Audio Worship, 2/2/2025, "Eyes Opened" Genesis 3.1-7

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1671

February 2, 2025

Genesis 3.1-7                Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“Eyes Opened”

 

3.1Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

 

  • The Deception

 

Genesis chapter 3 reveals the turn of events that have effected all of humanity and also will eventually reveal the blessing of God to send His only Son that we might be reconciled to God through Christ’s death and resurrection.

We are now in the garden of Eden. The serpent approaches the woman with lies and distortions of what God has said. He probably approached Eve because Adam was the one who heard the prohibition directly from God and Eve would have heard it secondhand from Adam. It is always the case that when we get information secondhand; we have to temper our thoughts and reactions with the thought that we did not hear what was said by someone directly. If anyone were to ask us if someone really said something, we would have to respond, “well, I did not hear it direct,” or “I cannot be absolutely sure those were the exact words.” The devil shows his cunning in this move. It is easier to cast doubt on what Eve heard Adam say about what God said. It is one of the subtle ways the devil works to distort God’s Word, especially with people who have not read the Bible and what God has actually said. Unfortunately, it is apparent that the devil can work this tactic on some who profess to have read God’s Word as well.

Let’s look more closely at what the serpent has done in Genesis 3. The serpent changes what God had forbidden in his question of Eve. The serpent says, "not eat of any tree" rather than what God actually said, "eat of every tree" except the one tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Secondly, it was not just what God "said", but more authoritatively, what God "commanded" back in Genesis 2.16. The devil sought to work those same tactics with Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4.1-11). The devil is quick to reinterpret and twist God's Word in ways that seek to lead people away from righteousness. We see this often in the world when words are used in ways that twist the meaning into something completely different. We have to guard against hearing our own vocabulary of faith being used in ways that seek to lead to a very different conclusion than obedience and faithfulness to God's Truth.

There are three movements in the serpent's deception:

1) Did God actually say? 3.1, casting doubt on the truth

2) You will not surely die. 3.4, casting doubt on integrity

3) For God knows...you will be like God. 3.5, casting doubt on God’s motives

The entire narrative of evil is to cast doubt and draw us into confusion and chaos. It is only by God's Word that we have clarity of heart and mind. It is only by God's Word that we find peace and security in faith. It is only by God's Wisdom that we are able to discern the subtle lies of the serpent. Adam and Eve both doubted the truth of God. They both lost trust in God's command. They both bought into the lie that they could be like God, that is, to be gods themselves and determine for themselves what is good and what is evil. Adam and Eve knew only the good prior to taking a bite of the fruit. They knew of God's goodness in all creation and when they disobeyed God's command, they then knew evil and thus ushered evil (sin) into the "DNA" of us all. To know good and evil as limited humans is to know there is a choice between the two and because we are not God, we will not choose the good.

The deceiver is still at work today. His stronghold at this point, at least in American culture, is centered around all things pertaining to human sexuality and the complete confusion and disruption to God’s created order. The devil knows he has already lost, but he is still going around like a roaring lion, to deceive those who refuse God and perhaps those who may profess Christ but do not truly follow Christ.

 

  • So Many Questions

 

Very often those who oppose God and the Bible will ask questions about why there is evil in the world, why God allowed the possibility of knowing good and evil, and other questions along those lines. Questions like that, while interesting and not necessarily wrong to ask, are not questions the Bible seeks to answer. It seems to me that every time someone posses such a question the Bible poses a question back to us: Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38.1-7)

There are times when our questions are out of bounds with God’s sovereign rule. Can any of us know what it is to lay the foundation of the earth? Can any of us truly know the exact way creation came to be from the Word spoken? It is beyond comprehension in our limited frail cognitive abilities. We cannot know everything nor can we be like God in that sense of knowing all things or knowing good and evil apart from God’s Word.

 

Isaiah 55.6-9 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, either are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 

God’s thoughts are way beyond us. This is not to say that we are not allowed to ask questions. But there comes a point when our question may be too close to the question of the serpent, “Did God really say?” Why, in Isaiah, does God call us to seek Him and forsake wickedness? Precisely because His thoughts are not our thoughts. We, like Adam and Eve, can never achieve being like God in the sense of all knowing or all powerful and to think that we can be like God in that sense demonstrates our lack of understanding and our lack of humility.

 

  • Sufficient Answers Grace

 

What then, do we do with those types of questions? Or perhaps more to the point, what shall we do when we do not have sufficient answers? One thing to consider is God’s sufficient grace. It is okay not to know all things! It is okay to rely on God’s Word to teach us good from evil. It is not just okay, it is the way of righteousness, the way of Christ, and the way to indeed be more like Jesus! Paul writes of God’s grace in 2 Corinthians 12.9, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” The Christian life is not about finding all the answers and certainly not about finding all the answers before we will believe, but it is about trusting in God’s grace to save and to bring us to understand the Lordship of Christ over our lives. So, I would suggest that our first point of query with our sufficient answers is to rely solely on God’s grace.

Another way - worship! Psalm 73.16.18, “But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!” The Psalmist was struggling to understand why the wicked always seems to prosper and the righteous are always struggling in life. The question troubles the Psalmist, but no understanding was forthcoming until, until he entered the sanctuary, that is, until he worshiped God. What is it about worship that might lead us to greater discernment? In worship we are not focused on ourselves, but on God. In worship we are giving ourselves over to praise, thanksgiving, and prayer to the One who bestows upon us the capacity to discern good and evil. In worship, we are humbling ourselves and giving ourselves over to the One who grants us faith and grace for all things.

Still another way of moving on beyond our questions is the proper handling of God’s Word. 2 Timothy 2.15, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” There is no better place to go for answers or for the lack of answers than the Scriptures. God reveals truth in His Word and His Word is sufficient for all things we need pertaining to life and faith. The Bible tells us what we need to know and anything beyond that is irrelevant to life and faith.

 

  • Eyes Opened

 

Look at the number of times eyes and vision are mentioned in Genesis 3.5-7,

5For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

 

The temptation all along is a different way to see. It is not the right way, but a way that the devil invites for them. Your eyes will be opened...the woman saw...delight to the eyes...the eyes of both were opened. But their eyes were opened to what was forbidden. Their eyes were opened but it led to a certain kind of blindness, blindness to obedience. When they saw one another they knew and they had to cover up with fig leaves.

Our vision has been damaged ever since. Paul writes that we see in a mirror dimly, 1 Corinthians 13.12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” Paul writes again that we are not to even consider walking or living by sight, 2 Corinthians 5.7, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” Adam and Eve sought to walk by sight and not by faith. I think this leads us to a crucial question we must all ask ourselves, to what are our eyes most open? The truth of God’s Word or the deception of the devil and the world? Open my eyes that I may see…glimpses of truth thou hast for me...

 

Our eyes might be opened to something we do not want to see...our own sin and disobedience. But by God’s grace our eyes may be opened to be set free in seeing the truth. Our eyes might be opened to know the God who gives us eyes to see and ears to hear and feet to walk His path, arms to embrace the Savior and hands to do His work. While Genesis 3 shows us the eyes opened because of disobedience, Luke’s gospel tells us another story of eyes opened to see the Savior.

 

“So they drew near to the village to which they were going. [Jesus] acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24.28-35).

 

Today we break bread together and we pray that as Jesus broke bread with the two disciples and their eyes were opened, so too we pray that our eyes will be opened to recognize Jesus and to have burning hearts at the opening of Scripture.


“...the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; Psalm 19.8


Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways. Psalm 119.37

 

May the Lord open our eyes, in the breaking of bread and in the Word that enlightens our eyes, that we may see the truth and follow God’s ways and God’s will in all things, to His glory. Amen.