When did humanity’s fall into sin take place? Was it when Eve ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Or was it when she persuaded Adam to eat, condemning all his offspring to the curse of sin?

In his message “Truth in the Crosshairs,” John MacArthur explains that sin entered the world before anyone ate of the tree.

As soon as one does not completely and wholeheartedly and unreservedly trust in the Word of God as absolutely true, and the source of our highest joy and greatest good and deepest satisfaction and broadest pleasure and most consummate fulfillment, then mistrust has gained a foothold of sin in the heart. And the Fall happened there. It didn’t happen when [Eve] ate; it happened when she didn’t trust.

From the beginning, Satan’s primary strategy has been to call into question the authority, sufficiency, and clarity of God’s Word. The entire world’s system is built on the premise that Scripture is flawed, incomplete, outdated, untrustworthy, and irrelevant. That’s why the world scoffs at the church, and why it endlessly assaults believers’ confidence that the Bible is the Word of God.

In “Truth in the Crosshairs,” John MacArthur identifies many of the primary avenues Satan uses to assault God’s Word today. Identifying the categories of these attacks—whether they be from critics, cultists, carnal wisdom, or the culture at large (to name just a few)—is vital to defending the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.

Perhaps the most convicting aspect of the message is the reminder of the vast breadth of lies Satan promotes in his assault on the truth, and just how easy it is to succumb to his deceptions. John explicitly warns about the dangers of friendly fire in the church—that while we are mindful of threats from outside the church, we must be just as watchful for threats from within. This sermon is the church’s call to action; to know the enemy and his schemes, and to be on guard against his constant assaults.

Click here to listen to “Truth in the Crosshairs.”