Amen, welcome back. Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter three. And I do want to, I brought this up here just to make a point of saying that there are five of these in stock. One of these true tone ones, this is the one I have. And then I think there's four hardbacks back there in this. Hardback's actually cheaper than the True Tone, but in either case, they're back there. David Kenner has put in an order from Crossway for some of the books that we want at the conference, and I suggested he go ahead and order a few of these. And of course, buying it through the church or from the bookstore, get a massive discount from Crossway because you get a benefit from the church's discount. So if you're interested, and I think some of you had mentioned your interest, if you're interested, I just want to mention that they are there. I want to come back to Genesis 3. You know, we looked at this, of course, last week, looking at the kingdom as it's seen in the Garden of Eden, as it's patterned out and established in the garden, and then, of course, lost by sin. And my intention was to go ahead and move forward to Noah and look at the kingdom there, and then Abraham, which, of course, is really where everything begins in a manifest way with Abraham and the covenant made with Abraham. which then leads up to David and the promised land. But there's just so much more here that I couldn't bear to go beyond the consideration of looking closer at the fall, understanding what happened in the fall, and the disastrous consequences of what our first parents did, what Adam in particular did. But also in light of that, against that backdrop, seeing what I think is the most important thing to gain in all of our study of the big picture of scripture, and that is God's commitment to his kingdom. That's what becomes crystal clear as you read through the Old Testament because all of us have read the Old Testament and we look back and we think, how in the world can the Lord persevere with Israel? How can God continue with this people? Think even what we've looked at in Hosea, that there would even be in the heart of God a remnant in Israel, not to mention Judah. It's just amazing. And of course, let's be reminded, as I was reflecting with someone after the service, as I've said before so many times, the scriptures put Israel on display in order to show us ourselves. Israel is you. Israel is me. It's us. And you look at Abraham, and you look at David, you look at these great men who were great sinners. Why does God put their sins on display? Why not just forgive that and move on and not say anything? God puts that on display to show us ourselves. And so we need to realize, and that's really what I was trying to bring home this morning, because it's so easy to point the finger at Israel and say, woe is that nation. But I was trying to bring home the point in the message this morning that we need to apply that to ourselves. What God says about Israel is true of us. And so I want us to see, particularly here in Genesis 3, where the problem begins, I want us to see God's commitment, God's amazing commitment. I've drawn out several things, I've tried to structure, we've got two pages really under, just a couple of, really under one point, Roman numeral two, but I'm just trying to draw out several thoughts I want to share with you, things that we can glean as to what happened, how we can understand what took place here, and some ways by which we can apply this to our thinking, to our worldview, to what scripture says. So reminding us of where we left off last week up at the intro, top of your page, mankind's rebellion against God results in the fall of the whole created order. Everything falls when Adam falls. I'll come back to that again in a moment. But remember, it falls from its harmony. It falls from its order. It falls from perfection, not the perfection of consummation, but perfection. There was nothing wrong with it. Remember everything? God saw that everything was very good. And so it falls from this proper place of harmony and perfection, and it falls from its proper place in the kingdom of God. God relating to man, man relating to creation, God relating to creation, everything was as it should be, not in a fixed condition. It was in a tenuous condition because of its probationary nature, but nevertheless, everything was where it should be. But it falls from that, and it falls by sin. And what sin does is it confuses all relationships, right? Sin confuses our relationship to ourselves. Of course, beginning vertically, as we saw this morning, right? When we're off with God, then we're off with self, we're off with others, right? And that's what we tried to see this morning, right? It's the vertical. The vertical is the tie and the anchor to everything, right? If we're right with God, then we can be right with self and right with others. But when everything is off with God, when we break covenant with God, nothing, Nothing is right. Everything is messed up. However, and this is the point we want to bring home tonight, however, God is still sovereign. And what becomes clear in Genesis 3, especially beginning with verse 15, what becomes clear in Genesis 3 is that God's ultimate purpose for his kingdom cannot be thwarted, right? God will have a kingdom. God will have a people. God created the material universe And in that universe, God created his image bearer, right? The Latin is Imago Dei. God created mankind as Imago Dei. God will have a people. He will have, now we know, he will have a church. And Christ will have a bride, right? All of this is intended by God from eternity before creation. And when we look at the fall, we think, well, it's all lost, right? Everything's been undone. And in fact, it's not. God is still determined. God will not withdraw his love from the fallen universe. There's where our comfort lies. We're going to come back around to that. God refuses to withdraw his love and his commitment from this fallen universe. Instead, as we now know, he'll redeem it through the person and work of his son. Because Christ, Colossians 120, you're going to hear the same text again and again. Christ will bring all things back into their right relationship. Christ will restore and settle, right? Permanence. Christ will settle the kingdom of God, Revelation 21, one to three, when God dwells with man, wipes away every tear, and God dwells with man in the world he's made. So that's our backdrop. So let's look, first of all, what happened in the fall? We need to realize right away, especially coming into Genesis, and we know this from our own reading. You remember the first 10 chapters of, first 11 chapters of Genesis covers more time than the rest of the Bible. Right? And there's a lot that goes on that the Bible doesn't talk about in human history. Genesis 3 in particular leaves us with many unanswered questions. We do not have the answers to these things, right? First of all, where did evil begin? Why did Satan become evil? When did Satan rebel against God? When did Satan get cast out of heaven? Why and how did Satan utilize the serpent? The Bible doesn't answer these things. The Bible simply introduces these realities, right? There is a Satan, an adversary, an enemy, and he appears in the Garden of Eden. He takes the form of the serpent, utilizes the serpent in some way. There's been all sorts of commentaries and all sorts of discussions about how he used the serpent's voice and how the vibrations of the serpent's mouth would turn into words, and we don't know. We don't know how he did it. The point is the serpent spoke, and yet we know that it was Satan speaking. So these are questions that we can't answer because the Bible doesn't answer them. Now, you've read Ezekiel, let's just go ahead and turn to Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. We're probably all familiar with these texts. It's suggested that Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 are about Satan's rebellion. So Isaiah 14, verses 12 to 15. How you are fallen from heaven, O day star, sun of dawn. How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low. You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. So Isaiah 14, and then we have Ezekiel 28. 11 to 19. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord God, you were the signet of perfection. full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. Sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle, and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created, they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of God. In the midst of the stones of fire, you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you. In the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence in your midst and you sinned. So I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God and I destroyed you, oh guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground, I exposed you before kings to feast their eyes on you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctuaries. So I brought fire out from your midst, it consumed you and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you. You have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever." Now these two texts I'm sure you've heard are often used. as a testimony of Satan's fall, that this is what these texts are about. The problem is, Isaiah 14 is about the king of Babylon and Ezekiel 28 is about the king of Tyre. So the question arises then, why is it that those two texts in particular, why is it that those are used or typically referred to as a description of Satan's fall? And the answer is very simply seen in what we've learned from Hosea. You become like the God you worship. You become like the idol you worship. You become like what it is you worship. And so it's clear then to speak of the king of Babylon or the king of Tyre, right, that they have become like the one they worship. Their fall was like his fall. And so we might look at those and it's often, as I said, people look at those and say, well, this describes Satan's fall. And it might be, there might be some sort of parallel But the reality is that is about Babylon and that is about Tyre, and it isn't a text intended to speak directly to us concerning Satan's fall. But of course, as Revelation makes clear, if we walk in the ways of Babylon, we'll fall like Babylon, we'll come under the judgment of Babylon, right? And so it's no surprise then that those who follow the evil one come under judgment like he did. In any case, let's jump in and look at Genesis 3, and the first thing I want to point out from Roman numeral 2 in your notes, how we should handle the temptation story isn't clear in the text itself. It's sort of like Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It's just God asserts, God declares, this is what happened, this is what I did, this is who I am. Genesis 3 sort of approaches us in the same fashion. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, When did animals start talking? Did any other animal talk? We have so many questions. Why didn't Satan, or excuse me, Eve jump back? Why is this animal speaking to me? All the questions are being raised in our minds. God doesn't care to address those questions. God gets right to the heart of the issue. And this is the way the scripture here is written. So it's not clear how we should handle the text in and of itself. That's why the Old Testament, as we've been studying, is to be read as Christian scripture. The New Testament gospel and all the rest of God's revelation, the overall message of the Bible, all of that, all that comes after this, in fact, must guide how we understand this text, how we go back and read this text, what is going on here. We're not in Genesis 3 to raise all these questions. We're on the other side of the book of Revelation, on the other side of the whole canon, And we can now read back and we know exactly what's going on here. So when we apply the gospel to the text, to the fall, to what happened here, when we apply the rest of scripture, we learn a lot of things. First of all, we learn that the serpent that appears in the garden, the serpent God made, the serpent that speaks to the woman, the serpent is being used by the devil. That's what we know. It's not said there. It just speaks of a serpent. But let's go and let's trace the scripture now. Let's go all the way back to Revelation. from one end of the Bible to the other. So what do we know? What we're asking is what do we know from the rest of Scripture about what goes on there and how to interpret Genesis 3 in the fall itself. First of all, Revelation 12 verse 9. 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. We're not going to talk about the context here necessarily. That would take too much time away from us. But what the text makes clear here at the other side of the other end of the Bible is that the one who was cast down by the power of God and by the gospel, by Christ, the one who was cast down is the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. Think of what Jesus says, the father of lies, et cetera. That ancient serpent. It's a direct, it's a direct connection. And a direct mention of the serpent in the garden, the ancient serpent. This is the one. So we're told from Revelation 12 to go back and read Genesis 3 and know that that's the devil. How is he using the serpent? How is the serpent talking? That's beside the point. The devil is the one who tempted Eve. The devil is the one who raised the question of questioning God. Revelation chapter 20, verse 2. Verse 1, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, notice the same words again, and bound him for a thousand years. Clearly telling us that the serpent in the Garden of Eden, that ancient serpent who first appeared as the tempter and the deceiver, the Satan, the adversary, it's the devil himself. Okay, let's look at these others. Look at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11 to the church in Corinth. Jealous for them, jealous over them that they would be faithful to the Lord. He says in verse 2, 2 Corinthians 11, 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, now they were being tempted, what? By false teachers. Right, false teachers. Notice what he says, 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. What's interesting here is that Paul speaks of the serpent as a he, not an it. A person, right? The angel, the fallen angel, Satan himself. As the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, his craft, Genesis 3 verse 1, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Look at Luke 10, 19. Behold I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. Notice the correlation there between serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. Making a direct connection between those two, the enemy, Satan himself. And then turn finally to Psalm 91, which is the reference of course to the scripture that Satan used. in the wilderness with Christ. So here we have a prophecy of Christ and his victory and dominion over the evil one. Psalm 91 verses 12 and 13, on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. That's the text that Satan quoted, but look at what the next text says of this one who will be upheld by the angels. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. It takes us back even to Genesis 3.15, right? You will bruise his heel, but with that heel he will crush your head, right? The Lord said to the serpent. So the first thing we realize, again, using scripture to interpret scripture, which is the infallible rule of interpretation, God commenting on his own word, we find that this serpent in the Garden of Eden is the devil being used by the devil. Obviously it's a real serpent that God made. The next thing we learn is that the idea of a dualism, the dualism of good and evil in which the forces of good have been eternally in conflict with the forces of evil, that worldview is patently false. Because this one who comes into the garden as the deceiver, the evil one, the tempter, that ancient serpent, he comes into the garden as a creature. He doesn't come in as an equal. He comes in utilizing a creature, because he himself is a creature, utilizing the serpent in order to approach Eve. In fact, he comes in craftily, cunningly. A person in power doesn't need to use schemes and tricks, doesn't need to use deceit. He can merely walk in and assert his authority because he has authority. And in a dualistic worldview, good and evil are on equal fields, on an equal and a level plane. and the one can assert itself just as much as the other, and there's this eternal warfare going on. That is patently false, because when we see the introduction of evil into the text and into human history, it is as a creature. Furthermore, when you look at Genesis 1.31, where God says, after he made all things, behold, it is all very good, Genesis 131 doesn't allow for the dualistic self-existence of evil in creation. Of course, God's creation allows for mutability. It allows for the possibility of evil, even as he said to mankind, in the day you eat of it you shall surely die. So God created mankind in probation. God created mankind perfect but mutable, innocent but mutable. And therefore there's the possibility of evil because there's the possibility of disobedience, right? But God's creation doesn't allow for the self-existence of evil because God is the clear creator of everything that exists. And he said over everything, it is all very good. Another thing we learn, again, I'm just trying to draw out from the text and what we've learned from the rest of scripture. Another thing we've learned we've seen on several occasions although we need to turn to Acts 17. Another thing we learn as the New Testament scripture interprets the Old Testament scripture is that Adam is the one father of the entire human race. Adam is the one father of the entire human race. Acts 17 beginning in verse 24 as Paul addresses the Orophagos and speaks to the men of Athens idolaters who have this altar to an unknown God. What therefore you worship in verse 23 as unknown this I proclaim to you. Verse 24 the God who made the world and everything in it the creator of the material universe 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 because he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything right. He's outside of creation giving life to all things. He doesn't need creation to serve it, to serve himself rather. He serves creation with his goodness. And verse 26 is our text. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place. Now we can say, well, wait a minute, right? Adam and everybody after him perished in the flood except for Noah. So is he speaking about Noah? He's not speaking about Noah when he says he made every nation from one man. Remember, when you see one man, it's either Christ or Adam, right? He's speaking of Adam because he's speaking about the head of the human race, the father of the human race. Yes, they all perished in the flood except Noah and his family. And you had a new beginning, as it were. In fact, you remember that God's words to Noah are a repetition of the creation mandate, right? God, in one sense, starts over Right? Be fruitful and multiply, take dominion, fill the earth. And of course, you see what happened. They didn't. And then God destroyed the Tower of Babel that they might spread across the earth. And so we see that Adam is the one father of the entire human race. But we also have learned, and what the rest of scripture makes clear, is that Adam is also the federal covenantal head of the human race. Right? So that the fall of Adam into an estate of sin and misery is the fall of all Mankind. Remember Romans 5, 12 to 14, right? Sin entered into the world through one man and death came by sin and death spread to all. Why? Because all sinned. All sinned in the one man's sin because he stood in that probationary status, in that covenant of works, he stood as the federal head. And his fall is the fall of all. So that David can say in Psalm 51, 5, I was conceived in iniquity. Paul can say in Ephesians 2.3, we're all born children of wrath. We're all sons of Adam. We're all born guilty. Ecclesiastes 7.20, there's not a righteous man on earth who does not sin. Ecclesiastes 7.29, this I know that God made man upright. Genesis 2, but he sought out many inventions or schemes as the King James says in Genesis 3. is the one father of the human race as well as the federal covenantal head. We also know from the rest of scripture that when Adam fell, creation fell. We looked at that text last week in Romans 8, 19 to 22, the groaning of the earth. The groaning, in fact, not only of the earth, but of all creation. All creation fell with the human race. Remember, Adam is such the head not just of humanity but the imago Dei, the image of God over all creation. Nothing in all creation exists like man. Let us make man in our image after our likeness so that God then deals with man as the image bearer and deals with creation through man and in the manner in which he deals with man because man is the head of creation. He is that created being. that alone is the image bearer of God. So God deals with creation as he deals with man so that when man comes under the curse, creation comes under the curse. All things are fallen. This not only explains the loss of Eden, right? Where is the garden of Eden? It's gone. Because the curse has come upon the earth. The curse that came upon man has come upon the earth. But it also explains, it also means that the beauty visible in creation doesn't even begin to compare with the beauty in store for creation when Christ comes again. I'll never forget the time when someone said to me when I was admiring a sunset or a sunrise, I forget which it was, admiring the beauty of it, and someone said, do you realize that has thousands and thousands and thousands of years of sin on it? Never thought of that. And it struck me. But it's Romans 8, right? I mean, we all stand amazed the beauty of creation, the beauty of God's world. I'm always amazed when I learn some new thing about the stars, about the heavens, about the planets, about the ocean and its tremendous depths and its creatures. And yet everything we see is fallen. We can't even begin to fathom that because it's so beautiful. A sunrise, a sunset, the night sky, beautiful. We stand in awe of it. especially some of the beautiful pictures that people take, beautiful pictures of the telescopes, all of these things are amazing. But the creation we admire is groaning under the curse and longing to be delivered. What will that look like? Given what we've been learning, it'll look like this. Creation will be restored to its rightful relationship in service of man as the Imago Dei, and in honor of God as Creator. Right? The Bible says in Psalm 19, when the heavens declare the glory of God, and the heavens proclaim His handiwork. Yes. But what's hard to see because of the fall, what's hard to see because of the groaning of all creation, is how creation is supposed to serve the image of God. Remember, the image of God is the pinnacle and the height of creation. The last thing God did, let us now, now that everything is ready, let us make man. He will be the image bearer. He will be male and female. He will have dominion. He will be fruitful and multiply. He will spread over the earth. He will reflect me. He will worship me, what we've been learning, Hosea, and become like me, like me in holiness. Think of 2 Peter 1, verses 3 to 5. Creation will be restored. Revelation 21, it'll be restored to its rightful relationship in service to man as the Imago Dei and in honor of God as creator. Furthermore, letter E in your notes, if we look more closely there at what goes on in Genesis 3, Satan's temptation raised the possibility of discussing and questioning God and the truth of his word. We need to realize that that had never crossed the mind of Eve. That had never come to Eve's mind, or of course Adam's mind, but as Satan approaches the woman. It had never occurred to Eve to discuss and question the authority of God and His word. As God's creature, man recognized God as the source of truth the source of revelation. Everything man knew in the garden was because God had revealed it to man, either verbally in the conversation, or of course, through creation, right? As the heavens declare the glory of God. And God was the interpreter of reality. God was the interpreter of all things. Remember, it's God who says, this is good. This is yours. This is off-limits. It's God who interpreted all reality. It's God who interpreted man's self by making him in his image after his likeness, giving him dominion over all. God interpreted all of these things for man. And as creator, God, of course, is the absolute and final authority. He's God. It's self-evident who He is. It was self-evident who God was. He's the creator, the other, even though in whatever measure as the pre-incarnate Christ, he walked with God in the cool of the day, right, in the garden. Nevertheless, God was self-evidently the creator. God didn't walk up to man and say, I made you. It was self-evident who he was. It was self-evident that man was God's creature. Man was to worship and love and serve and obey God. And it was self-evident that God was the final and absolute authority. Man didn't ask, who are you? As creator, that's who he is and that's who he was. The question then, did God really say? That was Satan's question. Did God really say? Satan could have introduced a number of things. He could have said anything. He could have introduced a number of questions. Why this question? This question has the greatest potential for evil. It was the perfect question. The perfect question with which to begin this discussion. It has great potential for evil. The greatest potential because it casts doubt on the authority of God's word. And it casts doubt on God's role as truth and interpreter. Satan's temptation suggested that the word of God not only could be analyzed and evaluated but probably needed to be. Did God really say you should stop and think about that? Have you stopped and thought about that? Have you given that any thought? I have. You really should. It's not saying anything but that you should stop and ask questions. You should put God in the dock. That's what it's suggesting. It suggested more importantly It suggested to Eve that God is not decisive in determining who we are in this world, how we should understand ourselves in this world as Imago Dei, and how we should live. That's what was behind the question. It suggested that God is not self-evidently decisive that God and his creation, God and his revelation, what he has done to create you and to create the situation that stands, that God is not decisive in determining who we are, how we should understand ourselves in the world he's made, and as Imago Dei, and how we should live. But the question, of course, then is, well, if God is not decisive in determining those things, then who or what is? That's what was left open for discussion. But on what basis could Eve evaluate God's word? If Eve is to heed the question, did God really say and was he right in what he said? If Eve is to heed that question, where is she supposed to go? Where is she going to go? Right? To actually put that question in the dock. Right. If that question is in the dock, then who and where is she going to go for an authority to find someone to sit in the judge's chair? Satan just simply said, did God really say? But Satan set it up so perfectly, crafty, more crafty than any other beast of the field. Cunning, 2 Corinthians 11. He left it self-evident that if God is to be questioned, and you're the only one here, then you should be the questioner. If God and his word could be analyzed and evaluated and more to the point should be, well, then I guess you're going to have to do it because there's no one else here. Think about that. Satan is no fool. He is no fool. He's very good at what he does. These questions are powerful. Satan first suggested that humanity should be God's judge. Did God actually say you? There's only two people here. There's two personages, God and you. God and Eve, God and mankind, the image bearer. Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? So Satan first suggested that humanity should be God's judge and then he directly challenged God's word by contradicting it. verses four and five. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. Now that was bold. That was bold. We might think that he overstepped his bounds. He has, you know, he has brought about his own doom and destruction. Eve is going to kick him out of the garden, which is what Adam should have done, right? He was a usurper and he should have been cast out. Adam should have crushed the serpent's head. That's what he should have done, which is what Christ came to do as the second Adam. But the reason Satan was able to get away with such a bold, direct contradiction is because he had already set up the stage in Eve asserting herself as the authority. She had already asserted herself as an authority over God and therefore the stage was set, the bait was set for him to make such a bold contradiction. He accuses God, of course, of being selfish And if God is selfish, then that means God is neither loving nor trustworthy. He says, God, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. God is holding something back. And isn't this the same lie? This is how Satan gets away with it again and again and again and again. God is holding back something good. Isn't that when we're determined to sin, We're determined to cross the fence, jump over the fence, right? Climb the wall and see what's on the other side. When we're determined to do it, it's because we've convinced ourself that it's something good. That whatever's over that fence is good and I should have it because I deserve the good. I deserve better than what I'm getting. And so therefore we jump the fence because we're convinced that what's there is good. That's what Satan has done from the beginning. That's what he continues to do. And guess what? It continues to work. Once we determine to question God and put ourselves in that position, and we determine God is not loving and God is not trustworthy. Well, if God doesn't love me, then no one loves me more than I love me. And if God can't be trusted, then no one can be trusted, but I can trust myself. You see what's happening? Guess who's becoming the center of the universe? You. Right? Yes. Yes, let me. I'm going to answer that. Great question. I'm not going to answer it in a whole lot of detail, but I think we'll hit it. So look at letter G. Satan's cunning is seen. Again, he's so crafty. His cunning is seen in that he presented his lies in the context of truth, which is what Satan always does. Remember, Satan can't create anything. Satan perverts, twists. He takes God's truth and he twists it. He takes God's creation, he perverts it. That's what he does. He takes what was intended for good and uses it for evil. So he presents his lies in the context of truth. Adam and Eve did come to know good and evil at the end of it all, right? He said, you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil. They did come to know good and evil, but what Satan withheld is it involved a rebellion against the truth, the only truth it is, and the source of that truth. God is the source of truth and his truth is absolute truth, not relative truth, not transient truth, absolute truth, final word. So instead of knowing good and evil by rejecting evil and remaining good, that's where it would have come, Melody, right? Instead of knowing good and evil by rejecting evil and remaining good, they chose rather to reject good and become evil. But what does it mean when Satan says that they will be like God, knowing good and evil? Turn to, let me just jump ahead very quickly, look at verse 22. This is after it all. Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil, right? And then the Lord therefore kicked him out of the garden. He was exiled, as we've learned from Hosea. So man came to know good and evil in the sense that he rejected the good, Because the only good is what God has made. Behold, it is all very good. And go back to creation. Go back to the Genesis 1, right? And the Lord saw what he had made and behold, it was good. It was good. It was good. Behold, it is all very good. So good is being declared in scripture at the point of creation because God the good is making good. That's what makes it good. Remember we saw that last week. God builds because God is good and God is one of order and one of harmony. He creates that way. And so of course it's naturally good and when it's all done it's very good. Man had the good, he knew the good because he knew what God had made and was himself the image bearer. But he rejected that good and he became evil. And in the sense of verse 22, when it says man has become like one of us knowing good and evil, this is getting at the heart of what we're talking about. Man's great sin was the assertion of himself as the determiner of good and evil. We honor God and show ourselves to be true image bearers when we submit to what God says is good and what God says is evil. When we submit to God's revelation and receive it and believe it. But when we make ourselves the determiner of good and evil, then that's the fall in the heart of it all. So look at the next thing there I put in italics. I want you to remember this. The first and most damaging sin, then and now, was the rejection of the authority of God's word. That's what happened. What is the fall, right? What happened? It was the rejection of the authority of God's word. It's the rejection of the goodness of God, of the kindness of God, all of those things as well. But at the heart of it, it's the rejection of the authority of God's word over man. The reason that is so damaging then and now is because it simultaneously the daring and damning assertion of man's self. When we reject the authority of God's word, it's simultaneously the daring and damning assertion that man's self with his feelings, his desires, and his emotions is at the center of the universe. This was the fall. And this is what we repeat again and again and again in our following suit with Adam and our first parents. We put ourselves at the center of the universe. God was at the center of the universe. Man was not God, but he was the image bearer of God. Man was God's creation, and he was to take dominion in the name of God over all. He was to be holy like the one he worshiped, but he asserted himself at the center of the universe. And the most important effect of this choice, as we've seen in Hosea, and we'll see it again next week, Lord willing, the most important effect of this choice To put self ahead of God and the blindness and bondage that ensued is that God is no longer regarded as the self-evident creator and Lord. And God's word is no longer accepted as self-evident truth for mankind. This is what the fall has done. This is what the fall has done to mankind. This is what the fall has done. This is at the heart of every center. Excuse me. This is what is at the heart of every sinner. God is no longer regarded as the self-evident creator and Lord. The question of the meaning of life, the purpose of life, isn't to be found in God. In fact, when man runs to and fro in search of the answers to his deep questions, well, we know it's not God, so what is it? We know it's not Christianity, so what is it? And they become spiritual, and they become religious, and they become worshiping creatures, they become idolaters. But God is obviously not the answer. We can deal with that. We can take that off the table as an option right away. That's the state man is in. So God is no longer regarded as the self-evident Creator and Lord, and His Word is no longer regarded as self-evident truth for mankind. When the Word is preached, when the Word is read, when the Word of God is heard in the ears of man, That word is not to be submitted to, it's not to be received self-evidently as the word of God. That word is final authority, absolute authority. No, instead, both God and his word are lesser authorities. And God must constantly be tested by the higher and highest authority of man's self. And this is what the sinner does, right? The sinner takes up the Bible and says, well, I'm gonna read this and tell you whether God is real. He puts God in the dock, right? I've read it, it's full of contradictions, it was written by men hundreds of years ago, it's just a book, lots of falsehood in it, it's not true, I've read it. What is man doing? Man is putting God in the dock and man is calling God to an account and saying you're false, I don't believe in you. You're a liar, that's what man is saying. And it's the liar himself, man, who dares to stand in the place of judge and judgment over God. of Pharaoh in Exodus 5. You think of Adam, the covenant breaker. Well, in many ways, in Exodus 5, picked up by Romans 9, Pharaoh is the great sinner, the great rebel, the daring, arrogant, proud one who says, who is the Lord? And Yahweh, that's the word there. He takes up the word given by Moses. Who is Yahweh? That I should obey him, I, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, king of the world, the greatest power in all creation. Yahweh that I should obey Him and moreover, I, because I am an authority and I make the decisions around here, I will not let you go. This is what sin has done. Turn to Jeremiah 44. In the context here of the chapter, God's judgment for idolatry. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will set my face against you for harm to cut off all Judah. I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live and they shall all be consumed. Remember, they're going to run away from They're going to run away from God's threats and the prophet's threats of judgment and we're just going to go to Egypt for safety. I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live and they shall all be consumed. In the land of Egypt they shall fall. They go in there for safety and they're going to go there and die. By the sword and by famine they will be consumed. From the least to the greatest they shall die by the sword and by famine and they shall become an oath, a horror, a curse and a taunt. I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem with the sword, with famine, with pestilence, so that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive or return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return to dwell there, for they shall not return except some fugitives." Right? You've got those who submit and go to Babylon, right? Go to Babylon, they were told. Jeremiah said, he told Nebuchadnezzar, just submit and go to Babylon, right? Because that's where God's good. That's where the remnant's going. and that's where Yahweh will go, right? Ichabod, the glory will depart, and guess what? It'll go to Babylon to be with the people of God. But if you stay here, you're gonna die, and if you rely upon any other power, any other king, any other refuge, you're gonna die. And so God is chasing them into Egypt, right? They're running into Egypt and he's chasing them with sword and famine and pestilence. Those are always repeated in the prophets because those are the things promised to fall upon their enemies. But the very curse promised to fall upon their enemies will be the curse that falls upon them if they become the Lord's enemy. Then all the men who knew that their wives had made offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by a great assembly, all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah, As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you." Can you believe that? What he said? We should be shaking in our boots and yet here they say, As for the word that you have spoken in the name of Yahweh, We will not listen to you, but we will do everything that we have vowed. Notice the assertion of self. I'm the center of the universe. I decide for myself. We will do what we have vowed. We will make offerings to the queen of heaven. We will pour out drink offerings to her as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food. When we were serving the queen of heaven, we had plenty of food and we prospered. We saw no disaster. But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, We have lacked everything and have become consumed by the sword and by famine. What a misinterpretation of the Lord's chastisements. The Lord's mercy on the one hand that they prospered in the midst of their idolatry and the Lord's chastisements in the midst of their idolatry. They missed it all. Why? Because they are the interpreter. They have become the interpreter of reality. And they are interpreting God's actions, they're interpreting God's prophet, they're interpreting God's messages. We're standing as judge in judgment over all that is God. And this is our determination. We'll go to Egypt for safety, we'll continue to worship the queen of heaven. Foolish, but that's what sin does. That's the effect of the choice of asserting self. And so the rebellion, we think of what happened, right? What happened is we're slaves of the evil one, but the rebellion in Eden was not a conscious choice for Satan. Eve wasn't choosing the devil as a new authority, but rather it was a conscious choice in light of the temptation, following suit with the temptation. It was a conscious choice to be their own authority over God. That was the choice being made. You decide, says the devil. You question God. You're able, aren't you? From this point on, the truth of any proposition in God's world and God's word are full of propositions. The truth of any proposition would be tested by what was in man himself. Man's reason, man's desires, man's experiences, man's inward feelings, desires, and emotions. Those will be the judges of every proposition. Every assertion and declaration of truth, every creed and confession will be judged. by my feelings, my desires, my experiences, my emotions. This is how they became as God. Right? Genesis 3.22. This is what the Lord means when He says, Man has now become like one of us. Man has dared to presume that he can be God and determine good and evil. But the final effect of the fall, however, was the same as if humanity had installed Satan as their new Lord. Only it happened without them realizing it, because it was achieved by asserting and setting self against God. The decision, in light of the temptation, the decision was, I'm going to put God in the dock and I'll sit in the judge's chair. The effect was a slavery to the evil one. I'll be my own authority. The effect was Satan becomes our authority. But here's what I want you to realize. At this point, for a creature, there's no other option. Think about that for a moment. For a creature, there is no other option. To oppose God in any way is to take the side of Satan. To oppose God in any way is to take the side of Satan. There is no other option. I can't tell you how important this point is. Think of what the Lord says. Remember the song that Moses put in the mouth of Israel? In Deuteronomy 32, the Lord there talks about, in verse 17, about Israel's idolatries. Now, we've been reading about Israel's idolatries in Hosea, right? They worshipped idols, worshipped idols, worshipped idols. You know what Deuteronomy 32, 17 says? They sacrificed to demons. The Lord just puts it plainly. You call it an idol. God calls it a demon. You remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 when he's talking in that really important text about the Lord's Supper. You know how to take the bread is to have communion with the body of the Lord and communion with the blood of the Lord. And he talks there in 1 Corinthians 10 verses 20 and 21 about sitting at the table of the Lord and sitting at the table of demons. You can't do both. You can't serve God and mammon. What's on the other side of God? The devil, right? So we don't have a dualistic worldview, but the reality is God is the God of truth and the devil is the God of lies. The reality is God is the God of righteousness and the devil is the God of falsehood and lies and deceit. So what we need to understand then is that it wasn't a choice. The fall wasn't a choice to be enslaved to the devil. But that's exactly what happened because there is no other option. It was a choice to be my own God. But a creature can't be his own God. He's a creature. So now go back and read about the king of Tyre in Ezekiel 28. Now go back and read about the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14. That's why those texts seem so clearly to point to the fall of Satan. They don't point to the fall of Satan. They're not about Satan's fall. They're about the fall of the king of Babylon and the fall of the king of Tyre. But their fall, their rejection, their rebellion against God is a submission to the evil one. Now go and read Matthew 23, verse 33. You brood of vipers. Why does God call them brood of vipers? You're just like your father, the devil, John 8, 44. Abraham is our father. No, he's not. Your father is the devil. Those are bold words that Christ... Is it really so? Is that really true? Yes, that's exactly the case. Again, take Christ's words, their father is the devil, and you take Moses' words, the song that God put in the mouth of Israel, they sacrificed to their idols. When they sacrificed to their idols, it was a sacrifice to... You're worshiping the devil. I guess that's what I'm trying to get across. There is no other option. So what we see going on, what we see happen here in the fall, what we see going on in the world today, This assertion of autonomy, this is what I'm trying to get across. There is no such thing as being autonomous. We're either worshiping God or we're worshiping the devil. We're either in service to Christ or we're in service to Satan. We're either a slave of Christ or the slave of the devil. There is no other option. To oppose God, to stand against God, to rebel against God, to say not him but Barabbas is a choice for Satan. That's what it is. Graham Goldsworthy. whose works I've been gleaning from for this study, Goldsworthy puts it this way. The fall was a giant leap upward that went horribly wrong because it simply could not succeed. A creature can't be God. Dissatisfied with their humanness, the couple reached for godhood. In lusting after a throne that was not theirs, they lost the imago dei, the image of God privileges that they already had. Satan said you'll become like God knowing good and evil. What Eve should have said is we already know good and evil. God has already told us what's good and what's evil. Everything is good and that tree is evil. They already knew. The mere suggestion that they didn't know was the very hook that was put in Eve. They degraded themselves by trying to become what they could never be. The result was not the humanness to which mankind has always appealed in order to excuse its lesser sins. I'm only human. That wasn't the result. The result was rather a condition that is less than human because it no longer consists primarily in a relationship with God that is characterized by love and trust. We're now in bondage to the evil one. We're held captive, 2 Timothy 2.26, we're held captive by the devil to do his will. That's what happened. We became slaves, slaves of sin, slaves to the enemy. So the pursuit of autonomy, the pursuit of life apart from God's rule, revelation and reality issued in a slavery to Satan of incalculable proportions of misery, woe and suffering. So we are fools when we dare to think we can be our own. that we can live autonomous. It's impossible. You're either going to live in submission to God or you're going to live in submission to the devil. You're either going to worship Yahweh or worship demons. Because behind every lie and every falsehood and every false religion and every false philosophy is the devil, the father of lies. Finally then tonight, God's judgment on man reveals the disappointing consequences of man's foolish choice. You know the text and as it unfolds in Genesis 3 and on into Genesis 5 and 10 and 11, marriage will be marked by a resistance to man's authority. Childbearing will be marked by pain and sorrow. The king of the earth will find no obedient servant in the soil. Now it'll be by the sweat of his brow. Would have been easy before to farm and get all the things we needed from the ground because the earth would have yielded its service to Imago Dei. Now the earth resists us and man labors hard. and man's cities and communities. We should have been a community. Think of what we heard this morning, right? We should be a community of holiness. Instead, the great cities of the Bible are the expressions of man's wickedness. Think of the great cities of the Bible. What are they? Babel, Sodom, Gomorrah, Egypt, Canaan. These are the great cities. And in every case, they're centers of wickedness, centers of rebellion. That's what man does when he gets together. Again, think of the Tower of Babel, where it all manifests itself at first. When man gets together, what does he do? Let's make a name for ourselves. Man's end, of course, as we saw last time, is now to nourish the earth from whence he came. He's supposed to be the lord of the earth, and now he's gonna actually feed the earth with his dust, with his body. So the rebel, man as the rebel against legitimate rule, lives to taste his own medicine. and he experiences rebellion against his own legitimate rule. He faces rebellion from his wife, rebellion from his children, rebellion from his neighbor, think of Cain and Abel, and rebellion from his world. Paradise is lost and man lives in exile. Nothing turned out how Adam anticipated. Nothing turned out how Satan promised. Nothing good came of their rebellion because nothing good can come of rebellion. It was doomed from the start. And there is no way that we can ever draw good out of rebellion. There is no way that we can ever draw anything good out of a life lived apart from God. It doesn't exist. You can't turn a 180 in the opposite direction from God and expect good. All you're going to find is misery and woe and suffering because you've left good when you've left God. And yet, here's the thing that I want us to wrap up with, yet the grace of God allows the fallen race to exist. Think of Genesis 2.17, in the day you eat of it you shall surely die. And yet in Genesis 5 verse 3 we see that Adam had a son after his own image. A sinner, yes. But the point is, God allows the fallen race to exist. Why would he do that? So that some greater purpose might be fulfilled in it. In fact, the continuation of the human race as a race of rebels and sinners, rather than their immediate obliteration, it foreshadows the amazing fact that in the goodness of God, humanity is here to stay. I find that so encouraging. The fact that God allows the human race to continue to exist foreshadows the fact that in the goodness of God, humanity is here to stay. And God will yet raise up for himself a people for his own possession out of that fallen race. I find that so encouraging. Turn to Exodus 6 verse 6. We want to ask, why didn't God destroy mankind? Why didn't he obliterate it all? Because he had a greater purpose in it all. And in fact, from man himself, from the seed of the woman, God would raise up a people. Remember his original vision, his original purpose in creating. God will have a kingdom. God will have a material universe and God will have a kingdom that lives there. Exodus 6 verse 6, say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from slavery to them and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord." What an awesome encouragement. Humanity is here to stay, not because we deserve to be here. The earth groans under our feet. Right? The earth groans to serve us in any way. And it resists that service as well. because of the fall. But humanity isn't going anywhere. Common grace allows this human race to exist because from this fallen race, the seed of the woman will come, has come. But from this fallen race, God is going to raise up a church. He will have a people. Satan thought he could thwart all of that. Because if you attack the first man, if you attack the head, then you kill the head, you kill the body. And although Satan killed the head, Yet the body continued, the body lived on, because the remnant was not in that head, but in the head out of reach, that is, in Christ. And so the race continues, though we are rebels and sinners. How God will do this, of course, through Christ, is only hinted at in Genesis 3.15. But as we've been learning, how God will accomplish this is progressively revealed through redemptive history. as the work of redemption takes shape in human history and it ends in the person and work of Christ. So I wanted us to compare, at least in our minds, John 10.10 with Genesis 3.1, right? You think John 10.10, right? Jesus says that I came that they might have life, right? I come that they might have life and have it abundantly, and yet the serpent comes into the garden craftily and says, did God really say? How different are the intentions of the devil for the human race and Christ for the human race. Christ comes to bring life. Christ comes as the truth. He comes to do right. So finally then, Christ will restore the kingdom. He will settle his redeemed people in the heavenly Jerusalem as the city and community in which mankind can live in perfect relationship with the rule of God and his creation. Remember Hebrews 11.10, speaking of the patriarchs, right? They weren't looking for the land of promise, right? They weren't looking for Canaan. They never owned any of it. Instead, they were looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. You see, we long for cities, right? The longing in our heart for cities, for community, for people, right? That God, that is put in us by God, right? We're made for community. We're not made to live isolated monastic lives. We're made for community. And so we long for a city. The problem is every city we make becomes a habitation of wickedness, which is clear through scripture. What we need and what we long for in our hearts, especially now as God's people, we long for a city that God makes, a city in which righteousness dwells, a city in which peace reigns, a city in which there's no sin, no shame, no death, no tears, no crying. But God has to make that city and he is making that city and that city is Jerusalem. not a plot of land in Israel, but the true Jerusalem, the kingdom of God, the people of God, the place of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ is the one building that city. In fact, he is the land itself. It is to him that we all come. It's in him we find peace. And so the picture then laid out for us so clearly, as the patriarchs long for the city whose builder and maker is God, what happens in Revelation 21 at the end? Behold, I see a city coming out of heaven from God, Jerusalem, right? It's not a building, it's a people. We are the stones of God. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, says Paul. But that church in Christ, God will have his kingdom. He's making it. And Satan cannot thwart that. He cannot rule and he cannot conquer over what Christ has already done and made. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church that Christ is building. That's why it's so important to be in the church. So in conclusion then, how thankful we should be that in the face of our sin, God is committed to his kingdom, right? The fall did disastrous things, right? Disastrous things. And we still feel the effects of it and we always will until Christ comes back. But God wasn't thwarted in his original purpose. He wasn't thwarted in his love. He persevered in the face of a fallen race because the intention was never to save by Adam. but by the second Adam. The intention was never that man would save himself in a covenant of works, but that a man who had blown the covenant of works would be yet saved in a covenant of grace, and through a covenant of grace by Christ, whose righteousness would keep that covenant of works on our behalf. You see how God gets all the glory, how much more beautiful it is, and how the Lord has taken away from us all boasting so that we cast all our crowns at his feet and we praise his glorious name. That's how wonderful the grace and the mercy of God is. Amen.