When God made man and brought him into fellowship with Himself, everything was for the Lord. Adam and Eve had no other object in view for which to live and work, even among all the creatures in the Garden, then the Lord. It was the Lord and His two affectionate stars all glorously walking in the cool of the night. Wow! The Lord had great pleasure in that. And if you look throughout your bible you will see that the Lord has pleasure in, and draws near to, those who are in a state of worship.
What I mean to say is that the Lord's drawing near is on the grounds that those he is drawing near to have a heart that is out to himself.
You never find the Lord drawing near when it is otherwise, unless it be in judgment. But when the Lord comes in blessing, in fellowship, companionship, it is because there are hearts out to Himself, and if the Lord came there into the garden, as He is shown to have done, it was because there were hearts toward Him. Loving Him, worshipping Him. When the Lord Jesus was here it was like that as well. He loved to be where He found a heart open to Him, ready to receive Him, ready to answer to His desires. I suppose that is why he went to Lazarus's house to visit so much. He found that there where hearts there for Him, friendship and warmth. There was a spirit of worship.
But then there came the terrible break, and the devil came into the garden to divert from God, to redirect to himself. But how, you may ask?-and this is a terrible thing to recognize. He brought man's own personal interests into view, man's own personal interests first, and showed him that he could have something-he could get something. In other words Adam and Eve found that there was something in it for themselves. Up until we read where they took the fruit and ate, it was all the Lord could get, and now the situation is that man can have something for himself.
The enemy was working in a deep and subtle way to draw Adam away from God to himself; and so, getting man into alliance with himself; he deceived man into thinking that he was going to have the benefit, when all the time it was the devil who was going to have the benefit. That is the deception of mankind. He was turned from God to get something, a good time, this world, great pleasure, fame, and all that, and in the end he finds he has been duped, and the devil has got it all-and him in the bargain. That is the tragedy and the deception.
But this is the point: It was in order to draw away from God by this self-interest, this selfishness- and break the worship, and the fellowship. From that time it has been like that. The world is a selfish world, a world that draws to itself, that does not give God His place, does not let God have everthing, first and last. That is how things are, and we as Christians are to change that.
