Truth & Consequences

Good morning. Before we proceed into the passage that Courtney read for us here, just a couple things to bring to your attention. We're going to let you have a Sunday off from Supplemental handouts. None this week. So you can rest easy on that one. If you have this habit of reaching for papers as you go out the door, that's okay. It's alright. But we're going to back off on that.

The other thing is the announcement slide that he had about this coming annual family meeting. I just would encourage you to consider that and take that in and sign up for it. We're going to be doing some things a little bit different from anything you might have seen in the past. So anyway, just an encouragement on that part. One other thing, and that is a little over a month ago, we gave you a Bible puzzle.

And just people were free to work on it. You know, it's not too often we give quizzes around here, but this is the closest thing we've got. And the question we asked, there are four ways that humans have come into being on this earth. Each one of those four ways was given or at least implied in the second and third chapters of Genesis. Three of those only happened once.

And so we give you the answer here. Adam was created from the dust. That happened only once. Eve was created from Adam's own flesh and bone. That only happened once. And then thirdly, the Lord Jesus Christ, born of a virgin birth, only happened once.

The fourth one is the way all other people are born. So anyway, there's the answer. Now, last Sunday we embarked on Genesis chapter 3, verse 7 verses. And so today we're going to proceed on into the passage that Courtney read for us. As we do, we looked at the sequence that the Lord presented here in that passage.

From the serpent to Eve to Adam was the sequence. It was the reverse of what should have been the created order, but what do you expect from the serpent? What we saw there was that Eve was deceived and Adam, well of course he said all sorts of things in protest, right? He objected vigorously. No, he caved in. without a word, without a whimper, without a peep.

And a key point, that as we look at the passage today, the truth will come out. God will spell out to the serpent and to Eve and to Adam all the consequences of this huge, massive tragedy. And yet, and yet, as we look at this passage, Let's keep our eyes open. God is going to begin to reveal in the midst of this passage. This is an unparalleled catastrophe, no doubt, and yet God's going to reveal, and you wonder why all these songs about grace, okay? He is going to reveal his infinite mercy and grace even on that very day in which Adam died spiritually, that is, became spiritually separated from God, okay? Infinite mercy and grace revealed during those. Now, I have to retell a story just to make sure the point gets across. What's the difference between mercy and grace? At first, they may sound like the same thing. They're not exactly. The way we illustrate it is this.

Suppose that you get pulled over by a policeman for going 65 miles an hour in the street in front of here. And if you're going that fast, you probably should be. You get pulled over in the street in front of Holly Hills here, going 65 miles an hour down the stretch of road where you're supposed to be going 30. Now, the policeman comes up to you and he says, that is going to get you a big whopping ticket.

And he writes out a ticket. No, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to do that. He's just going to let you go with a warning. Just a warning, he said. I'm going to withhold the consequences that you are due. That's mercy. Okay, here's grace. He comes up to you, walks up, he gives you the ticket, hands it to you, and much to your surprise, he meets you there in court. He pays the fine. And while he's writing out the check, that pays your fine. He says, Hey, it'd be great to get together with you for lunch. What are you doing for lunch? That's grace. Okay, that's grace.

And so we have those distinctions here. All right, let's take a look here. God's going to show this mercy and grace in spelling out the consequences right in the middle of this passage, we're going to see at least three Clear indications of mercy and grace. And I would suggest to you that there may even be more, but at least three indications of mercy and grace right in the midst of this passage. Right in the midst of what is, in truth, a very awful situation. Okay. God began his interaction with Adam, and then with Eve, and then with the serpent. Serpent, excuse me, serpent. With questions. How did he do that?

The interactions went like this, and you have this on page one of your handout. And what these are presented as is what we have explained before as a chiasm. A chiasm is, to give the illustration, it is a mirror image in written form, or in writing, where the beginning part and the ending part are a reflection of one another in mirror image form. Let's explain what we mean by that.

First, you have God speaks to Adam. How does he do so? With questions. At the end of speaking to the serpent and Adam and Eve, he speaks to Adam at the end and gives consequences. Right after beginning speaking to Adam, he talks to Eve and asks her a question. And then just before his final directive to Adam. He talks to Eve as well. Right in the middle of this, at the reflection point, if you will, of this mirror image, God speaks to the serpent.

He asks no questions, but does lay out consequences. And in the middle of laying out those consequences, also gives the promise of the Savior. So we're going to be taking a look at that passage here this morning. The center of this chiasm, that is the reflecting point, is there for emphasis. What's the emphasis here? The emphasis is on a Savior, born of a woman. We're going to see that here shortly.

Something else that is in your handout on page one is the covenants. We'll be stepping our way through these as we go through the book of Genesis. And we're now, with today's passage, entering into the second of the four covenants that show up here in the book of Genesis. And we showed, as we went through the Edenic Covenant, we showed this and that was in the fifth week of our study, the last Sunday in December. And that was all the things included in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the Book of Genesis. Alright? Now, today we're going to see what's sometimes called the Adamic Covenant.

It doesn't eliminate the original things that God said entirely, but what it does is it modifies them, gives additional or changed provisions. It spells out the consequences of sin beyond just simply separation from God. Here is what else it's going to mean, Adam and Eve and serpent. God is going to tell things to the serpent and also to Satan, what will be the consequences.

It will also have a consequence that will rely on God. That is the provision of the Savior. How about that? God will spell that out in the middle of this passage. A consequence to Eve having to do with her own desires, her childbearing, her relationship to her husband, Adam. And finally, to the ground or to the earth that was given to Adam to have a stewardship over, to have a responsibility over.

So those four things here. All right. One of the things he spells out, this is also on page one of your handout, is three blessings and three curses. The three blessings that show up in the first couple of chapters of Genesis, God had blessed the animals that he created, first did that. He blessed these couple of humans. in chapter 1 verse 28, and then he blessed the seventh day in which he rested, and in response to a question from Tristan here, it is not resting because God was exhausted, but it's resting because it's God ceasing from the works that he had done. It's God stopping the works, not stopping because he's just so tired that he can't go on. Once Adam sinned, God cursed three times, cursed the serpent, he cursed the ground, as we'll see in today's passage, and then next week he later cursed Cain, Adam and Eve's son, because Cain killed his own brother Abel. All right. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 3, verses 8 through 15. We'll start and step through these more or less one verse at a time.

In verse 8, they, that is Adam and Eve, heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Now, we're told that the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden here is what got their attention, and we aren't told what that sounds like.

I would be very interested to know what that sounds like. I don't know that I'll get a chance to, but that sounds curious to me. But we can be sure that prior to this time Adam and Eve would not have responded in this way by hiding. We have no indication that that happened before and certainly this seems to be the first time that they responded by hiding from the Lord.

The Hebrew word translated for cool in this verse also means wind or breeze. So it may have been just kind of a slight wind that came up in that typical part of the day. This may be possibly a clue as to what the sound of the Lord walking in the garden was like.

In truth, a lot of people have been trying in vain to hide from the Lord for a long time. And they use all kinds of means, all sorts of means to hide from the Lord. You know, have you ever seen kids that somehow get the illusion, you know, if they go like this, that you can't see them? You can't see me because my eyes are covered, right? And that's really kind of what it's like for Adam and Eve to hide behind a tree, as if that's going to do some good, as if the Lord can't really tell where they are, right?

But nonetheless, that's the response. Adam and Eve were trying to hide themselves from God, and that was a telling sign that there was a spiritual separation. This was a unique behavior. But it was exactly the behavior to expect if they were at this moment having a separation from God. It became quite evident at that point. On that very day that they had eaten from the tree that God had forbidden them to eat from.

Let's take a look at verse 9. Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? I'm not sure it sounded quite like that, but something. Take note, God called for who first? Adam. Adam was the one who was given first place of responsibility. He had been first created and told about, go ahead and eat of these, but not that. He had been given a responsibility of stewardship for his wife and for the entire earth.

Most certainly God was not asking, where are you? Because he didn't know. No, God was asking a question in order to bring Adam to think. Oh, this isn't a question God's had to say before. And notice, Adam doesn't respond by saying, I'm over here! No. Adam was actually a rank amateur at this hiding thing.

Because what does he do? He immediately comes out and starts talking. So, I don't know. This is a lousy game of hide and seek. Okay. Verse 10. He, that is Adam, said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself. How does that make any sense? Anyway, I heard the sound of you in the garden. He had heard the sound before, so that's not a problem. The problem is the next one, and I was afraid. That's not good. Why should Adam be afraid of God? Why should there be any fear at all? The fact that he was afraid, that should have told him something. Why should Adam be afraid of God at all?

Because I was naked. Uh-oh, the last verse of Genesis chapter 2 said that they were naked and not ashamed. Have you eaten from the tree? He said in verse 11. He, that is God, said, who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

Again, God asks questions. Isn't it interesting? God doesn't begin going kaboom, kaboom, kaboom. He begins asking questions and he's not done. He doesn't ask questions because he doesn't know, but he asks questions so that Adam and then Eve will begin thinking about the answers to those questions and realizing, making recognition of what God's point was. To see the source of the problems. To see the hidden dangers that are assigned to something very terrible that just happened. Verse 12, the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave from the tree and I ate.

Suddenly Adam becomes an expert. at pointing fingers. Oh, it's amazing how well that expertise develops. It is astounding. I am amazed and well, sort of impressed. I am astounded by how expert he gets so fast. You parents may have noticed your kids get expert too.

Anyway, it's the woman's fault. She gave me the fruit from the tree. It's God's fault. He let the tree be there. It's the tree's fault for being there. See there? Have you ever heard, look what you made me do? Is Adam doing a whole lot different? No. But boy, this is quite a shuffle. Adam was willing to admit just a small part of the blame. After everybody did everything else that they did to me, then I ate. I'm the fall guy in this whole mess, and everybody else who's involved messed up first. How do you like that story? Ever heard that before?

Verse 13, Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. Now, God only asks that question of the woman, and actually though she points blame at the serpent, she actually gives a more honest answer than all the answers that Adam gave. The serpent deceived me, and I ate. Did she realize she'd been deceived? Yeah. And as a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul agrees with her.

In 2 Corinthians 11.3 and in 1 Timothy 2.14, both of those passages, he says that Eve was deceived. So in fact, although Adam did a really good job at the blame game, Eve told the truth to the one question she was asked.

But God didn't ask any questions of the serpent at all. None whatsoever. Either as a created animal, or as the instrument of Satan himself. Not a one. This next verse, verse 14, God begins to spell out the consequences of Adam's sin. In each case, what you're going to see with the serpent, with Eve, and with Adam, there is a consequence to a life function for each of those, and a relationship consequence. Notice that. A life function and a relationship consequence for each one. Verse 14.

The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life. Now, verse 14 is certainly God's curse upon the serpent as an animal. And this is also an indication that the serpent likely did not crawl on the ground prior to this event.

This is a change. The eating dust is not so much that this would be the diet, actually, but it is a figure of speech that indicates you're going to be down on the ground right next to the earth, and that's exactly where you're going to be, and you'll eat of it all the days of your life. It rhymes with the meaning, on your belly you will go.

Let's look at verse 15. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. Now, verse 15 is not just the consequences of Satan's deception to Satan himself, but is in fact a prophecy regarding the woman.

Satan and God's gracious and merciful provision through Christ. Got that? Consequences to Satan. Consequences to the woman as God's instrument and God's provision of Christ If we look at and this is on page one of your handout there the Consequences God gave to the serpent included a curse for the serpent as a creature But also a prophecy about Satan who had used the serpent for his own selfish purposes Satan This prophecy says, would be given a wound that would put an end to his strategies. This is a wound to the head.

His strategies that would be used against us. Against you and me. God, however, had a strategy. And I mean strategy differently. It's not an attempt. It's what God carries out. Because he's not only all-knowing, but all-powerful. God's strategy would be to send a savior. who would be wounded for us. A wound would end Satan's strategy. The very strategy of God is to save us with a wound. A wound of our Lord. The Savior who would be wounded for us. It's the message of Isaiah 53 that we studied some months back.

Let's look at Genesis chapter 3 verses 16 through 19 here. To the woman, he said, in verse 16, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, and in pain you will bring forth children, yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.

There was apparently a level of sensation in childbirth anticipated before this point, even though we have no record of any children being born. But now it would be increased to a point of substantial pain. What we see also in this passage, there are vulnerabilities that the woman will have all the way along. From puberty to early pregnancy to the end of her days, there would be this vulnerability. Let's get practical. There would be vulnerability in the sense of hormone fluctuations and other bodily fluctuations. Various vulnerabilities in pregnancy. and resulting from the pregnancy and in bringing up the children. Vulnerability both physically and in deep emotions because of the woman's unique emotional connection to each one of those children that she bears.

All the rest of her days, as a matter of fact, in 1 Peter 3.7, Peter made reference to these multiple vulnerabilities of the woman.

And in that passage says that the husband is to live with her in an understanding way in the midst of these vulnerabilities. Look at what the Lord says in that passage. Yet your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. A great many of the interpretations of this passage are along the lines of just kind of a dictation. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.

And a lot of those translations, if you try to test them, as I say, interpretations, if you try to test them in quite that way, in some ways you say, well, wait a minute. I can think of circumstances where that doesn't quite fit. Maybe even in the Bible, you can find circumstances where it doesn't quite fit. I would suggest to you Then especially in view of what we'll see next week in Genesis 4-7, if we look at similar words and context and test them and say, okay, what understanding properly fits this?

That here is what is intended. That these areas of her heart and her relationships and her life would be areas of unstable passions and conflict and variability. That's what would now be introduced. That's what would now come about from this point forward. There will now be a tendency for her to struggle for her husband and his rule over her. It would be things like, Husband, I need for you to lead me. but you're not doing it the right way. Husband, I'd rather you weren't leading me right now. Husband, I want you to lead me, but a different way. Husband, not that different way. Okay?

That there would be struggle with this. It would be struggle in her desire for her husband because it would in one At one time and in one circumstance be a desire, at another time a loss of desire. Another time it would be, that's not quite the desire I had in mind. Variation and struggle in those areas, I believe are what he's describing here. There would now be tensions both within her and in her relationship with her husband. And these are very important and critical. Very central to a woman's thinking. but variable all over the place.

Let's take a look at verse 17. Then to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. And in verse 18, both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. Verse 19, by the sweat of your face you will eat bread till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Now wives, I have some good news for you. Verse 17 is not telling the husbands never to listen to their wives. It is not that the Lord is saying, don't ever listen to your wife, that's a problem.

It is specifically what she proposed and he did nothing about. That's the problem. It's his problem, not hers. Adam's problem was that he listened to his wife at a moment where he should have been recalling what God had said to him. He should have been saying, wait a minute, God said this. God said that. And the problem would have been ended. Instead, he listened to his wife and had not, at that point, also listened to the Lord. His listening, at this point, was a caving in to what didn't seem like any pressure at all.

The cursing of the ground is a change in biology and ecology in the ground, resulting from the spiritual separation between Adam and God. Things are going to change, Adam, because of, actually, what you didn't do. and what you did. Adam did work the ground before. Now, it was going to change. What was going to happen? Oh, he was still going to work the ground. But, to use a figure of speech, the hill is going to get a lot steeper. It's going to be a lot tougher.

Problems, problems, and more problems, and you earning a living. Ever experienced that? Problems, problems, and more problems. Even a person who has a job that they love, and maybe there are a few of those, even a person who has a job that they love will admit that there are some thorns and thistles that come up in the midst of this job. Some folks may say, I don't love my job and there's a lot of thorns and thistles, but it's guaranteed. Now, those troubles won't last forever. Why? Because that's the next thing the Lord's going to tell him. His days would be numbered. All the days of your life. He would return to the dust that he was made from. That's going to change now.

Let's look at Genesis 20-24. Now the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and for his wife and clothed them. Now, having first named her a woman, that's what we see in Genesis 2.23, now he names her Eve, because she would be the mother of all human beings to follow. All who would be born would be descended from her.

Then God sacrificed an animal. We see in verse 21, God sacrificed this animal in order to provide for this first pair of human beings. fig leaves, once they dried, would not work. Remember, they get crispy. And so it would take something better than that. And this is the first recorded animal death.

And like the sacrificial system that God would put in later for the Jews that would point to an animal dies as sacrifice so that you may live, similarly here, God sacrifices an animal, an animal dies so that Adam and Eve may be provided for with the skin. It is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ being a sacrifice, taking the sins of the world, the sins of each one of us upon himself. Verse 22, Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now he might stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. And here the Hebrew sentence just cuts off, and perhaps you get that same sense from the English, as if that was an unthinkable thought.

Oh, we don't want that to happen. God did not want mankind to be stuck in that fallen corrupt state. And so for that what we see in verse 23, Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So he drove the man out and at the east of the garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. Now unless we think that God's becoming nasty here, God drove the man away not because he said, oh I don't want the man to have this. because God was being mean and nasty, but he said, I don't want the man to have this because I don't want him stuck in this mode of being stuck in all the sin and all the consequences. Instead, what he wanted was, I want them to have the opportunity for salvation, for redemption through Jesus Christ.

Do you know somebody that's mad at God? Do you know anybody that's like that? if you've been there yourself. Do you know anyone who thinks that God has it out for them? Do perhaps even you find yourself disappointed that things didn't turn out as nicely as you planned and hoped and expected? Ever have that happen? This isn't what I wanted to have happen. Sometimes I look down and say, boy, I had no idea it would turn out like this, right?

We can be disappointed and mad at God about all kinds of things, but the truth is, the Lord even uses these things in our lives. These things that are certainly consequences of this fall that took place. And yet in the end, what does the Lord intend to do with these? For those who are unsaved, the bad things that happen to them are directed to cause them to turn to the Lord. Were it not for those things, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, would they ever turn to the Lord?

The bad things cause us to think, oh, you know, I must need something else. Something other than what this world has to offer. Something other than what I can do for myself. For believers, the bad things that happen are all, every one, intended to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ. everyone. There is an album that was put out some 30 years ago, and as I counted, there's been something like eight albums and or musical groups that have had this theme, Adam again. And so far so good. Some of the music I actually like.

But a key point is the Lord in saving us is not intending us to just go back to the garden. We're not going back to being what Adam is. He's not just clicking on the undo icon and returning us to the innocence of the garden. No, it's more than that. It's beyond that.

Instead, God's mercy and God's grace are shown from that point on, from that day, in the garden when Adam and Eve fell on into eternity by redeeming every single one who believes in God entirely at his own expense and then blessing us in ways that are way, way beyond just returning us to the garden. One more point I'd like to draw here. The things that are in this passage are exactly what the unbeliever needs to know. The things that we see in Genesis chapter 3, what we studied here this morning, are exactly what the unbeliever needs to know.

Why else would they see a need for a Savior? If you say that Jesus died for you, they say, well, that's nice. Why would he do that? It's of no import, it's of no value unless they recognize the need for the Savior. the recognition that this life is not normal.

Have you noticed how just about everybody has a sense that things ought to be a different way than they are? It is the Lord who is making clear to us through his word that the way things ought to be is by a provision that he's made for every single one. for everyone who believes that Christ died for your sins. And yes, sins are characteristic of every person born on this planet. Christ died for your sins and was buried and raised on the third day.

That's the good news that doesn't just undo what happened on that day there in the Garden of Eden. It undoes and goes way beyond. into eternity with Christ. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your precious word. We thank you for what you've revealed. We thank you for the truths that you've laid out, for your love and care for us. And we just lay these things before you with thanks. Thank you ever so much for the marvelous, amazing grace, the amazing love that you've shown to us. In Jesus' name, amen.