All right, we'll go ahead and get started this morning. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for this beautiful day, Lord. We thank you for your kindness, your grace, your mercy towards us. Thank you so much for the gift of your Son, through whom you've drawn us near to you and given us access into your presence and made us your very own children and forgiven our sins and put them away from us as far as the east is from the west, Lord. Please enliven our hearts and our minds, Lord, to attend to these things and to focus upon them and to worship you and to give you the praise and thanksgiving that you are so worthy to receive from us. Lord, we ask that our time here in this class may be edifying and glorifying to you. Lord, we ask your blessings upon everything that transpires here this morning. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, hey. Well, good morning, everyone. That's good as always to see you. Just a brief announcement, and I'll send out an email later in the week just to remind everybody, we will not have class next Sunday. I'm gonna be out of town for a couple days this week and won't be coming back till early Sunday morning, so I won't be able to make it here in time to teach the class, but Lord willing, I should see you in the worship service. So no class next week. We'll pick up the following week again, Lord willing. All right, so last week we began to look at the fall and the beginning of the covenant of grace, and in the next class we'll pick up along those lines as well, and then we'll move on, Lord willing, to the Noahic covenant. Again, we'll be revisiting a lot of the themes that we've talked about so far in regards to covenant, in regards to the covenant of works, and looking back and showing how there is an establishment of a covenant of works in the beginning, in the garden between God and man. and then the progression of the covenant of grace throughout redemptive history as it's administrated through the various covenants which God establishes with his people. So we looked last week at some of the aspects of the fall, some of the effects of the fall, and what I want to do this morning is to look particularly at Genesis chapter 3, look at how the fall came about. In particular, look at some of the ways in which This is just such a rich passage as I was reading it and studying it this week. It really helps us and gives us a great amount of insight into what's going on in the world today. We're talking about the entrance of sin and death into the world. and how the devil brought that about through Adam's transgression, and how we see his game plan works. He repeats himself, uses the same things over and over and over again, as I think, hopefully, Lord willing, we'll see this morning, so that we're not ignorant of his devices, or surprised when we see the world turn in the directions that it does. This passage really contains some of the saddest words ever recorded. and that we see the origin of sin and death in the world. Yet we also see the beginning of hope as the Lord gives us the first glimpse of the covenant of grace. And to see more clearly what this passage is saying to us and what it says to us about both the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, we're going to look at some of the important truths that are imparted to us in this passage. First, one of the points that I want to make clear to us And hopefully, I don't have to make much of an argument in this regard. It's common, even among some Christians today, but it's common in academia as well, to view this passage, really the first 11 chapters of Genesis, as myth, as just an explanation of why things are the way they are. But this text is not a myth. This text is a very unique historical narrative that tells us about the origins of the universe, the origins of sin and evil, the origins of mankind, why things are the way they are, and the origins of how it is that God has provided for us a way of escape. Again, this is, and I think this can be clearly seen, particularly when we look at the New Testament. When we look at how the New Testament deals with the narrative of Adam and Eve, and of the fall, and of, you know, as we'll see in coming weeks, Lord willing, how it deals with Adam, or excuse me, how it deals with Noah, how it deals with the flood, how it deals with those events. And we'll see that the biblical authors of the New Testament, we'll see that Christ and the apostles themselves did not view this as a myth, did not view this as just a story to explain how and why things are the way they are. They viewed these things as it being actual events that took place and that had dire repercussions. 2 Corinthians 11, 1-3. We get an instance of the fall of mankind as Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 11, 1-3. He says, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Paul calls to mind the story of Adam and Eve with the serpent in the garden. 1 Timothy 2, I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. So in just these two passages, Paul anchors the points that he's making in the historical fact of Adam and Eve. And he says very clearly that there's been an order that is established, and this order is to be reflected in the church. It's to be reflected in our households. And it's grounded on the creation order of Adam and Eve. That Adam was formed first, then Eve second. Not in a sense of there being a lesser worth in Eve or a lesser worth in females, but that there's an order that is established. Luke 3, 23 through 38. Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age, being the son of, as was supposed, Joseph, the son of Heli, and on and on and on and on and on. And to get to the end, verse 38, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. Jesus' genealogy is anchored in, not a myth, but tracing his genealogy back to the first man, which frankly, all of our genealogies can be traced back to. Again, Acts 17, this is Paul at the Areopagus. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord, that's Genesis 1. Genesis 1.1. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined allotted periods in the boundaries of their dwelling place. Paul couches his presentation of the gospel to the pagans at the Areopagus who are worshiping false idols in the historical narrative of Genesis 1-3 and claims that all mankind are descended from the one man that God created at the beginning. Jude 14 and 15. It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, again harkening back to the the genealogy, that what's being talked about are real people, real events, things that actually happened. Prophesied saying, Jude is talking about the threat of false teachers in the church and the need for us to defend the faith that has been once and for all delivered unto the saints. And he grounds his argument in a prophecy made by Enoch, the seventh from Adam. Matthew 19, 4-6. These are the words of Christ. He answered, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What God has joined together, let not man separate. So we see again, Jesus anchors his teaching on marriage and divorce in what's talked about in Genesis 1-3. Now are we to suppose that Christ and the apostles were talking about myths? Were talking about things that didn't really happen but represent other truths? It doesn't sound like it. It sounds like what they're talking about actually happened, and that they took it as something that actually happened. That Jesus' genealogy, He's descended from real people who existed in real places in real time in history. And further, we'll talk about this when we get to Noah, when the destruction of the world at the flood is used as a basis for the coming destruction, As Jesus says, as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the coming of the Son of Man. He's talking about something that actually happened and to give us a glimpse of something that is going to happen. He's not talking about a mythological end of the world, a mythological judgment. He's talking about something that's actually going to happen, and he's warning us about it and telling us to be ready for it and to prepare for it. So I just wanted to make that brief point, and this is just a brief survey of how the New Testament writers use Genesis 1 through 3, use Genesis 1 through 11 in various ways, and how it is in their writings they regarded the writings of Moses on these matters. And it's not as myth. All right, any comments or questions before we look back at Genesis 3? All right, Genesis 3. 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 me to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate. And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this 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, and between your offspring and her offspring. You shall bruise his head, 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 desire 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 were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. So we see from these really tragic words the entrance of sin and death into the world. Now we looked at, in previous weeks, we looked at other passages from the New Testament, such as Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul specifically grounds his doctrine of basically covenant theology and the imputation of sin and death through one man and the imputation of righteousness and life through another man in Adam. Now, and he links those two together very clearly. Now Christ, as a real historical person, not a myth, is like another real historical person who's not a myth. And that is expressly set clear in Paul's writings in those passages that we looked at. But I want us to look at the passage in particular that we just that we just read, and just to look at it, because it's more rich than we have time to even go through, but it tells us so much about the way that the world is, why we are the way that we are, and how it is that God brings about our rescuing. And I think it's so important for us to understand this, and to grasp this, and to be reminded of this, because apart from a right understanding of sin, we won't see our need for God's grace. A lot of times in modern evangelism, people go about talking about how much God loves everybody, how much he understands, how much he gets us. I don't know if you've seen those commercials. Just to warn you off of that, just stay away from it. I looked into it. I could give you some more resources on it. It's just a marketing campaign. It's really gross. presenting Jesus as someone who affirms us and someone who loves us. But the fact of the matter is, is that apart from our understanding of our sinfulness before Him, we won't really understand our need for Him. And we will be inclined to create a Jesus that is not the Jesus of the Scriptures, that is not the Jesus of history, that is not the Jesus who right now is at His Father's right hand ruling and reigning over all the universe. This is important for us to see. Because any doctrine of sin that leaves room for the ability of man to earn righteousness before God will inevitably lead to a denial of the necessity and sufficiency of the gospel and the work of Christ as the sole basis of our standing before God. So what are the things that we see from this passage in Genesis chapter 3? Well, one of the things that we see very clearly from verse 1 is the sovereignty of God. How do you think we see that in verse 1? Where do we see this? It's not a rhetorical question. What's that? Yeah. Exactly. We see the sovereignty of God in this situation. Moses has just given us the creation account. Alright? And he introduces a new character. namely the serpent, who was a tool and device of Satan, which we learn from other passages of Scripture. But we see the sovereignty of God in this passage. This passage does not set forth God and the devil as equals. They are not equals. The serpent was made by God and is therefore subject to his sovereign rule. And as Luther put it, and I've heard this quote from him over and over again, I looked for the exact reference, I couldn't find it. We'll just have to take it for granted that he did say this and it sounds like something he would say. He said a lot of things. But he said that the devil is God's devil. And this may set people aback for a second. But the devil is not some kind of free agent roaming the universe doing as he pleases. He's not God's equal. There's not an equal conflict between good and evil in the world. What we have is the universe that God has created unfolding as God has decreed it would unfold for the accomplishment and the display of his glory. in his salvation of sinful people through his righteous son and his execution of righteous judgment upon sinful people and angels. So there's no, it's not a heavyweight match between two equally equipped fighters whatsoever. But the devil actually does serve God's sovereign purposes in the universe. He's an agent of God's wrath. He's an agent of God's judgment. He's used by God to test us. Ligon Duncan said, God is the only superpower in the universe. He has no equal. And again, just to remind you guys, what I'm following is a course I took from him on covenant theology, and we're following it actually very closely this morning. So again, just to give credit where credit is due. So we see that God is sovereign, and it's evident from the first line of this passage that what is transpiring transpires under his sovereign rule. And again, this is something that people have a problem with, and understandably so. But that the fall of mankind and the existence of evil is a part of God's plan, and that he has good reasons and good purposes that he is accomplishing through it, is the teaching of Scripture. We also see from this passage that sin is not self-existent. Alright? Sin is not self-existent and it's not co-eternal. Only God is. Only God is self-existent. Only God is eternal. Sin has an origin. What's the origin of sin? Yeah, from created things. Sin comes forth from created things. God is perfectly holy, righteous, and blameless. Even in His sovereignty over sin and in His decree of its existence, He's holy, righteous, and blameless. And we've covered this in various ways in previous classes. I won't belabor that point. But sin has an origin. It has a beginning. And it comes from created things. And we see also that the serpent is a tool of Satan. And it's worth, what do you think it says? That the devil used an animal. Think about what was said previously in the first two chapters. Why do you think that the devil would use an animal? That's an interesting point. What else? You're getting close. You're getting close. Think about the last thing you said. They're not of the high origin of man. What was man to the animals? He had dominion. So what is the usurper doing? He's coming against the created order. Man had dominion over the animals. Man was given charge over the animals. He was given charge over the earth. And the devil uses that which man had dominion over as a means to usurp and come against the created order. Mankind was given dominion over the earth and the animals and the devil seeks to attack and undo the created order. We see this today. Male, female, marriage, sex. These are the means. That's what he's doing. He's always seeking to attack and undo the created order of God because he's God's enemy and he hates God. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can speculate as to why he's... I mean, obviously, Jesus tells us he's a liar, he's a thief, and he's a murderer from the beginning. Something about what God did, he hates. He hates that a creature lower than him has been given dominion over the earth. He hates God. If he hates God, who he can't get at, this lower creature made in his image, I'm going to try and get at. And he begins by using an animal to start to overturn God's good created order, which we just learned about in Genesis 1 and chapter 2. So he seeks to war against God and man by attacking that created order. And those given dominion over the animals were brought under dominion through an animal. We're told throughout Scripture that the whole world is held under the sway of the evil one and people are slaves to him because of sin. They're brought under his dominion through sin and through the fear of death. So he's usurping. He's usurping the created order. And again, this is what we're seeing on a large scale around the world right now, that suddenly the distinctions of male and female are being attacked and eroded and accused of being evil and accused of being wrong and hateful and all the awful attacks that we have upon such things. We see the institution of marriage attacked again and again and again and again. Again, this is how the enemy works. He takes his attack towards the created order of man. How does he work against us? When he tempts us, he tempts to draw us away from doing what? Obeying God. which is the way it's supposed to be. He seeks to turn us away from God, which is what we were created to do. We were created to be in fellowship with God and to worship God and to obey God. And he seeks to undo that. Now, what else does he do? So he uses the serpent as his tool. Who does he talk to first? Eve. Now again, I'm not slighting the... I'm not scared. I'm not scared. Because as we're going to see, what transpired was Adam's fault. But who does he go to first? Who does he talk to first? He goes from the bottom of the order up. He goes from the animal to the woman, not to the woman's head, not to her husband, who was supposed to protect her, who should have killed the serpent the moment he opened his mouth and started talking. It should have been a huge clue that talking animals in scripture usually don't pretend good things. So he goes to the woman. He's undoing and he's usurping the created order of male and female husband and wife. All right? And he goes to the woman. And he deceives her. And Adam's failure to exercise his dominion over the serpent is what led to his downfall. Adam's failure to do what God had commanded him to do. And remember from our previous classes how In the covenant of works, there's blessings and there's cursings, but those blessings are also commands. It says, and God blessed Adam and gave him commands. So the things that Adam was supposed to do, those were blessings to him, those were commands from God, those were the right and good things to do, and they would have brought about right and good things had he done them. But he didn't. So Satan comes at him like that. Adam should have been reminded at seeing the serpent of God's glory because everything in creation reflected God's glory. the animals, the sky, the earth, the sun, the moon, the star, everything shown forth perfectly. And he had an unveiled view of the glory of God in his own mind as well, in his own conscience. So his seeing of the serpent should have reminded him of God, should have reminded him of the commands and his obligations to God and the blessings that God had given him. Should have been reminded of the glory of God, but he chose instead to reject God. So Adam chose to reject the blessings of God's command, and instead of exercising dominion, was brought under subjection to that which he was to rule over. And this really, in so many ways, speaks of the baseness of sin. And it talks about how low sin brings us. that that which we are to rule over is used as an instrument to rule over us and to bring us into slavery and to bring about the fall of man. Now, what else do we see? We see something that is good used for evil. Now, the scriptures tell us very plainly and very clearly in Genesis 1 and 2 that everything that God made is good. It's still here with us today. And all the things that God has created is good. But what do we do with those things? We use them for evil. Think of alcohol, not as if God created a brewery in the garden, but the means by which alcohol could be brought about. It's used in the worship of God. God actually commands his people at times to drink it. Now, that may offend some of your sensibilities, but the facts are the facts, all right? It is a good thing. It is a blessing. Now what is, so there's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing evil about it. But what do we do with it? We bring about evil through it, through misusing it. Now that's just one instance. But we think about, we were created with bodies. Male and female, they're good. Sex, the creation of God. in the good relationship which God set forth and which it is to be partaken of. But what do we do with it? We take the good gift of God and we misuse it. We use it for evil purposes. And that's what comes about through the fall, and that's what's really spoken of in so many ways in this passage of Scripture, the baseness of the lowness of the ugliness of sin, by taking good things that God has given us and using them to attack His glory. using them as an affront to his glory. Reversing the good order that he's created of male and female and that distinction, that's good. Maleness is good. Femaleness is good. The distinctions, the differences, those are good distinctions. They're good differences. The relationship of husband and wife is good. The roles that each are given are good. But what does the devil come and say? And he comes and he attacks that order, attacks that relationship, attacks the sovereignty of God, in a sense, over man, attacks that relationship that man is to have with God as being God's image bearers, his representatives on the earth. Now, what else do we see from this passage? First, any comments? Excuse me, comments or questions? I think it's interesting the comment you made about how Satan works from the bottom up. You know, first the animals, and then... I mean, I've never heard that stated that way, but have you ever seen that theme carried out throughout Scripture? Because it seems like it would be. You would see from the bottom up, even in our society today, Yeah, well, I certainly think that we see it in the many warnings of the New Testament regarding false teachers and regarding the message that they bring by taking the gospel of God's free grace and love and twisting it into, which the gospel of God's grace is It's such a wonderful thing that we're freely forgiven of our sins and accounted righteous before God and granted the Holy Spirit and we're given that unto good works. Unto obedience. Unto living our lives dedicated towards God. But what do we see false teachers and false prophets do when they sneak into the church? They pretend to be one thing, but actually they're not. What do they do to that message? Scripture tells us very clearly. They twist it. And what do they twist it towards? Not unto good works, but unto license to sin. We just read from the book of Jude. It says certain men have crept in, turning the gospel of God's grace into a license, making it into a license to sin. Instead of being the declaration of our freedom from sin to live a righteous life, to live in obedience to God, they come and they twist it and turn it into a license to disobey God and call it freedom. but really it brings us back into subjection to slavery. That'd be one instance that I can think of off the top of my head. And I'm sure we can use this, identifying this strategy and see it over and over again in our own lives and in our own culture and our own society. The problems that we have, the conflicts that we have, they stem from some rebellion in some way, shape, or form against God and his righteous commands. There you go. Jesus talking about caring for the orphans and widows because they're the neglected members of society. Old people who get shut into some institution somewhere, not visited by people, not respected for their wisdom, the age, their life experience, all those things. You can see that working its way from the bottom. Well, just think about the prominence that youth culture has in our society. Where the youngest, dumbest, most foolish people in our society are set forth, and that's not, I'm not talking about you. No, I mean what I said. Just not talking about you. That is set forth as the standard. They're the ones that we need to listen to. They're the ones that we need to follow. Think of Greta Thunberg. This poor child is manipulated and used and abused to scold us into doing basic... Greta Thunberg. you're a fortunate person not to know who she is. But who's used as set forth before us as a leader whom we're supposed to follow and whose advice that we're supposed to take, which if taken seriously by the nations of the world will lead to the death of millions if not billions of people. But the point holds though that we see a reversing of the natural order again. For five bucks Yeah, go ahead One thing I learned like an example that here in Orange County is I don't know if any of you guys remember Where the San Juan dump used to be but like those skills right off the five? they're planning like a massive development right there and like the entire development has been stalled for a long time now and Because of the squirrels basically because there's squirrels that live there. They're stopping everything and yeah, and so it's just like we value just those squirrels more than like Mankind taking dominion and you know development of society. Yeah, and it's just costing them, you know a whole bunch of money, you know every Every day they wait and so they're trying to put up like fake owls and hawks to scare them away to make a move Yeah, or that those smelts that smelts that stop us from irrigating and watering the crops and in our in our state and and from Creating reservoirs by which we could have reserved water in the event of a drought Which I don't know why you'd want to prepare for something like that in this state, but yeah, it's just you know It's tiny little fish Can't can't do what's good for tens of millions of people because of a tiny little fish can't figure out some way to make a habitat for them and also Provide for our basic needs such as water, but again, so there's the the instances of this our manifold because we live in a fallen world, populated by fallen human beings, where what is right and good and that natural order that is established by God is constantly attacked. And not only attacked, but put forth as evil. And we'll have to wrap it up. We'll continue it in the next class. But this is actually how the devil brings about the fall. Because Satan doesn't, he doesn't argue. He doesn't put an argument forth to Eve. But he attacks the goodness of God. He begins by attacking the goodness of God. Did God say? He attacks the goodness of God by insinuating that God is unjustly withholding something that is good from Adam and Eve. And this, again, leads men, man, to seeing God's commands as burdensome instead of for our good. And this is, you know, how many of us, whether prior to being in Christ or frankly since being in Christ, at times find God's commands difficult, hard. Like, oh, he's asking too much from us. as opposed to seeing God's commands towards us as the command, as a blessing from a loving father who wants our good, who wants our wellbeing, who wants what's good for us. But here's what do we say? What do we see? Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? So he starts by blurring the command. Did God say that? Why would He say that? Begins with an accusation. He begins with an accusation against God. So He's coming again. He's coming against the created order. He's coming against the sovereignty of God, which we see from verse 1 in this passage, which we see from verse 1 of chapter 1, which we see from every passage subsequent up to this point. God is God. He's the creator of the universe. He's sovereignly in control. 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. He didn't say that. So what are we seeing in this passage? That this exchange that's occurring between the serpent and the woman is already starting to have an effect upon the woman. Now what does it say? The serpent was more crafty. And what does Paul say? He deceived Eve through his cunning. His cunning. He knew the angle that he should take. He knew that he should not go to Adam first. And he didn't go to Adam first because that would have been an affront. He goes to the woman first as an affront against the created order. And he deceives her, and neither shall you touch, he didn't say, the Lord didn't say anything about that. That wasn't part of, again, and this is, what class is this? This is covenant theology. Eve becomes deceived through a blurring of an understanding of the covenant that she's under with God. Remember we talked about the elements of a covenant being an oath or a bond. God gives them commands. He gives them blessings. He gives them promises. He gives them sanctions if these commands are not kept. And she's already starting to fudge on these things. And she's adding to the Word of God. So the serpent comes. He attacks the goodness of God. He attacks the created order. He doesn't make an argument, but he's accusing God of being unjust. He's accusing the commands of God as being unjust and unholy and unrighteous. So she says, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, now he comes straight at it. Calls God a liar. You will not surely die. You will not surely die. Comes right against the covenant. comes right up against the agreement that is in place, that God sovereignly had put in place and says, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like him, knowing good and evil. God's keeping something good from you. His commands, they're bad. They're keeping something good from you. Now what is the message of that? That goodness comes by disobeying God. Now isn't that, again, isn't that the message of this world? The lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Isn't that the message of this world? That good things come by disobeying God. If it seems right to you, do it. Your feelings, your thoughts, that's what determines reality. That's what determines right from wrong. I am this way, therefore I ought to be this way. That is the message that goes back to the beginning when the serpent came to the woman and to the man. God's commands are bad. If you want goodness for yourself, if you want to be like God, disobey God. They were already like God. They were made in His image. They had perfect communion and fellowship with Him. The passage talks of God walking in the garden. That was something that happened on the regular. It's as His custom was. And the devil comes against all that. Accuses God. Attacks His goodness. Attacks His righteousness. Calls Him a liar. and that's where sin and death begins to enter into the world through an attack of God's created order. We'll stop there for today. Again, no class next week, but we'll pick up where we left off, Lord willing. We'll start to look, and we'll look more closely, particularly at verses 14 through 19, at what God says in regards to the fall, because that's going to be, it's important and vital to our class, but it's an interesting discussion in and of itself. Because we begin to see, as we get to verse 14, The fall comes from the serpent, to the woman, to the man. How does God respond? Who does He talk to first? He talks to the serpent, then He talks to the woman, and then He talks to the man. He knows how this came about. We'll get to that more in depth in the coming weeks, Lord willing. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your loving kindness, for your grace, for your mercy. We thank you for the many wonderful gifts that you've given to us and most of all for the gift of your Son. We ask that by the strength of your spirit we may now gather with your people in worship, in song, and in prayer, and through the hearing and preaching of your word, Lord, and through your sacrament. Please use these things by your grace in our lives to conform us further into your image, Lord, because you are good, you are God, and you are worthy to receive praise from us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.