Choose to Sin , choose to Suffer.
Sin Brought Curses from God (Gen 3:14-19):
- To the Serpent:
- ”eat dust”
- enmity
- he will bruise your head / you will bruise his heel
- To the Woman:
- pain in childbearing
- desire shall be for your husband
- To the Man:
- cursed is the ground
- thorns / thistles / sweat
Sin Brought Exile from Eden (Gen 3:22-24):
Sin Brought the Introduction of Salvation (Gen 3:20-21):
- Man’s part: Faith
- God’s part: Grace
Though sinned against, God initiated His grace by killing an innocent substitute, which provided a permanent covering of their shame, accomplishing what man could not.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:07
Chapter three, we're going to continue going through Genesis three.
00:07-00:08
We started it last week.
00:09-00:15
On the top of your outline, on the back of your bulletin, is a statement that we've said often.
00:15-00:17
We've heard it from Pastor James.
00:17-00:19
But it's a good statement for you to memorize.
00:21-00:22
Some of you probably already know it.
00:23-00:24
Choose to sin.
00:26-00:27
Choose to what?
00:28-00:29
Suffer.
00:30-00:35
If you choose to sin, you're making a choice to suffer.
00:38-00:47
And last week, when we started in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 1, we saw Adam and Eve chose to sin, and the whole world suffers for it for now.
00:49-00:51
We saw how sin entered the world.
00:52-00:58
One tree, one law, one temptation, one transgression.
01:00-01:15
And we saw the path, Satan's pattern, that he still uses to get us to doubt the Word of God and eventually deny the Word of God and then to disobey the Word of God, which results in us so often running from God.
01:18-01:20
And then we try to cover our own shame.
01:20-01:25
Remember last week, Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame and what did they use?
01:25-01:29
They made clothes out of leaves to cover themselves.
01:30-01:31
How effective was that?
01:33-01:34
I'd say not very effective.
01:36-01:36
Yeah, I agree.
01:37-01:45
And then after we try to cover it, when sin is exposed, we saw Adam and Eve do what we do.
01:46-01:47
Blame everyone.
01:47-01:50
It's not my fault, it's not my fault, it's not my fault.
01:50-01:52
"Yeah, I did some wrong things, but it's not my fault.
01:52-01:56
"It's my wife's fault, it's my mom's fault, "it's my kid's fault, it's my boss's fault.
01:57-02:25
"It's somebody's fault, but it's not my fault." It's my fault. I'm messed up. I have a problem.
02:26-02:32
Well, God promised dire consequences for breaking his command, and here they are.
02:33-03:44
Let's get right to them. On your outline, sin changed everything. Sin changed everything. Understand, when you look at the newspaper, watch the news, or you get your news online, however you get your news, there's going to be something in you that says things aren't right. Things aren't right. This world is severely messed up. Why is that? Well, it wasn't created that way. Sin changed everything. First of all, sin brought curses from God. Sin brought curses from God. Let's look at these curses first of all. Genesis chapter 3 verse 14. The curse to the serpent. The Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.
03:46-03:55
He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." So first of all, the curse went to the serpent.
03:56-04:05
Now if you notice in verse 14, God actually puts a curse on the animal that Satan used.
04:05-04:12
to understand that Satan used this animal, working through this animal to deceive Eve.
04:13-04:20
God actually put a curse on the animal and the question is, "What did the serpent look like before this?" Well, I don't know.
04:20-04:25
I don't have any pictures, but we do know that it wasn't on its belly before this.
04:26-05:56
You know, different commentators and scholars suggested, you know, this was the most magnificent of the animals and it stood upright and whatever the case it didn't look like we typically think of snakes. But maybe you have the same question I do. Why would God put a curse on the actual animal, right? If Satan used the animal, why did God curse the animal? And here's why. God wanted that animal, the actual physical animal, he wanted that animal to serve as a symbol, a perpetual symbol. Like a symbol of what? Well, what was Satan's endgame? Satan's goal was to exalt himself above God. And God is here saying, "Because you chose to exalt yourself, I'm going to make a perpetual symbol that's going to stay on the earth. Here's what happens to people that try to exalt themselves over me, on your belly you'll go. So you see snakes are a reminder that if you want to exalt yourself, God's going to bring you down. He's going to bring you down. It's also a symbol of repulsion. Any big fans of snakes here? Anybody? Like to death of snakes, anybody?
05:56-05:58
Oh, I see a lot more hands going up for that.
05:59-06:07
Some of the biggest, most macho, manliest men that I know scream like a little girl when they see a snake.
06:08-06:09
Why is that?
06:10-06:11
Snakes are a sign of repulsion.
06:14-06:18
So that was what God was doing, cursing the serpent, turned it into a symbol.
06:18-06:23
Notice also, he says, "Dust you shall eat." You're like, well, wait a second.
06:24-06:28
Snakes, don't snakes eat like mice and like bugs?
06:29-06:30
What does it mean they'll eat dust?
06:30-06:32
Well, eating dust is actually a euphemism for defeat.
06:33-06:34
You can see that in the Old Testament.
06:34-06:38
That phrase, you're going to eat dust, means you're going to be defeated.
06:39-06:39
Again, it's a symbol.
06:40-06:46
Just like the rainbow is a reminder that God will never again flood the earth, snakes are a reminder.
06:46-06:48
Exalt yourself, God's gonna bring you down.
06:49-06:50
How low?
06:50-06:52
God says, I'll take you down as far as you can go.
06:53-06:54
You will walk on your belly.
06:55-06:56
That's how far down you're going to go.
06:59-07:01
But now specifically, he addresses Satan.
07:01-07:02
Look at verse 15.
07:03-07:06
He says, "I will put enmity between you and a woman." Don't miss that.
07:06-07:12
"I will put-- I will--" you're like, well, wait a minute.
07:14-07:16
Isn't the devil already the enemy?
07:17-07:37
Well, see, at this point in history, notice that Adam and Eve, they didn't run from Satan, did they? Because of their sin, they ran from God. Their enmity at this point was not with Satan, their enmity was with God. So notice, this is a supreme act of grace on God's part.
07:38-08:01
He's saying, "I'm going to take the initiative. I'm going to put enmity between you, Satan, these people that you tried to take over. You see, Satan thought that he was going to befriend humanity and make humanity the enemy of God like he did with a third of the angels.
08:02-08:52
You know, when Satan made his rebellion in heaven, he took a third of the angels with him and those are what we call demons. Well, Satan, when he showed up on the earth to tempt Eve and get Adam to fall into sin, his line of thinking was the same. "Well, I took a angels. Now God created these special beings after his own image? I'm gonna get them too. I'll turn them against God just like a third of the angels turned against God. And here God is declaring, "Satan, you think that the woman is your friend and my enemy now? I'm going to change that. I'm going to make her your enemy and we're going to see the promises also to make her his friend.
08:53-08:55
This is the first promise of salvation in Scripture.
08:57-08:58
You see, you can't gloss over this.
08:58-08:59
This is huge.
08:59-09:11
In order for this fallen mankind to go from being God's enemy to God's friend, God was going to have to do something inside the human being.
09:11-09:12
Do you understand that?
09:13-09:26
God says, "I'm going to have to make a fundamental change at their very hearts." He's declaring here that he's going to give the grace to accomplish this.
09:27-09:30
God in essence was saying, "Satan, you're not going to rule easily.
09:30-09:31
You're not going to rule effectively.
09:33-09:36
You're not going to reign over the seed of Eve.
09:36-09:43
In fact, one of them is going to crush you." Did you see that?
09:46-09:57
Look again with me verse 15 Enmity between you and a woman between your offspring and her offspring. You're like, well, wait a minute. I can understand Adam and Eve having offspring. Well, who is Satan's offspring?
09:58-10:12
Satan doesn't give birth to demons Satan doesn't you know, give birth to any type of life But remember in John chapter 8 in verse 44 Jesus said You are of your father, the devil.
10:12-10:14
So Satan certainly does have his offspring.
10:16-10:19
There are people that have rejected God and are still living in sin.
10:22-10:23
This is a "he" though.
10:23-10:30
He says, "He shall bruise your head." Notice there is one offspring in particular God is focusing on here.
10:32-10:35
Eve, you're going to have offspring, but I'm talking about this one now.
10:35-10:39
He is going to bruise your head.
10:42-10:43
You will bruise his heel.
10:44-10:49
That refers to a sneak attack from behind, as Satan tried to accomplish at the cross.
10:51-10:56
On the margin of your Bible, beside verse 15, just draw a little cross.
10:58-10:59
Go ahead, just draw a little cross.
11:01-11:06
"Well, I don't write in my Bible." Well, if you're sitting next to one of those people, just reach over and draw a cross in the margin.
11:08-11:09
OK, it's OK to do that.
11:11-11:12
You have you have permission.
11:14-11:19
But the reason I want you to draw across this is the first promise of Jesus Christ in the Bible.
11:20-11:21
Very significant.
11:25-11:27
Satan has been sentenced.
11:29-11:32
Like, well, seems like he still has a pretty good grip on the world.
11:32-11:36
Well, it's like a death row inmate, sentenced but not executed yet.
11:37-11:38
That's the story of Satan right now.
11:39-11:41
But understand that victory is already won.
11:41-11:45
We're not waiting for the day that victory is accomplished.
11:46-11:50
Victory has already been accomplished, and we're going to talk about that on Friday and Sunday.
11:50-11:54
Victory has been accomplished, and it's ours for the taking right now.
11:55-11:59
So those are the curses that the Lord put on the serpent.
12:02-12:29
Secondly the curses to the woman, let's pick up in verse 16, "To the woman he said, 'I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing, and pain you shall bring forth children.'" Look at this next phrase, "Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." Okay, so he turns from the serpent to the woman.
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The curse on the woman has to do with the two most important relationships in her life.
12:38-12:42
That's with her children and her husband.
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The two most significant relationships in a woman's life are now forever changed because of the curse.
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First of all, pain and childbearing.
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I've never had any children, but ladies, can I get a witness?
13:01-13:02
Can I get a witness?
13:02-13:03
Does having kids hurt?
13:05-13:05
Does it?
13:06-13:09
Okay, a couple confirmations on that, good.
13:10-13:15
I hate to just like shoot from the hip on these types of things, but again, no personal experience.
13:17-13:20
But my understanding is it hurts.
13:21-13:25
Not just the physical pain of giving birth, but also the pain of raising children.
13:26-13:28
Have you ever had heartache over your children?
13:30-13:31
See, that's tied into this.
13:33-13:52
Verse seven, excuse me, verse 16 in the middle, it says, "Your desire shall be for your husband." You're like, "Well, what kind of curse is that?" I mean, shouldn't every woman desire her husband?
13:54-13:55
Like, what kind of curse is that?
13:55-13:59
Well, this is a unique word in the Hebrew.
13:59-14:01
And actually, it's used one other place.
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And I want you to turn, or actually, you don't have to turn.
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Just move your eyes a little bit to chapter 4 and verse 7 when the Lord's talking to Cain.
14:10-14:12
He says, if you do well, will you not be accepted?
14:12-14:15
And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
14:16-14:17
Same Greek phrasing here.
14:18-14:20
Its desire is for you.
14:21-14:23
But you must rule over it.
14:24-14:27
So you understand what this figure of speech means now, don't you?
14:28-14:34
God wasn't saying to Cain that sin is going to put on a little mascara and get dressed up and say hubba hubba.
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Sin is going to have a desire to overtake you.
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But you have to take control of sin, is what he was telling Cain.
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So there's going to be an authority struggle in the home.
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That's what God's talking about here.
14:56-15:11
And any married couple can testify, and many of you are sitting with your husband or wife right now, so I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands or anything, but just in your heart, Can you see that there's an authority struggle in the home?
15:15-15:20
You see, God's design is that there's mutual submission, really, Ephesians 5:21.
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We submit one to another.
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The husband is to be the servant leader in the home.
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The wife is to be the submissive helper in the home.
15:29-15:40
And the picture, Ephesians 5:22, is that the husband represents Jesus Christ, the servant leader who would lay down his life for his bride.
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That's how much he loves his bride.
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And the wife sees herself as the church, submissive under the authority of, but loving and coming alongside.
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That's the picture that God always intended for marriage.
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Like, why don't nobody marriages like that consistently?
15:57-15:59
Well, that's tied into the curse.
16:00-16:01
It's tied into the curse.
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Your desires are going to be subject to your husband's will, God was telling Eve, and he's not even going to love you perfectly.
16:14-16:14
Tied into the curse.
16:15-16:38
Then to man, verse 17, and to Adam, he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it." God says, "You listen to Eve instead of listening to me." Well, at this point, Eve didn't have her name, just says the woman.
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Because you have listened to her instead of me, cursed is the ground because of you.
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In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
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Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.
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And you shall eat the plants of the field.
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By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you are taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." So the curse is as pertaining to the man.
17:16-17:18
The curse actually went on the ground, first of all.
17:20-17:25
The king of the earth now becomes the slave of the earth.
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And I know there's kids sitting here this morning saying, "You know what?
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Work is part of the curse, Mom and Dad." Right, kids?
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Work is part of the curse.
17:37-17:43
So for parents to give children chores, that's just carrying out the curse, right?
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Is that right?
17:46-17:52
No, I always want to speak the truth to you, but work was pre-fall.
17:53-18:00
Adam was put in the garden to work even before the fall, but the curse comes from the ground fighting back now.
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Work is going to be hard now.
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The battle for bread is going to consume your life now, Adam.
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So just as women are affected primarily in their main sphere of life, the home, the husband, children, the curse of man is directly on his main sphere, work. Work's gonna be hard. Work's gonna be hard. How many times you hear people say, "I hate my job." Anybody here hate your job? Like, I'm not gonna complain in church. I hate my job. I hate my job. Yeah, everybody does. Work is hard, right? Work is hard, and God promised that we're so spoiled the day we live now. You know, technology works a lot less hard for us now than it was at Adam's day, for sure. Thorns, thistles, and sweat, we see that, don't we? We see the curse. It's right in front of our faces.
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That's what I love about God's Word is you can read this and then just walk outside and be like, "Yep, there it is. Here's a little test for you." If you were to clear a lot, let's say you're gonna build a house, you're gonna build a barn, anybody here gonna build a barn, but you're gonna build something on this lot, let's say you clear the lot, I'm gonna come back next year and start to build.
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What's that lot gonna look like a year later?
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What's it gonna look like?
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Just how you left it, right?
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No.
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It's gonna be overgrown.
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And we know in Western Pennsylvania, if the grass gets too tall, you get snakes, right?
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Did your dad tell you that?
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Get a mow the grass or we'll get snakes, which is also tied into the curse.
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But we have a house up in Butler that's rented out.
19:52-20:07
And before we moved to Chicago, I borrowed my father-in-law's chainsaw 'cause we have these hedges that go along the whole one side, the whole side of the house, the whole yard, It goes the whole side, and they grow like crazy.
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So I'm, you know, Aaron, I'm going to get me a chainsaw, and I'm going to take care of those bushes.
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And I cut those things down to the nub.
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When we got back, those things-- it looks like Tarzan's living there now.
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But that's part of the curse.
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I mean, the weeds and the whatever that was, just overgrowing.
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We see it right in front of us.
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God was essentially saying to Adam, you came from dirt.
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You're going to work hard in the dirt.
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And then eventually, Adam, you're going to become dirt again.
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You know our bodies are like, what, is it 80% water?
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Something like that?
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That's really all you are, that's all I am.
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We're like a handful of dirt and a few gallons of water.
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It's really what we are.
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And part of the curse, someday, when our time is up, this body's going to die, and we're going to turn into dirt again.
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Why is that?
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It's the result of sin.
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It's the result of sin.
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So sin brought curses from God.
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Let's pick up here.
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Actually, I want to skip down to verse 22.
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I want to close with verses 20 and 21.
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But in your outline, sin brought exile from Eden.
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Exile from Eden.
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Look at verse 22.
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"The Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us, and knowing good and evil.
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Now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.
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Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
22:09-22:28
He drove out the man and at the east of Eden, the garden of Eden, excuse me, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." So man was shut out of paradise.
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I want you to understand something.
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This too is an act of grace.
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Do you realize this eviction out of paradise is an act of grace?
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Why did God throw them out of Eden?
22:39-22:40
What does your Bible say?
22:41-22:42
Why did God throw them out of there?
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person again to just shout it out.
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So they don't eat from the tree of life, right?
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That was God's reasoning.
22:51-23:02
You know, He says, "I don't want them to eat off that tree, so get them out of there, and let's put a guard there to make sure he doesn't try to find his way back in there and get it." Understand, that's grace.
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What God was doing was He was preventing man from living forever in a fallen state, right?
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together in a fallen state. You know, I'm 36 now and I'm sick to death of it. Like really, that's like 36 years too long living in this, you know, redeemed, yes, but in the fallen flesh, in a fallen world. Would I want things to go on like this for eternity? Absolutely not. But even more so, it doesn't matter what I want, but even more so, God in His grace doesn't want us going on in this type of existence. So I will raise you into a new kind of life without sin.
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So sin brought curses from God.
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Sin brought exile from Eden.
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Here's the good news.
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This is what I've been so anxious to share with you these past two weeks.
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Sin brought the introduction of salvation.
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Sin brought the introduction of salvation.
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Look at verses 20 and 21.
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The man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living.
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And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them.
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The introduction of salvation.
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What is salvation?
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We see it here in verses 20 and 21.
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What's man's part in salvation?
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Man's part is what?
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His faith.
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Our part is really just believing in what God's already done, right?
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Isn't that our part of salvation?
24:59-25:02
It's not like God says, "I'm going to do half of the work and I want you to do half of the work.
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Don't leave here thinking that." Like, God has half and I have half.
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No, God's part in salvation is 100%.
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Our part is simply to believe in what He's already done.
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But we see the first statement of faith right here in verse 20.
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Adam named his wife Eve.
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There again I don't think it's fair that he got to name his wife.
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Mine came with a name.
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It's a nice name, but could you imagine if it wasn't?
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He got to name her.
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But this is actually a statement of faith.
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Why did he name her Eve?
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It wasn't a random name.
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He named her Eve because she was the mother of all the living.
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But understand, at this point, there was nobody else.
25:58-25:59
So this is a statement of faith.
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God had just said that Eve was going to have offspring.
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So Adam, trusting God, said, you know what?
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your name is going to be Eve because you're going to have offspring because I believe the words that came out of God's mouth.
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That's what faith is.
26:17-26:20
Every week when we stand up and we say, "Turn in your Bibles.
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This is what God said." It's by faith that we reach out and take hold of that and say, "If this is what God said, then I believe it." That's man's part of salvation is just believing the word of God.
26:39-26:45
And obviously, we'll talk more about that in detail on on Friday and Sunday, believing what about the word of God?
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We'll talk about that, but here's God's part.
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What's God's part?
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Just write down the most beautiful word in the universe, you know what it is?
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It's grace.
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It's grace.
27:04-27:05
What is grace?
27:08-27:08
What is grace?
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It's God giving to us what he requires from us.
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That's what grace is.
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Did you see that in verse 21?
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And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin, garments of skins, and clothed them.
27:41-27:45
We saw last week their attempt at covering shame failed, right?
27:46-27:52
They took some leaves and somehow sewed together some underclothes made out of leaves.
27:52-27:56
And we talked about this last week, But what happens to leaves after a couple of days?
27:57-28:04
You know, Adam was walking around sporting his new BVDs, and he sat down and crunched, and there went his britches.
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I'll have to do it again.
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Man's attempts at covering shame futile.
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God knew that their shame needed covered.
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He knew that.
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So what did he do?
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He made them garments of skins.
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What do you think that looked like to Adam and Eve?
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Because understand, this is the first death in Scripture.
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Up until this point, all Adam and Eve have ever experienced is the beauty and the glory of God's new and living creation, the animals and the birds and everything they would have seen, paradise.
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And now all of a sudden, God says, "You need coverings." And He kills something so that they can be covered.
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I want you to look at this statement on your bulletin.
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I wrote it down, it's from my notes.
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This is what verse 21 is saying.
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This is so important, especially as we get to Friday and Sunday.
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Because understand the gospel is right here.
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sinned against, God initiated His grace by killing an innocent substitute, which provided a permanent covering of their shame, accomplishing what man could not.
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I'm going to read that again because this is what God was instituting right here. Right after the first sin came into the world, this is what God did. Those sinned against, God initiated His grace. God was the one that they sinned against.
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But notice God didn't say, "I'm going to wait until they come crawling back to me." When they come crawling back to me, then we'll talk about making things right.
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What was the problem? Adam and Eve weren't crawling back to God, were they?
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What were they doing? They're in the bushes hiding from God. It wasn't as if they came back and said, "God, we blew it. Can you help us?" And God's like, "Well, okay.
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I'll think of something." God initiated the grace. Understand that. That's still true today. There's none of us walking around saying, "Oh God, my life is so hard.
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"Oh God, you're going to throw me a boat here, my life is so hard." And I was like, "Okay, because you came to me, I will do something for you." God is the one pursuing you.
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And so often we're the ones on the run from God, hiding in the bushes.
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"Oh God, I'm so ashamed of myself.
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Oh God, I've screwed my life up so much.
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I better stay away from God." God initiated.
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God initiated His grace.
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How did he do it?
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He killed a substitute.
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Not just a substitute.
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He killed an innocent substitute.
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You know, that animal, whatever animal it was he killed that he took the skins off of, that animal had nothing to do with anything as far as sin.
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Innocent bystander.
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God says, "I want you to get something in your mind right now.
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By my grace, for you, my people, who I've created in my image, I'm going to make a way that an innocent substitute can be killed, providing a permanent covering of your shame." This will cover your shame.
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And the last phrase, accomplishing what man could not.
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There's not one of us here that can do anything to get things right with God.
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Well God, maybe if I go to church more.
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God, maybe if I work in the soup kitchen.
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Or God, I'll sign up for Urban Impact.
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Or God, I'll do this ministry.
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Those things don't make God happier with you.
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He can't do anything.
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God is the one who did it.
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The offended holy God gave grace instead of wrath.
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the first killing and innocent to atone for sin.
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Understand that this is the first sacrifice of the Bible.
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This is the first sacrifice, but God was already paving the way for something here.
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for a time that sin wouldn't just be covered over.
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As we'll talk about Friday and Sunday, in Jesus Christ, sin isn't just covered over, sin is taken away.
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There's a big difference between the two, isn't there?
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Is there a difference?
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If an animal walks up onto your porch and dies, and your wife says do something about it, do you think she wants you to cover it or take it away?
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I'll just throw a towel over it.
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That wouldn't work in my house, would it, Aaron?
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No, it wouldn't work in my house.
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I just put a towel over it.
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It wasn't one of your good tea towels, it was an old one.
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That's covering, that's atonement.
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God made provision that it can be covered.
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In Jesus Christ, sin is taken away.
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I'm going to pray, we're going to worship some more.
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And we're going to close our time by taking the Lord's Supper.
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And why do we take the Lord's Supper?
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Because no sin against.
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God initiated his grace by killing an innocent substitute, which provided a taking away of our sin, accomplishing what man could not.
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Will you bow your heads and pray with me, please?
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Father in heaven, all glory and honor and praise goes to you.
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And how amazing it is, we see the gospel of Jesus Christ, the foundation of it just laid out so clearly in Genesis 3.
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But Father, I pray.
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I pray now that you would just remove the stupid notions from our heads, for we think we can do things that will make you happy with us, or that we can earn our way to you somehow, or that there is something inherently good about us that we deserve you to act on our behalf.
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The truth is God, by nature we're sinners and by nature we run from you, but your word makes it clear God that you are the one who is looking for us.
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You are the one who is initiating grace.
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The foundation has been laid, Father.
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And I pray as we meditate on this through this week and come back together over at Covenant on Friday and come back here next Sunday, that we could just be in awe of the fulfillment of these promises you've made in Genesis 3.
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God, you are awesome.
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Your salvation is glorious.
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I pray that you would give us eyes to see it and the faith to believe it.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Genesis 3:14-24
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.