Spiritual warfare and the stratagems of the devil will be discussed in this sermon. When we talk about this, the obvious beginning is “In the beginning”. So we first turn to Gen 3:1-6.

Do you realise that in just 3 sentences, the devil sold the forbidden fruit and in exchange gained the whole humanity for thousands of years? So it is imperative that we examine closely the stratagem of the devil, and learn from the master salesman. How many of us are or have met salespersons who could close a deal in 3 sentences? Satan is a master salesman who could. What was his trick? Did he lie? Let’s analyse deeply into the 3 sentences.

1. “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden of Eden?’” (v1) The first sentence is a question. A question cannot be a lie by nature of language. But this is a loaded question that implies something we will discuss later.

2. “You shall not surely die.” (v4) How many of you think this is a lie? Did Satan lie when he said this? Read Gen 3:22-24 In the garden was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. If you read Genesis closely, (the speaker opines Genesis and Revelations are one of the most difficult books to understand; Genesis says very little but implies a lot) even after eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, Genesis says Adam and Eve could still live forever IF they could still take from the tree of life. So mere eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil doesn’t necessary imply one must die. As long as they eat of the tree of life, they will not die. There must be a combination of TWO factors before Adam and Eve surely die. (1) Eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil (2) God preventing them from eating of the tree of life.

Back to the question of whether Satan was lying. It was a borderline truth, not REALLY a lie. By now we realise how masterful Satan is. He didn’t need to resort to a blatant lie.

1. “God knows that in the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (v5) Gen 3:7 After eating the fruit, their eyes WERE opened. The first part of the third sentence - your eyes will be opened - was true! Gen 3:22 God Himself says Man has become like Us knowing good and evil. Even the second part of the third sentence - you will be like God - was true!

In the 3 sentences, was there a lie there? The first sentence was a question so it’s hard to say it’s a lie. The second sentence is borderline; also difficulty to say it’s a lie. The third sentence appears to be true. So Satan apparently didn’t resort to outright lies. So you see the wisdom, danger and cunningness of the devil. It’s very hard for normal people like you and I to really see Satan is cheating you. If we can see, Satan isn’t skilful.

Now we go one layer deeper. (Speaker forewarns his sermon will be quite philosophical and implores us to stay with him HAHA)

Let’s go back to the first sentence. Did God really say, “You will surely die?” There is a context to this question. Gen 2:16-22 When God gave the command, “You cannot eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in that day you eat of it, you shall surely die”, Eve didn’t exist. After God gave this command, it was days/weeks/months before God created Eve, because it’ll take Adam some time to get to know and name all the animals (v20). So by the time Eve came into existence, she did not hear the command. But she heard a command about eating.

Gen 1:27-31 After God created Eve, God them spoke to both of them again. And this time when God spoke and Eve heard the voice of God, Eve heard EVERY tree is good for food (v29). EVERY means EVERY, including the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But it was her husband who said not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Here we understand the context of the devil’s question. The devil was aware of the apparent disparity in instruction. So the serpent asked Eve, “Did really say, ‘You will surely die.’?” Because Eve did not hear it directly from God. “So was what God said correct or what your husband said correct?” Hence Satan asks whether God had indeed said, “You shall surely die.”

(There lies the beginning of many marital problems.)

What’s important to note is that Adam’s word to Eve was secondary information of God’s command. One of the strategies of Satan is to make you doubt secondary commands/instructions of God. The whole Bible is secondary information about God’s word. God didn’t appear to you or speak to you. God appeared to Moses, Jonah, the writers of the Bible. So one way Satan shakes your faith is by making you doubt secondary information - the Bible.

The speaker just came back from Turkey, a Muslim country, which has many beautiful magnificent mosques. He visited them. In every mosque, there is an evangelistic point, similar to our evangelistic classes. Because Turkey is an advanced and liberal country, he approached the evangelist at the counter and struck up a conversation on religion. He asked many tough questions, and they gave very good answers; they were very well trained.

What they said when this tough question was posed to them. Speaker: “Before Muhammad, how would people be saved? I’m a Chinese and my great great grandfather in China who has not heard of Muhammad would go to hell.” 20 year old girl: “In the Quran it says there are hundreds of prophets; only some are mentioned in the Quran. Jesus preached Islam. Buddha in China also preached Islam. So if you had followed Buddhism, you would have been saved because Buddha preached Islam.” Speaker: “Let’s not talk about Buddhism. I’m a Christian and I know Jesus didn’t preach Islam.” 20 year old girl: “What your Bible wrote about what Jesus preached is not Islam because His disciples corrupted it and became Christians.”

With this kind of logic, it’s impossible to argue with a Muslim. Because they’ll say whatever our Bible writes about what Jesus say is a corrupted version. Because the original teachings were corrupted, God had to send Muhammad to clean it up.

Recently, a member of the True Jesus Church opines that the Bible is for reference only.

So you see if you don’t really believe in the secondary information of God’s word, this is one way Satan will attack. From here we learn one strategy of Satan is to make you doubt the word of God - the Bible - which is a secondary information of what God said.

The opening of the seller Satan because there was an apparent disparity in instructions given to Adam, and Adam and Eve the.

What happened to what Adam and Eve? Well the brothers would know. How often does your wife listen to you lol

So what about the second sentence? We analyse the second and third sentence together. “You will not surely die…because God knows you will become like Him.”

Why did Eve eat the fruit? We don’t have to guess. The Bible supplies the answer. Gen 3:6 The Bible says the woman saw the fruit was good and pleasant to the eye. When that thought came to her, she wasn’t being irreligious but actually religious. Because she was recalling the words of God. Remember? God says every tree is good for food. Gen 1:21b shows that God saw all things He created was good, including the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now, what was the attraction? What was the threat? We go another layer deeper. When we talk about temptation, we talk about threat and attraction. The threat was: when you eat it, you die. But was that a threat to Eve?

If I tell you: if you eat this, you will kabuka (that’s a made up word). Will you be afraid?

When God said: if you eat this, you will die. Did Adam and Eve know what death was? When the first death occurred, it was AFTER they sinned, performed by God on an animal to provide clothes for them. So before they took the fruit, did they know what death is? Was it a meaningful word to them? “I eat and die? So what? What’s death?” The first time they saw death was after sin, when they took the garments. So that’s the threat.

The attraction: if you eat it, you’ll be like God! If you were asked, “Will you marry me? If you do I’ll give you lacitonos?” (that’s another made up word lol) Would you when you don’t even know what lacitonos is? Did Adam and Eve knew what lacitonos was? No. So was knowing good and evil an attraction to them? It was a meaningless word to them. Was becoming like God and knowing good and evil an attraction to Eve? Not likely.

So where was the temptation? Where was the trick of Satan? To answer that question, another context is needed. God never told Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge and evil, they’d be like God to know good and evil, although it IS true. But who gave Adam and Eve that revelation? The serpent. So there was no direct lie. The masterfulness of the devil lies in his indirect implications. What Satan was trying to imply to Eve was: God is good but not THAT good. There is something better that God is not giving to you!

The combination of there 3 sentences implies this conclusion: God is not THAT good because there’s SOMETHING BETTER that God is not giving you.

We all know Adam and Eve don’t know what good and evil is because Eve actually paraphrased the serpent in Gen 3:6 and said the fruit would make one wise, revealing she didn’t really know what good and evil is. She understood it to mean wise, because God is wise. With this, she could be like God to create things like God. God withholding something from her was a revelation to her!

Part of the speaker’s ministry is to keep in contact who don’t come often to church anymore. He does ‘exit interviews’ to ask why they don’t come anymore. He keeps in touch with them. It can be effective because one day they may repent and come back, and God will use you and me as a transit to return. Many of them felt that there’s something outside better they can get that they can’t get in church. They are somehow unhappy with what they have now and what they are now. They think there’s something better out there. That’s the lie of Satan! That God is not good; that God is not giving you the best when you sit here on Friday Sat Sunday. There’s something better outside! God ain’t telling you? God ain’t giving you? You reach out your hand and grab it. That’s the modern mantra now. Many who have left the church tell the speaker that. There something better outside you can’t get in church. This is the dangerous lie of Satan that God isn’t giving you the best, there’s something better outside.

In Satan’s 3 sentences, he didn’t resort to an outright lie. The danger was the implication God isn’t giving you the best and there’s something better outside. Don’t ever fall into this trap. Whatever you have and are now is the best you can get from God. If you think by reaching out your hand you can get something better, that’s when you fall into the devil’s trap.

That’s Eve. The serpent talked to Eve but not Adam though. Yet Adam ate and fell. Why? Again, we don’t need to guess because the Bible tells us. Gen 3:17 Adam ate because he listened to the voice of his wife. Brothers don’t jump to conclusion yet HAHA let’s read another verse first before we reach our conclusion

1 Tim 2:14 The Chinese and English versions have some difference. The English and Greek version says that Adam was NOT deceived. The Chinese version implies the serpent didn’t attempt to tempt Adam. Adam and Eve were both there. He heard the conversation and wasn’t tricked. He ate because he listened to his wife! That’s from Gen 3:17. So it appears, out of love, Adam committed suicide. He wasn’t deceived or cheated. He ate because his wife ate it and died already. He did it because of love. This is classic Romeo and Juliet. So the speaker wonders if Shakespeare copied Genesis when he wrote Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo saw Juliet took the poison and ‘died’, he did it too.

As the speaker keeps in contact Many people have also left the church because of the same reason Adam took the fruit. The True Jesus Church is like the apostolic church, and our members are predominantly lowly/lower class. Back in the 1960s, there were very few university graduates. But there was a brother who graduated from university and came back to Ipoh as a dentist. When Elder John Yang visited SEA, he interpreted for him and he was impressed with him. But he fell in love with a girl from another church. Every time he came to church, the wife gave him problems. Eventually, he stopped coming to the True Jesus Church and started to serve in the other church. There are cases of many sisters don’t come to church anymore because their husbands and boyfriends are from another church and they find it difficult to come to True Jesus Church anymore. The speaker says from his experience, it’s more dangerous for sisters to marry a man from another church than a worldly man. Because if you marry a worldly sinful guy, you still find solace in the church. If you happen to marry a Christian from another church who has a very good character and is faithful there, it’s very hard to keep coming to the True Jesus Church. When Eve took the fruit, Adam knew she was going to die. And Timothy tells us Adam was not deceived. He took the fruit because the wife asked him to. He was prepared to die with Eve.

So we have to learn the strategy of the devil and prevent it from happening in our lives. Love is a very powerful emotion. While love can bring you close to a person, love can also bring you away from God. Be very careful. We cannot allow our love for Man to override the command of God.