If you would open your Bibles
with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We'll
begin our reading in verse 12. Now if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is
no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen,
then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain. Yea,
and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified
of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so
be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then
is Christ not raised. If Christ be not raised, your
faith is vain. You're yet in your sins. Then
they also, which are fallen asleep in Christ, are perished. If in
this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most
miserable. But now is Christ risen from
the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For
since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of
the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
all be made alive." And we'll end our reading there. Shawn,
come lead us in our singing. Okay, if you would turn to song
number 89, Angels We Have Heard on High. Angels we have heard on high Sweetly singing o'er the plains,
And the mountains in reply, Echoing their joyous strains. Gloria in excelsis Deo Gloria
in excelsis Deo Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong? What the glad tidings be which
inspire your heavenly song? Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Him whose birth the angels sing,
Lomador on bended knee, Christ the Lord, the newborn King. Gloria in excelsis Deo, Gloria in excelsis Deo. See Him in a manger laid, Jesus,
Lord of heaven and earth. Mary Joseph, lend your aid, with
us sing our Savior's birth. Gloria in excelsis Deo, Gloria
in excelsis Deo Okay, and if you would now turn
to song number 50 Fairest Lord Jesus Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of
all nature, O Thou of God and man the Son, Thee will I cherish,
Thee will I honor, Thou my soul's glory, joy, and crown. Clear are the meadows, fairer
still the woodlands, robed in the blooming garb of spring. Jesus is fairer, Jesus is pure,
who makes the woeful heart to sing. Fair is the sunshine, fairer
still the moonlight, and all the twinkling starry holes. Jesus shines brighter, Jesus
shines purer than all the angels heaven can boast. Beautiful Savior, Lord of the
nations, Son of God and Son of Man. Glory and honor Let's open our Bibles, if you
would, to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, you should not
eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God
has said, you should not eat of it. Neither shall you touch
it lest you die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, you should not surely die. For God doth know that in
the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and
you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant
to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took her the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her
husband with her and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were
opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sowed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called
unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden. And I was afraid because I was
naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded
thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the woman
whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I
did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, what is this
that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent
beguiled me and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto 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 thus shalt thou eat all the
days of thy life. And I'll put enmity between thee
and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman, he
said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desires shall
be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam,
he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and
hast eaten of the tree. of which I commanded thee, saying,
Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns
also and thistles shalt I bring forth to thee, and thou shalt
eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground. For out of it
was thou taken, for thus thou art, and unto thus shalt thou
return. And Adam called his wife's name
Eve because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also
and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothed
them. And the Lord God said, behold,
the man has become as one of us to no good and evil. And now
lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life
and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent
him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from
whence he was taken. So he drove out the man. and
placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming
sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of
life. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we've gathered here this evening
with a need and a desire to worship you, to hear word from thee. Father, I beg of you that you'd
send your spirit upon us, and in this hour, that you'd give
us a heart of worship, that you would enable us to hear a word
from thee, as we open your word, that you might reveal to us Christ,
the incarnate word. Father, I pray that you would
be with me in this hour, that you would use me as an instrument
to proclaim the glory of Christ our Savior. that you would give
each of us a ear that hears and a heart that believes, rejoices
in the things of Christ that we hear preached, that we might
leave here trusting in him, trusting in him more fully, loving him
and loving him more fully, depending on him more fully. Father, how
we thank you for a place that you've given us where your word
is opened and preached, where Christ is exalted, where your
people can gather together and be fed, where sinners can come
and hear of the Savior. Father, we pray you continue
to bless. For your great namesake, Father, bless your word as it's
preached. Here and everywhere where you've
sent it, Father, bless your word. Father, in our day, such a dark,
dark day. In every way that we can imagine,
it's such a dark day. Father, in this day, would you
show us your glory? We beg of you that you'd show
us your glory. Reveal your glory. in our generation
as you have in the past. Father, we thank you for the
many blessings of this life, how richly you've blessed your
people. You've blessed us materially,
physically, spiritually, how you've blessed us, kept and preserved
your people. We're thankful. And for those
who are in times of difficult trial, Father, we pray for them.
We pray that you'd be with them in a special way, that you heal,
lead, and guide, and comfort Continue to pray for Barb as
she tries to heal, that you heal her and bring her back to us. We pray for Novi that you'd undertaken
her behalf to enable this transplant to happen quickly, enable her
to start feeling better quickly, Father. All these things we ask
in that name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, amen. I have tonight a very important
message. Anytime you bring a message from
the word of God, it's important. This is a very important message.
You've heard the saying often, I'm sure, wrong on the fall,
wrong on it all. Arthur Pink, I'll paraphrase
what he said about this chapter. He said that Genesis chapter
three is the most important book in the Bible to understand. He
said, "'Cause if we don't understand what happens in the fall," in
Genesis 3, "'we will misinterpret everything else "'and all the
rest of the word of God.'" And I believe he's right. I read
that statement and I told Janet about it. As I was preparing
to preach, no pressure, Brother Frank, no pressure. Most important
chapter. But I believe he's right. If
we don't understand what happens in this chapter, we can't understand
what's happening in the rest of the Bible. So the title of
my message tonight is why God ordained the fall. And I'll tell
you the reason, and then we'll go through this chapter and see
if we don't see it. The reason that God ordained
the fall. Now you'll notice I didn't say
he allowed it. He ordained it. He ordained this. He ordained
it for this reason, so that the glory of Christ could be seen.
If there weren't a fall in people, The glory of Christ the Redeemer,
saving his people by his grace, by his substitutionary work,
by his death for them, could not be seen. And that's God's
greatest glory. Mercy to sinners through the
death of his son. Someone would ask, well, could
God have stopped Adam from sinning? God knows everything. God knows
what's gonna happen. He knew Adam was gonna sin. Why
didn't God stop Adam from sinning? Well, of course he could have.
God could have stopped Adam from sinning. He's God. He didn't
do anything. But God didn't stop Adam from sinning. He didn't
stop the fall of man because the fall of man is God's eternal
purpose. Man must fall so that the redemption
that is found in his son could be seen by his people. Christ
is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That's what scripture
says. That's God's eternal purpose. Salvation in the lamb's land.
Well, if God purposed the Savior, he also purposed the fallen people
to save. And he did that, he purposed
that without being the author of sin. God provided the remedy
for the fall before the fall actually took place. See, all
of this is God's eternal purpose. We were back here talking before
the service and Earl was talking about, man, Earl's gonna preach
my whole message standing right here. This is God's purpose. God, he ordained this. Yet Adam's
guilty. This is Adam's fault. Adam is
guilty. Adam can't blame this on God.
He tried it. It didn't work, did he? Adam can't blame this
on God. Adam did exactly what he wanted
to do. He went into this thing with his eyes wide open. He willfully
sinned against God. But when he did it, he did what
God purposed for him to do from all of eternity so that God could
bring to his people something far better. All right, that's
the reason. Now let's look at this chapter
and see if we don't see something. Verse one. Now the serpent was more
subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had
made. And he said unto the woman, yea, if God said, you should
not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto
the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,
but a fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden.
God has said, you should not eat of it. Neither say you touch
it lest you die. Now you'll notice here, Eve added
to what God said. It's not recorded. God said,
Adam, don't touch that tree. He said, Adam, don't eat of the
fruit of it. He didn't, God didn't say don't touch it. Now it's
a good idea. Don't touch the tree. That's
a good idea. You can't eat of the tree if you don't touch the
tree, but that's a good idea. That's not what God said. And
I'll show you the danger here and adding good ideas to the
word of God. We've got to be very careful
not to do that, not to make our good ideas equal to or part of
the word of God. If we do that, we'll become slaves
to it. Slaves to that tradition instead of trusting in Christ
alone, instead of trusting and believing the word of God alone.
Look at the danger in this. Verse four, the serpent said
to the woman, you shall not surely die. Now, it very well could
be Eve said, we can't touch that tree and Satan touched it and
he didn't die. And Eve thought, well, God must've
been lying to us. Serpent touched the tree, he
didn't die. That could have happened because
she opened herself up to that danger by adding to the word
of God. Adding don't touch the tree, saying God said that, that
put a question mark on everything else God said. And it's her fault. Adam's fault by adding to that.
See, that's why I said we got to be very careful. Don't make
our traditions and our good ideas part of the word of God. It's
very dangerous. It also could be maybe Satan
took that fruit and ate it. Nothing happened to Satan. Nothing
happened to Satan. Satan's already dead. He's already
dead. But now God's commandment, Not
to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not to eat
of that fruit was a commandment to Adam, to Adam. It didn't matter what anybody
else did. This is God's commandment to Adam. Don't eat of that tree. Now there's a commandment and
he told Adam, if you disobey this, now you're going to die.
You know, there's a commandment in God's word, you and me too.
And it's to you and it's to me just as much as this commandment
was to Adam. It's a commandment. from God's
word, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust Him, rest in Him,
quit trusting in your words, quit trying to make yourself
savable, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's God's commandment
to you and me. And if we disobey it, we'll die.
Just as surely as Adam in the garden. See, it's a commandment
to you and me. All right. Now in the rest of
the chapter, I want us to look at the results of the fall. and
see six ways that God ordained the fall so we could have something
more glorious in Christ. Number one is this, God ordained
the fall so that we'd see the glory of Christ. Verse seven
or verse four, the serpent said unto the woman, you should not
surely die for God does know that the day ye eat thereof,
then your eyes shall be open and you should be as God's knowing
good and evil. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and
a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her
and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were
open and they knew that they were naked. Now Satan told Eve,
your eyes will be open and Adam and Eve's eyes were opened all
right, weren't they? But not like Satan said. Their eyes weren't
open to good and evil. Their eyes were only open to
evil. Now they can only see evil. They can only see sin. What Eve
and Adam thought was they're going to, if they eat of this
fruit, they're going to be as gods and they're going to be
the one to determine what's good and what's evil. They thought
they determined that. They thought they could now choose
between good and evil. And what they found is they could
only choose evil. They thought they could get out
from under this rule of God and they could choose what's right
and what's wrong. And what they found is they could
only sin. They were powerless to do anything but sin. And that's
why you and I come into the world the way that we are. Because
we have Adam's nature. We can only see evil. We can
only see sin. We can't choose to do good or
evil. We can only choose sin. But now in Christ, God sent his son into this world.
In Christ, our eyes are open. Only in Christ can our eyes be
open to see the glory of God. It's only seen in the face of
Jesus Christ. The glory of God is not in how,
or the chief glory of God is not in him creating the universe.
It's not in him running all of the events of time. The greatest
glory of God is saving his people from their sin by his sovereign
mercy. Him showing mercy to whom he
will show mercy. Him having compassion on whom
he will have compassion. And you and I never could have
seen God's greatest glory in his sovereign mercy to sinners
unless we first fell in Adam and had a need for God's mercy. See, before God saves us, we
can't see, can we? We're blind, we can't see anything
spiritual. We can't see how God saves sinners. But in Christ, I see. In Christ,
I see, oh, I'm a sinner. Oh, I mean, I've heard, yeah,
I've heard I'm a sinner, and I know I don't do everything
just right. In Christ, I see I'm a sinner. I see my sin. I
see that the only way I can be made good, the only way I can
be made righteous is in Christ. In Christ, I see the goodness
of God. God saves sinners in his sovereign
mercy. I see that. Oh, how I love mercy. Oh, how I love mercy. Because
that's God's good. I see that in Christ. Tell you
something else I see. I see the justice of God. I see
the justice of God. God doesn't just ignore sin and
pretend like it's not there in order to save his people. God
saves his sinner, his people, his sinful people. He saves them
in mercy and in justice. He satisfies his justice by the
death of the substitute. Now I see, I never could have
seen that glorious wisdom of God, all these glorious truths,
unless Adam first fell and I fell in it. And then Christ came to
redeem me. All right, number two, God ordained
the fall so that he could clothe his people in the righteousness
of Christ. Verse seven, the eyes of them
both were open and they knew that they were naked and they
sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they
heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the
cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from
the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
Now when Adam fell, Adam and Eve's eyes were suddenly open
to see him. And what that means is that their
eyes were open to shame. However long it was, Adam and
Eve were in the garden, they were always naked, but they were
never ashamed. God, and I believe this is a
pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, has to be, came walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, all those days, I reckon. Adam
was always glad to see him, they always had fellowship, they always
walked together and talked together and fellowshiped together. Now,
Adam's ashamed. Now he's hiding. He's hiding
in the bushes. He's hiding from the trees because
he's ashamed. He was ashamed before God. And what they felt was a need
to cover their sin, to cover their shame, to hide themselves
from God. Not just their sin, but just
to hide my whole self from God, you know. And their first solution
was this. They found fig leaves. I read
those are some of the biggest leaves that you can find. They
took some of these fig leaves and they tried to sew them together
and put them on their body to hide their shame. It didn't work. If it worked, they wouldn't have
been hiding in the trees, would they? They wouldn't be hiding
from God if those fig leaves had covered their shame. Satan
preached the first free will message ever preached on earth
to Eve. And Adam and Eve found out Sadly,
what most people or many people will not find out to the day
of judgment, that message is a lie. It doesn't work. Their choices and their works,
and that's what those fig leaves are a picture of, their choices
and their works could not cover their shame before God. Their
choices and their works couldn't take their sin away. They couldn't
take their guilt away. They made themselves those aprons,
but they're still ashamed. And I'll tell you what else Adam
and Eve discovered. They discovered no matter what they did, making
them aprons, no matter how many good works you think you can
do, no matter how you try to hide yourself from God, there's
nothing they could do to make themselves look good before God. And you and I can't either. The
fig leaves of our religious ceremonies, the fig leaves of our morality
and our straight doctrine is not going to take our sin away
either. It's not gonna make us take away
our shame before God. That's all that is in human nature
before God from the moment Adam fell. Shame before God. That
we've got to do something to make up for this. We gotta hide
our shame. We gotta do something to try
to make this right. That's the shame that came from Adam's fall.
And God ordained that. He ordained that fall for this
reason. So that his people could see
the glory. of being clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
And God gave us a picture of that. Verse 21, unto Adam also
and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin and he clothed
them. Now that was the very first bloodshed
ever on earth. God killed that animal. He did
that as a picture of the death of Christ. Adam and Eve were
clothed when the innocent died. That animal was innocent. It
died so its skin could cover their nakedness. And that's a
picture of how God's people are clothed. Their shame is covered
in the righteousness of Christ. And I want you to notice this.
God did everything here. God did everything. Adam wasn't
seeking God. He was hiding from God. God sought
Adam. He came where Adam was, didn't
he? Adam, where are you? Maybe. God
sought Adam. God provided the animal that
would cover the animal. God killed the animal that would
cover the animal. God made the garment that covered them and
God put the garment on them. God did it all. That's what God
does in salvation. Brethren, in salvation, God did
it all. He purposed it from eternity.
He purposed it for he created anything. He's the one who provided
the sacrifice. He's the one who killed the sacrifice. He's the one who made the garment
of righteousness for his people. He's the one who puts that garment
on his people. He clothes his people in their
righteousness of Christ. Now being clothed in the righteousness
of Christ, that's not wearing a robe that covers our sin, covers
our shame. God would see through that, wouldn't
he? What did God say? He looks on the heart. God doesn't
look on the outside, God looks on the heart. We got a heart
problem. This thing goes all the way through. Being clothed in the righteousness
of Christ means that God makes his people holy. He makes them
sinless through and through by giving him Christ obedience to
the law. Just like Adam made his people
sinners by his disobedience, Christ makes his people righteous
and holy by his obedience. See, we are filled with sin and
shame by Adam's disobedience. You think of the shame that you
would feel right now, coming here in this place, sitting here
amongst our friends, if you were naked. I mean, we'd be so ashamed. Why is that? I used to have dreams.
It was always biology class, waking up in biology class naked.
I'd wake up, my heart would be pounding, my sweating is horrible. Why is that so horrible? It all
goes back to Adam's sin. It's just every bit of shame
that we feel before each other. The shame that we feel before
God is all by Adam's disobedience. But God's elect are made righteous.
They're made without any sin and without any shame by the
obedience of Christ. See, in Christ, the believer
doesn't have any shame because Christ took the reason for our
shame away and put it away by his sacrifice. He took sin away.
And where there's no sin, there's no shame. Now, isn't that glorious? Oh, what a relief. Well, God's
elect never could have enjoyed that blessing of being made righteous
and perfect in Christ if we weren't fallen in Adam first. See, we
can see that glory because of the fall of man. All right, number
three, God ordained the fall so that his people could come
to his throne boldly. Verse nine, the Lord God called
unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was
naked and I hid myself. Now Adam was hiding from God.
He's afraid. I mean, can you imagine just
the fear that came out of Adam? God come walking in the cool
of the day, sin against God. He's afraid. He's afraid of God's
wrath. He was afraid of God's justice.
And rightfully so. Rightfully so. Adam had willfully
sinned against God. He knew exactly what he was doing.
And he knew he deserved God's wrath. He knew he deserved God's
justice. And God came to Adam. Adam didn't know any of this
yet, but God came to Adam. And God spared him. You know
why God spared Adam? Because before God created anything,
God provided the Redeemer to redeem a people who had come
out of Adam's fallen race. And God didn't destroy Adam for
the sake of all of his elect. Every last one of God's elect
is gonna come from Adam's loins. God didn't destroy him so those
people would be born and Christ could redeem them. God spared
him because he already provided the Redeemer. In the mind and
purpose of God, the Redeemer, the sacrifice had already taken
place. The sacrifice had already suffered and died. Christ is
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In God's purpose,
in God's mind, justice was already satisfied. Adam was not destroyed
because his sin was already put away in the mind of God. And
if Adam had not fallen, You know, you and I would still
be living in great fear, great fear. We would be afraid that
the day would come that we would break God's law. And if we did,
we'd be damned. Wherever that tree is or wherever
it was, buddy, we'd find a way to get to it. We'd find a way
to get to it. And sooner or later, we'd eat
of that fruit and we'd be damned. We'd be living in constant fear.
I'm gonna slip up here and I'll be damned. But Christ came, Christ
came. And he came to take away all
fear from his people. The Lord Jesus Christ came and
he took the sin dead of his people and his own body on the tree
and he put it away. He put that sin away. But when
he did that, he took away all reason for fear. There's no reason
for fear of God when there's no sin. There'd be no reason
to be afraid of God's justice against our sin if the debt's
already been paid. And that's what Christ came to
do. And when he put away the sin of his people, he took away
all fear and gave his people boldness. That's what the writer
to the Hebrew said. Let us therefore come boldly,
confidently, boldly under the throne of grace. None of this
fear like Adam had hiding in the bushes. None of this fear
come to God like I'm afraid he's going to hit me with a stick.
He already took out His sword of justice on His Son, on my
substitute. We come boldly unto the throne
of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. What a glorious freedom to come before the throne of
God, the throne of mercy, the throne of grace. The freedom
to come any time you want. Any time you want. What a glorious
freedom. And we never would have enjoyed
that unless Adam had first fallen and Christ came to redeem us
from our sin. Number four, God ordained to fall so that his
people would love him. Verse 11. And he said, who told
thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree where
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the
woman whom thou gave us to be with me, she gave me of the tree
and I did eat. The Lord God said unto the woman,
What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat. Now Adam and Eve have suddenly
become very, very hateful. They're just blaming everybody
else for their sin. Anybody they can find to grab a hold of and
throw under the bus, that's what they're doing. You know, they're
just hateful. I'll tell you why they're doing it. Because after
the fall, the nature of man is to hate. Is to hate. The nature of man is to hate
God. The nature of man is to hate people. I won't say that, but you're
not going to get rid of hate in this world. Now, I mean, people
ought to be nicer, they ought to be kinder, but you just write
her down. You're not getting rid of hate in this world. The
nature of man is to hate, to hate God. The carnal mind is
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. It
can't be, it's dead, it's full of sin, it's full of hatred.
And you and I today are the same way Adam was in the garden. Just
hateful. People blame God for their sin. It's got to be God's fault. You've
heard people say this. Well, God made me this way. So
God can't be mad at me. Well, I know I did this. God
could have stopped me, but he didn't. So God can't be mad at
me. It's all God's fault. All that is, is blaming God for
our sin. And you know why we do that?
Because our nature hates God. It hates God. And using that
excuse, well, God couldn't stop me. He didn't. So, you know,
it must be all right. Using that excuse is just evidence. We're still trying to come to
God by our obedience to the law. I broke the law, but it just
must be okay because God didn't stop me from doing it. We're
still trying to come to God on our obedience to the law. And
if we broke it, well, it's not my fault. It's God's fault. And
you know why we do that? Because not only does our nature
hate God, it resents God. It resents God for finding me
guilty. I resent God for having this law over me that I can't
keep. All the law will ever do. I don't
know why people want to be under the law. I don't know why preachers
want to put people under the law. Either the law of the scripture
or their own laws and rules and regulations for the congregation.
I don't know why people want to do that because the law always
produces resentment. Always. It can only produce resentment
and hatred of God. And that's what Israel found
under the law, under the law of Moses. But then one day, Christ
appeared. Christ appeared in Bethlehem,
and the angels sang, peace on earth, peace on earth. Christ came to put this thing
away, to put this matter of hatred away, to take away that enmity
from his people. And you know how he did it? By
the sacrifice of himself. The sacrifice of Christ showed
God's infinite love for his people. First John 14. Herein is love. You want to know what love is?
Here it is, John said. Not that we love God. We ought to love
God. If you say you love God, I mean,
you know, it's no big thing. You ought to love God. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. Here's
the proof of it. He sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sin. Now, that's love. If that isn't
love, the ocean's dry, isn't it? And only grace, only love,
can make the son of God suffer and die. in the place of sinners
as guilty as you and me. As vile as you and me. The sacrifice
of Christ shows God's people are not under the law. They're
under grace. Under God's grace. They're under
the rule of God's grace. And if you're under grace, tell
you what, you love God. If He shows you you're under
grace and not under the law, you're set free from that law.
You're free. You're under grace. You love
God, you can't help it. And we never would have known
that love. We never would have known God's love to us. We never
would have known anything about loving God ourselves unless Adam
had first fallen and then Christ came to redeem us from that fall. All right, here's the fifth thing. God ordained the fall so that
his people would have joy, not a curse. Verse 14, and the Lord
God said unto 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 thus shalt thou eat all the days
of thy life. And I'll put enmity between thee
and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, and it shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now you notice the
Lord didn't even bother asking Satan what he'd done, because
there's no hope for Satan. There's no Redeemer provided
for Satan. There's no Redeemer provided for the fallen angels.
Thank God there's a Redeemer provided for fallen man, but
not for the angels. But when God talked to Satan,
he pronounced this curse on the serpent, and that's the way snakes
are still today, crawling around their belly, eating dust, and
hated by about everybody, and every animal and everything.
Everybody hates snakes. But in talking to Satan, I noticed something
here. I told you a minute ago, Satan
preached the first free will message on earth, didn't he?
Well, God himself preached the first gospel message on earth.
And you know what the message was? Very simple. The message
was Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
as the seed of woman. He's coming. He's going to be
a man. He's going to be a real man, bone of our bone, flesh
of our flesh, as real of a man as you are. But he's not going
to be born from Adam's seed. He's gonna be born from the seed
of woman. See, if he was born from the seed of man, he would
have Adam's nature. He would partake in Adam's sin.
He would be under the curse of the law, but Christ is not under
the curse of the law. He's born from the seed of woman. Christ is coming as the righteous
one, the holy one of Israel. He's coming as Jehovah said,
the Lord, our righteous. one who's coming to make his
people righteous, to undo for them everything Adam did to him.
Christ is coming as the Holy One. And since he had no sin
of his own, that makes him qualified to take the sin of his people
away from them and pay for it with his own precious blood.
That makes him the sinless sacrifice who takes away the sin of the
world. And he's going to do that. He's going to take away the sin
of his people by his death. by His suffering as a sacrifice
for the sin of His people. And when He suffers, and when
He dies, boy, at that time at the cross, there's a lot going
on there in those three hours on the cross. Those hours of
darkness. Those hours leading up to it. There's so much going on there.
And part of what's going on there is Satan was attacking. I mean,
he was attacking with everything he had. forces of darkness were
attacking at that time. But all Satan's going to be able
to do in all of that effort, in all of his power, and he's
a powerful enemy now. Don't anybody try going and taking
him on. He's way too powerful for us.
But in all that power, concentrated on one place, on that center
cross there on Calvary, all he's going to be able to accomplish
is bruise the heel of the Savior. That's all he's going to be able
to accomplish. And in that time, Christ, our Savior, is going
to crush Satan's head. He's going to take away all of
his power so he's put out of business. The death of Christ
takes away the sin of his people. Satan doesn't have anything to
accuse them of anymore. He's out of business. He can't
deceive them anymore. They see Christ. They see Him.
They love Him. He's given them faith. He can't
touch them. Despite all of Satan's power,
despite everything that Satan does. I'm sure he's still working
in the world today just as much as he ever did. All the darkness
that he brings, all the just everything involved in that satanic. There's still hope. There's still
hope in Christ. Don't go looking for Satan. But
don't you fear him either. Christ came and crushed his head.
and undid everything he did to God's people. He undid it all.
Christ is coming to take away the curse of sorrow. Verse 16. Unto the woman he said, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou
shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee. I touched on that last Wednesday.
You ladies, you know that sorrow, sorrow like I'm sure there's
not a man here that could endure that. Sorrow. But not only did Adam's sin bring
sorrow on the woman in childbearing, every sorrow in this world is
because of sin. Everything that makes us sorry
and sad and depressed and downtrodden, it's all because of sin. I've read that Christmas, happiest
time of the year, best time of the year, right, is the time
for the most depression and sorrow for people who are lonely and
without family and different things. Just this sorrow, just
even in the midst of something, I'll be happy. It's just, there's
just, it's no wonder this medical industry
is just thriving on sorrow. Just depression is what, sin
is causing, it's just horrible. Oh, but there's good news. Christ
has come and he takes away sorrow from his people and gives them
joy, joy in him. He took their sin and bore it
away. So there's nothing left to cause
sorrow. Isaiah said, surely he had borne our griefs and he's
carried our sorrows. Brother, if Christ carried those
sorrows for you, you're not carrying them. You're not carrying them.
Then Christ came to take away the curse of work that won't
produce fruit. Verse 17. And unto Adam he said,
because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles
shalt bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the
field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, to thou
return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust
thou art, and in dust shalt thou return." Now I'm confident that
in heaven we will work. It's not going to be a permanent
vacation. I'm confident heaven will work,
just like Adam worked before the fall. He worked in the garden.
Before he ever fell, God told him to work, till the ground,
till the trees, work in the garden and everything. But there's going
to be one great difference between then and now. That work's not
going to be hard. It's not going to be grievous,
because there's going to be no thorns, no thistles. All that
work is going to be productive. Michael, you'd never make a sales
call. Somebody'd say no. I mean, just all be productive.
It'll all be wonderful. But more importantly, Christ
came to take away our spiritual work. Those works that we try
to produce, trying to earn a righteousness, trying to earn our way to God
that only produced death. Christ came and he accomplished
that work for us. So in Christ, there's no work
left to do. There's no work left to do to
try to please God. Christ already did that. There's
no work left to do to try to make ourselves righteous. Christ
already made his people righteous. It's all done. It's all done.
And then Christ is coming to take away the curse of death.
God told Adam, dying thou shalt die. Sure enough, that's what
happened. Adam died spiritually immediately, didn't he? The evidence
of it is just overwhelming. And about 900 years later, Adam
died physically. The curse of death. We're all
under it. All flesh is dying. All flesh
is dying. I will, you will too. Unless
Christ returns first. But Christ is coming to take
the curse of death away. To take the sting of death away.
For the believer, these bodies will die. Absolutely they will,
but that's not a curse. There's no sting in it. Christ
came so that his people will never die, never die spiritually. They can't because Christ already
died for us. As difficult as the process might
be for this flesh, the best day on this planet for the believer
is the day they leave it. Because Christ came, took the
curse, of death away. And you and I never could have
seen the glory of that and enjoyed the glory of that and enjoyed
the comfort of that if Adam hadn't fallen first and then Christ
came to redeem us. All right, lastly, God ordained
the fall so he could bring his people to be with him forever.
Verse 22. And the Lord God said, behold,
the man has become as one of us to no good and evil. And now,
lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life
and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from
the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man and he placed at the east end of the
garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned
to every way to keep the way of the tree of life. Now Adam
was thrust out with the presence of God, thrust out of the garden.
No longer could he see the face No longer could he walk with
God in the cool of the evening, have fellowship with God like
he used to. But Christ came to bring his people back to God
so that we do have fellowship with God. We have fellowship
with God right now. The believer has fellowship with
God on this earth. And oh, in glory, how wonderful
that will be. We can't begin to start to commence
to imagine the glory of opening our eyes and seeing Christ face to face.
And the promise of scripture to you who believe is you will
see his face. You know why? Because Christ
came to suffer everything the sin of his people deserves. Adam
deserves because of his sin. He deserved to be cut off from
God, didn't he? He deserved to be thrust out of the presence
of God. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ came to bring his people
back to God. You know how he did it? By being
cut off himself so that his people would never be cut off. Just like God, when he asked
Adam, Adam, where are you? He didn't ask that question for
his own information, did he? He was drawing Adam out. He's
gonna make Adam admit what he'd done. The Lord never asked a
question for information. 4,000 years later, the same thing
was true of Calvary. He didn't cry out, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me for his information? He asked
that question so you and I would know. He's cut off from God. This is not pretend. He's cut
off from God. He's cut off from God for my
sin. So I never will be. Because my
Redeemer suffered it for me. My substitute suffered it for
me. I mentioned this last week too. It was a mercy of God. That
God kept Adam from eating of that tree of life. If he'd have
eaten of the fruit of that tree of life, the Lord said he'd live
forever. Can you imagine how horrible
that would be for Adam? Here's 6,000 some odd years later,
still living in a body of sin. Still living. In 6,000 years,
seeing the changes on earth, seeing the horror of what sin
keeps doing to God's creation, what it keeps doing to people,
it was a mercy. God didn't let Adam eat that
fruit, did he? But you know what else? God kept Adam from eating
of that fruit, of the tree of life, so that he was forced,
he and you and me too, were forced to seek life. in only one place,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't seek life by trying
to be like Indiana Jones and somehow slide under the flaming
sword which turns every which way and trick the cherubim and
somehow get to the tree of life and eat of that fruit. We can't
do it by being tricky and being smart enough and being sly enough.
We can't seek life that way. It's impossible. The only way
we can have life is in Christ. Now, if you'd have spiritual
life, go seek it in Christ. If you'd have mercy, go seek
it in Christ, because that's the only place that it's found.
Let me give you this in closing. Psalm 69, verse 4. Christ came to bring his people
to a better place, to a better standing, to something better
than what we had in Adam. I mean, you think Adam had it
good in the garden, He was there, had everything he could ever
wanted. He was innocent. He wasn't righteous, he was innocent.
And he could lose his innocence. But Christ came to bring his
people to something far better than what Adam had in the garden.
Psalm 69, verse four. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. God didn't take that away, did
he? God didn't take away our life and our innocence. Adam
did that. Adam did that by his disobedience. And Christ came and he restored
what he did not take away. He restored better than we lost
in Adam. In Christ, we have a righteousness
that we cannot lose. We have a life that we cannot
lose. We have a glory that we cannot
lose. And Adam, we're falling all the
way into the dunghill. And in Christ, we're raised to
paradise. And have a seat there that cannot
be lost. It cannot be. Because it all
depends on Christ. And not one speck of it depends
on us. That's far better than what Adam had in him. And we
never would have known the glory of that. The glory of that mercy
and that grace. The glory of that security in
Christ. if Adam hadn't fallen. And that's why God ordained the
fall. So we can see the glory of Christ. And I hope that from
now on, every time we read Genesis chapter three, the Lord might
bring that to our mind. That's why God ordained that.
So that we might see the glory of Christ. All right, let's bow
together. Our Father, we thank you for
your word. We thank you for the message of your word, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray you'd show
us your glory, that you'd enable us to see more of the glory of
Christ our Savior, to believe him and trust him and rest in
him and cling to him and him alone. And Father, I pray you
bless us and watch over us as we go back to our homes and back
out to our responsibilities in this life. Watch over us and
keep us safe and bring us back Sunday to, one more time, hear
the glorious message of Christ our Savior. is in his blessed
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Okay, if you would turn to song
number 323 and stand as we sing. More love to thee. More love to Thee, O Christ,
more love to Thee. Hear Thou the prayer I make,
unbended knee. This is my earnest plea. More love, O Christ, to Thee. More love to Thee. More love to Thee. Once earthly joy I craved, sought
peace and rest. Now the alone I seek, give what
is best. This, O my prayer, can be more
love, O Christ, to Thee, more love to Thee. more love to Thee. Let sorrow do its work, send
grief and pain. Sweet are Thy messengers, sweet
their refrain. When they can sing with Thee,
more love, O Christ, more love to Thee, more love to Thee. Then shall my latest breath whisper
Thy praise. This be the parting cry my heart
shall raise. This still its prayer shall be,
More love, O Christ, to Thee, More love to Thee, More love
to Thee.