Genesis 3:9-24 "The Penalty of Guilt and the Promise of Grace"

Genesis 3:9-24: "The Penalty of Guilt and the Promise of Grace: Understanding Sin's Gravity and Grace's Reach"

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The Penalty of Guilt and the Promise of Grace: Understanding Sin's Gravity and Grace's Reach (Genesis 3:14-24)

1. Prosecution (Genesis 3:9-13)

2. Penalty: The Divine Decree of Judgment (Genesis 3:14-19)

3. Promise: The Proclamation of Redemption (Genesis 3:15, 20-21)

4. Parting: The Expulsion and the Cherubim (Genesis 3:22-24)

ABOUT JAMES AND LESSONS FOR LIFE

Are you longing to find answers to the deeper issues of life? Join Dr. James Long, Jr., a pastor, counselor, and university professor with over 30 years of experience. Hear James as he tackles some of life’s biggest questions and helps us find God’s solutions to life’s struggles. Learn the power of living by God’s grace and for His glory. Experience the joy of forgiveness and freedom found in Jesus Christ alone. If you are in search of freedom, you will love being part of this conversation. Subscribe, and enjoy the show!

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Transcript

James: 0:26

I am looking forward to having a number of you here on November the 18th. Why? Uh, some of you struggle managing emotions. Some of you struggle with conflict. Some of you struggle with just understanding who you are and your emotions and life. And, and one of the things that I can do is I can help people learn about how they can master themselves. We're going to teach you six skills in that day. We're going to teach you six skills. The first one is a God awareness Understanding that God is with you wherever you go and keeping your focus on Him more often than not when you find yourself going through struggles you have completely forgotten him So we're going to teach you about that skill Second is we're going to teach you about a God engagement Before you ever go out horizontally and try to deal with someone, what you need to be able to do is to engage God and go into a relationship with him. Ask him, call out to him, ask him to lead you by his word, last year to lead you by his spirit. There's a second set of skills that we're going to teach you is a self awareness and a self engagement. Learning about yourself and each one of you is unique. Each one of you have your, your strengths and your growth areas. You have your challenges and difficulties and they intersperse with who you are and in relationship. So a self awareness and a self engagement, understanding how I can learn to control myself in the midst of the struggles. And then there are two more skills that we're going to teach you. We're going to teach you about. A other awareness and another engagement. How do I become more and more aware and empathetic and sensitive to the needs of others that are around me? And how can I engage them in godly ways? We're going to do that through teaching you how you go through a change process. We're going to teach you how you manage conflict, and we're going to teach you about relationships. So those are three things that we're going to be looking to do. It's a three and three hour and 15 minute meeting. So we're gonna start here at 9. AM on Saturday, the 18th, it's free. There's no charge. And I love it for you to come. If you know of somebody that could benefit that struggles in relationships, struggles with conflict, I would strongly encourage you to bring them, bring them along with you, bring them to that, and then bring them to hear the bells. And we'll have a great time of just ministering to them. So I look forward to seeing you. There is a link if you want to sign up that went out in the email. And if you need a link for it, please let me know. Okay, enough with that. Tim, I did it, okay? You're welcome. Turn with me and your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. And as you're turning there, last week we had this opportunity to speak about the struggles and why we have all the struggles that we have in this world. I want you to imagine Um, a world you're on the precipice of this paradise, and you're peering into this paradise, this magnificent garden, and it's, it's beautiful, and you look, it's a place where every need is met. It's a place where beauty abounds and harmony reigns, and as you, as you look in, as you peer into this, it's just amazing. It's amazing. Now I want you to picture one single choice that forfeited it all. One single choice, a choice that seemed to be so small, but yet desirable, but it was filled with consequences so severe, so difficult, that it... It affected every fabric of this world and every fabric of your life. See that's not just the story of Adam and Eve, let's be honest, it's our story. We, we have opportunities for greater levels of peace and we choose more often than not to move away from that in the way we think, in the way we speak, in the way we act. And the world is filled with echoes of that loss in the Garden of Eden. centuries ago. The world is a place where the ground is hard and the world is a place where pain is real and it's a place where we are yearning. There is something with all in all of humanity that yearns to get back to that garden. They yearn to get back to a place of peace and harmony. And there's a voice that is there in all of humanity that beckons them, that encourages them, that calls them back to that peace beyond their failures, beyond the difficulties, beyond the challenges, it is a voice of hope. So they look for that voice of hope and they turn to the wrong sources. Last week, we had this opportunity to talk to you about the first part of Genesis. And in Genesis, remember the first several verses, we looked at the tragedy of humanity. And the tragic fall of humanity, and that first step, and if you remember, we talked about perversion. And the perversion started with the fact that they, they doubted the word of God, they doubted the majesty and the authority of God, and they doubted his goodness. And really at, at heart level, that, that's all of us. All of us find ourselves perverting the goodness of God, the word of God, and the authority of God. But it wasn't just their perversion of that, which was influenced by Satan, it was the fact that they had this pretense. They, they looked at the world and they started to judge the world, this tree, as something that was good for them when God said it wasn't. And it's the pretense of humanity that we have this tendency to elevate our thoughts and our abilities above God, and we think that we know better. That's what our foreparents did. And from the perversion to the pretense to the panic, and you remember the panic was there, the panic was great. They immediately, after they'd eaten this fruit that they saw, that they desired and they took, they immediately felt shame. And the shame, this brokenness, there was a shame between them and God, and then there was this shame between one another. And as humanity often does, what did they do? They tried to cover up that shame. They sewed fig leaves together, their first clothing they sewed together, and the problem was... It didn't cover the shame that was inside. It was never going to do that. Well, it wasn't just the panic of shame, but it was the panic of fear. They, they heard God. And in the past, what they would have done was run to God, but now in panic, what are they doing? They're running away from God. Which is crazy the all knowing ever present God you can never run away from him You go to the heights and he's there you go to the depths and he is there And so they went from the perversion to the pretense to the panic to you remember God prodded them And he he went after them and God was Asking them questions, God went and pursued them, which is so important. Somebody asked me out there after service, does that mean that we as Christians in Christ don't pursue God? Of course we pursue God. We have been enabled by the Holy Spirit to pursue God. But prior to that, we have a tendency to run away from God until he gives us a new heart. And until we are in a right relationship with him, but you added the perversion and the pretense and the panic. There was this projection of guilt when, when he went to Adam, he called out to Adam and we'll spend a little bit more time on that today. What did he do? He immediately went and horizontally, it's a woman. And then he went vertically. That you gave me. He projected blame away from himself to someone else, not himself. And as we think about that, the deception that the serpent brought about, the downfall of humanity, the shift from divine trust to distrust, we look in the mirror of God's Word today, and as we look in the mirror, we see ourselves. That's us. We doubt God's word, we doubt God's authority, we doubt God's goodness, and we have the things that we look for, we see, we desire them, we want to take them, and we struggle with shame, and we struggle with fear, and we struggle with guilt, and we try to cover it up, we try to run and hide, and we try to blame, and that's us. This is probably one of the most important chapters in the Bible because it tells you about the human predicament. But what it does is, this is what the beauty of this chapter is. It, it's the penalty of guilt, which we're going to talk about, but it is the promise of grace. That you're going to see that even there in the garden, God is beckoning you to recognize that my son is coming. There is someone outside of you that can save you. And that can transform you and to bring healing in your heart and restoration. Now today, one of my favorite hymns is before the throne of God above this hymn, it just eats me up every time I hear it. And every time I sing it, it just kind of brings tears to my eyes. And as I was working through this message this week, I just kept hearing, um, passages from that hymn over and over again. So I'm going to probably intertwine, um, parts of that hymn as we work together today. See, as we step into the garden, out of the garden, east of Eden, we are looking back at a place where we had peace, where we had hope, where we had joy. We didn't have, we don't have it anymore, but we can have it again. Because the Lord Jesus Christ came here to rescue you, to give you peace today, and then tell you that I will take you to ultimate peace in heaven. Look with me here in Genesis chapter 3. Verse nine, Genesis three, verse nine. But the Lord called to the man and said to him, Where are you? Let's pray. So Lord, I, I thank you for the fact that you are a great God. God, you promised that when we ate it, we would surely die, and we did. Now, you could have made that judgment even harsher for us, and in your grace and mercy, you didn't. In your grace and mercy, before this world was ever created, before Adam and Eve had ever sinned, you, your son, and your spirit had already planned to rescue humanity. I praise you for that. Lord Jesus, I thank you for being the, the one that bore our guilt, the one that took your father's wrath. The one that opened the way to heaven for us and Holy Spirit. Open. Thank you for opening her eyes. Thank you for giving us the word through Moses. Help us to speak. Well, help us to hear. Well, help us to bring glory and honor to your name. In Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Four steps today. First step is the prosecution. Second step is the penalty for Third step is the promise, and the fourth step is the parting. Prosecution, penalty, promise, and parting. Let's start with the prosecution. In verse 9, God begins an arraignment of such. And what he does is he's calling the man to... Come and it's a probing question. God has four probing questions here, which is so important for us to know that God is is calling us to look at ourselves and to be self aware, to be unable to understand what's going on, really, and be honest about what's happening. And God says, I, he called this man and he says, where are you now? God is calling Adam and Eve to give an account. This is so important and it's like he's initiating a legal procedure. I'll get to that in a moment why that's important. And so he's calling you into his chamber and this omniscient God is coming to you. And what he does is this he He knows exactly where Adam is. He's accommodating us through our human limitations. This omniscient God is, is giving us words that would try to help us to understand who he is. So he's asking questions. And this serves as an invitation to confess. Adam, I'm asking you to confess. Where are you? Now, this, this phrase is in the singular, man, but it's not just this man, it's man and woman. But he's calling out specifically for Adam, and we talked about this last week, because Adam was set up as the leader, as theologians call it, the federal head. He was the leader of us, he was the leader of humanity, and he was the person that was supposed to be the one that protected his wife and led his wife. And he chose not to do that. So the question that God was asking was to bring man out of his hiding, out of his covering up and helping them to understand the struggles that they're having. So there was an arraignment. Then there was an examination. Look here in verse 10. The examination starts here. He says, okay, in verse nine, where are you? And then he, Adam said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. I hid myself. So we see this examination that Adam says, I heard the sound of you and probably God calling out. to them. And what did they do? They ran and hid. This was a sure sign that they had died already. There was a brokenness. There was an alienation between the two of them. That's why they tried to cover up physically. But there was an alienation between them and God. Instead of running towards God, they're running away from God. And this fig leaves, all the fig leaves, all the clothing that they tried to do from the outside doesn't change what has already happened internally. And then between themselves vertically. Nakedness is interesting because in the Old Testament, nakedness is a sign of weakness. It's a sign of neediness. It's a sign of humiliation. So when you are found yourself in that way, what you are finding, that you are broken. The intimacy that was there once in this marriage has now been separated. And it's been separated for, for this period of time. And so what do they do? Their conscience is condemning them. So what do they do? They hide themselves. And that's us. And God then asks this probing question in verse 11. He, he says this. Now, Adam has just said that I was naked, I was hiding, okay? So now he says, God says to him, who told you that you were naked? Probing question number two. And so Adam's sin is evidenced. He knows that he is naked, and the naked is not just physical. This nakedness, and I'm not completely sure what it is, but it has to be something that's spiritual, it's emotional, it is deep. It's not just the physical. Their body parts have been exposed. They've been exposed. You ever worry about if somebody really knew me, they would never want to be in a relationship with me. If they really knew my thoughts, if they really knew my desires, why would they even want to be near me? That's almost what I think it is that the corruption that is happening within is now exposing. And now they're trying to cover that up so people don't see it. And God asked that probing question. He's waiting for Adam to confess what God already knows he's done. Second probing, third probing question. Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? Now once again, does God know this information already? God knows it. God knew it before he did it. So God is omniscient. He knows it. But he's probing him and he's prodding him to confess. I find it interesting, as well, as we will get further on, he's gonna probe Adam, he's gonna probe Eve, he does not ask a question of Satan. He just jumps to judgment with Satan. And it just shows the relationship of humanity with God, that God loves you so much that he was willing to send his son. The angels have already been condemned. The demonic angels have already been condemned. They're done. He never sent a savior for the demonic angels. He sent a savior for humanity. And he's probing this humanity. So he starts with this arraignment and then he goes to the examination. And now we have admission. Now watch this in verse 12, the man said, the woman that you gave to me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate it. Okay. So we talked about this last week. He's projecting, he's, he's shifting blame and responsibility away. I don't want to focus on that. What I want to focus on the last two words. I ate. He's he's confessing he ate. God says, don't eat. He can do all of the song and dance and shifting blame horizontally and vertically. But the question comes down. Did you eat? I ate. Okay. First timothy to 4 14 says this. Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. See the basic reluctance of humanity. The basic reluctance of us is to be honest. We don't want to admit it. We don't want to be honest. God is calling him to repentance, and he's calling each one of you to repentance. Repentance means it's a change of mind, it's a change of direction, it's a change of heart. You are going to say, I'm going this way, but Lord, I choose to go back this way towards you. Well, whether Adam likes it or not, he has already admitted, I ate. Watch what Eve does. Verse 13. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me. And then what did she say? And what? I ate. So once again, some commentators will say, Well, she's generally being honest. The serpent did deceive her, but she's not owning anything here outside of the fact that I ate. And the reality is this. Adam, I ate, Eve, I ate, they made an admission of guilt. It's almost like if somebody went into the police department and says, I can give all the song and dance, but I murdered that person. It doesn't matter what all those other things I did this. And that's what they did their admission through all the pretense, through all the smoke screens, through all the blame shifting, the truth is revealed. They did it. And you know what? This is saddened me. They show a greater level of allegiance to Satan. Then they do to God. Because what does Satan do? Satan distorts the truth. Satan shifts the blame and responsibility. Satan doesn't own it. Satan blames God. They're acting like Satan more than they're acting like God. James said this, Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. Proverbs 28 13 says, Whoever conceals his transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses it and forsakes it finds mercy. This interrogation of Adam and Eve shows that God is truth is going to be there. And God is, this prosecutor has been asking these questions and he's prodding and he's probing and the truth gets revealed. The answers are revealed for the surface truth. You. Have failed. Martin Luther, um, as I was doing my study this week, has an interesting concept about this section. He spent a lot of time in this section. But three points he came up with is this. That sin is first progressive. Which I really like. Because when I sin, to continue to cover it up, I need to do more and more sin. One act leads to another act. Which leads to another act. Sin is progressive. The second thing he said was that sin is the same everywhere. Which is true. We don't want to believe it, but sin is universal. There are people that are liars and murderers, halfway around the world. We have the same ones here. And we have, the struggles that you and I have are the same type of struggles. Now, it may be different on the surface, but inevitably, sin is the same everywhere. It's been the same back, going back to biblical times, it's the same things that you and I have and struggle with today. So sin is progressive, sin is same everywhere, but sin blinds us to the goodness of God. That's the biggest piece here. It's progressive. It will go step by step. It, it's same everywhere. But we don't see the goodness of God. Even here, Adam and Eve should have known that the goodness of God is, if you run to Him, that God is a gracious God. He wants to forgive you. They don't do that. And Adam and Eve's response to this shows a mixture of confession, but blame shifting and it doesn't work. And this is the verdict. The verdict is clear. Their disobedience has led to this pronouncement of guilt. And in response to their admission and all their excuses, God declares the serpent and Eve and Adam guilty. Guilty by not just his emotional standard, but guilty by his holy standard, guilty by his character. You have failed. It's a terrible verdict. There's a line in the, um, hymn. When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of all the guilt within, upward I look and see him there, who made an end to all my sin. And that, that sinless Savior, He died for me. So, when I want you to think about this, when God is calling Adam and Eve, or He's calling you to account, He's calling you to account to admit your struggle, but your guilt can be overcome by God's grace. God's grace is amazing. His grace is greater than all of your sin and all of the struggles that you have. And Satan's going to tempt you to despair. He's going to tempt you to keep looking back. You need to look upward. I often tell people, I want, if you're going to look back, I want you to look back at three events. Christ's cross, His empty tomb, and His ascension into heaven. And if you could look at your life through those lenses that my sin has been atoned for in Christ, and it's been proven by the fact that there's an empty tomb, and my Savior is reigning on high and He's coming back for me, and He's interceding for me, that sinless Savior is amazing. Penalty number two, the divine decree, verses 14 through 19. When the Lord God said to the serpent, now once again, He didn't ask any questions of the serpent, He just went to right to judgment. Because you have done this, cursed are you of all livestock above all the 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 hers. Her offspring, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. We'll come back to that latter part, portion. Now God is passing sentence on the serpent. He's passing sentence on Eve, and He's passing sentence on humanity. It's interesting that He curses. Curses the serpent he pours a judgment upon humanity. I just found that interesting. So there's a twofold curse First you could see that he is cursing this physical animal the snake I don't know how many of you like snakes, but the vast majority of us don't like snakes There's a revulsion within us you see a snake and you back up I think that goes all the way back here to the garden. There's some revulsion that people have two snakes It is also interesting that as a society becomes more, I don't want to read too far into it. So this is just my thought. As a society goes further away from God, they have a greater affinity for snakes. I wonder why. And so I have no idea why that is, but I will tell you this, there's a judgment. Some think that the snakes actually walked on legs. I have no idea. And now they are slithering on the ground. It is clear that they have been cursed. Snakes have been cursed. And it talks about dust. It's a symbol of abject humiliation. This indignation lasting forever you're going to have. And the serpent's curse is this. That they're going to have to crawl on their bellies. They're going to have to eat dust all the days of their lives. And it is a perpetual sign that you have been humiliated and defeated. But, but God doesn't just pour a judgment upon the snake, God pours a judgment upon the devil. And we saw that in verse 15, the spiritual force behind that snake. I will put enmity between you and the woman. He, he talks about the fact that there is going to be this judgment that's going to come. Now we'll talk more about that in a moment, but he is judging not only the physical snake, but he is also judging Now he goes to the woman in verse 16, and he says this to the woman, the woman said to the woman, he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbirth bearing in your pain. You shall break, bring forth Children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. I think there's two different types of pain here. I could be wrong. Clearly, there's a physical pain that women have to endure in giving birth. Many of you in this room have given birth and there it was extremely painful. It's challenging. It wasn't just the pain of the childbirth itself. It was the pain of that baby kicking you night after night and grabbing you and all those things that a baby does. All the pain. And the physical pain of bearing a child is heavy. But I also wonder... For the moms in this room that I've, how about the emotional pain, that child who, you know, dads have a concern for their kids. We do. We love them. We, we care about them. But there is something about a mom and their, their hurts that they have as they see their child struggling, maybe with faith, maybe struggling with choices that they've made. And the emotional, the mental, the relational pain, he's talking about this complex dynamic that happens in the relational order. This pain that seems to be great. But then he says it's not only the relational, the pain, the physical pain, or maybe the mental, emotional, relational pain, but then he talks about this desire issue. He talks about the fact that your desire shall be for your husband. And he shall rule over you. Now, these words indicate that there's going to be this ongoing struggle. And there is, oftentimes, in humanity, this struggle for who's going to be leader. In a home, often times that happens. That leadership role was given to the husband. And the wife was brought in as a compliment to him. But every, and that was before the fall. So that wasn't a consequence of the fall. That was before the fall. That's how God ordained it. God created Adam first and then Eve was created as his helper. And then after that, what seems to happen is that there is this, this fight for leadership in this home. And he talks about this desire, this desire, which is throughout scripture, this desire that happens within you. James chapter 4 says, what causes the conflicts and the fights among you? Is it not this, that you desire something, you want something? This internal fight that tends to happen internally and then relationally. And so this ongoing battle, this rebellion that Adam and Eve have done against God has brought about disastrous consequences in their relationship and will have a ripple effect in other relationships. And Adam has given up his God given role of leadership and guarding and leading and caring for his wife, and that brought about a level of judgment. So the judgment of the woman's sorrow, that led to a judgment of man's toil, verses 17 through 19. It says this, And Adam 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. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread. Till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. So, he, he's judged Satan, he's cursed Satan, the serpent and Satan, he has judged Eve, he has judged Adam. Interestingly enough, he, he brings a judgment upon Eve and it's the pain, he brings a judgment upon Adam and it's the toil, it's pain. Pain again. Pain in his work. Now, it wasn't that work was a part of the fall, it really wasn't, because God called Adam and Eve to work, Adam specifically, to work before the fall. So it's not that work is the consequence, it's the pain in work that's the consequence. The punishment is that the very ground from which you were formed is now going to fight against you. So that you can eat, you need to eat and you need to fight that ground over and over and every single one of us know what that feels like. We go to work and it's hard, it's toil, it's painful, it's exhausting just to be able to have sustenance. Adam will no longer enjoy the beauty of the garden's abundance. He will no longer enjoy the prosperity that is there. It is going to be hard work, painful work, for the rest of his life. And the underlying judgment is this disruption of this harmonious relationship. There's been a disruption horizontally. There's been a disruption vertically. But there's also been a disruption in nature. Even nature is fighting against you. Satan's judgment, the woman's sorrow, the man's toil, the universality of death. For dust you are, and dust you shall return. I don't want to be too morbid, but as I look at every single person in this room, every single one of us are going to take our last breath. Humanity, by their own sin, became mortal. He will die in a moment, at a time that's ordained by God. In Romans, it says this, For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. In Romans 6, it says, For the wages of sin is what? Death. What a terrible judgment. How can I ever find hope? How can I ever escape this? Because the sinless savior died. My sinful soul is counted what? Free. For God, the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me. The beauty, the penalty that God pronounces over Adam and Eve, not over the serpent, the serpents condemned, but the judgment that he pronounced over Adam and Eve and all their prodigy, he said this, that you have rejected me, but I am offering you grace. I'm offering you forgiveness and the echoes of God's justice, but. God's beautiful mercy and his kindness because the sinless Savior died. My sinful soul can be counted free. The prosecution, penalty, the promise. Look at the proclamation in verse 15. Let's go back to verse 15. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. You shall bruise his head, and he shall bruise, you shall, I'm sorry, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. And they call this the Proto Evangelium. It's the very first pronouncement of the gospel. Here in Genesis chapter 15, out of the darkness, God says, I'm giving you gospel. Now, they don't have as much as you and I have, because we have the finished work of this 66 books, and it tells us about what Christ did for you and for me. But they, they could look ahead to a savior, and he, he starts here by saying, Satan, there is going to be one that is going to come, and you're going to bite at his heel. He is going to crush your head. And that's what Jesus Christ did. Jesus Christ came here, and he lived a perfect and righteous life. He died a substitutionary death. The enmity between us and Satan, between humanity and humanity, even the enmity between God and us, even when we were enemies, God was willing to come and pursue us. And to die for us, what a beautiful message of hope. Jesus had said to the Pharisees, you are of your father, the devil. Your will is to do your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand for truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies. John said it later in his epistle, he said in 1st John 3, whoever practices sin is of the devil. For the devil has been sitting from the beginning. The division between the Cain and Abel, which we'll hear about preached like next week, the division between those that are in Christ and those are on that are in Christ and those that are not. Has been there right from the garden and God says this, you can be either in Adam and in Adam means that all of us are in Adam. We are morally corrupt. We all of us have guilt and condemnation and we were alienated from God. But for every one of us that were born in Adam. All of us that trust in Christ can be in Christ. And instead of the moral condemnation, I could have a new nature. Instead of guilt, I can have forgiveness. Instead of condemnation, I can have acceptance. And instead of alienation from God, I can have reconciliation with him. It's the beauty of the gospel. Theologians call that justification. I want to read through, I want to share with you, what it means to be justified. There's so much here that I'm going to encourage you to take the outline home, look at the passages, and spend time really thinking about what God has done for you in Christ. Because He has done an amazing thing to bring about the healing, the restoration and peace. To reconcile you with Him. Radically. Justification means to be declared not guilty. It beckons you into a courtroom. This whole thing started in a courtroom, God's courtroom. And he, he called Adam to his bar and Adam failed to admit truly that he was wrong. He shifted blame and responsibility. God calls you to a new courtroom, a new courtroom where Jesus Christ. It's the prosecutor, but Jesus Christ is the one who is going to bear the punishment for you. And, in justification, justification is this beautiful act of God's grace for you. In which he gives you free grace, even as a sinner. In Romans 3, it says this, The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, sin is universal, and are justified by His grace as a gift. Justified means you're declared not guilty. You get into that court and you can be as guilty as sinned, but God says you can walk out of that court not guilty. In Romans 4, verse 5, it says, And to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, faith is counted to him as what? Righteousness. God could look at you as sinful as you are. God can look at you as righteous. Justification is not only God pardoning all of your sins, but it's accepting you as righteous in his sight. He looks on you and he looks on you in such a way that he sees Christ's life in you if you're in Christ. It's amazing. On my worst day, I am still infinitely loved and totally accepting, completely forgiven, and so are you if you're in Christ. Justification is not based on your character or conduct, but it is based on his mercy, his kindness, and he redeemed you because of the righteousness of Christ and his precious blood that was shed. Titus, it says this, he saved us not by the works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, washing us with regeneration and the renewal of the spirit whom he poured out on us richly in Christ Jesus, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. When God declares you not guilty or justifies you, he applies the merits of Christ. He credits. Christ merits to your account. Your account is completely overdrawn. It is, it is so bad. You can never make it up and God applies Christ righteousness to your account so that when he looks at your account, it's a perfect account in second Corinthians five for our sake, God made him Christ who knew no sin to be sin for you and for me. So that in him we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Not only did this, Christ fully and completely satisfied the justice of God. You will never have to worry about condemnation if you're in Christ. There is no condemnation. Nothing will ever separate you from God. He paid it fully for you. Isaiah says, Surely he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteem him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastisement that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we have been healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one of us have turned to his own way, but the Lord, the Father, has laid upon the Son the iniquity of us all. Christ fully, completely satisfied that. When he drank that cup, he drank it to the full, for you. And for me, the only condition that God offers us or has for justification, this declared not guilty is faith. It's the only condition your faith. And even there, this is where he's so gracious. He gives you faith in Romans. It says, and are justified by his grace as a gift and the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation. That means appeasing by his blood to be received by faith. That was to show that in God's righteousness, because of his divine forbearance, he passed over former sins. Faith. Or in Ephesians, it's faith in Christ. It's whereby grace you have been saved through faith. And that's not even of yourself. It is a gift of God. And redemption and forgiveness are a matter of God's free grace to you. Now I, I probably should change the word here. It's not free. It cost Christ his life. It's free to you. But it cost Christ his life. In Ephesians 1, it says in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. I don't know where you stand today, but if you're standing under condemnation today, God wants to offer you grace and mercy. Verse 20 tells us about living by faith. It says, The man called his wife Eve, because she was the mother all living. It seems like it came out of nowhere, right? Where'd this come from? I mean, it's like, wait a minute. We got the prosecution. We got the penalty. You're giving us judgment. You judge the serpent. You judge the wife. You judge the woman, man. And now out of nowhere you offer us promise, but now I'm gonna name this woman. I think it's an example of Adam living by faith. I think Adam heard that there's gonna be one that's gonna come through this woman. And a savior is going to come. And so that's why he called her Eve. Her name means mother of all living. Life giver. That out of her womb is going to be life. And new life, and new life. And every one of us in this room is a byproduct of a mom's womb. And 2, 000 years ago, out of a mom's womb, Mary, came the incarnate son of God who walked here. lived here, died here, rose here for your salvation. And living by faith is, God offers you faith as a gift, but then he says you need to live out that faith, you need to exercise that faith, and that's what Adam did. Verse 21 tells us about garments of skin. And then Adam, the Lord God made Adam, and for his wife, garments of skin. And he clothed them. God provided garments, clothing Adam and Eve, their haphazard garments. Fig leaves meant nothing, but God gave them skin. Well, where did that skin come from? Something had to die. I actually don't believe in an old, I don't believe in an old Earth theory. Primarily because of things like this. Death was a byproduct of humanity's sin. I can trace back Adam to a certain period of time, and it wasn't billions of years ago. And all the death is a byproduct of humanity's sin. And the first death... Was not because of Adam, or Adam's doing, it was God. God took the life of an animal. Probably a lamb, I don't know for certain. Why a lamb? Because I believe that that animal was paralleling what was going to happen in the future. There are going to be lambs and animals that are going to die. You have to bring that. You would have to bring that time after time to cover your sin. And an animal was alive, and then the throat would be cut, and blood would be spilled, and And then your sin would be covered. And it was every animal from the Old Testament that died, everyone, everyone, everyone, was not going to ultimately cover your sin. And it was looking forward to one that would. Christ. The Lamb of God. That's why John would say, Here's the Lamb of God who, who takes away the sin of the world. See, the garment of skin was to show that someone had to die so that you can live. Jesus Christ was the one who took his last breath for you, but then rose victoriously. So what should our response be? Our response should be, I renounce my goal for good works, I renounce all the things that I think I can do, and I lean wholly and fully on Christ and Christ alone. Behold him there, the risen lamb, the perfect spotless righteousness, the great unchangeable that I am, the king of glory and of grace. God's pronouncing judgment, but the promise of redemption is right there. Let me take you lastly to the parting. Verses 22 through 24. Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now lest he reach out his hand and take... Also the Tree of Life and eat it and live forever. Stop there. The Godhead is talking. God the Father, God the Son, God, the Holy Spirit. And I, I don't know completely theologians, there were a lot of different theories on this, but apparently they're in their corruption right now. And if they had eaten from this tree. of life. They would be bound in their corruption forever. So, so part of God's graciousness expelling them from the garden is yes, you're a sinner and then you need to be out of my presence. But another part of it is. I'm protecting you. I'm opening the door for, for protection. And it talks about these cherubs. It says, And therefore God sent them out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which they were taken. He drove them out and ate, um, I'm sorry, drove The man and at the east of the Garden of Eden placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the tree of life. Now, once again, I'm not completely sure, but cherubs, um, and cherubim in the Bible tended to be around, um, a level of judgment, um, in Ezekiel. Um, cherubs were also on the Ark of the Covenant. Which is important these two cherub angels They they were supposed to be there on the ark and their wings were almost touching If you remember the Ark of the Covenant inside the ark was do you remember what was in there? The Ten Commandments that were broken Because you and I break the law and God has offered you a redeemer who keeps the law and then on top of that Ark blood would be spilled on it and that was symbolizing that somebody would die so that you could live Jesus Christ became the Noah's Ark to take us out of the flood to safety He became the Ark of the Covenant We're the law keeper. We're for law breakers. He becomes your redeemer and the cherubim keep you from Outside of the holiness of God what Jesus did if you remember when Jesus said it is finished Something happened in the temple. And if you remember the veil in the temple split in two from top to bottom, and it was symbolizing this, that the way of holiness has been offered to you. It has been offered to you because God, Jesus Christ, lived righteous and perfect for you, and he died. So humanity journeys from the garden to glory has been initiated. If I were to sum this up, I would ask you to do three things. One, I would ask you to acknowledge your penalty. Acknowledge your sin. Acknowledge that you struggle. Recognize the consequences of sin. Sin is grievous. It's evil. It's disgusting. I want you to embrace the promise of God. In the midst of the penalty, I want you to see the promise. Your sin is never greater than God's grace. Ever. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Understand your penalty outside of Christ. Understand the promise of salvation. And understand that the parting from Eden is looking forward to paradise, ultimately, in heaven. We're at a crossroads in our lives. The pathways and the promises. We're on a journey that we're still struggling with the fall. But I want you to remind yourself of the faithfulness of God. God is faithful to his promises. He's faithful to his word. And if you remind yourself of that, remind yourself that you've been reconciled to God through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The prosecution, the penalty, the promise, the parting, and then eventually the return. So Lord, I pray for those that are here today who have never trusted in your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, the invitation is here. Are you in your sin? Have you tried to cover it up with your own? Forms of fig leaves, or have you shifted blame and responsibility to others? Or have you been running and hiding from God? God, you're very clear with your judgment. You tell us that we are judged, but you're also very clear with your mercy, your Holy love and your Holy justice come together in the person of your son and the work on the cross. So Lord, I pray for those that have never trusted in you. I pray today that they would stop running. They would stop hiding. They would stop covering up. And that they would trust you grant them faith, Lord, for the many of us that do know you, Lord, I do pray that you would remind us that yes, we live east of Eden, but we look forward to a paradise in heaven. Help us to live in the peace that your son has purchased for us today. And when Satan tempts us to despair and tells us all the guilt within, help us to look upward and see your son who made an end to all our sin. In Jesus name, Amen.