So today we're going to look at hamartology. That's hard to say, and I often misspell it, but it just means the study of sin, all right? Hamartology is taken from two Greek words, sin and then logos, or the study of something. So hamartology, and again, I think I've misspelled it a couple times, maybe even in my syllabus or notes, so that's the correct spelling. And basically, we're going to talk about the fall today. We're looking at, in this first cycle, creation, fall, redemption, and new creation, or consummation. And so today, we're going to take a look at the fall. If you would, open your Bibles to Psalms 8 and 14. Psalm 8 and 14. We'll look at these two Psalms as we open together today, and then we will consider the fall. of mankind into sin because of the rebellion against their creator king. So the Bible shows us that God was the author of the, not sin, and this is not the way I'm using this. Of course, he's not the author of sin, but he is the author of this story that tells the first great tragedy. He's also the author that tells the first great comedy, because embedded in the fall is also a turnaround, something that goes from tragic to hopeful. We want to understand comedy is not just to laugh at. Comedy causes us to laugh, but comedy is ultimately they live happily ever after. God is the great author in his master plan. He's ordained according to his purpose, according to his great wisdom and power, both a tragedy and a comedy that we see in redemptive history. And so today we're going to look at the tragedy. Next week, Lord willing, we'll look at the beginning of the comedy. So turn to Psalm 8, and I'm going to read a few verses from Psalm 8 and then Psalm 14. And we're going to look at the fall of man and sin today. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you that you are with us and you never leave us nor forsake us. We thank you that you're such a good and kind king, all powerful, all wise, all holy. We thank you that you've created us after your image. We are your image bearers according to your likeness, male and female. with great dignity and honor. We thank you that you have created us to worship and serve you and to work for you. to enjoy our work, and we pray that today, as we begin this day, we would worship and serve from our hearts by your grace, that we would work diligently and quietly, minding our own business, being thankful and grateful for the enjoyment of your presence and the power and strength to do what you've called us to do. We pray that we do all things with diligence and excellence. We pray that you'd be glorified. Lord, we thank you for the Lord Jesus, who is our Savior and our friend. our great King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We bow before him this morning. We bow our hearts and we pray that you, Lord Jesus, would send your spirit now to help us, help your instructor as he would decrease and you would increase, that we might understand the things that you have revealed to us in the scriptures. And we pray that you would apply those things by your Holy Spirit to our lives. Help us to live more wholeheartedly to you. And we pray in Jesus' name with the forgiveness of sins in him. Amen. So here's Psalm 8, and this is a wonderful psalm that begins addressing God in verse 1, O Lord, our Lord. You notice the covenant Lord name, addressing God as the Savior, the covenant Lord, O Lord, our Lord, the master. How majestic is your name in all the earth? And then the psalmist tells us in verse 3, when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? And that we have in verse four, that parallelism that is common in Hebrew poetry. We we see what is man, that you're mindful of him. What's more, the son of man, that you care for him. So to be mindful is to also care, to remember when God remembers in the Bible, when God thinks of us, when that language is used, it's to remind us he's a covenant Lord who cares for us. Verse 5, yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. So man is by creation a dignified being. one who is crowned with glory and honor. And then he's been given a purpose. Verse 6, you have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea. So man is a creature king. He's a vicegerent of God. He's a vice-regent. He is created to be God's holy representative on the earth and to reflect God's glory. And that's important to remember. So he's been given dominion. You could say that there is God forbids idols because he's created man as his idol. If I could put that in a provocative way, man is his image. And so there's to be no other images of God because man is God's image. Verse nine. Oh, Lord, our Lord. He closes. How majestic is your name in all the earth? And then Psalm 14. There's quite a contrast here, but it's worth noting because we're looking at the fall today, is it begins in chapter 14, verses 1 through 3, the same psalmist, the same author, the same inspired scripture by the Holy Spirit. And it says, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, no not one. So though man is a dignified being, crowned with glory and honor, he's also a being that's been disgraced and disfigured by sin. And that's what we want to look at today, is man in God's image, but one who has rebelled against his creator, and how particularly the themes of the fall we see and can trace throughout Scripture. And one of the purposes, remember, of doing this first cycle is having an understanding of the overview of the drama, creation, fall, redemption, new creation, to see the four acts of the drama. But it's also, remember, to take certain themes and pictures, truths, ideas, and then be able to trace those throughout scripture, okay? So when we're looking at the fall today, we're also going to look at ways that these things rooted in the fall are revealed throughout the scriptures. One that comes to mind is when the book of Judges repeats over and over that God's people do what's right in their own eyes, for instance. And so we see this manifestation of sin throughout the Bible, this theme of doing what's right in one's eyes. Or with Psalms 8 and 14, Psalm 8, you've dignified man, you've crowned him with glory and honor, And then Psalm 14, but there's no one who does good. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. And so you have those two truths that are revealed together. OK, so the main theme today that I'd like to point out to you and in every class, I'll try to do something that maybe summarizes the main purpose or theme of the class in in a phrase. So what is man? What went wrong and what did sin do? Or you could make that present tense, of course. What does sin do? And those are the three things that we want to ask that the fall reveals. What is man? What went wrong? And what does sin do or what did sin do? In that third part, we're going to look at the universality of sin, that it's in every person born and that it spreads to all people. It affects everything, not just our relationship with God, but our relationship with one another, our relationship to ourselves. We're broken people. I want to remind you as we look, turn to Genesis. We're going to stay for a few minutes in Genesis chapter 2, so make sure you're following along with me. If you don't have a Bible today, go grab one. In the kitchen, there's a bookshelf there, and you can grab a Bible. I sometimes forget my Bible. If you forgot it, no big deal, but it's important. Just go grab one so we can look at these things together, and you can see the Word right before you. I think it's helpful to do that. What we want to understand is, as we looked at chapter 2 of Genesis verse 4, we are taught that these are the generations of the heaven and earth when they were created. So this is a summary, a poetic summary statement of God creating And then we're told in the third part of verse 4, in 4C, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. And so remember the earth and the heavens, in literature that's called a merism, and it refers to two polar opposite things, like earth and heavens, that's to communicate everything. So it's to say that God created everything. God created the cosmos, could have been the way that this verse would have spoken. So he created everything visible and invisible. That's the point of this. And note that we have in verse 4c the first use of the covenant name. And that covenant name is most important to note for chapters 2 and 3 with regard to the fall. The Lord God. In chapter 1, we have this panoramic view, this scene of God's creation, and he uses the name of Elohim, the great powerful creator. But in chapter 2, verse 4, we're told for the first time, in the inspiration of the Spirit, as that panoramic view goes to a close-up upon man and his close intimate relationship to God, where we hear the the name Lord God, Yahweh, that is Israel's Savior, that is the Savior of the world. And so we see that this is a covenant Lord who has created all things, and covenant very simply implies, importantly, a relationship with God. And so man, as image bearer, is in a covenant relationship to God by virtue of creation. That's so important for us all to get into our minds and our hearts, that man is what he, she is because we're created in covenant with God. And when you talk of being an image bearer, the first thing that should come to mind that distinguishes you from the rest of creation is that you can respond to the covenant Lord. in a way that deer cannot, in a way that little bunnies cannot, in a way that chickens cannot, in a way that slugs cannot, in a way that beetles cannot. All of them have been created by God, but there's a big difference. You can answer the question, where are you? That's the question the covenant Lord puts to Adam and Eve after they've sinned is, where are you? It's not because he's ignorant of it, but that is an example, an illustration of what being a covenant bearer is, is that we can be responsive to the covenant Lord, that we are so built that there is a relationship and as well an obligation. So there's a relationship that we are made for. That's what covenant means very simply. And when we get into the second cycle, we will expand on what covenant means. But for now, covenant means you're an image bearer. Covenant means that no matter who you are, no matter how little you know about the truth of God's salvation, no matter how ignorant and dark your mind is now, you know to some degree that you are a covenant creature and you've been made to say, I am here. You've been made to say, here am I, in full accountability, to answer the question, where are you? That's what a covenant being is. A deer can't do it. A bunny can't do it. A chicken can't do it. A slug can't do it. You can do it because you're an image bearer. So every creature is held accountable to God to answer the question, where are you, with here am I. and I'm responsible. And so the two things we see about a covenant relationship with God as image bearer and what it means that sets us apart from the creation is first we have purpose and we have obligation. I thank Tom for even making this a little clearer in my mind last week in our conversation. Thank you. And the purpose that we have that's demonstrated at the end of chapter one and throughout chapter two that we'll look at is that man can worship and is a worshipping being. He's a worshipping creature, not a worshipping animal. He's a worshipping creature. And that's why if he's not worshipping God, he's worshipping something or someone. So worship and work. We're made for worship and work. The obligation that we have from the beginning is fear, reverence, and obedience to God. So every man owes their obedience to God by virtue of their creation. That's what a covenant being is. A covenant being is one who is in relationship with God, that has a purpose and who has an obligation to respond and say, here am I master, I'm your covenant son. It's what's so glorious when man falls and later on Isaiah tells us that the son of man, this Messiah will come and say, here am I and the children you've given to me. The covenant son will stand and respond on our behalf and say, here am I I've come to do your will, O God." Isn't that wonderful? But you were made for that. I was made for that. And so we have as purpose this personal possession and public vocation. All right, a personal possession that we're to be worshipers and workers and a public vocation to have dominion, to rule on behalf of God, to be a vice regent or a vicegerent of God, to be his ambassador, if you will. So it's most important. to keep that in mind. And one thing I want to say that I have not said yet, but maybe getting a little ahead of myself, but perhaps if I focus on it now, then when we read the scriptures in a moment, you'll see it more clearly, okay? So the reason I'm writing it now is because we've looked at it for a moment, but I think you'll see it more clearly, is that man is made male and female, all right? That's the identity. And so male and female, though both dignified before God, both made in God's image, they're in different roles. They've been assigned different roles. And in that sense, they have different identities. They're to know that their identity is either as a male or female in their role, and that they are both highly honored and crowned with honor as mankind. So both, but because of the fall, what we see is that man is both dignified, and also disgraced, and we'll see that in a moment, or disfigured, disfigured. I will point out to you in just a moment why he's disfigured and why the image hasn't been completely erased. If some of you were in Calvin, the class on Calvin and even the Westminster Confession of Faith, you know that we try to make this very difficult distinction, don't we, between man, the image bearer, but man, the disgraced one, the man who's disfigured, but the man who hasn't completely had the image of God erased from him. Though he acts as a beast sometimes, though he acts like a dog. Though he acts like a jackass. These are images of Scripture. Though he acts like a mule. Though he acts like an ignorant beast, Psalm 73. Though he acts against his whole nature by being perverted in his sexuality, at the end of the day, he is what God says he is, a covenant servant, either male or female. But that's disfiguredness. And so this brings us, very importantly, as we'll see, to idolatrous man. This is the effects of the fall, basic 101 effects of the fall. How about that? Basic 101, idolatrous and autonomous. That is, man seeks to do what's right in his own eyes. Autonomous just means autonomos, two Greek words. It means law unto oneself, that you'll decide what's right and wrong. You'll decide what you're going to do. You'll decide who you are. And idolatrous means that you can't stop worshiping something. And it all goes back to the purpose and the obligation. All right? So, as Romans 1 says, beloved, there's no human being that's created that doesn't have enough sufficient revelation of God in creation. But that they take that revelation and they exchange the truth of God with a lie. And they worship and serve the created rather than the Creator who is forever praised. I invite you, if you haven't already, to read Romans 119 to 25 in light of what we've talked about. And then notice, go ahead and read Romans 119 to 33. or 32, where through the end of the chapter, he ties together the idolatrous man, autonomous man, becomes the sexually immoral man. That their particular behavior is manifested in sexual immorality, that they exchange passions for their same sex and for animals. It's very clear in Romans 1 that that's all tied together as idolatrous man, autonomous man equals sexually immoral insane man. All right, let's look at Genesis 2. So what we see here is the purpose and the obligation. We see that when God creates this garden, it's kind of like a holy of holies. because there's the other place of paradise, or Eden, the location you'd find Adam if you had a GPS, that there'd be a lot of nice things around him, but there's a garden that he particularly has to work that's in the midst of all the other, and it's like a holy of holies. In fact, when the temple will be built, the tabernacle and temple, it will be It will be a garden. It will be a recreation of how to get back to the garden. I'll save that until we get into more detailed stuff, like in Leviticus. That's what it is, basically, is the three steps to the holy place, or the three steps back to Eden. Very simply put, that fallen man has to go through blood to get to. substitutionary blood. So listen to this verses 15 to 17. What's good here is the Lord God took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden and he gave him purpose. So man was to generally have dominion over all the earth. Right. But he had a specific purpose in the beginning to work and keep the garden, to work and keep the garden. This same language is used later for the priests in the tabernacle and temple. that they're to work and keep, which again tells us that there's something more being taught here, that man is a priest-king. and as a priest king. And this working the garden and keeping it is guarding it. So you can imagine, he's to guard this holy sanctuary where the presence of God relates to mankind. He's to guard God's holy word. He's got a big responsibility. And so what happens, the Lord, verse 16, commands the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden. Look at God's graciousness. Look at God's kindness. Look at his generosity. You can have everything that you see around you But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for that in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. So here built in to man's blessed state is also a probation and a testing ground. Man lives his life between two trees in the very beginning. There's a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and there's a tree of life. man was to have the obligation, and this is exsinuating the covenant here, you see, that's in place, is that man's obligation, because he's creature, covenant son of Yahweh, he must fear and reverence and obey. So he's blessed with everything. We'd call that after the fall grace. But that would be using a category of salvation. It's just a great magnanimous generosity that the creator would say, you're like me. You're a little lower than the angels. You're my king on the earth to bring glory to me with purpose and obligation. But you're the one who must pass the test. And so this is important because as the fall includes the trees, two trees, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life. If man had obeyed here, the theory of what would have happened is he would have entered into life. Because Revelation 2, 7, and by the way, if you want to see all of these themes of creation and fall, you can look at the letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3. But one thing that's said very clearly in the book of Revelation, chapter 2, verse 7, is to he who conquers, I will give him the access to the tree of life. And so man was meant to partake of the tree of life, not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And so Adam, in this probation testing, and this is most important, it's a probation test that God put him on in God's good wisdom, according to God's good plan, that the trees would represent a probation testing. And I want to extenuate this with everything I've got in me. This was not merely maintaining. He was not to be obedient just so everything would remain the same. That's not what the Bible teaches. It was not maintaining, but attaining, that was the goal. Attaining a blessed immortality through the tree of life. So the Garden of Eden was never meant to be the final state. You understand that, right? And when we talk, with all respect to Crosby, Stills and Nash, we're not trying to get back to the garden. The garden represents something wonderful, the new heavens and new earth, the new cosmos. That's what we're trying to get to. But the attainment, we failed to attain it. Wonderful news, Jesus Christ succeeded in attaining the new heavens and new earth. And that's why the gospel is so powerful, is because what we could not attain, he did for us and said, as covenant servant, here I am. I've come to do your will, oh God. You've given me ears to hear, a mouth to speak healing. And so, beloved, it's important to remember that the Garden of Eden, this is Dillard and Longman who say this, and I think this is very important to get at what's going on in our hearts. when we read a good book or watch a wonderful film. I'm not talking about propaganda, whether it's Christian or otherwise, that's not real literature or not real art. That just would just try to preach a message. Pulpits are for preaching, not books or films. Books and films are primarily for asking the right questions, like who am I and why am I here? But they become propaganda if the answer is given as well. But in every good piece of literature and every good film, what you find is what Dillard and Longman say. Listen, the Garden of Eden represents everything that man and woman have lost due to their sin in the past and everything they yearn for in the present. So what it does is we yearn in our hearts for our covenant master to some degree. We long to worship someone or something, and we long to get home. That's a common theme in great literature and in good cinema, okay? Is that they're yearning, we're yearning as a people. Gerhardus Voss, speaking of the maintaining or attainment idea, he says that the universe as created was only a beginning, the meaning of which was not perpetuation but attainment. It wasn't just to perpetuate what was there, but it was attainment. And so creation began with a greater destiny lying before it. Creation began with a greater destiny lying before it. That's that saying, isn't it, that we looked at, that eschatology precedes protology, that God's plan and purpose is what we mean when we're talking about eschatology, particularly in this class. When we get to the next class on the New Testament, eschatology will mean that, but it'll also mean the last days more particularly. But when we're talking about eschatology, you're saying using the word eschatological as a verb or an adverb or an adjective, what you're saying is it's got purpose. Example. In the beginning, there was chaos that God brought to order. That chaos didn't exist apart from God, but he created it and allowed this because it's eschatological chaos. It is a chaos with a purpose to be ordered so that God would bring, as a pattern, order out of disorder. So it's eschatological chaos. So man is eschatological man. Man is man with a purpose, man with a goal. Creation is eschatological. Everything's eschatological. Eschatology precedes the first things and it precedes salvation. So what was in the garden, the tree of life is eschatological. It promises immortality. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, all God had to say was it was wrong because it represents hell. So the two trees represent heaven and hell, eschatologically. One would be that you're glorified. If you eat the tree of life, you'll be glorified and you'll live with God forever and ever. One, you eat because of disobedience and you die. That's the covenant plan. All right, and then chapter two, let's keep looking at the Bible for a second. What we find then is that The Lord God saw that man particularly was distinct from the rest of the creation, and he was gracious enough not just to form him in his image, but again, the covenant Lord God is used here to show that God cared enough for Adam that he wouldn't be alone, so he made him a wife. And we have in the first song in the Bible, verse 23, the first song of man. First song that's ever recorded in the Bible is in chapter 2, verse 23, where Adam looks after he's seen the deer, and he's seen the beauty and design of the bears, and he's seen the beauty and the design of the lions and all that, and none of them were for him, because he wasn't made for them, because he's a covenant servant. He's not a creature. He's not an animal. He needs another one like him. And so God takes from him and makes another one like him with dignity and honor. And he sings out, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, Isha, because she was taken out of Ish. So she is Isha because she was taken out of man, Ish. And so it's it rhymes to it. So the first poem ever sung in the Bible is a love poem. It's romantic. And so we see. this beautiful love song. Now you know why you like rom-coms. Now you know why you like romantic comedies, right? Now you know why you like to see the romance unfold appropriately. And we're told about marriage, and we'll look at this at another time, but verse 25 is most important. The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. There was nothing to burden them. There was no self-knowledge apart from God their Creator. Can you imagine that for a moment? No self-knowledge apart from the Creator. No realizing that you're undone or needing something to cover you. That you can actually exist in the presence of God in a pure fashion. It's hard to get our minds around, but that we'd need nothing else but self-knowledge that's always informed that we're loved by the Creator King. That's why they could be naked and unashamed. There was nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to run from, nothing to hide from, nothing to fear, nothing to worry about. It was a perfect existence, beloved. And that's what makes chapter 3, verse 1 so horrifying. As it goes, we're introduced to the dragon, the serpent, the dragon. And so another aspect of the fall is the serpent dragon. In Revelation 12, he's called that ancient serpent the dragon. We know from Jude and other passages that there was a rebellion of angelic creatures before the fall of man. And this one of them, the one who is described as the serpent and dragon, deceives man into falling too, into rebelling against the great creator. If you want an account that helps you get at the fall of the serpent and the dragon, that helps you to get out of the Bible but gets saturated in biblical teaching, so that then you come back to chapter 3 in a way that is more informed and able to grasp, is the first chapter of the Sumerilian. Tolkien's masterpiece. If you read the first chapter of the Cimmerillion, you'll get at this chaos that begins in order and this disharmony in the midst of harmony. And he really grasps this well through this song and literature. And you can then look back in the Bible. That's the whole point of Tolkien in many ways was to escape, not escape like to get away, but to escape so that you could have better eyes to see and come back and read your Bible better. So the serpent dragon He defines evil in a way I've never, ever experienced in any other piece of literature. He gets at evil without being evil. Lewis gets at evil, but it's most tempting to know too much about it when you read the screw tape letters. You feel safer in Tolkien's explanation of evil for some reason, for what it's worth, that's my opinion. Chapter 3, The Fall. Listen to these things. The first thing that Satan says, the Satan, by the way, is how he's described in the Bible, is the Satan, which means accuser in Hebrew, and there's usually a definite article. So he's the Satan, if you want to be correct grammatically. He's the Satan. Notice, first thing he does is, did God actually say? Now, he doesn't use the covenant name because he's not in covenant with the Lord. He's a covenant breaker. So he uses God. What's so sad about this is that Eve, who once was using the name of the covenant God, knows also, when he says in verse 4, the serpent said to the woman, you will surely I'm sorry, but the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of your eyes, you'll be open, you'll be like God, knowing good from evil. At this point, she should have responded, I'm already like God in the way that he has created me. Actually, Adam should have been there to speak on her behalf because he's the one who was charged as priest-king, particularly, to keep and guard the garden. And he's not there. At least, we don't see him in the literature yet. We see him when he takes of the woman's... he becomes part of the woman's temptation. So notice verse 2, the woman says, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said you should not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. This is the, so many things we could say in this and I can't because of time, but just look at this. This is the birth of legalism right here. She adds to God's Word. God didn't say that you can't even touch it. He didn't say anything about that. And so she not only is beginning to believe a lie from the serpent, deceiver, devil, dragon, but she's beginning to add things to what God has said. God didn't say that neither shall you touch it. And so what happens? They both eat. She sees, verse 6, a wonderful passage to help us to remember what temptation feels like. The woman saw that the tree was good for food. It was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. So she sought fame. She sought honor. She sought dignity apart from God. Autonomy and idolatry were already manifest in itself. So the fall was not when she took of the tree and ate it. It had already happened in her heart. Most important, isn't it? It's not that she and Adam are judged on behavior. They've already been deceived because covenant sons, creatures, have disobeyed their master from the heart. They believed a lie. And we're told she took of the fruit and ate it, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. So we're told, literarily, that he had been there all the time, but the silence is very loud in verses 1 through 4. Where's Adam the priest-king? Where is he? Nowhere to be found. What's worse, we find then he's there all along, being deceived along with Eve. And so, we're told then at that time, verse 7, then the eyes of both were open. They knew that they were naked. And they sought for the first time a way of self-salvation. There's no calling upon the name of the Lord. They sewed their own loincloths to cover themselves. They knew now that they've sinned against God, and they went from covenant servants to serpent, dragon, deceived people who've given up their covenant authority and rights to the evil one. That's why he's called the God of this world in the Bible. That's why he's called the prince of the power of the air, because he holds a certain authority under God's sovereignty. But man and woman become idolatrous man and woman. They become autonomous man and woman. And they don't call upon the name of the Lord. And so they begin a way of self-salvation. She'd already added to God's word as a legalist does, adding something to God's word that he had not said, almost implying that God's not as kind and generous as he could be. There's an ingratitude in her voice or her tone as well. And then we have that they try to save themselves. But the way of salvation is apart from God. Verse 8, they heard the sound of the Lord God. Now we have the Lord God again, the covenant Lord. We have God, the covenant Lord again, and this one, this one that He's made in their image, this one who's cared for them, this one who's been kind to them, this one they've rebelled against, this one they've transgressed His covenant, and they heard Him walking in the garden and they hid themselves from the presence of God among the trees of the garden. But verse 9 gets back to that image-bearing question. The Lord God, the covenant Lord, called to the man and said to him, where are you? You can't say that to a dog, you can't say that to a chicken, you say that to a covenant servant, where are you? And it's not because the Almighty didn't know it was for self-reflection because they had thought themselves as creatures apart from their creator. If just for a moment. And he's now saying, where are you spiritually? Where are you with regard to me? You've been made in my image. You can't live the life, the purpose, the obligations that you've been created to live apart from me. Where are you? And that's the question Jesus Christ answers when he says, here am I. Send me as our Savior. But here, the covenant king of the first Adam, When he hears the where are you, he tells him, which is something image bearers can do. They can relate to their creator. And he says, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid. Because he knows that the probation meant heaven or hell. So he knows he's just sentenced himself to hell. He's hiding from the fire, from the agony. He's hiring from the wrath of God. Man will go to hell? No. That's where the gospel comes in. God could have sent us all to hell, but he does rather, as we'll look at next week, he tells us in verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, speaking to the serpent, the dragon who caused it, And I am between your seed or offspring and her offspring or seed, mankind. He shall bruise your head, you shall bruise his heel. And that's the first gospel. We'll look at that in the time of redemption. But it's just to say that man didn't go to hell. Man would suffer the consequences of his sins here in this present age, but he didn't go to hell without hope. And so what we see here is though the serpent dragon, beloved, though the serpent dragon robs Adam and Eve of everything but two things, their image-bearing that they still have because they're able to hear and answer the question, where are you? And of salvation hope. He cannot rob them of salvation hope because God has promised. He's going to take the woman who was the first one deceived according to Timothy, according to the New Testament. And he's going to use her as the vessel or instrument through which he'll bring a dragon slayer, a king, a second Adam, and he will crush the serpent's head in finality and power and bring in salvation for all who believe and bring his people to the tree of life, which is a picture of himself, really. The Tree of Life is, if you will, a sacrament in the garden that points to Jesus. The Tree of Life is a wonderful sacrament. But though they would not go to hell immediately and be sentenced to everlasting wrath, that would have been God's justice and wrath. It would have been His right, would it not? They do have to experience death. Because immortality was not attained, beloved, and therefore, man, rather than being confirmed through covenant keeping into immortality, is confirmed in mortality. And so, he must die. And we see that all through chapters 3 through 11. so-and-so lived a certain amount of time, X lived a certain amount of time, and then he died. And X lived a certain amount of time and he died. Every time you see that he lived those many years, think back to the fact that God is a good God, because they didn't deserve to live another day. Some have even thought that because this fall account is right after the establishment of the Sabbath, that all this was also on the Sabbath to aggravate everything else. Not sure, but it is plausible and it can be argued exegetically from the passage. That Sabbath breaking led to the whole fall, or at least it was the location of it. But death would be a reality now for man. And we see in chapter 3, verses 15 to 19, that the very purpose of man, which was work, would now be with toil and struggle. It's not that work is bad, but God's curse upon humanity is particularly justly tied to that which was part of their role. All right? You get that? It's very important to get this. Listen. The just curse of God was placed on where as role, as male or female, that they were to live out their purpose and obligation in this world. For man, it was on work. The work is a creation ordinance. Work is a good thing. It's going to be hard. Man's going to have to work hard. There's going to be a lot of toil and thistles and thorns that'll affect his work. Woman? is going as her, she's been created as female to have children, the curse is going to be upon the pain in her childbearing. So that every time there's a child, that in that context would be hope that it was also the seed of the woman who would bring salvation. Every time there'd also be combined with pain. Now, you can imagine when roles are reversed and you have someone who is forced in this fallen world to not only be pregnant with child and facing the pain of childbirth, but also laboring in thorns and thistles and work. You can imagine how heavy that curse is upon those people and how many bring it upon themselves because they are first idolaters. There are some, of course, that suffer this because of sins of others. Because of situations they find themselves in, they can't get away. There's much pain because of it. But it's just to say, think about the pain on a woman when she has to not only carry the child and look forward to that pain or dread the pain, but she has to work at the same time. Dealing with all that goes with it. And then the third sentence was upon life itself. Verse 19. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you're dust, and to dust you shall return." Now, again, next time, beloved, I'm leaving out some really, really exciting parts in here that God weaves into this revelation of the fall, this redemption. But I want to save that till next week because that's what next week is about, is looking more particularly at redemption in the midst of this comedy that God brings through his revelation in Christ, a comedy, good news in the midst of a tragedy. And so we're told in verse 24 of chapter three, he drove the man east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed the cherubim and flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. And it shows very clearly, beloved, that no one would come back that way, no one would go west except through death and blood. The way through the angels, we're already taught in the beginning, would be through death and blood. And that's what our Savior does. He goes through that place on not on earth merely, but in heaven that was symbolized on earth in the tabernacle. He goes through that curtain that was symbolized, that symbolized the going into the special presence of God, the very Eden of God. And he goes through death. He comes under the sword of the cherubim, so to speak, under that death sword for believers. And he opens up the way through his precious blood to get us back to Eden or to a better Eden, to a glorified Eden. to attain what Adam failed to attain, not just to maintain, but to attain immortality for his people. Now, very quickly, I'm going to trace an overview from chapter 4 to chapter 12 because we need to get there, but I won't stop, okay? So let's get our Bibles out. We're going to go really quick over chapters 4 through 11. Real quick, I think we can do it in three minutes, all right? What do you think, all right? because what I want to show is here is I want to show the contamination and poison of sin. I want to show what is man, what went wrong, and what did sin do, that third part, what did sin do, how it's universal. I just want to get a grasp of that because the first few chapters of Genesis are driving us to find the hope that has been revealed in chapter 315, that the seed of the woman will come and crush the head of the serpent. Okay, when's that going to happen? Notice in chapter 4, verse 1, Adam and Eve conceived. Wonderful, isn't it? And Eve thinks that this is a man gotten with the help of the Lord. Verse 1, she thinks it's Messiah, but it's Cain. Her firstborn was an antichrist. Her firstborn was not Messiah, he was Antichrist. And his seed, which we'll look at in Redemption, creates these wonderful things that we would call common grace culture. His seed would create agriculture, music, the arts. Isn't that wonderful? Construction, metallurgical arts. all of those wonderful things. Is that beautiful? So God's common grace, even though it's going to go through the line of Cain, and we're seeing a distinction here in these passages, though it'll go through the line of Cain, nevertheless, God will show grace to them and they'll contribute culturally to this world. Isn't that wonderful? But here's the catch to that. You ready? You ready? When they have children, they will do it for their own glory and not their own. When Cain, after he killed his brother, verse 17 of chapter 4, Cain knew his wife. She conceived and bore Enoch. And when he built a city, he named the city after the name of his son, Enoch. And so we have these two lines now from chapters 4 through 11, what we'd call the elect and the non-elect. The seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, very clearly. Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The seed of the serpent, how is he characterized? He's characterized by making a name for himself, by being idolatrous, by being autonomous, by doing what's right in his own eyes, by doing wickedness like Lamech in verse 23, showing vengeance, unjust vengeance. But then, verse 25, and Adam knew his wife again. She bore a son and called his name Seth. God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel. So here again, she thinks maybe this is Messiah. And to Seth was born a son. His name was Enosh. And contrasted to Enosh, men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Men began to realize that God was their covenant Lord and King through saving grace. All right. And then, chapter 5, we see nothing but death, but long lives, which show the graciousness of God and the justice of God, right? Look at verse 9, for instance. Enosh had lived 90 years. He fathered Kenan. He lived after he fathered Kenan, and then he died. All the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died. I remember doing a sermon on chapter 5 of Genesis, and I think it was titled, And He Died. And He Died. And the emphasis was that death was real. Death is spreading universally to all mankind. No one gets out from under death. And we must fear the Reaper. Enoch lived 800 years, had other sons and daughters, we're told in verse 18, on and on, and then verse 32, Noah was 500 years old, he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth. At the beginning of chapter 6, what we're told, and listen, this is the spread of sin, it's gone from the garden east of Eden, there's a distinction made between the elect and non-elect, or the seed of the woman, of promise, the believers who are calling upon the name of the Lord, and the seed of the serpent, those who are idolatrous and autonomous, who make a name for themselves. And this will culminate in a moment with Babel. But until then, hold on, because we have the flood. And what happens in the flood? It says in chapter 6, verse 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart. And verse seven says of chapter six, the Lord said, I'll blot out man whom I've created from the face of the land, man and animals, creeping things, birds of the heavens, for I'm sorry that I've made them. Verse eight, but Noah found grace or favor in the eyes of the Lord. Though all mankind universally is described as not good, you know, evil from the heart, God shows his grace to a man and his family. And so, God in the flood decreates. He lets the world that he formed and filled out of chaos return to chaos as a judgment upon man. But here's where I'm going. At the end of the flood, chapter 8, verse 20, listen carefully, Noah built an altar to the Lord. Here's the seat of the woman, worshiping and serving as he was destined to do. Noah worked building the ark as he was purposed to do, to do work for God, to be obligated to obey God. And it says that he offered up this sacrifice. Verse 21, it was a pleasing aroma, and the Lord God said in his heart, or the covenant Lord said, I'll never again curse the ground because of man. And he says, verse 22, while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. That's the context of common grace that we call, beloved. That's where things can continue until the end of time because God will never curse the ground in that way through a flood. So he gives us then this. What does he tell us here? Basically, he's telling us that history will be opened. The context of history will be opened for my salvation. and for others to find grace and favor. And then he tells Noah, very importantly, listen to this, chapter 9, verses 1 through 6, he tells Noah, go now and fulfill what man was created to fulfill. Go and with your purpose, worship me and work, have dominion over the face of the earth, and remember the obligation not to kill anyone. Not to kill others, because man is made in God's image. So, very important, verse 6 tells us that though man has been disfigured, the fall has hurt man, the fall has made man a disgraced idolater and autonomous, nevertheless, man is still in God's image. And so, we're told that there's a distinction in the three sons of Noah, All right. And that the nations populate the entire earth. And here's the thing that happens in the flood. You ready? If Adam was first Adam who failed the test in the probation, Noah was Adam 1.2 or 1.5. He failed and he's left a drunken mess. He's not going to be the one who attains. To life through obedience. And so what God says is, though he has de-created and brought chaos where there was order, the problem of sin has not been taken care of. And so that promise that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent has not come to pass yet. And the nations have gone out and they've decided they're going to build a mountain, a new way to organize themselves. Chapter 11, Babel. And you want to see this whole picture leading up to something very important that we're going to do next week. With Babel, you have what that that the people that were to the east, the seed of the serpent, decide to make a name for themselves. Again, that revelation of idolatrous, autonomous man, not calling upon the name of the Lord, not worshiping the Lord as God has clearly revealed, but doing things according to their own rules and law. And so they say in chapter 11, verse 4, come, let us build ourselves a city and tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. They live in fear. They live in worry. They live in anxiety under God's covenant wrath. And they try to take salvation matters in their own hands. They don't meet God on the mountain where God reveals Himself. They decide to build a city mountain. They don't meet God in the city that God has planned for His people. They build the city themselves in their own name, with their own strength. It's self-salvation, beloved. And that gets us ready for a man named Abraham. You see the universality of sin, you see the spread of sin, you see what is man, you see what went wrong, and you see what did sin do. And then in the midst of that, listen to this, chapter 12, verse 1 through 3. Now, the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land, I will show you. God's going to show him the way, home. I'll make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make you're those who bless you. In other words, what the Babel city builders, the Seat of the Serpent, tried to do in building a city, a self-salvation way to basically intrude upon God's holy presence only to be dispersed. God says, no, by my grace, Abram, I'll call you out of that darkness and disfigurement you live in, that disgrace from Ur of the Chaldees. You're an idol worshiper. you and your family, but I'll call you out because of my grace and here's what I'll do. You don't have to make your name great, Abraham. I will make your name great. And so the original purpose and obligation is lived out with Abraham. And that brings us to redemption. Of redemption. Everything else, if it was a symphony, has been, if you will, or a drama, opera. Everything from Genesis 1 through 11, it's chapter 12, verse 1. where the curtain is raised and the story of redemption begins. that we'll look at next week. So today we looked at covenant relationship with God as image bearer implies purpose and obligation. We looked at the fall containing the trees, the probation that was to attain, not to merely maintain. So the serpent dragon and how serious he is, that real temptation we still face in this world that he deceives us. He always asks, has God said? We saw the salvation hope and we see the reality of death. Then on this side, I want to close And I want to jot down a few themes that I think we have a moment for. Do I have a moment? Do I have five minutes? Can I get five minutes? Can I buy five minutes? Here's five minutes. Can I get, can I get, okay, three minutes, three minutes. I just want, the reason why we want to do this is so that we can see themes throughout the Bible. And so, here are the themes of the Bible. Of course, image bearer, right? You can write that down. Man is an image bearer, all right? And he has, he has dignity and he's disfigured, okay? So, you've got that, all right? Other themes that we can, is a yearning. Man is a yearning man. He, she desires to get home to paradise. Yearning for paradise, right? All right. Yearning for paradise. What else? You see that there's this antichrist already with Cain. You see there's an anti-city called Babel. Whoops. So the antichrist is Cain or seed of the serpent. We'd call them non-elect. You see the anti-city, very important, which is Babel, which points forward to what city? Babylon. Babylon always represents in the Bible the wickedness on the face of the earth that began at Babel. It's nothing but the anti-city. It's the anti-Zion. It's the wicked, wicked city. Oh, it's horrible. And it's the place at the end of Revelation that will be destroyed forever and ever. There's barrenness. on women that were called to be pregnant. All the great highlights of redemptive history have the women, the elect women, as barren. And so God has to empower them. And it's to emphasize the curse of the pain in childbirth, that there's further effects of pain in childbirth. There's barrenness that's a reality that must be overcome. There's polygamy, where there was marriage between one man and one female. There's polygamy and all the rottenness that it brings in the family. There's Sabbath-breaking. All these things you see throughout Scripture as themes that you want to keep in mind as you're studying your Bible. You see sexual immorality. I don't have to tell you about that. Sexual immorality. You see Sodom and Gomorrah kind of junk. You see ingratitude. Don't ever forget ingratitude is a foundational sin according to Romans 1. And you see the serpent dragon of old that continues to persecute and to tempt mankind. And so the dignity, the sin contaminates and poisons our relationships to ourself, our own identity, all right? Our own selves are confused. Our family relationships, we see that even in the best of families in the Bible, and societal and cultural relationships are all broken because of sin. So this is what sin does. There's murder, there's hatred, there's vengeance, there's pride, there's disorder, on and on. It's all the stuff we see in our hearts that we realize that only through a Savior and by the power and grace of God can we change. So what do we learn about God? Let's do it real quick. What do we learn about God? What's one thing you want to learn about God today? Oh, he's gracious, isn't he? Wonderfully gracious. Always good and gracious. Fallen condition focus. What do you learn about yourself? What do you learn about your sin? What do you need to be on? All right, we're wicked. All right, we're wicked. We still have propensities to wickedness. We like wickedness. Let's just be straight with each other, okay? Can I be honest with you? We like it, all right? We like it too much. Even as people who, where it doesn't reign over us, we sometimes enjoy it just too much. We have to repent of that. Wicked, and what else? but still image bearers. Thank you. There's lots of temptations. OK, how should I live? All right. In covenant. So how are you going to live today? You're going to live in covenant. Covenant just means God is kind enough to give you his power and his presence, to give you himself, to relate to you and to then give you not only purpose for which you're to live, but an obligation to love him and fear him. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, right? And after everything's been said in the book of Ecclesiastes, what does it tell us? Fear God and keep His commandments. Amen? Lots of wonderful things that, and again, one of the purposes for this class of looking at this first cycle is going through and seeing themes throughout the Scriptures, that there are themes that will be revealed throughout your study of the Old Testament that are rooted in the Genesis 2, Genesis 3, Genesis 4 through 11, okay? So next week, redemption. I sent out some Bible passages to read, and if you would remember to bring your Bible so you can look and see the Bible, it really helps you, I think. Let me pray, and we'll close. Our Father, our God, thank you so much for this wonderful day. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you and to learn about your word. Thank you for all the things that we learn about the fall and about ourselves. Thank you, Lord, We are your people in covenant with you, and you've returned us by your grace through the blood of Christ into that heavenly presence, equipped us with power by your Holy Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam, the great Adam. the perfect Adam, the one who attained immortality for us in his death, resurrection, and ascension. Thank you, and go with us now and help us to digest these things and to learn them and to study our Bibles with a deeper knowledge of you, and so that we can know you more precisely, to know your love for us and your kindness. In Jesus' name, and all the church said, Amen.