Turn with me now in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 12. It's good to be back with you this morning after two weeks away. Thank you for your prayers. We had good travels. We had a good youth retreat last weekend. I'll be glad to yak your ear off about that if you want. In addition to being blessed with 180 young people and Just a great time of teaching and gathering together. They shared all their colds with me and I've had a week of battling through that along with Eric as well. So keep my voice in prayer this morning. We'll see what's left. We'll begin this morning with Revelation chapter 12. I'll read the whole chapter and then we'll turn over to Genesis 3 in a moment. Let's begin with Revelation chapter 12. You're now the word of the Lord. And a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains in the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, the great red dragon with seven heads and 10 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 stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child, she might devour it, 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 has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of us Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives, even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them, But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. When the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given two wings of the great eagle, so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness. to the place where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood. The earth came to the help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman. and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring and those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. Amen. John looks up into the heavens and in the Spirit he sees the world as it really is. A world in which two things can be known to be true. First, From the beginning to the end there will be war. Truly our days are marked by war. Eric prayed about war. But there is a war behind all these wars. And that is the war that John witnesses in the Spirit. The war between the forces of evil and of good. The war between God and the sin that we have brought in. This war will surely be worked out to the second certainty. God will win. It's not a real war in the sense that the outcome is guaranteed. It's not a real war in that God must support the other side in order to keep them in the fight. For if he was not permitting, if he was not allowing in his sovereignty these things to come to pass, they shouldn't. God, in His grace and in His wisdom, is working out a war between good and evil on earth from the founding of the world till its end. But what good could possibly come from war? Turn back to Genesis chapter 3. We're going to look this morning from Genesis chapter 3 verses 9-19. Genesis chapter 3 verses 9 through 19, we take up the story again of God's work in the garden and in creation. And some, what, two, three weeks ago, I left you with that terrific, no, four weeks ago, I left you with that terrific cliffhanger. Humanity has just fallen into sin. What happens next? Well, here we are, we're back, a month later. Genesis chapter three, we'll pick up in verse 19, I'm sorry, verse nine, and we'll read through verse 19. Hear now the word of the Lord. 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 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. 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. 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. To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desires shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you. And to Adam he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you are taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Amen and Amen. Parental discipline is a perfect time to present the gospel. Have some of you experienced this? Where you kneel down and you look your child in the eye and you confront the sinner with the law of God. You explain the situation, you say, little child, you have to use little child language, right? You say, little child, you said this, you did this, you have this attitude. That one's a little hard for the little kids to get sometimes, isn't it? And then you present them with the scriptures. Here's the truth about what God says about those words. Here's what God says about that attitude. Here's what God says about that action, that behavior. And your aim as a loving parent is to bring that rebellious, evil little heart, those vipers in diapers, into submission and conviction of Scripture, a certainty of sin. And when the curse or the consequence for sin is applied, and the tears well up in their eyes, have you ever looked at your child and said, and what does 1 John 1.9 say? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And on the heels of that fatherly or motherly discipline, there's that soothing ointment of grace, that hug, that sweet symbol of the gospel, it is well. There is forgiveness. You see, Moses writes the story of God's visit to Adam and Eve in the garden as if God were a loving Father coming down to chastise His wayward children. The reason Moses writes it this way is because He is. God is a loving Father who has come down to discipline His wayward children. You see, the reality in the text, the story we are about to study in detail is that Sin kills. Sin is no game. Sin is no plaything. Sin is a deadly peril. Sin kills. But God saves. And so we have to hear Christ in the curse. We have to see Jesus amidst the curse that has played out in our life. Now, let me develop these ideas for you a little bit. Let's go through the passage together and see these ideas unfold. Notice at the beginning of the story, God comes like a loving father and he confronts his sinning children with a series of questions. Now, I want you to see two sides to this brief conversation. This is verses nine through 13. And in beginning in verse nine, God asks his first question. He calls to the man in the midst of the garden. God has come into it to walk with him in the cool of the day. There is a fellowship and a friendship that God is in expectation of. And yet he must call out, where are you? The human has hid himself behind the tree. Now, of course, this is exactly like parents playing hide and seek with their toddlers, right? The man is not actually hidden from view. The tree is not obscuring his presence. God knows exactly where he is. The problem, like with the toddler, Adam doesn't know where he is. God knows where Adam is. Adam doesn't. And notice how long it takes Adam to get to the right answer. Adam, in his reply, says, I heard the sound of you in the garden, number one. I was afraid, number two, because I was naked, number three, and I hid myself. It's not until the very end of the sentence that Adam finally comes to the truth of the matter. Where are you? I am hiding. Where are you? I am avoiding you. A relationship founded in love and grace and goodness, where God has given him every good thing and blessed him? This relationship, this bond of love is severed. It is broken. And Adam has thus killed, through his sin, a bond of love with God. His relationship is dead. It is a negative relationship. It is a relationship that he avoids. It is a fellowship and a presence that Adam now runs from, that Adam now hides from. Adam, where are you? Dead in my sin. Adam, where are you? Hiding from you, the God of love. Adam, where are you? Buried in guilt and shame. But notice that Adam has to process that reality through his own experience. I heard the sound of you. Oh, just 24 hours before the sound of God brought such joy to Adam's heart. But now his ears don't work right. The sound of God no longer produces that burst of joy, it produces agony and fear. Adam is dying, the sound has the wrong effect. I was afraid. Adam, for the first time in his life, feels that feeling, that emotion of terror, of dread, that you and I have known since infancy. That's how that word's said. From infancy, we have known fear. and insecurity and doubt and worry and anxiety, but Adam had never felt that feeling. It's a new feeling. I was naked. Adam had never known what nakedness was. It wasn't a category. The bareness of his body meant nothing to him. He was naked and unashamed, and now he has sown fig leaves and covered himself, and the fig leaves weren't enough, so he went behind the tree and hid behind the tree. Not only has the relationship with God died, but because the relationship with God has been killed by sin, The sinner himself is being killed. His body must be hidden. His shame has overwhelmed him. His guilt has got him in a death grip. Adam is losing his self because he has lost his God. And my friends, let us apply this to our lives. The day our society decided to be atheists is the day our society decided to commit suicide. We cannot be a humanity without God. We are made in His image, and to avoid Him, and to be afraid of Him, and to despise Him, and to pretend He is not there, is to kill ourselves, is to kill the source of our identity, the source of our self-worth. We must recognize that sin kills. But notice the kindness of God. He doesn't tolerate death in his creation. He seeks Adam out anyway, and he questions him. Beloved, we should have such love for one another that we should know sin is killing our brothers and sisters. Sin is destroying that peaceful relationship with God. So let us, like God, with compassion, go to one another and speak gently, questioningly, where are you? You have an opportunity this afternoon, there's a fellowship lunch. There will be yummy food. There will be yummy drinks. There will be a crowded fellowship hall. It's the perfect opportunity to look at someone and say, where are you? Where are you in your spiritual life? How's your faith doing? How is it with your soul? Where are you? It is a loving and wonderful question for Christians to ask each other. because if we leave each other in sin, we leave each other in death. But not only does the sin work death in us, it works death among us, which is what we see in the second conversation. God turns and says, who told you you were naked? Where is this information coming from, Adam? As God would recall, He told Adam many things. He told him about the earth and the creation and the world. He didn't tell Adam about nakedness. That wasn't part of the conversation. Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? Ah, there's the knife's edge. See again the gentleness of the Father? He does not accuse, he does not condemn. As a loving father, God probes the heart of his son, and he asks the burning question, have you disobeyed me? Have you broken my law? Have you sinned? Notice Adam's answer in verse 12. It ends with the words, and I ate. Like Adam's first answer, he does get to the truth eventually. I hid, that's where I am. I ate, yes, I sinned. He does confess his sin, but only after he first throws his wife under the bus. The woman whom you gave to be with me. Oh, he didn't just throw the woman under the bus, he threw God under the bus. Wait, Lord, this all started with you. You made a woman. It wasn't my idea. You brought the woman to me. I didn't ask for her. The woman you gave to me, she gave me the fruit. It was her hand on the fruit. She took it first. You don't have any kids like this, right? Oh, he started it. Oh, she started it. You don't have any marriages like this, do you? Oh, but you always. Oh, but you never. We don't have any friendships like this, do we? From the beginning, when sin begins to kill the soul, that death oozes out into our relationships. Adam is not grateful to God for his wife. Adam is not grateful to God for his work. Adam admits in the end, I ate, but only after he has blamed God and the woman. In similar manner, God turns to the woman and says to her, what is this that you have done? The woman follows Adam's lead. The serpent deceived me. And I ate. Like Adam, she does get around to admitting her sin. I did eat the forbidden fruit. There is a confession of sin here. But it is the confession of sin to which we are so often prone, that when someone confronts us of our sin, we explain all the circumstances and mitigating factors. We distribute all the guilt and all the blame to as many fellow conspirators as we can credit. And then finally, when we have minimized as much as we can minimize, we say, yeah, that part's mine. I did that. This is a great way to kill your relationships. This is how sin kills our love for one another. This is how sin kills our affections in our society. Oh, it's my environment. Oh, it's my circumstances. Oh, it's those other people. Oh, it's those serpents, those animals, those creation. This too is something we have to learn to apply to our lives. That we, like God, should love one another enough to ask difficult, probing questions. Where are you? And how did you get there? What led you astray? What is the anatomy of your temptation? What is the pathology of your sin? Why did you succumb? Why were you weak? What can we as a church do as brothers and sisters to do to strengthen you in your hour of temptation that you might say no to sin? But also, we have to learn from our first parents, this is not how to respond when confronted with sin. Yes, there are many circumstances we can talk about, and some of them are quite legitimate. Yes, there are many interpersonal issues that are legitimate. But my friends, at the end of the day, if we want to have healthy, holy relationships, bounding in love for one another, then when someone finds your sin, the correct answer is, I'm sorry, please forgive me. And we start with that. We start with, I'm sorry, please forgive me. Let it be said this way, we are quick to repent and quicker to forgive. This is how we fight sin and its death in our society. But God then turns. The conversation ends. The dialogue is over. He has questioned his son, he has questioned his daughter, and they have dialogued together. But there is no question for the serpent. Now comes the curse. There is no conversation. All the evidence has been presented. The story has been told. Now comes authority. Now comes wrath and judgment. And notice that when God speaks this curse, There is tremendous justice in all that he says, and incredible mercy, too. This curse that he is about to pronounce is drenched from beginning to end in justice, and it is also full of compassion and mercy. I've been reading a little book by Herman Bovec I actually finished it last night. It's a big book, actually, and it's slow going. There's a beautiful sentence in which he speaks about the covenant of grace, and Bobbitt says, in the pronouncement of punishment on the snake and the woman and the man, God gave the instruments of salvation. This is, in the words of Bovic, not only a curse, it is also a blessing. Let's hear both sides of this. Let's hear the curse that condemns us for our sin, and let us hear the promise of salvation. God speaks to the serpent in verse 14 and says, because you have done this, because you have deceived my daughter and led her into sin, cursed are you above all livestock, above all the beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Notice that God, when he addresses the serpent, gives two punishments, which are exceedingly just, punishments which fit the crime. Because you have done this, because you have elevated yourself to speak to humans, which no snake should ever do, because you have elevated yourself to contradict the word of God and to say, you shall not surely die, which no creature should ever do, because you have flattered yourself, because you have meddled in this business of God and humanity and their relationship one to another, I will elevate you still higher. Do you see the play on words? You shall be cursed above all other creatures. You shall be cursed above all creation. Down into the dust you shall go. You will dwell in the realms of the dead. You will slither among the place of the grave. All your life's work will be nothing but death, and you will bring into this world nothing but death. Now some of you don't like slithery reptiles, and this resonates with you. But do remember it's a theological text, and the main point is actually that this is about Satan, and that he is cursed in such a way that his work is always in the realms of the dead, and he can only ever bring death. This is a punishment that fits his crime. He who deceived and tempted so that through sin death might come into creation. God says, fine, if that's the way you want your business, then your business will only ever be death. You will never rise above death. You will dwell in the world besides humanity and all you shall ever do is cause death until you yourself are swallowed up in death, Revelation 20. His second punishment is like it. I will put enmity forever between you, the worker of death, you, the father of lies, you, the deceiver of nations, and the seed of the woman. You have to put yourself in Adam and Eve's bare feet for a minute. They have sinned, and they are drowning in guilt and in shame, and they are scared, and they think dying they shall die. And they hear their Father from heaven say, I will put enmity between your kids and her kids. Can you imagine the sound of the word offspring striking their ears and Adam and Eve grabbing each other in shock? You mean we're gonna have kids? You mean, though we die, we will live long enough to have children? Oh, the mercy of God in this curse. It is just that he should strike down that serpent of old and consign him to the realms of the dead. But it is also just and merciful that he should delay the curse of death so that Adam and Eve should produce children, and that the war between the righteous and the wicked should prolong through days until at last there should be one righteous. the seed of the woman, even Jesus Christ. And notice the beauty, the poetry of the curse. Having already committed the serpent to the dust, all he can do is bite the heel. That's as high as he can get. But the son of righteousness, the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, in having his heel bit, will crush forever the head of the serpent. Here is this promise of salvation that in the death of Christ, death shall die and that in the death of Christ, Satan shall be forever destroyed and his deceit put to an end. This is what we must apply to one another when we confront sin. We have to confront sin with that hope and that courage that we not only ask gentle questions like a loving father, as God did to Adam and Eve, but we also ask questions in a way that point our children and our spouses and our friends and our neighbors to the serpent-slaying son of Eve. If our discipline in correction of sin doesn't end with a gospel presentation, we did it wrong. because God's discipline ended with a gospel presentation. Of course, it hasn't ended yet, has it? He then turns to the woman. He says to the woman, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you. Again, the punishment that God pronounces on the woman is a curse that fits her crime. It is a judgment that is in keeping with what she has done. God's justice is evident in it. First, the multiplication of pain in childbearing. In pain, she will bring forth children. There's a totality to this curse. Motherhood hangs over every woman everywhere at all times. From their earliest days, little girls grow up in the shadow of motherhood, and all women live in the shadow and pain of motherhood. Some women will suffer the pain of never becoming a mother. Some women will suffer the pain of having a child that doesn't survive. Some mothers will have the pain of having children turn out a way they didn't want them to. Some mothers will be blessed with all healthy children who grow up holy and godly and wonderful, and there will be much agony along that road too. There is no pain-free way to be a woman, I will greatly increase your pain and childbearing. There is no pain-free way to be a mother. This curse is now embedded into the identity of a woman here on earth. Since the fall, motherhood will be a source of agony, but not just motherhood, marriage. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you. Women shall suffer the pain of their marriage. There shall be desire that is contrary to the husband. There shall be authority and submission and struggle and strife. And the heartache and grief will be intense and severe. Both marriage and motherhood are now a source of pain and discomfort, and women will live their lives regardless of the details that are worked out in their specific circumstances. They will live their lives at the crossroads of society and relationships, and it will always be a source of pain for them. We see this in the life of mothers throughout Scripture. We see this in Hannah and Sarah and Rebecca. We see this in Mary. A sword shall pierce your own soul, said Simeon when he saw the baby Jesus. This is a curse that is fitting for a woman who played the ultimate middleman. She stood between her husband and the serpent, and she gave ear to the serpent's lies and deceit, and she seized the fruit and she passed it to her husband, none of which diminishes the serpent's sin. His curse is just. None of it diminishes the man's sin. His curse we're coming to, and it too is just. But as the one who stood in the middle and facilitated this relationship of wickedness, she is now cursed to stand in the middle of all the relationships that will break her heart from birth to death. Her curse is just. But it is also merciful, for as the Apostle Paul says, she is saved through childbearing. that this agony that is visited upon her in her pain of motherhood and marriage is nevertheless the very same instrument by which God will bring Jesus into the world. That a virgin will conceive and bear a son. This curse carries with it a just condemnation. It also carries with it a merciful expression of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. So too, Paul will pick up on this language in Ephesians 5 and say, dear ones, there is a husband who's not like this one. There is a husband not like Adam. We, the church, the bride of Christ, can look to Jesus as a husband who rules over us with love and compassion and kindness, and we need not have any desire contrary to him. It is a relationship of healing and peace. This is the gospel we must apply whenever we go about the business of condemning sin. Whenever we go about the business of bringing forth the curse and saying, little child, dear spouse, friend and neighbor, you have sinned and your sin is killing you and us. But there is Christ. But there is Christ who slays the serpent, but there is Christ, the true son, the true husband. So then we come to the man. And again we see that the curse is just. God curses Adam and says, by the way, he's called Adam here. I've fallen into, I tried in chapters one and two to call him the man, the man, the man, the man, because that's what the Bible uses, and the woman, the woman, the woman. Last couple of words days I fell into using Adam and Eve as a given name. This is when they get their given name. This is the naming here at the end of chapter three. But to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Notice his words, cursed is the ground because of you. The serpent was cursed. The woman was cursed. Adam, because he listened to his wife and not to God, because he honored the word of his wife and not the word of God, has cursed all creation. The serpent's sin resulted in the serpent's curse. The woman's sin resulted in the woman's curse. Adam's sin resulted in a curse on the whole of creation. In Adam we all fall. The soil is cursed, the plants are cursed, the crops are cursed. No longer will it be easy and beautiful and joyful. Pain shall be our companion as we try to grow. But not only will the work be hard, it'll be futile and fruitless. We will work hard in pain and in agony. There will be sweat on our brow as we labor in the dust, and then the results will be thorns and thistles. That's it. That is the sum total of our experience. I mean, when you stop and consider this, I mean, how many of you have had days like that? Where you get up in the morning and you go to work, and you labor all day long, and it is hard, and when the day ends and you go to check out, you realize you didn't move the ball down the field one inch. That project made no progress. There was no more work at the end of the day than when you started. I'm seeing some clever smiles on mom's faces. Is this not our experience? That so often we labor long and we labor hard and nothing seems to come of it. Nothing seems to be the fruitful result of it. Consider the accumulation. I had a friend devote over 20 years of his life to the Air Force, and when he went to retire, he said, it's like pulling your hand out of a bucket of water. No sooner is your hand gone and the water closes in, it's like you were never there. How much of us will spend an entire career on something, and as soon as you're gone, it's like you were never there? Thorns and thistles grow up. Our work has been yielded into futility. But it is by this work that the bread of the ground comes forth, accumulating into our death, so that we go down into dust. You see, friends, this too is just. That Adam has made a prey of creation. Adam has stretched out his hand and said, it is my world, and I will do with it what I want, and I will be God, or like him. here on earth, and God says in his justice, that sin kills, and so I must curse it, and I must curse it in a way that hinders the killing. Death will and must come, but I will give you hard labor so that you may delay the death. but even far greater than this, in terms of the mercy and goodness of God. For you are dust, and to dust you will return. And once you are in the dust, Jesus will raise you from the dead. You see, this curse anticipates resurrection. This curse anticipates life after death. Moses constructs the words of God as being full of wisdom and love and grace, that like a father he should come to his children and say, you have killed creation with your sin. You have killed our relationship and our covenant with your sin. And so I will curse your death-causing sin, and I will curse it with all the instruments necessary to bring about the salvation of sinners in Christ. I will send you a serpent-slaying son. I will send you a bridegroom who will love you in faithfulness. I will send you the resurrection and the life. the bread from heaven, the water of life. Do you see Jesus in the curse here in your text? Then maybe, maybe you'll be ready to see Jesus in the curse in the world around you. Maybe you'll be ready to see sin killed and God saved. This is what our text is teaching us this morning. See how sin kills, but see how God saves. See Jesus amidst the curse. Please pray with me. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this beautiful day. We thank you for this difficult passage. We thank you for the truth. that you have not hid from us, that we as sinners have caused death to reign in our bodies and in our relationships and in our world. But we do pray this morning, Father, and give you thanks that you have also shown us the resurrection and the life in Jesus Christ and have caused us by faith to look through the text and to see Jesus. We pray, Father, that this would transform how we relate to one another, that we would not be afraid to be confronted with our sin, and we would not be afraid to confront one another with sin, that we, like you, would ask probing questions, and that we, like you, would supply the loving promise of both the condemnation of sin and yet the hope in Christ Jesus. And we pray, Father, that we all together as your church would be much encouraged and strengthened as we experience your saving and sanctifying presence through this work. We give you thanks for these things and ask your blessing in Jesus' name, amen.