Knowing Jesus - Knowing His Grace

Introduction:

We All Need Grace (John 8:1-11):

1. But we don't often Give it. (John 8:3-5)

   Leviticus 20:10 - If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

Am I a gracious person?

• Deep down, am I still angry with someone who wronged me, ever after they apologize?
• Are there broken relationships in my life that I refuse to heal?
• Do I believe certain people don't deserve forgiveness?
• When someone messes up, do I prefer to criticizing their mistakes over praying for them to get to a better place?

2. But we don't often Recognize our need for it. (John 8:6-9)
3. But we don't often Understand it. (John 8:10-11)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:06

  Welcome everyone to Harvest Bible Chapel as we prepare to worship the Lord and to get into His Word together.

  00:07-00:16

  And today, on behalf of the leadership of Harvest Bible Chapel, we would like to give a special shout out to all of our mothers, or mother figures, that are part of our church.

  00:17-00:18

  Happy Mother's Day.

  00:20-00:25

  Open your Bibles with me please to the Gospel of John 8.

  00:26-00:29

  Actually, we'll be starting at the end of chapter 7.

  00:32-00:44

  While you're turning there, I read this week back in 2016, a man in Australia spotted a large tour bus.

  00:45-00:48

  And he knew that these buses had very large gas tanks.

  00:50-00:56

  And what he wanted to do was to siphon the gas out of the tour bus.

  00:57-01:05

  And if you don't know what siphoning gas is, I can't recommend strongly enough that you never ever do it.

  01:05-01:14

  But it's taking a hose, putting the hose into a gas tank, and sucking the hose and having the gas come out.

  01:14-01:17

  It's a way of stealing gas out from people.

  01:17-01:21

  and it's extremely dangerous and it's extremely stupid.

  01:23-01:24

  It's extremely mean.

  01:25-01:42

  Well, this man saw this tour bus and thought, "Well, I can steal a lot of gas from the bus." Well, little did he know that he inserted the hose into the sewage tank instead.

  01:45-01:58

  So when he placed the hose in his mouth, and inhaled deeply, he got a mouthful of...

  01:58-02:00

  you can probably guess.

  02:01-02:08

  Well, the police were called, but the owners of the bus decided that they did not want their property back.

  02:10-02:11

  What do we call that?

  02:13-02:15

  We call that karma, don't we?

  02:16-02:19

  Actually, specifically, we call this instant karma.

  02:20-02:25

  It's this belief that ultimately, eventually, you get what you deserve.

  02:25-02:36

  And I'm not sure I believe in karma, but I do believe in the opposite of karma, and that's what we're talking about today.

  02:38-02:39

  We're talking about grace.

  02:41-02:43

  Karma is getting what you deserve.

  02:46-02:48

  Grace is getting what you don't deserve.

  02:51-02:58

  The best way I have ever heard grace defined is with this little story, this little analogy.

  03:00-03:04

  Imagine that you have a 16-year-old son.

  03:05-03:07

  And your 16-year-old son goes to a party.

  03:09-03:14

  at this party, another 16-year-old boy, for whatever reason, gets angry at your son.

  03:16-03:19

  And this other 16-year-old boy murders your son.

  03:21-03:28

  Now if you track that boy down and murder him yourself, that's called vengeance.

  03:31-03:41

  But if you track that boy down and you get him arrested and he goes to court and he's prosecuted and he goes to jail, that's called justice.

  03:43-03:53

  But if you track that boy down and he's arrested and he ends up in court, and somehow you convince the judge to let him go.

  03:55-03:57

  No punishment, just let him go.

  03:57-04:00

  That is called mercy.

  04:04-04:22

  But if you track that boy down and the rest of the ends up in court, and you somehow convince the judge that you want to take that boy into your home, and you want to raise him as your own son, and love him and care for him, that's called grace.

  04:25-04:27

  Grace is the very essence of knowing Jesus.

  04:29-04:35

  But unfortunately, many people just do not We know grace.

  04:38-04:49

  We learned some very surprising things about grace today as we walked through a very familiar and for a lot of people, a favorite passage of God's Word.

  04:49-04:53

  So if you're taking note of the heading on this outline, it's simply this.

  04:54-04:54

  We all need grace.

  04:56-04:56

  We all need grace.

  04:57-05:05

  And that's something I think we can all readily admit, But, here are the surprising truths that we're going to see in the text.

  05:05-05:11

  Number one, we all need grace, but we don't often give it.

  05:12-05:15

  We all need grace, but we don't often give it.

  05:17-05:19

  Look at 7:53.

  05:20-05:24

  It says, "They went each to his own house.

  05:25-05:27

  But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

  05:28-05:30

  early in the morning, he came again to the temple.

  05:31-05:34

  All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.

  05:34-05:59

  The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst, they said to him, 'Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.' "So in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman." So what do you say?

  06:01-06:02

  Let's stop there.

  06:03-06:06

  And I would say, hang on, let's back up for a second.

  06:09-06:12

  Something pretty obviously strange about this story, right?

  06:14-06:17

  Where's the man who was caught in adultery?

  06:18-06:25

  It says that this woman was caught in the act, and it takes two to tango, right?

  06:27-06:28

  So where's the man?

  06:28-06:30

  Why did they only bring the woman?

  06:32-06:36

  Interestingly, she offers no defense throughout this passage.

  06:37-06:43

  So it seems that she was guilty, but there was somebody else guilty that was conveniently left out.

  06:45-06:59

  The scribes and the Pharisees bring this woman to Jesus, and they say, "Hey, she was caught committing adultery." And Moses said, "We need to stone her." That comes from Leviticus 20.

  06:59-07:15

  In verse 10, it says, "If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." Now understand that stoning was the means of legal death penalty in the Old Testament.

  07:16-07:19

  Okay, that was like the electric chair or lethal injection.

  07:21-07:35

  But when we get to New Testament times, we see that stoning would sometimes be carried out by a mob, not through the courts, not through the authorities, not without due process, like Stephen in Acts 7.

  07:38-07:46

  Remember, it was illegal since Israel was under Roman occupation, it was illegal for Israel to execute criminals.

  07:50-07:54

  But regardless, honestly, all of this is irrelevant.

  07:55-08:03

  They weren't interested in the woman's fate as much as they were interested in trapping Jesus.

  08:03-08:04

  I mean, just think about it.

  08:04-08:15

  If this scenario was about justice, If they were really concerned about justice for this criminal woman, why didn't they take her to the appropriate authorities?

  08:17-08:30

  I mean, how often do you hear of an accused criminal being dragged before a civilian for the civilian's opinion about what should happen to the criminal?

  08:31-08:47

  I mean, do we ever hear that? Like somebody gets caught shoplifting, and we're going to arrest you, but before we take you to the police, we're gonna stop by and see Melanie the barber and see what she has to say about, like what?

  08:48-08:51

  They drag this criminal to Jesus.

  08:51-08:52

  Like, what do you think about this?

  08:54-08:55

  Well, look at verse six.

  08:58-09:00

  This they said to test him.

  09:01-09:05

  they might have some charge to bring against Him.

  09:07-09:09

  It was a trap. They wanted to discredit Jesus.

  09:09-09:13

  They wanted people to think that Jesus was a fraud.

  09:14-09:24

  Because if Jesus said, "No, no, no, no, don't stone her, don't stone her," well, then He's defying the law of Moses, and the people could say, "Oh, oh, oh, you don't believe in the law.

  09:24-09:25

  You don't agree with Moses.

  09:25-09:29

  You think you know better than the law that the Lord gave us.

  09:31-09:41

  But if Jesus said, "Yeah, you know what? Stone her. Execute her." Well, there's a problem there because you see Jesus loses His whole reputation.

  09:42-09:48

  Jesus had this reputation of being a friend of sinners, right?

  09:48-09:51

  Matthew 19.10, Luke 15.1.

  09:52-09:53

  He's a friend of sinners.

  09:53-10:02

  Jesus loves the tax collectors and the prostitutes, and Jesus cares for these people.

  10:04-10:20

  And if Jesus says, "Stone this woman," you see these scribes and Pharisees could say, "Well, that's awfully selective of you to want to kill her because you didn't want to stone the other sinners." They thought they had Him trapped.

  10:22-10:24

  What do you say, Jesus? What do you say?

  10:27-10:38

  And as much as I don't want to face this personally, you know, a lot of times I am more like these guys than I want to admit.

  10:43-10:46

  Everyone wants to think of themselves as a gracious person.

  10:46-10:53

  We all think of ourselves as, "Deep down I'm good, deep down I'm..." I'm very gracious.

  10:55-10:55

  Are you?

  10:58-11:00

  I'm going to give you a quick little test.

  11:00-11:08

  Just some yes or no questions to just sort of think through how gracious you are in your relationships to other people.

  11:09-11:12

  Specifically, as we're focusing on this passage.

  11:12-11:13

  Am I a gracious person?

  11:16-11:17

  Ask yourself.

  11:18-11:18

  Keep down.

  11:20-11:24

  Am I still angry with someone who wronged me even after they apologized?

  11:26-11:27

  Yes or no? Is that you?

  11:28-11:29

  What if I asked your wife?

  11:30-11:31

  What if I asked your husband?

  11:35-11:40

  Are there broken relationships in my life that I refuse to heal?

  11:40-11:46

  Even if they came crawling back to me, that person walked out of my life, I don't want them walking back in.

  11:48-11:49

  Is that true of you? Yes or no?

  11:51-11:55

  Do I believe certain people don't deserve forgiveness?

  12:00-12:10

  When someone messes up, do I prefer criticizing their mistakes over praying for them to get to a better place?

  12:11-12:20

  You see, if you're answering yes, Or even maybe, to any of these questions, then you probably aren't as gracious as you thought.

  12:22-12:23

  Here's the truth.

  12:23-12:31

  By default, because we are fallen people, born with a sinful nature, living in fallen flesh, by default, we are not gracious.

  12:32-12:33

  We just aren't.

  12:34-12:45

  And we need to start by acknowledging that as fallen people, Every single one of us have room to grow in grace.

  12:45-12:46

  We all need it.

  12:48-12:49

  But we don't often give it.

  12:51-13:01

  Secondly, we all need grace, but we don't often recognize our need for it.

  13:02-13:04

  Pick back up in verse 6.

  13:06-13:19

  and John points out that they said this to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him, Jesus bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground.

  13:20-13:27

  Do you know this is the only passage in the New Testament that says that Jesus wrote, and we don't know what He wrote.

  13:27-13:33

  Wasn't there somebody there that was taking notes or could pull out a cell phone and take a picture of what Jesus was writing?

  13:33-13:35

  Everybody wants to know what Jesus wrote.

  13:36-13:45

  I read so many ideas and thoughts, and it really doesn't matter though.

  13:45-13:52

  Because if God wanted us to know what Jesus wrote, then He would have told us in His Word.

  13:53-13:57

  So you understand that it doesn't really matter what Jesus wrote.

  13:58-14:07

  What matters was Jesus stooping down to perform this action of writing on the ground.

  14:08-14:09

  Look at verse 7.

  14:12-14:34

  "And as they continued to ask Him, He stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." So Jesus, as He was writing in the ground, they just continued to badger Him.

  14:34-14:35

  Do you see that in the text?

  14:36-14:37

  Like, "What do you say, Jesus? Hey, what do you think?

  14:37-14:39

  What do you think we should do with this lady?

  14:39-14:49

  What do you say, Jesus?" And Jesus finally stood up, and He made one of the most famous statements in the Bible.

  14:50-15:05

  "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." Then, verse 8, "And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground." Back to writing.

  15:08-15:13

  I love this because this story started with them bringing a challenge to Jesus.

  15:16-15:19

  And Jesus turned the challenge to them.

  15:20-15:29

  Verse 9, "But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones.

  15:32-15:43

  And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him." They were convicted by their own conscience, and they suddenly became their own judge.

  15:47-15:49

  See, the Bible says that the older ones left first.

  15:51-15:52

  The older ones left first.

  15:55-16:01

  And I've got to tell you, I get that.

  16:04-16:18

  I've been in pastoral ministry now for 20 plus years, And I remember, as a much younger pastor, being so hard-nosed on things, holding the line on some things.

  16:21-16:25

  To go after people and say, "Hey, you violated the Scriptures!

  16:26-16:27

  What is the matter with you?

  16:29-16:30

  Don't you know the Bible?

  16:30-16:39

  I'm about to go full Leviticus on you." Then, you get a few miles on the car.

  16:41-16:43

  You take a few laps around the track, right?

  16:45-16:52

  And you mature in your understanding of your own failings.

  16:56-17:06

  And you minister to people who have struggled with bad choices, But they need somebody to pick them up, not kick them while they're down.

  17:11-17:12

  Come on church, we've all been there.

  17:14-17:19

  We hear that somebody is going through a divorce, and instantly we condemn.

  17:20-17:23

  Like divorce is evil, do you know what the Bible says about divorce?

  17:23-17:24

  And yes, yes.

  17:26-17:30

  Divorce is not God's optimal plan.

  17:31-17:52

  Divorce is wrong, but we're so quick to disregard a woman who has been abused or cheated on for years, who tried so hard to faithfully endure, maybe entered into a divorce that wasn't her choosing.

  17:54-17:55

  But we're quick to condemn.

  17:58-18:00

  We're quick to condemn parents.

  18:01-18:15

  "Your kids are out of control." "Look at him." "Her kids are always out of control." And then we find out that the kids are acting out because they experienced something traumatic.

  18:16-18:28

  And we don't see the countless hours of the parents trying to raise their kids, parents trying to get help for their kids to go through whatever it is they've gone through.

  18:28-18:31

  We don't see that. We don't care about that.

  18:31-18:34

  We're just so quick to condemn.

  18:39-18:48

  But you know, even for people like these scribes and Pharisees who didn't even believe in Jesus, experience has a way of putting things into perspective.

  18:51-19:03

  Jesus said, "Let him who is without sin "Among you, be the first to throw a stone at her." You know, that's one of the most misused verses in the entire Bible.

  19:04-19:09

  Because do you know how people want to use and quote this verse?

  19:11-19:19

  They want this verse to say this, "You know, we're all sinners, so we should never ever call out sin." Right?

  19:19-19:23

  Somebody tells you that what you're doing is wrong, what you're doing is sinful.

  19:24-19:33

  "Hey, hey, hey, he who is without sin cast the first stone." Like, only if you're sinless can you tell me about my sin.

  19:33-19:37

  And that is not what Jesus was saying at all.

  19:39-19:48

  The point here - listen closely - these men were all law and no grace.

  19:48-19:52

  Jesus wasn't saying judges have to be sinless.

  19:54-20:02

  And the Bible teaches so clearly that we as a church must address sin when there's sin in the church.

  20:02-20:14

  But, righteousness and judgment have to have this foundation of a spirit of grace.

  20:16-20:21

  Otherwise, our judgment becomes heartless.

  20:23-20:27

  Truthfully, it becomes hypocritical because we all need grace.

  20:31-20:32

  I want to make this clear.

  20:32-20:37

  Some people look at this passage and think that Jesus completely threw out the law.

  20:38-20:43

  That these men said, "Hey, the law says stone her, and Jesus says, 'Ahh! Who needs the law?

  20:43-20:48

  Just forget about it.'" and look a little closer, that's not at all what happened.

  20:49-20:51

  Jesus actually affirmed the law.

  20:52-20:54

  Here, did you see that?

  20:55-21:02

  In an amazing twist, Jesus said, "Okay, she should be stoned.

  21:06-21:15

  But I'm going to appoint the executioner." So, sinless guy, you get the first throne.

  21:18-21:21

  Jesus wasn't minimizing adultery.

  21:24-21:29

  Adultery is so destructive and so painful.

  21:30-21:33

  Adultery violates the marriage covenant.

  21:34-21:36

  Adultery destroys entire families.

  21:36-21:39

  Adultery does harm to children.

  21:39-21:41

  Adultery is horrible.

  21:42-21:45

  We've talked about that so much in the past.

  21:47-21:48

  Jesus wasn't minimizing that.

  21:51-21:57

  But to this group of self-righteous men, Jesus was saying, "Hey, you know what?

  21:57-21:58

  You're no better.

  22:00-22:06

  You're condemning a woman for adultery, but your hearts are full of hatred.

  22:07-22:08

  Your hearts are full of malice.

  22:08-22:18

  What kind of people would grab just a woman, not the guy, just a woman, what kind of men would drag a woman through the streets and dump her right here?

  22:21-22:22

  Treat her like that.

  22:24-22:25

  You're heartless.

  22:27-22:30

  Jesus wasn't minimizing sin, He was elevating grace.

  22:32-22:42

  Saying the reason you are so harsh to judge because you don't recognize your own need for grace, even though you need it just as much as she needs it.

  22:45-22:54

  And you know, church, I am, I am by far the worst sinner that I know.

  22:56-23:00

  I need Jesus Christ more than anybody that I know.

  23:01-23:04

  And I know this because I know what's in my heart.

  23:06-23:07

  How about you?

  23:11-23:22

  And when you and I fail to recognize that we are sinners saved by grace, we become just as harsh as these guys in this passage.

  23:25-23:43

  But, when we are constantly drinking in the grace of Jesus Christ, That river of grace flows out of our hearts, and we become much better ministers to others who need that same grace.

  23:45-23:46

  We all need grace.

  23:47-23:53

  Finally, but we don't often understand it.

  23:54-23:55

  Look at the last two verses for today.

  24:00-24:05

  Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they?

  24:07-24:16

  Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go.

  24:17-24:26

  And from now on, sin no more." Jesus said, "Well, I guess the trial is over.

  24:26-24:28

  the jury all sort of disqualified themselves.

  24:30-24:32

  Jesus alone had the right to condemn.

  24:33-24:37

  Jesus alone had the right to throw a stone, and He chose to forgive her.

  24:38-24:41

  And some would look at this passage and say, "Wait, wait, wait a second!

  24:42-24:44

  She didn't confess her sin.

  24:45-24:47

  She didn't repent from her sin.

  24:47-24:53

  She didn't do nothing that the Bible says we need to do to turn from our sin and to receive forgiveness.

  24:54-24:55

  She didn't do anything.

  24:55-25:03

  "How can you say she's forgiven?" And I would reply, "You want to step in at this point of the story, really?

  25:04-25:05

  This is where you want to step in?

  25:06-25:12

  This is where you want to go look for a rock?" Jesus knew her heart, right?

  25:13-25:16

  We've seen that all through John, over and over.

  25:16-25:18

  Jesus knows what's in a person.

  25:19-25:20

  He knew what was in her heart.

  25:21-25:23

  He knew that she was repentant.

  25:26-25:34

  There's a big difference in the way you minister to someone who's repentant than someone who's rebellious in the church.

  25:34-25:35

  This is a whole other sermon.

  25:37-25:54

  But just to say, when someone who calls himself a believer in the church is guilty of sin, if that person comes repentant and says, I need help. I'm trying to do the right thing.

  25:54-25:58

  Would you please help me?" I will work with that person all day.

  25:58-26:00

  All month, I will work with that person.

  26:01-26:12

  But the person who calls himself a believer who is flagrantly in unrepentant sin refuses to turn from it.

  26:14-26:16

  The Bible says that person is no longer welcome in the fellowship.

  26:17-26:18

  Huge difference, right?

  26:20-26:22

  And this woman was obviously repentant.

  26:24-26:25

  Sin no more.

  26:27-26:30

  Jesus didn't excuse her sin.

  26:31-26:31

  Like, hey, you know what?

  26:31-26:34

  You had a rough childhood, so you're off the hook.

  26:35-26:38

  Jesus didn't have her embrace some victim mentality.

  26:39-26:45

  Like, well, you know, the reason you committed adultery is because of something your husband did a while back.

  26:45-26:47

  He didn't give her this victim mentality.

  26:48-26:51

  He didn't call it an alternative lifestyle or whatever.

  26:52-26:53

  Jesus, He called it sin.

  26:55-26:59

  And He said to walk away from that kind of living.

  27:02-27:10

  We often don't understand grace because we view it as permission to sin.

  27:12-27:16

  People say, "Well, I'm not saved by my conduct, My conduct doesn't matter.

  27:19-27:21

  That's spoken like someone who doesn't know Jesus.

  27:22-27:30

  That's spoken like someone who doesn't have God's Holy Spirit indwelling you, changing you into who God has called you to be.

  27:31-27:37

  Jesus Christ is not about, "Here's your magic ticket to heaven." Jesus Christ is about transformation.

  27:42-27:48

  Jesus said, "Sin no more." Sin no more.

  27:50-27:58

  You see, the point is, grace points us in a new direction.

  27:59-28:03

  Grace moves us in a new direction.

  28:04-28:14

  And Jesus didn't tell this woman, "Sin no more, so that you can avoid being executed by stones somewhere down the road.

  28:16-28:17

  And it's the same for us, church.

  28:17-28:28

  Our motivation for turning from sin just can't be boiled down to, "Hey, don't sin because you fear the consequences." Like this woman, it's this.

  28:31-28:33

  Turn from your sin because you met Jesus Christ.

  28:35-28:40

  Turn from your sin because you can never be the same after experiencing His forgiveness.

  28:43-28:46

  Well, the scribes and the Pharisees certainly brought the right question to Jesus.

  28:48-28:53

  It all boils down to, hey, how do you harmonize justice and mercy?

  28:56-29:00

  If God is just, this woman dies.

  29:01-29:04

  But if God is loving, she lives.

  29:07-29:07

  What's it going to be?

  29:10-29:16

  Well, the answer for her sin and for yours is the cross of Jesus Christ.

  29:19-29:25

  See, the cross of Christ is an intersection where God's justice meets God's mercy.

  29:28-29:42

  And Jesus eventually took Her place on the cross as He has taken yours, so that we could be forgiven and go and sin no more.

  29:45-29:55

  And along the way, what motivates me to seek to show grace to someone struggling with sin?

  29:59-30:01

  Well, it's because forgiven people forgive.

  30:03-30:06

  because forgiven people know His grace.

  30:07-30:08

  Let's pray.

  30:09-30:13

  Father in heaven, thank You for Your Word.

  30:15-30:18

  And I pray, Father, that Your Word would transform us.

  30:21-30:33

  As we all so readily acknowledge that we need grace, but sometimes, Father, we're a bit thick-headed that comes to the application of it.

  30:36-30:41

  Father, let us be people that live in Your grace and extend that to others.

  30:46-30:58

  That when we find ourselves in this story, we would show the compassion and restoration of Christ, not the hate-fueled judgment of these scribes and Pharisees.

  31:00-31:12

  Father, let us be people who represent You, who represent Your Son, by demonstrating that grace to others.

  31:16-31:19

  Thank You, Father, for the grace that You've shown us on the cross.

  31:23-31:25

  We pray these things in Jesus' name.

  31:27-31:27

  Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 7:53 - 8:1-11

1. What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
   

2. In John 8:7, Jesus said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” People often quote this to mean “we are all sinners, so it’s never right to call out someone’s sin.”

   • Is this an accurate interpretation of this verse? Why or why not?

   • How and when IS it appropriate to call out someone on their sin?
     

3. John 8:9 says the older ones walked away first. Why do you think that was? How does experience seem to temper inappropriate zeal?
   

4. Jesus told the woman to “sin no more” (John 8:11). How does knowing Jesus motivate us to walk away from sin?

Breakout
Pray for one another to grow in Jesus’ grace - and being gracious to others.

Grace in the Garden

Introduction / Context:

Romans 1:21-22 - "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools..."

Ephesians 5:25 - "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..."

5 Examples of Grace Displayed at the Fall (Genesis 3):

1. Grace is Exclusively for Humans. (Gen 3:14)
2. Grace promises Ultimate Victory. (Gen 3:15)

1 Corinthians 15:57 - "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

3. Grace permits Continued Creation. (Gen 3:16)
4. Grace leaves us Frustratingly Fallen. (Gen 3:17-19)
5. Grace gives Accessible Life. (Gen 3:22-24)

2 Corinthians 5:17 - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

Revelation 22:14 - "Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates."

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:42-00:43

  I did, yeah, it's awesome.

  01:19-01:21

  (applause)

  01:26-01:31

  So thank you Pastor Jeff, and thank you to the elders for giving me the opportunity to speak today.

  01:32-01:36

  I'll tell you, I was a little intimidated today, all this announcements and all this heavy stuff.

  01:37-01:38

  But let's go to the Word.

  01:38-01:42

  Let's go to God and see what He can teach us today.

  01:42-01:42

  So let's pray.

  01:43-01:46

  Heavenly Father, God, You are awesome.

  01:46-01:54

  And God, even in the midst of hearing about really heavy sin, really dark things in the world, that's inside of us even, God.

  01:56-01:57

  Lord, I know that Your Word has power.

  01:58-02:05

  And as much as You have already won the victory, God, You can win the victory today in us through the power of Your Word, Lord.

  02:05-02:19

  And I pray that You would speak through me, God, that these would be Your words, that My failures, My miscommunication, God, that that would get out of the way, God, and it would be Your Word that is clearly proclaimed in this building, God, as it is every week, Lord.

  02:19-02:25

  And I pray that You would just open our hearts but to learn from your word and to change our lives.

  02:25-02:26

  In your name we pray, amen.

  02:28-02:33

  Well, for those of you that don't know me at all, by education, I'm a mechanical engineer.

  02:34-02:37

  By profession, I work for a Navy contractor.

  02:37-02:39

  I'm a manager currently of an IT group.

  02:40-02:44

  And by hobby, I'm a video gamer, among other things.

  02:44-02:50

  But there's one common theme that is thread through all of those areas of my life, and it's that I hate failure.

  02:50-02:55

  The engineer in me sees failure as imperfection or as inefficiency.

  02:55-02:59

  The manager in me sees failure as wasted time or extra cost.

  03:00-03:06

  And the video gamer in me sees failure as frustration that will just cause me to throw a controller or something like that.

  03:06-03:14

  And I'm definitely not here to be one of those motivational posters that says failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor or some garbage like that.

  03:15-03:17

  No, I hate failure.

  03:17-03:19

  And most people don't like failure.

  03:19-03:21

  I hate failure.

  03:21-03:28

  And I can remember a time in my freshman year of college when I faced the weed-out professor of Grove City's engineering program.

  03:28-03:30

  This guy was ridiculous.

  03:31-03:36

  We would have questions on the test that had nothing to do with anything he spoke or anything that was in the book.

  03:37-03:43

  I remember randomly being graded on my ability to draw a wheelchair in an engineering class.

  03:44-03:45

  What does it have to do with anything?

  03:46-03:49

  So I remember my first exam that I got back from him.

  03:49-03:52

  I came back with a big red 37 on it.

  03:52-03:53

  37?

  03:53-03:54

  Out of what?

  03:54-03:55

  Is that a percent?

  03:56-03:57

  I literally had no idea.

  03:58-03:59

  I didn't know what he graded.

  03:59-04:01

  There were just minuses everywhere on the page.

  04:03-04:07

  I came to find out later that he ended up grading on a curve that I couldn't explain to you today.

  04:07-04:09

  And a 37 ended up being somewhere in the middle of the pack.

  04:10-04:12

  But then nonetheless, a 37 is a failure.

  04:12-04:14

  I don't care what standard you're grading by.

  04:15-04:18

  And I've faced failures in my life.

  04:18-04:20

  I'll continue to face failures in my life.

  04:20-04:23

  But that never lessens my hate for failure.

  04:24-04:32

  So that's the reason that I think God has called me to give you this message about failure and about how God responds to it, because it's a lot different than how we respond to failure.

  04:33-04:35

  So if you haven't already, open up to Genesis 3.

  04:35-04:36

  We're gonna be talking about that.

  04:36-04:39

  But let me give you some of the context of our text.

  04:39-04:45

  I am a Bible teacher, so I have to give you the context before we can just dig into a passage.

  04:46-04:54

  And it's kind of funny, Pastor Jeff, a couple of weeks ago was talking about when we go at Harvest Bible Chapel, we preach through a book verse by verse at a time.

  04:55-04:57

  I intend to do that, but I only get one week.

  04:57-05:02

  And so Jeff even talked about, if I got to pick anything, man, I'd pick grace.

  05:02-05:04

  Well, that's what I did, I picked to talk about grace.

  05:05-05:10

  So Genesis three though, actually records the single greatest failure in all of human history.

  05:11-05:20

  This is when we went from the peak of our existence to the downward spiral that we know today, leading to things as horrible as what the Acervo project is fighting.

  05:21-05:23

  God created everything from nothing.

  05:24-05:25

  He created light from darkness.

  05:25-05:30

  He created order from chaos and fullness from emptiness.

  05:31-05:36

  From the largest galaxy to the smallest atom, God had built and designed a universe of perfection.

  05:38-05:43

  And although it was of no celestial significance, God placed his watchful focus on the earth.

  05:43-05:50

  And although it's not as big as the sky or the sea, God put his special attention on the land.

  05:51-05:58

  And although we're not the biggest or the fastest or the strongest, God showed his extreme favor toward mankind.

  05:59-06:05

  God made the first man, Adam, out of this earth, and he uniquely breathed his own breath into him to give him life.

  06:06-06:11

  God even built on this already perfect earth, a perfect home for Adam.

  06:12-06:12

  That's Eden.

  06:13-06:19

  In the Garden of Eden, the Bible says that it was full of every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

  06:20-06:23

  And God gave Adam one job and one rule.

  06:24-06:27

  Work and keep the garden, just don't eat from one tree.

  06:28-06:36

  But even with this complete purpose and this categorical perfection, God saw and knew that it was not good for man to be alone.

  06:37-06:38

  But God needed Adam to know that too.

  06:39-06:44

  So what God did was he paraded every single animal on the planet in front of Adam so that Adam could name them.

  06:45-06:47

  And through this process, Adam learned two things.

  06:47-06:51

  One, everything on earth has a pair, and two, he did not.

  06:52-06:57

  And so God solved this need of Adam's by creating Adam's match.

  06:57-07:03

  In an even more unique way than the way he created Adam, he created Eve out of Adam's side.

  07:04-07:12

  And it was with the creation of Eve and the marriage of Adam and Eve that caused God to say for the first time, it was very good.

  07:12-07:14

  Every other day of creation, God said it was good.

  07:15-07:19

  But after this, after God had created this perfect marriage, He said it was very good.

  07:20-07:24

  He concluded His magnificent creation and He even took a rest.

  07:25-07:27

  So that's where we pick up in our text.

  07:28-07:31

  So, let's read the first 13 verses of chapter 3.

  07:32-07:36

  "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

  07:36-07:59

  And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit which is in the midst of the garden, God said, "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die." Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die, For God knows that the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

  08:00-08:09

  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

  08:09-08:12

  She also gave to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

  08:12-08:15

  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

  08:15-08:19

  And they sowed fig leaves together, and made themselves coverings.

  08:19-08:22

  And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

  08:22-08:26

  And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

  08:27-08:56

  Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself." And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you that you should not eat?" And the man said, "The woman whom you gave to me, she gave me the tree, and I ate." And the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'" So there's a lot of things to teach on here.

  08:57-09:01

  And I'm going to focus on the second half of this chapter, but I did want to point out some things.

  09:01-09:09

  And I hope, as I think is always the case at Harvest Bible Chapel, that the Word of God is your authority in your life.

  09:09-09:18

  And if you could understand the reality of Genesis here just in this chapter alone, it would change the way that you view the world around us.

  09:18-09:20

  It would change the way that you view marriage.

  09:20-09:25

  It would change the way you view sin and temptation and all these things that are talked about in here.

  09:26-09:28

  But I did want to talk about a couple of things.

  09:28-09:38

  There's a concept that we've all heard that's called "original sin." It's the idea that mankind suffers from a disease called sin that we've inherited from our parents as a result of the first sin here.

  09:39-09:53

  That's part of the fulfillment of what God said, "You will surely die." Or actually better translated, "Dying, you will die." Life we know is a perpetual existence of brokenness where we experience failure over and over again throughout our entire life.

  09:55-09:58

  But our actual failure began before the first bite into the fruit.

  09:59-09:59

  So what is sin?

  10:00-10:06

  Well, sin is doing anything God forbids or failing to do anything that God demands.

  10:06-10:14

  So while eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was strictly forbidden by God, Adam and Eve were already omitting to do two things that God demands.

  10:15-10:21

  And my experience has been that when I fail to do the things I'm supposed to do, I'm pretty sure I'm going to guarantee that I'm going to do something I'm not supposed to do.

  10:22-10:23

  Can you see that in the story?

  10:23-10:24

  Look back at verse 6.

  10:25-10:36

  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, wait a second, didn't God already fill the garden with every kind of tree that already was that way?

  10:37-10:39

  So why is it that Eve wanted this one?

  10:40-10:45

  Well I can understand my own sinful bent that says, If you put up a sign that says "don't," I'm going to do.

  10:46-10:47

  But Eve doesn't have that sinful bent yet.

  10:48-10:49

  Eve doesn't have that sinful desire.

  10:50-10:53

  So what is it that caused her to still want this?

  10:54-11:01

  Well, Romans 1, 21-22 says, "For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him.

  11:01-11:04

  But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.

  11:05-11:11

  Claiming to be wise, they became fools." Well, this passage isn't talking about Adam and Eve, it's talking about us.

  11:12-11:50

  what actually happens is Eve failed to overtly give God thanks and therefore she became susceptible to foolishness. If she was content with all of the perfection that God gave her, she would never want the one tree that she couldn't eat from. And she saw that it was a desire to be wise and so she ended up claiming to be wise, she became a fool. This is the first step in the sin process, failing to give gratitude to God. And unfortunately gratitude naturally dissipates. It's not something that we just automatically have. We have to actually work with intentional effort. That's the first one.

  11:50-12:06

  The second sin of omission is Adam's alone. See the last part of verse 6, "And she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate." There's nothing more pathetic or more convicting to me than a husband too passive to protect his wife.

  12:07-13:13

  Ephesians 5 25 says, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Adam stood by and let his wife eat the fruit of the tree that would cause her to surely die. That's inexcusable. And even if Adam had the moral fortitude not to eat the fruit himself, he would certainly have to answer to God for how could you let your wife make a choice that would have such mortal consequences. I should point out that God gave the rule to Adam alone before Eve was created. We don't know did God again come back and tell Eve what the rule was but either way it was Adam's job to protect his wife even to the point of giving himself up for her and he failed to do this. The failures of Adam and Eve have had dramatic consequences. They're everything that we know and experience today down even to the molecular level that cause us to get old and cause us to die. But there are four immediate effects of sin that I'd like to talk about and it's we've all experienced this we've all seen this pretty typical pattern. The first one is separation. Look at verses 7 and 8.

  13:14-13:55

  It says, "Then the eyes of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and they made coverings. Then they heard the sound of the Lord God walking and they hid themselves. If nakedness is the greatest expression of openness and intimacy. They sure lost that real quick. First they were separated from each other by making these ridiculous leaf clothes and then they were separated from God by hiding. After separation comes shame and shame is actually the motivation that leads to separation. The first part of verse 7 says, "They knew that they were naked for all of their existence up until that point." They've been naked and they never thought anything about it and they never hid from God. They never hid from each other. But now as a result of this sin and now they're ashamed.

  13:56-13:58

  Shame is the motivation for our separation.

  13:59-14:04

  When we sin, we know we've done wrong, and so our natural response is to be ashamed.

  14:04-14:10

  Except if as a culture or as a person, you continue to persist in that, then you don't even feel shame anymore.

  14:11-14:12

  After shame comes fear.

  14:13-14:14

  They were afraid of God.

  14:14-14:15

  Sin always makes us afraid.

  14:16-14:17

  We're afraid of getting caught.

  14:18-14:19

  We're afraid of retaliation.

  14:19-14:21

  We're afraid of losing our reputation.

  14:21-14:23

  And so we try to cover it up.

  14:23-14:32

  They made makeshift coverings that never work, and they literally tried to hide from God who created everything, which is an impossibility.

  14:33-14:40

  Lastly, after separation, after shame, after fear, if all else fails and you're called to the carpet, what do we do?

  14:40-14:41

  We blame.

  14:41-14:43

  Look at verses 12 and 13.

  14:43-14:55

  "Then man said, 'The woman who you gave to be with me, "she gave me the tree, and I ate.'" When we sin and we're called to the carpet, We don't want to take the blame.

  14:55-14:59

  So we're going to do whatever we can to play the blame game and blame anybody else.

  14:59-15:03

  That's our society of, I'm a victim, and let's blame everybody else.

  15:03-15:04

  It's not my fault, it was my parents' fault.

  15:04-15:08

  It's not my fault, it's the postman delivered the mail on the wrong day.

  15:08-15:12

  Whatever it is, we don't want to take the blame.

  15:14-15:17

  Adam literally blamed everybody on the planet for his sin.

  15:19-15:31

  Eve, for giving him the fruit, God for giving him Eve. That's the extent of which our blame will go. So these things are always part of our response to sin. This is what we do when we fail.

  15:32-16:20

  Right? We try to hide it. We try to run from it. But God's response is a lot different and that's where I'd like to focus today. So let's read the second half of the chapter, picking up on verse 14. So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field, on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel, or crush his head and you shall bruise his heel. To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. To Adam he said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it.

  16:21-16:22

  Cursed is the ground for your sake.

  16:23-16:25

  In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

  16:25-16:30

  Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.

  16:31-16:34

  In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.

  16:35-16:36

  For out of it you were taken.

  16:36-16:42

  For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.' And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.

  16:43-16:47

  And for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them.

  16:47-16:51

  And the Lord God said, 'Behold, man has become like one of us, to know good and evil.

  16:51-17:01

  Now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever.' Therefore God sent him out of the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.

  17:01-17:13

  So he drove man out, and he placed a cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life." So I think most of us refer to this as the curse, right?

  17:13-17:15

  It's a pretty negative situation.

  17:15-17:18

  And I'm going to ask you to look at it from a different angle today.

  17:18-17:27

  To see at our hugest moment of failure, God pouring out grace, displayed for His children that He loves.

  17:28-17:29

  So, what is grace?

  17:29-17:38

  Well, grace is God giving to us, as Pastor Jeff says, grace is God giving to us what He demands of us.

  17:38-17:42

  Or, more generally, grace is God giving us something that we don't deserve.

  17:43-17:46

  We don't deserve to see God's examples of kindness here.

  17:46-17:50

  But let's look at five examples of God's grace displayed at the fall.

  17:51-17:55

  The first one, grace is exclusively for humans.

  17:57-17:58

  Exclusively for humans.

  17:58-17:59

  Look at verse 14 again.

  18:00-18:08

  God curses the serpent here, and I'll refer to him as Satan, because we know from other passages of the Bible that this is talking about Satan.

  18:08-18:10

  This isn't some snake that just magically can talk.

  18:10-18:11

  This is the devil.

  18:11-18:20

  This is God's lead rebel that has thrown a third of the angels of God's own creation and turned them against him.

  18:20-18:25

  And now he's trying to turn God's creation of mankind against him as well.

  18:26-18:34

  And I think a lot of us take grace for granted because if you've spent any amount of time in the church, you've heard about grace, you've sung about grace, you've talked about grace, we've experienced grace.

  18:35-18:36

  So we take it for granted.

  18:37-18:39

  But if you notice, Satan doesn't get a second chance.

  18:40-18:42

  He doesn't get another opportunity.

  18:43-18:45

  That's something that is exclusive for people.

  18:46-18:51

  We are God's creation that alone gets an opportunity for a second chance.

  18:52-18:53

  The angels don't get that.

  18:54-18:57

  Psalm 8:4 says, "What is man that you are mindful of him?

  18:57-18:59

  The son of man that you care for him.

  18:59-19:08

  Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with honor and glory." That verse says that we are actually lower than angels.

  19:08-19:10

  Angels are a higher order of creation than we are.

  19:11-19:16

  And yet we are unique in creation in that God gives us the opportunity to receive grace when we fail.

  19:17-19:19

  We expect it now, but we don't deserve it.

  19:20-19:21

  We have to always remember that.

  19:22-19:25

  Number two, God promises ultimate victory.

  19:25-19:27

  Let me reread verse 15.

  19:28-19:31

  "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.

  19:32-19:40

  He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." These aren't in order of importance, and this is certainly the most important one of these five points.

  19:41-19:45

  And you may have heard that all of history is His story.

  19:45-19:48

  Christ is the central theme of every book of the Bible.

  19:49-19:53

  And Genesis 3.15 is the first reference to Christ in all of the Bible.

  19:54-19:55

  The seed of the woman.

  19:55-19:58

  It's interesting to note that it's not the seed of Adam.

  19:58-20:01

  It's the seed of the woman because Christ is born of a virgin.

  20:04-20:08

  It is amazing that God took a risk with creation.

  20:09-20:10

  How did He take a risk?

  20:10-20:12

  He's God. He's in control of everything.

  20:12-20:15

  Well, He took a risk with creation because we have the opportunity to choose.

  20:15-20:18

  We could choose for God, or we could choose against God.

  20:19-20:21

  And in this case, we chose against God.

  20:21-20:25

  But God didn't take that risk without a plan to win in the end.

  20:26-22:08

  1 Corinthians 15.57 says, "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." amazing that God even tells us here at the beginning that there is a cost to solving the sin problem. In verse 15 it says, "He shall bruise your head," meaning Christ shall bruise the head of Satan, "but you shall bruise his heel." So death by crucifixion doesn't quite sound like a bruised heel. I've had a bruised heel before. I'm sure it compares nothing to crucifixion. But the point is, is that whatever Satan's best attack is, sending him to the cross, so Satan thought he was doing, that best attack would not be able to defeat Christ. In the end, Christ would defeat Satan. He would crush the serpent's head. But the point is that grace never comes for free. It always comes with a cost. When you extend grace to somebody because they accidentally drove into your car and you choose not to make them pay for it, who's got to pay for it? You do. So grace always comes with cost, but God is always willing to pay that cost to give us grace. The third point, grace permits continued creation. This goes back to verse 16, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth." We tend to focus on increased pain in childbirth, I think rightly so. My beautiful wife is preparing to face her third delivery and she can attest to the fact that pain is right at the forefront of that event. But you know the interesting thing here is that it actually says increased pain in childbirth which means that pain would have been there in the perfect garden. That's kind of an interesting thought.

  22:08-22:13

  Pain is not a result of sin. It's increased pain that's a result of sin.

  22:13-23:19

  But maybe even more significant here is that God shows unimaginable grace to Adam and Eve and that he doesn't give up on them. It's not three or four chapters later where God is going to wipe out the entire planet, 99% of all living things as a result of sin. Sin that was generated from this moment here. But God doesn't give up on Adam and Eve. He sticks with his children at the lowest point of their failure. And even more than that, he allows Eve to continue to be a creator like God is. He could have taken that right away and continued to make people out of dirt, or continued to put people to sleep and pull them out of the side. But yet, God makes Eve a creator like He is. And she gets to have that purpose, a purpose that most women get to experience. Most women get to be a part of that creation. We get to raise children, whether it's your actual children or whether it's people that you're ministering to. Women are molding and shaping people in a way that Only God does.

  23:20-23:25

  So, it's a pretty amazing reality that God doesn't give up on us in our sin.

  23:25-23:29

  And even further, He has a great purpose for us even when we fail.

  23:31-23:31

  The fourth point.

  23:33-23:36

  Grace leaves us frustratingly fallen.

  23:37-23:42

  If you look at all the stuff that's said to Adam, Adam was given charge of the earth.

  23:43-23:45

  He was supposed to rule over it.

  23:46-24:18

  But when he rebelled against God, rebelled against him. Things were not going to listen to him. And this is the the life that we know where things get hard, right? Work frustrates, sickness attacks, and death seems to always win. We're constantly left thinking, "This is not how it should be." So you ask, "Where's the grace in that?" It's right there. This is not how it should be. We are constantly reminded that God did not intend for us to experience life this way. God did not intend for people to die.

  24:18-24:47

  God did not intend for people to get sick. It's not good for man to be alone, right? Isn't that what God said? It's also true of our life without God. It is not good for man to be without God. And we feel that when we are without God we experience frustration. When we are in this earth and its brokenness we experience frustration. That's grace. Could you imagine if we were completely content with our sinful fallen life? We'd literally be smiling on the way to hell.

  24:48-25:45

  What a terrible tragedy that would be. We don't always love it, but in reality, frustration is an amazing gift from God. It points us back to our need for Him and His redemption. It points us to the fact that this is not the way it should be. So I wonder how that thought will affect our next complaining session, which I am guilty of more than maybe anybody. Grace leaves us frustratingly fallen. The last point is that grace gives accessible life. Look at verses 22 through 24. "Then Lord God said, 'Behold man has become like one of us to know good and evil and now lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.' Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden." You know I always used to think that that God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden because of their disobedience. You don't want to do it my way? Fine. You're Maybe that's because that's how I would respond if somebody disappointed me so much.

  25:45-25:46

  But that's not what happened at all.

  25:47-25:55

  He says in verse 22, "lest ye reach out his hand and take of the tree of life and eat and live forever." God doesn't want us to eat from the tree of life.

  25:56-25:56

  Why?

  25:57-25:58

  Because we're broken, because we're sinful.

  25:59-26:05

  God knows that if we eat from the tree of life, we will now forever and perpetually be in this broken state and he doesn't want that for us.

  26:06-26:09

  So he blocks us from that state.

  26:09-26:14

  If we were to eat from the tree now, we would spend eternity broken, dying without end.

  26:14-26:16

  That's the definition of hell.

  26:17-26:25

  So God goes out of his way to remove man from the garden, to put up barriers so man cannot have access to that tree of life.

  26:25-26:29

  Because he's got to carry out his plan for redemption, to rescue us through his Son.

  26:30-26:36

  We must have the ability to die to ourselves so that we can be born again as a new creation.

  26:37-26:41

  2 Corinthians 5.17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

  26:41-26:49

  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." It's only through Christ that we can have access to the tree of life.

  26:49-26:53

  Because of God's plan for redemption, we will again have access to the tree of life.

  26:54-27:07

  If you move from the beginning of the story in Genesis to the end of the story in Revelation, in Revelation 22.14 it says, "Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and that they may enter the city by the gates.

  27:09-27:14

  God gives us new life that is free from the stain of our sins because of the righteousness of Christ.

  27:15-27:23

  This new life and Christ's righteousness will bring us to eat from the tree of life in the final days of time and spend eternity with Him.

  27:24-27:25

  That's a pretty amazing thing.

  27:25-27:27

  Praise the name of our great God.

  27:29-27:34

  So while all these examples of grace are interesting and I think individually encouraging.

  27:35-27:38

  The real application is what are you going to do with this?

  27:39-27:42

  God's response to the sin of his children is to extend grace.

  27:43-27:44

  But our response is to run away.

  27:45-27:49

  When we sin, we want to get as far away from God as possible.

  27:49-27:51

  We want to try to do things our way.

  27:51-27:52

  We want to try to cover it up.

  27:52-27:55

  We want to try to make a way to fix the problem.

  27:56-28:02

  When we want to run away, God remains willing to run to us when we turn away from our sins.

  28:02-28:03

  It's all throughout the Bible.

  28:04-28:09

  If you think of the story of the prodigal son, as soon as the prodigal son comes back, what does the father do?

  28:10-28:12

  He sees him off in the distance and runs towards him.

  28:12-28:13

  That's the heart that God has.

  28:14-28:16

  He wants us to come back to him.

  28:16-28:18

  He's willing to run to us to do that.

  28:18-28:20

  We need to learn this principle.

  28:21-28:25

  Our response is to run, but God's response is to welcome us with grace.

  28:26-28:30

  So the question is, What failures are keeping you distant from God?

  28:31-28:33

  What barriers are you trying to hide behind?

  28:35-28:37

  The real question is, is any of that actually working?

  28:38-28:45

  Are you just laughably like Adam and Eve, putting leaves up and hiding behind trees that God invented out of nothing?

  28:46-28:49

  Is life actually operating the way you think it's supposed to be?

  28:49-28:51

  Do you find yourself saying, this is not how it should be?

  28:54-28:58

  God extends grace now, that God's grace won't be extended forever.

  28:59-29:00

  We only have this life.

  29:00-29:04

  Now you might think that life, oh, I got all kinds of years in front of me, but you don't know that.

  29:04-29:08

  Life is not intended to operate the way you think it is.

  29:08-29:11

  Life is intended to operate the way God has outlined a timeline.

  29:11-29:14

  So we don't have forever with this grace.

  29:14-29:22

  At some point in time, we will become the seed of the serpent when we reject God in the end days, and he's gonna crush our head.

  29:23-29:25

  and we will not have that offer of grace anymore.

  29:26-29:38

  So my appeal to you is that you embrace God's gift of grace now while it is available to you, while your hearts are still open to it, and while you still have breath in your lungs.

  29:40-29:51

  Turn away from your sin and run back to God, whether that's for the first time, whether that's you've known God forever and you just sinned this morning and you feel distant from Him, whatever the case may be, our life is always better.

  29:51-29:57

  Our life is always more the way that God intended it to be when we are running back to him and not running away from him when we sin.

  29:57-29:59

  We're going to continue to fail.

  29:59-30:00

  We are.

  30:00-30:02

  That is the reality of the state that we live in.

  30:03-30:06

  We don't have the capacity within us to be perfect anymore.

  30:06-30:09

  We failed when our representatives were perfect.

  30:10-30:13

  So how much better do you think you're going to do now when you're in a broken state?

  30:14-30:16

  So embrace God and run back to him.

  30:17-30:48

  And then by doing so, we will all up eating from the tree of life to face eternity. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, God, you have done an amazing thing through your son. God, you have given us grace upon grace. You have extended to us mercy upon mercy. And we thank you that you never give up on us, Lord, and that you're always waiting for us to run back to you. You will embrace us with open arms. God, I pray that we would get Get our pride out of the way.

  30:48-31:01

  Get our desire to be fixed ourselves out of the way, Lord, so that we can receive Your grace and embrace a relationship with You that is better than anything we've experienced on this life, Lord.

  31:01-31:10

  I thank You for Your Word, for a passage that's so simple and basic that we've all probably heard before, but yet there's new depth there.

  31:10-31:12

  There's new reality, God.

  31:12-31:17

  When we look at You who is infinite, There's always more that we can understand.

  31:18-31:29

  So I pray that, God, that we would grasp on to the things that we've learned today and that it would change us, that it wouldn't just be more information for our head, but it would be more motivation to follow after you.

  31:30-31:36

  I thank you for this opportunity and I pray that you would go forth from here through us and change us forever.

  31:36-31:38

  In your name we pray, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Genesis 3

1. The Fall is possibly one of the most basic and well known stories in the Bible, and yet there's so much depth here. Discuss some of the complex concepts you've learned from this story.

2. It has been said before that most people suffer from two problems: failing to see how big their sin is and failing to see how big God's grace is. Do you believe this? Why or why not?

3. Describe a time where you have experienced God's grace in your failures.

Breakout Questions:

What is causing you to be distant from God right now? How are you going to respond to His grace?