These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land, and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havila, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Kush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and 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 in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Then the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, 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. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. 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. 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. 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. The man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. This is the word of the Lord. Well, friends, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Let's seek His help as we try to understand and apply His Word to our lives today. Lord, we are grateful for Your Word. We're grateful for its truth. We're grateful for its clarity. We're grateful for its power. Lord, we pray here this morning that you would remove all distractions from us, that you would remove all voices that would lead us to not hear and listen and believe your word. We pray, Lord, that you would give us Hearts of faith this morning to trust you to see who you are To believe that you are good and that you have showed us your goodness most supremely in the cross of Jesus Christ and so would you Give us faith this morning Lord. We ask this in Christ's name Amen There's a powerful moment when Jesus is hanging on the cross. You'll remember that he's crucified between two thieves on the cross. And while one of those thieves hurls insults at Jesus and mocks Jesus, the other thief that's crucified next to him ultimately comes to see the truth of who Jesus really is. And as a result of that, he repents of his sin And he asks Jesus to, quote, please remember me when you come into your kingdom. Which if you think about it, that's an amazing statement of faith. You know, that this thief would believe that Jesus, though bloodied and hanging on the cross and about to die, nonetheless has a kingdom and that even after death, he will be king of that kingdom with the authority to welcome others into it. And so in response, Jesus graciously and lovingly says to this sinful, repentant man of faith, today, you will be with me in paradise. It's a remarkable moment. It's a powerful moment. It's a moment, I think, that really reflects something that's so important and profound about the love and the goodness and the generosity of God. But friends, how do we make sense of that statement? Why does Jesus speak in those terms? Well, why does he use that word paradise? It's an intriguing word, isn't it? Paradise. It sounds wonderful. It's an intriguing word. Sort of a intoxicating kind of word. What does Jesus mean by paradise? And more importantly, on what basis can Jesus offer the kind of hope of paradise that he offers to a dying thief on a cross? Well, the answers to those kinds of questions are actually to be found all the way back at the very beginning of our Bibles. And so that's where we are this morning in our study of Genesis. We're looking at Genesis chapters 2 and 3, so let me invite you to keep your bulletins open to that passage, or if you have a Bible with you, open up to Genesis chapters 2 and 3, where we will be spending our time here this morning. We began a new sermon series last week in this book of Genesis, and I said last week that we're going to take these opening chapters in some big chunks, which means, of course, that we're going to have to leave out so many of the details that we could reflect on this morning. But the advantage of doing that, particularly with this long section here today, is that it allows us, I think, to see the big picture narrative of what's been written here. And there is a clear narrative structure that Moses, who's the author of Genesis under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, intends for us to see. It's a narrative structure that we could simply summarize as paradise created, Paradise lost and paradise promised. And so at the heart of this historical narrative is this paradise that tells us about the goodness and the generosity of God. And so I want to look at this narrative here this morning. And by the way, by narrative, I don't mean something that's made up or something that's fictional. When we read these chapters, the Bible presents them to us as nothing other than history. We should read them as true history. But like all of history, true events often unfold like a story. with a beginning, a middle, and an end. And so that's why I'm using the word narrative. And so I want to look at this historical narrative here this morning, particularly through the lens of what's most emphasized about God in this section, and that's God's goodness and his generosity. And so again, we can look at this in three sections, with chapter two focusing on the display of God's goodness and generosity in the creation of paradise, And then chapter three is the rejection of God's goodness and generosity, and thus paradise is lost. But also in chapter three, we see the persistence of God's goodness and generosity with the promised hope of a new sort of paradise to come. Okay, so that's where we're going this morning. And friends, my prayer is that whatever wilderness Whatever non-paradise you may be potentially wandering in this morning, whether that be maybe a physical wilderness or a spiritual wilderness or a relational or an emotional wilderness, whatever that wilderness may be for you right now, I pray that the Lord will renew your hope as you meditate on His goodness and generosity to you in the Lord Jesus Christ. So first, let's look at the display of God's goodness and generosity here in chapter 2. We're picking up at chapter 2, verse 4 this morning. Verse 4, these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Now, as we work our way through Genesis over the next several months, we're regularly going to come across this phrase, these are the generations of. That's Moses' way of indicating to us that we've come to a new section in Genesis. And so 10 different times, we're going to encounter this kind of phrase as we work our way through this book. Now, some people sometimes think that this section is a second creation account to that which was first given in chapter 1. But really what's going on here in chapter 2 is that it's a narrowing in of one specific aspect and one specific area of God's creating work from chapter 1. You know, it's kind of like a computer when you double-click on something, right? And you get the fuller picture of that thing you clicked on. Well, Genesis 2 is sort of double-clicking on and zooming in on not just the creation of the whole world, but here now specifically on the creation of the Garden of Eden, and even more specifically on the creation of Adam and Eve. And friends, the goodness and generosity of God, it is on full display here. We can see it first of all in the gift of life that God gives to Adam. Look at verse 7. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature. As we saw with the creation account in chapter 1, Adam isn't like all the other animals. Adam is uniquely made in the image of God. And similarly here now in chapter 2, there's a certain kind of intimacy and intentionality being conveyed here with this description in verse 7. God forms Adam. which is the language of a potter sort of sculpting his clay, which of course is very different than the way that God created the rest of the universe. For everything else, God simply spoke and it came to be. But what's emphasized here is the personal artistry of God with his creation of man. He takes the dust of this earth he's created and intimately and personally forms the man. And then even more remarkably, God breathes into Adam's nostrils the breath of life. So again, there's a remarkable intimacy that's being conveyed with that description. There's love and intentionality and closeness in that. And so this man of the dust that God has formed now has a living soul animated with a divine breath of God himself. And thus the result is, says verse 7, a living creature has been made. Church, is it not true that the very fact of life itself, the life that you have, is a good and generous gift from God? I mean, should we not regularly declare with David in Psalm 139, Lord, I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Well, we also see God's goodness and generosity displayed here in the gift of an abundant and delightful garden. Verse 8 tells us that the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And so if you look back at verses 5 and 6, it seems that the land being referred to in verse 5, that that's specifically a reference to this very specific area on the earth where God planted the garden of Eden. And so even though on a global scale, God created all the plants and vegetation before he created man, as we saw last week in chapter 1, in this specific area, though, of the Garden of Eden, it's not until after he creates man to work the ground that the vegetation described here really starts to blossom. And friends, the main emphasis here is on the fact that God provided for the man an abundant and delightful garden for him to enjoy. In fact, this word garden, it means paradise. God has created a paradise for the man to enjoy. Similarly, the word Eden is probably connected to a Hebrew verb meaning to delight. And so God has generously given to the man a paradise for him to delight in. It's a garden of divine pleasure. That's the Garden of Eden. Just look at verse 9. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." So Adam is meant to enjoy this place. The trees, they look good and they taste good. And there's plenty of them to enjoy. Not only that, but verses 10 to 14 tell us about the life that defines this garden. There's a river flowing out. A river that ultimately divides into four rivers bringing life and joy and blessing throughout the land. There's gold and precious metals and stones. And so again, it's an abundant creation that God has given to Adam to enjoy. And by the way, the specific naming of these rivers here, even though we don't know the specific location of two of them, is a reminder that this Garden of Eden isn't like Rivendell or something, right? I mean, it's not fictional. It's not mythological. This is a historical place. Adam was a real man. The Garden of Eden was a real place, and it was really meant to be enjoyed. Why? Because God is that good, and he's that generous. That's the kind of God he is. That's the kind of world that he creates. Not only that, but we can also see the goodness and generosity of God displayed in the gift of work. Verse 15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And so the man has a purpose in the garden. There's work to be done. Work itself is a good gift from God. But what's also interesting here is that this language of working and keeping the garden is a language that's actually used later in the Bible of the priests in the Old Testament, who were instructed to work and to keep or to guard the temple. And so Adam's work here, in a sense, is priestly work. In fact, the garden itself is like a temple. When you read later on in the Bible of the details for the temple that God gives for its building, there's a lot of little details that hearken back to the Garden of Eden which indicate for us that this garden itself is meant to be like a temple. Meaning it's where God is to be worshipped by Adam. And so Adam's job, as it were then, is to cultivate the worship of God in this place. And church, what's better than that? To live and to work in the very presence of our Creator and to glorify and praise Him in all that we do with our lives. That's the good and generous gift that God gives to Adam. God's goodness and generosity is further displayed in the gift of marriage, verses 18 to 25. Again, we don't have time to dig into all the details of this here this morning. There's some sermons on our website that do focus on the details of these verses if you want to think about them in more detail. But what I want us to see here this morning is that God's gift here is so good. Verse 18, God generously determines to make a helper fit for Adam. After Adam determines that no animal of God's creation is that right fit for him, God then does something wonderful and miraculous. Verse 21, so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, He made into a woman and brought her to the man. And then the man said, and friends, this is the first poem in the Bible. This is the first time that man speaks in the Bible. And it is a poem of delight and joy. The man said, 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. And then Moses adds a little commentary for us. So again, we're to see the goodness and generosity of God in that good gift of marriage. A man and a woman perfectly fit for each other to complement each other. The husband to lovingly forsake all other human relationships, to devote himself to his wife for her good as he works and guards and cultivates the garden for the glory of God. And the wife to be a strong helper, perfectly fit for him in carrying out that work. And as they do so, experiencing then the joy and blessing of unity, of oneness in marriage with nothing to be ashamed of. Friends, the marriage union of a man and a woman is a good and generous gift from God. And that's what all of chapter 2 is trying to drive home to us, that God is good, God is generous, and He is abundantly so. As the psalmist says in Psalm 119, God is good and He does good. And listen, this may be one of the most fundamental truths about God that perhaps we sometimes miss or maybe we even sinfully neglect. And yet, as we'll see tragically in just a moment, it's so vital that we regularly remind ourselves and remind one another of this. Brothers and sisters, let's acknowledge and enjoy the goodness and the generosity of God to us in so many different ways. You know, in the comforts that you enjoy in this life, in the good meals that you share in, in your work, in your marriage. You know, how often in those things do you just stop and praise God for His goodness and generosity to you? I mean, don't you love the fact that God here doesn't just make trees that are functional, but He makes trees that are beautiful. They're pleasing to look at. And he doesn't just provide food that does the job of sustaining us physically, but he gives food that tastes good. And he doesn't just give one tree to them to eat from and enjoy. No, he gives them every tree but one for them to eat from and enjoy. And then he doesn't just tell the man and the woman to be fruitful and multiply and give them the functional ability to procreate, but he does so in such a way that it's filled with joy and delight. And then He doesn't just create them and leave them to themselves, but He gives them purpose and a place so they can enjoy Him and worship Him with all that they are. The goodness and generosity of God is on full display here. Wonderfully so. Beautifully so. But of course, that's what makes what happens next so painful and so tragic. Because what the man and the woman do is they forget, and they neglect, and they doubt, and they ultimately, therefore, reject the goodness and generosity of God. There's lots we could say about chapter three, but I think it's that that really gets at the heart of this tragic event. Again, the benefit of reading these two chapters together in one sitting is that we can better, I think, get the sense of what Moses is trying to convey both to the Israelites in the wilderness to whom this was originally written, but then also to us here now today through the work of the Holy Spirit applying this word to our lives. We can see that the tragic rebellion that unfolds in chapter three is a failure ultimately to trust that God is truly good and generous. It's a failure to trust God's Word. It's a failure to trust God's character that's behind His Word. Which is a large part of the explanation for why men and women now do the foolish things that they do. Why they now do the sinful things that they do. Why the world now is the way it is and why it's no longer a paradise that defines the creation of God. It's because we've rejected all the evidence of chapter 2 and concluded in the moral darkness and foolishness of our hearts that God isn't good. And He isn't generous. And He is therefore not to be trusted. That's why over and over again in the Bible there's the declaration and the need and reminder that God is good. Exodus 34, 6, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth. 1 Chronicles 16, 34, oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good. Ezra 3.11, and they sang responsibly, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, for He is good. Psalm 25.8, good and upright is the Lord. Psalm 145.9, the Lord is good to all. James 1.17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights. God gives good gifts because He is good. Matthew 7-11, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him? Psalm 34-8, oh taste and see that the Lord is good. But you see, Adam and Eve, they missed all that. They forgot all of that, they rejected all of that. And friends, so do we when we sin against God. And so do we when we doubt His Word. And so chapter 3 introduces us to the serpent, who is the devil, he's Satan, the ultimate rebel against God. He's probably a fallen angel who himself initially rebelled against God and who then leads Adam and Eve now to do the same. He's full of lies and deception. He twists the Word of God. He undermines God's good character. He openly calls God a liar. And remember, of course, that God had given Adam very clear instructions in chapter 2, verse 16. Look there. It's important to make sure you see carefully what God actually said because that's always Satan's strategy. did God actually say? So make sure you see what God did actually say so that you're not deceived. Chapter 2, verse 16, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden. Do you hear the generosity of God in there? You don't just get to eat it, you can surely eat of it. Absolutely, go for it, surely eat of every tree in the garden, except one. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. It's perhaps called the tree of knowledge of good and evil because if Adam does eat after he's been commanded to not eat of it, it's like he'll then be usurping the authority of God to determine what is good and what is evil. But whatever exactly this tree is, what's clear is that God here has established a clear point of obedience for Adam. And it's a test. It's a covenant test. Later on in the Bible, it referred to this as a covenant. God is making a covenant here with Adam. Will Adam believe what God has said? Will Adam believe that God is so good that he's given every tree to eat? Again, every tree you can surely eat from them, except one. So will Adam trust God? Will Adam trust that God has Adam's best interest in mind? Remember, that was Adam's job as the priest, to work and to keep the garden. It was to believe and to obey these things and to ultimately lead and protect his wife so that she would do the same. And so that's exactly where Satan directs his attack. Satan directs his attack against the very character and the very word of God. 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? You see what he's doing there already. At the very beginning, he's painting a picture of God being stingy. That's not at all what God said. God said you can eat of every tree. Satan is undermining the character of God. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden. Well, okay, so that's kind of right, but that's not exactly what he said. He said something greater than that. He said you could eat of every tree. She's already beginning to diminish the word of God, to diminish the character of God. She does go on to say verse three, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden. But then she adds this, she says, neither shall you touch it lest you die. God never said that. Do you see again, she's starting to make this caricature of God that he's excessively strict. You can't even touch the tree. God never said anything like that. And so at every point here, the word of God, it's being distorted. until ultimately it's completely denied, verse 4. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. Openly contradicting God. God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Friends, you see the nature of the attack there. God is not good. God is not generous. God does not love you. God does not have your best interests in mind. In fact, God is trying to keep you from things that really are good. Do you see that? That's what's going on here. Are you understanding how deception works? When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, he said to them, 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. In other words, Paul was saying that this deception here in Genesis 3, this isn't a one-time event, but it's an ongoing battle, and the strategy is the same, that this is how it works, this is the pathology of how deception works. God's Word is attacked, and when that attack is entertained, it begins to raise questions about the very character of God Himself. And so doubt is being sown here as to whether or not God is really holy and authoritative. Come on, Eve, don't worry about this God. He's not going to judge you. You're not going to die. Stand up to Him. And doubt is being sown as to whether or not God is really trustworthy. You can't believe anything this God says. Don't bother with His Word. And most of all, doubt is being sown about the goodness and the generosity of God. Again, that's what's going on in verse 5. The serpent says to her, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. In other words, don't you see, Eve, God, He's trying to hold you back. He doesn't want what's best for you. Eve, He's afraid of you. He wants to keep you under His thumb so that you're not like Him. He's not good. Just think of the life that you can have. Think of all the fun that you could have. Think of all the things that you could enjoy if you ignore His word. And friends, do you know what's so horribly tragic about all this? It's that they were already like God. God had made them in His image. He had generously given them life. He had formed the man from the dust. He had got up close to him, into his face. He had breathed life into him so that the man and woman could be like Him. God had graciously and generously made them to be like Him. And yet they didn't trust Him. And so they didn't obey Him. In eating of the fruit that they were not to eat, they ultimately rejected the goodness and generosity of God to them. And listen, it's not possible, I don't think. to overstate the massive implications of what occurred that day. It's not just that paradise was lost, but it's that sin and death now entered the world and have brought utter chaos ever since. So that the world now has become a wasteland in a wilderness in rebellion against God. The Bible says that by nature we are all in Adam. Meaning his sin was our sin, his guilt was our guilt, and the resulting death has spread to all. Romans 5, sin came into the world through the one man Adam, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. Genesis 3 is the day that tragically changed the world. And you can see the initial tragedy that day in the rest of the chapter. Adam and Eve hide from God. They're now filled with shame and guilt. They begin the blame game, blaming God, blaming each other. Their relationship with each other is broken. Instead of Adam lovingly leading and serving his wife, verse 16, he now tries to rule over her. Instead of Eve being a helper fit for Adam, she now sets herself up in opposition to him. And thus instead of there being joyful complementarity as God originally designed, the man and the woman would now find themselves instead in selfish competition with each other. All of life and work would become hard, and then ultimately they would die. As spiritually they died when they sinned, as evidence in the fact that they hide from God. Those who are spiritually alive, they don't run away from God in fear. And so just as God promised they did die when they ate of the fruit, spiritually and then ultimately physically they would die as God declares, for you are dust and to dust you shall return. And then finally, they're banished from the garden. They're banished from this temple-like garden and thus from the very presence of God himself. And thus again, Genesis 3 is a day that tragically changed the world. And yet somehow, remarkably, that isn't where the story ends. Because remarkably, the goodness and generosity of God persists despite human sin and rebellion. If you look at the end of chapter 3, verses 20 to 24, we're given a few glimpses of the persistence of God's goodness and generosity. Despite the entrance of death now into the world through sin, there's still going to be life. Verse 21, the very name of Eve means the mother of all living. Not only that, but God gives them garments to clothe themselves. They'd initially tried to cover up their shame and guilt with fig leaves that they had made, but God graciously here now provides the garments that they need to cover their sin, to cover their nakedness. And then even in the act of banishing them from the garden, God's generosity is still evident. Verse 22, then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the garden from which he was taken. He drove out the man and at the east of the garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. You see, it's specifically so that the man and the woman won't eat of the tree of life and live, that God now removes them from the garden. Because the implication here is that if they eat of the tree of life as those who are now sinners, then they'll live forever in that state of sin and separation from God. And so God generously and mercifully drives them out of the garden so that that won't happen. But friends, the primary evidence of God's goodness and generosity persisting despite human sin is in the word of promise that's given in Genesis 3.15. It's a word which gives Adam and Eve new spiritual life and hope. Look carefully at Genesis 3.15 because this is such a crucial promise. It really defines the rest of Scripture. It's going to lead us all the way to Jesus and to the cross. It's one of the most important verses in the Bible. To the serpent God said, 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. Now listen, when you consider the context in which that word of promise is spoken, it really is remarkable because, I mean, it comes out of nowhere. I mean, you can find no other basis for it than the goodness and the generosity of God. I mean, I can only imagine that Adam and Eve would have been stunned when God spoke these words to the serpent. Because despite their action of essentially aligning themselves with Satan in their rebellion against God, it's clear here that that won't persist. But that instead, the woman and the serpent will be on different sides. Such that there's going to be enmity between the two. So in other words, God generously won't let Adam and Eve fully go over to Satan. And not only that, but there's going to be life. Eve is going to have offspring. And the enmity between those two will continue through those lines of offspring. The offspring of the woman in continual conflict with the offspring of the serpent. And friends, again, you can trace that conflict all the way through the whole Bible until ultimately you get to Jesus Christ. And it's the one singular offspring of the woman, Jesus, who will battle against the serpent, Satan, himself. And the promise here is that while Satan would inflict a wound on Jesus, it wouldn't be a decisive wound, though. Rather, it would be akin to like a wound on your heel. while Jesus though would crush the very head of Satan. That is, Jesus would inflict a mortal blow to Satan and to all Satan's offspring. And so then you think about the temptations of Jesus when He's in the wilderness. You see, those temptations, they take on so much more meaning now. Unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus, He withstands the deceiving words of Satan by fully entrusting Himself to His good and generous Father. He believes the word of His Father. He puts Himself under it and holds to it. And so He has that initial victory over Satan in the wilderness, but then ultimately this battle between Jesus and Satan, it would go all the way to the cross, where Jesus, though crucified and suffering, would ultimately, in that very act of dying, crush the head of the serpent. Because, friends, it's there on the cross, that old rugged cross, as we say, that Jesus received the judgment of God against human sin. It was there on the cross that Jesus, though He Himself had never sinned, though He Himself had never given in to the devil's deceit, nonetheless paid the price that Adam's sin and Eve's sin and your sin and my sin deserved. And in doing so, finally crushed the work of Satan. And you see, that's why Jesus could say to that dying thief, today you will be with me in paradise. Did you see that flaming sword that God put outside there on the east of Eden to guard the way into it? The implication being someone tried to get in, the sword would fall and destroy them. It's a sword of judgment. That flaming sword of judgment that God placed outside the Garden of Eden, it fell on Jesus when He was crucified. And friends, because it fell on Him, we now, if we trust in Jesus and in His saving work for us, we now have access once again to the paradise of God. It's now open again for us. That's why the book of Revelation, when it describes heaven, listen friends, one of the ways that it describes heaven is that it's like a garden. And so Revelation pictures a heaven for us that looks a lot like the goodness and generosity of God displayed in Genesis chapter 2. Like the river in Genesis 2 that flowed out of Eden, out of that temple-like place where God's very presence resided. Flowing out to water the garden and to provide life and abundance to all the land. Well, so too the book of Revelation tells us that in heaven, there'll be a river that's the water of life flowing out from the very throne of God, bringing life to all that it touches. And just like the tree of life in Genesis 2, Revelation tells us that in heaven there'll be, quote, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, with the leaves of the tree being healing for the nations. And friends, guess what? In heaven there's no angel or sword anymore guarding the way to that tree of life. Because again, Jesus, through his death and resurrection, has opened the way to that tree. And not only that, but in heaven there will be work That it'll be the priestly work that we'll all perform. Of offering ourselves to God as living sacrifices, forever worshiping Him and enjoying Him and praising Him for His glory. And friends, like Genesis 2, there'll even be marriage. There'll no longer be the marriage between a man and a woman. It'll be the marriage relationship between Jesus and His church. A marriage that will be filled with the greatest joy and delight and pleasure of which every earthly marriage can only give the slightest foretaste. And so, brothers and sisters, here's the closing application for us this morning. The application for us is the same as it was for those Israelites for whom Moses originally wrote this as they were wandering in the wilderness on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. The application is to cling to the goodness and generosity of God with all that you are. Because despite all of human sin, despite all the tragedy in this world, despite all the destruction that's been done, despite your own innate tendency to doubt God and turn away from Him, The God who spoke and created the world through His word has now spoken a word of promise to you. And that word will not fail. Because behind that word stands a God who isn't just powerful, but who is extraordinarily good and generous in all that He does. And so as you make your way through the wilderness of this fallen world in which paradise has been lost, Friends, look to Jesus. Don't believe the lies that God isn't good. Look to the fulfillment of God's word of promise in Jesus and trust that because of Him, you will indeed one day be with Him like that thief who didn't deserve it in paradise. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we look forward to that day. We thank you for giving us such a tantalizing word like