Well, if you would, look now with me to the beginning, to the book of Genesis. We're going to look at portions of the first three chapters of Genesis this morning, but I'm gonna read just one verse for us to get us started, and then we're going to pray, and we'll get into it here. Let me read for us just this one verse, Genesis 3, verse 15. The promise of the gospel. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Heavenly Father, we praise you that even in the midst of our rebellion against you, You promised our redemption through your own son. So please be with us now as we consider your word. Help us to be attentive. Please, Lord, minister to our needs this morning. We need you most of all. We need this offspring. We need your son. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. This morning, we're going to take a break from our series going through the Gospel of Mark. We're going to pick that back up in the new year. But over these five Sundays in December, we're going to consider a new series that we're calling God With Us. And we're going to talk about what that means. What does it mean that God is with us? This is, of course, the great promise of Emmanuel. That's what that name means. And, of course, that's what we see in the beginning of Matthew's gospel. He tells us about this. The angel visits Joseph and he tells him about this boy, Jesus. And Matthew 1, verse 22, says that all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Isaiah 7, verse 14. which says, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. And Matthew adds in brackets there, which means God with us. And that's what this series is gonna be all about. What does it mean that God is with us? Why is the birth of Jesus such a monumental event in human history? Why is it the event in human history? Why is it the culmination of God's redemptive plan for his people, the fulfillment of all that God had spoken of through his prophets in the generations prior? Why was it all leading up to this birth of this boy, Jesus? And what does it mean for us today? And what does it mean for you? Does the promise of God with us have any bearing in our lives? Does it have any importance for us? as we feel torn in all kinds of different directions. We feel pressures of meeting deadlines for work, for month's end and for year end. We're trying to plan holiday travels, trying to figure out how we're gonna be able to visit all the different families, how we can be in multiple places at once, how can we please everyone. Maybe you've been struggling this year to make ends meet, and you're wondering, how Christmas gifts for your kids are going to fit into that, how they're going to work out. Or maybe you just aren't looking forward to this holiday season at all because this is a holiday season that's full of loss and grief, the first season where you're going to be celebrating without someone that you've loved dearly. It's hard to believe then that God with us, this promise, how does that have any impact in my life? But here's the truth of the matter, that no matter whatever else we might think we want or what we need, no matter what our pain or the grief that we have, what is available to us is what we need the most, and that is God with us. And that Jesus actually cares about all those things that are going on in your life, big or small, whatever they are. He wants to be with you in those things. And He, in fact, promises that He is with you. That's what we're looking at today. That's what we'll be looking at over the month of December. So across these next five Sundays, we're gonna consider the grand story of redemption, of how Jesus is Emmanuel, He is God with us, how He saves His people, how His people were lost, because of their sin, how we live in a broken world full of sin and death because of this rebellion, but how Jesus enters into that, how He is God with us, how He redeems us, how He saves us. We'll see how God first, he sought his people out in the types and shadows in the Old Testament, how he, in the fullness of time, was born of the Virgin Mary, and how we have nothing left to worry about. All we have to look forward to is God with us forever. That's our glorious future we have. From past to present, all the way to the future, God will be with us. But for just this morning, We need to start at the beginning. In order to understand the grand story of it all, we need to start back at the beginning in these first three chapters of Genesis. That's what we want to do this morning. And what I want us to take away from this section of Scripture is this main idea. This is the main thing I want us to take away, is that God with us was lost, but not forever. God with us was lost, but not forever. We had God with us, but we lost it due to sin. Thankfully, by God's grace, we didn't lose it forever. God was with us when he created us. He made us to be with him. We lost that relationship through the rebellion and our own sin of our first parents. We continue in that sin, constantly adding to it day by day. We lost it, but we didn't lose it forever. Even in the midst of the penalty of our sin, God promised a Redeemer who would be Emmanuel. That's what we're looking at this morning. Let's work our way through the text now. I'm gonna read certain passages as we go along. We're gonna focus on three areas, three things as we work our way through that each build up to the main idea that we just said, that God with us was lost, but not forever. So the first thing that we want to see then is God with us. This is how we were created, God with us. Have you ever wondered what your purpose in life is? Have you ever wondered what life is all about? What's the meaning of life? What's my purpose here? The world gives us all kinds of answers. Right now in our modern and post-modern culture, that answer predominantly is that you have to be true to yourself. That whatever you feel strongest inside of you is your true self, and then everything else must conform to that feeling that you have. Everything around you, even your own body, must be conformed and self-actualized into what you feel inside. And this has had disastrous results. Because it's not what life is all about. But scripture tells us. Scripture tells us what life is about. It gives us our purpose in life. And our purpose is actually, it's quite simple. It's maybe difficult to live out, but it's quite simple to wrap our heads around. Our purpose is to be in relationship with God, our creator. That's what life is all about, is to love the one who has first loved us. This is Augustine's, it's his famous line, you've made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee. We were created to be with God, to find rest and meaning and joy and purpose in him. And as we find joy and harmony with God, we're to find joy and harmony with one another. We're to live in perfect harmony with God's people. It's no surprise then that Jesus' great commandment is to love the Lord your God with everything that's in you. Heart, soul, mind, and strength to love your neighbor as yourself. That's our purpose in life. That's what we were created for. This purpose is summarized and stated in many different ways. Our catechism says that the chief end, or that means the ultimate purpose, the highest purpose, the chief end of man, of mankind, is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Well, how do we get to that conclusion? How do we know that to be true? Well, Scripture, it brings us there. There's so many things that we can discuss from these chapters in Genesis, but we only have time to look at a few this morning, so look at me, look with me, look at me as I look at scripture, you look with me as well. To Genesis chapter two. And I wanna read verse seven and eight for us. Genesis 2 verse 7 and 8. We didn't look at chapter one, which gives us the broad brush stroke of how God created mankind on the sixth day. God created man, male and female, in his image, he created them. But here in chapter two, we zoom in to see how man doesn't have hands, but the language here is that of a potter with a lump of clay. He got his hands dirty, as it were. He scooped up the ground and he formed and he fashioned man. This is a picture of an intimate creation. God was intimately involved in creating us, more than he was in the other things that he created. He got his hands dirty, as it were, because he loved us, he loved humankind. And this love is reinforced in the next phrase, that he breathed life into him. And this is the breath of life from the life giving spirit himself. And commentators, they rightly point out that whereas our bodies were formed and fashioned by the dust, by the ground, by the earth. The soul given to mankind comes immediately from God himself. This is the life-giving spirit, it comes directly from God himself. There is no other substance, there's no other material that he's using, but he's breathing immediately from himself to us. This is how God created man. And if that wasn't enough, in verse eight we're told that God, he planted this garden in Eden and then he took Adam and he put him there. So God is with us, it's right here. God created us to be with him. God could have made Adam and he could have sent him out. He could have sent him out immediately. But that's not the purpose for which he created him. But rather, he created him to be with him, to be in the garden, in his presence. The exact location of Eden, the exact location of this garden, that's not important for us. It's an interesting question, but it's not of most importance. What's important for us to see is that God is with us. is that this text shows us the relationship we had with God. We were created to be with God. Eden represents God's dwelling place. Eden is the holy of holies, if you're thinking of the temple. This is where God's presence was so, it was all here. And he plants the garden so that Adam could be with him in his presence. This is the tragedy of the fall, that we lost that intimate relationship, that intimate presence with God, but we're not there yet, we're not there at the fall. We'll get there in a moment, but first let's look more about what God with us was like before the fall. God intimately created us, he breathed life into us, he created a home for us in the garden, and then he gives us this purposeful work to do. So look down with me at verses 15 through 17. It says that the Lord God, he took the man, he put him in the garden, and it says, to work and to keep. To work it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. So here's the covenant that God made with Adam in the garden. Here's the simple command I give you, and I invite you to trust in me, to hear my word, to accept it, and to believe it. And here's the work that I'm giving you to do, to work and to keep. This is priestly work. We are to work, we are to expand the garden, we are to keep, which is to protect. We are to watch over what God has given us to do. That includes everything. That includes our theology, that includes what we think about God, that includes proper worship of God, all these things we are called to keep and protect and to work to advance in God's world that He's given us. This is what God has called us to do and given us then that explicit command as well, to not eat of the fruit of the tree. God had given Adam the task, he gave our first parents this task, to work and to keep the garden and to trust in him and in his word. Finally, after all these things, God creates a wife for Adam after forming all kinds of different creatures. He forms Eve, this woman from his side. And Adam says in verse 23 that this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. What can we say about all of these things? There's so much there. What can we say about all of these things? Well, we can summarize it by saying that God created mankind. He created male and female. He created you. He created me to be in relationship with one another. As we work and keep God's, His kingdom, as we enjoy His presence, ultimately we were created to be in that same intimate relationship with God, our Maker, with God Himself, glorifying Him and enjoying Him forever. That is what we are created to be. That is what we are created to do. That is God with us. But we know, tragically, that this did not last. God with us was lost. So look now in chapter three with me, please. I'm going to read this section for us. It's a familiar story, a familiar account, of course, but as you hear these words read, let it sink in to you. the tragedy and the sinfulness of sin, everything that we knew that we had but now was lost. Chapter three, beginning in verse one, now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, And that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me, and I ate. We'll pick up the rest in just a moment, but this here is the great sin that plunged the world into darkness and into brokenness. This is the great rebellion against God. This is what Paul says in Romans 8 verse 20, that for creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it. All creation, we'll go on to say, all creation groans, all creation is under the weight of this sin and this brokenness. This is the world that we live in. Because of the creatures rebelling against the almighty creator. And because of this sin, God's perfect justice, it demanded that his rebellious creation be removed from his presence. A holy God cannot dwell amongst sin. Sin cannot coexist with a perfect holy God. And later in chapter three, it describes how God, he sends them out from his presence, but he does not do so immediately. Do you see the kindness of God, even in the midst of this wicked sin? God, He calls to Adam. Does the all-knowing God need help finding out where Adam and Eve are? Does the all-powerful God, does He need a hand? Certainly He doesn't. But He invited Adam and Eve like He invites all of us to come to Him. willingly confessing our sins to him, because he is a good father who forgives our sin. But the first inclination is to hide. That's our first inclination, just like our first parents. We feel naked, we feel ashamed, and we're so quick to shift the blame instead of taking that personal responsibility. Adam tells God, well, it was the woman who you gave me. She's the reason. Did Eve sin? Yes. Yes, of course, but it was not her fault that Adam ate. Adam was given the command to work and to keep. It was his job to protect the garden. It was his job to protect the commandment of God. So where was he when the serpent entered? It was his job to protect. It was his job to keep. He failed to keep God's commandment. Eve, likewise, she passes the blame as well. The serpent this evening. Was the serpent at fault? Absolutely. But Eve was given the command as well to trust in the Lord her God, to trust in His word, but in pride she rejected God's word. And this is the temptation that we all face every single day of our lives. It's the same temptation. It's the same lie that Satan told to Eve. Did God really say? Did God really say? God wants us to believe in Him. He wants us to believe in His Word. He knows that we will be tempted to abandon His Word, but more than anything, God wants us to be with Him in this relationship through His Word, humbly trusting in what He has to say for us. Stephen Charnock, he has a classic work on God, the existence and attributes of God. He writes, very helpfully, he writes that the language of every sin is this, that I would be a Lord to myself and would not have a God superior to me. That's at the heart of every sin, is that I would be God and I would not have a God or a Lord over me. That's what happened in the garden that day. That's what had plunged all mankind, all of creation into sin. This is the world in which we live. This is the broken world in which we find ourselves. A world full of sin, a world full of brokenness, a world full of death, of loss, of pain. God with us was lost. And this is the result. But thankfully, Thanks be to God that it was not forever. God with us was lost, but not forever. Right after this, right after this confession of sin. God, He begins to pronounce His judgment against sin, but it's in the midst of this pronouncement of judgment against all wickedness that God also announces His great mercy. This is the verse that we read earlier today. I'm gonna start in verse 14, and we'll read verse 15 again. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. And verse 15. and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. And he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This verse right here is the very first promise of the gospel. This is the promise of the good news, that even though God's people have plunged themselves into sin, God himself will be the one to bring them out. And how will God do this? It's through a certain offspring of the woman. This offspring who's going to wage bloody war against the offspring of the serpent. I will put enmity between the two of them, between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, you shall bruise his heel. This is the Redeemer who is promised. And all the rest of our Bibles, all the rest of your Bible is a commentary on this verse. Because from this point onward, God's people are going to be asking, God's people are going to be searching, who is this offspring? Who is this person? Who is this Redeemer that is going to undo everything that has been done? In the very next chapter, chapter four of Genesis, we read of the first skirmish between these two sets of offspring. The offspring of the serpent, he strikes first as Cain murders his brother Abel. But God raises up another offspring for Eve. He raises up her son Seth because God has appointed him so that the lineage of Eve would continue. And we see all through Genesis now the story of God's redemption from Seth to Noah, whom God preserves through the judgment flood, all the way down to Abraham. And God calls Abraham, and we read that earlier. Mary herself recounts this wonderful act of God's providence, where God calls Abraham and God gives the promise to Abraham that you will have an offspring. Why does God give this promise to Abraham? It's not because of his son Isaac, who is the promised offspring, but he was just a type and a prefigure of the offspring that was to come. This offspring from Abraham's line is the promised offspring in Genesis 3.15 who would crush the serpent's head. In the rest of this series, we are going to look at how that wonderful, amazing story unfolds. How the story of this offspring who is to come, who will right every wrong and defeat all sin. We're going to look at how that happens. We're going to look at how God fulfills His promise and brings about this glorious offspring all the way through Scripture. But as we conclude, as we close today, we're going to skip ahead. Because we know that this offspring who's promised, He is Christ Jesus. Paul says in Galatians 3.16, he says that, now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. The same word used in Genesis 3.15, to the seed of Abraham. And Paul says that it does not say, and to offsprings, plural, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ. That is why, beginning to end, the story of the Bible is about Christ. It's about Jesus. He is the offspring who was promised. He is the one who defeats the serpent. He defeats death. He crushes sin and death under his feet. He crushes the serpent's head. It cost him his life, though. His heel is bruised. It cost him his life, but it is not a mortal wound. Jesus rose again from the dead on the third day. In his death, he has trampled over death. He is victorious. God with us was lost, but not forever. That is the good news of Jesus. That is the good news of God with us. That's how God created us to be. We had everything we could ever possibly need or want in that garden because we had God with us. But we lost it due to our sin. And because of our sin, we ourselves are lost. That feeling of hopelessness and helplessness that we can feel, the grief and pain because of death and loss, the anxiety and fear that exists everywhere that we look, that is a result of what was lost on that day. This is sin and the effects of sin everywhere in our world. And apart from God's grace, this is all that we would ever have. That's the bad news. Apart from God's grace, the wages, what's required of our sin is death. That's the bad news. But the good news is that there is a man whose name is Emmanuel, which means God with us. Because He is God Himself in the flesh, He has dwelt among us, and through His life and death and resurrection, He has reconciled us back to God, and now that life that we were created for, that life that we desire more than anything, even more than our words can express sometimes, that life is available to us again. Jesus came and He preached that I am the bread of life. He gives eternal life, He gives abundant life to His people. So what you need most this season, what you need most every season is Christ. If you don't have Christ, you need Christ. If you have Christ, you need more of Christ. He is the only one who can make the sufferings that we go through in this life to be incomparable to the glory that is to come when he returns. He can bring rest to restless hearts. He can bring forgiveness to burdened hearts and clean guilty consciences. He can do this. So if nothing else this December, if nothing else happens, seek Christ. That's what it's all about. Seek the one who is God with us, God in the flesh. That is Christ. Let's seek him now together as we pray. Please pray with me. Jesus, you are Emmanuel, you are God with us because you are God in the flesh. So please, we pray that you would be with us this morning. For those who are burdened and weighted down, may you be their source of strength and their shield about them, the lifter of their heads. For those who are burdened with sin, Jesus, you are the Lamb of God who takes away all sin. Be their advocate and cleanse them. For those who might not know you, would you make yourself known? And even during this prayer, even during this time in our service, would you be calling your lost sheep back to the fold? In everything, Lord, may our lives be centered around you because you are God with us. You are God in the flesh. You are our savior, our redeemer, our master, and our friend. And we pray all this in your name, the name above every name. Amen.