Good evening. If you would, turn
with me to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2. Now as we
read our scripture reading, Galatians 3.13 says, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law being
made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. So the title of the message is
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. If you
have Genesis chapter two, look down here, we'll start in
Genesis 2.22. Chapter two, verse 22. Actually, it was verse 21. We'll
start in verse 21. Now, we know the first couple
three-verse chapters of Genesis. We're pretty familiar with it.
And what you have is God's creation, and everything that He created
was for our Lord, Jesus Christ. And our Lord, He tells us here
in verse 21, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam.
And he slept. And he took one of his ribs and
closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God
had taken from man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man."
Now what we see here, we know that Adam is a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And when we see him, Adam laying
there asleep, it's a picture of Christ being dead. and God
taking and cutting his side and reaching in there and pulling
that rib out and he makes a woman and he gave her to Adam. This
is a picture of the church being born out of Christ when he hung
on the cross and that centurion stuck a knife, a sword in his
side to see if he was dead and out come blood and water. But with his death, his church
was born, the New Age church, the one that was founded on faith
and not a covenant of works like the first church was. And Adam said, this is now bone
of my bones, verse 23, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called
woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man
leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife,
and they shall be one flesh. That's the point here, that they
should be one flesh. A picture of our Lord in His
church. He's the head, and we make up the body, and we are
complete in Him. And verse 25 says that they were
both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Here they were, standing there
naked, not ashamed, because they had no sin in their flesh. They had not sinned, and their
union was an innocent, a beautiful marriage. Now we go right here
to chapter 3. I want to talk about the curses
today, which they come along here, verses 14. But I don't
want to skip over these things here in the first part because
there's some important things to go with the message here.
So I'll start reading and we'll comment as we get there. Genesis
3-1, 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, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the
garden? And the woman said to 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 hath said, Ye shall
not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye
shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Now this tree, it's a picture of God's holy
law. Without the law, there's no knowledge
of sin. And when they eat this tree,
what's the first thing they see? Sin in themselves. The tree of
the knowledge of good and evil is a picture of the law. Now, here in verse 3, the woman
She seems to add a little bit of something here and take a
little something away, but I think I clear this up here. Turn with
me to Exodus chapter 19. Exodus chapter 19. God, He told them, the day you
eat thereof, you shall surely die. And she added that you're
not to touch it. Well, I believe this is her speaking
about the law. I think she understands what
this tree is because of who wrote this book. Moses wrote the first
five books of the Bible. And he was very acquainted with
the law. He was the one who gave it. God gave it to him and he
came down off the mountain and gave it to the children of Israel. We got Exodus 19, look at verse
12. We'll read a couple verses here
and then we'll skip on down to the end of the chapter, read
a couple more. Now, here in Exodus 19, The children of Israel are
at Mount Sinai. God given Moses the law, and
he's given commandments about people coming to this mountain. Verse 12, he says, and thou shalt
set bounds unto the people round about saying, take heed to yourselves
that you go not up into the mount or touch the border of it. Whosoever
toucheth the mount shall surely be put to death. There shall
not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through. Whether it be beast or man, it
shall not live. When the trumpet soundeth long,
they shall come up to the mount." Now, right now it appears that
they are going to come up to this mount. But skip on down
to verses 23 and 24. The people were scared to death,
as Moses was. He said, he trembled exceedingly. He was very scared. And in verse
23, it says, Moses said unto the Lord, the people cannot come
up to the mount, for thou chargest, saying, set bounds about the
mount and sanctify it. And the Lord said unto him, Away,
get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with
thee. But let not the priests and the
people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break
forth upon them. I believe Moses was speaking
under the, obviously under the instruction of the Holy Spirit.
But he put that, the Holy Spirit had him put that, don't touch
it. So that we would know that they're talking about the law.
This is what this is about. That tree is the law. And here
we see the law in the garden. You got the tree of life, that's
Christ. Eat that, you live forever. We
take Christ, he is, all life exists in him. But that law was
there in the garden. Let's go back to Genesis chapter
3 now. Verse 6 says, 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. This is typical of the Jewish
church in the Old Testament where you had the Pharisees. They were trying to get righteousness.
They thought they were getting righteousness by keeping the
law. They put themselves under the
law and they thought they would gain some kind of righteousness
by keeping it. And that's what she's doing here.
Satan said, God knows the day you eat thereof, your eyes are
going to be open. You're going to be like him. When you see people in works
religion trying to keep the law, they're trying to let you know
how holy they are. They're trying to hide their
sin by their works. But she ate this fruit. She took
of the fruit and did eat. And she sinned. and gave also
unto her husband with her, and he did eat." Now, many of us
Gentiles, I guess you might call us Gentiles, we were never under
the law, the works of the law. That covenant was made with the
Jewish nation. And a lot of people I've heard
say, well, I'm not under the law. But well, you're under the
curse of the law. That's the problem. We're not
under the law. were under the curse of the law. Look with me
at 1 John 3, 1 John 3 verse 4. There was no law given. People
say, I've heard them say, well, Adam and Eve, they sinned before
the law was given. I'm like, okay, well, You got
1 John 3, 4, look here. Whosoever commit a sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. She
put herself under the law by committing sin. What is this?
The law is just there to tell you you're a sinner. Death and
condemnation, that's the only thing that law is there to do,
is just to give us a knowledge of sin. She sinned, she took
the fruit, and she put herself under the curse of the law. Now let's go back to Genesis
chapter three. Verse six. So she takes the fruit, she eats
it, And she gave it to her husband. It says, and gave also unto her
husband with her. He was right there with her.
In a picture of Christ, he is always with us. He says he'll
never leave us. He's always with us. And he did eat. Notice how quickly he ate this
fruit. He was with her. He may have
even heard what that Satan said to her. But he knew full well
what he was doing. He knew. And he took this fruit,
and this is a picture of our Lord taking our sin upon himself. That's what he did. We sinned,
and he comes immediately, and he takes our sin and puts it
on himself. And that's what this is a picture
of here with Adam. Let's look at verse 7. And 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, here they are. Their eyes are open. They're
under the law, under the curse of the law. Under the curse of
the law, we're to die. He who sinneth must die. Well,
they heard the voice of the Lord in the garden. And to cool the
day, and Adam hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
amongst the trees of the garden. Now, in eternity past, sometime
in eternity past, You have the triune God. They purposed all
of creation. Not only did he purpose the creation
of man, he purposed the fall of man. Satan didn't sneak in
the garden. God let him in that garden. He
had one purpose and he did it. He tempted them into sin. Now, our Lord Picture him now. We have his creation, all for
him. Man sins. And Adam, like I said,
how quickly Adam took that fruit. Okay? Our Lord is the Son of
God and he sat on the throne before all of this creation was
created. Notice with what's said here
next in verse 9. And the Lord God called unto
Adam, or Christ, and said unto him, Where art thou? It's as
if when she sinned, the Lord got right up right now off His
throne and condescended down here to this earth for His darling
bride to cover her sin. It's so fast as if He didn't
even say goodbye to God the Father, and God the Father's like, Where
art thou? Where art thou? Now let's look
at what he says here in verse 10. He said, I heard thy voice
in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked. Picture, if you would, the Lord
Jesus Christ taking our sin, and now he's having a conversation
with God. He's saying, I was afraid. The word means revered. He revered
God, and now he's got this sin on him, and you do not stand
in the presence of God as a sinner, you'll die. When he hung on the
cross, remember he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? When all of our sin was put on the Lord Jesus Christ, it
was really applied to him. He really did have all of our
sin on him. And he was said that he was afraid,
he revered God. And he was afraid because he
had all this sin. Now he's got all this sin and
he hid himself. And he said in verse 11, he says,
who told you he was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? God's all knowing. He's asking a loaded question,
right? God knows the answer to all these questions. When I was
a little boy, my mom would make noodles. And she'd get this sheet
out, lay it out on the countertop, and she'd make the dough. And
she'd roll out them noodles, roll them up, cut them, and then
she'd leave them all strung out to dry on this sheet. Uncooked
dough. I don't know what was in it.
Surely raw eggs. Probably not very smart to be
eating, but little Jason would always want to eat something,
right? Every time I walked by, take
me two or three noodles, right on down the rack. Well, there
were hundreds of them out here. I didn't think she'd miss any
of them, but mom didn't miss a thing. Jason, did you eat the
noodles that I put on that? Now, I didn't have the backbone
that Adam had. No, I didn't eat them noodles.
But I'm sure I must have had flour all over me or down my
shirt or something. But mom always, you know, they
asked loaded questions. They know the answer when they
ask the question. And this was God. He knew the
answer. This was his purpose. And look at verse 12 at what
he said. And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be
with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. The woman whom
thou gavest me. That's right. God gave him that
church. God chose his elect, and he put
him in Christ. He gave him to Christ. God's
elect. That's what he's saying here.
The woman you gave me, she gave me of the tree, Nothing illegal. That wasn't against the commandment
of God. You're just not to eat it, right? And I did eat. Notice, our Lord never said anything
to God about her eating that fruit. He never once mentioned
what she did. Now, as a little kid, I probably
would have said to my mom, my brother did it. He ate some too,
right? Adam didn't do that. Our Lord's
not gonna throw us under the bus. He came down here and He
took our sin and put it on Himself. He did such a quality job. There's no sin on us. God does
not see our sin because He punished it in Christ. Verse 13. And the Lord God said, back to verse 12, I'm sorry.
And the man said, the woman who now gave it to me, gave it to
me, gave me of the tree and I did eat. When he said, I hid myself, what that word hid myself is
the Hebrew word that that's coming from means to hide as in the bosom. That is to cherish with affection
or love. I said, where are you at? I hid
myself. We are in Christ. And picture him hiding from God
because God, the justice of God must be served. The wrath of
God's coming down. The law says you must die. He's
going to die. Somebody's going to die. But the Lord's sitting
there with his darling bride in his bosom. And he says, I
ate it. He's standing between God And
Adam, the woman, sinners, not even telling God about what we
did, but he loves us so much. We're in his bosom. And he says,
I did eat. Again, did not mention her eating
it. Not once did he mention it, but
God knows everything. God knows all things. And here
in verse 13, The Lord God said to the woman, what is this that
thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent
beguiled me and I did eat. Both of them told the truth.
I don't see any lie in here and there's no sense to lie to God.
He knows everything. He knows everything. You might
as well Go ahead and tell him what you've done, no matter how
embarrassed that you are to even pray the words out. He knows
you better than you do." And she didn't lie. She told him,
the serpent beguiled me. It means led me astray, the word
beguiled. The serpent led her astray. And she did eat. She did eat. Now, God's going to pass out
four curses here. Three of them go to the woman,
the serpent, and Satan, and one to the ground for man's sake. Here we start in 14. In 14 and
15, we're going to deal with the serpent and Satan. The Lord God said to the serpent,
verse 14, 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. I've always thought that the
snake at one point had legs. And God removed his legs. But
I was reading some commentary and somebody had mentioned, I
think it was John Gill, but they mentioned that this snake might
have had wings. And I'm thinking, huh, he would
be more like a picture of Satan, wouldn't he? And God, usually
Satan fell. The angel, he was an angel. And
it's like God clipped his wings. We had a parakeet when I was
a kid. My mom would open that gate on the cage and that parakeet
would just sit there. It wouldn't fly because the wings
were clipped. All you do is cut a little bit
off their wings and they can't fly. I think this snake had wings
because he was cast down to the earth to slither around on his
belly. And then Job God asked Satan
where he'd been. He said, going to and fro in
the earth. Now you and me, we walked straight. Picture that snake going to and
fro, back and forth as he goes slithering around on his belly. He going to eat dust the rest
of his life. Satan got cursed. And he said in verse 15, I'm
going to put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed. And it shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel. Here we have the first mention
of a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the woman's seed. God's always
put enmity between their snake and man. When you see one, you
just kind of get creeped out, don't you? I see snakes around
my house, black snakes, apparently they're good to have. They eat
mice and little things, keep them out of your house, but I
still don't like them. If I'm mowing grass and I see
them going through the grass, it gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Why? God put an enmity in me. I am against that snake. I cannot
stand snakes. Most people feel the same way. Now, here in 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
have rule over thee. We have the word sorrow written
here twice. The first one, he says, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow. That means worrisomeness. That's
the Hebrew word worrisomeness. All this is talking about the
pains of pregnancy and the worry. A lot of people died in childbirth
back then. A lot of people died in childbirth.
But the second sorrow means earthen vessel. You see, up until now,
the only conception that they were familiar with was Eve being
born out of Adam. And God's saying here to her,
She did not ask her husband for advice. She just decided to do
that on her own, to listen to the snake. She told Satan exactly
what God said. She knew, but she did it. She thought she wanted to be
like God. She wanted to be like God and
no good and evil. And God says, from now on, we're
not gonna do conception like we did with you. From now on,
because you did not seek advice from your husband, you're gonna
be the one to conceive, and that baby's gonna grow inside your
belly. About 40 weeks is a pregnancy. And that baby grows and grows,
and if that baby's not delivered, you can imagine that baby is
wanting out of there, and so is mom. She's wanting that baby
out. She's in a terrible amount of
pain. But this is a picture of regeneration. This birth that
he's talking to him about, you're gonna sorrow. with your regeneration. You died spiritually when they
ate this fruit. He said you shall die. They did
die. They died spiritually. But God's telling them here.
He's making a promise of the Spirit being put back in you.
You see, this Spirit, when God saves us, He brings
the Holy Spirit to us and creates that new life in us. And there's a painful thing about
this. We'll compare it to the pregnancy.
What do most women have when they're pregnant? Morning sickness.
There's just some things you just can't stand to eat. The
thought of certain foods makes you sick. Regeneration, this
new spirit living in you and this flesh, this sinful flesh.
They don't get along, do they, Dave? cannot stand each other. The things you used to like to
eat when you're pregnant, and you can't. Allison was a McRib. They come out with a McRib, she
ate one, and it just made her sick. And to this day, when they
mention it, her stomach turns. But as a regenerate person with
a new spirit in them, the things you used to like, the course
of this world that we used to walk around in with Satan, we
just can't stand them things anymore, can we? This new person
in me can't stand my sinful self. I'm sick of me, and at some point,
God is gonna rip this body off of me, and that spirit's gonna
grow on and be with him, And this old sinful flesh is going
back in the ground where it came from. That's what they're talking
about here. It's regeneration, regeneration. And thy desire shall be to thy
husband. When we read the next verse,
this will make more sense, but Adam's getting, the ground is
going to be cursed for him, which means he's going to have to go
out and work or they don't eat. At this point in the garden,
we don't know how long they were there, but they had it made. They're just laying around, sitting
around. If they decide they're hungry,
all they do is reach up on the tree and eat. There's no work
to get this food. It's there. It's paradise. God made this for them. And they
lost it. Now, he tells her, your desire
is going to be to your husband because your husband is not going
to be there. But we'll get to that in a second.
And he shall have rule over thee. She decided she didn't need to
ask him what he thought about what Satan told her. She chose
to do that on her own. And God says, because you did
that, Your husband will now have rule over you. He's over you. You will go to Him for all of
your needs, just like we do with Christ. He is our husband. We're the church. We're His people,
His chosen people. And we go to Him for all of our
needs, for all of our spiritual needs, for all of our earthly
needs. When you're hurting and you're
just wanting someone to love you, You just get in this book
and you see how much love our Lord had towards us. He gave
himself for us, and there's no greater show of love than that. Now, 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 or on account of
what you did. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shalt
it bring to thee and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return
into the ground for out of it was thou taken for dust thou
art and unto dust shalt thou return. Adam was uniquely cursed. His
curse was for him specifically, even though it affected others.
His curse also had an ending. The woman, the serpent, and Satan,
the curse is still there. And us regenerate men who are
the bride of Christ's regeneration, we still have that curse. We're
part of that curse. But God says to him, because
you hearkened, and to the voice of your wife. The word hearkened is from a
Hebrew word that means to hear intelligently. You see, he knew. He knew the word of God. He knew what God said. And when
he took that fruit, he did it willingly. He had an intelligent
mind and he was using it there. Now, he's telling him because
he did that, cursed is the ground for thy sake. What I've read
from some of these old writers, they believed that Adam was actually
out digging and planting with his hands. He didn't have any
tools. He'd dig with his hands and he'd
carry the water. to the plants. He really had
to work hard. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
5. Let's get on to this curse being removed here. Look down
at verses 28 and 29. Genesis 5, 28. And Lamech lived 182 years and
begat a son, and he called his name Noah, saying, this saying
shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because
of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." Here's a prophecy
from Noah's father. God spoke through him here. He
says, this son is named Noah. He's gonna do something that's
gonna bring this curse to an end. Now look at Genesis chapter
8. Genesis chapter 8, verses 20 and 21. And Noah built an altar unto
the Lord. First of all, this was after
the flood, when they come off the boat. They're down there
on the ground now. Everybody's back on dirt. And Noah built an altar to the
Lord. And took of every clean beast
and of every clean fowl and offered a burnt offerings on the altar.
And the Lord smelled a sweet savor. And the Lord said in his
heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's
sake. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his
youth. Neither will I again smite any
more every living thing as I have done." Noah brought a sacrifice. We know this wasn't the first
sacrifice since the fall. Cain and Abel brought sacrifices.
Many people were bringing sacrifices. But God accepted this one. He had a blood sacrifice. and
it satisfied God. He says it was a sweet smelling
savor. That means a smell of rest and
comfort. It pleased God that this sacrifice
was made after he had destroyed everyone outside of Christ. Whoever
was in Christ in that ark was spared. They were saved. But
it pleased God now to lift this curse He says, I'll never smite again
anymore every living thing as I have done for the imagination
of man's heart evil from his youth. If God was to punish sin
like he did, he would have to destroy the earth all day long
every day because of the amount of sin that is in mankind. We read in Galatians 3 how it
said, Christ hath redeemed us from the law, being made a curse
for us. For as it's written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. This curse of Adam's, the ground
was cursed for his sake. When our Lord Jesus Christ came
down to this earth, Isaiah 53 tells us plainly, He was a man
of sorrows. We esteemed Him smitten and stricken
of God. His time here on this earth,
His incarnation, was not a real pleasant one. He came here to
die for our sins. He came here to be judged by
the law. You see, when He took that fruit
that His bride had taken, He put himself under the law. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, a body was prepared for him. He was born
of a woman, made under the law. The only difference is he kept
the law. There was no sin found in him.
But God, just like that Passover lamb when he said, you put it
up for seven days and you watch it. It can't have one spot. It can't have one blemish on
it. And that's what the law did with our Lord Jesus Christ. Even
Satan tempted him 40 days in the wilderness. The law watched
him. Pilate said, I can find no fault
in him. Herod said the same thing. There
were centurions there during the crucifixion that said, surely
this was the Son of God. Now, the ground we know, the
earth, was cursed for Christ's sake. When he came here, it was
a curse. But how? When we read that he was made
a curse for us, we read that it says, for as it is written,
cursed is every man that hangeth from a tree. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was hung up on that cross, on that tree. The curse goes like this. The
earth does not want this man. He's cursed. The earth don't
want him. You can't bury him. He's dead.
You can't bury him because he's cursed. The earth don't want
him. Hang him up on that tree. And it's also saying heaven don't
want him either. He's dead. he should be buried. But he's cursed of God. Hanging
on that tree, so everyone can see, the curse. You see, he came here to die
for our sins. And hanging up on that tree,
we see him dead. We know that God's justice was
served. And now, When God sees, He says
to take them down off that cross before, you don't leave them
up there all night. You take them down off that cross.
That's a picture of the curse being removed and buried. Take that curse off my people.
Christ was made a curse for us. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for as it's written,
everyone that hangeth on a tree." He hung on that tree as accursed
by God and he took him down in the daylight so everybody could
see it. He come down showing that the
sacrifice was accepted. The God had a sweet smelling
savor in that sacrifice and he lifted the curse for the rest
of us. Our Lord Jesus Christ took our sins upon himself and
he covered ours. We imputed our sin to him and
he died on the cross. And when he took our sin away
from us and covered it, what did he cover us with? They put
on fig leaves. He covered them with His righteousness.
There's no more curse if you're in Christ. The curse has been
lifted. Praise God. All right, we're
done. Mike, come lead us into closing
in.