Better news has never been sung,
has it? My soul, to think God sees me. He doesn't see me as I am. I'm
so thankful. Genesis chapter 3. We're going to look this morning at
one of the most important chapters in God's Word. We do not understand what happened
in Genesis chapter 3. We can't understand a single
page of the rest of the Bible. If we don't understand what happened
when Adam fell, we'll never understand how it is that God saves sinners.
That's why we say wrong on the fall, wrong on it all. If we
don't understand how man became lost in Adam in the garden, we'll
never realize our need for Christ to save us. We'll never realize
our need for the new birth. In Adam, we're damaged beyond
repair. We're so ruined in Adam. The
only way we can be made new is in Christ. So I've entitled the
message this morning, What Happened in the Garden? Well, the first
thing that happened in the garden is Satan showed us a pattern
that he and false prophets would forever follow. He questioned
God's word. Look at verse one of chapter
three. A 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?
Satan's questioning God's word. He says, God really said you
can't eat of all the trees of the garden? Really? Isn't that
mean? God said you can't eat of all
the trees. And don't false prophets do the
same thing? They're following this pattern to this day. They
twist God's word to make it say what it doesn't mean. They say,
well, now it doesn't mean that. Surely God wouldn't tell you
you can't eat of this tree. Surely God wouldn't say you eat
of all the trees in the garden, but this one, surely God wouldn't
say that. Just like they say, well, it
seems like God's word says you do have to be completely holy
to be saved. It seems like that God's word
does say you can never sin at all to be accepted, but now it
doesn't. Surely God doesn't mean that.
That's just too stringent, isn't it? God's word is life. This word that you're holding
in your laps is life. Paul said in Philippians 2 verse
16 that when we preach, we're holding forth the word of life. Look at 2 Peter chapter 3. This
is the word of life. Well, if you twist God's word,
you put question marks on God's word, then God's word won't be
life to you. it will be death. 2 Peter 3 verse 15. An account that the longsuffering
of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul,
also according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written
unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of
these things, in which are some things hard to be understood,
which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, as they do
also the other scriptures, under their own destruction. See, if
you rest God's word, you twist it, you question God's word,
the word doesn't become the word of life to you, it becomes the
word of death. So first, Satan questioned God's word. Then secondly,
he just flat out denied God's word. Look at verse four. The
serpent said unto the woman, you should not surely die. It
could be Satan ate that fruit. He wouldn't change, he didn't
die, because he's already dead, isn't he? Now you know what happened
in Genesis chapter 2, God gave Adam a law, just one. One law, don't eat of this tree.
First Satan questioned it, then he denied it. God said, if you
eat this tree, you'll die. Satan said, no you won't, no
you won't. False prophets do the same thing
to this day. God in His Word has given one way of salvation,
Wayne, just one, one way, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Satan
and his false prophets say there's more than one, but there's more
than one way to get to the same place. When they say you have
to do something in order to make Christ's sacrifice work for They've
outright denied the Word of God. They've denied there's one way
of salvation because they've added to that one way. They've
added you to it. They've added something that
you do. And they've outright denied God's Word. And they deceive
people with it, the same way Eve was deceived. Thirdly, Satan
questioned the character of God and the sovereignty of God. Verse
five, for God doth know that the day you eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened And you shall be as God's knowing
good and evil. Satan questioned God's sovereign
right to make laws and say, don't eat of this tree I made. God
made it. We just saw that in our lesson. And he's questioning
God's right to say, don't eat that. And Satan's false prophets
do the same thing this day. They just deny God's sovereign
right to elect a people to salvation. They deny God's right to do with
His own what He will. Make no mistake, all of us are
God's own. We have to answer to Him. He's
God. And they deny God's right to do with His own what He will. Where'd they get that from? It
originated in the garden, didn't it? From Satan. And Satan questions
God's goodness. Really, he's questioning the
whole character of God. He said, God's holding something back
from me. Now there's something better to know here. There's
something more to know than what God's told you. He's holding
back knowledge that's good for you. Don't false prophets do
the same thing today? Sure they do. They question God's
goodness. They question God's goodness
by saying, now, God's too good to put man on earth just to damn
him, isn't he? God's too good for that. They question God's
goodness in saving His people from their sin by saying God's
too good not to give everybody a chance to be saved. Now it
sounds like they're glorifying God's goodness, doesn't it? Sounds
like they're glorifying God, saying, well, God's just so good,
He'd give everybody a chance to be saved. But they're not.
What they're doing is they're trying to glorify God's goodness
at the expense of His justice, at the expense of His holiness.
So instead of glorifying God, they drag God down. When they
do that, they make God not God at all. And that's Satan's desire
and purpose from the very beginning. Satan and his false prophets,
they question the character of God by saying, well, how can
God send me to hell for being a sinner when God's the one who
made me this way? See what they're doing? They're blaming God for
their sin. We'll see where they got that
from in a minute. They're blaming God for their own damnation rather
than themselves. So they say, look at Romans chapter
9, they say, well, then salvation must be up to me. Salvation is
not up to God. Salvation must be up to me to
decide whether I'm going to accept Jesus or not. Because they deny
God has the right to save whom he will. And the Apostle Paul gives such
a Clear answer to this. His answer to that question is,
who do you think you are? Did your parents ever tell you
that? My dad told me that at the time. Who do you think you
are? Got put in my place. That's what Paul does. He puts
the flesh in his place. Who do you think you are? Romans
nine, verse 18. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Thou wilt
say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath
resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Who do you think you are to question
God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay to make of the same lump one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor? And yeah, we'd say, well, sure
he does. The potter's got that right, but God doesn't. That's
fallen nature. But God does have the right to
save whom he will. If he's God, if he's God, he's
got the right to save whom he will. And that's what Satan and
his false prophets have been questioning from the garden from
the time he came to Eve. These false prophets, they questioned
the truth that Christ is all you need to know. Now, God has
said in his word, all you need to know is Christ. He's all you
need to know. Don't seek to know anything else
but him. And they question that, don't they? They say, now there's
a lot more to know than Christ. Really? Really? Oh yeah, there's
more we can know about prophecy. We can know, you know, the mysteries
of the world. We can know when Christ will
return. We can figure these things out. And you notice they deny
God's word when they do that. God says, you can't know that.
No man can know it. They deny God's word because
there's more to know. God's secret, He's hidden something
in code here in His word, you know. They question the fact
that salvation and blessing in Christ are all spiritual blessings.
They say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, but God wants you to be
rich. They just so quickly pass over because they don't know
the need for the salvation of the soul. But they say, God wants
you to be rich. God wants you to be happy. God
wants you to have a richer, fuller life. There's more to know than
Christ. Where'd they get that from? Satan
in the garden. That's what happened in the garden.
Second in the garden, Eve showed us how deeply, deeply ingrained
the world is in this flesh. You know, a lot of people wonder,
what was Eve doing talking to an animal in the first place?
Well, I mean, I don't know. It's safe to assume, I would
say, that Eve had seen angels before and talked with them.
And angels aren't these chubby children with wings. Scripture
describes an angel as a mighty creature. And what most people
believe is Satan took the form of a winged serpent. You know,
God said, from now on, you're not going to be upright or flying
or whatever. You're going to be on the ground. People think
Satan took the form of a winged serpent. This animal doesn't
have hair, you know, like a bear or a lion or something. It's
got skin, you know, kind of like her. So she thinks this is a
person talking to her for good. Satan didn't mean her any good.
He meant her evil. And when Satan questioned the
word of God, Eve misquoted God's word. She misquoted what God
said. Look at verse two. And a 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. Now I know a lot of people
are very hard on Eve for adding to what God said. Neither shall
you touch it. God didn't say that. She added
that. Now in Eve's defense, you're not gonna touch that fruit unless
you got the intention of eating it. So I reckon it's a good idea
not to touch it. But you're not gonna die if you
touch it, because God didn't say that. It's probably a good
idea not to touch it. But she did, in fact, add to
God's word, didn't she? And you know what? That opened
her up to a problem. Maybe Satan ate the fruit. She
saw, didn't change. Maybe he just touched it. He
didn't change. Well, he wouldn't change. It
was God's commandment. It wasn't to touch it. His commandment
is don't eat it. So adding to God's word hurt her, didn't it?
Now God's law is spiritual. The gospel is spiritual. But
what have men reduced it to? Men have reduced it to touch
not, taste not, handle not. And they're right, they made
up laws, you know, just, you know, don't touch it. Don't touch alcohol.
Don't go to the movies. You know, don't do these things.
It's a touch, not taste, not any of them. And sin is not in
touching or tasting. Sin is the motive of the heart.
Sin is a whole lot more than what we do. Sin is what we are. That's what we are is the problem. We do what we do because of what
we are. What we are is the problem. And look back here at chapter
two. Eve allowed herself, first she
added to God's word, then she allowed herself to kind of question
God's word too, by subtracting. God said, you shall surely die.
See that in verse 16? The Lord God commanded the man
saying, of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it. For in the day thou eatest thereof,
Thou shalt surely die. But Eve didn't say, well, if
I eat this or touch this, I'll surely die. She said, lest we
die, maybe possibly we could die. She allowed God's word to
be questioned and she altered God's word to her own destruction. Look what made her do, verse
six. When a 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. Look at 1 John
2. I want you to show you how deeply
ingrained the world is in all of us. What was it that Eve saw? Well,
she saw the tree was good for food. She saw the tree was pleasant
to look at. She saw the tree was desired
to make you wise, so she ate it. 1 John 2, verse 15. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but it's of this world. The lust of the
flesh, he saw the tree was good for food, it was good for flesh.
The lust of the eyes, it was pleasant to look at. Things that
are forbidden usually are pleasant to look at, aren't they? And
the pride of life. Eve saw this tree would make
her wise. At least it's gonna make her
know something she didn't already know. That is so deeply ingrained in
us. And Satan and his false prophets appeal to those same desires
today by making religion something that's fleshly, something of
this world. Touch not, taste not, handle not. They make it
not the things of the spirit and they give us things to do,
fleshly things to do that make us proud of the flesh instead
of humbling us before God. And you know why people fall
for that stuff? I mean, they fall for left and right. You
know why? Because it's so deeply ingrained. The world is so deeply ingrained
in this flesh. And here's the point. The point
is this. Don't believe what you see with
your eyes. Believe what God says. I don't
care what you see. I don't care what your experience
is. Don't believe what you see and
what you've experienced. Believe what God says. Eve would
have been better off, wouldn't she? Now here's the third thing
that happened in the garden. Adam shows us the complete uselessness
of human free will. Verse six, the end of verse six.
She took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto
her husband with her." And he wasn't there when Satan was talking
to her, but he's with her later. And she gave him the fruit. And
he did eat. Now Adam's the only man who ever
lived, had a free will. And look what he did with his
free will. He took his free will and he openly, willfully rebelled
against God Almighty. That's man's free will. Look
at 1 Timothy chapter 2. Adam was not deceived. Now we
know Eve was deceived. Adam was not deceived. Adam took
that fruit in rebellion against God and he knew full well what
he was doing. 1 Timothy 2 verse 12. I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor to use their authority over a man, but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived,
but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Eve
was deceived, but Adam wasn't deceived. He used his free will
to willingly rebel against God, to willingly sin against God. That's where our free will gets
us. Now, let me ask you. Why do you want your free will?
You know, people say, just let God, you know, just let me have
my free will. You better pray he don't. Look
what you do with it. We're just like Adam. We'll see
that in a minute. Now we're just like Adam. We'll do the same
thing with our free will that Adam did. We'll sin against God. I am so thankful God never waits
on man's free will to save anybody. If God waited on that, nobody'd
be saved. Our free will will never choose
anything but sin and rebellion. If God's going to save us, he's
got to give us a new will. We've got to have a new want
to that comes from a new man if we're ever going to be saved.
Adam showed us the uselessness of man's free will. And fourthly,
this is the main lesson we must learn from the Garden of Eden.
It's federal headship. When Adam sinned, all men who
would ever descend from Adam sinned. When Adam sinned, all
men who would ever descend from Adam died spiritually because
Adam is our federal head. Verse seven, and the eyes of
them both were opened and they knew they were naked. And they
sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Now,
Adam ate that fruit, Adam and Eve suddenly realized they're
naked. Well, you know, when God created
them, they were naked. They've always been naked. It
was never a problem. They were never shamed. It was
never a cause for shame before. But now they're so ashamed. Oh, they're so ashamed. And their
shame doesn't come from the fact that their bodies are naked.
The problem is, you know what they saw? Their souls were naked. Their soul had been stripped
of its purity. Their soul had been stripped
of its righteousness. They've been stripped of their
innocence and they're so ashamed. Oh, they were stripped of their
righteousness and they felt so guilty. True enough, their eyes
were open, but their eyes weren't open to good things, were they?
Their eyes were open to bad things. Their eyes were open to their
nakedness. Their eyes were open to sin.
Their eyes were open to shame. Their eyes were open to hatred.
Their eyes were open and they saw their holiness and their
happiness was lost. Look at verse eight. 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? Now who is this walking in the
garden? It's our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ walking in the garden. And he calls to Adam. Adam, where
are you? Well, you know, he knew where
Adam was. God knows everything. He sees
everything. And this is said in such pity. Adam, where are you? Adam, you are my friend. We walked
together and talked together. Adam, where are you? Adam, look
at what has become of you. Adam, look at how far you've
fallen. Now he's asking Adam, where are
you? He's going to hear it from Adam. He's going to deal with
Adam on the grounds on which Adam comes to him. He's going
to hear it from Adam. But he's telling Adam, Adam,
look at you. You've lost all your wisdom.
I created you wise. You're so wise you could name
all the animals. You had dominion over my creation.
And now look at you. You've lost all your wisdom.
You've become a fool. You're trying to hide from gods
and bushes. Come on. Foolishness. And you know why
Adam was trying to hide? His eyes were open. His eyes
were open to his sin and to his shame. His eyes were open to
fear. And Adam's eyes were open to
hatred. The hatred of God and hatred of his fellow man. Look
at verse 10. Adam 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 to the woman,
And thou gavest it to be with me. She gave me of the tree,
and I did eat. Ooh. The only reason I ate that
fruit is the woman gave it to me. She gave it to me. What happened
to Adam's love for Eve? Oh, he loved her. Adam named
all those animals and he saw they all had a mate. He didn't
have a mate. Oh, he was so happy. God put him in his sleep, took
his rib out and made Eve. Oh, he was so happy to have her.
He loved her. He just, oh, how he loved her.
So thankful for her. What happened to all that? Now
he's throwing Eve under the bus. His eyes were opened to hatred
of his fellow man. And Adam's eyes were opened to
hatred of God too. He said, God, none of this would
happen if you hadn't made that woman. It's your fault. I'm hiding
in the bushes. It's your fault. And Eve, what
happened to her? She's just like her federal head.
I'll show you this in a minute. Adam is Eve's federal head, just
like he's your federal head. She's just like Adam now. Verse
13. The Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that thou
hast done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me. He tricked
me. And I did Eve. Eve, she's trying to shift the
blame now too. Not my fault, it's serpent's
fault. See, Adam and Eve are so ashamed. Oh, they're so ashamed. They're so full of fear because
their souls have been stripped naked, naked of their purity,
naked of their innocence. And they're so ashamed, but there's
nothing they can do about it. They tried sowing fig leaves
together, didn't they? Did those fig leaves do any good?
They didn't, did they? Those fig leaves did nothing
to take away their guilt and their shame. I know that so because
when God came walking in the cool of the evening, what'd they
do? They hid. They hid in the bushes. Well,
if the fig leaves had done the job, they wouldn't need to hide
in the bushes, would they? The fig leaves didn't take away their
guilt. The fig leaves couldn't cover
their nakedness because the problem wasn't the nakedness of their
body. It was the nakedness of their soul. Those fig leaves
could never take away their guilt. And those fig leaves, you know
this, are a picture of their works. Their works could never
take away their guilt. Those fig leaves are a picture
of our works under the law. Those fig leaves are our own
righteousness, and they're cursed. The only thing The Lord Jesus
ever cursed during his earthly ministry was a fig tree. Those
leaves that are a picture of our works of righteousness, they're
cursed. Our works of righteousness are
filthy rags. Our works of righteousness are
just more sin. Well, more sin can't take away
the guilt of past sin, can it? All our good deeds do is add
to our guilt and add to our shame. Because we became guilty when
Adam sinned. When did we become guilty? The
first time you lied to your mama? No. We became guilty in the garden. Every one of us here became guilty
in the garden. And here's proof of that. Adam
is the federal head of everybody who ever came from him. That
includes Eve. God didn't make Eve from the
dust of the ground. He made Adam from the dust of the ground.
God put Adam asleep and took a rib out and made Eve out of
Adam. She came from Adam. Adam is Eve's
federal head. Here's the proof. What happened
when the serpent beguiled Eve and she ate the fruit? Absolutely nothing. Nothing happened. When did Eve realize she was
naked? Not when she ate the fruit. Eve realized she was naked when
her federal head ate the fruit. Then she realized she was naked.
When did Eve become a sinner? Not when she took the fruit,
when her federal head took the fruit. She became guilty. The
same thing happened to you and me. Adam is our federal head
just like he's Eve's federal head. Eve became a sinner when
Adam sinned, just like you and me. We became sinners when Adam
sinned because Adam is the federal head of the whole human race. Let me just answer this question
because it's probably in somebody's mind. It's useless to try to
figure out what would have happened to Eve if Eve had only ate the
fruit and Adam never did. It's an exercise in futility.
We know this. God would have handled the situation
right. Whatever he'd done would have been right and that's all
we need to know. But trying to figure out what would have happened
to Eve, you know, why did Adam, why did he take the, Adam took
that fruit and open rebellion against God. That's why he took
the fruit. No other reason. Trying to figure out what would
have happened. What would God have done? You know, what would
have happened if Eve hadn't ate the fruit? What would have happened if Adam...
All that is is a smokescreen. Now, be warned. All that is is
a smokescreen. It's Satan's smokescreen to get
our minds off the real point. The real point is this. Federal
headship. Representation. That's the point. The point we must learn from
the garden is you and I became sinners when Adam fell. We became
sinners, we became guilty in Adam. Look at Romans chapter
5. I want you to take my word for that. I want you to see that
in God's word. That's exactly what happened here in the garden. When Adam fell, we all became
guilty before God and we have received a sin nature directly
from our father Adam. He's the father of us all. Romans
5 verse 12, wherefore is by one man, just by Adam, sin entered
into the world and death by sin. So death passed upon all men
for that all have sinned. And you see that if you got to
Cambridge, it's got a little number four there, literally
translated that is in whom all sin. We all sinned in Adam just
as real as if we'd actually been there and took that fruit. Look
at 1 Corinthians 15. Verse 21. For since by man came
death, By man came also the resurrection
of the dead. For as in Adam, all die." Every
human being spiritually died in Adam. And we'll come back
to this even so in Christ shall be made alive in just a minute.
When Adam sinned, the whole human race died. But now this is a
spiritual death. Adam lived for 900 years after
this. He didn't instantly die physically,
did he? And you know that's exactly what
God promised him would happen. Look back in Genesis 2 verse
17. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Dying, thou shalt
die. Adam, the day you eat that fruit,
you will instantly die spiritually. And you will begin to die naturally,
fleshly. And every one of us are born
spiritually dead. Unless the Lord returns, somebody's
going to lay everybody here in the ground. We're embarrassed
because we died. Because we're just like our father,
Adam. That's how death came in this
world. And that's the nature that we
receive from Adam. Now I'll give you an example.
When we say spiritually dead, now I mean dead. I mean we went
all the way to the bottom. We went as far away from God
as we could go. This is why the theory of evolution
cannot be true. Man didn't begin at the bottom,
he's working his way up. It's so obvious man began at
the top and he fell all the way to the bottom. I mean just as
far from God as he can go. In Mexico, now I've seen these
things. There are Mayan ruins that are 3,000 years old. They're
still there. You can walk on them. You can
climb on them. They're just as sturdy as they were 3,000 years
ago. It's just utterly amazing to
me. These people were brilliant. They've got brilliance I don't
understand. You know what they've got carved
into that rock? Idols. They've got carved into
that rock things that they worshipped. And there are quite a few of
them. kind of dominant thing. I don't even know what you call
him, you know, but there he is and they worshiped him. He's
on everything. But you know what you also see in those ruins?
A feathered serpent. That's the form Satan was supposed
to have taken when he deceived Eve. These people who were so
brilliant, what were they worshiping? The opposite of God. That's how
far you and I fell, as far away from God as is possible. Our nature is the complete opposite
of God in every way. That's the nature that we received
from Adam. Now, before you go running off
screaming into the night, let me give you some good news. Federal
headship representation doesn't stop with Adam. Thank God, there's another Adam. There's a second Adam. There's
another federal head. The garden, look back again at
Romans chapter five. The garden does teach us how
sin came into the world. But the garden teaches us more
than that. You see, we have to know how we're made sinners before
we can ever know how we're made righteous. We didn't make ourselves
sinners and we can't make ourselves righteous. We have to know how
it is we became sinners before we can ever understand how it
is that God forgives sin. And God forgives the sin of His
people in the second federal head, in the second Adam. God
makes His people righteous in the second federal head, in Christ
the second Adam. Romans 5 verse 15, but not as
the offense, so also is the free gift. For through the offense
of one, many be dead, much more. The grace of God and the gift
by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto
many. And as it was by one that sinned,
so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense doth
reign by one, much more, they which receive abundance of grace,
and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ." See, this is the second Adam, the second Pharaoh. Therefore,
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.
Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, every one that Adam represented was
made a sinner in him, by his sin. So by the obedience of one,
shall many be made righteous. By the obedience of Christ, everyone
he represented is made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by the second federal head, by Jesus Christ our Lord. In the garden we see federal
headship. And the last thing we see in
the garden, the last thing that happened in the garden, or at
least the last thing that happened we'll deal with, is the first gospel
message was preached in the Garden of Eden by God himself. 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. I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
Now this is God talking to Satan. This is the curse that God pronounced
upon the serpent because that's the form that Satan took. And
this is the promise of Satan's destruction. This is God's word
to Satan. But it was made where Adam and Eve could hear him.
This is the first promise of the Savior. It was a promise
of destruction to Satan. but a promise of salvation to
Adam. This is how God's gonna remove
sin. This is how God's gonna remove the power of sin and the
condemnation of sin. It's by woman seed, the woman
seed. There's a man coming who's gonna
be born of a woman. And that man, Satan's gonna go
to battle with him. Satan will bruise his heel. Satan
will bruise his humanity, just the lowest part. That's about
as high up as a serpent can reach, what's crawling around his belly,
isn't it? That heel will be bruised because this second Adam, he's
gonna suffer and die as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. He's
gonna die a cursed death. The death of the cross is a cursed
death. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
upon a tree. He's gonna die bearing the curse
of the sin of his people. I've told you this before, when
a person was crucified, by the time they died, their heel was
bruised. They'd nail their feet to the
cross It stretched them out in that cross, and when they couldn't
breathe, they'd push up on those nails and get a breath and slump
back down. And they'd push up. So often,
by the time they died, their heel was bruised. This was a promise that Christ
was going to be crucified, bearing the curse of the sin of his people. His heel will be bruised. He's
going to suffer. He's going to die. But he's going
to crush Satan's head. He's going to crush Satan's power
to do anything. When sin's put away, Satan's powerless, isn't
he? He'll never again do anything
to harm any of God's elect. See, this is the difference in
the two Adams. The first Adam, he tried to cover his sin and
his shame, didn't he? The second Adam comes and removes
the sin of his people by taking their sin away and washing them
in his blood and making them not guilty in him. Now, verse
16. Under 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. Now, you ladies are very well
acquainted with this curse that women suffer in bringing forth
children, and I know you're very well acquainted with it. But
this goes deeper than that. This is the message of the gospel.
And when we preach the gospel, we've got to preach the curse
of sin. We're cursed under the curse of sin. But we also must
declare how does God remove that curse from his people? And that's
what the Savior is declaring here. I know you think it's a curse,
what you go through, you know, to bring forth children and things,
but I'm telling you, this is grace to the woman. This is God's
kindness to the woman. The woman was the first to sin. And by woman, the Savior's coming. What mercy, what kindness God
showed. The seed of woman is coming.
And he's not gonna be the seed of Adam. If he was a seed of
Adam, he'd partake in Adam's sin. If he's a seed of Adam,
he'd receive Adam's nature. So he can't be the seed of Adam. He must be the seed of a woman.
He must be born of a virgin. So he's not in the line of Adam.
This man who's coming, who's gonna be born of a virgin, a
real man now, gonna be born of a virgin, is the Son of God. This man is holy and righteous
because he's God. He's able to take the sin of
his people away because he's the perfect Lamb of God, offered
as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. He's the sinless
sacrifice. And because He's sinless, because
His blood is pure from sin, He's able to wash His people white
as snow. Because He's God. He's righteous. He perfectly obeyed God's law. And when He perfectly obeyed
God's law, He made everyone in Him perfect. Perfectly righteous. Now we were made sinners in Adam. Isn't that right? Not because
of what we did. because of what Adam did. I didn't
do anything to make myself a sinner. I became guilty in Adam. Everyone
Christ represented is made righteous in Him, not because of what you
did, because of what He did as your representative. What Adam
did, the whole human race did. In Adam, we sinned. In Adam,
we became guilty. What the second Adam did, everyone
in him did. Look back at 1 Timothy chapter
2 again. The Lord Jesus Christ walked
this earth and he obeyed God's law perfectly. If he represented
you, you did too. Every time God's law said thou
shalt not and he didn't, you didn't either. Every time God's
law said thou shalt and he did, you did too. Every time he was
obedient, all his obedience is your obedience before God. He's
the seed of woman. And when he died, he represented
you. You died to the law in him. The
law's not looking for you anymore. The law's not looking to punish
anyone for whom Christ died because his death already satisfied God's
law. I hear you say it. Physically,
you're alive, aren't you? But in Christ, you died. The
law's not looking for you. God's justice is not looking
for you. And all this because of the seed of woman. 1 Timothy
2, verse 14. Adam was not deceived, but the
woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding,
she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and
charity and holiness and sobriety. Now, women, I say this out of
arm's reach of all of you, that pain of childbirth is something
else. Men ought not talk about the
pain of childbirth if I've learned that over the course of time.
That child, that pain of childbirth, that's not what saves you. Now,
I know it's something, I'll grant you. But that pain, as great
as it is, doesn't put away one of your sins. Not one. What's
the apostle saying here? You're saved by the seed of woman.
Woman is gonna give birth to the perfect, holy son of God,
who's the second Adam, to save his people from their sins. Salvation's
in him, the seed of woman. God promised that in the garden.
That's what we have in the first gospel message in the garden.
I look back there at 17, chapter three, verse 17. God goes on
here speaking to Adam. Unto Adam, he said, because thou
hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of
the tree, 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. The horns also and thistles
shall 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 dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Now this is
the curse that men suffer for Adam's sin. You wonder why it's
hard to make a living? You wonder why it's hard to make
ends meet? The garden. And after a hard life, sin makes
it hard to make a living. And after a hard life, we're
going to die and return to the dust from which we're made. Always
remember this. People are just dust. Now we're
just a pile of dust and a pile of dust is going to crumble under
the least weight, just like Adam did. But now God's not finished
with that first gospel message yet. After he shows Adam the
result of his sin, he shows him the curse of sin, God gives Adam
a picture of how God is going to remove sin. Look at verse
21. And to Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothed them. The first blood shed on earth
was shed because of sin. The first blood shed on earth
was shed to cover the shame, the guilt of Adam and Eve. That
animal died so Adam would live. That animal died so Adam's nakedness
could be covered. And this animal is a picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died under the curse of God's
law. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. And the Lord
Jesus Christ fully removed the curse of sin. All this curse
that's pronounced in Genesis chapter 3, Christ removed it
all. He removed it all by suffering
for it. It's our substitute. Christ suffered
the travail pains of birth. He didn't have any stillborn
children. He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Christ suffered all of man's
sorrow. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief because
he was made sin for his people. He suffered all the grief and
all the sin of sorrow that the sin of his people caused. He
bore it all. Christ suffered the curse of
these thorns. He wore a crown of thorns as he died, showing
us he's bearing the curse of his people. That's why he's dying.
Christ suffered the curse of sweat just at the thought of
going to the cross, just the thought of being made sin, just
the thought of having his father turn his back on him, made him
sweat as it were great drops of blood. And the Lord Jesus Christ died.
Now, he didn't suffer corruption because sin was gone, but he
died. And he laid in the grave, fully removing the curse of sin
for his people. So that if he died for you, you'll
never die. Because he rose again for your
justification. And in Christ, we stand before
God clothed, our soul is clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
Now, don't think of Christ's righteousness as a covering.
It's just like a robe, you know, you wear to put over top and
the dirt's all still there. You just got it hidden, you know.
No. In Christ, we're made righteous. Just like in Adam, we're made
sinners. In Christ, we're made righteous. We stand fully accepted
in the presence of the Father, in full fellowship with God,
because we're made what Christ is. Just like the Father accepts
the Son, he accepts everyone in the Son. Every human being
was made to be what Adam is, and every one of God's elect
is made what Christ is, perfectly righteous. That's the story of
the garden. The garden is the story of Christ,
isn't it? That's why I told you in the
lesson that the Bible is not a history book, a science books,
not written to explain all these things people want to talk about.
The Bible is the story of Christ and what happened in the garden
is the story of the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam, who
fully removed the sin of his people. All right, let's bow
in prayer. Our father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you for your wisdom,
and your mercy, and your grace, and your love to your people,
and the salvation of our souls. That you would, in goodness that's
beyond our comprehension, send your Son to suffer and die for
the sins of your people. Father, such a salvation could
never be conceived by fallen flesh. It's only in your wisdom
and your goodness and your infinite mercy to your people. And we
thank you for revealing your son to us. We'd never seen him,
we'd never loved him, we'd never believed him unless you sent
him to our hearts and said, let there be light. And Father, I
pray that you bless your word this morning. Bless your word
to your glory and bless it to the hearts of your people. Reveal
yourself to us through the preaching of your gospel, we pray. Let
us leave here worshiping and rejoicing in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name and for the
glory of his name, we pray and we do give thanks.