Thank you, Ann. Such a blessing. That's a great song. Let's open
our Bibles to Genesis this morning, chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. I've taken some time in dealing
with the covenant of works and that covenant that God put Adam
under in the second chapter of Genesis, where he commanded the
man of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat. But of
that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, don't eat of that
fruit. In the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. And as we get into the third
chapter of Genesis, we find Adam in defiance of God's command. And I'll say this before I get
into the message very far here. If you want an accurate view,
a biblical view of the necessity of the saving grace of God, you've
got to have a correct understanding, especially of this chapter. You'll find out why there had
to be an election of grace. It's because all of us fell in
Adam's fall. He was the representative. He
was, as they call it, the federal head of all of the human race. And his fall devastated all of
his posterity. And that's you and me and everybody
else. That's the reason we became sinners. In fact, we were born sinners.
We don't become sinners when we sin. We sin because we're
born sinners. It's all to be traced back here
to Genesis, the third chapter. And that's the reason there had
to be an election of grace. If God had left this matter of
salvation into our hands, nobody would ever be saved. This is
the reason the Lord Jesus came into the world. He is that one,
the seed of the woman. The necessity of His bloodshedding
and his death is evidenced by the fact of what sin has done
to us. It has not only maimed us, it
has not only left us without any spiritual ability, but you
see that fall of Adam, in that fall we died. We needed an almighty Savior
to redeem us, to reconcile us to God. God is a just God and
He must punish sin wherever He finds it, wherever He sees it.
No sin can be hidden from Him. Because of His just and righteous
character, He must punish every, every sin. either in a suitable
substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, or in the daring, spiritually
dead sinner. See, this fall of Adam, it shows
us the necessity that we need a Savior, the necessity of Christ
the Lord coming and living and then dying for us as our substitute
and as God's satisfaction to His own justice. And then as
we have an understanding of the fall of Adam and the fact that
we all fell in him, we get an understanding, therefore, of
the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God comes to spiritually
dead sinners. This matter of your salvation,
it should be all important to you, but know this, it's not
of you. You're absolutely dependent upon
our Almighty God to take the things of the Lord Jesus Christ
and reveal them to you. And the Spirit of God does that.
To use biblical language, we have to be born again. Our Lord
Jesus said to Nicodemus in John chapter three, you must be born
again, but he didn't tell him how to be born again. He just
said, you must be born again. There is nothing you can do to
cause you to be born again or born anew or to be born from
above. This is a work of God, and as
we have an understanding, really, of this passage in Genesis, the
third chapter, as God the Spirit opens this up to us and shows
us our awful condition before a holy and righteous God, then
we will begin to see, we'll begin to understand the necessity of
sovereign electing grace, of the redeeming work of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise,
as you read this, as most people do, they see none of those things. Sin has done a thorough job on
us, leaving us dead toward God, lost, wondering, with no desire
to worship God, no desire to fear Him. That's why we read
in Romans the third chapter, there's no fear of God before
their eyes. That's why we read there's none
that seeketh after God. That's why we read, there's none
that doeth good. No, not one. Not you, not your
mother, not your father, not your dear sweet grandmother.
There's none that doeth good. This is what sin has done to
us. It has left us spiritually bankrupt
toward God. We have nothing to present to
God. We're totally at His sovereign
will and the disposal of God. He can bless us or curse us. And we need to understand that.
Your life, your spiritual well-being, your soul is not in your hands
to do with as you please. Jesus is not in your hands to
do with as you please. You're totally dependent upon
God. And that's the reason we refer
to ourself as mercy beggars, mercy beggars. And here in Genesis, the third
chapter, God, the Holy Spirit lays the foundation upon which
all gospel truth is built. If you trace the rivers of truth,
the rivers of grace, back to their source, you'll find their
source in the eternal counsel of God and the need for those
blessings based upon Genesis, the third chapter. You see, here's
where the great drama of redemption begins. I mentioned to you before
that in the first chapter, made everything ready for man to inhabit
a world where he can live and exist and breathe and all the
necessities of life will be supplied for us. And once God prepared
everything, and this is the way God works, He has everything
ready, and then He makes the man. And then He brings forth
the woman from a rib of the man. and they lived and walked and
talked with God, God being the Son of God. And I've said this
many times and I'll continue to emphasize it, that God will
not speak to nor be spoken to by any son or daughter of Adam
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we come to Genesis the
third chapter and we have this record of the fall of Adam, the
record of our fall in Adam, the speaker then is the Lord Jesus
as he begins to speak to us or to speak to Adam and to Eve and
to the serpent about the things that had taken place. Here we find the The reason for
the condition, the ruined condition of our race. The evolutionists,
they say man began low. And then a little form of life. And then man began to improve
over millions and billions of years. Until now we have arrived. And we're only destined to getting
better. But the scripture presents a
totally different scene. The word of God sets us forth
as being at the very top to begin with. And then in Adam we fell. You see, It isn't, the environment's
not our problem. Adam and Eve were in a perfect
environment. The weather patterns, that's
not our problem. We're the problem. We're the
problem. And our problem is sin. We started up here. We didn't
start down here. as a little glob of life, and
then slowly work up over millions and millions and billions of
years. Adam was at the top. He named
every animal that God brought before him. How intelligent was
that man? But then he willingly rebelled
against God. And he fell. He fell. The Word of God, especially this
chapter, tells us the reason for our ruined, fallen condition. You see, the reason for all the
difficulties that we have, sickness, disease, war, disagreements,
all these things, death is to be traced back here to Genesis,
the third chapter. Here we learn of the subtle devices
of the devil. He's a deceiver. And we read in 2 Corinthians,
the apostle Paul says, he masquerades as an angel of light. He came
to Eve having inhabited, taken up his residence in a serpent,
who Eve had no need to fear a serpent. There was no sin in the garden.
There was no reason to be fearful of a serpent. And the serpent
began to speak to her and he came to her as a good friend,
a good friend, giving Seemingly wise counsel. But we learn there in 2 Corinthians
11 that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. But he's a
deceiver. He is a liar and was so from
the beginning. And our Lord Jesus says he is
a murderer. He is a murderer. Hear me now,
he killed us. He killed us in the garden. And
yet, yet, all of this is under the umbrella of the eternal purpose
of God. Because by the presence of sin
in the garden of Lucifer who fell, of him being in the garden,
and of course the awful state that we're all in. All of this
worked out according to God's eternal purpose because against
the black backdrop of man's ungodliness and man's rebellion and man's
sin, God displayed the freeness and the fullness and the sovereignty
of His grace. You see, we could never have
known how gracious and merciful God is except against this awful,
awful sinfulness The rebellion that took place
in the garden. And if the spirit of God ever
begins to show us our terrible condition in sin, he will then show us the remedy
for sin. And that's when we'll get interested.
The reason people aren't interested in hearing the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace is because they have no idea of their spiritual
condition. Our Lord, right after he had
saved Matthew, and the Pharisees were fussing about him, spending
time with sinners, you know, and the Lord Jesus said to them,
he said, the hole, the well, have no need of a physician. Who needs the services and the
expertise of a physician? Those that are sick. And the reason some of you, some
of you in here, no doubt, and some of you who are watching,
the reason you have not fled to the Lord Jesus Christ, the
great physician, He arose with healing in His wings. He is the
one who saves sinners. He is the one who raises those
who are spiritually dead, raises them to the newness of life by
His almighty grace. The reason that you remain dead
in trespasses and sins is because you have yet to learn your neediness,
your sinfulness, and only God can teach you that. And here we learn of the consequences
of sin. We read in Romans 5 and verse
12, wherefore by one man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,
or literally, for all sin in Adam. and it has left us without any
spiritual ability. You say, well, all I've got to
do is believe. Well, you need to believe, but
you have no ability to believe. All I've got to do is repent
of my sins. You need to repent of your dead
works toward God. You do need to repent. but you
have no ability to do that. All I've got to do is run to
Jesus Christ and He's got His arms open waiting for me to come
to Him. You do need to run to Jesus Christ. But here's what sin has done
to you. It's like what happened to Mephibosheth
when he learned that his father had died and his grandfather
had died and his nurse dropped him. He's lame on both feet.
That's the way we are. We're lame. Say, preacher, all
I've got to do is run to Christ. Yeah, but you're lame. You can't
walk. You can't run. You're dead. So who's got to help you? The
preacher? I can't help you. I'm lame by
nature too. Who can help me? Who can help
you? Only the Lord. Oh God, be merciful. That's what we ask. Think about that publican in
the temple. After the Pharisee had recited
all of his excellences and all that he had done for God, that
poor old publican, and I hope that's you, just smote
upon his chest and said, God, be merciful to me. I'm the sinner. And that word merciful means
be propitious to me. That is show mercy on the basis
of the sacrifice that you offered on the cross when you nailed
your son there and he died as the suitable substitute for sinners. The reason we're in the shape
we're in Reason we do wrong, think wrong,
got wrong motives, is because what happened in the garden. And here we learn of God's intention
to save. In verse nine, we've talked about
Adam's fall. Look at verse eight, excuse me.
You know, Adam willed to eat. Genesis 3, and I'm gonna read
verse 8, but Adam willed to eat, and when he willed to eat, something
happened to him, and something happened to all of his posterity. You see, when the angels fell,
they didn't fall by means of a representative. They fell individually. But when Adam fell, He represented
all of the human race. And so we fell in Him. And while
I'm on this, the Bible only speaks about two men, really, the first
Adam and the last Adam. And both of those men were representative
men. In the covenant of works, Adam
represented all of us and he fell. In the covenant of grace,
Jesus Christ represented us in old eternity. Before the bar
of God's justice, he was our surety is a good biblical word. He stood good for all those that
God gave him in that covenant of grace, in election. He represented
his people. And when he came into this world,
he represented us still. And he went to the cross of Calvary
to die for his people, to redeem us, to reconcile us. He died
that God might be a just God and a savior. If you learn that, let me put
it this way. If the spirit of God teaches
you that, you will learn that. And here we find God's purpose
to save sinners. Verse eight, when they heard
the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day, when Eve sinned, that didn't affect Adam at all. She
represented nobody. She did wrong, but she didn't
represent anybody. But Adam, Oh, that's another
matter. He represented everybody. When
he sinned, we sinned. And they immediately knew that
they were naked and they were ashamed. Perhaps there was a
glow before about them. We don't know. We're not told.
But somehow they knew there was something different about them.
They wove fig leaf apron together. That's
man's self-righteousness. That's his works. We try to do
better. You say, preacher, Jim, I'm going
to try to do better. Well, you know what? If you need
to do better, you ought to do better. I'm going to quit my
drinking and my cussing and my drugs or whatever it is. I'm going to quit. Well, if you
need to quit those things, quit them. But, that don't improve
your standing before God. And that doesn't impress God.
Hear me now, God's only impressed with his son. If you get that, if you can swallow
that, you'll be swallowing a whole lot of truth. God's only impressed
with Christ Jesus. And I'll tell you what He does
by His Spirit. He brings you to be impressed
with Christ Jesus as well. And you will honor Him, you will
believe Him, you will love Him, you will worship Him, and you'll
see in Him the fullness of the glory of God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And remember, God's not gonna
speak to nor be spoken to by any son or daughter of Adam apart
from a mediator. Here he is walking in the garden.
I would call this a pre-incarnate vision of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He took up some bodily presence. And he walks in the garden in
the cool of the day. Maybe your Bible's got a center
column. Mine does, and it says here along
with verse eight, that word cool is wind. Does your Bible have
that? That's correct. It's the wind,
the wind of the Holy Spirit. The wind of the Holy Spirit.
Our Lord referred to that when he was talking to Nicodemus in
John chapter three. Ezekiel, he saw that in the book
of Ezekiel when he preached to the dead bones. And the Lord
said, prophesy to the four winds, the wind, that's the spirit of
grace. And the Lord Jesus Christ called
out to Adam. In the cool of the day, that
is a cool, refreshing breeze. That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
You say, but doesn't He strip and doesn't He cause us to be
convicted? Yes, but that's good. That's
a good thing. He shows you your need of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He comes to them Not as a judge
to kill them, but as a savior to save them. That's why he came
after Adam and Eve. He didn't let them go. You rebelled against me, so just
go on. Just go on to hell then. No,
he loves his people with an everlasting love. And He comes after us. He came
after you, didn't He? Came after you, came after me,
came after you. I go around this room, He came
after us in the time of love. I'm preaching to the people who
are watching by way of the internet. The Spirit of God came after
you through the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he taught you how God can
remain just but save sinners through the sacrifice of Christ.
And that was a cool, refreshing breeze. A cool, refreshing breeze. In verse nine, the Lord God called
out to them. He called out to them. Said,
where are you? It's a call of love. And then the Lord began to question. Question Eve. Question Adam. And of course,
they pushed the blame off. Eve pushed the blame off. Or
Adam pushed the blame off on Eve. And Eve pushed the blame off
on the serpent. It's been amazing. We're really
naturally good at shifting the blame. You don't do that, do
you? We all do. We learned it from
Mama and Papa Eve and Adam. And Eve said, the serpent. And
our Lord then spoke to the serpent. He spoke to Satan in verse 15. In verse 14, he says to the serpent,
because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle
and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou
go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. You're
cursed. I'm gonna talk about that curse even more tonight. And the Son of God says to the
serpent, but within the hearing of Adam and Eve, and I will,
don't you love the divine I wills? And I will put, the word put
means appoint, fix, or set. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman. And between thy seed and her
seed. If you know anything about the
issues of life and biology, woman doesn't provide the seed in birth. A man provides the seed. What's this talking about, Jim?
Because then it says, it shall bruise thy head. This seed. The seed will bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel. What is this talking about? He
asks the wrong question. It's not what, it's who. Who's
he talking about? The seed of the woman is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the very first promise
given to fallen man, right here. The very first. The seed of the woman. And then the saints of God began
to say, the seed of the woman is coming. He's gonna make things
right. And from Adam to Abraham, 2000
years went by and this promise rang out among the people of
God. The seed of the woman is coming. but he didn't come. And from Abraham to the birth
of Christ, the saints of God kept on saying, the seed of the
woman is coming. Another 2000 years went by. And
then guess what? He came. He came. The seed of the woman. Born of
a virgin, he was not infected with the
sinfulness of all of Adam's seed, of all of Adam's posterity, because
our Lord Jesus Christ was not a son of Adam. He was the son
of God. He had no sin. In him was nothing
that even Satan could find within to work with, because he was
blameless, pure, holy, righteous. because he's God in the flesh. And the reason he was made flesh
was to suffer, bleed and die for sinners like you and me.
The seed of the woman is coming. That's what all the prophets
said. The Jews of our Lord's day said,
we believe Moses. He said, if you'd believe Moses,
you'd believe me. That's what he said. If you believe
Moses, you'd believe me for he wrote of me. Right here. He wrote the words of Christ.
The seed of the woman is coming. And he's the only savior. Nobody else can help you. Say, preacher, I wanna talk to
you for a little bit after the service is over. I can't help
you. I done told you everything I
know. Everything you need to know about
God and you and Christ Jesus, I done told you. I tell you who's gotta do the
work. He does. That's his specialty. Oh God,
lead us to Christ Jesus. May the Lord bless the preaching
of his word. Get your