And that is a promise of God,
a declaration that His Word does what it is intended to do. So if I were to ask you a question
this morning, if I were to say, what's wrong? If I were just to ask that, we
could all answer. We'd all have something to say,
right? standing from a biblical standing, I think the answer to that is
nothing. Nothing. Because God is sovereign,
so nothing's out of place. Nothing is in a place that it
shouldn't be. No experience is in a place that it shouldn't
be. and vice versa? No relationship
is in a place that God has not established? No fear or sin has come upon
you, or temptation that Christ has already defeated? See, what happens when we think
about this, though, is we, it sounds good, and we're in fellowship
together, and everybody's able to go, amen. We do believe that. We do rest in that. Singing the
song, Be Still My Soul, it's one of my favorite hymns in the
entire book. Because it is the struggle that
I deal with the most. Being still. Faith, by definition,
is resting because of confidence granted to us by the Spirit of
God in the promises of God. And that's a short answer. It
looks to that which is unseen, which is unknown, which is non-tangible
in our experiences with this present world, to trust in that
which is invisibly promised to us by God, who has made Himself
visible through the person of Jesus Christ, through whom we
see the fullness of all that He ever has been or ever will
be. That's what the word glory means, y'all. Don't forget that.
Go back to John 1 and look at those sermons. We have seen the
glory of God in the face of Christ. We are still able to appear upon
that through the lens of Scripture, the Word of God alone. This written
book, this collection of letters and books and writings, God supernaturally
worked through to show us Himself. And when we see Him, we rest.
And when we're resting, we have joy. And when we have joy, we're
thinking about others. And when we're thinking about
others, we're serving Christ. The opposite of that is to serve
ourselves, and think about ourselves, and think about our problems.
And yes, beloved, we have to deal with our problems. We have
to think about things. There are problems we can't just put
on the God is sovereign shelf and walk away. There are problems
that require footwork, and head work, and leg work, and heart
work, and heartache. But the resolution of these problems
are on the shelf of sovereignty. There is no other way but God
to work these things out for His purposes so that our joy
is complete in Him, knowing that He has all of it. But see, it
sounds so cliché. Because we were learning as children,
I was thinking about a couple of songs in my childhood this
morning, because the text that I read is so prominent from my
childhood. When I say childhood, I mean
my grandmother and great-grandmother's reading this text to me, but
the word of God would not return void. And I was thinking of some
songs, and one of the songs that we sang as kids, you know, he's
got the whole world in his hands, remember that? Maranatha's greatest
hits, 1978. The Hosanna singers, or whoever
they might be, singing Americans, I mean, there's a whole bunch
of those southern gospel groups as kids, and they'd come to town,
and then you'd have to do church during the week, I mean, that's
terrible. And I'm not advocating for any
of their gospels, because we don't know what they were. These
industries and things. When you take the Psalms, or
you take Proverbs, or you take Isaiah, or you take Scripture,
and you put music to it, it's true. I don't care who's singing
it. The devil himself is singing it. It's true. But we think that it's placating
to some nonsensical childish thing to say God has it all in
his hands. That's the point I was getting
to. Then I ran the rabbit right out of the building. We chased
him right on out for the broom. Speaking of brooms, anyway. And then we think, well, I'm
an adult now. I'm a grown-up, or I'm doing adulting, as some
of the millennials would say. I'm adulting. I don't know what
that means. You know, my dad's like, son, you got two legs,
clean the yard. You know, I'm six, I don't care. You can shoot a shotgun, you
can drive a lawnmower. You know, that kind of stuff. But we think we're wiser. And
that is true, but wisdom would say, all the stuff I know doesn't
matter in the face of sovereignty. Well, you know, what can I do?
Well, I'll tell you what we can do. We can get leaves, and we
can cover our nakedness with our own leaves. We can get our
friends together and all their spiritual wisdom, and we can
build a tower to heaven. That's what we can do. And none of it will work. But
we'll work, work, work, work, work, and none of it will work.
Beloved, what's wrong? That's what's wrong. That's really
the only thing that's wrong in the world today with God's people.
The only thing that's wrong with the world today with God's people
is that we are not resting nor charged to rest in the sufficiency
of His power and understanding and knowing that He has purposed
all things according to His will, according to our joy and the
shared glory that we will have with Christ in the end. Now didn't
that make it simpler? That's how I thought when I was
a kid. We say. Same thing we thought, you know,
Cookie Monster was real. And Big Bird, and all these others.
There was no man behind the puppet on that. It's a real thing. But beloved, that's really what
faith does. It brings us back to a child-likeness in our resolve,
see. That's the work of God the Spirit
to bring us to a place where we are letting go of the work. And we are resting to know wisely
what work we are to be doing. Jesus in John 6 is talking to
the masses right after He feeds them. Miraculously. Twenty plus thousand people.
And they come after Him for more food. And they're there that
day, that season, for that week, to be part of the festival so
that they can work correctly to worship God accurately, to
please Him, and to feel good about themselves in the presence
of God. Look, God, I showed up, I dressed the right way, I came,
I know the right stuff, I'm speaking the right prayer, singing the
right songs, I'm giving the right tithes, I'm burning the right
thing, I'm sacrificing the right stuff. It's all good. Now, this
is gonna lead us right into Genesis 4, if you haven't picked up on
that. That's what we're doing, that's
what's wrong with the world. We're not resting in God's work. We're still trying to work with
Him, and He cares not about working with us. He worked for Himself,
for us, and applies all of His work to us as He sees fit. There
are no triggers on our account that causes God to apply stuff
to us. That is a historical error. And it will always lead men back
to the work clock, punching the clock, walking in a way that
makes them feel that God is pleased with them, when God is pleased
because He has slaughtered His Son in our place. And if that's not your good news,
beloved, we might need to change the moniker,
beloved. We need to rest. and in resting in our salvation
and God's sovereignty, then we are told to work. And that work
is very simple. First, to love the Lord our God
with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our
soul, and to be a little bit superlative, with all of our
strength. With all of our thoughts, mind,
all of our heart, affections. All of our soul, everything we
are. All of our strength, everything
we do. And of equal importance to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Then we see the apostolic writing and we see all the letters written
to the saints who are secure in the work of God. Not their
faith. Understand this, beloved. The
scripture does not teach that you are confident in your faith. You are confident by faith in
God's merciful promise in Christ. There is no other language. Faith
in one's faith is death, because that is a work of the flesh. Beloved, you may have good faith
today. God is good. He's strong. He's going to see me through
this. Christ has satisfied His wrath. I'm a child of God. There's
no one that can tell me anything different. Get in the car. You're
going to hell before you get to McDonald's. And you're all
mine. You see? That's how it goes. Don't lie. We're all there. Especially if
there's a Burger King desire and a McDonald's desire and I
don't care where we go, let's go here. I don't like that. Oh,
I'm sick of that. I mean, you know. My wife and I haven't driven
or ridden to church together in 20 years. So that we don't. That's a joke. Fight about what
we're going to eat. We rest. in the work of God. I want to remind us too, we see
the six days of creation and the last day of resting, the
Sabbath. Sabbath. The day of the Lord. The first time we don't see a
sun down. Some people would argue, see
if Adam and Eve had not fallen, there would have never been another
day. And that's true. but not in a real sense because
God had not purposed that. He'd already created the world
to have a cycle. The globe was spinning at its
first resolution, revolution. And there was day and there was
night and there was morning and evening, but the last day is
no evening at all and still has not gone down. You understand
that? So the seventh day is not stopped
for the beloved of God. It's a picture. That's why we
are supposed to understand the first part of Genesis as an illustration,
not an explanation. And if that offends us, beloved,
we need to open our eyes. Because otherwise we're usurping
the picture of Christ altogether. We're defaming God's glorious
revelation for man's understanding and wisdom of discovery. When Paul says, no man seeks
after God. But we see what the Scripture
has taught us. And last week I re-emphasized
the point that God's uniting Himself to His people through
His Son, through the flesh of Christ, as He gave out of the
flesh of the man a woman of His own kind to Himself. Christ has
been given a people, has become like them, and through His flesh
He has been given a people of Himself, for Himself. and they are righteous as He
is righteous, because they are clothed in Himself, you see. These pictures are important,
because God is creating, God's Word is decreeing, God's decrees
are producing, and the production of God's work is always perfect. Even when the Word of God goes
forth, just like this morning, and someone goes, I'm done, and
they're never going to listen to what I have to say again.
Well, they're shutting the Lord out, not James. Sure, I have a lot to say, but
if I say the truth of God's Word, if my exposition is right, there
is no charge. None whatsoever. Just like with
you. We can have a lot of thoughts
and philosophies and things that we think about and things that
we ponder, but when it comes to saying, thus saith the Lord,
we are expressing that which God has clearly expressed. And
people don't like that. And it used to bother me. Why?
And then the Lord helped me settle my heart in the midst of that
conundrum by realizing that what He means when He speaks through
Isaiah's writing is that when someone does not see, that it
was His intention to begin with. When someone cannot rest, it's
because God intended for them not to rest that moment. When
someone does not come to believe, it's because God has not intended
for them to believe. Do you know the promise of grace
in the context of letting go of wrath in Egypt? I want you
to hear this. The promise of justice. The reprieve pulls out the haughtiness
of our true nature. Boy, if you don't do this, I'm
going to whip your behind. You ever heard that, guys, gals? I mean, if you were raised by
a southern parent, you probably heard that. And then we go, oh, I don't want
to die. And then when we get the reprieve,
we get a little haughty. I got away with it. I'll do what
I want to next time. The Word of God, when given even
in a warning, is not that which softens the heart. Most of the
time, it causes rebellion. God said, don't eat of these
trees, lest you die, for when you eat of it, you will die.
Prophetically, Christ said those words to Adam. And that law, that command, could
never be kept by a creature. So the word of the Lord went
forth to Adam, and it produced death. Just like the law goes
forth, and everywhere the law is, preached to men, death is
the outcome. When the scripture says that
Jesus was subject to the law, that means He became subject
to its consequence. So today, let's look at the word
of the Lord. Now, the serpent, verse 1 of chapter 3, was more
crafty than any piece of the field the Lord God had made.
And He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not
eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent,
you may eat of any of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but
God said, You should not eat of the fruit of the tree that
is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But
the serpent said to the woman, You're not going to die, surely
you're not going to die, for God knows that when you eat of
it, your eyes will be opened, and you'll be like God, you'll
know good and evil. So when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and she saw it was a delight to her eyes,
and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, what does it
say? She took of its fruit, and she
ate it, and she gave some to Adam who was standing there with
her, and he ate it, And then both of their eyes were open.
Then they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves
together and made themselves loincloths. And then they heard
the sound of the Lord God in the garden in the cool of the
day. And the man and his wife hid themselves in the presence
of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called
the man and said, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound
of you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked and I hid
myself. He said, who told you you were
naked? Have you eaten of the tree which I commanded you not
to eat? And the man said, the woman who you gave me He gave
me the fruit and I ate it. And he said, the woman, what
is it you've done? And the woman said, the snake
you made deceived me and I ate. And the Lord said to the serpent,
what have you done? I mean, you know. They get on down to the dirt
and the dirt's going, ugh. And this is where we're going
to focus our time today. The Lord said to the serpent, then
he said to the woman, and then he said to the man. I'm going
to focus on this curse, and what it means, and why it's a gospel
picture. Not just the fact that it's promised there, but why
is it a gospel picture. Because you have done this, cursed
are you above all livestock. If you want to hear it more emphatic,
cursed. Cursed are you above all livestock, and above all
the beasts of the fields. On your belly you shall go, and
your food shall be dust for the rest of your life. I will put
enmity, fear, hostility, separation, division, anger, evil between
you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He, her offspring, shall bruise
your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and
childbearing, in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire
shall, some texts say, be for your husband, be contrary to
your husband, you shall seek after your husband, you shall
seek to rule your husband, all these things the same. But He shall rule over you. And
to the man He said, because you've listened to the voice of your
wife, and eaten of the tree of which I've commanded you, now
keep in mind there, He's not saying you shouldn't listen to
your wife, He's saying you listen to your wife instead of Me. You
listen to the serpent instead of me. Forget this. This is not
instruction. This is narrative with extreme
gravity behind it. And because you have eaten of
the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.
Cursed is the ground because of you. Cursed is the world because
of you. Cursed is the creation because
of you. See why we've got to go to Romans
8 today? In pain you shall eat of it 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 dirt, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return. And then verses 20 through the
end, we've already dealt with, and I told you I was coming back
to these texts. God gives the picture of Christ. He gives the promise of Christ
here in this text over in verse 15. that the seed of the woman,
her, the virgin birth, Christ, will crush the head of the devil,
even though the enemy will bite the heel of the son, and that
is the death on the cross. That death is going to crush
the work of the enemy. So now we have all of these curses.
So let's ask ourselves, what's the curse? And, beloved, this
is one of those things where we really have to get the magic
eraser out, and bleach, and the 409, and every other type of
stuff, and if you like the non-toxic stuff, you can get the all-natural
stuff, you can, you know, Honest Company, you can spray that in
there, but we gotta clean out all the Hollywoodized garbage
in our heads, because when we think of purse, we automatically
go to demonic, We go to the supernatural. We go to all these things. We
go to this generational type thing. Well, I can't wash this
off. Beloved, you've got to wash this thinking away from you.
The simple reality of what God is doing here and what the Scripture
teaches, especially in the Old Testament. The idea of a curse
is a declaration against sin. Calling sin what it is. This
is rebellion. God says, this is rebellion.
I curse this. It's like we stub our toe and
we go, and they're like, you know, we're cursing the pain. We're like that blasted pain,
or we're cursing the thing that hit us, or we're cursing in our
minds. It might not be that we use profanity
or explicatives, but we create our own. We do it in our head.
You know, we do that. We curse it. We call it for what
it is. This is terrible. This is awful. Good gracious.
We just say that it's bad to curse. When God curses something,
He's saying what it is. This is bad. He's calling it
bad as opposed to good. He's calling it evil as opposed
to righteous. He's calling it dark as opposed
to light. So when God curses, He's saying
it's bad. It's evil. It's dark. The word sin literally means
to miss the target. To take a shot and never hear
a ding. You never get the target. You
run in a race, you go in the wrong direction, you never hit
the finish line. You run in the wrong direction. Sin is, the
target is, the fullness of all of God's glory and all of His
righteousness. And beloved, since that day,
when they took that fruit, man has been on a different trajectory.
And every good thing that they do and strive for, even in the
commands of the Bible, are in the wrong direction. Without
God's grace. redemption and promises. Sin
is the mark. Here's a big way of looking at
it. Sin is being anything but God as a human, as a living being. Anything we do, anything we desire,
anything we strive for, anything we hope for, we're sinners, ergo
we sin. It's not the other way around.
We are guilty of Adam's sin long before we ever do anything. sin. That's the first part of
cursing, to declare it sin. The second part of a curse in
the Old Testament, when something is cursed, is to show the consequences. So when God says, cursed are
you of all livestock, and I'm giving this example, I mean snakes
are feared. A lot of things are feared, but
snakes, I mean, most people look at snakes throughout the ages
because of this story as the embodiment of evil. So cursed. You're going to eat
dirt. Is that what a snake eats? No,
but he's there on the ground. It's the lowest of creatures
that crawls above the ground. You got those that climb trees.
And you got those that swim in the water. It's all other unholy
abominations. I like snakes. I'm not scared
of any snake that be bigger than me in the water. Anything in
the water. Tadpole, I'm scared of it. I
don't want to be in the water. Can't handle it. But cursed are you. Now the snake did nothing wrong.
The snake was an unwilling participant by the will of God who gave permission
for the enemy, for Lucifer, to use the snake for his purposes
and to speak through it. Angels don't have that type of
power unless God grants them that. And we know that from the
book of Job. We know that angels are created
beings, just like people, but they're not people. ethereal
beings, they're spiritual realm things. God uses them. The word
angel even means messenger. They're for God's purposes. And
so God allowed Satan and purposed Satan and decreed Satan, which
means the adversary, the enemy, Lucifer is his name, allowed
Lucifer to use the snake to speak to Eve. And the snake had no
choice in it. Wasn't like the devil said, hey,
any of you guys want to join the party? About to have a really
good time here. These new creatures that everybody's
looking at going, what is that? I'm going to show you just how
frail they are. And all, you know, the cows are going, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr No. There he was, and then all
of a sudden, there he was. Doing the will of God, the bidding
of the enemy, for the purposes of God, and redeeming his people.
Which is why the earth was created to begin with, for the redemption
of God's people. So, God looks at the serpent
and says, you're cursed. The consequence of what has happened,
you shall be on your belly. You shall be despised. Then speaking
to the enemy, I'm going to show you what happens when my people,
the people of my son, who is the one come through the virgin,
and you, and your people, and your ideals and philosophies
and religion, you're going to be at odds forever with them. And you're going to bite that
kid on the heel, and you're going to think you've won, and he's
going to come down off that cross and stomp you in the head. You see
the imagery? You see the picture, the image
of that, the picture of that? So God says the consequence of
you being used, snake, is this. But the remedy is this. The remedy
is Jesus Christ coming into the world and He will destroy what
you've done. But you're cursed, snake. To
the woman He said, The consequence is, and listen carefully to this,
I will surely multiply. Now what is 1,347,915,106 divided
by zero? I mean multiplied by zero. Zero.
Because in order for something to be multiplied, you have to
have something to start with. So this isn't where that pain of childbirth comes
from, this is why it's so bad. And you'll see there when by
the sweat of your brow, Adam was already given charge to tend
the garden. that would, by the providence
and promise and power of God, always produce the yield of life-giving
fruit forever. All the rivers flowing in with
fresh water forever, always providing life for God's people forever
in the presence of God in righteousness clothed with Christ's presence
in the cool of the day. But he still had to work. There
was still going to be things to do. There was still going
to be pruning. There was still going to be something to do.
We don't have a list. We don't have the addendum of
the gardening of Eden in the back. Thankfully, we don't, because
we'd all go home and try to make our yards like that and say,
we're God's gardeners. I mean, you know, we just...
We'd find another idol. With the Hallelujah Diet, the
Eden Gardens, Can you see it? Eden Landscaping Service. And the other ones would say
the Serpent Landscaping Service. What does he do? He says, you're
going to have to work hard now. Eve, you're going to be able
to, Adam and Eve, you're going to have children. It's not going
to be the most pleasant experience in the world, but it's going
to be my experience. Life is going to be my promise. All these
things will work together. But now, because of this, the
curse, the consequence of rebellion, that's what he means when he
says curse, is multiplying pain in childbirth. In pain. It doesn't mean what? It doesn't
mean that it was not labor. It just means that it wasn't
pain. Still hard. You shall bring forth children.
And then all of a sudden now, you're going to want to rule
over your husband. You're going to be at odds. What
does he mean by that? You're going to be at odds. Your
husband and you are one flesh. You're one person. You have responsibility. You are the picture of Christ
in the church. But now all of a sudden, Because
of the way things are, this man in all of his strength over you,
his responsibility over you, his headship over you, and we
understand that more in the marriage, and we've talked about that already.
It's not the ruler, it's the what? It's the head, it's the
leader, it's the first. And we need to be careful not
to... you know, we need that magic eraser for that kind of
junk too. We don't submit to our husbands' wives, except as
unto Christ. We're not property. Well, you
aren't property. Except your husband is also your
property. You see, one unto another, we're
one. But there's this division. There's this problem. There's this curse. And then to Adam, in pain you
shall be able to eat. In pain. Beloved, our work never
produces produce. It never produces, it never yields
the fullness of everything that it would yield in perfection
because everything we do, even if we complete it and fix it
perfectly, the reason that we have to repair and redo and constantly
work is because all of it is under the curse of sin. Otherwise, we brush our teeth
once, never to brush them again. Put oil in our car, never to
have a problem. You know? We wouldn't have rain beating down
on our roofs to have to do them, we wouldn't have to weed our
gardens, I mean, everything would just stay in a state of goodness,
but beloved, we can work all we want to work, and we get up
the next day, and there's more work to do. I can't tell you how many brooms
I've bought in my days. Brooms. I'm not a cheap broom
guy. Can't get a cheap broom. Gotta
have a good broom. Because I want to work less and more effectively
and I want to be able to do the dust test on the floor. Brooms. But why do I keep having to buy
brooms? Because you're still going to get dirt. Still going to have dirt, still
going to have cleaning to do, still going to have these things to
do. Why? Because our work will not produce perfection. It may
look good, may be good, but it's not. By the sweat of
your face, you shall eat bread. You ever made bread from grain? That's a labor. And when Robin
was pregnant with Grace, our second daughter, who's 21, she's
in there grinding wheat with a little half-cup grinder, you
know, and then eating it at the table. I'm like, what is this
woman making? I mean, this must be like the
bread of life. hour later and she's crying and
hurting and shoulders are falling over and I go buy her a mixer. We work together to figure out
what device could help that work. Think about it for a second.
Technology makes our work easier. Imagine having to cut your grass
without powered engines. I've got one of those. And the grass gets above that,
it won't cut it anymore, it just pushes it over. So you've got
like seven hours in the summer after you cut it to start cutting
it again. Especially if you have bahia, you might have seven minutes.
You just have to get your children, that's why you have so many children.
You just put one on the lawnmower and start to push it. When they
die, put the second one in there. Throw them out, do another one. There are the authorities. We
had 12 children. That's why our yard's so groomed.
Eden landscaping. Back to the points. By the sweat. You shall work the very dirt
that you are, and it will not produce for you. You know, it's
interesting, as we'll see next week, Cain got the same promise.
As a matter of fact, Cain got it worse. Cain was told, not
only are you going to have to work hard the land, but I'll
never let it grow for you. Everything you touch is never
going to produce you food. What did that mean for Cain?
First market owner. The first barterer. He couldn't
produce anything to eat. He had to trade for it. He had
to work for it. He had to do something else. So now we see the system
of employment. It's not new. Capitalism is not
new. Employeeism is not new. It's always been greed-driven.
It's always been sinful. Capitalism is God's economy.
No, it's not. God's economy is koinonia. What
does that mean? All things in common. Sounds like socialism to me.
No, it's much different than that. It's willful. Let's be careful how we... Remember
last week I talked about my freedoms? Let's be careful. It's hard,
isn't it? So here we have these curses.
The consequences of this rebellion. Missing God's essence. God is
saying, now the world is cursed because of you. What's the ultimate
end of it? Reconciliation. You're going
to work this dust, and then I'm going to put you back in the
dust. You're going to die. But ultimately, the promise of
life is Christ. So Christ, look at this now,
Christ, the God-man, God Himself is going to come into the world
through the labor pains of a woman under the curse. And if infants
could talk, I don't know about you, I've seen five births. Well,
excuse me, four births in a cesarean. I've seen it. This is trauma.
This is horror. All you young people ought to
go see horror movies this time of year. Let me watch you watch
a live birth. It would be terrible. It would be traumatic. Our farm
kids, they understand all this. Here's the God of the universe
going through the trauma of birth. It's traumatic for the child.
And they're an unwilling participant. When the angel of the Lord doesn't
walk around through this closet of souls, anybody want to get
born today? They're like, Johnny, what's that? Where? Ha, sucker,
got you. Could you imagine? And I know
some psychologists and others have studied the idea of trying
to find regression and take people back to their birth experience
and all this kind of stuff. Nonsense, it doesn't work. Can
you imagine being fully cognizant and fully wise and fully aware
and going through the birth experience as a child? No! Here is God going
through the experience. Here is His virgin mother going
through the experience of child pain, birthing pain. God exposes Himself to the very
curse And the picture of that too,
I mean, you think about Mary, giving birth to the God-man,
who was subject to her as a parent, yet she was subject to Him as
God. What are you doing, Jesus? We're
halfway home and you're still here. We had to come all the
way back to get you. Don't you know, Mother, I'm supposed
to be about the work of my Father's business? Son, let me tell you something.
This wedding's going bad. They've run out of wine. This could ruin this family.
Do something about it. Oh dear woman, my time has not
yet come. And what does he say? Hey y'all,
do whatever he says. That's John 2. And we see the work. Jesus and his humanity worked
the earth. His father was not a farmer,
he was a carpenter, so he was in the line of Cain, if you will,
in employment. His daddy had to work. When I
say line of Cain, everybody goes, no, you know what I mean. Folks,
listen to what I'm saying. Fine fault. He had to work. He had to sell
furniture to buy food. He had to build porches or decks
or whatever it might be. Whatever he had to do. Build
a shed. I don't know. So they could sell it, so they
could buy food, so they could eat, so they could buy sacrifices
at the temple for their worship. He didn't have it. He made himself
subject to it. And beloved, at the end of it
all, the consequence of sin and rebellion, the curse brings death.
But what caused the curse to begin? Man working things out in his
own understanding. My ways are not your ways and
my thoughts are not your thoughts. My word has gone forth, God would
say, and this is the promise that I've given, and this is
what is going to happen, and this is the consequences, the
curse of your rebellion, this is the curse of your work. So
see, the true nature of what sin is, is man thinking that
he can work to please God in his own efforts and power. Not resting in the promises of
God's provision of life and sustenance. So now go to Romans 8. Let's
put this in perspective as it relates to us as the believer.
Think about these folks listening to Moses as he wrote this and
it was read, and they're thinking, oh wow, they had the same idea
that we had. Dumb Adam. If Adam had just not
done that, it's not the point. The point is God is sovereign
over that. The point is that God is gracious
to His people, that even though we will always try to work to
do our own thing, He is faithful to arrest us and snatch us out
of this domain of darkness. See, the domain of darkness in
the world is the work of man thinking that it's producing
fruit. It's a blindness. And the irony
behind that is that the serpent, Lucifer, promised sight, but
really gave blindness. Because to see evil is to not
see righteousness. Think about that for a second. Romans chapter 8. Paul suffering. The church suffering. These Gentile
Christians, these Roman Gentile Christians were looking at their
Jewish friends and neighbors and going, what in the world?
How are we God's elect? We're not Jews. And what are we going to have
to do? Are we going to have to work hard to catch up the work
of Israel? Are we going to have to start
going to temple? See, these things were taught
to them. That wasn't a poof all of a sudden. Regeneration doesn't give you
all the distinctions of man-made religion. And people who claim
that are as blind as a bat. He exegeted. Stop philosophizing. Let the text speak out of itself
instead of thinking so much about it. Let the Word of God speak.
These people were suffering not only in culture, not only in
relationships and finances, they were suffering in their own minds. They were worrying about how
they might be elect. And Paul, praise God, gives us
Romans 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. We can skip 11 and 12, because
we don't like being told what to do. Some Christians say, I don't
need to be told what to do. Well, if you don't need to be
told what to do, then you're still living in your own works, righteousness. Because saying, I don't have
to do anything God has told me to do because it is all of grace
is true, but saying that is blindness to the experience of grace. What
do I mean by that? That's to divide the Word of
God and not receive the full counsel of it. And that's to
say by doing nothing, by not worrying about intimacy in the
body, by not submitting to the Word of God, I am more righteous
because I just sit in grace. Can you hear what I just said?
I don't even know if I can repeat it without my stomach turning. Paul makes it very clear, verse
1, chapter 8, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
What does that mean? You cannot be lost, beloved. and we did not find Christ, He
found us. He showed us, He saved us, He
died for us, He rose for us, He promised His glory for us,
the provision of the gospel. The reason it is called the Good
Report, God Speak, is because it is the declaration and the
proclamation of what God has accomplished for His people.
It began in the beginning of time of creation and continues
to now in the promises of God. What we do in our flesh, even
when we're born again, if we're constantly fighting the spirit
within us that says, rest, by trying to do or not do that which
is equal to our confidence. To try to muster our confidence
before the Lord. Which our confidence should be
in Christ, not ourselves. So it's overly simple. We make
it massively complex. And Paul begins there by being
sure that the readers know they're not condemned. What's the context? They're having a lot of problems
not following the law of Judaism and feeling confident in their
salvation. And Romans 9 gives a clear explanation of some of
the questions that were begged out of the inquiry of the Romans.
That, well, why is it then so many Jews are rejecting the gospel? Has God failed them? I mean,
we know what it teaches. And Paul has already said, look,
the law, it's a death sentence. You want to follow the law? You
want to find confidence and obedience? Go right ahead, but that's contrary
to the grace of God for you. So, it's obvious that when we
see the gospel, and when we see the power of God in creating
His people, and all the means necessary and sufficiently in
Christ for the redemption of His people, it's natural to then
say, well, wow, I can continue to sin that grace may abound,
but He prohibits it. Paul says it cannot be. Because that is an improper worship.
It is an improper placed action because it flows out of selfishness,
which is self-righteousness, which is legalism. Antinomianism and legalism are
the same thing. I don't have to obey anything.
Well, I have to obey everything. It's the same thing. It's what
you do or don't do in an attempt to settle yourself before the
Father. When the gospel is that He has
settled the debt. He has settled the record. He
has become the curse. She talks about that gospel in
Romans 8, and he gets over there and he says, we're not debtors
to the flesh, we're debtors to the Spirit, we're debtors to
the Lord, and we're debtors to one another. We owe each other. We owe everything to Christ,
yet we can never pay it. He transitions, he says, the
Spirit bears witness. In verse 15, excuse me. For all
who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. If you do not
receive the Spirit of slavery, you will fall back into fear.
In other words, you didn't receive the slavery of being told what
to do so much that you've got to work harder in order to be
satisfied and confident in the Lord and His promises. His promises
are enough. But you have received the Spirit
of adoption as sons. By whom we cry, Papa, Daddy. An endearing term. Not formally, Oh Father, who
art in heaven, but Pops, Dad. That's what that text shows us.
We cry out for our parents in despair. As children we don't
say, Oh, Mother, please! Mom! Little children say, Mommy,
Daddy, help me! This is our intimacy with the
Father who has saved us in Christ, alone, and it is a finished work. So if we're children of the heirs
of God and fellow heirs of Christ, provided we'll suffer with Him,
don't give in to the temptation of rejecting Him because they're
suffering. Because the suffering is part
of the experience. It's part of the resting promise. because we're going to be glorified
with Him as He suffered and then glorified, we also are going
to suffer and then be glorified. Then he says, verse 18, I had
to get there so we'd understand what that 4 was for. I consider
that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing
with the glory to be revealed to us. So we need to stop focusing
on the suffering and look for the glory. We stop complaining,
and bickering, and arguing, and dividing, and debating, and talking,
and dealing with everything that's wrong in the world, and when
we say, what's wrong, we say nothing, for my God reigns, and
He sits on high, glorified, bringing us to Himself, so hallelujah,
let's go. That's what we do. Not what's
comparing to the glory that's revealed for us, for the creation. Going back to Genesis 3, Weights. Now what do you think about this?
The tree and the birds and the grass outside. This is personification. That means it's putting a personality
to a non-person. I mean, just saying something.
It's like this microphone, I start giving it attributes and actions
and illustrating something about this microphone as if it were
alive with a personality. Personification. So here we go.
Creation weights. What is it doing? Eager longing. You ever longed for something?
You ever longed for the day to be over? You ever longed for
the vacation to get here? You ever longed for Friday if
you're off on the weekends? You ever longed for the day when
your bones would stop hurting? Or your children would come home
to visit or, you know, whatever it might be. Longed for the day
this would... What do we do? We typically look at the negative
things in our lives and we look forward to the time they're done
or we're seeing something else. longing for something else. So
the creation is longing for something. Eagerly, what? For our glorification. Creation is longing for the restoration
of the sons of God. Further explanation, verse 20.
For the creation was subjected to the uselessness, to futility, not willingly, Snake, dirt, grass. Except hold up Adam and Eve's
curse. You were the platform on which
they stood so the curse would be you. Maybe the dirt had some responsibility
because Adam and Eve was dirt. For the creation was subjected
to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected
it. God cursed it. Why? In hope... This is the punchline of the
whole message, beloved. I pray you see it, because I don't know
that I can explain it better than Paul. In hope... that the creation
itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and
obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. I got chills running up my body
and I want to breakdance, but I'd probably hurt something. God cursed the world in order
for its redemption to be a picture of the redemption of His people
in Christ. He came to earth to be subject
to the curse, though He was not owed the curse. Two Sundays ago,
we reminded ourselves of Romans 6 for the due payment of rebellion,
the due payment of man's work, is what? Death. Well no, it says the wages of
sin. That's what I said. The due payment of man's work. is death. The wage of sin is
the payment of man's work. Man thought they could work better
wisdom than God's promises. They fell into understanding
sin. They fell into darkness. Then
they went into the factory and they built themselves a cover
for their own shame and it was unworthy. Then God in shadow
showed that it was the death of an animal to cover their righteousness
as a Picture of the death of Jesus Christ. God Himself in
the flesh being subject to the curse of creation. Being subject
to the wage that He never earned because we deserve the full payment
once for all and forever. And He took it. So, how in the world is reconciliation
so good? So perfect? Listen to verse 22 we continue
to say about the creation groaning together. The whole creation
has been groaning together. I love this. As if in the pains of childbirth
until now. Mothers in the room in childbirth.
Horrible experience. Scary experience. Evil experience. Ebb and flow. Even with modern
advances in technology we still can't get rid of all of the pain
the work and the labor, yet at the birth of that child, all
those experiences flush away. Creation, in labor, glorification, its
birth. How do we wait? and asked the trees to do without
looking at the negative. By looking at the promise. Looking
at the promise. Why is the promise so powerful?
God created the world and showed His promises in it. He said there
is a light that will rule the day and a light that will rule
the night. Paul says in Colossians that God has separated us, snatched
us out of the domain of darkness and qualified us to be the inheritance. To have the inheritance with
the saints. in light, in revelation, in righteousness. And that's not just my assumption.
Look at verse 23. And not only the creation, but we ourselves
who have the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit inwardly grown as
we eagerly await for adoption as sons, because we are the sons
and the daughters of God, which is the redemption of our bodies.
We are longing for the day when God will bring us to the place
of glory. For in this hope we are saved. Remember the introduction of
my sermon today? A faith looks to that which is not tangible,
touchable, seeable, holdable, graspable, So what are the words
I can put in there? Hope, this faith in the promise of
God's redemption in Christ Jesus, who made himself a curse so that
we would be free of it, is how we are saved. Hope. Who is the hope? Jesus
Christ is our hope. Now, hope that is seen is not
hope, for who hopes for what he sees, who longs for what he
has. But if we hope for what we do
not see, we wait for it with patience. There's the kicker. There's the kicker. And beloved,
that's a segue right into Genesis 4. Abel and Cain working. They had to work to live, and
part of that work is worship. The very nature of the work commanded
of Adam before the fall was worship. So your job is an act of worship. Working as unto the Lord. You
ain't working for the boss, man. You ain't working for yourself.
And everything that we have, it's not because we worked hard,
it's because God granted it so. That'll be a Wednesday night
in a couple of weeks. So we wait with patience. Beloved,
patience is not seeking our own answers. It's not seeking our
own way. It's not seeking our own understanding. Patience rests
and sits. Not gleaning, not working, not
knitting together other opportunities, not trying to figure out other
ways in which we can understand things. Beloved, patient rest
does not labor. Patient rest works. in faith. What must we be doing
to be doing the work of God? They asked Jesus. This is the
work of God, that you are believing in the one whom He has sent. Our work is hard and not fruitful,
and it will never bring the right produce of life or the promise
of life. But we will always be tempted
to think that our work and our worship are acceptable until
we're given the sight and then the reminder to see that God
alone will make us acceptable. So then what we do in response
to that acceptance, to that adoption, to that glory, to that promise,
to that power, is acceptable. Not to our credit, but to our
thanksgiving. as an act of worship, as a sacrifice.
Just like the flower, if you couldn't afford a dove, if you
couldn't afford an animal, just like the sack of flour was acceptable
because it wasn't the flour or the dove or the lamb that satisfied
God's wrath, it was Christ. And those things pointed to Him.
When I gave flour, when I built a table as a carpenter and I
sold it to buy flour to take to the temple and I gave that
flour, that flour was of no value to God. That flower represented me resting
in the promise of God to satisfy Himself in the sacrifice that
He would provide for Himself. Genesis 22. If we want to keep working, get
it all down to the nice and pretties, to get it all down to the depths
of things, beloved, we can only expect the paycheck to be death
in the end. So we ultimately need to see
that this rebellion is failure to rest on the promises of God.
And by His power, by His grace alone, He has granted us this
great promise and He's given us the ability to see it and
to hold fast to it in Christ. Let's pray. We thank You, Lord, for Your
Word and for the truth that You've given us. Father, there are a
lot of things in this text. There are a lot of things in
my head that I could just go on and on and on. But what You've
tried to show us is very simple. You are all we need. Teach us who You are according
to Your Word. Teach us the Gospel according
to Your Word. Lord, You've promised to teach Your people. And Lord,
when we stray off, when we're tossed to and fro, help us to
invite one another into our lives in a way where we can be an encourager. Lord, where we can be teachers
one to another to show the truth. and let us celebrate with each
other when the truth is revealed. Keep us from our pride and humble
us before You, not in fear, but Father, humble us before You
in thanksgiving. And we pray these things in Christ.
Amen. Thank you, church.