wonderful words, aren't they? Jesus Christ, Lord of all and what a wonderful opportunity this time of year to give some time to consider that. The choir will be taking a well-earned rest their first for the next couple of weeks and a lot of labour and work goes into each piece that is presented and all with the heart's desire to glorify the Lord and edify the saints and to teach and admonish one another in spiritual songs. So this morning we're in Genesis 3, while not directly a Christmas theme, we will be dealing with that wonderful verse that we have been memorising which is wonderful timing considering the weekend that we're going through at the moment and I believe it will tie in nicely with yesterday's message and then we trust tonight's message as well as we consider the rest of chapter 3 and the continuation of the theme really on the fall of man and what God did to both deal with sin and at the same time make a way for man to be reconciled to himself. It's a wonderful chapter, well it's a very sad chapter, Genesis chapter 3, but at the same time we also see God's grace beginning to shine through that dark day. And that's the wonderful hope that we have, that though man fell into sin, God did not leave man to destruction without providing a way of escape for him. And so while it is a very tragic passage of scripture, it is not a passage without hope, the light of the gospel, beginning to shine there in Genesis 3.15, it's been referred to as the dawn of world redemption or the proto-evangelium, the first proclamation of the gospel there in prophecy, Genesis 3.15. Well, we're going to read from verse 9 this morning down to the end of the chapter as we look at the theme, Paradise Lost. Paradise Lost. Genesis chapter 3 and reading from verse 9 to 24 the Bible reads, And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. The Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 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. And under Adam, he said, because thou hast hearkened under the voice of thy wife, And as eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also, and thistles shall it bring forth 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 under the ground. For out of it was thou taken, for dust thou art, and under dust shalt thou return. Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. The Lord God said, behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat it and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. And so we have man exiting the garden, paradise lost. the story doesn't end there, does it? As we always have, paradise reopened in the future. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning and for the opportunity just to read your Word publicly. We ask now for strength of heart and mind, Lord, for both the speaker and the hearer. Lord, we pray that in the busyness of the last couple of days with of time with family and cooking and eating and other things that we would not lose our capacity to take in the truth. So we pray that this morning, Lord, that you would remove distractions from our hearts and from our minds. Lord, give us ears to hear what the Spirit would say to the church. And to that end, I pray, Lord, for myself, that I might be in tune with your Spirit, that I would not speak words of my own making. Lord, but that you would take control of this preaching time together, that you would take the Word of God and just drive it home to every need and to every heart this morning. So Lord, we give you thanks again for the opportunity to be here, we look to you for your blessing upon the Word of God now as it is spoken, in Jesus' name, Amen. So as I said, we are continuing on this chapter, which deals very much with the fall of man. We see God's justice dealing with sinful man, but at the same time, his grace shines through the darkness of the hour as God makes the way possible for mankind's reconciliation with himself. we're going to see the curse that came upon the cosmos, which will also help us to make better sense of the world of disease and suffering in which we live. This is a part of living in a fallen world. Romans 5.12, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. So this morning we're going to divide the text under four headings for our study and I trust that if you have an outline there in front of you, you can fill it in as we go, as we consider this theme this morning. Notice firstly the examination. Here we have God, dealing with sinful man. Really we have the first trial in history conducted by God Almighty Himself. God conducted the first wedding, didn't He? The first marriage. Now we see God Almighty really conducting the first trial, bringing man to a realization of his sinfulness. you will notice that God asks questions. In fact, he only asks questions in this section, four in total. Now, the purpose of the questioning, no doubt, is not on God's part because he needs information. We know that God knows all things, God knew exactly what had happened, God knew what man had done but the purpose of the questions was to lead Adam and Eve to a place of confession, to bring them under conviction about their sin and about the fact they had broken the law and so we would do well right here at the outset to note that as soul winners that we need to follow God's example when dealing with the lost and ask appropriate questions to seek to arouse their conscience to an understanding of the fact that they have broken the law of God. We have two great allies in Solvenny, there's more but they're two that come to mind right at the moment within the theme we're talking about here. We have the law of God which is the schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. and we know we're not saved by keeping the law but we know that the law serves a function in bringing the sinner to an understanding of his or her guilt and therefore to the foot of the cross to understand that there is a saviour. And so the law of God is a great ally to the soul and also the conscience within the sinner is a great ally. even though the conscience can be seared because of sin, even though the conscience does not function perfectly because of sin, yet there is nonetheless that inner understanding, the law imprinted on the heart, we could say the law without and the law within, that are a great help to the soul winner in reaching souls for Christ. And so here we see that God works to bring man to a place of confession, to bring him under conviction about his sin and what he had done. So we see that God questions Adam, firstly there, God questions Adam and there are three questions that he asks. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? That's the first question. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, second question, who told thee thou wast naked? So the first question that God asks Adam is, where are you? Where art thou? And I think we mentioned this last week, that this really highlights the nature of spiritual death. A spiritual death had occurred. Remember, God had told Adam and Eve that the very day they ate the fruit, they would surely die. Now Adam lived, I think, to 930 years. And so you say, well, was God a liar? Adam didn't die physically the day he ate the fruit. Well, you need to understand that death in the Bible is separation, not ceasing to exist. before Adam and Eve died physically, they first died spiritually, they were cut off from God because of sin, they were separated from God because of sin and yes, even the process of physical death had even commenced that very first day. So God's word was true. We find Adam and Eve hiding the garden. In fact, you'll see a pattern of sin here, that man sins against God, then he seeks to hide from God and then when caught out, when brought under conviction, he then seeks to pass the blame to someone else. That's the pattern that we see replicated in the sinful heart all the way down from Adam. We sin against God, we then seek to hide from God because of our sin and then when we are caught out, when we are brought to conviction, we seek to defer the blame to somebody else. Man's been a fugitive, hasn't he, ever since that time. Running from God. As the poet Francis Thompson writes, I fled him down the nights and down the days. I fled him down the arches of the years. I fled him down the labyrinthine ways. Of my own mind and in the midst of tears, I hid from him an underrunning laughter. Up visted hopes I sped and shot precipitated, Adown titanic glooms of chasmed fears, From those strong feet, capital F, feet that followed, followed after. Man is a fugitive from God, but aren't you thankful that we see God seeking sinful men? That's the truth that we see here, don't we? That though man had sinned against God, though man hid from God in his sin, yet God in his mercy sought sinful man to seek to reconcile him to himself. And that's really the story of the Bible from this point on, isn't it? It's the story of God's gracious attempt to reach sinful man. That's the big difference, isn't it, between religion and Christianity? Religion is all about man seeking to reach God, man seeking to make himself acceptable with God, but true Christianity, as found in the Bible, is the complete opposite. It's all about God attempting to reach sinful man, because we're lost. So, where are you? Who told you? We know that God does not wait for man to answer this question, but immediately follows it up with the next question, essentially saying, what have you done? God asks Adam plainly if he has broken his law. Now, it's interesting, isn't it, to note as we go through here that God never asks any why questions. The modern psychologists, they always want to ask, why? You murdered someone. Why did you do that? And the why question points people in the direction of blaming someone else. Well, the reason I did this was because my dad used to give me a spank when I was a child, or the reason I did this was because my mother this, or the reason I did this, and it takes the human mind and heart searching for a reason to blame for the sin. We notice that God does not deal with the sinner in that way. He simply asks, what have you done? That's a good way to approach it, isn't it? What have you done? God is seeking a simple confession of transgression here. And how does Adam respond? Well, he tries to shift the blame. As I mentioned, that's the pattern we see of the sinful heart. We can see it in ourselves, sinning against God, then seeking to hide our sin, and then when discovered, seeking to blame someone else. Don't we see that, well we see it in our own lives but don't we see this aspect of man's sinful nature on full display in the day in which we live, in the victim culture? Now I'm not saying that there aren't genuine victims but isn't it interesting that everyone wants to be a victim to his or her circumstances or it's always someone else's fault, it plays out in the courtrooms as well. you know, this person who's slashed someone to pieces, well he's probably, you know, the poor man's got mental illness or something like that. And it just goes on and on and on, this attempt to blame someone else, to shift the blame for my sin to another. So Adam blames God, he says, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me. That's really an accusation against God, isn't it? It amounts to an accusation against God. God, you gave me this woman, so ultimately I did it because of this woman that you gave me. And ultimately he blames his wife, the woman she gave me and I did eat. You see how sin disrupted that blissful marriage? The first marriage between Adam and Eve and the bliss that existed there. Sin is a great disruptor of the home, isn't it? disrupter of marriage and here we have sin turning husband and wife against each other. Can you imagine being Eve? Imagine the knife that went through her heart for the first time. Up until this point she'd known a perfect relationship with Adam but now sin had entered and all of a sudden he was essentially saying, Lord if you need to deal with someone, bump her off, not me! So that's the nature of the human heart, to hide from God and then to seek to blame others. We notice then that God turns his question to Eve in verse 13 and he says, Notice again, a what question, not a why question. And the woman said, Again, we see the same pattern from the sinful heart. To her credit, she doesn't seek to blame God as Adam does, but nonetheless she does seek to pass the blame on to the serpent for what had happened. Now, there was a measure of truth in what she said because the Bible makes it clear later that the woman was deceived, the man was not deceived. He made his decision with his full mental powers, he knew exactly what he was doing and that's why responsibility for sin, for the human race, is placed on the shoulders of the man in the Bible, not the woman. But nonetheless, we still see that feature of the human heart of seeking to blame others. You know, it's good, isn't it? To learn to simply confess what you have done to God. Did you know until you learn to do that in your life, even as a Christian, you will be plagued with guilt and with sorrow. The Spirit of God is grieving your life. We've got to be very careful because the subtle sin nature is still there and the tendency when we've done something wrong is to blame others, to blame someone else in the church, to blame the pastor for my wrongdoing, to blame someone else. How many times have we seen that where someone falls into sin or someone does something against the Word of God and somehow all of a sudden, It turns around and becomes the preacher's fault, or the parent's fault, or someone else's fault. No, if you've sinned against God, then learn in your life to say, I have sinned. confess in plain terms your sin before God. Confession is really agreeing with God, it's simply stating very simply and very factually the fact that this is what God's Word says and I have broken it. By the way, confession is a good, is an important part of prayer isn't it? And it's a challenge, isn't it? Do you ever find it a challenge to speak out loud or to actually articulate a confession? We like to do general confessions, don't we? Oh Lord, I'm sorry I messed up this week. Oh Lord, forgive me for the way I sinned this week. No, state it clearly. Lord, please forgive me, I got angry at my wife. That's very humbling, isn't it? Lord, please forgive me, I didn't handle my child right in this way or that way. Lord, please forgive me for this thought that I entertained that dishonoured you. That's confession. So we see the examination, we see the first trial as it were, God conducting the first trial, seeking to bring man to conviction over his sin. Then we notice the condemnation. We see now this part of the passage that is often referred to as the curse that God placed upon man. Now there's an interesting feature you'll notice here in the order in which God deals with the serpent, the woman and the man. God follows the same chronological order in which the participants were involved in the fall. So, at the start of chapter 3 we have the serpent, then the serpent tempts the woman and she transgresses and then the woman then tempts her husband to fall into sin. So God deals with them in the same order. He deals first with the serpent where it all started. He deals secondly with the woman, then he deals with the man in that order. So notice the curse upon the serpent. The curse upon the serpent in verse 14 and 15. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, Notice that there is a penalty here upon the literal serpent. In verse 14, God is dealing with the animal, he's dealing with the actual serpent, but then we're going to see that primarily the curse goes towards the satanic personage, Satan himself who used the serpent, Satan behind the serpent. But there is a curse that falls upon the literal serpent, the snake, in this passage. You notice there that essentially a curse came upon the entire animal kingdom and the entire world because it simply says the serpent was cursed above the other creatures. So it doesn't mean that the serpent was the only one who was cursed, but the serpent was simply cursed above the other creatures. So clearly implied there is the fact that a curse came upon the whole creation, which included all the animals, but the serpent would be especially cursed above the rest of the animals. Romans 8 22 says, for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. That's true isn't it? The whole of creation is groaning and travailing in pain, ever since the fall that has been the case. And it's very interesting isn't it, you can perhaps watch a documentary from an evolutionary perspective and they're trying to view the predatory behavior of animals in a good light, that this is just kind of a part of the cycle of life and the survival of the fittest and And this is all kind of a good thing as the wolf tears the lamb to shreds. That's actually a part of creation groaning. Have you ever heard a rabbit at nighttime scream as it's taken by a fox? Have you ever heard maybe the shriek of a little bird that's taken by the eagle? That's all a part of creation groaning and travailing in pain under the curse of sin. It's not normal. It's not normal, it's not the way God intended things to be. Praise God there's coming a day when the curse will be removed, but until now, but at the moment, that is the situation. So we need to understand that though the serpent was cursed, there is a clear curse that it falls upon all of the creation here, but the serpent was especially cursed because of its role in the fall. Now what were the details of the curse? Upon thy belly shalt thou go. So we see there the snake's locomotion. Upon thy belly shalt thou go. This possibly indicates that the serpent originally moved in a more erect posture, we don't know for sure, but it would seem to imply that. Now the serpent would have to move along the ground on its belly. It's interesting, isn't it? You think about the fact that the snake is cursed above all creatures. There's something about the snake, isn't there? There are some very unique people in this room that actually love snakes and want to hold one. Personally, I'm not one of those. He's very affectionate, that's fine. I don't want him being affectionate with me. Remember, we went to this wildlife park once and they told us this carpet snake or this python, whatever it was, oh, she's very affectionate, loves to snuggle in close and get warm. But there's something about the snake, isn't there, that reminds us of the fall. It's cursed above all creatures and it's a reminder to us, God did that to remind us, I believe, of the fall. There's something about it, we see the snake, something crawls in your skin, there's something about it that is especially repulsive. Now it's still God's creature that shows evidence of design and those sort of things, but it is particularly the symbol of the curse upon the world. dust shalt thou eat. Notice the tongues darting in and out there. People say, ah, the Bible's a fairy story, you know, the serpents don't eat dust. Actually, that statement is literally true because they use their tongue to smell and they literally pick up particles of dust and use that to smell. It's explained well here by a creation scientist. He says, in the roof of the snake's mouth there is an organ called the, and I'm not going to try and pronounce it, but it's the Jacobson's organ, I can pronounce that one. Like the sense of smell, it is a system designed to detect many different kinds of chemicals But the Jacobson organ specialises in non-volatile chemicals, so requires direct physical contact. The snake achieves this with its forked and constantly flicking tongue. This picks up dust on the points of the fork, then carries the samples to the matching pair of sensory organs inside the mouth. Dust shalt thou eat. Of course, the picture there is one of humiliation, to be laid low in the dust. But it is also literally true and scientifically true that the snake does pick up particles of dust with its tongue, as I've mentioned. So there was a penalty upon the literal serpent. It would become a symbol of the curse and the fall, a constant reminder to us every time we see it, that man fell into sin. How many of you think of that when you see a snake? thought comes to mind or at least your mind goes back to Genesis 3. You're thinking, I don't think of that at all, I think, run! But Now notice the penalty upon the satanic serpent. This is verse 15 and the focus now shifts to the personage behind the serpent. Remember that Satan took hold of a literal being, a literal creature there and used it, but God is now going to pronounce a curse upon Satan himself. And as I mentioned in the start of the message, this verse, Genesis 3.15, has been referred to as the Proto-Evangelium. the first gospel proclamation in the Bible, the first prophecy of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, what a precious verse it is, right there in the heart of the passage, right there in the midst of the darkness of sin and the fall and the curse, we see the first rays of sunlight, as it were, we see the dawn of grace and of redemption shining through in this prediction that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head. I'll put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now there would be a conflict in two senses and I want to draw your attention to that, there would be number one a conflict in a general sense, there would be a conflict in a general sense, I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed This verse predicts the conflict of the ages between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. The word enmity there means hostility and what is very interesting to note is that it is that hostility is given by God. I will put enmity between thee and the woman says God. This was God's doing. God wanted there to be unrelenting conflict between his children and the children of the devil. that conflict still rages today, doesn't it? It's a conflict that polarizes men, it's a conflict that divides men, that the conflict between Christ and Satan and you are either on one side of that battle or the other. I'll put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed, but there's a conflict in a specific sense, we see that the verse moves towards a specific conflict, it shall bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise his heel, very clearly a reference to the crushing of the serpent's head by Christ on the cross, it shall bruise thy head, it referring to the serpent, sorry, the seed of the woman, pardon me, is in reference there, and thou shalt bruise his, singular, heel. So there's a conflict in general in the verse between Christ and Satan that's played out down through the ages, between the seed of the woman, those who know Christ, and the seed of the serpent, those who know not Christ. But we see that primarily what is in view here is this conflict of all conflicts that would culminate at the cross where the serpent would bruise the heel of Messiah, but the Messiah would crush the head of the serpent, which is a mortal blow. Now it's Christmas time, isn't it significant that we have reference here to the seed, not of the man, but the seed of the woman. Don't miss how significant that is in the Bible. Did you know in the Bible, the seed is normally attributed to the male? In fact, as you read the Bible, and if you've read the Bible any length of time, you will recognize this, the biblical norm is to trace genealogies through who? The male or the female? male. Genesis 5, we're going to get to that shortly, is an example of that. Genesis 11, what about those first nine chapters in 1 Chronicles, how many of you struggle when you get to those? The begats, the begats, the begats. There's a few gems though, isn't there, in the midst of that and those chronologies do, those genealogies do serve a very important purpose, we don't have time to discuss that now. But you will notice that it's all following the father line, isn't it? Correct? Here we have not the seed of the father, but the seed of the woman. Can you see that right here in the very first prophecy of the Messiah, there is contained the concept of the virgin birth. say you're reading too much into it. No, I don't think so, in light of the rest of the revelation of the scripture. Not the seed of the man, because it is through the man that the sin nature is passed on, Romans 5.12, but the seed of the woman. Isn't that significant? Isn't it amazing how God works? It was the woman who was attacked by Satan, wasn't it? She was the first one he attacked, he attacked her as the weaker vessel seeking to plunge mankind into the darkness of sin. Isn't it significant that God chose that through the woman, the very one that Satan attacked initially, would come the one who would destroy him? That's what we call poetic justice, don't we? So the prophecy clearly points to the miraculous conception and the virgin birth of Christ. Isaiah 7, 14, That's not a mistranslation of the word, as some try and say it should say woman. No, no, no, the word virgin there, the Hebrew word is only ever used in the Old Testament in reference to a virgin woman. I read this excerpt from the 39 articles, we wouldn't agree with everything in them but from an old doctrinal statement and this statement about the humanity and divinity of Christ and I thought I'd share it with you. It says, the Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin of her substance. So that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say the Godhead and the manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very man. That's the mystery, isn't it, of the humanity and the divinity of Christ. Christ taking on human flesh, divinity and humanity welded in to not two separate entities but into one entity. The God-man, it's accurate to call Jesus Christ the God-man, he's man but he's God, he's God but he's man. He's not 50% man and 50% God but he's 100% God and 100% man, the mystery there of the divinity and the humanity of Christ welded together, the seed of the woman conceived by the Holy Spirit. And so this is the conflict of the ages. The Messiah would be wounded in the conflict, that's seen clearly, the serpent would be wounded in the conflict. His heels would be wounded, that took place at the cross, didn't it? When the nails were driven through Christ's feet, his heels were wounded but as he bled and as he died, he triumphed over Satan, crushing his head. Aren't you thankful that Satan's a defeated foe? Aren't you thankful that Jesus Christ won the victory over Satan? You say that Satan is still very much alive and roaming around. Yes, but because of the death of Christ on the cross, the power of sin and Satan has been broken and Christ's death on the cross guarantees that Satan will one day spend eternity in the lake of fire. It's guaranteed by virtue of his sacrifice. Colossians 2.15, "...and having spoiled," referring to Christ, "...his principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." In what? In his cross. Read the previous verse. He triumphed over principalities and powers in his cross. That's the genius of the cross. That's the genius of the gospel. When from man's perspective, as they looked at the Son of God bleeding and dying in humiliation and shame on the cross, they said, it's all over. It's all finished. It's all ended. It appeared from man's perspective that Satan had won and that sin had won. Little did they know that in the design of God, in his power and in his wisdom, as Jesus Christ hung in shame on the cross, as his blood dripped down, That death was bringing about the destruction of the evil one. So we have the curse upon the serpent. Then we have the curse upon the woman. 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. So the woman would experience two things. Number one, she would experience sorrow in motherhood. sorrow in motherhood. I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.' Now, let me just say, the curse here is not multiple conceptions, as some of the family banning people would like to argue. Well, you know, the reason why, you know, we should ban our children and restrict things there is because, after all, multiple conceptions is a part of the curse. No, no, no, that's inconsistent with the rest of Scripture that makes it clear that repeated conception is actually a blessing from God. That's a misuse of what's going on here. No, the verse very clearly moves towards a description of the fact that the primary issue was not so much the conception itself, but the process of conception and childbirth that would be beset with sorrow and pain. So the curse is not in the fact of conception, the curse is in the process involved for the woman in conceiving and then bringing children into the world. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. curse is that the process would be beset with pain, especially in the birthing process, that's true. Any lady here this morning, under the sound of my voice, who's had a child, can understand this, can't you? If you've had a child, you know, we men, we can't understand it, but you know what it is to go through the pain of childbirth, It's hard, isn't it, as a husband? You can help your wife with many things, alleviate her suffering in many other areas of life. How many of you men have stood feeling rather helpless as you saw your wife in travail? Wishing that you could take it from her, knowing you can't. Mary Cassian in her book, Women, Creation and the Fall, discusses the pain experienced by women in childbirth. She says, childbirth is painful. I had read about it and believed it before the birth of my first child, yet nothing could have prepared me for the intense agony of labour. Labour pain is simply inexplicable to one who has not experienced it. Dr. Reynolds Melzack, a leading expert in the field of pain, has recently completed research on the intensity of labour pain, she writes. He found that on average, labour pain ranks amongst the severest. According to his study, it may be exceeded only by the suffering of some terminal cancer patients and is often worse than having their finger amputated without anesthetic. That's painful, isn't it? This was to be a part of living in a sin-cursed world. There would be sorrow in bringing forth children. Now, praise God, the sorrow of the process is quickly forgotten or often quickly forgotten with the joy of a child that is born and so there's still a blessing in that, it's not all gloom and doom but there still is sorrow, isn't there ladies? Nonetheless, sorrow in the process from conception through to birth. Very often, the fatigue and the physical limitations and the morning sickness and all the things that accompany bringing children into the world, that was the curse. Not only would she experience sorrow in motherhood, but she would also experience some struggle in marriage. Some struggle in marriage. And thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee. Now again, this verse is often misused to say, well there you go, you know, the concept of the man being the leader, that was actually a part of the curse. Just like they try and use the verse to say conception's a part of the curse. No, no, no, no, no. Don't misunderstand this. We can see, we've already seen very clearly that God had an established order before the fall. Clearly God created the male to be head of the created order, to be head of the woman and of the home. However, after the fall there would be a tendency in man without God to overstep the boundaries and to be more suppressive towards the woman. He would rule over her. As opposed to being a loving head, the tendency under the fall and under sin would be for the man to misuse that position and to be harsh with the woman. Now, the Word of God's not justifying that, it's just simply stating that would be a struggle that would take place in marriage after the fall. Now thankfully, the Word of God sets about fixing that problem through salvation. The very best thing for you to do as a woman is to marry a Christian man who loves God and loves you. But it's true, isn't it? You look at non-Christian cultures in history or even down to the present day and one prominent feature of those non-Christian cultures tends to be the mistreatment of women. Men who don't understand their God-given duty to the woman and rather use their position to rule over the woman. The woman would be more vulnerable to suffering because she has the greater natural affection for the man, her desires towards him, than the man does for the woman. And the tendency for the man without God would be to become harsh and suppressive towards the woman. It's only the gospel, salvation and submission to God's model for marriage, as outlined in key passages such as Ephesians 5, that provides a solution to this problem. proper treatment of women is something that is only found where a culture has been deeply influenced by the Word of God.' So she would experience that though, some sorrow in motherhood and there would be a struggle in marriage between the man and the woman in this whole matter of leadership because sin has a way of making, just putting things out of balance, doesn't it? It's kind of like the matter of work, there was work before the fall and it was good wasn't subject to any sort of distortion because of sin, it was effortless and likewise before the fall there was a created order there, the submission of the woman to the husband would have been an effortless thing and would have been a very beautiful thing but then after the fall because of sin there would be some issues in that area and it's the same with work. Before the fall, work, blissful. After the fall, still good, in essence, work, but beset with issues and with some struggles there. Now we notice the curse upon the man. So you see how God works in order there, starting with the serpent, then the woman, then the man. Don't feel bad about that, I think the men get the worst of it here. some ways, at least there's three verses for the man, only one for the lady, so there you go. And under Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life, thorns also and thistles shall it 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 under the ground, for out of it was thou taken, for dust thou art, and under dust shalt thou return. The curse upon man. Firstly, he would battle with the ground, not like fisticuffs, but he would battle or struggle with the ground. Growing food from the ground would involve hard labour, whereas before he could just simply eat freely of the trees and of the food that grew naturally. Now we see that man would have to work in order to be able to feed himself and his family. He would have to turn to farming in order to grow crops for his sustenance. But it would be beset with hard labour. Sweat speaks of intense struggle, doesn't it? The intense struggle between the man and the environment. We see the the environment would become more hostile with thorns and thistles growing in the ground and making it hard for the man to be able to till the ground and to bring forth food for himself and for his family. Every farmer knows this very acutely. They understand what it is, the sorrow and the toil and the labour and the sweat that goes into trying to maintain the property and seeking to grow the crops and all the pests and all the variations in the temperature and the wind and too much rain or not enough rain and this is the situation we find ourselves in. But it's very interesting to note that it says that it was for our sake. Can you see that? Cursed is the ground for thy sake. God knew in his wisdom that in a sin-cursed and fallen world it would be important for the man to work and work hard. Interesting isn't it? A decent work routine has a way of keeping even an unsaved individual out of a lot of problems. It's not a coincidence that the suburbs that tend to have the highest rates of crime are also the suburbs that have the highest number of people on government handouts. Is that true? It's true and we're not saying that there shouldn't be support there for those who genuinely need it but there are a lot of people out there today who simply have embraced their wrong philosophy that my life is to sit there and do nothing while everybody else pays for my upkeep while I sit around and watch movies all day. smoke cigarettes all day and all the rest that goes on and commit crime all day every day. No, God cursed the ground for our sake. He knew it would be important for us in a sin-cursed world to be active in labour, to work hard. Now, you may be in a profession that doesn't involve a lot of physical manual labour, but you can still work hard nonetheless. And I will say this, men, even if you do happen to have an indoor office job, you should still be of the mindset to be able to roll your sleeves up and deal with the thorns and thistles. I'm preaching to myself, I need to go home and deal with some of them in my front yard, if some of you are thinking, pastor. It's all right, when you've got six children, I'll come and check your yard and see how you're going, all right? But still, it's got to be done, doesn't it? Some of these guys, send your wife out to mow the grass for you. maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned, I think you should push the mower, not your wife. And I think you're a, yeah, I won't tell you what I think you are if you let her do it for you. Sometimes the woman wants to do it. Let them, no, no, you need to God curse the ground for your sake, not her sake. She's got enough sorrow to do and pain when it comes to, you know, the dealing with the children and then childbirth and all those things. I'm not saying it's a sin for you to do some gardening ladies, but you get the point I'm trying to make. God cursed the ground for the man's sake in order for him to come to terms with the fact of his sin and to keep him active in a sin-fallen world. So he would battle with the ground, then he would ultimately be buried in the ground. The very ground that he had struggled with all his life would eventually be his burying place. So how dismal? Well that's the reality. Since Adam, we live in a sin-cursed world. And one day, if God, unless the Lord comes for us, we will face that. It's important, isn't it, to have a right view of these things in the day when the whole world is gripped, gripped by the fear of death. As a Christian, you shouldn't be afraid because you know that that grave is not your final resting place. know that grave is not the end for you, be it COVID or car accident, whatever it is that takes you there, that's not the end. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord and God will give you a new body one day and that'll be a blessing too, won't it? So he would be buried in the ground, eventually he would succumb to death and be buried in the very ground with which he had struggled his entire life. You see that this verse reinforces again the truth that death came after man sinned and not before. you see that? There would be no point to the punishment if there'd been millions of years of death and disease and dying up until this point. Can you imagine if Adam and Eve were simply evolved from lower forms of human life and they'd come off the back of all that suffering and disease as the theistic evolutionists tell us and then God says to them, because you've sinned you're going to die. They say, well who cares, we know we're going to die, there's been all this death before us. The reason why there was a curse involved here, the reason why there was a punishment involved was because up until this point there was no death. was no death but there would be death as a result of sin. Now, just to give you a bit of hope here, consider Christ as the Son of Man and think about how He, as the second Adam, dealt with all of those things... sin, the curse, so on. Number one, Christ suffered the curse for us, Galatians 3.13, he was made a curse for us on the cross. Can you see that? Curse came upon the human race but Christ took the curse upon himself on the cross, aren't you thankful for that? He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, he dwelt amongst us, he never sinned but he became acquainted with our griefs, with our toils and with our struggles. So Jesus Christ does know how you feel. when you stand there over the cot of your newborn baby and cry because of the pain and cry because of the suffering and cry because of the struggle. He does know what it is to have grief and when you stand there and tears roll down your cheeks over the crop that has been lost or the finances that have crashed or things that haven't turned out well even though you've worked so hard, know that Christ was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, Hebrews 5, 7. His sweat was as great drops of blood. The first Adam would have to sweat, wouldn't he, in order to toil in the field and to bring forth food there. But Christ came and his sweat was great drops of blood for our sin. He was wounded, bruised, chastised for us. He bore a crown of thorns, the very symbol of the curse, upon his brow. Aren't you thankful for that? We go right back to Genesis 3 and thorns and thistles came into the world, the thorns a symbol of the curse, a symbol of sin and aren't you thankful that Christ bore the curse upon his brow for us and then he died an actual death. Jesus Christ actually died and he died for you and he died for me. Notice thirdly now the provision, the provision, verse 20 and 21. Notice that there was a new beginning, verse 20, a new beginning. Adam calls his wife Eve. What did he call her originally back in Genesis 2, 23? Woman. Interesting, now after the fall and the curse he renames his wife Eve which means life. That's a nice name isn't it? Life or life giver. Now I believe that this indicates that there was faith on the part of Abraham in God's promise of a seed that would come who would bruise the serpent's head. It comes right off the back of that promise. Significant, God has just brought Adam and Eve before him, he's brought them under conviction of their sin, he has pronounced a curse upon them because of sin, now we find Adam calling his wife Eve the mother of all living. I believe that Adam and Eve did come to a place of repentance and faith, not just based on that verse, but based on a combination of factors. We find, of course, that God gave that promise of the Messiah to them in verse 15, before he expelled them from the garden, he clothed them, he took away their fig leaves, symbolic of their own righteousness, clothed them in the coats of skins there. We see in chapter 4 that very clearly Adam and Eve had instructed Cain and Abel about the blood sacrifice. After all, they saw the first one, didn't they? Very likely they saw those innocent animals die as God Himself performed the first sacrifice, the first blood sacrifice was performed, innocent lives had to perish in order to provide Adam and Eve a covering for their sin and for their nakedness. Eve clearly was a woman of faith from chapter 4, she says, I've gotten a man-child from the Lord, we could go on and so I believe very likely based on those different factors that our first parents were reconciled to God in that Old Testament context. So there's a new beginning, Adam originally called his wife woman, he now calls her Eve which I believe was an act of faith on his part meaning life or life giver embracing the promise of the coming seed who would bring salvation. Notice that Eve is called here, the mother of all living. Can you see that verse 20? And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Let me give you a little interesting note here from science. In other words, this verse is telling us that all human beings trace back to this first human couple and this first mother. And interestingly, modern DNA discovery confirms, surprise, surprise, that all people originate from a common ancestor. Let me read you the quote here from the Genesis account. It says, most of the DNA we inherit from our parents comes from the nucleus. But the powerhouse organelles of our cells, the mitochondria, have their own limited set of DNA. Don't ask me to explain all of that, but let me just read for you. This DNA is generally inherited only through the mother's line because it seems that the sperm cells can't pass it on, although there is some debate about this. In the 1980s, geneticists analysed mitochondrial DNA from all around the world. They came to a startling discovery, not for us as creationists, but for them as evolutionists. The similarities indicate that all people on Earth are descended from a single human female. And guess what they called her? Mitochondrial Eve. Evolutionists claim that they had clear proof against the biblical account because they said that mitochondrial Eve supposedly lived about 200,000 years ago. However, recent evidence shows that mitochondrial DNA mutates far faster than previously thought. If this new evidence is applied to mitochondrial Eve, it indicates that she would have lived only six to six and a half thousand years ago. That kind of lines up with the Bible's timeline, doesn't it? Of course, this is perfectly consistent with the biblically indicated age of the mother of all living, but an enigma for evolution and long age beliefs. I think God has a way of allowing some of these discoveries to confound the foolishness of men or the wisdom of men. Interestingly, there is a parallel account with males. Evidence from the Y chromosome is consistent with all people being descended from a single man. He is referred to as Y chromosome Adam. So Eve was the mother of all living, that's a true statement. We all trace back to Eve as our first mother, that means we're all related, isn't that scary? I mean, isn't that wonderful? One human family, it's true. One human family, the concept of races doesn't come from Christianity, it comes from evolution. We believe in one human family, yes, different cultures, different cultures, not different races, all make up one human family and we all have that common ancestry all the way back to Adam and Eve, our first parents. So there was a provision of a new beginning, also a new covering. I'm not sure if they look like Americans from the 70s but there you go, it's one of the best pictures I could find. Alright, in response to their faith, God graciously provides a covering for their nakedness. Verse 21, under Adam also and his wife Did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them? We've talked a lot about that so I don't need to go back through that but we see the first time the death of an innocent victim for the guilty, the first picture of the substitutionary death of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said, perhaps Adam and Eve even witnessed shedding of blood to provide these coats of skins for them. We see that the garment of fig leaves was insufficient to cover their sin. God would not accept their own fig leaf covering, symbolic of their own works, their own efforts. They, with their own hands, sewed those fig leaves together. God would not accept their best efforts to make themselves acceptable with Him. No, He must provide a covering for them. What a picture of salvation! Isaiah 61 10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom, pardon me, decketh himself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels. Theologian writes, physically he clothed their nakedness but spiritually he also covered their sin by making for them their first atonement. Listen to this, the lessons to be drawn from this verse are as follows. First, to approach God one must have a proper covering. Second, the man-made covering was not acceptable. Third, God himself must provide the covering. Fourth, the proper covering required the shedding of blood. Fifth, God's grace provided for them for the covering, God's grace provided for them for the covering was given before the actual expulsion from Eden. So we see a wonderful picture there of salvation, don't we? The provision of the coats of skins. But I think there's also a very practical lesson Genesis is the book of origins, we see the origin of clothing. Isn't it significant and interesting that one of the very first things God did after man sinned was clothe them. That tells me, again we go back to Genesis, clothing is not some man-made idea that needs to be discarded, clothing was God's idea was God's design and God, from the very beginning of time, after the fall, wanted men and women to be clothed. You say that is incredibly basic, not anymore it's not. Have you walked down the street of late? By the way, have you been to church of late, sadly? At a very basic level, we see that God wants men and women to be appropriately covered. Your nakedness should be covered. And according to the book of Isaiah, as soon as you go above the knee, as soon as you expose the thigh, that is nakedness. Look it up. Uncovering the thigh, according to the word of God, constitutes nakedness in God's eyes. so we go all the way back to the book of Genesis for the origin of clothing, the basis for clothing. You know, people say that we're legalistic because we have a dress standard in this church. Could I just say, it's sad we even have to have one. It is sad really, in a sense, that we have to spell out what is so basic, that men should look like men, that women should look like women and basically when it all boils down to it, we should be clothed in the house of God. Culture of nakedness and immodesty is not a sign of a progressive culture but a degenerate culture. Now in the 1920s, even here in Australia, police used to sometimes make trips to the beach and literally measure bathing suits in the 1920s. You can look it up, Google it, check it if I'm right. You Google it and say, just make sure you Google the right thing, just say measuring bathing suits 1920s and it'll come up with pictures, black and white photos of policemen, some of them women, actually going to the beach and inspecting bathing suits because there was a consciousness that to be naked or to be inappropriately dressed was not good for society. come a long way since then haven't we? Be careful by the way of the double standard, having one standard for every day but another beach standard. Now you don't have to go to the beach dressed in a suit and tie, I'm not suggesting that but you should still be appropriately covered rather than looking like a beached whale. includes the elderly folk too. It's not just the young people stripping off these days, it is absolutely disgusting showing your wrinkles for all to see. That doesn't do you any favours. I need welding glasses to look at them, honestly. So let's keep the necklines up and the hemlines down. Number four, the expulsion. We need to move along and finish off here. The expulsion, verse 22 to 24, Notice that he was banished from the garden. Banished from the garden. We have another recorded counsel within the Godhead. One of those interesting insights that the Bible gives us into the Godhead communing. heaven there. The Lord God said, behold the man is become as one of us. We see then again the singular and the plural, the whole aspect of the Trinity there. God is a Trinity in unity. God banished man from the garden, the word drove is a very strong word, means to drive out, it indicates perhaps some reluctance on Adam and Eve's part to leave that beautiful place but God for their own benefit had to, and for their own ultimate good, had to drive them out lest they would take of the tree of life, eat and live forever. You say, how cruel of God not to allow them access to the tree of life. Hang on a second, before you just casually read over that with a 21st century mind, can you imagine if we lived forever in a sinful condition? Can you imagine if God allowed us to live forever as sinners? That would be a terrible thing, wouldn't it? God could not allow man in his sinful condition to have access to the tree of life and to live forever. so he's denied access to it. He's banished from the garden, then he is barred from the garden, he drives man out and then there are two obstacles placed at the entrance of the garden that would hinder Adam and Eve from re-entry. Firstly, there were some divine personages, there was the cherubim, Cherubim are a special class of angels in the Word of God associated with the throne and presence of God. We can read about that in Psalm 80 verse 1 and Psalm 99 verse 1 talks about God who speaks from or God who sits there between the cherubims. Significantly, the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant was overshadowed by two golden representations of the cherubim. So it's very interesting, right here at the beginning we have the cherubims that are often associated with the presence of God and the throne of God and then we have probably the presence of God in the Shekinah glory in the shape of a sword also there. Now it's important to understand, unlike the picture books, that the cherubims were not holding the flaming sword, okay. So often we say, oh and God put cherubims at the entrance of the garden with flaming swords. No, no, no, that's not what it says. The flaming sword was separate to the cherubims, okay. He placed the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way. So the sword is on its own. it turns every ways, it's moving, I don't understand all that means but we have the cherubims and we have the flaming sword that can turn every way. One commentator explains, this is best taken as meaning a flame, sword-like in appearance and continually rotating or even perhaps moving zigzag like flashes of lightning. At any event, a sight effectually deterring man from attempting to enter, so effectually no doubt that he did not even venture to approach the garden from any other side. So it's very interesting, that's where we leave the Garden of Eden. appears that God's manifest presence was maintained at the entrance to the garden there for some time, we don't know, indefinite time, period, the Word of God doesn't tell us for how long. May I make a suggestion to you? The suggestion is this, that this was the likely place where offerings were brought. going to be dogmatic but here we have the cherubims, we have a manifestation of the presence of God, that would be a very fitting place for Adam and Eve and their children to come, that's where God's presence was manifest and maintained for at least a time and to bring their offerings and their sacrifices and we're going to talk more about that as we get into chapter 4 next week as we see the two offerings that are brought, one from Abel, one from Cain and all that is described there. So we see paradise lost. Ever since Adam and Eve were banished from the garden, paradise has been lost. Man has never had access again to the Tree of Life, has he? Since then. Aren't you thankful though, there's coming a day, we get to the end of the Bible, where paradise is restored in the book of Revelation 22 and we see the Tree of Life down both sides of that beautiful crystal river. leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations through Christ, through salvation, One day we will re-enter Paradise. Can you see the picture? Paradise lost, Genesis Chapter 3, man banished from Paradise. What did Jesus say to the thief on the cross? Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise. The only way into Paradise, the only way into Heaven, the only way to the New Jerusalem in the future is through Jesus Christ. So you need to be saved if you're ever going to see Paradise and the Tree of Life. What a blessing, we will see the Tree of Life one day. Adam and Eve lost it. but through Christ we will have access to it again in the New Jerusalem. Let's pray. Lord, that if there would be any here this morning who do not know You as Saviour, that they would turn now in their hearts to Thee and receive You as their Saviour, we pray. For those of us who know You, Lord, help us to walk with You. Lord, help us to understand the matter of suffering and death, that this is a part of a fallen world and Lord, that ultimately if we know You, we will one day spend eternity with You. So bless us now, we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen.