I think I got everybody equipped for the night. We're going to be in Genesis chapter number 3 for most of the night. I have given you a sheet. We'll talk about this in a minute. It would probably be good for you to look at this sheet instead of going in your own Bible. This is out of a Scofield reference Bible. Probably one of the oldest Bibles I've got. Had it since I was a kid. Been around a while. It has some deteriorated notes in the back. My pastor recommended me to paste a handout he had in the back of it. I pasted it in the back of it, and over the years it has disintegrated. It's still got remnants there, and I can kind of remember that. He had asked us to do that, and I did that as a young man. are going to begin looking at particular laws of biblical interpretation. In addition to the great general laws of biblical interpretation, there's a number of, you could call them special laws, but I'm calling them particular laws that must be considered when interpreting the Word of God. And we're going to consider the most important of these, beginning with the law of first mention. The law of first mention. And the law is stated this way. The first mention of any given subject gives important keys to its subsequent understanding in other places in the scripture. In other words, you need to pay extra close attention the first time you see something to try to gather all that you can about that subject. Essential truth connected with any word, expression, or teaching is to be guided by its first mention in the Bible. And the first place a given subject is mentioned usually establishes some very important truths that are necessary for proper interpretation throughout Scripture. You can learn a lot by paying close attention. And we may expect the first mention of a subject or truth to forecast its treatment throughout the Scripture. You're going to find as you move through Scripture some of those things coming back up again. And the example I'm going to give tonight, I'm going to make sure that we deal with this one in particular. I've given you several examples there. But we want to take a look at the first mention of Satan. The first mention of Satan. And this is found in Genesis 3. and we see what Genesis 3 reveals to us about Satan, and let's read the passage of scripture here that we're going to be dealing with. Verse number 1, Genesis chapter number 3, verse number 1. I know the folks that are watching the video, they're not going to have the benefit of having this sheet, but I'll try to explain what we're doing. If you have a Scofield reference Bible, I recommend you pull it out if you don't have that. you still, you can, you can follow along in your scripture and I'll give you some understanding from there. But I was just wanting to, I'm kind of doing a twofer tonight, okay? Giving you, this is a, this is a highly recommended study Bible. We looked at one last week, the Life Application Bible. Scofield Reference Bible is another. And I'm going to show you why It is good for something like what we're dealing with tonight, this first mention principle when you're talking about a major Bible doctrine. Now, here in Genesis chapter 3 verse number 1, we read, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat? of every tree of the garden. Now, a couple of things you will notice there. The word serpent, which that is the form that Satan took. He used the serpent to reveal himself through, and you will notice the two beside there, and a C. The C, all the alphabet letters go, are referencing what's in the middle of the page, and that is the cross reference. And it's important that you know that, and let me show you how this works, okay? But the two goes to a note, and remember I said last week, no matter what study Bible you have, understand that the notes are not the Word of God. The notes are not the Word of God, but they can, most of the time, help you come to an understanding. of some things that you're reading. And here it talks about the serpent. And look down there at number two underneath that verse there at the bottom of the page. The serpent in his Edenic form is not to be thought of as a writhing reptile. That is the effect of the curse found in Genesis 3.14. And the creature which lent itself to Satan may well have been the most beautiful as it was the most subtle of creatures less than man. Traces of that beauty remain despite the curse. Every movement of a serpent is graceful and many species are beautifully colored. and the serpent, Satan first appeared as an angel of light. He's coming with the idea, Eve, I'm here to help you. Right? That's what he's doing. And he still does that today. He's an angel of light. And he came under the prospect of sharing with her something she didn't know. God didn't tell you everything. Let me tell you what you need to know on top of this. And so what we see here is a description here of the serpent, and we see the reference there in the middle of the page. Let me explain to you how this reference Bible works, okay, the Scofield reference Bible. There, where it says Satan, you'll notice it has verses 1, 2, 4, 13, 14 that it references. Those are the ones where I've got serpent highlighted, okay? on this page, and really on this page and the next page. That in this chapter is what it is with regard to this chapter. And then it has a reference to 1 Chronicles 21.1, which is the next reference, that's the very next reference that you will find a reference to Satan. And that's pretty helpful, don't you think? You flip on the back side, look on the back side of your page there, and you have 1 Chronicles chapter 21 and verse 1. It says, And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. And so we see some characteristics of Satan here. And we see also there in the middle that G that's on Satan down at chapter 21 verse 1. See the little G beside there refers to the middle of the page. Well it gives you the next reference that you will find. It's Job 1. verses 6, 7, 8, 9, and 12. But it also gives you, in both of these places, every place that you go to, it will give you the first place that you will find it and the last place that you will find it. That's real helpful, isn't it? Very helpful. One of the reasons why I believe my early studies in using the Schofield Reference Bible got me deep in the Scriptures. When you learn how to use it, it's a great tool. But let's go back to the other page. And we see, we're talking about there in verse number one, Genesis 3.1, we're talking about Satan is subtle. And the word subtle means he's sly, he's cunning, He's crafty, he's deceitful, he's treacherous. Now those are the characteristics that we know follow him all through the book, don't we? We know that for sure. Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 3. He said, But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, So your minds should be corrupted from simplicity that is in Christ. And then 2 Corinthians 11 verse number 14 says, And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. And see, we mentioned that he's coming to, he's coming to Eve there in the garden and has, as trying to help her out, and he still does that. He still comes as an angel of light. We see that not only is Satan subtle, but we see that Satan is proactive. Now, by proactive, we mean creating or controlling a situation by taking the initiative. It's the opposite of being passive. There's no way that Satan is passive. No, he is actively aggressive against believers, against Israel, and against us individually. He came to Eve there in Genesis 3. Even didn't go looking for him, he went looking for her. And he came also, if you remember at the end of Christ being out in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, well, guess who showed up? It was Satan, right? And in Matthew chapter number 4 verse 3 says, And when the tempter came to him, so the tempter came to the Lord Jesus Christ, just the way he came to Eve. Now, I want you to understand he's not passing today either. He still takes the initiative to bring us down. And that's what 1 Peter 5, 8 is all about. Be sober. Be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walked about, seeking whom he may devour." Now we know, looking here in Genesis 3, that he did a good job of devouring Eve, didn't he? And Adam, too. And just plunged us into this mess we call sin, and death that came with it. But we know that he continues to cause issues. He is proactive. And that's why you can't let your guard down. Satan is also doubt-inducing. We find that in chapter 3 verse number 1 as well. And what he says here is that at the end of verse 1, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? He's trying to make her doubt, you know, what did God say? Can I tell you that today He still wants to cause us to have doubts about the Word of God? That's the area where He will attack us as well. He's doubt-inducing. In fact, we see that in verse number 1 and also in verse number 4. And the servant said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, Now how did that compare to what God said? God said, the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And so he's casting doubt on the word of God. Anything that causes you to cast doubt on the word of God, you need to be cautious of it. You really do. Because that's Satan's work. Satan and We know that he appeared before the Lord in Job 1 and 9 and was wanting to bring Job down. He thought that by the Lord putting his hand on Job, touching all that he had, of course, the Lord allowed Satan to do that. He didn't do it directly, but he took Protective hedge away. I lifted it a little bit for for Satan to to do those things But he was trying to get His old whole idea was with Job was to try to induce doubt about the goodness of God You know he does that in our life, too You'll have some circumstance come in your life, and you didn't expect it, and you'll begin to doubt the goodness of God Don't let that happen God's still good all the time, and all the time God's still good. Doesn't matter what happens. We know, because we read the book, we can read in Job chapter number one, Job chapter number two, how that Satan was behind all of this, and God was just allowing his servant to go through this as a testimony. We don't know what, when something happens that comes our way. We don't know what the end will be. We know that Job's end wound up being better than his beginning. And so Satan tries to get us to doubt. He's doubt-inducing and all the way through scripture you'll find he's not only not only subtle and proactive, but he's doubt-inducing. And we see that Satan mixes truth with error there in verse number four. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Well, what he first said there in verse number four, you shall not surely die, that's a lie. When he says, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open, that's mixing truth with error. He said you shall be his gods. You weren't gonna be his gods. They weren't no good and evil for sure, but what we see is, that Satan loves to mix truth with error. Matthew 4 and verse number 6, Satan said to the Lord Jesus Christ when he was tempting him, he said unto him, Thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, For it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against his own. Now does the Scripture say that? It does, but he's taking it out of context. It doesn't mean that we put ourselves in bad predicaments to test God. We don't test God. We trust God. I've shared with you before the verses that he was quoting and how he pulls things out of context, didn't quote the whole thing, and it makes a difference. Satan loves to use the Word of God. Just because somebody uses the Word of God doesn't mean that you can trust them. Okay? Understand that. I mean, they might be using the King James Version of the Bible. And still, teaching and preaching error. They can. Satan also, I want you to notice, tempts in three areas. And that is this, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And we see here, Genesis chapter number three, we see down in verse number six, when the woman saw the tree was good for food, that's the lust of the flesh, okay. Now this can give me a belly full, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, there's the lust of the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. There's the pride of life. She took of the fruit thereof, that eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. So he got her looking at the tree and got her looking at the fruit there. But you know, he tried to get the Lord Jesus Christ with the same thing in Matthew chapter number four. Look at Matthew chapter number four. Let's see. what the, how he tempted our Lord. There in verse number two, it says when he, talking about Jesus, had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungry. I get hungry after four hours, okay? I don't know about you, amen? Give me four hours and I'm ready for the next meal. But 40 days, he was hungry. His flesh was hungry. When the tempter came to him, verse 3, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. There's the lust of the flesh. He wanted him to do a miracle. He wanted him to obey Satan, obey himself, and turn turn stones into bread to fulfill that hunger that he had. But look what the Lord said in verse 4. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh them up into the holy city, and setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple. He's in Jerusalem at the pinnacle of the temple. Verse 6, He said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against his own. There is the pride of life. The pride of life. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Remember me telling you, we ought not test the Lord. We ought not tempt the Lord. It's not for us to do, is it? Then verse number eight, again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, said unto him, all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. He takes him up there, shows him the glory of all the stuff, like I said, the lusts of the eyes. Man, you can have all this stuff right now. You bypass the cross. You just fall down and worship me and I'll give you all this. And verse 10, Then said Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written. Notice all three times, verse 4, verse 7, and verse 10. The Lord used the word of God against him. It is written, it is written, it is written. Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. So, we see Satan loves to tempt us in three areas as well. And that's why I believe the Apostle John wrote in 1 John 2, 16, he said, For all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And we know that Satan, he's the god of this world. He didn't create this world, but he's in control of the wickedness that's going on. Less of the flesh, less of the eyes, pride of life. All right, well let's move on to, I'm not going to be able to cover all of these, but we'll take a look. Look at the first mention of Babylon, Genesis chapter number 10. Genesis chapter number 10. And you'll have to turn in your Bible for that one, okay? I hope this was a little help to you and help you understand how this particular study Bible works and how it can be a help to you. Genesis 10 and verse number 10 is the first time the city of Babylon is mentioned in Scripture. Chapter 10, verse 10, in the beginning of his kingdom, talking about Nimrod. Nimrod is mentioned in verse 9 as being He began to be a mighty one in the earth according to verse 8. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. And in verse 10 it says, And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel. It was Babel. And Erech and Ahad and Calnath in the land of Shinar. Now look at chapter number 11 in verse number 9. This is where it became, where it was named at. Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth. And from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of the earth." And we know that it was because of their rebellion. You can read about the rebellion there in chapter 11 verses 1 through 8. And that's the reason why the Lord scattered them because of their rebellion. The Lord had wanted them to spread out and replenish the earth. And they said, oh, we just like staying together. We're going to be right here. And they built a tower. And they tried to build a tower to reach God, what they were going to do. And the Lord confused their language. And they didn't understand. Babylon never becomes anything else throughout the Bible. In fact, when you find them destroyed in Revelation 17 and 18, it's still the model or pattern of evil. depicted as a city of rebellion and confusion. And the other passage I want you to go to is in Acts chapter number two. And the reason why Acts chapter number two has this reference of what was needed in the early church, the gift of tongues, was because of what happened at Babylon, okay, at Babel, the confusion of the language. The mention of tongues in the church is found in Acts chapter 2 and verse number 4. We're talking about the tongues in the church. This is the first mention of tongues in the church. Acts 2 verse 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Don't stop reading. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that, notice this, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. They weren't using Babel. They weren't using gibberish. They were speaking in languages. Look at verse 7. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? Parthenians, and Medes, and the Elamites, and dwellers of Mesopotamia, and Judea, and Cappadocia, and Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, and Egypt, and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews, and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians. We do hear them speak in our tongues." What was their tongues? Languages. the wonderful works of God." They weren't hearing gibberish. They were hearing the wonderful works of God, and they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, what meaneth this? So, this first mention of tongues in the church is very important, and it establishes the fact that speaking in tongues meant speaking in other known and understandable by someone languages. And when you apply this fact to other New Testament references, it presents no difficulty and refutes any notion of gibberish being the tongues of the Bible, okay? Now, let's turn to Isaiah chapter number two. Isaiah chapter number two. Let's see another one. We're just hitting a few instances to show you how the law first mentioned The first mention of the day of the Lord is Isaiah chapter 2 and verse 12. Isaiah 2 and verse 12. It says, For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low. Now let's look at it in its context, okay? What is it speaking of? Look at verse number one. It's bringing down the lofty looks of man, number one. It says, The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, for the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low. And upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and all the oaks of Bashan, and upon the high mountains, and upon the high hills that are lifted up," and he's comparing men to to these things. They look like they're something. And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all the pleasant pictures. Notice verse 17. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. So this first mention of the term, Day of the Lord, shows it to be a coming of wrath and judgment against this earth and against mankind. Again, the meaning of this term does not change in subsequent scriptures. It reveals the same significance. And I'm not going to take time to turn to those other passages there. I've given you some other passages that you can look that up. and see where it talks about the Day of the Lord, and you will understand how it does speak to the judgment and coming wrath that is going to be during the tribulation period. It's what it's speaking of. When we're taken out of here, and when you think of Day of the Lord, you might say, the Lord is going to have His day. You could put it that way. It's when the Lord has his day. And the Lord's going to have his day. A day of wrath, a day of judgment against mankind on this earth. That's all we got time for. You got the first mention there of Jerusalem as well. And of course, it's kind of an oxymoron name. It means the city of peace. And even today, it's anything but peace. Anything but peace. It's going to be in the book of Zechariah on Sunday night. We're going to look in when we get to chapter number 12. We'll see it's going to be a cup of trembling. The whole world just Even right now, the whole world is just stirred up against Israel, against Jerusalem. It's not going to get any better until Christ comes. And it will be the city of peace, finally. It's associated with conflict from day one until the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, takes and goes on his throne for the literal thousand-year reign during the Melino reign. So, that's the law of first mention. Now, next week, Lord willing, we're going to take a look at another law, and that law is going to be the law of progressive mention. You got the first mention, but then some things build on each other throughout Scripture. And we're going to take a look at the matter of Christ and Christ's birth and how in the Scripture, how it's developed as you go through the Scripture. We'll see the progressive mention, the law of progressive mention. So that's next week, Lord willing. Let's pull back out our prayer list now, and that's our Bible study for tonight. Let's pray for the needs, and we'll be dismissed with this prayer. Appreciate you being here tonight.