Thank you so much. Well. What's the plan? You hear that sometimes, don't you? When when I was growing up, there's a group of boys. Well, actually, they were a total of about four of us who would go camping. And one of the places we would camp was about halfway between my grandfather's and where my friend Bruce lived. And of course, Bruce is the one who went home to be with the Lord a year ago and a half or so. But the halfway point was a hilltop, which was a cemetery, the old plot cemetery where Old man John Plott, who died before 1900, and his wife were buried, and his son, Mont, who'd really developed the Plott dog that is the state dog of North Carolina. Ray, I wanted to get that in while you were here. I just wanted to. But anyway, we would agree to meet there, and somebody would invariably, either Bruce or Michael or Cody, say, what's the plan? In other words, who's bringing what? We wanted to make sure, number one, we had food to eat. Now, somewhere down the list, shelter came into play, but food was the primary thing that we would consider. And it usually ended up being something along the lines of sweet soup, chicken and dumplings, or Denny Moore beef stew. Those were the two go-tos. High class camping this was. And so there we were. But any time we're involved in an endeavor, we wonder, what's the plan? What's the purpose? What's the goal? Where are we going? Why are we bothering to do this? And we see here in Genesis, a problem that erupts on the scene every bit as much as a wildfire burning across the landscape or a volcano that explodes into existence. We see this horrible terrible act of disobedience now from our standpoint standpoint now of having been involved in this sin nature now for centuries. We look at this and we think eating fruit off the wrong tree. What's the big deal with that. Much in the same way that will often say, well, it was a lie, but it was just a little white lie. And our general tendency toward rationalization has us wondering why? What's the big deal? And I even heard in a conference I saw on YouTube once where someone stood up in the question and answer section and was asking why God's penalty was so severe in this matter. The day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Why would God be so severe in his pronouncement of a penalty? And various people were responding to that, and they got to one speaker, which happened to be R.C. Sproul. And of course, you know, R.C. Sproul might have had some shortcomings, but mincing words was never one of them. And Sproul looked at everyone, he said, what's the matter with you people? What's the big deal about. Transgressing God's word that A creature would act contrary to the will of a perfect, holy, righteous God. Of course, it deserves death. It deserves nothing less than death. And it's true. God had provided for them perfectly and wonderfully in this garden. And yet, even in that state of perfection, sin enters the world now. Fast forward our own time just to make a quick practical application in this whole matter when we begin to discuss. The idea of human nature. Whether we are truly sinful or not from birth. The way in which we want to blame actions on society or our culture. We still do that don't we. Doesn't matter if it's a school shooting or whether it's a drunk driver. We're always wanting to say what what causes somebody to do that unthinkable thing. And we always want to attach blame somewhere other than where it really belongs because none of us really wants to assume responsibility for actions at one level or another. And so we we begin to blame society or culture. But I want you to note that Adam and Eve sin against God in a perfect setting. There was nothing pushing them to this transgression. Yes, the serpent was there and he acted deceptively. But they couldn't blame it on society. They were society. They couldn't blame it on their culture. They couldn't blame it on tendency, bad upbringing. Here's the one case where they couldn't blame their parents. Right. But, of course. There is blame attached to God. The woman that you gave me, she gave me to eat. So there is casting a blame, but upon God. And that in itself is a reminder to us that at any time when we try to put blame somewhere else in some way or another, we are actually blaming God for our transgression. Why do I say that? How did we wind up with the parents we wound up with? How did we providentially wind up in the particular area that we're living in? If you logically push it back to its natural beginning, the steps will lead us invariably to God, the one who is the great mover, the great initiator of all things. Our attempt to get out from under responsibility ends up casting in one way or another blame upon God. The one the one who is not to blame ends up getting blamed. And then, of course, we think of the Lord Jesus. The one who did no sin ended up becoming sin. There's a sermon in and of itself that I have to preach another day, but I want to lodge the thought in your mind just so you'll consider it. But here, this transgression happens, not because they're pressured into it, not because their environment or circumstances lead them to it, but because they, of their own free will, free to choose at this point, opt to disobey. Consequences. We get there in a strange sort of way, even as a child. I had this idea or notion that God knows all things and whether it was my mother reading this passage and I can remember her reading it to me out of the story Bible that we had at home or whether we were dealing with it in Sunday school as we did a number of times. This is one of those basic fundamental seminal passages. I couldn't figure out why it was that God had to come to the garden and ask where they were. Of course he knew. And as we grow older and mature, we realize that, don't we? God wasn't on the hunt. He wasn't scratching his head going, where are they? He knew exactly where they were, giving them opportunity to respond. And we see in this the way in which God acts graciously toward us. I mean, after all, all of us at any given moment deserve death. I continue to be amazed at which the way in which the word karma gets used so often in our culture, society. I see it on social media. I see it. Television programming even heard somebody talk about degrees of karma the other day, and I thought, wow, we're really getting sophisticated with this idea. The idea is, you know, you do something bad, something bad will happen to you. But, you know, listen. First of all, that's something impersonal. It comes to us from Eastern religion. Let me just say it. There's no such thing as karma. Yes, the Bible says whatsoever you shall reap or so that shall you reap. God is not mocked. But that's again. Dealing with God, who is the creator, who has personality, we're offending him. We're not talking about an impersonal force. After all, if we at any moment got what we deserve, if we had a reaction to our moral actions, we would immediately be wiped away. It's not like he would just stub your toe in the kitchen and you're standing there wondering, I wonder what I did to deserve that. We deserve something so much far worse than those things. But here is this action of sin. God's response is not immediately to kill them, which he would have been justified in doing meeting out capital punishment. But rather graciously, he comes. He gives them the opportunity to hear his voice and to respond to it. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Oh, what a blessing. To think that they had that type of fellowship with God, that they would have heard him walking in the garden in the cool of the day. To think of those times when prayers, though offered, seem not to get, as Peter Marshall used to say, any higher than my head. Or as the prophet would say, when the heavens seem to be as brass, those periods of time when we long for a response from God to have that close sense of fellowship and whatever the reasons are, we don't sense it and we don't feel it. But oh, to have been in fellowship with God so that we could hear him walking in the garden, in the cool of the day, the Lord our God with us. Now, don't be concerned. Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have something far better than that coming. He will ever be with us and we will ever be with him. But in this arrangement, that's the way it worked. And the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you now? Again, the way that we are programmed to think and to operate, we might want to say, what is he getting on the man? What about Eve? She's the one who took the fruit. They both send Adam as head of the home is being charged as the responsible one. Where are you? I hope you don't need me to expound on it greatly. That's not him asking so much for location. Where are you? What's going on? Here's an opportunity to come clean. And he confesses sort of. I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. You know, this sets up a whole lot of other questions for us, but really the crux of the matter is how did he know he was naked? He had come to this knowledge by the eating of that fruit from that tree. It was something that he was unaware because thoughts were not inherently selfish. prior to the fall. Once eating of that fruit, suddenly this this self-knowledge comes into play and this concern over nakedness. Just this afternoon, a lady who I think perhaps beginning stages of dementia came up after the services we did at retirement facility and she was just asking me, what's this sin thing? What are you talking about when you're talking about sin? And I was You know, talking about sin in terms of disobedience and transgression, not only doing things that are wrong, but failing to do things that are right. After I'm finished with my, what I thought was a rather brilliant exposition of the subject of sin, Kathy came up and she said, sin is selfishness. And I thought, why didn't you answer the question? But that really is at the heart of it, isn't it? We want to be God. Things are suddenly about self. And so Adam is suddenly aware of his own condition. I was naked. And I hid, I was ashamed. Consequences of transgression, consequences of sin, and there's so much there as well. When we think in terms of them trying to clothe themselves and ultimately we need to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, but to press on to the goal of this evening, remember What's the plan? He cast blame the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate. And the Lord said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. See, they're all practicing pass the buck. I'll take responsibility just as long as I have to, and then I'll pass it along to somebody else. They did it rapidly. So the Lord, of course, knowing all that happened, not having to interrogate anyone to get to the truth, in response to all of this, addresses the serpent. Satan in the guise of a serpent. And snakes have had a bad name ever since. It's interesting, isn't it? Seems like people either hate snakes or spiders. I've seldom found people who feel as strongly about both at the same time. Folks who will not hesitate to pick up a snake are scared to death of spiders and vice versa. Most people don't care about either one. Speaking to a serpent, I remember Lick Duncan saying to us in seminary that, you know, it seems like people would get a clue when animals are talking to them. In the Bible, whether it's the serpent here or whether later on it's the donkey. Now, there is some conjecture and C.S. Lewis is among those who do the conjecturing that just perhaps animals spoke before the fall. I tend to think that's a bit fanciful. But who am I to say he's a lot smarter than I am, was and certainly is now that he's with the Lord, but still. You would think that that would be the first clue. Wait a minute, this animal is talking to me. But even so, God speaks to the serpent and he says what he says, because you have done this curse that are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field and on your belly, you shall go and dust, you shall eat all the days of your life. Do you have legs prior to this? I don't really have evidence to be able to go into that. You'd be surprised, Pastor John. been around longer than I have, has seen this longer than I have, how commentators have spilled a lot of ink over these things and over these questions, perhaps inventing, perhaps oftentimes expositing the passage. But even so, there is a consequence to the actions. The serpent will crawl on his belly. Now, I sometimes wonder about these snakes in the swamp and if it ever gets dusty in those damp terrains, but Even so. God is severe in his judgment. And it's verse 15 that attracts our attention, though. I will put enmity between you and the woman. This is a word that describes conflict now, by the way. Let me say what should be obvious at this point, I'm treating this passage as historical. I know that in these early chapters and verses of Genesis, there is lots of debate and consideration over what the days are, whether they're literal calendar days or whether we're talking about long periods of time. You've been around me long enough now, you know that I'm a simple calendar day type guy. I don't claim to be a geologist and to know all the things that very or highly intelligent people know that could describe this to me in some other way. I believe it happened just this way. I believe if we understood the evidence that's out there in a right and proper way, I think it would be perfectly in harmony with what we have in Genesis. Now, as I've said many times to very faithful, sincere Christians who take a different view, if I get to heaven and find out that somehow I'm wrong, I'm going to be so happy to be in heaven, it won't matter. But I believe what's written and I'm going to stick with it until I find out differently from the Lord himself. Remember that donkey that Dr. Poland talked about this morning, who was stubborn? I guess I are one. And so dealing with this historically, believing that these really are our first parents, by the way, you may have seen some articles that came out this past week where geneticists and archaeologists are Surmising that, in fact, perhaps, interesting isn't it, perhaps we did descend from common parents. Now they're in a fight over where they were, whether it was in the area of Mesopotamia or Africa, and they're having all that discussion. I'll let them thrash all that out. I've got all the answers I need right here. Our parents from whom we have descended, I believe we have DNA in us, genetic material that has been handed down all the way from Adam and Eve. along with their sin nature, that as he speaks to Eve, he says, or rather to the serpent, excuse me, I haven't gotten there yet, still speaking to the serpent. I will put enmity between you and the woman conflict separation. There will be this This division that will be such that you will be at enmity, you will be at war, you will be at conflict with one another. Now, let me say that generally when we speak of enmity, conflict and warfare, we're talking about something that is extraordinarily negative. But the good news that we have in this passage that is really the first gospel, the Proto-Evangelium, is this. That God draws that line of separation and says that there will be this conflict between sin and righteousness, between good and evil, between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman. Let me do a quick skip on the DVD player. Here we are. As believers in the Lord Jesus, you're here on Sunday evening, right? You're the Got to be the choir. A lot of you are in the choir. We fail, I believe, oftentimes to be grateful for the way in which God convicts us of sin and wrong. to recognize the evil and wickedness of sin so that as the Holy Spirit works in us, we're able to turn away from it, to recognize it for what it is. Think of how awful it would be to remain blind and insensitive to our sin, our transgression, our rebellion, to live in the darkness and not recognize that it's dark. God, by way of the Spirit, in enlightening us of the knowledge of that sin and by bringing it to our mind and making us aware of it, is doing a very gracious thing for us so that we can see the awfulness and wickedness of it and turn from it. How can you appreciate light, except on a dark night like this. We fail to appreciate oftentimes the light until the power goes out. And then we walk into a room and without thinking, we flip the light switch. We're thinking, why did I do that? I know the power's off. Why did I try to turn the light on? Because we've become so accustomed to it and we take it for granted. That's true in a moral sense. As believers in the Lord Jesus, we can take for granted this knowledge of sin and wickedness. There are people out there. And we would be among them, apart from the grace of God, who see no distinction at all. Life's just a matter of making choices, there's no right or wrong, there's no good and evil. They get all worked up, I remember back in the early 2000s, after 9-11 had occurred. When the president stood in one of his speeches before Congress and he talked about an axis of evil and the commentators who just went spasmodic over that evil, we can't have this talk about evil. Now, most of us listen to that and we thought, what's the matter with you people? Of course, there's evil out there. But when you start making pronouncements like that, then, of course, eventually you're going to get around to the. Question of what about me? What about my own heart? What about my own condition and nobody wants to go there? So let's just obliterate all talk about evil and wickedness But we can't Because it exists and by the light of the Holy Spirit. We know that it exists This enmity that God sets up is really a good thing so that we know what to turn from and we know who to turn to I'll put enmity between You and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. This good news implies that not only will there be this separation. And as he speaks of those who descend from the woman. Eve. We think in terms of natural generation offspring. We all are here. There's a whole planet populated because they were original human beings in it. We reject the notion that We're here because ancestors just naturally progressed from the primeval slime. So many grandpas ago, there was an amoeba, and I came from that. We know better. But coming forth from our first parents, Eve, in this descent, not only will that enmity exist between her and the serpent, between all associated with the two. All descendants of Eve, not offspring of the serpent in the sense that Eve has offspring. Satan doesn't naturally generate. All he has are the demons that fell with him. The rebellion that occurred prior to this, and we all wonder about that. When did that happen? All we need to know is that it happened. Satan, having been an angel who served in the presence of God, wanted to be God, and he rebelled against God. He and at least a third of the angelic host and they were cast away. All of those who were his all of those in humanity who would serve his purpose, who remain in an unregenerate condition. Count in this matter. And there's enmity. Between the offspring of the woman. And the offspring of the serpent. Genesis chapter 12 It's a good place to go as we think in terms of this warfare and to bring this to a rapid conclusion. And I know I'm giving you bits and pieces to think about. Genesis chapter 12. And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head, a crown of 12 stars. Revelation twelve. Now, verse two, she was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. And on his heads, seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth, and the dragon said before the woman who was about to give birth. So that when she bore her child, he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she was. Where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for twelve hundred and sixty days. Now, there's a lot here. But this sets up for us in this descriptive way. The way in which the people of God come forth on the earth. This is imagery of the church, imagery of God's covenant people, a woman. Producing this male child, ultimately, we think of our savior, we think of him as our deliverer, we think of him as the ultimate fulfillment of what God promises here in Genesis chapter three. And we see how that there is subsequently war that arises in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back. This warfare that begins in Genesis chapter three unfolds throughout all the rest of Scripture. The offspring that ultimately will come to culmination in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is continually targeted by Satan. You can say that this is the first appearance of anti-Semitism in the Bible, if you want to think of it that way, the people of God who will descend from Abraham, the Jews, Being preserved and protected by God, because from that nation will come forth the deliverer, who is the Lord Jesus. He will be the fulfillment. He will be that offspring of the woman that will triumph over the offspring of Satan. Everything that you read from here on, you have to have in the back of your mind, if not the forefront, this warfare, Satan continually active against. God's purpose through humanity. a flawed humanity, frail, still rebelling against him, even in a favored condition all the way through. And yet God miraculously, amazingly preserves people from which the Messiah will come. Always this enmity, always this struggle, always this warfare, but the promise He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. We come to the cross. The place where the son of God, born of a woman. Remember how Paul describes that born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who are under the law. There on the cross. Is put to death is bruising that occurs quite literally iron spike nailed through his feet. That vicinity, that area, that bruising, that wounding that takes place. So much surmising. How is it that Satan, acting so cunningly in Genesis chapter three, who demonstrates his high keen intelligence throughout the scriptures and throughout history, how is it that in that moment, Where he obviously is operating so that the son of God is put to death. How is it that he does it? Seemingly without realizing he's bringing his own destruction on his head. This Pyrrhic victory outwardly, it seems like he triumphs, but ultimately the death of the son of God secures redemption for us, it secures victory for us. Don Gray Barnhouse puts it pretty bluntly speaking in theological terms. He says Satan has to be the biggest blockhead of all time. There's no other way to describe it. He orchestrates his own demise. And so you see that awful evil act that is the crucifixion of the son of God is the very act which results in our salvation. The Son of God is wounded. No question about it. He's put to death. But that wound to his heel doesn't compare to the wound to the head, which ultimately is a crushing blow. A definitive blow. And this is announced to our parents in the garden. Prior to Abraham, prior to the establishment of the nation of Israel, this promise to our parents in the garden is the promise that we now hold on to so many generations removed, helping us to realize and to understand that God's plan and purpose, which is ultimately to bring about a special people, his own people known as Israel in the Old Testament, will inevitably Extend far beyond that to encompass every tribe and tongue and nation. Not everyone can claim descent from Abraham. Genealogy is maddening. Believe me, I know some of you play golf and you do other constructive things. I will sit on my computer and I'll play with genealogy and it's about the most useless thing you can do, you know. Because you go so far back and nobody really knows for sure. We'd like to think we descended from King what's his name who had a lot of wealth way back when, but probably not. I was probably the guy who descended from the man that the king hanged for stealing horses. Genealogy can be very maddening because records become scant. How can we trace our descent back five or six generations, let alone all the way back to Abraham? We all cannot claim descent from Abraham. But we all have descended from Adam and Eve. And the promise proclaimed then is a promise that we hold on to now. Good news. It could have been all bad. God could simply have pronounced the judgment that was deserved at that point and said, this is it. I gave you one command. of where I said, don't do something and you did the one thing I said not to do. But he graciously does something else. And we're still talking about that, something else. So right here in this first gospel, in this Proto-Ewangelium, we have a basis for good news to be pronounced to the whole world. And I want you to notice how undeserving our parents were. It's not simply that God out of his gracious kindness did what he didn't have to do. But he did exactly the opposite of what they deserved. And we have to bear that in mind as we have the opportunity to share the gospel and to be involved in its proclamation elsewhere. That all people everywhere. Are just as deserving of hearing the gospel. As you and I are. Years ago, I was at a revival meeting at a Baptist church. You know, on Sunday evenings, I'd go to our service at Hazelwood Presbyterian at six o'clock, and then I'd jump in my car at the conclusion after we'd locked up everything, turned off the lights, helping Bud Wissenhunt do that. I didn't dare leave until I had done what I was supposed to do. And then I take off up the road where my buddies went to church. And so oftentimes that meant when a visiting evangelist was in town, I would sit there under the revival meeting. And on one particular evening, I remember the man was preaching the gospel and he was talking about how the gospel was being proclaimed in a particular area of the world. And after the service, I remember this man standing outside the church there on Allen's Creek Road. He said, I just can't go along with it. He said, I was in the war, and you got to know how those people acted toward us when I was in that war. And he said, I just can't see it. I just can't see how anybody could go there and tell them about my Jesus, knowing what they're like. That wasn't my place to say anything. I was about 16 years old, and if I knew as much now as I thought I did then, I would be Billy Graham or D. James Kennedy or somebody. But thankfully, one of his fellow veterans, who had fought in the same theater and turned to him and said, he said, Tud, you ain't no better than they were. Now you think about it. You remember some of that stuff we did. That's all he said. I still remember old Tud spitting tobacco. Just hard to think that I could be that bad. Somebody else came on and said, I remember we were growing up. You might be worse. And, you know, those older gentlemen, I just watched it, I just watched it unfold. These Christian brothers that came alongside him and started talking to him like that before it was over. He had tears streaming down his face and he went up to the preacher and apologized, he said. Preacher, I'm sorry. He said, I was mad at you at the end of that sermon. Tell him about how those people ought to know the same Jesus that I know. He said, I forgot. I'm a sinner saved by grace, and I've got no more right to claim salvation than any one of them would. He pulled out his billfold and he said, what can I give you? And the pastor said, you put that in an envelope and give it to the church. He said, permissions. We just lose sight of who we are and what we've done and how undeserving we are of this gracious and good news and how eager we should be for the whole world to know. And it begins right here, this gracious kind act that will continue to unfold over the succeeding centuries. And we're still waiting for the Yes, Jesus came, he died, he rose again, he's enthroned, but his return, that's the climax, that's the culmination, that's when all of this will fully be realized, when Satan's mortal wound will be seen, when he is cast away forever and we won't have any more dealing with him at all. Not only will sin be no more, but even the possibility of sin. will be no more. But that's another story. Heavenly Father, bless us, we pray. As we have only scratched the surface and considered this passage that you have preserved for us all down these long centuries, help us, we pray, to gain from it what we need to know. Realizing that offspring came. We are evidence of that. And your faithfulness throughout all and every generation is still being realized. The good news is still good. The Savior is forever triumphant. And we pray, Lord, that you'll give us a growing, gladdening appreciation. For this gospel. And for the triumph of our Savior. Bless us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's see, as we conclude, I wanted to do number 296 if you want to take your hymnal again. And we're going to sing. We have a story to tell to the nations. This has been done at scores and scores of missions conferences everywhere. It's a grand old hymn. Let's sing it together. 296. Stand if you'd like. Let's do one, two, and oh boy, these are tough to give up. And four. One, two, and four. We've a story to tell to the nation And they'll turn their hearts to the right A story of truth and mercy A story of peace and light A story of peace and light The dark fish shall turn to dawning, And the dawning to noonday bright, And Christ's great kingdom shall come to The kingdom of heaven. This is the third verse. We've a message to give to the nations And the Lord who reigneth above Has sent his Son to save us And show us that God is love And show us that God is love For the dark fish have turned to dawning, and the dawning to noon they cry. And Christ's great kingdom shall come to earth, the kingdom of love and light. Be the Savior to show to the nations To the land of sorrow and triumph That all the world's great peoples Might come to the truth of God. Come to the truth of God. O'er the darkness shall turn to dawning, And the dawning shall be the day bright, And bright like day doth shall come to earth, Our kingdom of love and light. Next week, Lord willing, we'll be in Genesis chapter 9, and we'll talk about a bow in the sky. But until then, may the love of God, our Father, and the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with and abide with you all, both now and forevermore. And everyone said together, Amen.