I was sixteen years old when my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease—not my grandmother, but my mom. She was only 49 years old when she was diagnosed and had obviously been suffering from some symptoms for several years prior. When I was twenty two my mom no longer recognized me or anyone else. We all watched her slowly decline over the next fourteen years until she became a shriveled, 69 pound shell of a person. The only reason she lived so long was due to the attentive care that my dad provided day in and day out. Up until two weeks ago, I had never heard of anyone being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at such a young age. There is a man in the UK who was diagnosed at age 36. What causes such devastation of mind and body for people so young? Is it genetics? Is it ingestion of aluminum? Is it due to a lack of physical or mental exercise? It’s neither of these things nor is it some undiscovered diagnostic secret. The devastation of Alzheimer’s is caused by sin. The same is true of cancer, heart disease, Parkinson’s, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, lyme’s, the swine flu and every other kind of flu, infections, viruses—down the list we go, ad infinitum. Every sickness is caused by sin. Not that our specific sin causes sickness, though that can happen from time to time, but sickness in the sense that our bodies are broken and deteriorating due to sin.

Most people believe that physical sickness is a far worse reality than spiritual sickness, but nothing could be farther from the truth. If we could peer into the unseen spiritual realm, we would see that most of the people we run into on a daily basis are actually walking corpses. It’s a gloomy thought that sounds like something straight out of a horror movie, but spiritually speaking, the majority of people are the walking dead. If we could see it, it would be like two worlds merged into one. While you sit and chat with an unbeliever, on the outside they may be smiling and having a good time, but if you could peel away the physical world it would reveal a gray pallor of shriveled, dead skin and vacant eyes. Even as Christians we too often forget that the most severe problem is not physical sickness but spiritual sickness. However, I believe that physical sickness is a painful reminder of our spiritual need. Famines, plagues and swords can’t preach the gospel, but they can reveal the need for the gospel.

My main point is that Alzheimer’s and all sickness, suffering and death came into existence in Genesis chapter three. I want to pick up where we left off three weeks ago, with examining Satan’s strategy. If we know his strategy we can be ready to defeat it. Since it’s been so long, let me remind you of the first four points.

1.                  The serpent is shrewd, crafty, subtle.

2.                  The serpent utilized half-truths.

3.                  The serpent encouraged doubting of God’s word.

4.                  The serpent questioned God’s character.

5.                  The serpent usurped God’s authority structure. A few weeks back we learned about the authority structure that God has established, which looks like this:

God

Christ

Man

Woman

Animals

Though equal in essence, God is the head of Christ. The equivalent relationship is that man is the head of woman, though they are fully equal as well. Together, men and women were given dominion over all of creation, including the animal kingdom. Satan was fully aware of this authority structure, in fact, authority was the very thing he set out to conquer. He hated the fact that he was subject to God’s authority. Isaiah put words into the mouth of Satan when he wrote, I will make myself like the Most High.

We all know what it means to climb the corporate ladder, where you work extremely hard in order to receive promotion after promotion until you can reach the uttermost heights of salary and power in the corporate world. Satan sought to climb the “divine ladder,” except he wasn’t even willing to work hard, he just wanted the reigns of power handed to him. He wanted God to share all of the power and glory with him. As he watched God rule over the universe, he said to himself, “You know, I think I could as good a job as Him, maybe even better.” This is the incredibly common belief of those who live under authority. How many employees think that they can do better than their bosses? How many privates in the army secretly think they are far superior to their sergeants? How many city councilman believe themselves to be better managers than the mayor? How many assistant vice presidents of companies view themselves as rightful heirs to the throne of their company? How many kids don’t like being under the rules of their parents? Many mayors, presidents and sergeants are incompetent and oftentimes there is a more qualified person in their ranks, but this fact does not justify our rebellious attitudes. By nature, we are haters of authority. We don’t like other people telling what we should do or not do. Ever since we first heard the word “no” as babies, we have not liked that word.

Satan’s strategy was to attack God’s authority structure. As a serpent, he as lower than Adam and Eve and as Satan, he did not wield any authority over the first couple. Adam was the rightful head of the human race, but Satan did not approach Adam but instead his temptation was directed at Eve. The temptation was “to be like God,” but inherent in the temptation was for the woman to rise about the man in authority. Satan was trying to usurp God’s authority on three levels: he was elevating the beast over man (blue arrow) he was elevating woman over man (red arrow) and he was elevating man over God (brown arrow). If you want to know why gender roles are so confused and lopsided today, you don’t need to look any further than this chapter to see why.

Eve succumbed to the temptation at many levels. But where was Adam in all of this? Look back at verse six. ^6 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. As far as we can tell, Adam was standing beside his wife during this entire conversation. He never once interrupted the serpent. He never once asserted himself as head over the beast and protector of the woman. Adam was a wimp and a coward. Husbands, if a stranger broke into your home and proceeded to beat up your wife, would you stand there and watch the whole thing? If you have even a shred of decency in you, you would go after the intruder. You would fight with all your strength. If you weren’t strong enough, you would grab the nearest weapon—a baseball bat, a golf club or even a lamp—and use it against the enemy. If necessary, you would give your life to defend your wife and family. When the serpent crawled into the garden he was an intruder. When the serpent started to talk with Eve it was like an intruder beating your wife. When the serpent hooked Eve with his trap, it was like he had just killed her. Adam watched the intruder break into his home and beat his wife to death. Adam was a wimp and a coward. Before he took a single bite of the forbidden fruit, he had already lost the battle. He started losing the battle when he first laid eyes on the serpent. When General Robert E. Lee walked into Appomattox, Virginia on April 9, 1865 and signed the terms of surrender, he had already lost the Civil War. It was not a question of winning or losing, all that remained was to make the defeat official. When Adam ate the fruit it was like signing a statement of surrender—he had already lost the battle and all that remained was to make it official.

Too often this is the kind of battle we have with Satan. We lose the battle before it even starts. We catch a glimpse of the enemy and we lay down our arms. Adam could have benefitted from James 4:7, Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Adam couldn’t resist the devil because he never submitted to God. He didn’t submit to God in reference to gender roles. He didn’t submit to God by protecting his wife. He didn’t submit to God by not eating the forbidden fruit. He didn’t submit to God so he couldn’t possibly resist the devil. This is often our problem as well. We refuse to submit to God but at the same time we want the devil to leave us alone. You may be active in spiritual warfare, you may understand the strategies of Satan better than anyone else, you may possess great strength to resist, but unless you first submit to God, resistance is futile. You may not be in active, full scale rebellion against God, but if there is an area of your life that you know you have not submitted to God, then you cannot resist Satan’s strategies. You will lose the battle before the first shot is fired. Some of you know that area of your life that is not submitted to God—your finances, your career, your choice of entertainment, some decision that is before you.

6.                  The serpent attacked God’s moral standards. Even though this attack was cloaked in fancy words, Satan’s desire was to directly contradict God’s moral standards. Isaiah 5:20 says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. As Christians we realize that there are many so-called “gray areas.” We want to use our liberty and freedom and not be bound by legalism, bit sometimes we can cross the line in our liberty. Be on guard against calling something good that is evil or something evil that is good.

7.                  The serpent tempted with pride, power and prestige. Probably the best known line in this passage is from verse five, You will be like God. The irony is that they were already “like God” in that they were created in God’s image and likeness. Adam and Eve were already more like God than the serpent. Nothing good was ever withheld from them, especially the greatest good of all—the presence of God in the Garden. They walked with God and talked with him. Their Savior was with them at all times.

8.                  The serpent manipulated their emotions. Satan didn’t merely offer a sterile temptation with words on a page. Since it is written down for us as words on a page, I think we can miss out on the emotions of this tragic event. We tend to be weakest and most vulnerable in our emotions. There are several other ways of stating the same temptation. Listen to these and see if any of them are true of you.

·                     You deserve better than this.

·                     You should be allowed to do this.

·                     What’s wrong with it anyway?

It’s not just the content of the question but the tone of the question can deceive and manipulate. One can imagine that the serpent was very shocked at God’s command—“You can’t eat from any of the trees!?” Such questions are part question, part exclamation and shock. “You’ve got to be kidding me! You mean that you’re not allowed to do _____?! Are you telling me that your parents won’t let you_____?” Such questions are intended to shock you and shame you into moving in a different direction. If someone tried to get you to violate God’s moral standards, you might be able to resist, but if the same person tried to shame you into violating God’s standards, they are much more likely to succeed. We are easily manipulated at the emotional level.

This is a special warning to teens and young people. Your whole life your parents have been telling you what you can and can’t do. You are at the age where you have earned the right to make some decisions but you also will want to make decisions that you haven’t yet earned. In other words, you are at the age where you have a high tendency to want to rebel against your parent’s authority. On top of your natural inclination to rebel, other people your age also want to rebel. And what happens when you add one potential rebel to another potential rebel. I was never that great at math, but I believe we have just doubled our rebellious potential. I call this a PRQ—the Potential Rebellion Quotient. If you have a room of four teens your PRQ is quadrupled. If you have eight teens in the room…well, you get the picture. So what do you call one thousand  teens in a high school? Now you’re at the level of a Nuclear PRQ explosion.

If this were not enough, the parent’s of every teen have different standards. Sally over there is allowed to go to certain movies and wear certain clothes and listen to certain music, all of the things you are not allowed to do. You know you’re not allowed to do those things, but Sally takes great pleasure in regularly reminding you of your long list of restrictions. I can’t believe your dad won’t let you go the movie with me Friday night. I can’t believe your mom won’t let you wear this cute top. We could each buy one and then we’d be twins! Here—listen to this awesome song I just downloaded from itunes. Oh, that’s right, your parent’s won’t let you listen to it. All of these comments are nothing more than not so subtle attempts to shame you into rejecting parental authority, and for teens, parental authority is God’s authority. Teenyboppers like Sally and Bobby excel at shaming other teens into following them. They are experts at manipulating your emotions to get you to violate your conscience and your God. They are like skilled surgeons cutting into a patient—they know precisely how much manipulative pressure to apply to get the job done. If they apply too much pressure, they will “kill the patient,” that is, the other person will likely reject their advice, but just the right amount of pressure will get the job done. Can you see that Sally and Bobby are following Satan’s strategy to a tee?

How do we fight against this strategy? Like it says in James…

Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

We can apply this verse in this way…

Submit to your parents, resist Sally and she will flee from you.

I am not telling you that you must leave all of your friends, although you may have some friends that would require such a drastic action, but if you submit to God and resist these temptations, Sally may not flee from you, but she may stop hassling you. She will soon realize that you cannot be manipulated. She will either hate you for resisting her or else she will respect your confidence and courage.

Everyone has the same choice before them—whether you are under your parent’s authority or calling your own shots. You can either walk in the garden with your Savior or you can Walk down the street with the devil. The first one loves you and the second one hates you. The first one laid down his life for you and the second wants you to lay down your life for him.

Rich Maurer

August 2, 2009