Let's go to Genesis 3 together, save a Bible, find Genesis 3. And while you're doing that, I wanna remind you of something that Pastor Jim mentioned this morning. This whole social distancing thing is giving us as a church an opportunity to live out particular scriptures in a way we normally wouldn't have the opportunity to do so. Listen to this from 1 Timothy 5 as I read it to you. Honor widows who are widows indeed, But if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents. For this is acceptable in the sight of God. Prescribe these things as well, so that they may be above reproach. But if anyone does not provide for his own, especially those of his household, he is denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. A widow is to be put on the list only if And then in the next several verses, Paul goes on to list the circumstances and the qualifications for when a church should take on the responsibility of daily care for widows and people in need. If you were tuned in this morning, you heard Pastor Jim use these same words and these same phrases. and part of his announcements. See, we have members at Calvary Baptist Church who are unable to leave their homes, but they're still in need of the daily necessities of life. Well, the Bible teaches us that the first people in line to help them ought to be their children, their grandchildren, their family members. So if you have parents, grandparents, family members who cannot or should not get out of their house right now, it is your biblical responsibility and privilege to be their hands and feet, to serve them by doing what they cannot do right now. For this is, Paul would have you know, acceptable in the sight of God. But this also gives our church a unique opportunity to live out this passage of Scripture, because we have people in our church and we are keeping an actual list, just like Timothy's church did, of those who don't have family near. In those cases, it's our privilege as the church to love in the place of family, which means three things for our church tonight. First of all, if you're unable to get out but have errands that need to be run, Call your children. Call your grandchildren. Don't preach at them. Don't lay a guilt trip on them. Just politely ask if they can help. They would love to help. Secondly, if you're unable to get out, have errands that need to be run, but don't have family near. Call us, the church. Call the church office. Speak with Carolyn. She'll ask for a brief description of what needs to be done, and then she'll update our 1 Timothy 5 list. Because number three, if you are able to get out and about, maybe you're able to get out and about more so than normal because of time on your hands from social distancing or work from home requirements. Call us. Carolyn will put you on the other side of the First Timothy 5 list, and we'll help to match you up with things that need to be done. In this way, we can put real hands and feet to the mandate to the Church of First Timothy 5. But I also want to say this. We're doing these things in order to minimize the risk to our elderly and health vulnerable members. So when you do these things, when you serve in this way, arrive at the house with groceries or prescription or whatever it is. Don't go inside. Ring the bell, stay on the porch, exchange all of the things right there outside, but love them from arm's length away. I hope that all makes sense. If it doesn't, let us know. Let us know if you're interested. Call the church either way. We're going to try and explain these things as we go along. It's all new. We're feeling our way through it. And we really do thank you in advance for being the church, for being patient, but also being loving. As all these events of this week, as mentioned, it's all new and this is new for everyone. But as the events of this week with the virus have unfolded, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but the news headlines, everything you see is dripping with theology. We're going to see part of where that comes from tonight in Genesis 3. By now, you should already be there in your Bible. And our purpose this evening is to read from God's word in order to understand exactly how and why these things come about in our world. We want to gain an understanding that comes from his word that can result in hope and encouragement that can drive us to him as a foundation for life, not further away. So read with me in your Bible, and I'm gonna start reading at verse one, Genesis 3, one. It says, now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, indeed has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden. The woman said to the serpent, from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said you shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die. And the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 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 desirable to make one wise, She took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. 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. Then the Lord God called to them and said to him, where are you? He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself. And he said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from 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 from the tree and I ate. And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done? And the woman said, well, the serpent deceived me and I ate. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you will go and dust you will eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between her seed and your seed. He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain, you will bring forth children, yet your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. Then to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you saying, you shall not eat from it. Cursed is the ground because of you. in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Now, if you're wondering how I can read a passage like that, immediately after saying we are coming to the Bible for hope and encouragement this evening, Well, stick with me and we'll get there. But as with a lot of things right now, it might get worse before it gets better. We get to chapter three, and if you started at the beginning of Genesis, by the end of chapter two in Genesis, the world is made, it's finished, it's perfect, and God has pronounced it as very good. But of course, we've already read chapter three tonight, so we know that's not how it stays for very long. In general terms of biblical studies, chapter three is usually called the fall. It's kind of a weird term because no one actually physically falls down in this passage, but that phrase the fall is theological shorthand for the fall into sin. It's a figure of speech. And the wording comes from the notion that Adam and Eve were created morally lofty and holy as described by chapters one and two. But because of their choices and actions that we just read about in chapter 3, they fell from that lofty position of holiness. And the use of fall language is that figure of speech to indicate their change in status from holiness to sin. Much like we might say that the CEO of a company fell from leadership if he got involved in a scandal. So when we say the fall, it refers to this event in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve went from being holy to being sinful, from being perfect to being corrupt. What we want to focus on this evening as we read is the conversation that went on between God and His creation. Look back at chapter three. Let's read again in verse eight. 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. And the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid myself. And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from 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 from the tree, and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. Now, those verses describe what some of your Southern friends might call a come-to-Jesus meeting. Adam and Eve have messed up. They sinned, and now they're being called to account by God for their actions. God literally asks them, what have you done? And then, just to prove that there really is nothing new under the sun, Adam and Eve engage in that little bit of blame-shifting that any modern mealy-mouthed politician could be proud of. Adam says, it's not my fault. It was that woman you gave me. It's her fault. And Eve, the woman, says, it's not my fault. It was that serpent that you made. It was his fault. Well, rather than us focusing on the blame shifting that's happening here in this passage, let's consider together how God reacts to their sin by looking back at verse 14. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, more than every beast of the field. On your belly you will go and dust you will eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your pain and childbirth. In pain you will bring forth children. yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. Then to Adam he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, until you return to the ground, because from it you were taken, for you were dust, and to dust it shall return. That section of our passage tonight is generally called the curse. And just like one of those Russian nesting dolls that your grandma might've had, there's dolls inside of dolls inside of dolls. The curse has curses inside of curses. And the consequences of sin are immediate, they're devastating, and nothing escapes the effects of sin that's now come on the world. You see, pain in childbirth is specifically mentioned. That's now a thing. Apparently it wasn't before. Strained relationships in marriage are now distressingly commonplace. There's vocational frustration described here. There's environmental disruption described here. Physical suffering, pain, harm, all of it bad. None of it good, all because of sin. I want to read you a short description. This comes from Derek Kidner. Listen to what he describes as the effects of the fall. Quote, here in this passage in embryo are the mistrust and the passions which will ravage society. On the physical plane, mankind's life is now to be a painful struggle to sustain its basic processes, which are now to some degree disturbed. This multiple disarray is from one aspect his punishment, pronounced by God, but from another it is the plain outcome of his own anarchy. Leaderless, the choir of creation can now only grind on in discord. That describes the world after sin. And right now in our world of 2020, we are seeing the dramatic and undeniable effects of sin in life. The world goes on right now, but in pandemic mode, it feels like it grinds on in discord rather than humps along in harmony. There are multiple different directions that we can take this passage of the fall as we read it and trace its effects, many of which we're actually seeing played out right now on the news. Quarantines are bringing strained relationships into life because you just can't get away from each other at the moment. There's talk of mutating viruses, power grabs, selfishness. All manner of evil effects are on display. For our purposes tonight, though, I want us to focus on two things in particular, the first of which is in verse 17. Take a look. Then to Adam God said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life, Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. You see, that verse tells us sin didn't just affect Adam and Eve. Sin affected the very earth itself. Verse 17 finds God telling Adam and Eve that the very ground they walk on and the environment they live in has been negatively impacted by their sin. He specifically mentions thorns and thistles, but those two types of invasive plants, They're only representative for an entire category of post-fall effects on nature. No one plants thorns. No one wants to harvest thistles. No, these are destructive plants that came about because of sin infecting the ground. And the worst part is, verse 17, with its short list of two, It's only representative of sin's effect on nature. It's not exhaustive. But even at that, the basic idea gets conveyed easily enough. Nature, after verse 17, is no longer natural, and it's now going to work against you rather than for you, God says. Part of those effects of sin and fall on the earth would eventually be viruses. And in the wake of current events, we're all virologists now. We all have done our homework and we've all read Wikipedia. And we all know that a virus is a destructive, infectious agent that replicates itself inside of a host. And if allowed to go on, will eventually kill it. It's a pathogen. And even the words associated with it carry negative connotations, pathogen, destruction, replicating, killing, right? But we look into scripture, we pair it up with our current moment, and we trace it all back and learn that this coronavirus, this COVID-19 currently infecting our world, it has its origin story right here in Genesis 3. It's a part of the fall. It's a result its destructive nature makes clear of sin infecting the ground and the environment. But that's not the only thing this chapter teaches us. Look back at verse 19. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Still speaking to Adam, God tells Adam that this thing his sin has unleashed on the world, the fall and all of its effects, is eventually going to kill him. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, Adam, you're doomed. It's only a matter of time. Adam and Eve didn't have coronavirus, but they sowed the seeds of destruction that eventually produced it, and they paid. for the effects of their sin with their life. And ever since, the world, Romans 8 tells us, has been groaning under the effects of sin. At this current moment that we're in of pandemic, it's just the latest iteration of the curse and the fall writ large and its effects in the world. What this means for us is the same thing that it meant for Adam. It means that the curse and the fall are coming for you and me both, and we have no idea when. Sin brought death, and so the Bible tells us that it is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment. And so this entire COVID-19 moment is serving as one big theological reminder of the fall and its effects on us, on our world, because human mortality is in the spotlight of every news segment right now. God didn't plan a world with coronavirus. We did that with our sin. God doesn't want people to die but sin makes it happen. And if people are going to die, God doesn't want them to do so still being steeped in sin and the effects of the fall. During our deacons meeting this last Thursday night, which we had over the internet by phone, Skype, that kind of thing, Alan Davis prayed. And part of his prayer was the perfect application of this scripture to life right now. He prayed, and he asked God to please be at work in the hearts of people, drawing them to himself, using this virus pandemic as a means to awaken people to the fact that they're not ready to die because they might still be in the grip of sin. The Bible tells us in Romans 5 that through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men. because all have sinned. So your chances are good this evening that you don't need any reminders of that right now. Death and the effects of the curse are leading every news page in the world. That's the fall at work in our world of 2020. But the Bible also tells us in that same chapter, Romans 5, that God's free gift is not like our sin. Listen to what Romans 5 says. Instead, if by the sin of the one, many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. Those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. You see, maybe the coronavirus and this pandemic moment has got your attention. Maybe it's made you realize that for the first time you are looming, you're living under that looming sentence of the curse. That you realize how much sin has corrupted the world, corrupted your family and your very own soul. And you're aware that sin threatens to bring death. That is all too well known and all too easily felt. If that's you, know also from Romans 5 that we just read that Jesus brings the promise of life and the offer of forgiveness. And so this evening, I want to make an appeal. If you've never done so before, admit to God that you, like Adam and Eve, have sinned and that you, like Adam and Eve, need someone to save you from the effects of sin and the death it will bring. and then confess your sin to the Lord. Repent and trust in the good promise of his word that the curse of the fall has led to the cross of Jesus and that his death is sufficient payment to satisfy the wrath of God because of sin. Do that and God is clear in his word that you will be saved. Maybe not from coronavirus. I can't promise that. but from sin and hell. For all who call on the name of the Lord, the Bible says, will be saved and will be reconciled to Him. For those of us who have already done that, already believed and already been saved, let's let sin's curse from Genesis 3 and its present day biological offspring of the coronavirus. Let it be a reminder to you this evening of how much God has done, of how much he has loved us by providing a remedy to the curse, by counteracting the fall and providing salvation for us. And let's celebrate that tonight. Let's let the reality of this present moment be a catalyst in our own lives for repentance and spiritual renewal in our hearts and in the hearts of people that we love. John Piper is famous for his little article that he wrote when he was diagnosed with cancer that said, don't waste your cancer. Well, let's not waste our coronavirus moment. Let's let it drive us back to God, not further away from Him, as we learn to trust in His goodness and the certainty of His promise, as the world grows more uncertain by the day. And so let's pray right now, and let's ask God for His help to make this reality in our lives this week. Not in theory, but in practice. We're reminded again of your good design, of your perfect plan and the way that you had intended for things in this world to go. And we're humbled and we're sobered by the effects that sin has brought and the havoc that it has caused in the world, the death and the destruction that it brings. Thank you for reminding us of these things. Thank you for loving us enough to provide a remedy. We pray that the virus in our world right now that we're each trying to come to terms with and trying to battle in our own small ways will remind us of the sin in our hearts. And that your word and your Holy Spirit will prod the souls of men, drawing us to yourself. That part of the good that comes out of this will be the saving of souls and the redemption of hearts as people are moved closer to you and not driven further away. to that end, help us to live as your children this week. We're going through challenging times. It's all unprecedented. We're all kind of guests in here. And I pray that you will help us that this light and momentary affliction of not being able to gather together will simply wet our appetite and sharpen our desire for the time to come when we can do so again. And in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well, thank you for logging in. If you missed this morning's sermon, I will remind you that it is still on the website. You can find Pastor Jim's sermon on the four questions to ask and answer during a pandemic at cbcipsy.org. For now, that's it. We'll see you back here again next week. Keep your stick on the ice.