Sunday 28^th September 2025

‘You will not certainly die,’ the snake said to the woman.
‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’
Genesis 3:4-5 (NIV)

Character assassination
“Sin always begins with the character assassination of God.”

It’s certainly an arresting sentence, which I found while reading Tim Keller’s exposition of the story of Jonah, The Prodigal Prophet.  [I do read other authors as well!  I’ve been reading this as we preach our way through Jonah at the 6pm service].

What does he mean?  He goes on, “We believe that God has put us in a world of delights but has determined that he will not give them to us if we obey him.  [Read that sentence again; it’s an unusual one].  This is the lie of the serpent, the original temptation of Satan to Adam and Eve that brought about the Fall (Genesis 3:4-5).  The serpent told the human race that disobeying God was the only way to realise their full happiness and potential, and this delusion has sunk deep into every human heart.”

To put it simply, we say to ourselves, “If I obey God I’ll miss out!  I need to be happy.”  And so we lie to one another, we’re unfaithful to our spouses, we abuse drugs and alcohol, we use pornography, we bully, we’re dishonest with our money, we give ourselves to the idols of success, reputation, comfort, pleasure and more.

It’s all because in our minds we’ve ‘assassinated’ some aspect of God’s character.  We’ve persuaded ourselves that he isn’t really good and doesn’t really have our best interests at heart; or he’s not really wise and doesn’t really know what’s best for us; or he isn’t really in control and so can’t bring about what’s best for us even if he knew what that was, and so on.  And so we pursue our own happiness because we don’t trust God to deliver it to us.

A good question to ask ourselves when we’re tempted to do what we know is wrong, or tempted to avoid doing what we know is right, is something like this: “What aspect of God’s character am I not believing at this moment?”  And then focus on that aspect, to thank God that he really is good or wise or sovereign, or whatever, and to ask him to help us trust him.

Prayer
Lord, show me what you’re really like, and help me to trust you.  That’s easier for me to say than it is do so, so help me!  Help me to believe that my idea of what will make me happy may be flawed, and that I won’t miss out if I obey you.  Amen.

Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)