Speaker 1: 1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado.
Speaker 1: Will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week?
Speaker 1: This morning we are going to continue in Genesis, chapter 3.
Speaker 1: The second half of Genesis, chapter 3, is.
Speaker 1: Last week we covered the first nine verses.
Speaker 1: We're going to look at nine through the end of Genesis 3, but I do want to this morning, quickly begin on a personal note, much like I did last week.
Speaker 1: You know, I wish I didn't have to do it once.
Speaker 1: I certainly wish I didn't have to do it twice.
Speaker 1: But we lost a dear saint just yesterday morning, mr Cecil Kellum, 100 years old.
Speaker 1: 100 years old.
Speaker 1: He has now gone to be with the Lord.
Speaker 1: I read this last week, considering Mr Marvin, and now this week, mr Cecil.
Speaker 1: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Speaker 1: Precious in the sight of the Lord, 100 years.
Speaker 1: I think of the stories that I've heard from him, but the stories I've heard from many of you that always include the Boys and Girls Club, the work he's done in the community, the faithful member he's been of this church.
Speaker 1: So Mr Cecil is one we will miss deeply, but certainly heaven's reward and the Lord has been faithful to him.
Speaker 1: And I just want to say this.
Speaker 1: I know you know we don't always mention everyone from up here, but I think the last two weeks you think about this 198 years worth of life, 140 of those years collectively, the two of Mr Marvin and Mr Cole 140 years.
Speaker 1: Mr Marvin and Mr Cole 140 years.
Speaker 1: Mr Marvin and Mr Cecil 140 years as a part of this church.
Speaker 1: You think about the life, you think about the legacy and I think that's worth remembering as a church family.
Speaker 1: So I praise God for Mr Cecil, I praise God for 100 years of his faithfulness.
Speaker 1: Let's turn now to Genesis, chapter 3.
Speaker 1: It's already been read for us this morning, and so let me pray as we begin.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, speak to us now through your word, transform us, guide us and Lord, by your spirit, would you move?
Speaker 1: We ask this in Christ's name.
Speaker 1: Amen, amen, 111 words, 111 words that's the length In the original Hebrew.
Speaker 1: 111 words from the end of Genesis 3.6 to the beginning of Genesis 3.15.
Speaker 1: 111 words, eight verses.
Speaker 1: In the grand scheme of things, that's not very many.
Speaker 1: 111 words from the initial rebellion in the garden, the initial disobedience of God's command that brought sin and death into the world.
Speaker 1: But only 111 words later is the initial announcement of God's grand plan to make all things right.
Speaker 1: Once again, only 111 words.
Speaker 1: It's as if God could not wait to let us know that hope is coming.
Speaker 1: It's true that God wastes no time in this moment 111 words from the worst news of all time to the announcement of the best news of all time.
Speaker 1: This morning I want to look at the best news we could ever receive.
Speaker 1: We saw last week in the early parts of Genesis 3, man has rebelled against God.
Speaker 1: They listened to the serpent.
Speaker 1: The serpent said couldn't you be more?
Speaker 1: Is God holding out on you?
Speaker 1: Is there more that you're not getting?
Speaker 1: Because God won't give it to you.
Speaker 1: And they believed the lie, as you and I still sadly, often believe the lie of the evil one.
Speaker 1: They ate the fruit and in that moment sin and death entered the world.
Speaker 1: And so now we pick up in verse number nine.
Speaker 1: But the Lord, god, called to the man and said to him where are you?
Speaker 1: We ended last week by looking at that verse that God is seeking out humanity even in the midst of their rebellion, seeking them out.
Speaker 1: God knew where they are.
Speaker 1: God has never lost a game of hide and go seek.
Speaker 1: He knows right where Adam and Eve are in this moment.
Speaker 1: But what does he want?
Speaker 1: He wants communication with his children.
Speaker 1: Where are you?
Speaker 1: Verse 10, and he said this is Adam speaking now?
Speaker 1: I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.
Speaker 1: Think about what has happened as the result of this disobedience.
Speaker 1: For the first two chapters of Scripture, there's perfect communion with God in the garden.
Speaker 1: It is the perfect place where they are perfectly known by their creator, where, for two chapters, the sound of God walking through the garden would be the most joyful sound they could hear.
Speaker 1: This is great news when God is coming our way, our perfect creator, and now, because of their disobedience, they're hiding, they're naked and they are ashamed of what has happened.
Speaker 1: They are guilty and they are hiding from their creator.
Speaker 1: They're hiding from the very one that could actually do something about the problem.
Speaker 1: They find themselves in Verse 11, and God said who told you that you were naked?
Speaker 1: Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?
Speaker 1: Once again, god has never asked a question that he did not already know the answer to.
Speaker 1: He knew the answers to these questions.
Speaker 1: He knew they had eaten from the tree, sometimes with my own children.
Speaker 1: I might ask questions that I already know the answer to.
Speaker 1: I just want to see if they'll answer it in the way I know they need to answer it.
Speaker 1: Who told you you this?
Speaker 1: Have you eaten?
Speaker 1: And I want you to see verse 12.
Speaker 1: The man said the woman whom you gave to be with me.
Speaker 1: She gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.
Speaker 1: I'm going to read that again and think about this.
Speaker 1: You know where I'm heading, verse 12,.
Speaker 1: The man said the woman whom you gave to be with me.
Speaker 1: She gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.
Speaker 1: In World War II in Birmingham, england, anthony Pratt was quarantined to his home.
Speaker 1: He really had nowhere to go.
Speaker 1: It was the midst of World War II, the blitz, these nightly air raids over that area of the world.
Speaker 1: They were quarantined into their home, and rightfully so.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 1: Of many of us at the beginning of COVID a few years back, we know the word quarantine.
Speaker 1: We know what it's like to not leave the house for a little while.
Speaker 1: Anthony Pratt was there at home for many, many days and many, many nights, nowhere to go.
Speaker 1: He was just a factory worker and a musician, but he had an idea.
Speaker 1: He wanted to create a game.
Speaker 1: He recalled the Tudor Close Hotel that he had been to multiple times, this sprawling hotel with all these very specific and different rooms, and he began to think how do we make a game out of this?
Speaker 1: And he made, created a game that became very popular, the board game Clue.
Speaker 1: You've played this game before.
Speaker 1: Probably you know the goal of this.
Speaker 1: You and three or four friends, over the course of 30 or 45 minutes, you're going to figure out who did it, where they did it and how they did it, and once you think you have that information, you're going to pull this envelope out.
Speaker 1: You're going to say who you think did it, how they did it, where they did it.
Speaker 1: If you're creative, you might even make up a motive of why they did it, how they did it, where they did it.
Speaker 1: If you're creative, you might even make up a motive of why they did it, though you don't have to do that.
Speaker 1: I always did.
Speaker 1: You open this envelope and you look in and you see if you're right.
Speaker 1: Here in the garden, here in the garden, god had the envelope.
Speaker 1: God knew the answers to the question.
Speaker 1: He had Adam dead to rights.
Speaker 1: It was Adam, in the garden with the fruit.
Speaker 1: We know this, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: And yet, in this moment, all Adam wants to do is look to the God of the universe and say whosever name you find in this card, I've got to tell you it's not what you think.
Speaker 1: It's got to be someone else.
Speaker 1: Someone else's name deserves to be in here.
Speaker 1: And so what does he do?
Speaker 1: First of all, he says this.
Speaker 1: He says to the God of the universe it was the woman and you know, I can imagine what he's thinking that this woman, eve, this wife that you gave me, it was her that had this conversation with the serpent.
Speaker 1: God, don't you know?
Speaker 1: If the serpent had spoken to me first, I would have said him right.
Speaker 1: I would have told him exactly that he needs to be gone.
Speaker 1: I would have said exactly what you said, perfectly as you said it.
Speaker 1: We surely wouldn't have gotten into this problem.
Speaker 1: I could have told him the truth, adam, I'm sure you would have.
Speaker 1: It was the woman.
Speaker 1: But then he says this it was the woman, god, that you gave me.
Speaker 1: Do you see?
Speaker 1: He's pointing the finger at everyone but himself?
Speaker 1: The woman, god that you gave me the audacity of this one God that you gave me, that you gave me the audacity of this one God that you gave me.
Speaker 1: That God, don't you remember?
Speaker 1: In fact, if you trace it back, you're the one that told me I needed a helper.
Speaker 1: You're the one that created this wife for me.
Speaker 1: Out of my side and out of the dust, you created this woman.
Speaker 1: And God, if you really trace it back, if you hadn't have done that, maybe we wouldn't have been in this predicament.
Speaker 1: He's blaming everyone but himself.
Speaker 1: It was the woman.
Speaker 1: It was the woman that you gave.
Speaker 1: How often in our own sin do we do the same thing, that we look around and we say it's got to be everyone else's doing, but it surely can't be mine.
Speaker 1: How often do we want to be the victim in these moments instead of the guilty party?
Speaker 1: Now I want to create a quick side note here.
Speaker 1: What I'm not saying is that that in our lives, certainly in our own sin, that there are not external factors that certainly can can aid us towards that sin.
Speaker 1: I I'm not saying that there aren't those who may be bad influences that aid us towards sin.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that there aren't those that have harmed us and therefore, maybe we've sinned.
Speaker 1: In response, I'm not saying the external factors do not exist.
Speaker 1: They very much do exist and we can probably all say that there are circumstances in our own lives.
Speaker 1: Those external factors have been there that have maybe caused us to head towards a sinful road.
Speaker 1: What I am saying is this when you strip it all away, at the end of the day, when we sin, we sin.
Speaker 1: That our sin is ours and no matter how we may try to justify it or minimize it.
Speaker 1: God, was it really that bad?
Speaker 1: We might try to compartmentalize it.
Speaker 1: God, I've cleaned up in all these areas.
Speaker 1: If I could just hold on to this one sin here, we could even trivialize it.
Speaker 1: God, weren't you a little harsh when you created that command?
Speaker 1: Is it really as serious as you make it out to be?
Speaker 1: Whatever we do to try to justify our sin?
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, our sin is our sin and you and I, we are the guilty party.
Speaker 1: When God holds up the envelope, it's my name on the inside.
Speaker 1: I think of David in Psalm 51.
Speaker 1: We talked about David a few weeks ago and his events with Bathsheba and the adultery and the murder and all that unfolded there.
Speaker 1: And I think of when David is caught, when David realizes he's in sin, what does he do?
Speaker 1: Well, he doesn't look up to God and say well, god, you built my palace right there.
Speaker 1: You didn't have to do that.
Speaker 1: And God, it's not my fault.
Speaker 1: Should she really have been on the rooftop at that time of day, god?
Speaker 1: Or how about this?
Speaker 1: God?
Speaker 1: Haven't I done so much for you?
Speaker 1: Couldn't you have just overlooked this one thing?
Speaker 1: In that moment?
Speaker 1: When he's guilty, he does none of that.
Speaker 1: What does he say in Psalm 51, verse 4?
Speaker 1: He simply says this against you you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
Speaker 1: Against you have I sinned and done what's evil in your sight.
Speaker 1: I'm the guilty party.
Speaker 1: It's my sin.
Speaker 1: No more running and hiding, no more finger pointing at anyone and everyone else around God.
Speaker 1: Against you have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
Speaker 1: Here's the beauty of being honest with God about our sin.
Speaker 1: The beauty is this that as we come to God with the truth of our sin and we come to God as sinner who is guilty, then we get God's response 1 John 1.9,.
Speaker 1: If you confess your sin, he's faithful and just to forgive you your sin and cleanse you of all unrighteousness.
Speaker 1: How much better is that than my desire to run and hide?
Speaker 1: If I can just get away from God, I can get out of this mess.
Speaker 1: No, no, if I just come to God, there is forgiveness and pardon in that moment.
Speaker 1: But here's Adam in this moment verse 12.
Speaker 1: The woman that you gave me.
Speaker 1: She gave me the fruit and I ate Verse 13,.
Speaker 1: Then the Lord said to the woman what is this that you have done?
Speaker 1: The woman said the serpent deceived me and I ate.
Speaker 1: She does a little better.
Speaker 1: She only points the finger to one place and she's not wrong.
Speaker 1: The serpent very much deceived her and she ate and Adam ate and sin and disobedience entered the world.
Speaker 1: So what do we do now?
Speaker 1: What comes next?
Speaker 1: Well, in the second half of our text today, judgment comes next, consequence does next or comes next.
Speaker 1: Consequence does next or comes next.
Speaker 1: And let's be clear there is always grace for sin.
Speaker 1: That's the good news.
Speaker 1: But let's also realize there is consequence for sin.
Speaker 1: There is consequence for sin, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: As a father disciplines one he loves, so too our God does that for us.
Speaker 1: Praise God that at times in our life we've seen consequence for our sin, because I would imagine God's consequence for sin in our lives has probably kept us from further sin going forward.
Speaker 1: Praise God for that.
Speaker 1: But in this moment, judgment and consequence come, and quickly.
Speaker 1: I'll summarize as we look to this woman, eve, in verse 16, there's consequence.
Speaker 1: I will multiply your pain and childbearing we see the fact that there will be great division between the husband and wife.
Speaker 1: We see in verse 17 through 19 that for the man there be toilsome, difficult work and their work will be a burden.
Speaker 1: We see even further for all mankind, in verse 24, that he drove them out of the garden.
Speaker 1: They are kicked out of the garden, they enter the land of death and someday death will come for them and they will die.
Speaker 1: This is great judgment.
Speaker 1: This is rightfully so, because we serve a just and sovereign God.
Speaker 1: This is consequence upon man and woman for their disobedience.
Speaker 1: But I'm fascinated by this that in this moment, before God looks to the woman, before God looks to the man, he looks to the serpent.
Speaker 1: Verse 14, 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.
Speaker 1: On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
Speaker 1: So first of all, in 14, we see just a curse towards the snake.
Speaker 1: We're not an ultra charismatic bunch in here, but I imagine we could probably get some audible amens by me just saying the fact that snakes are just no good.
Speaker 1: I don't like them one bit.
Speaker 1: At our old house we had a lot of the black snake, the rat snake there.
Speaker 1: We saw quite a few of them and people would tell me Taylor, you got to have those.
Speaker 1: They're good, they get rid of the things you don't want there.
Speaker 1: They're rodents.
Speaker 1: They get rid of those.
Speaker 1: And I would always tell them they get rid of the things you don't want there, the rodents, they get rid of them.
Speaker 1: And I would always tell them unless they get rid of themselves, I don't want them.
Speaker 1: I don't want them around.
Speaker 1: I don't like these snakes.
Speaker 1: But to this serpent God issues a curse.
Speaker 1: I'm also fascinated.
Speaker 1: On your belly, you shall go.
Speaker 1: You're all thinking it as well.
Speaker 1: Did they have legs before this?
Speaker 1: That's speculation, I do not know, but it gets fascinating in verse 15.
Speaker 1: To the serpent he says I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.
Speaker 1: He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel Again.
Speaker 1: I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.
Speaker 1: He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
Speaker 1: Right here, in this moment, is what, for many centuries, people much smarter than I have called the proto-evangelion, the proto-evangelion.
Speaker 1: Think of that word proto, think prototype.
Speaker 1: The first, the first Evangelion, think evangel, evangelism.
Speaker 1: The first gospel, the first good news.
Speaker 1: Right here, only 111 words, after the fall of humanity into sin, after the Lord has found them hiding and naked and guilty and ashamed, we get the first redemptive announcement of what is to come.
Speaker 1: And we don't get it all.
Speaker 1: We don't get it all spelled out.
Speaker 1: We don't see yet, in this moment, the full picture.
Speaker 1: Now, if we've read God's word, you know the full picture, but at this point, in Genesis 3, it's not all spelled out yet.
Speaker 1: But what do we see here in this moment?
Speaker 1: That God looks to the serpent and says this there will come a day that from the seed, from the line of woman, there will come one who will crush the head of the serpent.
Speaker 1: Okay, that one is coming from this descendant of woman who will crush the head of the serpent and, yes, the serpent will land a blow.
Speaker 1: The serpent will bruise the heel of that coming one, but ultimately it is the serpent's head that will be crushed.
Speaker 1: In this moment of judgment, of guilt and shame, this grand announcement is made.
Speaker 1: The gospel did not begin on a cross outside of Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: It did not begin even in Bethlehem.
Speaker 1: The gospel was announced all the way back in Genesis, chapter 3.
Speaker 1: I could really take it further and tell you the gospel was proclaimed from before the foundation of the world, but I'll settle for Genesis, chapter 3.
Speaker 1: That one day one will come from the seed of woman that will crush the head of the serpent.
Speaker 1: I continue to look briefly at God's response to humanity.
Speaker 1: Verse 21, the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them.
Speaker 1: Man and woman guilty and ashamed, and God clothed them.
Speaker 1: They had made loincloths, little temporary coverings, and God made them the real deal.
Speaker 1: Animals don't voluntarily just offer up their skin.
Speaker 1: Blood was shed so that man and woman could be covered from the nakedness of their sin.
Speaker 1: Our God is a faithful God.
Speaker 1: Verse 24, he drove out the man and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and the flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Speaker 1: There is consequence for sin and man and woman are cast out of the garden.
Speaker 1: Man and woman must enter the land of death and one day they will die, yet not without hope.
Speaker 1: They've heard Genesis 3.15.
Speaker 1: Someone is coming and they are cast out of the garden.
Speaker 1: And really the story of scripture is humanity trying to get back to the garden.
Speaker 1: And really the story of scripture is humanity trying to get back to the garden, trying to get back to that place of perfect communion with God.
Speaker 1: Turn with me now to Luke, chapter 3.
Speaker 1: I know that's a big jump, luke, chapter 3.
Speaker 1: I'll give you just a second to arrive there, beginning in verse 23.
Speaker 1: I would imagine, if we were honest today, as we are reading through scripture and we arrive at a genealogy, it's not always our most exciting moment when we get to one of those many lists.
Speaker 1: There's many in scripture the list of names, and this man was the father of this man and this man and this man, and it goes on.
Speaker 1: But there is something fascinating about this one.
Speaker 1: Look with me in Luke's gospel, Chapter 3, verse 23,.
Speaker 1: Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age, being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph, the son of Heli.
Speaker 1: And so you see Jesus, who is the son of Joseph, obviously Jesus, born of a virgin, the son of God himself, god in flesh, yet humanly speaking, the son of Joseph.
Speaker 1: And then you trace that line back, at the end of verse 31.
Speaker 1: You see something fascinating.
Speaker 1: You see in this line, the son of here's a big name, david.
Speaker 1: 32, the son of Jesse, obed Boaz.
Speaker 1: You keep going back.
Speaker 1: And verse 34.
Speaker 1: You see Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham.
Speaker 1: You keep going back in verse 38, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Speaker 1: Luke is showing us something fascinating here.
Speaker 1: Remember, long ago, in the garden, we were promised something that one day from the seed of woman one would come who would crush the head of the serpent.
Speaker 1: And now we follow the storyline that weaves through all of history, and from Adam to Abraham, to David, we come to one individual named Jesus, who is the Christ that from Adam's line comes, the one who on the cross took Adam's sin and took your sin and took my sin, and on the cross suffered greatly.
Speaker 1: It would appear as if the evil one did bruise the heel.
Speaker 1: It would appear as if the evil one certainly did land a blow on our suffering servant, jesus Christ, because Christ Jesus was put on the cross for our sin and Christ Jesus was placed in the grave.
Speaker 1: And yet, early Sunday morning, christ Jesus breathed breath into his lungs, walked out of the grave and what might could be seen as just a man walking out of a tomb a little bit outside of city walls of Jerusalem, in the truest sense was this was the ultimate crush of the head of the evil, one that what was promised in the garden has now come and seen as fulfilled right there at the empty tomb, when Christ Jesus put death to death in the life of himself.
Speaker 1: And so this is the good news of the gospel that our God is a promise-keeping God, that when God makes a promise, he keeps it.
Speaker 1: And just as he said, the serpent's head will be crushed in the resurrection of Christ.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 1: And now I know we say yes.
Speaker 1: Satan still prowls around and he wants to tempt, and he wants to crush and destroy each one of us.
Speaker 1: And yet he prowls around now as a defeated opponent.
Speaker 1: He goes around now as a defeated foe and one day, as we see in Revelation, he will ultimately be a vanquished foe, and his days are very much numbered.
Speaker 1: And one day his days will be complete because Christ Jesus has crushed the head of the serpent.
Speaker 1: And so we wanted to get back to the garden, but we couldn't.
Speaker 1: Not by our own effort, we couldn't walk in, we couldn't get there on our own.
Speaker 1: And yet the snake crusher has come to put death in its grave and bring life to you and I, and here's what I love.
Speaker 1: We wanted to get back to the garden, but really we should have been looking for something better.
Speaker 1: Because of this gospel, at the end of our days, in the new heavens and new earth, we will not go back to the garden of Eden, as perfect as it was.
Speaker 1: We will go forward to the better garden, the garden city that is to come, that Christ Jesus will bring down, the new heavens and the new earth.
Speaker 1: Look with me in Revelation 22, 1 through 5.
Speaker 1: Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb and through the middle of the street of the city.
Speaker 1: Also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.
Speaker 1: The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Speaker 1: No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him.
Speaker 1: They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more.
Speaker 1: They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord, god will be their light and they will reign forever and ever.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you, if you know Christ Jesus, then a hundred billion years from now you will be alive and well, living in the garden city, living with your Savior, seeing the Lamb who was slain, who sits now upon the throne.
Speaker 1: 100 billion years from now, you will be alive and well, because the one who crushed the head of the serpent laid death to death when he walked out of the tomb.
Speaker 1: That's why we celebrate Easter, that's why every morning in this room is Easter morning, because Christ has risen from the grave, the evil one has been crushed and our Savior is victorious.
Speaker 1: I wonder this morning if you want to know that Savior.
Speaker 1: I'll be down front.
Speaker 1: I'd love to introduce you to him.
Speaker 1: I wonder if you want to know that Savior?
Speaker 1: I'll be down front, I'd love to introduce you to him.
Speaker 1: I wonder if you want to be a part of a church that knows that Savior.
Speaker 1: We'd love nothing more than to invite you into this family.
Speaker 1: I wonder if I can pray for you anyway, or any of our pastors can.
Speaker 1: I know I'll be down front as we respond in just a moment.
Speaker 1: However, you need to respond, whether that's down front or right where you're at, maybe in prayer there in your pew.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll do it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to pray now for us and we'll worship some more.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, we thank you for the gospel, thank you for Jesus Christ, thank you for his work.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that.
Speaker 1: His work is complete, that he is risen and forevermore we are his Lord.
Speaker 1: I pray, if there's anyone in this room that does not know you, that they would know you today.
Speaker 1: If there's anyone that just needs a touch from your spirit, that today would be a day.
Speaker 1: Lord, you are better to us than we deserve and so, lord, let us never forget.
Speaker 1: Let our lives be an act of worship back to the very one who has given us all things in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: We pray this in Christ's name Amen.
Speaker 1: Would you stand now and I'll be down front.