The
American
Wisdom Series
#2227
Will you believe Christ or hang
on to the apple tree teachings?
When we last left Adam and Eve they were hiding from the
LORD God who was walking in the garden.
They had been in the fig grove with the "tree who had
evil knowledge".
They were naked and unashamed when they went in,
but they were naked and ashamed when they came
forth.
Why?
Satan had beguiled Eve, which is to say, he totally,
wholly seduced her.
That is why the apostle Paul would say in his second letter
to the Corinthians,
that he had espoused them (the church) to one husband,
and he wanted to present them as chaste virgins
to Christ.
But he was fearful that they would become "spiritually"
seduced,
even as Eve was "physically" seduced by the serpent.
You see, Eve was a chaste virgin before Satan seduced
her.
2 Cor.
11:2-3
For I am jealous
over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that
I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
The subject is virginity.
[3]
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is
in Christ.
Has your mind been corrupted
with fairy tale stories about "apples" and "snakes standing upright"?
Or do you have the eyes to see and ears to hear the simplicity
that is in Christ and His Word?
You must look up the word "beguiled" for yourself in Strong's
concordance or a Greek dictionary.
The word is exapatao and it means "to seduce wholly".
Check it out.
You will also find later on, in verse 15,
that God will put enmity between Satan's
seed and Eve's seed,
meaning their offspring, i.e. Satan's
children and Eve's children.
That which has transpired here is explained, in "simplicity",
by the greatest teacher of all time, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Will you believe Him or hang on to the apple tree?
In
Matthew 13, Christ spoke several parables.
Do
you know why He spoke in parables?
Do you think it was to make things obvious to the crowd
He was addressing?
Matthew
13:10-13
And the disciples
came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Hey, what do you know, here are the disciples asking
Jesus the exact question we were thinking of!
[11]
He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to
know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not
given.
Did we read that correctly?
It was not meant that everyone should
understand Him?
[12]
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance:
but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
[13] Therefore
speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they
hear not, neither do they understand.
Yep, we read it correctly.
Unless you have eyes to see, and ears to hear, you will
not understand the parables of Jesus.
Let's test your spiritual senses.
Christ gave this parable in Matthew 13.
It is the Parable of the Tares.
Read it carefully and then Christ
Himself will explain it in detail.
Matthew
13:24-30
Another parable
put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto
a man which sowed good seed in his field: [25] But while men slept, his
enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. [26] But
when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the
tares also. [27] So the servants of the householder came and said unto
him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath
it tares? [28] He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants
said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? [29] But he
said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat
with them. [30] Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time
of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares,
and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
After Christ speaks another
parable,
we learn that He is actually uttering
things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
Do you want to learn a secret?
Matthew
13:35-36
That it might
be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth
in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation
of the world.
Now look what happens!
[36]
Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples
came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the
field.
The crowd is gone!
The disciples come to Jesus, in private, and ask Him to
explain the Parable of the Tares, the one we just read.
Would you also like to ask Him to explain it to you?
Then go for it!
Here is the simple explanation, from the Lord Jesus Christ,
of the Parable of the Tares,
to those who have been granted or have asked Him for
eyes to see and ears to hear.
Remember, this information, hidden from the foundation
of the world, is not available to all.
Blessed indeed is he or she that understands.
Christ's simple explanation:
Matthew
13:37
He answered
and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
[38] The field
is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares
are the children of the wicked one;
The field is the world?
Wow!
This really is simple.
The tares are children of Satan?
He has children?
He has children.
Don't you dare try to spiritualize
this away!
This is not a parable!
These children (seed) are those same seed (children) in
Gen 3:15.
God puts enmity between his (Satan's) children and her
(Eve's) children.
We will be meeting the first child of Satan when we get
to chapter 4 of Genesis.
His name is Cain.
He is not listed in Adam's genealogy in chapter five of
Genesis.
I wonder why not?
[39]
The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world;
and the reapers are the angels.
The wicked seed was sowed in
the fig grove, in the garden of Eden, at the seduction of mother Eve.
(Hopefully the words of Christ are
not too much for you.
Remember, you can always believe
that snakes stand up and talk.)
[40]
As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it
be in the end of this world.
[41] The Son
of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom
all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
[42] And shall
cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of
teeth.
[43] Then shall
the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who
hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Who has ears to hear, let him
hear.
Who has not ears to hear, let him
slumber.
Now back to the Book of Beginnings.
Genesis
3:9
And the LORD
God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
Don't think for one minute that God didn't know where
Adam was.
You'll find He never asks a question
that He doesn't already know the answer to.
[10]
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because
I was naked; and I hid myself.
Adam isn't facing reality very well at all, a problem
common to many.
We must all learn that we can't hide from our problems
and our sins.
Our Father knows!
[11]
And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the
tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
The defendant is being questioned by the Judge.
[12]
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me
of the tree, and I did eat.
Here we see one of the basic principles of "liberalism",
which is simply "never, never, take responsibility for
your own actions.
Always blame someone else".
In this case Adam points out that the "Manufacturer" of
the woman is really to blame, i.e.
the woman WHOM THOU GAVEST to be with me.
This was not a good answer!
You can't con our Father, who probably shook His head
in sorrow and disappointment as He turned to the woman.
[13]
And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?
And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Hey, it's not my fault! I have an excuse. The serpent
seduced me.
Another really bad answer! God now turns to Satan.
[14]
And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou
art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy
belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
"Because thou hast done this..". Done what?
I think we covered that. He seduced Eve.
Notice that no question was asked to this "scum of the
earth".
Why give him the opportunity to reply with a smart aleck
answer?
God moves directly to the sentencing.
You should be able to document by now that the "serpent"
God is speaking to is Satan, the Devil himself (Rev.
12:19).
He was beautiful, charming, witty and very, very
likable (Ezek. 28).
He was a "tree to be desired".
He was also a pervert.
It is he whom our Father curses above all other living
beings.
He did not curse little old snakes.
The statement "upon thy belly shalt thou go" is an Hebrew
figure of speech.
It is a statement of degradation that implies the utmost
humiliation,
for prostration was ever the most eloquent sign of subjection.
(If you are fortunate to have a Companion Bible, it will
document this for you).
We have a somewhat similar saying in English, "he's lower
than a snake's belly".
The same statement of degradation applies to "and dust
shalt thou eat all the days of thy life".
This figure of speech is much like Psalms 72:9 which says
"his enemies shall lick the dust".
They will not literally get on their hands and knees and
lick the ground with their tongues,
but they will be so utterly defeated that no words could
literally depict their overthrow and subjugation.
But a picture, portrayed by a figure of speech, is worth
a thousand words.
If the teachers and preachers of God's Word would pay
attention to the figures of speech,
which are easily identified in the "fixed" languages
of Hebrew and Greek,
much misunderstanding and confusion could be eliminated.
Here's How Traditions are Made:
If there was a verse in the New Testament that
read "The Apostle Paul got in hot water", there would now be churches that
would require their parishioners to do as Paul and follow his example,
i.e. get into a pool or tub of water that is hot.
If you looked up "water" in Strong's concordance it would
say "H2O, that substance which forms lakes and rivers and seas, rain, etc.".
The would-be scholars would then debate how much water you should get into,
how far you should be immersed, and exactly what degree of temperature
constitutes hot as opposed to warm.
Thus "getting into hot water" would become a tradition
of the church, despite the fact that the phrase is a figure of speech which
means "The Apostle Paul got into trouble", and has absolutely nothing whatsoever
to do with water!
For those who have an interest, the great scholar
E.W. Bullinger, has a work in which he classifies the 217 figures of speech
and has given some 8,000 passages of Scripture to illustrate them. Without
paying close attention to "Figures of Speech", no study of the Bible can
be complete. Of course if you have a Companion Bible it notes the figures
of speech for each passage in the parallel columns.
The LORD God now continues with the sentencing of the
guilty ones.
He is still addressing Satan:
[15]
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
And so it would come to pass that Christ's heel was
bruised when His feet were nailed to the cross at Calvary,
but as it is recorded in Hebrew 2:14 He shall destroy
Satan, whose name is "death".
God has also said that He would put enmity
(Webster: positive, active, and typically mutual hatred
or ill will)
between Satan and Eve and between HIS SEED and HER SEED.
Did you notice that there is no mention of apple seeds.
[16]
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception;
in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy
husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Conception?
God is talking about conception
and bringing forth children?
What brought up that subject?
What does conception have to
do with apples anyway?
Why didn't He say, "I will make
your teeth hurt every time you bite fruit"?
Hello!
While we're on the subject of
conception, did you know that Eve had twins?
We'll find out soon!
To
study the 1st. 11 chapters of Genesis word for word: (live
link to) All
11 chapters in one complete study
To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits;
to understand it, the highest of all goals.
We pray that with the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, you accomplish both.
The
"American
Wisdom Series"