Steve Gentry
[0:00] If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up to Genesis chapter 3.
[0:06] As we were singing this morning, I was brought to my memory, [0:13] author by the name of A.W. Tozer, an old preacher. [0:17] In one of his books, he writes about experiencing the presence of God and how [0:22] it is so much less about bringing God [0:27] to us and bringing his presence down to us as it is about just realizing that God is [0:35] here already. And we just simply must realize that he is here and we are in his presence already.
[0:44] Nothing special is required to be in the presence of God, just a realization that he is here and he [0:50] desires to be worshiped. So as we go through the rest of the service, I want you to do it with a [0:56] realization that God is here in our presence this morning and he is moving if you will simply [1:04] realize it. If you will simply trust, if you will simply believe. [1:10] Last week we talked about creation. As we are moving through this series story, as we are moving [1:16] through the story of God that he has written for us, that he has revealed for us in Scripture
[1:23] through creation and the fall and redemption and restoration. He is unfolding this magnificent [1:29] story where he reveals himself to us and he is not a God that is far off, but rather he is there and [1:38] he is not silent. And last week we took a look at creation and we looked at the amazing nature [1:44] that God has done and God has created and the way that he has done it all for his glory. [1:52] That creation is not something that just sits here and it is not something that is just an end [1:59] in itself. It is not something for us to look at and find glory in, but rather it is something
[2:05] that was created by a God who desires to be glorified by his creation. Last week we saw the [2:13] highlight of creation was man. And as he created humanity, as he created man and then he created [2:21] woman and he gave them what is called dominion in the Scriptures, but what for our understanding [2:27] and our sin is to be seen as a stewardship. As we are to care and cultivate for this creation [2:35] so that it will bring God glory as we are his reflection onto this earth with responsibility, [2:44] with care and that is our worship. But at the end of last week we kind of pointed out that
[2:55] something has changed. That creation no longer really exists in such a way that it reflects the [3:05] glory of God, that it brings God glory, but rather now we look at creation and something [3:11] is wrong. We look at creation and the ground is hard. We look at the fields and they don’t simply [3:18] spring forth in vegetation, but now we must go and we must cultivate and we must work and we must [3:24] be in pain to bring forth that which God simply said in the beginning was there and it was good.
[3:34] If you look in previous in Genesis chapter 2, starting in verse 7, it says, [3:43] Then the Lord God formed the man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the [3:49] breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, [3:56] in the east. And there he put the man whom he had formed and out of the ground the Lord God [4:02] made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was [4:08] in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When we look at
[4:14] creation from the very beginning, when we look at it as God made it, we see a creation that doesn’t [4:23] need us to immediately go and just begin to till the ground. It doesn’t need us to go and plant [4:31] a seed. Rather God just forms it and he plants a garden himself out of his own mouth and it [4:38] springs forth and we just simply need to take care of it. But we don’t have to make it happen. [4:47] God does it. Because the way that God created the earth, we see it and we see that it is not [4:55] dependent on us, but rather it’s dependent on God. So therefore we can look at us and say,
[5:02] if we can’t make that happen, who are we dependent on? We’re dependent on the very God that created [5:10] all of it. And humanity shows forth from these verses where God forms us and then he forms the [5:18] earth and he makes it spring forth with that which will give us sustenance. And we see that [5:23] humanity is dependent on God. There’s nothing in creation that screams from the beginning that it [5:31] needs us. It’s not either self-sufficient, but rather it’s God-sufficient. God has made creation [5:42] so that it will spring forth itself and it will bring us fruit, it will bring us vegetation. The
[5:48] fields will feed the animals and we must simply go after and overlook it and look over it for God.
[5:58] We see this great dependence on our great God who from the beginning was just there.
[6:07] He is in no need. We don’t need to care for him. He’s totally self-sufficient [6:16] and he’s totally giving of himself to us. But now if you look deep inside of yourself you see [6:27] something that’s totally different in all of creation. You see that that mandate that we have [6:33] in Genesis 2 where we care for the earth, we see that something has changed where the earth now [6:40] must be given something in order to give us something.
[6:49] So the question is what happened? Well if you look a little further in Genesis 2, and we’re [6:56] not going to put that on the screen, but just to paraphrase it, you see in Genesis 2 that God [7:01] creates man and he has man in this garden that is Eden. And it’s just like this beautiful utopian [7:08] society where everything is perfect. There’s no such thing as sweat which would be beautiful for [7:14] me because if you’re a big man sweat is just there. It’s almost like God. It’s just there. [7:22] You know I don’t even need to really get up off the couch. I’m just sweaty. But what we see in
[7:29] this, we go to work in the morning and by about 9 a.m. we’re already exhausted and we’re already [7:36] dreaming of our recliners. But it wasn’t like that in the garden. It was just beautiful. I imagine [7:44] just this beautiful creation all around man and God in the rest of Genesis 2, he’s going to lay out [7:50] only a few things that man must be responsible for because man is his representative on creation. [7:58] Man is his reflection to creation. As creation is dependent on God and we are dependent on God, [8:04] God then says, man now you reflect me to creation in the way that you care for it.
[8:10] And Adam names all of the animals. And then he makes Eve because he says, Adam alone you don’t [8:17] reflect my image. It has to be a community. So he creates his wife. He creates woman and there is a [8:24] beautiful community formed that represents the beautiful community of the Trinity. And he looks [8:29] at them and he gives them the best work that I’ve ever heard of. He says, be fruitful and multiply. [8:36] If you’re married, you’re like, yes, that’s one of the good things we got left.
[8:43] And so he says, this is your worship of me. Be fruitful and multiply. And he says, [8:48] take care of creation. Then he says, there’s one thing you cannot do. [8:57] All right. He puts one limitation on man. And it’s a limitation based on our standards. It seems [9:04] so simple. And we look at Adam and Eve and we’re like, what is wrong with you? [9:11] He says, there’s one tree. It’s the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Do not eat of that tree.
[9:22] And then he says, now live.
[9:26] So Adam and Eve, the scripture does not give us a timeline. There’s really no way for us to speculate [9:33] how long creation was just this good and perfect place where nobody had to pick out a shirt to [9:39] wear in the morning, which is another great thing about the original creation that I would love. [9:44] Fashion just didn’t exist. And so they’re just living. They’re just existing and they’re cultivating.
[9:55] But at the beginning of Genesis 3,
[9:58] we see something happen. We see something start to unfold that is going to attempt to undermine [10:06] everything that God has said was good. And God, on the end of day six, he steps back and he said, [10:13] this is good. I’m going to rest for a day now.
[10:18] And he steps back and it just flows. But then at the beginning of Genesis 3,
[10:27] now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. [10:34] The way that the scripture is going to unfold now, we’re going to see that being called crafty is [10:40] not a compliment. He said to the woman, did God actually say,
[10:53] you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the [10:58] fruit of the trees in the garden. But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that [11:03] is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to [11:09] woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened [11:15] and you will be like God knowing good and evil. As the serpent comes and as scripture unfolds and [11:27] the story gets wider, and because we only have six weeks, I’m going to fill you in, that as the
[11:39] serpent comes and that Satan has fallen, he’s an angel of God created by God to bring him [11:45] glory and Satan in his pride falls from his glory. We see that Satan is judged and he’s [11:56] kicked, cast out of heaven. And then he comes to Eve. What’s interesting to me is the way in which [12:09] Satan tempts Eve to sin. Because Satan, obviously, I don’t think I’m filling you in on anything. [12:13] If you’ve been in this culture long enough, you know that Satan tempts Eve to sin. That’s what [12:19] sin is. Sin is disobedience to God. God makes a standard that is the way life is to be lived
[12:26] because he’s the creator and he knows what life is supposed to look like. And he says, don’t do it. [12:31] Well, if you do it, that is sin. That’s the word that’s been described, that’s been given to it. [12:37] It’s Satan tempts her to sin, but he doesn’t tempt her with something that we would say in our culture.
[12:46] Is that ugly?
[12:50] In our culture, what we have done is we have minimized sin in thinking that we’re making [12:56] much of sin. We actually make very little of it by saying there are some things that are these [13:02] great sins and if you avoid those things, then you are a good person. [13:10] And you’re doing good and God is pleased with you. I was raised in such a way in a church that kind [13:16] of gave me the understanding that as long as I did not drink and watch rated R movies that weren’t [13:22] about Jesus dying, and as long as I didn’t have premarital sex, and as long as I didn’t do drugs,
[13:30] and as long as I dressed a certain way, then I was good. Everything was okay because I haven’t [13:39] done any of the things on that list of sin that God hates. But there are other things that aren’t [13:49] that important that are okay.
[13:58] In pointing out these great sins,
[14:03] what we do is we simply give ourselves some therapy.
[14:08] We convince ourselves that we’re okay.
[14:11] Which is I think why sometimes we look at the story
[14:18] and we’re like what is wrong with her? All she had to do was not eat the fruit.
[14:28] But when we look at this story, what I want you to do today is I want you to see it for so much [14:32] more than that because what Eve is tempted with
[14:40] is trust.
[14:44] Because the core of obedience is trust.
[14:51] Because the way we often look at obeying God is we see God as this taskmaster. [14:57] All right? And he’s trying to keep us from the things that would actually make us happy. [15:02] And so as long as we do that which doesn’t really make us happy and we kind of put this weight on [15:07] our shoulders that is kind of just this misery and the stoicism, all right? And we’re trying to [15:11] we avoid true pleasure according to our culture then we’re good. All right? [15:18] SNL did a great Saturday Night Live did a great job of this years ago. Back in the 80s and 90s
[15:24] they had the church lady. All right? And I think that is a great monument to what religion tells [15:31] us sin is. For us to be in sin means to be happy. For us to be out of sin well it means we’re [15:40] miserable. So the God that we see from the beginning of creation is not a happy God. [15:47] It’s a miserable God. But that is not what we have.
[15:53] Because that’s not what Satan tempts Eve with. Because what we have is a God that has given [16:00] Adam and Eve eternal pleasure. He’s given them absolute delight because he’s given them himself. [16:07] And he said I am in you. I am for you. I am with you. We are in community with each other. [16:15] You’re in community with each other. Enjoy me. Worship me. Enjoy everything that I’ve made but [16:23] that which I have made right here. That one thing. Stay away from it. And what is it that he has told [16:32] them to stay away from? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And what is the thing that Satan
[16:38] tempts her with? Trust God because what he does is he says God has lied to you.
[16:46] But notice the name of the tree. Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. [16:53] So Eve is being tempted with eating of this fruit and Satan says if you eat of this fruit [16:57] you’ll be like God knowing good and evil. But what I want you to notice is how crafty he is in making her [17:05] forget that she already knows the first half. Eve knows good.
[17:13] Everything around her is good. God steps back after he creates and he says it’s good. [17:19] And so all Adam and Eve know is good. Everything around them is good. God is good. They are good. [17:29] The creation is very good and Satan is just tempting her with knowing evil.
[17:39] And then he says God’s told you you’ll die. You won’t die. [17:44] So in this moment we see that they’ve been tempted to say that we don’t trust God but rather we trust ourselves. [17:54] Because Satan doesn’t say hey I’m Satan eat this and follow me. He says eat this and you can follow yourself.
[18:04] In this great dependence that God has made us for which is purely logical in our minds. [18:10] The creation should be dependent on the creator.
[18:17] Clearly that makes sense.
[18:20] But in the beginning of Genesis 3 we see that now Satan has said don’t trust him. [18:29] He’s trying to keep you from what real joy looks like. And in our categorizations of sin
[18:40] where does distrust rank?
[18:46] Because that’s what Satan is tempting Eve with.
[18:51] All he’s saying is don’t trust God anymore. Trust yourself.
[19:04] Be independent.
[19:07] So now we see that humanity falls for independence.
[19:15] Man was not created to be independent. Man was created to be absolutely dependent. [19:20] But the craziest thing about the whole situation is that in this dependence we have everything provided for us. [19:28] Joy is given to us. We didn’t have to figure out what sex was. We just knew. [19:35] We could be fruitful and multiply from the beginning. God’s not keeping us from that which is good. [19:41] God has just freely said have at it. It’s good. You have me. I’m good. [19:47] What else could we possibly need? And Eve in her response immediately says that before she even ate the fruit.
[20:00] I’m going to put a little lie in just like you did. [20:04] Because what I want you to notice is what does Eve say when she responds to Satan? [20:09] She says God told us not to eat the fruit and not to touch it.
[20:16] When did God say that?
[20:20] He didn’t. [20:21] So what we’re seeing is that humanity is now just a little chunk of our trust. [20:28] A little chunk of our honesty. A little chunk of our dependence is now falling off. [20:34] To where Eve responds to the devil and says, you know, God is kind of a killjoy. [20:41] He doesn’t even want me to touch it. God never even said that. [20:48] And so Eve takes and she eats.
[20:57] Scripture says that she sees that it’s good and she takes it and she sees it’s good for food and she takes it and she eats it. [21:04] And then we of course find out that Adam has not been far off tending the sheep or anything. [21:09] He was right there because she just handed it over. [21:13] And he took and he ate. [21:17] And immediately creation stops functioning in the way that it was created to function as. [21:25] Because man said, I have a better idea as to what my life should look like than God does.
[21:31] I have a better plan than God does. [21:34] And man begins to follow his own set of rules. [21:39] And man declares his independence from God and says, God, we can do this on our own because we want to know everything that you know. [21:51] Good and evil. No matter what the cost. [21:55] Because Satan says, you won’t die. [21:57] And they said, maybe he’s right and you’re wrong.
[22:02] But immediately death unfolds.
[22:08] Immediately Adam and Eve fall for that which is death. [22:14] And what I want you to see, Isaiah 26, 4 reveals to us this amazing thing about God. [22:20] It tells us that we should trust in the Lord forever. [22:23] For the Lord God is an everlasting rock. [22:26] And as the story begins to unfold, we begin to see more and more about God and how he is in control. [22:34] He’s the creator and he’s the sustainer.
[22:36] And this one to whom they had this connection that I don’t believe we have ever even experienced. [22:43] Where they can see God face to face. [22:47] They can walk and talk with God. [22:50] God has revealed himself fully to his creation.
[22:55] And they know him as an everlasting rock through which they have absolute dependence. [23:03] And they say, God, you are trustworthy but we want to be trustworthy as you are. [23:09] So we want to be independent. [23:11] And immediately man falls.
[23:16] But that’s so silly in theology that we call this the fall of man as if there was a banana peel and we slipped on it. [23:25] Man did not fall into this. Man just ran into it head on. [23:30] Said, hey, we don’t want God anymore.
[23:36] So they declare this amazing independence. [23:39] And look at what Romans 1 has to say about the way creation has fallen away from God. [23:45] And the way man should have known. [23:47] He tells us that for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature. [23:52] Have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world. [23:56] And the things that have been made so they are without excuse.
[23:59] We cannot say that Adam and Eve just got confused. [24:04] No, they watched the vegetation just spring up.
[24:09] For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. [24:15] But they became futile in their thinking. [24:17] And their foolish hearts were dark and claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of God. [24:25] Excuse me, the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
[24:34] What you see in Romans 1 is kind of the unfolding of what sin did. [24:42] You see the unfolding of where sin eventually took us. [24:46] Because as creation goes on and on, you are going to see sin become greater and greater. [24:52] You are going to see life become shorter and shorter. [24:55] And what started as just man saying, okay, we want to be God. [25:01] Man then says, well now we want to make Gods.
[25:05] And so man takes a step away from saying I am God to the foolishness of saying now we can make Gods. [25:12] Now we are going to worship creation over the Creator. [25:16] And so as we see the scriptures unfold and next week we are going to have the great task of unfolding Genesis 4 through Malachi. [25:24] So we are going to go through the rest of the Old Testament in one week next week. [25:26] We are going to see man just becoming foolish and foolish-er and foolish-est. [25:34] Words that don’t even exist.
[25:36] But it is all that I can think of to explain the theology that unfolds. [25:39] The silliness of man, the foolishness of man as we continually see God work. [25:47] And then we continually say, hmm, I think I have got something better.
[25:53] And so we make things like golden calves, we make things like Baal. [25:59] As these great monuments to ourselves to eventually it becomes things like governments, religions.
[26:08] Everything existing to take the place of the God who from creation was simply there.
[26:18] But sin has consequences.
[26:22] As we go through the rest of Genesis we begin to see the consequences of sin that come. [26:28] And that have come to each and every one of us. [26:31] And you may scream out, but that is not fair. [26:34] I wasn’t there.
[26:37] It didn’t have to be.
[26:40] Romans 5 kind of shows us that Adam and Eve represented each and every one of us. [26:49] And that God chose the perfect representative of mankind to make a choice that we would have made too.
[27:03] We see the first consequence that immediately falls is sin and death. [27:09] So sin is a consequence of sin? [27:11] Yeah. [27:12] Romans 5 verse 12 shows us that therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin. [27:22] And so death spread to all men because all sinned. [27:27] So here we see sin coming into the world and then sin is going to continue to reign in everyone’s life after it.
[27:36] My son, I have a 9 month old. [27:38] I talk about him a lot because he is pretty cool. [27:40] He is way cooler than I am. [27:41] But I want you to understand something about my son. [27:44] He is 9 months old but he does not ever have to do anything to become a sinner. [27:50] He doesn’t.
[27:51] He was just born that way.
[27:55] My son was born into a life of sin and even at 9 months he is beginning to show it. [28:01] He can’t even speak yet. [28:04] And he is just a sinner.
[28:10] I have already had to say no to a 9 month old. [28:14] Of course he has no clue what I am saying. [28:16] Because he just kept going.
[28:20] But we are born into a life of sin and that is why it is so foolish for us when we are so judgmental on other people.
[28:30] Think about your life. [28:33] Think about what kind of sin someone else has to do for you to look at them and say I would never do that.
[28:43] That is ugly.
[28:48] I could never commit such a sin against God.
[28:55] You could and you already have.
[29:00] Because you have already lived a life where you distrust God all the time.
[29:07] So when people come into the church, people come into the church and they are not going to believe that you are a sinner. [29:10] When people come into your life, people come into your community group, people go and have coffee with you. [29:16] Somebody comes and just opens their heart and confesses a sin. [29:19] When your response is how disgusting you are, you are already showing that you are a sinner too.
[29:32] Because we all carry the sin nature that Adam gave to us.
[29:40] But also death came. [29:43] How immediately did it come? [29:45] It came as soon as they sinned. [29:47] Think about it this way. [29:48] If I go out into my backyard, I cut a branch off of a tree and I sit it in the center of my yard. [29:56] That branch is going to die.
[29:58] It is going to wither.
[30:02] But as soon as I cut it off, it is gone. [30:05] It is dead. [30:06] It is terminal. [30:07] That is exactly what happened in the fall of man. [30:10] As soon as we had this great declaration of independence from God, we were dead on arrival. [30:18] We began the long journey of withering at that point.
[30:24] We were disconnected from God. [30:28] We were dead. [30:30] Sure, it took years later for Adam and Eve to actually pass away and be buried. [30:35] But from that moment, the long journey of physical death began. [30:40] But the short journey of immediate death, boom, right there. [30:45] We see that because they immediately realized they were naked.
[30:50] If you read through the rest of the chapter, you see that as soon as they ate, they look at each other and say, ah!
[30:58] So they sow fig leaves and they cover themselves from each other. [31:01] Because now they know what nakedness is. [31:05] Nakedness is not sinful.
[31:08] But it serves as a symbol of death that we have to cover up from each other because it is the death of purity.
[31:17] Now the human body is seen as this impure thing. [31:21] And we carry the baggage of sin in the fact that we have to cover ourselves. [31:26] This is not a plea for you to stop covering yourselves.
[31:32] Please don’t hear that.
[31:36] Trust me, you don’t want me to do that.
[31:40] So we see man fall. [31:42] We see death just set itself in. [31:44] But what else happens? [31:45] Isolation. [31:47] They immediately isolate themselves from each other. [31:50] And that is also the nakedness.
[31:53] No longer can they be transparent. [31:54] No longer can they be honest with each other. [31:57] No longer can they just exist in perfect harmony.
[32:01] That harmony in their relationship has cut off immediately. [32:05] And Eve looks at Adam and says, I don’t want you to see me anymore. [32:08] And Adam looks at Eve and says, I don’t want to see you anymore. [32:10] And I don’t want you to see me anymore. [32:11] So I have to cover up. [32:14] But then what else do we see?
[32:16] We see God come. [32:18] God comes and they hide. [32:21] So now they are isolated from God. [32:23] Why? [32:24] Because the scripture says they were filled with fear. [32:28] They have never been a friend.
[32:29] They were afraid before. [32:31] But now they both see that they are naked and they are afraid. [32:34] So they start hiding behind trees from the God that made the trees.
[32:39] So they are isolated now from each other. [32:42] They are isolated also from God. [32:44] And the fact that God did not have to tell them there is a problem between you and I. [32:50] Rather they immediately knew it. [32:51] So they hid from God and God comes down. [32:54] And they kind of figure things out when God says, hey guys where are you?
[32:58] He knows where they are. [32:59] [32:59] [33:00] They immediately expose themselves to God and God sees their clothes. [33:03] And he says, who told you you were naked?
[33:12] Adam. [33:13] Typical man.
[33:16] Well that woman that you gave me.
[33:22] She gave me this apple. [33:25] I didn’t know what I was doing. [33:27] I just wanted to have a good marriage. [33:29] And I knew that if I didn’t do it we would be unhappy. [33:33] Adam immediately blames Eve. [33:35] Even more isolation from each other.
[33:38] Eve blames the snake. [33:40] The snake you made God. [33:42] You know.
[33:45] We see people beginning to erect barriers through clothing. [33:48] We see them erect barriers to relationship. [33:51] I mean you know when Adam blames Eve there is a problem in that marriage.
[33:58] We see isolation begin to take root in every place in their lives. [34:04] And what I want you to do this morning is I want you to look in your life right now and say, [34:08] It is clear, that we still are isolated from each other. [34:13] Because we spend most of our lives staying away from each other. [34:18] From the minute you hit the office you work in, there is somebody you don’t want to see. [34:24] And they are going to get them out of the office.
[34:24] And the minute you get off work you can’t get home soon enough to where you can barricade [34:30] yourself behind dead bolts and security systems and fences so that you can just be alone.
[34:39] That was not one of the blessings of creation. [34:44] Isolation is not something that God said is very good. [34:48] It’s something that God is saying is very bad. [34:51] We were not created to be isolated from each other. [34:55] We were created to be in relationship with each other. [35:00] We need each other and God because God sees us alone and He says it’s not good.
[35:07] You want to be alone because there’s something that you’re hiding from everyone and there’s [35:12] something that you’re begging everyone else to hide from you.
[35:19] You’re uncomfortable when people tell you their sin because you’re afraid you might [35:24] have to tell them yours.
[35:33] Even in recent culture you can see such a change to where we stopped building the porches [35:38] on the front of our houses. [35:40] Now we’re building the decks on the back of our houses. [35:44] Then we put an 8 foot fence around our backyard because God forbid anybody thinks they can [35:50] come to the barbecue at our house.
[35:56] Most of us have neighbors that we don’t even know.
[36:07] Marriage is end.
[36:11] Friendships fall apart.
[36:16] It was the last time you talked to your brother or your sister. [36:18] Maybe it was years.
[36:22] God didn’t create us that way.
[36:28] God created us to be fruitful and multiply but to also be together afterwards.
[36:39] Then we see pain.
[36:43] I put that last because the first thing that causes us pain is isolation.
[36:51] Isolation leads to pain and typically we isolate ourselves because we are in pain.
[36:58] But then we see that God judges people. [37:04] The first pain we see enter the world is childbirth. [37:08] Now I’ve been through that, not personally, but I was there when my wife gave birth to [37:14] our son.
[37:16] I didn’t see the grace of God like other people told me I was going to see. [37:21] I saw the wrath of God.
[37:24] I was petrified the entire time. [37:27] They had to offer me a stool at the end to sit on because they thought I was going to [37:31] pass out. [37:32] God looks to Eve and he says, now you’ll give birth in pain. [37:38] It appeared that there was a great deal of pain going on. [37:42] Not so much by me.
[37:45] I was rather comfortable. [37:46] I was tired but comfortable. [37:49] But now even multiplying and being fruitful is something that happens with great pain [37:56] and there are plenty of mothers and grandmothers in here that can tell you all about it.
[38:02] But then he looks and curses the serpent. [38:06] But then he curses the ground that was so joyous for Adam to care for. [38:15] And he says, now it’s by the sweat of your brow that you will bring forth sustenance. [38:22] Adam and Eve no longer live in a perfect existence, in a perfect utopia, but rather they’re kicked [38:29] out of the garden and now the ground is very hard and now things like droughts happen [38:34] where it doesn’t rain enough and we’re put on water restrictions.
[38:37] We have to work so hard to bring forth any vegetation. [38:41] And so we see that creation begins immediately to fall apart and we see that we avoid each [38:48] other, we resent each other, we judge each other, we see that the ground isn’t fruitful, [38:53] we see that work is laborious and now something that we don’t take joy out of, we can barely [38:59] muster the strength to have joy in the worship of work. [39:03] We avoid coming to church and setting up on Sunday mornings because what is it?
[39:07] It’s work! [39:09] Who wants to do that?
[39:13] But what I want you to see in the face of all of the pain, God is so gracious. [39:21] Look at Genesis chapter 3, I want you to look over at verse 16.
[39:30] Where he tells her, oh excuse me I’m in the wrong verse, I want you to look down to verse, [39:38] yeah 15.
[39:41] When he describes to Eve the problems that’s going to come in their relationship, the isolation [39:45] that they’re going to experience, but he finishes and he says, I will put enmity between you [39:49] and the woman, he says to the snake, and between your offspring and her offspring, he shall [39:57] bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
[40:02] That’s called proto-evangelium, what that verse is in Latin. [40:08] It’s called the first gospel.
[40:13] God is so gracious that he doesn’t kill us. [40:18] But instead he looks to Satan and he says, you tried to undo my plan through man.
[40:30] Well through man I will undo your plan.
[40:36] And God turns the fall of man on its head and says to Satan, you have not won, I have, [40:44] because now you have set in motion the way in which I will get the most glory.
[40:52] He says that you’re going to bruise the heel of man, but man is going to crush your head. [41:01] And how does he do that?
[41:04] Look in Romans 5, verse 8. [41:09] But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [41:15] Skip down to verse 15. [41:19] But the free gift is not like the trespass. [41:23] For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift [41:28] by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many.
[41:33] And the free gift is not like the result of one man’s sin, for judgment following one trespass [41:39] brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. [41:45] What I want you to see is that man is still dependent on God because God did not say, [41:50] okay now you are independent, God said, now I will redeem you. [41:55] And just as Adam represented all mankind when he sinned, Jesus represents all mankind as he dies, [42:06] as he fulfills Genesis 3.15, where he is the product of man.
[42:16] Where he comes through the seed of Eve where God really just undoes Satan. [42:22] And he says, Satan, don’t you understand? I have absolute dominion over the earth [42:27] and I will turn it to bring me glory through redemption. [42:31] So Jesus is born, the Son of God comes, and he lives this perfect life, and he never disobeys God. [42:41] He never distrusts God. In Matthew chapter 27, we actually see him on the cross, [42:46] and the centurions and the governors look and say, he trusts God, let God deliver him.
[42:54] They had no idea that God was speaking through the mouths of pagans.
[43:02] Because God does deliver him.
[43:06] And we see Jesus crush the head of Satan through the work of the cross, [43:13] where he takes our sin, gives us his righteousness, and then raises from the dead, [43:19] delivering us from sin and death, delivering us from isolation, delivering us from pain. [43:27] And he says, now through this redemption I will reconcile you to me. [43:31] You no longer have to be far off, but through me you can know the Father again. [43:36] You can know the Trinity. Your marriage can be healed.
[43:39] You can be put back together if you will just trust in the Gospel. [43:42] If you will just trust me above yourself. [43:45] The call of trusting in God has never stopped.
[43:51] Because we fell because we said, I don’t trust God, I trust myself.
[43:57] And God says to undo it, trust me.
[44:03] And he sends his Son and he kills his Son. [44:05] The greatest sin of all mankind, the murder of Jesus Christ, [44:11] is God’s way of redeeming man from sin. [44:16] But it was by our hands that he died.
[44:22] But it was for us that he died.
[44:27] What I want you to see this morning,
[44:32] is the power of God and communion. [44:37] Something we do every week here at the Village.
[44:40] I want to explain why.
[44:44] Adam and Eve showed their distrust in God
[44:50] by eating the fruit that they were not supposed to eat.
[44:56] So what originally brought death, [45:01] now stands as a testimony of life.
[45:08] Now when Adam and Eve took and they ate, [45:11] Jesus says, now take and eat. [45:17] This is my body. This is my blood. [45:21] Take and eat. [45:24] And just as Eve ate the fruit, [45:28] God says, come and eat my bread.
[45:31] Come and drink my cup. [45:35] Because in Jesus’ broken body, [45:38] we see sin, death, and pain, and isolation.
[45:46] We see it crushed. [45:49] And in His blood, we see life lost. [45:55] Because shed blood represents life leaving the body. [45:58] And in Jesus’ shed blood, He’s giving His life to us. [46:03] And this represents our new life in Jesus. [46:09] Where no longer do we have to suffer the curse.
[46:14] No longer do we have to live in exile. [46:19] No longer do we have to pay the price. [46:24] But we can know God. [46:26] We can be restored. [46:28] We can be reconciled. [46:30] And we can trust the truth of God.
[46:34] And die to the lie of ourselves. [46:36] He just simply says, take and eat.
[46:45] Our response today is that we come forward.
[46:51] And we take and we eat. [46:55] As a testimony that we don’t want to trust ourselves. [46:59] But we want to trust in God through His Son, Jesus Christ. [47:04] So if you’re in here this morning and you’re a believer,
[47:08] this table is open for you. [47:10] There’s nothing you can do in your life to undo the sin.
[47:18] God did it through Jesus. [47:21] The Gospel is done. [47:24] It’s complete. [47:26] Trust it. [47:27] And have life. [47:30] If you don’t believe, I beg of you this morning, believe.
[47:35] Trust in Jesus. [47:37] And He will begin to put your life back together. [47:41] It’s not easy. [47:43] Because we have to deny our distrust every step of the way.
[47:49] Trust Him. [47:50] I’ll be in the back. [47:53] I’m there if you want to talk. [47:54] Father, we come before you this morning.
[47:59] God grant us trust. [48:01] Give us faith. [48:03] Give us yourself.
[48:07] Give us your love. [48:09] Give us your life. [48:10] Because our lives are not worth living. [48:14] Because we live separated from you. [48:16] We live separated from each other. [48:20] God, that you would bring us back together.
[48:22] That you would give us life. [48:24] That you would give us a relationship with you through the Gospel of your Son, Jesus Christ. [48:30] Lord, may we obey you. [48:34] May we take and eat out of trust.