been falling for these lies ever since. They surely did die.

Spiritually, immediately after eating. And physically, eventually. So they did die.

Discredit the value of God, discontent with their place. Satan baits her with his deceitful question, then uses their answers against her. As well as twisting the word of God.

Just a little bit. It's amazing how one word can change the whole meaning. And that's what he did.

One word to change the whole meaning. Satan in verse 5 says, For God doth know that in a day ye ate thereof. Verse 6, Eve, when a woman saw that the tree was good for food.

You see what he was doing? The day ye ate thereof. So then she was thinking, the tree is good for food. But God in chapter 2 and verse 9, said all the trees were good for food.

All the trees. Not just this one, all the trees. Satan in verse 5 says, Then your eyes shall be opened.

As if it's a good thing. Eve singled out the tree in verse 6. She got tunnel vision. And saw that it was pleasant to the eyes.

But again I take you back to chapter 2 and verse 9. God says all the trees are pleasant to the eyes or to the sight. All the trees. In verse 5, Satan tells her, Ye shall be as God, or as the triune God, knowing good and evil.

As if it's a good thing. But he wraps it up in a pleasing wrapper, like a lollipop or something. He makes Eve feel that God is withholding something from her.

Verse 6. Eve says, A tree to be desired, or lust after. To make one wise. Bam.

There it is. Just as Satan wanted and planned. Lifting herself up to be equal with God.

Do we ever do this? He got her focus and thinking off God and off God's word. And onto herself. And her own desires.

Her own thinking. Aimed right at pride. And humanism.

Humanism. And humanism is still Satan's tool. And it's in many, many different forms.

And different wrappers. As we're slowly starting to see in the day and age we live in. The deceit.

Whitaker Chambers was a man who worked for the Soviet Union. As a spy in America. In the 30s.

And the 40s. And then he turned. And was on the United States side.

And he blew the whistle on all the people. That the communists planted. In the government.

And he said, humanism. Is the second oldest religion known to man. It goes all the way back to Eve.

She got her focus off the big picture. The goodness of God. The integrity of God.

The insincerity of God. He got Eve, as I said. To feel as if God was withholding something from her.

Even Satan did not mention wisdom. He just suggested God was keeping something from her. And let her mind do the rest.

I think everyone here has been the, I guess, victim of it. Somebody suggests something to you. And the next thing you know, your mind starts running wild.

And it's gotten bigger than it ever was. Or it is. It's not realistic.

Because you let your mind wander. You let your mind get the best of you. That's what Eve did.

To make one wise. You know, there's a difference between knowledge and understanding and wisdom. There's a big difference.

God told her not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She would know what good and evil was, but wouldn't have the power to withstand it. She disregarded the vow of God.

Discontent with the promise. She took of the fruit she did eat. And I think it's interesting that it says, And she gave unto her husband with her.

And he did eat. I believe Adam was there at least part of the time. And he did nothing.

Making his sins so much greater. No wonder the brethren say Adam sinned with his eyes open. You know, thus today we have men and women reversing roles in more than one way.

And I think you know what I'm talking about. It is always unwise to be out of the mind and will of God. It doesn't matter if the woman is smarter.

Doesn't matter whether she's better at it. If you're out of the mind of God, it will bring failure. In this day and age, and there's many things I could talk about, but we'll just leave it at this day and age.

Women have become the head of the household amongst other things. And you know, we wonder why there's so much divorce. Because God's order has been replaced with man's order.

Exactly as Satan is planning it. We wonder why there's so much discontentment in the world. There is so much depression.

There are so many psychological problems in the world. And I think the majority of them would be solved if people would accept God and His way and His order. The majority of them would go away.

Not only that, there's something that's gotten real popular amongst man, or amongst the evangelicals. And that's interfaith dialogue. They're doing interfaith dialogue with the Muslims.

The problem with this is it's not debate. There's a difference between debate and dialogue. Debating, you can tell the other person that they're wrong, and you can tell them why they're wrong.

But the dialogue, one of the rules is you can't tell them they're wrong. Only what you agree with. You see, Satan and Eve had interfaith dialogue, so to speak.

And Eve would tell you how wise it is, how unwise it is. It cost her everything. She was duped.

It will take you away from God. You know, Satan can't take our faith away. Thank God.

But he wants us to question God. He wants us to compromise our faith. You know, if we compromise our faith, if we question God, it leaves us open for attack.

For Satan to make us of none effect. To set us up on a shelf. As I said, he can't take our faith away, but he can put us up on a shelf.

I'm talking from experience. And it can happen easily. Sometimes it takes a while.

But it's funny when it happens and you can look back. And looking back, they say you've got 20-20 vision. And you can see how it all happened.

My friend, you don't want that to happen. You ever wonder why the Lord in Matthew 4, verses 4, 7, and 10, when dealing with Satan, did not just tell him, I rebuke thee, Satan, get thee behind me. Or he didn't just tell him, just go away.

Why didn't he do that? Instead he used the Word of God. The Lord was demonstrating using the Word of God properly. As Eve should have.

Showing us the power of the Word of God. And that we can absolutely depend upon the Word of God. You know, Eve at first, though misquoting it, uses the Word of God.

But as I said, let her mind wander. And the results are devastating. Eve should have never been on her own in this situation.

She should have never taken on Satan alone. We are no match for Satan. No match.

I don't care how well you think you're studied. Or maybe you are studied. The person who is the best studied in this room is no match for Satan.

If you think you're being under attack, you need to immediately go to God. The one who can save us. The one who can rebuke him.

We could ask, why did God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden? Why did he even put that there? I believe God, because God gave us a free will. And apart from this one tree, there was nothing to test our obedience to that free will. Now maybe I'm wrong.

But I think that's one of the reasons. We're always tested. Always tested for our faith.

To test our obedience. To test our dependence upon God. And sometimes when we're tested, we wonder why.

But Nathan was speaking last night on Romans. And one of the things that he said was, not directly maybe, but... We are tried, and it's always for our good. He may allow Satan to attack us.

But he has a purpose in it. For our dependence upon him. Satan uses the same tactics all through history.

And it takes on many masks and wrappers, as I've said. Always to cause discontentment. To cause us to sin.

He even used this tactic on the Lord in Matthew 4. The same tactic. Paul could say, I have learned. Underline learned.

In whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Philippians 4 and 11. This didn't come easy for Paul.

For it says, I have learned. Meaning it took time. We know that Paul went through many trials.

And many tribulations. And he says, I have learned. Whatsoever state I am in.

Therewith to be content. Because he knows that one of the tools of Satan. The main tool of Satan.

Is to cause discontentment amongst God's people. He said, I have learned to be content. May we strive for this.

May this be our experience. That we as Paul can say, in whatsoever state I am in. Therewith to be content.

May the Lord bless us all.